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Leading News
Bangabandhu
murder case
SC order on 5
convicts’ review petitions today
BSS, Dhaka
The Appellate Division will pronounce its order today on
the review petitions in Bangabandhu murder case verdict as
the three days hearing ended on Tuesday, participated by
both petitioners and state counsels.
Advocate Khan Saifur Rahman, counsel for ex-lieutenant
colonels Syed Faruq Rahman and Mohiuddin Ahmed concluded
his submission saying it was needed to hold the trial of
the accused under the army act as the incident took place
on August 15,1975 was the outcome of a mutiny.
"Several witnesses in their deposition also stated that
some army men committed mutiny on August 15,1975. So the
trial that staged under the penal code was a mistake,
which also obstructed the accused in getting justice," he
submits.
Replying to the petitioners pleas, chief state counsel
Advocate Anisul Haque said, space is very narrow to get
benefit from any review petition.
"In the present cases, the counsels for the petitioners
measurably failed to find out any contradiction in the
Appellate Division judgment. They only reiterated the
submissions, which was placed during the appeal hearing "
he pleaded.
Attorney General Mahabubey Alam submitted that the
petitioners were provided enough accommodations to place
and establish their grounds in different stages---from the
trial court to the Appellate Division, but they failed.
The review petitions were files as last scope in getting
any benefit from the court after the verdict pronounced on
the appeal petitions on November 19 last year by upholding
the death penalties of five ex-army officers in
Bangabandhu murder trial.
The Appellate division verdict has cleared ways for
execution of all the 12 condemned convicts whose capital
punishment was confirmed by the High Court earlier.
The Appellate Division upheld the judgment of the High
Court Division that earlier confirmed the capital
punishment of the 12 coup leaders saying, "we find no
cogent ground to interfere with the impugned judgment and
order of the High Court Division (verdict)".
The verdict came following a protracted legal process of
13 years and 34 years after the assassination of Father of
the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman along with
most of his family members - his wife, three sons and two
daughters in law.
27th
BCS
HC asks govt to appoint 652
qualified candidates
UNB, Dhaka
The High Court Tuesday directed the government to issue
appointment letters to 652 dropout candidates, qualified
earlier in the second viva voce of the 27th Bangladesh
Public Service Examination (BCS), in pursuant to the final
nominations and results published on January 21, 2007.
Delivering the judgment upon four writ petitions, a
division bench comprising Justice M Miftah Uddin Chowdhury
and Justice Abu Bakar Siddiquee made its rule issued
earlier "absolute".
Earlier, on November 11 last year, the same division bench
following writ petitions, had directed the government to
issue appointment letters to 197 candidates who qualified
in the first viva-voce of the 27th Bangladesh Civil
Service (BCS) examination conducted by the Public Service
Commission (PSC).
The immediate-past military-backed caretaker government
had made the mess that prompted the aggrieved candidates
to move the High Court for a redress. Advocate Abdur Rab
Chowdhury, AFM Mesbahuddib, Abdul Matin Khasru, Mahbub
Shafique, Salah Uddin Dolon and KM Hafizul Alam appeared
for the petitioners.
Khaleda
to announce movement programme soon: Moudud
UNB, Dhaka
BNP leader Barrister Moudud Ahmed Tuesday disclosed that
party chairperson Khaleda Zia will soon announce
anti-government movement programmes through consulting all
the patriotic political parties of the country.
He made the remark addressing as chief guest a protest
rally organized by Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD), the
associated student wing of BNP, in front of the BNP
central office at Nayapaltan in the afternoon.
JCD organized the demonstration demanding arrest and trial
of "Chhatra League cadres" who they alleged attacked JCD
president Sultan Salahuddin Tuku on Dhaka University
campus and withdrawal of "false" cases against JCD leaders
centering the DU incident.
Presided over by JCD senior vice-president Shahidul Islam
Babul, the rally was also addressed, among others, by BNP
leaders Fazlul Huq Milon, Zainul Abdin Farooque MP, Abul
Khair Bhuiyan MP, Khairul Kabir Khokan, Barrister
Nasiruddin Osim and Shirin Sultana.
The BNP leaders protested the "naked attack" on JCD
president Tuku and blamed BCL for the attack. They also
demanded resignation of the DU Vice-chancellor for "not
carrying out appropriate responsibility" during the
violence on the campus.
Barrister Moudud in his address said, "The present Awami
League government has started politics of vendetta like in
the past as well as made parliament ineffective
disrespecting the opposition."
He criticized the ruling party's various activities and
attempts, including attempt to evict Khaleda Zia from her
Dhaka cantonment residence and erase name of late
President Ziaur Rahman, and indecorous remarks about Zia.
Turning to the PM's recent visit to India and the signing
of deals with New Delhi, the former Law Minister said,
"The present government does not hesitate to sacrifice the
country's interests and so there is no option but to wage
movement against the government."
He told the JCD leaders and workers that the case filed
against them over the recent clash on the Dhaka University
campus is not the end-more cases could be filed by the
government.
He, however, said all cases would be faced legally. Urging
the JCD leaders and workers to prepare for movement, the
BNP Standing Committee member said, "Now is the time to
build up resistance against all sorts of repression and
injustice being meted out by the government. For this all
have to remain united."
Setting up ETP
Govt to appeal to HC for one year time extension
BSS, Savar
The government will appeal to the High Court (HC)
requesting extension of its earlier directives to at least
one year for mandatory setting up of central effluent
treatment plant (CETP) as the work on the ETP is yet to be
completed, said Industries Minister Dilip Barua Tuesday.
"We will appeal to the HC soon for extension of at least
two year in this respect and I hope the HC will reconsider
our plea," said the minister at a views exchange meeting
with stakeholders of the BISIC Tannery Estate in the
conference room of BISIC Tannery Estate here.
The Tannery Estate is being built at an estimated cost of
Taka 545 crore on the outskirts of Dhaka located at two km
away from Dhaka-Aricha highway and on the bank of the
River Dhaleswari, remained out of juggernaut of industrial
polluters.
The industries minister held the meeting to see for
himself the progress of the planned Tannery Estate so far
been made as the High Court's verdict would come to an end
on February 28 this year.
Dilip Barua said the government wants to act as a
facilitator instead of regulator with a view to turning
the potential tannery industry into a value-added one.
In doing so, he said, the government under the leadership
of Prime Minister has considered the industry a thrust
one.
Industries minister described the planned CETP as a modern
system and said the essential component of the leader
industry would have a long term substantial impact on the
country's economy.
The government would not enforce the tanners to shift to
the new Tannery Estate without any delay but the tanners
must do so on their own as would be stopped on compliance
issue by next year, said Barua.
JS body for tough actions against harassment
of Hajj pilgrims
BSS, Dhaka
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of
Religious Affairs on Tuesday suggested taking stern
actions against Al Mobarakah Tours and Travels (Private)
Limited for their alleged involvement in harassing and
cheating 62 Hajj pilgrims in 2009.
The suggestion came from the meeting of the parliamentary
standing committee held at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban with
Md Mujibar Rahman in the chair. The meeting elaborately
discussed the issues of the harassment and cheating of 62
pilgrims during sending them for performing Hajj and
termed the matter as a subversive act.
It also suggested that the authorities concerned be taken
necessary measures for stopping such incidents in future.
The committee also instructed the committee constituted by
the Religious Affairs Ministry to submit its investigation
report with next three days.
The meeting also thanked Bazlul Haque Harun, MP from
Jhalokathi-1 constituency, for his immediate initiatives
in sending the pilgrims to Saudi Arabia, which saved the
image of the government as well as the country.
The committee was informed about the over all activities
of the Wakfo Administration and elaborate discussions were
held on this subject.
Writ just before DCC poll motivated:
Sakhawat
BSS, Dhaka
Election Commissioner M Sakhawat Hossain Tuesday termed a
High Court writ petition filed by a citizen on demarcation
of city wards before the coming elections of the Dhaka
City Corporation (DCC) as "motivated".
"The Election Commission considers the writ petition as a
step to hamper the DCC election at a time when all
preparations for it are almost completed," he told
journalists at his office here.
Sakhawat said the DCC polls have been scheduled for March
and the writ was filed with the HC to defer the election
schedule. If the schedule is deferred, the election could
not be held within this year, he added. The writ
petitioner could file it two years back or after the
election but a vested quarter has filed it just ahead of
the election in a planned way, he said.
Calling upon the citizens not to file any more writ
petition in the greater interest of the country, Sakhawat
said elections in some unions could not be held for last
18 to 20 years only due to writ petitions or cases.
Replying to a question, he said the delimitation of
parliamentary constituencies is under absolute capacity of
the Election Commission but the delimitation of DCC areas
is under the control of the Local Government Ministry.
A High Court bench recently served a notice asking the EC
and the Local Government Ministry to explain in four weeks
why the elections of the DCC would be held after
re-demarcation of DCC wards according to the population
counted in recent census. The EC said the government is
interested in holding of local body elections first at
haor and coastal belts and later in other parts of the
country, but wants to complete the elections within this
year.
Replying to a question, he said the High Court direction
on the parliament membership from Bhola-3 constituency had
reached the commission and the next step would be taken as
per legal opinion from lawyers.
Unfair means won’t be allowed in SSC
exam: Nahid
BSS, Dhaka
Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid on Tuesday said
centers of the Secondary School Certificate (SSC)
examination would be cancelled if failed to ensure
atmosphere free from unfair means.
"We would not allow any student to take unfair means
during the SSC examination. The government will take stern
actions in this regard," he said while speaking at a views
exchange meeting on holding SSC examination under a
hundred percent unfair means free atmosphere at the
conference room of Vocational Education Board here.
Chairman of Vocational Education Board Prof M Abul Qashem
chaired the views exchange meeting attended by the center
secretaries for the upcoming SSC (voc) 2010 examination
under the Dhaka Board.
The Minister suggested the center secretaries to hold
meetings with all concerned including the public
representative of their respective areas.
Nahid also asked to take proper initiative for ensuring
the secrecy of the question papers as well as security of
the centres.
A total of 12,02,864 students will seat for the SSC
examination in 1,992 centers under eight general education
boards, one madrasa education board and one vocational
education board this year.
Back Page
Earn historic results from 11th SA
Games: PM
She announces cash awards
for players
UNB, Dhaka
Holding out cash bounties in advance, Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina Tuesday urged the host contingent to clinch
a "historic" result for the nation from the 11th South
Asian (SA) Games beginning here on January 29. She made
the inspiring call when players and officials of the
Bangladesh contingent for the SA games came to meet her at
Ganobhaban in the morning, as preparation for staging the
sporting extravaganza in Dhaka is all but complete.
The Prime Minister also promised the players that the
ongoing modern training programmes for them would be
carried on in the future as well. She announced cash
awards for the teams and players based on their
performances in the South Asian games that will kick off
Friday (January 29) and end on February 9. The cash awards
anno-unced for team events are: Tk 15 lakh for gold medal,
Tk 10 lakh for silver medal and Tk 3 lakh for bronze medal
(football, cricket and hockey); Tk 10 lakh for gold, Tk 4
lakh for silver and Tk 1.5 lakh for bronze medal (kabaddi,
basketball, volleyball and handball).
Besides, for individual events, every player will get Tk 5
lakh for gold, Tk 2 lakh for silver and Tk 50,000 for
bronze medal.
The Prime Minister mentioned that the Awami League
government in the past did not hesitate to allocate
necessary money for the sports sector. "Like the present,
our endeavor for sports development won't stop in the
future as well," she said.
Hasina, also the chief patron of the South Asian
Organizing Committee, tha-nked Bangladesh Oly-mpic
Association (BOA) and the SA Games organizing committee
for arranging such a meeting just on the eve of the SA
Games, known as the South Asian Olympic.
"I am so lucky to get all players around me," she said and
told the players that her government would continue to
give its best efforts for raising skills of Bangladeshi
players to international standards through uninterrupted
modern training at home and abroad.
"Those who will show good performances in the South Asian
Games will be sent to compete in other international
competitions," she said as Commonwealth and Asian games
are also going to be staged in the near future.
Hasina said in terms of budget, the 11th South Asian Games
is going to be the ever-biggest sport meet in Bangladesh
and it costs Tk 170 crore in total.
Of the budget, Tk 122 crore is being provided by the
government itself. The rest of the money is being provided
by the sponsors.
President for
developing objective journalism
UNB, Dhaka
President Zillur Rahman Tuesday emphasized developing
objective journalism for protecting the country's
independence and sovereignty as well as establishing
rights for the people and society. "Ideal journalism is
one of the safeguards to protect country's independence
and sover-eignty as well as for establishing rights for
the people and society," he said while speaking at Zahur
Hossain Chow-dhury Memorial Lect-ure-2010 at Hotel
Sonargoan as chief guest.
Organized by Daily Bhorer Kagaj, the function was also
addressed by Information and Cultural Affairs Minister
Abul Kalam Azad as special guest. Internationally
reno-wned columnist of India Kuldip Nayar delivered the
memorial lecture titled 'Role of Media in Emerging
Democracy'.
Bhorer Kagaj Editor Shyamal Dutta made the welcome speech
while Professor Tazin Chowdhury gave vote of thanks on
behalf of the family members of Zahur Hossain Chowdhury.
Zahur Hossain Chowdhury, one of the country's eminent
journalists, began his career in journalism in the
renowned Indian newspaper Statesman and then contributed
imm-ensely to development of journalism as a newsman and
columnist in country's different news dailies till his
death in 1980.
Mentioning that the mass media are a means of change in
society, Zillur Rahman said protection of national
interest would not be possible if the mass media could not
play appropriate role in placing the greater interest of
the people and country above all by ignoring the interest
of vested quarters. "Journalists will have to adopt such
attitudes and mentality."
Explaining his long experience of political life and
describing mass media as fourth estate and watchdog of the
country, the president suggested that journalists should
be ideal and professional like Zahur Hossain Chowdhury who
was imbued with patriotism for nurturing objective
journalism. Information Minister Abul Kalam Azad said
under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh
Hasina the government is relentlessly working to ensure
the freedom of press and expression in the country.
"As a result, presently the mass media of the country are
enjoying full freedom," the Information Minister informed
his audience.
In his lecture, Kuldip Nayar said emerging democracies
face many dangers but two are really fatal - one is the
growing fundamentalism and the other is the scenario for
military intervention. He said the press, no doubt like
other constituents of mass media, plays a key role in
dissemination of news about society.
The mass media act as a link between the society and the
government, the ruled and the rulers, the people and the
decision-makers by providing information on the decisions
taken by the aut-horities to the public.
ECNEC okays 7 projects involving Tk
1,315 crore
BSS, Dhaka
The Executive Committee of National Economic Cou-ncil (ECNEC)
on Tuesday approved seven projects involving about Taka
1,315 crore, including Taka 166 crore project assistance.
