MONday, july 5, 2010 ashar 21, 1417, RAJAB 22, 1431 Hijri

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Leading News

JAINTAPUR BORDER
Indians fire and injure ten Bangladeshis

TBT Report

The atrocities of Indian Border Security Force (BSF) are continuing unabated along the Bangladesh border causing deaths and injures to Bangladeshi citizens despite repeated protests.
According to UNB News Agency, At least 10 Bangladeshi nationals were injured by bullet when Indians backed by BSF opened indiscriminate fire across the Jaintapur border on Sunday afternoon.
Of the injured, Kayes Ahmed, 16, Abdul Mannan, 30, and Kamal Ahmed, 24, were admitted to Osmani Medical College Hospital while others were undergoing treatment in Jaintapur Upazila Health Complex.
Following the incident, the angry villagers put up barricade in front of Shreepur BDR outpost on Sylhet-Tamabil road from 2 pm to 4 pm and tried to ransack the BDR camp accusing to protect the villagers.
According to the BDR source, at about 11 am Indian Khashias entered into Minatila and Kathalbari and started tilling the land. The villagers raised objection leading to chase and counter-chase, Finally, the Khasias retreated.
But again at about 2 pm about 25 Khashias, armed with guns and backed by BSF, entered the Bangladesh territory and began tilling the land. When Bangaldeshis tried to resist, the Khashias opened fires leaving 10 villagers wounded.
Clashes took place frequently over the disputed land in the area.
It may be recalled, there had been exchange of heavy gunfire between BDR and BSF on Sylhet border on June 15. On the last occasion BDR-BSF gunfire exchange took place on February 28 last.
According to UNB reports from Sylhet, BSF and BDR exchanged heavy gunfire in Jaintapur and Goainghat border in Sylhet on that day. The firing started at 12:45 pm when Indian farmers backed by BSF trespassed 200 yards into Bangladesh and started the cultivation at Noljhuri border. Firing extended to Tamabil and Protappur borders of Goainghat and Dibir Haor of Jaintapur border. The heavy exchange of firing continued till 2pm. No casualty was reported. Export and import through the Tamabil land port was closed because of gun firing. According to the villagers, both sides exchanged more than 1,000 fire bullets.
It was the fourth time in a month that the border skirmishes took place as Khasia tribe on the other side of the border in Meghalaya State deliberately crossed the border for fishing in Dibir Haor. BSF on February 4 intruded in the area and kidnapped a Nayek of BDR. He was however set free at a flag meeting, BSF regretting their action of illegal crossing of the border.
BDR said Indian nationals backed by BSF crossed the border for fishing in Dibir Haor. On resistance by the fishermen BSF opened fire. BDR returned the fire and the gunrunning continued for about three hours until 6pm. Earlier on February 22, a group of Indian intruders with direct support of the BSF trespassed into Bangla-desh territory on Bibirhaor border near Jayantapur in Sylhet, but went back in the face of strong protest by local people.
The trespassers entered two hundred years into Bangladesh territory in between Pillar No. 1284 and 1285 and caught fishes from a pond. The Indian citizens numbering about 100 were backed by heavily armed BSF troops and their presence made the local people panicky. However t he locals protested the intrusion strongly and ultimately all of the intruders returned to India.
According to Odhikar, BSF killed 35 Bangladeshis in last six months on the border.

 Cabinet okays draft amendment of national flag law
Maximum 2 years jail for disgracing national flag, anthem

BSS, Dhaka

The Cabinet on Sunday approved the draft of Bangladesh National Anthem, Flag and Emblem (Amendment) Act-2010 that provides for maximum two years imprisonment and Taka 10,000 fine or both for disgracing the national flag, anthem and emblem.
The approval was given at the weekly Cabinet meeting held at Bangladesh Secretariat with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
The cabinet also approved the Expatriate Welfare Bank Act 2010 with an aim to provide collateral free loans to the people intending to go abroad for job.
It will also help quick and cost effective sending of remittances by expatriate Bangladeshis, the press secretary said.
Responding to a question, he said under the proposed law the government will appoint the chairman of the Board of Directors of Expatriate Welfare Bank with 95 per cent ownership to the wage earners.
The cabinet also endorsed the draft of the Bangladesh Medical and Dental Council Act- 2010 aimed at raising the standard of medical education in the country to get international recognition.
Besides, he said the cabinet was informed of the participation of Bangladesh delegation in the 35th meeting of the Board of Governors of Islamic Development Bank, participation of the Water Resources Minister in the D-8 conference in Cairo and participation of the Fisheries and Livestock Minister in the ministerial level meeting on 'Animal and Pandemic Influenza in Hanoi'.
The cabinet at the beginning of the meeting congratulated Bangladesh Ambassador to Brussels Ismat Jahan on her being elected the member of CEDAW securing the highest number of votes.
The cabinet also congratulated Health Minister A F M Ruhal Haque and Health Adviser to the Prime Minister Dr Syed Modasser Ali for receiving the "World No Tobacco Day Award- 2010".

 BNP protests PM’s comment on hartal, Khaleda’s cantt house

UNB, Dhaka

BNP secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain on Sunday strongly protested Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's recent comment over hartal and Khaleda Zia's Dhaka cantonment house and asked her to refrain from making such statements.
Addressing a rally at the city's Muktangon, he said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had once "grabbed" the Ganobhaban with a value of Tk 1. Delwar said the previous BNP government had canceled the preposterous allocation and also cancelled the allotment of house at Dhanmondi to Hasina's sister Sheikh Rehana. "So, she is seething with anger against BNP."
On Saturday, Prime Minister Hasina urged leader of the opposition Khaleda Zia to leave the disputed Dhaka cantonment house and reside in her another allotted house at Gulshan "as army officers are currently face acute accommodation crisis."
Delwar said Khaleda did not grab the cantonment house. It was allotted to her properly. He said if the present government cannot rehabilitate the army officers BNP would rehabilitate them when it comes to power.
On another comment of Sheikh Hasina over setting fire vehicles and people centering the June 27 hartal, Delwar said when the BNP workers were not allowed to take to the street how they could set fire to vehicles.
In this regard, he mentioned the killing of 13 people on a bus at a time in Shahbagh area while then opposition Awami League enforced hartal against the last BNP government.
The BNP secretary general cautioned that the current mass movement would turn into mass upsurge one day if the ruling party does not mend its ways.

    36 injured in Shibir-police clashes in Ctg, Barisal
Over 100 shops, vehicles vandalized;
40 Shibir men held

UNB, Chittagong

Unruly activists of Islami Chhatra Shibir on Sunday vandalized over 50 shops and nearly 50 vehicles in Halisahar Barapool area of the port city after police obstructed them from holding a protest rally.
At least 25 people including two cops were injured as the Shibir men clashed with police. Forty Shibir activists were detained by police from the spot but their identity could not be immediately known.
Sub Inspector of Halishahar police station Zakir admitted that they have detained 40 Shibir activists but would not identify them.
Locals said the clash occurred when police tried to foil a protest rally at Halishahar Barapool at about 4:30pm. The Shibir activists gathered there as part of a centrally announced demonstration programme in protest against the arrest of three top Jamaat leaders.
Angered by police obstruction, Shibir activists pelted brickbats leaving two police wounded.
Police retaliated with lathi leaving 23 Shibirites injured.
As the situation turned worst, police fired five rounds of blank shots to disperse the agitators.
The demonstrators took shelter into a nearby shopping mall - Singapore Bangkok Market - and vandalizing at least 50 shops.
Police picked up 40 Shibir activists, 27 from the market and 13 from nearby areas.
Additional police from Halishahar and Doublemooring police stations have been deployed in the area to avert further trouble amid a tense situation.
A report from Barisal said, at least 11 people including three journalists were injured as Jamaat men were locked in a clash with police in the town in the afternoon.
Police detained 13 Jamaat men from the spot during the clash at Steamer ghat at about 3-35 pm.
Sub-inspector Shahabuddin, in-charge of Bogura Road outpost was closed to the Police Lines ostensibly for his failure to prevent the demonstrators taking to the street.

    Nizami undergoes interrogation
Shamsher Mobin taken on remand

UNB, Dhaka

Jammat chief Maulana Matiur Rahman Nizami now in police remand undergoes grilling on Sunday night at Minto Road Detective Branch office on his involvement in vandalism and assault on police.
He was brought to the DB office from the Dhaka Central Jail in the afternoon, police said. Paltan thana police filed the case on 17 January accusing over 500 leaders and activists of Jamaat and its front organizations. Sub-Inspector Zillur Rahman is investigating into the case.
Jamaat Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed and Neyeb-e-Ameer Delwar Hossain Sayedee-who were taken to DB office on July 1, in the same case had been interrogated till Saturday. Accused in five cases, three top leaders of Jamaat are on 16-day police remand since Tuesday.
Meanwhile Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury, vice-chairman of BNP, accused of involvement in torching a private car on the eve of June 27 hartal, was given to one-day police remand for interrogation.
The incident led to the death of Faruk Hossain due to severe burn injuries in the hospital on July 1.
Investigation officer of the Ramna thana case produced Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury, a former foreign secretary and former army officer badly wounded during the liberation war, was produced before the court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Ali Hossain in the afternoon seeking for 7-day remand.
Moving the bail petition his counsel contended that Mobin Chowdhury who use to walk limping with an artificial leg could not take part in picketing. He was falsely implicated in the case only to harass him politically and undermine his goodwill.
The counsel also contended that Mobin Chowdhury had not been named in the FIR of the case. Ignoring the arguments, the magistrate granted the police to take Chowdhury to police remand for a day.
Chowdhury was arrested along with a number of activists from Mahakhali during the hartal. He was taken on a one-day remand on June 28 on charge of obstructing police from discharging duties and vandalizing vehicles during the hartal.
Enlarged on bail he was again arrested from Dhaka central jail gate on July 1.

    Foreign countries urged to recognize both MRPs, handwritten passports

UNB, Dhaka

Foreign Minister Dipu Moni on Monday requested the foreign governments, particularly Bangladeshi labour receiving countries, to recognize both Machine Readable Passports (MRP) and the handwritten passports in the transition period.
She invited the envoys of the countries concerned at the Foreign Ministry and made the request. The Ambassadors and high commissioners of Kuwait, Qatar, Libya, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Iran, UAE, Egypt, Malaysia, Maldives and South Korea were invited.
Foreign Secretary Mijarul Quayes was present and also briefed the envoys.
Bangladeshi workers are facing problems in UAE with handwritten passports as the UAE immigration authorities do not recognize the old passports.
The Foreign Minister told the envoys that it would take time to replace all handwritten passports with MRPs and requested them to accept both MRPs and previously issued handwritten passports.
She said the countries, which introduced the MRPs, had to face similar problems in the transition period. Dipu Moni told reporters that the passport problem in UAE will be resolved soon. The Bangladesh Ambassador to UAE will hold meeting with the UAE authorities today (Tuesday) to work out a solution.
She said the Bangladesh authorities are issuing MRPs in accordance with the international convention.

Back Page

President urges editors to provide objective and constructive news

BSS, Dhaka

President Zillur Rahman on Sunday urged the editors of daily newspapers to provide constructive and objective news imbued with the spirit of the Great War of Liberation for the greater national interest.
"The quality and competence of the newspapers have to be upgraded through presenting objective news," the President said while a delegation of the Daily Joybangla led by its editor M Azizul Islam called on him at Bangabhaban in Dhaka.
During the meeting, the delegation apprised the President of various activities of the Daily Joybangla, the then weekly newspapers acted as the vanguard of the nation during the county's liberation war in 1971.
The President gave a patient hearing and urged them to work with honor and prestige through presenting objective and quality news and information.
JoyBangla was first officially published weekly newspaper under the Ministry of Information and Betar of the provisional Mujibnagar government during the Great War of Liberation.
Though the publication of the newspapers was suspended in 1975, it was republished with the initiative of the then LGRD Minister and present President Zillur Rahman in 1999. Joybangla, as a daily newspaper, started its journey on May 1, 2010.
Earlier, Tax Ombudsman Khairuzzaman Chowdhury paid a farewell call on President Zillur Rahman at Babgabhaban on Sunday.
During the meeting, the Tax Ombudsman mentioned that range of taxation could be expanded through creating awareness and spirit of honesty and patriotism among the countrymen as well as properly ensuring the enforcement of the laws.
President thanked the outgoing Tax Ombudsman for discharging duties with honesty and dedication during his 41-year long professional career.
Secretaries concerned to the President's Office were present at the meetings.

