Relatives of Pune blast victim mourn outside morgue, Kolkata

Pune, 14 February : (L) Kolkata's Salt Lake resident Anindyee and Ankit's mother Alpana Dhar waits for her son and daughter's body, who died in a blast at German Bakery restaurant, outside the hospital mortuary in Pune (140 kms south east of Mumbai) last night. (R) The owners of a German Bakery destroyed by a fatal bomb blast on, leave after a visit. India's government said it had little idea who was behind a bomb in a tourist eatery in western India that killed Ten people and injured more than thirty others, with sources saying they were looking at the possible involvement of Islamist militants. န Photos : Reuters, AP

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BD govt decided to set up 19 more regional passport offices
BSS, Dhaka, 14 February : The Bangladesh government has decided to set up 19 more regional passport offices soon to ease travelling abroad and reduce suffering of passport seekers, official sources said here.
Additional 1,050 officers and employees would also be recruited for those offices mostly at the district level as the department of immigration and passport is limping with only 431 manpower, sources added. With the establishment of new offices, the number of regional passport offices would be 34.

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Bomb scare in flight causes panic at Kolkata NSC airport

Kolkata, 14 February : The NSC Bose International Airport in Kolkata on Sunday witnessed some anxious moments after a chit was found inside a Chennai-Kolkata Spicejet flight, threatening that a bomb was planted inside the aircraft.
Airport Director R Srinivasan said that the commandar pilot sought help of the airport authority immediately after landing at noon. The authorities, who were in a state of alert in the wake of Saturday's blast in Pune, immediately took the aircraft to isolation bay where CISF jawans and personnel of the airport police conducted a thorough search of passengers and their baggage. The bomb disposal squad was also called in.
However, nothing suspicious was found from the aircraft which later left for Bagdogra from here, Srinivasan said.

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BD-India agree to cut infectious diseases
BSS, Dhaka, 14 February : Bangladesh and India agreed here to control infectious diseases, including polio, through mutual cooperation between the two neighbouring countries.
Both the countries took the decision at a meeting when visiting Indian Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad called on his Bangladesh counterpart AFM Ruhal Haq at his secretariat office in the afternoon. The meeting also agreed to sign a memorandum of understanding for mutual cooperation on different aspects in health sector, including providing training to the specialised doctors.
The six-member Indian delegation, including Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Rajeet Mitter, took part in the meeting.

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Abducted official will be freed after demands met : Maoists
IANS, Ranchi, 14 February : Maoists on Sunday owned up to abducting a government official in Jharkhand and said the official will be released only after the demands of the guerrillas are met.
Block Development Officer (BDO) Prasant Kumar Layak was abducted by four armed men of the outlawed Maoists from Dalbhumgarh block of East Singhbhum in Jamshedpur Saturday. Maoist leader Mangal in a statement to local media owned up responsibility and said that their PLGA had abducted Layak. "He would be released only after the demands are fulfilled," Mangal said. The demands include release of seven people arrested on charges of being Maoists.

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Mejor fire breaks out at Strand Road's warehouse in Kolkata

Kolkata, 14 February : A major fire broke out at a warehouse on Strand Road in Kolkata early on Sunday, a fire department official said. No casualty was reported.
The fire started on the second floor of the building located near the Burrabazar area, the city's prime business hub. The blaze soon engulfed the entire building as the warehouse was packed with combustible articles.
"Altogether 30 fire engines have been pressed into service. We are trying to bring the fire under control now," West Bengal Fire Services director Gopal Bhattacharya told Bengal Newz. The fire spread very fast as the warehouse was full of inflammable articles like clothes and cooking gas cylinders, he said.
"There were also wooden partitions inside the building, which caught fire," the official added. န Photos : Shankar Mondal

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Baba Ramdev to field candidates for next Lok Sabha polls

Agartala, 14 February : So-called yoga guru Baba Ramdev Sunday said he would field candidates in the next Lok Sabha elections if the central government does not take sincere steps to curb corruption, which he termed as the main reason behind the spread of Naxalism and Maoism.
"If the incumbent Indian government does not change its policy to initiate sincere steps to curb corruption, I would field candidates in the next parliamentary elections and I believe that the common people would elect the appropriate person," Ramdev Baba said at a press conference here.

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Mountain biking takes off in BD
Alastair Lawson, BBC News, Dhaka : A new sport has emerged in a country which has a reputation for being one of the flattest in the world - mountain biking in Bangladesh.
The activity is growing in popularity in the south-eastern Chittagong Hill Tracts, a predominantly tribal area bordering Burma. This is no weekend jaunt through pleasant forestry. Riders have to cope with intense humidity, thick jungle, the danger of malaria and poisonous snakes.
But at least it's safer than riding a bike in one of the country's big cities, where it's generally accepted that cyclists have a short life expectancy. READ FULL STORY

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