MONday, july 12, 2010 ashar 28, 1417, RAJAB 29, 1431 Hijri

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

Leading News

Former OC, 10 cops sent to jail for ‘crossfire’ death
UNB, Natore

The district court Sunday ordered to jail hajot a former police officer and 10 constables and ansars accused of killing a young man in fake cross fire at Singra two years ago.
After hearing District and Sessions Judge Abdul Majid rejected their bail petitions and ordered to sent them to the prison on charge of killing Ansar Ali of Bamihal village.
Those sent to prison are former OC of Singra thana Abu Bakar, SI Liakat Ali, SI Prodyut Kar, ASI Jasim Uddin, constables Asir Uddin, Anwar, Mofiz, Hafizur, Odhir Chandra, ansar Kamal and Kashem. Constable Motaleb accused in the case remained fugitive.
They were all suspended from the service following investigation into the case filed against them on August 27 last year.
Rajab Ali, father of victim Ansar Ali, in his case said the Singra police arrested his son on July 23, 2008, meted out inhuman torture resulting to his death. The body was thrown into the jungle of Kakian. Police later announced that Ansar Ali was killed in cross fire.
The court had ordered a probe into the case. The investigation probed the cross fire was fake and Ansar Ali died of physical torture.
The court issued warrant of arrest against the accused. They appeared to the court today except constable Motaleb who went into hiding.

 Students-workers clash leaves 30 injured in Bhola
UNB, Bhola

At least 30 people, including police, were injured in a fierce clash between students of Polytechnic Institute and staff and workers of Bus Owners Association in Borhanuddin upazila Sunday afternoon.
Earlier, angry students put barricades on road halting movement of bus on Bhola-Char Fashion route, set fire to vehicles and damaged at least 20 buses. Police charged batons and fired teargas canisters during the clash.
Local sources said owners' association leader Badal beat a polytechnic student after an altercation between them over boarding on the bus with a computer at Mostofa Kamal Bus Stand in Bhola on Saturday morning. The news infuriated polytechnic students on the campus. Angry students came out of the campus and took to the street on Sunday morning. They put barricade on Bhola-Char Fashion road, halting traffic on the busy road, set fire to busses and vandalized at least 20 vehicles.
Hearing the news, bus owners came to the campus area from Char Fashion riding on four buses along with their staff, workers and cadres who carried rods, sticks and sharp weapons and swooped on the students triggering a clash that lasted till 4pm.
During the clash bus owners and their staff entered the campus breaking open the main gate, indiscriminately beat students.
They also ransacked Principal's quarter and the academic building and looted valuables. At least 20 students were injured as both side exchanged brickbats during the clash.
On information, police reached the spot and fired several rounds of teargas canister but failed to bring situation under control.
The situation became normal after additional police force was brought in and deployed in the area. A tense situation was prevailing.

 war criminals
List of 40 reaches immigration to prevent their fleeing country

UNB, Benapole

A list of 40 people allegedly involved in war crimes during the 1971 Independence War was received Sunday by Benapole border immigration office asking it to bar them fleeing the country.
The list included Prof Golam Azam, Matiur Rahman Nizami, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid, Mohammad Quamaruzzaman, Shakhawat Hossain, Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, Giasuddin Quader Chowdhury, ATM Azharul Islam, Delwar Hossain Sayedee, Abdul Quader Mollah, Mir Kashem Ali, Riasat Ali Biswas, Abdul Alim, Shah Mohammad Ruhul Quddus and Maulana Habibur Rahman.
Acting Immigration Officer Ali Azam Khan told UNB that red alert was declared following receiving the list from the government. All passport holders going to India through Benapole port are issued exit permit after proper checking of photographs with those listed as war criminals.
The list with their photographs is on display in the immigration office. Different intelligent agencies have also been alerted who have been keeping strict vigilance so that none of the listed war criminals can slip out of the country, said Benapole Port thana officer Abu Bakar.
Humayun Ahmed, in-charge of BDR check-post at Benapole said they have not received the list of war criminals but are on alert against any war criminal fleeing the country.
The government issued red alert to all land ports, river ports and airports in this regard following the arrest of Jamaat chief Matiur Rahman Nizami and two other top leaders of the party on June 29.

    JS passes Private University Bill
UNB, Sangsad Bhaban

Parliament on Sunday passed a bill providing for detailed rules for establishing private university, its proper management and expanding quality education in the country.
Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid moved the Private University Bill, 2010 which was adopted by voice vote abolishing the Private University Bill, 1992.
According to the new bill, there must be minimum one acre of undisputed and integrated land in the name of a proposed private university in Dhaka and Chittagong metropolis and minimum two acres of land in other places.
Minimum reserve fund of Tk 5 crore in the name of a proposed private university in Dhaka and Chittagong, Tk 3 crore for other metropolitan areas and Tk 1.5 crore in other places must be deposited in a scheduled bank.
For getting temporary permission from the government, a proposed private university needs to fulfill certain criteria which include formation of a Trustee Board with maximum 21 and minimum 9 members, and have adequate number of classes, library, laboratory, auditorium, seminar room, office room, student's common room and other required rooms and infrastructures.
Besides, the proposed private university will require 25,000 sq ft of space in own building or rented building. The proposed university will have at least three faculties under which there will be at least six departments.
The private university will prepare a plan of its academic activities to be approved by the University Grants Commission (UGC). The proposed university will have to appoint full-time competent teachers for each department, program or course, and the number of such teachers will be fixed by the Commission.
If any teacher wants to be appointed in a proposed private university he must have no-objection certificate from his original appointee and submit it to the Commission.
Every private university must have Board of Trustees, Syndicate, Academic Council, Faculty, Institute, Curriculum Committee, Finance Committee, Teacher Appointment Committee and Discipline Committee.

    Jamaat agitation from tomorrow for release of three top leaders
UNB, Dhaka

Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami on Sunday announced a fortnight-long agitation programme from Tuesday (July 13) on various issues, particularly demanding release of its three top leaders.
Jammat acting secretary general ATM Azharul Islam announced the series of programmes at a press conference at its central office on Sunday noon.
The programmes include meetings and demonstrations across the country on Tuesday-Thursday (July 13-15) to protest "oppression and repression" by the Awami League government and demanding unconditional release of leaders and workers of the opposition including Jamaat ameer Matiur Rahman NIzami, nayeb-e-ameer Delwar Hossain Sayedee and secretary general Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid.
The party will also hold rallies throughout the country on July 19 protesting arrests and repression.
From July 20-26, Jamaat will carry out mass contact and hold opinion exchange meetings with people of various classes and professions to build up public opinion against the "fascist and failed" government.
Replying to a question, Jamaat assistant secretary general Kader Mollah told reporters that they are keeping contact with BNP and "hope to get its support to our programmes."
Reading out a written statement, Jamaat acting secretary general Azharul Islam said that so far over 800 leaders and workers of Jamaat have been arrested since June 29. The three top leaders of Jamaat - Nizami, Sayedee and Mujahid - were arrested on June 29.
He said nearly 500 leaders and workers of Jamaat and it student wing Chhatra Shibir were injured in attacks by Jubo League and Chhatra League on its peaceful rallies in different parts of the country.
Replying to a question, Azharul Islam said Jamaat-e-Islami had never any connection with militancy.
Asked about the remarks of a state minister calling Jamaat politics illegal, he said how the politics of a party registered with the Election Commission could be called illegal. "The remark of the state minister is unlawful."

    Arrest warrants issued against five editors and publisher’s
UNB, Gopalganj

A court in Gopalganj on Sunday issued arrest warrant against acting editor of Amar Desh Mahmudur Rahman, editor and publisher of Somokal, editor and executive editor of Jugantor and publisher of Bangladesh Protidin for not appearing in the court for hearing in a defamation case filed on July 2 by local AL leader Golam Kibria Daria.
The court of additional chief judicial magistrate Md Alamgir Hossain also granted bail to Amar Desh publishers Md. Hashmat Ali, Bangladesh Protidin editor Md Shahjahan Khan and local correspondents of the four newspapers and private TV station NTV as they sought bail physically appearing in the court.
Court sources said, the four newspapers and the TV channel published a report on May 14 quoting Huji leader Mufti Hannan as saying that AL central leader Sheikh Md Abdullah, district AL joint secretary Mahbubul Ali Khan and Kotalipara thana AL joint secretary Golam Kibria were involved in the bomb attack on Sheikh Hasina after a hearing in the case in Gopalganj on May 13.
Kibria, who claimed that the report was not true, filed a defamation suit against the accused on July 2 in the court which summoned them for hearing on Sunday.
As none of them appeared in the court it issued warrants arrest against them, granting bail to Amar Desh publisher Md Hashmat Ali, Bangladesh Protidin editor Md Shahjahan Khan and local correspondents of the four newspapers and the TV channel as they appeared before it. It set 27 July as the next date for hearing.

    Muggers snatch Tk 50 lakh in city
UNB, Dhaka

Muggers took away Tk 50 lakh from a branch manager of One Bank Ltd at Matuail in the city on Sunday.
Police quoting Mahbub Alam, manager of One Bank Ltd of Naryanganj branch, said the money he was cash transfer from branch to another.
He said five muggers riding on two motorbikes intercepted his car at Matuail under Jatrabari thana when he was going to Naryanganj with the money from Jatrabari branch at about 11-30 am.
The gangsters broke the glasses of the car by lethal weapon and took away the money kept inside two bags and left the place firing gunshots to scare away people on the busy road.
Senior police and Bank officials visited the spot soon after the incident. Officer-in-Charge of Jatrabari police station Moniruzzaman said the bank manager was carrying huge amount of money without taking security guard of the bank.
"We are investigating if any employee of the bank is involved in the mugging," he said. The Bank Manager Mahbub Alam filed a case with Jatrabari thana about the mugging. None was arrested till late in the evening. 

Back Page

President stresses reducing population growth rate
BSS, Dhaka

President Zillur Rahman on Sunday laid emphasis on reaching contraceptive devices to every capable couple of the country giving more importance to the poor, illiterate and unaware factions of the populace to reduce the population growth rate.
"I urge all to step forward with an integrated plan for further pacing up the ongoing social movement, created under the present family planning programme," he said while inaugurating the national programme on the World Population Day-2010 at Osmani Memorial Auditorium here.
President Zillur Rahman said there is no other alternative to control the population for building a balance environment keeping away from the ill-cycle of poverty.
Mentioning that the country has achieved success in reducing the population growth after passing many ups and down in implementing its family planning programmes since 1953, he said and added that there is no scope of complacence in this regard as we have a long way to go.
"We have to keep continue our endeavor uninterrupted to achieve the millennium development goal in the health and family welfare sector and materialize the Vision- 2021," Zillur Rahman observed.
The president also said the slogan -'Not more then two children, one is better' would have to be extended across the country to achieve its goal.
President Zillur Rahman said the population growth has been considered as a burden as the countrymen are revolving in the cycle of social disquiet arising out of poverty, malnutrition, food insecurity, illiteracy and health hazards due to its increasing population.

    Shipping Ministry to set up Ashuganj river port, procure dredgers

BSS, Dhaka

The shipping ministry will set up a river port at Ashuganj and procure six dredgers at a cost of Taka 744.70 crore under US$ 1 billion credit provided by India.
Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan told BSS that the decision was taken at a meeting of the concerned ministries on July 8 after approval of 14 projects proposed by India during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Delhi visit.
Held at the Prime Minister's office, the meeting was presided over by PM's Adviser Dr Moshiur Rahman. Shipping Secretary Abdul Mannan Hawlader, who was present at the meeting, said the construction of Ashuganj river port would coast Taka 250 crore. At the same time, six dredgers would be procured at a cost of Taka 494.70 crore from India.
The shipping ministry will get four of the six dredgers while the water resources ministry will get the remaining two. The secretary said the rate of interest of the Indian loan is likely to be fixed at 1 per cent. He said the meeting finalised five ports of call for both the countries.
The ports of call in Bangladesh are Narayanganj, Sirajganj, Khulna, Mongla and Ashuganj. The ports of call in India are Kolkata, Haldia (West Bengal), Pandu (Gouhati), Karimganj and Shilghat (Assam).
Other projects taken under the Indian loan include procurement of Bangladesh Railway's 10 broad gauge locomotives, 125 broad gauge passenger coaches, 60 oil tank wagons, two break vans, 5 meter gauge wagons, construction of second Bhairab Bridge, 300 double-deck busses and 50 articulated buses of BRTC, Ramgaru Sabrum land port link road, Brahmanbaria-Akhaura- Senarbadi road, construction of overpass at Jurain rail crossing, Malibagh rail crossing flyover, Bheramara-Bahrampur 400kv line and four projects of BSTI.
Bangladesh Inland Water Transport (BIWTA) Chairman Abdul Malek Mian said India-Ashuganj container terminal via Khulna, Mongla, Barisal and Narayanganj will transport goods to its eastern region.

   Bapex to start drilling at Fenchuganj gas field from December

UNB, Dhaka

Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company (Bapex) plans new drilling at its Fenchuganj gas field at the end of August targeting a production increase of 25 million cubic feet of per day (MMCFD).
Fenchuganj field now produce 20-25 MMCFD gas. After completion of drilling, its production will be raised by another 20-25 MMCFD, official sources said.
Bapex, a subsidiary of the state-owned Petrobangla, is responsible for exploration and production of oil and gas across the country.
Bapex managing director Mortuza Ahmed said that a rig, purchased recently from China, has already been mobilised at the project site and is ready to start drilling.
He informed that Bapex had a plan to start the work several days back. But as the monsoon already started and some parts of the road towards the project site washed away by heavy downpour, it has become difficult to mobilise some other important equipment there.
"That's delayed our work and now we've set a target to start drilling at well No-3 at Fenchiganj field at end of August," he said. The Bapex MD also mentioned that it would take about three months to complete the drilling job and the well of the field will start producing 20-25 MMCFD gas shortly after the drilling.
"We're very confident we'll be able to produce 20-25 MMCFD gas from end of August," he said.
The good news came from the top executive of the state-exploration company at a time when the country has been experiencing severe gas crisis that hit hard the power and industry sector.
At present, the country hardly produces 2000 MMCFD gas against a demand of about 2500 MMCFD. State-owned Power Development Board (PDB) claims it has to reduce power production by about 700 MW due to gas shortage while many fertiliser factories were shut down for the same reason.