    Kuwait keen to invest more in power, energy sectors
BSS, Dhaka

Kuwait is keen on investing more in important sectors of Bangladesh, like power, energy, infrastructure and river dredging to speed up the country's socio-economic progress.
Kuwait Ambassador to Bangladesh Abdullatif Ali Ibrahim Al- Mawwash said this as he paid a farewell call on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her official Ganobhaban residence on Saturday. During the meeting, they discussed entire gamut of bilateral interest including expansion of trade and business between the two brotherly countries, said Prime Minister's Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad.
The Prime Minister conveyed thanks to the Kuwait government for its support especially for the country's power, irrigation and infrastructures sectors over the years through Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development. Acknowledging generous hosting of over 2,50,000 Bangladeshi workers, Sheikh Hasina said they are immensely contributing to the socio-economic development of both the countries. In this context, she mentioned that Bangladesh has a large pool of business professionals including doctors, engineers, technical persons and other skilled and semi-skilled manpower, who can be employed in Kuwait and play a vital role for the development of that country.
Highlighting the government's successful programmes for developing human resources by imparting education and modern training, Sheikh Hasina said that foreign bound workers are regularly briefed particularly on behaviour, attitude, duties, local laws, values and tradition. The Prime Minister hoped that Kuwait would ratify the Bilateral Technical Cooperation Agreement on the manpower signed in November 2000 between the two countries. Sheikh Hasina said Kuwait may import Bangladeshi quality products like readymade garments, ceramic products, pharmaceuticals, toiletries, leather and leather goods and melamine to reduce the trade gap between the two countries.

   SC upholds HC verdict scrapping MK AlamgirJail sentence
UNB, Dhaka

The Supreme Court on Sunday upheld the High Court judgment quashing 13 years' jail awarded to Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir MP of Awami League by a special court for amassing wealth beyond his known sources of income.
Appellate Division bench of the Supreme Court passed the order, dismissing the petition for leave-to-appeal filed by the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) against the High Court judgment. On July 13 last year, an HC division bench comprising Justice Syed Muhammad Dastagir Husain and Justice M Rais Uddin scrapped the lower court verdict upon an appeal filed by Alamgir, also a former state minister.
On July 26, 2007, a special court set up at the parliament complex during the military-backed caretaker government rule, sentenced Alamgir to 13 years' imprisonment for concealing information in his wealth statement submitted to the ACC and amassing wealth worth over Tk 3.27 crore disproportionate to his known sources of income.
The special court had also fined Alamgir Tk 10 lakh and ordered confiscation of his wealth worth over Tk 3.27 crore that he amassed illegally.
On March 6 the same year, the ACC filed the case accusing Alamgir of amassing the ill-gotten wealth.
Khurshidul Alam Khan appeared for the ACC while Barrister Rafique-ul Huq stood for Alamgir.

    BNP prepares for its July 7 countrywide human chain
UNB, Dhaka

Opposition BNP is taking preparations to make its July 7 countrywide human chain programme a success aiming to keep up tempo of the ongoing anti-government movement.
Human chain will be formed in Dhaka city and the district and divisional headquarters demanding release of the leaders and workers arrested during June 27 countrywide daylong hartal and withdrawal of the 'false' cases against them. The party's senior leaders including Mirza Abbas, Shamser Mobin Chowdhury, Shahiduddin Chowdhury Annie MP are detained in jail since the arrest during the hartal.
Partners of BNP-led four-party alliance including Islami Oikya Jote (IOJ) have extended active support to the human chain programme. On the other hand on June 27 after hartal hours Jamaat-e-Islami also announced human chain on July 7. Jamaat acting secretary general ATM Azharul Islam told UNB on Sunday that they will form human chain individually as per their previous announcement but they are also discussing over jointly forming the human chain with BNP.
Earlier on Friday BNP and its front and associate organizations held preparatory meeting to make the Human Chain progarmme a success. Dhaka city units of BNP and its front and associate wings held joint preparatory meeting in the evening at Nayapaltan city BNP office.

    4000-6000 disabled beggars in capital
UNB, Dhaka

The government will conduct a survey soon to determine the exact number of disabled people in the country.
The survey will first begin in Dhaka Division, said Gazi Md Nurul Kabir Managing Director of Jatiya Pratibandi Unnayan Foundation at a meeting held at LGED Bhaban on Sunday.
Manusher Jonno Foundation, an organization for promoting human rights and good governance, organized the programme.
Kabir said there is no actual number of disabled people as well as disabled beggar in the country. According to the World Health Organisation 10 percent of country's population are disabled. Kabir said the disabled people are forced to begging due to poverty. He stressed on early intervention and early detection by the authorities to rehabilitate the disabled people.
Joint Secretary of the Social Welfare Ministry Md Hossain Mullah said the government is creating data bank of disabled people under the social safety net.
President of National Disabled Forum Khondoker Zahirul Alam said there are 4000 to 6000 disabled beggars in the capital.
He said it is not possible to prevent disabled people from beggaring without creating social awareness and values.Alam said a mother can play a vital role in pursuing her disabled child from begging.

    20,000 hectares of barren hils brought under Afforestation Programme 

BSS, Chittagong

Chittagong North Forest Department (CNFD) has implemented participatory social afforestation programme on 20,000 hectares of land under its jurisdiction from 2002 with a view to bring back greenery to the barren hills. Keeping this in view, a total of 130 hectares of barren lands have been brought under social aforastation programme involving Taka 45 lakh this year.
Officials of the CNFD said the programme is being implemented to expand forest for bringing desolate hilly areas under tree plantation with the participation of local people especially from poor segments of the local population. Forest Department sources said around 20,000 hectares of lands of different barren hills in the district has been brought under afforestation programme since the project started in 2002 by spending Taka 17.6 crore.
Officials said nearly 6,000 marginalized poor people, of those a good number is women in the respective areas, have been involved with the participatory afforestation programme. The core concept of the participatory afforestation scheme is that the people involved in it would enjoy proportionate ownership and thus be eligible to receive revenue generated from the plantation for their labour and maintenance work.

    Indefinite transport strike enforced in Meherpur; strike in Chuadanga from today 

UNB, Dhaka

Indefinite transport strike began in Meherpur Sunday morning demanding steps against the drivers of locally made passenger transport including Nosimon, Korimona and Alamsadhu plying on all the inter-district highways.
The Paribahan Malik Samity called the strike from Sunday morning in all the routes including inter-district and long-distance routes as the alleged drivers of Nasimon, Karimon, who clashed with the bus drivers on Friday, were not arrested.
The Meherpur Bus Owners Association also announced to continue their strike until the drivers of the Nasimon and Karimon are brought to justice.
Plying of all kinds of heavy transports was already halted since Friday after a clash between bus workers and Nosiman owners at Gangni bus stand in Meherpur. At least 20 people of both the groups were injured in separate clashes at different places in the district following the matter. After the incident, no heavy transports, including bus, trucks, lorry and microbus, left or entered the district.
Without having any legal permission or training, the drivers are plying their nosimons that causes most of the road accidents in the district.

Editorial

Move to raise CNG price

The government seems to be bent on raising the price of compressed natural gas (CNG) despite stiff opposition from all concerned. Finance Minister AMA Muhith on Saturday renewed his call for increasing the price of CNG. "This (CNG price) must be considered for doubling from its present rate immediately," he said directing the authorities concerned to take a move for raising the price.
The Finance Minister's proposal for doubling the CNG price is unwarranted, but nothing new. He first made the proposal in March last. However, the move was instantaneously protested and opposed by different sections of people. Specially, the CNG pump owners opposed it vehemently. "The unrealistic proposal by the finance minister to increase the CNG price has disappointed us", said Zakir Hossain Noyan, the Secretary General of Bangladesh CNG Filling Station and Conversion Workers Owners Association in a statement.
Expressing grave concerns at the move, the CNG association's statement said any rise in the CNG price, before ensuring uninterrupted gas and power supply, will devastate the sector. "After any rise in the CNG price, the government will have to bear the responsibility for the environmental disaster and also bank loan defaults that would be the result of any rise in CNG price," the statement said. "If CNG price is raised, it will lead to an increase in the transportation cost of the common people that would result in increasing the prices of all commodities," it added.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith on March 30 directed the authorities concerned to move for increasing the prices of CNG and electricity. He told the officials of the Power and Energy Ministry at a meeting that the CNG price should be "close to the price of petrol". Now, the price of per cubic-metre (1 litre equivalent) CNG is Tk 16.75 while the price of 1 litre petrol and octane is Tk 77. The CNG price was last increased to Tk 16.75 per cubic metre from Tk 8 in 2008. Besides, The government raised the power tariffs by 6-7 percent on an average with effect from March 1. The government had previously increased the power tariff in 2007 by 5 percent at the retail level.
The finance minister's move to increase CNG has came at a time when the country has been experiencing severe power and gas crises. The load shedding persists half of the time of a day while many industries, including CNG refueling stations face closure due to gas crisis. In fact, it will be clearly without any moral justification to increase the CNG price when the people are not getting minimum power and gas supply. At present, most of the motor vehicles in Dhaka, Chittagong, Sylhet, Comilla and other major cities use CNG as their fuel as its price is relatively lower than liquid fuel. But these vehicles consume only 5 percent of the total gas produced in the country. The finance minister has not made it clear as to how the price hike will resolve the grave power and gas crises.
The CNG pump owners as well as the people in general are completely right in protesting and opposing the government move to enhance the prices CNG as the price hike will affect them seriously. On many occasions it has been observed that the government resort to raising the prices of different commodities and services on the plea of financial losses while the reported losses can largely be overcome by checking corruption and wastage. The trend of raising prices and tariffs should be stopped. With the people, we also strongly oppose the move to enhance CNG price, because the enhancement will be unjustified and will further intensify the hardship and sufferings of the common people.

 Tales of slum dwellers

One needs to study the condition of slums in major cities of Bangladesh to really know about the social and economic conditions of a considerable portion of our population. The rural areas of the Country are unable to contain the burgeoning population and people being unable to find any employment or means of livelihood travel to the larger urban areas in search of these. People do find livelihoods in cities - in factories and mills, in the construction and transportation sectors, in well-to do households and in numerous other services that cities need in order to be cities - but living in human conditions is quite another thing.
Most of the people who come to the cities seek and find shelter in slums, on sidewalks and in public spaces such as parks. These people live in inhuman conditions without adequate food, medi-care or any of the other amenities which makes human life bearable. They also fall prey to predatory criminal gangs who lure or more often force them to such activities as prostitution (women and girls), drug selling (boys and youths), robbery, mugging and extortion (young men). It has been apprehended that as many as 300,000 homeless children and youths, growing up on the road-sides and slums of Dhaka, would pose serious social problems in the very near future as most of them are apprenticed to criminal gangs and are involved in various criminal activities.
When our governments workout yearly budgets, they are not including outlays and measures to improve the life or living conditions of the millions of people hidden away in slums; when NGOs, the World Bank, the IMF and other donor agencies talk about poverty alleviation and development, they are not talking about the miserable millions of humanity tucked away in slums, they are talking about million-dollar projects to buy Boeing aircrafts and communication satellites; when the "civil society" hold seminars in five-star hotels, they are not talking about the slum dwellers. But now time has come for all to look after the ill-fated slum dwellers.

Analysis

The silence is broken

The people have shown a will and it is time for the governments to reciprocate and reassure not through words alone but through actions.

