WEDNESday, JANUARY 6, 2010 Poush 23, 1416, muharram 19, 1430 Hijri

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Leading News

Teesta water-sharing
Dhaka and Delhi agree to expedite accord signing

BSS, Dhaka

The two-day secretary-level talks between Bangladesh and India on sharing the waters of the Teesta river ended here Tuesday as both sides agreed to expedite inking an agreement to this effect. The two sides, in a joint statement after the talks, said:
"The meeting, recognising the suffering of the people of both sides in face of scarcity of lean season flows of the Teesta river, discussed at length and expressed that the sharing of the Teesta waters between India and Bangladesh should be concluded expeditiously."
The meeting held in a friendly and cordial atmosphere also agreed to continue the discussions further, the statement said. The secretary-level talks of the Joint River Commission (JRC) began at the state guesthouse Meghna on common rivers on Monday.
Water Resources Secretary Sheikh Mohammed Wahid-uz-Zaman led the Bangladesh side, while his counterpart UN Panjiar headed a seven-member Indian delegation at the talks.
"We arrived at a situation, which will benefit the people of the two countries," Wahid-uz-Zaman told reporters after the talks Tuesday.
Panjiar said: "We have narrowed down differences of approach between the two countries, which will contribute to the sharing of Teesta waters."
The meeting also agreed to continue discussions on the modalities for withdrawal of water from River Feni by both sides for the minor lift irrigation schemes. "During discussions on sharing of the waters of other common/border rivers, the meeting agreed to expedite finalization of the work plans for consideration of the JRC," the statement said.
The statement said the meeting agreed to commence the pending river bank protection works along common/ border rivers from early February 2010. "The meeting also took note of the new lists of proposed bank protection works and embankments along common/border rivers and directed the JRC members to finalize it for implementation," the statement said.
As regards dredging of Ichamati river along the common reach, it was agreed that the dredging work may be carried out as per typical section and modalities recommended by the joint technical team from February 1, 2010.
The meeting also agreed that 1.82 cusec of water may be withdrawn from Feni River for drinking water supply scheme for Subroom Town which would put into operation immediately after joint verification by the concerned local level committee.
Sharing of waters in the Teesta is a major issue in Bangladesh-India water talks for the past several years while under a 1983 understanding Bangladesh is supposed to get 36 percent share of the flow and India 39 percent allowing the rest to be flowed naturally.

 Terrorists, militants won’t be allowed to use country’s soil
PM says while addressing senior police officials

UNB, Dhaka

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Tuesday said she would not buy enmity for the country through allowing militants and terrorists to use Bangladesh for carrying out attacks in another country.
"They (militants and terrors) will use the land of Bangladesh to conduct their terrorism in another country and we will buy enmity by harboring them-this cannot be," she said in an oblique reference to recent developments.
The Prime Minister made her stand clear while addressing top police officials at the International Conference Center (ICC) in the Prime Minister's Office on the occasion observance of the Police Week.
Sheikh Hasina said she knows that there are so many risks for such kind of stance. "I know there are risks. I also have life threat, but, for the sake of the country and its sovereignty, I will not allow that," she said about her unflinching stand on the crucial issue.
The Prime Minister noted that in the unipolar world it is very much easy to convey message from one side of the world to another side very quickly. "Another power could invade the country for any reason." And her government would not give such a chance to anyone. "I am not telling the name," she said, dropping a broad hint.
Hasina said for the sake of independence and sovereignty, she is taking the risk to protect the country from being used as "the base of another country's militants and terrorists".
The Prime Minister further observed that a country cannot develop without democracy-and this had been proven in the past times.
She said it is only normal that anyone could have their affiliation to an ideology. "But when you will be engaged in state activities, at that time you have to abide by the nation and its constitution," she told the police administration's hierarchy.
The Prime Minister complained that the previous government had used the state law-enforcing agencies for serving their personal and party interest. "But I am ensuring you the present government will not do that like the previous tenure of ours from 1996 to 2001. We will not use law-and-order forces as a weapon to use against the rivals," she said.
The head of government asked the police officials to perform their duty blindly without seeing which party the culprits belong to. "Your work is to ensure the security of the people and keep loyal to the constitution. Even take actions against my party's people," she said in her instructions loud and clear. The PM wants to ensure security of the people of the country and asked the police officials to work to that end.

 Fifth Amendment
SC chamber judge denies twin petition for fresh stay

UNB, Dhaka

The opposition BNP-Jamaat move for redeeming the Constitution Fifth Amendment faltered as the Supreme Court Tuesday apparently denied twin-petitions for a fresh stay on its invalidation.
In a crucial ruling the High Court had declared "illegal and void" the fifth amendment giving legal cover to extra-constitutional takeovers and acts in the 1970s since the August 15 changeover in the country's political scenario.
The HC judgment was earlier stayed following BNP move during their rule. But the historic judgment became effective as the Appellate Division Sunday vacated its long four-year-four-month order of stay on the verdict, now that the regime has changed and the government side withdrew from the appeal process. And it paved the way for revival of the fundamentals of the 1972 Constitution, which were modified through the fifth amendment.
After hearing both sides, SC chamber court of Justice M Muzammel Hosain, however, posted the two pleas to the Appellate Division for hearing on January 18, the day fixed for hearing on the applications for leave to appeal against the High Court judgment filed by the quartet interveners in the case.
Counsel for the interveners TH Khan and Moudud Ahmed moved the fresh stay petitions before the chamber court-and failed to get the nod of relief. The interveners are BNP Secretary-General Khandaker Delwar Hossain and three lawyers. Attorney-General Mahbubey Alam appeared for the government and Barrister Azmalul Hossain, QC, represented writ petitioner Masudul Alam of Bangladesh-Italian Marble Works Limited company, whose legal move for redress in a business-enterprise dispute unraveled a spectrum of politico-constitutional complications.
On August 29 in 2005, the High Court declared illegal the Constitution Fifth Amendment that had endorsed usurpation of power in a row by Khandaker Mushtaque Ahmed, Justice AM Sayem and Maj General Ziaur Rahman since the August 15, 1975 changeover till April 9, 1979.

 Cold Wave
7 die in Chuadanga, Sherpur

UNB, Dhaka

As the poorer section is suffering from mild cold wave sweeping across country Met Office Tuesday predicted a respite in a couple of days before another bitter cold wave next week.
The mercury came down to 7.7 degree Celsius Tuesday in Dinajpur, the lowest of the country. Hasen Ali, an octogenarian peasant of Bhatpara in Jhenigati upazila in Sherpur district, died of cold wave Tuesday, confirmed UNO Rafiqul Islam. Six other people died of cold wave in Chuadanga during the last three days.
The lowest temperature in the country Tuesday was 7.7 degree Celsius in Dinajpur and in Dhaka the mercury came down to 10.5 degree Celsius. The poor are the worst sufferers of the cold wave in the absence of warm clothes.
Scores of people, mostly children, suffering from cold related diseases have been reporting to the hospitals and health complexes.
BSS, adds: Normal life remained seriously disrupted as mercury dipped further below 10 degree Celsius during the past 24 hours in the northern Bangladesh adding untold sufferings to the common people.
As the severity of the biting cold further increased during the period, hundreds of people were forced to stay indoors till late morning and farm, businesses and normal activities were adversely affected everywhere Tuesday.

   Govt successful to start well on 5 major areas: Ashraf
BSS, Dhaka

Awami League general secretary and Minister for LGRD and Cooperatives Syed Ashraful Islam firmly said the present government despite many odds was successful to start on five major areas to implement its election manifesto in its first year rule.
The areas, according to him, are- contain price spiral, making economy stable against global economic recession, develop energy and power sector, reduce corruption and alleviate poverty and establish rule of law in the country.
"Establish a neutral administration and demolition of corruption houses was the first challenge for us as the past government spread unbridled corruption at every level of the administration," he said.
"Moreover, you remember, as a new government we had to start with a heinous incident of carnage in the BDR headquarters and huge destruction caused by cyclone Aila," he said.
Syed Ashraf said this while talking to BSS on the successes of the present government on its one-year completion focusing on its election pledges. Pointing out the socio-political scenario of the country when the present government took power, the minister said the whole economy was in a shattered condition, prices of essential were skyrocketing, power and energy sector was in deep crisis, insecurity was prevailing at all spheres of national life.
"We have tried to take appropriate steps to achieve its election pledges and establish rule of law so that people can restore their confidence on politics and democracy," he said.
"We hope that the present government under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will be able to materialize its all election commitments and flourish democracy in the country.
Terming the disposal of the Bangabandhu Murder Case in the Supreme Court, the Awami League general secretary said the verdict was not only delivered justice to the family members of the slain leaders, but also freed Bangladeshi nation from a disgrace.
Syed Asharf asserted that the law and order in the country improved remarkably over the last one year and every community amid much enthusiasm and festivity celebrated their religious festivals.
He said to face the global recession and its impact on export- oriented industries, the government in its first year had to declare 'incentive package' of over Taka 3,424 crore.
During the current fiscal the government has also announced similar package of over Taka 5,000 crore. The package helped enhancing country's export growth by 10.31 percent in the last fiscal despite global meltdown, he noted.
Giving a long list of present government's initiatives to make the market stable, Syed Ashraf said Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) has been revived, Consumer Rights Act 2009 has been passed, Open Market Sale (OMS) of rice was introduced across the country for ultra poor people.

  BNP to join JS, if 10-point demand accepted: Mirza Fakhrul
TBT Report

BNP senior joint secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has said the opposition party is prepared to take part in the parliament session but congenial atmosphere in the house is yet to be ensured.
"We don't believe in subversive and malicious politics in the country. We placed 10-point demand including cancellation of government decision to oust Begum Khaleda Zia from her cantonment residence. If the govt meets our demands and ensure environment in the House, we will take part in the parliament session," he said while talking to reporters at the end of a discussion meeting 'on the qualitative change in politics and importance of UP level council' held at the National Press Club on Tuesday. The programme was arranged by Ajker Prozanma Forum. A numbers of pro-BNP educationists addressed the programme.
Dr Emazuddin Ahmed former VC of DU said leaders will have to visit country's 85 thousand villages and 4500 UPs for ensuring quality of BNP politics. Through this initiative which had been launched by party's present senior vice-chairman Tarique Rahman the party will gain its political prosperity in the long run.
Moniruzzaman Mia also former VC of the DU said interest of people has been to given priority to country's constitution. For ensuring their rights and overall facilities, Shaheed president Ziaur Rahman used to visit country's villages. The trend should be followed by the leaders and activists of the party.
Mostahidur Rahman former VC of Jahngirnagar University presided over the programme where a number of BNP standing committee members including Mirza Abbas, Goyeswar Chandra Roy and joint secretary generals including Mizanur Rahman Minu were present at the function.

Back Page

PM asks police to take stern actions against lawbreakers
BSS, Dhaka

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Tuesday directed the police to take stern actions against offenders without considering their party affiliations for maintaining law and order in the country.
Sounding a note of caution, she said any negligence to take actions against the lawbreakers, curbing extortion and all sorts of crimes would not be tolerated as her government is committed to ensuring a secured and peaceful life of the people.
"You will be awarded for success in discharging duties and shall be accountable to the people for failures," she said while inaugurating the Police Week-2010 at Rajarbagh Police Lines here Tuesday morning.
Recalling the contribution of police toward establishing the rule of law, maintaining law and order and protecting human rights, Sheikh Hasina expressed the hope that efforts undertaken by the law enforcing agencies during the last one year to curb militancy and terrorism would continue in future.
The Prime Minister said her government took the responsibility of running the country with the pledge to establish a "Digital Bangladesh" through bringing some changes in national life. Huge foreign and local investments are needed to turn Bangladesh into a desired middle income group country by 2021, she said.
In this context, she asked the police force to take necessary measurers in ensuring security of investors, workers and their assets to attract more investment for the economic uplift of the country.
Sheikh Hasina urged the police to earn people's confidence saying their success in curbing corruption and improving the law and order largely depends on supports from the people. "As a member of law enforcement agencies your behavior with the people is also important along with your professional excellence, neutrality, transparency and accountability," she added.
Earlier on her arrival at Rajarbagh Police Lines ground, the Prime Minister was received by Home Minister Advocate Sahara Khatun, State Minister for Home Affairs Advocate Shamsul Haq Tuku and Inspector General of Police (IGP) Nur Mohammad.
Later, different units of Bangladesh police presented a spectacular parade. Sheikh Hasina, riding on a well-decorated open jeep, inspected the parade and took salute. The Prime Minister also presented Bangladesh Police Medals and President's Police Medals to the recipients for 2008 and 2009.

