Refugee boat carrying 150 sinks off Christmas Island

A boat carrying around 150 suspected asylum seekers capsized on Wednesday between Indonesia and Australia's Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, the second such incident in less than week, highlighting Australia's struggle to stem the flow of boatpeople.
A maritime rescue was underway with two merchant ships on site, said Australian authorities. Last week, a boat carrying around 200 suspected asylum seekers capsized in the same area, killing around 90 lives.
"The vessel has capsized, there are people in the water," Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) spokeswoman Jo Meehan told Australian television.
"There are survivors and they will be recovering survivors. Reports are the conditions are fair, not ideal."
A photograph of the boat before it capsized, released by AMSA, showed a heavily crowded boat, which looks like it is made of timber. The photo showed calm seas in the area, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of Christmas Island and 185 kilometers (115 miles) south of Indonesia.
The latest incidents have reignited a heated political debate over refugee policy and border security in Australia, despite the fact the country only receives a few thousand asylum-seekers by boat each year.
The government has agreement with Malaysia to process asylum seekers, but the opposition refuses to support the plan in Australia's parliament, preferring to re-open an offshore detention center on the remote Pacific Island of Nauru.
The waters between Indonesia and Christmas Island are a popular route for asylum seekers, who transit through Indonesia with the help of people smugglers in often overcrowded boats.
So far this year, more than 50 boats carrying more than 4,000 asylum seekers have been detected by Australian authorities.
The trip is often dangerous. In December 2011, as many as 200 died when an overcrowded boat sank off the coast of East Java. In 2010, 50 asylum seekers died when their boat was thrown onto rocks at Christmas Island.
In 2001, a crowded boat known as the SIEV X sank on its way to Australia with the loss of 350 lives.

Syria in state of war, says Assad

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said his country is in "a state of war", more than a year after the uprising against his rule began.
Addressing his new cabinet, Assad said that all efforts had to be directed towards winning the war.
Earlier, activists said fierce fighting in the suburbs of the capital Damascus had been the worst there so far.
The fresh clashes came amid heightened tensions with neighbouring Turkey over the downing of a military jet.
"We live in a real state of war from all angles," President Assad told members of the cabinet who were sworn in on Tuesday.
"When we are in a war, all policies and all sides and all sectors need to be directed at winning this war."
He criticised countries that have been calling for him to stand down, saying that the West "takes and never gives and this has been proven at every stage".
He added: "We want good relations with all countries but we must know where our interests lie."
Earlier the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that fierce clashes took place near Republican Guard positions in Qadsaya and al-Hama, about 8km (5 miles) from the centre of Damascus.
Correspondents say it is rare for fighting to take place near Republican Guard bases and suggests a growing confidence among the rebels.
The elite Republican Guard, led by President Assad's younger brother Maher, is tasked with protecting the capital.
State TV confirmed Tuesday's fighting but said dozens of "terrorists" had been killed and many others taken prisoner, including foreign fighters.
The Observatory said that 10 people had been killed by shelling in Qadsaya and some 58 people had died in violence across Syria on Tuesday - 24 soldiers, 30 civilians and four rebels. The figures cannot be independently verified.
Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP news agency: "This is the first time that the regime has used artillery in fighting so close to the capital."
Heavy shelling was also reported in Homs, where the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) last week tried unsuccessfully to arrange the evacuation of civilians.
Civilians trapped
Also on Tuesday, Turkey said the rules of engagement for its military had changed after Syria shot down a F-4 Phantom jet over the eastern Mediterranean last week.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told parliament that if Syrian troops approached Turkey's borders, they would be seen as a threat.
"Every military element approaching Turkey from the Syrian border and representing a security risk and danger will be assessed as a military threat and will be treated as a military target," he said.
Syria insists that the F-4 Phantom was shot down because it was inside Syrian airspace. Turkey says the plane in international airspace.
Nato, of which Turkey is a member, convened an emergency meeting of its ambassadors on Monday and afterwards expressed "strong solidarity" with Ankara.
In other developments on Tuesday, the head of the UN's peacekeeping operations, Herve Ladsous, said its monitoring mission in Syria would remain suspended because of mounting violence.
In April, following months of bloodshed, the Syrian government agreed to a six-point peace plan brokered by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan. UN monitors were deployed to Syria to oversee a ceasefire but the truce never took hold.
On Tuesday Russia said its foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, would attend an international conference on Syria which Annan hopes to hold in Geneva on June 30 to revive his peace plan.
However, Moscow is insisting that Iran also be allowed to attend, a move strongly opposed by the US and its allies.
The BBC's Barbara Plett at UN headquarters in New York says that without an agreement on either the agenda or who will participate, it is not yet clear whether the meeting will go ahead.
Last year, in the wake of the Arab Spring uprisings, thousands of pro-democracy protesters took to the streets of Syria's cities demanding greater freedom and political reform.
The government's response was a brutal crackdown that left hundreds dead and inspired many opposition supporters to take up arms.
The main rebel fighting group, the Free Syrian Army (FSA), has become increasingly better organised - and armed - and is in effective control of swathes of Idlib province and parts of Aleppo province in the north.

