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Leading News
Nation
pays homage to language martyrs
BSS, Dhaka
The nation on Sunday paid homage to the Language Movement
martyrs marking the Amar (immortal) Ekushey with a fresh
vow to materialize the dreams of valiant sons of the soil,
who sacrificed their lives for the Mother Language.
The day was also observed as the International Mother
Language Day in 188 countries across the globe as the
UNESCO on November 17, 1999 declared Ekushey February as
the International Mother Language Day in recognition of
sacrifices of the Language Movement martyrs of 1952.
The Central Shaheed Minar premises in the capital was
decorated with paintings, buntings and selected verses on
the mother language as streams of barefooted people poured
into it at one minute past on Saturday night to pay homage
to the immortal martyrs of the great Language Movement.
Tight security was enforced around the main altar of the
Shaheed Minar by deploying 8,500 personnel of the
law-enforcement agencies and installing closed-circuit
cameras.
On February 21 in 1952, Salam, Rafique, Shafique, Jabbar
and Barkat embraced martyrdom in police firing in front of
Dhaka Medical College Hospital as they took to the street
to intensify a campaign to establish Bangla as the state
language of the then Pakistan, sowing the seeds of
subsequent movements for independence.
President Zillur Rahman and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
and leader of the Opposition Begum Khaleda Zia paid homage
to the Language Movement heroes by placing wreaths at the
Central Shaheed Minar just after midnight on Saturday.
Zillur Rahman first placed the wreaths at the Central
Shaheed Minar as the immortal song on Amar Ekushey 'Amar
Bhaiyer Rakte Rangano Ekushey February Ami Ki Bhulite
Paari' was being played. The president was followed by
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
They stood in solemn silence for one minute and paid their
homage to the language heroes.
On arrival at the Shaheed Minar, the President was
received by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Vice
Chancellor of Dhaka University Professor AASM Arefin
Siddique.
The Prime Minister, also the President of Bangladesh Awami
League, later laid wreaths at the Shaheed Minar along with
her senior party leaders and cabinet colleagues on behalf
of the party.
They were followed by Speaker of the Jatiya Sangsad Abdul
Hamid Advocate, Deputy Speaker Shawkat Ali, chief whip of
parliament, chiefs of the three services, leaders of Awami
League, Dhaka University vice-chancellor, Dhaka city
mayor, dean of diplomatic corps, attorney general, leaders
and workers of different political parties and
socio-cultural organizations.
Flanked by party colleagues, Opposition Leader and BNP
Chairperson Khaleda Zia placed wreaths at 12:19 am.
The national flag was hoisted at half-mast atop important
buildings and installations across the country on Sunday,
a public holiday.
Fresh
tension in CHT after overnight violence
BSS, Khagrachari
Fresh tension sparked in Sajek area of southeastern hills
with recovery of one more body of a tribesman increasing
the official toll to two in Saturday's ethnic violence,
officials and witnesses said.
"Army troops continued to patrol the region as the tribal
people and Bengali speaking settlers are rallied in groups
with lethal weapons" at the Sajek valley of remote
Baghaichhari upazila of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT),
a BSS correspondent said from the scene.
Police Sunday confirmed the death of the second tribesman
while the local tribal leaders claimed seven people died
in shootouts Saturday, a claim backed by United People's
Democratic Front (UPDF), a tribal outfit but rejected by
officials.
The journalist and an official visiting the scene said
State Minister for CHT Affairs Dipankar Talukdar visited
the trouble- torn area and talked to the local people to
calm down the situation.
"The tribesmen attacked the Baghaichhari upazila nirbahi
officer's (administrative chief) jeep as he was moving in
the minister's convoy under heavy security escort. He
narrowly escaped their attack but his vehicle was badly
damaged," the official said.
At least seven people including an army sergeant were
critically injured while over 200 houses in some 10
villages were set ablaze in Saturday's clash that erupted
after one month's of tension over land disputes between
the Bengali settlers and ethic minority people.
Officials familiar with the background of the clash said
the tension began at the rugged frontier Sajek valley area
at the extreme end of the district last month as the
tribesmen initially wanted the possession of a piece of
land where a Bengali family was living.
They subsequently demanded all Bengali speaking settlers
in the area to be evicted from there while the violence
sparked on Friday evening turning futile the past several
weeks of negotiations by the upazila administration and
police.
The state minister assured the local residents that action
would be taken against those responsible for Saturday's
incident within seven days while he distributed clothes
and dry foods among the victims.
The local military authorities in a press briefing
Saturday evening at a nearby Baghaihat army zonal
headquarters alleged that one particular tribal group
instigated the violence to destroy the harmony between the
Bengalis and tribesmen.
An army brigadier general briefing the newsmen said army
was called out to restore order in the troubled area while
they were forced to fire several gunshots only after the
armed tribesmen attacked the troops.
The rugged CHT region, one tenth of Bangladesh in size,
had witnessed insurgency for more than two decades, with
the tribesmen demanding regional autonomy, when an
estimated 20,000 people including army personnel, Shanti
Bahini guerrillas, civilian Bengali speaking people and
tribesmen lost their lives.
A landmark 1997 peace agreement between the government and
the tribal guerrillas headed by Larma during the previous
1996- 2001 AL regime restored peace when the insurgents
laid down their weapons.
Under the treaty, 66 out of 500 army camps were withdrawn
so far while tribal internal refugees and those who had
fled the country to take refuge in India were
rehabilitated, the crucial CHT land commission was
constituted and cases against the former insurgents were
withdrawn.
Decision
to withdraw army from CHT was unwise: BNP
TBT Report
BNP senior joint secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam
Alamgir said the government's decision to withdraw army
camps from country's three hill districts was unwise as
there is quarrelsome relations between tribal and Bangalee
people since long.
He said this while talking to reporters at his Uttara
residence in the capital on Sunday.
Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said BNP and different political and
professional high-ups had expressed the opinion that the
overall situations including peace and smooth law and
order of country's three hill districts would be disrupted
if the government withdraws army camps from the
troublesome areas as there is a longstanding disputes over
land related issues. Ignoring those opinions, army camps
from the area have been withdrawn and clash and counter
clash between Bangalee and tribal people is taking place
and now question is that for whose interest, the
government had taken the decision.
It may be pointed out that a firing incident among army,
tribal and Bangalee people took place at Baghaichari
upazila on Saturday morning reportedly leaving at least
six people dead and 50 injured. Besides, around two
hundred houses were gutted down.
Expressing grave concern over the bloody incident, Alamgir
urged the government to take immediate measures for
keeping the situation under control. People of the areas
are passing their days in panic and insecurity. Due to
this, lives, goods and others valuables of people of the
areas have become unsafe and so immediate step is needed
to defame the tension.
After the signing of the Chattagong Hill Track (CHT) peace
treaty, BNP has been telling that the government should
revaluate the treaty before its implementation and hold
discussion with cross-section of scholars if it wants to
build a bridge of mutual trust between tribal and Bangalee
people of the hill areas but the government did not do so.
As a result country's hill areas have turned into a
troublesome zone in new phase, he alleged.
Criticising government's protocol, he said the government
should follow the democratic norms and manners as it did
not give due respect to the opposition leader in the
parliament Begum Khaleda Zia when she went to place wreath
at the Central Shaheed Minar. Such behaviour is obviously
disgraceful and intentional.
PM opens Int’l Mother Language Institute
BSS, Dhaka
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Sunday sought cooperation
from litterateurs, linguists and researchers to make the
International Mother Language Institute a key global
centre for practising and protecting all mother languages.
"The main objective of constructing the International
Mother Language Institute is to protect all languages of
the world, conducting research and spreading those
languages which are fading out from the globe," she said.
Sheikh Hasina whose previous government in 1997 took the
initiative to earn UN recognition to establish Ekushey
February as the International Mother Language Day was
inaugurating the Institute in the city's Segunbagicha here
Sunday afternoon.
Presided over by Education Minister Murul Islam Nahid, the
function was also addressed by Vice-Chancellor of
University of Liberal Arts, Bangladesh Prof. Rafiqul Islam
and Education Secretary Syed Ataur Rahman.
Laying emphasis on beginning the work of the second phase
of the project soon, the Prime Minister said her
government wants to implement the project as early as
possible as it requires enactment of laws or policy
formulation to make it an autonomous body.
"It will be made an autonomous body so that none can play
foul game centering the institution in future," she said.
Sheikh Hasina said her previous government laid foundation
stone of the institution on March 15, 2001 in presence of
the then UN Secretary General Kofi Anan with a plan to
build the institute within two years.
But, she regretted that the post-2001 alliance government
led by BNP suspended the project.
The Prime Minister said this institute will play a vital
role to protect the honour of all mother languages across
the world.
Giving salient features of the institute, the Prime
Minister said it will consist of library, archive and
audio-visual centre where researchers from across the
world can conduct research for further flourishing their
mother languages. "I hope that this institute would play a
vital role in protecting the dignity and honour of all
mother languages across the world," she added.
Korean company GS Caltex agrees to invest in
Bangladesh gas project
UNB, Dhaka,
GS Caltex Corp., South Korea's second-biggest oil refiner,
agreed to invest in a natural gas exploration project in
Bangladesh to boost its energy assets overseas.
The company signed a contract to buy a 45 percent stake in
Block 7 in Bangladesh from Chevron Corp., Seoul-based GS
Caltex said Sunday in an e-mailed statement, without
saying how much it will pay for the holding, Bloomberg
reported.
Chevron Dhaka Office confirmed to UNB today that GS Caltex
will join Chevron and Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and
Production Company (BAPEX) as partners in Block 7. They
said the agreement, approved by the Bangladesh government
results in GS Caltex assuming a 45 percent interest.
Chevron is the operator and holds a 45 percent interest,
and BAPEX a 10 percent interest.
Korean refiners including GS Caltex and bigger rival SK
Energy Co. are expanding investments in overseas energy
assets to diversify revenue sources and secure supplies on
expectations that oil prices will rise as the global
economy recovers. Crude oil prices have doubled in the
past year. GS Caltex in a statement said Chevron currently
holds 90 percent of the onshore block, while Bapex owns
the balance. The Korean refiner has won approval from the
Bangladesh government for the investment.
GS Caltex, equally owned by GS Holdings Corp. and Chevron,
the second-largest U.S. oil company, has stakes in six
exploration projects in countries including Russia,
Cambodia and Thailand.
One killed in AL-BNP clash in Noakhali
UNB, Noakhali
A middle-aged man was killed and five people were injured
during a clash between Awami League and BNP activists over
placing of wreaths at a Shaheed Minar in Sonaimuri upazila
Saturday night.
The deceased was identified as M Shah Alam, 42, owner of
Hafizia Hotel at Amishapara Bazar in the upazila.
Witnesses said the AL supporters chased BNP supporters at
about 11:35pm when they came to place wreath at the
Shaheed Minar on the Amishapara Khalilur Rahman Degree
College premises.
In a swift retaliation, at about 11:45 pm, BNP supporters
attacked AL men who were taking food at Hafizia Hotel at
Amishapara Bazar, injuring five people.
At one stage, the BNP supporters severely beat up hotel
owner Shah Alam, leaving him dead on the spot.
The rampaging BNP men also ransacked the hotel and eight
shops at Amishapara Bazar and also set fire to the
motorbike of an activist of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL).
Additional police have been deployed at Amishapara Bazar
to avert further trouble. Local businessmen observed a
daylong strike at the bazar on Sunday protesting the
killing.
Rice price hike continues
TBT Report
The prices of rice continue to record non-stop rise
despite government vow to stabilize the market through
different steps including increase in supply of rice under
the OMS scheme.
OMS of rice operation is continuing in the capital and six
divisional cities also have been brought under the
operation. Besides, according to the Food Minister supply
of rice to the dealers in the capital will be enhanced to
meet the growing demands of consumers in view of the
rising prices.
It may be pointed out the prices of rice have increased by
around Taka 8-10 per Kg in recent times and the government
has failed to check the price hike.
The Food Ministers has smelled a conspiracy of businessmen
behind the price hike through syndication.
Back Page
Earthshaking 30-Minute staged at
historic Amtola
UNB, Dhaka
A spellbinding display of the historical events that led
to the culmination of the Language Movement on February
21, 1952 was staged at the historic 'Amtola' site beside
Dhaka Medical College Sunday in commemoration of Amar
Ekushey.
The stage performance began at 3:20pm, the time when the
police of then Chief Minister of East Pakistan Khwaza
Nazim-uddin, opened fire on a procession of students of
Dhaka University and Dhaka Medical College this day in
1952 in an abortive bid to foil the movement for
establishing Bengali as a state language.
The characters of then Pakistan Prime Minister Liaqat Ali
Khan and Muhammad Ali Jinnah who had declared that 'Urdu,
only Urdu shall be the state language of Pakistan' were
also impersonated through a brief drama.
Dramatist-turned-politician Asaduzzaman Noor MP conducted
the event styled 'Earthshaking 30-Minute', recreating the
final stage of the February 21 language uprising when
police shot and killed language martyrs Salam, Barkat,
Rafiq, Jabbar and Shafiq and others. Language veterans
Abdul Matin, Dr Rafiqul Islam, Dr Said Haider, Prof
Anisuzzaman, Roushanara Bacchu, Khor-shed Uddin and
Murtoza Bashir who played the vanguard in the procession
on Feb 21, 1952 also appeared on the stage before
thousands of people.
They deplored that Bangla language has not yet been
introduced in all spheres and urged the new generation to
"carry on" their movement that started in 1952 in order to
build a non-communal and developed democratic Bangladesh.
Later, the language veterans led a big procession from
Amtola to the Central Shaheed Minar, where people of all
strata of society paid homage to the language martyrs in
observance of the Language Martyrs and International
Mother Language Day.
Vested quarter out to
create unstable situation: Tuku
BSS, Pabna
State Minister for Home Advocate Shamsul Huq Tuku has said
a vested quarter is hatching conspiracy at a time when the
government has started the process of trial of war
criminals after execution of the verdict of Bangabandhu
murder trial.
"The quarter is trying to create an unstable situation in
the country, but the government would not budge an inch on
its stand to try the war criminals, he told a discussion
here organized by Pabna District Awami League to mark the
International Mother Lan-guage Day. Referring to the
execution of the verdict of Ban-gabandhu murder trial by
the present government that was acclaimed at home and
abroad, Tuku reiterated that the trial of war criminals
would be held on the soil of Bangla.
He said those who wanted to brand Bangladesh as an
ineffective, fundamentalist and terrorist state are still
carrying out their nefarious act. Tuku urged all to remain
alert against these evil forces and
launch a united movement to resist their activities
Presided over by Senior Vice President of District Awami
League M Saidul Huq Chunnu, the meeting was addressed,
among others, by Golam Faruk Khandaker, MP, and local
Awami League leaders Rahim Lal, Chandan Kumar Chakraborty
and Abul Kalam Azad.
Parties,
organizations observe Amar Ekushey
TBT Report
Different political parties and socio-cultural
organizations observed the Amar Ekushey- International
Mot-her Language Day paying rich tributes to the martyrs
of language movement.
Bangladesh Awami League (AL) chalked out elaborate
programmes to observe the day. The AL programmes included
placing wreaths at the Central Shaheed Minar at 12.01 am.
A mourning procession was brought by Awami League at 7.30
am from the south gate of New Market, from where people
wearing black badges marched towards Azimpur Graveyard to
pay respects to the Language Movement martyrs. Later, it
proceeded to the Central Shaheed Minar.
Main opposition BNP also took up detail programmes to
observe the day and pay homage to the language martyrs.
They placed wreath at Central Shaheed Minar and held
discussion meeting.
BSS says: Like previous years, the DU authorities were in
the charge of overall management of the programmes of the
day at the Central Shaheed Minar and Azimpur Graveyard.
