|
Leading News
16th
SAARC Summit opens
South Asian leaders admit to collective failures to
develop the region
AFP, Thimpu
South Asian leaders admitted Wednesday a collective
failure to develop their conflict-ridden region and to
forge a united front against the threats of climate change
and
terrorism.
Opening a summit of the eight-nation South Asian
Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in Bhutan,
the host nation's Prime Minister Jigme Thinley, said it
was time for the bloc to take a long, critical look at
itself.
In the 25 years since it was formed to encourage
development and raise the living standards of a region
that is home to one-fifth of humanity, "SAARC's journey
has not been one of outstanding success", Thinley said.
"We are losing focus," he added, citing squabbles and
tensions between the bloc's member states that had
prevented implementation of its numerous, but ultimately
toothless, commitments to change. "Fractious and
quarrelsome neighbours do not make a prosperous
community," he said.
SAARC, founded in 1985, groups Afghanistan, Bangladesh,
Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri
Lanka. Critics have blamed its failure to exploit the
region's common potential on the long and bitter rivalry
between its two most powerful members, India and Pakistan,
which has often hijacked the bloc's agenda.
The nuclear-armed neighbours have fought three wars since
the subcontinent's 1947 partition and remain at
loggerheads over the region of Kashmir.
They are also locked in a struggle for influence in
Afghanistan, which joined SAARC in 2007. The Indian and
Pakistani prime ministers, Manmohan Singh and Yousuf Raza
Gilani, both attended the summit, which comes at a time
when their countries are, once again, barely on speaking
terms.
A meeting between the two leaders has been scheduled for
Thursday.
Addressing the regional gathering, Singh acknowledged that
SAARC had fallen short of its founding aspirations. "In
looking back at these two-and-a-half decades we can claim
the glass is half full, and compliment ourselves, or we
can admit the glass is half empty and challenge
ourselves," he said.
The tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan is hosting the summit
for the first time and has put the focus on climate
change, which is of special concern to SAARC members like
Bangladesh and The Maldives, both threatened by rising sea
levels.
"The capacity of the planet to sustain life is fast
diminishing ... (and) it is the poor who suffer most,"
Thinley said. "We need to act in concert."
Pakistan's prime minister echoed the need for some
"dispassionate reflection" on SAARC's record to date.
"For many years, real progress remained stalled, due in
part to hesitancy born from historical legacies,
differences and disputes," Gilani said.
Highlighting the "toxic brew" of terrorist activity across
the region, he said the only effective solution was to
fight it "individually and collectively". Presi-dent Hamid
Karzai of Afghanistan, which accuses Islamabad of not
doing enough to eliminate Taliban operatives based on
Pakistani territory, warned that the "wildfire of
terrorism" needed to be extinguished at its roots.
RMG
workers clash with police, block road for wage hike
UNB, Dhaka
At least 35 garments workers and cops were injured during
a clash between the workers and police in city's Kafrul
area Wednesday morning.
Police charged batons, used water canons and lobbed tear
gas shells to disperse the unruly workers. Witnesses said
several hundred workers of IDS garments factory, situated
near BRTA office in Mirpur-13, came out from the factory
and staged demonstration on the street at about 8:00 am to
press home their various demands including increase of
salary.
They also forced workers of nearby garments factories to
join them. When the agitating workers started
demonstrating on the main road, police tried to disperse
them. As the unruly workers started damaging running
vehicles, police charged batons resulting in chase and
counter chase that left some 28 workers inured.
At one stage the workers also started throwing brick bats
targeting the police that injured seven police men,
including a women police.
Police later used water canons and lobbed around 25-30
tear gas shells to disperse the demonstrators. Later, they
brought the situation under control at about 9:00 am.
UNB reports from Narayanganj: Dhaka-Sylhet highway came
under seize by several thousand unruly garment workers at
Kanchpur ignoring the stern warning of the government
against agitation on roads and highways following workers
of Sinha Group of Industries blocked traffic movement for
six hour at the same place on Tuesday.
Blockade created traffic jam with vehicles stranded on
about 15km long queue on both sides of demonstration
causing immense miseries to the travelers. The
demonstrators blocked the busy highway for five hours,
damaged about 30 passing vehicles, ransacked and damaged
factories and clashed with police leaving at least 30
people, including 8 policemen wounded.
Police retaliated with sticks and ultimately fired tear
gas shells and gunshots in the air to scare away the
demonstrators.
Spot accounts said workers of Arrow Apparels Ltd, Anirban,
NKL and Square garment factories of Kanchpur-Rupganj
industrial belt demonstrated demanding wage hike and
fringe benefits.
PM for Himalayan Council,
IARC to combat impact of climate change
UNB, Thimpu
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wednesday presented two
innovative proposals- setting up Himalayan Council on the
model of the Artic Council to help the climate-victim
nations in South Asia and an International Adaptation and
Research Center (IARC) in Bangladesh to recommend measures
to cope with the impacts of climate change.
Hasina mooted the proposals while delivering a statement
at the opening session of the 16th SAARC summit at the
Grand Assembly Hall as the 'Climate Change' is the key
theme of the Thimpu summit that began here this
(Wednesday) afternoon.
The Prime Minister said the proposed IARC could facilitate
exchange of scientific data, eco-friendly technologies,
experience in renewable energy and assist the relevant
SAARC Regional Centers to realize their mandates.
It could also help implement the SAARC Conven-tion on
Cooperation on Environment signed at the summit.
"Global warming and climate change have already impacted
our nations with melting of the Himalayan glaciers, rising
sea level, erratic precipitation, land degradation,
desertification and salinity," she told the summit of the
leaders of the eight South Asian countries.
As Bangladesh is the most vulnerable country to the global
warming, Hasina said the adverse geophysical changes with
increasing frequency of cyclones and floods have been
retarding the economic growth, poverty alleviation
efforts, and millennium development goals (MDGs).
"To face these challenges, I believe, a holistic approach
is imperative at regional and global levels," she told the
summiteers.
The Prime Minister observed that at the regional level, a
unified approach is of essence, and called for the SAARC
to establish a Himalayan Council on the model of the Artic
Council for assisting the affected countries in the
region.
Bhutan's Prime Minister Jigmi Y Thinley, who assumed as
the new chair of SAARC, presided over the opening ceremony
of the two-day summit.
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, Indian Prime Minister
Dr Manmohan Singh, Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed,
Nepal's Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, Pakistan Prime
Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani and Sri Lankan President
Mahinda Rajapakse spoke at the inaugural session of the
Silver Jubilee Summit.
BNP to stage
demo on May 3 demanding resignation of CEC
UNB, Dhaka
The main opposition BNP Wednesday announced a program of
demonstrations and processions towards the Election
Commission on May 3 demanding immediate resignation of the
Chief Election Commissioner Dr. ATM Shamsul Huda and two
other commissioners for failing to hold free, fair and
neutral elections in Bhola-3 by-election on April 24. The
demonstration towards the EC secretariat will be brought
out from the city's Muktangon at 3 pm.
BNP standing committee member Nazrul Islam Khan announced
the agitation program from a rally at Muktangon this
afternoon organized by city BNP as part of the countrywide
demonstrations demanding cancellation of Bhola-3
by-election, resignation of members of the Election
Commission and resolving the nagging crises of
electricity, water and gas.
The rally presided over by BNP vice-chairman and Dhaka
city mayor Sadeq Hossain Khoka was also addressed by
leaders of the BNP and its front and associate
organizations including Abdullah al Noman, Shamsuzzaman
Dudu, Amanullah Aman and Fazlul Haque Milon. The rally was
conducted by Mohila Dal general secretary Shirin Sultana.
Addressing the rally, BNP vice chairman Noman demanded
judicial investigation into crimes against humanity that
allegedly took place in Bhola-3 constituency comprising
Lalmohon and Tajumuddin upazilas during the by-election.
If the investigation commission isn't formed, the BNP will
form it when it regains power in future and hold trials
for those who were involved in the crimes, include senior
Awami League leader Tofael Ah-med. BNP joint secretary
general Amanullah Aman threatened that no election will be
allowed under
the incumbent election
commission.
New salary scale for
RMG workers before Ramadan: Mosharraf
UNB, Dhaka
Labour and Employment Minister Eng Mosharraf Hossain has
disclosed that a new salary scale for workers of Readymade
Garment (RMG) industries will be announced within next
three months.
The new wage scale will be implemented before the next
holy month of Ramadan, he said. The Labour Minister made
the announcement addressing a press briefing at his office
Wednesday afternoon on the outcome of a meeting on
sabotage (Nashokota) activities alleged to have taken
place in last two days in some parts of Dhaka and
Narayanganj centering on demands of RMG workers.
State Minister for Labour Munnuzan Sufian, BGMEA
representatives led by its acting president Nasir Uddin
Chowdhury, officials of law enforcing agencies, and Home
and Labour Secretaries were also present at the meeting.
Labour Minister Mosharraf said a political circle of local
and foreign forced sponsored the last two days' untoward
incidents from outside. He cautioned that the government
will be forced to take a hard line in the future against
such sabotage. He said the present minimum salary scale of
Tk 1664 for garment workers is not acceptable to the
workers.
The minister said the new salary scale of RMG workers will
be announced considering the living cost of the present
era. He said the workers are remaining in hardship and the
government remains with them in implementing their just
demands.
Mosharraf further said the garment owners will be forced
to implement the due gratuity of the workers.
The meeting decided to open a control cell at BGMEA Bhaban
to monitor round the clock any instability in the garment
sector, according to the minister.
BGMEA acting president Nasir Uddin Chowdhury told
reporters that increasing wage of garment workers is
urgent. He urged the workers to have patience and assured
them that BGMEA is sympathetic to the garment workers.
HC sets May 18 for
judgement
UNB, Dhaka
The High Court has set May 18 for pronouncing judgment on
a long pending petition for exonerating Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina in the case of a Frigate purchase scam case
filed during the past BNP-Jamaat alliance government.
An HC division bench comprising Justice M Shamsul Huda and
Justice Abu Bakar Siddiquee passed the order after closing
the hearing from both the counsel for Hasina and the Anti
Corruption Commission. On August 7 in 2002, now defunct
Bureau of Anti Corruption (BAC) filed the case with
Tejgaon police station accusing six people of
misappropriation of public money and misuse of power in
purchasing the DW 2000H frigate from the Daewoo Coope-ration
of South Korea at a price higher than quoted by the lowest
bidder. On August 3, 2003, charges were submitted to the
court against former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and five
others including an ex-navy chief in a corruption case
regarding the purchase of a Korean frigate for the Bang-ladesh
Navy in 1996.
The charge-sheet was submitted to the court under sections
409/418/109 of the Bangladesh Penal Code (PBC) and section
5 (2) of the Anti-Corruption Act of 1947.
The case alleged that the accused influenced the awarding
of the contract to Daewoo, which inflicted a loss of over
Tk 511.17 crore on the national exchequer.
Back Page
Leaders speak at SAARC Summit
Terrorism biggest threat in South Asia: Karzai
UNB, Thimphu
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai has said the most
challenging threats facing the South Asia are terrorism,
extremism, narcotics and organized crime and SAARC could
be a platform to combat these threats together.
"The terrorist attacks over the past two years in Kabul,
Islamabad, Mumbai and elsewhere were yet again gruesome
reminders that terrorism continues to find a place in our
region," he said in a statement at the opening session of
the 16th SAARC summit at Grand Assembly Hall Wednesday
afternoon.
Karzai called for setting aside differences among the
members states so they may decisively defeat terrorism.
"So long as we are unable to do so, the wellbeing,
stability, and the future of our societies will remain
hostage to its attacks," he said.
The Afghan President said defeating terrorism cannot be
achieved by military means alone. "We must also address
conditions that are conducive to exploitation by
terrorists. We must restrict the pool of individuals who,
because of grievances or a sense of alienation and
marginalization become easy prey for terrorist
indoctrination." On the situation in Afghanistan, Karzai
said his government is pursuing an agenda for peace and
reconciliation aimed at encouraging the armed opposition
to lay down their arms, accept Afghan's constitution and
return to civilian life. He said a peaceful and secure
Afghanistan is to the benefit of the entire region.
Bhutan urges South Asian neighbours to overcome
differences
UNB, Thimpu
Bhutanese Prime Minister Jigmi Y Thinley, who assumed the
chairmanship of eight-nation SAARC Wednesday has called
for all exisiting differences among the neighbors in the
region to be overcome for the promise of a secure,
confident and thriving community.
"Every South Asian knows that a discordant family cannot
be happy and that factions and quarrelsome neighbours do
not make a prosperous community," he said in a statement
at the opening session of the 16th SAARC summit at the
Grand Assembly Hall. Pointing his finger to the discord
between the two nuclear neighbors
India and Pakistan in South Asia, Thinley said "we know
very well that where one prospers in a divided
neighborhood, that prosperity is short-lived."
He said in a globalized world, where shrinking space and
time cause collisions- and often conflict- dialogue and
discourse are indispensable "SAARC is losing focus,"
Thinley said, adding that unrestrained proliferation in
the areas of cooperation, requiring close to 200 meetings
a year, is not matched by the results. He proposed that
the SAARC Secretary General conduct a study and present a
report on rationalizing the SAARC process to the next
council meeting.
