FRIday, JANUARY 15, 2010 magh 2, 1416, muharram 28, 1430 Hijri

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Leading News

Haiti death toll may top one lakh
AFP, Port Au Prince

Amid mounting desperation over shortages of medicines and food, and with officials warning the overall death toll may top 100,000, many people who escaped with their lives spent a second night on the streets due to Haiti earth quake.
Schools, hospitals, hotels, ministries and the presidential palace lay in ruins and people caked in blood and dust pleaded for help as they lay trapped beneath mountains of concrete in Port-au-Prince.
Reflecting the grim mood in the impoverished city of two million, totally unprepared to cope with a tragedy of this magnitude, a preacher warned in Creole about the end of the world.
Jeanwell Antoine held a trapped baby's arm and sought to comfort it as he clawed through the rubble and debris left behind by Tuesday's quake.
Haitians woke to face the devastation on Thursday after sleeping outside in the streets and parks, fearful of more aftershocks after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake tore through the capital, Port-au-Prince.
The streets were lined with the bloodied, twisted bodies of the dead and injured after the massive earthquake ripped apart the city, bringing the presidential palace and UN headquarters crashing down and ravaging hillside shanties.
After another terrifying night rocked by aftershocks, the pitiful cries of those still trapped could be heard from under the tonnes of twisted rubble, cement and metal.
"Parliament has collapsed. The tax office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed. There are a lot of schools that have a lot of dead people in them," Preval told the Miami Herald Lacking heavy equipment, Haitians frantically dug with their hands as they sought to pull victims from the ruins of Port-au-Prince, witnesses said. As the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, Haiti is ill-prepared to handle such a catastrophe.
About 1,400 French nationals live in Haiti, including 1,200 in Port-au-Prince. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said the embassy was still searching for at least 50 French people who "may have found themselves in very dangerous places".
Planeloads of rescuers and relief supplies headed to Haiti as governments and aid agencies launched a massive relief operation after a powerful earthquake that may have killed thousands.
US President Barack Obama ordered a swift and aggressive US rescue effort, while the European Union activated its crisis systems and the Red Cross and United Nations unlocked emergency funds and supplies for the destitute nation. Much of Port-au-Prince was reduced to rubble by the 7.0-strong quake on January 12 but the airport was operational, opening the way for international relief aid to be ferried in by air as well as by sea.

 Procuring Aircraft
Cabinet body rejects Biman plea for bank loan guarantee

UNB, Dhaka

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs Thursday rejected a plea of Biman Bangladesh Airlines to have 'state-sovereign guarantee' for taking loans from local and international banks to procure aircraft from US-based Boeing. Biman, the national flag carrier, signed a contract with Boeing in 2008 during the caretaker government's rule to procure 10 aircraft at $1.31 billion to strengthen its fleet. The deal was finalised through negotiations on the basis of an unsolicited offer.
Under the first phase of the agreement, according to official sources, Biman needs a total of $424 million to pay Boeing to get the supply of two aircraft by 2011.
Biman also finalised a deal for taking a loan of $114.75 million from a syndicate of nine banks, led by Eastern Bank Ltd, at a rate of 4.57 percent for procuring the two aircraft while the US-based Ex-Im Bank was supposed to finance the rest of the amount. But the local and international banks put a condition on Biman to manage a 'state-sovereign guarantee' to back its borrowing, which means the state will pay the lenders if Biman becomes defaulter. Civil Aviation and Tourism Ministry placed the proposal to the Cabinet Economic Affairs body and sought an approval for waiving the conditions of Public Procurement Law, (PPA) 2008 in its purchase based on unsolicited offer.
But the Cabinet body found the Biman's proposal non-compliant with the PPA 2008, as Biman has already been turned into a public limited company (PLC) with an independent decision making board. The PPA does not allow any sovereign guarantee to a PLC and any unsolicited deal. "So, the Cabinet refrained from approving the Biman's offer," said a senior official of the Cabinet Division following its meeting presided over by Finance Minister AMA Muhith. He said the Cabinet body, however, agreed in principle that the Finance Ministry would take necessary measures in consultation with the central bank to back Biman so that it does not face any problem in going ahead with its deal to procure the aircraft from Boeing. Sources said Biman, as per the agreement, has already paid Boeing $11.96 million for procuring the planes. Boeing is supposed to supply the two aircraft in 2011.
Biman will pay Boeing $114.75 million immediately as a pre-delivery payment. This is the first time after the country's independence that local banks' syndicate is giving such a big loan to a government agency in foreign currency. The syndicate of the local banks also includes Brac Bank, National Bank, IFIC Bank, The City Bank, AB Bank, Prime Bank, Premier Bank and Citi Bank NA.

 Cabinet congratulates PM on ‘successful’ India tour
UNB, Dhaka

The Cabinet congratulated Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on her "successful" tour of India during which the Indian and Bangladesh government took some major steps which the two sides say will bolster bilateral relations.
At the outset of the cabinet meeting Thursday at the secretariat, LGRD Minister Syed Ashraful Islam raised thanks motion to hail the Prime Minister as she just came from a "successful" visit to India.
The cabinet members at the meeting with Prime Minister Hasina in the chair congratulated and thanked her unanimously on her visit, during which Bangladesh and India signed several deals and also agreed on a number of major matters of bilateral cooperation-trade, transit, combat against terrorism, port use and the like.
The cabinet, which took a number of decisions on domestic affairs, especially, thanked and congratulated the Prime Minister on her receiving the Indira Gandhi Peace Award.
The government in the second cabinet meeting of the new year changed the name of Fisheries and Livestock Ministry to the Ministry of Fisheries and Animal Resources (Matsya and Pranisampad Mantranalaya), among a number of other decisions.
Under the changed nomenclature, the departments and directorates under the ministry were also rechristened. Pashusampad Adhidaptar will now be Pranisampad Adhidaptar, Bangladesh Pashusampad Gabeshona Institute will be Bangladesh Pranisampad Gabeshona Institute and Matsya O Pashusampad Paridaptar will be called Matsya O Pranisampad Paridaptar.
The meeting at the secretariat, which also approved the decision to bring Gopalganj district under the National Service. Under the new safety-net recipe, secondary and above-qualified youths will be provided temporary employment.
The cabinet meeting in another step approved the extension of the retirement age limit for the freedom fighters now in public service. "The decision will take effect from December 13, 2009."
The cabinet gave approval for the formulation of new guideline for Internet gateway (IG), Internet gateway Exchange (IGX) and Internet Gateway Service to make the ICT rules more time-befitting.
The government from the cabinet meeting in principle approved the draft 'Bangladesh Tourism Board Act 2009' providing for the formation of this guardian body for flourishing the country's tourism sector by exploiting its potential.

  PM’s India visit ‘cent-percent unsuccessful’: Delwar
UNB, Dhaka

Opposition BNP turned upside down Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's that claim her India tour is 'cent-percent successful' as its secretary-general Khandaker Delwar Hossain termed the trip '100-percent unsuccessful'.
The BNP secretary-general made the remarks in reply to a question at a press briefing held on Thursday at the party central office about the outcome of party's standing-committee meeting held on Wednesday night, shortly after the PM's return from India.
Delwar said BNP chairperson and leader of the opposition Khaleda Zia will give formal reaction and announce next course of action against the outcome of Sheikh Hasina's visit to New Delhi through holding press conference at her Gulshan office at 3 pm Saturday.
He told the newsmen that India totally benefited from the PM's India tour and "the people of India are celebrating with joy their gains from the visit".
The BNP leader made the remarks reacting to Sheikh Hasina's comment at Zia International Airport on return from India Wednesday that her just-concluded visit was 'hundred percent-percent successful'.
During the tour, Bangladesh and India signed several deals and also agreed on a number of major matters of bilateral cooperation-trade, transit, combat against terrorism, port use and the like. The two sides were upbeat about their impacts in giving a boost to the bilateral relations and shared prosperity.
Khandaker Dewar said they "strongly protested and condemned" the outcome of the PM's India visit. He said the BNP standing committee's meeting Wednesday elaborately discussed the overall matters of the PM's India visit, including the joint communiqué issued by Bangladesh and India.
"The people of Bangladesh are expressing concern over the signing agreements against the country's interests," said the BNP leader-in the light of the views of the party's policymaking body. He feared if the agreements were implemented, Bangladesh would not be able to recoup its loss in the future. Asked about BNP's joining parliament ending their long boycott, he said right now it is not being possible (to join in parliament".

   Govt approves machine-readable passport deal
UNB, Dhaka

The Cabinet Purchase Committee has finally approved a Home Affairs Ministry's proposal for awarding a contract to introduce machine-readable passports and visas in the country.
The approval came from a meeting of the Cabinet body held with Finance Minister AMA Muhith in the chair.
As per the proposal, IRIS Corporation Berhad, a Malaysia-based firm, with its partners will supply the machine-readable passports and visas for the next three years.
The other joint venture partners of IRIS Corporation are Polish Security Printing Works and Data Edge Limited.
Bangladesh has been trying to introduce machine-readable passports and visas for the last few years in line with a global compliance to ensure security.
As per the proposed contract, the firms will supply a total of 6.6 million machine-readable passports and 0.5 million visa stickers in the next three years after signing of the deal costing Tk 526 crore. The firms will have to supply 2.2 m passports each year.
However, the original proposal was to appoint the firms for the next five years, but the Cabinet purchase body reduced the contract tenure. Another nine proposals approved by the Cabinet body include import of 100,000 metric tons of TSP fertilizer from Morocco under a state-to-state deal, appointment of consultants for a local government project to improve governance and repair of railways in Lalmonirhat district.
An LGRD Ministry's proposal to award contracts for the construction of phase-2 of the Saidabad Water Treatment Plant at a cost of Tk 842 crore and appointment of its consultants at a cost of Tk 19.21 crore also got the approval in the Cabinet body meeting.

   Zia orphanage case
HC to hear stay pleas of Khaleda, Tarique on January 19

UNB, Dhaka

The stalled hearing on ex-PM Khaleda Zia and her elder son Tarique Rahman's petitions for stay on the trial of Zia Orphanage Trust fund embezzlement case will be taken up again for disposal on January 19 by a changed High Court division bench.
Earlier, on January 6, the hearing on the trial-stay petitions was stalled halfway through amid a legal dispute raised by the Attorney-General over the jurisdiction of a designated High Court bench comprising Justice Syed M Dastagir Husain and Justice M Rais Uddin.
As a result, the matter, without further ado, was sent to the Chief Justice for necessary order.
On Wednesday, the Chief Justice posted the unresolved petitions to another competent division bench headed by Justice M A Wahhab Miah for disposal.
Earlier on October 15 last year, the High Court, following petitions, issued separate rule upon the government to explain why the proceedings against the accused in the Zia Orphanage Trust fund embezzlement case 'should not be quashed'.
Separate quashing petitions were filed with the High Court a week after a sessions' court took into cognizance the charges brought against BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia, Tarique Rahman, now staying in London for treatment, and four others in connection with the Zia Orphanage Trust fund embezzlement.
Meanwhile, on January 10, the senior special judge's court of Dhaka set January 27 for charge-framing hearing in the case.
On July 3 in 2008, the Anti-Corruption Commission filed the case with Ramna Police Station in the capital as there had been a purge against graft under state of emergency at the time.
According to the case, while in power Khaleda Zia and the other accused through unlawful practices "embezzled" over Tk 2.10 crore by establishing an organisation named Zia Orphanage Trust that exists "only on paper".

India plans 100 helipads in northeastern states
UNB, Dhaka

India is planning to construct over 100 helipads in the north-eastern States for quick mobilization of troops along the 1,600-km Myanmar border.
The strength of the Assam Rifles will also be raised to 76 battalions from the existing 46 battalions comprising 65,000 troops, said a report from Assam state capital Guwahati.
Assam Rifles chief Lt General KS Yadava discounted suggestions that their construction of helipads and troops raise are linked to countering the perceived threat from China.
He said the measures are for quick mobilization of troopers.
He said the terrain of India-Myanmar border is very vast and difficult. It takes days to cover even a few kilometres.
"It has nothing to do with China. We are having it (helipads) to reaching our men sitting far out along the Myanmar border."

Back Page

Govt to set up film institute, formulate National Film Policy: PM
She opens 11th Dhaka Int’l Film Festival

UNB, Dhaka

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Thursday annou-nced that the government would set up a modern Film Institute and formulate National Film Policy for aesthetic development of the country's film arena, preventing any perversions.
"Appropriate steps will be taken for repealing the existing Film Society Control Act, if necessary," she said at the inaugural function of the nine-day 11th Dhaka International Film Festival 2010.
Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the festival pushing a button of the projector presenting the logo film of the carnival.
The Prime Minister in her speech requested filmmakers, cultural activists and people of all walks of life to remain alter so that in no way ill elements can intrude into the Bengali nation's own culture. The Prime Minister said her government would give all cooperation and assistance in further developing the quality of films in Bangladesh.
"It is very unfortunate that quality of our films is on a downturn. As a healthy culture can build a wise, modern and conscious nation, we must have to upgrade standards of our films," Hasina told the opening programme of the film festival, being staged with the slogan-'Better film, better audience, better society'. Recalling the establishment of the Film Development Corporation by Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1957 as the then Commerce and Industry Minister, the Prime Minister also stressed the need for setting a modern studio inside the FDC.
Hasina asked the authorities concerned to come up with project proposal on setting up film institute and studio. "We will take effective step to implement the project." Hasina observed that without modern education and training, quality aesthetic films cannot be made. "A film institute is very much needed for education and training of the country's filmmakers."
The Prime Minister said Awami League, during its previous tenure, had allocated a plot of land in Savar for setting up the much-expected film institute.
"I will try to know what happened to that land later. Was it grabbed or something else?" Hasina said the Bengali nation is very rich in art and culture. "We are the only nation in the world who sacrificed lives to uphold the dignity of the mother tongue." She urged the country's filmmakers to come forward to make films reflecting the people's weal and woe, distress, hard work and patriotism.
Hasina also requested the filmmakers to make quality films on the real history of the country's liberation war.
A total of 190 films of 66 countries will be screened at the film festival which will continue till January 22 at Public Library and National Museum. The price of ticket is Tk 30 while children will have free entry.

