saturday, JANUARY 2, 2010 Poush 19, 1416, muharram 15, 1430 Hijri

   Leading news  Back Page  Editorial   Analysis  Viewpoints   International   Business/Economy   National   Sports    Back

Leading News

Country being run not by this govt, but from outside: Khaleda
She urges PM not to give consent to Tipai Dam, Asian Highway
and resolve maritime boundary, killing by BSF issues

UNB, Dhaka

Opposition leader and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia on Friday declared that the Prime Minister will be greeted with garlands at the airport if she could protect Bangladesh's interest during her upcoming India tour, else she will find all her paths strewn with thorns.
Addressing a student rally at Paltan Maidan marking the 31st founding anniversary of the Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD), she urged her key political opponent not to give consent to the Tipaimukh Dam and corridor to India in the name of the Asian Highway, to resolve the maritime boundary issue and halt killing of Bangladeshis by Indian BSF.
"If you (PM) return empty handed from New Delhi by sacrificing the country's interest, we will be compelled to take to the streets," Khaleda, chairperson of BNP, cautioned Sheikh Hasina amidst cheers from her student followers.
Wondering who is running the country, she claimed that those in power are not running the country it is being run from some other places. "This government is not running the country; it is being run from some other places," the former Prime Minister said, citing deployment of defence personnel at a foreign High Commi-ssion in Dhaka in the name of security.
The Foreign Ministry and the Home Ministry are saying that they don't know anything about it, she said, adding that "it proves the present government is not running the country."
The BNP chief said the country's independence, sovereignty and security is at stake. She alleged that the first one-year of the present government is marked by killing, terrorism, tender manipulation and price-hike of essentials. The BNP chairperson urged the government to solve the standoff in parliament and take correct and courageous decisions on the Tipaimukh Dam and the Asian Highway.
"Scrap all decisions or assurances (given to India) against national interests… Uphold national interest with courage. We'll extend cooperation," she said.
The opposition leader further alleged that the Awami League-led government is busy in fulfilling pledges given to its foreign masters instead of meeting the pledges given to the people. "It would be futile to serve the purpose of the foreign masters as they won't be able to protect your government. It's only almighty Allah and the people who can protect you," she said.
The BNP chairperson said the Prime Minister had quit the leadership of her student body, Chhatra League, after failing to control them. If she can't run the country she should resign from the prime minister. Responding to the government claim that killing in crossfire has stopped, she said if it is not crossfire was it secret killing?
"If you want to stay in power fulltime, resolve problems of gas and electricity, and refrain from signing deal against the country's interest," Khaleda said indicating the Prime Minis-ter. "Let us unitedly protect democracy, she added."
BNP leaders Khandaker Delwar Hossain, Dr Khan-daker Mosharraf Hossain, Amanullah Aman and Fazlul Huq Milan, among others, also addressed the meeting, presided over by JCD president Sultan Salahuddin Tuku.

 DITF INAUGURATED
PM calls for diversification of products to boost exports

UNB, Dhaka

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Friday urged the country's industrialists and entrepreneurs for diversification of products in order to increase exports from Bangladesh.
Inaugurating the 15th Dhaka International Trade Fair-2010 at the city' s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar (west side of Bangabandhu
International Conference Centre) in the morning, she also hoped that Bangla-desh will be able to attain export target of US$ 17.60 billion in the 2009-10 fiscal.
Hasina said exports from Bangladesh are limited to a few number of products while scopes are enormous here for manufacturing products at low prices. "I urge the industrialists and entrepreneurs to make best use of such opportunity and through producing diversified products increase exports from the country."
The Prime Minister declared open the month-long international trade fair, which is scheduled to end on January 31 and is being participated by 476 stalls from home and abroad and 28 pavilions from 10 foreign counties.
Commerce Minister Mohammad Faruk Khan MP, acting Commerce Secretary Mustafa Mohi-uddin, Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) Vice Chair-man Md. Sahab Ullah and FBCCI president Annisul Huq also spoke at the inaugural function.
The stalls and pavilions will remain open for the visitors from 10 am to 10 pm everyday. Addressing the function as chief guest, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina also asked the country's manufacturers to ensure best quality of their products to capture the expanding international markets.
She said only by ensuring employment for people, poverty can be alleviated and there is no alternative to industrialization for creating employment opportunities. "And I am giving you the assurance that the government will give all possible cooperation and assistance for setting up industries in the country," she told the industrialists and businessmen present at the function.
Hasina told the function that she and her government are fully aware about the problems facing the mills and factories of the country.
"Electricity crisis is the biggest obstacle to industrialization in our country. You know during its 1996-2001 tenure, the Awami League government added some 2600 MW of electricity to the national grid," she said. "But the next BNP-Jamaat government in its five years did not add even a single MW of power to the grid," Hasina said. "During that time many power plants went out of order for lack of maintenance and repair as the power sector experienced limitless corruption and looting."
She added: "Country's people now have to bear the consequences of the BNP-Jamaat alliance's failure and inefficiency."

 Peace, stability in south asia logical: Gen. Kayani
APP, Rawalpindi

Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff (COAS), General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani on Friday said that peace and stability in South Asia (and beyond) is the logical and fundamental principle underlining the security calculus/paradigm of Pakistan. He said this while addressing senior officers at General Headquarters. The COAS said that proponents of conventional application of military forces, in a 'nuclear overhang' are chartering an adventurous and dangerous path; the consequences of which could be both unintended and uncontrollable.
General Kayani said that Pakistan Army is fully alert and alive to the full
spectrum of threat which continues to exist in conventional and unconventional domains.
Pakistan is not oblivious to the unprecedented acquisition of sophisticated military hardware, synergized with an offensive military doctrine.
However, as a responsible nuclear capable state, Pakistan Army will contribute to strategic stability and strategic restraint as per the stated policy of Government of Pakistan.
But at the same time will continue to maintain the necessary wherewithal to deter and, if required, defeat any aggressive design, in any form or shape i.e, a firmed up 'proactive strategy' or a 'cold start doctrine'.
The COAS reaffirmed that Pakistan Army stands committed and prepared to respond to any existing, potential or emerging threat. An Army supported by 170 Million people, with faith in Allah, is a formidable force to reckon with.

 Cold wave claims 30 lives in Khulna
BSS, Khulna

Cold wave coupled with chilly wind and dense fog had been continuing in the south-west region of the country claiming 30 lives in the Aila-hit areas of the district during the last 12 days.
Thousands of Aila-affected people, including women and children, have been suffering from various cold-related diseases, including pneumonia. Over 50 children are now undergoing treatment at Aila-hit Dakop and Koira upazilas.
The severity of the cold has remained unchanged in all nine upazilas of the district, forcing thousands of people to stay at makeshift houses and the sun still remained covered by dense fog and cloud. Chairman of Kamarkhola UP under Dakop upazila Samresh Roy told BSS that at least 20 people, including 10 babies, died of biting cold and pneumonia during the last 12 days.
Bidhu Narayan Sarder, chairman of Sutarkhai UP, also said seven people, including four babies, died of biting cold and pneumonia.
The cold wave also claimed two more lives at Batiaghata and Dumuria upazilas of the district during the same period.
Over two lakh people particularly of Kamarkhali, Suterkhali and Tildanga unions of Dakop upazila have been suffering due to the biting cold. They are living in makeshift camps erected under the open sky. They are yet to be provided with sufficient warm-clothes, medicine and drinking water. As a result, people are suffering from cold-related and water-borne diseases, Upazila Medical Officer Akbar Hossain said.Dakop UNO Kazi Atiur Rahman confirming the deaths due to the biting cold said the situation is becoming alarming as the cold wave continues to be severe. A report from Rajshai says, the cold weather following sharp fall in both maximum and minimum temperatures coupled with chilly wind and cloudy conditions paralysed normal life in the city and its adjacent areas on Friday.
Mercury dipped again during the past 24 hours and cooler winds added sufferings to common people in the northern region particularly in the remotest char areas.
Local Met Office recorded the minimum temperature at 10.6 degrees Celsius on Friday against yesterday's 11.4 degrees while the highest temperature further dipped to 20.6 degrees against 22.8 degrees in the metropolis yesterday.
The sun peeped through the thick layers of clouds in some areas this noon though the most places and the char areas in the river basins remained covered with fog reducing visibility till the noon.
Sufferings of the people of the slum, the char and rural areas in the river basins started mounting again due to the blowing cooler winds from the north and northwestern directions.

  Full-fledged national executive committee of BNP declared
New faces, those active during emergency rule incorporated in committee

UNB, Dhaka

The much-awaited full-pledged 386-member central national executive committee of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) was officially announced Friday night.
BNP senior joint secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir announced the full-pledged national executive committee and the 32-member BNP chairperson's advisory council at a press conference at BNP chairperson's Gulshan office at 8:50pm.
The full-pledged national executive committee:
Chairperson- Begum Khaleda Zia, senior vice-chairman- Tarique Rahman, vice-chairmen- Justice TH Khan, M Morshed Khan, Shah Moazzem Hossain, Rabeya Chowdhury, Air Vice Marshal (retd) Altaf Hossain Chowdhury, Harun-or-Rashid, Abdullah Al Noman, Chowdhury Kamal-ibne-Yusuf, Selima Rahman, Maj (retd) Hafizuddin Ahmed, Mayor Sadek Hossain Khoka, Kazi Shah Mofazzel Hossian Kaikobad MP, Shamsher Mobin Chow-dhury, Begum Razia Fayez and Abdus Salam Pintu.
Secretary General- Khandaker Delwar Hossain. Senior joint secretary general- Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Treasurer- Abdul Mannan.
Seven joint secretaries general- Amanullah Aman, Mizanur Rahman Minu, Barkatullah Bulu MP, Mohmmad Shahjahan, Salahuddin Ahmed, Barris-ter Mahbubuddin Khokon and Ruhul Kabir Rizvi.
Six divisional organizing secretaries: Fazlul Huq Milon (Dhaka), Golam Akbar Khandaker (Chitta-gong), Mashiur Rahman (Khulna) Harunur Rashid (Rajshahi), Mojibur Rahman Sarwar (Barishal) and Elias Ali (Sylhet).
Secretary on special duty- Nadim Mostafa, Publicity secretary - Zainul Abdin Farruque MP.
Seven international affairs secretaries: Gias-uddin Quader Chowdhury, Dr Asuduzzaman Ripon, Lutfar Rahman Khan Azad, Mir M Nasiruddin, Ehsanul Huq Milon Zakaria Taher Suman and Kamruddin Ahmed.
The names of 265 executive committee members were also declared.
Earlier, on December 13, the names of a 19-member national standing committee, the party's highest policymaking body, and eight joint secretaries general, including one senior joint secretary general of the national executive committee were announced with approval of the incumbent secretary general as secretary general until the new secretary general is elected.
On December 8, during the fifth national council of BNP, the party councilors from across the country unanimously elected Tarique Rahman, now in the UK for treatment, as its senior vice-chairman.
The councilors also empowered Khaleda Zia who was reelected unopposed as party chairperson on December 4 to elect the members of standing committee, national executive committee and other bodies.
"After 23 days of consultation with all concerned, BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia accomplished her assigned responsibility to elect the full-fledged national executive committee and the advisory council body of the BNP chairperson," said a senior party leader.
"New faces, particularly those who were with the party at its bad and crucial time during the last military-backed caretaker government as well as former JCD leaders have been incorporated in the new committee for a three-year term. Leaders known as reformists were also accommodated in the executive committee," the BNP leader said.

  Ensuring quality education main target of govt : Nahid
BSS, Dhaka

Improvement of quality and restoring discipline in management in education sector for grooming a skilled, enlightened, creative and talented posterity remained the focus of activities during the last one year.
The activities of the government include formulation of education policy, which will be implemented in phases. It worked relentlessly for ensuring free distribution of textbooks and uploading those in the websites and inclusion of real history of the War of Liberation.
The education sector also witnessed finalization of policies for Monthly Payment Order (MPO) for educational institutions.
Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid said, "The main target of the government is to ensure quality education for all to build a Digital Bangladesh."
Quality teacher, training and syllabus are must to ensure quality education, he said adding, "We are working for building a skilled, modern, patriot generation with high moral values." "A dynamic and corruption free education management will also be created to achieve these goals," he added. The historic speech of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on March 7, 1971 and the declaration of independence promulgated on April 10 have also been incorporated in the textbook of class eight. In the last year, for the first time Bangabandhu's martyrdom anniversary, August 15, was observed formally in the educational institutions across the country.
In the outgoing year, the Ministry of Education gave academic recognition to 59 colleges, 168 madrasas, and renewed approval of 250 madrasas.
The ministry gave permission to 57 colleges to introduce various departments, 57 madrasas to introduce science department in the Dakhil level and introduce computer in 78 madrasas.

Back Page

Suicide bomb kills 25 at Pakistan volleyball game
AFP, Peshawar, Pakistan

Twenty-five people were killed and 50 others wounded Friday when a suicide bomber blew himself up as people gathered to watch a volleyball game in northwest Pakistan, police said.
"The death toll has risen to 25 and more than 50 people are wounded," said Habibullah Khan, police chief in the area of Bannu district, where the blast occurred.
"There was a match between two village teams and a lot of people were watching it," he told AFP.
BBC adds: A bomb has exploded close to a volleyball game in the troubled north-west of Pakistan, with as many as 10 people feared dead. "We have reports of nine to 10 deaths, but this number could increase," local police chief Ayub Khan told Reuters news agency.
At least one home close to the sports field collapsed because of the blast. The attack took place in Lakki Marwat, close to the tribal areas of North and South Waziristan.
A police official told Reuters that a suicide bomber had approached the game on foot and blown himself up.
"There's a lot of damage. Roofs of nearby houses collapsed. There could be high casualties," the official, Habibullah Khan, said. But another report cited police as saying the bomber drove a car packed with explosives on to the field as people gathered to watch the match.
Mr Khan was quoted by the Associated Press as saying the attack may have been in retaliation for attempts by locals to expel militants by setting up their own militia.
North and South Waziristan form a lethal militant belt from where insurgents have launched attacks across north-west Pakistan as well as into parts of eastern Afghanistan. Since October, the Pakistani army has been carrying out a ground offensive against militants in South Waziristan.

  I’m ready for supreme sacrifice to establish people’s rights: Rehana

UNB, Sylhet

Bangabandhu's youngest daughter Sheikh Rehana Friday said she is ready to sacrifice her life like Bangabandhu to build Sonar Bangla and establish people's rights.
"It's possible to establish the rights of the deprived people through building non-communal and happy Bangladesh as dreamt by Father of the Nation Bana-gbandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman," she told a luncheon organized in her honour.
Sylhet City Corporation organized the luncheon at the city's Gold Club.
Rehana said she considered the people of Sylhet as her relatives as the expatriate Sylhetis always try to make her forget the pain of losing her near and dear ones. City Mayor Badaru-ddin Ahmed Kam-ran, Shafiqur Rahman Chow-dhury MP, Mahmud-us-Samad Chowdhury Kayes MP, district Awami League president ANH Shafiqul Haque and secretary Iftekhar Hossain Shamim, among others, attended the function.
Earlier, the Bangabandhu's daughter reached Sylhet on a family tour in the morning.
Before joining the luncheon, she visited Jaflong in the morning and set out for Dhaka after visiting Hakaluki Haor in the evening.

  PM exchanges New Year greetings with party men
UNB, Dhaka

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina exchanged New Year' s greetings with leaders and activists of Awami League and its associate bodies at her official residence Jamuna Friday afternoon.
Hundreds of party followers from Awami League, Juba League, Swechcha-sebak League, Chhatra League and various pro-Awami League cultural bodies thronged Jamuna to greet their party president.
Standing in a long queue, the party supporters, including a good number of women, conveyed their greetings presenting bouquets.
Members of the Awami League Advisory Council and former presidium member, widely known as reformist after the 1/11 political changeover Amir Hossain Amu MP, and Jatiya Party leader Ziauddin Bablu also went to Jamuna to greet the PM on the first day of 2010.
Awami League presidium members Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim MP, Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury MP, Dr Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir MP, Obaidul Kader MP, Abdul Latif Siddique, Advocate Yusuf Hossain Humayun, Awami League general secretary LGRD Minister Syed Ashraful Islam, Home Minister Sahara Khatun, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid, Adviser to the Prime Minister Syed Mudasser Ali, party joint general secretary Foreign Minister Dr Dipu Moni and special assistant to the Prime Minister Mahbubul Hanif, organizing secretary LGRD State Minister Jahangir Kabir Nanak MP, Juba League general secretary Whip Mirza Azam MP and AL deputy office secretary Mrinal Kanti Das, among others, were in Jamuna on the occasion.
Besides, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam and Sonali Bank Director Subhash Singho Roy were also present. The party followers and other guests wished the Prime Minister good health and long life. The Prime Minister exchanged pleasantries with them and prayed for the country's peace and prosperity.

