suNday, FEBRUARY 7, 2010 magh 25, 1416, SAFAR 21, 1431 Hijri

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Leading News

500 students driven out from admission test
BCL activists ransack Satkhira City College as authorities denied them any ‘quota’

UNB, Satkhira

About 500 students sat for admission test in Satkhira City College Saturday were thrown out by BCL activists as the authority denied their 'admission quota'.
The unruly activists ransacked the class rooms, damaged furniture and shouted slogans demanding expulsion of the principal and vice-principal in presence of police.
Principal Imdadul Haq lodged complain to the thana, Police Super and Deputy Commissioner against nine activists including the college BCL president Mamoon Hossain and general secretary Aminur Rahman for leading the hooliganism.
Witnesses said the BCL leaders locked the main gate in the morning. The authority opened the gate by breaking the local and admission seekers sat for the test. At about 10 am some 20 BCL boys armed with sticks and sharp weapons crashed into the classes and forcibly threw out admission seekers and the teachers. They ransacked the classes and damaged furniture. The hooliganism continued till 1 pm.
Teachers blamed Abu Ahmed, who was duly retired as Assistant Professor on February 4 ignoring his plea for 2-year extension, for instigating the BCL activists. Prof Abu, also joint secretary of district Awami League, had declared himself principal and occupied the chair with the help of BCL activists on January 31.
Police Super SM Moniruzzaman said some unruly elements were trying to vitiate the academic atmosphere of the college. The matter was informed to the local AL leaders. "Police cannot do anything because of political interference," observed the police officer.

 BSF kills another Bangladeshi
Total border killings rise to 819 in nine years

TBT Report

The atrocities of Indian Border Security Force (BSF) continue unabated along the Bangladesh border causing deaths and injures to Bangladeshi citizens. BSF has killed yet another Bangladeshi citizen on the border Saturday taking the number of such killings to 94 during the period from January 1, 2009 to February 6, 2010 and to 819 in nine years from January 2000 to January 2010.
The latest incident of killing a Bangladeshi citizen by BSF took place along Tentulia border in Panchagarh on Saturday. With this, eight Bangladeshis were killed by BSF in first 36 days of 2010 despite India's repeated pledges to stop such killings.
According to UNB News Agency, BSF gunned down a Bangladeshi cattle trader along Tentulia border in Panchagarh here early Saturday.The victim was identified as Farid Hossain, 30, son of Dabiruddin of Sharialjot village in the upazila.
BDR sources said BSF members from Haftiagaj Camp opened fire on a group of Bangladeshi cattle traders along Tentulia Puratan Bazar near pillar No 442, killing Farid on the spot.
Confirming the incident, BDR 25 Rifle Battalion Major AKM Hasibul Hossain Nabir said they sent a protest letter to their counterparts and asked them to return the body immediately.
Earlier on February 4, Indian BSF showing aggressive posture started unprovoked fire across the Jaintapur border shot and abducted Nayek Mujibur Rahman of Jaintapur border outpost in Sylhet at gunpoint was returned at a BDR-BSF flag meeting on that day. BSF also restored to firing at Tamabil border on that day.
On February 5, Indian BSF opened fire along Taluigachha border in Satkhira district on Friday. BDR sources said BSF troops of Amudia camp fired two gun shots near 13 (3) main pillar at about 3am, creating panic among the Bangladeshi people.
The killings of unarmed Bangladeshis by the BSF on the border are continuing in clear violation of the spirit of good neighborliness as well as international law and despite repeated pledges by the Indian authorities to stop it. In every meeting between BSF and BDR and also between the higher level officials of the two countries, the Indian side assures that killing of Bangladeshis by its forces on the border would come to an end immediately. But this pledge is seldom implemented.

 Govt can never return to 1972 constitution: Moudud
TBT Report

BNP standing committee member Barrister Moudud Ahmed has said that the government could never return to the 1972's constitution as it would never remove Special Powers Act, 1974 and the state of emergency provision from country's existing constitution.
"The government is trying to go back to its 1972's constitution by restoring secularism but the nation will never be secular through doing so. I can challenge that the Awami League could never be able to restore its earlier constitution removing the Special Power Act, 1974 and state of emergency provision from the existing one," he expressed the views while addressing a discussion meeting on "cancellation of the 5th amendment of the constitution: 72's constitution and Bangladesh perspective" organized by Chetonai Muktijdudha at the Bhasani auditorium in the capital on Saturday.
He said the ruling party has absolute majority in the parliament to amend any article of the constitution. Despite this, the government has used country's highest court to cancel the 5th amendment of the constitution. And the court announced the verdict in this regard without granting leave petition though it is a constitutional process. The court is being used in political purpose which should be avoided.
"The appellate division of the Supreme Court is the last destination of peoples' expectation. We the countrymen expected that the appellate division will consider some logics which are directly linked with politics before giving the final verdict on the amendment as it is very important and sensitive issue. Not only that the fate of country's crores of people is also involved with the verdict," he said.
The former law minister said a total of five parliaments functioned out under the amended constitution. The overall activities of country's judiciary, government and public administrations and politics also carried out the work under the amended constitution. But how will the government make illegal the previous activities which were conducted under the constitution.

  Pirated copies on open sale at Ekushey Book Fair
BSS, Dhaka

Pirated books and publications in other languages are being sold abundantly at many stalls of the Ekushey Book Fair in violation of the set rules of the fair and the spirit of Amar Ekushey.
The month-long book fair that began on the Bangla Academy premises in the city on February 1, commemorating the great Language Movement of 1952, has already gotten momentum.
Except for 40 to 50 stalls in the fair, all other stalls are selling these pirated books. It seems that the fair authorities do not even care about these unethical activities, said an attendant of a stall at the fair.
Around 80 percent of the translated books on sale do not have the authorisation from the original authors and publishers, several publishers at the fair said.
According to the set rules and regulations, publication houses having at least 15 new publications in one year, will qualify for getting stalls in the fair.
Some renowned publishers alleged that the Bangla Academy authorities are largely responsible for such irregularities, as many publication houses which do not qualify for participating in the fair are being allocated stalls every year.
Osman Gani, the publisher of "Agamee Prokashoni", alleged that the rules and regulations regarding allocation of stalls and sale of books are being flouted every year.

   Fifth Amendment
Shafique deflates campaign for creating confusion

UNB, Dhaka

Law Minister Barrister Shafique Ahmed Saturday said the scrapping of the 5th Amendment by the apex court paved the way for restoring the fundamentals of the Constitution based on ideals and spirit of the liberation war, and he urged all to frustrate campaigns against the change.
He said according to the 7th article of the Constitution, the constitution is the supreme law of the country and any law contradictory to the constitution stands null and void. "There is no rule for running state functions under martial law."
Barrister Shafique, also former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, mentioned that the Supreme Court is the custodian of the Constitution. "If the parliament does anything beyond constitutional bounds, the Supreme Court will never give it legitimacy," he said.
Law Minister Shafique was speaking as chief guest at the inaugural function of the 7th National Convention of Bangladesh College-University Teachers Association at the Dhaka University Teacher-Student Centre (TSC) auditorium.
He made it clear that religion has not been hurt through the verdict rather it has established religion in its proper perspective.
"Through this verdict an opportunity has been created for establishing a disparity-free society and a democratic, non-communal and welfare state," the Law Minister told his audience of college and university teachers at Dhaka University.
He alerted all about certain quarters' ill attempts to create confusion among people through misinterpretation of the verdict relating to religion.
The Fifth Constitution Amendment ratified military takeovers, proclamations and successive martial-law governments' actions since the August 15, 1975 coup as well as changed three of the four fundamental principles of the post-independence 1972 constitution as regards nationalism, secularism and socialism.
He told the college-university teachers that the present government supports nationalization and expansion of education.
In this context, the minister disclosed that the government has taken initiative to establish more public (government) universities and formulate time-worthy education policy.
He called upon the teachers to improve the standard of education so that skilled manpower could be groomed.
He assured that the government would look into their various recommendations, including separate pay scale for them.
Dhaka University Vic-chancellor Dr Arefin Siddique, president of Bangladesh Teachers' Association Joynal Abedin, among others, also spoke at the function with president of Bangladesh College-University Teachers Association Prof Dr M Aktheruzzaman in the chair.

  Govt approves RFP for bidders to set up large power plant
UNB, Dhaka

The ice has finally started melting regarding setting up one of the country's largest power plants - 450 MW combined cycle Bibiyana unit - as the Ministry of Power has decided to issue the request for proposal (RFP) in favour of qualified bidders for the project.
According to official sources, the Power Cell, a technical wing of the Power Ministry, will soon invite four qualified bidders to submit their respective technical and financial offers for the project.
Industry insiders consider the government decision as a major development in the power sector as no large power plant was set up in the last eight years. In most cases, the government process was found to have been stuck up in tender invitation and cancellation only.
Now the government is moving forward with a huge plan of generating 7,000-MW electricity within the next five years as part of its election pledge.
However, the move for setting up the Bibiyana Power Plant had first been initiated by the previous BNP government in 2005. It had planned to set up the plant at a nearby location in Bibiyana gas field in Sylhet region.
Later, the last army-backed caretaker government invited tender for the project. But the tender was cancelled by the same government as only one bidder had submitted offer for the project.
According to the sources, the Power Cell prepared the RFP in consultation with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a commercial arm of the World Bank responsible for financing private sponsor projects.
Earlier, the Power Cell had invited prequalification (PQ) tender for the project and received proposals from eight international bidders for the Bibiyana project in April last year.
From the eight bidders, the Power Cell picked up four firms as qualified bid ders for the Bibiyana plant.

  Grassroots meetings of BNP begin
People won’t allow govt to restore one party rule: Hannah Shah

UNB, Sylhet

Opposition BNP began two-month-long countrywide union representative meetings from Sylhet Saturday calling for united resistance of the nationalist forces against government's 'misdeeds and anti-nation moves' to protect country's independence and sovereignty.
Addressing the opener as chief guest, BNP Standing Committee member Brig Gen (Retd) ASM Hannan Shah said all leaders and workers who believe in nationalist ideology will have to unitedly resist what he said government attempts against the country's interest as well as protect the country's independence and sovereignty.
Sylhet division union representative meet chief coordinator and BNP organizing secretary M Elias Ali made welcome address at the function which was conducted by journalist Musfiqul Fazal Ansari.
A few days back, BNP decided to hold union representative discussion meetings at 10 venues in six divisions in the country aiming to reorganize the party from grassroots level and to seek their suggestions about guiding the former ruling party on right course. Apart from party leaders, noted intellectuals, journalists, poets and littérateurs would also speak at the union representative meetings. BNP leaders present at the Sylhet event include Selima Rahman, Shamser Mobin Chowdhury, Enam Ahmed Chowdhury, Amanullah Aman, Mizanur Rahman Minu, Fazlul Huq Milon.
Brig Gen (Retd) Hannan told the meet that Tarique Rahman, like his father late President Ziaur Rahman, the founder of BNP, had introduced a new chapter in politics through holding union representative meetings to bottom up the party strength from its grassroots foundation. He said Tarique, now BNP senior vice-chairman, had set grassroots BNP on a strong footing through the union representative meetings.
Hannan alleged that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been making 'false' statements for long against Tarique Rahman out of "envy about his big popularity".
He viewed that leadership like the worthy leadership of Tarique is necessary in the future to lead the nationalist and Islamic forces and to protect the independence and sovereignty. He said, "The people will not allow materializing the present government's dream of reestablishing one-party BAKSAL rule."

Back Page

Bangladesh wins three more gold medals
UNB, Dhaka

Bangladesh won three more gold medals in the 11th South Asin Games in the individual events of Golf, Taekwondo and Wushu on the ninth day of the meet at three different venues across the country on Saturday.
With the day's three gold medals, Bangladesh gold tally rose to eight.
Dulal Hossain clinched the day's first gold for Bangladesh in the individual event of golf making 277 (score -11) in a 4-round 72 holes competition.
He scored 70 in the first round, 71 in the 2nd round, 70 in the 3rd round and the lowest 66 in the fourth and final round at Kurmitola Golf Course here.
Apart from Dulal Hossain's gold, Jamal Hossain Mollah got the event's silver making 280 (score -8) while Mohammad Zakiruzzaman took the bronze making a total 283 (score -5).
Sharmin Farzana Rumi clinched the day's another gold medal for Bangladesh in Taekwondo. She became champion in the women's -46 Kg weight category at the gymnasium of National Sports Council in Dhaka.
Afghan woman Laila Hussain bagged silver in this event while Yan Kumari of Nepal and Kiran Bano of Pakistan secured bronze.
In an immediate reaction, the 20-year-old Rumi said, "I feel proud of being able to do something for the country, --at the moment 1 have no specific target rather than playing a good game."
Ity Islam won the third gold medal for Bangladesh in Wushu in the 52-kg weight category in women's sanshou beating her Sri Lankan opponent at the BKSP in Sylhet.

