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Leading News
SAARC Declaration endorses Dhaka’s
proposal for ‘Charter of Democracy’
Leaders happy over existence of Multi-party
democracies in all member states
UNB, Thimphu
The two-day SAARC summit concluded on Thursday with the
adaptation of a 36-point 'Thimphu Silver Jubilee
Declaration' that endorses Bangladesh's proposal for a
"Charter of Democracy" for regional cooperation aimed at
strengthening good governance.
SAARC leaders appreciated that all the member states had
evolved into multi-party democracies, and underlined the
challenges they still face in ensuring effective,
efficient, transparent and accountable government for
their peoples.
Bangladesh's proposal to convene an inter-governmental
meeting in Dhaka on taking forward the idea of a SAARC
Charter of Democracy was noted by the leaders of the 8
nations.
South Asia's leaders recommended that a 'Conclave of SAARC
Parlia-mentarians' in line with the SAARC Charter be
convened, and directed the SAARC Secretariat to convene a
Working Group comprising nominees of the member states to
work out the modalities relating to the establishment of
such a conclave.
In this Silver Jubilee Year of SAARC, the leaders
emphasized the need to develop a "Vision Statement" and
agreed to form a "South Asia Forum" for generating debate
and exchange of ideas on South Asia and its future.
The leaders resolved that the Silver Jubilee Year should
be commemorated by making SAARC truly action-oriented by
implementing declarations and decisions and operating
instruments to fulfill the hopes and aspirations of the
region that is home to one-fifth of humanity.
The SAARC leaders focused on people-centric development
and noted Bhutan's concept of Gross National Happiness
(GNP). They welcomed Bhutan's offer to host a SAARC
Workshop on GNH in 2010.
On climate change, the leaders said the SAARC member
states as developing countries were shouldering a major
burden despite having contributed least to the problem.
They called for initiating a process to formulate a common
SAARC position for COP16 (to be held in Mexico later this
year) including on issues such as separate financing for
adaptation and mitigation as well as technology transfer.
The leaders welcomed Nepal's initiative to organize a
Ministerial meeting of Mountainous Countries in Kathmandu
later this year.
The SAARC leaders called for focus to be laid upon water
management and conservation and development of cooperative
projects at regional level in terms of exchange of best
practices and knowledge, capacity building and transfer of
eco-friendly technologies.
Expressing deep concern at the environmental degradation
in the region, they reiterated the importance of
development through adoption of eco-friendly technologies
so that South Asia should become a world leader in
low-carbon technology and renewable energies. They
welcomed the signing of the SAARC Convention on
Cooperation on Environment and called for its early
ratification and implementation. The leaders called for
further negotiations and early finalization of the SAARC
Agreement on Rapid Response to Natural Disasters.
On energy sector, the leaders recognized the need to
enhance cooperation in the energy sector to facilitate
energy trade, development of efficient conventional and
renewable energy sources including hydro-power.
They emphasized the need to undertake studies to develop
regional energy projects and promote regional power trade.
On poverty alleviation, the leaders called for
mainstreaming the SAARC Development Goals in the national
processes and completion of the mid-term review of the
SDGs as scheduled. They accepted the proposal of Nepal
hosting the Third Ministerial Meeting on poverty
alleviation in 2011.
About terrorism, the leaders expressed their firm resolve
to root out terrorism. They emphasized that the linkages
between terrorism, illegal trafficking in drugs and
psychotropic substances, illegal trafficking in persons
and firearms all continue to remain a matter of serious
concern and reiterated their commitment to address these
problems in a comprehensive manner.
300
MW electricity
Cabinet body okays 3 private rental power projects
UNB, Dhaka
The Cabinet Committee on Purchase Thursday approved three
private rental power plant projects for supplying a total
of 300 MW electricity within six months in phases to
minimize the nagging crisis of electricity demoralizing
the people in the country.
The meeting with Finance Minister AMA Muhith in the chair
at the cabinet division this afternoon awarded the
contracts to UK based Aggreko International company for
setting up diesel-based rental power plants for a
three-year period in Khulna and Ghorashal to generate 100
MW electricity from each plant respectively.
The government will buy electricity at Tk 14.39 per unit
from Aggreko International company. As a result the
government will have to give Tk 140 crore per month as
subsidy, according to the meeting sources.
The two power rental projects at Khulna and Ghorashal will
be implemented within next three months and will supply
200 megawatt electricity within 4 to 6 months.
Another one was awarded to local company Desh Energy Ltd
for setting up three-year period diesel based 100 MW
rental power plant at Siddhirganj.
The government will buy electricity from the company at Tk
13.33 per unit. In the first three months the company will
provide 50 MW of electricity while the rest 50 MW by the
following three months.
Similarly the government will have to give Tk 64 crore per
month as subsidy.
Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury, Planning Minister AK
Khandaker, Food Minister Dr Abdur Razzak, Commerce
Minister Faruq Khan, State Minister for Power Enamul Huq
and Prime Minster's Adviser on Power Affairs Toufiq Elahi
were also present at the meeting.
Dhaka
traffic mess gets WB priority
BSS, Dhaka
The ever increasing traffic congestion in Dhaka city would
get priority in the World Bank's next Country Assistance
Strategy (CAS).
"Tackling urban congestion issue is regarded as priority
in our next Country Assistance Strategy," Zafrul Islam,
Acting Country Director, World Bank (WB) Bangladesh, told
a roundtable discussion on managing urban transport on
Thursday in the city.
At the roundtable, participants from different government
organisations relating to transport management discussed
the international best practices for urban transport
management. The WB funded Clean Air and Sustainable
Environment (CASE) project organized it.
The CASE project in conjunction with government's
Strategic Transport Plan for Dhaka would prepare
transformative investment for urban transport.
The speakers stressed setting up an adequate institutional
and regulatory framework as prerequisite for any
successful Mass Transit projects.
Zafrul Islam said the WB is ready to support Bangladesh by
sharing knowledge on good practices in managing traffic in
metropolises like Vancouver, New York, London and Paris
and Lagos (Nigeria).
According to the WB, Dhaka is the eighth largest city in
the world and would become the third largest city by 2020
with over 20 million population.
If the urban congestion and daily traffic in Dhaka is not
tackled through proper planning then both the quality of
life and economic prosperity will be hampered, the WB
said.
India
expediting implementation of deals signed with BD:
Manmohan
UNB, Thimpu
Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on Thursday said
his country will always remain beside Bangladesh for a
stable and sustainable democracy, and it has been
expediting the implementation process of various
agreements signed during Sheikh Hasina's visit to India.
The assurance came when Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
called on the Indian Prime Minister at India House in
SAARC Village.
Dr Manmohan Singh also assured Bangladesh that India would
extend all out support for uninterrupted democratic
process in the country.
Press Secretary to the Prime Minister Abul Kalam Azad
briefed the reporters after the meeting.
During Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's landmark visit to
the neighboring country in January this year, India
announced a US$1 billion line of credit for infrastructure
development in Bangladesh. The two countries signed
agreements on fight against terrorism and organized crime,
and mutual transfer of convicted prisoners. Two
memorandums of understanding (MOUs) were also signed on
cooperation in power sector and cultural exchange.
During the visit, India also agreed to remove 47 items
from its negative list to give Bangladeshi products
duty-free access to its market.
The two sides further decided to enhance connectivity. To
this end, India will set up a 14-km meter gauge rail line
between Akhaura and Agartala.
Besides, India announced it will give Bangladesh transit
to Nepal and Bhutan, and export 250 megawatts of
electricity from its central grid. The line of credit, the
highest financial assistance from India to any country, is
meant for constructing railway bridges and tracks and
manufacturing rail coaches.
The agreements inked are titled 'Mutual Legal Assistance
in Criminal Matters', 'Transfer of Convicted Persons and
Combating International Terrorism and Organized Crime' and
'Illicit Drug Trafficking'.
During Thursday’s meeting, which was held in a very
cordial and warm atmosphere, the two leaders discussed
various issues of bilateral and multilateral interests
including expansion of trade and business and enhancing
connectivity between the two neighboring countries.
The Indian Prime Minister also informed the Bangladesh
Premier that his government will take necessary measures
for finalizing the draft of agreement on Teesta water
sharing, which was handed over to Indian government
recently.
Dr Singh also announced his country's support for the
Bangladesh's candidature in the Committee for Elimination
of Discrimi-nation against Women -CEDAW.
RMG unrest continues
at Mirpur
TBT Report
Despite government move to control unrest in the RMG
sector by issuing threat of tough action against anarchy
and offering new pay scale for workers in three months,
the RMG industries continues to remain restive.
The ready-made garment workers clashed with police in
Mirpur on Thursday for the third consecutive day, only a
day after the government assured that a new pay scale
would be introduced for them before the Ramadan.
At least five people were injured as police resorted to
lathi charge on the agitating workers during the chase and
counter-chase which turned the Mirpur 13 and 14 sectors
into a battlefield.
The angry workers also vandalised ten factories, forcing
the authorities to shut down their production on Thursday.
The continuation of agitation on Thursday indicated
reportedly outside hand in the incidents.
The agitation programme started at 10:00am and was
withdrawn at about 1:00pm. on assurance that their demands
will be considered. Local MP Kamal Ahmed Majumder gave the
assurance saying that he would hold a meeting with the
garments owners and workers to resolve the crisis. The
clash erupted when 500 to 600 garment workers from 10
garment factories, including Tunic Fashion Limited, Palka
Dots Fashion Ltd, Natural Wool Wear Ltd, SRT Fashion Ltd,
Jokky Garments Ltd, blocked the street near Police Staff
College at about 10:00am.
The trouble at Mirpur started in the morning on Thursday
when police reached the spot and ask the agitating workers
to disperse. The workers refused to obey and pelted stones
on the police provoking them to retaliate. In the clash
police resorted to lathi charge and several persons were
injured.
Energy, power sector
to get highest budgetary allocation: Muhith
UNB, Dhaka
NGO leaders and activists have urged policymakers to
devote special attention to education, human rights,
agriculture, labour migration, energy and power and social
safety net before finalizing the budget for the next
fiscal year (2010-11).
They came up with their demands during a pre-budget
meeting with the Finance Minister at the Ministry of
Finance Thursday afternoon.
Addressing the NGO leaders, Muhith said that the energy
and power sector will get the highest priority in the next
budget, followed by agriculture.
"The government believes that agriculture is the
foundation of the country's economy. We will then give
emphasis on transport and infrastructure," he added.
Muhith said that the family planning initiatives are not
gaining much success, so these should be revived seeking
active participation of all. Advocating the highest
allocation to be given to the education sector, Rasheda K
Chowdury of Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE)
requested the Finance Minister to earmark at least 4
percent of the GDP to education, amounting to nearly Tk
20,000 to Tk 22,000 crore.
Adv. Sultana Kamal of Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) emphasized
the need for greater allocation in the budget to
protecting human rights as well as increasing the social
safety net expenditure by nearly three times what it is
presently.
She also proposed a reduction in the rate of VAT,
increasing the income tax net as well as enabling people
to submit income tax returns through local post offices.
BAPA general secretary Md Abdul Matin urged special
attention to be given to country's river system, waste
management, building central Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP)
at government's own cost for the tannery industries,
building solar energy panels and formulating and
implementing a land use plan.
Responding to his proposal, the Finance Minister said that
they would take steps to set up solar energy panels at a
cheaper rate.
Back Page
SAARC adopts ambitious statement on
tackling climate change
UNB, Thimphu
The 16th SAARC summit on Thursday adopted the Thimphu
Statement on Climate Change, expressing a determination to
make South Asia a world leader in low-carbon technologies
and renewable energy.
The statement adopted on the concluding day of the summit
emphasized the importance of reducing dependence on
high-carbon technologies for economic growth, and that
promotion of climate resilience will promote both
development and poverty eradication in a sustainable
manner. The separate statement was issued as Climate
Change was designated as the key theme of the 16th SAARC
Summit, in the wake of the vulnerability faced by member
states from global warming.
Expressing deep concern over the adverse effects of
climate change, the statement called for the commissioning
of a SAARC Inter-governmental Climate-related Disasters
Initiative, on the integration of Climate Change
Adaptation with Disaster Risk Reduction. The statement
said the SAARC member states face the dual challenge of
addressing the negative impacts of climate change and
pursuing socio-economic development. It noted that South
Asia is especially prone to the ill-effects of climate
change and related disasters, making the need for a
regional response to meet the challenge more urgent and
compelling. It said South Asia could benefit from
cooperative regional initiatives and exchange of
knowledge, as well as transfer of technologies to address
the challenges.
It recognizes that the preservation of the environment and
mitigating the impacts of climate change are mutually
reinforcing.
The Thimpu Statement on Climate Change also agreed to
review the implementation of the Dhaka Declaration and
SAARC Action Plan on Climate Change, with a view to
ensuring its timely implementation.
The SAARC leaders agreed to establish an
Inter-governmental Expert Group on Climate Change to
develop clear policy directions for regional cooperation
as envisaged in the SAARC Plan of Action on Climate
Change.
The leaders directed the SAARC secretary general to
commission a study aimed at accreditation of SAARC with
the Kyoto Protocol's Adaptation Fund as a regional entity
for undertaking adaptation projects in South Asia.
China’s plan to build
two nuclear plants in Pakistan worries Washington: Report
ANI, London
In what could severely impede the United States' efforts
towards nuclear non-proliferation, China has reportedly
agreed to help Pakistan build two nuclear reactors.
According to a report in The Financial Times, Chinese
companies and officials in Islamabad have confirmed the
deal, which is yet to be made public by Beijing.
China began building a nuclear reactor in Chashma in
Pakistan''s Punjab pro-vince in 1991 and work on a second
rector began in 2005, which is expected to be completed
next year. Under the new agreement, Chinese companies will
build at least two new 650-MW reactors at Chashma, the
report said.
It quoted a Pakistani government official privy to the
discussions with China over the issue as saying : "Our
Chinese brothers have once again lived up to our
expectations. They have agreed to continue cooperating
with us in the nuclear energy field."
