TUESday, FEBRUARY 9, 2010 magh 27, 1416, SAFAR 23, 1431 Hijri

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Leading News

Kuwait assures Bangladesh of all-out support for dev
PM meets Emir and Prime Minister of Kuwait

BSS, Kuwait City

Kuwait on Monday showed keen interest in providing all-out support to different development projects in Bangladesh and also expansion of bilateral trade and business between the two brotherly Muslim countries.
The assurance came when visiting Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had separate meetings with Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah and her Kuwaiti counterpart Sheikh Nasser Al- Mohammed Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah here. The Bangladesh premier spent a very busy day in the Kuwait city on Monday, the second day of her three-day state visit in the oil rich Arab country.
During the meetings, they discussed matters related to different bilateral interests and expansion of trade and business between Bangladesh and Kuwait for the mutual benefits of two peoples. Other important issues like Bangladeshi manpower export, river dredging and Kuwaiti investment in Bangladesh's development sector also came up prominently for discussion during these meetings.
Referring to the Kuwaiti investment in Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina urged the Kuwaiti entrepreneurs to invest more in Bangladesh taking advantage of her government's "lucrative" investment policy. In this context, she said her government would provide possible assistance for foreign investment in Bangladesh and laid emphasis on exchange of visits programmes of the businessmen of two countries to widen the way for further enhancing the trade relations between the two countries.
About the manpower export, she said her government is providing training to the Bangladeshi workers on the language, customs, laws and technical know-how to enable them to work efficiently in different host countries.
Sheikh Hasina said Kuwait can import more Bangladeshi semi- skilled, skilled and technical people experienced in construction, power, water, civil aviation, petro-chemical, gas and hospital works as they are gentle and law abiding.
During the meetings, the Emir and the Prime Minister of Kuwait expressed the hope that the parliamentary democracy would be further consolidated on a firm footing in Bangladesh under the able and prudent leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Referring to her role on the climate change issue, the Emir and the Prime Minister of Kuwait said Bangladesh has come in the forefront of world leadership to stand beside the Most Vulnerable Countries through the bold leadership of Sheikh Hasina.
In these meetings, the Kuwaiti leaders recalled with great respect the role of Father of the Nation and the greatest Bengali of all time Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and also his daughter Sheikh Hasina's vision towards building a poverty and hunger free prosperous Bangladesh.
Earlier, on her arrival at the Bayan Palace, Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammed Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah received Sheikh Hasina as a smartly turned out contingent gave her the state guard of honour.
The Prime Minister also introduced members of her entourage to her Kuwaiti counterpart. Later, they held a meeting. Afterwards, Sheikh Hasina went to Seif Palace where she held a meeting with Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah. As the programme is over, the Prime Minister paid a call on Speaker of Kuwait Parliament (Maslis-e-Ummah) Jassem Al Khorafi at the parliament building here Monday afternoon.
During the meeting, they discussed matters of different bilateral issues including strengthening the parliamentary democracy.

 BNP to protest price hike, repression, anti-nation pacts
Khaleda reveals party strategy to journalists

UNB, Dhaka

BNP chairperson and Leader of the Opposition Khaleda Zia Monday clearly said her party will raise voice simultaneously inside parliament and out on the street to protest "repression" on journalists, price hike of essentials and pacts signed "against country's interests".
She will return to parliament and wants to give some more time to the present government. However, Khaldea would not precisely say when she would be back to the House to end a long standoff.
The former prime minister revealed her party's strategy while answering various queries and observations made by editors and senior journalists of different national dailies, news agencies and TV channels at a high tea hosted by her at the Lakeshore Hotel in the afternoon. It was her fist formal meeting with the media since the promulgation of state of emergency on January 11, 2007 amid a political topsy-turvy over election issues and one-year rule of the Awami League-led Grand Alliance Government following a democratic transition through the December 29, 2008 polls she lost.
Khaleda said it is not that democracy would remain alive only for joining parliament, at the same time press freedom would have to be protected as it is one of the pillars of the state-known as the fourth estate. Referring to BNP's and her personal initiative to cooperate with the government and proposal for discussion on national issues to reach national consensus, the BNP chief noted that friendship does not take place unilaterally, it presupposes initiatives from both sides.
"The government has to be cooperative and show tolerance instead of hostile steps and attitude," she observed.
Former Prime Minister said journalists and newspapers would have to play courageous role against government's 'misdeeds'.
Khaleda deplored that now personal character assassination is going on in parliament where parliamentary parlances are not being practiced. Parliament is being dubbed 'fish market' and 'zoo' by ruling-party members while one Treasury Bench member termed the Speaker servant of parliament, she said, striking a note of pessimism.
"There is no control over parliament of the Speaker or of the Leader of the House," she said and questioned whether there is any healthy environment in parliament.
Even then, Khaleda said, they have decided to go to parliament. "When we have decided to join parliament, they (ruling party) are letting out more indecorous statements. The ruling party doesn't want opposition BNP to sit in parliament as they are afraid of the opposition's discussion on the government's misdeeds. But we said we will go to parliament to speak," she said.
During the questions and observations, most editors and senior journalists advised BNP to return to parliament to play its constructive role in strengthening democracy. Some suggested them not to go for hartal and destructive programs and to open talks between the two top leaders-Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina. Some wanted to know if BNP will give any movement progarmme and its position on India especially against the backdrop of the PM's visit. Those who took part in the interactions include Mahfuz Anam, Editor of The Daily Star, Motiur Rahman, Editor of Prothom Alo, Reazuddin Ahmed, Editor of the News Today, Nurul Kabir, Editor of New Age, AMM Bahauddin, Editor of Daily Inqilab, Mahbubul Alam, Editor of The Independent, seniormost journalist and columnist ABM Musa, columnist, Abed Khan, Editor of Kalerkhantha, Ataus Samad, Editor of the weekly Thikana, Farid Hossain, AP Bureau chief, Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, Editor of Bangladesh Observer, and Shykh Siraj, chief news editor of Channel i, Ruhul Amin Gazi, journalist leader, and Badiul Alam, City Editor of the News Today.
The tea party started at 4:15 pm and continued till 5:55pm amid a political storm in a teacup that signifies a lot in the country's present context. BNP chairperson Khaleda, during her about 30-minute concluding speech in reply to the editors and journalists, touched on various points and issues like the past military-backed caretaker government, repression on journalists, price hike of essentials, agreements with India during the PM's recent visit to New Delhi, terrorism, killings, tender-manipulation and extortion by ruling-party men and so on.

 Warrant of precedence
SC stays HC verdict for six weeks

BSS, Dhaka

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Monday stayed for six weeks the operation of verdict of the High Court Division that declared illegal the existing warrant of precedence.
Chamber Judge of the Appellate Division Justice Md. Mozammel Hossain issued the order of stay on a provisional leave petition brought by the government seeking stay of the operation of the High Court verdict.
The court also asked the petitioner to file leave to appeal soon after getting the certified copy of the High Court verdict.
A two-member High Court bench on February 4 in the verdict also asked the government to elevate the status of district judges above the chiefs of three services.
The verdict ordered the government to amend the present warrant of precedence within next 60 days keeping all constitutional posts atop the warrant of precedence on a writ petition filed by former secretary general of Bangladesh Judicial Service Association M Ataur Rahman in 2006.
The judgment issued eight directives including placement of district judges just after the positions of the "constitutional posts" while the army, navy and air force chiefs would follow in terms of official status.

  PDB signs deals to set up two power plants
UNB, Dhaka

The state-owned Power Development Board (PDB) on Monday signed separate contracts with two Chinese contractors to set up two power plants having total capacity of 250 MW.
The projects are Chandpur 150 MW combined cycle plant and Sylhet 100 MW simple cycle plant. However, the Sylhet 100 MW simple cycle plant will be set up as part of a 150 MW combined cycle plant. Officials hoped both the projects will come into operation by 2011.
As per the contracts, China Chengda Engineering Co. Ltd (CCECL) will set up the Chandpur combined cycle plant at a cost of Tk 1005.77 crore (about US$ 145.76 million) while Shanghai Electric Group Co. Ltd, China will install the Sylhet simple cycle plant at a cost of Tk 704.51 crore (about US$ 105.15 million). Both the contractors will have to supply the equipments and install their respective plant under turnkey contract.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith, who was preset at the signing ceremony at Bidyut Bhaban in the city, urged the Chinese contractors to complete their jobs as fast as possible.
"We hope the contractors will do their job ahead of the schedule.
Because, power and energy is the bases of all developments," he said.
Muhith alleged that the power and energy sector had gone backwards because of the previous government's corruption and misrule. He termed the Chinese contractors as development partners of the country and offered all out support to set up the power plants.
Prime Minister's Advisor Dr. Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chodhury, State Minister for Power Brig Gen (retd) Mohammad Enamul Haque, Power Secretary Abul Kalam Azad and PDB chairman ASM Alamgir Kabir also spoke at the function. As per the contract, CCECL will complete the supply and installation job of gas turbine unit of the Chandpur plant by 15 months (450 days) and its steam turbine unit by 21.66 months (650 days) from the date of contract signing. The Chandpur plant's gas turbine will come from GE Energy of France while its gas turbine generator from Brush company of Czech Republic.
On the other hand, the Shanghai Electric will supply and install the Sylhet simple cycle plant within 18 months (540 days) from the date of signing the contract.
The Sylhet project's gas turbine and generator will come from Italy's Ansaldo Energia and gas booster from Atlas Copco of USA.
PDB Secretary Eskendar Ali, CCECI chairman Cao Guang and Shanghai Electric Group chairman Zhu Denian signed the contracts on behalf of their respective sides.
PDB chairman ASM Alamgir Kabir said the initiative for both the Chandpur and Sylhet plant was taken five years back and tenders were floated five times.

   BD raises gold tally to 18
UNB, Dhaka

Bangladesh celebrated another great day in the South Asian Games on Monday as its sportsmen stole the show again on the 11th day by clinching four more gold medals, including most coveted one in football. The host beat Afghanistan 4-0 in the football final to clinch SA Games gold after 11 years.
Apart from this, Bangladesh earned three more gold medals -- two in boxing and one in Wushu. With the day's feat, Bangladesh gold medal tally rose to 18.
Mesbahuddin clinched gold medal in the men's Wushu of Nanquan and Nandaou (Taolu) event, Jewel Ahmed in the lightweight (up to 60 kg) boxing and Abdur Rahim in the light welter weight (up to 64 kgs) boxing.
Mesbah scored 18.22 to win the gold medal in Wushu, while S. Samarjit of India scored 18.20 to bag silver. R Ravindra Silva of Sri Lanka took the bronze.
Jewel Ahmed won the first boxing gold for Bangladesh beating Nepalese opponent Ajit Gurung in the final. Jayasundara of Sri Lanka and Mohammad Aziz of Afghanistan bagged the event's bronze.
Mohamamd Abdur Rahim got the 2nd boxing gold for Bangladesh in the defeating Sisira Kumara-singhe of Sri Lanka in the final. Aamir Khan of Pakistan and Khwaja Fayaz of Afghanistan took the events' bronze.

Back Page

Govt to distribute rice at low prices among 26 lakh families
BSS, Dhaka

The government as part of its election pledges has decided to provide food at low prices among nearly 26 lakh families of lower income group across the country.
The decision was taken at a meeting of Food and Disaster Ministry at its conference room here on Monday. As many as one crore people would get benefit from it.
Food and Disaster Management Minister Dr Abdur Razzak presided over the meeting. Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury, Food Secretary Barun Dev Mittra and Director General of Food Department Pius Kosta, among others, attended the meeting. A total of 12 lakh families under 90 wards and 25 unions would be brought under the programme.
Besides, 8.5 lakh families under five divisions-Khulna, Rajshahi, Sylhet and Barisal - would be brought under the programme while 6.5 lakh families under 64 districts.
Every month, each of the families will get 20 kgs of rice at Taka 22 per kg and the programme will begin from February 21.
The preparations of the list of the families have already been started in association with local lawmakers, ward commissioners or councilors.
The meeting also informed that Open Market Sale (OMS) will continue along with the programme for ensuring food security of the general people.

   New CJ laments failure to ensure justice for all
UNB, Dhaka

New Chief Justice M Fazlul Karim on Monday lamented that even on the verge of completing the first decade of 21st century, Bangladesh as a nation have yet failed to ensure access to justice for all.
"The goddess of Justice has eluded us and shut her mighty doors on the face of our poor, wretched, destitute and the disabled. It is possibly our collective shame as a nation," the CJ said at a function arranged to felicitate him by the lawyers of the Supreme Court.
Chief Justice Karim called upon the members of the Supreme Court bar to take every month at least a single case free of charge and fees for the poor and destitute especially underprivileged women, children and the disabled people who cannot otherwise have any access to justice.
"Even if a small section of bar members takes part in this noble task a lot can be achieved in ensuring justice for the poor litigant public, which perhaps won't be a bad start," he said.
The new Chief Justice stressed the need for simplifying the existing case management procedure and doing away with the procedural quagmire for speedy disposal of cases. He said effective court management is considered a science and practiced in most of the developed countries.
"It is high time for us to embrace new methods and technology to manage our court system for securing justice for the litigants within shortest possible of time as dreamt of at the time of our glorious War of Indep-endence," he said.
Chief Justice Karim said, "I seek co-operation from both the bench and the bar to address the burning issue and ease the pressure on the court and burden of the litigant public." Judges of both the High Court and the Appellate Divisions of the Supreme Court were also present at the function.
Earlier, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam and Supreme Court Bar Asso-ciation (SCBA) president AFM Mesbahuddin traditionally felicitated the new Chief Justice.