32 killed in Bandarban landslides

Devastating landslides triggered by heavy rains killed at least 32 people in Lama and Naikhanchhari upazilas of Bandarban early Wednesday.
In Lama, the mudslide killed 23 people including 11 of a family while nine more persons including six of another family were buried alive in Naikhanchhari, reports our Chittagong correspondent quoting KM Tariqul Islam, deputy commissioner of Bandarban district.
Eleven members of one Nurul Islam's family buried alive in Raimakhali area of Faitong union in Lama during the landslide, the DC said.
On information, police and firefighters rushed to the spots and were conducting rescue operation.
The number of casualties from the landslides that took place in remote area of Bandarban may rise further, he added.

Our Motherland Situation

Bangladesh

Toronto, Jun 26 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Two former executives of Canadian engineering firm SNC-Lavalin Group Inc accused of bribing officials in Bangladesh appeared in a Toronto court on Monday to set a date for a preliminary hearing that will start next year.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) arrested the executives, Ramesh Shah, 61, and Mohammad Ismail, 48, in February following a 2011 raid on SNC offices. The company is one of the world's largest engineering firms.

The Toronto-area men were charged under the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act, which targets any person who, "directly or indirectly gives, offers or agrees to give or offer a loan, reward advantage or benefit of any kind to a foreign public official".

Their preliminary hearing will be held in Toronto early next year, according to a court clerk.

Neither SNC-Lavalin nor the RCMP would comment.

Canadian authorities launched an investigation last year into alleged corruption in the bidding process for the Padma Bridge project in Bangladesh.

The case was brought to Canada's attention by the World Bank, which had agreed to lend Bangladesh $1.2 billion to build the 6-km (4-mile) bridge linking the country's underdeveloped south with the capital, Dhaka, and the main port of Chittigong.

SNC had bid to supervise the contractor on the project. The company did not win that contract, which would have been worth C$10 million.
The World Bank has since suspended its loan, and temporarily barred a SNC-Lavalin subsidiary from bidding on its contracts in the country.

The Montreal-based company is also caught up in an investigation into $56 million in mysterious payments to "agents" on construction contracts, who, in fact, did not exist.

In March, Pierre Duhaime resigned as chief executive of 101-year-old SNC after revelations he had authorized the payments, but details surrounding the matter remain shrouded in mystery.

The company's shares fell C$1.08, or 2.8 percent, to C$37.48 on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Monday.

bdnews24.com/jr/1011h

Mursi never made overtures to Iran: aide

DUBAI/CAIRO, Jun 26 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - An Iranian news agency said Egypt's Islamist President-elect Mohamed Mursi had voiced interest in restoring long-severed ties with Tehran to create a strategic "balance" in the region, but a Mursi aide denied the interview ever took place.

Iran's Fars agency said it spoke to Mursi a few hours before Sunday's election results were announced and quoted him saying the two countries should get closer - comments that go counter to Western efforts to isolate Tehran over its nuclear programme.

"We must restore normal relations with Iran based on shared interests, and expand areas of political coordination and economic cooperation because this will create a balance of pressure in the region," the semi-official news agency quoted Mursi as saying in a transcript of the interview.

Yasser Ali, a Mursi aide, told Reuters: "There was never a meeting with the Iranian news agency Fars and what was taken as statements has no basis in truth".

