Thai troops battle protesters, Thaksin urges talks

Thai troops battled anti-government protesters in central Bangkok on Friday, attempting to seal off their encampment after an assassination attempt on a renegade general unleashed a new wave of violence.

AFP said, Thailand's fugitive ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra called on the government to pull back troops and restart negotiations with his "Red Shirt" supporters after deadly clashes in Bangkok.

"The government's actions clearly constitute grave infringement of human rights and criminal offences for which the prime minister, the deputy prime minister and all concerned must be responsible," Thaksin said in a statement released by his legal adviser in Bangkok.

Troops fired tear gas, rubber bullets and live rounds on protesters in at least three roads surrounding the central Bangkok shopping district they have occupied for nearly six weeks, a Reuters witness said.

Two people were killed in the clashes and at least 18 were wounded, including three journalists, since the clashes erupted Thursday night, according to hospitals and witnesses.

A Bangkok-based Canadian journalist working for France 24 television station was among the wounded, the station said. Two Thai journalists were also shot.

Thaksin urged Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to order troops back to their barracks, revoke the state of emergency in place in parts of the country and immediately reopen talks with protesters to reach a peaceful solution.

He called on Abhisit to "negotiate with all sides in the country to find an acceptable and genuine reconciliation plan to establish true democracy and justice in Thailand and move the country forward.

The army said it did not plan a crackdown on Friday on the main protest site where thousands of the red-shirted demonstrators, including women and children, have gathered, protected by medieval-like walls made from tyres and wooden staves soaked in kerosene and topped by razor wire.

"We will allow protesters to leave the area today. And they will be able to leave safely," army spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd told reporters, adding that authorities were attempting to seal off the protesters and cut off their supplies.

Analysts said a possible split between a police force that shares the protesters' loyalties to ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra and the military will make it more difficult to contain the violence.

Underlining that, a Thai policeman fired bullets at soldiers while giving cover to protesters, a Reuters witness said. A police spokesman denied the incident took place.

The crisis, in which 31 people have been killed and more than 1,400 wounded since April, has paralysed parts of Bangkok, scared off investors and has begun to hit the wider economy.

Protesters remained defiant.

"They are tightening a noose on us but we will fight to the end, brothers and sisters," a protest leader, Nattawut Saikua, told a cheering crowd of about 10,000 at the main protest site.

The cost of insuring Thai debt jumped the most in 15 months and Thai bond yields fell to a nine-month low on Friday as the wave of violence prompted investors to rush to the relative safety of government debt.

Five-year credit default swaps, used to hedge against debt default but also to speculate on country risk, jumped by more than 30 basis points to 142 basis points.

SEALING OFF PROTEST SITE

Protesters had formed their own checkpoint overnight at the famous Suan Lum night market to stop soldiers from sealing off roads around their main fortified encampment in Bangkok's commercial heart. That became one of the main battlegrounds.

They set fire to a bus, motorbike and tyres as they retreated, and soldiers took control of an intersection leading to a road lined with hotels, the U.S. ambassador's home and several embassies, which were closed and evacuated.

Troops fired rubber bullets into a nearby park after gunshots were heard, Thai television said.

Soldiers used tear gas and water cannon before dawn at the Nana intersection, packed with shops and racy go-go bars. Skirmishes flared in other parts of the city as the protesters remained defiant, vowing to fight to the death.

The latest violence followed tough security measures imposed on Thursday evening to reclaim Bangkok's commercial district after the collapse of a reconciliation plan proposed last week by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

Abhisit is under enormous pressure to end the protests, which began with festive rallies on March 12 and descended into violence that is stoking concerns over the outlook of Southeast Asia's second-biggest economy.

The shooting and a security cordon marked the start of a violent crackdown in which the Thai government stands a good chance of clearing the streets, the Eurasia Group political risk consultancy said.

"But it will not end the polarisation that has led to the current instability -- ensuring that the pressure from the red shirts will persist and that political volatility will remain a persistent problem for Thailand for the forseeable future".

It is unclear who shot a renegade general who has been in charge of security for thousands of protesters occupying a 3 sq-km (1.2 sq-mile) stretch of central Bangkok since April 3.

Khattiya Sawasdipol, a suspended army specialist better known as "Seh Daeng" (Commander Red), was shot in the head, apparently by a sniper, while talking to reporters on Thursday evening.

He underwent brain surgery and was in critical condition.

Khattiya had been branded a terrorist by the Thai government, which accused him of involvement in dozens of grenade attacks that have wounded more than 100 people.

But in recent days he was equally critical of other red shirt leaders, accusing them of embracing Abhisit's proposed "national reconciliation" which unravelled after protesters refused to leave the streets.

Speculation was rife as to who might have tried to assassinate him with fingers pointing at the military, shadowy militants who have appeared in previous incidents of violence, and from the ranks of red shirts themselves.

His shooting sparked half a dozen confrontations overnight between rock-throwing protesters and armed security forces on the outskirts of the protesters' barricaded encampment.

One protester was shot in the eye and died after a group of red shirts confronted soldiers armed with assault rifles next to a park in the Silom business district, witnesses said. Some protesters hurled rocks and troops fired in return.

Most businesses and embassies in the area have evacuated staff and were closed for the day. Apartment complexes were mostly empty after the government warned it would shut down power and water supplies, and landlords urged tenants to leave.

Dolphin, turtle deaths eyed for links to oil spill

Scientists are examining samples from seven dolphins and over 100 sea turtles found dead along the US Gulf Coast in the past two weeks to see if they were victims of the giant oil spill in the region, wildlife officials said on Thursday.

All of the deaths are being investigated as suspected casualties of the oil gushing unchecked since April 20 from a ruptured wellhead on the floor of the Gulf off Louisiana because of their proximity in time and space to the spill.

But none of the dolphins or turtles examined showed any obvious visible signs of oil contamination. Necropsies -- the animal equivalent of autopsies -- are being performed and analyzed to determine if oil ingestion caused the deaths.

The investigations of most of the animals are still pending, and none has yet confirmed oil as a cause of death.

The information about dolphin and sea turtle mortality and the investigation into the cause of those deaths came from two sources close to the Gulf's wildlife spill-response teams who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.

The seven dolphins and 106 sea turtles were found along the coast of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama over the past two weeks, the sources said.

One heavily decayed dolphin carcass was seen on the beach at the very tip of Port Fourchon in southeastern Louisiana. Gooey, rust-colored globs believed to be oil debris began washing ashore on that beach on Wednesday night.

A few deaths were ruled out as spill-related because they occurred before the spill or were animals that were known to have been sick or injured beforehand, the sources said.

TOO SOON FOR CONCLUSIONS

Wildlife officials have expressed particular concern for the well-being of sea turtles in the Gulf following the spill because all five species that inhabit the region are endangered, and it is their spring nesting season.

But experts say large numbers of sea turtle deaths this time of year is not uncommon.

On a conference call with reporters on Wednesday, officials of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it was still too early to draw firm conclusions from the latest wildlife casualties in the Gulf.

"We don't have definitive information for most of the ... (animals) that have been found," said Jane Lubchenco, Undersecretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere.

Impacts on bird life has been relatively light to date, according to wildlife specialists.

"So far, relatively few birds have been brought in with oil on their feathers," said David Ringer of the National Audubon Society, who put the number at between 12 and 20.

"The birds that have been brought in are birds that catch fish in open waters" and would have come in contact with oil there, he said.

Taliban find safe haven in Karachi

Hundreds of Taliban fleeing from Pakistan's restive northwest have taken refuge in the teeming commercial hub of Karachi, where a growing nexus with banned militant organisations is a headache for law enforcement.

A huge Pashtun population, mostly in the suburbs of the city of 18 million people, provides shelter to these militants, according to security officials.

Pakistan's financial capital has largely been spared direct militant attacks. But the man accused in the failed New York bombing, Faisal Shahzad, and his contacts in Karachi have highlighted the militant networks operating here.

The arrest of dozens of low-key members of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Taliban Movement of Pakistan, from the metropolis is evidence of their presence, officials say, and they have developed close ties to banned outfits as well as criminals.

