The government has decided to construct a US$ 250 million pipeline for US oil giant Chevron to carry natural gas from the company's three operational fields to the national gas grid, top officials said Friday.
Nazrul Islam has gone back to his village in Dhunat, Bogra, after receiving treatment at the burn unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital for three months.
But he still has to fully recover from the burn injuries he suffered to his left arm, back, lower back and a leg while working at a ship-scrapping yard of Rahim Steel in Sitakunda, Chittagong. He still cannot raise his left arm properly.
He said, "Doctors told me that I would not be able to work for the next two years."
Twenty-eight-year-old Nazrul earned Tk 135 (less than two dollars) for working 8 hours a day at the yard. He is just one of many who have been crippled in ship-breaking yard accidents.
However, he considers himself to be lucky. In the last 16 months at least 24 workers were killed in accidents, mostly due to explosions and coming in contact with toxic materials in ships, while 17 others were maimed in 14 accidents in 14 shipyards.
All these accidents happened as the government is yet to comply with the directives of the Supreme Court. It lets the yards operate without providing the workers with safety measures.
On March 5, 2009, the Supreme Court also directed the government not to allow import of any ships with toxic substances inside. However, the Ministry of Environment and Forest is in favour of importing ships that has "inbuilt" toxic substances.
According to the Basel Convention, old ships are themselves treated as hazardous waste due to their inbuilt toxic substances. Cleaning ships made with toxic materials, including asbestos, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), lead, chromates, mercury, organic liquids (benzene etc), battery, is hard and involves huge cost.
Being a signatory of the Basel Convention, Bangladesh is supposed to ratify it fully. The Supreme Court also directed the government on March 5, 2009, "We are inclined to follow the Basel Convention."
The Supreme Court said, "…the import of any further vessel, being hazardous waste or contaminating hazardous materials, which has not been decontaminated at source, must be prohibited for the purpose of import into Bangladesh."
Official sources said instead of taking measures to stop import of such ships, now the government is formulating a guideline, bypassing the court's directives, which will ultimately allow ship-scrapping yards to import unclean ships.
The Ministry of Environment and Forest also did not bother to ensure any safety measures for the workers in the yards.
"The shipyard owners did not clean the ship before scrapping. So it exploded while I was cutting a pipe," said Nazrul.
The court also directed the government that all yards must have clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forest but at least 32 new yards have been set up since the court ruling. The new 32 have been set up clearing mangrove forest. No shipyard has the clearance.
However, following the directions of the court, the Ministry of Commerce, which decides what to import and not, prohibited the import of ships with toxic substances inside under the Import Policy Order 2009-12.
Interestingly, the ministry of environment requested the commerce ministry to amend the policy and to include provision for importing ships that has "inbuilt" toxic substances.
"We don't want to shut down the ship breaking yards," Hasan Mahmud, state minister for environment and forest, told The Daily Star justifying their activities immediately after the amendment five months ago.
"There was no guideline about how to operate the ship breaking yards. We are going to formulate a guideline under which we will give them environment clearance certificates," said the state minister who is from Chittagong.
The Daily Star failed to reach him yesterday.
Recently the government has formed a committee to make a "Guideline for ship breaking and managing hazardous materials, 2010". In the guideline, the committee drafted a form for the ship breakers where they would mention what toxic substances are coming with a certain ship, which is meant to be scrapped. It does not ask the ship breakers how they are going to deal with the toxic substances.
"The government is supposed to follow the Supreme Court's directives. But it is violating the direction almost in every step," said Syed Rizwana Hasan, chief executive of Bangladesh Environment Lawyers Association, which filed the petition that resulted in the court order.
So far 111 ship-breaking yards have applied for the environment clearance certificates, including the 32 new yards, since the Supreme Court delivered its directives.
The Ministry of Environment and Forest will consider their approval after the draft guideline is formulated, sources in the ministry said.
