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).

Voting in Bhola by-election starts

Voting in the Bhola-3 by-elections started at 8 am on Saturday.

86 polling centres are open until 4pm within the constituency's two upazillas, Lalmohan and Tajumaddin.

234,926 voters have a right to decide whether to vote for either Nurunnabi Chowdhury Shaon of the ruling Awami League or the main opposition BNP's Major Hafizuddin Ahmed.

M Sakhawat Hossain, an election commissioner, on Saturday morning, told bd25.blogspot.com that all necessary preparations for a free and fair election had been ensured.

He said, over the telephone, "We're contacting the election officers persistently. All the officials, including the returning officers have been asked to take necessary measures to ensure a fair election."

The presiding officer at Lalmohon Islamia Kamil Madrassa, Md Enayet Ullah at 8am, told bdnews24.com that seven election agents were present from both sides.

More than 50 voters were waiting in the queue outside the Madrassa.

"Noone obstructed me to come to vote," thirty-eight year old Nazimuddin Tipu, from the line, said.

"People seem curious about casting their votes, I guess," he added.

A woman called Fatema, who came with her child to the centre, told bdnews24.com, "I didn't face any problems on the way here."

"I am Feeling good," she added.

However, Babul, with a bandage around his head, claimed that he was attacked by some BNP supporters at Binodon Bazar.

Facing the polls, some 3,500 law enforcers have been deployed in the context of allegation and counter-allegation between the two main parties.

Returning officer Nuruzzaman Talukder told bdnews24.com on Friday night that all necessary preparations for the next day's elections were completed.

"I doubt that the voters' enthusiasm has been dampened despite reports of a few stray incidents of violence," he said.

The Election Commission (EC) declared the Bhola-3 constituency vacant after finding the elected MP Md Jasim Uddin's candidature invalid.

Jasim Uddin was sent into forced retirement from the army, as a major, in 2004 but electoral laws do not allow a person holding public office to contest in elections within 5 years of leaving the service.

The EC has declared 52 of the 86 polling centres as vulnerable and has installed a number of security measures including closed circuit television, some 40 EC officials deployed as observers in plainclothes, 21 strike teams and 24 mobile teams led by executive magistrates.

Despite a number of allegations from the opposition camp that their polling agents are either being harassed or being threatened to leave the area, Bhola's police superintendent, Bashir Ahmed confirmed that situation was calm.

He told bdnews24.com: "The constituency is entirely peaceful and measures have been taken to ensure a peaceful election at the upazilas of Lalmohan and Tajumuddin."

BNP's Hafiz Uddin Ahmed may be considered a stronger contender having carried the seat in 1991 (44.9 percent votes) as an independent and winning in 1996 (with 59 percent of the votes) and in 2001 (with 65.8 percent votes).

Green groups point to ash cloud silver lining

Iceland's erupting volcano has spewed plenty of ash but far less greenhouse gas than Europe's grounded aircraft would have generated.

Carbon dioxide emissions totalled 150,000 tonnes a day in the early days of the eruption, according to Durham University. That compares with 510,000 tonnes per day emitted when planes are flying as normal over the continent.

But experts cautioned it was hard to draw conclusions about the overall impact of pollution because more cars and buses were on the roads to help stranded travellers and the volcano is emitting a nasty cocktail of toxins.

Europe's skies were open for business on Wednesday after an ash cloud wrecked timetables for six days, stranding passengers and costing the airline industry $250 million a day. Ash can scour and even paralyse jet engines.

Planes add to global warming through emissions of carbon, other chemicals and their vapour trails, scientists say.

They also produce pollutants and noise around airports.

The first analysis of air quality around London's two busiest airports, Heathrow and Gatwick, showed that pollutants which can causes respiratory problems had plummeted, said the London Air Quality Network.

"That entire signal dropped to zero (from Thursday through Saturday)," said Ben Barratt at King's College London, who helps coordinate the Network's data, referring to nitrogen dioxide.

"The quality of life difference is mostly down to noise, and we're getting lots of emails saying how lovely it is," he added.

Aviation in 32 European nations emitted 510,000 tonnes a day of CO2 in 2007, according to the European Environment Agency. Assuming two-thirds of flights are cancelled, that means a cut of 340,000 tonnes a day, not counting non-European carriers.

Colin Macpherson, a geologist at the University of Durham in England, estimated the volcano's initial emissions at 150,000 tonnes of CO2 a day, drawing on data from a previous eruption.