On the adverse impact of climate change on the SAARC
countries, Thinley suggested taking a well negotiated
unified stand by the SAARC member states at the next COP16
in Mexico to combat the scourge of global warming. He
proposed hosting a meeting of the inter-governmental group
on this subject.
Manmohan
for regional cooperation to build common future
UNB, Thimpu
Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on Wedn-esday
observed that regional cooperation should enable free
movement of people, goods, services and ideas, saying "it
should help us re-discover our shared heritage and build
our common future."
"In looking back at the two and a half decades (of SAARC),
we can claim the glass is half-full, and compliment
ourselves, or, we can admit the glass is half-empty and
challenge ourselves," he said in a statement at the
opening session of the 16h summit of the SAARC that also
marks the Silver Jubilee.
Expressing disappointment over low flow of intra-regional
trade, he said intra-regional trade flows have grown and
transport and telecommunication links have expanded. 'Yet,
the share of intra-regional trade and investment flows in
total trade and investment flows in South Asia is far
below compared with East and South-east Asia."
On climate change, the Indian Prime Minister said there is
perhaps no region more vulnerable to the effects of
climate change than South Asia. Bhutan has led by example
by combining development with conservation of the
environment.
He said regional cooperation can be a significant
multiplier in improving the quality of governance "in
managing our natural resources, in preventing land and
water degradation, and in streng-thening food, water and
energy security."
Nepal’s
PM pledges to work with Bangladesh, other Asian Countries
BSS, Thimphu (Bhutan)
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wednesday said Nepal and
Bhutan could generate more hydro-electricity by using
their water resources and export those to Bangladesh for
the benefit of the three countries.
The Himalayan mountains state Nepal has ample opportunity
to produce more hydro-electricity due to its geographical
location and can export to Bangladesh, she said when the
Prime Minister of Nepal Madhav Kumar Nepal paid a call on
her at Bangladesh House in SAARC Village here Wednesday
morning. During the meeting, they discussed wide range of
bilateral issues including expansion of trade and business
between the two countries, establishing inter-country road
connectivity and the possibility of using land and sea
ports of Bangladesh by Nepal for the economic benefit of
both the countries.
Describing poverty as a common enemy in the South Asian
region, Sheikh Hasina underlined the need for taking
concerted efforts to eradicate poverty from the region. In
this context, she said it is high time to fight against
poverty unitedly as all countries in the region now have
democratic governments. The Nepalese Prime Minister
expre-ssed his government's firm commitment to work
together with Bang-ladesh and with other Asian countries
to economic benefit of the people in the region.
Madhav Kumar Nepal lauded Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's
able leadership to carry forward the country towards
economic development by implementing various projects. He
also appreciated Sheikh Hasina for her concern to save the
South Asian region from natural calamities caused by
global warming. Regarding excellent bilateral relations
existing between Bangl-adesh and Nepal, he expressed the
hope that the relations would be further strengthened in
the days to come.
Gilani
calls for harmony, stability in South Asia
UNB, Thimpu
Pakistan Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani has called
for harmony and stability in South Asia to realize
socio-economic development and ensure the well-being of
the people in the region.
"For many years, real progress remained stalled due in
part to hesitancy borne from historical legacies,
differences and disputes. However, the past could not
obfuscate the promise of a glorious future," he said in a
statement at the opening session of the 16th SAARC summit
that began here Wednesday.
Gilani, whose country has perennial conflict with India on
various issues said peace and stability at home and in the
region is an indispensible condition for development. "We
must reflect individually and collectively on how best to
create peace, stability and harmony in our societies and
region-wide," he observed. The Pakistan PM said the
promise of SAARC can only be realized if "we are able to
not only deepen our engagement but also benefit from the
process of globalization."
Welcoming the presence of SAARC observers, Gilani said "We
must find ways and means to enable these and other
interested states and regional organizations to engage
substantially with SAARC." Saying that poverty alleviation
is a priority, he said socio-economic disparities within
the region and sub-regions have to be addressed. He said
there is the need for greater coordination between
national and regional plans. The Pakistan PM said poverty
alleviation, food and energy security, health and
education are among the SAARC prioirities. "We must
redouble our efforts to realize the SAARC Development
Goals." On climate change, Gilani said the theme of the
16th summit reflects the common concern on global warming,
with all its attendant and multifaceted challenges.
Padma Bridge to
mitigate regional disparities in development: Razzak
UNB, Dhaka
The country's southern region, particularly the coastal
belts of Khulna and Barisal, will experience rapid
development once the proposed Padma Bridge is functional
by 2013, helping to remove existing regional differences
and spurring growth, according to Food Minister Dr
Muhammad Abdur Razzak.
"By 2013, our government is committed to having the Padma
Bridge functional," Dr Razzak remarked, while addressing a
seminar as chief guest at the LGED Bhaban on Wednesday.
The Institute of Microfinance (InM) and Save the Children
UK jointly organized the seminar titled 'Regional
Differences in Poverty Levels and Trends in Bangladesh:
Are We Asking the Right Questions?'
Revealing that the government is fully aware of the slower
pace of poverty reduction in the country's coastal belts,
the Minister took heart from how the opening of the
Bangabandhu Bridge over the Jamuna river in the northwest
saw the country's northern districts make major strides in
attaining economic development, especially after that
allowed a gas pipeline to be put in place. Dr Razzak saw
reason in this to be optimistic about the prospects of the
southern districts once the bridge over the Padma is also
completed.
Former Adviser to the caretaker government Dr Hossain
Zillur Rahman, noted economist Prof Dr Abul Barakat and
member of General Economic Div-ision Prof Shamsul Alam
attended the seminar as discussants.
Dr Hossain Zillur described the various forms poverty took
in various parts of the country, and the importance of
tailoring the approach to mitigating it according to how
it is manifested in each part of the country.
There are four frontiers of poverty found in the country,
he said, noting that the Monga areas, the Haor areas along
with the coastal belts and the urban areas experience
different types of poverty. His analysis reve-aled how
poverty has gradually broadened its domain and extended
itself to non-food items over the years, as well as human
development aspects.
Focusing on the effect of corruption on poverty, Prof
Shamsul Alam asserted that the Anti Corruption Com-mission
(ACC) should be strengthened to curb corruption, and also
emphasized the importance of increasing exports in order
to spur economic growth and development. Prof Alam
estimates corruption costs the country 1 percentage point
in terms GDP growth each year.
Govt remand means ‘political’ remand
to destroy political opponents: Delwar
UNB, Dhaka
Opposition BNP has termed govenrment remand as 'political
remand' to curb opposition to it, as well as to scare the
opposition leaders and workers not to wage anti-government
movement.
BNP secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain made the
remarks while addressing a press briefing at the party's
Nayapaltan central office on Wednesday afternoon. He said
the government defying the existing law of the land has
been unleashing torture on the BNP leaders and workers in
the name of remand with political motives.
In this regard, he mentioned the inhuman torture inflicted
upon BNP leaders Lutfuzzman Babor and Abdus Salam Pintu
while under remand, to take confessional statement
'forcibly' as per the government's desire.
The government has taken the course that as long as the
detained BNP leaders do not implicate the names of the
party's senior vice-chairman and other senior leaders, it
would continue torture even if the detainees die.
Replying to a question the BNP secretary general said the
party will intensify its ongoing anti-government movement
after people become totally fed up with the 'misrule,
misdeeds and failures' of the Awami League government.
He said BNP will spell out appropriate tough programmes at
the appropriate time as part of the movement. As in the
past, he said the movement along with people under the
leadership of Khaleda Zia will free the nation from the
misrule of the present government.
Asked about whether BNP would resort to legal measures
seeking cancellation of the Bhola-3 by-election, he
questioned what the benefits of going to the
'government-controlled' court. The BNP secretary general
said the government has shutdown the private TV channel
Channel 1 with political motives in mind, as the channel
was working in favour of people's interest. He demanded
immediate reopening of the closed Channel 1. He hoped that
government will reopen the TV channel after discussions
with the channel's authorities, for the sake of honest and
objective journalism and free flow of information. Delwar
expressed deep sympathy to all concerned including
journalists and staffs of Channel 1.
12th meeting of JS committee on
Ministry of Commerce held
BSS, Dhaka
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of
Commerce at a meeting here Wednesday underlined the
importance of keeping prices of essentials stable during
the upcoming holy month of Ramadan.
The meeting was informed that steps are being taken to
keep the prices of essential items at a tolerable level in
the month of Ramadan through market monitoring.
The 12th meeting of the committee was held at Sangsad
Bhaban with its Chairman Advocate Lutful Hai presiding, a
parliament secretariat press release said. Committee
members Com-merce Minister Muhammad Faruk Khan, Mohammad
Abul Kashem,Tipu Munshi,Rumana Mahmud, Mohammad Joynal
Abedin and Sheikh Afil Uddin attended the meeting.
The meeting sources said 60,000 tonnes of sugar and 5,000
tonnes of edible oil are at present in government stock.
Moreover, 100,000 tonnes of sugar and 5,000 tonnes of
edible oil will be procured for government stock, the
press release said.
The committee members decided to inform the people through
the mass media after these essential items reach the
dealers 7 or 10 days before the beginning of Ramadan.
They advised the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB)
to supply essential commodities to the people from a
business outlook. Besides, Bangladesh Tea Board has been
asked to raise cultivation and production of tea
considering the significance of its demand.
Concerned high officials of the Ministry of Commerce
including its Secretary Moha-mmad Golam Hossain were
present at the meeting.
Editorial
Making country
self-reliant
By
virtue of his ex-officio position as the Chancellor, President
Zillur Rahman usually attend the convocations of different
universities of the country and deliver speeches. In these
speeches he usually stress on the need for quality education
for the students with a view to enabling them to grow as
worthy citizens and contribute to the progress and advancement
of the country. He also give valuable advises on how to
prosper keeping pace with the changing time. On Tuesday also
the President emphasized on building the country as
economically self-reliant with a view to making its
independence meaningful. He said this while presiding over the
4th convocation of Ahasanullah University of Science and
Technology (AUST).
Congratulating the graduates, he urged them to join in the
nation-building by giving top priority to honesty and
sincerity and also showing their talents and creativity.
"You'll be a bridge between the past and the present. And with
your success, Bangladesh will become the best among the South
Asian countries," the President said. He said the activities
of the universities should be multifarious for the quest of
knowledge so that they could play important role in creating
skilled manpower by facilitating endless exercises of
knowledge, creative activities and the researches.
It goes without saying that skilled manpower is needed to make
the country economically self-reliant. So, along with general
education, technical and scientific education should also be
encouraged so that youths can be equipped with scientific,
technical and technological knowledge to work in different
fields as required by the changing time. Simply passing out
from the universities with higher degrees is useless. The need
of the hour is to produce real work force which will be able
to meet the demand of the competitive work market at home and
abroad. In this regard, It is a good news that the government
will allocate Taka 1,000 crore in the upcoming budget for
raising skill of workers through providing training so that
they can get decent jobs at home and abroad. And the skilled
manpower will, hopefully be able to make positive contribution
to making Bangladesh economically self-reliant.
Unrest in RMG
sector
Staging
road blockade, vandalising vehicles and setting those ablaze
appear to have become parts of politics of agitation and trade
unionism in the country nowadays. Accordingly, vehicular
movement in Mirpur in the capital came to a halt for nearly
one hour Wednesday morning as hundreds of garment workers took
to the street demanding pay hike and other benefits.The
workers of Opex Garments blocked the street from Mirpur 13 to
14 as a sequel to Tuesday's agitation for pressing home their
demands. The workers of the nearby garments also joined them
with a demand for their pay hike. The workers of the Opex
Garments demonstrated despite most of their demands were met
up according to the garment authority. The angry workers were
demonstrating in front of the Opex garments, located at
Mirpur-13.
Earlier, on Tuesday, about 30,000 workers of Sinha Group of
Industries blocked the busy Dhaka-Sylhet highway at Kanchpur
for about six hours causing severe traffic jam and untold
miseries to the commuters. Workers of garments factories and
textile mills owned by the Sinha Group took over the highway
at Kanchpur at 8-30 am to press home 10-point demand including
wage hike, payment of arrears, Eid bonus and other benefits.
At least 10 vehicles were damaged and more than a dozen of
people wounded.
Meanwhile, Home Minister Sahara Khatun has warned of stern
action if garment workers create an unpleasant situation by
blocking roads, urging them to have their demands met through
discussions. The minister issued the warning while addressing
a press briefing after an emergency meeting following a
demonstration by garment workers that blocked roads at
Katchpur in Narayanganj and at Mirpur in Dhaka city on
Tuesday.
"Law enforcing agencies have been instructed to take stern
action if garment workers put up road blockades by taking to
the streets," Sahara told reporters. She said action will be
taken against those who will create or instigate chaos.
But despite this stern warning by the Home Minister against
staging road blockade and creating anarchy, RMG workers did
the same thing again in Mirpur on Wednesday. This shows that
it has become a culture on the part of the workers to resort
to violent means to realize their demands. In this way they
put in trouble innocent people who are in no way connected
with the garments industries. None will deny that the RMG
workers have the right to go for movement for realizing their
legitimate demands, but they have no right to encroach upon
other citizens' rights to free movement.
It is witnessed that instead of confining their agitation to
the factory premises, the RMG workers in most cases carry it
to roads and highways much to the inconvenience of the people.
