monday, FEBRUARY 15, 2010 FALGUN 3, 1416, SAFAR 29, 1431 Hijri

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Leading News

Minister unveils list of 7000 land-grabbers
Dismantle illegal structures in 15 days, govt asks encroachers

UNB, Dhaka

Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan Sunday unveiled a list of 7,000 land-grabbers dubbed 'bhumi dasyu' who have grabbed Buriganga, Sitalakhya, Turag and Balu riverbank lands around the capital.
The minister, however, said names of the suspected grabbers "will be published soon".
He stated this to reporters after a meeting of the taskforce on maintaining navigability of the rivers at his ministry.
Presided over by Shajahan Khan, the meeting was attended by Land Minister Rezaul Karim Hira, State Minister for Environment Dr. Hasan Mahmud and officials of the ministries concerned.
The Shipping Minister said boundary pillars on the illegally occupied lands will be set up by April and the occupied lands will be reclaimed. Earlier, the task was scheduled to be completed by March.
State Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud said, "Since there is no provision for adequate punishment in the environment laws, cases will be filed against land-grabbers under the water-body-preservation act."
He said the meeting decided to ask the illegal occupants who set up infrastructures on the grabbed lands to dismantle the structures in next 15 days. "If any grabber flouts the government notice, the illegal infrastructures would be cleared by the Deputy Commissioners concerned."
About the wastes being lifted from the rivers in the river-cleanup drive, the State Minister said a 5-member committee has been formed with BIWTA chairman as convenor to make recommendations on the waste management.

 BSF, BDR trade gunfire on Sylhet border
Three Bangladeshis shot and wounded

TBT Report

Indian Border Security Force (BSF) shot and injured three Bangladeshi citizens at Jaintapur border in Sylhet on Sunday as the atrocities of the BSF continue unabated on Bangladesh border.
BSF killed 94 Bangladeshis in the last 13 months. The number of Bangladeshis killed by BSF during the nine years period from January 1, 2000 to February 14, 2010 stands at 819. BSF also injured 858 and abducted 897 Bangladeshis in the same period.
The latest incident of killing a Bangladeshi citizen by BSF took place along Tentulia border in Panchagarh on february 6. With that eight Bangladeshis were killed by BSF in in new year 2010 despite India's repeated pledges to stop such killings.
According to UNB News Agency, three Bangladesh nationals were wounded in an unprovoked firing by BSF on Jaintapur border in Sylhet at about Sunday noon. Bullet wounded Hill Resource (Alur Bagan) manager Rashed Mia, truck worker Abdur Rahman and quarry worker Ambia Khatun were rushed to Osmany Medical Hospital and admitted there.
BDR retaliated and trading of gunfire with interruptions continued till the last report from the spot came at 4-30 pm. More than 200 gunshots were heard, villagers fleeing homes from border area for shelter said.
Confirming the incident BDR officials said a group of BSF troops along with Indian Khasia tribal fishermen trespassed into Bibir Haor, about half a kilometer from the borderline, at about noon and started fishing in the haor.
On resistance by BDR of Jaintapur outpost, Indian border troops opened fire at them. BDR retaliated and trading of gunfire continued, with interruptions, till the last report came in at 4-30 pm. Residents of Bibir Haor, Ghilatail, Phulbari, Kamlari, Guabari and Kendri Haor fled homes to safer places as the gunfire continued.
Earlier on February 4, BSF troops trespassed into Balair Haor and abducted BDR Nayek Mujibur of Tamabil border outpost that followed exchange of heavy gunfire. Mujibur was however returned following a flag meeting between BDR and BSF at 8pm on that day.
The killings of unarmed Bangladeshis by the BSF on the border are continuing in clear violation of the spirit of good neighborliness as well as international law and despite repeated pledges by the Indian authorities to stop it. In every meeting between BSF and BDR and also between the higher level officials of the two countries, the Indian side assures that killing of Bangladeshis by its forces on the border would come to an end immediately. But this pledge is seldom implemented.

  Khaleda-Nizami meeting
Possible course of action to face political situation discussed

UNB, Dhaka

BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia and Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Matiur Rahman Nizami in a meeting at this crucial time discussed possible future course of action to face the latest situation of the country, particularly government's 'repressive' measures against the opposition.
The two top leaders of the two major parties in the past 4-party coalition government held the discussions when the Jamaat Ameer met the BNP chairperson at her Gulshan office on Saturday night, according to sources close to the meeting.
At the meeting, which lasted about an hour from 8:15 pm, they also discussed observations of BNP and Jamaat over the recent political developments, violent incidents and killings, parliament and anti-government movement.
It was learnt that both the top leaders expressed identical views in their observations over the latest situation of the country.
"There is no option but to wage movement, but it is a matter of time," they were quoted as saying in unanimity of opinion-significantly at a time when there has been an anti-Jamaat-Shibir manhunt in the aftermath of the Rajshahi University mayhem in which a pro-government Chhatra League worker was hacked to death amid overnight BCL-Shibir rioting.
The Jamaat Ameer expressed satisfaction over BNP's stand reflected through speeches of BNP leaders regarding attacks on and arrest of Shibir and Jamaat leaders and workers centering the Rajshahi University incident.
The meeting observed that both the parties are now carrying out their political programmes against the government from their respective angle, and "ultimately" they would march "unitedly", according to the sources.

  Sahara turns down demand for her resignation
She says law and order situation has not deteriorated

UNB, Dhaka

Home Minister Sahara Khatun on Sunday turned down the opposition demand for her resignation, claiming that law and order situation has not deteriorated in the country.
"Question of resignation does not rise at all…Law and order has not deteriorated," she told reporters who sought her reaction to opposition BNP's demand.
After attending the 15th founding anniversary of the Coast Guard at Agargaon in the city, the Home Minister said the current combing operation would continue until the killers and those responsible for the Rajshahi University incidents are arrested.
Asked who are staging violent activities across the country, Sahara said those who are doing this are doing with a motive. "But they won' t be allowed to succeed."
She said the anti-liberation elements are doing all this after the execution of Bangabandhu's killers, as they cannot tolerate good works of the government and do not want trial of the war criminals.
Asked about her message on the Valentine's Day today, Sahara conveyed her greetings to all including the opposition party.
She hoped that good sense would prevail on the opposition and they would continue to work together in parliament by avoiding destructive activities.
Earlier, in her statement at the Coast Guard founding anniversary, the Home Minister said the country's major share of export is carried out through the seaway.
"It is important to ensure safe foreign trade through seaway, preserve sea fish and forest resources in coastal area, exploration within the national water territory as well as conduct rescue operation in the coastal area."
Sahara said the government efforts are continuing to equip Coast Guard with modern logistic support to enable them to face any threat against national security.
State Minister for Home Affairs Shamsul Huq Tuku, Home Secretary Abdus Sobhan Sikdar and DG Coast Guard Commodore SAMA Abedin also spoke at the function.

   BNP stages walk out from JS
Scepticism about Zia’s body in Zia Udyan grave protested

UNB, Sangsad Bhaban

BNP lawmakers Sunday walked out of parliament on a noisy protest against government party member Sheikh Selim's sceptical remark that slain President Zia's body was not buried in his Zia Udyan grave.
Responding to opposition chief whip Joynul Abdin Farooque who demanded that indecorous words against Ziaur Rahman be expunged, Sheikh Selim said he did not abuse Zia but wanted to unveil the truth.
"A wooden box was buried, not Zia's body…No Muslim could see Zia's body," the front-ranking Awami League member said fuelling the fire of anger in the BNP members. Selim said he had thrown a challenge to exhibit photo of Zia's body within three days, but they could not do so. Dismissing the claim as Zia being the proclaimer of independence, he questioned: "Proclaimer of what?"
After Selim's incendiary remarks, Speaker Abdul Hamid gave the floor to BNP Young Turk Shahiduddin Chowdhury Anny, but to no avail. Angry BNP members all left the House in protest at 4:45pm-making it two walkouts on as many days after their return to the House last Thursday after a long boycott.
Earlier, the unscheduled debate started on point of order when the opposition chief whip vehemently opposed the Home Minister's statement describing Zia as "killer" and Sheikh Selim's unpleasant words against Zia and his family members.
Joynul Abdin in his statement said they returned to parliament to make it effective after the assurance of the Prime Minister that the opposition in parliament will not be evaluated on the basis of number but as the opposition. He repeatedly described the slain Zia as proclaimer of independence and champion of multiparty democracy. He opposed the pronouncement of Zia's name bracketed with Khandaker Mustaque's. He said 40,000 patriots were killed during the 1972-75 Awami League rule.
Referring to the current combing operation, Farooque questioned why such drive was not launched to track down on the killers of meritorious student Abu Bakar Siddique of Dhaka University, killers of JASAS leader Mintu who died in police custody and the killer of Sramik Dal leader Baker who died in Dhaka Central Jail custody. He alleged that the opposition leaders and workers are being repressed in the name of combing operation.

   Rights groups urge govt to reject destructive foreign aid
UNB, Dhaka

Leaders of two rights groups on Sunday urged the government to reject "destructive" external assistance to protect the nation from being saddled with huge foreign debt.
The plea came from the rights groups at a press conference at the National Press Club ahead of the two-day meeting of Bangladesh Aid Club, since renamed as Bangladesh Development Forum, to be held here February 15-16.
The rights groups' leaders said loans and grants of the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and other international financial institutions are "destructive" for Bangladesh, alleging that the multilateral lending and donor agencies take away more in kickbacks than what they give in loans.
Rights based research group VOICE (Voices for Interactive Choice and Empowerment) and civil society alliance Aid Accountability Group jointly organized the press conference.
VOICE executive director Ahmed Swapan Mahmud, anti-globalization activist and singer Arup Rahee and coordinator of Aid Accountability Group Farjana Akter were, among others, spoke at the press conference.
Ahmed Swapan Mahmud alleged that the World Bank and IMF are mainly responsible for dismantling price controls and doing away with price support for food, transportation, health and education sectors, while the loan agencies compelled the government for privatization of state-owned enterprises and devaluation of currency which will surely undermine the development of the nation.
He criticized the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), a donor imposed lending policy, saying that it lacks vision of the people and failed to tackle poverty. Rather, over the years poverty has increased 40-48 percent with the price-hike of essentials.
Ahmed Swapan urged the government to announce a target date for Bangladesh to stop accepting any foreign aid and stop being dependent on donors.
"Also donors and government should make all aid information and project agreement public to ensure transparency, accountability until the country stops taking foreign aid," he said. Farjana Akter said that the aid conditionality have been increasing though dependency is decreasing over the years.
She mentioned that following IMF conditions, the government was forced to impose taxes on products to increase its revenue income. The Bangladesh government also had to commit to increase the price of oil and gas in order to obtain the PRGF funding.
Arup Rahee urged the government to reject "destructive" aid and to formulate an independent economic policy instead of the donors' prescribed poverty reduction strategy paper.

   BCL sues 106 Jamaat-Shibir activists in Nilphamari
BSS, Nilphamari

Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) filed a case against 106 leaders and activists of Jamaat-e- Islami and Islami Chhatra Shibir and 100 more unnamed persons Saturday as a number of BCL workers were injured in a clash earlier on the day.
Police arrested 25 persons, including district Jamaat Amir Shah Muhammad Muzammil, in this connection.
Additional Police Super Rashedul Islam said BCL district unit Vice-President Asaduzzaman Arif filed the case after the incident.
Meanwhile, the BCL staged demonstrations at Nilphamari Government College to press home its demand for banning the politics of Jamaat and Shibir. Police and Rapid Action Battalion are patrolling in the town.
Sources said all injured in the Saturday's clash are out of danger. But some of them, including the district Jamaat ameer, have been shifted to Rangpur Medical College Hospital.
After the filing of the case, the Jamaat activists have gone into hiding to avert arrests.

Back Page

BNP-Jamaat govt indulged in looting, minting money: PM
UNB, Siddhirganj, Narayanganj

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Sunday harshly criticized the last two regimes for vitiating investment climate and said in the last one year of her government has worked hard to regain the investors' confidence, particularly in the energy sector.
"The investors have started coming. There will be no obstacle to development in this sector in the future," she said while inaugurating the 120-MW first unit of the 240-MW Siddhirganj Peaking Power Plant.
Hasina told her audience the last seven years of the BNP-led 4-party alliance government and the two-year reign of the immediate-past caretaker government were very bad times for the power sector of the country, resulting in the nagging electricity crisis.
"They didn't leave anything for us from which we could get the good news for the power sector," she said, deploring the deplorable state of the power sector.
Hasina came down heavily on her political rivals, saying that the BNP-Jamaat alliance government in their five-year tenure (2001-2006) had just indulged in looting and making money for themselves to improve their own fate.
"And the caretaker government in the last two years, in the name of anti-corruption drive, just destroyed the investors' confidence through creating fear and intimidation," she said in a two-pronged offensive.
She also said that after assuming office through a free, fair and acceptable election held on December 29, 2008, her government faced serious hurdles in working with the bureaucrats.
The Prime Minister said that her government faced a serious trouble in infusing courage and enthusiasm in the government servants.
"But these are going slowly. We hope that in the future we will be able to go at due pace for the development of the country and its people," she told the inaugural function, as things got going with the commissioning of the power unit.

