FRIday, JANUARY 8, 2010 Poush 25, 1416, muharram 21, 1430 Hijri

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Leading News

Chhatra Maitree leader killed in clash with BCL activists
Rajshahi polytechnic Institute closed sine die, 4 arrested

UNB, Rajshahi

Rajshahi Polytechnic Institute was closed sine die Thursday following an attack on the leaders of Bangladesh Chhatra Maitree reportedly by Bangladesh Chhatra League activists that left a Maitree leader dead.
The deceased was identified as Rezanur Chowdhury Sunny, vice-president of Polytechnic unit of Chhatra Maitree.
Police and witnesses said a group of 10-15 BCL men attacked Chhtra Maitree polytechnic unit president Kazi Motaleb Hossain Jewel, vice-presidents Rezanur and Bulbul Ahmed with lethal weapons in front of the administrative building at about 10am.
They hacked the Maitree leaders indiscriminately, leaving them injured seriously. Police constable Shahidul was also injured while trying to save the victims.
The injured Chhatra Maitree leaders were rushed to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital where Sunny succumbed to his injuries at about 4:15pm.
Police arrested four BCL men-Shariful, Nahid, Nabin and Manik-suspecting their involvement in the incident.
Later, the polytechnic authorities in an academic council meeting in the afternoon decided to shut down the institute for an indefinite period.
The students were also asked to vacate their dormitories by 4pm today.
Additional police and Rapid Action Battalion personnel have deployed on the campus to avert further trouble.

 ‘Oust-govt movement’ if Islamic politics is banned: IAB
UNB, Dhaka

Indicating a religious fallout of the scrapping of the Fifth Amendment, Islami Andolan Bangladesh Thursday threatened to launch "oust-government movement" along with all patriotic pious people if Islamic politics is banned in the country and 'faith in the Almighty Allah' as a fundamental principle in the Constitution is erased.
To start with, the political alliance of clerics announced a two-day programme to protest the reported government move to ban Islamic politics in the country. They will hold rally at Muktangon at 3pm Friday and stage a mass procession from Muktangon at 3pm on January 18.
IAB Ameer Mufti Syed Mohammad Rezaul Karim, Peer of Charmonai, issued the warning and the demo programme from a press conference at its office at Purana Paltan in the afternoon.
The press conference was arranged in demand for stopping attempt to outlaw religious politics "in the name of canceling the Fifth Amendment", as indicated in the 'audacious' statement of the Law Minister, and realizing commitment from India to stop construction of Tipaimukh dam during the PM's visit to India. They also protested what they said 'disaster of Islam, country and humanity' during the last one-year rule of the government and called for stopping the attempt to incorporate secularism and 'communism' in the basic principles of the Constitution erasing 'faith in the Almighty Allah'.
Secularism and socialism were among the four fundamental state principles laid down in the nation's original 1972 constitution adopted after the country's liberation from Pakistani rule. The two other pillars of the constitution were Bengali nationalism and democracy. These were modified through the Fifth Amendment following the August 15, 1975 political changeover.
The IAB Ameer said, "Islamic politics must remain in the second-largest Muslim country, Bangladesh, to bring peace and emancipation of humanity in the country as well as 'total faith in the Almighty Allah' have to be kept intact."
He said the government would lose moral right to stay in power if it failed to consider the sentiment of people. "The patriotic imandar people will be compelled to go for oust-government movement and the government will have to bear its serious consequences," he warned. The Peer questioned whether the statement of the Law Minister is the statement of the government.
Syed Rezaul Karim demanded immediate withdrawal of the 'audacious' statement of the Law Minister or "patriotic Imandar people will be forced to forge a tough movement".
Among others, IAB presidium-member Syed Mosaddek Billah Al Madani and its secretary-general Moulana Yunus Ahmad, and PNP chairman Sheikh Shawkat Hossian Nilu, Khelafat Majlish secretary-general Mawlana Zafarullah Khan, NDP chairman Golam Murtuza, Islami Party president Adv Abdul Mobin, Islami Oikya Andolan secretary-general Azizul Huq Murad and former BDR director-general Maj Gen (Retd) Fazlur Rahman were also present at the press briefing.

 Ruling party has to remove corruption from own house first: Delwar

UNB, Dhaka

BNP secretary-general Khandaker Delwar Hossain Thursday said the ruling party should remove corruption from its "own house" first if it wants to remove this vice from the country.
He made the remarks in response to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's observation in her Wednesday's addressing to the nation that she is trying to remove corruption from the country. Addressing a press briefing at the BNP central office in the afternoon to give formal reaction to the Prime Minister's nationwide address on completion of one year of her government, Delwar said, "The government, instead of finding out the den of corruption, is only trying to unleash attack on and filing cases against the opposition leaders and workers." Replying to a question regarding the Prime Minister's call for practicing healthy politics, Delwar said BNP as well as people want healthy politics but how healthy politics would prevail if the government carries out "repression" on the one hand and invites for doing healthy politics on the other hand.
Referring to the PM's claim on success of parliament, he said only passage of laws does not bring success of parliament rather without opposition parliament becomes ineffective. About prices of essentials, Delwar said the PM in her speech went for "juggling with figures" regarding price hike.
He urged her to compare the market prices of essentials with that of 2006 before the end of the tenure of the BNP-led alliance government. He alleged that the PM "misled" the people by shifting all liabilities to the BNP-led four-party alliance.
Replying to a question about reported five agreements to be signed with India during the PM's upcoming tour, he said, "She (the PM) is making agreements secretly without the knowledge of anyone. He added: "She can go to India for the interest of Bangladesh, but people will not accept anything against the people's interest."
The BNP secretary-general dismissed the Prime Minister's claim that the December 29 general election was unprecedented in history, saying that it was "totally false as the election was an election of blueprint".
Delwar also refuted her allegation that 1/11 was created by the BNP-led four-party alliance government. "People know who killed people with logi-boitha and trampling the dead bodies on October 28, 2006," he said. He further said Awami League had withdrawn their nomination papers for January 22 general election and mentioned that Awami League also claimed that 1/11 is the outcome of their movement. BNP leaders Gayeshwar Chandra Roy, Habibun-Nabi Khan Sohel, Sarafat Ali Sapu and Rafiq Shikder were present at the press briefing.

  No deal on Teesta water sharing during PM’s India trip: Dipu Moni
3 agreements likely on criminal matters, prisoner transfer, terrorism, she says

UNB, Dhaka

There will be no agreement on the longstanding issue of sharing the Teesta River waters during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to India from January 10, Foreign Minister Dipu Moni said Thursday, casting a damper on high expectations here about this deal this time around.
Another expected deal on cooperation between Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution and the Bureau of Indian Standards, meant for removing hassles of certification of Bangladeshi goods before entering the Indian market, will also not be signed.
There will, however, be signed three agreements concerning criminal matters, transfer of prisoners, and terrorism and one MoU on cooperation in power sector, the Foreign Minister informed while briefing newsmen on the PM's visit.
The agreements are: Agreement for mutual legal assistance on criminal matters, agreement on transfer of sentenced persons, and agreement on combating international terrorism, organized crime and illegal drug trafficking.
Secretaries concerned of the two countries will sign the agreements capping formal talks between Prime minister Sheikh Hasina and Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on Jan 11.
On the agenda of the official talks, Dipu Moni said the talks will cover the sharing of Teesta waters, Tipaimukh Dam, the dredging of Bangladesh rivers, rail connectivity, cooperation in energy and power sectors, removal of non-tariff and para-tariff barriers to exports, border haats, and third-country trade between Bangladesh and Bhutan and Bangladesh and Nepal through India. The two-nation summit will also encompass security issue, killing of civilians on the border, demarcation of 6.5-km boundary, implementation of the 1974 Land Boundary Agreement and road and railway links.
Asked if transfer of ULFA leader Anup Chetia will come under the agreement on transfer of sentenced persons, the foreign minister replied in the negative.

   Many Aila-hit people still live under open sky: Razzaque
He claims success in food management

UNB, Dhaka

Food and Disaster Management Minister Dr Abdur Razzaque on Thursday said they have not been able to rehabilitate the cyclone Aila-affected people completely and many of them are still living under open sky.
He admitted his ministry's lone failure while talking to the media on its one-year performance. The Minister said many of the Aila-affected people are still living on roads under open sky as it was not possible to repair many disrupted dams and roads for lack of technology, "even though we as a nation had a responsibility to bring them back to their homestead."
Dr Razzaque, however, said that the government could achieve a great success in establishing better food management system as well as encouraging farmers to go for more food production that has been made more profitable for them.
"As per our election pledges, we could bring down food price within the buying capacity of poor people, as the farmers have achieved good harvest of food crops," he added.
About the recent rise in rice price, the Food Minister said there nothing to worry about the slight rise as coarse rice is still available in the market at Tk 23-Tk 25 per kg.
He, however, said the government is trying to bring down the price of coarse rice by Tk 1-2 per kg so that the farmers would not be affected.
Dr Razzaque said there is no possibility of further rise in rice price, as there is a healthy food stock in the government godowns. About 2 lakh tons of food grain will be released each month from the government godowns during the next four months to ensure sufficient supply in the market.
He said they have a plan to reduce production cost of food grains by giving more subsidy to the agriculture sector in future.

   English version textbooks to be distributed free: Nahid
BSS, Dhaka

Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid on Thursday said the secondary level English version textbooks of NCTB would be distributed free among the students soon.
The educational institutions, which follow the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB), will get these books, he added.
Nahid was briefing journalists at the conference room of the ministry. Education Secretary Syed Ataur Rahman was present. The approved schools will get 1,42,000 books, which are now in the godown of NCTB. Earlier, the students had to buy these books. Each teacher will get a textbook on particular subject for classroom teaching. About distribution of books in Kindergarten Schools, he said adding that the NCTB would take steps in this regard after discussion with the ministry of Primary and Mass Education.
Meanwhile, for the first time, 83 types of textbooks for primary and secondary levels have been provided through websites and anybody can have printout from there. The website address is www.nctb.gov.bd 

   Human chain on DU campus
PM urged to include Tipai Dam in agendas of talks in India

DU Correspondent

'Sylhet Division Development Student Action Council (SDDSAC)', an organisation of the Dhaka University students, on Thursday urged Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to include Tipaimukh dam issue in her agendas for talks during upcoming visit to India.
At a human chain programme in front of the DU Institute of Fine Arts, they urged the PM to tell her Indian counterpart that Bangladeshi people will not accept construction of the disastrous dam.
The students demanded prompt steps from the government to save people from different adverse environmental impacts that might be caused by the project.
The project at upstream of Barak River in Indian state of Manipur will create a disastrous situation in north-east region of Bangladesh and areas in Indian states of Assam and Manipur as the proposed dam will increase the possibility of flooding and earthquake in the vast areas, the students said.
The human chain was attended, among others, by former Chairman of the Privatization Commission Inam Ahmed, President of Sylhet Division Development Movement Council Advocate Abed Reza and Secretary General of Bangladesh NAP M Golam Mostafa Bhuiyan.
The students threatened to forge a movement against the government if the Prime Minister fails to play effective role during her visit to force India to stop construction of Tipaimukh Dam.
To press home their demand, the SDDSAC will demonstrate in front of the city's National Press Club on January 9, a day before of the PM's scheduled visit in to India.

Back Page

PM for reducing syllabus volume, free education upto degree level

UNB, Dhaka

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina asked for reducing the backbreaking volume of school syllabuses and enhancing the standard of textbook contents to ensure easy but effective quality education for students.
Addressing the opening ceremony of the National Primary Education Week'2009 at Osmani Memorial Auditorium Thursday, the Prime Minister directed the authorities concerned to think out how the syllabi could be downsized and the quality upgraded.
This year, the Primary Education Week is being observed with the slogan 'Din Badaler Boichhe Hawa, Shikkhai Amar Prothom Chawa' -reflecting the present government's focus on building a well-educated population as an effective instrument of all-round change in society. The Prime Minister also declared that her government will make education up to degree level free to facilitate poor sections of people to achieve higher education.
"Only big-sized syllabus and numbers of books do not ensure good education for kids. They need interesting and effective contents. By giving many books, we cannot expect children will be all pundits," she told the gathering of educationists.
The Prime Minister said allocation to the education sector will be increased next time.
"We all say education is the backbone of a nation. But in our society, education and teachers are neglected. Such a situation must end," she said.
Hasina observed that one of the main reasons behind poor literacy rate in Bangladesh is poverty. "Without food, how long one can study?" she questioned.
She said the government, through round-the-clock hectic work, has been successful in providing free textbooks to students of primary and secondary levels in time.
The Prime Minister directed authorities concerned to increase quality of books in terms of both content and paper. "We want to see students happy with their textbooks," she said. Hasina expressed satisfaction over arrangement of class-five terminal examination, saying that such exams will remove discrimination among the students and increase competition of talents among themselves. She sought cooperation of all with the government in achieving its target for cent-percent literacy rate by year 2014.