The approval was given at a meeting of the ECNEC held at
the Sher-e-Banglanagar NEC conference room with ECNEC
Chairperson and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina presiding.
The approved projects are: construction of
Rai-pura-Narsingdi road, procurement/ construction of
steel bridge under Road and Railway Division, (2nd phase,
amended), rehabilitation of
Foujdarhat-CGPRI-SRG-Chittagong section (1st amended),
construction of four-storied factory building at
Chittagong Export Processing Zone (EPZ), vaccine
manufacturing technology modernisation and research
expansion under fisheries and livestock ministry, project
for construction/development of six roads in Chittagong
Hill Tracts (2nd phase), and river dredging and irrigation
improvement in Sujanagar upazila of Pabna district.
Finance Minister ECNEC Co-Chairman Abul Maal Abdul Muhith,
Planning Minister AK Khandaker, Agriculture Minister Begum
Matia Chowdhury, Water Resources Minister Ramesh Chandra
Sen, Commerce Minister Faruq Khan, Communications Minister
Syed Abul Hossain, Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan,
Fisheries and Livestock Minister Abdul Latif Biswas, and
Prime Minister's Adv-isers HT Imam, Dr Modasser Ali, and
Dr Alau-ddin Ahmed, among others, attended the meeting.
Cabinet secretary, principal secretary to the Prime
Minister, planning secretary, members of planning
commission, and secretaries of the concerned ministries
and senior officials were also present, said an official
release.
Housing projects to be
implemented recovering lands from grabbers: Matia
BSS, Dhaka
Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury Tuesday said that
after recovering lands from the encroachers, housing
projects would be taken for the low-income group people.
"In this regard, we have to carry out two works to ensure
safe accommodation for the low-income group --- building
floating houses on water using modern technology and on
the other hand implementing housing projects after
recovering grabbed lands," she said.
She was addressing the inaugural ceremony of a pilot
project on 'Lift House" for modern housing for low income
group at the Housing and Building Research Institute at
Mirpur in the city as special guest.
Finance Minister Abul Maal Adul Muhith was present in the
function as the chief guest.
Chaired by State Minister for Housing and Public Works
Abdul Mannan Khan, the function was also addressed, among
others, by whip Mirza Azam, local lawmaker Aslamul Huq,
Housing and Public Works Secretary Mahbubur Rahman and
innovator of floating 'Life House' Prethula Prasun.
Matia said the present government would not hesitate to do
any work for the welfare of the poor.
The agriculture minister alleged that the past military
backed government did not recover any land from the
grabbers.
Highly appreciating the new innovation of the "Lift House"
of Prasun, she said the innovation would work as an
effective technology in the flood prone Bangladesh.
Later, Matia Chowdhury inaugurated the "Lift House" pilot
project in Mirpur. Prethula Prasun is studying for post
graduate degree at the Waterloo University in Canada.
Food security and water management
may become livelihood concerns
BSS, Dhaka
Experts at a dialogue here on Tuesday said that food
security and water management are likely to become the
most important livelihood concerns in the CIRDAP members
countries in the coming decade.
This would require policies that target improvements in
technology in agriculture, a full marketing chain that
adds value to the produce and makes farm living a viable
economic proposition and also to ensure that management of
water is made more sustainable.
The experts were addressing the regional policy dialogue
on 'Sustainable Rural Livelihoods' as part of second
ministerial meeting of CIRDAP at its auditorium.
Director Training of CIRDAP SK Singh and Former Adviser
and Secretary of Ministry of Finance of Gover-nment of
India Dr S Narayan presented keynote paper at the first
session of the dialogue with Vice Minister of the Ministry
of Jihad-e- Agriculture of Islamic Republic of Iran Dr J
Khalghani in the chair.
Director General of CIRDAP Dr Durga P Paudyal and
representatives of CIRDAP member countries, among others,
were present at the dialogue. In his keynote paper, SK
Singh said the sustainable livelihood approach is quite
broad and covers several aspects, however, it can be
distilled to six core objectives aiming to increase the
sustainability of poor people's livelihoods.
It focuses on promoting improved access to high quality
education, information, technology and training and better
nutrition and health; a more supportive and cohesive
social environment; more secure access to, and better
management of natural resources; better access to basic
services and infrastructure; more secure access to
financial resources, he added. Various available reports
and trends show that Asia-Pacific region is the most
vulnerable to climate change, SK Singh said adding it will
have impact on agriculture and water sector.
As the people are highly dependent on agriculture, natural
resources and fore-stry, they will have adverse impact on
the livelihood of the people, he added.
Keeping this in view, SK Singh said, a suitable policy
framework has to be formulated to mitigate the impact of
climate change on rural livelihoods in this region in
general and country specific in particular. Dr S Narayan
said the decadal approaches to poverty alleviation and
sustainable livelihoods have not succeeded in removing
abject poverty, and that nearly half a billion people in
the CIRDAP member countries still live in conditions that
can not be said to be sustainable.
UN-Pak govt row may
disrupt aid plan
Dawn Online, Islamabad
Wrangling between the government and the United Nations
over a $500 million aid plan may adversely affect the flow
of humanitarian aid for 1.2 million displaced people in
the NWFP and Fata.
The government's consent for the UN's 'Pakistan
Humanitarian Response Plan (PHRP) 2010' has been held up
because of differences between the two over transparency
and operational matters.
The PHRP is meant to mobilise resources for relief and
recovery operations of UN agencies, international and
national NGOs working for people affected by military
operations in the NWFP and Fata.
The UN's Humanitarian Coordinator, Martin Mog-wanja, in a
letter to the government, warned of disruption of
humanitarian operations if the approval for the plan was
further delayed.
Expressing concern, he said that any further delay in the
launching of the PHRP 2010 would interrupt critical
assistance being provided by humanitarian organisations in
the NWFP and Fata.
Humanitarian appeals for 2010 for 48 million people around
the world were launched on Nov 30, 2009, in Geneva, but
the funding request for Pakistan still remains mired in
bureaucratic muddle.
"Donors have made it clear that some funds from their
global humanitarian support allocations for PHRP 2010 are
currently being reallocated to Haiti Flash Appeal," Mr
Mogwanja said.
A similar appeal last year (PHRP 2009) remained
under-funded for most part of the year, but picked up
after August, highlighting difficulties in wooing the
fatigued aid contributors.
Street
agitation if anti-state deals with India not cancelled:
Nizami
UNB, Chittagong
Ameer of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami Matiur Rahman Nizami
Tuesday threatened to take to the street if the government
does not cancel agreements singed with India during Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to the neighbouring
country.
"All Islamic forces will work together to force the
government to cancel the anti-state agreements sig-ned
with India and foil the conspiracy against Islam," he told
a rally at Laldighi Maidan. City Jamaat organized the
rally.
Nizami warned the government not to hatch conspiracy to
destroy Islam by banning Islamic politics keeping guns on
the shoulders of court canceling the 5th Amendment to the
Constitution.
Describing the newly formulated education policy as
'atheist' one, the Jamaat Ameer said the government wants
to offer an education policy formulated by those who have
no any relation with religion.
He urged all to remain alert so that government efforts do
not get successful.
Jamaat Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Muj-ahid,
central Nayeb-e-Ameer Maulana Abdus Sobhan and Moulana
Delwar Hossain Sayeedi, among others, addressed the rally.
Five killed, 20 injured
in road accidents
TBT News Desk
At least five people were killed and 20 others injured in
road accidents in three districts on Tuesday, according to
news agencies.
In Khulna, a man was killed and 15 other people were
injured in a head-on collision between two buses on
Khulna-Jessore highway at Achra industrial area of the
city in the morning. The deceased was identified as Mrinal
Kanti Roy, 50.
In Bagerhat, a schoolboy was killed and another person
injured a bus rammed their bicycle at Karri in sadar
upazila.
In Cox's Bazar, three people were killed and four others
injured as a bus ploughed through a tea-stall on Cox's
Bazar-Chittagong highway at Bainyarchhara on Tuesday.
PSI company
Cotecna black listed
UNB, Dhaka
Pre-Shipment Inspection (PSI) company Cotecna has been
finally barred from getting appointed with any government
agency, including the National Board of Revenue (NBR), for
inspection services, which are often fraught with
fraudulence.
A highly-placed revenue official disclosed the embargo
quoting a recent judgment of the Appellate Division of the
Supreme Court. The copy of the verdict of the Appellate
Division, given on October 18 last year, was made
available to the NBR Sunday.
"We got the copy of judgment of the Appellate Division of
the Supreme Court on Sunday as the Appellate Division has
owned the decision of the government in barring Cotecna
from any future contract," the official said.
He also said that Cotecna is now a black-listed company in
the international service of cargo inspection. The NBR
cancelled the license and contract of Cotecna, a
Swiss-origin PSI agency, on March 19, 2008 as allegations
of under-invoicing and tax evasion against the firm were
proved.
Apart from cancellation of contract, the revenue board
also barred Cotecna from getting appointed with any
government offices until all dues with the NBR are paid
off.
"You (Cotecna) are also hereby barred from entering into
any further contracts with any agency of the government of
Bangladesh until all payments and dues with the National
Board of Revenue are reconciled and fully adjusted," reads
the cancellation order of NBR, issued on March 19, 2008,
signed by the then NBR Chairman Muhammad, Abdul Mazid.
Following the contract cancellation, the aggrieved Cotecna
went to the High Court and the court asked the NBR to lift
the barring clause from its order, a revenue official
concerned said.
As a next course of action, the NBR filled a writ petition
with the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court against
the verdict concerned of the High Court.
Editorial
Ensuring quality
education at universities
The
University Grants Commission (UGC) has made a very serious
observation about the country's university education.
According to press reports, the UGC in its annual report for
2008 placed in parliament on Monday observed that Public and
private universities have largely failed to implement the aims
and objectives of higher education. The reasons for the
failure include influence of partisan politics on student
bodies, session jam, lack of transparency and accountability
in the activities of teachers and students, uncontrolled
consultancy and part time jobs of teachers.
The UGC expressed concern over the standard of education both
in public and private universities. It said, "Out of total 84
public and private universities, seven public and 42 private
universities are situated in the capital region, which shows
regional discrimination. It is also an obstacle to spread of
balanced education in all regions". The report said the
authorities of all the universities and colleges will have to
take initiatives to introduce a positive trend inpolitics by
students and teachers. The UGC recommended for immediate
setting up of an 'Accreditation Council' to ensure quality
education in the country's universities.
In our country highest educational degrees are provided by the
universities. But education at university level is in a
shambles. The public universities are unable to accommodate
the growing number of students. Moreover, studies there are
hampered by sudden closures following disturbances, session
jam etc and engagement of teachers outside in part time jobs
or consultancy work at different NGOs. Taking the chance of
this situation there has been a mushroom growth of private
universities. While the number of public universities in the
country stands at 32, a total of 52 private universities are
now operating in the country. A section of the private
universities are engaged in education business to earn quick
money and allegedly involved in malpractices like sales of
certificates.
The UGC report has rightly projected the state of country's
universities -both public and private. In fact the situation
is far from satisfactory as most of them are failing in
imparting quality education properly. So the government should
take immediate measures to improve the quality of education in
the universities.
It is a good sign that apparently, to that end the cabinet on
Monday approved the amended Private University Act 2009 in
order to ensure quality education and bring discipline in
private universities. The cabinet at its meeting with Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina. in the chair okayed the Act which was
approved in principle on October 19, 2009. Press Secretary to
the Prime Minister while briefing the newsmen said approval of
48 private universities expired in 2009 while another five
have "no eligibility to run academic activities." Introduced
in 1992 the Act was last amended in 1998 to ensure quality,
eligibility and discipline in private universities.
The amended Act states that each university will prepare a
structure for tuition fees that is consistent with
socio-economic conditions and will present it to the
University Grants Commission and the government.. The Act
requires 20 years teaching or administrative experience or 10
years of teaching and 10 years of administrative experience to
become a vice chancellor.
Enactment of law is easy but strict enforcement of that is
difficult. If the amended Private University Act can be
implemented properly it would, hopefully, help ensure quality
of education and good governance in the private universities.
The law will also help eradicate the existing disorder in
private universities, and reduce anxiety of the students and
guardians concerned. However, along with the Private
University Act, the law relating to the public universities
should also be improved to enable it to cope with the changing
situation. In short, all necessary steps should be taken to
ensure quality education in the universities.
Rangpur as a
division
Rangpur
is a new division now. The government on Monday announced
Rangpur as a new division with eight northern districts
fulfilling the long-cherished demand of the people of the
region of the country. This raises the total number of
administrative division in the country to seven. The
announcement came from a meeting of the National
Implementation Committee for Administrative Reorganisation (NICAR)
held at the Secretariat with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in
the chair.The new division comprises the districts of Rangpur,
Kurigram, Gaibandha, Lal-monirhat, Dinajpur, Nil-phamari,
Panchagarh and Thakurgaon. All these district were under
Rajshahi division so long. The total population of Rangpur
division is 1,38,47,000.
Upgrading Rangpur to the status of a division was one of the
electoral pledges of the ruling Mohajote led by Awami League.
The then BNP-Jamaat government declared Barisal as the 5th
division in 1993 and Sylhet as the 6th division in 1995
besides four old divisions - Dhaka, Khulna, Rajshahi and
Chittagong. The people of greater Rangpur have long been
demanding creation of Rangpur division. It may be pointed out
that Sheikh Hasina's husband nuclear scientist MA Wazed Mia
came from Rangpur which is also the home district of Jatiya
Party chairman H M Ershad.
This new division reflects further decentralisation of the
administration .The jubilation and celebration that swept the
eight districts concerned following the announcement on Monday
indicated clearly that the people there wanted this and they
are happy with this. We congratulate the people of Rangpur
division on their success in getting a long cherished demand
realised. The government also should be appreciated for
honouring the aspiration of the people there. Now it is hoped
that the people of the new division will work unitedly for the
progress and development of the hitherto neglected region.
Analysis
Could the Taliban reconcile with Kabul?
President Barack Obama took the lead by
emphasising the need for a political solution to stabilise
Afghanistan.
Rahimullah Yusufzai
All
who matter in Afghanistan are talking about reconciliation
with the Taliban, but on the Afghan government's terms.
Strangely enough, though, the offers of peace talks are being
made at a time when 37,000 fresh US and Nato troops are on
their way to the country in a desperate attempt to bring the
conflict to a military end. This is a turnaround from
statements from Western capitals in the past that the Taliban
are terrorists and not worthy of being engaged in political
talks or reconciliation.