   Revised PRSP-II launched
Priority to education, infrastructure development, social protection

UNB, Dhaka

The revised Poverty-Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP-II) was formally launched Sunday giving priority to education, Infrastructure development and social protection.
The revised PRSP-II titled 'Steps Towards Change: National Strategy for Accelerated Poverty Reduction II (FY 2009-11) will be implemented at an estimated cost of Tk 3457.40 billion including non-discretionary expenditure of Tk 642.59 billion. The deficit of wealth has been estimated at Tk 874.84 billion or US$ 12.50 billion.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith and Planning Minister AK Khandaker jointly launched the revised PRSP-II unveiling the strategy paper book at the NEC conference room prior to the two-day Bangladesh Development Forum (BDF) that begins Monday in the city.
The paper will be submitted in the BDF as the core document for the endorsement of the donors.
Speaking on the occasion, Finance Minister AMA Muhith said that they took the revised PRSP-II to parliament so that it could be finalized in consultation with all. "We have taken the opinions of development partners, members of the civil society for revising the paper. The strategy paper has been finalized after considering all the opinions."
Planning Minister AK Khandaker said in the revised PRSP-II, the government has set a target where they could increase the growth, establish good governance and alleviate poverty in the country.
"This strategy paper will enable us to alleviate poverty and I think we will be able to achieve our target in line with the Perspective Plan," he added.
Khandaker said education has been given the highest priority followed by infrastructure development and social protection.
The estimated cost of main PRSP-II 'Moving Ahead: National Strategy for Accelerated Poverty Reduction II (FY 2009-11) was estimated at Tk 2567.99 billion where the deficit of wealth was Tk 630.94 billion or US$ 9.01 billion.

   Loan Package
Japan pledges Tk 3,000 crore

BSS, Dhaka

Japan Sunday pledged Taka 3,000 crore assistance for four projects in Bangladesh, including two new power plants with 350 megawatts of generation capacities.
Japanese Charge d'Affaires Harumitsu Hida made the pledge for the 31st Japanese yen Loan Package to Bangladesh when he called on Finance Minster AMA Muhith at the latter's NEC office.
The package amounts to 38,792 million yen (Taka 29,975 million, or US dollar 433 million equivalent).
The projects are Taka 7,028 million Chittagong City Outer Ring Road Project, Taka 1,706 million Bheramara Combined Cycle Power Plant Development Project (Engineering services), Taka 10,231 million Rural Electrification Upgradation Project (for Western Bangladesh) and Taka 11,008 million South Western Bangladesh Rural Development Project.
The interest rate is only 0.01 percent per annum and the repayment period is 40 years inclusive of 10-year grace period for the four loans.
The New Loan Package reflects Japan's strong intention to support development, further prosperity and poverty reduction in Bangladesh.
In that context, the government of Japan hopes the Bangladesh Development Forum (BDF) starting on February 15 would be in success providing good opportunities to explore concrete ways and means for development and poverty reduction in Bangladesh among government officials, development partners, NGOs and civil societies.
Commenting on these commitments, Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith said Japan made the pledge ahead of BDF 2010. "It's good that we got the commitment from Japan government today (Sunday), while other development partners made their commitments earlier."

   Book lovers in thousands visit Ekushey Book Fair
BSS, Dhaka

Book-lovers in their thousands, mostly young couples, on Sunday visited the Ekushey book fair waiting in long queues much before the fair was opened.
As it was February 14, St Valentine's Day, couples were busy exchanging gifts and novels, especially love stories, which topped the tally of their choice. Volumes of poems also sold well on the day as valentine gifts.
Young boys and girls carrying flowers in large numbers entered the fair venue.
They particularly bought romantic novels and books of poems on the day with many exchanging their books to mark the Valentine's Day.
Titles of lighter tastes were on high demand on the day. A large number of card packs with illustrated poems or rhymes on love was also sold. Collection of love poems by Shamsur Rahman, Al Mahmud and Nirmalendu Goon were among the top-sellers.
People started queuing at the entrance much before they did on other days.
The queues stretched up to the Teachers-Students Centre and the Shishu Academy at 3:00pm, and the security personnel found it difficult to manage the crowds.
Robin Ahsan of Shraban Prakashan said the sales of novels by popular writers have increased. But buyers are still less interested in titles on politics, history, philosophy and other serious issues, he added.
Seventy-four titles arrived in the fair on Wednesday and 29 of them were volumes of poems, 10 novels and five collections of short stories.
The Bangla Academy held a discussion on the Language Movement. A cultural programme was also held in the evening.

    Jamaat announces programmes afresh to protest ‘repression’

UNB, Dhaka

Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami has announced staggered programs, including countrywide demonstration to protest the "ongoing repression" on Jamaat-Shibir.
The programs were announced by Jamaat secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid at a press conference at the party's central office Sunday afternoon.
The programs include demonstration at six divisional cities on February 16 protesting the government's "repressive acts" on Jamaat-Shibir workers. Similar demonstrations will also be held at the district and upazila level on Feb 17 and 18. Jamaat will also exchange views with the mass people across the country on Feb 19.
The Jamaat will observe the International Mother Language Day through a two-day program that includes discussion and milad mahfil at the ward levels across the country on Feb 20 and 21.
On Feb 25 and 26, Jamaat-e-Islami will organize memorial meetings and milad mahfil seeking divine blessings for those who were massacred in the tragic incident at the BDR Pilkhana headquarters in last year.
Addressing the press conference, Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid said Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami has already demanded of the government to form a judicial probe body to investigate all murders in educational institutions, including the killing at Rajshahi University.
"But instead of giving any heed to our demand, the government is conducting a drive to obliterate Jamaat-Shibir from the country."

    Feasibility study on reopening 2nd unit of Adamjee Jute Mills

UNB, Siddhirganj, Narayanganj

Disclosing step for reopening a unit of the closed Adamjee Jute Mills, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Sunday said the 4-party alliance, led by her political archrival Khaleda Zia, just knows how to destroy under a nihilistic policy.
"The 4-party alliance just knows how to destroy, nothing else. They just ruined in their previous tenure," she said in her speech at the inauguration of the first unit of Siddhirganj Peaking Power Plant.
The Prime Minister deplored that by closing down the mammoth Adamjee Jute Mills, the BNP led 4-party alliance government kicked below the belt of one-crore people.
She said that her government has asked the authorities concerned to prepare a report after making a feasibility study on resumption of the second unit of the Adamjee Jute Mills.
"We will take the decision of resumption of the operation of the second unit of the Adamjee Jute Mills after getting the report," she told her audience at the function-not far from the deserted site of the country's biggest industrial unit, shut down during the rule of the BNP-led coalition following donors' prescription.
Hasina said that her government is hectically working on to revive the lost glorious days of the golden fiber, jute.
She noted that the demand for jute and jute-goods is increasing day by day as the world is now concerned about the use of synthetic fiber.

    Lawyers burn Prothom Alo for report on two HC judges
UNB, Dhaka

A group of BNP-Jamaat-likeminded lawyers Sunday burnt a bundle of daily Prothom Alo to protest against a report published as lead news headlined "massive malpractice in granting bail" along with portraits of two judges of the High Court Division bench.
The daily in its today's issue published a byline report by Mizanur Rahman Khan that triggered anger among a section of pro-BNP-Jamaat lawyers as it pointed finger at the High Court judges AFM Abdur Rahman and M Emdadul Haque Azad for granting ad-interim anticipatory bail to criminal-suspects and mass bail to convicted criminals through malpractices.
The news was substantiated by a two-judge inquiry committee report on case management, which is now at the disposal of the Chief Justice. The judges, according to Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), were appointed on April 27, 2003 and on August 23, 2004 respectively on political considerations during the past BNP-Jamaat regime.
Earlier, the pro-BNP-Jamaat lawyers held a protest meeting at the SCBA hall room where Barrister Jamir Uddin Sircar MP, Khandaker Mahbub Hossain, Barrister Rafiqul Islam Mian, Barrister Aminul Huq, Zainul Abedin and Mahbubuddin Khokan MP spoke.
The meeting demanded an emergency protest meeting of the SCBA within two days. Otherwise, general members of the bar will be compelled to hold a requisition meeting for taking decision on the issue.

Editorial

Poverty and dropout of students

Nobel Laureate and eminent economist Prof Dr Amartya Sen Saturday proposed for introducing 'school meals' to check dropout of students in the national interest. Addressing a press conference in the city he underscored the need for taking multilateral and combine efforts to resolve problems in health and education sectors in two neighbouring countries of Bangladesh and India. "We can solve the complications from health and education sectors using multilateral approach. We have to consider how we can enhance the participation of the government and non-government organizations (NGOs) to address these sectors," he said.
Amartya Sen said that the quality and effectiveness of the education can be raised by cutting the dropout rate of children from primary school. School feeding will also reduce the dropouts, he added. It may be recalled that on an earlier occasion he had the Nobel Laureate had commented in Dhaka that 'empty stomach also empties class rooms'.
It goes without saying that the rate of dropout of students at different levels in the country continues to be alarming. The Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid is on record as saying that ten percent of the children eligible for going to schools do not get admitted to educational institutions, 48 percent students dropout at primary level and 42 percent do the same at secondary level.
The main cause of this is learnt to be widespread poverty. According to a report carried by a leading national daily: 12 lakh 67 thousand and 634 students had registered them in class nine in the 2007-08 academic year. But only 7 lakh 33 thousand 324 of them sat for the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examination last year. As many as 5 lakh 34 thousand 310 students, mostly girls, did not appear at the SSC examination as they have been dropped out. The rate of dropout was as high as 42.15 percent. The report quoted the Chairman of Dhaka Education Board as saying that the high rate of dropout resulted from social and economic factors. Because of financial crisis many guardians were forced to withdraw their wards from schools and engage them in different jobs to earn some money.
Even at the primary level a large number of children in the country are being compelled to give up the pursuit of education due mainly to poverty. About 90 lakh children attaining the school-going age are out of the primary education system according to press reports. Around 55 percent of the primary students coming mostly from poor and middle class families suffer from malnutrition which causes dropout of about 33 percent children. This is a grim and painful reality caused by severe poverty and serious food problem.
Amartya Sen's observation that 'empty stomach also empties class rooms' is testified by the situation in Bangladesh. Poverty and food shortage and malnutrion are keeping many out of educational institutions and forcing many to leave the schools. No immediate end to this alarming condition is in sight. In recent times 42 lakh more people in Bangladesh have been pushed below the poverty line. This indicates that despite continued efforts for alleviation of poverty it has rather intensified. A recent study report said: At least 36 million people in the county, around a quarter of its population, face acute poverty and hunger. In short, poverty has been playing a major role in worsening the education situation which is alarming due to corruption, anomalies, textbook crisis and other factors.
Against this backdrop, the government should make concerted efforts to eradicate poverty and free the education system from corruption and irregularities on priority basis. Alongside, budget allocation to education sector should be enhanced considerably so that education up to secondary level can be made free and compulsory for all and quality of education can be improved.

  A silent killer

Bangladesh is a haven of many fatal diseases as the arrangements for prevention of those and the treatment of the patients thereof are very poor. Some of these diseases, specially cancer and kidney diseases, have emerged as silent killers claiming huge number of lives every year. The magnitude of the crisis arising out of kidney diseases in particular is evident from the fact that around 1.5 crore people in the country are affected by kidney and urology related diseases every year with one third of them living with inactive kidneys. The number of patients is increasing significantly day by day due to lack of awareness and primary treatment and every hour five persons die of kidney and urology related diseases as they do not get timely and proper treatment. Most of the patients are unable to take timely treatment as the cost is very high.
Kidney disease is a problem for the whole world. But the scenario is different in rich and poor countries. The developed countries and their people are solvent enough to spend adequately and so the situation is less grave there. The tragedy for us is that due to serious poverty our people cannot afford the highly expensive. Experts say that prevention is better than cure and everyone will agree that all possible measures should be taken at individual and state level for the prevention of outbreak and spread of the diseases. To this end creation of awareness among the people is a must.

Analysis

Nuclear neighbours must be amenable

It is a sad commentary on the secular credentials of the Congress party, which controls both the Maharashtra and the central governments, that it was slow to take action against the Shiv Sena.

Kuldip Nayar

The developing countries have in parochialism a menace that disrupts normal life. A small number of people take the law into their hands and whip up a frenzy by appealing to divisive and communal sentiments. They not only mar the rhythm of development but also weaken the nation's cohesion.
The Shiv Sena in Mumbai is one such organisation which takes pride in sowing the seeds of separation. Its followers are like the Taliban - less violent, but equally fanatical. They have adopted Marathi, one of India's 14 main languages, to push their agenda for a distinct identity. They openly preach Hindutva.
Therefore, it was not surprising that the Shiv Sena picked on a Muslim, asking Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan to apologise for his comments about the exclusion of Pakistan cricket players from the Indian Premier League.
Khan stood his ground. and a TV survey showed that 94 per cent of people backed him. Of course, the depressing part was the silence of most actors who were expected to speak out in support of Khan. I was not surprised by the silence of Amitabh Bachchan. He travelled all the way to Ahmedabad to show his movie to Chief Minister Narendra Modi of the Gujarat carnage fame.
It is a sad commentary on the secular credentials of the Congress party, which controls both the Maharashtra and the central governments, that it was slow to take action against the Shiv Sena. What woke up the Maharashtra administration was the visit by Rahul Gandhi to Mumbai. The country applauded his observation that every part of India belonged to every Indian. He confronted the Shiv Sena on its own territory, much to the humiliation of its chief Bal Thackery. It is having its revenge on hapless theatres and viewers of Khan's movie.
Targeted
Arousing anti-Pakistan sentiments is a hobby-horse of the Shiv Sena. That is why Khan was called "a traitor" for saying that he supported good relations with the people of Pakistan.
The anti-Pakistan feeling in India or the anti-India feeling in Pakistan is an old phenomenon which, unfortunately, has persisted. Any demagogue can exploit it. Bal Thackerey in India and Lashkar-e-Toiba chief Hafiz Saeed, who organised last week a meeting in Islamabad to "liberate India," are stoking fires of hatred. They will not stop because they earn dividends from the hostility they peddle.
But I am more concerned over the attitude of the younger generations on both sides. I happened to watch on TV a chat between youngsters from the two countries. They were talking about a cricket match between India and South Africa, but the manner in which they were using filthy language to describe leading cricketers was shocking.
It is 62 years since partition. Both the Congress, representing the majority of Hindus, and the Muslim League, representing the majority of Muslims, agreed to a proposal to divide the Indian Subcontinent on the basis of religion. But, at the same time, the founders of the two countries, Mahatma Gandhi and Qaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, told their people not to mix religion with politics. Gandhi said he would live in Karachi and the Qaid-e- Azam retained his Mumbai house for occasional visits. Both said that the two countries would be the best of friends. So why are youngsters on both sides denouncing by their actions those who won them freedom?
After killing one million people in four wars, both sides should have realised that hostilities cannot be an answer to their differences. The option of war was extinguished once the two counties went nuclear. There is no alternative to peace. Youngsters should appreciate this fact all the more because the challenge before them is to build their countries, not destroy them.
Reject disharmony
Hindus and Muslims have lived together for 800 years. Together they have moulded a life of accommodation and tolerance. They have developed a composite culture that retains the separate identities of Hinduism and Islam. It was the British rulers who created disharmony and distance; we should have rejected this long ago.
The other question the Shiv Sena has posed regards linguistic identity. India reorganised its states on linguistic lines 50 years ago. Even at that time, the danger of linguistic chauvinism was underlined by the Fazl Ali Commission on Reorganisation of States. Movements in other parts of India in the name of language have risen and fallen. The Shiv Sena phenomenon, a decade old, has not died because it has found fertile ground in Maharashtra.
The Mumbai attacks helped the Shiv Sena to raise the pitch of anti-Pakistan rhetoric. The larger question is how to fight against anti-Muslim feeling and anti-Pakistan sentiment, two sides of the same coin. Friendly relations with Pakistan are the only answer. Unfortunately, the Bharatiya Janata Party has opposed even talks at the foreign secretary level.
Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmoud Quraishi is not helping matters by playing to the gallery. His body language and words don't help the situation. The priority should be to ensure the talks are successful, and not to dwell on who bowed before whom. This will take patience and a willingness to accommodate each other's point of view.