    All political parties have to sit to resolve CHT problems: Fakhrul

UNB, Dhaka

BNP senior joint secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir Sunday said all political parities of the country will have to sit together to resolve the problems of Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) and will have to come to a consensus to this end.
"It's not possible to resolve the problems of Chittagong Hill Tracts by BNP or any political party alone," he said while taking part in a dialogue titled 'Oshanto Pahar Biponna Rashtriyo Nirapatta Shirshok Jatiya Sanglap' (national dialogue on restive hills, state security in jeopardy). Parbatya Gano Parishad organized the dialogue at the Jatiya Press Club with former president of a section of Dhaka Union of Journalists (DUJ), Elahi Newaz Khan, in the chair.
Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Janata League president Bangabir Kader Siddiqui, JAGPA president Shafiul Alam Prodhan and Bangladesh Kalyan Party chief Maj Gen (retd) M Ibrahim also took part in the discussion.
Speaking as chief guest, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said the CHT problems can be resolved if democracy takes institutional shape.
He said those who created the problems in the CHT have such problems in their own countries including America, Australia and India. Fakhrul alleged that the ruling Awami League is doing politics as lackey of Western rulers and hegemony. "If it comes out from this many problems of the country can be solved," he said.
The BNP leader said: "The CHT problems have been created due to the conspiracy of the western and Indian imperialism as their interests are involved."
He further said that the CHT has been given a separate status through the Constitution, which is against the sprit of independence.

    People may give lesson to politicians throu’ 'silent ballot revolution: Obaidul

UNB, Dhaka

Awami League presidium member Obaidul Quader on Sunday said people might give the politicians a good lesson through 'silent ballot revolution' if they continuously talk about teach lessons to each other forgetting their responsibility to serve the nation.
"People are examining and evaluating our works, public statements and behavior everyday. We frequently talk about giving lessons to each other. But people may give us a good lesson through silent ballot revolution," the AL leader said while addressing a discussion at Dhaka Reporters' Unity (DRU). Bangabandhu Academy arranged the discussion titled "Charter of Change: Our Doings" presided over by its president Hemayet Uddin.
Quader sought political consensus on 'burning national issues' so that people do not suffer from lack of security. "We've to keep space for negotiations. We cannot eliminate hate by hate. Only love can do it." Apparently taking a swipe at ministers he said those could not establish their skills and prove capability during the last 18 months would not be able to do so even in 18 years. "Our leader Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been working hard. But teamwork is essential for the desired outcome." He said politicians are talking much more than work and the quality of politics has sharply declined in the recent past as no quality is needed to do politics now.
Talking about trial of war criminals, Obaidul Quader said: "None can say trial of the war criminals will be completed by one or two years. This cannot be done by mere setting specific timeframe. We should be more responsible in making any statement regarding this." He said the government has done initial job by forming tribunal and appointing investigative agencies and they are the authority to talk about the process and progress..
The AL leader observed that country's politics is gradually becoming 'sick' and people are losing interest in politicians. "We've to come out from the culture of confrontational politics." He quoted Charles Dickens who had said, "It is the best of times, it is the worst of times" and observed that crisis shows path and create opportunity and for this politicians should change the analogue idea and mindset for the betterment of nation.

    Selim Osman panel sweeps BKMEA election
UNB, Dhaka

AKM Selim Osman is likely to be elected president of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers & Exporters Association as his entire panel swept the polls held on Sunday. All the 27 directors of his panel won the election against the panel led by M A Sabur. The election results were announced at 9pm on Sunday after the voting held peacefully. The new directors will choose the president of BKMEA on Thursday. AKM Selim Osman said the victory of his panel is victory of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
The newly elected directors are: Mohammad Hatem, Alhaj Habibur Rahman, Mohammad Suharawardy, Manjurul Haq, Mohammad Shahjahan Alam, Abu Ahmad Siddiq, FM Kabir Mohiuddin, Shamim Ahmed, Mansur Ahmed, AKM Selim Osman, Shaymol Kumar Saha, Khawja Azizul Haq, Nurul Alam Chowdhury, AH Aslam Sani, Humayun Kabir Khan, Shafiquzzaman Prince, Anwar Kamal Pasha, Sayed Hossain Sarkar, Sharafat Jamil, Golam Zakaria, Khandker Mofazzal Uddin Ahmed, ASM Kamrul Ahsan, SM Salahuddin, Farooq bin Yusuf Pappu, Siraj Jamil, Alamgir Kabir and Mohiuddin Farooqi. Some 472 votes were cast out of total 511 eligible voters - 325 voters of Narayanganj and 147 of Dhaka.

Editorial

Removing water-logging

Water-logging is one of the major problems facing the city dwellers. Due to lack of proper drainage system and grabbing of canals water-logging problem is aggravating in the city much to the inconvenience of the people. According an expert the government should immediately plan and implement wider and smooth-running drainage system considering the volume of rainwater that has to be discharged with a view to removing water-logging in the city. In his opinion, the water-logging in the capital city persists year after year and causes untold sufferings to the city dwellers. The authorities often develop city roads in some areas raising their level from the adjacent settlements, markets and shopping malls. This worsens water-logging in the residential and market areas during the wet season. He said that unplanned urbanization hampers the natural state of drainage and causes sudden inundation and water-logging.
Some other experts pointed out that traffic congestion and water-logging are increasing in the capital due to unplanned urbanisation. The lack of coordination among RAJUK, Dhaka City Corporation and WASA is the main reason for the growing traffic congestion and water-logging in the city. To end the people's sufferings by resolving these problems the missing canals have to be traced out and re-excavated. The condition of this city was not so bad even in 1965, but the drainage and sewerage systems have been destroyed gradually.
Meanwhile, environment specialists have blamed land grabbers and corrupt officials of Rajuk, Dhaka City Corporation, Public Works Department and WASA for severe water-logging in the capital. A large part of the city goes under water whenever it rains due to unplanned urbanisation, causing immense suffering to city dwellers. Their views made two things amply clear- citizens' awareness about the degradation of environment is growing fast and the citizens' movement for improvement of environment and resolution of the problems such as traffic congestion and water-logging are gaining momentum day by day. In this regard, the demands for effective steps to recover water bodies and canals, preparing a master plan for drainage system, long-term and short-term plan to remove water-logging and utilisation of rain water have become almost universal.
The crux of the problem with Dhaka city is that it is expanding fast without necessary infrastructural developments and as a result the sufferings of the growing population in the city are also increasing terribly. In short, our capital is a problem-ridden city and these problems are manifold. People from all over the country stream to this city in thousands every day. With the increase of population by one million every three years, the capital Dhaka will become the fourth populous city of the world by the year 2015. At present with over 12.3 million city dwellers, Dhaka ranks as the eleventh populous city in the world, said a survey report of the UNFPA. With a population growth of 5.5 per cent annually, Dhaka's inhabitants will reach 21.3 million by the year 2015. The population of Dhaka was 2 lakh in 1931, 3.61 lakh in 1951, 5 lakh in 1958, 5.57 lakh in 1961, 78 lakh in 1985 and 91 lakh in 1991. The population here increases at a rate over three times higher than national population increase rate.
Most of the big cities of the world are plunged in various problems. But no where perhaps the problems are as acute as in Dhaka. In view of the present alarming situation here, it can be presumed that Dhaka is going to become a jungle of men, women and children with manifold problems including acute shortage of space to live and move. And this critical situation will worsen further if arrangements are not made to end the traffic congestion and water-logging. In these Circumstances, the government should draw up a comprehensive plan and implement it with utmost sincerity to make Dhaka a modern city with all facilities and amenities of the 21st century.

 Cell phone crimes

According to media reports, the government is planning to formulate a policy to check the rising incidents of cell phone crimes including terrorism and extortion. "Terrorists have been committing crimes across the country by using handy cellular phones. We are now thinking how we can control mobile phone crimes and planning to announce mobile phone policy," Home Minister Sahara Khatun told reporters after a meeting with the country's mobile phone operators at her office last week. She said the mobile phone operators have been asked to submit their distributors list to the BTRC within September 30. The meeting elaborately discussed about formulation of draft mobile phone policy.
Earlier, a national daily reported that porno pictures are now available on mobile phones as some anti-social elements reportedly released those through memory cards for commercial gains. These are now on sale like hot cakes in the mobile market. The item is attracting the young boys. The porno video footages through mobile memory cards are spreading like wild fire specially in the capital, the main customers being students of colleges and universities.
The spread of porno video footages through mobile phones is a major threat to ethics, morality and social order as mobile phones are now being used by young boys and girls in large numbers. The mobile pornography is an addition to the already existing anxieties gripping the society. On 16 September last the Police Headquarters made recommendation to the home ministry for closing down 84 websites on the allegation of circulating pornography. A letter sent in this connection also contained the list of the 84 websites concerned.
Now the mobile pornography has aggravated further the crisis endangering our ethic, moral values and social system as these provoke sexuality and violence thereof. Worse still, due to their tender age and inability to realise the difference between good and bad, young boys and girls are being attracted to pornography and even sexual crimes. In view of this grim reality, the authorities should take stern measures against the spread of pornography through computers and memory cards of mobile phones along with formulating a mobile policy.

Analysis

Terrorism and religious identities

In the past, most suicide bombers or violent attackers used to come from the tribal areas and the local militant groups acted as their facilitators. Now, local groups have developed skills to undertake such actions on their own.

Dr Hasan-Askari Rizvi

The terrorist attack on the Data Darbar shrine in Lahore on July 1 underlined the growing threat of terrorism in urban centres and exposed the confused state of mind of the political class on terrorism and deficiencies in the capacity of the civilian administration to cope with it.
Two basic problems have made it extremely difficult for official civilian circles, security authorities and the political class to articulate a coherent and effective response to religious extremism and terrorism. Many members of the political class and ordinary Pakistanis are not prepared to admit that religious extremism and militancy are indigenous problems. This does not fit into their idealised notion of religion and a highly polarised worldview tainted by religious orthodoxy that interprets every domestic and foreign development as part of a grand global design to undermine Islam and Muslims.
The Punjab government and the PML-N live in a state of denial. They are not prepared to accept that Punjab has become a sanctuary for Islamic extremist groups and others that want to destabilise the state and society. The Punjab government does not want to acknowledge what most political analysts and the media people know,: that the leaders of banned religious groups freely function in Punjab, organising their loyalists and enjoying open access to the media. Some of them even have access to official circles.
The denial issue is linked to another problem. There is a lot of confusion on what constitutes terrorism and what are its sources. All religious groups, irrespective of their denominational identity and political parties, condemn terrorist incidents, including suicide bombings. However, most of them are not prepared to condemn a specific group for such activities and they offer excuses and explanations to dilute the charge of terrorism against militant Islamic groups. Some reluctance to condemn them can be attributed to religious-denominational commonalities of some people with hardline Islamic groups. Almost all militant groups using violence in Afghanistan and Pakistan, often described as the jihadis, subscribe to Deobandi, Wahabi-Salafi and Ahle-Hadees Islamic traditions.
The strict followers of these Islamic traditions often condone their activities
or avoid public criticism.
The most common explanations of various terrorist attacks in Lahore over the last six months offer an interesting overview of the failure to accept the reality that the current spate of terrorism is primarily domestic. In the past, most suicide bombers or violent attackers used to come from the tribal areas and the local militant groups acted as their facilitators. Now, local groups have developed skills to undertake such actions on their own.
The well-known explanation of terrorism in Punjab can be summed up as follows:
* A Muslim cannot engage in terrorism targeting ordinary people, places of worship and shrines. One implication of this statement is that such acts must have been conducted by non-Muslims.
* The paid agents of Pakistan's foreign adversaries, rather than militant Islamic organisations, engage in such activities to destabilise Pakistan.
* Various US agencies working in Pakistan and Afghanistan resort to terrorism or buy off people for terrorism to destabilise Pakistan and thus create a justification for the US and other western countries to take control of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal.
* Suicide attacks or bombings are a reaction to Pakistan's involvement in US-led efforts to eliminate trans-national terrorism, which does not serve Pakistan's interests.
* These incidents are a reaction to Pakistan's military action in the tribal areas and US drone attacks.
* If US troops withdraw from Afghanistan and there is no US military activity in Pakistan, terrorism will stop. The Taliban and other militants are not anti-Pakistan; they are fighting against foreign presence in the region.
PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif condemns terrorism and the loss of life but avoids criticising any particular militant group for terrorism. He attributed the latest attack in Lahore to the policies of General Pervez Musharraf as well as to the foreign policy of the current PPP government. He did not elaborate if he was talking about Pakistan's cooperation with the US, dating back to the Musharraf days and Pakistan's active role in the ongoing global effort to control terrorism.
All political analysts agree that Punjab has become the new centre for militant groups. Some of these groups are quite old and well known. There are now new groups that are said to have broken off from existing militant and sectarian groups. Most militant and sectarian groups that were banned are now functioning freely under new names.
The policy of denial faced a challenge from the conglomerate of Barelvi Islamic groups who threatened to launch street agitation if the government did not take action against the group that attacked the Lahore shrine. Various Shia groups support their demands.
The Barelvi groups became active against the militants subscribing to Deobandi and Wahabi Islamic traditions after the assassination of Maulana Sarfaraz Naeemi in June 2009 in Lahore. Later, they found themselves under pressure from various Deobandi groups in Karachi. For the first time this year, the public processions taken out by various organisations to celebrate the birth anniversary of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) were attacked by diehard young Deobandi groups in at least two cities.
This Barelvi activism may impel the Punjab government to take action against hardline and sectarian Islamic groups. However, Barelvi activism is not necessarily a positive development. After all, Barelvi groups also represent religious orthodoxy and they question Pakistan's current foreign and security policies. They share most of the perspective on terrorism outlined above and want to establish an Islamic order as articulated by them. Until the Barelvi religious interests were not directly hit, they were not publicly critical of Islamic militancy, although they did not participate in it.
If religious extremism and terrorism are to be eliminated, Pakistan's official and societal circles will have to discard the Islamic orthodoxy discourse on issues and problems. They will have to rise above religious-sectarian or narrow partisan political considerations and articulate the meanings of terrorism in the context of the Pakistani state and its constitution and law.
Terrorism should be articulated as any action, planned or executed, that involves the use or threat of violence in a planned and systematic manner to intimidate the people, killing, kidnapping or injuring them or damaging property. Such acts cannot be condoned or explained away on the basis of any religious or political doctrine or regional and international political development.

Dr Hasan-Askari Rizvi is a political and defence analyst

  Bounty hunters of the West

US foreign policy has always sought to acquire access to the wealth of natural resources scattered across the world.