Asha'ar Rehman

A long queue of people awaited entry to the Data Darbar Complex in Lahore only 13 hours after the shrine of the Sufi saint was attacked by suicide bombers on Thursday. Their face-off with terrorism may lead to many interpretations, but essentially, those who gathered at the Darbar for Friday prayers were there to assert their right to live by a code that has existed for centuries.
This code has come under more and more pressure as the 'Gulfisation' of the country continues at a rampant pace. This process is not restricted to a Kuwait hairdresser cropping up in one corner of a street in Lahore and a Dhahran tuition centre opening up as a tribute to the days its owner spent in the land of the 'originals' to earn his bread and butter. Gulfisation of Pakistani society has many faces. Some of these manifestations are very ugly and the state is complicit.
At the press conference a day after the attack on Data Darbar, it was the turn of the leaders of the Sunni Ittehad Council to point out the patronage that some extremist elements are still getting from the government and the officials who represent it. The leaders were categorical in dismissing the current incumbents' claim to rule, at the same time blaming countries from the Gulf for funding extremist ideas in Pakistan. In a few sentences, the Sunni Ittehad Council brought out the dilemma of the Pakistani people who have to pay a huge price for their own and their political leaderships' relations with foreigners who have always found reason to call for religion-based social reform to cleanse the Pakistani civilisation.
Wherever you go in Lahore today, discussions about terrorism are centred on foreigners. Usually, the reference is to India, to the Zionist lobby, and to America, its war on terror and the consequences of this war for Pakistanis. Ideologically, the anti-America talk makes as much sense as popular anti-hegemony theories based on the concepts of true independence have always done. This is not to say that the people are unaware of other foreign influences that have of late affected their lives in a big way. They are simply reluctant to speak out for fear of breaching the purist code and find it convenient to vent their spleen on the single imperialist power.
As the two dominating patterns - one from the Gulf and the other from the West - threaten to take over their civilisation, they silently await a Pakistani answer that only ideal and elusive economic independence can generate.
Blame it on Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's pan-Islamist times or pin it on Gen Ziaul Haq's need for finding a purist version of religion. The consequences of the Pakistani state's policies have been too dangerous for us to treat them as merely something that happened in the past. The current reality is that, having conceded the high moral ground to a minority group that arbitrates as the guardian of our faith, the state is today too weak to tackle the violence-mongers present in the same minority group. Worse, scratch the surface, and you will find that the state actors are still striving to protect the interests of these appointed guardians, out of political expediency, in good faith or simply out of fear.Now if the state actors are forced to do it out of political expediency, does it mean that their actions only mirror the Pakistani people's preferences and aspirations? It will be useless to outright reject the argument that society here has turned more 'fundamentalist' with time, just as it is preposterous to equate the trends in Pakistani society with, and have them conform to, our appointed moral guardians' insistence on imposing their system on us, often through coercion and failing that, through violence.
The gathering at Data's Darbar within hours of the Thursday night attack once again brings to the fore the large peace-loving majority that has been shedding tears and protesting as their icons have come under attack from the invaders one after another. Silently, they have been gathering the fragments after each attack. They are back to their deviant ways at the Bari Imam shrine which was devastated by a bomb attack in May 2005 and they are building Rehman Baba's dargah brick by brick after it was blown up in March 2009.
They may be lacking in firepower to match the resourcefulness of the so-called purist minority that is hell-bent on charting a short cut to heaven through violent means. However, their return to the centuries-old Data Darbar in a manner as if dictated by nature restores the confidence that they can withstand the current invasion of their lives.
The people have shown a will and it is time for the governments to reciprocate and reassure not through words alone but through actions. We have marked them for operating in an uncertain way, their functions hampered by the perceived interests of the state and self. This entails, willy-nilly, a strategy that has to fall back on material means to fight the monster of terrorism. Even on this count, the stress is on unimaginatively injecting money into the counter-crime or counter-terrorism apparatus and hoping that this in itself will contain the violence (without necessarily affecting the perpetrators to the extent where they become useless for future endeavours for which the state may require them).
The financial grants to the police have been increased manifold and there are forever calls for more funds from foreign donors who have enough reasons to feel wary - even scared - of terrorism bred in this particular part of the world. But there is no evidence so far that the people in charge are working on perfecting a system that will give them the edge that a functioning state must always have over those who challenge its writ and those who disobey its orders. In the event, the only assurance that is from time to time held out to the people is that, if someone has to die, it is going to be the policeman, who is then compensated with the money that the state has put aside for 'countering terrorism'.
What should be a line of defence is thus reduced to an assembly line of men ready to be sacrificed. Precious lives are lost, and exposed are the very people these defenders are ostensibly there to protect.

  Kashmir clouds India-Pakistan talks

Just when the two countries seem to be mending ties, trouble erupts in the disputed territory.

Kuldip Nayar

With such positive talks taking place between India and Pakistan in Islamabad, the tragic happenings in Kashmir seem more than a coincidence. That youth in the valley are angry is known to all. They have been throwing stones at security forces for more than a year. But why should Kashmir be on the boil when relations between India and Pakistan are on the mend? It is also a strange coincidence that hundreds of devotees should become stranded, having reached Kashmir for the Amarnath Yatra. Apparently, there was no understanding of the problem of unemployment or grievance that had alienated the youth. The political parties only ran each other down, without caring that anger was growing.
The death of one young man at the hands of the security forces has been used to incite people to take to the streets. The Hurriyat Conference has called for the start of "something fresh, something organised". Political parties have also jumped on the bandwagon. All this has developed into a huge protest in four cities - Srinagar, Sopore, Anantnag and Baramulla.
Inept Kashmir Police and members of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), which have only guns, and no lathis or tear gas to tackle protests, have aggravated the situation. The use of force against the protesters agitating against the successive killings was probably too excessive, and the security forces acted without restraint. This is a matter for an inquiry. Yet the fact remains that the extremists in Kashmir strike whenever an atmosphere of goodwill begins to prevail. The pro-India elements have become irrelevant. They, in any case, are too elitist, seldom mixing with common Kashmiris. Chief Minister Omar Farooq Abdullah leads the exclusive club. But their distance from the people only contributes to what is happening in the state, rather than causing it.
The cause is the belief of Gillani and the Hurriyat that violence alone can lead to a solution in Kashmir. That the problem has dragged on for too long and needs to be tackled quickly goes without saying. But the extremists, including the Hurriyat, only stall the issue by instigating violence. They should have taken to the streets to lead the protests in a peaceful manner, thereby focusing attention on the unresolved issue of Kashmir. They should understand that no discussion is possible at gun point.
One welcome development during the talks in Islamabad has been that nobody representing the Indian government has blamed Pakistan for the events in Kashmir. Credit for this must go to the government and the political parties. This means that the talks between the two foreign secretaries have gone some way towards restoring confidence. I do not know whether home ministers P. Chidambaram and Rahman Malik discussed Kashmir. But at least the two foreign ministers should do so when they meet in Islamabad later this month. India's Army Chief General V.K. Singh has also emphasised the need for "political initiatives" in Kashmir.
The two foreign secretaries, who prepared the agenda for the forthcoming talks between their foreign ministers, did not discuss terrorism. But they did discuss Kashmir. My information is that Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama agreements reached in the past would be kept. Pakistan's foreign secretary had told me in Delhi that the two countries would build on past agreements. This should put to rest doubts in some Pakistani quarters that a democratic government would not be bound by agreements made by General Pervez Musharraf's regime.
No alternative to peace
Chidambaram, who played to the gallery when he spoke to journalists in Delhi, was more responsible in his remarks in Islamabad. For him to say that he did not doubt Pakistan's intentions was a slap in the face of retired Indian foreign secretaries, who continue to follow the hard line they had taken during their careers. They are openly critical of Singh, who has taken the bold initiative to talk to Pakistan despite criticism from the Bharatiya Janata Party. He, like former prime minister Atal Behari Vajapyee, has realised that there is no alternative to peace.
New Delhi expects more arrests in Pakistan after the disclosures by David Headley, whom the Indian intelligence agencies questioned in Chicago. Singh has reportedly drawn US President Barrack Obama's attention to Headley's confession.
Chidambaram has rightly reminded Pakistanis that India has long ago declared Pakistan a Most Favoured State. If Pakistan were to respond in kind, Chidambaram's ideas on trade and investment between the two countries could be implemented. India, with a bigger market and investment potential, could help to develop Pakistan.
India still expects Pakistan to take action against Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed. His vast network made the Mumbai terrorist attacks possible and he will not accept any normalisation of ties.
To further strengthen ties, New Delhi and Islamabad should ensure that their elected leaders meet the opposition leaders when they visit each other's country. Such a move could only help to build confidence.

Kuldip Nayar is a former Indian high commissioner to the United Kingdom and a former Rajya Sabha member.

  Spanish burqa ban

But these bans are not about liberation. By criminalising women in order to free them is in fact liberticide, not liberty.

Farooq Sulehria

The year was 1498. In order to warn its Muslim subjects that their faith would not be respected anymore, the Spanish kingdom arrested a group of Muslim women in Valencia. Their crime was being in hijab. A little more than a century later, in 1605, Miguel de Cervantes' epic Don Quixote (the first part) appeared. The book was published in two parts and its second part came out in 1615.
Don Quixote is considered the most influential work of literature to emerge during the Spanish Golden Age as well as a founding work of modern western literature. In chapter 37 of the book, the reader comes across a veiled woman clad in a Moorish dress, riding a donkey. This was perhaps the first time that a veiled Muslim woman appeared in the western literature.
A few days ago, Spain galloped back to 1498 as the Spanish Senate passed a motion seeking to outlaw 'any usage, custom or discriminatory practice that limits the freedom of women'. Though this legislation will not immediately translate into criminalisation of burqa-clad women, yet Spain becomes another European country to advance legislation that seeks criminalisation of the burqa. France has already banned the hijab at schools since 2004 and is expected to introduce new legislation soon. Italy and Belgium have also introduced legislation regarding the veil while Austria, Holland and Switzerland are likely to join the club, too.
Before the Spanish Senate passed the motion, a number of city and town councils had already taken such initiatives. The Spanish town of Tarres, consisting of a few hundred inhabitants, has been striving for a burqa ban for sometime. Ironically, among the residents of Tarres, most of whom are farmers, there is not a single settler from Portugal or Andorra let alone a burqa-clad Moorish woman. A few months back, Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen also hinted at a ban on the burqa. It came out that no woman in Denmark wears it. The notorious rightwing Danish daily, Jyllands Posten, had to retract its news story about three or four women observing veil in Denmark.
Like elsewhere in Europe, the Spanish Senate has also invoked the issue of liberation of women to criminalise the veil. This is not the first time. Of late, all the rightwing misogynists, it seems, have embraced feminism. The Dutch neo-Hitlerite, Geert Wilders, considers the burqa 'a symbol against women'. French President Nicolas Sarkozy thinks it is 'a sign of subservience'. His fellow 'French feminists' have become so touchy that they want an 'emergency legislation' on it before parliament's summer recess in July.
Europe's growing Islamophobia can be attributed to a number of complex factors. However, it is not a coincidence that an urgency to 'liberate' Muslim women is being realised by country after country as their crisis-hit economies refuse to pick growth. Belgium, for instance, has an economy in mess. Instead of addressing the economic chaos, those at the helm in Brussels found it necessary to ban a garment worn by hardly 30 Belgian citizens. Similarly, Spain is about to become another Greece and may most likely sink the entire EU ship. However, devising a strategy to rescue jobs (including those of women), the Spanish city councils and the Senate want to 'liberate' a few dozen women.
Before liberating Muslim women, the Spanish Senate should have paid heed to granting some independence to Basque Country and Catalan. But these bans are not about liberation. By criminalising women in order to free them is in fact liberticide, not liberty. If these governments are indeed sincere in liberating Muslim women, they should stop trading (particularly arms and oil) with Iran and Saudi Arabia.


The writer is a freelance contributor. Email: mfsulehria @hotmail.com

Viewpoints

Author of ‘basic structure’

Were it not for the 'basic structure' ruling, Indira Gandhi would have recast the constitution entirely during the emergency in 1975.