Kuldip Nayar is a former Indian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and a former Rajya Sabha member.

  Obama - illegally blonde in Afghanistan

International law must be respected. By everyone. It is not enough to muddy the waters and hope that everyone forgets what was fair and what was foul.

Miranda Husain

It appears that the US president is under pressure. In fact, we should really spare a thought for the poor chap. No one, it seems, understands just how weighty is the burden of that Nobel Peace Prize. It forever looms large. Like some realpolitik version of Banquo's ghost.
It was again there taunting him during last month's conference on Yemen and international terrorism. Following December's direct attempt on the US homeland by al Qaeda in Yemen, the world's most powerful man - Obama not Osama, just to be clear - was reduced to downgrading the presence of active terror cells in that county to a mere 'internal affair'. Thus he vowed that not a single US soldier would touch base on Yemeni soil. In fact, Washington's role was to help 'reduce the influence' of such groups in Yemen. Less global policeman and more neighbourhood watch.
Secretly, though, the prized one must have been somewhat pleased to have the summit showcase the sharp contrast between his peace-loving credentials and those of his warmongering predecessor.
Ditto the London Conference on Afghanistan. The trump card there being his full support for the concept of nation building, something that the swaggering W had always found too hard to swallow.
Just look at how he has thrown himself behind the Afghan president's calls for the reconciliation of Afghan society through the reintegration of a Taliban free from al Qaeda game plans. And see how he nods his head knowingly when the Afghan president promises that this double R drive of the last resort will not be permitted to thwart the advancement of human rights, especially those of women, or undermine the Afghan constitution.
And just take a moment to consider the way in which he generously plans to allow the Afghan authorities to ultimately take control of all the country's prisons. Including those not-so-secret US detention facilities. Meaning that Kabul will then have the exclusive honour of liberating those who should not, perhaps, have been incarcerated in the first place.
Unfortunately for Mr Obama, it is the latter that will likely prove the proverbial fly in the ointment. That last hurdle to having declared nobly peaceful his selfless hopes of bequeathing sovereignty to the Afghan people.
For history will, indeed, remember that pesky little matter of illegal CIA rendition programmes. Similarly, the subsequent legal black holes due to that niftiest of moves - to bypass Geneva Convention safeguards - that heralded the new-fangled 'enemy combatant' designation. Not to mention how the continuance of justice's denial will undermine the Afghan president's claims that nothing will be allowed to usurp the rule of law in a free Afghanistan.
Surely, it is not too much to expect that Mr Obama's Harvard education might have equipped him to recognise that any reconciliation efforts will be rendered meaningless once the concept of justice is eliminated from the narrative.
Failing that, maybe his missus could have taken a short break from tackling childhood obesity to have reminded him of another home truth: ignorance of the law is not an excuse for its violation. And that the combination of knowledge of transgressions and the absence of remedial measures ought to be considered as serious as initial violations.
So, what might the US president wish to say in his defence?
Naturally, the fault lies not with him. He was simply following in the footsteps of his role model, that other good guy. Remember him? That one-time world body chief who would not permit the small matter of an illegal pre-emptive war to interfere with the honourable task of nation building?
Unfortunately, this reckless precedent set down by the UN former secretary general has been mimicked by those who pay no heed to the international legal framework but simply wish to change the subject.
This is why Britain, also a partner in CIA rendition programmes, has its former prime minister bleating on about the government's latest Iraq probe being nothing more than a conspiracy theory.
This is why, here, in Pakistan, we have effectively bathed the Dr Aafia Sidiqui case in the dimmest of lights.
Following the Pakistani neuroscientist's conviction in a US court, many here are calling for her to be brought home, including the government.
These calls have been applauded by British journalist Yvonne Ridley, one of the first voices to highlight the presence of the Grey Lady in Bagram. As she puts it: "When injustice is the law, it is the duty of everyone to rise up and challenge that injustice in any way possible." But injustice only becomes the law when legal safeguards are systematically flouted. Thus the only appropriate response is to reinforce the law and bring violators to account.
This means remembering that Dr Aafia 'disappeared' during the tenure of the previous regime, yet another CIA partner in the crime of rendition. And this means acknowledging that if Islamabad fails to bring the former government to book, it willingly casts itself in the role of accomplice.
International law must be respected. By everyone. It is not enough to muddy the waters and hope that everyone forgets what was fair and what was foul.

The writer is a Lahore-based freelance journalist and is currently working on her first novel. She can be reached at humeiwei@hotmail.com

  Challenging Media Paradigms

A continued exploration of cultural or religious representation based on dialogue offers more hope to the encounters of people from different cultures and faiths than what is currently portrayed in the media.

Gabriel Faimau

At an international conference on 'Islam and the Media' organised by the Center for Media, Religion and Culture at the University of Colorado-Boulder in January, many of the participants, including myself, examined the negative stigma attached by the media to Islam and Muslims, especially after 9/11 and various terrorist attempts made in the name of Islam by extremists and militants operating on the fringes of the larger mainstream Muslim community.
In his influential 1981 book, Covering Islam, the late author and literary theorist Edward W. Said captured public attention regarding how experts and the media have determined the way we see Islam. At the heart of Said's analysis is the notion that media coverage of Islam has closely associated Muslims with militancy, danger and anti-Western sentiment.
In 1997, the Runnymede Trust, a UK-based think tank that promotes a successful multi-ethnic Britain, echoed the same idea in 'Islamophobia: A Challenge for Us All'. A similar tendency was employed to read the events of 9/11 in 2001. Analysing these events, a good number of pundits, analysts, journalists and politicians believed that what we witnessed in the 9/11 attacks and its aftermath was a 'clash of civilisations', that is, a battle between Western and Islamic civilisations as predicted earlier by political scientist Samuel P. Huntington.
For the past three decades, scholarly studies on Islam and Muslims in the media have heavily relied on such frameworks. These frameworks still have a big influence on current studies. In fact, a good number of papers presented during the recent 'Islam and media' conference were based on these frameworks.
Of course, the use of such frameworks undeniably shapes the outcome of such findings and analysis. The problem, however, is that at the heart of the above approaches is a binary way of thinking which puts the West on one side and Islam on the other.
Why is the media so obsessed with this binary approach? In my opinion, the binary style of thinking raises two issues. First, it provides no space for understanding the productive side of the encounter of people with different cultural and religious backgrounds. In a society characterised by increasing complexity, society cannot be just simply painted black and white. After all, society is not static. It has always been dynamic.
Second, the binary approach, which includes the idea of 'West versus Islam' or the civilised versus the uncivilised, has been developed upon the premise that media discourse has the power to control the unjust social representations of other cultures or religions. This premise assumes that people are basically trapped, or even imprisoned, in a fixed context of clash. As a result, the binary approach is inadequate for the complex challenges faced by a multicultural society.
The news, however, is not that bad. As we move on to a new decade, a continued exploration of cultural or religious representation based on dialogue offers more hope to the encounters of people from different cultures and faiths than what is currently portrayed in the media.


Gabriel Faimau is a Ph.D. researcher in the Department of Sociology at the University of Bristol in UK. Distributed by Common Ground News Service.

Viewpoints

The rise of extremism

After the Afghan war ended, the US left in haste, leaving behind the mess of several hundered thousand jihadis.

Dr Manzur Ejaz 

The rise of the right wing conservative religious forces in Pakistan was due to a combination of factors. A changing economy, military adventures and backward state institutions played a main role in giving rise to jihadism, etc. It was not dictator Zia or other military rulers who were the only players in such an outcome. The evolution of Pakistan has to be reviewed in a broad historical perspective.
The 1965 war had done irreparable damage to Ayub Khan's regime; the economy started sagging, food shortages became common and prices of necessities saw a steep rise. In such a depressing environment, Ayub Khan and his son's corruption scandals became the diet of daily political discussions. In a shrinking job market and increasing population, the post-partition born educated work force was seeking jobs with no success. Later on, Zulifqar Ali Bhutto's breaking away and his exploitation of the Tashkent Agreement further undermined the Ayub regime.
Around 1965-66, on the surface, Ayub Khan was very strong because there was no credible opposition to his rule except in East Pakistan. It appeared that Ayub and his descendants were set to rule forever, but from within the regime had been hollowed out by incurable termites and pests. The internal corrosion of the regime and the overall system was not being noticed by anyone.
The parties on the left - National Awami Party along with the newly founded Pakistan People's Party (in 1967) and Awami League - apprehending the weakness, had started raising the heat. Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) and other right wing parties were active as well, but they had not much public following. By 1968, when Ayub Khan was celebrating his 'Golden Decade of Progress', a strong anti-regime movement was taking root both in East and West Pakistan. When the riots broke out in both units (more ferocious in East Pakistan), Ayub Khan, by now in declining health, gave in to General Yahya Khan in 1969.
Yahya Khan's regime, incensed by the rising tide of the left, the popularity of PPP's roti, kapra aur makan and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's six point agenda for East Pakistan's autonomy, had reverted to taking help from religious conservatives, particularly the JI. Yahya Khan's confidant General Sher Ali Khan was deputed to undertake the ideological cleansing of the media and educational institutions. Mian Tufail Mohammad is on record as saying that Yahya Khan had promulgated all necessary Islamic laws and it was up to the citizens to practice them.
When the general elections were held in 1970, none in Yahya Khan's regime expected the results that came out: Awami League won all but two seats in East Pakistan and Bhutto's PPP swept West Pakistan. Religious parties had popularised anew the slogan: "Pakistan ka matlab kya..." but their use of the Quran in processions did not work. Such slogans may have been there even before partition, but they were made operative in the 1970 elections.
The army and Yahya Khan, along with most of the people in West Pakistan, did not want the Awami League's rule at the Centre because of its real or perceived separatist ideology. Bhutto and others are blamed for not reaching a deal with the Awami League, but the fact of the matter is that East Pakistan had been lost much before the elections, as Yahya Khan acknowledged in one of his interviews later.
The military operation in East Pakistan played havoc with Pakistan's economy and its international standing. A genocide-type murderous military operation and the ultimate routing by the Indian military (justified or not) created a mullah-military alliance in the remaining Pakistan. Besides, the JI had fought along with the military against the Bengali Muslims. Pakistan's armed forces were ideologically so insecure that they developed a strong belief that it was only religion that could save the rest of Pakistan. Therefore, instead of being thankful to Bhutto for bringing thousands of prisoners of war home, they felt threatened by his not-so-Islamic ideological stance. Bhutto tried to placate them through his own Islamisation, but it never worked.
The anti-Bhutto mullah-military alliance also strengthened because of the rapidly changing intra-class status quo and mammoth changes in the political economy. Bhutto had awakened the masses to get their genuine rights, which did not go down well with the traditional middle classes and the elite from where the military is recruited. In addition, the old mode of agrarian production was changing from the thousands of years old ox and wooden plough into mechanised cultivation. Internal migration from the rural to urban areas was accelerating. These trends were accentuated by the Bhutto regime's liberal passport policies, resulting in the mass migration of workers and foreign earnings flowing into the economy. In short, the political economy was changing fast while the state was stuck in its old mode. The gap was filled by rising religious ideology aided by the elites and the military. By 1977, the mullah-military-elite alliance was so strong that Bhutto's election victory did not matter and he was hanged eventually.
Ziaul Haq, an extremely conservative Muslim, built upon the Islamisation Yahya Khan and Bhutto had started. At this point, the communist takeover in Afghanistan and the eventual military intervention by the Soviet Union furthered the cause of Islamisation. In its effort to defeat the Soviet Union, the US threw in billions of dollars and weapons, and provided training to bolster the Islamisits and jihadists. As a matter of fact, it was the US that injected the concept of international jihad into the Pak-Afghan localised religious movements through systematic propaganda and even a change in the curriculum being taught in Pakistan.
After the Afghan war ended, the US left in haste, leaving behind the mess of several hundered thousand jihadis. The Pakistani establishment, intoxicated by the routing of the Soviets, undertook ventures to conquer Afghanistan and Kashmir, and destabilise India. The mullah-military nexus was further strengthened, playing havoc with all other institutions of the state. The rapidly changing political economy of Pakistan through the electronic media and other technologies was unsettling the institutions as well. This was the worst combination of factors that created anarchy and lawlessness in the country. This phase has been prevalent till very recently, despite the US intervention after 9/11. However, the situation has been changing for the last few years with some institutions of the state getting stronger and the mullah-military alliance teetering. Emerging trends need a lengthy discussion which is beyond the scope of this column.


The writer can be reached at manzurejaz@yahoo.com

  Little chance for the US to achieve objectives in Afghanistan   

There is no way the US forces could accomplish the mission without killing scores of civilians and causing major damage to the area.