   Bakar killing
DU probe body starts inquiry, takes tear sell splinters from his shattered room

UNB, Dhaka

Beginning probe into the death of Dhaka University student Abu Bakar Siddique, the investigation committee Saturday recovered the teargas sell splinters that holed into his dormitory room during the February 2 clash.
Abu Bakar, who was injured during the factional clash of Bangladesh Chhatra League at Sir AF Rahman Hall at late night, died at Dhaka Medical College Hospital the following day.
Five members of the nine-member DU probe committee, led by its convener Prof Harun-Or-Rashid, went to Sir AF Rahman Hall for investigation this morning.
They visited different rooms of the dormitory, including the room No-404 wherein Bakar had resided, and talked to the resident students.
His roommate Rezaul Karim handed three parts of tear shells to the committee members.
The investigators asked the students to submit their depositions in writing or verbally before the committee.
Earlier in the morning, the committee held its first meeting at the university.
Prof Harun-Or-Rashid, who presided over the meeting, said, "We expect to submit the report on findings within 15 working days."
The DU syndicate, the highest decision-making body, formed the nine-member probe committee to investigate the death of Abu Bakar.
The committee includes proctor KM Saiful Islam Khan, Dhaka University Teachers' Association (Duta) president Khondoker Bazlul Haque, former Duta president Anwar Hossain and Prof. Rahmatullah.
Opposition pro-BNP Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal has called strike for tomorrow on the campus to protest the killing of Bakar. However, Dhaka University Controller of Examinations Bahalul Haque said, "All the set exams will be held on schedule."
Meanwhile, different student organisations, including Progotishil Chhatra Jote, Samajtantrik Chhatra Front, Bangladesh Chhatra Federation and general students brought out protest processions on the campus and held rallies today.
They demanded resignation of DU proctor KM Shafiul Islam and condemned the reported remarks of Home Minister Sahara Khatun about Abu Bakar's death that it was a normal matter.
A government clarification Saturday, however, said the home minister was misquoted about the incident.

   Bangladesh assured of highest British cooperation
BSS, Dhaka

Jim Fizpatrick, MP, Minister for Food and Farming, Stephen Tims, MP, Minister of State for Finance along with few British MPs on Thursday assured of their government's highest cooperation in helping Bangladesh to face the effects of the global climate changes.
They also assured of coming forward in alleviating poverty in Bangladesh, a message received here said on Saturday.
The assurance of the British leaders came at a seminar on Housing Immigration, Health, Trade and Investment organised by Development Council for Bangladeshi in UK held at the House of Commons following an appeal made by the Bangladesh High commissioner to the UK Dr M Seyeedur Rahman Khan.
The seminar chaired by Munir Ahmed was addressed, among others, by Jim Fitzpatrick MP, Minister for Food and Farming, Stephen Tims, MP, Minister of State for Finance, Lyn Brown MP.
It was also attended by a host of British MPs, MEPs and councilors from all the major parties. About 300 Bangladeshi community leaders also took part in the seminar.
Addressing as the guest of honour Dr Khan also highlighted the commitments and achievements of the present democratic government under the leadership of Prime Minister sheikh Hasina.
He urged the British government to come forward providing assistance liberally to Bangladesh in order to help poverty alleviation and mitigation programmes due to climate change. He requested the concerned authorities to look into the sufferings of the large number of Bangladeshi students, who became stranded due to the closure of a large number of colleges.

   Police department should be modernized: Sahara
BSS, Dhaka

Home Minister Advocate Sahara Khatun on Saturday said that the government is fully committed to build up a digital Bangladesh by materializing the vision 2021.
"The police department must be modernized and digitalized for building the digital Bangladesh," she said while addressing the 35th raising day of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) at DMP headquarters premises as chief guest.
Chaired by the Commissioner of DMP AKM Shahidul Haque, the function was attended among others, by former Advisor to the last caretaker government and former Inspector General of Police (IGP) Md Anwarul Iqbal, State Minister for Home Advocate Shamsul Haque Tuku, IGP Nur Mohammad, former IPGs Md Nurul Huda, Ismail Hussain, Taiyeb Uddin Ahmed, former DMP Commissioner Md Motiur Rahman and a large number of senior police and other officials.
The Home Minister said that the country could be digitalized without the overall improvement of the nation including law and order situation and only the police could not be able to do that without digitalizing their own.
Advocate Sahara Khatun said, the DMP was raised in 1976 with only 40 lakh people and 6000 policemen but as of today the total population of the city is now 1.5 crore and the DMP's strength is only 23,000.
The number of police is comparatively lower than the other metropolitan cities in the world; he said adding that considering the situation, the government has decided to recruit additional 32,000 policemen in next three years. The Home Minister also urged the police department to extend their all out co- operations in building a militancy and terrorism free country.
The DMP Commission in his address of welcome said that the DMP started its journey towards a crime free city with only 12 police stations but now on the number of police stations as of today is 41.
The over all activities of the metropolitan police have immensely increased including the community policing to ensure peaceful law and order, he said adding that some 20,724 members of community policemen have been working under 760 committees in the city.
The anniversary was observed followed by a cultural function where the artists of the police family rendered their songs.

    Degradation of values led to decline in quality of education at DU: Azad

BSS, Dhaka

Information and Cultural Affairs Minister Abul Kalam Azad on Saturday said degradation of values over the years led to a decline in quality of education at Dhaka University.
He said this while addressing the day-long reunion of SM Hall Ex-students Association of Dhaka University at the central playground of the university.
Festivity was in the air as several thousand alumni met their old friends after a long time, chatted and took photographs during the daylong programme that began at 10:00am.
Presided over by President of the association SM Shahjahan, the function was addressed, among others, by vice president Abdul Mueed, secretary general Sahabul Haque and former minister Motiur Rahman.
Speaking on the occasion, Information minister called upon the authorities to immediately take corrective measures to raise the stranded of education at the country's premier public university.
Azad said during our time, there were two types of education at the university-learning from the environment and the other is academic education. But at present, crisis has gripped both the sources of learning.
'Lack of honesty and dignity as well as degradation of values brought about a sorry state of the Dhaka University on Saturday,' he said.
The ex-students reminisced their glorious days including their participation in the country's historic movements and said they had witnessed a healthy competition among teachers as well as among students during their time at the campus.

 Govt. to provide financial support to indigenous people: Atiur
BSS, Sylhet

Governor of Bangladesh Bank Dr Atiur Rahman has said the government and the banks are ready to provide financial supports to the indigenous people.
The BB governor said this while addressing a loan distribution function at Monipuri Rajbari in the district as the chief yesterday. The function was organized on the occasion of loan distribution among the women entrepreneurs of Monipuri community.
Chaired by General Manager of Krishi Bank Mohammed Siddiqur Rahman, the function was addressed, among others by Managing Director of the bank Mohammed Mokther Hossain.
"We should take forward the country maintaining the communal harmony. There will be no financial problem in the country if we can change our mindset," Dr Atiur Rahman said.
A total of Taka 33.35 lakh were distributed among 51 entrepreneurs of Monipuri community from the Sylhet corporate branch and Ambarkhana branch of the Krishi Bank .

Editorial

Fatal road accidents

Another road accident has caused another death in the city. This time also the victim is a child. This is the second child death in 'road accident' in the capital in a span of three days. The stain of blood of seven years old Hamim Sheikh, who was killed by a running bus in front of his school on Wednesday, is yet to disappear from the road and the dreadful memory of the incident still haunts many. Hamim Sheikh, a student of Willis Little Flower School at Kakrail was waiting in front of his school with his mother for a transport after his classes. A speedy Modhumati city service bus ran over Hamim killing him instantaneously and injuring her mother seriously. The driver of the bus has been arrested. Meanwhile, another child, a seven years old little girl Sumi Akhter was killed in a ‘road accident’ in the city on Friday. Her mother Hasina Begum, 24, and 14 month-old brother Hasan were also injured in the accident on Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue in front of Falcon Hall in the afternoon. They were hit by a running vehicle while crossing the road. The accident appears to have taken place due to reckless driving of the killer vehicle.
On the same day, in another road accident Garment factory worker Saiful Islam was run over and killed by a minibus while trying to cross Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue near Hotel Sonargaon intersection in the morning. Tejgaon police arrested the bus driver and seized the bus.
These incidents show that there is no safety of life on the roads. In fact, the country's roads and highways have turned into death traps as fatal accidents are taking place there frequently. The incidents of road accidents are increasing alarmingly across the country while govern-ment road safety institutions are almost dysfunctional due to reported fund shortage and lack of awareness. Around 40,000 road accidents in Bangladesh claimed 30,103 lives and injured 30,833 others in last ten years costing an amount of about Tk 45,000 crore. According to an estimate around 4,000 people die in road accidents in Bangladesh every year due to road users' errors, adverse road conditions or environment , faulty vehicles and above all reckless driving.
Road accidents cause deaths and injuries to a large number of people in the country every year. Hardly any day passes off without an accident taking place somewhere in the urban or rural areas. So, these are not new or surprising though definitely tragic and unfortunate. But what appears to be stunning and deplorable is the inaction of the bodies responsible for checking road accidents.
Road accidents are posing a serious threat to public life especially in the capital as well as on Dhaka-Chittagong Highway and Dhaka-Aricha Highway due to reckless driving by a section of drivers of minibuses, microbuses and buses. The drivers move in a free-style due to lack of checking of fitness certificates of vehicles and driving licenses of drivers regularly. Some of the vehicles move on the highway without any valid documents. The authorities are responsible for this as they remain indifferent to this violation.
The large number of road accidents and the deaths and injuries caused therein can hardly be ignored. A large number of people die in accidents every year. Besides, many people injured in the accidents are crippled for life plunging their families in miseries. So, the alarming road accident issue should be taken up seriously by the government and everything possible should be done to check accidents and minimise the casualties. To that end, more stringent traffic laws should be enacted and the laws should be strictly enforced. The driver responsible for the accident must be punished and the families of the victims of the accidents must be paid adequate compensation to help them sustain. It is now time for the government to act resolutely in this regard.

  Woes of Aila Victims

It is painful but true that over 250,000 people are still living in makeshift homes on the embankments of three coastal districts after the devastating cyclone Aila struck southern Bangladesh last May, media report says quoting the director general of Disaster Management Bureau. They cannot return to their localities to construct new homes as their areas are still at threat because the embankments have not been renovated yet. The dykes need major repairs at 138 points in the coastal districts of Satkhira, Bagherhat and Khulna, the DG said. The food and disaster management minister, Abdur Razzak, said that the renovation work would be completed before the next rainy season arrives and that the procedure is underway.
It is good that the renovation procedure is underway. But at the same time it is disappointing that the pace of progress is slow and the next rainy season is still far away. Eight months have already elapsed since the Aila had hit the area and the affected people are still passing days in miseries. No explanation is strong enough to justify this. The Aila hit people are so unlucky that they have no shelter, no food security, no safe water for drinking, no equipment for cultivation and no work to earn livelihood. Against this backdrop, instead of giving lip services, the government should do something positive and effective to rehabilitate these helpless people and thus redress their sufferings.

Analysis

Are Pak nukes next terror targets?

Doomsday’s scenarios were built of Pakistan's nuclear weapons falling in the hands of religious fanatics.

Sultan M Hali

The brazen attacks on GHQ, Police training centers in Lahore and the Islamic Unviersity of Islamabad would lend credence to the thought that Pakistan's nukes could be the next terror targets. Pakistan Observer Editor-in-Chief, Zahid Malik, in his special editorial on October 19, 2009 titled. 'Attack on a nuclear establishment' has raised the specter of such a scenario. He rightly cautions, "While the foreign trained, foreign funded and foreign armed terrorists have started launching multiple orchestrated attacks on different cities of Pakistan, a critical sabotage in one of the country's nuclear establishments now appears to be on the agenda of perpetrators of terror in Pakistan and their master-minds abroad."
It would be naive, nay suicidal to brush off such a warning and advice coming from the sagacious octogenarian senior journalist. Pakistan's nuclear weapons program has been the thorn in the side of its adversaries as well as detractors far too long. Doomsday scenarios were built of Pakistan's nuclear weapons falling in the hands of religious fanatics. The security of Pakistan's nukes coming under close scrutiny by US intelligence agencies has led to a disclosure of war gaming by Pentagon to seize Pakistan nuclear assets before rogue elements gain control of them. The crescendo appeared to have reached a peak with Frederick Kagan, a former West Point military historian, who devised the Bush administration's Iraq troops surge, calling for the White House to consider various options for an unstable Pakistan, including the US to consider sending elite troops to Pakistan to seize its nuclear weapons if the country descends into chaos. Kagan admits that "Pakistan's officer corps and ruling elites remain largely moderate.
But then again, Americans felt similarly about the Shah's regime and look what happened in 1979," he says, referring to Iran. The Washington Post carried a detailed report on the exercises to take out Pakistan's nukes, pointing out that the all such games came to the same conclusion: Pakistan's cooperation-particularly that of its military-was crucial. Earlier this year, Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer, who is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, has been a senior advisor to three US presidents on Middle East and South Asian issues and chaired President Obama's strategic review of policy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan which concluded in March 2009 and is under revision again, took up the cudgels for attacking Pakistan's nuclear weapons security.
In his article in "The Wall Street Journal", titled: 'Pakistan and the bomb', Mr. Riedel's "scholarly masterpiece" was based on half truths, conjectures and apparent twisting of facts in pursuit of an agenda. His article came in the wake of the Swat operations (Rah-e-Rast), which he predicted to fail in view of the retaliatory suicide bomb attacks in Lahore and Peshawar/ Thank God Mr. Riedel was proved wrong. Not be deterred, Mr. Riedel took up the tirade once again, when a bus conveying workers from the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission was attacked in Rawalpindi. Bruce Riedel's inference this time was that it was a daring "attack on Pakistan's nuclear facility". He consoled himself thus: "The fighting has cast a spotlight on the shaky security of Pakistan's growing nuclear arsenal…." And then self-contradicted himself in the very next paragraph. "Today the arsenal is under the control of its military leaders; it is well protected, concealed and dispersed. But if the country fell into the wrong hands-those of the militant Islamic Jihadists and al-Qaeda-so would the arsenal."
With the security forces of Pakistan having routed the militants in Swat and wrested the control of the region and establishing the writ of the government, such a threat was blocked. Not to be daunted, the enemies of Pakistan, whose real intent appears to be the nuclear weapons which Pakistan has developed and deployed, fresh machinations were put in place. Baitullah Mehsud, who was perhaps deemed not brutal enough, was eliminated and replaced by a young, merciless and ruthless leader like hakimullah Mehsud. His first attack was the brazen assault on the bastion and apparently impregnable citadel of Pakistan Army, the General Headquaters (GHQ).
Breaching it brought cheer to the militants and their sponsors. The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned the attack on GHQ and in the same breath stated that "Pakistan's nuclear assets are safe". Her words are reassuring as well as ominous. An attack on CHQ leads to the strain of thought regarding the possibility of terrorists getting through the security parameters of Pakistan's nuclear weapons. Mr. Zahid Malik's concerns regarding a possible attack on our nuclear establishment and maintaining a high vigil by all and sundry are valid suggestions. It is no longer enough to cajole ourselves with the thought that if the Indian and western intelligence agencies have not been able to find any clue about the location of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal; how would a rag-tag militia do so?
One advantage that accrued out of the GHQ attack was that one of the miscreants' group leaders was captured alive and he is singing like a canary. However lowly placed he may have been in the army dispensation, he does raise apprehensions. Brigadier Feroz Hassan Khan, in his article 'Nuclear Security in Pakistan: Separating Myth from Reality' alludes to under the caption "Insider-Outsider Collusion" that insiders in the program could be motivated by religious, monetary, revenge, grudges, jealousies, psychiatric disorders, to act against the state and become a tool of the enemy.
Fears for the safety of Pakistani nuclear assets can be allayed by the factor of astute planning. Pakistan's Nuclear Command Authority through its Strategic Plans Division, undertakes measures for the safety and security of strategic assets including: development of a strategic C412SR; over watch and regulate the movement of its scientific manpower through Personnel Reliability and Human Reliability Programmes; weekly, monthly and quarterly intelligence reports; sensitive material control and accounting; transportation security and specialist vehicles; two man rule, codes and Permissive Action Links (PALs). These steps preclude any security concerns for Pakistan's nukes, but total vigilance is a must as indeed our nukes are a viable target for terrorists and their sponsors.

