wednesday, april 21, 2010 BAISHAKH 8, 1417, JAMADIuL AWAL 5, 1431 Hijri

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Leading News

PM smells sabotage in city’s power supply
She warns of stern action against those guilty

UNB, Dhaka

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday said certain people responsible for the city's power system deliberately stop electricity supply in many areas to tarnish the image of the government.
"Many times load shedding is done unnecessarily. For example, electricity supply is stopped just before prayer time when there is no need for load shedding," she said.
The Prime Minister hinted at the sinister design while addressing the opening function of the extended Bijoy-Sarani-Tejgaon industrial area road and railway bypass Tuesday morning.
State Minister for Housing and Public Works Abdul Mannan Khan, local lawmaker Asaduzzaman Khan and RAJUK chairman engineer Md. Nurul Huda also spoke at the function, chaired by Housing and Public Works Secretary MA Hannan.
Expressing her sympathy with the fellow-countrymen including the city dwellers for their sufferings from the power shortage, Sheikh Hasina said the government has already come to know about some incidents where power supply was stopped unnecessarily in the name of load shedding.
She directed the Power Division and other departments concerned to go for whirlwind visits to the power stations and sub-stations in the city to identify the saboteurs and take stern action.
"Anyone caught red handed will be arrested and sacked permanently from the job," the Prime Minister said.
Some harmful activities are also going on in city water supply system, she said, and cautioned that the government will not tolerate any such activities.
She said the Awami League government has the misfortune that when coming to power it has to face severe electricity crisis mainly created by the previous governments.
"When we came to power in 1996 the total power generation was only 1600 MW, which in the next few years had been extended to 4300 MW. But then in the last seven years not a single MW of power was added to the national grid."
The Prime Minister said now the present government has to meet the production gap of the last seven years and at the same time, has to meet the increasing daily demand of electricity.
"But through hectic efforts, Insha-Allah, we hope to remove the power crisis again like our previous term." She requested the people to be more economic in using electricity and water.

  Expected progress in energy and power sector not achieved: Muhith
Budget for next fiscal to be announced on June 10

UNB, Dhaka

Finance Minister AMA Muhith on Tuesday said that the budget for the next fiscal 2010-11 will be announced on June 10.
Muhith disclosed this to the reporters after a pre-budget meeting with the Non-Medium Term Budgetary Framework (non-MTBF) ministries at the Finance Division.
It was earlier announced that the total budget for next fiscal will be over Tk 130,000 crore and the Annual Dev Programme (ADP) size is likely to be more than Tk 38,000 crore. The Finance Minister admitted that the expected progress in the energy and power sector could not be achieved in the current fiscal. There was also not much progress in initiating the Public-Private-Partnership projects, he said.
Muhith said that all the Ministries would be brought under the MTBF from next fiscal for five years. "The Ministries will have resource coverage for five years and the executive units will be more responsible in budgeting, planning and accounting," he added.
Briefing about the meeting, the Finance Minister said the ministries cited lack of fund for budget maintenance as well as weaknesses in monitoring and supervision by the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED). "This happens mainly for two reasons - number of projects is too many and there is no decentralization," he said adding that the monitoring of the foreign-aided projects is, however, better.
Muhith said they are trying to improve the capacity of the Ministries. "Implementation still remains the major problem and there is a need for big scale reform - project tuning to reduce the number of projects and devolution."
Replying to a question, he expressed his satisfaction over the current fiscal year's budget implementation progress. "I'm more than satisfied although we haven't been able to initiate PPP or make much headway in resolving power crisis. I've no reason to be unhappy though." He told a questioner that there would be no such new initiatives in the upcoming budget, saying: "Pursuing the old initiatives, restructuring the revenue collection system and to surpass the target in VAT and income tax." On inflation, the Finance Minister said that it is under control although the pressure is increasing because of international price. "It (inflation) is very much dependent on the price of petroleum." According to recent data of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), the point-to-point inflation rose to 9.06 percent in February from 8.99 percent a month ago.
Food inflation in February was 10.93 percent, which was 10.56 percent in January. But non-food inflation came down to 6.14 percent in February from 6.53 percent in the previous month. In urban areas, food inflation increased the most - 12.32 percent in February.

 Preparations for holding Bhola by-election complete: CEC
UNB, Bhola

The Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) ATM Shamsul Huda has said that all preparations aimed at holding the April 24 Bhola-3 by-election in a free and fair manner have been completed.
Arrangements will be taken for peaceful arrival of the voters to polling centres and five policemen led by a magistrate will be deployed for security of the two candidates, the CEC revealed while addressing a meeting of government officials and law enforcers at DC office here Tuesday.
About 1,500 security personnel will be on duty at Lalmohon and Tojumuddin upazilas on the polling day, said CEC. The CEC came here on a two-day visit on Tuesday to survey the preparations ahead of the election.
Referring to the incidents of violence, he said that outsiders were involved in some violent incidents, not the local voters. He said that RAB and police are working jointly to check the infiltration of outsiders.
Huda said that there is no alternative to a fair poll here as voters, the administration and the Election Commission all want it. The EC chief said his organization would take necessary steps in case voters face any trouble in casting their votes.
If necessary, polling will be cancelled in the centre concerned and re-polling in that centre will be held later, he said. The parliamentary seat fell vacant on a court order two months back against Awami League lawmaker Jasim Uddin for violating the electoral code of conduct.

    SCBA chief blasts Shafique for defending ‘controversial’ lawyers made judges

UNB, Dhaka

Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) president Khandker Mahbub Hossain on Tuesday strongly criticized the remarks by the Law Minister defending the two controversial lawyers M Ruhul Quddus and M Khasruzzaman, appointed as additional judges of the High Court.
Terming the Law Minister's statement as politically motivated, he said: "Any evil move to get the two controversial lawyers taking oath as additional judges of the High Court, the bar would take tough action programme."
At an impromptu press briefing, the SCBA president said the government will have to bear the responsibility if any unpleasant situation arises in the judicial arena across the country over the rehabilitation of the controversial appointees.
He reiterated the SCBA demand of cancellation of the two appointments and not to create any pressure upon the Chief Justice for administering oath of office to them.
Law Minister Barrister Shafique Ahmed on Monday told the media that the allegations against the two newly appointed additional judges of the High Court are false and hoped they would be sworn in soon.
Ever since the 17 new appointments were made public, the SCBA had been accusing advocate Ruhul Quddus and advocate M Khasruzzaman, son-in-law of immediate past SCBA president AFM Mesbahuddin, of being a murderer and a vandal of Supreme Court respectively. However, the allegations have not been scrutinized by any court of law.
Chief Justice M Fazlul Karim declined to administer oath of office to the two controversial appointees, apparently giving in to the demand of the SCBA, a day before giving oath of office to 15 newly appointed additional judges on April 18.
The SCBA president said the members of the apex court bar are both annoyed and worried as the two appointments are yet to be cancelled despite the Chief Justice's clear stand on the matter.
He advised the two appointee lawyers to refrain from taking oath as additional judges because they have already been tainted with scandal before the public.
Khandker Mahbub was also critical of the Attorney General, chief law officer of the government, for his "partisan" attitude in defending the two controversial appointee additional judges.
Among other SCBA office bearers, its secretary Barrister Badruddoza Badal was also present.

   Bangshal Thana Second Officer shot dead by miscreants
BSS, Dhaka

Sub-Inspector (SI) Gowtam Kumar Roy, Second Officer of the city's newly established Bangshal thana, was shot dead by miscreants at Lal Mohon Saha Street under Sutrapur Thana in the early hours of Tuesday.
Police and hospital sources Tuesday said SI Gowtam was fired at by two miscreants from a point blank range at about 2-15 am while he was seizing a pistol from another terrorist after searching his body.
The miscreants also fired on Shamim, a friend of Gowtam, who along with his friend Azam tried to nab the miscreants on hearing the sounds of gunshots on Gowtam.
Soon a patrol team of Sutrapur Police and another team from Bangshal thana rushed to the spot but the miscreants left the place before the arrival of police.
They immediately took SI Gowtam and his friend Shamim to the emergency of the Dhaka Medical College Hospital where Gowtam succumbed to his injuries just after the admission.
Bangshal Police said SI Gowtom left the police station by a microbus along with his two friends Shamim and Azam at about 1-45 am for his 16/9 Ranking Street, Wari, residence but halted near a shop at Lal Mohon Saha Street for buying some grocery items.
At that time, as Gowtam saw three youths coming out from a narrow lane of Abul Hasnat Road, he halted them. He first searched the body of a young man and got a pistol from his possession.
At that time, the other two miscreants opened fire on Gowtam from a point blank range and soon left the place.
On hearing the killing, Home Minister Advocate Sahara Khatun along with State Minister Advocate Shamsul Haque Tuku, Home Secretary Abdus Sobhan Sikder, Acting Inspector General of Police (IGP) N B K Tripura, Director General of RAB Hassan Mahmud Khandkar and Commissioner of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) AKM Shahidul Haque rushed to the DMCH to see the deceased Sub Inspector.

   Govt averts tender process to sign 200mw power deal with Aggreko

UNB, Dhaka

The government Tuesday signed an initial agreement with a foreign private company to install 200 MW rental power plant by July 30 this year.
As per agreement, Aggreko International, a Scottish company headquartered in Glasgow , Scotland, will set up two furnace oil-fired generation units having a total capacity of 200 MW, at Ghorasal and Khulna. The individual capacities of each plant will be decided later.
After installation, the state-owned Power Development Board (PDB) will purchase electricity from the plants for the national grid.
Aggreko has prior experience of working in the country, having obtained a contract through the tender process during the caretaker government and set up a 40 MW plant in Khulna.
But this time, the Awami League government awarded the contract to Aggreko through negotiation alone, abandoning the tender process.
The government has plans to sign similar contracts with some other companies to set up some more rental plants across the country. Normally, the Public Procurement Act (PPA) does not allow the government to award contracts to any foreign or local private company without the tender process. But the government signed the latest contract in view of the emergency situation in the power supply. For the latest contract signed with Aggreko, the tariff and other issues were not disclosed.
"Until the Cabinet Purchase Committee (CPC) approves the deal, we should not disclose the power tariff", said PDB Chairman ASM Alamgir, adding that the final agreement will be signed after getting the CPC' s nod.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith, who was present at the contract signing function at the Power Ministry, told reporters that the country is in the grip of a severe power crisis and the government is looking at all kinds of possible options to ease the problem.
"This (contract) is one of those attempts and we have to go for very expensive options like oil-based power production," he said.
Power Secretary Abul Kamam Azad informed the Finance Minister that the Power Ministry moved for the fast-track plant to increase power generation before the onset of Holy Ramadan.
"If the tender process was followed, it would not be possible to install the plant within the next three months," Azad said, explaining the reason for awarding the contract to a private firm without any tender.
Sources said as per the agreement, the PDB will be responsible for providing land for the plant, supplying fuel and for evacuation of power from the plant.
On the other hand, Aggreko will be responsible for power plant supply, installation and generation.
PDB secretary Md Azizul Islam and Aggreko South Asia Regional Managing Director Debojit Das signed the contract on behalf of their respective sides.
State Minister for Power Enamul Haque, Aggreko International's Managing Director Kash Pandya and Aggreko's local agent Intradev Associates Ltd's Director and Senior Vice President Sarafat Chowdhury Sadi were present at the occasion.

Back Page

ECNEC approves 4 projects worth Tk 2,600 crore
UNB, Dhaka

The Executive Committee on the National Economic Council (ECNEC) on Tues-day approved four development projects worth Tk 2600 crore, of which three are aimed at boosting power generation.
The approvals were sanctioned during an ECNEC meeting with its chairperson Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
The total cost of the four projects would be entirely borne by the government exchequer, said Planning Division Secretary Habibullah Majumder while briefing reporters after the meeting.
The approved projects are construction of 150 MW combined cycle power plant and transmission system in Sylhet (2nd revised) under the Power Division at a cost of Tk 879 crore; construction of a liquid fuel system for Sirajganj 150 MW peaking power plant under the Power Division at a cost of Tk 40 crore; construction of Chandpur 150 MW combined cycle power station and associated power evaluation facilities (2nd revised) under the Power Division at a cost of Tk 1201 crore; and a Tk 480 crore rural communication and other infrastructure development project in greater Rangpur and Dinajpur under the Local Gover-nment Division.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith, Planning Minister AK Khandaker, Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury, Labour and Employment Minister Engr Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Water Resources Min-ister Ramesh Chandra Sen, Commerce Min-ister Faruk Khan, Ship-ping Minister Shahjahan Khan, and Advisers to the Prime Minister and State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Brig. Gen. (retd) Enamul Haque, among others, attended the meeting.