Amjad Ayub Mirza

US foreign policy has always sought to acquire access to the wealth of natural resources scattered across the world. If it is denied free access to what it wants, then foreign policy sets in to bring the untamed to its knees
The sacking of the US and NATO commander in Kabul, General McChrystal, by a disappointed US president reveals serious and damaging fissures between the US civil-political administration and the higher military command on the issue of formulating a face-saving exit strategy from the quagmire of Afghanistan. The more the pressure grows on the first black US president to face a re-run in 2012, the more the White House seems jittery and panic-stricken.
It also ought to occasion the raising of a few eyebrows in Islamabad, since any US decision with respect to a withdrawal from Afghanistan will directly affect Pakistan, whose unmanned northern boundary with Afghanistan and the egotistical attitude of the Indian government towards resolving our mutual border and trade disputes will only benefit the religious and sectarian terrorists on either side.
The increasingly disorganised civilian population of Pakistan provides terrorists with easy targets in cities and towns where vigilance remains at its lowest. Keeping a close eye on the insurgents cannot be guaranteed unless people's defence committees are formed in every city and town neighbourhood.
The appointment of General David Petraeus as the new commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan is a sign of US determination to flee the Afghan battle after installing a government in Kabul that is capable of holding on to power and able to govern the mostly ungovernable country by the virtue of dodgy partnerships, bribing warlords and power-sharing with 'moderate' Taliban.
According to a report by NATO, released in June and quoted in The Independent on Sunday in the UK on June 23, "Only five areas out of 116 assessed were classed as 'secure' - the rest suffering various degrees of insecurity and more than 40 described as 'dangerous'. Just five areas out of 122 were classed as being under the 'full authority' of the government - with governance rated as non-existent, dysfunctional or unproductive in 89 of the areas. Seven areas out of 120 rated for development were showing sustainable growth. In 48 areas, growth was either stalled, or the population was at risk. Less than a third of the military and only 12 percent of the police forces were rated as 'effective'."
Since there is no sign of the war being won by the mighty NATO war-machine, in spite of the cooperation of 46 countries, plus the increasing deaths of British (309 so far) soldiers and growing pressure on the new British government of David Cameron to reduce the budget deficit to a manageable sum within five years, it can be seen that the main players all want out, thus leaving the Afghan people and 170 million Pakistani civilian population high and dry. A glance at the principles of US foreign policy might help us understand their haste in fleeing Afghanistan.
US foreign policy has always sought to acquire access to the wealth of natural resources scattered across the world. If it is denied free access to what it wants, then foreign policy sets in to bring the untamed to its knees. The US has three major tools in its foreign policy armoury in order to achieve this.
The first is diplomacy. Diplomacy is the guise for arm-twisting, bullying and threats of sanctions. Arm-twisting can involve the funding of dissident and rightwing opposition groups, including fundamentalist religious groups, as was applied in the case of the first elected prime minister of Pakistan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, when dollars were showered on the Pakistan National Alliance - a congregation of Islamic right-wing groups vehemently opposed to the left-leaning leader. Bullying consists of US-pitched UN resolutions and, finally, there is the threat of sanctions traduced through the UN Security Council.
Second in the armoury of US foreign policy is the tool of sanctions itself. Take the case of Iran, which refuses to budge from its stand to diversify its energy sources to encompass the use of nuclear power. Or Cuba, which has refused to back down from the principles of a planned economy, thus depriving the US of exploiting its resources.
A third tool of extending US foreign policy is war to haul the untamed back to the table and negotiating with them from a position of strength. Two good examples are Mossadegh's Iran in the 1950s and Grenada during the 1980s, where controlled operations were conducted to install a puppet Shah in the former and an un-elected dictator in the latter. And more recent examples, of course, are Iraq and Afghanistan.
But US foreign policy does not always bring the desired results. And, as in the case of Vietnam, the US finds itself in a situation where victory can remain a distant dream for a generation. In Afghanistan, the fruits of war are costlier than previously envisaged. The current monthly war bill stands at a staggering $ 7 billion. The purpose of the US presence in Afghanistan was to secure the gas pipeline route from Central Asia, which was supposed to pass though Afghanistan instead of Iran. But the recent discovery made by US geologists suggests that there are more than a trillion dollars worth of mineral resources hidden in the Hajigak Pass between Kabul and Bamiyan. This, then, is not a time for war; rather a time to garner contacts in order to cash in on the bounty discovered by geologists. Hence the recent gathering of momentum in the White House to bring an end to the Afghan war.
PricewaterhouseCoopers, a UK-based business consultancy firm, has already been hired by the Afghan government to develop the mining industry. Only one iron deposit in Hajigak holds 1.8 billion tonnes of iron ore. Top US and British firms are bidding for the right to develop these treasures. These include J P Morgan, Ian Hannam, Rothschild, Glencore, Billiton, Rio Tinto and many others. The mineral deposits are too large to be dug out by any one consortium, so the bounty hunters will share the catch with all of the 46 NATO allies hoping to benefit as a reward for their services in the war.
Considering the defeatist mindset of the US troops in Afghanistan, amply depicted in their now ex-commander Stanley McCrystal's interview to Michael Hastings in Rolling Stone magazine, there will not be a better time and incentive to give the Afghan cause a final push and get the men in uniform out in order to get back men dressed in designer suits and shiny briefcases, signing contracts with corrupt Afghan mining and government officials, thus plundering the country for another decade or more.
The sacking of General McCrystal and the appointment of General David Petraeus has marked the beginning of a new era in US foreign policy in the region, a policy which always has been dominated by the lust for access to the hidden bounties scattered all over the world.

Dr Amjad Ayub Mirza is a
freelance columnist based in London. He can be reached at dr_amjad_mirza@hotmail.com

Viewpoints

Dealing with a discord

Erdogan was infuriated by Israel's Gaza offensive of 2008-09, in which about 1,400 Palestinians, and 13 Israelis, were killed.

Roger Cohen

Here's an intriguing nugget, given Turkey's recent decision to close its airspace to Israeli military planes: When Israel attacked a covert Syrian nuclear reactor on September 6, 2007, its bombers overflew Turkey.
A former senior US official who was intimately involved in handling the fallout from the raid told me Turkish officials raised the issue with Israel, were invited to discuss the matter, but in the end let it drop.
Those were different times, before Turkish-Israeli ties entered their current poisonous phase.
The biggest injection of poison was administered by Israel's killing of nine Turkish activists (one of them also a US citizen) on a Gaza aid ship on May 31. This was the immediate catalyst to the airspace exclusion. But well before that, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister who heads a party of Islamist bent, had hit the (negative) reset button with Israel.
Erdogan was infuriated by Israel's Gaza offensive of 2008-09, in which about 1,400 Palestinians, and 13 Israelis, were killed.
Spurned as a supplicant to the West - some European Union politicians have much to answer for with their notions of a "Christian club" - Erdogan has recast Turkey as a regional power with strong interests in Iran and Syria. Looking east has helped ignite the Turkish economy while Europe flounders. A novel role that turns history on its head has appealed to Erdogan: Turkish hero of the Arab street.
Given the military trade between Israel and Turkey ($1.8 billion in 2007), US godfathering of the Turkish-Israeli relationship, and Turkey's commitment to remaining inside the Western tent even while reaching outside it, I don't expect cooperation to cease between Ankara and Jerusalem. But Israel has real reason for concern.
It could overfly Turkey in 2007 en route to taking out a Syrian facility of North Korean design because of the wink-and-nod nature of its military relationship with its best regional Muslim friend. That's history.
Since then Israel's actions, tactical bluster devoid of strategic sense, have left it far more isolated than before. I hear more hostility to Israel around the world than at any time I can recall.
The United States, traumatised, made mistakes after 9/11. Too often, it shunned prudence and rode roughshod. Israel is in some ways an extension of the United States. The line between what's domestic and what's international in the relationship is flimsy. It's therefore not surprising that Israel, too, has erred on the side of warmongering this past decade.
The war on terror, an expression dropped by President Obama, was a catchall phrase that enabled Israeli leaders to bundle the Palestinian national struggle into the terror camp, where much of it did not belong. This has proved a terrible distorting lens.
I sense some Israeli realisation at last that this course - the terror-propagating Gaza sardine can, the ad-hominem outrage of the reaction to the Goldstone report on Gaza, the facile recourse to disproportionate force, the repetitive "no Palestinian interlocutor" complaints, the too spin-doctored slogans of constant existential threat - leads only to a dead end. Israel can do much better.
How else to interpret the prizing open, to some degree, of that Hamas sardine can? And the Israeli indictment of officers and soldiers for their roles in Gaza - precisely the possible war crimes of which Richard Goldstone wrote? And the dawning realisation that in Salam Fayyad, the West Bank Palestinian prime minister, Israel has the last best interlocutor it will ever encounter? And a toning-down of the overdone Iran threat drumbeat?
I've long argued for such shifts. I'm pleased to see them. I've no idea how lasting they will be: Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government gives cause for doubt. Much will depend on whether Obama - this week's pre-November love-fest with Netanyahu notwithstanding - is prepared to be tough.
The Mideast remains volatile. On the Iran drumbeat, some other nuggets from that former senior official are of interest. The Bush administration opposed the 2007 Israeli strike. It was worried the Syrians would respond and ignite a wider Middle East war. It believed tough US diplomacy, backed by the threat of force, would ensure the Syrian reactor never became operational. President Bush's line was: Let me handle it.
Ehud Olmert, then the Israeli prime minister, was disappointed at American inaction. His line was: It's now in our hands. No US green light was asked for, and none given, as Israel bombed.
The fallout was contained through sleight of hand. Israel feigned ignorance. A tight collar was placed for several months around US intelligence. President Bashar al-Assad was not made to feel cornered. It was as if the reactor had gone poof in the night. Could Iran's Natanz plant go poof in the night? Some people are thinking about it, an attack from "nowhere." I think those are dangerous thoughts. Iran is not Syria.
The Obama-Netanyahu statement said: "The president told the prime minister he recognises that Israel must always have the ability to defend itself, by itself, against any threat or possible combination of threats, and that only Israel can determine its security needs."
Is that plain language or a hall of mirrors?


Roger Cohen is Editor at Large of the International Herald Tribune.

  Is Petraeus the next president?

People elected Obama, because they were tired of Bush's wars based on lies. So Obama gave us a new war in Pakistan and reignited the Afghan war.
 
Paul Craig Roberts

Our petulant president's ego can't handle a General letting off steam. Neither can any of the spoiled children who comprise "our" government in DC, the capital of the "superpower." Generals have to fight wars that civilians start, either from the incompetence of their diplomacy or the arrogance of their hubris. Generals have to get young troops killed because of the stupidity or ambition or corruption of civilian government officials.
All McChrystal did was to let off steam. A real president would have realised that and let it go. Don't get me wrong. McChrystal is a militarist, and I am pleased to see him gone. However, McChrystal didn't restart America's aggression against Afghanistan. Obama did.
People elected Obama, because they were tired of Bush's wars based on lies. So Obama gave us a new war in Pakistan and reignited the Afghan war. No one knows what these wars are about or why the bankrupt US government is wasting vast sums of money, which it has to borrow from foreigners, in order to murder the citizenry in two countries that have never done anything to us.
Just as Bush/Cheney and their criminal neocon government deceived the world that Saddam Hussein had "weapons of mass destruction" that threatened white people everywhere, this administration has conflated the Taleban with al Qaeda. It has sold the tale to white countries that unless the US determines how Afghanistan is ruled and by whom, white people are in danger of being exterminated by al Qaeda Taleban terrorists.
The most telling aspect of the McChrystal-Obama contretemps is that it has caused no one in the US government, or media, to ask why the US is still killing women and children in Afghanistan after nine years. The US government is prepared for everyone except itself to be tried at the War Crimes Tribunal. Fred Branfman writing in AlterNet on June 22 reminds us that unnumbered Iraqis were killed, maimed, tortured and displaced by an American invasion based on lies told by the highest officials in the US government. Yet, no one has been held accountable. But Gen. McChrystal is held accountable for letting off steam.
Once the Roman senate, the legislative branch, collapsed, the Caesars, the executive branch, became the captives of the military. Now with Gen. Petraeus once again moved to the fore as McChrystal's replacement in Afghanistan, we have Obama elevating Petraeus to the Republican presidential nomination in the next election. Thus Obama has replaced himself with a man who will unify the military and executive branch.
Petraeus is an evolved form of General. He "won" in Iraq by paying protection money to the Sunnis who were effectively resisting the US occupation. Petraeus figured out that it was far cheaper and more efficient to put the Sunnis on the US military payroll and to pay them to stop fighting, which is how the war between the Sunnis and the Americans ended. To keep the Americans out of the ongoing large scale sectarian violence that continues to slaughter Iraqis, the US military was confined to remote bases. If history is a guide, the Afghans will also accept Petraeus' protection money, and Petraeus has just enough time to buy the Afghan war before the next presidential election. The Afghans will, of course, take the money and wait us out, just as the Iraqis are doing.
All of this drama is playing out despite the continuing lack of any valid reason for the American invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. The Washington idiots, trying to dictate how Iraq and Afghanistan are governed, are destroying constitutional government in the United States. In our hubris to determine how Iraq and Afghanistan are ruled, we are losing our own government.


Paul Craig Roberts is a former Assistant secretary of the US Treasury and former editor of the Wall Street Journal. This piece first appeared in counterpunch.org

 The failed imperial project

Over the years, the United States has subsidised Israel, armed it, allowed it to acquire nuclear weapons, and gave it immunity from the sanction of international laws.

