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Rescuers have failed to reach many remote areas left battered by water surges whipped up by cyclone Aila as it ripped through the coastline into India on Monday, killing at least 127 people in Bangladesh.
   Many others went missing, local officials and residents in the areas affected by the cyclone said on Tuesday.
   The government, however, confirmed 91 deaths in 13 coastal districts, saying that the death toll could be rising as more deaths were reported by district administrations.
   Relief materials were yet to reach the cyclone-hit people, who are still marooned without food and drinking water.
   The food and disaster management minister, Abdur Razzak, said the army had been called in for rescue and relief operation in the affected areas. Five navy vessels also reached the coastal areas to begin relief operation on Wednesday, the minister said at a briefing Tuesday evening.
   Lives and property in the offshore islands and coastal areas were destroyed in Bangladesh as Aila crossed over Sagar Island into India through Rajshahi towards Dinajpur in Bangladesh.
   Rescuers could not reach such offshore islands and remote areas on the mainland Bangladesh until Tuesday, said Abdur Razzak.
   ‘We tried to reach Dhal Char, an offshore island in Bhola, by helicopter, but failed to do so. Many other places still could not be reached because of rough weather,’ said the minister, who visited cyclone-hit Bhola, Patuakhali and Khulna.
   Razzak said the damage was colossal and the government would hold an inter-ministerial meeting to assess the devastation.
   Reports reaching from coastal districts said many villages had still been inundated as water surges, influenced by the new moon, washed away embankments at more than 150 points along the coast.
   The surges reaching high up to 13 feet also washed away thousands of homesteads. According to a government estimate, 470,000 families were affected by the cyclone and the surges.
   Water remained stagnant till Tuesday afternoon and there was no sign of recession. Water was rather rising in places in Bhola, Noakhali and Barguna during high tide in the afternoon.
   Some 509km stretches of embankments were either partially or completely damaged by the surges, said Water Development Board officials.
   Sources in the board in Barisal said 46.42km stretch of the coastal embankment was completely damaged and 363km stretch partially damaged by the surges.
   One hundred and two dam regulators were damaged completely and 51 partially in five districts of the division. The officials estimated the damage of embankment to be worth Tk 77.43 core.
   Thousands of thatched, mud, and half-brick houses were fully damaged in the coastal districts. At least 50,000 houses — mud and half-brick — collapsed in Khulna alone. Officials in Patuakhali said 50,000 houses had been fully or partially damaged in the district.
   New Age correspondents in the affected districts said thousands of people had taken shelter on the roads and highways under the open sky or in makeshift shanties. The people who had left home for cyclone shelters were yet to get back to their houses as areas still remained inundated.
   Gaurnaga Sarkar, who works in Khulna judge’s court, said all the 30 houses of his extended family collapsed at Kamarkhola of Dacope. ‘All the houses of our family were washed away as water gushed in,’ he said.
   People living elsewhere were rushing to the affected places to inquire about their families. Five ferryboats have been deployed in the river at Kamarkhola, but still people had to wait for more than an hour to cross the river.
   Water surges wreaked havoc in Khulna and Satkhira and the administrations said more than a half of Khulna was still inundated.
   The deputy commissioner, NM Zeaul Alam, told New Age the entire Koyra and Dacope and a half of Paikgachha and Batiyaghata had been inundated. The administration was trying to remove stranded people to high land, he said.
   Death toll in Khulna rose to 46, with 33 alone at Koyra. The Bedkashi union chairman, Shamsur Rahman, said 26 bodies were recovered in his union. The district administration, however, confirmed the death of 33 people.
   In Satkhira, rescuers found 25 bodies at Shyamnagar, Debhata and Assassuni. Three bodies were recovered in Bagerhat. In Noakhali, the death toll rose to 20 on Tuesday. The death figure in Barisal is 9, in Bhola 13, and in Patuakhali 6.
   The affected people in many areas said nobody from the government or any other organisations had yet reached them any relief materials even 24 hours after the cyclone.
   Abdur Razzak of Baidyapara at Kalapara in Patuakhali said he had gone to cyclone shelter Monday morning and nobody had reached them anything till Tuesday afternoon.
   Kohinur Begum, who took shelter at the same place, said she had fed her family the dry food she had taken with her, but they had eaten all the food and she had nothing to feed her family. They also do not have any water to drink.
   The disaster management minister visited different affected areas in Patuakhali and instructed the administration to arrange drinking water and food for the affected, especially the people who remained stranded indoors.
