Over 5000 Suspended

By Indika Sri Aravinda-Sunday, April 05, 2015

Over 5,000 employees contracted by the two companies involved in the Port City Project, have been suspended from their contracts with immediate effect. The Sunday Leader learns that 5,924 workers attached to the two Chinese companies have had their contracts suspended.

A media spokesperson from the CHEC Port City Colombo (Pvt) Limited confirmed the suspension of the contracts this week.

Accordingly, 900 Chinese and local employees attached to the China Nadar Company and 5,024 employees attached to CHEC Port City Colombo Limited have been suspended from their contracts. Officials at the Chinese companies said that they had to take the decision after the Government failed to give an assurance on recommencing the Port City project.

Sources said that 12 Sri Lankan executive level officials who worked at two floors of the Central Point Building and 12 Chinese, Swedish and American officials have also been suspended from work. When asked to comment, the Chief Sales Officer at CHEC Port City Colombo Limited, Liang Thow Ming said that the delay on the part of the Government to give the green light for work on the Port City project to resume, resulted in the decision to suspend several employees involved in the project.

The government is expected to take another nine months or even a year to decide whether they would recommence the project. The Chinese company has invested about 70 per cent of the project cost via loans. Due to abrupt suspension of the project, the relevant companies have lost approximately Rs. 500 million a day and since they have to pay for the contract companies and their employees engaged in the project work, they have decided to suspend the employees, he said. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ajith P. Perera, when contacted by The Sunday Leader, said that the government will decide on the future of the project based on the report of the Committee appointed in this regard.

KP UNDER 24-HOUR SURVEILLANCE

                             War Crimes in Sri Lanka-genocide

BY SULOCHANA RAMIAH MOHAN-2015-04-05 

A fine example of 'expecting the unexpected' occurred when Ceylon Today went to cover the Senchcholai Children's Home in Iranaimadu, Kilinochchi, run by Selvarasa Pathmanathan/ Kumaran Pathmanathan or plain and simple 'KP' – the probable last man alive in the leadership level of the LTTE proper. Ceylon Today reached Senchcholai imagining that it would be one of those fun- filled children's home and KP would be among them, after 'being released' by the former UPFA government, and that he is hale and hearty travelling around and 'rich' too. But it was not so!

Kp Under 24-Hour Surveillance by Thavam Ratna

Rajapaksha regime replies to Kabir Hashim's allegations

 

Sunday, 05 April 2015

Minister Kabir Hashim has made certain allegations about several infrastructure projects initiated by the previous government. The minister revealed that the cost of the consultancy services alone for the Matara-Hambantota highway was Rs 124 million per km.

By responding to the allegation, Rohan Welivita, media coordinating secretary to former President Mahinda Rajapaksa says the fee for the consultancy service was in general range.

He explains 'After evaluation by a Cabinet Appointed Consultancy Procurement Committee and subsequent cabinet approval, the consultancy contract for the Matara-Hambantota highway was awarded to a foreign firm at a fee of Rs 11billion. The total construction cost of the highway was Rs 242 billion. Accordingly, the consultancy fee is around 4.5% of the project cost. The consultancy fee for building contracts is usually around 4-8% of the project cost'

The response of former media coordinating secretary as follows.
Clarification regarding the allegations made by Minister Kabir Hashim

At a press conference held last Thursday 2 April 2015, Minister Kabir Hashim made certain allegations about several infrastructure projects initiated by President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government. Minister Hashim said that the average cost for a two lane highway in 2010 was Rs. 75 million per kilometre but that the per kilometre cost of the Lunugamwehera-Kataragama road had been Rs. 259 million, the Kalugama-Vilkatupotha Road Rs. 100 million, the Kegalle By Pass road Rs. 722 million, and the Jaffna-Punalai-Pt Pedro road Rs. 318 million. The minister also said that the cost of the consultancy services alone for the Matara-Hambantota highway was Rs. 124 million per km and that a contractor who undertook the construction of the Kalugama-Vilkatupotha road for Rs. 2,100 million had sub-contracted it out for Rs. 1,600 million thus making an undue profit of Rs. 500 million.