A senior security official involved in anti-militant operations said militants are now working in smaller, independent groups, with no direct link to the central command, which makes it tougher to turn small catches into larger successes.

"The TTP and most of the jihadi outfits like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Jundullah share the same ideology, and in Karachi we have established that they are working together," said the official, requesting not to be named.

"They work in groups of 10-15 people, with one local amir (commander) and at times with no direct link to the main TTP leaders like Hakimullah Mehsud, so it makes it very difficult to trace their wider links," he said.

"And these groups not only have Pashtun militants, but also those from Punjab and Baluchistan, and even locals."

FUND RAISING

Officials said the groups, mostly working independently of each other, are involved in extortion rackets, bank robberies and kidnappings, as well as planning new attacks.

"A key source of funds for the Taliban is extortion, especially from the well-settled Pashtun businessmen in Karachi," said another senior security official.

"It's simple. They send a letter to them demanding money and nobody dares say no. And if the businessmen refuse, their families and properties back in the northwest will not be safe," said the official.

The groups often kidnap relatives of wealthy Karachites in the tribal areas, he said, and extort ransoms from their local targets.

Officials said there is also evidence of the involvement of these militants in cyber crimes.

"Some of these militants have managed to make illegal money transfers from other peoples' accounts using the online banking systems. We have arrested a few people already and are investigating further," said one official.

PLANNING ATTACKS

Officials said there would have been more attacks in Karachi, but for the city's massive intelligence network.

"There have been too many arrests to suggest that they have not attempted attacks on Karachi, but they have been foiled," said the first official.

Last year, militants attempted to target the city's main oil storage depot next to the country's largest port.

"That attack would have been a disaster and thankfully we managed to foil that," said Chaudhry Aslam, a senior police official who arrested the alleged masterminds of the attack.

"The man behind that attack was Akhtar Zaman, the Karachi commander of TTP, and he hailed from Waziristan," he said.

He also said that Karachi police have arrested dozens of TTP militants from Waziristan, some of them with ready-to-use suicide jackets and huge quantities of explosives and sophisticated weapons.

The number of new recruits by militants in Karachi has been reduced thanks to better intelligence, officials said, though some radical madrassas as well as small, private gatherings in people's homes still provide fresh legs for these organisations.

Also, the ongoing military operation in the country's northwest means that some of the fleeing militants have no choice but to lay low in their safe havens in Karachi, at least for now.

"Most of the Taliban coming to Karachi are 'B' and 'C' category," said senior police investigator Raja Umer Khattab.

"They hide here, work here as labourers, and some of them are probably waiting for the right time to go back to the tribal areas and fight again."

Bangladesh, UK reject Huji 'torture' claims

The British government had no involvement in the 'serious mistreatment' of Gholam Moustafa, an alleged leader of the banned Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI), a British High Commission spokesman tells bdnews24.com

The Bangladesh foreign ministry also told bdnews24.com that it had not received any information that Moustafa, a Briton, had been mistreated by his own law-enforcement officers.

Saida Muna Tasneem, a director general from the foreign ministry, said that the government would investigate any allegation passed to it by the British mission.

An article in Wednesday's edition of the UK's Guardian newspaper claimed that Bangladesh authorities had seriously mistreated Moustafa in detention and that officials of MI5, the UK's counter-intelligence agency, may have been complicit.

The newspaper said that according to his family, "Moustafa appeared to have a swollen face when he was paraded before television cameras shortly after his arrest."

It goes on to say: "When he appeared in court 11 days later [on 27 April] a journalist working for the Guardian could see that he was unable to stand throughout the proceedings, at one point sinking to his knees."

It stated that he had told a British consular official that "he had been forced to assume stressful positions for long periods during questioning at a detention centre known as the Taskforce for Interrogation Cell, where the use of torture is alleged to be common."

The newspaper did not set out any actual evidence of british government complicity in the alleged torture.

A spokesman for the British High Commission told this correspondent on Thursday that the High Commission first came to know about Moustafa's arrest through a newspaper report on 16 April, the day after he was detained.

"This was a Friday. On Sunday, 18th April, the next working day, we sent a formal request for consular access to the foreign ministry and we followed this up with phone calls," he said.

The High Commission spokesperson said it usually takes about six to eight weeks for the Bangladesh government to give consular access.

However, he said on April 29, two weeks after his arrest, the British mission received a letter from Moustafa's UK solicitors containing allegations that he was being mistreated.

On that day, he said that the High Commission sent an "urgent access request" to the foreign ministry and two days later, on May 1, it received permission to see him. The next day, consular officials met Moustafa at Dhaka Central Jail.

The spokesperson declined to comment on what Moustafa had told the officials when they had met. "Anything that was said in that conversation is confidential," he said.

The spokesperson told bdnews24.com that prior to this meeting, no British government official had any contact or conversations with either Moustafa or the law-enforcing officers that were involved in his detention.

"On the question of allegation of torture, we take any such allegations very seriously. The UK government's position on torture is clear. We condemn it wholeheartedly. We do not torture people and we do not ask others to do so on our behalf," he said.

He added that a further application for consular access had been sought from the Bangladesh authorities.

"We will continue to offer Moustafa appropriate help and support in accordance with our consular responsibilities," he stated.

Moustafa was arrested in Sylhet for trying to organise and strengthen HuJI.

The alleged militant was earlier arrested on Dec 2, 2007 from a house in the capital's Bashundhara residential area, where allegedly a pistol and five books calling for holy war were found in his possession.

For this offence, Mostafa was sentenced to 17 years in prison in Bangladesh but secured bail from the High Court.

Boy survives as over 100 die in Libya plane crash

A Libyan plane arriving from South Africa disintegrated on landing at Tripoli airport Wednesday, killing more than 100 people but an eight-year-old Dutch boy was a miracle survivor, officials said.

Libyan television showed teams of emergency workers sifting through the wreckage of the Afriqiyah Airways Airbus A330, which was scattered in a wide arc across the landing area.

"It exploded on landing and totally disintegrated," one security official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

There was no immediate official word on the cause of the crash, which occurred as the plane was landing at around 6:00 am (0400 GMT).

The airline listed 93 passengers and 11 crew members on board its flight 8U771 from Johannesburg.

"I can confirm the crash but not the number of the dead," said Bongani Sithole, an official of the airline at Johannesburg airport. "We hear that it happened one metre (yard) away from the runway."

A Libyan security official earlier told AFP that all those on board the flight had died but an airport official said in fact an eight-year-old boy from the Netherlands had miraculously survived and was rushed to hospital near Tripoli. He could give no details on the condition of the boy.

The crew members were all Libyan nationals, the official added.

An AFP correspondent said the crash site had been sealed off by security officials and ambulances and emergency vehicles were seen rushing between the airport and the capital, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) apart.

The wreckage could be seen in the distance but no plumes of smoke were evident. Weather conditions were good at Tripoli on Wednesday morning, with only light clouds in the sky.

Afriqiyah Airways said on its website that it operates an Airbus fleet.

It started operations with five leased planes and signed a contract with Airbus at an exhibition in Paris in 2007 for the purchase of 11 new planes, the website said.

It was founded in April 2001 and at first fully owned by the Libyan state. The company?s capital was later divided into shares to be managed by the Libya-Africa Investment Portfolio.

On April 21, the airline announced that flights were back to normal after disruptions due to the volcanic ash cloud from Iceland that grounded flights in Europe last month.

Last June, a 12-year-old girl was the sole survivor of a Yemeni plane crash off the Comoros.

Wednesday's crash was the deadliest air accident in Libya since December 22, 1992 when a Libyan Arab Airlines plane crashed near Tripoli airport killing 157 people.

Twenty-two people were killed in an oil company plane crash in January 2000.

In other major accidents, 79 people were killed when a Korean Air crashed in Tripoli in July 1989.

And 59 people died in a Balkan Bulgarian Airlines crash near Benghazi in December 1977, while 36 passengers and crew died when a Central African Airways came down in August 1958, also near Benghazi in eastern Libya.