   ADR being made mandatory in both civil, criminal courts
UNB, Dhaka

The government is actively considering introducing Alte-rnative Dispute Reso-lution (ADR) as mandatory trial mode both in civil and criminal courts to remove the logjam of cases for mitigating the sufferings of justice-seekers.
"It needs amendment to the century-old Criminal Proc-edure Code (CrPC) for implementation of the new justice mechanism, which has already proved effective in many countries," said Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Barrister Shafique Ahmed.
In an exclusive interview with UNB on completion of one year of the Awami League-led grand alliance government the Law Minister said that currently the ADR has been functioning at the Artha Rin Adalat as it was incorporated into the financial loan court law enacted in 2003. "We now want to introduce ADR in the criminal courts across the country to speedily resolve the compoundable offen-ces punishable under the sections of the Penal Code to get rid of huge backlog cases," said Barrister Shafique.
The compoundable offe-nces, among others, include defamation, uttering words intended to wound the religious feelings of any person, wrongfully restraining or confining any person, wrongful confinement to extort confession or force restoration of property, assault or use of criminal force, unlawful compulsory labour, criminal trespass, house trespass, loss or damage to private person.
Criminal breach of trust, criminal breach of contract of service, adultery, insult intended to provoke a breach of peace, rioting armed with deadly weapons, act endangering human life or the personal safety of others, theft in dwelling house, theft by clerk or servant of property in possession of master, dishonest misappropriation of property, cheating, using a false trade or property mark, marrying again during lifetime of a husband or wife and eave-teasing are also among the offences.
Asked about the Law Ministry's success in the year that has gone by, the technocrat-minister said that the government established the rule of law in the country securing the final judgment of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on the long-stalled Bangabandhu murder case by increasing the number of apex court judges.
Terming it a highpoint in the past one-year run, the Law Minister said, "Were the number of judges not increased to constitute a bench for hearing the long-pending appeal filed by five of the condemned ex-army officers in custody, the conclusive verdict on the Bangabandhu murder case would have been a far cry."

   EC plans to complete local bodies’ election in 2010
BSS, Dhaka

New year 2010 will be an 'Election Year' for the Election Commission (EC) as it has planned to complete elections of local government bodies, including elections of two major city corporations this year.
Election Commissioner M Sakhawat Hossain said the commission will discuss with the leaders of the political parties very shortly for necessary changes in the electoral laws.
Law wing of the commission is making the talking points with the political parties, he said.
EC officials said the commission has already taken preparatory measures to hold the election to Dhaka City Corporation (DCC), 509 pourasabhas and 5,509 Union Parishad.
Seventy-nine unions are being administered by non-elected persons for last ten years, he said adding the EC has taken initiative to hold election in those unions also.
Sakhawat Hossain told BSS that DCC election is likely to be held in March and schedule of the election will be announced in February.
Highlighting the last year's success of the commission, he said the commission could establish its image as an independent and capable constitutional body.
The commission worked very neutrally keeping it above any political influence and brought many reforms in its administrative system, he said.

   Agribusiness has bright prospect in Bangladesh
UNB, Dhaka

Agribusiness can play an important role in resolving the country's unemployment problem, as only one project has created 45,000 jobs since 2006, according to experts.
"Bangladesh Agribusiness Development Project under the Department of Agric-ulture Marketing has so far created employment opportunities for around 45,000 people and is expected to raise the number to around 70,000 in 2010 when the project will expire," said Bang-ladesh Agribusiness Devel-opment Project Director Md Mahmud Hossain.
He said employment opportunities are created through providing loan to entrepreneurs for distribution and maintenance of agricultural machineries, production of all types of agricultural commodities and inputs, preservation, processing, marketing and transportation of agricultural produces and production of non-custom agricultural products on commercial basis.
The project has a target to disburse Tk 250 crore in loan among 28,000 tested entre-preneurs, including 35 percent women, across the country, to increase their agribusiness activities and create employment opportunities to alleviate poverty. The amount of loan ranges from Tk 35,000 to Tk 3,50,000 each and it is payable by six months to three years at 12.5 percent interest.
Since the beginning of the project in 2006, an amount of Tk 180 crore has been disbursed among some 20,000 entrepreneurs with 100 percent recovery rate. The loan is disbursed through three NGOs - BRAC, ASA and TMSS-and also through BASIC Bank Ltd. and Eastern Bank Ltd.
Talking to UNB, Md Mahmud Hossain said, "We got much closer to our target. We've encouraged the chain shops like BDR Shop, Meena Bazar and ACI (Swapna) to collect various agricultural produces, including vegetables, from agro-entrepreneurs. With this, the entrepreneurs get better benefited as the middlemen are disappearing." he added.
About training and installment of loans, Mahmud said they have made mandatory for the NGOs to impart training to the entrepreneurs and extended the date of the 1st installment of the loan to 45 days from its previous 7-30 days.

Editorial

Fatal road accidents

It is a matter of grave concern that the country's roads and highways have turned into death traps as fatal accidents are taking place there frequently. At least 17 people were killed and 56 others injured as a bus crashed into a roadside tree in Faridpur Friday. Earlier, on Tuesday 17 people were killed and 40 injured in road accidents in four districts. Six people were killed and eight injured in road accidents in three districts on previous Friday. On December 6 At least 21 people including six women and five children were killed and 50 others injured as two passenger packed buses collided head-on in the Dhaka-Barisal highway and then both crashed into a roadside ditch at Sadarbari in Bhanga upazaila. Besides, at least 48 people were killed and 222 injured in road accidents across the country during the four days from November 27 to 30.
These are some of the incidents of major road accidents which took place in the country in recent days. Apart from this, accidents occurred at different places almost on daily basis. In fact, incidents of road accidents are increasing alarmingly while government road safety institutions are almost dysfunctional due to reported fund shortage and lack of awareness. National Road Safety Council (NRSC), the sole government institution for ensuring road safety, is supposed to hold a meeting every three months, but it does not do so. There is a road safety cell under Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) and a road safety division under Roads & Highways Department which are also dysfunctional. Most painfully, the traffic rules are not strictly enforced on roads and highways.
Around 40,000 road accidents in Bangladesh claimed 30,103 lives and injured 30,833 others in last ten years costing an amount of about Tk 45,000 crore. According to the ARC, around 4,000 people die in road accidents in Bangladesh every year and 60 per cent of the road accidents occur due to road users' errors, 30 per cent for adverse road conditions or environment and 10 per cent for faulty vehicles. Road accidents cause deaths and injuries to a large number of people in the country every year. Hardly any day passes off without an accident taking place somewhere in the urban or rural areas. So, these are not new or surprising though definitely tragic and unfortunate. But what appears to be stunning and deplorable is the inaction of the bodies responsible for checking road accidents.
Road accidents are posing a serious threat to public life specially on Dhaka-Aricha, Dhaka-Barisal, Dhaka-Chittagong and Dhaka-Sylhet high ways as a result of reckless driving by a section of drivers of minibuses, microbuses and buses running on long distance routes. The drivers move in a free-style due to lack of checking of fitness certificates of vehicles and driving licenses of drivers regularly. Some of the vehicles move on the highway without any valid documents. The authorities are responsible for this as they remain indifferent to this violation.
The large number of road accidents and the deaths and injuries caused therein can hardly be ignored. As many as 4000 tragic deaths in road accidents in a year is definitely a very serious matter. Besides, many people injured in the accidents are crippled for life plunging their families in miseries. So, the alarming road accident issue should be taken up seriously by the government and everything possible should be done to check accidents and minimise the casualties. To that end, more stringent traffic laws should be enacted and the laws should be strictly enforced. The driver responsible for the accident must be punished. Legal provision should be made to force the owner of the buses causing deaths and injuries to passengers to pay adequate compensation to the families of the victims to help them sustain.

  Killings on the rise

According to media reports, the incidents of killing in 2009 marked a rise, but other crimes like dacoity, burglary, kidnapping and violence against women showed downtrend compared to the ones in 2008. Police say a total of 4,796 people were killed across the country from January 1, to December 22, 2009 compared to 4,099 from January 1, to December 31, 2008. However, Home Minister Sahara Khatun recently reiterated that the law and order situation in the country marked an improvement in the last one year compared to any period in the past.
But in view of the rise in the incidents of killings, specially in the city, it is difficult to agree to the contention that law and order situation has improved. Rather, such claim is made by every government even if the situation deteriorates. In the present case, Police are reportedly failing to contain crimes despite their efforts in various ways. Some people have started calling Dhaka a 'city of murder' as the number of killings is on the rise.
Against this backdrop, time has come for the administration to look into the matter seriously and do the needful. One thing should be kept in mind in this respect that alleged patronage of some politicians to the criminals and protection provided for them by a section of police officials are among the reasons for rise in the incidents of crimes specially murder. So, these patrons and protectors of the criminals must also be taken to task.

Analysis

A year of living on the edge

The year went down as the deadliest in Pakistan's history. A record number of bombings shook the country, casualties among civilians and security personnel shot to a new high, as did IED explosions and suicide attacks.

Dr Maleeha Lodhi

Even by the standards of Pakistan's volatile political history, 2009 was a year of turmoil and disarray, with governance in a shambles for much of the year and the embattled country lurching rudderless to confront one challenge after another. In a year that generated more gloom than hope, the leadership void was the defining theme.
At year-end, Pakistan plunged into deep political uncertainty in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling that declared the National Reconciliation Ordinance ultra vires of the Constitution. The note of defiance struck by the government - despite declarations to the contrary - and its efforts to whip up Sindhi provincial sentiment promised a perfect storm of trouble ahead, raising the spectre of a prolonged gridlock in governance and a clash between a dysfunctional executive and the newly empowered judiciary.
The divided political reaction to the latest display of judicial activism encouraged the PPP-led government to insinuate "selective justice" and play victim in an effort to obfuscate the public debate about the accountability of elected officials. Meanwhile, the apex court's verdict elicited criticism from an unexpected quarter - prominent liberals who argued that the court had taken a step too far, grounding its judgement on reasoning that encroached on the domain of other state institutions.
In a year of judicial activism, critics depicted the Supreme Court's actions ranging from striking down the NRO, inquiring into loan write-offs, determining the price of sugar and questioning the pricing of petroleum products as evidence of populist grandstanding and injudicious overreach.
While the political manoeuvring that followed the NRO judgment reflected the Zardari-led government's efforts to rally support it also betrayed its deep insecurity. This lack of confidence revealed itself during 2009 in the president's continual reading of criticism as conspiracy. It was also exemplified by President's Zardari's combative speech on the second anniversary of Benazir Bhutto's assassination.
These actions left the country in the midst of a profound sense of foreboding about the future. An uneasy calm prevailed at the dawn of the new decade. The prospect of a jittery government distracted by the aftershocks of the NRO verdict triggered widespread public fears about instability at a time of unparalleled challenges for the country.
The public mood grew progressively glum in the context of the government's lacklustre performance and its singular lack of public-policy initiatives. By mid-2009, the despondent public mood was reflected in a number of opinion polls. The Pew organisation found 89 per cent of Pakistanis were dissatisfied with the way things were going - up sharply from two years ago. A poll conducted by the International Republican Institute recorded similar findings: 84 per cent of the people polled saw the country headed in the wrong direction.
If the government failed to provide leadership, the enigma of a political opposition unable or unwilling to fill this vacuum - not by destabilising the coalition but providing a clear policy direction - seemed even more baffling. Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif remained the country's most popular leader according to opinion surveys. But the PML-N's pronounced reluctance to play the role of a vigorous and thoughtful opposition, staking out positions on pivotal issues, hurt his public-approval ratings and attracted criticism that the party remained trapped in the past. Even so, the party lost no opportunity to remind Zardari of his broken promises on scrapping the 17th Amendment.
The year went down as the deadliest in Pakistan's history. A record number of bombings shook the country, casualties among civilians and security personnel shot to a new high, as did IED explosions and suicide attacks. 2009 saw one- third of all terrorist-related violence recorded since 2001. This took the number of people killed in terrorist-related violence in the past decade to an estimated 25,000.
Much of the violence represented a bloody backlash to the military assaults undertaken in Swat and South Waziristan - the country's biggest airborne counterinsurgency operation and ground offensive, respectively. These actions showed the government's resolve to fight militancy and the military's capacity to act decisively. While they re-established the government's writ and drove out the Taliban, the wave of terrorist reprisals that engulfed the country warned of the scale of the challenge ahead.
The operations made remarkable gains in the "clear" phase. Swat and Malakand saw the return in record time of tens of thousands of displaced people. But the fate of the "hold and build" phase remained open to question, while the tardy and inadequate government response to post-conflict stabilisation in Swat raised doubts about the sustainability of the security gains that had been attained.
At the close of the year the military operation had expanded to Orakzai and Khyber, but concerns about whether the militants had been dispersed rather than defeated suggested that Pakistan's counterinsurgency efforts would be a long haul.
The danger that these efforts could be jeopardised and the army overstretched by the demands of the new regional strategy announced by President Obama became a key question as the New Year approached. The military escalation signalled by Washington's troop surge and the expansion in drone-launched missile strikes in the tribal areas heightened fears of further destabilisation of the country. Islamabad's concerns and anxieties were conveyed to Washington during its strategy review, but the enunciation of the new policy left Pakistan facing the predicament of maintaining stable ties with the US while preserving its vital interests.
And this at a time when the trust deficit between the two nations seemed to widen rather than diminish. This was amply illustrated by the furore in Pakistan over the Kerry-Lugar Bill. The enhanced assistance came gift-wrapped with conditionalities that many Pakistanis saw as gratuitous meddling in their internal affairs and as an infringement of national sovereignty.
The strains evident during 2009 in an increasingly tenuous relationship suggested that the year ahead would see ties being tested by a number of issues: approaches to stabilising Afghanistan, dealing with North Waziristan, the evolving Washington-Delhi-Kabul nexus and Washington's aversion to engaging with the sources of Pakistan-India tensions.
Among the few bright spots in the otherwise bleak political landscape was the 7th National Finance Commission Award agreed between the elected representatives of the four provinces. This reflected a consensus that had eluded the country for close to two decades and was made possible by the spirit of democratic accommodation shown by all the provincial leaders, especially the chief minister of the Punjab.
The most consequential development of 2009 was the reinstatement of the chief justice in March, which marked the triumph of the two-year campaign for the rule of law waged by the legal community, civil society and the opposition. This turned Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry into a symbol of the popular yearning for an independent judiciary. It also changed the political equation in the country by establishing the judiciary as an independent power base.
Economic management continued to fall short of the challenge at hand. It assumed the form of seeking more external financing to address the symptoms of the country's deep-seated economic problems. This meant continuity with an inglorious tradition of not using the fiscal space provided by external resources to decisively attack the causes of the structural imbalances: low revenue, narrow tax base and budget and balance-of-payments deficits.
There was no qualitative break with a strategy of over-reliance on external financing by creating the means or culture for enhanced domestic resource mobilisation. A "stabilisation" or crisis-management strategy shorn of any long-term policy to address structural problems exposed an unsustainable approach that increased foreign liabilities and merely postponed rather than resolved the crisis of macroeconomic imbalances.
The security situation and the global slowdown cast a long shadow over the fragile economy. Economic woes were compounded by the power crisis, not of the government's making, but one it sought to partially - and controversially - address through the rental power projects.
In a setting of economic drift and political gloom the most memorable - and uplifting - moment of the year came with the cricket team's spectacular Twenty20 win. But even then there was no escape from a grim reality. Asked why the national team had been on such a long losing streak, ex-captain Yunus Khan succinctly summed up the national state of play: "How can cricket be stable in Pakistan, when nothing else is?"


The writer is a former envoy of Pakistan to the US and the UK, and a former editor of The News.

  India-Pakistan: military angle

Roti or killing machines? As per World Bank data, 74 per cent of Pakistanis earn $2 a day or less and 75 per cent of Indians earn $2 a day or less.