   Patuakhali, Barguna, Satkhira and part of Khulna and Bagerhat are going without power as transmission lines in places have been snapped, said power officials in Patuakhali. They said it would be difficult to restore power before Thursday.
   Shrimp enclosures in Satkhira, Khulna, Bagerhat, Barguna and Patuakhali have been washed away and shrimp farmers said they might not afford the losses.
   Restriction on the plying of vessels less than 65 feet in length remained in force the south. The Barisal port officer, Rafikul Islam, said they allowed large vessels to ply the Dhaka-Barisal route. Ferry operation in the Barisal region resumed on a limited scale.
   The correspondent in Patuakhali said 427km stretch of the coastal embankment was damaged, in which 409 villages of the district were inundated and water could not recede as most sluice gates were out of order. When cyclone Sidr struck the south on November 15, 2007, 663km stretch of the embankment was damaged and only 180km stretch was repaired.
   Water Development Board executive engineer in Patuakhali Zahirul Islam said after Sidr they had sough funds for repairs to the embankment, but only 180km could be repaired with the money sanctioned. He said he would seek more funds from higher authorities for repairs to the damaged stretches of the embankment.
   Cyclone Aila, weakening into a thunderstorm, swept over Jaipurhat where at least 2000 non-brick and tin-roofed houses were totally or partially damaged. Trees were blown over and most of the cropland was affected on Monday. Power supply in the district remained suspended for Monday. About 50 people were injured in the district.
   In Rangpur, one Ratan Miah died in Monday’s storm as a wall caved in on him at Kamalkachhna in the town.
   The correspondent in Kushtia said the storm damaged crops and property. Power supply had been suspended for 18–48 hours in places of the district as the storm damaged transmission lines.

A large number of people in the southwest affected by surges whipped up by cyclone Aila are yet to be rescued and they were going without food and safe drinking water in their inundated houses as none reached them any relief materials.
   Water surges caused by the cyclone battered the region on Monday leaving at least 60 people killed and hundreds of cattlehead dead, damaging crops on vast areas of land in three districts.
   The worst affected upazilas are Koyra, Dacope, Paikgachha and Dumuria in Khulna, Shyamnagar and Assassuni in Satkhira and Sarankhola and Morrelganj in Bagerhat.
   The people are yet to shift to safer places and they need urgent supply of food and safe drinking water, said the chairmen of the affected unions, alleging neither the upazila administration nor the district administration had so far come forward to rescue the victims and provide them with relief materials.
   The UP chairmen said that they had been shifting the people to the un-inundated embankments and schools, despite their limitations.
   They demanded urgent government move for rescuing the victims and providing necessary relief materials, including dry food, safe drinking water and medicine on emergency basis for their survival.
   While talking to New Age, Ashok Kumar Bairagi of village Kamarkhola under Dacope upazila said, ‘Water began to rise from Monday afternoon and entered into my house within an hour compelling my family members to stay on a cot putting on another one before the water level came down to three feet from the six feet within couple of hours. We could not leave the house immediately as it was dark by this time. We swam to the Kamarkhola–Kalabogi road carrying two minor children leaving the residence at night when our mud-house was about to collapse.’
   ‘Water was everywhere as far as our eye could see, but we had no water to drink to quest thrust, said Monindranath Bain of the affected Tildanga under Dacope upazila.
   Abdul Aziz of village Sutarkhali at Dacope upazila said, ‘We are unfed from Monday noon and received neither food nor drinking water from any quarters. My relative came from Khulna city Tuesday morning with some food to visit us on the Tildanga embankment where we took shelter with my family members and cattle heads.
   Samaresh Roy, chairman of Kamarkhola union, told New Age on Tuesday afternoon that the total areas of his union were still inundated and 90 per cent of the houses sheltering 16,000 people remained submerged.
   He has opened seven gruel kitchens covering his union to provide food to the affected people at least once a day, the chairman added.
   Shamshur Rahman, chairman of Dakkhin Bedkashi union under Koyra upazila, said he received only one metric ton of rice as relief so far, nothing else from the government. The people and cattle heads are going unfed and there is no dry place in his union for burial of the dead, added.
   Khulna deputy commissioner NM Zeaul Alam while talking to New Age on Tuesday afternoon confessed that a good number of people were yet to rescue from their inundated homes, despite their rescue operation were going on to shift the people.
   He said 70 metric tons of rice, eight metric tons of flattened rice, molasses and oral rehydration saline had already been distributed among the affected people.