  BPC plans to import LPG under joint collaboration: Enamul
BSS, Sangsad Bhaban

State minister for Power, Energy and Mineral resources Md Enamul Huq Thursday told the House that four transmission companies can supply 1950-1970 cubic meter gas through the existing network against the demand for about 2280 cubic meter.
Due to shortage in supply, the government, for time being, has taken a decision not to give any gas connection as long as the production is raised to the daily 2200 cubic meter, he said in reply to a question from treasury bench member Nasrul Hamid (Dhaka-3).
The government has no plan to supply gas in the areas within the 20-kilometer radius of the gas fields on priority basis, he said adding that only after enhancement of production, the government would take step to supply gas to an area if it is financially and technically viable.
The state minister said the government has planned to import Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) to meet its increasing demand. Besides, a proposal is now under active consideration of the government to carry out BMRE in the Eastern Refinery Ltd. to increase production of petroleum products.
Once the project is implemented, the production capacity of the refinery will be enhanced to 70,000 metric tons. In addition, there is also a plan to set up the second MSTE plant in Sylhet Gas Field by 2012 aimed at producing quality NGL to produce LPG.
The LPG production would be doubled in the country after completion of the two above projects, Enamul Huq said adding that the government has a plan to import LPG under joint collaboration of Saudi company Bakri Group and Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC).
He said the government also actively considering to take steps to make the supply of LPG available, keep its price within the tolerable level as well as maintain proper weight in the container of private sellers.
Replying to a question from M Abdul Latif (Chittagong 10), the state minister said all industrial units in Chittagong are getting uninterrupted gas supply. New import-based factories would be given gas supply by 2011-2012 subject to its availability. He said the Draft Project Proposal (DPP) prepared for supplying gas to five south-western districts- Kusthia, Jhenaidah, Jessore, Khulna and Bagerhat has been approved by the ECNEC in December 2009.

   Govt takes measures to make Mongla port active
UNB, Bagerhat

Government has taken up various measures to make the Mongla port, which has been incurring losses for a long time, active and vibrant.
The second largest seaport of the country is facing crisis as the number of ships which use the port has been decea-sing day by day.
Port sources said the port incurred loss of Tk 50.33 crore in the last four years.
Although 11 mafias were identified during the tenure of the last alliance government for hatching conspiracy to disrupt the normal activities of the port no action has so far been taken against them.
Mongla Port Authority Chairman Commodore M Faruq said charges for goods unloading have been reduced to Tk 30 from 65.
Besides, initiatives have been taken for dredging of the river to ease vessel movement. Government has given yearly allocation of Tk 10 crore for dredging, he said. He also said that a project of Tk 100 crore for capital dredging is waiting for approval. The expense of goods unloading has come down as stevedores are now in a position to recruit workers as per their requirement following the abolition of dock workers management board.
In fiscal 2005-06 some 131 ships anchored in the port, 110 ships in 2006-07, 95 ships in 2007-08, and 151 in 2008-09. The port incurred loss of Tk 11.09 crore in fiscal 2005-06, Tk 16.40 crore in 2006-07, Tk 16.93 crore in 2007-08 and Tk 5.91 crore in 2008-09.
Mongla port was established at Chalna in 1950. Later, it was shifted to the bank of the Pashur River as the second largest seaport of the country in 1954.

   Bangladesh, India to establish power transmission line
BSS, New Delhi

Bangladesh and India have given a final shape to the agreement for setting up a 130-km power transmission line to be established at a cost of Rs.882 crore further strengthening cooperation between the two countries in power sector.
India has decided to set up a power transmission line between India and Bangladesh to be operational in two years or by July 2012 at an estimated cost of Rs. 882 crore, Power Secretary HS Brahma told newsmen here.
Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL) would invest Rs. 178 crore while the rest would be borne by Bangladesh. The Bangla-desh delegation was led by Secretary of Power Division, Mohammad Abul Kamal Azad, media reports said.
The transmission line would connect Bheramara in Bangladesh and Behrampur in India. Out of the 130-km link, 45 km would fall in the Indian Territory and the remaining would be built on Bangladesh land, it said.
India's largest power generation company National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) would also set up power projects in Bang-ladesh and would also take up renovation and modernisation (R&M) of existing projects. "NTPC is keen to set up power plants there and also take up R&M works for the existing projects, Brahma added.
The two countries signed a Memorandum of Unders-tanding (MoU) after a meeting between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Under the agreement, India agreed to supply 250 MW power out of its central share of 15 per cent.
Besides this, India also assured supply of 200 MW power depending on the requirement of Bangladesh, Brahma added. Bangl-adesh's current installed capacity of power stands at 5,000 MW and it plans to augment this to 13,000 MW by 2015, the report said.

    Call to amend law to prevent human trafficking
DU Correspondent

Speakers at a seminar on Thursday urged the government to amend the laws and bring recruiting agencies under watch to prevent human trafficking.
They said, almost 80 percent victims of the trafficking are women who are forced to be engaged in prostitution in neighbouring India and Middle Eastern countries.
They were speaking at the seminar on "Framing the Problems of Human Trafficking: Challenges and Way Forward" at the Bangladesh Institute of Administration and Management (BIAM) auditorium yesterday.
Centre for women and Children Studies (CWCS) arranged the seminar in cooperation with the American Centre of the U.S. Embassy in Dhaka.
Dr Robin Haarr of the US College of Justice and Safety presented the keynote paper at the seminar where she shared her global experience on the issues and problems of human trafficking.
NBK Tripura, Additional Inspector General of Police, was the chief guest at the programme while representatives of government departments, professional groups and NGOs participated.
Prof Ishrat Sha-mim, president of CWCS, presented a multimedia presentation on the issue.

   EC has turned into a real independent institution: Shakhawat

BSS, Dhaka

To strengthen democracy in the country, the Election Commission (EC) carried out various reforms and other routine activities with dynamism remaining above any political influence in the last one year.
As a result, the EC has now turned into a real independent institution and earned confidence and respect of the people. Election Commissioner M Shakhawat Hossain told BSS that people had a negative notion about the EC earlier. Now the people's attitude has changed following efforts by the EC with cooperation of the government.
He referred to the successful holding of the upazila polls on January 22 and said that there was no political influence from the government at any stage of the election procedure. It is very rare during the regime of a political government, he added. Besides, the EC has held the presidential polls, elections to reserved seats for women, by-elections and reelections without any political pressure.
Legal reforms, updating voter lists and building server stations were also among the EC's activities in last one year. Election laws, and rules and regulations formulated during the last caretaker government have been passed in Parlia-ment. The EC has decided to hold dialogues with the political parties to make the electoral laws flawless.
Shakhawat Hossain said preparations are going on to hold dialogues with the registered political parties. The EC has already taken preparations to hold elections to Dhaka City Corporation (DCC), 509 municipalities, and 5,509 union parishads. The DCC elections will be held in March and election schedule would be announced in February.
After holding the municipal and union council polls, the EC will arrange elections to Chittagong City Corporation (CCC). The EC has trained up its officials and employees last year and started work on finalising its service rule and organogram, said Election Commissioner Mohammad Sohul Hossain.

Editorial

Industrial Police

The government on Wednesday formed a seven-member committee for the formation of a new police force styled Industrial Police accommodating firefighters and Ansar members for policing problems of industries in the country's four industrial zones. Headed by Golam Hossain, additional secretary of the Home Ministry, the committee has been asked to submit a complete report on raising the special police by February 28, Home Minister Sahara Khatun told reporters after an inter-ministerial meeting. The Home Ministry in a proposal to Finance Ministry sought 3,000 members for deployment of the force and 2,200 members for initial function, but the Establishment Ministry approved 1,580 members for manning the industrial police. The industrial police would consist of four separate units to be primarily deployed in four major industrial zones-Ashulia, Savar, Gazipur, and Narayanganj at an expenditure of Tk 20.3 crore.
The formation of the Industrial Police is a longstanding demand of the apparel entrepreneurs to protect the export-oriented garment industry. It may be recalled, in the wake of repeated outbreaks of violence in the garment factories last year, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina made an announcement in parliament on 14 July last year that the government would raise a police force exclusively for the industrial sector and form a committee for coordination among the intelligence agencies to protect the export-oriented garment and other industries. She said certain quarters appeared to be involved in a "deep conspiracy" to unleash premeditated unrest and trouble in the garment industry to harm the country and its economy.
The government plan, as revealed by the Prime Minister in Parliament, to raise an Industrial Police force to ensure peace and security in the industrial belt, specially the garment sector is now going to be implemented. This move deserves appreciationand cooperation of all, because the country's industrial sector is suffering from dire insecurity. What are happening frequently in the RMG sector are most unfortunate for the country as pre-planned and evil-designed vandalism, clashes, anarchy, arson, destruction of properties etc are causing immense damages to the industries and parlysing the economy. The unrest and uncertainty in the mills and factories are impeding the industrial growth and discouraging both domestic and foreign investments. It is easy to understand that no investor from home or abroad is expected to be willing to invest in a volatile situation where security is lacking and anarchy breaks out every now and then.
The first prerequisite for new investments as well as growth and expansion of industries is peaceful atmosphere and security. Without guarantee of these no industry can survive and flourish. So, the government decision to raise an industrial police force is a timely and correct one. If the proposed police force work properly and sincerely, the industrial belt may, hopefully, get the much needed peace and security for healthy industrial growth. However, it should be pointed out that unless the proposed Industrial police as well as the committee for coordination among the intelligence agencies are allowed to work without political interference and the owners as well as the workers of the industries cooperate with them, the goal may ve difficult to be achieved.
In the name of trade unionism , labour leaders are active in almost all mills and factories. The activities of some of them sometimes cross the limit of trade union activities and contribute to the outbreak of violence and unrest in their own mills and elsewhere much to the detriment of the industry as well as the economy. This has to be checked. Above all, the government has to keep in mind that the prime objective of Industrial Police has to be ensuring peaceful atmosphere in the industries so that these can run smoothly and make positive contributions to the industrial growth and economic advancement.

  Earthquake in Haiti

Science and technology have helped mankind discover, invent and conquer many places and things, but nature still remains beyond human control Despite spectacular advancement of science, human beings are still terribly helpless before the fury of nature. This has once again been evident from the deaths and destruction caused by the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti on Tuesday.
According to agency reports, dazed survivors wandered past dead bodies in rubble-strewn streets on Wednesday, crying for loved ones, and rescuers desperately searched collapsed buildings as fear rose that the death toll from Haiti's devastating earthquake could reach into the tens of thousands. The earthquake brought down buildings great and small - from shacks in shantytowns to President Rene Preval's gleaming white National Palace, where a dome tilted ominously above the manicured grounds. Hospitals, schools and the main prison collapsed. The capital's Roman Catholic archbishop was killed when his office and the main cathedral fell. The head of the UN peacekeeping mission was missing in the ruins of the organization's multistory headquarters.
The first cargo planes with food, water, medical supplies, shelter and sniffer dogs headed to the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation on Thursday after the magnitude-7 quake flattened much of the capital of 2 million people. In the coming days more relief goods may reach Haiti from across the world, but that would hardly be able to recover the massive loss and end the sufferings of the survivors. We mourn the dead and sympathise with the injured and affected people in Haiti. We hope that the world nations will come forward to help the earthquake victims there in every possible way.

Analysis

India's unhelpful attitude

Delhi declined to respond to the road map for resuming talks that Pakistan had conveyed to Indian officials.