Dr Farrukh Saleem

The Himalayan ranges have shaped the culture, politics, religion, mythology, climate and military doctrines of all six countries -- Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, Nepal and Pakistan -- that the ranges stretch across. The Great Mountain covers an area of about 650,000 square-kilometres and the width varies from 180 kilometres to 350 kilometres with a total glaciation area of over 33,000 square-kilometres. The Great Mountain Arc, from the Indus River all the way to the Brahmaputra River, encircles five countries -- India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan -- and a landmass of a little more than four million square-kilometres. This landmass has 1.5 billion inhabitants; around 22 per cent of the world population in an area about half the size of the US.
Environmental determinism is the view that Indian and Pakistani military strategists "build up knowledge by encountering the world through their senses, and are unable to transcend their responses to the environment; they are at the mercy of environmental stimuli." The Great Himalayan Arc, the inescapable environmental stimuli in the Indo-Pak region, has been -- and continues to be -- the densest and the most impenetrable natural barrier between the Subcontinent and whatever lies north, east or west of the Arc.
Genghis Khan founded the 'largest contiguous empire in history' but failed to circumvent the Himalayas into India. The Himalayas have always -- and continue to -- shield India from invaders in the north (read: China). To be certain, other than Sino-Indian border skirmishes of 1962 history has never witnessed any major invasion across the Himalayas.
As a consequence, based on environmental determinism, Indian military strategists in the post-Independence period laid out an Order of Battle whereby at least half of all Indian army corps were stationed within a striking distance from the Pakistan-India border. These corps include XV Corps with two infantry divisions in Srinagar, XIV Corps in Leh, XVI Corps with three infantry divisions, an artillery brigade and an armoured brigade in Nagrota, X Corps in Bhatinda, XI Corps in Jalandhar and IX Corps in Yol (then there's II Corps in Ambala).
According to The Geographical Dictionary, "Human activities are governed by the environment, primarily the physical environment." Pakistani military strategists, with little or no threat from the west, also laid out an Order of Battle whereby six of the nine Pakistan army corps -- both holding and strike corps -- were stationed within a striking distance from the Pakistan-India border. These corps include I Corps in Mangla, X Corp with infantry divisions in Murree, Mangla and Jhelum, IV Corps in Lahore, II Corps in Multan, XXX Corps with two infantry divisions in Sialkot and XXXI Corps in Bahawalpur.
India and Pakistan are in a state of active hostility. For FY 2009, India's defence spending, according to Jane's Information Group, will rise by close to 50 per cent to a colossal $32.7 billion. India is planning its biggest-ever arms purchases; $11 billion fighter jets, T-90S tanks, Scorpion submarines, Phalcon airborne warning and control system, multi-barrel rocket-launchers and an aircraft-carrier. At $32.7 billion India's defence spending translates into 2.7 per cent of GDP.
For FY 2009, Pakistan's official defence spending is set at $4.3 billion (some unofficial estimates go as high as $7.8 billion). If Pakistan were to match India's rise we would have to spend more than five per cent of our GDP on defence. For the record, Iraq, Somalia and Sudan spend an overwhelmingly large percentage of their GDP on defence. Iraq, Somalia and Sudan are all -- or have been -- in a state of civil war. For the record, the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia used to spend an overwhelmingly large percentage of their GDP on defence. Soviet Union is no more. Czechoslovakia is no more.
The Pakistan army looks at the Indian army and sees its inventory of 6,384 tanks as a threat (none of those Indian tanks can cross the Himalayas into China so Arjun MBTs must all be for Pakistan). The Pakistan army looks at the Indian air force and sees its inventory of 672 combat aircraft as a threat. The Pakistan army looks at the Indian army and finds that 15, 9, 16, 14, 11, 10 and 2 corps are all pointing their guns at Pakistan. The Pakistan army looks at the Indian army and discovers that the 4th Armoured Division, 12th Infantry Division, 340th Mechanised Brigade and 4th Armoured Brigade have been deployed to cut Pakistan into two halves.
Roti or killing machines? As per World Bank data, 74 per cent of Pakistanis earn $2 a day or less and 75 per cent of Indians earn $2 a day or less. Imagine; one out of every two Pakistanis is short on food. One out of every two Pakistanis is food-insecure. One out of every two Pakistanis is managing to subsist on less than 2,350 calories per day. Last year, there were 60 million Pakistanis short on food. That number now stands at 77 million; a 28 per cent increase.
Over the past century, economic development has been all about trans- and cross-border trading. Pakistan has two population centres; central Punjab and Karachi. Central Punjab is a thousand kilometres from the nearest port. Between Karachi and central Punjab is a desert in the east and on the west is an area that does not -- and cannot -- support population concentrations. To develop economically, we must trade. Trade we must. And, the only population concentration to trade with is on our east.
To be certain, time -- and money -- is on India's side. Composite dialogue among civilians means little -- if anything at all. What is needed is a strategic dialogue. How can India be persuaded to pull back its offensive formations? What would Pakistan give in return? Pakistan cannot continue to race a race that it cannot win.


The writer is the executive director of the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS). Email: farrukh15@hotmail.com

Viewpoints

Twilight of Pax Americana

Can President Obama turn this decade of doom into a decade of new opportunities and peace for America and the rest of the world?
I have my fingers crossed.

Aijaz Zaka Syed

It was, as Charles Dickens would put it, the worst of times and it was the best of times. The decade that began at the turn of the century and millennium amid talk of coming Y2K catastrophe in the end didn't experience the chaos associated with computers and mainframes.
The new millennium however began in chaos alright - a different kind of chaos perhaps. And what an eventful decade this has been. A breathtaking and bedazzling era of colossal events and developments, almost apocalyptic in their sweep and impact!
The first decade of the 21st century began with a catastrophe when the reigning superpower and the most advanced civilization the world has ever seen was ostensibly attacked by individuals sitting thousands of miles away in a country that is seen as still living in the Stone Age.
And those confronting the United States couldn't have chosen a more appropriate target. Downtown Manhattan with the World Trade Center's Twin Towers and other towering spires piercing the skies is the nerve-centre and most potent symbol of the world's largest economy and financial superpower. But I believe 9/11 or no 9/11, President George Bush and his cohorts would have unleashed the with-us-or-against-us war on the Muslim world anyway. If 9/11 hadn't happened, they would have invented another excuse, just as they did in Iraq.
But if this remarkable decade began with Osama bin Laden and Bush's yet to end wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, not to mention Abu Ghraib, the Guantanamo Bay, CIA's torture flights, water-boarding, 7/7 and 26/11, Asian tsunami, the Kashmir quake, the war on Gaza, Iran's nuclear tiff with the West and the global financial crisis, it is concluding on cautious hope and optimism as represented by Barack Obama.
Osama and Obama seem to be the antipodes that hold this decade of great disasters and developments together. Many of my colleagues in their conversations and written communications often mix up Osama and Obama. I am not sure if this is a Freudian slip or in their subconscious they really believe both Osama and Obama represent and mean the same thing and can pass off for each other. Obama himself visits this dilemma in his amazing book, The Audacity of Hope, which came out when few in the US, let alone the world, knew about him or his extraordinary background and inheritance.
Of course, Obama has yet to earn the Nobel honour in the real sense and justify the extraordinary mandate American voters have gifted him. But it's the expectations and hopes the first black man in the White House has raised around the world, especially in the Middle East and Islamic countries, that have put an extraordinary burden on Obama's shoulders. It's now up to him to turn this decade of war and terror into a new opportunity for peace and reconciliation.
For, this decade marks a real turning point in human history. As my favourite Harvard historian Niall Ferguson argues, this decade could mark the beginning of the end of the Western dominance. We may be living through the end of 500 years of Western ascendancy that began in Western Europe following the Renaissance and Reformation. The cause of European-or Western-hegemony was helped, promoted and perpetuated by the Industrial Revolution and Europe's imperial projects in far-flung lands across the world.
But the situation has changed dramatically and decisively over the past ten years, resulting in a tectonic, unparallelled shift of power. We are living in truly epochal times. Power is shifting from the West to the East, and this not a feverish fantasy of overzealous political scientists and pundits any more. It's a reality that becomes starker by every passing day. China is fast emerging as the next big player and economic superpower on the world stage. Enough has been said about the Asian giant's hunger for growth and its growing, breathtaking dominance of the global bazaar with its mind-boggling capacity to manufacture and market everything under the sun. It's nearly impossible to capture in words the breathtaking sweep of China's growth and the extent it has come to affect our lives. Even at a time like this when just about everyone is fighting hard to survive the disastrous effects of the global downturn, the country presiding over the second industrial revolution has hardly paused to catch its breath.
Interestingly, this phenomenal growth of China has been commensurate with the decline of the US and Western economies. In fact, China has grown at the expense of the US, even as it continues to buy trillions of dollars in US government bonds. The US, the world's biggest capitalist economy, is in socialist China's debt - literally. At the beginning of this decade, US GDP was more than eight times that of China's. It's barely four times larger today. And economists suspect the country known as the world's factory floor could overtake the US by 2027, in less than two decades.
When way back in 2006, Niall Ferguson and Moritz Schularick coined the word 'Chimerica' to describe the unusual relationship between the rising superpower and declining Pax Americana, few really understood it. That uneasy equation is at its peak now-and is in favour of the Red Dragon.
(In this endless adulation over red China though, the other big story, India, is often ignored. India may not be growing at the break-neck pace of its larger neighbour. But its growth has been healthier and more harmonious. India's progress hasn't come at the expense of political freedom and civil liberties of its people.)
Of course, whoever is the next superpower, the US could remain a military power and big political player for a long time to come. And the cultural and intellectual empire of Pax America and the West, thanks to Hollywood, Western media and English language, may live even longer. Especially considering China's growth has been largely focused on economic front and it has steadily avoided overt military ambitions so far despite being a nuclear power and having one of the largest armies in the world. However, economic power is invariably followed by military muscle, often to consolidate and protect it. Look at the history of the British empire, Prussia (Germany), Soviet Union and the United States. So who knows China could also follow suit! But the land of Confucius would do well to learn from the mistakes of others, especially the US.
If America eventually fails and implodes like the Soviet Union did, it would not be because of its extravagant lifestyle and financial excesses or even devastating terror strikes of 9/11 proportions. If Pax Americana goes down, it would be because of its unreasonable policies and unjust wars. The policies and wars that are not even driven by its own interests but are dictated by scheming lobbies and self-serving allies.
Can President Obama turn this decade of doom into a decade of new opportunities and peace for America and the rest of the world? I have my fingers crossed.

Aijaz Zaka Syed is Opinion Editor of Khaleej Times and can be reached at aijaz@khaleejtimes.com

  Real power shifts to mainland Asia

The United States spent the past decade cutting its own throat financially, ending with the near-death experience of the 2008-2009 financial meltdown.

Gwynne Dyer

Decades don't usually have the courtesy to begin and end on the right year. The social and cultural revolution that Western countries think of when they talk of the "sixties" only got underway in 1962-63, and didn't end until the Middle East war and oil embargo of 1973-74. But this one has been quite neat: The "Noughties" began with the terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001, and they ended with a global financial meltdown in the past year.
The "Noughties" is just a recent journalistic invention to make it easier to write end-of-the-decade articles like this. The term was launched several times in the last ten years, but it never took off. Just as well, really, because it sounds a bit frivolous - whereas this was actually a decade when the tectonic plates moved into a new pattern.
Never mind the terrorism. About half a billion people died during the past decade, and fewer than 50,000 of them were victims of terrorism - say, one in every ten thousand deaths. At least 40,000 of those 50,000 victims of terrorism lived in India, Pakistan or Iraq, and fewer than 4,000 lived in the West. You can hardly make that a defining quality of the decade.
The terrorist threat to the West was minor, but the West's hugely disproportionate and ill-considered response was a key factor in the great shift that defines the decade. The "war on terror," the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq and all the rest, did not deter a Nigerian student from trying to blow up an airliner over Detroit last Saturday. It motivated him to do so. But it also accelerated the rise of Asia and the relative decline of the West.
That shift was happening anyway. When China and India, with 40 percent of the world's population between them, are growing economically three to four times as fast as the major Western countries, it's only a matter of time until they catch up with the older industrial economies.
Back in 2003, however, the researchers at Goldman Sachs predicted that the Chinese economy would surpass that of the United States by the mid-2040s. By the middle of this year, they were predicting that it would happen in the mid-2020s - and this year, for the first time, China built more cars than the United States. That acceleration is in large part a consequence of the huge diversion of Western attention and resources that was caused by the "war on terror."
Prestige is a quality that cannot be measured or quantified, but a reputation for competence in the use of power is a great asset in international affairs. After the centuries-old European empires wasted their wealth and the lives of tens of millions of their citizens in two "world wars" in only 30 years, their empires just melted away. Nobody was in awe of them any more, and they lacked the resources to hold onto their overseas possessions by force.
Something similar has happened over the past decade to the United States. Unwinnable wars fought for the wrong reasons always hurt a great power's reputation, and wars fought amidst needless tax cuts, burgeoning deficits and financial anarchy are even more damaging if the country's power depends heavily on a global financial empire.
The United States spent the past decade cutting its own throat financially, ending with the near-death experience of the 2008-2009 financial meltdown. The Europeans made all the same mistakes, only more timidly, and the Japanese sat the decade out on the sidelines, mired in a seemingly endless recession. The old order is passing, the US dollar is on its way out as the only global currency, and the real power is shifting to mainland Asia.
Or is it? There are two trends that could slow or even stop this shift. They seemed quite distant at the start of the decade, but now they look very big and frightening. One is peak oil; the other is global warming.
In Europe, North America and Japan, energy consumption is growing slowly or not at all, and it is relatively cheap and easy to reduce dependence on imported oil. Just the fuel efficiency standards already mandated by the Obama administration could reduce American oil imports by half by 2020. Whereas Chinese and Indian dependence on imported oil is soaring. So is their use of coal.
That's unfortunate, because for purely geographical reasons these countries are far more vulnerable to high temperatures than the older industrial nations. At even two degrees C (3.6 degrees F) higher average global temperature, they face floods, droughts and storms on a massive scale, probably accompanied by a steep fall in food production. That sort of thing could abort even the Chinese and Indian economic miracles.
So we're back in the old world where the future is uncertain. Of course. What else did you expect? We can only observe the trends, and try to remember that they are always contingent. But at the moment, it looks like the decade when the West finally lost its domination over the world's economy.


Gwynne Dyer is a London-based independent journalist whose articles are published in 45 countries.

  New Year messages

The common Indian can send this common message to Advani, Gadkari, Sushma, Jaitley, and the two Thackerays: “I showed in 2009 that I had learnt the lesson from 2008. Will you show in 2010 that you have learnt your lesson from 2009?”

J Sri Raman

“The most important lesson that the outgoing year teaches us is that India cannot afford to have a government in which the prime minister has no real authority, and the leader who has the authority has no accountability...[The events of 2008] have taught an important lesson to India: to have a strong leader."
That was the New Year message to his nation from Lal Krishna Advani, issued on January 1, 2009.
The sneer at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the swipe at Congress party president and United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi were obvious. Not so obvious then was the dramatic irony of the declaration.
It was to become so only five months later, when an electorate under the spell of pseudo-secularism failed to see that prime minister-in-waiting Advani was the answer to all of India's problems.
We cannot claim - as every television channel does about every document that its lone, legitimate owner "leaks" to the entire electronic media - that we have obtained an exclusive copy of the message from the former deputy prime minister to his dear motherland. But we do know - sorry we cannot disclose our dependable sources in Nagpur (headquarters of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh where all such statements are henceforth to be vetted) - what the message will NOT be.
It will not read: "The most important lesson the outgoing year teaches us is that the Bharatiya Janata Party cannot afford to have a shadow prime minister without substance. The voters do not want a government in which the prime minister will have no real authority, and the RSS wielding the authority will have no accountability."
Our sources have positive indications to offer as well. According to them, the message on the same occasion from Nitin Gadkari, the brand-new BJP president, may quite possibly read: "The painful events of 2008 have taught an important lesson to the party: to have a strong leader from the RSS." Who, after all, can be stronger than a product of the supreme body of India's far right, who has completed the course of culturally nationalist exercises, in a pair of khaki half-pants, come sun or rain?
On to other bright stars of the BJP firmament.
The message from Sushma Swaraj, new Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha (Lower House of India's Parliament), is likely to move many to tears. It may run on the following lines: "With a heavy heart, I send you all New Year greetings that you should have rightfully received from the great Advaniji. For one more year, we have kept a person of foreign origin away from the prime minister's post. My earlier threat to cut off my tresses if this calamity befell the nation, has continued to work. Should the need arise in the coming year, I vow again to make the supreme sacrifice."
The message from Arun Jaitley, Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha (Upper House of India's Parliament) may be more buoyant for a manifest reason. He also presides over the Delhi District Cricket Association (DDCA), which has covered itself with glory by laying too dangerous a pitch in its Ferozeshah Kotla stadium for an India-Sri Lanka one-day match to be completed the other day.
Jaitley may be duly modest in his message: "We will never let laws of the game prevail over love of our country. We tried our very best to give our bowlers and their bouncers a chance in a batsman's game, especially of batters like Tillakaratne Dilshan and Kumar Sangakkara. Even the best-laid plans and worst-laid pitches, however, fail to work at times and the match has been abandoned. On this New Year Day, we renew our resolve to serve the nation in ground-breaking ways."
As Jaitley's proclamation causes jubilation in the patriotic camp, Bal Thackeray of the Shiv Sena may well be expected to send him the following message, with a copy to the nation: "Keep it up, Arun. We dug up Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium pitch once, to keep cross-border enemies out. You have outdone us by doing it officially. Congrats. Let no penalty from the International Cricket Council deter you from trying the same tactic on Pakistan's next India tour, if we ever allow it."
On publication of this statement, Raj Thackeray of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena can be counted upon to send something like the following missive to Balasaheb, with a copy to the Maratha Manoos (the Maratha Man): "Let us not dwell too long on the victory of vandalism at Wankhede. If you and I join hands, we can do a Jaitley to all visiting north Indian teams in Mumbai."
The common Indian can send this common message to Advani, Gadkari, Sushma, Jaitley, and the two Thackerays: "I showed in 2009 that I had learnt the lesson from 2008. Will you show in 2010 that you have learnt your lesson from 2009?"

