saturday, JANUARY 23, 2010 magh 10, 1416, SAFAR 6, 1431 Hijri

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

Leading News

Biswa Ijtema begins
Bank of Turag river turned into human sea as 30 lakh devotees join congregation

BSS, Gazipur

The three-day Biswa Ijtema, the world congregation of the Muslims organized by Tablig Jamaat, began on Friday at Tongi on the outskirts of the capital.
The eastern bank of the river Turag has virtually turned into a human sea with tens of thousands of devotees pouring into the Ijtema venue since morning to say Jumma prayers there.
About three million local and foreign devotees took part in the Jumma prayers.
Thousands of people joined the prayers from Dhaka-Mymensingh highway as there was no room in the Ijtema ground. Hazrat Maulana Zobayerul Islam led the prayers.
Earlier, the Ijtema formally began with 'ambayan' (general sermon) after Fazr prayers at dawn.
Renowned 'alim' (Islamic scholar) from India Maulana Niazi Azmat and Maulana Abdul Wahab from Pakistan delivered sermons after the Fazr prayers.
The eminent alims of the subcontinent, in their sermons, stressed on following the guidance of the holy Quran and Sunnah. The sermons were translated into different languages of the world.
Earlier, the authorities completed all preparations for the second largest congregation of the Muslims after Hajj.
Security and other facilities have been ensured in the Ijtema venue for about four million devotees from home and abroad.
The five-square kilometer ijtema ground on the eastern bank of the Turag was filled up with devotees by Thursday evening.
About 20,000 devotees from some 70 foreign countries have arrived in the country to attend the congregation, said Abdul Quddus, one of the organisers of the Ijtema.
The countries include India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Leba-non, Canada, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Thailand, Singapore, Morocco, Japan, the Philippines, Egypt, Syria, Bhutan, Indonesia, Malaysia, the USA, the UK, Australia, Nigeria, South Africa, Turkey, Italy, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark and Spain.

 BSF kills another Bangladeshi
Number of such killings in nine years rises to 817

TBT Report

Indian Border Security Force (BSF) has killed yet another Bangladeshi citizen on the border Friday taking the number of such killings to 92 during the period from January 1, 2009 to January 22, 2010 and to 817 in nine years January 2000 to January 2010.
The latest incident of killing a Bangladeshi citizen by BSF took place on Khalpara border in Meherpur Sadar upazila early on Friday.
According to UNB, The victim was identified as Nazrul Islam Nazu, 37, son of Mobarak Ali of Baridaka village in the upazila
BDR sources said, BSF from Natna camp in Nadia district of West Bengal opened fire on Nazrul while he was working in his paddy field at about 6 am. He died on the spot .
With this six Bangladeshis were killed by BSF in first 22 days of 2010 taking the total number of deaths to 92 during the period from January 1, 2009 to January 16, 2010. This shows that the killing spree of BSF on Bangladesh border continues unabated despite India's repeated pledges to stop such killings.
The number of Bangladeshis killed by BSF during the nine years period from January 1, 2000 to January 16, 2010 stands now at 817. BSF also injured 857 and abducted 897 Bangladeshis in the same period.
The killings of unarmed Bangladeshis by the BSF on the border are continuing in clear violation of the spirit of good neighborliness as well as international law and despite repeated pledges by the Indian authorities to stop it. In every meeting between BSF and BDR and also between the higher level officials of the two countries, the Indian side assures that killing of Bangladeshis by its forces on the border would come to an end immediately. But this pledge is seldom implemented.

 Hannan Shah dismisses PM’s remark over Zia, his grave
TBT Report

BNP standing committee member Brig General ASM Hannan Shah (Retd) on Friday dismissed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's remark in the parliament over late president Ziaur Rahman and his grave.
He was addressing a press briefing at the party's Naya Paltan central office yesterday afternoon.
Hannan Shah said BNP as well as the countrymen rejected the statement against former president Ziaur Rahman made by PM during her 30-minute question-answer session in parliament on Wednesday. Noticing her statement, it seems to me that no responsible person in sound mind and mentality can make such remark that there is a doubt whether the body of late president Ziaur Rahman is in his grave at Zia Udyan at the city's Sher-e-Bangla Nagar.
He said Ziaur Rahman was killed on May 30, 1981. Later, his dead body was recovered on June 1 from Pathorghata village under Chittagong district and brought to Dhaka, after that the body was sent to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital for autopsy on the same day. After completion of autopsy, the body was kept in front of the parliament complex under the open sky on June 2, where lakhs of people gathered to see the body. As per the then government decision, the body was buried at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar after namaz-e-janaza on that very day.
Hannan Shah said Prime Minister's remark is unclear, indecent, motivated, fake and baseless. Meanness has been exposed and the countrymen have been hurt through PM's comment in the parliament session.
Replying to a query, he said if the government wants to make the Zia Udyan a common graveyard for sector commanders and goes against the people's opinion the countrymen will give proper answer at right time.
In another query, he said it is not BNP, the Pakistani collaborators were rehabilitated by them who cancelled the Collaborator Act earlier. Expressing grave concern over the evil motive of the government, he said it is going to play a drama through making a fake authenticity film on the basis of Mufti Hannan's statement who is behind bar on the charge of August 21 grenade attack in 2004. The ruling party is trying to implicate Khaleda Zia and her son in the grenade attack case.
Responding to another query, BNP senior secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said plan under organised way is going on since long to project Bangladesh as a militant state abroad. And thus, the government is providing all sorts of assistance to Ghatok Dalal Neermul Committee's acting president Shahriar Kabir for making fake and fabricated film which will implicit BNP's Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia and its senior vice-chairman Tarique Rahman.
Among others, standing committee member Sala-uddin Quader Chowdhury, opposition chief whip Joynal Abedin Faruk, Swecha-chhasebak Dal president Habibun Nabi Khan Shohel were present at the briefing session.

  5000 buildings constructed violating RAJUK designs
50,000 flats to be constructed in city for low, mid-income People, says Chairman

BSS, Dhaka

Chairman of Rajdhani Unnayan Kartipakhaya (RAJUK) Engineer Md Nurul Huda on Friday said 50,000 apartments would be constructed in the city for resolving housing problems of the low and middle- income people.
While exchanging views with the journalists at RAJUK conference room here, he said a grand plan has been undertaken for giving Dhaka a new shape and for creating the capital city a planned and modern one.
The work on this grand plan would start after getting approval from the concerned ministry and the Prime Minister, he said. The RAJUK Chairman said a list of 5,000 buildings has so far been prepared which were constructed violating the RAJUK approved designs. "Legal actions would be taken against these buildings in phases, he added.
There are five private RAJUK approved housing areas in the city which are; Bashundhara Residential Area (1st Phase) of East West Properties Development (Pvt) Ltd, Swarnali Residential Area (1st Phase) of Swadesh Properties Development and Rampura Banasri, Pallabi and Mayakanan Residential Areas of Eastern Housing Limited, he said. These projects were approved in 1987 and except these, there is no RAJUK approved private residential areas in the city, he added.
Engineer Nurul Huda said the RAJUK's image was tarnished during the rule of last BNP-Jamaat led four-party alliance government and the present government is working to bring back the RAJUK from such a situationThe effort of turning RAJUK into a service-oriented organization has been successful in various fields, he said adding: "Efforts were taken for bringing dynamism in the activities of RAJUK and also for establishing transparency and accountability.

   India on alert after hijack warning
The alert came after Robert Gates' warning that militants may trigger Indo-Pak war

AFP, New Delhi

India has increased airport security and warned its domestic airlines about a possible hijack attempt after a tip-off from Western intelligence services, officials said Friday.
The alert to India's civil aviation ministry said flights of state-run Air India and private carriers could be targeted by Islamist groups aligned to Al-Qaeda or the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant group.
"We have intelligence inputs that there could be a hijack attempt of Indian planes," U.K. Bansal, senior home ministry official in charge of internal security, said. "We suspect that there can be an attempt to target one of our airlines, especially those which fly abroad," Bansal said as India geared up for celebrations marking the annual Republic Day on January 26 which is traditionally a time of heightened security tensions.
New security measures including additional checks on baggage and travellers at airports and the deployment of sky marshals on planes were being put in place, a statement from the civil aviation ministry said.
The alert came after US Defence Secretary Robert Gates warned Wednesday that Islamist South Asian militant groups could trigger a war between Pakistan and India through a "provocative act".
He also said that the United States would continue to share intelligence to prevent an attack.
Tensions are running high between Pakistan and India in the wake of the November 2008 Mumbai attacks which killed 166 people that New Delhi says were planned and executed by the LeT. "We have alerted the ministry of civil aviation and bureau of civil aviation security and tightened security in all airports in the country," Bansal added.
The alert warns of flights from India or originating in countries neighbouring India-Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal or Sri Lanka-being specific
targets.

    EGCB to set up another gas-fired power plant despite gas crisis

UNB, Dhaka

Although the Electricity Generation Company of Bangladesh (EGCB) has to keep idle more than two of its power plants in Siddhirganj power station for gas crisis, it moved again for setting up another 300 MW gas-fired plant on the same site.
The industry insiders questioned the wisdom of the EGCB management's move, saying that the new plant will also face a similar situation that the existing ones are facing because of gas crisis. They said that when the 300 MW plant will be installed, the new units will either have to be kept shutdown or be converted into dual-fuel-run system.
The EGCB was established in 2004 as government-owned public limited company (PLC) under the power sector reforms programme to produce and sell electricity. The new power company was handed over the existing Siddhirganj power station along with its present 210 MW steam turbine power plant from the Power Development Board (PDB). The EGCB was also assigned by the government to set up three more power plants -- 240 MW gas turbine power plant and 300 MW peaking plant at its Siddhirganj station, and also a 360 MW Combined Cycle Power Plant at Haripur.
Of the three proposed plants, the 240 MW (120x2) plant is being implemented with funding from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) while the World Bank is funding a 300 MW plant. Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA) will provide fund for the 360 MW project.
The construction of first unit (120 MW) of the 240 MW plant has been completed in December last and now a test-run will have to be done before launching its commercial operation. But severe gas crisis has been disrupting the test-run.
Admitting the problem, EGCB Managing Director Mortuza Ali said: "We have to run the machine at midnight or in the early hours. Otherwise, we can't run the machine because of gas shortage."
In such a situation, the government recently instructed the EGCB to convert its two units into dual-fuel system so that it could operate the plant through liquid fuel when gas is not available. Now, the EGCB has to count extra cost for conversion of the units into dual-fuel system.

Back Page

Dhaka is highly vulnerable to earthquake
UNB, Dhaka

Adequate preparations are needed to minimize casualties and the loss of property in any possible devastating earthquake, as Dhaka is highly vulnerable to tremor under Madhupur Fault.
ASM Maksud Kamal, National Adviser on Tsunami, Cyclone and Eart-hquake Risk of the CDMP, told UNB that Dhaka is highly vulnerable to earthquake under Madhupur Fault, as the phenomenal urbanization, density of population and high-rise structures are growing fast here.
"We can't even imagine how much causalities and economic losses will be there in the city in case of a powerful tremor originating from Mad-hupur Fault," he said.
According to a government study, some 131,029 people will die instantly while another 32,948 will be injured and needed to be hospitalized if a 7.5 magnitude earthquake from Madh-upur Fault jolts the city.
In case of an 8-magnitude earthquake from plate boundary Fault-2, the study says, there will be about 69,874 instant deaths while 81,916 others will need to be admitted to hospital. In this case, the casualties will be less despite stronger tremor because of distance of its epicenter.
The incidence of earthquake has become too common across the world with the recent one hitting Haiti, leaving some 200,000 people dead. In 2004, Indian Ocean tsunami killed at least 230,000 people across a dozen of countries. Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme (CDMP) under Food and Disaster Management Ministry conducted the study with the help of Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC). The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UK Department for International Development (DFID) and European Commission provided financial support for the research project conducted from February 2008 to August 2009.
The study reveals that at least 10 major hospitals in the capital will be destroyed completely and another 241 hospitals and clinics partially in case of a 7.5 magnitude quake, mou-nting pressure on the city's other hospitals and clinics to treat the possible huge injured people.
It shows that only 24,242 hospital beds will be available on the day the quake will jolt for the use of the already-admitted patients and earthquake-injured people after the 7.5 jolt, which is only 41 percent of the demand. A week after the shake, only 54 percent of the beds will be available for the use while 72 percent after a month, the study said.

   France asks for information on President Zardari
AFP, Paris

A French judge probing a Pakistan bomb attack that killed 11 French engineers has asked Britain and Switzerland to provide whatever information they have on allegations of embezzlement by Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, legal sources here said Friday.
Judge Marc Trevidic made the request to help him advance his probe into claims the 11 were killed in May 2002 by Pakistani agents taking revenge after a new French government cancelled illegal commissions on an arms deal.
Last month families of victims filed suit in Paris against supporters of former French presidential candidate Edouard Balladur, who was prime minister at the time, alleging they benefited from the deal.
In 1995, newly elected president Jacques Chirac cancelled the pay-offs, which he believed had funded his rival's campaign, angering Pakistani officers awaiting their share of the graft, according to a report commissioned by France's state naval construction firm and leaked last June. The families believe they were deceived by the French state and top ranking French and Pakistani political leaders, and that their loved ones were exposed and killed as a result of a sordid political funding scandal.
One leaked French report on the affair said that the commissions paid to Pakistani figures were ordered by Zardari, the widower of the assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. In all, 14 people were killed on May 8, 2002, when a suicide bomber attacked a bus carrying French naval engineers from their Karachi hotel to where they were working on the submarines sold to Pakistan in the suspect deal. At first, officials in both countries blamed militants at war with the West for carrying out the attack, but French counter-terrorism officers have begun privately to accuse Pakistani spies of ordering it.