  Spies and Missiles: CIA at War with America

Yet surely international law does not permit the CIA to target and kill civilians in Pakistan, a country against which Washington is not officially at war.

Matein Khalid

Intelligence agencies, like French generals of the old school, often persist in fighting the last war. This is particularly true for the CIA, whose twilight wars, vassals, agents, proxies and proconsuls have played a critical role in the secret history of the Middle East.
In 1953, the CIA engineered a coup d'état that overthrew the government of Mohammed Mossadegh and restored the Shah of Iran to his Peacock Throne. In Lebanon, the CIA played a crucial role in the political dominance of Lebanon's Maronite Christian Phalagist warlords in the civil war that pitted them against the PLO, the Syrians, the Druze and Shia militias. The CIA aided Saddam Hussein in the Iraqi Baath's annihilation of its Communist rivals and provided aerial battlefield intelligence during his war with Ayatollah Khomeini in the 1980's. The CIA's greatest strategic triumph was to provide weapons, finance and logistical support to the Afghan mujahedeen who vanquished the Red Army in Soviet occupied Afghanistan.
Even though America's enemies claim the CIA is omnipotent, its track record in the Middle East is replete with spectacular failures. The CIA's secret channel to the Palestinians in wartime West Beirut was Ali Hassan Salameh, the mastermind of the Black September commandos who massacred the Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics and led an abortive revolt against the armed forces of Hashemite Jordan. The CIA's top Levant operatives were slaughtered by a Hezbollah suicide bomber as they met in the fortified US Embassy on the Beirut seafront. The CIA was unable to save the Shah of Iran during the Iranian revolution even though Langley trained his ruthless SAVAK's secret police.
The CIA was unable to prevent Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, the mass slaughter in New York and Washington on 9/11, the emergence of Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, the meteoric rise of power by the virulently anti-American Moqtada Al Sadr's Jaish Mehdi militia in post Saddam Iraq and Iran's nuclear weapons programme. Even though CIA emissaries to General Dostum and Hamid Karzai helped the Northern Alliance - Pashtun coalition who seized power in Kabul after the overthrow of Mullah Omar's Taleban regime in November 2001, the Agency could not prevent the resurgence of the Taleban as a potent political and military challenge to NATO in Afghanistan.
Even though contacts between the CIA and Pakistani military intelligence were forged in the prism of the Cold War Afghan jihad three decades ago, the Agency's Predator drone attacks against suspected jihadi leaders have enraged the Pakistani population and alienated even senior generals of the ISI and GHQ, who view the Afghan Taleban as their insurance policy against Indian influence in Kabul.
The suicide bombing by a Jordanian Al Qaeda double agent that killed seven CIA agents at a forward post in Khost, Afghanistan on December 30, 2008 was a strategic disaster for an intelligence agency fabled for its sophisticated tradecraft and its obsession with the security of its case officers.
The fact that Abu Mulal Balawi had been turned by the Pakistani Taleban, then sent on a suicide mission against his own CIA and Jordanian intelligence handlers was a global publicity coup for Al Qaeda.
The CIA, humiliated by its sworn blood foes, has escalated its Predator unmanned drone strikes against suspected terrorist mud fortresses in North Waziristan and the Bajaur Agency. While the CIA's missiles kill Taleban commanders, they also butcher innocent civilians and add to the anti-American demonology in the tribal regions that is eerily reminiscent of past Pashtun revolts against the British Empire and the Soviet Union. The Predator and Reaper drone strikes have demonstrated that the CIA can hit back at its enemies but remote control assassins alone cannot extricate the United States from its worst counter-insurgency quagmire since Vietnam or salvage the NATO project in Afghanistan.
The Obama White House is deluded if it believes that CIA aerial hit squads will arrest Afghanistan's descent into political and military collapse. Like the Mossad hit teams who went after Black September's chieftains to avenge Munich but failed to deliver pence with the PLO, the use of the CIA's Hellfire missiles to avenge Khost will hardly tilt the strategic balance of power in Afghanistan in favour of the US. Attacks carried out from secret bases in Pakistan and controlled by satellite links from the Nevada desert can hardly win the CIA new friends in the Islamic world, even though the Afghan Taleban are widely viewed as odious fanatics with medieval, violent mindsets in the region.
It is no surprise that the White House, the Senate and the Pentagon all lean on the CIA to escalate its drone attacks on the Afpak badlands. The strikes send a bloody, powerful message to the Taleban and put no American lives at risk. Yet surely international law does not permit the CIA to target and kill civilians in Pakistan, a country against which Washington is not officially at war (for now). Collateral damage, a Pentagon euphemism for the murder of innocent civilians, does not seem terribly important in the strategic calculus of the Obama White House, as long as the civilians are Pashtun tribesmen beyond the reach of the ACLU. The CIA's obsession with the Shah cost America Iran, a generation ago. Could the CIA's myopia in Waziristan cost Uncle Sam Pakistan?

Matein Khalid is an investment banker based in Dubai.

Viewpoints

India must not let Bangladesh down

“Bangladesh has put all its trust in India and if relations between the two countries get clouded, it would be India's doing.”

Kuldip Nayar

For India, time is ticking in Bangladesh. All eyes are focused on New Delhi to see if and when it begins to implement the steps listed in the joint communiqué that the prime ministers of the two countries signed recently. Both 'if' and 'when' are important because since independence Bangladesh has felt that promises have been broken.
Talking to people from different fields, I found that the response to the joint communiqué was jubilant. One editor commented: "Bangladesh has put all its trust in India and if relations between the two countries get clouded, it would be India's doing."
I found that the Bangladeshis were willing to give six months for the assurances to fructify. The disillusionment will begin if the Indian bureaucracy sits on the files or works at its usual snail's pace. Positive feelings may give way to a negative mood. Even worse would be the reappearance of fundamentalism, which has been defeated by Prime Minister Shaikh Hasina, who fought on the plank of pluralism and swept the polls.
Begum Klalida Zia, the opposition leader, was not forthcoming in her reply. She told me that she would like to have an "overall understanding with India at one go." However, she did suspect that a certain understanding between Dhaka and New Delhi had "not been made public yet."
Water is the litmus test. Before Hasina's visit, Bangladesh expected India to be generous enough to give an undertaking that it would not touch any river flowing into Bangladesh without it's consent. Now the expectation has come down to the assumption that the Teesta river will not be dammed in such a way that affects Bangladesh.
The joint communiqué is not so categorical because it only says that the discussions on the sharing of the Teesta between India and Bangladesh should be "concluded expeditiously." The joint river commission is scheduled to meet in March after a lapse of seven years. I pray the talks succeed because disagreement on the Teesta may upset the whole apple cart.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's assurance that India would not take steps under the Tiparmukh project that would adversely affect Bangladesh should have been adequate. He has even allowed a team of parliament members from Bangladesh to visit the dam. Yet I found people apprehensive.
Sore point
Commerce is another sore point with Bangladesh. The balance is substantially in favour of India. If unofficial trade is counted, the deficits may well be around $6 billion (Dh22 billion). True, New Delhi has removed tariffs on all but 47 items. But the earnings from them may not be more than $10 to $15 million. Had India allowed zero-tariff access to whatever is manufactured in Bangladesh it would have been a gesture that could have impressed even the staunch opposition lobby.
No doubt, Hasina has shown courage in accepting something that should have been done long ago: India's access to Mongola and Chittagong seaports, along with transport facilities by rail and road. The fallout in the shape of trade will definitely benefit Bangladesh. India will have a shorter and quicker way to reach the northeastern states. In exchange, Bangladesh has got the most important concession from India: access to Nepal and Bhutan. In fact, both Nepal and Bhutan have been wanting free contact with Bangladesh but New Delhi was dragging its feet.
However, the Bangladeshis have not forgiven India for the deaths of some 400-odd people on the border some time back. The Indian Border Security Force was reportedly conducting a counter-infiltration operation. Should the nationals of a friendly country be so easily fired on?
The killing of so many people smacks of uncontrolled anger. On the other hand, Bangladesh should realise that nearly 20 million of its nationals are living in India illegally. Assam has been affected the most. The very complexion of the population has changed in the state.
I witnessed the birth of Bangladesh and its steady growth. When it parted company with West Pakistan, not many people gave Bangladesh much of a chance. Today, after nearly four decades of independence, not many people are pessimistic. Remittances from the Bangladeshis working abroad and the earnings from garments, primarily tailored by women, have given Bangladesh an annual growth rate of a little more than five per cent. Small farmers have made the countryside more or less self-sufficient.
India should feel encouraged that another democratic, pluralistic country is developing in the region. In Bangladesh the liberal world has a nation that has waded through a pool of blood to stay independent and democratic. A liberal, democratic Islamic state could be an example for the entire Muslim world.
I am keeping my fingers crossed because Hasina's style of governance has a touch of authoritarianism. Indira Gandhi had the same trait and India had to pay the price during the two-year-rule of emergency. Hasina appears at times too impatient, too impressionable and too impetuous. She has more to fear from herself, rather than the hapless opposition.


Kuldip Nayar is a former Indian high commissioner to the UK and a former Rajya Sabha member

  Cracks in Hindutva brotherhood

The Shiv Sena and the MNS are ideological partners of the RSS parivar, both believe in the notion of the 'other.' Yet the parivar is opposing them today because of its own political compulsions.