   BNP suspects govt plot behind non-deployment of army in Bhola-3

UNB, Dhaka

The BNP is alleging that the refusal of the Election Com-mission to deploy the army for the Bhola-3 by-election is part of a plot to fulfill the ruling party's desire.
Following other party seniors in recent day, BNP joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi repeated the allegation on Tuesday while addressing a press briefing at the party's Nay-apaltan central office.
He said the 'anarchy' that was created in Bhola-3 constituency (Lalmohan-Toju-muddin) following the violation of the election code of conduct by the ruling Awami League since the anno-uncement of the by-election schedule is still rife.
The situation is apparently deteriorating day by the day, with the election scheduled for April 24.
Mentioning some incidents of attacks and violence on Monday on the campaign trail of the BNP and its front organizations, he said no action was taken against the perpetrators.
Rizvi further alleged that the Awami League's armed cadres are threatening women voters in remote villages of Lalmohan that they (women) will be assaulted, as well as made to pay Tk 1 lakh extortion fee if they go to polling centers to cast their votes.
He said the Election Commission is not performing its role as stipulated by the constitutional.
The leaders of BNP and its front organizations Abdus Salam, Abdus Salam Azad, Abdul Latif Jony, Asadul Karim Shahin and Rafiq Shikder were also present at the briefing.

   Dock workers threaten to close down Ctg port
UNB, Chittagong

The pro-Awami League Dock Workers Union Council (DWUC) in Chittagong Port has announced a move to halt all activities of the port April 27 demanding reinstatement of all workers removed under the reign of the caretaker government.
Ali Ashraf, Convener of the DWUC, made the announcement while leading a demonstration by the same group in front of the port building around noon on Tuesday.
Workers had been rem-oved during the caretaker government through formation of a Dock Workers Management Board.
They warned that if their demands were not met, they would go ahead with the program of bringing the port to a standstill indefinitely.
Earlier, the Dock Port Workers and Employees Federation, another workers' union that is backed by Chittagong city Mayor ABM Mohiuddin, observed a demonstration program demanding the same. They only stop their program following assurances from the River Minister in a meeting.

   Power Ministry authorized to go for direct purchase in setting up power plant
Cabinet economic affairs body’s emergency meeting held

UNB, Dhaka

Different agencies under the Power Ministry can go for direct purchase for setting up power plants as Cabinet Economic Affair Committee Tuesday approved a proposal in this regard.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith, who presided over an emergency meeting of the committee at the Planning Commission, told reporters that considering the severe power crisis, the Power Ministry was given the authority to go for direct purchase. This means the procurement agencies under the Power Ministry can award contract to any company or contractor for setting up power plants without any tender process.
Sources said the Power Ministry originally moved a proposal seeking a waiver from following the Public Procurement Act (PPA) in awarding contracts for setting up power plants. The PPA does not allow any public purchase without tender for the sake of transparency and competition.
"But the committee passed a resolution that would allow the PDB and other agencies under the Power Ministry to go for direct purchase," a senior official at the Cabinet Division told UNB.
He also mentioned that a provision of the PPA allows such direct purchase without tender on emergency ground.

   Eve teasing will not be tolerated in society: Nahid
UNB, Dhaka

Sounding a strong warning against eve teasing the Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid said committees will be formed in every mahallah to identify the spoiled and notorious boys for exemplary punishment
He was presiding over a meeting of cross section of people to ascertain views how deal with the rising incidents of eve teasing that have worried the parents of school and college going girls and female inmates of halls and hostels.
Eve teasing will not be tolerated. The culprits will be given exemplary punishment so that others do not dare to do it, added the minister.
He said committee will be formed with elders in every mahallah. They will identify the eve teasers, prepare a list and give it to the law enforcers for action.
Besides, schools, colleges and universities will be directed to take action against the eve teasers.
Prof Sirajul Islam Chow-dhury viewed that rising incidents of eve teasing is a manifestation of overall moral degradation in the society. Political leaderships are seems to be indifferent about the menace.
Media should play a vital role to curb it, said vice chancellor AAMS Arefin Siddiq.
Principal Kanij Mahmuda Akter of Siddeswari Univ-ersity College suggested closer of fax/phone shops around schools and colleges from where spoiled boys used to contact with female students.
Rawshan Ara Begum of Education Directorate suggested eave teasing case should be made non-bailable.
Fahima Khatun, chairman of Dhaka Board, regretted that plain cloth police deployed against eve teasing should be activated. AIG of police Abdullah Al Mamun pointed to the weaknesses of law to deal with the culprits. Most of the accused taking advantage of loopholes in the law secured release from the court.

   BCL activists set bus ablaze, 8 held
No class or exam held at CU due to indefinite strike

UNB, Chittagong

No class or examination was held at Chittagong University (CU) Tuesday morning due to indefinite strike called by Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) activists on Friday protesting the killing of fellow worker Asaduzzaman. The university authorities at an emergency meeting on Friday suspended all classes and exams until Monday following the killing of the student.
The classes and examinations were scheduled to resume today. But it could not be held due to the strike.
Asaduzzamn, a 2nd-year BBA (Accounting) student, was allegedly stabbed by neighbouring villagers following an altercation at Pahela Baishakh festival Thursday night. He later succumbed to his injures on Friday afternoon at Chittagong Medical College Hospital. The BCL activists called an indefinite strike on campus following the death on Friday. Some BCL activists set fire to the CU employee carrying bus as it was heading towards the campus at about 6:45 am. On information, fire fighters rushed to the spot and doused the blaze.
No shuttle train left the Chittaong railway station for the university inn the morning following the incident.
Rail station manager Md Shamsul Alam said shuttle train movement was halted as railway employees denied to move to the university due to security reason.
CU proctor Professor M Jasim Uddin Chowdhury told UNB that the situation of the university was under their control. But, he admitted that that classes and examinations were not held as the students could not reach the campus.
In-charge of CU police camp sub-inspector M Alauddin said BCL activists have been obstructing vehicular movement on the link roads of the campus, creating panic among the general students.
Additional police have been deployed in and around the campus to maintain law and order, he said. Many students have left their dormitories in the wake of the tensed situation.
When contacted CU Vice-Chancellor Dr Abu Yusuf said," Those who have been creating anarchy on the campus in the name of strike have taken position against 19000 students of the university. I am with the students." "I will not hold any meeting with those who harass general students, set fire to bus and humiliate the teachers", he said.
Meanwhile, police arrested eight workers of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) for burning down a staff bus of Chittagong University in city's Sholosahar area Tuesday morning. The incident occurred during an indefinite strike enforced at the university by the BCL to protest the killing of fellow worker Asaduzzaman.
Police raided different parts of the city and arrested Rubel
Paul,Ershad Hossain, Khushed Alam, Nijamul Haque, Subal Das and Nur Mohammad Palash-from Panchlaish area and Alauddin and Anwar Hossain from Khulshi area.

   9 BCL workers accused of thana attack and extortion sent to prison

UNB, Pirojpur

Nine BCL activists accused of attack and damage to Swarupakati thana was sent to jail when produced before the court Tuesday.
In a separate case filed with police by Upazila chairman accused them of demanding tolls.
Magistrate rejected the bail petitions and ordered Shahidul Islam Ripon, Mashrur Ahmed Rajib, Solaiman Kazi, Asaduzaman Samrat, Arif Ahmed Manna, Rony Dutta, Sanjoy Karm-akar, Almain Howladar and Ajmal Sardar to the prison.
They were arrested following attack on the police and damaging the thana complex leaving five police personnel wounded on Monday afternoon.
Police had fired 20 rubber bullets and four tear gas shells to disperse several hundred unruly activists following the arrest of Rony Dutta, BCL activist, on a complain of upazila chairman Mohitul Islam Muhit.
Muhit, also local Awami League leader, filed a case with police accusing Shahidul Islam Ripon and his associates accusing them of demanding tolls. Another case was filed against 170 BCL activists, 9 of them by name.

   Bijoy Sarani Link Road is now open
BSS, Dhaka

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Tuesday opened the much-talked-about Bijoy Sarani Road for traffic movement as a crucial link between the city's eastern and western part to ease the capital's notorious traffic congestion.
"We will build six more fly-overs in the city to ease the traffic jam," the Premier said while opening of the 1,114 metres long and 60 feet wide road with an overpass connecting the Old Air Port Road with Tajudding Ahmed Sarani near Nabisco intersection in Tejgaon.
The construction of the road started during then past interim government after demolishing the illegally built high rise Rangs Bhaban under a Supreme Court order as the structure stood as an obstacle to constructing the crucial road under a previous plan of Rajdhani Unnyan Kartripakkha (RAJUK). Besides the Rangs Bhaban, 44 illegal structures which stood on the planned link road were also needed demolition.
Officials said against a previously estimated cost of Taka 122 crore, the link road was completed at a cost of Taka 113.90 crore.
Speaking on the occasion, Sheikh Hasina said her government put in its best efforts to enhance the civic facilities addressing the issues like traffic jam and utility services but sought the city residents' cooperation urging them to ensure economical or frugal use of water and power.
She directed the city authorities to keep in mind the issues of children's playground and rehabilitation of slum dwellers.
State Minister for Works Abdul Mannan Khan addressed the the function as the special guest. Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, MP, Works Secretary MA Hannan, JAJUK Chairman Engineer Nurul Huda spoke on the occasion.

   Specialized industrial belt to be set up in Gopalganj: Barua
UNB, Gopalganj

Industries Minister Dilip Barua on Tuesday said the government will build a specialized industrial belt here for utilizing industrial potential and human resources.
The minister made the remarks while addressing a rally here after visiting the BSCIC estate at noon.
Entrepreneurs, BSCIC officials, political leaders and journalists attended the occasion. Potential for industry will increase here on a massive scale as a middle place between Khulna and capital following the construction of the Padma Bridge, he said.
Barua hoped many entrepreneurs from home and abroad will come forward for investment in industrial sector by availing of the opportunities of natural gas in Bhola and the Mongla port.
The minister told that an initiative will be taken soon for expansion of BSCIC industrial estate in the district. The minister later exchanged opinion with local elite at DC office in the afternoon.

   Robbers loot CNG-filling station in Gazipur
UNB, Gazipur

Robbers looted valuables from a CNG-filling station at Chandana Chourasta in Sadar upazila on Tuesday.
Police said a group of bandits, numbering 8 to 10, stormed into the Syam CNG-Filling station and entered cash room by breaking open the door.
They then took the employees of the station hostage at gun point and hacked them indiscriminately, leaving three injured.
Then the muggers looted an estimated Tk 76,000 in cash, three mobile phone sets and an electric motor. Of the injured, attendant Bilal and driver Mozammel were rushed to Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

Editorial

Agitation for power, gas and water

A front-page news item published in this paper on Tuesday said that the demand for uninterrupted supply of water, gas and electricity to the city dwellers has been mounting and taking the shape of a movement.
Agitation, protest rally and human chain programmes demanding water, gas and electricity are taking place at different parts of capital daily. Besides, some political parties, their associate bodies, some socio-cultural organizations and small and medium business entrepreneurs are mulling waging anti-government movement as the normal life is being disrupted by the power, gas and water crises. The main opposition BNP is set to stage demonstration in various parts of the capital today (Wednesday) and tomorrow demanding an end to the utility crises that has besieged the population. During the two-day programme the party will stage demonstration at around 50 different points in the capital.
Residents in most parts of the capital including Mirpur, Mohammadpur, Tejgaon, Mohakhali, Badda, Moghbazar, Sutrapur, Shyampur, Jatrabari and the old section of the capital are facing severe crises of electricity, water and gas. They are unable to cook food properly due to the low voltage of gas and take bath due to absence of water and they cannot sleep for nagging load shedding. These irritated, under privileged and deprived city dwellers may come down on the street collectively in a movement against the government it is speculated.
Bangladesh is now producing 3800-4000 mw of power daily as against the demand for 6000 mw leaving a deficit of around 2000 mw of electricity. Besides, only 45 per cent of the city dwellers have the access to water supply with the WASA water supply and public demand standing at 190 crore litres and 220 crore litres respectively, the shortfall being 30 crore litres. Parliament members elected from the capital and adjacent areas had expressed the fear that the city dwellers may turn violent over the severe water and power crises and may burst into anger if these can not be resolved immediately. They expressed this fear at a meeting with the LGRD Minister Syed Ashraful Islam on March 30. The fear expressed by the MPs that there may be outburst of the public anger over water and power crises is very genuine as people are facing unbearable sufferings and their fear has started coming true within two weeks.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said that her government has undertaken a 'mega-plan' to ensure adequate water supply, apart from power generation. She repeated her claim that the previous BNP-led 4-party alliance and then the caretaker government during the emergency should bear responsibility for these problems. Regarding the opposition's threat of forging a movement over the utilities crises, Hasina said the movement should rather be forged against the opposition for how they allowed the situation to worsen.
The rhetoric over the power and water crises is mounting with the opposition accusing the government of failing to resolve the crises and the government blaming the past BNP-Jamaat and caretaker governments for inaction leading to the arising out of the present problems. But this blame game is not helping the people in any way. What is needed for them is to resolve the crisis as far as possible and as early as possible. People have been facing unbearable sufferings since long for the crises of power, gas and water. So, they should not be blamed for their frustration, anger and agitation. Rather, the successive governments should bear the responsibility for their failure to work out plans and implement those to resolve these mounting crises. People are angry and restive and the government should do every thing possible to resolve the power, gas and water crises before the situation goes out of control.