M. Shahid Alam

Leiser unhooked the aerial and wound it back on the reel, screwed the Morse key into the lid, replaced the earphones into the spares box and folded the silk cloth into the handle of the razor. Twenty years, he protested, holding up the razor, and they still haven't found a better place. - John le Carré, "The Looking Glass War"
There is an old adage in the spy business that intelligence services are like the wiring in the walls. The house may be sold and the owners may move away, but the wiring is there in the walls waiting for a new owners to flip on the switch. This may explain why, in the current spy scandal involving Russians posing as Americans, the SVR, Russia's post-Soviet security service, would continue on as if the Cold War was still in flower and the old KGB still ruling the roost.
After all, many in the Okhrana, the czar's old secret police, stepped smartly into the Cheka, the Soviet counterpart run by the feared "Iron Felix" Dzerzhinsky after the Soviets took over in 1917. Why shouldn't that be so as the SVR took over from the KGB? Yet this current caper was all so antique - secret codes, vanishing ink, clandestine radios, dead letter drops and brush by exchanges of identical suitcases. Will we next learn of microfilm hidden in hollowed-out pumpkins as in the old Alger Hiss, Whittaker Chambers days?
Hardly the high-tech, computer wizardry of modern spy novels, the tale of the Russian "moles" is a glimpse into grandmother's attic - and the information gathered was so trivial, nothing classified. The Russians didn't need to pay for a mole's Harvard education. They could have sent one of their diplomats to the Kennedy School and his American colleagues would have told him everything he wanted to know without committing a smidgeon of a crime.
Russians are always wondering what the United States is thinking about them, and the answer, all too often, is nothing at all. The world has moved on.
I suspect, however, that the SVR case officers were having a wonderful time back in Moscow Central. Terrorists and non-state actors are so illusive, angry Muslims so hard to know. But infiltrating the United States, ah yes, going back to what they did best for so long, now that's personally rewarding, even if not very useful. And think of our FBI, not so good at detecting suicide pilots or potential terrorist bombers in our midst. And who can understand the intricacies of Islam, for heaven sakes? But Russian spies - "illegals," as the long-term, burrowing "moles" are called - now that's something we know.
One would like to hope that the FBI used superior tradecraft to trip up these pretend Americans. But the truth may be that information made available to us by defectors and former KGB operatives after the collapse of the Soviet Union gave us the codenames - "work names" in Russian nomenclature - and exposed their cover stories - "legends," as the Russians term their fake histories. One such defector was Vasili Mitrokhin, now a British subject, who spent years gathering official secrets of his country's foreign intelligence. It is hard for Westerners to appreciate the place these long-term moles had in the Soviet and later Russian imagination - men and women giving up their entire lives to the service, finally to be brought in from the cold with the highest honors a grateful nation could bestow.
America had only a few NOCs - spies with "no official cover" - working outside US embassies. And our few NOCs did not spent long in the field - nothing like the Russians, who spent their lives in the clandestine world and raised children in ignorance of their true jobs.
The elite of the elite were the illegals, run by the S Section of the Foreign Chief Directorate. Not for them the cramped quarters of Moscow Central, the infamous old, downtown former insurance building, Lubyanka, of Dzerzhinsky days. No, the FCD lived in Finnish-designed country quarters in sylvan Yasenevo, southeast of Moscow.
George Blake, the British KGB agent, wrote that "only a man who believes very strongly in an ideal and serves a great cause will agree to embark on such a career, though the word 'calling' is perhaps appropriate here. …That is why…only the Soviet intelligence service has 'illegal' residents." Ditto for the Russian Federation, it would appear. Who can doubt the dedication of one fake American who told a judge that he put the "service" ahead of his own son?
"She was sitting contentedly on the bed in her night dress… 'why do you do it, then?' He had to say something so he said, 'for peace'."


HDS Greenway is a veteran US journalist and Boston Globe columnist.

 India-Pakistan trade

A study available on State Bank of Pakistan's website reports that for year 2004-05 our annual trade with India was only $836 million, just 2 per cent of our total trade for that year.

Muhammad Yasir Khan

Dialogue has commenced once again between India and Pakistan, let us all hope and pray that these talks do not fall victim to any mischief. International trade is a crucial activity for both countries, which some people think can be a good starting point in bringing lasting peace to the region. India is building itself as shining example of open economy with leapfrogging GDP growth rates and higher levels of investment. Foreign investors look favorably to Indian markets due to reliable security situation, consistent policies and ever-growing appetite for consumption by middle-class Indians.
While the rest of the countries are jumping over one another to get a piece of the rising and shinning India's profitability , we, the most natural partners by virtue of our very close proximity (besides many other factors), are not even in line for sharing the boons of economic relationships.
Benefits of forging strong economic relationships between the two countries are not hidden from anyone. A quick Google search opens up several academic and non-academic studies on the topics of free trade between India and Pakistan.
A study available on State Bank of Pakistan's website reports that for year 2004-05 our annual trade with India was only $836 million, just 2 per cent of our total trade for that year. Quoting another study the report states that the cost of non-cooperation in the region for Pakistan is $511 million annually (this figure is for region but considering India's size the bulk of this figure can be attributed to it). We also need to keep in mind that these figures are at least five years old, think about how much begging we have to do for a similar tranche from international financial institutions. This does not end here, the document quotes from a World Bank study which put the potential gains from trade with India in 2002 at $1.3 billion or 1.8 per cent of Pakistan's GNP in 2002. This amount in current dollar terms would definitely be much more than that.
According to a working paper of Indian Council for Research on International Economics (ICRIE), Pakistan can benefit from India in strengthening a number of economic sectors. The most important one from Pakistan's perspective is that of textile design. Textile being the largest component of our exports makes it a strategic sector; however, it is not hidden from anyone that we have made little headway in modernising the sector. Indians, due to their superior technology background, have made progress in textile design particularly in computer-aided designing; a partnership with India can bolster this area of our traditional strength and will help us improve the share of value-added textile products in our exports. Then there are areas like energy, India is building hundreds of dams while we still don't have enough budgetary allocation for building just one Diamir-Basha dam.
The ICRIE study also highlights that the costs related to trade between the two countries through indirect routes are nearly three times of the costs if goods were transferred directly. While in the presence of such high costs a policy brief published by the Peterson Institute of International Economics revealed that informal trade between two countries (mostly via Dubai) amounts to $3 billion per year. This certainly points to the fact that even under increased transportation costs there is still huge potential for the two countries.
With so much benefit attached to improving economic relations, we made any progress in that direction because of inherent mistrust and enmity between the institutions of the two countries. As individuals we all want peace but the problem lies at the institutional level. A very interesting experiment, at improving relations through institutional efforts, is taking shape in the form of "Aman ki Asha". Let us hope this brings the two countries together for peace.


The writer is a policy analyst. Email: myk2111@columbia.edu

International

District governor, 11 police die in Afghan attacks
AFP, Kunduz, Afghanistan

A district governor and 11 policemen were killed in weekend Taliban attacks across Afghanistan, authorities said Sunday, in the latest violence gripping the troubled nation.
Six border police officers were killed when Taliban-linked rebels stormed their post on the Tajikistan border in the northern province of Kunduz late Saturday, Mohammad Ayoub, a local official told AFP.
The attack in the province's Imam Saheb district, where the insurgents have a strong presence, was "facilitated by two policemen linked to the Taliban", said local administrator Ayoub.
In neighbouring Qala-i-Zal district, also on Saturday, rebels killed the district chief using a remote-controlled bomb, according to an interior ministry statement and local government spokesman.
Local leader Malim Nazeer "was on his way from the district to the provincial capital when a roadside bomb hit his vehicle, killing him, his driver and wounding two others including his son," said Mehbubullah Sayeedi, the provincial governor's spokesman.
NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) described Nazeer as a "dedicated public servant" and said his death showed the Taliban "cannot offer a better alternative to peace and security for the people of Afghanistan".
In the remote northeastern province of Badakhshan another Taliban bomb on Saturday killed five police officers while on patrol, the interior ministry said in a separate statement.
The ministry blamed the bombing on the "enemies of Afghanistan," a term used to refer to the Taliban and other militants linked to them.
Also Saturday, in southern Zabul province, 13 insurgents were killed in a combined Afghan-international forces operation on a known Taliban hideout, said provincial spokesman Mohammad Jan Rasoulyar. "In the operation 13 Taliban were killed-they left the dead bodies on the battlefield," he said, adding that weapons and ammunition had been seized from the hideout.

   Curfew lifted but strike hits Indian Kashmir
AFP, Rinagar, India

A curfew was lifted from most of Indian-administered Kashmir on Sunday, but a strike called by separatists to protest against recent civilian killings kept shops and offices closed.
Indian security forces have been struggling to control a wave of demonstrations in the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley after being accused of killing 15 civilians-many of them teenagers-in a month.
A police officer who declined to be named told AFP the curfew had been lifted except in some restive parts of Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir.
The curfew had been imposed in Srinagar last Tuesday to contain protests after three people were killed in firing by police and paramilitary troops.
Much of Kashmir remained shut down on Sunday after hardline separatists urged people to observe a strike to protest against Indian rule of the region and the civilian deaths.
Thousands of security personnel patrolled the deserted streets of Srinagar.
Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan each hold Kashmir in part but claim it in full.
The nuclear-armed nations have fought two of their three wars over the Himalayan region since the subcontinent's partition in 1947.

  Japan govt loses upper house majority: Exit polls
AFP, Tokyo

The centre-left government of Japan's new Prime Minister Naoto Kan lost its majority in parliament's upper house in elections Sunday, media exit polls showed, spelling the threat of legislative paralysis.
The government was not immediately threatened, because it holds a majority in the more powerful lower chamber, but the result makes it more difficult to pass laws and will force it to seek new coalition partners.
The election result-the first ballot box test since Kan's party swept to power under a previous leader in a landslide poll last summer-complicates his ambitious reform plans for the world's number two economy.
When Kan took office a month ago as Japan's fifth prime minister in four years, he pledged to restore the nation's vigour after two decades of economic malaise and to whittle down a huge public debt mountain.
The one-time leftist activist also promised to strengthen the social safety net for the rapidly ageing society and raised the prospect of tax hikes to pay for it all-a gamble that backfired badly on election day.
If Kan, the 63-year-old former finance minister and self-declared "son of a salaryman", or man of the people, was looking for a strong mandate from Japan's more than 100 million eligible voters, he was left disappointed.
His Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) will hold no more than 113 out of the 242 seats in the House of Councillors-with 122 seats needed for a majority-according to an exit poll by public broadcaster NHK.
Other television stations forecast even worse results for the coalition government, which now includes one other small party, meaning it will have trouble pushing laws through the two-chamber parliament.

  China demolishes Urumqi flashpoint area
AFP, Beijing

Chinese authorities are demolishing an area in the northwestern city of Urumqi, home to migrants they blame for disrupting social order, state media said Sunday, a year after deadly ethnic riots.
The Heijiashan area of the city in Xinjiang province, which was formerly home to 200,000 people, will be replaced by a new residential development, the official Xinhua news agency said, describing the area as a "hotbed of poverty and crime".
Heijiashan was one of the flashpoints for the violence that erupted on July 5, 2009 in Urumqi between mainly Muslim Uighurs and the majority Han Chinese, leaving nearly 200 dead and 1,700 injured.
"Due to the poor management of the area, the migrants were easily incited by rioters," the head of the demolition operation was quoted as saying.
"(The) floating population here often disrupted social order," he said.
Pan Zhiping, head of the Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences' Central Asia Research Institute, has recommended emulating a model established by Singapore that ensures "each community has residents from different ethnic groups".
"The transformation of shanty towns is a top priority for safeguarding social stability," he said, according to Xinhua.
Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking people, allege decades of Chinese oppression and unwanted Han immigration, and while standards of living have improved, Uighurs complain most of the gains go to the Han Chinese.
Heijiashan attracts large numbers of migrant workers from areas outside Urumqi with large Uighur populations such as Kashgar, Hotan, and Yili, according to previous state media reports.

  Anwar's newspaper defies Malaysia's publication ban order

AFP, Kuala Lumpur

A Malaysian newspaper run by opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim's Keadilan party Sunday pressed ahead with publication despite being suspended by the government.
Critics have labelled the crackdown on the Suara Keadilan as an attempt to silence free speech and muzzle the opposition in its attempt to reach out to voters amid speculation of a snap election.
"Yes, the latest issue has hit the streets. We feel the government has not banned the newspaper. It only has not renewed the printing permit," Keadilan lawmaker Tian Chua said.
"We have the right to circulate information. We are a political party and it is our role to provide different perspectives," he added.
Suara Keadilan ran into trouble after the authorities said it violated publishing laws with a report this month which claimed a government agency is bankrupt.
The Home Ministry, which oversees Malaysia's newspapers, said it would not renew Suara Keadilan's permit-which expired last Wednesday-as it was not satisfied with the paper's explanation for the allegedly inaccurate report.
The newspaper has a circulation of 100,000 copies and highlights political issues.
All newspapers need an official permit to print, which must be renewed annually. The licensing system allows the government to close media outlets at will and often encourages publishers to toe the line.
Tian Chua, Keadilan's strategic director, said the government was trying to silence criticism and intimidate opposition supporters.
"We believe we are right in what we are doing," he said.
Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz, a minister in the prime minister's department, said authorities would act against Keadilan for defying the order.
"We will take action. We are clamping down on lies, not free speech," he told AFP.
The opposition scored unprecedented gains in elections in 2008, which saw it claim five states and a third of parliamentary seats.
The next election is not officially due until 2013 but pundits say it could be held next year.

  UN command may accept N.Korea offer of talks: Report
AFP, Seoul

The UN command structure for multinational forces in South Korea may accept a North Korean proposal for military talks over the sinking of a South Korean warship, a report said Sunday.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency said North Korea had proposed Friday that senior officers from the two sides meet on July 13 to discuss setting up general-level talks on the sinking of the Cheonan.
The Cheonan, a corvette, was destroyed near the North-South border east of the Korean peninsula on March 26, killing 46 sailors in an attack that a multinational investigation convened by South Korea blamed on the North.
Yonhap said the offer to hold the meeting of colonels, at the border village of Panmunjom, was a counterproposal to one from the US-led United Nations Command (UNC) in June to discuss the Cheonan investigation with the North.
"Chances are high that the North-UNC meeting will take place," Yonhap quoted a senior official at the South's defence ministry as saying.
"A working-level meeting can be held on July 13 as proposed by the North or it could be scheduled for a later date than that."
The South's defence ministry refused to confirm the report.
Pyongyang has angrily denied responsibility for attacking the Cheonan and said it regarded as "a great diplomatic victory" a resolution passed by the UN Security Council Friday that failed to blame it directly for the attack.

  Remnants of war still deadly threat in Vietnam’s Quang Tri
AFP, Quang Tri, Vietnam

Something resembling a broken green plate suddenly catches Staff Sergeant Mike Overton's eye.
"I need you to back up," he quickly warns a reporter.
In Vietnam's Quang Tri province, which a survey found to be 80 percent contaminated with unexploded munitions from the Vietnam War, Overton has just discovered another potential threat.
Overton, 28, a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, quickly determines that the remnant of a Russian-style Claymore mine, packed with ball bearings, no longer poses a danger.
It was lying atop Hill 881 South, a Vietnam War battlefield still littered with an assortment of ordnance including rifle ammunition, mortar and anti-tank rounds, grenades, and remnants of missiles.
In Quang Tri province none of this is unusual, says Chuck Searcy, country representative for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund.
The fund sponsors Project RENEW, a group which has spent years trying to protect Quang Tri residents from the leftover explosives known as UXO (unexploded ordnance).
The UXO problem which exists throughout Vietnam is at its worst in Quang Tri, along the former Demilitarized Zone that divided then North Vietnam from the US-backed South. The area was heavily bombed and fought over, and now is increasingly popular with tourists.
Since the end of the war in 1975, 2,774 people have been killed and 3,986 wounded by UXOs and landmines in Quang Tri, said a detailed survey released last year.
Casualties have fallen dramatically in recent years, but they still occur.
Ho Van Nguyen, a father of six, died in February while cutting weeds on his slash-and-burn farm. He apparently struck a cluster munition, said Project RENEW, one of several charities addressing the legacy of war debris in the province.
More than a third of the land in six provinces of central Vietnam, including Quang Tri, is contaminated with UXOs and landmines, said the survey released by the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation and Vietnam's Ministry of Defence.