Minister Hashim characterised the above mentioned instances as evidence of large scale corruption. At the same press conference, minister Eran Wickremeratne said that former president Mahinda Rajapaksa is directly responsible for these purported irregularities. We wish to respond to these allegations one by one.
Though minister Hashim says that the average cost of a two lane highway in the year 2010 was Rs. 75 million per km, road projects are not generic products like sugar or dhal which can have an average world market price. Every road project is unique and the cost will differ due to various factors. Building a highway elevated on columns across marshy land will increase costs. The levelling of hills, blasting through rock, filling in of marshy or low lying land, the building of bridges and culverts, the width of the road and the number of lanes, the cost of acquiring land etcetera increases or decreases the cost by large amounts. The facts in relation to the particular road projects mentioned by minister Hashim are as follows:

The Lunugamvehera- Katharagama gravel road was upgraded to a 17.2 meter wide four lane highway. The cost of the 13.82 km road was Rs 3,584 million. The cost includes four bridges one of which is 150 meters long, and 30 culverts in addition to the expenses associated with earth excavation, embankment filling and the construction of concrete retaining walls etc. Expressways and highways are planned to take care of the growing traffic demands of the future as well.

The Kalugama-Vilkatupotha road is 22 km in length and the cost of rehabilitating this two lane road was Rs 2,100 million. The existing road was widened and a section of it raised in order to prevent flooding. Excavation, embankment construction, the widening of existing culverts, construction of new culverts, construction of concrete retaining walls etc added to the cost.

The Kegalle By-Pass road was built to ease traffic congestion in Kegalle town. Land had to be acquired from private owners to build this completely new 2.4 km long, two lane 12.5 meter wide road at a cost of Rs. 1,689 million. This road featured a 60 meter long, 15meter wide bridge and 14 culverts of various types, 317 meters of reinforced concrete retaining walls ranging in height from 1.5 to 12 meters, 330 meters of Gabion walls (stones held together by wire mesh)ranging in height from 2 to 9 meters, and over 1.4 km of concrete drains. This road passed through a hilly area with low lying marshy land which made excavation as well as the building of embankments a major part of the project.

A length of 1.54 km of the Jaffna-Punalai-Point Pedro road was reconstructed at a cost of Rs 470 million. The existing road was widened to four lanes with a width of 19.2meters and a 2 meter wide paved sidewalk on either side of the road. Two km of the 5 meter wide Maviddipuram- Keeramalai road was also reconstructed under the same contract. Construction materials had to be transported from as far away as Medawachchiya and Vavuniya and earth, gravel and sand from Kilinochchi resulting in higher costs.

After evaluation by a Cabinet Appointed Consultancy Procurement Committee and subsequent cabinet approval, the consultancy contract for the Matara-Hambantota highway was awarded to a foreign firm at a fee of Rs 11billion. The total construction cost of the highway was Rs 242 billion. Accordingly, the consultancy fee is around 4.5% of the project cost. The consultancy fee for building contracts is usually around 4-8% of the project cost. For example, the consultancy fee for the JICA funded segment of the Outer Circular Highway was 5.8% of the project cost and for the JICA funded New Kelani bridge it was 5.7% of the project cost. The project consultant designs the project, sets the standards and supervises its implementation from start to finish. Given the important role played by the consultants a fee of 4-8% is not excessive. If the new government initiates any large projects they too will have to pay the same percentages as consultancy fees as no large project can be started without a consultant.