President Barack Obama took the lead by emphasising the need
for a political solution to stabilise Afghanistan. US defence
secretary Robert Gates has been arguing that the Taliban were
part of the political fabric of Afghanistan and thus needed to
be included in its political mainstream.
Gen Stanley McChrystal, commander of the US-led Nato forces in
Afghanistan, has himself advocated a political solution. His
"surge" strategy is based on an attempt to weaken the Taliban
to compel them to agree to negotiations and a political
solution. In fact, he does not rule out the presence of the
Taliban in a future Afghan government.
However, the US, as well as its Western allies having soldiers
in Afghanistan, have presented certain conditions for talks
with the Taliban, including renunciation of violence and their
laying down their weapons. The Nato members who deployed
troops in the country and suffered losses would prefer to pull
out only after ensuring that at least a few of their
objectives in the region are achieved and Afghanistan doesn't
become a sanctuary for Al-Qaeda once again.
On the other hand, the Taliban, who won't give up the fight
easily after their sustained resistance against a formidable
enemy for so long, demand that all foreign forces withdraw
from Afghanistan and without any agreement on the country's
future and its system of government. So it would be naïve to
assume that the Taliban would cut a deal with the US and its
partners under pressure from Pakistan on terms that are more
favourable to Islamabad than to their leader Mulla Mohammad
Omar.
The Western nations also want the Taliban to accept
Afghanistan's constitution. British foreign secretary David
Miliband has gone a step further when he publicly stated that
the aim of the Western countries was to divide the Taliban and
overcome their resistance. In fact, this is precisely the aim
of all Western nations jointly fighting the Taliban in
Afghanistan and failing despite eight years of intense efforts
involving significant human and material losses. Past attempts
to create divisions in Taliban ranks have failed and now new
strategies are being devised to win over low- and mid-level
militants.
Referred to as a reintegration plan, it is the initiative of
President Hamid Karzai. He isn't in a strong position to make
a success of such a critical move despite his re-election for
a second term, in fraud-tainted presidential and provincial
council elections last August. In fact, he is now entangled in
a struggle for power with an increasingly assertive parliament
that twice refused recently to give a vote of confidence to 27
of the 41 ministers proposed by him. This tussle will now last
longer as the elections for parliament have been delayed from
May to September.
Besides, President Karzai and the fractious opposition groups
in and outside parliament would continue to wrangle over the
contentious issue of reforming the election commission before
the polls, particularly in view of the rigging. That would sap
the energy of Karzai's government and make it difficult for
him to offer reintegration to the Taliban, and from a position
of strength.
The latest initiative to wean away Taliban foot-soldiers and
local commanders from the top leadership isn't really
something new. The National Reconciliation Commission headed
by former Afghan president Sebghatullah Mojadeddi was part of
a similar exercise to persuade former fighters to lay down
their arms and reconcile with the state. Mojadeddi, Mr
Karzai's boss during the Afghan war against the Soviet
occupying forces, had thought that in his capacity as a former
Mujahideen leader and spiritual figure he would be able to
prevail upon the Taliban and other militants to stop fighting,
but he was unable to achieve much.
The only change, and a significant one, in President Karzai's
new reintegration plan is the availability of more funds to
pursue the goal of triggering defections from Taliban ranks by
offering surrendering fighters jobs, education and protection.
An amount of one billion dollars provided by the US is now
available to fund this project, and other countries are
willing to contribute to the effort once it gets the green
signal at the international conference on Afghanistan being
hosted by the UK in London on Thursday.
The cornerstone of this initiative is that a large number of
Taliban fighters aren't ideologically motivated and are
fighting because they are jobless or harbour grievances
against the foreign forces and the Afghan government, and
warlords who are part of the ruling dispensation. The main
idea is to offer them money and jobs and, once they switch
sides, protection from their former Taliban colleagues.
There is a strong belief in the West, and even in Kabul, that
the Taliban are able to pay more to their fighters than the
monthly salary of $101 that Afghan soldiers receive. This is
unproven and misplaced, because those who have seen Taliban
fighters would confirm their poor living conditions, lack of
resources and the poverty of their families. If this
commitment on their part is indeed the case, then the whole
premise of buying off the Taliban to out down the insurgency
is flawed and hence unlikely to succeed.
In fact, the Taliban have made it clear that no amount of
money would weaken their resistance as they were motivated by
the religious cause of jihad and were fighting to liberate
their homeland from foreign forces. Though some fighters would
certainly stop fighting in return for favours and the media
would initially highlight it as a promising development, the
majority, as in the past, would stay loyal to Mulla Omar and
continue the resistance.
In the context of Pakistan, it was instructive to note that
its offer to help the US and its allies in bringing the Afghan
Taliban to the negotiation table was immediately seen as proof
in Kabul and some Western capitals that Mulla Omar, the
Haqqanis and other top Taliban commanders had refuge in
Pakistan and were under the influence of the Pakistani
military, and that they were allowed to stay despite
assertions to the contrary. The largely pro-government Afghan
media went to town with talk shows and analyses on the issue
and allegations were made that Islamabad wanted to appease the
US and position itself to receive more military and civilian
assistance by offering to use its influence with the Taliban
to encourage reconciliation in Afghanistan.
Islamabad certainly has influence on the Afghan Taliban and
some of their top leaders and commanders have been allowed to
hide in Pakistan, as in the past when Afghan Mujahideen were
given refuge and not stopped from operating from inside
Pakistani territory.
However, there have been limits to Islamabad's influence on
Mulla Omar's Taliban in the past when they refused Pakistan's
requests to deliver Osama bin Laden to the US, not to destroy
the Buddhas in Bamiyan, expel wanted Pakistanis hiding in
Afghanistan under Taliban refuge and not to misuse the
facility of the Afghan Transit Trade. Even now there would be
limits as to what Pakistan can do to persuade the Afghan
Taliban to agree to reconciliation in Afghanistan. It seems
Pakistan's influence over the Afghan Taliban and credibility
with them eroded following its decision to assist the US in
invading Afghanistan in 2001 and removing Mulla Omar from
power.
Pakistan will have to be careful not to argue the cause of the
Afghan Taliban to such an extent that it leads to the
strengthening of the Pakistani Taliban, because the links
between these two militant groups cannot be broken easily. It
is ironic that the West is keen to promote reconciliation and
political dialogue with the Afghan Taliban while insisting on
the military defeat of the Pakistani Taliban.
The writer is resident editor of The News in Peshawar.
Email: rahim yusufzai@yahoo.com
US nuclear
duplicity
US journal Arms Control Today wrote in its issue of
July/August 2009, "Indian military planners foolishly
believe they can engage in and win a limited conventional
conflict without triggering a nuclear exchange.
Asif Ezdi
The
National Command Authority (NCA) had a well-publicised
meeting on Jan 13 against the background of recent
statements by India's army chief Gen Deepak Kapoor that
his country is capable of conducting conventional military
strikes against Pakistan under a nuclear umbrella, and of
fighting both Pakistan and China at the same time. The NCA
meeting was also significant because it took place a week
before the start of the 2010 session of the Conference on
Disarmament (CD), at which the commencement of
negotiations on a treaty on limiting the production of
fissile material for nuclear weapons will be the major
issue of discussion.
Kapoor's statements reflect a dilemma that India has faced
since the nuclear tests of 1998. While India established
its claim to be a nuclear power, it also forced Pakistan
to demonstrate its nuclear capability. The resulting
nuclear standoff between the two countries made a resort
to conventional warfare an extremely risky venture and had
the effect of largely neutralising the advantage in
conventional weapons capability that India enjoys over
Pakistan. But India is unwilling to accept this reality.
As the reputed US journal Arms Control Today wrote in its
issue of July/August 2009, "Indian military planners
foolishly believe they can engage in and win a limited
conventional conflict without triggering a nuclear
exchange, even though the Pakistani army's strategy relies
on nuclear weapons to offset India's overwhelming
conventional superiority." It is this thinking that lies
behind India's offensive military doctrines like "Cold
Start," and statements such as those made by Kapoor.
These warnings are not only "foolish" but they also become
highly dangerous when they come from a senior official of
a major foreign power, such as the declaration by US
defence secretary Robert Gates last week that if there was
a repeat of the Mumbai incident, India should not be
expected to show the same restraint that it exercised last
time. This statement can only be characterised as highly
irresponsible. It is also illogical, because Gates
acknowledged that the terrorist threat came from non-state
actors outside the control of the Pakistani authorities.
Not only that, he also tried to convince the Pakistani
leadership in Islamabad that the country did not face any
threat on its eastern borders. The defence secretary
evidently does not seem to have realised the inherent
contradiction between these two stances.
The uneasy peace that the region has enjoyed in recent
years rests mainly on the effectiveness of nuclear
deterrence. That is why the proposed Fissile Material
Treaty (FMT), which could significantly affect the future
nuclear programmes of Pakistan and India, is of such vital
interest. The CD broke an 11-year impasse in May last year
by agreeing on a work programme for negotiating the
treaty. But the commencement of negotiations was held up
because of differences over the implementation of the work
programme.
Pakistan insisted that progress on the FMT should proceed
in tandem with the other core issues before the CD.
Largely because of Pakistani objections, the CD could not
commence its work on the FMT last year. At the opening
session of the CD this year (Jan 19), the Pakistani
delegation proposed that the conference should also
consider conventional arms control at the regional level
and negotiate a global regime on all aspects of missiles.
Because of the lack of agreement on this proposal, the
adoption of the agenda has been delayed.
Behind these procedural questions, there are important
substantive differences. There is no agreement yet on the
fundamental question whether the treaty should only
prohibit future production or deal also with existing
stocks of fissile material. Pakistan has pointed out that
freezing the existing asymmetries would undermine its
security. The Pakistani delegation has also underlined
that for Pakistan the issue is linked to the decision of
the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), taken in 2008 at US
initiative, to allow nuclear trade with India, while
continuing the embargo on Pakistan. This deal, as Pakistan
has maintained, would enable India to produce substantial
additional quantities of fissile material for nuclear
weapons and consequently upset strategic balance in the
region.
The NCA underlined in its press release that during
consideration of the FMT by the CD, Pakistan would not
accept any discriminatory measures that perpetuate
regional instability or are prejudicial to its national
security. This is absolutely right. But the question
remains whether the procedural tactics being employed by
our delegation to stall the work of the CD on the FMT are
the best means of achieving our goals. The alternative
would be to take part in the negotiations and work for a
treaty which is in keeping with our national interests.
Failing that, we could withhold our signatures from it.
This is the course India has taken. New Delhi has
reservations on halting the production of fissile material
and has declared that it will not accept obligations that
hinder its nuclear weapons programme. But it has not
obstructed negotiations on the treaty.
After the procedural moves made by our delegation in
Geneva, Washington and other supporters of the FMT may be
expected to make diplomatic demarches urging Islamabad to
withdraw its objections to the proposed CD agenda. And if
the past is any guide, our Government will not be able to
stand up to U.S. pressure.
Our fundamental problem is that our national security
policies are largely determined by domestic political
considerations. Our response to the India-US nuclear deal
is a striking example of this attitude. After it was made
public in July 2005, the Musharraf regime made some noises
in public expressing its unhappiness but, as
Undersecretary of State William J Burns indicated in a
meeting with the press in December 2006, Musharraf let it
be known privately that he was "not unhappy" with the
deal. Musharraf was clearly not prepared to jeopardise US
support for his rule. Musharraf's policies on this issue
have been followed under Zardari - and for the same
reasons. He has not taken up the question of Pakistan's
access to civilian nuclear technology in any of his
meetings with US leaders. Nor has Gilani or Foreign
Minister Qureshi. Also, Nawaz Sharif has not raised it in
any of his public speeches or his meetings with visiting
leaders from the US administration or Congress. Our
"sovereign" parliament has not discussed it either.
In July 2008, several retired ambassadors of Pakistan
called upon the government to make civil nuclear
cooperation a high-priority issue in our agenda with the
United States and other leading NSG members. Later, in
September 2009 some former ambassadors wrote in an open
letter to Obama that if Pakistan continues to be denied
access to civilian nuclear technology on the same terms as
India, our partnership with US in the global effort to
eradicate terrorism would remain fragile and Pakistan
would not be in a position to sign the Comprehensive Test
Ban Treaty (CTBT) or the FMT.Gilani occasionally complains
to the media about the double standards of US policy on
international civilian nuclear cooperation. He recently
brought up this matter with a US congressional delegation.
Someone needs to tell him that it is not to the media and
US congressmen but the US president and heads of
government of other leading NSG countries to whom he
should be addressing himself.
In a letter to Zardari last November, Obama offered an
expanded strategic partnership to Pakistan. If Gilani is
serious, he should now write to the US president to
emphasise that if this partnership is to be meaningful, it
must include access for Pakistan to civilian nuclear
technology. The prime minister should also urge Obama to
take the lead in getting Pakistan a waiver from NSG
guidelines similar to that given to India. This issue
should be made a priority item of the bilateral agenda,
starting with the talks being hosted by Hillary Clinton in
Washington next month. Gilani should similarly take it up
with other leading NSG members.
The writer is a former member of the Pakistan Foreign
Service. Email: asifezdi@yahoo.com
Viewpoints
When aid is militarised
What worries
critics is that the militarisation of aid is a dangerously
slippery slope whereby development aid is distorted or even
entirely subordinated to achieve military objectives.
Madeleine Bunting
This
Wednesday there is a crucial international meeting on Yemen
squeezed in ahead of the London conference the following day
on Afghanistan, and at both, the UK's Department for
International Development (DfID) will play a major role.
Key to the discussions on these fragile states will be the
task of 'state building', or how external actors can build
'capacity', as the lingo goes, and help governments to win
legitimacy, keep peace, raise taxes and provide the rule of
law. Much of this is increasingly seen as DfID's fiefdom; in
Afghanistan it is the lead UK department on economic
development and governance.
It works closely with the ministry of defence (MoD) and, with
a budget more than three times that of the foreign office -
and, ring-fenced from cuts, it will soon more than quadruple
its former parent department - DfID is a frontline player in
foreign policy. Since the primary objective of the latter is
counter-terrorism, this now plays an increasing role in what
British aid is all about.
That's not quite the public image of a cuddly DfID, an
unqualified Labour success story of exemplary altruistic
internationalism: all cherubic African children safely
immunised and getting an education. That still goes on, but
bundled in with this good news story is something very subtle
but entirely different, and it's about how aid is being used
to secure western strategic interests. Seven major
non-governmental aid agencies working in Afghanistan will say
in a report published on Wednesday that they are "deeply
concerned about the harmful effects of this increasingly
militarised aid strategy" in the country.
