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Leading News
Bangladesh, India sign three
agreements
Hasina calls for
concluding water sharing treaty
UNB, New Delhi
Bangladesh and India Monday signed five deals, three for
mutual actions against crimes and terrorism while one each
on cooperation in power sector and on cultural exchanges
between the two close neighbors.
The former three agreements and the latter two MoUs were
signed by the secretaries concerned of the two countries
capping comprehensive summit-level talks between visiting
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and host Prime
Minister Dr Manmohan Singh at Hyderabad House in the
evening.
At the core of treaties are commitments of the two
countries for mutual legal assistance on criminal matters,
transfer of sentenced persons and combat against
"international terrorism, organized crime and illegal
drug-trafficking" through the porous common border that
stretches over 4,000 kilometres.
At the official talks, the two sides discussed the entire
range of bilateral relations, including means of resolving
the long-standing issues concerning trade, connectivity,
water sharing of common rivers and so.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina called for
concluding much-expected treaties on water sharing of the
Teesta and other common rivers between Bangladesh and
India for normal flow of waters, as she spoke to
government leaders and state guests at a banquet in the
Indian capital Monday night.
"A vital factor for economic development is normal flow of
water. Bangladesh, an agrarian country, needs a guaranteed
flow of water throughout the year," she said while
addressing the banquet hosted by Indian Prime Minister Dr
Manmohan Singh at Hyderabad House.
Hasina also sought Dr Manmohan Singh's support for
concluding the water-sharing treaties, as long-drawn
negotiations couldn't yet yield the accords.
To ensure such a regular flow of the Ganges waters,
Bangladesh and India concluded the historic 30-year Ganges
Water Treaty in 1996, which symbolized the true spirit of
what the two countries can do, the Prime Minister reminded
her audience.
"With the same spirit, we need to conclude treaties on
water sharing of river Teesta, and other common rivers. On
this very important issue, I request your support in
arriving at mutual agreements," she told the Indian
hierarchy, including Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and
Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
Hasina also gave assurance to the Indian government that
Bangladesh "shall not allow" its territory to be used for
launching terrorist activities against any country in the
neighborhood, or around the world. "Bangladesh is
committed to eliminating all forms of terrorism from
within its territory," she said.
She noted that to ensure sustained commitment to peace,
serious collaboration is essential in countering
terrorism.
The Prime Minister, who came to power through a regime
change at the end of two years of emergency rule, also
invited Dr Manmohan to visit Bangladesh at the soonest in
order to give a nudge to the process of change on the
diplomatic front.
"It is now important for you to visit Bangladesh at the
soonest to consolidate our mutual gains, and to facilitate
attainment of our remaining targets. Therefore, I extend
to you, on behalf of our people, government, and myself,
warmest invitation to visit Bangladesh," she said in her
speech.
Hasina said Bangladesh would be keenly looking forward to
Dr Manmohan Singh's Dhaka trip.
1/11-the
‘Black Day’
BNP demands trial of Moeen, Fakhruddin and collaborators
TBT Report
BNP secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain has
demanded trial the 1/11 changeover's masterminds and their
collaborators who launched attack on country's
independence, democracy, sovereignty, constitutional
continuity and on the nationalist forces.
He made this plea while addressing a discussion meeting to
mark 'one eleven as black day' held at the Engineers'
Institution Bangladesh auditorium in the capital on
Monday.
Khandaker Delwar Hossain said sever attack in a planned
way was launched on country's independence, democracy,
sovereignty, constitutional continuity and the leaders and
activists of BNP were the worst sufferers during two-year
long emergency of the immediate past so called caretaker
government.
The day is being observed as the 'black day' throughout
the country but the ruling party is not observing the day
as they were involved with the plot and have become
beneficiary of the one eleven. The trial of the one
eleven's masterminds and its collaborators is a must in
the country or else, the nation will never be freed from
stigma.
He said some trackless and high ambitious army officials
and a group of conspirators introduced one eleven in the
country compelling at gun point a legal and constitutional
caretaker government to resign. Country's so called civil
society members, professionals, businessmen and a section
of political leaders of different parties were also
involved with the scheme. As part of the plot, they picked
up a good number of political leaders of various parties
and businessmen and launched barbaric torture on them. In
order to oust BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia and her
family members from the country as well as to keep them
away from politics, destroy BNP and make the country
dysfunctional, the masterminds and the collaborators were
engaged in hatching conspiracy in a planned way.
Standing committee member Dr Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain
said the government is extending its assistances to the
plotters now abroad who were behind the one eleven scheme
instead of bringing them book for trial. The nationalist
forces are taking preparations for ensuring their trial in
the country, he said.
MK Anwar also a newly appointed standing committee member
said one eleven was a subversive attack on country's
democracy, independence, sovereignty and on BNP
Chairperson and her family members which took place in a
planned way.
Barrister Moudud Ahmed also a standing committee member
said the nationalist forces in the country will ensure the
trial of one eleven masterminds if the government does not
take initiatives for making sure their trial.
Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir senior joint secretary general
of the party said on that very day a group of conspirators
were engaged in hatching a conspiracy in order to make
country's independence, democracy and sovereignty
dysfunctional.
The main culprits Moeen-U-Ahmed and Fakhrudding Ahmed and
their accomplices shall have to be brought to book for
trial, he said.
Inflation
poses major threat to economic stability: CPD
BSS, Dhaka
A major independent review on Bangladesh economy rated the
government's achievements in financial sector high, but
raised concern about increasing inflation as it poses a
big threat to economic stability.
Researchers at the country's leading think-tank Centre for
Policy Dialogue (CPD) carried out the survey, bringing
into accounts the status of all the major areas of the
economy in the past one year.
The review especially focused on the fiscal targets for
2009-10, evaluated the achievements and identified major
future challenges with recommendations for both short-term
and long-term remedies.
The review also observes that the 6 percent growth in
gross domestic product (GDP) could be achieved this year
if the government addresses the challenges successfully.
CDP Executive Director Professor Mustafizur Rahman, who
leads the survey team, briefed journalists on the findings
of the review at his office in the city Monday.
The review has been prepared under the "Independent Review
of Bangladesh's Development (IRBD)" programme, said
Professor Rahman.
He said the economy in major areas including remittance,
tax collection, food production, capital market, reserve
and exchange rate showed remarkable stability and growth
in the last one year. He, citing the findings of the
review, attributed to the prudent policy and financial
supports of the government to the achievement amidst
global crisis.
The review, however, identified rising inflation as the
number one challenge to the economic stability. The
inflation, which surged over 10 percent in 2008, came down
to 6 percent recently, below the 6.5 per cent target of
the current fiscal year.
The Bangladesh Bank (BB) in its outlook for 2010 forecasts
that the inflation would be maintained at the level of the
fiscal target through policy support.
2nd extra judicial killings in 3 days
94 killed in over five
months
TBT Report
A ringleader of a robber gang was killed and one of his
accomplices injured in a 'gunfight' with police in
Chittagong early Monday taking the total of such extra
judicial killings to 94 in over five months from August 1,
2009 to January 11, 2010.
This is the second such extra judicial killings in new
year 2010. Earlier, a robber was killed in a shootout
between his cohorts and police in city's Pallabi thana
area on January 9.
According to UNB News Agency, a ringleader of a robber
gang was killed and one of his accomplices injured in a
gunfight with police at Bhabanipur village in Hathazari
upazila in Chittagong early Monday. The deceased was
identified as M Khalilur Rahman, alias, Khalil, 37, of
Urkirchar village in Raujan upazila.
Police said Khalil was wanted in 16 murders, robbery and
other criminal cases. Police also recovered six firearms,
33 rounds of bullet and the taxicab from the spot.
The unlawful killings are taking place despite mounting
protests by human rights activists, civil society members
and political parties and repeated assurances of the
government that such killings would be stopped and actions
would be taken against those found responsible.
Meanwhile, Odhikar, a leading human-right watchdog,
claimed recently that 138 people have been killed "in the
name of crossfire or encounter" since January last year.
Rights groups at home and abroad as well as some donor
agencies/countries have called for an end to such
extrajudicial killings.
RAB recently said as many as 577 people were killed in
'crossfire' in 472 incidents until Aug 31, 2009 since the
formation of the elite force on March 26, 2004.
SSC exams to begin from Feb 11
DU Correspondent
The Secondary School Certificate (SSC), Dakhil and SSC
vocational examinations under ten education boards will
begin throughout the country on February 11.
The decision was taken at an inter-ministerial meeting
presided over by Education Secretary Syed Ataur Rahman at
the education ministry on Monday.
Earlier the examinations were scheduled to start on
February 1, but have been deferred due to the 11th South
Asian Games. The 10-day games will begin on January 29
which will be held at 23 venues across the country. This
year, a total of 12,02,864 examinees will sit for the SSC
and its equivalent examinations at 1,992 centres across
the country.
Of the total, 9, 16,617 examinees will sit for SSC
examinations under eight education boards. A total of
2,11,527 candidates will sit for Dakhil examinations under
Madrasah Education Board while 74,720 for SSC vocational
examinations under Technical Education Board.
This year, 2,72,183 students are sitting for the
examinations under Dhaka Board, 1,34,687 under Rajshahi
Board, 1,02,323 under Comilla Board, 1,24,116 under
Jessore Board, 68,339 under Chittagong Board, 55,575 under
Barisal Board, 41,169 under Sylhet Board and 1,18,225
students under newly formed Dinajpur Board.
Petrobangla to start gas rationing
from next week
BSS, Dhaka
Prime Minister's Adviser Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury on
Monday directed the Petrobangla to start gas rationing
from next week for easing ongoing gas crisis from the
industry sector.
He gave this directive at a meeting of the Ministry of
Power, Energy and Mineral Resources at his office here.
The Petrobangla will implement the decision after talking
with the leaders of BGMEA, BKMEA, BTMC, FBCCI and other
stakeholders. The association leaders earlier agreed to
start implementing the gas-rationing plan in different
zones in separate days.
The meeting also asked Petrobangla not to cut gas from
power sector as irrigation season is going on.
Energy Secretary M Mohsin, Petrobangla Chairman Dr Hosain
Mansur, Managing Director of Titas Gas Distribution and
Transmission Company Ltd Aziz Khan and senior officials
attended the meeting.
Earlier, the ministry approved a proposal of Petrobangla
gas rationing plan to ease the on-going gas supply problem
across the country, especially in the capital city.
Chittagong
port
Dock workers announce
nonstop siege from today
UNB,
Chittagong
Dock workers at Chittagong Seaport Monday announced a
nonstop siege programme from today (Tuesday) to realize
their four-point demand, in what looks like a return of
the trade-union troubles of the yesteryears.
Jahangir Alam Chow-dhury, convener of Chittagong Port Dock
Workers Unity Council, announced their decision on the
tough action like laying siege to the country's main
seaport from a rally at the city's Nimtali crossing in the
evening.
Several hundred workers demonstrated around the port this
evening to drum up their agitation plan.
Meanwhile, Dock Workers- Employees Federation will hold a
rally in front of Newmooring Container gate tomorrow
(Tuesday) afternoon on the same demands.
Earlier on Thursday, the port workers threatened to bring
the port activities to a grinding halt from January 12 if
their four-point demand was not met by January-11
deadline.
Even they staged a two-day agitation on January 6-7,
including a siege to Port Bhaban, to press home their
demands.
Their demands include reinstatement of some 2,200 workers
terminated during the last caretaker government, putting
an end to repression on workers under berth operators,
placing their jobs under the port authority and
introduction of Dock Management Board.
Council leaders said some 4,200 workers under the Dock
Management Board lost their jobs with the abolition of the
board during the army-backed caretaker regime.
Some 1,800 workers were reinstated under the private berth
operators while another 200 refused to return to their
jobs, and the remaining ones still remain jobless.
They regretted that no effective measure has so far been
taken to reinstate the retrenched workers in the last two
months even though Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan had
announced their reinstatement gradually.
Back Page
President calls for opening door
of pvt varsities to poor students
BSS, Dhaka
President Zillur Rahman on Monday underscored the need for
increasing opportunities of higher education to the
country's poor students at the private universities by
offering them education at free or lesser cost.
The President made the remark while a three-member
delegation of American International University-Bangladesh
(AIUB) led by its Vice-Chancellor Dr Carmen Z. Lamagna
called on him at Bangabhaban here. The AIUB delegation
comprised its founder chairman Dr Anwarul Abedin and
Treasurer Dr Hasanul A. Hasan.
During the meeting, the delegation appraised the President
that AIUB is presently offering education to 12.2 percent
of students at free of cost. The university is determined
to gradually increase its offers of free education to the
country's poor students.
The members of the delegation said that the AIUB is
providing quality higher education at lesser cost. They
would like to change the notion of some people about
private universities that the educational expenses of
these educational institutions are very high.
They also apprised the President that the AIUB has offered
opportunities to the children of the BDR heroes, who were
brutally killed in BDR carnage last year, to continue
their studies at the university at free of cost.
Besides, tuition fees for the children of civil and
military officials would be reduced to half and
three-fourths, they assured. Con-cerned Secretaries to the
President's office were present at the meeting.
Hasina for more
fruitful relations with India
UNB, New Delhi
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh wants to have
more fruitful relations with India than the existing
friendly ties between the two next-door neighbours, as she
is here for talks on the entire gamut of bilateral issues.
She made the remarks while talking to Indian and
Bangladesh media after the Prime Minister was given
ceremonial state reception at Rashtrapati Bhaban on Monday
morning on her maiden visit to India after her election
through a landslide victory of her grand coalition at the
last polls.
Sheikh Hasina was escorted by Indian Horse-mounted Force
into the president house premises from the entrance to a
rousing red-carpet reception. On her arrival at the
Rashtrapati Bhaban at 10am, Indian Prime Minister Dr
Manmohan Singh warmly received his counterpart. Sheikh
Rehana, younger daughter of Father of the Nation
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was also present at the
function. The Bangladesh Prime Minister was given guard of
honor presented by a smartly turned-out contingent of
three services of the Indian armed forces. National
anthems of the two countries were played at the state
ceremony.
Hasina took salute and then inspected the guard
accompanied by the Indian Chief of Protocol.
The Bangladeshi Premier also introduced her ento-urage to
the Indian Prime Minister. Asked with what expectation she
has come to India, the Bangladesh Prime Minister said
Bangladesh wants to see its "great historic relation" with
India more fruitful in the days ahead than the existing
friendly relations.
Hasina said she came to visit India with the message of
friendship and best wishes of the people of Bangladesh.
"I have come here with best wishes of our people," she
told the media-men, hours before her official talks with
the Indian government of Dr Manmohan Singh for updating
the two countries' ties on all fronts.