   BNP for congenial atmosphere to return to JS: MK Anwar
BSS, Dhaka

BNP Standing Committee Member and former Minister MK Anwar Friday said the opposition MPs want to go to parliament to speak for people.
To make this happen, the government would have to create a congenial atmosphere, he added.
MK Anwar was speaking as the chief guest at a discussion organised by Jatiy-atabadi Sramik Dal at National Press Club marking the 74th birth anniversary of BNP founder Shaheed Pre-sident Ziaur Rahman. The BNP leader said it is not possible to make the parliament effective keeping the opposition outside.
Sramik Dal President and BNP Standing Committee Member Nazrul Islam Khan presided over the meeting while Sramik Dal General Secretary Zafrul Hassan, Senior Vice-President Abul Quashem Chowdhury and other leaders, including Abul Khayer Gazi, Matiur Rahman Farazi and Nurul Islam Khan Nasim, among others, took part in the discussion. MK Anwar paid rich tributes to Ziaur Rahman and prayed for eternal peace of his departed soul. He said Zia considered himself as a worker. He recalled Zia's contributions to the Liberation War.
The former minister alleged that the government is failing to implement it election pledges. The prices of essentials are out of the purchasing capacity of the people, he said urging the government to take more effective steps to check the prices.
Nazrul Islam Khan said Ziaur Rahman was the friend of working people. He stressed the need for showing proper respect to national leaders and called for shunning the politics of vengeance for the sake of national development and prosperity.

   JRC to meet before end of March
BSS, New Delhi

The meeting of the Joint River Commission (JRC) will be held before the end of March, Tariq A. Karim, Bangladesh High Comm-issioner to India said here on Friday.
Speaking at a "meet the press" organized by the Indian Women's Press Corps (IWPC) here Friday afternoon, Karim said that for the last seven years the meeting of the JRC had not taken place. He said the meeting of the Technical Committee and the meeting at the Secretary-level were held.
"Let them (JRC) meet first and let us not pre-judge the outcome of the meeting. "If the political leaders want to resolve, it is my firm believes, all issues can be resolved," the High Commissioner told a questioner. He said that with two friendly governments now in power, there can not be any problem to resolve any issues. Replying to a question on Bangladesh's expectations from the four-day state visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the High Commissioner said that both the governments (India and Bangladesh)have domestic compulsions and that have to be kept in mind.
He, however, said that the leadership of the two countries has brought visions that were demonstrated during the recent visit. He said that broad parameters have been laid down during the visit.
He said that there is time for the two countries to act and act for the betterment of the two peoples. "Time has come we work as partners of progress and friend and go ahead." We can take the present friendship to a newer height and sky is the limit," he told a questioner. In this connection, Karim recalled the remark of late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi when he said that India has to help Bangladesh to make her economically strong. He said there may be ideas before that but Rajiv Gandhi first mentioned it during a meeting with the diplomats in eighties. Replying to another question on foreign investment in Bangladesh, the High Commissioner said that Bharati Airtel had gone to Bangladesh considering the bright business prospect there.
"Through investment we want that it creates employment opportunity for Bangladeshi people and also improve their quality of life," he said. The envoy said Bangladesh would always welcome foreign investments, be it from West Bengal due to proximity or Kenya. He said there exists a unique atmosphere for investments.

    Govt believes in free flow of information: Azad
BSS, Jessore

Information Minister Abul Kalam Azad said here on Friday that the present government believes in free flow of information so it passed the Right to Information (RTI) Act in the maiden session of the 9th Jatiya Sangsad.
"The government also constituted the Information Comm-ission to make the RTI Act effective," he said while exchanging views with local journalists at Jessore Circuit House.
Reminding the journalists that they have also responsibilities to publish correct news, he called upon them to make constructive criticism of the government. "You (the journalists) have the rights to criticize the government but don't confuse the people by disseminating wrong information," he added.
Criticizing the previous BNP-Jamaat alliance government for its five-year rule from 2001, he said during the period the country was turned into a complete hell due to their misrule, intimidation, killing and harboring terrorism. The information minister highlighted various successes of the present government saying that the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been able to keep all its commitments given before the last general elections.
"During the first year of the present government, prices of essential commodities and agri-input including fertilizer have been reduced to a great extent," he said. Referring to the agreement with India on using Chittagong and Mongla ports, he said new employment would be created and economy will be more dynamic if the use of these ports is increased.
Among others, parliament members Mostafa Faruk Mohammd and Advocate Khan Tipu Sultan, Deputy Commi-sioner Mohibul Haque, Editor of Daily Purabi Mohiuddin Ahmed, Editor of Gramer Kagoj Mobinul Islam Mobin, Jessore Chamber of Com-merce and Industry President Shahidul Islam Milon and Upazila Chairman Swapan Bhatt-acharya were present on the occasion.

    Shrimps worth Tk 300 cr prepared for export
UNB, Khulna

A three-member delegation of the European Union (EU) arrives here Sunday to observe the shrimp industry, as freshwater shrimps worth Tk 300 crore have been prepared here for export.
The delegation of the EU's Food and Veterinary Mission will visit some shrimp processing factories, shrimp enclosures and hatcheries during their three-day visit.
They will also exchange views with people involved with the shrimp industry, the country's second-biggest foreign-currency earning sector. Export of freshwater shrimps to the EU resumes this month after six months' suspension since June last following detection of health-hazardous antibiotic Nitrofuran in consignments of exported shrimps in January 2009.
The importers had cancelled over 50 consignments of lobsters bound for Europe. As a result, export of the frozen shrimps remained suspended, creating a crisis in the sector.
Now, freshwater shrimps worth Tk 300 crore have been prepared here for export.
Bangladesh earned Tk 414.34 crore in shrimp export last fiscal year with Tk 300 crore from the EU countries.

    Bangladesh needs not begging to IMF, WB for money: Atiur

BSS, Barisal

Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr. Atiur Rahman on Friday asked all commercial banks to join hands with microcredit entrepreneurs to disburse loans to rural entrepreneurs and farmers to eliminate poverty from the country.
"The country now has been placed on a strong financial footing. It does not need begging to IMF or World Bank for money to support our farmers. We can eradicate poverty with our own resources," he said while addressing a micro credit distribution programme of Agrani Bank Limited in Gouranadi upzila under the district.
The governor said the rural economy has been stimulated in recent years due to micro credit programmes of various NGOs and what we need now is prudent and proper distribution of money to them. "If commercial banks join hands with them, farmers will get funds directly to set up various agro-based farms and boost crop production”, the governor said.

Editorial

Biswa Ijtema

The Biswa Ijtema is in progress now. The three-day mammoth Islamic congregation began on the bank of Turag River at Tongi yesterday (Friday) with the participation of huge devotees from home and abroad. According to media reports, around 25,000 foreign devotees from 100 countries of the world are joining the 45th Ijtema, apart from around two million domestic devotees. Organized by Tablig Jamaat, the Biswa Ijtema will conclude tomorrow (Sunday) with the offering of 'Akheri Munajat'. At that time the Turag river bank and a vast area around, stretching even into the northern part of the capital, are likely to turn into a human sea like in the past.
The Biswa Ijtema is being held under tight security. The government has taken adequate measures for ensuring security of the devotees for smooth holding of the Ijtema.
RAB and plainclothes police are deployed while several thousand volunteers of Tablig Jamaat are on duty for ensuring security. RAB has set up nine observation towers and 56 close-circuit cameras to watch over the movement of people. Besides, the government arranged extra train, bus and launch services for smooth journey of devotees. It may be mentioned that the first Ijtema was held at Kakrail Mosque in the capital in 1946, the second one in Chittagong in 1948 and then at Pagar in Tongi in 1966. Thereafter, the Biswa Ijtema has been held on the eastern bank of Turag River as space at Pagar was not sufficient.
In short, Biswa Ijtema is a great religious event taking place in Bangladesh every year with the participation of religious-minded people from home and abroad. Devotees from many foreign Muslim countries as well as from non-Muslim dominated states travel all the way in heavy odds up to Bangladesh to join the Biswa Ijtema. The only objective of the domestic and foreign devotees to participate in the Ijtema is to join a huge congregation of the Muslims and offer together prayer for the mercy of the Almighty Allah. Nothing other than this religious practice prevail upon the devotees during the Ijtema. There are many who do not attend the Ijtema during the previous days, but join it on the final day and take part in 'Akheri Munajat'.
Biswa Ijtema has been turned into a tradition. Bangladeshi citizens can rightly take pride in the fact that such a great religious congregation of so many devotees from home and abroad takes place on the soil of the country every year. The significant of this event is that it plays an important role in strengthening the relations, fraternity and solidarity among the members of the Muslim ummah and preaching the teachings and spirit of Islam. We wish complete success of the Biswa Ijtema.

  Curbing corruption

Former Secretary-General of Amnesty International Irene Khan on Thursday said that corruption remains main problem in Bangladesh as it made life of the right-deprived downtrodden more disastrous.
"Change has come to many countries but it is yet to come in our country. Corruption in the country is massive," she said in her observations. She said that corruption in the country is immense because "a simple police personnel, registration officer to a cabinet minister resort to corruption". The ex-Amnesty chief executive emphasized on establishing human rights of the poor in order to alleviate poverty. "If we want to protect human rights of the poor, we also have to empower them," she added. Asked to comment on the one-year tenure of the AL-led Grand Alliance government, she said although one year is not a long time, the government has done some good works. "But the major problem still lies-and that is corruption."
There is no denying the fact that corruption is rampant in the country and it is causing immense sufferings to the people. The poor people are the worst victims of corruption as they are unable to meet the demands of the corrupt persons in the helm and the corrupt system as a whole. Irene Khan is right in identifying corruption as the main problem as it continues to vitiate and destabilise the society and deprive the people of their rights while giving facilities to those who can pay money to satisfy the powerful corrupt people.
In the given circumstances, freeing politics from corrupt practices is a must to curb corruption in the country. People of all levels, including the lawmakers, and the political activists must remain free from corruption to rid the nation of this menace. Under democracy, the politicians run the country and if politics is not transparent and politicians are not honest and accountable, a corruption-free administration can not be established. Moreover, corruption weakens democratic institutions and adversely affects the society. So politics and politicians should be freed from corruption to get rid of the widespread corruption gripping the country.

Analysis

Individuals or institutions?

President Zardari also promised to hold a 'darbar' in Lahore every month. We can only thank him for this. It has been too long -- since 1857 in fact -- that we had a Muslim monarch ruling over us.

Shafqat Mahmood

The detailed NRO judgement has other deadly serious implications but an unintended consequence was aborting the theatre of the absurd in Lahore. President Asif Zardari had to unfortunately cut short his tour of the Punjab Governor's House and go back to Islamabad.
For over a week, we were being entertained royally. Governor Taseer had turned the venerable mansion into a replica of Abbot Road movie theatres with large hoardings of our heroes plastered all around its walls and gate. Maybe he wanted his guest, a former Cinema owner, to feel at home.
The props for the visit did not end with the Governor's House. There was also nary a space on the Mall that did not have the handsome visage of the president leering at us.
And the setting would not have been complete without the poor jiyalas pushing and shoving to get in and being pushed and shoved back. An astute observer of the party once famously remarked that the only people PPP leaders hate more than their enemies are their workers. They never leave you alone.
Inside the Governor's House, it was a virtual tour de 'farce'. The president taught us the right way to inaugurate development projects. Why spend scarce state resources travelling to far-off places like Pakpattan or Mianwali when the plaques can be unveiled in the salubrious climes of the Governor's House lawns? Why did no one think of this before?
And what difference does it make if citizens do not turn up for civic receptions! Just remove the extra tables, bring the 'shamianas' in and cut short the speeches. After all, only a sound bite and close shots are needed for these dastardly TV channels. They are no friends of ours anyway.
President Zardari also promised to hold a 'darbar' in Lahore every month. We can only thank him for this. It has been too long -- since 1857 in fact -- that we had a Muslim monarch ruling over us. We need royalty. It is a yearning we have been unnecessarily suppressing. And what better king to have than someone who represents the poor, is a voice of the dispossessed and awami to the core.
A Punjab PPP minister also kindly informed us that Mr Zardari has captured the 'burj' or minaret of Lahore by being here. Just imagine, if the president has captured Lahore or indeed Punjab by only being in the Governor's House, what he would not capture were he to venture out. Maybe we should request him to visit Delhi and let those Indians know what is what!
This great possibility may unfortunately have to be postponed because Mr Zardari has other matters to contend with. The Supreme Court's detailed judgement has elaborated on many things but there are a few that should particularly trouble the president.
One is the moral fervour shown by the court to bring the looted money back to Pakistan. In this, it has by implication placed him in the same category as former Philippine President Marcos and Nigeria's Sani Abacha. Both plundered their country and placed some of their ill-gotten gains in Swiss banks.
Second is the view that the court has taken regarding convictions in absentia. It has ruled all of them valid unless they have been overturned by a superior judicial authority. In particular, it has emphasised that no non-judicial forum such as parliament can void these convictions. And neither can a president do so by issuing an ordinance.
This should be particularly worrisome for Mr Zardari because he has been convicted in absentia in a case in which he has been accused of importing a BMW car without paying duty. This opens the possibility of his eligibility to be a candidate for the office of the president being challenged not just on the basis of general reputation that attracts Article 62. He can also be alleged to be disqualified by virtue of this conviction under Article 63 of the Constitution.
While the issue of reputation needs a subjective interpretation on the part of the judiciary and can lead to allegations of bias, a conviction that legally stands absolves the court of this burden. Therefore, unless Mr Zardari can get it overturned in a hurry, his case on the question of eligibility is as good as lost.
The situation is not too easy for Mr Gilani either. His excuse of waiting for the detailed judgement before implementing the short order of the court in the NRO case has been met. He has no reason now to delay implementing the Supreme Court's decision other than waiting for a decision on the review petition. This should also be coming any day.
In other words, whether now or a short time later, Prime Minister Gilani will have to take the fundamental decision of implementing the court decision or decide not to. He may seek to delay this by half-heartedly going through the motions but that will not be acceptable to the court.
Or, to other interested parties who will keep reminding the court that its directives are not being implemented. At some point sooner or later, if no progress is made we may reach a situation that everyone has been talking about, a stage of constitutional deadlock.
The court, fed up with delays and foot-dragging, may then ask other instruments of the state to implement its decision. If such a stage is reached, and we hope it is not, it will put principally the army in a spot. It clearly does not want to get embroiled in a tussle between two institutions of the state but it may have no choice.
An example is always given of General Karamat's decision to send a reference made under Article 190 by the Supreme Court to the ministry of defence. This is done to suggest that something similar could happen under the current army leadership.
While it is difficult to predict what the current army chief would decide should such a situation arise, the circumstances between then and now are quite different. In 1998, the Supreme Court only asked for security. There was no constitutional deadlock. We are potentially in such a situation now. This will certainly impact any decision made.
There are thus two potentially thorny situations ahead. One relates to a person; the eligibility of Mr Asif Ali Zardari to be president. The other a potential constitutional deadlock. In the first case, only an individual would be affected. In the second, a government if not the entire system would be in danger.
This should give all the protagonists a pause and make them think through the various scenarios. Is it in the interest of democracy, indeed of the state, to go through so much turmoil because of an individual? Not only the concerned actors but all of us need to ponder this.