Diplomats in China said that though Beijing has given its
formal approval to the deal, there could still be
last-minute hitches in the talks between the two
governments. "China had decided to go ahead with the deal
because for political reasons it felt Pakistan should be
compensated in some way for the US-India nuclear deal,"
the newspaper quoted Mark Hibbs, senior associate at the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace''s nuclear
policy programme, as saying.
"After the dust settled on the US-India nuclear deal,
China gravitated towards a position that it will support
nuclear commerce if it benefits Chinese industry," Hibbs
added.
It is worth mentioning that the deal between Washington
and New Delhi had facilitated nuclear co-operation, even
though India has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty (NPT).
Tender
manipulation, extortion, woman repression
PM asks home ministry to take stern action
UNB, Dhaka
Embarrassed at the rising incidents of tenderbaji,
extortion, woman repression Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
has directed the Home Ministry to take stern action
against the culprits irrespective of their creed and
colour.
The situation has reached to an intolerable level
rendering the government in an embarrassing situation and
its image is tarnished, noted the directive. The directive
came in the wake of media reports of widespread tender
manipulations, extortion, Eve teasing and woman repression
across the country. In most cases, activists of BCL and
Jubo League, student and youth wings of ruling Awami
League, were allegedly involved in such criminal
activities.
"No discrimination in application of law will be
acceptable. Those involved in crimes should be dealt with
severely without considering their creed and colour," said
the directive issued from the Prime Minister's secretariat
to the Home Secretary.
It said the officials concerned failing in their
responsibility to take legal actions against the crimes
should be identified and punished.
The directive said, of late incidents of tenderbaji,
hijack of tenderbox, extortion and terrorism have
increased to an intolerable level. Print and electronic
media have been focusing such incidents evoking sharp
criticism from all section of the society against the
indiscipline and illegal activities.
It has been observed that activists of political parties
and their front organizations are involved in such
activities.
At the same time, the incidents of Eve teasing, repression
on female students and women are rising alarmingly. Such
incidents will impede the process of empowering the women
and causing indiscipline in the society negating the
professed policy of the government, it added.
Steps taken to ensure
smooth Hajj flights: GM Quader
UNB, Dhaka
Civil Aviation Minister GM Quader on Thursday vowed that
the government has taken significant measures to ensure
Hajj flights run smoothly for the pilgrims in the next
Hajj.
"There will be no flight disruptions for Hajj and Umrah
pilgrims this year. Biman Bangladesh Airlines and Saudi
Arabian Airlines, among others airlines, can carry the
pilgrims," the Minister said while addressing the
inaugural session of the three-day 'Hajj and Umrah Fair,
2010' at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre
on Thursday morning.
Hajj Agencies Association of Bangladesh (HAAB) organized
the fair. GM Quader also urged the private agencies to be
more alert in carrying Hajj pilgrims towards fulfilling
one of the 5 pillars of Islam, the holy Hajj.
HAAB president Ibrahim Bahar said interested people can
participate in a three-day training program to learn how
to play the role of pilgrims and to tackle the
embarrassing situation that occurred during the previous
Hajj session.
He also announced the lowest Hajj package under private
management would be offered at Tk 230,000, which is only
Tk 2,000 more from the government package.
BDR Mutiny: Special
Court-6 fixes Nov 22 for framing charges
UNB, Dhaka
The Special Court-6 resu-med its proceedings at Darbar
Hall of BDR headquarters in Pilkhana Thursday and fixed
November 22 for framing charges against 256 accused of BDR
hospital unit in the BDR mutiny case.
The court with BDR Director-General Maj Gen Mainul Islam
presiding, sat at about 10:00 am and continued its
proceedings for over ninety minutes.
After the hearing, the court was adjourned till 10am on
November 22 when the charges will be framed and read out
against the 256 accused. The court also ordered all the
accused be produced when the hearing resumes again.
Prosecutor and Com-manding officer of BDR Hospital unit Lt
Col SMM Al-Moeed read out the allegations against the
accused and demanded maximum punishment subject to
scrutiny of gravity of the offence.
He also observed that the accused have committed
punishable offences under the Bangladesh Rifles Order,
1972 section 10A (1) when they staged the mutiny at the
BDR Pilkhana headquarters on February 25-26 last year. Two
other members of the special court-6 were Lt Col Md Nurul
Alam and Maj Md Ali Mustain Khan while Deputy
Attorney-General Advocate Kazi Izharul, a representative
nominated by the Attorney-General, assisted the court.
According to Bangladesh Rifle Order 1972, the accused will
get at least 27 days to prove their innocence as per the
BDR act. At least 73 people, including 57 army officers
deputized to the border force, were killed in the Pilkhana
BDR headquarters during the February 25-26, 2009 mayhem.
Bhola by-election
held in ‘100 percent’ neutral manner: EC
UNB, Dhaka
Ruling out the opposition BNP's allegations of
vote-rigging, the Election Commission on Thursday
reiterated that the Bhola-3 by-election was held in a '100
percent' free, fair and neutral manner.
About the opposition's demands for the EC's resignation,
Election Commissioner M Sohul Husain refrained from giving
full comment, saying that anyone could demand resignation
of anybody due to political strategy.
The Chief Election Comm-issioner along with the two other
commissioners held a meeting at the EC secretariat with
the executive magistrates who had been deployed in the
constituency during the by-election.
After the meeting, EC Sohul Hussain told reporters that
the Commission was informed of the overall situation from
28 magistrates who discharged their duties on polling day.
They informed the commission that problems only arose in
the nine centers where polling was suspended, according to
Hussain. He added that the commission, in future, would
emphasize coordination between the officers to be deployed
in the polling areas to ensure fairer elections. Replying
to a question about army deployment, Hussain said army
deployment would only be necessary when law-enforcing
agencies such as the police and RAB fail to maintain the
law-and-order situation.
Revenue earning to
exceed Tk 61,000 cr, hopes NBR chairman
BSS, Dhaka
National Board of Revenue (NBR) is expecting a record in
revenue earning by the end of the current fiscal year.
NBR chairman Dr Nasir Uddin Ahmed told BSS that the
country has earned Taka 173.35 crore more as revenue
during the nine months from July to March of the current
fiscal year (FY). The NBR has realized Taka 41,648 crore
during the nine months against the target of Taka 41,474
crore, registering an 18.31 percent growth. Ahmed said the
increased revenue was mainly for fixation of realistic
revenue target, establishing good governance and taking
diverse tax-friendly steps.
Higher growth in import, value-added tax and income tax
also encouraged revenue earning, said the NBR chairman. He
expressed the hope that revenue earning would exceed the
targeted Taka 61,000 crore during the current fiscal year.
Editorial
Checking drug trade
Brisk
illegal drug trade is going on across the country in defiance
of the law and the drive by the law enforcers. Dangerous drugs
including yaba, heroin, pathedin , ganja, wine etc are on sale
at different points of the capital sometimes allegedly under
the nose of police. However, anti-narcotic drives are also
being conducted to stop the sale and use of the drugs
generally taken by the young male and female customers from
the affluent families. In such drives sometimes huge drugs are
seized and drug peddlers are detained, but inspite of that the
illegal drug trade along with the consumption of drugs are on
the rise.
It is an open secret that Bangladesh is increasingly being
used as a transit point by drug dealers and the drug mafia,
engaged in trafficking heroin from Pakistan and Afghanistan,
phensidyl from India and yaba from Myanmar and Thailand to
different destinations including Middle East and the West.
About 100,000 people, including 30,000 women and children, are
reportedly involved in illegal trade and trafficking of drugs
in the country. Even tender-aged boys and girls are being
engaged by drug peddlers to carry on their business. Besides,
the sale and use of drugs in Bangladesh as well are growing
fast. In the past there had been a pause in the trade
following vigorous anti-drug drives. But because of relaxation
in the recent past the trade has started again in full swing.
Young people, both male and feamle are the principal customers
and users of various drugs.
The sale and use of drugs like phensidyl, ganja, charas,
heroin have been rampant in the capital since long. The latest
addition to this world of illegal drugs is yaba which is
reportedly very popular among the young boys and girls of rich
families. With the addition of yaba the situation in this
regard has reportedly become very serious. Gulshan, Banani,
Badda, Dhanmandi , Motijheel and Shantinagor in the capital
are reported to have turned into hubs of drug trading. These
are available mainly at some selected spots in Uttara,
Baridhara, Gulshan, Dhanmandi, Motijheel etc. The drug traders
are very influential and reprotedly capable of managing the
police to run the business unhindered.
Illegal drugs are serious threat to our moral values and
social fabric. The unchecked trafficking, sale and use of
drugs are destroying the morality and health of the young
people and destabilising the social order besides causing
economic losses. In some cases the guardians try to persuade
their wards to desist from drug use, but all in vain in most
cases. In view of this, modern system of treatment for the
drug addicts should be developed in the country. Besides, the
drive against all illegal drugs should be stepped up by the
law enforcers.
People want the authorities to re-launch a massive drive
against the drug traders and hope that those involved in the
drug trade will be caught and punished properly. Stern
measures should be taken to stop the trafficking, sale and use
of drugs in the country. And above all, a strong public
movement against drug abuse should be launched nationwide to
get rid of this social scourge. The government should also
take appropriate measure to stop the reported use of
Bangladesh as transit points for trafficking of drugs. For
this and for checking trade, sale and use of drugs in the
country, the narcotic department and others concerned should
gear up their activities.
The killing spree
The
Home Minister may be complacent with the situation, but it is
no denying the fact that incidents of crimes specially murders
are on the rise in the capital and elsewhere. In the latest
incident a bomb blast in a Baishakhi Mela at Benapole killed a
young man and injured 10 others Wednesday night. The deceased
was identified as Zia, 32 of Sadirpur village. According to
police the bomb was exploded inside the fair at about 10 pm.
With this, over 200 people have been killed and 1800 others
injured in bomb attacks by terrorists and militants since 6
March 1999 when 10 people were killed in an explosion at a
Udichi cultural function in Jessore. During the last eleven
years scores of bomb attacks took place that killed and
injured many people.
Meanwhile, within several days of the killing of SI Gautom Roy
in the city, the decomposed bodies of three people were
recovered from the Mohammadpur Dam. The bodies were buried
under sand with the hands and feet of the victims tied.
Besides, cloth trader Asaduzzaman Babu was killed in the city
on Monday night.
More than ten murders are reportedly being committed per day
on an average across the country. Even, in the capital hardly
a day passes off without any murder being committed. Besides
murders, there has been an alarming rise in the incidents of
crimes like abduction, rape, robbery, mugging and extortion.
Drives are being carried out in the country by law enforcing
agencies to nab the criminals and recover arms. But, there is
no remarkable improvement in the law and order situation. The
main reason for the collapse of the law and order is allegedly
the patronage of the politicians and police to the criminals
and illegal arms holders. In fact, there is no security of the
lives and properties of the people of the country and hence
they are extremely worried. The government should make all out
efforts to improve the worsening law and order situation by
taking stern action against the criminals as well as their
patrons and protectors.
Analysis
Subcontinental yin-yang
Manmohan Singh's steadfast refusal to stand for
election to the Lok Sabha, making do as member of the
indirectly elected Rajya Sabha, too goes against the country's
parliamentary conventions.
Sunil Sharan
Must India and
Pakistan always be polar opposites, the yin and yang of the
world? As Pakistan rediscovers the merits of the Westminster
model of democracy and restores the primacy of its prime
minister, witness how India is devaluing its own.
Sonia Gandhi has just assumed the leadership of the
reconstituted National Advisory Council (NAC), a body set up
to counsel the government but with no constitutional sanction
or tradition. In the mid-1970s, Pakistan was enjoying a
respite from military rule, when India descended into
totalitarianism. Now as Pakistan vows to respect its
constitution (with the passage of the 18th Amendment), India
is tinkering with its own.
In Westminster, the prime minister is supposed to be the
prince of power, the repository of executive authority.
William Gladstone, the 19th century British prime minister,
even called him a good butcher of his cabinet. India, which
since 1947 has mostly stayed true to the principles of
Westminster, now seems to be straying.
No minister is hired without Sonia Gandhi's blessing. None is
dispatched without it either. Just ask Shashi Tharoor, the
recently sacked foreign minister. Sonia Gandhi's upset victory
in 2004's general elections put her on the horns of a dilemma.
Reluctant to become prime minister herself, she did not trust
simply passing the baton to an unassuming loyalist. For one
such in the past, Narasimha Rao in 1991, had broken free.
Her Congress party devised a ruse ingenious enough to make
Machiavelli proud. Sonia Gandhi arrogated to herself the newly
created post of chairperson of the Congress Parliamentary
Party (CPP), making Manmohan Singh her deputy. She also
nominated him as leader of the CPP, thereby anointing him
prime minister but retaining the right to replace him at will.
The party's constitution was tampered with but the subversion
was that of the country's. While India's founding fathers
envisioned that the leader of the party or alliance of parties
commanding majority support in the directly elected
parliamentary chamber, the Lok Sabha, would become the prime
minister, they never bargained for his nomination.
Instead members of parliament were meant to formally elect
their leader, who would cease to be premier upon losing their
support. Third-party hiring and firing was beyond the pale.
Even in 2009, when Manmohan Singh was credited by many,
including Sonia Gandhi herself, for the Congress party's
election victory, the same stratagem was employed. Welcome to
the era of the circumscribed prime minister. The mantle of
prime minister has been passed in the past, notably from
Mahatma Gandhi to Nehru in 1947 and from Jayaprakash Narayan
to Morarji Desai in 1977, but the hand-off was never so
shackled.
Manmohan Singh's steadfast refusal to stand for election to
the Lok Sabha, making do as member of the indirectly elected
Rajya Sabha, too goes against the country's parliamentary
conventions. No doubt a prime minister can belong to either
house but no previous one has served as long as he has without
joining the former. That he should have little trouble winning
a popular election only fuels the suspicion that he is not at
liberty to make the transition.
Opposition leader L.K. Advani has been withering in his
criticism of Singh's clipped wings. The shoe though appears to
be on the other foot. Upon losing last year's general
elections, Advani faced intense pressure from his Bharatiya
Janata Party to quit as the leader of the parliamentary
opposition. Not content to ride off into the political sunset
just yet, Advani looked around and discovered new virtue in
Sonia Gandhi's transcending role of chairperson, which had
caused him much angst earlier. He too made his party create a
similar post for him.