The writer is a journalist based in Chennai, India. A peace activist, he is also the author of a sheaf of poems titled At Gunpoint

International

Govt attitude only threat to system: Nawaz
Dawn Online

PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif said on Thursday that there was no threat to democracy in the country, but the government's undemocratic attitude could undermine the system.
Speaking at a meeting of the party's central executive committee, he said that no individual should have the right to decide the fate of the country. All decision-making powers should be delegated to people's representatives.
Prominent among those who attended the meeting were the party's president Shahbaz Sharif, Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, PML-N Chairman Raja Zafarul Haque and Information Secretary Ahsan Iqbal.
Mr Sharif said his party stood for a corruption-free society and it would not tolerate politics of corruption, incompetence and inaction.
"Corruption is not only giving bad name to politicians, it also poses a threat to the future of democracy. He said that looted money stashed in Swiss banks must be brought back.
He said the PML-N would continue to strive for supremacy of the Constitution and the rule of law and would not compromise on principles.
Mr Sharif also said that beneficiaries of the National Reconciliation Ordinance should resign and face courts.
He regretted that the PPP government had failed to implement the Charter of Democracy (CoD), take action against corrupt elements and resolve constitutional issues.
The PML-N leader said: "The allegation that we are a friendly opposition is baseless. We never compromised on national interests and strongly opposed the NRO and forcefully raised the issue of loan write-off."
He said the government could have averted crisis faced by the country by taking action against violators of the Constitution and those who got their loans written off.
He said his party would continue to play its role to protect nuclear status of the country. "We made Pakistan a nuclear power and we will have to play our role to defend it."
Mr Sharif said the PML-N would launch a movement for stability of Pakistan and national unity.
He said the party would be strengthened with the infusion of young blood and inclusion of women in its ranks.
The meeting decided to constitute think-tanks to discuss ways of resolving national issues and provide direction in the fields of politics, economy, education, employment and health.
It passed a resolution condemning India's new war strategy targeting Pakistan and China. "Such a strategy will jeopardise efforts for peace in the region," it said.
Another resolution called upon the government to take immediate steps to implement the Charter of Democracy, repeal the 17th Amendment and eliminate corruption.

  Obama rallies CIA after Afghanistan bomb attack
BBC Online

Barack Obama has sent a letter of support to the CIA after seven staff were killed by an Afghan bomber - one of the worst attacks in its history.
The US president's condolence message praised the work of those killed.
The dead include the head of the CIA's base in Khost Province, near the border with Pakistan, the Associated Press news agency reports. The Taliban said one of their members wearing an explosive vest and an army uniform had carried out the attack.
It was the worst against US intelligence officials since the American embassy in Beirut was bombed in 1983. A total of 90 CIA employees have been honoured for their deaths in the agency's service since its inception in 1947, according to the Washington Post newspaper.
Taliban hotbed
The bombing has raised questions about the coalition's ability to protect itself against infiltrators, analysts say. Quoting former CIA officials, AP said the base chief - who was reported to be a mother of three - would have led intelligence-gathering operations in Khost, a hotbed of Taliban activity due to its proximity to Pakistan's lawless tribal region.
An unnamed official added that the bomber was being courted as an informant and was not frisked as he entered Forward Operating Base Chapman.
Paying tribute to the fallen, Mr Obama said those killed were "part of a long line of patriots who have made great sacrifices for their fellow citizens, and for our way of life".
He told CIA employees that they had "taken great risks to protect our country" and that their sacrifices had "sometimes been unknown to your fellow citizens, your friends, and even your families".

  Key factors in Sri Lanka’s presidential poll
Reuters, Colombo

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa is seeking re-election this month, with the main challenger his former army chief Sarath Fonseka, who led the military to victory in a 25-year war against separatists.
Who is leading the poll campaign?
With a record 22 candidates in the field, the incumbent president leads Fonseka. But analysts say there has been a shift towards Fonseka since last week despite his party's complaints that state authorities are engaged in acts of sabotage.
On Thursday, the local body of Transparency International said the government had been misusing state property for Rajapaksa's campaign. Analysts have blamed lack of independent commissions overseeing the election, police, judiciary, and public service for the situation.
What are the main election issues?
Heading the agenda is a political solution after the defeat of Tamil Tigers separatists in May, a reconciliation process and a sustainable peace to prevent any new uprising. That means developing policies for post-war economic development as well as a foreign policy with improved international relationships.
The high cost of living is a key issue. But both candidates are still vying to secure credit for winning the war. Both speak of war crimes, ensuring full democratic rights, good governance, and media freedom, eliminating corruption and nepotism.
How about minority tamils and post-war reconciliation?
The main Tamil party, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), once backed by the rebels, will announce its stance on Monday. Analysts expect Tamils, almost 12 percent of the population and an important bloc of votes, to lean towards Fonseka as he is backed by the main opposition group, the United National Party (UNP).

  Pakistan, India exchange nuclear site lists
AFP, Islamabad

Pakistan and India on Friday exchanged lists of their nuclear sites under an annual accord, after a year of strained relations between the arch-rivals, Pakistan's foreign ministry said.
The New Year's Day exchange is aimed at protecting the sites in case of war and was established under a 1988 agreement on the prohibition of attacks on each other's nuclear installations.
"The governments of Pakistan and India today exchanged lists of their respective nuclear installations and facilities," a ministry statement said.
It added that the lists were handed over to officers of the Pakistani and Indian high commissions in New Delhi and Islamabad.
Relations between the two nuclear-armed rivals worsened dramatically after attacks in India's financial capital Mumbai in November 2008, which New Delhi blamed on the banned Pakistani militant group Lashkar-i-Taiba (LeT).
Under the 1988 agreement, both nations are to refrain from attacking nuclear facilities in the event of war. The neighbours have also set up a telephone hotline to prevent accidental nuclear conflict.
India and Pakistan have fought three wars, two of them over the Himalayan region of Kashmir, which is divided between them but claimed by both.
The two countries came close to another war in 2002 after an attack on the Indian parliament that New Delhi also blamed on LeT.
But after deploying hundreds of thousands of troops to the border, Islamabad and New Delhi retreated following intense international mediation.
In 2004 they launched a peace process, but that is now on hold following the Mumbai attacks, with New Delhi pressuring Islamabad to do more to punish those responsible for the carnage and to crack down on anti-India groups. -AFP
Caption- ThPhoto showing Pakistan's nuclear missile. Under the 1988 agreement, both nations are to refrain from attacking nuclear facilities in the event of war. The neighbours have also set up a telephone hotline to prevent accidental nuclear conflict.

  North Korea calls for end to hostility with US
BBC Online

North Korea has issued a New Year message calling for an end to hostile relations with the US.
A statement carried in major newspapers said Pyongyang also wanted "a lasting peace system on the Korean Peninsula".
In response, a US State Department official said North Korea should show its good faith by returning to six-party talks on its nuclear programme.
In early December, the North said talks with a special US envoy had narrowed differences between the two sides.
The North Korean regime traditionally marks New Year's Day with a joint editorial in the country's three major newspapers.
Analysts say the statement is examined carefully for clues to Pyongyang's policies for the coming year.
"The fundamental task for ensuring peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in the rest of Asia is to put an end to the hostile relationship between the DPRK (North Korea) and the USA," state news agency KCNA quoted the editorial as saying.
"It is the consistent stand of the DPRK to establish a lasting peace system on the Korean Peninsula and make it nuclear-free through dialogue and negotiations," it said.
In Washington, a State Department official urged North Korea to return to the six-party talks, AFP news agency reported.
"Actions speak louder than words," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"A good step forward would be to return to six-party talks."
Pyongyang pulled out of the talks 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.

  Mayon volcano alert may be lowered
AFP, Manila

Philippine volcanologists Friday said they may lower the alert level around the Mayon volcano in the coming days amid signs it appeared to be in a lull, three weeks after it began spewing ash and lava.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said no ash explosion was observed over the past 24 hours, and rumblings have lessened significantly.
If no significant events should occur during the next few days, the agency said it will "consider the possibility of lowering the alert level."
Around 50,000 people living in an eight kilometre (five mile) radius danger zone around Mayon were evacuated after the institute raised the alert level to four on a scale of five on December 20, meaning a major eruption could be imminent.
It first began rumbling days earlier, oozing lava and sending plumes of ash into the air.
The eerie spectacle saw the 2,460-metre (8,070-foot) volcano's peak glowing with crimson lava at night, and forced tens of thousands of evacuees to spend Christmas at packed evacuation centres.
Albay provincial governor Joey Salceda expressed relief at the news, and stressed that the worst appears to be over.
"It really looks like 'Mayon drops dead'," Salceda told reporters. "And it seems God answered my prayers and saw the collective preparations of a united people."
Once the alert level is lowered, he said officials would begin returning families, who had been staying in public schools converted into temporary shelters, to their homes.
However, he said over 2,000 families living in villages nearest the volcano would be advised to remain.
Mayon, which is about 330 kilometres (200 miles) southeast of Manila, has erupted 48 times in recorded history. In 1814, more than 1,200 people were killed when lava flows buried the town of Cagsawa.
It last erupted for two months in 2006, although no one was directly killed. A powerful typhoon however dislodged tonnes of debris from Mayon's slopes three months later, burying entire towns and killing over 1,000 people.

 Muslim world cautious toward US olive branch
Xinhua, Istanbul

US President Barack Obama extended an olive branch to the Muslim world by promising at the beginning of 2009 to overhaul strained relations between his country and the Islamic countries.
Obama laid out a new blueprint in his two landmark speeches-one in Ankara in April and the other in Cairo in June-with a desire to move beyond terrorism and security to focus on issues of mutual respect and mutual interest with the world's 1.57 billion Muslims.
However, the Muslim world has been more cautious and prudent toward Obama's olive branch since the new American president only voiced flattered feelings but showed no concrete actions in his ambitious reconciliation move in the past year.
Local political observers said that Obama's remarks were designed to reset relations after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the occupation in Iraq. The invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan were seen by many Muslims as an assault on their faith. Many Muslims around the world still perceive America's eight-year-old War on Terror as a veiled assault on Islam. Although his predecessor George W. Bush fuelled a wave of anti-Americanism in the Muslim world, the sitting U.S. president has said he would not apologize for the Bush administration's policies. Ilter Turan, a political scientist at the Bilgi University in Istanbul, said: "Six months after Obama's speech in Cairo, the relations between the U.S. and the Muslim countries have not experienced any significant difference. There are some hopeful developments, but the core issues still await solution."
The United States has not yet withdrawn its troops from Iraq, but Obama is elevating U.S. military presence in Afghanistan to about 100,000 troops, by sending in 30,000 more. The U.S. administration has not yet abandoned its Middle East policy biased toward Israel. The Guantanamo Bay prison still remains in operation. The United States still threats to strike the nuclear facilities in Iran.
The issues that Muslims care about are very obvious. First is the Arab-Israeli issue. Second, the wars that the U.S. is conducting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The third is the presence of American forces in the region. While calling Obama's tough task with Muslim nations "a long-term plan," Turan said the U.S. president has spent most of his energy and resources to cope with the global financial crisis and internal issues, such as the proposed health care overhaul, since he took office.
"Therefore, the Obama administration has failed to create a comprehensive foreign policy agenda so far. For the Arab world, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was the most important issue as the dispute goes to the heart of Muslim anger toward the West. Until now, he did not take solid steps to quell the fury," he said.
Local analysts said that Obama's Middle East moves should be viewed in the context of his intent to dismantle his predecessor Bush's policies that he thinks is bad for the United States and bad for the region.
He signed executive orders to withdraw troops from Iraq within 16 months, to close Guantanamo Bay prison and suspend prosecution and order a review of the detainees cases, case by case, to end and ban the use of torture, including in facilities under the control or supervision or presence of U.S. personal, and to end the secretive Rendition Program. Those policies were the hallmarks of former president Bush's war on terror.

  Fatah vows to escalate struggle against Israeli occupation
AFP, Ramallah

The secular Fatah movement led by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Thursday vowed to step up its struggle against the Israeli occupation with demonstrations and diplomacy.
"Our programme emphasises the importance of a two-track approach, with the first being the escalation of the popular struggle to resist occupation," the movement said in a statement.
The group said it would model the struggle on the weekly demonstrations in two West Bank towns, Bilin and Nilin, where residents hurl rocks and protest against the expansion of Israel's controversial separation barrier.
Fatah, which marks the 45th anniversary of the start of its armed struggle on Friday, also vowed to "increase movement on the international level to pursue Israel, to isolate it and to force it to answer to international law."
"We renew our vow to continue the struggle until the end of the occupation and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, with east Jerusalem as its capital, and a solution to the refugee issue," it said.

  Russia denies knowledge of Iranian uranium deal with Kazakhstan

Xinhua, Moscow

Russia has no knowledge of an alleged Iranian plan to import purified uranium ore from Kazakhstan, the foreign ministry said Thursday.
Moscow is verifying information that a state signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) submitted a report on a uranium deal between Iran and Kazakhstan to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear watchdog, foreign minister spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said.
"We have not seen the document yet, nor has the agency provided any official information on the issue," Nesterenko said.
He said U.N. Security Council Resolution 1737 bans the shipment of any nuclear materials to Iran, including purified uranium ore. "We believe that these requirements must be strictly observed by all states," he said.
Iran has denied reports that it intends to import purified uranium ore from Kazakhstan under a covert deal. The country is under three sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions for refusing to freeze its enrichment program and related activities that could be used to make nuclear weapons,
Kazakhstan, among the world's top three producers of uranium, accounting for more than 8,500 tons last year, also de-nied the reports.
Uranium ore, also known as "yellow cake," can be enriched to use as fuel for reactors or in nuclear weapons.

  New Year 2010 celebrations take place around the world
BBC Online

People around the world have celebrated the turn of the decade and welcomed in the year 2010.
Spectacular fireworks displays were seen in cities including Auckland in New Zealand and Sydney, Australia. London and Paris and other European cities also enjoyed displays, while in Brazil, people watched fireworks from the beaches of Rio de Janeiro. Hundreds of thousands of people packed into New York's Times Square were showered with confetti at midnight. Las Vegas welcomed 2010 with an estimated 315,000 revellers and fireworks from casino rooftops.
World leaders used the occasion to speak of their hope for 2010 compared with the difficulties many countries faced in 2009. North Korea called for an end to hostile relations with the US in a New Year message, while French President Nicolas Sarkozy said: "The year that is ending has been difficult for everybody.
"No continent, no country, no sector has been spared."
A massive fireworks display, attended by an estimated 1.5 million people, took place in Sydney, Australia, with some 5,000kg of explosives sent up around the famous harbour bridge.
Fireworks were launched from the bridge itself, from boats in the harbour and from buildings around the waterfront. The Japanese capital, Tokyo, greeted the new year in traditional style, with bells rung in temples at midnight.
The city's Sensoji Temple was draped with banners wishing visitors a happy new year. Thousands of people in Beijing gathered in a shopping centre to mark the change of the Lunar New Year. And in Hong Kong, about half a million revellers crowded the harbour front to watch fireworks set off from the top of city skyscrapers.
Some two million people crowded onto Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro to dance to DJs and music acts and watch fireworks sent up over the sea. In the Philippines, new year celebrations were marred as hundreds of people were injured by firecrackers and celebratory gunfire.
'Magical' display
Despite heavy snowfall and temperatures down to -10C (14F), more than 120,000 Russians were on Red Square in Moscow to see fireworks and hear President Dmitry Medvedev congratulate them on "bearing up" over the past year.