New coalition government sets out agenda

The first coalition government since 1945 unveiled its ministerial team on Wednesday and said it would speed up efforts to cut the country's budget deficit as it emerges from a deep recession.

New Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives struck a coalition deal with the third-placed Liberal Democrats that aims to overcome their ideological differences, but which critics say could lead to instability.

The coalition must cut a budget deficit running at more than 11 percent of GDP. It adopted Conservative plans to cut 6 billion pounds of spending this financial year, earlier than the Liberal Democrats wanted.

"No government in modern times has ever been left with such a terrible economic inheritance," Cameron told a joint news conference with Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg. "We know there will be difficult decisions ahead."

Clegg, who is the new deputy prime minister, said the government would be "radical and reforming" when needed and a source of stability.

"At a time of such enormous difficulties, our country needed a strong and stable government," he said.

The coalition's plans include:

- Introduction of a banking levy;

- Commission to investigate the possibility of separating retail and investment banking;

- Plans to give Bank of England control of macro-prudential regulation and oversight of micro-prudential regulation;

- Raising non-business capital gains tax to bring it close to income tax levels;

- Cap on non-EU immigration.

The agreement, reached early on Wednesday five days after an inconclusive election, ended 13 years of rule by the centre-left Labour Party under Tony Blair and his successor Gordon Brown.

"There is going to be a significant acceleration in the reduction of the structural budget deficit," new chancellor George Osborne told reporters.

Markets welcomed the agreement, hopeful a government led by the Conservatives would take swift action to cut the country's debts. Gilt futures jumped and sterling enjoyed a strong performance overnight, losing some ground later to trade broadly steady against the dollar.

The Conservatives are traditionally seen as hawkish on defence, and stocks in the sector were up 2.35 percent on the FTSE 350 index.

MINISTERIAL TEAM
Former Conservative deputy leader William Hague is the new foreign secretary and Ken Clarke will run the justice department. Lib Dem Vince Cable, a former economist, is the new business secretary.

Cameron, a 43-year-old former public relations executive, took over as prime minister after Brown admitted defeat in efforts to broker a deal with the LibDems. He is Britain's youngest prime minister in almost 200 years.

The Conservatives are parliament's largest party after last week's election but fell 20 seats short of an outright majority. With the LibDems, they will have a majority of 76 seats.

Thai election plan scrapped as tensions rise

The Thai government on Wednesday cancelled plans for a November election and scrapped talks with protesters occupying Bangkok's commercial district for nearly six weeks, but softened its line on an earlier crackdown threat.

Hours after announcing they would shut off power and cut water supplies from midnight to thousands of anti-government protesters, authorities postponed the plan, saying it would hurt residents in the ritzy district more than the demonstrators.

But the government said it would take other measures to seal off the central Bangkok area packed with hotels, embassies, businesses, high-end apartments and two public hospitals.

"Tonight, we will start preventing taxis and cars delivering protesters into the area and tomorrow, we will divert some public transportation into the area as well," army spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd told reporters. "Details are still being worked out."

The threats follow the unravelling of a peace plan proposed last week by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to end a political crisis that has killed 29 people, paralysed parts of Bangkok and slowed growth in Southeast Asia's second-biggest economy.

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Leaders of the mostly rural and urban poor protesters remained defiant, refusing to leave their 3 sq km (1.2 sq mile) encampment and challenging the government from behind medieval-like walls built of tyres and sharpened bamboo staves.

"We will die here if we must. Your threat will not work," Nattawut Saikua, a protest leader, told cheering supporters after the government said it may use force to disperse them if other measures failed.

The decision to postpone cutting off water and power followed outcry by residents, thousands of whom were urged by their landlords to leave and find temporary accommodation.

Several diplomats, meeting with Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya, expressed concern over how the hastily announced measures would affect their embassies, according an Asian diplomatic source present at the meeting.

Severing supplies would have presented a huge logistical challenge and may not have even worked. The protesters said they would survive with their own power generators and food sources.

Attempts to intercept their supplies also risked clashes on the fringes of the area or inside their sprawling tented camp, where women and children were among about 6,000 protesters.

SQUEEZING ECONOMY

"I don't see how cutting supplies could be effective," said Karn Yuenyong, director of independent think-tank Siam Intelligence Unit. "It's not an easy task and may not be worth it, especially if protesters can bypass it."

He said it could also spark violence following a series of clashes, grenade attacks and shootings since April 10, when a failed attempt to disperse protesters in another area of Bangkok led to a night of fighting that killed 25 people.

"A resolution without a clash is becoming increasingly unlikely," he added.

Thailand's finance minister said the crisis could trim 0.3 percentage point off Thailand's targeted annual growth rate this year of 4.5 to 5 percent.

Abhisit had offered an election on Nov. 14 -- a year before one is due -- to try to end rallies that began in mid-March with a demand for an immediate poll.

The red-shirted protesters, mostly supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra who was ousted in a coup in 2006, accepted the election date -- an offer now withdrawn -- but are pushing other demands.

They say the British-born, Oxford-educated Abhisit lacks a popular mandate after coming to power in a parliamentary vote 17 months ago and heading a coalition the military helped cobble together after the courts dissolved a pro-Thaksin party.

Some of their leaders now face terrorism charges connected to the protests and say they will only disperse if a deputy prime minister faces criminal charges over the April 10 clash, accusing the government of double standards.

At the protest site, where a ramshackle network of tents, trailers, food stalls and mobile toilets has spread across some of the capital's smartest streets, there was no sign of protesters packing up or greater security force activity.

"It just shows they are not interested in making up," said Komsan Sukpradit, a 48-year-old red shirt guard patrolling the area after getting blessed by a chanting Buddhist monk. "They will crush us given a chance and we can't let that happen."

Sirinaj Jantoh, who works at a marketing agency in the area, said she feared the government's threat may escalate tension.

"It's going to make it harder to come in to work," she said. "Maybe we will work from home for a while, especially if there is no power. I just hope the red shirts leave soon -- they have caused enough trouble already."

The protests are the latest instalment in a political crisis that has festered since Thaksin's populist premiership, exposing deep divisions between the rural and urban poor and the Bangkok middle classes and traditional royalist elite.

Foreign investors have turned negative since violence flared in April and have sold 17.4 billion baht ($539 million) in Thai shares in the past five sessions, cutting their net buying so far this year to 21 billion baht as of Tuesday.

War crimes probe chief resigns

War crimes probe chief Abdul Matin has resigned, home state minister Shamsul Haq Tuku tells bdnews24.com.

Tuku said on Wednesday, "Matin submitted his resignation voluntarily to the home secretary in the morning."

On 25 March, the government formed a tribunal to try people alleged to have committed war crimes during the 1971 Liberation War. On the same day the seven-member investigation agency was also constituted, with Matin as its chief.

Matin's resignation came days after a government advisor alleged that Matin was an activist of the Islami Chhatra Shangha (ICS), student wing of the fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami.

ICS members have been accused of taking part in war crimes during 1971, in particular relating to the abduction of intellectuals mainly on Dec 14-15, 1971 just days before the surrender of Pakistan army on Dec 16.

Matin has however strenuously denied any involvement in Islamist politics.

Prime minister's advisor on education, social development and political affairs Alauddin Ahmed on Apr 30 alleged that Matin had run for a college election backed by the defunct Islami Chhatra Shangha, predecessor to the Islami Chhatra Shibir.

He said, "The investigating agency chief was a presidential contender backed by Chhatra Shangha at the college."

"With him heading the agency, it is easy to conceive the future of the trial, the matter should be treated seriously," the advisor had added.

He also said one of the investigation agency's members had refused to start work, apparently for his lack of confidence in the probe chief.

But Matin, a former bureaucrat, on May 2 said that he had run for the vice presidency at BM College students' union elections as an independent candidate in 1963.

Matin said after completing his master's, he joined the Mymensingh Judges' Court as a civil judge at the end of 1971, when the Liberation War was still on, considering his family's welfare and the 'overall situation'.

"Doing a job and being a razakar (collaborator) are not the same."

Denying the allegation, he said, "I have never been involved with any political party since my student days until now."