 UN force under pressure four years after Lebanon war
AFP, Beirut

Four years after a devastating war between Israel and Hezbollah, the UN forces keeping them apart in southern Lebanon are under mounting strain amid fears of a fresh conflict and hostility from villagers.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL, is in a delicate position "between two armed parties preparing for a possible new conflict," Paul Salem, who heads the Beirut-based Carnegie Middle East Centre, told AFP.
"It is feeling somewhat trapped," he said ahead of the July 12 anniversary of the start of the war.
The 2006 conflict was triggered by the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah in a cross-border raid. About 1,200 Lebanese were killed, the majority of them civilians, while 160 Israelis died, mostly soldiers.
UNIFIL, established in 1978 after the first Israeli invasion of Lebanon, was beefed up following the 34-day war. The 12,000-strong force is entrusted with overseeing a ceasefire between the Jewish state and the Shiite militant party.
For decades UNIFIL has maintained good relations with the people of southern Lebanon, offering them education and health services in addition to their peacekeeping duties.
But in a rare string of events this month, villagers attacked the multinational force after taking to the streets to protest a 36-hour maximum deployment exercise by UNIFIL.
In the most notable confrontation, residents of the southern town of Tulin disarmed a French patrol and attacked them with sticks, rocks and eggs before the Lebanese army intervened.
Michael Williams, the UN special coordinator for Lebanon, described some of the protests as "clearly organised," singling out one encounter he said involved about 100 villagers.
The UN Security Council on Friday unanimously approved a statement of support for its peacekeeping mission in Lebanon and called on all parties in the country to allow the forces to move freely.

   Bosnia remembers Srebrenica massacre 15 years on
AFP, Srebrenica

Tens of thousands on Sunday mark 15 years since the Srebrenica massacre of nearly 8,000 Muslims by Bosnian Serbs, the darkest episode of the violent break-up of Yugoslavia.
A special ceremony at the Potocari cemetery near Srebrenica, attended notably by Serbian President Boris Tadic and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, will include the burial of 775 recently identified victims who will join the 3,749 already there.
On Saturday emotions ran high in the graveyard as the hundreds of coffins of those due to be buried arrived. In the hot midday sun a line of men formed to pass the coffins to the front.
On a small incline overlooking the cemetery Ekrem Muhic sat with his family. He arrived in Potocari after hiking for three days through the woods with a group of around 5,000 people who retraced the path of the men and boys who fled the enclave ahead of the advancing Serb troops.
"I walked for my brother who will be buried (Sunday). I walked in his place. We left together from Srebrenica but he didn't come back and I made it," he said.
Nearly 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were systematically killed in the days following the fall of the Srebrenica enclave, designated a UN safe area, to Bosnian Serb troops on July 11, 1995.
The massacre is the only episode of the ethnic conflicts that followed the breakaway from Serbia of other members of the Yugoslav federation in the 1990s to have been deemed a genocide by the UN war crimes court and the International Court of Justice, the UN's top court.
The victims were shot and interred in mass graves, then reburied haphazardly later in more than 70 sites in a bid to cover up the evidence.The bones, exhumed by forensic experts over the last few years, were buried in Potocari after identification by DNA testing.

  Israel warning as Libya aid boat eyes Gaza landing
AFP, Jerusalem

Israel on Sunday vowed to prevent a Libyan aid ship from running the Gaza blockade after it appeared to be heading for the besieged enclave despite a flurry of diplomatic efforts to divert it to Egypt.
"Israel will not let the boat reach Gaza," minister without portfolio Yossi Peled told Israel's public radio a day after the 92-metre (302-foot) freighter Amalthea set sail from the Greek port of Lavrio, south of Athens.
Allowing vessels to reach the Hamas-run Gaza Strip without being checked would have "very serious consequences" for Israel's security, he said.
There was confusion over the ship's destination on Sunday-with organisers saying it was staying the course for Gaza, despite diplomatic reassurances from Greece that it was headed for the Egyptian port of El-Arish.
"We are heading for Gaza. We will not change direction," Mashallah Zwei, a representative of the Kadhafi Foundation, a Libyan charity, told AFP by satellite phone from on board the Amalthea.
He insisted the foundation was not seeking "a confrontation or a provocation," when asked about the risks of a repeat of an Israeli naval raid on an aid flotilla on May 31 that killed nine Turks.
Zwei said the ship was currently "close to Crete" and would likely reach Gaza in about two days.
Israel's Defence Minister Ehud Barak said the attempt to reach Gaza, which has been subjected to an Israeli naval blockade for the past four years, was an "unnecessary provocation."

  Obama sets campaign mode to attack
AFP, Las Vegas

President Barack Obama has decided that fiery self defense and withering mockery of Republicans are the best modes of attack, as he tries to save Democrats from a drubbing in November elections.
Obama road-tested his pitch to grassroots Democrats and wavering independent voters during a two-day western campaign swing last week, flinging partisan rhetoric at foes of his 17-month presidency.
His swipes at Republicans and calls for change were a reminder of stump skills that few US politicians can match, recalling his 2008 campaign.
But Obama also adopted a sarcastic tone, rarely seen back then, likely distilled from months of frustrating political combat in Washington.
Mid-term elections in November are crucial for Obama, as Republicans are threatening to win back the House of Representatives and trim the Democratic majority in the Senate.
Such a scenario would enable them to block the still ambitious political program the president is intent on passing.
Democrats see the polls with increasing dread-a number of party big names-including Senate Majority leader Harry Reid, are in unexpectedly tough reelection fights.
The party is hampered by the sluggish economic revival at what Obama frequently said has been a "tough time" for America.
First-term presidents often take a beating at their first mid-term elections, as voters perform a course correction to previous polls.
In mid-2010, Obama's political brand seems so different than in his euphoric hope-fueled White House campaign.
His poll numbers are touching all time lows-some in the mid 40s-and US optimism is in short supply amid 9.5 percent unemployment, tumbling stocks, the dragging Afghan war and the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster.
The president's response is to brand Republicans as extreme and incompetent.
In his trip through Missouri and Nevada, Obama reminded voters who was in charge when the economy pitched into the deepest recession since the 1930s and said he had made tough decisions which staved off a second Great Depression.

  No point in direct talks with Israel now: Abbas
AP, Ramallah

The Palestinian president, who is under U.S. pressure to resume direct talks with Israel, said that doing so under current circumstances would be pointless. The remarks by Mahmoud Abbas underline his determination not to return to the table unless Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commits to an internationally mandated settlement freeze and agrees to pick up talks where they left off under the Israeli leader's predecessor in Dec. 2008.
Netanyahu hasn't agreed to either demand, and has so far curbed but not frozen settlement activity. He insists negotiations should be held without any preconditions.
President Barack Obama called Abbas last week, following the U.S. president's meeting with Netanyahu. The White House said Obama and Abbas talked about ways to revive direct talks soon.
"We have presented our vision and thoughts and said that if progress is made, we will move to direct talks, but that if no progress is made, it (direct negotiations) will be futile," Abbas said in a speech late Saturday.
"If they (the Israelis) say 'come and let's start negotiations from zero,' that is futile and pointless," Abbas added. The Palestinians say they that after 17 years of intermittent talks, they don't want to start all over again, especially with an Israeli leader who has retreated from positions presented by his predecessors.
In the absence of direct talks, a U.S. envoy has been shuttling between the Israeli and Palestinian leaders in recent weeks. Abbas' aide Yasser Abed Rabbo told Palestinian radio Sunday that the Palestinians don't want to enter open-ended negotiations with Israel.
"There must be a ... timetable, a framework for these negotiations," he said. "We will not enter new negotiations that could take more than 10 years."
Netanyahu said in New York last week that if Abbas agreed to sit down with him in direct talks, then a peace agreement could be hammered out within a year.

  Yemen upholds death sentences in US Embassy attack
AP, San'a

A Yemeni appeals court upheld on Sunday the death sentences against four al-Qaida militants in deadly attacks that included the assault on the U.S. Embassy and the killing of two Belgian tourists in 2008, a court official said.
The four were convicted last year as part of an al-Qaida cell behind the March 2008 attack on the embassy that killed a school guard in an adjacent building. The men were also convicted of killing two Belgian women tourists in January 2008.
The official said the appeals court on Sunday overturned the death sentences of two other militants from the same cell who were convicted of attacks on police in southern Hadramut province, and sentenced them to 12 years each instead.
Yemen, an impoverished country on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula and the ancestral homeland of Osama bin Laden, has struggled to confront a growing al-Qaida presence.
The al-Qaida affiliate in Yemen got a boost in 2009, when the organization merged with the Saudi branch and dramatically increased the pace of its attacks. Militants are believed to have built up strongholds in remote parts of the country, allying with powerful tribes that resent the government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Besides the cases of the six militants, the court in San'a on Sunday also upheld sentences of up to 15 years imprisonment against 10 other militants, including four Syrians and a Saudi man, for masterminding the attacks. The cell was also accused of waging successive attacks on police and oil installations.

  Australia defends ‘difficult’ asylum-seeker plan
AFP, Sydney

Australia Sunday defended plans for a regional asylum-seeker centre which left new Prime Minister Julia Gillard in a foreign-policy muddle just a fortnight after taking office.
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said Australia would hold talks with East Timor and Indonesia this week over the centre, rejecting criticism that Gillard did not consult properly before announcing the policy.
"No one is underestimating or under-appreciating just how difficult an exercise this is," Smith told public broadcaster ABC.
"And people who expect that you can announce it with a bow-tie on top, all locked up on day one, frankly don't appreciate the reality of a very difficult issue for all of the countries in the region, not just Australia."
Smith said he would discuss the processing centre in Indonesia this week and that officials would start a "detailed discussion" with aid-dependent East Timor, where reaction to the plan has been mixed.
Australia's first woman leader, in her first foreign policy speech as polls loom, said she was in talks with East Timor about housing poor Asian migrants who arrive off northern Australia in rickety people-smuggling boats.
However, she later said Timor was only "one possibility" for the centre, raising questions about its location and how much planning had gone into the proposal.
Gillard was also criticised for raising the plan with East Timor's President Jose Ramos-Horta rather than the more powerful Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, and for not consulting Indonesia, a major transit point.
She also discussed the idea with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, and New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, who said they spoke the day before her speech.

Business/Economy

Steps taken for running capital market with responsibility: Muhith 

BSS, Sangsad Bhaban

Finance Minister AMA Muhith told the House on Sunday that multifarious reform steps have been taken to run the capital market with more responsibility.
The steps include flow of better stocks at capital market, initiative to offload share of state-run companies, ensuring quality merchant bankers, resource managers and registration certificates for market mediators, he said replying to a question from ABM Golam Mostafa (Comilla-4).
Muhith said the capital market witnessed a significant growth after the government assumed power and this was possible only due to the government's constructive and old steps as well as the people's wholehearted support.
He listed contribution of capital market to GDP, institutional investment, participation of common inve-stors in the capital market and regular transaction are among the contributors towards the growth of capital market.
Side by side with the steps, the minister said, necessary measures have already been taken to set up a separate clearing corporation for running the capital market in more organized manner.
About foreseeing investment from small and fresh investors, the finance minister said educative and awareness programmes are being taken to that end.
The existing surveillance and monitoring of securities and exchange commissions have been beefed up to control manipulators in the capital market.
Punishment after proper inquiry to market manipulators is also continuing in this regard.

 MoU signed to boost cross-border trade
BSS, Dhaka

Two leading chambers of Bangladesh and India on Sunday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to perk up bilateral trade, business and investment with concerted efforts. India-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IBCCI) of Bangladesh and Merchants' Chamber of Commerce (MCC) from India signed the MoU at the commerce ministry in presence of Commerce Minister Faruk Khan.
The agreement was signed when the declining regional trade fell as low as 5 percent, which was 25 percent few decades ago.
IBCCI President Matlub Ahmed and MCC member Manish Jhajharia signed the agreement on behalf of their respective sides. Former Indian petroleum and energy minister Mani Shankar Ayer, who is now leading the visiting 10-member Indian business delegation, was present on the occasion. The MCC team will be visiting the country till Wednesday (July 14).
According to MoU, the two chambers will together explore new avenues to expand further the bilateral trade and investment. They will also share respective information, help each other in organizing trade exhibitions in both countries and exchange know- how in promoting bilateral economic relations. Speaking on the occasion, the commerce minister suggested brining changes to the attitude for establishing more friendly relations among the regional countries so trade, business and investment can grow easily. He reiterated the call for removing all tariff and non- tariff barriers, which are hindering the trade and business among South East Asian nations, and in particular between the two close neighbours-India and Bangladesh.
"We must increase the regional trade in the interest of the stable growth of the South East Asian economy," Commerce Minister Faruk Khan said on the occasion of the MoU signing. Mani Shankar Ayer referred to the immense business potential between Bangladesh and the eastern provinces of India.
He supported the Bangladesh proposals for removing all tariff and non-tariff barriers as he said that they had already advised their government to consider the issue.

  Finance Adviser expresses satisfaction over Walton performance

TBT Economy Desk

Finance Adviser to Prime Minister Dr. Mashiur Rahman on Saturday visited the Walton Hi-tech Industries at Chandra in Gazipur and expressed satisfaction and glad to see the world standard manufacturing facility of the plant.
During expression of views with the journalists after the visit, the adviser said: "It is a matter of proud for the Bangali nation that such kind of heavy factory has been established in the country, and the high-tech factory proves the sprit again that the Bangales are the nation of heroism".
The factory is playing a positive role in making Bangladesh a digital country as per declaration of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the adviser said, adding that the factory will be portrait of digital Bangladesh and help create a positive role in building good image in the foreign countries.
Seeing the state-of-art-technology of the factory, the adviser commented that Walton products produced in the factory were more standard and qualitative from imported one.
Dr. Moshiur Rahman also exchanged views with the workers of the factory and expressed satisfaction over the good working environment in the factory. He also assured the factory authority of all kind of supports from him and his government for boosting local industries.
The adviser went round the factory which is set up on 20 acres of land at Chandra in Gazipur, outskirts of the capital Dhaka.
Chairman of Walton Hi-tech Industries Limited S.M. Shamsul Alam, Managing Director S.M. Ashraful Alam, Directors Humayon Kabir and Mijanur Rahman and other senior officials were present during the adviser's visit to the factory.
Walton Hi-tech Industries Limited is the sister concern of RB Group that manufactures and markets the all Walton brand products in the country.
It is not only the country's lone manufacturer of multi-staged refrigerator and motorcycle but also the biggest in the South Asia.
Chairman of Walton Hi-tech Industries Limited S.M. Shamsul Alam said:
"The hi-tech factory is annually manufacturing about 6 lakh pieces of refrigerator, one lakh and eight thousand pieces of motorcycle and one lakh and fifty thousand pieces of air-conditioner". Their products have already been able to win the heart of countrymen and steps have also taken to export to different countries of the world, he claimed.
Managing Director S.M. Ashraful Alam said: "RB Group through its another sister concern-Walton Microtech Corporation-within December this year is going to launch marketing of locally produced LCD/LED television, computer monitor and mobile phone".
To manufacture the products about four lakh squire feet area of an eight-storey building is being prepared.
The production place will be air-conditioned and free from any kind of dust, germ and vibration, he also informed.