In the UK, there are vigorous efforts to ensure that DfID's
pronounced aims - cost-effective poverty reduction - are not
compromised, but the mission drift is already evident, and
likely to become even more pronounced under a Conservative
government. The pressure from the US is clear; Hillary Clinton
in a speech earlier this month was unapologetic: "Development
... today is a strategic, economic and moral imperative - as
central to advancing American interests and solving global
problems as diplomacy and defence." It is "time to elevate
development as a central pillar of all that we do in foreign
policy".
The reasoning behind such a statement is at first glance
plausible: poverty causes conflict and development brings
peace. It is the theme Tony Blair took up in the aftermath of
9/11 when he talked of "draining the swamps", resolving the
economic problems which might prove a fertile ground for
terrorism. But as Professor Chris Cramer of the School of
Oriental and African Studies points out, development itself
can cause conflict, creating winners and losers; besides,
there is no clear causal link between poverty and extremism.
Many of the 9/11 bombers, and the Christmas day bomber, came
from wealthy families.
What worries critics is that the militarisation of aid is a
dangerously slippery slope whereby development aid is
distorted or even entirely subordinated to achieve military
objectives.
Huge increases in DfID budgets for Afghanistan and Iraq since
2001 and 2003 indicate how the priority of poverty reduction
(enshrined in a 2006 act) gets eroded. Countries with
comparable or higher poverty levels get less funding. There
are inevitable tensions: is DfID in Afghanistan to reduce
poverty or help end a war? DfID argues forcefully that the two
are mutually reinforcing and best achieved by building
capacity in government, training police and extending the rule
of Kabul.
But the argument is riddled with questions. The Russians
poured aid into Afghanistan, did plenty of 'capacity building'
and still lost the war; the Afghan economy has grown
considerably but it has done nothing to build confidence in
the Kabul state. Propping up a corrupt regime in Afghanistan
or Yemen will do little to alleviate poverty. But no, insists
a DfID official, "don't let the best be the enemy of the
good". Fair enough, except that this justification sounds
worryingly familiar from the Cold War view.
Look closer at the DfID budget and hundreds of millions go
into 'governance' budgets such as training police, compared to
a tiny sum spent on water resources. That's not quite what
Make Poverty History campaigners in 2005 were trying to
achieve. Unwittingly, the increasing aid budgets have proved a
useful resource for counter-terrorism.
When international attention landed on Yemen's links with Al
Qaeda at Christmas, who at the London roundtables had a budget
line which could pay for 'state building'? DfID. It puts a
whole new light on the opposition Conservatives oft-repeated
pledge not to cut DfID funding.
Middle East
needs bridges, not walls
Obama is under
fire, Netanyahu is bellicose and the prospects for the
peace process look bleak.
Linda S. Heard
Middle
East peace has rarely seemed as remote as it does now.
Instead of coming up with solutions, those involved are
hurling accusations, erecting fences or throwing up their
hands in despair. The longer this dangerous impasse
continues the more the cauldron of violence threatens to
boil over. None of the parties are immune from criticism,
although some are more to blame than others.
The major hurdle to progress is the current Israeli
government led by the hawkish Benjamin Netanyahu; a man
who has never believed in relinquishing land for peace.
While it's true that under pressure from Washington he has
recently paid lip-service to the idea of a Palestinian
state, his actions relate an entirely different story.
Under Netanyahu's watch, Israel has rejected calls for a
freeze on illegal Jewish West Bank colonies and continues
to oust Palestinians from their homes in Occupied East
Jerusalem to building housing developments earmarked for
colonists. Knesset member Mohammad Barakeh believes Israel
intends to empty the holy city of its Arab citizens, which
he calls "a crime against the Arab population and a crime
against the peace process."
Netanyahu concurrently maintains the three-year-long
crippling blockade on Gaza responsible for thrusting 1.5
million Palestinians into dire poverty, destroying their
quality of life, eroding educational standards and
undermining health care.
A metal wall currently being built by Egypt designed to
penetrate deep into the ground will further deprive Gaza's
inhabitants of food, medicine and other essentials that
are smuggled in via an underground network of tunnels
stretching to the Egyptian border town of Rafah. Egypt is
bound to prevent weapons smuggling under its peace treaty
with Israel and considers the tunnels a threat to its own
security.
Defiant
For its part, Israel believes its vulnerable border with
Egypt threatens its security and plans to construct a $274
million (Dh1 billion) "surveillance fence", which
Netanyahu says will keep out "infiltrators and
terrorists", along with asylum seekers, illegal migrants
and illegal workers. When it is completed in two years, it
will effectively see Israel all but fenced in from its
Syrian, Lebanese, Jordanian and Egyptian neighbours, as
well as from Gaza and the West Bank. This is hardly the
action of a country seeking friendly interaction with
others in the neighbourhood. In truth, no wall or fence
can assure a nation's security; only a fair and just peace
can ultimately achieve that.
In the meantime, Netanyahu erects insurmountable walls to
peace. Just last week, he told Israel's Foreign Press
Association that he would only be prepared to accept a
demilitarised Palestinian state with an Israeli military
presence along its eastern border, ostensibly to prevent
missiles being smuggled in from Jordan.
In other words, any such state would not possess the
ability to defend itself and would be liable to incursions
by Israeli forces according to the Israeli government's
whim. Add to this condition the Israeli prime minister's
absolute rejection of Israel's 1967 borders, the principle
of sharing Occupied Jerusalem between Israelis and
Palestinians and the right of return for Palestinian
refugees and there's not much left to talk about.
And that's exactly why Palestinian National Authority
President Mahmoud Abbas has quit talking. Netanyahu has
made no concessions to the demands of the international
community or the Palestinians yet he has the audacity to
wag his finger at Abbas, saying, "Instead of starting
negotiations, the Palestinians have climbed up a tree and
appear to be staying there. The more ladders they bring
them, they just climb higher up."
Netanyahu must realise that he's kidding no one, but he
doesn't care. Some commentators believe he's biding his
time until US President Barack Obama falls out of favour
and becomes too weak to even think of heaping pressure on
Israel. If that's his strategy it may well work.
With his health care bill now jeopardised by the loss of
the Democrats' 60-vote filibuster-enabling Senate
majority, Obama is in no mood to put whatever is left of
his credibility on the line over Middle East peace,
evidenced by an interview published by Time magazine
earlier this month.
The US leader abandoned his inspirational rhetoric to
admit that the issue was the most "intractable" he had
ever encountered and blamed Israelis and Palestinians for
being unwilling to make bold gestures. "I think it is
absolutely true that what we did this year [2009] didn't
produce the kind of breakthrough that we wanted and if we
had anticipated some of these political problems on both
sides earlier, we might not have raised expectations as
high," he said.
So that's it then! The message from all sides is that
there is little hope. Unless the Arab world, partnered
with Turkey, decides to get seriously tough, the
Palestinian dream will remain just that for a long time to
come.
Linda S. Heard is a specialist writer on Middle East
affairs. She can be contacted at lheard@gulfnews.com Some
of the comments may be considered for publication.
Scourge of ‘Islam Experts’
Lumping all Muslims in the same basket with the rotten few
is short-sighted, plain wrong and does a disservice to
mankind.
Claude Salhani
One
of the negative by-products of the 9/11 attacks is the
emergence of hordes of self-proclaimed experts on
intricately complex issues such as the Middle East, Islam
and terrorism.
In fact being an 'expert' in one of the above-mentioned
topics has become something of a lucrative industry for
some. The problem arising from this new - or perhaps not
so new - phenomenon is that some people, even some
intelligent people (and at times some intelligence people)
start to believe the rot that is disseminated by these
'experts.'
A method used is to take an element of truth and mix it
with fabrications and the two become intertwined and
difficult to separate. Repeat a falsehood often enough and
it becomes the truth - or at least it appears to be,
especially to those who don't know better. Josef Goebbels,
Hitler's Minister of Propaganda, perfected this fine art.
What pushed me to write this column is an article titled
'Is a Nice Muslim a Good Muslim?', written by a Bill
Warner, someone who was described to me as a 'serious
scholar of Islam.'
I was aghast at what I read and told the friend who
relayed the article that people like that scare me as much
as the Islamist fascists. What the article does is take
extracts of the Koran and uses them to justify that there
can be no such thing as a nice Muslim. According to the
article, one is either a Muslim or is not. One either
follows the principles of Islam, or does not, and
therefore is not a Muslim. Says the 'expert:' 'However,
the truth is that a Muslim' is not always a Muslim. When
they do not follow Islamic doctrine, they are no longer a
Muslim, but are kafir (non-Muslim).' In fact a kafir is a
non-believer. Very rarely would a Muslim be considered a
kafir, except if he cursed the prophet or insulted the
Koran. Rather, he would be considered a 'murtad.'
One can argue that similar rules apply to the Catholic
Church; you either believe in the teachings of the Church,
including the mystery of the Holy Trinity and the virgin
birth, or you don't. There is no pick and choose when it
comes to religion. Any religion. Of course one can comb
through the Koran and find pages upon pages that incite
Muslims to violence and look upon the rest of the world as
non-believers. But can the same not be said of the Bible?
The Old Testament is packed with chapters of a God who
urging his people to war, to kill and to show no mercy
?towards their enemies.
One can make a similar argument about Catholicism when the
Church went about killing non-believers (kafirs?) by the
thousands during the Spanish Inquisition. And what about
the Christians who slaughtered Africans and Native
Americans and native South Americans because they were
considered to be heathens?'There seems to be an inverse
relationship between how vociferous believers are in
claiming that their religion is peaceful and how peaceful
their religion actually is,' writes Austin Cline regional
director for the Council for Secular Humanism, a former
Publicity Coordinator for the Campus Freethought Alliance,
and a lecturer on religion and religious violence.
'Christians can be especially critical of how Muslims keep
insisting that Islam is a "religion of peace" despite the
extensive world-wide violence being committed by Muslims
in the name of Islam. Such Christians seem to want to
insist that theirs is the real "religion of peace," said
Mr. Cline.
Yet history shows us that Christians can be as ruthless as
others. The Cathar War in 1209 when the pope based in
Avignon waged a crusade against the Cathars in southern
France is but one example. When asked how they could
recognise Catholics from Cathars as the crusaders were
about to assault the city of Beziers, Arnaud Amalric, the
papal legate and inquisitor sent by Pope Innocent III is
reported to have said, ' Kill them all, God will sort his
own.' ('Kill them all, Let God sort them out,' emerged
during the Vietnam War.) Amalric was also responsible for
the mass burning alive of "many heretics and many fair
women" at Casseneuil;" and for the slaughter at Beziers of
some 20,000 men, women and children, in what was termed an
"exercise of ?Christian charity."
I do not claim to be a scholar although I have lectured at
several universities in North America. I was published in
scores of international newspapers and respected journals
and appear on more than 40 radio and television channels
as a commentator on Middle Eastern affairs; as a
journalist I have covered the Middle East and its
associated problems for the good part of 30 years, more
than half that time based in the region, and with the
exception of two countries, I have visited every country
in the Middle East multiple times.
As such I can claim to know Muslims fairly well - good and
bad ones. I grew up with Muslims. I went to school with
Muslims. I socialised with Muslims. During my late teen
years when I stopped going to church my best friend at the
time, a Sunni Muslim (and my Jewish girlfriend) would each
grab me by an arm and force me into church to please my
mother. During my junior high school days when economic
times were tough and the Christian grocer down the road
refused my mother credit, it was the Muslim and the Druze
restaurant owner and the green grocer next door who gave
us credit.
This is not an apology for the bad things happening in the
world being committed by bad Muslims. There are good
Muslim and there are bad Muslims. Lumping all Muslims in
the same basket with the rotten few is short-sighted,
plain wrong and does a disservice to mankind.
Claude Salhani is editor of the Middle East Times and
author of two books on the Middle East. He's currently on
a visit to Kazakhstan
International
‘Terrorism's root
causes need to be addressed’
Dawn Online,
Dubai
Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Tuesday
said the hydra-headed menace of terrorism was our common
enemy and no one country could battle it out alone.
He termed the Friends of Democratic Pakistan "a collective
determination against an evil mindset" and urged the
international community to address root causes of
terrorism such as poverty and unemployment.
The foreign minister was addressing the Friends of
Democratic Pakistan's Public-Private Partnership
Conference in Dubai.
He said the three-year plan of reconstruction and
rehabilitation in Malakand comprised close to 500 projects
and would cost about $ 300 million.
The five year development plan, based on Post-crisis Needs
Assessment, would cost around $1.2 billion, and the FoDP
must expedite its process to complete these projects, the
minister said.
Pakistan has suffered huge economic losses of over $35
billion since September 11 in terms of infrastructure,
investment and exports, Qureshi said.
This amount, he said, is indeed negligible, as compared to
the billions of dollars being spent in the ongoing
conflict in Afghanistan.
Qureshi said that Pakistan prefers foreign investments in
building joint ventures, public-private partnerships,
investment and trade under frameworks and mechanisms that
can be sustained in the years to come.
Pak pro-govt lawyers call for
implementation of NRO verdict seriously
TBT International Desk
A number of pro-government senior lawyers who were at the
forefront of the movement for the independence of
judiciary have called upon the government to implement NRO
verdict.
On behalf of these lawyers, Rasheed A. Razvi said "We had
a meeting of the SHCBA on Monday. Although we believe that
all the decisions of the Supreme Court, especially on the
NRO, should be implemented by the executive in all
sincerity and seriously."
However he gave intimation that they will not boycott
court proceedings on Thursday. Opposing the strike call
given by the National Coordination Council (NCC) for Jan
28, he warned that the move would harm democracy and
constitutionalism and divide their community.
"This is premature and we are not going to boycott courts
on Thursday," Sindh High Court Bar Association president
Rasheed A. Razvi said. On Sunday, the Supreme Court Bar
Association's president Qazi Mohammad Anwar, claiming to
be the new chairman of the council, had issued a call for
a countrywide lawyers' strike on Jan 28 to press for
implementation of the apex court's verdict on the NRO.
It may be mentioned that during the two-year struggle for
an independent judiciary, lawyers used to boycott court
proceedings and hold demonstrations every Thursday.
He said the association had also endorsed his demand that
seniority should always be the criteria for elevating a
judge to the Supreme Court.
"Therefore, Justice Saqib Nisar of the Lahore High Court
should be appointed as the LHC chief justice and Chief
Justice Khawaja Mohammad Sharif should be elevated as a
Supreme Court judge," he said.
Aitzaz Ahsan, the pioneer of the NCC, told a television
channel that he still was the chairman of the council and
he had not been invited to the meeting.
None of the senior members of the council, including
former SCBA president Ali Ahmed Kurd, Tariq Mehmood,
Muneer A. Malik and Anwar Kamal, was asked to attend the
meeting.