Tariq Fatemi

The past 60 years have shown India's tendency to throw its weight about and browbeat its neighbours. With those that are bigger and more powerful, India tends to adopt a moralistic and intellectually superior tone, as noted by some American leaders. With its smaller neighbours, it does not hesitate to take off its gloves.
Of course, we are no paragons of virtue either, and in many cases, it has been our own arrogance and folly, more than Indian machinations, that have contributed to our failures and losses, whether in view of the East Pakistan debacle or the Kargil adventure.
It had, however, been expected that with the restoration of a democratic dispensation in Pakistan and with virtually all major political parties committed to establishing a cooperative relationship with India, New Delhi would engage in a comprehensive dialogue aimed at resolving the differences that have plagued ties between the South Asian neighbours.
The Mumbai terror attack in November 2008 angered the Indian government, which thereafter had to cater to massive popular outrage. The consequent decision to suspend the dialogue with Pakistan was understandable.
Since then, the Pakistani leadership has been engaged in a major effort to convince New Delhi that it was sincere in its desire to cooperate with India with the common objective of confronting the extremists.
In fact, the most remarkable thing was the near unanimity with which the Pakistanis not only condemned the Mumbai attacks, but also acknowledged that their country needed to take concrete steps to assuage India's anguish.
None of this, however, appears to have had much impact on the Indian establishment. Even the expectations raised at the Gilani-Singh meeting in Sharm El Sheikh were snuffed out when Manmohan Singh's colleagues publicly expressed their misgivings.
Then again, while Singh's statement last October in Srinagar that he was not setting preconditions for the dialogue had raised fresh hopes, it did not indicate anything new, for he placed his readiness for talks in the context of Pakistan being able to create an environment conducive to negotiations. His pronouncement neither accompanied nor followed any move to re-engage Islamabad. Instead, Delhi declined to respond to the road map for resuming talks that Pakistan had conveyed to Indian officials.
This led many to believe that Prime Minister Singh's remarks in Srinagar were merely meant to coincide with US Secretary Hillary Clinton's visit to Pakistan, as well as his own visit to Washington a few weeks later.
In the meanwhile, the Pakistanis kept pleading for the resumption of dialogue, while the Indians continued to rebuff these offers. The Indian foreign minister ridiculed even the offer of back-channel exchanges.
It was then that realisation dawned on the Pakistani leadership that the country's repeated requests were becoming demeaning.
In the meanwhile, India appears to have raised the ante, with the Indian army chief Gen Kapoor remarking that "the possibility of a limited war in a nuclear overhang is still a reality, at least in the Indian subcontinent".
What has been particularly galling is the failure of the Obama administration to act on its seemingly wise policy pronouncements during the election campaign. Instead of encouraging India to reduce its presence in Afghanistan and ceasing to stir up trouble in Balochistan, the US appears to have gone along with Indian allegations, agreeing to inject into the US-India joint statement a provision "to work jointly to deal with terrorism emanating from India's neighbourhood".
This was strange, coming from an administration that had publicly expressed a desire to promote Indo-Pakistan normalisation and to work for the resolution of the Kashmir problem.
The Indian army chief's latest statement in which he spoke of his army's capacity to fight a two-front war has evoked great surprise and disappointment. But while it conveyed hostility and belligerence, his words are neither realistic nor achievable as India does not have the capability to successfully initiate its much-heralded 'cold start' strategy, much less wage two wars against two neighbours simultaneously.
This does not mean, however, that we can dismiss these statements as mere rhetoric. It could be more evidence of the increasing inclination of the Indian forces to have a role in the India-Pakistan equation.
According to some observers, there has been a slow but perceptible change in India where an increasing number are reported to have insisted on being given more than merely a 'hearing' on issues relating to Pakistan, especially Siachen and Sir Creek. The Indian armed forces have gradually come to believe that given the growing challenges that India faces both domestically and on its frontiers, a more visible role for it is in order.
Another important factor is the newfound confidence acquired from the special relationship that the US has so eagerly conferred on India, not only as its strategic partner, but also as a potential counterweight to China. No less important could be the growing influence of rightwing parties and religious groups that want India to adopt more nationalist policies vis-à-vis its neighbours.
Whatever the reason, our leaders should not react in haste or with similar belligerence. What must be avoided at all costs are provocative steps,
such as refusing to cooperate against the militants or brandishing nuclear assets.
Instead, what is required is a dispassionate analysis of what these signals portend for Pakistan and sensitising our friends to Indian actions. While we must not be distracted from the objective of seeking a peaceful resolution of our differences with India, we must not show undignified haste towards
that end.

  No winter lull for Afghan war

U.S. military leaders and Taliban commanders are vowing to carry the fight to each other and skip the traditional winter vacation, and there is every sign that they are doing just that.

Rod Nordland

Afghanistan's high mountains and harsh weather once meant that winter was a respite from much of the war's violence, but as the deaths of six Western soldiers in three separate attacks on Monday show, this winter is proving to be different.
U.S. military leaders and Taliban commanders are vowing to carry the fight to each other and skip the traditional winter vacation, and there is every sign that they are doing just that.
Though the trend has been building, in past years, the Taliban generally slipped off to sanctuaries in Pakistan, or just stayed home, while NATO forces enjoyed a drop in attacks and a steep decline in the body count from December through March.
A combination of factors has changed that. U.S. troop levels nearly doubled in 2009, meaning more missions against the Taliban - and more potential targets for them. Military crackdowns by Pakistan along the border have in some places made it harder for insurgents to flee there.
The Taliban has in any case consolidated its hold over large parts of southern Afghanistan and has less need to fall back than in previous years. Seeking to make a political point, the militants have also stepped up the frequency of their attacks and are now using methods like improvised explosive devices and suicide bomb attacks that are less affected by the weather.
Both sides seem determined to make a larger political point by continuing to fight through the snow season. As General Stanley McChrystal, the senior commander in Afghanistan, said in his report to President Barack Obama in August, the Americans need to show that "it is not a cyclical kinetic campaign based on a set 'fighting season'; rather it is a continuous yearlong effort" to help the Afghan government win the support of people.
The Taliban hopes to undermine support for the war in western countries before more U.S. forces can arrive this year.
What happens in the winter "shouldn't say much about the ability of the reinforcements, since most units won't arrive until spring and summer," said James Dobbins, an Afghan expert with the RAND Corp. "If the situation seems to be getting worse and worse, it may change public opinion even though it shouldn't, especially in countries where the war is more unpopular."
On Monday afternoon, three Americans were killed in a firefight in southern Afghanistan, according to a statement by NATO's International Security Assistance Force, which gave no further details.
A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, reached by telephone, claimed that the Americans had been killed in an ambush in the Shah Wali Kot district in Kandahar province by a single insurgent named Sardar Muhammad. Ahmadi said the insurgent hid along a path used by a U.S. foot patrol in the heavily mountainous area, and then fired on them with an AK-47 automatic rifle. He claimed that Muhammad killed five U.S. soldiers before the others returned fire and killed him.
The military also said that a member of the international forces was killed in southern Afghanistan by an improvised explosive device on Monday. And coalition forces reported that two service members were killed in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, without specifying nationalities.
Separately, the French government confirmed that at least one of its soldiers was killed and another badly wounded in what was apparently the same episode.
Rear Admiral Gregory J. Smith, a spokesman for the coalition forces, said winter had not slowed the war much this time.
Insurgent activity has stayed at the level it reached in September, when attacks spiked in response to new troop arrivals. "We don't look at the winter as a time when our activity is less; we intend to keep the tempo up," he said.
Admiral Smith said the increase in deaths among coalition forces was due to an increase in troop numbers and a resulting increase in contact with enemy forces. Overall coalition fatalities rose from 295 in 2008 to 520 in 2009, according to icasualties.org, an independent organisation that tracks military casualties.
Coalition forces are logging 500 violent encounters with insurgents every week, Admiral Smith said, an increase of 20 per cent over the same time in 2008.
"The difference is we have more forces operating in more places" where insurgents have long had sanctuaries, he said.
The Taliban commander in Kandahar province, Hafizullah Hafi, struck a similar note in a telephone interview. "We are staying in the winter," he said. "We have more fighters than they do, and they should not think that we are weak and we will not retreat in the winter."
General Shir Muhammad Zazai, the corps commander of the Afghan National Army in Kandahar, maintained that Taliban attacks had actually decreased against Afghan forces - though not against the Americans.
"This year, winter is the safest time for us," said General Zazai. "It is calm. Incidents against Americans, though, are not calm. Against the Americans it is strange. It looks like the Taliban are staying to target the Americans and show that they are not weak and disappearing."
The spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Defence, General Zahir Azimi, said it only seemed as if the Taliban was more active this winter because the militants were relying much more on improvised explosive devices, known as IEDs, and other tactics, rather than on carrying out offensives as they had in previous years.
"Two years ago they changed their tactics; now they're mostly resorting to roadside mines, IEDs, suicide attacks, guerrilla attacks like in Logar and
the U.N. guest house," said General Azimi.
He was referring to an attack by suicide bombers and gunmen on provincial headquarters in Logar province south of Kabul, which killed six Afghan officials in August, and a raid on a U.N. house in Kabul, which killed five of the organisation's staff members on October 28.
"These sorts of attacks don't require a certain time or a certain season," he said. "The winter helps them for planting IEDs; they just have to plant explosives in the snow."
Over the past year, more than 60 per cent of all fatalities of allied troops were from these explosive devices, compared with 42 per cent in 2007, according to data from icasualties.org.
According to the Brookings Institution's Afghanistan Index, NATO fatalities dropped into the single digits in the winter, as did Afghan civilian casualties, in every year from 2001 to 2008.
Last December, though, American fatalities were six times as high as in the previous December, and coalition fatalities over all were up 29 per cent.


(Reporting was contributed by Taimoor Shah from Kandahar, Afghanistan; Sangar Rahimi from Kabul; employees of The New York Times from Jalalabad and Helmand province; and Nadim Audi from Paris.)

Viewpoints

Are US presidents afraid of the CIA?

Obama keeps giving off signals that he is afraid of getting crosswise with the CIA - that's right, afraid.

Ray McGovern

In the past I have alluded to Panetta and the Seven Dwarfs. The reference is to CIA Director Leon Panetta and seven of his moral - dwarf predecessors - the ones who sent President Barack Obama a letter on Sept. 18 asking him to "reverse Attorney General Holder's August 24 decision to reopen the criminal investigation of CIA interrogations."
Panetta reportedly was also dead set against reopening the investigation - as he was against release of the Justice Department's "torture memoranda" of 2002, as he has been against releasing pretty much anything at all - the President's pledges of a new era of openness, notwithstanding. Panetta is even older than I, and I am aware that hearing is among the first faculties to fail. Perhaps he heard "error" when the president said "era."
As for the benighted seven, they are more to be pitied than scorned. No longer able to avail themselves of the services of clever Agency lawyers and wordsmiths, they put their names to a letter that reeked of self - interest - not to mention the inappropriateness of asking a president to interfere with an investigation already ordered by the attorney general.
Three of the seven - George Tenet, Porter Goss, and Michael Hayden - were themselves involved, in one way or another, in planning, conducting, or covering up all manner of illegal actions, including torture, assassination, and illegal eavesdropping. In this light, the most transparent part of the letter may be the sentence in which they worry: "There is no reason to expect that the re - opened criminal investigation will remain narrowly focused."
When asked about the letter on the Sunday TV talk shows on Sept. 20, Obama was careful always to respond first by expressing obligatory "respect" for the CIA and its directors. With Bob Schieffer on Face the Nation, though, Obama did allow himself a condescending quip. He commented, "I appreciate the former CIA directors wanting to look out for an institution that they helped to build."
That quip was, sadly, the exception to the rule. While Obama keeps repeating the mantra that "nobody is above the law," there is no real sign that he intends to face down Panetta and the Seven Dwarfs - no sign that anyone has breathed new life into federal prosecutor John Durham, to whom Holder gave the mandate for further "preliminary investigation." What is generally forgotten is that it was former Attorney General Michael Mukasey who picked Durham two years ago to investigate CIA's destruction of 91 tapes of the interrogation of "high - value detainees."
Durham had scarcely been heard from when Holder added to Durham's job-jar the task of conducting a preliminary investigation regarding the CIA torture specialists. These are the ones whose zeal led them to go beyond the already highly permissive Department of Justice guidelines for "harsh interrogation."
Durham, clearly, is proceeding with all deliberate speed (emphasis on "deliberate"). Someone has even suggested - I trust, in jest - that he has been diverted to the search for the money and other assets that Bernie Maddow stashed away.
In any case, do not hold your breath for findings from Durham anytime soon. Holder appears in no hurry. And Obama keeps giving off signals that he is afraid of getting crosswise with the CIA - that's right, afraid.
In that fear, President Obama stands in the tradition of a dozen American presidents. Harry Truman and John Kennedy were the only ones to take on the CIA directly. Worst of all, evidence continues to build that the CIA was responsible, at least in part, for the assassination of President Kennedy. Evidence new to me came in response to things I included in my article of Dec. 22, "Break the CIA in Two."
What follows can be considered a sequel that is based on the kind of documentary evidence after which intelligence analysts positively lust.
Unfortunately for the CIA operatives who were involved in the past activities outlined below, the temptation to ask Panetta to put a SECRET stamp on the documentary evidence will not work. Nothing short of torching the Truman Library might conceivably help. But even that would be a largely feckless "covert action," copy machines having long since done their thing.
In my article of Dec. 22, I referred to Harry Truman's op-ed of exactly 46 years before, titled "Limit CIA Role to Intelligence," in which the former president expressed dismay at what the Central Intelligence Agency had become just 16 years after he and Congress created it.
The Washington Post published the op-ed on Dec. 22, 1963 in its early edition, but immediately excised it from later editions. Other media ignored it. The long hand of the CIA?
Truman wrote that he was "disturbed by the way CIA has been diverted from its original assignment" to keep the president promptly and fully informed and had become "an operational and at times policy - making arm of the government."
Documents in the Truman Library show that nine days after Kennedy was assassinated, Truman sketched out in handwritten notes what he wanted to say in the op-ed. He noted, among other things, that the CIA had worked as he intended only "when I had control."
In Truman's view, misuse of the CIA began in February 1953, when his successor, Dwight Eisenhower, named Allen Dulles CIA director. Dulles' forte was overthrowing governments (in current parlance, "regime change"), and he was quite good at it. With coups in Iran (1953) and Guatemala (1954) under his belt, Dulles was riding high in the late fifties and moved Cuba to the top of his to-do list.
Accustomed to the carte blanche given him by Eisenhower, Dulles was offended when young President Kennedy came on the scene and had the temerity to ask questions about the Bay of Pigs adventure, which had been set in motion under Eisenhower. When Kennedy made it clear he would NOT approve the use of US combat forces, Dulles reacted with disdain and set out to mousetrap the new president.
Coffee-stained notes handwritten by Dulles were discovered after his death and reported by historian Lucien S. Vandenbroucke. They show how Dulles drew Kennedy into a plan that was virtually certain to require the use of US combat forces. In his notes Dulles explains that, "when the chips were down," the new president would be forced by "the realities of the situation" to give whatever military support was necessary "rather than permit the enterprise to fail."
Additional detail came from a March 2001 conference on the Bay of Pigs, which included CIA operatives, retired military commanders, scholars, and journalists. Daniel Schorr told National Public Radio that he had gained one new perception as a result of the "many hours of talk and heaps of declassified secret documents:"
"It was that the CIA overlords of the invasion, Director Allen Dulles and Deputy Richard Bissell had their own plan on how to bring the United States into the conflict...What they expected was that the invaders would establish a beachhead...and appeal for aid from the United States...
"The assumption was that President Kennedy, who had emphatically banned direct American involvement, would be forced by public opinion to come to the aid of the returning patriots. American forces, probably Marines, would come in to expand the beachhead.
"In fact, President Kennedy was the target of a CIA covert operation that collapsed when the invasion collapsed," added Schorr.
The "enterprise" which Dulles said could not fail was, of course, the overthrow of Fidel Castro. After mounting several failed operations to assassinate him, this time Dulles meant to get his man, with little or no attention to what the Russians might do in reaction. Kennedy stuck to his guns, so to speak; fired Dulles and his co-conspirators a few months after the abortive invasion in April 1961; and told a friend that he wanted to "splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it into the winds."
The outrage was mutual, and when Kennedy himself was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963, it must have occurred to Truman that the disgraced Dulles and his outraged associates might not be above conspiring to get rid of a president they felt was soft on Communism - and, incidentally, get even.
In his op-ed of Dec. 22, 1963 Truman warned: "The most important thing...was to guard against the chance of intelligence being used to influence or to lead the president into unwise decisions." It is a safe bet that Truman had the Bay of Pigs fiasco uppermost in mind.
Truman called outright for CIA's operational duties (to) be terminated or properly used elsewhere." (This is as good a recommendation now as it was then, in my view.)
On Dec. 27, retired Adm. Sidney Souers, whom Truman had appointed to lead his first central intelligence group, sent a "Dear Boss" letter applauding Truman's outspokenness and blaming Dulles for making the CIA "a different animal than I tried to set up for you." Souers specifically lambasted the attempt "to conduct a 'war' invading Cuba with a handful of men and without air cover."
Souers also lamented the fact that the agency's "principal effort" had evolved into causing "revolutions in smaller countries around the globe," and added: With so much emphasis on operations, it would not surprise me to find that the matter of collecting and processing intelligence has suffered some."
Clearly, CIA's operational tail was wagging the substantive dog - a serious problem that persists to this day. For example, CIA analysts are superbusy supporting operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan; no one seems to have told them that they need to hazard a guess as to where this is all leading and whether it makes any sense.
That is traditionally done in a National Intelligence Estimate. Can you believe there at this late date there is still no such estimate? Instead, the president has chosen to rely on he advice of Gen. David Petraeus, who many believe will be Obama's opponent in the 2012 presidential election.
In any case, the well-connected Dulles got himself appointed to the Warren Commission and took the lead in shaping the investigation of JFK's assassination. Documents in the Truman Library show that he then mounted a targeted domestic covert action of his own to neutralize any future airing of Truman's and Souers' warnings about covert action.
So important was this to Dulles that he invented a pretext to get himself invited to visit Truman in Independence, Missouri. On the afternoon of April 17, 1964 he spent a half-hour trying to get the former president to retract what he had said in his op-ed. No dice, said Truman.
No problem, thought Dulles. Four days later, in a formal memo for his old buddy Lawrence Houston, CIA general counsel from 1947 to 1973, Dulles fabricated a private retraction, claiming that Truman told him the Washington Post article was "all wrong," and that Truman "seemed quite astounded at it." No doubt Dulles thought it might be handy to have such a memo in CIA files, just in case.
A fabricated retraction? It certainly seems so, because Truman did not change his tune. Far from it. In a June 10, 1964 letter to the managing editor of Look magazine, for example, Truman restated his critique of covert action, emphasizing that he never intended the CIA to get involved in "strange activities."
Dulles could hardly have expected to get Truman to recant publicly. So why was it so important for Dulles to place in CIA files a fabricated retraction. My guess is that in early 1964 he was feeling a good bit of heat from those suggesting the CIA might have been involved somehow in the Kennedy assassination. Indeed, one or two not - yet - intimidated columnists were daring to ask how the truth could ever come out with Dulles on the Warren Commission. Prescient.
Dulles feared, rightly, that Truman's limited-edition op-ed might yet get some ink, and perhaps even airtime, and raise serious questions about covert action. Dulles would have wanted to be in position to flash the Truman "retraction," with the hope that this would nip any serious questioning in the bud. The media had already shown how co-opted-er, I mean "cooperative" - it could be.
As the de facto head of the Warren Commission, Dulles was perfectly positioned to exculpate himself and any of his associates, were any commissioners or investigators - or journalists - tempted to question whether the killing in Dallas might have been a CIA covert action.
Did Allen Dulles and other "cloak-and-dagger" CIA operatives have a hand in killing President Kennedy and then covering it up? The most up-to-date - and, in my view, the best - dissection of the assassination appeared last year in James Douglass' book, JFK and the Unspeakable. After updating and arraying the abundant evidence, and conducting still more interviews, Douglass concludes the answer is Yes.


