'No irresponsible free speech'

Dhaka, Dec 20 — The editor-in-chief of bdnews24.com has launched call for guidelines to set the standards for public discourse on social media alongside regulating news media, who are perceived to be frequently testing the limits.

"Speech must be responsible to be free. There is a social and cultural necessity for freedom of responsible speech," Toufique Imrose Khalidi said at a programme to celebrate the Internet newspaper's fifth anniversary.

"(But) there has to be some discipline in the way the state manages the media. The decision makers must be guided by reason," he added at the Radisson Blu Water Garden Hotel in Dhaka on Tuesday evening.

Besides presenting bdnews24.com's current activities and future plans, he also spoke about crisis and possibilities of presenting news on the Internet.

Policymakers in the government, judges, lawyers, politicians, businessmen, entrepreneurs, poets, sportsmen, top army officers, cultural activists — leading personalities from the entire spectrum of society attended the programme.

Organiers say it is "a fantastic opportunity" to reflect on bdnews24.com's role as a pioneer and innovator.

It offers a range of real-time news coverage for online readers replete with critical information to pick and click; it gathers and delivers news, based on accuracy and consistency on the web 24 hours, with the highest standards of professionalism, integrity and ethical journalism.

bdnews24.com says their newsroom never sleeps.

2011 sees 43 journos killed, globally

New York, Dec 20 - Political conflicts and unrest proved fatal for journalists in 2011, while governments failed to prosecute those who targeted reporters for their work, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists' year-end survey of journalists killed in the line of duty.

At least 43 journalists were killed worldwide in direct relation to their work this year, according to a CPA media release.

Seven deaths occurred in Pakistan, where 29 journalists have been killed in the past five years. Libya and Iraq, each with five fatalities, and Mexico, with three deaths, also ranked high worldwide for journalism-related fatalities.

First Earth-sized planets found beyond solar system

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida, Dec 21 - Astronomers have found a pair of Earth-sized planets orbiting a star similar to the sun, though neither are believed to be suitable for life, scientists on NASA's Kepler telescope team said on Tuesday.

The discovery follows confirmation earlier this month of a super-Earth sized planet, called Kepler-22b, that circles the right distance from its parent star for liquid water to exist on its surface. Water is believed to be a key ingredient for life.

"Kepler-22b has the right temperature, but it is too big. (The planets) we're announcing today are just the right size, but too hot," astronomer David Charbonneau with Harvard University, told reporters during a conference call.

"But you can bet that the hunt is on to find a planet that combines the best of both worlds, a true Earth twin," he said.

The newly discovered planets, called Kepler-20e and 20f, have at least three gas-giant siblings, one of the larger planetary systems found to date.

But the family is nothing like our solar system, where rocky worlds like Venus, Earth and Mars are grouped together closer in toward the sun while gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn are segregated in the outer regions.

The two Earth-like and three Neptune-sized planets in the Kepler-20 family are interspersed and all orbit closer to the parent star than our solar system's innermost planet, Mercury.

"Rocky planets and gas giants happily mingle together. This is the first time we've seen anything like this," Charbonneau said.

Kepler-20e and 20f, which are believed to be too hot for liquid water, probably are not habitable - at least not today.

"If Kepler-20f was formed with water, which I think is likely, then it could have held on to its water for several billions of years ," said astronomer Linda Elkins-Tanton with the Carnegie Institute in Washington DC.

"And that means that this planet could have been habitable in the past for a long period," she said.

The system is located about 1,000 light-years away in the constellation Lyra.

Light travels at about 299,337 km per second.

bdnews24.com

Aging in office: US presidents often outlive peers

Chicago, Dec 7 — Judging by their "before" and "after" photographs, US presidents appear to age before our eyes, adding wrinkles and gray hair with each year in office.

But contrary to conventional wisdom, a few years in the White House do not appear to cut short the lives of US presidents, and most live longer than their peers, according to a new study released on Tuesday.

"Just because they experience what would appear to be accelerated aging outwardly, doesn't mean they will die any sooner," said S. Jay Olshansky, a demographer at the University of Illinois at Chicago, whose study appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
bdnews24.com

Russian police crack down on anti-Putin protests

MOSCOW, Dec 07 - Hundreds of people took to the streets of Moscow for a second successive day on Tuesday to demand an end to Vladimir Putin's 12-year rule, defying a crackdown by tens of thousands of police reinforced by crack Interior Ministry troops.

Police said they had detained about 250 people in central Moscow when they tried to stage an unapproved rally and held about 200 more in St Petersburg, where opposition forces have also been emboldened by the prime minister's worst election setback since he took power in 1999.

After permitting the biggest opposition rally in Moscow for years on Monday evening, the police were out in large numbers. The Interior ministry said about 2,000 special troops were supporting almost 50,000 police, and some moved through the city centre in armored vehicles in a show of force.
bdnews24.com

Egypt army picks new PM

Cairo, Nov 25 — Egyptian former prime minister Kamal Ganzouri accepted a request from the ruling generals to form a new government, state media reported, but protesters brushed away their choice and vowed to hold another mass rally on Friday to demand the army quit power.

Ganzouri confirmed he had agreed in principle to lead a national salvation government after meeting with the head of the ruling military council, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, the website of state newspaper Al Ahram reported, citing sources close to Ganzouri.