Coastal embankments failed to withstand in the face of severe tidal surge accompanied by cyclone Aila that on Monday played havoc in the country’s southern districts causing heavy damages to life and property.
   Experts and people in coastal area believe the embankments were jerry-built and weak at some places and hence they failed to withstand the pressure of the massive tidal surge that swept along the coastal belt.
   These embankments should have been built, maintained and repaired with appropriate quality materials, they observed.
   Besides, it is believed that people were not alerted in time for taking shelter well ahead of the storm and tidal surge to minimise the damages by the disaster.
   Unofficial death counts from cyclone Aila that pounded the coastline on Monday reached over 127 until 8:00pm on Tuesday and local administrations say the figure might rise as more than 100 people were still missing.
   ‘The extent of damage to life and property was high as the tidal surge accompanied by cyclone Aila breached the weak coastal embankments at many places,’ Ainun Nishat, country director of the IUCN-The World Conservation Union, told New Age on Tuesday.
   ‘Tidal surge would not affect much if the embankments could withstand the pressure of the water,’ Nishat, a former professor of civil engineering at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, said. ‘Embankments are built for safety and security of the people and their property. But how to ensure safety if the embankments are not properly constructed and maintained ?’ He said shrimp farmers who want to get salty water for their hatcheries were also responsible for making the embankments weaker.
   Professor Nishat however pointed out that rain, floods, cyclones and tidal surges are natural happenings in Bangladesh and ‘we must remain prepared to live with them.’
   Professor Amanat Ullah Khan, director of the Centre for Disaster Research, Training and Management of the University of Dhaka, said the embankments failed to withstand the tidal surge.
   ‘Embankments are generally built to control flood. Are the coastal embankments really built to withstand tidal surge?’ he said.
   Prof Khan said the authorities concerned must constantly visualise and monitor the possible natural calamities and keep people informed to help them face the situation.
   Sudhangsu Sekhor Roy, 55, of Kamarkhali in Dakop, a worst-hit Upazila in Khulna district, alleged the embankments, which were damaged by cyclone Sidr in 2007, were not properly repaired.
   Sathi Bhai, a fisherman on Char Montaj, a remote island in Galachipa Upazila in Patuakhali district, said people on the island became stranded in water as tidal surge breached embankments that were built with sand clay.
   The average height of Monday’s tidal surge was about four meters, according to official estimate.
   Water Development Board authorities however claimed the tidal surge breached the embankments as waters crossed the infrastructures in almost all places.
   ‘Water level usually remain high during cyclones, specially higher when cyclones occurs during new-moon and full-moon,’ Water Development Board director general Abul Kalam Muhammad Azad told New Age. ‘There may be some weak stretches at few places. But such weaknesses cannot be overcome when sea waters surpass the infrastructures and this happened during cyclone Alia.’
   Monday’s tidal surge caused severe breaches to coastal embankments in six districts: Satkhira, Khulna, Bhola, Patuakhali, Noakhali and Chittagong, he said.
   Embankments were also damaged in Bagerhat, Barisal, Barguna, Pirojpur, Jhalakati, Laxmipur and Madaripur.
   According to a rough estimate, these damages would cost taka 219 crore for repairing the embankments, WDB officials said.
   The Water Development Board has so far built 10,000 kilometres of embankments across the country.

The government on Tuesday approved the annual development programme of Tk 30,500 crore for the next financial year. The figure is 33 per cent more than the current development budget despite poor performance in the implementation of projects and programmes.
   The ADP, which will be a part of the 2009–2010 budget to be placed in the parliament on June 11, has been taken up in line with the ruling Awami League’s electoral pledges to create higher domestic demands and to offset probable effects of the global financial crisis, said the planning minister, AK Khandker.
   The National Economic Council at a meeting presided over by the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, endorsed the ADP for 2009–2010 and two long-term development plans — the sixth five-year plan for 2012–2016 and a perspective plan for 2010–2021.
   In view of repeated failures in ADP implementation, Hasina, who assumed office on January 6, 2009, asked the officials concerned to ensure that the development programme could implemented properly and in time with the money allocated for the purpose.
   In the nine months of the current financial year, the ADP implementation rate stands at 41 per cent. The planning minister, however, hoped that the implementation rate would stand at 82 per cent by June 30, when the current financial year ends.
   ‘The prime minister asked all concerned to implement the budget properly and timely and said no further allocation will be made in this regard,’ AK Khandker said as he briefed newsmen on the meeting held at the NEC Building.