Even standard practices in the construction industry are portrayed as instances of abuse by the previous government. In the construction industry, every firm employs sub-contractors to do various aspects of the work while retaining an important part for itself. The responsibility for the project finally lies with the principle contractor. There is no contractor in the world that does not employ subcontractors to a greater or lesser extent. Minister Hashim said that the main contractor of theKalugama-Vilkatupotha road project who had obtained the contract for Rs. 2,100 million had sub-contracted it for Rs 1,600 million and earned an undue profit of Rs 500 million. The main contractor can sub-contract some of the work to third parties but the responsibility for the project lies with the main contractor and he cannot sub-contract that to third parties.

Infrastructure projects are costly and complicated and it is always possible to make various allegations that may seem plausible to the general public who have no awareness of the complexities involved. All costs associated with large projects are scrutinised by technical evaluation committees and cabinet appointed tender boards and everything has to finally get cabinet approval. Our fear is that given the absurd lengths to which the present government is taking this campaign of misinformation, a prejudice against all development projects may be created in the minds of the public - which will finally be to the detriment of future generations in this country.

While the government is engaged in this exercise of vilifying their predecessors with dubious accusations, the development work that was started by the previous government has ground to a halt. Thousands of people are losing their jobs and are not in a position even to celebrate the New Year. We believe the present government should look to the future, instead of wasting time concocting various stories about the past.

Rohan Welivita
Media Coordinating Secretary
to former President MahindaRajapaksa
077 3831849

People Unable To Celebrate New Year Due To Sirisena Govt Actions: MR

April 5, 2015

While criticizing the various corruption charges that have been made against him and some members of his regime, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa says the arbitrary actions of the present government that have resulted in a halt of the development activities initiated during his tenure, has put hundreds of families in dire conditions, unable to event celebrate the upcoming New Year due to poor economic conditions.

Mahinda’s New year 2014

Referring to the allegations made by Minister Kabir Hashim last week concerning several infrastructure projects initiated by the Rajapaksa regime, MR’s office has released a statement in which he has said the present government’s habit of making accusations has reached such absurd levels that they have even started finding faults with standard practices followed, labeling them as financial misappropriations and abuses.

“The government should think of the future of these people without wasting time spinning tales about the past,” he said.

The former President states the various infrastructure projects can be manipulated in order to make it seem as if corruption has occurred as for the for a layman with no knowledge of the complexities involved in handing out the contracts, it can seem convincing.

“Unlike matter like sugar or dhal, road construction projects do not have generic market prices. Every project is unique and the expenses can differ due to various factors,” he has noted in his statement adding, “The present campaign carried out by the government to paint a wrong picture about the development projects initiated during my tenure might create a negative impression in the minds of the masses that would be detrimental to the future of this country.”

Strengths and fragilities of Jihadism

A primer on leading "Salafie Jihadist" movements

by Kumar David-April 4, 2015, 3:55 pm 

The literature on Islamic Jihadism (also called Salafi Jihadism) is huge; more on the web as an outpouring of opinion pieces, rather than in print, as movements rise and decline, split or fuse and disappear as new ones surface. Al-Qaeda seems no longer to be in command and the Taliban only has regional clout in Afghanistan and the mountains of Pakistan though army sponsorship endows it with alarm for India. This rapid turnover and rise and fall of fortunes of jihadists motivate this taking stock exercise at the end of Q1 of 2015. It is not my intention to compete with full length books which I have mined, nor can I be as up to date as the staccato reporting of wire services. Rather I blend ideological exploration with an update of the state of play in the troubled world of Islam.

Strengths and Fragilities of Jihadism by Thavam Ratna

Excuses won’t fly when unregulated drones go wild

By Nadia Fazlulhaq-Sunday, April 05, 2015

A remotely-piloted aircraft the size and weight of a laptop could malfunction in flight and kill or severely injure someone. Should such craft, popularly known as drones, be allowed over populated areas and who could be called to account for an accident caused by hardware or software failure?

A concerned public is wondering whether a regulator should step in and lay down the rules. There is no guarantee that drone owners are competent to fly them and that the craft are airworthy.