  Tk 607.90 cr revenue realized from six mobile phone companies

BSS, Bhaban

The government has realized Taka 607.90 crore as revenue from the six mobile phone companies in the last fiscal year, Post and Telecommunication Minister Raziuddin Ahmed Razu told the House on Sunday.
"Besides, the Board of Revenue (NBR) has been realizing various taxes and VAT from the mobile phone companies," he said in reply to a question from BNP lawmaker Nazim Uddin Ahmed. Razu told BNP lawmaker Ashrafuddin Nizan that the state-run Teletalk Bangladesh Limited paid Taka 56.12 crore as revenue to the government in the last fiscal year. Responding to another question from treasury bench member Golam Dastagir Gazi, the telecom minister said six mobile phone companies have been providing services to the people of the country. "The mobile phone users are now talking at the cost- effective rate as there is a competitive environment among the mobile phone companies. So there is no plan at this moment to provide new mobile phone licences," he said.
Answering to another question from ruling party lawmaker Anwar Hossain, the telecom minister hoped that it will be possible to provide VoIP call termination licenses from the current month or the next month if necessary formalities including amendment to laws and framing of guidelines are completed.
Responding to another question from BNP member Ashrafuddin Nizan, he said the invest of the five PSTN telephone operators which were shut down by the BTRC till August 2008 was Taka 664 crore. Of the amount, he said, Dhaka Telephone Compnay Ltd invested Taka 122 crore, Ranks Ltd Taka 240 crore, National Telecom Ltd Taka 146 crore and Peoples Telecom Taka 156 crore. The telecom minister further said the government is actively considering reinvestment of the huge amount of money through the telephone operators.

  Indian garment exports down 2.64 per cent
BSS, New Delhi

Garment exports from India dropped 2.64 per cent to $10.64 billion in 2009-10 compared to $10.93 billion in the previous financial year, according to the latest data released by the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC).
"While our exports are falling, exports from low-cost countries such as Bangladesh, Vietnam and Cambodia continue to rise. The slowdown in the global economy has hit our garment exports. Exports to Europe which was facing a debt crisis have fallen. The US market is still fragile," The Indian Express quoted Premal Udani, chairman of AEPC, as saying.
While the Chinese invasion is continuing, Ban-gladesh which has overtaken India is extending the lead and Vietnam is all set to overtake India in garment exports, once monopolised by India, the AEPC repor added.
"Bangladesh, which is only half the size of Maharashtra, today exports almost $13 billion apparel. This is roughly 20 per cent more than Indian garment exports," Udani said.
"The first two months of the current financial year have shown 5.23 per cent decrease in rupee terms, as compared to the previous year. Exports of apparel are highly price sensitive... Indian garments are overpriced due to high input costs and duty and they are being priced out by countries like Bangladesh and Vietnam," said Udani.
The unprecedented rise in price of raw materials (cotton & yarn) over the past few months and also general increase in all other costs due to hike in duty of petroleum products has made Indian garments uncompetitive in the world market.
"What's needed now is the government's support to compete with other countries. The government should support the sector in terms of higher duty draw back rates to offset cost disadvantages."
Udani also urged the government for a faster implementation of the Indo-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA). "FTA has the potential to boost India's textiles and clothing exports to the European Union by over $3 billion. It will also create an additional 2.5 million jobs in our economy."
Currently, the apparel sector employs 6 million people directly and 3 million indirectly, the report said.

  Mergers key to survival in India’s mobile market
AFP, New Delhi

Mergers are the only way forward in India's crowded mobile phone market, where 14 operators are slugging it out for subscribers by offering the cheapest rates in the world, analysts say.
On the face of it, business is booming in a market that is growing at a staggering rate, with between 16 and 20 million new subscribers signing up every month.
In the past year alone, the number of mobile customers soared 49 percent to 617.5 million, meaning that 55 out of every 100 Indians now has a mobile-compared with just three out of 100 in 2000. But those figures hide a much tougher market reality. Competition has cut call costs to far below one US cent a minute and a recent auction for superfast third-generation (3G) wireless spectrum saw operators load up on debt to buy licences.
Mergers are "inevitable-this number of players is unsustainable," Kunal Bajaj, India director of consultancy Analysys Mason, told AFP.
British giant Vodafone has written down the value of its Indian unit by a quarter-three years after paying 11 billion dollars for control of one of the market leaders Hutchison Essar. Share prices of market leader Bharti Airtel have fallen by 40 percent from a 12-month peak, while second-placed Reliance Communications' stock, controlled by Indian billionaire Anil Ambani, has slid by a similar amount.
Bharti, led by tycoon Sunil Bharti Mittal, anno-unced its first quarterly profit fall in three years, and Ambani has put 26 percent of Reliance Communications up for sale to pare hefty debt.
Also suffering are new players-local ventures partnered with global companies such as Norway's Telenor, Japan's DoCoMo, Russia's Sistema and Gulf operator Etisalat.
"Subscriber growth will continue-that's not a problem-but price wars are damaging the sector," said Harit Shah, analyst at Mumbai brokerage Karvy.
A fresh round of price cutting is expected in October when the government is due to introduce number portability, allowing users to keep their mobile number while swapping operators.
The damage caused by the price erosion can be seen in the fall in average revenue per usage, or ARPU-a key industry profitability measure which shows the amount companies make for every minute a client talks.

National

Pesticides pose serious health hazards
BSS, Dhaka

Using chemicals on crops without taking proper protective measures has led to thousands of poisonous deaths in Bangladesh. Scientists report that many farmers do not dispose the empty pesticide containers, instead routinely recycle them.
An annual government survey on Bangladesh's health situation has found that pesticide-related poisoning is a leading cause of death, clearly reflecting a major health concern.
According to a report on the National Institute of Preventive and Social Medicine (NIPSOM), which compiles health statistics from 2008, recorded 7,438 pesticide-related poisoning deaths at more than 400 hospitals nationwide amongst men and women aged 15-49. Of the deaths, direct pesticide poisoning accounted for 8% of the fatalities, preceded only by respiratory failure at 11%, it said.
Muhammad Abul Faiz, Professor of medicine at Sir Salimullah Medical College, said that of the 933 poisoning cases admitted to that facility in 2009, 38% were due to pesticide.
The use of chemicals for growing vegetables was a major factor in the pesticide-related deaths, said Faiz, previously director-general of health services of the government.
"Farmers apply pesticides on their crops without taking proper protective measures. They expose themselves to highly poisonous pesticides. They inhale substantial amounts of the pesticides they spray to kill insects in their crops," said Faiz.
"Others get poisoned because they do not properly wash their hands and faces after spraying pesticides," he said. That is bad news in a country where 75 per cent of the civilian labour force - estimated at 56 million - is directly or indirectly engaged in the agriculture sector.
Scientists from the NIPSOM report that many farmers do not dispose of empty pesticide containers after use, instead routinely recycling them.
Sometimes the containers are used for storing food items, underscoring the importance of proper recycling and disposal of used containers, they say.
NIPSOM scientists also say people need to be made aware of poisoning caused by recycling and improper disposal of used pesticide containers. They recommend that pesticide dealers ensure that warnings are explicitly written on containers, so they are not used for the storage of any food item. But this is a challenge, since the country's adult literacy rate is only 56.3 per cent, according to government figures.
FEJB Chairman and a leading environment activist Quamrul Islam Chowdhury Expressed concern at the increasingly dangerous and indiscriminate use of pesticide across the country posing a section of the population especially the women, children and under privileged more exposed to the enormous health hazards.
"Considering the widespread illiteracy of our farmers, it should be made mandatory for pesticide producers and sellers to print pictures on pesticide containers showing how to use and dispose of them properly after use," said Mohammad Mahfuz Ullah, executive director of the Centre for Sustainable Development (CFSD), a national NGO.
Compounding matters is the increasing usage of pesticides in the country, including those which are highly toxic.According to the most recent government figures available, 37,712 tons of pesticide were sold in the country in 2009, an increase of 145.3% on the amount sold in 2001.

  Planned family is must for building hunger, poverty-free nation: Speakers

BSS, Rajshahi

Speakers at a post-rally discussion here on Sunday unequivocally called for ensuing planned family in every sections of the society to make the nation free from poverty, hunger and illiteracy side by side with taking it forward successfully.
They underlined the need for collective efforts to reach the massages of planned family to the doorsteps of all fertile couples for making them free from all sorts of ignorance and illiteracies. Terming Bangladesh as the most densely- populated country, they said there is no way but to planned families to make the nation free from the clutch of poverty and illiteracy.
They were addressing the discussion organized by Family Planning Department in observance of the World Population Day-2010 at Rajshahi Medical College auditorium. The theme of the day is "Everyone counts". Mayor of Rajshahi AHM Khairuzzaman Liton addressed the discussion as the chief guest with Commissioner of Rajshahi division Nurul Islam in the chair.
Expressing his grave resentment over gradually increasing population Mayor Liton noted that the family planning activities must be intensified for the sake of building Bangladesh as a self-reliance nation so that it could raise its head in the global arena.
"No government has given emphasis to the population explosion control activities positively in the past," he lamented and urged upon the present government to take the matter under special consideration on priority basis.
He said the nation has attained success in different need-based sectors, particularly in immunization over the last couple of years, but could not achieve the desired progress in family planning as yet. He said emphasis should also be given on ensuing reproductive health, primary education, enhancement of literacy rate and reduction of maternal child death rate. Besides, he asked the field level officials and workers to perform their duties with utmost sincerity and honesty to attain the expected goal. DIG of police of Rajshahi range Mukhlesur Rahman, Principal of Rajshahi Medical College Prof Dr ABM Abdul Hannan, Commissioner of Rajshahi Metropolitan Police Naosher Ali, Deputy Commissioner Dilwar Bakth and Civil Surgeon Dr. Johurul Islam spoke on the occasion as special guests. In his address of welcome, Divisional Director of the Family Planning Department SM Zahedul Karim gave an overview of the department activities and the programme implementation strategy at the grassroots level while Deputy Director of the department Dr Abdus Sattar made his thanksgiving speech. Four family welfare visitors and assistances were given prizes for their significant role in this regard marking the day.
Earlier, a large number of family planning and health officials and staffs of other organizations brought out a colorful rally and paraded the city streets carrying banners and festoons marking the celebration.

  Road construction by felling 15000 trees creates resentment among people

UNB, Barisal

Move for constructing a road by felling 15000 trees at Char Kukri-Mukri in Charfession upazila of Bhola district has created resentment among the people of the district.
Local people opined that the decision for felling of such a large number of trees may endanger lives and properties of more than 20 lakh people of this coastal district during natural disaster.
They have decided to send a letter to the Prime Minister for saving the 15000 trees. It will also disrupt the ecological balance of the coastal area, said local elite.
Fazlul Kader Maznu Molla, Bhola district AL secretary and Sadar upazila chairman, said, as all their efforts to save the trees have failed they will try to draw the attention of the Prime Minister for saving the valuable trees.
Felling of these trees ignoring the alternative way to save few minutes of journey time may benefit some of the influential political persons but not the mass people, said Mobasserullah Chowdhury, president of Bhola Sushil Samaj and an environment activist. Local sources said preparation is already final for cutting down about 15,000 trees which were planted under Green Belt Afforestation Programme in coastal area of Bhola district.
Local people opined that there is an alternative way to construct a road on the western side of the area without felling the trees.
When contacted, Range Officer of Char Fashion forest range said that for the construction of the road 2000 timber plants and 13000 immature plants will be felled. Value of the trees would be several crores of Taka.

   Trained imams can help in eliminating militancy: Shahjahan
BSS, Barisal

State Minister for Religious Affairs Alhaj Advocate Shahjahan Mia has said trained imams could play an effective role in combating militancy and terrorism in society.
The present government is firmly committed to increasing efficiency of Imam community through providing time-befitting training to them, he told the inaugural function of the newly constructed building of Islamic Foundation and Imam Training Academy at Kashipur here on Saturday.
Barisal City Corporation Mayor Advocate Shawkat Hossain Hiron, Advocate Talukder Md Yunus, MP and AKM Awal, MP, attended the function as the special guests.
Divisional Commissioner Md Nurnnbi Talukder and deputy director of Barisal Imam Training Academy AKM Fazlur Rahman, among others, were present in the function with Deputy Commissioner SM Arif-ur-Rahman in the chair.
Concerned sources said the Islamic Foundation and Imam Training Academy was constructed at a cost of Taka 6 crore. The construction began in the middle of 2008 and was completed in December last year.
AKM Fazlul Rahman said six districts of Barisal division and three districts of Dhaka division are under the jurisdiction of the academy.

   World Population Day observed in Faridpur
BSS, Faridpur

The World Population Day was observed here on Sunday in a befitting manner to create awareness among the people about the adverse effects of unplanned population boom in the country.
A colourful rally with banners and posters participated by a large number of people paraded the main streets of the town on the occasion.
A discussion meeting on this year's slogan "Everyone Counts" was held in the conference room of the deputy commissioner (DC) of Faridpur. The discussion was presided over by DC Helaluddin Ahmed.
Speakers addressing the largely attended meeting emphasized the need for motivating the people particularly the illiterate, slum dwellers and rural poor to adopt the family planning methods because it was observed from various study that the rate of birth is more higher in those classes.
They told the meeting that the present birth rate of 1.39 must be kept static till 2015 to keep the size of population at a manageable stage.
They observed that the present population is about to eat up the achievements obtained so far through various development programmes. The speakers also stressed activation of the concerned departmental officials to ensure the service delivery to the people.
DC Helaluddin in his speech expressing grave concern about the size of population said the area of our country by no means allows to afford such a big population. He said it is not only hampering our progress but also responsible for quick degradation of environment. He urged all to come forward and work unitedly to face the problem.
The meeting was addressed, among others, by Civil Surgeon Dr. Sirajul Islam Talukdar, ADC (Gen) Abdul Wahab Bhuiyan, Awami League Advisory Council Member S.M. Nurunnabi, journalist Prof. Md. Shahjahan, deputy director of BRDB Monowara Morshed Choudhury, DD of Family Planning Dr. Morol Eaqub Ali, UFPO Kamrul Islam and NGO personnel Momtaz Begum.
Field workers of Family Planning department Noorjahan Begum and Namita Rani Nag were awarded for their achievement in the programme.

