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At least 100 people were hurt in clashes Saturday as thousands of Nepalese defied a curfew to march on the capital to reject embattled King Gyanendra’s offer to return power to the people.
   Twelve were in serious condition with bullet wounds and beating injuries, a doctor said, after the police fired on thousands of demonstrators as protests neared the heavily defended king’s palace in the heart of Kathmandu.
   Opposition parties and Maoist rebels dismissed Gyanendra’s promise of a return to multi-party democracy and said they would continue protests and demands for a new constitution to decide the monarchy’s fate.
   The monarch ordered a new curfew to run for eight hours from midday Saturday (0615 GMT) after protesters gathered on the outskirts of the city, burning tyres and throwing stones.
   The protesters shouted ‘The king’s address is a sham,’ ‘Leaders don’t compromise with the king’ and ‘We want complete democracy.’
   Tens of thousands then moved towards the centre where they were met by a wall of police who charged them with batons and tear gas, forcing them to turn tail leaving hundreds of shoes on the ground, an AFP reporter witnessed.
   Many of the injured had head injuries, doctor Sarita Pandey of Kathmandu Model Hospital said.
   The protests petered out after torrential rain hit the capital and witnesses reported thousands of demonstrators leaving the city centre.
   Mobile phones failed to work in the capital from mid-afternoon. No officials from Nepal Telecom were available to comment but cutting off mobile phone service has been a popular regime tactic to hamper protests.
   The demonstrations came hours after King Gyanendra’s announcement late Friday asking Nepal’s seven-party opposition to appoint a prime minister in an apparent climbdown after two weeks of mayhem against his absolute rule.
   In his televised speech after tumultuous demonstrations in Kathmandu and sustained international pressure, the king called for ‘a meaningful exercise in democracy’ with elections ‘as soon as possible’.
   But the opposition rejected the offer and vowed to continue protests on the 17th day of strikes and demonstrations against the king who seized power in February last year.
   ‘The king in his royal proclamation has failed to address the issues of the seven-party alliance’s roadmap and the understanding reached with the Maoists,’ the parties said in a joint statement.
   ‘There is no way we can join the government and our general strike and peaceful protest will continue.’
   The alliance wants a constituent assembly to decide the future of the monarch, who sacked the government 14 months ago saying it was corrupt and had failed to stem a bloody Maoist revolt.
   The Maoists, who have fought a 10-year insurgency that has left some 12,500 dead, said the ‘so-called royal address’ by the king was meaningless.
   In a statement, their leader said they would continue to oppose the king, who held out no olive branch to the Maoists in his speech. They are seen as key to any settlement as they control swathes of the country.
   The Maoists and their former foes from the opposition parties struck a loose alliance in November to oust the Hindu monarch, who is believed by many in Nepal to be a reincarnation of Lord Vishnu, the protector.
   Gyanendra’s announcement drew cautious praise from the international community, with the United States, the United Nations, Britain and India welcoming the move as a first step on the path to democracy.
   The alliance of opposition parties launched a nationwide general strike on April 6 to force the king to relinquish absolute power.
   Gyanendra responded with a security clampdown which left more than a dozen dead, hundreds wounded and even more under arrest.
   The king had reiterated an offer of general elections, without fixing a date, in a Nepalese New Year address April 14.
   But the alliance refused to back down, and with the popular movement strengthening, called Thursday for the strike to be intensified.
   Hundreds of thousands of people responded, pouring into the outskirts of Kathmandu on Thursday and again Friday despite a curfew and shoot-on-sight orders.

The Awami League-led opposition alliance on Saturday announced a series of agitation programmes, including siege of Dhaka city on May 21, to press home their demands which include reforms in the interim caretaker administration and Election Commission.
   The alliance will also stage countrywide demonstrations on April 30 in districts and upazilas to press home the demand for uninterrupted power supply.
   The programmes were announced by AL presidium member Abdur Razzak after a meeting of the 14-Party alliance on Saturday evening at Awami League’s central office in Dhaka. The meeting was presided over by Razzak.
   Earlier, the Awami League’s presidium, the highest policy-making forum of the party, on Saturday morning at a meeting finalised the party’s agitation programmes against the government. The party’s president, Sheikh Hasina, presided over the meeting.
   The programmes include holding a worker’s rally at Mirpur in Dhaka on May Day (May 1). Sheikh Hasina is expected to address the rally.
   Awami League will also stage demonstrations on May 7 to protest against price hikes of essentials.
   AL joint secretary Obaidul Kader briefed journalists on the decisions taken at the meeting.
   He said that the presidium has strongly condemned the police attacks on the female activists of the party during the hartal on April 20.
   The meeting also condemned the brutal police attacks on journalists during the Bangladesh-Australia Test match in Chittagong.
   The presidium also reiterated the demand for excluding Jamaat’s delegation from the proposed committee for dialogue on reforms of the caretaker government and Election Commission.
   The presidium denied the allegation raised by the BNP’s secretary-general, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, who said that AL was trying to abort the dialogue by raising the issue of Jamaat’s exclusion.
   ‘The government is itself delaying the dialogue as it has failed to manage Jamaat,’ it said.