Asked following Ahmed's accusations if he would resign, Matin had said, "The government has appointed me in this position. I will decide if it wants me to."

Oil slick reaches US coast, new drilling on hold

Oil from a giant slick washed ashore in Louisiana Friday, threatening a catastrophe for the US Gulf Coast. The White House put a hold on any new offshore oil projects until the rig disaster that caused the spill is explained.

The US administration has banned oil drilling in new areas of the US coast while the cause of the oil spill off Louisiana is investigated.
"No additional drilling has been authorised and none will until we find out what happened," White House adviser David Axelrod told ABC television.
Last month President Barack Obama eased a moratorium on new offshore drilling. Reported BBC.

With up to 200,000 gallons of oil a day spewing into the Gulf of Mexico from a leaking well, the accident stemming from a sunken offshore rig threatens to rival the Exxon Valdez disaster as the worst oil spill in US history.

Strong southeast winds blew the first oily strands of the 600-mile- (1,550-kilometer-) circumference slick directly onto the coastal wetlands of South Pass near the mouth of the Mississippi river late Thursday, Billy Nungesser, president of Plaquemines Parish where oil washed ashore, told AFP.

AP said, storms threatened to frustrate desperate protection efforts. The National Weather Service predicted winds, high tides and waves through Sunday that could push oil deep into the inlets, ponds and lakes that line the boot of southeast Louisiana. Seas of 6 to 7 feet were pushing tides several feet above normal toward the coast, compounded by thunderstorms expected in the area Friday.
Waves may also wash over booms strung out just off shorelines to stop the oil, said Tom McKenzie, a spokesman for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which is hoping booms will keep oil off the Chandeleur Islands, part of a national wildlife refuge.

Hundreds of miles of coastline in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida were under imminent threat.

And with British Petroleum, which leases the wrecked rig, no closer to capping the ruptured well, the White House went into emergency response mode to try and avoid the kind of disaster that Hurricane Katrina brought to the US Gulf Coast in 2005.

"While BP is ultimately responsible for funding the cost of response and clean-up operations, my administration will continue to use every single available resource at our disposal, including potentially the Department of Defense, to address the incident," President Barack Obama said.

The event was deemed a disaster of "national significance," to better coordinate resources, as Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal meanwhile declared a state of emergency and called for urgent help to prevent vital spawning grounds and fishing communities from pollution on a massive scale.

Despite frantic efforts to stave off an environmental catastrophe, many of those dependent on the region's vital fisheries and nature reserves had already given up hope due to strong onshore squalls forecast for several days to come.

Brent Roy, who charters fishing boats off the coast, said the rough seas through until Saturday would make it nigh on impossible that rescue teams would be able to contain the spill off shore.

"As it gets into the wildlife management area it is going to kill us," he told AFP after returning to the small coastal hub of Venice from the Pass a Loutre nature reserve.

"It's the worst-case scenario for shrimpers, oyster harvesters, crabbers -- all the commercial fisherman," Roy said, referring to Louisiana's 2.4-billion-dollar-a-year fisheries industry.

Two lawsuits against BP so far for negligence, meanwhile, are hinting at what is expected to be a flood of litigation from the disaster.

Jindal listed at least 10 wildlife refuges in Louisiana and Mississippi in the direct path of the oil slick that are likely to be impacted, warning that billions of dollars in coastal restoration projects could be wasted.

Oil was now gushing unabated from near the Deepwater Horizon platform which sank April 22 two days after a huge explosion that killed 11 workers.

Officials revealed late Wednesday that 200,000 gallons per day -- about five times as much oil as previously estimated -- was now pouring from the leaks.

Crews conducted a controlled "trial" burn Wednesday of one of the thickest parts of the slick, but such operations were suspended indefinitely as the heavier winds blew in.

The accident has not disrupted offshore energy operations in the Gulf, which account for 30 percent of all US oil production and 11 percent of domestic gas production.

BP, which leased the rig from a Houston-based contractor Transocean, has been operating 10 robotic submarines in a so far unsuccesful bid to cap the ruptured well on the seabed some 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) below the surface.

As a back-up, engineers were constructing a giant dome that could be placed over the leaks to trap the oil, allowing it to be pumped up to container ships on the surface. The operation is expected to take weeks.

At the Gulf well's current estimated rate of leakage, it would take 47 more days for the amount of spilled toxic crude to surpass the 11 million gallons of oil that poured from the grounded Exxon Valdez tanker into Alaska in 1989.

Thai protesters on defensive after storming hospital

Thai anti-government protesters were apologetic on Friday a day after a clumsy storming of a hospital that raised questions over whether the movement is losing direction in a two-month crisis that has killed 27 people.

Protest leaders apologised after more than 200 "red shirts" forced their way into Chulalongkorn University Hospital late on Thursday to look for soldiers they accused of preparing an attack, forcing the evacuation of some patients.

They didn't find any and left after roaming for an hour through the grounds, the lobby and car parks, some carrying wooden staves. Some wanted to return on Friday for another search but red shirt leaders ruled it out.

"We truly apologise for any inconvenience caused. Some were very concerned the hospital was harbouring troops," said Weng Tojirakarn, a protest leader.

Weng acknowledged some red shirts have a "cowboy attitude" that presents an image problem for the movement, which is already struggling to get support from middle-class Bangkok.

It was the second setback in a week for thousands of mostly rural and urban poor supporters of ousted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra after security forces on Wednesday stopped an attempt to hold "mobile rallies" outside their 3 sq-km (1.2 sq-mile) fortified encampment in central Bangkok.

The encampment is slowly becoming "a city within a city", deepening a crisis that Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij said could reduce Thailand's economic growth rate by two percentage points if it continues all year.

The Stock Exchange of Thailand expressed confidence in the economy -- Southeast Asia's second largest -- but acknowledged foreign investors have turned cautious, selling $264 million in stocks over the past six trading days. That's driving the baht currency to its largest weekly loss since January.

HOSPITAL INCURSION

The hospital incursion raised concerns about how much control the leaders have over their followers, who range from pro-Thaksin loyalists to democracy activists and farm labourers -- and whether its leaders can maintain discipline over its guards.

It also risks turning public opinion against them, which Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva was quick to sense. "I don't think I need to condemn this. I think not just Thai society, but also the international community already is," he said in a televised statement.

A headline in the Thai-language Thaipost newspaper described the protesters as "evil" for barging their way into the hospital. Some residents said the protesters had gone too far.

"They were so audacious and thuggish. It's gone beyond acceptable," said Tana Pariyapan, a 36-year-old office worker.

The hospital is near the Silom business district, scene of a deadly grenade attack on April 22. Hospital director Adisorn Patradul said nearly all patients would be evacuated and only its emergency room would stay open.

Hospital management denies troops are on its site, but thousands of soldiers and riot police are in the area to contain the protest movement.

Tension remains high in Bangkok after a soldier was killed on Wednesday in a clash on a suburban highway packed with vehicles.

The violence is taking its toll on tourism, which accounts for 6 percent of the economy and employs 15 percent of the workforce. Arrivals at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport have fallen by a third since the violence broke out.

Kim Eng Securities, Thailand's top brokerage, warned that investors may still be underestimating the impact unrest is having on economic growth. "With 60 percent of GDP growth hinging on consumption, there is downside risk," it said.

Hopes of a deal to end the violence faded last weekend after British-born and Oxford-educated Abhisit rejected a red shirt proposal for an election in three months, saying he would not negotiate in the face of threats.

The red shirts oppose what they say is the unelected royalist elite that controls Thailand and broadly back Thaksin, who was toppled in a coup in 2006 but before that built up a following among the poor through rural development and welfare policies.

The former telecoms tycoon was convicted in absentia on corruption-related charges and lives abroad to avoid jail.

May Day observed

The historic May Day is being observed in Bangladesh along with the rest of the world on Saturday with the pledge to establish the rights of workers.

The day is observed to commemorate the struggle of workers for their rights.

On May 1, 1886, ten workers were killed when police opened fine on a demonstration in the US city of Chicago near Hay Market demanding an eight rather than a 12 hour working day.