A.G. Noorani

South Asia has been greatly remiss in not acknowledging its debt to a jurist who single-handedly inspired a revolution in constitutional law. He was Prof Dietrich Conrad, head of the law department at the South Asia Institute of the University of Heidelberg, and the author of the doctrine that "the basic structure" of a constitution cannot be changed.
The Supreme Court of India ruled in 1967 in the Golak Nath case that "Parliament has no power to amend Part III of the constitution [embodying the fundamental rights] so as to take away or abridge the fundamental rights". The court was split six-five; so was the majority.
Faced with the absurdity of an unamendable document, one judge said that parliament's residuary power of legislation can be invoked to convene "a constituent assembly for making a new constitution". Another advised an equally absurd course; namely use the power to amend the constitution, conferred by Article 368 of the constitution, to convene that assembly and pass a law to sanction it. Thus a momentary two-thirds vote in parliament can serve to abrogate the entire constitution.
Counsel for the petitioner M.K. Nambyar urged that there were implied limitations on the amending power. The majority felt that "there is considerable force in this argument" but thought it unnecessary to pronounce on it. "This question may arise for consideration only if parliament seeks to destroy the structure of the constitution embodied in provisions other than in Part III of the constitution."
Few knew then that he owed the argument to Prof Conrad. In February 1965, while on a visit to India, Conrad delivered a lecture on 'Implied limitations of the amending power' to the law faculty of the Banaras Hindu University. Nambyar's attention was drawn to a paper based on it which he read before the Supreme Court.
Conrad said: "Perhaps the position of the Supreme Court [in earlier cases] is influenced by the fact that it has not so far been confronted with any extreme type of constitutional amendments. It is the duty of the jurist, though, to anticipate extreme cases of conflict, and sometimes only extreme tests reveal the true nature of a legal concept."
Could parliament by a two-thirds majority change Article 1 to divide India into two states of Tamilnad and Hindustan? "Could a constitutional amendment abolish Article 21, to the effect that forthwith a person could be deprived of his life or personal liberty without authorisation of law? ... Could the amending power be used to abolish the constitution and reintroduce, let us say, the rule of a Mughal emperor or of the Crown of England?
A more detailed exposition of his views appeared after the judgment in Golak Nath's case ('Limitation of Amendment Procedure and the Constituent Power', Indian Year Book of International Affairs, 1966-1967, Madras). On April 24, 1973, a special bench of the Supreme Court ruled by a majority of seven-six, that Article 368 of the constitution "does not enable parliament to alter the basic structure or framework of the constitution". This was the famous Keshavananda Bharati case frequently cited in Pakistan these days. The court overruled the Golak Nath case and rejected the concept of implied limitations.
Equally split between two extremes, Justice H.R. Khanna's ruling tilted the balance and has been repeatedly affirmed since. "The power of amendment under Article 368 does not include the power to abrogate the constitution nor does it include the power to alter the basic structure or framework of the constitution. Subject to the retention of the basic structure, the power of amendment is plenary."
He approved as "substantially correct" the following observations by Prof Conrad: "Any amending body organised within the statutory scheme, howsoever verbally unlimited its power, cannot by its very structure change the fundamental pillars supporting its constitutional authority."
It was no mere coincidence that a German jurist had thought of implied limitations on the amending power. Article 79(3) of the basic law of the Federal Republic of Germany, bars explicitly amendments to provisions concerning the federal structure and to "the basic principles laid down in Articles 1 and 20 [on human rights and the 'democratic and social' set-up]. Germans had learnt from the bitter experience of the Nazi era.
It is, again, to Prof Conrad that we owe a mass of information on the spread of the 'basic structure' doctrine in a lecture on 'Basic structure of the constitution and constitutional principles', delivered at the Indian Law Institute in New Delhi on April 2, 1996. It was published in Law and Justice, a journal of the United Lawyers Association, New Delhi.
Conrad was familiar with cases in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. The doctrine was adopted by the Supreme Court of Bangladesh in 1989 expressly relying on the Keshavananda case. Conrad noted that in 1963 in Fazlul Quader Chowdry vs Mohammad Abdul Haque, the Pakistan Supreme Court had introduced the expressions "fundamental" or "essential features of the constitution", "basic structure of government" and so on to describe the inherent limitations of a presidential power to remove difficulties in bringing the constitution into operation.
He added: "Recently, in the famous case on judicial appointments, the Pakistan Supreme Court has come very close to recognising a 'basic structure' limitation on the power of amendment. In fact it is amazing to see how they could arrive at certain conclusions and still evade an express recognition of the doctrine." (Al-Jehad Trust case in 1996.)
Prof Conrad was learned in India's history and philosophy, besides constitutional law. He wrote extensively on knotty issues of Hindu law and Muslim law. At Heidelberg he was a guide, friend and philosopher to many a South Asian student.
Sadly he received hardly any recognition for his service during his visits to India except from two senior counsels in the 1973 case. One was M.C. Chagla. The other was Anil B. Divan who recalled the first meetings with the leading counsel Nani Palkhivala. "Nani asked us to give all the cases where constitutional amendments were invalidated. We were flummoxed and told him that there was no such reported case of invalidation of a constitutional amendment. Palkhivala was greatly disheartened until we gave him an article by the late Prof Dieter Conrad." It created history.
Were it not for the 'basic structure' ruling, Indira Gandhi would have recast the constitution entirely during the emergency in 1975.


The writer is an author and a lawyer.

  Turkey is not in conflict with West

Europe will have itself to blame if Ankara decides to go its own way.
 
Joschka Fischer

Turkey's "no" last month (a vote cast together with Brazil) to the new sanctions against Iran approved in the United Nations Security Council dramatically reveals the full extent of the country's estrangement from the West. Are we, as many commentators have argued, witnessing the consequences of the so-called "neo-Ottoman" foreign policy of Turkey's Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, which is supposedly aimed at switching camps and returning to the country's oriental Islamic roots?
I believe that these fears are exaggerated, even misplaced. And should things work out that way, this would be due more to a self-fulfilling prophecy on the West's part than to Turkey's policies.
In fact, Turkey's foreign policy, which seeks to resolve existing conflicts with and within neighbouring states, and active Turkish involvement there, is anything but in conflict with western interests. Quite the contrary. But the West (and Europe in particular) will finally have to take Turkey seriously as a partner and stop viewing it as a western client state.
Turkey is and should be a member of the G20, because, with its young, rapidly growing population it will become a very strong state economically in the 21st century. Even today, the image of Turkey as the "sick man of Europe" is no longer accurate.
When, after the UN decision, United States Secretary of Defence Robert Gates harshly criticised Europeans for having contributed to this estrangement by their behaviour towards Turkey, his undiplomatic frankness caused quite a stir in Paris and Berlin. But Gates had hit the nail on the head.
Ever since the change in government from Jacques Chirac to Nicolas Sarkozy in France and from Gerhard Schröder to Angela Merkel in Germany, Turkey has been strung along and put off by the European Union. Indeed, in the case of Cyprus, the EU wasn't even above breaking previous commitments vis-à-vis Turkey and unilaterally changing jointly-agreed rules. And, while the Europeans have formally kept to their decision to begin accession negotiations with Turkey, they have done little to advance the cause.
Only now, when the disaster in Turkish-European relations is becoming apparent, is the EU suddenly willing to open a new chapter in the negotiations (which, incidentally, clearly proves that the deadlock was politically motivated).
It can't be said often enough: Turkey is situated in a highly sensitive geopolitical location, particularly where Europe's security is concerned. The eastern Mediterranean, the Aegean, the western Balkans, the Caspian region and the southern Caucasus, Central Asia, and the Middle East are all areas where the West will achieve nothing or very little without Turkey's support. And this is true in terms not only of security policy, but also of energy policy if you're looking for alternatives to Europe's growing reliance on Russian energy supplies.
The West, and Europe in particular, can't afford to alienate Turkey, considering their interests, but objectively it is exactly this kind of estrangement that follows from European policy towards Turkey in the last few years.
Shortsighted policy
Europe's security in the 21st century will be determined to a significant degree in its neighbourhood in the southeast exactly where Turkey is crucial for Europe's security interests now and, increasingly, in the future. But, rather than binding Turkey as closely as possible to Europe and the West, European policy is driving Turkey into the arms of Russia and Iran.
This kind of policy is ironic, absurd, and shortsighted all at once. For centuries, Russia, Iran and Turkey have been regional rivals, never allies. Europe's political blindness, however, seems to override this fact.
Of course, Turkey, too, is greatly dependent on integration with the West. Should it lose this, it would drastically weaken its own position vis-à-vis its potential regional partners (and rivals), despite its ideal geopolitical location. Turkey's "no" to new sanctions against Iran in all likelihood will prove to be a significant error, unless Iran changes its nuclear policy.
Moreover, with the confrontation between Israel and Turkey strengthening radical forces in the Middle East, what is European diplomacy waiting for? The West, as well as Israel and Turkey themselves, most certainly cannot afford a permanent rupture between the two states, unless the desired outcome is for the region to continue on its path to lasting destabilisation. It is more than time for Europe to act.
Europe risks running out of time, even in its own neighbourhood, because active European foreign policy and a strong commitment on the part of the EU are sorely missed in all these countries. Or, as Mikhail Gorbachev, that great Russian statesman of the last decades of the 20th century, put it: "Life has a way of punishing those who come too late."


Project Syndicate/Institute for Human Sciences, 2010

 Israel’s dangerous political system

The process of isolation of Israel starts in the heads of its citizens, and is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. History has taught the Jewish people that they can count only on themselves for protection and survival.

Dominique Moisi

What is wrong with Israel? In the last few years, it seems to have done more than all of its combined enemies to delegitimise itself in the eyes of the world. Its leaders' apparent inability to think in strategic terms, and their indifference to the tribunal of global public opinion, is resulting in growing frustration among its citizens and, what may be more dangerous, deepening international isolation.
Where should one look for an explanation for this tragic evolution? Was it simply inevitable for a people who, deprived of a state for more than 2,000 years, may have lost the ability to act collectively in a "raison d'?tat" manner? Or perhaps the weight of holocaust remembrance has blinded Israel's leaders and distorted their thinking - in ways that, at the time the state of Israel was created, the holocaust itself almost miraculously did not.
Certainly, the failure of the peace process in the 1990s, followed by the coming of the second Intifada, appears to have encouraged the radicalisation of Israel's extremes while discouraging moderates. And the revival of religious parties - in a country created by avowed secularists - opened the way for a more politically powerful but also more nationalistic and intolerant setting.
One could also ask whether the arrival of one million "Russians", regardless of their actual ties to Judaism, had a negative effect on Israeli society, by encouraging ideological rigidity and a disdain for democracy that did not prevail before. Or is the explanation for Israel's current predicament to be found on the more prosaic terrain of the country's dysfunctional democracy? In reality, all these explanations are largely complementary; none is in contradiction with the others. But the most important ca?se, the one that should be addressed before all others because it is eroding Israel's very viability, is the near paralysis of the political system.
Italy can survive being badly governed and with a high level of corruption because it is surrounded by the peaceful environment of the European Union. This is not true of Israel. Protected by a "security wall" on one side and the sea on the other, Israeli citizens may enjoy the feeling of living on an artificial island from which they can connect directly to the areas of modernity and prosperity in Asia and the West. Yet they are surrounded by a sea of angry and frustrated people, and cannot escape the log?c of the region they inhabit.
Israel's political system, through its complex mechanisms of rigged party selection and absolute proportionality, condemns the country to weak coalition governments and escalating corruption. It must be reformed urgently. Government leaders in Israel cannot afford to spend 90 per cent of their time thinking about how to survive politically at a time when the state's right to exist is being challenged. To make of their country a pariah is a political, strategic, and moral failure for the leaders of Israel. ?hose leaders' strategic decisions over the last few years, if not longer, have been rather consistently poor, or at least imprudent.
This systematic miscalculation can be explained as follows. From the 2006 war in Lebanon to the recent deadly raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla, Israeli leaders have badly appreciated the ratio between military gains and political risks, and the necessary proportionality between the two. This is all the more dangerous for Israel in view of the apparent decline in its operational military capabilities. Even the operation in Gaza in 2008-2009, despite its apparent military success, was highly damaging for Israel?in political terms.
As Israel's political centre of gravity has shifted to the right, if not the extreme right, one consequence whose long-term effects are not sufficiently appreciated is the growing alienation of Arab citizens, who represent 20 per cent of the population. Yesterday, they felt discriminated against. Today, they feel "occupied" by a nation of which they can never be a part, and by a state that they perceive as "democratic" for its Jewish citizens only and "Jewish" for its Arab citizens.
The process of isolation of Israel starts in the heads of its citizens, and is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. History has taught the Jewish people that they can count only on themselves for protection and survival. Yesterday, intelligence without power led to immense suffering. But today, power without intelligence creates immense dangers not only for Israel, but for the Jewish people at large.
Israel is too small to act foolishly. It desperately needs allies whose populations accept what it is and respect what it does. There will come a moment when Israel's actions will incite people - not only the most fanatical of the country's foes, but also the most generously inclined of its supporters - to question Israel's essence. Whether or not this moment has already come, Israel cannot continue to be misgoverned in the way that it is. Reform of the country's political system has simply become a matter of life and death.


The writer is a visiting professor at Harvard University and the author of "The Geopolitics of Emotion". ©Project Syndicate, 2010. www.project-syndicate.org

International

Fear in China’s Urumqi city as riot anniversary looms
AFP, Urumqi

Police told Abdullah not to leave home on Monday's anniversary of deadly ethnic violence in China's Urumqi city, where the bustle belies continued deep racial divisions and fears of more unrest.
"They told us we can't go out on July 5 and they also came around on Thursday to gather all our big knives," the 46-year-old said, drinking tea at his restaurant in the Uighur quarter.
Capital of far-western Xinjiang region, Urumqi was torn in two on July 5, 2009 as the mainly Muslim Uighur minority vented decades of resentment of Chinese rule with attacks on members of China's dominant Han ethnic group.
Han mobs took to the streets in the following days seeking revenge. Nearly 200 people were killed and 1,700 injured in all, the government says, in the worst ethnic violence in China in decades.
China blamed "separatists" for orchestrating the unrest.
Tensions in the city again boiled over in September after a spate of syringe attacks-which many victims blamed on Uighurs-led to days of protests that left five people dead.
Uighurs, Xinjiang's Turkic-speaking, central Asian people, say they live under fear of being detained on suspicion of fomenting trouble, while some Han say they are prepared for the worst if trouble breaks out again.
Authorities appeared to be bracing for the anniversary, with police conducting massive anti-riot exercises and 40,000 security cameras installed throughout the city.
Residents say security forces-already beefed up after last year's unrest-have deployed in ever greater numbers in recent days with armed police and riot police seen patrolling the city of over two million people on Sunday.
People's Square in the heart of Urumqi, where the unrest began last year, was off limits Sunday, with a construction crew telling AFP the plaza would be closed for several months for refurbishment.
Pointing to gates authorities erected on the road where he lives to keep out outsiders, Abdullah said he feared Han mobs could go on the attack again.
"Those are going to be locked on the anniversary," he said.
In a report issued Friday, the London-based Amnesty International cited "excessive use of force, mass arrests, enforced disappearances, torture and ill treatment" of prisoners during the crackdown that quelled the unrest.
"Amnesty International is calling on China to set up an independent and impartial inquiry into the human rights abuses committed by all participants in the Urumqi unrest," the group said in a statement.
At least 26 people have been sentenced to death for their roles in the unrest, with at least nine already executed, it said.
Uighurs have long alleged decades of Chinese oppression and unwanted Han immigration, and while standards of living have improved, Uighurs complain most of the gains go to Hans.

