TUESday, JANUARY 19, 2010 magh 6, 1416, SAFAR 2, 1430 Hijri

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Leading News

Rival JCD activists clash in DU
15 injured, BCL workers drive JCD leaders out of campus, JCD calls strike on January 19 and 21

UNB, Dhaka

Rival Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal activists clashed at Dhaka University Monday, leaving at least 15 people, including the DU Proctor and the JCD central president injured in the worst campus rioting at the varsity in over three years.
The Chhatra Dal, the student wing of opposition BNP, however, alleged a third-party involvement and called strike at the University for January 19 and 21 to demand resignation of the VC and exemplary punishment of the outsiders who triggered the trouble. Campus sources said the fierce clash took place between the supporters of the newly formed JCD central executive committee and some other JCD leaders who were not included in the new committee-known as rebel group. The clash ensued at about 10am when the leaders of the new committee, led by its president Sultan Salauddin Tuku and general secretary Amirul Islam Alim, were going to the registrar's building to meet VC Prof AAMS Arefin Siddique.
"The rebels, who had taken position beforehand at the Mall Chattar, chased them, triggering a chase and counter-chase between the two groups," says a firsthand account of the encounter.
Abdul Halim Khokon and Ahsan Uddin Khan Shipon, former assistant general secretary and social welfare affairs secretary respectively, led the rebels.
"Around a dozen gunshots were fired and some handmade bombs blasted amid the reign of terror, which also spread all through the campus that looked like a battlefield," says the spot report. None was, however, reported injured by bullet. On information, police rushed in and lobbed seven teargas shells to disperse the rioters. Later, activists of the ruling party's student front, BCL, intervened and drove the JCD leaders out of the campus. They also brought out a procession.
At one stage, Tuku and Alim took shelter inside the arts building. The BCL activists and the rebel JCD group kept the JCD leaders confined to the arts building for a while. They attacked the besieged JCD leaders as DU Proctor Saiful Islam Khan with police assistance tried to help them go out of the arts building. Fifteen people, including the proctor and the JCD president, Sultan Salauddin Tuku, were wounded amid this fierce attack.
JCD DU-unit joint-secretary Mohidul Islam Hiru, Masud Parvez Khan, AC Ahad of Ramna Zone patrol and Shahbag thana OC Rezaul Karim were among those injured. Of the injured, the Proctor was admitted to BSMMU while seriously injured Tuku and Hiru to the Islami Bank Hospital. No classes were held during the massive troubles. Tensions mounted on the campus as the students apprehend further outbreaks anytime on the campus.
A 101-member new JCD committee was formed on January 1 this year with Sultan Salauddin Tuku and Amirul Islam Alim as president and general secretary respectively, which triggered controversy in a section of JCD activists. The rebel group declared the leaders of central committee unwanted on the campus and barred them from entering the campus since its formation.
Meanwhile, the newly formed committee held an impromptu press conference on the campus and claimed that Chhatra League activists launched the attacks on the JCD leaders. At the press conference, they demanded resignation of the VC, arrest and expulsion of those involved in the attacks.
The BNP student activists also announced programs to drum up their demands. The programmes include staging demonstrations in front of the BNP central office later in the day today, demonstrations under all organizational units, including educational institutions across the country, tomorrow (Tuesday) and student strike at DU on Tuesday and Thursday.
VC AAMS Arefin Siddique, however, told the reporters that the clash was a "preplanned" one to make the campus situation volatile. "The campus situation would be kept stable and peaceful at any cost," the VC said.

 PM for quick release of funds to tackle climate change
BSS, Dhaka

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday urged the developed nations to quickly disburse funds pledged at COP 15 for the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) last month to meet climate change challenges.
"The funds needs to be disbursed immediately as the most LDCs including Bangladesh are diverting their funds meant for socio-economic development to adaptation and technology incorporation programmes," she said.
The Prime Minister said transfer of funds by the LDCs and climate change vulnerable countries including Bangladesh is eroding MDGs and all growth targets of these countries. She said this while speaking at a high level Asia-Pacific Dialogue on the Brussels Programmes of Action for the Least Developed Countries jointly organized by UN-ESCAP and the government at a local hotel Monday morning.
Bangladesh Finance Minister A M A Muhith, Finance Minister of Nepal Surendra Pandey, Finance Minister of Vanuatu Sela Molisa, Under Secreatry General of the UN and High Representative of OHRLLS Cheick Sidi Diarra, Executive Secretary of ESCAP Dr Noeleen Heyzer, and ERD Secretary M Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan also spoke on the occasion.
Referring to Bangladesh's and LDC's vulnerability to climate change, the Bangladesh Premier said flow of funds to the LDCs must be guaranteed with a view to countering these and other adverse impacts of climate change as well any financial crisis.
"ODA commitment for 0.2 percent must be met and in addition a legally binding agreement on climate change must be finalized," she said adding that assured flow of funds for mitigation, adaptation, finance, technology transfer and capacity building as agreed to in the Bali Plan of Action is a must.
She said climate change is already adversely impacting Bangladesh as a metre rise of sea level or one Celsius temperature increase worldwide would inundate a fourth of Bangladesh displacing 20 million people and affecting livelihood of 40 million by 2050.
Besides, she said the onslaught of floods and draughts, saline intrusion, loss of agricultural land to other uses, destruction of soil nutrition and the like are having calamitous effect.In this context, she said her government is providing inputs to farmers at reasonable price to save the country's agriculture and for assured food production. About the 4th United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries to be held in Turkey in 2011, she underscored the need for adopting a credible and substantial Programmes of Action by the development partners, the LDCs, the UN and all related international organizations in Turkey to this end.

Hasina flies to Kolkata today
UNB, Dhaka

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina flies to Kolkata today (Tuesday) morning by an air-force plane to pay her last respects to legendary communist leader and former West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu.
The Prime Minister is likely to be accompanied by Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad MP, Workers Party President Rashed Khann Menon MP, JSD President HasanuL Haq Inu MP, Samyabadi Dal President and Industries Minister Dilip Barua, Awami League General Secretary and LGRD and Cooperatives Minister Syed Ashraful Islam, Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury, Foreign Minister Dr Dipu Moni, Awami League Joint General Secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif.

 AL blames Khaleda for information terrorism
UNB, Dhaka

The ruling Bangladesh Awami League Monday categorically said Opposition Leader Khaleda Zia resorted to "blatant lies and information terrorism" over the Prime Minister's India tour at her January 17 press conference to create "hatred and malice" among the people.
She was also blamed for presenting Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's statements made at the January 16 press conference in a distorted way.
"Khaleda Zia and BNP have shown their Pakistani mentality, communal malice and blind anti-India antagonism. We strongly condemn such irresponsible propaganda of the honorable Opposition Leader," Awami League general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam told a press conference at party President Sheikh Hasina's Dhanmondi office in the afternoon.
Ashraful, also the LGRD Minister, in a written statement said the Opposition party wants to pick a quarrel and push the country into old-style politics of confrontation to halt the nation's endeavor for development.
About BNP-Jamaat call for movement to "protect country's independence and sovereignty", the ruling-party leader said Khaleda Zia called upon "all Razakars, Al-badrs, Al-shams and other war criminals, Huji and Ulfa terrorists" to wage anti-government movement.
"Taking with Razakars and war criminals like Golam Azam, Nizami or Mujhahidi, Khaleda Zia will try to save the country's independence. How unfortunate the nation is!" Ashraful said.
The AL general secretary said Awami League and the country's all progressive and pro-liberation allies are not afraid of the movement threatened by the BNP and its anti-liberation allies.
"Peace-loving and patriotic people of the country are with us," he said, indicating a counteroffensive if their political foes went for movement over the PM's India visit and its outcome.

  BCL responsible for clash in DU: Delwar
TBT Report

BNP secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain alleged that the activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) are responsible for yesterday's clash in Dhaka University which left a number of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) leaders including its president Sultan Salauddin Tuku injured critically.
Lodging a strong protest and condemnation over the 'BCL' attack on JCD leaders and activists, he demanded free and fair investigation into the matter immediately.
Referring to the Vice Chancellor of DU AAMS Arefin Siddique, he said that the DU authority would be responsible for the incident if the vice-chancellor does not take proper and immediate initiative in this regard.
"We hope that the Dhaka University authorities would take immediate step to solve the situation. We hope through investigating into the matter freely and transparently, the authorities will able to identify the real culprits for bringing them to book immediately or else the authority will be responsible for this heinous attack on JCD leaders," Delwar said while addressing a pre-procession rally in front of the party's Naya Paltan central office in the city on Monday.
Delwar said after signing anti-nation treaty with India, the ruling party and its associate bodies have become more destructive and subversive. "As the countrymen are against the deals which were signed during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's India visit and the BNP as well as its associate bodies are getting preparation under organised way on the basis of the directives of chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia to launch movement in protest against the deals, the BCL leaders and activists launched a terror attack on our leaders," said the party secretary general.
But they will not be able to suppress us by launching attack and BNP will never allow the deals to be materialised, said the secretary general.

   BD’s position on maritime boundary explained to ConocoPhillips
US company to sit with Energy, Foreign Ministry officials

UNB, Dhaka

In the negotiation with ConocoPhillips that began here Monday, the state-owned Petrobangla tried their best to make the officials of US-based international company understand the "changed scenario with neighboring India" as regards to international maritime boundary.
But it is not clear if any progress has been made in the second round of negotiation with Conoco. Sources indicated that Conoco stuck to its previous position on the most issues that came up for discussion. Petrobangla chairman Prof Hossain Mansur, however, told UNB that the talks are taking place as a "continuation of the negotiation process."
He said: "We are hopeful of making some breakthrough in the negotiation."
The first round of negotiation took place in October last year following the approval of the government to award two offshore gas blocks to the Conoco.
This is the second time the negotiation is taking place between Petrobangla and Conoco. In the first round negotiation, the Petrobangla officials had conveyed a government decision to the Conoco that Bangladesh would not allow foreign company to conduct any exploration work in the "disputed territory" where both neighboring India and Myanmar made their respective claim along with Bangladesh's claim.
The caretaker government invited bid in 2008 for hydrocarbon exploration in the country's maritime boundary. ConocoPhillips came out as the lone responsive bidder in 8 blocks while Irish company Tullow became responsive in one block. The caretaker government refrained from taking decision on the award of the gas blocks.
But after assuming office, the present Awami League government approved bids for only three blocks and decided to award two blocks (Block-10 & 11) to Conoco and one block to Tullow.
It also decided that Bangladesh would not allow any exploration works by any foreign company in the disputed area of the blocks. All the three blocks have disputed territory as per claim of the neighbours.
But when the Conoco was informed about the government decision during the first round talks, the Conoco officials, instead of informing any instant decision, left the country saying that they would later convey their decision after discussion with their own management.
They also made a demand that they want to work in 8 gas blocks, for which they had bid and also came out as responsive bidder.
But at that time, Bangladesh officials did not give any instant reaction to this claim of the US oil major, the second largest oil company in the world.

    OMS of rice starts tomorrow
UNB, Dhaka

The government will kick-restart Open Market Sale (OMS) of rice Wednesday at the rate of Tk 22 per kilogram in four labour-intensive districts, including Dhaka, as an interventional measure to stem an upturn in the market prices.
The other three districts coming under the rice rationing are Narayanganj, Narsingdi and Gazipur-where large numbers of garment workers live and work in the export industry. As per the OMS rules, each customer can buy a maximum of 5 kg of rice a day. "The outlets will remain open every day from 9am to 4pm, except on Fridays," says an official announcement.
Besides, Food Department will also sell rice from trucks at the same price in different densely-populated areas of the capital.
Earlier, the government had decided to release about 2 lakh tons of food-grain each month from government godowns over the next four months through Food for Work and Test Relief arrangements to control the price hike of rice, which reports largely attribute to market manipulation by profiteers.
However, no sign of downward trend of the rice prices is yet in sight in spite of some 11.5 lakh metric tones being stored in government stock. A Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) report says coarse rice of various varieties was selling at Tk 26 to Tk 28 Monday.

Back Page

BD migrant workers’ remittances hit record $10.72 billion in 2009

UNB, Dhaka

The remittances from Bangladesh's migrant workers contributed a record US $ 10.72 billion in 2009 although the country's manpower export declined by 46 percent last year due to global economic meltdown.
President of Bangladesh Association of International Recruitment Agencies (BAIRA) Ghulam Mustafa stated this at a press conference at BAIRA auditorium on Monday.
He said: "It's a great achievement and historical event that our migrant workers contributed with a substantial remittance US $ 10.72 billion last year (2009) while the amount was US $ 8.98 billion in 2008."
The BAIRA chief informed that they exported an average of some 398,121 manpower every year over the last 10 years. Despite nearly 46 percent decline in manpower export due to global economic recession, some 475,278 manpower were exported from Bangladesh in 2009, he said. He also informed that some 72,210 migrant workers returned home due to various complications but only 1,250 of them carried valid passport.
The BAIRA president hoped that they would be able to export at least 600,000 persons this year, as the labor markets are gradually expanding in the Gulf and middle-east countries. Foreign remittance income for the country will reach at least US $ 11 billion by 2010, he said.
He, however, stressed the need for Public Private Partnership (PPP) initiatives to reach the goal. Mentioning the recent visit of the government delegation to Libya, Ghulam Mustafa said the labor market is expanding in Libya day by day and there is scope for more Bangladeshi manpower going on employment to Libya.
He put forward a set of recommendations including steps against illegal passport holders, ensuring hassle-free immigration service at the airport, strengthening the labor wings of Bangladesh missions abroad, setting up technical training institutes at upazila level, and ensuring skilled immigration management.