Vidya Subrahmaniam 

Just when one thought it could not get any worse, it has. Uddhav Thackeray's "Italian mummy-Italian Rajputra" tirade against Rahul Gandhi and his unceasing threats to Shah Rukh Khan mark a new low in the conduct of a party that has practised violence as if it was a sacred credo.
While the Shiv Sena's young leader bellows and thunders, his cousin, Raj Thackeray, dangerously teeters on the brink. At a public rally in Dombivili in Mumbai, he wondered aloud at the irony of Samajwadi Party MP Abu Azmi not being able to speak Marathi when terrorist Ajmal Kasab could.
The Thackeray cousins' words and action offend by the yardstick of civility and even more by the yardstick of Constitutional law and morality. But recognising this is not enough. Raj Thackeray is playing with fire because the Shiv Sena showed the way. The Shiv Sena showed the way because successive regimes have tolerated its violence and because its partners, the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, have successfully walked the path of intolerance. In a theoretically pluralist, multicultural and composite India, the parivar's affiliates have been practically able to uphold the notion of an exclusivist India.
The degree of fanaticism has increased exponentially with each mutation - from the BJP to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad to the Bajrang Dal on the one hand, and from the Shiv Sena to the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena on the other. But because the Sena and the MNS are rivals, there is less certainty about who will beat the other in the race to be more provocative.
The Sena and the MNS are unashamedly crude while the parivar gives the impression of being more sophisticated. Most BJP-RSS leaders will not directly attack Muslims and Christians, much less say that they should go to Pakistan or some other place. Yet "cultural nationalism", the parivar's foundational philosophy, explicitly dictates that religious minorities must own up their Hindu origins and agree to fall within the rubric of Hindutva or suffer injuries to their identity, dignity and their persons.
The BJP's slogan for all times, "justice for all, appeasement of none," seems the epitome of reasonableness. But the real meaning of this is known to the party rank and file, which explains why the anthem invariably translates on the ground as aggression against minorities. Even at the level of the leadership, the mask slips, as it did when, during the 2002 Gujarat election campaign, Narendra Modi invoked images of "mian Musharaff" and mounted lowbrow attacks on "Italian" Sonia Gandhi. Mr. Modi has since had an image makeover and today inhabits a perfectly respectable world peopled by top-notch industrialists and Bollywood icons. By contrast, the Thackerays are currently under attack from all quarters, including the RSS and the BJP, their fellow travellers in the battle for the Hindu mind.
The last bit is a real puzzle - as much for the fire-spewing Mr. Uddhav Thackeray as for BJP-RSS watchers familiar with the Sena-BJP's cosy relationship of the past 25 years. Naturally, Thackeray junior got into a lather when, of all people, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat denounced his Marathi manoos project. In an editorial in Samna he said: "RSS should not comment on any issue that is to do with Mumbai… If RSS wants to talk of protecting Hindi they should do it in South India first."
Since then the Sena's relationship with the BJP-RSS has gone for a further toss. Over the past week, Parivar spokespersons have quoted copiously from the Constitution to dispute the Sena's exclusive claim over Mumbai. Mr. Shah Rukh Khan, never a beloved of the Parivar, has overnight turned into a friend, with the BJP defending to the hilt his twin rights - to exhibit his film, "My name is Khan", as well as to lament the exclusion of Pakistani cricketers from the IPL tournament.
In Delhi, Vinay Katiyar, the founder president of the disruptive Bajrang Dal, disparaged the Marathi Manoos campaign and called for an end to the BJP-Sena alliance. Not long ago, Mr. Katiyar and the Shiv Sainiks had unitedly sworn to do all they could to despatch the Babri Masjid, erupting in a paroxysm of joy when the symbol of their hatred finally met its brutal end.
The RSS-BJP's seeming change of heart and the strains in the saffron brotherhood defy the common understanding of Hindutva politics. After all, the Sena's "anti-outsiders" campaign is hardly any different from the Sangh's (and the Sena's) own anti-minorities agenda. The "alien", or the "other" is the diametric opposite that defines and legitimises Hindutva. Having zealously pursued this divisive goal for three quarters of a century, and having assiduously instilled the concept of the "enemy" in its affiliates, how can the Sangh today preach the reverse to the Sena, the BJP'oldest and most faithful partner? For the Sena, divisiveness is like breathing and it is understandably appalled that one of its own kind should be asking it to liquidate itself.
Objectives undermine each other
The conflict between the Sena factions and the RSS-BJP arises from the complexities of the latter's politics. The Sena and the MNS have an almost unidimensional view of the world, a world inhabited by the Marathi people and no one else. The BJP and the RSS have multiple constituencies to address. And though it has been the Sangh's endeavour to see these constituencies subsumed under the overarching umbrella of Hindutva, in reality their separate objectives have undermined each other as well as the common goal.
OBC (Other Backward Classes) leaders Kalyan Singh and Uma Bharti are one face of this persisting tension. Mr. Kalyan Singh and Ms Bharti were both in the forefront of the Ayodhya agitation. The former watched over as the Babri Masjid came down brick by brick, and went to jail to prove his Hindutva credentials. Ms Bharti's ecstatic response to the fall of the Masjid has been captured for posterity by photographers. Between them they symbolised Hindutva as no one else did and could. Yet when it came to deciding between their OBC and Hindutva identities, they chose the former.
It is to address the OBC constituency that the BJP propounded "social engineering" and co-opted the likes of Mr. Kalyan Singh and Ms Bharti. But it failed to retain them because it remained 'upper caste' at heart.
The BJP's Hindi fetish is another impediment in the way of its acquiring a pan-India face and following. Just how complicating this factor can be was revealed during President Bill Clinton's 2000 visit to India. Mr. Clinton addressed MPs from both Houses in the Central Hall of Parliament following which . Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee also spoke. But in Hindi. This despite Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief M. Karunanidhi's pleas to him speak in English as Hindi was not understood in large parts of India.
But Mr. Vajpayee, with his proud record of having addressed the United Nations General Assembly in Hindi, refused to budge. The upshot was a sharp rebuke from Mr. Karunanidhi. The "agonising spectacle" of Mr. Vajpayee speaking in Hindi before a world audience was reminiscent of the "Hindi fanaticism" of the past, the DMK chief noted.
Significantly, Mr. Vajpayee overrode Mr. Karunanidhi's objections and spoke in Hindi because had he not done so, he would have earned the wrath of the Hindi-speaking Mulayam Singh. It is this constituency that the RSS and the BJP are focused on today. With Assembly elections to Bihar looming large, and its largest partner, the Janata Dal(U) aggressively standing up for Hindi-speaking migrants, the BJP could not afford to be left behind, especially given that it relates to Hindi the way the Sena relates to Marathi. In a sense, it is competitive chauvinism - one for Marathi and the other for Hindi - that is at the heart of the quarrel between the Sena and the BJP-RSS.

  Israel’s hypocrisy in Haiti

How long will the poor Palestinians have to carry this heavy cross that the West has forced on them? Any answers, Mr. Obama? Any clue, Mr. Ban-Ki moon?

Aijaz Zaka Syed  

Israeli hypocrisy would be comical, if its consequences weren't so tragic. These days, Israeli media and Israel's powerful friends in the US media have been tomtomming about the noble help and rescue mission Israelis have undertaken in the remote, quake-hit island of Haiti.
Doubtless, the catastrophe that has hit Haiti is truly mind-boggling and terrifying. The all-round devastation the island has suffered is beyond words. This is perhaps how our world would look like when the end comes. And one hates to make a political point out of this terrible, terrible human tragedy. But you can't help it when you come across the kind of hypocrisy that Israel displays in Haiti.
While the people it has locked away in their homes in Gaza and across the Palestinian territories live in most despicable conditions and crave for basics such as food, water, electricity and just about everything else, the magnanimous Israel is sending aid and medical teams to help the luckless people of Haiti.
Can there be a more stunning example of hypocrisy and double standards?
I am not even remotely suggesting that Israel shouldn't act to help the calamity-hit people of Haiti. In fact, given the magnitude of the tragedy, every one of us should do his or her bit for the unfortunate people.
Lest the US media preoccupied with Israel have failed to notice, Arab and Muslim countries, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan, Qatar, Iran, Kuwait, Morocco and many others, too have reached out to Haiti, sending the much-needed aid soon after the earthquake last month. Despite its tiny size, the UAE has been quick to act through Red Crescent and even independently, just as it always has in the past. But you don't get to hear about them on Fox News or CNN because Arab countries are not crowing about their actions. Perhaps, it's time they did. In any case, when it comes to fighting propaganda war and handling media, Arab and Muslim countries have never been a match to Israel and its many lobbies and think tanks.
Just Google and see how bloggers are praising Israel for its mission in Haiti even as they blast the Arab and Muslim countries for not giving a damn or a dime for the needy in Haiti. This despite the planeloads of relief and aid supplies Muslim countries have sent. This is just one instance how shockingly ill-equipped Arab and Muslim countries are for modern warfare of media and diplomatic battles of hearts and minds.
BUT this is not about what Arab and Muslim world is doing in Haiti. This is about the ludicrous double standards of the state that claims to be the only "democracy and civilized society" in the Middle East.
If the Israelis have reached out to the Haiti tragedy by swiftly dispatching a medical team, it's laudable. But why the Jews who were moved by a tragedy on the other side of the world cannot see what's been happening right under their noses for years beats me. It's indeed good to see that Israelis are after all human and can be moved by human suffering. But I wonder why the same Israeli hearts run dry of the milk of human kindness when it comes to Palestinians.
Help for the helpless Haitians is welcome but what about those languishing in Gaza? As Israeli writer Akiva Eldar argues in a courageous piece in Haaretz, "the remarkable identification with the victims of the terrible tragedy in distant Haiti only underscores the indifference to the ongoing suffering of the people of Gaza. Only a little more than an hour's drive from the offices of Israel's major newspapers, 1.5 million people have been besieged on a desert island for two and a half years. Who cares that 80 percent of the men, women and children living in such proximity to us have fallen under the poverty line? How many Israelis know that half of all Gazans are dependent on charity, that Operation Cast Lead created hundreds of amputees, that raw sewage flows from the streets into the sea?"
WHY aren't there more voices like that of Akiva Eldar from within Israeli society against the victimization and persecution of Palestinians? Why don't more Israeli journalists and commentators protest the inhuman treatment of Palestinians, whose only crime is that they were born at a wrong time in a wrong country? They are as guilty as the Jews had been seven decades ago when the Nazis sent them to their death. Why can't yesterday's victims see the tragic irony and incongruity of their actions against today's victims?
As Akiva Eldar has the moral courage to point out, if Haiti is a natural disaster, "the one in Gaza is the unproud handiwork of man. Our handiwork!"
Israeli media are full of heart-warming, feel-good stories about the brave IDF soldiers and medical teams saving lives and rescuing babies in the Caribbean island. But how many Israelis care about the babies and infants dying for lack of critical food and medicines in Palestinian territories under their occupation? How many care about pregnant women, critically injured men dying after endlessly waiting at Israeli checkpoints?
The Israeli concern for people in the devastated Haiti is very touching. But how many Israelis care two hoots about the thousands of Palestinian families living in open, in the ruins of their former homes? Israel's bombing blitz on Gaza last year destroyed 60,000 homes, 3,500 of them totally turned into rubble. More than 1500 people, nearly half of them women and children, were killed in the war that started the day after Christmas.
And much of the surviving population in the limbo that is Gaza cannot go back to living, nor can it rebuild its homes and demolished city. The Israeli blockade of the Strip means nothing, including construction material and the promised aid by the international community, can get into Gaza.
Isn't this a mockery of humanity and the so-called international community that while this population languishes under a lockdown in the largest prison on the planet, Israel sends food and medicines to the people on the other side of the world? Can there be a more breathtaking example of injustice? As Akiva Eldar says, "the images of Israeli doctors (helping) in Haiti cannot blur Israel's ugly face" in Gaza and elsewhere in Palestine.
When will the world break its silence to end this charade in the Holy Land? When will the world act to stop Israel's oppression? How long will the poor Palestinians have to carry this heavy cross that the West has forced on them? Any answers, Mr. Obama? Any clue, Mr. Ban-Ki moon?


Aijaz Zaka Syed is a widely published Dubai-based commentator. Write to him at aijaz.syed@hotmail.com

International

Karachi tense as mourners bury bomb victims
Reuters, Karachi

Pakistan's commercial capital Karachi was tense on Saturday a day after two bombs killed 31 people, raising further questions about the effectiveness of security crackdowns on al Qaeda-linked militants.
Most shops in the sprawling city of 18 million people were closed and public transport was off the roads as several thousand mourners attended funerals of some of the victims of the two bombs, which wounded 170 people.
The first attack on Friday targeted Shi'ites travelling in a bus to a religious procession, followed hours later by a blast at a hospital where the wounded were being treated.
Pakistani Taliban have carried out waves of bombings at crowded markets and army and police facilities since October, killing hundreds of people in a bid to topple the pro-American government of unpopular President Asif Ali Zardari. Al Qaeda-linked Sunni Muslim militant groups have often carried out attacks on their rivals from Pakistan's Shi'ite Muslim minority.
"It looks like there's no government in Pakistan," said Shi'ite Muslim Syed Shabbir Hussain, who lost a cousin in the first blast on Friday. "They always say that there are militants here, and that they will attack. And then they attack, but the police and the government do nothing," he said at his cousin's funeral. The government appealed for calm. "We are at war with these terrorists who are against our country, who are against our religion," said Zulfiqar Mirza, provincial government interior minister.
Mirza said some arrests had been made but he declined to give any details.
Carnage in the home of Pakistan's stock exchange and main port could further discourage investors, who have watched the Taliban spread their violent campaign from strongholds in lawless areas near the Afghan border to major cities. Later, a bomb exploded on a street in the southwestern city of Quetta, capital of Baluchistan province, wounding seven people, police said. Separatist militants are waging a low-level insurgency in the gas-rich province. The latest attacks in Karachi come as the United States is pushing Pakistan to help stabilise neighbouring Afghanistan.
Police had initially suspected the two attacks in Karachi were carried out by suicide bombers but later said the devices were planted. A third bomb, defused at the hospital, was similar in type, indicating just one group was involved.

  US has been encouraging India, Pakistan peace moves for regional stability

APP, Washington

Describing dialouge as key to progress toward regional stability, the United States has said it been encouraging steps by both India and Pakistan to reduce tension and increase cooperation.
"We certainly have been encouraging steps that both Pakistan and India could take to address mutual concerns and to take appropriate steps so that tensions can be reduced, cooperation can be increased, and as a result, you have a more stable region that is focused on threats - both interests that they share and threats that they share," a senior State Department spokesman said.
Assistant Secretary of State Philip J Crowley said the Obama Administration believes that dialogue between India, Pakistan and Afghanistan is vitally important.
"We are supportive of dialogue among India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan as a key component of moving ahead and achieving a stable region."
Crowley spoke at the daily briefing as prospects brightened for resumption of Pakistan-India talks stalled since November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai.
Officials from the South Asian nuclear powers indicated that they would be willing to put the dialogue process back on track.

  Sri Lanka under fire after extends emergency rule
AFP, Colombo

Sri Lanka faced criticism Saturday for extending a state of emergency giving sweeping powers to security forces to detain suspects ahead of parliamentary elections due by April.
A private poll-monitoring body, the People's Action for Free and Fair Elections, said continuation of emergency rule could undermine the vote slated to be held after last month's presidential election, won by Mahinda Rajapakse.
"The use of emergency laws could seriously affect the campaign and there is no guarantee that the government will not use it against political opponents," the group's executive director, Rohana Hettiarachchi, said.
On Friday, Sri Lanka's parliament voted heavily in favour of extending the state of emergency for one month despite international calls to revert to normal laws. The extension must be approved by parliament every month.
"The emergency is needed because enemies of the state are trying to regroup and unite," Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake told parliament. Emergency rule allows suspects to be kept in custody for prolonged periods without trial.
Official sources said the national assembly could be dissolved next week, two months before its six-year term ends in mid-April, and elections scheduled for early April.