   Religious leaders in Bangladesh can help address terrorism: Judith

UNB, Dhaka

US Under-Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Judith A. McHale, whose country is still at 'war on terror', described terrorism as a threat to all and said religious leaders in Ban-gladesh and around the world can be very helpful in addressing the critical security issue.
Talking to reporters after addressing an opinion-exchange meeting with students and teachers of city's Uttar Badda Islamia Kamil Madrasa on Monday morning, the visiting Ame-ican government fun-ctionary said all have to work together to address the roots of terrorism.
Relief International, a non-governmental organization, operates a training programme for teachers and students of the madrasa with finance from the US government.
"We have appreciated the support we received from the government of Bangladesh and we want to continue to work with the government to combat terrorism," the US Under-Secretary said about her meetings with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Foreign Minister Dr Dipu Moni.
Speaking at the meeting with the madrasa students and teachers, Judith A. McHale urged the Bang-ladeshi students, including from the madrasas, to attain skill in the English language and avail opportunities of higher studies in the universities and colleges of the Untied States.
"Know about the opportunities of studying in the USA and make best use of these. The United States, its educational institutions and its people will welcome you all to their country," she told the students.
At the same time, Judith said, the government of the United States is looking to encourage American students to come to Bangladesh to study with Bangladeshi students. "By learning and working together, students of America and Bangladesh can be a significant element for solving various problems and facing the future challenges," she said about the partnership to be fostered through learning and interaction.
Judith noted that education is an important tool for building up the Bangladeshi students' future and becoming great leaders of their motherland.
She said in a globalized economy, being able to communicate in English increases scope for admission in colleges abroad and opportunities of jobs. On the importance of learning English Judith said, around the world, English is an essential tool to communicate with people of various cultures and languages.
She also underscored the need for training programmes for the teachers of madrasa and other educational institutions as training of teachers benefit both teachers and students. Explaining the reason behind her visit to Bangladesh, the US Under-Secretary said in her position, President Barack Obama has asked her to give effort to reach out, expand and strengthen relationship bet-ween people of the United States and Bangladesh and the rest of the world.

   Junior Terminal Exam for Class VIII from this year
UNB, Dhaka

Countrywide Junior Term-inal Examination for Class-VIII students will be held simultaneously across the country with same question paper from this year.
Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid came up with the discloser at a press briefing at his office Monday, after holding the maiden Primary Terminal Examina-tion at the end of last academic session.
Annual examination in class VIII and junior scholarship examination will be merged into the class-VIII Terminal Examination thro-ugh introducing the new public exam at the secondary school level. Under the new examination system, scholarships will be given based on the results of the students in their terminal exams. The students will be enrolled in class IX on the basis of certificates of the terminal examinations.
Earlier, the first Primary Education Terminal Exa-mination for the students of class V was held on November 21-24.
Addressing the briefing the minister said the government is trying to improve the standard of education in the country through taking various steps.
He said the government has scraped its earlier decision to hold the mathematics exam of Secondary School Certificate (SSC) under the new creative-question method from 2011.
Nahid said this year only Bengali and Religion exams of the SSC will be held in the new creative-question method. The exams in three more subjects will be held under the method from next year.
The education minister said the government has allotted Tk 112.35 crore to bring the country's non-government educational institutions under the MPO (Monthly Payment Order). "A huge number of educational institutions will be brought under the MPO with the money," he said.
He said the new MPO policy would be followed strictly in bringing the institutions under MPO. "We will remove reported massive irregularities and nepotism in handing out MPO to non-government institutions like schools, colleges and madrasas, often on political considerations." The education ministry has published the application form and a guideline for Monthly Pay Order (MPO) on its website for the MPO-listing of new non-government educational institutions.
The minister lamented that despite sufficient textbooks in stock, some students in Dhaka did not get books timely due to negligence of education officer.

    Gano Biswabiddyalay
BCL leaders attempt to grab land

UNB, Savar

BCL activists were accu-sed in a case filed by Gano Bisw-abiddyalay Monday of attempting to grab its 11 acre land and looting construction materials worth Tk 5 lakh.
On resistance, they beat Deputy Registrar Mir Murtaza Ali and four other employees leaving them wounded.
Mir Murtaza filed the case with Ashulia thana naming 12 BCL leaders including former Joint General Secretary of the central committee Mazhar Anam and unnamed about 90 activists.
Witnesses said BCL activists led by Mazhar and armed with lethal weapons broke down the boundary wall of the university at 7 am and hung signboard of their ownership of the land.
Soon came the Deputy Registrar with a number of employees and resisted the BCL activists who beat him and 4 others leaving them wounded. Residents asse-mbled and strongly opposed the invaders. The BCL activists finally retreated for fear of mob attack.
While retreating, the activists took away construction materials worth Tk 5 lakh kept there for extension work of the campus, said Engineer Mahmudur Rahman of the university.
He said police were informed but they came after the activists left the scene. Ashulia thana officer Mirazul Islam said none of the accused could be arrested as most of them are residents of Mirpur.

 Bomb blast in outskirts of Chuadanga town
Police seized leaflets threatening AL leaders

UNB, Chuadanga

Explosion with big bang in the outskirts of Chuadanga town Monday night created panic in the area but none was reported hurt.
Witnesses said unknown terrorists blasted the powerful homemade bomb at 8-45 pm near Bangos Biscuit Factory.
Police rushed to the spot found leaflets left behind by outlawed Purbo Banglar Communist Party (M-L) threatening police-RAB agents to avenge the killing of its leaders including comrade Jamal.
The red leaflets also spread venom against the Awami League leaders.

 Ex-NSI DG on 3-day remand
UNB, Chittagong

Former Director General of National Security Intellig-ence (NSI) Maj Gen (retd) Rezzaqul Haider Chow-dhury was on Monday given to fresh police remand for three days in connection with the arms haul case.
Investigating CID police officer Maniruzzaman produced the former NSI boss before the court seeking seven-day remand for further interrogation.
Chowdhury was arrested on May 15 last year from his residence in Dhaka city. He was already twice in police remand.

 8 cheats arrested with 500 passports in city
UNB, Dhaka

Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) personnel arrested eight cheats along with 500 passports from the city's Maligbagh area Monday.
The arrested were identified as M Akhter Hossain, 45, Mohammad Ali, 40, A Jalil, 42, Harun-or-Rashid, 43, A Rahim, 30, M Nazmul, 18, Abu Sufian, 18, and Sohrab Hossain, 35.
Acting on a tip-off, a team of RAB-2 conducted a drive at Azad Tower in the area at about 3pm and arrested the cheats.
The elite force seized 500 passports and two photo copies of the licenses of two recruiting agencies from their possessions.

Editorial

Responsibility of Private Universities

President Zillur Rahman on Sunday urged the authorities of private universities to create opportunities of higher education for the children of the country's rural people. Many people are being deprived of the opportunities of higher education, he said while addressing the fifth convocation of BRAC University in the city. Zillur Rahman observed that although children of the well-off section living in urban areas are getting opportunities of higher education in private universities, the children of rural people are getting deprived of. The main reason is that the guardians cannot afford the educational cost of their children in these private universities, he said.
The President's observation is absolutely right. The Cost of higher education in our country is very high at all levels. Specially the cost is unbelievably high at private universities although the tuition fees in the public universities is comparatively low. It is against this backdrop that the President underscored the need for increasing opportunities of higher education to the country's poor students at the private universities.
It may be pointed out that a tendency is common in most of the private universities of the country to maximise profit by running education business in the name of providing higher education to students. Bangladesh is a poor country, but the amount of money the private universities realise from the students as tuition fees and other charges is very high and affordable for only limited number of people. It is simply impossible for the poor guardians of students to bear such huge cost. But the reality shows that the private universities are interested more in earning money than in imparting quality education or helping the poor students get the opportunity there free of cost or at a lesser cost.
It is an open secret that a section of profit mongers are engaged in brisk education business in the country causing serious degradation of the quality of education. While education in public universities are being hampered seriously by session jam, teachers' involvement with private universities and NGO activities etc, a section of private universities are allegedly imparting substandard education and selling certificates. In fact, the state of country's private universities is far from satisfactory as most of the private universities have virtually turned into brisk business centres instead of seats of quality education as they are run mainly on commercial basis. Except a few, most of the private universities do not have even own campus, labs, sufficient class rooms, library facilities, educational equipment and even adequate number of teachers. Academic and other facilities in most of the private universities are inadequate and that gross irregularities are practiced there for commercial gains.
Yet the private universities are realising exuberantly high charges from the students . However, in spite of this, Private universities are an unavoidable reality in the country now as the public universities are unable to accommodate the growing number of students. But they should function as educational institutions and not as commercial establishments. They are also expected to be well equipped in all respect to impart quality education. And, as has been urged by the president the private universities should increase opportunities of higher education to the children of the poor rural people. The private universities should accept this task as a moral and social responsibility.

  Ensuring road safety

The High Court on Sunday issued a suo moto rule asking the government to explain within three weeks why it should not be directed to properly execute the traffic rules by controlling the speed of vehicles and examining their licenses. A division bench comprising Justice AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury and Justice Borhan Uddin passed the orders after browsing the newspaper reports. The suo moto rule came following newspaper reports on the tragic death of kindergarten school student Hamim Sheikh in a city road crash recently.The High Court also asked the government to submit a report every month to the court on the progress in execution of traffic rules through controlling the speed of vehicles to prevent road accidents.
The rule issued on Sunday is another praiseworthy step of the High Court taken in the public interest. In the past the High Court took similar measure as regards protecting environment and saving rivers, checking extrajudicial killings etc. The Sunday's rule of the court has reassured the people that at least the judiciary is there to act in favour of public interest when the administration fails miserably to safeguard it. What is happening on roads under the nose of police and administration is simply dreadful. The way running vehicles ran over and killed little Hamim and Shimu in the capital city is more than accident. Both of these were virtual murders and these could take place due to the failure of the authorities concerned to strictly enforce the traffic rules.

Analysis

A way out

The judiciary too has said that it will not be thwarted from ‘doing justice’, which is invariably interpreted as a desire to nail Mr Zardari in the cases against him.

Zafar Hilaly

It took three months to shape the battlefield in South Waziristan before the army moved against the TTP. It will take longer for Mr Zardari's opponents to shape the political battlefield before operations to remove him commence. Skirmishing has been under way for some time.
Much of the press has been won over and this is evident by the manner in which papers with the largest circulation are baying for his blood. The majority of TV anchors too are ill disposed towards him, judging by the amount of bile they exude at the mere mention of his name.
The judiciary too has said that it will not be thwarted from 'doing justice', which is invariably interpreted as a desire to nail Mr Zardari in the cases against him.
His coalition partners, fearing taint by association, have been quick to publicly distance themselves from him at the first sign of trouble whatever they may be saying to him, and his emissaries, in private.
As for the military's contrived disinterest in politics and the fate of Mr Zardari, it fools no one. We know that they have the deepest interest in who leads Pakistan. Their focus has, alas, always been on the person rather than the process and how amenable he is to their demands and whether he shares, in the main, their worldview of the direction in which the nation is headed.
As for the hapless public, they are forever on the qui vive for someone who will deliver them from the current perdition that seems their fate. Sensing that Mr Zardari is not the knight in shining armour that they pray for, he having failed to persuade them that he is, they are psychologically ready for change.
And finally the Americans, who are watching aghast at the government's flaying efforts to get its act together, are now at the point that they privately concede that while the next man may do no better, he can hardly do any worse.
In a sense, therefore, just about everything is ready for the big push and every day brings fresh evidence of the looming battle. The decision of Nawaz Sharif not to contest the Rawalpindi election is put down to his belief that as another election is round the corner, why bother being part of the current defunct parliament. The MQM's antics are meant to clear the decks of obstacles to what will surely be, unless the election commission summons up the courage to intervene, its inevitable 'landslide' victory whenever elections are held in their urban fiefdoms in Sindh. Lyari, the sole PPP stronghold in Karachi, now appears like the beleaguered Alamo ripe for the taking.
The Sindh ANP, torn between protecting Pathans in Karachi and losing pelf and the little power that it enjoys as a member of the increasingly ramshackle coalition that pretends to govern Pakistan, is at its wits' end. It knows what it should do but cannot bring itself to do it.
News that NAB has moved to freeze presidential assets in Sindh hardly stirred any interest. It is common knowledge that the judges have the bit between their teeth and there is no stopping them.
Whether all that is happening is part of a grand design or merely coincidental is difficult to say but the unmistakeable feeling that the decisive battle is about to begin is all around us.
Mr Zardari, a veritable political Houdini, must be fashioning his strategy. What can he do? His minions have loudly proclaimed their intention of galvanising Sindh, even if it comes to threatening the federation, if his party is hounded out of office. But however much Mr Zulfiqar Mirza may rant and scream at the antics of the MQM, the choice the PPP faces is stark. Put up with them or lose power in Islamabad; and that is a prospect that Mr Zardari is not prepared to countenance. He intends instead to cave in to the MQM at the cost of further depleting his popularity, if that is possible.
Mr Zardari could also, as he seems to be doing, use intermediaries to mend fences with the army, the judiciary and the press. But he must know that if you live among wolves it is no use acting like sheep; you must act like a fox. But then, as we know too well, however cunning the fox may be it is usually run to the ground. In fact, if one looks around and sees the amount of fox pelts in some countries, one wonders whether the fox really deserves its reputation for cunning. No, acting like a fox will not help Mr Zardari.
What will help is for him to act as a statesman but more so as a populist politician, which he in fact is. These traits may appear mutually exclusive but they need not be. There are several recent examples in the third world of leaders who were able to combine them effectively.
Mr Zardari needs to pitch his appeal to the people above the heads of his conniving opponents and the establishment, which while it has repeatedly shown cannot be out foxed, can be surprised and is at a loss to know how to react when it comes to tackling a leader who promises to break the mould in which politics has been cast.
Mr Zardari will discover that the defiance of established authority, social and political, religious and secular, is what Pakistanis today are primed to do if only they had a leader to guide them. And if he is prepared to assume that role Mr Zardari will further discover that the populace will warm to him. Hence, perhaps his approach should be somewhat along these lines as he addresses gatherings: "The time has come. There is a terrific thunder cloud advancing upon us, a mighty storm is coming to freshen us up. It is going to blow away all this hopelessness, joblessness, idleness and the indifference to your fate that exists today."
After all, what does Mr Zardari have to lose by becoming a populist? Why not be one? We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road. They get run over.