  Hearing on 5th amendment case adjourned for one day
BSS, Dhaka

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Monday adjourned the hearing till today (Monday) on the leave petitions seeking permission to file regular appeals against the High Court verdict that declared the 5th amendment of the constitution void and illegal.
A bench headed by chief justice set the new date while the counsels for the petitioners sought eight weeks' adjournment with the plea that they need time to take preparation for participating in the hearing, saying it is a very important case.
Earlier on January 5, the Appellate Division set on Monday(January 18) to hear the petitions seeking leaves along with two other petitions seeking stay of the operation of the High Court verdict.
The BNP secretary general and three other advocates of the Supreme Court filed the leave petitions as interveners while the government sought permission to withdraw their earlier petition seeking leave to file regular appeal against the High Court verdict.
A two-member High Court bench on August 29, 2005 pronounced a verdict declaring the 5th amendment to the constitution void and illegal.
The then BNP-led four-party alliance government, after pronouncement of the judgement, filed the leave petition before the Appellate Division. A petition praying for a stay order on the operation of the verdict was also moved and the court granted the petition. After assumption of office, the Awami League-led Mah-ajote government decided to withdraw the leave petition and accordingly, a petition was moved before the Appellate Division.
A five-judge Appellate Division bench on January 3 granted the government's prayer and also vacated its earlier order of stay on operation of the verdict.

   Govt defines responsibilities of UP chairman, vice-chairman
Proposal sent to law ministry, JS informed

UNB, Sangsad Bhaban

The government has taken initiative to define the responsibilities of the chairman and the vice-chairman of the upazila parishad, as a mismatch in their functions triggered protests.
LGRD Minister Syed Ashraful Islam informed parliament Monday of the government step. Replying to a question from Jatiya Party MP Noor-e-Hasna Lily Chowdhury, he said, "A proposal on definition of the duties and responsibilities has been sent to Law Ministry for vetting."
In replying to another question from Meher Afroze, the local government minister said the government is "actively considering" the formation of 18 new municipalities.
These are: Kuakata in Patuakhali, Kalmakanda in Netrakona, Lohagara and Dohazari in Chittagong, Tarash in Sirajganj, Bona-rpara, Saghata and Pola-shbari in Gaibandha, Kac-hua in Bagerhat, Fatulla in Narayanganj, Basail and Elenga in Tangail, Naray-anpur in Chandpur, Uzirpur in Barisal, Hatibandha in Lalmonirhat, Kaliganj in Gazipur, Rajoir in Mada-ripur, and Monohar-ganj in Comilla. At present, the Minister said, the number of municipalities in the country is 309.

   Mirza Fakhrul calls for preparation for movement
UNB, Dhaka

BNP senior joint secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir Monday called upon all patriotic forces to get prepared to forge movement to save the country.
He made the call while addressing a discussion at the National Press Club in the afternoon organized by Dhaner Shish, a pro BNP organization.
It organized the programme to observe the 74th birth anniversary of late President Ziaur Rahman, founder of BNP and to mark the 9th founding anniversary of the organization.
Daily Amar Desh acting Editor Mahmudur Rahman, BNP joint secretary general Barrister Mahbubuddin Khokon, Jatiyatabadi Jubodal general secretary Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal, Jatiyatabadi Olamadal president Abdul Maleq and Dhaner Shish vice-president Dr Nazrul Islam also spoke at the function presided over by Dhaner Shish founder president Shamsuzzman Didar. As part of its yearlong progarmme Dhaner Shish would set up free medial camp at Ziaur Rahman's mazar premises in the city's Sher-e-Bangla Nagar tomorrow (Tuesday) morning to provide free treatment and medicines to destitute and floating people.
It will continue the free medical camp progarmme round the year through setting up a camp per month in various places across the country.

    76 CBA leaders of PDB transferred
UNB, Barisal

Some 76 leaders of the main opposition BNP backed Collective Bargaining Agents (CBA) of Power Development Board have allegedly been transferred from 21 south-western districts, including Barisal, to remote areas of the country recently.
West Zone Power Distri-bution Company, the subsidiary of PDB, sources said the transfer orders were signed by Muhammad Fazle Rabbi, manager (HRMD) of WZPDCO on January 5.
MG Faruk, central vice president of Bidyut Sramik Union and district secretary of Jatiyatabadi Sramik Dal, alleged that the mass transfer orders were issued excluding the ruling party supported Bangladesh Sramik League leaders and activists.
He also alleged that the transfer orders were issued only to harass the opposition backed activists and to create favourable field in upcoming CBA election for the ruling party supported labour front.
Already a writ petition on behalf of 17 transferred employees, including 6 of Barisal, has been filed in this connection with the High Court and on January 12 the court issuing show cause notice stayed the transfer orders for next 20 weeks, he informed.

   Erratic gas supply mounts sufferings of domestic consumers in port city

BSS, Chittagong

Domestic consumers in the port city are reeling under severe gas crisis for inadequate supply against its requirements coupled with serious fall in pressure that mounted their sufferings miserably.
After prolonged gas crisis in industry and commercial sectors in Chittagong region due to huge gap in production and supply, now the domestic consumers started facing irregular gas supply to their burners forcing them to sudden abstention from cooking or buying foods from restaurants.
Officials of Bakhrabad Gas System Limited (BGSL) said increased gas consumption in winter season and supply fall from offshore gas field Sangu are some major reasons for the poor gas situation in the region similar to other gas dependent areas including the capital Dhaka.

   Government to replace 3,500 km water supply pipe in city
BSS, Sangsad Bhaban

The government has undertaken a plan to replace about 3,500 km old water supplying pipe in the capital city under the Dhaka Water Supply Sector Development Project.
LGRD and Cooperatives Minister Syed Ashraf Hossain said this in his written reply to a question from Nasimul Alam Chowdhury in the House Monday. The project financed by the Asian Development Bank would be completed by 2013, he said adding that 40-km pipe would be replaced by June 2011.
Replying to another question from Shahuduzzaman Sarker, the LGRD minister said about 97 percent people of the country has access to pure drinking water while sanitation coverage is about 90.56 percent. The government is working with a plan to provide arsenic free water to all by 2011 and hundred-percent sanitation coverage by 2013.
"The government is actively considering 'Special Water Supply Project" for rural areas and separate water supply project for urban areas," he also told the questioner.
To meet the additional water demand in the capital, the minister said the government has taken a number of steps including identification of the areas affected by water crisis. Steps are being taken to install deep tube-well in those areas in addition to diversion of water from the surplus areas, he said. Syed Ashraf said 25 deep tube-wells would be installed in the capital city before the next dry season. These tube-wells would produce additional nine crore liter water a day, he added.
The minister said 15 more generators were procured for operating 535 water pumps in the city and 245 AIVR were set up to keep the pumps operational during the high/ low voltage.
Besides, the water pumps would have duel connection to ensure uninterrupted power supply even at the time of power outrage.
Syed Ashraf said WASA would monitor water supplying situation in the city from 13 centers in dry season while 11 vigilance teams would be deployed in the field to oversee them.

   Dinajpur Textile Institute closed sine die as BCL men remain at loggerheads

UNB, Dinajpur

Dinajpur Textile Institute was closed for an indefinite period Monday to avert an impending clash between two factions of Bangladesh Chhatra League, the ruling party's student wing, as the rivals were at loggerheads.
The authority asked all students to vacate dormitories by 10 am Tuesday. Additional police were deployed on the campus as a precautionary measure. Sources said the authorities expelled seven students of BCL Farhad group on December 19 following a clash between the two factions that left one student, Nuruzzaman Tuktuk, critically injured.
Meanwhile, the expelled students managed to get their expulsion orders withdrawn.
When the seven students went to sit for the 3rd-year semester final examination today, their rival group protested it and asked all the students to boycott the exam.
As most of the students boycotted the examination, the institute authority closed the institute sine die to avert possible encounter between the rival groups.
Acting Principal of the institute Shajahan Ali said, "We will reopen the institute when the situation will improve."

Editorial

Jyoti Basu : A legendary people’s leader

Legendary Marxist leader and the longest serving Chief Minister of Indian state of West Bengal Jyoti Basu died on Sunday at AMRI Hospital at Salt Lake in Kolkata after a prolonged illness. He was 95. Jyoti Basu was under continuous artificial support when his brain, lungs, liver and kidneys were not functioning. Despite continuous artificial life support for 12 days, Basu's health showed no signs of improvement. Born on July 8, 1914 at Harrison road in Kolkata, Jyoti Basu did his Bachelors in English literature in 1935 and went to London to study Law. He returned to India after completing Bar-at-Law in 1940. Jyoti Basu first got elected a member of the Provincial Assembly in 1946 and was general secretary of the CPI (M) from 1952 to 57. He also became Deputy Chief Minister of non-Congress government in 1967 and 1969. He was elected Chief Minister of West Bengal on June 21, 1977 and served in the post for long 23 years. He stepped down from the post on November 6, 2000.
Jyoti Basu’s death was condoled widely not only in India, but also in neigbouring Bangladesh which was his ancestral homeland. President Zillur Rahman, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Leader of the Opposition Khaleda Zia have condoled his death and paid rich tributes to his memory. Bangladesh Jatiya Sangsad on Sunday paid rich tributes to Jyoti Basu by adopting an obituary reference unanimously, saying that he was a symbol of honesty, tolerance and ideology, who will remain as a source of endless inspiration for posterity. They said Jyoti Basu, was a genuine friend of Bangladesh and he had helped the country in many ways for achieving independence and development. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina while paying her homage to Jyoti Basu, said, "India has lost a leader, Bangladesh has lost a well-wisher and I have lost a guardian."
Jyoti Basu was a great politician but a simple man. The fact that he went to England and did his Bar-at-Law there in 1940 testifies that he belonged to an affluent family, but he always led a simple life and worked for the common people. His politics was devoted to the cause of downtrodden people. Above all he was a man of rare quality of honesty and integrity and selflessness. He will go down in history as one of the few successful people's leaders of the sub-continent who dedicated their lives and works to the cause of the people. He will also be remembered for his success in leading his party to power for long in West Bengal by transforming communist politics into democratic practice.
To the people of Bangladesh Jyoti Basu is important not only because he ruled for long the neighbouring Indian state of West Bengal, but also for some other reasons. His ancestral home is situated at Borodi in Narayanganj district, he was very active in favour of our Liberation War and played significant role in mobilising support and shelter for Bangladeshi people who had sought refuge in West Bengal in 1971 and he was always vocal in support of the cause of Bangladesh. So, it can be rightly said that in the death of Jyoti Basu Bangladesh has lost its best friend in India. We condole the death of this great leader and pray for the salvation of the departed soul. We also convey our deepest sympathy to the bereaved family. Jyoti Basu is no more, but his memory will, hopefully, last long and inspire the future generation to pursue the path of serving the people selflessly with honesty and integrity.

  Cultural aggression

Minister for Information and Cultural Affairs Abul Kalam Azad told the Parliament on Sunday that his ministry has undertaken steps to check alien culture meaning foreign cultural aggression."It is possible to prevent foreign cultural aggression by flourishing and patronizing local culture," he said in reply to a scripted question. To this end, he said, activities of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, Bangla Academy, Nazrul Institute, Bangladesh Loke and Karu-shilpa Foundation and other organizations of the ministry have been expanded."The copyright taskforce has been working to eliminate CD- DVD piracy to check alien culture," he added. Answering to a supplementary raised by lone independent lawmaker Fazlul Azim, the information minister told the House that steps are being taken to broadcast the programmes of Bangladeshi TV channels in neighbouring countries, including India.
Bangladesh has been facing foreign cultural aggression since long. Resisting this is longstanding need and demand as alien culture is causing serious harm to our own culture. The information minister is right in his observation that it is possible to prevent foreign cultural aggression by flourishing and patronizing local culture. But it should be pointed out here that aggression of foreign culture can be resisted more effectively by developing and popularizing our culture and reducing the influence of alien culture. To achieve this target concerted efforts by government and cultural activists are needed. Unfortunately our cultural sector is not getting due attention and care of the government and this negligence is causing harm to our culture. The government should be alert in this regard.
It is encouraging that the government is taking steps for broadcasting programmes of Bangladeshi TV channels in neighbouring countries including India. The programmes of a number of Indian TV channels are being aired in our country, while that of our TV channels are not shown there. It is unjust. The government should intensify their efforts to persuade the SAARC countries for airing the programmes of our TV channels there.

Analysis

Developing an exit strategy

The game in the region would change if the Afghan Talibans agree to a power-sharing agreement with the Karzai government and other political forces in the country.