   Duty calls as US troops mark July 4 in Afghanistan
AFP, Kandahar

As Americans across the world celebrated Independence Day, for thousands of US servicemen and women in Afghanistan it was another day fighting the Taliban under a blistering sun.
The sprawling Kandahar Air Field in southern Afghanistan is home to tens of thousands of troops from more than a dozen nations fighting insurgents and helping train Afghan forces to take over responsibility for security.
US forces make up more than half the 26,000 troops at the base but for many of them, this year's Fourth of July is much like any other day as the fight against Taliban-linked militants continues in the insurgency-hit south.
The US and NATO have 140,000 troops in Afghanistan, with the figure set to peak by August at 150,000 under a US-led counter-insurgency strategy.
Taking a brief break at the Boardwalk, a quadrangle of shops and restaurants at the base popular with the troops, US Army Private Laliberte, from New York-who refused to give his first name-said he did not mind being on duty on what would be a holiday at home.
"Tonight we're going to be talking to our families, stuff like that," he said, standing next to a dusty sports pitch in the 45-plus Celsius (113-plus Fahrenheit) heat.
"I've been away from them for a couple of years, I haven't lived at home with my family for a long time even before I was in the military so I'm kind of used to it," he added.
The base is a regular target of rocket attacks by militants hiding out in the mountains and fields around the dusty airfield and Laliberte said the Taliban might supply the "fireworks" for Sunday's celebrations.
"We might have some tonight," he said. "I'm sure."
Thousands of extra troops are surging into Kandahar as part of a mammoth build-up designed to drive the Taliban out of the province in a critical campaign to end nine years of war in Afghanistan.
Another US soldier, Private First Class Lackey, said he had been in Afghanistan since March and missed his family.
"I don't like being here, away from my family. It's way different from being away from them in the States where I can take leave and go see them," the 22-year-old from Nebraska said.

  Afghan and NATO troops kill 63 rebels, seize drug haul
AFP, Kabul

Afghan authorities said Sunday that they killed more than 60 rebels in raids against Taliban militants and their drug-trafficking backers in a restive part of southern Afghanistan.
More than 16 tonnes of drugs-mostly opium-were also seized in Bahramcha district of Helmand province, centre of a Taliban-led insurgency and Afghanistan's biggest poppy-growing region, the interior ministry said.
"Sixty-three terrorists were killed," the ministry said in a statement, referring to Taliban-linked insurgents.
"The operation was successfully completed today (Sunday)," the statement said.
Two factories for converting opium into heroin were destroyed and "a large number" of weapons and ammunition were also seized in the raids, begun Friday by Afghan counternarcotics commandos supported by NATO troops, it added.
The commandos also freed 10 villagers captured by rebels for allegedly working with the government while arresting 10 rebels and drugs traffickers, the statement said.
War-ravaged Afghanistan is the world's largest heroin producer, with annual exports worth up to three billion dollars helping fuel its Islamist insurgency.

  US ready to help Azerbaijan, Armenia on peace deal: Clinton

AFP, Baku

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Sunday that Washington was ready to help Azerbaijan and Armenia reach a peace deal on the breakaway Nagorny Karabakh region and that the issue was a "high priority".
"We stand ready to help both Azerbaijan and Armenia to achieve and implement a lasting peace settlement. The final steps toward peace are often the most difficult. But we see peace as a possibility... and a prerequisite," she said at a news conference with her Azerbaijani counterpart, Elmar Mammadyarov, during a visit to the ex-Soviet republic.
"We believe there has been progress. This is a high priority for the US," Clinton said.
She condemned violence on the frontline of Karabakh, where Azerbaijani and ethnic Armenian troops are spread along a ceasefire line and shootings are common, including flare-ups last month that left at least four Armenian and two Azerbaijani soldiers dead.
"The US strongly condemns the use of force at the line of contact. I will do everything I can to try and bring the parties together," Clinton said shortly before departing for Armenia.
She also appeared to defend US support for reconciliation efforts between Armenia and Turkey that have angered Azerbaijan, which insists that Turkey should not re-open its closed border with Armenia without concessions on Karabakh.

  Philippines moves to end targeting of massacre witnesses
AFP, Manila

The Philippines ordered greater protection on Sunday for witnesses implicating a powerful Muslim clan in the country's worst political massacre.
Justice Secretary Leila de Lima's directive came as police said they had arrested two suspects in the killing of a key witness against the Ampatuan clan for the November murders of 57 people. "A special team of prosecutors is sitting down with police on how to firmly and effectively address the spate of killings, violence and harassment of witnesses," Justice Secretary Leila de Lima told AFP.
"The stepped up efforts include the immediate tracking down and arrest of the others accused." She said close to 100 Ampatuan gunmen remained at large and continued to receive orders from their jailed patrons.
"For as long as they're still physically out there, and seemingly with resources and communication access to and from their big bosses, the atmosphere of violence and climate of fear will subsist," de Lima said, adding that authorities needed to "neutralise" the threat they posed.
The Ampatuan clan, which ruled southern Maguindanao province for a decade, enjoyed political ties with former president Gloria Arroyo, who used the family's huge private army as a force against separatist rebels.
Arroyo stepped down last week and her successor, President Benigno Aquino, has promised justice for the victims' families.
Six clan members are among 196 people charged in connection with the murders, allegedly carried out to prevent a rival from running as governor of the province, which he eventually won in May.

  Japan PM faces first big test
AFP, Tokyo

Japan Prime Minister Naoto Kan faces his first major test in upper house elections this week, where he will be aiming to build a powerful political platform to restore confidence in Asia's top economy.
Japan goes to the polls on July 11 with Kan's centre-left Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) seeking full control over parliament after last year's landslide lower house victory ended half a century of conservative rule.
The son of a factory manager, Kan in June replaced the dithering and unpopular Yukio Hatoyama, who resigned over funding scandals and a US military base dispute after less than nine months in office.
Kan, who has put the restoration of Japan's tattered finances at the heart of his new manifesto, is seeking a majority to draw a line under a period of damaging revolving-door politics that has seen five new premiers in four years.
"Please give us not just fragile leadership but power to take action," the 63-year-old Kan told voters recently.
"Japan is in the doldrums. I will put Japan on a growth track by rebuilding the economy," he said. "Even a great man can't make things happen only for a year. Gritting my teeth, I want to maintain power at least for five years."
In its manifesto, the DPJ pledged to achieve a primary balance surplus -- the budgetary balance excluding debt servicing costs and revenue from bond issuance -- by March 2021.
It also aims to reduce a public debt that has swollen to 950 trillion yen (over 10 trillion dollars), nearly double gross domestic product.
Changing course from Hatoyama, who had focused on foreign policy shifts and higher social welfare spending, fiscal hawk Kan has called for a full debate on tax reform, including whether to hike sales tax.
"If things are left untouched, we will be like Greece in a few years," Kan said of that country's financial woes that have roiled world markets.
The new premier, who started his political life as a left-wing activist and most recently served as finance minister, is hoping to win a firm grip on the upper house of parliament, where half of the 242 seats will be up for grabs.
The DPJ holds 62 uncontested seats, meaning it needs to win at least 60 for a majority that would allow it to more easily pass laws through the Diet legislature and avoid policy gridlock.

  China mudslide toll at 42, with 57 still missing
AFP, Beijing

Hundreds of rescue workers have dug up the bodies of 42 people killed in a rain-triggered landslide in southwest China, with hopes for 57 others missing all but gone, state press said Sunday.
Rescuers were digging through the debris of the June 28 landslide that buried scores of homes in Dazhai village, Guizhou province, with scant hope of finding survivors, Xinhua news agency said.
More than 100,000 cubic metres of mud and rocks, the equivalent of 40 Olympic-size swimming pools, engulfed the buildings and homes in the village, state press reports have said.
One report said that up to 45 of the missing or dead were children left in the village by their migrant worker parents, who had departed the remote rural region in search of jobs.
Many of the other victims were elderly people who had been charged with taking care of the children, mostly born after 1995, it said.
Local officials have refused to confirm such reports when contacted by AFP.
Sunday's toll was up from 26 dead and 73 missing reported on Saturday.
Much of south and central China has been hit by severe rains that have triggered floods, landslides, dyke breaches and other related disasters.
According to Xinhua news agency, 266 people were confirmed dead and 199 missing following the torrential rains from June 13 to 29, including those earlier listed as missing in Guizhou.

 Kurdish rebels blamed for Turkish-Iraqi pipeline blast
AFP, Diyarbakir

Kurdish rebels waging a 26-year insurgency were suspected of being behind a blast in southeastern Turkey that hit a pipeline carrying oil from Iraq, a local security source said Sunday.
The blast late Saturday ripped through a section of the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline near Midyat, in Mardin province, sparking a fire, the source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said. The blaze was put out early Sunday.
Militants from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) were believed to have bombed the pipeline, and a security operation was underway in the area, added the source.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility from the PKK.
The 970-kilometre (600-mile) pipeline runs from Iraq's northern oil hub of Kirkuk to the port of Ceyhan on Turkey's Mediterranean coast, from where the crude is shipped to world markets by tanker.
The twin conduit, first inaugurated in 1976, carried 167.6 million barrels of oil last year, according to Turkish statistics.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the international community, has sabotaged the pipeline several times in the past as part of its armed campaign against the Ankara government.
The pipeline has also been repeatedly attacked by Sunni Arab insurgents inside Iraq since the US-led invasion of the country in 2003.
The Turkish source said that PKK rebels also attacked a military unity in Beytussebap town in the neighbouring province of Sirnak late Saturday, triggering a firefight that left two militants dead.
The clash also wounded two civilians and two village guards-members of a Kurdish militia force paid and armed by the government to assist security forces in their fight against the PKK, he added.
Security forces were scouring the area for the attackers.
The fresh violence comes at a time when the PKK has significantly escalated attacks against Turkish targets after jailed rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan said in May that he was abandoning efforts for peace with Turkey and the rebels called off a unilateral truce earlier this month.

   Four die in Iraq attack by female suicide bomber: Ministry
AFP, Ramadi

A female suicide bomber blew herself up at the entrance to government offices in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi on Sunday killing at least four people, the interior ministry said.
The attack comes amid a surge in violence which in past weeks has swept the province of Anbar and its capital Ramadi, shattering a long period of relative calm in what was once the epicentre of Al-Qaeda activity and Sunni insurgency.
"At least four people were killed and 23 others wounded, including women and children, by a female suicide bomber at the entrance to the provincial government building," an interior ministry official said.
Local officials could not immediately confirm the toll.
Mohammed Fathi, a spokesman for the Anbar provincial authorities, quoting initial hospital reports, told AFP earlier that at least 10 people were hurt in the attack west of Baghdad.
Anbar, which in the first years after the US-led invasion became the theatre of a brutal war focused on Fallujah and Ramadi, calmed dramatically after Sunni Arabs there turned against Al-Qaeda in 2006 and began what was to grow into a nationwide anti-Qaeda Sahwa, or "Awakening", militia. But the past weeks have seen a resurgence of violence, with troops on Tuesday killing a suicide bomber east of Ramadi, thereby foiling a multiple attack on Muslim worshippers gathering before dawn for prayers.
That same day a roadside bomb killed the vice chancellor of Ramadi's Islamic University, Ahmed Jumaa, and wounded two other people in the nearby Euphrates Valley town of Hit. And on Wednesday two gunmen attacked Major Salam Khalifa, a police commander from Ramadi, as he was walking with his wife and friend in the centre of Hit. Seven Iraqi soldiers were killed on June 18 in an ambush in Akashat near the Syrian border.
US and Iraqi officials had warned of the dangers of an upsurge of violence if negotiations on forming a new governing coalition some four months after an inconclusive general election drag on too long, giving insurgent groups an opportunity to further destabilise the country.