According to the Civil Aviation Authority, approval is needed for remotely-piloted aircraft weighing more than 3 kilogrammes. Pix by Amila Gamage

There is no authority to assure the public that imported drones, including cheap substandard Chinese ones and locally-assembled craft conform to product standards. What are the product standards, if they exist in Sri Lanka at all?

Sri Lanka could get a handle on the situation by examining the European Aviation Safety Agency’s regulatory framework released last month. The agency has called for progressive and proportionate regulation. They propose safe distances from people, disallow flights above crowds and above 150 metres, and require that drones be flown within sight of the operator.

The agency outlines three categories of operations and regulations for each category. Prudently, they believe that toys weighing less than 500g should not be regulated.Use of drones is widespread in Europe. In Sri Lanka they have taken off in the post-2009 years. Unmanned aircraft of all types have been seen hovering over political rallies, are used to capture weddings, deployed for tourism promotion activities, and film making.
The use of drones by individuals also opens a whole new debate on individual rights to privacy and even insurance cover.

There is no way to eliminate risks entirely, but model aircraft hobbyists and authorised importers of drones favor a system of registration to begin with.

And for good reason.

Use of drones by civilians has raised fears over national security and public safety. Drones could be used in illegal surveillance, attacks, and reckless use near airports can endanger passenger flights.

This week, five Chinese and a Sri Lankan were arrested for flying a drone opposite the World Trade Centre in Fort.

In China, anyone flying a drone weighing more than 7 kilos must get a license from the Civil Aviation Administration. As yet, there are no comprehensive regulations on commercial drones.

The Officer in Charge of the Fort Police, Chief Inspector S. Guneratne said the Chinese were released after they produced a document from the Ministry of Defence. According to him, the Chinese were tourists being escorted by a guide.

“If they are using a drone over the city, especially in Fort and surrounding areas, it is necessary to obtain clearance from the Defence Ministry. We have copies of their passports and a copy of the clearance document,” he said.

Drones equipped with cameras available in Sri Lanka range in price from Rs.50,000 to Rs 1 million-plus. Some carry 5D professional grade cameras.

Cheap, China-made drones sell for between Rs.17,000 and Rs 25,000.

Police Spokesman, Assistant Superintendent of Police, Ruwan Gunasekara, said there are no laws requiring drone operators to register, but Ministry of Defence approval would be needed for flights in former high security zones and in the city of Colombo.Police could act in the event of security concerns, or public nuisance, he said.

A senior Customs official said Telecommunications Regulatory Commission approval is needed for remotely-controlled equipment.

However, the Sunday Times learns that many craft are locally assembled using imported parts including cameras made by American adventure camera maker GoPro.

A Telecommunications Regulatory Commission official said licences are issued for remotely- controlled model aircraft and toys. But the commission is only concerned with operating frequencies.

According to the Civil Aviation Authority, approval is needed for remotely-piloted aircraft weighing more than 3 kilogrammes.

Air Force Spokesman, Wing Commander Gihan Seneviratne, said the Defence Ministry consults the force to inspect and make recommendations . “There are many requests to use hexacopters for filming,” he said. Weight and size are regulated by civil aviation authorities, he added.

“The Air Force can get directly get involved if there is enemy activity or a possible threat to national security,” he said.

Model aircraft enthusiasts favor licensing and training for owners and operators. Gihan Panditaratne, who owns a hobby store and is an agent and distributor of remotely-controlled model planes and helicopters, said: “It is important to make it compulsory to have an agreement with the customer including a copy of the national identity card and contact details. The CAA and Air Force should also conduct frequent training on use and safety [of drones]. ‘’

A dying battery could cause a crash. “With a weight of about two kilogrammes, a crashing drone can kill a human,’’ he cautioned. “We get many crashed drones for repairs.’’

Sub-standard remotely-controlled aircraft and amateurs flying them could be a dangerous combination.