The Awami League-led opposition alliance called a countrywide dawn-to-dusk hartal today to protest against Wednesday’s police attacks on opposition leaders and activists during the sit-in demonstration near the Prime Minister’s Office.
   The alliance, however, kept Chittagong out of the hartal purview because as the first of the three-match one-day series between Bangladesh and Australia will begin at the Chittagong Divisional Stadium today.
   The alliance on Saturday staged protest rallies across the country on the same grounds, which went on almost peacefully excepting sporadic clashes at Netrakona which injured 15 persons.
   In the capital, the opposition alliance’s Dhaka city unit held a protest rally at Muktangan in the afternoon.
   Speakers at the rally, presided over by AL city unit’s general secretary Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya, warned
   the government that they would call more hartals if the repression of their party men was not stopped.
   They also urged the government to accept the opposition’s proposal of reforms in the caretaker government system and Election Commission.
   ‘We’ll realise our demands through continuous hartals if the government does not fulfil them,’ said Abdur Razzak, AL’s senior presidium member.
   The opposition leaders also assured the government that they would not call any more hartals if the government accepts the reforms proposal.
   They also urged the country’s people to make the hartal a success.
   AL presidium member Tofail Ahmed, Workers Party president Rashed Khan Menon, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal president Hasanul Haq Inu, executive president Moinuddin Khan Badal, Sammyabadi Dal general secretary Dilip Barua, Ganatantri Party president Nurul Islam and NAP president Enamul Haque addressed the rally, among
   others.
   After the rally, the opposition men brought out a procession in support of Sunday’s hartal.
   New Age Netrakona correspondent reports: At least 15 opposition leaders and activists were injured when police attacked the protest rally at Netrakona district headquarters in the afternoon.
   Police baton-charged the procession when it reached Machhua Bazaar, wounding at least 15 activists of the 14-party alliance.
   AL district unit joint secretary Advocate Anwarul Islam, organising secretary Bhojon Sarkar and general secretary of district BCL Mozammal Haque Tuku were among the injured.
   The opposition held a rally in the evening in protest against the attack by the police.
   Our Rajshahi correspondent reports:
   The AL-led opposition alliance brought out a procession in the city on Saturday afternoon to drum up the people’s support for today's countrywide dawn-to-dusk hartal.
   The procession began at AL city unit’s office and paraded the main streets of the city and held a rally at Zero Point.
   The opposition alliance announced the hartal programme on Wednesday after a meeting of the opposition parties following the police action during the sit-in demonstration, and demanded that the police stop harassment and oppression of the opposition activists.

Mystery shrouded the handover of a US citizen of Bangladesh origin, suspected of having terror links, to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation on Thursday as no intelligence agencies claimed the responsibility for his arrest till Saturday.
   ‘I asked most intelligence agencies, but no one claimed the responsibility for the arrest of Ehsanul Islam Sadequee’s Monday night from near the Baridhara Kalachanpur Bridge police check-post,’ said the cantonment police officer-in-charge, Mohammad Obaydul Haque. The victim’s father filed a case with the police station.
   ‘I tried to know what happened, but failed.’ Obaydul said, ‘If none of our intelligence personnel picked him up, then who picked him and handed him over to the FBI?’
   Ehsanul’s father Sardar MD Sharif said he had nothing to say if any local intelligence or law-enforcing agencies had arrested him. ‘But how could he be taken to the United States without informing me of the matter?’ He said he did not know what to do to crack the mystery.
   A report published by the US-based wire service Associated Press on Friday, ‘FBI Says 2 in Ga. Plotted Terrorism,’ that said a 21-year-old Georgia Tech student and another man travelled to Canada to meet Islamic extremists to discuss ‘strategic locations in the United States suitable for a terrorist strike.’
   Syed Haris Ahmed and Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, both US citizens, who grew up in the Atlanta area, met at least three other targets of the FBI terrorism investigations during a trip to Canada in March 2005, an FBI agent’s affidavit said.
   The affidavit said the men discussed attacks against oil refineries and military bases and planned to travel to Pakistan to get military training at a terrorist camp, which authorities said Ahmed then tried to do.
   Ahmed, indicted on suspicion of giving material support of terrorism, was being held at an undisclosed location. He waived his right to arraignment and pleaded not guilty.
   Ahmed was arrested on March 23 when the indictment was returned under seal. It was unsealed by a US court on Thursday. The charge carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
   Ahmed’s court-appointed attorney, Jack Martin, did not return messages, seeking comment.
   Ehsanul, 19, who is accused of making materially false statements in connection with an ongoing federal terrorism investigation, was arrested in Bangladesh and was en route to New York City to be arraigned.
   Several phone messages left with his sister were not immediately returned. ‘There is no imminent threat,’ said FBI special agent Richard Kolko, a spokesman in Washington.
   The authorities said the two men spent several days in Canada, where they met others being investigated by the terrorism task force.
   Ehsanul is accused of lying about the trip when he was interviewed at John F Kennedy International Airport in August 2005 as he was about to leave for Bangladesh. The affidavit said Ehsanul had said he travelled alone in January to visit an aunt.
   When Ehsanul’s suitcase was searched at JFK, the FBI agents found a CD-ROM containing encrypted files that the FBI has been unable to decode and a map of the Washington area hidden in the lining, the affidavit said.

