Kate Middleton dress fetches $105,000 at auction

Reuters, London: A dress worn by Prince William's fiancée Kate Middleton at a university fashion show in 2002 which reportedly sparked the royal's interest in his bride-to-be fetched 65,000 pounds ($105,000) on Thursday.

Including commission, the see-through mesh slip dress designed by Charlotte Todd sold for 78,000 pounds ($126,000). It had been expected to fetch 8-10,000 pounds.

Todd, who was in the saleroom at auctioneers Kerry Taylor, said she planned to put the proceeds of the sale toward buying a house with her husband.

She also told Reuters that the success of the dress at auction made her think she may return to designing.

Earlier, Todd had said: "If it is true that my design helped change the Prince's interest in Kate from platonic to romantic as has been reported, then I am pleased to have played a part -- however minor.

"I never would have imagined as I sat knitting this piece that one day it would be so important."

The buyer was in the saleroom but did not give his name.

Middleton and William, who met at St. Andrews University in Scotland in 2001, are to marry in London's Westminster Abbey on April 29.

UK unemployment total hits 17-year high

AFP, London: The number of unemployed in Britain reached a 17-year high of 2.53 million in the three months to January, official data showed Wednesday.

'The total number of unemployed people increased by 27,000 over the quarter to reach 2.53 million, the highest figure since 1994,' the Office for National Statistics said. That lifted the unemployment rate to 8.0 per cent.

The ONS said the number of unemployed aged 16-24 jumped 30,000 in the three months to January to 974,000, which was the worst figure since records began in 1992.

The claimant count of people registered for unemployment benefits fell unexpectedly by 10,200 in January to 1.45 million, according to the ONS.

That was the biggest drop since June 2010 and took the total number to the lowest level since February 2009.

Market expectations had been for an increase of 1,500 in the claimant count, according to analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires.

Business as usual at Asia’s sushi restaurants

AFP, Singapore: Asian diners are still tucking into sushi at restaurants around the region despite fears that elevated radiation levels in Japan could reach the food chain and contaminate raw ingredients.

In Taiwan's Sushi Express chain, notices informed customers that all seafood was imported before Friday's quake crippled two nuclear plants on Japan's east coast sparking fires and explosions that resulted in radioactivity leaking.

'The current supply and safety of Japanese food is normal,' reads a poster on the front door of its 196 restaurants.

A spokesman for the chain said business had not been affected.

But in Hong Kong, used to health scares of its own, including the 2003 SARS outbreak, William Mark, president of the Federation of Hong Kong Restaurant Owners, said he was concerned that business would suffer.

'We're very worried,' Mark told the AFP.

'The concerns about radioactivity have a long-reaching psychological impact. There is nothing we can do. We're hoping for the best, but we don't see any silver lining in the near future.'

Elsewhere, restaurants in Singapore, India and Vietnam serving Japanese cuisine said Wednesday their businesses seemed to be unaffected by the deepening nuclear crisis, at least for now.

Singapore's largest sushi chain Sakae Holdings said customers were still flocking to its outlets, which serve sushi and sashimi on moving conveyor belts as well as popular Japanese cuisine such as teppanyaki.

'So far I think we've been seeing business as usual,' a spokeswoman for the firm told the AFP.

Customers appeared to be satisfied with assurances that the city's food regulator, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority, would screen incoming Japanese produce.

The nuclear crisis deepened Wednesday with another fire at the Fukushima plant, fears a reactor containment vessel may have been damaged, and a radiation spike that forced the temporary evacuation of workers.

Chief Japanese government spokesman Yukio Edano reported a sudden and brief rise in radiation levels at the facility.

In India, which also instituted checks on food imports from Japan, business remained brisk at Japanese supermarket Yamato-Ya.

'People are still buying our fresh fish and seafood,' Mukesh Rai, store accountant, told the AFP.

The store is well-known in New Delhi and imports seafood and packaged meat from Japan.

Japanese restaurants in Vietnam were similarly unaffected.

'We import notably Kobe beef and certain fish from Japan, whose safety is checked well before importation,' said Pham Minh Huyen, sales manager at Japanese restaurant Saigon Sakura in central Hanoi.