   Annual development programmes have never been implemented fully in the history of Bangladesh and the maximum implementation rate is shown 90 per cent in paper.
   ‘We have taken up a huge ADP of Tk 30,500 crore for the 2009–10 financial year to accelerate economic growth,’ he said when he was asked why the government had once again worked out a large annual development programme in spite of failures in implementation. Costs of construction materials and labour wage have also increased over the years, he explained
   As for two long-term plans, he said the major objective of the introduction of such plans was to upgrade the people’s living standards.
   The next annual development programme of Tk 30,500 crore will be funded with 58 per cent from local resources and the remaining 42 per cent from foreign resources, according to the resources outlay. The share of foreign resources in the revised ADP for 2008–09, however, stands at 56.47 per cent.
   The government has also kept block allocation of Tk 661 crore in the ADP to, as the minister said, fund special development projects, related to either power or other infrastructures.
   The ministry-wise highest allocation of the ADP has been made for the LGRD ministry at Tk 6,211 crore or 30.36 per cent of the entire size of the ADP.
   The allocations include Tk 4,671 crore or 15.32 per cent for the transport sector, Tk 4,278 crore or 14.02 per cent for the Power Division, Tk 2,828 crore or 9.27 per cent for the primary and mass education ministry, Tk 947 crore or 3.11 per cent for the education ministry, Tk 860 crore or 2.82 per cent for the agriculture ministry and Tk 683 crore or 2.24 per cent for the Energy and Mineral Resources Division.
   An additional amount of Tk 3,850 crore has also been earmarked in the ADP under different projects to address regional development disparity between Dhaka, Chittagong, and Sylhet divisions and Rajshahi, Khulna and Barisal divisions.
   The break-up of the allocations is: Tk 1,268 crore or 4.15 per cent of the ADP for Rajshahi, Tk 1,563 crore or 3.18 per cent for Khulna and Tk 1,019 crore or 3.34 per cent for Barisal.

The number of examinees who scored the highest grade in the SSC examinations under eight general education boards has increased significantly compared to that of the previous year, although the overall success rate has declined a little.
   In the Secondary School Certificate exams of 2009, a total of 45,934 examinees achieved GPA-5, according to the results published on Tuesday. The number of GPA-5 holders was 41,917 in 2008.
   The results, prepared in accordance with the grading system introduced in 2001, showed that the percentage of passes in the eight general education boards is 67.41 this year. The rate was 70.81 in 2008 under seven education boards.
   The success rate of science students is 83.75 per cent in the eight education boards, while the rate in business studies is 72.06 and in the humanities 55.10. The number of examinees was 7,97,891, and of them a total of 5,37,878 came out successful.
   Examinees under the newly-established Dinajpur Board took the SSC exams for first time this year.
   Explaining the reason for the decline in the success rate, education minister Nurul Islam Nahid said ‘The pass rate has declined slightly as the examinees could not use unfair means this year.’
   In terms of percentage, almost the same decline has also been seen in the combined average results of eight education boards, the Dakhil examination under the Bangladesh Madrassah Education Board and SSC (vocational) examination under the Technical Education Board.
   The combined pass rate, under ten boards, is 70.89 against last year’s 72.18 per cent. However, the number of GPA-5 achievers has increased to 62,307 this year, against 52,500 in 2008.
   A total of 10,58,674 examinees appeared in this year’s SSC and equivalent exams under ten education boards, and 7,50,538 of them have passed. The boys’ and girls’ percentage of success is 73.13 and 68.41 respectively.
   Nahid officially declared the combined results of all the ten education boards at 2:00pm at a press conference in the education ministry.
   At 12:30pm he and the chairmen of all the education boards handed over to the premier, Sheikh Hasina, copies of the exams’ results at her office.
   ‘We are not satisfied with quality of education although a significant number of students got GPA this year. The number, however, is increasing every year,’ Nahid told the press conference.
   The education minister thanked all officials and employees of the ten education boards for managing to publish the results in 60 days as per the declared schedule. The examinations began on February 15 and ended on March 18.
   The Sylhet Board secured the top position among the eight general education boards with a pass rate of 78.71 per cent, while the Rajshahi Board was at the bottom of the heap with only 58.41 per cent.
   Under the Sylhet Board, about 29,443 passed the exam with 1,896 students securing GPA-5.
   A total of 66,457 students or 58.41 per cent passed the exams under Rajshahi Board with 4,474 achieving GPA-5.
   The Dhaka Board bagged the highest number of GPA-5 achievers —- 19,086 this year — and a total of 1,65,570 students passed the exams, which amounts to a success rate of 69.11 per cent.