Buoyed by the performance in the just-concluded Test series Bangladesh will be dreaming of causing yet another upset when they take on Australia in the first of three one-day internationals at the Chittagong Divisional Stadium today.
   The match will start at 9.30am and will be televised live from the stadium by ESPN and the Bangladesh Television.
   Before going into the match, the past performances will be a great source of inspiration for the Bangladesh team as they have won at least one one-dayer in their own backyard since December 2004 when they shocked India for their first ever home victory.
   Since then the Tigers have won two series against Zimbabwe and Kenya and also upset Sri Lanka in a one-day game last February. In the meantime, they also tasted a great victory against Australia, although away from home at the Welsh capital of Cardiff.
   Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar, however, wants to rank their recent performance in the Test series against Australia above all as it proved their ability to compete with any opposition at the highest level.
   ‘We have a better record in one-day cricket and on top of that we’ve had a pretty good Test series against Australia. So we are going out there in a positive frame of mind and we expect to do something good,’ Bashar said on Saturday.
   Bangladesh named their playing eleven for the series starter dropping opener Javed Omar, middle-order batsman Tushar Imran and pace bowler Shahadat Hossain from the 14-member squad.
   It means opener Rajin Saleh, who made an exquisite century in Bangladesh’s last one-day match against Kenya playing as a makeshift opener after Javed Omar was given rest, has retained his place in the playing eleven.
   ‘We have decided to continue with Rajin as he looks to be in good touch. He not only scored a century in the last one-day match, but also played well in the Test series against Australia,’ skipper Habibul Bashar told the reporters.
   ‘As the other opener Shahriar Nafees is also in good form it was not possible for us to accommodate Javed in the playing eleven,’ added the skipper.
   Like Bangladesh, Australia also announced their playing eleven for the first one-dayer a day earlier with off-spinner Dan Cullen all set make his one-day debut.
   ‘We have decided to give Dan Cullen a debut and with Brad Hogg, Andrew Symonds and Michael Clarke we have plenty of spin options now,’ said Australian captain Ricky Ponting before going to practice on Saturday.
   ‘I am looking forward to the start of the series and I expect the wicket would be good for batting. I have spoken to the team about the need to start the series well and to be prepared for the game physically and mentally,’ Ponting added.
   Bangladesh: Shahriar Nafees, Rajin Saleh, Aftab Ahmed, Mohammad Ashraful, Habibul Bashar, Alok Kapali, Khaled Mashud, Mohammad Rafique, Mashrafee bin Murtaza, Abdur Razzak and Syed Rasel.
   Australia: Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist, Michael Clarke, Simon Katich, Andrew Symonds, Michael Hussey, Brad Hogg, Brett Lee, Nathan Bracken, Mitchell Johnson and Dan Cullen.

Iran’s Islamic regime will within the next month invite tenders from around the world for the building of two more nuclear power stations, a senior official announced Saturday, reports AFP.
   Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, was quoted by state television as saying that the bidding will be ‘open to all countries’ willing to join the country’s nuclear drive.
   Iran insists its nuclear programme is simply a bid to generate electricity, but the country is widely suspected of also seeking the capacity to make nuclear weapons.
   Meanwhile, lacking assurances from Russia and China that they would approve of UN sanctions, the Bush administration is trying to deny Iran technology, assets and especially weapons to slow down a suspected nuclear weapons programme, reports AP.
   As part of that campaign, a top State Department official urged Russia on Friday to drop its plan to sell anti-aircraft missiles to Iran.
   ‘We hope and we trust that the deal will not go forward because this is not time for business as usual with the Iranian government,’ said Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns. He has been trying to line up support for the sanctions proposal the United States and the European Union are hoping to make at the UN Security Council early next month.
   Referring to Russia and China, Burns told reporters, ‘The message privately was that we do not have an agreement’ about specific tactics in the UN Security Council.
   But he said no nation wanted to see Iran build nuclear weapons — a goal Iran denies pursuing with its enrichment and other nuclear programmes — so other measures were being promoted.
   ‘It’s time for countries to use their leverage with Iran,’
   Burns said, beginning with prohibiting Iran access to technology that has military applications.