   WB links financial institutions to long-term investments in power, infrastructure

BSS, Dhaka

Against the backdrop of less response of financial institutions to invest in power sector, the World Bank (WB) has linked local financial institutions to longer term investments in small power plants and infrastructure sectors.
They will go for infrastructure projects like transport, water treatment, waste management and services for economic zones besides small power plants, as the WB is promoting the concept of Public-Private Partnership (PPP).
Experts say the idea will pave the way for investment scope for the country's power sector, which needs donors-driven multi- billion US dollar investments.
The WB, of late, sanctioned 257 million US dollar through Investment Promotion and Financing Facility (IPFF) Project, a project based on the PPP. AKM Abdullah, team leader of IPFF project, told BSS that the bank came up with the longer-term investment idea as the local financial institutions are not yet keen to finance infrastructure projects for a longer term like 10-15 years due to the ongoing preference for shorter term financing and limited capacity.
He described the project as a fast and effective way of scaling up power generation and said the IPFF project is helping the local financial institutions to offer longer term financing to infrastructure projects. In less than three years of operation, the IPFF project has delivered seven fully operational small power plants.
Some 178MW of power has been already added to the national grid through private-public partnership in small power plants with the support of the IPFF project. The IPFF Project of the WB has already financed seven fully operational small power plants. Of the plants, four are Doreen Power Plants in Tangail (22MW), Feni (22MW), Mohipal of Feni (11MW) and Narsingdi (22MW), two Malancho power plants in Dhaka Export Processing Zone-DEPZ (35MW) and Chittagong Export Processing Zone-CEPZ (44MW), and one Regent Barabkunda power plant in Chittagong (22MW).
Managing Director of Doreen Power Generation and Systems Ltd Tanzeeb Alam Siddique said, "We have done something which is very achievable.
WB supports the government to overcome the nagging power crisis."

   Denmark to extend technical support in shipbuilding
BSS, Dhaka

Denmark will extend its ongoing technical support to the country's flourishing ship building industry considering its high potentials in the international market.
The assurance came when the outgoing Ambassador of Denmark to Bangladesh Einar H Jensen paid his farewell call to President Zillur Rahman at Bangabhaban here on Sunday.
During the meeting, the President expressed his satisfaction over the existing excellent bilateral relations between the two countries and said Bangladesh always attaches high importance on its relationship with Denmark.
The President urged the Danish businessmen to import world standard ocean ships, readymade garments, jute and jute goods, leather products ceramics and pharmaceuticals from here considering their very competitive prices.
Zillur Rahman also urged the Danish entrepreneurs to invest here as presently a very investment friendly congenial atmosphere is prevailing in the country.
Through the envoy, the President also urged Danish government to recruit skilled manpower from here, who could contribute in the economies of both the countries. Apprising the President that he will join as the head of international aid wing of Denmark foreign services after back home, the outgoing Ambassador Jensen said he would try his level best to provide more Danish assistance to Bangladesh in future.
The envoy hoped that the relationship especially in the trade and commerce sector between Bangladesh and Denmark would further expand in the days to come.
Concerned Secretaries of the President's office and high officials of Foreign Ministry Embassy of Denmark in Dhaka were also present on the occasion.

   Muhammad Ali Sorcar made Ambassador to Netherlands
UNB, Dhaka

The government has decided to appoint Muhammad Ali Sorcar, Director General, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as the next Ambassador of Bangladesh to the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
A career diplomat, Sorcar belonged to the 1986 batch of BCS (Foreign Affairs) Cadre and joined the service in 1989.
During his distinguished diplomatic career, he served in the Permanent Mission in New York and Bangladesh Embassy in Brussels. Specializing in the multilateral diplomacy, he had been a representative of the government to all UN General Assembly sessions since 1995 to 2008, except in 2005 when he was in Bangladesh Embassy in Brussels.
He worked as the key person in some signature resolutions of Bangladesh Government at the UN, including, "Role of micro credit in the eradication of poverty," (still a biennial resolution at the UN), "International Year of Micro credit, 2005," and proclamation of November 14th as the "World Day of Diabetes." He was also Alternate Coordinator to the UN Security Council in 2000 and 2001, when Bangladesh was a member of this body.

   Arrest of Jamaat trio for war crimes demanded
BSS, Rajshahi

Speakers at a convention on trial of war criminals here demanded immediate arrest of Jamaat-e- Islami leaders Motiur Rahman Nizami, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid and Delwar Hossain Sayeedi under the International Crimes Tribunal Act.
Otherwise, they said, the detained trio may slip away taking advantage of bail in other cases facing now. "If we do not try them right now and punish, the trial may not happen in future," said Prof Hasan Azizul Huq, addressing the divisional convention on trial of war criminals for their crime against humanity at Zilla Parishad Auditorium here on Saturday night.
He said the people have expressed their expectation that the present Grand Alliance (Mahajote) government would try the war criminals right now and punish them properly.
Organized by Workers Party of Bangladesh (WPB), the convention was addressed by WPB Politburo member Fazle Hossain Badsha, MP, as the main speaker with WPB city unit General Secretary Liakat Ali Liku in the chair.
Among others, the meeting was also addressed by Language veteran Abul Hossain, District Muktijoddah Sangshad Commander Saidur Rahman, Nausher Ali of Mahanagar AL, Abul Kalam Azad of CPB, Mujibul Huq Baku of JSD, Shamsuzziha of JP, Mustafizur Rahman Khan of NAP, Dr Syed Shafiqul Alam of Ghatak Dalal Nirmul committee, Raghib Ahsan Munna of WP Central Committee, Rafiqul Islam Piarul of district WP, Mizanur Rahman Mizan of Nator WPB, Advocate Shahid Huq Swapan of Naogaon WPB, Advocate Ferdous Jamil Tutul of Sramik Federation, Masum Akhter Roni of Jubo Moitree, Matiur Rahman of Chhatra Moitree.

Sports

Bangladesh beat England in shock victory  
AFP, Bristol

Bangladesh won for the first time in 25 matches and enjoyed their first victory over England in any format with a stunning five-run success in the second one-day international here on Saturday.
They defended a seemingly below par total of 236 to bowl England out for 231 with three balls to spare.
Bangladesh had lost 24 matches in all formats since beating Zimbabwe by one wicket in a one-day international in Chittagong in November and came into this match on the back of Thursday's six-wicket series-opening loss at Trent Bridge. But now they can dream of winning the three-match series 2-1 in the concluding match at Edgbaston on Monday. England nearly avoided an embarrassing defeat thanks to Jonathan Trott's career-best 94. However, Trott, in his first ODI since playing against his native South Africa in Port Elizabeth in November, was last man out when caught behind off Shafiul Islam. The paceman held his nerve to finish with two wickets for 38 runs.
Admittedly Ian Bell - who made 84 not out at Trent Bridge on Thursday - did not come out to bat until England were nine wickets down and needing 10 off the last over, after breaking his foot while diving to try to take a catch during Bangl-adesh's innings. But the Tigers were without Raqibul Hasan, who top-scored for them with 76 at Trent Bridge but had his toe broken by a James Anderson yorker in the process and wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim, who was ruled out after being hit in the face during the same match. England collapsed to 115 for five and were 166 for seven in the 40th over when Stuart Broad joined Trott. The duo got the target down to 36 off five overs and Trott then clipped left-arm spinner Shakib Al Hasan for four.
But their stand of 43 was broken when Broad, on 21, was well caught by a leaping Shakib at backward point off a flashing square drive from Mortaza's first ball back.
England, eight wickets down, now needed 28 off 23 balls. They required 23 off the last two overs and then Trott inside edged a four off Mortaza before, next ball driving him down the ground for a boundary.
However, off the final ball of the penultimate over, Ande-rson was caught and bowled for two by Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza.
Bell, with Eoin Morgan as a runner, came out to bat but Trott was on strike.
Trott took twos off the first two balls but was caught behind off the next to end a 129-ball innings that featured just eight fours. England saw captain Andrew Strauss (33) and Craig Kieswetter (20) make a rapid start.
But paceman Rubel Hossain, in for dropped spinner Faisal Hossain, struck twice as both openers, as happened on Thursday, fell in quick succession.
Strauss tried to uppercut Rubel but succeeded only in steering to stand-in keeper Jahurul Islam.
And 49 for one became 58 for two when the same duo dismissed Kieswetter.
And, next ball, that might have been 58 for three.
Paul Collingwood, whom replays suggested should have been given out caught behind for a golden duck, had made 10 when he was lbw to spiner Abdur Razzak.
Replays indicated he'd got an inside edge but Pakistani umpire Asad Rauf give him out and England were 86 for three.
Eoin Morgan was then lbw, hitting across the line, for one to Razzaq before Michael Yardy (10) was bowled by a ball that kept low from Shakib.

  Germany beats Uruguay 3-2 for 3rd place at World Cup
AP, Port Elizabeth

Sami Khedira scored a late goal Saturday to give Germany a 3-2 victory over Uruguay and third place for the second straight World Cup.
Khedira scored with a header in the 82nd minute after the Uruguay defense failed to clear a corner from Mesut Oezil. The goal ended Uruguay's hopes of beating Germany for the first time in 82 years, while the Germans finished in the top three for the 11th time. Diego Forlan hit the crossbar with the last kick of the match in injury time, a free kick from the edge of the area. Uruguay had come from behind to lead 2-1 when Forlan volleyed in Egidio Arevalo's 51st-minute cross for his fifth goal of the tournament. Germany defender Marcell Jansen leveled five minutes later with a header after goalkeeper Fernando Muslera misjudged a cross.
Thomas Mueller gave Germany the lead in the 18th minute, his fifth goal at the World Cup, sweeping the ball home after Bastian Schweinsteiger's swerving shot had been stopped by Muslera. Edinson Cavani equalized for Uruguay in the 28th when he slid a shot past goalkeeper Hans Joerg Butt.
Uruguay has beaten Germany only once in 10 matches, in 1928. Germany beat Uruguay in the third-place match in 1970 - the last time Uruguay reached the semifinals. Germany's young team was missing five regulars through injury and illness, including striker Miroslav Klose. Klose missed a chance to match or beat the World Cup scoring record of 15 goals, held by Brazil striker Ronaldo.
In an action-packed match, Butt had two good saves from Luis Suarez and Forlan after his team's second goal. The 36-year-old veteran, who was third-choice goalkeeper in 2002, got his World Cup debut instead of regular Manuel Neuer.
Substitute striker Stefan Kiessling missed an open shot late in the match to make it a bigger victory for Germany.
In its last three World Cup tournaments, Ger-many was runner-up in 2002 and third in 2006 at home.

   ‘Red fever’ grips Spain ahead of World Cup final
AFP, Madrid

Spain was awash with the red and gold national colours and exhuberant fans were gathering in blistering heat in outdoor "fan parks" as the country geared up for its first ever appearance in a World Cup final Sunday.
"The day of our dreams has arrived," said the sports newspaper Marca.
"You can do it!" headlined another sports daily, AS, over a picture of the team.
"Espana!" was the one-word headline in the Madrid daily ABC over a picture of the Spanish flag that covered both the front and back pages. Police closed a one-kilometre (half-mile) stretch of Madrid's main avenue, the Paseo de Castellana, where three massive screens, one of them 60 square metres (650 square feet), were set up to broadcast the match.
Some 150,000 supporters of "La Roja" (The Reds) were expected at the fan park in the capital for a fiesta that, whatever the result, was expected to last all night. Others were gathering in bars or at home for the match, which was expected to leave the country paralysed from the kickoff at 8:30pm (1830GMT).
Thousands of fans poured into the capital from other parts of the country to soak up the atmosphere, many of them travelling all night and planning to leave the next morning after a night of revelry. There was soaring confidence that the World Cup's perennial underachievers could beat the Netherlands and finally take the title that has eluded them for so long.
"Spain will win 2-0, with (David) Villa and Pedro (Rodriguez) scoring," said Oscar, 21, who had travelled from a village in the southeastern region of Murcia for the match with four friends. "We won't sleep tonight," he said, as the five fans sat drinking beer on the grass on the Paseo de Castellano next to a huge Spanish flag with the words "Podemos!" ("We can") and "Viva Espana!" written on it. Stephane and Luca Diaz, two brothers whose father is Spanish, drove overnight from their home in the northwestern French town of Le Mans along with two friends to watch the match in Madrid. "We're here for the atmosphere," said Stephane, 27. "We said if Spain reached the final we would come to Madrid to support them."
Spain's main manufacturer of the national flag said he has sold some 50,000 since the start of the World Cup, compared to around 12,000 he would expect to sell normally.

  Davydenko defeats Schwank to pull Russia level
AFP, Moscow

Nikolay Davydenko battled back from a set down to beat Eduardo Schwank and pull Russia back level at 2-2 in their Davis Cup quarter-final showdown with Argentina on Sunday. Davydenko, 29, won 4-6, 6-3, 6-1, 6-4 his first ever meeting with Schwank on the hardcourt of Moscow's Olympic indoor stadium in two hours 43 minutes.
"Though I won I'm disappointed with my playing this weekend. I was playing much better and with much more confidence in my previous Davis Cup matches. I was even thinking of withdrawing from playing today.
The local favourite, who is currently sixth in the world, started nervously producing a catalogue of unforced errors allowing Schwank to break early for a comfortable 3-1 lead, which he kept through for a one-set advantage in 38 minutes. In the second set Davydenko broke in the eighth game to pull the scores level at one set all after one hour 28 minutes on court.
In the third Davydenko was in complete command breaking his rival's serve three times to take the set in just 28 minutes. No big serves were produced in the fourth set before the 10th game, when Davydenko produced another break to win the set and the match.
The last rubber between Mikhail Youzhny and David Nalbandian will decide the tie. On Friday Nalbandian put Argentina into the lead beating Davydenko 6-4, 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (8/6), while Youzhny put Russia back on track beating Leonardo Mayer 6-3, 6-1, 6-4. On Saturday Schwank and Horacio Zeballos lifted Argentina 2-1 up beating Davydenko and Igor Kunitsyn 7-6 (9/7), 6-4, 6-7 (3/7), 6-1. The winner of the tie will face France, who on Saturday gained an unassailable 3-0 lead against Spain, in the semi-finals.