On its web page, Fars published a transcript and an audio of the conversation. Reuters was unable to verify the recording but the man purported to be Mursi did not sound exactly like him.

Fars said it had asked Mursi whether, if elected, his first state visit would be to Riyadh, to which he replied: "I didn't say such a thing and until now my first international visits following my victory in the elections have not been determined".

Rivalry between Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia and Shi'ite Iran has been intensified by last year's "Arab Spring" revolts, which have altered political certainties in the Middle East and left the powerful Gulf neighbours vying for influence.

Since Egypt's Hosni Mubarak was toppled in one of those uprisings, both Cairo and Tehran have signalled interest in renewing ties severed more than 30 years ago.

Mursi, however, striving to reassure Egypt's western allies wary at the prospect of Islamist rule, is unlikely to stage major foreign policy reversals so early in his rule.

"STRENGTHENING FRIENDSHIP"

In a message to Mursi on Monday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad congratulated him for winning the vote.

"I emphasise expanding bilateral ties and strengthening the friendship between the two nations," Ahmadinejad wrote, according to state television.

Iran has hailed Mursi's victory over former general Ahmed Shafik in Egypt's first free presidential election as a "splendid vision of democracy" that marked the country's "Islamic Awakening" - a phrase Iranian politicians use to describe the events of the "Arab Spring" and its aftermath.

When asked about the possibility of Cairo and Tehran restoring relations, White House spokesman Jay Carney stressed Egypt's vital role in the region.

"It is perfectly appropriate for a nation like Egypt to have relations with its neighbors, but again we look to Egypt to continue its significant role as a pillar of regional peace and stability," Carney said aboard Air Force One as President Barack Obama flew to New Hampshire.

Western diplomats say in reality Egypt has little real appetite to change relations with Iran significantly, given the substantial issues the new president already has to face in cementing relations with regional and global powers.

"Iran is hoping for Egypt to become a deterrent against an Israeli attack as well as a regional player that Iran can use as a potential counter-balance against Turkey and Saudi Arabia," said a diplomat based in Tehran.

"Egypt, at least under present circumstances, would side with either of these against Iran."

CAMP DAVID REVIEW

In what looked like a reversal of comments Mursi made in a televised address after his victory was announced on Sunday, Fars news quoted him as saying Egypt's Camp David peace accord with Israel "will be reviewed", without elaborating.

The peace treaty remains a lynchpin of US Middle East policy and, despite its unpopularity with many Egyptians, was staunchly upheld by Mubarak, who suppressed the Muslim Brotherhood movement to which Mursi belongs.

The Sunni Brotherhood, whose Palestinian offshoot Hamas rules the Gaza Strip, is vehemently critical of Israel, which has watched the rise of Islamists and political upheaval in neighbouring Egypt with growing concern.

Egypt's formal recognition of Israel and Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution led in 1980 to the breakdown of diplomatic relations between the two countries, among the biggest and most influential in the Middle East. They currently have reciprocal interest sections, but not at ambassadorial level.

Egypt's foreign minister said last year that Cairo was ready to re-establish diplomatic relations with Iran, which has hailed most Arab Spring uprisings as anti-Western rebellions inspired by its own Islamic Revolution.

But Iran has steadfastly supported Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Tehran's closest Arab ally, who is grappling with a revolt against his rule, and at home has continued to reject demands for reform, which spilled onto the street following the disputed re-election of Ahmadinejad in 2009.

bdnews24.com/cr/0824 h.

PDB proposes 57% retail power price hike

Aminur Rahman Rasel
bdnews24.com Correspondent

Dhaka, June 25 (bdnews24.com)—State-owned Power Development Board (PDB) has proposed to the energy watchdog to increase the retail electricity tariff by 57 percent per unit (each kilowatt hour).

The PDB also urged Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) to make the proposed rate effective from July 1.

BERC member Selim Mahmud told bdnews24.com on Monday that the final decision on the power tariff would be made after holding an open meeting and a public hearing.

He also said besides the PDB, four power-distribution companies have proposed a 55 percent increase per unit on average in the retail power tariff.

The companies are Dhaka Power Distribution Company Ltd (DPDC), Dhaka Electric Supply Company Ltd (DESCO), Rural Electrification Board (REB) and West Zone Power Distribution Company Limited (WZOPDCO).