Email: shafqatmd@gmail.com

  India, Israel, US and UK guided by common interest

Today, the US is a sole super power but even during the Cold War era, its objective had always been to control the world and its resources.

Mohammad Jamil

Most Pakistanis are rightly concerned over the propaganda blitz against Pakistani nukes as the western media, from time to time, makes mention of the American plans to 'secure' our nukes because of the fear that they may land in terrorists' hands. The Sunday Times carried a story by Christina Lamb that included, "Elite US troops are ready to combat Pakistani nuclear hijacks to seal off and snatch back Pakistani nuclear weapons in the event militants, possibly from inside the country's security apparatus, get their hands on a nuclear device or materials that could make one." Such hypothetical scenarios and insinuations are part of the propaganda campaign to malign Pakistan, which members of the US administration and American think tanks have been doing for quite some time. It is true that Pakistan is facing the spectre of terrorism and is at war with the terrorists, but Pakistan's armed forces have successfully demolished their infrastructure in Swat and Malakand, and are busy destroying their remnants in South Waziristan. By conducting military operations against terrorists, Pakistan has made the lives of Americans safer in Afghanistan. Pakistan, indeed, deserves much better.
Christina Lamb, the author of Waiting for Allah, has extensively quoted Professor Shaun Gregory, director of Pakistan's security research unit at Bradford University, who has documented three incidents in his treatise in a counter-terrorism journal published by America's West Point military academy. But the malicious intent of the report is obvious from the fact that the words 'nuclear-capable', 'nuclear airbase' and 'nuclear warhead assembly plants' have been added. The report said, "The first was an attack in November 2007 at Sargodha in Punjab, where nuclear-capable F-16 jet aircraft are thought to be stationed. The following month a suicide bomber struck at Pakistan's nuclear airbase at Kamra in Attock district. In August 2008, a group of suicide bombers blew up the gates to a weapons complex at the Wah Cantt, believed to be one of Pakistan's nuclear warhead assembly plants." There is a perception that something profoundly sinister is being played around Pakistan, and efforts are being made to prove Pakistan as a rogue state.
During his visit to England, President Barack Obama whilst addressing a press conference in London with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that al Qaeda was planning to attack the US mainland from Pakistani soil and the US would chase and defeat the terrorist organisation wherever it was present in the world. Such statements reek of a conspiracy against Pakistan, as it is well known by now that not a single Afghan or Pakistani national was involved in the events of 9/11 but were all Arabs from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and elsewhere. According to political analysts, the US raised the bogie of attack in a bid to achieve its objectives by pressurising Pakistan to carry out an operation in FATA. Now there is talk of the Quetta Shura, so that the Pakistani army is overstretched. And, in case things spin out of control, it will approach the UN to get a resolution passed to 'secure' Pakistani nukes on the pretext that they are not safe.
In the aftermath of 9/11's deadly coordinated attack, which involved multiple hijacked aircraft deliberately crashing into the World Trade Centre's twin-towers in New York and the Pentagon, a large portion of the nation's economic infrastructure came to a standstill. However, Pakistan is suffering from terrorism since the time it joined hands with the US during the Afghan jihad in the 1980s, when the US and the West used the international media to inspire around 100,000 jihadis from all over the world to come to Pakistan to wage jihad against the 'infidels'. Once the Soviet troops withdrew, the US imposed restrictions under the Pressler Amendment. Even now, when Pakistan is a front line state in the war on terror, an overwhelming role has been given to India in the reconstruction of Afghanistan. However, there are still some sane voices, including a few US generals and experts in the US. Appearing before a congressional hearing in November 2009, top US experts asked Washington to address Pakistan's concerns over an Indian role in Afghanistan.
There is a widespread perception that the interests of India, Israel, the US and Britain converge here and their common objective is to weaken Pakistan for different reasons. India considers Pakistan an obstacle in its plans to extend hegemony to neighbouring countries. Israel fears that nuclear Pakistan is a source of strength for the Arab world, which makes Israel's task more difficult in the region. The fact of the matter is that Pakistan has never threatened Israel, and it does not have common borders with Israel to pose any palpable threat. Of course, it has always supported the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions. Last week, the chief of India's Director General Military Intelligence is reported to have visited Kabul and held detailed parleys with Afghan, American and NATO officials. He also had a meeting with Indian instructors from the Indian army posted in Afghanistan, apparently to teach English language to the Afghan army personnel but, in fact, they impart training to the Afghan national army special units about combat strategies against the Pakistan army.
Today, the US is a sole super power but even during the Cold War era, its objective had always been to control the world and its resources. Former US president Richard Nixon confessed in his book, The Real War, "It is naïve to say that another world war may take place to defend the free world, when in fact the war is actually going on. If the US were to abandon its allies or strategic military areas around the world, or those areas which are rich in mineral resources or lose control over the flow of oil and sea-routes, then the 'free world' would not only have lost the war, but its very existence would be at stake." The regions of Asia, Africa and Latin America contain the bulk of the world's mineral wealth, economic resources and manpower, yet most of these countries are poor. In the past they were subjected to colonialism and now to neo-colonialism. Of course, developing countries should review their foreign policy in the post-9/11 era whereby the US and its cohorts are inclined to carry out pre-emptive attacks on other nations.
The recent onslaught on Pakistan is in fact reflective of a clearly defined US policy, one articulated by US generals, think tanks and members of the US administration to prove that the Pakistani government and the army cannot control the militants and terrorists. It is unfortunate that the US is not appreciating the role Pakistan has played by providing transit facilities for supply of fuel, commodities of daily use and equipment for American and NATO forces in Afghanistan. Pakistan has stood by its allies for about six decades, got dismembered as a result of its involvement in military pacts with the West and even risked its very existence by becoming the frontline state against another superpower. Having said all this, the time has come for Pakistan to take extraordinary measures in the realm of foreign policy. Efforts should be made to unite the nation by establishing socio-economic justice in society, and for creating a self-reliant economy so that Pakistan does not have to accept ignominious conditions for aid and grants. This is the only way to get rid of the dependency syndrome, and to safeguard the integrity and sovereignty of the country.


The writer is a freelance columnist. He can be reached at mjamil1938@hotmail.comx

Viewpoints

Recitation of the Quran

The Quran is not a book like any other; it is a timeless guide for life, death and the Hereafter.

Atif Noor Khan

Indeed, to reflect on Allah's verses is a form of worship that will draw one close to Him. The Quran is not a book like any other; it is a timeless guide for life, death and the Hereafter.
Therefore, it is necessary that the reader return to the early narrations of those who witnessed its revelation and heard its explanation by the one deputed by Allah to explain His words to humanity. So every sincere Muslim who hopes to earn Allah's love by reciting and reflecting on His book should hold on to the meaning explained by the Prophet (PBUH), his companions and the early scholars of Islam.
Reciting and reflecting on the Quran has tremendous benefits. Each one of these explained here stands as an encouragement to read and try to understand the Holy Quran. The Prophet summarised the faith as naseehah (sincerity). When Hazrat Tameem ibn Aws inquired, "To whom?" He said: "To Allah, His book, His Messenger, the leaders of the people and their common folk." Thus, sincerity is due to the Quran, its recitation, learning the rules of reciting it beautifully, learning about its interpretation and the reasons for its revelation, abiding by the orders found in it, teaching it and calling the faithful to it.
So by reading and reflecting on the Quran, one fulfils an obligation and is rewarded for it. Upon fulfilling this obligation, the Quran then becomes a witness for one on the Day of Judgment. The Holy Prophet said, "The Quran is a proof for you or against you."
It will either be in your favour, a proof for you on the day when you will need every single good deed, or it will be something against you, the very speech of your Creator, a proof against you!
The Quran will intercede for us on the Day of Judgment. Hazrat Abu Umaamah relates that the Prophet said: "Read the Quran, for verily it will come on the Day of Judgment as an intercessor for its companions." According to Saheeh al-Muslim, there is a story about how Hazrat Umar understood this principle. Some men once asked him "Who do you have to govern Makkah?" He said, "Ibn Abzaa." They asked, "Who is Ibn Abzaa?" Umar replied, "A freed slave."
They remarked, "You have left a freed slave in charge of the people of the valley (the noble tribes of the Quraish)?" He answered them, "Verily, he is a reader of the Book of Allah and is knowledgeable about the obligations of Muslims. Haven't you heard the statement of your Messenger - 'Allah raises some people by this Book and lowers others by it'?"
Hazrat Usman also narrates the Holy Prophet as having said: "The best among you are the ones who learn the Quran and teach it to others," according to Saheeh al-Bukhari.
There are 10 rewards for each letter you recite from the Quran. A hadith in Al-Tirmizi says: "Whoever reads a letter from the Book of Allah will have a reward. And that reward will be multiplied by 10. I am not saying that 'Alif, Laam, Meem' is one letter, rather 'Alif' is a letter, 'Laam' is a letter and 'Meem' is a letter."
Hazrat Ayesha, too, relates that the Prophet once said: "One who recites the Quran beautifully, smoothly and precisely will be in the company of noble angels. As for the one who recites it with difficulty, stammering or stumbling through its verses, (s)he will have twice that reward."
Hazrat Abdullaah ibn Amr ibn al-Aas narrates the Holy Prophet as saying: "It will be said to the companion of the Quran: 'Read and elevate (through the levels of paradise) and beautify your voice as you used to do when you were (alive). For verily, your position in paradise will be at the last verse you recited'!"
The Prophet also said: "The Quran is an intercessor, is given the permission to intercede, and it is rightfully believed in. Whoever puts it in front of himself, will be led to paradise; whoever puts it behind him, will be steered to hellfire." This hadith about the Quran is on the authority of Hazrat Abdullaah ibn Masood, summarising for the faithful the importance of reading the Quran and reflecting on its universal message.

  A Mandela for Middle East

The Islamic world has produced no Mandelas despite the daunting challenges it faces. We need visionaries who can look far and ahead, beyond their noses, to lead us to a new dawn of hope.

Aijaz Zaka Syed

One was hopelessly young and green when Nelson Mandela marked his 25th year in captivity on the now legendary Robben Island in South Africa. The idea of someone spending quarter of a century in solitary imprisonment was so overwhelming and mind-boggling that I wrote a poem to mark the occasion, paying rich tributes that came naturally to a young, sentimental mind.
Mandela was released two years later, in 1990, after the peaceful revolution that transformed South Africa putting an end to the long, dark night of Apartheid. A revolution that no one thought was possible.
The man, who is often compared to Mahatma Gandhi, believed in his dream though, never giving up the hope of freeing his people from the clutches of Apartheid. And freed them he did. But it's easier said than done. Imagine spending 27 years of your life - nearly 10,000 days - behind the bars, waiting for that dawn of freedom that few thought and believed ever would come. The white supremacist, apartheid regime was as ruthless, repressive and apparently as invincible as today's Israel. If the dawn of freedom and hope eventually arrived on the Dark Continent, the credit goes to the heroic sacrifices made by Mandela and his comrades and ordinary people of South Africa.
Mandela retired 11 years ago from active politics after a brief stint in power but his influence and imprint on our world and times remain as powerful as that of Gandhi. Perhaps no leader in recent times has captured global imagination as Mandela did - transcending all distinctions of color, creed and class. South Africa would have ended up in social and political chaos as many countries in the continent have, if Mandela had not gone out of his way to unite the black and white parts of the country after the end of apartheid. He looked beyond his own suffering and the atrocities and humiliations his people suffered for ages to heal the national and racial divide by reaching out to the white minority. And by his singular magnanimity and generosity of spirit, Mandela not just won the white minority but billions of hearts and minds around the world.
This generosity of spirit is celebrated in a rare constellation of stars. Two of my favorite Hollywood icons, Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman, have come together to turn the spotlight on this real battle of hearts and minds. Eastwood, who often reminds me of James Green of Oliver Strange's Western classics, has cast Freeman in the role of Mandela in his latest offering, Invictus. Or rather, Freeman cast himself in Mandela's role and invited Eastwood to direct the movie based on John Carlin's amazing book, "Playing the Enemy".
Freeman, a long-time admirer of the legend, has long dreamed of playing Mandela and even bought movie rights of his autobiography, "Long Walk to Freedom". But it's Carlin's book that eventually helped Freeman realize his dream of a lifetime. Carlin, former South Africa correspondent for the Independent newspaper, feels Freeman was born to play Mandela and conveys the "giant solitude" of the legend.
Carlin's book - and Eastwood's epic - focuses on a single defining event in Mandela's life to illuminate his greatness and the universality of his message. It tells the inspiring story of how Mandela, as the newly elected president of South Africa, joined forces with Francois Pienaar, the white captain of the South African rugby team, in the run-up to the 1995 Rugby Union World Cup, to unite a divided nation. A sport that had been the most potent symbol of racial division on the continent was transformed into an instrument of national unity.
The final, South Africa's Springboks against New Zealand's All Blacks, was more than a rugby game. It was an epic political encounter used masterfully to unite a divided nation.
Mandela joined Francois Pienaar to plump for the national squad uniting all South Africans - blacks and whites - in a common cause. It was the first time since the first European settlers arrived in 1652 that the entire country found itself rallying behind a common goal. As Carlin says in his article in the Sunday Times this week, that day, the master-slave relationship between whites and blacks finally dissolved. "The whites shed their fears, their guilt and their disdain; the blacks shed their shackles, their suspicions and their resentment. The whole country celebrated as one. The guiding spirit behind this most improbably euphoric of reconciliations was the master politician Mandela. Pienaar - played by the talented Matt Damon - and his team, big white sons of apartheid, were his valiant coconspirators."
Reading about the movie and how the greatest hero of our times united his people, I cast my roving eye across the Middle East and beyond. For we need a Mandela-like figure never before, someone who could heal and unite us and help us transcend our self-serving, selfish ways.
The Arab and Islamic world is going through perhaps the greatest existential crisis in its long history. From Morocco to Malaysia, there's not a single man of vision who could unite, lead and guide the Islamic world out of the intellectual wilderness that it finds itself struggling in today. There's not one leader, a leader like Mandela, who can rally this so-called Ummah behind a positive, constructive vision, on an agenda of hope, peace and progress. Someone who has the courage of conviction to join the action right on field to lead from the front.
The Islamic world has produced no Mandelas despite the daunting challenges it faces. We need visionaries who can look far and ahead, beyond their noses, to lead us to a new dawn of hope. The Muslim world may not be fighting apartheid and colonial repression like South Africans once did. But it has other far more dangerous demons to fight. From ignorance to illiteracy to poverty to violent extremism, we perhaps face even greater challenges than the people of South Africa ever did.
Despite its rich natural and human resources, this remains one of the world's most backward and dispossessed regions. While the Middle East sits on most of the world's known energy resources, when it comes to benefiting from them, the Arab-Muslim world finds itself at the bottom of the pile. Can you believe that until recently Spain's GDP was greater than that of the entire Arab world put together?
The UN-sponsored Arab Human Development Reports have done some excellent work to highlight what the authors call "the acute deficit of freedom and good governance" in the Arab world. The reports underscore how much Arabs and Muslims crave, and need freedom and good governance, things that are taken for granted elsewhere.
Commenting on this state of affairs, the third Arab Human Development Report observes that Arab states today resemble "a 'black hole,' which converts its surrounding social environment into a setting in which nothing moves and from which nothing escapes."