Northerly winds helped limit health damage from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland, blowing the ash off-shore to Europe. And air quality in nations including Britain and Norway has been largely unaffected because little ash has reached the ground so far.

Thousands march in New Delhi over food prices

Tens of thousands of Indians backed by opposition parties denounced steep price rises in one of the biggest marches in years in the capital, demanding the ruling Congress-led government quit over food inflation.

The demonstration underscored how inflation was stoking public anger against the government and revitalising the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) a year after it lost the general election against Congress.

Vehicles crawled on roads in central parts of the capital as protesters bussed in from various states by the BJP walked with saffron flags past festoons, posters and banners.

The BJP sees rising prices of grains, sugar and lentils as denting Congress's fortunes before eight state elections this year and next.

"I have always voted for the Congress party, but I am very disappointed at the way they have handled price rises. They have left us nowhere, I do not know how I will support my family," said Mohan Singh, a farmer taking part in the protests.

The Congress's core voters are largely in poor, rural and agrarian India and a shift in loyalties could hurt its fortunes. Most credit the Congress victory in federal elections in 2009 to welfare schemes aimed at those segments.

But the government has so far focused on keeping fast economic growth on track rather than clamping down on inflation, despite political opposition.

The opposition has demanded a special vote in parliament to force Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government to resign over an unpopular hike in fuel prices that has helped push wholesale inflation to 9.9 percent, the highest since October 2008.

The demand has not yet been accepted by the parliament office, but any vote would be before April 29, when the government's budget is put up for approval.

Earlier in the day, BJP lawmakers walked out of parliament in protest, shouting slogans against what they said was the government's inefficiency in controlling prices.

The rally is a test of strength for Nitin Gadkari, a relative political unknown picked to head the BJP last year, and a chance to gain the support of voters who abandoned the party over its perceived bias towards development of cities.

Policymakers and government advisers have said inflation has peaked and would begin declining as a bountiful summer harvest and a good monsoon improves the prospects of food supply.

Sri Lanka ruling party records landslide win at polls

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's ruling coalition won the first parliamentary election since the end of a 25-year civil war, final election results showed on Wednesday.

Rajapaksa's ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) won 144 seats in the 225-member parliament, falling short by six seats of the two-thirds majority that would enable him to change the island nation's constitution.

Most political analysts expect the president to recruit legislators from other parties to give him the numbers to win the constitutional majority.

The final results were released after voting was re-run on Tuesday in two districts where ballots were annulled due to violence in the original April 8 vote.

The main opposition United National Party won 60 seats, while the former rebel party Tamil National Alliance secured 14 seats. The latter got most of its seats in the northern and eastern provinces, where the Tamil Tiger rebels fought for a separate state for the ethnic minority Tamils.

Election monitors reported no violence on Tuesday and no malpractice aside from the temporary barring of an opposition polling agent from a voting centre. Counting got under way immediately after polls closed in the late afternoon.

Keerthi Tennakoon of the Campaign for Free and Fair Elections said Nawalapitiya saw turnout of 55-60 percent of 50,000 registered voters. In the eastern district of Trincomalee, turnout was 46 percent of the roughly 1,000 voters.

The final results showed the overall voter turnout in the polls was 61.3 percent.

The election commission on Tuesday said Rajapaksa's UPFA won two seats in Trincomalee and eight seats in Kandy.

EDGING TOWARDS TWO-THIRDS MAJORITY

Rajapaksa fell short of six seats for a two-third majority, which he needs to change the constitution.

Hopes of him securing that outcome has already driven the surging Colombo Stock Exchange deeper into record territory, with gains of more than 170 percent since it hit a trough at the end of 2008. It closed at a new record of 4,044.94 on Tuesday.

Dealers in government securities say they expect increased demand after parliament passes the 2010 budget in either May or June, seen as crucial to retaining a $2.6 billion International Monetary Fund loan which has boosted foreign investor confidence.

The president, who won a landslide re-election in January, has pledged to turn his efforts toward economic reform and reconciliation after he led the nation to victory over the Tamil Tigers in a three-decade separatist war 11 months ago.

This week will see swift political action: the president is expected to name a drastically trimmed cabinet on Wednesday and parliament will open on Thursday. He is also expected to work on opposition crossovers to gain the two-thirds majority required to push through constitutional reforms.