  Sri Lanka defeats India by five wickets
TBT Report

Thilan Samaraweera hit a match winning century as Sri Lanka earned a thrilling five-wicket victory against India in the Idea Cup Tri-Nation cricket at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, Dhaka on Tuesday.
Chasing a target of 280, Sri Lanka scored 283 for five in 48 overs. Thilan Samaraweera scored a sparkling 105 to steer the Lankans to their second successive victory, while Kumar Sangakkara chipped in with a composed 60.
Earlier, hard-hitting Indian batsman Yuvraj Singh struck a brilliant 74 to lead India to 279 for nine in the 50 overs' allotment.
Yuvraj Singh played all round the park during his stay at the crease and hoisted two shots over the boundary and smashed six fours in his 84-ball innings.
Yuvraj also shared a 99-run stand with his skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who scored a patient 37 runs off 70 balls, in the fourth wicket to inflate the Indian innings. Opener Virender Sehwag also scored a quickfire 47, coming off 31 balls, to bring some joy in the Indian innings. The mercurial Indian batsman entertained the crowd with nine lively shots through the ropes before being the victim of Chanaka Welegedara.
Ravindra Jadeja also added useful 39 runs, facing 34 balls with the help of three boundaries and a six.
Chanaka Welegedara eme-rged the most successful Sri Lankan bowler, claiming five scalps for 66 runs. India next faces the host Bangladesh at the same venue tomorrow, while Sri Lanka will take on Bangladesh in the second round fixture on January 8.

  Govt decides on zoning for ship-breaking industry
UNB, Dhaka

The government eventually decided to build a separate and specific zone for the country's ship-breaking indu-stry, as recent fatal accidents and illegal felling of coastal trees triggered a row.
An inter-ministerial meeting held at the Ministry of Environment and Forests took the decision, following a latest initiative taken by the Prime Minister. Dr Hasan Mahmud, State Minister for Environment and Forests, presided over the meeting.
After the Prime Minister's declaration on formulating a policy for directing ship-breaking activities smoothly, the inter-ministerial meeting directed the technical committee to submit its report on the formulation of a draft policy for the fledging industry "within three weeks of January".
The meeting also decided to hold re-inter-ministerial meeting on January 31 after submission of the report of the technical committee.
Commerce Minister Lt Col (retd) Faruk Khan, Land Minister M Rejaul Karim Hira, Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan and State Minister for Labour and Employment Munnujan Sofian were present at the meeting.
After the meeting was over, Dr Hasan Mahmud told reporters that "steps would be taken to protect the environment and also ensure the safety of workers' wages through this policy".

   ‘28pc ADP implementation in six months’
BSS, Dhaka

The country witnessed 28 percent implementation rate in the Annual Development Programme (ADP) in the first six months of the current fiscal year (2009-10), four percent higher than that of the same period of the previous year.
Until December, Taka 8600 crore was disbursed which is Taka 2500 crore more than the corresponding period of the previous fiscal 2008-09, the planning ministry said terming the disbursement as record high.
The Ministry of Energy and Mineral resources became first in terms of higher ADP implementation as its disbursement rate stood at 74 percent while Land ministry 64 percent, Commerce 57pc, Labour 54 and Post and telecommunications 51.
Planning Minister Air Vice-Marshal (retd) AK Kha-ndokar told reporters after a meeting with secretaries of concerned ministries on revised ADP (RADP) at NEC conference room of Planning Commission at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar here.
The minister said they have discussed shortcomings in the implementation of the ADP and ways to address challenges.
He said poverty reduction, population control and ensuring safe drinking water are largely dependent on smooth and satisfactory ADP implementation.
Asked about the quality expenditure, he said the government has allocated money to different projects after proper scrutiny and hence there is no question about the quality of implementation of the ADP.
For the first time since the country's independence, he said, the government has taken a step to revise ADP three months ahead to avoid delay in adjustment of projects.
He said he has already asked concerned authorities of the ministries to complete project work by June 30 and if any ministry fails to do so the remaining money would be spent for other projects.

   Sajeda for implementing CHT Peace Treaty
UNB, Dhaka

Deputy Leader of the parliament Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury on Tuesday urged all to come forward for implementing the Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Treaty to improve the standard of life of the indigenous people.
"Prime Minister Sheikh Hasian signed the Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Treaty on December 2 in 1997 to establish peace in the CHT and it is our duty to implement the treaty for the greater welfare of the indigenous people," she said while addressing a view-exchange meeting at National Press Club auditorium in the morning.
Shampritimanchya, a voluntary organization, organized the view-exchange meeting titled "A Decade of Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Treaty: Expectation and Achievement".
Chaired by Prof Ajoy Roy, the function was addressed, among others, by State Minister for Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs Dipankar Talukdar, General Secretary of Indigenous Forum Sanjib Drang and leader of Janasanghati Samity Shak-tiphad Tripura. Eminent journalist and poet Shahariar Kabir read out a key-note paper in the meeting. Sajeda Chowdhury, also convener of the CHT Peace Treaty Implementation Committee, said the government always believes in secularism and if we want to establish Bang-ladesh as a secular country, we have to establish peace in CHT.
Criticizing the position of the opposition party on army pull out from the CHT, she said the opposition party with the help of the fundamentalist forces was trying to establish unrest in the CHT again as they had long been creating hindrance in establishing peace in the hill areas.

   No fertilizer crisis, adequate supply given to dealers: Dilip Barua

UNB, Dhaka

There is no fertilizer crisis in the current Irri-Boro season as the government has ensured adequate supply of the important agro-input to the dealers across the country, Indu-stries Minister Dilip Barua said Tuesday, as massive rice-farming activity is about to kick off.
"There is more than enough supply of fertilizers to the dealers in the current Irri-Boro season," he told a meeting with the leaders of Bangladesh Fertilizer Dea-lers Asso-ciation (BFDA) and Importers at his ministry.
Barua said the demand for urea would be about 4.44 lakh metric tons of which about 1.35 lakh metric tons would be met from the local production in the next three months while the rest 2.34 lakh metric tons would be imported.
The minister said the demand for TSP would be 6.7 lakh metric tons while that of DAP 2.63 lakh metric tons this year round.
Dilip Barua said the government would import about 8.51 lakh metric tons of urea fertilizer from three Middle-East countries through international tenders this year while about 8 lakh metric tons of urea would be procured through government-to-government negotiations and KAFCO.
The Industries Minister appreciated the dealers for transparently distributing fertilizers among the farmers across the country. He said the government is trying to ensure adequate supply of fertilizers as well as its distribution at the field level through increasing transport facilities.
However, BFDA president Kafil Uddin Ahmed said the government should create smooth tran-sport facilities and do the modernization of Mongla seaport, which is a very crucial port for imported fertilizers to be distributed to the country's vast agrarian northern area.
Replying to the fertilizer-producing companies' dem-and for making their due payments within the first half of the month, he called upon the government to fix half the payments within that time and the rest on the 25th of the month.

Editorial

First year of govt.

The grand alliance government led by Awami League steps into its second year today amid both success and failure, disappointment and hope. This government had assumed power on January 6 2009 following the grand alliance's landslide victory in the Parliamentary elections held on December 29, 2008. The installation of the elected government had marked the nation's glorious transition to democracy after two years of illegal emergency rule that caused unbearable sufferings to the people.
The present government is now one year old and it has already spent one fifth of its five year tenure. But the first year of a government is hardly considered long enough to evaluate its success and failure. So, leaving the ultimate evaluation for the future let us say, for now, that in the first year this government has to its credit both success and failure. Its greatest success in the first year was that at a very crucial time it aptly tackled the volatile situation arising out of the BDR mutiny and the carnage at Pilkhana in February 2009. It also initially succeeded in bringing down the prices of essentials and protect the economy largely from the onslaught of global recession. Besides, the government checked the spread of corruption in free-style and disastrous deterioration of crime situation. Moreover, the year passed off without massive political turmoil and unrest.
But it must be mentioned here that although this government came to power with the slogan of 'Charter of Change', any real change in the life of the people is yet to be reflected. The two most important electoral pledges of the government were, among others, bringing down prices of essentials and holding the trial of the war criminals. But on conclusion of the first year the real situation is that the people are gripped by economic woes marked by rising cost of living and political uncertainty signalled by looming fear of confrontation between the ruling and the opposition parties. Besides the Parliament remains almost ineffective and much publicised war crime trial appears to be a distant goal.
Crises, crimes, price hike of essentials and utility services and uncertainty, among others, are the main legacies that the government inherits in the second year from the just concluded first year rule and these issues are set to dominate the country's law and order, economy and politics in the days ahead The government had achieved remarkable success at the outset of the year in bringing down the prices of essentials, however they have shot up again causing much hardship and sufferings to the people. However, the government is trying to tackle the situation through different steps, but the results are yet to be seen.
Meanwhile, politics seems to be gathering storm with the opposition boycotting the Parliament and threatening to launch movement if the government fails in national and international fields and the government vowing to face the opposition movement politically. At the beginning of the year of 2009 the participation for the first time since 1991 of both ruling and opposition parties in the opening session of the Parliament had raised great hope that the Parliament would be effective this time and democracy will be given institutional shape. But that hope seems to be fading as BNP continues to boycott the sessions of the parliament and the government fails to create condition for bringing them back in the House.
The ruling Awami League had made a lot of pledges before the elections and most of them are yet to be taken up for implementation. They have also to resolve some complex issues at home and abroad. Above all they have to bring respite for the suffering masses. All these may take some time, no doubt and so people have to wait and hope for the best while preparing for the worst too.

  Slump in overseas jobs

The number of workers leaving Bangladesh to find jobs overseas nearly halved in 2009 as the global slowdown hit employment prospects in the Middle East and Asia. Only 475,278 Bangladesh labourers found jobs abroad in 2009, down from 875,055 in the previous year, according to Bureau of Manpower and Employment Training (BMET). "The slump is due to the global recession. There has been fewer demands for jobs in key markets such as Saudi Arabia and Malaysia," Labour and Manpower Minister Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain told AFP news agency.
According to government statistics, more than 6.7 million Bangladeshis, work abroad, although unofficial estimates put the figure at around nine million. Despite plummeting manpower exports, remittances grew an average 20 percent per month in 2009 due to the carried-over effect of the migration of a record 1.7 million people in 2007 and 2008. In November 2009, monthly remittance topped one billion for the first time in the country's history.
The above facts amply explain the importance of overseas jobs of Bangladeshi workers for sustaining the economy of the country. The slump in the overseas jobs is set to adversely affect lakhs of workers and their families and hit the national economy hard as the remittances are destined to fall ultimately. So, the government should go all out to arrange jobs at alternative places and also to persuade the countries previously employing our workers to take people from our country.

Analysis

Subcontinent's Year of Hope

Delhi is sure to reciprocate on the economic front, whether it is over unifying the electricity grids or sharing the Teesta waters.