  Inspiring, Not Compelling

So it is that after one year in office Obama's balance sheet in world opinion has taken its hits, as has the audacity of hope. In his second year, as Brzezinski put it, let's hope for a little more audacity.

HDS Greenway

Few American presidents have been greeted around the world with such relief and joy as was Barack Obama when he took office a year ago.
A lot of it was simply because he was not George W. Bush. For most of the world Bush had stood for the kind of bullying, armed aggression, and a unilateral foreign policy that made it difficult to be pro-American.
The enthusiasm abroad was matched by the enthusiasm here in America, which had also become disillusioned with the Bush administration. But the "audacity of hope" was running so high a year ago that it could not possibly remain airborne at that altitude when the reality of running a country and maintaining American interests abroad came into play. It was never possible to be all things to all men.
Obama's greatest achievement in the past year was to change the nature of the international conversation. By reaching out to Muslims in his Cairo speech, by pressing the "reset" button in relations with Russia, by reaching out to old allies who had felt disrespected by the Bush administration, by saying all the right things about recognizing China's place in the sun, by bringing back diplomacy, Obama lanced a boil of hostility towards the United States.
And for that he won the Nobel Peace Prize - probably the only recipient ever to do so while escalating a war. In a resounding acceptance speech in Oslo, he acknowledged that his qualifications for a peace prize were somewhat questionable, and he put the world on notice that he was foremost an American president, tasked with advancing his country's interests first.
A lot of Obama's decline in popularity abroad is simply because of that fact. He is an American president. But diplomacy is only a means, not a goal, and so far Obama's has achieved few tangible results. The opening to Iran has brought nothing in the way of Iranian concessions, but it may yet make it easier for Obama to say that he has tried everything and that now is the time for increased sanctions.
Despite the constructive rhetoric, Obama came back empty-handed from China, and conceding on anti-missile defences in Poland and the Czech Republic has not brought forth much from the Russians either.
It was Obama's two visits to Copenhagen that seemed to symbolize the American president's declining power to influence. He first went to lobby for the Olympic games and lost. He went again to lobby for a serious international approach to climate change and lost again.
Perhaps Obama's greatest foreign policy failure was to insist that the Israelis give up all settlement activity, only to back down when the Israelis balked. It can be argued that it was a mistake to draw such a line in the sand, but once having done so it may have been fatal to Arab-Israeli peace to have backed down. The Israelis know they can get around him, and the Arabs know that Obama does not represent the change they had been led to believe would come. Thus he was unable to get any of the confidence building measures vis a vis Israel out of the Arabs for which he hoped.
As former U.S. national security advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, recently wrote in Foreign Affairs: Obama "has not yet made the transition from an inspiring orator to compelling statesman. Advocating that something happen is not the same as making it happen."
According to Brezinski, how Obama handles " three interrelated issues - the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, the Iranian dilemma, and the Afghan-Pakistani conflict - will determine the United States' global role for the foreseeable future.
"The consequences of a failed peace process in the Middle East, a military collision with Iran and an intensifying military engagement in Afghanistan and Pakistan all happening simultaneously could commit the United States for many years to a lonely and self-destructive conflict in a huge and volatile area. Eventually, that could spell the end of the United States' current global pre-eminence."
The truth of the matter is that Obama took power at a time when that pre-eminence was at something of a post-World War II low anyway. The global recession had not only weakened the U.S. economy, the true source of American power, but it had also called into question the entire American model of capitalism which had been in flower since the end of the Soviet Union.
Militarily, involvement in two wars had stretched out the army to such a degree that the projection of power was no longer the threat it once was.
When the neo-conservatives finally got their say with the arrival of Bush the younger, their premise that the United States was the sole superpower and could do what it liked without regard for others was already in doubt. China and India were already rising. And what the Bush administration never understood was that the end of the Soviet Union made us less able to maintain the "leadership of the free world," because when the other half of the world became free from Communist power, people and countries no longer needed to shelter under America's wing, and felt free to go their own way.
So it is that after one year in office Obama's balance sheet in world opinion has taken its hits, as has the audacity of hope. In his second year, as Brzezinski put it, let's hope for a little more audacity.

HDS Greenway is a Boston-based commentator and columnist of Boston Globe?www.globalpost.com

International

Pakistan’s legal fraternity to launch movement against government

Xinhua, Islamabad

Pakistan's legal fraternity is set to launch a movement against the incumbent Pakistan People's Party (PPP) government for not implementing the Supreme Court's order regarding the re-opening of foreign cases against President Asif Ali Zardari that were abandoned under the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO).
"I have called a meeting of the National Coordination Council to be held on the coming Sunday at Lahore for evolving an effective strategy of launching a movement against the government, " said Qazi Anwar, the president of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) of Pakistan.
The country's top court issued on Tuesday its detailed judgment in the most controversial amnesty, which was imposed by former ruler Pervez Musharraf in 2007, and reiterated for the re-opening of all the cases both within and outside Pakistan which were abandoned under the ordinance. Anwar said that keeping in view the post-NRO situation in the country and the conspiracies being hatched by the present government for creating conflict among the institutions, unity of legal fraternity was the need of an hour.
The National Coordination Council, a forum of the country's lawyers, was established during the Lawyer's Movement for the restoration of judiciary. All the presidents of the Provincial High Courts Bar Associations and District Bar Associations are members of the forum.
The Lawyers' Movement was the name given to the popular mass protest movement started by the lawyers of Pakistan in response to the actions of March 9, 2007 by Musharraf, suspending Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry along with other over 60 judges of the superior courts.
The association had declared the suspension of Chaudhry as " assault on independence of judiciary and finally its vigorous movement yields fruitful results and the judiciary was restored on March 16, 2009 by an executive order.
The court had directed the federal government to re-open all the cases including President Zardari both within and outside Pakistan which were abandoned under the NRO.

  ‘No guarantee against repeat of Mumbai-like attacks’
Dawn Online, Islamabad

Pakistan government said it could not guarantee against repeat of 26/11 like attacks in India and the best safeguard against such strikes was de-linking of peace process from action against terrorism and the resolution of Kashmir and water disputes.
"Pakistan is itself facing Mumbai-like attacks almost every other day and when we cannot protect our own citizens, how can we guarantee that there wouldn't be any more terrorist hits in India," Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani was quoted by a source as having told the visiting US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates, who called on him. Pakistan suffered its worst year of terrorist violence last year, with more than 3,000 people killed.
Secretary Gates had in India warned that Pakistan-based militants, who had links with Al Qaeda, were planning strikes in India with the hope that retaliation would lead to a new conflict.
In his bid to raise pressure on Pakistan to act against militant groups targeting India, the secretary had said that New Delhi, unlike the restraint shown after Mumbai incident, was not apt to holding back if attacked again.
Prime Minister Gilani recalled the steps taken against militant groups saying they had been outlawed and their network was disrupted. In an apparent reference to Jamaatud Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed, who has been accused by India of masterminding the Mumbai attack but has been released on court orders, the prime minister said his government could not prosecute anyone without evidence.
India, which had suspended the Composite Dialogue with Pakistan in the aftermath of Mumbai attack, has been refusing to resume it without 'credible action against alleged perpetrators' despite a commitment at Sharm El Sheikh that the peace talks would be de-linked from action against terrorism.
Mr Gilani regretted India's obstinacy, stating that as long as India held the peace process hostage to progress on terrorism, forward movement in normalisation of ties was unlikely.
"Pakistan is committed to peace in the region and in this context has been making sincere efforts to resume Composite Dialogue with India, but the response from the other side has not been encouraging. Relations between India and Pakistan should not become hostage to the activities of terrorists.
For lasting peace in the region, both countries should resolve core issues, including Kashmir and water disputes," a statement by the prime minister's office quoted him as having said.

  Afghanistan’s Karzai moots Taliban peace scheme
BBC Online

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has told the BBC he plans to introduce a scheme to attract Taliban fighters back to normal life by offering money and jobs.
He would offer to pay and resettle Taliban fighters to come over to his side, with the scheme funded by the international community.
He said the UK and US would show at a conference next week in London that they had decided to back his new plan.
Japan is one of the countries which, he said, is prepared to put up the money.
The Taliban currently pay their volunteers, who are often just farmers, significantly more than the Afghan government can afford to give its forces.
President Karzai said the Afghan people had to have peace at any price.
War was not the only way forward and there had to be proper peace activity and reconciliation.
Previously, he said, Britain, the US and other Western countries had not been happy about the idea. Now they had changed their minds.
He stressed that Taliban supporters who were members of al-Qaeda or other terrorist networks would not be accepted. But anyone who accepted the Afghan constitution and did not have an ideological opposition to it could return.
Lame duck perception
Doing deals with his enemies is a bold approach, but as President Karzai enters his second term of office he knows he must get an agreement.
Many of his own people, as well as the Western powers, regard him as a lame-duck president.
In the past, his ability to run Afghanistan has been limited by the powers of the warlords, and by the high level of corruption.
With considerable frankness, he accepted that there was some truth in this.
"Yes," he said, "my presidency is weak in regard to the means of power, which means money, which means equipment, which means manpower, which means capacity."

  Indian airports on hijack alert
BBC Online

Indian airports are on high alert after Western intelligence reports warned security officials of a possible attempt to hijack an Indian airliner.
The civil aviation ministry said it was tightening security on aircrafts as well on the basis of the intelligence.
Reports say that state-run Air India or other private carriers could be targeted by militant Islamic groups.
The alert comes days ahead of India's annual Republic Day celebrations on January 26.
India has issued a number of terror alerts in the past few years.
But security officials say this year they are being particularly vigilant because the information is more specific.
'Security tightened'
"We have intelligence inputs that there could be a hijack attempt of Indian planes," the AFP news agency quoted UK Bansal, a senior home ministry official as saying.
"So we have alerted the ministry of civil aviation and bureau of civil aviation security and tightened security at all airports in the country."
The alert warns of flights from India or flights originating in neighbouring South Asian countries.
A spokesman for the civil aviation ministry, Moushumi Chakravarty, confirmed the alert had been received.
"The information has been passed on to airport authorities and airline offices," AFP quoted her as saying.
Intelligence overhaul
The BBC's Sanjoy Majumder in Delhi said that passengers will now be subjected to extra screening before they board an aircraft while armed sky marshals will be deployed on certain flights.
Although officials did not name any specific militant group, media reports named groups linked to al-Qaeda or Lashkar-e-Taiba.
India blames the deadly Mumbai attacks of November 2008 on Lashkar-e-Taiba. The group has denied any involvement in the attack.

  Blast targets Sri Lanka opposition activist in Colombo
BBC Online

The home of an opposition activist has been attacked with a petrol bomb in Sri Lanka's capital, Colombo, days ahead of a presidential election, police say.
The bomb destroyed the car and damaged the home of Tiran Alles, an ally of Sarath Fonseka, the main election rival to President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Mr Alles, a businessman, escaped unhurt with his family.
Earlier this week the United Nations expressed concern over escalating violence ahead of the 26 January poll.
The vote pits Sri Lanka's ex-army chief - who led the army to victory over Tamil Tiger rebels in May - against President Rajapaksa who provided political backing for the offensive.
Gen Fonseka resigned from his post as chief of defence staff in November following differences with the government over who should take credit for defeating the rebels.
As the election campaign draws to a close, so violence has increased.
"There was an explosion at my house. Somebody threw a bomb, and part of my house was burned and my car is in ashes," Mr Alles told the Reuters news agency.
Violence
The vote is taking place amid heightened tension. At least four people have been killed in poll-related violence in the weeks leading up to the election.
Sri Lankan groups monitoring the presidential election campaign say the levels of election-related violence and misuse of state resources are at their worst for at least 20 years.
Scores of people have also been wounded in the violence, with more than 20 instances of firearms used or deployed as a threat, Rajith Keerthi Tennakoon, of the Campaign for Free and Fair Elections, told the BBC.

  Six-party talks over DPRK's nuclear issues might resume around Lunar New Year

Xinhua, Seoul

The stalled multilateral talks over denuclearization of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) might resume around the Lunar New Year, and the current standoff is not helping the DPRK, South Korea's top diplomat said Friday.
"I'm expecting the six-party talks will be held around the Lunar New Year," Seoul's Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan told reporters in a briefing, adding to recent remarks by high-ranking officials that talks on the DPRK's denuclearization involving the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia might resume soon.
There is a consensus among the six-party nations, except the DPRK, that they should not overlook the stalled talks anymore, Yu said, calling his renewed urge for the talks "diplomatic pressure. "
"(The current stalemate) is not necessarily helping North Korea (DPRK), since the international community is imposing strong sanctions on the country based on the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1874," Yu said, responding to concerns that the stalled denuclearization process might be giving the DPRK more time to develop nuclear weapons.