Talat Masood

The United States continues to push Pakistan that it should widen the scope of its military operations against the insurgents to include North Waziristan. Our army has been resisting for good reason. First, it is already overstretched, then winter has set in and widening the operation further could galvanise all tribes to coalesce. There is a distinct possibility that a military operation in North Waziristan would trigger a fresh wave of suicide attacks throughout the country. These reservations aside, even if the Pakistan army does undertake this operation in the near future and granted it is successful at the tactical level, genuine peace in the region will only come about if there is simultaneous progress in stabilising Afghanistan. What we have seen in South Waziristan that the top militant leadership of Pakistani Taliban has moved into North Wazistan with Hafiz Gul Bhadur, despite the undertaking by these groups that they will not provide sanctuary to hostile forces. Similarly, during the North Waziristan operation, possibilities exist that militants will move into other tribal hide-outs and settled areas or slip into Afghanistan and continue to pose a threat to Pakistan.
The experience of the last nine years has shown that asymmetric balancing by the militants against Pakistan and the US in Afghanistan cannot be countered with superior conventional force alone. The other lesson is that US must avoid excessive unilateralism when formulating policies about Pakistan and the region. If it claims for a strategic and a long-term partnership, then the genuine interests of Pakistan have to be protected in its policies. It is not a question of merely consulting or informing Pakistan of its policy as it apparently has been doing in case of the Kerry- Lugar Bill and other major issues without taking its interests into account.
The United States and NATO countries should realise that root of the problem lies primarily in Afghanistan and instead of pushing Pakistan to do more, it would be advisable if Washington would use the services of the ISI to act as an interlocutor with the Afghan Taliban and other militant entities to agree to a power-sharing agreement. If there is any country that can still influence the Taliban, it is Pakistan and, to a lesser extent, Saudi Arabia. Only a negotiated settlement can bring a modicum of stability in Afghanistan and provide an exit strategy to US and NATO forces. Increase in troop strength and intensification in military operations has always preceded withdrawal of forces. This was true for the Soviets in the 80s and should be applicable to the US now.
The game in the region would change if the Afghan Talibans agree to a power-sharing agreement with the Karzai government and other political forces in the country. There are already indications that Hikmat Yar is disposed towards a negotiated settlement. The question is: does the US surge of 30,000 troops plus contribution of 5,000 from ISAF countries be sufficiently compelling for the Taliban to agree to come to the negotiating table. As of now they do not appear inclined towards a settlement knowing that the US troop withdrawal will commence in the next 15 to 18 months. But if Pakistan (ISI) were to pressure them, then the attitude of Taliban could be more accommodating. Surely they would be over-rating and miscalculating if they think that they will be the only powerful entity in the post-occupation period. Several other strong entities have emerged in Afghanistan in the last decade and are in a position to challenge the Taliban once the Americans leave. And these are all well armed and well financed, besides having local support.
In addition to the Northern Alliance there is Hikmat Yar, the Haqqani group and several local warlords who will all demand their share in the power structure, even if today they are allies facing a common enemy. Then all Pashtuns are not Taliban. Considering these factors, the Afghan Taliban may well agree to a negotiated settlement in which they also de-link themselves from Al Qaeda.
Moreover, the raison det're of Taliban's insurgency is to resist American and NATO occupation. On the other hand, the rationale for American presence is that the Taliban and Al Qaeda, whom they are giving sanctuary, pose a serious threat. In short, it is a meaningless and open-ended conflict with no end and the sooner the parties realise the futility of it, the better. In making both sides realise the folly of the current confrontation, the ISI can play a critical role. Once a peaceful settlement is reached in Afghanistan, the Pakistani Taliban would then lose their legitimacy and the movement will gradually fizzle out as will external help. This would greatly contribute in stabilising the tribal belt with a positive impact on the rest of Pakistan.
In essence, the key to Afghanistan's peace lies in Pakistan and, ironically, the peace in Pakistan is dependent on the stability and peace in Afghanistan. The ISI is clearly well placed to play a crucial role of an interlocutor between the Afghan Taliban and US, between the Haqqani, Hikmat Yar and the US and work for peace in the region. Of course for this it is necessary to gain the confidence and support of the US.
This would be a far superior option to opening a new front in North Waziristan which may well unite the tribal forces with a huge blow to the rest of the country and the region.
In the event of withdrawal of US forces, after arriving at a negotiated settlement with Taliban, Pakistan's concerns over India's excessive involvement in Afghanistan are also likely to fade.
This policy approach by no means under estimates the very important role of Iran and other neighbouring countries, especially Russia and China in stabilising Afghanistan. Iran has close historical, cultural and religious ties with Afghanistan and has maintained strong economic and political links with its eastern provinces and with Northern Alliance. Iran, besides Pakistan, provides land-locked Afghanistan opening to the sea. China discreetly is developing deep commercial interests in Afghanistan and working on mining and infrastructure projects. Russia is showing renewed interest in Afghanistan. All these countries will like US to withdraw for their own reasons and are interested in the stability of Afghanistan to avoid its impact in their countries.

The writer is a retired lieutenant-general of Pakistan. Email: talat@comsats.net.pk

  A new way in Afghanistan

 In fact India and Pakistan have no other option but to collaborate in Afghanistan to ensure that they and the wider world are not further engulfed in terrorism and its tragic after-effects.

Sunil Sharan

For long-term peace to emerge in South Asia, India and Pakistan must collaborate, not in Kashmir initially, but in a more immediately volatile landscape: Afghanistan.
It is here that India and Pakistan need to put their money where their mouths are and act responsibly by jointly suppressing the infrastructure of terrorism and helping rebuild Afghanistan so that it can take its place in the comity of nations.
India and Pakistan have been at each other's throats since 1947. From time to time, the situation comes to the brink of disaster, and then one or the other country pleads for outside help or both mouth clichés to reassure everyone that all is well. The previous three decades have seen them indulge in their own version of the Great Game in Afghanistan, originally played out between the British and the Russians.
This latest version of the game has had profoundly disastrous consequences, including 9/11 and its attendant bloody aftermath. Barack Obama's aim of departing the region triumphantly (he wants to start American troop withdrawal by July 2011) seems to have had the effect of focusing local minds in directions other than ensuring victory for Nato. Afghanistan, Pakistan and India have all reached for the nearest panic button and started planning for a post-Nato scenario.
Mindful, perhaps, of the fate that befell his hapless forerunner Najibullah, President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan quickly extended an olive branch to the dreaded Mullah Omar, while pleading with the Americans to stay on in his country. Sections of Pakistan's media started questioning the rationale of fighting the erstwhile allies, the Taliban. Some called for mending fences with a force that could soon control Afghanistan.
India, which had recently urged the Americans to stay put in Afghanistan, greeted Mr Obama's announcement with no fresh insight. It would certainly be hard put to countenance a return to a time when the Taliban reigned supreme in Kabul.
With Nato's seemingly imminent exit and local actors furiously planning for contingencies, it is no longer unrealistic to imagine Kabul returning to Taliban rule. The Taliban - in their minds having kicked out a power greater than the Soviets - would become even more emboldened to govern in their own peculiar fashion. With the Iraqi and Afghan campaigns floundering, expect Afghanistan to become a fertile staging ground for future 9/11s.
Certainly the West, India and perhaps even countries such as Iran will strive to prevent this scenario from occurring. Many people in Pakistan and Afghanistan too realise the perils of this dangerous development. Yet the West wants to walk away from such a scenario.
From time to time India and Pakistan rattle sabres at one another, even dangerous ones made of protons and neutrons. Pakistan insists that peace in the region will only and naturally emerge once the Kashmir dispute is resolved. India is deeply suspicious that once Kashmir is settled, Pakistan will create further problems for it. Relations are so fractious that every evening Indian and Pakistani border guards perform a glowering, goose-stepping ritual in which thousands on each side take jingoistic delight.
Pakistan appears to be tottering today and were Kashmir to be discussed, hawks in a resurgent India would want to claim their pound of flesh. Many strategists in Pakistan want, therefore, to wait out the 18 months before American forces start leaving, while beefing up 'strategic depth' in Afghanistan to put pressure on India vis-à-vis Kashmir.
Afghanistan today presents a unique opportunity for India and Pakistan to set aside their historical differences and help the war-torn country emerge not as a crucible of regressive thinking but as a functioning nation that if not an asset to the world, is at least not an ever-ticking time bomb.
In fact India and Pakistan have no other option but to collaborate in Afghanistan to ensure that they and the wider world are not further engulfed in terrorism and its tragic after-effects. The time that Mr Obama has set aside to "finish the job" is unlikely to prove sufficient. What has, after all, not worked for eight years will not bear fruit in much less. Even if a lucky strike decapitates Al Qaeda or the Taliban, both organisations have exhibited an enormous capacity to regenerate themselves.
Over the preceding decades, in trying to outfox each other in Afghanistan both India and Pakistan have developed strong constituencies of support therein. Their militaries are familiar with the country's rugged terrain. The international community must consider installing, under UN mandate, a peace-keeping force in Afghanistan with substantial representation from Indian and Pakistani forces, a hitherto unimaginable possibility but one whose translation into reality is imperative given the terrible consequences of letting Afghanistan go its own way.
Nowhere does the Rubicon of hatred and demonisation run deeper in India and Pakistan than between their respective militaries. Almost none of the current officer cadre, self-professed proud descendants of a common institution, the British Indian Army, has ever interacted with its estranged ilk in any setting, war or peace. In the early 1950s, President Ayub Khan's proposal of a joint defence pact with India was contemptuously repudiated by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru when he said: "Joint defence against whom?"
Sixty years later, the common existentialist threat has well and truly arrived in the form of the Taliban & co. The real Gordian knot to cut in South Asia today is not Kashmir but the historical distrust and endless manoeuvring and counter-manoeuvring between India and Pakistan. The international community has 18 months to cut this knot. It will unravel in Kashmir soon thereafter.
Both India and Pakistan contribute their well-disciplined forces to UN peace-keeping missions in far-flung places. Why not let this charity begin at home? Obama's deadline - which has rattled so many - would instead be better served as a harbinger of peace by planning for an Indo-Pak military contingent in Afghanistan.

Viewpoints

Haiti: a call for a new Obama doctrine

True believers of all faiths shall invoke the Supreme Deity and look for a divine justification for what has happened.

Dr Syed Mansoor Hussain

In a world where many wars - small and large - are going on and the threat of terrorism is an all pervasive fear, it does take a natural calamity of this magnitude to make us realise how insignificant and petty our national and local conniptions against each other are
Haiti! How much more unfortunate can a country be? Just as I, like many others in Pakistan, were adding up our woes from the years gone by, along comes a devastating earthquake in a country that has already suffered incredibly over the last few decades. The capital city of Port au Prince was literally levelled; hospitals, homes, roads, power and communications infrastructure, the UN headquarters and even the presidential palace were destroyed. Casualties are still uncounted and are expected to go above 100,000. More than the dead, it is the wounded and the homeless that make the suffering of this country so poignant. There are just not enough trained personnel or facilities to take care of those that need help and need it urgently. The world has come out in a big way to offer help, but by the time the help gets where it is needed, many more will have perished from wounds and deprivation.
In a world where many wars - small and large - are going on and the threat of terrorism is an all pervasive fear, it does take a natural calamity of this magnitude to make us realise how insignificant and petty our national and local conniptions against each other are. This, despite the fact that mankind has reached a point in scientific development that we can wipe ourselves off the face of this earth with our stockpiles of nuclear weapons.
Haiti is a unique country. It was the first country to fight off its colonial masters more than 200 years ago. It was the first country where transplanted African American slaves along with the indigenous population gained emancipation as well as independence. But since then it has had a sad history. For many of us, more recently Haiti was the country of the tyrant Papa Doc Duvalier and his personal enforcers, the Tonton Macoutes and of course it was the home of voodoo and the zombies.
In the early '90s, Haiti returned to democracy and a priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide won the presidential election with an overwhelming majority, but was soon forced out of the country. Since then Haiti has been on a roller coaster with things getting progressively worse. Today, besides being one of the poorest nations around, it is also a country that has been particularly ravaged in recent years by hurricanes, floods and now this massive earthquake.
True believers of all faiths shall invoke the Supreme Deity and look for a divine justification for what has happened. The less religiously inclined will talk of grinding poverty worsened by corruption and cycles of violence that created a country without the rule of law and, as such, without building codes, or infrastructure that could withstand some of the horrors of this earthquake.
Personally, I think that if we wish to take the divine plan idea one step further, then perhaps the poverty, corruption, lack of governance, dictatorships, repeated military coups, foreign interventions and the repeated natural calamities must also be included in the divine plan. So I hope I will be forgiven if I stick with human frailty and random natural calamity as the cause of the disaster unfolding before us in Haiti.
Many of us in Pakistan remember the earthquake that devastated parts of the northern areas. There is much in common in what happened then to what is happening in Haiti right now. Buildings that were built poorly collapsed and that included almost all government buildings; the rudimentary infrastructure vanished and access to the victims was hard, as was bringing in heavy equipment required for search and rescue operations. But the aftermath of that earthquake in Pakistan was a great example of how the country came together and how foreign aid came in and helped out. Even though the reconstruction efforts are no longer being talked about, it does seem that things are not that bad today and perhaps buildings and roads were rebuilt to be able to withstand future earthquakes better.
Once the immediacy of widespread human tragedy is behind us, international help will allow rebuilding of the infrastructure and other vital services, but ultimately it will be the people of Haiti who will determine whether this is a chance to rebuild not just the brick and mortar but also the very basis of what their country is and could be.
Pakistan was fortunate that in its major earthquake, the area involved was only a small part of the country but in Haiti the entire capital has literally been devastated. It seems almost heartless to say so, but I will repeat the rather overused cliché, that in every major crisis there is also great opportunity.
Perhaps the wealthy countries of the world led by the US, which has spent untold billions of dollars in wars on Iraq and Afghanistan, can put together a credible effort to rebuild this country, not through dole and intermittent aid but through a sustained and mutually respectful partnership with the people of Haiti.
I realise that it is probably a pipedream, but I would like to believe that a country like Haiti can indeed be helped to recover and rebuild and, as a consequence, become a self-sustaining member of the world community rather than just another country labelled as 'one of the poorest'. Let that, then, become the new 'Obama Doctrine'. The US is not only a destroyer but also a builder. And it will help rebuild Haiti not for strategic but for humanitarian reasons.
For us in Pakistan, the disaster in Haiti is also a lesson. When the state withers away and anarchy sets in, random natural disasters are transformed from limited calamities into widespread tragedies that can unravel the entire national fabric.
Finally, as human beings we must accept the simple reality: we are all in this together.

Syed Mansoor Hussain has practised and taught medicine in the US. He can be reached at smhmbbs70@yahoo.com

  Overcoming the Copenhagen failure

The consequences of the failure are already apparent: the price of emission rights in the European Union Emission Trading System has fallen.