Jyoti Malhotra

Can the media give peace a chance? All those who woke up on New Year's day in India and Pakistan, woke up to the front pages of the 'Times of India' and the 'Jang Group' celebrating conjoined doves outlined in saffron and green (presumably the colours of predominantly Hindu India and Islamic Pakistan), a common Editors' note that professed the possibility of friendship in a terror-obsessed subcontinent and even a trans-national agenda for food, music, travel and trade over 2010.
Overnight it was okay to be part of the candle-lighting brigade at Wagah, the land border between India and Pakistan, which has been witness to lonely peaceniks nimbly sidestepping warnings of nuclear holocaust, disregarding armed intrusions at Kargil, Kaluchak and Kashmir and keeping faith with Sisyphean stories of beginnings and ends, to keep their annual date with hope rather than reality.
'Aman ki Asha', the slogan read, translated as the 'hope of peace.' In a country still reeling from the aftermath of the Mumbai horror, here were the sub-continent's biggest newspapers (over 500,000 daily at the TOI and about 300,000 at the Jang) extolling their huge readership to make babies, not bombs.
So what gave? One throwaway line in a story in the Jang's English-language daily, 'The News', talking of having brought "all the stakeholders" on board by both media houses in their respective countries, pointed out that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had been sounded out about the campaign and that he'd agreed.
So let me make a prediction or take a bet or do both this year, especially since we're still in the brand new week: 2010 will be the year that India and Pakistan resolve their major differences, whether over Siachen or Sir Creek, and arrive at some sort of a deal over Kashmir.
2010 will be the year that both countries, India and Pakistan, will move on and rejoin the sub-continent - the litmus test being open borders and freer travel, spurred by Punjabi entrepreneurship and uniting ?'mohajir' families.
For the first time since 1947, when the partition of India sundered all ties, the glimmer of an economic coming-together - "union" is too strong and loaded a word for the time being - of the Indian subcontinent, it seems, will mark the new decade.
For the first time it is slowly becoming clear that India, whose economic growth has remained at 8 per cent despite the worldwide recession, will power nation-states like Pakistan in the west and Bangladesh in the east, Bhutan and Nepal in the north and Sri Lanka and faraway Maldives in the south, to greater economic prosperity, thereby softening the region's political angularities and caprices.
Of course, 2010 hasn't started in the best way possible for some of the above Bollywood-like scenarios: Nepal's Prachanda is at loggerheads with Delhi and the political scene in Sri Lanka in the run-up to its January 26 presidential elections is a potboiler as India is dragged into the ?presidential sweepstakes.
But check out the following: Bangladesh's Sheikh Hasina is coming to Delhi next week, a conquering heroine who in recent weeks has picked out ULFA terrorist Arabinda Rajkhowa and others from their safe havens, like rats, and sent them packing to the mother ?country, India.
Delhi is sure to reciprocate on the economic front, whether it is over unifying the electricity grids or sharing the Teesta waters.
Meanwhile, Bhutan's reigning monarch, Jigme Wangchuk visited Delhi in the Christmas week, amid a flurry of accords on power and water, making Bhutan the richest state in the Indian subcontinent, second only to India.
To return to the whys and wherefores of India-Pak friendship, truth is there's too much at stake here for the experiment not to succeed and some of it is centred on the Afghanistan anvil. Meaning US President Barack Obama's successes in that country will be hugely dependent on America's abilities to neutralise the Afghan Taleban, some of whom have taken refuge in the Pakistani cities of Quetta, Miranshah as well as in the North Waziristan areas.
The Pakistan military will demand its pound of flesh on Kashmir - in any case, the Musharraf and the first Manmohan Singh regime were close to a secret Kashmir deal in 2007, in which Kashmiris were given real political autonomy in exchange for joint India-Pakistani oversight on issues like the management of watersheds, forestry and the environment. A deal on Kashmir may not neutralise the hardline elements in Pakistan's army and intelligence agencies, especially those who have been nurtured on an anti-India diet.
It will, however, remove the excuse several Pakistanis see in the Kashmir dispute and Islamabad's ostensible inability to withdraw forces from the eastern border to fight the Taleban in the west.
Imagine what a peace deal between India and Pakistan could do: It would hugely strengthen the elected government, even if the Pakistan army remains the most powerful national institution. It would embolden the moderate face of the Islamic republic, confirming Pakistan's place as the geostrategic lynchpin between South Asia and the Gulf on the one hand and with Central Asia on the other.
Meanwhile, real estate prices in Lahore and Karachi, Amritsar and Ghazipur, would rise and rise. It is also clear that Manmohan Singh, having put his personal reputation as well as his prime ministership on line over the Indo-US nuclear deal, now wants the Pakistan issue settled.
Check out his attempt to give respect to Pakistan's Prime Minister at Sharm-el Sheikh last year. Methinks the abortive attempt at peace has only strengthened Prime Minister Singh's resolve this year. It helps that Manmohan Singh has his roots in Gah, in the heart of Pakistan Punjab.
So who's better qualified to cut a deal with the enemy than a refugee-turned-prime minister?
Even Bollywood can't come up with a better story. Perhaps that's why you need journalists - in the Times of India and in Pakistan's 'Jang' group to write it.


Jyoti Malhotra is a
renowned Indian journalist
and commentator.

  Whose war is being waged?

Now President Obama is prepared to settle for a 'successful outcome' - a subjective concept - and is sending more troops to Afghanistan to turn the situation around.

Iqbal Akhund

The US-Pakistan relationship, rarely very smooth, is going through a particularly bad patch at present. It carries a load of past resentments, grievances and disappointments.
Paradoxically, the more America tries to make amends, talk of a long-term relationship, the more it seems to feed suspicions of its intentions at the popular level.
One is asked, 'Why is America offering money and making a fuss over Pakistan now? It must have a purpose of its own!' - taking away our nukes; turning Pakistan into a 'secular' country; breaking it up altogether.
The fact, however, is that the US does, at this juncture, wish Pakistan well - not because it sees Pakistan as a friend but, on the contrary, because it sees it as a potentially dangerous enemy - a country with nuclear weapons and technology (that it sold abroad), politically unstable, facing every sort of economic and social problem, where a variety of armed and radical tehriks and lashkars and jamaats etc, with sympathisers in the establishment, have had a free run for years and could get their hands on the nuclear weapons.
One of the reasons, the principal reason, for America's interest in Pakistan at present is to prevent this from happening. If it comes to that, we can be sure that the US will not hesitate to use whatever it takes, including force, to this end.However, it has not come to that yet and it sees a better bet in a Pakistan that evolves into a stable democracy, with an educated and healthy population, moving ahead economically and socially. So one might say that our nuclear weapons are proving to be an asset in an unexpected way!
Of course the aid the United States is offering comes with conditions as aid always and from anywhere does, explicit or implicit. Our successive governments have taken the money and accepted the conditions because we needed the assistance and the conditions were acceptable. It has done the same in the present case. What should worry us is why after more than 60 years of independence, we still need such aid in order to remain afloat.As for whose war it is, the Afghan war was indeed not our war; Pakistan was dragooned into it by threats and blandishments. It was not really a war of necessity but was launched by the Bush administration in the post-9|11 surge of nationalist emotion and hubris of power without giving enough chance to negotiations with the Taliban (negotiations that the Americans are now anxiously seeking). It should not have been fought the way it was - from the air, with daisy-cutters and bunker-busters causing innocent deaths; nor by co-opting the Northern Alliance and thus jumping into Afghanistan's tribal, ethnic, sectarian fray and alienating the Pakhtun majority.
Now President Obama is prepared to settle for a 'successful outcome' - a subjective concept - and is sending more troops to Afghanistan to turn the situation around.
This seems a doubtful prospect even to some among the American military. Perhaps the intention is only to bring about an outcome that could be seen as 'successful' and that allows US troops to begin withdrawing as proposed. This means that either the Karzai government measures up or an agreement is negotiated with the Taliban or a bit of both.
Whether America leaves after some kind of settlement with the Taliban or just packs up, Afghanistan would very probably fall into the hands of the Taliban or revert to the anarchy that prevailed after the Soviet pullout. The Taliban stood above the scramble and imposed order on the post-Soviet anarchy and could do so again.
Now that the Afghans know what kind of order the Taliban order is, would they welcome them again? They may have no choice. The best alternative America's eight-year adventure has produced has not worked. There is no one around who might bring even the symbolic unity that the monarchy had provided before it was overthrown.
None of this bodes well for Pakistan. In the worst-case scenario the presence of the Taliban on both sides of the Durand Line could provide an ethno-ideological basis for a revived Pakhtunistan movement.
The return of the Taliban, no longer Pakistan's protégés, could, at the very least, provide moral or material boost for the Pakistani Taliban. The latter's insurgency cannot be dismissed as a reaction to Pakistan joining the American war; they have aims of their own and are not going to stop even if Pakistan stops cooperating with the Americans.
Our war is not the same war as the Americans' but a parallel war against a group for whom the Pakistani constitution is un-Islamic, a group that demolishes schools, beheads opponents, flogs women, blows up families out shopping, people at prayer etc.
The army will eventually win its battle against these fanatics if it keeps it up. We have a better chance of winning it because we know whom we are fighting (not many now see them as 'our own people') and what the fight is about - 'hearts and minds' or concretely, jobs, education, health and so forth.
That, and for no sinister purpose, is where the new aid from the US and others is meant to go.
On the broader front, viz the India-Pakistan relationship, it now looms as a negative factor in the Afghanistan situation. It is a pity that President Obama was scared away from taking up this nettle as he had proposed to do in his pre-election speeches.Still, it is not to be supposed that the US is doing nothing in the matter. Adm Mullen and Gen Petraeus have publicly mentioned Pakistan's concerns over Indian activities in Afghanistan and Hillary Clinton has urged India to stop playing hard-to-get over resuming the composite dialogue with Pakistan.
However, the ills that afflict the country are largely internal - political instability, social injustice, corruption, inefficient administration - the remedy for which lies entirely in our hands. The national consensus on the Balochistan package and the NFC agreement shows that we are capable of dealing with them and despite the prevailing despondency, there is reason to be optimistic.

The writer is a retired diplomat and was national security adviser to Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in 1988-90.

  Cellphone revolution

Hardly anyone believed mobile phones would be so popular that there would be more phones in the UK than there are people.

Richard Wray

In the early hours of New Year's Day 1985, Michael Harrison phoned his father, Sir Ernest, to wish him a happy new year. There may appear nothing remarkable in such a filial affection, but Sir Ernest was chairman of Racal Electronics and his son was making the first-ever mobile (cell) phone call in Britain, using the network built by its newest investment.
Later that morning, comedian Ernie Wise made a very public mobile phone call from St Katharine Docks, east London, to announce the very same network was now open for business. At the time, mobile phones were barely portable, weighing in at almost a kilogram, costing several thousand pounds and, in some cases, with little more than 20 minutes talktime.
The networks themselves were small; Vodafone had a dozen masts covering London and west along the M4 motorway corridor while Cellnet launched with a single mast, stuck on the BT Tower. Neither company had any inkling of the huge potential of wireless communications and the dramatic impact mobile phones would have on society over the next quarter century.
The first generation of handsets quickly became synonymous with the yuppie excesses of Margaret Thatcher's Britain in the mid-1980s. But hardly anyone believed mobile phones would be so popular that there would be more phones in the UK than there are people.
For the first decade the predictions that mobile communications would not be mass market seemed correct. "In 1995, 10 years into the history of mobile phones, penetration in the UK was just seven per cent," according to Professor Nigel Linge, of the Computer Networking and Telecommunications Research Centre, at the University of Salford, England. "In 1998, it was about 25 per cent, but by 1999, it was 46 per cent, that was the tipping point. In 1999, one mobile phone was sold in the UK every four seconds."
By 2004, mobile phones in Britain reached a penetration level of more than 100 per cent. The boom was a consequence of increased competition which pushed prices lower.
The industry has spent the later part of the past decade trying to persuade people to do more with their phones than just call and text, culminating in the fight between the iPhone and a succession of touchscreen rivals - soon to include Google's Nexus One.

Viewpoints

Luck must go

India has also commenced the process of taking on board Kashmiri groups fighting for independence in discussions on the future of Kashmir.