  The plight of the poor

The pressure of inflation has increased further. Although the Finance Minister has projected inflation target in trhe budget at 6.5 per cent, the rate of inflation is now 9.06 which is the the highest in last 12 months. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) revealed on Monday the index of inflation for the month of February. The enhanced pressure on inflation has resulted from the rise in the food prices. The food price inflation now stands at 10.93. According to TCB, during the last one year the prices of all verities of rice have soared from 21 to 32 per cent. Coarse rice price has recorded the highest rise- 32.5 per cent.
This shows that the poor people are the worst victims of the inflation. In Fact, the extremely poor people of the country are facing a very tough time for want of work and food . They are passing their days in endless miseries. The day labourers in the rural areas are not getting any job as the land owners are also facing serious financial hardship. Frustration and uncertainty have gripped them due to sky rocketing of price of essentials and want of work.
Meanwhile, the number of people living under poverty line has recorded a rise in recent days following sharp increase in the prices of essentials. Some 36 million people of Bangladesh, about a quarter of the country's population, still remain trapped in acute poverty and hunger, says a study report. Much has been said about the poverty alleviation in the country but in practice very little has been achieved. Moreover, the plight of the poor has intensified due to mismanagement of economy and spurt of prices. To retrieve them from unbearable sufferings the government should step up the poverty alleviation efforts and undertake massive programmes for income generation for the poor people.

Analysis

Talks with no solutions

Indian officials declare that they are open to dialogue but resist talks aimed at finding solutions to disputes.

Dr Maleeha Lodhi

As Pakistan mulls over the next step in the diplomatic engagement with India, Delhi wants to have it both ways. It seeks third-party intercession to mount pressure on Pakistan to meet its demands but vehemently objects when Pakistan asks for international help to resolve differences between the two countries.
Indian officials declare that they are open to dialogue but resist talks aimed at finding solutions to disputes. Delhi embarks on a spending spree to continue a substantial military build-up but protests over the modest US military assistance to Pakistan.
These are some of the dilemmas that Islamabad confronts in navigating the complex shoals of diplomacy with Delhi. For now Pakistani officials await a clear response to the proposals they made during the last diplomatic encounter in February between the foreign secretaries in Delhi. Islamabad had proposed a roadmap leading to a summit-level meeting between the prime ministers of the two countries at the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) conference due to be held in Bhutan on April 28 and 29. It had also suggested that the summit meeting should announce the resumption of broad-based formal peace talks.
Although Prime Ministers Yousuf Raza Gilani and Manmohan Singh had a chance meeting earlier this month on the sidelines of the US-hosted Nuclear Security Summit, this was little more than a photo opportunity. Islamabad clearly wants any encounter in Bhutan to go beyond optics and pave the way for result-oriented engagement.
For its part Delhi has hinted that it expects foreign secretary Nirupama Rao to be invited to Islamabad for a return visit. But it has declined to indicate an agenda for the meeting. Pakistan's thinking on further meetings without an agenda is that rather than advance the process of normalising relations they would be reduced to platforms for Delhi to deliver homilies on terrorism.
This is what the previous round of talks turned out to be. Even though the Delhi parleys helped to end a 14-month diplomatic standoff the two sides were unable to agree on the timing, modalities and agenda for future talks.
It is instructive to consider what has happened since the February talks. The trajectory of developments has not been promising. They include:
* Indian complaints to the US about Pakistan's "lack of seriousness" in addressing Delhi's terrorism-related demands.
* The failure of the talks between the Permanent Indus Waters Commissions of the two countries in March. This was followed and preceded by dismissive statements from Indian officials also accusing Pakistan of using the water issue as "propaganda" along with flat denials that Delhi was diverting the Indus waters.
* The Indian foreign secretary's visit in March to Washington where she assailed Pakistan in public forums and private meetings, accusing it of using terrorism as an instrument of policy.
* Continued Indian diplomatic efforts in key capitals of the world to malign Pakistan and shift the entire onus of responsibility to Islamabad for the resumption of full-fledged talks.
The most significant recent development was the meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and US President Barack Obama in which the former reportedly conveyed India's concerns about the lack of Pakistani movement to act against the perpetrators of the Mumbai terrorist incident and curb the activities of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). Mr Singh later said he hoped that the points he raised would "weigh considerably" with the US administration. These 'points' were duly passed on to Prime Minister Gilani by President Obama during their meeting.
On the water issue, a new pattern seems to have emerged in the past month of Indian officials seeking to portray the water issue as devoid of substance, implying therefore that there was nothing to settle. In a series of comments to foreign and Indian papers, unnamed Indian officials have been cited as saying that Pakistan's position on the Indus waters issue was a "political gimmick…. designed to place yet one more agenda item in (an) already complex relationship".
Elsewhere Indian officials accused Pakistan of creating a "frenzy" while dismissing the issue as a Pakistani effort to create an "Indian bogey" and divert the blame for water shortages whose causes lay within Pakistan. This is a far cry from a problem-solving approach when one side declines to even acknowledge the existence of a dispute.
As for the Indian foreign secretary's statements, at one public forum in Washington, she devoted a good part of her speech on Indo-US relations to Pakistan's 'conduct'. Among the pronouncements she made - unseemly in a third country - was that Pakistan used terrorism as a policy tool. India she said should not be expected to resume full-scale talks until Pakistan is able to "cease its encouragement of terrorist groups that were targeting India". She also claimed that Pakistan had conveyed to India that it was not in a position to guarantee that it could control terrorism.
Meanwhile Delhi's opposition to US military sales to Pakistan appears rather rich given India's own record of contracting multiple arms deals with several countries under a five-year $50 billion plan to modernise its military. Its defence budget in the fiscal year ending March 2010 represented a whopping 70 per cent increase from five years ago.
What does India's more strident posture in the international arena imply? The most obvious answer is that the strategy is designed to maintain western pressure on Pakistan and continue efforts to undercut its position at a time when there is an international consensus to help Pakistan address terrorism, fight militancy and establish economic stability.
Delhi's activism against Pakistan may also be a reaction to three more immediate and inter-related developments. One, the upswing in Pakistan-US ties generated by last month's strategic dialogue in Washington. The new momentum in relations seems to have evoked worry in Delhi that Washington's growing reliance on Pakistan to accomplish its regional strategy would ease pressure on Islamabad. As a consequence India has sought to ratchet up pressure on Washington to lean on Pakistan on the LeT and related issues.
Two, the Obama administration's role in seeking to defuse Pakistan-India tensions appears to have produced Indian disquiet about Washington's moves in this regard. What may have accentuated the anxiety is the leak of a secret directive President Obama issued last December calling for US diplomatic efforts to focus on easing tensions in the subcontinent, without accomplishing which US goals in Afghanistan would be jeopardised.
And three, Delhi's behaviour could also be a reflection of the uncertainties created by its own assessment that India doesn't figure as high in the Obama administration's foreign policy priorities as China and Pakistan. These concerns have been frequently aired in the Indian media and expressed in the columns of writers close to India's foreign policy establishment.
All of this complicates the challenge of finding a way forward towards a dialogue that helps improve the climate for bilateral relations. Even if a prime minister-level meeting at the Saarc summit materialises - and there is a good chance that it might - behind the anticipated smiles and handshakes will lie the more important task of engaging India in a process that involves talks to find solutions - not diplomatic theatre in which one side tries to impose a unilateral, terrorism-only agenda, that deflects from the disputes that continue to fester and bedevil relations.
There is no substitute for wider talks that can address the concerns and priorities of both sides. Ad hoc, sporadic engagement will only produce fitful and fruitless dialogue which will be susceptible to a relapse in tensions. Peace cannot be pursued by selective engagement and a patchwork process that ignores the issues that lie at the heart of Pakistan-India tensions and mistrust.
So long as agreement on the scope and framework of the dialogue remains elusive the fate of the normalisation process will remain in question. And so will the prospects for peace.


The writer is a former envoy of Pakistan to the US and the UK, and a former editor of The News.

  India on red alert

The Maoists are not looking for redress or justice for villagers or tribals; they want to reorder society and shake it up from its roots. Their ambition is to overthrow the Indian state by force and capture absolute power.
 
Rakesh Mani

Over the last few months, and especially after the massacre of Indian security forces in Dantewada recently, many Indians have been pondering over the rise of the Maoist movement in the country.
Who are the Maoists? On the one hand, India's prime minister calls them India's biggest internal security threat and the home ministry tells us that they are merciless killers who want to overthrow the state. Meanwhile, leftwing intellectuals and sympathisers glamourise them as revolutionaries fighting to build a just and inclusive society.
The Maoists are not looking for redress or justice for villagers or tribals; they want to reorder society and shake it up from its roots. Their ambition is to overthrow the Indian state by force and capture absolute power.
What began as a small agrarian rebellion against local landlords 43 years ago in a West Bengal village called 'Naxalbari' has now ballooned into an armed revolutionary movement which controls over 220 districts across 20 states, around one-third of India's territory.
In reality, the Maoists' dreams are pure fantasy. The Indian state, which still has not involved the army in its operations, is far more powerful than the Naxalites or even the Chinese state in the 1940s. Most Indians also prefer our current democratic system to the alternative of an absolute Maoist state.
However, the government's anti-Maoist offensive, Operation Green Hunt, has been condemned as a brutal assault on poor and disenfranchised villagers by a government bent on regaining control of large swathes of central and eastern India and participating in the corporate plunder of mineral-rich land. Even those supportive of New Delhi's position argue that the government has devoted little attention to development, education and the battle for hearts and minds. A military victory over the Naxalites will prove shortlived unless the circumstances that give Maoist ideology traction in India's tribal areas are tackled and education is made a strategic priority.
In the public lexicon, the narrative of the Naxalites being a grassroots reaction to decades of economic neglect has become an unchallenged truism. It is true that in the tribal areas of states like Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, poverty is so desperate that joining the Naxalite factions is often the only way out. There are no other alternatives to making a livelihood.
Many argue that the answer lies in investment and infrastructural development on a massive scale, which will create jobs, bring economic advancement and draw the tribal areas closer to the union. But the problem does not lie in economic backwardness; it lies in the deficiency of efficient and democratic governance. Why have Naxalites had the most success in tribal districts over the last decade? It is not accidental. There are clear correlations between areas of tribal habitation and substandard levels of socio-economic conditions. The helplessness of tribals in their own matters makes them perfect breeding grounds for revolutionary ideology. As part of their strategic and tactical approach, the Naxalites have consistently presented themselves as a better alternative by taking up battles on tribal issues and drawing up pro-tribal governance policies.
As the historian Ramachandra Guha has argued, "what the Naxalites have going for them is their lifestyle - they can live with, and more crucially, live like the poor peasant and tribal, eating the same food, wearing the same clothes, eschewing the comforts and seductions of the city. In this readiness to identify with the oppressed, they are in stark contrast to the bureaucrat, the politician and the police officer". Not much has changed in the Naxalite heartland since the days of the Raj. Tribal issues continue to be dismissed and, despite much lip-service, the state does little to empower the tribals as citizens of a modern and democratic state.
The legacies of colonial legislation, especially the Indian Forests Act and the now abolished Criminal Tribes Act, have ensured that tribal governance neither facilitates entry into modern India nor preserves pre-modern ways of life.
A counter-insurgency strategy that is based solely on economic development is bound to flop. Billions of dollars in investment have already been flowing into the tribal areas for decades through large industrial and mining conglomerates that are keen to strip the land of its resources. The government always has been a willing partner in crime.
More investment in tribal areas has also led to bitter struggles against unilateral land acquisitions and massive displacement. Estimates suggest that while tribals comprise over three-quarters of those displaced by industrial development, their share of new jobs created is only one-fourth. The reason is plain: state-sponsored education has failed the tribal population.
The Indian government, while preventing tribals from exploiting the forests, has done little to provide education and social infrastructure that would equip tribals to find jobs, make a living and succeed in a modern economic framework. In spite of a host of development schemes - from the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme to the Integrated Child Development Scheme and the Backward Tribes Initiative - the reality of the tribals situation is unchanged.
Without education, especially primary education, being made a priority, without drastic changes in the governance structures of the region and without adequate representation, development will only further dislocate and alienate tribals.
New Delhi's focus has to be on deepening democratic institutions in the tribal belt and improving social infrastructure. The face of the government ought to be the doctor and the school teacher, not the soldier or the forest official.
The fatal flaw of Operation Green Hunt and of the government's general approach to the Naxalite issue is that it is rooted in the culture of brutal repression and top-down development. What makes the Naxalites attractive is that they can conjure up an alternate vision of the future. Their future fights the entire superstructure that has historically bred poverty, alienation and displacement in the tribal belt.
For New Delhi to destroy the false promises of the Naxalite future, it has to focus on giving tribals access to education - and a real stake in their own governance.


Rakesh Mani is a 2009 Teach For India fellow. rakesh.mani@gmail.com

Viewpoints

Placing Karzai in the hot seat

The Obama administration needs to grow up, recognize that in the real world Karzai is the best partner it has, and roll out the red carpet for him when he finally gets to the White House on May 12.