On June 6, the PDB proposed to the BERC to raise electricity tariff at bulk level by 50 percent per unit. The PDB officials had said at the time that the retail power tariff needed a 30 percent raise.

The PDB in the latest proposal asked the BERC to fix the outer limit bar for lifeline tariff or compulsory minimum charge for residential consumers from 100 units to 60 units to tide over government's losses.

Bulk and retail power prices were hiked only on Mar 29 by Tk 0.28 and Tk 0.30 per unit respectively with teroactive effect from Mar 1.

Both the bulk and retail power tariffs have been increased twice this year.

State-run Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation (Petrobangla) on May 24 wrote to the energy watchdog to increase gas prices, except at the domestic consumer level.

bdnews24.com/arr/skb/bd/1730h

Dhaka, Jun 26 (bdnews24.com)—The Dhaka Stock Exchange key index registered a 64.12 points gain with around an hour and a half remaining into trading on the week's third day.

The DGEN reached 4330.80 points or 1.50 percent higher at 1:05pm on Tuesday.

Shares and mutual funds worth around Tk 756.35 million changed hands so far with prices of 219 issues advancing, 16 declining and 19 remaining unchanged.

The key index ended 21.13 points lower on Monday when it closed at 4266.68 points or 0.49 percent down with a turnover of around Tk 1.43 billion.

The DSE key index kicked off the week's trading 12.36 points lower.

The premiere bourse's benchmark index had shed 6.94 percent or 320.55 points last week.

bdnews24.com/zk/1310h

Boiler blast kills 3 in Narsinghdi

Narsinghdi, Jun 26 (bdnews24.com) – At least three people were killed and five others injured on Tuesday when a boiler at a Calendering mill exploded in Narsinghdi sadar upazila.

Officer-in-Charge of Narsinghdi Sadar Model Police Asaduzzaman said the accident took place around 7:30am at the Makbul Hossiain Bhuiyan Calendering and Finishing Mill in the upazila's Shahe Protab area.

The boiler exploded when workers started it for 'finishing' of some produced products. A wall of the factory fell on the nearby road and house killing three people on the spot, he said.

The deceased have been identified as Al-Amin, 25, a worker of the factory, Abul Hashim, 12, a madrassa student and one housewife 'Begum', 45, resident of a factory-adjacent house, the OC said.

Madrassa student Hasim was passing by the factory and housewife 'Begum' was at her home. Both of them died from wall collapse.

Police, Fire Brigade units and Rapid Action Battalion rushed to the spot immediately after the explosion. Locals rescued five injured and sent them to Narsinghdi Sadar Hospital, he added.

The injured have been identified as Jesmin Begum, 22, Isa Moni, 4, 'Sabbir', 3 and Abdur Razzak, 45.

Doctors have sent Razzak to Dhaka Medical College Hospital as his condition deteriorated.

The police official said the factory owner Abdus Sattar Bhuiyan and its managing director have fled following the accident.

"We are looking for them", he added.

bdnews24.com/corr/jk/zk/jr/1241h

Tue, Jun 26th, 2012 12:56 pm BdST

Dhaka, Jun 26 (bdnews24.com) – Parliament has corrected mistakes in Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority Act, 2012, which was passed four months ago.

The Act did not repeal its earlier laws, Dhaka Transport Coordination Board Act, 2001, meaning the authority is facing problems in doing its tasks as both it and the board are functional in parallel.

Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority (Amendment)) Bill, 2012 was passed in a voice vote piloted by Communications Minister Obaidul Quader Tuesday amid protest from independent lawmaker Mohammad Fazlul Azim.

The minister blamed Bangladesh Government Press for the mistakes while Azim contradicted.

"In a printing press, there can be spelling or grammar mistake but mistake of content is not possible," Azim said.

There is perception among people that lawmakers just pass laws formulated by clerks, he said.

Citing the process, Azim said a bill is sent to the Ministry of Law for vetting after it is drafted by a ministry.

"The cabinet nods before it is placed to parliament. It is extensively discussed in the respective standing committee also," he said.

The minister said he was not avoiding his responsibility.

"Due to mistakes by the BG Press, we had fallen into a lengthy process to amend the law," he said.

bdnews24.com/ssz/jr/1249h