  Obama summons US intel chiefs for security talks
Reuters, Kaneohe, Hawaii

President Barack Obama on Thursday summoned U.S. intelligence chiefs to a meeting next week at the White House to discuss how to prevent a repeat of the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner on Dec. 25.
Seeking to quell criticism of his administration over an intelligence breakdown, Obama said he was briefed by his top advisers and would get assessments from intelligence agencies later on Thursday and study them over the weekend before returning to Washington from Hawaii. Obama had ordered an immediate review of what he called "human and systemic failures" that allowed the accused bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian with alleged links to Islamic militants, to get on the trans-Atlantic flight from Amsterdam.
The incident has put Obama on the defensive, drawing charges from Republicans that his administration has dropped the ball on counterterrorism and exposing intelligence gaps that have lingered on since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. While still on vacation with his family in Hawaii, Obama tried to reassure the U.S. public and grab control of what has become one of his toughest national security challenges since taking office last January.
"On Tuesday, in Washington, I will meet personally with relevant agency heads to discuss our ongoing reviews as well as security enhancements and intelligence-sharing improvements in our homeland security and counterterrorism operations," Obama said in a statement issued by the White House.

  Iraq ‘regrets’ US Blackwater move
BBC Online

Iraq has criticised a US judge's dismissal of all charges against guards from US security firm Blackwater over the killing of 17 Iraqi in 2007.
Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said an Iraqi investigation showed the men had committed a "serious crime" and Baghdad would seek to prosecute them.
The five had all pleaded not guilty to manslaughter. A sixth guard admitted killing at least one Iraqi. The judge dismissed the charges against the guards over procedural errors. District Judge Ricardo Urbina said the US justice department had used evidence prosecutors were not supposed to have. Mr al-Dabbagh said the Iraqi government "regrets and is disappointed by the US court's decision". "Inquiries carried out by the Iraqi government clearly confirm that the Blackwater guards committed a crime and used weapons when there was no threat necessitating the use of force," he said. He said Iraq would "act forcefully and decisively to prosecute the Blackwater criminals".
‘Self-defence’
The Iraqi human rights minister, Wejdan Mikhail, said she was "astonished" by the US move.
"There was so much work done to prosecute these people and to take this case into court and I don't understand why the judge took this decision," the AFP news agency quoted her as saying.
The commander of US forces in Iraq, Gen Ray Odierno, said the court's decision could create local resentment against other security firms operating in the country.
"Of course we're upset when we believe that people might have caused a crime and they are not held accountable," Reuters quoted him as saying. The killings, which took place in Nisoor Square, Baghdad, strained Iraq's relationship with the US and raised questions about US contractors operating in war zones.

 Thousands in New Year Hong Kong march for democracy
Reuters, Hong Kong

Thousands of Hong Kong residents appealed to China on New Year's Day to allow full democracy to be introduced soon in the city, as opposition lawmakers pressed forward with a mass resignation plan later this month.
Congregating outside the city's historic domed legislature, protesters carried colourful banners with slogans such as "Democracy Now!" and made their way to Beijing's representative office.
Some demonstrators held aloft portraits of Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, demanding the release of the prominent activist and writer, jailed last week for 11 years on a subversion charge.
Organisers said more than 10,000 protesters turned out for the New Year's Day "return our right to universal suffrage" march. Police put the number at more than 4,000. Hundreds of police erected steel barricades as protesters with loudhailers converged on Beijing's liaison office in the former British colony, returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
A group of five pro-democracy legislators plan to resign en masse from the city's legislature, following the release of a political reform blueprint for elections in 2012, which democracy advocates say does not go far enough. The subsequent city-wide by-elections in Hong Kong's five major districts will trigger what the liberals say amounts to a symbolic referendum on full democracy.
Beijing has already promised to allow a full-scale election in Hong Kong in 2017 for the city's leader. But recent signs, including comments by pro-Beijing figures, have suggested Beijing may only allow a power-preserving version of democracy with rules stacked against opposition candidates.
Hong Kong's mini-constitution guarantees full democracy as an "ultimate aim" but the city's seven million people now have no direct say in their leader.

Business/Economy

Tk 100cr tea resort in Srimangol by year end
BSS, Dhaka

The hospitality industry makes a boom driven by the private sector as an estimated cost of Taka 100 crore has been invested in the country's potential industry, thanks to the growing trend of visiting to tourist destinations.
This is the biggest private investment in the sector that designed for setting up a six-storey resort dubbed 'Grand Sultan Tea Resort and Golf' (GSTRG) in Srimangol, the country's one of the major tourist destinations in the country. Located at northeast of the capital city of Dhaka and on way to Sylhet, the all- inclusive luxury resort is being built on 13.2 acres of pristine tea land of Srimangol.
The resort would have 167 rooms, 20 suites (including presidential), ball room, swimming pool, a golf course (nine holes), lake, and a eye-catching tea garden inside it.
"Certainly, the investment is sizeable and would give a further boost to the tourism industry in the country alongside projecting it heavily all over the world," Khwaja Tipu Sultan, chairman of the GSTRG, a subsidiary of Excursion and Resorts Bangladesh Ltd, told the news agency.
To attract foreign tourists, he said, a plantation scheme has been embarked on in Srimangol keeping the hills untouched so the tourists can feast their eyes from the nature's bounty.
In the Southern Indian subcontinent, he hoped, this would be the best resort having all requirements as international standard and create employment opportunities for 300 people mostly locals.
Back in 1980s, the textile industry was considered as home- based clothing activities and none could imagine that it would be turned into a vigorous one and which is now keeping the wheels of the economy active, said Tipu Sultan.
The RMG has developed a lot and now the time has come to work for expansion of the tourism industry, he said and urged the investors to come forward to invest in this sector.
A large number of people used to travel to a number of places of tourist attraction every year spending a huge amount of money, he pointed out and said the foreign exchange could be saved by nurturing Bangladesh's tourism sector.
Tipu Sultan said a proposal would be forwarded to the government shortly with a plea for 'import tax reduction' as a large amount of necessary goods need to be imported from abroad.
Civil aviation and tourism ministry sources said the tourism industry witnessed rapid growth with an investment of Tk 5,000 crore during the last five years and mostly from the private sector.
The investments were made largely for the development of hotels, motels, resorts, amusement parks and restaurants at popular tourist destinations in Dhaka, Cox's Bazar, Chittagong, Sylhet, Bogra and Khulna that created some 40,000 jobs.
Around 40 resorts and 15 amusement parks were built across the country during the said period, said the sources.

 Cautious hope for battered Pakistan markets in 2010
AFP, Karachi

Pakistan share prices gained more than 60 percent in 2009 after an abysmal 2008 which saw the once-promising market battered by political turmoil, militancy and the global recession. Despite a shaky start to 2009 with deadly bombings by Taliban insurgents and bruising military operations against extremists, analysts say that 2010 may see the bourse scrambling further into recovery. The benchmark KSE-100 index finished 2008 at 5,865.01, a 58 percent drop on 2007, when Pakistan was named one of the most promising emerging markets.
The index-which has about 650 listed companies-closed on New Year's Eve 2009 at 9,386.92, and dealers are hoping for another jump in 2010. "We expect Pakistan's equity market to cross 11,500 points in 2010, thereby providing 22 percent estimated gains," said Mohammad Sohail, chief executive of Topline Securities brokerage firm. "We estimate better returns later next year since political issues, security concerns, capital gain uncertainty and power shortages would partially be settled," he added.
In February, the market suffered its worst loss in two-and-a-half years after the Supreme Court disqualified the main opposition leader from contesting elections, but political meltdown was averted and the bourse rallied. And although attacks by the Taliban killed a record number of people in Pakistan in 2009 -- 1,200 deaths, up 30 percent on 2008, according to an AFP tally-most of the violence has struck the troubled northwest. The financial hub of Karachi has been largely spared the bloodshed, although Monday's bombing of a Shiite religious procession killing 43 people in the city of 14 million people raised fears that it was again in the militant's sights.
A report by Topline Securities says 92 percent of attacks in 2009 occurred in North West Frontier Province and southwestern Baluchistan. "The two provinces have only 20 percent of (Pakistan's) population with hardly any role in the overall economy, whereas major industries and business activities occur in central Punjab and southern Sindh province," it said.
The military also launched a number of offensives against Taliban strongholds across the northwest in 2009 and are claiming success-although at a great financial cost to the nation, experts say.
"Every year Pakistan loses eight to nine billion dollars on the war on terror," said Ashfaq Hasan Khan, a former government economic adviser, lamenting a lack of support from Western partners including the United States. "Pakistan pays that much money on the war on terror every year and in return we just receive good words but no tangible money," he told AFP.
Islamist violence aside, the global recession, power shortages and soaring inflation have hit Pakistan hard. Islamabad approached the IMF in 2008 for a rescue package and the Fund's executive board last month approved the release of 1.2 billion more dollars under a 11.35-billion-dollar loan programme to the cash-starved nation.
"The vulnerability of Pakistan's balance of payment has decreased because of its programme with the IMF," Khan said.
But he warned the government must concentrate not only on the battle against militancy, but also boosting the flagging economy.

  World stocks rebound in 2009 but 2010 uncertain
AFP, Paris

After a dismal 2008, world stockmarkets recorded a spectacular rebound in 2009 even though the economy was in crisis, but confidence had not been completely restored and there were fears for 2010. In Frankfurt, the market ended the year 23 percent higher and in Paris it closed 22.32 percent up. London registered a 22.07 percent gain for the year and the Dow Jones, the star index of the New York Stock Exchange, showed an annual jump of 18.82 percent over the course of the year.
In Asia, the rebound was even more spectacular. Shanghai gained 80 percent over the year and Hong Kong 52 percent. In Tokyo, the leading Nikkei index grew by 19.04 percent over 2009. "We avoided catastrophe," said Gregori Volokhine, an analyst from the Meeschaert investment group in New York. "The markets were saved from a deep depression by the massive intervention of government and central banks, who injected liquidity into a financial system in agony," he said. Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Marc Pado, also in New York, warned that this did not mean the markets had fully recovered confidence. "We cannot say confidence is back. We saw some investors cashing out from equities to invest in bond markets," he said. "Worries about the collapse of the financial system are over. There is a kind of relief in the market now but I cannot say it is confidence."
The markets were etched with extreme pessimism from January to March with most falling to historic lows by spring.
Investors, thrown by the September 2008 collapse of US banking giant Lehman Brothers, feared the nationalisation of financial institutions that had received massive state aid to overcome the crisis. Money markets later rallied to an unexpected rise, thanks mainly to convincing results of the economic stimulus plans put in place by various governments and encouraging business performances.
Late in the year however, panic gripped the markets again when the possibility of bankruptcy was raised in Dubai in November.
But by the end of 2009, most money markets ended the year by recovering a large part of their 2008 losses and some, like London, had even regained the level reached before Lehman Brothers failed.

  China expected to grow 9.5pc in 2010
AFP, Beijing

China is expected to grow by about 9.5 percent in 2010, state media quoted a government think tank as saying Friday, exceeding forecasts made by outside experts for the new year.
The world's third-largest economy will be boosted by double-digit growth in real estate investment and mild inflation, the State Council's Development Research Centre said in a report published in the China Economic Times.
"In 2010, the external environment will remain rather grim but it will not deteriorate further," Zhang Liqun, a macroeconomist at the centre, said in the report.
Zhang added that exports-a key driver of economic growth-would start to grow again in the coming year.
The think tank's 2010 economic growth forecast is well above Beijing's oft-stated target of eight percent-seen as crucial for job creation and ensuring social stability-and is higher than estimates for 2009.
For 2010, the Asian Development Bank has put its economic growth forecast for China at 8.9 percent, while the International Monetary Fund predicted growth of nine percent.
China's economy grew by 8.9 percent in the third quarter of 2009 -- the fastest pace in a year-after expanding by 7.9 percent in the second quarter and 6.1 percent in the first, the slowest pace in more than a decade. Zhang said real estate investment was expected to grow by 30 to 40 percent in 2010 and become the "main source driving investment growth".

  Sri Lanka dismisses EU trade move
AFP, Colombo

Sri Lanka's president on Friday dismissed the European Union's suspension of preferential trade status to the island, saying his government would resist foreign "strategic interference". "We will not be held back by threatened economic sanctions or withdrawn trade concessions by those who seek strategic interference in the national affairs of Sri Lanka," President Mahinda Rajapakse said in a New Year message.
The statement was a clear reference to the EU decision last month to suspend Sri Lanka's preferential trade status on the grounds that it had breached commitments on human rights and good governance.
During the final months of the war with Tamil Tiger rebels in early 2009, the United States and the EU voiced alarm at Sri Lanka's treatment of non- combatants and the internment afterwards of up to 280,000 minority Tamils.
The criticism saw Rajapakse turn to China, Iran and Libya for financial and military aid.
"We remain committed to a strengthened and sustained friendship with the countries that supported us in full measure to defeat terrorism and bring peace to our people," he said Friday.
Sri Lanka stands to lose over 150 million dollars annually due to the EU withdrawal of preferential tariffs on Sri Lankan produce, according to trade estimates.

  China’s manufacturing activity expands in December
AFP, Beijing

China's manufacturing activity expanded for the 10th straight month in December as the recovery in the world's third- largest economy continued to gather pace, official data showed on Friday.
The China Manufacturing PMI, or Purchasing Managers' Index, rose to 56.6 percent in December from 55.2 in November, the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said in a statement on its website. A reading above 50 means the sector is expanding, while a reading below 50 indicates an overall decline. "The rising index suggests the Chinese economy has further consolidated its recovery," researcher Zhang Liqun said in the statement.
But a pullback in new export orders in December suggested China's key trading partners were still suffering from the impact of the financial crisis, Zhang said.
New export orders slipped one point to 52.6 in December from the previous month, the data showed.
"It is too early to be optimistic about the recovery in the global market," Zhang said. China's export-driven economy is expected to easily exceed the government's oft-stated target of eight percent growth in 2009, mainly as a result of massive stimulus spending to combat the crisis.
The nation's economy expanded by 8.9 percent in the third quarter, up from 7.9 percent in the second quarter and 6.1 percent in the first three months.

  Russia to impose tariffs on oil export to Belarus
AFP, Moscow

Russia will impose customs tariffs on oil supplied to Belarus, Russia's government said early Friday as Minsk denounced "unprecedented pressure" on its delegation due to hold talks in Moscow, the Interfax news agency reported.
"Talks were held from December 10 to 31 practically daily, but unfortunately we did not reach an agreement," the government press service was quoted as saying.
Belarus was informed of Russia's decision to impose tariffs starting January 1, the press service said, assuring that Russia was ready to get rid of tariffs as soon as requisite documents were signed.
Meanwhile, the Belarusian delegation was called back to Minsk as "Russia's offers practically torpedoed the customs bloc set up by Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan" due to be launched July 1, a source in Minsk told Interfax.
"During talks the Belarusian delegation came up against unprecedented pressure, so Belarus was forced to call off its delegation but handed over to Russia the documents necessary to
continue talks," the source added.
A bitter dispute between Russia and Belarus two years ago in which Minsk angered Moscow by imposing a large customs duty on oil transits led to a three-day cut in Russian oil supplies to the European Union.

  Taiwan's President promises 1$0b infrastructure boost
AFP, Taipei

President Ma Ying-jeou said on Friday that Taiwan would invest around 328.5 billion Taiwanese dollars (10.27 billion US) in infrastructure projects to help boost its economy.
Projects include a metro system connecting Taoyuan airport with the capital and the expansion of a science park in the centre of the country, which alone will create 12,000 jobs in five years, Ma said in a New Year address. "We will seize the economic revival to push for major investment projects," he said. "The year ahead is a critical year to invigorate Taiwan's economy."
The government will also continue to offer employment incentives in a bid to create 100,000 new jobs, he said.
Taiwan plunged into recession in late 2008 amid the global financial crisis, although its economy has shown signs of improvement in recent months, with jobless rates easing and export orders growing.

