suNday, JANUARY 24, 2010 magh 11, 1416, SAFAR 7, 1431 Hijri

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Leading News

Akheri munajat at Biswa Ijtema today
25000 foreign devotees among 4 million gathered at Tongi

BSS, Dhaka

The 'akheri munajat' (concluding prayer) of the Biswa Ijtema on the banks of the river Turag at Tongi will be offered today (Sunday), ending the three-day annual Muslim congregation.
Tens of thousands of the Muslims from home and abroad are participating in the second largest congregation of the Muslims after Hajj. Some 4 million people have already thronged the ijtema ground, organisers said.
More people from all walks of life will join the 'akheri munajat' before the Zohr prayers today (Sunday). Devotees were pouring into the ijtema ground and its adjoining areas late in the evening.
President Zillur Rahman, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Opposition Leader Begum Khaleda Zia, ministers, MPs, political leaders and senior officials are expected to join the concluding prayers along with millions of devotees. Loudspeakers have been set up at all directions beyond the ijtema ground to enable the devotees to listen to the munajat.
The Biswa Ijtema formally began with 'ambayan' (general sermon) after Fazr prayers at dawn Friday. Saturday, the second day of the Ijtema, passed off through discussions on various issues, including teachings of Islam and supremacy of Allah.
The eminent alims, in their sermons, stressed on following the guidance of the holy Quran and Sunnah. The sermons were translated into different languages of the world. Dowry-free marriages of 128 couples were solemnized in the ijtema.
Six persons died of various health complications in two days in the ijtema.
About 25,000 devotees from some 90 foreign countries have already joined the congregation, organisers said. The countries include India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Canada, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Thailand, Singapore, Morocco, Japan, the Philippines, Egypt, Syria, Bhutan, Indonesia, Malaysia, thew USA, the UK, Australia, Nigeria, South Africa, Turkey, Italy, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark and Spain.
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.
Besides tin sheds for foreign participants, temporary gunny roofing have been put up for the local participants.
Tight security measures have been taken to ensure peaceful conclusion of the Ijtema. About 20,000 security personnel, including members of the police and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), have been deployed to ensure security.
Security personnel are monitoring over the Close Circuit TVs (CCTVs) and keeping watch from specially erected towers, to ensure security to the congregation.
Measures have been taken to ensure supply of electricity and water in and around the ijtema venue and ensure sanitation and health services for the devotees.
Permanent facilities like toilets and wash rooms have been put up while for water supply pipeline, installed previously, are already there.
Doctors are working round the clock at free medical camps, set up for providing medical support to the participants, if required. Twenty ambulances are also available there, said the organisers. Special measures have taken for transportation of the devotees.
Bangladesh Railway is running 28 special trains on the occasion while Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) introduced 50 special bus services.

 Dhaka, Delhi to form body to combat terrorism
Efforts for long-term Testa deal, Bangladesh-Myanmar consensus on sea boundary demarcation

UNB, Dhaka

Bangladesh and India will form a Coordination Committee with the representatives of law-enforcing agencies and intelligence wings of the two countries for coordinated action in the combat against international terrorism, organized crime and cross-border drug trade.
The Coordination Committee will be constituted under the aegis of the Home Ministries of the two countries as per terms of an agreement signed during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to New Delhi, it was officially announced here Saturday.
The Agreement on Combating International Terrorism, Organized Crime and Illicit Drug Trafficking is aimed at enhancing cooperation among the law-enforcing agencies and intelligence wings of the two countries to deal with international terrorism and drug smuggling, investigation and completion of trial in such crimes. "Under the agreement, the two countries, subject to their domestic laws and rules, will assist each other in preventing international terrorism, resisting smuggling of drugs and chemical products, including psychotropic substances," Foreign Secretary Mijarul Quayes told reporters at the Foreign Ministry.
To fend off such criminal acts, the coordination body will extend cooperation in investigation, trial and prevention.
However, any activity that may hamper country's sovereignty and security or contradict one country's existing laws and rules would not come under the purview of this agreement. Under another treaty on Transfer of Sentenced Persons, an accused convicted of criminal offences will serve punishment in their respective country.
The convicts who will have to serve a prison sentence for more than six months or the accused persons having the life sentence and is not facing any other criminal cases will come under this agreement.
But those who are sentenced under any army act or those who are given the death sentence or who are facing any other case will not come under the scope of this agreement. This agreement will come into effect only when an accused concerned will write with own hand or by a person appointed by him for his transfer to his own country.
BSS, adds: Bangladesh is making allout efforts to strike a long- term deal with neighbouring India on water sharing of the Teesta river, Foreign Secretary Mijarul Quayes said here on Saturday.
"We are talking about a long-term deal...we also want to make a such agreement with India on water sharing of the Teesta river. But a hydrological survey is needed for this which is also a long-term exercise," he told a press briefing at the foreign ministry Saturday morning.He added: "We don't want that the matter of water sharing is halted due to this time-consuming hydrological survey. So, we want to make an interim deal with India on water sharing of the Teesta river."
The foreign secretary said Bangladesh and Myanmar during Jan 8-9 maritime boundary talks reached an consensus to resolve the long deadlock over the demarcation procedure. "Myanmar for the first time recognised the 'equity method' to demarcate the sea boundary. This is a very big development in the maritime talks," said Quayes.

 Jute regains momentum as demand rises globally
BSS, Dhaka

Jute has started to regain its momentum as the demands for jute and jute goods have increased at the global market bypassing the dominance of artificial fibre.
This has created an opportunity for Bangladesh to fetch huge amount of foreign exchange through widening export baskets. For exploring this opportunity the country needs to nurture cultivation of jute for raising production side by side promote manufacturing of jute goods through expanding jute industries.
Experts said this at a press conference in the city on Saturday. Incidin Bangladesh organized the press conference to highlight its study on promotion of jute sector.
Executive Director of Incidin Bangladesh AKM Masud Ali presented a written statement at the press conference while other Executive Directors Ratan Sarker and AKM Mustak Ali also spoke.
In the paper, AKM Masud Ali said for promoting jute production, the government should extend farm loans for jute sector, side by side it should provide subsidies on inputs required for jute cultivation and play due role in purchase of jute for ensuring appropriate price for the item.
Referring to data by Bangladesh Jute Spinners Association, he said the production of jute in the country is not sufficient to meet the demand of the local jute mills, as the private jute mills at present require 30 lakh to 32 lakh bales of jute while the annual production of the item is 55 lakh to 60 lakh tons (one bale equals 180 kg).
The cultivation of 'deshi' and 'tossa' varieties of raw jute in the northern districts including Lalmonorhat, Rangpur, and Dinajpur could not fulfill the target during the current season despite there was huge demand for the item at the global market at this moment, he added.
Against target of bringing 6407 hectares of land under harvesting, deshi jute was cultivated only in an area of 4865 hactres of land in these three districts, while 'tossa' jute was cultivated in an area of 11762 hactres of land against target of 12300 hactres, he said.
The price of jute has increased by maximum 185 percent during last two years, as in Rangpur jute is sold for Taka 923 per mound against Taka 323 per mound in 2007. The price for the item has increased to Taka 1400 per mond in 2009 from Taka 700 per mond in 2007 in Pirojpur, Masud Ali said.
The price of raw jute has increased as the demand for the item went higher both at local and global market, he said.

  Delwar threatens to go for legal action against HT Imam for his remarks

UNB, Dhaka

BNP secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain Saturday threatened to go for legal action against PM's Adviser HT Imam if he does not withdraw his remarks that those opposing the outcome of the PM's visit to India are "thieves and corrupt".
The BNP secretary general came up with the warning as reporters at late President Ziaur Rahman's majar wanted to know his reaction over HT Imam's statement at a function on Friday.
HT Imam, a former bureaucrat-turned politician, reportedly said those who had stolen food from parliament are now opposing the agreements signed between Dhaka and New Delhi during Sheikh Hasina's bilateral visit to India on January 10 last.
In his reaction to HT Imam's remarks, Delwar said he (HT Imam) himself is a corrupt man as he had been punished for malpractice during his career in government job. "So, uttering such word by a man like him (HT Imam) is quite natural," he added.
Delwar said HT Imam had conducted the oath-taking ceremony to the Khandaker Moshtaque Ahmed-led government formed after the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on August 15, 1975.
Earlier, at Zia's mazar, the BNP secretary general along with leaders of the newly elected committee of Agriculturists Association of Bangladesh (AAB) placed wreaths and offered fateha at the mazar of Zia. BNP leaders MK Anwar MP, Zainul Abdin Farooque MP, Shamim-ur-Rahman Shamim, AAB convenor Anwarunnabi Majumder Babla and its member secretary Hasan Zafir Tuhin were present at the mazar.

   Stern action against negligence in textbook distribution: Nahid

BSS, Dhaka

Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid Saturday said stern actions would be taken against those found negligent in distribution of free textbooks among the students.
The government successfully distributed free textbooks across the country, he said. He, however, said some negligence was found in Dhaka and some other places.
Nahid was addressing a reception accorded to the successful students of Siddheshwari Girls' College in the city.
Golam Dastagir Gazi, MP, Director General of the Department of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Prof M Numan Ur Rashid and Principal Kaniz Mahmuda Akter also spoke on the occasion with President of the governing body of Siddheshwari Girls' College AHM Abul Kashem in the chair, an official release said.
Referring to ongoing children survey, Nahid said the country would be freed from illiteracy by 2014. He sought cooperation of all, including non-government organizations, in this regard.
The government has taken initiatives to ensure cent percent enrollment of children in the primary school level by 2011, he added.
Referring to success in removing gender discrimination at primary and secondary level, he said adding the same should also be achieved in college and university levels.
Nahid sought cooperation from all in implementing a time- befitting education policy and other reform measures in the education system.
He said quality education for all must be ensured to build a prosperous nation.

    Fertilizer situation satisfactory: Dilip Barua
BSS, Chittagong

Describing current fertilizer situation in the country as satisfactory with buffer stock and surplus after next Boro season, Industries Minister Dilip Barua here on Saturday warned of taking tougher action against those to be found involved in attempting to pilfer, smuggle and create artificial crisis of fertilizer.
While speaking at a meeting of district seeds and fertilizer monitoring committee at local circuit house Saturday morning, the Minister said necessary steps would be taken after consultation with the Home Ministry to deal with the culprit syndicate involved in ten truckloads of arms and ammunition smuggling who were now active to create anarchy and monopoly by controlling illegally the process of delivery and transportation of fertilizer in and outside the Ctg Urea Fertilizer Ltd (CUFL) factory areas.
Bangladesh Fertilizer Association (BFA) leaders alleged in the meeting that some culprit accused in the country's ever biggest arms and ammunition haul of April 1 in 2004 were still active in CUFL areas and constantly were trying to crate a chaotic situation centering fertilizer carriage in a bid to make extra money and keep the business under their grip.
" If the criminals den active at CUFL is not dismantled, the government's all good efforts for smooth supply and timely delivery of fertilizer from the country's biggest urea factory may go in vain," Anowara Upazila Chairman Anowarul Islam Chowdhury Shawkat told the meeting. Upazila chairmen, officials from district administration, district police, CUFL, Agriculture Extension Department, UNO's and other member of the committee were present at the meeting.
Speaking at the meeting, the Industries Minister said, we have ahead much in achieving food autarky in the meantime with bumper production in agriculture sector in just ended Aman season as the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina started giving top priority to agriculture sector with increased allocation from the very first day of it assumption of power.

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Pakistan rules out fissile talks for now
Reuters, Geneva

Pakistan has quietly informed world powers that it cannot accept the start of global negotiations to halt production of nuclear bomb-making fissile material in the near future, diplomats told Reuters on Friday.
The move represents a potential setback for efforts by both the Obama administration and United Nations to forge ahead with what is widely seen as the next step in multilateral nuclear disarmament.
Zamir Akram, Pakistan's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, disclosed Islamabad's position during a diplomatic lunch hosted by Chinese ambassador Wang Qun earlier this week, they said.
"We are not in a position to accept the beginning of negotiations on a cut-off treaty in the foreseeable future," Akram was quoted as saying.
The UN-sponsored Conference on Disarmament (CD) is trying to launch negotiations to halt production of fissile material (highly-enriched uranium and plutonium) and clinch what is known in the jargon as a fissile material "cut-off" treaty or FMCT.
"The question was posed to him quite directly, said another envoy at the lunch, attended by more than a dozen senior diplomats from the 65-member Geneva forum, whose members include Israel, North Korea and Iran.
"There continues to be no indication they are ready to move forward with the negotiation," the diplomat told Reuters.
"They feel that the strategic imbalance can only be addressed by further (fissile) production. They've made that pretty clear."
Akram told Reuters on Friday: "We have a position. I will articulate that position when the right time arrives."
"What I said was qualified by certain conditions," Akram added. "There are basic conditions about the nature of the discussions, whether it will be simply a cut-off treaty or take account of the issue of stocks."
CRITICAL ISSUES
Stockpiles of fissile material already held by the five official nuclear powers (Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States) and others will be "germaine to the nature of the treaty that emerges", according to Pakistan's envoy.
"Will it be a simple ban, will it be a simple non-proliferation measure, or can it be a reduction of stockpiles which would mean a disarmament issue?" Akram said.
"Our view is that all critical issues should be on the table first and we should have an understanding of what we will talk about," he said. "If it is not in our national security interest then of course we can't be part of this process."
Pakistan only tested a nuclear weapon in 1998, and believes that efforts to ban the further production of fissile material would put it at a disadvantage to longer established nuclear powers, including its nuclear-armed neighbour India, with which it has fought three wars since their independence in 1947

   Pak-Afghan border
Measures to improve effectiveness of operation reviewed

APP, Islamabad

The Tripartite Commission composed of senior military representatives from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Coalition Forces in Afghanistan, held its 30th meeting in Rawalpindi on Saturday. Delegations were headed by General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Chief of Army Staff of Pakistan Army, General Stanley A. McChrystal, Commander International Security Assistance Forces, Afghanistan and Lieutenant General Sher Muhammad Karimi, Director Operations of Afghan National Army.
The meeting reviewed the security situation in areas along the Pakistan-Afghan Border and discussed measures to improve the effectiveness of ongoing operations in the respective areas.
The participants showed satisfaction in the existing level of cooperation.