Peelkhana
carnage
2000 BDR men, 34 civilians being charged by Jan 31
BSS, Dhaka
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) will char-gesheet
over 2000 BDR personnel and some civilians at the end of
this month implicating them in the brutal killings during
the BDR carnage at Peel-khana on February 25 last year,
official sources said here on Monday.
"We are almost at the fag end of the probe into the
carnage after 11 months of investigation and hopeful of
submitting the chargesheets within this month after
necessary scrutiny of all findings," Mir Shahidul Islam,
Special Superintendent (SS) of the CID police, told BSS.
Over 2,000 BDR members and 34 civilians, including former
BNP MP Nasir Uddin Ahmed Pintu are being charged for the
massacre in which 73 people, including 57 military
officers, were brutally killed at Peelkhana, he said.
A senior official of the CID told BSS that they have so
far arrested 2182 persons, including 34 civilians, on
charge of their involvement in the carnage. Of the
arrested, 2181 detainees, including 2149 BDR men, were
interrogated after taking them to remand.
A total of 7900 persons were interrogated in connection
with the killings including 139 members of the deceased
families during last 11 months, of which 530 people
including 521 BDR personnel gave their confessional
statements before the court under section 164 of the
Criminal Pro-cedure Code (CrPC), the official added.
"The CID so far enlisted 1000 people including about 600
eyewitnesses as prosecution witnesses in the case during
the investigation," the official said.
The CID has already prepared a list of 3084 evidences,
including blood-stained cloths, household goods, looted
mobile sets, grenades, various type of ornaments and
seized arms and ammunition to submit with the
charge-sheets, he added. Reply-ing to a question, Mir
Shahid said they are now scrutinizing the confessional
statements of the accused and found at least 53 statements
as judiciously valueless and irrelevant. "We are trying to
collect the statements of some vital eye witnesses
including few VIPs and verifying names, addresses and
statements before submitting the chargesheets," another
official involved in the investigation into the biggest
ever criminal case of the country said. At least 73 people
including the Director General (DG) BDR and other 56
military officials were brutally killed by the unruly BDR
personnel on February 25 and 26 last year.
They also looted arms and ammunition, gre-nades, household
goods, cash money and others valuables from the residences
of their bosses and the headquarters at that time. The
government has decided to try these accused persons under
different sections of the CrPC by special courts in Dhaka.
Kohli sets up facile
win for India
TBT Report
Virat Kohli struck a brilliant ton as India scored a
facile six-wicket victory against Bangladesh in the last
group phase match in the Idea Cup Tri-Nation cricket at
Sher-e-Bangla Na-tional Cricket Stadium, Dhaka on Monday.
The 21-year-old Indian top order batsman Virat Kohli
scored an unbeaten 102 off 95 balls to steer his team to
the mark as India scored 249 for four with seven overs to
spare in reply to Bangladesh's 247 for six, coming off the
hosts' stipulated 50 overs.
Coming at number three, the determined Kohli defied the
Bangladesh bowlers with great panache and hit 11 shots
through the boundary to frustrate the home fans.
Earlier, Dinesh Karthik and Gautam Gambhir produced 64
runs in the opening stand to lay a strong foundation for
the Indians before Karthik was caught behind by Bangladesh
keeper Mushfiqur Rahim off Shafiul Islam for 34. Gautam
Gambhir was castled by Naeem Islam for 41 to leave India
at 87 for two. Suresh Raina with 18 was at the crease with
Kohli when India reached home with seven overs remaining.
Naeem Islam picked up two wickets for Bangladesh, while
Shafiul Islam and skipper Shakib Al Hasan, who scored the
highest 85 for Bangladesh, captured one apiece. Bangladesh
lost its all four matches in the triangular competition
and stays at the bottom of the table, while India faces
off Sri Lanka in tomorrow's final for the top honour at
the same venue.
Bangabandhu murder
Law Minister against clemency for condemned convicts
UNB, Dhaka
Law Minister Barrister Shafique Ahmed said the condemned
convicts of Bangabandhu murder case should not get
presidential mercy as they killed the Father of the Nation
along with most members of his family.
"It was the most heinous assassination in history. It is
my personal opinion that the convicts of this murder case
should not get mercy," he said in a press briefing at his
office Monday, a day after his ministry gave the same
opinion on the mercy petitions of three of the ex-army
officers on death row in Dhaka Central Jail. The Law
Minister said the death sentences on the convicts of
Bangabandu murder case would be executed after completion
of all legal processes. "The law will take its own
course."
He said the remaining two of detained convicts-Syed
Faruque Rahman and Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan-have no
scope anymore for seeking presidential mercy since they
have not submitted mercy petitions by the January 9
deadline.
He also said the government would act as per the Supreme
Court directive on the review petitions filed by the
convicts. Barrister Shafique said condemned prisoners Lt
Col (retd) Muhiuddin Ahmed (Artill-ery), Maj AKM Mohiuddin
(Lancer) and Major (retd) Bazlul Huda submitted mercy
petitions which the jail authority sent to the Home
Ministry and the Home Ministry passed it on to the Law
Ministry for opinion.
The Law Ministry has given its opinion and sent the
petitions back to the Home Ministry, he said, but declined
to divulge anything about Law Ministry's opinion.
Three of the five condemned murderers of father of the
nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Saturday
submitted separate mercy petitions to the President
through the jail authority while the remaining two
petitioned the Supreme Court for a review of their capital
punishment instead of seeking clemency.
Senate to debate
screening of Pakistanis by US authorities
APP, Islamabad
The members of the Senate on Monday expressed great
concern over enhanced screening procedures will be
required to go through enhanced screening, including
full-body pat-downs and extra hand luggage searches for
Pakistanis only because of their origin and called for
similar treatment with US nationals.
The members were of the view that such a treatment is
tantamount to insulting the whole nation.
PPP senior senator Raza Rabbani and Deputy Chairman Senate
Jan Muhammad Jamali jointly moved a motion in the House
that the Foreign Office should take notice of the issue.
Senator Raza Rabbani said that it has become a common
practice that foreign dignitaries interfere in the
internal matters of Pakistan by giving statements and
offering services regarding different issues. He said that
Richard Hallbrooke's (Special US Envoy for Pakistan and
Afghanistan) offer for internal stability in Pakistan and
British Foreign Secretary David Milibands statement
regarding Karachi situation were clear evidence of foreign
interference in country's internal matters.
He said, 'they do not have the right to interfere in our
country's internal matters. Did we ever talk about
discriminatory treatment with Muslims living in Britain,'
he questioned.
Senator Abdul Malik said that the US nationals should be
given similar treatment at Pakistani airports as they were
doing with Pakistanis, adding that the Pakistan government
should adopt similar rules as they have made for the
Pakistanis.
'I wish to see US nationals stopped and searched at
Pakistani airports by our police personnel,' said Deputy
Chairman of the Senate Jan Muhammad Jamali.
Editorial
Child domestic workers
It
was disclosed at a press conference in the city on Sunday that
approximately four lakh children aged between 6 and 17 years
are now working as child domestic workers (CDWs) in Bangladesh
and of them 1.32 lakh are engaged in Dhaka city alone,
according to the a baseline survey conducted by Bangladesh
Bureau of Statistics (BBS). Of the total, 74 percent of CDWs
are girls and 94 percent work for 24 hours and six percent
work part time. Save the Children, Sweden-Denmark (SCSD) and
the Ain-o-Salish Kendra (ASK) jointly organized the press
conference on the occasion of a national child domestic worker
convention-2010.
According to the latest survey of the BBS conducted in 2002-
03, the number of child workers aged between five and 14 in
the country is 2.65 million. Of them, 0.56 million children
are engaged in risky jobs, Labour and Employment Minister
Engineer Khondakar Mosharraf Hossain told the Parliament in
June last year. After six years, now the number is definitely
much higher than mentioned above. Of these huge child workers,
four lakhs are working as domestic workers in a very
unfavourable condition which is sometimes appear inhuman.
Our government leaders, politicians, bureaucrats, members of
the civil society and the human rights activists are always
vocal against engaging children as workers and they also
emphasize on providing opportunities for their education. But
in reality the number of children at works is increasing day
by day as they are required to earn the bread of themselves
and their families also. Child labour is prohibited worldwide
including our country, but in fact children are engaged as
labourers in almost all developing countries including
Bangladesh. This is violation of law, but unfortunately in
most cases poverty forces the children to join works for
earning money to sustain. Poor parents also send their
children to work to support the family.
The domestic workers are often being subjected to tortures in
many ways in society by their employers, as there is no
comprehensive law for protecting them from repression and
ensuring their rights. It has been recommended by human rights
activists for amending the labour law 2006 to ensure the
rights of the domestic workers as they are deprived and
tortured in the society only because they are backward,
illiterate and poor. In most cases their employers exploit
them and taking chance of their disadvantage and poverty. The
gap between the rich and the poor is increasing day by day.
The rights of the child workers will never be ensured if we
cannot eradicate poverty from society.
The child workers are compelled to work for hours to earn the
bread at an age when they are supposed to go to schools and
remain busy in studying and playing. But many parents despite
their earnest desire cannot send their boys or girls to
schools due to abject poverty. As a result the child workers
are being deprived of the opportunity to grow up as educated
citizens. Against this backdrop, the government should rescue
the child labourers from their miserable life and attach the
highest importance to providing basic needs like education,
treatment, food and shelter for them.
Human rights activists are stressing the need for formulation
of a policy to protect the domestic workers' rights and urging
the government to amend the law to ensure the rights of the
domestic workers. It may be pointed out here that mere
amendment of law may not serve the purpose if the law is not
enforced strictly and there is a change in people's mindset
about the child domestic workers. So, besides amending the law
there should be a campaign for creating social awareness about
the rights of the ever neglected section of the society -the
child domestic workers.
Ban on note books
Bangladesh
Book Publishers and Sellers Association has become active in
commercial interest to undo the ban on note books. On Sunday,
after organising a rally at Banglabazar, the association
submitted a memorandum to deputy commissioner of Dhaka
demanding immediate repeal of the ban on printing, publishing,
import, distribution and sale of notebooks and guidebooks for
primary and secondary school students. The bookshops across
the country were kept closed 'symbolically' to press home
their demand. The Supreme Court on December 9 last year upheld
the High Court verdict that allowed the government to take
action in case of violation of the ban. The verdict cleared
the way for enforcement of the ban and the government
initiated action to enforce the ban on note books and guides.
But the book publishers and sellers are unhappy with the ban
and the subsequent government action and have launched the
movement for lifting the ban and allowing them to sell their
books. It goes without saying that they are guided totally by
commercial interests and in fact, they are working against the
interest of students and their education. Because, note books
are among the main impediments to the improvement of the
quality of education in the country. It is a good development
that our students are now almost freed from this menace as
they got free text books at the outset of the academic year.
This has deprived the book publishers and sellers from
profiteering but benefited the students immensely as no more
they will have to depend on notebooks, guide books and
note-chits. Under these circumstances, the best thing will be
to retain the ban on note books and guide books ignoring the
demand of the publishers and sellers.
Analysis
Pakistan: 2010 - grand challenges
However, a bigger challenge in 2010 in the
economic realm would be to focus on the fundamentals of
economic development and aim for growth and increase in
employment rates.
Sania Nishtar
A
review of 2009's grand challenges can provide useful insights
for planning 2010. Although issues were pervasive in many
state sectors, their salience is being underscored in a few
domains with a view to outlining possible policy directions
that appear plausible for perusal.
By far the greatest challenge related to undermining of
internal sovereignty in the settled areas of NWFP and the
rapidly fading writ of the government in the Federally
Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). Although a military
operation appears to have quelled the insurgency in some parts
for now, these areas still need to be brought fully under
state control. In addition, the largest ever displacement of
civilians needs to be rehabilitated and damaged infrastructure
reconstructed. Inextricably linked to this is the growing
trend of militancy and acts of terrorism across the country.
Dealing with these systemic fault lines is the biggest
challenge of 2010.
On the political front, although democracy has now prevailed
for over 20 months, some key decisions relating to separation
of powers, critical for democracy to function are still
awaited. Ensuring a 'democratic construct' of the 18th
Amendment to the constitution will be one of 2010's grand
challenges in addition to amendments relevant to provincial
autonomy. Some progress with regard to the latter was evident
in 2009 through the amicable decision on the National Finance
Commission Award. The Balochistan Package - despite rejection
by the Baloch nationalists - can also be a step in the right
direction if there is a resolve to build further on it towards
granting the provinces the needed autonomy while strengthening
the foundations of Pakistan's federal structure. This has now
become an imperative as a counter to separatist movements,
which are an additional evolving threat to internal
sovereignty. Quantum leaps can be made in 2010 through a
political solution to this long-standing question.
The economy faced many challenges in 2009 but did not,
fortunately, experience the same disruptions as in the
previous year. Pakistan's entry into the IMF stabilisation
programme and tightening of monetary policy, led to a positive
impact on inflation and the IMF tranche helped in building
reserves. Some level of fiscal discipline was ingrained, but
at the cost of withdrawing subsidies. The grand challenge in
2010 would be to ingrain true fiscal discipline by narrowing
the gap between revenues and expenditures. On the one hand
this necessitates curtailing expenditures, stopping major
bleeds from the fiscal system as in bearing the cost of
running non-profitable public sector enterprise and
rationalising the cost of running the civil government. On the
other hand, this necessitates a move towards sustainable
mechanisms of revenue generation. Although the government
appears to be introducing the VAT with the latter in view,
this indirect tax is not a substitute for widening the tax net
and making the taxation system more effective. A challenge for
2010 would be to make substantive headway in the desired
directions.
Fiscal constraints of the 2009/10 budget were in contrast to
the expansionary fiscal policy as was evident in the largest
ever Public Sector Development Program (PSDP). Ironically,
this came after the largest ever cuts in PDSP the previous
year on the premise that the gap will be filled with the
envisaged forthcoming support from the Friends of Democratic
Pakistan. To the best of knowledge in the public domain,
pledges made have not fully realised. Forthcoming aid under
the Kerry-Lugar legislation will not be a substitute for
bridging this gap as most of it will be utilised off-budget.
The challenge for 2010 would be to use aid to develop
productive assets and build national capacity to mobilise
domestic savings and raise domestic revenue so as to mitigate
reliance on aid over the long term. However, a bigger
challenge in 2010 in the economic realm would be to focus on
the fundamentals of economic development and aim for growth
and increase in employment rates. Here, many overarching
issues, which stand in the way of investments and therefore
realising this objective needs to be addressed: high interest
rates and credit squeeze, both a fall-out of a tight monetary
policy, poor law-and-order situation, public policy gaps,
issues of governance, and crippling power shortages. These
result in many impediments for businesses with resulting poor
industrial growth, widening trade deficit and a negative spin
on employment rates.