  McCain slams US withdrawal date from Afghanistan
AFP, Washington

US Senator John McCain Sunday slammed the July 2011 target for beginning to pull US troops out of Afghanistan, saying setting a firm date for withdrawal would raise questions about US commitment there.
"I'm concerned about the perception of our friends and our enemies as well as the people in Afghanistan, as to the depth of our commitment," McCain told ABC news in an interview from Kabul.
The Republican lawmaker and former prisoner of war said the policy of announcing a planned draw down date was a "bad idea," and that the United States should only leave Afghanistan when the country is stable enough to maintain a strong government.
"I'm all for dates of withdrawal, but that's after the strategy succeeds, not before. That's a dramatic difference," he said.
Afghanistan's ambassador to the United States, Said Jawad, agreed on CNN. He said any deadline must be "based on the reality on the ground," to send a clear message that "NATO and Afghans are there to finish the job."
"If we had a fully functioning system in Afghanistan, there would be no need for the rest of the world to be there. It will take some time," he said. "The threat of terrorism is still imminent."
McCain warned that the Taliban would fill any vacuum left by departing US troops.
"I know enough about warfare," he said. "I know enough about what strategy and tactics are about."
"If you tell the enemy that you're leaving on a date certain, unequivocally, then that enemy will wait until you leave," he said.

  Indonesia proof that democracy, Islam can co-exist: Minister

AFP, Krakow

Indonesia has moved from an authoritarian state to one of the world's largest democracies, proving Islam and democracy can co-exist, the foreign minister of the world's largest Muslim country said Saturday.
At the 10th meeting of the Community of Democracies, held in Krakow, southern Poland, Indonesian Foreign Minister Raden Muliana Natalegawa said his country "represents the embodiment that democracy, Islam and modernity can go hand in hand." More than 10 years after the fall of the Suharto dictatorship, the Asian nation has transformed into the world's third largest democracy and is today proof that "democracy and Islam can go hand in hand," he added at a global meeting on democracy, also attended by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Although Indonesia two years ago launched the Bali Democracy Forum, to promote cooperation in the field of democracy and political development among Asian countries, the vast archipelago was attending the global Community of Democracies meeting for the first time.
The island nation has had four presidents since Suharto resigned as leader in May 1998 amid mass street protests and the Asian financial crisis, but only current leader Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was directly elected.
The economy is among the largest in Southeast Asia, and with China and India, Indonesia was one of just three G20 members to post economic growth at the height of the global economic crisis in 2009. But critics say human rights abuses and corruption remain rampant in the post-Suharto era.
Suharto died two years ago without facing justice over billions of dollars he allegedly stole from government coffers, while victims of the many human rights abuses under his rule are still seeking recognition. Some 80 percent of the population of some 243 million Indonesians are Muslim and around one in five Indonesians lived below the poverty line in 2006.

  Lebanon cleric Fadlallah, listed as ‘terrorist’ in US, dead
AFP, Beirut

Lebanon's leading Shiite cleric Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, branded a "terrorist" by Washington and once regarded as Hezbollah's spiritual guide, died on Sunday aged 75, an aide told AFP.
Fadlallah died in a Beirut hospital where he was admitted on Friday for internal bleeding.
"Yes Sayyed Fadlallah has died," a senior aide told AFP when asked to confirm reports that the top cleric, with followers mainly in Lebanon and Iraq, had passed away.
Fadlallah, who holds the title "sayyed" to denote direct lineage with the Prophet Mohammad, had been hospitalised several times over the past months. On Friday he was admitted to intensive care as his health deteriorated.
An AFP correspondent said all roads leading to Bahman hospital in Beirut's southern suburbs, where Fadlallah died, were closed to traffic as relatives of the cleric converged on the area.
Family members also began to receive condolences in the nearby Hassanein mosque, the correspondent added
Hezbollah television, Manar, ran breaking news to announce Fadlallah's death and report that his media office will hold a news conference at 11:30 am (0830 GMT) to provide details on funeral arrangements.
Revered by the Shiite faithful, Fadlallah, who also holds the rank of "Grand Ayatollah" was born in 1935 in the Iraqi Shiite holy city of Najaf, where his parents emigrated from Lebanon to study theology.

  Poles pick new president after air-crash death
AFP, Warsaw

Poles voted Sunday in a snap election forced by the air-crash death of conservative president Lech Kaczynski, with his twin bidding to replace him and keep out the governing liberals' candidate.
Pitting hardball ex-prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski against soft-spoken acting president Bronislaw Komorowski, the run-off marks the latest chapter in a bitter power struggle.
Lech Kaczynski perished on April 10 when his jet crashed in Smolensk, western Russia as it landed for a World War II commemoration. A total of 96 people died, among them his wife, senior politicians and military top brass.
The law made parliamentary speaker Komorowski acting president of the nation of 38 million.
Still reeling from the crash, Poland was battered in May and June by the worst floods in decades which killed 24 and forced thousands from their homes.
"The campaign's behind us, now we await the result," the unmarried Kaczynski, 61, said after voting in Warsaw alongside his bereaved niece, Marta.

  Yemen rights group vows to combat slavery
AFP, Sanaa

A Yemeni rights organisation said on Sunday it has launched a campaign against slavery, which was abolished in 1962 but still appears to be the lot of hundreds of people in the impoverished country.
Hood "will work with its partners in civil society ... to end this crime," the non-governmental organisation's coordinator Mohammed Naji Allaw said on its website.
"A committee of dignitaries will visit the regions where those who practice slavery live, in order to explain to them the gravity of their crime," he said.
He also warned that the organisation would "prosecute those who install themselves as masters and enslave other citizens, in criminal acts that the Yemeni law punishes by 10 years imprisonment."
The campaign follows a series of articles on al-Masdaronline news website on practices which affect "500 slaves" across the country.
Hood said investigations had revealed that the number of affected people was higher and that some Yemenis had confirmed "inheriting" slaves from their parents.
"It seems that the republic has failed" to abolish differences between social classes, a declared aim of its 1962 revolution which ended rule by an imam, the NGO said.
Hood said Yemen's prosecutor general, Abdullah al-society, had promised to order a probe.
The country in the southern Arabian peninsula is one of the world's most impoverished.

Business/Economy

Export to USA unlikely to cross 2008-09 figure
UNB, Dhaka

The export earnings from USA, the highest export destination for Bangladesh, during the outgoing financial year is unlikely to cross the figure of 2008-09.
The export to USA fetched US$ 2802.84 million in 9 months to March compared to US$
4052 million in 2008-09. The country's total export earnings during the year stood at US$ 15565.19 million Three-quarters export earning from USA is 24.29 percent of the country's total export earnings during the outgoing year featuring woven garment, knitwear, frozen foods, cap and home textile the major items.
The overall export performance for the July-March of 2009-10 was US$ 11541.23 million as against the strategic export target of US$ 12777.60 million. The performance rate is around 90 percent.
Since 2000-01 fiscal, the export earnings from USA witnessed both upward and downward trend as it totaled US$ 2500.42 million in 2000-01 fiscal which came down to US$ 2218.79 million in 2001-02 fiscal.
The export earnings from USA for the 2002-03 fiscal was US $ 2155.00 million, in the 2003-04 fiscal US $ 1966.58 million, in the 2004-05 fiscal US $ 2412.05 million, in the 2005-06 fiscal US $ 3030.20 million, in the 2006-07 fiscal US $ 3441.02 million, in the 2007-08 fiscal US $ 3590.56 million.
Apart from USA, the 2nd highest exporting destination for Bangladesh is Germany as goods worth US$ 1596.93 million were exported to this European country during the July-March period of the outgoing year representing 13.86 percent of the country's total export.
During the period, the export earnings from UK accounted for US $ 1094.38 million or 9.57 percent of total export followed by France US $ 685.65 million or 5.94 percent of the country's total export.
The other major country-wise export earnings for Bangladesh for the July-March period are US $ 266.47 million from Belgium, US $ 441.18 million from Italy, US $ 718.73 million from the Netherlands, US $ 471.13 million from Canada, US $ 236.49 million from Japan while US $ 3227.68 million from other countries.

 Stocks open fiscal 2010-11 bullish
BSS, Dhaka

Stockbrokers had a relatively busy day on Sunday, the first trading session of the new fiscal 2010-11 when investors became pro-active to some speculations about future gains.
Among the speculations was good return from energy sector, which in fact was based on the finance minister's proposal for doubling CNG price.
The energy and power sector's issues were traded upto 5 percent higher than Thursday's closing prices as many investors switched their portfolios from other areas. Like previous weeks, investors were heavily buying financial stocks that increased daily turnover substantially. The share prices of Uttara Finance and Investment surged by over 9 per cent after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) allowed the company to change in the denomination of share face value from Taka 100 to Taka 10 each and to keep the market lot at 50 shares.
The speculation about similar change also increased the share prices of the Peoples Leasing and Finance. In spite of the positive backdrop, the index on Dhaka and Chittagong stock exchanges increased marginally mainly due to continuous downfall of the market bellwether Gram-eenphone (GP), which dominates 15 per cent of the total market capital. "Traders are dumping the stock (GP) fearing a massive sell of which they are anticipating to come when the lock in period of its privately placed will be expired," Aims of Bangladesh, an asset and investment management company, said in its market review.
The indices, however, closed higher on Sunday, making a positive turn from the downbeat in last week of the fiscal 2009-10.
DSE index finished 63.30 points or 1.03 per cent higher at 6217.07 when CSE index closed almost flat at 11720.
Daily turnover on DSE increased by 13 per cent to reaching at Taka 2,127 crore from Thursday's Taka 1,887 crore. The turnover on CSE also went up of active buying.

  ECB chief rules out risk of new recession
AFP, Aix-En-Provence, France

ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet ruled out on Sunday the risk of a new recession, after a week of soft economic data fuelled market fears of a dreaded double-dip into a new slump. "I don't think so at all," Trichet told journalists when asked if a double-dip recession was on the horizon.
"At a global level it is clear that we are experiencing a recovery, which is confirmed particularly in the emerging world but also in the industrialized world," he said at an economics conference in the south of France.
But he warned that growth could not be taken for granted in industrialised countries, saying that "it depends on us, it depends on the capacity of the industrialized countries to reinforce confidence."
"This is the reason why it is so important that we have fiscal policies designed to reinforce confidence of households ... of businesses ... of savers and of investors," he said.
Trichet also said that austerity drives being implemented in several European countries would not hurt the recovery, as some top economists and US officials have suggested.
Global stocks suffered heavy losses and bonds rallied last week as a string of dismal economic data from the United States and China raised doubts about the health of the global economic recovery.

  Asian economies see opportunity as China’s lustre dims
AFP, Jakarta

Labour costs and the value of China's currency are sending ripples around Asia as countries jostle to lure manufacturers that are rethinking their Chinese operations, analysts and officials said.
Worker unrest at foreign-owned factories and the prospect of higher wage costs are forcing some manufacturers to consider countries such as Bangladesh, India, Indonesia and Vietnam, where wages remain relatively low.
Indonesian Trade Minister Mari Pangestu said in January that there was a "permanent trend" of shoe manufacturers shifting from China to Indonesia, resulting in 1.8 billion dollars of investment over the last four years.
Bruce Tsao, an analyst with Capital Securities in Taipei, said dramatic wage hikes in the mainland were "adding more woe to labour-intensive industries in China already troubled by low profit margins". "Such factories may not move out of China soon, but the trend is inevitable in the long term," he said. Taiwan's Feng Tay Group, which supplies about one sixth of Nike sports trainers, said it was planning to boost production in India as its Chinese manufacturing base shrank.
The company made 51 million pairs of shoes last year, 20 percent in five Chinese plants.
"The ratio will keep falling in the years ahead," company spokeswoman Amy Chen said, adding however that its five Chinese plants would "remain our production base of high-priced products". "We'll keep expanding our capacity in India over the next five years, considering its competitive edges like ample supplies of quality workers, relatively low wages and concessions offered by the government."
China's central bank last month pledged to let the yuan trade more freely against the dollar but ruled out dramatic moves in the currency or a one-off appreciation as demanded by its major trading partners like the United States.
The yuan hit five-year highs of 6.8089 to the dollar in the days that followed, but it remains firmly within a tightly controlled trading band. Analysts said a more robust yuan would further erode China's labour-cost advantage over other links in the global supply chain, amid growing signs that the country's apparently limitless pool of cheap workers might be drying up.