 

Japan faces 5-year road to reconstruction

Reuters, Amsterdam: Japan will take at least five years to reconstruct its earthquake and tsunami afflicted regions as it balances the need to rebuild houses, roads and power grids with planning for disaster-proof infrastructure.

As the world's third largest construction market, Japan has the resources, skills and social cohesiveness required to rebuild quickly, but that the disaster will spur it to think even harder about urban planning and protection, experts say.

'Reconstruction after the 1995 Kobe earthquake in Japan took a bit less than five years, I would expect reconstruction here to last five years,' said Abhas Jha, programme leader at the East Asia disaster risk management unit of the World Bank.

The world's third-largest economy, already saddled with public debt double the size of its $5 trillion output, must rebuild its infrastructure — from roads and rail to power and ports — on a scale not seen since World War Two.

Some cost estimates put the recovery and reconstruction bill at $180 billion, or 3 per cent of Japan's annual economic output, but the World Bank's Jha cautioned that such initial numbers usually get revised.

'This is a disaster of once in 100 or 200 years,' said Hirokazu Anai, senior analyst at JP Morgan Securities in Japan. 'This will force us to change the thinking of infrastructure and safety regulations and that will take time.'

The extension of damage from the 9.0-magnitude quake is still unclear. Planned blackouts including in the capital city of Tokyo aimed at saving energy in the wake of crisis at quake-hit nuclear plants are delaying economic activities as well.

Anai said it might take at least three months to be able to rebuild minimal roads to distribute water, food, and fuel to the quake-hit north-eastern Japan, with some towns completely wiped out by the tsunami. After that, the construction of temporary homes for survivors begins before starting a real rebuilding process, he added.

The rebuilding will give a short-term jolt to Japan's construction industry, which faces a bleak future of declining population, slow economic growth and high public debt that hampers future investment in major infrastructure projects.

This will buoy Japan's construction groups such as Kajima Corp and Taisei Corp as well as engineers who specialise in seismic — and increasingly tsunami — protection.

The market is also likely to keep an eyen on Penta-Ocean Construction, which specialise in shoreline and river protection work.

But the quake could also cool interest in investing in Japan and is likely to hurt corporate capital spending in the construction sector in the coming months, analysts said.

While the short-term needs of the population, from sanitation to a reliable power supply, will have to be quickly addressed, social planning takes longer, said David Alexander, professor of disaster management at the University of Florence.

'Few are the cases where reconstruction takes less than five years, because it's a case of not just physically doing it but also planning it, which requires things such as geotechnical surveys and sorting out land ownership,' he said on Tuesday.

Standard & Poor's said on Tuesday that Japan's central government will play a major funding role in the reconstruction drive but that local governments will also need to finance the efforts with their own bond issues.

'Research seems to show that building in safety into new investments adds about 5 to 7 per cent over the regular costs, but you more than make that up in terms of future reconstructions costs,' Jha said.

But the government will need to be careful not to make devastated regions too reliant on the construction sector.

'It is good practice not to have a boom and bust situation in which the only motor of the local economy is the construction industry. Reconstruction can finish without any other viable themes for the local economy,' Alexander said.

 

Japan earthquake loss likely to hit up to $200b

Reuters, Tokyo: Japan's devastating earthquake and deepening nuclear crisis could result in losses of up to $200 billion for the world's third largest economy but the global impact remains hard to gauge five days after a massive tsunami battered the northeast coast.

As Japanese officials scrambled to avert a catastrophic meltdown at a nuclear plant 240 km (150 miles) north of the capital Tokyo, economists took stock of the damage to buildings, production and consumer activity.

The disaster is expected to hit Japanese output sharply over the coming months, but economists warned it could result in a deeper slowdown if power shortages prove significant and prolonged, delaying or even scotching the 'v-shaped' recovery that followed the 1995 Kobe earthquake.

Most believe the direct economic hit will total between 10-16 trillion yen ($125-$200 billion), resulting in a contraction in second quarter gross domestic product but a sharp rebound in the latter half of 2011 as reconstruction investment boosts growth.