No wonder that his denunciations of the prime minister have
become muted. He even proposed cabinet rank and privileges for
himself and Gandhi in their respective capacity as party
chairperson but with the latter having already secured those
spurs through her NAC sinecure, his request has gone
a-begging. With what gumption do those who flay the flouters
of constitutional propriety turn turtle themselves when
convenient.
Singh has often stated that he does not know who in Pakistan
to talk to, alluding to the multiplicity of power centres in
the country. This is ironical because India itself presents
similar confusion. With Sonia Gandhi stacking the NAC and CPP
hats on two others - Congress party president, governing
United Progressive Alliance chairperson - the 'who's who' in
India has not been lost on the outside world. China has just
extended an invitation for her to visit, the third time in
three years that she would go there in official garb. Singh as
premier has been to China just once. Until now, he has had
relative freedom to deal with foreign interlocutors. Is this
about to change? More significantly, what precedent are six
years of his stewardship setting for India's commitment to its
constitution?
Winds of
change in UK
Most of
the lower working class, at the bottom of the social
pyramid, will vote Labour. But the upper working class and
the lower middle class are where the swing votes lie.
Jonathan Power
The
lies and misrepresentations by the British ex-prime
minister Tony Blair led the nation into the long and
destructive war with Iraq. Now we all know that Saddam
Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction. The evidence
that he had was bent almost out of recognition to the true
facts.
The cost in lives torn asunder in Iraq was immense, and
only a handful of Iraqis thought they were better off with
the war than without it. There may have been a
dictatorship that was cruel to those that opposed it but
most people, if fearful on occasion, had a peaceful life,
law and order, food in the shops, functioning schools and
a health service. That unnecessary carnage is on many
people's minds as Britain prepares to vote in its general
election. Blair led the charge but his cabinet (with one
major exception, Robin Cook, the leader of the House of
Commons and former minister of foreign affairs) and the
party supported him.
Nevertheless, the state of the economy is the number one
issue, according to the polls. Prime Minister Gordon Brown
is convincing-no one intellectually outshines Brown when
it comes to economics and finance. He argues that the
great recession wasn't his fault and the UK was one of the
two important countries that led the fight to mitigate
it-the other being the US. The Conservatives argue they
would have done better and not run up such debts on
out-of-control social expenditures as Labour did, thus
giving the country not enough room for manoeuvre when the
crisis hit. The Liberal Democrats successfully steer a
middle way, taking the best arguments from the
Conservatives without falling into their trap of promising
over large cuts in government expenditure.
Most of the lower working class, at the bottom of the
social pyramid, will vote Labour. But the upper working
class and the lower middle class are where the swing votes
lie. The Conservative prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, a
grocer's daughter, knew how to reach these people.
The Conservative leader, David Cameron who led a spoilt
life at Eton and Oxford and still comes over as a bit of a
"toff", is way out of touch with this grouping. He will
lose most of its vote. Frustrated, they are starting to
move into the Liberal Democratic camp. Before Labour's
rise to power in the 1920s the Liberals often formed the
government. In the 1960s and 70s the number of seats they
held was in single digits. But over the last twenty years
they have grown steadily to become a powerful third force.
If they can capture say half this grouping it is
conceivable they could win the most votes-but not seats as
the Liberal vote although in the aggregate is strong is
more thinly spread than the two major parties.
This is where we return to the anti-war faction, made up
largely of the educated middle class. They have not
forgotten the war. They understand that Brown was too
loose in his economic policies before the great recession
struck. However, many may relegate the war to second
position in their minds and vote Labour again. They feel
that Brown is a safe pair of hands. But for a majority the
Liberal Democrats may appeal more because they are the
only party that was against the war, is against overdoing
the connection with the US and is vigorously pro European
Union and would seek to strengthen it. It favours the
Euro, the common European currency that the UK has always
rebuffed despite Tony Blair's sympathy for it. This
portion of the well-educated bloc, by and large, is
cautious about a commitment to war and is convinced that
government cuts shouldn't fall disproportionately on the
social and health services. Of course they don't want to
see their own tax burden increased but there are many
other ways of increasing the revenue that the government
needs to run down its debts. Taxes on tobacco, drink,
petrol, cars and air travel could be increased if they
were raised immediately after the election when unpopular
measures are easier to get away with. Then they could save
a lot of money by getting rid of the UK's nuclear
deterrent, clearly a Cold War anachronism. There is a need
to prune the bureaucracy. Not least taxes and their abused
exemptions could be increased on David Cameron's class.
Raising death duties and closing its loopholes would be a
popular step.
All this said there is no chance that the Liberal
Democrats even with great success at the polls could form
a government on their own. Yet to enter a coalition would
lead them to betray all they have fought for over decades.
They should stay out and force the two major parties to
form a grand coalition. They agree on more than they
disagree.
The Liberal Democrats leading the opposition would have a
field day. They should bide their time until the Labour-Conservative
coalition falls apart in two or three years and then force
a new election. Then they would have a chance of becoming
parliament's largest party, able to dictate the terms of a
new coalition.
Jonathan Power is a London-based foreign policy
commentator
A catastrophe
in the making
Emotions
that water generates are far more intense than emotions
generated by many other issues, as reflected by the
numerous enmities and murders in our rural areas caused by
disputes over water.
Tasneem Noorani
If
there is one issue that has a greater chance of sparking a
full-fledged war between India and Pakistan, other than
the Kashmir issue, it is the issue of India blocking the
waters of the western rivers against the spirit of the
Indus Water Treaty.
Whether it is a perception, as claimed by India, or a
reality, is irrelevant, as perceptions are always stronger
than reality. When Jaswant Singh visited Lahore recently
for his book launch, a Lahori pleaded with Mr Singh to ask
the Indian government not to block Pakistan's water. While
Jaswant Singh's answer was the usual stand of the Indian
establishment that 'all matters should be sorted out as
per the procedure laid down in the Indus Water Treaty',
the huge round of applause that the questioner got
reflected the feelings of the ordinary Pakistani. And
these were the urbane, book-loving, literate Pakistanis
and not the 70 per cent not-so-educated Pakistani farmers
whose livelihood is directly related to the availability
of water and who are not so rational with their emotions.
Emotions that water generates are far more intense than
emotions generated by many other issues, as reflected by
the numerous enmities and murders in our rural areas
caused by disputes over water. While Kashmir is an issue
which has the maximum emotive appeal in Punjab, shortage
of water is one issue which directly hits most farmers not
only in Punjab but in Sindh, NWFP and partly in
Balochistan as well. The position on the ground is that
India plans to produce around 16,000MW electricity from
the hydel-power potentials of Kashmir, most of which are
based on the western rivers, which are allocated to
Pakistan under the Indus Water Treaty. This is about 80
per cent of Pakistan's total installed capacity and much
more than what Pakistan currently produces. India, last
month, contracted out a 690MW hydel project in Drabshalla
(Kishtwar district) on BOT basis to a private company, to
be built on river Chenab. The tender for the project was
floated in 2008. A newspaper report said that Pakistan's
Indus Water commissioner, when queried on the issue, said
that information on the project had not yet been received
by him.
What kind of attitude is that? If the tender was floated
in 2008, is it not the duty of Pakistan's commissioner to
know what is happening on the Indian side? When you hear
the commissioner on TV you get the impression that
everything is fine, all the correspondence is up to date
and there is nothing to be alarmed about.
If that is the case, let the government of Pakistan
clearly state that India is legitimately taking advantage
of the provisions of the Indus Water Treaty. When I
downloaded the treaty and tried to go through the
voluminous document, the essence I got was that it was
very restrictive of India using the water, except to
produce electricity without changing the geography of the
area by diversions and big reservoirs. In any case, if
India is acting as per the provisions of the treaty, the
facts of the treaty should be clearly explained to the
public.
On the other hand, the lethargy and indecisiveness of our
government should also be highlighted. Apparently there
are 30 potential locations in Kashmir and Gilgit-
Baltistan from where almost 40000MW of electricity can be
generated. Some of these sites are Phandar, Basho, Kohala,
Kalgh, Bhasha, Buni, Dasu, Lower Spat Gah, Palas Valley,
Akhori, Pattan, Thakot, Dhudhial, Yulbo, Tungas, Skardu,
Yugo, Keyal Kjhawar, Lawi and Harpo. While there is a
political logjam on Kalabagh, why have we not seen any
power-generation project even on one of these potential
sites so far?
It would be a travesty of justice if, after reluctantly
giving up its three eastern rivers to get the treaty,
Pakistan also loses most of the water from its three
western rivers because of its own indecisiveness and
lethargy. The reaction of the masses will not be confined
to the Pakistan's water commissioner's files but will
result in an unimaginable catastrophe in the subcontinent.
The writer is a former federal secretary of Pakistan.
Email: tasneem.noorani@tnassociates.net
Viewpoints
Hail to the chief...how much do the
Americans mean it?
By urging
that the Congress express its "unbreakable bond" with Israel,
the lobby inadvertently conceded good news for America: this
perilous bond is already broken. Please defend the US: support
our Commander-in-Chief.
Jeff Gates
Forget
your opinion of Barack Obama. Love him or loathe him, the
reality remains unchanged: we have but one president at a
time. And but one commander-in-chief. US national security is
endangered-perhaps now more than at any time in history.
Both the president and our military leaders are bound by an
oath to defend this nation from all enemies, both foreign and
domestic. Recent events suggest that, in cooperation with
senior military officers, President Obama is battling a
cunning and committed adversary. To prevail, he needs public
support. Be clear on this point: we were deceived to wage war
in Iraq on fabricated intelligence.
Only one nation had the means, motive, opportunity and stable
intelligence to succeed with such an operation inside the US.
That same state now seeks to induce our invasion of Iran. Or
Pakistan. In 1948, the Joint Chiefs of Staff cautioned Harry
Truman about the "fanatical concepts" of this extremist
enclave, especially its plans for "military and economic
hegemony over the entire Middle East."
President Eisenhower saw this fledgling state in action when,
during his 1956 presidential campaign, Britain, France and
Israel sought to start a war with Egypt over control of the
Suez Canal. London and Paris were quickly persuaded to abandon
that effort. Not Tel Aviv. When this Republican leader sought
Congressional support, he found none. The former general
turned instead to a televised address to counter an influence
that has only grown stronger over the past 52 years.
This month, a bipartisan 363 members of Congress committed
themselves to an "unbreakable bond" with Israel-regardless of
its behavior. A similar commitment was addressed to the
commander-in-chief over the signatures of 76 Senators led by
Democrat Barbara Boxer of California. Republican Eric Cantor
of Virginia and New York Senator Charles Schumer, a Democrat,
unleashed a pro-Israel attack on Obama that sounded less like
the Congress than the Knesset.
Forced to face the reality of an enemy within, our military
leadership signalled Obama that they are prepared to cover his
back. The oath of office mandates a defense against all
enemies. Yet it also places our defence under civilian
control. Senior military officers now understand the need to
mount a vigorous defence against an enemy adept at waging war
"by way of deception."
That's the operative credo of the Mossad, Israel's
intelligence and foreign operations directorate. In January,
CENTCOM Commander David Petraeus dispatched a team to brief
Admiral Mike Mullen on the adverse impact of Israeli behavior
on US ?security interests.
As chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Mullen was reportedly
stunned. General Petraeus also argued that CENTCOM should have
oversight of Israel/Palestine. It's long been known how to
resolve those hostilities: declare Jerusalem an international
city under UN protection and dispatch international troops to
secure the area. The Israeli government fired right back. On
the early March arrival of Vice-President Joe Biden in Tel
Aviv, the Netanyahu government announced the construction of
1,600 homes in the most contentious area in dispute.
When Netanyahu arrived two weeks later for a White House
meeting, Obama's cool reception set off a flurry of
pro-Israeli ads in papers nationwide while Nobel peace
laureate Elie Wiesel proclaimed, "Jerusalem is above
politics." Meanwhile Israeli sabre-rattling moved into high
gear as the "existential threat" of Iran again became the
drumbeat of the nation's pro-Israeli mainstream media. The
Pentagon fired right backed with an announcement from the
Undersecretary of Defense for Policy that US military force
against Iran is "off the table in the near term." Another
adventure in the Middle East would be ruinous for the US not
only militarily but also financially and geo-strategically.
That may well be what the Israel lobby has in mind as it seeks
with its dominance in politics and media to induce another war
that would further damage US interests worldwide. To defend
against the manipulation of thought and emotion that typifies
modern warfare, the Pentagon is mounting a vigorous
counteroffensive. Though non-transparent to the public, its
latest initiative was a shot across the bow of this enemy
within.
On April 22, the Pentagon rescinded evangelist Franklin
Graham's invitation to a National Prayer Day event. News
reports confirmed that his anti-Islam comments were contrary
to a newly revised Pentagon policy meant to minimize such
provocative rhetoric. Though that analysis is correct, the
underlying dynamics are more complex and far more troublesome
for Israel. Those dynamics include its continued status as a
legitimate state.
Tel Aviv well recalls a tape-recorded discussion in 1972
between Republican President Richard Nixon and evangelist
Billy Graham, Franklin's father, in which Graham agreed with a
commander-in-chief that Jews control the media, calling it a
"stranglehold."
Franklin's attacks on Islam overcompensated for his father's
agreement on that key strategic point. With this action, the
Pentagon signaled confidence in the intelligence identifying a
key source of the deception that has long plagued US national
security.
By urging that the Congress express its "unbreakable bond"
with Israel, the lobby inadvertently conceded good news for
America: this perilous bond is already broken. Please defend
the US: support our Commander-in-Chief.
Jeff Gates is a US attorney and author of Guilt By
Association, Democracy at Risk and The Ownership Solution
Time to
sheath the sword
If indeed
Teheran sees itself as a vibrant democracy in the making
it would as a first step put an end to these executions.
Then the question will really be up for discussion.