“When a drone crashed into an army camp in Jaffna, we were able to track down the owner. It is important to have a registration system. No one would want an unmanned drone at a private party, or a hotel, or in extreme cases carry drugs into a prison,’’ Panditaratne said. He also suggests strengthening privacy laws.

He said hexacopters fitted with cameras were first used at political rallies after they were imported by a leading sports channel. Now, these are widely used in some political gatherings.

“There are multi-rotor copters such as quad, hex and octo [copters],’’ he said explaining that these have cameras with image stabilisers.

Ruwan Costa, a pioneer in using camera-equipped drones for tourism promotion, points out that drones can be put to good use, but is concerned about sub-standard ones. Such craft can be used not just for commercial purposes but also during natural disasters, rescue missions, documentaries and research, conservation, wild life mapping, wild life conservation, and even oil and gas exploration, he explained.

He also suggests that the civil aviation regulator formulate rules for drone operators.Bureaucrats should wake up to rapid developments in countries including the US, UK and all of Europe. If not, Sri Lanka may end up cleaning up debris left by drones gone wild and sparks could fly.

Kenya claims one of university gunmen is son of government official

Interior ministry says Abdirahim Abdullahi part of al-Shabaab attack in Garissa, as churches across country use armed guards to protect Easter congregation

Survivors of Kenya university massacre reunite with relatives.

Agencies in Garissa-Sunday 5 April 2015

Kenya claims to have identified one of the al-Shabaab gunmen who massacred university students in north-east of the country as the son of a government official, the interior ministry has said. 

Spokesman Mwenda Njoka said Abdirahim Abdullahi was one of the four men who attacked the Garissa University college campus on Thursday, killingalmost 150 people.

“The father had reported to security agents that his son had disappeared from home … and was helping the police try to trace his son by the time the Garissa terror attack happened,” Njoka told Reuters.

The claim came as Kenyan churches used armed guards to protect their Easter congregations. Priests, who have been frequently targeted by Islamists, said they feared churches could be targeted on Easter Sunday.

“We are very concerned about the security of our churches and worshippers, especially this Easter period, and also because it is clear that these attackers are targeting Christians,” Willybard Lagho, a Mombasa-based Catholic priest and chairman of the Coast Interfaith Council of Clerics (CICC), told Reuters.

He added that churches in the port city were hiring armed police and private security guards for mass on Sunday. Christians account for about 83% of Kenya’s population of 44 million.

In Garissa, where four masked al-Shabaab militants stormed a university campus on Thursday, seeking out Christian students to kill while sparing some Muslims, six soldiers guarded the town’s main Christian church and about 100 worshippers before of Sunday mass.

“Nowhere is safe, but here at church you can be with God and console yourself,” said Meli Muasya at the town’s Catholic church. In 2012 masked gunmen killed more than a dozen people in simultaneous gun and grenade raids on two churches in the town.

“We just keep on praying that God can help us, to comfort us in this difficult time,” Dominick Odhiambo, a worshipper told the Associated Press, adding that he planned to abandon his job as a plumber and leave for his hometown because he was afraid.

“Thank you for coming, so many of you,” Bishop Joseph Alessandro said to the congregation. He said some of those who died in Thursday’s attack would have been at the service, and he read condolence messages from around the world.

Al-Shabaab said the assault in Garissa, which is 120 miles (200km) from the Somali border, was revenge for Kenya sending troops into Somalia to fight alongside African Union peacekeepers against the group. 

The group is aligned to al-Qaida and has threatened to turn Kenyan cities “red with blood” with more attacks. Police have stepped up security at shopping malls and public buildings in the capital Nairobi, and in the eastern coastal region which has been prone to al-Shabaab attacks. 

On Sunday, two uniformed police officers armed with AK-47 rifles manned the entrance gate to Nairobi’s Holy Family Basilica Cathedral. More plainclothes officers were inside, said one.

Three private security guards frisked churchgoers with handheld metal detectors, while a fourth guard used a mirror to check for explosives underneath cars.