  US drone ‘kills Filipino militant Abdul Basit Usman’
BBC Online

A Filipino militant wanted by the US is believed to have been killed by an American drone aircraft near the Afghan border, Pakistani officials said.
Abdul Basit Usman was reported killed on 14 January along with several others on the border of South and North Waziristan tribal regions, they said. The US state department has offered a $1m reward for information leading to the militant's capture.
Authorities in Philippines said they were investigating the report. "If the reports are true then it is good news for us because the killing of Basit Usman means one less terrorist on the street," the AFP news agency quoted Lt-Gen Benjamin Dolorfino, military commander in south-western Philippines, as saying. But, he added: "We still have to verify the reports."
'Bomb expert'
Mr Dolorfino said he was involved in many deadly bombings in the southern Philippines' Mindanao region, where Muslim insurgents have waged a decades-old separatist rebellion, the AFP reported. Correspondents say that if it is confirmed, the death of Abdul Basit Usman would represent a major success for the US authorities.

 Sour words on Mideast peace as Obama admits setbacks
Reuters, Ramallah, West Bank

Israel and the Palestinians belittled each other's commitment to peace as U.S. President Barack Obama admitted on Thursday he had underrated the difficulty of reviving deadlocked Middle East negotiations.
As his envoy George Mitchell began a fresh attempt to get the two sides talking to each other, Obama told Time Magazine: "This is just really hard ... and if we had anticipated some of these political problems on both sides earlier, we might not have raised expectations as high."
Obama said his administration had underestimated the internal political constraints preventing bold peace moves by either camp and 2009 had ended without the kind of breakthrough he set out to achieve at the start of his term. "Moving forward, though, we are going to continue to work with both parties to recognize what I think is ultimately their deep-seated interest in a two-state solution in which Israel is secure and Palestinians have sovereignty and can start focusing on developing their economy and improving the lives of their children and grandchildren," the president said.
In an inauspicious start to his first diplomatic shuttle of 2010 after a dozen fruitless visit last year, Mitchell flew into a war of words with each side accusing the other of cynicism. The U.S. envoy said before talks with Israeli President Shimon Peres that he recognised "the complexities and difficulties" of pursuing Middle East peace, but made no comment on the sour rhetoric that greeted him.
CONFIDENTIAL
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had on Wednesday "imposed further conditions on negotiations and announced Israel's intention to continue its occupation" of the West Bank whatever happens.

  US warns against same airport security systems
Reuters, Toledo

The United States does not want countries to use identical airport security systems which could make it easier for potential attackers to elude them, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on Friday.
"What we want to avoid is a 'cookie cutter' (identical) approach, because then the terrorists know about the approach and they plan around it," Napolitano said during a visit to Europe to discuss tightening airport security. U.S. use of full body scanning airline passengers has increased in the wake of a failed bombing attempt last month on a U.S. passenger jet, tho-ugh some European countries are reticent to introduce technology that could violate privacy.
"There is a whole mix of technology and practices that can be done at airports independently of scanners and this is what we are focused on as an international consensus," the Security Secretary said. Napolitano is flying to Geneva to meet airline associations after agreeing with her EU counterparts on Thursday in the Spanish city of Toledo to propose new measures on airline passenger information sharing by April.
Thursday's meeting was prompted by the failed Christmas Day attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner blamed on Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who boarded the plane in Amsterdam carrying a home-made explosive device.

  Gordon Brown to face Iraq inquiry before election
BBC Online

Gordon Brown will give evidence to the Iraq inquiry before the general election, it has been confirmed.
Inquiry chairman Sir John Chilcot said the prime minister had agreed to appear "within the next two months".
It follows pressure from opposition parties for him to give evidence before the election - expected in May.
Downing Street said Mr Brown had "nothing to hide" and the decision was not connected to ex-Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon's evidence to the inquiry. Mr Brown's official spokesman said the prime minister was "keen to take up the opportunity to state the case about why Britain was right to take the action it did in respect to Iraq".
Mr Hoon was critical of government funding for defence when he appeared before the inquiry on Tuesday, saying the department was underfunded for many years and requests for "significantly more money" were turned down.
Opposition parties welcomed the news, saying the electorate were entitled to know what role Mr Brown, as chancellor, played in the decision to go to war in 2003 before casting their votes.
Conservative leader David Cameron said Mr Brown had some "very important questions to answer". "I am glad they are going to be asked and answered before a general election," he said during a question and answer session at a community centre in Gillingham, Kent.
Exchange of letters
Sir John said he wanted the inquiry to "stay outside party politics" but he said Mr Brown had written to him to say he was happy to appear whenever the panel wanted. In his reply, Sir John said "as a matter of fairness", he would offer Mr Brown the opportunity to appear before the election.
The date for his appearance will be agreed in the next few days but it is likely to be at the end of February or the beginning of March.

  China urges US to stop accusations on so-called Internet freedom

Xinhua, Beijing

China urged the United States to respect facts and stop unreasonable accusations on China in the name of so-called Internet freedom.
Foreign Ministry spokes-man Ma Zhaoxu made the remarks on Friday when commenting U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's speech. Clinton on Thursday called for China to lift their restrictions on citizens' use of the Internet.
"The U.S. side had criticized China's policies on Internet administration, alluding that China restricts Internet freedom. We firmly oppose such words and deeds, which were against the facts and would harm the China-US relations," Ma said. The spokesman introduced Internet development in China, saying China's Internet is open, and the country has witnessed the most active development of Internet in the world.
According to him, by the end of last year, the number of Chinese cyber citizens has reached 384 million with 3.68 million websites and 180 million blogs.
The Chinese constitution protects the citizens' freedom of speech, and it is a consistent policy of the Chinese government to promote the development of Internet, He said. Ma added that China has its own domestic situation and cultural tradition, and it accords with the world's common practice that China administers the Internet according to its laws and policies. Along with the U.S. accusations, the hacker attack is also a hot issue relevant to China recently, including the one related to the Google and another search engine, Baidu.com, who claimed to have suffered the worst attack on Jan. 12 since it was established.
"The Chinese laws forbid hacker attack and activities to infringe upon citizen's privacy in any form. China is one of the major victims of hacker attacks in the world," Ma said.
According to the Internet Society of China, the number of cyber attacks from abroad saw a year-on-year increase of 148 percent in 2008.

  Paris imam backs France’s proposed burqa ban
Reuters, Reuters

A French imam active in Muslim dialogue with Jews has backed a law against full face veils, parting ways with most Muslim leaders in France urging parliamentarians not to vote for a planned "burqa ban."
Hassen Chalghoumi, whose mosque stands in a northern Paris suburb where many Muslims live, said women who wanted to cover their faces should move to Saudi Arabia or other Muslim countries where that was a tradition.
France's National Assembly is likely to pass a resolution soon denouncing full veils and to try in coming months to hammer out a law forbidding them, deputies say.
President Nicolas Sarkozy calls the veils an affront to women's dignity unwelcome in France, home to about five million Muslims.
Fewer than 2,000 women wear the veils, known here as burqas although most are Middle Eastern niqabs showing the eyes.
"Yes, I am for a legal ban of the burqa, which has no place in France, a country where women have been voting since 1945," Hassen Chalghoumi, 36, told the daily Le Parisien.
Chalghoumi, who has received death threats for his promotion of dialogue with Jews, said that full face veils had no basis in Islam and "belong to a tiny minority tradition reflecting an ideology that scuttles the Muslim religion."
"The burqa is a prison for women, a tool of sexist domination and Islamist indoctrination," said Chalghoumi, whose mosque stands in Drancy, site of a wartime camp where Jews were detained before transport to Nazi concentration camps.
Chalghoumi criticised some of the tougher measures proposed by conservative politicians, such as imposing fines or cutting off child support payments for veiled women.
But the Tunisian-born imam, who is a naturalised French citizen, agreed France should not grant citizenship to immigrant women who cover their faces.

  Russia expects explanation on US missile plan in Poland
Xinhua, Moscow

Russia needs an additional explanation of the planned U.S. Patriot missile battery in Poland near the Russian border, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday.
"The question is why something has to be done that creates the impression that Poland is strengthening against Russia. That is something I don't understand," Lavrov said at a press conference. "We are expecting clarification on that and then we will review the situation," he said.
Poland announced Wed-nesday that a U.S. Patriot missile battery would be deployed in Morag, a small town in northeastern Poland about 100 km from the Russian border. Polish Defense Minister Bogdan Klich on the same day denied any political or strategic considerations in the decision, saying good infrastructure was the only reason to use a base near Russia's Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad instead of one outside Warsaw.
A senior Russian navy official said Thursday the Russian navy would reinforce its Baltic Fleet in response to the planned deployment.
Meanwhile, Russia and the United States will resume talks on the new strategic arms reduction treaty (START) at the beginning of February, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday. "I hope that the remaining questions will be swiftly solved when negotiations resume, and they will resume at the very start of February," said Lavrov. Progress has been made in most issues at the Geneva-based negotiations, Lavrov told reporters.
Russia and the United States have been negotiating for a replacement document to the START-1 that expired on Dec. 5, 2009.
The START-1, signed in 1991 between the Soviet Union and the United States, obliged both sides to reduce the number of their nuclear warheads to 6,000 and delivery vehicles to 1,600.

  Pakistan ‘wants unarmed drones’
BBC Online

The United States may provide Pakistan with a dozen unarmed drone aircraft to help strengthen its fight against the Taliban, US defence officials say.
Defence Secretary Robert Gates told a Pakistani television channel that the plan was being considered.
The use of armed drones by US forces in strikes against militants in Pakistan has led to huge anti-American feeling.
On Thursday, Pakistan's president said people would be less critical if drones were used by Pakistani troops.
Hundreds of people - many of them militants, but many more civilians - have died in attacks by armed drones in tribal areas of Pakistan where al-Qaeda and Taliban militants are believed to operate.
'Useful'
"There are some tactical UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) that we are considering, yes," Mr Gates said in an interview with a Pakistani television channel.
"I'm not going to discuss operations but I will say this: these unmanned aerial vehicles have been extremely useful to us, both in Iraq and in Afghanistan," the defence secretary told Express TV.
The Associated Press news agency quoted unnamed US officials as saying that Mr Gates was referring to a proposed deal for 12 Shadow aircraft - unarmed drones.
The Shadow drones are smaller than the armed Predator and Reaper aircraft.
They come equipped with sensors and cameras feeding video images back to operators on the ground and are used for reconnaissance and intelligence-gathering.
Gates 'impressed'
Earlier on Thursday Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari took up the issue of drone attacks with Mr Gates, Pakistan's Dawn newspaper reported on Friday.

Business/Economy

Laptop fair in city draws huge crowd
UNB, Dhaka

The three-day 'Zoom Laptop Fair 2010' has drawn huge crowd due to the increasing demand of laptops than the conventional personal computers (PCs). The fair, organised by Maker Communication, showcased top brands of laptops like Compaq, Dell, Fujitsu, HP, Hasee, Gigabyte, Acer, Asus, Lenovo, Toshiba, BenQ and Apple. On the concluding day of the fair on Friday, visitors especially the teenagers, students and professionals thronged in large numbers at the fair premises at Bangbanabdhu Conference Centre in the capital. Talking to UNB, business development manager of Maker Communication Md Ashif Sorwar Khan said they are very happy with the overall response received by the fair.
"The sale is good for all the participants and we hope some 5,000-8,000 visitors today (Friday) due to the weekend," he added. The theme of the fair was 'Lit up the technological life'. Maker Communication executive informed that the fair would be able to achieve its sale target of 6,000 laptops this time, as world class brands of laptops were on display. He said although laptops of different price range were on display, the visitors including students and businessmen especially look for laptops and net books ranging between Tk 25,000-Tk 50,000. After purchasing a Toshiba brand laptop at Tk 45,000 from Smart Technologies, Zosy, a student of Maulana Bhashani Science and Technology University (MBSTU), said he was very pleased to select his laptop from a wide variety of collections.
He said the price of different brands of laptops is decreasing day by day. "The fair should be an annual event not only in the capital but also in the divisional cities."
Md Showkat Ali, a senior executive of Thakral Information Systems Pvt Ltd. that showcased Lenovo brand laptops, said they are showcasing 12 models ranging from Tk 30,500-Tk 89,500.
He said they are also giving a modem or a colour printer on each purchase of laptop against special offer for the fair. Showkat informed that they sold some 150 laptops on the first two days of the fair, with the visitors looking for their laptops ranging from Tk 40,000-Tk 50,000. The other participating brands also offered some special discounts at the fair.
Md Rezaul Karim Tuhin, Business Manager of Computer Source, which displayed Fujitsu brand laptops, said: "We are satisfied with our sales. We have a specific buyer group as the price of our products is usually higher than the other brands. But it's a good feeling to see visitors of all class selecting our products." There were 18 models of Fujitsu laptops at the fair, the lowest costing Tk 59,900 and the highest Tk 1.80 lakh, he added. Md Imam Hossain Shakil of Inpace Management Services Limited said sale of their HP brand laptops totaled about 1,500 pieces. "The special feature of HP laptop is its much better configuration than other brands but at the similar price range."
There were a total of 15 pavilions and 4 stalls in the fair where the entry fee was Tk 20. Mobile phone operator Citycell was the title sponsor of the exposition, while HP, Acer, Asus, Lenovo were the co-sponsors. The current growth rate of laptop users in the country is around 8-10 percent with around 5,000 laptop sales taking place every month, added the organisers.