The writer is a former ambassador of Pakistan. He can be reached at charles123it@hotmail.com

  An unwinnable war

The American withdrawal, when it does take place, should not be viewed as the result of a negotiated settlement. It should be seen as retreat from a war that was found to be unwinnable.

Anwar Syed

The Taliban are fundamentalist, militant Muslims who are persuaded that they alone are the true believers and all others who claim to be Muslim are in fact hypocrites who deserve to be thrown out of the pale of Islam or, better still, eliminated. They also want to drive the western powers and their 'pernicious' influences out of the Muslim world.
No wonder then that 'nominal' Muslims and western people consider the Taliban a dangerous lot to be subdued, chased out of their present locations and, if necessary, killed. Enormous amounts of money, weapons and manpower have been deployed in recent years to eradicate them, but this enterprise has not so far been successful. The Taliban have occasionally suffered reverses and dispersed, but they have subsequently reassembled and reorganised themselves as a force capable of disrupting the existing order of things.
More than 100,000 American troops were stationed in Afghanistan to keep the Taliban from taking Kabul and other large towns. President Obama has recently decided to send another 30,000 to supplement the existing force level. The American mission in Afghanistan is made particularly difficult by the fact that President Hamid Karzai's government is generally seen as corrupt, ineffective and a product of rigged elections. It is to be noted also that America's military and political presence in Afghanistan is costing the country something like a billion dollars a month.
President Obama has decided to withdraw American forces from Afghanistan. The withdrawal is to begin next year. The cost of continued engagement is one reason for this decision. But the president may also have figured that there is nothing in or about Afghanistan that involves America's vital interests. It is said in certain quarters that Afghanistan's strategic location will enable anyone stationed there to keep an eye on the Central Asian states, and that any oil pipeline coming out of one of these states and going east has to pass through Afghanistan at least part of the way. This is not good reasoning.
The US government does not need these facilities. Its satellites, revolving around the earth, take pictures of every inch of the ground below. Its people do not have to sit in Afghanistan to know of the happenings in Central Asia. American oil companies can negotiate transit fees that may have to be paid to the government in Kabul for the pipeline's passage through Afghanistan. It should be noted also that Afghanistan is a small and poor country with little of known resources that outsiders may covet.
It follows that there is no good reason for America to keep its forces in Afghanistan. What is likely to happen when they leave? Critics of American policy say that if the forces withdraw and leave the country to rival factions, a ruinous civil war will follow with the Taliban re-emerging as a potent force and capturing power to become rulers of Afghanistan once again.
The American withdrawal, when it does take place, should not be viewed as the result of a negotiated settlement. It should be seen as retreat from a war that was found to be unwinnable.
As a Taliban regime in Kabul settles down to governing, it will find that it cannot operate in isolation from the rest of the world, and that it has to do business with other governments, which it cannot on its terms. It will have to bend to the rules and usages of international politics. In other words, it will mature and mellow as most revolutionary movements do if they are to survive the opposition they have generated. The rest of the world, including America, will also be prepared in time to do business with a Taliban government in Kabul.
Let us now come to the problem that Pakistan faces with the Taliban within its own territory, particularly its tribal regions. Not only do these militants think that they alone are the true Muslims, they believe that they are also entitled to enforce their ways on others and kill them if they don't submit.
Their way includes strict segregation of men and women and, for the most part, women's confinement to their homes. If they must go out, they should be fully covered and accompanied by a close male relative. They may not work in places where men are present. The Taliban are opposed to modern, western type of education and they have closed, even burnt down, schools. The Taliban are exclusively concerned with establishing their writ through religious dogma, and they have no interest in the good health or even survival of Pakistan as a state. They are convinced also that if their version of Islam is to be implemented, they must be the rulers.
They want the state and government of Pakistan to step out of their way, and since they won't yield, the Taliban are at war with them. The government of Pakistan, on its part, also regards its confrontation with the Taliban as a war. The Pakistan Army has been fighting them for some time. We may be sure that this is going to be a long haul, for the Taliban are tough fighters, well supplied with funds, and well equipped with modern weapons which they are trained to use.


The writer, professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, is a visiting professor at the Lahore School of Economics. anwars@lahoreschool.edu.pk

Ban this ban!

From France to Sweden, rightwing elements are up in arms against these roughly 2,000 burqas, supposedly for the rescue of European Enlightenment.

Farooq Sulehria

Absurdities come in many varieties. The latest example is the French ban on burqa. Worse, the French action is proving contagious.
In Denmark, Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, who heads a right-wing government, has hinted at a ban on burqa, even though no woman in Denmark wears it. The notorious rightwing Jyllands Posten newspaper had to retract a story that three or four women wear it in Denmark. Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt of Sweden is being quizzed by the press corps on the subject of burqa.
But the respective countries' media have found merely 100 women in Sweden and 1,900 in France who wear burqa. A sizable minority among burqa-clad women consists of European converts. From France to Sweden, rightwing elements are up in arms against these roughly 2,000 burqas, supposedly for the rescue of European Enlightenment.
However, only three decades ago, rightwing governments in France encouraged Muslim immigrants to grow beards and wear burqas. Islamised immigrants were considered a safe bet against unionised immigrants.
The ultimate victim of the burqa ban is enlightenment itself, even though the effort to undermine enlightenment is sophisticated, with Europe's culture being invoked. How absurd! Enlightenment does not need protection by governments headed by rightwing politicians like Nicolas Sarkozy. If Pakistan were to go Taliban tomorrow and the Taliban imposed burqa on Pakistani women, they would justify their action by invoking the French ban on burqa. No one banned burqa in Pakistan, but no woman in my family wears it anymore, although my mother used to.
By the way, long before Sarkozy's France got alarmed at burqa, the founding fathers of Muslim countries like Turkey and Tunis, Mustafa Kemal Atarurk and Habib Bourguiba, had banned headscarves - for entirely different reasons though. In both these countries now, many young women wear headscarves, as a symbol of defiance. Last year in Istanbul, I saw a girl in a Che-shirt, with her head covered by a headscarf. Ironically, Islamists have thrice won general elections in Atarurk's Turkey. The government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is Islamist. Bans never work.
The burqa ban is a discriminatory measure directed not merely against French Muslims but ultimately against the democratic rights of the entire working class of France. Instead of leading to integration, the ban on burqa will contribute to anti-immigrant and communalist sentiments, thus fuelling divisions among French citizens. The Nazis targeted Jews before settling scores with broad layers of the working masses.
The ban negates the basic rights of religious freedom and a citizen's control over his or her own body. It grants the French state new powers to intervene in matters of individual choice on what dress to wear. In essence, it is false to equate the progressive democratic principle of secularism (separation of church and state) with a government edict that abridges individuals' right to dress the way they want.
In a grotesque way, the French ban is France's "Talibanisation." Many proponents of the ban claim that it is directed against the oppression of women, of which the burqa is a symbol. This argument is an example of sophistry. It is impossible to attribute a democratic and liberating character to a law that stigmatises an entire group of people, based on their dress choice.
The inevitable result of this discriminatory law will be to encourage the development of religious separatism and communalist thinking among Muslim immigrants who feel, justifiably, that they are being singled out for persecution. Religious prejudices can be fought back through the political development and education of the masses in the struggle for democratic rights, not through state decrees imposed from above, by governments that serve the interests of the elite.


Email: mfsulehria@hotmail.com

Viewpoints

A Bankrupt Empire

The US has clearly reached the point of imperial overreach. Military spending and debt servicing are cannibalising the US economy, the real basis of America's world power.

Eric S. Margolis 

President Barack Obama calls the $3.8 trillion budget he just sent to Congress a major step in restoring America's economic health. In fact, it's like giving a drug addict another potent dose of the narcotic to which he is addicted.
The drug is debt. More empires have fallen because of reckless finances than invasion. The latest example was the Soviet Union, which spent itself to ruin buying tanks. Washington's deficit (the difference between spending and income from taxes) will reach a staggering $1.6 trillion this year. The huge sum will be borrowed, mostly from China and Japan, which the US already owes $1.5 trillion. Debt service will cost $250 billion. By 2015 it will consume a third of total federal spending. To spend $1 trillion, one would have had to start spending $1 million daily soon after Rome was founded and continue for 2,738 years until today.
Obama's total military budget is nearly $1 trillion. This includes Pentagon spending of $ 880 billion. Add secret 'black programmes' (about $70b); military aid to foreign nations like Egypt, Israel and Pakistan; 225,000 military 'contractors' (mercenaries and workers); and veteran's costs. Add $75b (nearly 2.5 times France's total defense budget) for 16 intelligence agencies with 200,000 employees. The Afghanistan and Iraq wars ($1 trillion so far), will cost $200-250 billion more this year, including hidden and indirect expenses. Obama's Afghan 'surge' of 30,000 new troops will cost an additional $33 billion -- more than Germany's total defense budget. No wonder US defence stocks rose after Nobel Peace Laureate Barack Obama's 'austerity' budget.
Military and intelligence spending relentlessly increase as unemployment hovers at 9.7 per cent. Critics claim the real figure is closer to 20 per cent. America has become the Sick Man of the Western hemisphere, an economic cripple like the defunct Ottoman Empire that used to be called the Sick Man of Asia. The Pentagon now accounts for half of total world military spending. Add America's rich NATO allies and Japan, and the figure reaches 75 per cent.
China and Russia combined spend only a paltry 10 per cent of what the US spends on defence. There are 750 US military bases in 50 nations and 255,000 US military personnel stationed abroad, 116,000 in Europe, nearly 100,000 in Japan and South Korea.
US military spending gobbles up 19 per cent of federal spending and at least 44 per cent of tax revenues. During the Bush administration, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars - funded by borrowing - cost each American family over $25,000. Like President George Bush, Obama is paying for America's wars through supplemental authorisations - i.e. putting them on the nation's already maxed-out credit card. Future generations will be stuck with the bill. This is the height of public dishonesty. Both the president and congress share the blame. America's wars ought to be paid for through direct taxes, not bookkeeping fraud. If US taxpayers had to actually pay for the Afghan and Iraq wars, these conflicts would quickly end. America needs a fair, honest war tax that allows them to understand the true costs of their military operations around the globe.
The US has clearly reached the point of imperial overreach. Military spending and debt servicing are cannibalising the US economy, the real basis of America's world power. The US also increasingly resembles the dying British Empire in 1945, crushed by immense debts incurred to wage WWII. It is increasingly clear President Barack Obama is not in control of America's runaway military juggernaut. Sixty years ago, the great President Dwight Eisenhower warned Americans to beware of the military-industrial complex's growing power. Six decades later, partisans of permanent war and world domination have joined Wall Street's money lenders to put America under their power.
Increasing numbers of Americans are rightly outraged and fearful of runaway deficits. But most do not understand their political leaders are spending their nation into ruin through unnecessary foreign wars and a vainglorious attempt to control much of the globe - what neoconservatives call 'full spectrum dominance.' If Obama were really serious about restoring America's economic health, he would demand military spending be slashed, quickly end the Iraq and Afghan wars, and break up the nation's five giant banks. He certainly cannot continue running a world empire on borrowed money.

Eric Margolis is a veteran US journalist who reported from the Middle East and Asia for nearly two decades.

  Is Russia’s economic crisis over?

In recent months, Russia's government finally brought inflation down to 8 per cent. Sometimes this is presented as another milestone demonstrating that the crisis is near its end.