“Everyone is anxious and you never know what will happen next, but we believe the biggest protector is God and we are praying,” said Samuel Wanje, 27, a youth member at the church. 

Kenya has imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew in four counties along its 435-mile (700km) border with Somalia and deployed helicopters along its coast, which is popular with western tourists and the target of Islamist attacks in the past.

The coastal region’s police chief, Robert Kitur, told Reuters extra uniformed and plainclothes officers had been deployed. “What happened in Garissa must never be seen in Mombasa or anywhere else in the region and country,” he said.

On Saturday, the Kenyan president, Uhuru Kenyatta, vowed harsh measures against the Islamic militants. “We will fight terrorism to the end,” he said in a televised address. “I guarantee that my administration shall respond in the fiercest way possible.”

But criticism is mounting over the response of the Kenyan special forces on Thursday, who, according to scathing reports on Sunday, took at least seven hours to deploy.

Alarm bells rang in Kenya’s elite Recce Company in Nairobi as soon as the first reports of the predawn attack emerged in Garissa. But it would take until just before 2:00 pm until the main team reached the attack site, Kenya’s Nation newspaper said, noting that the first aeroplane carried the interior minister and police chief.

“This is negligence on a scale that borders on the criminal,” the paper said in its editorial, recalling how survivors said “the gunmen, who killed scores of students with obvious relish, took their time”.

The Standard newspaper’s editorial cartoon accused security forces of sleeping on the job, depicting a snake labelled “terror threat” waking a snoring security officer with a bite, as a dog barks, “too little, too late”.

But the foreign minister, Amina Mohamed, defended the security forces’ response, telling AFP on Saturday: “Fighting terrorism … is like being a goalkeeper. You have 100 saves, and nobody remembers them. They remember that one that went past you.”

Councillor's home searched after son held near Syrian border

Police are searching the home of a Labour councillor whose son is one of nine Britons detained in Turkey on suspicion of trying to cross the border into Syria.

FRIDAY 03 APRIL 2015
One of the nine Britons was said to be the son of Shakil Ahmed, who represents the Kingsway ward on Rochdale Borough Council.

His son, Waheed, is among a group of five adults and four children being returned to the UK after they were stopped in Hatay province on Wednesday.
Councillor's Home Searched After Son Held Near Syrian Border by Thavam Ratna

China’s Unsolved Territorial Disputes: Implications for its Ties with Neighbors

by D. S. Rajan

China’s unresolved land and maritime border disputes with its neighbors continue to be a negative factor in bilateral relations among them; undeniably they also complicate the regional situation. What are the root causes of China’s territorial positions? Why certain disputes remain unsettled? Can such situation lead to future conflicts? Has China begun to work towards implementing an economic interests based foreign policy and if so, how that may impact on the country’s so far adopted core-interest based foreign policy resulting in its territorial assertiveness? These are some of the questions the following study attempts to address.

( April 4, 2015, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) China, like India, has five thousand years of civilization and history; in both the countries, the roots of the present can always be traced to the past; a prominent instance in the case of China is the influence of China’s founding Emperor Qin Shihuang, on the thinking of the country’s architect, Mao Zedong.[1] Similar is the linkage seen between China’s traditional ‘’ Tian Xia” (Under the Heaven) concept and its current stand on ‘territorial sovereignty’. The concept considers that all the people and areas where they lived belong to the Chinese Emperor, the Son of God, who is in possession of mandate of heaven; regarding areas which are not under the control of the Emperor, their rulers derived their power from the Emperor. [2] It holds that the biggest political unit for the Chinese is the framework of ‘world/society’, not the ‘country or nation state’.[3]

China’s Unsolved Territorial Disputes Implications for Its Ties With Neighbors by Thavam Ratna

The Saudi Princess and the Multi-Million Dollar Shopping Spree

FROM THE MAGAZINE

APRIL 2015

Saudi princess Maha bint Mohammed bin Ahmad al-Sudairi reportedly tried to stiff some of Paris’s most exclusive boutiques for $20 million and skip out on a $7 million dollar hotel bill. James Reginato follows her trail.