Claude Salhani
Iran
and the West are headed for a confrontation as the Islamic
Republic continues to inch its way closer to becoming a
nuclear power. Iran says it wants nuclear technology for
peaceful purposes; the West - and Israel - do not believe
that to be the case, fearing instead that Iran wants to
develop the technology to acquire weaponised uranium.
The world seemed divided over what course of action to
take. Should sanctions be adopted? Will sanctions work?
Should a military option be considered? And what of the
consequences of such action? Some observers even disagree
on what Iran represents today with some calling it an
Islamist dictatorship while others believe there is even
an element of democracy in Iran. Yes, you heard me right,
an element of democracy. Some will take it even further.
My esteemed colleague and good friend Patrick Seale wrote
in a recent column commenting on the fact that President
Barack Obama was piling on the pressure on the Islamic
Republic of Iran in order to prevent Teheran from
acquiring the capability to build a nuclear weapon. In his
article Seale calls Iran "a vibrant democracy in the
making."
I have great respect for Seale, a seasoned writer with
great insight on the Middle East and someone who has
covered this troubled region far longer than I, however, I
believe that in this particular instance he is mistaken.
Calling Iran in its current theocratic form a vibrant
democracy is quite a contradiction. Having said that, I
believe I understand Seale's perspective. Yes, Iran has a
sprinkling of democracy that blends in with the autocratic
regime in place. On the surface parts of what transpires
may appear to be democratic. The country has a parliament
with elected members. However. Beneath that of democracy
there is a very different reality. Scratch the surface
just a tad the truth emerges rather quickly. On the
surface Iran hold elections that appear democratic, yet
when the results do match the regime's expectations the
results are scrubbed and the desired candidate is very
quickly declared the winner while dissidents are
persecuted, arrested, tortured and hanged. A vibrant
democracy does not hang its people. A vibrant democracy
does not rig elections. Just last week the Islamic
Republic issued five more death sentences to three family
members and two of their close associates after a
politicised, unfair trial, at which only weak evidence was
presented. This reveals a continuing programme meant to
punishing post-election protestors and intimidate the
population, the International Campaign for Human Rights in
Iran said in a statement.
These five cases, together with that of Abdolreza Ghanbari,
also sentenced to death, are based on allegations that the
defendants sent videos and pictures to an opposition group
outside Iran. "These sentences would be grossly
disproportionate even if evidence linked the defendants to
the charges, and they demonstrate complete disregard for
justice and due process in perversely sending innocent
citizens to the gallows," said the Campaign's
spokesperson, Aaron Rhodes.
"These death sentences are aimed at intimidating the
protest movement and are a mockery of justice," he added.
A number of lawyers who have been following the cases of
protestors sentenced to death told the Campaign that the
prosecutions followed a pattern in which the accused are
average citizens, without recourse to proper legal
counsel, and without prior political activism. In most
such cases, the families of the accused have been
threatened not to seek independent legal assistance or
speak to the media. That is not the manner in which a
vibrant zdemocracy behaves.In this latest case, Motahareh
Bahrami and Mohsen Daneshpour Moghaddam (husband and wife)
and their son, Ahmad Daneshpour, together with two of
their close friends, Rayhaneh Haj Ebrahim and Hadi Ghaemi
have been sentenced to death.
The family's other son, Meysam Daneshpour, told the
website Roozonline that his family members were arrested
at their home following Ashura protests. Daneshpour
confirmed the execution sentences and said that his family
did not have any recourse to an independent lawyer during
the lower court's prosecution. He also said family members
had no access to detainees during the prosecution. "We did
not have access to them [detainees] for two months, but
now we can meet them on a regular weekly basis," Meysam
Daneshpour told the Campaign.
All five had court-appointed lawyers during the
prosecution, who failed to inform the family of the
execution sentence. Maysam Daneshpour told the Campaign
that he had not received an official notification of the
court hearing or death sentence. Again, this is not how a
vibrant democracy behaves.
Now we come to the question of Iran's nuclear weapons. If
the Islamic Republic is indeed a vibrant democracy it
should not worry the West and its allies. Yet the fear of
Iran becoming a nuclear power is not only felt in
Washington, Tel Aviv or Brussels. The trepidation of a
nuclear-armed Islamic Republic is equally felt in Cairo,
Riyadh and Baghdad. While the Arabs may not openly admit
to their fear of Iran becoming a nuclear power it is no
secret that from Egypt to Saudi Arabia and from Jordan to
Iraq there is serious consternation about such an
eventuality. Not to mention, of course, what Tel Aviv's
actions are likely to be and the backlash it would create
in ?the region.
If indeed Teheran sees itself as a vibrant democracy in
the making it would as a first step put an end to these
executions. Then the question will really be up for
discussion.
Claude Salhani is a political analyst specialising in
the Middle East, Central Asia and terrorism
How media promote a mistaken view of
the world
Once the Red Shirts and the government sort out their
problems, Thailand will certainly disappear off our radar.
It would take an economic crisis, rigged elections, or
even a tsunami to bring it back as a story worth telling.
Ramzy Baroud
Local
media need to challenge stereotypical image of others
projected by Western news agencies.
I am not good at flying kites. But during a recent visit
to the Olympic Village in Beijing, I felt compelled to
try. Despite the cold and late hour, there were many kite
runners around me. A salesman insisted that I try my hand
before committing to any purchase, and I did. Once I
finalized the purchase of 10 small kites, I shared the one
I was already flying one with a most adorable boy. He
thanked me, then asked me not to play with his hair.
Earlier, at Tiananmen Square, I had watched throngs of
people giddily roam the vast expanse, snapping endless
photos in front of the Gate of Heavenly Peace in the
Imperial City and around every monument in the square.
A formation of about 10 soldiers was suddenly in tatters
when I asked if I could take a photo with them. Their
excitement seemed to surpass mine.
None of this should by any means take away from the
seriousness of the violent crackdown at Tiananmen Square
in 1989. That date should be remembered and lessons must
not be forgotten. But why the reductionism? When one
thinks of Tiananmen, why does one only think of hordes of
protesters and gangs of soldiers? The bloody scene is used
time and again to single out China as an anti-democratic
regime, juxtaposed conveniently against Western
"democratic values."
One hardly ever reads positive news from China, or any
other "non-Western" countries - unless an agenda exists
for promoting selective positive news from those countries
- for example, a supposedly successful election in
Afghanistan conducted under the auspices of Western
armies.
In Thailand last week I saw no signs of the Red Shirts, or
the Yellow Shirts either. I did, however, see some
shirtless Thais. Considering the heat and humidity, this
was not surprising. The point remains that aside from a
standoff at a major Bangkok shopping center, the rest of
the metropolis seemed to operate as normal. A Thai man
struggled to communicate his political views to me in
English. I had found him watching a video on some social
networking website. The video featured a dog and a cat,
the cat representing the Red Shirts, and the dog the
current government. They barked, meowed and hissed, but
they didn't physically engage. The man laughingly
commented, "This is how things are in Thailand." Then, in
a more somber tone, "It's all about power and control; no
one cares about Thais who cannot afford a shirt - red,
yellow, or otherwise."
True, but it also seems that the Western media care little
about these countries, outside of a very narrow context.
The story of China is only worthy if it involves
government restriction (e.g. of Google), or economics,
i.e. how China's economic growth will affect Western
economic recovery. Even if the story is related to art
rather than politics, somehow it finds its way back to the
same old theme, for example, the government censoring
struggling artists.
Once the Red Shirts and the government sort out their
problems, Thailand will certainly disappear off our radar.
It would take an economic crisis, rigged elections, or
even a tsunami to bring it back as a story worth telling.
In the meantime, the country will return to its convenient
role for the West - a cheap destination for
adventure-seeking travelers with some money to spare, a
topic in blogs advising ways to get more money for your
buck or baht, and clever ways to dodge Thai con artists.
China and Thailand are the norm, not the exception. In a
recent discussion with a Reuters editor, I complained
about the fact that every story on Malaysia had some kind
of negative undertone. Examples include: Muslim, Christian
clashes over the use of the word "Allah"; the trial of
Anwar Ibrahim; the ugly politicking. The news makes it
easy to quickly imagine Malaysia as the most dysfunctional
and unfortunate society on earth.
This was not the impression I got during my last visit to
Malaysia. It is, in many respects, a thriving society. It
has its internal politics, like anywhere else, but
essentially Christians and Muslims seem to be getting
along just fine, as they have done for many years.
Media channels - especially those dispatching their news
from various Western capitals - focus not simply on
sensational news, but they also intentionally
sensationalize news, and purposely relay the news so as to
be understood within Western contexts. Thus "democracy,"
"elections," "government restrictions" and "terrorism" are
the usual buzzwords.
Sadly, the south is also stereotyped in the south itself.
Newspapers in non-Western societies depend on coverage
provided by Western news agencies for their international
news. An Indonesian friend recently commended on my
"bravery" for going to South Africa. For him, South Africa
is just "Africa," where "primitive" people, along with
lions and other wild animals prey on innocent white
tourists. Thank you, Hollywood, for perfecting the art of
stereotype.
Similarly, some people show utter disbelief when they
discover that Iran is one of the world's busiest travel
destinations - not necessarily for Americans or Israelis,
but for people across the globe. Yes, Iran has much to
offer in terms of culture, history, scenery and societal
achievements. There is far more to the country than
clashing soldiers and youth, or fiery statements
pertaining to nuclear weapons, Israel and the Holocaust.
A few years ago, in Stockholm, I asked a group of
officials to tell me the images that popped in their heads
when they thought of Palestinians. I asked them to be
honest, assuring them that nothing they said would offend
me. But when I heard back from them, I was indeed very
offended. The images were unfailingly gory. Even the
"positive" images amongst them were disturbing and
stereotypical.
The Western media will continue to reduce non-Westerners,
for they have a vested interest in doing so, and it has
become habitual. A first step in overcoming this would be
to empower our own local and regional media, and to create
rapport amongst them. We can only challenge the abhorrent
narratives about us when we start to present our own truth
and experience, and support others who do the same.
Ramzy Baroud (www.ramzybaroud.net) is a columnist and
the editor of PalestineChronicle.com.
International
India, Pakistan
leaders agree on new peace talks
AP, Thimphu, Bhutan
The prime ministers of India and Pakistan agreed Thursday
to resume peace talks between their top diplomats and work
toward rebuilding trust shattered by the deadly 2008
Mumbai terror attacks that New Delhi blamed on Pakistani
militants.
Officials said India's Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani
counterpart, Yousuf Raza Gilani, agreed on the need to
normalize relations, dogged by more than six decades of
hostility since both gained independence from Britain.
They deputed their foreign ministers to meet at a later
date to discuss the resumption of a wide-ranging formal
dialogue that began in 2004 but was suspended after the
Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people. The two prime
ministers met for more than one hour in the tiny Himalayan
kingdom of Bhutan, on the sidelines of a summit of South
Asian leaders. It was their first meeting in eight months.
India's foreign secretary, Nirupama Rao, said Gilani
assured India that Pakistan would not allow its territory
to be used for terrorist activity directed against India
and it would expedite the trial of suspects of the Mumbai
attacks it is holding in Pakistan.
The two prime ministers "agreed that relations between the
two countries should be normalized and the channels of
contact should work effectively to enlarge the
constituency of peace in both countries," Rao told
reporters.
Pakistan's foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi,
described it as a "very friendly" meeting and signaled
that he thought the resumption of the dialogue - which
covers a range of issues from border disputes, nuclear
weapons and the two countries' dispute over Kashmir - was
a formality.
"The two prime ministers have agreed to resume a dialogue
process that remained suspended for so many months. Both
foreign ministers have been asked to work out modalities
of engagement. The climate has changed," Qureshi told
reporters.
"I don't think that either side was expecting such a
positive turn in dialogue."
Rao was more equivocal. She said India was willing to
discuss and resolve all outstanding issues with Pakistan -
including terrorism and the rise in infiltration by
Islamic insurgents. She said the foreign ministers have
been charged with "thinking afresh and working out ways to
restore trust and confidence in the relationship."
'Pakistan moved 100,000
soldiers from its border with India'
IANS, Washington
In a tacit acknowledgement that internal insurgency is a
greater threat now, Pakistan has moved 100,000 troops from
its border with India to the Afghanistan border to bolster
its campaign against Taliban, according to a new Pentagon
report.
The congressionally mandated 'Report on Progress Toward
Security and Stability in Afghanistan' cites progress in
President Barack Obama's strategy aimed at disrupting,
dismantling and defeating Al Qaida in Afghanistan and
Pakistan.
'More than 100,000 PAKMIL (Pakistan Military) troops were
moved from the eastern border with India. This
unprecedented deployment and thinning of the lines against
India indicates that Islamabad has acknowledged its
domestic insurgent threat,' said the report covering the
situation on the ground from Oct 1 to March 31.
The Pentagon did not specify the regions from where the
troops had been pulled out, but said it estimated that
more than 140,000 Pakistani forces were now taking part in
the ongoing offensive against the Taliban in Pakistan's
semi-autonomous tribal region, known as FATA.
The Pentagon report was issued hours before a crucial
meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his
Pakistani counterpart Yusuf Raza Gilani in the Bhutanese
capital of Thimphu on the sidelines of the SAARC Summit
that the State Department said was 'good for the region'.
The Pentagon said a broad syndicate of extremist groups
was operating in the AfPak region with multiple short and
long term goals. It identified the groups as Al Qaida,
Tehreek-e-Taliban and Lashkar-e Taiba (LeT) which it said
threatened security of Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and
elsewhere.
Pakistani military operations in tribal areas of North
West Frontier Province (NWFP) had placed 'a high degree of
pressure on militants and reduced their safe havens', but
it was unlikely to have an immediate impact on the US-led
war in Afghanistan, the report said.
'The three major groups include the Quetta Shura Taliban,
Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin, and the Haqqani Network.
Pakistan Taliban leader
Hakimullah Mehsud 'still alive'
BBC Online
Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud survived an
American drone attack in the north-west of the country in
January, intelligence sources say.
Officials said at the time that he was killed in a US
missile attack along with at least 10 suspected militants.
Pakistani intelligence officials now say that Mr Mehsud
was only wounded in the attack - although his authority
within the Taliban has diminished.
