At least five people were killed and over a dozen injured when two blasts in quick succession rocked Lumbini Park near the state secretariat at around 2000 hours and another at Gokul Chat Bhandar 15 minutes later, on Saturday evening.

This year, twelve hardcore terrorists were arrested while crossing the porous Indo-Bangla border, up from two last year. HuJI has close links with the Jamiat-e-Islami, an ally of the Khaleda Zia led BNP government. The number of sleeper cells has gone up from 25 to 40 in the North East and Southern India, and its influence has grown 25 percent.

Intelligence officials at North Block have concluded that Bangladesh extremists were behind the blast and suspicion points to the Bangladesh-based terror group Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI). However, the Union Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta says, ‘It could be Lashkar-e-Toiba or Jaish-e-Mohammad’.

Officials say the military regime is under pressure from the United States government. The former joint director of the Intelligence Bureau, J N Roy asserted, ‘Even at the foreign secretary level talks, they talked of a joint mechanism on cross border crime but the word terror was not used’.

The government plans to put together a joint mechanism on terror with Bangladesh. A lot more has to be done if the governments of both countries want to convert words into action. Whether the Bangladesh government is really fighting against terrorism or merely stalling for time, remains to be seen.

This beautiful rose gold pen has been released by Omas, and comes in its own Mars-shaped box. The pen is named Marte, which is Italian for Mars, the red planet. It sports four rubies symbolizing the four landing points of the Martian probes. An artistic map of the planet, featuring craters, mountains and deserts has been etched on the surface of the pen. The spray of two carats of brilliant diamonds on the base of the pen and its cap stand for the frozen carbon dioxide caps.

The new Montbrillant Legende chronograph is the latest Navitimer watch from Breitling. This oversized model comes with a 47 mm dial and is glare proofed on both sides. This beautiful Navitimer has a 42 hour power reserve. It has a 6 o clock date window and uses a self-winding movement.

The steel and rose gold version looks fabulous with rose gold numerals on a black dial. The steel watch sports a white dial and is sure to be a hit for formal wear.

The home minister said that Naga society is obsessed with copying the western culture in its efforts to become modern and Christian. Mr. Thenucho said that illegal immigration posed an alarming danger to the sovereignty of the nation and indigenous people. It was a threat to the socio-cultural identity of indigenous people in the region. It also added to the menace of population explosion and was the cause of “all kinds of evils” in the society. He was upset that politicians are thriving on illegal immigrants to stay in power, while actually selling out their political and democratic rights.

The seminar emphasised that a solution should be found to stop both senseless westernisation and continuing immigration from Bangladesh. Importance was given to modernisation with the development of locally available culture, knowledge and genius instead of western imitations.