This practice should be stopped and the workers should try to
realize their demands through peaceful bargaining and
movement. The way the workers are creating unrest on the plea
of agitation for realizing demands is not acceptable. In this
regard it should also be pointed out that the RMG industry
owners should accept the genuine demands of the workers to
avert untoward incidents.
Analysis
No miracles in Bhutan
With its unbroken legacy of poverty, hunger,
disease, illiteracy and conflict, SAARC, as a regional
cooperation organisation, has not gone beyond declaratory
pronouncements, with no tangible achievement to its credit.
Shamshad Ahmad
The 16th SAARC
Summit opens in Bhutan's capital, Thimphu, Wednesday morning
with leaders of its eight member-states already assembled
there for two-days of another "landmark" event. Every annual
summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
is a "landmark" event ending with a new declaration full of
lofty rhetoric. The Thimphu summit is unlikely to do more.
There will be no miracles in Bhutan. We will only have yet
another high-sounding but low-yield declaration in which the
SAARC leaders will credit themselves for another
"comprehensive and forward-looking milestone" in regional
cooperation. But in reality, it will be only a rehash of the
same old and familiar promises and commitments that have had
no meaning to the region's peoples and masses.
SAARC has been described as a talk-shop. An essential part of
it is the "retreat" where the participating leaders meet in an
informal setting for discussions on the overall regional
situation. But the problem is that discussions on bilateral
and security-related issues in the region are barred in SAARC.
This year's central theme is climate change, on which the
member-states will try to evolve a common SAARC position to be
followed at the UN's Climate Change Summit in Mexico later
this year. Progress in implementation of outstanding projects,
especially operationalisation of the $300-million SAARC
Development Fund and a governing mechanism for the proposed
SAARC University in Delhi will also be reviewed. The question
of food security might figure in the talks.
Besides these routine activities, there will be no new
groundbreaking initiatives in South Asia's regional landscape.
SAARC is notorious for its paper-loaded and meetings-oriented
approach. It holds too many meetings with no results.
Postponement of SAARC summits is a regular phenomenon. In 25
years it has held only 15 summits. Other meetings always
materialize behind schedule and contribute nothing to
regionalisation of trade.
It took ten years for SAARC members to agree on a preferential
tariff arrangement and another ten to come round to a
consensus on the South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA),
which became operational in 2006. Although it has been
expected to have potential, intraregional trade is less than 2
per cent of GDP.
SAARC leaders have been talking of their organisation's
regional potential and stressing the need to make SAARC a
"more vibrant institution" so that it becomes a strong voice
in international economic forums, meaningfully contributing to
regional peace, progress and prosperity. They also do not tire
in expressing concern on the "inherent weaknesses and
shortcomings" in SAARC's "regional approach" and in calling
for more pragmatic action plans in pursuing "attainable"
regional cooperation goals. We are familiar with this rhetoric
at every summit meeting where the leaders regularly "reaffirm"
their commitment to the principles and objectives outlined in
the SAARC Charter. This is what the Colombo Declaration
adopted at the 15th SAARC Summit in 2008 said, and this is
likely to be the sum total of the 16th Summit in Thimphu.
SAARC came into being as an expression of South Asia's
collective resolve to develop a regional cooperative framework
and for the region to adapt itself to the changing times for
the socio-economic well-being of its peoples. Woefully, even
in the silver jubilee year of its existence, the desired
change is nowhere in sight.
Despite the commonalities and strengths of the region, which
is home to one-fifth of humanity, South Asia today remains one
of the world's poorest areas, with a vast majority of its
peoples still living in grinding poverty and subhuman
conditions. Five of SAARC's eight member-states - Afghanistan,
Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives and Nepal - belong to the
UN's category of Least Developed Countries, or LDCs. South
Asia's total external trade is only a small fraction of the
region's GDP while its intraregional trade is equally
non-consequential.
With its unbroken legacy of poverty, hunger, disease,
illiteracy and conflict, SAARC, as a regional cooperation
organisation, has not gone beyond declaratory pronouncements,
with no tangible achievement to its credit. It has neither
helped in improvement of the quality of life in the region,
nor accelerated South Asia's economic growth and social
progress, nor even to the cultural development of its
member-states. With one or two exceptions, SAARC countries
also lag behind in development of genuine democracy, rule of
law and good governance.
What has gone wrong with SAARC is a question that keeps
agitating the minds of policymakers and practitioners of all
sorts both within and outside this region. With its negligible
output and a yawning gap between its promises and performance,
SAARC still has a long way to go before it really comes of
age. The common vision upholding the ideals of peace,
stability, good-neighbourliness and mutually beneficial
cooperation among its member-states remains a distant dream.
To perform, SAARC requires an enabling environment in the
region, free of mistrust and hostility, without which no
regional arrangement anywhere in the world has worked. In
fact, political differences and bilateral disputes have
impeded SAARC's performance from the very outset. While many
regional organisations around the world, including the
Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) came into
existence to face common external challenges, the main problem
of the SAARC region is internal: mutual mistrust.
SAARC, as an organisation, has many faults and weaknesses
inherent in its structural and functional architecture, and
even some glaring shortcomings in the principles and
objectives laid down in its Charter. But the absence of an
enabling environment is the biggest and deepest fault line
that cuts across the region, leaving South Asia with little
regional impulse for any notable process towards genuine
regional cooperation.
The absence of an intraregional mechanism for settlement of
disputes has also severely limited SAARC's capacity to
contribute to regional peace, security and development. Like
ASEAN, this region also needs a Regional Forum to reinforce an
intraregional process of confidence-building, preventive
diplomacy and peaceful settlement of disputes.
SAARC's faults can be removed through the rewriting of its
Charter, redefining of its goals and objectives, reordering of
its priorities and action plans, redress of its systemic
aberrations, restructuring of the Secretariat, rationalisation
of the decision-making and budgetary system, reinforcement of
the organisation's operational capacity and streamlining of
its functional methodology.
But SAARC's fault line will not be removed unless the
member-states bring in greater political will, rising above
narrow national interests and, instead, assuming joint
ownership of their regional effort for mutual benefit. South
Asia needs an exceptional impulse to keep abreast with the
changing times. This fresh regional impulse must spring from
within South Asia. Only then will our peoples be able to
harness the full potential of their region and to join the
worldwide quest for economic growth and development.
The absence of any political role in SAARC has had a crippling
effect on the organisation's capacity to provide an
environment for mutual cooperation. The absence of any
political role in SAARC has had a crippling effect on the
organisation's capacity to provide an environment for mutual
cooperation. No wonder, a former Sri Lankan foreign minister
once warned that unless SAARC dealt with bilateral issues, "it
will remain a deaf, dumb and blind Association."
The writer is a former foreign secretary of Pakistan.
Email: shamshad1941@yahoo.com
Countering-Terrorism Must Follow Coin Operations
It will
take quite some doing to wipe out extremism. Without being
rooted out completely Terrorists will again gather
momentum, the danger is militarism can also appear in
forms other than religious extremism.
Ikram Sehgal
The
recent spate of terrorist attacks is a desperate attempt
to break public morale and use the resultant clamour to
stop the Army's successful counter-insurgency (COIN)
operations in Swat and South Waziristan Agency (SWA).
While both regions are not entirely cleansed of militant
presence, they are now under the writ of civilian
authority.
Before the operations in SWA last October, residents were
given a window a la Swat to clear the area in order to
avoid civilian casualties. This was understandable and
politically necessary, it also gave Hakeemullah Mehsud,
the late head of the TTP, an opportunity to shift back to
his stronghold of Orakzai right out of the war zone along
with most of the movement's leadership and manpower "He
who fights to run away lives to fight another day", is
classic guerilla tactics.
As home to many terror training camps, including some run
by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Jaish-e-Muhammad, and other
Al-Qaeda-affiliated (or copycat) terrorist outfits.
Orakzai is the launching pad for numerous suicide bomb
attacks conducted across Pakistan. Retaking this area is
key towards destroying the leadership capacity of the
Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), crippling its ability to
train and launch attacks, and denying it another
safe-haven for regrouping. The military's offensive
codenamed "Khwakh Ba de Sham", literally translates into
"I see you". Beginning close to midnight of March
23rd/24th the Pakistani security forces, including the
paramilitary FC, backed up by PAF jets, helicopter
gunships and artillery support, entered Taliban controlled
areas. In the words of Maj Gen Tariq, IG Frontier Corps,
the military commander leading the assault, "Orakzai will
be the final battle".
Finding their escape cut off, the militants have chosen to
fight and have launched significant assaults on military
positions. While the scale of the current operations is
far less when compared to last year's, the fighting has
been just as bloody. A cordon has been established around
many of Orakzai's entry and exit points. Bombarding TTP
locations relentlessly, casualties on the militants have
been heavy, many of the dead include foreign fighters,
Arabs, Chechens, Uzbeks, etc. While PAF has taken many
precautions, aerial bombing is tragically never an exact
science in COIN operations and should only be a means of
last resort. The collateral damage because of a PAF bomb
going astray in the Tirah Valley among the Kukikhel tribe
was so high that the COAS had to publicly apologise, and
promise compensation. Aerial attacks must be selective and
coordinated with accurate "actionable intelligence",
otherwise they can be very counter productive. The
complaints of the locals must be taken very seriously and
addressed, the State must establish itself as an ally in
the eyes of the people.
It will take quite some doing to wipe out extremism.
Without being rooted out completely Terrorists will again
gather momentum, the danger is militarism can also appear
in forms other than religious extremism. Terrorist acts as
have recently been carried out in Peshawar and in Swat,
including an unsuccessful attack on the US Consulate
General in Peshawar. Recently a number of local leaders
sympathetic to the government in Swat have been summarily
executed by these elements in Swat. These incidents only
confirm why Maulana Fazlullah, etc should have been
eliminated in the initial assault. The COAS had to
publicly visit Swat to shore up sagging public morale. It
is counter-productive to keep the Army engaged over a long
time, viz (1) the local population starts to react to what
the militants propagate as Army excesses and (2) there is
a debilitating and corrosive influence on the efficiency,
morale and motivation of Army personnel. Far more worrying
is that success in the battlefield leads to
over-confidence and that can breed arrogance, the signs of
it are already noticeable, particularly among those who
have not seen battle, but revel in the publicity of its
success thereof.
The continuing urban terrorism reinforces the need to have
an independent Counter-Terrorist Force (CTF) in place,
sooner rather than later. The Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF)
is presently under the civilian control of a superb
professional Federal Secretary Narcotics Division Tariq
Khosa, why not convert it into a CTF? The US can help the
CTF, providing fund and the tools and training for a well
equipped entity. How long can the intelligentsia and the
masses keep on absorbing this tragic collateral damage (in
both urban areas and battle zone) as a price to be paid to
be rid of the evil incarnate?
Counter-terrorism efforts can never be successful without
non-violent initiatives, viz (1) dispensing of equitable
justice (2) maintaining absolute credibility (3) providing
sound education and (4) curbing religious militancy.
Preceding all this must be an immediate and adequate
relief to those affected by the fighting. For some time
the people will believe what you want them to hear, the
backlash will come when they find out the truth, the
militants will exploit this lack of credibility, it is
grist for those who have chosen the path of militancy. The
political compulsions of the elected representatives force
them to (a) deny acknowledging the obvious (b) shift all
the blame for the terrorism on the warped ideology of its
perpetrators instead of coping with the root causes and
(3) passing on the buck on circumstantial evidence.
The Madrassahs are a very welcome alternative for parents
without means to send their children to school. In nearly
all cases, it ensures their children get at least one
decent meal every day, No substitute to providing
comprehensive education, a vast majority of Madrassahs
impart religious education to the exclusion of almost
everything else particularly in the early formative years
of the children, Madrassahs need re-structuring as
educational institutions with a wide range of disciplines.
The US "military surge" in Afghanistan must ensure that
the Afghan National Army (ANA) sheds its ceremonial status
and seals off the border to prevent Taliban fleeing across
the border. Blunt warnings to Pakistan for not engaging
the (Haqqani) HQN and (Galbuddin Hekmatyar) HiG networks
are counter-productive, Even if Pakistan had the military
means to do so at this time, nobody seems to assess the
resultant backlash for Pakistan. There is an immediate
need to break up the nexus between India's RAW and the
Afghan intelligence agencies. A vast percentage (80%) of
bureaucrats of former Soviet vintage have come back from
exile in Russia and other CIS countries and now run
government departments, they are an anathema to the
population outside Kabul. India is interfering in
Pakistan's internal stability while defaming Pakistan as a
"terrorist sponsor" State on each and every world forum,
from every platform imaginable. While Pakistan should
certainly do more to stop the Taliban from FATA from going
across the Durand Line, the US must decide what is good or
bad for the region and reciprocally stop Indian activity
on our western borders, particularly Balochistan.
A gigantic effort must aim to improve the quality of lives
that people lead, requiring across-the-board economic
bolstering of Pakistan, particularly in the tribal areas.
Energy being vital for the economy, the US must give
serious consideration to our requests for its cheaper
form, nuclear energy. The country cannot afford
unemployment, with an increasing number of factories
closing a religious problem could easily morph into social
upheaval. Pakistan has no choice; we must be willing
participants against the nemesis of terrorism that clouds
our future, not only as a civilized society but as an
independent and responsible State in the comity of
nations. This war must be won - it can be won if the US
realizes that it will take time as well as pragmatic
initiatives.
