Ready to fight neighbours for rights: Dipu

Bangladesh has friendly ties with its neighbours but that would not deter the government from taking legal recourse to claim its due, foreign minister Dipu Moni has said.

"Opposition parties can say many things but we will not stop from taking the legal route to achieve legitimate demands from our neighbours. It is not a weak foreign policy," Dipu Moni said on Tuesday while addressing a seminar on maritime boundary issues between Bangladesh and Myanmar.

The event was held at the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies auditorium.

The minister said Dhaka wants justice in maritime boundary disputes between Bangladesh and Myanmar.

The two countries approached the International Tribunal for Law of the Seas (ITLOS) to settle maritime boundary dispute in 2009; the verdict is expected on Mar 14.

"We have been negotiating with our neighbours for the last 35 years but to get a quick result and ensure people's rights on sea resources, we resorted to (this) alternative route," she said.

"We expect justice from ITLOS and expect verdict in (an) Indian case in 2014," she said. "Bangladesh wants to resolve the disputes on equitable basis and there are many ways to get that."

Bangladesh has already submitted its claim for continental shelf to the UN and it takes five to seven years to get a decision from them, Moni said.

Continental shelf is the extended perimeter of each continent and associated coastal plain.

Foreign ministry's additional secretary Khurshid Alam said the government is not only sincere in establishing its rights over marine resources but is also taking the steps to explore it.

"We need to study oceanography is explore natural resources in the sea but unfortunately there is no university in Bangladesh teach that subject," he said.

He said the ministry has touched base with the education ministry in this regard and Dhaka and Chittagong universities have agreed to offer the subject. 

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Govt To Pay Over Tk.1.7 Billion Extra For Indian Locomotives

Bangladesh Railway (BR) will procure 16 locomotives from India at a cost of Tk.3.66 billion under a railway development project against a credit facility of Tk.one billion from India. The government was supposed to purchase 30 locomotives with the same amount.

Lack of coordination and imposing strict terms and conditions by the Indian government has forced Bangladesh Railway to spend the additional fund to procure the locomotives, a high official of BR said.

The Indian government will supply the locomotives through a credit of Tk.one billion of Exim Bank of India.

The time consuming procedures and some strict conditions from the Indian side were the main reasons behind the extra expenditure, an additional secretary of Bangladesh Railway said seeking anonymity.

As a condition of funding the project, the Indian government has imposed a condition that made the Indian companies the lone eligible parties for participating in the tender for supplying the locomotives.

As a consequence of the condition, Indian firm Expotech Division was the lone participant of the tender.

In a proposal, submitted to the government purchase committee recently, Bangladesh Railway mentioned that it has decided to purchase 16 locomotives instead of 30 as the project cost had increased by 88.21 percent due to high price of steel materials and copper.

Bangladesh Railway is likely to place another proposal to the purchase committee for awarding Expotech Division of India the contract to supply the locomotives, officials said.

Earlier, the project was approved by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) on January 4 last year. The timeline for the implementation of the project was set from December 2010 to June 2013.

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Dhaka Seeks Delhi’s Permission For Nepal, Bhutan Transit

Bangladesh has sought India's support for the import of electricity from Nepal and Bhutan crossing over Indian territory, as the country goes hungry for electricity to meet an ever-growing demand.

An official concerned said a high-powered delegation, led by additional secretary Md Mofezzal Hossain, sought the neighbour's help at a meeting of the Indo-Bangladesh joint working group held Monday in New Delhi.

Bangladesh is now negotiating with Bhutan and Nepal electricity import by launching joint-venture hydropower projects in the two Himalayan countries, the official said, adding that Bangladesh had already discussed the issue of importing electricity from the two countries at Saarc summit.

Talking on the matter of electricity import, power division secretary Md Abul Kalam Azad said they will also seek India's help at a secretary-level meeting, scheduled for today (Tuesday), to import electricity from Nepal and Bhutan.

"Bangladesh has set a target of importing 3500 megawatts of electricity from India, Nepal and Bhutan by 2030 through regional grid connectivity," he added.

At the meeting in New Delhi, the delegation also proposed launching joint-venture power projects in northeastern states of India.