As social sector outcomes are determined more by overall
socio-economic development than isolated changes within the
sectors themselves, it came as no surprise that they remained
intransigent in 2009. Although there is statistical
controversy over prevalence of poverty in the country, it
doesn't appear to have declined in 2009. Additionally, major
headway in human development could not be made despite
pronouncements in the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper II. In
view of prevailing constraints, the government launched an
income support programme to strengthen its safety net
arrangements. There are of course improvements needed in this
area, such as making the targeting system transparent.
However, beyond income support, the grand challenge now would
be to move towards holistic social policy reform, with
planning relevant to the labour market, other areas of social
protection, infrastructure and key services the government is
meant to ensure the provision of. With reference to the
latter, policy, legislative and institutional reform, which
can ensure universal coverage by increasing public financing
and expanding the base of service provision by harnessing the
outreach of private providers must be pursued.
Good governance is the key to performance. However, tracking
of six indicators, used for country assessments of governance,
show major challenges in each domain. (i) With regard to voice
and accountability, there was a mixed outcome in 2009.
Although media freedom was positive, lack of desired progress
on the new legal and institutional framework for
accountability, unaddressed problems with the draft of the
Holders of Public Offices Bill, inaction with respect to the
freedom of information law, and prevailing uncertainty around
the devolution initiative, which can ensure community
participation in decision making, have been decidedly
negative. Movement in all these domains of voice and
accountability is a 2010 imperative; (ii) With regard to rule
of law, while the performance of the superior judiciary has
been widely hailed for its activist stance, concerns have also
been raised about the institution side-stepping its mandate.
This has particularly been the case with regard to the
prerogatives of the executive in the decisions on the
petroleum levy and setting of the price of sugar and in
relation to the legislature in the recent decision which held
that the NRO was void ab initito, notwithstanding the
judiciary's morally correct stance on that matter. Developing
clarity in relation to prerogatives of state institutions
would be a 2010 imperative; (iii) In the area of corruption,
it suffices to say that it has continued to prevail:
Transparency International's report and media coverage bear
testimony, which should make reform in this area a 2010
priority. (iv and v) the saga of the sugar crisis and other
commodity shortages are a proxy indicator of government
effectiveness and regulatory quality, which are two other
indicators. Implicit in these phenomena is the capacity of
vested interest groups, which threaten the impartiality of
public policy decisions. Finally, the situation with regard to
the sixth indicator - political stability and absence of
violence/terrorism - has been abysmal, as is known to all. The
grand challenges loop closes with an emphasis on the need to
tackle this area, as success in any state domain is dependent
on progress in this area.
The author is the founding-president of the NGO think-tank,
Heartfile. Email: sania@heartfile.org
Why India
cannot deliver on climate change
The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is
increasing due to human activity. It is already at its
highest in 650,000 years.
Aakar Patel
Last
month, the world failed to agree on a process that would
slow down the rate of climate change. Scientists believe
that the world is heating up because of an increase in
three gases in our atmosphere: carbon dioxide, methane and
nitrous oxide. The amount of carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere is increasing due to human activity. It is
already at its highest in 650,000 years; we know this from
analysing ice that has remained frozen during this period
with bubbles of air trapped inside.
There is 35 per cent more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
now than before the industrial revolution 200 years ago.
This is because our recent burning of carbon-based coal,
petrol and diesel releases the gas into the air. Because
it is a good insulator, the atmosphere's carbon dioxide
does not let the sun's heat escape the earth as fast as it
comes in, leading to a rise in the temperature.
This warming of the atmosphere causes climate change,
since weather is quite volatile and a small change in
conditions can result in a storm or a drought.
Recent weather phenomena, like hurricane Katrina or last
week's unusually heavy snow in Europe and America, are
thought to be the result of our actions. The second effect
of the air's warming is the melting of ice in the north
and south poles, raising the level of the ocean waters.
Low-lying nations like Bangladesh and the Maldives, which
have little land and almost all of it by the sea, are
vulnerable to this rise of the waters because they are in
danger of being submerged.
If the release of carbon dioxide is so serious, why did
the nations fail to agree on some solution?
Primarily because America believes it still has time
before the problem becomes a crisis. Scientists think that
big trouble is a century or more away. America wants to
pass on the climate change problem to its next generation,
or the one after that, because they will be better
equipped with technology; certainly they will have more at
stake. But also because those generations cannot vote in
current elections.
There was another reason for the failure at Denmark, and
it was that China, India and Brazil do not want to slow
the pace of their industrial growth. The economy of China,
the world's biggest polluter, has been growing rapidly,
helping pull its people out of poverty. China does not
want to stop doing that soon. India says it will slow the
rate at which its polluting is increasing, but adds, for
the same reason as China, that it cannot commit to a
reduction of overall pollution.
Whether human activity is responsible or not for climate
change, and there is debate over this, the fact that the
world is warming is not in dispute.
This means that at some point, not far off, the world's
nations will have to agree to do things to reduce their
emissions of carbon dioxide. There are two ways in which
emissions can be restricted by a nation. The first is
through government and legislation. This means the passing
of laws that limit, say, the carbon dioxide emitted per
ton manufactured of steel, or the banning of certain
industrial processes, like electricity generation by
burning coal.
The second way is through civil society and personal
sacrifice. This can happen if a society acknowledges the
danger to the world and a majority of individuals in that
society voluntarily change their behaviour; by switching
off lights, not heating their homes too much in winter or
driving smaller cars. These two ways can also coincide,
for instance if the government legislates to ban the
manufacture of large cars.
There is a problem in India with both these ways, and if
it commits to a reduction in emission, the Indian
government will not be able to effectively deliver.
The problem with the first way, legislation, is
implementation. We have many laws in India, but they are
difficult to enforce. When they are violated, it is
difficult to have the violators prosecuted. This is a
problem with most poor nations, but it is remarkable in
India because we are also a democracy and have been making
laws under one constitution for six decades.
Unlike Europe, which can legislate a law and make it
effective, in India legislation does not necessarily mean
a change in the way things happen.
Returning from some future climate summit with an
agreement, India's government might have to legislate some
change in the way that, say, steel is made. But because of
corruption and inefficiency it is certain that any
manufacturer, who wants to violate this new law, will be
able to do so by paying people off locally. Since
restrictions on manufacturing processes usually mean an
increase in cost, it is also likely that most factories
would have an incentive to violate the law.
Let's look at an example. The industrial city of Surat has
300 dyeing and printing factories. These are serious
polluters and often the ground around them is stained a
brilliant purple or pink because the manner of disposal of
the waste water is simply to release it in the land
around. The effluent looks pretty but it is pure poison.
There are laws which make this release illegal and there
are processes that the plants must follow to keep the
environment safe, but because treating the water is
expensive, it isn't done. And though the legislation might
be quite good, it is also quite useless.
Twenty years ago, I worked in a factory in the industrial
area of Ankleshwar, which is next to the port city of
Bharuch. Every evening, at 6 pm, the chemical factory next
door would release fumes of acid so powerful that the
roads would empty at that time. The gas corroded thick
metal pipes all around and will have affected the health
of many people working in and around it. Why did the
factory release the gas at six? Because the pollution
control board's office shut at 5:30.
Now let us look at the second way in which a nation can
reduce its carbon emissions, through a change in the
behaviour of civil society. Many Indians are now
middle-class and consume energy and resources at levels
similar to those in the west.
If these Indians are observed in traffic, we can
understand that sacrifice will not be easily forthcoming
in our nation. This is because we are a low-trust society
and have little faith in collective well-being. Simply
put, we do not trust the other person on the road to
behave and so we have no incentive to change our own
behaviour. Culturally, the Indian is inclined to think of
himself and ignore the world around him. It is safe to say
that there will be little voluntary change in our
behaviour because it affects the rest of the world.
A rich Indian, if asked to sacrifice his large garden
which consumed much water, would not understand why he had
to do that. And a lecture on conservation would do little
good.
The other problem is that the world cannot tell its
poorest, of whom many are Indian, that they must sacrifice
something now for tomorrow because they have so little for
today.
This is not to say that no conservation happens in India.
We have raddiwalas, people who deal in scrap; and glass
and plastic in India is always recycled. However, this is
because scrap has value here, unlike in the west, where
recycling is expensive and so is disposal. The test will
come when this no longer has value in India.
All of this becomes academic if the levels of the second
dangerous gas, methane, increase. And some believe that
this is already happening. Global warming is slowly
melting long-frozen lakes in Russia. Below these ice
sheets is thought to be trapped billions of tons of
methane, formed by the rotting of aquatic vegetation. If
this is really methane, and it is released, the carbon
dioxide debate might become meaningless because the
methane will accelerate global warming to a point where we
cannot really change it.
So perhaps already some disaster has been set in motion.
In the Book of Genesis, Noah records a rise in the water
by 20 feet and that is enough to wipe out all life.
The writer is director with Hill Road Media in Bombay.
Email: aakar @hillroadmedia.com
Viewpoints
Asia’s changing power dynamics
Indeed, the
Obama administration has signalled its intent to abandon
elements in its ties with India that could rile China.
Brahma Chellaney
At
a time when Asia is in transition, with the spectre of a power
imbalance looming large, it has become imperative to invest in
institutionalised cooperation to reinforce the region's
strategic stability. After all, not only is Asia becoming the
pivot of global geopolitical change, but Asian challenges are
also playing into international strategic challenges.
Asia's changing power dynamics are reflected in China's
increasingly assertive foreign policy, the new Japanese
government's demand for an "equal" relationship with the
United States, and the sharpening Sino-Indian rivalry, which
has led to renewed Himalayan border tensions.
All of this is highlighting America's own challenges, which
are being exacerbated by its eroding global economic
preeminence and involvement in two overseas wars. Such
challenges dictate greater US-China cooperation to ensure
continued large capital inflows from China, as well as Chinese
political support on difficult issues ranging from North Korea
and Burma to Pakistan and Iran.
But, just when America's Sino-centric Asia policy became
noticeable, Japan put the US on notice that it cannot
indefinitely remain a faithful servant of American policies.
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's government is seeking to
realign foreign policy and rework a 2006 deal for the basing
of US military personnel on Okinawa. It also announced an end
to its eight-year-old Indian Ocean refuelling mission in
support of the US-led war in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, China's resurrection of its long-dormant claim to
the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, and its
needling of India over Kashmir (one-fifth of which is under
Chinese control), is testing the new US-India global strategic
partnership.
The US has chartered a course of tacit neutrality on the
Arunachal Pradesh issue - to the delight of China, which aims
to leave an international question mark hanging over the
legitimacy of India's control of the Himalayan territory,
which is almost three times as large as Taiwan. Indeed, the
Obama administration has signalled its intent to abandon
elements in its ties with India that could rile China,
including a joint military exercise in Arunachal and any
further joint naval manoeuvres involving Japan or other
parties, like Australia.
Yet, the recent Australia-India security agreement, signed
during Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's visit to New Delhi,
symbolises the role of common political values in helping to
forge an expanding strategic constellation of Asian-Pacific
countries. The Indo-Australian agreement received little
attention, but such is its significance that it mirrors key
elements of Australia's security accord with Japan - and that
between India and Japan. All three of these accords, plus the
2005 US-India defence framework agreement, recognise a common
commitment to democracy, freedom, human rights, and the rule
of law, and obligate their signatories to work together to
build security in Asia.
An Asian geopolitical divide centred on political values
would, of course, carry significant implications. And, while
Asia - with the world's fastest-growing markets,
fastest-rising military expenditures, and most-volatile hot
spots - holds the key to the future global order, its major
powers remain at loggerheads.
Central to Asia's future is the strategic triangle made up of
China, India, and Japan. Not since Japan rose to world-power
status during the Meiji emperor's reign in the second half of
the 19th century has another non-Western power emerged with
such potential to alter the world order as China today.
Indeed, as the US intelligence community's 2009 assessment
predicted, China stands to affect global geopolitics more
profoundly than any other country.
China's ascent, however, is dividing Asia, and its future
trajectory will depend on how its neighbours and other
players, like the US, manage its rapidly accumulating power.
At present, China's rising power helps validate American
forward military deployments in East Asia. The China factor
also is coming handy in America's efforts to win new allies in
Asia.
But, as the US-China relationship deepens in the coming years,
the strains in some of America's existing partnerships could
become pronounced. For example, building a stronger
cooperative relationship with China is now taking precedence
in US policy over the sale of advanced weaponry to Asian
allies, lest the transfer of offensive arms provoke Chinese
retaliation in another area.
While the European community was built among democracies, the
political systems in Asia are so varied - and some so opaque -
that building inter-state trust is not easy. In Europe, the
bloody wars of the past century have made armed conflict
unthinkable today. But in Asia, the wars since 1950 failed to
resolve disputes. And, while Europe has built institutions to
underpin peace, Asia has yet to begin such a process in
earnest.
Never before have China, Japan, and India all been strong at
the same time. Today, they need to find ways to reconcile
their interests in Asia so that they can coexist peacefully
and prosper.
But there can be no denying that these three leading Asian
powers and the US have different playbooks: America wants a
unipolar world but a multipolar Asia; China seeks a multipolar
world but a unipolar Asia; and Japan and India desire a
multipolar Asia and a multipolar world.
The writer is professor of Strategic Studies at the Centre
for Policy Research in New Delhi and the author of Asian
Juggernaut: The Rise of China, India and Japan. ©Project
Syndicate, 2010. www.project-syndicate.org
Why Nukes Are
Sacred
Getting Iran
to give up its nuclear programme will be an even greater
challenge than many in the West understand."
Sharon Begley
As
America and Europe wrestle with the threat posed by Iran's
nuclear programme, some policymakers have warned that
imposing crippling sanctions on the regime would backfire,
in that sanctions would cause Iranians to rally around
their government in a show of solidarity against outside
meddling.
That isn't the half of it. According to a new analysis,
offering Iran carrots rather than sticks-fuller diplomatic
engagement, for instance, or help developing civilian
nuclear power-to cease uranium enrichment and other
proliferation activities may also be doomed.
The reason is that Iran's nuclear programme has, for many
Iranians, become a "sacred value." That term has a
specific meaning in social psychology. Sacred values are
those that trump rational cost-benefit analysis.
Specifically, the more someone is offered in return for
giving up a sacred value, the less he is willing to do so.
That's the opposite of how people treat other values,
where the more we are offered for our old car, our house,
an article of clothing, our place in a line, or any other
"secular" holding, the more willing we are ?to give it up.