'The economic cost of the disaster will be large,' economists at JP Morgan said. 'There has been substantial loss to economic resources, and economic activity will be impeded by infrastructure damages (like power outages) in the weeks or months ahead.'

Japanese stocks suffered their worst two-day rout since the 1987 crash on Monday and Tuesday, losing a whopping $626 billion in value, before rebounding 5.7 per cent on Wednesday as hedge funds rushed to cover short positions.

But traders remained skittish, swayed by each new development at the stricken Fukushima power plant and alert to signs Japanese companies and insurers could sell sizeable foreign assets and repatriate funds to cover the costs of the nuclear crisis, quake and tsunami.

High-yield bonds and US Treasuries top the list of vulnerable assets should the triple disaster of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear breakdown prompt Japanese investors to bring overseas funds back home, analysts say.

Although the damage to infrastructure has been severe, some of the biggest risks to the economy may come from indirect market consequences of the disaster, such as a rise in the Japanese yen.

The yen surged to an all-time high against the dollar after the Kobe earthquake in 1995 as Japanese firms pulled funds home. The dollar has fallen 3 per cent against the yen since the disaster and is now close to the low hit after Kobe.

The direction of the yen could have a big impact on Japanese carmakers like Toyota Motor Co, Nissan Motor and Honda Motor, which build between 22 and 38 per cent of their cars at home.

HSBC chief economist Stephen King said it was still too early to put a figure on the economic costs as the scale of the disaster was not yet clear.

The area of Japan affected by the tsunami produces around 4.1 per cent of the country's GDP, suggesting first-round economic effects could be limited, he said. But with the fate of the Fukushima nuclear reactors still unclear, Japan may not have felt the full force of the disaster yet.

'At this stage, it's too early to come up with meaningful estimates of the overall impact of the terrible events in Japan,' King wrote in a research note.

 

5 killed in city road mishaps in Dhaka

Five people were killed and one was injured in road accidents at Demra, Uttara, Jatrabari and Chawkbazar in the capital on Friday night and Saturday, hospital sources and the police said.

At Jatrabari, a bus ran over Billal Hossain, 45, who was waiting to catch a bus, about 9:45pm. He was taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital in a critical condition and he died there about 10:30pm.

At Chawkbazar, a truck hit a motorcycle from behind at Sowarighat about 3:00pm, critically injuring two of the three motorcycle riders, Seba Akhter Nasrin, 5, and Asif.

Nasrin was taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital where she died. Asif was admitted to Mitford Hospital, the family said.

The motorbike rider, Abu Miah Ahmed, also uncle of Nasrin, said the truck had hit the motorcycle when they were going to Sirajdikhan in Munshiganj.

No case was filed and no post-mortem was conducted at the request of the family.

The police found a woman, aged about 50 dead, dead on Konapara Road at Demra about 2:00am.

Police subinspector Mohammad Aiyub said they had found a young man, aged about 25, dead in front of the Matuail Maternity and Children Hospital at Jatrabari about 1:30am. The police said all the three were run over by vehicles on the day.

The bodies of the two killed at Demra and Jatrabari were sent to Mitford Hospital for post-mortem examinations

The police found a woman, aged about 40, dead near the BNS Centre at Uttara at about 10:30pm on Friday.

The body of the woman, killed at Uttara was sent to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue for a post-mortem examination.

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Some ministers, AL MPs grabbing khas land: Kader

Ruling Awami League presidium member Obaidul Kader said on Saturday that some ministers and ruling party lawmakers grabbed khas land and established control over their respective constituencies.

He accused them of behaving like 'lords'.

'There is a limit to people's desire. But some of the ministers and MPs have endless needs. They are establishing control over their constituencies as if

They are the lords of their areas,' Kader said.

Speaking at a discussion held at Dhaka Reporters' Unity organised by Bangabandhu Academy, he warned them saying that 'the people would give a befitting reply through the ballot if they do not stop such activities.'

He requested the government to be aware about the activities of 'some of the ruling party men' as they were tarnishing its image.