With both the government and the leaders of the ethnic minorities seemingly reluctant to implement the Chittagong Hill Tracts peace treaty more than eight years after it was signed, vested quarters are out to disrupt peace in the hilly region.
   The vested groups are trying to foment troubles to create an atmosphere of distrust between the national minority groups and Bengali settlers to undermine the delicate inter-communal peace in the region.
   During visits to different areas of Khagrachari last week it was learnt that various groups of ethnic minorities tried to project even a small incident involving indigenous people and settlers as a large-scale attack on the Pahari people.
   On the other hand, some groups of settlers, especially the one under the banner of ‘Samo Adhikar Andolon’ or ‘campaign for equal rights’ are equally mean-spirited in propaganda; all that fueling mistrust between the settlers and the indigenous people.
   Once an incident occurs, some indigenous groups and the people linked with the Awami League quickly blame the ruling BNP and ‘Samo Adhikar Andolon’ for it without making efforts to know the real story. Likewise ‘Samo Adhikar Andolon’, an organisation of settlers backed by the ruling alliance, directly accuses the Awami League and the indigenous groups for the incident.
   The latest example of such nasty games was the Pahari-Bangali clash in Joysenpara under Maischari union of Mohalchari upazila on April 3. Both sides tried to cash in on it and blame each other.
   Some 50 persons were injured in the violence that erupted over the ownership of a jackfruit tree. Soon rumours spread all over the hill tracts that Buddhist leader Sumana Mohatheram was killed and two Marma girls were raped by the settlers during the clash.
   United People’s Democratic Front, a breakaway faction of The Parbattya Chattagram Jono Sanghati Samity (PCJSS) opposing the CHT treaty, quickly took out processions and issued a statement blaming the settlers, fueling tension in the whole region.
   The PCJSS was no better. In a statement it claimed, ‘it was a planned communal attack on the Jumma people for grabbing land and expanding settlement of the Bengali people in the region.’ It also claimed that a Buddhist monk was beaten up when he tried to save two tribal girls from being raped.
   But later it came out that none was killed, and there was no strong evidence that any indigenous girl was raped. Sumana is alive while a four-member medical team at Khagrachari sadar hospital examined the girls and found no signs that they had been raped.
   ‘There were marks of injuries on their bodies, but there was no proof of rape,’ said doctor Mozzamel Huq, the hospital’s residential medical officer.
   With land being at the core of Pahari-Bangali dispute, no meaningful initiatives has so far been taken either by the government or the tribal leadership to make the Land Commission, formed in June, 2005, functional.
   Despite various development efforts by the government and non-government organi-
   sations, people in the hills say that non-implementation of
   the peace treaty, non-functioning of the commission and large presence of settlers caused mistrust between Paharis and Bangalis.
   ‘Neither side seems ready to trust or accept each other,’ the chairman of the Khagrachari district parishad, Monindralal Tripura lamented when asked about the volatile situation in the region.
   Citing the Joysenpara incident, he said some people had tried to make it an issue projecting the dispute as an ethnic clash.
   Bangali settlers and the indigenous people traded blame for the clash.
   ‘They ganged up and attacked us with sticks and sharp weapons when we prevented a tribal woman from plucking jackfruits from a tree belonging to a settler,’ said Peyara Khatun.
   Mongshipru Marma, however, claimed that the clash was sequel to a land dispute in which Bangali settlers swooped on the Paharis and injured them. He said two Marma girls were tied up and raped. ‘I heard of the incident of rape,’ he added.
   In its statement, ‘Samo Adhikar Andolon’ alleged that a group of people led by local Awami League leader, Sajai Marma had attacked the Bangalis,’ leaving 30 persons injured.
   The peace treaty signed between the then Awami League government and the Parbatiya Chattagram Jana Sanghati
   Samity on December 2 1997, ending 20-year insurgency in the hill tracts.
   Some 705 armed members of the PCJSS-led Shanti Bahini surrendered with weapons. But they are active again under the banner of UPDF and campaigning for a separate Jum land. They often lock in clash with the PCJSS activists.
   Large troops of Bangladesh Army and Bangladesh Rifles remain deployed in the three hilly districts – Rangamati, Khagrachari and Bandarban – to maintain law and order and help civil administration function smoothly.
   But peace is still alluring the hilly terrain constituting one-tenth of the country’s area with a population of more than 13 lakh.
   ‘Any clash between the activists of the BNP and the Awami League is given the colour of ethnic clash between Paharis and Bangalis which could destroy peace and harmony in the region,’ said an army official in Khagrachari.
   He said the situation was very much under control, but may turn violent if the government and the tribal leaders failed to reach an understanding to implement the treaty.

A member of the Rapid Action Battalion was stabbed to death by a gang of robbers at Satish under Tongi police station in Gazipur on Friday night.
   The deceased was identified as Delwar Hossain, 32, driver working at the RAB headquarters of Uttara in Dhaka.
   The robbers also stabbed Delwar’s father, Ludai Miah.
   The battalion on Saturday detained one Shahin Howlader, 35, for his suspected involvement in the murder.
   According to sources, a band of robbers, numbering 8 to 10, entered the house of Ludai Miah late at night on Friday and asked for Delwar.
   When Delwar, who had just returned to the house after finishing his duty, came out to meet them, the robbers attacked him, and when he tried to resist their attack, they stabbed him indiscriminately.
   Ludai Miah tried to rescue Delwar but the robbers also stabbed him.
   The robbers then took away gold ornaments, cash and other valuables, worth about Tk 1.50 lakh, from the house.
   The local people, responding to shouts of the inmates, went to the house and took Delwar and Ludai to Tongi Hospital.
   Delwar was then shifted to the Combined Military Hospital in Dhaka where the attending doctors declared him dead.
   The critically injured Ludai Miah was taken to Dhaka Orthopaedics Hospital.
   The autopsy of Delwar’s body was conducted at the Gazipur Sadar Hospital’s morgue on Saturday.
   The namaz-e-janaza of Delwar was held in the premises of RAB-1 headquarters in Dhaka on Saturday afternoon.
   Senior officials of RAB and police visited the spot.
   A case (No-20) was filed by Sadek, the younger brother of Delwar, with Tongi thana in this connection.
   The battalion detained a youth, Shahin Howlader aka Hossain Howlader, from the house of one Hashem in Kuniapashor area under sadar upazila of the district on suspicion of his involvement.
   The battalion sources said that they had gotten important information from Shahin, who is wanted in a number of cases.