With sacred values, this cost-benefit calculus is turned
on its head, explains anthropologist Scott Atran of the
National Center for Scientific Research in Paris, who has
studied Islamic terrorist groups. When Atran asked
Palestinians if they would be willing to give up their
claims to Jerusalem (a sacred value) in return for their
own state, most said no, and-here is where the topsy-turvy
thinking caused by sacred values came in-when he then
asked if they would give up Jerusalem if the US and Europe
also gave every Palestinian family substantial financial
assistance for a year, even fewer said yes. That is in
sharp contrast to the rational-actor perspective that has
long dominated diplomacy (and economics).
The reason, as I wrote in a 2006 column, is that sacred
values "are ideals so transcendent they have no equivalent
in anything material," and insinuating that a sacred value
such as sovereignty over Jerusalem can be denominated in
anything so crass as money is deeply offensive. How
offensive? More Palestinians say they would resort to
violence to retain their claim to Jerusalem with the
monetary sweetener than would do so without it, as he and
colleagues reported in a 2007 study in Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences. When sacred values are in
play, Atran told me then, "standard political and economic
proposals for resolving long-standing conflicts, such as
just material compensation for suffering, may ?not be
optimal."
Indeed, people will respond with greater outrage to deals
with added material sweeteners. In a new experiment,
Morteza Dehghani and Douglas Medin of Northwestern
University, Atran, and colleagues asked 72 young (average
age, 28), educated (college grads) Iranians about Iran
giving up its nuclear programme. Twenty-two percent chose
"I think this definitely needs to happen," while 15 per
cent chose "I do not object to this," and 52 per cent
chose "this is acceptable only if the benefits of stopping
the program are great enough." But 11 per cent chose "this
is shouldn't be done no matter how great the benefits
are." This is the group that, the scientists report in a
paper in the December issue of the journal Judgment and
Decision Making, for whom the nuclear program seems to
constitute a sacred value.
That has interesting implications. The scientists then
asked this group if Iranians would support a deal in which
Iran gives up its nuclear program in return for the US
drastically reducing its military aid to Israel, or if
they would support such a deal with the added sweetener
that the European Union would pay Iran $40 billion. Just
as one would expect with a sacred value, the young
Iranians said there would be less support for a deal with
the EU sweetener-what the scientists call "the backfire
effect of offering material incentives to induce
compromise over sacred values."
Is 11 per cent too few Iranians to matter? Probably not.
For one thing, once you get beyond the young and the
educated, more Iranians likely view the nuclear program as
sacred. And even a minority, if it is committed enough,
can carry the day. "A minority, if it is associated with a
power structure that is willing to do most anything to
stay in power, is surely enough," Atran tells me. "Look at
the Alawites in Syria. They are somewhere between 10 and
20 per cent of the population yet have ruled for decades.
(The Assads are Alawites.) For another, it is likely that
more ordinary Iranians than educated, English-speaking
Iranians - those surveyed for the study - view the nukes
as a sacred value, suggesting that the 11 percent is an
underestimate.
The scientists are re-running the experiment with more
participants, looking at the effects of religiosity on
Iranians' views of their country's nuclear program. There
are hints that Iranians who hold the nuclear capability as
a sacred value also tend to be especially religious.
Just hours before he flew out of Tehran last week,
Dehghani went to the Ashura demonstrations. He sent this
account to Atran, who forwarded it to me: "These Basijis
[a volunteer militia of Iran's Revolutionary Guards]
really see Khameini as their religious father and
Ahmadinejad as a person who has been faithful to the
poor.… For them, the nuclear issue is a religious matter,
a duty. So maybe we can speculate that many more of them
hold the issue to be a sacred value." If so, then getting
Iran to give up its nuclear programme will be an even
greater challenge than many in the West understand."
Sharon Begley is Newsweek's science editor and author
of The Plastic Mind: New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary
Potential to Transform Ourselves
Tear and wear
The ‘war on terror’ is the new way of gunning down
disobedient nations into subjugation.
Andleeb Abbas
‘Renewal'
has assumed strange meanings. In more sane terms when
things get old due to 'wear and tear', they need a
repair/renewal process to make them capable of meeting the
requirements. However, as we witnessed last year, this
concept has been turned on its head and the new way of
renewal is 'tear and wear'. From Iraq to Afghanistan and
from Swat to Waziristan, the game at each level is to tear
them apart and then try to sew them together in patterns
that are perhaps going to leave such gaping holes that any
form of renewal is just a wish.
This perhaps is the reason why the world is torn apart
politically, socially, and more so emotionally. The Second
World War was deemed as the last of its kind as its
repercussions would have made the world wiser. However,
the 'war on terror' is the new way of gunning down
disobedient nations into subjugation. The new strategies
of divide and rule are to instigate so much terrorism and
insecurity in a country that instead of foreign forces
killing them, they tear each other apart to a level where
their economies become so fragile that they are dependent
on economic terrorists like the IMF and World Bank and
become puppets on the US chain. Once a nation is on its
knees, they can just tame it into believing their crafty
vision of being the 'Big Brother' of this world.
However faulty the US strategy is, we cannot simply lay
the blame on them and feel victimised. As they say, nobody
can victimise you unless you let them. All the victim
countries like Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, have been
led by governments that are inherently corrupt and ready
to sacrifice their sovereignty and self-respect in
exchange for a nominal assurance of money and power.
The tear and wear process is also highly fashionable in
our country. The greatest pastime for our politicians is
to come on talk shows and tear everybody else apart. The
media is also obsessed with this tear and wear fad. The
biggest race on TV channels is 'breaking a story', a hyped
and scandalised version of every happening shown with
almost a breathless glee by the channels to mesmerise
viewers by their melodramatic narration of sad and scary
events. They know the shock and shatter footages of people
being blasted away and buildings being torn apart are a
guarantee of viewership, which, in turn, is a guarantee of
advertisements. Every channel very proudly declares that
they were the first to show the footage of any possible
tragedy they can think of. This mad race for petrified
viewership, a complete disregard for ethics and its impact
on people's mind are highly deplorable. They thrive on
negative publicity, be it a totally irrelevant and
ridiculous marriage scandal of a Pakistani actress or
pictures of the Pakistani hockey team with its female
liaison officer; everything is fair in tear and wear. Even
more reprehensible is the damage done to the country's
image by the international media. CNN and BBC use all
these footages to further create an image that portrays
Pakistan in a damning way. CNN and BBC are great opinion
makers and what their political analysts say directly or
indirectly affects US policy makers' decisions towards
Pakistan. As a consequence, Pakistanis living abroad or
visiting another country become victims of 'special
treatment' while attempting to get jobs and visas.
Our leaders who are also in a race to outdo each other in
showmanship reveal their shortsightedness in many ways. At
the provincial level we see a race to indulge in some
shallow political gimmickry and try to gain the public's
and the media's attention. The Pervez Elahi government had
spent billions of the taxpayer's money on the hoax of 'Parha
Likha Punjab' and the Shahbaz Sharif government is now
resorting to similar antics by 'beautifying Lahore'. The
present drive of the chief minister to tear down unlawful
encroachments is also another attempt at appearing lawful
and right. Razing buildings for one reason or the other is
not a solution to the problem. There needs to be a
comprehensive strategy where the impact of these buildings
being destabilised versus compensation, and alternative
charitable use of these buildings should be weighed
thoroughly before taking action. However, the short term,
quick fix mentality of our leaders has always made the
public pay a very heavy price for their myopic vision. The
demonstration effect of stage managing an event and
winning applause for an unsustainable action is so strong
that scant attention is given to the devastating impact
such actions and decisions may have in the long run.
Who is the real party to blame in promoting this tear and
wear effect? Definitely, each one of us. As they say, a
nation gets the leaders it deserves. As voters, either we
are cynical and indifferent or do not believe that change
can come and thus do not even bother to vote, or we are
led away by the shallow declarations and staged actions of
these leaders and choose them over and over again. If we
become smart voters, we will get smart leaders. If and
when Pakistan has leaders with self-respect and integrity,
then the US will find it very difficult to dictate its
terms. A classic example is that of China and India with
whom the US dare not fool around, as they know that
deference to national interest by the leaders of these two
countries will always make US inroads impossible. Even in
the case of the media, if we stop viewing these insane
talk shows, the media will be forced to diversify their
programming as viewership declines. It is time for us to
take responsibility for the quagmire we are in and stop
blaming our leaders, the media, the US or India. None of
them will dare to fool or damage any of us if we stand
united without letting any of these manipulators exploit
our weaknesses. That will only happen if we accept
responsibility for the situation that we are in and
believe that we have the power to render the wrongdoers
powerless. That will only happen if we renew, rejuvenate
and revive our faith in ourselves and in this country to
become a sovereign, peaceful and prosperous nation.
The writer is a consultant and CEO of Franklin Covey
and can be reached at andleeb@franklincoveysouthasia.com
International
‘Elements in govt
support gangsters’
Dawn Online
Although the leadership of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement
and the Pakistan People's Party announced at a late night
meeting that they had sorted out their differences over
the current killing spree, at a press conference on Sunday
afternoon, MQM leader Dr Farooq Sattar criticised the
Sindh government and some PPP leaders, alleging that they
were patronising Lyari gangsters. However, the MQM leader
added that his party did not want to cross the point of no
return.
Speaking at the party's headquarters, the MQM leader said
that the targeted killings of MQM workers continued on
Sunday as three more party workers and supporters - Syed
Akhlaq Hasan, Mohammad Zeeshan and Mubeen Shaikh - were
shot dead in different localities.
Without naming any individual, he said that some elements
in the Sindh government were supporting the Lyari Peace
Committee formed by "notorious gangster Rehman Dakait".
"We strongly condemn those elements of the PPP who are
trying to give an ethnic colour to the recent incidents of
terrorism and targeted killings in the city," he said.
"If the authorities in the Sindh government, who are
patronising the criminals and drug mafia, believe that
they can occupy Karachi by killing Urdu-speaking people,
they are living in a fool's paradise. They should not
consider our patience as weakness. The MQM can easily
handle the Lyari gangsters, criminals and their patrons,"
he said.
However, he quickly added that he meant that the MQM was
ready to provide volunteers to the law-enforcement
agencies to handle the gangsters and criminals.
The MQM leader contradicted a claim made by some PPP
leaders that their party had nothing to do with the peace
committee in Lyari. He presented before reporters
newspaper clippings and photographs showing some PPP local
leaders with members of the Lyari Peace Committee.
He demanded that the PPP make it clear whether it had any
association with the Lyari People's Peace Committee.
He said there was a strong perception that the ongoing
targeted killings of Urdu-speaking people were aimed at
diverting the attention of the people from the ineptness
of the Sindh home department which, he said, had failed to
prevent the Ashura blast and Boulton Market tragedies.
Sino-Pak talks on joint
strategy to meet challenges
Dawn Online
Pakistan and China decided on Sunday to work out a joint
strategy to effectively respond to threats to regional
peace and security and to raise the level of their
strategic partnership.
During the seventh round of annual bilateral defence and
security talks, the two sides reviewed military
cooperation and progress of various defence projects.
Proposals were made for collaboration in operational,
training, intelligence, logistics and defence industrial
fields, including indigenisation projects and joint
ventures.
An official told Dawn that this time the dialogue had a
greater significance because it took place against the
backdrop of a statement made by Indian army chief Gen
Deepak Kapoor about moving from a cold start doctrine to a
proactive strategy of simultaneously waging a war against
Pakistan and China.
He said both sides had taken the remarks seriously and
vowed to frustrate attempts to jeopardise regional
security.
The eight-member Chinese delegation was headed by Gen Ma
Xiaotian, Deputy Chief of General Staff of the People's
Liberation Army (PLA), while the Pakistani delegation was
led by Gen Tariq Majid, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff Committee (CJCSC).
The dialogue was aimed at sharing perspectives on a fast
evolving regional security situation for developing a
common insight into the emerging scenarios and
coordinating common responses.
The discussion focussed on the impact of changing global
security dynamics, progress in efforts against terrorism
and violent extremism, the revised US strategy for
Afghanistan, intra-regional disputes and posturing of
involved states and strategic stability in the region.
It also focussed on terrorism-related threats and measures
for the security of the Chinese manpower working in
Pakistan.
Reiterating China's solidarity and continuing support in
meeting the challenges, Gen Ma said: "We acknowledge the
great sacrifices rendered by Pakistan, its people and
armed forces in combating terrorism for which Pakistan
deserves the praise and gratitude of the entire world,
indeed the mankind."
Six international soldiers
killed in Afghanistan: NATO
AFP, Kabul
Six international soldiers were killed on Monday in a wave
of violence in some of the most volatile regions of
insurgency-wracked Afghanistan, NATO said. The dead
included three Americans killed in southern Afghanistan,
one French soldier northeast of the capital Kabul, and two
more whose nationalities were not officially given, NATO
and military officials said.
The deaths bring to 15 the number of foreign soldiers who
have died in Afghanistan fighting a virulent Taliban
insurgency since the start of this year.
"An ISAF service member was killed today in an IED strike
in southern Afghanistan," NATO's International Security
Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement, announcing
the sixth death of the day. The three US soldiers were
killed while fighting militants in southern Afghanistan,
ISAF said.
The deaths followed that of a French soldier who died from
wounds sustained during a similar attack in an area not
far from the capital Kabul, President Nicolas Sarkozy's
office and military officials said.
A NATO official who wished to remain anonymous told AFP
that the fifth soldier who died was also French, wounded
in the same attack, but this information could not be
confirmed by ISAF or French authorities. The sixth death
was caused by an improvised explosive devise, or IED, the
hallmark of the Taliban insurgency, ISAF said.
NATO and the US have 113,000 troops in Afghanistan
fighting alongside the Afghan army to quell the
insurgency, which is becoming more deadly and spreading
its footprint across previously peaceful areas of the
country.
Battle-scarred Tamils
emerge as S Lankan kingmakers
AFP, Colombo
For decades, Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels fought for an
independent ethnic homeland. In May they were defeated,
but observers say Tamil voters could now be key to who
becomes the next president.
The two main candidates-incumbent Mahinda Rajapakse and
former army chief Sarath Fonseka-both claim credit for
crushing the Tigers and ending the island's bloody ethnic
conflict.
With the majority Sinhalese vote split between Rajapakse
and Fonseka, a close race is expected and Sri Lanka's 2.5
million battle-scarred Tamils could decide who wins the
election on January 26.
Rajapakse and Fonseka have been on the campaign trail in
the northern Tamil heartland of Jaffna-a turn of events
unimaginable a year ago, when fighting raged between the
Tigers and government troops.
In the first four months of 2009 the United Nations
estimates that 7,000 mainly Tamil civilians were killed in
the fighting, while between 80,000 and 100,000 people died
in nearly 40 years of bloodshed.