Ikram Sehgal is an internationally renowned columnist
and the Editor of the Pakistan Defence Journal
Viewpoints
SAARC
is still in slow motion after a quarter of a century
SAARC’s
unique feature is that its two largest members, India and
Pakistan have strained relations and deep mistrust. This
feature has effectively crippled SAARC.
Dr Bhaskar Balakrishnan
This
week, the Bhutan will host the 16th SAARC summit with leaders
of the 8 countries-Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Sri Lanka,
Nepal, Pakistan and Afghanistan. China, Japan, the European
Union, Republic of Korea, the United States, Australia,
Mauritius, Myanmar, and Iran will participate as observers.
SAARC states constitute a major part of humanity, with a
population of 1.5 billion. But after 25 years what has SAARC
managed to achieve?
The degree of freedom in movement of goods, services, capital
and labour is an important test of regional cooperation.
SAARC's achievements in trade are still quite limited; with
intra regional trade is still a measly 5 per cent of SAARC
members' total trade, compared to 24 per cent for ASEAN. The
six member Gulf Cooperation Council set up in 1981, has
achieved 10 per cent intra-GCC trade, and moved ahead to a
common market in 2008. Business cooperation among entities in
SAARC is far below its potential. SAARC has focused on
cooperation in softer sectors, such as infrastructure,
transport, culture, sports, youth, tourism, education,
environment, health, etc. But even here, progress has been
glacial.
SAARC's unique feature is that its two largest members, India
and Pakistan have strained relations and deep mistrust. This
feature has effectively crippled SAARC. For example, the South
Asian Free Trade Agreement, SAFTA, entered into force in 2006.
But India and Pakistan have not yet ratified SAFTA. Pakistan
refuses to grant MFN status to India (despite the latter
having done so). It pursues a restrictive policy towards
India, permitting trade only in items covered in a positive
list. The result is that consumers in Pakistan pay higher
prices for Indian goods which go via third countries. Civil
society within Pakistan should work to change Pakistan policy,
which contradicts SAFTA and also violates its commitments
under the WTO. There is much media speculation over meetings
between Indian and Pakistani Prime Ministers, but one can
hardly expect the leaders of the two biggest members of SAARC
to ignore other. A meeting if it does take place would
probably be a sterile repetition of earlier encounters. The
indications are not promising. Cooperation on investigation
into the Mumbai attack has fizzled out. Nevertheless the other
members have been able to build cooperation between them and
the big two of SAARC, in some cases by playing off the rivalry
between the big two. After much discussion, it was decided in
2005 to set up a single mechanism, the SAARC Development Fund
(SDF) with three windows (Social, Economic and Infrastructure)
and an initial paid up capital of $300 million. The Thimpu
summit will see this entity move a bit further. The South
Asian University, probably the biggest SAARC project was
launched by Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh in 2005.
It is being implemented in a campus in Delhi, is financed
largely by India ($ 240 million), and is expected to have some
3000 students by 2014, with an international faculty, and
linked campuses in South Asian countries. Even in this case,
there is squabbling over its governance.
President Rajapaksha's idea of a common SAARC currency to
boost economic integration seems a far off dream given the low
level of intra-SAARC trade and financial flows. SAARC members
have signed instruments on terrorism, but effective
cooperation in counter-terrorism remains elusive, due to
political problems. Meanwhile, terrorism continues to strike
at many countries and take a heavy toll. Pakistan in
particular will need to act firmly, in order to protect its
own state and people from chaos and destruction.
Despite these problems, the SAARC Club has membership seekers.
Myanmar applied for membership in 2008, presenting delicate
issues of democracy and human rights. However, inclusion of
Myanmar would strengthen SAARC, and it has at least as good
credentials for membership as Afghanistan, the latest member
to be admitted. Its inclusion could help in normalising its
internal situation. Iran, China, and Indonesia have also shown
interest in SAARC.
Environment and climate change have recently emerged as a key
area of concern given the impact of climate change on the
fragile ecology of several countries. Rise in sea levels
directly threatens countries such as Maldives and Bangladesh.
Increase in frequency and intensity of extreme weather events
such as cyclones, floods, and droughts threatens India, Sri
Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Changes in mountain ecology
threaten Bhutan, Nepal, and Afghanistan.
Subjects such as democracy, free media, independent judiciary,
quality of governance, and corruption are subjects for
cooperation among SAARC members if the necessary political
will can be summoned. Civil society should pressurise
governments to cooperate in these areas. The task ahead is
enormous, and the small SAARC Secretariat can only play a
catalytic role in fostering cooperation, which must ultimately
be driven by strong SAARC-wide networks of collaborating
institutions.
Dr Bhaskar Balakrishnan is a former Indian ambassador to
Cuba and also served as India's representative at ILO in
Geneva.
Change in
Lib-Dem stance
Lib Dem
officials confirmed that Clegg was singling out Brown as
the man the country would not tolerate if Labour dropped
to third in share of the vote.
Patrick Wintour
Nick
Clegg has hurriedly revised the Liberal Democrat
post-election negotiating position by insisting that he
had not ruled out a possible deal with Labour in a hung
parliament. However, he said that if Labour came third in
share of the vote - with polls suggesting that is a
distinct possibility - he did not believe that Gordon
Brown could remain as prime minister.
His clarification marks a shift from the weekend when he
appeared to suggest Labour would have forfeited the right
to govern if it came third on May 6. His remarks had
alarmed some on the progressive Left who argued that he
was in danger of reducing the anti-Tory tactical vote.
Labour and the Conservatives condemned Clegg on the issue
on Monday. One cabinet minister said he was over-reaching
himself and had become intoxicated with his own publicity,
and the Tories said he was holding the country to ransom
with his demands for electoral reform.
Clegg, however, has not been deterred from trying to set
out the Lib Dem stance. He said: "I think, if Labour do
come third in terms of the number of votes cast, then
people would find it inexplicable that Gordon Brown
himself could carry on as prime minister. As for who I'd
work with, I've been very clear - much clearer than David
Cameron and Gordon Brown - that I will work with anyone. I
will work with a man from the moon, I don't care, with
anyone who can deliver the greater fairness that I think
people want."
Asked if he could work with the "man from the moon but not
Gordon Brown", he said: "I just don't think the British
people would accept that he could carry on as prime
minister, which is what the convention of old politics
dictates when, or rather if, he were to lose the election
in such spectacular style."
Lib Dem officials confirmed that Clegg was singling out
Brown as the man the country would not tolerate if Labour
dropped to third in share of the vote.
Clegg's new formula raises the problem of how Labour could
replace Brown, as well as the prospect of Labour having a
second prime minister who has not won a mandate at a
general election. Of likely successors, Alan Johnson, Ed
Balls and David Miliband could all lay claim to take over
from Brown.
Three days before the final TV debate, Monday's polls
showed there had been no crumbling of Lib Dem support,
which surged after the first broadcast. A Guardian/ICM
poll put the Tories on 33 per cent, the Lib Dems on 30 per
cent and Labour on 28 per cent - the same as a week ago. A
ComRes poll for ITN showed the Tories on 32 per cent, down
two, the Lib Dems on 31, up two, and Labour on 28,
unchanged. Both polls suggest Labour could end up with
more seats than either of the other two parties.
On Monday, the campaign was again dominated by speculation
over a hung parliament, with David Cameron claiming that
Clegg was trying to hold the country to ransom by
demanding electoral reform as a precondition for a
coalition government. He reiterated that he was opposed to
such a reform but without absolutely ruling out a
referendum on the issue. It is possible Cameron could
still offer Clegg a referendum on compromise reforms -
somewhere between the status quo and the preferred Lib Dem
option of the single transferable vote.
Perils of Iraq standoff
Regionally, there is a dire need for a stable Iraq. But
regardless of the final outcome of March's elections, it
now appears that a sectarian-based formula will simply not
do.
Osama Al Sharif
Iraq
is tailspinning into a bottomless pit of terrorism,
sectarian violence and political disarray. Since the March
7 elections, the government has become dysfunctional while
the country's various political parties and alliances
continue to engage in futile bargaining that has prevented
any of them from clinching the required majority to end
the impasse.
For some, the fate of Iraq's next government will not be
decided in Baghdad, but in neighboring capitals, in
addition to Washington, where each has considerable
influence on parties, sects and major players. But in
reality, only Iraqis can decide their own future. No one
expected the elections to end the squabbling among
different power players, but few believed they would
trigger so much discord and violence, especially after
early positive signs from all those involved.
Iyad Allawi's Iraqiya List, a coalition comprised of
moderate Sunni and Shiite parties and personalities, won
the elections with 91 seats to its name in the 325-seat
Parliament. The incumbent prime minister's State of Law
List came in second with 89 seats. But Nuri Al-Maliki's
group has contested the results and the method by which
the next government will be formed. It is now waiting for
the results of a manual recount of Baghdad votes, which
could exacerbate the crisis.
While overwhelmingly Shiite backed, Al-Maliki needs the
endorsement of the main Kurdish coalition, and at least
one of two other leading Shiite parties to ensure a
majority.
So far his efforts to bring in Ammar Al-Hakim's Supreme
Islamic Iraqi Council to his side have all but failed.
Moqtada Sadr, whose radical anti-American movement was
crushed by Al-Maliki's government much earlier, but did
well in the elections, is too obdurate, and unpredictable,
to handle. Both Al-Hakim and Sadr are part of the Iraq
National Alliance, which came in third, but even that
alliance appears shaky.
Allawi's chances of hammering together a coalition of his
own don't look any better either, and wooing in the Kurds
or Al-Hakim will prove to be a tall order.
The Americans, meanwhile, cannot but worry. Their plans to
redeploy and begin troop withdrawal this summer could
suffer badly if Iraqis fail to agree and the cycle of
violence gets out of control. They now hope that both Al-Maliki
and Allawi will agree to share power and save the country
from falling apart. The two leaders are planning to meet
soon in the hope of putting together an all inclusive
Iraqi national salvation coalition. Both have a lot to
lose, as well as gain, from the experiment.
The jockeying for power continues, but in the meantime
sectarian tensions are rising. In the past few days a
series of deadly anti-Shiite attacks, presumably
orchestrated by Al-Qaeda, have claimed hundreds of lives.
Sadr has asked the government to intervene, or allow
Shiites to protect themselves. He had manned a militia
before that was responsible for much of Iraq's sectarian
violence.
Also Al-Maliki himself received a blow when Western media
reports uncovered the presence of secret prisons, directly
associated with his office, where hundreds are routinely
subjected to torture and worse! On the other hand, he
tried to soften its impact by claiming responsibility for
liquidating two leading Al-Qaeda operatives; an important
achievement but hardly a death blow to the terrorist
organization.
Finding a way out of the current deadlock will not be
easy. Every side wants a share of the pie. The Kurds want
to keep the presidency, while the Shiites are divided over
Al-Maliki's bid for a second term as premier. Allawi's
alliance with the Sunnis has distanced him from the likes
of Al-Hakim, but the West, and the Arabs, would like to
see him succeed. Tehran, on the other hand, is hoping to
use the Iraq card in its own prolonged match with
Washington over the fate of its nuclear program.
Regionally, there is a dire need for a stable Iraq. But
regardless of the final outcome of March's elections, it
now appears that a sectarian-based formula will simply not
do. Allawi and Al-Maliki possess an opportunity to strike
a deal and chart a new course for Iraq. There will be
opponents who will defend their narrow interests, but they
will have to be persuaded to join the new process, or face
consequences. Such a course requires guts and
far-sightedness; two traits that both men need to summon
now.
Osama Al Sharif is a veteran journalist and political
commentator based in Amman.
International
Leaders of India,
Pakistan to hold talks Thursday
AP, Thimphu, Bhutan
The prime ministers of India and Pakistan will talk on the
sidelines of a regional meeting Thursday, an Indian
official said, indicating a possible thaw in relations
between the South Asian nuclear rivals.
Peace talks between India and Pakistan were stalled after
a terror attack on Mumbai, India's financial hub, in 2008
in which 166 people were killed. New Delhi blamed the
attacks on Pakistan-based militants.
Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash
said Wednesday the nations "agreed through diplomatic
channels" that their leaders would meet in Thimphu, the
Bhutanese capital where both are attending a summit of
leaders of eight South Asian countries. India and Pakistan
have been under pressure to resume dialogue despite New
Delhi's continued insistence that Pakistan has not done
enough to rein in Muslim extremists.
Foreign secretaries of the two nations held a brief round
of talks in February, but India says Pakistan has to bring
militants responsible for the Mumbai attacks to justice
before New Delhi agrees to a resumption of a full-fledged
dialogue.
Since independence from Britain in 1947, nuclear-armed
rivals India and Pakistan have fought three wars, two of
them over the Himalayan province of Kashmir, which both
claim in its entirety.
The February meeting after a void of 15 months was a
significant diplomatic achievement - even if it came in
the wake of months of pressure from Washington, which is
eager to see Pakistan shift resources away from the Indian
border and toward supporting the U.S. in its fight against
the Taliban and al-Qaida. Pakistan has called for the
resumption of comprehensive peace talks, but India has
demanded it crack down on militants first, especially
Hafiz Saeed, whom India accuses of orchestrating the
Mumbai siege.
India says Pakistan must do more to dismantle terror
networks and has given Islamabad dossiers on those linked
to the Mumbai attacks. Pakistan is trying seven men on
charges they planned and carried out the Mumbai attacks,
but the militant network blamed for the assault continues
to operate relatively freely in the country. India
announced Wednesday the arrest of a diplomat in the Indian
embassy in Islamabad on charges of spying and passing
information to Pakistani intelligence agencies. No further
information was given on the charges.