From the outset, the Taliban consistently denied that he
was dead.
Internal squabbling
The BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says that claims by US
and Pakistani officials that Mr Mehsud had been killed
always lacked credibility - especially after he reportedly
contacted the BBC office in January to dispel rumours of
his death.
The BBC also received a video of Mr Mehsud, but it was
difficult to determine whether the footage was shot before
or after his "death".
Our correspondent says that another argument against his
death was the fact that there was no leadership challenge
within the Pakistani Taliban after his reported demise - a
development that normally would have been expected to have
taken place.
The Taliban waited about three weeks to confirm that Mr
Mehsud's predecessor, Baitullah Mehsud, had been killed in
an August strike amid widespread reports of internal
squabbling over who would be his successor.
Thai protesters ask EU to
help in bloody crisis
AFP, Bangkok
Thailand's "Red Shirt" protesters Thursday called on the
European Union to send observers to prevent a crackdown by
the army, but the government warned others not to meddle
in its internal affairs.
A day after violent clashes on Bangkok's streets between
demonstrators and troops left one soldier dead and 18
people injured, the Reds asked the European Union
delegation in Bangkok for help in the crisis.
"Faced with the threat of tanks and impending bloodshed,
we are appealing for your help in averting a human rights
catastrophe," said a letter the Reds submitted at the EU
delegation's office.
"Therefore, we beg you to condemn and stop this
government's crackdown so that innocent lives will not be
lost."
The Reds-who want immediate elections to replace Prime
Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's government-sent the letter to
EU ambassador David Lipman with an "urgent request" to
send monitors to Bangkok to prevent another crackdown.
The ambassador met the protesters briefly and called for a
peaceful, negotiated solution to the crisis, said an EU
statement.
The meeting followed last week's invitation by Red leaders
to Bangkok's diplomatic community to visit their protest
site, but Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya dismissed
the idea of foreign assistance.
"There is no need for international intervention at this
point in time," Kasit told a news conference during a
visit to Jakarta.
Pak SC verdict rocks PM's
bureaucracy
Dawn Online, Islamabad
The Supreme Court of Pakistan struck down on Wednesday
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's order of promoting 54
bureaucrats to grade 22 and said that the discretion
exercised by the prime minister was not in consonance with
the well-known principles of fair play and good
governance.
"Petitions are accepted, as a consequence whereof
notifications (of promoting civil servants) are declared
having been passed without taking into consideration
merits amongst officers promoted from BS-21 to BS-22,"
said the verdict announced by a bench comprising Chief
Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Chaudhry Ijaz
Ahmed and Justice Ghulam Rabbani.
Analysts are of the opinion that the landmark judgment
will go a long way in discouraging the use of
discretionary powers by governments to elevate their
favourites to senior positions and will set guidelines for
future promotions.
As a result of the verdict the officers who had been
promoted stood relegated to their earlier positions and
they would not be entitled to any benefits, perks and
privileges accruing from the promotion.
Those who had been promoted out of turn to BS-22 include
Prime Minister's Principal Secretary Nargis Sethi,
Petroleum Secretary Kamran Lashari, Punjab Chief Secretary
Nasir Mehmood Khan Khosa, Interior Secretary Maj (retd)
Qamar Zaman, Election Commission Secretary Ishtiaq Ahmed
Khan, FBR Chairman Sohail Ahmed, CDA Chairman Imtiaz
Inayat Elahi, Board of Revenue's Member for Sindh Ghulam
Ali Pasha, Anti-Narcotics Secretary Tariq Masood Khan
Khosa and Ambassador to China Masood Khan.
It was not clear if the reversal of their grade would
immediately affect their current postings.
The prime minister reshuffled almost the entire top brass
of the bureaucracy on Sept 4 last year, replacing over a
dozen federal secretaries and announcing changes in
several ministries by promoting civil servants to grade
22.
Those ignored in the promotions moved the Supreme Court,
complaining of massive injustice.
US unlikely to block
Chinese N-exports to Pakistan
Dawn Online, Washington
US-India nuclear deal prevents the Obama administration
from blocking a possible export of two Chinese nuclear
power reactors to Pakistan, says a US think-tank. "China
is poised to export two power reactors to Pakistan," said
a report released by the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace in Washington.
"The pending Sino-Pakistan deal reflects the growing
confidence and assertiveness of China's nuclear energy
programme."
A nuclear deal the US signed with India was one of the
main reasons that prevented Washington from openly
criticising the Chinese export to Islamabad, the report
observed.
The US administration, however, might object to it inside
the Nuclear Suppliers Group, which oversees such
transactions. Such objections, however, "cannot prevent
China from exporting the reactors", the report added.
"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," said the report while explaining the first reason
for a muted US reaction. It recalled that the US-India
deal entered into force in 2008 after considerable
arm-twisting of NSG states by the United States, France
and Russia.
"The breach created by the US-India deal, which would be
opened wider by Chinese export of reactors to Pakistan,
will not be easily closed because, as stated by paragraph
16 of the (NSG) guidelines, unanimous consent is required
for any changes in the guidelines," the report warned.
Bali's beach boys reject
gigolo slur
AFP, Kuta, Indonesia
Fun-loving local beach boys are as much a fixture and, for
some women, an attraction of Bali as the sun and surf, but
all that could be about to change thanks to a
controversial new film.
The documentary, "Cowboys in Paradise" by Singapore-based
writer and director Amit Virmani, sparked panic among
Bali's tourism officials when it was released at a film
festival in South Korea earlier this month.
Its candid interviews with the local men who flirt with
and seduce foreign tourists has severely tarnished the
resort island's image, officials say.
"Certainly it's worrying. We'll take action so the image
of Bali as a spiritual island isn't tainted," Bali
Governor Made Mangku Pastika told reporters.
Police have rounded up almost 30 of the so-called beach
"cowboys" in a bid to "clean up the beach of
prostitution", Bali police spokesman Gede Sugianyar said.
Some of the men at the centre of the brouhaha said they
were distressed and angry at being hounded as gigolos, and
flatly denied offering sexual favours for money.
"I'm stressed by the raids. I wonder if the authorities
are coming after me next," 29-year-old surf instructor
Rosnan Efendi told AFP.
"I'm also angry the filmmaker twisted the story. We were
told it was a documentary about love and relationships
between locals and foreigners," he added.
Well-built, tanned and sporting shoulder-length wavy hair,
Efendi said he met his German girlfriend on the beach four
years ago and fell in love.
Iran,
Egypt ready for battle at U.N. nuclear meeting
Reuters, United Nations
Iran and Egypt are gearing up for battle against the
United States and its allies over Israel and developing
countries' rights to atomic technology at a major meeting
on the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is expected to
attend the conference, which opens on Monday and runs
until May 28. He will be facing off with Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton, who heads the U.S. delegation at
the meeting at U.N. headquarters.
Diplomats expect Ahmadinejad to take a defiant stand
against the United States and its Western allies, accusing
them of trying to deprive developing states of nuclear
technology while turning a blind eye toward Israel's
nuclear capability.
The 189 signatories of the landmark 1970 arms control
treaty -- which is intended to stop the spread of nuclear
weapons and calls on those with atomic warheads to abandon
them -- gather every five years to assess compliance with
the pact and progress made toward achieving its goals.
The last NPT review conference in 2005 was widely
considered a disaster. After weeks of procedural bickering
led by the former U.S. administration, Egypt and Iran, the
meeting ended with no agreement on a final declaration.
Analysts and U.N. diplomats hope things will be different
this time and that the conference can breathe new life
into a treaty that has failed to prevent North Korea from
building a nuclear bomb or force Iran to stop uranium
enrichment.
Success or failure of U.N.
nuclear pact conference
Reuters, United Nations
The 189 signatories of the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty are due to gather at U.N. headquarters in New York
next week to start a May 3-28 conference to discuss ways
of breathing new life into the pact.
Analysts say the treaty has suffered in recent years due
to Iran's and North Korea's clandestine nuclear
activities, a Pakistani-led network that supplied Iran,
North Korea and Libya with sensitive atomic technology and
the failure of nuclear-armed states to make more progress
toward reducing their nuclear arsenals.
NPT review conferences have taken place every five years
during the treaty's 40-year history. In 1995, signatories
agreed to extend the treaty's validity indefinitely.
Here are some possible scenarios for the conference.
The ideal outcome, analysts and U.N. diplomats say, would
be a conference that avoids prolonged procedural bickering
of the kind that helped torpedo the last one in 2005 and
yields a consensus declaration that outlines ways to
improve compliance with the three so-called pillars of the
treaty.
Those pillars are non-proliferation, disarmament and
peaceful use of nuclear energy.
A final declaration, analysts say, should call for
strengthening the role of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the
U.N. Security Council and other bodies.
Western nations want a declaration to call for stronger
non-proliferation measures -- making a tougher U.N.
inspection protocol aimed at smoking out covert nuclear
weapons programs obligatory, and imposing stiff penalties
on countries that pull out of the treaty, as North Korea
did in 2003.
China revises state secrets
law to include Internet
Reuters, Beijing
China on Thursday adopted a revised law on state secrets,
designed to adapt authorities' wide-ranging powers to
officially include telecoms and online communications.
The new law retained a broad definition of what
constitutes a secret. Earlier this week, authorities also
issued definitions of what constituted commercial secrets
for China's state-owned corporations.
Rights advocates have long been worried about China's
sweeping secrets laws, which in practice are often used to
quash dissent or discussion of anything the ruling
Communist Party deems sensitive.
"Everyone knows, mobility within society has increased a
lot, there are a lot more private companies and middlemen
playing a role," said Du Yongsheng, vice director of
China's State Secrets Bureau, who did not bring name cards
to a news conference he addressed.
"This has made the work of the secrets authorities
harder."
In addition to military matters and foreign affairs, the
seven categories of secrets included in China's secrets
law include secret economic or social development
projects, technology secrets, and "other secrets defined
by the state secrets authorities".
It requires telecoms and Internet providers to cooperate
with authorities in reporting and investigating secrets
revealed over their networks. In practice in China, most
providers already do.
"This law is designed to protect national security and
secrets," said Zhang Yong, policy and regulations director
of the State Secrets Bureau.
"Protecting citizens' communications falls under other
laws."
West Bank settlers hurl
rocks at Palestinian homes
AP, Jerusalem
Ultranationalist Israeli settlers on Thursday surrounded a
Palestinian home near a West Bank settlement and hurled
rocks through windows to avenge a string of early morning
arrests by Israeli police.
Residents of the Yitzhar settlement, in the northern West
Bank, marched through the neighboring Palestinian village
of Hawara in a show of anger over what they said was a
police campaign against them. Yitzhar is among the most
radical settlements in the West Bank, and its residents
have scuffled with Israeli forces several times in recent
weeks. Friction is common between the 2.5 million
Palestinians and 300,000 Israeli settlers in the West
Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.
Palestinians view the more than 120 settlements that
Israel has built across the West Bank as a key obstacle to
setting up their own state. Hardline settlers, including
residents of Yitzhar, believe they are returning to lands
promised to the Jews by God.
The latest unrest occurred hours after soldiers raided
Yitzhar and arrested seven settlers, including three
minors, for unspecified "disturbances," police spokesman
Micky Rosenfeld said. Yitzhar settler Avraham Binyamin
said Israeli police detained the settlers for 10 or 15
minutes at around 4:30 a.m.
After police attempted to arrest another settler later
Thursday morning, a group of Yitzhar residents tried to
block them, then later marched to Hawara "to demonstrate
against the crusade that the police are enacting,"
Binyamin said. Palestinian villagers said the settlers
fled only after people inside the house called for help
through a loudspeaker and a crowd of Palestinians
converged on the area. Israeli soldiers later arrived on
the scene to keep the sides separated. Binyamin said the
violent demonstration was part of what the settlers call
their "price tag" policy - going after Palestinian targets
to avenge Israeli police actions against the settlers.
Settlers have repeatedly attacked Palestinian farmland,
and are suspected in a recent vandalism attack on a West
Bank mosque.
US tour near Syrian border
criticized in Lebanon
AP, Beirut
Lebanon's foreign ministry and the militant Hezbollah
group criticized on Thursday a visit by a U.S. security
team to the Lebanese-Syrian border, saying it violates
international diplomatic agreements.
The U.S. Embassy said Wednesday's trip was planned months
ago and took place in coordination with the Lebanese
government.
The visit comes on the heels of Israeli accusations that
Syria is 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, but the scud controversy
has added to the Lebanese-Israeli tensions.
Lebanon's Foreign Ministry said in a statement it was not
informed in advance about the visit by the U.S. team to
al-Masnaa border crossing point in the eastern Bekaa
Valley. It added the visit violates an article of the
Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which states
that such missions should be conducted through the host
country's foreign ministry.
A U.S. Embassy official said the American mission was part
of an assessment team from the Department of States
Anti-terrorism Assistance program, or ATA, which trains
Lebanese security forces. The officials added that the
team was in Lebanon to assess the training programs.
"The visit to al-Masnaa was done so at the invitation and
in coordination with the Government of Lebanon," said the
official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of
the sensitivity of the issue.
Russian PM Putin orders
Arctic cleanup
Reuters, Moscow
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has ordered that a
million abandoned barrels of Soviet-era fuel be removed
from the Arctic because they are polluting the
environment.
Putin visited the Russian archipelago of Franz Josef Land,
1,000 km (600 miles) from the North Pole, as part of
Russia's drive to reassert its presence in the
resource-rich region, now opening up to commercial
exploration because of melting ice.
Putin told state-run Rossiya 24 television in the Arctic
he was shocked to see stocks of "abandoned barrels of fuel
scattered all the way to the horizon". It was not
immediately clear when Putin made the trip.
"The decrease in military activity after the collapse of
the USSR has left this dump which we see now. The
pollution level is six times higher than normal. What we
need to do now is to organise a sweeping cleanup of the
Arctic," he said.
He said fuel may leak into the Arctic Ocean from the rusty
barrels as temperatures slowly rise.
An increase of up to 4 degrees Celsius has been felt
across the Arctic in the past 30 years. While some
scientists put it down to fluctuating weather patterns,
environmentalist groups say it is caused by global warming
due to human activity.