Since the court order, one worker has died in each of these shipyards: KRP Trading/Mabia Enterprise, Jamuna Shipyard, Lucky Shipyard, S Trading, Habib Steel, Rising Steel Ltd, Sultana Shipyard, SS Enterprise and FN Ship Yard.
Two workers died in Kabir Steel Yard, three at Crystal Ship Yard, three at Pakiza Ship Yard, seven at Rahim Steel.
Bangladeshi shipyards scrap nearly 100 ships a year on the Sitakunda beach.
A report of a survey conducted by two internationally reputed organisations, Greenpeace and International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), on "The Human Cost of Breaking Ships" published last December simultaneously from Bangladesh, India and Switzerland says at least 1,000 workers died in the last 20 years in Bangladesh's ship-breaking yards.
The figures do not include the deaths from diseases caused by toxic fumes and materials workers are exposed to all the time.
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Five months into the killing of their parents, teenaged Sumaiya Yasmin Bithi and Nilufar Yasmin Iti are passing their days hiding and fearing attacks on their lives by the killers.
Bithi is the lone witness of the killing of her parents Sadequr Rahman, 55, general secretary of Bangladesh Nursery Owners' Association, and Romana Nargis, 45, at their Gulshan residence.
On March 24, local goon Rubel shot dead the couple as they declined to marry Iti off to him and tried to prevent him from dragging her from the house.
Cut off from rest of the world and haunted by the memory of the murder, Bithi, 19, and Iti, 17, are now living at a secluded house of their brother's in-law.
The family sources said on several occasions the killers have threatened over the phone to kill the sisters if they dare to give statement in the court of law.
According to the witness, Rubel and his accomplice Mithun fled the scene immediately after the killings.
Bithi said, "I receive frequent phone calls and the callers give false names of different criminal gangs. They threatened me not to give deposition before the court and said if I ignore them, they would send me to my parents.
"The callers switch numbers after each call, and for this we have never received more than one call from a number," she added.
Police pressed charges against four people in connection with the double murder. They are Rubel, Mithun, Rubel's maternal uncle Mohammad Altaf Hossain Altu, who allegedly supplied the murder weapon, and Mohammad Mohiuddin Azad, husband of Rubel's sister who gave them shelter.
Of the accused in the charge sheet, Altaf and Azad are now out on bail, while Rubel and Mithun are behind bars.
The accused freed on bail and three dropped from charge sheet are allegedly conspiring and issuing constant threats to the orphaned daughters and their lawyer.
Prosecution lawyer Asif Uddin said the investigation officer of the case mysteriously dropped the names of Delwar Hossain Dipu, who allegedly kept the murder weapon, Shariful Islam and Nazmul Islam Babu from the charge sheet.
"I frequently receive cellphone calls threatening not to move the case. On July 27, I have informed the court that the accused freed on bail are posing threats to the lives of the victims' daughters and me as well," said the prosecution lawyer.
The court fixed July 27 for hearing on the charge sheet in presence of Abul Hossain, who first filed a double murder case with Gulshan Police Station. That day, over 70 men of Dipu and Altaf created a dreadful situation for the lawyer and Abul Hossain.
Asif said, "I could hear those men hurling threats when I was putting submission before the court. I failed to make my submission properly due to lack of security."
According to Asif it would be tough for him to prove the roles of the killers as Rubel's accomplices, as the ones free on bail are very influential.
About her days now, Bithi said, "I still wake up screaming as the flashes of my parents' brutal murder haunt me in sleep. My third semester BBA exams started on July 31. I can neither continue with my studies nor return to my usual life."
"The irony is that most of my parents' killers are out on bail while I pass my days in self confinement," she added in a voice choked with emotion.
Momtaz Begum, Bithi's sister-in-law, said, "I used to teach in a school. But now I keep myself in the house fearing attack, especially on Bithi, the witness."
The family lodged a general diary with Badda Police Station a few days ago in connection with receiving threats from unknown callers.