  ECNEC okays 9 projects involving Tk 1,965 crore
BSS, Dhaka

The Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC) Thursday approved nine development projects involving Taka 1,965 crore from which Taka 509 crore will come as project aid from donors.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is Chairperson of the ECNEC, presided over the meeting at the ministry of planning. Cabinet ministers, cabinet secretary, secretaries of concerned ministries, members of the planning commission and officials related to the projects were present.
The ECNEC agenda had also one more project for approval on refurbishing assets of Chittagong Steel Mills and Adamjee Jute Mills for converting them into Export Processing Zones.
The Prime minister held its approval pending while asking the ministry of industries and the ministry of textiles to carry out further review of their assets and other issues before producing it in the ECNEC meeting for approval.
A senior government official told reporters at a briefing after the meeting that the prime minister has also directed the concerned authorities to plan the development of the telecommunication network in a way which would make illegal VOIP business unnecessary.
The ECNEC-approved projects are Telecommunication Network DEvelopment Pro-ject, road development project of Roads and highways department at Kadirpur town, modernization of Benapole land port (first phase revised) project, rehabilitation of Syedpur-Chilhati section of Bangladesh Railway, flood shelter building projects at flood and river erosion prone areas, Bhola, Char Fashion and Monpura town protection project.
The projects also include development of rural infrastructure, road, bridge, culvert and such other installation projects at poorly developed upazilas of the northwestern region, repair of Zia Fertilizer Factory project (revised) to continue its installed production capacity and silk production expansion and development project.

  Prove thru deeds, police are people’s friends: President
UNB, Dhaka

President Zillur Rahman on Thursday asked the members of the police force to behave frankly and cordially with people at all situations.
"You must remember that the ideal of police is to serve the people. Prove through your deeds that police is people's friends," he said while addressing a function at Bangabhaban marking the 'Police Week-2010'.
Describing police force as a traditional institution of the country, the President said responsibility of police is to ensure security of people's life and property along side maintaining the law and order. "As a law-enforcing agency the role of police is indispensable in establishing rule of law in the country."
He said it's true that manpower of police force is much less in proportion to the country's population. Although law and order situation has improved recently, still there is scope for more improvement.
"Role of police and RAB has been very laudable in curbing militancy along side protecting law and order."
President Zillur emphasized the importance of people's cooperation to improve the country's law and order situation, saying that an environment should be created so that people could spontaneously come forward to assist the police. "Your (police) responsibility is much more to creating such an environment."
He also put emphasis on providing necessary training to police to root out all sorts of strategies and communication by criminals during this era of free flow of information. The President noted with satisfaction that presently meritorious and scholarly young officers join the police force.
"A competent police force suitable for the 21st century, imbued with patriotism, will have to be built up through providing proper training," he said.

   BM Bakir dies in custody
Delwar smells foul play behind his death

UNB, Dhaka

BM Bakir Hossain, joint secretary of Jatiyatabadi Sramik Dal, died in custody at the city's Apollo Hospital at about 2:30 pm Thursday.
Bakir, president of Ban-gladesh Bank Employees Federation and member of the newly announced national executive committee of BNP, was taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) after he fell unconscious on December 22 in jail.
They said Bakir's body might be brought to the DMCH morgue for autopsy. He is survived by wife and three daughters. BNP secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain smelt foul play behind the death of BM Bakir and demanded a fair investigation to decipher what really caused Bakir's illness and death in custody. "Otherwise, the government will be held responsible for this conspiratorial death," he warned in a statement.
Baki was arrested on January 26, 2007 during the military-backed caretaker government on various corruption charges. In a condolence message, BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia expressed deep shock at the death of BM Bakir.
Begum Zia said Bakir had worked relentlessly as a dedicated leader to implement the ideals of late President Ziaur Rahman. "He was a courageous soldier in labour movement in Bangladesh."
In a separate statement, BNP secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain said Bakir died not only for lack of proper treatment but also because of a deep conspiracy.

   Govt to establish multi-mode communication in current tenure

BSS, Dhaka

The present government with a firm vision has taken up a plan to put in place a people-oriented, safe, cost effective, environment friendly, sustainable and a multi-dimensional communication system in the country within its current five year tenure.
"Our mission is to develop a people-oriented, safe, cost effective, multi- dimensional, environment friendly and sustainable efficient communication system in the country and our vision is to see the country's economic growth rises more quickly," Communication Minister Syed Abul Hossain told BSS here on Thursday.
He also explained the extent of development taken place in the communication sector over the last one year since the present government came to power and also the follow-up plans for the years to come to build a smooth transport infrastructure in the country. "We want to make people's dream comes true by constructing the Padma Bridge. It's certainly a challenge for us and we have also taken many other challenging tasks to complete within our tenure in line with our election pledges, he said.
The minister said the government is making all-out efforts to launch the construction work of the Padma Bridge by September this year and complete it by December in 2013.
Two bridges-Bangabandhu Bridge and Padma Bridge-will remain as symbols of development of Awami League government and manifestation of the fulfillment of our election pledges to the people, he said. Hossain said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina laid the foundation stone of the 6.15 kilometer Padma Bridge on July 4, 2001. But the project made no headway during the last seven years. The present government in its first cabinet meeting on purchase approved the appointment of international consultant for the Padma Bridge, he said.
He also said that the consultant has already prepared the final design of the project and its estimated cost of US dollar 2.6 billion for which donor agencies have shown their keen interest to finance.
Syed Abul Hossain said the government has also taken preliminary steps for constructing the second bridge on the Padma River at Paturia-Goalanda point, sensing the importance of smooth communication between the country's south and western region.

   India beats tigers
TBT Report

India defeated Bangladesh by six wickets in the Idea Cup Tri-Nation cricket at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, Dhaka on Thursday.
Chasing a target of 297, India reached the mark with six wickets in hand in 47.3 overs after Bangladesh had scored a challenging 296 for six in 50 overs.
Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni led his side from front to a fine victory after his side was down by Sri Lanka in their first match of the competition. Dhoni scored an unbeaten 101 and put on 152 runs in the fourth wicket with Virat Kohli after India was reduced to 51 for three, losing its key batsmen Gautam Gambhir (18), Virender Sehwag (13) and Yuvraj Singh (1).
Virat Kohli also led the Indian charge with a pugnacious 91 to demoralise the Bangladesh bowlers, who worked hard defying the dew to defend their total. The 21-year old Kohli batted with great authority to pull his team out of woods before giving a return catch to Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan. Kohli's 102-ball innings is studded with seven boundaries.
Earlier, Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan opted to bat first after his correct call and Tamim Iqbal and Imrul Kayes gave the hosts an impressive stat, producing the best ever opening stand for Bangladesh against the Indians.
Tamim and Kayes enthralled the crowd with their free-flowing hits and put on 80 runs off 66 balls. Tamim appeared aggressive to punish the Indian bowlers and exploded with his characteristic big hits. He hammered 10 fours and a joyous six before being caught by Gautam Gambhir at mid-wicket against a delivery from Indian paceman Sreesanth.
But his opening partner Imrul Kayes kept going on. He held his nerve to score his maiden half century. Kayes showed great tenacity against the fancied Indian attack and scored the highest 70 runs, facing 100 deliveries. The Kushtia-born opener struck five shots through the fence along with an over boundary. Ashish Nehra took the prized wicket of Kayes, having him caught by Virat Kohli at deep square leg to leave the hosts at 188 for four.
Mahmudullah Riyad led the rearguard action to take the Bangladesh innings to the vicinity of 300. He scored 45-ball-60 to boost the team's total and remained unconquered at the end when Bangladesh finished its 50 overs' allotment with 296 runs on board.

 Power minister directs DESCO to be more customer-friendly
UNB, Dhaka

State Minister for Power and Energy Enamul Haque Thursday directed the officials of Dhaka Electric Supply Company Ltd (DESCO) to make its electricity distribution service more consumer-friendly.
The directive came while the state minister was addressing a meeting of DESCO officials during his maiden visit to the state-owned power distribution company's head office in the city. DESCO board chairman Shahjahan Siddiqui, directors of the company, MD Saleh Ahmed, director (technical) Monjur Rahman and director (finance) Qudrat-e-Khuda were, among others, present at the meeting.
Appreciating DESCO's performance in reducing system loss and increasing revenue collection, the state minister said the company has to maintain this momentum in the future too. "DESCO has been a model in power sector and other distribution entities can follow suit to achieve success," he said.
The state minister also directed the DESCO management to expand its prepaid metering system in its other consumer areas.
He also suggested the power company's top management to take steps to build an underground cable distribution network to ensure a secure and undisrupted power supply.
DESCO officials informed the state minister that the company's system loss has come down to 9.79 percent which is the lowest in Bangladesh as well as South Asian region and it made the highest profit in distribution business last year.

 No alternative to unity: Inu
UNB, Dhaka

Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) president Hasanul Haque Inu MP Thursday said there is no alternative to unity to win the next national polls in 2014 by the non-communal forces.
"Unity among the non-communal forces is essential to form a non-communal government again," he told the inaugural session of the party's two-day national council at the historical Paltan Maidan. Emphasizing the importance of strengthening the 14-party grand alliance, he said it is not possible to win the next election without unity. "So, we should maintain our unity."
Inu also demanded that a tribunal be set up to bring the war criminals to book.
State Minister for LGRD and Cooperatives Jahangir Kabnir Nanak read out a message of greetings from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the council. JSD executive president Mainuddin Khan Badal, secretary Syed Jafar Sajjad and Workers Party president Rashed Khan Menon MP, All India Forward Block secretary Comrade Debprada Biswas, West Bengal Disaster Mana-gement Minister and All India Forward Block leader Dr Mortuza Hossain, CPB secretary Comrade Mujahidul Islam Selim, Gono Forum Presidium member Pankaj Bhattacharya and North Korean Ambassador to Dhaka, among others, addressed the opening session.

Editorial

Introducing positive politics

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina addressed the nation over radio and television on Wednesday marking the first anniversary of her government. In her address she spoke of the success achieved during the first year of her rule and outlined her future plans. However, the most important aspect of her address was her pledge to introduce a healthy and positive trend in politics in the country and her call upon the opposition to return to Parliament. The Prime Minister requested the opposition to return to parliament saying "We want to break the traditional trend of politics, introduce a healthy and positive political trend. Therefore, we request the opposition to return to parliament and play its role."
Sheikh Hasina, who stepped into the second year of her rule Wednesday, claimed success in controlling inflation, price-hike of essentials and ensuring food security. "I've achieved success to a great extent in meeting my election pledges to bring down the prices and ensuring food security," she said in her address to the nation. She said inflation rate was 10.11 percent when she formed the government on January 6 last year. The rate of inflation now came down to 4.69 percent in August, 2009. The Prime Minister said despite the global economic recession, flow of remittances has increased 22.4 percent from the previous year and the foreign-currency reserve exceeded USD 10 billion. Her government has allocated Tk 5,046 crore in the national budget as a stimulus package so trade and business run smoothly. In agriculture sector, Hasina said her government provided subsidy worth Tk 3,600 crore for farmers to boost production. Some 11.5 lakh metric tons of food is in stock in the country. "We want to build a poverty-free Bangladesh., she added. On the nagging power crisis, the Prime Minister noted that after assuming office, the production of electricity increased to 4,296MW from 3,808 MW against the present requirement of nearly 5,500 MW. Hasina said Bangladesh was included in the list of 10 top corrupt countries in the past, but her one-year rule was able to remove this stigma.
In the address to the nation the Prime Minister has stated her success story and there is nothing abnormal in it as every ruling leader does the same thing. However, there was hardly any true picture of the sectors where her government failed to achieve desired success. The present situation relating to the rising prices of essentials can be mentioned in this regard. The government had promised to keep the prices at 'tolerable' level, but that seems a distant goal now. Although at the initial stage of her rule, prices of essentials had come down, but that of rice, pulses, edible oil and many other goods have shot up abnormally now much to the sufferings of the people. The government has to bring down prices of essentials, otherwise its main electoral pledge will remain unfulfilled.
Meanwhile, it is encouraging that the Prime Minister has pledged to introduce a healthy and positive trend in politics in the country and to this end she has requested the opposition to return to the Parliament. Bringing the opposition back to Parliament is very essential as democracy cannot flourish without joint efforts by the government and the opposition which are treated as two wings of democracy. But the government has to create congenial atmosphere for the opposition's return to Parliament and the opposition also has to be reasonable on the issue. For the interest of democracy and making the parliament effective the people want the government and the opposition to break the stalemate over opposition's participation in the Parliament session. And it goes without saying that healthy and positive trend in politics cannot be introduced without combined efforts of government and opposition.

  A welcome drive

The Save the Buriganga Movement entered into a new phase as the first-ever government project to remove deposited wastes and polythene on the river beds was launched on Wednesday. At the directives of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority has undertaken the Taka 25 crore project to save the dying rivers around the capital. Thousands of people showed their solidarity with the government initiative and arranged boat procession on the Buriganga marking the launching of the project. Officials said 18.50 lakh metric tons (9.6 cubic meter) polythene and other solid wastes would be removed from the Buriganga and the Turag rivers in one and a half years period under the project.
The drive to clean the Buriganga riverbed followed a demand made by BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia on Tuesday that the rivers Buriganga, Shitalakhya, Turag and Balu have to be saved to protect historic Dhaka city and the assertion made on the same day by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina that the government will clean up Buriganga, Turag, Balu and Sitalakkhya rivers. The Buriganga is the lifeline of the capital city and its vast surroundings. Environmentalists are worried over the pollution of the Buriganga and other rivers surrounding Dhaka and contamination of their water. They have urged the government to take immediate steps to save the rivers from pollution and the water from contamination.
Against this backdrop the drive was launched to clean the riverbed and it has been welcomed by all. it is expected that people's long standing demand for saving the rivers will be fulfilled now.

Analysis

Obama needs a ‘Plan B’

The record of the past suggests that the surge is likely to fail. The additional forces are still not sufficient to win in a country as large as Afghanistan.