Diff-erent political parties and socio-cultural
organizations, including Jatiya Party, JSD, Workers Party,
Samyabadi Dal, Communist Party of Bangladesh, Gano Forum,
NAP, Gano Azadi League, Ganotantri Party, Awami Jubo
League, Chhatra League, Krishak League, Awami
Sech-chhasebak League, Mohila Awami League, Jubo Mohila
League and Sramik League, Sector Comma-nders Forum,
Muktijoddha Sangsad, Bangabandhu Jubo Parishad, Bangla
Academy, Nazrul Institute, Shilpakala Academy, Jatiya
Grantha Kendra, Central Public Library, Jatiya Press Club,
Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ), Dhaka
Union of Journalists \(DUJ) and Sammilita Sangskritik Jote,
Banga-bandhu Sangskritik Jote, Bangamata Sheikh
Fazi-latunnesa Parishad, Ban-gabandhu and Jatiya Char Neta
Parishad and Bangladesh Sammilita Garment Shramik League
have also drawn up elaborate programmes separately to
observe the day.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the International
Mother Language Institute at Segun Bagicha Sunday
afternoon.
She also handed over Ekushey Padak-2010 at Osmani Memorial
Aud-itorium to 15 eminent personalities on Saturday on the
occasion of the Immortal Ekushey and the Intern-ational
Mother Language Day. The people across the country brought
out 'probhat ferry' (mourning procession) and placed
wreaths at local Shaheed Minars to pay homage to the
language martyrs along with arranging discussions and
cultural programmes.
Islamic Foundation Bangl-adesh arranged Qura-nkhwani,
milad and doa mahfil at Baitul Mukarram National Mo-sque.
Munajat was offered seeking eternal peace of the departed
souls of the Language Movement martyrs as well as peace,
progress and prosperity of the nation. Under the auspices
of Islamic Foundation, Qurankhwani, milad and doa mahfil
were organized at Azimpur Graveyard Sunday morning.
Bangladesh Television and Bangladesh Betar as well as
private TV channels and radio stations aired special
programmes highlighting the significance of the day.
National dailies published special supplements on the
occasion.
BNP has become
speechless due to execution of Bangabandhu killers: AL
BSS, Dhaka
Joint General Secretary of Awami League Mahbub-Ul-Alam
Hanif Sunday said the BNP has become speechless due to
execution of the self-confessed killers of Father of the
Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
"They (the BNP) will become speechless again if the trial
of the war criminals is completed," he told journalists
after placing wreaths at the graves of the Language
Movement martyrs at Azimpur in the city on the occasion of
the Amar Ekushey and the International Mother Language
Day. Other leaders of AL central working committee were
present on the occasion.
Awami League, led by its President Sheikh Hasina, paid
homage to the Language Movement martyrs by placing wreaths
at Central Shaheed Minar at one minute past midnight
Saturday night. AL Presidium Member and Deputy Leader of
the House Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, Presidium Member and
Agriculture Minister Begum Matia Chowdhury, General
Secretary and LGRD Minister Syed Ashraful Islam and other
leaders of the party observed a minute's silence as a mark
of respects to the Language Movement martyrs.
AL's other programmes of the day included hoisting
national and party flags at half-mast at the AL central
office and all offices of its front organisations and
Bangabandhu Bhaban at 6.30 am. It also brought out a
provat ferry (mourning procession) at 7.30 am from the
south gate of New Market, from where people wearing black
badges marched towards Azimpur Graveyard to pay respects
to the Language Movement martyrs. Later, it proceeded to
the Central Shaheed Minar.
Besides, Dhaka City AL, Jubo League, Jatiya Shramik
League, Chhatra League, Mohila Awami League, Jubo Mohila
League and Sechchha-sebak League separately paid tributes
to the Language Movement martyrs by placing wreaths at
Central Shaheed Minar.
Arrested night
watchman confesses his involvement in bank dacoity in
Faridpur
BSS, Faridpur
The arrested night watchman of the corporate branch of
Janata Bank Ltd here Sunday confessed to the law
enfo-rcers about his active involvement in the looting of
Taka 94 lakh by breaking open its safe volt on Friday
night.
The night watchman named Paresh Das, picked up Saturday
for interrogation, was brought by police and RAB Sunday
afternoon to the bank premises. In presence of the bank
officials, he narrated his involvement in the daring bank
dacoity and said he has long been in contact with a group
of burglars.
Paresh said he had reached an agreement that in exchange
of his cooperation he would be given a share of the money
to be looted by the burglars.
The burglars getting assurances from Paresh selected
Friday night for their dacoity and successfully completed
the mission. "The burglars brought a key conversion
machine with a bunch of keys and with the help of
duplicate keys, they opened the volt and decamped with the
money," he said adding that he was a silent spectator
during the whole operation, smoking gold leaf cigarette
supplied by the burglars. A bank source said they
recovered four sticks of cigarettes from Paresh, who
usually smokes bidi. Police Super Awlad Ali Fakir told BSS
that Taka 27,000 was recovered from the house of Paresh,
who said the amount was a part of the looted money as the
first installment.
Anti-liberation
forces trying to erase govt’s achievements: Dilip Barua
BSS, Dhaka
Industries Minister Dilip Barua on Sunday said anti-
liberation forces have been hatching conspiracy to erase
the achievements made by the present government.
He urged all patriots and pro-liberation forces to be
united being imbued with the spirit of immortal Ekushey to
turn Bangladesh into an industrially rich country under
the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The
Industries Minister was addressing a discussion on the
occasion of the International Mother Langu-age Day on BCIC
college premises at Mirpur in the city, said a press
release.
BCIC chairman KH Masud Siddique presided over the
discussion while Kamal Ahmed Majumdar, MP, Mirpur thana
Awami League general secretary SM Hanif Ahmed, principal
of BCIC college Mofijur Rahman, director Dipak Ranjan
Dutta, general secretary of SramiK Kalyan Union Shamsuddin
Khan spoke, among others.
Editorial
Checking rice price
hike
All
are extremely worried as the prices of rice continue to rise
despite different measures taken by the government including
introduction of Open Market Sale (OMS) of rice. Food Minister
Abdur Razzaque said repeatedly that market manipulation by a
section of businessmen has been causing the spurt of rice
price. Even Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina mentioned that
despite huge stock in the country, the price of rice is going
up. "We provided subsidies defying the pressure of the
international donor agencies to have bumper production in
agriculture," she said. The Prime Minister urged her party men
to remain alert against manipulations. "Vested quarters are
trying to increase the rice price through various kinds of
tricks," she said.
The skyrocketing of the prices of rice is the most burning
issue at present as the people are undergoing unbearable
sufferings. The prices have increased by as much as Tk. 8-10
per kg of rice over the last few weeks plunging the people of
fixed income groups into untold miseries. Ironically, this
alarming price hike has resulted not from shortfall of
production but from syndication of traders and hoarding by
them.
According to press reports invisible hands are active behind
making the rice market restive. Black money holders are
allegedly building huge stock of rice and raising prices to
maximise profit. Even a new section of profit mongers are
taking loans from banks and hoarding rice in huge quantity.
Interested quarters are attributing price hike of rice to the
price spiral in the international market. But in our case,
that argument does not hold good as the country has achieved a
bumper production and there is satisfactory stock in place.
The price of rice is on the rise for quite some time. The
government has repeatedly assured the people of stabilising
the market, but with no effect. However, the government
started Open Market Sale (OMS) of rice from January 19 at the
rate of Tk 22 per kilogram in four labour-intensive districts,
including Dhaka, as an interventional measure to stem an
upturn in the market prices. Meanwhile, the OMS operation has
been extended to six divisional cities as well.
But the OMS operation has apparently failed to create the
desired impact and there has been no let up in the price hike.
Under these circumstances, it has become urgently needed to
introduce OMS all over the country to bring down rice price
immediately and thus provide respite for the poor people to
whom rice price hike means added economic hardship. It is
unfortunate that the fruits of bumper crop did not reach the
people and they are suffering due to continued price hike of
rice. The government must do everything possible to address
this issue effectively.
It goes without saying that the main reason of continued price
hike is the hoarding of rice and manipulation by business
syndicates which should be broken at any cost. The government
should act resolutely in this regard before the situation
deteriorate further. If the government finds any trick or
conspiracy behind the skyrocketing of rice prices, that should
be severely dealt with. It is the responsibility of the
government to tackle the situation through taking action
against those who are causing sufferings to the people by
manipulation of the rice market. If the government is unable
or unwilling to act against the manipulators and stabilize the
market, it is useless on their part to speak of tricks or
conspiracy by profit mongers over rice price. People want the
government to act firmly and immediately.
Rampant extortion
Extortion
is rampant in the country nowadays as it is a very easy way of
earning money, though illegally. It has become so irresistible
and widespread that it is almost impossible to lead the life
without bowing to the extortionists. Food Minister Abdur
Razzak has stated recently how the extortionists take forcibly
the lion's share of the transport fare and thus contribute to
the skyrocketing of the prices of essentials much to the
sufferings of the consumers.
Almost nothing can be done in the country without paying money
to the miscreants, terrorists and professional extortionists.
From constructing a house to opening a shop or running a
business, or solemnizing a marriage money has to be paid to
the miscreants who control the area. Failure to comply with
their demand may lead to any dreadful eventuality ranging from
destruction of the establishments to physical injury or even
death. Such incidents are reported in newspapers almost
regularly.
On the eve of two Eid festivals extortions start in various
forms and by different groups including professional
extortionists and seasonal money collectors belonging even to
political parties. According to press reports, many rich
businessmen abstain from attending offices and responding to
telephone calls to skip these extortionists. There is a
section of people who can go to any length for money as their
greed and lust are unlimited and unchecked. But there should
be limit to every thing and such crimes should be seriously
dealt with. It is expected that the government will go for
stern action to stop all kinds of extortions in the country.
Analysis
India-Pakistan talks must not be derailed
The US and the Soviet Union kept talking
throughout the Cold War. India and Pakistan should follow this
example.
Kuldip Nayar
A
couple of years ago when President George W. Bush visited New
Delhi, he commended Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, saying that
here was a person who had no Taliban in his country. This was
not really true, even at that time. The then security advisor,
M.K. Narayanan, said that he had his fingers crossed because
the terrorists could strike anywhere at any time.
Yet what was true was that the terrorists came from elsewhere
and India had no sleeper cells of its own. At least, that was
the impression then. A bomb blast in Pune a week ago has
confirmed that India does have its own terrorists. They call
themselves the Indian Mujahideen, so as to differentiate
themselves from those in Pakistan.
I suspect that New Delhi knew about their presence even when
the terrorists attacked Mumbai in November 2008. But the
government considered it prudent not to mention the Indian
Mujahideen because all fingers were pointed at Pakistan.
Islamabad was embarrassed by the disclosure that some of the
terrorists who were involved in the Mumbai carnage operated
from its soil. However, Islamabad pressed New Delhi for
information on Indian terrorists but got no response.
Newfound openness
The Pune blast has made New Delhi change its policy of keeping
silent on the subject of Indian terrorists. It has admitted
that sleeper cells are present in every big city in the
country. For some reason, the government has no hesitation in
saying that the Indian Mujahideen are behind the terrorist
activity in India. There should be more information available.
My objection is against coming to certain conclusions without
much evidence. New Delhi may be correct in its assessment that
the Lashkar-e-Taiba is guiding the Indian Mujahideen from
across the border. But it is quite possible that they have
their own leaders to instruct them from within the country.
There is also the involvement of David Headley, a US national,
who India is trying to interview - but Washington is not
allowing it. New Delhi deflects attention from terrorism when
it raises the subject of Pakistan. People get involved in
anti-Pakistan rhetoric and lose perspective.
The real problem facing India is the growth of domestic
terrorism. The youth are being brainwashed by extremists. That
Pakistan is drowned in terrorism is a cause for concern
because it is bound to flow into India sooner rather than
later. Had the two countries joined hands to fight the
problem, people on both sides would have heaved a sigh of
relief. But mistrust has again got in the way. Most Indians
allege that Pakistan is involved in terrorism. But it looks
like the government of India now wants concrete evidence
before putting the blame on Pakistan.
More worrisome is that the Hindu Taliban is rearing its head
in India. The murder of police officer Hemant Karkare, who
might have been ready to make disclosures about the Malegaon
blasts, was the doing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad or the
Bajrang Dal. The fact that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)
has control of these groups endangers India's secular ethos.
After the Pune blast, I thought the consideration of peace and
harmony would bring all parties together. Unfortunately, the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was the first to politicise the
blast. It criticised the government for not doing enough to
make people feel safe. No doubt, the government should be
doing more to combat terrorism. But this does not mean that
the BJP should refuse to cooperate with the government.
For the BJP to link the Pune blast with the talks between the
foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan is unnecessary.
Terrorism endangers the entire region. Talks on the subject
have to be given priority. But whenever talks between India
and Pakistan are held, the BJP reiterates its one-point
programme: anti-Pakistan.
The terrorists struck at Pune just as talks are imminent.
During the days of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the BJP hawks were
reined in by his foresight to reach an understanding with
Pakistan. After his retirement, the RSS has voiced its
aggressiveness through the BJP.
Sabotage
I recall when I was travelling with then prime minister
Vajpayee in his bus to Lahore he called me before we reached
the border. He showed me an urgent message on the killing of
11 Hindus in the Jammu region. He said some people, even in
his own party, would criticise him for going ahead with the
visit despite the killings. Yet he completed his mission. It
was obvious to him that what happened in the Jammu region was
meant to derail the talks.
The Pune blast was similarly motivated. New Delhi said rightly
within an hour of the blast that it would not react in a
knee-jerk manner. The important thing is to continue talking.
There is no alternative to dialogue. The US and the Soviet
Union kept talking throughout the Cold War. India and Pakistan
should follow this example.
Kuldip Nayar is a former Indian High Commissioner to the
United Kingdom and a former Rajya Sabha member.
The Taleban
and Reconciliation
To achieve reconciliation, the coalition and the Karzai
government have to change conditions on the ground:
Zalmay Khalilzad
Reconciliation
and reintegration have lately become catch-phrases in
regard to Afghanistan.Proponents of reconciliation hope
that an agreement can be brokered between the Afghan
government and the Taleban political leadership.
Reintegration would then allow the coalition and Afghan
security forces to stop fighting against local Taleban
commanders by bringing them back into Afghan society.
Those are potentially good outcomes. But they can only be
achieved if certain necessary conditions are in place, and
at present this is not the case.
National reconciliation is a well-established concept. It
is generally understood to mean that the insurgents accept
the new order in exchange for amnesty, the right to
participate in the political process and physical
security. President Karzai has actually sought
reconciliation with the Taleban ?for years. Recently,
efforts devoted to this goal have increased. Karzai is
even planning to convene a Peace Loya Jirga to facilitate
reconciliation.
The meaning of the capture of Mullah Abdul Ghani Barader,
the chief of the Taleban's military operations, amid
speculation that he had engaged the US or Afghan
authorities in negotiations, is unclear. If it reflects a
change in Pakistan's policy of giving the Taleban
sanctuary on its territory and if it now will push Taleban
leaders to stop fighting against the coalition and
Karzai's government, this could be a major ?positive
development.
History indicates that successful reconciliation is
possible when the government and its outside supporters
are doing well militarily against insurgents and providing
security and improved living conditions for the population
in areas cleared of insurgents. The insurgents have to
conclude that time is not on their side, and that their
best interests are served by striking a deal while they
still have some bargaining chips in hand. Unfortunately,
this is not the situation in Afghanistan right now.
Militarily, the insurgency has grown stronger in recent
years while popular support for the government and the
coalition has declined in areas where the insurgents are
strong. The Taleban also enjoy external support and
sanctuaries. Not surprisingly, its leadership has so far
rejected reconciliation.