Fareed Zakaria

President Barack Obama keeps saying that he intends to win the war in Afghanistan. "There will be difficult days ahead, but I am absolutely confident that we will succeed," he promised in this year's State of the Union address.
And yet his administration is undermining its own chances of success by constantly criticizing, weakening, and undercutting America's only credible partner in the country, Hamid Karzai.
For the sake of argument, let's assume that the Afghan president is ineffective and corrupt. Even if the allegations are all true, there's an overriding reason to support him: there is no alternative. A foreign power can't hope to run a successful counterinsurgency campaign without a local ally who has at least a modicum of mass appeal.
In Afghanistan, that means a major figure from the country's dominant ethnic group, the Pashtuns, and one who's willing to make common cause with the United States.
Karzai is the most popular, most credible politician who fits that description. Despite his many flaws, no one satisfies the criteria better than he does. And he's the country's elected president-reelected in a process that was, after some controversy, endorsed by the United Nations and other international institutions. Although there was serious fraud in the balloting, few observers believe that his opponent, Abdullah Abdullah, a member of the minority Tajik community, would have won if the contest had been fairer. The only practicable method of replacing Karzai now is a military coup, which would be so destabilising and discrediting that it isn't worth discussing.
So we can't replace him, and we can't succeed without him. And yet the Obama administration has criticised him publicly from the start. Two years ago Joe Biden (then senator) ostentatiously walked out of a dinner with him. This March the national-security adviser, Jim Jones, promised that Obama would give Karzai a talking to.
It was reported in the press that Karzai's invitation to the White House for May 12 had been revoked, then reinstated - and then Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the White House was continuing to monitor Karzai's statements to see if a White House visit would be "constructive."
Let's accept that Karzai is a vain, mercurial, hypersensitive man. And let's accept that he presides over a system that is massively corrupt. Does anyone really believe that his successor will be a brilliant manager and a Jeffersonian democrat of unimpeachable virtue?
This is Afghanistan we're talking about - one of the five poorest countries in the world, destroyed by 30 years of war, with a tribal culture and a literacy rate that's among the lowest on earth. Operating in this climate would be challenging for anyone. And to be fair to Karzai, he's been making the right moves in the last few months on a number of issues, from civil-service and police reform to local governance and even corruption.
Compare Karzai, for a moment, with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in Iraq. When Maliki took over his job in Baghdad in April 2006, he would talk partnership with the United States by day and cozy up to Shia militias that were killing American soldiers by night. His finance minister, Bayan Jabr, has publicly admitted that death squads were operating from within the Interior Ministry when he was its head. Corruption in Iraq was measured in the billions of dollars, not the millions as in Afghanistan, and yet the United States understood that publicly picking fights with Maliki would only make America's job more difficult. Karzai, like Maliki, is better than many of the local leaders we have been obliged to ally with over? the decades.
That's not to say America shouldn't be putting heavy pressure on Karzai in private. But the operative word here is "private." Voicing honest feelings may be a good thing when you're a private citizen, but in government it is self-indulgent. Venting is not foreign policy.
A perceptive essay by Barnard professor Sheri Berman in the current issue of Foreign Affairs explains that the real challenge facing Afghanistan is state building, not nation building. History suggests the job will require a long, arduous process of centralizing political power and authority. In other words, the Kabul government will need to become stronger over time.
Undermining Karzai won't help. The Obama administration needs to grow up, recognize that in the real world Karzai is the best partner it has, and roll out the red carpet for him when he finally gets to the White House on May 12.


Fareed Zakaria is Editor of Newsweek International and author of The Post-American World and The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad

  Another conflict with Lebanon?

Jordan's King Abdallah has recently disclosed that he believes an Israel-Hezbollah-Lebanon conflict is "imminent."

Linda Heard

Jordan's King Abdallah has recently disclosed that he believes an Israel-Hezbollah-Lebanon conflict is "imminent."
The fact that Israeli authorities are handing out gas masks and have launched a media campaign stressing their importance lends credibility to the monarch's chilling prediction.
Israel fears peace more than war. The Arab peace proposal is still on offer until July this year while US President Barack Obama is said to be working on a new "road map." But there is one major obstacle: Israel's right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reluctantly pays lip service to the concept of a Palestinian state but, in reality, he isn't interested in exchanging occupied land for peace. And neither is he prepared to relinquish East Jerusalem to be the capital of a new Palestinian state. It's a dangerous impasse that has frustrated Palestinian hopes to the extent some are calling for a third intifada, which would achieve nothing except bolstering the flagging Israeli narrative that Palestinians are "terrorists".
If this slick-talking, uncompromising Zionist were to chance upon a genie-in-a-bottle, he would magic the Palestinians away. But since geniis are in short supply nowadays, he is intent on diminishing the Palestinian population with a military order declassifying Palestinians residents of the West Bank as infiltrators if they fail to produce valid permits. Those considered to be illegal residents will be criminalized and exposed to fines, imprisonment and deportation.
Once the Palestinian presence is suitably pruned, he would be amenable to a demilitarized noncontiguous Palestinian state that has no control over its borders, coastline or airspace; in other words, a sort of Greater Gaza where the population would exist or subsist according to an Israeli leader's whims.
Unfortunately for Netanyahu his game is up. President Obama sees through his foot-dragging and is piling on the pressure with an implicit threat of a US-imposed settlement. The US leader has made firm demands for Israel to cease expanding Jewish colonies on the West Bank, to end the demolition of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem and to relax the blockade of Gaza. He has also included Israel in his calls for nuclear nations to sign-up to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). There are signs that this president is in no mood to shower Israel with unconditional love even if this means head-butting an Israel-subservient Congress.
Moreover, like his predecessor George W. Bush, Obama is in no hurry to bless an Israeli strikes on Iran's nuclear sites. Such an unprecedented strain in US-Israeli relations is eroding Netanyahu's popularity at home and could lead to early elections.
Just a year ago, Israel could do no wrong in the eyes of the international community whereas now it can do little right. However, Israel would quickly be released from the doghouse if it were seen to be at war for its very survival. The US would be forced to back up its longtime ally, Middle East peace would be relegated to the backburner and dependent on the outcome of such a conflict, Netanyahu's approval rating would soar. There are certainly indicators that such a devious plan without any regard for human life may be afoot.
In recent days, Israelis warplanes have violated Lebanon's airspace and have illuminated the skies over a southern Lebanese village with flares. Concurrent with those provocations, Israel is accusing Syria of supplying Hezbollah with Scud missiles with the potential of being fitted with chemical warheads and capable of reaching Tel Aviv.
Damascus denies this claim and, for the moment, Washington is fence sitting. A State Department spokesman has confirmed that the US is "increasingly concerned about the sophisticated weaponry that is allegedly being transferred"; another official has doubted the veracity of the allegation.
Whether or not Hezbollah is armed with Scuds isn't an issue when the organization's leader Hassan Nasrallah has admitted that his military wing has 30,000 missiles with enough range to damage any city within the Jewish state. Ali Fayyad, a pro-Hezbollah Lebanese MP has protested that "the Israeli enemy is going too far with its aggressive and provocative acts" and has asked the Lebanese government to file a complaint with the United Nations Security Council.
It's unlikely that Hezbollah will easily take the bait when it came under heavy internal criticism for triggering the 2006 war with its kidnapping of Israeli soldiers as bargaining chips for prisoner releases. Conflict would not be in the interest of Lebanon which is enjoying renewed economic stability and neither would it benefit Hezbollah, which has an influential presence within the Lebanese government and whose military worth is already proven. But if Israel's provocation becomes too intense, then Nasrallah may be forced to respond. Alternatively, Israel could ignite hostilities with a false-flag operation that would paint Hezbollah as the belligerent party.
Netanyahu's possible motives for attacking Lebanon are manifold. Following the failure of the Israeli military's mission in 2006 which was to disarm Hezbollah, Israel needs a definitive win so as to propagate the myth of its invincibility and permanently eradicate the threat from Hezbollah on its northern border.
Secondly, if Israel intends to strike Iran, it would make sense to hobble Tehran's ally Hezbollah - and possibly Syria - beforehand. According to The Times, Syria is to be held responsible in the event Hezbollah sends ballistic missiles into Israel. "We'll return Syria to the Stone Age," an Israeli minister was quoted as warning.
Alternatively, an attack on Lebanon could potentially draw Iran into the fight, which would play right into Netanyahu's hands by dragging the US into the fray. If that is the plan it could result in a frightening scenario. Netanyahu will be out to win at all costs. There will be no hand-to-hand fighting this time. He will use any legal or illegal weapons at his disposal to produce massive devastation on the pretext that his country's very existence is in the balance. He will be obliged to launch crippling attacks without warning to limit retaliation bearing in mind Israel's vulnerability as a one-bomb state.
Obama needs to read the tealeaves and nip Israel's aggression in the bud while Arab states must find a united voice and a unity of purpose before the rabid dogs are once again unleashed leaving death and destruction in their wake.

  The living and the dead

Men, the historical record suggests, often make a testosterone-driven mess of things. Women have the good sense and grounded knowledge to prize life. No wonder, then, that they are underrepresented in the Middle East.

Roger Cohen

In his novel, "A Single Man," Christopher Isherwood writes of "that marvelous minority, The Living." Yes, memento mori, we are a minority. Isherwood continues: "They don't know their luck, these people on the sidewalk, but George knows his - for a little while at least - because he is freshly returned from the icy presence of The Majority, which Doris is about to join." Doris lies dying in a hospital bed. On leaving her, Isherwood's protagonist is seized with euphoria. "I am alive , he says to himself, I am alive! And life-energy surges hotly through him, and delight, and appetite."
It comes down to this in the end - the minority of the living, a mere 6.7 billion people on a fragile planet, and the majority of the dead, numberless and stretching back over an expanse vaster than the iciest steppe. Do you choose the minority or the majority? For whose account do you labour? Those may seem strange questions. But a clear demarcation line separates regions able to look forward, even over history's wounds, and those unable to escape the clutches of the dead. Yehuda Amichai, the fine Israeli poet, once observed of Jerusalem that it is "the only city in the world where the right to vote is granted even to the dead."
The Middle East holds pride of place when it comes to morbid retrospection. Before moving from Europe to the United States, I spent several years in places obsessed by the past - the Balkans and Berlin. During the Yugoslav wars, lives and landscape were devastated by the abuse of memory. A past of perceived persecution and loss was the weapon of choice for nationalist leaders bent on stirring violence. It proved potent - to the tune of more than 100,000 dead.
I learned a few things over the corpses and plum brandy. The first was how blinding victimhood can be: the historical victim - Serb in this case - cannot see when he becomes the chief perpetrator of violence. The second was that nothing forges national identity - Bosnian Muslim in this case - faster than persecution. The third was that arguments about who came first to the land or the "reality" of national identity can never be settled: they are the stuff of myth. The only relevant issue is whether or not to set the arguments aside in the interests of a better future.
As Tzipi Livni, the former Israeli foreign minister, once told me: "We cannot solve who was right or wrong on 1948 or decide who is more just. The Palestinians can feel justice is on their side, and I can feel it is on my side. What we have to decide is not about history but the future." Not history but the future: Germany, when I lived there in the late 1990s, was shifting its gaze after decades of wresting the truth from half-truths. The capital returned to Berlin - full circle and near closure. I went to all the Nazi camps. Often I encountered Israeli kids on school trips wrapped in national flags. They were learning what "Never Again" means, anchoring identity. The lessons of history are important. One, surely, is the nightmare of war. Israelis and Palestinians have proved incapable of moving beyond it. The number of Palestinian refugees in 1948 is disputed, but one UN report in 1950 estimated 711,000. The UN now has 4.7 million registered Palestinian refugees. If there is a more depressing statistic on this planet, I don't know it.
In Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Iraq - countries where more than 485,000 Jews lived before 1948 - fewer than 2,000 remain. The Arab Jew has perished, but is not a refugee. He has no "right of return." History moves forward. Germans have no right of return to Silesia; nor Turks to Greece; nor Jews to Alexandria. I have no argument with the "right of return" as a Palestinian bargaining chip. As an objective, I have every objection. It locks Palestinians in an illusory past.
So I am immensely impressed by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's state-building efforts in the West Bank - his growing of the economy, the courts, the police force and the habits of non-violent protest. A non-violent Palestinian approach is an eloquent way of saying today's children matter more than olive groves three generations distant.
Fayyad's statesmanship demands an Israeli response worthy of it, one that lays the basis for two states rather than plays for the status quo. The rest of the world is moving on: The European Union and Asia, in different ways, have put violent history behind them. Prizing the future over the past was never an issue in America. In his novel, Isherwood also dwells on happiness: "Das Glück, le bonheur, la felicidad - they have given it all three genders, but one has to admit, however grudgingly, that the Spanish are right; it is usually feminine, that's to say, ?woman-created."
I agree. Men, the historical record suggests, often make a testosterone-driven mess of things. Women have the good sense and grounded knowledge to prize life. No wonder, then, that they are underrepresented in the Middle East.

Roger Cohen is Editor at Large of the International Herald Tribune

International

Petitions filed against 18th Amendment
Dawn Online, Islamabad

The 18th Amendment was challenged at the Supreme Court's Lahore registry on Tuesday.
Petitioner Barrister Zafarullah maintained that the amendment was made for political gains. Another petition was also filed against the 18th Amendment in the Lahore High Court challenging the renaming of the NWFP.
The petition filed at the Supreme Court's Lahore Registry just a day after President Asif Ali Zardari made the 18th Amendment a part of the constitution, raised objections on three points.
The first objection was regarding the appointment of the judges, where the petition said that the new procedure would make everything dependent on the legislature. The second point raised was in regard to intra-party elections. The petitioner said that all parties should remain bound to conduct intra-party elections.
The petition also challenged the removal of the ban on third time premiership.
Meanwhile, the day President Asif Zardari singed the 18th Constitutional Amendment bill into law, a second petition was moved in the Supreme Court challenging the constitution of a judicial commission for the appointment of superior court judges.
Advocate Mohammad Ikram Chaudhry filed the petition on Monday on behalf of the President of the Rawalpindi District Bar Association, Malik Waheed Anjum. It described the amendment as an intervention in the independence of judiciary that militates against the concept of the basic feature of the Constitution on appointment of judges.
The first such petition filed by Advocate Nadeem Ahmed said the process of induction of superior court judges through Article 175-A was impractical and it would not serve the purpose of appointing competent, honest and self-respecting lawyers as judges.
President of Supreme Court Bar Association Qazi Mohammad Anwar has announced that he would also challenge the amendment after it was signed by President Zardari.