In an attempt to defuse protests by thousands of Egyptians frustrated by nine months of military rule, the army council promised parliamentary elections would start on time next week. It earlier said it would speed up the timetable for a handover from military to civilian presidential rule.

Violent clashes with police in and around Cairo's Tahrir Square since Saturday have killed dozens, in scenes reminiscent of the popular uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak in February.

"The people demand the execution of the marshal," crowds chanted, referring to army chief Tantawi who was Mubarak's defence minister for 20 years.

Ganzouri headed a cabinet from 1996 to 1999 that introduced some economic liberalisation measures. Many Egyptians viewed him as an official who was not tainted by corruption, but his record serving under Mubarak could stir opposition from those demanding a clean break with the past.

As talk of a Ganzouri appointment filtered through the crowds packed into Tahrir Square, reactions were mixed. Some said his age made him a bad choice. Ganzouri is in his late 70s.

"Ganzouri is no good for this transitional period, which needs youth leaders, not grandparents," said student Maha Abdullah.

Metwali Atta, a 55-year-old taxi driver who was camped out in Tahrir, disagreed: "I would like to see Ganzouri as prime minister. The man has a strong character, unlike (outgoing prime minister) Essam Sharaf who was easily bossed around by the military council."

In a communique, protesters called a million-man march on "the Friday of the last chance" to back demands for an immediate transfer to civilian rule via a national salvation government.

The Egyptian Independent Trade Union Federation called for a workers' march to Tahrir. Another labour rights group called for a general strike to back the protests. Labour unions played an important role in the movement that toppled Mubarak.

The heads of two political parties who took part in a meeting with the military council on Tuesday said they now regretted attending and apologised to the protesters in Tahrir.

The demonstrations appear to have polarised Egyptians, many of whom worry unrest will prolong economic stagnation.

Supporters of the army council had said they would hold a rally to back the military. In a statement on its Facebook page, the army council said it was "appealing to them to cancel the demonstration", saying it wanted to avoid divisions.

ECONOMY REELS

In fresh blows to confidence, the Egyptian pound weakened to more than six to the dollar for the first time since January 2005, and Standard & Poor's cut Egypt's credit rating.

The agency cut Egypt's long-term, foreign and local-currency sovereign credit ratings to B+ from BB-, saying a "weak political and economic profile" had worsened further.

The Central Bank raised interest rates unexpectedly in what bankers was an attempt to shore up the pound.

Egypt's ruling army council said it was doing all it could to prevent more violence. In a statement, it apologised, offered condolences and compensation to families of the dead, and promised a swift investigation into who was behind the unrest.

A ruling council member, General Mamdouh Shaheen, told a news conference the parliamentary vote, whose first stage is due to begin on Monday, would go ahead on time. "We will not delay elections. This is the final word," he said.

Another council member, Major-General Mokhtar al-Mullah, took a swipe at the demonstrators. "If we look at those in Tahrir, regardless of their number, they do not represent the Egyptian people, but we must respect their opinion," he said.

Mullah said the army hoped to form a new government before Monday to replace Prime Minister Essam Sharaf's cabinet, which resigned during this week's violence without giving a reason.

Demonstrators in Tahrir said the truce had taken hold from midnight. Cranes hauled concrete barriers, later reinforced with barbed wire, across streets leading to the nearby Interior Ministry, flashpoint for much of the recent violence.

HUMAN CHAINS

Protesters linked arms in human chains to prevent further clashes with security forces guarding the Interior Ministry.

"We have created a space separating us from the police. We are standing here to make sure no one violates it," said Mahmoud Adly, 42, part of a human cordon four people deep.

The protests in Cairo and elsewhere pose the gravest challenge to Egypt's army rulers since they took over from Mubarak, overthrown on Feb. 11 after an 18-day uprising.

The United States and European nations, alarmed at the violence of the past few days, have urged Egypt to proceed with what has been billed as its first free vote in decades.

The army and the Muslim Brotherhood, which expects to do well in the election, say it must go ahead, but many protesters do not trust the military to oversee a clean vote. Some scorn the Brotherhood for its focus on gaining seats in parliament.

In Tahrir, two groups were chanting against other, one saying, "Muslim Brotherhood, we don't want you in the square," and another responding in a unity call, "One hand, one hand."

The military council originally promised to return to barracks within six months of the fall of Mubarak, but then set a timetable for elections and drawing up a new constitution that would have left it in power until late next year or early 2013.

Tantawi pledged this week to hold a presidential vote in June that could pave the way for a transfer to civilian rule, but the demonstrators, angered by army attempts to shield itself legally from future civilian control, are unconvinced.

"The protesters of Tahrir Square announce their absolute rejection of ... Tantawi's speech, and stress they have been humiliated that the regime moved to offer solution only after martyrs fell," the protesters' communique said.

Before the truce, protesters had fought running battles with security forces around the Interior Ministry. The bloody chaos there contrasted with normal life in streets nearby.

bdnews24.com

Syria faces Arab sanctions deadline over monitors

Beirut, Nov 25 — Syria faces a Friday deadline to sign an Arab deal allowing monitors into the country or incur sanctions over its crackdown on protests including halting flights, curbing trade and stopping deals with the central bank.