Putin mentioned the trip in a speech to parliament on
April 20 but the Russian media only released the material
on Thursday.
Legal questions raised over
CIA drone strikes
Agency, Washington
Is the CIA's secret program of drone strikes against
terrorists in Pakistan and Yemen a case of illegal
assassinations or legitimate self-defense? That was a
central question Wednesday as the program came under fire
from several legal scholars who urged greater oversight by
Congress, arguing the attacks may violate international
law and put intelligence officers at risk of prosecution
for murder in foreign countries. Four law professors
offered conflicting views, underscoring the murky legal
nature of America's 9-year-old war against extremists. The
conflict has spread from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to a
complex campaign against al-Qaida, the Taliban and other
insurgents worldwide.
Both the Bush and Obama administrations have defended the
use of attacks from unmanned aircraft. They also have
tiptoed around the issue because the CIA program, which
has escalated in Pakistan over the past year, is
classified and has not yet been acknowledged publicly by
the government.
The CIA strikes are ''a clear violation of international
law,'' said Mary Ellen O'Connell, law professor at the
University of Notre Dame Law School, who added that going
after terrorists should be a law enforcement activity. She
said the rest of the world does not recognize American
authority to carry out attacks in Yemen and Pakistan,
where the United States is not involved in direct armed
conflict. CIA officers who operate the drones could be
arrested and charged with murder in other countries,
O'Connell warned, likening it to having the Mexican police
or military bomb hotels in Arizona in order to target drug
lords who may be hiding there. Others on the panel
disagreed, saying enemy forces are legitimate targets,
particularly when they operate out of countries that will
not act themselves. The United States long has declared
the legal view that as important as sovereignty is, ''it
is lawful to go and strike a person where a country is
unable or unwilling'' to control its own territory, said
Kenneth Anderson, a professor at American University's
Washington College of Law.
Business/Economy
IMF
warns Asian economies of overheating risks
AFP, Shanghai
The International Monetary Fund warned Thursday that Asian
economies were at risk of overheating as strong capital
inflows fan inflationary pressures and raise the risk of
damaging bubbles.
The IMF urged regional leaders to return to "more normal"
monetary policies after the global financial crisis, and
increase the flexibility of their exchange rates to
counter speculative funds flowing into their economies.
"For China, like in other economies in the region, the
risk is to ensure that the boom we see in asset flows does
not, like in the past, lead to a cycle of boom and bust,"
Anoop Singh, director of the IMF's Asia-Pacific
department, told a news conference.
In its latest report on the regional outlook, the IMF said
brighter economic growth prospects and widening interest
rate differentials with developed economies "are likely to
attract more capital to the region".
"This could lead to overheating in some economies and
increase their vulnerability to credit and asset price
booms with the risk of subsequent abrupt reversals," the
report said.
The IMF raised its growth forecasts for Asia to 7.1
percent for both 2010 and 2011, higher than its prediction
last week when it estimated regional economies would
expand an average 6.9 percent this year and 7.0 percent
next. But the Fund warned export-driven Asia remained
vulnerable to a slower-than-expected recovery in the West,
and urged governments to reduce their reliance on overseas
shipments and boost domestic consumption. "It will be
important to implement reforms that boost the productivity
and the competitiveness of the services sector," IMF
senior economist Olaf Unteroberdoerster told reporters.
The IMF said Asian policymakers need to safeguard against
the build-up of imbalances in asset and housing markets
caused by "excess liquidity", and one way to do this was
to adopt more flexible exchange rates.
"Letting the exchange rate appreciate can forestall
short-term inflows," the Fund said, without specifically
referring to China.
"Without more currency appreciation, the pressure to
sterilise the impact on money supply will continue."
But stronger currencies alone were not going to rebalance
the economies in China and other countries in the region,
said Singh.
Governments needed to reduce household "precautionary
savings" and very high corporate savings in China and
elsewhere.
"It's very important that this package of measures is not
viewed as based on one policy, which is the exchange
rate," Singh said.
The IMF said last week a stronger yuan was "essential" for
both the Chinese and world economies, heaping more
pressure on Beijing to revalue the currency, which has
been effectively pegged at 6.8 to the dollar since
mid-2008.
Europe
debt crisis deepens after Spain downgrade
AFP, Athens
Europe's debt crisis deepened on Wednesday after Spain was
slapped with a credit downgrade and pressure mounted for
urgent approval of a giant bailout for Greece that could
run to 120 billion euros.
The head of the IMF warned confidence in the entire
16-nation euro area was now at stake and Greek Prime
Minister George Papandreou said the EU "must prevent a
fire... from spreading to the entire European and world
economy".
IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn and European
Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet travelled to
Berlin to drum up support for an EU-IMF aid plan for
Greece in which Germany would have to pay the lion's
share. "It is perfectly clear that the negotiations with
the Greek government, the European Commission and the IMF
need to be accelerated," German Chancellor Angela Merkel
said after meeting with Strauss-Kahn.
"We hope they can be wrapped up in the coming days and on
the basis of this, Germany will make its decisions," she
told reporters.
Germany has said it will lend Greece the money it needs to
avoid a default only if Athens promises to make further
budget cuts.
But there were signs of a hitch in the negotiations after
Greek Labour Minister Andreas Loverdos told reporters that
Athens was resisting demands by the EU and the IMF to cut
salary bonuses in the private sector. "We have been asked
for a cut which we do not accept," Loverdos said.
Financial markets meanwhile reeled for a second day,
following credit downgrades for both Greece and Portugal
on Tuesday that heightened investor fears that the Greek
debt drama is spreading to other weakened euro nations.
The European single currency plunged to its lowest level
against the dollar in more than a year and was trading at
1.3198 dollars in late deals, while bond and stock markets
across much of Europe were also sharply down.
"The downgrade of Spanish government debt by S&P is
another alarming sign that the effects of the Greek crisis
are spreading," said European economist Ben May at
research firm Capital Economics in London.
S&P lowered Spain's long-term sovereign credit rating to
"AA" from "AA+" and said the outlook was negative, meaning
there could be a further downgrade.
Credit ratings are closely watched by financial market
professionals as a guideline on whether or not to invest
in stocks, bonds and currencies.
Spain appealed to those investors, with Deputy Prime
Minister Maria Teresa de la Vega saying her country was
cutting its debts. "I want to send a message of confidence
to the population and of calm to the markets," she said.
IBBL holds get-together
TBT Economy Desk
A get-together of Islami Bank Bangladesh was held on the
occasion of Service Month of the bank at a hotel in the
capital on Wednesday. . Abu Nasser Muhammad Abduz Zaher,
Chairman of the bank, presided over the function.
Annisul Huq, President of The Federation of Bangladesh
Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) and SAARC
Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) was present as
Chief Guest.
M Fariduddin Ahmad, Managing Director of the bank, made
the welcome speech. The program was addressed by Justice
Md. Abdur Rouf, former chief election commissioner, Md.
Mozaharul Haque Prodhan, Member of Parliament, Lt. General
(rtd.) Nuruddin, former chief of army staff, Tofazzel
Hossain, Chairman of National Life Insurance Company
Limited, and former chairman of NCC Bank, Poritosh Kanti
Shaha, Proprietor of Pubali Salt Industries, Syed Rizvee,
Chairman of Global Beverage, Begum Tahmina, Proprietor of
M/s Nasrin Sultana, and Dr. Afruza Bari, Managing Director
of Ananda Ship Yard, says a press release.
Prof. Abu Nasser Muhammad Abduz Zaher in his speech said,
Islami Bank works to provide job to 15 crore people of the
country.
Bank Asia opens SME Service Centre at Rupnagar
TBT economy Desk
Bank Asia opened the 7th SME Service Centre at Rupnagar in
Dhaka on Thursday with a view to promoting Small and
Medium Enterprises in the area, says a press release.
Erfanuddin Ahmed, President & Managing Director of the
bank, inaugurated the centre. SM Khorshed Alam, Deputy
Managing Director, and Irteza Reza Chowdhury, Senior
Executive Vice President, among others, were present. A
large number of people including businessmen, journalists
and local elite attended the function.
World needs clean energy revolution
AFP, United Nations
Rich and poor nations need a "clean energy revolution" in
order to cut greenhouse gas emissions responsible for
global warming, UN chief Ban Ki-moon said here on
Wednesday.
"We cannot achieve the (poverty-reduction) Millennium
Development Goals without providing access to affordable
modern energy," he said as he opened a day-long energy
conference.
Noting that 1.6 billion people around the world lack
access to electricity while two to three billion still
rely on traditional energy sources such as firewood, peat
or dung, the UN boss said access to energy must be
expanded "in the cleanest, most efficient way possible."
Ban spoke as he launched a report by his advisory group on
energy and climate change that calls for "universal access
to modern energy services" by 2030 and stresses the need
to cut energy intensity by 40 percent also by 2030.
Energy intensity is measured by the quantity of energy per
unit of economic activity or output.
"The aim of providing universal access should be to create
improved conditions for economic take-off, contribute to
attaining (the development goals by the 2015 target) and
enable the poorest of the poor to escape poverty," the
report said.
It added that curbing global energy intensity would
require developed and developing countries to strenghthen
their capacity to implement effective policies,
market-based mechanisms, investment tools and regulations
with respect to energy use.
The report said these ambitious goals can be achieved due
to technology innovation through adoption of appropriate
national strategies and international finance, including
innovative financial mechanisms and climate finance.
It said 35 to 40 billion dollars in capital would be
needed on average per year to achieve basic universal
access to modern energy services (for cooking, heating,
lighting, communication and education) by 2030.
The study also said participation by the private sector
was essential to meet those goals.
It pointed out that energy access has been dramatically
expanded in countries such as China, Brazil and Vietnam
while dramatic improvement in energy efficiency has been
recorded in China, Denmark, Japan, Sweden and California.
‘Asian economies lead
world economic growth’
Xinhua, Mexico City
Asian economies are leading the growth of the world
economy, which helps other countries cope with the global
economic downturn, a Mexican official said on Wednesday.
"The emerging economies, especially those in Asia, have
contributed most to the growth of the world economy," said
Agustin Carstens, governor of Mexico's Central Bank. "The
possibility of a systemic crisis is diluted," he said.
Speaking at the presentation of the bank's quarterly
inflation report, Carstens said that Mexico is recovering
from the economic crisis due to the increase in exports of
oil and manufactured goods.
"Within the manufacturing sector, auto exports have seen a
spectacular growth," he added. Mexico's auto production
surged 85 percent in March compared with a year earlier
and its exports increased by 61 percent, according to the
Mexican Automotive Industry Association.
The country's economy grew 3.4 percent in February
compared with a year earlier, with manufacturing and
construction leaping 4.4 percent, Mexico's National
Statistics Agency (Inegi) reported Tuesday.
Carstens affirmed the bank's forecasts for Mexico's
economic growth of 4 percent to 5 percent this year and
3.2 percent and 4.2 percent next year. The growth will
help create 500,000 to 600,000 jobs each year, he said.
Underlying inflation is headed lower and the spikes in
inflation seen earlier this year was due to high prices of
seasonal food and one-off increase in tax brought into
force on Jan. 1, he added.
Salaried people contribute 55pc of tax revenue
in Taiwan
ANN
Salaried people contribute around 55 percent of annual
personal consolidated income tax revenue collected by the
government of Taiwan, compared to a 44 percent
contribution by those "wealthy people" with annual net
taxable income of over NT$3.72 million, according to
statistics compiled by the Department of Taxation (DOT)
under the Ministry of Finance.
Lee Ching-hua, deputy director general of the DOT, said
that in terms of tax rate, those who are exempted from
personal consolidated tax and those who are subject to a
tax rate of 6 percent account for 72 percent of total
enrolled taxpayers. But they contribute only 8 percent of
total personal consolidated income tax revenue, indicating
that low to medium income earners have shouldered
comparatively lower income tax.
By contrast, Lee continued, those with net taxable annual
income of over NT$3.72 million account for only 1 percent
of total taxpayers. But such taxpayers contributed up to
44 percent of total annual personal consolidated tax
revenue, mainly because they are subject to the maximum
income tax rate of 40 percent.
Rich Chinese fueling luxury car market growth
ANN
Free-spending new rich and young entrepreneurs have made
China a key growth market for luxury car makers as the
traditional Western markets continue to languish.
Nothing personifies this as much as the exhibits at the
ongoing Beijing auto show, with over 90 percent of the
high-priced wheels finding eager buyers in spite of the
models being priced in excess of 1 million yuan. The
hottest deals have been the 40-million-yuan forked out for
a Bugatti Veyron super sports car and the 10-million-yuan
for a black Rolls Royce Phantom Extended Wheelbase
Edition.
"China's super car market is growing faster than our
expectations, while the Western markets are declining,"
said Stephan Winkelmann, president and CEO of Italian
super sports car producer Automobili Lamborghini SpA.
"The strong demand will soon make China our second biggest
market after the United States. If the high taxes on
luxury cars are removed, China could very well become the
biggest market." Lamborghini has launched a special
edition Murcilago LP 670-4 SuperVeloce at the auto show,
designed and manufactured exclusively for Chinese super
sports car enthusiasts. Limited to only 10 cars worldwide,
Lamborghini has already received orders for the
8-million-yuan-plus car from young customers here.
In 2009, Lamborghini delivered 80 new vehicles to China,
up 11 percent from a year earlier. Winkelmann said the
company expects sales to surpass 100 units this year.
"Chinese entrepreneurs have been very successful in the
past few years as economic growth remained strong in the
nation," said Paul Harris, Asia-Pacific regional director
for Rolls Royce.
"Although we have loyal clientele from celebrities and
hotels, young Chinese entrepreneurs are also now major
customers," he said.
According to Harris, China would soon become Rolls Royce's
second largest market, with sales likely to touch 300 to
400 units this year.
"We sold around 100 cars last year, but we have already
received more than 250 orders in the first four months of
this year," said Harris. "China accounts for 15 to 20
percent of our global market."
He attributed the surging orders to the Rolls Royce Ghost
model launched last year. The Ghost is a smaller car
targeted at the younger market.