Maleeha Lodhi and Anatole Lieven

The key question to ask about President Obama's military surge in Afghanistan is, "Where is Plan B?" In other words, if the extra troops do not reverse the Taliban momentum and the Afghan governance structure and army cannot take over from the United States in the next few years, what then?
Equally importantly, how does Obama hope to prevent increased U.S. pressure on Pakistan from further destabilizing that country and risking a much greater disaster for the region and the world?
The record of the past suggests that the surge is likely to fail. The additional forces are still not sufficient to win in a country as large as Afghanistan. The Taliban may well be put on the defensive, but given their support in the Pashtun areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan, they are very unlikely to be crippled.
As for the U.S. state-building project, this has failed so comprehensively under President Hamid Karzai in the past eight years that it is difficult to see how it can miraculously reform itself over the next 18 months.
Washington's aim to build the Afghan National Army to the point where it is able to hold some towns against the Taliban confronts formidable obstacles: illiteracy, lack of professionalism and above all the underrepresentation of Pashtuns, all of which prevents it from becoming a genuinely national force.
Compared to the Soviet Union, the West is laboring under a crushing disadvantage in this regard. The Soviets inherited the core of the old royal Afghan Army, which had always been a Pashtun-dominated force. The West has tried to build a new force on the basis of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, which is overwhelmingly non-Pashtun.
With continued outside support, the force may be able to defend non-Pashtun areas against the Taliban in the future, but this is not sustainable. Even more questionable is whether it will be able to operate successfully in the Pashtun areas where the Taliban is based.
Given these odds against military success, it is essential that the U.S. plan incorporate a political strategy aimed at Afghan national reconciliation -- and that plan should involve negotiations with the Taliban. The goal would have to be a settlement that allows the Taliban local power in the Pashtun areas in return for the exclusion of Al Qaeda.
Mr. Obama's surge does not rule out the simultaneous pursuit of a negotiated settlement. Bringing military pressure to bear in an effort to soften the enemy's negotiating stance is a well rehearsed tactic.
For this to work, three things are essential.
First, there has to be a simultaneous political strategy. Otherwise, Washington will simply end up emulating the Israeli model of endless, futile campaigns to force a unilateral and unachievable political settlement. So far the Obama administration has given no indication of what its alternative strategy might be.
This also undermines the second essential factor, of time. Historically, all negotiations to end such conflicts have taken very long -- Northern Ireland being a classic example. If Mr. Obama and his generals think that they will ultimately need to talk to the Taliban, they actually need to start doing that now, or at least seeking ways of starting.
The last precondition of a successful strategy is not to take military action that makes negotiations impossible. This means holding ground but not ramping up militarily. It is contradictory to seek talks with Taliban leaders while seeking at the same time to kill them.
Instead of considering this political approach to underpin the military effort, the U.S. is stepping up pressure on Pakistan, which is already struggling with the bloody militant fallout of previously flawed U.S. policies in Afghanistan. The U.S. should recognize that only Pakistan can bring the Taliban to the table once Washington decides to negotiate.
Pressure on Pakistan to act against the Afghan Taliban will not just overstretch the Pakistan Army, undercut its own operations against militants and open a new front for a beleaguered state, but will permanently close the door on a negotiated end to the Afghan conflict.
Most especially, an expansion of drone missile attacks to Baluchistan is fraught with danger. It would further inflame public sentiment, alienate the Pakistani security establishment and probably shatter the Pakistan-U.S. relationship.
It would also destroy any possibility of a negotiated end to the Afghan war. All that Mr. Obama would then be left with would be a losing gamble on military victory in Afghanistan in the face of a shortening time frame, lengthening odds and a dangerously destabilized Pakistan.

Maleeha Lodhi is a senior fellow of the Woodrow Wilson Center and a former Pakistani ambassador to Washington and London. Anatol Lieven is a professor in the War Studies Department at King's College London and a senior fellow of the New America Foundation.

  Taleban targeting big crowds in Pakistan

Some analysts argue that nuclear-armed Pakistan, and the region for that matter, can only be stable in the long term if the army hunts down all militant groups in the country.

Michael Georgy

Taleban insurgents are unleashing more suicide bombers on large crowds of civilians in an attempt to bomb Pakistanis into submission and discredit the military after major offensives against their strongholds.
Pakistan's Al-Qaeda-linked Taleban served notice of their plans on Friday when a militant in an explosives-laden SUV drove on to a volleyball field in a village in the northwest and blew himself up in the middle of a game, killing 90 people. Such carnage will both terrorize civilians and raise new questions over the effectiveness of Pakistan's military, despite government assertions that a security offensive launched in October dealt a major blow to the Taleban.
The United States sees Pakistan as the critical front-line state in its war against the Taleban in Afghanistan. It wants Pakistan Army to root out militants who cross the border to fight US forces there. But Pakistan's military would likely point to the volleyball game killings and similar attacks as clear proof that it must concentrate on threats from homegrown Taleban militants.
Some analysts argue that nuclear-armed Pakistan, and the region for that matter, can only be stable in the long term if the army hunts down all militant groups in the country, including those Afghan Taleban factions not fighting the Pakistani state.
"Given the fact that there is such a close nexus here between these various terror groups. These distinctions didn't pay off in the past," said International Crisis Group South Asia Director Samina Ahmed. "All that has happened is that the alliance relationships between these groups have now solidified and become far more dangerous." But fighting all of the groups at once would mean giving up alliances with militants the Pakistani military wants as leverage in Afghanistan, especially if, as Pakistan anticipates, the United States pulls out before the country is stabilized.
And it could create new enemies for a military that's already stretched. Some 30,000 troops were used in an offensive against the Taleban in October in South Waziristan. The Taleban responded with bombings that killed hundreds of people.
"From the Pakistani point of view, are you capable of withstanding a much larger rebel Taleban force than the one that already exists? I have my doubts on that," said Kamran Bokhari, regional director for the Middle East and South Asia at STRATFOR global intelligence firm.
Powerful Al-Qaeda-linked warrior Sirajuddin Haqqani is possibly the best example of why the military averts its eyes from some groups on the US military's hit list.
Entrenched in Pakistani border enclaves, his network has no interest in fighting the Pakistani state. He runs a large part of the insurgency battling US and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
So he would be a very influential tool for Pakistan in Afghanistan when Western forces pull out.
"The relationship between Islamabad and Haqqani doesn't appear to be the classic patron-proxy where the proxy will do what the patron says and nothing else," said Bokhari.
"This guy is an independent operator. He does his own stuff as well. He is independent and he has got the relations with the Pakistanis." Washington's embattled ally, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, is at odds with the military and could be embroiled in a new political crisis if his aides, including the defense and interior ministers, face prosecution over renewed corruption charges. All of that uncertainty is likely to encourage the Taleban to press ahead with spectacular attacks on civilian targets to spread chaos and terror.
They have targeted civilians before. But analysts say the volleyball game attack - one of the bloodiest in Pakistan in over two years - indicates they will take bloodshed to new levels.
There is very little Pakistan's military can do to counter the new strategy.
"It's a huge challenge because you never have enough security to protect the innocent civilians. Particularly when you have determined suicide bombers," said Riffat Hussein, chairman of the department of defense and strategic studies at Quaid-e-Azam University.

  Washington Discovers Another War Front

Like Afghanistan, the US is supporting an isolated regime in Yemen that has scant popular support and rules through the military and secret police.

Eric S. Margolis

Frightened and furious, Americans are trying to understand and respond to the failed bombing of a Northwest airliner near Detroit on Christmas Day.
Many want revenge for what Republicans are calling 'another 9/11.' Airports are in chaos, with cancelled flights, and 5-10 hour waits to check in and clear security. Pro-Israel neoconservatives are demanding all Muslims be singled out at airports and subjected to intense searches. Flying while Muslim would become a crime, like drunk driving. In Washington, security bureaucracies are trying to blame their rivals for an egregious lapse of security procedures. CIA is getting the lion's share of blame as Congress called for heads to roll at its Virginia headquarters. There is no doubt the 23-year old Nigerian amateur jihadist made fools of Washington's intelligence community, 16 agencies that spend $49.8 billion per annum.
President Barack Obama, who did not immediately issue alarmist statements about the incident, is being battered by Republicans claiming he is 'soft on terrorism.' Yemen is accused of being a new 'hotbed' of al-Qaida and other anti-American groups. Pentagon sources say that air strikes are planned to attack Yemen. US warplanes and Predator drones are also being readied. American Special Forces in Djibouti may stage raids inside Yemen. Americans want revenge and are blaming Yemen for the Detroit attacks. One senator even called for a US invasion of Yemen. The Nigerian youth who tried to bring down the airliner with an incendiary device in his underwear was allegedly trained and equipped in Yemen. However, the Pentagon's main problem is locating enough 'terrorist targets' in Yemen. Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is not believed to have more than 100 hardcore members, though it has thousands of sympathisers scattered across the Arabian Peninsula.
This shadowy organisation is not a subsidiary of Osama bin Laden's original al-Qaida, but a grassroots Yemeni-Saudi militant group that shares Osama bin Laden's ideology of ousting western influence from the Muslim world. It resembles other independent militant groups in Iraq, Somalia, North and West Africa who have adopted the al-Qaeda brand name.
According to AQAP sources in Yemen, the attempt to destroy the Northwest airliner was retaliation for recent US air attacks on rebellious Houthi tribesmen on Yemen's poorly defined northern border with Saudi Arabia. Certainly, anti-US sentiments and jihadism in Yemen have been growing for years. The US has been mounting covert attacks on targets in Yemen ever since the destroyer USS Cole was bombed in Aden harbour in 2000. There have been steady Predator attacks on militants, US Special Forces commando operations, and extensive American aid to Yemen's armed and security forces.
Like Afghanistan, the US is supporting an isolated regime in Yemen that has scant popular support and rules through the military and secret police. Yemen is rent by deep tribal and religious divisions. There is talk of turbulent Yemen decomposing into its two constituent parts, North and South Yemen. Whatever the case, the United States is now confronted with a big new headache in Yemen-and possibly in Nigeria-just when its military and intelligence resources are stretched to the breaking point and the Treasury is running on money borrowed from China.
Americans are world leaders in some areas, but not geography, history or foreign languages. Washington's security establishment and media are still struggling to figure out the difference between Serbs, Croats, Bosnians, Montenegrins, Albanians, Sunni and Shia Muslims, Kurds, Druze, Pashtun, Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazara. No one knows the difference between Slovaks and Slovenes. Now comes obscure Yemen, the Afghanistan of the Arabian Peninsula. As I found on my travels there, this fascinating, beautiful and ancient land is even more complex than Afghanistan. America is not ready to plunge into Yemen's many mysteries, nor its tribal, ethnic, religious and regional feuds. But Washington does realise that a revolutionary, militant Yemen could seriously endanger Saudi Arabia. In fact, there are large numbers of Yemeni labourers in the Saudi kingdom, fertile ground for revolutionary calls from the south. So, the US is kicking a new hornet's nest in Yemen. Experience in Somalia, Iraq, and Afghanistan says it will get stung.

Eric Margolis is a veteran US journalist who reported from the Middle East and Asia for nearly two decades.

Viewpoints

Obama needs a ‘Plan B’

The record of the past suggests that the surge is likely to fail. The additional forces are still not sufficient to win in a country as large as Afghanistan.

Maleeha Lodhi and Anatole Lieven

The key question to ask about President Obama's military surge in Afghanistan is, "Where is Plan B?" In other words, if the extra troops do not reverse the Taliban momentum and the Afghan governance structure and army cannot take over from the United States in the next few years, what then?
Equally importantly, how does Obama hope to prevent increased U.S. pressure on Pakistan from further destabilizing that country and risking a much greater disaster for the region and the world?
The record of the past suggests that the surge is likely to fail. The additional forces are still not sufficient to win in a country as large as Afghanistan. The Taliban may well be put on the defensive, but given their support in the Pashtun areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan, they are very unlikely to be crippled.
As for the U.S. state-building project, this has failed so comprehensively under President Hamid Karzai in the past eight years that it is difficult to see how it can miraculously reform itself over the next 18 months.
Washington's aim to build the Afghan National Army to the point where it is able to hold some towns against the Taliban confronts formidable obstacles: illiteracy, lack of professionalism and above all the underrepresentation of Pashtuns, all of which prevents it from becoming a genuinely national force.
Compared to the Soviet Union, the West is laboring under a crushing disadvantage in this regard. The Soviets inherited the core of the old royal Afghan Army, which had always been a Pashtun-dominated force. The West has tried to build a new force on the basis of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, which is overwhelmingly non-Pashtun.
With continued outside support, the force may be able to defend non-Pashtun areas against the Taliban in the future, but this is not sustainable. Even more questionable is whether it will be able to operate successfully in the Pashtun areas where the Taliban is based.
Given these odds against military success, it is essential that the U.S. plan incorporate a political strategy aimed at Afghan national reconciliation -- and that plan should involve negotiations with the Taliban. The goal would have to be a settlement that allows the Taliban local power in the Pashtun areas in return for the exclusion of Al Qaeda.
Mr. Obama's surge does not rule out the simultaneous pursuit of a negotiated settlement. Bringing military pressure to bear in an effort to soften the enemy's negotiating stance is a well rehearsed tactic.
For this to work, three things are essential.
First, there has to be a simultaneous political strategy. Otherwise, Washington will simply end up emulating the Israeli model of endless, futile campaigns to force a unilateral and unachievable political settlement. So far the Obama administration has given no indication of what its alternative strategy might be.
This also undermines the second essential factor, of time. Historically, all negotiations to end such conflicts have taken very long -- Northern Ireland being a classic example. If Mr. Obama and his generals think that they will ultimately need to talk to the Taliban, they actually need to start doing that now, or at least seeking ways of starting.
The last precondition of a successful strategy is not to take military action that makes negotiations impossible. This means holding ground but not ramping up militarily. It is contradictory to seek talks with Taliban leaders while seeking at the same time to kill them.
Instead of considering this political approach to underpin the military effort, the U.S. is stepping up pressure on Pakistan, which is already struggling with the bloody militant fallout of previously flawed U.S. policies in Afghanistan. The U.S. should recognize that only Pakistan can bring the Taliban to the table once Washington decides to negotiate.
Pressure on Pakistan to act against the Afghan Taliban will not just overstretch the Pakistan Army, undercut its own operations against militants and open a new front for a beleaguered state, but will permanently close the door on a negotiated end to the Afghan conflict.
Most especially, an expansion of drone missile attacks to Baluchistan is fraught with danger. It would further inflame public sentiment, alienate the Pakistani security establishment and probably shatter the Pakistan-U.S. relationship.
It would also destroy any possibility of a negotiated end to the Afghan war. All that Mr. Obama would then be left with would be a losing gamble on military victory in Afghanistan in the face of a shortening time frame, lengthening odds and a dangerously destabilized Pakistan.