Two teenage boys were killed and at least thirty people were injured when a nor'wester raged through about sixty villages of four separate upazilas in Khulna and Bagerhat districts on Friday night.
   The dead were Lachchu Sikdar, 13, son of Yunus Shikdar of Kushla village under Terokhada upazila in Khulna district, and Mohammad Ali, 18, of Rahampur village under Mollarhat upazila in Bagerhat.
   According to Terokhada upazila administration sources, the hour-long nor'wester began at around 7:30am and blew over Patla, Kushla, Koruia, Uttar Kamarol, Daxmin Kamarul, Sachidah and Noliarchar villages.
   Lachchu, who came to Shatadal College near Patla Bazaar to watch a cultural function there, was killed when a heavy wall collapsed and fell on him. At least 10 other villagers were injured in the incident and were given first aid.
   The nor'wester also flattened about 40 kuchcha houses, hundreds of trees and Boro paddy of more than 75 hectares of land of those villages.
   According to the Bagerhat district administration sources, the half-an-hour long nor'wester, that began at around 7:45pm, blew over more than fifty villages of Kachua, Chitalmari and Mollarhat upazilas in Bagerhat.
   Mohammad was killed at his home in Rahampur village under Mollarhat upazila when his house collapsed and fell on him. About five hundred earthen houses also collapsed, injuring about 50 people of the villages, said sources.
   According to the sources, the nor'wester also damaged Boro paddy of about 1,000 hectares of land and hundreds of trees and vegetables.

The Bangladesh-India Joint Group of Customs is set to hold its third meeting in the city on May 3-4 to address a number of crucial issues that have long been hindering export-import activities between the two sides, particularly exports from the country, sources in the National Board of Revenue have told New Age.
   Reciprocal arrangement for trucks entering either country, construction of warehouses at Petrapole for storing Bangladesh exports, lack of harmony in valuation and classification of Bangladesh exports, special provisions for export of perishable items and ensuring proper documents for customs clearance are a few of the concerns to be raised by Bangladesh at the talks, sources said.
   Hossain Ahmed, the customs commissioner of Benapole, will lead the Bangladesh delegation at the talks.
   High officials in the NBR along with other land port commissioners will be included in the delegation, the sources said.
   It is learnt that exports from Bangladesh entering India through Benapole-Petrapole land port often face problems from the Indian customs as the trucks carrying the goods are stopped by them right on the border causing the exporters extra-cost to take those to Indian warehouse by Indian trucks.
   On the other hand, Bangladesh customs authority at Benapole allows Indian trucks to enter the country’s territory to unload imported items at Benapole warehouse.
   Both the warehouses are situated within a kilometer of either side of the border.
   ‘We will raise the issue at the talks to have a reciprocal arrangement so that Bangladeshi trucks can enter Petrapole warehouse like the Indian trucks do on our side of the border for easing the hassles and eliminating the extra-cost for Bangladeshi exporters,’ a high official in the NBR, told New Age.
   Besides, an outstanding issue of constructing a warehouse at Petrapole that the NBR and the commerce ministry have long been pressing, would also come up for discussion at the joint group meeting, sources said.
   The present infrastructure at the Petrapole warehouse is not up to the mark, which can be called a makeshift arrangement causing damage to Bangladeshi export items.
   The Indian customs often creates problems in customs classification and valuation causing a lot of troubles to both Bangladeshi exporters and Indian importers, businessmen alleged.
   Bangladesh at the talks would request its counterpart to make specific provision for submitting bank-endorsed documents for customs clearance to check fraudulent activities by unscrupulous businessmen, sources said.
   At present, goods are released on the basis of both bank-endorsed documents and documents submitted by importers and exporters, which in many cases cause trouble to the banks opening letters of credit in releasing the invested amount from the parties, sources said.
   ‘Commercial banks of Bangladesh and India have long been facing the problems, which could easily be solved once submission of bank-endorsed documents is made mandatory,’ a top boss of a commercial bank told New Age.