At their peak 10 years ago, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam (LTTE) controlled one-third of Sri Lanka. Rajapakse
launched his push for complete victory in 2006, and
Fonseka led the troops to triumph eight months ago.
The two candidates have sought Tamil support by promising
to step up reconstruction in the former war zone and the
speedy re-settlement of tens of thousands of Tamil
civilians displaced by the final months of battle.
N.Korea seeks US peace pact
before scrapping nuclear weapons
AFP, Seoul
North Korea called Monday for talks on a treaty to
formally end the Korean War, saying it wants better ties
with the United States and an end to sanctions before
pushing ahead with nuclear disarmament.
The foreign ministry statement was the first time the
North has publicly stated its position on the disarmament
negotiations since US envoy Stephen Bosworth visited
Pyongyang last month.
Bosworth was trying to persuade the communist state to
return to the six-nation talks it abandoned last April, a
month before staging a second nuclear test. No firm
agreement was reached.
Monday's statement said "repeated frustrations and
failures" in the talks-which began in 2003 and group the
two Koreas, the United States, China, Russia and
Japan-showed the need to build confidence among parties
concerned.
"If confidence is to be built between the DPRK (North
Korea) and the US, it is essential to conclude a peace
treaty for terminating the state of war, a root cause of
the hostile relations, to begin with," said the statement
carried by official media.
The North has long called for a treaty to officially end
the 1950-53 conflict, which terminated only with an
armistice, leaving the parties technically at war. A
US-led United Nations force fought for the South and China
backed the communist North.
Six-party agreements in 2005 and 2007 envisage talks on a
peace treaty but only in return for full denuclearisation.
The North said the peace pact should come first.
US base feud plagues
alliance with Japan
Reuters, Tokyo
A feud over plans to relocate a U.S. military base on
Japan's Okinawa island as part of a broad reorganisation
of U.S. troops is fraying ties between Japan's
four-month-old government and close ally Washington.
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said ahead of the August
election that swept his Democratic Party to power he
favoured moving the U.S. Marines' Futenma airbase off
Okinawa island, and two tiny coalition partners insist he
should make good on those remarks. He has pledged to
decide on the matter by May. Following are some questions
and answers about the issue.
Residents of Okinawa, 1,600 km (1,000 miles) south of
Tokyo and reluctant host to about half the 47,000 U.S.
military personnel in Japan, have long resented what they
see as an unfair burden in maintaining the U.S.-Japan
security alliance. The concentration of U.S. bases on
Okinawa, a major U.S. military forward logistics base in
the western Pacific, is a legacy of America's occupation
of the island from 1945 to 1972.
On the contrary, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton heads
to the South Pacific this week, working to boost key U.S.
alliances while pressing Japan to resolve a damaging
dispute over a critical U.S. military base.
Clinton's nine-day trip will start in Hawaii-where she
will meet Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada on
Tuesday-and proceed to Papua New Guinea, Australia and New
Zealand, all of which have warm links with the Obama
administration.
Two dead, 48 arrested after
Philippine gun ban
AFP, Manila
Police shot dead two robbers and arrested 48 other people
as they enforced a firearms ban across the Philippines
ahead of national elections in May, authorities said
Monday.
Police deputy director general Jefferson Soriano said tens
of thousands of officers had been deployed to man 3,500
checkpoints set up across the country and enforce the ban
on the unauthorised carrying of weapons.
"We want to show to the public that we are dead serious
about implementing the nationwide gun ban," Soriano said
on the ABS-CBN television network.
The ban is imposed ahead of every Philippine election, but
has taken on more significance in recent months following
a massacre of 57 people and the separate killings of at
least five others in violence linked to the polls.
Soriano said five policemen and three soldiers were among
48 people arrested on Sunday, when the ban began. The
policemen and soldiers were carrying weapons while off
duty, he said.
National police spokesman Chief Superintendent Leonardo
Espina said that police manning a gun-ban checkpoint
stopped two armed robbers just outside Manila on Monday,
resulting in a gun battle that left the criminals dead.
He said two pistols were recovered from the robbers, who
had held up and murdered a corn trader.
Iran
says US general’s attack remarks ‘thoughtless’
AFP, Tehran
Tehran on Monday dismissed as thoughtless comments by a
top US general that Iran's atomic sites could be attacked
if the nuclear issue remains unsolved, the official IRNA
news agency reported.
"His comments are thoughtless and it is better that any
statement made in this regard take a constructive
approach," foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast
was quoted as saying. General David Petraeus, head of US
Central Command (CENTCOM) that oversees the Middle East,
told CNN on Sunday that Iran's nuclear facilities
"certainly can be bombed," even though they are reported
to be heavily fortified. "The level of effect would vary
with who it is that carries it out, what ordnance they
have, and what capability they can bring to bear,"
Petraeus added. Petraeus said the United States had
contingency plans to address Iran's nuclear ambitions if
negotiations falter between the Islamic republic and
Western nations.
"It would be almost literally irresponsible if CENTCOM
were not to have been thinking about the various 'what
ifs' and to make plans for a whole variety of different
contingencies," he told the broadcaster.
But he would not comment on reports that Israel, which
says Iran presents an existential threat to the Jewish
state, may attack its arch-foe's nuclear facilities.
Tehran is at loggerheads with Western nations, which
believe it is developing nuclear weapons under the cover
of a civilian nuclear energy programme. Iran denies the
charges. Without elaborating on the contingency plans,
Petraeus said it could be some time before Washington
decides whether to execute them and that diplomatic
efforts would continue in the meantime.
Obama says no plan for US
troops in Yemen, Somalia
Reuters, Washington
The United States does not plan to send U.S. troops into
Yemen or Somalia as those countries struggle to contain
Islamic militants, President Barack Obama said in remarks
published on Sunday.
"I have no intention of sending U.S. boots on the ground
in these regions," Obama told People magazine, referring
to Yemen and Somalia.
"I have every intention of working with our international
partners in lawless areas around the globe to make sure
that we're keeping the American people safe," Obama added,
according to a transcript provided by the magazine. Obama
has said Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, based in
Yemen, appears to have trained, equipped and directed the
Nigerian man accused of trying to blow up a U.S. airliner
bound for Detroit on Dec. 25, using explosives sewn into
his underwear.
Al Shabaab, an al Qaeda-inspired insurgency, has seized
large areas of south and central Somalia, the Horn of
Africa nation situated across the Gulf of Aden from Yemen,
which is located at the southern tip of the Arabian
peninsula. "We've known throughout this year that al Qaeda
in Yemen has bec-ome a more serious problem. And, as a
consequence, we have partnered with the Yemeni government
to go after those terrorist training camps and cells there
in a much more deliberate and sustained fashion," Obama
said.
"The same is true in Somalia, another country where there
are large chunks that are not fully under government
control and al Qaeda is trying to take advantage of them,"
he added.
The United States already has large contingents of ground
forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Borders or settlements, an
Israeli-Palestinian conundrum
Xinhua, Jerusalem
At the end of a week of intense international diplomacy,
US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton gave a strong
indication on Friday that there should be less focus on
Israeli settlements in the West Bank and more attention on
the "bigger picture" in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
"Resolving borders reso-lves settlements; resolving
Jerusalem resolves settlements. So I think we need to lift
our sights, and instead of looking down at the trees, we
need to look at the forest," Clinton told reporters after
meeting in Washington with Jordanian Foreign Minister
Nasser Judeh.
The comments from Clinton came after months of discussions
on the settlements that have left the Israelis and
Palestinians unable to bridge the gaps between them. But
analysts did not think highly of her remarks.
"If you want to negotiate you have to deal with the
settlement freeze because the Palestinians have made this
a condition and they're not going to bend on this," said
Gershon Baskin, the Israeli chief executive and founder of
the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information.
Israel began a 10-month partial freeze of settlement
construction in November under intense pressure from the
United States. The moratorium on building which starts in
the West Bank but not in East Jerusalem fell short of the
Palestinian insistence that Israel halt all construction
in the occupied territories before negotiations between
the parties can resume.
Since November, opposition to the freeze has mounted from
the political right in Israel, with a few clashes taking
place between settlers and security personnel who were
escorting government inspectors to settlements to enforce
the construction ban.
Clinton has hoped that she and U.S. special envoy Geo-rge
Mitchell can persuade the parties to skip over that
hurdle, which they feel is dogging the peace process and
preventing any substantive progress. However, in Bas-kin's
opinion, it is a virtual impossibility to bring the sides
together in order to reach a negotiated settlement.
Lebanese army fires on
Israeli fighter planes
AFP, Beirut
Lebanese anti-aircraft guns opened fire on four Israeli
warplanes which were violating its airspace at low
altitude on Monday, the military said.
"The army's anti-aircraft guns fired at four enemy Israeli
planes that had been overflying the (southern) area of
Marjayoun this morning," an army spok-esman told AFP on
condition of anonymity.
An AFP correspondent in southern Lebanon said about 70
rounds had targeted four Israeli aircraft. A UN spokesman
in Lebanon said the overflights were a violation of UN
Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended a
devastating 2006 war between Israel and Lebanon's Shiite
Hezbollah.
"We have been noticing a significant number of Israeli
overflights into Lebanese airspace over the last week,
which constitute a violation of Resolution 1701," UNIFIL
deputy spokesman Andrea Tenenti said.
"We have, as always, strongly protested these violations
to the Israeli Defence Forces and reported them to the
Security Council," he told AFP.
Israel argues that the overflights are necessary, despite
Resolution 1701, to monitor what it says is massive arms
smuggling by Hezbollah in breach of the same resolution.
While Lebanon's army publishes almost daily reports of
Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace, the military
rarely opens fire unless the planes fly within range of
its guns.
North African al Qaeda
threatens to execute French hostage
France24
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has issued an
ultimatum to the French and Malian governments, saying it
will execute French hostage Pierre Camatte (photo) if
Malian authorities do not release four jailed militants,
said US monitoring groups.
AFP-The north African branch of Al-Qaeda said it will
execute a French hostage unless four of its militants are
freed from jail in Mali in 20 days, two US monitoring
groups said on Monday.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) claimed last month
it was holding Frenchman Pierre Camatte, who was seized in
Mali in late November, as well as three Spaniards
kidnapped in neighbouring Mauritania four days later. US
groups SITE Intelligence Group and Intelcenter, which
monitor Islamist websites, said Al-Qaeda issued its
ultimatum in a statement dated January 10.
"The mujahedeen have decided to inform the French and
Malian governments of their only demand to release the
French hostage Pierre Camatte-the release of our four
prisoners apprehended by the state of 'Mali' many months
ago," Intelcenter said in a statement. "Let France and
Mali be forewarned, that we give 20 days to fulfill our
just demand, or the two governments shall be fully
responsible for the life of the French hostage," it said.
Camatte was snatched from a hotel in Menaka in the Sahel
region of northern Mali, more than 1,500 kilometres (1,000
miles) from the capital Bamako, during the night of
November 25.
Malian and Western security forces say the Frenchman, a
regular visitor to Mali where he cultivates a plant known
for its anti-malaria properties, is being held by a
hardline faction within Al-Qaeda's north African branch.
AQIM claimed responsibility for killing a British hostage
earlier this year, according to a Mali security source.
Kuwait bourse building
closed after bomb threat
Reuters, Kuwait
Kuwait's stock exchange building was closed and evacuated
on Monday after receiving a bomb threat, a bourse official
said.
Defence forces were searching the basement and staff were
not being allowed to approach the building.
"A bomb has been reported. We are still working on it. So
far, there is nothing," a police official said at the
scene. The threat came after the end of Monday's trading
session. The high-rise stone and glass building is home to
trading houses and brokerages, forms a central part of the
city's financial district and is surrounded by major
banks. Kuwait's stock exchange is the second largest by
value in the Middle East.
Police and security guards told bystanders not to approach
the building and ambulances stood at the ready nearby.
After the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. cities, there
were a number of al Qaeda-inspired attacks in Kuwait,
including a raid that killed one U.S. Marine and wounded
another in October 2002. The government has since waged a
largely successful campaign to stamp out violence by
Islamist militants. In August of 2009, Kuwaiti authorities
foiled an al Qaeda-linked plan to bomb a U.S. Army camp
and an oil refinery in the OPEC oil exporting state.
In the past year, shopping malls and schools in Kuwait
have also been the target of bomb threats which later
turned out to be bogus.
‘False positive’ concern
over prostate cancer test
BBC Online
One in eight men screened for prostate cancer will test
positive when they do not have the disease, a major
European trial has shown.
A positive result can mean undergoing invasive tests such
as biopsy as well as potentially unnecessary treatment.
Screening with prostate specific antigen (PSA) is not
routinely offered in the UK but government experts are
reviewing evidence from the study.
Cancer Research UK said men should talk about the pros and
cons with their GP.
Early data from the European Randomised Study of Screening
for Prostate Cancer, which is being conducted in seven
countries, showed in March 2009 that deaths could be cut
by 20%.
But other recent evidence has cast doubt on the long-term
benefits of screening, suggesting some men may end up
being "over-treated" for slow-growing disease that would
never cause a problem in their lifetime.
Now data from the Finnish part of the European trial has
shown that for every eight men screened - tests are being
done on a four-yearly basis - one ended up with a false
positive result, even with a fairly high PSA threshold.
Those men who tested positive but were later found not to
have cancer were twice as likely not to agree to screening
in the future even though they were at risk of developing
the disease later, the British Journal of Cancer reported.
'Adverse effects'
The researchers have said more research is needed to make
screening more accurate and to help pick out those who are
most likely to have a true positive result.
Business/Economy
BD to
float tender to get power at competitive rate from India
BSS, Dhaka
Bangladesh will float tender to get power at competitive
price while Indian private sector will be welcomed to
participate in the process.
"We need power in competitive price, as per agreement
between the two countries we will float tender to get
power in cheaper rate. However, the steering committee
will work on the issue", ASM Alamgir Kabir, Chairman of
Power Development Board told BSS on Monday over telephone
from India.
He said, the mode of purchase would be guided by the IPPs
(Independent Power Purchase Policy) while National Thermal
Power Company (NTPC),India would start the initial supply
as per agreement and eventually any one can participate in
the exchange programme through the state owned grid
transmission company.
The Joint co-ordination committee, comprising with the top
government officials of Bangladesh and India on Monday
formed a steering committee co-chaired by Mohammad Abul
Kalam Azad, the secretary for the power division of
Bangladesh and Brahma, secretary for power of India to
materialise the whole package, he said.
To fix up the modules of the whole package, the steering
committee decided to sit in Dhaka February next.