Ray McGovern was an army officer and CIA analyst for almost 30 years. He now serves on the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. He is a contributor to Imperial Crusades: Iraq, Afghanistan and Yugoslavia, edited by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair (Verso). He can be reached at: rrmcgovern@aol.com

  Resumption of Mideast talks

How credible will the US role be? It is a question that has haunted us for many decades. The answer, alas, has been, more often than not, discouraging.

Osama Al Sharif

In normal circumstances - but then what's normal in the Middle East - one would receive news of recent US efforts to restart peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians with relief, even jubilation. After weeks of deliberate disengagement from mediation, maybe to punish the main parties or as a sign of frustration, anger or all of the above, Washington is once again stepping into the quicksands of the elusive peace process, which it had helped launch and nurture and eventually monopolized for more than 15 years.
Now Special Middle East envoy George Mitchell's mission has been reactivated while his boss, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, had just received in Washington the foreign ministers of Egypt and Jordan, apparently to quiz them on ways to apply pressure on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to return to the negotiations table.
In fact, after an uneasy hiatus, diplomatic efforts are picking up pace, with the international Quartet meeting in Brussels, Syria and Saudi Arabia each calling on Abbas and his rivals in Hamas to meet, and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak receiving Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Cairo to hear his latest suggestions.
The start of 2010, with regards to the peace process, is in total contrast to the early months of 2009, when newly inaugurated President Barack Obama was in a leadership mood, demanding that Israel halts all settlement activities in the occupied territories so that his plan for a final round of negotiations, aiming at reaching a final settlement based on the two-state solution, can take off and bear results by 2011 at the most.
But now the ambition is to restart peace talks at any price. Washington has been snubbed, repeatedly by the Netanyahu government, and has now calibrated its position with that of Israel. The invitation has been amended: To resume peace negotiations without pre-conditions. The onus now is on Abbas; he is the one who has to find excuses to swallow his caveat and walk humbly back to the negotiations table.
This is why Clinton wants Arab help. To sugarcoat the offer the usual ornaments have been added; settlements are illegal, an obstacle, and the final settlement will deal with all issues; East Jerusalem, refugees, and the future Palestinian state will be born on lands which Israel occupied in 1967. It's a measly deal that rolls back previous understandings and agreements and takes the Palestinians to square one! It asks the Palestinians to place their trust in their occupiers, the Americans and a handful of Arab states who answer to Washington.
Those who do not feel jubilant or excited at the prospects of yet another round of negotiations are many. For the Palestinians it's déjà vu all over again; been there, done that! The fact that they will be negotiating with one of the most right-wing governments in Israel is an unwelcome bonus. The fact that the Obama administration has been so quick to change its position and avoid confrontation with Israel is frustrating. And the reality that they remain the weakest link in any future settlement weighs large on them.
There are genuine grounds for the Palestinians to be fearful of being dragged into a new episode of talks with their nemesis. For starters the Palestinians are divided, both politically and geographically, and the prospects of a reconciliation agreement being reached soon remain dim. Added to this, Abbas' authority has been degraded over the past months and he is being challenged even by his own followers in Fatah, the largest Palestinian faction, which he heads.
In addition, his Palestinian opponents, Hamas, is fiercely against negotiations, and in spite of attempts to weaken its influence, and its control in Gaza, it is still a force to reckon with. Abbas is in no position to offer, or accept, deals that would only enrage Palestinians and drive more of them behind Hamas.
Another factor is Israel under Netanyahu, who is now hostage to his extreme right-wing supporters. He will not be allowed, even if he wants to, to make "generous" offers on Jerusalem, the settlements, refugees, final borders, statehood for the Palestinians, among others. Added to this is the fact that the Obama administration will find it easier, and safer, to apply pressure on the Palestinians rather than the Israelis.
And without meaningful American pressure, the Israelis will be in no rush to make deals with the Palestinians, regardless of deadlines and political expediency. It is most likely that Abbas will eventually yield to American and Arab pressure and climb down from the proverbial tree of conditional resumption of talks. It will be a costly move for him and his flailing Palestinian Authority. We could see the resumption of talks in a couple of weeks or more. It will be registered as a victory for American diplomacy. But then what? Negotiators have reached a stage where they cannot avoid the real issues that stand in the way of a historic settlement. Building on previous "near-agreements" they could solve all remaining issues in one or two sessions. It is here that they need, or expect, the American interlocutor to intervene.
The United States may be risking a lot by re-engaging itself and others in the peace process. The specter of failure is real enough. It will be hosting these talks, probably against the will of participants, in dangerous times when its eyes are focused on other regional challenges stretching from Iraq to Afghanistan and from Yemen to Somalia. And then again a loose rocket from Hamas, or even a strike on Iran's nuclear facilities could wash away all peace talks.
How credible will the US role be? It is a question that has haunted us for many decades. The answer, alas, has been, more often than not, discouraging.

Osama Al Sharif is a veteran journalist and political commentator based in Jordan.

  Engaging with the US

Pakistan's chronic adversary, India, would be more than delighted to see Islamabad's relations with Washington break down.

Syed Talat Hussain

It is either capitulation or confrontation. And in between the two pendulum swing-points exists a vast territory ruled by ambiguity, confusion, and contradiction. This about sums up Pakistan's present-day outlook - policy is too sophisticated a word to be used here - towards the US. As a result, one of the fundamental pillars of our diplomacy - i.e. engagement with Washington - is hobbled by deepening controversies. We are far from achieving our national objective of stabilising the bilateral equation with the US. We are in no way near the point where we can realistically use regional changes to our long-term advantage. Pressures on our borders are mounting. Worse, growing drone attacks are complicating the domestic challenge of combating local militants.
The allegation from the US embassy that its diplomats are being harassed is symptomatic of the aggravating bilateral trouble. It is rare to find such expressions of discontent being dramatised as public protest and penned down in the shape of a press release. And that too between countries which continue to profess to be 'together' in the fight against terrorists. There is nothing friendly about the charge from the US and the cool response from Pakistan. If anything, it is akin to the low points in Islamabad's relations with Delhi when the respective High Commissions' staff automatically became human cannon fodder in a war of distrust.
On the face of it, there is no need for deep intellectual analysis to figure out why Washington and Islamabad are locked in dualistic bilateral diplomacy. There is a general belief in Pakistan that the US is taking this nation for a ride. This belief is born of a pervasive fear that the essence of the US agenda is to weaken the country to a point where it is unable to resist perhaps an eventual global effort to neutralise its nuclear arsenal. With the nuclear weapons gone, Pakistan's prime force of resistance to US pressure would die. The country would then be forced to accept all sorts of imposed experiments in regional stability: formal Indian hegemony; a trade corridor connecting the subcontinent with Europe through Afghanistan and Central Asia; and even fragmentation of the state of Pakistan into smaller, more manageable units, with port cities like Karachi, Gwadar and the town of Pasni becoming the hub of world trade, commercial activity and a gateway for energy supplies.
There is no reason to dismiss this point of view. It is not wholly unrealistic to assume that all, or some, of these fears tally with actual US intentions and policy objectives. But to allow the fog of fear to dominate diplomacy serves no purpose. It is actually infantile. It speaks of our own insecurities more than the hidden goals of Washington and its allies. No two countries in the world ever agree on everything under the sun. Even the best of allies have plans against each other. This is power politics. This is how the game is played. The whole challenge of diplomacy is to reduce these frictions and focus attention and energy on more achievable and mutually beneficial goals.
Admittedly, this is the hard path to finding agreement. It is made harder still by the peculiar manner big, arrogant or frustrated but powerful states conduct their relations with smaller countries. Unfortunately, at this point in time, the US is all three: big, arrogant, and frustrated. Even then, by relying on the basic instinct of fear, Pakistan has not made its task of stabilising relations with the US any easier. The whole environment in which even normal diplomacy has to be conducted has become so vitiated that no two heads in Pakistan meet without broaching the possibility of Washington bringing Pakistan down. As a result, placing everything at the US doorstep has become a ready-made excuse for not looking at our own weaknesses and blunders. It is also the new platform for struggling politicians and ranters to ramp up public support for their shady causes.
However, even fear as a factor in fixing the trajectory of our ties with the US would have been acceptable if it could bring about predictability in our own goals and objectives. That has not happened. Parallel to our extreme distrust of Washington, is an equally intense desire to keep the US in good humour, and win the prize of its friendship. In a manner of speaking, we want the payment but do not want to become the piper. We want the arms but no arm-twisting. A natural corollary of this parallel desire to 'befriend' the US is that the pro-American lobby in Pakistan is growing in direct proportion to the scaling up of suspicions about the US. The main task of this lobby is to reduce the complexity of the US's objectives towards Pakistan to romantic levels of trust. More than mere friendship, members of this lobby want a lovers' embrace, regardless of the fact that the temporary joys of such arrangements are fraught with frightening and unhappy consequences. These lobbyists assiduously work with US diplomats and visitors from Washington to 'combat' anti-American sentiments in Pakistan. A motley crew of former diplomats, retired generals, socialites, slick civil society begums, self-styled analysts, businessmen, journalists, and now also lawyers - they are the darlings of the US embassy staff. They are the instruments of positive outreach and public diplomacy that US diplomats are so keen to expand in Pakistan.
But both the anti- and pro-US lobbies have one thing in common: they are offshoots of the confusion in our decision-making apparatus about the nature and substance of our relations with Washington. Consider this supreme irony. The Pakistan Foreign Office, General Headquarters, and offices of intelligence agencies are places where distrust of the US is widespread these days. Yet these are the very quarters where the argument in favour of having a strong pro-US lobby inside Pakistan reigns equally strongly.
The rationale that is offered in support of this contradictory approach is that the US is too important a state for Pakistan to run completely afoul of. Another argument is that Pakistan's chronic adversary, India, would be more than delighted to see Islamabad's relations with Washington break down. This would afford Delhi a vast array of opportunities to push for Islamabad's regional and global isolation. Needless to say, these goals, along with others that we may have in our mind, are unlikely to be achieved if we don't streamline the manner of our engagement with the US. Between noisy defiance and shameful diffidence lies a more practical dimension Pakistan can explore to deal with a country that is as much part of our national problems as it can be of solutions.