To expect the Taleban to reconcile on our terms in these
circumstances is wishful thinking. First, conditions on
the ground need to be changed.
To date, what the Taleban have wanted is negotiations with
the United States. But negotiations are fundamentally
different from reconciliation. What the Taleban have in
mind is negotiating a timetable for withdrawal of
coalition forces and a new transitional government as
steps toward their ultimate goal of retaking Afghanistan.
It is possible that they might pretend to distance
themselves from Al Qaeda, but we should recognise that the
partnership with Al Qaeda has been part of their formula
of success.
According to Pakistani leaders, in their meetings with US
military leaders, the Pakistanis have offered to arrange
meetings with the Taleban. But it is important to
recognise that senior-level meetings and negotiations with
the Taleban would enhance the legitimacy of the movement
and similar movements across the region, thus
strengthening Islamic radicals. If such meetings took
place without coordinating with the Karzai government,
they could undermine it and would represent a ?significant
setback.
To achieve reconciliation, the coalition and the Karzai
government have to change conditions on the ground:
1) The coalition surge and the expansion of Afghan forces
must change the balance of power against the insurgents,
confronting them with prospects for defeat;
2) The Karzai government must become more effective;
3) A regional solution must be found for South Asia to
induce Pakistan to stop allowing its territory to be used
as a sanctuary by the Taleban; and
4) The Obama administration must change the regional
perception that it intends to begin disengaging from
Afghanistan after 18 months.
The administration appears to have a plan for the first of
these points, increasing security, and this is important.
But it appears not to have plans for the other three.
Reintegration has its own requirements for success.
Locally, the incentive for local leaders to side with the
Kabul government and the coalition will increase once an
area has been militarily secured through the formula of
"clear, hold, build." If an area is not secure, the local
insurgent leaders will be afraid to change sides. Money
and political incentives can play a positive role, but any
shift that takes place through these motivators will not
be reliable or enduring.
Reconciliation and reintegration are both necessary and
desirable. To achieve them, conditions must change in
Afghanistan and Pakistan. Without such change success is
unlikely. Rather than pursuing illusory hopes, we should
do what is necessary for real success.
Zalmay Khalilzad was US ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq
and the United Nations. He is a counselor at the Center
for Strategic and International Studies
The stars are
aligned
Indians
and Pakistanis, raised on animosity and mutual suspicion,
now have to be programmed to yearn for peace. At any cost.
Rakesh
Mani
It's
one of the most remarkable campaigns the subcontinent has
seen: a joint peace initiative run by the Times of India,
India's most powerful media empire, and the Jang group,
Pakistan's most influential media group. Their joint 'Aman
ki Asha' (Hope for Peace) initiative looks to develop a
stronger Track II channel in the diplomatic and cultural
relations between India and Pakistan.
The Urdu language Jang newspaper's involvement is
relevant, and crucial, although the Jang Group's English
language The News is also involved. However, it is
probably the vernacular Jang reader who needs to be made
more open to establishing a rapport with India. The case
of the linguistic divide is less pronounced in India.
Readers of the English press and vernacular press often
share similar opinions on relations with Pakistan.
The criticisms about such civilian initiatives are
probably fair: the assortment of cricketers, musicians and
matinee idols who are lending their names and faces to the
cause have little influence in either country. As long as
the politicians and mandarins in India's establishment and
the military men and mullahs in Pakistan's power elite are
not involved, what difference does it all really make?
Given this reality, it is fair to assume that such a
concerted initiative must have the approval of those who
matter in Delhi and Islamabad, and possibly in Washington
as well. Clearly the intent is to build a strong peace
constituency among the masses in both countries for a pact
that's being made in the highest echelons. Because war, in
its adversity, unifies nations while peace divides them
and gives rise to arguments about the price.
Negotiations on Kashmir have never gotten anywhere because
neither country has been willing to compromise. For years,
we have heard the familiar volley of archaic
recriminations; with India refusing to budge from the
status quo, and Pakistan looking to significantly alter
it. Clearly both countries, at some point, will have to
make some compromises to build peace. The gradual process
of selling that compromise to their respective electorates
has now begun in earnest. Indians and Pakistanis, raised
on animosity and mutual suspicion, now have to be
programmed to yearn for peace. At any cost.
There have always been romantics and idealists in both
countries who spoke fondly of their neighbor and lobbied
for peace. But these constituencies were always relegated
to peripheral positions by realist viewpoints that
stressed strategic interest. And today, after years of
opposing interests, we have a situation where the
strategic interests of India and Pakistan seem to
coincide. The galaxy of strategic stars in the
subcontinent is now aligned for peace. And things are
moving quickly.
A few days ago, the governments of India and Pakistan
announced that their foreign secretaries will meet for
talks at the end of February to resume the formal dialogue
on a number of key issues, including Kashmir. In an
apparently unrelated gesture, India's Home Minister P.
Chidambaram said that the scores of Indian militants from
Kashmir who have crossed into Pakistani territory should
be allowed to return to India without punishment.
It is in New Delhi's interest to stabilize the democratic
regime in Pakistan, to prevent a nightmare scenario: a
million Pakistani refugees, fleeing a theocratic
Taliban-dominated country, pounding the gates at Wagah.
It's a real threat, with a precedent. The Indian
government hasn't forgotten the 1971 crisis, when millions
of Bengali refugees flooded into West Bengal from
erstwhile East Pakistan. Almost forty years ago, the
question was economic and humanitarian.
Today, it's a catch-22: let the Pakistani refugees in, and
you run the risk of a phalanx of anti-India militants
being camouflaged among them; refuse them entry, and it
becomes horrible publicity for a country that fancies
itself a responsible, emerging superpower.
Islamabad, on the other hand, feels that the time is ripe
to pressure Delhi into a settlement. With Washington
leaning on them heavily for support in the war on terror,
their approach will be to convince the Americans that they
can't fight the battle on their Western border when there
are Indian guns being pointed at their back in the East.
One suspects that Manmohan Singh, having seen the nuclear
deal through in his first term, is looking to make a
settlement on Kashmir his foreign policy priority for the
UPA's second term in office. If all goes well, each player
in the love triangle has their strategic interests
fulfilled and becomes a sure shot for the Nobel Peace
Prize.
A fine feather in their caps, but also the possibility of
a final and lasting peace in a subcontinent that has been
saddled with sorrow and disquiet for decades.
The writer is a 2009 Teach For India fellow, and a
writer and columnist for a variety of publications. Email:
rakesh.mani@ gmail.com
Viewpoints
Obama must get tough
The
president's leadership could depend on challenging his
Republican rivals who bait him at every step, instead of
trying to win them over
Walter Rodgers
US
President Barack Obama's political predicament is perhaps more
serious than he understands or appreciates. He appears to see
opponents as rivals to be charmed. What he should see are
enemies determined to destroy his presidency.
To save the agenda for which he was elected, he must give up
the pretence of being a post-partisan professorial president
and start acting like an Oval Office tiger. He must get tough,
not because populist rage polls well, but because his
leadership depends on challenging those who challenge him.
It is pointless to extend a hand to those who desperately want
him to fail. There is nothing Obama can say or do to satisfy
Republicans. On January 30, he went to a GOP conference to
enlist their support to be "partners for progress." Does he
really think Republicans want to be his partners?
In his brilliant book, Shakespeare: The Thinker, the late
Oxford scholar A.D. Nuttall notes, "It is sometimes said that
political leaders require a 'demonised Other' to retain
control of their citizens. If the people are to be ruled they
must first be scared." Nuttall cites the example of England's
King Henry V needing a war with France to control
insurrectionists at home.
Fear has its uses, then and now. George W. Bush had a
colourless presidency until the 9/11 attacks. Then he acquired
two enemies: Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussain.
Bush's vice-president, Dick Cheney, revelled in creating more
enemies to enhance the administration's power: Muslims,
Europeans, liberals, even ordinary American citizens who
merely questioned the war in Iraq. This cynical strategy won
Bush and Cheney four more disastrous years in office.
For several reasons, Obama can't or won't follow suit. It
would be out of character for someone more scholar than
brawler, more conciliator than demagogue. One of his heroes is
Abraham Lincoln, who assembled a "team of rivals" Cabinet and
who said: "I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends."
Even more salient is the fact that Obama is black and risks
being seen as 'uppity' and combative in a country still
acclimating to its first African-American president. White
congressional Republicans can savage him, but a black
president can't reciprocate.
Convenient enemies
There is a grand tradition in Washington of creating enemies
for the sake of political expediency. No one was better at
making or finding enemies than Richard Nixon. For decades, he
accused opponents of being cozy with communists, a menace he
greatly exaggerated. But, when he became president and later
pals with the communist leaders of China and the Soviet Union,
he exploited white fears of black street crime.
Harry Truman used the same communist threat to get his way
with a miserly Congress.
Shortly after the Second World War, a depleted Britain needed
reconstruction loans. Professor Walter Burdick of Elmhurst
College told me: "Senator Arthur Vandenberg [Republican] of
Michigan advised Truman to 'scare the hell out of Congress' to
get the money other Republicans wanted to use to balance the
budget and pay for the war. Harry did it, and it worked."
Truman and every Democrat who ran for the White House for the
next half century berated Republican Herbert Hoover for the
Depression. Decades after the 1929 crash, I recall Jimmy
Carter confiding that he "hated" to have to castigate "poor
old Herbert Hoover," whom he confessed he really liked.
This is a crucial moment in Obama's presidency. It requires an
element of leadership that he's so far not shown. Obama has
read too much law and not enough Shakespeare. In Henry V, King
Henry says, "In peace there's nothing so becomes a man as
modest stillness and humility."
But Obama's political enemies war against him daily, so his
only option may be to follow Henry's next words: "But when the
blast of war blows in our ears, then imitate the action of the
tiger; Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, disguise fair
nature with hard-favor'd rage; Then lend the eye a terrible
aspect." Presidential politics is not for the faint of heart.
Walter Rodgers is a former senior international
correspondent for CNN.
Heading
towards revolt or disaster?
The French
queen, Marie Antoinette, might have been surprised, or
probably even shocked had she lived and seen our
oligarchy, feudal and industrial lords
Nizamuddin Nizamani
The
French queen, Marie Antoinette, might have been surprised,
or probably even shocked had she lived and seen our
oligarchy, feudal and industrial lords
The recent chain of events and circumstances unfolding in
Pakistan remind me of the dramatic events before the
French Revolution in 1789. There seem striking parallels
between Pakistan of 2010 and France in the last quarter of
the 18th century.
Since 1774, France, during the rule of the weak King Louis
XVI, lived under chaos and consternation. There were
repeated bloody peasant uprisings, the masses were
aggrieved and exhausted due to unemployment, price hikes,
shortage of food supplies, infectious diseases, high
street crimes, murders and widespread unrest due to heavy
taxes on the common populace.
On the contrary the oligarchy, nobles and clergy,
oblivious to these realties, enjoyed their unhindered
luxurious ceremonies and continued their dirty intrigues
in the royal court.
In France, the price of goods rose steadily by 50 percent
during the 18th century due to population growth, followed
by a general decline in agricultural and industrial
production.
In Pakistan, the price of goods has multiplied manifold
and our population is growing rapidly - around 50 percent
of it in the puberty stage. We have faced three flour and
three sugar crises during the last decade and, at the
moment, are passing through decidedly the worst sugar and
other commodities crisis.
Changing demands have encouraged farmers to opt for cash
crops and fruits with export demand. The prices of some
fruits and vegetables like bananas, mangoes and chillies
have increased by as much as 2,000 to 3,000 percent at the
cost of food crops like wheat and rice, and fodder
required for domestic animals.
The bad harvests of 1788 and 1789 in France aggravated the
food crisis and increased the price of a loaf of bread,
which resulted in bread riots where the hungry masses
attacked bakeries and grain silos across towns and
villages in France.
In our case, cropping patterns have deprived the peasantry
of traditional employment and food protection. They are
compelled to work as land labourers and buy
inflation-laden daily commodities, thus creating
widespread poverty. A few dozen reported suicides and the
selling of children in some parts of the country is just
the tip of the iceberg; the gravity of the crisis seems
much deeper.
The bread riots and other factors triggered mass migration
from the villages to towns in France and the same happened
in Pakistan. Declining basic amenities, crime, lawlessness
and unrest in rural areas have created uncertainty, and a
weakening of state institutions has caused an awful amount
of distrust among the masses, leading them to concentrate
in overloaded urban areas already host to many social
evils.
France, despite its internal issues, jumped into the
Anglo-American war to settle its prolonged issues with the
British Crown. Similarly, we have been poking our noses in
Afghanistan. Available circumstantial evidence proves that
we have been interfering directly or through so-called
'non-state' elements in neighbouring countries, something
that has backfired to make us face violence, large-scale
kidnappings for ransom, bomb blasts, inter-provincial
rifts, a weakened federation, political strife, terrorism
and mass killings every day.
Interference in North America cost huge debt burdens to
France. The French government used to pay half of its
total yearly income, which was around 472 million livres,
towards meeting these debts but still defaulted on them.
We inject more than half of our yearly budget into debt
servicing and have no plans to adjust the principal amount
of $ 55 billion.
The French queen, Marie Antoinette, lived an extravagant
and luxurious life, neglectful of all disasters facing the
state at that time. Our ruling elite and upper class
surpass even the French queen with their lifestyles and
behaviour towards the country. She might have been
surprised, or probably even shocked had she lived and seen
our oligarchy, feudal and industrial lords.
The French clergy enjoyed a celebrated position during
that era. They were granted extreme privileges and worked
hand in glove with the royal court and aristocracy. There
was a popular maxim in those days: "Nobles fight, clergy
pray, people pay."
State crises created different schools of thoughts in
Paris, led by two principal groups called the Jacobin Club
and the Cordelier Club. The Cordelier, led by the lawyers,
was conservative while the Jacobin, led by Maximilian
Robespierre, contained radical revolutionary ideas.
Ironically, we have the King's party in different shapes
and forms, and some progressive groups. Additionally, the
media has created another power sharing segment known as 'anchorocracy',
where anchors from different media channels try to impose
their school of thought, and indirectly indoctrinate the
public with the ideology designed by the 'controlled'
opposition.
Religious seminaries are in full swing; ever increasing
industry does booming business and remains unaffected by
the socio-economic shocks and crunches faced by the common
populace. People are paying for the clergy, nobles and
aristocrats of the day.
Aristotle once revealed that hunger either leads to
revolution or crime. In France, Robespierre and his aides
led a bloody revolution and sent the king running in
humiliation after which he was ultimately executed. He
passed brutish decrees that resulted in thousands of
executions, ultimately bringing him under the same
guillotine blade. However, after around one century's
bloody political experiences, including Napoleon
Bonaparte's lethal military adventures, the French people
successfully established a people-friendly welfare state.
Unfortunately, in Pakistan, despite strangely similar
circumstances, there seems to be no leader who possesses
the capacity to lead a revolution. God forbid, we seem to
be heading towards Aristotle's second possibility of
anarchy and disaster for which an ample cast of actors are
already playing and evidence is already in place.
The million-dollar question remains: do we wait for a
charismatic leadership, go ahead with the status quo, or
create fresh, alternative leadership? We need to think
about it.
The writer is an MS in Social Sciences, a professional
trainer, researcher and peace activist. He may be
contacted at nizambaloch@gmail.com
The tide turns against Israel
London is "angry" over the use of stolen identities by the
Dubai assassins and points its finger at the Jewish state
and its notorious Mossad espionage agency.
Gilad Atzmon
London
is "angry" over the use of stolen identities by the Dubai
assassins and points its finger at the Jewish state and
its notorious Mossad espionage agency.