    Dubai to open world’s tallest building
AFP, Dubai

Once-bustling Dubai will open the world's tallest skyscraper on Monday, boasting new limits in design and construction, hopeful of polishing an image tarnished by the debt woes afflicting the Gulf emirate.
Emaar, the giant property firm part-owned by the government and which developed the needle-shaped concrete, steel and glass structure, has declined to reveal Burj Dubai's exact height.
Apparently wanting to maintain the suspense, the company will say only that the tower exceeds 800 metres (2,640 feet), putting it far higher than Taiwan's Taipei 101 tower (508 metres). Bill Baker, a structural and civil engineer and partner in Chicago-based Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM), which designed the tower, said Burj Dubai has set a new benchmark. "We thought that it would be slightly taller than the existing tallest tower of Taipei 101. (Emaar) kept on asking us to go higher but we didn't know how high we could go," he said.
"We were able to tune the building like we tune a music instrument. As we went higher and higher and higher, we discovered that by doing that process... we were able to reach heights much higher than we ever thought we could. "We learned quite a bit from Burj Dubai. I would think we could easily do a one kilometre (tower). We are optimistic about the ability to go even higher." The 160-floor tower, containing 330,000 cubic metres (11.55 million cubic feet) of concrete and 31,400 tonnes of steel, can be seen from as far as 95 kilometres (59 miles) away. Burj Dubai contains 57 lifts, which will whisk people to 1,044 apartments and 49 floors of office space, as well as a hotel bearing the Giorgio Armani logo.
A spiralling Y-shaped design by SOM architect Adrian Smith was used to support the structural core of the tower, which narrows as it ascends. Higher up it becomes a steel structure topped with a huge spire. To reach the final stages, concrete was propelled to a height of 605 metres (1,996 feet) -- a world record. George Efstathiou, managing partner of SOM and the main project manager, said the tripod Y shape provides a stable base. "We took that basic... plan and used references to Islamic geometries and pointed arches... as we go vertical with that shape we stepped it back in order to mitigate the wind issue," he told AFP.
"The building is very quiet. There are many storms that you wouldn't notice at all. This building is a lot quieter than a lot of the other supertalls that came before, even if they are shorter buildings."
Construction, which began in 2004, is estimated to have cost one billion dollars (694.7 million euros). It was carried out by South Korea's Samsung Engineering & Construction, Belgium's BESIX group and the United Arab Emirates' Arabtec.
The skyscraper is the centrepiece of a 20-billion-dollar new shopping district, Downtown Burj Dubai, which includes 30,000 apartments and the Dubai Mall, which says its space for 1,200 shops makes it the world's largest indoor shopping centre. Ahead of Monday's grand opening, estate agents said there has been a considerable rise in demand for the tower's residential units, which were sold by the developer several years ago.
Property prices in Dubai have plunged more than 50 percent over the past year, but brokers told AFP that the drop in the tower's prices has been less precipitous. "I bought a one-bedroom apartment on the 80th floor for three million dollars in 2008. With the slide in prices, my loss will be huge, at least theoretically," one Palestinian businessman told AFP.
One square foot in the commercial area of the tower fetched 4,500 to 5,500 dollars at the height of the property boom in 2008, before the global recession hit.
Some believe Burj Dubai will be the last of the giant projects that have brought global fame to Dubai, such as the three-kilometre- (two-mile-) long Palm Jumeirah artificial island developed by the troubled Nakheel company.

  Best of years follow the worst
Gulfnews

London : World stocks headed towards their best annual performance on record on Thursday albeit a year after suffering their worst. Wall Street looked set to open with modest gains.
The dollar, meanwhile, was struggling on the last trading day of the year, falling against a basket of currencies as it has done throughout a year of recovering investor risk appetite.
MSCI's all-country stock index, the broadest gauge of world equities, was up about half a per cent on the day for an annual gain of more than 32 per cent. If sustained, this would be the index's best yearly performance since its inception in 1988, just pipping the 31.6 per cent gained in 2003 in the rally triggered when the invasion of Iraq failed to meet the gloomiest fears.
Investors reaching for the champagne to celebrate 2009, however, might well feel restrained by the fact that the gains follow an unprecedented decline of 43.5 per cent in 2008. The index is still about 30 per cent below its October 2007 all-time high. And it has got this far with quite a bit of help.
"The story of 2009 has been the massive and unprecedented amounts of liquidity that governments have pumped into the market," Nicholas-Applegate Capital Management said in a note. "The liquidity supplied by government has acted as a floor to credit and given investors confidence to move from non-risky to riskier assets."
That said, 2009's equity gains were remarkable, particularly after hitting lows in March. MSCI's emerging market index, for example, is up nearly 110 per cent since early March. Many indexes have now recaptured most or all of the losses suffered after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008. Yesterday, European shares were up about 0.2 per cent for a more than 25 per cent annual gain.
Many commodities, too, have had a robust year as the world economy showed signs of recovery. The standout was copper, which has risen more than 141 per cent for the year. One of the "victims" of recovering risk appetite this year has been the dollar, which has suffered as money has flowed into high-yielding asset elsewhere.
Yesterday, it was down half a per cent against a basket of major competitors. The dollar weakened about 4.5 per cent against the basket over last year although there was some recent strength.
Trade was extremely light, with Tokyo and several European countries on holiday and many banks on skeleton staff ahead of the New Year holidays.
"We're probably seeing some sort of rebalancing. The dollar has had a strong month and people are just taking profits," said Geoffrey Yu, currency strategist at UBS in London.
Euro zone government bond markets were closed.

  GM India chief says China partnership start of Asia thrust

AFP, New Delhi

For GM India chief Karl Slym, the expansion of the US auto giant's 12-year alliance with its Chinese partner SAIC Motor to tap India's burgeoning vehicle market is win-win for both sides. The two companies announced in December a joint venture with an initial focus on selling mini-commercial vehicles and inexpensive, entry-level cars in India that will later embrace other Asian emerging markets.
"Our first business move will be in India but it won't be the last-we will be spreading to other areas in Asia. We've made a commitment to expand in emerging markets," Slym told AFP in an interview. "There is a big benefit to SAIC to be able to spread its business outside of China. There is also a big benefit for us to partner with them," Slym said.
In China, where General Motors entered in 1996, the Detroit-based company is the second largest automaker, helped by its partnership with China's biggest carmaker, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp, or SAIC. GM, which is undergoing a drastic restructuring after being bailed out by the US government, is expected to post sales in China of 1.4 million vehicles this year.
But in India, Asia's third-largest car market after China and Japan, where Japanese-owned Maruti Suzuki holds a commanding leadership position, GM has been slower out of the starting blocks. The US auto company, which started selling its Chevrolet marque in India only in 2003, is the fifth-largest carmaker in the country.
It sold 67,500 vehicles last year, up 9.5 percent from the previous year. Analysts see the 50:50 tie-up in which SAIC is investing cash and GM is supplying its Indian plants and sales network as giving GM more resources to grab a bigger share of the Indian market.
It also gives the Chinese carmaker its first foothold in India, furthering its aspirations of being an international player.
India, with its nearly 1.2 billion population, is one of the world's last remaining big-growth markets for global automakers like GM, Ford, Toyota, Hyundai and Honda as they grapple with a wrenching slump in developed markets.

 Gold shines as weak dollar boosts demand
Gulfnews

London : Gold rose 1 per cent to above $1,100 (Dh4,039.5) an ounce in Europe yesterday as the dollar slipped against the euro, boosting interest in the precious metal as an alternative asset.
Trading was thin in the run-up to the New Year holiday, with many market participants absent until January 4. Spot gold hit a high of $1,106.60 an ounce and was bid at $1,104.40 an ounce at 1209 GMT, against $1,092.55 late in New York on Wednesday.
Afshin Nabavi, head of trading at MKS Finance in Geneva, said moves in gold were being exaggerated by the thin market.
"The leaders seem to be euro/dollar and the oil price," he said, adding rising Middle East tensions could further lift crude oil and consequently gold.
US gold futures for February delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange rose $13.20 to $1,105.70. The euro jumped nearly half a per cent against the dollar yesterday, with the US currency falling broadly on year-end position adjustment. Dollar weakness makes commodities priced in the US unit cheaper for holders of other currencies.
Even before these losses, the dollar index was set to end 2009 down about 4 per cent, though it had risen 3.5 per cent.
Gold prices rose around a quarter last year, peaking at a record $1,226.10 an ounce in early December. They have benefited at various times from fears over financial market stability, dollar weakness and worries over inflation. Buying of investment products such as gold exchange-traded funds has lent strong support to prices.

 ANA might swoop on JAL intl flights
Asia News Network

All Nippon Airways is considering taking over the international flight operations of embattled Japan Airlines, a move that could usher in realignment in the domestic airline industry, sources said Thursday (December 31).
ANA intends to beef up its international routes, mainly highly profitable US and European hauls, and has informed the government of its intentions, the sources said. Operating JAL's about 70 international routes has become an albatross around the neck of JAL management. In the company's September interim report for fiscal 2009, operating revenue from international passenger services dropped 43 per cent to 225.4 billion yen compared with the same period a year earlier. This was the main cause of the airline's highest ever loss.
The Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corporation of Japan, a government-backed turnaround entity, is devising a reconstruction plan for JAL together with the airline and its main banks, and plans to decide on how to rehabilitate the airline in January. The turnaround body is reviewing JAL's international flight operations.
ANA competes with JAL on more than 30 of ANA's 40 international routes. As demand from corporate customers has declined during the prolonged economic down-turn, the two airlines have been scrapping for the same slice of pie, pushing down their earnings.
"We intend to increase our U.S. and European flights," an ANA executive said. "In Asia, we need to consolidate overlapping routes."
ANA therefore intends to strengthen its international flight operations as JAL is to pare some flight routes.
Some government officials believe consolidating the airlines' international operations would enhance the competitiveness of the nation's airline industry as a whole. But other government officials have suggested that consolidating international flights under one airline would undermine competitiveness in the industry and adversely affect the quality and convenience of services, and possibly result in higher fares.
JAL also is negative on having its international operations spun off or slashed, as it believes it could turn a profit by reviewing its international routes. Negotiations therefore could bog down, the sources said.

 Commodity markets stage rally in 2009
AFP, London

Commodity prices rallied in 2009 on keen demand and signs of global economic recovery, with oil soaring and gold striking record levels, while copper and sugar surged. Many raw materials also rose this week in thin trade ahead of the New Year holiday weekend, with investors winding down for celebrations to usher in 2010.
"2009 has been a rollercoaster ride for most commodity markets, with copper, sugar and New York crude performing especially well," said VTB Capital commodities analyst Andrey Kryuchenkov.
"Refined copper and raw sugar were certainly the outstanding gainers as both more than doubled from lows at the start of the year."
He added: "China's unprecedented financial stimulus had certainly benefited raw materials linked to the expanding infrastructure and industrial growth. "Demand (from leading industrialised economies) has yet to show significant and sustained signs of an economy recovery. However, end-of-year data, especially from the United States, was fairly encouraging."
Back in 2008, crude oil and base metals had forged historic peaks on supply woes, before tumbling as the global financial crisis and recession sparked demand worries.
OIL: Crude oil leapt this year by around 80 percent 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.
The worldwide economic downturn had slammed demand for energy and sent oil prices plunging to around 33 dollars towards the end of 2008.
"So much then for 2009, a year that the oil market spent mainly in a recovery mode," said Barclays Capital analyst Paul Horsnell.
"It produced a (New York oil) average of about 62 dollars per barrel, encompassing a low of 33 dollars and a high of 82 dollars, with prices finishing the year close to the highs after a steady 10-month climb." However, prices still remain far below the record highs above 147 dollars that were struck in July 2008 on fears of supply disruptions.
New York crude rose on Thursday to briefly hit 80 dollars per barrel in light pre-holiday trade.
The market had climbed on Wednesday after news of a drop in US petroleum reserves, which suggested stronger demand in the world's biggest energy-consuming nation. Prices were also supported this week by cold winter weather in the northern hemisphere-which increases demand for heating fuel-and geopolitical concerns over key crude producer Iran.
Last week, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries held its crude output quotas unchanged at its meeting in Angola, warning of lingering weakness in the world economy.
The OPEC meeting capped a year of recovery for oil prices, which have more than doubled since the cartel set strict quota cuts in the depths of the economic crisis a year ago. In January, the cartel enforced total OPEC cuts of 4.2 million barrels a day.
New York's main futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in February, crept eight cents higher to close at 79.36 dollars a barrel. London's Brent North Sea crude for February fell 10 cents to settle at 77.93 dollars.
PRECIOUS METALS: Gold prices sparkled this year, scoring a record peak of 1,226.56 dollars per ounce at the start of December, before tailing off as many traders cashed in gains.
The glamorous metal has smashed records on the back of inflationary fears and increasing moves by central banks to diversify assets away from the dollar, which weakened against the European single currency. The weak level of the greenback made dollar-priced commodities cheaper for buyers using stronger currencies-which tends to stimulate demand.
However, by Thursday on the London Bullion Market, gold stood at 1,104 dollars an ounce, down from 1,104.50 dollars the previous Thursday.
Silver edged down to 16.99 dollars an ounce from 17.32 dollars.
On the London Platinum and Palladium Market, platinum increased to 1,466 dollars an ounce Thursday from 1,456 dollars. Palladium rose to 402 dollars an ounce from 377 dollars.
BASE METALS: Copper soared this week, striking a new multi-month peak, taking its annual gain to more than 140 percent as traders fretted over possible strikes in key producer Chile.
Most other base metals also leapt higher on better-than-expected US data and thin market conditions.
Copper hit 7,423.75 dollars per tonne on Thursday, reaching the highest level since September 2008.
"A much higher-than-expected Chicago PMI figure out of the United States, continued uncertainty about strike threats in Chile, and generally thin market conditions, all contributed to the stronger tone," said MF Global analyst Edward Meir.
"Copper prices are on course for a stunning 140 percent advance this year," he added.
A report showed Wednesday that manufacturing activity in the Chicago area accelerated for the third straight month in December, analysts said.
The Chicago branch of the Institute for Supply Management said its purchasing managers index (PMI) rose unexpectedly to a seasonally adjusted 60.0 reading, up from 56.1 in November. Most analysts had expected a fall.

 2005 Air France accident victims get 11.4m settlement
AFP, Montreal

Nearly 200 passengers of an Air France jet that slid off the runway and caught fire on landing in Toronto in 2005 were awarded 12 million Canadian dollars (11.4 million US) in damages by a Canadian judge, in a court ruling released on Thursday.
The class-action settlement is shared by 184 mostly French and Canadian passengers of the Paris-Toronto flight. Sixty-eight passengers had reached an out-of-court settlement, while 45 others took no legal action.
The award payment will be made by Air France, to the tune of 10 million dollars plus interest, with the remainder shared by Airbus, which built the A 340 airliner, and Goodrich, which made the faulty escape chutes used in the accident.
"The settlements with Air France, Airbus and Goodrich are approved as fair, reasonable and in the best interests of the class," Ontario Superior Court judge Joan Lax said of the December 24 ruling disclosed Thursday. Another class-action lawsuit against Nav Canada, which handled air traffic control at the time of the accident, is still ongoing. Air France flight 358 from Paris slid off the runway into a ditch during a heavy rainstorm on landing at Toronto on August 2, 2005.
Most of the 297 passengers and crew of 12 were quickly and safely evacuated from the craft, but 60 people had to jump off the plane when the escape chutes failed -- 33 people were injured, 23 seriously enough to be taken to hospital.