Mr Ahsan termed the decision premature, warning that it
would divide the lawyers community.
He said the call would not even get a positive response in
the NWFP from where Qazi Anwar had succeeded as the SCBA
president with a very thin margin.
"We used to announce decisions after holding detailed
discussions and consulting all members of the council and
every bar association of the country," he said.
He quoted Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's to have said
that NRO will be implemented and suggested the lawyers to
wait and see whether or not the PM keeps his word.
Bitter rivals vie for Sri
Lanka presidency
BBC Online
Sri Lankans have voted in the country's first presidential
election since Tamil Tiger rebels were defeated after more
than 25 years of civil war. The day passed largely
peacefully but there were several minor bomb blasts.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa faces a close contest against
his bitter rival, former army chief Gen Sarath Fonseka.
The former allies fell out after the defeat of the rebels
last year. Results are expected on Wednesday. Turnout was
put at more than 60%.
BBC correspondents say with the ethnic Sinhalese vote
split between the two men, Tamil and Muslim minorities
could play a decisive part in the outcome.
If no candidate has 50% plus one vote after the first
count, second preferences will be tallied and the
candidate with the greatest number of votes wins.
'Better tomorrow'
After a violent and acrimonious campaign, many had feared
the worst on election day. The two-month-long campaign
left four people dead and hundreds wounded. Nearly 68,000
police were deployed to protect polling stations.
In the event, however, large numbers turned out to vote in
a mostly peaceful atmosphere, says the BBC's Charles
Haviland in Colombo.
But there were serious exceptions, especially in the
Tamil-populated north. In the city of Jaffna, the private
Centre for Monitoring Election Violence said there were at
least six explosions before and just after voting began.
Later there were two blasts in Vavuniya, the town near the
huge camps for people displaced by the war. The
organisation said it feared this was a systematic attempt
to scare people away from voting.
Reports from Jaffna suggested a low turnout there.
Nonetheless, many displaced people did vote.
There were also grenade attacks in the Sinhala-dominated
centre and south. Here the fight between the two
candidates has been especially bitter, our correspondent
says.
Among the early voters was President Rajapaksa.
"Today's victory will be remarkable... We are getting
ready to enjoy a better tomorrow," he told the news agency
Reuters after voting in his rural constituency on the
south coast.
In an unexpected twist, it later turned out that Gen
Fonseka had not been able to vote because his name was not
on the register.
State television put out a barrage of propaganda saying he
had no right to be president.
Neighboring countries voice
support to Afghanistan's reconciliation plan with Taliban
Xinhua, Istanbul
Afghanistan's neighboring countries said Tuesday they back
the war-torn country's plan to reconcile with moderate
Taliban forces as Afghan President Hamid Karzai sought
international support for the program.
"(We) support, therefore, the Afghan national process of
reconciliation and reintegration in accordance with the
Constitution of Afghanistan in a way that is Afghan-led
and - driven," the countries said in a statement issued
after a regional summit on Afghanistan held in the Turkish
city of Istanbul.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Turkish President
Abdullah Gul, Iranian First Vice President Mohammad-Reza
Rahimi, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and
Tajikistan Foreign Minister Hamrohon Zarifi issued the
Istanbul Statement together with Karzai.
They called for a comprehensive approach and regional
cooperation in addressing Afghanistan's challenges,
agreeing to reinforce efforts in fighting terrorism and
drug trafficking, prevent illegal cross-border weapon flow
and further develop trade, transport and energy corridors
in the region.
"(We) recognize the interconnected nature of the
challenges Afghanistan is facing and the fact that no
neighboring country is immune from them," according to the
statement.
At a press conference after the summit, Karzai reiterated
that his reconciliation program targets those Taliban
members who are not part of al-Qaida or any other terror
groups.
The president said the war on terror can not rely on
military solutions alone but should also employ the means
of politics and economic development.
He told reporters the upcoming international conference on
Afghanistan in London will be a major opportunity for his
country to explain the reconciliation program and the
resources it requires.
Karzai unveiled a western-funded program last week which
will provide funds and jobs for Taliban militants to come
back into mainstream society.
In an opening speech to the summit, Gul said terror cannot
be overcome nor contained by hard power alone. "Winning
the hearts and minds of the ordinary people is the key,"
he said.
Tuesday's statement also called for a bigger coordinating
role of the United Nations and the UN Assistance Mission
in Afghanistan, while saying the Afghan ownership should
be increased.
It urged the contributors to provide as much transparency
as possible in their assistance efforts to the country.
Karzai told the press conference a partnership between his
country and the United States must be based on cooperation
and sovereignty instead of submission. "If partnership
means submission to America, of course that will not be
the case," he said.
Stabilizing Afghanistan is at the top of the U.S.
President Barack Obama's foreign policy agenda. However,
the country still faces daunting challenges in security
front as well as social front. Obama announced last
December he will deploy another 30,000 U.S. troops to
Afghanistan in 2010 before the withdrawal in 2011. Last
week, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced a
long-term civilian strategy for Afghanistan, which calls
for a drastic increase of civilian experts sent to the
country and support for Afghan government's effort to
reintegrate moderate Taliban members.
North Korea may be readying
missile test - S.Korea TV
Reuters, Seoul
North Korea has declared a no-sail zone off its west
coast, indicating it may be readying to test-launch
missiles in the area, South Korean news broadcaster YTN on
Tuesday quoted a military official as saying.
The area is near a contested sea border with the South
that was the site of a brief naval clash in November
between the states, technically still at war, that left a
South Korean ship pockmarked with bullet holes and a North
Korean vessel limping back to port in flames.
About a month before that clash, North Korea rattled
regional security by firing short-range missiles off its
east coast.
"We are closely monitoring the area to inspect whether
this announcement was made as a part of their winter
training or to launch short-range missiles," the unnamed
official told YTN.
South Korean military officials said they were checking on
the YTN report.
Destitute North Korea in recent weeks has signalled that
it is ready to reduce the security threat it poses to
economically vital North Asia by saying it could end its
year-long boycott of international nuclear disarmament
talks.
Analysts said the latest moves may be an attempt by
Pyongyang to increase its leverage and win concessions to
lure it back to the table in the disarmament-for-aid talks
among the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United
States.
India celebrates Republic
Day under tight security
AFP, New Delhi
Blanket fog obscured India's 60th Republic Day
celebrations Tuesday, with the annual military parade in
New Delhi held under heightened security due to fears of
militant attacks.
Before the ceremonies kicked off, Indian and Pakistani
troops exchanged fire along their border in Kashmir, while
four policemen were hurt in bomb blasts in the northeast
where separatist groups traditionally disrupt the event.
Paramilitary officer J.B. Sagwan in Kashmir accused
Pakistan of opening fire to help cross-border rebels sneak
into the Indian zone of the divided territory but said no
one was injured in the clash-the third reported exchange
this year.
In New Delhi, South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak, the
guest of honour at the main celebration, joined his Indian
counterpart Pratibha Patil in a bullet-proof enclosure as
the military paraded its latest weaponry.
Around 15,000 police officers lined barricades across
Delhi and paramilitary soldiers manned sand-bagged
pillboxes along the fogged out eight-kilometre (five-mile)
parade route, city police commissioner Y.S.Dadwal said.
"Special emphasis was laid on anti-sabotage checks, access
control measures and intelligence coordination," he added.
"Elaborate air defence measures, including deployment of
anti-aircraft guns, were also taken to check possible
intrusion of air space," Dadwal said.
Dense fog spoiled the spectacle for thousands of
spectators watching the march past which included
camel-back troops along Delhi's ceremonial Rajpath avenue.
India also showcased its latest prized possession, an
Israel-built airborne early warning system, which joined a
28-plane fly-past that was largely obscured from view.
Iran
to inaugurate missile projects in February
Reuters, Tehran
Iran will inaugurate several missile and arms projects
next month to coincide with the 31st anniversary of its
1979 Islamic revolution, a Revolutionary Guards commander
said on Tuesday.
Guards commander Massoud Jazayeri did not say whether Iran
would test-fire new missiles and gave no other details of
the planned events. A missile launch would be likely to
add to tension with Western powers worried by Iran's
nuclear ambitions.
"Iran's Defence Ministry will inaugurate several missiles
and arms projects during the Fajr (Dawn) 10-day period,
marking the victory of the 1979 Islamic revolution," he
told a news conference. New satellite projects would at
the same time be unveiled by Iran's aerospace organisation,
he said.
Iran marks the revolution's anniversary from Feb. 1-11,
starting on the day in 1979 when the Islamic Republic's
founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned to Tehran
from exile in France.
In mid-December, Iran said it successfully test-fired a
long-range, upgraded Sejil 2 missile. At the time, British
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the launch was of serious
concern to the international community and underlined the
case for tougher sanctions against Iran, the world's
fifth-largest oil exporter.
The West fears Iran's nuclear programme is aimed at making
bombs. Tehran denies the charge. Neither Israel nor the
United States have ruled out military action if diplomacy
fails to resolve the dispute. Iran has vowed to retaliate
against any attack. The United States and its European
allies are planning to impose further sanctions on Iran
after its failure to meet an effective U.S. deadline of
Dec. 31 to accept a U.N.-brokered proposal to send its
uranium abroad for processing.
Tehran has sought amendments to the deal, under which it
would transfer stocks of low-enriched uranium (LEU) abroad
and receive fuel in return for a medical research reactor.
Tehran says it could produce the fuel itself if it is not
able to obtain it from abroad.
On Sunday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran
would announce "good news" about Iran's nuclear fuel
production in February.
Abbas under heavy pressure
to resume Israeli-Palestinian talks
Xinhua, Gaza
Senior Palestinian National Authority (PNA) officials
revealed on Tuesday that the United States is practicing
heavy pressure on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas,
denying that the U.S. Administration has presented any new
plan to resume the stalled peace talks.
Nabil Shaath, central committee member of Abbas' Fatah
party, told Xinhua that U.S. President Barack Obama
administration "is strongly pressuring Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas to resume the stalled peace talks
with Israel without clear guarantees."
"Instead of forcing Israel to carry out the articles of
the Road Map, Washington, along with the international
community, put pressure on the Palestinians without
obliging Israel to stop settlement," said Nabil Shaath.
Shaath added that the United States "was not interested in
colliding with Israel and that's why it directed its
pressure towards the Palestinian leadership."
Shaath stressed that the pressure will not succeed in
changing Abbas's position. "The Palestinian leadership is
firm in rejecting the U.S. and Israeli demands," he said.
To overcome the pressure, Abbas started a visit to several
countries in his "international quest for protection" for
his stance.
In addition to his ongoing tour which included Russia,
Kazakhstan, Britain and Germany, Abbas will also visit
China, Japan, India and South Africa next month, according
to Shaath.
Meanwhile, Shaath revealed that the Palestinian National
Authority (PNA) has rejected a U.S. offer to resume the
negotiations, describing the proposal as a "consolation
prize that is completely unaccepted."
Iraq seeks to ban
glorifying Baath party, symbols
Reuters, Baghdad
The Iraqi government asked parliament to make glorifying
Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baath party a crime as tensions
simmered over the banning of hundreds of candidates from a
March election.
The list of candidates barred from the March 7 vote
because of Baathist ties enraged minority Sunnis, who
dominated Iraq under Saddam because they felt it targeted
them and was an attempt by majority Shi'ites to
marginalise their community.
The list actually included more Shi'ite politicians than
Sunnis and around 50 of the 511 names on it were removed
because they were found to have been wrongly included. But
questions about the legality of the committee that picked
the names and the opaque manner in which it did so have
raised fears the election may deepen Iraq's sectarian
divide, not heal it, just as violence begins to fade.
Coordinated assaults on Monday by suspected Sunni Islamist
suicide bombers on three Baghdad hotels were a reminder
that security gains remain fragile. More than 30 people
died. As the election controversy continued, the
government's National Media Centre said the cabinet had
asked parliament to add to the Iraqi criminal code a
clause making it a crime to praise Saddam's Baath party or
to promote its ideas.
It asked lawmakers to criminalise symbols associated with
the party, presumably including a map of Arab countries
united in one homeland that was Saddam's Baath party
symbol, and called for the full implementation of a
committee's recommendation to replace statues and murals
from Saddam's
Yemen won’t allow foreign
operations on its soil
Reuters, London
Yemen needs logistical support to help fight al Qaeda but
will not allow foreign covert operations against the
global militant group on its territory, Yemeni Foreign
Minister Abubakr al-Qirbi told the BBC.
The government in Sanaa declared open war on al Qaeda this
month, stepping up air strikes and security sweeps after a
regional arm of the militant group based in Yemen said
they were behind a failed Dec. 25 bid to blow up a
U.S.-bound airliner.
But in the interview, Qirbi ruled out allowing a U.S.
military base on Yemeni soil or covert foreign operations
in the country.
"We will undertake it ourselves. Why do we need outside
soldiers to fight when we can do the fight ourselves?"
said Qirbi in the interview broadcast on Tuesday.
He said the government had mistakenly allowed foreign
intervention in 2002, when a U.S. missile strike killed an
al Qaeda leader suspected of planning the 2000 suicide
bombing of the U.S. warship Cole.
"It proved to be a terrible mistake, and this is why we
don't want to repeat it. We have to do it ourselves and
anybody who is interested will have to support us," Qirbi
said.
U.S. defence and counter-terrorism officials say
Washington has been quietly supplying military equipment,
intelligence and training to Yemen to destroy suspected al
Qaeda hide-outs.
Qirbi rejected any suggestion that the government had
allowed al Qaeda to flourish in the country by refusing to
confront militants in the past.
France MPs’ report backs
Muslim face veil ban
BBC Online
A French parliamentary committee has recommended a partial
ban on women wearing Islamic face veils.
The committee's near 200-page report has proposed a ban in
hospitals, schools, government offices and on public
transport. It also recommends that anyone showing visible
signs of "radical religious practice" should be refused
residence cards and citizenship. The interior ministry
says just 1,900 women in France wear the full veils.
In its report, the committee said requiring women to cover
their faces was against the French republican principles
of secularism and equality.
"The wearing of the full veil is a challenge to our
republic. This is unacceptable. We must condemn this
excess," the report said.
The commission called on parliament to adopt a formal
resolution stating that the face veil was "contrary to the
values of the republic" and proclaiming that "all of
France is saying 'no' to the full veil".
Presenting the report to the French National Assembly,
speaker Bernard Accoyer said the face veil had too many
negative connotations.
"It is the symbol of the repression of women, and... of
extremist fundamentalism.
"This divisive approach is a denial of the equality
between men and women and a rejection of co-existence
side-by-side, without which our republic is nothing."
The report is expected to be followed by the drafting of a
bill and a parliamentary debate on the issue.