Maleeha Lodhi is a senior fellow of the Woodrow Wilson Center and a former Pakistani ambassador to Washington and London. Anatol Lieven is a professor in the War Studies Department at King's College London and a senior fellow of the New America Foundation.

  Taleban targeting big crowds in Pakistan

Some analysts argue that nuclear-armed Pakistan, and the region for that matter, can only be stable in the long term if the army hunts down all militant groups in the country.

Michael Georgy

Taleban insurgents are unleashing more suicide bombers on large crowds of civilians in an attempt to bomb Pakistanis into submission and discredit the military after major offensives against their strongholds.
Pakistan's Al-Qaeda-linked Taleban served notice of their plans on Friday when a militant in an explosives-laden SUV drove on to a volleyball field in a village in the northwest and blew himself up in the middle of a game, killing 90 people. Such carnage will both terrorize civilians and raise new questions over the effectiveness of Pakistan's military, despite government assertions that a security offensive launched in October dealt a major blow to the Taleban.
The United States sees Pakistan as the critical front-line state in its war against the Taleban in Afghanistan. It wants Pakistan Army to root out militants who cross the border to fight US forces there. But Pakistan's military would likely point to the volleyball game killings and similar attacks as clear proof that it must concentrate on threats from homegrown Taleban militants.
Some analysts argue that nuclear-armed Pakistan, and the region for that matter, can only be stable in the long term if the army hunts down all militant groups in the country, including those Afghan Taleban factions not fighting the Pakistani state.
"Given the fact that there is such a close nexus here between these various terror groups. These distinctions didn't pay off in the past," said International Crisis Group South Asia Director Samina Ahmed. "All that has happened is that the alliance relationships between these groups have now solidified and become far more dangerous." But fighting all of the groups at once would mean giving up alliances with militants the Pakistani military wants as leverage in Afghanistan, especially if, as Pakistan anticipates, the United States pulls out before the country is stabilized.
And it could create new enemies for a military that's already stretched. Some 30,000 troops were used in an offensive against the Taleban in October in South Waziristan. The Taleban responded with bombings that killed hundreds of people.
"From the Pakistani point of view, are you capable of withstanding a much larger rebel Taleban force than the one that already exists? I have my doubts on that," said Kamran Bokhari, regional director for the Middle East and South Asia at STRATFOR global intelligence firm.
Powerful Al-Qaeda-linked warrior Sirajuddin Haqqani is possibly the best example of why the military averts its eyes from some groups on the US military's hit list.
Entrenched in Pakistani border enclaves, his network has no interest in fighting the Pakistani state. He runs a large part of the insurgency battling US and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
So he would be a very influential tool for Pakistan in Afghanistan when Western forces pull out.
"The relationship between Islamabad and Haqqani doesn't appear to be the classic patron-proxy where the proxy will do what the patron says and nothing else," said Bokhari.
"This guy is an independent operator. He does his own stuff as well. He is independent and he has got the relations with the Pakistanis." Washington's embattled ally, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, is at odds with the military and could be embroiled in a new political crisis if his aides, including the defense and interior ministers, face prosecution over renewed corruption charges. All of that uncertainty is likely to encourage the Taleban to press ahead with spectacular attacks on civilian targets to spread chaos and terror.
They have targeted civilians before. But analysts say the volleyball game attack - one of the bloodiest in Pakistan in over two years - indicates they will take bloodshed to new levels.
There is very little Pakistan's military can do to counter the new strategy.
"It's a huge challenge because you never have enough security to protect the innocent civilians. Particularly when you have determined suicide bombers," said Riffat Hussein, chairman of the department of defense and strategic studies at Quaid-e-Azam University.

  Washington Discovers Another War Front

Like Afghanistan, the US is supporting an isolated regime in Yemen that has scant popular support and rules through the military and secret police.

Eric S. Margolis

Frightened and furious, Americans are trying to understand and respond to the failed bombing of a Northwest airliner near Detroit on Christmas Day.
Many want revenge for what Republicans are calling 'another 9/11.' Airports are in chaos, with cancelled flights, and 5-10 hour waits to check in and clear security. Pro-Israel neoconservatives are demanding all Muslims be singled out at airports and subjected to intense searches. Flying while Muslim would become a crime, like drunk driving. In Washington, security bureaucracies are trying to blame their rivals for an egregious lapse of security procedures. CIA is getting the lion's share of blame as Congress called for heads to roll at its Virginia headquarters. There is no doubt the 23-year old Nigerian amateur jihadist made fools of Washington's intelligence community, 16 agencies that spend $49.8 billion per annum.
President Barack Obama, who did not immediately issue alarmist statements about the incident, is being battered by Republicans claiming he is 'soft on terrorism.' Yemen is accused of being a new 'hotbed' of al-Qaida and other anti-American groups. Pentagon sources say that air strikes are planned to attack Yemen. US warplanes and Predator drones are also being readied. American Special Forces in Djibouti may stage raids inside Yemen. Americans want revenge and are blaming Yemen for the Detroit attacks. One senator even called for a US invasion of Yemen. The Nigerian youth who tried to bring down the airliner with an incendiary device in his underwear was allegedly trained and equipped in Yemen. However, the Pentagon's main problem is locating enough 'terrorist targets' in Yemen. Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is not believed to have more than 100 hardcore members, though it has thousands of sympathisers scattered across the Arabian Peninsula.
This shadowy organisation is not a subsidiary of Osama bin Laden's original al-Qaida, but a grassroots Yemeni-Saudi militant group that shares Osama bin Laden's ideology of ousting western influence from the Muslim world. It resembles other independent militant groups in Iraq, Somalia, North and West Africa who have adopted the al-Qaeda brand name.
According to AQAP sources in Yemen, the attempt to destroy the Northwest airliner was retaliation for recent US air attacks on rebellious Houthi tribesmen on Yemen's poorly defined northern border with Saudi Arabia. Certainly, anti-US sentiments and jihadism in Yemen have been growing for years. The US has been mounting covert attacks on targets in Yemen ever since the destroyer USS Cole was bombed in Aden harbour in 2000. There have been steady Predator attacks on militants, US Special Forces commando operations, and extensive American aid to Yemen's armed and security forces.
Like Afghanistan, the US is supporting an isolated regime in Yemen that has scant popular support and rules through the military and secret police. Yemen is rent by deep tribal and religious divisions. There is talk of turbulent Yemen decomposing into its two constituent parts, North and South Yemen. Whatever the case, the United States is now confronted with a big new headache in Yemen-and possibly in Nigeria-just when its military and intelligence resources are stretched to the breaking point and the Treasury is running on money borrowed from China.
Americans are world leaders in some areas, but not geography, history or foreign languages. Washington's security establishment and media are still struggling to figure out the difference between Serbs, Croats, Bosnians, Montenegrins, Albanians, Sunni and Shia Muslims, Kurds, Druze, Pashtun, Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazara. No one knows the difference between Slovaks and Slovenes. Now comes obscure Yemen, the Afghanistan of the Arabian Peninsula. As I found on my travels there, this fascinating, beautiful and ancient land is even more complex than Afghanistan. America is not ready to plunge into Yemen's many mysteries, nor its tribal, ethnic, religious and regional feuds. But Washington does realise that a revolutionary, militant Yemen could seriously endanger Saudi Arabia. In fact, there are large numbers of Yemeni labourers in the Saudi kingdom, fertile ground for revolutionary calls from the south. So, the US is kicking a new hornet's nest in Yemen. Experience in Somalia, Iraq, and Afghanistan says it will get stung.

Eric Margolis is a veteran US journalist who reported from the Middle East and Asia for nearly two decades.

 How to Tackle the Telangana Tangle

The urgent demand for Telangana cannot be met if constitutional procedures are to be respected. A statutory commission is even less likely to give a quick verdict.

Meghnad Desai

The Telangana situation has deteriorated even faster since Home Minister P Chidambaram announced the Centre's willingness to grant the demand just a fortnight ago.
The Congress later had second thoughts. It said yes, we will grant Telangana, sooner or later. This has made both sides angry. Ideally, of course, there should be a statutory commission appointed to examine all the demands for new smaller states. Indeed, there should be a standing commission since these demands will keep on coming.
Not only is there an argument for smaller states to fulfill the identity aspirations of Indians, but politicians see each new state as another cornucopia to amass a fortune. A combination of popular aspirations and professional greed is irresistible. But a statutory standing commission may not satisfy the demands of the rioters for Telangana. The government has several unpalatable choices. It could wait till the movement loses its pace. After all, how many buses can you burn and how many shops (of fellow Telangana citizens) can you loot? It could impose President's Rule and call elections within six months.
It is unlikely that in the present atmosphere it could convene the As-?sembly and put the Telangana demand to a vote, though that is the required first step before anything else ?can happen. In any case, many MLAs having resigned, the rump of the Assembly is highly unlikely to vote in favour. Given the complexity of the situation, what is needed is innovation or as they say in business school, some out-of-the-box thinking. My suggestion is that the government examine the case of Belgium as a key to the solution. Belgium is a democratic monarchy.
It is deeply divided between the French-speaking Walloons and the Flemish-speaking Flamands. There has been much resentment between the two as the French were richer and bossed over the Flamands. There are French and Flemish parties across the left-right spectrum and each election results in weeks of consultation for coalition formation. In 1968, Belgium erupted in a series of riots on the question of who had the claim to Brussels city, which is barely inside the northern Flamand region.
The only way to settle the issue was to declare that Belgium was a country of two cultures and three regions. The Parliament dissolved itself into a regional assembly to discuss the question pertaining to each region and Brussels had its own group. The analogy is not perfect. But once you grant Telangana, why not Rayalaseema and so on.
The lesson from the example of Belgium is to make Andhra Pradesh into a 'federal' state with autonomous parts, which can have their own sub-assemblies. Andhra Pradesh can be declared as a state of three or four ?autonomous regions.
The present Assembly can constitute the separate regional assemblies of Telangana, Rayalaseema etc. But some issue will be common to the whole of Andhra Pradesh as they were and have been up to now.
It is possible in such a sub-state arrangement to be flexible and have separate and concurrent lists of subjects for each group. The leader of each region can be called First Minister as they do in Scotland. This is another example from which India can learn.
The UK, one of most centralised polities in Europe, is now a country of four nations-England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Only the English do not have their own Assembly sine Parliament serves England as well the rest of the country. It has worked well for ten years and demands for an independent Scotland are on the wane.
The urgent demand for Telangana cannot be met if constitutional procedures are to be respected. A statutory commission is even less likely to give a quick verdict. If we were to explore the Belgium example, it may give everyone some breathing space. The government can say that within the constraints of time and legitimacy this is at least a temporary recognition of the demands for Telangana.

Eminent economist Lord Meghnad Desai is a professor emeritus of the London School of Economics and author of Nehru's Hero: Dilip Kumar in the Life of India

International

No direct military intervention in Pakistan : US
Dawn Online

The White House and the US military chief indicated on Wednesday that there would be no direct military intervention in countries like Pakistan or Yemen where Al Qaeda seemed to have established its bases.
The White House, however, said that the United States would continue to use "actionable intelligence" to target Al Qaeda hideouts, indicating that drone strikes at suspected terrorist targets would also continue.
In a speech at the George Washington University, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen said that for "a big part of the next couple of years (the United States will be focussed on) the execution of this Afghanistan and Pakistan strategy" that President Barack Obama announced on Dec 1.
The debate over direct US military intervention to prevent terrorists from attacking the United States has been reignited after the Christmas Day attack on a Northwest Airlines plane over Detroit. Several lobbies, particularly those on the extreme right, are demanding direct US military actions against suspected terrorist targets, with or without consulting the governments concerned.
Responding to a question about this possibility, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that the United States would continue to support actions taken by local authorities against suspected terrorist facilities in their areas.
"We'll continue to do so and continue to be supportive of those efforts," he said.
Separately, President Obama told a briefing at the White House on Tuesday that his administration had "taken the fight to Al Qaeda and its allies wherever they plot and train, be it in Afghanistan and Pakistan, in Yemen and Somalia, or in other countries around the world".
At the university in Washington, Admiral Mullen also tackled this question, reminding his audience that countries like Pakistan and Yemen were sovereign states and the United States respected their sovereignty.
"It is a sovereign country and we all recognise that. So we are going to continue to support the Yemeni government in the execution of their strategy to eliminate these terrorists," said the US military chief when asked about a possible military action against terrorist hideouts in Yemen.