National

Bright prospect prevails to revive prestigious silk sector
BSS, Rajshahi, January 1

A bright prospect has been prevailing for reviving the prestigious silk sector of the country.
President of Bangladesh Silk Industry Owners Association Monzur Faruque Chowdhury told BSS that the prospect has been created due to abnormal price hike of foreign silk yarn.
He said this is the high time to promote the domestic silk yarn through increasing its substantial production. "If we could habituate the silk industry owners in using the domestic yarn the cocoon farmers would be encouraged in enhancing the native production," he said.
He said the industry owners could be discouraged in importing the foreign yarn. He gave emphasis on running the factories using domestic yarn and said steps should be taken to raise domestic production of yarn.
The grassroots mulberry and sericulture farmers consisting above 70 percent women, he added, would be happy to go back to their ancestral profession if the silk sector is revitalized.
He said the country produces hardly 40 tonnes of yarn against the annual demand of 300 tonnes. There is no alternative to bringing back the cocoon farmers to their ancestral profession to protect the traditional silk sector from degradation, he added.
He called for launching a simple interest-rate loan for the sericulture farmers to encourage them to this field and the government level patronization is very much essential in this regard.
He said around 1500 metric tons of silk yarn are being produced in only the adjacent Malda district of India. Similarly, he said, only Rajshahi and Chapainawabganj are capable of producing the same amount of yarn if the sector gets necessary help from the government.
Monzur said the nation could export additional yarn after meeting the domestic demand of 300 tonnes. The silk sector could not be protected depending upon only the imported yarn, he said.
Attaining self-sufficiency, he said, in the domestic yarn production could be the only alternative to bringing back the lost glory of the prestigious silk which has only internal market of around Taka 1500 crore.
Meanwhile, the silk industry has been facing an awkward position at present due to abnormal price hike of imported silk yarn.
According to sources concerned, the running industries are incurring loss of around Taka 4,000 to 5,000 everyday while the small ones are on the dying condition.

  Weather deteriorates causing miseries to people
BSS, Rangpur, January 1

Normal life remained seriously affected as mercury dipped again during the past 24 hours and dense fogs and cooler winds added sufferings to the common people in the northern region after a comparatively better day Thursday. The minimum temperatures dipped by one to three degrees Celsius during the period and ranged in between 10 and 11.7 degrees Friday causing shivering cold and forcing hundreds of people to stay indoors till Friday noon.
A pale sun appeared penetrating the thick layers of fog and clouds at fewer places Friday noon though most of the places and the char areas in the river basins remained covered with fog reducing visibility there till the noon.
The vehicular traffic on roads and highways, plying of trains and water vessels remained seriously affected till Friday noon since 11 pm Thursday night when the vehicles plied slowly with their headlights on to avert accidents till Friday noon.
The district and upazila administrations, NGOs, voluntary, socio-cultural and charitable organisations and affluent people have been continuing distribution of warm clothes among the poor and the district administrations sought more warm clothes. The allocated blankets so far by the government have already been distributed by the administrations in the region to mitigate sufferings of the cold-hit distressed people and allocation of more warm clothes by the government is now awaited, officials said.
Met Office sources said, both the minimum and maximum temperatures marked falls at all six monitoring points in the region during the last 24 hours reducing the gap between them further that caused biting cold deteriorating the situation.
The number of people, seen out of their houses on urgent needs at the bazaars, bus stands and rails stations, was lower till Friday noon though their number started increasing later amid shivering cold weather in the region.
The blowing cooler winds from the north and northwestern directions made the weather further cooler since midnights in the region.
Reports reaching here from the remote areas said sufferings of hundreds of people living in the sandy char areas in Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Gaibandha, Rangpur, Nilphamari, Bogra and Sirajganj districts on the Brahmaputra basin again mounted Friday.
The number of patients with cough, fever, asthma and other cold-related diseases, however, remained mostly unchanged during the past two days in these sub- Himalayan northern districts, concerned hospital sources and physicians said.
Renowned rice-scientist and Dinajpur Hub Manager of Cereal Systems Initiative For South Asia (CSISA) Dr MA Mazid while talking to BSS Friday said that such trends of weather could harm the growing Rabi crops, especially potato in the fields.
Head of Agriculture of Rangpur-Dinajpur Rural Service (RDRS) and environmentalist MG Neogi told BSS Friday that the weather has been behaving very peculiarly with unpredictability this season due to the huge adverse impacts of the global climate change.

  DCC raises deposits in banks to sound level: Mayor Khoka
UNB, Dhaka

Despite various allegations from different quarters, Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) has raised its deposited fund in banks to a sound level compared to the past and cleared all its previous loans.
Talking to UNB at his office, DCC Mayor Sadeq Hossain Khoka said as per the statements of different banks till December 30, 2009, the total amount of deposited money in various funds of DCC is Tk 218.64 crore.
He said that when he assumed the office of Mayor in May 15, 2002, the total amount of DCC fund was about Tk 2.31 crore and the corporation had Tk 631 crore loan liabilities as well. There was no money to provide even one month's salary to the city corporation employees. Khoka said now there is no loan liability of Dhaka City Corporation.
He said it has been possible to deposit funds in different heads of DCC with a number of timely actions. These include plugging of wastage of money in various activities of DCC, introduction of cost-effective policies with checks and balances, strong monitoring, checking of duplication in various development works and maintaining transparency.
Sadeq Hossain Khoka has been carrying out his Mayoral responsibility under three successive regimes - BNP government, last military-backed caretaker government and presently, the Awami League government.
He said: "Before I assumed the office of Mayor, there was no deadline for completing road cutting and digging works by different utility services like WASA and T&T. As a result, city dwellers had to suffer months after months."
The Mayor said he introduced the deadline system setting 7-15 days time for completing road cutting and digging works with provision of penalty for each day's delay.
He also mentioned introduction of one-stop service in DCC to minimize delay in various activities, including proper coordination among different utility services agencies.
Now, he said, at the beginning of each year a panel of contractors for 10 zones of the city corporation is formed for carrying out repair works timely after road digging to check wastage of time and money. The panel contractor also carries out urgent road repair works in the city.
Khoka said Dhaka city GIS map has been made by a professor of Dhaka University's Geography Department by which number of service lines under each street of the city can be seen and this helps in preparing plan of action in any development or road cutting works.
He said now no roads in the city remain unattended for indefinite period after cutting and digging by utility services. As a result, public sufferings have been reduced.

  Tk 100 cr tea resort in Srimangol by year end
BSS,Dhaka

The hospitality industry makes a boom driven by the private sector as an estimated cost of Taka 100 crore has been invested in the country's potential industry, thanks to the growing trend of visiting to tourist destinations.
This is the biggest private investment in the sector that designed for setting up a six-storey resort dubbed 'Grand Sultan Tea Resort and Golf' (GSTRG) in Srimangol, the country's one of the major tourist destinations in the country. Located at northeast of the capital city of Dhaka and on way to Sylhet, the all- inclusive luxury resort is being built on 13.2 acres of pristine tea land of Srimangol.
The resort would have 167 rooms, 20 suites (including presidential), ball room, swimming pool, a golf course (nine holes), lake, and a eye-catching tea garden inside it.
"Certainly, the investment is sizeable and would give a further boost to the tourism industry in the country alongside projecting it heavily all over the world," Khwaja Tipu Sultan, chairman of the GSTRG, a subsidiary of Ex-cursion and Resorts Bangladesh Ltd, told the news agency.

  Integrated fish farming can help to reduce poverty: Latif Bishwas

BSS, Rajshahi

Fisheries and Livestock Minister Abdul Latif Bishwas said poverty could be reduced to a great extent through integrated and intensive fish farming everywhere in the country.
He said the present government, led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, was committed to build a poverty-free and self-reliant Bangladesh through a large-scale promotion of the fisheries and livestock sector.
The minister was addressing as the chief guest at a views exchange meeting on 'Fisheries and livestock with the fish farmers' on the premises of Muktijoddha Chattar of Charghat upazila of the district Thursday.
Mayor of Rajshahi AHM Khairuzzaman Liton, Shahriar Alam MP, and Abdul Wadud Dara MP, spoke on the occasion as the special guests with Charghat Awami League President Anwar Hossain in the chair.
Latif Bishwas said the country's structure is dependent on agriculture and importance of the fisheries and livestock sector is indispensable to meet the country's protein and nutritional demands.
The present government, he said, has launched the 'one house, one farm' program to bring a revolution in the two promising agricultural sub-sectors.
The minister said the present government has been working relentlessly to bring back the nation's fish-rice tradition.
He also called upon the fish farmers to invest their best efforts to boost fish production through proper utilization of the modern technologies along with the existing natural resources to attain self-reliance and to cut poverty. The fisheries sector, he said, has enormous potentials to create employment opportunities side by side with reducing the nutritional deficiency.
The existing potentialities should be brought under proper utilization for national uplift, he added.
The minister called for a collective effort of all to raise fish production for ensuring food, income, savings and nutrition and assured of all-out cooperation to solve the existing problems being faced by the farmers.

  ‘Self-seeding’ of cancer cells may play critical
BSS, Dhaka

Cancer progression is commonly thought of as a process involving the growth of a primary tumor followed by metastasis, in which cancer cells leave the primary tumor and spread to distant organs.
A new study by researchers at Memorial Sloan- Kettering Cancer Center, US shows that circulating tumor cells - cancer cells that break away from a primary tumor and spread to other areas of the body-can also return to and grow in their tumor of origin, a newly discovered process called "self-seeding."
The findings of the study, published in the December 25 issue of the journal Cell, suggest that self-seeding can enhance tumor growth through the release of signals that promote angiogenesis, invasion, and metastasis, according to release available here today.
"Our work not only provides evidence for the self-seeding phenomenon and reveals the mechanism of this process, but it also shows the possible role of self-seeding in tumor progression," said the study's first author Mi-Young Kim, PhD, Research Fellow in the Cancer Biology and Genetics Program at Memorial Sloan- Kettering.
According to the research, which was conducted in mice, self- seeding involves two distinct functions: the ability of a tumor to attract its own circulating progeny and the ability of circulating tumor cells to re-infiltrate the tumor in response to this attraction.
The investigators identified four genes that are responsible for executing these functions: IL-6 and IL-8, which attract the most aggressive segment of the circulating tumor cells population, and FSCN1 and MMP1, which mediate the infiltration of circulating tumor cells into a tumor.
The findings also show that circulating breast cancer cells that are capable of self-seeding a breast tumor have a similar gene expression pattern to breast cancer cells that are capable of spreading to the lungs, bones, and brain, and therefore have an increased potential to metastasize to these organs.
Additional experiments revealed that self-seeding can occur in cancer cells of various tumor types in addition to breast cancer, including colon cancer and melanoma.
"These results provide us with opportunities to explore new targeted therapies that may interfere with the self-seeding process and perhaps slow or even prevent tumor progression," said the study's senior author, Joan Massagu,, PhD, Chair of the Cancer Biology and Genetics Program at Memorial Sloan- Kettering and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.
The concept of self-seeding sheds light on clinical observations such as the relationship between the tumor size, prognosis, and local relapse following seemingly complete removal of a primary breast tumor.

  Labour candidate Rushanara hopeful of winning British parliamentary elections

UNB, Dhaka

British ruling Labour Party candidate Rushanara Ali has said if she wins the upcoming elections to the House of Commons she would provide a strong voice to the British-Bangladeshi people and Bangladesh as well.
"If I win the elections, I will be a strong advocate for Bangladesh," she said in an interview with a group of journalists at Sonargaon Hotel in the city Friday.
British parliamentary elections are likely to be held around May this year. Rushanara, an Oxford graduate of Bangladeshi origin, will be contesting from Bangladeshi-dominated Bethnal Green and Bow constituency in East London.
Asked about the chance of her winning the polls, she said: "I feel pretty optimistic about my win… If we are united as a community in East London, we have a very good chance."
Rushanara, who left her hometown Sylhet at the age of seven, said there is a great deal of fondness in UK for Bangladesh. "Britain is a big fan of Bangladesh."
About the major problems facing the British-Bangladeshi community in East London, she said unemployment and housing are the biggest issues affecting the people in her constituency.
Rushanara said unemployment rate is very high because of global economic recession. The young people leaving universities on completion of their studies need jobs.
Secondly, she said the people in East London are suffering from housing problem with large family in small property. The labour government has put money to address the problem.
"Our children have not enough space for study and move around. They need better housing condition," she said.

  Training workshop for economic reporters held in the city
UNB, Dhaka

A daylong training workshop for economic reporters, organized by Bangladesh Economic Association (BEA), was held at its auditorium in the city on Friday.
BEA president Dr. Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad inaugurated the workshop and shared his views on poverty and climate issues.
Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD) executive director Dr. Mustafizur Rahman gave some basic ideas about the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and trade issues while BEA vice president Dr. Asraf Uddin Chowdhury spoke about the macroeconomic fundamentals.
The Bangladesh Observer editor Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury and The Financial Express Editor Moazzem Hossain took part in the panel discussion on effective and ethical reporting.
Some 30 journalists from different print and electronic media took part in the workshop.

Sports

Citycell Bangladesh League football
Brothers Union loses point against Chittagong Mohammedan

TBT Report

Brothers Union suffered yet another jolt in the Citycell 3rd Bangladesh League football when the hosts were held to a goalless draw by Chittagong Mohammedan Sporting Club at Bir Shreshtha Shaheed Mohammad Mustafa Stadium in Dhaka on Friday.
Brothers Union players lacked required application to subdue the visitors and despite carrying out several onslaughts, they failed to breach the opponents' defence.
Brothers Union, which scored a lone-goal victory against Farashganj Sporting Club in the previous match, secured 10 points from six matches.
Chittagong Mohammedan players showed great measure of fortitude to snatch a point against the hosts and boosted their tally with six points from six outings.
The other match of the day between Shuktara Jubo Sangsad and Biani Bazar Sporting Club also ended in a scoreless draw at Osmani Stadium in Narayanganj.
Shuktara, which managed two draws in five matches, earned two points, while Biani Bazar claimed three points after their fifth round fixtures. .
Today's match: Muktijoddha Sangsad Krira Chakra vs Feni Soccer Club (Bir Shreshtha Shaheed Mohammad Mustafa Stadium, Dhaka at 2:45pm).

  Indian cricket team to arrive today
UNB, Dhaka

A 16-member Indian cricket team, led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni, is scheduled to arrive in the city today to participate in the two-match Test series against host Bangladesh and
a tri-nation tournament involving Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
During the 27-day trip, India will open their campaign with tri-nation tournament against Sri Lanka on January 5 at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium (SBNS) and play their 2nd match against Bangladesh on Jan 7 at the same venue.
The tourists will play the 3rd match against Sri Lanka on Jan 10 and the 4th and last match against Bangladesh on Jan 11, both at the same venue.
The final match of the tri series tournament is billed for January 13.
After the tri-nation meet, India will play the 1st Test against Bangladesh on Jan 17-21 at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong and the 2nd Test on Jan 24-28 at SBNS.
Indian squad for tri-series: MS Dhoni (capt/wk), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Yuvraj Singh, Sudeep Tyagi, Dinesh Karthik, S Sreesanth, Ashok Dinda, Amit Mishra.

  Barcelona hopes for more joy in 2010
AFP, Madrid

After a memorable 2009 in which it won a record six trophies, league leader Barcelona hopes for more success in 2010 and aims to start on the right note with a home win over Villareal today.
Champion Barca leads the table by two points from Real Madrid after going the first 15 league games unbeaten and should be full of confidence after winning the World Club Championship before the Christmas break.
"We don't know how things will go in 2010 but with the coach (Pep Guardiola) we've got there is no way we are going to relax," said Brazilian defender Dani Alves. "We are hoping to start the year well, like we finished this one."
In 2009 Barca won a league, Kings Cup and Champions League treble before lifting the European Super Cup, Spanish Super Cup and World Club Championship, so topping that in 2010 will take some doing.
Villarreal made the worst start in their history but have recovered to climb to ninth under Ernesto Valverde.
The club's away form has been their main problem with just one away win all season and the odds are stacked against them at Camp Nou where Barca have not dropped a single point in the league. Real didn't collect a single trophy last year and the pressure is on for coach Manuel Pellegrini to change that in 2010.
Pellegrini has kept Real within striking distance of Barca and his side begin with a trip to Osasuna on Sunday.
Real must do without key Portuguese defender Pepe until the end of the season due to injury although the club have resisted the temptation to bring in a replacement. Defender Alvaro Arbeloa believes Real's 'Galacticos' are starting to gel and are capable of a league and Champions League double come May.
"We have stepped up our game, we are scoring a lot and our defence is strong," said Arbeloa. "Winning La Liga and the Champions League is difficult but we have the potential."
Sevilla may have beaten Real this season but they have fallen out of the title race and lie seven points behind Real going into Saturday's match at Atletico Madrid.
Sevilla can't afford to lose further ground while Atletico are in much worse shape lying just two points above the relegation zone.
"The Christmas break was good for us to forget about the past few months, which weren't good at all," said Atletico midfielder Raul Garcia. "It was good for us to regain our strength and begin to think positively."
Valencia lie a point behind Sevilla in fourth and begin with a home match against Espanyol at the Mestalla Stadium.