Both the officials said the average Chinese customers are
far younger than the global average. "It's interesting to
note that our clients in China are 15 to 20 years
younger," said Harris.
National
Call for grassroots people’s
participation in selecting candidate to national poll
BSS, Rajshahi
Ensuring participation of grassroots people in selecting
candidate to the national election is very vital for
reflecting their hopes and aspirations in the election,
said speakers at a workshop here Wednesday night.
In this regard, they also viewed that the grassroots
people participation could be the effective tools for
consolidating the nation's democtatic process.
Besides, they unequivocally called for democtratic culture
inside the political party so that the genuine political
leadership could be sent to the parliament for betterment
of the nation. They termed the political parties as the
vital institutional bridge between the government and the
people in general.
They were addressing the workhsop titled 'Electoral
Process and Voters Empowerment in candidate selection:
Citizens Expectations' organized by Conscious Citizens
Committee (CCC), a partner organization of Transparency
International Bangladesh (TIB), at Hotel Aristocrat here.
Main thrust of the workshop was to evolve the system of
selecting candidate according to the voters expectations
in the election along with reducing gap between the voters
and the political parties as well as the public
representatives.
In his address of welcome, CCC Convenor Prof Abdus Salam
described the aims and objectives of the workshop while
Senior Fallow of TIB Shahjada Akram presented a key-note
paper on the topic.
TIB Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman moderated the
discussion saying that the participation of general public
in the election process and candidate selection should be
ensured for institutionalization of democracy. Terming the
election as the prime method of peoples participation and
the introduction of democratic process the speakers
recommended strong resistance against the using of black
money, muscle power and anarchic politics in the
electioneering process. For the sake of ensuring
transparency and accountability in the electioneering
process, they opined that the election expenditure of the
political parties should be born by the state.
The workshop was followed by four group meetings on
different issues of the election process and candidate
selection discussing ways and means on how to make the
whole election system transparent.
The discussants opined that the candidate selection
process must be dependent on the respective political
party's internal democracy and organizational process. A
total of 100 professional and political leaders, social
elites, students and working class people were present at
the workshop.
Preventive measures suggested against eve
teasing
BSS, Faridpur
Speakers at a views exchange meeting here Thursday called
for immediately devising strong preventive measures under
legal framework against eve teasing, an inhuman behaviour
detrimental to life as well as dignity of women. The
meeting attended by representatives of different social
organizations and professional bodies elaborately
discussed this menacing problem and said such whimsical
but inhuman behaviour have already taken many lives of
young girls and putting scores others into a dire state.
Deputy Commissioner Helaluddin Ahmed chaired the meeting,
attended by as many as 25 participants including heads of
educational institutions, journalists, NGO men, social
workers, elite and law enforcers.
While giving suggestions against eve teasing, they urged
the government as well as different tires of the law
enforcement agencies to deal sternly with those
responsible for such behaviour forcing young girls to go
for suicide or others to remain hostages at home.
Earlier, the Deputy Commissioner read out a letter from
Prime Minister's Principal Secretary in which Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina reiterated her government's
determination to stop eve teasing and repression on women,
particularly the young girls, female students of schools
and colleges. It was decided at the meeting to further
strengthen both administrative and legal measures to stop
eve teasing through activating the mobile court to punish
the offenders instantly with imprisonment and fine as
well, mass awareness and motivational campaigns against
such social vices.
JU Medical Centre plagued by
myriad troubles
UNB, JU
The one and only medical centre of Jahangirnagar
University is facing myriad troubles due to negligence and
inadequate funds resulting in untold suffering for the
residential students, teachers, officials and employees.
Medical sources said the JU Medical Centre began its
journey at Al-Beruni Hall with the journey of university
in 1971. Later it was shifted to the present medical
centre, adjoining the JU Central Students' Union (JUCSU)
building.
Since its advent, there has been no development of the
medical centre, while a large number of students halls,
teachers and officers quarters, and various academic
buildings were built up. At present, the construction of a
students hall and an academic building is ongoing.
The leading public university's endowment from the
University Grants Commission keeps increasing, but the
medical center's developments remains neglected.
At present, the medical centre is staffed by nine doctors
and two nurses, with an inventory of four beds and 2
ambulances to serve around 15,000 people. Equipments to
treat patients in critical condition are inadequate.
Emergency patients often suffer due to an irregular
ambulance service. Influential faculty members are alleged
to often use the ambulances for their personal activities.
Sources add the state of laboratory equipments in the
centre is woeful, consisting of only a photo-electronic
colour machine, a fridge, a microscope and a hot air
machine. The sterilizer remains unusable for several
years. An X-ray machine that it started off with is out.
Various 18-type tests were conducted at the centre when it
first started off. Now it is restricted to 11-type tests
due to a lack of adequate technology, resulting in
erroneous tests, a common occurrence.
BMDA provides irrigation to
produce paddy worth about Tk 400cr
BSS, Rangpur
The Barind Multipurpose Development Authorities (BMDA) has
successfully completed providing smooth irrigation to
43,050 hectares land in 13 northern districts during this
Boro season, officials said Thursday.
A total of re-installed 1,722 Deep Tube Wells (DTWs) were
utilized for the purpose and an additional 2.32 lakh
tonnes of additional Boro paddies worth about Taka 400
crore will be produced during this season as harvest of
the crop already began in the region.
The 1,722 DTWs out of a targeted 2,850 disordered ones
have so far been reinstalled under the Phase-1 five-year
term ongoing Taka 198-crore Deep Tube Well Installation
Project (DTWIP) and more 1,128 DTWs will be reinstalled by
2013 next.
Besides, the government has also approved the 5-year term
Phase- 2 Taka 250 crore DTWIP for installation of 1,250
new DTWs in Rangpur, Nilphamari, Lalmonirhat, Gaibandha,
Bogra, Pabna and Sirajganj for enhancing irrigation
facilities. Completion of the Phase-1 and Phase- 2
projects will bring a revolution in boosting agro-
productions, ensured supply of arsenic-free pure drinking
water and improving ecology, bio- diversity, environment
and resist desertification of the region.
While talking to BSS today, Superintending Engineer (SE)
of BMDA and its Project Director Monwar Hossain told that
thousands of farmers will be benefited by getting
irrigation at the lowest cost after completion of these
projects.
"We irrigated 37,591 hectares land last year in these
districts benefiting 66,753 farmers, realized Taka 6.03
crore as irrigation charges when the farmers produced an
additional 2.11 lakh tonnes paddy worth about Taka 300
crore," he said.
Besides, 20 Low Lift Pump schemes have taken under the
Activating Inactive DTWs Installation Pilot Project for
maximizing utilization of the surface waters in Rangpur,
Kurigram and Gaibandha) districts this year and 10 of them
completed so far.
"We are constructing 15 km electric line, 12,200 meters
long under ground irrigation canals to bring more 1,200
hectares under controlled irrigations to produce an
additional 7,200 tonnes food annually under this Pilot
Project," he said.
The farmers are getting BMDA supplied irrigated waters at
Taka 75 per hour with a maximum cost of Taka 500 to 600
per bigha (33 decimals) when the private irrigation
providers have been realizing charges as per their wills
in between Taka 1,500 and 2,500.
After completion of these projects, a new era would be
ushered when farmers of these 13 districts will harvest an
additional 4.2 lakh tonnes paddy worth about Taka 700
crore annually from about 77,500 hectares land.
Besides, number of the surface water reservoirs and crop
farming intensity will be increased and more employment
opportunities will be created to alleviate poverty.
122 deaths from TB in Bagerhat in
five years
UNB, Bagerhat
Some 122 patients, including women, have died from
tuberculosis while more than a thousand have been affected
with the disease in coastal district of Bagerhat over the
last five years. Even people who had been cured of
tuberculosis have suffered recurrences of the disease,
though the number has decreased. This data was revealed in
a roundtable discussion titled 'Control of Tuberculosis
and Social Participation' held at the local press club,
where experts discussed the findings of research carried
out by non-governmental organization Brac. As part of the
research, Brac examined cough samples of 75,263 people,
both male and femal, of nine upazilas in the district.
According to the report, 7,177 people have been identified
as tuberculosis-positive from 2005 to 2009.
Of the total, 1,384 people tested positive in 2005,
followed by 1,577 people in 2006, 1,536 people in 2007,
1,322 people in 2008, and 1,358 people in 2009. The
research said 14 people died from the deadly infectious
disease that affects the lungs in 2005, rising to 34 in
2006, 36 in 2007, and 38 deaths in 2008.
Fierce clash kills one,
injures over 100 in Habiganj
UNB, Habiganj
A man was killed and over 100 people, including five
policemen, were injured in a fierce clash between two
groups of villagers over a trifling matter at Olipur in
sadar upazila here Thursday morning.
The deceased was identified as Yunus Miah, 60, a cattle
trader of Olipur village.
Witness said the clash ensued between two groups of
villagers following an altercation between an autorickshaw
driver and its passengers at 9:30 am.
Both the groups attacked each other equipped with lethal
weapon, leaving over 100 people injured.
Critically injured Yunus Miah died on the way to hospital
and Mokhlech Miah, 20, was taken to Dhaka in critical
condition.
Sports
Divisional karate begins on May 2
TBT report
The Electra 4th Divisional Karate Championship begins on May
2, with the first phase of the qualifying round taking place
in Barisal.
The qualifying round of the event, organized by Bangladesh
Karate Federation (BKF) with the sponsorship of Electra
International Limited, will be held in six divisional
headquarters, while the final round will take place in Dhaka
on June 4.
The competitions will be held in six weight categories for men
and in five categories for women, the BKF President Masum
Parvez Rubel said at a news conference at National Sports
Council auditorium on Thursday.
"We won four gold medals in last South Asian Games. It is a
great achievement. Now we want to spread the game to all over
the country," Rubel said.
The total budget of the event is Taka five lakh, of which the
total amount is coming from Electra International Limited as
sponsorship money, the General Secretary Moazzem Hossain Sentu
said.
Apart from Barisal, the other qualification competitions will
be held in Khulna (May 7), Dhaka (May 14), Sylhet (May 15),
Chittagong (May 21), Rajshahi (May 28). The General Manager of
Electra International Limited SA Junaid also spoke at the
conference.
Bangladesh
League
Brothers Union thrashes Biani Bazar 4-0
TBT report
Brothers Union brushed aside Biani Bazar Sporting Club 4-0 in
the Bangladesh Football League at Bangabandhu National Stadium
in Dhaka on Thursday.
Brothers Union started attacking from the outset of the match
but it had to wait until 37 minutes to make the first
breakthrough. Murad Ahmed Milon scored the first goal before
Enock Bentil had doubled the lead on the stroke of the first
half to give Brothers Union a 2-0 lead before the breather.
After a domineering display in the first half, Brothers Union
scored two goals more after the change of ends.
Bentil scored yet again on 67 minutes, while Bulbul netted on
77 minutes to seal a 4-0 victory for Brothers Union.
Away in Chittagong, Sheikh Russel Krira Chakra's title hopes
suffered a blow when the fancied Dhaka side was held to a 2-2
draw by Chittagong Mohammedan Sporting Club at MA Aziz
Stadium.
Samir Omari scored the first goal for Sheikh Russel just four
minutes before the break. Jamal Nakhli doubled the visitors'
advantage with his 54th-minute strike but the title aspirants
failed to cling on to their lead and conceded two goals in the
fag end of the game.
Amine Soumah scored on 80 minutes, while Linkon scored three
minutes later to equalize the margin (2-2), bringing huge joy
in the hosts' camp.
GP-BCB Academy
takes 38-run lead
UNB, Dhaka
The GP-BCB National Cricket Academy team took a 38-run
first innings lead over touring Standard Bank National
Cricket Academy team of South Africa on the 2nd day of the
2nd four-day match of GP-BCB Academy Cup at Shaheed
Chandhu Stadium in Bogra Thursday.
Replying to South Africa's first innings total 222 runs,
GP-BCB Academy team resumed the first innings with
overnight 107 for 2 and scored 260 for all in 82.3 overs.
Lower order Sabbir Rahman scored 86 runs off 149 balls
with nine fours and five sixes while another night watch
batsman Shuvagoto Hom (20) returned to the pavilion
scoring 24 runs with three fours and a six.
Skipper A Birch and P Matshikwe picked up three wickets
each for 40 and 46 runs respectively while K Maharaj took
two wickets for 78 runs.
In reply, South Africa Academy team opened the 2nd innings
in the afternoon and scored 198 for two wickets in 40
overs when bails were drawn for the 2nd day (Thursday) to
take an overall 160 runs lead over the GP-BCB Academy
team.
One down D Miller, being the victim of nervous 90s,
returned to the dressing room scoring 98 runs off 83 balls
with eight fours and five sixes.
Henin focused on
Roland Garros challenge
AFP, Stuttgart
Former world number one Justine Henin admits she will face
a tough challenge after nearly two years away from the
clay courts as she bids to win Roland Garros for a fifth
time next month.
The 27-year-old had a tough battle to beat Germany's Julia
Goerges in the first round of the Stuttgart WTA tournament
on Wednesday in her first game on clay since announcing
her retirement in May 2008.
Wearing a splint to protect the broken finger she suffered
in training last week, Henin needed 53 minutes for the
first set after Goerges forced a tie-breaker.
Despite her two-year hiatus from claycourt tennis, Henin,
who only came out of retirement in January, showed her
class by taking control in the second set for a 7-6 (7/3),
6-1 victory.
Henin now has the WTA tournament in Madrid, starting on
May 8, before the French Open begins at Roland Garros on
May 24 to get ready.
Since taking time away from tennis, Henin has travelled
and worked on some charity projects, but insists she has
her passion for tennis back. "It's going to be a big
challenge for me to get ready for Roland Garros," said
Henin who has seven Grand Slam titles under her belt.
"Especially as the courts we will face here, in Madrid and
in Paris are so different and the conditions will be very
difficult.
"It is good to play matches on different types of clay and
to get the matches under my belt. That is what I need at
the moment.
"It is also good that I can still play with the finger
injury, I feel lucky." Having insisted she played no
tennis on her self-imposed break from tennis, Henin
explained the challenges she faces from the indoor
claycourt in Stuttgart before heading to Madrid and Paris.