"It will be a three-day meeting of high level technical
bodies of the two party to fixing every detail of the
power exchange issue", Alamgir added. In November last, we
completed a pre-feasibility study on transmission
networking. The exchange volume would be started from 250
mw for initial period while it could eventually be as high
as 1,000 mw as the project cost was estimated at around
US$200 million. The two countries are set to exchanging
electricity for nearly 17 hours a day.
Both sides agreed that the exchange could take place
during off peak hours of the day through certain points,
"We identified at least four points for proposed
interconnection but the Iswardi-Behrampur and
Asuganj-Tripura are considered to be the most viable sites
for the exchange project," he said.
Bangladesh would receive the power for the national grid
from India's provincial grids of West Bengal and Tripura
and offer the power to the similar lines.
He said the deal would require synchronisation of the
transmission systems of the two countries as Bangladesh
system is based on 232 KV AC line while the Indian system
is based on 400 KV line.
"We will need to transform the connecting points of the
two systems into high voltage DC line or (HVDC) as
back-to-back link of 250MW capacity," Azad said.
Bangladesh currently faces electricity deficit of around
1500 to 1800 mw on an average against the de-rated
capacity of 4500 mw in 43 power plants.
Plan
to export Tk 4,500cr freshwater shrimp to destinations
including EU
BSS, Dhaka
Clouds over Bangladesh's freshwater shrimp industry is
paring down as the European Union (EU) renewed its
confidence once again in the second biggest foreign
currency earner. A high-powered EU delegation is due on
January 18 to examine latest improvement in compliance
issue as the six-month self- imposed ban on shrimp (galda)
import to the EU comes to an end today.
On June 1, entrepreneurs voluntarily suspended the export
of salt-water shrimp to the EU for six months following
detection of health hazardous antibiotic- nitrofuran in
shrimp, which resulted in cancellation of more than 50
consignments.
Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters Association (BFFEA) set
a target to export freshwater shrimp (golda) worth Taka
4,500 crore this year.
"We have earmarked Taka 4,500 crore freshwater shrimp
export to different destinations including EU if any
problem does not arise and no more objections from the EU,"
President of the BFFEA Musa Mia told BSS in an interview.
The association has already forwarded a proposal to the
government suggesting for setting up at least two modern
testing labs in Khulna and Chittagong on an urgent basis,
he said adding that the BFFEA do not want to see
suspension again for export. About use of chemical in
shrimp production, he said the government should make a
shrimp policy forthwith to propel the growth of the
industry. He recommended the government to give necessary
directives to the deputy commissioners (DCs) of Khulna and
Chittagong so that they could initiate a campaign to
withdraw the antibiotic drug items from local markets.
BFFEA president said the sector had witnessed some sort of
uncertainty after two consecutive disasters and global
recession that brought down prices, forcing shut down some
factories and ultimately dented the buyers demand for
salt-water shrimp. "We have got nothing from the
government in the backdrop of the crisis and not even a
single Penney from the Taka 5,000 crore stimulus package,"
Musa pointed out.
Chairman of Bangladesh Shrimp and Fish Foundation (BSFF)
Syed Mahmudul Haq told the national news agency that they
want to have a pint point in every level of production
like farmers, businessmen, processing and export.
The foundation has embarked on a plan to formulate
'national plan' in collaboration with industries
association and the department of Fisheries (DoF) for
promotion of the sector, said Haq.
Fisheries and Livestock ministry sources said Bangladesh
exported freshwater shrimp (galda) worth 114 crore to
different destinations excepting the EU during June to
November last year while it was Taka 246 crore during
corresponding period in 2008. Besides, export of shrimp (bagda)
worth Taka 1,348 crore during June- November in 2009, a
Taka 173 crore more than that of the same period of
previous year.
The country exported around 50,368 metric tons of shrimp
(all categories) and earned Taka 2,774 crore last year and
this year the ministry is expected to export 55,000 metric
tons of shrimp.
‘World economy getting back to
normal’
AFP, Basel, Switzerland
Emerging economies are driving a global economic recovery,
the head of the ECB said Monday after central bankers
concluded that the world economy was returning to
normality. "At a global level ... there is a confirmation
of the progressive normalisation of the economy," European
Central Bank (ECB) president Jean-Claude Trichet said on
behalf of the central bank chiefs.
During their first quarterly meeting of the year at the
Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the central
bankers confirmed that a global economic recovery was
underway.
"We are in the recovery mode, that is something that is
very much due to the emerging economies," Trichet said.
Those economies had "demonstrated resilience," and were
"very, very clearly in a more dynamic mode now," the ECB
chief told reporters. The assessment marked an upbeat
beginning to 2010, two months after the influential group
of central bankers said the world had pulled out of
economic freefall but still faced risks that could knock
confidence.
However, Trichet warned that commercial banks must ensure
that they clean up their balance sheets in the wake of the
financial crisis and credit crunch that precipitated the
worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
"We are telling our banks that they have to do themselves,
everything to reinforce their balance sheet by all
appropriate means," he said.
‘S’pore workers ranked most
diligent’
BSS/Xinhua, Singapore
A survey showed that Singapore workers come in first in
the number of hours they put in at work, local media
reported on Monday. According to local newspaper the
Straits Times, the report by the International Labor
Organization put the workers at the top of 13 economies in
the group's Global Wages Report for 2008- 09.
The report compared data for 2007 with that of 2008 and
for the first quarter of last year, when the financial
crisis was at its worst. A check with Singapore's Manpower
Ministry put working hours in Singapore at 45.9 hours a
week for 2008 and for the first quarter of last year. In
2007, it was 46.3 hours. The Manpower Ministry said
workers in Singapore did an average of three hours of
overtime a week in the beginning of last year, which
increased progressively to 3.6 hours towards the end of
September, as the economy gradually picks up.
Jute export earns Tk 3,700cr
in current fiscal
BSS, Sangsad Bhaban
Jute and Textiles Minister Abdul Latif Siddiqui told the
House on Monday that Taka 3,700 crore was earned in the
first six months of the current fiscal year by exporting
raw and finished jutes. "We are hopeful that export
earnings from the raw and finished jutes would exceed Taka
5,000 crore this fiscal year," he said while replying to
questions of the treasury bench members. The jute minister
added that export earnings from the raw and finished jutes
in the last fiscal year was Taka 2,700 crore. "Taka 601
crore was earned in the first six months of the current
fiscal year by exporting 9.98 lakh bales of raw jutes,
which was Taka 414 crore in the previous fiscal year," he
said.
After assuming power, he said, the government has taken
various steps to revive the lost glory of jute in the
country side by side with changing the lot of jute
growers.
"Initiatives have been undertaken to reopen the closed
Qawmi jute mills in Sirajganj and Doulatpur jute mills in
Khulna," the minister said, adding that to expedite the
work, the activities for allocating money for necessary
maintenance and servicing are under process. Siddiqui said
to restore the glory of the golden fibre the government
has allocated Taka 200 crore in the current fiscal year
for purchasing raw jute in the jute mills under BJMC.
Besides, he said, the government has taken steps for BMRE
of the BJMC-run jute mills as well as setting up
generators for their uninterrupted production. The
minister also said the government has a plan to provide
interest-free loans to the jute farmers. "A five-year
(2010-2015) project titled High Yielding Jute and Jute
Seed Production and Rotting Jute in Modern Method is being
undertaken," he said.
By dint of the present government's timely steps, the
minister said, demand of jute has increased in local and
international markets and production of raw jute has gone
high to the greater benefit of farmers as well as the
national economy.
India faces sugar, pulses shortage
AFP, New Delhi
India's trade minister acknowledged Monday the country
faced a shortfall of sugar and pulses, a staple food
product for most Indians, after the country's weakest
monsoon in four decades.
"There is a shortage of pulses and sugar," Anand Sharma
said at a banking summit in New Delhi, adding that he
hoped price pressures would ease with a stronger winter
crop.
The weak monsoon pushed up food prices by 19 percent in
2009, putting home budgets under strain.
Sugar prices have almost doubled since January last year
and are still rising because of a production shortfall,
according to government data reported by the Press Trust
of India (PTI) news agency.
Potato prices rose 110 percent in January year-on-year,
followed by pulses which jumped up 42.21 percent while
vegetables were costlier by more than 30 percent in the
period.
The government, under pressure
to help mitigate the impact of rising prices, has stressed
that no one will go hungry due to emergency stocks and
imports.
PTI reported last week that New Delhi had imported 3.65
million tonnes of sugar since October 2009 and said a
contracted amount of 2.3 million tonnes of the commodity
was yet to arrive.
Earth breaking ceremony of Square
Pharma Unit-3 held
TBT Economy Desk
The earth breaking ceremony of Square Pharmaceuticals
Limited Unit -3 was held on Sunday to meet the increasing
demands from the industry.
Samson H Chowdhury, Chairman of Square Group inaugurated
the event, says a press release.
Samuel S Chowdhury, Vice Chairman, Square Group, Tapon
Chowdhury, Managing Director, Square Pharmaceuticals
Limited, Anjan Chowdhury, Director, Square Pharmaceuticals
Limited, Anika Chowdhury and other high officials of the
company were also present there. The new unit got
established near the Square Pharmaceuticals Plant at
Kaliakoir in Gazipur.
Square Pharmaceuticals Limited Unit 3 is going to bear
facilities of the state of the art technology. The first
phase construction will be finished by December 2012. Then
the second phase will start from January 2014 and be
finished by June 2016. The company hopes that the unit
will start production from the first quarter of 2013. The
estimated cost of the unit 3 will be 514 crore. Total
project area is 16 acres. The current plant, whose area is
35 acres, produces general products, Cephalosporin,
Insulin, and SVPO etc.
JAL to cut 15,600 jobs under
turnaround plan
AFP, Tokyo
Troubled Japan Airlines is expected to cut 15,600 jobs, or
about 30 percent of its group workforce, in three years
under a rehabilitation plan, a report said on Monday.
The layoffs, coupled with cuts in benefits and wages, will
be carried out together with the sale of JAL's
subsidiaries including JAL Hotels Co., Kyodo News reported
citing unspecified sources.
The carrier's workforce will be trimmed to about 36,000 by
the business year to March 2013, the report said.
The state-backed Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp. (ETIC)
plans to decide on its bailout package for JAL as early as
January 19, the same time the airline is expected to file
for bankruptcy protection, Kyodo said.
The ETIC estimated the liabilities of Asia's top carrier
exceed its assets by more than 860 billion yen (9.5
billion dollars), Kyodo quoted the sources as saying.
It plans to reduce JAL's liabilities by 730 billion yen
through the court- backed bankruptcy, the report said.
It will also invest 300 billion yen in JAL so the
carrier's assets would exceed its liabilities by more than
160 billion yen, the report added.
Even after the bankruptcy proceedings, the state-backed
body will guarantee more than 470 billion yen for payments
of fuel and other commercial transactions necessary to
keep JAL flying, the report added.
National
Sweeping bone-chilling cold wave
makes life miserable in n-region
BSS, Rangpur
Normal life remained almost halted and seriously disrupted
as the temperatures marked falls amid blowing cooler winds
during the past 24 hours in the country's northern region
adding untold sufferings and miseries to the people.
As the severity of the bone-chilling cold further
increased during the period, hundreds of people were
forced to stay indoors and farm, businesses and normal
activities were adversely affected everywhere Sunday. The
sun remained covered behind the dense clouds amid blowing
cooler and stronger winds from the west and north-western
directions adding sufferings to the people everywhere and
the situation in the char areas severely deteriorated. The
minimum temperatures ranged between 8.4 degrees and 11.6
degrees Celsius and the maximum temperatures fluctuated
between 17 and 25 degrees Celsius reducing the gaps
between these two temperatures that made the situation
unbearable Sunday.
The vehicular traffic on roads and highways, plying of
trains and water vessels remained partially affected till
Monday morning when the vehicles plied with headlights on
to avert accidents at most places in the region.
Meanwhile, the fresh allocations of 2,000 pieces blankets
and Taka 80,000 for each upazila from the Relief and
Rehabilitation Department of the Ministry of Food and
Disaster Management for purchasing warm clothes, have
reached to each district. The concerned district
administrations have already allocated the fresh
allocations in favour of every upazila administration
including in Rangpur for quicker distribution of warm
clothes among the clod-hit people, officials told the
national news agency Sunday. Side by side with the
government efforts, dozens of NGOs, voluntary, socio-
cultural and charitable organisations and affluent people
have further intensified distribution of warm clothes to
mitigate untold sufferings of the distressed people.
Earlier, the district administrations completed
distribution of 64,000 blankets, with 4,000 for each of
the 16 northern districts, allocated by the same Ministry
and more warm clothes allocated from the Prime Minister's
Relief Fund.
Besides, 300 pieces of more blankets, allocated from the
Prime Minister's Relief Fund for every cold-hit district,
are expected to reach to the concerned district
administrations within the next couple of days, officials
said. District Relief and Rehabilitation Officer of
Rangpur Mokhlesur Rahman Sunday told BSS that 4,000
blankets and 2,950 pieces of warm clothes have already
been distributed in Rangpur and distribution of the newly
allocated 2,000 blankets is continuing. "Like other
districts in the region, we have also got Taka 6,40,000
and already allocated Taka 80,000 for each of the eight
upazila administrations to locally purchase warm clothes
for distribution among the cold-hit distressed people," he
added. The number of people, seen out of their houses on
urgent needs at the bazaars, bus stands and rails
stations, was the lowest Sunday and sufferings of the low
income-group people, elderly citizens and babies, mounted
further.
Speakers calls for talking initiatives for utilization of
mosques
BSS,Dhaka
Speakers at a discussion called for talking certain
initiatives at national and social levels for better
utilization of the country's mosques.
The role of the mosque is important in society, they said
adding along with it being the house of worship, it should
also serve the community at a philanthropic level. The
speakers were addressing at the discussion Sunday as part
of a fortnight programme of the Goethe Institute titled
'Mosque Today' held in its auditorium here.
Director of Legal Affairs of Institute of Hazrat Mohammad
(SAW) Barrister Reazul Karim presented a paper on
'Effective Utilization of Mosques" at the discussion.
Prof Nurul Nazem of Department of Geography of Dhaka
University, Prof Rukhsana Hafez and Director of the Goethe
Institute Angela Grunert, among others, addressed the
discussion. President of the Institute of Hazrat Mohammad
(SAW) Lt Gen (retd) M Nooruddin Khan and Director
Administration Barrister Rizwana Yusuf, among others, were
present on the occasion.
In his presentation, Reazul said mosques stresses on
unifying sprit of Islam where collective efforts in
building the society is largely emphasized. Five time
prayers create an opportunity for the people of the
locality to
know their neighborhood, learn, interact and support one
another in any need,
he added. The mosque should be a symbol of knowledge,
Reazul said adding knowledge can be disseminated and
shared in various forms.