Zafar Hilaly

India has also commenced the process of taking on board Kashmiri groups fighting for independence in discussions on the future of Kashmir. These are nascent but welcome steps.
Even the most foolish must know by now that the greater the turmoil, the higher the casualties, the more intense the indignation, the larger the media coverage, the deeper is the satisfaction that terrorists derive from their actions. And, as happens so often, an unwitting accomplice of the terrorists is their enemy. Today it is America and tomorrow perhaps India too. Only the Israelis have done better than America in antagonising an entire religion, nay civilisation.
Seeking revenge, rather than justice, the US has waged war on Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia and is about to do so in Pakistan and perhaps Yemen. In its search for a handful of terrorists, the US has destroyed countries and caused the death and dislocation of millions. Not content, Washington is preparing to wreak havoc in Pakistan. Harassed and on the run, Al Qaeda terrorists are the quarry, and so is the leadership of the Taliban - an assortment of hitherto defeated, demoralised and unpopular antediluvian fundos that have prospered, gained respect and, to a large extent, become popular as a result of a lethal mix of American folly and Afghan xenophobia.
The misguided crusade begun by the doltish Bush against militant Islam continues under the stewardship of the opportunistic Obama. Soon America may be joined by India. The latter's fanciful doctrines, such as 'Cold Start' and 'Three Front War', are reminiscent of Cheney's 'One Percent' and the Petraeus's 'Surge' theories. Spawned in the military classrooms of India's indolent soldiers, they are being trotted out for airing as lynchpins of Indian military strategy. Presumably, the Indian establishment will indulge these military fantasies if another attack is mounted by terrorists whose provenance is traced to Pakistan. This only provides further incentive to the lashkars and jaishes, which seek to profit from the turmoil, to launch yet another attack on India. Encouraging a war that the enemy craves for is surely the height of folly.
America's war in Afghanistan is not going well. Robert Taber summed up why America will lose in Afghanistan, "The guerrilla fights the war of the flea, and his military enemy suffers the dog's disadvantages: too much to defend, too small, ubiquitous, and agile an enemy to come to grips with." The same fate awaits an Indian incursion into Pakistan. At best, Pakistan may be destroyed but never defeated. The true war would only begin once the fighting is over. Indian gains on the battlefield will be lost in the blood lust that would ensue as entire religions and populations collide. And this would happen even if a nuclear conflict is avoided.
The US and India would do better to heed to the desire of their respective populations which, in the case of the former, shows a steady erosion of support for the war in Afghanistan and a decisive shift in favour of an American withdrawal and in case of the latter, was revealed by what a recent poll conducted by two media houses of India and Pakistan discovered. Only a tiny minority, 17 percent in India and 8 percent in Pakistan, it discovered, are opposed to the idea of consigning their hostility to the dustbin of history. An overwhelming 66 percent of those polled in India and 72 percent in Pakistan said that they desire a peaceful relationship between the two countries.
These encouraging results were supported by the observations of an eminent Indian doctor holidaying in Indonesia whose contacts with most segments of Indian society are intense. "Indians do not buy their government's line that the regime in Pakistan or the people were involved in the attack on Mumbai. They favour greater people-to-people contacts and are appalled at what the public in Pakistan were being subjected to at the hands of the terrorists. They genuinely wish that Pakistan is able to tide over the crisis and defeat terrorism. They feel that India must help where it can," he wrote.
Of course, the next al Qaeda sortie from Pakistan may drown such friendly sentiments, at least that is what the terrorists count on. Manmohan Singh, who has dragged his feet in engaging with Pakistan after Mumbai, may find himself compelled to let the desire for revenge replace reasoned judgment. America too may seize on the additional pressure another Mumbai would exert on Pakistan's brittle regime to obtain Islamabad's concurrence for American forces to fan out looking for jihadists in Pakistan. That, of course, would be a recipe for disaster. A Pakistan invaded, weakened, divided and even defeated might bring temporary relief, but eventually permanent ruin to India. There seems no reason for India to play fortune's fool. India and Pakistan can determine their own fate although time is not on their side.
Following their unsuccessful attempt to blow up Margaret Thatcher and other members of the British Cabinet at a hotel in Britain in 1984, the Irish Republican Army called the police to say, "Today we were unlucky. But remember we only have to be lucky once. You will have to be lucky always." The Nigerian student Omer Farooq Abdulmuttallab caught trying to blow up an American airliner over the Atlantic might have said the same thing, and so too other suicide bombers prevented by luck or good intelligence from reaching their targets. But luck, like chance, is a fickle friend. Eventually it runs out.
Manmohan Singh has begun what could prove to be the first step in a long process of the demilitarisation of Kashmir by withdrawing 30,000 Indian forces from Indian Kashmir. Pakistan has reciprocated by transferring an equal number of her forces to the Western border with Afghanistan. Sensibly, India has also commenced the process of taking on board Kashmiri groups fighting for independence in discussions on the future of Kashmir. These are nascent but welcome steps. Nevertheless, they are not enough. India should restart the composite dialogue process, conclude a number of agreements that await signature and begin once again the process of building confidence.
Because how far India and Pakistan are down the path of peace will determine their response to the next terrorist attack. Hopefully, negotiations would have advanced far enough to ensure that they can make their own 'luck' and not let the terrorists do so. In fact, the object should be to banish luck as a determining factor in relations. That surely is also the mandate that their respective peoples have given to two democratically elected governments. It is not ordained that the poisonous, clinging ivy of the terrorist should smother and suffocate the tree of peace. "We may become the makers of our fate when we have ceased to pose as its prophets," rightly said Karl Popper.


The writer is a former ambassador.

  Collective punishment is no answer

But fighting terrorism will not be achieved by penalizing millions and stigmatizing Muslims.

Osama Al Sharif

It has not been a great start to 2010. The failed terrorist attempt by a Nigerian passenger to blow up an American airliner bound for Detroit on Christmas Day has brought the war against terror back to the forefront. President Barack Obama has pointed the finger to Al-Qaeda in Yemen and ordered a series of measures to be taken to tighten security at American airports and restrict granting visas to nationals from countries who the US associate, directly or indirectly, with terrorists. Most of the countries on the new list are Arab and Muslim.
And then last week an armed Somali youth was arrested as he was about to break into the home of a Danish cartoonist, who angered millions of Muslims two years ago by publishing offending drawings of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in a Copenhagen newspaper. The young Muslim was charged with attempted murder.
Europe soon followed America's example; security measures were immediately stiffened at European airports. It is only the first step. A new wave of restrictions and regulations will be unleashed in the coming days and weeks and all will revolve on making it more difficult for Muslim nationals to travel, file for immigration, seek work and residency permits in Western countries.
Muslims are once again being stigmatized and penalized because they are being associated with terror and terrorism. If the Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was a blue-eyed renegade belonging to a fringe Bible-belt sect, Western reaction would have been different.
But he was not. He was one of hundreds of misled young Muslims who Al-Qaeda and other extremist organizations managed to recruit as a proselyte, believing in their bloody and nihilistic ideology. At 24 years of age, Abdulmutallab fits the characteristics of the majority of young Muslim men, and women, who have become a prime target for the likes of Al-Qaeda.
But there is nothing new in all this. We have always known about the tactics that terrorist organizations use to snare disillusioned Muslim youth. We had paid a heavy price in the war on terror; millions of innocent Muslims have lost their lives, were injured, chased out of their countries, or falsely persecuted because of who they are and what they believe in.
The West's prompt response to latest terrorist attempts does not address the core problem. It only provides more nourishment to the forces that seek to stereotype Islam and are busy promoting ways to punish Muslims en masse.
More Muslim and Arab countries will probably join the shameless American list if the next culprit hails from say Egypt, Turkey or Malaysia. To punish an entire nation for the folly of one citizen will only serve the goals of the terrorists, and right-wing forces that are gaining grounds in the West.
There is a common platform that brings those opposing forces together. When America and Europe react by closing borders, tightening restrictions and resorting to racist methods by profiling Middle Easterners, Muslims, dark-skinned men with difficult names to pronounce, the West is caving in to isolationism, insecurity, xenophobia and bigotry.
But isn't this what Al-Qaeda and others want? Aren't they seeking to reach the grassroots in the Muslim world, something they had consistently failed to do for years? There will be thousands of innocent Muslims who will suffer as result of this system of profiling and discrimination. Many will lose their jobs, students will be denied visas to study in Western universities and fully qualified immigrants will be rejected because of their names, backgrounds and other silly stuff. Isn't this a victory for those who preach polarization, hatred and doubt?
Terror is a byproduct of failed and tortuous policies. A Muslim terrorist is no different from a Chinese one; he's primarily a victim of circumstances and extremist ideologies. Those who end up paying the price are not terrorists or extremists, but moderate people who abhor both. The West's reaction institutionalizes the drive for entrenchment, for building walls and closing doors, for looking at others with suspicion, for intolerance and hate.
The victims of such policies are not only Muslims. Everyone suffers and as a result a blame game begins, one that enhances stereotypical perceptions and augments segregation and isolationism.
After President Barack Obama's election and the euphoria and hope which accompanied that historic event, the world believed a new chapter in cultural relations was about to be written. Obama's first global message was to Muslims everywhere, which he delivered from Cairo University. He promised openness, tolerance, cultural exchange, justice and fairness. He vowed to open a new page in America's relations with the Muslim world. He made many promises that tantalized our emotions and gave us hope. It was the best response to extremists and bigots; hate-mongers and fundamentalists who were so happy to see cultures torn apart.
Today Obama's acts are a breach of these promises. Yes Al-Qaeda is still there, a menace not only to the West but to the Muslim world and to our children. But is this is the way to combat it? One billion Muslims around the globe deny Al-Qaeda and what it stands for. Is this is the way to build bridges with them?
There are risks involved and misled young Muslims will attempt to commit mass murder believing that they serve a noble cause. But fighting terrorism will not be achieved by penalizing millions and stigmatizing Muslims. The West must come to its senses by addressing the real issues and facing up to its responsibilities; it cannot do so if it allows a citadel mentality to dominate. It cannot expect to win if it closes the doors and encourages discrimination, collective punishment and intolerance!


Osama Al Sharif is a veteran journalist and political commentator based in Jordan.

  2009 changed white-black dynamics in US

The dynamics of race were transformed in 2009 because the most powerful person on earth was no longer white.

Jesse Washington

The year began with a harmonious glow at the inauguration of the first black president, as America marked a stunning victory over its racial demons.
"That lasted about a day," President Barack Obama said two months later. He attributed that to the economic calamity threatening all Americans, but his statement also applied to the notion that all of the country's racial problems had been solved.
The dynamics of race were transformed in 2009 because the most powerful person on earth was no longer white. But despite that potent symbol - and sometimes because of it - race remained a volatile and often divisive subject.
"It felt like an evolution to me, something that created a paradigm shift," says Dr. Joy DeGruy, a black author and speaker who focuses on racial healing. "We moved a quantum leap forward."
Conservative radio host Mike Gallagher calls the change "profound" and says there were fewer racial controversies last year than in almost any other during his 30-plus years of radio. "I get the sense from my audience collectively that there is a sigh of relief, that we've made progress this year," says Gallagher, who is white. "Because I truly believe that good people don't want to be mired in racial conflict."
One sign of that progress was Elwin Wilson. Inspired by reaction to the inauguration, he sought out US Rep. John Lewis. They had last met in 1961, when Wilson and other white racists brutally beat Lewis during a Freedom Ride civil rights protest in South Carolina. Wilson apologized, and Lewis accepted. "I think it will lead to a great deal of healing," the black congressman said.
The year held many milestones. George Lopez became the first Latino host of a late-night TV show. Ursula Burns became the first black woman to lead a Fortune 500 company, Xerox. The Indian model Padma Lakshmi starred in commercials for shampoo and hamburgers. More than 2 million people clicked on a humorous but perceptive YouTube ad for Red House Furniture in High Point, North Carolina, "where white people and black people buy furniture."
There were signs that the elusive American "conversation on race" gained a foothold last year.
Jen Wang, cofounder of the race and culture blog Disgrasian, said she used to be discouraged by the reluctance to discuss race. "Something shifted the day that Obama took office," she says. "There's something in the conversation that tells me readers feel like if we discuss it, there's a chance that there will be some change or progress, or at least you will be heard."
But there was pain amid the progress. The disorderly conduct arrest of black scholar Henry Louis Gates by a white officer after he forced open the jammed front door of his home seemed like a throwback to an earlier, divided era. The issue was inflamed when Obama slipped from his race-neutral stance and said that police who arrested Gates had "acted stupidly." Obama's poll numbers among whites plunged; he then invited the cop and the professor to meet at the White House.
In May, three white teens in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, were acquitted of the most serious charges in the beating death of Luis Ramirez, an illegal Mexican immigrant. The case became a rallying cry for Latino activists who called it part of a rising tide of anti-Hispanic hate crimes. Federal hate-crime charges were filed against two of the teens in December. Latino groups also demanded the ouster of CNN host Lou Dobbs for his anti-immigration rhetoric, and he resigned in November. Another resignation was a white justice of the peace in Louisiana who had refused to marry an interracial couple, citing concern for their future children.
Asian groups were angered after teen star Miley Cyrus was photographed pulling her eyes into a slanted position, then said people were trying to make "something out of nothing." After Sonia Sotomayor was nominated in May to be the first Hispanic on the Supreme Court, critics called her racist for a past "wise Latina" statement about the role judges' backgrounds can play in their work. The remark dominated her contentious confirmation hearings. Race had once again become a wedge - but with a new twist, as white senators voiced fears of unfair treatment at the hands of a powerful Puerto Rican. The idea was connected to an argument that gained traction this year: That Obama's election proved the playing field had finally been leveled, and that the biggest remaining barrier to black progress was black attitudes.
"It is not white racism that plays the deciding role in success among minorities anymore," says Edward Blum, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who studies civil rights policy issues.
The Supreme Court appeared to agree in June, when it ruled 5-4 that a group of white firefighters were unfairly denied promotions because no blacks performed well enough on the exam. (Sotomayor had ruled against the white firefighters on a lower court, citing precedent that said a test is discriminatory if it had a disparate racial impact.)
"This is just proof positive that people should be treated as individuals and not statistics," said Frank Ricci, the firefighter whose name was on the lawsuit.
But statistics on high black unemployment were the primary evidence used by the Congressional Black Caucus in December when it demanded that Obama provide special assistance to jobless blacks. Obama responded as he had since the campaign: Focusing on the overall economy, health care and education as the best way to help minorities. It was a theme he also sounded in July when he volunteered some rare comments about race at the annual convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which was celebrating its 100th anniversary.
"Even as we inherit extraordinary progress ... we know that too many barriers still remain," Obama said in his speech. But despite these barriers, he said later, "Your destiny is in your hands - you cannot forget that. That's what we have to teach all of our children. No excuses. No excuses."
That same day, Gates, the Harvard scholar, was sitting in a jail cell.