   PM's call to produce at least one quality film every year
BSS, Dhaka

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Saturday called upon the filmmakers to produce at least one quality film every year for the children so they could dream of being good humans by watching a good film.
"Film as a powerful medium could play an important role in flourishing talent and thoughts of the children and enable them to know the history, culture, freedom struggle, behaviour and human values," she said.
The Prime Minister was inaugurating the 3rd International Children's Film Festival, Bangladesh at Osmani Memorial Auditorium here Saturday evening. Children's Film Society organized the weeklong festival with a slogan "Future in Frames".
Information Minister Abul Kalam Azad, Information Secretary Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury, UNICEF Representative Carel de Rooy, President of Children's Film Festival Prof Md Jafar Iqbal, Director of the festival Morshedul Islam, Chief Executive Officer of Warid Telecom Munir Faruque also spoke with Chairman of the Festival Advisory Committee Prof Mostafa Monwar in the chair.
The Prime Minister said her government will provide allout support for producing quality films for the children. Besides, she announced that her government will provide grant for producing at least one film annually for the country's millions of children.
The Prime Minister said films can play an important role to build up young generation as the worthy citizens of a country as an ideal character of a good film could leave a positive impact on the mind and thought of the children for long time.
She said while making films for the children all concerned have to produce films to encourage the children to dedicate themselves to the welfare of the people and build themselves as worthy citizens with their own cultural identities and education.

   Meeting in Dhaka Jan 24-28
CIRDAP looks for changes in rural development policy

UNB, Dhaka

The second ministerial meeting of the Centre on Integrated Development for Asia and the Pacific (CIRDAP) will be held here on January 24-28, aiming to have changes in rural development policy in the context of climate change.
The meeting is likely to adopt new policy perspectives, approaches, dimension and strategies of rural development and poverty alleviation.
CIRDAP director general Dr Durga P Paudyal at a press briefing here Saturday said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will formally inaugurate the ministerial meeting on January 27.
"The rural development policy should be changed in the new context of climate change and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in this region," Dr Durga told reporters at the press conference held at CIRDAP head office.
The ministerial meeting will be hosted by Bangladesh in cooperation with the Japan government. The theme of the meeting is 'Working Together for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods'.
Durga said CIRDAP needs to be repositioned itself in the new policy and strategies for rural development to remain relevant to its member countries.
He also said the meeting will also review the policies and programmes of rural development issues in CIRDAP member countries and adopt a Dhaka declaration on rural development.
The meeting will be preceded by the CIRDAP executive committee and governing council meetings and a regional policy dialogue on 'Sustainable Rural Livelihoods' during 24-26 January.
A total of 12 ministers out of 14 CIRDAP member countries and about 45 donor agency representatives will attend the meeting.
In 1987, the first Bangladesh-CIRDAP Ministers' meeting on rural development in Asia-Pacific adopted a Dhaka declaration, which focused on economic growth with equity through people's participation as the basic element for alleviation of rural poverty.

    Execution of Bangabandhu murder case verdict matter of time: Qamrul

BSS, Dhaka

State Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Advocate Qamrul Islam on Saturday said execution of the verdict of Bangabandhu assassination case is now a matter of time.
It is not important how speedily the verdict is being executed, the important thing is whether the verdict is being executed properly or not, he said.
The state minister was addressing as the chief guest at a discussion meeting in the city on 'Completion of One Year of Grand Alliance Government: Time to Try War Criminals'.
Presided over by Bangladesh Awami Hawkers League President SM Zakaria Hanif, the function was also addressed, among others, by Awami League Presidium Member and chairman of BSS Board of Directors Advocate Yusuf Hossain Humayun, Prime Minister's Special Assistant and AL Joint General Secretary Mahbub Ul-Alam Hanif, Awami Shecchasebak League Acting President Advocate Molla Mohammad Abu Kauser, Dhaka City AL Publicity Secretary Abdul Haq Sabuj, Awami Hawkers Leader Senior Vice-President Hazi Rezaul Karim Selim and Joint Secretary M Kamal Hossain.
The state minister said the trial of the war criminals would begin after execution of the verdict of the case for killing of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
The verdict would be executed maintaining all legal procedures so that no question can rise over this, he said and added that it would be executed maintaining internationally acceptable standard.
Qamrul Islam urged the opposition parties to return to parliament and help establish politics of unity to build a hunger-and poverty-free Bangladesh.

    Commerce minister holds greedy traders responsible for price spiral

UNB, Chittagong

Commerce Minister Farooq Khan has acclaimed the role of business community for the economic health but at the same breath he held responsible the greedy, dishonest section of traders for spiraling prices.
"Barely two percent of the traders are greedy, profiteering and dishonest who are tarnishing the image of the entire business community. They evade taxes and raise price of essentials through syndicate," he said.
Khan was speaking as chief guest at the installation ceremony of the newly formed Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry held at the tennis ground of Chittagong Club Saturday.
The new chamber of the business community with 41 leading businessmen was formed in line with the century old Chittagong Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce & Industry, which has been reduced insignificant for inactivity over the years.
The function was also addressed by Industries Minister Dilp Barua, State minister for Environment Dr Hasan Mahmud, Mayor of Chittagong ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, FBCCI president Anisul Haq and leading businessmen. CMCCI president Abdus Salam presided.
The Commerce Minister said the government is determined to take legal action against the syndicated traders responsible for undue rise of price of essentials.
He underlined the importance of the business community for the development of a nation. He said government was continuing its endeavours for creating a business friendly atmosphere. Steps have been taken to remove the gas and electricity crisis.

    Mass Upsurge Day today
UNB, Dhaka

The historic Mass Upsurge Day will be observed today (Sunday) to commemorate the valiant sons of the soil who sacrificed their lives in the 1969 student-people uprising that culminated in the independence of Bangladesh in 1971.
This day in 1969, students and people waged a vigorous movement against the then Pakistani autocratic regime of Ayub Khan.
The movement turned into a mass upsurge following the martyrdom of Motiur Rahman, a student of class IX of Nabakumar Institute in the capital.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina gave a message highlighting the significance of the day. She urged all to work unitedly irrespective of party and opinion to build up a hunger-and poverty-free modern democratic Bangladesh.
Terming the 1969 Mass Upsurge a significant milestone in the history of Bangladesh's struggle for independence, she said the country achieved its long-cherished independence going through with the language movement of 1952, six-point and 11-point movements in 1966, the 1969 Mass Upsurge and the Liberation War in 1971.
Hasina observed the greatest Bangalee of all time, Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, declared the historic six-point demand in 1966 "to free the nation from exploitation and deprivation and also the colonial rule of Pakistan".

6 killed, 6 injured in road accidents
TBT News Desk

At least six people wee killed and six others were injured in two road accidents in three districts on Friday and Saturday, according to a news agency.
In Chittagong, two persons were killed and another four injured in a road mishap at Chandraghona on Chittagong-Kaptai road under Ranginia upazila in the district Saturday.
The accident took place when a Kaptai-bound passenger bus collided head-on with a pick-up van from opposite direction at about 5.15 am in the area. As a result, two killed on the spot and injures four persons.
The victims who died on the spot were identified as Mirza Mahmud Beg , 40, son of Kamal Hossain of Saraipara under Pahartali thana in the city and Mohammad Ridwan, 30, son of Idrish Meah of Swandip upazila in the district, police and hospital sources said.
In Bandarban, at least two persons were killed and two others injured in a road accident at Dibipahar on Ruma- Munampara road under Ruma upazila of the hill district Saturday.
The dead were identified as Lianthang Bowm (70) and Lalthanmoi Bowm (65).
In Netrakona, two motor-cycle riders were killed while they were ran over by a speeding passenger bus at Tula- Paboi area on Shwamganj- Birishiri road Friday.
Police Saturday identified the victims as Sabuj Mia (38) and Aftabuddin (40) of village Jaria under Purbadhala upazila of the district.

EU opposes death penalty in Bangabandhu killing case, BDR mutiny, war crimes

UNB, Dhaka

In a major development on the diplomatic front, the European Union stood opposed to the death penalty in what they called politically-motivated cases like murders of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family members and others, murders committed during the BDR mutiny last year and also war crimes committed during the country's 1971 war of independence.
European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton issued a statement Saturday on the EU stand on the burning issues, saying that due legal process is a key safeguard of fundamental rights. And the EU welcomed the respect being shown in Bangladesh for the principle that judicial proceedings be free from political interference.
The pan-European grouping strongly supports the Government's zero tolerance with regard to "extrajudicial" killings.
Catherine Ashton said respect for due process in high-profile trials is particularly significant for a country's international reputation.
"The EU is paying close attention to judicial proceedings concerning politically motivated murders committed in Bangladesh during, and shortly after, the struggle for independence, as well as those committed more recently," says the statement.

Editorial

Where was RAJUK then?

The Chairman of Rajdhani Unnayan Kartipakhaya (RAJUK) Engineer Md Nurul Huda on Friday made a startling revelation on violation of rules in construction of buildings in the city. While exchanging views with the journalists at RAJUK conference room he 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 indicating that the unauthorised portions of the buildings would be demolished.
The RAJUK Chairman further said that 50,000 apartments would be constructed in the city for resolving housing problems of the low and middle- income people. He said a grand plan has been undertaken for giving Dhaka a new shape and for making 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 Chairman also disclosed that 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.
The RAJUK Chairman also spoke of transparency and dynamism and determination of turning it into a service-oriented organisation. It will be very good if this can be done, but what is about the present state of RAJUK often referred to as a white elephant. There are allegations of rampant corruption, plundering and anomalies in the RAJUK and most of these are going unnoticed or without any remedy or action. The Chairman felt no shame or showed no hesitation in disclosing the fact that 5000 buildings were constructed in the city violating RAJUK approved designs and that legal actions would be taken in this regard. But one may rightly ask as to where was the RAJUK when the construction of these buildings were made violating rules? What did the RAJUK supervisors do at that time and what actions have been taken against their inaction, neglect of duty or corruption? Would it not be easier to stop the unauthorized construction in violation of RAJUK designs that to demolish the parts of the constructed buildings?
Media reports quoted experts as saying that Dhaka is highly vulnerable to earthquake as the phenomenal urbanization, density of population and high-rise structures are growing fast here. 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 Madhupur Fault jolts the city. Against this backdrop, a question may be raised as to what arrangements have the RAJUK made to force the people to construct only earthquake- resistant buildings in the city?
The RAJUK deserves appreciation for its plan to construct 50,000 apartments in the city for resolving housing problems of the low and middle- income people. At the same time it should be slammed for its failure to check the cheating and irregularities in the housing business. The Chairman has said that there are five private RAJUK approved housing areas in the city and that except these, there is no RAJUK approved private residential areas in the city. If so, how do a large number of other housing companies allure people to purchase plots and flats in ‘housing areas’ other than those mentioned above? The RAJUK authorities owe to the people answers to all these questions. As things stand now, RAJUK has to do a lot more to become a service-oriented organisation and to ensure transparency and dynamism.

  IMF and WB money

Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr. Atiur Rahman on Friday asked all commercial banks to join hands with micro credit 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
The Governor has given a good opinion. We should avoid depending on foreign donors for money if we can mange it ourselves. Bangladesh has to look for foreign aid or loan as it is facing financial crisis. But in exchange for the scanty foreign aid we have to fulfill various terms and conditions of the donors many of which are disgraceful and contrary to the interest of the nation.
The entire process of foreign assistance is conditional. According to the experts, after the independence about 68 percent of the total foreign assistance has been spent for foreign machineries, apparatus and other goods, 4 percent for foreign experts and 2 percent for other related sectors. In fact, the lion's share of the aid and loan go back to donor countries in different ways while the people of the country are left with a huge debt burden. Against this backdrop, time has come for us to enhance mobilisation of domestic resources and reduce dependence on foreign aid.

Analysis

‘The Ugly American’

The pressure on Pakistan to take the fight to North Waziristan to neutralise the Jalaluddin Haqqani network is mounting since the nexus between the Pakistani and Afghan Taliban is becoming increasingly obvious.