Bangladesh will join a regional forum to combat piracy collectively with 15 other Asian countries and sign an agreement soon in this regard.
   The Department of Shipping after reviewing the proposal for the Regional Forum for Combating Piracy in the Asian Sea Water decided to join the forum and almost finalised the formalities, which are now waiting for approval of the foreign ministry, the department sources said.
   'We decided to sign the agreement for better cooperation in anti-piracy drive and sent the proposal to the foreign ministry for final approval,' the Director General of the shipping department, AKM Shafiqullah, told New Age.
   Referring to a recent meeting with the Singapore ambassador to Bangladesh, he said, 'I have assured the ambassador that Bangladesh will sign the agreement soon as there is no objection from our part to be a member of the forum.'
   He also informed that the agreement would put a positive impact to check piracy in the maritime ports and waterways through sharing information and techniques with the member countries.
   'The agreement will be signed soon after getting clearance from the foreign ministry,' Shafiqullah hoped. Nine out of 16 member countries of the forum have already signed the agreement.
   The government decided to join the forum in 2005 through signing the agreement to fight piracy collectively through a regional forum.
   Under the agreement, each signatory will get assistance from other countries to combat piracy in its sea territory.
   The 16 countries are Bangladesh, Japan, China, Malaysia, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Philippines, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.
   Representatives from these countries prepared a draft of the agreement at a meeting in Tokyo in 2005, and unanimously decided to set the secretariat of the forum in Singapore because of its strategic location, modern telecommunications facility and expertise in combating piracy.
   The signatories will send information on existing port facilities to the centre so that it can take effective measures to fight the pirates as per requirement of other countries.
   In January 2004, the Britain-based International Maritime Bureau, which is part of the International Chamber of Commerce, labelled Bangladesh sea territory as the second most dangerous sea in the world for 2002 and 2003.
   The number of attacks and robberies also increased significantly in 2003 as the IMB reported 58 attacks on international ships in Bangladeshi waters in 2003 followed by Indonesia with 121 attacks.
   According to the Kuala Lumpur office of IMB, violence on the high seas also mounted as pirates worldwide were increasingly armed with guns and killed 21 people in 2005. Ten people killed by pirates in 2002.
   Pirates attacked more ships and grew more violent in 2003 with the shipping industry suffering 445 attacks in the year, 20 per cent up from 2002 with 370 such cases.
   Some 71 crew members also went missing during the 2003 attacks and the figure includes the 21 people killed by pirates, the maritime bureau report said.

Norway's latest bid to save Sri Lanka's tottering peace process ended in failure as emissaries returned from rebel-held territory on Saturday empty-handed, diplomats said.
   The head of the Scandinavian truce monitoring mission, Ulf Henricsson, and a senior Norwegian diplomat who spent the night in the rebel-held town of Kilinochchi returned here without even meeting Tamil Tiger leaders.
   ‘Henricsson returned to Colombo this morning after spending overnight in (rebel-held) Kilinochchi,’ a diplomatic source close to the peace process said. 'They have not been able to end the impasse.’
   The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam said their leaders did not meet the Scandinavians because the rebels had not changed their stance on the latest hurdle blocking a second round of talks to salvage a fragile four-year truce.
   The Tigers had announced earlier they were indefinitely postponing their participation in the two-day ceasefire talks slated to start Monday until they could hold consultations with field commanders.
   The guerrillas have insisted they be given helicopter rides or allowed to use their own boats to travel from the island's east to the north where the rebel leadership is located-a demand rejected by Colombo.
   The emissaries went to Kilinochchi, 330 kilometres north of here Friday to meet with the LTTE’s political wing leader SP Thamilselvan in a bid to work out a formula that would allow the Swiss talks on to go ahead.
   'LTTE's political wing leader did not meet the peacebrokers because the LTTE's position has been clearly and repeatedly explained to them,’ spokesman V Dayanidi said when contacted by telephone.
   'The LTTE's eastern commanders will travel by LTTE Sea Tiger boats or Sri Lanka Air Force helicopters. No alternative arrangements could be considered.'
   A compromise offer of private helicopter rides was turned down by the Tigers who insist the military must give them a ride.
   The military says allowing the Tigers to travel by sea would breach Sri Lankan sovereignty and it refuses to give free helicopter rides to the rebels.
   The latest setback came after the president, Mahinda Rajapakse, took charge of a new panel Friday to halt a slide back to full-scale war.
   The panel will 'review the situation and take action accordingly,’ agriculture minister Maithripala Sirisena said.
   Another Claymore mine exploded in the north Saturday, killing a government soldier while two people were gunned down in the island's northeast late Friday, defence officials said.
   Their identities were not immediately revealed.
   The ceasefire has come under renewed pressure in the past two weeks due to a spate of bomb attacks.
   At least 68 people have been killed in bombings alone while the Tigers say 70 civilians have been slain by pro-government militia or by security forces, a charge denied by the military.