Foyez Uddin Mia, vice- president of Dhaka city Awami League and MA Karim, organising secretary of Krishak League, attended the session chaired by academy president Hemayet Uddin, Bir Bikram.

Kader said that opposition BNP was planning to return to parliament to save their membership and secure their facilities.

'BNP is not coming to the House for the sake of people, rather they will come to secure their membership, foreign trips and allowances,' he added.

He requested the opposition party not to call the government illegal.

'Do not call the election and parliament illegal. If you say so, the opposition party will also be considered illegal,' said the AL leader.

He also called for fixing the functions and scope of caretaker governments so that they cannot cross the limits.

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Ansars member shot dead in Dhaka city

A member of Ansar Battalion was shot dead by a gang of assailants at a check post at Dal Patti in the city's Sutrapur area on Saturday night, the police said.

The deceased, Anisur Rahman, 35, was a member of Lima-4 battalion, led by Sutrapur police assistant sub-inspector Ashraf Ali.

The police and hospital sources said three assailants on a motorbike opened fire on the law enforcers at the check post in front of Dubbur shop at Dal Patti at about 10:30pm, leaving the battalion member critically injured.

Ashraf Ali said that they had signalled to the speedy motorbike to stop at the check post but the assailants defying the signal opened fire on the law enforcers.

Anis was rushed to Dhaka Medical College Hospital where he was declared dead.

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HM Ershad threatens to quit ruling alliance

The Jatiya Party chairman, Hussein Muhammad Ershad, on Saturday warned that his party might quit the ruling alliance if they were not properly evaluated.

Addressing a meeting of the presidents and general secretaries of the party's district and upazila units and front organisations at the

Institute of Diploma Engineers Bangladesh, Ershad accused the Awami League-led government of not giving Jatiya Party lawmakers and leaders the importance they deserved.

He said that his party had joined the alliance at a critical juncture to save the country, but the party had been ignored since the alliance assumed power.

'We have not been given our due share in the government,' do not get cooperation from the government and our suggestions and recommendations are not considered,' the JP chief said.

Ershad said the party was taking opinions of its leaders at different levels over the matter before taking a decision on whether the party should stay in the alliance.

He also urged his party activists to get prepared for the next general elections.

Opposing the National Women Development Policy, Ershad said that the people would not accept any policy or law that would contradicted Shariah or Islamic laws.

JP presidium members Kazi Zafar Ahmed and GM Kader, also civil aviation minister, and secretary general Kazi Firoz Rashid, among others, addressed the meeting.

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Serve in villages or quit job: Sheikh Hasina asks doctors

The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, on Saturday came down heavily on doctors and asked them to quit jobs if they do not attend their duties in villages.

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'If you want to be in service you must perform your duty. It cannot be acceptable that you will draw your salary but won't do your duty months after months,' she said.

The prime minister was addressing the inaugural ceremony of the 19^th Bangladesh Medical Convention and Special AGM of the Bangladesh Medical Association at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the city.

The prime minister also censured the mindset of the doctors for not paying their income tax. 'This is really disappointing,' she said, adding: 'I don't understand what benefit they get by not paying income tax.'

Hasina said if the tax was paid it went to the government exchequer and the money was used for the welfare of all.

She said not only doctors all would have to shun the mentality of tax evasion.

Hasina requested eligible citizens to pay their income taxes for larger interests of the nation.

Without mentioning any name, she said not only commoners, internationally renowned citizens of the country also do not hesitate to dodge taxes.

'We have also seen how internationally renowned persons also misuse the donations they got from abroad and evade taxes,' the prime minister said.

Hasina said none should dodge taxes as ultimately nation suffers from such practice.

The prime minister cited example of Begum Fazilatunnesa Hospital Project for which Bangabandhu Memorial Trust has paid taxes worth Tk 1.89 crore.

'If we wish, we would have tax exemption. But, we didn't,' she said.

On doctors' negligence to practise in villages, Hasina said when she talked to MPs or local people; it was a common allegation that doctors were very indifferent to their duties in remote hospitals.