  Japan refuelling ships end Afghan mission
AFP, Tokyo

Japanese naval ships returned home on Saturday ending a refuelling mission for US-led military efforts in Afghanistan, while its peacekeeping troops are now set to depart for quake-hit Haiti.
The 13,500-tonne supply ship Mashu and the 4,550-tonne destroyer Ikazuchi, with some 340 military personnel aboard in total, arrived at Harumi Wharf in Tokyo Bay to a welcome from their families and government officials.
Last month Defence Minister Toshimi Kitazawa announced an end to an eight-year Indian Ocean mission supplying oil and water to vessels used by international forces engaged in Afghanistan.
The move fulfilled a pledge by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's centre-left government which ousted the long-ruling conservatives five months ago pledging a less subservient relationship with the United States.
Hatoyama, whose coalition includes the strongly pacifist Social Democrats, has stressed Japan would not deploy troops to Afghanistan, but has instead pledged to step up humanitarian aid to the war-torn country.
"As prime minister, I am proud of your professionalism," Hatoyama told a repatriation ceremony with Kitazawa.
"Our government will positively play an appropriate role in humanitarian assistance, prevention of terrorism and UN peacekeeping activities," said the supreme commander of the nation's self-defence force.
The return coincided with the departure of the first batch of some 350 Japanese troops for Haiti to join the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the quake-hit Caribbean nation.
It will be Japan's first participation in overseas UN peacekeeping operations under the Hatoyama administration.
The first batch of about 160 ground troops is scheduled to leave Tokyo's Haneda airport Saturday evening and arrive in Haiti Sunday, officials said.
The troops, mostly engineers and logistical support members, are expected to remove rubble, repair roads and build shelters for quake victims.

  Cambodian PM visits disputed Thai border temple
AFP, Preah Vihear, Cambodia

Cambodian Premier Hun Sen visited a disputed border area with Thailand Saturday, angering the neighbouring nation amid an ongoing diplomatic spat.
Hun Sen, accompanied by his wife, Bun Rany, both dressed in camouflage clothes, briefly toured the ancient Preah Vihear temple at the centre of the land dispute and met members of the Thai military who guard the area.
He asked the Thais "to avoid fighting because we are neighbours, we cannot be enemies forever," but his presence in the area attracted more than 100 Thai protesters on the Thai side of the border.
Cambodia and Thailand have been at loggerheads over their border for decades. Nationalist tensions spilled over into violence in July 2008, when the 11th century Preah Vihear temple was granted UNESCO World Heritage status.
Four soldiers were killed in clashes in the temple area in 2008 and three more in a gunbattle last April. Smaller flare-ups continue to be reported between troops in the area.
Hun Sen earlier began a tour of the area by opening a school and giving supplies to villagers caught up in April's violence last year. "I have never asked for compensation. For me, it doesn't matter about compensation," said Hun Sen, referring to the destruction of a Cambodian market during the gunbattle.

  ‘Blood for blood’ chants mark funeral in Kashmir
AP, Srinagar, India

Thousands of people chanted "Blood for blood" and "We want freedom" at a funeral Saturday for the second teenager in a week whose death has been blamed on police and government forces in Indian-controlled Kashmir's main city.
Widespread protests have rocked the disputed Himalayan region for six days, and thousands of armed troops patrolled the city warning residents to stay indoors.
On Friday, paramilitary soldiers charged at a group of people gathered on a playground in Srinagar and began firing as the people fled, killing 17-year-old Zahid Farooq Shah, according to a friend, Mushtaq Ahmed, who said he witnessed the shooting.
Hemant Lohia, a top police officer, confirmed Shah died from a bullet wound but said the other details about Shah's death still were being investigated.
Last Sunday, a 14-year-old boy died after he was struck in the head by a police tear gas shell as an anti-Indian protest had ended. The police officer who fired the shell was suspended and police called it "a callous and irresponsible action."
Clashes between rock-throwing protesters and government forces since then have injured at least 93 protesters and 33 troops in the region, and another 80 protesters have been arrested.
Kashmir, which is predominantly Muslim, is divided between India and Pakistan and claimed by both in its entirety. Anti-India sentiment runs deep in the Himalayan region, where more than a dozen rebel groups have been fighting for Kashmir's independence from India or its merger with Pakistan since 1989.
More than 68,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the uprising and the subsequent Indian crackdown.
"Incidents of unprovoked and innocent killings will not be tolerated, and whosoever is involved in such killings will be brought to book and doled out exemplary punishment so that it becomes a lesson and deterrent for others as well," Omar Abdullah, the top elected official of the region, said in a statement.

  US missionary in China after North Korea release
AFP, Beijing

A US missionary released by North Korea after entering the communist country on Christmas Day to protest against human rights abuses arrived in China Saturday en route to his homeland, the US embassy said.
North Korean authorities detained Robert Park, 28, for illegal entry after he crossed a frozen border river from China.
He carried a letter calling on leader Kim Jong-Il to free political prisoners, shut prison camps, improve rights and step down.
"We welcome North Korea's release of Robert Park, who arrived in Beijing this morning," said US embassy spokeswoman Susan Stevenson.
"Mr Park is being assisted by embassy consular officers as he prepares to return to the US today."
The missionary had expressed "sincere repentance" for his actions, which were prompted by "false propaganda" from the West, the North's official news agency said Friday upon announcing he would be released.
"The relevant organ of the DPRK (North Korea) decided to leniently forgive and release him, taking his admission and sincere repentance of his wrongdoings into consideration," said the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
The North has said it is also holding an American arrested for illegal entry from China on January 25. That person's motives and identity are unknown and Friday's report did not mention him.
Sanctions-hit North Korea has said it wants better relations with the United States after decades of hostility.
As a condition for returning to stalled multinational nuclear disarmament negotiations, it wants Washington to agree to hold formal peace talks.

 Iran’s Mottaki holds ‘very good’ nuclear talks
AFP, Munich, Germany

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Saturday that he had held a "very good meeting" with the head of the UN's nuclear watchdog on proposals for a uranium exchange deal."Today I had a very good meeting with the head of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) Yukiya Amano," on the sidelines of a major security conference in Munich, southern Germany, Mottaki said. He declined to comment further on what was discussed, however.
"We discussed and exchanged views about a wide range of issues ... We also exchanged views about the proposal that is on the table. I tried to explain the views of the Islamic republic of Iran for the director general," he said.
Iran appeared to reject last October a deal proposed by the IAEA for Iran to export low-enriched uranium (LEU) to France and Russia to be further purified into fuel for a research reactor in Tehran.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad then said on Tuesday however that he would have "no problem" sending some its LEU abroad, in a deal that would be seen as an important breakthrough in Iran's standoff with the West.
U.S., Germany say Iran not ready for nuclear deal
Reuters adds: The United States and Germany said they saw no sign Tehran would make concessions on its nuclear programme despite upbeat comments from Iran's foreign minister over prospects for a deal.
U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates said he did not believe agreement was near on a proposal to exchange Iran's low-enriched uranium for higher-grade fuel for use in a Tehran reactor making medical isotopes, and suggested it was time for more sanctions on Iran.
An accord on exchanging fuel could mark a major breakthrough in the long-running dispute over Iran's nuclear programme, which the West fears could be used to produce an atomic bomb.
China prefers talks to sanction
Six major powers on Friday discussed efforts to persuade Iran to halt its nuclear enrichment program but China made clear it wants them to keep talking rather than impose new sanctions on Tehran.

  Palestinians question US on reviving peace talks
AP, Cairo

The Palestinians have asked the Obama administration to clarify a U.S. envoy's proposal to restart long-stalled peace talks with Israel indirectly by shuttling between the two sides, the Palestinian president said Saturday.
The talks collapsed a year ago during Israel's war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Efforts by President Barack Obama since then to revive them have failed in large part over the issue of Israel's settlement construction in areas the Palestinians want for a future state.
On Saturday, Abbas met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, whose country has also served as an intermediary between Israel and the Palestinians, to discuss the new U.S. plan.
"We have asked the American side some questions ... and the answers will be discussed within a joint Arab framework and then we will announce our position," Abbas said. The Palestinian president said in a meeting with reporters Friday night that he is optimistic the United States can push the sides back to talks. First, though, he wants clear guidelines on the offer by U.S. envoy George Mitchell to conduct shuttle diplomacy.
Peace talks that began in November 2007 under former President George W. Bush broke off in December 2008 with Israel's attack on Gaza, which is ruled by Abbas' rivals in the Islamic militant Hamas movement.
"I'm optimistic that the American administration is capable of doing something to bring about a breakthrough in the peace process," Abbas said Friday.
He made it clear, however, that the Palestinians were not willing to offer more compromises to get the process moving again.
The Palestinians insist first on a full freeze of Israeli settlement building in the West Bank. They rejected a partial 10-month freeze imposed in late November as insufficient because it does not include east Jerusalem, where Palestinians hope to establish a capital.

  France allows warship sale to Russia
AP, Moscow

A Russian naval official says France will allow the sale of an advanced warship to Russia, the Interfax news agency reported Saturday.
The agency quoted naval first deputy chief of staff Vice Adm. Oleg Burtsev as saying French President Nicolas Sarkozy has sanctioned the sale of a Mistral amphibious assault ship. There was no immediate confirmation from Paris.
The deal "is unlikely to happen in February or March this year, but work on the matter is continuing," Burtsev was quoted as saying. Russia has been looking at similar ships made in Spain and the Netherlands.
Possessing a Mistral would significantly increase the military's capability to mount offensives. France sent a Mistral, which weight 23,700 tons (21,500 metric tons) and is 980 feet (299 meters) long, to visit St. Petersburg last year in a clear sign of interest in a potential sale, which would be the first arms deal between a NATO country and Russia.
However, the prospect has alarmed some ex-Soviet countries, particularly Georgia and Estonia, and some critics in Russia say the country should develop such a ship by itself.
Those concerns have raised doubts about whether France would ultimately authorize a Mistral sale, and whether Russia would actually buy one.

  Whaler, activist ship collide again off Antarctica
AP, Sydney

The anti-whaling ship the Bob Barker and a Japanese harpoon boat collided in the icy waters off Antarctica on Saturday - the second major clash this year in the increasingly aggressive confrontations between the two sides.
No one was reportedly injured in the latest strike. The U.S.-based activist group Sea Shepherd, which sends vessels to confront the Japanese fleet each year, said a small hole was torn in the hull of its ship, but it was above the water line and the vessel was not in danger of sinking.
Sea Shepherd founder Captain Paul Watson said by satellite telephone that the Japanese ship rammed the Bob Barker - named after the U.S. game show host who donated millions to buy it for Sea Shepherd - as it blocked the slipway of the Japanese fleet's factory ship.
Watson's claim that the Bob Barker was deliberately hit could not be independently verified. Japanese Fisheries Agency official Takashi Mori said officials were trying to confirm details of a reported clash.
Saturday's collision was the second this year between a Sea Shepherd boat and the Japanese fleet. On Jan. 6, a Japanese whaler struck Sea Shepherd's high-tech speed boat Ady Gil and sheared off its nose. The Bob Barker then came to rescue the crew of the Ady Gil, which sank a day later.
Sea Shepherd and the whalers have faced off in Antarctic waters for the past few years over Japan's annual whale hunt, with each side accusing the other of acting in increasingly dangerous ways. Sea Shepherd activists try to block the whalers from firing harpoons, and they dangle ropes in the water to try to snarl the Japanese ships' propellers.

  Hamas wants ICC to judge 'Zionist war criminals'
AFP, Gaza City

Hamas wants what it calls "Zionist war criminals" brought before the International Criminal Court over last year's Israeli assault on Gaza, an official of the Islamist group said on Saturday.
"We ask the United Nations to transfer the matter to the ICC so that the Zionist war criminals can be brought to justice," said Mohammed Faraj al-Ghul, justice minister in the Hamas administration of the Gaza Strip.However, he also said he expected that the United States would block any such move.
"We expect that the American administration will intervene to block these criminals being judged," Ghul said.
Some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed during the Israeli offensive aimed at halting rocket attacks from the territory ruled by the militant group which is sworn to the destruction of the Jewish state.A UN Human Rights Council report by the respected former international prosecutor Richard Goldstone accused both Israel and Palestinian groups of committing war crimes during the devastating 22-day conflict.On January 27, Hamas said it had investigated those allegations and absolved Palestinian armed groups of any atrocities.

  Men who eat soy may have lower lung cancer risk
Reuters, New York

Men who don't smoke and eat a lot of soy may have a lower risk of lung cancer, according to a new study.
Soy contains isoflavones, which act similarly to the hormone estrogen, and may have anti-cancer qualities in hormone-related cancers of the breast and prostate, the researchers note in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Cells in the lung have properties that suggest they may also respond to isoflavones.
Dr. Taichi Shimazu, of the National Cancer Center in Tokyo, and colleagues studied more than 36,000 Japanese men and more than 40,000 Japanese women, 45 to 74 years old and free of cancer at the start of the study.
The researchers followed the women for about 11 years, after surveying their food intake, smoking status, medical history, and other lifestyle factors between 1995 and 1999.
Overall rates of lung cancer were small: 481 men-or about one in 75 -- and 178 women, or about one in 225 -- were diagnosed during the 11 years of the study.
Among the slightly more than 13,000 men who never smoked, there were 22 lung cancer cases among men who ate the least soy, and just 13 lung cancer cases among those who ate the most. Shimazu said men's soy intake from food varied widely, from about 34 to about 162 grams per day.
After taking a number of factors into account, the risk about halved in the highest versus the lowest intake group.
There were even fewer lung cancer cases among women, so researchers could draw no conclusions about their risks.
The authors note that men it may not be the act of eating soy that lowered lung cancer risk in the men in their study.