Britain is facing a 'public health timebomb', health experts warned Friday, after fresh data revealed that childhood obesity has almost doubled in a decade.
   One in three of the nation's children are now either overweight or obese, while the number of obese children aged 11 to 15 has almost doubled in the last 10 years, the Health and Social Care Information Centre revealed.
   Colin Waine, chairman of the National Obesity Forum, said the official figures revealed a 'public health timebomb', and warned that children who are obese at ages 11 to 15 were twice as likely to die by the time they are 50.
   'This is serious news because obesity in adolescence is associated with the premature onset of Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases,' he said. 'It really augurs very badly for the future health of the population.'
   Whereas 14 per cent of boys 11 to 15 years old, and 15 per cent of girls the same age, were obese in 1995, the proportion in 2004 were 24 per cent and 26 per cent respectively.
   The annual Health Survey for England 2004 also found that among children aged two to 10, the figures have gone up from 10 per cent in 1995 to 16 per cent in 2004 for boys, and from 10 per cent in 1995 to 11 per cent in 2004 for girls.
   Some 35.1 per cent of girls aged two to 15 were overweight or obese in 2004, up from 25 per cent in 1995 - while for boys in the same age group, the figures were 33 per cent and 24 per cent.

Hundreds of South Asian doctors - mainly from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan - are passing tough time in the United Kingdom as they fear deportation due to new UK immigration rules.
   As per the new rules, doctors from non-EU countries need to hold work permits to take up job in the National Health Service, UK's official health service centre.
   The new immigration rules announced last month provides that those from outside the EU countries will only be eligible to take up NHS work if the post cannot be filled by an EU citizen.
   Overseas doctors have been the life of the NHS for a long time as the British government used to rely on them for their efficiency. But now the UK government is saying that it has enough doctors.
   'We don't need doctors from outside the EU,' different media in the UK reported.
   Hundreds of foreign doctors gathered outside the Downing Street on Friday to voice their anger over UK's new immigration rules.
   Dr Aruj Qayum, 33, of Bangladesh, who has been working at Newham University Hospital in East London, for long said he had been trapped in a Catch-22 situation.
   ‘If these rules are applied, I will have to go back. I have no other option. The problem is I can't apply for job as I am not an EEA (European Economic Area) candidate.’
   ‘They are not accepting our applications as we do not have valid visas. But if they are not accepting our applications, we won’t be offered jobs, and we cannot also apply for visas.’
   He said doctors from India would face a tough time if they return to their country as they were trained to work in British healthcare rather than in the Indian system.
   The demonstration was backed by the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants and the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin. Speakers said the changes in immigration rules by the department of health had been made without any consultation.
   Dr Peter Trewby, of the Royal College of Physicians group, told protesters: 'This is a very, very sad day, indeed, for the NHS. For the first time in the history of the NHS.
   ‘We are going to say that the race and the country of origin are going to triumph over merit and that is a very sad thing indeed.'
   Murad Qureshi, a Labour member of the Greater London Assembly, said he feared some doctors’ positions would now be advertised saying, 'overseas doctors need not apply'.
   Dr Ramesh Mehta, president of the BAPIO, said: 'The NHS has been propped up by doctors from Commonwealth countries since its inception. Now the government is saying, 'We don't need you'.
   Dr Patricia Hamilton, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, warned that the changes in the immigration rules would damage the career of doctors who had helped keep the NHS going.
   She said: 'Better transitional arrangements must be put in place to enable overseas doctors currently in the UK to complete their training.

The US Army said 83 soldiers committed suicide last year, more than a quarter of them while deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan.
   Ten soldiers took their own life in the first three months of this year, the army said.
   With 83 deaths in 2005, the suicide rate for active duty soldiers was 1.29 per 10,000 persons, up from 1.10 per 10,000 the year before and the 25-year average of 1.24 per 10,000, the army said.
   The rate for civilians from the same demographic group was 1.98 per 10,000 persons, the army said.
   Of last year's sucides, 25 were by soldiers deployed for operations in Iraq or Afghanistan.
   'We are keenly aware of the stresses facing our soldiers both on deployment and at home station,' the army said in a statement.
   It said the army has instituted numerous programmes to identify soldiers at risk of suicide and to provide mental health care during deployments.
   'Our goal is to provide the men and women who wear the army uniform the best available support to help them overcome the stresses that military service entails,' it said.
   In 2004, 67 soldiers on active duty committed suicide, 14 of them while deployed on operations in Iraq or Afghanistan. In 2003, the number was 76 soldiers, 25 while deployed on those operations.

The rescuers on Saturday recovered three more bodies from inside the bus of the bridal party which plunged into the river Chitra at Narail ferry-ghat Friday afternoon, raising the death toll to 12.
   They also lifted the bus from 40-feet deep water early Saturday, but one of the passengers, Beauty, 18, of Rundia village in Narail, still remained missing.
   Nine of the bodies were recovered on Friday night while the rests on Saturday.
   The deceased were bride Lipi Mollik, 20, her sister Poly, 18, Anushree, 9, Tanushree, 12, Sulata, 25, Deepti Rani Mondal, 30, Aparna Biswas, 26, Sukanta Basu, 19, Ananta Biswas, 21, and Antu, 2, Subarna, 3, and Swadesh Mondal, 55.
   The bodies of Lipi and Poly were sent to their village home at Maniknagar in Gopalganj while the rests to Rundia village in Narail for cremation.
   Sources said the navy divers, fire fighters, policemen, and paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles personnel joined in with the rescue operation.
   The Narail-bound bus from Gopalganj plunged into the river with 45 people aboard while embarking on a ferry at the local ferry terminal at about 5:00pm.
   Ten people, including the bridegroom, Dipak Biswas, either swam ashore or were rescued by locals soon after the accident.
   Some of the guests of the bridal party also swam ashore in the downstream of the river, but the rests failed.
   Meanwhile, the forest and environment minister, Tariqul Islam, the Khulna divisional commissioner, and other senior officials visited the spot on Saturday.