Joseph E. Stiglitz  

Pretty speeches can take you only so far. A month after the Copenhagen climate conference, it is clear that the world's leaders were unable to translate rhetoric about global warming into action.
It was, of course, nice that world leaders could agree that it would be bad to risk the devastation that could be wrought by an increase in global temperatures of more than two degrees centigrade. At least they paid some attention to the mounting scientific evidence.
And certain principles set out in the 1992 Rio Framework Convention, including "common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities", were affirmed. So, too, was the developed countries' agreement to "provide adequate, predictable and sustainable financial resources, technology, and capacity-building…." to developing countries.
The failure of Copenhagen was not the absence of a legally binding agreement. The real failure was that there was no agreement about how to achieve the lofty goal of saving the planet, no agreement about reductions in carbon emissions, no agreement on how to share the burden, and no agreement on help for developing countries. Even the commitment of the accord to provide amounts approaching $30 billion for the period 2010-2012 for adaptation and mitigation appears paltry next to the hundreds of billions of dollars that have been doled out to the banks in the bailouts of 2008-2009. If we can afford that much to save banks, we can afford something more to save the planet.
The consequences of the failure are already apparent: the price of emission rights in the European Union Emission Trading System has fallen, which means that firms will have less incentive to reduce emissions now and less incentive to invest in innovations that will reduce emissions in the future. Firms that wanted to do the right thing, to spend the money to reduce their emissions, now worry that doing so would put them at a competitive disadvantage as others continue to emit without restraint. European firms will continue to be at a competitive disadvantage relative to American firms, which bear no cost for their emissions.
Underlying the failure in Copenhagen are some deep problems. The Kyoto approach allocated emission rights, which are a valuable asset. If emissions were appropriately restricted, the value of emission rights would be a couple trillion dollars a year - no wonder that there is a squabble over who should get them.
Clearly, the idea that those who emitted more in the past should get more emission rights for the future is unacceptable. The "minimally" fair allocation to the developing countries requires equal emission rights per capita. Most ethical principles would suggest that, if one is distributing what amounts to "money" around the world, one should give more (per capita) to the poor.
So, too, most ethical principles would suggest that those that have polluted more in the past - especially after the problem was recognised in 1992 - should have less right to pollute in the future. But such an allocation would implicitly transfer hundreds of billions of dollars from rich to poor. Given the difficulty of coming up with even $10 billion a year - let alone the $200 billion a year that is needed for mitigation and adaptation - it is wishful thinking to expect an agreement along these lines.
Perhaps it is time to try another approach: a commitment by each country to raise the price of emissions (whether through a carbon tax or emissions caps) to an agreed level, say, $80 per tonne. Countries could use the revenues as an alternative to other taxes - it makes much more sense to tax bad things than good things. Developed countries could use some of the revenues generated to fulfil their obligations to help the developing countries in terms of adaptation and to compensate them for maintaining forests, which provide a global public good through carbon sequestration.

We have seen that goodwill alone can get us only so far. We must now conjoin self-interest with good intentions, especially because leaders in some countries (particularly the United States) seem afraid of competition from emerging markets even without any advantage they might receive from not having to pay for carbon emissions. A system of border taxes - imposed on imports from countries where firms do not have to pay appropriately for carbon emissions - would level the playing field and provide economic and political incentives for countries to adopt a carbon tax or emission caps. That, in turn, would provide economic incentives for firms to reduce their emissions.
Time is of the essence. While the world dawdles, greenhouse gases are building up in the atmosphere, and the likelihood that the world will meet even the agreed-upon target of limiting global warming to two degrees centigrade is diminishing. We have given the Kyoto approach, based on emission rights, more than a fair chance. Given the fundamental problems underlying it, Copenhagen's failure should not be a surprise. At the very least, it is worth giving the alternative a chance.

The writer is professor at Columbia University and the winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economics. His forthcoming book, "Freefall", will be published this winter. ©Project Syndicate, 2010. www.project-syndicate.org

  US under pressure to turn word into deed

White House officials say Obama never had illusions about Iran but his offer to talk was the right move because it has helped isolate Tehran's hard-line leadership internationally.

Caren Bohan & Ross Colvin 

A year after promising a fresh approach to US foreign policy by offering to engage foes like Iran, President Barack Obama is under pressure for results on an array of diplomatic initiatives.
By trying to pursue dialogue with Iran, pushing for better ties with Moscow and Beijing and reaching out to the Muslim world, Obama devoted much of the first year of his presidency to improving the tone of US relations abroad.
His message of a major break from the "cowboy diplomacy" of the George W. Bush years came across loud and clear. This year will likely bring fewer dramatic gestures and a greater focus on seeking tangible results, analysts said.
Can Obama persuade Tehran to abandon its nuclear ambitions or if not, can he mobilize world powers to push for tougher sanctions on the Islamic Republic? Can he make progress with a recalcitrant North Korea? Can he keep tensions with China, the largest US creditor, from hindering cooperation? These questions loom as Obama seeks to wind down the Iraq war while escalating the conflict in Afghanistan.
"Great expectations have run into daunting challenges and the daunting challenges are winning," said James Lindsay, a former aide to President Bill Clinton. "A lot of Year One of the Obama administration is the year of the word, or better yet the year of the speech," said Lindsay, now with the Council on Foreign Relations. "He's gone about as far as he can in terms of outlining his aspirations and now it's time to turn word into deed."
Domestic politics could limit Obama's room to maneuver in foreign policy. Public anxiety over double-digit US unemployment and health-care reform have pushed Obama's approval ratings below 50 percent versus 70 percent when he took office. Analysts say this fall in popularity limits Obama's room for taking foreign policy risks, as do elections in November in which his Democrat party will seek to maintain its majorities in both houses of Congress.
Conservatives criticized Obama's inaugural speech last year as naive for offering to extend a hand to adversaries like Iran and North Korea if they would "unclench" their fists. Those offers yielded no breakthroughs. The Iranian situation was complicated the growth of a popular opposition movement after a disputed presidential election on June 12.
While making clear his administration is still willing to talk to Iran, Obama is turning his focus toward sanctions. A resolution is expected to be unveiled in the United Nations Security Council within weeks. "They (the Iranian leadership) will still have an open door to change their relationship with the international community if they live up to their obligations," said White House Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes. Those obligations involve not only its nuclear program but its "responsibilities to its people under international norms," he said.
White House officials say Obama never had illusions about Iran but his offer to talk was the right move because it has helped isolate Tehran's hard-line leadership internationally. "We're very happy with the results of the policy of engagement and I think that the misperception in certain quarters is that the engagement is one, an end in and of itself and two that the sole purpose of the engagement is to talk to the Iranian government," Rhodes said. He said engagement "is a means to both communicate directly with the Iranian regime. It's also more broadly the means through which we've been able to more broadly build international consensus around this issue, so that if you need to go to pressure, you're in a much stronger position."
Some Democrats and Republicans have been wary of what they see as a willingness to soft-pedal human rights issues, criticizing Obama's initial muted reaction to protests that followed the disputed Iranian election. His decision in October to forego a meeting with Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama to avoid annoying China also drew criticism. Rights advocates say Obama's pragmatism came at the expense of emphasizing human rights.

International

Pakistan accuses India of ‘unprovoked’ border fire
Dawn Online

Pakistani and Indian forces exchanged fire across their border at the weekend, a Pakistani spokesman said on Monday, the latest in a series of incidents raising tension between the nuclear-armed countries.
In the latest incident, Indian forces using automatic weapons opened "unprovoked firing" on Pakistani positions in the Sialkot area, north of the city Lahore, on Sunday night, a Pakistani paramilitary force spokesman said. "Our soldiers strongly retaliated and forced them to stop firing," Rangers spokesman Nadeem Raza said.
"We have decided to forcefully respond if they resort to firing again." But a spokesman for the Indian border guards told Reuters the exchange was provoked by a militant attack.
"A group of terrorists, attempting to infiltrate, fired at Border Security Force (BSF) personnel, our troops fired in retaliation to stop the infiltrators," Vinod Sharma said. "The exchange of fire continued for sometime."
Last week, Indian officials said one of their soldiers was killed in firing across the Line of Control, which separates the two sides in the disputed Kashmir region, to the north of the Sialkot area. Two days earlier, the two sides traded accusations of firing across their border near Lahore. The border firing underlines the fragility of ties of between the countries.

  Support for Japanese PM falls, Ozawa urged to resign
Xinhua, Tokyo

The support rate for Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's cabinet has dropped, and the majority of those surveyed believed Ichiro Ozawa should resign as the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ)'s secretary-general, two major Japanese newspapers reported on Monday.
One poll conducted by the Asahi Shimbun over the weekend revealed that the support rate for Hatoyama's cabinet had fallen 6percentage points from a month earlier to 42 percent, meanwhile the Yomiuri Shimbun's survey showed support had dropped 11 points to 45 percent.
The surveys were conducted following the arrests of one current and two former aides to Ozawa linked to a dubious land purchase by his political funds management organization.
When questioned whether they thought Ozawa should resign as secretary-general and second in command of the DPJ, following the arrests over the alleged political funding scandal, 67 percent said yes in the Asahi poll and 70 percent agreed in the Yomiuri poll.
The Yomiuri Shimbun noted that 91 percent of respondents said Ozawa had not fulfilled his responsibility to explain to the public about the scandal involving his political funds management organization called Rikuzankai.
Ozawa, seen by many as Japan's most influential politician, is credited with engineering last year's election victory which ended half a century of conservative dominance.
The Yomiuri poll showed that the decision by Hatoyama to allow Ozawa to continue as secretary-general was not a popular one among DPJ supporters, with 51 percent saying it was an inappropriate decision, whilst 37 percent said they agreed with it.

  Kabul ‘under control’ after brazen Taliban assault
Dawn Online

Taliban gunmen launched a brazen assault on targets in the centre of Kabul on Monday, with suicide bombers blowing themselves up at several locations and heavily armed militants fighting a pitched battle in a shopping centre.
The insurgents failed in an apparent attempt to seize government buildings, but demonstrated their ability to cause mayhem at a time when US President Barack Obama is trying to rally support for an expanded military mission to fight them.
It was the worst attack on the city in nearly a year.
Gunfire and loud explosions shook the city and a huge column of smoke towered over its centre, pouring out of the shopping centre where gunmen battled security forces for hours.
After more than four hours of gunbattles, President Hamid Karzai said in a statement that "the security situation is under control and order has once again been restored".
The Taliban said 20 of their fighters were involved in the attacks, which they said targeted the presidential palace, justice ministry, ministry of mines and a presidential administrative building, all clustered in the centre of town.
When the attacks began outside Karzai's sprawling palace compound, he was inside swearing in new members of his cabinet.
"As we were conducting the ceremony of swearing in, a terrorist attack in a part of Kabul close to the presidential palace is going on. This is just one of the dangers," Karzai told ministers.
"The danger that could harm Afghanistan is sowing national discord among Afghans."
US envoy to the region Richard Holbrooke, who had left Kabul hours earlier for New Delhi, said: "The people who are doing this certainly will not survive the attack nor will they succeed, but we can expect this sort of a thing on a regular basis. That is who the Taliban are."
The attacks were a slap in the face for an initiative to lure Taliban fighters to lay down their arms, which Karzai plans to announce at an international conference in London this month.
The initiative is a key part of Obama's new strategy, which will also see 30,000 extra troops sent to turn the tide against a mounting insurgency.
A Reuters correspondent at the scene of the blazing shopping centre siege saw the body of a shopkeeper carried out.

  Sri Lanka pre-poll clash kills opposition supporter
BBC Online

A supporter of Sri Lanka's opposition candidate Sarath Fonseka has been killed in a clash ahead of next week's presidential election, police say.
Opposition activists were attacked in Wariyapola town in the north-west of the country while they were putting up election posters, police said.
The man was killed in a clash with ruling party activists, they said.
The 26 January presidential elections are taking place amid heightened political tension. Gen Fonseka is the main rival to President Rajapaksa.
He resigned from his post as chief of defence staff in November following differences with the government over who should take credit for defeating the Tamil Tiger rebels last May.
'Concerned'
Monday's killing is the third poll-related death in the run-up to the vote.
"One man was killed and several others sustained injuries," news agency AFP quoted a spokesman for the police election secretariat as saying.
Previous elections in Sri Lanka have been marred by violence. Police say they have received reports of nearly 600 incidents of violence connected to the forthcoming election.
President Rajapaksa, who is running for re-election, has ordered a security crackdown, his spokesman Chandrapala Liyanage said.
"The president is deeply concerned about the violence and has already ordered police to make sure that there is tighter security," AFP quoted Mr Liyanage as saying.
"He is also appealing to all parties to ensure there is no violence."
A supporter of Gen Fonseka - 60-year-old Kusuma Kuruppuarachchi - was the first to be killed in the campaign when she was shot in the southern town of Hungama last week.
On Saturday 19-year-old Aruna Saman Kumara, a supporter of the ruling coalition, was killed in a clash with supporters of Gen Fonseka.
The Sri Lankan army defeated the Tamil Tiger rebels last May, ending 26 years of civil war. The rebels were fighting for a separate Tamil homeland.

  North Korea: Sanctions must end before nuclear talks
BBC Online

North Korea has said it will not return to stalled international talks on its nuclear disarmament until sanctions against it are lifted.
North Korea's foreign ministry also repeated its call for a peace treaty to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War.
The US and South Korea have previously said the North must first show progress in ending its nuclear programme.
Sanctions against the North were tightened last year after nuclear and missile tests.
Pyongyang pulled out of six-nation talks on ending its nuclear programme last April following widespread condemnation of a long-range missile launch.
International pressure grew following a nuclear test in May - which drew UN sanctions and further missile tests.
Confidence-building
If North Korea "goes out for the six-party talks, remaining subjected to the sanctions, such talks will not prove to be equal," the North's foreign ministry said in a statement published by the official Korean Central News Agency.
"The dignity of the DPRK [North Korea] will never allow this to happen."
The six-party talks group the two Koreas, plus the US, China, Japan and Russia.
Talks on a treaty to put a formal end to the Korean War would help build "confidence", the foreign ministry added.
The war ended in a ceasefire but not a peace treaty.
Conditions
The six-party talks began in 2003, seeking to convince Pyongyang to give up its nuclear programme in return for aid and security guarantees.
North Korea is believed to have enough plutonium to build about six atomic weapons and has recently announced it is enriching uranium - a second route to building nuclear weapons.
Late last year, North Korea said it may be willing to return to the talks but has now set down conditions.