Pak Supreme Court scraps GDF Suez LNG
deal
Reuters, Islamabad
Pakistan Supreme Court scrapped on Wednesday a government
deal to buy natural gas from a French energy company over
suspected irregularities, a move which could encourage
investment in the troubled power industry.
The Supreme Court said the petroleum ministry had not
taken awarding procedures seriously, and a decision by the
government's economic decision-making body in February to
award the contract to France's GDF Suez "shall be of no
consequence".
The Supreme Court took up the case after media reports
that Pakistan had lost $1 billion when senior Petroleum
Ministry officials ignored the lowest bid by the Fauji
Foundation, an investment group run by former Pakistani
military officers, and European company Vitol, and chose
France's GDF Suez.
"This case has been disposed of with the hope that the
matter will be handled more transparently," Supreme Court
Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry told the court.
The petroleum ministry said in a letter to the Supreme
Court it would re-submit a proposal made by Fauji and
Vitol in July 2009 for the project to import 3.5 million
tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) a year, a deal
estimated at $28 billion that has focused attention on
transparency in Pakistan.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Supreme Court on Wednesday set aside
the promotion of 54 federal secretaries. These
appointments were made by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza
Gilani.
On September 4, 2009, Prime Minister Gilani had ordered
the reshuffling of 54 officials superseding the positions
of 173 officers awaiting promotions.
This action was termed as a violation of Articles 4 and 25
of the constitution.
After the promotions of these federal secretaries from
Grade 21 to 22, some of the officers awaiting promotions
approached the Supreme Court in this regard.
Pak-China relations to
strengthen further
Reuters, Thimpu
China's Vice Foreign Minister, Wang Guangya, said China
supports Pakistan's efforts aimed at creating normal and
peaceful relations with India.
He said it was incumbent upon the international community
to stand by Pakistan and extend full support to the
Pakistani government in its counterterrorism strategy.
During a meeting held on the sidelines of the 16th SAARC
Summit at Thimphu, Pakistan and China agreed on the joint
celebration of the 60th anniversary of Sino-Pak relations
next year.
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said the exchange of
high level visits between the two countries being planned
this year would give further momentum to this upward
bilateral trajectory.
Qureshi maintained that to enhance people-to-people
contact, it was necessary that more opportunities were
created for the youth of the two countries especially in
the education sector.
He added that Pakistan could benefit from China's
tremendous achievements in its education system and it
would be useful if more students could get higher
education in China either on scholarship or on self
finance basis.
Musharraf to form political
party: aide
Dawn Online, Islamabad
Pakistan's former military ruler Pervez Musharraf is
planning to launch a political party in a comeback bid two
years after he was unseated in elections, officials said
Wednesday.
Musharraf, who has been abroad since ending his nine-year
stint in power, could face a criminal trial if he returns
home and he is wanted for questioning by the government
over the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto.
An aide and election official confirmed to AFP that the
retired general had applied to register a new political
party with the electoral authorities in the Pakistani
capital Islamabad.
Mohammad Ali Saif, a former cabinet minister and now a
legal adviser to Musharraf, said election authorities
would hear the application on May 10.
"I have formally applied for a new political party called
All Pakistan Muslim League. Pervez Musharraf is the head
of this party and we will formally announce it after
getting registered," he told AFP.
Saif, an unofficial spokesman for Musharraf, is active in
organising the new political party and said the former
president had told him in London that he intended to
return to Pakistan and fight a criminal case.
Pakistan police registered a case against Musharraf last
August, a precursor to potentially putting the
ex-president on trial for detaining judges in 2007 as he
attempted to cling onto power.
Afghans mark anniversary of
victory over Soviets
AP, Kabul
Afghan leaders marked the 18th anniversary of a
Soviet-installed regime's collapse on Wednesday with a
military parade and a call to militants to join the
current government vying for power against the Taliban
insurgency.
Afghan security forces marched in formation before a
reviewing stand crowded with top government officials.
Noticeably absent were President Hamid Karzai, who was
attending a summit in Bhutan, and top mujahedeen
commanders who led the country to victory in the late
1980s. It was unclear why they did not attend. Militants
tried to assassinate Karzai at celebrations in 2008.
"We have come here to celebrate the victims of the jihad
and also to remember those bloody years and how the nation
stood and gained this victory, without strong weapons of
the developed world, against a strong superpower," Vice
President Mohammad Qasim Fahim said in the keynote address
inside the heavily secured sport stadium.
Fahim spoke about the country's efforts to bolster the
Afghan police and army forces and fight government
corruption, but he talked mostly about national unity.
"The only way to come out from the current situation is to
believe and create a unity that cannot be infiltrated and
a political situation where everybody speaks with the same
voice," Fahim said.
He concluded by expressing hope that the upcoming peace
conference, or jirga, late next month will successfully
reach a national consensus for reconciling with the
Taliban.
Abdullah Abdullah, a former foreign minister who ran
against Karzai in the last presidential election, said he
was heartened to see the Afghan security forces parading
in fresh uniforms. More than a dozen Afghan helicopters
and planes flew low over the stadium during the ceremony.
Detainee bombs Myanmar
police station, kills self
AP, Yangon, Myanmar
A man detained at a police station Wednesday in eastern
Myanmar detonated a bomb, killing himself and wounding at
least four policeman in the latest in series of blasts
apparently linked to political discontent.
A security official said Wednesday the man had been taken
to a police station in Demawso, in Kayah State, 200 miles
(320 kilometers) northeast of Yangon, for interrogation.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because
he is not authorized to speak to the media, said the man
set off a bomb, but was unable to provide further details.
It was not clear why the man had been detained.
The explosion was the seventh known bombing in recent
weeks in military-ruled Myanmar. The attacks come as the
ruling junta prepares for a general election that its
opponents have called unfair and undemocratic.
Bombings are rare but not unknown in Myanmar, though the
latest attacks appeared aimed at higher profile targets
than earlier ones. The country has a long history of
internal conflict, especially between the central
government and ethnic minorities in border areas seeking
greater autonomy. But there is also opposition to the
ruling junta among the public at large.
The highest profile explosions occurred on April 15 in
Yangon, the country's biggest city, when three bombs
killed ten people and wounded 170 others during the
traditional water festival. Two days later, 10 mines
exploded and several more were found undetonated at a
controversial hydropower dam project site in northern
Myanmar's Kachin state. They wounded one person and caused
damage to several buildings and six vehicles.
US unlikely to openly
criticise Sino-Pak nuke trade
Internet
China is all set to export two nuclear power plants to
Pakistan in violation of the guidelines of the Nuclear
Suppliers Group that require NPT signatory states to
supply such equipment only with comprehensive IAEA
safeguards, a US think tank has said.
But the Obama Administration is unlikely to openly
criticise such a deal, given its overwhelming dependence
on Islamabad for its Afghan operations even though it
might object to it inside the NSG, the Carnegie Endowment
for International Peace said in its report released today.
"Contrary to guidelines adopted in 1992 by nuclear
equipment supplier states in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty (NPT), China is poised to export two power reactors
to Pakistan.
"This transaction is about to happen at a time when
China's increasingly ambitious nuclear energy programme is
becoming more autonomous," said the report authored by
Mark Hibbs, a senior associate in the Nuclear Policy
Programme.
Guidelines of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG),
representing 46 NPT states, call on parties to the NPT not
to supply nuclear equipment to nonnuclear-weapon states,
including Pakistan, without comprehensive IAEA safeguards.
The United States and other NSG states may object to the
pending transaction but they cannot prevent China, which
joined the NSG in 2004, from exporting the reactors.
"Senior officials in NSG states friendly to the United
States said this month they expect that President Barack
Obama will not openly criticise the Chinese export because
Washington, in the context of a bilateral security
dialogue with Islamabad, may be sensitive to Pakistan's
desire for civilian nuclear cooperation in the wake of the
sweeping US India nuclear deal which entered into force in
2008 after considerable arm-twisting of NSG states by the
United States, France, and Russia," it said.
West
uses UN to promote illicit affairs: Ahmadinejad’s wife
AFP, Tehran
The wife of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has
accused Western countries of using the United Nations to
promote illicit affairs, the official IRNA news agency
reported Wednesday.
"Westerners exploit the United Nations structure to
promote illicit affairs," Azam-ol-Sadat Farahi told a
conference of Muslim women thinkers on Tuesday without
elaborating. "The family, which is the main pillar of
every society, has collapsed in the West and they are
seeking to extend their problem to the Islamic world by
spreading decadent schemes," she said. "Westerners pursue
their improper schemes under the name of development and
(alleviating) social discrimination," she added.
Iran hardliners are fierce critics of Western culture and
feminism, and since Ahmadinejad came to power in 2005 his
government has sought to encourage women to stick to the
traditional roles as mothers and wives.
Iran has refused to join the convention on the Elimination
of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, despite
attempts by a reformist parliament during its 2000 to 2004
mandate. Conservatives find the treaty at odds with
Islamic law and teachings. Under Iran's Sharia-based law a
woman's blood money, testimony and inheritance are half of
a man's and women suffer inequalities in marriage, divorce
and child custody.
Women rights activists campaigning for equal status with
men in Iran have faced pressure and intimidation in recent
years and several have landed in jail over calling for
changes to the law.
Sarkozy and Hu bury hatchet
in Beijing talks
AFP, Beijing
France and China on Wednesday pledged to draw a line under
past tensions over Tibet and breathe new life into their
relationship by working together on issues from Iran to
global monetary policy.
President Nicolas Sarkozy and his host Hu Jintao made the
comments following talks in Beijing that signalled they
had moved past the Tibet row, which peaked when Sarkozy
met the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, in
2008. In a joint appearance before the media after their
meeting, Hu said Sarkozy's second state visit to China had
"opened a new page" in their relations. "We should hold
close consultations and strengthen political coordination
on the reform of the international monetary system",
climate change and other major issues, state television
quoted Hu saying in their closed-door talks. The French
leader told journalists the pair had held "in-depth
discussions about the Iranian crisis and the G20" and also
said the two sides would work together on global monetary
reform.
The West has sought Chinese support for tough action on
Tehran over its nuclear programme, which some suspect is a
cover to develop atomic weapons, and the issue was
expected to be high on Sarkozy's agenda.
Beijing has been reluctant to punish Iran, a major trading
partner and source of oil, but US Vice President Joe Biden
said last week China would back new sanctions, predicting
they could be agreed within days. Sarkozy pledged France
would work with China-which has sought greater say for
developing countries in world financial affairs-for a new
multipolar system when it assumes the rotating leadership
of the G20 from November.
Russia posts Katyn massacre
documents on Internet
AP, Moscow
Russia's state archives posted documents Wednesday for the
first time on the Internet about the Soviet Union's World
War II massacre of more than 20,000 Polish officers and
other prominent citizens.
The step was a gesture to Poland in a case that looms
large in Polish history and has soured relations between
the two countries for decades.
President Dmitry Medvedev ordered the documents posted on
the archives' website, reflecting a new willingness in
Russia to accept responsibility for the killings at Katyn
and elsewhere in 1940.
Relations between Russia and Poland have warmed following
the tragic April 10 plane crash that killed Polish
President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and 94 others on a
flight to visit the Katyn forest in western Russia for a
memorial ceremony on the 70th anniversary of the massacre.
But while Medvedev's order was clearly intended as a
positive gesture, the documents posted Wednesday were made
public long ago and have already been published in Poland
and Russia. Many more documents remain classified, despite
dogged Polish appeals for the archives to be opened.
The documents now on the Internet were made public in 1992
by Boris Yeltsin, Russia's first post-Soviet leader. They
include a March 1940 letter by Lavrenty Beria, head of the
secret police, recommending the execution of the Polish
prisoners of war. The letter bears the signatures of
Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and three other members of
the Politburo.
The documents also include the minutes of a Politburo
meeting on March 5, 1940, and a note from the head of the
Soviet secret police in 1959 informing Soviet leader
Nikita Khrushchev that the Katyn files had been destroyed.
Hezbollah slams Gates’
remarks over weapons
AP, Beirut
A Hezbollah official on Wednesday slammed comments by the
U.S. defense secretary accusing the militant group of
having more weapons than most governments in the world,
and pledged to continue arming.
Lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said Hezbollah's weapons and
those of the U.S. and its ally Israel are not to be
compared.
His remarks, which were published by the Lebanese daily
As-Safir, came in response to statements made by Defense
Secretary Robert Gates accusing Syria and Iran of
supplying Hezbollah with increasingly sophisticated
weaponry.
"We are at a point now where Hezbollah has far more
rockets and missiles than most governments in the world,"
Gates said Tuesday in Washington after a meeting with the
Israeli Defense Minister, Ehud Barak.
Israel has accused Syria of providing Hezbollah with Scud
missiles, which have a greater range and can carry a much
bigger warhead than the rockets Hezbollah fired at Israel
in the past. Syria has denied the allegations, as has
Lebanon's Western-backed prime minister.
"Our choice was and still is to secure all the arms of
resistance that we can," Fadlallah said. "There is a great
difference between weapons that only serve invasions,
occupations and aggressions, such as those of the United
States and its ally Israel ... and weapons of an honorable
resistance that liberates, protects, and defends."