Bithi's only brother Shihab is a guest worker in Malaysia, while her other sister Sathi studies in Japan.
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This five-year-old crack on the Bangabandhu Bridge is yet to be repaired. The 4.8km bridge connects the northern region of Bangladesh with capital Dhaka. Photo: FileThe lifespan and load carrying capacity of the country's longest Bangabandhu Multipurpose Bridge are being compromised, as successive governments failed in the last five years to repair cracks formed on it, according to experts and government officials.
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Encroachers continue erecting illegal structures on the Mayur River as Khulna City Corporation's drive to free the river and several canals from grabbers has remained suspended since February. Photo: STARA section of unscrupulous people have again started erecting unauthorised structures on the bank of Mayur River and different canals under the jurisdiction of Khulna City Corporation (KCC) as drive against illegal occupation has remained suspended since February this year.
Twenty-five of the 56 listed canals in KCC area were freed from illegal occupiers in two phases as KCC on July 1 last year started the drive for a permanent solution to menacing water logging by facilitating easy flow-out of rainwater from drains of Khulna city.
For this purpose, KCC Mayor Talukder Abdul Khaleque formed a 15-member committee with ward councillor Shahid Iqbal Bithar as its convenor.
But only a few days after start of the drive, criminals gunned down Bithar on July 11 in front of his residence in the city and it led to suspension of the demolition drive for two months.
The drive resumed on September 2 last year with KCC Panel Mayor-1 Ajmol Ahmed Tapan as new convenor of the drive committee.
However, the second drive went on at a slow pace reportedly due to some legal complications that stood in the way of demolishing unauthorised structures from canals encroached by different influential people, mostly belonging to the ruling Awami League and main opposition BNP.
A few businessmen and government officials are also allegedly among the illegal occupiers.
In February this year, drive against encroachers was suspended again.
By that time, un-authorised structures on 25 of the 51 canals listed by the committee were demolished.
Following suspension of the drive, illegal occupiers again started erecting buildings on both sides of Mayur River and several canals in the city.
Talking to this correspondent, convenor of the demolition drive committee Ajmol Ahmed Tapan reiterated their firm determination to resume the drive to free remaining 26 canals from encroachers as early as possible.
"Fund crisis is the main cause for suspension of the demolition drive. Tk 8 to 10 thousand is required per day to continue the drive. We have asked for fund from the ministry concerned for that purpose," he said.
"Legal action will be taken against those who have erected unauthorised buildings again on the canals and the banks of Mayur River, which were freed earlier during first and second drives. We have collected names of the occupiers," said Mayor Talukder Abdul Khaleque.
Read more...A five-year-old child went missing and five others received injuries as the Shakbaria river devoured their homesteads in Koira upazila of Khulna district at midnight on Wednesday.
Sylhet divisional special judge Md. Golam Hossain on Tuesday deferred the charge framing against former lawmaker and district BNP chief M Ilyas Ali and his wife Tahsina Rushdi in the ACC case filed during the caretaker rule.
A court here yesterday sentenced a female bank official to 9 years' rigorous imprisonment for misappropriating Tk 66.1 lakh bank money.
Sylhet divisional speedy trial tribunal yesterday recorded the deposition of 15 more prosecution witnesses (PWs) in the cases filed after the grenade attack on a rally of the AL leader Suranjit Sengupta in Sunamganj six years ago.
Power hungry people attacked and vandalised power offices in several districts yesterday and the day before, protesting frequent outages.
A five-year-old child went missing and five others received injuries as the Shakbaria river devoured their homesteads in Koira upazila of Khulna district at midnight on Wednesday.
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Hasna Rahman Cynthia (marked with circle) was leading a procession against stalking in the Baroikhali area under Sreenagar upazila of Munshiganj district a few days before committing suicide.Photo: STARStudents and local people yesterday brought out a procession in protest against stalking that led to the suicide of schoolgirl Hasna Rahman Cynthia on Wednesday.