The writer is a leading Pakistani journalist

International

Second report on NRO cases sent to Pak SC
Dawn Online

The National Accountability Bureau of Pakistan has sent to the Supreme Court its second report on NRO cases, updating references against President Asif Ali Zardari, Interior Minister Rehman Malik, other politicians and bureaucrats, sources in the NAB told Dawn on Wednesday.
Under a directive of the apex court, the NAB is required to apprise the court weekly of cases reopened since the scrapping of the National Reconciliation Ordinance. The SC directive indicated that it wanted the NAB sustained till the NRO cases were decided, the sources said.
Because of the new task given by the court to the NAB, the proposed replacement of NAB with an accountability commission is likely to be shelved despite a broad agreement between the Pakistan People's Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-N to warp up the bureau.
The sources said the bureau had gained a new lease of life from the Supreme Court judgement against the NRO, resulting in the reopening of cases of politicians and bureaucrats.
NAB officials are said to be confident that their bureau will survive any attempt to replace it with a new accountability institution.
Sources said that Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif had agreed recently to introduce a new accountability law, called "Holder of Public Offices Bill, 2009", despite the fact that the apex court had asked the NAB to pursue all corruption cases reopened after scrapping of the NRO.
"Although Mr Sharif's party has reservations over some of the clauses of the proposed bill, both the PPP and the PML-N regard NAB as a sword of Damocles hanging over their leaders because it has been pursuing corruption cases against them," a PPP leader told Dawn.
When contacted, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan said the PPP had already sent a draft of the proposed accountability commission bill to the ministry of law, but the PML-N was yet to come up with its recommendations.
Sources in the judiciary said the NAB had become an important organ of the state because it was assisting the Supreme Court in implementation of its order.
A legal expert is of the view that since most of the reopened cases were registered under the National Accountability Ordinance, it is difficult to say about their status once NAB stops functioning after the passage of the Holder of Public Offices Bill.
He said that some clauses of the proposed bill will spark controversy because they are loaded in favour of people in power and influential persons.

  Drone attack targets Hakeemullah Mehsud
Dawn Online

Leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Hakeemullah Mehsud, who had accepted responsibility for the deadly suicide attack on a CIA base camp in Afghanistan, appears to have been killed in a drone attack in South Waziristan, a senior security official said.
The attack has left at least ten people dead, amongst them are three militant commanders, the official said.
"It is immaterial to say how many have been killed in the attack. The important thing for us is whether Hakeemullah is amongst those killed", the official said, requesting he not be named.
He said that the TTP chief was the target of the drone attack. "He has probably been killed."
The Taliban have denied the TTP chief has been killed. TTP spokesman, Azam Tariq said that he and Hakeemullah both were alive and safe. "We were in Shaktoi but not at the compound which has been struck", he told a reporter in the region in a satellite phone call.
The official said that the missile struck the compound of Fazal Mehsud alias Uqabi in Shaktoi in the Sararogha sub-district of South Waziristan. The area borders North Waziristan.
The 28-year-old Hakeemullah had succeeded Baitullah Mehsud, who was killed a drone attack on the night of August 5 last.
The TTP had claimed responsibility for the deadly suicide attack on the CIA forwarding operating base Chapman in the southeastern province of Khost on December 30 last.
The claim was followed by a video of the suicide bomber, a Jordanian double-agent Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi. Sitting next to Balawi in the video was Hakeemullah Mehsud.
The United States had vowed to hunt down those responsible for the deadly attack on the CIA post and Pakistani intelligence officials say the Thursday's attack to eliminate Hakeemullah appeared to be CIA's revenge for the Khost bombing.

  Afghan market suicide bombing kills 20
AFP, Kandahar, Afghanistan

A suicide bomber targeted a crowded market in a restive district of southern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing up to 20 civilians in the deadliest attack in four months.
The bombing in the Dihrawud district of Uruzgan province comes as attacks by the hardline Taliban militia escalate, with violence spreading to regions that have so far been relatively peaceful.
"This was a suicide bomber on foot who detonated himself at the gate of a money-exchange market," said Afghan army General Abdul Hameed, commander of national forces in Uruzgan.
"Up to now, 20 civilians have been killed and 13 wounded."
Provincial police chief Juma Gul Hemat had earlier said 15 civilians were killed.
In early September, 22 people were killed by a suicide bomber outside a mosque in eastern Afghanistan, and at least 43 died in an attack in Kandahar in August, days after the fraud-tainted presidential election that returned Hamid Karzai to power.
NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said the latest attack was near Forward Operating Base Hadrian, and that its troops had helped evacuate the dead and treat the injured.
"Initial reports indicate at least 20 Afghan civilians have been killed and 13 wounded in the blast," it said in a statement, adding a bomb disposal team rushed to the scene and had recovered a large amount of opium. Karzai's office issued a statement condemning the "brutal attack".

  Three killed in Kashmir gunbattle
AFP, Srinagar

Two suspected militants and an Indian army soldier were killed on Thursday during a gun battle in Indian-administered Kashmir, in the latest of a series of recent clashes, police said.
The exchange of fire erupted late Wednesday when the Indian army and counter-insurgency police raided a house where militants were said to be hiding about 70 kilometres south of the summer state capital Srinagar. "The ensuing encounter left two militants and a soldier dead," a police spokesman said, adding two troopers and a policeman were wounded in the clash that lasted more than 12 hours.
One of the militants killed was identified by officials as Adil Pathan, a senior commander of Hizbul Mujahedin.
On Thursday last week, Indian commandos stormed a hotel in Srinagar where two militants had been holed up for nearly 24 hours, killing the gunmen. A civilian and a policeman were also killed during the siege.
Indian-administered Kashmir had been relatively stable in recent months, but Indian police have reported several prolonged clashes between troops and militants since the siege. Suspected rebels have also killed three of their former colleagues during the last week, police said.
An insurgency erupted in 1989 against Indian rule of the Muslim-majority region, killing more than 47,000 people by the official count.

  Myanmar polls likely in 2nd half of yr - Thai FM
Reuters, Danang, Vietnam

Myanmar will likely hold its long-awaited election in the second half of this year because the ruling junta is still crafting the legal framework for the vote, Thailand's foreign minister said on Thursday.
Kasit Piromya made the comments after a meeting with Myanmar counterpart Nyan Win during which he was told that 60-70 percent of the election and political party laws were completed.
"You take another two or three months to make it 100 percent, so it will take you by that time from the mathematical, or the guessing point of view, to the middle of this year," Kasit told Reuters in an interview. "So, I think the elections would be most probably in the second half."
Myanmar's reclusive junta has been silent on the timing of the election, and Nyan Win's comment to Kasit would be a rare indication of the level of progress towards holding the vote.
Nyan Win declined to answer reporters' questions on multiple occasions during a meeting of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers in central Vietnam.
Nyan Win briefed the other foreign ministers on the preparations at a dinner on Wednesday night, but he gave no indication of the timing.
"It was assured that it will be this year and it will be free, fair and credible, and the ASEAN ministers have expressed their hope the issue of Myanmar will be resolved this year and that we can move on to the new era of ASEAN relations and cooperation with the international community," Surin Pitsuwan, ASEAN secretary general, told reporters.

  S.Lanka govt helped India's ruling party in election
AFP, Colombo

Sri Lanka stopped using heavy weapons against Tamil Tiger rebels to help the re-election bid of neighbouring India's ruling party, a top official in Colombo said Thursday.
Lalith Weeratunga, senior aide to President Mahinda Rajapakse, said New Delhi requested the complete halt in the offensive against the Tamil Tigers because it affected the Tamil vote in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
Weeratunga said Rajapakse did not want to stop the offensive against Tamil separatists, but was ready for a compromise to help Congress retain power.
"OK, what do you want me to do to ensure victory of the Congress Party?," the president had asked, Weeratunga said in a video interview with Colombo's Daily Mirror website.
"They requested that the use of heavy weaponry be stopped... With the halt in use of heavy weaponry, the Congress gained strength and the victory in Tamil Nadu can be attributed to this decision by the government of Sri Lanka."
The Congress party easily won the elections, which concluded in May at about the same time Sri Lankan troops finally secured victory over the Tigers.
Weeratunga said the Congress government had to be seen to do something to stop "what the rest of the world wrongly saw as the massacre of Tamils in Sri Lanka."
The United Nations reported that at least 7,000 civilians were killed in the first four months of last year alone as Sri Lankan troops moved to finish off the Tigers, who had fought for an independent Tamil homeland since 1972.

  N.Korea says US troops must quit S.Korea
AFP, Seoul

North Korea Thursday renewed its demand for US troops to leave South Korea, three days after it proposed talks on a peace treaty to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War.
The United States has stationed tens of thousands of troops in the South since the conflict ended only in an armistice, leaving the parties still technically at war.
The United States and South Korea have rejected the North's call for early peace talks, saying the communist state must first return to nuclear disarmament talks and show it is serious about scrapping its atomic weapons.
"Without the withdrawal of US troops, no autonomy will be guaranteed for the people of South Korea," said Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the North's ruling communist party.
Besides, Destitute North Korea proposed on Thursday to hold talks with the South on resuming tours to enclaves inside its territory that were a vital source of hard cash before political troubles put the business on hold.
The reclusive North has lost out on tens of millions of dollars a year it used to earn through tourism with the South over wrangling in the aftermath of Pyongyang's military threats to the region and nuclear arms programme.

 Iran’s parliament mulling severing ties with Britain
Xinhua, Tehran

The Iranian Parliament (Majlis) referred a bill to the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of Majlis, calling for severing diplomatic ties with Britain, local satellite Press TV reported on Wednesday.
"The bill, which was on the parliament's agenda this morning, was referred to the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee for further expert review," senior lawmaker Kazem Jalali told reporters on Wednesday.
"We have studied this matter before. The committee believes that we should sever our ties with Britain," Jalali was quoted as saying. "Relevant bodies, such as the Foreign Ministry and the Supreme National Security Council, would be consulted," said the lawmaker without further explanation.
Iranian authorities, especially the lawmakers, have constantly accused Britain of interfering in Iran's internal affairs and supporting Iran's opposition groups, a charge been rejected by London.
Some 45 people, including a number of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) commanders, were killed in a deadly bomb attack in Iran's southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan in October.
Iran has accused the United States and Britain of aiding the attackers.
Iran has also blamed Britain of baking the unrest which gripped Tehran and other Iranian cities after the June 12 presidential election, amid claims that the vote had been rigged in favor of incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Britain also rejected the accusation.

  Yemen warns citizens against hiding al-Qaeda members
BBC Online

Yemen's authorities have warned citizens against hiding al-Qaeda militants and urged them to co-operate with security forces, state media say.
They quoted an unnamed security source as saying that "the war... against al-Qaeda elements is open whenever or wherever we find these elements".
The warning comes after the alleged leader of an al-Qaeda cell in Yemen was reportedly killed by security forces. Yemen has vowed to pursue al-Qaeda unless it disarms and rejects violence. The spotlight was turned on Yemen after the Yemen-based group Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula said it had carried out a failed bomb attack on a US-bound airliner on 25 December.
Earlier this week, US President Barack Obama said he had "no intention" of sending American troops to Yemen or Somalia to combat militant groups in those countries. On Thursday, a group of Yemeni clerics issued a statement, warning that jihad, or holy war, was permitted in the case of any foreign military intervention in the volatile country.
On Wednesday, Yemen's provincial governor, Ali Hassan al-Ahmadi, said that Abdullah Mehdar had been killed in a fire-fight with security forces. Mehdar is said to have been the leader of an al-Qaeda group in the province of Shabwa, 375 miles (600km) east of the capital Sanaa.
Yemen clerics call for jihad if foreign military meddles
Reuters adds: A group of Yemen clerics on Thursday signed a statement saying jihad was permitted in case of any foreign military intervention in the conflict-ridden country.
"In the event of any foreign party insisting on hostilities against, an assault on, or military or security intervention in Yemen, then Islam requ-ires all its followers to pursue jihad," the statement said, signed by 150 clerics at a meeting in the capital.

  Syria’s Assad in Saudi Arabia for talks on Mideast peace, Iran

France24

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia hosted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for discussions on Mideast peace efforts, amid renewed efforts to build Arab unity around Palestinians ahead of a possible resumption of talks with Israel.
AFP - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad arrived in Riyadh on Wednesday for talks with King Abdullah expected to cover Middle East peace efforts, Iran's role in the region and Iraq.
The king greeted Assad at Riyadh airport and the two headed to Abdullah's private desert farm Janadiriyah outside the capital where the monarch was to host a dinner, the official SPA news agency said. The visit comes amid stepped-up efforts by Riyadh to build Arab unity around the Palestinians ahead of a possible resumption of peace talks with Israel.
It has also been seeking to isolate Iran, which is a key ally of Syria, over its controversial nuclear programme.
Damascus-Riyadh ties were severely strained for years, notably over Syria's role in Lebanon and its support for Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah, before a thaw marked by landmark Damascus trip by Abdullah in October. But the two countries still differ over Lebanese politics, over the Palestinian division between the Hamas and Fatah factions, and Iran's role in the region, according to diplomats and analysts.
AFP adds: Roman Catholic bishops gathered in Jerus-alem on Thursday pleaded for a "just resolution" of the Middle East conflict, with Palestinians getting a viable own state and Israel enjoying security.
"For us, this is not merely about politics, it is an issue of basic human rights," the Holy Land Co-ordination made up of bishops from Europe and North America said in a statement.