  Pakistan Islamist blames US for suicide bombing
AP, Peshawar, Pakistan

An Islamist politician whose party lost several members in a suicide attack blamed Pakistan's alliance with the U.S. for the violence and urged Islamabad on Tuesday to break ranks in the war on terror.
The comments showed the depth of anti-Americanism in Pakistan, whose support Washington considers key to stabilizing neighboring Afghanistan. In the past three days, attacks in Pakistan have killed some 74 people in a new wave of violence. A remote controlled bomb Tuesday hit an army convoy as it traveled in the Hangu district close to the Afghan border, killing three soldiers and a civilian, said police official Farid Khan.
The Jamaat-e-Islami party was hit Monday when a suicide bomber apparently targeted police watching over a rally of the pro-Taliban group. Many of the 24 dead and 45 wounded were party loyalists, while two were officers, police official Khan Abbas said Tuesday.
Although authorities blamed the Taliban in the immediate aftermath of the attack in Peshawar, the Islamist party's leaders have declined to do so, instead alleging the CIA or Indian intelligence were behind it.
"It is because we have brought America's war to our own country," Sirajul Haq, a provincial party leader, said Tuesday in Peshawar after attending funerals for some of the victims. "Still, there is time to end this alliance with America" to avoid more bloodshed.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but that is not unusual in cases where many ordinary Pakistanis die.

  Passports lost by British High Commission could be used by 'Indians' against Pak

ANI, London

Expressing concern over hundreds of Pakistani passports which were lost by the British High Commission a few months ago, the association of Pakistani lawyers (APL) has asked British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to address the issue, saying there are fears that the passports can be used by Indians against Pakistan.
The commission, in its letter to Brown, requested him to initiate an enquiry into the issue, so that the travel documents are not used by 'third parties having Indian links'.
The letter said that considering the thorny Indo-Pak relations it has become more important to locate the lost documents.
APL chairman Amjad Malik, through the letter, also raised questions over the British Government's decision to rope in private agencies in visa processing.
"It further created risks of losing identity documents as documents were being collected by A, passports were with B, and decision was being made by C, which was not only disproportionate but unreasonable and procedurally flawed," The Nation quoted Malik, as saying. Apprehensions are that misplacing the passports could cost the British High Commission dearly, as these passports could land in Al-Qaeda's hands which could use them for terror attacks across the world.
"If terrorists get hold of these passports, they can alter them with the help of human-trafficking mafia and move freely to various countries, especially the US and UK, to carry out terror activities," observers said.
According to intelligence sources, the lost passports had multiple visas of various western countries that can be tampered with easily by the militants.

  Ethnic group in Myanmar gears up for war, peace
AP, Laiza, Myanmar

Crawling on their bellies, the recruits inch through a field, dragging wooden rifles. A whistle blows, and they scramble to their knees, pulling the pins from imaginary grenades before lobbing them. Dropping flat, they yell "Boom!"
At a camp alongside a river, the next generation of soldiers in the Kachin Independence Army, one of Myanmar's largest armed ethnic groups, is training with a new urgency. A cease-fire is in peril, and the Kachin do not want to patrol the border for the ruling junta.
"I don't want to kill anyone but being a soldier is the best way to change the conditions in Burma," said 23-year-old cadet La Ran, who joined four months ago. "I am ready to fight if I have to." The possibility of armed conflict in Myanmar, also known as Burma, is rising because a series of cease-fire agreements between the military government and more than a dozen armed ethnic groups are dissolving as the regime seeks to press those groups into becoming a border militia under government control.
The government has set a deadline of April 28 for the armed groups to merge or disarm as the junta tightens its grip on the country ahead of this year's nationwide elections - the first in two decades. Their demands have largely been met with resistance during negotiations over the past year with the country's largest armed ethnic groups, including the 8,000-member Kachin army.
Myanmar's government, run by ethnic Burmese who make up the majority, is well known for repressing its own people. Considered among the world's most brutal, the regime brooks no dissent and has been accused of large-scale violations of human rights, including the yearslong detention of Nobel Peace laureate and democracy icon, Aung San Suu Kyi.

  S.Lanka ex-army chief's trial to resume
AFP, Colombo

The court martial of Sri Lanka's former army chief Sarath Fonseka was on Tuesday adjourned until after the opening of the country's new parliament, in which he won a seat this month, officials said.
The three-judge military court postponed the case until May 4 after a brief hearing on Tuesday, an army official who declined to be named told AFP.
Parliament will open on Thursday, with Fonseka having the right to take up a seat for the capital district of Colombo. He ran in the April 8 parliamentary polls while in military custody.
Official sources said there was no legal reason to stop Fonseka attending parliament as he has not been convicted of any offence.
But he is still in detention and his party has expressed fears that he may be prevented from taking his seat.
Fonseka last year led the military to final victory over the Tamil Tiger rebels but later fell out with President Mahinda Rajapakse and unsuccessfully tried to unseat him in a presidential election in January.
He was arrested 12 days later.
He faces two sets of charges-corrupt military procurements and engaging in politics while in uniform. The four-star general denies all allegations and says they are part of a political vendetta. Rajapakse has been accused by political opponents and international human rights groups of suppressing dissent since his resounding re-election.
Fonseka entered politics after quitting the military in November, six months after the separatist Tamil rebels were finally crushed.

  S.Korea says no sign N. Korea preparing nuclear test
AFP, Seoul

South Korea brushed off a television report Tuesday that North Korea is preparing for a third nuclear test, amid heightened cross-border tensions over the sinking of a South Korean warship last month.
South Korean YTN TV, quoting an unidentified diplomatic source in Beijing, said North Korea had begun the preparations in February for a test possibly in May or June.
But South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-Hwan told journalists: "There are no signs of the North preparing for a third nuclear test." Analysts in Seoul also dismissed the report as implausible. YTN TV had said the preparations involved significantly upgraded technology compared with its previous two tests.
It said Pyongyang had been receiving technological assistance from Russians and that a senior North Korean official recently visited Beijing to discuss a possible test.
North Korea carried out its first nuclear test in 2006 and a second in May last year, after it walked out of six-party nuclear disarmament talks. Analysts in Seoul said however that the isolated communist state had little reason to carry out another nuclear test at a time when its ally China is struggling to revive the stalled disarmament talks.
Baek Seung-Joo of the prestigious Korea Institute for Defence Analyses told AFP the TV report was "like a novel," saying Russia and China were dedicated to global efforts to prevent nuclear proliferation.
South Korea warned on Tuesday however that a resumption of the six-party talks may not be possible if Pyongyang is found to have been involved in the sinking of one of its warships last month.

 Turkey offers to act as Iran intermediary
AFP, Tehran

UN Security Council member of Turkey offered on Tuesday to help break a deadlock over an atomic fuel deal for Tehran and insisted that diplomacy is the best way to resolve Iran's nuclear crisis.
"The solution for Iran's nuclear programme is through negotiations and the diplomatic process," Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a news conference on a visit to Tehran.
Davutoglu said that Turkey, which has resisted a US push for a fourth round of sanctions against Iran, "is ready to act as an intermediary in the issue of uranium exchange as a third country and hopes to have a fruitful role in this." "We will continue to try our best to see what we can do for this nuclear fuel swap," he added.
He was referring to a plan drafted by the UN nuclear watchdog last October that would have seen the major powers provide fuel for a Tehran research reactor in return for Iran shipping abroad most of its stocks of low-enriched uranium.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, who addressed reporters alongside Davutoglu, did not explicitly respond to the latest Turkish offer but said there were regular consultations between the two governments on the nuclear issue.
"Turkey will do its part if Iranians deem fit," Davutoglu said in reply.
Talks between Iran and the major powers on the UN nuclear fuel plan have been deadlocked over Iran's insistence that it only hand over its enriched uranium stocks as the fuel is supplied, and that the exchange take place on its own soil.
For Western governments, the prior removal abroad of a large part of Iran's enriched uranium stocks is the centrepiece of the plan. They fear that Iran might otherwise covertly enrich the uranium to the far higher level required for a bomb, an ambition Tehran strongly denies.

  Lebanese PM says Scuds accusations like Iraq's WMD
AP, Beirut

Lebanon's Western-backed prime minister compared accusations that Hezbollah has obtained Scud missiles to charges that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction ahead of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
Saad Hariri's comments, made late Monday in Italy and carried by Lebanese media Tuesday, come after Israeli President Shimon Peres accused Syria last week of providing the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah with Scud missiles.
Syria has denied the charges of providing Scuds, which can carry a warhead of up to 1 ton, making them far larger than the biggest rockets previously in Hezbollah's arsenal. Hezbollah has neither confirmed nor denied the Israeli claims.
Allegations that Saddam Hussein was developing weapons of mass destruction were the main U.S. rationale behind the U.S.-led war in Iraq, but none were found after the 2003 invasion.
"The media suddenly started reporting that there are Scud missiles in Lebanon. Do you know what a Scud missile means? I believe it is as big as this room," Hariri said.
"Threats that Lebanon now has huge missiles are similar to what they used to say about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq," he added. "These are weapons that they did not find and they are still searching for."
"They are trying to repeat the same scenario with Lebanon," the prime minister said.
Hezbollah's leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, has said his militants have more than 30,000 rockets and are capable of hitting anywhere in Israel. Those claims match Israeli intelligence assessments.
Hezbollah and Israel fought a 34-day war in 2006 that left some 1,200 Lebanese and 160 Israelis dead. During the monthlong conflict, Hezbollah fired nearly 4,000 rockets at northern Israel, including several medium-range missiles that for the first time hit Israel's third-largest city, Haifa.

  Amnesty urges Iraqi PM to probe ‘secret prison’ allegations
AFP, Baghdad

Amnesty International has urged Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to probe allegations that his Shiite-dominant security forces tortured hundreds of Sunni detainees at a secret prison in Baghdad.
Referring to a report in the Los Angeles Times, quoting Iraqi officials who said more than 100 prisoners were tortured by electric shocks, suffocated with plastic bags or beaten, the London-based rights group called for an inquiry.
"The existence of secret jails indicates that military units in Iraq are allowed to commit human rights abuses unchecked," Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa deputy director Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui said in a statement received late on Monday.
"Prime Minister Maliki's claim that he was unaware of abuses cannot exonerate the authorities from their responsibilities and their duty to ensure the safety of detainees," she added. The prisoners were detained by Iraqi forces in Nineveh province, an insurgent stronghold in the north of the country, in October as part of an operation targeting alleged Sunni fighters, according to the newspaper.
Iraqi security forces reportedly obtained a warrant to transfer them to Baghdad, where they were held in isolation in a secret detention facility at the former Al-Muthanna airport in west Baghdad, it said. Their whereabouts came to light in March after relatives of the missing men raised their concerns with Iraq's human rights ministry. "Maliki's government has repeatedly pledged to investigate incidents of torture and other serious human rights abuses by the Iraqi security forces, but no outcome of such investigations has ever been made public," said Sahraoui.

  Some European flights take off; London still shut
AP, Paris

Applause, cheers and whoops of joy rang out at airports around the world Tuesday as airplanes gradually took to the skies after five days of being grounded by a volcanic ash cloud that has devastated European travel.
But weary passengers might have to tamper their enthusiasm. Only limited flights were allowed to resume at some European airports and U.K. authorities said London airports - a major hub for thousands of daily flights worldwide - would remained closed for at least another day due to new danger from the invisible ash cloud.
And with over 95,000 flights canceled in the last week alone, airlines face the enormous task of working through the backlog to get passengers where they want to go - a challenge that certainly will take days.
Still, in airport hubs that have been cauldrons of anxiety, anger and sleep deprivation, Tuesday marked a day of collective relief.
The boards at Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport announcing long-distance flights - which had been streaked with red "canceled" signs for five days - filled up with white "on time" signs Tuesday and the first commercial flight out since Thursday left for New York's John F. Kennedy Airport. "We were in the hotel having breakfast, and we heard an aircraft take off. Everybody got up and applauded," said Bob Basso of San Diego, who has been staying in a hotel near Charles de Gaulle since his flight Friday was canceled. "There's hope," he said. Basso, 81, and his son have tickets for a flight to Los Angeles later Tuesday.
At New York's JFK, the first flight from Amsterdam in days arrived Monday night.
"Everyone was screaming in the airplane from happiness," said passenger Savvas Toumarides, of Cyprus, who missed his sister's New York wedding after getting stranded in Amsterdam last Thursday.