Musa Keilani    

Jordan suffered its share at the hands of Al Qaeda and our wounds are still bleeding at Khost, yet a sober look at the situation is required now.
The US and allied forces have always claimed that every "militant" killed in their operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan was a prominent leader of the Taliban. Examining closely the claims, it would appear that the Taliban and similar groups are fast running out of leaders, yet there is no let-up in militant attacks. That is also the case with the affirmation by Pakistani Taliban sources that their leader, Hakimullah Mehsud, died of wounds inflicted by a US drone attack.
The US and Pakistani governments say that Mehsud was behind a wave of deadly bombings in Pakistan and played a role in the suicide attack against a US base in Khost, in south Afghanistan, in which three American intelligence agents were killed along with four private military contractors. The immediate assertion by US officials is that Mehsud's death is a major blow to the Pakistani Taliban.Is that necessarily the case?
What could be seen so far in the US-led "war against terror" is that American strategists tend to attach too much importance to leaders of militant groups and do not give enough importance to lower ranks of militants in the making.
It is clearly established, according to the Jordanian experience with Al Qaeda, that neither Al Qaeda nor the Taliban, whether Afghan or Pakistani - or any similar militant group - need to have an organised leadership structure. The conviction of those "true believers" is that the US-led war is out toannihilate or persecute them, which constitutes a strong enough motive for them to embrace militancy. And the behaviour of those who they consider as their foes, including the US and its allies, is only fuelling their sentiments.
Most of those killed and wounded in US drone attacks on daily basis in Pakistan were not militants but innocent civilians, including women and children. Their deaths plunge their family members in grief and a desire to exact revenge. Their natural option is to take up arms against whoever they feel responsible, directly or indirectly, for the death and maiming of their loved ones.
Al Qaeda or the Taliban do not have to go out to recruit them; they would join anyone who they believe shares their cause. They may or may not want to become leaders, but they find themselves in a situation where they automatically lead the front, replacing someone. And this is happening on daily basis in Pakistan and Afghanistan. It is thus only a matter of time beforeanother leader of the Pakistani Taliban will emerge.
That is also applicable in Afghanistan, where the insurgency is led by the majority Pashtuns, who belong to small clans. They could operate as small cells and avoid even being noticed, but they could inflict serious harm to the US and allied forces, as they are doing today.
The US military, which is engaged in a massive offensive in Afghanistan, faces a major dilemma. Most of the local residents are "staying put", thus could be caught in the crossfire as the US forces seek to flush out the Taliban from the area and to win the hearts and minds of those left behind. They also have to ensure that the insurgents do not return.
As US and NATO officials assert, the Marjah offensive is designed to show that the central government in Kabul can gain the upper hand and exercise authority throughout the country, while it also secures "a better life to the people who are there". But the Taliban remain defiant and have dismissed the American and NATO threats. Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi scoffed at NATO threats, saying that American and Afghan forces would have to put up a hard fight to take Marjah.
It is estimated that some 4,000 Taliban fighters, backed by some 100 or so foreigners allied with Al Qaeda, are facing the Marjahoffensive.Of course, the US is using a force that is far better equipped than the Taliban's and could outnumber the insurgents. But, the very fact that up to 80,000 villagers remain in the area makes it seemingly impossible for the US military to achieve its objectives.
There is no way the US forces could accomplish the mission without killing scores of civilians and causing major damage to the area. Under the circumstances, it is difficult for the US to attain the goal of having local support against the Taliban. If anything, the US forces will have alienated the local residents and created more insurgents than those killed and "neutralised".
There is no perfect formula to make sure this does not happen. And that is the biggest challenge and hurdle to the US efforts to pacify and control Afghanistan, and contain the insurgency in Pakistan.
We in this part of the world, in Jordan in particular, are aware of this reality since the lifeblood of the militants there comes from Osama Ben Laden. That is why we see little chance of the US succeeding in accomplishing its "strategic" objectives in Afghanistan.
Indeed, the US military might be able to push out the Taliban from some areas in a new offensive, but the insurgents will be ready to spring back into action at the most opportune, and unexpected, moment, even without a central leadership. And, given the nature and history of the people of Afghanistan,no central authority, whether supported by the US or any other external force, would be able to hold sway in thatchaotic country, regardless of how many insurgents they kill there.

  Zionism a terrifying nightmare

Israel was created, mainly, by Zionist terrorism and ethnic cleansing - a pre-planned process that saw three-quarters of the indigenous
Arab inhabitants of Palestine dispossessed of their homes, their land and their rights.

Alan Hart    

Most Jews of the world (and probably many Gentiles) believe that Zionism is the return of Jews to the land promised to them by God. I must confess, and do so cheerfully, that I don't buy this concept.
The Jews who "returned" in answer to Zionism's call had no biological connection to the ancient Hebrews. They were converts to Judaism long after the end of the Hebrew conquest and short-lived domination of much of Canaan, the name as in the Bible by which Palestine was first known to the world. They therefore had no legitimate claim on the land.
The Jews who did have a legitimate claim, probably not more than about 10,000 at the time of Zionism's first dishonest mission statement in 1897, were the direct descendants of the Israelites who stayed in place on the land through time. They regarded themselves as Palestinians, and they were fiercely opposed to Zionism's colonial enterprise because they feared it would make them as well as the incoming alien Jews enemies of the Palestinian Arabs.
Also true is that prior to the obscenity of the Nazi holocaust, most Jews of the world were not at all interested in Zionism's colonial enterprise and many were opposed to it. The most informed and thoughtful of those who did express their opposition believed that Zionism was morally wrong. They also feared that Zionism's colonial enterprise would lead to unending conflict. But most of all they feared that Zionism, if it was allowed by the major powers to have its way, would one day provoke anti-Semitism. Which is precisely what is happening today. (Hence the title of my book, Zionism: The Real Enemy Of The Jews).
In reality it is how the Zionists created their state - a Zionist not a Jewish state - that best defines what Zionism actually is.
Israel was created, mainly, by Zionist terrorism and ethnic cleansing - a pre-planned process that saw three-quarters of the indigenous Arab inhabitants of Palestine dispossessed of their homes, their land and their rights.
ZIONISM asserts that its state was given its birth certificate and thus legitimacy by the UN Partition Resolution of Nov. 29, 1947. That is propaganda nonsense. The truth can be summarized as follows:
o In the first place the UN without the consent of the majority of the people of Palestine did not have the right to decide to partition Palestine or assign any part of its territory to a minority of alien immigrants in order for them to establish a state of their own.
o By the narrowest of margins, and only after a rigged vote, the UN General Assembly did pass a resolution to partition Palestine and create two states, one Arab, one Jewish, with Jerusalem not part of either. But the General Assembly resolution was only a recommendation - meaning that it could have no effect, would not become policy, unless approved by the Security Council.
o The General Assembly's recommendation never went to the Security Council for consideration because the US knew that, if approved, it could only be implemented by force given the extent of Arab and other Muslim opposition to it; and President Harry S. Truman was not prepared to use force to partition Palestine.
o So the partition plan was vitiated (became invalid) and the question of what the hell to do about Palestine - after Britain had made a mess of it and walked away, effectively surrendering to Zionist terrorism - was taken back to the General Assembly for more discussion. The option favored and proposed by the US was temporary UN Trusteeship. It was while the General Assembly was debating what do that Israel unilaterally declared itself to be in existence - actually in defiance of the will of the organized international community, including the Truman administration.
The truth of the time was that the Zionist state had no right to exist and, more to the point, could have no right to exist unless ... Unless it was recognized and legitimized by those Zionism had dispossessed of their land and their rights. In international law only the Palestinians could give Israel the legitimacy it craved.
What is a Zionist today? Short answer: One, not necessarily a Jew, who (to quote Balfour) supports the Zionist state of Israel "right or wrong" and who cannot or will not admit that a terrible wrong was done to the Palestinians by Zionism - a wrong that must be acknowledged and then corrected on terms acceptable to the Palestinians if there is ever to be peace and the countdown to catastrophe for all is to be stopped. The Arab word for the catastrophe of the original dispossession of the Palestinians is Nakba. In my view, Zionism's Nakba denial is as obscene and as evil as denial of the Nazi holocaust.
One thing nobody can deny is the effectiveness of Zionism's propaganda machine. Zionism's spin doctors probably learned from the Nazis that the bigger the lies and the more frequently they are told, the more likely it is that they will be believed in the mainly Gentile, Judeo-Christian or Western world; and all the more so when the mainstream media are terrified of offending Zionism either too much or at all.
THE biggest of all of Zionism's propaganda lies is the one which asserts that Israel has lived in constant danger of annihilation, the "driving into the sea" of its Jews. As I document in detail in my book, Israel's existence has never, ever, been in danger from any combination of Arab force. Not in 1948. Not in 1967. And not even in 1973.
Zionism's assertion to the contrary was the cover which allowed Israel to get away where it mattered most, in North America and Western Europe, with presenting its aggression (often state terrorism) as self-defense, and itself as the victim when actually it was, and is, the oppressor.
The companion propaganda lie is that Israel never had Arab partners for peace.
Zionism has two hallmarks. One is self-righteousness of a most extraordinary kind. In 1986 this self-righteousness was described by Yehoshafat Harkabi, a former director of Israeli Military Intelligence, as "the biggest real danger" to the Jewish state.
The other hallmark is a shocking and awesome arrogance of military and economic power and the influence the latter buys, most critically in the US Congress where what passes for democracy is for sale to the highest bidders.
On the matter of truth as it relates to the making and sustaining of conflict in and over Palestine that became Israel, I hope the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) is right: "All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." If that's true, Zionism not only can be defeated but will be.


Alan Hart is a former ITN and BBC Panorama foreign correspondent who covered wars and conflicts wherever they were taking place in the world and specialized in the Middle East. Author of "Zionism: The Real Enemy Of the Jews". He blogs on www.alanhart.net and tweets on www.twitter.com/alanauthor

International

India says investigating blast, Pakistan talks on
Reuters, Pune, India

Security officials were investigating the possible involvement of Pakistan-based militants in a bomb blast in western India that killed nine people, but New Delhi said talks with Islamabad later this month would go ahead.
The bomb, left in a backpack at the popular German Bakery in the city of Pune on Saturday, wounded 60 and appeared to target Indian and foreign tourists.
Senior internal security sources, who declined to be named, said the focus had fallen on Pakistan-based separatist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which has been blamed for the Mumbai attacks, and a local militant group called Indian Mujahideen (IM) because both had been behind bombings in India in the past.
"As of now our line of investigation is toward the possible involvement of LeT ... a sleeper module of the Indian Mujahideen could also be involved," a senior interior security official overseeing the investigation told Reuters.
Both groups are fighting against Indian rule in Kashmir, the disputed Himalayan region.
"Nothing is ruled out, nothing is ruled in. The investigation is in progress," Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said.
On Friday, India and Pakistan agreed to high-level talks in New Delhi on February 25, suspended after Pakistani militants killed 166 people during a three-day rampage through the financial capital of Mumbai in November 2008.
Any sign of Pakistani involvement in the Pune attack would worsen relations between the two nuclear rivals and further destabilize a region overshadowed by war in Afghanistan.
The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party said India must "seriously reconsider" going ahead with the talks, but a government official said the talks were on track.
"The talks are going to go on schedule. We realize there are complexities in engaging Pakistan, but we have to see things in their entirety. And at this moment, there is no reason for the talks to not go on," the official said.
SOFT TARGET
Police in Pune, about 160 km (100 miles) south of Mumbai, had been alerted to the possibility of attacks on Osho ashram and Chabad House, which had also been targeted during the Mumbai attacks, Chidambaram said.
The German Bakery restaurant, located close to a Jewish center and a religious retreat frequented by foreigners, was a soft target in an area that had been on the radar of intelligence officials, Chidambaram said, denying there was an intelligence failure.
The Pune ashram was one of the sites surveyed by David Headley, arrested in the United States last year and charged with scouting targets for the Mumbai attacks.
The Pune blast also appears similar to a wave of bombs that hit Indian cities in the year before the Mumbai attacks, killing more than 100 people. Police blamed most of those attacks on home-grown Muslim militants like the IM, but Hindu militants were also accused of masterminding some of the bombs.
"The bomb appears to have been not a sophisticated one that could have required any special training. The expertise involved could have been locally acquired," said B. Raman, director of the Chennai-based Institute For Topical Studies.
An Italian woman and an Iranian man were among those killed. The 12 foreigners injured included Iranians, Yemenis, Sudanese, Nepalis, a Taiwanese and a German, Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh told reporters.
"We are awaiting forensic and intelligence reports. It is too early to say anything now," Singh said. Authorities have warned of renewed threats of attacks on Indian soil and stepped up security in recent months.
Airports and railway stations across the country have been put on high alert after the blast and extra security given to the South African and Indian cricket teams in India.

  NATO: Troops miss target, kill 12 Afghan civilians
AP, Kabul

NATO says two rockets fired at insurgents missed their target and killed 12 civilians in southern Afghanistan. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top NATO commander in Afghanistan, has apologized to Afghan President Hamid Karzai for the accident.
In a statement released Sunday by NATO, McChrystal says the current massive military offensive in Helmand province is aimed at restoring security and stability to the country's dangerous south and he regrets that innocent lives were lost in Nad Ali district.
Karzai issued a statement minutes earlier saying 10 members of the same family died when a rocket hit a house. Before the offensive began Saturday, Karzai pleaded with Afghan and foreign military leaders to be extra careful to avoid civilian casualties.
AFP adds: Mines and militant sniper fire slowed progress in a massive US-led assault on a Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan, commanders said on Sunday after hailing early successes.
US Marines led the charge on Marjah, a town of 80,000 in the central Helmand River valley controlled for years by militants and drug traffickers, in the first major test of President Barack Obama's new surge policy.
Some 15,000 US, British and Afghan soldiers stormed the Islamist stronghold in NATO's biggest operation since overthrowing the Taliban regime in 2001. NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) confirmed the combined forces had suffered two deaths-one British and one American-in the assault. Brigadier General Larry Nicholson, commander of the Marines in southern Afghanistan, described day one of Operation Mushtarak-"together" in Dari-as "good" and said "a couple of thousand Marines" were already inside Marjah. But as he visited a Marines base on the northeastern flank of the town, Nicholson said his men were meeting resistance from Taliban fighters.
"We took a lot of sniper fire," he said, adding that mine-sweeping vehicles "had blown up a lot of IEDs and have founds lots of IEDs with dead batteries".