  Al-Qaeda says CIA attack ‘revenge’ for drone killings
AFP, Kabul

Al-Qaeda hailed the suicide bombing that killed seven CIA agents in Afghanistan as "revenge" for the deaths of top militants in US drone strikes in Pakistan, Islamist websites said on Thursday.
A Jordanian doctor said to have been a triple agent blew himself up at a US military base in Khost near the Pakistani border on December 30, the deadliest attack against the CIA since 1983.
The Afghan Taliban claimed responsibility a day later. A Pakistani Taliban commander subsequently claimed his faction carried out the attack to avenge the drone attacks that killed its founder, Baitullah Mehsud, last August.
The head of Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, said the bomber wrote in his will that the attack was revenge for "our righteous martyrs" and named several top militants killed in drone attacks in Pakistan.
Yazid described bomber Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi's mission as an "epic breakthrough" in penetrating both American and Jordanian intelligence, said Islamist websites.
The slain militant masterminds named in the message included Mehsud, who was blamed for a wave of deadly attacks, notably the December 2007 killing of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. Also named was Abu Saleh al-Somali, described as part of Al-Qaeda's core leadership and responsible for plotting attacks in Europe and the United States. He was killed in a drone strike near the Afghan border last month. US media described the US base in Khost as a key "anti-terror" facility that oversaw the drone strikes targeting Al-Qaeda and Taliban on the Pakistani border and as a centre for recruiting and debriefing informants.

  JHolbrooke to visit Afghanistan, Pakistan next week
Dawn Online

US special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, plans to visit both countries next week as part of "routine" consultations with their governments, said a spokeswoman for his office.
En route to the region, Holbrooke will stop over in Abu Dhabi for meetings with other special envoys ahead of an international conference on Afghanistan in London on Jan 28, said the spokeswoman, who asked not to be identified.
The US diplomat returns later on Wednesday from London, where he also held preparatory meetings this week for the conference, which will focus on future strategy in Afghanistan in light of the US plan to send in 30,000 more troops to stem the insurgency, Reuters reported. Conference participants will also seek commitments from Afghan President Hamid Karzai to do a better job in fighting corruption, and from troop-contributing nations to find ways to improve civilian-military cooperation and coordination, said a European diplomat, who asked not to be named.
"Military and civilian coordination is something which is not working very well at the moment," said the diplomat.
In his meetings with Karzai and others, Holbrooke is expected to focus on preparations for the London conference as well as discussions on building up the Afghan national security forces, a key component of the US strategy.
Karzai has been battling to get his country's parliament to confirm a new cabinet in time for the London conference, seeking to end months of political uncertainty that began with the fraud-ravaged election in August.
Pakistan Tensions
Holbrooke's visit to Pakistan - his first since last October when he accompanied US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton - coincides with renewed strains in US-Pakistani relations.
Islamabad has recently delayed hundreds of visas for US officials and contractors working in the country, and there have also been tensions over the handling of a US nonmilitary assistance package for Pakistan, amounting to $7.5 billion over the next five years.
"In Pakistan he will call on the leadership to continue dialogue and look for ways to emphasize our assistance and address concerns," said the spokeswoman, without commenting further.

  Blasts hit restive Thai south as PM visits
Reuters, Yala, Thailand

Three bombs exploded in southern Thailand, killing one security officer and wounding another, ahead of a visit by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to the restive region on Thursday.
A roadside bomb went off in Yala province, killing a paramilitary ranger on patrol, said Lieutenant General Pichet Wisaijorn, a military commander in charge of the rubber-rich area plagued by a Muslim separatist insurgency.
Another small bomb went off earlier in Yala, about 200 metres (656 ft) from where Abhisit later presided over a ceremony to open a new road, Pichet said. A police officer in the security team for the visiting delegation was slightly wounded.
Another roadside bomb was detonated in neighbouring Pattani province, but no casualties were reported.
"We are in control of the situation. Small attacks are common during visits to get attention and publicity," Pichet told reporters.
More than 1,000 security officers were deployed for the visit.
Violence in Thailand's three southernmost provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat has killed more than 3,900 people, both Buddhists and Muslims, since 2004.
The latest bombings underline the government's difficulty in imposing control over the volatile region, just a few hours by car from some of Thailand's best-known tourist beaches.
A civil servant, a female defence volunteer and a mechanic were killed in drive-by shootings on Wednesday, while security forces shot dead a suspect who resisted arrest in a gunbattle that followed a search operation at a house in Narathiwat.

  Overnight gunbattle ends in Kashmir, four dead
Reuters, Srinagar, India

Soldiers shot dead two separatist militants holed up in a hotel in Indian Kashmir on Thursday after an almost two-day gunbattle that forced a mass rescue operation of residents, police said.
The armed militants forced their way into the five-storey hotel in Srinagar on Wednesday, killing a policeman in one of the biggest attacks in two years in Kashmir's summer capital. A second man died of injuries in hospital.
The two rebels fought for about 22 hours, firing from automatic rifles and lobbing grenades before soldiers shot them down after a room-to-room search operation.
Jamait-ul-Mujahideen, an Islamist militant group which wants Kashmir to be merged with Pakistan, claimed responsibility for the attack and vowed to inflict heavy damage on security forces.
"One of the militants was a Pakistani national," Kuldeep Khuda, chief of Kashmir police, told reporters.
Police said some 400 people had to be rescued from nearby buildings and the hotel which the militants tried to set on fire.
Kashmir is the core dispute between Pakistan and India and the cause of two of their three wars since their independence from British rule in 1947.
After a period of relative calm, militants have stepped up attacks across India-controlled Kashmir, where officials say tens of thousands have been killed since 1989.

  Soul-searching in India after spate of young suicides
AFP, Mumbai

A spate of young suicides in Mumbai has prompted concern in India, with the country's education system, family pressures, a hit film and television reality shows mooted as possible factors in the deaths. Three youngsters were found hanged in the city last weekend: an 11-year-old girl, 12-year-old boy and an 18-year-old female medical student.
The young girl, Neha Sawant, who had appeared on several popular television talent competitions, was reportedly upset at her parents' decision to withdraw her from a dance academy.
The older girl is said to have taken her own life after failing exams while police are probing whether the boy killed himself in a "copycat" suicide, after seeing the blockbuster film "3 Idiots," which has a similar incident.
Suicide provides regular fare for Indian newspapers, with little or no commentary or professional advice to counsel those considering it as a way out. But with three widely reported deaths in two days, mental health professionals have spoken out, amid fears other youngsters could follow suit.
"Suicide is a huge social problem," Sanjay Kumawat, president of the Bombay Psychiatric Society, told AFP.
India has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. The number of people taking their own lives grew a massive 27 percent in the decade to 2007, according to the latest available government statistics.

  China, Singapore seek to further military ties
Xinhua, Beijing

China and Singapore pledged to further boost military cooperation at a high level meeting of senior military officers on Wednesday.
"The Chinese and Singaporean armed forces have conducted diversified and pragmatic cooperation, and maintained a good momentum of development of their relations, " said Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie when meeting with Singapore's Chief of Army Neo Kian Hong in Beijing.
Liang said China was willing to work with Singapore to further expand fields of military cooperation and exchanges to contribute to the comprehensive and in-depth development of China-Singapore relations.
Liang said China appreciated Singapore's support on issues concerning China's core interest.
Neo said the two armed forces had played a positive role in safeguarding regional peace and stability and the Singaporean armed forces would like to boost their friendly military cooperation with China.

 Iraq, Iran start talks on disputed border area
Reuters, Baghdad

Iran and Iraq have begun talks to try to resolve a dispute over an inactive oil well in a sensitive area along the nearly 1,500-km border between the two countries, their foreign ministers said on Thursday.
Iraq's Hoshiyar Zebari met Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki in a move to cool tensions between the neighbours after a small contingent of Iranian troops moved into an oilfield inside Iraqi territory last month and Iraq vowed it would not give up an inch of its land.
Their comments at a news conference after the meeting made clear the essence of the dispute had not been resolved. Mottaki said Iranian troops had been told to withdraw "to their original locations," but Zebari indicated they had not moved far enough. "The Iranian troops brought down the Iranian flag and withdrew (only) to a certain distance," Zebari said. Zebari said the two sides had agreed to "normalise border conditions and put back things as they were." "We had a problem (over borders), and still the problem is pending and we want to resolve it," Zebari said, noting Iraq could appeal to the United Nations if Iranian soldiers did not withdraw. The seizure of the well, which Iraq claims as part of its Fakka oilfield in southeastern Maysan province, triggered protests from Baghdad and jitters on world oil markets. A border dispute led to the eight-year Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.
Mottaki said the two countries were carrying out technical discussions on the dispute. The two sides said the talks would continue in the coming weeks. "Instructions and orders were issued to the Iranian forces to withdraw to their original locations," Mottaki said through an interpreter.

  China unhappy over reported Japan plans for atoll
Reuters, Beijing

China on Thursday said it was unhappy at reported Japanese plans to build a port on a remote Pacific atoll, which Beijing fears Toyko will use to stake a claim to a large swathe of ocean as an exclusive economic zone.
Okinotori, also known as Douglas Reef or Parece Vela, is some 1,700 km (1,050 miles) south of Tokyo. Japan has already built facilities such as a lighthouse there, and poured in concrete to make sure the atoll does not slip totally beneath the waves. China has said previously that the atoll does not meet internationally recognised criteria to be classed as an island, making claims to the waters and continental shelf surrounding it invalid.
Japan's Kyodo news agency said this week that the transport ministry had asked for funding to build a port on Okinotori to help with exploration for reso-urces in the area.
But Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said the atoll could not be the basis for any territorial claims. "Building infrastructure cannot change its legal position," she told a regular news briefing in Beijing. What Japan was trying to do "does not conform with international maritime law and has an effect on the interests of the international community".
Okinotori lies strategically about halfway between Guam, site of a large U.S. military base, and Taiwan, the self-ruled island China considers its own, to be reclaimed by force if necessary.
China and Japan have also been involved in a long dispute over a tiny group of islands in the East China Sea, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.

  Iraq Sunni leader questions Maliki election message
Reuters, Baghdad

An opponent of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said the premier's message of nationalism and inclusion was little more than a ploy to win votes in March's polls by appealing to Iraqis disgusted by sectarian destruction.
Saleh al-Mutlaq, popular among Iraq's once dominant Sunni minority, is not the only voice casting doubt before the elections on the nationalist line taken by Maliki, who heads a religious party founded to expand the clout of Shi'ite Islam. "It's not possible for a party that has been sectarian from its beginning, for dozens of years, to suddenly become nationalist," Mutlaq said in an interview.
In 1957, the Dawa party's inaugural meeting was held in a Shi'ite religious leader's home. Dawa later went on to battle the secularist regime of Saddam Hussein, a Sunni Arab who kept Shi'ite religious powers under tight control.
While Maliki's speeches are laced with repeated references to the importance of national unity and dangers of sectarianism, Mutlaq said Maliki was bound to be swayed by his party roots. "Even if he personally believes sectarianism isn't the answer, he is forced to listen to the beliefs of others in the party and by its policy, which is fundamentally sectarian."
Mutlaq is hoping his allia-nce with Iyad Allawi, another secular politician and former prime minister, will win over Iraqis disillusioned by the religious parties that have dominated politics since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
To do so, their self-described progressive movement must poke holes in the nationalist, non-sectarian discourse adopted by two leading blocs, led by Maliki's Dawa party and Maliki's main rival, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (ISCI).

  US Mideast envoy: 2 years or less for peace talks
Reuters, Washington

George Mitchell, the U.S. Middle East envoy, said on Wednesday that Isr-aeli-Palestinian peace negotiations should take no longer than two years and could be finished sooner than that.
Mitchell said in an interview on the "Charlie Rose" television program on PBS he plans to return to the region in the next few days and hopes to make progress on political, security and economic tracks of the peace process. "We think that the negotiation should last no more than two years, once begun we think it can be done within that period of time," Mitchell said.
"We hope the parties agree. Personally I think it can be done in a shorter period of time."
He said an Israel-Syria track could operate in parallel with an Israeli-Palestinian track.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas signaled on Monday that he is considering a proposal to relaunch stalled Middle East peace talks at a U.S.-backed summit with Israeli and Egyptian leaders early in the new year. Israel, Egypt and the United States want Abbas to reopen talks, but he refuses as long as Israel refuses to agree to a permanent freeze on construction in Jewish settlements on the West Bank and in East Jerusalem.
Israel has frozen most settlements for 10 months, although it is still building new homes in parts of East Jerusalem captured from Jordan in the 1967 war.
Mitchell, who shuttled to the Middle East a dozen times in 2009, also helped broker a peace accord in Northern Ireland.