  Church pedophilia scandal grows in Latin America
AP, Sao Paulo

The detention of an 83-year-old priest in Brazil for allegedly abusing boys as young as 12 in a case involving lurid videotape and a congressional investigation is the latest scandal to hit the Roman Catholic Church in Latin America.
The allegations against Monsignor Luiz Marques Barbosa - and two other Brazilian priests - have made huge headlines throughout this Catholic nation and come amid accusations of sexual activity by priests across the region as well as in Europe and the U.S.
The scandal erupted when Brazilian television network SBT last month broadcast a tape of Barbosa in bed with a 19-year-old that was widely distributed on the Internet.
The station said the video was secretly filmed in January 2009 and sent anonymously to the network. It was not clear if the 19-year-old, identified as a former altar boy who had worked with Barbosa for four years, had previous sexual relations with the priest.
SBT reporters went to Barbosa's house and confronted him. Asked if he ever abused boys, Barbosa said he could only answer such a question "in confession" and cut off the interview.
Brazil's legislature launched a sex abuse investigation, which produced allegations Barbosa molested boys. The elderly priest was detained late Sunday.
Judge Romulo Vasconcelos told Globo TV on Monday that he requested Barbosa's immediate detention out of fear the priest would flee the country.
The case now goes to prosecutors, who will decide whether to file child abuse charges.
Sen. Magno Malta, the Brazilian lawmaker leading the legislature's probe, called Barbosa's detention a milestone in the fight against child abuse in Brazil.
Congressional investigators said more than 20 witnesses were called and some testified Barbosa and two other priests in the same northeastern archdiocese had abused boys as young as 12, plying them with money, clothes and other gifts.

  Ousted Kyrgyz leader Kurmanbek Bakiyev ‘in Belarus’
BBC Online

The ousted leader of Kyrgyzstan, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, is in Belarus, the country's president has said.
Alexander Lukashenko's announcement ends uncertainty over the whereabouts of Mr Bakiyev, who was overthrown in a violent uprising earlier this month.
He had flown to neighbouring Kazakhstan on 15 April but on Monday officials in Astana said he had left.
Kyrgyzstan's interim leaders have said he should stand trial over the unrest, in which more than 80 people died.
Mr Lukashenko had previously said Mr Bakiyev would be welcome in Minsk.
On Tuesday, he told the Belarussian parliament Mr Bakiyev had been in the country with four members of his family as guests since the previous evening.
"He is with us under the defence of our state and president," said Mr Lukashenko. "He is the president of a state with which we are friendly."
Mr Bakiyev flew out of Kyrgyzstan after failing to secure support in his home region in the south of the country.
The new interim government, led by former foreign minister Roza Otunbayeva, has said he is responsible for the deaths during the 7 April uprising and will be arrested if he returns.
On Monday, Mr Lukashenko had said Mr Bakiyev would be welcomed as "the dearest guest, as my colleague".
"If the president of Kyrgyzstan and his family need support and assistance at this difficult time, it will be shown in Belarus," state media quoted him as saying.

  Chavez hosts Latin American allies for summit
AP, Caracas, Venezuela

President Hugo Chavez gathered his closest Latin American allies to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Venezuela's independence movement - denouncing U.S. meddling while hurling harsh words at the leading presidential candidate in neighboring Colombia.
Raul Castro of Cuba, Evo Morales of Bolivia and other leaders accompanies Chavez on Monday as he presided over a parade that included troops, Amazonian Indians carrying bows and arrows, flag-waving supporters and civilians who have joined government militias.
Wearing the trademark red beret of his army paratrooper years, Chavez reiterated his accusations of U.S. government meddling in Latin America while praising Venezuela's move toward "democratic socialism." "The moment has come for us to reach true sovereignty and independence" in the region, Chavez said.
Russian-made fighter jets roared overhead, and special forces troops shouted in unison: "I'm an anti-imperialist socialist!" At a summit later of his left-leaning Bolivarian political bloc_ which is aimed at boosting Latin American integration and countering U.S. influence - Chavez complained about the leading candidate to succeed Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.
Flanked by his allies, Chavez warned that Colombia would become a serious threat to its neighbors if former Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos wins the presidential election. "This is a threat to all of us, especially for Ecuador, Venezuela and Nicaragua," Chavez said.
Chavez said he is convinced that Santos would be willing to launch cross-border raids or bombardments if Colombian authorities suspect rebel groups are seeking refuge in neighboring countries.

Business/Economy

Govt to procure 12 lakh tons foodgrains in Boro season
BSS, Dhaka

The government Tuesday announced that it will procure 11 lakh tonnes of rice and one and a half lakh tonnes of paddy during the Boro season.
The procurement price has been fixed at Taka 25 per kg rice while Taka 17 per kg paddy and the procurement will start on May 1 and continue until August 30.
Disclosing this at his Secretariat office here, Food and Disaster Management Minister Dr M Abdur Razzaque said a meeting on food planning and monitoring fixed the Boro rice and paddy considering two factors-the international market price and probable management of risk like disaster.
Dr Razzaque said this year's procurement prices are high compared to last year and the high prices were fixed in view of farmers' production cost this year.
Ensuring food security is a tough job for 15 crore people of Bangladesh where population density is very high compared to many countries in the world.
About 60 percent arable lands have been brought under crop cultivation in the country, said Dr Razzaque, terming it as rare example in the world excepting agriculture-rich China.
Asked about the government's mechanism for giving fair price to farmers, the food minister said the farmers would get it indirectly. Production cost of per kg rice is Taka 21.65 while Taka 13.33 of paddy and the government will give 27.53 percent profit for paddy and 15.47 percent for rice.
The government has purchased seven lakh tonnes of wheat and three lakh tonnes would be purchased from Russia, he said adding that another 50,000 tonnes of wheat would be procured from local sources.
The food and disaster minister expressed his optimism about higher production of food grains due to drastic fall in TSP fertilizer price. Referring to the introduction of open market sale (OMS) across the country, he said the present situation about the rice price could have been severe due to manipulation of businessmen if the OMS was not introduced.

 India hikes rates to counter ‘worrisome’ inflation
AFP, Mumbai

India's central bank hiked short-term interest rates for the second time in a month Tuesday to rein in "worrisome" near double-digit inflation in Asia's third-biggest economy.
The Reserve Bank of India raised the repo-the rate at which it lends to commercial banks-by 25 basis points to 5.25 percent and the reverse repo, the rate it pays to banks for deposits, by the same amount to 3.75 percent.
"Developments on the inflation front are worrisome," bank governor Duvvuri Subbarao said in a statement, adding that pressures were spreading from food to other areas of the economy, prompting the need to raise rates. With India's economy "firmly on the recovery path," shaking off the effects of the global slump, the bank could now turn its attention to dousing inflation, Subbarao added.
The rate hikes marked the second move in a month by the central bank, which has joined other countries such as Australia and Malaysia in starting to unwind monetary stimulus measures introduced during the global financial crisis.
During the downturn of the past two years, central banks worldwide including the Reserve Bank of India slashed interest rates and pumped money into the banking sector to stimulate the global economy. India's benchmark 30-leading share index, the Sensex, was up nearly one percent at 17,524.57 points after the announcement which relieved some investors who had feared the bank might tighten rates more aggressively.
The rate hikes suggest "a gradual monetary tightening policy," Mumbai's Angel Broking vice-president Vaibhav Agrawal told AFP. "The bank is aiming not to stifle growth, it is adopting a prudent approach to controlling inflation."
Wholesale price inflation, India's main cost-of-living measure, is at 9.90 percent, well above the bank's 5.5-percent target for the financial year ending March 2011.
The bank forecast economic growth of 8.0 percent for the current financial year, still robust but below the government's estimate of up to 8.75 percent expansion.
"The firming up of global commodity prices poses a risk to inflation," Subbarao added, also forecasting rising domestic demand pressures as recovery gathers pace.
The bank also increased the cash reserve ratio, which fixes the percentage of deposits commercial banks must keep with the central bank, in a move to drain money from the financial system.
The reserve ratio was increased by 25 basis points to 6.0 percent, which would suck out 125 billion rupees (2.5 billion dollars) in liquidity, the bank said.

  Economic crisis measures saved 21 million jobs: ILO
AFP, Geneva

Some 21 million jobs were created or saved during the recent economic crisis thanks to extraordinary measures taken by governments, the International Labour Office said on Monday.
"Fourteen million jobs in 2009 and another 6.7 million in 2010 add up to some 21 million jobs created or saved, equivalent to 1.0 percent of total employment for the G20 group," said the ILO.
The UN labour agency said fiscal stimulus measures directly contributed to 14.7 million of these jobs. So-called automatic stabilisers-such as unemployment benefits-helped to preserve another 6.2 million jobs, said the ILO.
In addition, countries that have adopted these stimulus measures appeared to have exited the crisis more swiftly, it said, pointing to Australia, China and South Africa as examples. "All countries that have decided on extraordinary fiscal stimulus have seen the effect of such spending, and countries with large fiscal stimulus packages seem to have reversed the downturn more quickly," it said.
The ILO had warned last year that millions of jobs could be at stake if stimulus plans were withdrawn prematurely.
It had also forecasted in January that global unemployment had surged in the economic crisis to leave a record 212 million people jobless.

  Russia must retain economic independence
AFP, Moscow

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Tuesday urged Russia to observe prudent economic policies in order to avoid the risk of losing its financial independence by asking for IMF loans.
Speaking in an annual keynote speech to Russia's lower house of parliament, Putin described the current economic situation as "far from benign" but said the country had managed to avoid the worst effects of the global crisis. "All of us... need to carry out a responsible financial and economic policy so that we don't have to go with our hands outstretched to somebody, losing our economic and then our political sovereignty," Putin said.
Putin described Russia's relations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as "really good" but noted that European finance officials appeared uncomfortable about receiving IMF bailouts.
"The sheer fact of these discussions is revealing," said Putin.
Although Russia was hard hit by the economic crisis, with GDP shrinking 7.9 percent in 2009, it did not request help from the IMF, unlike its neighbour Ukraine, which was granted a 16.4-billion dollar IMF loan package. The Russian government has worked hard to ensure Russia did not experience a repeat of the 1998 financial crisis, when the state defaulted on debt and the country's economy went into meltdown.

  OPEC weekly oil price continues to rise
Xinhua, Vienna

The weekly average price of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) continued to increase last week, growing to 82.50 U.S. dollars per barrel, the Vienna-based cartel said on Monday. The price level was 0.55 dollars higher than the highest level since the first week of October 2008, showed the OPEC figures released on Monday.
The OPEC daily average oil prices last week kept fluctuating within a narrow range from 81.52 to 83.28 dollars per barrel, which reflected the uncertainty of the crude oil market to the movement of oil prices.
On the one hand, there are signs of economic recovery, as well as the summer peak of oil consumption is coming. On the other hand, the U.S. economic indicators remain unsatisfactory, leading to reemerging of concerns about the world's biggest oil consumer's demand for crude oil.
Analysts pointed out that the recent rise in oil prices was mainly due to the favorable figures in the manufacturing sector of the United States, China and the Euro zone, which resulted in a significant rise in estimation of oil consumption.
Since the continual increase in oil prices, the global major oil producers have also increased their production. Figures showed that over the last four weeks till April 17, OPEC seaborne exports of crude oil increased to 23.39 million barrels per day on average, 420,000 barrels more than the previous four weeks till March 20.

  Time right to correct budgets, restrain rate for Greece: IMF
AFP, Paris

The time has come for governments to switch their economic fire from stimulus to fighting dangerous budget deficits, the IMF's chief economist said on Tuesday.
Chief economist Olivier Blanchard, in remarks to the newspaper Le Monde, also returned to an argument that tight inflation criteria might be inappropriate.
And he also implied that any support for debt-stricken Greece should be at concessionary rates to avoid a vicious spiral, as borrowing rates for Greece rose to a record of more than 7.8 percent.
On strategies to leave behind huge government stimulus programmes during the height of the economic crisis, Blanchard said that the main danger now came from the scale of public debts "and of a vicious circle between an explosion of the debt and an increase of the risk premiums (on debt bond markets) and interest
rates". He said: "That is why it is now necessary to concentrate on budget adjustment." But this should be tempered so as to avoid provoking a drop of consumption, and he suggested policies such as extending the retirement age which would ease public finances and increase working life. He then said that the crisis should lead to a review of some received ideas such as the idea that stable inflation was enough to ensure economic stabiliy.

National

Govt urged for effective measures in ship-breaking yards
UNB, Dhaka

Leaders of the Ship-breaking Workers Trade Union Forum (SWTUF) have urged the government to take effective measures in the ship-breaking yards of Chittagong to ensure workers' rights are being maintained, and to protect the environment.
They made the call while holding a press conference at the National Press Club in Dhaka on Tuesday, where Forum convener Tapan Datta presented a written statement on the session.
Tapan Datta said that pollution of the environment along Sitakunda coast has been increasing at an alarming level mainly due to unscientific recycling of obsolete ocean-cruising vessels, and dumping of toxic substances and unused bunkers in the seawater. "Apart from the damage done to the environment, most of the ship-recycling workers are seriously exposed to hazardous gases and toxic metals in the absence of necessary awareness about the toxicity of the substances they are handling, as well as minimum safety precautions against these hazards," he said.
Tapan said ship-recycling work is usually done manually and without safety precautions, which means workers are frequently exposed to the possibility of accidents that result in casualties.
"Several hundred scrap-yard workers have been killed in accidents originating from extremely poor safety arrangements over the last two decades," he added.
Tapan alleges that although the money-spinning industry emerged in the Chittagong sea belt during the 1980s, the state regulatory bodies never provided any guidelines for the ship-breaking yards to conduct their business in a safe and sound manner.
"The owners of the ship-breaking yards claim that they are making a great contribution to our country's economy, but we cannot destroy our environment under that pretext," the union leader said. Tapan also pointed out that some 20 known fish species have so far disappeared from the coastal area over the last couple of decades, due to contamination of the sea water by ship-breaking yards. A set of demands were placed at the press conference, centred mainly on ensuring the ship-breaking workers their rights and protecting the environment of the coastal area.
The demands include the implementation of the Bangladesh Labour Law 2006 in the ship-breaking sector, providing compensation to the family members of workers killed or injured in ship-breaking yards, and development of infrastructure to minimize causalities and protect the environment.
Forum leaders AM Nazim Uddin, Safar Ali, Nur Mohammad, Anwar Hossain and Kazi Sheik Nurullah Bahar, among others, were also present at the press conference.