  Lankan Buddhists demand opposition leader’s release
AP, Colombo

Senior Sri Lankan Buddhist monks urged the president on Sunday to release his main rival in last month's presidential election, who was detained on allegations of conspiring to overthrow the government while serving as army chief.
In a joint letter to President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the heads of four top Buddhist chapters condemned the arrest of Gen. Sarath Fonseka after his election defeat.
The chief monks are highly respected by politicians and civilians alike in the predominantly Buddhist nation, and their intervention could affect the government's plan to try Fonseka in a military court.
"We wish to stress that we do not under any circumstance approve of the arrest of former army commander Gen. Sarath Fonseka who risked his life for the country's unity," the monks wrote.
They asked Rajapaksa to use his presidential powers to clear Fonseka from all allegations.

  Nawaz terms Zardari as biggest threat to democracy
GEO Online

Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) will not allow the government to move scot-free, the party chief Mian Nawaz Sharif warned terming President Asif Ali Zardari as the biggest danger to the democracy.
Addressing the packed hall of journalists after the party's meeting, he said it seemed that the government does not accept the restored judiciary.
The democracy never before faced such a great threat as now in the form of
President Zardari, who has become the gravest danger to democracy, he said.
The PML-N condemns the incident that occurred yesterday, as the event plunged the country in the uncertainty and the President House outgrew its limits, Sharif told.
He said yesterday's incident was an action re-play of November 3, 2007, adding the government is targeting the judiciary to safeguard its corruption in preference for their corruption to the respect for the judiciary.
The Army should have the role stipulated in the Constitution, he said.
Nawaz Sharif said he forcefully warned the government to ensure the supremacy of the Constitution, adding his party categorically rejects the autocratic method adopted by the government.
He said the judiciary was restored by the people not the government which only issued a notification, informing the journalists that he had told Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani a day before not to delay the implementation on the recommendations of judges' appointments.
However, the following day, something else surfaced, he added demanding the recommendations of the Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Muhammed Chaudhry should be immediately put into action.
Nawaz said the PML-N wants to make it abundantly clear to the government in unequivocal terms that it would not be allowed to go its way on judges' appointments nor would it be spared the chance for corruption.
'We can make harsh decisions in the coming days and will protest in and outside the Parliament and mobilize the masses. We will not allow anyone to spoil the institutions for personal motives,' he said.
Had the Charter of Democracy been implemented, then there would not have been these problems, he asserted demanding President Zardari to bring back to Pakistan his wealth siphoned off to Swiss accounts; this is the money hard-earned by the people of Pakistan.
The country has been turned into a circus, he added.
The people of Pakistan will take care of all affairs, the Army should not be dragged into them; nor should the Army get itself involved in such affairs, he said.

  North Korea marks New Year with praise of Kim
AFP, Seoul

North Korea marked Lunar New Year Sunday with children staging a song and dance performance in praise of leader Kim Jong-Il, state media reported.
Senior party, army and state officials also attended the event at the Pyongyang Indoor Stadium on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency said.
"Schoolchildren and younger children offered New Year's greetings to leader Kim Jong Il, carrying the best wishes of the rising generation across the country," it said.
Young performers sang songs including "Thank You, Fatherly General"-a reference to Kim, who was not present.
"Through vibrant melody of songs and dance rhythms, the performers represented great happiness of the schoolchildren advancing toward the rosier future along the road of Songun," the agency reported, referring to the country's military-first policy.
Elsewhere in the capital residents laid floral baskets in front of statues of Kim Il-Sung, the late founding president and father of the current ruler.
The late Kim and his son are the subject of an intense personality cult in the hardline communist nation, which ascribes almost supernatural powers to both men.

  Freed Suu Kyi deputy calls for Myanmar talks
AFP, Yangon

Aung San Suu Kyi's deputy urged Myanmar's ruling junta Sunday to engage the opposition in dialogue before elections this year, as he took his first steps outside as a free man in seven years.
Tin Oo, 83, vice chairman of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party, made the appeal as he prayed at Yangon's famed Shwe Dagon pagoda following his release from house arrest late Saturday.
"Because I am a Buddhist I came here to wish for peace for all Myanmar people," he told AFP as he toured the huge golden monument, accompanied by his wife and a dozen NLD officials who held umbrellas to protect him from the sun.
"My feeling now is that I wish to find a way through successful dialogue that the whole country can live unitedly and peacefully."
The veteran activist said however that his own release means nothing if Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi, 64, and around 2,100 other political prisoners are still detained when the elections take place.
Tin Oo had been held since 2003, when he and Suu Kyi were arrested after a pro-regime mob attacked their motorcade during a political tour, killing 70 people.

  Singapore tries luring foreigners as casino opens
AP, Singapore

Foreigners and a few Singaporeans streamed to card and dice tables and slot machines Sunday at 12:18 p.m. - the lucky minute when tightly controlled Singapore opened its first casino.
The city-state is counting on the Resorts World Sentosa casino and another opening in May to lure tourists and expatriates without besmirching Singapore's hard-earned reputation as corruption-free.
The line for foreigners was long and deep at the midday opening, while few Singaporeans and permanent residents appeared eager to pay the fee required of them to enter. Chinese consider eight a lucky number because it sounds like prosper or wealth in the Mandarin dialect.
The casino is part of Resorts World Sentosa, built by Malaysia's Genting Bhd for 6.6 billion Singapore dollars ($4.7 billion) on an island just off Singapore's coast.
The government expects the two casino-resorts - Las Vegas Sands opens its Marina Bay Sands in May - to increase the country's gross domestic product growth by up to 1 percentage point and add 35,000 jobs.
Singapore also is trying to broaden its tourism appeal, part of a gradual shift toward a services-based economy and away from labor-intensive manufacturing that its poorer Asian neighbors can do more cheaply.
"They recognize they have to evolve," said David Cohen, an analyst with consultancy Action Economics in Singapore. "Some of their traditional industries are no longer going to be competitive as Singapore climbs the ladder into a higher income, higher cost location." Genting Chairman Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay said he expects 13 million visitors to Resorts World this year - 60 percent foreign and 40 percent Singaporean. He declined to say how many visitors he expected at the casino alone.

 Obama names US envoy to Muslim world body
Reuters, Doha

U.S. President Barack Obama on Saturday named a new special envoy to a top Islamic body to deepen Washington's cooperation with the Muslim world.
Obama told a U.S.-Islamic World Forum in the Qatari capital Doha in a recorded video message that he was naming White House official Rashad Hussain as special envoy to the 56-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference.
"As an accomplished lawyer and a close and trusted member of my White House staff, Rashad has played a key role in developing the partnerships I called for in Cairo," Obama said.
In a speech in Cairo last June, Obama called for a "new beginning" in ties between the United States and Muslims, many of whom felt targeted by the "war on terror" launched by President George W. Bush after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, and by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"Since then, my administration has made a sustained effort to listen. We've held thousands of events and town halls ...in the United States and around the world ... And I look forward to continuing the dialogue during my visit to Indonesia next month," Obama said.
Obama told Muslims in his June 4 speech in Cairo that violent extremists had exploited tensions between Muslims and the West and that Islam was not part of the problem.
His speech was welcomed by many Muslims, though some said they wanted him to spell out specific actions to resolve long-running problems like the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
"And as a hafiz of the Koran, (Hussain) is a respected member of the American Muslim community, and I thank him for carrying forward this important work," Obama said in his message to the Doha meeting, using the term for someone who has mastered and memorised the Muslim holy book.

  Turkey minister's Iran visit tests Ankara influence
Reuters, Ankara

Turkey's foreign minister travels to Tehran this week to try to salvage a U.N.-brokered uranium swap deal amid growing calls for sanctions against Iran, but few expect Ankara's mediation to produce a breakthrough.
Turkey, which has strengthened its ties with Iran since the Islamist-rooted AK Party took power in Ankara, has offered to use its access to the Iranian leadership to help solve a dispute between global powers and Tehran over its nuclear programme.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's order last week to start production of higher-grade uranium exposes the Islamic republic to new calls for U.N. sanctions from Western powers.
"If Ankara does not manage to bring Tehran around to a reasonable position on the uranium enrichment issue, it runs the risk of being isolated among its allies," Semih Idiz, a foreign affairs commentator for liberal Milliyet newspaper, said in a column titled "Ankara's Iran gambit".
Idiz said Ahmet Davutoglu's visit could turn into a litmus test of Turkey's influence in the region.
Davutoglu will meet his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki on Tuesday for talks that will include the potential swap deal, which Western powers see as a means to ensure Tehran does not further enrich its uranium for potential use in a nuclear weapon. Iran denies it intends to build a nuclear bomb.
Turkish officials say the visit might also include meetings with Ahmadinejad, whom Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has described as a "close friend", and Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation chief Ali Akbar Salehi.

  China's Xinhua agency defends policy on Taiwan
Reuters, Beijing

This year will be one of "tiger leaps and dragon strides" for relations between mainland China and Taiwan, China's state-backed Xinhua agency said on Sunday, in defense of a charm offensive aimed at the self-ruled island.
Economically booming China has wooed Taiwan with promises of better economic ties and a shared Chinese cultural heritage, reserving harsh words for U.S. military support of the self-ruled island, including a recent arms sale deal.
China's top leader, Hu Jintao, has made improving relations with Taiwan one of the legacies of his tenure.
"Of course, Cross-Straits relations are a heavy responsibility and there's a long road ahead, and could run into difficulties and obstacles along the way," Xinhua said, in an editorial praising Hu Jintao's approach on the Lunar New Year, the holiday marked by family reunions in Chinese culture. "We must recognise that the new approach to Cross-Straits relations did not come easily, take a broad view, and promote the policy of improving Cross-Straits relations and peaceful development as a political basis for the mainland and Taiwan belonging to One China." Xinhua commentaries reflect official government policy.
Hu met with businessmen from Taiwan on Saturday, Chinese New Year's Eve, and praised their investments in Fujian province, which shares cultural ties with nearby Taiwan.

  Israel general doubts power to hit Iran atom sites
Reuters, Jerusalem

Israel may lack the military means for successful preemptive strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities, its former top general said on Saturday.
While endorsing international efforts to pressure Tehran into curbing sensitive nuclear technologies, Israel has hinted it could resort to force. But some analysts say Israeli jets would be stymied by the distance to Iran and by its defenses. Asked in a television interview about Israeli leaders' vows to "take care" of the perceived threat, ex-general Dan Halutz, who stepped down as armed forces chief in 2007, said: "We are taking upon ourselves a task that is bigger than us."
"I think that the State of Israel should not take it upon itself to be the flag-bearer of the entire Western world in the face of the Iranian threat," Halutz, whose previous military post was as air force commander, told Channel Two.
"I'm not some passer-by ... I've filled a few positions that give me a different level of information to the average person," he said without elaborating.
The United States and European nations are trying to enlist other world powers in stepping up sanctions against Iran for its uranium enrichment, a process with bomb-making potential. Tehran denies having hostile designs but its anti-Israel rhetoric has stirred war fears.
Some analysts believe Israel, which is assumed to have the Middle East's only atomic arsenal but neither confirms nor denies this capability, is boosting its defenses to deter a nuclear-armed Iran from future confrontations.

  Lebanon ‘March 14’ supporters rally for slain Hariri
AFP, Beirut

Tens of thousands of supporters of Lebanon's majority "March 14" camp flocked into downtown Beirut on Sunday for a rally marking the fifth anniversary of the slaying of former premier Rafiq Hariri.
"Five years ago, you came down to this very square to demand justice and freedom ... and we are not turning back," Prime Minister Saad Hariri, son of the slain premier, told the cheering crowd.
Rafiq Hariri's assassination in a massive car bombing on February 14, 2005, that also killed 22 other people, saw the rise of a US- and Saudi-backed alliance that became known as March 14. It was named after a day of massive anti-Syrian protests dubbed the "Cedar Revolution."
Combined with international pressure, the protests in the weeks after the killing led to the pullout of Syrian troops from the tiny Mediterranean country in April 2005 following a 29-year presence. Saad Hariri, whose March 14 alliance has two parliamentary election wins under its belt, now leads a unity government which includes the Syrian-backed former opposition.
But Hariri's visit to Damascus in December and the softening of his stance against Syria, whom he had openly accused of his father's murder, have been viewed as signs that the March 14 movement was losing steam. Damascus has also since last year broken out of its international isolation, enjoying warmer ties with both Washington and Riyadh, the main backers of Lebanon's prime minister. In a recent interview, however, Hariri said that "only death" could separate him from his allies.
Addressing the commemoration on Sunday, he said his visit to Damascus was "part of inter-Arab reconciliation" efforts launched by Saudi King Abdullah who preceded him to the Syrian capital.