   Under the Comilla Board, the pass percentage was 72.77 with 64,266 students coming out successful and 4,202 attaining GPA-5.
   The Chittagong Board’s success rate was 69.61 per cent with 43,132 examinees passing and 4,529 getting GPA-5.
   Jessore Board’s success rate was 68.01 per cent with 72,271 sailing through the exams successfully and 4,767 getting GPA-5.
   Barisal Board’s pass percentage was 65.63 with 31,826 students getting through the exams successfully and 1,688 bagging GPA-5.
   Under Dinajpur Board, 64,913 students or 63.58 per cent of the examinees came out successful while 5,292 achieved GPA-5.
   The Madrassah Board’s students have outshone the students of the other nine boards with a pass rate of 85.85 per cent. A total of 1,59,444 examinees came out successful and 16,309 obtained GPA-5.
   The Technical Board scored a pass rate of 70.90 per cent with 64 getting GPA-5. Usually the drop-out, irregulars and over-aged students are enrolled with this board.

The Awami League-led government is likely to prepare an interim budget for 2009-2010 before finalising it in the first quarter of the new fiscal year to allow extensive discussions by Members of Parliament.
   Finance ministry sources said a major objective of this initiative, an unprecedented move by any political regime, is to insert the pledges made in the ruling party’s elections manifesto in the budget document and give a sense of direction by the government for the next five years.
   Already, the Planning Commission is busy incorporating the ruling party’s pre-polls pledges into the poverty reduction strategy paper, the government’s development document titled ‘Moving Ahead: National Strategy for Accelerated Poverty Reduction’, while reviewing it in line with the party’s pre-polls pledges.
   The only time in recent history an interim budget was prepared was in 1996 when the then finance adviser to the caretaker government, Wahiduddin Mahmud, had authored an interim budget for the 1996-97 fiscal, which was subsequently approved by the parliament when the new Awami League government’s finance minister SAMS Kibria presented a full-year budget.
   This time around, the sources added, lawmakers would be given ‘enough opportunity’ for detailed discussions not only on the government’s annual income and expenditures heads, but also on development priorities and adjustments required for materialising the Awami League’s election pledges.
   Major issues of the AL manifesto that are being considered for incorporating into the current development plan include strengthening local government institutions, solving electricity crisis, distribution of khas land among landless poor, creation of employment opportunities especially in rural areas, improving public healthcare services, food security for all, addressing climate change, elimination of child labour, empowerment of women, and bringing all Upazilas under Internet connectivity in next five years.
   However, the revised budget of the current fiscal year, originally prepared by AB Mirza Azizul Islam, finance and planning adviser to the military-backed interim government, would be approved by the parliament within June 30 alongside endorsement of the interim budget for the coming fiscal.
   ‘This [interim budget] is being considered in view of little time allocated to MPs for discussions on the budget. This year, the government wants to present the parliamentarians three months to hold in-depth discussion on various issues,’ a high official of the finance ministry told New Age on Monday.
   The move to prepare the interim budget is being coincided with the step to enact the proposed ‘Public Resources and Budget Management Act’, commonly called fiscal responsibility act, under which a presentation on quarterly review report of the government’s revenue earning and expenditures should be made before the Jatiya Sangsad.
   The finance minister, Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, has said he would try to provide guidelines in the 2009-2010 budget for the entire tenure of the Awami League-led regime.
   The AL government has, meanwhile, decided to revert to five-year plans, instead of short-term strategy paper, from July 2011.
   Earlier, the finance ministry had proposed changes in the timeframe for presenting the budget, only deferring the fiscal year by a month but the finance minister said it would not be worthy to do so.
   In view of convenience of implementation of the budgetary programmes and projects in Bangladesh context, the government may consider beginning the fiscal year from April — a move which had once been considered by the former finance and planning minister, M Saifur Rahman.

The High Court will pass its ruling today on the writ petition filed by the leader of the opposition, Khaleda Zia, challenging three notices issued by the government that asked her to vacate the house in Dhaka Cantonment.
   The High Court bench of Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed and Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury on Tuesday fixed the date after hearing the writ petition filed by former premier Khaleda, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s chairperson, on May 3.
   Moving the petition, Khaleda’s counsel TH Khan told the court that the allotment of the house to Khaleda by the country’s president in 1981 was legal.