The BBC's Hugh Schofield, in Paris, says the reasoning
behind the report is to make it as impractical as possible
for women in face veils to go about their daily business.
There is also a fear that an outright ban would not only
be difficult to implement but would be distasteful and
could make France a target for terrorism, our
correspondent says.
Obama to address voter fears in State
of Union
Reuters, Washington
President Barack Obama, concerned by voter anxiety over
high unemployment, said on Monday he would use his State
of the Union speech on Wednesday to reassure Americans
worried about jobs and the economy.
"We're going to talk about how we can first of all, focus
on job creation and growth," Obama said in an interview
with U.S. television network ABC.
"There are going to be a set of proposals that we put
forward that help to stabilize the situation and deal with
the growing insecurity and anxiety of people who, even if
they haven't lost their job, are still feeling squeezed by
their incomes shrinking and their costs going up."
Obama's first State of the Union speech at 9 p.m. EST on
Wednesday (0200 GMT on Thursday) will give him a chance to
set the tone and priorities for his second year in office.
He is trying to balance the need to further boost the
economy with the necessity of reining in the U.S. budget
deficit, which soared to $1.4 trillion in 2009.
Faced with voter anxiety over high unemployment and
growing budget deficits, Obama's fellow Democrats are at
risk of big losses in congressional elections in November.
They suffered an embarrassing defeat in a special Senate
election last week in Massachusetts. Under pressure from
deficit hawks, Obama will seek a three-year freeze on
domestic spending excluding U.S. security in his 2011
budget that would save $250 billion by 2020, aides said on
Monday.
Obama will outline the spending hold-down in his State of
the Union address and will spell it out in detail on Feb.
1, when he unveils his second budget.
The 2010 budget allocated $447 billion to non-security
discretionary spending, or about one-eighth of the overall
budget. Agencies that could feel the pinch include the
Commerce, Interior, Justice and Labor departments, as well
as the Environmental Protection Agency.
Haiti’s president in urgent
appeal for more tents
BBC Online
Haitian President Rene Preval has made an urgent appeal
for more tents to house up to a million people left
homeless by the quake two weeks ago.
Mr Preval said 200,000 tents were needed before the
expected start of the rainy season in May.
His call came as donor nations and international
organisations met in the Canadian city of Montreal to
assess the aid effort and plan the next steps.
Delegates at the meeting agreed Haiti would need long-term
outside help.
"It was not an exaggeration to say that at least 10 years
of hard work awaits the world in Haiti," Canadian Prime
Minister Stephen Harper told the Montreal meeting.
Haiti's government could lead efforts to rebuild the
country in the wake of the devastating 12 January
earthquake, Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive
said.
But Mr Bellerive said "massive support" from the
international community was needed.
The delegates agreed to hold an international donors'
conference at the UN headquarters in New York in March.
It is believed the 7.0-magnitude quake killed as many as
200,000 people. An estimated 1.5 million people have been
left homeless.
Shelter
On Monday, President Preval issued a statement from
Port-au-Prince, calling for the urgent airlift of 200,000
more tents and 26 million ready-to-eat meals before the
rainy season begins in May.
Mr Preval, who lost his house in the quake, is planning to
move into a tent on the lawn of the destroyed National
Palace in the centre of the capital.
The Haitian government is planning to relocate some
400,000 people, currently in makeshift camps across the
capital, to temporary tent villages outside the city.
"We have to evacuate the streets and relocate the people,"
Reuters quoted Communications Minister Marie Laurence
Jocelyn Lassegue as saying.
Business/Economy
Civil society urged to contribute to
making foreign aid more effective
UNB, Dhaka
European Union (EU) ambassador in Dhaka Dr Stefan Frowein
has urged the civil society members to find a way to work
together to elaborate common positions and lobby
effectively to contribute in development and progress to
make aid more effective.
"This is especially true in Bangladesh… where civil
society plays a crucial role as partner of the government
improving the living conditions of thousands and thousands
of people," he said while addressing a discussion at the
National Press Club Tuesday morning.
Voice (Voices for Interactive Choice and Empowerment) and
Aid Accountability Group jointly organized the discussion
titled 'Role of the Civil Society on Aid Effectiveness'.
Chaired by Voice executive director Ahmed Swapan Mahmud,
the discussion was addressed, among others, by deputy
Danish Charge de Affairs Jan Moller Hansen, executive
director of the Transparency International, Bangladesh (TIB)
Dr Iftekharuzzman and coordinator of Nijera Kori Khusi
Kabir.
DFID advisor for Aid Effectiveness Bo Sundstrom presented
at the session a keynote paper on 'How to work more
effectively together to deliver real development outcome'.
EU ambassador Dr Stefan Frowein said: ""We are debating
aid effectiveness in Bangladesh for years now. I think
good progress is being made. Government and development
partners have intensely discussed the reform of the Local
Consultative Group - the LCG - over the last 18 months."
He added: "Just recently we, the development partners,
have finally agreed on a draft Joint Cooperation Strategy
that can determine our relations and priorities in this
area for the years to come."
Frowein noted that now it is up to the government to
review and shape this document further through
consultation with all stakeholders in order to ensure that
the strategy really meets the needs of this country. "We
hope that by May or June (this year) this strategy would
be ready for signature," he said.
The EU ambassador said: "Now we are all ready for the BDF
(Bangladesh Development Forum) in February. This will be
an important spotlight:
For the first time in five years development agenda of
Bangladesh will be in the spotlight of donors as well as
government, civil society and media." He hoped that the
BDF would definitely become a key event for civil society
organizations that want to contribute to aid effectiveness
and development.
Frowein said the non-government organisations (NGOs) in
Bangladesh have not involved themselves very actively in
the ongoing reform of aid management. "So far - like in
many other countries - aid effectiveness debate has been
held mostly between donors and government."
He also stressed the need for taking comprehensive steps
to ensure aid effectiveness through maintaining accuracy
and accountability.
Jan Moller Hansen underscored ensuring public and
political accountabilities to continue smooth flow of the
foreign aids in Bangladesh.
India's
president for urgent steps to avoid spiralling food prices
BSS/PTI, New Delhi
Indian President Pratibha Patil on Monday called for
urgent steps towards a Second Green Revolution to ensure
food availability and to avoid spiralling prices.
Her suggestion to the government in her address to the
nation on the eve of Republic Day assumes significance in
the context of rising prices of food articles.
"The world over, as also in our country, there is a rising
demand for food-grains. This foretells the need for an
intense focus on increasing agriculture productivity to
ensure food availability, particularly of agricultural
produces which are in short supply, to avoid spiralling
food prices," Patil said.
To achieve this very important objective, she called for
urgent steps towards a Second Green Revolution. "There
should be use of new technologies, better seeds, improved
farming practices, effective water management techniques,
as well as more intense frameworks for connecting the
farmer with the scientific community, with lending
institutions and with markets," she said. The President
said country's farmers were ready and willing to work,
earn and learn and there was a need to respond them
positively and do some "out of the box thinking".
Patil said higher agriculture incomes will improve the
living standard of the over 145 million rural households
which will generate demand and provide impetus for growth
in other sectors. "Recognising this reality we have to
involve the agriculture economy more pro-actively into the
growth process, both as a centre of production and as a
generator of demands for various products and services,"
she said. The President said there were many
complementaries between farming communities and corporate
world because both were private and possibilities for
win-win partnership between them should be explored.
Buying spree at Walton pavilion at
DITF
TBT Economy Desk
As Dhaka International Trade Fair (DITF), taking place at
city's Sher-e-Banglanagar area, is getting closer to its
end people are also getting busy with last minute buying
rather than a simple tour on the ground.
Walton pavilion is among those who are experiencing a huge
rush of buyers each day at the fair. "Thousands of people
are thronging to the Walton pavilion as they are getting a
wide range of gift items under the magic offer programme
of the pavilion" said a sales executive at the pavillion.
Three new model LCD Television are the new features of the
company for which customer are thronging to the pavilion.
Director of the RB Group Sirajul Islam said to meet the
customer satisfaction, our company has launched three new
model of Walton TV in the market to cater to consumers.
Islam said the new model Walton TV sets ensure good
quality and sound picture that viewers will enjoy. The new
model Walton TV has the sophisticated picture tube that
also helps reduce electricity consumption and increase
durability. The price of TV set is most competitive as
42-inch set sells at 1,09,000 compared to 42-inch LCD
television set sells at taka 250,000. The electricity
consumption is also less compared to the television that
uses 'tension mask'. Earlier, an LCD TV was sold at Tk
32,000, and now it is sold at Tk 24,000.
A brand of LCD TV whose previous worth was Tk 65,000 now
being sold at Tk 44,900.
An LCD TV with big monitor is being sold at Tk 84,000 in
lieu of previous rate of Tk 1,10000.
From the first day of DITF, people are thronging to Walton
pavilion to buy Walton products, especially Walton brand
LCD monitor TV. Sales of Walton products have increased
significantly, and the company sees record sales this
year.
Sales of LCD monitor TV has increased this year compared
to the other previous fairs. Besides, under magic offer
programme everyday customers are winning from 4 to 5
pieces of LCD TV.
The pavilion is exhibiting 20 models and 50 colours of
refrigerators. Customers can choose any model and colour
of refrigerator, and the company is promised to change the
refrigerator if any fault is found within six months. The
company also offers easy home service after sale of their
products. Other products at Walton pavilion this year
include various models of motorcycle, TV, generator,
microwave oven.
EBRD wants 50pc capital boost
AFP, London
"The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
plans to boost its capital by 50 percent by 2015, its
president said on Monday.
Thomas Mirow said he hoped the next annual EBRD meeting of
shareholder countries, in Zagreb in May, would approve
increasing capital from its current level of 20 billion
euros (28 billion dollars) to 30 billion.
The bank, which focuses on the former Soviet bloc, also
wanted to increase its annual investment from 8.5 billion
euros to nine billion euros between 2010 and 2015, Mirow
said.
Speaking to journalists at the EBRD headquarters in
London, Mirow said he was "fairly optimistic" that
consensus could be reached.
He said he found it remarkable that the economic crisis
had not caused any major political setbacks.
"Historic experience has shown that when societies undergo
severe crises there is a risk of political unrest," he
said.
The growth in investment was needed "in order to prevent
any political destabilisation in the region".
Last week the EBRD raised its 2010 gross domestic product
growth forecast for the ex-Soviet bloc countries in which
it invests-which were badly hit by the economic
crisis-from 2.5 percent to 3.3 percent.
The EBRD investment zone, which comprises 30 countries and
was one of the areas worst hit by the global economic
crisis, shrank by six percent in 2009.
The area, which also includes Mongolia, Romania, and
Turkmenistan, was forecast to grow by 3.8 percent in 2011,
the London-based bank said last week.
Malaysia likely emerged from
recession
AFP, Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia's economy likely emerged from recession in the
fourth quarter of 2009 and will post 3.7 percent growth in
2010 as the global economy recovers, a leading think-tank
said Tuesday. Southeast Asia's third-largest economy
suffered three consecutive quarters of contraction in 2009
and the government forecasts it will shrink 3.0 percent
over the year before rebounding to modest growth of
2.0-3.0 percent in 2010.
"The technical recession is likely to end in the fourth
quarter 2009," the Malaysian Institute of Economic
Research (MIER) said in a report.
"This is supported by effects of the larger public
infrastructural expenditure, manufacturing turnaround,
improved services trade, and higher domestic spending,"
the influential think-tank said.
The MIER maintained its forecast for Malaysia's
export-dependent economy to contract by 3.3 percent in
2009, before growing at 3.7 percent this year and 5.0
percent in 2011. "From 2010 onwards, we expect the economy
to be on a normal track," MIER chief Zakariah Abdul Rashid
told.
AirAsia to fly to five major Indian cities this
year
AFP, Kuala Lumpur
Budget carrier AirAsia said on Tuesday it will launch
flights from Malaysia to five major Indian cities in 2010,
with plans to carry two million passengers a year.
The new cities are Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, New
Delhi and Mumbai. AirAsia already flies from its Kuala
Lumpur base to the Indian destinations of Kochi, Kolkata,
Trichy and Trivandrum. AirAsia founder Tony Fernandes said
the carrier and its Kuala Lumpur hub was being positioned
as a gateway between India and the 10-nation Association
of Southeast Asian Nations. "AirAsia has well-arrived in
the Indian market to change the very definition of
low-cost airlines as the India market is booming," he said
at a launch function. Transport Minister Ong Tee Keat said
the route expansion would help fuel tourism to Malaysia, a
Muslim-majority country that is also home to ethnic Indian
and Chinese communities. "With the large number of
Malaysians of Indian origin, we believe that Indian
visitors will find themselves on familiar ground," he
said. Fernandes appealed for flexibility from Malaysian
authorities, who have tightened visa regulations in an
attempt to curb illegal migration, particularly from the
southern city of Chennai.
Siemens beats
profit forecast in first quarter
AFP, Berlin
German industrial giant Siemens said on Tuesday
first-quarter net income rose by 24 percent, beating
forecasts, but it still expected a fall in full-year
profit at its key divisions.
Net profit increased to 1.53 billion euros (2.15 billion
dollars) between October and December, the first quarter
of the company's 2009-2010 fiscal year compared to 1.23
billion euros a year earlier, Siemens said in a statement.
Analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast a net
profit of 864 million euros. "Earnings for the first
quarter provide a gratifying snap- shot of the current
situation," Siemens chief executive Peter Loescher said in
a statement.
"The actions we took at a very early stage are now
cushioning us from the ongoing repercussions of the global
recession," he said. "We will continue to tackle all
challenges decisively and in a responsible manner. Only
such an approach can ensure Siemens' long-term success."
Siemens also said its "total sectors" profit, which
includes its three industry, energy and healthcare
divisions, rose by 11 percent to 2.25 billion euros. But
the industrial group reiterated its forecast of a "total
sectors" profit ranging between 6.0 billion and 6.5
billion euros for 2009-2010, compared to 7.5 billion euros
in 2008-2009.
National
Govt plans to introduce e-centre
in all post offices
BSS, Sangsad Bhaban
The government has undertaken a plan to introduce e-centre
in all 8,084 post offices across the country within this
year as part of its efforts to develop and modernize the
postal service.
"The process for introducing e-centre in all post offices
is going on and it will be completed within this year,"
Post and Telecommunications Minister Raziuddin Ahmed Razu
told the House on Tuesday in reply to a supplementary
raised by treasury bench member Junaid Ahmed Palak. The
minister also said that the government has taken necessary
steps for procuring computers and other modern equipment
for modernization of the postal service.
Under the project titled 'Automation of Activities of the
Bangladesh Postal Department', he said adding, four GPOs,
67 head post offices and 13 mail and sorting offices will
be modernized through using computer technologies.