Arab foreign ministers warned in Cairo that unless Syria agreed to let the monitors in to assess progress of an Arab League plan to end eight months of bloodshed, officials would consider imposing sanctions on Saturday.

Under a November 2 Arab League initiative, Syria agreed to withdraw troops from urban centres, release political prisoners, start a dialogue with the opposition and allow monitors and international media into the country.

Since then hundreds of people, including civilians, security forces and army deserters, have been killed as the unrest which the United Nations says has claimed at least 3,500 lives since March continued unabated.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based opposition group, said at least 47 people were killed in Syria on Thursday, including 16 soldiers and 17 army deserters, mostly around the rebellious city of Homs and near the town of Rastan to the north.

The violence has prompted former ally Turkey to bluntly tell President Bashar al-Assad to step down and led France to propose "humanitarian corridors" in Syria to help transport medicines or other supplies to civilians in need.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said he would discuss the idea with the Arab League but a source at the 22-member body said the proposal was not brought up at the Cairo meeting.

"In the case that Syria does not sign the protocol ... or that it later violates the commitments that it entails, and does not stop the killing or does not release the detainees ... (Arab League officials) will meet on Saturday to consider sanctions on Syria," the Arab ministers said in a statement.

They said possible sanctions, which were not intended to affect ordinary Syrians, included suspending flights to Syria, stopping dealings with the central bank, freezing Syrian government bank accounts and halting financial dealings.

They could also decide to stop commercial trade with the Syrian government "with the exception of strategic commodities so as not to impact the Syrian people," the statement said.

Syria's economy is already reeling from the eight months of unrest, aggravated by U.S. and European sanctions on oil exports and several state businesses.

"HUMANITARIAN CORRIDORS"

After months in which the international community has seemed determined to avoid direct entanglement in a core Middle East country, the diplomatic consensus seems to be changing.

The Arab League suspended Syria's membership two weeks ago, while this week the prime minister of neighbouring Turkey - a NATO member with the military wherewithal to mount a cross-border operation - told Assad to quit and said he should be mindful of the fate of fallen dictators such as Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and Libya's deposed leader Muammar Gaddafi.

France became the first major power to seek international intervention in Syria when it called for "humanitarian corridors" in Syria to alleviate civilian suffering.

A Western diplomatic source said the French plan, with or without approval from Damascus, could link Syrian civilian centres to the frontiers of Turkey and Lebanon, to the Mediterranean coast or to an airport.

Its aim would enable transport of humanitarian supplies or medicines to a population that is suffering.

Juppe insisted the plan fell short of a military intervention, but acknowledged that humanitarian convoys would need armed protection.

"There are two possible ways: That the international community, Arab League and the United Nations can get the regime to allow these humanitarian corridors," he told French radio. "But if that isn't the case we'd have to look at other solutions ... with international observers."

Asked if humanitarian convoys would need military protection, he said: "Of course... by international observers, but there is no question of military intervention in Syria."

"MOST DANGEROUS PHASE"

The Syrian Observatory said 15 army deserters were killed in clashes with the military west of Rastan and in raids by security forces. Eleven military and security personnel were killed by army deserters in the city of Houla, it said.

Alongside the mainly peaceful protests, armed insurgents have increasingly attacked military targets in recent weeks.

State media have reported the funerals of 34 soldiers and police in the last four days. Since the outbreak of the uprising officials have blamed armed groups for the violence and say 1,100 members of the security forces have been killed.

"The Syrian crisis may or may not have entered its final phase, but it undoubtedly has entered its most dangerous one to date," the International Crisis Group said.

"Many in Syria and abroad are now banking on the regime's imminent collapse and wagering that all then will be for the better. That is a luxury and optimism they cannot afford."

Washington repeated an appeal on Wednesday for U.S. citizens to leave Syria: "The U.S. Embassy continues to urge U.S. citizens in Syria to depart immediately while commercial transportation is available," the embassy said on its website.

Assad, 46, seems prepared to fight it out, playing on fears of a sectarian war if Syria's complex ethno-sectarian mosaic shatters and relying on support of senior officials and the military to suppress the protests, inspired by Arab uprisings which toppled the leaders of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen.

However many experts say Assad, who can depend mainly on the loyalty of two elite units dominated by his Alawite minority community, cannot maintain current military operations without cracks emerging in the mainly Sunni Muslim army.

bdnews24.com

2 killed, hundreds hurt in Egypt clashes

CAIRO, Nov 20 - Clashes erupted between protesters and police in Cairo and two other Egyptian cities, killing two people and wounding hundreds in the biggest security challenge yet for the country's ruling generals days before scheduled elections.

In scenes reminiscent of the 18-day uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak from three decades of power in February, hundreds of youths chanted "The people want to topple the regime" as they rushed towards riot police, who fired rubber bullets and tear gas.

Protesters broke chunks of cement from pavements and hurled them at police in clashes in which police lost control of Cairo's landmark Tahrir Square twice in the day.

A blaze broke out around midnight at the huge Mogamma state administration building overlooking Tahrir.

As police fired round after round of tear gas at protesters near the interior ministry, closer to Tahrir protesters laid sheets of metal to block roads into the square.
bdnews24.com

Obama eyes Asia for exports, jobs

NUSA DUA, Nov 20 - US President Barack Obama sought to charm Asia-Pacific leaders this week with Australian slang and memories from his childhood in Hawaii and Indonesia in his bid to boost US ties with the fast-growing region.