 US needs new stimulus to keep recovery on track: Stiglitz
AFP, Washington

The US economy needs a new stimulus in the face of growth that is too weak to fuel enough job creation to bring unemployment down, Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz said Thursday.
"The single most important thing we can do (for the economy) is to pass a second stimulus," Stiglitz told an economic forum at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. The Columbia University professor and former World Bank chief economist said that the US economy has "pulled back from the precipice" but that "I don't think anyone would describe the current situation as a strong recovery."
Stiglitz added that "officially, the recession may be over" but that "in terms of the way individuals feel," and the level of confidence of business, "the recession is far from over."
"The real factor is that the recovery hasn't been strong enough to create new jobs," he said. Stiglitz, who also served as a top adviser to president Bill Clinton, said that although official unemployment is 10 percent, adding in the ranks of discourage workers and the "underemployed" brings this to around 19 percent. Because the labor force is growing and productivity is increasing, the economy needs to grow at least at 3.0 to 3.5 percent to bring down unemployment, Stiglitz said, adding that this is unlikely in 2010 and 2011. "It's going to be hard to have a robust recovery," he said.
Stiglitz said that the troubles in Europe make it harder for the US economy to gain steam: "We all can't export our way out of the crisis," he said. Although Asia "is very dynamic, it is too small to make up for the shortfall," he added. "That leaves only one thing to close the gap and that's government." Stiglitz said the 787-billion-dollar stimulus enacted last year was positive but too small.
"If we hadn't had that stimulus, the unemployment rate would have been 11 or 12 percent," he said. "It was not big enough, that's clear in retrospect, (and) it was not well enough designed." He said that although the stimulus increased federal government spending "almost half of the federal stimulus has been offset by contraction at the state and local level."

  IMF helping Greece develop budget deficit-slashing plan
AFP, Washington

The International Monetary Fund has completed a technical mission to Greece and is helping officials develop ways to reduce the country's huge budget deficit, a spokeswoman said Thursday.
The mission that began in Athens on January 13 "has concluded," IMF spokeswoman Caroline Atkinson said at a news briefing. IMF technical experts "have talked to the Greek authorities really focusing on what are the technical measures, where we can advise about how the authorities can best implement the stabilization program that they have announced, which is of course between them and the EU (European Union)," she said. Greece fought Thursday to regain its credibility on financial markets as Greek bonds and stocks fell amid the debt crisis.
Finance Minister George George Papaconstantinou said the government's priority was regaining confidence on the markets.
The Greek stability plan to cut the public deficit from 12.7 percent of output in 2009 to 2.8 percent in 2012 is to go before EU finance ministers for approval on February 16. The proposed reduction, covering central government, welfare and local authority budgets, is huge by any standards amid severely strained public finances.

  China hits back at US Internet criticism
AFP, Beijing

China on Friday rejected criticism of its Internet censorship by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, saying it harmed relations, as a row over Google's threat to leave the Chinese market escalated.
Clinton had urged China on Thursday to conduct a thorough probe into cyberattacks on Google and other US companies, and lamented what she said was Beijing's increasing efforts to control what its 384 million web users can see.
"We firmly oppose such words and deeds, which go against the facts and are harmful to China-US relations," foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said, in China's strongest comments since the Google dispute erupted last week.
"We urge the United States to respect facts and stop using the so-called Internet freedom issue to criticise China unreasonably," he said in a statement posted on the ministry website.
In a major policy speech on Internet freedom in Washington, Clinton reiterated US support for "a single Internet where all of humanity has equal access to knowledge and ideas".
She called on China "to conduct a thorough investigation of the cyber intrusions" revealed by Google and for "its results to be transparent".
The two sides have become locked in a spiralling dispute over Chinese web controls sparked by Internet giant Google's announcement last week it would no longer obey China's censorship rules and might pull out of the country.
Google said the decision was made after it suffered cyberattacks that the company believes originated in China and appeared aimed at cracking the email accounts of Chinese human rights activists.
China's government declined to respond to AFP requests Friday for comment on a possible investigation of the attacks.
Until Friday, Beijing had generally held fire in the dispute, defending its censorship as necessary and saying foreign firms must comply, but refraining from hitting back at mounting US criticism over its control of the Internet. China is believed to employ thousands of people in a vast system of Internet censorship, dubbed the "Great Firewall of China", which polices what the world's largest online population can see and do on the web. Beijing regularly invokes the need to stamp out pornography as a key reason for the controls but critics contend its primary purpose is to quell political dissent or content seen as threatening to Communist Party rule. Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! and Cisco are among the US technology giants that have been accused of cooperating with the "Great Firewall" by acquiescing to Beijing's demands.
In her speech, Clinton appeared to call on other companies to follow Google's lead and defy China.

  Asia-Pacific airline passengers slump 5.7pc in 2009
AFP, Kuala Lumpur

Asia-Pacific airlines suffered a 5.7 percent drop in passenger numbers and an 11 percent slump in cargo traffic in 2009 as they weathered their worst ever downturn, an industry body said Friday.
The Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) said that the collapse in corporate travel and intense price competition during the global recession saw airline revenues tumble 20-25 percent. "We have been through downturns before, but none as severe as we've experienced in the past two years," AAPA director general Andrew Herdman said in a statement.
Airlines cut flights and cargo capacity, and shaved back on costs, but were still not able to fully offset the effects of sharply lower revenues, compounded by continuing volatility in oil prices, he said. "Overall, Asia Pacific airlines are expected to report significant losses for 2009, following similar heavy losses suffered in 2008," he said.
However, Herdman said traffic numbers in recent months had shown signs of recovery.
"The cargo business is regaining some of its dynamism, and passenger demand on short haul leisure routes within the region has already picked up, although business travel demand is recovering more slowly," he said.
Regional airlines faced the task of "conserving cash, rebuilding damaged balance sheets, and carefully managing capacity to match demand as they work towards restoring profitability." "Whilst we remain hopeful about future prospects, the outlook for 2010 very much depends on the sustainability of what still appears to be a rather fragile global economic recovery."
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has said it expects Asia-Pacific carriers to lose 700 million dollars this year, an improvement from the 3.4 billion dollars lost last year.
Singapore Airlines posted its first quarterly loss in six years during the June 2009 quarter and deferred the delivery of eight A380 superjumbos. Australia's Qantas and Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific also saw earnings slump. Asia's largest carrier Japan Airlines this week filed for bankruptcy, and other airlines could be in line for government bailouts.
Globally, IATA is forecasting a loss of 5.6 billion dollars for the industry this year.

  Beijing per capita GDP tops $10,000 in 2009
AFP, Beijing

Average living standards in Beijing improved in 2009, with per capita gross domestic product topping 10,000 dollars for the first time, official data showed Friday.
The capital's economy grew 10.1 percent on-year to 1.19 trillion yuan (174.3 billion dollars) -- exceeding the national GDP growth rate of 8.7 percent-according to figures published on the Beijing Bureau of Statistics website.
This means per capita GDP for the city's 17.55 million residents reached 68,788 yuan, or 10,077 dollars, the bureau said.
"The breakthrough is a milestone for Beijing," bureau deputy director Yu Xiuqin was quoted by state media as saying.
China's economy expanded by 8.7 percent in 2009 after the government went on a four-trillion-yuan spending spree and bank lending nearly doubled from 2008, according to official data released Thursday.
Average annual disposable income for Beijing's city dwellers rose 8.1 percent to 3,915 dollars, while for rural residents around the capital, the figure reached 1,755 dollars, up 11.5 percent on the previous year.
Average living standards in Beijing still lag behind those in southern Guangzhou and Shanghai, where per capita GDP reached 11,900 and 10,529 dollars respectively in 2008, according to latest official figures.

  Google quarterly net profit up five-fold
AFP, San Francisco

Google on Thursday posted a five-fold rise in quarterly net profit to 1.97 billion dollars as the Internet giant turned its back on the fiscal crisis and faced off with Chinese censors.
Google said fourth-quarter revenue climbed 17 percent to 6.67 billion dollars and that it finished 2009 with its net profit up 54 percent to 6.52 billion dollars.
"Given that the global economy is still in the early days of recovery, this was an extraordinary end to the year," Google chief executive Eric Schmidt said.
Schmidt credited Google's management team, innovative talent, and business model as building blocks for the stellar final months of 2009.
"As we enter 2010, we remain hugely optimistic about the Internet and are continuing to invest heavily in technological innovation for the benefit not only of our users and customers, but also the wider Web," Schmidt said.
In what could be good news for the economy and bode well for other Internet companies, Google saw a 13-percent increase in "paid clicks" on ads posted at its online properties.
While Google tightly managed its budget through the economic meltdown, it feels the time is ripe to acquire promising new companies or technologies, according to executives.

 Obama bank plans roil world stocks
AFP, London

Global stock markets slid in confusion on Friday at US President Barack Obama's vow to crack down on "reckless" big banks and on jitters over China's economy and soaring debts, analysts said.
In foreign exchange trade, the yen rose against the dollar, boosted by "safe-haven" flows as prospects for the global economy dimmed in light of recent economic data and moves by governments to curb lending, dealers said. Oil prices rose slightly with gains capped by weak energy demand in the United States and worries over the strength of China's economy, the world's biggest energy-consuming nations.
"President Obama's words are still very much hanging over the market," said equities dealer Arifa Sheikh-Usmani at British trading firm Spreadex.
Obama laid out a tough programme on Thursday to limit "excessive" risk-taking and "protect" US taxpayers by preventing banks or financial institutions from owning, investing in or sponsoring hedge fund or private equity funds.
"Never again will the American taxpayer be held hostage by a bank that is too big to fail," vowed Obama. Blaming the banks for causing the economic crisis, he said: "My resolve to reform the system is only strengthened when I see a return to old practices at some of the very firms fighting reform."
However, experts and analysts on financial markets were varied in their views of whether the measures proposed by Obama were appropriate and would have the desired effect. In European stock market trade approaching Friday's half-way mark, London's benchmark FTSE 100 index was down 0.46 percent in value. Frankfurt's DAX 30 slid 0.56 percent and the Paris CAC 40 lost 0.52 percent.
The Tokyo stock market closed down 2.56 percent, Sydney shed 1.59 percent and Hong Kong recovered from early heavy losses to finish 0.65-percent lower.
Investors followed the lead of Wall Street, where the Dow Jones index suffered its worst fall of the year on Thursday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average slumped 2.01 percent, posting its biggest drop for the year and extending losses after a big fall on Wednesday.
Obama's words meanwhile capped a tough week for markets, which have taken a hit also from fears that Beijing is set to tighten credit as it tries to rein in its scorching economy.
Those worries were stoked on Thursday after China said its economy expanded 10.7 percent in the December quarter, while inflation reached a 13-month high. Shanghai stocks dropped 0.96 percent on Friday. "We had a weak lead (in Asia) from Wall Street on the potential moves from China to slow things down, and Mr Obama is going forward on bank regulation," Burrell Stockbroking director Richard Herring said.
"We had a good run over the Christmas period, so maybe there's just a little unwinding of some Christmas excess."

 Vietnam’s economic recovery will take time: WB
ANN

Laos should promote domestic investment as inflow of foreign direct investment is expected to remain low this year
Laos ' economic growth is not only dependent on domestic conditions but is pegged to world economic recovery, as the country is still largely reliant on foreign direct investment.
The World Bank released its Global Economic Prospect 2010 through a video conference from Bangkok of Thailand, forecasting that world economic recovery would continue but remain slow as the impact of fiscal stimulus declines.
Slowed global economic growth will have an impact on the inflow of foreign direct investment in Laos as some large-scale investment projects, particularly in mining and hydropower, will not be resumed until the world economic recession is over.
Suspended projects in Laos include the US$4 billion Hongsa lignite power plant in Xayaboury province and iron smelting facilities in Vangvieng district of Vientiane province, which have been put on hold over the past two years.
The World Bank says that inflow of foreign direct investment to developing countries is expected to decline due to sluggish economic recovery.
"While developing countries cannot avoid tighter international financial conditions, they can and should reduce domestic borrowing costs and promote local capital markets by expanding regional financial centres and improving competition and regulations in local banking sectors," World Bank Prospects Group Director Hans Timmer said.
According to the World Bank, global GDP which declined by 2.2 percent in 2009 is expected to grow 2.7 percent this year and 3.2 percent in 2011.

 Iran to finalize gas imports contract with Azerbaijan
Xinhua, Tehran

An Iranian official said that Tehran is planning to finalize the contract of long-term gas imports from Azerbaijan, the local English language Press TV reported on Thursday.
Iran and Azerbaijan will finalize a long-term contract for Azerbaijani gas supplies within the next three months, Head of National Iranian Gas Export Company (NIGEC) Seyed Reza Kasayeezadeh was quoted as saying.
Currently, Iran has a short-term gas supply deal with its northern neighbor which will run out in April this year.
On January 13, Iran struck a short-term agreement to import some 500 million cubic meters of gas per day from neighboring Azerbaijan. The import is aimed to meet the needs of its northern regions which are a long way from the country's own gas fields in the south. "Iran expects to ink another contract to increase the amount of imported gas from Azerbaijan to 2 billion cubic meters per day," Kasayeezadeh said on Wednesday.
Azerbaijan and Iran are connected by the Kazi Magomed - Astara gas pipeline, 1,474.5 km long. Its capacity is about 10 billion cubic meters per year.

 EBRD raises 2010 growth forecast for ex-Soviet bloc
AFP, London

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on Friday raised its forecast for growth in the ex-Soviet bloc-one of the areas worst hit by the global economic crisis-to 3.3 percent. "The EBRD has revised upwards its 2010 growth forecasts for the region, reflecting a slightly faster economic recovery than anticipated last October, but with stark variation across the region," the bank said in a statement.
The EBRD had previously forecast that the region would grow by 2.5 percent.
"The upward revision is driven by stronger than expected performance in four large economies in the region: Poland, Turkey, Russia, and Kazakhstan, on the back of stronger commodity prices, and a resumption of capital flows to large emerging market countries," the bank said.
The EBRD economic zone, which shrank by six percent last year, will grow by an average of 3.8 percent in 2011, the London-based bank also predicted.

