Bangalees are widely known to be very good in hospitality, and the fact is proven yet again as Bangladesh Premier Sheikh Hasina cooked steamed Hilsa, a delicacy among the Bangalee cuisines, for Indian President Pranab Mukherjee at the Rashtrapati Bhaban.

On the second day of her state visit to India, the Bangladesh PM on Saturday took the helm of the kitchen at the Rashtrapati Bhaban in New Delhi and prepared the item herself for the Indian president for dinner, reports our Kolkata correspondent quoting Indian media.

Although Hasina’s entourage included six chefs who cooked most of the items for the dinner, the Bangladesh premier cooked the steamed Hilsa herself for Pranab Mukherjee, whom she “respects as an elder brother”.

She prepared the dish also for West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who could not taste of the Bangladesh PM’s culinary skills as “it was too early for dinner”.

MABINI, BATANGAS -After an anxious Saturday night when a 5.6-magnitude earthquake struck South Luzon, tourists have left this town, known as a diving spot, during what is normally peak season.

Most establishments, except for a few in the market, were closed on Sunday.

In the town proper, Red Cross and government emergency vehicles were seen going around, as the local government set up tents to serve as temporary offices outside the municipal building.

“We’re supposed to be closed today but we had to fix those,” a local female grocer said of the dry goods that had fallen off her store’s shelves.

“If I had it my way, I would have left Mabini already.”

In the village of Anilao, a popular diving and beach resort, 15 families huddled under a tree with their pet dogs resting on bags and boxes filled with clothes.

People here are still fearful and edgy.

“We’d rather stay out in the streets as there are still aftershocks,” said resident Ramil Mendoza.

“When I felt the house shake, all I could think of was to grab the image of [Our Lady of] Fatima,” said Melanie Maliglig, of Barangay Bagalangit.

Sleeping on cots

In parts of Bagalangit, an uphill village, some families plan to sleep on bamboo cots in an open area near the mountain after two concrete houses collapsed during the quake.

“You could hear loud rumbling followed by the shaking of the ground,” said Boy Ilagan, a village councilor.

“It was like the earth was going to open up,” his brother, Peter, added.

It was the first time in many years that residents here experienced a quake powerful enough to damage roads, hotels and a hospital.

Dr. Oliver Bautista said damage to Mabini General Hospital could cost millions of pesos after ceilings and walls were ripped off. The hospital was closed immediately after patients were moved to another hospital in Bauan town.

“The water in the seas receded by about two meters prompting fears of a tsunami,” Bautista said.

“As my sister said, [the earthquake] was like ripping the earth apart,” he added.

There was no common evacuation centre here since residents chose to stay together in open fields or basketball courts, Mabini Mayor Noel Bitrics Luistro said.

A state of calamity had been declared as Luistro pleaded for help for the town’s 34 villages. Portable toilets, food and construction materials are badly needed, said the mayor.

Many residents sought shelter in relatives’ houses in Batangas City or elsewhere. A subvillage turned into a ghost town.

Canceled bookings

Tourists had been sent home and bookings for the Holy Week had been cancelled.

Among the popular resorts with heavy damages were Camp Netanya, with walls on its top floor torn down, and the Eagle Point Beach Resort.

“We had around 200 guests, all of them sent home. One foreigner said, ‘welcome to the Philippines,'” said an employee of Eagle Point.

“That’s a problem. [Mabini is] definitely a tourist destination. We have 72 beach resorts, so just imagine [the losses] if 50 per cent of those were damaged,” Mayor Luistro said.

Townsfolk have a reason to be fearful.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said at least 200 aftershocks with magnitudes of 3 to 4 were recorded since the quake swarms struck on April 4.

The government has started to distribute blankets, bottled water and tents to towns in Batangas province struck by the quakes.

In a report to the Palace, Social Welfare Secretary Judy Taguiwalo said the initial response was to distribute these items to families.

In Mabini, 30 tents, 600 blankets and 400 bottles of water had been distributed.

In the town Tingloy, 15 tents, 200 blankets and 100 bottles of water had been distributed.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development also distributed 20 tents to hospitals, 5,000 meals and 10,000 cans of energy drinks.

Disruptions

Mary Jane Velasco, 27, was in Dubai at work when she learned about the quake.

Her mother, Mely, 65, was at home in Taal town.

Failing to contact her mother through Facebook, she got in touch with a brother working in Italy, who was able to call Mely, who turned out to be OK.

The quake had disrupted power and internet lines in parts of Batangas.

Mely and a grandson, Lexus, 17, rushed out of their home in Taal, which was being renovated at the time of the quake.

Mary Jane said she knew her mother and nephew were familiar with quake drills but were unable to perform these.

“They rushed out of the house because it was mostly glass,” Mary Jane said.

Disaster-proof shelters

At the House of Representatives, legislators asked the chamber to use its oversight powers to check compliance with the National Building Code, especially in Batangas.

Two legislators seized the chance to lobby for their bills.

Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate said the bill he filed, seeking the creation of disaster-resilient evacuation centres, would help in a more systematic way of moving people out of harm’s way.

Schools and village halls would no longer be converted into evacuation centres under Zarate’s bill.