International

Gilani warns against any strategic imbalance in region
Dawn Online

Pakistan Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani Tuesday said Pakistan will counter any negative trend, through "all appropriate means" attempts at undermining the strategic stability of the region.
Addressing the Defence Committee of the Cabinet (DCC) meeting here at the PM House Gilani said strategic stability in South Asia was a pre-requisite for enduring peace and prosperity for the people of the region.
"We are mindful of the policies and trends that could undermine strategic stability in our region. Pakistan"will be obliged to counter such negative trends by all appropriate means."
The Prime Minister said "no one should underestimate the strong resolve of the people, political leadership and the defence forces to protect honour, dignity, sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Pakistan."
He said Pakistan was a peace-loving country and vowed that "We will continue to endeavour to promote peace, security and stability in our region."
Gilani said all state institutions were determined to work in union for the progress and prosperity of Pakistan, with the full support of the nation.
"The strength and resilience of our nation has been tested before. I have no doubt that at this particular juncture with Grace of Almighty Allah, we shall overcome all transient challenges and
emerge even stronger and victorious."
The Prime Minister called for the need to review the ongoing counter-terrorism and law enforcement actions.
He appreciated the people and the government of Pakistan for the "exceptional valour, patriotism, and professionalism" of the armed forces, paramilitary forces, police and other agencies that were at the forefront in counter-terrorism.
"Our armed forces and law enforcement personnel continue to render exemplary services and our nation will never forget their heroic sacrifices," he said.
"I wish to assure you that the whole nation stands firmly united in support of the armed forces and law enforcement agencies."
He said the government convened All Parties Conference to develop complete national consensus to defeat militancy and terror.
"Our political leadership has shown that it is united in war against terror."

  Philippine massacre suspect pleads not guilty to murder
Reuters, Manila

The mayor of a small Philippine town, the main suspect in the November massacre of 57 people in the country's troubled south, pleaded not guilty to murder charges on Tuesday.
Datu Andal Ampatuan Jr, wearing handcuffs and flanked by armed security officials, sat quietly and looked bored as a court employee read 41 murder charges against him at a clubhouse turned into a courtroom inside Manila's main police camp.
State prosecutors are readying 16 more murder cases against Ampatuan Jr. to cover each of the 57 people killed, including 30 journalists, some of whom were found in shallow, hastily dug graves at a hilly area in southern Maguindanao province.
Most of the victims were on their way to an election office to witness the filing of nomination papers for a member of the Ampatuans' rival political clan when about 100 armed men attacked their convoy.
The killings raised fears next May's national elections would be bloody, particularly the contest for provincial posts.
Days after the massacre, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo imposed martial law in Maguindanao province to disband the Ampatuan's private army and arrest the clan's patriarch, his brother and three sons, suspected to have had a hand in the killings. All five are currently under military and police custody on the southern Mindanao island.
On Tuesday, Arroyo appointed a retired judge to head an independent commission tasked to dismantle private armies controlled by dozens of political warlords across the country and reduce election-related violence.
Arroyo gave the commission authority to use the military, police and other agencies to disarm and disband an estimated 132 private armed groups.

  CIA Afghan base bomber was Qaeda triple agent
AFP, Amman

A suicide bomber who killed eight people at a CIA base in Afghanistan was an Al-Qaeda triple agent who duped Western intelligence services for months before turning on his handlers, jihadist websites boasted on Tuesday.
The Jordanian intelligence services had brought the bomber to eastern Afghanistan with the mission of finding Al-Qaeda number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri, believing he was their double agent, jihadist websites and Western intelligence agents cited by US media said.
But instead he blew himself up at Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khost province near the Pakistani border, killing seven CIA agents and his Jordanian handler, a top intelligence officer and member of the royal family.
Jordanian media gave no details of how Captain Ali bin Zeid died even though King Abdullah II, Queen Rania and virtually the whole royal family turned up at his funeral.
The slain officer's family said that Bin Zeid had been in Afghanistan for 20 days and had been due to return home on December 30, the day he was killed. but even on Monday, officials continued to deny any Jordanian involvement in the international coalition there.
Both jihadist websites and Western intelligence agents cited by US network NBC News identified the bomber as Humam Khalil Abu Mulal al-Balawi alias Abu Dujana al-Khorasani.
Balawi was arrested in late 2007 and then recruited as a double agent by the Jordanian intelligence services but in reality continued to work for Al-Qaeda, they said.
He ran a blog, http://abudujanakharasani.maktoobblog.com/, on which he posted calls for jihad-holy war-and martyrdom, that the Jordanian authorities presumably regarded as cover for the role of double agent.
The blog was still available on Monday but was inaccessible on Tuesday.
"He spent months travelling between Afghanistan and Pakistan and fed the Americans the information that the Mujahedeen (jihadists) wanted them to receive," the Ana Muslim ("I am a Muslim" in Arabic) website boasted.
"Every time that the reports which he gave proved accurate, their confidence in Abu Dujana rose."
Balawi was taken to the CIA base in Khost because he claimed to have urgent information about Zawahiri, the website said.

  Sri Lanka's main Tamil party backs ex-general for presidency

AFP, Colombo

Sri Lanka's main minority Tamil party on Monday backed the main opposition presidential candidate, Sarath Fonseka, who as army chief led the offensive that crushed Tamil rebels last year, officials said.
Fonseka, a former four-star general who quit in November following differences with his political boss President Mahinda Rajapakse, pledged in a letter to end a state of emergency if he was elected in the January 26 vote.
The moderate Tamil National Alliance (TNA) agreed to back Fonseka's campaign after he signed a three-page programme that he hopes to implement in the island's former war zone, a party official said.
"We have decided to support General Fonseka, but a formal announcement will be made on Tuesday," said the TNA official, who declined to be named. The TNA has 21 seats in Sri Lanka's 225-member parliament.
In his letter, a copy of which was seen by AFP on Monday, Fonseka promised to free Tamil detainees within a month if no charges had been brought against them.
The former military chief, who is credited with leading the military drive against the separatist Tamil Tigers, also promised to establish a completely civilian administration.
"Full restoration of all institutions of civil administration from the office of village headman upwards will be free from military, police and political interference," the letter to the TNA said. The TNA was at one time seen as a proxy of the Tamil Tigers who were crushed in May with the elimination of the rebels' military leadership after 37 years of fighting.
Fonseka pledged to end the state of emergency which had been in force since March 1983, largely to deal with Tamil rebels as well as militants among the majority Sinhalese.

  Joint Pak-US action against Taliban in the offing
Dawn Online

Pakistan and the United States are working on a plan to take joint military action against Taliban and launch coordinated attacks on both sides of the Pak-Afghan border, according to Gen Stanley McChrystal, Commander of the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) in Afghanistan.
He was talking to reporters at the residence of the US ambassador on Monday evening after holding talks with military commanders here and visiting Swat.
"In fact, we are developing a joint campaign plan so that we approach the entire problem together and as much as possible we can make our efforts synergistic."
Gen McChrystal said strong partnership between the US and Pakistan was critical for counter-insurgency operations on both sides of the border.
"The most important thing we can do is to coordinate our operations with the Pakistan Army and then there is, of course, going to be political coordination."
In contrast to some other US officials, who have been lecturing Pakistanis on the need to 'do more' in the fight against extremist elements, Gen McChrystal repeatedly called for 'partnership' between the two countries and said that differences should not detract them from their aims.
Referring to the often-discussed trust deficit between the two countries, he said the level of mistrust had declined but it needed to be narrowed.

  Afghanistan's NATO force needs top civilian: UN
AFP, United Nations

The NATO-led international security force in Afghanistan should appoint a senior civilian official to help improve political and development coordination, UN chief Ban Ki-moon said in a report released Monday.
The report also stressed the need to beef up the international coordination structure in the war-torn country "under a United Nations umbrella."
Ban said naming a top civilian official within the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) "would help to improve coordination of its political and development efforts, in particular by the provincial reconstruction teams, so as to ensure their greater adherence to Afghan plans and priorities across provincial borders."
He noted that while his outgoing special envoy to Afghanistan, Kai Eide of Norway, maintains overall responsibility for coordinating international civilian efforts, the UN mission there (UNAMA) needs to be bolstered with staff with the required experience and able to have better talks with key donors countries and embassies in Kabul.
Ban's report made clear that to be successful, any form of international coordination must be properly linked to the Afghan government.
"The situation cannot continue as is if we are to succeed in Afghanistan," he warned. "There is a need for a change of mindset in the international community as well as in the government of Afghanistan."
Eide, who was criticized over his handling of the deeply controversial August fraud-marred election and who is to step down when his mission ends in March 2010, is to brief the UN Security Council this week on the activities of his mission.
His time in Afghanistan has seen the Taliban insurgency reach its deadliest since US-led troops ousted their regime in 2001, kickstarting international efforts to build democracy and develop the impoverished nation.
In a related development, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky refused to comment on a December 31 New York Times editorial stating that Ban was considering three candidates to replace Eide.
The three are Jean-Marie Guehenno of France, the former head of UN peacekeeping operations, Staffan de Mistura of Sweden, currently a senior official with the Rome-based UN World Food Program, and Ian Martin of Britain, a former UN special envoy to Nepal.

 US Dept. of Homeland Security under scrutiny
Reuters, Washington

The Department of Homeland Security, created following the Sept. 11 attacks, is under scrutiny after President Barack Obama blamed human and systemic failures for a Christmas Day airplane bombing attempt.
Following are questions and answers about the agency:
WHAT IS DHS?
The department's prime responsibility is to protect the U.S. homeland from terrorist attacks and lead a unified response if one does occur. President George W. Bush founded the Office of Homeland Security in an executive order on Oct. 8, 2001, after the Sept. 11 attacks revealed serious flaws in the country's protection measures. A year later after lengthy negotiations with Congress, lawmakers approved the creation of a Cabinet-level department. It is in charge of border and transportation security to keep militants and explosives out of the country. It has the lead in preparing the U.S. response to domestic emergencies; developing countermeasures against chemical, biological and nuclear attacks; and producing a picture of threats distilled from raw intelligence gathered across the government. The department is currently led by Obama appointee Janet Napolitano, who replaced Bush appointee Michael Chertoff.
WHY WAS DHS NECESSARY?
Sept. 11 was a catastrophic failure to connect the dots between scraps of information collected by various U.S. intelligence agencies and draw the conclusion, clear in hindsight, that a determined plot to attack the United States was afoot. Part of the problem was that national security duties had been spread among 40 different federal agencies and funded through roughly 2,000 separate congressional appropriations accounts. U.S. lawmakers had been worried by this arrangement for years, and a national homeland security agency was proposed in March 2001, based on the recommendations of a U.S. commission on future security needs.