  Chinese kidnapped as Karzai mulls Taliban strategy
AFP, Kabul

The Taliban said Sunday they had kidnapped two Chinese engineers in Afghanistan, as President Hamid Karzai's office said he was set to announce a new plan for forging peace with the Islamist insurgents.
The kidnapping, the latest in a series by the militia or criminals, came as the NATO military force announced that a US soldier had died in eastern Afghanistan after being wounded while fighting Taliban-led insurgents.
The engineers, who had been helping to build a road, were seized on Saturday in the northern province of Faryab with four Afghans, said a local government spokesman who could not identify the kidnappers.
"Unknown people kidnapped yesterday two Chinese engineers along with their two local drivers and two guards in Qaysar district," said Jawaed Bidar. The abduction was claimed by the Taliban.
"Our mujahedeen have taken two Chinese engineers, their two drivers and their two guards," spokesman Yusuf Ahmadi said. A Taliban's Islamic court would decide on their fate, he said.
Several dozen foreigners, including engineers and journalists, have been kidnapped in Afghanistan since a 2001 US-led operation that toppled the Taliban government.
Some kidnappings are claimed by the insurgents and some by criminal gangs. The Taliban have denied holding two French journalists snatched with three Afghan assistants on December 30.

  Five US terror accused in Pakistan allege torture
BBC Online

Five US citizens being held in Pakistan on suspicion of plotting attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan say they have been tortured in custody.
They made the allegations in comments shouted to reporters as they were being driven from court in eastern Pakistan.
Authorities deny the charge, saying the men made no such complaint in court.
The five students were arrested in a raid in the city of Sargodha in December and face lengthy jail terms if found guilty. They deny any wrongdoing.
'Stomach problem'
The Americans were inside a prison van when several of them shouted "we are being tortured" within earshot of reporters, the Associated Press news agency reported.
Aftab Haanif, the deputy superintendent of Sargodha jail where the men are being held, denied there had been any torture and said the defendants were receiving better food than regular inmates, the agency reported.

 Haiti quake: Death toll may be 200,000, US general says
BBC Online

The leading US general in Haiti has said it is a "reasonable assumption" that up to 200,000 people may have died in last Tuesday's earthquake.
Lt Gen Ken Keen said the disaster was of "epic proportions", but it was "too early to know" the full human cost.
Rescuers pulled more people alive from the rubble at the weekend, but at least 70,000 people have already had burials.
Relief efforts are being slowed by bottlenecks, and many thousands of survivors are fending for themselves. Many Haitians are trying to leave the devastated capital city of Port-au-Prince, and there are security concerns amid reports of looting and violence.
More than 2,000 US marines were expected to arrive in the region on 18 January to bolster US troops and UN peacekeepers already on the ground.
On Monday, European Union nations pledged 200m euros ($287m; £176m) from the EU budget to help rebuilding efforts in Haiti. Ministers were also discussing deploying a security mission to help maintain law and order.
On Sunday, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appealed to frustrated Haitians to be patient over efforts to bring them relief.
Gen Keen, running the US military relief effort, when asked about death toll estimates between 150,000 and 200,000 people, said: "I think the international community is looking at those figures, and I think that's a start point. "Clearly, this is a disaster of epic proportions, and we've got a lot of work ahead of us," he said.
Hope for more rescues Amid the chaos and destruction, a number of people were rescued from collapsed buildings at the weekend. Among the lucky ones was a seven-year-old girl pulled alive from the ruins of a supermarket. At the UN headquarters destroyed in the earthquake, rescuers lifted a Danish staff member alive from the ruins, just 15 minutes after the secretary general visited the site.

  Blair to face Iraq inquiry on 29 January
BBC Online

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair will give evidence to the Iraq inquiry on 29 January, it has been announced.
Mr Blair, the highest profile figure to appear before the panel, will face six hours of questioning.
A public ballot will be held later on Monday for people wanting seats to watch his evidence session. Mr Blair, prime minister during the Iraq war in 2003, is expected to answer questions about the build-up to war and planning for its aftermath.
His former Downing Street chief-of-staff Jonathan Powell will face the committee, chaired by Sir John Chilcot, later on Monday.
He will be followed this week by the former defence secretary Geoff Hoon and Justice Secretary Jack Straw, who was serving as foreign secretary in 2003. The ballot for the appearance by Mr Blair is for 60 seats, with a third of the places being set aside for bereaved families of service personnel or other Britons killed in Iraq.
Last week Mr Blair's former director of communications Alastair Campbell appeared before the panel.
He said he defended "every single word" of the 2002 dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
The inquiry is looking at UK policy before and after the 2003 war.

  Iran says sees signs of progress in nuclear talks
Reuters, Tehran

Iran has exchanged messages with major powers on its nuclear energy programme and sees signs of progress, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Monday, despite Western attempts to impose more sanctions.
"There have been ongoing negotiations and messages are being exchanged so we have to just wait. There are some minor signs indicating a realistic approach, so any probable developments or progress can be discussed later," Mottaki told a news conference in Tehran.
"We are prepared to help in order to facilitate such realistic approaches and this may bear fruit," he said, in remarks aired on English-language Press TV.
Six powers met on Saturday to discuss prospects of imposing further sanctions against Iran over a nuclear programme they suspect the Islamic Republic will use to obtain nuclear weapons. Tehran says it is interested only in generating electricity.
The talks among diplomats from the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China failed to reach an agreement, and afterwards participants said China made clear it opposed more punitive action at present.
Iran ignored U.S. President Barack Obama's Dec. 31, 2009, deadline to respond to an offer from the six powers of economic and political incentives in exchange for halting its nuclear enrichment activities.
All the powers except China sent top-level foreign ministry officials to Saturday's meeting. Beijing, which said earlier this month that it was not the right time for new sanctions, sent only a mid-ranking diplomat from its U.N. mission.

  Netanyahu, Merkel to meet on Iran, Palestinian issues
Reuters, Tel Aviv

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will spend Monday in Germany for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel that are likely to focus on efforts to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions and renew stalled Middle East peace talks.
Half a dozen cabinet colleagues will accompany Netanyahu to meetings in Berlin with German counterparts.
They aim to bolster ties on topics that also include Third World aid, renewable energy and science, officials from both countries said.
On the eve of the trip, Netanyahu told his cabinet Israel attributed "great importance" to its historic ties with Germany, saying they had "a very important impact on Israel's security".
After the Holocaust, post-Nazi Germany was a major provider of aid to the new Israeli state and remains among its staunchest allies, though Berlin has been readier in recent years to join wider European criticism of Israeli policy toward Palestinians.
Netanyahu and Merkel were expected to discuss the latest efforts of six world powers, Germany among them, to impose new sanctions on Iran for its refusal to halt sensitive nuclear developments, officials from both Israel and Germany said.
Israel and its allies accuse Iran of seeking nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian atomic programme. Iran, a major oil producer, says its aim is only to generate electricity.
Israel, assumed to be the Middle East's only nuclear power, sees Iran's project as a threat to its existence, citing hostile rhetoric against the Jewish state by Iranian leaders.
It has not ruled out using force if diplomatic pressure and economic sanctions fail to stop Iran's nuclear development plans.
"We've been saying that now is the time to act to upgrade sanctions" against Iran, an Israeli official told reporters in a briefing ahead of the Berlin talks.
"Ultimately Israel believes the stronger the pressure today the more likely diplomatic efforts will succeed," he said.

  Ukraine PM Tymoshenko to face old rival in runoff
Reuters, Kiev

Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Yanukovich and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko will face each other in a run-off presidential election on Feb. 7 and official results from Sunday's first round suggest a close contest ahead.
The election will define how Ukraine, a former Soviet republic of 46 million people wedged between the European Union and Russia, handles relations with its powerful neighbours, and may help unblock frozen IMF aid for its ailing economy.
With more than 90 percent of ballots counted from Sunday's poll, Yanukovich held a strong lead with 35.39 percent, well below the more than 50 percent needed for outright victory, the Central Election Commission said. Tymoshenko had 24.97 percent. The results set up what could be a close Feb. 7 contest. Analysts say Tymoshenko should pick up more votes from defeated first round candidates, while Yanukovich will have to fight hard to extend his appeal beyond his support base in the Russian-speaking east of the country.
Tymoshenko, 49, helped lead the pro-Western Orange Revolution against Yanukovich's rigged 2004 presidential election victory and is most popular in the European-leaning west of the country.
She hailed the voting pattern as proof that Yanukovich, a 59-year-old former mechanic, had no chance in the second round and immediately began wooing eliminated candidates.
"As of today I am ready for talks so that we can move forward with uniting the democratic forces," she told reporters on Sunday.
"Tymoshenko did probably better than expected, and is propobably the most likely to eventually win when you look at where the votes from the other candidates are likely to go to," said Joanna Gorska, deputy head of Eurasia Forecasting, Exclusive Analysis Ltd.

  Canadian-German arms dealer in dock for slush fund
AFP, Augsburg, Germany

An arms dealer extradited from Canada to Germany over his alleged role in a scandal that helped propel Chancellor Angela Merkel to power went on trial Monday.
After losing a decade-long battle to avoid extradition, Karlheinz Schreiber, 75, appeared in court in the southern city of Augsburg and pleaded innocent to the allegations of tax evasion, bribery, and accessory to fraud.
"I strongly and fully deny the charges read against me and dispute the accusations," Schreiber said in a statement read by one of his attorneys. Schreiber holds dual Canadian and German citizenship and was handed over to German authorities in August after a protracted high-profile campaign to remain in Canada.
Prosecutors say he withheld more than 12.3 million euros (17.7 million dollars) in taxes between 1988 and 1993 and offered bribes to ensure government approval for the sale of armoured cars to Saudi Arabia. Schreiber is accused of playing a key role in a sprawling slush-fund affair that rocked the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party in the 1990s and tarnished the legacy of former chancellor Helmut Kohl.
He is believed to have made an undeclared one-million-mark (500,000-euro) cash donation to the CDU, prompting a political scandal that claimed the scalp of the then head of the party, Wolfgang Schaeuble, now finance minister.
Kohl acknowledged that the CDU had received illegal donations under his leadership but he has steadfastly refused to disclose who had made them.
During the affair, Merkel wrote an editorial in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung daily in 1999 calling for Kohl to come clean over the funding scandal and for the party to break with its murky past.

  White House garden ex-seeds expectations for healthy eating

Xinhua, Beijing

The first harvest of US First Lady Michelle Obama's garden has been a bumper crop: 455 kilograms of fresh vegetables served in the White House, donated to a soup kitchen, and tended by schoolchildren. The plot has generated enthusiasm for home gardening, organic foods and healthy eating. Darlene Superville eats her spinach.
To Michelle Obama, her White House garden is more than a plot of land. It also is a soapbox, a podium from where she can send her message of healthy eating.
The South Lawn garden has given Mrs Obama a platform to speak out about a major childhood obesity problem in the United States, extol the benefits of eating fresh food and teach children early to appreciate vegetables.
It also has offered Mrs Obama another way to open the White House to people who do not normally visit.
The garden now is ready for winter, fitted with protective coverings called "hoop houses," a kind of temporary greenhouse, to help keep various crops - spinach, cauliflower, lettuce, carrots, cabbage - growing during the cold months.
In its first year, aides say the garden has ex-"seeded" expectations. It has become so popular that even foreign dignitaries ask Mrs Obama about it when they meet. Crops have been donated to a neighborhood soup kitchen, and the First Lady's green thumb has inspired others to start gardening.
Local fifth-grade pupils whose public school has a similar garden helped prepare the plot, plant the crops and harvest the produce. They even were brought into the White House kitchen to cook some of the food and experience how eating "fresh" tastes.

Business/Economy

Bangladesh will come out of LDC list by 2021: Muhith
UNB, Dhaka

Finance Minister AMA Muhith on Monday said Bangladesh will be able to come out of the list of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) by 2021 if they can move forward with the targeted pace.
"We have set 2021 the target to come out of the LDCs. For this, we hope to achieve the growth rate of 8% by 2015, which may not be difficult if we go ahead with the Five-Year Plan," he said briefing reporters at the Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel.
"If 8% growth is achieved, it will not be impossible to reach 10% growth. The pace with which we are intending to go ahead, we will be able to achieve our target by 2021," added Muhith, a former bureaucrat turned politician. He thought that they need decentralization of power as well as the national budget to achieve the target as these two are the major barriers.
Muhith listed education and illiteracy as other problems. "Women development has been good and they are really moving ahead. But, problems are there in the health services sector, nutrition and food security. Food security is yet to make a stable shape in the country. He viewed that the situation is getting normal as Bangladesh as a typical LDC country is doing well in macro-economic management.
He said Bangladesh, among the LDCS, gets very low external assistance. It is less than 2% of the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Underscoring the need for more aid, the Finance Minister said, "We also need more investment as our investment is low. Our public investment is barely around 16 percent." Answering to a question, he said the major failure of the Brussels Programme of Action (BPoA) is the donor countries and agencies had failed to provide 0.2% of their GDP to the LDCs. He said that the LDCs are doing better, but they faced setbacks in the last two years. They faced the first debacle of food crisis in the later part of 2007 and then the global economic recession.n
The mid-income countries like Pakistan, Sri Lanka have got most of the assistance, he added.
Muhith suggested a different type of financial system for the LDCs, especially for countries vulnerable to climate change.
Some LDCs also need market access as their domestic market is small. "I think it would be possible to point out the problems and crisis of the LDCs in the Istanbul Conference," said the Finance Minister.
He also held separate meetings with UN Under-Secretary General Dr. Noeleen Heyzer, also the Executive Secretary of ESCAP and UN Under-Secretary General Cheick Sidi Diarra.
Earlier in the day, Muhith presented the keynote paper at the inaugural session of the high level Policy Dialogue on the Brussels Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries.