The reports prompted the Obama administration to say last
week that it has repeatedly warned Syria that transferring
ballistic missiles to Hezbollah could spark a new war in
the Middle East.
Obama's homeland security and counterterrorism adviser,
John Brennan, expressed concern over reports of weapons
smuggling to Hezbollah through Syria, calling the alleged
arms transfers a "threat to the stability and security of
Lebanon and the region."
Brennan, who met with Lebanese officials Tuesday as part
of a visit to several countries in the region, said the
only legitimate weapons in the country are those held by
the Lebanese state.
Torture routine in secret
Iraq jail: Rights group
AP, Baghdad
Iraqi men held for months at a secret prison outside
Baghdad were systematically tortured and forced to sign
confession statements that in at least some cases they
were forbidden to read, according to a new report by a
leading human rights group released early Wednesday.
Some of the detainees were beaten by Iraqi guards so badly
they lost teeth and urinated blood for days afterward,
said the report by New York-based Human Rights Watch.
Others were raped, given electric shocks applied to their
penises and deprived of air, the report also said.
The Iraqi government quickly shut down the prison after
the torture was revealed last week, and either released or
transferred its 431 detainees to another facility. The
government also vowed to investigate the abuses, and so
far, three army officers have been arrested in connection
with the case.
The reports of horrific beatings and torture at the
Defense Ministry-run secret facility at the old Muthanna
airport in west Baghdad has angered the country's Sunni
population who see it as another example of persecution at
the hands of Iraq's Shiite-led government. It also shocked
many Iraqi and U.S. officials, harkening back to images of
the abuses of Iraqis by U.S. guards at the Abu Ghraib
prison that inflamed insurgents and tarnished America's
image worldwide.
No Americans were involved in the secret prison, part of a
row of barracks on an Iraqi army base at the Al-Muthanna
airport.
US will never waver in
pursuit of Palestinian state: Obama
Agency, Washington
"So long as I am president, the United States will never
waver in pursuit of a two-state solution that ensures the
rights of both Israelis and Palestinians," declared Barack
Obama, ignoring warnings that such pronouncements could
annoy the powerful Israeli lobby in North America.
n his address to Muslim entrepreneurs in Washington on
Monday evening, Mr Obama also highlighted America's
partnership with Pakistan and Afghanistan for combating
terrorists.
The US president, who visited Pakistan as a student, made
three references to that country in his brief speech,
underlining the importance his administration attaches to
Islamabad in its plans for defeating violent extremists.
But the issue that caught everybody's attention and made
headlines across the United States and beyond was his
decision to press for seeking a solution to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In doing so, he ignored a warning by Israel's Deputy
Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, who said that it would be a
"grave mistake" for America to present its own Middle East
peace plan, an idea that the US president indicated his
administration was considering.
The New York Times noted that Mr Obama's comments on
Middle East peace were "noteworthy because they come as
the administration is embroiled in a dispute with the
Israeli government over construction of Jewish settlements
in East Jerusalem, which Palestinians want as the capital
of a future Palestinian state".
Brown calls voter ‘bigoted’
in campaign gaffe
AFP, London
Prime Minister Gordon Brown was caught out calling a voter
a "bigoted woman" Wednesday, in an embarrassing gaffe on
the campaign trail barely a week before the general
election.
Brown apologised a short time later, but the incident
risks clouding the poll race ahead of next Thursday's
election.
The Labour party leader was meeting voters in Rochdale,
northwest England, when he encountered an elderly widow
and had a discussion with her about the size of the
national debt, tax and immigration.
Immediately after the conversation, Brown got into his car
and was driven away but was still wearing a microphone,
allowing broadcasters to pick up a discussion he had with
an aide about the encounter.
"That was a disaster," Brown said. "Should never have put
me with that woman-whose idea was that?" He added: "She
was just a sort of bigoted woman."
The woman, Gillian Duffy, told reporters that she wanted
an apology from Brown over his "very upsetting" comments.
"I'm very disappointed," said Duffy, who described herself
as a lifelong supporter of Brown's Labour party. "He's an
educated person, why is he coming out with words like
that?" Asked whether she wanted to see Brown get back in
Downing Street after what he said to her, she added: "I'm
not bothered whether he does or not now."
Brown later said sorry, telling BBC radio: "I apologise
profusely to the lady concerned. I don't think she is
that". His Labour party is currently third in most opinion
polls, behind the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.
A Times/Populus poll published Thursday put the
Conservatives on 36 percent, the Liberal Democrats on 28
percent and Labour on 27 percent. The Conservatives were
quick to condemn the remarks.
Shadow Chancellor George Osborne, told Sky News
television: "We have found out the prime minister's
internal thoughts ... and I think they speak for
themselves and the prime minister has got a lot of
explaining to do."
Business/Economy
Hasina
urges Rajapaksa to boost Sri Lankan investment in BD
UNB, Thimpu
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday requested Sri
Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to encourage his
country's investors to invest in Bangladesh's RMG,
plastic, house building and CI sheet sectors.
Bangladesh provides various facilities for the foreign
investors, Hasina said while making the appeal when she
called on Rajapaksa at Sri Lanka House in SAARC Village.
The Prime Minister urged the Sri Lankan President to
import ceramic, pharmaceuticals and cement from
Bangladesh, saying these are world class products. "These
products are of world standard and the qualities are very
high. You can import these items from Bangladesh as you
are already importing these items from other sources," she
said.
Hasina said this is the golden chance for all SAARC member
countries to establish democracy on a strong footing, as
democracy is prevailing in all SAARC member countries.
"We've to establish the democracy on a strong base, this
is the golden chance and we've to utilize the
opportunity." She said it was not possible for any country
in the world to develop properly without having democracy.
The Prime Minister underscored the need of continuous
democratic process in all SAARC member countries, saying
that democracy have to be given a strong base.
She also said that the democratic institutions would have
to be provided with strong base so these could function
properly and smoothly.
For this, she said, the 16th SAARC summit is very
important for all SAARC members. Hasina also put emphasis
on working together to eradicate poverty from this region
and cooperating with each other for development in
socio-economic area.
She said that cooperation with each other is very much
important to ensure a peaceful atmosphere in the region.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa praised Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina's idea of introducing photo in the
voter ID cards in Bangladesh. Such inclusion of photo in
voter ID cards is very much useful for free, fair and
acceptable elections, he said.
Press Secretary to the Prime Minister Abul Kalam Azad, who
was present during the meeting, later briefed the
reporters with PM's Deputy Press Secretary Mahbubul Alam
Shakil present.
Foreign Minister Dr Dipu Moni, Ambassador at-Large M
Ziauddin and Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister MA
Karim were, among others, present when the Prime Minister
called on the Sri Lankan President.
US
to double climate fund for Bangladesh
BSS, Dhaka
The US is going to more than double its financial
assistance in the coming fiscal year to help Bangladesh
addresses challenges of climate change.
United States Climate Envoy Ambassador Todd Stern stated
this when he met with Bangladesh Speaker Abdul Hamid
Advocate, MP and accompanying delegation in the State
Department Tuesday.
Ambassador Todd Stern appreciated Bangladesh Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina for her leadership in the
Copenhagen Summit (COP15) and stated that without
leadership like that of Prime Minister Hasina, COP-15
wouldn't have eventually turned out positive.
Speaker Abdul Hamid thanked Ambassador Stern for their
continued support and hoped that the US will work with
other donor countries, as well, to channel more resources
through multilateral forum.
Ambassador Stern added that projected assistance of US 14
million in the coming financial year is in addition to
what they are planning to channel to Bangladesh through
multilateral channels, according to a message received
here Wednesday.
The United States allocated US$ 6.00 million in the
current financial year for Bangladesh.
Saber Hossain Chowdhury, MP, who is also Chairman of
Committee on Climate and Environment of All Party
Parliamentary Group (AAPG), elaborated on elements of
Bangladesh's strategy to face challenges of climate change
and showed how Bangladesh is way ahead in terms of
mitigation and adaptation practices.
Chowdhury also emphasized the need to broader
international support structure to make more resources
available to countries like Bangladesh.
Ambassador Stern assured that they are aware of
Bangladesh's exemplary works in facing the challenges of
climate change and accordingly, the US is also working
with other partner countries to help Bangladesh in its
preparedness to face the challenges of climate change. The
meeting was also attended by Amba-ssador to USA , Akramul
Qader, Abdul Momin Talukder, MP, Reza Ali, MP. Ishrafil
Alam, MP, Shampad Barua, Ps to Speaker and Shishir Shill,
Secretary General of AAPG.
Nepal seeks permission to use Mongla, Ctg ports
UNB, Thimpu
Nepalese Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal on Wednesday
requested Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to allow
his country use Mongla and Chittagong ports.
He made the request when he called on Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina at Bangladesh House in SAARC village.
In reply, Hasina said that she had already talked to
Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on the issue
during her India visit in January this year.
She said that Nepal, with huge potential of producing
hydro-power, could benefit through exporting electricity
to Bangladesh.
During the meeting, the issue of regional connectivity
featured prominently in the discussion.
The two prime ministers also discussed various issues of
bilateral interests, including expansion of trade and
business between the two countries.
Press Secretary to the Prime Minister Abul Kalam Azad, who
was present at the meeting, later briefed the reporters.
Foreign Minister Dr Dipu Moni, State Minister for
Environment and Forests, Ambassador at-Large M Ziauddin
and Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister M A Karim
were also present during the meeting.
Greek downgrade sends shockwaves through Asia
AFP, Tokyo
Stocks plunged and the euro hovered at one-year lows
against the dollar in Asia Wednesday after the downgrade
of Greek and Portuguese debt by a major ratings agency
sent shockwaves through markets. Asian bourses followed
Europe and Wall Street in a sell-off as Greece scrambled
to secure desperately needed emergency loans to avoid a
debt default after ratings agency Standard & Poor's
condemned it to "junk" status.
"It was always just going to be a matter of time before
Greece got further downgrades," Koon Goh, senior economist
at ANZ Bank in Wellington told Dow Jones Newswires. "But
the aggressive move by S&P took the market by surprise".
While the euro regained some ground in Asia after being
hammered overnight, it remained stricken by growing fears
of eurozone contagion after Portugal also saw its rating
slashed by the agency, although it remained at investment
grade. "The spotlight will also start to turn more on
other highly indebted countries in the eurozone, and
investors will increasingly demand higher risk premiums
for government debt," Goh said. Hong Kong slumped 1.26
percent by the break and Singapore was down 1.41 percent.
Tokyo dived 2.57 percent, or 287.87 points, to close at
10,924.79, with exporters hit by the yen's relative
strength against the ailing euro.
Sydney lost 1.17 percent, or 57.2 points, to 4,822.8.
In New York Tuesday, the euro fell below 1.32 dollars for
the first time since April 28 last year, after Greece's
debt rating downgrade reflected the increasingly high risk
of it defaulting as its borrowing costs soared.
The euro recovered to 1.3202 dollars in Tokyo afternoon
trade from 1.3172 dollars in New York late Tuesday, after
plunging to 1.3162 dollars at one point.
Greece is scrambling to meet a May 19 deadline to pay back
nine billion euros (12 billion dollars) in debts as its
borrowing costs soar.
With the clock ticking, EU president Herman Van Rompuy
said in Tokyo that a summit of the leaders of Greece's 15
eurozone partners would be held "around" May 10 to agree
on 30 billion euros of rescue loans for Greece.
"Heads of state and governments will decide to activate
the financing of the joint programme under negotiations
now between the European commission, the ECB and the IMF
and the Greek government. "There is no question about
restructuring of the debt." His comments came after Greece
slammed Europe for dragging its feet over an aid package
and lashed out at the downgrade, which means investors
such as pension funds will no longer be allowed to buy the
eurozone nation's bonds. The move "does not correspond
with the real data," it said.
Earlier, world markets plunged on the downgrade with US
shares down 1.90 percent. The London stock market sank
2.61 percent, Frankfurt's DAX fell 2.73 percent and the
CAC 40 in Paris plunged 3.82 percent.
Global airline recovery to suffer from volcano
chaos
AFP, Geneva
European airlines are likely to be hit the hardest by a
dip in the recovery for global air travel caused by the
Iceland volcanic ash shutdown, IATA warned on Wednesday.
Latest International Air Transport Association data showed
that passenger traffic rose 10.3 percent in March, while
air freight grew 28.1 percent year-on-year as the recovery
from the economic crisis accelerated.
But European carriers lagged behind the global average
with just six percent growth in March.
"The strong traffic recovery is expected to show a dip in
April as a result of the eruption of an Icelandic volcano
... that saw the shutdown of large portions of European
airspace over a six-day period," IATA said.
IATA Director General Giovanni Bisignani predicted that
European carriers would suffer the most from the travel
chaos, despite an expected swift rebound.
"European carriers were already showing the weakest
recovery from the (global) financial crisis through March.
The volcanic ash crisis hit the weakest part of the
industry the hardest," he said in a statement.
"The majority of the 1.7 billion dollars in lost revenues
was by Europe's carriers.
"The combined impact of lost business and added costs will
certainly hit the bottom line. Passenger confidence is not
affected and we expect a quick rebound," he added.
Overall, the recovery in international air traffic
accelerated last month, led by year-on-year growth in the
Middle East of 25.9 percent, with Asia on 12.6 percent and
North America 7.8 percent.