Israeli Ambassador to Britain Ron Prosor was summoned
Thursday by foreign minister to "share information". In
practice Britain has stopped short of accusing Israel of
involvement in the scandalous assassination, however to
signal its displeasure the Foreign Office ignored an
Israeli plea to keep the summons secret. "Relations were
in the freezer before this. They are in the deep freeze
now," a British official told the Guardian.
The British anger at Israel would be a positive signal in
the right direction if we were not aware of Foreign
Secretary David Miliband investing enormous efforts trying
to amend Britain's ethical stand just to appease Tzipi
Livni, Ehud Barak and other Israeli leaders. The Foreign
Ministry's reaction could almost be deemed a revelation,
were we able to forget that just five weeks before Israel
launched its lethal criminal attack against Gaza, David
Miliband visited Sderot, an Israeli town on the Gaza
border to offer his support. "No country can accept
constant bombardment of its citizens", Miliband told the
people of Sderot. He then continued, "Israel should, above
all, seek to protect its own citizens". It was that
foolish statement that made us all complicit in Israel's
flattening of Gaza. Bearing these facts in mind, it is
rather unlikely that the Israeli ambassador to Britain was
sweating while "sharing information" with the chief aide
to the British foreign secretary.
In the last few days Robert Fisk reported from the Middle
East for The Independent newspaper that, in Dubai there is
not much doubt about Britain being involved in the Israeli
blunder. "The British passports are real", says one of
Fisk's sources in Dubai. "They are hologram pictures with
the biometric stamp. They are not forged or fake. The
names were really there. If you can fake a hologram or
biometric stamp, what does this mean?" The truth better be
exposed here. As if this is not enough, the Israeli Ynet
reports (quoting the Daily Mail) that Israel informed the
British government that its agents were going to carry out
an "overseas operation" using forged British passports.
"It wasn't a request for permission, but rather a courtesy
call".
If Britain was collaborating with Israel at any level, we
better know it all, we better find out whether it was a
person or a body within the government or the
intelligence, or just an ordinary sayan in the Home Office
or any other government office (sayan is a unique and
important part of the Mossad's operation. The sayan or
assistant must be 100 percent Jewish. The sayan supports
the Israeli cause and assists the Mossad operation. A
veteran Mossad agent says,"There are thousands of sayanim
around the world. In London alone, there are about 2,000
who are active, and another 5,000 on the list"). If there
was British collaboration, we better identify what it was
exactly, who decided to serve Israeli murderous interests
in our midst. We also better find out who in Britain
decided to put British interests and British security in
the Arab world at enormous risk.
In his Guardian article on Thursday, Seumas Milne didn't
save his words either. "Instead of setting off a
diplomatic backlash, the British government sat on its
hands for almost a week after it was reportedly first
passed details of the passport abuse. And while the
Foreign Office finally summoned the Israeli ambassador to
'share information', rather than to protest, Gordon Brown
could yesterday only promise a 'full investigation'".
The truth of the matter is tragic. The British political
system is paralyzed by the Israeli lobby. Like in the US,
British national interests are sacrificed for the sake of
dirty Zionist cash. If Britain wants to liberate itself
from the Zionist grip and have any prospect of a future,
it must move fast and clean the entire list of Zionist
infiltrators from its political ranks, government offices
and strategic positions. I am not talking here about Jews.
By no means do I mention ethnicity or race. I am talking
here about a political and ideological affiliation.
Considering Zionism is a murderous, racist, expansionist
ideology, it is natural to stress that people who are
affiliated with Israel and Zionism must be removed
immediately from any political, government, military or
strategic posts and so on.
As much as Britain would refrain from delegating decisions
regarding its security with Arab, Chinese or Russian
nationalists, it should similarly treat Jewish
nationalists with at least as much caution.
But here is the good news. Unlike the Zionized British
political system, the British people and media are
actually outraged. The Mossad's blunder, as well as the
British political impotence is overwhelmingly exposed in
the British press. It is on the front page of every
British daily paper, it is featured on every TV news item.
There is no doubt today, the patience towards Israeli
barbarism is clearly running out.
A few years back I was listening to a talk given by Dr.
Mustafa Barghouti who pointed out that back in 1948 the
world stood silent watching 750,000 Palestinian people
being driven out of their land, their villages and their
cities through an orchestrated ethnic cleansing coupled
with many massacres. The world kept silent when Israel set
its racist return laws to prevent the Palestinians from
returning to their land. In 1967, the developed world
wasn't just silent; it actually praised the Israeli
expansionist extravaganza. It applauded the Israel Defense
Forces (IDF) as it cleansed tens of thousands of
Palestinians out of their historic land.
But then things started to change. In the Lebanon war of
1982 the world at large was still pretty silent as 30,000
Palestinian and Lebanese were butchered by the Israeli Air
Force and the IDF. Yet it miraculously woke the left up
from its terminal snooze. Some activists started to
realize that Palestinians and their cause were at the
heart of the battle for a better world. During the first
and the second intifadas more and more people came to
realize that Israel was the aggressor. In 2006 Israel
again unleashed total havoc in Lebanon. This time Israel
left 3,000 fatalities. However, the impact of these
successive Israeli brutalities led to a drastic rise of
anti-Israeli feelings. It was, in fact, the 2nd Lebanon
war (rather than Iraq) that was the catalyst for Prime
Minister Tony Blair's overdue political downfall. Blair
paid an immediate political price for condoning the war.
The Gaza massacre of 2009 left 1,400 dead Palestinians,
most of them women and children, it left Gaza in total
ruin, but as we know, it also led to the highest tide of
anti-Israeli resentments in every possible level in the
media, in the street and even in the UN.
This week we learn about Israel's latest murderous
blunder. It assassinated a Hamas military leader. While in
the past Israel would be praised for the courage of its
assassin squads, those who are chasing the enemies of the
Jews in far lands and beyond, the reaction this week is
very different. The Jewish state is now regarded as a
qualified pariah state. British media and people start to
see through it. No one in the British press stood for
Israel, no one tried to justify or advocate Israel's acts.
No one repeated the clichés about Hamas being a terrorist
organization. I guess that by now, people out there grasp
that Hamas is Palestine's democratically elected
leadership. People also realize that Hamas is justified in
pursuing a fully legitimate struggle for liberation.
As much as Israelis and their supporters try to tell us
that the diplomatic backlash is fueled by merely technical
matters such as "identity theft", reading the British
press conveys a far deeper resentment to Israel, what it
stands for and the way it operates. For a while some of us
have been talking about remote signs that the tide is
changing. As it happens, we are waking up into a new
reality. The tide has changed already. Israel has
exhausted the last drops of moral integrity, as if it
possessed such integrity to start with. Britain and every
Western country better move fast and identify the enemy
within, those amongst us who support the Zionist project
and convert us all into being complicit partners in
Israel's never ending sin.
Gilad Atzmon is an Israeli-born British jazz musician.
H writes on political matters, social issues, Jewish
identity and culture. His papers are published on many
press outlets around the world.
International
NAB prosecutor
sacked following NRO verdict
Swiss cases set to be
reopened, Zardari tricking seeking immunity
Dawn Online, Islamabad
National Accountability Bureau Chairman Navaid Ahsan
sacked on Saturday his prosecutor general and deputy
prosecutor general in compliance with the Supreme Court
directives contained in its judgment in the National
Reconciliation Ordinance case.
Sources in the NAB said that Ahsan had sent a summary for
removal of Prosecutor General Danishwar Malik and Deputy
Prosecutor General Baseer Qureshi to Prime Minister Yousuf
Raza Gilani for approval.
But analysts here are of the opinion that the government
will have to refer the case of the prosecutor general to
the Supreme Judicial Council because of a constitutional
requirement.
However, the sources said that the NAB chairman had the
authority to send the summary for removal of the
prosecutor general to the government.
The Supreme Court had expressed displeasure over the
conduct and lack of proper and honest assistance provided
to it by the NAB chairman, its prosecutor general and
additional prosecutor general and suggested to the
government to replace them with persons possessing high
degree of competence and impeccable integrity.
The sources said that the NAB chairman relied on Danishwar
Malik because he had done a lot of work in pursuing cases
of politicians and bureaucrats reopened after the
scrapping of the NRO.
Baseer Qureshi was sacked about four years ago because of
differences with NAB's former deputy chairman Hassan
Waseem Afzal who, along with Saifur Rehman, the former
head of Ehtesab Bureau, had opened cases against Benazir
Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari. He was re-appointed to the
post by the PPP government in 2008.
The sources said the government was also unhappy with the
performance of the NAB chairman and believed that he had
been playing an active role in reopening the NRO
cases.
Reports suggest that many unsuccessful attempts had been
made in the recent past to access or forge NAB record.
Swiss case
President Asif Ali Zardari gave a go-ahead to the attorney
general and the law ministry on Saturday to start the
process of reopening his Swiss cases.
DawnNews quoted unnamed sources as saying that a formal
request for reopening the cases would be filed with the
Swiss government by Monday.
The sources told the TV channel that President Zardari had
realised that not taking action on the Swiss case would
make matters worse and would not be in the interest of the
nation.
But, the sources said, Zardari is tricking to seek
immunity as and the Supreme Court would be informed about
his immunity as referred to in Article 248 of the
Constitution.
Meanwhile, president's spokesman Farhatullah Babar denied
Zardari to have allowed the reopening of cases against him
at all.
Pak FM optimistic about
talks with India
APP, Beijing
Pakistan Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi
said Sunday that he is "optimistic" on Pakistan, India
foreign-secretary level talks scheduled on February 25.
Talking to Chinese print and electronic media here, he
however made it clear that the outcome of the talk
"depends on the response from Indian side".Being
neighbours, we can not do without talking to each other,
Qureshi noted.He said that Pakistan had always made
efforts to maintain friendly relations with all its
neighbours.
The Foreign Minister said that the peace process between
the two countries was proceeding well, but India
unfortunately suspended the talks after the Mumbai
incident.
He pointed out that Pakistan itself was the biggest victim
of terrorism perpetrated by non-state actors. Commenting
on Pakistan's fight against terrorism, Qureshi said that
during last two years the democratically elected
government has achieved many important successes since "we
now have the full support of the people".
Highlighting the successes he said that in Swat and
Malakand areas the government rehabilitated 2 million
internally displaced persons in record time. The situation
in these areas is completely under control, he said, and
added that normalcy had been fully restored. Qureshi
hailed the apprehension of Abdul Ghani Baradar as a big
success.
Elaborating further the Foreign Minister said that
Pakistan has adopted a counter-terrorism policy centered
on 3 Ds (dialogue, development and deterrence).
As a part of this strategy, he pointed out his country is
paying greater attention for the economic and social
development in FATA and other neglected areas to bring
these fully into the national mainstream. In this
connection, he said that the recently concluded London
Conference also endorsed Pakistan's strategy.
Afghan police move into
Taliban stronghold
AFP, Outskirts Of Marjah
Afghan police on Sunday prepared to take control of a town
at the centre of a US-led offensive against the Taliban,
as trapped residents said they were running out of food.
About 15,000 Afghan and NATO troops faced tough fighting
as Operation Mus-htarak entered a second week, with
gunfights and mines bogging down attempts to secure the
Nad Ali and Marjah areas of the southern province of
Helmand.
Civilians locked down by bombs sewn across the conflict
zone were facing increasingly desperate conditions, but
officials were hopeful that an elite Afghan police force
would soon be able to control parts of Marjah township.
General Muhaidin Ghori, the Afghan National Army commander
for Helmand province, said that about 600 police with the
newly established Public Protection Police Force had
expanded their positions day-by-day since Friday.
"They are in Marjah centre, in the bazaar," he told AFP.
"We are busy carrying out the clean-up and search
operations to provide the grounds for establishing the
opportunities for installing permanent posts and bases for
the police to take up their policing duty."
Fully securing the target area in the central Helmand
River valley however could take another month as troops
led by US Marines strive to clear the innumerable bombs
planted by the militants.
Thaksin ruling could
further inflame Thai unrest
AP, Bangkok
A court ruling on whether Thailand's deposed leader
Thaksin Shinawatra should lose his fortune for alleged
corruption could become the latest flash point in four
years of sometimes-violent political unrest that has
exposed deep divisions in Thai society.
The government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is
hoping Friday's decision will lead to a return of
stability, but it has hedged its bets, imposing a security
crackdown around the country and offering safe houses for
the court's judges, claiming the pro-Thaksin "Red Shirt"
movement may be planning violence. Political passions have
led to years of off-and-on street protests, pitting those
who view Thaksin as a corrupt demagogue who bought his way
to power against those who benefited from his populist
policies and see the military coup that ousted him in
September 2006 as a grave injustice orchestrated by a
ruling elite scared of change.
The refusal by Thaksin's opponents to accept the results
of post-coup elections that saw his allies return to power
led to their occupation of the seat of government for
several months and seizure of the capital's two airports
for a week in 2008. A court ruling that led to the fall of
the pro-Thaksin government and Abhisit taking power
through parliamentary maneuverings fueled the ire of the
Red Shirts, who last year rioted and disrupted a
conference of Asian heads of government.
Now, says government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn,
"People expect the system to resume functioning normally,
the parliamentary system and the economic system. Although
we continue to have political differences, the wishes of
the people are clear."
Actual evidence of a return to normalcy is slim. Red Shirt
leaders boast of plans for a "million-man march" sometime
after the verdict.
70 percent of S. Koreans
see threat in nuclear-armed North
AFP, Seoul
Seven in 10 South Koreans see nuclear-armed North Korea as
a threat, a survey showed Sunday, amid little progress
reported in reviving disarmament talks on the communist
state.
The South's state-run Korea Institute for National
Unification said a survey conducted on 1,000 adults
nationwide last November showed that 70 percent of them
regard the North's nuclear arms to be a threat to their
safety. The poll shows nearly 12 percent of them take the
North's nuclear threat "very seriously" with 58 percent
perceiving danger "to some extent." But 30 percent see no
threat in the nuclear-armed North, it said.
The survey showed 84 percent support a proposed "grand
bargain" or a package deal where a security guarantee and
international aid should be offered to the North in
exchange for a complete and verifiable denuclearisation.
The North has been under growing international pressure to
return to the six-party nuclear disarmament talks since it
quit last April.
US, Chinese and UN envoys visited Pyongyang in the past
several months in diplomacy aimed at bringing North Korea
back to nuclear negotiations with the United States,
China, Russia South Korea, and Japan.
Chinese and North Korean nuclear negotiators held talks in
Beijing earlier this month apparently to help resume the
forum, but no progress was reported. The communist state,
which tested atomic weapons in October 2006 and May 2009,
has set two conditions for resuming the nuclear dialogue:
the lifting of UN sanctions and a US commitment to discuss
a formal peace treaty.
Philippine troops kill 6
al-Qaida-linked militants
AP, Manila
Philippine marines killed a top al-Qaida-linked militant
commander and five other extremists early Sunday in an
assault on a rebel encampment on a southern island, a
senior military commander said.
A marine special operations platoon raided an Abu Sayyaf
camp outside Maimbung township on Jolo island following
intelligence reports that two wanted militant leaders,
Umbra Jumdail and Albader Parad, were there, said Lt. Gen.
Benjamin Dolorfino, head of the military's Western
Mindanao Command.
Four civilians have independently identified the body of
Parad at a military camp in Jolo town, Dolorfino said,
adding that a younger brother of Jumdail, Abdulhaman
Jumdail, also was among the slain rebels.
"It's a very significant gain in our campaign against
terrorism because we all know that Albader Parad is one of
the influential leaders (of the Abu Sayyaf)," he told The
Associated Press. "This will have a very big demoralizing
effect on the other members and shows that they cannot
hide forever from the arms of the law." Government troops
first encountered Parad's group late Saturday and caught
up with them at the encampment early Sunday, he said.