  Hillary visits key allies in Persian Gulf
AP, Doha, Qatar

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton launched a quick visit to two Persian Gulf allies Sunday as part of a broader Obama administration effort to shore up support for taking a tougher stance against Iran's nuclear program.
Her stops in Qatar and in Saudi Arabia coincide with a string of diplomatic and military contacts in the Middle East, including a visit to Egypt Sunday by Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Clinton's top three deputies - James Steinberg, Jacob Lew and William Burns - will be in the region in coming days, and a Clinton aide said Gen. David Petraeus, chief of U.S. Central Command with responsibility for U.S. military operations across the Middle East, would also be in the region.
Their agenda is not focused exclusively Iran. There also is an American push for closer cooperation in Yemen against al-Qaida, a move toward bolstering diplomatic relations with Syria and efforts to get Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations back on track.
After an overnight flight from Washington, Clinton went directly into a series of high-level meetings in the Qatari capital and was delivering an evening speech at the US-Islamic World Forum, where she was expected to echo and elaborate on President Barack Obama's call during an appearance at Cairo University in Egypt last June for a new level of engagement with the Muslim world.
She also was holding a one-on-one meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was attending the U.S.-Islamic World Forum, which is jointly organized by the Qatari foreign ministry and the U.S. Brookings Institution's Saban Center for Middle East Policy.
Obama addressed the forum by video on Saturday, announcing that he is appointing a special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

  Chalabi accuses US of interfering in Iraq election
AFP, Baghdad

A former Iraqi deputy prime minister who encouraged the United States to topple dictator Saddam Hussein said Sunday that Washington had interfered in the war-torn country's March 7 general election.
Ahmed Chalabi said US Vice President Joe Biden and Washington's ambassador to Baghdad Christopher Hill applied pressure to a committee responsible for vetting candidates and on judges who ruled on who could stand for office.
"The appeal committee was submitted publicly to the pressure of foreign groups, like Vice President Biden who said when he was in Iraq (in January) that he hoped Iraqi justice will dissolve the committee of integrity and accountability," said Chalabi.
"Or when the American ambassador in Baghdad expressed his wish that the Iraqi justice system will solve an inconvenient matter-the issue of the 500 candidates," he added.
The run-up to the election, the second parliamentary vote since Saddam's ouster almost almost seven years ago, has been dominated by a simmering row over who can take part. More than 500 candidates were barred last month having been accused of ties to Saddam's outlawed Baath party. The list has been cut down to 145 after appeals and the decision of some parties to substitute alternative candidates. However, the latest ruling did not reverse the exclusion of leading Sunni MP Saleh al-Mutlak. The decision to bar candidates is especially contentious as Chalabi, who has close ties to Tehran and aims to unseat Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, heads the integrity and accountability committee who vetted the candidates.

Business/Economy

Govt to strengthen Cooperative Bank
BSS, Dhaka

State Minister for LGRD and Cooperatives Jahangir Kabir Nanak Sunday said the government has taken initiatives to strengthen the Cooperative Bank and remodel the existing cooperative law.
The state minister was talking to reporters after opening a 10-day cooperative fair as the chief guest at Samabaya Bhaban in the city's Agargaon. The Cooperative Bank, he said, has become sick from neglect and corruption but the present government wants to use its potentials in creating rural employment and removing poverty.
He said the government will therefore put new blood to the
bank as part of its resolve to carry forward the cooperative movement however restructured keeping in view the new reality on the ground.
State minister for women and children affairs Dr Shirin Sharmin Chowdhury was the special guest on the occasion. Secretary of rural development and cooperative division Begum Rokeya Sultana was in the chair.
Registrar of the cooperative department Suraiya Begum and general secretary of Bestway Cooperative Commercial Credit Ltd also spoke on the occasion.
Nanak told reporters that the government has launched one home, one farm movement to bring spurt to the cooperative movement. It is also working at the same time to strengthen Bangladesh Rural Development Board (BRDB) by launching new programmes.
To a question, Nanak said the government will take stern action against Chhatra League workers if they indulge in toll collection and terrorism in the greater interest of rule of law and maintaining congenial environment in educational institutions.
He said he believed no Chhatra League worker can become party to such incidents and any one indulging in such crimes with Chhatra League identity are not party workers but infiltrators to the student body.
The state minister said the government has received the investigation report on plundering of Taka 207 crore under the previous BNP-Jamaat government and the present government will now decide how to deal with it.
Dr Shirin Chowdhury talked about the role of cooperative movement in removing poverty from the society. It can help capital formation and job creation, she said focusing on its creative impact at different levels.

 New industrial policy to be finalised this month: Dilip
BSS, Dhaka

A new industrial policy is set to get the final shape by this February, Industries Minister Dilip Barua hinted on Sunday at a meeting with some business leaders in the city.
The minister told leaders of Foreign Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) that his ministry had already set up a research and development cell to identify the major hindrances to business and investment.
The FICCI leaders asked for the minister's initiatives to declare weekends on Saturday and Sunday, which they observed would help in doing business in line with the normal pace on the global markets.
FICCI President AM Hamim Rahmatullah and General Secretary MA Matin were among the businessmen who met with the minister at his office.
They also advised the government through the industry minister to allow foreign investors VAT-free commercial space to attract more investments from overseas.
Dilip Barua assured them of all possible cooperation. He said that the power situation would improve significantly with more supply both form accelerating domestic generation and convenient imports.
Barua informed the meeting that the labour-intensive industries would be relocated to areas outside Dhaka city to improve and protect the city's environment.
"Law and order will also be maintained with stricter steps against all wrongdoers irrespective of their identity," the minister said.

  EU takes Greek economy under its wing
AFP, Brussels

Days after promising to support debt-laden Greece if necessary, the European Union will put the country under unprecedented fiscal surveillance this week, hoping to avoid the need for a bailout.
EU finance ministers, meeting Monday and Tuesday in Brussels, will back the exceptional measure to instil some budgetary discipline into Greece where swollen public deficits and massive debt levels threaten the 16-nation eurozone as a whole.
Market speculators are watching every move in Brussels.
On Friday EU heads of state and government promised coordinated measures and offered political support to Greece but no cold, hard cash, leaving analysts unimpressed.
The 27 European leaders also voiced opposition to the idea of euro bonds or making an embarrassing call on the International Monetary Fund.
"The summit was a political bailout and lacked substance on the framework of how assistance would work in practice," said Lloyds Banking Group economist Kenneth Broux.
He added the hope that the meeting of eurozone finance ministers on Monday and counterparts from the whole EU on Tuesday would "fill in the blanks."
He may be disappointed.
"You have to keep the markets guessing slightly. If you give out too much of a detailed plan, you provide a temptation to see how it will work," one European diplomat said.
Nor does anyone want to reduce Greece's urgency to implement its austerity measures, especially given the pressure Athens is under due to social unrest back home.
Greece has already announced tough action including raising the pension age and forcing public sector workers to accept cuts.
Nevertheless the cost of borrowing for Greece on bond markets has risen sharply of late in response to the country's debt burden and on fears that its proposed measures might not be enough to strengthen public finances.

  Speculative buying drives DSE index to new high
BSS, Dhaka

Highly speculative buying of some issues accelerated the upward trend on the capital market at the week's opening on Sunday when the main price index shot up to a new high of 5745.36.
The index advanced 1.94 percent or 109.63 points to cross 5700-point mark for the first time on Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE).
The major influencing issues included GP, AB Bank, Summit Power, Bextex, Beximco, NBL, Navana CNG, Asian Insurance, Purabi General Insurance, United General Insurance and some other issues from pharmaceuticals and power sector.
GP gained 7.40 percent at the close of the day when United Insurance advanced 12.49 percent, AB Bank 5.89, Navana CNG 4.25, Premier Bank 4.02, Summit power 2.86, NCCB 2.39 and NBL 1.59 percent.
The substantial rise on the market's largest issue GP mainly influenced the index. The other big issues including Beximco and Bextex gained marginally, but their huge transactions joined hands with GP to push the index to a new record position.
Some brokers said investors were buying shares on temptation of the high speculation about lucrative dividends from the companies coming ahead.
Some banking issues incurred losses on the day on profit- taking selling. The issues include City Bank, Prime Bank, Dhaka Bank, Shahjalal Bank, Southeast Bank and Islami Bank.
Total value of transaction on the day substantially increased to Taka 1,613 crore from the last week's closing of Taka 1,408 crore, but still remained below its record high of Taka 1,690 crore on the second day of this month.

  Serbia hopes to become China’s gateway to Europe
APF, Belgrade

Following the same pattern applied in Asia and Africa, China is now seeking to expand its influence in the Balkans and eastern Europe by cooperating on major infrastructure and energy projects.
Serbia is to be the site for China's first multi-million euro (dollar) infrastructure project on the European continent after Belgrade and Beijing signed a preliminary contract to build a much needed bridge over the Danube in the capital. With these investments and through a strategic partnership-signed last August when Serbian president Boris Tadic went to China-Serbia hopes to become China's gateway to the Balkans and Europe.
"The interest coincides in the fact that Serbia, with its specific geostrategic position and geographic location, is an ideal place for China to spread (business) from here to the (Balkans) region and Europe," Olivera Kiro of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce said.
"As a part of China's 'go global' strategy Europe has an important place and in that sense Serbia is a good choice" to start with, Kiro told AFP. Serbia, the largest country in the western Balkans, has free-trade agreements with the European Union, Russia, Belarus, Turkey, as well as with members of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). "Many Chinese enterprises are interested in coming here," Ren Yi, economic and commercial counsellor of China's embassy in Belgrade, told AFP.
In October Serbia signed a preliminary contract with the China Road and Bridge Corporation for a 170-million-euro (232-million-dollar) bridge over the Danube and construction is due to start in the second half of the year. Most of the money needed to finance the project would come from the Chinese Exim bank through a preferential buyer's loan. Negotiations are ongoing and Ren said he expected them to be concluded by the end of the month.

  China’s economic rise has silver lining for Japan
AFP, Tokyo

China is on the verge of unseating Japan as the world's number two economy, but student Shi Minfei is one reason why Beijing's rapid growth is not all bad news for its deflation-hit neighbour.
With Japan's consumers keeping a tight hold on their purse strings, leaving the country as reliant as ever on exports, Chinese tourists like Shi are a rare example of good news for the country's long-suffering retailers.
The 20-year-old engineering student from Shanghai said she had splurged about 300,000 yen (3,300 dollars) on clothing, bags, shoes and cosmetics during her visit to Japan.
"I'm going mostly to shopping malls," Shi said as she hopped aboard a tour bus in downtown Tokyo, adding that the Japanese capital still has an edge over Shanghai when it comes to splashing cash. Another visitor, a 42-year-old housewife from Beijing, said she had spent 200,000 yen on "Gundam" combat robot toys for her 12-year-old son, out of a shopping budget for the trip of up to 500,000 yen.
It is a welcome boost for a Japanese economy that has suffered two decades of malaise after its stock market and real estate bubble burst in the early 1990s, ushering in years of deflation and sluggish economic growth.
Government data due out on Monday are expected to show Japan's economy suffered a brutal contraction in 2009, possibly as much as six percent, leaving its status as the world's second largest economy hanging in the balance.
Average income per person in urban China was less than 3,000 dollars in 2009, still a far cry from nearly 48,000 dollars for a Japanese salaried worker, official figures show.
Even if Japan kept its number two rank last year, economists say it is inevitable it will soon be overtaken by China, which has a population of more than 1.3 billion and an economy that grew a blistering 8.7 percent last year.
While its relegation in the global economic rankings will be a blow to Japan's prestige, its economy might be in an even worse state if it were not for the boom in China, now its biggest trading partner and top export market.
With markets in Japan, North America and Europe in the doldrums, Japan's top carmakers and other manufacturers are increasingly relying on emerging economies including China.
Many Japanese manufacturers have opened factories in China, taking advantage of the lower labour costs and faster economic growth there. The flipside is that they face increasing competition from Chinese firms in overseas markets.
"As its population is ageing, we cannot expect Japan's domestic demand to recover," said Hiromichi Shirakawa, chief Japan economist at Credit Suisse.
"Japan has to rely on exports to limit the speed of its economic decline. Japan's outlook would be much darker if it weren't for China," he said.
Japan's government has taken notice and started issuing visas to individual Chinese tourists last July as demand for non-group travel increases.
Foreign visitor numbers to Japan last year plunged 18.7 percent from the previous year-the fastest decline in nearly four decades-to 6.79 million due to the global recession, a strong yen and the swine flu scare.
But arrivals from mainland China edged up 0.6 percent to a record one million. It is no wonder that travel agencies are competing to woo Chinese tourists with sight-seeing trips that include beauty treatment and healthcare. Nippon Travel Agency is offering a one-week tour for two for about one million yen (11,000 dollars), including stays at upscale hotels and cancer check-ups at a hospital with cutting-edge equipment, a company spokesman said.
Even remote places such as Abashiri in Hokkaido, 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) north of Tokyo, are seeing an influx of visitors, after the city was chosen as a filming location for a hit movie released in China last year.

National

Govt to take initiatives to establish ‘SME IT Park’: Dilip
BSS, Dhaka

Minister for Industries Dilip Barua on Sunday said the government would take initiatives to establish a 'SME IT Park' in a bid to flourish the IT-based industries as it has enormous prospect.
"We have no alternative to make the nation industrially bolstered to build Digital Bangladesh by 2021 as announced by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, he said." He made the observation while addressing as the chief gust at a seminar on 'e-Commerce Readiness for SME's' at the conference hall of Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the city.
To make the effort a total success, Dilip Barua said the government has been giving utmost priority to the potential industrial sectors like ICT, agro-based and small and cottage industries.
"We are working for the development of software, hardware and human resources," he said adding "human resource development, human resource management, and innovation of sustainable technology are undoubtedly significant areas where we need to improve a lot." Dilip Barua said the present government has been working relentlessly for building an industrially developed Bangladesh.
The minister said the government has stepped up efforts to build an industrialized, digital Bangladesh by 2021 to fulfill its commitment.
He said the government would not establish any more industry
excepting the specialized ones and provide all sorts of logistic supports for the private entrepreneurs to encourage them in the investment process.
The financial allocation would be increased in the next budget for the development of the SME sector, expansion of technical education and other training facilities for producing a desired manpower, he added.Barua said the government has attached priority to the expansion of the SME sector to build a strong economy, which would pave the way for heavy industry in Bangladesh.
The government is set to make a "time-befitting" industrial policy to face the challenges of globalisation, he said.
The Minister said the government would soon announce the industrial policy giving priorities to hi-tech and knowledge based industrialization.The government will provide special logistic support for the entrepreneurs like low bank interest, optimum power and gas supply, sound law and order, and stable political situation so that they could make their enterprises profitable and sustainable, he added. Presided over by BASIS Chairman Habibullah M Karim, the meeting was addressed, among others, by Chairman of the SME Foundation Aftab Ul Islam.
Dr Rokonuzzaman of the Independent University presented a keynote paper in the seminar.