  Iran bans contact with 60 groups including BBC, HRW
AFP, Tehran

Iran has banned its citizens from having contact with 60 organisations including the BBC, Human Rights Watch and opposition website Rahesabz as well as US-funded broadcasters, state media have reported.
The deputy intelligence minister in charge of external affairs said that the 60 blacklisted groups were suspected of being involved in efforts by Western governments to topple the Islamic regime as part of a "soft war" and that it was an offence to communicate with them.
"Any kind of contact by individuals or legal entities with those groups involved in the soft war is illegal and prohibited," state media quoted the deputy minister as saying on Monday without giving his name.
The blacklisted organisations also included US government-funded Voice of America and Radio Farda as well as US-based pro-monarchist satellite channels, Israeli public radio and the outlawed rebel People's Mujahedeen. The deputy minister also called on the public to avoid "irregular contacts with embassies or foreign nationals or centres linked to them".
"Citizens should be alert to the traps of the enemies and cooperate with the intelligence ministry in protecting the nation and neutralising the plots of foreigners and the conspirators," he said in allusion to opposition sympathisers who have held repeated protests over the past seven months.
Other blacklisted groups included the Brookings Institution, US philanthropist George Soros's Open Society Institute and the Washington-based National Endowment for Democracy.
On Monday, Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi said that Iran had arrested several foreign nationals at anti-government protests during Shiite Muslim Ashura rituals last month that left at least eight people dead.

  Britain’s Iraq inquiry restarts ahead of Blair evidence
AFP, London

Britain's public inquiry into the Iraq war resumed Tuesday after the Christmas break, as questions grew about the looming appearance by Tony Blair, who led the country into the controversial conflict.
Blair is expected to give evidence to the inquiry in the second half of January or early February, while his former communications chief and close ally Alastair Campbell will appear on January 12.
Labour figures are reportedly worried Blair's appearance could cause problems for the ruling party as struggling Prime Minister Gordon Brown starts campaigning in earnest for Britain's general election, to be held by June.
And an Internet campaign has been launched to ensure Blair faces tough questions about why he took Britain into the unpopular war, amid criticisms the probe, led by a retired top civil servant, has gone too easy on some witnesses.
Blair stood shoulder-to-shoulder with then US president George W. Bush over the 2003 invasion, but faced a major backlash in Britain. He resigned in 2007 despite having led his party to three election wins.
Britain justified the invasion at the time by arguing that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (WMD) but these were never found.
Blair insisted last month he would have supported the war, which did not gain explicit United Nations approval, even if he had known there were no Iraqi WMDs.
"I would still have thought it right to remove him (Saddam Hussein).
Obviously you would have had to use and deploy different arguments, about the nature of the threat," he told the BBC.

  China says ‘still room’ for talks on Iran nuclear issue
AFP, Beijing

China on Tuesday called for continued dialogue to resolve the international standoff over Iran's nuclear programme, saying there was "still room" for diplomacy.
"We believe that dialogue and negotiation are the proper way to resolve the Iran nuclear issue," foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters.
"We still have room for diplomatic efforts and we hope all parties will adopt more flexible and pragmatic policies to enhance the diplomatic efforts so as to promote an early resumption of talks."
The statement came after the United States on Monday said "the door is still open" for Iran to meet world dem-ands on its nuclear aims, but warned it was discussing with its allies the "next steps", which could include sanctions.
Tehran has dismissed a US-set deadline of December 31 to agree to a UN-brokered nuclear fuel swap deal and instead issued the West a one-month "ultimatum" expiring January 31 to accept a counter-proposal.
"The door is of course still open for Iran to do the right thing and live up to its international obligations," said Bill Burton, a White House spokesman.
Separately, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the United States has discussed with its allies "pressure and sanctions" on Iran over its nuclear programme, which the West suspects is a cover for atomic weapons-building.
The deal brokered by the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), called on Tehran to ship most of its low enriched uranium (LEU) stockpile abroad to be further enriched into reactor fuel. Despite the threat of tougher sanctions, Iran came out with its own proposal of a simultaneous and staged swap of LEU with reactor fuel.

  Iran blocks EU delegation visit
Internet

Iran has postponed a visit to Tehran by Euro MPs who were going to meet Iranian opposition activists and Majlis (parliament) members this week.
The MEPs' visit had been planned for 7-11 January. Tehran said a new date would be set "by mutual agreement".
The EU delegation head, a German Green politician, accused Tehran of trying to avoid a focus on political unrest, following a spate of clashes in Iran.
Barbara Lochbihler MEP said Tehran saw the visit as "a risk not worth taking".
The cancellation was "another sad illustration of how much the Iranian leadership opposes any discussion of the major unresolved problems in the country," she said.
Meetings with Iranian foreign ministry officials and business representatives had also been planned.
Iranian security forces have cracked down on opposition protests since June's disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, arresting dozens of activists.
US disapproval
European Parliament delegations visit parliaments around the world once every two years, in a programme of regular exchanges.
Fifteen members of the US Congress had opposed the MEPs' planned visit, in a letter sent on 22 December. The members of the Congress foreign affairs committee had argued that the timing of the visit was inappropriate.
The US is exerting pressure internationally to halt Iran's nuclear programme, which Washington believes to be aimed at developing nuclear weapons. Tehran insists the programme is civilian and entirely peaceful. In recent months European nations have strongly criticised trials being held in Iran linked to the unrest that followed the June election, which the opposition alleges was rigged.
The Iranian government has accused Western nations of stirring up the violence.

  Yemen kills militants it says threatened embassies
Reuters, Sanaa

Yemeni forces on Monday killed at least two al Qaeda militants they said were behind a threat that forced the U.S. and European embassies to close, as concern grew about the poor Arab country's stability.
The raid took place after the attempted bombing of a U.S.-bound plane on Christmas Day thrust Yemen into the foreground of the U.S.-led war against Islamist militants. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said fighting in Yemen was a threat to regional and global stability. "We see global implications from the war in Yemen and the ongoing efforts by al Qaeda in Yemen to use it as a base for terrorist attacks far beyond the region," she said.
The West and Saudi Arabia fear al Qaeda will take advantage of Yemen's instability to spread its operations to the neighbouring kingdom, the world's biggest oil exporter, and beyond. Yemen itself produces a small amount of oil. A Yemeni security official told Reuters militants targeted in Monday's raid were behind the threats to the U.S. embassy.
"Security authorities had been monitoring them for several days and struck today," he said. Agents were hunting Mohammed al-Haniq, a local al-Qaeda leader, but he was able to get away, state media reported. The U.S. embassy in Sanaa stayed shut for a second day in response to what it said was al Qaeda threats. Britain's embassy has also been closed since Sunday. Clinton said a decision on reopening the U.S. embassy would be taken "as conditions permit".
ACCESS LIMITED
Other European countries, including France and Italy, limited access to their embassies on Monday, as did Japan. The Dutch Foreign Ministry said it had temporarily closed the consular and visa sections of its embassy. A Yemeni security official denied a BBC report that six trucks belonging to the security forces and loaded with arms and explosives had gone missing.

  NASA’s Kepler telescope finds five new planets
AFP, Washington

NASA's Kepler space telescope has discovered five new planets beyond the solar system, the US space agency has said, just 10 months after Kepler launched into space to find Earth-like planets.
The discovery of the five planets "contributes to our understanding of how planetary systems form and evolve from the gas and dust disks that give rise to both the stars and their planets," NASA's William Borucki, principal science investigator for the Kepler mission, said in a statement on Monday. But all five exoplanets are "too hot for life as we know it," NASA said.
The newly discovered planets are known as "hot Jupiters" because of their large masses and extreme temperatures, which range from 2,200 to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,204 - 1649 degrees Celsius) -- hotter than molten lava.
Their orbits last between three and five days, meaning they follow paths close to their stars, which are hotter and larger than the Earth's sun, NASA said.
The smallest of the newly discovered planets is roughly the size of Neptune, the fourth largest planet in Earth's solar system, and the biggest is around the size of Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system.
One of the planets, which have been given the unimaginative names of Kepler 4b, 5b, 6b, 7b and 8b, is similar in many ways to Neptune, although its irradiation level is much higher.
Another planet is one of the least dense ever discovered, and along with the other three, confirms the existence of planets with densities substantially lower than those predicted for gas giant planets.

Business/Economy

REHAB members urged to maintain transparency, honesty
BSS, Dhaka

State Minister for Housing and Public Works Abdul Mannan Khan Tuesday urged the real estate developers to maintain transparency, professionalism and honesty in their business in line with the government policy.
The state minister, "If you maintain transparency and honesty, and follow the government policy, your business will be flourished. Otherwise, you will lose trust and confidence of customers and business."
Mannan Khan said the government is going to set up at least four satellite towns around the capital city to solve the housing problems. The honest developers of the private sector will be given priority to build the towns, he added. "You are artisans and talents. So, you must build apartments at lower costs and solve housing problems. The government will extend you allout cooperation," the state minister said.
He was addressing the inaugural function of a four-day REHAB Housing Fair-2009 at Hotel Sheraton in the city. Later, he kicked off the fair in presence of enthusiastic real estate developers.
A total of 268 stalls have been set up at the fair where 262 REHAB members and six financial institutions are displaying their products.
The state minister said the private sector real estate developers under the leadership of the REHAB have been playing a vital role in solving the housing problems in the country.
More than 15,000 skilled people are engaged in this sector, which contribution to the national exchequer is increasing day- by-day, he said adding that the REHAB is playing a vital role in earning foreign exchange from various countries. But due to illegal activities of a few so-called developers, the real estate sector is facing troubles.
"The government wants to support genuine developers. We will give you land to develop satellite towns. But you must take actions against the dishonest developers who are occupying government land, exploiting innocent buyers showing false hope," the state minister said.
Nasrul Hamid, MP, said the high price of land, absence of a marketing place for plots and plots, and delay-dally practice at RAJUK are the main hindrances to the growth of this potential sector. "Many developers often fail to meet their commitments to their customers. The main reasons are RAJUK's cumbersome policy for approving plans.
Besides, the government cannot provide necessary utility services timely. As a result, the developers face pressure from their customers, he said urging the government for allocating a piece of land to build a marketing place for real estate developers.

 SEC asks investors not to act on online tips
AFP, Dhaka

Bangladeshi stock exchange regulators expressed concern Tuesday that the local bourse was being manipulated by a rogue Facebook group, and cautioned investors not to act on a recent slew of online tips.
The Securities and Exchange Commission said a 1,000-member group on the popular social networking site was spreading false information in a bid to influence the market, the commission's executive director told AFP.
"A group of people are posting information online to make investors buy shares in certain companies which (constitutes) illegal market manipulation," Farhad Ahmed said, adding the commission has launched an investigation.
"(They) are trying to influence the market by forecasting share prices that are misguiding many investors," he said, adding that those responsible would be punished and that a formal complaint had already been lodged to Facebook.
The daily Prothom Alo reported
many members of the Facebook
group were executives from prominent local companies and banks. It added that up to 12 other local websites appear to have been participating in the scam.
Although nearly 40 percent of its population lives on less than a dollar a day, Bangladesh's share market has made steady gains with its economy posting average six percent annual growth in the past seven years.
But analysts say Dhaka's bourse, which is a minor player compared to other Asian markets, is still vulnerable to manipulation.
Internet services were introduced in Bangladesh in 1996 and the number of users in Bangladesh is now more than 6 million, according to Internet Service Providers Association of Bangladesh.