 BoI chief for SARRC common market to spur economic growth

UNB, Dhaka

Board of Investment chairman SA Samad Monday floated an idea for building a regional seaport and a common market for the South Asian countries to spur the region's economic growth. "It is necessary to set up an international-level joint seaport in the SARRC region for faster economic growth in this area," the BoI chief told reporters after a seminar at a city hotel.
The Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) and SARRC Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) jointly organized the seminar titled 'Regional Cooperation in South Asia :
Potential Sector for Joint Ventures and Investment' with FBCCI president Annisul Huq in the chair.
The BoI chairman said the SAARC countries' GDP growth might double if they can remove the prevailing institutional barriers among them, like customs, poor banking and policies.
Terming the Bangladesh-India joint communiqué very positive approach, he said the SAARC countries should increase their cooperation in all sectors to make a common market. "The SAARC countries, which are huge countries in terms of population, can make a common market to create a strong economy," Samad said.
However, the chief of the investment board lamented that regionalism is dearer to the people in this region despite the SAARC countries having very strong bond in social and cultural sectors. "The spirit of regionalism is not strong in this region," he told the audience from the business communities of the South Asian countries. Referring to Bangladesh government's vision 2021 for strengthening regional and sub-regional relations, Samad said the other countries of this region should have a will to enhance the trade relationship with the neighboring countries.

  Japan’s recovery still fragile
AFP, Tokyo

The world's second-largest economy is recovering but Japan still faces tough challenges, led by the twin threats of deflation and unemployment, the country's finance minister said on Monday.
"The economic situation is still severe, falling short of a self-sustained recovery, even though it is beginning to pick up," newly-appointed Naoto Kan said at the start of a 150-day parliament session.
"Looking ahead, there are the risks of a further worsening of the employment situation and deflation, and the foundation of a strong, private demand-led recovery is still fragile." Asia's top economy plunged into deep recession in 2008 as the global downturn sharply cut into its exports, but it grew at a modest 1.3 percent on an annualised basis in the July-September quarter.
Kan, referring to a stimulus package announced last month-Japan's fourth since the global economic crisis hit-said: "The government will tackle deflation and make sure the economy will recover."
The centre-left government submitted a bill for 7.2 trillion yen (79.1 billion dollars) in spending as part of the package announced last month which it says is worth a total of 274 billion dollars.
To help finance the package and other spending, the government plans to issue new bonds worth 9.342 trillion yen (102.6 billion dollars), Kan said. Japan's public debt is around 180 percent of gross domestic product, largely due to massive spending during the economic "lost decade" of the 1990s.
Kan's predecessor Hirohisa Fujii, who stepped down this month citing health problems, has warned that "Japan's fiscal situation is serious."
Japan's new debt issued this fiscal year will reach 53.5 trillion yen, topping tax revenue for the first time since 1946, the government has said.
Kan said that more than 52 percent of public spending will be financed through bond issues rather than tax revenues. International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, speaking in Tokyo, said tackling soaring government debt is one of the top priorities for global policymakers as a fragile economic recovery takes hold. "We have to fix the consequences of the policies which have been put in place" in response to the global economic crisis, he said.
Addressing the high level of sovereign debt is "probably the top priority" facing developed, and many emerging, economies in the coming years, he said.

  Britain facing decade of economic pain
AFP, London

Britain faces the prospect of a decade of economic pain, after binging on cheap debt, and its recovery will rely on trading more with Asian tigers like China, forecasters warned on Monday.
The economy, expected to have escaped recession in the last quarter of 2009, faces a "challenging" 2010, according to the Independent Treasury Economic Model (ITEM) Club economic forecasting group of auditors Ernst and Young.
"The UK economy has moved out of a decade of debt and into a decade of painful readjustment," the ITEM Club said in a key report published on Monday. "After years of relying on domestic spending and borrowing the economy now needs to rebalance towards saving and exporting, or risk stagnating."
British gross domestic product (GDP) will meanwhile "struggle" to reach 1.0 percent this year. "The UK is facing another challenging year," added chief economic adviser Peter Spencer.
"We are no longer in a position to borrow-the massive debts that we racked up in the last decade now need to be repaid. "The consumer is completely cashed out-with consumer spending likely to increase by just 0.4 percent this year." However, Britain will fare better if the country trades more with Asian powerhouse economies like China, he added.
"It is vital the UK rejuvenates its overseas investment model and starts selling into countries such as China, where we have an exceptionally low market share compared to our leading competitors.
"The UK's recovery is reliant on a roaring trade with the tiger economies," Spencer added.
Official data due on January 26 is widely expected to reveal that Britain exited its longest recession on record during the fourth quarter of 2009, or three months to December.
But the ITEM Club said Monday that this was due to exceptional emergency stimulus measures-like the new-for-old vehicle scrappage scheme that has boosted the troubled auto sector.
Another measure was British finance minister Alistair Darling's temporary cut in taxation on goods and services-or value-added tax (VAT) -- but this expired at the start of the year.

  India to provide additional 30 MW of power to Nepal
PTI, Kathmandu

India on Sunday announced that it would give an additional 30 MW of power to Nepal, which is facing an acute shortage of electricity.
India, which is already providing 20 MW of electricity to Nepal, would give another 30 MW of power, External Affairs Minister of India S M Krishna told reporters as he wound up his three-day visit here.
Nepal is seeking 30 MW more, which India has promised to provide.
Officials of the two countries had on Friday signed an MoU in power sector under which five villages of Nepal would be electrified at the cost of Rs 6.3 crore.
Nepal currently imports 20 MW of electricity from India from the Tanakpur barrage situated in the Indo-Nepal border. With India agreeing to give another 30 MW, Nepal will now receive 50 MW of electricity to deal with power deficit.
At present, Kathmandu and other major cities of the country are going through an eight-hour electricity cut daily due to the low level of water in the reservoirs of the major power stations of Nepal.

 Oil prices rise, UAE welcomes current level
AFP, London

Oil prices rose on Monday as the United Arab Emirates, an OPEC member, described current price levels as "very reasonable."
Crude futures had fallen earlier on Monday amid doubts over the strength of economic recovery in the United States, the world's biggest energy consumer, analysts said.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for February delivery jumped 54 cents to 78.54 dollars a barrel. Brent North Sea crude for delivery in March rose 35 cents to 77.46 dollars a barrel in London midday deals.
United Arab Emirates Energy Minister Mohammad bin Dhaen al-Hamli on Monday said that world oil prices are "very reasonable."
Hamli was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a four-day alternative energy forum being held in the UAE capital. He was subsequently asked if he preferred prices to be in excess of 100 dollars a barrel and said: "I don't like over 100 and don't like 30."
"I am not comfortable with volatility in prices." The UAE is a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
At its last meeting in December, the OPEC oil producers' cartel warned of lingering weakness in the world economy as it decided to hold its crude output quotas unchanged.
Oil prices jumped by around 80 percent in 2009 as traders were heartened by evidence that the battered global economy was on the mend, with the eurozone, Japan and the United States escaping a fierce recession.

  Experts back power import from India
BSS, Dhaka

Experts in power sector support the initiatives of electricity import from India to meet the country's growing energy demands.
The experts from home and abroad shared their idea with BSS on how a regional grid and power trade among neighbouring countries would benefit all of them.
They also expressed their firm belief that importing power from India would help Bangladesh meet its immediate energy needs irrespective of the amount of electricity it would get from that country.
The experts also strongly contradict the claim that the government would entirely open the local electricity market to India through the import deal.
SA Moyeed, who was the chairman of the Power Development Board (PDB) during the BNP-led four-party alliance government, observed that electricity import from India would benefit the country.
He strongly supported the recent understanding on energy cooperation between the two close neighbours.
SA Moyeed, also a researcher and promoter of regional power grid, entirely negated the claim that importing power would completely open Bangladesh market to India.
"We are in a global market", he said and referred to Malaysia, Singapore, USA, Canada and different European countries those are sharing energy market through integrated power grid.
Professor Pushkar Bajracharya, member of the National Planning Commission of Nepal, observed that the regional energy cooperation would help meet power crisis and encourage investment in this sectors in different countries, including Bangladesh, India and Nepal.

Asia faces ‘golden opportunity’ after crisis
AFP, Taipei

Asian financial institutions face a "golden opportunity" after the global slump left their Western counterparts struggling, the deputy head of Singapore's sovereign wealth fund said in Taipei Monday.
Tony Tan, deputy chairman of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) said Asian firms were in much better shape to play a major role on the region's expansion over the next several years.
"Asian financial institutions and markets have been given a golden opportunity," he told a forum in the Taiwan capital, according to the text of his speech.
"The globalised Western banking system, hampered by capital constraints and re-regulation, will likely not be able to intermediate the massive capital demand needed to finance Asian growth."
"This leaves the playing field unusually open for Asian financial institutions and markets, particularly for the next few years."
The GIC is the world's fourth-largest sovereign wealth fund, managing a global portfolio of more than 100 billion US dollars.
Asian banks have benefited from entering the crisis with relatively healthy levels of capital, liquidity and non-performing assets, but now they must act fast, Tan said.
"Asian banks and capital markets will need to develop quickly to step into the breach," he said.
"Regulatory and development authorities in the financial sector in Asia need to cooperate as never before with each other and financial institutions to develop regional financial and capital markets."

National

Weather remains unchanged despite sweeping cold wave in N-region

BSS, Rangpur

The overall weather continues mostly unchanged with some improvements and deteriorations at places for the second day on Mondaywith the sunny sky everywhere in the northern region.
The minimum temperatures marked little falls and the maximum some rises by two to four degrees Celsius on Mondaybringing more relief for the people though a mild cold wave still sweeps over the region amid blowing cooler and stronger winds from the north.
Though the stronger cooler wind is still blowing from the north and north- western directions, it is not affecting the normal life as the stronger sun appeared since Monday morning. The day and farm labourers continued their normal activities while offices, educational institutions, business centres, markets, hats and bazars, river ports and ferry ghats, bus stands and terminals and also rail stations are found with full attendances. "Despite improvement in the weather since on Sunday, we have further intensified distribution of blankets and warm clothes among the cold- hit people in recent days," District Relief and Rehabilitation Officer of Rangpur Mokhlesur Rahman on Mondaytold BSS.
On the other hand, dozens of NGOs as well as charitable organizations, business leaders, banks and well-to- do section of the people are distributing warm clothes among the cold- hit distressed people.
Head of Agriculture of RDRS and noted environmentalist MG Neogi on Mondayinformed BSS that the growth of the Rabi crops including Boro seedlings and plants have been suffering from cold injuries affecting their normal growths. He said that due to long cold spell this season and peculiarity of the overall climatic conditions caused by climate changes, boro rice farmers are facing serious problems in saving their Boro rice seedlings for a number of reasons. He said that rice seed will not germinate at temperatures below 12- 13 degrees Celsius and their root formation will be seriously hampered at temperatures below 16 degrees and minimum 12 degrees Celsius temperature needed for normal leaf development. Besides, he said that minimum 9-16 degrees Celsius temperatures are required for normal tiller formation and if the night temperatures remain below 10 degrees, it will seriously hamper normal development of rice plants. He feared that such lower temperatures and continuous cloudy weather, Boro rice plants can face severe problems in preparing their foods through photosynthesis and in-taking of the nutrients from the soil as per requirements for normal growths. On an average, the minimum temperature ranged between 10.2 and 12.2 degrees on Mondayand maximum temperature remained between 16 and 22.8 degrees Celsius on Mondayat most places in the region.
The Met Office recorded the country's lowest temperature of 9.3 degrees at Jessore on Mondayagainst the lowest of 10 degrees Celsius at Srimangal on Sunday. Besides, the minimum temperature of 10.2 degrees Celsius were recorded on Mondayagainst Sunday's 13 degrees in Rangpur, 11.2 degrees against Sunday's 11.7 in Dinajpur and 11.4 degrees against Sunday's 12 degrees Celsius in Syedpur.
Besides, the minimum temperature was 10.5 degrees Monday morning against Sunday's 12.5 degrees in Ishwardi, 12.2 degrees against 13 degrees in Bogra and 10.8 degrees on Mondayagainst Sunday's 12.2 degrees Celsius in Rajshahi. Reports from the remote areas said that the cold spell has been further eased in places including the char lands in Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Gaibandha, Rangpur, Nilphamari, Bogra and Sirajganj districts on the Brahmaputra basin further amid sunny sky today.