Arif Nizami

Despite the Pakistani army's crushing offensives against the Taliban in Swat, Malakand and, more recently, in South Waziristan, serious policy differences persist between Washington and Islamabad. The pressure on Pakistan to take the fight to North Waziristan to neutralise the Jalaluddin Haqqani network is mounting since the nexus between the Pakistani and Afghan Taliban is becoming increasingly obvious.
One manifestation of that was the visit of US special envoy Richard Holbrooke to the region in the wake of the successful suicide attack on a CIA base in Afghanistan on Dec 30, conducted with the joint support of the Pakistani and Afghan Taliban.
Apart from doing the usual meetings with the president, the prime minister and the army chief, Mr Holbrooke met a select group of parliamentarians belonging to different political parties. During the meeting with the parliamentarians the special envoy sounded more like the fictional "Ugly American" who in real life represents a stereotypical perception of loud, arrogant, demeaning and overbearing attitude of most members of the US administration when they interact with their Third World clients.
Although President Zardari in his meeting with Mr Holbrooke termed the surge in US drone attacks and the new US screening regime for Pakistani citizens as "cause for concern," the US envoy was least impressed. In his meeting with the parliamentarians he termed the issue of profiling of Pakistani citizens at US airports as a routine matter. With scant regard for the humiliation caused by profiling on the basis of religion, he reportedly remarked: "What are a few extra minutes for the sake of safety of our citizens?" He brushed aside the issue of drone attacks and their immense collateral loss of innocent lives in a similar perfunctory manner.
When one of the parliamentarians pointed out that US-Pakistan economic ties could greatly benefit if Washington removed restrictions on textile imports from Pakistan, Mr Holbrooke evasively responded that it could take years as it involved the interests of textile businesses in South Carolina. Obviously, winning votes for the Democrats is as important, if not more, than winning the hearts and minds of the people of Pakistan.
Notwithstanding the serious divergence of views, Mr Holbrooke thought that Pakistan-US relations have vastly improved in the past one year. In the same breath, however, he lamented the visa problems being faced by the US diplomatic and aid missions in Pakistan. He claimed that owing to inordinate delays in granting of visas to American personnel the disbursement of $1.5 billion aid earmarked under the Kerry Lugar Bill is yet to take place. He added: "If you do not want this money it is up to you."
Mr Holbrooke, on the eve of his visit to New Delhi, also made it plain that although Washington welcomed better ties between India and Pakistan, it had no plans to mediate between them. On the other hand, US defence secretary Robert Gates, while visiting India, praised New Delhi's "restraint" after the Mumbai attacks. It is obvious that in sharp contrast to their attitude towards Pakistanis, most visiting US dignitaries are extremely cautious not to ruffle any feathers while engaging the Indian leadership.
Our parliamentarians, including luminaries like Asfandyar Wali, Ishaq Dar, Salim Saifullah, Farooq Sattar and Tehmina Daultana, did not care to counter him, or simply walk out, when they were being given a dressing down by a relatively junior-level US diplomat. Military strongmen lacking legitimacy can be forgiven for tolerating the "suck up and kick down" approach of overbearing Western diplomats. An elected leadership is expected to behave differently. But in actual practice all norms of protocol are thrown to the winds when US diplomats are received.
The red carpet is generally rolled out for Mr Holbrooke whenever and wherever he visits Pakistan. A consummate partygoer, he claims personal friendship with Mr Zardari since his days in exile in New York. The president is so fond of Mr Holbrooke that reportedly he once chided his prime minister and foreign minister for not having adequate diplomatic skills in dealing with the special envoy.
Islamabad has rightly rejected the idea of a regional contact group which goes beyond the immediate neighbours of Afghanistan. However, at the London conference on Afghanistan scheduled at the end of the month, in which India is also participating, US efforts to include New Delhi in a regional group could gain impetus. It is strange that on the one hand India rejects any third-party mediation over its disputes with Pakistan, but on the other it is keen to fish in troubled waters in Afghanistan and seeks a regional role for itself.
With President Zardari, increasingly embroiled in legal battles in the light of the detailed Supreme Court verdict on the NRO, Islamabad is bound to face increasing pressure form Washington to do its bidding. Senator John McCain, after his recent visit to Islamabad, has already spelled it out by giving the verdict that President Zardari has been weakened as a consequence of the apex court's verdict while Prime Minister Gilani is satisfactorily pro-US, in his opinion.
Some US diplomats based in Islamabad have been openly briefing media persons and opinion leaders since the Supreme Court verdict on the NRO that Mr Zardari has been weakened to the extent that in his dealings with the army he is longer of any use for Washington. They also do not see him lasting beyond March.
Like numerous times in the past, such pundits' soothsaying might be pure humbug. But it is obvious that the US is already looking beyond the Presidency as the fulcrum of power to implement its agenda in the region. Optimistic projections of some military analysts that there is no longer a trust deficit between the COAS and senior US military and visiting officials and that Washington fully understands Pakistan military's concerns are noteworthy in this context.
Nevertheless, it is unlikely the US is giving up its mantra any time soon of asking Pakistan to do more in pursuit of its strategic goals in the region. Given the recent belligerent rhetoric of the Indian army chief, the Pakistani military has no cogent reason to change its strategic paradigm. Weak political institutions and a failing economy dependant upon US largesse and IMF bailouts is a recipe for disaster. Squabbling politicians who refuse to rise above their narrow interests have made matters worse. In this scenario the hapless Pakistani people can see impending disaster looming on the horizon.
President Obama after his first year in office increasingly sounds like his predecessor George W Bush, whose post-9/11 policies had made the world a far less safer place to live. As the Spanish newspaper ABC recently commented in an editorial: "After all, this is the president who ramped up the bombing of Pakistani villages and ordered another 30,000 troops to Afghanistan." In the wake of increased profiling of Muslims Obama's much-touted dialogue with Islam has come to naught. Nearer home, thanks to a manifold increase in suicide attacks, a sense of insecurity pervades amongst the Pakistanis compared to a year ago.


The writer is a former newspaper editor. Email: arifn51@hotmail.com

  Bridging Indo-Pak Divide

Trends of globalisation, pressing issues of real-politik and an unending desire among people on both sides of the great divide to look beyond the prism of Partition and chauvinism have made the difference felt.

Ishtiaq Ali Mehkri

I desperately want to see peace bloom in South Asia. My country, Pakistan, and the land of my ancestors, India, are both dear and near to me. I have no qualms in expressing my love and gratitude to both of them, as I find a continuing interconnectedness of human relations, history, faith and love.
I take with a pinch of salt the wisdom that the establishment on both sides has exercised while hampering real and meaningful cooperation. I beg to differ with the state-centric and bureaucratic barriers at work. Such sentiments were either dubbed as unwarranted or portrayed as loud thinking and very often stigmatised as being anti-national and unpatriotic.
However, trends of globalisation, pressing issues of real-politik and an unending desire among people on both sides of the great divide to look beyond the prism of Partition and chauvinism have made the difference felt.
This is why the call for institutionalising peace between both the countries and doing away with the officialdom is being advocated across the board. Talk of borderless frontiers', visa free travel and amalgamation of peoples and institutions are now no more taboo.
An initiative is under way these days on behalf of two media giants - The Times of India and the Jang Group of Publications. Called 'Aman ki Asha', it is a commendable effort to get across the message and desire for peace.
Jang, whose sister concern comprises Pakistan's most popular television network, Geo, enjoys a decisive edge in putting across this message. Moreover, the impact that the world's largest circulated Urdu newspaper, and one that has always been close to the establishment, will have on the emergence of a consensus cannot be denied.
The reasons: one, the newspaper has been a decisive opinion maker for the last many decades, as by simply going through its banner headline, people across the political divide make sense of what the establishment is up to.
Second, the newspaper and its television, of late, have grown as a symbol of hope for the infant civil society of Pakistan, by virtue of successfully supporting the pro-judiciary movement against a well-entrenched dictator.
Canvassing for across-the-board peace with India, and that too in the absence of a solution to the festering Kashmir dispute is leadership. A spokesperson for the Foreign Office in Islamabad has hailed the media move by terming it a welcome omen. One can simply assume that the Times of India group would have also carefully mulled over the impact before launching the campaign, and one hopes it makes a difference when it comes to convincing the movers and shakers in New Delhi's South Block.
So much for the ingeniousness of the campaign. Apparently, this is the first move of its kind for seeking an institutionalised peace regime, but one needs to acknowledge that there hasn't been any dearth of personal initiatives for attaining such an objective. Seminars, conferences, walks, Op-Ed writings, mushairas (poetry reading sessions), workshops, and what not! Civil society had struggled endlessly to make the ?difference felt.
Unfortunately, the establishment, owing to politics of exigency, had resisted all such moves, and often dubbed them anti-state moves, ones not in conformity with so-called national interests. One wonders this time around how the establishments would react and would they really give in to the passion for peace and congeniality. Having made a mockery of composite dialogue, and derailing many of the off-the-cuff initiatives that leaders from Pakistan and India had taken to bring down bureaucratic stubbornness, one can only keep fingers crossed.
Away from the media hype, there are real issues that need to be addressed. One of the damning consequences of partition has been a generation whose psyche has been doctored to see the other side as enemy, and empowers a state-centric bureaucracy to resist change, come what may. Until this vogue changes, nothing will change ?for good.
Second, the Westphalian boundaries of 1947 have severely hampered social mobility - not only curtailing the flow of man and material, but also socio-political synergies that could have helped build a culture of tolerance, co-existence and compassion. A tiny group of people who promoted hatred and wanted all and sundry to live with the unpardonable side of the story, and that too to further their vested interests cannot get along in the new milieu.
Third, while the post-partition generation was stuck in inertia of its own, hapless at the hands of governments that were spineless and subservient, the younger lot regrettably seems to lack a commitment for change. Which is why efforts of rapprochement and reconciliation end up half-hearted, thereby sustaining the perpetual divide well into the next age.
Bridging the divide is no mean task and it cannot be a success without winning over the hearts and minds of all those who have to share a future by burying the hatchet. We have had enough of cosmetic measures; let there be some real and decisive progress this time. All that is needed at the moment is a popular movement, which can transform the slogan of change into a cross-border political culture.
Let this media campaign (hope for peace) not stop at fancy advertisements and creative writing - it should overwhelm the borders, making them meaningless on ground and in official memos. Two independent and interactive states is what our forefathers envisioned, not two reactionary and repulsive entities.


Ishtiaq Ali Mehkri is Khaleej Times' Assistant Editor (Opinion). Views expressed here are his own. Write to him at mehkri@khaleejtimes.com

Viewpoints

Will China rule the world?

The good news is that a Chinese global order will display greater respect for national sovereignty and more tolerance for national diversity. 

Dani Rodrik

Thirty years ago, China had a tiny footprint on the global economy and little influence outside its borders, save for a few countries with which it had close political and military relationships. Today, the country is a remarkable economic power: the world's manufacturing workshop, its foremost financier, a leading investor across the globe from Africa to Latin America, and, increasingly, a major source of research and development.
The Chinese government sits atop an astonishing level of foreign reserves - greater than $2 trillion. There is not a single business anywhere in the world that has not felt China's impact, either as a low-cost supplier, or more threateningly, as a formidable competitor.
China is still a poor country. Although average incomes have risen very rapidly in recent decades, they still stand at between one-seventh and one-eighth the levels in the United States - lower than in Turkey or Colombia and not much higher than in El Salvador or Egypt. While coastal China and its major metropolises evince tremendous wealth, large swaths of Western China remain mired in poverty. Nevertheless, China's economy is projected to surpass that of the US in size sometime in the next two decades.
Meanwhile, the US, the world's sole economic hyper-power until recently, remains a diminished giant. It stands humbled by its foreign-policy blunders and a massive financial crisis. Its credibility after the disastrous invasion of Iraq is at an all-time low, notwithstanding the global sympathy for President Barack Obama, and its economic model is in tatters. The once-almighty dollar totters at the mercy of China and the oil-rich states. All of which raises the question of whether China will eventually replace the US as the world's hegemon, the global economy's rule setter and enforcer. In a fascinating new book, revealingly titled "When China Rules the World", the British scholar and journalist Martin Jacques is unequivocal: if you think China will be integrated smoothly into a liberal, capitalist, and democratic world system, Jacques argues, you are in for a big surprise. Not only is China the next economic superpower, but the world order that it will construct will look very different from what we have had under American leadership.
Americans and Europeans blithely assume that China will become more like them as its economy develops and its population gets richer. This is a mirage, Jacques says. The Chinese and their government are wedded to a different conception of society and polity: community-based rather than individualist, state-centric rather than liberal, authoritarian rather than democratic. China has 2,000 years of history as a distinct civilisation from which to draw strength. It will not simply fold under Western values and institutions.
A world order centred on China will reflect Chinese values rather than Western ones, Jacques argues. Beijing will overshadow New York, the renminbi will replace the dollar, Mandarin will take over from English, and schoolchildren around the world will learn about Zheng He's voyages of discovery along the Eastern coast of Africa rather than about Vasco de Gama or Christopher Columbus.
Gone will be the evangelism of markets and democracy. China is much less likely to interfere in the internal affairs of sovereign states. But, in return, it will demand that smaller, less powerful states explicitly recognise China's primacy (just as in the tributary systems of old).
Before any of this comes to pass, however, China will have to continue its rapid economic growth and maintain its social cohesion and political unity. None of this is guaranteed. Beneath China's powerful economic dynamo lie deep tensions, inequalities, and cleavages that could well derail a smooth progression to global hegemony. Throughout its long history, centrifugal forces have often pushed the country into disarray and disintegration.
China's stability hinges critically on its government's ability to deliver steady economic gains to the vast majority of the population. China is the only country in the world where anything less than 8 per cent growth year-after-year is believed to be dangerous because it would unleash social unrest. Most of the rest of the world only dreams about growth at that rate, which speaks volumes about the underlying fragility of the Chinese system.
The authoritarian nature of the political regime is at the core of this fragility. It allows only repression when the government faces protests and opposition outside the established channels.
The trouble is that it will become increasingly difficult for China to maintain the kind of growth that it has experienced in recent years. China's growth currently relies on an undervalued currency and a huge trade surplus. This is unsustainable, and sooner or later it will precipitate a major confrontation with the US (and Europe). There are no easy ways out of this dilemma. China will likely have to settle for lower growth.
If China surmounts these hurdles and does eventually become the world's predominant economic power, globalisation will, indeed, take on Chinese characteristics. Democracy and human rights will then likely lose their lustre as global norms. That is the bad news.
The good news is that a Chinese global order will display greater respect for national sovereignty and more tolerance for national diversity. There will be greater room for experimentation with different economic models.