One marine was killed and three others were wounded in the
clash, Philippine marines spokesman Lt. Col. Edgard
Arevalo said. The recovery of the slain militants and
their weapons indicated the Abu Sayyaf gunmen were caught
by surprise and could have suffered more casualties since
it was unusual for them to leave the bodies of dead
comrades behind, Dolorfino said.
Malaysian PM’s wife denies
framing opposition leader
AFP, Kuala Lumpur
The wife of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said she
was not involved in framing sex charges against opposition
leader Anwar Ibrahim which he says is an attempt to kill
his political career.
Anwar, a former deputy premier who is battling charges of
sodomising an aide, claimed Thursday the sex charges were
masterminded by Najib and his wife Rosmah Mansor to
destroy him and undermine a resurgent opposition. Rosmah
told state news agency Bernama over the weekend that she
was not a "hidden hand" influencing her husband's
political career.
"It is not something that I am sensitive of as it is not
true," she told Bernama.
"I am the type, who will voice out my dissatisfaction, but
once said, it is done," she said. "It does not mean... I
am making the decisions." Najib has also previously denied
involvement in Anwar's sodomy case.
The sodomy trial, which Anwar says is a political
conspiracy engineered by the prime minister and his wife,
has been suspended until March 25 while his lawyers appeal
the judge's decision not to stand down amid allegations of
bias. "These are trumped-up charges involving two black
hands-Najib and Rosmah," the 62-year-old opposition leader
told reporters Thursday.
Anwar, who faces 20 years in prison if convicted of
illicit sexual relations with former aide Mohamad Saiful
Bukhari Azlan, was sacked in 1998 as deputy premier and
convicted on similar sodomy and corruption charges.
He was released in 2004 after the sexual misconduct count
was overturned, allowing him to make a comeback to
politics as the leader of a reinvigorated opposition.
Israel
rejects recognition of Palestinian state
AFP, Jerusalem
Israel on Sunday rejected the idea of foreign countries
recognising a Palestinian state without a negotiated peace
agreement, after France's foreign minister hinted at such
a scenario.
"Imposing this kind of semblance of a partial solution
from outside goes against the very idea of peace," a
senior Israeli official told AFP on condition of
anonymity.
"Granting recognition when the issues of the conflict have
not been settled would add fuel to the fire. This would
only push the Palestinians to be even more intransigent
and thus make any compromise impossible," he added.
France's Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said over the
weekend he could envision the recognition of a Palestinian
state even before its borders are drawn up. "The issue
before us at the moment is the building of a reality:
France is training Palestinian police, businesses are
being created in the West Bank," Kouchner told France's
Journal du Dimanche.
"It follows that one can envision the proclamation soon of
a Palestinian state, and its immediate recognition by the
international community, even before negotiating its
borders," he said. Kouchner's comments came ahead of a
visit to Paris by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.
Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad, meanwhile, says
he is intent on building institutions for a de-facto
Palestinian state, which he aims to complete by 2011
regardless of whether peace talks have advanced with
Israel.
Later on Sunday, Abbas is due to meet with Kouchner in the
French capital and with President Nicolas Sarkozy the
following day.
Abbas has agreed in principle to a US proposal that he
hold indirect talks with Israel under Washington's
mediation, but has requested a number of guarantees.
Obama faces reality test on
US nuclear posture
AFP, Washington
President Barack Obama's promise of a nuclear-free world
faces a crucial reality test next month when he decides
how far to go in reducing the role of nuclear weapons in
US strategy.
The administration's so-called nuclear posture review is
scheduled to be delivered to Congress in early March, two
months behind schedule amid an internal debate over such
fundamental questions as what purpose nuclear weapons
really serve.
The review, the first of its kind since 2002, has been
conducted in secrecy and the outcome remains uncertain,
but its point of departure was Obama's April 5 speech in
Prague promising to seek "a world without nuclear
weapons."
"To put an end to Cold War thinking, we will reduce the
role of nuclear weapons in our national security strategy,
and urge others to do the same," Obama pledged.
But arms control advocates say they have been cautioned
not to expect the groundbreaking document that many had
hoped for.
"It is my belief that the current version of the review is
a fairly modest document, reflecting the president's
Prague agenda but not making a dramatic shift in US
posture or policy that would be a strong move away from
the present," said Stephen Young of the Union of Concerned
Scientists.
"There is still a chance the president could ask for or
decide on dramatic changes that would signal a major shift
in policy, but at present I don't believe those are in the
document."
Proponents of deep cuts in the US nuclear arsenal have
urged Obama to declare that the weapons' "sole purpose" is
to deter other nuclear armed states, arguing that US
conventional military superiority obviates their need in
any other scenario.
That would fall short of a declaration of "no first use"
for nuclear weapons, something no American president has
ever publicly contemplated.
Dubai killers used
diplomatic passports
Israeli Prime Minister
approved Hamas hit
AFP, Dubai
The assassins of a senior Hamas militant in Dubai made use
of diplomatic passports, the Gulf emirate's police chief
said on Sunday, as he warned of a mole within the ranks of
the Palestinian group.
Britain's Sunday Times newspaper, meanwhile, said the
killing was carried out by Israel's spy agency Mossad with
the green light and blessing of Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu.
"There is information that Dubai police will not make
public for the moment, especially regarding diplomatic
passports" used by some of Mahmud al-Mabhuh's killers to
enter Dubai, police chief Dahi Khalfan said in Al-Bayan
newspaper.
Agencies add:
Netanyahu met members of a hit squad at Mossad
headquarters shortly before they went to Dubai to kill a
Hamas commander, Britain's Sunday Times newspaper
reported.
Netanyahu was welcomed to Mossad by its chief Meir Dagan
and briefed on plans to kill Mahmud al-Mabhuh, a top
commander of the movement that rules Gaza, the paper said,
quoting unnamed sources with knowledge of Mossad.
The prime minister reportedly authorised the mission,
which was not seen as complicated or risky.
"Typically on such occasions, the prime minister intones:
'The people of Israel trust you. Good luck,'" the paper
added.
It also quoted a source saying burns from a stun gun were
found on the body of Mabhuh, a founder of Hamas's armed
wing who was killed on a visit to Dubai, and that there
were traces of a nose bleed, possibly from being
smothered.
The high-profile killing has caused diplomatic tensions
between Israel and four European countries - Britain,
Ireland, France and Germany - whose fake passports were
linked to the hit.
Interpol has issued arrest notices for 11 suspects, while
Israel has shrugged off calls for Dagan to be arrested
over the January 20 killing.
No government has directly accused Israel but Dubai police
chief Dahi Khalfan Tamim has said it was "most likely"
Mossad was behind the crime and wants Dagan to bear
responsibility if it was.
"The Dubai police have provided no incriminating proof," a
senior Israeli official told AFP Friday, asking not to be
identified.
Mossad has used agents with fake passports for operations
in the past.
Envoys arrive in Niger
where rallies back coup
AFP, Niamey
International envoys arrived Sunday in the west African
nation of Niger where thousands of people staged rallies
to support the military coup that ousted the country's
strongarm leader. UN representative Said Djinnit, Ramtane
Lamamra, the African Union commissioner for peace and
security and Mohammed Ibn Chambas, head of the Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS) were to meet the
new junta leaders.
All three organisations have condemned the deadly military
action which ousted Mamadou Tandja, who had led the
uranium-rich nation for more than a decade. The AU has
suspended Niger while the West African bloc kicked out
Niger after Tandja changed the constitution to extend his
grip on power. Chronology: Political crisis in Niger
"We have come to assess together the situation prevailing
in Niger. We will meet the new authorities with whom we
will have discussions," ECOWAS president Chambas told AFP
at Niamey airport. The envoys are also to meet other
political players in the country to see how "they can
support efforts for a return to constitutional order
within the shortest possible time," Djinnit told AFP on
Saturday.
Amid the international condemnation of Thursday's coup
however, Niger's opposition massed thousands of people on
the streets of Niamey Saturday to welcome the end of
Tandja. Related article: Mamadou Tandja, ex-soldier who
casts shadow over Niger. Other pro-junta rallies were
staged in several other towns in the vast and arid country
on the southern edge of the Sahara desert. Another show of
support was planned Sunday in the second city of Zinder.
Censorship at heart of
Tibet China issue : Dalai Lama
Reuters, Beverly Hills, Calif.
The Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet, said
the United States and other countries could help his
campaign for a free Tibet by promoting an open society in
China.
"Censorship ... is the source of the problem," the Dalai
Lama said in an interview with Reuters on Saturday in
Beverly Hills.
The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising
against Chinese rule. He now lives in exile in India and
advocates "meaningful autonomy" for Tibet within China.
"The Chinese people have no opportunity to know our
issue," said the Buddhist monk, who Beijing has branded as
a dangerous separatist for demanding Tibetan
self-determination.
"Once China becomes an open society-freedom of speech,
freedom of press, freedom of information-all this
unnecessary fear and doubt will reduce," he said. "That's
the real answer for this problem.
"American can help in this change," he said, adding that
the lack of free information has helped the Chinese
government portray him as a demon and a terrorist.
"Do I look like a demon?" the winner of the 1989 Nobel
Peace Prize joked, holding his fingers beside his head to
make devil horns.
The Dalai Lama, who was to speak on on behalf of Whole
Child International, an organization that works for
orphans around the world, said Western search engines like
Google Inc were important to the free flow of information
within China. He noted they had ceded to pressure from the
Communist government there to limit what users can see.
US Senate weighs final push
to move climate bill
Reuters, Washington
A last-ditch attempt at passing a climate change bill
begins in the U.S. Senate this week with lawmakers mindful
that time is running short and that approaches to the
legislation still vary widely, according to sources.
"We will present senators with a number of options when
they get back from recess," said one Senate aide
knowledgeable of the compromise legislation that is being
developed. The goal is to reduce U.S. emissions of carbon
dioxide and other greenhouse gases that scientists say
threaten Earth.
The options will be presented to three senators-Democrat
John Kerry, independent Joseph Lieberman and Republican
Lindsey Graham-who are leading the fight for a bill to
battle global warming domestically.
The aide said the Senate's drive for a bill got a boost
last week with President Barack Obama's announcement of an
$8.3 billion government loan guarantee to help start
expanding the U.S. nuclear power industry, a top
Republican priority. "The administration is really putting
their money where their mouth is," the aide said.
The Senate trio's success or failure likely will have a
profound impact on international efforts to reduce carbon
emissions and prevent Earth's temperature from exceeding a
possibly dangerous 2 degree Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit)
increase from pre-industrial times.
New blood test will show
women’s egg levels
AFP, Sydney
Women will soon be able to tell how many eggs they have in
their ovaries in a simple hormone test that Australian
researchers said Sunday could revolutionise family
planning and fertility treatment.
The so called "egg timer" blood test would be able to
accurately predict ovum levels based on the concentration
of a specific fertility hormone, said conception
specialist Peter Illingworth.
"I think this is a big step forward," said Illingworth,
medical director of IVF Australia.
"What the test will do is identify those younger women who
may well be at serious risk of not having children easily
when they're older," he told public broadcaster ABC.
"It will identify women who are at risk of having a
premature menopause for example and allow women to plan
how active they should be about fertility treatment."
Women who had undergone treatment for cancer or
endometriosis or had ovarian surgery would particularly
benefit from the anti-mullerian hormone (AMH) test, he
said, which would cost just 65 dollars (58 US dollars).
It could also save couples tens of thousands of dollars in
expensive but ultimately futile in-vitro fertilisation (IVF)
treatments, Illingworth added of the test, which will
routinely be offered at the nation's IVF clinics as soon
as next month.
Women are born with an average of one to two million eggs
in their ovaries, which are shed monthly until menopause,
with a 20-year old woman typically having 200,000 eggs.
Business/Economy
Stock
frenzy raises fear of new crash
AFP, Dhaka
In a run-down office in downtown Dhaka, excited investor
Mizanur Rahman has just spent his life savings of 3,000
dollars on shares despite knowing nothing about market
fundamentals.
Everyone in this unofficial trading room, one of hundreds
across the country, is glued to a screen showing share
price movements on the Dhaka Stock Exchange-up nearly 30
percent since January.
"My friends make hefty profits investing in stocks and
told me I could make 20,000 per month by investing 200,000
taka (3,000 dollars)," said Rahman, a 30-year-old
electrician who returned from working in Singapore last
week.
"Some people have said the market could crash any time,
but I've been hearing about this for years. In reality,
it's going up and up," he said.
Rahman is one of 143,000 people who opened electronic
share accounts country-wide in the first two weeks of
February. The figure has officials predicting this month
will break the previous record, set in October 2007, of
191,000 new accounts.
But like the majority of Bangladesh's new part-time
traders, Rahman has no idea what the bourse's largest
listing or best performers are, what the quarterly or
annual profits of key firms are, or whether a stock is
overpriced.
Officials say such blind enthusiasm by retail investors
has fuelled a dangerous up-trend at Bangladesh's main
bourse-the general index hit a record high of 5828.38
points this week, up 28.5 percent since the start of the
year.
This year record-breaking highs have become a daily
occurrence on the Dhaka Stock Exchange as investors
overlook a series of curbs and warnings by regulators, who
are concerned a crash could wipe out savings.
"The market is dangerously overheated with the daily
infusions of liquidity by new retail investors who have
barely any idea about the fundamentals of the market," the
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) executive
director, Anwarul Kabir Bhuiyan told AFP.
"We could see a massive correction anytime."
He said the SEC had restricted borrowing to fund trading
of shares in scores of companies, placed many stocks on
watch and dished out repeated warnings.
"What can we do if people don't heed our warnings? We've
even received threatening phone calls telling us not to
act against this bull run," Bhuiyan said.
In November 1996, wild speculation and lax regulations
sent Dhaka stocks soaring to 3,600 points before a crash
took them to 700 points, wiping out thousands of families'
savings and slowing economic growth the following year.
On Thursday, in response to recent surges in the price of
shares for two key listed companies, including Nobel prize
winner Muhammad Yunus's Grameenphone Ltd., the SEC placed
restrictions on both, effective from Monday.
The move saw share prices for Grameenphone drop around 6.0
percent by close Thursday, but experts say the new curbs
will not halt the bull run.
"The market is going up and up, defying all logic-this is
driven entirely by rumour," said Reaz Ahmed of LR Global,
a New York-based fund manager.
"Real economic growth has slowed down and the fundamentals
of the economy are not that strong," he said, adding that
the market was "heavily overvalued" and that he expected a
20-percent correction to come at any time.
Bangladesh's economy is projected to grow 5.5 percent in
the year ending June 2010 -- its worst performance in
eight years.
Exports, the main lever of growth, declined by six percent
in the first six months to December. Inflation has reached
seven percent, with food inflation believed to be
significantly higher.
Cash from remittances-some 10.5 billion dollars last
year-and a government amnesty which allows untaxed cash,
often from bribes, to be invested in the bourse have
fuelled the bubble, said AIMS fund manager Yawar Sayeed.
"New investors are being bused in by brokers from rural
towns to feed the frenzy," he said.
"A massive correction has become long overdue. There is a
very strong chance we'll have a crash, and if this happens
it will destroy the lives of hundreds of thousands of
people, and the scale of devastation will be worse than
1996."
The legacy of that crash lives on for Khairul Alam, a
40-year-old government clerk who invested his father's
entire pension of one million taka into stocks, only to
see it vanish within a month.
"My father never got over it. I had to work two jobs a
day, from morning to midnight to support our family of
eight people. My only sin is that I advised my father to
buy stocks," he said.
China
hikes rice price to boost output
AFP, Beijing
China has boosted the price it pays for rice by up to 10
percent this year to encourage farmers to plant more and
increase production, state media said Sunday.