  Plot against UK PM fails but media say Brown weakened
Reuters, London

A former British cabinet minister who called for a secret ballot on Prime Minister Gordon Brown's future admitted that his surprise move had failed, but newspapers said the plot had still weakened the Labour leader.
However, an opinion poll published on Thursday indicated that any change in the Labour Party's leadership would make no difference to how a majority of Britons will vote in the next general election, which is due by June.
Former defence secretary Geoff Hoon and ex-health secretary Patricia Hewitt called on Wednesday for Labour members of parliament to vote on Brown's leadership, saying this would help to heal divisions in the party which is trailing in opinion polls. But Hoon said he had failed to gain support.n
"This was an opportunity for Labour MPs to recognise that there are these divisions, to publicly accept it and try and resolve it," Hoon told BBC TV. "They chose not to."
The poll in the Sun newspaper showed Labour trailing the opposition Conservatives by nine percentage points, and British media noted that a slow and tepid response to the ballot call by many of Brown's most senior colleagues may cause longer-lasting damage.
The timing of the plot was a surprise as Labour had started to claw back some ground from the Conservatives in recent polls.
The Sun poll, carried out on Jan. 5-6, showed the Conservatives with 40 percent support, Labour on 31 percent and the Liberal Democrats on 17 percent. Almost three fifths of voters -- 58 percent-said a new Labour leader would not affect their decision.
Brown's influential business secretary Peter Mandelson dismissed the ballot call as nothing more than a distraction.
"I do not have a queue of cabinet ministers at my door or on the phone saying they want to change the leader," he told the BBC. "I didn't have to arm twist or persuade anyone."

  US clears arms sale to Taiwan despite China’s ire
Reuters, Taipei/Beijing

The United States has cle-ared a sale of advanced Patriot air defence missiles to Taiwan despite opposition from rival China, where a military official proposed sanctioning U.S. firms that sell arms to the island.
The U.S. defence department announced the contract late on Wednesday, allowing Lockheed Martin Corp to sell an unspecified number of Patriots, Washington's de facto embassy in Taipei said.
The hardware, some of the best in its class, could shoot down Chinese short-range and mid-range missiles, defence analysts say.n
The sale rounds out a $6.5-billion arms package approved under then U.S. President George W. Bush in late 2008, said Wendell Minnick, Asia bureau chief with Defense News.
"This is the last piece that Taiwan has been waiting on," Minnick said.
China has urged the United States to cancel any planned arms sales to
Taiwan to avoid damaging ties with Beijing, and a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Jiang Yu, swiftly denounced the missile deal.
"We have already made stern representations to the U.S. side, and we have urged the United States to clearly recognise the serious harm caused by arms sales to Taiwan," Jiang told a regular news conference in Beijing.
Meanwhile, Chinese Vice Admiral Yang Yi told the China News Service that though developing good ties between China and the United States was important, some things could not be accepted.
"You can't just be forebearing and conciliatory when it comes to the development of stable and healthy Sino-U.S. relations, and especially when it comes to a question of principles you should never blindly make concessions," he said.

  South Sudanese cattle raid ‘kills 140’
BBC Online

At least 140 people have been killed in ethnic clashes in a remote part of Southern Sudan in recent days, officials say.
Deputy governor of Warrap state Sabino Makana said members of the Nuer group attacked Dinka cattle herders and seized about 5,000 animals. Most of the violence happened over the weekend in Tonj village, he said.
The UN says more than 2,000 people have been killed in ethnic violence in the south since last January. More people died in Southern Sudan than in Darfur last year. "They killed 139 people and wounded 54. Nobody knows how many attackers were killed. But it may be many as a lot of people came to fight."
Reuters adds: Armed Nuer tribesmen killed at least 139 members of a rival tribe in an attack in a remote area of southern Sudan, an official said on Thursday.
The Nuer tribesmen attacked Dinka cattle herders in Tonj, one of the most remote parts of oil-producing south Sudan, on Saturday and seized about 5,000 animals, the deputy governor of Warrap state, Sabino Makana, told Reuters.
"They killed 139 people and wounded 54. Nobody knows how many attackers were killed. But it may be many as a lot of people came to fight." A surge of tribal violence in 2009 killed about 2,500 people and forced 350,000 to flee their homes in the south, said a report issued by ten aid groups including Oxfam, Save the Children and TearFund on Thursday.
There was now a risk the violence could escalate, undermining a fragile 2005 peace deal that ended more than two decades of north-south civil war, said the report.

Business/Economy

Top global bankers see huge investment scope in BD
BSS, Dhaka

Two top bankers of Citibank NA see immense investment opportunities in Bangladesh as the country's economy is getting stronger with political stability.
Mark Renton, Citi's global public sector boss and Michael J. Paulus, public sector group head of Citi's Global Banking for the Asia Pacific region, also told BSS that the country's economic growth was consistent amid global financial crisis. The two global bankers came to Dhaka on Monday night for a two-day visit aimed at exploring investment opportunities for which Citi can mobilize fund from overseas. During their stay in Dhaka, they had meetings with the finance ministry, communication ministry, the foreign ministry, Bangladesh Bank (BB), National Board of Revenue (NBR), Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC), Power Division and some state-owned banks. "Our main objective is to streamline the Citi's involvement with Bangladesh public sector," Mark Renton, who has been with Citi for over 23 years and held various leadership positions across Citi franchises globally, said in an exclusive interview with BSS.
Explaining their firm interest in funding the country's public sector, he said Bangladesh economic growth was consistent amid global financial crisis when the reserve reached a record high with increased remittance. The local currency, Taka, was stable and inflation came down to an acceptable level, Renton said and cited the persisting political stability as a complement to attract investment.
According to Renton, Bangladesh has come out strong from the recent global financial crisis with record remittances in the year 2009 coupled with a steady level of inflation and a consistent growth rate. "Asia Pacific is an important focus region for Citi and our commitment to Bangladesh is strong. We would like to contribute to the best of our ability to facilitate the public sector growth in Bangladesh," the Citigroup's top official said. He further added that Bangladesh currently stands at the cusp of strong economic growth and he strongly believes that the government is in an ideal position to realize this potential.
Renton believes that for an emerging nation like Bangladesh, with GDP growth hovering around the 6-7 per cent mark, coupled with ever increasing demand for energy and infrastructure, there is an increasing growth for financing requirements for the government, where Citi can assist by leveraging its international expertise and experience. He said Citi can play a role in representing Bangladesh to the outside world, with its presence in over 100 countries.
Renton sees a strong potential for the Bangladeshi government, particularly in the international bond market, where Citi could potentially play an important role and act as an intermediary between the international investors and the Bangladesh government.
He said, "Bangladesh has a strong economic potential. But, harnessing of such a potentiality depends on how the government as well as regulatory bodies are prepared or committed to furthering economic and market growth."
Referring to the discussions with different government entities, he said Citi is hopeful about building relations in developing e-commerce in line with the government's Vision-2021 and mobilizing huge global fund for infrastructure investment including power and energy.
"In line with the government's initiative on the gradual implementation of e-Government in all government offices, Citi can leverage its global expertise in electronic banking to provide solutions to the government of Bangladesh, and help achieve its goal," Renton said.

 Liquidity position adequate to meet credits to public, private sectors

BSS, Dhaka

The country's domestic credit during July-September 2009 recorded an increase of Taka 7,703.60 crore or 2.76 percent against an increase of Taka 14,945.30 crore or 6.01 percent during the corresponding period of last year.
A Bangladesh Bank source said the increase in the credit this year was due to significant rise of the private sector credit growth by Taka 8,877.80 crore or 4.07 percent. The credit to the government during the period marked a negative growth by Taka 1,673.60 crore or 2.88 percent, but to the other public sector increased by Taka 499.40 crore or 4.01 percent. The credit to the government during the same period of last year was Taka 3,737.70 crore or 7.97 percent. The outstanding borrowing of the government stood at Taka 52,600.75 crore as of end of September 2009, showing an increase by Taka 5,684.42 crore or 12.12 percent compared to Taka 46,916.33 crore of same months of the previous year.
The public sector credit during July to September 2009 marked a negative rise by Taka 1,174.20 crore or 1.66 percent against the previous year's rise by Taka 5,525.10 crore or 9.44 percent.
Commenting on the government's credit from banks, eminent economist and Chairman of Palli Karma Shahayak Foundation (PKSF) Dr Quazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad told BSS that the government's credit position from the banking sector is sound as there are a huge liquidity in the banks to meet demands for both the public and private sectors.
"Since the government borrowing is not affecting capacities of the banks for providing loans to the private sector, I don't find any harm in that," he said adding that even if the government would borrow more from the banks, there would be no obstacle to the private sector growth.
"But the government has to pay interests for its loans and in that case borrowing from the banks to meet expenditure puts an extra burden on the budget, which has to be made up from the revenue collection," he added.
Dr Kholiquzzaman said, "For making up gaps between the earnings and the expenditures of the government more emphasise should be given on the revenue collection. Side by side, special care should be taken to reduce expenditure on unproductive sectors.
He said the Bangladesh Bank's scheme for agriculture loans to the tune of Taka 12,500 crore is a very pragmatic programme of the present government that would help raise productivity in the farm sector.
Referring to the private sector credit growth, he said the private sector credit could be even more if more entrepreneurs would have come up with new ventures. Dr Kholiquzzaman said, "Private investments in the country during the year could have increased further, but it was hampered as the entrepreneurs were badly affected during the past caretaker government and the fear is yet to go."

  Dhaka gets all-time high WB loans in 2009
BSS, Dhaka

The World Bank (WB) provided 1,096 million US dollar as IDA loans for Bangladesh in 2009 fiscal year, breaking all previous records.
The Bank is now supporting a total of 26 projects, of which seven projects were approved in the fiscal year 2009 (July 1, 2008-June 30, 2009), a WB spokesman told BSS on Thursday.
The loans were earmarked to help respond to the food crisis, increase reliable energy, improve water and sanitation services, support secondary and higher education, cut urban air pollution, expand social safety nets and tackle the after effects of natural disasters.
The WB group committed 58.8 billion US dollar globally to help countries struggling amid the global economic crisis, a 54 percent increase over the previous fiscal year and a record high for the global development institution.
The South Asia Region alone saw a marked increase of US$1.1 billion in FY09 from the previous year, as commitments rose to US$ 6.6 billion. In South Asia, India was the largest borrower from
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the IDA, accounting for US$2,242 billion.
Pakistan was the second largest borrower with US$1,609 million (IDA), followed by Bangladesh at US$1,096 million (IDA), the highest Bangladesh has received in recent times.
The Siddhirganj Peaking Power Project, a US$ 350 million IDA credit to Bangladesh, aims to tackle the ongoing energy crisis and is designed to increase reliable power during peak demand times as poor power supply is estimated to cost around 2 percent in GDP growth each year.
Bangladesh's achievements in the education sector are many and to help sustain this, a total US$ 211.7 million was approved in FY09 in education sector.
This includes support through the Secondary Education Quality and Access Enhancement Project, which will finance activities in 121 Upazilas aimed at improving education quality, and poverty- targeted stipends and tuition to girls and boys to increase access and retention.
The Higher Education Quality Enhancement Project would help support both innovation and accountability within universities and enhance the technical and institutional capacity of the higher education sector.
In addition to ongoing projects and those in the pipeline for FY10 and beyond, the World Bank has provided US$ 130 million to help Bangladesh respond to the food crisis that has pushed four million Bangladeshis back into poverty.

  $2m deal signed with ADB for low-cost insurance for poor
UNB, Dhaka

The government Thursday struck a deal with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for a US$ 2 million grant assistance for financing insurance for the poor.
Under the agreement, Palli-Karma Sahayak Foundation (PKSF) will use the funds for 'Developing Inclusive Insurance Sector' for the poor people.
Joint secretary of ERD Md Saifuddin Ahmed signed the letter of agreement (LOA) for the fund on the government side while country director of ADB's Bangladesh Resident Mission Paul J Haytens and deputy managing director of PKSF Parveen Mahmud signed it on behalf of ADB and PKSF respectively at a ceremony at the ERD.
Jointly developed by the Government of Bangladesh, Japanese government, ADB and PKSF as an inclusive micro-insurance initiative, the project is expected to benefit close to 20,000 poor households, said an announcement on the agreement signing.
"It will significantly strengthen financial coping skills of these families by helping to reduce by at least 30% unexpected expenses arising from illness, fire, theft and loss or damage to property from natural disasters," it said. The project will be financed with the US$ 2 million grant from the government of Japan through the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction (JFPR). ADB will administer the fund and also provide technical support for project implementation.

  DSE finishes with 186.56 points gain over the week
BSS, Dhaka

Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) finished the first week of the year 2010 with a phenomenal gain in its price index, showing bullish trend during all the trading sessions. The general price index of the DSE reached a record high of 4722.09 points at the week's closing on Thursday, gaining 186.56 points from the last year's closing of 4535.53 points on December 30. Stockbrokers observed active institutional participations behind the surge when individual investors were busy with profit- taking transactions.
Heavyweight issues, including GP, Bextex, Beximco, Desco, Beximco Pharma and the issues of the banking sector as a whole were traded with a huge volume on the active market, driving the index and the turnover up.
The turnover in value rose to Taka 1,000 crore on the second day of the week after December 15, 2009, and stayed over the billion-mark for the rest three trading sessions. Week's major gainers included the issues mainly from banking, service, power and pharmaceutical sectors.
Mutual funds, which earlier dominated the gainers' lists for a few months, showed declining trend in the week on cautious buying. Brokers said investors took a wait-and-see strategy in trading mutual funds' shares before a court decision on a legal issue. The banking sector issues, however, regained investors' interest ahead of their book-closures, they said. Some issues under the B-category, a category for the companies with a bit weak track record also gained over the week.