The top goal of the nine-day trip, which took Obama away from Washington just as US budget battles were intensifying, was to cement a foreign policy "pivot" toward Asia that could open the door to more American exports and jobs.

The Democratic president, struggling in the polls after bitter fights with Republicans in Congress, geared his Asia message to U.S. voters who will decide next November whether to give him another four years in office.

In Honolulu, Australia and the Indonesian island of Bali, Obama sought out every chance to talk about America's export potential, and the White House previewed Boeing and GE deals with Asia that it said could sustain 130,000 US jobs.
bdnews24.com

The capture of Gaddafi's son

OBARI, Nov 20 - The chic black sweater and jeans were gone. So too the combat khaki T-shirt of his televised last stand in Tripoli. Designer stubble had become bushy black beard after months on the run.

But the rimless glasses, framing those piercing eyes above that straight fine nose, gave him away despite the flowing nomad robes held close across his face.

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, doctor of the London School of Economics, one-time reformer turned scourge of the rebels against his dictator father, was now a prisoner, bundled aboard an old Libyan air force transport plane near the oil-drilling outpost of Obari, deep in the Sahara desert.

The interim government's spokesman billed it as the "final act of the Libyan drama." But there would be no closing soliloquy from the lead player, scion of the dynasty that Muammar Gaddafi, self-styled "king of kings," had once hoped might rule Africa.
bdnews24.com

Maradona's mum passes away

Dubai, Nov 20 - Argentine football legend Diego Maradona's mother died at the age of 81 on Saturday night in the Los Arcos clinic of Buenos Aires.

Hospital sources said in a press release that Maradona's mother had been hospitalised since Friday because of chronic renal failure and hemodynamic instability.

"Manoeuvres began for hemodynamic support, dialysis and mechanical ventilation, despite which Dalma Salvadora Franco presented a cardiac decompensation at 6:30 pm (2130 GMT)," the hospital said.
From:bdnews24.com

Greeks protest as France, Spain squeezed

Rome/Paris, Nov 18- Italy's new government has announced far-reaching reforms in response to a European debt crisis that on Thursday pushed borrowing costs for France and Spain sharply higher, and brought tens of thousands of Greeks onto the streets of Athens.

Italy's new technocrat prime minister, Mario Monti, unveiled sweeping reforms to dig the country out of crisis and said Italians were confronting a "serious emergency."

Monti, who enjoys 75 percent support according to opinion polls, comfortably won a vote of confidence in his new government in the Senate on Thursday, by 281 votes to 25.

He faces another confidence vote in the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house, on Friday, which he also expected to win comfortably.

Authorities foil NY protest bid

New York, Nov 18 - New York police prevented protesters from shutting down Wall Street on Thursday, arresting more than 200 people in repeated clashes with an unexpectedly small but spirited Occupy Wall Street rally.

Protesters took to the streets in rainy New York and cities across the United States for a day of action seen as a test of the momentum of the two-month-old grass-roots movement against economic inequality.

Organizers and city officials had expected tens of thousands to turn out for a demonstration following the New York police raid that broke up the protesters' encampment in a park near Wall Street on Tuesday.

A crowd that disappointed organizers throughout the day grew to several thousand after the standard workday ended and labour union activists joined a march across the Brooklyn Bridge, where last month more than 700 people were arrested during a similar march.

Euro zone looks to Italy, Greece moves to ease crisis

ROME/ATHENS, Nov 16 - The euro zone looks for some respite Wednesday, with Italy due to unveil a technocrat-led cabinet and a new Greek coalition expected to win a confidence vote, as Europe battles to prevent its debt woes from dragging down the world economy.

Former EU commissioner Mario Monti is set to inform Italy's president that he has assembled a new government, whose most pressing task will be to get a fractious political class to agree to painful structural reforms designed to rescue its debt-laden finances.

In Athens, new prime minister Lucas Papademos expects an easy win in a confidence vote, but rebuilding Greece's shattered finances will be a daunting task with his national unity government already split over new austerity measures.

With financial markets sceptical that unelected technocrats will have the political clout to impose unpopular reforms, the two-year debt crisis risks engulfing the entire currency bloc and hurting global growth.

Asian shares and the euro fell Wednesday as signs that rising borrowing costs were affecting AAA-rated France stirred fears that even core euro zone members may not escape contagion from the region's debt crisis.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan fell 1.3 percent, while Japan's Nikkei stock average slipped 0.1 percent Wednesday.

The euro hit a five-week low and was down 0.6 percent against both the dollar and the yen, standing at $1.3453 and 103.66 yen respectively, as euro zone jitters spurred risk aversion moves.

"Markets are clearly expecting a circuit breaker to alleviate pressure on periphery bond yields," said David Scutt, a trader at Arab Bank Australia in Sydney. "If no announcement is forthcoming in the days ahead, one suspects that situation could unravel fairly quickly.

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Europe had a difficult task in boosting the creditworthiness of some of its economies while also boosting growth.

"That's a difficult balance and you can see they're struggling with it but I think they're gradually making progress," he told a conference sponsored by the Wall Street Journal. "This is absolutely within Europe's capacity to solve and it's within their ability.