Students of Baroikhali High School, of which Cynthia '14' was a class ten student, boycotted classes and joined the procession.
People caught stalker Jahangir and handed him over to police but his two accomplices are still at large. The protesters demanded immediate arrest of his accomplices and exemplary punishment to them.
Cynthia's uncle Sheikh Rustam Ali filed a case with Sreenagar police Station yesterday. Jahangir's father Jamal Hossain and his brother Zakir Hossain have also been accused in the case.
After namaz-e-janaza at her School ground yesterday, the body of Cynthia was buried at the local graveyard.
Yusuf Ali, headmaster of Baroikhali High School under Sreenagar upazils, said Jahangir and his accomplices had been stalking Synthia for more than one year and several meetings were held to resolve the issue, but to no effect.
On the day of incident, a meeting was held where a number of police personnel, including Sub-Inspector Aminul of Sreenagar Police Station, were present, he said, adding that that instead of arresting Jahangir police showed clemency to him.
The headmaster said immediately after the meeting, Jahangir in an agitated mood went to Cynthia's house and threatened her. Tormented by feelings of insecurity, Cynthia committed suicide at their house, he added.
Local union parishad chairman Md Iqbal Hossain said when Cynthia was returning home from her school on Wednesday, Jahangir again threatened her.
He said when the matter came to light a meeting was held in the room of the headmaster of Baroikhali High School at around 3:00pm on Wednesday. As local influential people urged police to arrest Jahangir, his father Jamal Hossain sought clemency to correct his son to which police responded, the UP chairman added.
Read more...Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) on Wednesday midnight rescued a young speech impaired woman from the city's Chouhatta area and arrested two alleged abductors.
Read more...Students of Panchagarh Technical and Business Management College barricaded Panchagarh-Dhaka highway in front of BISIC in Panchagarh town on yesterday for two hours as their fellow was beaten up by transport workers. Police and locals said a group of students were coming from Boda by a passenger bus in the morning. The bus conductor engaged in a quarrel with the students as they were giving half bus fair. When the bus reached the bus terminal some transport workers severely beat up a student of the college leaving him injured. As the news spread other students they came out from the campus and barricaded the highway.
Read more...A snake charmer, who used to rear snakes at his house at Dhupail Shob village in Lalpur upazila, died from snake bite on Wednesday. Locals said Abdur Rahim, 26, known as Sarparaj, and son of Sentu Mia, reared snakes in his house in the last three years. Earlier, his snakes bit him several times, but he did not fall ill. But on the fateful day, he fell seriously sick when a poisonous cobra bit him at 8am. He was admitted to a local clinic and later shifted to Rajshahi Medical College and Hospital (RMCH), but he died near the hospital gate at 2pm on the day.
Read more...Three children and a woman went missing when a shallow engine driven boat capsized in the Jamuna River at Char Mohanpur in the remote area of Sonatola upazila of Bogra yesterday. The missing are Zohra Begum, 28, children Jesmine, 3, one-year-old Tuni, and Rashed, 2. Sonatola OC Zia Rafiqul said, the divers of the fire service are searching for the missing people at the spot. The passengers of the boat who survived the accident told police that, the shallow engine run boat carrying 30 to 40 passengers from a char in Tekaini Chukainagar area was coming to Sonatola.
Home Read more...Police early yesterday arrested an 'area commander' of outlawed Purba Bangla Communist Party (PBCP-ML) from Kumarkhali area under Mongla pourasava of the district. They also recovered a shutter gun and five bullets from his possessions. The arrestee was identified as Bulbul Islam Rana, 32, son of Sheikh Abdul Halim of Kumarkhali area. Acting on a tip off, a team of police raided Rana's residence in Kumarkhali at around 1:30am and arrested him from his house as he came to meet his family members at night.
Read more...District (north) unit general secretary of Islami Chhatra Shibir Mohammad Abdur Rahim was placed on a two-day remand on Wednesday in a case filed for obstructing government activities.