Irina Yasina 

Has Russia's economic crisis ended? That depends on who you ask. Ask Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, or any official of his United Russia Party, and you will be told: "Of course it is over."
They will even produce proof in the form of an unemployment rate that does not rise, unprecedented increases in pensions, and strong growth in construction and metalworking.
Of course, all these comparisons are made with how things stood last month rather than with the country's pre-crisis economic performance. Then there is another "miracle" that the government is starting to trumpet, one discovered in August 2009: an increase in Russia's population. Unfortunately, in no month before or since have births outpaced deaths.
Ask a member of the opposition whether the crisis has ended, and you will be told that it is only just beginning. Gazprom's production is falling at a dizzying pace; the country's single-industry "mono-towns" are dying.
There is truth in both views about the state of Russia's economy, but because the government controls all the major television channels, it is succeeding in enforcing its view of the situation. Indeed, the opposition has access only to a few newspapers and radio stations, leaving the Internet the sole remaining space of freedom in Russia. But there you can read very pessimistic estimates of the country's economic future. So the Kremlin blinds its citizens with rosy scenarios, while the Internet overdramatises reality.
The truth, it is clear, is somewhere in the middle. What is beyond dispute is that Russia's economic health depends on external factors. But, outside Russia, no responsible economists can even begin to say whether the crisis is truly over. They know that relatively calm markets do not mean that strong economic growth is around the corner.
Russia's economy is now hostage to potential global growth. It is clear why: the state budget depends almost totally on energy prices. Now that oil price has reached $80 per barrel, Russia's central bank can start buying foreign currency again. Gold and foreign currency reserves are increasing, implying appreciation of the ruble. But Russia's budget for 2010 is still headed for a serious deficit, owing to high spending.
The rapid income growth of the early Putin years is a thing of the past. While it persisted, expenditures swelled but were manageable - until, suddenly, energy prices collapsed. The Kremlin, devoted to its key fetish - Putin's approval ratings - proved completely unprepared to curtail public spending in the wake of falling state revenues. The budget deficit, unsurprisingly, ballooned.
The late Yegor Gaidar, Russia's first pro-reform prime minister, warned the government about the consequences of inflated oil prices, repeatedly arguing that excessive spending growth would undermine the political will for retrenchment when it became necessary. Gaidar died last year, his unheeded warnings having come true, proving once again that no man is ever a successful prophet in his own country.
In recent months, Russia's government finally brought inflation down to 8 per cent. Sometimes this is presented as another milestone demonstrating that the crisis is near its end. But that is wrong. Inflation fell as a result of the crisis, which reversed the direction of capital flows. Whereas inward investment reached $20 billion in 2008, capital outflows totalled $20 billion in 2009. The central bank buys less foreign currency, and thus issues fewer rubles, reducing inflation.
A far more inertial indicator is unemployment, which experts predict will grow in 2010. The problem is that Russian labour is less mobile than in the Europe and the United States. Russians prefer lower wages - or simply waiting with no wages at all - to moving in search of a new job.
The situation at carmaker AUTOVaz is a striking example. Last year, output fell to 300,000 cars, from 800,000 in 2008. Such a dramatic fall in sales would normally require massive layoffs or lower wages. Yet, of the company's 102,000 employees, only 27 favoured layoffs. As a result, wages were cut by half. The state, which is seeking to rescue the domestic automobile industry, allocated to the firm more credits through state-owned banks.
But how long can such a situation last? One day, it will no longer be possible to disguise unemployment through shorter working weeks, forced leaves of absence, and decreases in wages. When that happens - and there is a strong probability that it will happen next year - the crisis will only just be beginning for Russia.
All over the world - in the US, Europe and China - stimulus programmes have paid off, as expected. But it is not yet certain whether the engine of the global economy will be able to run without additional liquidity, possibly undermining fiscal stability worldwide. Elsewhere, that will become clear in the first half of 2010; in Russia, signs of recovery, if they appear at all, will lag well behind the rest of the world.

The writer is an analyst at the Institute of Transitional Economy, a weekly economic commentator for RIA Novosti, and a representative of the Open Russia Foundation.

  Torture destroys humanity

We deceive ourselves if we pretend that torturing others does not also affect our own decency. It does not make us more secure

 Walter Rodgers   

They live invisibly among the US population, 41,000 in the Washington area, half a million in the country as a whole. They are survivors of horrific political torture. Unless they open their shirts, you detect few visible scars. "The mark of torture is more inside than out," says "Elena," a woman from Gabon who uses a wheelchair.
(Because everyone interviewed has living relatives in their native lands, all names have been changed at their request.)
Americans with no experience deceive themselves about torture. A friend told me that when the US tortured people it was somehow more humane.
But talk to torture victims at the annual gathering of the Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition (TASSC) and they tell you that torture, whatever its guise, is always immoral.
In the early 1980s, Miguel was held prisoner for four years by the Marcos regime in the Philippines. "Torture is always wrong," he says. "It uses terrorism to try to destroy terrorism. The torturer becomes the terrorist. You think you establish order by breaking the law."
Torture breaks people as well as the law. Yvette from Cameroon speaks slowly, vacantly, and without focus. One of the TASSC directors acknowledged that "her mind has yet to heal."
Yvette was tortured for belonging to a human-rights defence group in Cameroon. Police were seeking information on political dissidents. "I was beaten continuously," she says. "They slapped my face and head for three days. I don't know how long I was unconscious." When Yvette regained consciousness, she was unable to walk for a week, her legs having been beaten with police batons.
"I think the pain will never stop," she says. "I still shake when I hear police sirens."
"Even in Washington, DC?" I ask.
"Yes. I feel like they're after me again."
Perpetrators of torture share a common rationale: national security. "They tell you torture keeps your families safe and secure," says Miguel.
What about the Israeli argument - that torture can thwart a suicide bomber, or the American version: "What if ... terrorists planted a suitcase-sized nuclear bomb in New York City?"
Alternatives
I put that question to torture survivors. One asked, "Why torture anyone? Wouldn't you be better off finding an imam ... to sit with the prisoner and let him persuade a suspect it's morally wrong to take innocent lives?"
Of the dozen survivors I interviewed, people from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, each said torture doesn't work. In 2008, Mary from Uganda was beaten, gang raped, and terrorised in prison. Her crime? Being a member of the opposition party. "When they torture you, two things happen," she says. "First they make you crazy. Next, you believe you're going to die, so there's no point in confessing."
Given the harshness of the interrogation techniques his administration authorised, former president George W. Bush was disingenuous when he insisted in 2006 that the US doesn't torture. He should first have consulted his father, a former CIA director, about the effectiveness of torturing an enemy.
An Ethiopian named Thomas spoke to that. "Instead of breaking you, it [torture] hardens you," he says.
Fortunate torture survivors sometimes get asylum in the US. By word of mouth, they learn of TASSC. Officials Miguel and Daoud, both torture survivors, shepherd the newcomers, finding them psychiatric help and shelter. In group counselling, perhaps the most difficult question they deal with is, "Why did this happen to me?"
A 2006 survey showed that a third of the world supports some degree of torture to combat terrorism. Yet we deceive ourselves pretending it does not also destroy our own decency and humanity. Support for torture was highest in Israel, at 43 per cent; it was 36 per cent in America. The fallacy of torture is the notion that terrorising others makes us more secure.

Walter Rodgers, a former senior international correspondent for CNN, writes a biweekly column for the Christian Science Monitor's print weekly edition.

International

Pakistan does not want to be engaged in arms race: PM
APP, Karachi

Pakistan is a peace-loving country and does not want to be engaged in an arms race. Its strategic as well as conventional capabilities are focused towards legitimate defence needs and promotion of peace.This was stated by Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani while speaking as chief guest at the induction ceremony of PNS Shamsheer at the PN Dockyard here on Monday.
The vessel is a multi-mission frigate and is second of four ships to be acquired under F-22 P Frigate programme.
The Prime Minister said it was a matter of jubilation for the nation that a potent Frigate PNS Shamsheer was joining the Pakistan Navy fleet. He congratulated all those who are involved in the Frigate programme.
Gilani appreciated the focus and hard work of the Ministry of Defence Production, Pakistan Navy and Chinese partners for a successful programme which resulted in timely completion of the second ship of class.
The Prime Minister said it was another manifestation of Pakistan-China friendship which was rightly regarded as a model relationship based on mutual respect,trust and complete confidence.
He said ," we are proud of our ties with China that are time-tested and all weather relationship which is higher than mountains and deeper than oceans".
Gilani said "Our friendship and strategic partnership with China has been and will remain the cornerstone of our foreign policy." These ties, he added,were based on the principle of non-interference in each others'internal affairs and were not directed against any country.
The Prime Minister said that the long-standing defence cooperation between Pakistan and China is growing from strength to strength to the mutual benefit of both the countries.
On the occasion he also extended his profound gratitude to the government and people of China and congratulated them for reaching yet another hallmark of our friendship today with the induction of PNS Shamsheer in the fleet of Pakistan Navy.
Pakistan, he said, is located on the crossroads of major civilizations and trade routes. Its geo-strategic and geo-economic position in the present times demand enhanced efforts with regard to regional and global security.

  Frightened Afghans flee offensive in opium valley
AFP, Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan

Afghan men, women and children fearing imminent fighting between the Taliban and US troops, loaded up trucks Monday and streamed out of one of the world's main sources of heroin.
Wrapped in blankets to fend off the winter chill, families packed up goats, furniture and clothes, clogging roads with taxis, cars and tractors in a major exodus to safety, dodging roadside bombs planted to kill US and NATO troops.
"We left the area because lots of aircraft were flying over and lots of forces were moving back and forth," Shir Ali Khan told AFP after reaching Lashkar Gar, the capital of southern province Helmand, with his 25 relatives.
War and battle are nothing new to the 80,000 people from Marjah, a fertile Helmand River valley in southern Afghanistan, one of the world's main sources of heroin and for eight years a major bastion of Taliban insurgents.
What the military calls "shaping operations" have been going on for weeks. Residents have described gunbattles to a beat of planes and helicopters bringing in men and supplies ahead of what is expected to be a bloody battle. Taliban too are massing, gathering around the town and firing a constant barrage of missiles on the encamped foreign troops.
"Some people left the area six months ago, because military operations have been going on and the Taliban are so violent," said Khan, adding: "There are still lots of people left who can't leave, who have nowhere to go."
Beneath pearl-grey skies in the midst of a rainy season, men wearing turbans told reporters on the highway they feared for their safety as Afghan, NATO and US troops massed ahead of an offensive expected within days.
Nad Ali resident Abdul Rehman, just arrived in Lashkar Gah, said: "These operations are nothing new for us. There has always been military operations going on in Nad Ali, we're used to it now.
"People are bit more concerned and worried about this operation as there are more Afghan and foreign soldiers around Nad Ali than usual," he said.
Now concerns are growing for those left behind, exposed to the Taliban's reported violent control tactics and fearing bloodshed from what has been billed as the biggest offensive since the 2001 US-led invasion.
"There are Taliban in Marjah and I have not noticed any decrease in their movements to show they are deserting the place," said Rehman.
"We are worried," he added.
Marjah was planned and built partly by the US government in the 1950s as a model agricultural area irrigated by a network of canals.
Today, those canals criss-cross fields of opium poppies, which at this time of year are tall and green, not yet blooming red and not yet oozing the sap that will be processed into heroin and shipped across the world.
The region has been under direct control of the Taliban, who work in tandem with drug traffickers to force local people to grow poppies, since US Marines flushed them out of other parts of Helmand more than two years ago.
What should be the bread basket of Afghanistan is instead one of the world's richest sources of opium and heroin, earning billions of illicit dollars each year that help fund the increasingly vicious insurgency.
For 38-year-old Mohammad Basir Khan, heading to safety with his family, his biggest fear was the crude bombs that the Taliban have made a staple of their arsenal in the fight against government troops.
"We worry about lots of roadside bombs," he said.
The area is expected to be laced with improvised explosive devices (IEDs), mostly planted by roadsides and detonated by remote-control, the biggest killer of foreign troops in Afghanistan but still managing to kill more civilians.

  Australia boosts aid to Myanmar, sanctions remain
Reuters, Canberra

Australia will boost humanitarian aid to Myanmar while maintaining sanctions on the military regime, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said on Monday.
Smith said it was important to help Myanmar prepare for a time when it would have a civilian government.
The country is expected to hold its first parliamentary election in two decades sometime this year, the first step in what the ruling generals call a "road map" to democracy to end nearly 50 years of military rule.
"Burma's capacity cannot be allowed to completely atrophy to the ultimate disadvantage and cost of its people," Smith said in a statement to parliament.
He said Australia would increase its aid allocation by 40 percent to A$50 million ($43 million) a year, to help fight extreme poverty and improve child health and education in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.
"The international community needs to start the rebuilding now. This is not a reward for Burma's military, but a recognition of the immense task faced by current and future generations of Burmese," he said.
Australia has banned military exports to Myanmar, and imposes travel and financial transaction sanctions against its military rulers.

  Unrest in Indian Kashmir enters 2nd week
AP, Srinagar, India

Authorities put separatist leaders under house arrest and thousands of armed troops in riot gear warned people to stay indoors in Indian Kashmir's main city Monday in an attempt to block a seventh day of violent demonstrations against Indian rule.
Widespread unrest has rocked the disputed Himalayan region for the past week, as protesters have taken to the streets in anger over the deaths of two teenage boys they say were killed by police and government forces.
The All Parties Hurriyat Conference, the main separatist alliance in Indian Kashmir, had called for protesters to march Monday to the local United Nations office in Srinagar, the region's main city, but it was unclear if the demonstration would go ahead.
"All our leaders have been either placed under house arrest or arrested ahead of the rally," said Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, a top separatist leader, in a telephone interview from his home. Police also confirmed the arrests.
The government has banned the assembly of more than four people in Srinagar in an attempt to suppress the protests.
Shops, business and government offices in the city remained closed for a seventh day and government forces erected steel barricades and laid razor wire on the roads leading to the U.N. office. The protests started after a 14-year-old boy died after he was struck in the head by a police tear gas shell as an anti-Indian protest ended last Sunday. The police officer who fired the shell was suspended and police called it "a callous and irresponsible action."
Then on Friday, witnesses said paramilitary soldiers charged at a group of people gathered on a playground and began firing as they fled, killing a 17 year old. Hemant Lohia, a top police officer, confirmed that the boy died from a bullet wound but said details about his death were still under investigation. Clashes between protesters and government forces since have injured at least 93 protesters and 33 troops in the region. 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.