  Bangladesh Development Forum begins today
Govt to go on borrowing from donors, Muhith asserts

UNB, Dhaka

A two-day Bangladesh Development Forum (BDF) meet begins here Today (Monday) where the government would seek donors' endorsement of the revised Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper-II as the country's latest development paradigm.
"The main objectives of the forum will be to seek endorsement on the strategy paper. We will also submit our sectoral plans where we will get their opinions and suggestions," said Finance Minister AMA Muhith on the eve of the government-donor talks.
He was addressing the launching ceremony of 'Steps Towards Change: National Strategy for Accelerated Poverty Reduction II (Revised) FY: 2009-11' in the NEC conference room on Sunday.
Citing an example of importance of taking loans, he said that the government would not only take loan but also expand the borrowings.
"We are not living in an isolated island. Whatever plans we take-long-term, midterm and three-year-we have to set our strategy and activities considering the global situation," said the finance minister.
He noted that the world economy is highly integrated and "we have to look which is acceptable globally as we are not living in an isolated island".
Answering to a question, he said that there will be no conflict between this donor-driven strategy and the sovereign policy of the country in the changing times.
"The theme of sovereignty has changed a lot in the globalised world. There is no sovereignty in trade, commerce or even in environment. We will have to create such a situation wherein everybody could participate."
He said that the Aid Group was first formed in October 1974 with the World Bank as chairman. The objective of the Aid Group was to assist government in development activities.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the two-day event at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the city.
The Economic Relations Division (ERD), on be half of the government, is jointly organizing the Forum in collaboration with the Local Consultative Group (LCG) (donors' forum) that includes the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the United Nations, DFID, USAID, Canadian Sida and Denmark.
Besides, representatives from the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), Kuwait Fund, UAE, India and China are invited to the international meet of the Forum, previously known as Paris Consortium.
This BDF is taking place for the first time during the tenure of the present government. Earlier in November 2005, there was a meeting held in the capital titled 'PRS Implementation Forum'.

 Conspiracy to obstruct trial of war criminals has started: Sahara

BSS, Dhaka

Home Minister Advocate Sahara Khatun Sunday said that the anti-liberation forces have already been started destructive activities in the country to obstruct the trial process of the war criminals and deteriorate law and order situation.
"The target of the anti-liberation forces would not be fulfilled and the war criminals must be tried on this soil," she said while addressing the 15th raising anniversary of Bangladesh Coast Guard as the chief guest at its headquarters at Agargaon in the city.
The function was addressed, among others, by State Minister for Home Advocate Shamsul Haque Tuku, Home Secretary Abdus Sobhan Sikder and Director General of the Coast Guard Commodore MA Abedin.
The Home Minister said that the combing operation would continue till the killers of two brilliant students of Rajshahi and Chhittagang University are not arrested. The evil forces had tried to destabilize the country's peaceful law and order when the government took initiatives to try the war criminals, she added.
Sahara Khatun urged the leaders and workers of the opposition political parties to shun their destructive activities and join the Jatiya Sangsad to work for the betterment of the people.
Replying to a question regarding the opposition's demand for her resignation, Sahara Khatun said that the situation of the country is not serious. She said that the Coast Guard members have been guarding the vast coastal belt, water territories, two major sea ports and costal people from any kind of disaster. They are also engaged in anti-smuggling drives and ensuring law and order of the costal areas, she added.
They have already achieved tremendous successes in baring catching of Jatka, smuggling of fertilizer and other items and looting of pirates with their limited resources, she added. The Home said that the Coast Guard would be build up as an efficient and modern force soon.

   Reckless driving
No plan right now to raise imprisonment term for death: Shafique

BSS, Sangsad Bhaban

Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Barrister Shafique Ahmed on Sunday told the House that the ministry right now has no plan to amend section 304 (b) of the Bangladesh Penal Code (BPC) for raising the term of imprisonment of drivers for loss of lives for their reckless driving.
However, he said, the Law Ministry will take necessary action if the Ministry of Communication and Ministry of Home take initiative in this regard. The Law minister said this replying to a call attention notice raised by female member Advocate Tarana Halim. The Law minister highlighted the measures taken by the government to ensure road safety and said transport relating laws are being amended including activating the national road safety council.
Tarana Halim in her notice said the killings caused by reckless driving should be considered as a crime
and there should be 'life term jail' for the offence as every day many people are becoming victim of their wild behaviour.
Road accident has now taken serious turn and without stern punishment for reckless driving the number of accident would go up, she said demanding for making the wild driving as a non- bailable offense.

 DU teachers condemn killings of two RU students
BSS, Dhaka

Teachers of Dhaka University (DU) Sunday condemned the killings of two meritorious students of Rajshahi University and Chittagong University and cutting tendons of many students by Islami Chhatra Shibir.
In a statement, 501 teachers of the university said the Jamaat- Shibir, anti-liberation forces and militant organizations are out to create anarchy in the country with a view to destroying democracy as well as impeding the trial of war criminals.
They demanded ban on politics of all militant organizations and the party who had killed the people and cut tendons in the name of religion.
The teachers also demanded exemplary punishment to all killers, including Abu Bakkar of Dhaka University.
The signatories of the statement included Dr Md Anwar Hossain, Dr M Ahiduzzaman (Chand), Dr AKM Golam Rabbani, Prof AK Azad Chowdhury, Prof Khandaker Bazlul Haque, Prof Abul Barakat, Prof Shahdat Ali, Prof Durgadas Bhattachariya, Dr Md Akhtaruzzaman, Prof Md Anwar Hossain, Dr M Akhtaruzzaman, Prof Dr Rangalal Sen, Prof Aminul Haque Bhuiyan, Prof Md Matiour Rahman, Prof AI Mostafa, Prof Dr Aminul Haque Bhuiyan, Prof Ajoy Das, Prof Dr Nazma Shahin, Prof Sekander Hayat Khan, Prof Iftekhar Goni Chowdhury, Prof Dr Mizanur Rahman, Prof Dr HKM Arefin, Prof Dr Zinat Huda, Prof Dr Sheikh Abdus Salam, Prof ABM Faruq Hossain, Prof Md Azizur Rahman, Prof Dr Md Shajahan Mian, Prof Dr Sahid Akhter Hossain, Prof M Muhibur Rahman, Prof Dr Md Mujibar Rahman and Prof Bazlul Hossain.

 Fortnight long National Measles Vaccination Campaign begins

BSS, Dhaka

The fortnight-long National Measles Vaccination Campaign 2010 began across the country Sunday. Health Minister Dr AFM Ruhul Haque inaugurated the campaign at the Bangladesh Secretariat Clinic here Sunday, an official handout said. Besides regular vaccination programme for controlling measles disease, the government has decided to conduct the fortnight-long campaign from Sunday.
Measles is considered a deadly disease for children. It has no effective treatment but preventive and safe vaccines. All children between nine months and five years would be administered the vaccines and two drops of polio drops during the campaign. Ruhul Haque urged the conscious people, including the guardians, for ensuring that all children get the vaccines. If any child is dropped out of having polio vaccine, he or she would run the risks of having polio disease, he added.
Similarly, he said, any child without measles vaccines would put himself and other children into risks of the disease. Considering this, all concerned have to be conscious so that no child of the specified age group is dropped out of administering the two vaccines, the minister said.
Prime Minister's Advisor for Health Affairs Dr Syed Modasser Ali, State Minister for Health Dr Captain (Retd) Mujibur Rahman Fakir, Health Secretary Sheikh Altaf Ali, Director General
of Health Department
Professor Shah Monir
Hossain, representative of World Health Organization (WHO) Dr Duangvadee and officials of the ministry were present.

   Potato price fall worries farmers in Rajshahi
UNB, Rajshahi

Potato growers of the district are worried as the price of the vegetable continued to fall in the beginning of the season. Farmers have been apprehending losses from potato cultivation as now potato is being sold between Tk 8 and Tk 9 per kg in the local markets.
Raisuddin, a farmer of Kanaisahar village of Bagmara upazila, said "We will not even get our production cost if the potato price doesn't rise." Farmers cultivated potato on vast tracts of land in the district this season as they earned windfall profit from potato cultivation in the last year.
Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) sources here said some 37,340 hectares of land were brought under potato cultivation this year against 28,570 hectares in the previous year.
Farmers achieved bumper potato production this season due to favorable weather, DAE sources said.
When contacted Abdul Aziz, a farmer of Puthia upazila, said he had cultivated potato on 10 bighas of land. Although he got bumper potato production he could not recoup the production cost by selling potatoes in the markets.
Md Akkas Ali, a farmer of Chandpur village in Mohonpur upazila, said that he had cultivated potato on 90 bighas of land and are passing days as its price has decreased abnormally.

   DCC poll schedule in current week
BSS, Dhaka

The Election Commission (EC) will announce the schedule for Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) elections within the current week.
Election Commissioner Sohul Hossain disclosed this to reporters at the EC secretariat here Sunday.
He said the EC would take all measures to make the DCC polls free and fair. Adequate number of law enforcers would be deployed during the polling, he added.
Replying to a question, he said the code of conduct for DCC polls would be published as a gazette in a day or two, which would be followed by the announcement of the polls schedule.
Meanwhile, an EC source said several draft schedules have already been prepared for the DCC polls.
As per the drafts, the schedule would be declared by February 20.
The date for nomination paper submission will be between February 22 and 25. The scrutiny of the nomination papers will be held from February 28 to March 2 and the time for withdrawal of candidature will be from March 4 to 8.

   PMO soon goes under supply of electricity from solar energy: PM

UNB, Siddhirganj, Narayanganj

Prime Minister's Office (PMO) will soon go under the supply of electricity produced from solar energy-a latest option the world
over to cut down carbon emissions that cause
global warming and
save exhaustible energy resources.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Sunday disclosed the switchover to clean, renewable energy while speaking at the inauguration of the 120-MW first unit of 240-megawatt Siddhirganj Peaking Power Plant, at a time when the country has been passing through a nagging power crisis.
"We are about to start the electricity supply from solar energy at my office," she told the function.
Sheikh Hasina urged all industrialists to use such electricity from alternative sources for their offices.
"Obviously, you will use electricity that comes from plants for your industrial units, but please use electricity that comes from solar panel for your official purposes," she said.
The Prime Minister said that her government has taken initiatives to install solar panels at schools, colleges, mosques, madrasas and other educational institutions. She mentioned that the initial installation cost is little bit high for this kind of electricity. "But this could provide you purely clean energy," she said.

   94 teachers to be appointed in JNU within July
BSS, Dhaka

Around 100 teachers were recruited by the Jagannath University (JNU) during the last one year and another 94 teachers would be appointed within July this year for its 22 departments.
While talking to BSS here Sunday, Vice- chancellor (VC) of the University Professor Dr Mesbahuddin Ahmed said 36 teachers out of the total 94 would be appointed as professors, 33 associate professors, 21 assistant professors and 4 as lecturers.
"We are determined to do all possible endeavours for the sake of a sound and serene atmosphere on our campus," he said adding that the JNU had now a total of 347 teachers for its 22 departments.
Of the total, he also said, 219 teachers after ending their deputation periods in the JNU will go back to their original institutions.

     New DUJ committee took over charge
BSS, Dhaka

The newly elected executive committee of Dhaka Union of Journalists (DUJ) Sunday took over the charge at a simple ceremony here.
Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ) president Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury attended the ceremony as the chief guest while DUJ president Shah Alamgir was in the chair.
BFUJ general secretary Altaf Mahmud attended the function as special guest while BFUJ former general secretary Abdul Jalil Bhuiyan, joint secretary Molla Jalal, DUJ former president Kazi Rafiq, general secretary Omar Faruq, new elected general secretary Abu Jafar Surja, Barun Kumer Bhoumik, Salimullha Selim, among others, were present on the occasion.

     AL-BNP clash leaves 3 injured
UNB, Benapole

Three people were injured in a clash between the activists of ruling Awami League and main opposition BNP in Sharsha upazila headquarters Sunday.
Local sources said the clash at first ensued among women over a trifling matter and later it spread to the male activists of two political parties in the afternoon.
Three BNP activists---Idris, Haider and Jamat Ali Member---injured in the clash were admitted to a local hospital.

     Devastating fire guts 15 shops in Sylhet
UNB, Sylhet

A devastating fire gutted 15 shops near the old Sylhet rail station at south Surma on Sunday evening.
The fire originated from a cylinder shop when a gas cylinder exploded with a big bang at 6-30pm. None was reported hurt in the explosion, witnesses said.
Fifteen shops and some kutcha houses were gutted in the fire. The shops included oil and diesel, hotels and timber.
Two oil depots of Jamuna and Padma close to the area were protected from the fire by the fire fighters who fought for one and half hours to put down the fire at about 8pm.

Sports

Bahrain National Cricket Team to play in Dhaka
TBT report

Bahrain National Cricket Team will arrive in Bangladesh tomorrow to play a one-day match against the GP-BCB National Cricket Academy Invitational XI.
The match is scheduled to be played at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Dhaka on February 17.
Bahrain National Cricket Team's tour of Bangladesh is a part of its cricket development programme.
Bahrain team will leave Dhaka for Nepal on February 18 to participate in the Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division 5.
The following players have been selected for GP-BCB NCA Invitational XI, which is made up of former and current academy cricketers and potential inductees to the GP-BCB NCA.
The players are requested to report to High Performance Logistics Officer Shahidul Islam today at GP-BCB National Cricket Academy.
Players: Tanvir Hayder Khan (Captain), Nurul Hoque (Wicketkeeper), Imtiaz Hossain, Mishukur Rahman, Saikat Ali, Abul Bashar, Kamrul Islam,Tasamul Hoque, Ariful Hoque, Arman Badshah, Kamrul Islam, Alauddin Babu, Nabil Samad and Shaker Ahmed.
Officials: Waheedul Ghani (Head Coach), Sabbir Khan (Team Manager), Mahbubul Alam Zaki (Assistant Coach), Azmal Ahmed (Physiotherapist).