IATA cautioned that although the gains were strong, the
data was being compared to March 2009, which was the low
point for international air travel during the recession.
IATA estimates that passenger and air cargo markets are
still one percent below their early 2008 peaks, while the
industry has lost two years of growth due to the financial
and economic crisis.
US businesses keen to invest in Bangladesh
UNB, Dhaka
US businesses are keen to invest in Bangladesh, Former
Secretary of State and Chairwoman of Albright Stonebridge
Group, said this when she received Bangladesh Speaker and
accompanying delegation in a roundtable in Washington DC
on Tuesday.
Secretary Madeleine Albright joined business executives
from Chevron, Coca Cola, Asia Society, Albright Capital
and expressed her satisfaction at the current state of
Affairs in Bangladesh, said a message received here
Wednesday.
In an interactive question and Answer moderated by
Ambassador Wendy Sherman, Vice chair of Albright
Stonebridge Group, the Bangladesh delegation respond to
their queries on Bangladesh. Jack Ganity of Asia Society,
elaborating on his recent visit to Bangladesh, encouraged
US businesses for their investment in Bangladesh.
Speaker Abdul Hamid Advocate assured the US businesses of
his good offices, if required, to facilitate their
investment in Bangladesh.
Raza Ali, MP, narrated on the changes that are being
implemented in the Board of Investment and assured them of
necessary legislative support for more business friendly
environment in Bangladesh in the future.
National
Bumper production of
litchis expected in N-region
BSS, Rangpur
Experts, farmers and businessmen predicted a record
business on the most delicious, juicy and fleshy seasonal
fruits of litchis as its bumper production are expected
despite initial droughts in the northern districts this
season. After massive blooming, prolonged drought-like
situation temporarily hampered growth of the tender fruits
at the initial stage, but the tender litchis started
becoming bigger in sizes and fleshy soon after the recent
rainfalls.
As a result, a bumper production of comparatively bigger
sized litchis is expected in the region including greater
Rangpur and Dinajpur this season, renowned agri-scientist
DR MA Mazid told the national news agency Wednesday.
He said litchi farming has already brought a silent
economic revolution as hundreds of farmers achieved
economic self-reliance through cultivating the most tasty
and lucrative seasonal fruits in recent years in northern
Bangladesh.
Now, the prevailing climatic conditions are quite
favourable for the best growths of the tender litchis and
many of the local varieties have already worn half
ripe-like looks to appear soon in the local markets,
farmers, experts and officials said.
However, harvest of the high yielding and hybrid variety
litchis like Madrazi, Bombay, Bedana, China-3, Golapi,
Mozaffar etc will start little later from the third week
of May due to the initial droughts, they said.
According to officials in the DAE, litchi farming has been
gaining popularity consistently with excellent marketing
facilities in the region though the quality litchis were
being produced mainly in the Barind areas and Dinajpur
even a decade ago.
Presently, hundreds of orchards have been set up and the
commoners cultivated litchis at their homesteads in
Dinajpur, Rangpur, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari,
Thakurgaon, Panchagarh, Joypurhat, Naogaon, Bogra, Pabna
and Sirajganj districts. Agronomist Anarul Haque and
agriculturist Kamal Shariful Alam told BSS that litchi
production would be better side by side with mango in the
region this season as the climatic conditions are now
better for excellent growths of both litchis and mangoes.
They said that more than 95 percent litchi trees bloomed
this season and the tender litchis are now growing better
elsewhere in the region and the fruits might start
arriving in the markets from the next month. Available
statistics of different departments said that there are
about 70 million litchi trees in 7,500 small, medium and
big-sized litchi orchards on over 4,000 hectares and
homesteads in the region to produce plenty of litchis this
season.
The farmers have already given litchis farming a
prospective commercial dimension in Dinajpur, Rangpur,
Thakurgaon, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari, Joypurhat,
Naogaon, Pabna, Sirajganj and many other districts in
recent years.
Many of the growing litchis in the orchards have been sold
to the traders in advance and their appointed people have
been looking after those and the traders have become busy
now for marketing of the fruits that will continue till
end of harvest in June.
A litchi business of about Taka 3,500 crore is expected
this year in greater Rangpur and Dinajpur alone with huge
export prospects of the lovely fruits from the northern
region in near future, the experts, litchi traders and
market sources said.
Govt. working for
building poverty free, self-reliant country: Azad
BSS, Dhaka
Information and Cultural Affairs minister Abul Kalam Azad
Wednesday said the present government is working
relentlessly to build a poverty free and self-reliant
country as dreamt by Father of the Nation Bangabandhu
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
"I request all the non-government organisations to
contribute sincerely to nation building activities from
their respective positions," he said addressing a function
at Bangabandhu International Conference Center here
organised by non-government organisation Destiny-2000
Limited.
With Lt. Gen. (retd) Harun-Ur Rashid, president of Destiny
Group, in the chair, the function was addressed by
company's CEO Ashraful Huq and some young executives.
Managing Director M Rafiqul Ameen was present at the
function.
Destiny organised the function on the occasion of awarding
its four diamond executives, who demonstrated
extra-ordinary performance in their Multi Level Marketing
(MLM) activities.
The information minister said it was not a very easy task
to build a prosperous Bangladesh as the country is
burdened with different problems, including population
boom, limited resources and anti- people politics of the
forces opposing the spirit of war of liberation.
He also put emphasis on the need for imparting training to
the educated and half educated people aimed at bringing
them in the main working stream.
Referring to the MLM system of Destiny-2000 Limited, Azad
said that it was a new process in Bangladesh, but an
effective marketing method in the USA, Canada, UK,
Malaysia and Singapore.
He urged authorities of the company to take initiative for
marketing the domestic goods especially the agro-products
through their executives as the farmers are being deprived
of fair price of their crops due to the middleman.
CDDL takes moves for building
multipurpose vessels
BSS, Dhaka
Chittagong Dry Dock Ltd (CDDL), the lone state-run
dockyard that repairs national and foreign flag vessels,
for the first time plans to build multipurpose container
vessels for national use.
An ECNEC meeting held here recently approved building four
vessels each of 108 TEU (Twenty-Foot Equivalent Unit)
container carrying capacity for Bangladesh Inland Water
Transport Corporation (BIWTC) and out of the four, two
vessels would be built by the CDDL.
To carry forward the ECNEC decision, the BIWTC has sent a
letter of intent to the CDDL to build two vessels. The
CDDL accepted the proposal signaling its desire and
capability for the same.
CDDL Managing Director Engr. Enamul Baqui told BSS that
the CDDL has initiated the work on building inland and
seagoing vessels by making big sections and blocks in it's
covered workshops and open fabrication yards.
Shipbuilding programme for two BIWTC vessels will be
conducted by the existing technical facilities and
manpower at the CDDL workshops, dock and out-fitting ting
jetties.
Engr. Baqui, also a naval architect & chartered engineer,
noted with appreciation of the ECNEC decision terming it
as an epoch-making one in the country's history of
shipbuilding.
Standing crops on charlands go
under floodwater in Gaibandha
BSS, Gaibandha
Standing crops on charlands lying on the Brahmaputra river
bed under three unions of Sadar upazila in the district
went under floodwater due to onrush of hilly water from
the upstream and sudden rise of the water level of the
river in last few days.
Officials said a total of 780 and 65 hectares of charlands
under Kamarjani, Mollarchar and Gidari unions of the
upazila were brought under maize and cown cultivation
respectively during the current season. Of them, maize on
125 hectares of land and cown on 33 hectares of land went
under floodwater in last few days making the growers
frustrated. On Tuesday afternoon, Sadar Upazila Nirbahi
Officer M. Asib Ahsan visited the affected areas of
Kamarjani union of the upazila and instructed the field
level DAE officials to prepare a list of the affected
farmers as early as possible to give them support from the
government. Upazila Agriculture Officer M. Mozaffar Rahman,
sub assistant agriculture officer M. Mokbul Hossain, UP
chairman, political leaders and the local elite including
the journalists were present on the occasion.
Erosion by the river Padma
intensifies
BSS, Faridpur
Erosion of the river Padma has intensified with the rise
of water level during last week affecting about two
kilometers area of Aliabad union of Sadar upazila of this
district.
According to Md Akhtaruzzaman , a Union Parishad member of
Aliabad, about two kms area stretching from Godadhardangi
to Signboard eroded in the river Padma when suddenly the
water level increased by 45 centemetres during last 24
hours.
The present water level in Padma is 5.52 meters while the
danger level is 8.5 meters.
According to the UP member standing ground nut crop
cultivated on about four acres of land have been eroded in
the river and more areas are threatened to be eroded if it
continues. It may be mentioned here that the area is
located in the outskirts of the district town where
erosion is unabated though several protective measures
were taken earlier.
Rickshaw puller social security
program implemented
BSS, Rajshahi
The Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC) has been implementing
a program for uplifting the livelihood of the rickshaw
pullers for the first time in its over 23-year journey.
According to the officials concerned, the three-year
program titled "Social protection and equitable access to
health for Rickshaw pullers in Rajshahi city" is being
implemented for the last couple of months aimed at
sustainable development of them in the fields of primary
healthcare, reproductive health and free from addiction.
German Technical Cooperation (gtz) under its Multi-
disciplinary HIV/AIDS Program has been extending technical
and financial support for implementing the program.
Main thrust of the program is to increase the overall
health status of around 40,000 rickshaw pullers in the
city through development of a sustainable social
protection scheme.
Sports
Ansar & VDP emerge champions of
Women's Club Cup Cricket
UNB, Dhaka
Bangladesh Ansar & VDP team clinched the 2nd Women's Club Cup
Cricket crown dethroning Mohammedan SC with a eight- wicket
victory in the final at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket
Stadium in Mirpur Wednesday.
BCB president AHM Mostafa Kamal MP was the chief guest in the
final and later distributed the prizes.
Put into bat first, Mohammedan SC were bundled out for 107
runs in 36.4 overs with skipper Salma Khatun scoring 27,
opener Papiya Haque 21 and one down Rumana Ahmed 10 runs.
The team highest 28 runs came from extras Mahmuda Khatun and
Tithi Rani Sarker picked up two wickets each for 13 and 22
runs respectively while Sharifa Akhter, Lata Mondal and Panna
Ghosh took one wicket apiece.
In reply, Ansar & VDP, riding on unconquered half century by
opener Ayesha Akhter, easily reached their target of 108 runs
for the loss of two wickets in 35 overs.
Ayesha Akhter contributed uneaten 54 runs off 109 balls with
six boundaries to be adjudged player of the match.
Skipper Panna Ghosh scored not out 25 off 40 balls with three
fours and another opener Lata Mondal added useful 19 runs off
46 balls with two fours.
Papiya Haque and Rumana Ahmed grabbed one wicket each for 18
and 35 runs respectively.
Citycell
Bangladesh League
Farashganj snatch point from Mohammedan SC in a 2-2 draw
UNB, Dhaka
Mohammedan SC lost valuable points in the Citycell Bangladesh
League when they were forced to a 2-2 draw by minnows
Farashganj SC in the day's lone match at the Bangabandhu
National Stadium (BNS) here on Wednesday.
With this draw, Mohammedan SC secured 49 points, seven points
behind league leaders Abahani Limited (M-19, P-56) while
Farashganj SC bagged 17 points, both playing 19 matches.
In the day's match, Mamun Mia put the black & white Mohammedan
SC ahead in the 43rd minute (1-0) while Nigerian striker Alamu
Bukola Olalekin doubled the team margin in the 58th minute
(2-0).
Nigerian striker Kalu Johnson brought Farashganj back in the
match scoring two goals in just four minutes - a field goal in
the 78th minute and the 2nd goal from penalty in the 82nd
minute - to force the draw much to despair of Mohammedan fans
in the big bowl.
Wednesday's matches: Chittagong Mohammedan SC vs Sheikh
Russell KC (MA Aziz Stadium, Chitta-gong, at 3 pm); Brothers
Union vs Beanibazar SC (BNS, at 4 pm).
Inter-District
Cricket
Khulna reach final beating Barisal by 8 wickets
UNB, Dhaka
Khulna DSA emerged group champions to reach the final of
the 30th Inter-District Cricket Championship beating
Barisal DSA by eight wickets in the last group match at
the Jessore Stadium Wednesday.
Khulna will play the final on May 3 (Monday) against Dhaka
DSA, the unbeaten champions of Group A, at the Jessore
Stadium.
Batting first after winning the toss in the day's match,
Barisal DSA were all out for 137 in 42.3 overs in a
reduced 45-over-a-side match with Manik scoring 26 and
Rohan 22 runs. Bishwanath grabbed four wickets for 20 runs
while Rezaul took two for 20.
In reply, Khulna easily reached their target scoring 140
runs in 33 overs for the loss of two wickets with Jubaer
contributing not out 59 and Saiful 51 runs. Masud claimed
one wicket for 21 runs.
In the day's other match in Mymensingh, Comilla DSA tasted
the first victory in their last group match beating
Habiganj DSA by five wickets.
Sent into bat first, Habiganj were all out for 102 in 37
overs with Al Amin scoring 38 runs. Raquibul captured five
wickets for 24 runs.
In reply, Comilla reached their target making 105 for 5 in
26.3 overs with Abul Hasan contributing unbeaten 50.
Ibrahim Khalil took two wickets for 27 runs.