No headway in Bakar case

Investigation into the killing of Dhaka University student Abu Bakar Siddique has made no headway.

Neither the two university probe committees nor the police could identify the persons responsible for the killing even three months after the incident.

Abu Bakar, a third year bachelors student of Islamic History, was severely injured by a teargas shell lobbed by the police during clashes at F Rahman Hall between two rival factions of the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) on Feb 2 and died at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital the following day.

A university committee and a hall committee were formed to identify the persons responsible for his death, side by side with a police investigation.

The nine-member university committee packed up the enquiry without ascertaining the exact reason behind the violence or identifying the persons responsible. It recommended a fresh enquiry "by a high-level expert committee".

The syndicate, however, expelled ten students from the university following the submission of the report.

On the other hand, the provost himself expressed his doubts over the success of the five-member F Rahman hall committee probe.

"I cannot hope for any success of the hall committee enquiry when the university committee has failed to make any breakthrough," he told bdnews24.com.

Hall committee head Abul Quashem said: "What can we do when the death was caused by a clash of two factions of the ruling party's student wing?"

Mentioning that the hall authority and the proctor called in the police to control the situation during the clash, he said: "I don't understand how the hall authority alone can be responsible for an action that was taken jointly by the hall authority and the proctor."

When asked what was in the university probe committee report, its member secretary and university proctor KM Saiful Islam told bdnews24.com: "We didn't make any comment on Abu Bakar's death. It was not possible to make any comments."

"We recommended constitution of an expert committee. The vice-chancellor has to decide about that."

After the Feb 2 clash, BCL's Barisal group activist Omar Faruque filed a case with the Shahbagh police station against 14 BCL leaders and activists loyal to the then hall committee president Saiduzzamand Faruque.

The 14 were charged for injuring Bakar, which was later turned into murder case after his death.

The investigation of the case is progressing at a snail's pace.

The investigation officer, Emdadul Haq, said he has collected the post-mortem report, issued letter for medical certificates of the injured and took statement from 3/4 injured students.

Asked when the investigation might be completed, he told bdnews24.com: "It's not possible to mention a specific time. It may take one week, one month or one year."

To a question on why none has been arrested, Haq said: "Still there is no necessity to arrest anyone. We'll take initiative when arrest is needed."

AMBIGUITY

Asked what the university has done for trial of Bakar's killers, the proctor said the hall authority has filed a case in connection of his death.

But Shahbagh OC Rezaul Karim said no separate case has been filed.

The one filed by Faruque is being considered a murder case, he added.

FAIRNESS QUESTIONED

F Rahman hall students said room and hall mates of Bakar while giving statement to the university probe committee held the police responsible for his death.

But there are allegations that their statements have not been reflected in the probe report.

"The proctor was made the member secretary of the probe committee though he himself called in the police. He tried to protect the police to save himself," said a roommate of Bakar preferring not to be named.

VC SPEAK

DU vice-chancellor AAMS Arefin Siddique told bdnews24.com that Bakar's is a murder for sure.

"We want trial of the killing."

"It would have been better if everyone's statements had been included. Now if the syndicate thinks that facts have not been reflected in the report, there may be a fresh investigation."

Volcanic ash poses little health threat so far

Ash particles from Iceland's still-erupting volcano remain high in the atmosphere and do not pose a health risk so far to people in Europe, the World Health Organisation said on Tuesday.

Toning down its guidance from Friday, when it said the ash cloud that has grounded flights could be "very dangerous" for those with asthma and respiratory problems, the WHO said there was no cause for public health alarm so far.

"There are no effects on health at the moment, except in the vicinity of the volcano in Iceland," Carlos Dora of the public health and environment division told a news briefing.

Icelanders living near the volcano should stay indoors or wear face masks and goggles to protect themselves against coarse particles that can irritate the lungs and eyes, Dora said.

The most dangerous ash particles are the smallest ones which can be breathed in deep into the lungs, and which have moved further from the volcano in the plume billowing over Europe.

But those fine particles are still "very high up" and weather conditions could very well cause the ash cloud to disperse without causing health problems in Europe, Dora said.

The World Meteorological Organisation, based in Geneva, like the WHO is based in Geneva, said the ash particles were made up of small jagged pieces of rock, mineral and volcanic glass the size of sand, salt or silt.

Such fine particles are normally dispersed by thunderstorms which are not expected in the region in the coming days.