Sub-Inspector Monirul Islam, who is investigating the case, produced him before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court and sought a seven-day remand in connection with the case.
However, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Barekuzzaman granted a two-day remand.
With Rahim, so far 28 Shibir activists are being quizzed taking them on remand in the same case.
Court sources said police arrested Abdur Rahim along with some Shibir leaders and workers from Khanpara jam-e-mosque in Dighalia upazila while they were holding a discussion after Fazr prayers on Sunday.
Read more...Three students and a teacher of Bichhat Model High School in Assassuni upazila were injured in an attack by stalkers at Gorali Ferry Ghat yesterday.
The injured are class ten students Ferdous Hossain, Selim and Joyantu Kumar, and English teacher Khagendra Nath Sarkar, 50. They are undergoing treatment at Assassuni Upazila Health Complex.
Police quoted local people as saying that a gang of stalkers led by Ashraful, Manirul and Gaffar of Gorali village attacked a meeting jointly called by the locals and the authorities of Bichhat Model High School at Gorali ghat to take steps against the gang members who have been staking girl students of the school for the last two months.
Contacted, the school authorities said they are taking preparation to file a case against the stalkers, but no case was filed with the police station concerned as of filing of this report at 5:00pm.
Meanwhile, the authorities of Palashpole High School under Satkhira Sadar Police Station Wednesday expelled a class nine student of the school on charge of stalking the girl students.
The authorities also filed a case against the stalker with Sadar Police Station as he allegedly beat up a student of the school for protesting his evil acts.
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Once engaged in felling and removing trees from Modhupur forests, they are now serving as community forest workers to protect the traditional sal forest following a two-month-long motivation and training programme provided by forest department. Photo: STAREarlier accused in 107 cases for stealing trees from Madhupur forests, Hasan Ali of Gachhabari village in Madhupur upazila under Tangail district now serves as a community forest worker, thanks to the forest department's initiative to revive the traditional sal forest.
"Forest officials told me and others about the importance of forest and environment. Now I am very tired of the cases filed by forest department and want to live a tension-free life,” he said while talking to this correspondent a couple of days ago.
"Now I want to contribute to protecting the forests which I had been damaging for long. No matter how much money it brings me, I will get mental peace," said the 45-year-old man, who had been stealing trees from the Madhupur forests for around 30 years.
Nobi Hossain, 48, of Kamalapur in Muktagachha upazila in Mymensingh district, started stealing forest resources including trees from Madhupur forests in his boyhood and has already made accused in 79 cases filed by the forest department.
"Local influential people engaged me for stealing trees from Madhupur forest but I could not realise that it was wrong. I have agreed to the proposal of forest department officials as they have taken responsibly of all my cases," he said.
Like Hasan Ali and Nobi Hossain are among the 400 listed 'tree thieves' of Madhupur forests, who joined the forest department's initiative to protect the traditional forests.
The department has provided them two months' training under its 'Re-vegetation of Madhupur Forests Through Rehabilitation of Local and Ethnic Communities' project during June 1 to July 31 this year.
For the purpose, Tk 15 crore government fund was provided from its Climate Trust Fund.
Earlier spread over 45,000 acres of lands, the Madhupur forests has now shrunk into only 8,000 acres, forest department sources said.
Influential forest plunderers, both locals and outsiders, have also grabbed vast areas of forestlands and raised different fruit orchards including pineapple and banana and constructed makeshift structures there, forest department sources said.
Over 40,000 people living in 57 villages, set up inside Madhupur forests after 1950, are dependent on the forest resources for livelihood.
Besides, over 100 brickfields made around Madhupur forests in seven upazilas of Tangail and Mymensingh districts are dependent on the firewood from the forest to burn bricks.
The local forest department with its 50 officials and employees failed to protect the forest properly, they said.