China's economic planning agency set the minimum purchase
price for short grain rice at 105 yuan (about 15 dollars)
for every 50 kilograms, a 10.5 percent rise over last
year, the People's Daily said.
The lowest price to be paid by state granaries for long
grain rice was increased by 5.4 percent, the paper said,
citing the National Development and Reform Agency.
China's rice farmers are required to sell a certain
proportion of their harvest to state granaries at set
prices, while the rest is sold on open markets where
prices for the main staple tend to be higher.
"The price adjustments are aimed at prompting farmers to
plant more rice and to increase grain production," the
paper said, adding that the price rises would also raise
rural incomes.
China's consumer price index, the main gauge of inflation,
rose 1.5 percent in January compared with the same month a
year earlier, driven mainly by food prices which were 3.7
percent higher.
In January 2009, China's planning agency raised the
purchase price for rice by between 15 and 17 percent as
the government sought to increase grain production and
raise rural incomes.
Syria, France to boost economic
cooperation
Xinhua, Damascus
The Syrian and French prime ministers yesterday called for
boosting economic relations between the two countries to
match the level of standing political relations.
Syrian Prime Minister Mohammad Naji Otri on Saturday held
talks with his French counterpart Francois Fillon who
arrived in Damascus on Friday evening for a two-day
official visit to Syria, hailing Fillon's visit marks a
new stage of cooperation between the two countries.
Otri hoped that the talks will lead to bolstering
cooperation in economy, trade, industry and transport,
stressing to expand Syrian-French cooperation in the
fields of training and education and establishing
investment partnership.
The Syrian prime minister invited French companies to
expand investment, particularly in the fields of energy,
oil, gas, transportation and public services.
Otri added that Syria is looking forward to Europe and
France in particular to play a more active role in the
Middle East peace process, urging the international
community to push Israel to lift its siege on Gaza and to
rebuild the strip.
11 stock bourses risk losing
recognition within a year in India
AFP, Mumbai
As many as nine stock exchanges in the country face the
risk of losing recognition this year and two others in
early 2011, as per the market regulator SEBI.
Only eight stock exchanges enjoy "permanent" recognition
from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) out
of a total of 24 equity bourses in the country.
These "permanent" bourses include Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE)
and National Stock Exchange (NSE) -- the two stock
exchanges synonymous with the Indian equity market.
Other bourses that have been granted 'permanent' status by
the regulator include Ahmedabad Stock Exchange, Bangalore
Stock Exchange, Calcutta Stock Exchange, Madhya Pradesh
Stock Exchange, Madras Stock Exchange and Delhi Stock
Exchange(DSE).
However, most of these bourses hardly witness any
noticeable trading activity and DSE, which used to be a
prominent bourse in the past, is currently trying to
resurrect itself after remaining almost dormant for many
years.
While the SEBI recognition currently stands expired for
four stock exchanges, that for 11 others would need to be
renewed over the next one year, as per the latest
information disclosed by the market regulator on the
status of stock exchanges in the country.
Those facing de-recognition during 2010 include
Bhubaneshwar Stock Exchange, Cochin Stock Exchange,
Guwahati Stock Exchange, Interconnected Stock Exchange of
India Ltd, Ludhiana Stock Exchange, MCX Stock Exchange
Ltd, OTC Exchange of India Ltd, Pune Stock Exchange and
Uttar Pradesh Stock Exchange Association Ltd.
Besides, the recognition of Jaipur Stock Exchange and
Vadodara Stock Exchange expires in January 2011.
Most of these bourses are granted recognition for one
year, after which they need to seek a renewal. The
regulator thereafter takes a call on extending their
recognition.
The recognition for Coimbatore Stock Exchange expired in
2006. As per SEBI, "Due to pending litigation before the
Hon'ble Madras High Court, Coimbatore Stock Exchange Ltd
(CSX) has not filed application for renewal of recognition
which expired on September 17, 2006."
The SEBI contends that the bourse's right to to apply for
renewal should "be subject to further orders of the court
and the stock exchange shall not be entitled to oppose the
renewal solely on the ground of lapse of time."
Those without a valid current recognition also include
Magadh Stock Exchange, in whose case SEBI had refused in
September 2007 to renew the recognition.
Fed chief to throw light on
monetary policy after rate hike
AFP, Washington
US Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke is expected to shed
light this week on the central bank's sudden decision to
hike an emergency bank-lending rate, triggering
speculation on monetary tightening.
Bernanke is scheduled to appear before the financial
committee of the House of Representatives on Wednesday and
the Senate banking panel the next day, where his testimony
will be closly scrutinized by jittery markets.
The Fed's increase Friday of the discount rate, the
interest it charges on emergency loans to banks, rattled
stock markets. Investors feared the central bank might be
moving faster than anticipated to withdraw critical
support measures for the US economy, as it recovered from
a brutal recession.
It was the first major action by the Fed to remove some of
the unprecedented monetary easing measures; and also the
first tinkering of interest rates by a central bank from
the Group of Seven industrialized nations after emerging
from recession, analysts said.
The markets were particularly concerned that the central
bank was setting the stage for tightening the more
significant federal funds rate, the benchmark interest
rate that banks charge each other for loans now at
virtually zero percent.
"Hopefully, chairman Ben Bernanke's testimony to Congress
(this) week will shed some important new light on the
Fed's policy intentions," said Brian Bethune, chief US
financial economist of IHS Global Insight. "It is indeed
puzzling as to why the Fed made this move and announcement
out of cycle with its meeting dates for 2010," he said.
Nanok visits Bestway stall at
National Co-operative Fair
TBT Economy Desk
State Minister for LGRD Jahangir Kabir Nanok visited the
stall of Bestway Commercial Co-operative Credit Ltd. at
the National Co-operative Fair 2010 that began from 14
February in the capital, says a press release.
State Minister for Women and Children Affairs Dr. Shireen
Sharmeen Chowdhury and Vice Chairman of Bestway Group
Tania Sultana Tanvi were also present during his visit.
LGRD Minister appreciated the Bestway Group activities
like using solar energy to run their stalls in the fair.
The ten-day cooperative fair will conclude on 25th of this
month.
Mobile phones become pocket banks
in poor countries
AFP, Barcelona
An Afghan police officer gets his salary in a text message
on his mobile phone. A Kenyan worker dials a few numbers
to send money to his family.
The rise of banking transactions through mobile phones is
giving a whole new meaning to pocket money in parts of the
developing world that lack banks or cash machines.
Mobile money applications are emerging as potent financial
tools in rural and remote areas of the globe, allowing
people with no bank accounts to get paid, send remittances
or settle their bills.
"One billion consumers in the world have a mobile phone
but no access to a bank account," said Gavin Krugel, the
director of mobile banking strategy at GSM Association, an
industry group of 800 wireless operators. "We see it as
very big opportunity," he said this week at the Mobile
World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, the industry's annual
four-day event that ended on Thursday.
Mobile banking began to emerge six years ago in the
Philippines and South Africa, where 8.5 million and 4.5
million people, respectively, use such services.
Today, 40 million people worldwide use mobile money, and
the industry is growing, according to the GSMA. "Africa
and Asia are the most active regions right now," Krugel
said. "We expect Latin America pick up this year." There
are 18,000 new mobile banking users per day in Uganda,
15,000 in Tanzania and 11,000 in Kenya, he said.
Mobile phones can offer a wide range of banking solutions,
from sending transfers to a relative to buying goods in a
store or putting money aside for a rainy day-all by
dialing a few numbers on one's handset.
Mobile banking can also make life easier for people in
parts of Africa where paying a simple bill can be
time-consuming, said Reg Swart, regional executive of
Fundamo, a company that makes banking applications.
"It takes one day to pay one bill. You have to physically
go to the bank, then you must queue, a long queue," he
said.
In Afghanistan, the national police has been testing a
service from mobile operator Roshan to pay its officers-a
system that helps to limit corruption, the company said.
"We are currently moving from a trial to a full launch in
paying the Afghan national police," said Roshan's head of
mobile commerce, Zahir Jhoja.
Every month, police officers receive a text message in the
language they prefer informing them they have received
their salaries, Jhoja said. A voice message is also left
on the phone "because a lot of them are illiterate and
cannot read," he said. The officer can then go get his
money from an authorised Roshan agent. "The benefit is
that police and police officers don't have to carry cash
anymore: from their post they are able to send their money
home, buy items, and take whatever cash they want from an
agent, or to store for future," he said.
The system has helped officers who were not receiving
their full salaries due to "corruption and skimming. "The
police officers who received the money electronically were
very surprised to learn that they earn so much money. When
they were getting cash they were receiving 25 to 30
percent less," Johja said.
Indonesia aims to be world's
breadbasket
AFP, Jakarta
Following Brazil's trail, Indonesia is encouraging foreign
and local investors to lease huge swathes of fertile
countryside and help make the country a major food
producer.
"Feed Indonesia, then feed the world," was the recent call
from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono after the
government announced plans to fast- track development of
vast agricultural estates in remote areas like Papua and
Borneo.
Between now and 2030 Indonesia expects to become one of
the world's biggest producers of rice, maize, sugar,
coffee, shrimp, meats and palm oil, senior agriculture
ministry official Hilman Manan said. The world's fourth
most populous country, with 235 million people, Indonesia
has been self-sufficient in rice since 2008 and is already
the top producer of palm oil.
"If everything goes well, Indonesia should be able to be
self-sufficient in five years. And then it can start to
feed the world," said Sony Heru Priyanto, an expert at
Satya Wacana Christian University. The first area targeted
for development is 1.6 million hectares (3.95 million
acres) in the southeast of the largely undeveloped
province of Papua, around the town of Merauke.
The Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate will, the
government hopes, create thousands of jobs and turn an
impoverished and neglected corner of the Indonesian
archipelago into a hive of activity.
"We chose Merauke because it's the ideal place for food
crop cultivation, such as rice, corn, soybean and sugar
cane. Merauke district has 4.5 million hectares of land;
2.5 million hectares are ideal for cultivation," Manan
said.
National
Amar Ekushey observed at
Bangladesh missions abroad
BSS, Dhaka
The Amar (immortal) Ekushey and International Mother
Language Day was observed Sunday in Bangladesh missions
abroad in a befitting manner.
The Bangladesh High Commission in India observed the Amar
Ekushey with due respect.
The Day's programme began in the morning with High
Commissioner Tariq A Karim hoisting the national flag at
half-mast on the chancery premises.
The messages of President M Zillur Rahman, Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina and Foreign Minister Dr Dipu Moni were read
out on the occasion.
Prayers were offered seeking divine blessings for eternal
peace of the Language Martyrs of 1952 and the martyrs of
the Liberation War.
Prayers were also offered for the departed soul of Father
of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who was
assassinated on the fateful night of August 15, 1975 along
with most of his family members.
Deputy High Commissioner Mashfee Binte Shams, officers and
employees and staff of the Bangladesh Mission were
present.
The Embassy of Bangladesh in Abu Dhabi, United Arab
Emirates (UAE) observed the day. The day's programme
started in the embassy with hoisting of the national flag
at half-mast by Ambassador Nizamul Quaunine paying respect
to the martyrs of the great language movement.
A large number of Bangladesh nationals from all walks of
life living in the UAE were present on the occasion.
Discussion and recitation of poems followed the function.
Besides, a brief cultural program was organized where
students of SKBZ Bangladesh Islamia School in Abu Dhabi
rendered songs.
At the beginning of the discussion, messages of President
Zillur Rahman and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina were read
out.
At the discussion, Nizamul Quaunine paid glowing tribute
to the martyrs of the language movement who laid their
lives to establish Bangla as the state language on this
day.
The day was also observed at the Embassy of Bangladesh in
Bangkok with solemnity and respect. This was for the first
time the Embassy arranged such a public programme on the
Embassy premises after the chancery building has been
shifted to a new location early this month.
In the morning, the flag was hoisted half-mast by the
Charge d'Affaires Pabna Chowdhury at the Chancery. The
national anthem was played with hoisting the national
flag.
A cultural programme was held at the end of the discussion
where a delegation of Dhaka University comprising four
members of the university Cultural Foundation presented
various songs. Prof Dr AHM Mostafizur Rahman of the
Department of Soil, Water and Environment of the
university led the delegation.
Amar Ekushey was observed at Bangladesh embassy in
Beijing. Officials of the embassy and expatriate
Bangladeshis living in China took part in the discussion
that was organized to mark the day. Bangladeshi Ambassador
to China Munsi Fayez Ahmed was in the chair.
OMS episode: Govt to increase rice allocation as price
jumps
UNB, Dhaka
The government would increase the allocation of rice for
the ongoing Open Market Sale (OMS) operation in the
capital city, Food Minister Dr Abdur Razzaque assured as
the rationing could hardly manage the market.
He came up with the assurance during his surprise visiting
to monitor Dhaka city's OMS programme from 9 am to 2pm
Saturday, amid complaints that business syndicates
continued to mint money from people's misery.The minister
said they would release more rice on the open market as
the government has adequate stock of rice.
During the visit, the minister monitored dealers'
activities under OMS programme and the wholesale and
retail prices of rice at city markets.
Razzaque asked the OMS rice consumers about the OMS rice
prices, quality, allocation quality and weight.
Most of the consumers and dealers, however, expressed
their satisfaction over the OMS activities.
They demanded increase in the per-head allocation of rice
and extending the time of operation of OMS outlets to 5
pm.
The minister assured the consumers and dealers of
extending the outlets' time duration and the truck
dealers' rice allocation.
Abdur Razzaque urged the dealers to conduct the OMS
activities sincerely, considering people's interest.
Ctg people pay homage to Language Martyrs
BSS, Chittagong
The Amar Ekushey and the International Mother Language Day
was observed in the port city Sunday with due respect and
solemnity.
Chittagong central Shaheed Minar had turned into a human
sea well before zero hours with the presence of thousands
of people.
Leaders of different political parties, socio-cultural,
professional organizations and people from all walks of
life gathered at the central Shaheed Minar to show honor
to the martyred Language heroes and placed wreaths at the
alter of the Shaheed Minar with discipline and due respect
there on bare foots at 12.01 am Saturday night.
Within a very short span of time, the main Shaheed Minar
was flooded with floral wreaths and thousands of people
were seen marching towards the Shaheed Minar to pay
tribute to the valiant sons of the nation.
To mark the day, different political parties, professional
and socio-cultural organization held daylong programme
including discussion meeting, Milad Mahfil, poetry
recitation, painting competition for children, cultural
function in the city.
Primary and Mass Education Minister Dr Absarul Amin at
first placed wreath at the Shaheed Minar accompanied by
City Awami League leaders. The Minister stayed a few
minutes there and paid deep homage to the language
martyrs. He was followed by State Minister for Forest and
Environment Dr Hasan Mahmud, Chittagong City Mayor Alhaj
ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, Chittagong Divisional
Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner of Chittagong,
Commissioner of Chittagong Metropolitan Police.
Political parties including Awami League Chittagong city,
North and South district units, Bangladesh Nationalist
Party (BNP) city unit, Chittagong Mohanagar Chhatra
League, Jubo League, Chittagong Press Club, Chittagong
Union of Journalists (CUJ) placed wreaths at local Shaheed
Minar. In the morning students from different schools and
colleges and socio-cultural organizations carrying
colorful banners, festoons and placards thronged the
Central Shaheed Minar and placed wreaths there. Dr Abu
Yousuf, Vice Chancellor of Chittagong University placed
floral wreaths at the CU Shaheed Minar.
Besides, different socio-cultural organizations organized
separate programmes to mark the day.
The programmes include decorating city roads and
roundabouts with the festoons inscribed with Bangla
alphabets, placing wreaths at central Shaheed Minar,
hoisting of national flag at half-mast atop all public
offices, handwriting, drawing and patriotic songs
competitions of children, Milad and Doa Mahfils.