Another party-list legislator, Rep. Rodel Batocabe of Ako Bicol group, said his bill, seeking inclusion in school curricula of disaster preparedness, would answer the need for awareness about what to do during quakes or other natural disasters.

Batocabe also called on schools to prepare for the “Big One,” a quake of magnitudes that could reach 7 or higher and may strike at the West Valley Fault in Metro Manila.

Security personnel at Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali apprehended a woman after she allegedly joked about having a bomb in her luggage.

Central Kalimantan native Titis AB, 28, was stopped from boarding a Wings Airlines plane to Malang, East Java, when she made the joke to airline staff at the departure gate, Bali Police spokesman Adj. Sr. Comr. Hengky Widjaja said.

“She said she was carrying a bomb. Security officers took her to a room for questioning,” Hengky said on Saturday as reported by newsportal tribunnews.com.

During questioning, Titis said she made the claim in jest.

The airport security released her after she signed a statement not to repeat the offence.

YANGON – At least 20 people were killed when a boat carrying scores of wedding guests collided with a river barge at night in western Myanmar, authorities said Saturday, with more feared drowned as rescue workers renewed their search in daylight.

Most of the dead were women, according officials, who said the boat sank Friday evening on a river in Pathein, a port city west of the commercial capital Yangon.

“Altogether 16 women and four men were killed in the boat accident,” regional MP Aung Thu Htwe told AFP Saturday morning.

“We estimate nine people are still missing,” he said, adding that some 30 people had been rescued alive the night before.

The boat was believed to be carrying between 60 and 80 people when it sank, according to state media and a local police officer.

“They were crossing to the other side of the river after attending a wedding in Pathein. Most of them were relatives from the same village,” said the police officer, who requested anonymity.

Both boats were unlit when they collided in the middle of the river, he added.

Photos in local media showed rescuers working in the darkness on Saturday night to lay the bodies of the dead onshore.

Local authorities and red cross workers resumed the search operation this morning, the police officer said.

“We will do search and rescue for the whole day,” he told AFP.

Fatal boat accidents are common in Myanmar, where many people living along its flood-prone rivers rely on often overcrowded ferries for transport.

It often takes several days before all of the bodies are retrieved.

Last October 73 people, including many teachers and students, died when their packed vessel capsized in central Myanmar on the Chindwin River.

Earlier that year in April at least 21 people, including nine children, died after their boat sank off the coast of Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine.

Around 60 people died the year before, in March 2015, when their ferry went down in the same treacherous waters off of Rakhine.

NEW DELHI – India yesterday overturned a travel ban on a controversial politician who attacked a steward with his sandal after being refused a business-class seat on an economy-only flight.

Mr Ravindra Gaikwad made national headlines after footage emerged in March of the Shiv Sena politician repeatedly striking the steward aboard an Air India flight.

He later admitted to whacking the 60-year-old steward roughly two dozen times with his sandal during the altercation over seating on a flight from Pune to New Delhi. He initially refused to leave the plane after landing and delayed the aircraft’s next journey.

Mr Gaikwad was forced to take trains after the airline filed a police complaint and banned him from its flights, prompting other airlines to follow suit. But the ban was overturned yesterday after the Civil Aviation Ministry asked that the airline consider Mr Gaikwad’s recent apology.

“The ban placed by Air India on Mr Gaikwad has, therefore, been lifted with immediate effect,” airline spokesman G.P. Rao said in a written statement. The airline added that it remains committed to ensuring that its employees are not assaulted by any passenger, and said it would take action to preserve the dignity of its employees at all times.

The hot-headed MP had initially refused to accept that he was in the wrong, prompting outrage in India’s Lower House on Thursday when he demanded that the ban be lifted.

The decision to overturn the ban was interpreted by some as the government caving in to protect one of its own. “Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad is now free to fly. Wish the central government had shown some spine,” one Twitter user wrote.

The first issue of X-Men Gold from Marvel has caused an outcry among Indonesian netizens as it contains symbols related to current religious and political issues happening in Indonesia.

Created by Indonesian Ardian Syaf, the symbols in the new comic series reference the protests against Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama.

In one of the panels showing a baseball match between the new members of the X-Men, “QS 5:51” is written on Colossus’s shirt.

Another panel also shows the numbers “212” above a building near to X-Men leader Kitty Pryde’s head, one of the most prominent Jewish heroes in Marvel Comics, according to io9.gizmodo.

QS 5:51 is allegedly a reference to the surah Al Maidah verse 51 of the Quran.

Ahok, a Christian and a Chinese-Indonesian operating in a Muslim-majority country, angered Muslim groups after he referenced the verse during a visit to Thousand Islands regency on Sept. 27, 2016.

Following an investigation, the National Police named him a suspect for alleged blasphemy.

Several rallies have taken place, one of them was the “212 Rally” held on Dec. 2, 2016.

Taking place at National Monument (Monas) square in Central Jakarta, some protesters were found shouting anti-Ahok slogans as they called on the police and President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to arrest Ahok.

At that time, Islam Defenders Front (FPI) leader Rizieq Shihab warned the government that Muslims would take to the streets again if they were dissatisfied with how the law dealt with Ahok.