But that sacrifice ultimately led to the authorities yielding to the workers' demand and the eight-hour day has come to be introduced universally.

On July 14, 1889 in Paris, an international workers' rally declared May 1 as the International Workers Solidarity Day in recognition of the Chicago workers' sacrifice and achievement and since 1890, the day has been observed globally as the International Workers Solidarity Day.

In Bangladesh, the day is a public holiday. All industries and factories remain closed. Red flags have been hoisted at the offices of the political organisations.

Worker organisations are hosting various programmes marking the day including processions, discussion sessions, cultural events and film exhibitions. Roads in the capital have been decorated with placards, banners and festoons.

President Zillur Rahman, prime minister Sheikh Hasina and chief opposition leader Khaleda Zia gave separate addresses marking the day.

The prime minister inaugurated a programme marking the day at the National Osmani Memorial Auditorium at around 10am.

Bangladesh Television is broadcasting the programme, organised by labour and employment ministry.

Jatiya Sramik League, the workers wing of the government party, brought out a procession after a meeting at Bangabandhu Avenue at around 10am.

Jatiyabadi Sramik Dal, the workers wing of the main opposition party, will also take out a similar procession from their Naya Paltan office.

Iran may not get warm welcome at UN nuclear talks

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Iran's president on Thursday he will not get a warm welcome at UN nonproliferation talks next week if he seeks to sow confusion about Iran's nuclear program.

The United States and some of its Western allies believe that Iran is using its civil nuclear program as a cover to develop atomic weapons, something Tehran committed not to do under the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, which says its nuclear program is to generate electricity but not to build bombs, has applied for a visa to attend the treaty review conference that opens on Monday at the United Nations.

The purpose of the meeting, which occurs every five years, is to recommit nations to the treaty's three pillars: disarmament, nonproliferation and the peaceful use of civil nuclear energy, Clinton told a news conference.

"The mission of those of us going to New York to review, revise and reinvigorate the NPT regime is very clear. If that's not his mission, then it won't be a particularly useful or productive trip on his part," she said.

Clinton said she did not know why Ahmadinejad wanted to come to the conference, saying that Iran's record of violating the NPT was "absolutely indisputable."

"If President Ahmadinejad wants to come and announce that Iran will abide by their nonproliferation requirements under the NPT, that would be very good news indeed and we would welcome that," she said.

"But if he believes that by coming he can somehow divert attention from this very important global effort or cause confusion that might possibly throw into doubt what Iran has been up to ... then I don't believe he will have a particularly receptive audience."

A State Department spokesman said visa requests for the Iranian delegation were still being processed. As the host for the UN headquarters, the United States usually grants visas to foreign leaders who wish to attend UN events.

Disaster looms as oil slick reaches US coast

Oil from a giant slick washed ashore in Louisiana Friday, threatening a catastrophe for the US Gulf Coast as the government called a national diasaster and mulled sending in the military.

With up to 200,000 gallons of oil a day spewing into the Gulf of Mexico from a leaking well, the accident stemming from a sunken offshore rig threatens to rival the Exxon Valdez disaster as the worst oil spill in US history.

Strong southeast winds blew the first oily strands of the 600-mile- (1,550-kilometer-) circumference slick directly onto the coastal wetlands of South Pass near the mouth of the Mississippi river late Thursday, Billy Nungesser, president of Plaquemines Parish where oil washed ashore, told AFP.

Hundreds of miles of coastline in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida were under imminent threat.

And with British Petroleum, which leases the wrecked rig, no closer to capping the ruptured well, the White House went into emergency response mode to try and avoid the kind of disaster that Hurricane Katrina brought to the US Gulf Coast in 2005.

"While BP is ultimately responsible for funding the cost of response and clean-up operations, my administration will continue to use every single available resource at our disposal, including potentially the Department of Defense, to address the incident," President Barack Obama said.

The event was deemed a disaster of "national significance," to better coordinate resources, as Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal meanwhile declared a state of emergency and called for urgent help to prevent vital spawning grounds and fishing communities from pollution on a massive scale.

Despite frantic efforts to stave off an environmental catastrophe, many of those dependent on the region's vital fisheries and nature reserves had already given up hope due to strong onshore squalls forecast for several days to come.

Brent Roy, who charters fishing boats off the coast, said the rough seas through until Saturday would make it nigh on impossible that rescue teams would be able to contain the spill off shore.

"As it gets into the wildlife management area it is going to kill us," he told AFP after returning to the small coastal hub of Venice from the Pass a Loutre nature reserve.

"It's the worst-case scenario for shrimpers, oyster harvesters, crabbers -- all the commercial fisherman," Roy said, referring to Louisiana's 2.4-billion-dollar-a-year fisheries industry.

Two lawsuits against BP so far for negligence, meanwhile, are hinting at what is expected to be a flood of litigation from the disaster.

Jindal listed at least 10 wildlife refuges in Louisiana and Mississippi in the direct path of the oil slick that are likely to be impacted, warning that billions of dollars in coastal restoration projects could be wasted.

Oil was now gushing unabated from near the Deepwater Horizon platform which sank April 22 two days after a huge explosion that killed 11 workers.

Officials revealed late Wednesday that 200,000 gallons per day -- about five times as much oil as previously estimated -- was now pouring from the leaks.

Crews conducted a controlled "trial" burn Wednesday of one of the thickest parts of the slick, but such operations were suspended indefinitely as the heavier winds blew in.

The accident has not disrupted offshore energy operations in the Gulf, which account for 30 percent of all US oil production and 11 percent of domestic gas production.

BP, which leased the rig from a Houston-based contractor Transocean, has been operating 10 robotic submarines in a so far unsuccesful bid to cap the ruptured well on the seabed some 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) below the surface.

As a back-up, engineers were constructing a giant dome that could be placed over the leaks to trap the oil, allowing it to be pumped up to container ships on the surface. The operation is expected to take weeks.

At the Gulf well's current estimated rate of leakage, it would take 47 more days for the amount of spilled toxic crude to surpass the 11 million gallons of oil that poured from the grounded Exxon Valdez tanker into Alaska in 1989.

Thai protesters on defensive after storming hospital

Thai anti-government protesters were apologetic on Friday a day after a clumsy storming of a hospital that raised questions over whether the movement is losing direction in a two-month crisis that has killed 27 people.

Protest leaders apologised after more than 200 "red shirts" forced their way into Chulalongkorn University Hospital late on Thursday to look for soldiers they accused of preparing an attack, forcing the evacuation of some patients.

They didn't find any and left after roaming for an hour through the grounds, the lobby and car parks, some carrying wooden staves. Some wanted to return on Friday for another search but red shirt leaders ruled it out.

"We truly apologise for any inconvenience caused. Some were very concerned the hospital was harbouring troops," said Weng Tojirakarn, a protest leader.

Weng acknowledged some red shirts have a "cowboy attitude" that presents an image problem for the movement, which is already struggling to get support from middle-class Bangkok.

It was the second setback in a week for thousands of mostly rural and urban poor supporters of ousted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra after security forces on Wednesday stopped an attempt to hold "mobile rallies" outside their 3 sq-km (1.2 sq-mile) fortified encampment in central Bangkok.

The encampment is slowly becoming "a city within a city", deepening a crisis that Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij said could reduce Thailand's economic growth rate by two percentage points if it continues all year.

The Stock Exchange of Thailand expressed confidence in the economy -- Southeast Asia's second largest -- but acknowledged foreign investors have turned cautious, selling $264 million in stocks over the past six trading days. That's driving the baht currency to its largest weekly loss since January.

HOSPITAL INCURSION

The hospital incursion raised concerns about how much control the leaders have over their followers, who range from pro-Thaksin loyalists to democracy activists and farm labourers -- and whether its leaders can maintain discipline over its guards.

It also risks turning public opinion against them, which Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva was quick to sense. "I don't think I need to condemn this. I think not just Thai society, but also the international community already is," he said in a televised statement.

A headline in the Thai-language Thaipost newspaper described the protesters as "evil" for barging their way into the hospital. Some residents said the protesters had gone too far.