  Top Chinese legislator urges US to respect core interests
Xinhua, Beijing

Top Chinese legislator Wu Bangguo on Wednesday said China and the United States should respect each other's core interests and properly handle sensitive affairs in a bid to preserve the sound development of bilateral ties.
China and the United States should handle bilateral ties from a strategic and long-term point of view, said Wu, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), in a meeting with a U.S. senate delegation.
Wu hailed the sound development of China-U.S. relations in 2009,saying it indicated a smooth transition from the Bush administration to the Obama's and the relationship bet-ween the countries was progressing well.
He labeled the China-U.S. relationship as "one of the world's most important" during the half-hour meeting in the Great Hall of the People in downtown Beijing.
Wu pledged to further the exchanges between the two country's parliaments in a bid to promote strategic mutual trust, mutually beneficial cooperation and friendship between the two peoples.
The delegation, headed by Senator Patty Murray, was in Beijing for a meeting under a regular exchange mechanism between the two parliaments, in which the two sides discussed such topics as bilateral ties, parliamentary exchanges and climate change.
The U.S. senators highlighted the importance of relations with China, promised to enhance communication and dialogue with the NPC so as to promote mutual understanding.

  Alzheimer’s disease ‘could be detected by eye test’
BBC Online

A simple eye test might be able to detect Alzheimer's and other diseases before symptoms develop, according to UK scientists.
The technique uses fluorescent markers which attach to dying cells which can be seen in the retina and give an early indication of brain cell death. The research has been carried out on mice, but human trials are planned.
Scientists from University College London hope this could lead to a high street opticians test for the disease.
The research, which is published in the journal, Cell Death and Disease, could enable scientists to overcome the difficulty of investigating what is happening inside the brains of those with Alzheimer's. They currently have to rely on expensive MRI scans or post-mortems.
Fluorescent dye
This new technique enables scientists to track the progress of brain disease by looking at dying cells in the retina.
The cells show up as green dots because they absorb the fluorescent dye. The research has so far been carried out on mice, but the team is optimistic that the technique can be translated to humans.
Professor Francesca Coredeiro, lead author from University College London Institute of Ophthalmology said: "Few people realise that the retina is a direct, albeit thin, extension of the brain. "It is entirely possible that in the future a visit to a high-street optician to check on your eyesight will also be a check on the state of your brain."
"I hope that screening for Alzheimer's will be available on the high street within five years."
She said the research could help scientists to see how the disease is progressing by comparing retinal cell death a few weeks apart.
"Currently, the biggest obstacle to research into new treatments for neurodegenerative diseases is the lack of a technique where the brain's response to new treatments can be directly assessed - this technique could potentially help overcome that."

  Sarkozy favours vote on potential full veil ban
Reuters, Paris

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Wednesday that he favoured a parliamentary vote on the potential ban of full Islamic veils in France that would be followed by legal steps after regional elections in 2010.
Sarkozy also said he would await the conclusions of a French parliamentary commission's proposal to ban full Islamic veils, called the burqa or the niqab, from public places. "We should seek a solution that allows us to secure the greatest support possible," said Sarkozy after declaring that the full veil "was not welcome in France."
"This is what the parliamentary commission has been working on for several months. As president of the republic, I think that it is wise to await the fruit of these consultations and reflections before deciding definitively," he told parliamentarians.
Only a few hundred women in France are beli-eved to wear full veils, but the possibility of a ban has dominated public debate for months and caused a rift within Sarkozy's UMP party.
The head of the parliamentary commission said on Wednesday the next step should be a law imposing the ban, but many lawmakers and activists have voiced scepticism at the prospect of police forcing women to lift their veils. "We will talk about the idea of a law, about the need to take time to prepare it and to avoid stigmatisation," commission head and communist lawmaker Andre Gerin told French radio. The commission is expected to publish its findings on Jan. 26 or 27.
Jean-Francois Cope, the UMP's parliamentary leader who has an eye on the 2017 presidential race, has been the most vocal defender of a broad ban. Critics say such a ban could be challenged on human rights and religious freedom grounds.
Gerin recommended a more selective ban applying only to public buildings and schools, where veiled mothers picking up their children could be hard to identify.

  ‘Zionist’ methods used to kill Iran scientist: Ahmadinejad
AFP, Tehran

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinjad said Thursday "Zionist" methods were used in the bombing of a top atomic scientist, as angry mourners chanting anti-US and anti-Israeli slogans buried the slain professor.
"One can see the level of the enemy's grudge in the way he was assassinated. The method of bombing was a Zionist one," the Mehr news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying. It did not elaborate.
Massoud Ali Mohammadi, a particle physics professor at prestigious Tehran University, died when a bomb strapped to a motorbike was triggered by remote control as he was leaving his home on Tuesday morning. "He was a Hezbollahi and pious university professor serving his people," Ahmadinejad said, using a term indicating a person's dedication to the Islamic republic's regime.
"The enemies by killing the elite cannot take away the knowledge from the Iranian nation," the president added.
Iranian officials have accu-sed the CIA and Mossad, the intelligence agencies respectively of the United States and Israel, of having a hand in the murder of the atomic scientist. A senior Israeli official in Jerusalem, who asked not to be named, declined to respond to Ahmadinejad's accusation, saying that "Israel consistently refuses to comment on such issues."
An AFP correspondent said meanwhile that some 2,000 mourners joined a funeral procession Thursday from Ali Mohammadi's home in an affluent north Tehran neighbourhood to a nearby shrine.
Around 100 policemen were deployed in the area during the procession and burial.

Business/Economy

Asia needs collective action for sustainable growth: ADB
BSS, Dhaka

Asian economies are poised for accelerated growth as the global economic crisis recedes, but recovery remains fragile and carefully calibrated policy adjustments along with increased integration efforts will be needed to sustain growth and cushion the region against future shocks, said a new study commissioned by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
The study, entitled Policy Changes for Asia after the Global Recession: Impact of the Global Economy and Policy Implications, notes that growth in the region is set to quicken this year as the global economy regains strength.
But it also cautions that recovery in Asia is still overly dependent on policy support from developed economies, while a turnaround in the region's largest market, the US, has yet to gain traction. Mobile capital flows which can cause volatility in exchange rates and domestic liquidity also continue to pose a risk to emerging economies in the region.
The study, prepared by the Centennial Group International, is one of a series of reports that will be presented at a two-day regional forum on the Impact of the Global Economic and Financial Crisis organized by ADB at its headquarters in Manila starting on Thursday, said a press release.
Top officials including policymakers, finance ministers, heads of central banks, business leaders and development experts from nearly 20 countries from developing Asia are taking part in the forum.
Opening the forum, ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda said, "The region is now showing signs of a V-shaped recovery, with a 6.6 percent growth outlook for this year. While we believe developing Asia is leading the global economic recovery, it is still too early to relax vigorous efforts to restore demand and stabilize financial systems. In particular, exit strategies for fiscal stimulus must be carefully timed."
Poverty reduction will not be sustained at the pace of pre- crisis years unless sources of growth are rebalanced toward more domestic and regional demand, and made more inclusive. It is imperative for the region to bring growth back to its higher trajectory to cover the lost ground on poverty reduction, and to support global recovery, Mr. Kuroda stressed.
In a second report entitled, Policy Changes for Asia after the Global Recession: Long Term Implications for Asian Economies, the study notes that Asia should continue to strengthen cooperation in the financial sector as a bulwark against future financial turmoil in developed economies, but also stresses that integration efforts should be modest in size to ensure they deliver real benefits.

 DSE crosses 4800-point mark
BSS, Dhaka

Dhaka stocks finished week strong on Thursday with the second highest single-day surge in the price index.
Also DGEN, the general price index of Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), crossed 4800-point mark for the first time to close at 4838.05.
The gain at week's closing was 133.90 points or 2.84 percent, the second largest one day surge at DSE. Earlier, the index shot up by 794.88 points on November 16 last year on the debut of the country's biggest ever issue- Grameenphone.
The day's turnover of Taka 1,072 crore, however, was much lower than Wednesday's transaction of over Taka 1,400 crore.
According to some brokers, the index surged on heavy gains in the big issues, but the transactions declined as investors were cautious in buying the rising shares.
GP, the market dominant, gained 5.37 percent with 35 lakh traded shares. The other big issues including Beximco, Bextex, BATBC and ACI rose remarkably, driving the index to a new high. There were some important corporate disclosures and positive news about the capital market, which too influenced the surge. Marico, a multi-national cosmetic manufacturer, announced business diversification in Bangladesh with the launching of its first skin clinic in Dhaka next week. The disclosure attracted many and the company gained 3.34 percent on DSE with around three lakh traded shares. Pubali Bank declared that it would increase the authorized capital from Taka 500 crore to 1,000 crore and would launch separate brokerage house, merchant banking operation and an asset management company. The share price of the bank rose 3.70 percent on the disclosure.
The finance ministry's directive on offloading shares of some major state-owned companies within a time-frame also increased the investor's confidence, said brokers.

  President urges Brazil to increase imports from BD
UNB, Dhaka

Brazil is willing to import Bangladeshi products, particularly jute, jute goods, leather and leather goods, and readymade garments, and recruit skilled and unskilled workers. Newly appointed Brazilian Ambassador to Bangladesh Ricardo Luiz Viana Carvalho conveyed the readiness when he presented his credentials to President Zillur Rahman at Bangabhaban Thursday.
His assurances came as President Zillur Rahman emphasized reducing the existing huge trade gap with Brazil through enhancing export of Bangladeshi products to the Brazilian market, particularly high-quality items like jute goods, leather and leather products, and readymade garments. "Take initiative to reduce the existing trade imbalance between the two countries," he said in his call. During the meeting, Zillur Rahman told the envoy that the government has already decided to open its resident mission in Brazil soon. "I hope this way bilateral relations would be further strengthened between the two countries." Welcoming the Ambassador to Bangabhaban, the president assured him his all-out support and cooperation for discharging his duties in the country. Ambassador Ricardo Luiz Viana Carvalho conveyed Zillur Rahman best wishes of the Brazilian President and mentioned the Latin American country's willingness to take Bangladeshi products and manpower.
"I'll take initiatives to increase the bilateral trade between the two countries," he said. The new diplomat was all-praise for Bangladesh as he found it as a moderate and progressive country. He said his country considers Bangladesh as a symbol of peace and prosperity in the world. About climate change, Ricardo Luiz Viana Carvalho, whose country hosted the Rio de Janeiro earth summit, mentioned that the role of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at Copenhagen conference successfully motivated the world leaders to play positive role in reducing the carbon emissions.
"Brazil is interested to work with Bangladesh to solve climate problems," he said. Secretaries of the president office were present at the meeting. Earlier the Ambassador was given guard of honor by the President's Guard Regiment.

  US top bankers admit missteps in financial crisis
AFP, Washington

Top US bankers Wednesday admitted mistakes that led up to the global financial crisis as they came under intensive grilling at a special inquiry into the economic calamity.
A congressionally mandated 10-member commission, which has been compared to the 9/11 panel that studied the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the United States, began its first hearings on the crisis Wednesday.
Brian Moynihan, the new chief executive and president of Bank of America, acknowledged that the banking industry "caused a lot of damage" over the course of the crisis which led to the government pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into the firms to keep them afloat. "Never has it been clearer how mistakes made by financial companies can affect Main Street, and we need to learn the lessons of the past few years," said the head of the largest US bank measured by assets. Morgan Stanley chairman John Mack said that in retrospect, many firms were "too highly leveraged, took on too much risk and did not have sufficient resources to manage those risks effectively in a rapidly changing environment."
"While we were able to withstand the crisis and I believe emerge as a stronger institution, we, like many others, made mistakes," admitted Jamie Dimon, chairman and chief executive of JPMorgan Chase.
Phil Angelides, chairman of the the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, said the forum "may be our last best chance to take stock of what really happened so that we can learn from it and restore faith in our economic system.
"If we ignore history, we're doomed to bail it out again," said Angelides, a former California state treasurer.

  Next-generation autos go for global connectivity
AFP, Detroit, Michigan

Touch navigational screens, Internet, communications systems: Automakers are ramping up an array of connectivity gizmos to lure consumers into buying next-generation vehicles.
Some of the whistles and bells on display at the annual North American Internation Auto Show underway in Detroit were purely cosmetic.
GM's Cadillac presented a prototype of its new XTS sedan that sported a dashboard minus buttons or dials. The black screen illuminates once the engine starts and the door handles light up for a few seconds when the car stops.
But most of the innovations put a premium on connectivity.
Paul Haelterman, vice president of research firm CSM Worldwide, predicted that five years from now 45 percent of the new vehicles sold in North America would be connected to the Internet, and nearly all of the luxury models. "Having the car connected with the exterior world is a necessity," said Henning Schlieker, a technology marketing executive at BMW North America, told AFP.
The German luxury car maker already has begun to equip all its BMW 5 Series, 6 Series and 7 Series cars sold in the United States with BMW Assist, a feature launched a year and a half ago. The BMW Assist allows drivers to locate gasoline stations and their current prices, check weather forecasts and traffic conditions, access navigational tools such as Google Maps and Mapquest, and keep tabs on financial data.
The Cadillac XTS offers two separate back-seat screens, each outfitted with its own Internet connection and DVD reader.
Ford is launching its MyFord Touch system, which will be introduced first in the upscale Lincoln nameplate under the name "MyLincoln Touch" and then integrated into the Ford Focus in 2012.