  BSIA seeks Tk 500cr bailout package
BSS, Dhaka

Longstanding problems of sick industries can be resolved with an announcement of Taka 500 crore bailout package.
President of Bangladesh Sick Industries Association (BSIA) Chowdhury Mohammad Ishak told BSS on Thursday that they had submitted a proposal to the Board of Investment (BOI) in this regard with a recommendation for settling all cases lodged against the sick industries.
"We wants to provide the government with revenues of utility services on condition of waiving interests and service charges," he said.
While contracted, director of the BOI Shamsunahar Begum said the BOI is working with the Ministry of Industries (MoI) for identifying the actual number of the sick industries to resolves their problems.
Sources at the MoI said they have already sent a letter to the Bangladesh Bank requesting 'go slow' on loan default causes, she said.
Two committees were formed to look into the matter of the BSIA and the committees are now determine the exact number of the sick industries on applications received by different sides including Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) and the BSIA. According to a survey, a total of 2,000 industries were identified as sick.
Of them, 270 are the readymade garments and the rest are handlooms, foods, medicine, plastics, leathers and engineering industries.

  Asia urged to mull common currency, monetary fund
AFP, Singapore

Asia should consider a common currency and push for a regional monetary fund as economic integration picks up speed, a former top Japanese finance official said Thursday.
Eisuke Sakakibara, who served as Japan's vice finance minister for international affairs during the Asian financial crisis, admitted that a common currency may be some time off but argued it was time to think about the idea.
"It may be several decades to create an Asian currency, but it may be the time to start thinking about it because Asian economic integration is gradually approaching the level of Europe," he told a regional forum in Singapore.
His comments come as the global economy slowly moves out of its worst crisis in more than 70 years, with most analysts acknowledging Asian nations were leading the way.
Key Asian states have been moving to tear down trade barriers and streamline disparate trading rules and procedures in a bid to better link their economies.
A network of free trade agreements have already been signed and more are under negotiation. And on January 1, a giant free trade zone covering 1.7 billion consumers in China and 10 Southeast Asian nations went into effect.
Sakakibara, now a university professor in Tokyo, also said an Asian version of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has become more relevant given the region's deepening economic linkages.
Such a fund will help ensure that central banks have enough to shield their currencies from speculative attacks like those during the 1997-1998 Asian crisis.

National

N-region to produce all-time record Rabi crops this season: Experts

BSS,Rangpur

Experts and agri-scientists have said that the country's northern region is expected to produce an all- time record quantity of the Rabi crops this season following massive pro-farmer steps taken by the government.
The farmers have become more enthusiastic to make Rabi farming successful and the concerned government departments have put in maximum efforts to produce record quantity of crops this season in the region.
Reductions in fertilizer prices, subsidies on diesel, distribution of agri-input cards, fertilizers, assurance of smooth power supply for irrigation, disbursements of agri-loans among the farmers and sharecroppers are the reasons for encouragement of the farmers, they said. The experts and scientists of different government and non- government organisations and research institutes have been providing the latest agro-technologies to the grassroots farmers to achieve tremendous successes in farming Rabi crops at lower costs.
If the climatic conditions remain favorable, the farmers will definitely produce more Rabi crops including the major crops like Boro, potato, vegetables, spices, oil seeds and other crops this season, they said. Presently, the farmers have been continuing cultivation of Rabi crops with huge enthusiasm and in full swing and already exceeded potato farming target by six percent and Boro seedbed preparation target in the region. Many areas have now turned into green fields as the potato, wheat, maize, vegetables, Boro seedbeds and other crops are growing excellent and the farmers are still continuing farming of the other varieties turning the fields into working grounds everywhere.
The farmers have also started plantation of Boro seedlings that will get momentum from this month-end and the same is nearing completion in the low-lying beels, haors and dried up river beds. On the other hand, many Rabi crops like potato and all other varieties of vegetables have already appeared in plenty in the local markets putting positive impacts on the retail prices though cultivation of the same has still been continuing.
According to the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) sources, the government has fixed an all-time record target of producing 1,60,75,639 tonnes various Rabi crops from 27,81,041 hectares during this season in the country's 16 northern districts.
The fixed target for the region stands at 40.19 percent of the nationwide production target of 3,97,93,273 tonnes Rabi crops from 78,53,004 hectares for this season, the officials told BSS Thursday. All agriculture related departments, NGOs and banks have taken adequate steps in providing quality seeds, fertilizers, smooth electricity, irrigations, agri-loans, trainings and the latest technologies to the farmers. The DAE, BADC, BARI, BRRI, BARC, BMDA, RUKUB, Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA), commercial banks and NGOs have taken maximum pro- farmers' steps to make the Rabi crop farming programme successful. Officials told BSS that there is no seed scarcity for farming of Rabi crops as the farmers have their own seed stocks and the BADC has already provided huge seeds and a number of seed companies and NGOs the rest.

  Feb 25 to be observed as Pilkhana Killing Day
UNB, Dhaka

The government decided that February 25 will be observed as Pilkhana Killing Day to commemorate the victims massacred inside the BDR headquarters during a terrible mutiny by the lower orders of the border force this day last year. Home Minister Sahara Khatun disclosed the decision to newsmen at her ministry after a meeting Thursday on the matters of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), now in the process of being reorganized under a new nomenclature, Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB), following the Feb 25-26 mutiny in the headquarters as well as in other garrisons. "We in a meeting held elaborate discussion as to how we can observe the day in a befitting manner," said the home minister, who had to deal with the massive trouble in the paramilitary force just little over a month of the takeover by the present government against a grim backdrop in the country's political arena. Held at the ministry, the meeting proposed to build a memorial plaque marking the carnage and bring out special supplements on the day. The meeting also discussed how respects could be given to those slain in the carnage and sympathies conveyed to the bereaved family members. Replying to a query, the minister said trial of the BDR mutiny has already started in different parts of the country. The trial in Dhaka will also start "soon" after receiving charge sheet on the massacre in the BDR headquarters.
On Feb 25-26 last year, BDR personnel staged the mutiny at the Pilkhana BDR headquarters over low pay and poor condition, and the uprising sparked off mutinous demonstrations in other establishments of the border force across the country. At least 73 people, including 57 army officers deputed to the paramilitary force, were killed during the mayhem. State Minister for Home Affairs Advocate Shamsul Haque Tuku, Home Secretary Abdus Sobhan Shikder and DG of BDR Major General Mainul Islam attended the meeting.

   Coast Guard seizes goods worth Tk 68.23cr in south-west costal region last year

UNB, Bagerhat, JAN 7

Bangladesh Coast Guard members, in separate drives, seized huge contraband items worth Tk 68.23 crore in south-west costal region of the country last year.
Coast Guard members of Mongla West Zone seized contraband items worth Tk 8 crore during the period.
They also rescued 60 child labourers from fishermen's colonies at Dublar Char who were brought here from the different parts of the country.
The Coast Guard members also rescued at least 26 fishermen from the clutches of pirates. They also arrested nine bandits during the raids.
Public Relations Officer of the Zone M Lakman Hakim told UNB that they seized huge contraband items, including, 30,431 cubic feet of Sundari timber, 290 sacks of urea fertilizer, 3 trucks, 11 trawlers, 15 boats, 33,307 liters of diesel, 1.86 lakh meters of current nets, 1.55 lakh meters of shrimp fry nets, 1,151 kgs of polythene and nine kgs of deer meat.
Meanwhile, Lt Commander Saidul Islam (Operation Department) of South Zone, consisting of Barisal, Patuakhali and Bhola district's costal areas, said that the Coast Guards of this zone recovered the contraband goods worth Tk 60.23 crore during their drives last year.
The seized goods included huge Indian saris, 110 sacks of fertilizer, wine, shrimp fry nets, Sundari timber, diesel, deer's skin, electric cable, battery and 15 boats. They also held six bandits.

  BAF to deploy contingent in UN Peacekeeping Mission
UNB, Dhaka

Bangladesh Air Force is going to deploy contingent BANAIR-1 at United Nations Mission in Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT). BANAIR-1 (Aviation Unit) comprising of 104 BAF members will be deployed at MINURCAT from January 10, said an ISPR release Thursday. Main body of BANAIR-1 will leave Dhaka for Chad on January 20. BAF also is going to deploy three helicopters at MINURCAT.
Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal SM Ziaur Rahman briefed the members of BANAIR-1 at BAF Base Bashar of Dhaka Cantonment on Thursday.The Chief of Air Staff called upon them to discharge their duties with honesty, professionalism and sincerity and bring honour for Bangladesh Air Force as well as for the country.

  4,50,000 babies to have polio vaccine
BSS, Narsingdi

The district health department has taken all out preparations for conducting the first round of the 18th National Immunization Day (NID) that begins on January 10.
In this connection, the local civil surgeon's office organised a press briefing in its conference room with Civil Surgeon Pulin Kumar Singh in the chair.
The civil surgeon informed the meeting that 4,50,000 babies of 0-5 years age group will be immunized with polio vaccine and 3,75,000 of 1-5 years group will be administered high powerful vitamin A capsules in all six upazilas of the district during the first round of the day.
Beside, 325000 babies of 2-5 years age group in the district will given one anti-worm tablet each in the first round of the day.
District Civil Surgeon office under the assistance of the UNICEF will conduct the immunization with a pledge for concerted efforts of all stockholders to create awareness about making the 18th NID successful for making a polio free Bangladesh.
The second round of the immunization will continue from February 14 to 28 next.
About 5000 field level health workers, volunteers and trained supervisors will be engaged in a total 1757 centres through out the district to make the campaign successful.

  High-level govt delegation meets President; Apprises him of govt successes in first year's rule

UNB, Dhaka

A high-level government delegation led by Deputy Leader of the House Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury Thursday called on President Zillur Rahman at Bangabhaban, when their performances in the bygone year were discussed.
The meeting was on the occasion of the first anniversary of taking office by the Awami League-led government.
"The delegation members apprised the President of the successes of the government in various sectors in the last one year as well as its future development plans," said an official release.
President Zillur Rahman urged the delegation to work with "more sincerity and responsibly to build a happy, prosperous and dignified Bangladesh".
The other delegation members included Agriculture Minister Begum Matia Chowdhury, LGRD and Cooperatives Minister Syed Ashraful Islam, Home Minister Sahara Khatun, State Minister for Public Works Abdul Mannan Khan, State Minister for Overseas Employment Munnujan Sufian, and lawmakers Obaidul Quader, Asaduzzaman Noor, AKM Rahmat Ullah and BM Mozammel.

  BGMEA donates Tk 25 lakh, warm clothes to PM's relief fund to help cold-stricken poor

UNB, Dhaka

Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) donated Tk 25 lakh and 10,000 blankets, 5,000 pieces of sweater to the relief fund of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her secretariat office on Thursday afternoon, as many poor people suffered from chilling cold.
A BGMEA delegation led by its President Abdus Salam Murshedy called on the Prime Minister and handed over to her the warm clothes and cheque for the money.
Prime Minister's Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad, BGMEA Vice-President Md. Siddiqur Rahman and Directors Badal Roy, Md. Atiqul Islam and Mohammed Nasir were present.
The BGMEA leaders highly lauded Prime Minister's address to the nation, saying that her speech will "inspire the nation again to work unitedly to turn the country into a modern development one".
They also expressed gratitude to Hasina for her government's effective initiatives to protect the garment sector from instability and maintain congenial safe environment both for laborers and owners of mills and factories during the last one year.
Prime Minister Hasina thanked BGMEA as they stand by the poor people of the country.
"Such donation will inspire affluent people and groups to come forward to help poor people," she said.

  Special light engineering industrial park to be
set up: Barua

UNB, Dhaka

Industries Minister Dilip Barua said the government would set up a special light engineering industrial park for development of the country's light engineering industry.
The minister made the remarks while inaugurating a four-day international engineering commodity and technology fair at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre here Thursday.
Bangladesh Engineering Industries Owners Association, Ask Trade and Exhibition (Private) Limited and Zakaria Trade and Fair International jointly organized the exhibition.
A positive decision on withdrawal of VAT imposed on repair services would also be taken for the conveniences of the entrepreneurs of this industrial sector, said Barua.
The minister said the government would extend its all out cooperation to the light engineering entrepreneurs as a rising industrial sector of the country.
In the new industrial policy, the light engineering industry would be identified as a thrust sector, he said, calling on the entrepreneurs to increase the use of new technology for modernizing this industry.
Over 100 stalls, including 25 foreign, have been set up in the international fair.

  Forest guards and pirates exchange heavy gunfire in Sundaban

UNB, Bagerhat

Forest guards and pirates exchanged heavy gunfire at Tera Beka in Swarankhola Range of Sundarban on Thursday evening.
The gunfight beginning at 6-30 pm continued till 7-30 pm when the pirates retreated leaving behind a trawler. No casualty was reported, Divsional Forest Officer Mihir Kumar Do said. Forest guards rushed to the spot on information that pirates of notorious Kalu Bahini attacked a group of fishermen in a bid to loot trawlers and abduct fishermen for ransom.
The guards faced a barrage of gunfire, which were returned. After about an hour the pirates retreated to deep forest leaving behind a trawler.

  JU authorities expel 4 students
BSS, Ju

Jahangirnagar University authorities on Thursday expelled four students and served show cause notice to one student for doing for carrying out unruly activities on the campus.
The expelled students are; Riaz of 36th batch, of Government and Politics department, Farhad of 36th batch, Shohag of 37th batch and Amit of 38th batch of Philosophy department for six months.
A show caused notice has also been served to SM Shamim of 32th batch, of Economics department.
The disciplinary committee of the university has made this decision for creating violence on the campus centering over a trifling matter.
Prof Dr Arzu Mia, Proctor of the University told BSS that the decision was taken in order to keep the university violence free.