"They were so audacious and thuggish. It's gone beyond acceptable," said Tana Pariyapan, a 36-year-old office worker.

The hospital is near the Silom business district, scene of a deadly grenade attack on April 22. Hospital director Adisorn Patradul said nearly all patients would be evacuated and only its emergency room would stay open.

Hospital management denies troops are on its site, but thousands of soldiers and riot police are in the area to contain the protest movement.

Tension remains high in Bangkok after a soldier was killed on Wednesday in a clash on a suburban highway packed with vehicles.

The violence is taking its toll on tourism, which accounts for 6 percent of the economy and employs 15 percent of the workforce. Arrivals at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport have fallen by a third since the violence broke out.

Kim Eng Securities, Thailand's top brokerage, warned that investors may still be underestimating the impact unrest is having on economic growth. "With 60 percent of GDP growth hinging on consumption, there is downside risk," it said.

Hopes of a deal to end the violence faded last weekend after British-born and Oxford-educated Abhisit rejected a red shirt proposal for an election in three months, saying he would not negotiate in the face of threats.

The red shirts oppose what they say is the unelected royalist elite that controls Thailand and broadly back Thaksin, who was toppled in a coup in 2006 but before that built up a following among the poor through rural development and welfare policies.

The former telecoms tycoon was convicted in absentia on corruption-related charges and lives abroad to avoid jail.

Adviser calls probe chief into question

A government policymaker has alleged that the chief of the recently created investigation agency on 1971 crimes against humanity, Abdul Matin, was once an activist of an Islamist student organisation.

Prime minister's advisor Alauddin Ahmed made the startling revelation at a roundtable conference organised by media firm 'Vision 24' at Dhaka Reporters Unity office on Friday

Ahmed, who advises the head of the government on education and politics, said that Matin was once a presidential contender of a college section of the defunct student organisation Islami Chhatra Shangha, which later became the Islami Chhatra Shibir, the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami.

Jamaat's top leaders are alleged to have grossly perpetrated war crimes and crimes against humanity in the nation's war of independence from Pakistan.

"With him heading the agency, it is easy to conceive the future of the trial, the matter should be treated seriously", he said.

A tribunal was formed on May 25 for holding trials for crimes against humanity during the 1971 war. A seven-member investigation agency was also constituted with Matin, a former additional secretary to the government.

Revealing that one of the agency's members has refused to start work yet, apparently for his lack of confidence in the agency chief, Ahmed said, "He is being persuaded to change his mind."

The advisor said he already took the matter up with the prime minister and assured the audience of finding an amicable solution to the controversy surrounding the investigation agency and the prosecution panel.

He told the roundtable titled 'Islam, Law and War Criminal Trial in the International Perspective' that if the trials were not held comprehensibly then the entire process would be hampered at every step.

Elaborating on the reason for his fear, he said the war criminals and their associates have infiltrated the administration to such extents that they are even hampering the issuing of small circulars.

Ahmed also commented that the Bangladesh embassies abroad have not been properly activated to garner support from foreign governments toward holding a fair trial.

He also said the government has reports of obstacle being raised in the collection of documentary evidence.

The advisor also insisted that the trials would be held during the tenure of this government and there is no scope for ambivalence regarding the government's determination.

He urged the younger generations, who believe in the spirit of the liberation war, to "continue their movement for holding the trial and not leave it to the government alone".

JSD chief Hasanul Haq Inu, who was present, urged the prime minister to probe the weaknesses and errors in the formation of the investigation agency and prosecution panel.

Former Dhaka University vice chancellor AK Azad Chowdhury and Jatiya Party (Ershad) secretary general Sheikh Shahidul Islam, among others, spoke at the roundtable.

More workers demo in Mirpur

Readymade garment workers of Mirpur took to the streets again on Friday demanding pay hike in a second such incident of agitation in the apparel factory-dominated area of Dhaka in two days.

Witnesses said that hundreds of workers of Vision Group at around 9am took position on the both sides of the main road of Mirpur 14.

Vision Group workers also staged demonstration in front of nearby Tunic Fashion Ltd and Saroj Apparels Ltd and urged workers of those two garment factories to join in.

A number of workers of the Tunic Ltd later responded, witnesses said.

Police, at midday, charged batons to disperse the demonstrators. Additional police and RAB forces have been deployed on the spot to avert further agitation.

Vision Group cutting master Rafiqul Islam told bdnews24.com, "The salary that we are paid is not sufficient for our survival. Nearby Opex Textiles workers' demands were met as they demonstrated on the road. But our demands are never accepted."

Tunic Fashion worker Shefali Begum said they were not being paid for overtime for last two years; even the Eid bonuses were also pending.

Earlier on Apr 28, workers of Opex & Sinha Textiles took position on the main road of Mirpur 13 demanding a minimum wage of Tk 5,000 and attendance bonus.

Labour minister Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain later on that day said that there would be a new wage structure for RMG workers within three months.

At a meeting of the Crisis Management Cell for the RMG sector, comprising government officials and representatives from the concerned bodies, he also had stated that the process will go under a new board and necessary reforms will also be undertaken.

Police foil Pabna Jamaat rally

At least 20 activists of Islamist political party Jamaat-e-Islami were injured as the police foiled their rally in Pabna on Friday.

To avoid the bar over holding rallies inside the town, Jamaat decided to hold it at the residence of the party's nayeb-e-amir Abdus Sobhan at Zahirpur of Rajapur just outside the town.

The police, led by Pabna Sadr police chief Matiar Rahman, charged the Jamaat activists with baton and dispersed them, who were making instigating statements from the rally which might have sparked untoward situation, police officials said.

The district authorities on Thursday enforced a Section 144 in Pabna town to avoid a probable clash between Jamaat-e-Islami with pro-government Bangladesh Chhatra League and Juba League over holding rallies at the same place and at the same time.

Jamaat later organised a media conference at Sobhan's house where they said the police had attacked them without any provocation.

Sobhan claimed that Chhatra League and Juba League had brought out demonstrations inside the town, but the police did not stop them.

Pabna district Awami league president M Saidul Haque Chunnu told bdnews24.com that Jamaat chief Matiur Rahman Nizami and Sobhan had already been branded as war criminals.

Jamaat would not be able to hold meeting on Pabna's soil until a single activist of Awami League was alive, he declared.

Pabna police superintendent Jamil Ahmed said on Thursday that the decision to bar rallies was imposed to avoid untoward situation as both sides had announced programmes for Friday morning.

The ruling party wings at 8:30pm on Thursday called a protest procession at the same place to prevent the Jamaat programme.

Sudan's incumbent president wins re-election

Sudan's president won another term in office Monday with a comfortable majority in elections marred by boycotts and fraud allegations, becoming the first leader to be elected while facing an international arrest warrant for alleged crimes he orchestrated in the western region of Darfur.

Omar al-Bashir, who was seeking to boost his legitimacy at home, was widely expected to win in the first round for another five years in office after his most credible challengers pulled out from the race complaining of fraud.

But his tainted re-election was likely to raise questions over his international standing and among his opponents, and was unlikely to alter Sudan's isolation. Al-Bashir can't travel freely because he risks being arrested to face charges in front of the Hague-based International Criminal Court.

Sudan's first multiparty presidential, parliamentary and local elections in 24 years were a key requirement of a 2005 peace deal that ended a 21-year civil war between the predominantly Arab and Muslim north and rebels in the Christian-animist south.

The fighting left 2 million people dead and many more displaced. The elections set the road for the crucial 2011 referendum where the south will decide whether it wants to secede.

International observers said the vote failed to meet international standards because of delays, intimidation and faulty lists, but they did not call for a revote. Instead the observers recommended that lessons drawn from the process be applied to next year's vote on southern independence.

The incumbent garnered 68 percent of more than 10 million valid ballots, according to Abel Alier, the head of Sudan's National Elections Commission.

Al-Bashir promised to reach out to all forces in Sudan to form a national "partnership" and vowed to make sure that the referendum takes place.

"You gave us your trust," he said in a televised speech immediately after the announcement of his victory. "I reaffirm I will go ahead with the southern referendum on time and complete the peace process in Darfur."