   The Fourth Amendment to the constitution, made in 1974 by the Awami League government, empowered the president and any person authorised by him to allot any property to any person, and the presidential system, introduced by that amendment, was in operation till 1991, he argued.
   The government has thus violated the law by issuing three notices to Khaleda, he concluded.
   According to the law, if any person or authority finds anything wrong in the documents relating to property, the person or authority has to go to the proper court to seek redress, the counsel contended.
   Without following the legal procedures stipulated in the constitution and the Transfer of Properties Act, the government issued the notices with the mala fide intention of harassing the leader of the opposition, he said.
   He also argued that the repeated issuance of notices has proved that the government has failed to go by the law.
   Attorney general Mahbubey Alam, opposing the petition, argued that the allotment was illegal as it was made in violation of the law.
   According to the Army Act, no property of the armed forces and Cantonment can be allotted to any civilian, he contended, adding that the allotment of the house on 165 kathas of land was against the interest of the Cantonment authorities and the armed forces.
   The Directorate of Military Land and Cantonments issued the first notice on April 20, asking Khaleda to vacate the house (6, Moinul Road in Dhaka cantonment) within 15 days. She filed a writ petition on May 3, challenging the notice.
   She filed a supplementary petition on May 17, challenging the second notice, served by the directorate on May 7, asking her to explain in 15 days why she would not be directed to return the house to the military estates officer.
   Khaleda replied to the second notice on May 10, asking the directorate to recall the notice since it was ‘illegal’.
   The directorate issued the third notice on Sunday, asking her to hand over the house to the military estates officer by June 30.
   Mentioning the repeated issuance of notices, TH Khan argued that the third notice was issued in spite of the order of the court that had asked the government not to harass her in any way regarding the house.
   Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told parliament in the first week of April that she would ask the opposition leader to vacate the house, claiming that the cantonment authorities had allotted it to Khaleda in violation of the laws.
   The cabinet on April 8 decided to cancel Khaleda’s leasehold of the house in which she continued to reside after her husband, President Ziaur Rahman, was killed in a military putsch on May 30, 1981.
   The Zia family has been living in the house since the 1970s. The house, situated in a compound of 2.72 acres, was originally the official residence of the army chief, a position held by the then Lieutenant General Ziaur Rahman.

North Korea reportedly fired two short-range missiles on Tuesday, in a move set to heighten tensions after its latest nuclear weapons test drew global condemnation.
   The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting to consider the options after Pyongyang’s test of a nuclear device on Monday.
   The council called the test a ‘clear violation’ of international law and immediately began working on a resolution that could impose new sanctions on the secretive North, which has now tested two nuclear bombs in three years.
   ‘This resolution should include new sanctions in addition to those already adopted because such behaviour should have a cost and a price to pay,’ said Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the deputy French ambassador to the United Nations.
   Following the UN condemnation, the North launched one ground-to-air missile and one ground-to-ship missile into the sea on Tuesday off its eastern coast near the city of Hamhung, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.
   ‘Intelligence authorities are analysing the motives for the firing,’ it quoted a South Korean government source as saying, adding each missile had a range of 130 kilometres.
   In April Pyongyang test-fired a long-range rocket that critics say was in fact a ballistic missile, and on Monday it test-fired three short-range missiles after the nuclear blast.
   Russia estimated the force of Monday’s underground nuclear explosion at up to 20 kilotons, almost as powerful as the atom bombs that flattened Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
   But Martin Kalinowski, a professor at the Carl Friedrich von Weizsacker Centre for Science and Peace Research, at the University of Hamburg, told AFP Tuesday, ‘The yield is about four kilotons, equivalent of TNT, with an uncertainty range from three to eight kilotons.’
   Tuesday’s test provoked condemnation from across the world, with UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon calling on the UN Security Council to take ‘the necessary measures’ against North Korea.
   Susan Rice, US ambassador to the United Nations, warned Pyongyang would ‘pay a price’ if it continued to carry out nuclear and missile tests in violation of international law.
   North Korea has repeatedly said it needs a deterrent to ward off an attack by the US, which it believes wants to topple Kim Jong-Il’s regime.
   Asian and European foreign ministers on Tuesday jointly condemned the first test on Monday while France said it would back sanctions and Germany summoned the North Korean ambassador.
   Even China, a permanent member of the Security Council and the North’s sole main ally, was strongly critical.
   ‘Disregarding the common objections of the international community, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has again tested a nuclear device,’ China’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
   ‘The Chinese government expresses its resolute opposition to this,’ it said.