A low pressure weather system is expected to develop over Iceland later this week, potentially pushing the cloud towards the Arctic and prompting rain to "wash out" the ash, the WMO said in a statement.

A WMO expert said that the health risks of the cloud were currently negligible across Europe.

"If you sit in Geneva in a bar and somebody smokes next to you, you probably have 10 to the power of three times more fine particles entering your lungs," Herbert Puempel, head of the WMO's aeronautical meteorology division, told a briefing.

The WHO's Dora said if the ash cloud persisted and descend to ground level, the health risks would be greatest for asthmatics and people with respiratory and heart conditions.

Gene makes people fat, raises Alzheimer's risk

A variant of an obesity gene carried by more than a third of the US population also reduces brain volume, raising carriers' risk of Alzheimer's disease, US researchers said on Monday.

People with a specific variant of the fat mass and obesity gene, or FTO gene, have brain deficits that could make them more vulnerable to the mind-robbing disease.

"The basic result is that this very prevalent gene not only adds an inch to your waistline, but makes your brain look 16 years older," said Paul Thompson, a professor of neurology at the University of California Los Angeles, who worked on the study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Brains generally shrink with age.

The study compared brain scans of more than 200 people and found consistently less tissue in the brains of people who carry the "bad" version of the FTO gene compared to non-carriers.

On average, people with the obesity variant of the FTO gene had 8 percent less tissue in their frontal lobes -- sometimes referred to as the brain's "command center." They also had 12 percent less tissue in their occipital lobes, which is the part of the brain that processes vision and other perceptions.

Thompson said reduced brain volume raises a person's risk for Alzheimer's disease by reducing the amount of brain reserve a person has to compensate if the brain plaques linked to Alzheimer's form. Stroke can also reduce brain tissue, depleting the brain's reserve.

DIET AND EXERCISE

The added brain risk means it is more important for people who carry the FTO gene to eat a low-fat diet and exercise regularly, he said.

A 2008 study of Amish people who had the FTO risk gene but were physically active found they weighed about the same as non-carriers, suggesting that physical activity can overcome a genetic predisposition to obesity.

People with two copies of the FTO gene variant on average weigh nearly 7 pounds (3 kg) more and are about 70 percent more likely to be obese than those who do not have the gene.

"In all the maelstrom of activities you do, exercise and a low-fat diet are genuinely saving your brain from both stroke and Alzheimer's," Thompson said.

For the study, Thompson's team compared magnetic resonance images taken of the brains of 206 healthy people between age 55 and 90 at 58 centers. The centers were taking part in the five-year Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, which is examining the factors that help aging brains resist disease.

Because so many people carry the obesity version of the FTO gene, Thompson said the findings may drive research into new drug compounds to alter the effects on the brain.

Short of that, he said the findings should lead carriers to eat less and exercise more.

There is no cure for Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia affecting 26 million people globally.

Current treatments help with some symptoms, but cannot reverse the course of the disease, leading many scientific teams to look for ways to prevent it.

China to mourn quake dead as toll passes 2,000

China will hold a national day of mourning for victims of an earthquake in the country's western region, the government announced on Tuesday, as the official death toll from the disaster climbed to 2,039.

Another 195 people are still listed as missing following the quake, which struck Yushu county, a heavily Tibetan area in the province of Qinghai last Wednesday, the official Xinhua news agency said.

The nation will pause to mourn the victims on Wednesday, a week after the quake hit, with national flags at half-mast and public entertainment curtailed, the Chinese cabinet decided, according to the central government website (www.gov.cn).

Despite dwindling hopes, rescuers continued searching for survivors in the flattened town of Gyegu, the county seat of Yushu with some 90,000 inhabitants, spurred by the discovery of three survivors the previous day.

An elderly Tibetan woman and her granddaughter were pulled out alive, and a woman in her 30s was rescued after being trapped for 130 hours, state media reported.

Space Shuttle Discovery home after 15-day mission

The Space Shuttle Discovery returned safely to Earth on Tuesday after completing a 15-day resupply mission to the International Space Station, the 131st trip of the shuttle program.

Discovery and its seven astronauts glided to a smooth landing at 9:08 a.m. EDT (1308 GMT) at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The shuttle and crew returned from a 10-day stay at the space station, a $100 billion project of 16 nations that has been under construction since 1998.