Shaheed Dibash observed in Netrakona
BSS, Netrakona
Immortal Ekushey and International Mother Language day was
observed here Sunday as elsewhere across the country with
due respect. The day's program began with placing wreaths
at central Shaheed Minar here by deputy commissioner
Mohammad Nurul Amin and police super Sheikh Nazmul Alam at
one minute past after zero hour of last midnight.
They were followed by Sader upazila Chairman Tafsiruddin
Khan, Mayor of Netrakona pourashava Nazrul Islam Khan,
civil surgeon Netrakona DR Jutirmoy Aich and general
secretary of Netrakona press club Shamolendu Paul and
leaders of different socio-cultural and political
organizations including Awami league and BNP.
People from all walks life followed them with singing
first lines of the famous songs "Amar Bhayer Raktey
Rangano Ekushey February, Ami Ki Bulite Paari ".
The national flag was hoisted at half-mast atop of all the
public and private buildings in the district immediately.
Islamic Foundation held a Quran khawni at it's conference
room in the morning.
An art competition and poetry recitation programme for
school children were held on the premises of Netrakona
Shishu academy in the morning. A discussion on "the
significance of the Ekushey February" was held at
Netrakona central Shaheed Minar in the afternoon under the
auspices of the district administration, followed by a
cultural function.
District information office arranged screening of
documentary film show on "language movement" for the
school children at local Muktarpara ground Sunday
afternoon.
Special prayers were offered at local mosques, temples,
churches and other places of worships seeking divine
blessings for peace and salvation of the departed souls of
the language movement martyrs.
6 JU students expelled
BSS, Jahangrinagar University
Six students were expelled from the Jahangirnagar
University (JU) on Sunday for one year for their alleged
involvement in the terrorist activities on the campus.
Vice Chancellor of the university Prof Dr Shariff Enamul
Kabir told BSS that the students were expelled from the
university as they were involved in terrorist and unruly
activities on the campus. The VC said a notice in this
regard will be released today (Monday) as the university
is closed on Sunday. The expelled students are identified
as Nahid of 32 batch of Bangla department, Sabbir of 34
batch of History, Azibur of 31 batch of Mathematics, Sabuj
of 33 batch of Physics, Sujan of 33 batch of Government
and Politics and Asad of 33 batch of Geological Science
department.
Sources said the authorities expelled six students for
stabbing a student named Emon of 33 batch of Drama and
Dramatics department and leader of JU unit Bangladesh
Chhatra League (BCL).
Emon was seriously injured in the attack near Bishmail
Gate of the university on Saturday night. He went there to
buy medicine.
Injured Emon is now admitted to Enam Medical College
Hospital. A case has been filed with Asulia Thana. While
contacted, officer in-charge of Asulia thana Sirajul Islam
said no one was arrested in this connection.
The students, who have been expelled were not available on
the campus.
Boro cultivation
nearing completion
BSS, Gaibandha
Cultivation of Boro paddy is nearing completion in all the
seven upazilas of the district during the current Boro
season.
Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) sources said the
department has set a target to bring a total of 1,17631
hectares of land under Boro paddy cultivation in the
district this year with a production target of 4,81,841
metric tones of paddy. Of the total, as many as 1,08500
hectares of land were cultivated till February 20, and the
rest land would be cultivated by February 28, the sources
said.
The farmers of the district are very busy taking care of
the cultivated Boro land to achieve the targeted
production.
Some of them are also raising seedlings and transplanting
those in the fields following the suggestions of the DAE
officials to bring the rest uncultivated land under this
cultivation programme.
To make the programme a grand success, the BADC, BMDA and
DAE ensured the supply of seed, fertilizer and other agri-inputs
at fair prices among the farmers.
Various commercial banks including RAKUB also disbursed
agri loans to the farmers on easy teams to help them boost
production to Boro paddy this year.
Sports
Footballers disappoint fans
TBT report
Bangladesh national football team raised hopes when it kicked
off the AFC Challenge Cup with a stunning 2-1 victory over
Tajikistan in the opening match of the continental contest.
Bangladesh played well and outplayed the Central Asians in all
departments in its first match after winning gold medal in the
recently concluded 11th South Asian Games in home.
Bangladesh's hope of featuring in the AFC Challenge Cup
suffered a jolt when it lost to the better-ranked team Myanmar
2-1 despite playing better than its next door opponents.
With the hopes still glimmering, Bangladesh needed to defeat
the lowly Sri Lanka, consists of mostly inexperienced and
young players, and went into its last group match with a hope
of a big victory against the hosts.
But, to everyone's surprise, Bangladesh suffered an
ignominious 3-0 defeat at the hand of a youthful Sri Lanka
team, crashing out of the tourney with their heads down.
In terms of team strength and experience, Bangla-desh was the
better side having better head-to-head records against the
Lankans. But Bangladesh footballers' insipid, spineless
performances disappointed all, raising questions about their
commitment and consistency.
Bangladesh coach Saiful Bari was speechless when asked about
the team's performance against Sri Lanka. He said they have
learnt a lot from the tournament and the experience would help
them to fare better in future.
"We played well in the first two matches but we failed to
produce desired performance in the last match. Such incident
can happen in football. Now we've to look forward," he said.
Now it remains to see what steps the Bangladesh Football
Federation take to lift the standard of Bangladesh national
football team to brighten the image of the country.
Pakistan
levels Twenty20 series
AFP, Dubai
Abdul Razzaq single-handedly changed the course of the match
with a brilliant innings as Pakistan beat England by four
wickets to level their two-match Twenty20 series 1-1 here on
Saturday.
At the Dubai Sports City stadium, England scored 148-6 from
their 20 overs after being put in by Pakistan captain Shoaib
Malik, who was second time lucky with the toss.
In reply, Pakistan looked down and out after being reduced to
78-5 in 13 overs, mainly due to a superb bowling effort from
Graeme Swann.
The spinner took 3-14 in his four overs, a haul which included
the wickets of Umar Akmal (36), Shoaib Malik (13) and Shahid
Afridi (8). However, Razzaq smashed five sixes in his 46 not
out in 18 balls, as Pakistan reached the target with one over
to spare.
He first added 48 important runs for the sixth wicket with
Fawad Alam, and then hit two sixes in the penultimate over of
the match from debutant Ajmal Shahzad to seal the issue in
favour of his team.
Malik was full of praise for Razzaq.
"He was just awesome. England set us a very good total. We
didn't start off well, but Razzaq batted really well to get us
this game. The way he has come back, I am just speechless and
very happy about it," he said.
"We really needed this win after the series we had in
Australia. This is a great start as we prepare to defend our
title at this year's ICC World T20 Cup."
Collingwood was upbeat despite the loss, and said things
looked good for the World T20 Cup, which will be played in
April-May in the Caribbean Islands.
"We are improving every moment, I congratulate my boys for
what they have been doing on the field for quite sometime. Our
batting is looking especially stronger. There are some areas
we need to work on, but we are definitely becoming a better
T20 team," he said.
After being hit for a boundary off the very first ball in his
international career, Shahzad picked up both the openers in
his first over.
Imran Nazir was the first to go, trying to heave him over
mid-wicket, but the top-edge flew to Tim Bresnan at third-man.
Two balls later, Imran Farhat tried to pull a fullish length
delivery, but only succeeded in giving a catch to Stuart Broad
at mid on. Pakistan were 4-2 at that stage. Earlier, in
England's innings, Joe Denly failed once again and was the
first batsman to be dismissed when he was clean bowled by
Yasir Arafat in the fourth over after making just five.
But Denley's fall brought Kevin Pietersen to the wicket. Along
with Jonathan Trott, Pietersen added 98 runs for the second
wicket, before Trott was unfortunately run out in the 16th
over for 39.
Pietersen batted well on a pitch that was playing slow. He
smashed three huge sixes and four boundaries in his 40-ball
stay at the crease. He also got a life when Shahid Afridi put
down a tough chance off Umar Gul in the 13th over. Pietersen
was on 45 then.
After both Trott and Pietersen were dismissed in successive
overs, England promoted Friday's hero Euan Morgan and the
hard-hitting Luke Wright, but a flurry of wickets saw them
fall two runs short of 150.
Arafat was the most successful bowler for Pakistan, taking
3-32.
Afridi made his comeback to the Pakistan team after serving a
two-match ban for ball tampering. The all-rounder, who is
Pakistan's regular skipper in Twenty20, came in for Khalid
Latif.
Shahzad made his international debut for England after seamer
Ryan Sidebottom was ruled out with a thigh injury.
Venus adds another
record to her collection
AFP, Dubai
Venus Williams became the most successful active woman
player on the WTA Tour when she secured her 42nd title by
successfully defending the Dubai Open here on Saturday.
Williams, who beat Victoria Azarenka 6-3, 7-5 in an
absorbing final, thus overtook Justine Henin's record of
41 titles, only two months after achieving another notable
statistic-a career total of 25 million dollars in prize
money.
She and her sister Serena are the only two women to have
achieved this feat, but both Venus's resilient performance
and her optimistic words suggested that further remarkable
statistics are in the pipeline.
Asked if she now hoped to add to her tally of Grand Slam
titles, the five-time Wimbledon champion replied:
"Absolutely. I am so happy to have added to my collection
here. And I am keen to keep adding every time."
Venus also made reference to the diplomatic success of a
tournament which accommodated the first Israeli woman,
Shahar Peer, ever to compete in the United Arab Emirates.
"It was a great tournament to have everyone included," she
said.
Later she added: "Obviously we had issues with everyone
getting included," referring to the refusal of Peer's UAE
visa in 2009. "But this year it was great to show a spirit
of inclusion and equality."
Venus went on: "I definitely think her playing has an
influence on things outside the tennis. We need government
to do the right thing like they did here and people of
courage to come here and play, to play so well with
focus."
Venus felt her good form was in significant measure due to
having found a way of managing her long-lasting fitness
problems, especially with a knee, and she delighted, she
said, in being able to throw away the bandages she had to
wear for much of last year.
The match was full of noisily powerful rallies-Azarenka
usually trying to work an initiative, Venus more likely to
win the rally with one blow, Azarenka accompanying
everything with a loud coo, Venus with an ominous roar.
The first set hinged on the pressure Venus placed on her
opponent's second serves, which brought an Azarenka double
fault on game point at 2-3 -- though it required Venus to
make a successful appeal to Hawkeye to prove that the
second serve was too long.
Having closed out the first set, Venus's momentum
accelerated. She struck the ball with even more
confidence, broke again immediately, and the feeling of
the contest changed dramatically as she hurtled to 3-1.
However, as against Anastasia Pavluchenkova and Shahar
Peer, Venus's serve wobbled a little with the end in
sight. A creaky double fault at 3-2 gave Azarenka a break
back point, and a moderate second serve allowed the fourth
seed to make a return which converted that chance
immediately.
But Venus broke again for 6-5, courtesy of an ill-timed
foray to the net by the 20-year-old Azarenka, and closed
out the match in the next game at the third attempt.
"I'm definitely starting to feel better," Venus concluded.
"It's been a learning curve in managing the playing and
keep the swelling (of the knee) down. I don't usually talk
about my injuries this much, but I am excited about what
is happening."
Australia off to
World Cup
AFP, Sydney
Australia will press ahead with plans to compete in this
month's Hockey World Cup in New Delhi after being advised
there were no known credible security threats to the
tournament, Hockey Australia said on Sunday.
The sporting body said it had been assured by security
briefings from Indian government and security agencies,
along with the Australian High Commission and Australia's
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).
Security fears surfaced after a bombing last weekend at a
restaurant in the western Indian city of Pune, which
killed 12 people. The Hong Kong-based Asia Times Online
news website added to concerns when it said last week that
it had received a warning from an Al-Qaeda-linked militant
group about attacking sports events in India.
But Hockey Australia said it had continued to assess the
security situation for the February 28-March 13 tournament
through a number of government and independent sources to
give the Kookaburras the best available information.
The Australian team was due to depart for India on Sunday.
The organisation said all the information on the security
situation it had received was consistent.
"The advice states that there is a strong commitment and
tangible evidence of the authorities' ability to implement
robust security measures to ensure our team's safety at
all times," it said in a statement. "All threats have been
assessed and there are no known credible World Cup threats
at this time. DFAT's travel advice is consistent with
these findings." It said the findings had been passed on
to team members prior to their departure to ensure they
were able to decide whether or not to compete.
Some family members of the Australian team had called on
Hockey Australia to boycott the event over terrorism
fears. Paul Kelly, from Sportslink International, the
company responsible for booking most of the supporters'
arrangements, said there had been late cancellations from
Australians who had wanted to go to the World Cup.
"We're down to around eight to 10 people in our group now
whereas we were looking at 20 to 25," Kelly told AFP last
week. "A lot of people have been scared off."
Ailing Federer out of Dubai Open
AFP, Dubai
Ailing top-seed Roger Federer has pulled out of the
two-million-dollar ATP Dubai Open due to a lung infection,
officials said here Sunday.
"He has got a lung infection," said ATP circuit official
Stephen Duckett. "He saw a doctor and he was advised not
to play for a fortnight."
According to the ATP's website Federer, who picked up the
infection last week, will return in the ATP World Tour
Masters at Indian Wells in March.
Federer, a four time Dubai champion, was due to appear
here for his first tournament since beating Andy Murray to
win his fourth Australian Open at the start of the month.
That was the Swiss ace's 16th Grand Slam and it secured
him the top ranking for a 268th week. The victory in
Melbourne ensured that the 28-year-old kicked off the new
season firmly ensconced at the top after winning Wimbledon
and the French Open last year.
The world number one was out for revenge in his second
home city here in Dubai where play opens Monday, both by
deposing Novak Djokovic as champion and by getting the
better of Murray, who beat him in his last appearance here
in 2008.
These two 22-year-olds present the most immediate threats
to Federer's world number one ranking with Rafael Nadal
slipping to fourth in the latest ATP rankings. Federer was
due to play Julien Benneteau of France in the first round
here with a potential date with Murray in the semi-finals.
Czech Jan Hernych, who fell in the final round of
qualifying, becomes a lucky loser in the main draw while
Spaniard Tommy Robredo takes Federer's place at the top of
the draw and will now play Benneteau on Monday.
Federer won the title here in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2007
and was runner-up in 2006.
Depleted Barca cruises to 4-0 win
AFP, Barcelona
Spanish league leader Barcelona put its injury concerns to
one side as it cruised to a 4-0 win over Racing Santander
on Saturday.
The Catalan side had seen its lead at the top reduced to
two points following its first league defeat last weekend
against Atletico Madrid but it was comfortably in charge
from the start against Racing.
Despite missing several key players including Dani Alves,
Xavi Hernandez and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Barca went ahead
after seven minutes through Andres Iniesta who latched
onto a loose ball in the penalty area.
Racing went further behind through a tame goal when a
Thierry Henry free-kick went straight through their wall,
but then minutes later another from almost exactly the
same spot was struck perfectly by veteran Mexican
international defender Rafa Marquez and went in off the
post.
Racing offered few moments of danger on the counter-attack
and their newly discovered prodigy Sergio Canales had a
quiet game.
There were fewer clear-cut chances in the second half but
substitute Thiago Alcantara made Barca's win more emphatic
with a deflected goal six minutes from the end.
Later on Saturday Sevilla condemned Mallorca to their
first home defeat of the season as they ran out 3-1
winners and took a crucial advantage in the fight for a
Champions League place.
The result means that Sevilla have now gone four points
clear of fifth placed Deportivo la Coruna while Mallorca,
who have been enjoying one of the best seasons in their
history, suffered their second successive defeat.