  Manmohan eyes double digit growth for Indian economy in 2-3 years

PTI, Kanpur

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday said the Indian economy is poised to grow by double digits in the next two-three years, having successfully weathered the impact of the global downturn.
"Global economic recession did not have much impact on us, as it had on other countries. Our target is to bring India to double digit growth path in the next two-three years," he said at a function organised by the Merchants' Chamber of Uttar Pradesh here.
The Prime Minister said that there were a number of inherent strengths in the country's economy which can contribute to rapid growth in the future and they should be harnessed to push up economic growth to double digits.
"Our savings and investment rates are high. Our youth ratio in the population is higher as compared to other countries and our private companies have created their place at the international level and they are being considered as good companies," he said.
"We should take maximum advantage of our strengths so that we can achieve the target of double digit growth," he added.
He said the last two years were difficult for the economy because it not only had to face global recession, but also drought last year.
"It is a sign of how strong our economy is that we have been successful to overcome these problems," Singh said.
India's economic growth slowed down to 6.7 per cent during 2008-09 as it faced the ripple effects of global financial mess, after three successive years of nine per cent plus growth.
During 2009-10, growth recovered to 7.4 per cent, after the government provided stimulus packages to the economy. This fiscal, the growth is targeted to further rise to 8.5 per cent.
The Prime Minister said that economic growth in the last few years had created new hopes among the people in the country.
"Today, our citizens are very hopeful of the future and India is being viewed with greater respect at the global level and attention is being on the issues being raised by us on the international forums," he said.

  Indians in US, other countries to get tax concession
PTI, New Delhi

It is what you may call charity with benefit. Indians, staying in the US, could in next three months avail tax concession on the money they will spend on social welfare projects at their native places in India.
Under the 'India Development Foundation for Overseas Indians', an initiative of Ministry of Overseas Indians, they will get tax exemption if they want to build schools, primary health centres and other infrastructure in their villages and places of origin in India.
The Ministry has already started the process of registering the foundation in the US and it will be in place in next three months, Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi told PTI in an interview.
After the US, the ministry will register the foundation in other countries, including the UK and the Gulf. According to official data, there are about 24 million Indians overseas.

  Apple’s iPhone 4 selling like hotcakes in online stores
Gulfnews

Dubai: Apple's iconic tele-com device iPhone hits the market via more and more online shopping platforms in the UAE, with web retailer Souq.com being the latest addition after other online stores such as Alshop.com and Aido.com.
"Currently we have a growing number of merchants and resellers listing around 250 iPhone 4s on our platform," Ronaldo Mouchawar, chief executive officer of Souq.com, told Gulf News. "The effect is that the price has come down very fast."
From an initial asking price of around Dh6,000 for the "factory unlocked" 32GB version of the iPhone 4 prices have now reached a range of Dh3,300 to Dh3,900 at Souq.com.
"The demand is huge, people are buying the phone continuously," Mouchawar said. It is currently under the top three best selling item on Souq.com, he said.
Trading platform
Souq.com does not sell by itself but provides a trading platform, bringing sellers and buyers together and handling the ordering and payment process. Resellers act either on a private or commercial level.
Customers are coming mostly from Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and a few from Saudi Arabia.
The iPhone stock offered by them originates mostly in the US, Mouchawar said. He hasn't experienced any issues with Apple, he added. "We work closely with the copyright owner as we did with the iPhone 3G and the iPad."
But the grey market channel can also have its traps.
The iPhones are sold on an "as is" basis, Mouchawar said, which means they do not carry the manufacturer's official warranty and will not be serviced by Apple's authorised dealers and shops.
"But resellers offer their own warranties on the phone," Mouchawar said.
Souq.com yesterday forecast triple digit growth for its business by the end of 2010. The online retailer reported strong growth in 2009 and plans to offer new services in the future, Mouchawar said.

  British govt planning even deeper spending cuts
AFP, London

Britain's coalition government has ordered many ministries to plan for spending cuts of up to 40 percent, far greater than announced in an emergency budget, the finance ministry said Saturday.
As Britain bids to slash a record budget deficit, departments had been warned to expect spending cuts of about 25 percent, but many ministries have now been asked to identify where cuts of 40 percent could be made. It is the latest step in laying the ground for a spending review to be published in October which is expected to be the toughest since World War II.
The newly created Office for Budget Responsibility has forecast that 600,000 public sector jobs will be lost as Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative-Liberal Democrat government grapples with the deficit. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said last month that the defence and education ministries would receive favourable treatment, but they have now been told to assess the potential impact of cuts of 10 percent and 20 percent.
They only departments to escape any cuts will be health and international development, whose funding is "ringfenced" during the current parliament term.
A Treasury spokesman said: "We are determined to tackle the record budget deficit in order to keep rates lower for longer, protect jobs, and maintain the quality of essential public services.

National

Jute starts regaining its past glories as golden fibre
BSS, Rrangpur

Harvest of jute has already began with excellent yield rates and lucrative prices predicting a super bumper production this season in northern Bangladesh, farmers, scientists and officials concerned said on Saturday.
At this very earlier stage of harvest, farmers are selling the newly harvested fibre at rates between Taka 1,800 and 2,000 per every maund (Every 40 kg) when its farming target has been exceeded by 44 percent this time in the region, they said.
Jute farming quickly boomed following various steps taken by the present government for reviving the past glory of the 'Golden Fibre' after assuming power making the farmers enthusiastic that led to the huge success in farming of the cash crop this year.
Even last year, jute farming target could not be achieved and the farmers this time exceeded the target even after facing huge initial hurdles like seed crisis, droughts, lack of soil moistures and crop diversification.
But, the government quickly, effectively and very much timely acted and imported adequate quality jute seeds on an emergency basis and timely distributed those among the farmers.
The farmers started becoming more enthusiastic as the government actively considers possibilities of re-launching the closed Jute Mills to pave the way of regaining the past glory of jute under changed climatic conditions.
After facing all initial problems and getting late rainfalls, the farmers finally could cultivate jute on 1,99,833 hectares land, which is 44 percent higher than the fixed target of bringing 1,38,731 hectares land under its farming this season in the region.
Jute harvest may continue till the end of July as the seed sowing period was prolonged from April to the end of May this season, said Dinajpur Hub Manager of Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia and noted agri-scientist Dr MA Mazid on Sunday. Talking to BSS, a number of jute growers of Rangpur and Dinajpur expressed their huge satisfactions for successful jute farming and the special incentives announced for them by Agriculture Minister Begum Motia Chowdhury a few days ago.
They also lauded the special initiative taken by the government for supplying ribbon machines for easing jute rotting process and upgrading fibre quality using ribbon retting methods during drought-like situations like last year.
Side by side with harvesting, the jute plants including the lately sowed tender plants are growing excellent creating eye-catching looks everywhere now following frequent rainfalls amid favourable climatic conditions.

  Call for nurturing rich Bengali culture
BSS, Rangpur

The three-day 'Bangla Link Rangpur Divisional Folk Song Festival-2010' ended in Rangpur on Saturday night with a fresh call for increased nurturing the rich Bengali culture. Speakers in the closing ceremony said that the folk songs are the part and parcel of the rich Bengali culture those always help the heroic and peace-loving Bangalees in searching for their roots of the non-communal ancestral heritage. They also stressed the essence for preserving, flourishing and nurturing the rich cultural heritage of our predecessors for knowing the roots of the proud Bengali nation and leading it forward with its own rich cultural and ancestral identity at home and abroad.
Rangpur Sound Touch organised the three-day festival with Bangla Link sponsorship at Rangpur Town hall auditorium with the participation of the best Vaoyaiya, Polli Geeti and folk song and dance artists of all eight districts in Rangpur division.
Earlier, a colourful rally participated by folk song artists of all ages from all eight districts under Rangpur division and distinguished personalities paraded the streets of the city on the inaugural day on Thursday last.
Chaired by President of Rangpur Sound Touch, the inaugural ceremony was attended and addressed by Deputy Commissioner of Rangpur BM Enamul Haque as the chief guest. Chief Executive Officer of Bangla Link Ahmed Abu Doma and Regional Distribution Manger of Rangpur Zone of Bangla Link Asifuzzaman Khan and renowned cultural personalities of Rangpur division were present.
Renowned Vaoyaiya artist, Music Director and Music Scientist M Sirajuddin formally inaugurated the festival in the jam-packed Town hall auditorium in presence of the noted folk singers, artists, socio-cultural activists, officials, professionals and elite.
The best Baul Artist of the sub-continent Quddus Boyati was present in the concluding ceremony as the chief guest, rendered a number of all-time heart- throbbing Baul and folk songs and distributed prizes among winners of different competitions.
Rangpur pourashava Mayor AKM Abdur Rouf Manik, General Secretary of Rangpur Sound Touch Maksudar Rahman Mukul, judges of the competitions and renowned cultural personalities Siraj Uddin, KM Ali Samrat and Monwara Begum, were present.
The speakers in the concluding ceremony put especial emphasis for nurturing our folk songs and narrated the main objectives of the festival and importance of the folk songs in the life and society of the heroic, peace-loving and non- communal Bengali nation.
They said that our forefathers created and enjoyed Vaoyaiya and Polli Geeti songs as rich cultural heritage, ideals and patriotic feelings and urged for properly preserving, flourishing and nurturing the same by our future generations to save our own identity.

  Six killed in road accidents
UNB, Comilla

Two people, including a school girl, were killed and five others injured in separate road accidents on Dhaka-Chittagong highway in Comilla on Saturday.
The victims were identified as Bristi, a class VII student of Rayerdiya High School in Kaliganj of Gazipur district and Nazmul Huq, 35, a truck driver
Bristi, who came to Kotbari for picnic along with other students of the school, died on the spot when a pickup van hit her on the highway in Nazirabazar area of Mainamati Cantonment.
In another incident a passenger bus and a goods-laden truck collided head on, killing truck driver Nazmul on the spot and injuring five bus passengers on the same highway at Shahid Nagar in Daudkandi upazila at 1:00pm.
The injured were admitted to Gouripur Health Complex.
Another report from Jhenidah adds: A man was killed and 15 others were injured as a bus plunged into a roadside ditch at Pirojpur Battala in Kaliganj upazila Saturday noon.
The identity of the deceased couldn't be known immediately. Police said, the Jessore bound bus from Kushtia fell into the roadside ditch, leaving one passenger dead on the spot and 15 others injured.
Police recovered the body and sent it to hospital morgue for autopsy. The injured were admitted to Kaliganj Upazila Health Complex.

   JU to set up Sheikh Hasina hall
A Correspondent, JU

A new residential hall named after Sheikh Hasina is being constructed at the Jahangirnagar University (JU) in the FY 2010-2011 with a view to extending the education facilities for female students.
Vice Chancellor of the university Prof Dr Shariff Enamul Kabir told in an exclusive interview here today. Having 525 seats, construction of the hall would require TK 14 crore, he added.
JU senate members proposed the name of the hall as Sheikh Hasina Hall while Dr Shariff disclosed this in the 29th senate meeting in his written speech on June 25. Besides this, department of Bio-technology and Genetic Engineering has been permitted to be launched at JU under the faculty of Biological Science, he said adding. For developing research based education another research center named "Wazed Mia Research Center" is going to be set up soon, the VC said while highlighting activities of JU.
The construction would require TK 10 crore and this is now under consideration of the planning commission, he added.
The authorities have taken decision to launch Media Studies, Comparative Literature, Women Studies and Law department gradually.
Besides, we are thinking of launching Medical, Engineering and Fine Arts faculty soon, he said adding.
The VC has sought all out cooperation and grants to the government making the university diversified, fulfill with research based education and modern subjects.

   Youths to be motivated to face climate change, prevent eve-teasing

BSS, Rajshahi

Speakers at a motivational campaign and certificate-giving ceremony Rajshahi on Sunday underscored the need for proper sensitisation of the youths to face the climate change and to prevent eve-teasing.
They opined that the youth forces have a vital role to play to contain the natural problem side by side with the social crime.
The ceremony titled "Role of youths to face climate change and to prevent eve-teasing" was organized by the Department of Youth Development at the conference hall of Rajshahi Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Mayor of Rajshahi AHM Khairuzzaman Liton addressed the ceremony as the chief guest with Deputy Director of the department Nazrul Islam in the chair. Marking the occasion, some 143 trained youths were given micro credit worth Taka 12.20 lakh along with certificates. Mayor Liton mentioned that the present government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has already undertaken various uplift programs for uplifting the youths.
He urged upon the participating trained youths to come forward for the best uses of the government programs.
Prof ANM Saleh of Psychology Department of Rajshahi University presented a concept paper on the issues. He mentioned that the incidents of stalking have increased to a great extent in the recent years. As a result, he said, a number of female students were compelled to commit suicide in different parts of the country.
Even fathers, mothers and relatives of girl students are assaulted by stalkers regularly and law enforcers cannot stop the stalking alone, they said, adding every person of society should have to come forward to fight the social menace.