"We have made a list of 500 plunderers of Madhupur forests and provided 400 of them different trainings to reduce their dependence on the forests by improving their life," said Sarfuddin Ahmed, assistant conservator of forest (South-2) in Tangail.
The programme included trainings on apiculture, mushroom cultivation, nursery, afforestation, fire fighting, poultry, cow fattening, fish farming, vegetable gardening, grass growing, compost fertiliser production, cultivation of medicinal plants, production of jam and jelly etc.
After getting the trainings, the 400 people are now working as community forest workers. They are assisting the forest guards to protect the forests and actively participating in activities to save and develop forest.
A community forest worker got Tk 150 per day during the training period and after the training they are getting Tk 200 each per week, the forest official said.
They have been provided with identity cards and complete uniforms including boots, belts and caps.
The 5500 families living inside Madhupur forests will get government grants and aids for their rehabilitation. As per plan to turn the dwelling houses of the families as environment friendly farmhouses, each family will get 100 saplings of firewood trees, 50 saplings of fruit trees and 50 saplings of forest trees. Besides, they will get grants for cattle raising and cultivation of vegetables and medicinal plants.
Each family will also get a modern furnace so that they do not have to use wood as fire.
"When I joined here six months ago, I found Madhupur forest in a very pitiable condition. We have provided trainings to 400 local forest thieves and they have vowed to protect the forests. We also re-created forests on 200 hectares of grabbed and treeless lands on participatory basis. Plantation of local varieties of trees have got priority in it,” said Asit Ranjan Paul, divisional forest officer in Tangail.
Read more...Myanmar's ruling military junta announced yesterday that the country's first elections in two decades will be held Nov 7, finally setting a date for polls that critics have dismissed as a sham designed to cement military rule.
Foreign governments have urged Myanmar to ensure the elections are open, fair and include the party of detained pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi. Her party, however, has decided to boycott the vote, saying the junta has imposed unfair rules that restrict campaigning and effectively bar the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and other political prisoners from participating.
The election date is another symbolic blow to Suu Kyi's chances of taking part it falls just days before her current term of house arrest is due to expire on Nov 13.
Read more...Torrential rains yesterday battered several parts of western China, killing at least 33 people and heightening fears of a disease outbreak in a mudslide-ravaged town where more than 1,150 have died.
Health authorities said survivors of the deadly floods and landslides in Zhouqu, a remote town in the mountains of Gansu province in China's northwest, were facing a grim situation after clinics were damaged and vaccines ruined.
The bad weather showed no signs of letting up, with at least 33 people killed and 32 missing after floods and landslides in other parts of Gansu and neighbouring Sichuan province, as China battles its worst flooding in a decade.
In Zhouqu, 588 people are still missing after the weekend avalanche of mud and rocks, which levelled an area five kilometres (three miles) long and 300 metres wide.
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A court martial has found the former Sri Lankan armed forces chief, Gen Sarath Fonseka, guilty of engaging in politics while on active service.
Gen Fonseka would be stripped of his rank and medals once the government ratified the decision, officials said.
He has been detained by the authorities since shortly after January's presidential election, when he failed to oust President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Gen Fonseka led the army in its victory last year against the Tamil Tigers.
He was hailed as a war hero by the majority Sinhalese community for bringing an end to 26 years of civil war, which left 100,000 people dead.
On Friday, officials said the general had been found guilty by a three-member panel and sentenced to a dishonourable discharge.
"The guilty verdict was read out to General Fonseka at the court martial a short while ago," a military source told the AFP news agency. "The president as commander-in-chief must now ratify the decision."
A few months after the Tamil Tigers' defeat, Gen Fonseka was promoted from army commander to chief of the defence staff by Mr Rajapaksa.
The two men clashed over who should take credit for the war, however, and Gen Fonseka is said to have seen this as an attempt to sideline him.
Peru's health ministry has sent emergency teams to a remote Amazon region to battle an outbreak of rabies spread by vampire bats.