   US president Barack Obama, whose initial overtures to the North since taking office in January have been met with official hostility from Pyongyang, condemned what he called its ‘reckless’ atomic test.
   The North on Tuesday reiterated complaints that Obama is no better than his predecessor.
   ‘The present US administration is talking about what it called a “change” and “bilateral dialogue” but it is, in actuality, pursuing the same reckless policy as followed by the former Bush administration to stifle the DPRK by force of arms,’ said the ruling party newspaper Rodong Sinmun.
   The pro-Pyongyang Chosun Sinbo said on Tuesday sanctions against the North would only escalate tensions and called for direct talks between the US and North Korea.

Professor Anwara Begum, wife of former president Iajuddin Ahmed, on Tuesday claimed he had been physically and mentally sick.
   She said this in a statement explaining his joining a programme aired by private television channel Banglavision on May 24.
   In the signed statement, she said two Banglavision officials, accompanied by Iajuddin’s former student Dr Kabir Hossain Talukder, had visited Iajuddin’s house at Gulshan and wanted to interview Iajuddin as an ‘educationist.’
   ‘I expressed his inability as Dr Iajuddin Ahmed is physically and mentally sick,’ Anwara Begum said.
   Iajuddin Ahmed is undergoing treatment under retired colonel Dr Nurul Azim as he has been ‘physically and mentally sick for last two months,’ she said.
   ‘We went to the Banglavision office after their [Banglavision officials and Kabir Hossain Talukder’s] request and I was waiting outside [the office],’ she said. ‘During this time, the former president was intentionally misguided by motivated questions on “untoward incidents” of the country and not on his educational life. He [Iajuddin] cannot recall what he said in reply to the questions as he was almost imbalanced physically and mentally.’
   She said it was a conspiracy to push the former president into an unwarranted situation to belittle him before the people.
   She urged the government to try the persons involved in the incident.
   When asked about the statement of Professor Anwara Begum, Kazi Jesin, who hosted the programme, Point of Order, on Banglavision, said they (Iajuddin and Anwara) had visited the television channel office on their own. ‘We did not force them to come here.’
   She said the former president agreed to talk about his educational and working life. ‘But he requested us not to take up “so much of talks on 1/11 [proclamation of the state of emergency on January 11, 2007] as [former] president.’
   Jesin said how Professor Anwara allowed her ‘mentally imbalanced’ husband to talk on education, forget about the promulgation of the state of emergency, in a television programme.
   In the programme, Iajuddin said the declaration of the state of emergency and his subsequent resignation from the post of the chief adviser on January 11, 2007 was the result of ‘Allah’s will.’
   When asked whether he was under pressure and anything [written] was placed before him for the declaration of the state of emergency when the chiefs of the three services [army, air force and navy] visited him in Bangabhaban before the proclamation of emergency, Iajuddin simply replied, ‘I agreed with them.’
   When asked about the detention of politicians, including Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia, without any warrant of arrest, and the cases filed against them by the Anti-Corruption Commission, he said, ‘Nothing that happened was unknown to me.’
   Iajuddin Ahmed on January 11, 2007 declared a state of emergency, suspending fundamental rights and indefinitely delaying the elections to the ninth Jatiya Sangsad, which was earlier scheduled for January 22.

UN human rights chief Navi Pillay on Tuesday called for an international investigation into attacks on civilians during the final stages of the civil war in Sri Lanka.
   ‘There are strong reasons to believe that both sides have grossly disregarded the fundamental principle of the inviolability of civilians,’ Pillay told the UN Human Rights Council as it opened a special session on Sri Lanka.
   ‘An independent and credible international investigation into recent events should be dispatched to ascertain the occurrence, nature and scale of violations of international human rights and international humanitarian law, as well as specific responsibilities,’ she said.
   Pillay reiterated her concern about allegations that Tamil Tiger rebels prevented civilians from fleeing the combat zone in recent weeks and effectively used them as human shields.
   But in a joint statement to the council, UN human rights experts went a step further.
   ‘It is clear that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has acted in flagrant violation of the applicable norms of international law by using civilians as human shields or in preventing them from leaving the conflict areas,’ they said.
   Pillay also highlighted reports that the government fired heavy artillery on the densely populated conflict zone, and allegations that the army may have killed rebels who were trying to surrender.
   Pillay reiterated calls for unrestricted access for aid to camps housing about 3,00,000 displaced people, warning of a ‘critical humanitarian situation’ while the rights experts raised concerns about ‘arbitrary detention’.