Greece unveils debt crisis plan
AFP, Athens

Greece on Thursday unveiled a blueprint for spending cuts aimed at solving a debt crisis that has shaken the eurozone as the government prepares to present the plan to the European Commission. The three-year plan aims to rein in the country's runaway public deficit and bring it under the limits imposed for countries sharing the euro currency by 2012, Prime Minister George Papandreou said.
"Our three-year effort will be decisive for the future of the country," Papandreou told a cabinet meeting on the crisis programme which European authorities have requested.
"We want to turn the page as fast as possible."
The plan is to be presented to European officials on Friday for approval.
"We have defied predictions in the past, we will do it again today," he said. "I am sure that our European partners will appreciate our efforts, not only from a government but from an entire population." Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou described the Greek plan as a "roadmap" to overcome "great obstacles" and reverse the "huge credibility gap" that Greece is facing in the financial markets.
The crisis plan aims to reduce the public deficit to 2.8 percent of gross domestic product by 2012, under the 3.0 percent limit for countries sharing the euro currency, he said. The deficit reached 12.7 percent of GDP last year.

Big fat Indian weddings slim down in tough business times
AFP, Mumbai

Preeti Punamiya is a young and excited bride-to-be, preparing to get married in a traditional Indian wedding which usually features days of lavish celebrations. But the impact of the global economic downturn has caused her to rethink the extravagance, following a trend that has seen many Indian families scale down their celebrations over the past 12 months. "It's our families who wanted to make it a grand affair," said Punamiya, a biotechnology researcher in her early 20s who is marrying a US-based software engineer.
"I have wanted it simple, keeping costs under check," said Punamiya, who has cut back the days of festivities to three from the five customary in her family and also slashed the number of ceremonies to three from nine.
India's wedding seasons from mid-October to January and April to July bring with them street drummers and musicians, processions and open-air ceremonies where the statement often seems to be: the bigger and louder the better.
The industry is estimated to be worth 1.25 trillion rupees (27 billion dollars) a year. One leading wedding website Shaadi.com put the average cost of a high-end marriage at 44,000 dollars. But wedding planners say that as the effect of the worldwide recession hits exports, imports and the service industry, India's wealthier urban upper classes are cutting back on costs. "People are curbing expenses", said Tejal Kadakia, who founded Knot Forever, a Mumbai-based wedding management firm.
"For Indians, a wedding is a one-time event. People want a stylish, quality event, but they are trimming catering costs and even those on the guest list," she told AFP.
A traditional Asian wedding is lengthy and elaborate, starting with a trip to the astrologer or family priest who chooses the auspicious day and time of the ceremony considering phases of the moon. Rings are exchanged at the engagement, followed by the "mehndi" ceremony, where the bride's arms and legs are intricately painted with brown henna dye to ward off evil and strengthen love. The next day sees an elaborate "sangeet"-a musical, dance or even Bollywood-style extravaganza. The wedding itself usually comes 24 hours later, followed by cocktails and a lavish evening meal. Moroccan- or Turkish-style weddings-with billowing tents, vast pavilions, hookah smoking pipes and finely-upholstered, low-slung divans-have proved popular with expat Indians who travel home to tie the knot.
But Tejal said: "These themes are vanishing. People prefer Rajasthani or Luckhnowi themes which are traditional and cheaper.

National

Azad calls to free Bangladedsh from terrorism, corruption and poverty

BSS, Dhaka

Information Minister Abdul Kalam Azad on Thursday called for extending cooperation to build a terrorism, corruption and poverty free Bangladesh by contributing from their respective positions.
"Cooperation of women is necessary to march forward the nation because half of country's population is women," he told a function here. The minister was addressing the inaugural function of 'Annual Ananda Mela-2010' organized by Officers' Club Mohila Committee at city's Baily Road here.
Chaired by President of the Mohila Committee Begum Rehana Aziz, the function was addressed, among others, by general secretary of officers' club Abu Alam Mohammad Shaheed Khan and general secretary of Mohila Committee Prof Fahima Khatun.
The minister said women have to cooperate to implement the vision of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to become Bangladesh as a middle income country by 2021.
He said a number of women are performing responsibility of various important ministries and they are performing well. We believe in empowerment of women," he added. "The government is considering to raise 33 percent reserved seats in parliament to ensure more participation of women in politics," Azad said. Mentioning the Prime Minister's recent visit to India, the minister said in the context of present world, progress is not possible until good relations with the neighboring countries exist.
Later, the minister inaugurated the 'Ananda Mela' by releasing pigeons. The mela will remain open for public from 10 am to 9 pm everyday until January 16. A total of 94 stalls have been set up in the mela to showcase different kinds of products including cottage and handicrafts.

  48pc population of upazilas live below upper poverty line: BBS

BSS, Dhaka, Jan 14

About 48 percent people of upazilas adjacent to the Sundarbans, one of the largest biodiversity-rich mangrove forest in the world, live below 'upper poverty line', said a Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) survey.
In the Satkhira district, the population remained below upper poverty line is at least 60 percent, according to a World Bank study that quoted the survey as saying. The low income levels in the region together with poor transport systems and challenges in providing access to incomes, livelihood, education and health - have all contributed to the difficulties of daily life in the Sundarbans' Impact Zone (SIZ).
On the other hand, according to available data, inhabitants of the SIZ are far from achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and that resulted in widespread poverty in the regions surrounding the forest. Low income levels mean that in order to survive many SIZ inhabitants are required to unsustainably exploit the Sundarbans Reserved Forest for timber, fish, shrimp seed, and other forest produce, the World Bank pointed out.
The area of the Sundarbans, located at southeastern part of Bangladesh, is roughly 6,017 sq. km, of which roughly 1,874 sq. km is water area and about 1,400 sq. km of the total Sundarbans forest is protected from exploitation.
While settlement within the forest is prohibited, the livelihoods of approximately 1.2 million of people depend on extraction resources from the Sundarbans, it said.
Sea level rise and extreme weather events compound the development challenges of the Sundarbans area and natural subsidence occurs in the area as a result of complex hydrological and soil processes. Rising sea levels associated with global climate change are expected to worsen conditions in the future.In addition, the Sundarbans area is subject to recurrent cyclonic storms and floods. Available climate change models suggest that the intensity of cyclonic storms will increase over the coming decades, threatening the existence of the Sundarbans.
In response to a request from the government of Bangladesh, a World Bank fielded team in October, 2009 consulted with relevant government agencies, professional/research institutions and development partners to understand ongoing and planned activities aimed at addressing climate change risk, conserving bio-diversity and managing development challenges in the Bangladesh Sundarbans and its impact zone. 

   9-day national Scout Jamboree begins in Gazipur
UNB, Dhaka

A nine-day national Scout Jamboree began at Mouchak National Scout Training Centre in Gazipur Thursday.
About 13,000 scouts and scouters aged between 11-16 from home and abroad are participating in the 8th Jamboree, which is held every four year since 1978.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is expected to inaugurate the Jamboree on January 16.
Divided in five villages and 15 sub-camps, scout members will participate in different activities in the Jamboree, which gives them an opportunity to receive knowledge of fraternity and practical training.
Meanwhile, a press conference Thursday was held at National Headquarters of Bangladesh Scouts at Kakrail in the city on the occasion of the Jamboree.
Chief National Commissioner of Bangladesh Scouts Abul Kalam Azad, National Commissioner, President of the Organizing Committee of 8th National Scout Jamboree and Communication Secretary Mozammel Haque Khan, President of Bangladesh Scouts Momtazul Islam, National Commissioner (programme) of Bangladesh Scouts Mesbah Uddin Bhuyian, among others, spoke at the conference.

  DMCH employees demonstrate against ‘irregularities’ in recruitment

UNB, Dhaka

Employees of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) Thursday demonstrated in front of its Director's office in protest against "irregularities" in recruitment of employees.
Witnesses said the employees took position in front of the office of DMCH Director Brig General Dr Bazle Quader at about 8:30am demanding that the "illegal recruitment" be scrapped.
During the demonstration, the employees manhandled two senior doctors -- Assistant Prof Dr Abu Yusuf Fakir and Residential Surgeon Dr Moni Lal Aich Litu-as they tried to enter the Director's chamber.
As the news spread around the DMCH campus, some Chhatra League activists appeared at the scene in a procession.
They condemned the attack on the two doctors, demanded punishment of those responsible for it and threatened to paralyze the DMCH except its emergency ward if the offenders were not punished.
Later, at about 2pm, the employees attacked the BCL men in front of the college, forcing them to take shelter in the Principal's office.
On information, police rushed in and brought the situation under control.
However, the DMCH employees continued their demonstration until 4 pm.

  Industrial units in Bogra residential area pollute environment

UNB, Bogra, Jan 14

Finding no space in BSCIC industrial area of Bogra, small and medium entrepreneurs are establishing their industrial units in residential areas making the area inhabitable.
In 1964 the government established Bogra BSCIC industrial estate on 14 acres land in the town to accommodate the small and medium scale industrial units and the plot allocation was completed by 1972.
Later, the industrial area was extended to 18.67 acres in a bid to accommodate the increasing industrial units in 1980 and the allocation of plots was completed by 90s.
Now 85 industrial units were constructed on 233 plots of the industrial area. Meanwhile, government had acquired 15 acres lands to make second BSCIC industrial estate at Soipukuria under Sadar upazila in 1980.
A four members-committee was formed making Deputy Secretary of Planning and Development Commission as convener on 6 February 2005 during the four-party alliance government to accomplish the feasibility study of the area.
The committee proposed to establish the industrial estate in the acquired land in Soipukuria considering the availability of gas and other raw materials in the area.
About 15,000 people will get job in the 104 industrial units in the proposed second industrial area - the committee opined. But the second BSCIC industrial area is yet to be established as it has been shelved in the planning Ministry.
Altaf Hossain, Deputy General Manager of Centre for Industrial Co-operation of Bogra BSCIC said a high profile delegation from Industries Ministry visited the area last year but no steps have yet been taken in this regard.
As there is no plot in the BSCIC industrial area, the new entrepreneurs are establishing their industrial units in the residential areas which are polluting the environment.

Proper monitoring of fertilizer distribution stressed
BSS, Netrakona

The member of Parliamentary Standing Committee (PSC) on the Ministry of Defense Monjur Kader Kuraishi directed the concerned officials to put in their best and sincere efforts to reach the fertilizers to the door-steps of the farmers for making the Boro cultivation program successful.
The PSC member made the directives while addressing as chief guest a meeting of "district fertilizer distribution network monitoring committee" in the conference room Netrakona DC office here Wednesday.
Presided over by Deputy Commissioner (DC) Netrakona Mohammad Nurul Amin, the meeting was addressed, among others, by deputy director of agriculture extension department Abdullah Ibrahim, Chairman of Netrakona Sadar upazila parishad Tafsiruddin Khan, upazila nirbahi officer of Netrakona Sadar Upazila Muzammel Hussain Khan, acting president of Netrakona Chamber of Commerce and industries Abdul Wahed and member of the committee Nur Khan Mitu.

30 people injured in Kishoreganj gunfight
UNB, Kishoreganj

At least 30 people were injured, of them six bullet-hit, in a gunfight between two groups of people over occupying a Boro irrigation project in Kastol union of Austogram upazila Thursday.
Police and locals said there had been a longstanding dispute between newly elected manager of the project Selim Ahmed Bhuiyan and former manager Khairul Islam over controlling the Bahadurpur Irrigation Project.
As a sequel to enmity, supporters of Selim and Khairul locked into a gun battle at about 11am. A chase and counter chase took place amid gunshots, leaving 30 people injured from both sides. Those suffered bullet wounds were identified as Jannat Begum, 5, Nantu Miah, 25, Hossain Ali, 27, Mazu Bhuiyan, 58, Fazlu Miah, 35, Shukur Miah, 15, Kiron Miah, 32, and Mobin Miah, 22. They were admitted to Upazila Health Complex.

Implementation of Northern Rajshahi Irrigation Project demanded

BSS, Chapainawabganj

A human chain was formed at Abdul Mannan Sentu market square in the district town demanding implementation of Northern Rajshahi Irrigation Project to save the Barind region from desertification. Thousands of people under the banners of different social, cultural, professional and non government organizations took part in the human chain.
During the programme from morning till noon, the gathering was addressed by lawmaker Abdul Wadud, Chapainawabganj, sadar upazila chairmanAlhaj Md. Ruhul Amin, convenor of Chapainawabganj Committee of the Concerned Citizen (CCC) of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) Advocate Saiful Islam Reza, President of Chapainawabganj district unit of Bangladesh College Teachers Association Principal Saidur Rahman, journalist Imran Faruk Masum, Advocate Sultanul Islam Moni and Social worker Monimuddowla Chowdhury.
It was presided over by the convenor of Chapainawabganj district unit of Northern Rajshahi Irrigation Project Implementation Sangram Committee Shafiqul Alam Bhota.
The speakers said due to excess lifting of underground water through deep tube wells water layers are going down rapidly causing a serious threat to the environment and reserve of under ground water.

Maize cultivation gaining popularity in Dinajpur-Rangpur region

UNB, Dinajpur, Jan 14

Maize cultivation has been gaining popularity among the farmers of eight districts in Dinajpur-Rangpur region due to favorable weather condition.
Some 68,066 hectares of land have been brought under the maize cultivation during the current season with an output target of 4.42 lakh metric tons.
Deputy Director of Dinajpur Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) Nazrul Islam Mandol said of the total land 22,220 hectares were cultivated in Dinajpur while 5,976 hectares in Thakurgaon, 524 hectares in Panchagarh, 1,915 hectares in Nilphamari, 3,861 hectares in Kurigram, 7,868 hectares in Gaibandha, 9,461 hectares in Rangpur, and 16,241 hectares in Lalmonirhat.
Agriculturalist AKM Sajedur Rahman Prince told UNB that farmers are showing more interest in maize cultivation alongside wheat and potato because of availability of quality seeds, fertilizers and irrigation facilities.