  Avalanche kills 17 Indian soldiers in Kashmir
AFP, Srinagar, India

Seventeen Indian soldiers were killed Monday in an avalanche that slammed into a group of 70 combat troops at a high-altitude warfare training camp in Kashmir, the army said Monday.
Army spokesman Colonel Vineet Sood said the avalanche struck in the Khelenmarg mountains, close to the Kashmiri ski resort of Gulmarg, which has become a major draw for foreign, off-piste adventure skiers.
"We have 17 dead and 17 injured. No one is missing and rescue teams have returned to their bases," Sood told AFP.
The soldiers were from the Indian army's High Altitude Warfare School, which houses around 450 troops.
The main facility was not struck by the avalanche which swept away one of four sub-camps used for training operations.
Heavy snowfall and high winds had hampered rescue operations and made communications difficult. Gulmarg lies 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Srinagar, the Kashmiri summer capital.
First set up as a skiing school for a frontline infantry division in 1948, a year after India's independence from Britain, the high altitude school is the army's main mountain warfare training institute.

  Malaysia’s Anwar seeks to remove sodomy case judge
AFP, Kuala Lumpur

Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim moved Monday to have the judge in his sodomy trial disqualified, complaining he had refused to rein in biased media coverage.
The trial, which Anwar says is a plot to end his political career, began last week with graphic testimony from 24-year-old former aide Mohamad Saiful Bukhari Azlan who accuses Anwar of sodomising him. Defence lawyers objected Friday when Utusan Malaysia, a Malay-language daily linked to the government, ran photographs of the court's closed-door visit to the apartment where the sexual encounter allegedly took place.
Judge Mohamad Zabidin Diah refused a request to admonish the daily over the pictures, as well as an earlier headline that said "Not willing to be sodomised again," which the defence said suggested they had sex more than once.
Anwar, who was jailed on separate sodomy and corruption charges a decade ago in a case widely seen as politically motivated, said in a statement to the High Court there was a "real danger of bias" on the part of the judge.
"The local media has condemned me as they did in 1998 without (giving me a) chance to listen to my reply," the 62-year-old opposition leader told reporters. "Clearly it's a political trial."
The judge adjourned the trial until Tuesday when he will hear the application to remove him from the proceedings.
However, the defence has lost several earlier legal manoeuvres including a bid to strike out the case, and to force the prosecution to release evidence including medical reports and closed-circuit TV footage.
Anwar has said that the charges, which carry a penalty of 20 years imprisonment, are an attempt to end his political career and neutralise the threat he poses to the Barisan Nasional coalition government.

  NKorea threatens South amid push to restart talks
AP, Seoul, South Korea

North Korea warned South Korea that any attempt to bring down the communist country would draw "strong measures" from its military, a threat issued Monday even as Pyongyang embarked on a flurry of diplomacy with Seoul, Washington and Beijing.
Pyongyang is poised to mobilize troops to defend itself, including a "world-level ultramodern striking force" that has not yet been publicly revealed, North Korea's Ministry of People's Security and the Ministry of State Security said in a statement.
North Korea will take "all-out strong measures to foil the treacherous, anti-reunification and anti-peace moves of the riff-raffs to bring down the dignified socialist system ... and destabilize it," said the statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.
The warning, stern but milder than threats made last year, was carefully timed to show tensions could flare if North Korea doesn't get what it wants from the round of diplomacy, said Jeung Young-tae, a North Korea expert at the state-run Korea Institute of National Unification in Seoul.
"They are using it as a negotiating card," he said.
The threat was issued as senior Chinese envoy Wang Jiarui met in Pyongyang with Choe Thae Bok, a high-level official in North Korea's ruling Workers' Party, amid an international push to persuade North Korea to return to stalled nuclear disarmament talks.
Footage broadcast by APTN in Pyongyang showed Wang visiting a modern new apartment and touring a fruit farm.
Wang told Choe that China, North Korea's longtime ally and benefactor, was ready to work with North Korea to boost bilateral ties, according to the Xinhua News Agency. The report did not mention the nuclear issue. The envoy was expected to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il later Monday to discuss the nuclear talks, South Korean cable network YTN said, without citing its source. Wang will likely bring Kim a letter from Chinese President Hu Jintao, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper said in a similar report.

 Iran plans major nuclear expansion over next year
Reuters, Tehran

Iran says it will start producing higher-grade nuclear fuel on Tuesday and add 10 uranium enrichment plants over the next year in a nuclear expansion sure to stoke tensions with the West.
The statement by Iran's nuclear agency chief Ali Akbar Salehi on Sunday followed orders from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for work to start on producing atomic fuel for a Tehran research reactor.
The announcement raises the stakes in Iran's dispute with the West, although analysts doubt Iran has the technical ability to launch 10 new plants so soon and believe Iran is finding it harder to obtain crucial components due to U.N. sanctions.
Analysts say the move may be a negotiating tactic to prod the West into accepting Iranian terms for a nuclear fuel swap.
But it could also backfire if it only serves to make Western powers determined to push for more sanctions against Iran, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, over its refusal to suspend enrichment.
"Iran will set up 10 uranium enrichment centres next year," Iran's Arabic-language television station al Alam quoted Salehi as saying.
The Iranian year starts on March 21. Iran mooted such a plan late last year but gave no time frame.
Ahmadinejad also said Iran remained open to a proposed nuclear fuel exchange with world powers, which they hope would minimize the risk of Iran developing atomic bombs. Iran says it wants only to generate electricity from low-level enrichment.

  50 feared dead in US power plant blast
AFP, New York

A huge explosion ripped through a US power plant on Sunday being built in Connecticut amid reports up to 50 people may have died, emergency officials said, as a rescue operation swung into place.
The blast at the gas-fired plant in Middletown, home to 40,000 people on the Connecticut River, sent flames and black smoke billowing into the sky and shook houses several miles away, witnesses said.
As helicopters, ambulances and fire trucks rushed to the scene and a massive search and rescue operation was launched, officials were reluctant to say how many might have died, but a large number of fatalities were feared.
"The reports vary from a few, several to possibly as many as 50 dead," Brian Albert from the Middlesex hospital, which was treating several of those injured in the blast at the Kleen Enery plant, told AFP.
"They are in the process of search and rescue," Albert said, adding that the Middlesex was treating six patients and a seventh had been transferred to the nearby Hartford hospital, which confirmed it was also handling injured.
One witness told the local Hartford Courant newspaper: "There are bodies everywhere." Other witnesses suggested many victims could still lie buried in the rubble.
"There was a massive explosion, there are multiple injuries and possible fatalities," Middletown police spokesman George Yepes said.
The Hartford Courant reported that helicopters were airlifting some of the victims to nearby hospitals.

  Costa Rica elects 1st woman president in landslide
AP, San Jose, Costa Rica

Costa Ricans have elected their first woman president as the ruling party candidate won in a landslide after campaigning to continue free market policies in Central America's most stable nation.
With most of the votes from Sunday's election counted, Laura Chinchilla held a 22-point lead over her closest rival. Her 47 percent share of the vote was well beyond the 40 percent needed to avoid a run-off.
The 50-year-old protege of the current president, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oscar Arias, promised to pursue the same economic policies that recently brought the country into a trade pact with the U.S. and opened commerce with China.
"Today we are making history," said Chinchilla, who will be the fifth Latin American woman to serve as president when she takes office in May. "The Costa Rican people have given me their confidence, and I will not betray it."
The closest contender, Otton Solis of the Citizens Action Party, got 25 percent of the votes. He and the other main rival, Libertarian Otto Guevara, quickly conceded defeat.
It was unclear, however, whether Chinchilla's National Liberation Party would gain a majority in congress.
Analyst Heather Berkman of the Eurasia Group said coalition building without a majority would likely delay or derail controversial fiscal reforms to shore up government finances and energy deregulation.
The third-place candidate, Guevara, congratulated Chinchilla as "our president," but he also pointed out the new political muscle of his tax-bashing Libertarian Movement Party. He won 21 percent of the vote.
Arias' economic policies helped insulate Costa Rica from the world economic crisis as he kept a high profile on the world stage as a negotiator in Honduras' political crisis after a coup deposed President Manuel Zelaya in June.

  Space shuttle blasts off on last night flight
AP, Cape Canaveral, Fla.

Endeavour and six astronauts rocketed into orbit Monday on what's likely the last nighttime launch for the shuttle program, hauling a new room and observation deck for the International Space Station.
The space shuttle took flight before dawn, igniting the sky with a brilliant flash seen for miles around. The weather finally cooperated: Thick, low clouds that had delayed a first launch attempt Sunday returned, but then cleared away just in time.
"Looks like the weather came together tonight," launch director Mike Leinbach told the astronauts right before liftoff. "It's time to go fly."
"We'll see you in a couple weeks," replied commander George Zamka. He repeated: "It's time to go fly."
There are just four more missions scheduled this year before the shuttles are retired.
"For the last night launch, it treated us well," Leinbach said.
Endeavour's destination - the space station, home to five men - was soaring over Romania at the time of liftoff. The shuttle is set to arrive at the station early Wednesday.
Zamka and his crew will deliver and install Tranquility, a new room that will eventually house life-support equipment, exercise machines and a toilet, as well as a seven-windowed dome. The lookout has the biggest window ever sent into space, a circle 31 inches across.
It will be the last major construction job at the space station. No more big pieces like that are left to fly.
Both the new room and dome - together exceeding $400 million - were supplied by the European Space Agency.
NASA began fueling Endeavour on Sunday night just as the Super Bowl was kicking off to the south in Miami. The shuttle crew did not watch the game - neither did the launch team - but it was beamed up to the space station in case anyone there wanted to watch it.

  Egypt arrests 3 top Muslim Brotherhood leaders
AP, Cairo

The No. 2 leader of Egypt's opposition Muslim Brotherhood and two other top figures have been arrested by police in a dawn sweep that also grabbed 10 senior members across five provinces, police and members of the group said.
Police arrested the newly elected deputy leader, Mahmoud Ezzat, and two other members of the top level Guidance Council, Essam el-Erian and Abdul-Rahman el-Bir.
The arrests are the latest move in a wide-ranging crackdown on the group ahead of parliamentary elections this year and appear designed to cripple the organization's leadership.
The group, the country's largest and best organized opposition, had just elected a new supreme guide and deputy.
A police official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not allowed to speak to the media, said they were arrested for engaging in banned political activity - a standard government charge used against the group.
The Brotherhood was banned in 1954 but is somewhat tolerated by the state. Its candidates are allowed to run for parliament as independents and in 2005 won 20 percent of the seats, making them Egypt's largest opposition bloc.
"The regime wanted to express its opinion to the new leaders by punishing them and tightening the noose on the old ones," Abdel Galil el-Sharnoubi, who runs the group's Web site, told The Associated Press.
The organization's new leader had said upon his inauguration that he would try to avoid confrontation with the government and would not respond to the periodic arrest campaigns.
"We reaffirm that the Brotherhood is not for one day an adversary to the regime," the newly elected Mohammed Badie on Jan. 16.

  China finds 170 more tons of tainted milk powder
AP, Beijing

China has found another 170 tons of tainted milk powder in an emergency crackdown that has made it increasingly clear many products discovered in the country's 2008 milk scandal were repackaged for sale instead of destroyed.
The growing number of cases in recent weeks challenges the government's earlier promise to overhaul its approach to food safety after hundreds of thousands of children in that scandal were sickened by milk products tainted with an industrial chemical. At least six children died.
Tainted milk products have recently emerged in China's largest city, Shanghai, and in the provinces of Shaanxi, Shandong, Liaoning, Guizhou, Jilin and Hebei.
China's 10-day emergency crackdown on the products is set to end Wednesday, and it was not clear whether it would be extended.
In the latest discovery, officials recalled more than 170 tons of milk powder tainted by the industrial chemical melamine and closed two dairy companies in the northern region of Ningxia, the China Daily newspaper reported Monday.
The report said officials seized 72 tons of the powder but were still looking for the rest, which had been repackaged by the Ningxia Tiantian Dairy Co. Ltd. and sold to factories in the neighboring region of Inner Mongolia and the bustling southern provinces of Guangdong and Fujian.
Dairy suppliers in the past have been accused of adding melamine, which is high in nitrogen, to make milk appear protein-rich in quality tests.

  Australia tightens skilled migration rules
AP, Canberra, Australia

Australia tightened its migration rules Monday in favor of English speakers and professionals, saying the country has been attracting too many hairdressers and cooks and too few doctors and engineers.
Immigration Minister Chris Evans blamed the overrepresentation of lower skilled immigrants on a system put in place by Prime Minister John Howard, whose government lost power in 2007 elections.
"Under the Howard government, we had a lot of cooks, a lot of hairdressers coming through," Evans told reporters. "We were taking hairdressers from overseas in front of doctors and nurses - it didn't make any sense."
The new rules will favor applicants who already have job offers over those who merely have qualifications or who are studying. The measures are expected to dampen enrollment in Australian colleges by foreign students hoping to settle in the country.
Numbers of foreign students enrolled in Australian colleges exploded in 2001, when the government changed migration rules to allow them to apply for permanent residency while studying. Until then, skilled workers had to apply offshore for visas to fill jobs from a list of more than 100 trades and professions that were suffering shortages in Australia.
Australia continues to have a shortage of accountants, partly because many of the 40,000 accountants who immigrated in the past five years did not have the professional or language skills to find work, Evans said.
"You've got to say if they don't have the English-language skills, don't have the trade skills and can't get a job, then really they should not be eligible for permanent residency," Evans said.
The new policy will favor applicants who score highly in an English language test. Moreover, immigrant numbers in certain jobs could be capped for the first time. The government has not identified which jobs.

