Dhaka - Priyanka Gandhi, daughter of Indian National Congress president Sonia Gandhi, arrived in Dhaka Tuesday on a two-day personal visit to observe Bangladesh's rural development, officials said.

Senior officials from the Indian High Commission in Dhaka received Priyanka at Zia International Airport.

During her stay in Dhaka she will visit micro-credit and non-formal education programmes run by the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), one of the largest non-governmental organisations in the world.

Sofia - Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov would travel to

Jakarta- The speaker of an Indonesian provincial council died Tuesday after protestors carrying a mock coffin stormed into his office and attacked him, a report said.

Abdul Aziz Angkat, speaker of the North Sumatran provincial council, was meeting with other councillors when hundreds of protestors stormed the plenary room and beat him, the state Antara news agency said.

Angkat was rushed to a hospital but died of a heart attack, Antara said.

Police arrested six protestors after the attack.

Colombo - The army advanced into the last Tamil rebel strongholds in northern Sri Lanka as local and international concern about civilian casualties heightened Tuesday.

Fighting was reported from the Mullaitivu district, including an area surrounding a government hospital located in Pudukudirippu, 385 kilometres north-east of the capital where shelling was reported over the past two days.

Islamabad- Pakistani authorities swiftly re-opened a key supply route serving NATO forces in Afghanistan Tuesday, following a rebel attack on a bridge in the north-western tribal region, an official said.

Traffic through the Khyber Pass was suspended when the 30-metre iron bridge was blown up early in the morning.

"The road has been reopened after makeshift arrangements at the blast site," a government official in the Khyber district said.

Antananarivo - The campaign by Madagascar's opposition to force President Marc Ravalomanana from office suffered a blow when six of its leaders were arrested in the eastern port city of Toamasina, a local newspaper reported.

L'Express daily newspaper said the six opposition figures were nabbed for planning a rally in support of the mayor of the capital Antananarivo, Andry Rajoelina. No official confirmation was immediately available.