Dhaka, March 6
Bangladesh has said it will resume talks with New Delhi on a proposed tri-nation gas pipeline from Myanmar to India through its territory, giving up its preconditions which had earlier stalled the negotiations.

“Definitely the tri-national pipeline issue will come up for discussion,” power and energy adviser in the caretaker government Tapan Chowdhury said before leaving for Delhi to attend SAARC energy ministers' meeting to be held tomorrow.

He said he would raise the pipeline issue with his Indian counterpart.

“But there will be no conditions tagged with the pipeline. If it is beneficial for us economically, we will move forward,” he told the New Age newspaper here.

Discussions between Dhaka and New Delhi on the proposed gas pipeline have remained stalled for over a year after Delhi refused to fulfil its three conditions. Bangladesh wants to import hydro-electricity from Nepal and Bhutan and has asked Indian to provide transit facilities for trade with the two Himalayan countries and wants New Delhi to reduce the trade gap.

Asked about the three conditions that the previous Khaleda Zia’s government had tagged with the pipeline project, Chowdhury said, “Those issues (conditions) are separate issues and they should not be tagged with the pipeline. We will discuss those issues on a priority basis.” He said Dhaka would take the opportunity to place a formal proposal for importing "surplus" electricity from Nepal and Bhutan through India at the SAARC energy ministers’ meeting on March 7. — PTI 

Dubai, March 6
An Oman-India sub-sea gas pipeline project once again appears to be a possibility, although with different players involved, an industry expert said.

Long thought to be unfeasible, the project has come back to life because of new technologies.

President of Washington-based International Energy Associates Herman Franssen disclosed that an Indian consortium called SAGE had brought in expert firms to carry out a feasibility study.

The companies called in for the study were deepwater pipeline technology leader Heerema of the Netherlands and engineering and construction management service provider INTEC of the US, he said.

A group is being formed in Delhi to look into financing and sources of gas, said Franssen. — UNI

Dhaka, March 6
At least 21 persons, including 10 children and eight women, were charred to death in a devastating fire that raged through a congested industrial slum in Bangladesh's northeastern port city of Chittagong today.

About 10 persons were also critically injured in the blaze that broke out around 1.15 am (local time), trapping the residents inside the slum which was surrounded by concrete walls in the Boubazar area, about 215 km from here.

Firefighters had to stretch their hose pipes to more than 2 km through narrow lanes of the congested area and were able to extinguish the blaze that had destroyed nearly 30 dwellings, after a three-hour struggle.

The slum had mainly housed garment workers and warehouses storing fabrics, which were believed to be responsible for the the rapid spread of the fire.

Of the 21 dead, eight were women and 10 minors, fire officials said.

Most of the bodies were lying near the inside boundary wall of the habitat, they said.

"It appeared that they tried to come out of the boundary wall after the fire broke out," a witness said.

Hospital sources and the police said about 10 persons were being treated with severe burn injuries.

The incident comes a week after four persons were killed in the national capital when fire broke out in an 11-storey building housing two private television stations. — PTI

Toronto, March 6
After initial reluctance to disclose some of the secret documents relating to the 1985 Air India bombing on grounds of national security, the Canadian government has indicated that it may soon release some classified information pertaining to the case.

The Indian Government and the Vancouver police officials involved in the ongoing Air India probe were consulted as Canada was seeking ways to release more information without compromising national security, government lawyer Barney Brucker told a commission of inquiry. The commission earlier halted hearings for two weeks due to haggling over the issue.

“Progress is being made on releasing some of the secret documents related to the inquiry,” he said.

Former Supreme Court judge John C. Major, head of the commission who had threatened to shut down the inquiry last month due to lack of enough internal documents being made public, urged government lawyers to redouble their efforts to reach a deal with the commission counsel on how much evidence could be made public.

The aim must be to “keep this commission afloat” and not let it sink without fulfilling its mandate to investigate the terrorist bombing of the Kanishka jet off the coast of Ireland on June 23, 1985, Major said. The crash killed 329 persons, most of them Canadian citizens of Indian origin or descent.

But, neither federal lawyer Barney Brucker nor chief commission counsel Mark Freiman could set a definite time when the matter will be resolved though the government indicated it will soon release more uncensored documents to the commission and victims' families. — Reuters