  Shorter treatment of drug-resistant TB in sight
BSS, Dhaka

Bangladesh is optimistic in finding quicker treatment of drug resistant tuberculosis (TB) after preliminary findings of a study marked success in curing patients in nine months instead of two years.
According to the findings of the observational study conducted on 395 multi-drug resistant (MDR) tuberculosis patients, nearly 88 percent have fully recovered from the disease with a combination of four second line drugs that are less toxic and economical.
"The results look very promising and can be the future guideline for global MDR TB management," claimed Dr MA Hamid Selim of Damien Foundation, Bangladesh (DFB).
"This is certainly a great achievement in the field of MDR TB treatment because of the fact that ongoing WHO recommended regime is very long (two years) and costly, while drugs are very toxic and intolerable," said Dr Selim, the country director of DFB.
According to conservative statistics, Bangladesh has a prevalence of an estimated 15,000 MDR-TB patients and only 500 of them get treatments from government's national tuberculosis programme (NTP) and the DFB, also a Belgium based charity.
Lab consultant of Paris-based The Union Dr Armnad Van Deun said in a city seminar that the Bangladesh study in the MDR TB treatment is being imitated in three more countries in Africa- Benin, Cameroon and Niger. Identical results are also coming out from those countries, he added.
Armand said the DFB regimen for MDR TB patient costs around $300, which is one-tenth of the cost of the existing regimen of the World Health organization (WHO). He said the Bangladesh model should be expanded to other parts of the world for experiment through WHO initiatives.
But Director General of Directorate of Health Services (DGHS) Prof. Dr Sha Munir Hossain contradicted with Dr Armand, insisting that the study needs to be conducted over larger populations in and outside Bangladesh before its global uses. He, however, said the result seems highly promising to be qualified even after repeated studies. Line Director of TB Leprosy Programme of DGHS Dr Provat Chandra Barua said the impressive results of the treatment have influenced the government to ask the organization to expand it in 16 districts of Rajshahi division. He said the treatment under DFB regimen has started since middle of 2008 with establishment of drug sensitivity testing (DST) and culture lab in Rajshahi Chest Diseases Hospital.The incidence of drug resistance TB is growing in Bangladesh against a global burden of nearly one million cases due to over focus on control programmes and lack of attention to treatment provision for MDR cases.
The MDR cases costs 30 to 100 times higher for treatments than a routine TB treatment. The country now spends around $10 for a normal TB patient for cure, while it costs up to $3,000 to cure a MDR patient. So far 800 such cases have been treated in Bangladesh.

   3 drown, five missing in Kishoreganj boat capsize
UNB, Kishoreganj

Three women drowned and five other people went missing as an overloaded boat capsized in river Dhaleswari at Banglapara under Astagram upazila on Monday afternoon.
The deceased were identified as Ratna, wife of Lal Mohan Sutradhar, Arati, 25, wife of Hori Mohan Sutradhar, and Pushpa Sarkar,
40, wife of Shambhu Sarkar, of Daspara village in the upazila.
Police and witnesses said the mechanized small boat carrying around 50 people-far beyond its capacity-sank for strong currents created by a launch called MV Kuliarchar-2 while it was anchoring at the bank of the river at about 1:30pm.
"Most of the passengers swam ashore but the eight," says a report quoting the witnesses. Local divers rushed in and recovered three bodies from the river.
The relatives of the missing ones were seen waiting on the banks of the river while some others looking for their dear ones by boat.
The passengers were mostly Hindu devotees going to a temple to attend a religious function.

  Tk 19cr spent for postponed 9th JS polls
BSS, Sangsad Bhaban

A total of Taka 19,35,34, 568 were spent for holding the 9th Jatiya Sangsad polls (postponed) scheduled for January 22 in 2007.
Information Minister Abul Kalam Azad, who is also in-charge of the minister for Election Commission Secretariat in the Jatiya Sangsad, said this in the House on Monday in reply to a question from treasury bench member Israfil Alam.
The minister said a total of Taka 59,95, 79,000 were allocated for the postponed polls from the revenue sector. Of the amount, he said, Taka 19,14,74,348 were spent from the revenue sector, while Taka 20,60,220 were spent for purchasing training equipment from the development sector of the revenue budget.
He also said that Taka 3,90,00,000 were spent for buying new ballot boxes, Taka 2,72,87,618.46 for preparing inalienable ink and purchasing election materials and Taka 24,35,408 for buying gunny and hessian bags.
Besides, the minister said, Taka 12, 27, 51,321.54 were spent in other sectors from the revenue sector in the postponed polls.
He said the EC had given money for expenditure from the beginning of election activities till January 11, 2007, the day when that election was postponed.
"The preparation for holding the polls began in 2006 and money was spent for procuring election materials, printing ballot papers and taking field-level activities at the directives of the EC," he said. So, he said, it should not be wise to hold responsible the field- level officials for wasting money against the EC decision.
Responding to another question from Jatiya Party lawmaker Mohammad Mujibul Haque, the minister also said that the Election Commission is an independent body according to article 118 (4) of the constitution.
"The EC is a constitutional and independent organization and it is under the constitution and law for conducting its activities," he said adding, there is no visible barrier in taking its own decisions and their implementation to perform its constitutional responsibilities.

  Nazrul’s literary works inspire entire Bengali nation towards patriotism

BSS, Rajshahi

Mayor of Rajshahi AHM Khairuzzaman Liton has said the literary works including poetry, song and other features of rebel poet Kazi Nazrul Islam always inspire the whole Bengali nation towards patriotism. He called for proper implementation of spirit of the national poet of Bangladesh to establish non-communal and equity-based society in the country.
"Nazrul's creations will all-along inspire us to build a modern and digital Bangladesh dreamt by the present government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina," he further said while addressing the closing ceremony of a two-day Divisional Nazrul Conference organized by Nazrul Institute at the green plaza of city bhaban as the chief guest here yesterday night.
Mayor Liton said the present government has adopted various steps to make the life and literary works of the rebel poet familiar to the fresh generation across the country and urged all to derive the scopes.

 City’s all canals to be recovered from grabbers gradually: Nanak

BSS, Sangsad Bhaban

State minister for LGRD and Cooperatives Jahangir Kabir Nanak on Monday categorically said that all canals in the city would be recovered gradually from the grasp of illegal grabbers.
Due to shortage of manpower and other logistics, it is not possible to recover all canals overnight, he said while replying to questions from lawmakers on behalf of the LGRD and Cooperatives Minister in the House.
An eviction drive has already been launched against the illegal land grabbers at Mirpur and it would be expanded gradually, Nanak said in reply to a question raised by Advocate Sanjida Khanam for Kamal Ahmed Majumder.
The state minister said Dhaka district administration has been entrusted with the responsibility of demarking the canal areas, being maintained by the WASA. He said the Bogar Ma Khal in Dhaka no more exists as the unscrupulous grabbers have already "eaten it up."
Replying to a question from Golam Kibria Tipu, the state minister said the government has allocated Taka 242 crore for short-term and Taka 1,585 crore for long-term projects for reconstruction and rehabilitation of roads, bridges and culverts in the Sidr and Aila affected areas.
Moreover, three projects involving Taka 162 crore are now under process in the Planning Commission to include in the revised annual development programme, he said adding the reconstruction work would start in full swing once the projects are approved.

 Drastic fall in water levels cause navigability problem
IRRI-boro farming likely to face setback

UNB, Sirajganj

Many shoals emerged at Jamuna and Baral rivers due to drastic fall in water levels, hampering the movement of river crafts.
Water levels of the two rivers fell drastically due to accumulation of silts and prevailing cold wave and dense fog in 16 districts of the northern region.
Twenty-nine ships carrying different goods from Chittagong and Narayanganj heading towards Baghabari port, river port in Shahjadpur upazila, here were stranded at Charshikla in Aricha recently due to the navigability problem.
Movement of river crafts almost came to a halt in Tarash and Raiganj upazilas owing to fall in water level in Chalan Beel.
Many shoals emerged at different places in the rivers near Manikganj, Daulatdia, Jamalpur, Tangail, Bogra and Gaibandha, disrupting river crafts at channels there.
Local sources said IRRI-Boro farming in country's northern region is likely to face setback due to fertilizer and fuel crisis as the plying of river crafts carrying the agri inputs almost came to a halt in the region.

 Call to frame policy to curve sexual harassment at workplaces

BSS, Dhaka

Rights activists at a seminar here today urged the government to formulate a policy to check all sorts of sexual harassment at workplaces.
They also called for waging a strong social movement incorporating all including media people to help check the social crime.
Alliance for Women Workers Rights (AWWR), a rights-based organization, arranged the seminar on "Experience Sharing with Key Stakeholders on Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace" in cooperation with International Labour Organization (ILO) at Jatiya Press Club in the city.
State Minister for Labour and Employment Begum Monnujan Sufian spoke as the chief guest on the occasion with AWWR chairperson Prof Ishrat Shamim in the chair.
ILO Director Panudda Boonpala, AWAR steering committee members Rebeka Sultana Sathi, Rokeya Rafique, Taleya Rahman and Dr Halida Hanum Khondaker addressed the function as designated discussants.
Project director of Bangladeshi Ovibashi Mohila Sramik Association (BOMSA) Sumaya Islam, members of law enforcement agencies, local and international rights organizations, professionals and distinguished personalities took part in the seminar.
Monnujan Sufian said half of the country's total population is women and therefore no tangible development of the country would be possible without the development of women.

Sports

Indian pacemen put Bangladesh under pressure
AFP, Chittagong

Indian pacemen Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma did the early damage to put Bangladesh under pressure in the opening Test here on Monday.
Bangladesh was well placed at 53 for no loss before slipping to 59-3 at stumps on the second day in reply to India's first-innings total of 243, with Zaheer taking two wickets in successive overs and Sharma one.
Raqibul Hasan was unbeaten on one and Mohammad Ashraful had yet to open his account when play was called off due to bad light. Only 24.5 overs were bowled because of poor weather on Monday.
Sachin Tendulkar earlier scored a superb 105 not out under pressure for his 44th Test century to boost India's total. He cracked two sixes and 11 fours in his 166-ball knock.
"The loss of three wickets has obviously put a damper on our fantastic bowling performance," said Bangladesh coach Jamie Siddons.
"It is shaping up to be a very good contest. We still have a lot of batting to come and I am hopeful we will put a very good score and put them under pressure. I hope the batsmen apply themselves."
Bangladesh got off to a sound start, with left-handed openers Tamim Iqbal (31) and Imrul Kayes (23) playing some attractive shots against the Indian strike bowlers.
Iqbal was initially more aggressive, scoring 21 in the opening four overs before his partner opened his account. Kayes outscored Iqbal after lunch, hitting left-arm seamer Zaheer for two boundaries in an over and then driving Shanthakumaran Sreesanth for a four.
Zaheer broke the partnership when he removed Kayes, who was trapped leg-before while playing across the line. He then bowled Iqbal in his next over with a delivery that kept low.
Sharma's lone victim was Shahriar Nafees, who was caught by Venkatsai Laxman at second slip after contributing only four.
India posted their lowest-ever total against Bangladesh despite Tendulkar's century. Their previous lowest in a completed innings was 429 in Dhaka in 2000.
India, reeling at 213-8 on Sunday, lost their remaining two wickets in less than eight overs in the morning, with left-arm spinner Shakib Al Hasan and paceman Shahadat Hossain finishing with five wickets apiece.
Shakib grabbed 5-62 for his sixth haul of five or more wickets in Tests and Shahadat took 5-71 for his third.
Tendulkar, who had only tail-enders Sharma and Sreesanth for company, went for shots early in the morning in pursuit of his century.
Resuming on his overnight score of 76, he pulled Shahadat for a four in the first over after play started 90 minutes late due to fog, and then hoisted Shakib over long-on for a six.
Tendulkar was on 93 when last-man Sreesanth joined him and completed his century with two successive fours off Shahadat.
Scorecard
India 1st innings (overnight 213-8):
G. Gambhir c Rahim b Shahadat 23
V. Sehwag c Tamim b Shakib 52
R. Dravid b Shahadat 4
S. Tendulkar not out 105
V. Laxman st Rahim b Shakib 7
Yuvraj Singh c Rubel b Shakib 12
D. Karthik c Raqibul b Shahadat 0
A. Mishra lbw b Shahadat 14
Zaheer Khan c Raqibul b Shakib 11
I. Sharma c Rahim b Shahadat 1
S. Sreesanth c Kayes b Shakib 1
Extras: (b1, lb6, nb5, w1) 13
Total: (for all out; 70.5 overs) 243
Falls: 1-79 (Sehwag), 2-79 (Gambhir), 3-85 (Dravid), 4-107 (Laxman), 5-149 (Yuvraj), 6-150 (Karthik), 7-182 (Mishra), 8-209 (Zaheer), 9-230 (Sharma), 10-243 (Sreesanth).
Bowling: Shafiul 9-1-41-0, Shahadat 18-2-71-5 (nb2, w1), Rubel 10-0-40-0 (nb3), Shakib 29.5-10-62-5, Mahmudullah 3-0-17-0, Ashraful 1-0-5-0.
Bangladesh 1st innings:
Tamim Iqbal b Zaheer 31
Imrul Kayes lbw b Zaheer 23
Shahriar Nafees c Laxman b Sharma 4
Mohammad Ashraful not out 0
Raqibul Hasan not out 1
Total: (for three wickets; 17 overs) 59
Falls: 1-53 (Kayes), 2-58 (Nafees), 3-58 (Iqbal).
Bowling: Zaheer 9-1-32-2, Sreesanth 3-0-13-0, Sharma 5-1-14-1.