The writer, professor of political economy at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the first recipient of the Social Science Research Council's Albert O. Hirschman Prize. His latest book is "One Economics, Many Recipes: Globalisation, Institutions, and Economic Growth". ©Project Syndicate, 2009.www.project-syndicate.org

  Wrong lessons from Iraq

In Iraq, Saddam Hussain followed western media closely and used it to support his own PR campaign. In Afghanistan, the enemy will exploit shifts in public opinion.

Alastair Campbell

Britain is at war in Afghanistan. It does not feel like it for a population for whom the concept of war remains defined by the Second World War with its millions of deaths and bombs falling on London. But war it is.
Giving evidence to the Iraq inquiry recently, when asked what lessons I thought we should learn, I expressed my fear that because of the controversies surrounding the communication of the Iraq war, we had already learnt the wrong lessons for our handling of Afghanistan. Political and military leaders know why we are there, but too often members of the public say they do not. That is a failure of strategic communications, not military planning or execution. Despite the controversies of Iraq, I believe the job of big picture communication is more, not less important.
If politicians constantly apologise for being in politics, if all communications is seen as spin, if much of the mass media show only the bad side of a story, and if senior military officers brief against the chief of defence staff and their ministerial boss, as occurs too regularly, it does not build the platform needed for strong communications when we are at war.
This focus on strategic communications is even tougher in an era of the internet and 24-7 media, in which embedded reporters send only snapshots of the war and every casualty is reported as a news-leading event; the media are eager to cover 'setbacks' while ignoring steps forward; there is a virtual fusion of news and comment and our enemies are sophisticated at exploiting our media, so that terror becomes our fault, not their wickedness. Osama Bin Laden can send a video from a cave and it is seen as genius public relations, yet when we explain why we are worried about a threat, it is denounced as spin. So, what should we be learning instead? First, take strategic communications seriously. When I spoke at a recent Nato conference for military leaders, the generals were encouraged by US President Barack Obama's decision to send an extra 30,000 troops and felt they had what they needed militarily to fight the Taliban. But they complained about poor strategic communications. They saw this as critical, not just because of the risk of losing domestic support, but also for clarity of purpose on the ground. In military strategy, you must make the weather. It is the same in communications. The agenda has to be set by those communicating, not those covering you.
Second, in a multinational alliance, you have to internationalise communications so that key aims can be communicated across time zones and political systems.
The Blair government's thinking on this deepened with Kosovo, when Nato forces took on Slobodan Milosevic in 1999. Britain made assumptions about Nato. It is a great brand, but personnel levels and structures made for normal times were inadequate. There came a point when former US president Bill Clinton and former British prime minister Tony Blair decided that though it might be a one-sided military contest, the PR battle was being lost by democracies with liberal media systems to a dictatorship with total control of his.
Countries focused on national, not overall interests, and military/civilian co-ordination was poor. So Britain agreed that no major news line would be deployed without the agreement of a small media team, on behalf of their leaders. Two daily international conference calls were convened; no reaction to breaking news was issued without a call to agree lines and shared access to each other's knowledge. Those systems were adapted for use after the September 11 attacks and in the Iraq war, successfully in the build-up, less so in the aftermath. Military leaders in Kosovo later said it was only when these international systems of media management were in place that they could focus fully on the military mission.
It was hard to discern that approach in the run-up to the Afghan surge being announced, or after it. The surge should have been followed by co-ordinated communications across the alliance. That job is not being done with the vigour and consistency that it should and the systems of co-ordination have weakened since Iraq.
Third, there is a need for a constant focus on the strategy and security reason for the war. It is not easy when our media tend to assume moral equivalence between democracy and dictatorship or terror, and the dictatorships have the inbuilt advantage of being able to say whatever they like - whether Milosevic claiming we had napalmed schools, or Chemical Ali denying Iraq had ever used chemical weapons.
In Iraq, Saddam Hussain followed western media closely and used it to support his own PR campaign. In Afghanistan, the enemy will exploit shifts in public opinion.
Whatever the media noise, people will listen to leaders and absorb more complicated messages over time. But the arguments have to be put out there consistently.
This is a different kind of war. Winning requires keeping public support, a united international front, sticking to the mission despite the setbacks -that is what strategic communications is about. The conference on Afghanistan, called by Gordon Brown on January 28, is welcome. Communications should be high on his agenda. Soldiers win wars. Failure in the battle for hearts and minds can lose them.


Alastair Campbell was spokesman and strategist for former British prime minister Tony Blair.

  Media and crime

It is well settled that a judgment is open to public scrutiny whether in a learned law quarterly, by a bar association or in the media.

A.G. Noorani

A series of high-profile murders and suicides in India in recent years aroused public interest for two reasons. One was the persona of the suspect or the accused and, in some cases, the victim as well. The other was the media's keen persistent interest; the electronic media particularly.
Initially, defence lawyers enjoyed appearing before TV cameras to testify to their clients' innocence, throwing overboard established rules of professional ethics and norms of propriety. Before long, however, they launched an offensive and questioned the media's locus standi itself. The most prominent among them, a veteran performer on TV, propounded a doctrine which even judges and policemen would think twice before endorsing in this day and age. He asserted that if the media had acquired any evidence, it ought to provide it to the police or the courts and not publicise it.
This view is untenable on three grounds. First, it is simplistic and sweeping, without any qualifications, and this in a realm in which there are no absolutes but competing public interests involving the probity of the police investigation, the right of the accused to a fair trial and the people's right to keep a vigil over the entire process and to demand that these values are respected.
The other is a profound ignorance of the role of the media in modern times. There was a time when judges held that the freedom of the press was no more extensive than the right of a citizen to comment on public affairs. The modern view is that the media enjoys some additional rights as an institution; for instance in regard to access to sources. In 1980 the US Supreme Court upheld in the Richmond Newspapers case "the media claim of functioning as surrogates for the people". It enjoys a representative capacity on behalf of the people, its readers or watchers.
Thirdly, as distinct from the role, the status of the media is also overlooked. The fourth estate is as much a part of the democratic process governed by the rule of law, as the other three - the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. None of the four can claim absolute rights. Each exercises its power under constraints laid down in the constitution. The judiciary can bring to heel a journalist who violates the law. The journalist is as entitled to censure a judge for violating the law, the norms of propriety, for incompetence or for manifest bias.
It is well settled that a judgment is open to public scrutiny whether in a learned law quarterly, by a bar association or in the media. So, indeed, is the conduct of a proceeding in a court of law.
This right surely extends also to the conduct of police investigation. The media has no right to pronounce a person guilty of a crime, haul up his past convictions, air evidence inadmissible in a court of law or create against him prejudice in the public mind. That is trial by media which the courts have rightly ruled vitiates the trial in the court, and not only in jury trials. That also constitutes contempt of court punishable with imprisonment as well as fine.
But this is a far cry from a case in which the police are palpably inefficient, lethargic or indifferent in the investigation of a crime causing public disquiet. In such cases, the media is perfectly within its rights in probing into the matter itself and thus forcing the police to do their duty.
What of the newspaper's independent investigation? Investigative journalism has an ancient lineage though it has acquired vigour in recent decades. In 1885, W.T. Stead of the Pall Mall Gazette exposed child prostitution by going out and buying a 12-year-old girl. He was imprisoned for a time. The law was changed.
British courts banned the Sunday Times from conducting a campaign against Distillers, manufacturers of the deforming drug Thalidomide, for the niggardly compensation they gave to the victims. The courts held that this put unfair pressure on the manufacturers to settle pending cases for damages for more than they would have given. The European Court of Human Rights rejected this view. Pending litigation did not affect the responsibility of the media to impart information and comment on a public tragedy. The old test of a 'possibility' of prejudice was rejected in favour of the test of a "substantial risk of serious prejudice".
The media goes wrong when it denounces suspects. But the police are even more brazen in triumphantly parading before TV cameras a captured 'terrorist'. In 1995, the French minister of the interior, who held a press conference with police officials in which they named a man as one of the instigators of the murder of an MP, was ordered by the European Court of Human Rights to pay him two million French francs for violating a human right - the presumption of innocence.
The solution lies in recognising the public interest as a valid defence. Publication of the photograph of a dangerous suspect on the run is a service, not contempt. The media has rendered services in exposure of fraud, corruption in police and perversion of investigation. But one must recognise the potentiality of conflict to harm the public interest.
If the media collects evidence and a trial is imminent, it publishes the evidence only at the risk of committing contempt of court. However, once judgment is delivered the media is entitled, indeed bound, to comment if there is a miscarriage of justice.
It was a media campaign which led, belatedly to the release of four defendants in 1989, 14 years after their conviction, for causing an explosion in a pub at Guildford. Likewise, in 1995, six persons were freed, 19 years after their conviction on 21 counts of murder in Birmingham. In 1997 three men were freed after a wrongful conviction 18 years earlier for the killing of one Carl Bridgewater.
In each case the police had fabricated the evidence. Judges who tried the cases and sat on the full gamut of appeals shut their eyes. In the final belated stage they exonerated their colleagues by fastening the blame on the police alone. None gave the credit to the media whose campaign alone ensured review of the cases and the belated righting of a monstrous wrong.


The writer is an author and a lawyer.

International

Law ministry in Pakistan ordered to implement NRO verdict

Dawn Online, Lahore

Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said that his government respected the judiciary and its decisions and had decided to immediately implement the Supreme Court's verdict on the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO).
"I had a meeting with legal experts this morning on matters pertaining to the detailed judgment of the Supreme Court. I have given instructions to the ministry of law and justice for implementation of the court's directives forthwith," he told reporters on his arrival here from Islamabad. The prime minister said President Asif Ali Zardari enjoyed immunity from criminal proceedings during his tenure under Article 248 of the Constitution, which could be revoked only by parliament.
The constitutional immunity had been given to the president by parliament which alone had the power to revoke it, he said.
In reply to a question about appointment of new judges of the Supreme Court, he said the matter would be decided in accordance with the law and the Constitution.
The prime minister lashed out at critics of his government and said: "We have not come through the backdoor. We were elected by the people."
While striking down the NRO, the court ordered the government to approach the Swiss government for resumption of proceedings in money laundering cases against President Zardari. The court also ordered reopening of cases against all beneficiaries of the ordinance.
Some legal experts, including Aitzaz Ahsan, former chief of the Supreme Court Bar Association, say that the president enjoys constitutional protection against any criminal proceedings. But others argue that the president may have immunity from criminal proceedings, but not in civil cases.
APP adds: The Ministry of Law and Justice has been moved to immediately work on the directions of Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani for implementation of directions given in the Supreme Court of Pakistan verdict on National Reconciliation Ordinance. Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Dr Babar Awan has issued direction in this regard. He also directed for holding meeting of Attorney General for Pakistan, Law Secretary and other officials at the Ministry.

  Pak govt under fire over 'Blackwater activities'
Dawn Online, Islamabad

Pakistan government came under criticism in the Senate over secret activities of the controversial US firms Blackwater and Dyncorp in the country.
Speaking during question hour and later on a point of order, Zafar Ali Shah of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz said the government should explain why the presence of the two "infamous agencies" was kept secret while US Defence Secretary Robert Gates openly admitted their presence in Pakistan.
He said: "I do not wish to ask the government to take any action against Interior Minister Rehman Malik who offered to resign if the presence of Blackwater was proved."Mr Shah, who later staged a walkout for the remaining period of the proceedings, said: "It was not a simple thing which the government could ignore, for it involves several bomb explosions and abduction of several persons wanted by Americans."
The treasury chose not to respond to the legislator's outburst. Chairman Farooq Hameed Naek prorogued the house after 12 working days during which not a single bill was passed and only one adjournment motion and one privilege motion were disposed of while no single call attention notice was presented.
Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan informed the house that the next session of the upper house was expected to take place in the first week of February.

  Sri Lanka campaign enters final day
BBC Online

The final day of campaigning is taking place ahead of Sri Lanka's presidential election on Tuesday.
Although the war in the north of the island is now over, the campaign in other parts of the island has become bitter, violent and personal.
The two main candidates are both closely associated with the government's defeat of the Tamil Tigers last May.
But now President Mahinda Rajapaksa and General Sarath Fonseka have fallen out bitterly.
Groups monitoring the conduct of the campaign say there have been hundreds of violent incidents, resulting in four deaths and many more wounded.
Early on Friday, one of Gen Fonseka's campaign managers had his house firebombed.
He blamed the president, but the government said it was "gravely concerned at this wanton act of violence".
Both candidates have toured the country, including the northern Tamil city of Jaffna from which the rebels once ran their self-declared homeland.
But Saturday will see them both addressing rallies in the capital, and hoping for huge turnouts.