France has become the latest euro zone member to come under pressure after a spike in its borrowing costs on jittery bond markets fuelled concerns that the euro zone's second biggest economy was also being sucked into the spiralling debt crisis.

With a Brussels-based think-tank warning that Paris's economy should be "ringing alarm bells," Finance Minister Francois Baroin sought to calm fears about France's finances.

"We have the necessary room to manoeuvre within the budget to meet our 2012 deficit target even if the economy slows more than expected," he said in an interview in Wednesday's edition of Les Echos. "Even with growth of 0.5 percent we can cope.

Baroin said the government was not working on a third savings package after announcing a second round of belt-tightening in three months last week in order to keep its deficit targets within reach, despite slowing growth.

Data Tuesday showed the economy of the 17-nation euro zone barely grew in the third quarter. ECB President Mario Draghi has predicted the currency bloc will be in a mild recession by the end of the year.

MONTI CABINET

Against that backdrop, Italian prime minister-designate Monti is to unveil his cabinet line-up after a meeting with President Giorgio Napolitano scheduled for around 10 am (British time).

His cabinet, expected to feature experts, academics and some politicians, will have the job of speeding up reform of pensions, labour markets and business regulation in order to put Italy's finances on a sustainable path.

Yields on Italy's 10-year BTP bonds climbed to over 7 percent Tuesday, the level at which Greece and Ireland were forced into bailouts. Italy must refinance some 200 billion euros (171 billion pounds) of bonds by the end of April.

In Greece, the first task facing Papademos will be to implement the painful tax hikes and spending cuts needed to secure fresh loans and stave off bankruptcy that could force Greece's eviction from the single currency.

At stake is an 8-billion-euro loan tranche that Greece needs to meet repayments due next month and a new bailout worth 130 billion euros. Greece will need some 80 billion euros of that second rescue package in early 2012.

The confidence vote is scheduled for 1 pm (British time) and Papademos looks certain to win. But the former ECB vice president already faces a rebellion from conservatives who form a key part of his crisis coalition.

The New Democracy lawmakers are defying a European Commission demand for a written pledge from the three coalition partners on meeting the terms of Greece's bailout.

Weary and angry after two years of austerity, tens of thousands of Greek protesters are expected to join an annual rally Thursday to mark the November 17 student uprising in 1973 that helped topple the 1967-74 military junta.

DEBATE OVER ECB ROLE

The United States is increasingly worried that Europe's debt crisis is mushrooming into a wider systemic problem.

Alan Krueger, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said the European debt crisis was the leading risk to the US recovery.

The survival of the 17-state currency zone in its existing form is at risk, and EU governments have until a summit on December 9 to come up with a bolder and more convincing strategy, involving some form of massive, visible financial backing.

Baroin, the French economy minister, told Les Echos he believed the ECB had an important role to play in calming the euro zone's debt crisis, but acknowledged, as did Geithner, that

Germany had reservations.

Many analysts believe the only way to stem the contagion for now is for the European Central Bank to buy large amounts of bonds -- effectively the sort of quantitative easing undertaken by the US and British central banks.

This has been anathema in Germany. But Tuesday Peter Bofinger, a member of the group of economists that advises the German government, said the ECB should indeed become the euro zone's lender of last resort if the bloc's debt woes risked tearing apart the financial system.

"If politics can't do it, then the ECB must do all it can to bring interest rates down to more reasonable levels," Bofinger said at Euro Finance Week.

bdnews24.com

Judge upholds eviction of Wall St protesters

NEW YORK, Nov 16  - A judge has upheld New York City's right to evict Occupy Wall Street protesters from a park after baton-wielding police in riot gear broke up a two-month-old demonstration against economic inequality.

Protesters who had been kicked out in a surprise predawn raid were allowed back 16 hours later but were banned from bringing the tents and sleeping bags that had turned a square-block park near Wall Street into an urban campground the past two months.

New York Supreme Court Justice Michael Stallman on Tuesday found the city was justified in enforcing a ban on sleeping in Zuccotti Park, saying the new rules still protected protesters' free-speech rights under the First Amendment of the US Constitution.

The judge ruled merely that the case lacked the urgency to approve or strike down the new park rules immediately. The underlying case will be heard at a later date.

After the judge's ruling, police lifted barricades at two points, letting people back in one by one. Several hundred protesters were in the park under a light drizzle, and the crowd thinned as the night wore on. The mood was largely free of tension.

Demonstrators have occupied the park since Sep 17 to protest what they see as an unjust economic system that favours the wealthiest 1 percent at a time of persistently high unemployment. They also decry a political system that bailed out banks after reckless lending sparked the financial crisis.

Mayor Michel Bloomberg ordered the eviction, saying the square-block Zuccotti Park had become a sanitation hazard and a fire trap.

The decision angered members of a movement that has spread throughout the United States and the world, and it came two days before demonstrators planned to shut down Wall Street outside the New York Stock Exchange.

"He's a billionaire and he's defending his class. He is the 1 percent," said Naomi Brussel, 69, retired social worker from Brooklyn.

Hundreds of police stormed the camp around 1 am and dismantled tents, tarpaulins, outdoor furniture, mattresses and signs, arresting 147 people, including about a dozen who had chained themselves to each other and to trees.