  All major economic indicators advance in one year
BSS, Dhaka

The economy in the first one year of the Awami League government earned stability with significant advance in all major indicators, according to some latest reports. The foreign exchange reserve of the country reached a historical high last year when the growth of remittance inflow was phenomenal.
The reserve on November 10 last year crossed $10 billion for the first time in the country's history, which was $5.25 billion at the end of November in 2008. Bangladesh Bank governor Dr Atiur Rahman told BSS that the record reserve would increase business confidence of both the local and foreign investors. The success of attaining the historic reserve got wide coverage in the world media with the observation that this would help attract more foreign direct investment. The remittance inflow also increased to $10.72 billion at the end of 2009 from $8.97 in 2008. The remittance inflow would increase further with the global financial recovery and the effective diplomacy in increasing and creating job market abroad.
The World Bank earlier predicted that Bangladesh would get more remittance if the oil prices on the global market stay over $80 a barrel. The oil prices hovered around the projected prices in the past few months and the OPEC hoped that it would not fall below the current prices.
The government last year also negotiated successfully with different countries including Malaysia and Mauritius, ensuring jobs for Bangladeshi expatriates.
Inflation dropped to a single digit in the year with relative stability of commodity prices and fall in the living cost. The average inflation in 2008 was 10.06 percent, which came down to 5.11 percent in October last year.
Some economists and market observers cautioned that the inflation might increase this year as the commodity prices on both the local and international markets had been showing upward trend.

  Japanese executives see slow economic recovery
AFP, Tokyo

Japan's business leaders warned Tuesday the economy was unlikely to recover until the second half of this year as the nation faces being overtaken by China as the world's second largest economy.
"Unfortunately, the Japanese economy has yet to be on course to sustainable recovery," Fujio Mitarai, chairman of Japan Business Federation, told a joint news conference after a New Year party with the nation's top executives.
"The first half will remain severe as deflation is likely to continue for now," said Mitarai, who is also chairman of Canon.
"But we are going to see signs of recovery globally in the second half," he said. "I hope the economy will recover slowly in the second half."
Tadashi Okamura, chairman of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, also predicted the economy "will slowly recover in the second half."
But Masamutsu Sakurai, chairman of Japan Association of Corporate Executives, warned that it will take "a considerable time to get rid of deflation as it is a structural problem."
Okamura said Japan should focus on building a technology-oriented economy, rather than aiming for all-round economic might. "We have had an identity of the world's second largest economy, but it is just a matter of time before we will soon be overtaken by China," he said. "We should aim at becoming the world number one in science and technology, which will solve problems of the 21st century." In late December, China said the country's economy grew by 9.6 percent in 2008, up from a previously announced figure of nine percent, moving closer to overtaking Japan as the world's second largest economy.
Japan returned to growth in the second quarter of 2009 after a severe year-long recession, but renewed deflation and weak domestic demand are major concerns for policymakers.

  Airbus set to ditch A400M transport plane
AFP, Frankfurt

The head of European plane maker Airbus is preparing to ditch its A400M military transport project which is bogged down in talks with clients, a German press report said on Tuesday.
But a German official said the intention was to press on with the programme.
Thomas Enders reportedly told a group of Airbus directors last month he "no longer believed in pursuing the programme" and had begun to prepare for it to be terminated, the Financial Times Deutschland (FTD) said. Lists of engineers to be transferred from the A400M to the development of two other key aircraft, the A380 superjumbo and the A350, have already been drawn up, the newspaper added.
The German defence ministry, however, said it aimed to continue with the programme and hoped talks could still be wrapped up the end of the month.
"We... will continue to clarify the necessary details for a continuation of the programme with the industry until the end of the month," a ministry spokesman said.
He added that state secretaries from the seven countries planning to buy the plane were planning to meet in mid-January. An Airbus spokesman said it hoped to wrap up the A400M negotiations "positively and constructively" by January 31. Airbus and its parent group, the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), have been in discussions over cost overruns for several months with the seven countries.
A total of 120 aircraft had been ordered for around 20 billion euros (29 billion dollars) but clients are being asked to pony up billions more to cover unexpected costs.
The Financial Times Deutschland said Enders estimated the chances of reaching an agreement at around 50-50.
And the German boss "is not ready to threaten the civil aviation division, which is doing well, just for the A400M," a source close to the matter was quoted as saying.

  ‘Brand Hyderabad’ takes a hit in Indian unrest
AFP, Hyderabad

The city of Hyderabad, once a symbol of the new emerging India and home to IT giants such as Google and Microsoft, is mired in protests, threatening its future as an investment-friendly hub.
The southern state of Andhra Pradesh, of which Hyderabad is the capital, has been rocked for weeks by violent demonstrations for and against the division of the state into two entities. The national government first backed the idea under pressure from a hunger strike, then appeared to backpedal, and since then almost daily disruptions by protestors have dented the city's image as a fertile ground for business.
Chief Minister K. Rosaiah told reporters last week that firms, including metals group Bharat Forge and French automaker PSA Peugeot Citroen, had relocated projects or deferred planned investment on account of the turmoil. "The image of Hyderabad as an investment destination and a hub of information technology, pharmaceuticals and other industries has taken a beating because of the unrest," said Rosaiah. Hyderabad's star rose during the 1990s and last decade as India established itself as a global IT hub, offering low-cost services to multinational companies for a fraction of the cost in their domestic markets. A proposed new state called Telangana would be carved out of Andhra Pradesh's poor tribal belt, a drought-prone region which supporters say has been neglected by the state government for too long.
Hyderabad is located in what would become Telangana, but neither Telangana supporters nor those in the rump of Andhra Pradesh are willing to give up the capital and its spoils.
The 400-year-old city boasts a mix of tall glass buildings amid its many minarets and historic temples, a sign of the software boom which began when US software giants Oracle and Microsoft first planted themselves on Indian soil. Hyderabad has since attracted several Fortune 500 and Indian companies, including the disgraced outsourcing giant Satyam, once the city's pride.
In 2009, Satyam was discovered to be the source of India's biggest corporate fraud, worth more than three billion dollars.
Now, frequent strikes and road and rail blockades have caused widespread disruption to the operation of several firms, including software and pharmaceutical companies. Analysts say the political turmoil has created a sense of uncertainty among investors, many of whom might look to the rival, larger Indian IT hub of Bangalore. "Foreign investors are following the 'wait and watch' strategy before making any financial commitment in the region," said Deepak Kher, an IT analyst working in Hyderabad.
The state government has created a task force to protect the city's business interests after industry representatives and corporate executives conveyed their concerns to the state government. Chief minister Rosaiah appealed to protestors "not to subject industries to hardship as the latter are no way concerned with their demands". He said Hyderabad's pharmaceutical industry had suffered a loss of five billion rupees (100 million dollars) in the past one month, and that hotels had registered a 40-percent drop in reservations.
He also said the world's largest steel maker, Arcelor Mittal, and Japanese pharmaceutical company Eisai have put proposed investments on hold.

National

Wheat farming target not achieved
BSS, Rangpur

Farmers and officials are expecting an excellent production of wheat though its farming target has not been achieved in the country's northern region during this current Rabi season.
The crop is now growing excellent under favourable climatic conditions and the farmers have brought a total of 2,26,913 hectares land under its farming against the fixed target of bringing 2,59,749 hectares, officials said Tuesday.
The Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) has fixed a record target of producing 6,23,398 lakh tonnes wheat from 2,59,749 hectares lands in all 16 northern districts during the current Rabi season.
As the farmer achieved wheat production target and its bumper production in the region last year for the first time in a decade, the DAE has fixed this encouraging target this season, which is higher by almost 33 percent than that of the last season.
But, due to crop diversification, bringing of huge land area under tobacco and other crop farming and some other reasons, the fixed farming target fell short by 32,836 hectares than the fixed target though the crop is growing excellent everywhere now.
The per hectare yield rate of wheat has been fixed at 2.40 tonnes for the current season and the countrywide wheat production target has been fixed at 10,20,000 tonnes wheat from 4,25,000 hectares land, DAE officials said.
Sources in the DAE here Tuesday said that all concerned agri- departments, wheat research institutes have taken necessary steps towards the directions for making the wheat farming programme successful in all 16 northern districts during this season.
Alongside the government departments, some NGOs have also taken various steps including huge motivational activities and provided quality and high yielding variety wheat seeds, fertilizers and other necessary inputs to the farmers.
Many of the farmers also adopted the latest technologies while preparing their lands and sowing wheat seeds after harvesting the early and short duration variety paddies and vegetables and they completed sowing process timely last month, officials said.

  RCC adopts Tk 269 crore 6 uplift projects
BSS, Rajshahi, Jan. 5

The Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC) has undertaken six uplift projects involving around Taka 269 crore for development of road communication, infrastructures and new residential areas and making the metropolis free from water logging.
According to the RCC officials concerned, the major projects included a Taka 82.34- crore connecting road from Fire Brigade crossing to Naodapara bypass and another eight-kilometer connecting road from Alif-Lam- Meem Bhata point to Natore road and Taka 72-crore 2.85- kilometer internal roads.
In order to uplift the infrastructure, communication and other civic amenities in the expanded and underprivileged areas, the city corporation adopted a Taka 61- crore project, by which 55- kilometer roads and 32- kilometer drains will be constructed.
A Taka 41-crore project has been prepared to construct 67- kilomter more tertiary drains with a view to making the city free from water-logging problems by 2015 completely.
To make the 5-storied City Bhaban 10-storied through vertical extension by 2012, the corporation is going to place a 13.25- crore project to the government for its recommendation soon.
It has also taken an initiative to establish industrial units and residential area on the public-owned khash and other abandoned lands aiming at removing the residential crisis and creating job opportunities for the unemployed youths.
RCC Mayor AHM Khairuzzaman Liton told BSS that the corporation has got an allocation of Taka 161 crore for development of infrastructure, road communication, drainage and water supply systems and the works on some the projects are progressing and the others expected to start soon.
He said, 19 important road crossings including Gourhanga were expanded and developed by spending Taka 18.34 crore while 294- kilometer existing roads would be maintained and repaired at a cost of Taka 19.42 crore.
The city corporation has been implementing the "Rajshahi City Environment Development Project" at a cost of Taka 23.09 crore for building an environment-friendly atmosphere.

   RAB-police arrest 518 top terrors, militants last year
BSS, Dhaka

The police and the elite force RAB arrested nearly six lakh people including 518 listed top terrors and militants from across the country in the last year.
Official sources told BSS that the two major law enforcement agencies have recovered nearly 3000 firearms, 2200 other arms, 16367 bullets, 4258 explosives and huge drug items from the arrested persons or from different hideouts during the same time. According to official statistics, the police under six metropolitan units and seven ranges arrested 5,71,650 people including 440 listed top terrors and fugitive 5783 convicts from January 1 to December 31.
They also seized 1700 different types of firearms and 1552 local arms and 8290 bullets from across the country at that time. They arrested nearly 2000 people in connection with the arms recovery and filed 1207 cases against them.
The police seized 625 explosives from the country and arrested 238 people for possessing the explosives and filed 136 cases with respective police stations.

  Khas land to be distributed among genuine landless people soon: Minister

UNB, Satkhira

Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr AFM Ruhul Haque said that steps would be taken for distribution of government khas land among genuine local landless people soon.
The minister said this while addressing a meeting at Atshatabigha primary school premises in Devhata upazila Tuesday morning.
The minister called upon the landless people to remain calm and sought cooperation from all for maintaining law and order in the district.
Addressing the meeting organized by local administration, Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Abdus Samad said 426 acres of khas land would be distributed among genuine landless people of the upazila within one month.

  Primary school dropout rate increases in Barisal
UNB, Barisal

The number of dropout from the primary schools in the district is increasing alarmingly despite different government programmes to check the rate.
According to Barisal primary education office sources, some 29,509 students, out of 77,845 enrolled in class I in 2005, appeared in this year's primary education terminal examination of Class V. so, the number of dropout students is 48,336 (62%), the sources added.
But, unofficial sources claimed the number of dropout rate is much more than the official figure.
Md. Idris, Barisal, district primary education officer, said they did not yet develop updating system about year or class basis regular enrolment and dropout data.
After collecting information and visiting a good number of primary schools in the district, this correspondent saw that average 50 students enrolled in class I at each school, but less than 50 per cent of those appeared in class V final exams for last three years.
The sources revealed that the drop out rate of the boy students is higher than the girl students because of abject poverty.
The government sanctioned per head monthly Tk.100 for 40 percent students of all primary schools on condition of having 65 percent attendance in the class to check the dropout rate.
But, the initiative is not enough to check the school dropout rate as poor parents of male students to send their children to earning jobs, so they can contribute financially to the family in the age of ever increasing living cost.