  Pentagon strategizes for unknown
Xinhua, Washington

In the post 9/11 world, the U.S. military is girding for a 21st century enemy. That shift away from conventional warfare-two large, state-backed forces clashing on an open battlefield-has been ongoing since U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates took office and is reflected in the new Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), a key Pentagon strategic document published every four years, which was released Monday.
But for the Pentagon, the challenge is not so much preparing for tomorrow's wars as it is preparing for the unknown, experts say.
Indeed, the new QDR strategizes for the types of wars at hand-fighting insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan-but there is no guarantee that these will resemble tomorrow's conflicts. Moreover, changes will take years to implement, even as the military is unsure about what threats lay ahead, experts say.
The document steers away from the long-held notion that the armed forces should be prepared for two full scale conventional wars at the same time, and says U.S. forces must prepare for "asymmetrical warfare"-unconventional wars often fought against non-state actors, such as Al Qaeda.
"America's current and future adversaries will make innovative use of readily available emerging and commercial technologies and employ asymmetric tactics to disrupt the superiority of U.S. military power," the QDR said.
It pushes for more intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, using unmanned aerial vehicles and other such platforms, which are viewed as crucial to the warfare in Afghanistan and Iraq.
There is an emphasis on preventing Al Qaeda from regaining a foothold in Afghanistan and on assisting foreign militaries in a bid to take some of the pressure off U.S. forces in the global fight against militancy.
But analysts said it would take at least a decade until the military could actually begin to reshape itself and, by that time, the United States might be fighting new enemies with new capabilities.

Business/Economy

Govt. for transparency, good policy in banking sector: Muhith

BSS, Sylhet

Minister for Finance Abul Maal Abdul Muhith has said the government is determined to establish transparency and good policy for the banking sector in the country. "The government has planned to pass a banking reform law in the current fiscal in parliament," he told a function on Friday.
Expressing the hope that an 'Insurance regulatory law' to be passed soon in the Jatiya Sangsad, he said, adding 'Our aim is to ensure transparency in banking sector of the country. The Finance Minister was addressing a two-day conference of the officials of anti-money laundering cell of the Bangladesh Bank. He said a certain banks in the country through their system is supporting international terrorism instead of working for the development of the people and the country.
"That's why, he hoped, that the condition of our economy could be changed through carrying out banking reform and good policy for banking sector." Chaired by deputy governor of Bangladesh Bank, Ziaul Hasan Siddiqui, the function was also addressed, among others, by Governor of Bangladesh Bank(BB) Dr Atiur Rahman as special guest.
Dr Atiur Rahman said money laundering and spending money on terrorism are the main hindrances in the growth of socio-economy of Bangladesh like other countries.
He said the central bank has stepped up various time befitting efforts to overcome the situation in this regard. The BB governor said Bangladesh for the first time had formulated "Money Laundering Prevention Law " in 2002 among South Asian Countries.
He said the Bangladesh government is determined to curb money laundering and terrorism.
The governor expressed the hoped that the Bangladesh will be a money laundering and terrorism free country in the near future through active participation and cooperation of all.

 SOFTEXPO-2010 from Feb 10
UNB, Dhaka

The five-day SOFTEXPO-2010 will be kicked off Wednesday at the city's Bangabandhu International Conference Centre with the participation of over 150 local and international companies.
Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS), the lone organization to promote the country's booming software industry, is organizing the biggest software exposition with the theme of 'Digital Bangladesh in Action'.
BASIS President Habibullah N Karim told a press briefing at a city hotel that the ICT event is likely to have a large software display and IT-enabled services (ITES) breaking all previous records in the country.
He said over 150 local and international companies are expected to participate in the SOFTEXPO.
Replying to a query, Habibullah N Karim said the country's software accessories export increased by $5.91 million in the last fiscal to $32.91 million.
The BASIS president hoped that the export volume would be increased
by 30 to 40 percent next year.
BASIS director Mubin Khan said the event would create a wide scope for interaction among software providers, buyers, IT users, professionals, media, policymakers, development partners and IT students.
BASIS SOFTEXPO is envisaged to create a platform for showcasing immense potential of the industry by harmonizing all sorts of software resources and skills available in Bangladesh contributing to the country's GDP, organizers said.
Bangladesh has now more than 20,000 IT professionals engaged with over 500 software and ITES.
Chairman of National Events Committee (NEC) A Towhid, Secretary General of BASIS Nahid Ahmed and Events Committee Cochairman Faisal Alim took part in the press conference.

  Tea-exporting BD to become importer in five years’ time
UNB, Dhaka

Bangladesh, known as a tea-exporting country, will turn into a tea-importing one within the next five years due to the fast-growing domestic demand.
"Some 58 million kilograms of tea are produced in the country every year of which 10-12 percent are exported," Dr Mohammed Ataur Rahman, former Manager of Forestry and Subsidiary Crops of James Finlay (Bangladesh) Limited told UNB.
Referring to the growing habit of taking tea by people, Dr Mohammed Ataur Rahman said Bangladesh used to export 80 percent of its produced tea barely 20 years back when local tea consumption was very low. "The country will have to import tea if its people start taking more than one cup of tea regularly," he said.
Dr Mohammed Ataur Rahman, also Director of Education for Sustainability and Centre for Global Environmental Culture (CGEC) of the IUBAT-International University of Business Agriculture and Technology, has a book on tea to his credit.
The book titled 'Improvement of Tea: Environment and Cultural Practices' was published recently.
In his book, he described that Bangladeshi tea is characterized by strong liquor and moderate flavor. "About seventeen promising well-suited clones are developed by Bangladesh Tea Research Institute and those are being propagated quickly and cultivated in tea estates."
Besides, the book said, high-yielding clones have also been introduced from India, China and Kenya. In most cases, high-yield, flavor and disease resistance parameters are considered with a hope to increase the yield.
Emphasizing the need for improving the yield, he suggested that natural habitat, climatic condition, soil and associate flora, manpower, transportation, power and fuel should also be considered along with high yielding, disease resistant and good liquored Jat (variety) for sustainable tea cultivation.
Dr Rahman, who obtained his PhD degree on Forestry and Environment, from California, USA, mentioned that indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides can bring quick benefit but at the cost of soil health, natural associate flora and fauna as well as environment. "Hence, in the long run, the ultimate loss will become many times more than the benefits."
All options should be explored to increase the yield and production, he said adding that Bangladesh has the materials, market and manpower and it is only the thought to be implied for the improvement of tea with the existing facilities to achieve the maximum yield. "Therefore, the future of Bangladesh tea depends on the planning of research at appropriate direction." Terming tea as the cheapest versatile natural beverage in the world, Dr Rahman mentioned that tea has medicinal and health values and international acceptability.
He said various age groups in all sections of society consume tea and some three billion cups of tea are consumed daily worldwide. "Tea is business to many; it's a partner in progress and development and a major item of trade," he said, adding that it's also part and parcel of research, art and literature.
In his book, Dr Ataur mentioned that tea, especially green tea, has already been proved as a great therapeutic contains powerful anti-oxidants like catechins, Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), gallotannin and polyphenols, which are beneficial in counteracting a number of fatal diseases like breast and ovarian cancers, tumors and heart diseases.
Dr Ataur said drinking of 8-10 cups of green tea a day is beneficial against coronary heart attacks, obesity, Alzheimer disease, diarrhoea and gastro-intestinal diseases. "As to the future, researchers hope to find out more about how specific components in tea are used by the body and the mechanism by which they may contribute to disease prevention."

  DITF ends today
Walton receiving huge orders for television

TBT Economy Desk

Walton pavilion at the Dhaka International Trade Fair (DITF) that ends today (Sunday) is now only receiving orders from customers for television as its stock has already finished due to record sales.
DITF, the country's biggest trade fair, organized in the city's Sher-e-Banglanagar area began on January 1 and was scheduled to close on January 31, but due to demand form public and participants it was extended by February 7.
The eye-catching Walton pavilion seen after entering from the main gate of DITF sees record sales this year, and especially sales of Walton brand television has increased significantly.
Senior Marketing Manager of Walton Mosharrof Hossain Rajib said: "Our stock of Walton brand television has finished due to record sales, now we are receiving orders that will be supplied after the fair".
From the first day of DITF, people are thronging the Walton pavilion to buy its branded products as on the occasion of fair it has significantly reduced prices of its products, especially prices of Walton brand televisions, sources said.
A 21-inch Walton brand television is being sold at the fair at Tk 13,300, but it is sold at its showrooms at Tk 14,000. A brand of 21-inch television costs Tk 13, 500 but outside it costs Tk 14, 300.
Prices of several models at the fair are Tk 13, 700 outside 14, 500, Tk 12, 000 (colour) outside Tk 13, 500, Tk 8, 500 (14 inch) outside Tk 9,000 and Tk 8, 400 (14 inch) outside Tk 8,900.
About the huge rush of customers, sources also say Walton pavilion has announced the magic offer programme under which after every purchase of Walton brand product, customers are getting a wide rage of high quality gift items including 125cc motorcycle, LCD monitor TV, refrigerator, microwave oven, DVD player, digital lamp, etc. Mosharrof Hossain Rajib said: "Walton has participated in the fair not only to sell its products but also to inform the countrymen about the Walton brand products that are manufactured in Bangladesh with some innovative and high-end features"
He also said Walton is winning heart of customers due to it warranty and after-sales-services, says a press release.

  Obama proposes measures to shore up small businesses
AFP, Washington

US President Barack Obama called Saturday for new steps to support America's small businesses, saying they are key to rebuilding the economy on a new, stronger foundation and creating jobs.
"These companies represent the essence of the American spirit - the promise that anyone can succeed in this country if you have a good idea and the determination to see it through," Obama said in his weekly radio address. The president said last year, his administration had taken measures that supported over 47,000 loans to small businesses and delivered billions of dollars in tax relief to small business owners. But he argued that more must be done.
Obama said he had proposed taking 30 billion dollars from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) fund originally used for bailing out Wall Street investment banks and create a new Small Business Lending Fund that will provide capital for community banks on Main Street. "These are the small, local banks that will be able to give our small business owners more of the credit they need to stay afloat," the president noted. He said the government should also continue to waive fees, increase guarantees, and expand the size of loans for small businesses.
Obama said he had also proposed a new tax credit for more than one million small businesses that hire new workers or raise wages "to give these companies greater incentives to grow and create jobs".

  India, China have major role in revival of global economy

 BSS/PTI, Washington
The International Monetary Fund has said India and China are playing a significant role in the revival of the global economy.
"When you have two relatively large economies growing at 7 and 10 per cent, respectively, India and China, they are contributing quite a lot to global growth," IMF Deputy Director, Asia and Pacific Department, Kalpana Kochhar said during a teleconference here.
"Our forecast for global growth for next year is close to 4 per cent. I think it's 3.9 per cent, of which advanced countries are only contributing less than two per cent. So the rest of it is in fact coming from emerging markets, and from within emerging markets, a large part from China and India," Kochhar said.
"So it's a significant contribution that's coming from these two countries," the IMF official said in response to a question.
In response to a question, Kochhar said the Indian rupees is broadly in line with fundamentals.
"We have a number of ways in which we look at whether the value of any currency, including the rupee, is in line with what we call fundamentals. Our assessment in the case of the Indian rupee is that it is broadly in line with fundamentals," she said.

National

40,000 die of kidney failure annually
BSS, Dhaka

Experts at a seminar on Saturday termed chronic kidney disease as a major public health concern in the country as its 90 percent people are unable to bear treatment cost.
About two crore people are somehow suffering from the disease, while 40,000 people die of longtime kidney failure a year in the country, they told a seminar in the city. They also said there is only one nephrologist for 25 lakh people in the country, but the ratio should be one for 50,000 people.
The rate of the chronic kidney disease now reached at 18 percent in the last 10 years by raising 50 percent, the experts said.If the present rate of the disease continues it will be stood at 28-30 percent in the next 10 years which is very alarming, they said.
Bangladesh Association for the Advancement of Science (BAAS) arranged the seminar on 'Chronic Kidney Diseases: Bangladesh Perspective' at the Assembly Hall of BCSIR.
Vice-Chancellor of Daffodil International University Professor Dr Aminul Islam attended the seminar as the chief guest, while Vice-Chancellor of Jahangirnagar University Professor Dr Shariff Enamul Kabir was present as the special guest.
With BAAS President Dr SM Imamul Haque in the chair, the function was addressed, among others, by Chairman of Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission Dr Mosharraf Hossain and BAAS General Secretary Harun-Or-Rashid. Eminent kidney specialist and former chairman of the Department of Nephrology, BSMMU, Prof Harun-Ur-Rashid presented the keynote paper at the seminar also attended by four hundred lecturers and scientists from different institutions.
The experts said people have been suffering from kidney disease for various reasons including diabetes, high blood pressure and genetic reasons. Fifty-one percent people are not aware of diabetes, 65 percent are not aware of high blood pressure, while 65 percent do not know that whether any albumin is passing with their urine, they said.
In his keynote paper, Prof Harun said the rate of chronic kidney disease is increasing alarmingly across the world, including Bangladesh, and it is being considered as one of the major health concerns.
"The big problem in the chronic kidney disease is that it has no symptom and people with the disease do not visit doctors. When the symptom is appeared, their kidney went out of order," he said. At that time, Prof Harun said, regular dialysis or transplantation is needed to keep the kidney functional.
"But, 90 percent people cannot afford the treatment cost as the dialysis or transplantation is very expensive. As a result, they slowly move towards death," he said. Against the backdrop of increasing number of chronic kidney patients, he suggested regular checking up diabetes, blood pressure and albumin by the people above 40. Prof Harun also suggested walking for at least 30 minutes every day, avoiding salt and smoking as well as controlling fat.