Discovery's commander Alan Poindexter and pilot Jim Dutton fired the shuttle's braking rockets at 8:02 a.m. EDT (1202 GMT) while over the Indian Ocean to leave orbit and head for the spacecraft's home base in Florida.

Bad weather had delayed a scheduled return on Monday, further extending a mission that had already been lengthened by a day so the astronauts could use the orbiting space station's communications system to relay heat shield inspection results.

NASA discovered the shuttle's Ku-band communications antenna was broken shortly after Discovery's April 5 launch, obliging the crew to use the station's system. The inspection procedure was implemented after the 2003 Columbia disaster, blamed on a heat shield breach.

Discovery had delivered to the space station a cargo pod, about the size of a small bus, filled with equipment and experiment racks, a fourth US sleeping berth, a darkroom for the station's US laboratory module and other supplies.

The returning Italian-built cargo pod was packed with old equipment and items no longer needed on the station.

The shuttle also hauled home a spent tank of ammonia coolant, which will be refurbished and returned to the station as a spare.

A new ammonia tank was installed during three spacewalks by Discovery astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Clay Anderson, but a problem with a valve prevented NASA from activating the coolant system as planned.

The International Space Station has two coolant loops, and both will need to be operational within about a month to keep the station at full power as the changing sun angle generates more heat on the station.

Discovery's return leaves just three shuttle flights on NASA's schedule before the ships are retired at the end of the year. Sister ship, Atlantis, is due to be rolled out to the launch pad on Tuesday evening to be prepared for a May 14 liftoff.

Life for poaching

The wildlife conservation law will be amended with the provision of life term imprisonment and fines of up to Tk 3 lakh for poaching and killing of wild animal.

The move to amend the three-decade old law is seen as an attempt by the government to convey a stern signal to poachers that it is determined to prevent the possible extinction of wild animals from illegal poaching and killing.

The forest department has just sent the draft of the Wildlife Conservation (Amendment) Act 2010 to the ministry of forest and environment for approval by the cabinet.

Forest and environment ministry joint secretary Joynal Abedin Talukder told bdnews24.com that the draft of the amendment is nearing completion. "We'll send it to the cabinet after a review."

The proposed law prohibits poaching, catching, killing and trading of wild animals. However, there will be some exceptions, including the provision for killing of nine vermin species, like crow, raven, rodent and bat, which are harmful to crops. It has also provision for rearing some species. These exceptions will be made with recommendations from the Wildlife Advisory Board.

The amendment provides for a fine of Tk 25,000 to Tk 3 lakh, and imprisonment from two years to a life term for those convicted. The existing law only allows fines of between Tk 5,000 to Tk 20,000 and terms of imprisonment between six months to two years.

The proposed law lists 14 species of frog, 108 species of mammal, 578 species of birds and 96 species of reptile as wildlife.

Until 1973, there was no law enacted for wildlife conservation, with the Forest Act 1927 being in force. The Bangladesh Wildlife (Conservation) Ordinance took effect from July 17 the same year.

In 1980, reserved forest initiatives, such as development of national forest, wildlife sanctuary and game reserve, was announced to facilitate safe breeding of wild animals' research.

Since then, 245,813 hectares of forest land have been brought under reserved forest.

Conservator Tapan Kumar Dey of the forest department told bdnews24.com that a section of people, ignorant of wildlife law and the impact of killing of wild animals, are indiscriminately killing them for money.

"Many wildlife species have been extinct and many are threatened due to such poaching," he said.

According to environmentalists, many species, including rhinos, wild buffalo, borosinga, neelgai and wild goat, have already been extinct.

IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red Data Book 2008 identified eight species of amphibious animal, 58 species of reptile, 41 species of birds and 40 species of mammals as endangered.

Environment activists called for proper implementation of the existing law and making it time-befitting.

Prof Anwarul Islam, chief executive of Wildlife Trust, who is also a member the government's Wildlife Advisory Board, told bdnews24.com: "The existing law doesn't match the present socio-economic condition nor reflect international convention and protocols on wildlife conservation. It doesn't provide for enough punishment for offences relating to wildlife."

He said the secretariat of CITES (Conservation on International Trade of Endangered Species), to which Bangladesh is a signatory, requested the government to update the existing law in conformity with the international instrument.

Prof Islam hoped that the new law would play an important role in conserving the wildlife and biodiversity. "But the government's sincerity and mass awareness about the law will be needed for its proper enforcement," he said.