The New York Civil Liberties Union said it was "deeply concerned" about the police department's "heavy-handed tactics" and said seven journalists covering the events were arrested.

While the park was cleared of protesters, sanitation workers blasted the square with water cannons, erasing odours of urine and human waste.

"His (Bloomberg's) response makes him seem completely out of touch to me and he comes off as a benevolent dictator," said protester Douglas Paulson, 31, an artist from the New York City borough of Queens.

The eviction followed similar actions in Atlanta, Portland and Salt Lake City. Unlike in Oakland, California, where police used tear gas and stun grenades, New York police said most protesters left peacefully.

In London, authorities said they were resuming legal action to try to shift anti-capitalism protesters who have set up camp at St Paul's Cathedral.

Toronto officials also told protesters to break camp and leave on Tuesday. In Los Angeles, city officials have opened talks with some members of the Occupy LA group to work out a timeline for moving their encampment from the lawn surrounding City Hall, where about 500 tents are standing.

BLOOMBERG'S CALCULATION

Bloomberg, a self-made billionaire whose wealth made him a target of the protesters, ordered the eviction at the request of the park owner, commercial real estate company Brookfield Office Properties.

The mayor's loyalties have been divided since the protests began. Socially liberal and a supporter of free speech rights, Bloomberg is also a former Wall Street trader who made a fortune selling news and information to the financial industry through his eponymous company, Bloomberg LP.

He has two years left on his third and final 4-year term.

"The political clock was already winding down toward people opposing him. I think this will further weaken him. It will mobilise his opponents more than it will mobilise his supporters," said Ken Sherrill, professor of political science at Hunter College.

Three prominent potential successors, City Council speaker Christine Quinn, comptroller John Liu and public advocate Bill De Blasio, issued statements using language like "unacceptable" and "legally questionable" to describe the raid. All are Democrats and Bloomberg, now a political independent, was first elected as a Republican.

But Bloomberg also pleased his allies on Wall Street and neighbours who had grown tired of the protest.

"It's made him look like a stronger leader. He sought to avoid violence and control what could have been a very difficult situation," said political consultant Hank Sheinkopf. "He'll be remembered for handling this the right way."

bdnews24.com

Forex reserves below mark

Dhaka, Nov 11 — Bangladesh's foreign exchange reserves have sunk below the stipulated danger level.

On Thursday, the central bank's reserves stood at $9.64 billion, which would not be sufficient for paying off three months' imports.

According to international standards, the foreign exchange reserves at any point of time should be enough to meet the import bills for at least three months.

According to the latest figures, Bangladesh's import bill for September was $3.27 billion. Thus, considering the latest point of reference the desired level of foreign currency reserves should stand at $9.81 billion.

Central bank governor Atiur Rahman told bdnews24.com that the reserves had temporarily dipped after having paid off two months' import bills of the Asian Clearing Union. "But it will soon regain previous levels."

"The contractionary monetary policy of the central bank will certainly lower import bills. So there will be no pressure on the reserves," he said on Thursday night.

The central bank chief also deemed the current $9.6 billion reserves sufficient for the same reason, suggesting that imports would decrease from those of September.

Meanwhile, former caretaker government finance advisor A B Mirza Azizul Islam was cautious.

He told bdnews24.com that fuel constituted a large part of imports. "Although food imports are decreasing, fuel bill is rising and depleting the reserves."

"We need to subsidise fuel supply to the rental power plants, which is draining our foreign exchange," the former finance advisor said.

Analysis of the latest central bank import figures shows that opening of Letters of Credit (LCs) for import of food grains have lowered by 63 percent and LC retirement is going down by four percent in the first quarter of the current fiscal.

However, in the last fiscal year, the LCs for importing food grains rose by 87.3 percent and retirement rose by 229 percent in comparison to the preceding fiscal year.

On the other hand, the LCs for imports of fuel have risen by 107.29 percent in the first quarter of the current fiscal and LC retirement has increased by 102 percent in comparison to the previous year.

In the first quarter of the previous fiscal year, the LC opening was 2.06 percent more than that of the preceding fiscal year while LC retirement hike was 67.41 percent.

Azizul Islam pointed out that if the current trend of fuel imports remained persistent this way, the pressure on the foreign exchange would not ease.

The fiscal policy declared by the central bank in July for the first half of the current financial year has called for lowering imports of superfluous products and other steps to lower import bills.

Central bank records show that the foreign exchange reserves stood at $10.29 billion before Eid-ul-Azha vacation but it came down to $9.6 billion after clearing Asian Clearing Union's bill of $880 million on Wednesday.

On Thursday, the reserves stood at $9.64 billion.

The reserve plummeted to below the $10 billion mark near the end of September but regained from the increase of expatriates' remittance before the Eid.

Analysis of central bank's foreign currency flow shows that the foreign exchange reserves exceeded the $10 billion mark in September 2008.
The reserves stayed above the mark due to increased income in exports and remittance flow for some time. Despite abnormal hikes in import bills, the reserves exceeded the $11 billion mark four times over the last three years.

The reserves exceeded the $11 billion mark in October last year and stood at $11.17 billion on the last day of December last year.
On Feb 28 this year, the reserves stood at $11.16 billion.
Near the end of March, the reserve stood at $11.32 billion, which was a record.