  Manpower crisis hampering client service at Barisal ICB
UNB, Barisal

Client service at the local office of the public brokerage house Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB) has been hampering due to manpower crisis and non-resident staffs.
Sources said local capital market has recently gained heavy rush attracted by the online transaction facilities, but the clients became frustrated about the service standard of the ICB.
In the meantime, more than 50 percent accounts of Barisal ICB were closed down by the clients due to its sub-standard service.
Korban Ali, senior principal officer and branch manager of Barisal ICB, said ICB's local branch started functioning in 1988 and number of account reached to 4,252.
But according to a prescription of Asian Development Bank, ICB stopped opening account since 2002 and formed three subsidiary companies for these jobs.
In course of time curbing facilities for running stock business and taking more rigid roles, disappointed account holders of Barisal ICB started to close their accounts day by day and now only about 1,800 accounts remained in force, Korban said. ICB Barisal was enlisted with Dhaka and Chittagong Stock Exchanges (DSE and CSE) with direct trading facilities.
He said there are only 5 officers and an employee in ICB Barisal branch, quite insufficient to run the activities. There is no programmer or manpower in IT section.
With this limited non-technical manpower it is very difficult to satisfy hundreds of clients during rush hours of direct daily transactions, updating their portfolio and financial profiles and receiving subscriptions for Initial Public Offers, the Barisal ICB manger said.
Mizanur Rahman and M Shahnewaj Shahin, leaders of Barisal Investors Forum, alleged that conservative policies of the ICB are frustrating the clients. The staff members joined here keeping their family members in Dhaka. They regularly leave station on early hours of every weekend and join work in late hours of week-day, forum leaders said.
Besides, failure to establish direct link with ICB main server, lack of technical manpower and heavy losses to the ICB clients are increasing frustration among the stock businessmen, the investor forum leaders opined.

 Call for resisting conspiracy against setting up university in CHT

BSS, Rangamati

State Minister for Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs Dipankar Talukdar has urged all concerned to resist any conspiracy against establishing a university and a medical college in the CHT in line with the present government's plan to enhance standard of education in the region.
The state minister said a vested quarter has been hatching conspiracies to thwart the pro-people venture of the present government that would bring about a tremendous positive change in the education sector and lead the CHT a step ahead.
Dipankar made the call while laying the foundation stone of the teachers' dormitory and students' hostel of Shah Multi- purpose High School at Tabalchhari in the town as the chief guest on Friday.
Chairman of Rangamati Hill District Council, Nikhil Kumar Chakma, deputy commissioner, Saurendra Nath Chakravarty, superintendent of police, Masud-Ul- Hassan and former chairman of RHDC, Manik Lal Dewan were, among others, present at the ceremony as special guests with the president of the executive committee of the school, Nazia Shirin in the chair.
Headmaster of the school Mainuddin Mintoo delivered the welcome address at the ceremony.
The state minister urged the teachers and guardians to enhance the standard of education in respective institutions.
The teachers' dormitory and students' hostel of the school will be constructed at a cost of Tk. 1.5 crore under the supervision of the RHDC. The function was followed by a parade and dance by the students of the school.

   Treatment affected in Pirojpur due to shortage of doctors
UNB, Pirojpur

Treatment of the patients in the government hospitals in the district is being hampered seriously due to acute shortage of physicians.
Sources said posts of 96 physicians out of 142 are lying vacant in Sadar hospital and six health complexes in the district.
Only 46 doctors are struggling to cope with healthcare service for about 12 lakh people in seven upazilas in the district. On an average, one doctor is available for every 26,000 people in the district. Officials sources said Sadar hospital was upgraded to 100-bed one from a 50-bed in 2006 but it is still running with the previous staff strength.
Thirteen posts of doctors out of 22 including some senior consultants are lying vacant at the hospital now, hospital sources said. There are no physicians in Anesthesia, Radiology, Pathology, Medicine and Dental departments. The upazila health complexes of the district are also facing acute shortage of doctors.
Mathbaria 50-bed Upazila Health Complex is running with six doctors against the 31 posts. There are no junior consultants in any department of the health complex.
Only eight doctors are running Swarupkati Uapzila Health Complex as 22 out of 30 posts of doctors are lying vacant.
In Kaukhali upazila, 11 out of 14, in Bhandaria seven out of 15, in Nazirpur 12 out of 17 and in Zianagar 10 out of 13 posts are lying vacant.
Civil Surgeon ABM Shamsul Alam said doctors do not want come to district town leaving the capital and divisional towns as they can do private practice there.
"Though some physicians were given postings here, they managed their transfer through lobbying in upper level," he said. As a result, the patients are being deprived of proper treatment at the hospitals as authorities are facing difficulties to run the hospitals due to shortage of physicians.

 15,000 poor patients get health service from Bangabandhu Memorial Trust

BSS, Dhaka

Over 15,000 ultra poor patients is getting health services in a day from Free Health Service Camp, across the country, conducted by Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Memorial Trust.
Chief coordinator of the camps Dr MH Millat at a press briefing told reporters that the trust is providing heath services to the ultra poor people through the health camps in 12 upazilas under six divisions since January 10.
A camp comprising 30 doctors are providing free health services from 10am to 5 pm everyday side by side with giving medicine to the poor patients.
Dr Millat said that initially the trust has taken the initiative to provide free heath care service along with medicine among five lakh poor patients in 476 upazillas across the country.
The heath service activities of the trust will continue till March 17, the birthday of Bangabandhu and the National Children Day, he said.
Member Secretary of the trust Sheikh Hafizur Rahman, Dr Kamrul Hasan and Dr MA Aziz among others were present.

 Four killed in road crashes
TBT News Desk

At least four people were killed in road accidents in two districts on Saturday, according to a news agency.
In Sherpur, two young motorcyclists were run over by a speedy bus at Bhatshala at about 3-45pm Saturday.
Jewel, 18, a Dakhil examinee, and Polash, 13, student of Class IV, died on the spot. Witnesses said the bus from Shambuganj carrying disciples of a peer was heading toward Bakshiganj when the motorcyclists came on its way. The bus driver managed to flee after the accident.
Angered by the death of two young men due to rash driving, locals damaged a number of passing vehicles and blocked the road for sometime. They demanded speed breakers on the road to check high speed driving.
Police rushed to the scene and arranged construction of several speed breakers on the road to assuage the anger of the people who withdrew the blockade after about two hours.
In Natore, two bicyclists were killed in a tragic road accident at Berilabari area in Lalpur upazila Saturday morning.
Police said the two bicyclists - Shahidul Islam and Ataur Rahman Bishwas - died on the spot at 9:30am when a Rajshahi bound picnic party bus from Sylhet rammed their vehicle from behind.
Outraged by the accident, local people damaged the bus. On information, police rushed in and arrested bus driver Shamim, son of Shahab Uddin of Savar. A case was filed.

   RAKUB disburses Taka 29.05 crore agri-loan in Joypurhat
BSS, Joypurhat

Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank (RAKUB) disbursed Taka 29.05 crore as loan for boosting rural economy as well as generating employment through enhancing agricultural and non-agricultural production in Joypurhat during the first half of the current 2009-2010 fiscal year.
RAKUB sources said the loan was disbursed through 15 branches of the bank in the district.
RAKUB Zonal Manager Md. Abdul Waseque told BSS correspondent that the bank has set a target of disbursing Taka 63.42 crore loan and recovering Taka 52.28 crore in the current fiscal.
The zonal manager said the bank has enhanced its lending activities in multipurpose potential fields for boosting agriculture production, intensifying food security and flourishing poultry and dairy sectors to reduce protein deficiency.
The sector wise break up of the loan is as follows: crop cultivation Taka 13.70 crore, fisheries Taka 64 lakh, Taka 1.82 crore in the livestock and animal husbandry sector, Taka 72 lakh for purchasing irrigation and agro-equipment, Taka 6.18 crore for working capital, Taka 85 lakh for poverty alleviation, Taka 19 lakh for agro-based industry, Taka 1,35 crore for small and medium enterprise and Taka 3.60 crore disbursed in other sectors during the period.
Main thrust of the programme is to enhance credit flow towards the potential crop production sector and bring all the land less, marginal and small share-croppers under its credit facilities in phases without security deposits. He said this is the first step to provide credit support to the land less, poor and marginal farmers without deposit.

Sports

Bangladesh fights for bronze today
TBT report

Bangla-desh will have a psychological edge when it appears in a match to regain its bronze against Sri Lanka today.
Bangladesh faces Sri Lanka in the bronze deciding match of the 11th South Asian Games hockey competition at Moulana Bhasani National Hockey Stadium, Dhaka.
The match is scheduled to start at 11:30 am.
Bangladesh, which lost its bronze to Sri Lanka in the 2006 Colombo South Asian Games, will draw inspirations from its 3-1 victory against the Lankans and 3-3 draw with the Asian giant India.
Having run the Indians to the wire, Bangladesh eventually succumbed to the second half pressure from the Indian side but their never-say-die attitude drew admiration from the fans.
Conceding a goal just three minutes from time Bangladesh players did not give up and forced the Indians to a draw with a last gasp equaliser just one minute before the hooter.
"Boys are determined to give their best. They don't want to miss their last medal opportunity," Manager of the Bangladesh Hockey Team Anvir Adil Khan said on Saturday.
"Players are in good form. There is no injury scare in the team and the boys are gaining their top rhythm. Hopefully they'll flourish against Sri Lanka and extend desired performance tomorrow (Sunday)," Khan, the former goalkeeper of Bangladesh national hockey team, added.
Asked on the opponents, he said Sri Lanka is also a very good team and it will not be an easy task to defeat them. "We defeated Sri Lanka in the first match but every match is different. They is no way to take them lightly and we have to put our best efforts to overcome their challenge.
Bangladesh: Mehrab Hossain Kiron, Zahid Hossain (Goalkeeper), Mamunur Rahman Chayan, Aasaduzzaman, Moshiur Rahman Biplob (Captain), Imran Hasan Pintu, Taposh Barman. Russell Mahmud Jimmy, Sheikh Nannu, Abdus Sajjad John, Mohammad Kamruzzaman, Pushkar Khisha, Zahidul Islam, Golam Mustafa, Mohammad Ashi-quzzaman, Moshiur Rahman Feroze.
Sri Lanka: Rathnasiri, Fernando (Goalkeeper), Anura Karunarathen, Dar-ma Dhamarathne, Sameera Perara, Pandi Panditha-rathne, Diluka Weera-sooriya, Getti Hettiarchchi, Gazzaly, Anuj Hewage, Dammika Abeyarathne (Caption), Duminda Dissanayaka, Mulaffer, Prabath Wijeyakoon, Sangeewa and Ishanka Jayasundara.

  India, Pakistan lock horns for hockey gold today
TBT report

Arch rivals India and Pakistan come head-to-head in the final showdown for gold medal glory in the hockey event of the 11th South Asian Games (SAG) today.
The final hockey duel between the two South Asian superpowers starts at 2:30 pm at Moulana Bhasani National Hockey Stadium in Dhaka.
Though both sides sent their second string national teams, there will be no dearth of excitements and fascinations. The full strength hockey teams of India and Pakistan are taking preparations in their respective countries for
the forthcoming hockey World Cup.
However, a strong feeling of excitement has been noticed among the enthusiastic Dhaka fans, who are eagerly waiting to watch the artistry and craftsmanship of the promising hockey players of India and Pakistan in the grand finale. Both sides will employ all their weapons and armaments from their arsenal to stamp their SAG supremacy.
India is the only team in the five-team contest that remained unbeaten in the preliminary affairs, while Pakistan tasted its only defeat against India (5-1). But Pakistan coach Shahbaz Junior thinks it would not put his boys down.
"We've done lots of home works and we want to lean from our mistakes. We're expecting a better show in the final," he said.
Indian coach Clarence Lobo said both sides have equal chance to win the final. "Anything can happen in the final. Pakistan has some great players to put up tough challenge. We've to fight hard to win the final," he said.
India: Mrinal, Harjit (Goalkeeper), Birendra, Belsajar, Innocent, Varinder, Prabhedep, Vikash, Dharamaveer Singh, Mohammad Aamir, V. Raghunath, Ajitesh Roy (Captain), Amit Kumar, Roshan, Promod and Bikash.
Pakistan: Imran Butt (Goalkeeper), Mohammad Khalid, Wasif Siddique, Zeeshan Ali, Mohsin Bilal, Aamir Shahzad, Waqas Akbar, Abdul Qayyum, Abdul Khaliq, Sabtain Raza (Captain), Naghman Ahmed, Kashif Javid, Abdul Ghaffar, Mohammad Waqas, Zubair Ahmed, Tasawar Abbass.

  India wins gold in 66kg wrestling
TBT report

Pradeep Kumar of India won the first gold in wrestling in 66kg category after the opening of the event at Dhaka Kabaddi Stadium on Saturday.
Bangladeshi participant secured bronze in this category along with Sri Lankan Sorat Chandra Ray, while Pakistani wrestler Muha-mmed Salman achieved
silver.