Four children in the Awajun indigenous tribe died after being bitten by the bloodsucking mammals.
Health workers have given rabies vaccine to more than 500 people who have also been attacked.
Some experts have linked mass vampire bat attacks on people in the Amazon to deforestation.
The rabies outbreak is focused on the community of Urakusa in the north-eastern Peruvian Amazon, close to the border with Ecuador.
The indigenous community appealed for help after being unable to explain the illness that had killed the children.
The health ministry said it had sent three medical teams to treat and vaccinate people who had been bitten.
Most of the affected population had now been vaccinated, it said, although a few had refused treatment.
Vampire bats usually feed on wildlife or livestock, but are sometimes known to turn to humans for food, particularly in areas where their rainforest habitat has been destroyed.
Some local people have suggested this latest outbreak of attacks may be linked to the unusually low temperatures the Peruvian Amazon in recent years.
Read more...Tens of thousands of Kashmiris staged angry street demonstrations yesterday after government forces killed four people and injured 12 others during the latest unrest against Indian rule in the disputed Himalayan region, police said.
Two months of violent clashes with security forces have left at least 55 people dead in Indian-controlled Kashmir mostly protesters who have been shot. The unrest shows no signs of easing despite the deployment of more troops and calls from the Indian prime minister for calm.
Residents staged protest marches after Friday prayers across much of the predominantly Muslim region. Most of the marches were peaceful but in some places clashes broke out after security forces tried to block curfew-defying marchers.
Paramilitary soldiers opened fire in Bomai, a village northwest of the main city of Srinagar, after thousands of protesters gathered and threw rocks at the troops, a police officer said. Two people were killed and at least four others wounded, he said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Local residents maintained the protest was peaceful and clashes only erupted after the shooting. Protesters surrounded a camp of paramilitary troops and were throwing bricks and rocks at it.
In the northern town of Pattan, troops fired at a group of people who defied the curfew, killing a 65-year-old man and wounding two others, another police officer said, also on condition of anonymity.
As the news of the shooting spread, thousands of people came out of their homes and clashed with government forces at several places in the town, police said.
In Trehgam, north of Srinagar, protesters threw stones at government forces, angered by their refusal to allow them to visit a mosque for prayers on the first Friday after the start of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, resident Maqsood Ahmed said.
The security forces fired at the protesters, killing a teenage student and wounding at least six others, the police officer said. The protesters were later joined by thousands of residents from neighbouring villages, leading to more clashes, he said.
Anti-India sentiment runs deep in Kashmir, which is divided between India and Pakistan but claimed by both. Protesters reject Indian sovereignty over Kashmir and want to form a separate country or merge with predominantly Muslim Pakistan.
Read more...Smoke from Russia's deadly wildfires has spread into northern regions of Kazakhstan but poses no immediate danger to residents, the Kazakh Emergencies Ministry said yesterday.
Black smoke had reached the city of Kostanai, about 100 km (63 miles) from the border with Russia's Chelyabinsk region, said a ministry spokesman, Eldor Raimbekov.
"The smoke has entered some border areas," Raimbekov said. "There is no threat to the population. The smoke could clear again today, depending on the prevailing winds."
Russia's deadly summer heat wave, the worst on record, could wipe $14 billion off its economic growth this year, economists said this week. Weather forecasters say the heat has lasted for an uninterrupted 50 days in Moscow and central Russia.
Doctors in Moscow are being told not to diagnose heatstroke as a cause of death after a jump in the mortality rate during the heat wave, Russia media say.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, one doctor said the unofficial instruction being passed down was to use diagnoses that "sound less frightening".
A photo shows a note pinned up in a casualty area, which reads "Attention! Do not diagnose heatstroke".
While wildfires continue to burn, temperatures are starting to drop.
The emergencies ministry reported that as of Thursday morning 66 major fires continued to burn across Russia, 40 of them in peat bogs, which are notoriously difficult to extinguish.