  Japanese ruling party's kingpin denies involvement in false fund report

Xinhua, Tokyo

Secretary-general of the governing Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) Ichiro Ozawa denied involvement in the false fund report related to a 2004 undeclared land purchase, for which 400 million yen (4.4 million dollars) was used, after a voluntary interview with prosecutors Saturday.
Ozawa has claimed that the money was from his savings, but prosecutors are investigating if it was connected to illegal donations given by construction makers in order to gain favor for large public-works projects. The money was used to purchase land in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward.
Ozawa was widely seen as the kingpin of the DPJ and the investigation has gained a large amount of media attention in Japan and has led to plummeting approval ratings for the DPJ and calls for Ozawa to resign.
Prosecutors are also now considering whether to change Ozawa's status to suspect in the investigation after a citizens' group filed a complaint against the politician, accusing him of collaborating with his secretaries in order to obtain funds illegally.
Earlier in the month, two former aides of Ozawa's and a current aide were arrested over the land purchase, for which Ozawa has said no foul play was committed. The aides are suspected of having violated the Political Funds Control Law.
One of the former aides, Tomohiro Ishikawa, is now an upper house DPJ lawmaker.
Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama reiterated Saturday in the wake of prosecutors' questioning of his party's Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa that he wants to "believe in" Ozawa's innocence, local press reported.

  Former Nepal army head denies responsibility for chaos
BBC Online

Nepal's retired army chief, who refused to admit former Maoist rebels into the army, has said he is not responsible for the instability that followed.
Gen Rookmangud Katawal told the BBC that despite major differences between the army and the Maoists, he believed the peace process was still on track.
The former Maoist Prime Minister, Prachanda, unsuccessfully attempted to remove Gen Katawal over the issue.
Prachanda later resigned leading to the collapse of the Maoist government.
Fighters' fate
"I don't think I'm responsible for all that that's happened. I don't want to come into any political controversy, as a man in uniform and even after I retire," Gen Katawal said.
The integration of Maoist fighters into Nepal's army has become the main sticking point of the peace agreement, which is looking increasingly fragile.
It was the general's insistence that the army would not admit a large group of Maoist fighters - a key understanding of the 2006 peace accord - that sparked the row that led to the fall of the Maoist government in May last year.
But Gen Katawal remained firm that the army would not accept a large number of former Maoists into its ranks.
"I don't think it would be a good idea and I don't think it would do anything good to the institution or to the country to accept them in groups.
"Probably the national army may lose its national characteristic - neutral characteristic, apolitical nature of the army," he said.
Confidence in peace
Despite having retired last year, Gen Katawal is still very much a political player in Nepal.
As the ex-army chief of staff, he maintains close ties with his former employer.
However, the general also said that it was important that the peace process in Nepal should not fail.
"If everybody gets together, and is honest, and everybody is sincere enough and they all commit to the issue of non-violence, fundamental human rights and the democratic political system, I don't think the peace process will be out of the league," he said.
More than 13,000 people died during the country's 10-year civil conflict between Maoist rebels and the state.
Gen Katawal said it was important not to return to violence.
He also spoke out on the issue of justice for human rights violations committed during the conflict. A number of soldiers have been accused of crimes such as murder and rape, but so far the army has prevented its members from being brought to trial.

  Over 2,000 Karens flee Myanmar army raids-aid group
Reuters, Bangkok

More than 2,000 ethnic Karen people have fled their villages in eastern Myanmar after deadly attacks by government troops in the past week, a humanitarian group said on Saturday.
Troops have shot dead several ethnic Karen people, burned down houses, arrested villagers and forced others into labour since Jan. 17, according to Free Burma Rangers (FBR), a group that provides humanitarian assistance to displaced people in Myanmar.
The reports could not be verified immediately, but similar attacks in recent years have forced tens of thousands of Karens to flee, many ending up in overcrowded camps across the border in Thailand.
"There are no large scale offensives at this time but over 2,000 people have been displaced in attacks this week while villagers were shot to death by Burma Army patrols," FBR said in a statement.
Aid groups are bracing for a rise in refugees from military-ruled Myanmar into neighbouring Thailand and China ahead of the country's first elections in two decades this year.
Myanmar's junta, which has ruled for almost five decades, wants dozens of ethnic groups to join the political process, but most have resisted, saying they do not trust the government and have nothing to gain from taking part in the polls.

  Pakistan cannot be bullied, India told
APP, Islamabad

Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit rejected Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna's statement and said Pakistan could not be bullied.
Commenting on Mr Krishna's statement that there would be no exchange of terrorists between the two countries and any future attack from Pakistani side of the border would harm relations, Mr Basit said it was the Indian minister's personal opinion, and as far as terrorism was concerned, no country could be more sincere than Pakistan to expunge it because "we are the real victims".
Terming the statement immature, he said that despite Pakistan's cooperation, Indian response was "not positive" and lethargic.
A deadlock in relations between the two countries would only be beneficial for "non-state actors", he said. Both countries, he said, were nuclear powers and to think about war was suicidal.
The spokesman said that Pakistan was fully capable of defending its soil. "Our nuclear deterrence is credible."
He said Pakistan did not want any tension between the two countries and for durable peace in the region, India should respond positively to Pakistan's peace offers.
According to him, resumption of composite dialogue was the only way for peacefully resolving all issues.
Mr Basit said terrorism was a global phenomenon and the Mumbai terrorist attack was not possible until and unless there were elements in India who "made the attack possible".
India should understand realities and avoid issuing such statements which could create tension, the spokesman added. When asked about the statement of US Defence Secretary Robert Gates that incidents like Mumbai assaults could happen in future and India would not restrain itself this time, the spokesman said Pakistan was already tackling terrorism effectively, urging India and other countries to cooperate with it.

 Haiti government ends quake search and rescue phase: UN
AFP, Geneva

Haiti's government has ended the search and rescue phase of the quake relief effort after at least 132 people were pulled out alive from under the rubble, the United Nations said Saturday. "The government has declared the search and rescue phase over," the UN's Organisation for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its latest situation report on the relief effort.
"There were 132 live rescues by international search and rescue teams," it added. An 84-year-old woman and 22-year-old man were extracted from under the debris in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, on Friday -- 10 days after the magnitude 7.0 quake. But UN figures suggested that the number of those located alive had diminished significantly in recent days.
The Haitian government declared the rescue effort over at 4:00 pm (2100 GMT) on Friday, the United Nations said. "The government made its decision after consulting international experts; it's a sovereign decision," OCHA spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs told AFP. "Some of the search effort is continuing, to look for bodies," she said. Up to 67 search and rescue teams with 1,918 staff and 160 dogs had combed the ruins of Port-au-Prince and towns and villages in south Haiti for signs of life under collapsed homes and buildings.
Aid workers have already said that a record number of people for such a disaster were pulled out alive, while thousands more are thought to have been saved by residents.
Light urban search and rescue teams sent by several nations were heading home, while those with heavy lifting or drilling equipment shifted to the rest of the huge relief effort, helping to clear rubble and providing medical care, Byrs said.

  Biden holds key talks on Iraq election dispute
BBC Online

US Vice-President Joe Biden is holding talks in Iraq to try to defuse a political crisis over candidates for the general elections in March.
More than 500 have been banned so far, many on suspicion of loyalty to Saddam Hussein's dissolved Baath Party.
The dispute has caused bitter recriminations among Iraqi politicians.
Many Sunnis are outraged, saying their community is being marginalised, while many Shias oppose both rehabilitating Baathists and US interference.
Deeply sensitive
Mr Biden began his talks by meeting the UN secretary general's special representative for Iraq, Ad Melkert, for a working breakfast.
The vice-president was then to meet Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, President Jalal Talabani and other key political figures. The BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad says both the US and UN are increasingly worried that the March elections could become discredited.
Mr Maliki, who belongs to the Shia community, has generally been supportive of the disqualifications.
However, Mr Talabani, who is a Kurd, has questioned the legality of the commission which issued the disqualifications, referring it to the supreme court for a ruling.
Our correspondent says Mr Biden will have to tread carefully as, particularly in Shia circles, political interference and pressure from the Americans is a deeply sensitive issue.
He says Mr Biden may not achieve an immediately visible success but the Americans will be eager for the elections to foster national reconciliation so the withdrawal of troops can be achieved against a stable background.

  Hamas won't compromise despite "temptation" - Meshaal
Reuters, Damascus

Hamas will not recognise Israel despite new pressures on the group and will give priority to building resistance to the Jewish state, the Islamist group's leader Khaled Meshaal said on Friday.
Addressing a rally in the Syrian capital to mark the end of the Israeli attack on Gaza a year ago that killed 1,400 Palestinians, Meshaal said Hamas does not want another war with Israel but it will stick to armed struggle as a means to liberate occupied land.
"Hamas will keep rejecting the occupation and refuse to recognise the legitimacy of the Zionist entity. Priority will remain building and developing the resistance," said Meshaal, who lives in Syria along with other Hamas leaders in exile.
"Pressure, siege, temptations and opening doors or communication channels will not fool Hamas, which will not compromise on the rights. Hamas will be only tempted by restoring the land," Meshaal said.
Meshaal was referring to increased contacts between Hamas and Western delegations since the Gaza war, including a meeting with a U.S. group that included Jack Matlock, a former American ambassador in Moscow.Israel said it attacked Gaza to end rocket launches by Hamas fighters into Israel. The invasion killed more than 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians. Thirteen Israelis were killed.
"STLL WOUNDED"
"Triumphant Gaza today is still wounded. Its houses are still destroyed. It's still under siege and its borders are still closed. Add to this the new steel wall," Meshaal said, referring to a structure being built by Egypt along its border with Gaza to stop the smuggling of arms and goods into the strip.

  'Bomb detector' maker Jim McCormick arrested
BBC Online

The director of a company which sold a bomb-detecting device to 20 countries, including Iraq, has been arrested.
ATSC's Jim McCormick, 53, was detained on Friday on suspicion of fraud by misrepresentation, Avon and Somerset police said. He has since been bailed.
It comes after a BBC investigation alleged the ADE-651 did not work.
Earlier, the British government announced a ban on the export of the device to Iraq and Afghanistan, where British forces are serving.
Anti-theft tag Mr McCormick has said the device, sold from offices in Sparkford, Somerset, used special electronic cards slotted into it to detect explosives. But a BBC Newsnight investigation reported that a computer laboratory said the card it examined contained only a tag used by shops to prevent theft.
There are concerns the detectors have failed to stop bomb attacks which have killed hundreds of people.
The device consists of a swivelling aerial mounted to a hinge on a hand-grip. It does not operate by battery, instead promotional material says it is powered only by the user's static electricity.
The ADE-651 has been sold to a range of Middle Eastern countries and as far afield as Bangkok.
The Iraqi government has spent US$85m (£52m) on the hand-held detectors, now used at most checkpoints in Baghdad.
It is understood Iraq paid about US$40,000 for each device. No Western government uses them.
The BBC has learned the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has ordered an investigation into the bomb detectors, expected to report shortly.

  Feisty Obama: "I won't stop fighting for you"
Reuters, Elyria

President Barack Obama rejected criticism that he has spent too little time trying to generate jobs and defended his focus on healthcare in a speech that showed a feisty tone at the end of a tough week.
"I won't stop fighting for you," he thundered in a speech in the small city of Elyria, in economically sagging northeastern Ohio, that provided a likely preview of the themes in his first State of the Union speech next Wednesday.
Obama vigorously defended bank and car company bailouts and a $787 billion economic stimulus program as needed to save the economy. The moves generated anger and frustration among Americans and contributed to a Republican being elected a senator in traditionally Democratic Massachusetts on Tuesday.
And he strongly defended his focus on healthcare-a debate that took up most of last year and led to criticism that he had taken his eye off the economy, the country's No. 1 problem.
"Let me dispel this notion that we were somehow focused on that (healthcare) and so as a consequence not focused on the economy. First of all, all I think about is how are we going to create jobs in this area," Obama said.
The president's switch to a more populist tone followed his own admission in an ABC News interview earlier this week that he had lost a direct connection with everyday Americans.
The president, marking one-year in office this week, has suddenly run into difficult headwinds.
The election of Republican Scott Brown as a senator from Massachusetts means Democrats will not longer have a 60-vote supermajority in the chamber and gives Republicans new muscle in their fight against the Democrats' healthcare overhaul and other items.

  China says it needs no Internet lessons from U.S.
Reuters, Beijing

China needs no lessons about its Internet from the United States, the head of an online media association said through official media on Saturday after the United States rapped Beijing over information freedom.
A speech by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday showed a lack of respect for China, which cannot accept conditions on matters of "national security" or "social stability", said Beijing Association of Online Media Chairman Min Dahong.
The Internet has joined trade imbalances, currency values, U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan and tensions over human rights and Tibet among the quarrels straining ties between the world's biggest and third-biggest economies.
"How China's Internet develops and how it is managed are Chinese people's own affairs," Min said in an interview with state-run Xinhuanet.com. "On the Internet question, China doesn't need any lessons from the United States on what to do or how," he said.
Clinton's speech criticised the cyber policies of China and Iran, among others, and demanded Beijing investigate complaints by Google Inc about hacking and censorship.
Google, the world's top search engine, said it may shut its Chinese-language google.cn website and offices in China after a cyber-attack originating from China that also targeted other firms and human rights campaigners using its Gmail service.
Websites Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are blocked in China, which uses a filtering "firewall" to prevent Internet users from seeing international web sites with content China's Communist Party opposes.
"Hillary's speech on Jan. 21 insinuating that China lacks freedom of information and speech is in fact disrespectful and doesn't stand up," Min said.