  Japan holds off China
AFP, Tokyo

Goalkeeper Seigo Narazaki showed fine reflexes in saving a penalty as Japan held former champions China to a goalless draw in the four-nation East Asian men's championship Saturday.
China's best chance to score came in the second half when Japanese defender Yuto Nagatomo handled the ball when stopping a pass in the penalty area, giving Chinese midfielder Yang Hao a golden opportunity.
Narazaki later played down the significance of his save, saying he was disappointed with the game's outcome.
"I just turned a defeat into a draw. It would have been much better if we had won the game," Narazaki said.
The Japanese, who are preparing for the World Cup in South Africa in June, controlled the game with quick passes for most of the first half.
China missed another scoring chance earlier in the game, when defender Rong Hao's sizzling shot from outside the area struck just outside the net in the 32nd minute.
Shortly before the break, the home side narrowly missed a chance when Shinji Okazaki sent a nice cross from the right to fellow forward Keiji Tamada, whose shot from close range just went wide.
In the 63rd minute, defender Atsuto Uchida broke through the right field to hit an angled shot, but the ball hit the left post and bounced back to goalkeeper Yang Zhi.
Soon afterwards, Japan failed to clear a Chinese cross, forcing Brazilian-born centre back Marcus Tulio Tanaka to clear the rebound quickly.
After China's penalty miss, midfielder Yoshito Okubo missed a goal when he fired a shot from close range, hitting substitute defender Feng Xiaoting.
"Both teams played an excellent game," said China coach Gao Hongbo. "Japan had a shot which hit the post, while we had a penalty chance, so a 0-0 draw was a reasonable result.

   Russia confident of Sochi success
AFP, Moscow

With four years remaining before the start of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, and with the Vancouver 2010 Games yet to start, Russia is confident that economic woes and political uncertainty will not derail its preparations.
The toll of the financial crisis on Russia and the enduring problem of militant attacks in the nearby Northern Caucasus region have failed to dent optimism over the country's first Winter Olympics.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said earlier this month that the construction works in the Black Sea resort city were on course.
"I received reports saying that the works at 220 of the overall 235 Olympic objects in Sochi, and its surrounding regions, are going according to the plans," he said.
"The preparation works at the other 15 objects were a bit delayed. However those gaps aren't really critical and can be easily closed."
The president also said that according to existing plans the works on transport and engineering infrastructure should be completed by September, 2012, while all the sports venues should be finished in July, 2013.
The Sochi Winter Games, which have been passionately promoted by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, will be the biggest sporting event to be hosted by Russia since the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics in the old Soviet Union.
Russia's deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, the government's pointman for the 2014 Olympics, also said that none of the existing problems in the preparations would put the Games in question.
"Of course we face certain problems in our work but none of them could threaten the future of the Olympics in Sochi," Kozak said.
Those reports were also confirmed by Jean-Claude Killy, the head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) inspection commission, which visited the Russian southern resort.
After a two-day inspection the French skiing legend said he was completely satisfied with the preparations in Sochi. "We spent 48 hours inspecting thoroughly various Olympic infrastructure objects," Killy said. "I can say that we were completely satisfied with what we have seen.
"We trust the organisers completely and are 100 percent optimistic about the future of the 2014 Games."
The Sochi Olympics organisers also said that they were set to study the experiences of the Vancouver organising committee.
Dmitry Chernyshenko, the chief of 2014 Olympics organising committee said he and his colleagues would attend the Games at Vancouver, which start on Friday, to learn any possible lessons.
"We will also participate in the closing ceremony of the Games in Vancouver," Chernyshenko said.
"The IOC and the organisers gave us eight minutes within the two-hour Games closing ceremony to introduce our Games and we will do our best to perform a show that all the world, I believe, will remember."

  Kiradech soars on Asian Tour
AFP, Bangkok

Thailand's Kiradech Aphibarnrat shot a superb eagle on the last hole to open up a two-shot lead after the third round of the season-opening Asian Tour International on Saturday.
Chasing a maiden Asian Tour victory, the burly 20-year-old produced a grandstand finish by converting a 10-foot putt following a lucky break and two mighty blows for a three-under-par 69 at the Suwan Golf and Country Club.
South Korea's Hwang Inn-choon carded the day's best of 67 to move to second place, while Singaporean Lam Chih Bing signed for a 71 to lie a further stroke back in tied third with American rookie David Johnson, who shot a 69. Filipino Angelo Que (70), last year's runner-up Tetsuji Hiratsuka of Japan (68), South African Jbe Kruger (69) and Thailand's Piya Swangarunporn (69) will start the final round four off the pace.
Kiradech, a former world junior champion, enjoyed a stroke of fortune at the closing par-five hole as his wayward tee shot hit a light post. Under the Tour regulations, it required the player to retake the shot with no penalty and the Thai made sure his second attempt split the fairway.
From 225 yards out, he then nailed a four iron approach shot to 10 feet for his eagle. "I'm very happy," said Kiradech, who has held the joint lead at the 300,000 US dollar event since the opening day.

  Kallis, Amla punish Indian bowlers
AFP, Nagpur

Jacques Kallis and Hashim Amla slammed unbeaten centuries to help South Africa seize the momentum on the opening day of the first Test against India on Saturday.
Kallis scored 159 and Amla made 115 as the tourists recovered from a shaky 6-2 to reach 291-2 at close after electing to bat at the Vidarbha Cricket Association stadium in Nagpur.
The duo shared 285 runs for the unbroken third wicket to post South Africa's highest partnership against India for any wicket.
Kallis has so far hit 13 fours and two sixes in his 290-ball knock while Amla also opened up to play some fine shots after a sedate start to his 225-ball innings.
"Kallis and Amla batted really well," said Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. "But our bowlers also did a decent job as the wicket was rather slow. They were a bit unlucky as the ball missed the edge on quite a few occasions.
"We had to go for a semi-defensive field as there was not much help for spinners. There was a bit of turn but it was not a rank turner."
Amla reached his eighth Test century in style, hitting part-time spinner Virender Sehwag for a four to the square-leg boundary.
Kallis completed his 34th Test ton to join India's Sunil Gavaskar and West Indian Brian Lara in third place on the all-time list of top century getters.
India's Sachin Tendulkar heads the list with 45 centuries, followed by Australian skipper Ricky Ponting on 39.
India's bowlers laboured without luck after tasting success in the morning session when pace spearhead Zaheer Khan (2-67) sent back openers Ashwell Prince and Graeme Smith in a fiery opening spell.
Prince was out for a duck, caught behind by Dhoni in the fifth over when he failed to fend off a bouncer, although TV replays suggested the ball brushed past his arm guard rather than the gloves.
The pacer struck again in his next over to remove Smith (six) with a ball that moved through the gap between bat and pad, cleaning up the stumps in spectacular fashion.
Kallis and Amla then steadied the innings, putting on 103 runs off 33 overs in the post-lunch period and another 98 in the final session. Kallis looked confident against the spinners, slog-sweeping Harbhajan Singh twice for a huge six and a four in an over to race to his 53rd Test half-century off 75 balls.
"It was a very difficult start in the morning but we recovered fantastically," said South Africa's batting coach Kepler Wessels.
"It was an awesome performance by Kallis and Amla. Their shot selection was very good. You don't often see Harbhajan go through without a maiden. They had a very good game plan against Harbhajan and executed it perfectly."
Injury-hit India, missing the experienced trio of Rahul Dravid, Venkatsai Laxman and Yuvraj Singh, awarded Test caps to Subramaniam Badrinath and Wriddhiman Saha.
Saha came in only because Rohit Sharma, called in as cover for Laxman, hurt his left ankle during warm-up before the toss.
The second and final Test of the series between the world's top two teams begins in Kolkata on February 14.
South Africa can snatch back the number one Test ranking from India if they win the series while the hosts need just a draw to remain on top.

  Kuyt helps Liverpool win over the Blues
AFP, Liverpool

Dirk Kuyt's 50th goal for Liverpool gave Rafa Benitez's 10 men a 1-0 victory over Everton after Sotirios Kyrgiakos's first Merseyside derby ended with the Greek defender being sent off at Anfield on Saturday.
In a hotly contested match, Kyrgiakos became the 18th player to be red-carded in 24 matches between these two rivals before South Africa's Steven Pienaar was sent off for Everton in the dying moments.
Referee Martin Atkinson had his work cut out as Everton's Marouane Fellaini was also fortunate not to be sent off.
Pienaar was also lucky to last as long as he did, yet Liverpool overcame the loss of Kyrgiakos to secure all three points that saw them move above Tottenham, who face Aston Villa later on Saturday, into fourth spot.
There have been a flurry of red cards in Merseyside derbies in recent years and the 213th meeting between the arch-rivals proved every bit as bruising.
The tone was set as early as the fourth minute when Steven Gerrard was man-handled in front of the Kop by Phil Neville, England's newly-appointed vice-captain picking himself up to deliver a set-piece which had Tim Howard scrambling to fist the ball away.
Liverpool, who had Maxi Rodriguez, Lucas and Daniel Agger back in the side, carved out the better openings as they went in search of their fifth successive home win in the league.
Agger blazed over from 12 yards, while David Ngog lost control at the vital moment after Kuyt's defence-splitting pass.
Then came the first of many poorly-timed challenges, Kuyt handed a 20th minute caution for bringing down United States international Landon Donovan just outside the area.
That allowed Everton to test Jose Reina for the first time, the Liverpool keeper tipping Leighton Baines's free-kick over for a corner.
Atkinson had not shown a red card in his last 22 games yet he had his work cut out as tempers threatened to boil over.
Pienaar has been in excellent form during Everton's revival but the South African was fortunate not to receive his marching orders for an x-rated 29th minute challenge on Javier Mascherano that left the Argentine screaming in agony. Seconds later Pienaar was left on the ground clutching his leg after a challenge by Jamie Carragher, who was shown a yellow card after Everton players had surrounded the refreree.
It was Liverpool who were reduced to 10 men 11 minutes before half time.
Kyrgiakos can have few complaints about being shown a straight red for his two-footed lunge on Fellaini which forced the midfielder off with an injury. But Benitez was furious that Fellaini was not given his marching orders after replays appeared to show he had stamped on Kyrgiakos's ankle in the same incident.
To their credit, Liverpool adopted a siege mentality after losing Kyrgiakos and went close to breaking the deadlock on the stroke of half time, Gerrard striking the bar with a 20-yard free kick.
Everton struggled to make the extra man advantage count. After Australia's Tim Cahill spurned a great chance with virtually the last action of the first half, Moyes's side hardly put Reina under any serious pressure even after Kuyt had given the hosts the lead. Kuyt had scored against Everton in a 2-0 win at Goodison Park earlier in the season and he again hurt Liverpool's arch-rivals after connecting with Gerrard's 55th minute corner.
A controversial game ended with Pienaar receiving his marching orders in the dying moments after his barge on Gerrard resulted in a second yellow card.

  Monfils sweeps aside Lu to reach semis
AFP, Johannesburg

Top seed Gael Monfils of France continued his relentless march toward the South African Open title with a straight-set quarter-final triumph over Yen-Hsun Lu of Taiwan Friday.
The world number 13 gave his best performance so far in this ATP tournament at Montecasino entertainment centre and needed only 54 minutes to complete a 6-1, 6-4 win over a brave but often outclassed opponent.
Monfils will face third seed Feliciano Lopez of Spain in the semi-finals Saturday while second seed David Ferrer meets Stephane Robert in another Franco-Spanish showdown.
"Perfect," was the verdict of crowd favourite Monfils on his display after he claimed a third consecutive straight-set victory in an event won last year by fellow Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
"I felt I had a very good game. It was a very fast match and I am happy to reach the last four and hopefully I can maintain this perfect form," he told reporters.
The 23-year-old Paris-born son of Caribbean parents who loves football and supports Arsenal and Paris Saint Germain took just 23 mintues to win the first set after twice breaking the service of Lu.
Nicknamed Randy because his American high school teachers could not pronounce his full name, Lu improved dramatically to win his first two service games in the second set to lead 2-1 before threatening to break Monfils.
But after building a 40-15 advantage, the Taiwanese ranked 96 in the world squandered his big chance with two unforced errors and lost the game by over hitting a deep return.
Monfils then broke service to take a 3-2 lead when he could easily have been trailing 4-1 and the next five games were won by the server to give Monfils his place among the last four.
Ferrer reached the semi-finals for the second consecutive year with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over young Indian Somdev Devvarman and will hope for better luck than last year when he suffered a shock loss to Frenchman Jeremy Chardy.
Lopez won 7-6 (7/2), 6-3 against American Rajeev Ram and Robert eliminated Jamaican giant Dustin Brown 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 in another tight contest to secure a place beside the top three seeds.
The semi-finals and the Sunday final will be staged before sell-out 3,300 crowds in an upmarket suburb of the South African financial capital with an 80,000-dollar winners prize at stake.

  Thongchai holds on to lead
AFP, Dubai

Overnight leader Thongchai Jaidee of Thailand opened strongly in the third round of the Dubai Desert Classic on Saturday seeking what would be the biggest win of his career.
The 40-year-old former army paratrooper parred the first two holes at the Emirates Golf Club and then birdied the third to get to nine under for the tournament.
He was joined on that mark by playing partner, Spanish veteran Miguel Angel Jimenez, who had been one of three players one stroke off the halfway lead.
The Ryder Cup star birdied the first and third holes. Thongchai has finally recovered from severe back pains to play the best golf of his career after turning 40 in November and he says that discipline has been the key to his fine recent form.
"I try to get stronger, stronger every year," the Asian No.1 said.
"I know the body, if you are getting old, you have to be concentrated for your body. If you have a back problem, any problem, then you're not very good to play golf."
Thongchai and Jimenez opened up a two-stroke gap on the field early on in the third round with big-hitting Spaniard Alvaro Quiros next best at seven under after he birdied the second.
Defending champion Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland dropped a shot at the first but picked that back up at the fourth to stay six under, the same as in-form European No.1 Lee Westwood who dropped one at the fifth.
The Irish prodigy is bidding to make history here by becoming the first man to defend the Desert Classic title in the 21-year long history of the Gulf's premier tournament.
Also moving to six under through seven holes was English No.1 Paul Casey who opened with two birdies and Italy's promising Edoardo Molinari.