South Sudan's President Silva Kiir also kept his post, garnering nearly 93 percent of the votes in the south.

The five-day voting, which began April 11, was marred by allegations of fraud and boycotts and raised concerns of new unrest. Violence were reported in areas of the south.

Elections results were delayed amid difficulties counting and transporting ballots from around the vast country.

Al-Bashir, in power for 20 years, has been charged with war crimes by prosecutors at the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands for alleged atrocities in Sudan's Darfur region, where a separate conflict between government and rebel forces broke out in 2003. An estimated 300,000 people died of violence, disease and displacement.

Aliens may exist but contact would hurt humans: Hawking

Aliens may exist but mankind should avoid contact with them as the consequences could be devastating, British scientist Stephen Hawking warned Sunday.

"If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans," said the astrophysicist in a new television series, according to British media reports.

The programmes depict an imagined universe featuring alien life forms in huge spaceships on the hunt for resources after draining their own planet dry.

"Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonise whatever planets they can reach," warned Hawking.

The doomsday scenario is suggested in the series "Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking" on the Discovery Channel, which began airing in the United States on Sunday.
On the probability of alien life existing, he says: "To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational.

"The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like."

Glowing squid-like creatures, herds of herbivores that can hang onto a cliff face and bright yellow predators that kill their prey with stinging tails are among the creatures that stalk the scientist's fantastical cosmos.

Mankind has already made a number of attempts to contact extraterrestrial civilisations.
Click image to see more Stephen Hawking photos


AFP

In 2008, American space agency NASA beamed the Beatles song "Across the Universe" into deep space to send a message of peace to any alien that happens to be in the region of Polaris -- also known as the North Star -- in 2439.

But the history of humanity's efforts to contact aliens stretches back some years.
The US probes Pioneer 10 and 11 were launched in 1972 and 1973 bearing plaques of a naked man and woman and symbols seeking to convey the positions of the Earth and the Sun.

Voyager 1 and 2, launched in 1977, each carry a gold-plated copper phonogram disk with recordings of sounds and images on Earth.

EKHO Unique Joomla Template

Textile mills refuse to reduce yarn price

The knitwear and the textile mills associations remain at loggerheads over the price of yarn following a meeting at the ministry of textile and jute.

And whilst the leader of the two associations said that no headway was made at the meeting, the Minister is claiming that it was a success.

"We've consulted and reached an agreement. The price of yarn would remain in a reasonable level," said the minister, Abdul Latif Siddiqui.
.
After the meeting, the director of the association of yarn producers Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA), Mosharraf Hossain, said that they wanted to continue selling yarn at the current price, since it has increased in the world market.

"Currently yarn is being sold at $4 to $4.10 per kg," he added.

The Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturer and Exporters Association (BKMEA) president Fazlul Hoque told the reporters that they were not asking the yarn producers to sell their yarn at a loss.

"We've asked them to sell at a reasonable price.

"We've asked to keep the price between $3.60 to $3.80 per kg. Then it'll be in line with the international market," he added.

Earlier, on Saturday, BKMEA had claimed that a certain quarter of yarn manufacturers were exploiting the opportunity of the Indian government's decision to suspend cotton export and a price rise in the international market to make extra profit.

It was also stated that that in February yarn cost $ 2.85 per kilogramme whilst on April 21 it stood at $ 4.20 per kg.

He claimed that yarn is being sold at $ 3.60 per kg in the neighbouring countries.

The Bangladesh Garments Manufacturer and Exporters Association (BGMEA) president Abdus Salam Murshedi also told reporters on Monday that the price of yarn was too high.

"We've demanded that the price to be kept in accordance with the world market."

They complained that Bangladesh was losing buyers in the international markets because of the increasing price of yarn.

In the meeting, the garments producers demanded the removal of government barriers on importing yarn from India by road if the yarn producers do not reduce their price.

The minister said that the government has made no decisionAbout importing yarn through land port

Deals for 5 new power plants signed

The government has signed deals for the construction of five new power plants capable of producing a total of 420 megawatts of power from August of next year.

The agreements for the 'peaking' power plants were signed on Monday between the Bangladesh Power Development Board and the contract winning companies' representatives.

The total cost of the power plants is Tk 3439 crore.

A 'peaking' power plant, also known as peaker plants, are power plants that generally run only when there is a high demand for electricity.

South Korean entity, Hyundai won the contract to build a power plant at Bera in Pabna district. The 70 megawatt furnace-fuel fired plant costs Tk 484 crore.

Contracts for two 100 megawatt power plants in Chittagong were awarded to Chinese company, Guangdong Power Engineering Corporation.

The dual fuel (furnace oil and gas) power plants in Hathazari and Dohazari will cost Tk 908 crore and Tk 971 crore respectively.

Meanwhile, the consortium of Energypac Engineering Ltd, Bangladesh and Energypac Power generation Ltd won contracts to set up two furnace fuel- fired plants - a 100 megawatt in Gopalganj costing Tk 693 crore and 50 megawatt in Faridpur costing Tk 383 crore.

All of the power plants are expected to be commissioned in August, 2011, according to the Bangladesh Power Development Board.

The tender for the plants were originally published in September last year.

The signing ceremony held at the at the Dhaka Power Distribution Company premises was attended by prime minister's energy adviser Towfik-e-Elahi Chowdhury, state minister for power Enamul Haque, state minister for home affairs Shamsul Haque Tuku among others.

U-turn on Indian film screening

The decision to allow screening of Indian films in cinema halls in Bangladesh is to be repealed.

The decision came only hours after a protest at the Film Development Corporation by producers and actors involved in the Bangladesh film industry.

After attending a programme at Sonargaon Hotel on Monday, Commerce minister Faruk Khan said, "We had recently decided to import Indian films. But will now revert to our previous position."

"The government would not do anything that might harm the local film industry," he told reporters.

He said steps will be taken to stop films from the South Asian countries entering the country.

The ban on import and display of Indian films in the country's cinema halls was imposed in 1972.

Following a review of its import policy, the government had recently proposed that films from India and other South Asian countries should be allowed to be screened.

Bangladesh Chalachchitra Oikya Parishad, a platform of the local film industry, organised a protest on Monday at the premises of the Film Development Corporation (FDC).

They claimed that such a decision would be devastating to the industry.

Popular actors including Razzak, Anwara and Mizu Ahmed took part.

They said the government had taken this decision without any consultation with those involved in the industry.

Bombs kill 64 in Iraq after al Qaeda deaths

A series of bombs targeting Shi'ite areas rocked Baghdad on Friday, killing at least 56 people in an apparent backlash after Iraq touted a series of blows against a weakened al Qaeda-led insurgency.

Eight people were also killed by bombs in the Sunni west of the country, less than a week after Iraqi security forces backed by U.S. troops killed al Qaeda's top two leaders in Iraq.

Thirteen blasts hit different areas of the Iraqi capital around the time of Muslim prayers, mostly near Shi'ite mosques and at a marketplace, an Interior Ministry source said.

Three bombs targeted worshippers outside the main office of fiery anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in the crowded Sadr City slum. Those blasts killed 39 people and wounded 56, generating denunciations of the security forces. Some youths threw stones at an Iraqi army vehicle.

"Why do they always target us? We are peaceful people. We come to pray and then go on our way," one survivor told Reuters Television in an angry tirade, without identifying himself.

The attacks, one of Iraq's deadliest in recent weeks, also wounded around 120 people and signalled the possibility of a rise in violence after a March national election produced no clear winner and left a power vacuum for insurgents to exploit.

"Targeting prayers in areas with a certain majority," Baghdad security spokesman Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi said, referring to Iraq's Shi'ite Muslim majority, "is a revenge for the losses suffered by al Qaeda.

"We expect such terrorist acts to continue."

Last Sunday, al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the purported head of its affiliate, the Islamic State of Iraq, were killed in a raid in a rural area northwest of Baghdad by Iraqi and U.S. forces.

The strike against al Qaeda's Iraq leadership has been accompanied by a string of smaller battlefield victories in which more than 300 suspected al Qaeda operatives have been arrested and 19 killed, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials.