While wildfires continued to burn up to 100km (60 miles) away from the site of the Chernobyl nuclear accident in Ukraine, experts said there was little danger of serious radioactive contamination.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said the fires had destroyed a quarter of the agricultural land where cereals are grown.
Speaking in southern Russia at a meeting on stabilising the grain market, he said rises in the price of foodstuffs must be avoided. Russia has already suspended exports of wheat.
The number of people said to have been killed by the fires directly stands at 54 after two security personnel died fighting flames near the Sarov nuclear research centre in Nizhny Novgorod.
But little has been revealed officially about the number of people who succumbed to temperatures approaching 40C (104F) and choking smog from the fires.
National mortality figures for the summer have not been reported and when the city of Moscow revealed on Monday that its daily death rate had more than doubled, the federal government swiftly challenged the figures.
Read more...Russia says it will undertake a key step next week towards starting up a reactor at Iran's first nuclear power station.
Russia's state atomic corporation, which is building the plant, said engineers will begin loading the Bushehr reactor with fuel.
However, it could be six months before the reactor is fully operational.
Russia has been helping build the plant since the mid-1990s, amid tensions over Iran's nuclear programme.
"The fuel will be charged in the reactor on 21 August. From this moment, Bushehr will be considered a nuclear installation," spokesman Sergei Novikov said.
Iranians will remain sceptical until they see the Bushehr plant finally working and generating electricity, 35 years after the project was started under the Shah, says the BBC's Jon Leyne in Cairo.
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An Afghan National Army operation - initially run independently of Nato - in the eastern province of Laghman went "disastrously wrong", officials say.
They say that what should have been a routine "mopping up" operation turned into a "major confrontation" after the Taliban launched an ambush.
Defence officials told the BBC that at least seven Afghan soldiers had been killed and 14 injured.
They say that Nato troops and air support have now joined the fighting.
Officials say that while troops were caught by surprise in the Taliban ambush, they have now fought back and inflicted heavy casualties on the insurgents over the last few days.
Read more...Canadian officials have boarded a cargo ship thought to be carrying about 500 Tamil migrants from Sri Lanka.
The authorities intercepted the MV Sun Sea off British Columbia. They say the migrants will now be vetted amid fears that some are Tamil Tiger rebels - banned by Canada as a terrorist group.
The ship reportedly crossed the Pacific after Australia turned it away.
The Tamil Tigers were routed last year by the government, which has been widely accused of rights abuses.
Sri Lanka's high commissioner to Canada, Chitranganee Wagiswara, has urged Canada to refuse their asylum claims.
She says the ship is part of a people-trafficking operation linked to the Tamil Tigers.
BBC
Flood levels in Pakistan are expected to surge even higher along parts of the already dangerously swollen Indus river.
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said "major peaks" were expected on Friday and next week in Punjab and Sindh provinces.
The region's worst flooding in 80 years has affected 14 million people and killed 1,600, according to the UN.
Doctors say that malaria, diarrhoea and gastroenteritis are growing threats.
On yesterday, President Asif Ali Zardari said he would go ahead with a visit to Russia next week, but would stay only a few hours instead of the scheduled two days. It comes after he was heavily criticised for failing to cut short a visit to Europe last week, amid his country's worsening crisis.
Meanwhile, Pakistan's PM has promised aid distribution will be transparent, after criticism of the government's handling of the two-week-old crisis.
DISEASE FEARS
NDMA spokesman Ahmed Kamal said: "There can be further devastation as we are expecting two major peaks in the Indus system."
He said places downstream of the Kotri barrage - a flood barrier in Sindh - and areas on either side of the Taunsa barrage in Punjab were likely to take the brunt of this surge.
President Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani are reported to have held an emergency meeting on Thursday night to review the government's much-criticised response.
Mr Zardari made his first visit to the disaster zone on Thursday in an effort to defuse public anger over his handling of the flooding. He toured a relief camp at Sukkur in Sindh.
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