  ‘Separate industrial policy needed for N-region’
BSS, Rajshahi

A separate industrial policy has become indispensable for promotion of trade and business in the country's northwestern region, said speakers at a dialogue here Tuesday.
Terming the industry and business as controlling power of all vital sectors in the country, they called for a business- friendly climate for overall development of the neglected northern region.
They were addressing the 'District Public-Private Dialogue' jointly organized by the Asia Foundation and the International Finance Corporation under the 'Bangladesh Investment Climate Fund' program. "Improved Trade Prosperous Bangladesh" was the slogan of the dialogue held at the conference hall of Rajshahi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI). Omar Faruque Chowdhury, MP, and Meraj Uddin Mollah, MP, addressed the dialogue as the guests of honor with RCCI President Abu Bakker Ali in the chair. In his speech, lawmaker Faruque Chowdhury viewed that the business position of the country could not be improved depending on a single industrial policy. In this regard, he suggested four or more policies based on the regional prospects and potentialities saying that the business is not a single matter but a collective effort.
A former president of RCCI, Faruque Chowdhury, stressed the need for bringing the region's business sector under an intensive care for its proper nurturing.
"We need full-length state cooperation to operate our business for our survival," Chowdhury said adding that ensuring business-friendly atmosphere is the precondition for flourishing trade and industrial sector of the region.
He mentioned that proper operation of the region's agricultural system could be the effective means of bolstering the rural economy.
Speaking on the occasion, lawmaker Meraj Mollah assured his all-possible cooperation towards reasonable solution of the existing trade-related constraints and sought cooperation of all the authorities and individuals concerned to find a way out in this regard.
He, however, said there is no alternative to public-private coordinated initiatives to attain any success and development in the industrial fields.
RCCI Directors Kabirur Rahman Khan and Shahabuddin Sabu, Director of Board of Investment Abdul Hakim, Commissioner of Customs, Excise and
VAT Lutfor Rahman, District Livestock Officer Khairul Anam and Women Entrepreneur Anzuman Ara addressed the dialogue as resource persons.

  Diarrhea situation improves
UNB, Dhaka

The diarrhea situation in the capital city is improving, as indicated by the number of patients admitted to the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR'B) going down for the last couple of days. "The number of patients at the ICDDR'B is rounding up from 700 to 850 since last three or four days," said Dr Azharul Islam Khan, head of the short stay unit of the Dhaka Hospital Clinical Science Division at ICDDR'B.
Talking to UNB on Tuesday afternoon, Dr Khan mentioned that at the beginning of this month (April), around 900-1000 diarrhea patients were being admitted everyday to ICDDR'B, adding that the crisis of drinking water allied to the severe heat of the sun triggered the problem.
Dr Khan believes the recent lower trend of diarrhea patients might continue if city dwellers can have contamination-free drinking water and the weather remains moderate. Describing the filtered water provided by the Army among the city dwellers at some city points as having had a 'good effect' towards improvement of the situation, Dr Khan said the diarrhea situation could be controlled by maintaining a supply of filtered water.
Earlier this month, frequent load-shedding along with crises of drinking water and gas supply and increasing seasonal temperature under a hot sun triggered the diarrhea outbreak among poorer residents of Dhaka.
Dr Khan said it affected mostly those drinking unclean water and rotten food, with the overall unhygienic atmosphere causing the water-borne disease to spread among the people. Prescribing the people to drink water after having boiled it for atleast 10 minutes, he said people should take their food with clean hands and soaps or aches should be used for cleaning hands after using toilets to minimize the risk of diarrhea.
He also said diarrhea patients should be given oral saline along with their normal diets while babies until six months of ages should be breastfed. If the patient's condition deteriorates further, he or she should visit the nearest hospital as early as possible, he suggested.

  Country likely to experience normal rainfall in April and May
UNB, Dhaka

The country will likely experience normal rainfall with moderate to strong nor'westers (kaal boishakhis) sweeping through the north and the center during the months of April and May.
One or two depressions may form in the Bay of Bengal during April and May, with one possibly turning into a cyclone, said the Met office in its long-term weather forecast.
One or two extreme heat weaves with temperatures hitting more than 40 degree Celsius, another 3-4 mild heat weaves with temperatures between 36-38 degree Celsius, while 1 or 2 moderate heat waves with temperatures between 38-40 degree Celsius might blow over the country' s North and middle part in April. Of these, the country has already experienced some in the first 20 days of April.
A few mild/extreme heat waves and 1-2 moderate heat wave may similarly visit the country in May.
The long term forecast said moderate to strong nor'westers (kaal boishakhis) or storms may sweep through the North and the center part of the country for 3-4 days in the month of April while mild to moderate nor'wester/storm may lash other parts of the country for 4-5 days during this period.
About the naval situation, it said flash floods might occur in the country's northeastern regions in the middle of April although the country's river flow will remain normal.
When contacted, the official at the Met office told UNB that the temperature this season would remain mildly hot as usual, given the sun is vertically overhead.
"We can't describe today's heat as heat-wave," he said, mentioning that the country experienced a heat-eave last week rather. The rainfall would also remain normal this month, he noted.

  57,000 die from tobacco related diseases every year in BD
UNB, Dhaka

Around 6 lakh 37,500 adult female aged over 15 smoke tobaccos in Bangladesh, according to Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS).
Some 1, 91, 25,000 adult males aged over 15 smoke tobaccos, the study says.
GATS' statistics says more than 43 percent (4 crore 13lakh) of adults aged above 15 years somehow use tobacco in the country. Some 26 percent of adult men and 28 percent adult of women use smokeless tobacco including tobacco leaf, Zarda, Gul as well as Hukka. The Ministry of the Health and the World Health Organization (WHO) jointly conducted the GATS in 2009 as a household survey of persons aged above 15 years in collaboration with the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics and the National Institute of Population Research and Training.

  EC adds 1.2 m euro humanitarian aid in Chittagong Hill Tracts

UNB, Dhaka

The European Commission's Humanitarian Aid Department has allocated 1.2 million euro as humanitarian aid to address the impact of rodent crisis in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT). The Commission has already allocated 3.65 million euro since the crisis began to assist the most affected population with food and income generating activities, a release of the EC said. The people living in the remote areas of the CHT are still facing severe food insecurity due to a three-year-long rat plague which affected their crops. Every 40-50 years the bamboo plants produce flowers which, when consumed, cause the rats to reproduce at an accelerated rate.
The rats have eaten seeds, crops and food stocks leaving an estimated 130,000 people with inadequate food sources or incomes. Most of the indigenous people of the CHT practice jhum cultivation which is a way of shifting land use for seasonal crop production.

Sports

Tamim named Wisden’s 'International Cricketer of the Month'
Tigercricket.com

Flamboyant Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal has been named the Wisden cricket magazine's 'Interna-tional Cricketer of the Month' in its May, 2010 edition.
Tamim is the first Bangladeshi player to be named the world's best-selling cricket monthly's International Cricketer of the Month.
The dashing left hander already has Test centuries against India and West Indies and will be heading for England with confidence high after averaging 59.25 in two Tests against Alastair Cook's team in Bangladesh.
Asked about his career goals in an interview in the May issue of The Wisden Cricketer magazine, Tamim says: "To represent Bangladesh as long as possible and to score hundreds against every Test-playing nation in Tests and ODIs."
Looking back on his successful series in the winter he adds: "I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of playing against England. It was a challenge because they were under the impression that we don't play the short ball well.
People were saying all kinds of things without knowing that we have played some of our best cricket in recent times on pitches that had pace and bounce. I worked really hard on my game against the short ball and I scored a lot of runs off such deliveries against England. That gave me a great deal of satisfaction."
Tamim credits coaches Mohammad Salah Uddin and Jamie Siddons for helping him work out a game plan to suit his aggressive approach. "I was going along OK in ODIs but at the beginning I struggled to get a balance in Tests. I didn't know whether to start slow or be aggressive.
I had no plan. Then I spoke to Mohammad Salah Uddin and Jamie Siddons and both told me to trust my natural game. That's what I am doing now. Some days that style might not look pretty but on other days I'll be on top. The biggest change in my batting has been in the mindset. Now I am prepared to pick the right balls to hit."
While that may be true, it has in no way lessened his determination to dominate at the crease. "I think I am a batsman who loves to play his shots and stays aggressive no matter what the situation might be," he says. "If the ball is in my zone and is there to be hit then I will go for it 10 times out of 10."

  Official launch of GP-BCB Academy Cup held
UNB, Dhaka

The Grameenphone Limited in association with the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) declared the official launching of the 4th GP-BCB Academy Cup'2010 at a function at Grameen phone head office in Gulshan Tuesday.
The Standard Bank National Cricket Academy team of South Africa and GP-BCB National Cricket Academy team will take part in the Grameenphone BCB Academy Cup comprising two four-day, three one-day and two T20 matches at four separate venues - Chittagong, Bogra, BKSP, and Dhaka.
Visiting South African side will start their campaign with a four-day match beginning April 22 at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong while the 2nd four-day match will be held April 28-May 1 at the Shaheed Chandu Stadium (SCS) in Bogra.
After the four-dayers, the South African side will also play a three-match one-day series against their Bangladesh counterparts.
The tourists will play the first one-day match on May 4 and the 2nd one-day match on May 6, both at SCS in Bogra, while the 3rd one dayer is slated for May 8 at BKSP in Savar.
The South African side will also play two T20 matches against the home side on May 10 and 11, both at BKSP.
The Grameenphone Aca-demy Cup logo was also unveiled at the function.
Chief Communications Officer of Grameenphone Kazi Monirul Kabir, Head of Management Committee of GP-BCB NCA & member of BCB Game Development Committee Shakil Kasem, Team Operations Manager Kazi Habibul Bashar, Team head coach Sarwar Imran and Captain of GP-BCB NCA Mohammad Mithun and Captain of Standard Bank South Africa National Cricket Academy team Wiann Van Zyl were present.
Grameenphone, which over the years has been sponsoring various sporting events in the country ranging from Kabaddi to Tennis, have been the official sponsors of the National Cricket Team for last six years and also the sponsors for the GP-BCB Cricket Academy.

   Indira Road tastes first victory
UNB, Dhaka

In a battle of two lowly teams, Indira Road KC tasted the first victory in the last Group A match of the Women's Club Cup Cricket beating all-loser Dhaka Wanderers Club by four wickets at Dhanmondi Cricket Stadium here on Tuesday.
Dhaka Mohammedan SC and BKSP qualified for the semifinals from the group as the champions and runners up while Indira Road KC and Dhaka Wanderers Club eliminated from the meet.
Mohammedan SC will play the first semifinal against their arch-rival Abahani Limited on Thursday while Ansars & VDP meets BKSP in the 2nd semis on Friday.
Batting first after winning the toss in the day's match, Dhaka Wanderers Club were dismissed for 109 runs in 36.4 overs with opener Labony Akhter scoring 28 runs. The highest 33 runs of the innings came from extras. Salma Akhter of Indira Roard KC grabbed four wickets for 13 runs while Mina Khatun bagged 3 wickets for 10 runs. Salma was adjudged player of the match.
In reply, Indira Road KC reached their target making match-winner 110 runs for the loss of six wickets in 18.3 overs with Puja Das contributing 40 runs and Tithi Rani Sarkar 17 runs.
Labony Akhter took two wickets for 24 runs.

  CGames opening ceremony to be 'better than Beijing'
AFP, Sydney

A top Indian Commonwealth Games official has promised that this year's opening ceremony will be the greatest ever seen-surpassing even the glittering Beijing Olympics curtain-raiser.
"The opening ceremony, the way it has been planned, it'll be the best ever," T.S. Darbari, joint director general of the New Delhi Games' organising committee, told Australia's AAP news agency. "Better than Melbourne, better than any Commonwealth Games, better than Beijing-it's a guarantee."
The comments come as the Indian capital races to complete venues for the October event, after Games chiefs expressed concern about facilities being ready in time.
The Commonwealth Games, the biggest multi-sport event to be staged in India since the Asian Games in 1982, will feature 71 nations and territories mainly from the former British empire.
"It's going to be tight but it will happen," said Darbari, who also shrugged off costs that have ballooned to about two billion US dollars-nearly twice Melbourne's 2006 Games.
The four-hour, vastly impressive 2008 Beijing Olympics opening ceremony featured some 15,000 performers and 35,000 fireworks and was reported to have cost about 100 million US dollars.