  Osaka beats Nagoya 4-1 to win Emperor's Cup
AFP, Tokyo

Japan international midfielder Yasuhito Endo scored twice and set up another to lead defending champions Gamba Osaka to a 4-1 victory over Nagoya Grampus in the Emperor's Cup final on Friday.
Osaka has now won the knock-out tournament three times.
Brazilian striker Lucas opened the scoring only six minutes into the first half after a quick passing move started by Endo on the left.
Nagoya missed a crucial chance to equalize when Keiji Yoshimura's shot smacked the left post in the 30th minute.
Ten minutes later Nagoya drew level when Keiji Tamada sent a long ball into the Osaka area, where Australian international Josh Kennedy provided a perfect cross for Naoshi Nakamura to head home.
After a period of sustained Nagoya pressure in the second half, Endo dribbled to the edge of the area on the counter-attack and fired a left-footer to regain the lead in the 77th minute.
He then exchanged passes with Takahiro Futagawa, who made it 3-1 in the 85th minute before Endo put the game beyond Nagoya's reach in injury time.
"I believed that we would create scoring chances sooner or later," said Endo, adding that Nagoya's tactics meant Osaka "couldn't play our usual game."
Osaka coach Akira Nishino noted that "for Nagoya, it was their last chance to qualify for the AFC Champions League, so they played aggressively in the second half."
Osaka had already qualified for the AFC Champions League by finishing third in the J-League competition.
"We couldn't win a trophy this season, so we wanted to win this one," said Nishino.
"It was very tough until the end, but my players kept their motivation high and they did a very good job."

   All eyes on Belgian comeback queens
AFP, Brisbane

All eyes will be on Belgian comeback queens Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters when the second Brisbane International tennis tournament begins today.
Former world number one Henin is using the Brisbane tournament to launch her return to professional tennis, while Clijsters will be out to maintain the momentum of her 2009 comeback, which breathed new life into the women's professional tour thanks to her win at the US Open in August.
With the tournament also featuring Serbia's glamourous Ana Ivanovic and Russian Nadia Petrova, the women have garnered almost all the attention despite the presence in the men's draw of players such as Andy Roddick and Gael Monfils.
The 27-year-old Henin sent an ominous warning to her rivals when she arrived in Brisbane this week claiming she would become a better player than when she retired in May 2008.
The Belgian spent a total of 117 weeks at number one and claimed 41 singles titles, including seven Grand Slams. She announced her comeback in September, soon after her compatriot and fierce rival Clijsters won the US Open, and said this week she would return to the tour a more relaxed player. "I believe I can be a better player," Henin said. "I believe I can use my experience more than in the past.
"When you are (playing at) 200 percent you have no time to realise it.
"You are too involved all the time, and all this time off helped me to realise everything I achieved.
"What I can say is I know myself much better and that's the most important thing."
Clijsters' manager said the world number 18's priority in Brisbane was introducing daughter Jada to a koala.
Another former world number one, Ivanovic, will be hoping the tournament marks her return to the top flight after a loss of form and a run of injuries saw her ranking fall to 22. Ivanovic, already a crowd favourite in Australia because of the country's large Serbian community, has endeared herself to locals even further thanks to her relationship with Queensland golfer Adam Scott, with newspapers renaming her "Aussie Ana".
"It wasn't an easy year but I learned a lot," the Serb said of her poor 2009.
"I just want to focus on the big picture now and get lots of matches in.... I just want competition-I really missed it. "I want to go in without expectations but I know if I perform well I can reach the final."Clijsters looks likely to be named top seed for the tournament, ahead of Petrova, Ivanovic and Slovak Daniela Hantuchova.
The men's draw is headed by Roddick, Monfils, and Czech duo Radek Stepanek and Tomas Berdych.
The tournament also features Frenchman Richard Gasquet, who was given the all-clear from the Court of Arbitration for Sport to play in Australia following a three-month ban for cocaine use.
The CAS accepted Gasquet's argument that the small traces of the drug in his system were the result of kissing a girl in a Miami nightclub, rejecting an appeal for a harsher sentence by the International Tennis Federation.

  Japan getting more serious about World Cup dream
AFP, Tokyo

Japan's national football coach Takeshi Okada says a growing number of his players share his ambitious goal of a semi-final spot in this year's World Cup.
"Honestly, I am surprised myself," he told reporters when asked if the number of his players, who are "seriously" aiming for a top-four finish in South Africa, had risen.
"The players have ups and downs and they can flinch when they hit the wall... So I can't say how many on a constant basis," Okada said in the interview embargoed for release on New Year's Day. "But I have a feeling that the number was just a few this time last year and has since exceeded 10 and then 15," he said.
His target has been snubbed as unrealistic because Japan have not won a World Cup match on foreign soil since Okada guided them to their finals debut at France 1998 in his first stint as national coach. They came home after three straight losses at the group stage.
Securing just one point at the group stage in South Africa is widely seen as a tall order for Japan, who are pitted against the Netherlands, Cameroon and Denmark-all of them ranked above the three-time Asian champions. Japan's best World Cup result was a last-round spot in the 2002 tournament, which they co-hosted with South Korea, who finished fourth.
At Germany 2006, Japan bowed out after losing to Brazil and Australia and drawing with Croatia.
Okada, who took over from Bosnian Ivica Osim in late 2007, said he had been asked in an interview with football's governing body FIFA about the source of his confidence.
"It is not only me but also my players and staff who feel that we can make it."
The bespectacled 53-year-old said that a tour of the Netherlands last September had boosted his "Blue Samurai" squad. During the tour, Japan came out fighting in their first-ever encounter with world number-three the Netherlands but eventually lost 3-0. They also battled from behind to beat the highly physical Ghana 4-3.
"That tour has made clear to us what we need to do to survive the battles," Okada said.
Japan's squad features a midfield led by Shunsuke Nakamura, who has struggled to earn playing time at Espanyol after moving from Celtic last June.
Their firepower is expected to be fuelled by 21-year-old Catania striker Takayuki Morimoto, who made his international debut in October, and goal machine Keisuke Honda, who began to score for Japan last year.
Okada said Japan needed to improve in three areas to be reckoned with on the world stage.
"To outrun our opponents. To outdo them in one-on-one battles for the ball. To raise the accuracy of our skills, especially kicks," he said.

  Liaison Officers's training course begins
TBT Report

A three-day training programme for the Liaison Officers of the forthcoming 11th South Asian Games (SAG) began at the newly constructed building of the Bangladesh Olympic Association (BOA) in the city on Friday.
Reception, Protocol and Liaison Committee of the SAG organised the programme with 300 Liaison Officers taking part in the course.
Member Secretary of Reception, Protocol and Liaison Committee Fazlur Rahman Babul, Member Hasanuzzaman Bablu, Convener of the Media Committee Asaduzzaman Noor, MP, and Chef-de-Mission of the Bangladesh contingent Mizanur Rahman Manu were present at the inauguration ceremony of the three-day course.

  South Africa set to change for third Test
AFP, Cape Town

South Africa is set to make at least one change in its team as it goes into a crucial third Test against England, starting tomorrow.
"We're all under pressure," admitted South African coach Mickey Arthur, who said 'tough decisions' would have to be made about the composition of the side following their crushing innings and 98 runs defeat in the second Test in Durban.
"We're 1-0 down in the series and we've got to take 20 wickets and win this Test match," said Arthur.
He said: "There may be one change, there may be two." Asked whether veteran fast bowler Makhaya Ntini faced the axe, Arthur said Ntini had not been at his best in Durban, but cautioned that did not necessarily mean the only black African in the squad would be dropped.
But he also said that if Ntini won a reprieve it would not be simply because of his status as a standard-bearer for racial transformation.
"He's an icon cricketer and you tend to give icon players a longer run because they deserve it."
England, meanwhile, are concerned about the fitness of batsman Paul Collingwood, who suffered a dislocated left index finger during fielding practice in Durban.
Coach Andy Flower said Collingwood had made good progress, which included batting in the nets on Friday.
"I was pleasantly surprised because we hadn't factored in him batting today," said Flower. "But he's still doubtful. He didn't face the quicker bowlers and he didn't do any robust fielding practice."
Flower said a decision would be made after Collingwood was exposed to more rigorous practice on Saturday. He said the final decision would be taken by team management.
"He's desperate to play, which means we can't just leave the decision up to him." If Collingwood does not play, the tour selectors will have to choose between Hampshire's Michael Carberry, who was added to the squad as cover for Collingwood on Wednesday, or all-rounder Luke Wright.
Flower said he expected the Newlands Test would be tough, citing South Africa's record of 14 wins in their last 18 Tests at the ground, including three out of three against England.
"They're a very good side and it is still a huge challenge for us," he said.
"They'll come hard at us but we'll come hard at them too.'
Flower said he did not believe there was a parallel between the current series and the Ashes series against Australia last year, when England went from a win in the second Test to an innings defeat in the fourth Test at Headingley in Leeds.
"I think in that Test there was an anxiety to wrap up the series quickly. I don't feel there's any anxiety from this team. We have probably learnt from that experience."
Teams:
South Africa (from): Graeme Smith (captain), Ashwell Prince, Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Mark Boucher (wkt), Paul Harris, Morne Morkel, Dale Steyn, Makhaya Ntini, Friedel de Wet, Alviro Petersen, Ryan McLaren.
England (likely): Andrew Strauss (captain), Alastair Cook, Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood or Michael Carberry or Luke Wright, Ian Bell, Matt Prior (wkt), Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann, James Anderson, Graham Onions.

  Kaka back in action
AFP, Madrid

Real Madrid's Brazilian midfielder Kaka touched the ball during a training session on Thursday for the first time since he was sidelined at the end of November with a hernia, the Spanish club said.
"Kaka appears to have recovered from his sports hernia and today got his first feel for the ball in several weeks. He and Cristiano Ronaldo teamed up during the second half of the session to work on various drills," the club said in a statement.
Real will hold two more training sessions before it faces Osasuna in the league on Sunday in Pamplona and it is not yet clear if the 27-year-old will be called up for the squad for that match.
The Spanish giants have won all four of their matches in Kaka's absence, leading some in the Spanish media to suggest that Real play better without the 65-million-euro (93.5-million-dollar) summer signing from AC Milan.
But Dutch midfielder Rafael van der Vaart, who has replaced Kaka during his absence, is also in doubt for the match as is Spanish midfielder Guti.
Real went into the Christmas break two points behind leaders and champions Barcelona in the Primera Liga.

   No charge against Tyson over airport scuffle

AFP, Los Angeles
Mike Tyson and the photographer who provoked the former heavyweight world champion's ire at Los Angeles International airport last month won't face charges over their scuffle, prosecutors said Thursday.
City attorney spokesman Frank Mateljan said prosecutors found insufficient evidence to charge Tyson or photographer Tony Echeverria.
Both men were arrested on November 11 after an altercation in which each said the other hit him.
Echeverria said a blow by Tyson - the once feared heavyweight world champ - knocked him to the ground, and he was treated for a cut to the forehead.
Tyson was traveling with his family when he was mobbed by photographers.
His attorney Shawn Champion Holley said at the time that Tyson was protecting his infant daughter after Echeverria collided with her stroller.
She welcomed the decision not to charge the former fighter.
"The city attorney's decision today is a small victory for those who continue to be harassed, annoyed and even stalked by the paparazzi," Chapman Holley said.
Authorities in Arizona said after Tyson's arrest that they were watching the case to see if the former boxer should be sent to jail for violating terms of his probation in a 2007 drug case in which Tyson pleaded guilty to cocaine possession.
The airport incident came after a difficult year for Tyson, who suffered personal tragedy in May when his four-year-old daughter died after accidentally strangling herself with a loose cord on a treadmill.
Tyson exploded on the boxing scene in the mid-1980s, becoming the youngest heavyweight champion in history in 1986 at the age of 20.
Considered unbeatable for the rest of the decade, Tyson's career went off the rails when he suffered a shock upset to James "Buster" Douglas in 1990.
In 1992, Tyson was convicted of raping a beauty queen at a pageant in Indianapolis, Indiana. He served three years of a six-year sentence and was released in 1995 -- and has always denied raping the woman.
"Iron Mike" reclaimed the heavyweight throne but lost to Evander Holyfield in 1996 and notoriously bit Holyfield's ears twice in a 1997 rematch, adding banishment to his ridicule.
Tyson was jailed again in 1999 for assaulting two people following a traffic accident. Tyson filed for bankruptcy in 2003 and retired after losses to Britain's Danny Williams in 2004 and American Kevin McBride in 2005.

   Oudin unafraid of Hopman rivals
AFP, Perth

They'll be the tournament's odd couple on the court but emerging US youngster Melanie Oudin believes she and teammate John Isner can be a threat in the mixed teams Hopman Cup, starting today.
The Americans are seeded seventh in the unique eight-nation event, but Oudin showed at last year's US Open and Wimbledon that she was more than capable of springing a surprise.
Oudin reached the fourth round at Wimbledon, defeating Jelena Jankovic in the process, and then went one better at the US Open, reaching the quarter finals, with Hopman Cup rival Elena Dementieva and former world No.1 Maria Sharapova among her scalps.
Speaking here on Friday, the 18-year-old Oudin said she didn't fear any of her Hopman cup rivals.
"I pulled it off at the US Open and maybe we can pull it off here," she said.
"Everyone in the draw is tough but I think doing well at Wimbledon and the US Open this past year really helps my confidence.
"Going into (tournaments) now I won't be afraid who I play in the first round or within the draw."
Oudin, ranked 48th in the world, and Isner open their Hopman Cup campaign against Spaniards Tommy Robredo and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez on Sunday.
Playing the seasoned Martinez Sanchez will be a new experience for Oudin.
"I've never played her before but I know she's a lefty and I know she's got a strong serve and is really good at doubles and she is going to be coming into the net against me a lot," she said.
"It should be a good match."
The Americans then face top seeds and home side Australia on Tuesday, which will pit Oudin against world No.13 Samantha Stosur.
Oudin and Isner will make an interesting pairing in the often deciding mixed doubles rubbers here, with Isner standing 206cm (6.9 feet) and Oudin just 168cm (5.6 feet).
"Fifteen inches is quite a big difference and I think it's going to be pretty funny when we play mixed doubles," Oudin said.
"I've played (mixed doubles) only a few times but I've had a really good time when I've played so I'm looking forward to it and it should be fun."
Oudin said she had taken great confidence out of her results in 2009 and was looking forward to continuing to rise up the rankings this year.

   Portsmouth players set for fresh wages delay
AFP, Portsmouth

Premier League crisis club Portsmouth said Thursday their players' December salaries would not be paid until January 5.
The bottom of the table side had hoped to make the outstanding payments on Thursday but the monies will now be cleared after the new year.
"Portsmouth Football Club expect to pay their first team squad's December salaries on Tuesday, January 5," said a club statement.
"The club has been speaking to the Professional Footballers' Association and the players have been informed.
"The club has been assured of receipt of funds by Tuesday and the owner (Ali Al-Faraj) and board have been working hard on resolving the short-term delay."
This is the third time this season Portsmouth have been unable to pay players' wages on time after similar delays in September and November.
Pompey, beset by problems both on and off the field, will head into 2010 four points adrift at the bottom of the table following Wednesday's 4-1 home defeat by Arsenal at Fratton Park.
British tax authorities are threatening to take legal action against Portsmouth in respect to unpaid tax bill worth a reported 3.5 million pounds, although Pompey officials have denied they have been served with a formal, winding-up order by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).
Meanwhile, former Portsmouth owner Sacha Gayadamak, according to a report in Thursday's Guardian newspaper, is owed at least 28 million pounds by the club.
Current manager Avram Grant cannot, as yet, look forward to bolstering the squad during the January transfer window as Portsmouth remain subject to a Premier League transfer embargo over issues of unpaid transfer fees.
Portsmouth fans, renowned as being some of the most loyal in English football, finally vented their frustration on Wednesday with chants during the Arsenal match of "Sack the board" and "Where's all our money gone?".
Portsmouth have twice changed hands this season with Saudi Arabian businessman Faraj taking over from Sulaiman Al-Fahim, who was only in charge for a matter of weeks after protracted takeover talks with Gaydamak.
Club chief executive Peter Storrie - himself charged with tax evasion by HMRC over allegations he concealed a signing-on fee for Amdy Faye - used Wednesday's programme notes to try to re-assure fans about Pompey's future, which looked bright after they won the FA Cup in 2008.
"Off the field, the financial issues of the club have been prominent in the media once again," he said.