Bangladesh beat
Barbados by 36 runs in 1st warm-up match ahead of ICC
World T20
UNB, Dhaka
Bangladesh, now in West Indies to play the ICC World
Twenty20, made a good start beating Barbados by 36 runs in
the first warm-up match at Kensington Oval in Bridgetown
on Tuesday.
The Bengal Tigers was due to play their 2nd and last
warm-up match against England today (Wednesday) at the
same venue ahead of their first World T20 match against
holders Pakistan on May 1 (Saturday) at the Beausejour
Stadium, Gros Islet in St Lucia.
Bangladesh, placed in the three-team Group A, will play
their 2nd and last group match against mighty Australia on
May 5 at the Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados.
A-15 member Bangladesh team, led by Shakib Al Hasan, left
the capital for the Caribbean Islands on Saturday night
(April 24) with a high hope of reaching the 2nd round of
the meet beating holders Pakistan in the group affairs.
Sent into bat first in Tuesday's first warm-up match,
Bangladesh scored a moderate 166 for 5 in quota 20 overs
with opener Imrul Kayes hammering 57 runs off 35 balls
that featured four fours and three sixes.
Former national skipper Mohammad Ashraful, who opened the
innings first with Imrul Kayes, contributed run-a-ball 35
runs with four fours and a six, while one down Aftab Ahmed
scored 21-ball 26 runs with one four and a six.
Besides, Mahmudullah Riad (14), skipper Shakib Al Hasan
(11), Naeem Islam (not out 9) and Mushfiqur Rahim (not out
4) were the other scorers for Bangladesh while another 10
runs came from extras.
In reply, Barbados managed to score 130 runs in 20 overs
losing three wickets with RO Hinds making unbeaten 50 and
JL Carter not out 45.
Rubel Hossain, Mashrafe Bin Mortaza and Shakib Al Hasan
grabbed one wicket each for 18, 27 and 27 runs
respectively.
Wasim tips
India, Pakistan for World T20
AFP, Karachi
Famed Pakistani paceman Wasim Akram tipped India and
Pakistan on Wednesday as joint favourites to win the World
Twenty20, saying the sub-continental giants have the
talent and passion to triumph. Pakistan will defend their
title in the third edition of the World Twenty20, which
starts in the West Indies on Friday. India won the first
edition held in South Africa in 2007.
Wasim said both India and Pakistan are eager to win.
"Pakistan have been starved of cricket, so they have the
thirst to win the title again," Wasim told AFP before
leaving for New Delhi where he is booked as an expert
television commentator the World Twenty20. Wasim said
Pakistan have a leader in Shahid Afridi.
"You need someone like Afridi as captain in Twenty20
cricket. He has aggression needed in a leader and in a
short Twenty20 match he will always sparkle," said Wasim,
a member of Pakistan's 1992 World Cup winning team. He
said Pakistan can rise to the occasion despite being short
on international cricket.
"Pakistan has played very limited international cricket
and their players were not in the Indian league, then they
have off-field problems resulting in bans, but whenever
there is a World Cup Pakistani players rise to the
occasion. "Look at the available talent, Afridi can
single-handedly win a Twenty20 match as he is equally
lethal with bat and ball, and then the depth in bowling
makes Pakistan favourites." Wasim said India was also
eager to win. "What I have seen is a remarkable passion in
the Indian players as well as in the public to win this
title, and they too have a very good team," he said.
The famous left-arm paceman, who has never played a
Twenty20 international as the format started after his
2003 retirement, took 414 Test and 502 one-day wickets,
and also played for Lancashire county with distinction.
"You cannot rule out an Indo-Pak final, which will do a
world of good for international cricket."
Pakistan is placed in Group A alongwith Bangladesh and
Australia, while India is in Group C with South Africa and
Afghanistan. Two teams from each of four groups will
qualify for Super Eight Stages. Wasim said Australia and
South Africa were also strong. "Australia and South Africa
are also capable of winning but the nature of the West
Indies pitches make Pakistan and India favourites, because
they will help sub-continent spinners," said Wasim.
"But to win a Twenty20 match you need to play good cricket
for three and a half hours because the match can swing
with one good performance, so teams on their toes all the
time have good chances," said Wasim.
Broken finger won't
hold back Henin
AFP, Stuttgart
Former world number one Justine Henin has insisted the
broken finger she suffered last week will not hold her
back when she begins her campaign at Stuttgart's WTA
tournament on Wednesday.
The 27-year-old right-hander broke the little finger on
her left hand last week while preparing for Belgium's Fed
Cup win over Estonia last week and expects to wear a split
for the broken digit until next month's French Open.
Having returned to tennis in January, after initially
retiring in May 2008, Henin qualified for the Stuttgart
tournament through a wildcard and plays Germany's Julia
Goerges in Wednesday evening's first-round tie. "My finger
is still a bit painful, but I wear a splint so that
helps," said Henin, who has won at Roland Garros four
times. "I need to wear that for at least six weeks, until
the French Open, but I feel good with it now.
"However, I need to adjust my preparations because there
are certain exercises I cannot perform at the moment."
Henin last won the Stuttgart tournament in 2007 and says
she needs more practise on the clay-court surface to test
her finger.
"My Fed Cup match was a good test in how I could use my
finger - it felt okay," said Henin, who is used to being
ranked much higher in the world than her current placing
of 24th.
Pakistan's Malik eyes lady luck after wedding
AFP, Karachi
Pakistan's former captain Shoaib Malik expressed hope
Wednesday that his highly publicized wedding to an Indian
tennis star can turn around his flagging cricket fortunes.
The 28-year-old, who married Sania Mirza earlier this
month, is serving a one-year ban imposed by the Pakistan
Cricket Board (PCB) for indiscipline while on tour in
Australia and New Zealand.
He was also fined two million rupees ((24,000 dollars).
His appeal against the sanctions will be heard by a
retired high court judge on Friday. Malik said Wednesday
he was hoping that lady luck would smile on him.
"When you marry, your luck changes and I am also wishing
my luck changes and I am able to revive my career," Malik
told AFP by telephone before leaving for India to continue
his honeymoon.
Malik's 11-year career badly suffered in 2008 when he was
removed as Pakistan captain after a 2-1 one-day series
loss at home to Sri Lanka. Manager Yawar Saeed and coach
Intikhab Alam labelled Malik a "loner" and questioned his
ability to lead, prompting the PCB to replace him with
Younus Khan. Malik was also branded a "disruptive
influence" on the team during Pakistan's recent tour of
New Zealand and Australia from November to February.
The PCB formed a committee to investigate the team's
dismal performance after they lost all three Tests, five
one-day internationals and a Twenty20 match in Australia.
The committee, which also took into account various
off-field problems on the preceding tour of United Arab
Emirates, indefinitely banned former captains Younus Khan
and Mohammad Yousuf, and banned Malik and Rana
Naved-ul-Hasan.
Pakistan's Twenty20 captain Shahid Afridi, Kamran Akmal
and Umar Akmal were also heavily fined.
Malik, who has played 29 Tests, 190 one-day internationals
and 30 T20 matches, said he will soon settle down in
Dubai, a move which he hopes will help revive his career
sooner rather than later. "My lawyer will attend the
hearing on Friday and I hope it helps me revive my
career," said Malik.
"Since Pakistan is playing its home series in the United
Arab Emirates, it would be easier for me to stay in Dubai
but for that I want to revive my career first. I hope
people will support me like they did at my wedding."
Shaker Ahmed's fierce bowling restricts South
Africa Academy
UNB, Dhaka
A fierce bowling spell by Shaker Ahmed gave the GP-BCB
Academy an upper hand over visiting South Africa Academy
team on the first day of the 2nd four-day GP-BCB Academy
Cup at the Shaheed Chandhu Stadium in Bogra on Wednesday.
Batting first after winning the toss, the visitors, riding
on an unbeaten ton by middle order O Pienaak, were all out
for 222 in 61 overs.
Pienaak contributed 110 runs of 127 balls with 11 fours
and six sixes while opener A. Swaneboel scored 52 runs off
70 balls with 10 fours.
Shaker grabbed five wickets for 79 runs, Saqlain Sajib
claimed three wickets for 59 runs while Shubashish Roy
took two wickets for 49 runs.
In reply, GP BCB Academy in their first innings scored 107
for 2 in 33 overs at stumps on the day.
Opener Nadimuddin Mintu scored 16 runs off 65 balls with
two fours while another opener Ronny Talukder made 33 off
44 balls with five fours.
One down Mohammad Mithun and two down Shuvagoto Hom were
batting on 33 and 20 runs as the bails were drawn for the
day.
R. Adams and K Maharaaj took one wicket each for 0 and 42
runs respectively.
Japan's Kashima stand alone in AFC Champions
League
AFP, Singapore
Japanese powerhouse Kashima Antlers earned the honour of
being the only team to win all six of their AFC Champions
League group games with a 2-1 victory Korea's Jeonbuk
Motors on Wednesday.
Their dominant run secured them top spot in Group F and
home advantage in the round of 16 against defending
champions Pohang Steelers.
That match will be a family affair, with Kashima coach
Oswaldo Oliveira's younger brother Waldermar Lemos de
Oliveira at the helm of Pohang. Kashima controlled the
game against Jeonbuk and were two up within 22 minutes.
The first came from South Korean international Lee Jung-Soo,
who headed home a pinpoint corner from Takuya Nozawa, who
got on the scoresheet himself two minutes later with a
lightning shot that whistled into the net. Jeonbuk pulled
one back through Jin Kyung-Sun but Kashima got behind the
ball to keep their 100 percent record intact. It condemned
Jeonbuk to a trip to Australia to play Adeliade United for
a place in the quarter-finals.
"Jeonbuk are tough opponents and their quality is high. It
gives us confidence that we defeated such an excellent
team," said Oliveira. "Today's game was the most
impressive among our six wins. We were able to finish the
group round in very good style."
In the group's other match, Indonesia's Persipura Jayapura
bagged their first points of the tournament when they beat
a lacklustre Changchun Yatai of China 2-0 with goals from
Eduard Ivakdalam and Yustinus Paew.
Korean outfit Seongnam Ilhwa had already secured home
advantage for the round of 16 on May 11 and 12 before they
kicked a ball on Wednesday but refused to sit back and
relax, grinding out a 3-2 win over Melbourne Victory.
Cheon Kwang-Jin put them in front before substitute Mate
Dugandzic drew Melbourne level to set up a frantic finale
with three goals in 11 minutes.
Bolt, Hooker headline Lausanne Diamond League
meet
AFP, Paris
Jamaican sprint king Usain Bolt and Australian pole
vaulter Steven Hooker will headline the Lausanne meet of
the IAAF Diamond League circuit on July 8, organisers said
Wednesday.
Bolt, the world and Olympic champion in the 100 and 200m -
in both of which he is also world record holder (9.58 and
19.19sec respectively), will take part in the 200m at the
Swiss lakeside venue.
The Jamaican won the event when he appeared at last year's
Grand Prix event at Lausanne, clocking an impressive
19.59sec in pouring rain.
In the meeting to be held on a Thursday, Australia's world
and Olympic pole vault champion Hooker will compete in the
pole vault against the two other Berlin medallists, Romain
Mesnil and Renaud Lavillenie of France.
Shelly-Ann Fraser of Jamaica, the Olympic and world 100m
champion, will face world silver medallist Kerron Stewart
in the women's dash.
In the men's javelin, Norway's 2009 world and double
Olympic champion Andreas Thorkildsen will continue his
duel with 2007 world champion Tero Pitkamaki of Finland.
A star-studded field also includes Cuba's Dayron Robles,
the Olympic champion and world record holder in the 110m
hurdles, as well as South Africa's world 800m champion
Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, and Maryam Jamal of Bahrain, the double
world 1500m champion.
The Lausanne meet is the seventh of the 14-leg Diamond
League, launched by the IAAF this season to replace the
Golden League series of six meetings in a bid to enhance
the worldwide appeal of athletics by going outside Europe
for the first time.
Malaysian football legends back sports betting
AFP, Kuala Lumpur
Four Malaysian football legends on Wednesday threw their
support behind a proposal to legalise sports betting ahead
of the World Cup finals in South Africa.
The former players said legalising sports wagers would
reduce rampant illegal betting and match-fixing, but some
also warned it could encourage people to go into debt.
Last month the New Straits Times newspaper said sports
betting may be legalised in time for the World Cup which
is being held June 11-July 11.
It said the Berjaya Group, a major Malaysian conglomerate
with holdings ranging from lottery to casino operations,
was seeking government approval to operate sports betting
activities.
Soh Chin Aun, 60, a former captain of the national team in
the 1980s heydey of Malaysian football, said people will
probably indulge in illegal gambling if there is no legal
option.
"I don't see any harm. If you don't legalise, people will
participate in illegal gambling," he told AFP. "It should
be legalised."
Maxis, Malaysia's top mobile operator, which has the
exclusive right to deliver live coverage of all 64 World
Cup matches to its customers, said it will transmit the
action to its mobile users as well as on its satellite-TV
service.
Corruption has long blighted football in Asia,
particularly in Malaysia, Vietnam and China. Asian
Football Confederation chief Mohamed bin Hammam has
described match-fixing as a "cancer" that is destroying
the game in Asia. Veteran defender Santokh Singh, 58, said
legalising betting could prevent match-fixing scandals.
"I think it is better for us to legalise betting. There
will be no corruption and no match-fixing," he told AFP.
|
|