Radio
station highlighting agriculture likely in Feb in remote
area of Barguna
UNB, Dhaka
A community radio station mostly highlighting agriculture
is likely to be set up in a remote area of Barguna
district in February with a view to empowering nearly
300,000 rural people. The station will be set up under a
pilot project titled 'Enhancing Rural Communication
Services for Agricultural Development through Community
Rural Radio' to be implemented at an estimated cost of
around Tk 80 million (8 crore).
Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) will provide US$
457,500 apart from ensuring technical assistance, while Tk
32.6 million (3.26 crore) will come from the government.
Stating this, Agriculture Information Service (AIS)
Director Md. Nazrul Islam informed that an agreement in
this regard is likely to be signed between the Ministry of
Agriculture and FAO this month. He said the community
radio station will run initially for eight hours a day by
the officials of AIS, Bangladesh Betar (Barisal Center)
and Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE).
There will be different programmes on agriculture like
which soil is suitable for which type of crops, fertilizer
management, livestock and fisheries. The content of the
programmes will be broadcast in local dialect.
On completion of the two-year project tenure, the
management of the radio station will be handed over to
community people under the supervision of local government
or Thana Nirbahi Officer (TNO).
AIS director Nazrul Islam said some NGOs who would like to
work in agriculture might be involved in this venture in
future.
"Apart from agriculture, the radio station will also
broadcast programmes on education, nutrition, environment,
forestry, and may even forecast in case of any natural
calamity," he added.
AIUB presently offers 12.2 pc of students free
of cost education
UNB, Dhaka
American International University-Bangladesh (AIUB)
presently offers 12.2 percent of its students free of cost
higher education and hopes to gradually increase its
concessions to a larger number of country's poor students.
This was disclosed when a three-member delegation of AIUB,
led by its Vice-Chancellor Dr Carmen Z. Lamagna, called on
President Zillur Rahman at Bangabhaban on Monday. The AIUB
delegation also included its founder chairman Dr Anwarul
Abedin and treasurer Dr Hasanul A. Hasan.
During the meeting, the President appreciated the AIUB
initiatives and put further emphasis on increasing
opportunities of higher education for the country's poor
students at the private universities at free of cost or at
less costs.
The delegation told the President that they want to change
the perception of some people about private universities
that these are very costly places. The AIUB authorities
will provide quality higher education at less cost, they
said.
Putting emphasis on professional courses, the delegation
informed that AIUB would gradually increase its intake of
students in Nursing and Information Technology courses
with a view to developing skilled manpower.
Meter-gauge track and engine shortage impedes BR
growth
BSS, Sangsad Bhaban
Existing meter-gauge track and shortage of engine and
container carrying wagon impedes growth of Bangladesh
Railway to run more container trains on the Dhaka-
Chittagong route.
Communications Minister Syed Abdul Hossain said this on
Monday during question- answer session in parliament.
"The government has a plan to turn the existing Dhaka-Chittagong
rail track into broad-gauge side by side with procuring
more container wagons to run more trains on this route,"
he said.
Replying to a question from Benjir Ahmed (Dhaka 20), the
minister said the country now has only six container
carrying wagons. Besides, he added, the country now has
659-km broad-gauge rail line and 1,801-km meter-gauge rail
line in addition to 375- km duel-gauge line.
Replying to a question from Sukumar Ranjam Ghosh
(Munsiganj-1) the minister highlighted the overall
government plan for setting up a well-placed rail
communication between Dhaka and the southern part of the
country.
Hossain said expansion of 41.53km meter-gauge line from
Bangabandhu Bridge Station (east) to Tarakandi would be
completed by June this year. Besides, the government is
working on a 128-km meter-gauge rail line from Dohajari to
Cox's Bazar via Ramu and Ramu to Gundum, and a 40-km
meter-gauge line from Noakhali to Charbhata (Steamer Ghat).
The communications minister also said that the
construction of a 64-km double-line track from Tongi to
Bhairavbazar with financial assistance from Asian
Development Bank and a 61-km double-line from Chinki
Astana to Laksam with support JICA is now under process.
JS body places report on Fish and Animal Feed
Bill, 2009
BSS, Dhaka
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Fisheries and
Livestock Ministry on Monday placed its report on the Fish
and Animal Feed Bill, 2009.
Member of the committee Alhaj Elias Uddin Mollah placed
the report on behalf of its chairman ABM Ashrafuddin Nizan
with recommendation for passage of the bill in an amended
form. Earlier on October 5 last, Fisheries and Livestock
Minister Abdul Latif Biswas tabled the bill in the Jatiya
Sangsad with the provision for ensuring production, supply
and marketing of quality fish and animal feed.
While placing the bill, the minister proposed provision of
production of fish and animal feed and their processing,
quality control, import and export, supply and
transportation and other related maters. He said fishery
plants, poultry and dairy firms have been expanded to a
great extent to meet protein demand in the country and
export shrimps, fish products and frozen food by using
modern technology.
JS body report on NCTB (amendment) Bill, 2009
placed in JS
BSS, Sangsad Bhaban
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Education
Ministry placed its report on The National Curriculum and
Textbook Board (NCTB) (amendment) Bill, 2009.
Committee Chairman Rashed Khan Menon placed the report
with recommendation for passage of the bill in the same
form placed in the House earlier. Education Minister Nurul
Islam Naheed piloted the bill on November 3 last with a
proposal for making provision to raise the number of
members of the board to four from the existing three.
Introducing the bill, the minister said separate primary
curriculum wing and post of member (primary education)
have been created after the approval of proper authorities
for doing the activities regarding primary textbooks
smoothly. "The member did not get rights to perform his
responsibilities as a member of the board legally as
article 5 of the NCTB Ordinance is not amended so far. So
the bill has been brought for amending article 5 to create
scope for performing his responsibilities," he said.
Sports
Citycell Bangladesh League
football
Muktijoddha downs Arambagh
TBT Report
Relegation
struggler Muktijoddha Sangsad Krira Chakra scored a stunning
3-2 victory against Arambagh Krira Sangha in the Citycell 3rd
Bangladesh League football at
Bir Shreshtha Shaheed Mohammad Mustafa Stadium in Dhaka on
Monday.
Former national captain and prolific striker Alfaz Ahmed
scored the first goal for Arambagh after 36 minutes to give
his side a 1-0 lead before the break. But Rokonuzzaman Kanchan
equalized the margin five minutes after the breather to put
the game on level terms (1-1).
But Muktijoddha moved back to the lead when Bidyut scored on
66 minutes and Murad extended the winners' advantage to 3-1 in
the first minute of the second half stoppage time but Arambagh
pulled off one goal in the very next minute to reduce the
margin 3-2.
Muktijoddha, which played to a goalless draw with Shuktara
Jubo Sangsad in its previous match to earn its first point,
increased its points to four after the seventh fixture. With
the win, Muktijoddha is now sitting at the second bottom place
in the standings ahead of Rahmatganj Muslim Friends Society,
which is staying at the bottom of the table with only two
points from seven games.
Arambagh suffered its third defeat after losing to two title
contenders Dhaka Mohammedan Sporting Club (2-1) and Dhaka
Abahani (4-0). Arambagh secured six points from seven
encounters.
Shakib,
Mahmudullah lift Bangladesh to 247
AFP, Dhaka
Shakib Al Hasan and Mohammad Mahmudullah scored fighting
half-centuries to help Bangladesh post 247-6 in the last
triangular one-day series match against India here on Monday.
Skipper Shakib top-scored with 85 and Mahmudullah made a
career-best 64 not out, but their side still failed to set a
stiff target after being put in to bat in the day-night match.
Sri Lanka, with three wins from four matches, and India (2/3)
have already qualified for the final to be held here on
Wednesday. The hosts have lost all three of their games.
Bangladesh were struggling at 95-5 before Shakib and
Mahmudullah steadied the innings with a 106-run stand for the
sixth wicket to set the stage for a late onslaught, which saw
the hosts score 95 in the last 10 overs.
Shakib fell in the 46th over, caught behind while attempting
to scoop left-arm seamer Ashish Nehra over the wicket-keeper.
He hit one six and eight fours in his 13th half-century.
Mahmudullah cracked one six and five boundaries in his fourth
half-century, while Naeem Islam made an unbeaten 22 off just
14 balls late in the innings with the help of one six and two
fours. Nehra was the highest wicket-taker with 2-58 off 10
overs.
Scorecard
Bangladesh:
Tamim Iqbal c Tyagi b Nehra 17
Imrul Kayes c Kohli b Tyagi 9
Mohammad Ashraful b Sreesanth 4
Raqibul Hasan run out 28
Shakib Al Hasan c Dhoni b Nehra 85
Mushfiqur Rahim c Raina b Yuvraj 7
M Mahmudullah not out 64
Naeem Islam not out 22
Extras: (lb2, nb3, w6) 11
Total: (for six wickets; 50 overs) 247
Fall of wickets: 1-10 (Kayes), 2-15 (Ashraful), 3-60 (Iqbal),
4-67 (Raqibul), 5-95 (Rahim), 6-201 (Shakib).
Bowling: Tyagi 6-2-24-1, Sreesanth 8-0-53-1 (nb3),
Nehra 10-1-58-2 (w1), Mishra 10-0-54-0 (w4), Yuvraj 10-1-33-1
(w1), Jadeja 6-1-23-0.
Toss: India
Umpires: Simon Taufel (AUS) and Sharfuddoula Shahid (BAN)
TV umpire: Enamul Haque (BAN)
Match referee: Andy Pycroft (ZIM).
Bangladesh wins over New
Zealand
TBT Report
Bangladesh defeated New Zealand by 36 runs under
Duckworth-Lewis Method in a practice cricket match for the
ICC Under/19 Cricket World Club at Lincoln Green in New
Zealand on Monday.
Winning the toss, Bangladesh invited New Zealand to bat
first and restricted the hosts to 242 for six in 45 overs.
In reply, Bangladesh scored 229 for four in 39.1 overs to
emerge winner under Duckworth-Lewis Method.
Saikat Ali scored the highest 72 runs off 62 balls, while
Muminul Showrav chipped in 66 runs, coming off 86 balls.
Bangladesh Test squad named
TBT Report
Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) named a 14-member
Bangladesh Test squad for the forthcoming two-match Test
series against India.
All rounder Shakib Al Hasan will lead the Bangladesh team
in the Tests, while wicketkeeper batman Mushfiqur Rahim
has been named as his deputy.
The first Test between the two teams will be held from
January 17 to 21 in Dhaka, while the second Test will take
place in Chitagong from January 24 to 28.
The squad: Shakib Al Hasan (Captain), Mushfiqur Rahim
(Vice Captain), Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Zunaed Siddique,
Mohammad Ashraful, Roqibul Hassan, Mahmud Ullah, Shahriar
Nafees, Shahadat Hossain, Rubel Hossain, Enamul Haque
(Jr.), Mahbubul Alam and Shafiul Islam.
India pay row erupts after short truce
AFP, New Delhi
Indian hockey plunged into fresh crisis on Monday as its
leading players resumed a strike, just weeks before the
country hosts the World Cup.
A truce reached over the weekend after a marathon meeting
between the players and officials of governing body Hockey
India collapsed almost at once as the team refused to end
their boycott of a training camp in Pune.
The tussle over pay and conditions has hit preparations
for the World Cup to be held in New Delhi from February 28
to March 13.
"The amount being offered to us is peanuts," Indian
captain Rajpal Singh was quoted as saying by the Times of
India.
"We were given assurances at the meeting but nothing was
put on paper. We discussed the matter with other team
members and decided not to accept Hockey India's offer.
"Until this issue is resolved, we will not resume
training."
Hockey India reacted sharply to the latest boycott.
"It's really shocking," Hockey India treasurer Narinder
Batra told AFP. "They agreed to our offer on Saturday and
now they are back on strike. They can't hold a nation to
ransom. It is blatant blackmailing.
"They want a graded system of payment, better incentives
and insurance cover but these things cannot be put into
place overnight. We are not going to tolerate such
behaviour and we will take disciplinary action against
them."
At the World Cup India and arch-rivals Pakistan have been
drawn together in Pool B alongside Australia, Spain,
England and South Africa in the 12-nation tournament.
Germany head Pool A, which includes the Netherlands, South
Korea, New Zealand, Canada and Argentina.
The dispute comes as India have been struggling to revive
their fortunes after failing to qualify for the 2008
Beijing Olympics.
Messi's mesmerising hattrick sends Barca top
AFP, Madrid
Lionel Messi scored a sensational hattrick as champion
Barcelona nudged Real Madrid off the top of the table
crushing Tenerife 5-0 away on Sunday for its first victory
of 2010.
Barca scored three times in a destructive nine minutes
with Ballon D'Or winner Messi scoring two of them (36, 45)
before clinching his hat-trick with a nonchalant curler
late in the second half to join Valencia's David Villa on
12 goals at the top of the goalscoring charts.
"It was complicated for us at the beginning but we scored
some quick goals and that changed things," said Messi. "I
am delighted with my three goals and more importantly the
team won, however, it is a bit unfair on Tenerife."
Real Madrid had leapfrogged Barca with a 2-0 home win over
Real Mallorca earlier on Sunday but Pep Guardiola's side
responded to move back to the summit two points ahead of
Real.
Barcelona's next challenge is at Sevilla in the second leg
of the last 16 Kings Cup tie in which they trail 2-1 from
the first leg.
Madrid had moved top of the Spanish league for the first
time since the end of November with goals from Esteban
Granero and Gonzalo Higuain overcoming Mallorca as they
maintained their flawless home record with a ninth
consecutive win.
"When Real Madrid are on song we are difficult to stop,"
said Granero, nicknamed 'The Pirate'. "I am happy to get
on the scoresheet and that we beat a difficult rival in
testing conditions.
"We just have to carry on like we are doing and Barcelona
will have to slip up at some stage."
However, Real's stay at the top was brief as Barca
recovered from a shaky start to put Tenerife to the sword
with Messi so inspirational that even the home Tenerife
fans were applauding him at the end.
Carles Puyol was also on target with an Ezequiel Luna own
goal completing the scoring after great footwork from
Pedro Rodriguez.
It was tough on Tenerife who lost 6-0 the last time they
hosted Barcelona in the top-flight back in 2001.
Tenerife's Alejandro Alfaro could have had a hat-trick in
the opening quarter hour hitting the crossbar and forcing
Victor Valdes into action.
Barca had been quiet but Bojan Krkic ghosted past his man
in the 36th minute and cut back for Messi to score.
Tenerife was aggrieved and it got worse for them as Barca
scored twice in two minutes.
A minute before the break Messi curled in a devilish
free-kick and Puyol used the pace of the ball to glance in
a header.