'ACTS OF REVENGE'

In another of Friday's attacks, 11 were killed by a car bomb and a suicide bomber near a Shi'ite mosque in al-Ameen district in southeastern Baghdad. A car bomb killed five near a mosque in the northwestern neighbourhood of al-Hurriya, police said.

"These are acts of revenge that are intended to send a message to the Iraqi government and the world that al Qaeda's existence will not be affected by the killing of specific leaders," Iraqi political analyst Hameed Fadhel of Baghdad University said. "They want to say that they are still here."

Several hours earlier, seven members of one family were killed in a series of blasts in Khalidiya, a town in Iraq's turbulent western province of Anbar 83 km (50 miles) west of Baghdad. One police officer died trying to defuse a bomb.

The mainly Sunni province of Anbar has been relatively quiet since tribal leaders in 2006 started turning on Sunni Islamist groups such as al Qaeda who had once dominated it. But insurgents continue to operate in the vast desert province.

"At four in the morning, I heard a movement behind my house and found some barrels nearby, so I took my family out of the house," said Fadhil Salih, a judge at the Khalidiya courthouse.

"An hour later the bomb went off and destroyed my house but, thank God, there were no casualties in my family," Salih said.

At least 10 people were wounded, including two policemen. Authorities imposed a vehicle ban after the blasts.

Iraqi officials say they have been expecting revenge attacks after the victories against al Qaeda in the past month.

Overall violence in Iraq has fallen in the last two years as the sectarian bloodshed that followed the 2003 U.S.-led invasion faded, but tensions were stoked by last month's election.

Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's bloc came a close second to a cross-sectarian alliance heavily backed by the once-dominant minority Sunni community.

But Maliki's allies are attempting to capture the lead through a recount of votes in Baghdad and through court challenges to winning candidates because of their alleged ties to Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baath party.

Thai 'red shirts' offer compromise to end impasse

BANGKOK (Reuters) - "Red shirt" protesters offered a compromise to the Thai government on Friday a day after a series of grenade attacks in Bangkok, saying they would accept dissolution of parliament in 30 days rather than immediately.

They also called on Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to begin an independent probe into a deadly clash between protesters and the army on April 10 that killed 25 people, and said troops must be withdrawn from areas around their protest site.

"The government must stop all threats against our movement," Weng Tojirakarn, a red shirt leader, said from a stage at their protest site in the heart of Bangkok's commercial district.

The new demands came shortly after army chief Anupong Paochinda told a meeting of his commanders there would be no crackdown on the protesters camped out in the capital because it would do more harm than good.

Five grenade attacks in Bangkok's bustling business district on Thursday night killed one person and wounded more than 80 people, fueling concern over the escalating crisis and putting the city of 15 million people on edge.

Thousands of red-shirted supporters of ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra remain in a fortified encampment at a ritzy shopping area of central Bangkok, vowing to stay until Vejjajiva dissolves parliament for new elections.

The grenade blasts near the racy bars of Patpong came 12 days after a failed army attempt to evict protesters from a rally site, which killed 25 and injured over 800 in the country's worst street violence in 18 years.

The government's Erawan Emergency Centre put the toll at 1 dead and 88 wounded, including an American, Australian, Indonesian and a Japanese.

For a graphic: link.reuters.com/rap67j

'FULL SCALE WAR'

The violence and deepening political divide has spurred talk of civil war in Southeast Asia's second-biggest economy.

"The government is far from controlling the situation," Thailand's largest broker, Kim Eng Securities, said in a note to clients. "Reds have denied their involvement. But if they are indeed behind the (grenade) attacks, these powerful explosions right in the army-barricaded area demonstrate they are well-prepared to wage a full-scale war."

The central bank said on Wednesday the crisis was hitting confidence, tourism, private consumption and investment, although exports, which are crucial to economic growth, have not been affected so far by the unrest.

Britain, Australia and the United States have warned their citizens to reconsider travel plans to Thailand, where tourism accounts for 6 percent of the economy.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said on Friday he had called his Thai counterpart, Kasit Piromya, to offer "any assistance" for a dialogue between the conflicting parties.

He said Indonesia was alert to the possibility that the Thai troubles could have a contagious impact in the region.

The 1997 Asian financial crisis began in Thailand with a run on the local baht currency and spread to the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and South Korea.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appealed to both protesters and the Thai authorities to avoid further violence. U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Crowley also urged both sides to show restraint.

FUEL ON BARRICADE

On Friday morning, police demanded the "red shirts" dismantle their barricade of tyres, bamboo poles and chunks of concrete near the entrance to Silom Road and the business district. They pulled back after red shirts poured fuel on the barricade, but remained on alert in the area. Troops are also stationed there.

Analysts say the protests are radically different from any other period of unrest in Thailand's polarising five-year political crisis -- and arguably in modern Thai history, pushing the nation close to an undeclared civil war.

That is reflected in a split in the army. One faction supports the protesters, including retired generals allied with Thaksin, who was ousted in a 2006 coup and later sentenced in absentia to two years in prison for corruption.

The divide has also split the citizenry into two increasingly angry groups.

About 3,000 people from the pro-government "multi-colours" group held a peaceful demonstration near Government House on Friday, saying they were fed up with the disruption and loss of business and livelihoods the protests have caused.

The red shirts say British-born and Oxford-educated Abhisit came to power illegitimately in December 2008, heading a coalition the military cobbled together after courts dissolved a pro-Thaksin party that led the previous government.

NATO agrees Afghan plan, but says no rush to exit

NATO ministers on Friday agreed conditions to start handing over security responsibility in Afghanistan to Afghan forces this year, but the alliance said this would not mean a rush to leave the country.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said transition would be a gradual process based on conditions, not a timetable, and stressed the need for allies to provide more personnel to train Afghan forces.

"It will not be a pullout. It will not be a run for the exit," Rasmussen told a news conference after a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in the Estonian capital Tallinn.

The Afghan government's past failure to deliver services and security in areas from which the Taliban have been pushed out is seen as a major threat to NATO strategy and the aim of cutting a foreign troop commitment that now exceeds 120,000.

"What will happen is that we hand over lead responsibility to the Afghans and our soldiers will then move into a more supportive role, but I foresee that the Afghan security forces will need our supportive assistance for quite some time," Rasmussen said. "So it will be a gradual process."

NATO's 28 members backed a plan by US President Barack Obama last year for a substantial boost in international troop numbers to allow time to train up Afghan forces.

Obama's aim was to allow Washington to begin pulling some US troops out of the country by July of 2011, a goal that has always appeared ambitious given a widening Taliban insurgency.

MORE TRAINERS NEEDED

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the United States has been pleased by the response of its allies in promising additional troops, trainers and other experts.

"For me, the glass is way more than half full in terms of what we asked for, what we need and what we have received," Clinton told a news conference in Tallinn.

Rasmussen went into the NATO meeting saying the alliance was still short of 450 personnel to train Afghan security forces.

NATO officials have said that if Afghan security forces are to reach a target of 300,000 personnel in 2011, at least 1,000 more trainers will be needed on top of Rasmussen's figures.

Rasmussen said ministers had agreed on conditions that have to be met to allow a "sustainable but irreversible" transition that NATO aims to start in more secure districts this year.

"We will hand over responsibility when the Afghans are actually capable to take responsibility," he said.

"This is the reason I attach such strong importance to our training mission, because we need to train and educate Afghan soldiers and police so that they can take over responsibility and today I have once again urged allies and partners to contribute to our training mission."

"We will stay in Afghanistan as long as it takes to finish our job, but of course, it's not forever."

At a conference this week, US and Afghan officials listed dozens of obstacles to boosting Afghan capabilities and the credibility of a government seen as inefficient and corrupt.

They highlighted particular problems with the performance of the police, only about 30 percent of whom have any training.

NATO has also struggled to persuade countries to provide funds to run the Afghan army. As of mid-April, only 274 million euros ($368 million) had been pledged or contributed to a trust fund for this purpose, against an annual requirement estimated at $1.8 billion (1.3 billion euros).