Business/Economy

PM invites Kuwaiti entrepreneurs to invest more in BD
BSS, Kuwait City

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday urged the Kuwaiti chamber leaders to invest more in Bangladesh, taking advantage of the "lucrative" trade incentive package being offered by the present government.
"I invite all of you to come forward with investments in Bangladesh, which would be a lucrative place for you to assist in further strengthening our country's relations," she said while addressing a luncheon hosted in her honour by Kuwait Chamber of Commerce and Industries (KCCI) at the Kuwait Chamber House here.
Sheikh Hasina also assured the Kuwaiti business communities of providing all possible assistance and cooperation in the process of their investment in Bangladesh.
Expressing her firm confidence, Sheikh Hasina said with the cooperation of Kuwait Chamber of Commerce in the fields of trade, commerce and investment, both Bangladesh and Kuwait would be mutually benefited. Both Bangladesh and Kuwait are bound by brotherly ties based on common faith, culture and traditions, she said.
The Bangladesh Premiere also said that the two countries' special relations have been consolidated by the enviable friendship enjoyed by the great rulers of the State of Kuwait and Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman since Bangladesh's Independence in 1971.
Mentioning that Kuwait has now established itself as a regional economic hub, Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh wants to closely engage itself with this gulf state for a more meaningful cooperation in the days to come.
About the bilateral trades between the two countries, she said despite having ample scope to diversify and increase two-way businesses, the present balance of trade is very much in favour of Kuwait.
She mentioned that Bangladesh's exports to Kuwait from 2007 to 2008 stood at a mere US dollar 9.69 million while the corresponding import figure was many times more.
The Prime Minister said Bangladesh and Kuwait need to work together to identify areas of cooperation to harness the existing potentials. Kuwait can import from Bangladesh high quality garments, ceramics and pharmaceuticals, which have been established as popular items in the developed world, she said.
Sheikh Hasina said the Arab state can also import other items like finished leather and leather products, furniture, handicrafts, and particularly jute and jute goods from Bangladesh as the world is now increasingly conscious about the environment.
In this respect, the Prime Minister explained the present government's liberal fiscal policies including the Tax Holiday, avoidance of Double Taxation, concessionary duty on imported machinery, remittance of royalty, permissible cent percent Foreign Equity and unrestricted exit policy.
Besides, Sheikh Hasina said, huge domestic market of 150 million people, abundant skilled labour, presence of homegrown entrepreneurs, supportive legal regime, and above all, commitment of the government, are added attractions for foreign investors in Bangladesh.
Pointing to some attractive sectors like power and energy, telecommunications, infrastructure, pharmaceuticals, textiles, ICT, leather, furniture and agro-based industries, she said the Kuwaiti entrepreneurs can easily invest in these areas.
Earlier, Chairman of Kuwait Chamber of Commerce and Industries Ali Mohammed Thunayan Al Ganim gave the address of welcome. Business leaders as well as the Kuwaiti private sector entrepreneurs attended the meeting.
Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Eng Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Foreign Minister Dr Dipu Moni, State Minister for Forests and Environment Dr Hasan Mahmud, Ambassador At Large M Ziauddin, Bangladesh Ambassador in Kuwait Shahid Reza, Principal Secretary M A Karim and Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad, among others, were present on the occasion.

 Canadian trade team to visit BD
BSS, Dhaka

An eight-member Canadian trade delegation will visit Bangladesh from February 13 to 17 to promote the export of Canadian agricultural products to Bangladesh.
The team comprising members of the Ministry of Agriculture of the government of Saskatchewan and the Saskatchewan Trade & Export Partnership (STEP) is expected to meet with senior government officials and members of the Bangladesh business community, a press release said here on Monday.
It will also hold seminars on Canadian agricultural products in Dhaka and Chittagong. Canada is a global leader in the production and export of many agricultural products, including wheat, peas, lentils, chickpeas, mustard seed and canola, and Saskatchewan is the country's largest producer of these products. Saskatchewan, which has 53% of Canada's arable land, produces approximately 60% of Canada's wheat (winter wheat, spring wheat and durum) and 44% of Canada's canola. Canada exported a record Taka 3900 crore food and other agricultural products to Bangladesh in the first 11 months of 2009.
The objective of the current mission is to develop opportunities in agri-food products, meet local agri commodity companies and promote Canada's pulse producers and processors as reliable sources of quality pulses, the release said. STEP is a non-profit, membership- based organization designed to promote the growth of Saskatchewan's export industry. It assists provincial businesses to realize global marketing opportunities through specially-tailored services and programs.

  Bestway Bazar gets best pavilion prize at DITF
TBT Economy Desk

Bestway Bazar was selected the best pavilion in the Dhaka International Trade Fair2010, says a press release.
Commerce Minister Md Faruk Khan handed over the crest for the best pavilion to Md. Mizanur Rahman, Chairman of Bestway Group, at the closing ceremony of the fair on Sunday. FBCCI president Annisul Huq, acting commerce secretary Golam Hossain and vice president of EPB Md.Sahabullah were also present on the occasion.

  6 foreign firms to manufacture mobile set, laptop in BD
BSS, Dhaka

Six foreign companies have expressed their interests in manufacturing mobile set and laptop with the joint venture of state owned Bangladesh Telephone Shilpa Sangstha (Teshish).
Managing director of Teshish Ismail Hossain told BSS that the letters of their expression of interest were sent to head of the Electric and Electronic Department of BUET for scrutiny.
The government floated international tender in December 2009 inviting the entrepreneurs as the Ministry of Post of Telecommunications has taken initiative to make the Teshish full operative after long time.
For the first time the government has undertaken the initiative for a joint venture of the state owned Teshish with foreign company to produce mobile set and laptop. The MD did not disclose name of any foreign bidder saying it may create confusion before completion of the scrutiny. However, he firmly hoped that mobile set and laptop will come to market by April next.
Secretary of Teshish Osman Gani said the mobile will be produced with local technology and every set of mobile will be Taka 2,000 and will have every latest facilities including double SIM system. Referring to the experts' opinion, he said country's total mobile phone users will be over eight crore by next two years. Teshish will produce four lakh sets a year preliminarily.
He said Teshish was completely inoperative for the last 12 years and 525 officials and employees were given salaries without any work. The manpower of the company was reduced to 260 in July 2007.
After the present government came to power, Post and Telecommuni-cations ministers Raziuddin Razu asked the officials to take measures for revival of the Teshish.
In the offer, the investors accepted the minister's proposed for keeping the price of every laptop within the range of Taka 10,000 to 12,000, Ismail Hossain said.

  Toyota faces fresh questions over recall response
AFP, Tokyo

Toyota's handling of a dangerous gas pedal defect came under fresh scrutiny Monday after the group said it had fixed the flaw for some cars in Europe last year but initially decided against a global recall.
Toyota's woes are set to deepen this week when the world's largest auto maker is expected to pull as many as 300,000 Prius hybrid vehicles because of a separate issue with the braking system. The brake trouble comes on top of recalls of more than eight million vehicles worldwide due to sticking accelerator pedals that have severely tarnished the Japanese giant's reputation for reliability.
The company, whose brand has long been synonymous with safety and quality, faces a class-action lawsuit on behalf of owners in the United States alleging that it hid problems that have led to the rash of recalls.
And Toyota's North America president, Yoshimi Inaba, is set to testify at a US congressional hearing on Wednesday as part of a wider probe by lawmakers.
Toyota has denied it was slow to respond to the unintended acceleration issue but faces new questions about its handling of the episode, after it emerged that the company acted on the problem in Europe about six months ago.
"We did fix this in August last year (in Europe) after first hearing about the issue at the end of 2008," said Toyota spokesman Paul Nolasco.
But it was initially thought that the problem only affected European right-hand drive vehicles, sold mainly in Britain and Ireland, he said.
The trouble was attributed to the car heater blowing hot air on the gas pedal, causing condensation to build up inside and result in sticking, but was not thought to occur in left-hand drive models, he said.

  Aktel Chairman now in Dhaka
TBT Economy Desk

Tan Sri Ghazzali Sheikh Abdul Khalid, Chairman of Axiata (Bangladesh) Limited, arrived in Dhaka on a three-day official visit, says a press release.
During his visit, Ghazzali will meet senior officials from Aktel. He will also meet some government high-ups.
Ghazzali has made his career as a diplomat since 1971 and became the Ambassador of Malaysia to the United States in March 1999. Before his appointment to Washington, D.C., he served as the deputy secretary-general at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Malaysia. Over the years, his overseas appointments have included postings to Hong Kong, Germany, Austria, Thailand, the United Kingdom, Zimbabwe and with the Permanent Mission of Malaysia to the United Nations in New York, United States. Ghazzali, an Economics graduate o f University of La Trobe in Australia, has been a Director of Axiata (Bangladesh) Limited (former TM International Sdn Bhd) since March 24, 2008.

 Indian Railway revenue earnings up by 8.56pc
BSS, New Delhi

The approximate earnings of Indian Railways on originating basis during 1st April, 2009 - 31st January, 2010 were Rs. 70501.65 crore compared to Rs. 64943.32 cr during the same period of last year, registering a growth of 8.56 pc.
An official release today said the total goods earnings have gone up from Rs. 44035.66 crore during 1st April 2009 - 31st January 2010 to Rs. 47763.29 crore of during 1st April 2008 - 31st January 2009, an increase of 8.47 percent. The total passenger revenue earnings during first ten months of the financial year 2009-10 were Rs. 19393.26cr compared to Rs. 18057.41cr during the same period of last year, registering an increase of 7.40pc. The revenue earnings from other coaching amounted to Rs. 1903.31 crore during April 2009-January 2010 compared to Rs. 1666.54 crore during the same period of last year, an increase of 14.21 per cent, it said.
The approximate numbers of passengers booked during April 2009-January 2010 were 6188.78 million compared to 5917.13 million during the same period of last year, showing an increase of 4.59 percent.
In the suburban and non-suburban sectors, the numbers of passengers booked during April 2009-January 2010 were 3210.93 million and 2977.85 million compared to 3164.05 million and 2501.45 million during the same period of last year, an increase of 1.48 percent and 8.16 percent respectively, the release said.

  Asian stocks mostly down on European debt woes
AFP, Hong Kong

Concerns over Europe's debt woes continued to weigh on most Asian markets Monday while weaker-than-expected US jobs data also led to fears over the pace of recovery in the world's biggest economy.
The euro was off last week's eight-month lows in Asian trade but was still being sold in favour of the dollar as European fiscal problems continue to burden dealers.
Fears have grown that debt-ridden countries such as Greece, Spain and Portugal may be unable to restore stability to their public finances, having spent heavily to combat recession during the global meltdown.
"The market's biggest concern is the European fiscal situation, and this problem won't be solved any time soon," Nikko Cordial senior strategist Tsuyoshi Kawata told Dow Jones Newswires.
The euro stood at 1.3626 dollars in Tokyo afternoon trade, after sliding to as low as 1.3586 in New York late Friday. The euro dropped to 121.65 yen from 122.01. The dollar edged up to 89.32 yen from 89.20.
Dealers in Asia were unimpressed by remarks from eurozone finance officials at G7 talks in Canada on Greece's efforts to cut its public debt of more than 294 billion euros (412 billion dollars).

  Oil prices stay below $72
AFP, London

Oil prices rose on Monday after a massive selloff last week triggered by weak US jobs data and debt woes in the eurozone, traders said. New York's main futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in March, climbed 40 cents to 71.59 dollars a barrel at 1145 GMT. Brent North Sea crude for March gained 39 cents to 69.98 dollars a barrel. "What we're seeing is a technical rebound. Investors are taking the opportunity to buy into the market after the massive selloff last week," said ANZ bank analyst Serene Lim. The markets digested news published Friday showing the US economy lost 20,000 jobs in January.
The non-farm payrolls data fell short of expectations for a gain of 15,000 jobs that would have been a clear sign of a turnaround in the troubled labour market and overall economy after a massive stimulus effort by the government.
The report showed the jobless rate eased to 9.7 percent from 10.0 percent in December, based on a household survey that appeared to contradict the payrolls data, but partly reflected how discouraged workers are leaving the labour force.
Sentiment was also hit by concerns that debt-ridden countries such as Greece, Spain and Portugal may be unable to restore stability to their public finances after having spent heavily to combat recession.

  Indonesia sells $850m worth of Islamic bonds
AFP, Jakarta

Indonesia has sold more than 850 million dollars worth of Islamic bonds to domestic retail investors, three-times more than its target, officials said Monday.
The bonds, or sukuk, will mature in three years and pay 8.7 percent, finance ministry director for debt Rahmat Waluyanto told reporters. "The government earlier targeted to sell three trillion rupiah (318 million dollars) worth, as we're conservative. But we managed to sell 8.033 trillion rupiah," he added.
A total of 17,231 investors took part, he said. "About 9,055 investors bought up to 100 million rupiah worth of sukuk. The top investor bought 25 billion rupiah worth. It seems that our investors are quite prosperous," Waluyanto said.
As Islamic law forbids interest payments, sukuk generate returns by other means such as lease payments on securitised underlying assets.
Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim-majority country with around 90 percent of its 234 million people following the Islamic faith.
But it has lagged other countries such as Malaysia and Persian Gulf nations in developing an Islamic finance sector.
Islamic bonds comprise only about five percent of outstanding corporate bonds issued in Indonesia, whereas in Malaysia sukuk account for around a third or more. Jakarta sold its first sukuk in 2008 in a local-currency deal, and launched a 650-million-dollar global sukuk last year.
Waluyanto said the government planned to sell its second global sukuk later this year.