 Mobile phones transform the lives of poor Indians
Gulfnews

Before he got a mobile phone seven years ago, Vijay Navle, a small Mumbai fish trader, spent much of his time and scant income travelling on buses and trains.
Every day, he would make the five-hour round trip to visit fishermen living on the Arabian Sea on the north of the city to see if they had caught any of the prawns and large fish that he sells to exporters at south Mumbai's Sassoon Dock.
Today, like a growing number of Indians, rich and poor, Navle and the fishermen have mobile phones. Fishermen call him when they catch something and he arranges the pick-up and delivery to customers by phone.
"I can immediately inform my customers that there's a big catch coming in fresh and we get a better price for it," says Navle.
For hundreds of millions of people across India such as Navle, the rise of mobile telephony has led to changes in their lives as profound as the advent of the fixed-line home telephone was for rich consumers in the west.
Aside from television, the mobile handset is the first contact for many Indians with the world of sophisticated consumer electronics and their first connection with the organised modern economy. And with third-generation cellular services on the horizon, the next phase of this consumer revolution is poised to begin with the spread of the mobile internet to India's masses. "The mobile phone is the first piece of technology that so many people in India will have owned, it's their first communications device and it's their first [mobile] entertainment device," says Kunal Bajaj, managing director with consultancy BDA in New Delhi.
The latent demand for modern communications, coupled with low tariffs of less than one US cent per minute, has turned India into the world's fastest growing large mobile market by user numbers.
The total subscriber base reached 506 million users by the end of November, with 17.7 million additions in that month alone, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India reported. These numbers have drawn the interest of the world's largest companies, battling to wrest market share from domestic leaders, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications. The fierce competition has led operators to introduce a myriad of low-cost data services for consumers and "micro-businessmen". Vodafone has introduced a service allowing urban consumers to make purchases such as film tickets, using voice and the keypads of their phones.
Reuters operates a short messaging service, Reuters Market Light, that provides farmers with instant crop price and weather updates. Others provide music-on-demand, ringtones and music video downloads that work even on low-bandwidth second-generation networks. These services lack the sophistication of those designed for smartphones in rich countries but can be ingenious in their simplicity.
"In states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh you are finding huge amounts of activity around these types of [video] entertainment applications," Bajaj says.

 Gold falls towards $1,100
Gulfnews

Gold prices on Thursday fell towards $1,100 (Dh4,040) an ounce in Europe on Thursday as the dollar's rise to a five-month high versus the euro curbed buying of the precious metal as an alternative asset.
Spot gold was bid at $1,103.65 an ounce at 1031 GMT, against $1,111.10 late in New York on Wednesday.
US gold futures for February delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange fell $8.60 to $1,104.00.
The dollar yesterday hit a five-month high versus the euro as investors spooked by concerns over Greece's rising debt sold the single currency.
Tobias Merath, head of commodities research at Credit Suisse, said while the strong dollar was negative, falling bond yields in the United States, which made gold a more attractive alternative asset, were supporting the metal.
"Bond yields in US have been coming down, and this is a positive factor for gold because gold is a non-yielding asset," he said.
"We have had two diverging factors at work - the dollar strengthening, but yields falling because of the risk aversion/bond rally."
The euro extended losses after a reading of the euro zone purchasing managers' index missed consensus.
Strength in the dollar versus the euro curbs gold's appeal as an alternative asset and makes dollar-priced commodities more expensive for holders of other currencies.
"Bullion should continue trading against the US currency, tracking the broader market," VTB Capital said in a note.
"We see our key support holding at $1,090 in case we lose more ground."
On the wider markets, oil prices were steady, supported by strong Chinese growth data.
Asian stocks fell as investors worried China would take more measures to temper growth after its fastest quarterly growth in two years, and European shares were flat.
In India, historically the world's largest consumer of gold, traders continued to buy as prices hit new two-week lows.

 Toyota recalls 2.3m US vehicles for accelerator problem
AFP, Washington

Toyota Motor has recalled around 2.3 million vehicles in the United States to fix a problem with their accelerator pedals, the company's US division announced on Thursday.
The company said the recall was to correct accelerator pedals on specific Toyota models that could "in rare instances, mechanically stick in a partially depressed position or return slowly to the idle position."
The action was separate to an ongoing recall of approximately 4.2 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles that was begun last year due to a risk that loose driver-side floor mats could slip forward and jam the pedals, it said.
"In recent months, Toyota has investigated isolated reports of sticking accelerator pedal mechanisms in certain vehicles without the presence of floor mats," Irv Miller, vice president of Toyota Motor Sales USA, said in a statement.
"Our investigation indicates that there is a possibility that certain accelerator pedal mechanisms may, in rare instances, mechanically stick in a partially depressed position or return slowly to the idle position," he added.
"Consistent with our commitment to the safety of our cars and our customers, we have initiated this voluntary recall action."
The models involved are the RAV4 2009 to 2010 (model year), Corolla (2009-2010), Matrix (2009-2010), Avalon (2005-2010), Camry (2007-2010), Highlander (2010), undra (2007-2010) and Sequoia (2008-2010).

National

Steps taken to flourish cooperative sector: Nanak
BSS, Dhaka

State Minister for LGRD and Cooperatives Jahangir Kabir Nanak on Friday said the government has taken steps to flourish the cooperatives sector to rid the country of corruption, illiteracy and poverty.
He was addressing as the chief guest the 49th annual general meeting of the Christian Cooperative Credit Union Ltd at Batomoli Home Girls High School playground here.
To ensure economic emancipation of the people, Nanak said, Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had taken initiatives to strengthen the cooperative sector.
"But after the assassination of Bangabandhu in 1975, the sector was turned into a den of corruption," the state minister said.
Terming Bangladesh as a role model of the cooperatives movement, Nanak called upon the cooperatives organisations to make successful the 'One House One Farm' programme announced by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the interest of socio-economic development, creating employment as well as cutting poverty.
With President of Christian Cooperative Credit Union Ltd Nirmol Rozario in the chair, the function was also addressed by Asaduzzaman Kamal, MP, and Additional Registrar of the Cooperatives Mohammad Jahangir Hossain.

  Transparent, corruption-free RAKUB loan needed for boosting agri-production

BSS, Rajshahi

Speakers at a farmers meeting underscored the need for ensuring transparent and corruption-free crop loan by the Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank (RAKUB) for boosting agricultural production.
In this regard, they also called for establishing farmers' confidence on the bank's lending activities so that they could be encouraged to derive the bank services.
Apart from this, they viewed that ensuring bribe and harassment free crops loan could be the effective means of encouraging the farmers towards boosting farm production that is essential for making the society free from poverty and hunger.
They made these observations while disbursing the share- croppers and small and medium enterprise (SME) loan and two percent interest-rate loan for producing import-alternative oil- seed, spices and pulses among the farmers arranged by the RAKUB's Mohanpur Branch at Laloich Alim Madrasa playground under Mohanpur upazila here Thursday.
RAKUB Chairman Yahiya Mollah addressed the ceremony as the chief guest while Managing Director Muhammad Fazlul Haque, General Manager of Bangladesh Bank Nirmal Chandra Bhakta and local UP Chairman Osman Gani Pramanik as special guests. The function was chaired by RAKUB Deputy General Manager Abdul Khaleque Khan.
Yahiya Mollah categorically said, the agricultural-credit must be time-befitting and transparent side by side with free from all sorts corruption so that the farmers could derive its total benefit.
He said the present government is committed to bolster the country's agro- based economy through boosting the farm production and urged the branch level officials to intensify the credit-flow to the potential agricultural fields.
Besides, he said, the farmers have been playing a pivotal role in food security through their hardworking activities and finally they established our confidence in this regard so they must be provided with genuine and meaningful credit.
"We have no alternative to boost up crop production to lessen the pressure on the hard-earned foreign currency reserve for import purposes," Mollah said adding that hopes and aspirations of the painstaking farmers must be fulfilled through quality banking.
He said the large-scale expansion of agricultural and other income-generating activities could help removing the existing curse of unemployment and poverty.
RAKUB Managing Director Muhammad Fazlul Haque said, the bank has set target of distributing Taka 106 crore loans among the landless and share-croppers without any security deposit in the country's northwestern region during the current fiscal for the first time in the country.]
He said all the branch level officials have been asked to arrange the loan disbursement program at the open and other public places so that all the farmers could get chance of access without any hesitation.
Besides, he noted that the farmers' interests must be protected at any cost so that they could contribute to the nation in the field of food security and poverty alleviation in the days to come.

   Comprehensive strategies stressed for reducing adverse impacts of climate changes

BSS, Rangpur

Speakers at a workshop at Parbotipur in Dinajpur have underscored the need for adopting comprehensive strat-egies involving the grass roots level people to reduce the adverse impacts of the ongoing global climate changes.
The country has been experiencing an abnormal climatic situation that has caused a grave concern to human health, habitation, agriculture, irrigation, navigation, ecology, bio-diversity, environment and underground water levels, they said. They said the major rivers and their tributaries have already dried up now abnormally much ahead of the usual dry season as every year in the recent decades in the country's north- western regions affecting all parameters for normal human habitations. They said this at the workshop titled 'Strengthening Local Government, Creating Civic Awareness and Grass Root Level Participatory Strategies for Reducing Risks of Climate Changes' at Horirampur Union Parishad auditorium in Parbotipur upazila in Dinajpur Thursday.
The workshop was jointly organised by Union Disaster Management Committee and RUPANTOR, an NGO, for strengthening local government bodies and overcoming risks of climate changes by creating awareness among the public representatives and common people.

   Large-scale promotion of modern technology can help boost farm outputs: Agriculturists

BSS, Rajshahi

Agriculturists urged the grassroots farmers to be habituated with the modern agricultural information and communication technologies to make their farming activities more profitable and sustainable and to face the adverse impact of climate change.
They were addressing the closing ceremony of a three-day farmers training styled "Agriculture subsidy and inputs management" organized by the Agriculture Information Service (AIS) under its 'Intensification of Agriculture Information Service (IAIS) in Ten Agricultural Regions Project' at NCDP conference hall here Thursday afternoon.
Speakers emphasized the need for promoting modern technology in the agricultural activities for boosting its production as dreamt by the present government.
They also said the farmers have a vital role to play in disseminating the latest agricultural technologies to their fellow farmers so that they could be motivated to use those. In this regard, they said that there is no alternative to adopt the information and communication technologies in the farming activities to make the nation self- sufficient in food production.
Around 40 members both male and female of Agriculture Information and Communication Center (AICC) at Mugrail village under Mohanpur upazila of the district attended the training course.
The AIS has established the center equipped with modern agricultural information and communication technologies aimed at facilitating necessary information to the targeted farmers.
AIS Director Nazrul Islam chaired the closing ceremony while Additional Director of Department of Agriculture Extension Younus Ali and Deputy Director Mohsin Ali addressed as the chief and special guests respectively.
The speakers said the present government is committed to reach the updated agricultural information to the farmers' doorstep through digitizing the agriculture sector aimed at building Digital Bangladesh and urged the attending farmers to supplement the government effort.
Highlighting various importance of the centre they urged the farmers to use and manage it properly so that they could derive its total benefit.

   Case filed against 30 suspected Rajakars in Bagerhat
UNB, Bagerhat

Thirty suspected Rajakars have been sued for killing a freedom fighter at Sharankhola upazila during the War of Liberation in 1971.
Sharankhola Police Station recorded the case against the "rajakars" following a court order on Thursday night.
Earlier on January 11, Achhia Khatun of Sonatala village in Sharankhola upazila filed the case with the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate's Court against 30 people for killing her husband.
Two of the main accused are: Maulana AKM Yusuf, 70, Jamaat central committee Nayeb-e-Ameer and education minister of the then East Pakistan, and Dr Mia Abbas Uddin, 60, former MP and Morelganj upazila BNP president.
In her complaint, Achhia Khatun said the "Rajakars" picked up her husband Joynal Fakir from Tafalbari bazar on June 9, 1971 and shot dead him. They, later, threw his body into the nearby river.
Besides, the "rajakars" looted and set fire to the houses of freedom fighters and many other people in the area during the period.
So far, 35 cases have been filed against 457
suspected rajakars in the district for killing over 100 freedom fighters and loot and arson during the War of Liberation.

   Two killed in Jhenidah road crashes
UNB, Jhenidah

Two people, including a child, were killed in separate road accidents on Jhenidah-Chuadanga road in Sadar upazila on Thursday.
The victims were identified as truck driver Abdul Momin, 50, of Narail district, and Aminul Islam, 8, son of Dulal Hossain of Daharpur village in Sadar upazila.
Police said a truck loaded with timbers crashed into a roadside tree at Baidanga as one of its front tyres had punctured. "Truck driver Abdul Momin died on the spot," said an eye witness. The accident took place at about 3pm when the truck carrying timbers was coming to Jhenidah district town from Chuadanga district. In another incident, minor boy Aminul died instantly when a sand-laden truck ran over him at Duk Bbanaglow Bazaar at noon.
The driver along with the truck managed to flee the scene. Both the bodies were sent to hospital morgue for autopsy.

   Section-144 as BNP, JCD convene meet at same place
BSS, Rajshahi

The local administration on Friday imposed section-144 on Lalpur Adarsha School playground under Tanore upazila of the district as local units of BNP and Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) convened programmes at the same time and same
venue.
According to sources concerned, the local unit of the JCD organised a function to accord a reception to former district BNP general secretary Shish Muhammad on his release from the jail at the playground on Friday.
At the same time, Tanore upazila BNP President and Upazila Chairman Emran Ali Mollah convened a daylong organizational programme on the same venue.
As the supporters and workers of both the factions started reaching the venue, a tense situation created since the morning.
To maintain the law and order, Upazila Nirbahi Officer Mehedi Al Shaheed imposed the section-144 till Friday evening and deployed additional police on the playground.

Sports

Bangladesh Volleyball Team announced for SAG
TBT Report

Bangladesh Volleyball Federation (BVF) announced the Bangladesh Volleyball Team for the 11th South Asian Games on Friday.
The 11th South Asian Games (SAG) will be held from January 29.to February 9 in Dhaka and some other cities across the country.
Bangladesh Volleyball Team included 12 players and three officials for the mega South Asian event.
"We will fight for bronze. This time we have taken enough preparations for the SAG and hopefully the boys will show their mettle in the competition." the Head Coach of Bangladesh Volleyball Team Yaad Ali said at Olympic Bhaban in the city.
Bangladesh won bronze in 1987, 1991 and 1999 in SAG but this time the hosts are determined to fare better results, Yaad Ali said.
Bangladesh team: Mamun Sheikh (Captain), Rafiqul Islam (Vice Captain), Shudorshon Chowdhury, Shah Jahan, Aslam Hossain, Mohammad Shamim, Humayun Kabir, Kaisar Hamid, Masud Mia, Monir Hossain, Ali Hossain, Hayder Ali, Fazle Rabbi (Manager), Yaad Ali (Head Coach), Mohammad Sohel (Assistant Coach).