"A web-based application software with tracking and
tracing facilitates is being developed under the project
so that the people can know all information including
destination of letters," he added. The minister also said
that various functions of the postal department including
money order, registration of letters, postal savings bank
and postal life insurance will be completed through a
combined software and all post offices will be brought
under an electronic network gradually by June this year.
Responding to a query from ruling party lawmaker Nasrul
Hamid, the minister said WiMax service through optical
fibre will be expanded to 1,000 unions within this year,
adding that all unions would be brought under the service
gradually by 2014. Answering to another question from
Jatiya Party lawmaker Advocate Salma Islam, Razu said the
government has also taken measures to bring the Postal
Department under the digital system through introducing
counter-automation, electronic money order and postal cash
card.
3,150 destitute families being rehabilitated in 85 cluster
villages
BSS, Rangpur, Jan 26
The government has been rehabilitating a total of 3,150
destitute and landless families to make them economically
self-reliant under 85 projects in 66 upazilas of 41
districts, officials said on Tuesday. The families are
being rehabilitated under the Prime Minister's Priority
Programme of 'Guchhagram Prokalpo' titled as "Climate
Victim Rehabilitation Project (CVRP)" at the cost of Taka
40,47,60,532. A total of 33 such cluster villages (Guchhagram)
are being constructed in 25 upazilas of 13 northern
districts and the rest are being implemented in the other
parts of the country under the CVRP project.
Regional Director of the CVRP (Guchhagram) Minu Sheel told
BSS today that 40 out of such 120 beneficiary families
were provided with a house with latrine and tube well in
each house in Saddyapuskuruni Guchhagram project in
Ramjiban village under Sadar upazila of Rangpur on Monday.
"Forty tin-shed houses were handed over yesterday to 40
families in Saddyapuskuruni Guchhagram project and the
rest 80 houses will be handed over soon after completion
at a total of Taka 51,88,940 among more 80 families," she
added. Each cluster village contains a multipurpose
community hall where trainings on various
income-generating trades like rearing poultry birds,
animal husbandry, cottage and handloom industries and
handicrafts will be provided to the beneficiaries, she
said. "Each of the beneficiary family is being provided
with a house in 3.5 to eight decimals of land throughout
the country with sanitation, pure drinking water and other
facilities with a view to make them completely
self-reliant economically," Minu Sheel said. While handing
over the houses among the beneficiaries, a simple ceremony
was organised by Sadar Upazila Land Office at
Saddyapuskuruni Guchhagram in village Ramjiban on Monday
with UNO of Sadar upazila Mostain Billah in the chair.
Deputy Commissioner of Rangpur BM Enamul Haque was present
as the chief guest while ADC (General) and Deputy
Secretary (DS) Mahbubul Alam, Regional Director of the
CVRP (Guchhagram) and DS Minu Sheel, attended as the
special guests.
Convener of Rangpur Awami League Abul Mansur Ahmed, Joint
Convener Adv Rezaul Karim Raju, former MP Moshiur Rahman
Ranga, upazila chairman Mostafizur Rahman, Press Club
President Sadrul Alam Dulu were also present as the
special guests.
Later, the chief and special guests handed over keys of
the newly built houses to each of the 40 beneficiary
families in the cluster village, where more 80 such houses
are being built in a total of seven acre of land.
While talking to BSS, beneficiaries Delzan Begum, Mahmuda,
Amena Begum, Mostafa Mian, Idris Ali and Dulu Mina
expressed their emotional gratitude to the present
government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for
providing shelters and hopes for living.
Farmers
bring vast lands under onion cultivation in Rajshahi
UNB, Rajshahi Jan 26
Farmers in three upazilas of the district have brought
vast tracts of land under onion cultivation as its
cultivation proved to be more profitable than other crops.
Some 15,570 hectares of land have been brought under onion
cultivation in the district this year against 14,622
hectares last year.
Farmers are showing interest in onion cultivation as its
production cost is lower this season due to low price of
its seeds. On the other hand, the market price of the
produce is higher than last year's initial rates. A large
number of farmers in Durgapur, Bagmara and Puthia upazilas
have been cultivating various varieties of onion,
including Taherpuri variety. After visiting different
areas, it was found that the farmers were busy in
cultivating onions on their fields.
Onion cultivator Ayub of Ratanpur village in Durgapur
upazila said he cultivated onion on two bighas of land
last year. "But, I brought four bighas of land under onion
cultivation this year as I got high price of my produce
last year."
Another cultivator, Sajjad, of Lakkhipur village in the
upazila, said the onion production will increase this year
if favourable weather prevails and no fertilizer and
insecticide crisis arises. He said the farmers are
becoming more interested in onion cultivation as they got
fair price of their produce in the famous onion hat,
Taherpur Bazar.
A huge quantity of onions is marketed at Taherpur Bazar
every year. Onion traders from all over the country,
particularly from Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet, come in
barges to the Bazar on the bank of river Baronai. They
hire 'chung' (space under rooftop of a house), buy and
store onions and carry the stock by waterway to their
trading centers during the season.
Slum
dwellers find out self-reliance path
BSS, Rajshahi, Jan 26
Many of the slum dwellers have unearthed their path of
attaining self-reliance and empowerment after homestead
gardening and diversified small-scale income- generating
activities in the metropolis.
The distressed families, who struggled with poverty for
long, lastly achieved economic self-reliance and
well-being by adopting the money-making activities through
their own initiatives, planning and resource mobilization.
Besides, the destitute women and unemployed young boys and
girls are showing more interests in the money-making
profession with the hope of attaining further successes in
self- empowerment.
Taking the profession after getting necessary training and
supports from the Urban Partnerships for Poverty Reduction
Project (UPPRP) under Rajshahi City Corporation, thousands
of women have successfully changed their fates by the
homestead gardening and rearing poultry birds, goats and
dairy animals.
Many others are attaining self-reliance with their own
initiatives and getting assistance, supports, training,
inputs and marketing facilities for their products from
the development program and some of the products are also
being sold in different areas of the metropolis.
National
Sc, Inf, Communication Tech Week ends in Gaibandha
BSS, Gaibandha
The 31st National Science and Information and
Communication Technology Week (NSICTW)-2010 ended at
Asaduzzaman Girls' High School and College (AGHSC) of the
town on January 25.
The theme of the NSICTW was "Projokti Progatir Path Bale
Ganya, Digital Bangladesh Sakaler Janya".
In celebration of the week, AGHSC in cooperation with
District Science Club Association (DSCA) arranged the
various programmes.
The programmes included science fair, debate and instant
lecture and prize distribution.
On Monday afternoon, a concluding ceremony was also held
on the premises of the college with ADC (General) Muhammad
Al Amin in the chair.
Deputy Commissioner (DC) M. Shahidul Islam attended the
function and addressed it as the chief guest.
Bangladesh
Army deploys new contingent in Congo
UNB, Dhaka
Bangladesh Army is going to deploy a 180-member new
contingent BANENGINEER-1 of Engineer Corps with the
Bangladeshi Contingent already deployed at United Nations
Organizations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo
(MONUC). This Contingent includes 14 officers and 166
soldiers of different rank.
Earlier, a 14-member advance party, including officers and
other ranks led by Commanding Officer Lieutenant Colonel
Zakir Ahmed left Dhaka on January 17 for Congo. Main body
of the contingent of 166 members, including 9 officers and
157 soldiers of different ranks of the BANENGINEER-1 led
by Major Mohammad Arifur Rahman left Dhaka for Congo by a
UN chartered plane on Monday.
Director of Army Headquarters Engineer Directorate
Brigadier General Md Shahidur Rahman saw them off at the
Zia International Airport.
FAO to provide Tk 110.32cr
in aid of cyclone-hit people
UNB, Dhaka
Bangladesh will get Tk 110.32 crore in aid from the Food
and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations
for recouping the losses caused by cyclones Sidr and Aila
and rehabilitation of the disaster-stricken people.
An implementation agreement for the funds was signed
between the government of Bangladesh and the UN agency at
the Planning Ministry here Tuesday.
Director-General of ECRRP and Project Director Samar Kumar
Ghosh and FAO Representative Ad Spijker signed the deal on
behalf of their respective side. Planning Minister Air
Vice-Marshal (retd) AK Khandaker was present.
Planning Secretary M Habib Ullah Majumder, DG of the
Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), and the DG and
high officials of the Fisheries Department were also
present at the deal-signing ceremony.
District
information offices to be built as info hubs
BSS, Dhaka
Information secretary Dr Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury on
Tuesday underlined the need for building the district
information offices as information hubs for the dwellers
of the respective districts.
He made the remark while inaugurating a daylong work plan
workshop for the district information officers as the
chief guest organized by the Unicef supported 'Children
and women development communication programme' (third
Phase) project at Press Institute of Bangladesh (PIB)
here.
Director General of Mass Communication Department Tasir
Ahmed presided over the workshop while additional
secretary of Information Ministry M Abu Bakar Siddique
spoke as the special guest.
Chief of Communication and Information Section of Unicef
Christine Jaulmes Adoum spoke as guest of honor and
director of Mass Communicant department Sardar MN Aminul
Islam gave welcome address.
Sports
Tamim defies Indian attack with
explosive ton
AFP, Dhaka
Bangladeshi opener Tamim Iqbal put India's attack to the sword
with a blistering 151 on the third day of the second and final
Test in Dhaka on Tuesday.
The left-hander dominated a record 200-run stand for the
second wicket with Junaid Siddique (55) as Bangladesh reached
228-3 in their second innings at stumps.
But the hosts still face a stiff task to save the match as
they need 83 more runs with seven wickets in hand to make
India bat again after conceding a 311-run lead.
The tourists lead 1-0 in the short series following their
113-run win in the opening match in Chittagong last week.
Iqbal completed his second hundred off just 101 balls, the
fastest by a Bangladeshi in Tests. His stand with Siddique was
also Bangladesh's highest for any wicket in Test cricket.
Bangladesh's previous best was 191 between Mohammad Ashraful
and Mushfiqur Rahim for the sixth wicket against Sri Lanka in
Colombo in 2007.
Iqbal, 20, delighted the crowd with bold strokeplay, smashing
three sixes and 18 fours in his career-best knock. He spared
neither seamers nor spinners as he kept playing attacking
shots on both sides of the wicket.
Indian seamer Zaheer Khan struck in the third over when he had
Bangladeshi opener Imrul Kayes (five) caught by substitute
Dinesh Karthik, who dived forward to hold on to the ball at
short cover. The visitors then had to wait for more than 51
overs for the next success as Iqbal and Siddique bolstered the
innings with their contrasting knocks.
Zaheer broke the partnership when he had Siddique caught
behind. The Bangladeshi batsman, who relied more on singles
and twos, hit only five fours in his 144-ball knock for his
fifth Test half-century. The Indian seamer then got a big
wicket in the day's penultimate over when he had Iqbal caught
behind for his third victim.
India earlier declared their first innings closed at their
lunch total of 544-8 in reply to the hosts' 233, with skipper
Mahendra Singh Dhoni making a solid 89.
The visitors added 85 to their overnight total of 459-5, with
Dhoni alone contributing 67. The Indian captain, on 22
overnight, completed his 17th Test half-century when he lofted
seamer Rubel Hossain over mid-off for a boundary.
He looked set for his fourth Test hundred when he was stumped
by Rahim off part-time spinner Raqibul Hasan on the stroke of
lunch. He cracked two sixes and nine fours in his 167-ball
knock.
India lost their first wicket early in the morning when Zaheer
was caught hooking by Shahadat Hossain at fine-leg off seamer
Shafiul Islam for no score. Part-time spinner Ashraful was the
other wicket-taker when he had Ishant Sharma (13) caught
behind. Shafiul finished with 3-86 and left-arm spinner Shakib
Al Hasan
2-118.
Scorecard
Bangladesh 1st innings: 233
(Mahmudullah 96 not out; I. Sharma 4-66)
India 1st innings (overnight 459-5):
Gambhir c Rahim b
Shafiul 68
Sehwag c Rahim
b Shahadat 56
Dravid retd hurt 111
Tendulkar c Kayes b
Shakib 143
Vijay c Mahmudullah
b Shakib 30
Dhoni st Rahim b
Raqibul 89
Harbhajan c Rahim
b Shafiul 13
Zaheer c Shahadat
b Shafiul 0
Sharma c Rahim b
Ashraful 13
Ojha not out 1
Extras: (b3, lb6, nb10,
w1) 20
Total: (for eight wickets
decl; 133 overs) 544
Falls: 1-103 (Sehwag), 2-146 (Gambhir), 3-421 (Tendulkar),
4-436 (Vijay), 5-459 (Harbhajan), 6-467 (Zaheer), 7-518
(Sharma), 8-544 (Dhoni).
Bowling: Shafiul 23-1-86-3 (w1), Shahadat 22-2-91-1 (nb2),
Rubel 28-1-115-0 (nb8), Shakib 34-3-118-2, Ashraful 9-0-38-1,
Mahmudullah 15-0-78-0, Siddique 1-0-9-0, Raqibul 1-1-0-1.
Bangladesh 2nd innings:
Tamim c Dhoni b
Zaheer 151
Imrul c sub (Karthik)
b Zaheer 5
Junaid c Dhoni b Zaheer 55
Shahadat not out 2
Ashraful not out 2
Extras: (b7, lb4, w2) 13
Total: (for three wickets;
60 overs) 228
Falls: 1-19 (Kayes), 2-219 (Siddique), 3-233 (Iqbal).
Bowling: Zaheer 14-1-63-3 (w1), Sharma 11-2-38-0, Harbhajan
17-3-59-0, Ojha 11-1-46-0, Sehwag 7-2-
11-0 (w1).
Henin’s
dream run takes her to semifinals
AFP, Melbourne
Wildcard Justine Henin overcame a determined Nadia Petrova 7-6
(7/3), 7-5 to reach the semifinals of the Australian Open in
her first Grand Slam since making a comeback.
The Belgian will now play either Zheng Jie or Maria Kirilenko
for a place in Saturday's final after seeing off the 19th
seeded Russian in one hour and 51 minutes.
The win kept alive Henin's dreams of emulating countrywoman
Kim Clijsters, who won the 2009 US Open on her comeback, and
vindicates her decision to return to a sport she left in May
2008 while world number one.
Henin, granted a wildcard to play here, has struggled through
long matches in her last three rounds, defying her aching body
and an injured left thigh to reach the last eight. "It was
difficult to find the energy," she conceded. "But I was happy
the way I came back in the second set by playing much more
aggressive tennis."
By contrast Petrova has been in excellent form, highlighted by
her 52 minute thrashing of Clijsters in the third round and
her win over third seed Svetlana Kuznetsova in the fourth.