Sports

National Cricket League
Chittagong scores 200 against Barisal

TBT Report

Chittagong division scored 200 against Barisal division on the first day of the four-day match in the 11th National Cricket League at Khulna Stadium on Thursday.
Middle order batsman Faisal Hossain hit the highest 73 to give the team's score some respectability. Opening batsman Gazi Salahuddin scored 28, while the number eight batsman Arman Hossain added 27 runs and remained unbeaten at the end.
Monir Hossain and Arafat Salahuddin were at the pick of Barisal bowlers, taking three scalps each conceding 24 and 37 runs respectively.
In reply, Barisal scored 73 for three in 27 overs at the end of the day's play. Opening batsman Asif Ahmed with 28 and Shahin Hossain with 22 were at the crease when the stumps were drawn.
Opener Johurul Islam scored a composed hundred as Rajshahi scored a formidable 300 for four against Sylhet on the first day at Khan Shaheb Osman Ali Stadium, Narayanganj. Johurul scored 139 to take the team to a commanding position, while former national captain Khaled Mashud scored 56 to boost the total after being asked to bat first.
Johurul struck one six and 18 fours in his 268-ball innings. Farhad Hossain also added a useful 53 to help the side inflate the innings. Taposh Kumar, Abu Zahid Rahi and Nasir Ahmed grabbed two wickets each for the Sylhet side, which failed to take the advantage of correct call.

  Gasquet, Benneteau guarantee French finalist
AFP, Sydney

Richard Gasquet and Julien Benneteau will bid to become the first French finalist at the Sydney International for almost two decades when they play each other in a semi-final here today.
Former world top 10 player Gasquet, back after being cleared of doping last year, beat Italian Potito Starace 6-3, 7-6 (9/7) while Benneteau downed Argentine Leonardo Mayer 6-4, 6-7 (5/7), 6-0 in Thursday's quarters.
A French finalist is guaranteed for Saturday's tournament decider for the first time since Guy Forget played in the 1992 Sydney final. Three Frenchmen have won the Sydney International in the post-1968 Open era-Forget (1991), Yannick Noah (1990) and Henri Leconte (1985).
It has been an encouraging week for the 53rd-ranked Gasquet, who has beaten Spanish Davis Cup winner Feliciano Lopez, German eighth seed Benjamin Becker and now the 62nd-ranked Starace to reach the semis.
"This will be the third time I am in a semi-final in Sydney," Gasquet said.
"I've lost two times in semis, so I hope this year I will be able to go in the final. I will try my best.
"I think I'm playing good and I'm serving well, and most important I am happy to play and to be here."
Gasquet won his only meeting with compatriot Benneteau in straight sets in this tournament three years ago.
The 2006 Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus eliminated Australian four-time tournament winner Lleyton Hewitt in another quarter-final, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.
It was the first time they had met since their epic third round encounter at the 2008 Australian Open, which started just before midnight and ran for four hours 43 minutes and Hewitt won in five sets.
Baghdatis, ranked 42, will face the winner of the remaining quarter-final between Australian Davis Cup member Peter Luczak and American Mardy Fish, set down for later on Thursday. "I'm feeling fit, no injuries, no pain, so I guess I will need some more matches like this to start feeling my game coming slowly back," Baghdatis said. Hewitt said he was not totally disappointed in bowing out of the tournament early.
"I was trying a few different things out there today and mixing up the game a little bit," he said.
"And hopefully it'll hold me in good stead for next week," at the Australian Open. "I didn't quite hit the spots when I need to do, especially trying to consolidate that break early in today's second set, which would have been good to try and to keep that momentum."

  Khulna all out for 132
TBT Report

Talha Jubair and Moha-mmad Sharif shone with the ball as Dhaka division booked Khulna division for a paltry 132 in the first innings of the four-day match of the 11th National Cricket League at Rajshahi Stadium on Thursday.
Dhaka captain Mehrab Hossain (Jr.) sent Khulna in to bat after winning the toss and his bowlers justified their captain's decision, keeping the Khulna batsmen at bay from the outset of the innings.
Talha Jubair took four wickets for 43 runs, while Mohammad Sharif bagged three for 32 to lead the Dhaka attack. But Dhaka also faltered when it came to bat in the low-scoring match. Dhaka managed to score 77 for eight at stumps on the first day. Robiul Islam of Khulna team captured four wickets for 23 runs.

  Australia takes India warning ‘seriously’
AFP, Sydney

Australia's Foreign Minister Stephen Smith on Thursday said he took "seriously" a right-wing Hindu party's threat to stop its cricketers playing in an Indian state which hosts lucrative IPL matches.
Smith said Australian cricket and foreign ministry officials were discussing the comments from Bal Thackeray, head of Mumbai's influential Shiv Sena, which follow a string of attacks on Indian nationals in Australia.
Thackeray said the party would not let "kangaroo cricketers" play in its home state of Maharashtra where two major cities, Mumbai and Nagpur, hold Indian Premier League (IPL) games.
"This has come from a political party and they've made comments about disrupting cricket in the past and they've also disrupted some cricket games," Smith told Sky News.
"We take any threat against Australians overseas seriously. In the last couple of years we've developed a very close relationship with Cricket Australia so far as Australian cricket teams and individuals playing overseas are concerned."
The Shiv Sena has in the past prevented Pakistan's national team from playing in Maharashtra for what it says is Islamabad's backing of militant activities in India.
Smith said any decision to play in India would have to be taken by individual players and teams, adding that the government would provide security advice.
Australian cricketers like captain Ricky Ponting, Andrew Symonds, Matthew Hayden and Shane Watson will be among the star players in the IPL Twenty20 competition's third edition in March and April.
"In the end it's a matter for Cricket Australia and the individual cricketers to make a judgement about whether they travel and play overseas," Smith said.

   Barcelona loses Kings Cup crown
AFP, Madrid

Barcelona lost the first of the three titles they won in an extraordinary 2008/09 season on Wednesday as despite beating Sevilla 1-0 they went out of the Kings Cup on the away goal rule when the last 16 tie finished 2-2 on aggregate.
Barcelona coach Josep Guardiola - who guided Barca to the Cup, league title and Champions League trophy in an amazing debut season as coach - did not take the match lightly playing essentially his first choice team against a side whose league form has fallen away alarmingly having lost their last three matches.
However, it was the hosts who turned on the early pressure with first midfielder Koffi Romaric - who was controversially left out of the Ivory Coast African Cup of Nations squad - powering a header which was punched away by Barcelona goalkeeper Jose Manuel Pinto.
Sevilla - who last won the Cup in 2007 - had the ball in the net in the 20th minute but striker Alvaro Negredo was somewhat harshly adjudged to have impeded Pinto. This woke up Barcelona and they poured forward desperate to get back on terms in the tie.
Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic unleashed a fierce shot in the 28th minute only for the ball to go narrowly wide and then saw his 52nd minute header saved by Sevilla goalkeeper and club captain Andres Palop. The pressure told off eventually in the 64th minute when Spanish international midfielder Xavi's right foot shot beat Palop leaving Barcelona tantalisingly close to reaching the quarter-finals.
Argentinian wizard Lionel Messi then took over the show going close in the 67th minute as his effort scraped the post, then hitting the post with a left footed shot in the 69th minute and then seeing a shot brilliantly turned round the
post by Palop five minutes from time.

  Tunisia held by Zambia 1-1
AFP, Lubango

Tunisia, the 2004 champion, was held to a 1-1 draw by spirited Zambia in Group D of the Africa Cup of Nations here on Wednesday.
Jacob Mulenga put the Copper Bullets into an early lead only for Zouhaier Dhaouadhi to level for the north Africans before the break.
Zambia coach Herve Renard reckoned his side had let slip maximum points, especially after Gabon had shocked the mighty Cameroon earlier in Lubango.
"This was two points lost," said the youngest of the five French coaches in the competition. "We started well but after the goal we didn't show enough discipline."
His Tunisian counterpart, Faouzi Benzarti commented: "We could have won the game with our second half performance...but the draw is fair." Given the spate of upsets Angola 2010 has already produced it came as no surprise to see the Carthage Eagles being outplayed by Zambia for much of the match.
They went into a 19th minute lead when James Chamanga, who plays his club football in China, charged down the centre and found Mulenga on his right. The Utrecht midfielder controlled the ball well, fighting off Tunisia defender Ammar Jemal to slot an angled shot right-footed past goalkeeper Aymen Mathlouthi who should have done better.
Renard, Claude Le Roy's assistant with Ghana in 2008, justifiably raised his arms in delight.
Zambia was worthy of the lead after almost constant pressure up to this point, and they continued to bely their underdog status with forays into Tunisian territory.
On a rare early incursion up the other end of the pitch skipper Karim Haggui, the lone survivor from the 2004 title-winning squad, hit over the bar.
Zambia, with skipper Christopher Katongo joined in midfield by his younger brother Felix, was proving a real handful for Benzarti's north Africans, with only the back of a red shirt stopping Rainford Kalaba's close range thunderbolt after the half hour mark.
Tunisia was back on level terms though on 40 minutes when teenage striker Youssef Msakni tore the Zambian defence apart down the left, cutting the ball back to Dhaouadhi who slammed it into the roof of the net. The two sides, both making their 14th appearance in this continental championship, emerged for the second half with everything to play for after Gabon's shock win over Cameroon earlier which split the group wide open.
Zambia appeared the more likely to regain the advantage, harrying the Tunisian backline seemingly at will.
Benzarti took off Ousama Darragi on the hour and sent on Lens attacker Issam Jemaa in a bid to reinforce his goal scoring options against a side that had only mustered a paltry four goals in 10 qualifying ties.
Mulenga almost got his and his country's second goal in the 82nd minute when he unleashed a powerful climbing shot which thudded into the side netting.
Maccabi Tel Aviv forward Emmanuel Mayuka did score seconds later but his effort was ruled offside.

  Serena fights back to reach Sydney final
AFP, Sydney

World number one Serena Williams called on all her signature fighting spirit to overhaul French opponent Aravane Rezai and reach her first Sydney International final on Thursday.
The American 11-time Grand Slam champion clawed back from a set and 2-5 down to defeat 27th-ranked Rezai 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 and will play defending champion Elena Demen-tieva in Friday's final.
Fifth seed Dementieva, who downed Williams at this stage in last year's tournament, was too strong for sixth seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus in the other semi, marching to a 6-3, 6-1 victory.
Williams will be bidding for her 36th title, while Dementieva will be after her 15th. Williams leads 7-4 in their career matches.
For much of the two-hour contest, Williams looked consigned to losing her fourth Sydney semi-final, before she raised her level to claim 11 of the last 15 games.
"I was lucky to get through today, for sure," Williams said. "I was just trying to play my game and do the best that I could. I didn't do so well. "I hit I don't know how many errors today, but I finally made a couple of shots." Faced with a chastening defeat just days ahead of the defence of her Australian Open crown, Williams dug deep and turned the tide against the impressive Rezai.

  England crashes to South African pace
AFP, Johannesburg

South Africa's fast bowlers took advantage of helpful conditions as England crashed to 180 all out on the first day of the fourth and final Test at the Wanderers Stadium on Thursday.
Dale Steyn took five for 51 and Morne Morkel three for 39 after England captain Andrew Strauss won the toss and decided to bat.
England's troubles started with the first ball of the match when Strauss was caught at backward short leg off Steyn.
The tourists, leading the series 1-0, lost their first four wickets for 39 runs inside the first hour.
Paul Collingwood (47) and Ian Bell (35) put on 76 for the fifth wicket but when Collingwood provided a first Test wicket for Ryan McLaren soon after lunch the slide resumed and England were bowled out shortly before tea.
Strauss chose to bat first in conditions which offered swing and seam movement. He turned a lifting delivery on leg stump firmly behind square leg but Hashim Amla dived to his right to hold an excellent catch.
Morkel followed up in the second over when Jonathan Trott played across a full delivery and was out leg before wicket.
Kevin Pietersen's run of poor scores continued when he pulled Morkel straight to new cap Wayne Parnell at mid-on after making seven.
Alastair Cook went back on his stumps and was a second leg before victim. He asked for a review but umpire Tony Hill's decision was upheld. Collingwood looked in good form before he was squared up by new cap McLaren and caught at point off a leading edge.
Steyn bowled Bell with a delivery which cut back between bat and pad after a series of away-swingers and England's resistance was effectively broken, although Graeme Swann made a breezy 27 off 27 balls before he was the last man out.

BOA gets Tk 17 crore as sponsorship money for SA Games
UNB, Dhaka

Eight state-owned Banks and Insurance enterprises have extended financial support to Bangladesh Olympic Association (BOA) to make the 11th South Asian (SA) Games Jan 29-Feb 9 a success.
Representatives of Agrani Bank, Janata Bank, General Insurance Corporation and Sonali Bank will sponsor BOA in the SA Games as gold partner while Invest-ment Corporation of Bangla-desh (ICB) as silver partner.
They signed agreement this evening with BOA at its Bhaban and handed over cheque of Tk 17 crore to SA Games organizing committee president and Finance Minister AMA Muthih. Besides, Jiban Bima Corporation, Basic Bank and Rupali Bank will be as co-sponsors for the games.
Of the total budget of Tk 170 crore for the Games, BOA will get Tk 122 crore from the government while the remaining Tk 48 crore from the co-sponsors.
Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman and convenor of Marketing and Sponsorship Committee of SA Games Ziaul Haque Khandker and BOA secretary general Kutubuddin Ahmed, among others, were present at the signing ceremony

Del Potro quits Kooyong
AFP, Melbourne

US Open champion Juan Martin Del Potro Thursday pulled out of his final tune-up match prior to the Australian Open, citing a wrist injury.
His withdrawal from the Koyoong Classic was mirrored by French Open finalist Robin Soderling, who quit a semi-final trailing 6-4 against Ivan Ljubicic to avoid doing himself more elbow damage ahead of the season's opening Grand Slam. The Del Potro decision puts Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga into Saturday's final against Spain's Fernando Verdasco.
Verdasco booked a bereth over 2008 Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic, whom he beat 6-1, 6-2.
"The results didn't even matter," said world number three Djokovic. "The main point is to get a good practise and get points and gains before the Australian Open, which is my main priority.
Verdasco admitted he was surprised by his easy victory, adding that the traditional swirling wind at the Kooyong club was a problem for both players.