The Australian High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Douglas Foskett, on Saturday said they were considering opening of a visa centre in Chittagong to ease the visa procurement for the business community of the port city.
   He said this during a courtesy call on the Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) president, Saifuzzaman Chowdhury, at its auditorium.
   A CCCI press release quoted Douglas as saying that he will inspire the Australian investors to invest in Chittagong.
   The CCCI president urged the Australian envoy to provide more employment opportunities in his country for the skilled and unskilled manpower from Bangladesh, the press release said.
   CCCI senior vice president, SM Nurul Haque and vice president, MA Latif, were also present during the meeting.

Two people - an Indonesian and a Bangladeshi citizen - were arrested in Malaysia for their alleged involvement in producing and selling fake work permits to illegal immigrants.
   Malaysian immigration officers believe they have smashed the 'gang' responsible for producing and selling fake MyKad and work permits to illegal immigrants with the arrest of its mastermind, a 31-year-old Bangladeshi, and his brother, 35, at their rented condominium in Bandar Sunway on Thursday.
   Also arrested was the mastermind's 24-year-old Indonesian girlfriend.
   The law enforcers seized a scanner, a printer, a personal computer and 'immigration' rubber stamps.
   The immigration enforcement chief, Datuk Ishak Mohamad, said the raid followed months of surveillance. The mastermind was a computer graduate from a university in Bangladesh, Malaysian newspapers News Straits Time and The Malay reported on Saturday.
   'The MyKad produced by this gang is 90 per cent perfect. They were sold at RM500 each and the permits at RM50 each. The equipment seized is worth RM15, 000.'
   The gang is believed to have been active for six months and had raked in RM500, 000 in profits.

Traffic on the Dhaka-Mymensingh Highway remained suspended for an hour on Saturday as agitating workers of a garment factory laid a siege at Salna point protesting the death of a worker in an accident.
   The workers also damaged six vehicles and factory building, and clashed with some local people, who asked them to withdraw the blockade, leaving eight of the both sides injured.
   According to the local people, Sabuj, 20, was hit by a bus in front of his factory on his way from Friday night. He was taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital and died there early Saturday.
   Informed of the news of his death, Sabuj's colleagues turned agitated and blocked the highway. They vandalised the doors and windowpanes of the factory building accusing the authorities of negligence in sending Sabuj to hospital.
   During the street agitation, the workers locked into an altercation with a group of local people who asked them not to damage vehicles and remove the blockade. At one stage, they clashed leaving eight injured. The injured were taken to local clinic and hospital.
   The police and Rapid Action Battalion brought the situation under control.

More than 30 garment workers were injured amid scrambles for exit followed by a rumour of fire in a factory building at Jatrabari in the city on Saturday.
   Witnesses said fire panic gripped all in the 8-storey Sufia Plaza after a short circuit with a bang engulfed with smoke the top floor at about 3:30pm.
   The workers of Meghatex Limited and of two other garment units, housed on from the first to 4th floor, rushed towards the staircase to come out of the building.
   The injured were given first aid at Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
   Fire fighters went to the spot, but the workers brought the situation under control before their arrival.

The chief metropolitan magistrate in Dhaka posted the distribution of damages among the families of the 22 workers killed and 43 injured in the February 25 Tejgaon Phoenix building collapse for Monday.
   Magistrate Jalal Ahmed earlier summoned the Phoenix victims and their relatives to appear in court on Monday after the Phoenix Group chairman Deen Mohammad had deposited Tk 1.20 crore for compensation with the court. The court also summoned Deen Mohammad to be present during the distribution.
   The families of the deceased will get Tk 3 lakh each, three workers, who were maimed by the accident and are now under treatment in Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Tk 2 lakh each, 24 seriously injured Tk 1 lakh each and 16 with minor injuries Tk 50,000 each, Jalal said on March 27, adding that the remaining Tk 16 lakh would be kept to meet future needs of the victims.
   A case was filed with the Tejgaon police against eight high company officials, including the chairman, for offence of negligence that caused the death and injury after the five-storey building had collapsed.
   The High Court ordered the chairman with his officials to appear in lower court as the chairman had surrendered to the court on March 12, after remaining fugitive for two weeks.
   The court also observed the lower court might consider his bail petition, subject to its satisfaction regarding the disbursement of compensations, to be fixed through negotiation between the authorities concerned and the Phoenix Group, for the families of the victims.
   According to the direction, the chairman with his officials appeared in the chief metropolitan magistrates court on March 27, and the court granted them bail after receiving a deposit of Tk 1.20 crore from them as the compensation.