  UK terrorist threat level raised to 'severe'
BBC Online

The UK terror threat level is being raised from "substantial" to "severe", Home Secretary Alan Johnson has said.
The new alert level means a terrorist attack is considered "highly likely". It had stood at substantial since July.
Mr Johnson refused to say it was linked to the failed Detroit airliner bombing, and said the government would not reveal specific intelligence details.
The home secretary stressed there was no intelligence to suggest a terrorist attack was imminent.
'Real threat'
The decision to raise the threat level was made by the UK's Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC).
Mr Johnson said JTAC kept the threat level under constant review, making its judgments based on a broad range of factors including the intent and capabilities of international terrorist groups in the UK and overseas.
He said: "We still face a real and serious threat to the UK from international terrorism, so I would urge the public to remain vigilant and carry on reporting suspicious events to the appropriate authorities and to support the police and security services in their continuing efforts to discover, track and disrupt terrorist activity."
The home secretary said the new level meant people needed to be "more aware".
He said the decision to raise the threat level was not specifically linked to the failed Christmas Day bomb attack on a plane bound for Detroit or to any other incident, he said.
Mr Johnson said: "We never say what the intelligence is and it would be pretty daft of us to do that."
He added: "It shouldn't be thought to be linked to Detroit or anywhere else for that matter."

Business/Economy

Malaysia to relocate textile, electronics,furniture industries in BD

BSS, Dhaka

Malaysian government is keen to relocate textile, electronics and furniture industries in Bangladesh for mutual benefit of the two Muslim nations.
"A Malaysian business delegation will arrive here soon to carry forward the matter," said president of Bangladesh Malaysia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BMCCI) Syed Moazzem Hossain at a press conference here.
The press conference was organized to disclose key successes of the three-day trade fair titled Showcase Bangladesh-2010 held in Kuala Lumpur on Jan 8-10. Former chamber president Salauddin Quashem, chairman of fair organizing committee MA Salam and other office bearers of the BMCCI were present on the occasion.
Hossain described the showcase a successful one and said the entrepreneurs were able to project Bangladesh's potentials in Malaysia.
Highlighting achievements of the fair, he said two trade related Memorandum of Understanding (MOUs) on RMG products and electronic banking are among the significant achievements of the trade exposition. During the fair, he said, Malaysian minister of international trade and industry assured the delegation of Bangladesh government of eradicating trade barriers mutually.
Moreover, Malaysian high commissioner in Dhaka has expressed his country's interest to invest in Bangladesh's tourism sector, said the BMCCI president.
A list of 19 items of Bangladeshi products including jute goods, frozen foods and ceramics already handed over to the Malaysian government for ensuring duty free market access to Kuala Lumpur.
Hossain said there are some trade barriers between Malaysia and Bangladesh and Bangladesh could raise its export to Malaysia one billion US dollar if the existing trade barriers with Kuala Lumpur are resolved
Malaysia exported goods worth 694 million US dollar to Bangladesh last year while Bangladesh's export stood at only 31.28 million US dollar.

 Obama’s financial reform may get backfired
BSS/Xinhua, Washington

The reform-minded U.S. president may soon feel the heat from the grill he himself set up for what he has termed as the "fat cats" on Wall Street.
And the heat may not be easy to downgrade in that on one side of the fire is a proclaimed social safety net for taxpayers and on the other is the understood capitalist profitability of financial institutions if not individuals.
The temperature of that heat is just rising after Barack Obama has announced new and tougher restrictions on Wall Street to firm up his financial overhaul reforms.
Obama's reform to rein in Wall Street demands that no bank or financial institution containing a bank own, invest in or sponsor a hedge fund or a private equity fund, or proprietary trading operations unrelated to serving its customers but rather serving its own profit. The new addition of restrictions will also place broader limits on excessive growth of the market share of liabilities at the largest financial firms, to supplement existing caps on the market share of deposits. "We have to enact common-sense reforms that will protect American taxpayers and the American economy from future crises," proclaimed Obama who even made known his readiness for an open fight with Wall Street bankers.
Obama has thrown in his gauntlet by proposing a "financial crisis responsibility fee" to be levied on large banks to cover the shortfalls in U.S. Treasury's rescue fund of 700 billion dollars. "An army of industry lobbyists from Wall Street descending on Capitol Hill to try block basic and common-sense rules of the road that would protect our economy and the American people," said Obama, "We have to get this done. "If these folks want a fight, it's a fight I'm ready to have."
Critics have already lashed out because instead of demanded financial reforms on Wall Street, those "too-big-to-fail" financial institutions have become even bigger while little change was seen in Wall Street practices, after more than a year of the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
And the public got furious with the reported massive Wall Street bonuses and tight credit market policies.
Despite the first annual loss in its 74-year history, Morgan Stanley, for just one case, earmarked 62 cents of every dollar of revenue for self compensation, an astonishing figure even by the gilded standards of Wall Street. In all, the bank set aside 14.4 billion dollars for its salaries and bonuses.
Even the president could not withhold his impatience: "It (Wall Street) is still operating under the exact same rules that led to its near collapse."
"When I see record profits at some of the very firms claiming that they cannot lend more to small business, cannot keep credit card rates low, and cannot refund taxpayers for the bailout, it is exactly this kind of irresponsibility that makes clear reform is necessary."
Obama's bashing the Wall Street is also a strategic move in that his Democratic Party needs to re-gain the political support for the mid-term election in November. The Democrats already lost a Senate seat to the Republicans in Massachusetts this week.

  ADB targets SMEs to boost cross-border trade
BSS, Dhaka

The small and medium enterprises (SMEs) got more focus of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) with its target of helping Asian countries increase intra-country trade and business.
The ADB, which is backing cross-border trade for regional benefit, is now funding a study on market and finance barriers to boost cross-border trade by small and medium sized enterprises, which could also benefit Bangladesh among other countries.
For the study, ADB is providing a 1.5 million US dollar technical assistance, sourced from the Regional Cooperation and Integration Financing Partnership Facility, the multi-donor agency announced recently.
The fund will be used to carry out a survey of border traders, financiers, and border posts and to recommend policy and regulatory changes which are needed to improve SME traders' access to finance.
It will also provide suggestions, in conjunction with local financial institutions, on new financial products for SME traders and will help address changes needed in nonfinancial areas to enhance trade efficiency and information access for SMEs.
The goals of the project are to boost SME border trade, target the availability of at least two new financial products for border traders, and expand credit volumes for SMEs, the ADB said.

  China’s govt helps college graduates get employment
China Daily

A college diploma is still the ticket to a good job in China, even under the deepest economic slump in decades, the latest official graduate employment rate shows. "Last year, we made all efforts to help the college seniors find jobs and the employment rate reached 87 percent by the end of last year," Yin Chengji, spokesman with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said at a press conference on Friday. The data with the ministry showed that the number of college grads is more than 6.1 million last year and will reach 6.3 million this year.
Helping graduates find employment in 2010 is still at the top of the government's agenda, Yin said, adding they will provide employment information and government-funded posts in communities for those unemployed grads. But the large number of graduates this year is posing a great challenge to the authorities in how to help them get employed, he added.
Last year alone, in order to increase the graduate employment rate, about half a million government-funded positions were provided to grads, Chen Jianhui, deputy-director of the Chinese Talents Society told China Daily on Friday.
"With the efforts taken by the authorities, getting a job for a college grad is not that difficult. For the rest of the unemployed, some of them have impractical expectations for their first jobs," Chen said. Wang Boqing, manager of MyCOS HR Digital Information Co Ltd, said the rate is reasonable, and that many students landed work in the last half of the year.
As a senior student majoring in information engineering at Communication University of China, Ai Zeng believes the employment rate among his fellow students who graduated last year could be even higher than 87 percent.
"None of my classmates failed to find their bread last year," Ai said.

  Toyota’s recall may spread to Europe
AFP, Tokyo

Japan's Toyota Motor may recall its vehicles in Europe due to an accelerator problem that triggered massive recalls in the United States, a newspaper reported on Saturday.
The world's largest automaker is considering recalling Corolla, RAV4 and other models produced and sold in Europe, the Mainichi Shimbun reported, adding that it was not clear how many vehicles were involved. The models are equipped with similar accelerator pedal parts to those of 2.3 million vehicles recalled in the United States, the latest in a series of recalls by Toyota, the daily said. The Japanese company's US division said Thursday that the recall was to correct accelerator pedals on the vehicles that become worn and then in some cases get lodged in a partially depressed position.
The action was separate to an ongoing recall of about 4.2 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles that began last year due to a risk of loose floor mats slipping forward and jamming the pedals.
An unnamed senior official of the company told the daily: "We cannot tell how much this recall will cost, but it can be handled within our reserve (for unexpected troubles)."
But Mainichi said a decline in Toyota's reputation for quality following the malfunction may trim its earnings, adding it could take time for Toyota to recover customers' confidence in its production.
Toyota, which overtook US rival GM in 2008 as the world's largest automaker, returned to profit in the three months to September and upgraded its outlook for the rest of the year thanks to demand for fuel-efficient cars.

  India’s growth between 2010-2020 would be unpredictable
PTI, Washington

Tagging India as a country of "endless unrealised potential", a US-based strategic think-tank on Friday said that the south Asian country's growth would be "unpredictable and uneven" in the decade starting 2010.
"India will grow, but in a wildly unpredictable and uneven manner; the fantastic expectations will not materialise," global intelligence agency 'Stratfor' said in its forecast, which also said that China will face recession while the US would remain the lone world superpower. "India has always been a country of endless unrealised potential, and it will remain so in the 2010s. Its diversity in terms of regulations and tensions, its lack of infrastructure and its talented population will give rise to pockets of surprising dynamism," it said in its 'Decade Forecast: 2010- 2020'.
"Because the Himalayas protect India from China, New Delhi's primary strategic interest is Pakistan. We expect Pakistan to muddle through. It is just important enough that outside powers will prevent its collapse, but it does not have the internal resources needed for stability," Stratfor said. In its prediction, the US think-tank said Egypt will become a regional power alongside a surging Turkey; the US-Jihadist war will have to subside, with Iran pacified by military action, isolation and/or political agreement. Stratfor said global demographics will shift, causing world- wide labour shortages and increased demand for immigrant labour.
"The US-jihadist war is in the process of winding down. It will not go away, but where in 2005 it defined the dynamic of the global system, it is no longer doing so. China has not yet faced its Japan-style crisis but we continue to forecast that it will - - and before 2015," it said. Russia has already shifted its policy from economic accommodation with the West to geopolitical confrontation. And the US, buffeted on all sides by coalitions forming around political and economic issues, remains the dominant power in the international system, the intelligence agency said.

  Indian carmaker Maruti quarterly profit triples
AFP, New Delhi

India's leading carmaker Maruti Suzuki reported Saturday its quarterly net profit more than tripled, fuelled by cheap loans and a reviving domestic economy.
Maruti, majority owned by Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp, said net profit during the fiscal third quarter soared to 6.88 billion rupees (149 million dollars) from 2.14 billion rupees a year earlier. The figure outstripped market expectations that profit for the three months to December would total about 5.8 billion rupees. The company, which sells about one in two cars in the country, said sales jumped 62.5 percent to 73.34 billion rupees. The car manufacturer attributed the profit increase partly to government stimulus measures aimed at boosting the economy that have put more money into the hands of India's increasingly affluent middle class. "Favourable conditions in the domestic market supported by the government's stimulus package and ease of automobile finance helped achieve good sales," the company said in a statement. Nearly four-fifths of cars in India are purchased using loans. The company, which holds 55 percent of the passenger car market, said it "remains cautiously optimistic" about sales volumes in fourth quarter but added that rising commodity prices would put pressure on profit margins.

National

78,323 buildings in Dhaka city to collapse in case of 6-magnitude earthquake: Study

UNB, Dhaka, Jan. 23

Some 78,323 buildings will be destroyed completely if a 6-magnitude earthquake shakes Dhaka, causing havoc throughout the densely populated capital city, according to a government study.
In case of a 7.5-magnitude earthquake from Madhupur Fault, the study says, some 72,316 buildings will be damaged totally while 53,166 partially.
It says if an 8.5-magnitude of tremor from the plate boundary of Fault-2 hits the region, some 238,164 buildings will be destroyed completely across the country. Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme (CDMP) under Food and Disaster Management Ministry conducted the study with the help of Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC). 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.
According to the study, there will be an economic loss of about US $ 1112 million for only structural damage in case of a 7.5-magnitude earthquake from the Madhupur Fault. "Economic loss due to damage of structures will be US $ 650 million and US $ 1075 million respectively in case of an 8-magnitude earthquake from the plate boundary-2 and in case of a 6-magnitude earthquake from under Dhaka city," the study says.
Some 30 million tons of debris, equal to 2,880,000 truckloads (25 tons for per truck), will be generated if a 6-magnitude earthquake jolts the city from beneath of it. A 7.5-magnitude earthquake from the Madhupur Fault will generate a total of 30 million tons of debris, killing some 131,029 people instantly and injuring 32,948 others.
According to the study, at least 10 major hospitals, 90 schools in the capital will be destroyed completely and another 241 hospitals and
clinics, 30 police stations and four fire stations partially in case of a 7.5 magnitude quake. Dr Maksudur Rahman, an Urban Environmental Management and Planning Researcher, told UNB reporter Rafiqul Islam that Bangladesh is situated at a high risk zone for earthquake and an unprecedented human disaster may occur in the city anytime for even a moderate to heavy tremor. Referring to three major earthquakes of the region, he said a powerful earthquake needs at least 100-150 years to be originated for a particular region and in that sense it is overdue for Bangladesh and parts of Assam, as 112 years have passed by since a heavy tremor from Dawki Fault hit the region. "So, Bangladesh is highly vulnerable to a powerful earthquake."
He also stressed the need for demolishing old and risky buildings of the city as a first step towards minimizing casualties in such natural disasters. "If we can maintain the Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC) in constructing new structures, we can minimize causalities and damages to some extent," Dr Maksudur Rahman said.