'Major part of your academic expenses is met by people's taxes. Your aim in life should be serving the poor people in rural areas1,' she said.

The prime minister was also critical of the physicians for their 'attitude' towards certain remarks made by BMA secretary general Md Sharfuddin Ahmed at the function.

Sharfuddin requested young doctors to render free service at least for one day a week in their respective villages, but the doctors present at the function did not appreciated it.

'Your silence has shocked me….I did not expect such behaviour from you,' Hasina said.

The prime minister requested the doctors to give their best efforts to ensure quality health services for the common people.

She said the government would appoint 14,000 health assistants and over 500 doctors soon while 4,331 doctors, 1,747 nurses and 6,391 health assistants have already been appointed.

The prime minister assured that scarcity of teachers at government medical colleges would shortly be met.

The prime minister requested senior physicians to conduct both fundamental and practical research on medical science.

Health minister AFM Ruhal Haq, state minister for health Majibur Rahman Fakir, PM's adviser Syed Mudasser Ali and BMA president Mahmdud Hasan addressed the function.

The prime minister at the function also distributed BMA Award, 2011 among professor Mazhar Ali Kadri (posthumous), professor Syeda Firoza Begum (posthumous), Mujibur Rahman (posthumous), National professor Nurul Islam, professor Md Sohrab Ali, professor Rashid-e-Habib, professor Kazi Shahidul Alam and professor Pran Gopal Datta.

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8 killed in boat capsize in Narsingdi

Eight people, including three of a family, were killed and seven went missing as an engine boat capsized in the River Meghna in the Narsingdi district headquarters on Friday night.

The deceased are Hasan Miah, 50, his wife Setara Begum, 45, and grand-daughter Barsha Begum, 12, of Nabipur, Atker Hossain, 40, Aleya Begum, 35, and Selim Miah, 12, of Dilarpur, Faruk, 25, of Chhagariapara and Abul Hossain of Jamalia Kandi in the upazila.

Witnesses and survivors said that the boat headed for Jamaliakandi with 30 passengers on board sank in the river at Balughat after being caught in a storm about 7:00pm.

At least 15 passengers managed to swim ashore, survivors said. Local people and the police found five bodies in the river at night.

Fire Brigade and Civil Service divers later recovered three more bodies on Saturday morning. Rescue operations were under way, the police said.

Relatives of the people who went missing gathered on the river bank and some of them joined the rescue operation.

The Narsingdi deputy commissioner, Amrito Baroi, said they had handed over the bodies to the families for burial.

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BNP to bolster organisational strength for movement

Advisers to the BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, on Saturday suggested bolstering organisational strength for waging a tougher anti-government movement.

The first-ever meeting of the chairperson's advisory council also suggested holding of the advisory council's meeting on a regular basis, according to several advisers who attended the meeting with Khaleda.

'At the meeting, the advisers gave their opinions on different national issues,' an adviser told New Age after the meeting.

The meeting held at Khaleda's Gulshan office spanned about two hours starting at 8:30pm.

The advisers also spoke on how to strengthen the organisation as well as expedite the anti-government movement, meeting sources said.

They suggested that the party should be more vocal against the government policies and decisions in different sectors and on the basis of specific data.

Khaleda Zia discussed with her advisers the party's 'possible course of action' against the backdrop of the 'deepening crisis' in every sector.

'The country is passing through a grave constitutional crisis while the government is playing hide-and-seek over the issue and the BNP chairperson sought opinions from her advisers on the burning issues,' Khaleda's press secretary Maruf Kamal Khan told newsmen after the meeting began.

'It is not clear to the people under which constitution the country is running. Against this backdrop, the chairperson held the meeting with her advisers,' he added.

Several advisers, who attended the meeting, told New Age that socio-economic condition, price spiral, deteriorating law and order, stock plunge and the government's failure in realising Bangladesh's interests from the neighbouring countries were discussed.

The advisers gave their opinions and suggestions on the issues and the chairperson, after reviewing their suggestions, would meet with the party's standing committee members to decide the next course of action, meeting sources said.

Maruf said a meeting of the party's standing committee would take place soon.