  Chinese players train in Pakistan for Asian Games
BSS/AFP, Karachi

Chinese cricketers are training hard in Pakistan ahead of this year's Asian Games, where they hope to raise the profile of the sport in their home country, their coach said Tuesday.
Cricket will make its first appearance at the Asian Games in November in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, and the home side has been preparing with help from Pakistan's former captain and batting master Javed Miandad.
Teams from Test-playing nations Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are expected to take part in the games, competing against hosts China and five other sides in Twenty20 format matches.
"Because of the excellent relationship between the two countries, Chinese players were given a chance by Pakistan and six of the players have got some valuable tips from batting legend Javed Miandad," China's Pakistani coach Rashid Khan told AFP. President Asif Ali Zardari, who is patron-in-chief of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), appointed Miandad as cricket ambassador to China last year.
"It's a lifetime opportunity for the Chinese players... The Chinese players are very disciplined, they follow strict timings and are excellent ambassadors of their country," Rashid said.
"The Asian Games could be a breakthrough for them as, if they perform well, the Chinese government will put in more funds," added Rashid, who played four Tests and 29 one-day internationals for Pakistan.
China is an affiliate member of the Asian Cricket Council and the International Cricket Council (ICC) and won the ICC global development award for the region in 2005.
The ICC sees China as the next big market for cricket and regularly sends coaches and officials there to promote the sport.
One player, 22-year-old Jiang Shu Yao, said he was thrilled to meet Miandad and paceman Shoaib Akhtar. "It is a lifetime experience," said Yao. "I heard a lot about Miandad and today I met him and was all ears when he was giving me tips how to bat. It will help me in the Asian Games. "Football, table tennis and badminton are popular sports in China, but cricket is also coming up big and Asian Games will give us a chance to show our mettle."

   Liverpool focused despite travel troubles: Benitez
BSS/AFP, Liverpool

Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez insists his team will be fully-prepared for their
Europa League semifinal first leg at Atletico Madrid despite facing disruption over their travel.
UEFA confirmed on Friday that the game will go ahead even though clubs' travel plans have been wrecked by the cloud of volcanic ash over Iceland.
The Reds were due to get a train to London on Tuesday with the prospect of either flying on to Spain or taking a further train as far as Bordeaux and flying from there. Benitez was annoyed at having to play against West Ham on Monday night, which the Reds won 3-0, but is adamant that his players will be ready to take on Atletico.
He said: "There are not too many options but it could have been called off but also I don't like Mondays so to play on Mondays is not the best option for us but we have to manage now.
"It's well organised so we'll have some time and we have to be there early but we can do it. The people are working behind the scenes preparing everything and they are doing a good job.
"We will have not too many days to be ready for an important game but hopefully the journey will be good. Everything is ready and the players will be fresh."
Star striker Fernando Torres has been ruled out for the rest of the season after undergoing surgery on his knee.
Benitez is sure that the striker will be ready to feature for the Spain at the World Cup in South Africa in June. He added: "I don't know of any surgeon that says after an operation that it hasn't been a success.
"It's a pity because we have lost the player but maybe he will be ready for the World Cup with Spain. If he's available, I'm sure he will go."
David Ngog scored his first Premier League goal of the calendar year in the victory over West Ham.
Benitez is sure that Ngog will not let himself down if he gets the chance to feature against Atletico and is refusing to give up on fourth place despite trailing Spurs, who have a game in hand, by five points.
He said: "He knows that he has played a lot of games so he knows he has to work hard and that's it.
"I don't ask for him to do more than he can do. When he has time he's doing individual work and he's trying to improve, He's keen to learn and he's trying.
"I think that we have to keep doing our job. It will be more difficult because we have difficult games.
"Tottenham won their difficult games and we were not expecting them to win but we l have to keep trying to do our job and be in position if they make a mistake."
After Liverpool took the lead Monday through Yossi Benyoun, Ngog added the second before Liverpool completed their win with Robert Green's own goal.
West Ham remain just three points above the relegation zone and they only have two games left after Saturday's crucial game against Wigan.
Hammers manager Gianfranco Zola is confident of a much- improved performance at the weekend.
He said: "We know it hasn't been our best performance and we're all disappointed but it's not the moment to think too much about that.
"We've got a massive game coming on Saturday and we made mistakes, they were very costly, and we didn't play well but we can't think too much about that. "We need to react straight away because on Saturday we have a game that's very important."
Zola is confident that Carlton Cole will be available for Saturday's game despite limping off with a knee problem at Anfield.

  Pakistan names Sami, Rehman for World Twenty20
BSS/AFP, Karachi

Pakistan Monday named paceman Mohammad Sami and left-arm spinner Abdur Rehman as replacements for the World Twenty20 following confusion between the cricket administration and the selectors.
The selectors Sunday had named Sami and paceman Mohammad Irfan as replacements for Umar Gul and Yasir Arafat, who were both ruled out of the World Twenty20 due to injuries.
But the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said selectors did not follow the procedure for replacements and on Monday named Rehman in place of Irfan.
"Sami and Rehman will replace Gul and Arafat and both the names have been approved by the PCB chairman Ijaz Butt," the PCB said.
Gul, who is the leading wicket-taker in Twenty20 cricket with 43 in 26 matches and also has the best figures of 5-6 against New Zealand in the World Twenty20 in England, hurt his shoulder while Araft injured his calf.
Both were ruled out on Sunday. Rehman, 30, has played two Tests, 11 one-day internationals and two Twenty20 for Pakistan.
Unlucky Irfan has attracted attention as one of Pakistan's tallest cricketers and for his left-arm fast bowling, taking 43 wickets in 10 first-class matches after making his debut in the last season. The West Indies host the third edition of the World Twenty20 from April 30-May 16. Pakistan, placed in Group A, faces Bangladesh on May 1 and Australia the following day.

  India’s IPL rocked by tax probe
BSS/AFP, New Delhi

Indian Premier League (IPL) chief Lalit Modi faced an uncertain future Tuesday after the government launched a probe into the financial dealings of the money-spinning cricket tournament.
The tax investigation began after revelations by Modi led to the resignation of a government minister and claims from the opposition that the league was a front for money laundering and illegal betting.
Top officials of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which owns the IPL, are believed to blame Modi, 46, for attracting the taxman to their door and many want him to quit as IPL commissioner.
Modi, the driving force behind the success of the IPL, which has seen its brand value surge to 4.1 billion dollars in just three short years, has vehemently denied any wrongdoing.
"Lots in media - speculations," Modi wrote on his Twitter page from Dubai where he is representing the BCCI at an International Cricket Council meeting. "Welcome all investi-gation. Ready to extend all cooperation," he added. The IPL, which began in 2008, features the world's top cricketers playing a shortened format of the game known as Twenty20. There are eight franchises owned by India's wealthy businessmen and film stars. When Modi returns to India later Tuesday he will be confronted by a combative media, which has already predicted that his days as IPL boss are numbered.
There was growing speculation that Modi will quit before a meeting of the 14-member IPL governing council in Mumbai next Monday, but BCCI officials cautioned against jumping the gun.
"Look, there is a lot of anger that Modi has put us in such a mess," a senior BCCI official told AFP. "The board has never faced such embarrassment.
"But the general opinion is to give Modi a chance to explain his side of the story... if he wants to that is."
The income-tax depart-ment has summoned IPL officials to hand over all paperwork pertaining to the tournament by Friday, including details on television rights, sponsorships and deals with franchises and players.
Modi brought down junior foreign minister Shashi Tharoor by revealing on Twitter the ownership structure of a new IPL franchise which showed a free stake had been gifted to the politician's girlfriend.

  Wimbledon winners to net a million in prize money
AFP, London

The winners of this year's Wimbledon singles' titles will net a staggering one million pounds (1.54 million dollars) in prize money after the All-England Club announced a significant rise in the rewards on offer at the grass-court grand slam on Tuesday.
The credit-crunch defying figures mean reigning men's champion Roger Federer and women's holder Serena Williams will benefit from an increase of 150,000 pounds (231,145 dollars) on the winning purses in 2009 if they retain their crowns in south-west London.
The total prize money for the event has been increased by 1.175 million pounds (1.81 million dollars) to 13.725 million pounds (21.147 million dollars).
All England Club chairman Tim Phillips insisted the landmark million pound prize reflected the tournament's desire to provide a fitting reward for the world's best players.
"Wimbledon exists in a highly competitive global marketplace and it is the world's best players who create and drive the interest," Phillips said.
"It is important that we offer a level of prize money which is both appropriate to the prestige of the event and which gives the players full and fair reward.
"It shows that the championships are successful and it shows that we care about the players."
The purse for the champions at Wimbledon has now doubled in the last 10 years and is just below the 1.6 million dollars awarded to the winners of the 2009 US Open.
The runners-up in the men's and women's events at Wimbledon, which runs from June 21 to July 4 this year, will bank 500,000 pounds (769,618 dollars), while the semi-finalists will take home 250,000 pounds (384,782 dollars).
Winning the men's and women's doubles events is worth 240,000 pounds (369,334 dollars) per pair, while even players in the singles who are knocked out in the first round will earn 11,250 pounds (17,312 dollars) for their unsuccessful day's work.
But as well as keeping Wimbledon firmly established as the world's premier tennis tournament, the decision to raise the prize money to unprecedented levels has also been influenced by the slump in the value of the pound. "We need to offer prize money that is competitive in the interna-tional market," Phillips said.
"That means exchange rates become a consi-deration and the fact that sterling has fallen by 20 to 25 percent against the dollar and the euro over the past three years means the increases are slightly bigger than has been the case over the last few years.
"The players are what this tournament has been all about and we have to reward them fairly for their extraordinary efforts in this extremely competitive individual global sport."

  Liverpool stroll keeps heat on Hammers
BSS/AFP, Liverpool

First-half strikes from Yossi Benayoun and David Ngog and a second-half own goal from Robert Green earned Liverpool a 3-0 win Monday over struggling West Ham.
The Reds are still five points off fourth-placed Tottenham, who also have a game in hand, but they extended their unbeaten run at Anfield to 10 matches and this was a simple warm up for Thursday's Europa League semi final first leg at Atletico Madrid.
Efforts from Benayoun and Ngog gave them a comfortable advantage at the interval and Green's own goal completed a comfor-table evening. West Ham have not won away from home since the opening weekend of the season and remain just three points above the relegation zone with three matches remaining. But coach Gianfranco Zola denied the defeat would damage morale, telling ESPN: "We just had a chat in the changing room and I am not concerned at all. No problem. "We started well. We were quite comfortable on the pitch. We suffered on dead balls - normally we are very good defending against them but not today.
There was also the worrying sight of Carlton Cole applying ice to his knee after coming off for the visitors. Liverpool dominated possession from the start and West Ham goalkeeper Robert Green had to turn a Maxi Rodriguez strike around the post with just a couple of minutes gone.
The hosts took the lead on 19 minutes following a Gerrard free kick on the right. The Liverpool captain whipped the set piece in behind the West Ham defence and the ball crept inside the post off Benayoun's chest.
The Israeli, who joined Liverpool from West Ham and was being booed throughout by the visitors' fans, refused to celebrate the breakthrough.
Carlton Cole won the ball in the air against Jamie Carragher and forced a save at the near post from Pepe Reina. Junior Stanislas also looped over with a free kick but Sotirios Kyrgiakos should have given Liverpool an unassailable lead when he thumped a header over from Gerrard's corner.

  Nadal pulls before Barcelona start
BSS/AFP, Barcelona

Rafael Nadal's bid for a second straight week of tennis history was torpedoed Monday as the tiring Spaniard admitted defeats in a war with his embattled body, saying he was too fatigued to compete for a second week on the clay.
The blow was as major to the world number three as it was to the Real Club de Tenis, the Spaniard's own club and the venue where he was bidding to duplicate his phenomenal six titles achieved on Sunday in Monte Carlo.
Nadal's physical capitulation came during only the second week of the pre- Roland Garros clay season with five weeks to go before the start in Paris. He has complained in the past about the intense scheduling required to play such a compressed clay spring season.
A statement from the player's camp said he will explain more fully Tuesday in a media conference.
"I feel bad not playing in Barcelona, more than any another tournament," read the statement from the world number three. "But after winning in Monte Carlo my body is asking me to rest.
"I feel really bad about this, it is my club and my event. I've mentioned several times that the clay season calendar is poorly structured.
"I want to thank members and fans in advance for their understanding."
Nadal expended what appeared to be minimal effort during his Monte Carlo week, receiving a bye in the opening round and winning three of his five matches with the loss of just one game in each.
He crushed compatriot Fernando Verdasco for the tenth time without a loss, taking just 90 minutes to sweep the final.
But Nadal's bouts with knee injury over the past two seasons may have taught him a lesson about over-playing, with the top seed showing that he may now be looking ahead to the big picture and the battle to regain his Roland Garros title from Roger Federer starting late next month.
On court before evening rain, fellow Spaniards took first-round wins.
The 15th seed Nicolas Almagro put out compatriot Santiago Ventura 6-1, 6- 2 while Guillermo Garcia-Lopez stopped Belgian qualifier Olivier Rochus 5-7, 6-1, 6-3. Oscar Hernandez beat Igor Marchenko of the Ukraine 6-7 (2/7), 6-2, 6-4 and Marcelo Granollers advanced over Poland's Lukasz Kubot 6-4, 6-3.