  32 vessels with fertilizer, fuel remain stuck in Jamuna
Boro cultivation likely to be hampered in northern region

UNB, Pabna, Jan. 23

No vessels and barges loaded with fertilizer, fuel and rice could reach Baghabari port for the last 18 days due to poor navigability in the Jamuna River, virtually brining the activities of the port into a halt. Sources said a total of 32 vessels and barges remained stuck at shoals in different places of the river, disrupting supply of the essentials through the port. The river channel has become unfit for plying of the cargo vessels as a large number of shoals have emerged for lack of proper dredging in the river.
Baghabari Depot of Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation sources said 17 shallow draft tankers with 62 lakh litres of fuel oil and another 15 vessels with fertilizer and other essential items got stuck at Shibalaya of Manikganj, and Penchakhola, Mohanganj, Nakalia and Koitola in Pabna in the dry season.
Boro cultivation will be badly hampered in the northern region as the supply of fertilizer and fuel is being affected with the navigability problem. The depot sources said on an average 27 lakh litres of fuel oil, mostly diesel, are being supplied to 16 districts of the region daily.
The daily demand for diesel in current Boro season in the region is 20-22 lakh litres. As the vessels and barges with fuel oil cannot reach the port due to poor navigability of the river, fuel oils are being supplied to the region from reserve stock.
There are about 2.58 crore litres of fuel reserved in distribution centers of Padma, Meghna and Jamuna companies by which only 12 days' demand can be met.
"There will be a fuel crisis if the navigability problem cannot be solved by this time," said the sources.
Abdur Razzaque, assistant director of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) at Baghabari river port, said they have already sent letters informing the higher authorities about the present situation of the port as well as recommending dredging in the river.

   Country has nearly 21.9m smokers
BSS, Dhaka

The country is likely to face a serious tobacco epidemic, according to a recent survey that reveals 23 percent of the adults above 15 years of age smokes.
The Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS)-2009 available Saturday said an estimated 21.9 million adults, including 21.2 million males and 0.7 million females, are smokers in the country.
The smoking rate in rural areas is slightly higher than that of urban areas, where people prefer to have cigars than bidis, a locally-made cigar, that contains much nicotine but do not have any filter, said Non-Communicable Disease Forum (NCD-F) on the eve of the Tobacco Week that begins on Sunday and ends January 30.
Among all the adults, nearly half of them are exposed to second hand smoking (SHS) at public places such as restaurants and public transportations, two major common places of smoking in Bangladesh, that is home to 150 million people.
Among the persons engaged in indoor work, 11.5 million smokers and 5.1 million non-smokers are exposed to the SHS.
It is estimated that in Bangladesh a total expenditure on cigarettes is 1.0 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), while bidis account for 0.4 percent.
The price of 100 packets of manufactured cigarettes as a percentage of per capita GDP is 5 percent and the price of 100 packets of bidis as a percentage of per capita GDP is 1 percent, the study said.
Fighting the tobacco in the country will require a strong commitment to the World Health Organisation's strategies that include continued monitoring of tobacco uses and strengthening prevention policies, protecting people from secondhand smoking, offering help to those who want to quit and warn people about the dangers of tobacco.
The other areas that need to be addressed to control tobacco uses are: enforcing bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, raising taxes on tobacco products, enacting and enforcing strong anti-smoking laws, and preventing and countering the advertising tactics of tobacco companies.

   Kalukhali in Rajbari emerges as new upazila
UNB, Dhaka, Jan. 23

Kalukhali in Rajbari district has emerged as a new upazila breaking away from Pangsha after three years of legal wrangling over its formation.
Kalukahli upazila comes into being, comprising seven unions of Pangsha upazila, following a gazette notification published by Local Government Division under LGRD Ministry. The unions are Ratandia, Kalikapur, Boalia, Mazbari, Modapur, Mrigee and Shaorail.
During the past BNP-Jamaat regime, National Implementation Committee for Administration Reform Reorganisation (NICAR) at its 94th meeting had approved the proposed new upazila splitting seven unions of Pangsha upazila and later on October 9, 2006 the government published a gazette notification in this regard to make it effective.
Meanwhile, some union-level political leaders moved to the High Court challenging the legality of forming the new upazila, Kalukhali.
On December 2, 2008, the High Court declared valid the creation of new upazila dismissing the pleas.
Later, the aggrieved persons moved to the Appellate Division (AD) of the Supreme Court and sought leave-to-appeal against the High Court judgment.
But the apex court, dismissing the pleas, upheld the High Court judgment.
Advocate Obayeed Hosaain Setu appeared for the respondents.

   Primary textbook distribution to be completed within Jan 31

BSS, Moulavibazar, Jan. 23

Distribution of free textbooks in all primary schools, including English medium schools, will be completed within January 31. It was informed Saturday at a meeting of the standing committee on the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education at local circuit house here after reviewing the progress of textbook distribution.
Chairman of the committee Dewan Farid Gazi presided over the meeting, an official hand out said.
Primary and Mass Education Minister Dr Afsarul Amin and State Minister for Primary and Mass Education Motahar Hossain were present.
Committee members Atur Rahman Atiq, Nazim Uddin Ahmed, Afaz Uddin Ahmed, Abdul Mannan, Principal Khadija Khatun Shefali and Jobeda Khatun attended the meeting.
The meeting requested the ministry to provide proper list of the 'Ananda School' at the district and upazila levels conducted by the NGOs to make an inquiry on poor results of their students during the last primary Center Examinations.
The meeting advised to form a five-member committee, including the chairman of the managing committee, to sell abandoned buildings and furniture on auction in primary schools.
Earlier, the committee members visited different Ananda Schools at Baralekha upazila in the
district.

   Health assistant appointment in Gaibandha
Civil surgeon, viva board members flee in face of protest

UNB, Gaibandha

The interview of eligible candidates for the post of health assistant here was foiled Saturday amid protest by unsuccessful candidates over allegations of irregularities.
The agitated candidates ghearoed the Civil Surgeon Office and put it under lock and key before the start of the interview.
They also set ablaze the result-sheet of the written test and ransacked the office. Being chased by the agitators, Civil Surgeon Dr Rakibudoula and members of the interview board fled the office. There have been allegations of widespread irregularities in the written tests for 170 posts of health assistant under different wards held on January 1.
The "deprived" candidates alleged that the authorities even did not follow the quota system in the examination.
Meanwhile, local MP Mahbub Ara Begum Gini in a press conference at the local press club Saturday brought some specific allegations and demanded that fresh written tests be held for the recruitment. The Civil Surgeon could not be reached for his comment.

Sports

India knocked out of U/19 Cricket World Cup
AFP, Wellington

Pakistan knocked defending champion India out of the ICC Under-19 World Cup Saturday in a tense rain-affected quarter-final at Lincoln.
In the other last-eight tie played Saturday, the West Indies beat England by 18 runs in a match shortened to 36 overs a side by bad weather.
India could only manage 114-9 in their 23 overs but Pakistan had to battle to reach the modest total, getting to their target with only three balls remaining and two wickets in hand.
Mandeep Singh top-scored for India with 40, after the 2008 champions lost two wickets in the first over. The main bowlers to cause the damage for Pakistan were Fayyaz Butt with 4-27, and Raza Hassan, who took three wickets.
Pakistan's chase started badly. They lost their first three wickets for just 17 runs in the first seven overs but a partnership of 55 between Ahsan Ali and Rameez Aziz brought them back into the reckoning.
Wickets fell regularly until Hammad Azam steered Pakistan home, scoring an unbeaten 21 from 13 balls.
In the other quarter-final, the West Indies scored 166 before dismissing England for 148.
The West Indies' victory was built on a 103-run third-wicket partnership between Kraigg Braithwaite (69) and Andre Cleary (52), as well as a devastating spell of bowling by paceman Jason Holder, who took 5-19.
Pakistan will meet the West Indies in the first semi-final tomorrow. New Zealand will play Australia and South Africa meets Sri Lanka in the remaining quarter-finals on Sunday.

  India eyes 2-0 series win over Bangladesh
AFP, Dhaka

India was bolstered by the return of captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and key off-spinner Harbhajan Singh ahead of the second and final Test against Bangladesh starting today.
The Indians, ranked number one in Tests, lead the short series 1-0 after their 113-run victory in the opening Test at Chittagong.
Dhoni (back spasm) and Harbhajan (neck) missed the Chittagong Test and their return to the side in Dhaka will boost India's chances of securing a 2-0 scoreline.
"Harbhajan has recovered and is fit to play," Dhoni said at a pre-match press conference on Saturday.
"I took part in the training session today. At this stage the way it is, I am hundred percent fit to play."
India's middle-order batsman Venkatsai Laxman, who hurt his left hand while fielding in the slips at Chittagong, was ruled out of the match while paceman Shanthakumaran Sree-santh has flown home to tend to a hamstring injury.
"Laxman is not fit and Sreesanth is also injured. We have to see what exactly the wicket looks like tomorrow before deciding on the final composition of the team," said Dhoni.
The Indian skipper also praised opener Gautam Gambhir who became the fourth batsman ever to smash a century in five successive Tests during the Chittagong match.
"Gambhir is a very good batsman who is doing really well for us. We are just hoping he gets one more century in the Dhaka Test. It will be proud moment for him and for us."
Australian Don Bradman holds the world record of hitting hundreds in six consecutive Tests. South African Jacques Kallis and Pakistan's Mohammad Yousuf are the others to have made centuries in five consecutive Tests.
Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal said his side would try to learn from the mistakes in the Chittagong Test and put in a better performance with both bat and ball. "We had a few positives in the Chittagong Test," Iqbal said.
"Mushfiqur Rahim hit a century, Shahadat Hossain and Shakib Al Hasan got five wickets each. We want to improve on that.
"We made some mistakes at Chittagong and we'll try not to repeat those again. We are not there just to take part. We are here to compete and fight. We believe that we can draw the Test series." Iqbal also backed under-fire teammate and former captain Mohammad Ashraful, who had scores of 2 and 27 at Chittagong.
Bangladesh (from): Shakib Al Hasan (capt), Mushfiqur Rahim, Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Junaid Siddique, Mohammad Ash-raful, Raqibul Hasan, Mohammad Mahmudullah, Shahriar Nafees, Shahadat Hossain, Rubel Hossain, Enamul Hossain, Mahbubul Alam, Shafiul Islam.
India (from): Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Ishant Sharma, Murali Vijay, Dinesh Karthik, Sudeep Tyagi.

  Naeem Islam included in Test Squad
TBT Report

Naeem Islam has been included in the Bangladesh National Cricket Squad for the second Test match against India, starting today at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Dhaka.
India is leading the two-match Test series against Bangladesh winning the first Test by 113 runs in Chittagong.
Bangladesh Squad: Sha-kib Al Hasan (Captain), Mushfiqur Rahim (Vice Captain), Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Shahriar Nafees, Mohammad Ashraful, Roqi-bul Hassan, Mahmud Ullah, Shahadat Hossain, Shafiul Islam, Rubel Hossain, Zunaed Siddique, Enamul Haque (Jr.), Mahbubul Alam and Naeem Islam.

  Gunners face another physical test
AFP, Egland

With the fall-out from William Gallas's tackle on Bolton's Mark Davies having barely subsided, Arsene Wenger's Arsenal is bracing itself for another bruising confrontation with Stoke.
The Gunners face Tony Pulis's side at the Britannia Stadium in the fourth round of the FA Cup, buoyed by their success in knocking Chelsea off the top of the Premier League following the 4-2 victory over Bolton in midweek.
But Arsenal's achievement in finally reining in the eleven-point deficit that had opened up between themselves and their title rivals at the end of November was overshadowed by Gallas's ill-judged challenge.
The centre-back escaped punishment during the game but referee Alan Wiley was widely criticised for failing to issue a red card to the defender.
Wenger, though, is anxious to put the matter to rest ahead of the meeting the trip to Stoke where the Frenchman's side can expect to face another full-on physical test.
"I do not want to develop any paranoia," said Wenger. "But there was too much made about this incident.
"It was a mistimed challenge but without any intention to harm the player. What is more funny is that, when we get kicked, some people say before the game 'we know how to play Arsenal, we have to kick them' and nobody in the whole country is upset by that. "I am always absolutely amazed that people get away with it. When we get kicked and lose the game, the question I get from the press is 'oh, you did not fancy that'. But nobody is upset or shocked by it. When we are kicked they find that it is absolutely all right."
Wenger's concerns appear to be vindicated by the comments of Stoke striker Ricardo Fuller who made no attempt to disguise the tactics likely to employed by the home side as they attempt to reach the last 16 of the tournament.
"It couldn't be a better draw, because we did well against them here last year," said Fuller.
"The Britannia, it's a like a fortress, and if we do play to our strengths, I don't think Arsenal can deal with the aggressive play. "It's been proved in the past that Chelsea and Bolton have roughed them up and tried to bully them.
"We can also be rough and aggressive when we need to, but we have quality too, and so we can mix it up." With Arsenal set to enter the most important phase of their league campaign, Wenger will be extremely cautious about fielding some of his key players. After this meeting the Gunners face a quartet of fixtures - against Aston Villa, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool - that will go a long way towards determining whether they can last the pace in the title race. Yet while Wenger has no doubt about which is the most important prize at stake, he is also anxious not to suffer a confidence-sapping defeat.
"The Premier League is a priority," he added. "But to win is the first priority and we want to keep the positive momentum by beating Stoke. "They are a very difficult side to play against. We need a team that is ready to fight and to play over there so that is why we need some experience in the side. "We will certainly use the squad. It's fair to see we will put a team that can get a result but won't harm our chances at Aston Villa."