There was little between the two players as they went shot for
shot on a hot day on the Rod Laver Arena
Henin took the early advantage when she broke Petrova in the
fifth game, seizing on three double faults to go ahead 3-2.
Petrova broke back three games later but promptly lost her
serve, leaving Henin to serve for the first set. She was
unable to do so as Petrova attacked, but the Belgian played a
brilliant tiebreaker, opening a 6-1 lead and taking the set in
55 minutes.
The loss of the first set fired up the Russian and she skipped
out to a 3-0 lead in the second, breaking Henin twice in the
process.
However, the 27-year-old Henin is a renowned fighter and
clawed her way back to get the set on even terms.
Then at 5-4 and Petrova serving, Henin attacked again and the
Russian faltered, sending a backhand long and ensuring Henin's
passage to the final four.
"I saw my opportunity-I didn't want it to go to a tiebreak,"
she said. "I wanted to close out the match and stay in the
tournament so I just went for it."
Enyeama takes Nigeria into
semis
AFP, Lubango
Nigeria goalkeeper Victor Enyeama turned Africa Cup of
Nations matchwinner by converting the decisive kick in a
5-4 penalty shootout win over Zambia on Monday after a
goalless quarterfinal.
John Obi Mikel, Obafemi Martins, Obinna Nsofor and Osaze
Odemwingie also scored from the spot to give the 'Super
Eagles' a 100 percent success rate from five kicks.
Thomas Nyirenda was the unconsolable Zambian at the end
after Enyeama saved his kick - the seventh of the shootout
- and Nigeria scraped through despite having Onyekachi
Apam sent off during extra time.
The ultra-negative last quarter-final of the biennial
African football showcase was a massive disappointment
after victories for Ghana, Algeria and Egypt in thrillers.
Defending champions Egypt made the penultimate stage a few
hours before Nigeria thanks to a 3-1 extra-time triumph
over Cameroon with 170-cap midfielder Ahmed Hassan scoring
twice for his side and once for his opponents.
Back in the knockout phase of the competition for the
first time since 1996, Zambia had to make two enforced
changes from the side that defeated Gabon to reach the
quarter-finals as shock Group D table-toppers.
Defender Chintu Kampamba and midfielder Rainford Kalaba
collected two yellow cards each in the mini-league stage
and young French coach Herve Renard drafted in Hichani
Himonde and William Njobvu.
Nigeria retained the starting line-up from their final
pool match against Mozambique that delivered an ultimately
convincing 3-0 win and justification that they could go
far in the tournament after a sluggish start.
More history
beckons for Zheng Jie
AFP, Melbourne
Trailblazing Chinese tennis player Zheng Jie will have to
defeat one of her idols if she is to create even more
history at this year's Australian Open.
Zheng, who is unseeded, powered into the semi-finals on
Tuesday when she beat Russia's Maria Kirilenko 6-1, 6-3,
becoming the first Chinese player to make the Australian
Open last four.
She created similar history in 2006 when she reached the
same stage at Wimbledon. But if she wants to go any
further this year she must beat vastly experienced Justine
Henin, the seven-time Grand Slam champion who is making a
tennis comeback, and a player whom Zheng freely admits she
greatly admires.
Zheng first became interested in tennis when as a girl she
watched a match between Monica Seles and Steffi Graf, and
the former German great is still her favourite.
"Yes, Graf is my favourite player, number one," Zheng
said. "Justine is number three." When asked who was number
two, a laughing Zheng simply replied: "Roger."
"First of all, I admire her (Henin) because she is so
strong mentally," she added. "I always watch her play, how
do you say, I enjoy watching her play.
"Secondly, I think it is a tough match for me, is a big
challenge, but I like it."
Zheng will be the underdog heading into the semi-final,
but she could cause Henin some problems if she is able to
reproduce the form she showed against Kirilenko. Zheng was
always in control against the 23-year-old, who took to the
court with her left thigh heavily bandaged and called for
a medical time out at the end of the first set.
She raced through the first set in just 34 minutes as she
broke Kirilenko twice, her all court coverage and accurate
groundstrokes proving too much for her opponent.
Kirilenko was obviously hampered by her leg injury and
wasn't able to get any power behind her shots, making them
easy pickings for the determined Zheng.
"In the beginning I didn't feel it. Then after three
games, like we had such long points, I started to feel it
in my right leg," said Kirilenko.
"Then the physio taped my right leg. After the five
minutes' break I started to feel it on the left again. I
was feeling pain everywhere."
The Russian continued to get running repairs from the
trainer at each change of ends and her game picked up in
the second set.
Zheng broke Kirilenko's first game of the second set, but
the Russian held comfortably after that and had four
chances to break back in the sixth game.
However, she wasn't able to do so and at 5-3 Zheng
attacked a dispirited Kirilenko and the Russian cracked,
serving a double fault on match point.
"This game I think is very important (when she saved the
break points," Zheng said. "I came back from 0-40, to make
the games 4-2. It gave me more confidence and more belief
that I could finish in two sets."
Pakistan seeks security clearance
for World Cup hockey
AFP, Karachi
Pakistani hockey authorities have sought government
security clearance to take part in next month's World Cup
in India, amid strained sporting relations between the
neighbours.
Pakistan's government has said the team will not boycott
the event despite a spat last week after an auction in
Mumbai for the Indian Premier League (IPL) ended without
any of the 11 Pakistani cricketers snapped up for the
teams.
Players and officials have alleged that the snub of
world-class cricketers such as Shahid Afridi and Umar Gul
was politically motivated and a number of former hockey
players have said the team should boycott the hockey World
Cup.
Pakistan Hockey Federation secretary Asif Bajwa said he
has sought clearance from the foreign office and interior
ministry for the February 28 to March 13 tournament in New
Delhi.
"The latest situation demands full security assurances for
our players and that's why I have sought clearance from
the government," Bajwa told AFP. "We fear security
problems in India."
Pakistan's sports minister Ijaz Jakhrani has rejected
calls for a World Cup boycott, saying it was a global
event and the national team will compete.
Bajwa said the International Hockey Federation has assured
them of full security for the event but government
guarantees were also needed.
"I have heard that Australia and England are bringing
their own security personnel, so it would be better if we
too take some security staff with us because we want a
peaceful event," said Bajwa, a former Olympian.
Pakistan are in Group B of the 12-team competition along
with Australia, England, India, South Africa and Spain.
The four-time world and three-time Olympic champions have
not won a major title since their World Cup win in
Australia in 1994. They finished eighth-the worst result
in their history-at the Beijing Olympics.
Mickey Arthur quits as
South African coach
AFP, Johannesburg
South African coach Mickey Arthur has resigned in the wake
of the national team's failure to beat England in a recent
Test series.
Arthur and Cricket South Africa chief executive Gerald
Majola will address a press conference in Arthur's home
town, East London, on Wednesday.
A South African newspaper report claimed on Tuesday that
Arthur had resigned after a meeting with Cricket SA
management to discuss South Afri-ca's performances against
England. The tourists beat South Africa in a rain-hit
one-day series and drew a four-match Test series.
Arthur was appointed in 2005, originally on a two-year
contract. But his contract was extended several times and
he was due to guide the side until 2012.
The highlights of Arthur's tenure were Test series wins in
England and Australia in 2008. South Africa achieved the
official number one ranking in both Test and one-day
cricket during his time in charge.
But after those highs, South Africa lost a home series
against Australia.
Tamim dedicates his century to his father
UNB, Dhaka
Opener Tamim Iqbal, who scored a career best 151 runs
against India during the second Test on Tuesday, dedicated
it to his late father, saying "my father would be very
pleased if he were alive today."
Addressing a post match briefing at the Sher-e-Bangla
National Stadium, he said: "Our beginning was good. But at
the end of the day, we failed to keep it up as we wanted."
The dashing opener said they would have been in better
position if they did not lose the two wickets in the
eleventh hour of the play.
He said the remaining batsmen would have to play good
cricket to stretch the innings, especially Mush-fiqur
Rahim, Mohammad Ashraful and Shakib Al Hasan, who all have
the ability to play long innings.
Asked why he took aggressive stance in the beginning,
Tamim said: "I just played my natural game taking the
advantage of flat wicket."
Indian coach Gary Kirsten said: "Bangladesh played very
good cricket. The wicket behaves very good to bat on, but
we are still 83 runs ahead and hope to be back in the
match as two more days to go on."
Asked about the condition of injured Yuvraj Singh, Kirsten
said he suffered a ligament tear in his left wrist and
would not be able to take part in the ongoing Test.
Meanwhile, Rahul Dravid, who was hospitalised after
getting hit on the face by Shahadat Hossain's bouncer on
the second day, has been discharged. He has a fracture on
the cheekbone and it was learnt that he would be leaving
for India today.
"He (Dravid) has got quite a nasty injury to his face,"
the Indian coach said. "He is currently staying in
Bangla-desh. Later, he will consult a specialist to find
out what needs to be done and how long he would be out.
For Rahul, we don't have the long-term prognosis."
Sachin Tendulkar also injured his shoulder today while
attempting a difficult catch off Tamim Iqbal. However,
Kirsten said there was no need to worry. "He is okay. He
will be fine."
Egypt downs Cameroon to set up Algeria rematch
AFP, Benguela
Aided by a brace from skipper Ahmed Hassan, Egypt defeated
10-man Cameroon 3-1 after extra-time in an Africa Cup of
Nations quarter-final match here on Monday.
Egypt's prize is a mouth-watering last-four show-down on
Thursday against bitter rival Algeria, who pipped the
Egyptians to a World Cup ticket in dra-matic circumstances
in November.
The Pharaohs thus improved to 17 matches their unbeaten
run in the tournament and also extended their five-year
superiority over the Indomitable Lions.
Egypt assistant coach Shawki Gharib saluted Cameroon for
pushing his team all the way, while defending the
performance of South African referee Jerome Damon.
"Cameroon are a great team and they pushed us very hard,"
said Gharib. "We, on our own part, played very well and
knew what we needed to do to win this match.
"However, a match is all about 90 minutes and there are no
games without mistakes, but overall the referee was fair
to both teams." Cameroon skipper Samuel Eto'o disagreed,
saying: "The referee supported Egypt a bit because they
did not deserve to win this game.
"But I won't blame the referee because this is Africa and
we still have a lot to learn," Eto'o said, adding that
coach Paul Le Guen had angrily walked out on the
post-match press conference.
Cameroon, who saw defender Aurelien Chedjou red carded in
the 112th minute for a professional foul on Mohamed Nagy,
opened the scoring in the 26th minute courtesy of an own
goal by Hassan, winning an African record 170th cap.
Hassan got the slightest touch with his head on an Achille
Emana corner at the near post as it sailed into the net.
Hassan turned from villain to hero in the 37th minute when
he caught goalkeeper Carlos Kameni napping with a dipping
shot from over 35 yards, which bounced in front of the
Cameroon goalkeeper before resting at the back of the net
to draw the champions level.
A faulty back pass two minutes into extra-time by Geremi
Njitap found super sub Mohamed 'Gedo' Nagy, who slotted
home between Kameni's legs to give Egypt the lead in this
pulsating encounter.
The defending champions increased their lead on 95 minutes
when a curling freekick by Hassan was adjudged to have
been palmed beyond the goalline by Kameni. Television
replays showed that the ball did not cross the line.
Man of the hour Hassan was unperturbed by the controversy.
"I'm very happy because we won today," he said. "We played
a very good match, and I'm thrilled to score two goals and
also with the record of 170 appearances."
In the 110th minute, Nagy dashed free through the Cameroon
defence but Kameni made a brave save. The game appeared to
slip away for the Lions of Cameroon when Chedjou was sent
off moments later
Cameroon fought to reduce the deficit in the second half
of extra-time but Egypt kept their shape to stay on course
for an unprecedented seventh Nations Cup title.
From the kick-off, Cameroon took the game to their
opponents, forcing five corners in the first 11 minutes,
while Egypt's first attack came only after six minutes
when Ahmed Fathi had a shot.
Cameroon continued to dictate the pace of this contest and
more than deserved their lead when it came in the 25th
minute.
Six minutes after their equaliser, Hosny Abdrabou would
have given Egypt the lead but he failed to direct his
header on target when all alone inside the 18-yard box.
Cameroon's response was immediate as Emana fired a pile
driver from distance a minute later but Essam El-Hadary
was alert to push the ball out of harm's way.
From the restart, Egypt would have gone in front when
Chedjou mistimed a long ball into the Cameroon area,
Motaaeb got a foot to the ball but somehow Kameni gathered
the ball. Minutes later, Zidan with a lot of space to
spare shot inches wide as the Cameroon defence came under
siege. Chedjou again succumbed to pressure in the 49th
minute when he was robbed of the ball by Zidan on the edge
of the box, but Kameni made a fine save.
Cilic outlasts Roddick
AFP, Melbourne
Marathon man Marin Cilic became the first Croatian to
reach the semifinals of the Australian Open with a
gripping five-set victory over American Andy Roddick on
Tuesday.
Cilic, at 21 the youngest of the eight quarter-finalists,
wore down the seventh seeded Roddick, 7-6 (7/4), 6-3, 3-6,
2-6, 6-3 in three hours 50 minutes on Rod Laver Arena.
His reward is a semi-final against either defending
champion Rafael Nadal of British fifth seed Andy Murray.
"Today was a tough match mentally and for Murray or Nadal,
it's going to take also a lot of energy out of me," he
said. "So we'll see how I'm going to be able to survive.
"I think the biggest thing is to try to recover as much as
I can and to try to be ready so I can play at my level."
It was another test of endurance for the 14th seeded Cilic,
who has spent the longest time on court of all the
remaining players in the draw at 18 hours eight minutes
for his five matches.
It was his third five-set match of the tournament.
"Today was not easy. I was a little bit tired from the
matches before," he said.
"The first set took a lot of energy out of me because it
was not only a physical battle but a mental one as well."
Cilic looked as if his challenge was fading when Roddick
fought back to level at two sets all after the Croatian
had claimed the opening two sets.
But he found his second wind in the gruelling deciding set
to finish off Roddick, who was bidding for his fifth
semi-final appearance at the Australian Open.
"I was a bit surprised because he was breaking me pretty
easily in those two sets," he said.
"When I got out of it I started to serve better. I was
mentally fresher."
Cilic remains unbeaten this year at 10-0 after defending
his title at Chennai on his way to Australia.
It was his second consecutive quarter-final appearance at
a Grand Slam after losing to eventual champion Juan Martin
del Potro at last year's US Open. Yet again it was more
heartbreak for Roddick as he fell short in his bid to add
to his sole Grand Slam title from the 2003 US Open.
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