All but six members on the advisory council attended the meeting.

Khandaker Mahbubuddin Ahmad, Harun-ar Rashid Khan Munnu, Reaz Rahman, Mosaddak Ali, Ahmed Azam Khan and Iqbal

Hasan Mahmud Tuku did not turn up.

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BSF agrees to avoid India-Bangladesh border killing

India has decided to introduce non-lethal weapons to prevent killing of unarmed Bangladeshi civilians along the India-Bangladesh border.

The decision was taken at the five-day director general- level meeting of the Border Guard Bangladesh and the Border Security Force of India, which concluded at the BSF headquarters  in New Delhi Saturday.

BSF DG Raman Srivastava told journalists at a joint briefing that BSF personnel would be armed with non-lethal weapons at certain designated points along the border on experimental basis.  If this is found successful in bringing down the number of casualties, such weapons will be given to the entire 4,096 km border, Srivastava added.

BGB director general Major General Rafiqul Islam, while referring to the killing of innocent civilians by the BSF, requested his counterpart to follow international rules 'primarily to avoid' firings that kill innocent people.

He was of the view that people found guilty should be arrested and brought to book. He said killing of innocent people by firing could not resolve issues.

Mentioning the killing of Felani, a young Bangladeshi girl, by the BSF, Major General Islam, however, admitted that following the protest by Dhaka such kind of firing has not taken place so far. 'We see a marked improvement,' he said adding 'we want a total stop on this issue.'

The Border Guard Bangladesh and India have decided for the first time to introduce a Joint 'Treat' ceremony on Benapole/Petrapole International border on the pattern of one that already exists between India and Pakistan at a place called Attari in Amritsar in the state of Punjab. The India-Pakistan Joint retreat is a huge attraction.

The DG BSF said a joint committee of BSF and BGB would go into the details and make appropriate recommendations for the proposed ceremony. The same will be implemented subject to approval by both the governments.

The BSF chief expressed the hope that it would be a huge tourist attraction from both sides of the border.

The joint retreat is a ceremony where national flags of the two countries would be lowered amidst playing of national anthems. The joint retreat ceremony is part of 'Confidence Building Measures'.

During the five-day meeting, the two sides discussed issues relating to implementation of joint border management plan, trans-border crimes, firing on Indo-Bangladesh border, border fencing, smuggling of fake Indian currency notes, narcotics and Phensidyl and trafficking of women and children.

Security-related issues, joint survey in adverse possession and head count in the enclaves and confidence building measures also came up for discussion, a joint statement said.

On the issue of death of Bangladesh nationals, both sides agreed to take effective steps to reduce such incidents due to firing on the border. On security-related issues, both sides reiterated their commitment to continuing active mutual cooperation, the statement said.

Both border chiefs agreed to take all-out steps to prevent cross-border crimes, illegal border crossings, drugs and human trafficking.

Raman Srivastava termed the just concluded Border Coordination Conference the most cordial meeting the BGB and BSF 'had ever had in the past.' He said the decisions taken during the conference would have far reaching effects. He said relations between the BSF and BGB were closer now and two sides had excellent understanding on all issues.

Major General Rafiqul Islam noted that they had 'absolute understanding' and 'We understand each other better than before.' The two sides also agreed to increase field-level meetings and commanders to hold weekly meeting for more inter-action.

During the conference, both sides also agreed to complete the joint inspection of the remaining twenty patches out of 46-unfenced priority patches proposed by India within 150 yards of Indian border.

The BGB DG said during the conference Bangladesh had submitted a list of persons involved in drug business and names of criminals and anti-state elements to the BSF authority.

The BSF chief also submitted a list of criminals who are involved in smuggling of fake Indian currency notes alleging that they have been operating from Bangladesh. He, however, admitted that authority in Bangladesh arrested a criminal group in Bangladesh indulging in fake currency business.

During the meeting, the Indian side offered training facilities to Bangladesh. A team from Bangladesh is likely to visit India in this regard.

The 20-member Bangladesh team left Delhi Saturday afternoon for Kolkata on way to Dhaka.

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