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Bangladesh and Algeria signed a memorandum of understanding on hydrocarbon cooperation in Algiers on Tuesday, opening the way for talks on government-to-government imports of liquefied natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas and other petroleum products.

Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Iqbal Hassan Mahmood signed for Bangladesh and Algerian Minister of State for Hydrocarbons Mohamed Arkab signed for Algeria, officials said. The signing took place during a visit in which the Bangladeshi delegation also met Algerian Prime Minister Sifi Ghrieb.

The delegation included State Minister for Foreign Affairs Humaiun Kobir and Bangladesh's ambassador to Algeria, Najmul Huda. According to accounts of the meetings issued in Dhaka, the two sides discussed energy as well as trade, investment, agriculture, fertilisers, education, science, technology, sports and culture.

Mahmood said there was wide scope for cooperation in those areas and called for more trade and investment in energy for the benefit of people in both countries. He also asked the Algerian authorities to arrange knowledge-sharing and training for Bangladeshi engineers and technicians.

Kobir said the agreement had opened "a new horizon" for Bangladesh to buy LNG, LPG and other petroleum products from Algeria under a government-to-government arrangement. It also created scope, he said, to learn from Algerian practice in developing LNG infrastructure and in exploring coal and gas fields in Bangladesh. He stressed the importance of exchanging high-level visits.

Ghrieb said his government gave due importance to strengthening relations with Bangladesh and saw room for the two countries to complement each other in trade, commerce and investment, according to the foreign ministry's account.

The visit included separate meetings with Algeria's minister for mines and mining industries, Mourad Hanafi, and its minister for energy and renewable energy, Mourad Adjal. Arkab received Mahmood at Algiers airport on Monday.

The agreement matters because Bangladesh's gas supply is under strain. Domestic production has not kept pace with demand from households, industry and power plants, and the country has become a large LNG importer. Under long-term contracts it buys LNG from Qatar's Qatargas, Oman's OQ Trading, QatarEnergy Trading, Excelerate Gas Marketing and Gunvor USA; short-term supplies come from OQ Trading and Aarmco Trading of Singapore. In September the energy minister told parliament that 29 companies had been shortlisted to sell LNG on the spot market.

Algeria, on the Mediterranean, is one of Africa's largest gas exporters. Its shipments to South Asia do not pass through the Strait of Hormuz, the route that carries much of the Gulf's fuel and where shipping has been disrupted. Algerian cargoes have traditionally gone to Europe, but Asian buyers have been looking further afield as Gulf supplies and freight become less reliable.

The two governments have been moving towards an energy agreement for weeks. Mahmood and Arkab held a video meeting on 10 September, and on 11 October the Algerian ambassador in Dhaka, Abdelouahab Saidani, met the minister to discuss possible memorandums on LNG and LPG. The ministry said at the time that preparations for a visit to Algeria by Prime Minister Tarique Rahman were also discussed.

Several important details are still missing. Neither government has published the text of the memorandum. It is not clear whether it sets targets for volumes or a timetable, whether it obliges Algeria to supply or Bangladesh to buy, or how cargoes would be priced, whether against oil, spot gas benchmarks or another formula.

No commercial supply contract has been announced. Officials have not said when a first cargo might arrive, which companies would handle it, or how much the arrangement could affect domestic gas and LPG prices. No change to consumer prices has been announced.

What happens next will depend on negotiations between the two energy ministries and their state companies. The foreign ministry has said high-level visits are part of the plan, and the prime minister's planned trip to Algiers is the most likely stage for further announcements. For now, Bangladesh continues to buy most of its LNG under long-term contracts and on the spot market, and Algerian supply would add a new source rather than replace the existing ones.

Intern doctors at Rajshahi Medical College Hospital stopped work at 8:00am on Wednesday, beginning an open-ended abstention over shortages of medicines and equipment, heavy patient pressure and what they describe as an unsafe workplace.

The decision was announced in an urgent notice from the hospital's Intern Doctors Society, signed by its president, Dr SM Tapu, general secretary Dr Mushfiqur Rahman, organising secretary Dr Jamil Akter, treasurer Dr Rakibul Islam and women's affairs secretary Dr Tasnia Risha.

In the notice, the interns said the inpatient wards have long suffered severe shortages of essential medicines and medical equipment. They also complained that visitors and patients' attendants enter the wards without restriction, and that Ansar members on duty have allegedly been negligent, leaving intern doctors exposed to hostile crowds and group threats.

Several interns said they had received death threats. One female intern was forced to leave a ward in civilian clothes after being threatened by a patient's attendants, according to the notice. The society also said the hospital has no working observation rooms and no operating casualty department, which pushes more patients into the inpatient wards and leaves a small number of doctors managing a heavy load.

The interns said they had raised these problems with hospital authorities repeatedly and received assurances but no effective action. Their five demands are adequate supplies of medicines and medical equipment in the inpatient wards, full security for doctors at work, a rule limiting each patient to two attendants, active Ansar presence in every ward on the day of admission and afterwards, and the immediate opening of the casualty department.

The society warned that the abstention would continue until the demands are met and that it would announce tougher programmes if nothing changes.

Hospital authorities said they were trying to end the standoff. RMCH spokesperson Dr Sk Shamim Ahmed told The Daily Star that a meeting with the interns was being held, that mid-level doctors were attending to patients in the wards, and that patients were not suffering. He did not say whether the hospital had accepted any of the five demands.

Patients and their families described a morning of uncertainty. Inpatient Rafiqul Islam said he had been worried since early morning, but mid-level doctors had visited him and he had received medicines and primary treatment as usual. Abdul Kuddus said regular check-ups had been somewhat delayed in the absence of the interns and urged the authorities to settle the dispute quickly. Sufia Begum said she had not faced major problems because senior doctors were providing treatment, while Rahima Khatun said overcrowding in the wards was disrupting care.

The action follows a similar stoppage in April, when interns at the same hospital walked out for 24 hours after they said three colleagues were harassed by patients' relatives in two wards. About 230 interns joined that protest, and it was called off after the authorities gave assurances on safety and staffing. A hospital spokesman said at the time that RMCH was operating beyond its capacity and relied on about 262 intern doctors to handle the patient load.

Reports differed on the length of the current programme. The Daily Star said the interns had announced an indefinite abstention that would last until their demands were met, while Jamuna TV described the first phase as a 24-hour stoppage that began at 8:00am. The Intern Doctors Society's own notice, as reported by both outlets, did not set an end time.

Several questions remain unanswered. Neither the hospital nor the health ministry has said how many interns are staying away, how many patients have been affected, or whether the casualty department will be reopened. There has been no public response from the Directorate General of Health Services, and no timeline has been given for the meeting with the hospital authorities.

What happens next depends on that meeting. If the authorities offer written assurances, the interns could return to work as they did in April; if not, the society has said it will escalate. Either way, the dispute points to a wider strain on Bangladesh's public medical colleges, where interns carry much of the ward work and repeatedly complain that security and supplies have not kept pace with patient numbers.