   Cycling's world body mulls football-style transfers
AFP, Adelaide

Cycling is set to clamp down on transfers of riders between teams after high-profile swoops by Britain's rich new Sky outfit, the sport's chief said on Saturday,
UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale) president Pat McQuaid said criticism of Team Sky's tactics had prompted a reappraisal of transfer rules, opening the door to football-style regulation.
"Because of what other people feel was fairly harsh and businesslike work of Sky in trying to get exactly the riders they want, maybe we should tighten up the regulations in relation to transfers," McQuaid said.
"That's something we are working on at the moment."
Sky raised disquiet in the conservative sport by signing Ben Swift, who was contracted to Katusha, and triple Olympic champion Bradley Wiggins from Garmin-Transitions.
Meanwhile America's BMC Racing Team lured Australian world road champion Cadel Evans from Silence-Lotto, boosting their chances of gaining a place on the elite ProTour.
"There's no panacea for it because if a new team comes into the market... as with Sky last year, they've got to get 25 to 30 riders and most of them are already on a contract of one form or other," McQuaid said.
"It's difficult for them to come in at a good level and just take the available riders who are already at the end of a contract."
He did not detail what measures were under consideration, but football operates a "transfer window" system where clubs can only sign during designated periods.
McQuaid said under the current system, both teams needed to come to an agreement before a rider can move. But he said recent developments had shaken up the "small family" sport.
"We probably do need slightly tighter controls and regulations on the transfer system," he said.
"That's something we are looking at at the moment because this past winter there have been several controversies in relation to transfers."
Sky, with a reported multi-million dollar budget, was formed last year with the intention of producing Britain's first Tour de France winner.

  Ivory Coast to tackle Algeria
AFP, Cabinda

Rusty Ivory Coast faces angry Algeria at Chiazi Stadium today with an Africa Cup of Nations semi-finals place at stake.
An Ivorian 'Elephants' squad boasting stars like Didier Drogba and brothers Kolo and Yara Toure are fancied to defeat the star-less Algerian 'Desert Foxes' in the second quarter-final of the biennial African football showpiece.
Tradition also tilts toward the west Africans, who have won four of five matches at this stage while Algeria have lost all three, ahead of a game that sees two of the five African qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup square off.
Ivory Coast also shade previous clashes between the countries, winning two, losing one while the 1988 clash was drawn 1-1 in Morocco where Ivory Coast suffered the agony of being ousted by a draw of lots after the first round.
But Bosnian coach Vahid Halilhodzic has his concerns ahead of the fixture, the last of four to be staged at a new 20,000-seat stadium in this oil-rich northern enclave where a fatal pre-tournament ambush led to Togo withdrawing.
Chief among them is rustiness brought about by an eight-day gap between beating Ghana 3-1 to ultimately finish top of Group B and facing Algeria, Group A runners-up to Angola.
Only once before has this occurred and Halilhodzic will not be cheered to know Liberia suffered a 2-0 defeat by Democratic Republic of Congo in South Africa and were eliminated.
The absence of Togo created the schedule gap and Halilhodzic admitted to reporters this could upset plans to return the Nations Cup back to Ivory Coast after an 18-year absence.
"So many days without playing a competitive match - that is no good," said the man who took charge after a fourth-place 2008 Nations Cup finish in Ghana triggered the sacking of German Uli Stielike.
Refereeing and the state of the Chiazi Stadium pitch are other issues that trouble Halilhodzic, who fears failure to capture the trophy will lead to his dismissal before the World Cup. "I'm really angry about the refereeing - it's too much," he said after a cynical foul by Arsenal defender Emmanuel Eboue brought a red card and an automatic one-game ban that rules him out of the Algeria fixture.
"The poor quality of the Cabinda turf hampers attacking teams. It is really demanding to play in very hot temperatures and the state of the pitch does not help my players."
Algeria coach Rabah Saadane is not particularly happier either despite achieving his primary goal of qualifying for the last eight of a tournament first staged 53 years ago in Sudan.
The five-time 'Foxes' coach, who cuts a doleful figure with droopy eyes and a walrus moustache, has been angered by negative domestic media coverage and allegations of a 'fixed' draw with Angola.
"I feel unappreciated," said the coach who sprang the shock of the 2010 World Cup qualifiers on the continent by taking Algeria to South Africa at the expense of African champions and bitter rivals Egypt.

  Serena and Venus on track
AFP, Melbourne

Serena and Venus kept on track for an all-Williams semi-final while a pair of in-form Eastern Europeans set up a fourth round showdown at the Australian Open Saturday.
Serena thrashed Carla Suarez Navarro 6-0, 6-3 and will now face local favourite Samantha Stosur, while Venus outlasted Australian Casey Dellacqua 6-1, 7-6 (7/4).
Fourth seeded Dane Caroline Wozniacki was also impressive as she downed Israel's Shahar Peer 6-4, 6-0 on the back of a superb serving game.
But judging by the way Serena saw off Suarez Navarro, the defending champion is still the one to beat for the title.
She raced to a 5-0 lead in just 15 minutes and although the Spaniard recovered and fought back, the world number one was always in control.
Stosur, a 6-4, 6-1 winner over Italian Alberta Brianti, will play Serena in a marquee clash on Monday, and the pair have some history.
The showdown is sure to create plenty of interest, with Stosur beating the world number one the last time they met.
Williams then added fuel to the fire by accusing Stosur of being a good "framer", implying many of her winning shots of being miss hits.
Whether she genuinely forgets or whether she just wants to stay onside with Stosur's vocal Australian fans, Williams insisted she could not recall saying anything negative about her rival. "I don't remember that," she said when asked about the incident.
"I just remember I hit some great shots and she returned them back for winners. Stosur will have her work cut out against Williams, although it was far from plain sailing for Serena.
She was made to run all over the court, but showed her superb athleticism as she chased down many of the Spaniard's best shots and returned them with interest.
Meanwhile, Venus said she had made changes to her game in the off-season, which helped her against Dellacqua. "Obviously with professional sports you can't remain stagnant-every off-season I'm thinking of which ways I can play better," she said, before declining to say exactly what changes she had made.
Whatever the adjustments were, they seemed to work as she won the first set comfortably. However, she was made to graft a lot harder for the second.
In the end it took the sixth seed one hour, 47 minutes to subdue Dellacqua and book a fourth round meeting with 17th seeded Italian Francesca Schiavone, who upset 10th seed Agnieszka Radwanska 6-2, 6-2 earlier in the day.
Lurking in the shadows are Belarusian seventh seed Victoria Azarenka and ninth seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva, who continued to steamroll their way through the draw.
Azarenka thumped Italian Tathiana Garbin 6-0, 6-2 and Zvonareva was too good for Argentine Gisela Dulko 6-1, 7-5.

  Khulna Division tastes first victory
UNB, Dhaka

Khulna Division tasted its first victory in the 11th National Cricket League beating Sylhet Division by 49 runs on the 4th and final day at Shaheed Chandu Stadium in Bogra Saturday.
Khulna Division, which conceded an eight-wicket defeat against Dhaka Division in the opening match, today resumed the second innings with overnight 188 for 8 and were all out for 226 runs in 63 overs. Earlier, they scored 242 runs in the 1st innings. Night-watch batsman Abdur Razzak (58) contributed team highest 74 runs off 124 deliveries featuring eight fours.
Later, Razzak also took three wickets for 64 runs and was adjudged man of the match. Tapash Kumar claimed three wickets for 35 runs while Nazmul Hossain, Saju Dutta and Nabil Samad grabbed two wickets each for 24, 32 and 54 runs respectively.
In reply, Sylhet Division, which scored 272 runs in the first innings, opened the 2nd innings and were dismissed for 147 runs in 48.5 overs with ICL cricketer Alok Kapali making 52 runs off 77 balls, including seven fours.
Besides, Golam Rahman (23), Tanveer Haider (18), Golam Mabud (18), Siam Alam (13) were the other major contributors for Sylhet Division reaching the double figure.
National pacer Syed Rasel and national spinner Abdur Razzak took three wickets each giving away 19 and 64 runs respectively. Rabiul Islam bagged two wickets for 41 runs while national captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza took one wicket for 16 runs.
Brief score: Khulna Division Ist innings- 242 all out in 80.4 overs; Tushar Imran 59, Habibul Bashar 51, Mohammad Mithun 47, Nazmus Sadat 37, Sahagir Hossain 13, Tapash Kumar 3/60, Maysequr Rahman 2/14 and Nazmul Hossain 2/47.
Second innings - 226 all out in 63 overs; (overnight 188 for 8 in 51 overs), Razzak 74, Bashar 57, Rasel 22, Mithun 18, Ziaur 16, extras 10, Tapash 3/35, Nazmul 2/24, Saju 2/32, Nabil Samad 2/54.
Sylhet Division 1st innings - 272 for all in 99 overs, Rajin 83, Maysequr 60, Golam 39, Alam 26, extras 25, Razzak 4/91, Rasel 2/43, Robiul 2/58.
Second innings - 147 for all in 48.5 overs; Alok Kapali 52, Golam Rahman 23, Tanveer haider 18, Golam Mabud 18, Siam Alam 13, Rasel 3/19, Razzak 3/64, Rabiul 2/41, Mashrafe 1/16. The third round matches will begin on
Jan 26.

  Armstrong vows no 'goofing off'
AFP, Adelaide

Lance Armstrong on Saturday vowed not to repeat last season's mistakes when he "goofed off" after the Tour Down Under, affecting his comeback year.
The seven-time Tour de France winner said he paid the price in last February's Tour of California, where he had a tough time and placed seventh.
The American fell and broke his collarbone in March before recovering to finish third in July's Tour de France behind Spanish rival Alberto Contador.
"I messed up in the weeks after this last year. I went back and thought I was on schedule or slightly ahead of schedule and I goofed off a bit much and suffered bad in California," Armstrong told reporters.
"I have to not make those mistakes again and just keep on the gas right through February."
Armstrong said it was too early to tell whether he was on track for this year's Tour de France, where he is bidding to become the race's oldest winner at 38.
"It's still so early. Not much can be taken from here in terms of what happens in the summer, in fact nothing," he said. "The main thing is we got good racing in, which equals good preparation mixed with no bad luck: illness, injuries, crashes. Smooth trip, good weather."
He added that he was "50-50" on returning to Australia for Melbourne's road world championships in October, adding that he was not sure whether he still had the power needed to win.
"Back in my explosive days it would have been good," he said. "It's just a question of your condition. At 260 kilometres it's the guys that have the best preparation that do well. You can't hide after six hours."
Armstrong retired in 2005 after winning a record seventh Tour de France but returned to the sport at last year's Tour Down Under, a six-stage race over 800 kilometres (500 miles) of roads around Adelaide.

Celtic on course to sign Danish striker
AFP, Glasgow

Scottish giant Celtic manager Tony Mowbray's bid to freshen up his squad took another step forward on Friday as his one million pound bid for Danish striker Morten Rasmussen was accepted by the player's club Brondby.
Rasmussen, who will turn 25 on January 31, has yet to decide whether he wants to move to Celtic as he is desperate to make Denmark's World Cup finals squad.
The striker - who is playing for the Danish League Select at the King's Cup invitational tournament in Thailand - has been with Brondby since making a 1.2million pounds move from Aarhus in 2006.
Rasmussen - whose nickname is Duncan because his style of play has been compared to former Everton, Rangers and Scotland striker Duncan Ferguson - has scored 52 goals in 111 appearances for Brondby.
Should Rasmussen, who has played for his country at all youth levels but is yet to make his senior international debut, agree to the move he will join fellow January signings, Norway Under-21 international defender Thomas Rogne and 26-year-old Dutch defender Jos Hooiveld.
Mowbray is desperate to revamp a squad he inherited from predecessor Gordon Strachan.

Renard open to offer from 'big African team'
AFP, Benguela

Zambia coach Herve Renard has disclosed that he is willing to handle a top African team when his two-year contract with the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) runs out in July.
The 41-year-old French-man has led Zambia into their first Africa Cup of Nations quarter-final in 14 years and said his ambition was to soon work with a higher profile team than Zambia. "I know what I want, I'm very ambitious and I'm not scared to say so. I said even before this tournament that I wish to be coach of a very top team one day.
"I'm young but I'm not scared about anything," said Renard, who assisted Claude Le Roy with Ghana two years ago.
"Now I can speak English and I'm French, so it's only the Portuguese-speaking countries like Angola and Mozambique that it would be difficult for me to work with because the language is very important.
"But if they qualify for the World Cup, I will sign immediately for them.
"But really, I would want to stay in Africa with a bigger team. Claude Le Roy explained to me a lot of things about Africa. There are good things and bad things in Africa, but he said his heart is always in Africa. I'm the same now. I like this continent."
The Frenchman admitted his time with the Chipolopolo of Zambia may soon come to an end. "My contract will finish very soon, in a few months. I'm not sure I want to extend or renew my contract, so even if they don't want me, it won't be a problem," he said.n
Zambia take on Nigeria in Monday's quarterfinal of the Africa Cup of Nations in Lubango with the winner up against the winner of the match between hosts Angola and Ghana.