On the chime of half-time Andres Iniesta's sublime pass
released the effective Bojan who set up a tap-in for Messi
and a 3-0 lead they didn't deserve.
Thierry Henry smacked the post early in the second half
before Messi showed why he is the best player on the
planet curling in brilliantly from 20 yards as if he were
still in a training session. Freezing temperatures and
snow in the Spanish capital saw some Real fans at home but
for the players gloves and undergarments were the order of
the day.
Kaka returned for Real in his first appearance since
injuring his groin at the end of November and almost
scored on his return.
Mallorca had won 3-1 at Real last season but got off to a
nightmare start conceding after just seven minutes.
Higuain cut inside and curled a beautiful shot into the
top corner with his left foot that gave the goalkeeper no
chance.
Substitute Granero volleyed in expertly minutes after the
break to clinch the points.
Valencia lie six points behind Real in third after making
it seven wins from nine on the road defeating bottom side
Xerez 3-1 on Sunday.
"Barcelona and Real Madrid have a high number of points
and in past seasons we would be top or close to them with
the points tally we have," said Valencia coach Unai Emery.
Spanish internationals Juan Mata, David Silva and Carlos
Marchena were all on target to clinch victory at Xerez and
boost confidence for Thursday's last 16 King's Cup match
at Deportivo La Coruna.
Deportivo are four points behind Valencia in fourth after
a 1-0 home victory over Osasuna on Sunday thanks to a Juan
Rodriguez goal.
Ronaldo sale boosts Man Utd earnings
AFP, London
English giants Manchester United on Monday reported
pre-tax profits of 48.2million pouns (53.6m euros) for the
year to June 30, 2009.
The figure includes the world record 80m pounds (90m
euros) fee they pocketed for the sale of star forward
Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid and also 41.9m pounds
paid out in interest on a mammoth loan of 509.5m pounds.
Turnover was also up, from 80.4m pounds in 2008 to 91.3m
pounds a year later. The figures were released on a
morning when United officially confirmed their intention
to raise 500million pounds through bonds in order to
refinance their debts.
Without the world record sale of Ronaldo, the reigning
English Premier League champions would have been reporting
a loss of 31.8million pounds, a situation that clearly is
unsustainable over the long term, hence the bonds issue.
"Manchester United today announced that it will be seeking
to raise approximately 500million pounds aggregate
principal amount from an offering of senior secured notes
due 2017," said a United statement.
"The notes, whose proceeds will be used to refinance
existing debt secured against the club, will be issued by
MU Finance plc."
Nalbandian pulls out of Heineken Open
AFP, Auckland
Former world number three David Nalbandian pulled out of
the Heineken Open Monday, throwing his Australian Open
plans into serious doubt.
On the comeback trail after hip surgery in May, the
Argentinian suffered an abdominal strain while warming up
and will miss what would have been his first tournament in
eight months. "I am very disappointed not to be able to
make my comeback this week at the Heineken Open. I was
very much looking forward" to playing in Auckland once
again, said Nalbandian, currently ranked 63.
"I didn't play much tennis for eight months so it is
natural to suffer some small injuries. Although I am
disappointed at the moment, I remain confident and
positive about making a full-time comeback to the tour
soon," he added. Tournament director Richard Palmer said
similar abdominal injuries take 10 to 15 days to heal. The
Australian Open, the season's opening Grand Slam, is due
to start on Monday.
Only three first round matches were played Monday, with
the rest of the round to be completed on Tuesday. Austrian
sixth seed Jurgen Melzer battled back from a set down to
beat Italian Fabio Fognini 5-7, 6-3, 6-2.
Earlier, Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci beat Marco Chiudinelli
of Switzerland 6-3, 6-3 to progress to the second round.
Rubin Statham defeated fellow New Zealander Dan
King-Turner 6-2, 7-5, as the higher-ranked King-Turner had
more difficulty in adjusting to the windy conditions.
King-Turner, with a world ranking of 263, won the first
two games of the match but then failed to win another game
in the first set. He served for the second set at 5-4 but
Statham, ranked 332, came back to clinch the match.
Wozniacki crashes out in Sydney
AFP, Sydney
US Open finalist Caroline Wozniacki crashed out in the
first round of the Sydney International Monday to China's
Li Na while Japan's Kimiko Date Krumm continued her
renaissance.
Li upset fourth seed Wozniacki, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, while Date
Krumm battled to a 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 victory over world number
20 Nadia Petrova of Russia.
Li, who lost to Wozniacki in their only previous meeting,
dug deep after dropping the first set to prevail in almost
two hours against the tiring Dane.
"I didn't play my best game today," said Wozniacki. "It
was tough out there. It was my first real match this
season. "I didn't really feel as comfortable as I thought
I would and she played well. Just better than me today for
sure." Wozniacki lost to Belgian comeback queen Kim
Clijsters in last year's US Open final.
Li, the world number 17, will now play Italian Flavia
Pennetta, who swept past leading Australian Samantha
Stosur 6-3, 6-1.
Date Krumm reached the world number four spot in 1995
before retiring a year later after finding the pressure of
life on tour too much. She married German racing driver
Michael Krumm in 2001.
Last September, Date Krumm chalked up her first tournament
victory in 13 years, which made her the oldest winner of a
WTA event since Billie Jean King in 1983. Meanwhile,
former world number one Jelena Jankovic is scrambling for
extra practice ahead of next week's Australian Open after
being dumped out in the first round.
The 2008 US Open finalist paid dearly for a lack of
preparation when she succumbed to match-hardened Hungarian
qualifier Agnes Szavay, 5-7, 6-1, 7-5.
Jankovic's ring-rusty game fell apart after taking the
opening set and her serve was broken 10 times as the
40th-ranked Szavay, coming off two matches at last week's
Brisbane international and qualifying here, finished
strongly in just over two-and-a-half hours in warm
conditions.
"It was my first match of the season and I was a little
bit nervous, especially not playing for two months,"
Jankovic said.
"I trained in Florida, but it wasn't hot. It was unusual,
and it was quite cold. So when I arrived here, it was a
big change.
"I just want to stay positive, and I hope that I will be
ready for Melbourne."
Jankovic, who was top seed at last year's Australian Open,
said she was now preparing for a week of practice ahead of
the first Grand Slam of the season.
Egypt and Nigeria in top spot
battle
AFP, Benguela
Defending champions Egypt and Nigeria clash in the Africa
Cup of Nations Group C curtain raiser under the scorching
afternoon sun at the brand-new Ombaka Stadium here today.
Both teams are expected to progress to the knockout of
stage of the continental showpiece at the expense of
Mozambique and Benin in the sleepy town of Benguela, about
600 kilometres (370 miles) from the capital Luanda known
for its bananas and great beaches.
The Super Eagles of Nigeria are using Angola 2010 as a
dress rehearsal for the World Cup, while six-times African
champions Egypt again failed to qualify for the global
finals after they were upset by fierce regional rivals
Algeria in a play-off.
Egypt has not beaten Nigeria since 1977 and the last time
both sides clashed at this competition was 16 years ago,
when they drew 0-0 in a group match as Nigeria went on to
win their second Nations Cup title in Tunisia.
"Egypt are in a decline now and we have one of the best
teams for a Nations Cup in a long time," boasted Nigeria
assistant coach, Daniel Amokachi, who played in that game
in Tunis in 1994.
However, Amokachi's teammate in that same game, Austin
'Jay Jay' Okocha, has warned the Pharaohs have to be taken
seriously.
"They are double champions for a reason and a skillful
midfield could carry them to a hat-trick," warned Okocha.
Egypt are clear that this clash will go a long way in
determining how well they will fare in their title defence
in Angola. "Our match against Nigeria will show how we
will perform in the following matches, just like the 2008
tournament," said Egypt skipper Ahmed Hassan.
At Ghana 2008, Egypt got off to a flying start with an
impressive 4-2 opening group win over Cameroon in Kumasi
and they then went all the way to clinch a record sixth
Nations Cup crown at the expense of the same team three
weeks later in Accra."Nigeria are a strong team, but we
are now familiar with all African teams. I told the
players they should do their best to realise their own
dreams.
"Personally, I want to win a fourth African title with the
national team," said Hassan.
Despite a dramatic qualification for their fourth World
Cup in November, there remains a growing dissatisfaction
by the public with both the Nigeria coach, Shuaibu Amodu,
and the performance of the Eagles.
Amodu may have now qualified Nigeria for the World Cup a
second time, but his tactics and team selection continue
to be questioned as pressure mounts for him to be
replaeced with a foreign coach for the World Cup in June.
He may well be sacked if they do not reach at least the
semi-finals in Angola.
The Eagles barely managed to beat South African first
division side Thanda Royal Zulu courtesy of a penalty goal
before they were held to a goalless draw by Zambia in the
build-up.
Locomotiv Moscow striker Osaze Odemwingie is likely to
miss out after suffering from an infection, meaning
Everton striker Yakubu Aiyegbeni will either be partnered
upfront by Obafemi Martins or Obinna Nsofor, who scored
four goals as Nigeria booked their flight to South Africa
2010. At 33, Skipper Nwankwo Kanu is also pressing for a
place on the starting line-up after an eye-catching
display against Zambia in Durban last week.
This would be his last Nations Cup and it would therefore
be a most fitting farewell gift should he finally break
his goal scoring duck at this tournament in Angola.
Leicester fights back to force
draw
AFP, London
Leicester conceded a goal after just 20 seconds but still
managed to draw 1-1 with Ipswich on Sunday as they
maintained their push for a playoff place in English
football's second division Championship.
The home side were behind inside the first minute at the
Walkers Stadium after Ipswich, managed by former
Manchester United midfielder Roy Keane, broke through.
Jack Colback's cross came to the near post where
Leicester's Ryan McGivern, under pressure from Ipswich's
David Norris, who'd made a superb run, put through his own
net.
But Leicester were level before half-time when, after
Ipswich failed to clear a cross, the ball fell to
Leicester strike Steve Howard, who struck an equaliser
from the edge of the 18-yard box. The result, in one of
the few English league matches to survive the big freeze
engulfing Britain this weekend, left Leicester fifth in
the table.
Meanwhile Ipswich, who had a wretched start to the season,
have now lost just once in their last 13 league matches.
But they remained in 20th place, with relegation still a
worry for the club.
"I'm disappointed we didn't build on our great start to
the game but I know we can do a lot better than today,"
said Keane. Leicester manager Nigel Pearson said he was
happy to have come out of the match with a point.
"It wasn't a very good game and we struggled to get
anything going. But at least we've come out of it with
something positive," said Pearson.
Shell-shocked Togo leaves, Africa
Cup opens
AFP, Luanda
Togo's national football team, still reeling from a rebel
attack that killed two of its squad, traveled home Sunday
against the players' wishes as the Africa Cup of Nations
kicked off in Angola.
President Jose Eduardo dos Santos denounced Friday's
attack by separatist rebels in the northern enclave of
Cabinda, where the teammates were flying back to Togo with
their two slain colleagues. "We condemn this act of
terror, but the competition will continue in Cabinda," Dos
Santos said as he opened the tournament. "We are together,
may the best man win."
His government and African football officials pleaded to
the last second for Togolese authorities to allow the
players to fulfill their wish to compete in the tournament
to honour their slain colleagues.
"It's very sad. It's hard for Africa and for us. These
things are part of life, you have to accept it," Togo
captain Emmanuel Adebayor told AFP at the airport in
Cabinda.
The team later arrived home in Lome on a special
government plane, where it was met at the airport by Prime
Minister Gilbert Fossoun Houngbo, members of the
government and sports officials, an AFP correspondent
reported.
Cabinda is to host seven of the tournament's 22 matches,
but with Togo's goalkeeper Kodjovi Obilale still in
critical care at a South African hospital, their prime
minister ordered the team home.
"We understand the position of the players who want to in
some way avenge their dead colleagues, but it would be
irresponsible for the Togolese authorities to allow them
to continue," Houngbo earlier told reporters in Lome.
Rebels ambushed the Togo convoy as they drove into the
Cabinda enclave from neighbouring Congo-Brazzaville on
Friday, leaving players cowering under their seats during
a 20-minute gunbattle with security forces.
Goalkeeper Obilale was airlifted to a Johannesburg
hospital to undergo surgery to treat gunshot wounds to the
lower back and abdomen.
"He is ventilated at the moment, it's still early stages
at the moment," a hospital spokeswoman said. "He is in
critical condition but he stable."
Separatist rebels threatened to carry out more attacks,
saying they had warned Confederation of African Football (CAF)
boss Issa Hayatou against holding matches in Cabinda.
"This is going to continue, because the nation is at war,
because Hayatou persists," said Rodrigues Mingas,
secretary general of the Forces for the Liberation of the
State of Cabinda-Military Position (FLEC-PM).
"We wrote two months before the Nations Cup to Mr Issa
Hayatou to warn him that we were at war. He did not want
to take our warnings into consideration," Mingas told AFP
by telephone."They were warned, they knew it, and they
closed their eyes."
Mingas's faction is one of several groups battling for
independence in small but oil-rich Cabinda, a cornerstone
of Angola's economic boom, despite a 2006 peace agreement.
Mingas now lives in exile in France, and a French foreign
ministry spokesman on Sunday vowed a response to his
comments. South African President Jacob Zuma condemned the
shooting as "shocking and unacceptable", but brushed away
speculation that the attack could affect his nation's
hosting of the World Cup in June.
Federer to miss Kooyong Classic
AFP, Sydney
World
number one Roger Federer will not play in this week's
Kooyong Classic in Melbourne, preferring to practise ahead
of next week's Australian Open, tournament officials said
on Monday.
Tournament Director Colin Stubs said he had been holding
the eighth and final spot in the eight-player exhibition
event open for Federer, but the Swiss opted not to take up
his place in the draw.
Stubs said Federer's manager, Tony Godsick, contacted him
early Monday to say that the 15-time Grand Slam champion
would not take up the option of eighth spot in the field.
Federer, who is bidding for his fourth Australian Open,
was defeated by Russian Nikolay Davydenko in the
semi-finals at the Qatar Open last week before heading to
Melbourne.
Federer is scheduled to have a hit on the Australian
Open's Rod Laver Arena on Tuesday.
American Andy Roddick also opted not to play in the
round-robin event after reaching Sunday's ATP final in
Brisbane.
Stubs is expected to announce the eighth and final place
for the Kooyong Classic at the players' media conference
on Tuesday.
The Kooyong field contains six of the ATP's top 11 players
including Argentinian Juan Martin Del Potro, who beat
Federer in last year's US Open final. Also featured are
2008 Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic, 2009 French
Open finalist Robin Soderling, Australian Open finalists
Fernando Gonzalez (2007) and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (2008),
Fernando Verdasco and Tommy Haas.
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