Sports

Yuvraj boosts India with 74
AFP, Dhaka

Yuvraj Singh scored a solid half-century to help India post a competitive 279-9 in a triangular one-day series match against Sri Lanka on Tuesday.
India were struggling at 71-3 following a three-wicket burst from paceman Chanaka Welegedara, but Yuvraj came to their rescue with an 84-ball 74 in the day-night game.
Yuvraj put on 99 for the fourth wicket with skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (37) after left-arm seamer Welegedara rocked India's top order in his lively opening spell.
Welegedara finished with 5-66, his maiden five-wicket haul in six one-day internationals.
He removed Gautam Gambhir (eight), Virat Kohli (nine) and Virender Sehwag (47) in his first spell before accounting for Suresh Raina (35) and Zaheer Khan (two) in the second.
Sehwag smashed nine fours in his impressive 31-ball cameo before being caught at mid-off by debutant Lahiru Thirimanne off a leading edge.
Yuvraj was more aggressive than his captain and reached his half-century in style, lofting part-time spinner Thilina Kandamby over long-on for a six.
He fell in a bid to step up the run-rate, caught in the deep off paceman Thissara Perera after hitting two sixes and six fours.
Ravindra Jadeja (39) and Raina then helped India set a challenging target with a 65-run stand for the sixth wicket.
Raina was on seven when given out caught behind off paceman Suranga Lakmal by Australian umpire Simon Taufel, who changed his decision after consulting the TV umpire.
The TV replays showed the ball had hit the ground before wicket-keeper Kumar Sangakkara held it.
Sri Lanka made three changes from the side that defeated Bangladesh by seven wickets in the opening match on Monday.
Tillakaratne Dilshan and Chamara Silva were ruled out due to injuries and were replaced by Thirimanne and Perera. Paceman Thilan Thushara came in place of Nuwan Kulasekara.
Each team will play four league matches before the top two qualify for the final on January 13.

  Citycell Bangladesh League football
Omari powers Sheikh Russel to win over Ctg Mohammedan

TBT Report

Samir Omari struck a hattrick as Sheikh Russel Krira Chakra thrashed Chittagong Mohammedan Sporting Club 4-1 in the Citycell 3rd Bangladesh League football at Bir Shreshtha Shaheed Mohammad Mustafa Sta-dium in Dhaka on Tuesday.
Title aspirant Sheikh Russel, which lost its only point when it was held to a 2-2 draw by Arambagh Krira Sangha in its third round fixture, recorded its sixth triumph in the Bangladesh League after the healthy victory over Chittagong Mohammedan.
After a barren first half, the play picked up pace when Sheikh Russel shot into the lead through Yousuf, who brought the first breakthrough for the hosts with his 54th-minute strike.
But two minutes later, Ridon scored the only goal for Chittagong Moha-mmedan to put the game on level terms (1-1) before Samir Omari got into the action.
Sheikh Russel's Moro-ccan import Omari scored three goals in a row to seal a 4-1 victory for his side. He scored on 66, 75 and 82 minutes to complete his hattrick. Sheikh Russel booted its tally to 19 points from seven matches, while Chittagong remained on six after its seventh round match.
Biani Bazar Sporting Club scored a stunning 2-1 win over Brothers Union in the other match of the day at Sylhet Stadium.
Biani Bazar, which drew its previous two matches, led the first half 1-0 against its fancied opponents as Pappu scored the first goal for the winners after 12
minutes.
Conte scored the second goal just three minutes after the break to extend the hosts' lead to 2-0. Enock pulled off the only goal for Brothers Union on 57 minutes.
Biani Bazar increased its tally to six after the sixth match, while Brothers Union secured 10 points from seven encounters.
Today's match: Feni Soccer Club vs Arambagh Krira Sangha (Shaheed Salam Stadium, Feni at 2:30pm).

  Japan, Australia on verge of Asian Cup
AFP, Singapore

World Cup qualifiers Japan and Australia plan to secure their places at the 2011 Asian Cup finals today.
Japan will make if through if they pick up a point against Yemen in Sana'a, a match that was under threat of being called off following the attempted bombing on Christmas Day of a US-bound airliner.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the group's Yemen-based arm, claimed responsibility for the attack.
Japan decided to go ahead with the game and coach Takashi Okada has included 13 uncapped players in his 19-man squad.
"I don't feel any particular danger at the moment. I wish nothing happens as our stay is short. We will focus on football," Okada told reporters after a training session in front of machine gun-toting police.
"The players are highly motivated and they are working out in fine condition." Bahrain are likely to join them in the finals in Qatar from Group A with Milan Macala's men playing the already-eliminated Hong Kong at home, with a victory enough to secure their berth. Pim Verbeek's Australia travel to Kuwait looking for the win that will assure them of a place at the January 2011 showpiece. But it won't be an easy ride with the Kuwaitis upsetting the Socceroos 1-0 when they clashed in Canberra last year.
Verbeek has an under-strength squad with the likes of Lucas Neill, Tim Cahill and Mark Schwarzer not available.
Dynamo Moscow midfielder Luke Wilkshire is the most prominent of Verbeek's overseas players and he believes the team's fighting spirit will carry them over the line. "We're all winners, we're all fighters," he said from the Socceroos' training camp in Dubai.
"Playing for our country, you won't see any of us dropping off or giving up or letting things go easily. It's just inside of us."
In the other Group B clash, Indonesia have home advantage against Oman and need a win to keep alive their slim hopes of qualifying. They have three points from their four games so far, one less than Oman and four adrift of Australia and Kuwait with only the top two from each group qualifying.

  Aussies stay in contention in Hopman Cup
AFP, Perth

Australia kept their Hopman Cup final hopes alive with a comfortable 2-1 win over the United States on Tuesday.
The top seeds were stunned by Romania on the opening day of the mixed teams tournament, but bounced back to claim both singles tie against the Americans, who are now out of contention after also losing to Spain on Sunday.
Samantha Stosur, the world No.13, rebounded after her surprise loss to Sorana Cirstea on Saturday to easily beat Melanie Oudin in straight sets, 6-2, 6-4. Lleyton Hewitt then secured the tie for Australia with a barnstorming start, winning the first five games of the match on his way to an impressive 6-1, 7-5 win over lanky American John Isner.
The Americans then gained some compensation by winning the dead mixed doubles rubber in a tiebreak, 2-6, 6-1, 7-6 (10/5), in a result that could yet have significance for Australia's hopes of reaching the final.
Hewitt, aiming for a return to the top 10, made it two wins from as many singles matches to start 2010, dismantling the imposing Isner serve early and then needing just one break point to claim a much tighter second set.
The former world No.1 was delighted with his form against Isner, particularly with the way he handled the big man's serve, breaking it three times despite 13 aces.
"It was important to get a good start and jump him early and I was able to do that," Hewitt said.
"I felt like I was reading his serve very well.
"I moved extremely well, I passed extremely well and served as well as I have in a long time."

   Kaneria spins Pakistan into command
Cricinfo Online

The Australians, who looked in ominous batting form after Shane Watson and Phillip Hughes posted a century opening stand, were exposed over the final two sessions on Tuesday to close at a perilous 8 for 286, holding an overall lead of 80 runs.
Pakistan might have been further advanced down the path to victory had Kamran Akmal, the tourists' embattled wicketkeeper, not dropped Michael Hussey three times off the bowling of Kaneria. Hussey went onto post an unbeaten 73 as wickets fell around him to keep alive Australia's faint hopes of becoming just the sixth side in Test history to post a victory after trailing by 200-plus on the first innings.
If not for the contributions of Hussey and Watson, the latter of whom was dismissed in the nineties for the third time in four matches, Australia might already be packing their bags for Hobart.
The loss of five middle order wickets for just 40 runs on a decent batting surface served as further evidence of a soft underbelly and Pakistan, ranked a lowly sixth on the ICC Test ladder, exploited Australia's frailties with an efficiency somewhere short of clinical.
Kaneria proved the principal architect of Australia's demise over 33 punishing overs. His haul of 4 for 117 exacted a harsh physical toll - he was carried from the field late in the day with what appeared to be leg cramps - though not before he had accounted for Phillip Hughes, Marcus North, Brad Haddin and Mitchell Johnson.
Kaneria commenced proceedings by ending Australia's 105-run opening stand with the wicket of Hughes to a sharp return catch. He returned to remove North and Johnson with wrong-uns both batsmen failed to pick, and trapped Haddin lbw to a delivery that survived a video challenge.
His efforts were complemented by those of Gul, who showed up the selectors' decision to omit him from the first Test with the prize scalps of Watson and Ricky Ponting to go with the lower order wicket of Nathan Hauritz. Unerring in line and testing in length, Gul hardly allowed the Australian batsmen a moment of respite and was rewarded with the prize wicket of Watson who, to that point, had threatened to take the game away from the tourists.
Watson was the beneficiary of a number of reprieves, commencing with Kaneria's dropped catch over the fine-leg boundary that took him past the 1000-run mark in Test cricket. He might also have been run out on the stroke of lunch, only for Kamran Akmal to neglect to remove the bails while he was well short of his ground. It has been a tour to forget for the Pakistani gloveman.
Gifted an extra life, Watson adopted an aggressive mindset at the crease and peppered the boundaries with a series of authoritative drives and pull strokes. He bookended Sami's first over after lunch with a pulled six and cut four, and proceeded to punish Pakistan's tactic of bowling wide of off-stump to 7-2 field settings by blasting anything short between midwicket and long-on.
A more circumspect Hughes headed to the lunch break unbeaten on 31 from 71 deliveries, but his resistance ended early in the second session when a return catch was brilliantly reeled in by Kaneria.
Ponting continued his forgettable outing at the SCG by chasing the second ball of Gul's second spell and edging to Faisal Iqbal in the slips, and Watson's bid for back-to-back centuries was terminated when he attempted to cut Gul too close to his body on 97.

  Clijsters sends out warning
AFP, Brisbane

Kim Clijsters sent out an ominous warning to her rivals when she demolished Australia's Alicia Molik in the second round of the Brisbane International on Tuesday.
The Belgian was in ruthless form as she saw off Molik in exactly 60 minutes, breaking the Australian's serve six times on her way to a 6-0, 6-3 victory.
A day after fellow comeback queen Justine Henin ousted second seed Nadia Petrova in equally impressive fashion, Clijsters ensured she would attract just as many headlines as her countrywoman with a dominant display.
She broke Molik in the first game of the match then broke twice more to wrap up the first set in just 25 minutes.
Clijsters continued her rampage as she broke Molik at the start of the second set then held to open a 2-0 lead.
Molik eventually held serve, then managed to break back at 2-3 to even up the set, but Clijsters stepped up a gear and won the next three games to take the match.
"I found it pretty easy to read her serve-that was something I was worried about before the match," Clijsters said.
"That is one of her best shots, but I felt comfortable returning and I kept the pressure on her."
There is still a good chance that the two Belgians will meet in Saturday's final, and Clijsters said she had been impressed by what she saw in Henin's win over Petrova.
"I watched a little bit of it on TV-very impressive I thought," Clijsters said.
"She was moving really well and didn't look like she'd left (the sport).
"On TV she looked fast and strong and I assume that (when I play against her) on the court she'll be the same." While Petrova said Henin would emerge the winner if the two met in the final, Molik wasn't so sure.
Molik, who first played Clijsters in juniors when they were both 14, said Clijsters was still the same player she was before she retired in 2007.
"She's still incredibly good at the things she's always done well," Molik said.
"She left the game when she was at the top and I think she's still at that level."
Earlier in the day German Andrea Petkovic became the first player to go through to the quarter-finals when she came from a game down to beat Vania King of the USA 4-6, 6-2, 6-1.
Melinda Czink, the seventh seed from Hungary, beat Czech Barbora Zahlavova Strycova 6-3, 2-6, 6-1 and advanced to the quarter-finals, where she could well play Henin, if the Belgian overcomes Sesil Karatantcheva on Wednesday.