   National Cricket super league begins today
UNB, Dhaka

The four-team super league of the EBL National Cricket begins today at separate venues across the country with two matches billed for the day.
On the opening day, league leaders Rajshahi Division play Chittagong Division at the Shaheed Chandu Stadium in Bogra while Khulna Division meets Dhaka Division at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong in the four-day league.
On Feb 22, Rajshahi Division will play Khulna at BKSP in Savar while Dhaka Division will face Chittagong at Khulna.
Earlier, on completion of the six-team first phase league, Rajshahi Division smartly reached the super league securing 67 points along with Dhaka Division (56 points), Khulna Division (50 points) and Chittagong Division (42 points).
Top two teams will play the final on March 6 at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur.
Barisal Division (40 points), the runners-up team of last year's four-day league, and Sylhet Division (20 points) have been eliminated from the race.

  India fights back after Petersen, Amla tons
AFP, Kolkata

Debutant Alviro Petersen and Hashim Amla smashed fluent centuries for South Africa before India hit back in a dramatic start to the second and final cricket Test on Sunday.
Petersen made 100 and Amla scored 114 to lift the Proteas to 218-1, before India ripped through the rest of the batting to leave the tourists on 266-9 by stumps on the opening day at the Eden Gardens.
Left-arm seamer Zaheer Khan and off-spinner Harbhajan Singh finished with three wickets each as the tourists lost seven wickets for 32 runs after tea when bad light halted play nine overs early.
India, who lost the first Test in Nagpur by an innings and six runs, needs a win to square the series and retain their number one position in the official Test rankings.
The tourists, who need a draw to take over from India at the top, were well-placed as Petersen and Amla put on 209 for the second wicket after skipper Graeme Smith was removed in the day's third over.
Smith, who chose to play in the crucial Test despite a fractured finger, made four when he was bowled by Zaheer.
Petersen, handed a Test cap at the last minute after wicket-keeper Mark Boucher was ruled out with back spasms, responded with a superb century studded with 16 boundaries.
The 29-year-old from Port Elizabeth became only the third South African after Andrew Hudson and Jacques Rudolph to score a Test century on debut.
Amla followed his unbeaten 253 in the first Test with another three-figure knock, his ninth in 43 matches. He hit 14 boundaries and a six.
Zaheer gave the hosts some respite by removing both batsmen on either side of the tea interval to catches by Indian captain and wicket-keeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Harbhajan then dismissed Jacques Kallis for 10 as Venkatsai Laxman made amends for an earlier lapse as he ran back from slip to hold a skier.
Laxman, one of India's safest close-in fielders, had floored a chest-high catch off Harbhajan when Amla was on 60.
In his next over, Harbhajan trapped Ashwell Prince and Jean-Paul Duminy leg-before off successive deliveries, but Dale Steyn denied the bowler a hat-trick.
AB de Villiers was run out by a direct throw from Zaheer as he backed up for a sharp single, leaving South Africa tottering at 254-7.
Paul Harris and Steyn departed early, leaving the last pair of Wayne Parnell and Morne Morkell at the crease.
The Eden Gardens wicket, sporting a greenish tinge, provided even bounce and enabled the batsmen to play their shots.
Both teams made one change from the sides that played in the first Test.
India welcomed back seasoned batsman Laxman, who missed the first Test with a finger injury, in place of Wriddhiman Saha.
AB de Villers was nominated to keep wicket for the tourists after Boucher missed out.

  Afghan T20 qualification hailed
AFP, Karachi

Afghanistan's qualification for this year's World Twenty20 main rounds was hailed as a triumph for cricket's development in the war-ravaged country by a top regional cricket official on Sunday.
Afghanistan beat Ireland to win the World Twenty20 qualification round in Dubai on Sunday, securing a place in the West Indies tournament in April-May.
They will play in Group C alongside South Africa and India, while Ireland qualified in Group D, with England and hosts the West Indies.
"The passion for cricket is undeniably there in Afghanistan," said Ashraful Huq, chief executive of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC). "It is a success of our development strategy and structure being put in place in Afghanistan."
The ACC started its development work in Afghanistan in the last decade after seeing tremendous interest in the game, especially among people who had spent some time as refugees in cricket-mad Pakistan.
Last year Afghanistan achieved one-day status-and with it funding from the International Cricket Council (ICC) -- by finishing among the top six in the Super-Eight stage of the 50-over World Cup qualifiers in South Africa.
"When you think of how they began and how far they have come, Afghan cricket is one of the world's success stories," said former first class cricketer Huq.
"The potential of Afghanistan is only just starting to be seen. They have done all this from a standing start in just a few years. We congratulate Afghanistan and hope they carry on the good work."

   China regains East Asian men’s football title
AFP, Tokyo

China regained the men's title it won in 2005 at the East Asian football championship after Japan crashed to defending champion South Korea 3-1 on Sunday.
The Chinese, who started the day with identical points and goal difference to Japan, saw off Hong Kong 2-0 earlier in the day and then waited for the outcome of the last match of the four-nation round robin.
China ended with two wins and a draw for seven points, followed by South Korea on six and Japan on four. Hong Kong finished bottom with no points.
"I think the victory in this championship is a chance that Chinese football will change," said China head coach Gao Hongbo.
"China are still behind Japan and South Korea. Japan and South Korea have a better league and they are organizing better," he said.
"I learned a lot during the tournament, and I think our national team and the youth team can beat them some day. I hope this victory will ignite those people who are working for football."
During the game against Hong Kong, Chinese striker Qu Bo penetrated the Hong Kong goal in the 44th minute. A Deng Zhuoxiang corner kick bounced in front of defender Liu Jianye, who sent a floating pass above the Hong Kong defenders to Qu Bo inside the box.
The striker then fired a left-footer at close range.
In the 74th minute, substitute midfielder Jiang Ning was sliced down in the area to create a penalty chance, which Qu Bo duly netted for a decisive 2-0 lead.
South Korea went on to crush Japan before 42,951 fans who packed the National Stadium in Tokyo.
In an exciting last game between the two arch-rivals, 20-year-old Korean striker Lee Seung-Yeoul unleashed a 30-metre shot for a get-ahead goal in the 39th minute after the two teams took a goal each on penalties.
Midfielder Kim Jae-Sung added another goal in the 70th minute.

  Youzhny downs Djokovic to reach final
AFP, Rotterdam

Mikhail Youzhny upset top seed Novak Djokovic 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (8/6) Saturday to reach his second final at the Rotterdam Open.
The 2007 winner from Russian will battle Swede Robin Soderling in the Sunday title match.
Soderling, seeded third, reached his second career final here, dominating second seed Nikolay Davydenko 7-6 (7/3), 6-4. The Swede is aiming to go one better after losing the 2008 final here to Michael Llodra. Soderling stands 2-1 over Youzhny, winning their last pair of encounters over the past two seasons.
Youzhny took advantage of Djokovic, who had a walkover in his quarter-final and had not played since Thursday.
But the Serb did not roll over, saving two match points in the ninth game of the second set and another in the tiebreaker before the Russian prevailed in two and a quarter hours.
Youzhny said he faces a major recovery to be ready for Soderling. Soderling pounded over five aces against Davydenko, setting up his match point with his last one after one hour, 43 minutes.
The frustrated Davydenko was unable to stop the Swedish momentum as Soderling chipped a winning volley into the empty court to seal victory. Davydenko, one of the form players of the past six months on the ATP, had complained all week about a court which he said was too fast for his game.
The opening set tiebreaker was the fifth between the pair and resulted in the first victory in a decider for Soderling against Davy-denko. The Swede lost an early break in the first set, dropping serve while aiming for the opening set leading 5-3. The set eventually went into the tiebereaker, where Soderling prevailed. The Swede sealed the second set as he took a 5-4 lead on a break a game before serving out victory.
Davydenko, who will take next week off to have treatment on his foot before travelling to Dubai, stood 31-6 since last year's US Open, earning a dozen of his victories in 2010.

  Sydney clinches AFC Champions League spot
AFP, Sydney

Sydney FC secured a 2011 AFC Champions League spot with a 2-0 win over Melbourne Victory to finish top of Australia's A-League final standings here on Sunday.
Slovak midfielder Karol Kisel scored with a long-range volley in the 34th minute and former Socceroo striker John Aloisi ran from half way to score with a spectacular left-foot strike four minutes after half-time to seal victory.
Sydney, coached by Czech Vitezslav Lavicka, finished on top after the 27 home and away rounds for the first time in the five seasons of the A-League.
Sydney, watched by their best crowd of the season -- 25,407 fans-finished the campaign on 48 points, one more than defending champions Melbourne, with Gold Coast United third on 44. It gives Sydney, the inaugural A-League champions in 2005/06, a boost heading into their opening match of the play-offs against the Victory in Melbourne on Thursday. The winner of that match progresses straight to the Grand Final on March 20.
Gold Coast will host Newcastle in Saturday's elimination play-off despite losing 2-1 to North Queensland with former English Premier League midfielder Terry Cooke heading Fury's winner seven minutes from time. Fury's win prevented them finishing with the wooden spoon and Robbie Fowler's team climbed to seventh place in their inaugural season, just two points outside the top-six play-offs.

  One-off Test begins today
TBT report

The one-off Test match between Bangladesh and New Zealand begins today at Seddon Park of Hamilton in New Zealand.
Bangladesh national cricket team management named the playing eleven of Bangladesh team for the match on Sunday.
The team: Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Zunaed Siddique, Mohammad Ashraful, Aftab Ahmed, Shakib Al Hasan (captain), Mushfiqur Rahim (vice captain/wicketkeeper), Mahmu-dullah, Shahadat Hossain, Shafiul Islam and Rubel Hossain.
The match starts at 4am Bangladesh Time (2200 GMT) and will be live on Sky Sports and Super Sports.

 Ronaldo returns with double strike
AFP, Madrid

A brace from Cristiano Ronaldo helped Real Madrid to a 3-0 win over Xerez on Saturday that put them just two points behind Spanish league leaders Barcelona, who are in action on Sunday.
Returning from a two-game suspension, Ronaldo was the chief protagonist throughout for the visitors but in the first half Real did not have it all their own way.
Chances for both sides saw Jeronimo Momes and Ronaldo hit the woodwork at either end but after the break Real began to dominate.
Defender Alvaro Arbeloa made the breakthrough after 64 minutes before Ronaldo wrapped the game up with two goals in two minutes.
Kaka was the provider on both occasions for the Portuguese, who scored first with his head and then via a simple side-foot finish.
"Scoring is tough, no matter who the opponent is. We were up against a good Xerez team in the first half," said Real coach Manuel Pellegrini.
"The field of play wasn't in the best of shape, but we maintained our discipline. This team is mature and ready to battle for 90 minutes. We know we can't demolish every opponent.
"Cristiano Ronaldo attracts a lot of defenders. Scoring upon his return from suspension was the best thing that could happen to him." Earlier, a cool Juan Mata finish rescued a point for a battling Valencia side, who drew 1-1 against Sporting Gijon.
Despite going into the game on the back of four straight defeats, it was Sporting who began the livelier and they went ahead through a fine curling strike from Diego Castro.
Valencia were struggling in defence without David Navarro and Alexis Ruanoes but going forward they began to find their feet, with David Villa-returning to the club where he began his career-denied by an inspired Juan Pablo in the Sporting goal.
It appeared as though it was not going to be Valencia's day after they hit the post twice and Mata missed a one-on-one chance with the goalkeeper, as Sporting were forced further and further back.
However, with 14 minutes to go, Ever Banega supplied Mata with an excellent through ball and this time he made no mistake, finishing clinically.
In Saturday's late match, Villarreal overcame Athletic Bilbao 2-1 in a hot-tempered game that culminated in three red cards.
Villarreal left-back Joan Capdevila gave his side the lead after ghosting into the box in the fifth minute but the visitors drew level 20 minutes later when Igor Gabilondo cracked an unstoppable 30-yard shot into the top corner.
Brazil international striker Nilmar re-established Villarreal's lead just before half-time and Bilbao spurned a golden opportunity to equalise when Andoni Iraola's penalty was saved by Diego Lopez at the death.
Frustrations boiled over in the game's closing stages, with red cards shown to Villarreal defender Diego Godin and visiting pair Pablo Orbaiz and Javi Martinez.
Villarreal climb one place to ninth, four points behind seventh-placed Bilbao.

   Dodt wins Avantha Masters
AFP, Gurgaon

Australia's Andrew Dodt savoured the winning feeling for the first time by lifting the inaugural Avantha Masters trophy after carding a final round four-under-par 68 on Sunday.
Dodt's winning total of 14-under-par 274 was enough for him to win his maiden Asian and European Tour title by a single shot ahead of England's Richard Finch who closed with a 66 to take second place on 275.
Japan's Tetsuji Hiratsuka posted a 71 to take a share of fourth place alongside Scotland's David Drysdale and England's Barry Lane and Richard Bland on matching 276s at the DLF Golf and Country Club.
With as many as seven players starting the final round tied for the lead, the contest at the co-sanctioned event was always going to be a keenly fought one.
However, it was the 24-year Australian who eventually prevailed by breaking out of the crowded pack with a closing birdie on the par-five-18th for his career breakthrough win.
Following his two top-10s on the Asian Tour last season, Dodt continued his brilliant early season form with two runner-up finishes in Australia and New Zealand last month.
Starting the day in tied-eighth, Dodt birdied holes two, six and eight to reach the halfway turn in 33.
He bogeyed the 11th hole but went back to take a share of the lead after firing another birdie on the par-three 16th. However, it was the all-important birdie on the 18th that gave Dodt the outright lead which he held on until the end.
"The bunker was fine as it was kind of a standard bunker shot and I managed to hit a good one," added Dodt whose bunker shot fell within two feet of the pin which he tapped in for birdie and the win.
Finch posted his week's best round score of 66 but it was still not good enough to force a play-off with Dodt. However despite his best efforts, the Englishman was content to play the bridesmaid role this week.