  Tabarez interested in continuing Uruguayan mission
AFP, Port Elizabeth

Oscar Tabarez would like to continue as Uruguay coach after guiding them to fourth place at the World Cup - their best finish in 40 years.
The 63-year-old - in his second spell as coach after taking them to the last 16 at the 1990 finals - is out of contract but admitted following the 3-2 defeat by Germany here that his enthusiasm for the job was greater than ever.
"I am nearer to the end of my career than the beginning, but I feel fine physically," said Tabarez, who has also turned his hand to teaching and is nicknamed 'The Professor'. "It would interest me to continue with Uruguay, but it is not the time to be speaking about that," added Tabarez, unusual among football coaches in rousing his players with literary quotes.
Tabarez, a devotee of iconic Argentinian revolutionary Che Guevara and who named a daughter Tania after Guevara's last companion, said that he did not want to be seen to laying down terms to the national federation.
"I don't want to give the impression that I am dem-anding something," said Tabarez, who has been in the post since 2006.
"But from this evening (Saturday), my contract is at an end and I am no longer national team coach. Everything will depend on the offers that may be proposed," added Tabarez, who numbers Serie A sides Cagliari and AC Milan among the clubs he has coached.

  Malaysia’s ‘psychic bird’ picks Spain to win
AFP, Kuala Lumpur

A green parakeet in Malaysia has teamed up with Germany's Paul the octopus oracle on the forward line to predict Spain will win Sunday's World Cup final against the Netherlands, a report said.
Meena Kutti, an eight-year-old parakeet born in India, was advising punters which teams to back, according to its owner, fortune teller M.C. Mohan, who usually gives tips on business and life.
Mohan said he placed two small envelopes on the floor at his home in Kuala Lumpur and asked Meena to pick the winner-the Netherlands or Spain-and without hesitation it chose the one marked "La Furia Roja." "Meena is one of a kind and is always accurate in her predictions," he was quoted as saying by the New Sunday Times newspaper, which did not give any details of previous forecasts.
Meanwhile, British punters who had backed the Netherlands to beat Spain are switching sides after Paul predicted Spain would win, bookmakers said Friday. "The 'Paul Effect' has turned the betting on its head," said a spokesman for bookmakers Paddy Power.

  Mosharraf distributes trophies of football tournament in Faridpur

AFP, Faridpur

Minster for Labour, Emplo-yment and Expatriate Welfare Engineer Khan-doker Mosharraf Hossain has said that the present government is keen to develop the standard of sports and games in line with its commitment to bring the overall development of the country.
He was distributing trophies as the chief guest after the final match of T R Choudhury Tabu Mem-orial School Football Tournament-2010 played here on Saturday at the local stadium.
In the final match Faridpur Muslim Mission Institution became champion defeating Moezuddin High school by 3-0 goals in the penalty soot out when the scheduled time ended in a goalless draw.
The tournament was sponsored by Corona Industries Ltd in Dhaka after the name of its owner late T R Choudhury Tabu, a sports organizer and an Industrialist.
The tournament was introduced for the first time here organized by District Football Association (DFA). Eight school teams participated in the tournament.
Mosharraf assured the local sports organizer that he would extend all kinds of help and cooperation for the development of games and sports here.
The prize giving function presided over by DFA, Faridpur chapter president Md Moslemuddin was addressed, among others, by Corona Industries Chairman and former Secretary of the Govern-ment Nurul Abedin, Deputy Commissioner Helaluddin Ahmed, police super Awlad Ali Fakir, Choudury Mamtaz Hossain and Managing Director of Corona Industries Touhidur Rashid Choudhury.

   Strauss defiant after Bangladesh defeat
AFP, Bristol

Andrew Strauss insisted he felt no shame at being the first England captain to lose to Bangladesh after the Tigers at last won a match in 2010.
Bangladesh's dramatic five-run success in the second one-day international at Nevil Road here on Saturday, saw them level the three-match series at 1-1 and end a run of 24 consecutive defeats across all formats stretching back to November last year.
It also meant they had defeated England for the first time, having lost all of the previous eight Tests and 20 ODIs between the two countries. "They were going to beat us at some stage and we were just hoping it would be some stage in the future," Strauss, who had the meagre consolation of knowing England were the last major nation to succumb to Bangladesh, told a post-match news conference.
"That has been and done now." And he was adamant losing to Bangladesh was not as bad as being captain of the England side skittled out for just 51 in an innings and 23-run Test defeat by the West Indies in Jamaica last year. Strauss, asked if Saturday's loss represented his worst day in cricket, replied: "No is the answer to that. "Getting bowled out for 51 in Jamaica was worse than this but it's not fun to stand up here after losing in this fashion.

  New Zealand bear Brunt of England win
AFP, Taunton

Katherine Brunt took three wickets and hit the winning runs as England beat New Zealand by one wicket in the first women's one-day international here on Saturday.
Fast bowler Brunt finished with three wickets for 31 as New Zealand posted 231 for eight in their 50 overs with opener Maria Fahey making 61 and all-rounder Sophie Devine 50, including two sixes.
England captain Charlotte Edwards all but saw the hosts to victory with 70 but when she was the eighth batsman out, in the 48th over, her side still needed eight to win.
And the match was thrown back into the balance when Holly Colvin was out in the next over before Brunt, who ended on nine not out, hit the winning runs with three balls to spare.
"I'm really pleased to get the series off to a winning start," Edwards said. "Katherine put in a fantastic bowling performance and there were some good contributions from the batters." The second game of the five-match series takes place at Taunton on Monday.

  Bangladesh aim for ‘dream’ finale
AFP, Birmingham

Bangladesh coach Jamie Siddons said winning their one-day international series against England would be a "dream", but was anything but an impossible mission.
The Tigers ended a 24-game losing streak against across all formats with a dramatic five-run win against England in the second one-day international at Bristol on Saturday. It was their first ever win against England after 20 defeats split between losses in eight Tests and 12 ODIs and meant they levelled the three-match series at 1-1 ahead of Monday's climax here at Edgbaston.
"The jubilation has gone and I guess we're getting ready to play another game," Siddons told reporters at Edgbaston here on Sunday.
"It was really great to see the boys perform well under pressure and come out with a win," the Australian added. Bangladesh, held to a seemingly modest 236 for seven in Bristol produced a superb collective display in the field, with five bowlers taking two wickets each, to dismiss England for 231 with three balls to spare.
"We've had a lot of losses and a lot of heartache along the way but we've won a game now and hopefully we can continue playing some good cricket," Siddons said. "Not just England, we've pushed a lot of teams really close and not been able to win so it was nice to finish the game off." "It wasn't just a flash in the pan, we've been building up to this and we have to keep playing good cricket." Bangladesh's victory was all the more impressive as they were without both Raqibul Hasan, who top-scored with 76 in the six-wicket loss to England in the first one-dayer at Trent Bridge on Thursday, and wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim after they each suffered injuries in the series opener.
"The injuries didn't faze me much," said former South Australia captain Siddons, a prolific scorer in first-class cricket but never capped at Test level by his country. "I knew we had a wicketkeeper to replace Mushy (Jahurul Islam), and he's a good batsman too, and we had Mohammad Ashraful to replace Raqibul. It was pretty much a clean swap so our strength was not weakened too much."
England beat Australia 3-2 in a home one-day series shortly before facing Bangladesh but lost the last two matches against the world champions after batting collapses.
Every match England play at the moment is being scrutinised for significance ahead of their defence of the Ashes in Australia, which starts in November.
Siddons, who saw Bangladesh lose a Test series 2-0 in England in June, added: "I said there were a few chinks in the armour of this England team. "But they are a very good team, so are Australia and now we are getting there. It's hard to win an international cricket match."
Now Bangladesh have put themselves in line to win the series and Siddons said: "It would be a bit of a dream for us but it's not impossible... Anything is possible."

  Loew pleads for time to decide future
AFP, Port Elizabeth

Germany coach Joachim Loew insisted on Saturday that there have been no talks over a new contract which would keep him at the helm of the team he led to third place at the World Cup.
"There have been no negotiations for the moment. I need calm and time to go over things that have happened in my head," said Loew, after Germany defeated Uruguay 3-2 in the third-place play-off.
"I want to have two or three days to get an idea of what can happen and I want to talk to may team manager, Oliver Bierhoff."
Loew has won 38 out of 55 matches since he succeeded Jurgen Klinsmann after the 2006 World Cup, taking the national team to the runners-up spot at Euro 2008.
The 50-year-old's four-year deal with the German Football Federation (DFB) officially expired on June 30. Loew must now decide whether or not he wants to lead Germany into Euro 2012, to be held in Poland and the Ukraine, with the first qualifier against Belgium in Brussels on September 3.
Talks with the DFB over a new deal for the coach and his entire backroom staff broke down in February.

  Casillas, Del Bosque dream of World Cup unity
AFP, Johannesburg

On the eve of leading his country into their first World Cup final on Sunday, Spain captain Iker Casillas admitted he has a few butterflies, but is thinking only of lifting the trophy.
The 29-year-old Real Madrid goalkeeper will be winning his 111th cap in the final against the Netherlands at Johannesburg's Soccer City. Having lifted the Euro 2008 title in Vienna two years ago, Casillas said winning the World Cup would be a dream come true and has given no thought to a Dutch victory with both sides bidding for their first world title.
Having lost their opening group game to Switzerland in a shock upset, Spain have gone from strength to strength. "We are a little nervous, it is a very important match for us, we have come a long way and have a few butterflies in the stomach," said Casillas.
"Certainly the start wasn't good, but we have been able to recover and here we are.
"We all dream, from a very early age, of lifting the trophy and being the captain gives me great pride, but I am trying to think only of the game and not get too far ahead."
This will be Spain's first World Cup final, but that will hardly register with the Spanish as an achievement if the Dutch win, said Casillas.
"We want to have the cherry on the cake," he said. "We have achieved something great, but neither me, my team-mates nor the country behind us will just be happy with that." The King of Spain, Juan Carlos I, phoned coach Vicente del Bosque on Saturday to wish the national side the best of luck and the 59-year-old said he is hoping Spanish success can help unite the country.
Success in South Africa has led to Spanish flags being flown with pride in traditional Catalan and Basque areas. "There are players from all over Spain here in the squad, we are united and I hope the same feeling of unity occurs back in Spain," said the former Real Madrid coach. "I think sport does many good things and I hope football could lead to better relations in our country."
Del Bosque does not expect Bert van Marwijk-coached Holland to change their style of play against his side, but has options up his sleeve, even if they do.
"I don't think the Dutch side will change their approach, simply because they are playing Spain," he said. "We have lots of options, there is a plan A and B, we have solutions to any situations which may come up."

  Nalbandian puts Argentina into Davis Cup semi final
AFP, Moscow

David Nalbandian led Argentina into a Davis Cup semi-final against France after a straight-sets victory over Mikhail Youzhny in the deciding rubber of the quarter-final tie against Russia.
Nalbandian, 28, beat Youznhy 7-6 (7/5), 6-4, 6-3, his third win over the Russian in four head-to-head meetings.
The victory for the South Americans ended Russia's 17-match winning streak in the Davis Cup on home turf, which started after the 1995 defeat in the final at the hands of the United States. The first set between Nalbandian and Youzhny went to a tiebreak after no break of service game. Nalbandian, ranked 153rd in the ATP standings, kept his nerve to claim that, with the pair keeping their serves in the second set until the ninth game, when the Argentinian produced a break for a 2-0 lead.
Nalbandian started the third set with an immediate break for a comfortbale 2-0 lead. Youzhny, who is currently 14th in the world, battled hard to stay in the game, but Nalbandian managed to maintain his lead to win the set and book his country's semi-final berth against France, 5-0 victors over defending champions Spain.

  Mandela family says no decision yet on World Cup final
AFP, Johannesburg

Nelson Mandela has not yet decided whether he will attend the World Cup final being held in South Africa, his grandson told AFP on Sunday, just hours before the closing ceremony.
Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandela, who speaks on behalf of the family, said the night-time match could prove too strenuous for the Nobel laureate who turns 92 next weekend.
"The family is to take a decision and he himself has to decide," said the younger Mandela, adding that the former president's medical team would also be consulted. "My grandfather is turning 92, he is very elderly to stay at the stadium at night," he added.
South Africa's anti-apartheid icon and first black president is also still in mourning for his 13-year-old great-granddaughter, who died in a car accident on the eve the tournament.
The tragedy prompted him to cancel a planned appearance at the June 11 opener. "We're also a family in mourning. We should allow my grandfather to mourn," Mandela said
"FIFA should have taken that into consideration and stop pressuring" for Mandela to attend, he added, saying FIFA president Sepp Blatter's public remarks hoping for a Mandela appearance had created an unfair expectation. But the grandson added: "It is his decision at the end of the day."
Blatter said Thursday that if Mandela came to the final, he could present the winning team with the trophy. "If he comes and stays to the end, then it is possible he will present the trophy," Blatter said.
Since retiring from public life in 2004, Mandela has made few public appearances and his itinerary is kept secret until the last moment.
Many are aching to relive the moment at the 1995 rugby World Cup, when Mandela donned the jersey of South Africa's victorious and mainly white Spring-boks, in a moment now seen as a symbol of national healing.

  Ryo blown away at ‘typhoon’-hit Scottish Open
AFP, Loch Lomond

Japan teen sensation Ryo Ishikawa compared the horror conditions at the Scottish Open on Sunday to the typhoons back home - after he was blown away in his final round.
The 18-year-old hit an eight-over 79 on a day of rain and high winds at the scenic par-71 course on Sunday. Ishikawa had started the week with a promising 67 and looked to have a reasonable chance of becoming the youngest winner of this European tour event.
But as conditions worsened so did his scores - culminating in Sunday's weather that sent him an untimely reminder of back home. "The rain and wind were almost like the typoons in Japan," he said.
"So it made it really difficult and it made it hard to play. It was the worst I have played in. I couldn't make any distance with my driver and the cross-wind made it hard as the ball was pushed away. "It was conditions I wasn't used to playing in."
Ishikawa began his day at three-over and was keen to put in a good score to boost his confidence ahead of next week's Open Championship at St Andrews. He started with two bogey fives, but redeemed himself immediately with an excellent eagle three at the par-five third. But that was the only highlight of his day and further bogeys at the fourth, eighth and ninth saw him reach the turn in 39.
The youngster famously posted a 58 back in May and while that round was sprinkled with birdies, bogeys were the order of day at Loch Lomond.
He dropped a further five shots in the closing nine holes to end the tournament on 11-over par and well down the leader board.
It was a disappointing end to the week - although the scoreboard was littered with scores in the high-70s and 80s - and he now turns his attention to St Andrews when he makes his second appearance in the Open.
Last summer at Turnberry, he partnered Tiger Woods and again failed to cope with the Scottish wind and, along with the World Number One, bowed out at the halfway stage.
But he has shown this year that he can compete on the biggest stage and will go into next week's event fresh from an excellent showing at last month's US Open.
He wowed the crowds at Pebble Beach and was tied for second after the second round before finishing joint 33rd. He will look to build on that showing at St Andrews and is confident his experience at Loch Lomond will help him cope with anything next week throws at him. He added: "This event will prepare for me next week. I won't be surprised by any weather conditions now after that.