  JAL to stay with American Airlines
AFP, Tokyo

Japan Airlines, after declaring bankruptcy last month, appeared set on Monday to keep its current tie-up with American Airlines and end talks to defect to the world's biggest carrier Delta.
US giants American and Delta Air Lines have been competing to invest in ailing JAL, which filed for bankruptcy with 26 billion dollars of debt in one of Japan's biggest ever corporate failures.
Both airlines have circled JAL, hoping to benefit from a new US-Japan "open skies" deal to expand their reach in the lucrative Asia-Pacific aviation market. The market last year surpassed North America as the world's largest.
Japanese media had previously said JAL planned to switch to the SkyTeam alliance of Delta and ditch American's Oneworld alliance, which also includes British Airways and Qantas.
But newspapers including the Nikkei business daily, and NHK television, said JAL's new management and the government's Enterprise Turnaround Initiative of Japan believe the switch would be costly and risky.
The embattled carrier feared that a switch to Delta and SkyTeam would confuse its passengers, and may not win anti-trust immunity from US authorities because it would dominate the trans-Pacific market.
A JAL spokesman said: "Nothing is decided on this issue and the reports are based on speculation."

National

The Padma drying up due to scanty water flow: Experts
BSS, Rajshahi

The scanty water flow has been triggering the drying up process of the mighty Padma and its tributaries causing an adverse impact on environment in the drought-prone Barind tract.
Experts said the entire northern and southern regions of the country, particularly the vast Barind tract, are facing ecological disorder due to adverse impact of the gradual drying of the river.
They said the water level is being reduced rapidly and it has reached the lowest mark during the current dry season. A large number of big shoals have emerged in the river and its mainstream splitting the flow into numerous tiny and small confluence.
The river has now the lowest water flow in some narrower channels that caused emergence of hundreds of shoals hampering navigability throughout its courses both in the up- stream and downstream, officials and experts said. Various types of crops especially IRRI-Boro paddy and different other seasonal crops are being cultivated on the riverbed.
Officials of Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) told BSS that the water level has been reducing to a greater extent this season in comparison with the last couple of years.
In addition to the existing numerous ones, more big shoals are being emerged. After analyzing the decreasing trend, the experts expressed their apprehension that the declining condition would continue until the monsoon begins in June next that will lead the entire northern and southern regions to a more disastrous situation.
Meanwhile, the ground water table has been lowering in the vast Barind tract with the reduction of water level in the river creating an apprehension of non-functioning of the hand-driven tubewells.
Former director of Institute of Environmental Sciences (IES) of Rajshahi University Prof Dr Sarwar Jahan said the drying up of the river and its tributaries has caused abnormal lowering of the underground water levels and also seriously affected the traditional irrigation for lack of adequate water flows.
Besides, he said the conventional livelihood on the river basin, navigation, environment and bio-diversity have been posed to an alarming threat causing grave concern to the habitations in the river basin.

  Navy’s annual sea exercise ends
UNB, Dhaka

Bangladesh Navy's annual sea exercise concluded with successful missile launch in the Bay of Bengal on Monday.
Prime Minister's Defence Adviser Major General Tarique Ahmed Siddique, (Rtd) observed the final day's exercise from onboard Navy's modern ship, BNS Bangabandhu.
Earlier, Chief of the Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Z U Ahmed welcomed the Defence Adviser on his arrival in Chittagong, said an ISPR press release.
Maximum BN Ships including Frigates, Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPV), Minesweepers, Patrol Boats, Missile Boats, Gun Boats, Torpedo Boats and Fighter Aircrafts of Bangladesh Air Force took part in this sea exercise.
Some units of Bangladesh Army took part in the exercise in the coastal areas of Chittagong and Khulna. Besides, about 14 maritime agencies from seven ministries took part indirectly in this year's exercise.
The mentionable side of this four-phase exercise was Navy Fleet's tactical maneuver, Monitoring activities at sea, Search & Rescue Operation, Logistic Operation, Landing Operation, Defence of Naval Installations in Costal Areas etc.
The main focus of this exercise was to ensure sovereignty of the country, protection of marine resources, protection of Sea Line of Communication (SLOC) including anti smuggling, anti piracy, protection against sea pollution, protection of bio diversity in coastal areas and ensuring s0ecurity at Sea. important events of the final day exercise were missile launch from Navy ship, anti submarine socket launch, anti aircraft gunfire and various tactics of naval warfare.
The Chief Guest conveyed thanks to all participating officers and sailors in a speech to Navy personnel of Chittagong on completion of the successful exercise.
He highly praised Navy personnel for their high professional skill, efficiency and dedication. He remembered the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and mentioned that Bangladesh Navy has come to this stage under his strong leadership and direction.
He also spoke on present government's various activities for the over all development of the Navy and its entrance into three dimension.
Among others, Chittagong City Mayor, MPs, Principal Staff Officer, AFD and other high military and civil officers were present on the occasion.

 BDF meeting to focus on country’s vision
BSS, Dhaka

The next week Bangladesh Development Forum (BDF) meeting will focus on the country's vision for graduation to the middle income group through poverty reduction, human resource development and technology transfer.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the two-day meeting at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the morning, bringing an end to the four and half years' deadlock in holding the important routine event.
The last BDF meeting was held in November 2005, which was supposed to be followed by another meeting in 2007. The past caretaker government took an initiative in November 2007, but discarded the plan later for some reasons.
The next meeting after a long gap will have elaborate discussions on Bangladesh's vision for the next five-year with the major objectives of mobilizing more external resources to translate the vision into reality, ERD Secretary Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told newsmen on Monday. Country Representative of DFID Chris Austin also gave journalists briefing on the forthcoming meeting between the government and the country's development partners.
Both Bhuiyan and Austin are co-chairs of the Local Consultative Group (LCG), which is holding the meeting with the Bangladesh government. The LCG comprises 32 representatives' of development partner countries and multi-donor agencies.
"Two things will be the major issues for discussion at the forum-the vision of the government and its capacity building - - to attain the goal," Bhuiyan said.
He said the core document of the meeting would be the revised Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) as it would give the development partners a clear picture about what the government wants to do in the next five-year.
Besides, he said since the document is aiming at reintroducing the five-year plan, it would also provide the development partners with an idea about the next long term plan of the government to achieve its Vision 2021.

   ‘Cultural, literary competitions can develop children’s mental growth’

BSS, Rajshahi

Mayor of Rajshahi AHM Khairuzzaman Liton emphasized the need for cultural and literary competition for the children for their mental growth along with flourishing their latent talents.
He said the children should be ensured with all requisite facilities side by side with keeping them away from any violence so that they could be built as worthy citizens to lead the future Bangladesh.
Mayor Liton was addressing as the chief guest the closing and prize-giving ceremony of a cultural and literary competition for the children organized by Divisional Public Library in observance of the International Mother Language and Immortal Ekushey February at its premises here Monday.
Chaired by Deputy Commissioner Shefaul Karim, it was addressed, among others, by President of Rajshahi Chamber of Commerce and Industry Abu Bakker Ali and In-charge of the library.
Mayor Liton said the children should be habituated with the modern ideas and knowledge and other fields through participating in the local level cultural and literary competition.
He said importance should be given on arranging more competitions for them.
He, however, said the children must be protected from all sorts of bad association and criminal activities including drug-addiction and viewed that they should not be deprived of their fundamental rights.

 BMDA provides irrigation to produce addl paddy
BSS, Rangpur

The Barind Multipurpose Development Authorities (BMDA) has taken massive steps to provide smooth irrigation to 43,050 hectares land in 13 northern districts during this Boro season, officials said Monday.
A total of re-installed 1,722 Deep Tube Wells (DTWs) have been put ready for providing irrigation to produce 2.32 lakh tonnes of additional Boro paddies worth Taka 326 crore during this season in the region.
The 1,722 DTWs out of a targeted 2,850 disordered ones have so far been reinstalled under the Phase-1 five-year term ongoing Taka 198-crore Deep Tube Well Installation Project (DTWIP) and more 1,128 DTWs will be reinstalled by 2013 next.

Besides, the government also approved the 5-year term Phase- 2 Taka 250 crore DTWIP on last January 21 at the ECNEC meeting for installation of 1,250 new DTWs in Rangpur, Nilphamari, Lalmonirhat, Gaibandha, Bogra, Pabna and Sirajganj districts.
Completion of the Phase-1 and Phase-2 projects will bring a revolution in boosting agro-productions, ensured supply of arsenic-free pure drinking water and improving ecology, bio- diversity, environment and resist desertification of the region.
While talking to BSS Monday, Superintending Engineer (SE) of BMDA and its Project Director Monwar Hossain told that thousands of farmers will be benefited by getting irrigation at the lowest costs after completion of the projects.
"We irrigated 37,591 hectares land last year in these districts benefiting 66,753 farmers, realized Taka 6.03 cr as irrigation charges when the farmers produced an additional 2.11 lakh tonnes paddy worth Taka 296 crore," he added.
Besides, 20 Low Lift Pump schemes have been taken under the Activating Inactive DTWs Installation Pilot Project for maximizing utilization of the surface waters in Rangpur, Kurigram and Gaibandha districts this year. 

Sports

Shehan becomes fastest man of South Asia
TBT report

Shehan Saearuwan Abey-pitiyage took the honour of the fastest man of South Asia when the Sri Lankan became first in the men's 100-metre sprint in the 11th South Asian Games on Monday.
Shehan took 10:46 seconds to claim gold in the most prestigious event of the athletics ahead of Abdul Najeeb of India who was considered favourite before the competition.
"I have worked hard to achieve the feat. I saw myself ahead of others at the 50 meter and I started to think that if I cannot win this time then it would be never," Shehan, an avid admirer of Usain Bolt, said after his feat.
"The title has inserted more confidence in my heart to go forward and bring laurels for my country in future," he added.
On his next target, Shehan said he wants to shine in the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games, scheduled to be held later this year.

  New Zealand seals series victory against Bangladesh
Cricinfo Online

Having been kept to 183 by New Zealand's tidy bowling attack, Bangladesh was drubbed by the broad bat of Ross Taylor as it surrendered the series to the hosts at University Oval in Dunedin.
Another cheap Brendon McCullum dismissal and Martin Guptill's wicket inside the first ten overs would have given Bangladesh some hope, but Taylor's belligerent innings confirmed what most had expected from this Dunedin match. Swatting five sixes in his 52-ball 78, Taylor pushed Bangladesh into a corner and helped seal the game in the 28th over.
This win, however, had been sealed in the first half of the day by New Zealand's bowling attack. A familiar Bangladesh collapse at the top saw the home team take a firm grip on proceedings following an excellent new ball spell from Andy McKay, who was supported well by Daryl Tuffey and Ian Butler in the first 15 overs.
The New Zealand seamers ripped apart a spineless Bangladesh top order that capitulated to 25 for 5 and then 46 for 6, before Mushfiqur and Naeem Islam combined to bring up a record seventh-wicket stand that gave the scoreline some respectability.
McKay, in just his second appearance for New Zealand, bowled an immaculate line, occasionally extracting swing and bounce from the Dunedin track, nicking out Tamim Iqbal with a short riser and knocking out Shakib Al Hasan's middle stump to end with the impressive figures of 17 for 2 from his ten overs.
Tuffey did well to hold onto a sharp chance off his own bowling to dismiss the out of form Mohammad Ashraful in the ninth over, who toiled for 18 balls for just one run. Butler too picked up a wicket in the Powerplay overs, with Aftab Ahmed caught behind playing a loose cut shot on just 10.
Extremely poor running between the wickets compounded the problem for Bangladesh, with Imrul Kayes and Mahmudullah being found short of their ground after being sent back by their partners. Bangladesh were left in tatters in the 23rd over as Mahmudullah departed, with the total on 46 for 6.
Thankfully for Bangladesh, Mushfiqur and Naeem played intelligently, cautiously keeping the good deliveries out and picking up the singles on offer to get Bangladesh to a position from which they could attack in final ten overs.
Even the threat of Daniel Vettori was negotiated without incident by the pair, who brought up 101 runs in 147 deliveries, a Bangladesh record for the seventh wicket. Mushfiqur was especially superb in the batting Powerplay which ended in the penultimate over, clobbering some lacklustre death bowling by Tuffey and Butler over midwicket and straight down the ground for a valuable spate of late boundaries.
Despite Mushfiqur's late surge however, the damage had been done by New Zealand in the first half of the innings, and 183 was always going to be challenging to defend on a track that seemed to be getting better for batting as the day wore on.
Bangladesh started reasonably well with the ball, dismissing Brendon McCullum early on for 9, but a quick Martin Guptill 32 effectively ended any hopes of a Bangladesh victory. Rubel Hossain bowled with pace to induce a top edge from Peter Ingram to leave new Zealand at 100 for 3, before James Franklin joined Ross Taylor to see New Zealand to within striking distance of the Bangladesh total.
Taylor continued his rich vein of form, hammering 78 in a 56-ball innings which included five massive legside sixes and six fours, but was caught in the deep attempting to end the chase with a maximum over square leg. Neil Broom received a beauty first up and was given out lbw, but Vettori and Franklin saw New Zealand home in the 28th over with no further drama. In the end an all too easy five wicket win for the hosts.