  Pakistan rules out boycott of World Cup hockey
AFP, Islamabad

Pakistan's sports minister on Friday ruled out a boycott of the hockey World Cup in India as anger grows over the exclusion of the country's cricketers from the Indian Premier League.
No Pakistani player was bought by the eight Indian clubs during an auction on Tuesday for the third edition of the league despite the Pakistan team being the reigning world champions in the Twenty20 format of the tournament.
The omission has triggered widespread protests in Pakistan with effigies of IPL chief Lalit Modi being burnt on the streets of Lahore amid condemnation from politicians and threats of boycotts from other Pakistani sports teams.
Former hockey players demanded that the national team should not feature in the hockey World Cup, which begins in New Delhi on 28 February. India will face Pakistan in the opening match. But sports minister Ijaz Jakhrani brushed aside the demands.
"The World Cup is an international event-not an Indian one, so our team will participate in it," he told reporters.
Former hockey captain Islahuddin Siddiqui and ex-captain of the national cricket team Zaheer Abbas on Thursday called for a complete boycott of sports with India, saying the IPL had insulted Pakistan's cricketers.
The third season of the lucrative IPL, which features the world's top players in eight teams owned by rich businessmen and Bollywood stars, will be held in March and April this year.
One franchise official, who preferred to remain unnamed, told AFP that he was not surprised that the Pakistanis were excluded.
"We were not sure if they would get visas and we did not want players who won't be available," he said. "Besides, there is also the security issue. No one was willing to take a chance."

  IPL faces further security trouble
AFP, New Delhi

The opening match of the Indian Premier League in March has been shifted out of Hyderabad due to ongoing protests over the proposed creation of a new state, a top official said on Friday.
The match between defending champions the Deccan Chargers and the Kolkata Knight Riders, which was due to be held in Hyderabad on March 12, will now be played in Mumbai, IPL commissioner Lalit Modi told reporters.
Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh state, has seen unrest over the past few weeks after the federal government announced in December that the region would be carved in two to create a separate state of Telangana.
Protesters on Thursday disrupted a Twenty20 cricket match organised by the Deccan Chargers franchise in Hyderabad.
"The first match of the IPL's new season will now be held in Mumbai on March 12," said Modi. "The opening match and the gala dinner the previous evening are very important for us.
"People from all over the world are coming and we are going to make sure that everything is in order. We don't want to take any chances.
"There are no changes to other matches, everything looks fine."
Hyderabad were due to host the seven home matches of the Chargers.
Two weeks ago, an influential right-wing Hindu party in Mumbai warned that it would try to stop Australian cricketers playing in parts of India because of attacks on Indians living Down Under.
Bal Thackeray, who heads the radical Shiv Sena party, said activists planned to disrupt matches involving Australians, like they did ahead of a Test match against Pakistan in New Delhi in 1999, when they dug up the pitch.
Two major cities in Maharashtra, Mumbai and Nagpur, are due to host IPL matches and Shiv Sena is particularly influential in the state. Two former Australian stars, Adam Gilchrist and Andrew Symonds, play for the Deccan Chargers team. Other notable Aussies in the glitzy Twenty20 league are Matthew Hayden, Brett Lee and Shane Watson.
There has been a spate of attacks against Indian students in Australia over the past 18 months which have soured ties between the two countries. The IPL is already embroiled in controversy after no Pakistani player was picked up in Tuesday's auction by the eight cash-rich franchises, setting off a diplomatic row between India and Pakistan.

  John Howard linked to ICC top job
AFP, Melbourne

Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard is in the running to take charge of international cricket, reports said on Friday.
The Melbourne Age newspaper said Howard was a candidate to be president of the International Cricket Council, but Cricket Australia would not confirm whether it had nominated him for the position.
"We have not discussed, neither have we confirmed nor denied, any of the names that have been suggested to us (by the press)," a CA spokesman told AFP. "It's a confidential process."
Howard, 70, who is a self-confessed 'cricket tragic,' also had no comment.
"He does not want to say anything about the rumours," a spokesman for the former prime minister said.
The governing cricket bodies in Australia and New Zealand will next month propose an Australasian candidate to take the leadership of the ICC from 2012.
The CA spokesman said the ICC presidency, which works on a two-year rotational basis, was a "difficult and complex role" which involved juggling the political and cultural considerations of 10 diverse cricketing nations.
England currently occupy the role as ICC president with David Morgan in the job.
They hand over the mantle to India in mid-2010, when Australasia's candidate would assume the deputy presidency ahead of assuming full leadership in mid-2012, the spokesman said.
Since his defeat at 2007 elections, Howard's only official position has been as director of the Bradman Foundation, his office said.
The Bradman Foundation owns and operates the Bradman Museum of Cricket and manages Bradman Oval in Bowral, southern New South Wales state, where the Australian cricket icon Don Bradman first learned to play the game.

   Henin's dream lives on
AFP, Melbourne

Kim Clijsters was left reeling from a humiliating Australian Open exit Friday, but fellow Belgian Justine Henin kept her Grand Slam dreams alive.
A hapless Clijsters was hopelessly out of touch as she was thrashed 6-0, 6-1 in just 52 minutes by Russia's 19th seeded Nadia Petrova.
The reigning US Open champion was not the only top name to crash out, with former world number one Jelena Jankovic also sent packing.
In contrast, Henin performed a great escape act to claw back from a set down to squeeze past Russian 27th seed Alisa Kleybanova 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.
Clijsters, who came into the tournament on the back of winning the warm-up Brisbane International, said she was bewildered by the experience.
"The question is of course is, why? My coach, my fitness coach, are like 'How can something like this happen?'," she said.
"We haven't changed anything really, that's the thing. I was completely off."
The diminutive Henin, the 2004 champion, was also staring at defeat after losing the opening set and falling 3-1 behind in the second to Kleybanova.
But she drew on all her experience as a seven-time Grand Slam champion to bounce back, taking the second set and rattling through the third.
"I kind of survived a little bit today," she Henin, playing in only her second tournament on her comeback from an 18-month retirement. "It was so difficult for me after the last match. Physically, I suffered a little bit in the last two days. I'm very happy that I'm still in the tournament."
She next plays fellow Belgian Yanina Wickmayer, who beat Italy's Sara Errani 6-1, 6-7 (4/7), 6-3.
Safina, the second seed, clocked a rapid-fire 6-1, 6-2 thrashing of England's Elena Baltacha in her first match on Rod Laver Arena since she imploded during last year's final against Serena Williams.
The Russian took heart from a winning return at the scene of one of her worst days in tennis. "I didn't have good memories of the last match I played on Rod Laver Arena, for sure," she said. "I am glad to be back and I had to fight hard and make sure I won to forget the bad memories."
She will next face Maria Kirilenko after the fellow Russian outlasted Italy's Roberta Vinci 7-5, 7-6 (7/4).
While Safina and Henin powered on, Jankovic looked like a spent force.
She struggled to live up to her potential in 2009 and her big-match credentials were again found wanting, but Jankovic wasn't concerned.
"It's no big deal, it's only my second tournament of the year," she said.

  Zambia makes last eight
AFP, Benguela

Zambia derailed highrollers Gabon 2-1 here on Thursday to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations quarter-finals for the first time in 14 years.
Goals in either half from Rainford Kalaba and the Chinese-based James Chamanga earned Herve Renard's side, who went into the game footing Group D, a place in the quarters along with Cameroon, who drew 2-2 with Tunisia over in Lubango.
Zambia's reward for topping the table was a last eight match up with Group C runners-up Nigeria.
Renard said: "When we came to Angola we said we will qualify for the quarter-finals but people were laughing at us. Against Nigeria, our target is to reach the semi-final."
Zambia skipper Chris Katongo added: "It's a great moment for me as a captain to reach the knockout stage of the Nations Cup. We have achieved something, broken the barrier, which a lot of people thought was impossible."
Katonga's Gabon counterpart Daniel Cousin cut a sad figure.
"We thought we had qualified but after a short while, we received the news that we did not qualify," he said.
"We started well against Cameroon (in their first match), but whatever happened, happened."
Zambia burst out of the blocks in Benguela as befitted a team that needed the three points to escape the clutches of Group D - whereas Gabon required just a solitary point.
On 11 minutes Zambia had their first major opportunity after a neat move involving Felix Katongo and Jacob Mulenga only for the Utrecht striker to shoot high over.
The Gabon defence was under pressure for the first real time in the tournament as Zambia maintained their energetic start.
By far the more menacing of the two sides Zambia's South Africa-based Felix Katongo, the captain's brother, squandered another gilt-edged opportunity when he scuffed the ball from in front of goal.
Zambia took a deserved lead in the 28th minute when defender Kampamba slid the ball upfield to Kalaba and the Uniao Leiria midfielder kept his cool to knock the ball from the left of the box past the onrushing Gabon keeper Ebang Ovono.That was the first goal Gabon had conceded since arriving in Angola.
At the break, with Tunisia leading Cameroon 1-0 in Lubango, it was the Tunisians and Zambia who were set to march on.
But with Cameroon levelling shortly after the break that put them in a three way tie with Zambia and Gabon on four points, with Gabon the ones to miss out.

  Dhaka and Rajshahi post second successive wins
UNB, Dhaka

Dhaka Division registered its second win in the 11th National Cricket League with an emphatic 10-wicket victory over Barisal Division at Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium in Khulna on Friday.
Resuming the third day with overnight score of 175 for 3, Barisal Division were finally all out for 250 in 74.2 overs setting a paltry target of 45 runs against Dhaka Division.
Chasing the target, Dhaka Division started the second innings and easily reached their target making 48 runs in 5.3 overs.
Brief score: Barisal Division Ist innings- 89 all out in 32.1 overs;
Arafat Salahuddin 29, Ariful Haque 24, Sajedul Islam 13, Mohammad Sharif 5/34 and Talha Jubear 4/41.
2nd innings - 250 for 10 in 474.2 overs; Asif Ahmed 121, Fazle Rabbi 54, Shahin Hossain 19, Shohag 20, extras 19, Mosharraf Hossain 3/39 and Sharif 3/75.
Dhaka Division Ist Innings- 295 all out in 88.2 overs; (overnight score 131 for 4 in 42 overs), Shuvagoto Hom 52, Nadif Chowdhury 48, Marshall Ayub 47, Uttam Sarker 40, Sharifullah 40, extras 27, Shohag Gazi 4/46, Sajedul Islam 4/80 and Arafat Salahuddin 2/61.
Dhaka Division 2nd innings - Uttam batting 22 and Ronny batting 22.
In the day's another match, Khulna Division took an overall 158-run lead over Sylhet Division at the Shaheed Chandu Stadium in Bogra.
Resuming the second third day with overnight score of 227 for 4, Sylhet Division were all out for 272 runs in 99 overs in reply to Khulna Division's first innings total of 242 runs.
In reply, Khulna Division started their second innings and scored 188 for 8 in 51 overs at stumps on the day.
In the day's another match, Rajshahi Division also earned their second successive win crushing Chittagong Division by an innings and 131 runs at BKSP, Savar.
Resuming the 3rd day with overnight score of 198 for 3 in 659 overs, Rajshahi Division amassed 424 runs for 10 in 130.1 overs in reply to Chittagong Division's first innings total of 184 runs.
Trailing for 240 runs in the 1st innings, Chittagong Division started their second innings and were dismissed cheaply for 109 runs 322.2 overs in the face of a devastating bowling attack by some Rajshahi Division bowlers.
Saqlain Sajib of Rajshahi was adjudged the player of the match.

  Nadal slugs out four-setter with Kohlschreiber
AFP, Melbourne

Defending champion Rafael Nadal needed a hard-fought four-set win over German 27th seed Philipp Kohlschreiber to reach the last 16 at the Australian Open on Friday.
The Spanish second seed was kept on the Rod Laver Arena centre court for three-and-a-half hours before completing a 6-4, 6-2, 2-6, 7-5 victory.
Nadal will have just a day to recover from the long physical match before taking on his fourth round opponent, unseeded Croatian Ivo Karlovic. Karlovic won the all-Croat encounter with 24th-seed Ivan Ljubicic, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (9/7).
Nadal stretched his record over Kohlschreiber to 5-0, but it was his toughest encounter with the determined German, who slugged it out all the way with the world number two.
In the end only eight points separated them over the 38 games. Nadal broke Kohlschreiber's serve five times from 12 break point opportunities, while the German cracked the Spaniard's serve three times from 15 break point chances.
The Spaniard was made to fight for every set and he capitalised on a service break in the fifth game to take the opening set.
He stretched his lead by taking the second set after service breaks in the first and seventh games, but Kohlschreiber proved resilient and hit back, taking the third set with two service breaks.
Nadal gained an edge with a break in the seventh game of the fourth set, but Kohlschreiber broke back straight away when the Spaniard was serving for the match. Kohlschreiber was broken a second time in the set when he sent a forehand wide and this time Nadal successfully served out for the match.
Nadal, who conquered Roger Federer over five sets in last year's final, is bidding for his seventh Grand Slam title. The win Friday improved his Australian Open record to 24-4.

  Hull launches legal action against ex-chairman
AFP, London

Premier League side Hull City has launched legal proceedings against former chairman Paul Duffen, the club said Thursday.
"Hull City Football Club has now issued legal proceedings against Paul Duffen in the High Court," said the statement.
"This action has been taken to protect the commercial best interests of the football club against the actions undertaken by Paul Duffen while in office at Hull City."
Adam Pearson, whom Duffen had replaced in June 2007, took over again as Hull chairman after Duffen quit in October. Duffen stood down after pressure mounted on him and manager Phil Brown following the club's poor start to their second season in the top flight.
The club's accounts were then found to be in the red with accountants Deloitte predicting they would have to raise 23 million pounds (38 million dollars) to balance their books should they be relegated, and 16 million if they survive.