The reserves stood at an average of $10.75 billion in the 2009-10 fiscal year, while the average for 2010-11 stood at $10.91 billion.

The remittance from expatriates rose by 10.54 percent in the first quarter of the current fiscal year, compared to the 0.64 rise in last fiscal year.

In October, the remittance stood at $1.04 billion, exceeding the $840 million in the preceding month.

The increase in import bills has continued in the current fiscal year in line with the preceding year.
Import costs in July and September have risen by 24.79 percent in comparison to the same time last year. In September alone the import bills rose by 34.66 percent.

On the other hand, export income had risen by 22.56 percent in July and September.

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Turkish police fire tear gas in quake city

VAN, Turkey, Nov 11 - Riot police fired tear gas and used batons to disperse protesters angry at the state's relief efforts after the second earthquake in eastern Turkey in three weeks killed at least 12 people in the city of Van.

Rescue teams searched for survivors after the 5.7 magnitude tremor on Wednesday night heaped misery on the predominantly Kurdish region where more than 600 people died following a major quake on Oct. 23.

"How can you fire pepper spray on people who have already suffered so much?" said Abdulrahim Kaplan, 32. He had gone to the crisis centre for a tent when police began firing tear gas, he said.

"Our people are freezing. We are sleeping outside -- all seven of my family ... Some people take five tents, some 10 and others get nothing. This is wrong."

Thousands of families are living in makeshift camps with temperatures falling to freezing with the onset of winter. The government says there are enough tents for anyone who needs them.

About 200 demonstrators called for the resignation of the provincial governor in a rally close to two city centre hotels that collapsed during the latest quake.

"We are urging the earthquake survivors to lodge in the tent cities. We think it is safer and we have enough place for everybody who wants to stay at the tent city," Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay, told Reuters later.

"Preparations are underway for more tents," said the minister, who is overseeing relief operations and had visited the site of the collapsed hotels earlier.

Working through the night, searchers had rescued 28 people from the ruins of the hotels, Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Administration (AFAD) said in a statement.

Two of those brought out, including a 16-month-old toddler, were flown by air ambulance to a hospital in the capital Ankara.

Rescue workers pulled a Japanese woman from the rubble of the Bayram Hotel almost six hours after the quake but a Japanese doctor succumbed to his injuries, state-run Anatolian news agency reported.

The woman, Miyuki Konnai, was part of a rescue and relief team sent to Van from Japan after the first quake. She was found injured but conscious and could be seen talking to her rescuers as she was carried to an ambulance.

The slightly built 32-year-old woman told Reuters she had been too afraid to open her eyes when she lay trapped beneath the rubble.

"When I finally managed to open my left eye slowly, there was a ray of light I could see in what I thought was complete darkness. That light gave me a relief and gave me a hope to live. That was the light from the computer I had been using," said Konnai, speaking in hospital with slight scratches on her pale face.

ALL-CLEAR AFTER QUAKE

Atalay, who visited the devastated Bayram Hotel with Turkey's foreign minister, all but two of the 25 buildings that collapsed in Van had been empty.

The owner of the flattened five-storey hotel, Aslan Bayram, told broadcasters building experts had given his 47-year-old property the all-clear after last month's quake. At the time of the quake, about 15 guests were believed to be in the hotel.

Many people were too frightened to return to homes with cracked walls and ceilings as multiple aftershocks continued to rattle the region.

"What am I going to do? I don't have a tent, I don't even know who to get a tent from. Nobody tells me. I cannot go back into my flat ... Where will I go tonight? It can happen again," Halit Yazgan, 44, said as an aftershock shook a nearby building and sent men running for the middle of the road.

The latest quake struck 16 km (9 miles) south of Van at 1923 GMT on Wednesday, while the epicentre of the Oct. 23 quake was just northeast of Van.

A tremor of 5.7 magnitude would not normally cause significant damage but thousands of buildings sustained damage in last month's quake, and some were in a dangerous condition.

Atalay, responding to journalists' questions over why one of the hotels had been given the all-clear, said only preliminary, rather than definitive assessments on structural damage had been carried out on the building.

Turkey is criss-crossed with seismic fault lines and experiences small tremors nearly every day. About 20,000 people were killed by two large earthquakes in western Turkey in 1999.

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Greece PM to name crisis cabinet, euro zone shudders

ATHENS, Nov 11 - Greece's prime minister designate will name a new crisis cabinet Friday to roll out painful austerity measures and calm the political turmoil that has threatened to bankrupt Athens and force it out of the euro zone.

Greece's two main parties agreed to make Lucas Papademos head of a new unity government Thursday, ending a chaotic search for a leader to save the country from default.

With a political battle raging in fellow euro member Italy over a similar national unity government, Papademos must now fulfil the terms of a 130 billion euro (111 billion pound) bailout plan aimed at keeping Greece solvent.

He must also ease tension among the Mediterranean state's political leaders, whose wrangling ahead of an election next year has repeatedly roiled global markets and drawn rebuke from the European Union.

A former European Central Bank policymaker, Papademos must sell off state-owned companies, tackle rampant tax evasion and start chipping away at a mountain of debt under a bailout plan agreed among euro zone leaders last month.

"The path will not be easy but I am convinced the problems will be resolved faster and at a smaller cost if there is unity, understanding and prudence," Papademos said Thursday.