  Pakistan snubs coach, Akmal
AFP, Lahore

Pakistan on Monday left out coach Intikhab Alam and wicket-keeper batsman Kamran Akmal from its 14-man side to face England in two Twenty20 matches.
There is speculation Alam will be sacked over Pakistan's humiliating 3-0 Test and 5-0 one-day series whitewash in Australia last month, but a Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) official denied he had been dismissed.
"Alam is not sacked," PCB chief operating officer Wasim Bari told AFP.
"There is no decision on Alam's future as yet, but it will be taken subsequently," he added.
PCB has ordered a six-man evaluation committee to look into why Pakistan was routed in Australia, summoning Alam, team manager Abdul Raqeeb and captain Mohammad Yousuf to appear for questioning on Friday and Saturday.
Chief selector Iqbal Qasim has already resigned following the defeat in Australia, refusing to reverse his decision despite a request from the PCB.
A panel of four selectors, without any chief selector, chose the team for the two Twenty20 matches, said Bari.
"Akmal is our main player and since we want to groom other players as well we have rested Akmal," said Bari. Akmal was criticised for poor wicket-keeping in Australia, dropping several important catches.
Shoaib Malik, sacked as captain in January last year after Pakistan's 2-1 home series defeat against Sri Lanka, will lead the team in the Twenty20 matches, to be played in Dubai on February 19 and 20.
Pakistan's original Twenty20 captain Shahid Afridi will be part of the squad but cannot play in the first match following a ban of two Twenty20 international matches for ball-tampering. Afridi was caught on television cameras biting the ball during the fifth and final one-day international against Australia at Perth, which is against the rules of the game.
Pacemen Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamir are also not part of the team. Aamir is recovering from a groin injury and Asif was not considered after UAE authorities refused to revoke travelling restrictions imposed on him.
Asif was deported from Dubai in June 2008 after he was found in possession of opium. He was detained for 19 days.
The squad includes promising pacemen in Wahab Riaz and Mohammad Talha.
The team will be managed by Yawar Saeed, who relinquished his post after the Champions Trophy in October last year. Saeed replaced Raqeeb who managed the team on Australia tour. There will be no head coach but former batsman Ijaz Ahmed, who coached Pakistan's junior team to the runners-up spot in the Under-19 World Cup last month, will be batting and fielding coach.
Alam said he heard of his exclusion through the media. "I am ready to face the committee and only after then, decide the next course of action," he told AFP.
Squad: Imran Nazir, Imran Farhat, Khalid Latif, Umer Akmal, Shoaib Malik (captain), Fawad Alam, Shahid Afridi, Abdul Razzaq, Sarfraz Ahmad, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Yasir Arafat, Wahab Riaz, Mohammad Talha.

  Aussies win 'Boxing Kangaroo' battle
AFP, Vancouver

A triumphant Australia won its battle with the International Olympic Committee on Sunday to display a controversial Boxing Kangaroo flag at the Winter Olympics athletes village.
The image, which is draped over two storeys of the village and flanked by eight Australian national flags, shows a yellow kangaroo with red boxing gloves.
The IOC had ordered it to be taken down, claiming it was a registered trademark which violated Games rules.
But the issue was resolved following talks between IOC President Jacques Rogge and Australian Olympic Committee President John Coates. "The IOC has a clean venue policy in order to protect the commercial rights of its sponsors," Coates said in a statement.
"But clearly on this occasion Australia was not trying to ambush either the IOC or VANOC (Vancouver organising committee).
"We are not selling authorised Boxing Kangaroo merchandise in Vancouver, nor is it available online.
"We will however need to register the Boxing Kangaroo going forward. The Boxing Kangaroo has been used as the Australian Team mascot since the Sydney Games," Coates added. Australia's Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Saturday slammed the IOC's order as "ridiculous" and called for more flags bearing the famous symbol.
"It's a scandal," Gillard told Australia's Nine Network TV station.
"I think we want to see a lot of the Boxing Kangaroo, particularly now that we've had this ridiculous ruling. So, yes, boxing kangaroos everywhere." The Boxing Kangaroo symbol came to prominence during the country's 1983 America's Cup yachting victory. The Australian Olympic Committee later bought the image from businessman Alan Bond, owner of winning yacht "Australia II".

   Naseem Hamid wins women's 100-metre sprint title
TBT report

Naseem Hamid of Pakistan emerged as the fastest woman of the 11th South Asian Games winning the 100 meter sprint with a timing of 11: 81 seconds on Monday at Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka.
It was an unprecedented effort by a Pakistani woman as it did not happen before. Pakistani women sprinters were never in the fray in the 26 year's history of the South Asian Games.
"I don't have the words to express my feelings. Actually I can't believe that I am the fastest woman of South Asia. I have been working hard for success," Nasim said after the race.
Replying to a query, she said, "I have been going through the athletics from my school days. It was a wonderful feeling that gives me great a motivation to look forward. I think it will inspire the other female Pakistani athletes to come forward. I want to continue the success at the upper level also."

  Oudin takes US into Fed Cup semis
AFP, Paris

Emerging teen star Melanie Oudin sealed the United States' passage to the semi-finals of the Fed Cup on Sunday with a 7-6 (7/3), 6-4 win over Julie Coin, handing her compatriots an unassailable 3-0 lead over hosts France.
Also advancing were holders Italy, who waltzed past hosts Ukraine 4-1 in Kharkiv as the sister act of Alona and Kateryna Bondarenko failed to disturb Francessa Schiavone and Flavia Pennetta before Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci carried off the doubles for good measure.
In the absence of the Williams sisters the American contingent has shown its strength in depth and Oudin, who looked a little out of her depth in last year's final loss to Italy, was delighted to prove her own worth in bagging the all-important point at Lievin.
"This victory is very important for me as I lost the decisive match against Italy in the final. I was tense to begin with but Julie was also making things tough for me as she was serving very well.
"Then I got into my game. I'm really happy to have helped my team win this match in France," said the 18-year-old from Georgia, ranked 53 on the WTA computer as she took her country's Fed Cup record to 11-1 against the French.
Oudin, breaking crucially in the fifth game of the second set to steady herself, made headlines last year with an exciting run to the US Open quarters having reached round four at Wimbledon, shocking former world number one Jelena Jankovic en route.
At Flushing Meadows, she then defeated fourth seed Elena Dementieva and another former number one, Maria Sharapova.
Here, she beat Pauline Parmentier in straight sets in Saturday's second singles rubber after 140th-ranked Bethanie Mattek-Sands had started the ball rolling with a 7-6 (9/7), 7-5 win over Alize Cornet.
That loss being Cornet's sixth loss in as many Fed Cup starts, team captain Nicolas Escude withdrew her from the firing line and sent in Coin.
But she was unable to prevent Oudin, taking her tournament record to 3-3, sealing the decisive point which takes the USA through to the semi-finals as they hone in on an 18th title.
"I gave it all I had," said Coin. "But she turned it up on the important points. I had a first set break but then my service lost its edge."
In the semis, the Americans will play either Serbia or Russia - who were locked at 2-2 going into a decisive final rubber while two-times champions France must now head for a World Group playoff on April 24-25 against a Group Two loser to be drawn on Wednesday.
Elsewhere on Sunday, the Czech Republic edged out Germany 3-2 at Brno after a thriller which went down to the final rubber.
The Czechs, beaten semi-finalists by the USA last year and chasing a sixth title to go third in the historical rankings ahead of Spain, saw Anna-Lena Groenefeld bag two points for the Germans.
But the 24-year-old was unable to complete a hattrick in the doubles as, after seeing off Petra Kvitova early in the day, she and Tatjana Malek went down in straight sets to Lucie Hradecka and Kveta Peschke.

  Cilic retains Zagreb title
AFP, Zagreb

Top seed Marin Cilic of Croatia retained his ATP Zagreb indoor tournament title here on Sunday defeating German journeyman Michael Berrer 6-4, 6-7 (5/7), 6-3 in just over two-and-a-half hours.
"Berrer played very well today. I was trying to find my game and physically I did not feel the best," said 21-year-old Cilic, who is ranked 10 in the world.
"I was a bit late on the ball but I believe that in key moments I had a very good serve.
"It was not easy. He (Berrer) is left-handed, has a different system of playing ... Most of the time I was on the defensive, it was not easy to get to attack and get points. "We were simply level pegging all the time and it was difficult to find a solution," he added.
The 65th ranked Berrer, who was playing in his first ever ATP final, played above himself and showed that he had not reached the final by accident.
Indeed Berrer became the only player to take a set off Cilic in the tournament when he took the second set tiebreak.
Cilic faced the biggest problems in the second set when the 29-year-old German was returning every serve, every ball and was getting to the net regularly.
However, in the third set Cilic was too strong for Berrer. He took the German's serve in the fourth game to take a 3-1 lead and went on to take the title with an ace.
The 6ft 6in (1.98 metres) Cilic has moved into the top 10 for the first time in his career after becoming the first Croatian to reach an Australian Open semi-final.
It makes him only the fourth Croat to break into the top 10 - Mario Ancic, Ivan Ljubicic and Goran Ivanisevic being the others.

  South Africa sniffs win after Steyn wrecks India
AFP, Nagpur

South Africa was eyeing victory after Dale Steyn picked a career-best 7-51 to trigger a dramatic India collapse on the third day of the first Test on Monday.
The right-arm quick polished off the last five India wickets for three runs in 7.4 overs after tea to bundle them out for 233 and help the visitors enforce the follow-on at the Vidarbha Cricket Association stadium in Nagpur.
Following on, India were tottering at 66-2, trailing South Africa by 259 runs on first innings with eight wickets in hand.
Murali Vijay was batting on 27 with Sachin Tendulkar on 15 when stumps were drawn for the day.
Steyn struck again in India's second innings, sending back Virender Sehwag for 16 while Morne Morkel pegged back the off-stump of the other opener, Gautam Gambhir (one).
"I tried to hit the right areas with the same intensity," said Steyn.
"On some days you can bowl the best of your life and not pick wickets and then you have some days when things just fall into place. "There was a ball change (around tea time) as the seam had split open and we came back strongly after that." India's slide began with the dismissal of skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (six) in the first over after the tea break.
Subramaniam Badrinath's resistance in his first Test appearance was cut short in the next over when he chipped Steyn straight to short mid-wicket. His 56-run innings came off 139 balls and included seven fours.
The other debutant, Wriddhiman Saha was out off the first ball he faced from Steyn. Zaheer Khan and Amit Mishra played on to their stumps before Harbhajan Singh was trapped lbw, giving Steyn his 13th five-wicket haul in 37 Tests.
The only positive for India was the 109-run knock by Sehwag, who hit 15 fours and also shared 136 runs for the fourth wicket with Badrinath after India were reeling at 56-3. But Sehwag was dismissed shortly after reaching his 18th Test century when he sliced a quite wide delivery from paceman Wayne Parnell (1-31) to cover where Jean-Paul Duminy took a well-judged catch.
"We all are very disappointed with our performance," said Sehwag.
"We needed some big partnerships. But Steyn used the reverse swing very well. He is a very good bowler but he was simply brilliant today.
"We will now try hard and fight back. We will give our 100 percent to save the match."
Replying to South Africa's first innings 558-6 declared, India were off to a disastrous start, losing their three top-order wickets inside the first hour.
Steyn got rid of Tendulkar (seven) and Vijay (four) after Morkel (1-58) had dismissed Gambhir (12) to reduce the hosts to 119-3 at lunch.
Gambhir, coming into the series with eight centuries in his last 11 Tests, was out off the first ball he faced when he was caught by wicketkeeper Mark Boucher after poking at an away-going delivery. The second and final Test 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.

  Aussies to take part in IPL: Warne
AFP, London

Shane Warne has urged his fellow Australians to play in the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) despite threats from an Indian political party.
The Mumbai-based Shiv Sena, a right-wing party, has said Australians will be barred from playing matches in the city in retaliation for recent attacks on Indians living in Australia, including last month's murder of 21-year-old Punjabi Nitin Garg in Melbourne-Warne's home town.
But Warne, captain and coach of the Rajasthan Royals, told reporters at Lord's here on Monday: "As far as I've said, and what I have heard and read, I've got no security issues whatsoever.
"There's been things put in the press about minority incidents happening in Melbourne, which is a terrible shame and very unfortunate.
"I've been meeting with the premier of Victoria (John Brumby) to address a lot of those issues and come up with a plan to help the relationship between India and Australia," Warne said.
"As far as the IPL is concerned, I have absolutely no concerns whatsoever. I'm sure the other Australian players will be looking forward to it too."
Legendary leg-spinner Warne, who led Rajasthan to victory in the inaugural IPL in 2008, added: "There's a lot of security with the teams. I've got no issue whatsoever travelling to India.
"It took me a while to appreciate the culture, the people and to enjoy India. The first few (Australia) tours, when you are losing, getting smashed all over the park and getting none for a hundred, it's not much fun.
"But the last couple of tours we managed to beat India over there, I really started to enjoy the people and their passion," explained Warne, who retired from Test cricket following Australia's 5-0 Ashes whitewash of England in 2007.