On January 29 this year, Bangladesh Power Development Board and the National Thermal Power Company of India signed a joint- venture agreement to install a 1320MW coal-fired power plant in Khulna.

The working-group meeting also discussed the draft of a power- purchase agreement (PPA) on a joint-venture power plant in Khulna and import of 250MW electricity from the neighbouring country.

Bangladesh and India are likely to sign an initial pact on the PPA.

Besides, Bangladesh sought cooperation of India for importing 100MW electricity from Tripura.

During Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit in September last year, Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar had assured Bangladesh of providing 100MW electricity from the north-eastern state.

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Yahoo threatens Facebook as patent war looms

Yahoo has demanded licensing fees from Facebook for use of its technology, the companies said on Monday, potentially engulfing social media in the patent battles and lawsuits raging across much of the tech sector.

Yahoo has asserted claims on patents that include the technical mechanisms in the Facebook's ads, privacy controls, news feed and messaging service, according to a source briefed on the matter.

Representatives from the two companies met on Monday and the talks involved 10 to 20 of Yahoo's patents, said the source, who was not aware of what specific dollar demands Yahoo may have made for licenses.

Yahoo did not elaborate in an emailed statement on details of its discussions with Facebook, but indicated it would not flinch at taking the social networking giant to court over its patents.

Yahoo said other companies have already licensed some of the technologies at issue, and that it would act unilaterally if Facebook refused to pay for a patent license.

"Yahoo has a responsibility to its shareholders, employees and other stakeholders to protect its intellectual property," the company said.

The meeting between the two companies was first reported by the New York Times.

A Facebook spokesman said: "Yahoo contacted us at the same time they called the New York Times and so we haven't had the opportunity to fully evaluate their claims."

Should Yahoo wind up suing Facebook, it would mark the first major legal battle among technology giants in the social media sphere and a major escalation of patent litigation that has already swept up the smartphone and tablet sectors and high-tech stalwarts such as Apple Inc, Microsoft Corp and Motorola Mobility.

Yahoo's patent claims follow Facebook's announcement of plans for an initial public offering that could value the company at about $100 billion (63 billion pounds).

Several social networking companies, including Facebook, have seen an uptick in patent claims asserted against them as they move through the IPO process.

However, most of those lawsuits have been filed by patent aggregators that buy up intellectual property to squeeze value from it via licensing deals, and none by a large tech company such as Yahoo.

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Israel will strike Iran without warning US - intelligence source

Israeli officials say if they decide to launch a pre-emptive attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, they will do so without the prior consent or knowledge of the US, according to an AP report citing leaked US intelligence.

­The message was conveyed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak to a number of senior US officials visiting the country, the news agency said, citing a US intelligence source. 

The official spoke about the sensitive strategic negotiations on condition of anonymity. Both the US and Israel declined to make any official comment. 

Tel Aviv insists its strategy is necessary in order to protect Washington from being blamed for failing to stop an Israeli attack, should it take place. But it may also signify Israeli frustration over America’s position on the conflict.

America has told its Middle Eastern ally that it will neither take military action against Iran nor back unilateral action on the part of Israel. Washington favors sanctions over brute force as a means to stop Iran’s controversial nuclear program.

The news of Israel’s unilateral intentions comes ahead of a key visit to the US by Netanyahu, planned for early March. The Israeli premier reportedly ordered his ministers not to publicly discuss the Iranian nuclear program in an apparent damage limitation move ahead of his trip. The report of the “gagging order” came a day after Defense Minister Barak gave a lengthy TV interview in which he spoke of the danger posed by Iran.

Western countries and Israel are convinced that Iran’s uranium enrichment program is aimed at developing nuclear weapons capability. Israel is determined not to allow this to happen. Iran insists that its nuclear pursuits are purely civilian.

Tensions rose again last week after a leaked UN nuclear watchdog report stated “serious concerns regarding possible military dimensions to Iran’s nuclear program.”

In the latest bid to halt the enrichment, the US and EU issued sanctions against Iran’s oil industry. However they failed to rally all major buyers of Iranian oil to their banner. Tehran remains adamant that the move will not divert it from its nuclear research.

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