Papademos was left working alone in his new prime ministerial office Thursday night after talks on the new government ended with no sign of an agreement.

Sources in the two parties -- the ruling Socialists and the opposition New Democracy -- said Evangelos Venizelos was likely to remain as finance minister when President Karolos Papoulias swears in the new cabinet, scheduled for 12:00 p.m. (British time) Friday.

Papademos's appointment was welcomed by economists who said he was a safe pair of hands who was less likely to waver on tough decisions than politicians loathe to be known as supporters of austerity.

But the greying 64-year-old faces a struggle against a public that opposes more belt-tightening after years of public sector cuts and tax hikes that are expected to send the economy into a fourth straight year of recession in 2012.

His cabinet also faces a strike-happy public sector and two main parties that will likely distance themselves from tough measures as they jockey for position ahead of an election pencilled in for February 19.

ROUGH ROAD AHEAD

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy hailed Papademos's appointment but urged Greece to push on with tackling a debt load the Commission estimates at 162 percent of annual output this year.

That is far above the EU debt average of 85 percent of gross domestic product, as well as the 62 percent owed by Argentina when it fell into default in 2001.

"We have long stressed the need for a broad political consensus around measures to lift Greece out of this deep economic crisis. As such, we warmly welcome this news," the two EU leaders said in a joint statement.

About 8,000 Communist party supporters marched past parliament Thursday night, chanting "no more austerity."

Political tussles remain an issue. Sources say New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras nearly torpedoed the unity government agreement after Papademos demanded all parties enact a pledge to push through reforms agreed with Greece's international lenders.

That followed a bizarre series of actions by outgoing Prime Minister George Papandreou, who called a referendum on the austerity measures he had already agreed with euro zone leaders before reversing the decision under a storm of protest from those same leaders.

He finally agreed to step down, but only after negotiating a face-saving confidence vote that allowed his party to negotiate a unity government while still in power.

Analysts said continued political wrangling would undermine Papademos's efforts to meet Greece's financial obligations.

"I can't see the unions and the population willing to support an unelected technical government that is demanded by the European Union and even more so Germany," said Chris Williamson, chief economist at market research firm Markit.

"There's the danger that an interim technical government will not be able to implement policy purely because, down the road, there will be general elections and things will be reversed, so there is a great risk of a state of limbo."

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Jackson's doctor says unaware singer had addictions

Los Angeles, Nov 11 — The doctor convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Michael Jackson's death insists he was not the cause of the singer's death and denied that he was aware Jackson had an addiction problem when he began treating him.

In an interview with the "Today" show's Savannah Guthrie aired on Thursday but taped during the waning days of his trial, Dr. Conrad Murray characterized Jackson in his final hours as "a desperate man."

Asked whether he wished he had never met Jackson, Murray said he wished he had been more forthcoming about his medical history, instead of being deceptive.

"I love Michael too," Murray said. "Certainly he was deceptive by not sharing with me his whole medical history."

Murray denied having any knowledge or awareness that Jackson, who was seeing several doctors and on a variety of medications, might have had an addiction problem.

"Absolutely not, I did not have a clue," he said.

Murray said Jackson was already taking propofol, which Jackson was using to sleep and which led to his death, when he began treating him.

"This was not something I introduced to Michael," he said.

Murray contended he was actually trying to get Jackson off the drug, and "should have walked away," but added "if I walked away, I would have abandoned a friend."

When he was asked if he was the cause of Jackson's death he said, "No, I'm not."

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Turkey quake kills 3, scores trapped

ANKARA, Nov 9 - At least three people were killed and scores more trapped under the rubble of two hotels and a dozen other buildings when an earthquake hit eastern Turkey on Wednesday, less than three weeks after another quake killed 600 in the same area.

The magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck 16 km (9 miles) south of the city of Van at 1923 GMT, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The tremor destroyed at least seven buildings, including two hotels in Van city, and around 14 other structures in other parts of the region, state television said.

It said at least 100 people may still be trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings with one reporter saying up to 70 people may have been staying at one of the hotels.
Eleven people have so far been rescued alive from the rubble of the two hotels, state-run Anatolian news agency said.

Television footage showed panicked people running through the streets of Van and ambulances rushing through the city with their sirens wailing. Medical staff treated one unconscious person lying on an ambulance stretcher.

Wednesday's earthquake comes after a 7.6 magnitude tremor hit just northeast of Van on October 23, killing about 600 people. There have been hundreds of aftershocks since and thousands of people are still camping out in tents in freezing conditions.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who had been in the nearby town of Ercis at the time of the quake on Wednesday, went to the crisis coordination center in Van, Anatolian said. Ercis was the worst hit area in last month's quake.

Around 30 ambulances stationed in Ercis were sent to Van in the wake of the tremor. Ercis is some 60 km north of Van.

Five planes were to fly to the region carrying search and rescue teams, Anatolian said. Other rescue teams were traveling to the quake zone from the nearby provinces of Mus and Agri.

Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay and Health Minister Recep Akdag were also preparing to travel to the region, state television said.

Turkey is criss-crossed with seismic faultines and experiences small tremors nearly every day. Some 20,000 people were killed by two large earthquakes in western Turkey in 1999.

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