BY JAMES REGINATO

It’s an old gambit—slipping out of a hotel in the dead of night to dodge the bill. But it’s a bit tricky when you have an entourage of 60 people, a balance of more than $7 million, and a fleet of limousines and other vehicles waiting to collect you and your mountains of bags. That was the situation at 3:30 A.M. on May 31, 2012, when Princess Maha bint Mohammed bin Ahmad al-Sudairi reportedly attempted to make something of a run for it at Paris’s five-star Shangri-La Hotel, in the 16th Arrondissement, where she and her retinue had occupied 41 rooms for five months. After a tense standoff that involved calls to high-ranking diplomats and officials, she was allowed to leave, whereupon she checked into the nearby Royal Monceau, owned by Qatar, a friendly neighbor of Saudi Arabia. 

The Saudi Princess and the Multi-Million Dollar Shopping Spree by Thavam Ratna

Bangladesh opposition leader Zia granted bail in graft cases

Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia waves to activists as she arrives for a rally in Dhaka January 20, 2014

DHAKA | BY RUMA PAUL-Sun Apr 5, 2015

(Reuters) - Bangladesh’s former premier and main opposition leader Khaleda Zia was granted bail in two graft cases on Sunday after she appeared before a special court, a potential sign of easing tension in the politically unstable South Asian country.

Zia appeared amid tight security before a special anti-graft court in the capital, Dhaka, to request bail more than a month after warrants for her arrest were issued, her lawyers said.

Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has intensified protests this year in a bid to force Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to step down and hold a new vote under a neutral caretaker administration after a disputed 2014 poll.

The BNP refused to take part in the 2014 general election, saying it was rigged.

Zia’s lawyer, Sanaullah Miah, told reporters she had been unable to appear for previous court hearings “for health and security reasons”. Her next court appearance was set for May 5.

The 69-year-old former leader has been staying in her office in Dhaka’s diplomatic enclave since she was prevented from holding a mass rally on Jan. 5, the first anniversary of the disputed election.

Zia waved to dozens of chanting supporters as she left the court to return to her home. The court’s decision to grant her bail could be a sign of easing tension.

More than 120 people have been killed and hundreds injured in political violence, most in petrol bomb attacks on vehicles, amid transport blockades and strikes by the opposition aimed at toppling the government.

Political unrest over the past three months cost at least 49 billion taka ($630 million) or 0.55 percent of the country’s gross domestic products, Centre for Policy Dialogue, a leading private think-tank, said on Sunday.

It said it had analysed 11 major sectors of the economy, including agriculture, transport, education and garments, which accounted for 80 percent of the country’s exports.

Zia is accused of embezzling $650,000 in two corruption cases involving charitable funds during her last term as prime minister, from 2001 to 2006. She and leaders of her party have denied the charges, saying they are politically motivated.

She is also facing charges of instigating the latest violence.

Bangladeshi politics have been mired for years in rivalry between Hasina and Zia. Both women are related to former national leaders, and they have alternated as prime minister for most of the past two decades.

(Editing by Paul Tait and Stephen Powell)

Arrest of 2 peaceful protesters raises questions on freedom of assembly in Singapore

Protestor holds a placard outside the Istana. The placard reads: “INJUSTICE”. Pic: TRS

By Carlton Tan Apr 05, 2015

SINGAPORE—Police arrested two men, aged between 24 and 25, on Saturday afternoon (Apr 4) as they held up placards outside the Istana in a peaceful protest against the Government. They were apparently protesting the Government’s repression of free speech. The placards read: “Injustice” and “You Can’t Silence the People” (see picture above and below).

Arrest of 2 Peaceful Protesters Raises Questions on Freedom of Assembly in Singapore by Thavam Ratna