"The courts here are very different to what we will get in
Paris, there is not much clay on the courts here, they are
quite dry," she explained.
"You can slide a lot, but it is a good surface, they did
an amazing job to put a claycourt indoors which is not
easy. "But it is very different, because you can slide, so
it is much better to be aggressive and attacking, rather
than on defence."
In Thursday's second round Henin, playing on a wildcard
entry, will face compatriot Yanina Wickmayer, who saw off
Francesca Schiavone of Italy 6-3, 6-3. "We were together a
few days ago for the Fed Cup match and I am looking
forward to playing her very much," said the Belgian.
Bangladesh loses
to England by 7 wickets in T20 warm-up
UNB, Dhaka
Bangladesh, now in West Indies to play the ICC World
Twenty20, conceded a seven-wicket defeat against England
in the 2nd and last warm-up match at Kensington Oval in
Bridgetown on Wednesday.
Earlier, the Bengal Tigers made a good start beating
Barbados by 36 runs in the first warm-up match at the same
venue on Tuesday.
Bangladesh, placed in three-team Group A of the World
meet, will play the first match against holders Pakistan
on May 1 (Saturday) at the Beausejour Stadium, Gros Islet
in St Lucia with a high hope to reach the 2nd round
beating the defending champions.
The Tigers will meet mighty Australia in the 2nd and last
group match on May 5 at the Kensington Oval, Bridgetown,
Barbados.
In the 2nd warm-up match, Bangladesh opened the innings
first after winning the toss and scored 126 for 7 in
stipulated 20 overs with middle order batsman Mahmudullah
Riad making not out 38 off 31 balls that featured four
boundaries.
Opener Imrul Kayes, who scored 57 runs against Barbados,
returned to the pavilion today scoring 14 runs off 13
balls with one four and a six while former national
skipper Mohammad Ashraful, who scored run-a-ball 35 in the
first warm match, contributed 21 runs off 23 balls with
three fours.
Besides, Mashrafe Bin Mortaza (not out 10), Naeem Islam
(9), Aftab Ahmed (8), skipper Shakib Al Hasan (7), Jahirul
Islam (4), Mushfiqur Rahim (2) were the other scorer for
Bangladesh while another 13 runs of the innings came from
extras.
MH Yardy claimed three wickets for 20 runs, JM Anderson
grabbed two wickets for 23 runs and PD Collingwood took
one for 13.
In reply, England team easily reached their target of 127
runs for the loss of three wickets in 17.1 overs with one
down RS Bopara hammering 49-ball 62 runs that featured
eight boundaries. PD Collingwood remained not out on 32
scored off 27 balls with two fours and a six while opener
C Kieswetter added 16-ball 22 runs with one four and two
sixes.
Skipper Shakib Al Hasan and pacer Syed Rasel took one
wicket apiece both conceding 23 runs.
Ochoa set for
swansong tournament
AFP, Mexico
Lorena Ochoa, who is leaving the sport on her own terms,
will say goodbye to golf by finishing her brilliant career
on her home soil at the LPGA's Tres Marias Championship.
The 28-year-old Ochoa leaves the LPGA tour with two major
titles and almost 15 million dollars in earnings.
The world number one has 27 wins heading into this week's
1.3 million dollar tournament where she will be paired
with Japan's Ai Miyazato and American Natalie Gulbis.
Ochoa shocked the golfing community by announcing last
week she was leaving the game to concentrate on starting a
family and continue her charity work.
"I'm not going away because I am not playing good golf,"
Ochoa said, "I'm going away because this is the right time
for me. I've achieved my goals, I'm happy and I want to
leave as No. 1."
The event features six of the top 10 players in the world
battling for 195,000 dollars in first-place prize money.
Ochoa is gunning for her fourth Tres Marias Championship
in six years and a victory would be a nice finishing touch
to a career that already includes a Hall of Fame
induction.
Organizers say they are expecting record crowds of Ochoa's
countrymen trying to get a final glimpse of her.
Despite golf's low profile, Ochoa is ranked among Mexico's
five most prominent athletes, joining baseball pitcher
Fernando Valenzuela, boxer Julio Cesar Chavez, 400-metre
runner Ana Guevara and soccer player Hugo Sanchez.
Ochoa faces a strong field of 132 golfers and is expected
to be challenged this week by players such as world number
four Suzann Pettersen who finished second to her at last
year's tournament.
Pettersen is also fresh off off a runner-up finish at the
LPGA's first major of the year, the Kraft Nabisco
Championship.
Michelle Wie, world number seven Anna Nordqvist and Angela
Stanford are also in the field.
Kraft Nabisco winner Tseng Yani and the world's number two
Shin Jiyai are skipping this week's tournament.
Ochoa will tee off in the first two rounds with Gulbis and
Miyazato. Ochoa specifically requested they be in her
group.
Gulbis and Ochoa advanced through junior golf together.
Miyazato is a rising star on the tour.
Ochoa is extremely popular among her golfing peers.
"Lorena is a better person than a golfer," said tour
player Reilley Rankin.
Barcelona stunned by Italian wall of defiance
AFP, Barcelona
Inter Milan ended Barcelona's reign as European champion
on Wednesday, but its semi-final victory was dismissed as
an ugly bodyblow to the soul of the 'beautiful game'.
"Inter stayed at the back and defended and the result is
sad for the fans and the team," said Barcelona midfielder
Yaya Toure, one of the loudest critics of the dogged,
unfussy Italian style.
"We couldn't do anything with the way the opposition
played and the referee didn't help us. We knew what we
wanted to do but luck was not with us."
Despite boasting the talents of Lionel Messi, Barcelona
failed to break down an Italian wall of defiance, made
even more resolute by the red-card handed out to Thiago
Motta after half an hour.
Inter Milan, whose last European title was in 1965 and
whose last appearance in the final was in 1972, were
inspired by coach Jose Mourinho and their 1-0 defeat on
Wednesday was not enough to cancel out their 3-1 advantage
from the first leg of their semi-final.
Their reward is a May 22 final date against Bayern Munich
in Madrid.
"When a team defends like Inter you have to open up the
pitch and try to take advantage of the middle, but we were
not able to link-up well and one-against-one it always led
to a foul," said Guardiola.
"When nine players defend it is difficult to overcome
them, (Diego) Milito and (Samuel) Eto'o played almost like
full-backs, but whoever wins always has reason and you
have to give it to them."
Mourinho, who sprinted onto the Nou Camp pitch at the
final whistle to absorb the praise of the small contingent
of Inter fans squeezed into a ground dominated by 90,000
Barca supporters, defended his tactics. "The game started
badly for us because we had to play (Cristian) Chivu ahead
of (Goran) Pandev (who picked up a knock in the warm-up)
and we are used to having three forwards in Europe," said
the former Barca assistant coach. "It meant we had to be
more defensive. It was an exceptional display and the best
defeat of my life, although the players deserved a draw
because their defending was spectacular. "Barcelona were
very offensive in their play and if we had not been
organised then we would have been eliminated. It is always
difficult to play with ten but against Barcelona it is
almost impossible.
"I didn't want possession of the ball. In the first leg we
played nearer to their area and here all we wanted to do
was to defend."
Afghanistan boosted by warm-up victory
AFP, Bridgetown
Afghanistan cruised to a five-wicket win over Ireland in
their World Twenty20 warm-up on Wednesday, showing that
they are ready for their world championship debut.
Ireland made 133-9 off their 20 overs with John Mooney
top-scoring with 42 but debutant seamer Dawlat Ahmadzai
grabbed the headlines with 4-15 before Afghanistan reached
their target with three balls to spare in Guyana.
When they batted, Afghanistan showed their all-round
mettle with Ashghar Stanikzai and Mohammad Nabi adding 66
for the fifth wicket in six overs.
"Any team wants a jump start, no matter who you are
playing against," said Afghanistan coach Kabir Khan.
"Ireland are one of the best Associate teams and as a
coach the promising thing is that the boys are fighting
hard and they are coming back into games which is not very
easy in Twenty20."
Afghanistan begin their World Twenty20 campaign on
Saturday against India.
A fine unbeaten 61 from Chamara Kapugedera was in vain as
Sri Lanka slumped to a five-wicket defeat to South Africa
with three balls to spare in Barbados. Kapugedera and
veteran Sanath Jayasuriya helped Sri Lanka post 137 for 8
before a 61-run partnership between Mark Boucher and Johan
Botha allowed South Africa to squeeze home in the final
over.
Sri Lanka skipper Kumar Sangakkara opted to bat first
after winning the toss at the Kensington Oval but
Tillakaratne Dilshan fell first ball to Rory Kleinveldt.
Charl Langeveldt then struck twice to remove Sangakkara
and Mahela Jayawardene as Sri Lanka slipped to 22 for 3.
Dinesh Chandimal and Angelo Matthews soon followed as Sri
Lanka, runners-up to Pakistan in the 2009 Twenty20 final,
collapsed to 42 for 5 in the ninth over.
But Jayasuriya (33) helped steady the ship before
Kapugedera gave his side a fighting chance with three
fours and five sixes.
South African skipper Graeme Smith was dismissed by Nuwan
Kulasekara in the first over for one befor Loots Bosman
hit a quick 20.
Botha and Boucher put South Africa on their way, scoring
at more than 11 runs an over.
At the same venue, England eased past Bangladesh by seven
wickets.
Bangladesh were limited to 126-7 with slow left-armer
Michael Yardy taking 3-20 before Ravi Bopara hit 62 from
48 balls to steer England to victory in the 18th over.West
Indies lost by seven runs to New Zealand in a warm-up
later in Guyana.
SAfrica back on winning trail
AFP, Germany
World Cup host South Africa got back on the winning trail
by defeating non-qualifers Jamaica 2-0 in a friendly at
Kickers Offenbach Stadium Wednesday.
Veteran striker Surprise Moriri punished sloppy defending
off a cross to drive a low shot into the corner of the net
on 51 minutes and set up Bafana Bafana (The Boys) for a
first success in four international outings.
Siyabonga Nomvete added a second five mintues from
full-time in this German city as he ran on to a pass from
fellow substitute Andile Jali and slammed the ball wide of
goalkeeper Dwayne Kerr into the net.
Jamaica, last-minute replacements for China, faded after
failing to convert a few first-half chances in a game
between teams relying almost exclusively on home-based
players.
South Africa made one change from the team held 0-0 by
fellow qualifiers North Korea in Frankfurt last week with
Siboniso Gaxa replacing Thabo Nthethe at rightback.
Jamaica arrived in Germany via the United States just 10
hours before the kick-off with a squad of local players
and San Jose Earthquakes striker Ryan Johnson.
With three previous matches between the countries drawn
and delivering only two goals it was no surprise that the
first half ended goalless before a few hundred spectators.
South Africa had scored just five goals in six matches
since Brazilian coach Carlos Alberto Parreirra returned
last November for a second spell in charge.
They could have added to that total less than two minutes
into the match as a glancing Moriri header off a Siphiwe
Tshabalala free kick forced Kerr into an acrobatic parry
at the expense of a corner.
But if the largely South Africa-supporting crowd thought
this was the start of a siege on the Jamaican goalmouth
they were sadly mistaken with the Reggae Boyz coming close
to scoring twice by the half-hour mark.
Sleepy South Africa failed to pick up Dicoy Williams off a
Xavian Virgo free kick and his near-post header beat
goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune and flew just over the bar.
And when the Caribbean team launched a lightning
counter-attack in perfect conditions, Navion Boyd was
staring at an unguarded route toward goal only to be let
down by a poor first touch.South Africa finished the
opening half with a flourish and Kerr did well to hold a
volley from striker Katlego Mphela, seeking to improve his
one-goal input from the six matches since Parreira
replaced compatriot Joel Santana. The deadlock was finally
broken six minutes into the second half in comical fashion
as two defenders failed to cut off a cross that appeared
to pose no threat and Moriri had time and space to beat
Kerr with a low shot.
Valenciennes inflicts more misery on Bordeaux
AFP, Paris
Out-of-sorts Bordeaux's woes were compounded on Wednesday
when Laurent Blanc's reigning French champions were
defeated 2-0 at Valenciennes.
This latest loss left Bordeaux's prospects of qualifying
for the Champions League almost non existent, even the
Europa League could be a struggle as they remained in
sixth place, on 57 points, 15 adrift of leaders Marseille.
They have mustered only one point from a possible 18 this
month.
Valenciennes' reward was to move up a rung into 10th with
48 points, their best tally since rejoining the top flight
in 2006.
Gregory Pujol lobbed an advancing Ulrick Rame with a
header in the 11th minute with Algeria international Foued
Kadir sealing the three points 18 minutes from time.
Pujol had two other attempts disallowed for offside in the
second half.
Kapugedera's efforts in vain as South Africa
wins
AFP, Bridgetown
A fine unbeaten 61 from Chamara Kapugedera was in vain as
Sri Lanka slumped to a five-wicket defeat to South Africa
with three balls to spare in a World Twenty20 warm-up on
Wednesday.
Kapugedera and veteran Sanath Jayasuriya helped Sri Lanka
post 137 for 8 before a 61-run partnership between Mark
Boucher and Johan Botha allowed South Africa to squeeze
home in the final over.
Sri Lanka skipper Kumar Sangakkara opted to bat first
after winning the toss at the Kensington Oval but
Tillakaratne Dilshan fell first ball to Rory Kleinveldt.
Charl Langeveldt then struck twice to remove Sangakkara
and Mahela Jayawardene as Sri Lanka slipped to 22 for 3.
Dinesh Chandimal and Angelo Matthews soon followed as Sri
Lanka, runners-up to Pakistan in the 2009 Twenty20 final,
collapsed to 42 for 5 in the ninth over.
But Jayasuriya (33) helped steady the ship before
Kapugedera gave his side a fighting chance with three
fours and five sixes.
South African skipper Graeme Smith was dismissed by Nuwan
Kulasekara in the first over for one befor Loots Bosman
hit a quick 20.
Botha and Boucher put South Africa on their way, scoring
at more than 11 runs an over.
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