  Swimmers hope four golds
TBT Report 

Bangladesh Swimming Team promised to put up great show in the impending 11th South Asian Games (SAG), to be held from January 29 to February 9 in Dhaka and some other cities across the country.
Combining experience with youthfulness, Bangladesh Swimming Team targeted three gold medals in the men's 50m Breaststroke, 50m Butterfly and 50m Backstroke and one in the women's 50m Backstroke.
Shahjahan Ali Rony, Jewel Ahmed, Rubel Rana and Mahfuza Akhter are expected to win gold medals in the South Asian contest.
Bangladesh team has been going through intensive coaching under Korean coach Park Te Goon, who hoped to reap fruits at a media conference at Olympic Bhaban in city on Monday
"Bangladesh swimmers have worked hard and ready for the final challenge. We won just one gold, six silvers and nine bronzes in Colombo SAG in 2006 but this time we are ready to earn more medals," the General Secretary of Bangladesh Swimming Federation Mahbubur Rahman Shahin said.
Bangladesh Swimming Squad:
Men's team: Mahfuzur Rahman (50m free style/100-m freestyle, Rafiqul Islam (50m freestyle), Nazrul Islam (100m freestyle), Monirul Islam (400m freestyle), Jewel Ahmed Jr (400m freestyle), Shahjahan Ali Rony (50m breaststroke), Kamal Hossain (50m, 100m and 200m breaststroke), Jewel Ahmed (50m and 100m Butterfly), Anik Islam (50m and 100m butterfly), Samedul Islam (100m breaststroke), 200m individual medley), Shariful Islam (200m backstroke), Rubel Rana (50m and 100m backstroke), 200m individual medley, Rabiul Alam Sumon (50m and 100m backstroke) and Hasanul Karim (relay race).
Women's team: Dolly Akhter (50m freestyle, 50m and 100m breaststroke), Sabura Khatun (50m freestyle and 50m backstroke), Sonia Akhter (50m and 100m butterfly), Laboni Akhter Chameli (50m butterfly), Nazma Khatun (100m butterfly), Muslima Khatun (50m backstroke), and Mahfuza Akhter (50m breaststroke).

  Judo players confident to shine in SAG
TBT Report

Bangladesh Judo Team expressed confidence to excel in the 11th South Asian Games (SAG) and better their performances than the last edition in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The General Secretary of Bangladesh Judo Federation Abdul Qadir hoped high with the prospect of Bangladesh Judo Team in the Games. "We have trained our judokas for a long time and the standards of our opponents are almost the same. We hope to flourish in the home ground," Qadir said at a news conference at Olympic Bhaban, Dhaka on Monday.
Six South Asian countries, except Bhutan and Maldives, will participate in judo in the SAG. Bangladesh men's team will take part in the seven events, while the women's will contest the two events.
Bangladesh Judo Team:
Men's team: Abu Bakar Siddique (+60 Kgs), Milton Majumder (-66 Kgs), Habibur Rahman (-73Kgs), Shushil Chandra Mohanta (-81 Kgs), Nurul Islam (-90 kgs), Tariqul Islam (-100 Kgs), Mamun Rashid (+100 Kgs).
Women's team: Shelly Ahmed (-52 Kgs), Farhana Halim Nice (+63 Kgs).
Coach: Akhgor Mohammad Reza.

  Maradona in South Africa after end of suspension
AFP, Johannesburg

Argentine coach Diego Maradona arrived in South Africa on Monday, just days after the end of his two-month suspension from all football activities for his sexually explicit rant at journalists.
The foul-mouthed former great waved and blew kisses at reporters who waited for him at the airport, saying only "Gracias, gracias" from behind his large sunglasses.
He left the airport under police escort. Later Monday he was due to inspect the facilities at the University of Pretoria, where Argentina will set up base camp during the World Cup, less than five months away.
During his five-day trip, Maradona is also expected to visit several South African schools as well as Johannesburg's Soccer City stadium, which will host the opening and the final matches of the World Cup.
World Cup organisers insist that the sporting icon who skippered the 1986 World Cup-winning team will not speak to media during his trip.
Maradona lost his cool with journalists following Argentina's 1-0 qualifying win over Uruguay in October, telling them to "suck it and keep sucking it".
FIFA in November suspended him from all football activities for two months, preventing Maradona from attending the draw in Cape Town last month.

   Ronaldinho's hattrick puts heat on Inter
AFP, Rome

Ronaldinho plundered a hattrick as AC Milan crushed 10-man Siena 4-0 on Sunday to close the gap on Serie A leaders Inter Milan to just six points and with the Milan derby to come next week.
Milan also have a game in hand meaning they could potentially draw level with the four-in-a-row champions if they were to win next weekend's crunch clash.
Playing the league's basement sitters Milan hardly needed a helping hand but they got exactly that as Siena goalkeeper Gianluca Curci was harshly sent off on 10 minutes.
Ronaldinho despatched the resulting penalty and Marco Borriello scored on 28 minutes to put the game to bed before half-time before the Brazilian rounded off the scoring in the second period. Milan coach Leonardo paid tribute to his Brazilian compatriot and looked forward to the derby.
"It's normal when someone feels the love, he responds. He's entertaining everyone, he's a great player," he said of Ronaldinho.
"He's having a great season, he's rediscovered his taste for playing well and scoring goals.
"It's a great time in a great title race (for the derby) and it will create interest because we are closer (to Inter). There will be a lot of expectation and attention and I'm delighted to be a part of that."
Milan started in determined mood following Inter's 2-2 draw at Bari on Saturday and Ronaldinho took an Alessandro Nesta cross on his chest on three minutes before sending a spectacular overhead bicycle kick just off target.
But on 10 minutes the referee took the decision that essentially ended the game as a contest. Jardim Brandao dithered on the ball in his own box and Borriello dispossessed him before trying to round Curci.
There was minimal contact between the pair and Borriello crumpled to the ground but the striker's last touch had been too heavy and left him no chance of reaching the ball before a back-tracking defender.
Even so, the referee pointed to the spot and showed Curci a straight red card. Substitute goalkeeper Gianluca Pegolo's first task was to pick the ball out of his net.
Siena battled on gamely and on 26 minutes Massimo Maccarone someone escaped three defenders on the edge of the Milan box to bundle through before firing over on the stretch as Thiago Silva came across to put him under pressure.
Yet just two minutes later the lead was doubled as Andrea Pirlo curled a cross into the near post and Borriello hooked a brilliant volley over his shoulder and into the top corner.
Ronaldinho proved a constant menace and had two early second half chances, flicking the ball over the bar with the first and being denied by Pegalo with the second.

  Cameroon edges Zambia in Lubango thriller
AFP, Lubango

Cameroon edged Zambia 3-2 in an Africa Cup of Nations Group D thriller at Tundavala Stadium on Sunday to revive hopes of winning the tournament for a fifth time.
Substitute Mohamadou Idrissou headed the 86th-minute winner to complete a late scoring flurry in which Cameroon struck twice within five minutes to snatch the lead only for Zambia to level from a penalty.
Geremi and Samuel Eto'o were the other marksmen for the winners while Jacob Mulenga gave Zambia an early lead and captain Christopher Katongo levelled from a spotkick with nine minutes left. Gabon, who fought out a dour goalless draw with Tunisia in the first half of a double header, lead the pool with four points. Cameroon have three, Tunisia two and Zambia one ahead of the final mini-league fixtures next Thursday.
"We can become better, but we started from a low base," commented coach Paul Le Guen, who took over Cameroon when they were last in their World Cup/Africa Cup of Nations qualifying group.
The former Lyon, Paris Saint-Germain and Rangers boss added: "We found ourselves in difficulty here because Zambia play really well. The first half was very tough for us. Afterwards things got better but I know they're good and that we were fortunate to win and to take the three points."
The Frenchman made two changes from the team shocked 1-0 by Gabon in their opening match, with midfielder Stephane Mbia and striker Tchoyi Somen replacing Landry Nguemo and Achille Webo.
Zambia, also coached by a Frenchman in Herve Renard, stuck with the side that led Tunisia before having to settle for a 1-1 draw in a match they could easily have won.
The Chipolopolo (Copper Bullets) needed no incentive to beat the Indomitable Lions, having suffered a humiliating 5-1 defeat against them at the same stage of the last Nations Cup in Ghana two years ago.
Renard had warned his squad that there is nothing more dangerous than a wounded lion and they heeded his advice by snapping at the feet of their more illustrious opponents from the kick-off.
The in-your-face approach of a country trying to reach the second round for the first time since 1996 paid off after only eight minutes when Netherlands-based Mulenga struck.
This goal once again exposed Cameroon as a team prone to slapstick defending, with a careless Geremi pass intercepted by Felix Katongo, who burst past the veteran defender and crossed from the left.
Rigobert Song, another long-serving defender who was held responsible for the Gabon goal, headed the ball against his goalkeeper Carlos Kameni as he attempted to avert danger and the rebound fell to Mulenga who tapped it home. Cameroon boasted an attack starring three-time African Footballer of the Year Eto'o, but Zambia goalkeeper Kennedy Mweene was not tested until the 36th minute when he reacted swiftly to push away a Jean Makoun drive.

  Clijsters finding consistency
AFP, Melbourne

Reigning US Open champion Kim Clijsters warned she was starting to find consistency after romping to a 6-0, 6-4 win over Canadian qualifier Valerie Tetreault at the Australian Open on Monday.
Coming on court immediately after former champion Maria Sharapova lost an epic three-and-a-half hour clash with Maria Kirilenko, Clijsters needed just 59 minutes to dispose of Tetreault.
The 26-year-old Belgian was too powerful in every department, barely raising a sweat as she won the first set without conceding a game. Tetreault put up a much better fight in the second and matched it with Clijsters until serving at 4-4 when the Belgian broke to lead 5-4, then came out and served for the match.
Former world number one Clijsters, now ranked 15th in the world, won the Brisbane International in the first week of the year, her second title in just five tournaments since making a comeback after marrying and having a baby.
Her three-set win in the Brisbane final over fellow Belgian comeback star Justine Henin was of such high quality that she was immediately installed as one of the favourites to take the opening Grand Slam of the year.
"Obviously my matches in Brisbane have definitely helped me to try to keep everything going," Clijsters said.

 Gabon holds Tunisia goalless
AFP, Lubango

Gabon took a big step towards reaching the quarterfinals of the Africa Cup of Nations here when it drew 0-0 with Tunisia in a Group B match here on Sunday.
The draw consolidated Gabon's lead in Group D after they shocked four-time champions Cameroon 1-0 in their opening match.
Tunisia, champions in 2004, are now in danger of failing to reach the quarter-finals as they are second with two points from as many matches.
Cameroon and Zambia will play at the same venue later on Sunday.
The Azingo of Gabon were the better team but failed to put away the several chances they created and they must have felt a little hard done by when a penalty appeal in their favour was not given by referee Coffi Codjia after skipper Daniel Cousin appeared to have been brought down inside the box a minute from normal time.
Both teams got off to a bright start with Cousin in the thick of the action from the onset.
First in the ninth minute, the Hull City striker almost played in youngster Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang only for Tunisia goalkeeper Aymen Mathlouthi to beat him to the ball and two minutes later, Cousin fired a free kick from distance which only just missed.
Tunisia, though, did not sit back and also pushed forward, knowing they need to win this match to remain in contention for a place in the last eight after they drew 1-1 with Zambia in their opening group game.
In the 17th minute, Lens striker Issam Jomaa shot at the Gabonese goal flew wide even though goalkeeper Ebang Ovono appeared to have covered his post well.
Gabon ought to have taken the lead through Eric Mouloungui in the 20th minute but he failed to direct his free header on target.
However, the best chance of the first 45 minutes fell to the Carthage Eagles when in the 28th minute a faulty pass by a Gabon defender put Amine Chermiti through on goal only for the Tunisian to be brought down on the edge of the box for a free kick which Jomaa blazed wide.
In the 63rd minute, the Tunisian goalkeeper again denied Gabon the opening goal when he parried to safety a powerful Mouloungui shot from outside the area.
Both teams continued to go in search of a goal. Poor ball control let down Emerick Aubameyang on 75 minutes after Cousin floated a cross deep from the left flank and the youngster was all alone with the Tunisian goalkeeper at his mercy.

Hooliganism back at Aussie Open
AFP, Melbourne

Hooligans again marred the Australian Open on Monday with 11 people thrown out of Melbourne Park for unruly behaviour and another group banned from entering.
A rowdy mob gathered on court six and were ejected after standing on chairs and shouting during Croat Ivo Karlovic's match against Czech Radek Stepanek.
One supporter was found carrying two flares.
Security guards marched the troublemakers from the grounds of the opening Grand Slam of the season with the help of police.
They were banned for the duration of the tournament and two were issued with on-the-spot fines of 234 dollars (216 US), one for disrupting play and the other for possessing a flare, but no charges were laid.
Earlier in the day, a large group of chanting Croats lit flares and made offensive and threatening gestures as they headed enmasse to the tournament.
The Herald Sun newspaper said one of its photographers was spat on and slapped as he photographed the group.
"You certainly wouldn't expect it at the tennis," the photographer, Craig Borrow, said on the newspaper's website. "People are supposed to be there to have fun, not to create havoc.
"They weren't there to have fun. They just seemed to be angry for no apparent reason." Victoria state police said eight of the group were refused entry. Superintendent Jock Menzel denied security had failed after flares were smuggled in.

  Amir Khan signs promotion deal
AFP, Los Angeles

British superstar Amir Khan, the World Boxing Association super-lightweight champion, has signed a promotional deal with Oscar de la Hoya, hoping the "Golden Boy" can boost his US recognition.
Khan, 22-1 with 16 knockouts, joined a stable of British fighters that includes WBA heavyweight champion David Haye and Ricky Hatton who have deals with Golden Boy Promotions, which announced the contract with Khan on Sunday."I am really happy," Khan said. "They will be the right team to help me continue my career as an elite fighter and to expand my fan base to the United States and around the world.
"I'm ready to fight anyone, anywhere, anytime and know that Golden Boy will help me accomplish these goals."
Khan won a silver medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics at age 17. Six months ago, Khan took the WBA crown by unanimous decision over Andreas Kotelnik and last month he knocked out Dmitriy Salita in his first title defense. "Amir Khan is one of the most talented fighters in the world at any weight," De la Hoya said. "That talent, combined with his charismatic and out-going personality, makes him a promoter's dream and I feel will one day lead him to being the face of boxing."