   But the UN rights chief voiced qualms about government proposals to grant amnesty to lower to mid-level Tamil Tiger leaders and prosecute senior leaders instead.
   ‘I would like to underscore that amnesties preventing accountability of individuals who may be responsible for war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity or gross violations of human rights are impermissible,’ said Pillay.
   Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan government said on Tuesday it was holding 9,100 suspected former Tamil Tiger rebel fighters, most of whom were being sent for ‘rehabilitation and vocational training.’
   Media minister Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said, however, that 1,600 were still being questioned about their alleged links to ‘terrorist attacks’ committed during the island’s decades-old civil war.
   ‘We have sent 7,500 of those who surrendered for rehabilitation and vocational training, while the balance, 1,600, are still being questioned for their involvement in terrorist activities,’ Abeywardena told reporters.
   He said the government was unable to relax tough emergency laws — which allow terrorism suspects to be held indefinitely without charge — even though the war has been declared won.
   ‘We can’t relax these laws right now because we are in the process of questioning the 1,600 suspects,’ the minister said.
   He did not elaborate what form of rehabilitation was provided and for how long the surrendered Tiger cadres would be held.

Pakistan’s supreme court on Tuesday overturned a ban on former premier Nawaz Sharif from holding office, allowing the popular opposition leader to contest elections in the politically turbulent nation.
   A February 25 court decision to disqualify Nawaz and his politician brother Shahbaz from holding office sparked massive protests in March, plunging the nuclear-armed country into turmoil and unnerving its Western allies.
   Tuesday’s decision clears the first hurdle for Nawaz to try to return to power in elections due in 2013, and the court move will likely ease political tensions in Pakistan, which is also beset by a bloody Taliban uprising.
   The supreme court order stated that the initial high court ruling in June 2008 banning the brothers because of criminal convictions and the February 25 ruling upholding that decision ‘are set aside.’
   ‘Nawaz Sharif can contest elections and Shahbaz Sharif will continue as chief minister of Punjab province,’ said Ashtar Ausaf, the brothers’ lawyer.
   Noisy supporters clapping and dancing gathered outside the Islamabad courtroom, carrying posters of Nawaz, who has become Pakistan’s most popular politician as president Asif Ali Zardari’s approval rating plummets.
   ‘The previous verdict was not accepted by people. Today’s verdict has been accepted by the majority of the nation,’ Nawaz, who leads the Pakistan Muslim League-N [PML-N] party, told a press conference.
   ‘States and countries prosper on the basis of justice and fair play. We want the rule of law and I salute the Pakistani nation as they secured the independence of the judiciary through their own struggle.’

Former BNP state minister Iqbal Hasan Mahmood Tuku on Tuesday filed a petition with the High Court for drawing contempt of court charges against seven top government officials for offloading him from the aircraft just before it took off for Singapore on May 24 despite having court clearance.
   The petition will come up for hearing today by the High Court bench of Justice Tariq ul Hakim and Justice M Azizul Haque, his counsel Ajmalul Hossain told reporters as he emerged from the court.
   The same bench on May 11, after hearing a writ petition filed by Tuku, ordered the government not to disturb or stop Tuku from going abroad for his checkup and thereafter re-enter Bangladesh for a period of six months.
   The court had also asked the government to explain its move to prevent Tuku from flying to Singapore on May 2. The rule is yet to be heard.
   Jailed for nine years for amassing illegal wealth and hiding assets in the wealth statement submitted to the Anti-Corruption Commission, Tuku is now on bail.
   In his petition, Tuku stated that he was offloaded from the aircraft on May 24 when he was going to Singapore for treatment.
   He mentioned that Azizur Rahman Chowdhury, officer-in-charge (immigration), told him that he could not go abroad although Tuku showed a copy of the High Court order that had asked the government not to bar him from going abroad.
   He brought the contempt of court charges against home secretary Abdus Sobhan Sikder, inspector general of police Nur Mohammad, additional inspector general of police Javed Patwary, director general immigration and passport, special superintendent of police (immigration) at Zia International Airport Aurangzeb Mahbub, officer-in-charge (immigration) Azizur Rahman Chowdhury and special branch sub-inspector Niazul.

The ongoing Higher Secondary Certificate and equivalent examinations scheduled to be held on May 27 and 28 have been postponed at the Aila-affected centres in the coastal areas due to massive devastation on Monday.
   The postponed examinations will be held as per the revised schedule to be announced later, an official handout said.
   Deputy commissioners concerned through discussions with education board chairmen will select the centres for the HSC examinations at suitable places.