Mallorca went ahead through Mario Suarez but Sevilla were
well worth their equaliser when Jesus Navas beat the
Mallorca defence to the ball and then slotted home.
The referee then took centre stage sending off Sevilla
striker Alvaro Negredo - his second red card in as many
matches - followed by Mallorca defender Ivan Ramis in what
appeared to be very harsh decisions.
After the break Ivica Dragutinovic put Sevilla ahead and
Diego Perotti slid home a cross from Navas for their
third.
In the final minute Sevilla were reduced to nine-men when
Didier Zokora was dismissed after a second yellow card for
dissent.
A couple of goals within the first seven minutes saw
Deportivo la Coruna beat Spanish league bottom side Xerez
2-1 and move up to fifth in the table.
The home side made a quick fire start scoring from the
penalty spot after just two minutes when Vicente Moreno
was punished for holding Diego Colotto.
Mexican Jose Guardado made no mistake to put Deportivo
ahead and soon Xerez, in disarray, were further behind.
Ivan Riki latched onto a through ball and kept his
composure before shooting past keeper Renan Brito.
Xerez had a mountain to climb but did come back into the
game as Deportivo took their foot off the pedal and Mario
Bermejo pulled a goal back with a header.
In the second half Deportivo tightened up at the back and
Xerez were unable to find an equaliser. In fact it was
Deportivo who went closest to scoring again with a long
range effort from Juan Rodriguez which came back off the
crossbar.
Jose Juan Haedo wins Tour de Mumbai
AFP, Mumbai
Argentina's Jose Juan Haedo on Sunday won the inaugural
Tour de Mumbai, India's first professional cycling race
sanctioned by the sport's governing body.
The Team Saxo Bank sprinter took the 50,000-dollar first
prize after shaking free of Germany's Dirk Mueller, from
Team Nutrixxion-Sparkasse, on the final lap of the
100-kilometre (60-mile) course.
The pair had been part of a six-man breakaway for much of
the race, which took place in searing temperatures in
Mumbai's northern suburbs, but they struck out together
with four of the 36 laps to go.
German rider Tobias Erler, from the Tabriz Petrochemical
Cycling Team, was third. He also took the 5,000-dollar
sprint prize.
The event boasted more than 100 riders, including
Australian sprinter Baden Cooke, who was fourth, and
fellow countryman Stuart O'Grady, who finished in the
peloton.
The race was part of a wider mass participation "cyclothon"
event for children and adults designed to raise the
profile of cycling in cricket-obsessed India, as well as
improve health and fitness.
Zhou
wins women's 1,500m
AFP, Vancouver
China's Zhou Yang won the Olympic Games women's
1,500-metre short-track gold on Saturday while teammate
and title favourite Wang Meng was disqualified.
South Korea's Lee Eun-Byul and Park Seung-Hi finished
second and third in the eight-woman final.
Zhou clocked 2min 16.993sec with Lee at 2:17.849 and Park
at 2:17.927. "I told myself a few days ago 'Zhou Yang, you
can do this'," the 18-year-old Olympic newcomer said. "I
believed in myself. I'm ecstatic."
Ranked top in the 1,500m World Cup series for two seasons
running, Zhou added: "This gold medal is something I
wanted. But there is another event I want to win. Stay
tuned."
Zhou, who was a member of China's 3,000m gold-medal team
at last year's world championships, is also due to race in
the relay and the 1,000m in Vancouver.
Wang, fresh from her back-to-back 500m wins, was
disqualified after bumping Katherine Reutter when the
American overtook her second spot around the final turn on
the next-to-last lap in her semi-final. Reutter crashed
into the sideboards, taking along front-running Cho Ha-ri
of South Korea. Wang also slid into the boards.
Hungary's Erika Huszar finished first with Bulgarian
Evgenia Radanova second to qualify for the final.
After a meeting, the referees disqualified Wang and
allowed Cho and Reutter to advance to the final by
invoking a rescue measure under competition rules.
The 24-year-old Wang, who won medals of all colours in
Turin four years ago including the 1,000m silver and
1,500m bronze, was aiming for a fifth Olympic medal.
"I don't know what happened. I was not rushing. I was in a
good position with one lap to go. I guess if the referee
disqualifies me, there is nothing I can say," said Wang,
who is also due to compete in the 3,000m relay and the
1,000m.
Zhou said: "When the American and Korean collided I didn't
pay too much attention. It happens all the time in short
track.
"Before competition, our coach told us that anything can
happen in the rink. I did not expect to enter the final
alone. "This gold medal will change things. It will give
me more confidence. It will give my mum a better
lifestyle."
Reutter could only lament her missed chance as she
finished fourth. "This was my race and it didn't happen,"
the American said. "I tried to pull an inside pass. It
didn't happen and I messed up some people around me and
I'm sorry about that."
India scores 298-9 against
South Africa
AFP, Jaipur
Suresh Raina top-scored with 58 off 63 balls as a depleted
India chalked up 298-9 from 50 overs in the first one-day
international against South Africa on Sunday.
Virender Sehwag chipped in with 46 off 37 balls at the top
of the order after the hosts were sent in to bat in the
day-night match at the Sawai Man Singh stadium in Jaipur.
South Africa's stand-in captain Jacques Kallis picked up
3-29 from seven overs as the tourists were left to chase
six runs an over under lights on a good batting wicket.
India is without bowling spearheads Zaheer Khan and
Harbhajan Singh, and frontline batsmen Gautam Gambhir and
Yuvraj Singh, for the opening game of the three-match
series.
Harbhajan was given permission to miss the first two
matches due to his sister's wedding, while the other three
were injured.
Kallis led South Africa in the absence of Graeme Smith,
who opted out of the one-dayers with a finger injury
sustained during the Test series, which ended 1-1 last
week.
Sehwag and Dinesh Karthik (44) put on 79 for the third
wicket in 75 balls to boost India after veteran Sachin
Tendulkar was run out for four in the second over.
Sehwag, who hit two audacious sixes over the third man and
cover region, was unlucky to be run out when a Karthik
drive was deflected to the non-striker's wicket by bowler
Charl Langeveldt.
Karthik and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (26) holed out to
make India 138-4 in the 24th over, but Virat Kohli (31)
and Raina lifted the hosts by adding 66 for the fifth
wicket.
Maria Sharapova wins Memphis
title
AFP, Memphis
Maria Sharapova put her disappointing Australian Open
performance behind her on Saturday, as she beat Sofia
Arvidsson 6-2, 6-1 to win the WTA Tour's Memphis title.
The top-seeded Russian, playing in her first tournament
since she crashed out of the first round of the year's
first Grand Slam, didn't drop a set all week and capped
her campaign with a victory over Swedish qualifier
Arvidsson in 66 minutes.
"Coming in here, I asked for matches and I got five of
them and I got the win, so I'm certainly happy," said
Sharapova, who was expected to rise from 16th in the world
to 13th on Monday.
"I felt like I played consistent tennis throughout the
week and did the right things against all my opponents,"
said Sharapova, who spent almost a year out of the game
with a shoulder injury in 2008-09. "I guess that's a good
week.
"Little by little I'm getting there," she said. "The more
matches I play, the more confident I get. From there,
things will start to fall into place and the instinct will
come back a little more."
She overpowered Arvidsson, ranked 102nd in the world,
winning one stretch of nine straight games and winning 15
of the last 18 points in the first set.
"She was just too good," Arvidsson said.
Sharapova fended off three break points in the second set
and served out the match with a love game.
"For me, it was about playing my game and being
aggressive," Sharapova said. "I wanted to take the ball
and try to do something with it instead of just letting
her play her own game."
Australia to play New Zealand in
World Cup warm-up
AFP, Sydney
Australia will play fellow World Cup qualifiers New
Zealand in their farewell home match in May before heading
off to South Africa 2010, Football Federation Australia
said on Sunday.
The Socceroos, who are grouped with Germany, Ghana and
Serbia at the World Cup, take on the All Whites at the
Melbourne Cricket Ground on May 24, FFA said.
The FFA said a full-strength Socceroo squad was expected
to be chosen, including European-based stars, captain
Lucas Neill, Tim Cahill, Harry Kewell and Mark Schwarzer.
"New Zealand are a FIFA World Cup-qualified country, they
play more-or-less a European style of football and there
is a nice rivalry between our two teams that goes back
many years," national coach Pim Verbeek said. "We are
expecting a very competitive match against the All Whites
and it will be a great way for us to start our
pre-tournament camp (on May 19)."
New Zealand have won only 13 of the matches played between
the two countries, compared to 36 losses and 11 draws, and
it is 21 years since they last beat a full-strength Aus-tralian
side.
Saint
Etienne halts Montpellier
AFP, Paris
Montpellier fluffed the chance to draw level with league
leader Bordeaux with a 1-0 loss at Saint Etienne on
Saturday.
Emmanuel Riviere's goal 11 minutes from time proved
Montpellier's downfall, to leave them in second on 48
points, three adrift of Bordeaux.
Laurent Blanc's titleholders have been given the weekend
off to allow them time to prepare for their Champions
League round of 16 first leg tie at Greek side Olympiakos
on Tuesday.
Saint Etienne's win ended a five-match winning sequence
put together by the season's surprise packages while
substitute Riviere's goal was their first conceded this
year.
Montpellier coach Rene Girard was disappointed at the end
of a fine run.
"We've lost the habit of losing. Little Riviere added
punch to their attack. We deserved to come away with a
draw so I'm disappointed with the end result but the boys
are good physically and mentally."
The three points lifted former European heavyweights Saint
Etienne six points clear of the relegation zone.
Nice celebrated their first win in three months when
French international striker Loic Remy struck from the
penalty spot with a 1-0 win over Lorient.
The victory appeared to be enough to save under-pressure
coach Didier Olle-Nicolle who was confirmed in his
position until the end of the season by Nice managing
director Patrick Governatori immeidately after the final
whistle.
Le Mans, third from bottom and six points below Nice and
Saint Etienne, gained what could prove to be three
precious points with a 3-1 victory on the road at
fellow-relegation strugglers Boulogne.
The match turned in the space of three first half minutes
with a fine strike by Mathieu Dossevi on the half hour
mark and Gregory Cerdan doubling up just after.
Mustapha Yatabare pulled one back with just over quarter
of an hour to go but to no avail with Le Mans' Mali
forward Modibo Maiga bagging a third in the fifth minute
of injury time.
Up towards the top Monaco were on the wrong side of a 3-0
rout inflicted by home side Lens, with the goals coming
from Issam Jemaa, Sebastien Roudet and Henri Bedimo's
second half spot kick.
In Saturday's late game struggling Paris Saint Germain
gained a much-needed albeit narrow success against 10-man
Toulouse at the Parc des Princes, with Guillaume Hoarau
producing the only goal of the game in the first half an
hour from a spot kick.
The penalty was awarded when Peguy Luyindula was felled in
the box by Toulouse defender Albin Ebondo.
This was their first win of the year and gives them a
timely shot in the arm ahead of next weekend's
clash against arch-rivals Marseille.
The result pushed PSG up three places from their lowly
sixth from bottom position to give their struggle to avoid
the drop a much needed boost.
On Sunday former multiple champions Lyon, fresh from their
midweek European success over Real Madrid, travel to
Sochaux, Marseille host Nancy and Lille are at Rennes.
Button records fastest
testing time
AFP, Madrid
Britain's world champion Jenson Button on Saturday clocked
the fastest time of any driver during pre-season tests
held at Jerez over the past two weeks at Jerez in southern
Spain.
The McLaren driver, who will drive alongside 2008 champion
Lewis Hamilton in the 2010 season which gets underway in
Bahrain on March 14, recorded a time of one minute
18.871sec on the final day of the third winter Formula One
test. Spain's double world champion Fernando Alonso was
sixth fastest on Saturday with a time of one minute
20.436sec in his Ferrari.
"If I was in another team I would look at Ferrari because
everything is going really well and for now we have no
reason to be pessimistic. As of today, it is the best car
I have ever had," he said.
Van Gaal seeks titles,
not records
AFP, Berlin
Bayern Munich coach Louis van Gaal said he was chasing
trophies, not records, as the German giants' 13-game
winning streak came to a shock end on Saturday with a 1-1
draw against local rival Nuremberg.
The result propelled Bayern to the top of the Bundesliga,
one point ahead of unbeaten Bayer Leverkusen.
The 21-times German champions failed to secure a 10th
straight league win that would equal a Bundesliga record
but van Gaal dismissed this as irrelevant.
"This is not decisive. What is important is what happens
at the end of the season, not what happens this weekend,"
said the autocratic Dutch coach.
A visibly furious van Gaal defended his side, saying: "I
think this was one of our best performances of the season.
We created several chances. We just didn't score a second
goal."
"Nuremberg had one chance. They then played with all 11
players in their own half. We were very dominant and did
everything well for 90 minutes, except for five seconds."
The German giants took the lead on 38 minutes as
20-year-old Thomas Mueller, replacing French midfield star
Franck Ribery who picked up a knock in midweek, slotted
home a cross from striker Mario Gomez into the top right
corner.
But the home side equalised on 54 minutes as striker Ilkay
Gundogan took advantage of confusion in Bayern's defence
to tap the ball home from short range.
And despite throwing on German striker Miroslav Klose in
the second half, Bayern were unable to deliver the telling
blow despite several clear-cut chances.
Bayern's Croatian striker Ivica Olic was philosophical,
saying: "We just have to start a new run."
Despite the unexpected point, the draw leaves
newly-promoted Nuremberg in a precarious position, second
from bottom with only 17 points from 23 games.
In the match of the day, Stuttgart had the perfect
preparation for Tuesday's visit from the stars of
Barcelona in the Champions League last-16 first leg,
humiliating Cologne 5-1 in their own stadium.
German striker Cacau ran rings around the Cologne defence,
netting a first-half hat-trick and then scoring a fourth
in the second half to add insult to injury and burnish his
credentials for a World Cup spot in the German team.
He stabbed home a cross from Italian defender Cristian
Molinaro on 13 minutes, before curling a superb
long-distance effort into the top right corner after 31
minutes.
Casey cruises into
semis
AFP, Tucson
Englishman Paul Casey continued his sizzling form to march
into the semi-finals at the Accenture Match Play
Championship on Saturday.
Casey, last year's runner-up, never gave British Open
champion Stewart Cink a chance in their quarter-final
match at Dove Mountain.
Casey won by the same 5 and 4 margin that he posted in his
first three matches, setting up an afternoon semi-final
clash against Colombian Camilo Villegas.
"I told him the best way to get to the next tee is up the
path," joked Cink, referring to the fact that Casey has
yet to play the 15th hole this week.
Added Casey: "I know how tough Stewart is and I thought
this would go all the way.
"I'm very happy to be standing here but still a little
shocked. Stewart's been very gracious. I made a lot of
putts on him today and I feel sorry for him."
Spaniard Sergio Garcia and Englishman Ian Poulter will
meet in the other semi after winning their respective
quarter-finals.
Villegas was never behind as he proved far too good for
South African Retief Goosen, winning 4 and 3 in cool and
windy morning conditions.
Garcia also triumphed by a comfortable 4 and 3 margin over
Englishman Oliver Wilson, while Poulter emerged from the
morning's closest match to edge Thai Thongchai Jaidee
1-up.
Jaidee had a chance to win the 18th hole and send the
match to sudden-death, but he left a 15-foot birdie putt
on the edge of the cup, before Poulter sank a clutch
seven-footer to secure victory.
Garcia, meanwhile, admitted he had not played very well in
the challenging conditions.
"It wasn't easy out there (and) we didn't play our best,
that's for sure," he said. "I managed to do better the
last four holes, but I need to play better. I'm looking
forward to the challenge."
The semi-finals were scheduled to begin at 11.50am local
time in the 8.5 million-dollar World Golf Championships
event.
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