Sports

Kayes, Iqbal bolster Bangladesh
AFP, Dhaka

Imrul Kayes and Tamim Iqbal cracked contrasting half-centuries to help Bangladesh post a challenging 296-6 against India in a triangular one-day series match on Thursday.
Iqbal hit a rapidfire 42-ball 60 and Kayes a 100-ball 70 for a maiden half-century after being let off early in his innings in the day-night match as Bangladesh made their highest total against India in one-day cricket.
Mohammad Mahmudu-llah smashed a 45-ball 60 not out with eight fours late in the innings as the hosts plundered 88 runs in the closing 10 overs.
Bangladesh were indebted to left-handed Iqbal for making an explosive start as they raced to 80 in the opening 11 overs, with Kayes contributing only 16.
Iqbal went for big shots early in his innings, pulling left-arm seamer Ashish Nehra for the match's first six and hammering two successive fours in the bowler's next over.
He dominated the opening-wicket stand with bold stroke-play, reaching his 12th half-century in one-day internationals off just 33 balls with one six and eight fours.
India had a chance to break the partnership when left-handed Kayes mistimed a pull off Nehra, but Harbhajan Singh dropped an easy catch at mid-wicket. The batsman was then on three. Iqbal fell playing strokes, pulling fast bowler Shanthakumaran Srees-anth to Gautam Gambhir at mid-wicket after hitting one six and 10 fours.
Kayes, playing only his fifth one-dayer, and Mohammad Ashraful (29) then put on 68 for the second wicket before India grabbed three wickets in the space of 40 runs.
Ashraful was bowled by spinner Ravindra Jadeja, skipper Shakib Al Hasan was run out for nought and Kayes pulled Nehra straight to Virat Kohli at deep square-leg after hitting one six and five fours.
But Mahmudullah and Raqibul Hasan (32) defied the Indian attack to help their side set a stiff target.
Scorecard
Bangladesh:
Tamim Iqbal c Gambhir b Sreesanth 60
Imrul Kayes c Kohli b Nehra 70
Mohammad Ashraful b Jadeja 29
Shakib Al Hasan run out 0
Raqibul Hasan b Har-bhajan 32
Mushfiqur Rahim c Jadeja b Yuvraj 6
Mohammad Mahmu-dullah not out 60
Naeem Islam not out 14
Extras: (lb4, nb4, w17) 25
Total: (for six wickets; 50 overs) 296
Fall of wickets: 1-80 (Iqbal), 2-148 (Ashraful), 3-156 (Shakib), 4-188 (Kayes), 5-206 (Rahim), 6-238 (Raqibul).
Bowling: Nehra 6-0-44-1 (nb2, w2), Sreesanth 8-0-54-1 (nb2, w2), Zaheer 6-0-43-0 (w2), Harbhajan 9-0-56-1 (w4), Yuvraj 10-0-33-1 (w1), Jadeja 9-0-45-1, Sehwag 2-0-17-0 (w6).
Toss: Bangladesh
Umpires: Enamul Haque (BAN) and Ian Gould (ENG)
TV umpire: Sharfuddoula Shahid (BAN)
Match referee: Andy Pycroft (ZIM).

  Citycell Bangladesh League football
Muktijoddha earns first point

TBT Report

Muktijoddha Sangsad Krira Chakra earned its first point in the Citycell 3rd Bangla-desh League football after a goalless draw with Shuktara Jubo Sangsad at Bir Shres-htha Shaheed Mohammad Mustafa Stadium in Dhaka on Thursday.
Muktijoddha players appeared determined to hold off Shuktara Jubo Sangsad in the lone match of the day as the relegation threatened bottom team broke its five-match losing streak with the draw. They also created some scoring opportunities that went futile.
Shuktara, which drew its previous two matches, came close to scoring on several occasions but its forwards lacked power and precision to break the evening duck.
Shuktara secured three points from six matches, while Muktijoddha earned on point after its sixth-round outing.
No match will be played today. Three matches will be held tomorrow. Defen-ding champion Dhaka Abahani takes on Chitta-gong Mohammedan Spor-ting Club at MA Aziz Stadium in Chittagong, Dhaka Mohammedan Spor-ting Club faces off Brothers Union at Bir Shreshtha Shaheed Mohammad Mus-tafa Stadium in Dhaka, while Sheikh Russel Krira Chakra meets Biani Bazar Sporting Club at Sylhet Stadium tomorrow.

  Haroon Lorgat to arrive in Dhaka today
TBT Report

The Chief Executive of the International Cricket Council (ICC) Haroon Lorgat is expected to arrive in Dhaka today on a three-day visit.
ICC General Manager, Commercial Campbell Jamieson accompanies the ICC Chief Executive during the visit.
Haroon Lorgat will attend the Central Organizing Committee Meeting of the ICC Cricket World Cup-2011 tomorrow and the Official Launch of the ICC CWC-2011 trophy on the same day at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka. Lorgat is scheduled to depart Dhaka on January 11.

  Start of remaining Idea Cup matches brought forward
TBT Report

The remaining matches of the ongoing Idea Cup Tri-Nation cricket, involving Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka, will start at 2pm instead of 2:30pm.
The decision has been made in an effort to minimize the impact of the afternoon dew on the games. The three teams and the ICC Match Referee are in agreement over the changed timing.

   Beckham back in groove
AFP, Rome

David Beckham began his second loan spell with AC Milan on Wednesday in style as the rossoneri came from behind to beat Genoa 5-2 and leapfrog Juventus into second place in Serie A.
Beckham, who scored in the same fixture last season after being loaned out from LA Galaxy, looked hungry for action as he earned a starting place with fellow midfield veteran Clarence Seedorf out through injury.
The three points took AC Milan onto 34 points from 17 games - eight behind reigning champions Inter, who returned from their winter break with a 1-0 win over Chievo to maintain their eight-point lead - though Beckham and company have a game in hand.
Jose Mourinho's Inter were deprived of a number of midfield stars, handing a rare start to wantaway French midfielder Patrick Vieira, reportedly bound for Manchester City.
But they still took the points courtesy of a 12th minute goal on the counter attack from striker Mario Balotelli.
It was not all good news for Inter, as their Romanian international defender Cristian Chivu fractured his skull in a clash of heads in the 46th minute while Balotelli was subjected to racist abuse.
Balotelli, born in Palermo but of Ghanaian heritage, is regularly subjected to such insults but this time spoke out.
"Every time I come to Verona I realise that the supporters disgust me more and more. It's completely unacceptable," Balotelli told Sky Sports.
Juventus are third, a point behind AC Milan having played a game more, after winning 2-1 at Parma.
Midfielder Hasan Sali-hamidzic scored after just three minutes and an own-goal had them 2-0 up by the break.
The 'Old Lady' hung on for the three points despite having on-loan defender Martin Caceres sent-off in the second-half.
Juventus suffered an injury worry as French striker David Trezeguet went off with an apparent sprained ankle after being tackled by Parma's veteran defender Christian Panucci in the 18th minute.
With Inter streaking clear the onus was on Milan - and the returning Beckham - to show their steel and, after a false start, they did just that, once they had recovered from Giuseppe Sculli's shock opener - a stooping header past a flat-footed defence after 25 minutes.
Ten minutes earlier, Milan should have been ahead after Giuseppe Biava fouled Massimo Ambrosini but Ronaldinho placed his kick too close to Marco Amelia.
But the keeper then fouled Ambrosini for another spotkick. This time Ronaldinho drilled the ball low inside the opposite corner as Amelia guessed wrong in going the same way as for the first kick.
Beckham then fired into the side netting as Milan began belatedly to force the pace.
And the pressure told as Thiago Silva fired them ahead in the 37th minute after Amelia was only able to parry Ambrosini's initial vicious effort.
Two minutes after the restart it was 3-1, Ronaldinho sending through a cute pass to Luca Antonini, and he teed up Marco Borriello to clip home from close range.
Borriello then added icing to the cake with a spectacular overhead kick - though he appeared to have strayed marginally offside.
Klaas-Jan Huntelaar thrashed home the fifth from yet another penalty after Marco Rossi had brought down the marauding Ronaldinho.
David Suazo fired in a late consolation for Genoa but that could not take the gloss off an emphatic Milanese win.
Napoli lie fourth on 30 points after a 2-0 victory over Atalanta while Roma will be kicking themselves after letting a 2-0 lead slip away at Cagliari with the home side scoring twice in time added on to force a 2-2 draw. Roma are fifth on 29 points.

  Clijsters and Henin reach semis
AFP, Brisbane

Star Belgian duo Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin were both forced to three sets before winning their quarter-finals at the Brisbane International on Thursday.
Clijsters beat Czech Lucie Safarova 6-1, 0-6, 6-4 while earlier in the day Henin outlasted seventh seeded Hungarian Melinda Czink 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (7/5).
Top seed Clijsters now faces German surprise packet Andrea Petkovic for a place in Saturday's final and Henin plays third seed Ana Ivanovic of Serbia.
Clijsters needed four match points to finally see off Safarova, who looked all at sea as she surrendered the first set in just 23 minutes.
But the Czech came out with all guns blazing in the second, blasting winners from all over the court and forcing Clijsters into a host of errors, taking the set in three minutes less than she lost the first.
In an intriguing third set, Clijsters broke in the fifth game and held on for the win.
"Thinking back on it now, maybe I should have taken a little more risks at times, but I think the difference for her in the first set to the way she played in the second was so big it kind of surprised me at the time."
Henin's match followed a similar pattern to Clijsters' as she won the first set comfortably, lost the second then fought off a tenacious Czink to claim the third.
Henin needed six match points and a shade over two hours, 20 minutes to book her place in the final four.
"I love these kinds of situations, especially after, not during the match," she said.
Henin said she had recovered well from playing three matches in a row.
"I feel better today, much better (than yesterday)," Henin said.
"It was a long match and mentally it was very difficult but physically I feel much better. "I am an old woman of 27," she joked.
"I came here to play matches and that's what I have done, so no complaints."
Ivanovic survived her own second set meltdown to squeeze past Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-2, 7-6 (8-6).
The third seed looked set to wrap up the quarter-final in under an hour when she led 4-0 in the second set only for Pavlyuchenkova to come storming back.
The Russian had a set point in the tie-break but couldn't take advantage and a relieved Ivanovic was able to close the match out in two. Ivanovic said she was confident ahead of her clash with Henin.
"She's playing really good and she seems to be in good shape so it's going to be a good test for me. Whatever happens I'm just going to try and enjoy it," the Serb said. Unseeded German Andrea Petkovic stunned fourth seed Daniela Hantuchova in straight games 6-4, 6-2.
Petkovic, who beat eighth seed Iveta Benesova in the first round, broke her Slovak opponent three times to reach the semi-finals.
The political science student was refreshingly honest about playing Clijsters.
"Kim is known for her strengths and not too many weaknesses, but I'll try to find some," the 22-year-old said.
"I'm not scared, I will just try to play my game and we'll see what happens-if she kills me she kills me, if not, we'll see."

  Collingwood, Bell defy South Africa
AFP, Cape Town

Paul Collingwood survived a blistering spell of new ball bowling from Dale Steyn as he and Ian Bell battled to save England from defeat on the fifth day of the third Test against South Africa at Newlands on Thursday.
England was 230 for five at tea after Collingwood and Bell batted throughout the afternoon, giving their team an excellent chance of preserving their 1-0 lead going into the fourth and final Test in Johannesburg next week. Only 34 overs remained in the match.
Steyn gave South Africa an important breakthrough 36 minutes before lunch when he bowled Jonathan Trott with a superb delivery which swung in late.
Steyn and Morne Morkel took the second new ball one over after lunch but could not separate England's last two specialist batsmen.
Collingwood, though, was given a torrid time by Steyn, who had him playing and missing at balls which swung away late, earning a wry acknowledgement from the batsman, and twice almost bowling him with deliveries which cut back.
But at the end of a six-over spell Steyn had had not taken a wicket and Collingwood was still battling away, as he did when England escaped with a draw in the first Test in Centurion.
At Centurion, Collingwood batted for 159 minutes and faced 99 balls in scoring 26 not out. On Thursday he had batted for 193 minutes by tea, facing 155 balls and making 31 not out. Bell had been in for 155 minutes and faced 110 balls for his 38.
Collingwood had the decision review system to thank for his survival, however, as he was given out before he had scored, caught at slip off left-arm spinner Paul Harris. Collingwood immediately asked for a review of umpire Tony Hill's decision. Replays showed the ball had gone off his thigh pad.
South Africa claimed the wickets of nightwatchman James Anderson and Trott during the morning as England batted cautiously, making a victory target of 466 unrealistic.
With Trott batting solidly and Anderson defending with determination, it took South Africa 46 minutes to make a breakthrough, for which they required some luck.
Anderson swept left-arm spinner Paul Harris and the ball went onto his boot before squirting out towards backward short leg where Ashwell Prince made a diving catch.
Trott had made a watchful 42 off 99 balls when he fell victim to Steyn during the second of two three-over bursts by the fast bowler. A fast, full ball swung in late and sent Trott's off stump flying.

  Egypt under pressure
AFP, Cairo

Angola 2010 will be a true test of character for six-time African champions Egypt, who are still be smarting from their failure to qualify for the 2010 World Cup.
The Pharaohs were expected to qualify for the World Cup in South Africa for the first time since their last appearance in 1990, but were upstaged by bitter regional rivals Algeria in a play-off after both teams were tied on the same 13 points and had also scored the same goals as well as let in the same number of goals after six rounds of matches.