Pakistan stages largest manoeuvres in 20 years

Pakistan army troops backed by fighter planes conducted a mock battle with India in the largest military exercise in 21 years, signalling that the old rival remained its biggest security threat.

In a dusty yet impressive display of conventional firepower, Pakistan's army and air force put on a show on the edge of the Cholistan Desert, less than 100 km (60 miles) from the Indian border on the weekend.

In clouds of exhaust and fine grit sand, Cobra attack helicopters made short work of enemy positions in a simulated exercise while Al Khalid tank brigades flanked to the left, pummeling an incursion coming from the direction of India.

"More punishment!" the announcer exclaimed as ordinance from tanks, artillery and fighter jets pounded simulated enemy positions. The crowd of parliamentarians, generals and visiting military attaches clapped politely in approval.

Later, Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani in an address to the visitors, praised the military and said the integrity and security of Pakistan "are in safe hands".

Pakistan is engaged in "Azm-e-Nau 3" (New Resolve 3), its largest wargames in 21 years. More than 50,000 troops are involved in the two-month long exercise that started in the deserts of southern Pakistan and move now to the river plains of Punjab. It is both a warning and a show of confidence to India and the rest of the world.

The demonstration of tank brigades and anti-aircraft missiles is not only a signal of military might, but also one that Pakistan won't be told what to do by outside powers, analysts said.

"I think to the world this is the signal," Moeed Yusuf, South Asia advisor for the Washington-based U.S. Institute of Peace, told Reuters. "That, 'Our threat perception comes from us. Once we decide that threat perception, we're willing to work with you, but within that framework if you try to push us out of that, and say forget about India, too bad. It's not going to happen'."

"NO LONGER CAPABLE OF THREATENING INDIA"

Pakistan has a half-million strong army, with the bulk of its forces on its eastern border with India. It has about 150,000 troops engaged in the fight with the Taliban on the western border, said army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas.

Its official military budget is about $4 billion, although much military spending isn't reported. India's military budget, however, is close to $32 billion and is one of the world's major arms buyers. Most analysts, however, say India is in a race with China -- with which it fought a war in 1962 and still has outstanding territorial disputes -- to modernise.

"India is now focusing increasingly on the northern front with China as the long-term military threat," said Gurmeet Kanwal, a retired Indian brigadier general who now runs the Centre for Land War Studies in Delhi. "Pakistan is down and almost out and no longer capable of threatening India militarily. It is only capable of continuing to wage a proxy war through mercenary jihadis."

Still, India is developing a controversial "Cold Start" military doctrine that emphasises quick mobilisation of the country's military in the case of war. The enemy is not specified, which worries Pakistan. That the Indians have yet to demonstrate that Cold Start works has not calmed their worries.

"If you're holding a gun and I don't have a gun, can I trust your intentions?" asks army spokesman Abbas. The Indian Cold Start doctrine, he adds, "gives them a specific capability which is against Pakistan".

Hanging over any conflict is the spectre of nuclear war. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, India has between 60-70 warheads while Pakistan has about 60. Pakistan has publicly hinted that battlefield tactical nuclear weapons might be used on its own soil to balance India's conventional superiority and repel any incursion.

"The balance of power must be maintained," Abbas said. "It must not be allowed to grow so the nuclear threshold lowers."

So far, the Americans -- who for years asked the Pakistanis to "do more" to combat Islamic militants -- seem resigned to Pakistan's re-emphasis on tanks and F-16s instead of the boots-on-the-ground grind of counter-insurgency doctrine.

"A Pakistan that feels more secure will be more flexible in engaging the Taliban and al Qaeda," said a US official on hand to watch the demonstrations.

That's a big change in attitude, said Talat Massood, a defence analyst and retired Pakistan lieutenant general. "They used to think this is an obsession with Pakistan, but now that has changed to a better appreciation of Pakistan's concerns."

Planning for New Resolve 3 started a year ago, when the army was seemingly on the ropes and in retreat from a surging Taliban offensive. The West looked on nervously and wondered if jihadis might gain control of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal.

But even then, the Pakistan military was focused on India, said the US Institute of Peace's Yusuf.

"The thinking never changed," he said. "And I think that will continue until and unless the Indian problem is there. So the Taliban part, yes, they're really worried about it. But now I think they're even more confident that they can take care of it."