   Present govt ensures complete freedom of press: Shawkat
BSS, Rangpur

Valiant Freedom Fighter and Chairman of Chilmari upazila in Kurigram Shawkat Ali Sarker Bir Bikram has said the present government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has ensured complete freedom of press in the country.
The present government has also been working relentlessly for building a Digital Bangladesh through implementing the Vision-2021, Charter of Changes and MDGs by involving all and the journalists can play vital roles towards the directions, he said.
He also urged the country's journalists' communities to play their due roles in making the government's development programmes successful to turn the country into a medium income nation by 2021 to achieve economic freedom of al citizens.
Shawkat Ali was speaking as the chief guest in a simple ceremony organised after inauguration of the construction works of the two- storied building of Chilmari Press Club in Chilmari upazila town in Kurigram on Saturday.
The occasion was attended and addressed by Advisor of Chilmari Press Club and noted businessman Alhaj Mahfuzar Rahman Manju, President of Chilmari Press Club Nazrul Islam Sabu and its General Secretary SM Nurul Amin Sarker.
Members of the executive committee of Chilmari Press Club and its all common members, professionals and elite of the remotest upazila town on the Brahmaputra bed were present on the occasion.

Sports

Hot-shot Villa leads Spain into semi-finals
AFP, Johannesburg

David Villa scored the only goal as European champions Spain beat Paraguay 1-0 at Ellis Park on Saturday to set up a World Cup semi-final against Germany.
Villa, who now has five goals in the tournament, struck the winner seven minutes from the end of what had been a disjointed quarter-final performance from the fancied Spaniards in a game that saw both goalkeepers save second-half penalties. Germany, who lost to Spain in the Euro 2008 final, had earlier thumped Argentina 4-0 in Cape Town. "We didn't play well mainly because we didn't get enough of the ball," said Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque.
"We are now amongst the four best teams in the world. Our next opponents are Germany who are the best team at the moment." Spain's Cesc Fabregas, who came on for the out-of-form Fernando Torres in the second half, admitted the semi-final will require a step-up in class. "It feels good to be in the semi-finals, but we know it'll mean nothing if we don't reach the final," he said.
"We watched Germany beat Argentina and they played very well. They are one of the best teams in this tournament. We will have to play our very best to be able to beat them."
Paraguay coach Gerardo Martino said his side paid the price for not taking the opportunities which came their way. "We had chances but didn't take them. But never mind. I congratulate my players for their progress at the World Cup," he said. Paraguay made a good start to the match and created two chances in the first 10 minutes.
Jonathan Santana shot too close to goalkeeper Iker Casillas from 20 yards and then Cristian Riveros failed to hit the target with a header from Victor Caceres's pinpoint cross.
Spain were out of sorts with even Barcelona playmaker Xavi uncharacteristically wasteful with his passing. However, he finally brought a spark to the European champions' play when he hit a dipping volley from 25 yards just over the bar. Four minutes from the break Paraguay had the ball in the net as Nelson Valdez latched onto a long ball and slotted home into the bottom corner but his strike was ruled out for offside. Liverpool forward Torres remained an isolated figure up front and it was not surprising that Spain coach Vicente del Bosque replaced him with Fabregas.

  Argentina shattered as Maradona mulls future
AFP, Cape Town

Argentina head home Sunday with their World Cup dream in tatters and coach Diego Maradona lamenting the toughest day of his life as he considers whether to quit.
The South American giants didn't just lose to long-time rival Germany in the quarter-finals, they were humiliated 4-0 and it appears Maradona's reign could be over.
A third-minute goal by Thomas Mueller stunned the Argentines, putting them in an unaccustomed position, and they never recovered. Germany turned the screw after the interval with Miroslav Klose getting two more in his 100th game and centre-back Arne Friedrich scoring his first for his country. It was Argentina's worst World Cup defeat since they lost to the Netherlands, also 4-0, in 1974 and Maradona said he felt a deep sadness.
"The day I stopped playing football could be similar, but this sadness is really strong," said the former midfield maestro, who hung up his boots on his 37th birthday in 1997.
"It's tough because the idea was to go beyond this match and be among the four best teams and we didn't achieve that. "We all had this hope and dream and we were just thinking about winning and the opposite happened."
As one of Argentina's most celebrated and controversial figures, on and off the field, Maradona has been through countless highs and lows, but he said Saturday's defeat was the hardest thing he had ever faced. "I lived through this in 1982 as a player. I was a boy and didn't realise the importance of things," he said. "Today I'm nearly 50, I'm mature and this is the toughest moment in my life. It is really like a kick in the face. I have no more energy for anything."
Maradona, who was appointed coach in November 2008 after overcoming cocaine addiction despite having little previous managerial experience, indicated that that he may quit, but that he needed time to think. He said in his post-match press-conference that "I may leave tomorrow", but when pushed, Maradona appeared to backtrack. "We will see what happens. I haven't thought about leaving, I have to check with my family, with the players. There are a number of things I have to consider," said the 49-year-old. "But as coach and player, the type of football people like is this one. Touch the ball, rotate, run, Argentina can't play a different style."
Argentina is a football-mad nation and how the team is recieved on their return could determine Maradona's fate. He is acutely aware of having let down an expectant nation.
While Maradona was clearly upset at losing, it was the size of the defeat that was the real surprise.
Few expected Germany to take them apart as they did, with Argentina coming into the match having won all their group games and the round of 16 clash against Mexico.

   Spain’s tough task against Germany: Santa Cruz
AFP, Johannesburg

Paraguay striker Roque Santa Cruz expects Spain will find it tough to beat red-hot Germany in Wednesday's World Cup semi-final in Durban.
The Manchester City forward said the European champions were not much better than Paraguay in their hard-fought 1-0 win at Ellis Park on Saturday.
It took David Villa's fifth goal of the tournament seven minutes from time to secure passage into the last four for the Spaniards, but Santa Cruz expects the going will get even tougher for them against Germany.
"I think we needed a little more luck and we showed that we could have won," said Santa Cruz, who had a couple of late chances when he came on as substitute for the last 18 minutes. "Spain weren't better than us, anything but, and we had our chances during the course of the game.
"Spain still have a little way to go and they now play Germany, who showed a great display against Argentina, so it will be a very tough game for Spain again." It was a far from convincing performance from Spain, who made history by reaching the World Cup semi-finals for the first time after finishing fourth in the 1950 tournament when there was no semi-final format. Both goalkeepers saved second-half penalties before Villa's late intervention ended Paraguay's quest to reach the semi-finals for the first time.
"We've got the team to keep on progressing but we have to accept our fate," he said. "We are very disappointed and it was frustrating to lose. We thought we played a great game and things didn't work out at the end. "We are very proud to finish with that kind of performance we showed against Spain." Paraguay's Argentine coach Gerardo Martino claimed after the match he was expecting an apology from FIFA following his team's defeat.
Martino was angered by a pair of decisons that went against his team and potentially cost them victory. "I should say that some decisions could have changed the course of the match," he said. "There was the first half goal scored by (Nelson) Valdez and also the penalty. Perhaps there was a foul but then perhaps he should have been sent off."

  Pietersen out of Bangladesh series
AFP, London

Kevin Pietersen was left out of England's 13-man squad announced Sunday for their upcoming one-day series against Bangladesh because of a thigh injury.
England's selectors also chose to rest off-spinner Graeme Swann, a regular in all three international formats, following their 3-2 one-day series win over Australia completed at Lord's here on Saturday where batsman Pietersen suffered his injury during a 42-run loss. Jonathan Trott, like Pietersen born in South Africa, was called up into the squad, with off-spinner James Tredwell taking Swann's place in two like for like replacements.
Pietersen, who has now gone 16 innings without a one-day fifty after falling for a duck at Lord's, injured himself while fielding and is now due to undergo further assessment of the quadriceps strain in his left leg. Swann meanwhile will be able to play County Cham-pionship cricket for Nottin-ghamshire to help him prepare for England's four-Test series against Pakistan starting in July.
Left-arm quick Ryan Sidebottom was left out of a 13-man squad after not featuring against Australia in a series where England fielded the same XI in all five matches. England national selector Geoff Miller said: "It's unfortunate Kevin Pietersen has suffered an injury - and although we'll know the full extent in due course, it looks like he'll be able to make a full recovery very quickly. "Graeme Swann has been involved in all forms of the game for some time now, and this forthcoming period has been identified as the best opportunity to ensure he has a suitable break before a demanding schedule this summer and during the winter."
Former England off-spinner Miller added: "James Tredwell and Jonathan Trott have previously been involved with the England one-day set-up and will be excellent additions to the full England squad from the England Lions.

  Records mean nothing to Wimbledon champ Serena
AFP, London

Wimbledon champion Ser-ena Williams hardly had time to complete her lap of honour around Centre Court before the debate began about where she ranks among the sport's all-time greats.
Williams gave a typically dominant display of power and poise to crush Russian 21st seed Vera Zvonareva 6-3, 6-2 in the women's singles final at the All England Club on Saturday.
Her fourth Wimbledon singles title was the 13th Grand Slam crown of her remarkable career, taking her above Billie Jean King in the all-time list.
The 28-year-old was so dominant at Wimbledon that she didn't drop a set throughout the tournament and served a record 89 aces in her seven matches.
Only her sister Venus is capable of giving her any kind of challenge in this mood and Serena will head to the US Open in Septem-ber as firm favourite to secure her third Grand Slam of the year.
With time still on her side, Serena could end up with 20 Grand Slam titles before she retires and Wimbledon legend Martina Navratilova believes the American is on course to become one of the most successful female players ever.
Navratilova, who won 18 Grand Slam titles, is convinced Serena has the weapons to pass Helen Wills Moody, who won 19 Grand Slams, and then chase down Steffi Graf, who secured 22, and maybe even Margaret Court, who heads the list with 24. "At the rate she's going, she may catch up me and Helen Wills Moody, and-who knows? -- maybe even Steffi," Navratilova said.
Despite all the praise showered on her after Saturday's victory, Serena herself remains completely unfazed by talk of such historic achievements.
Serena's serve was virtually unplayable for the entire Championships and Zvonareva failed to earn even a solitary break point against her in the final.
The champion was happy enough with that part of her game but admitted she felt she still had room for improvement in other departments.
She joked that in an ideal world she would be able to call on the best parts of some of her contemporaries. "I think if I built the perfect game, I'd have (Rafael) Nadal's speed. I'd have Roger Federer's forehand. I would keep my serve, then maybe Venus's reach," Serena said.
Her rivals on the women's tour will hardly sleep any easier at the thought that Serena can still get even bettter and she has no intention of walking away from tennis anytime soon.

  Dutch favourites as football’s biggest prize looms
AFP, Cape Town

The Netherlands go into their World Cup semi-final against Uruguay on Tuesday as hot favourites, but with the biggest prize in world football at stake anything can happen.
Both sides will be missing key players for the Cape Town spectacle as a final looms against either Germany or Spain, but the statistics speak for themselves.
Under coach Bert Van Marwijk the Oranje have been one of the best performing teams in the world.
They picked up eight wins from eight games in qualifying and have a 100 percent record from their five games in South Africa, which includes sending favourites Brazil packing.
It is a formidable achievement that should have Uruguay quaking in their boots, especially with the South Americans needing huge luck to overcome Ghana after being pushed to extra-time and penalties in their quarter-final.
Before the tournament, the glory years of Uruguayuan football were a fast fading memory, with their last semi-final 40 years ago and just two appearances in the last five World Cups.
But under Oscar Tabarez, who also steered them to the last 16 in 1990 in his first stint as coach, they have been rejuvenated and cannot be written off.
Known as El Maestro in his homeland, Tabarez is reliable, hard working and a man of few words. He, for one, is not ready to throw in the towel. "We are amongst the four best teams at this World Cup. This is something we would never have imagined before coming to South Africa," he said.
"My players are very united. I don't know how far we can go in the tournament. The Netherlands have some great players, but we cannot betray this group of players. "If there is a glimmer of hope we must hang on. We will certainly not throw in the towel before playing that match.
"Holland will be very difficult - but not impossible."
Uruguay though are handicapped by the loss of influential striker Luis Suarez, who misses the game after being red-carded for his deliberate goal-line handball that denied Ghana a famous victory.
Defender Jorge Ciro Fucile is also suspended while skipper Diego Lugano and midfielder Nicolas Lodeiro are injury doubts, heaping even more pressure on the shoulders of Diego Forlan to lead his team to victory.
In the Dutch camp, Ajax defender Gregory van der Wiel and Manchester City midfielder Nigel de Jong miss out after picking up their second yellow cards of the tournament against Brazil.

  Villa, Klose star as Europe tighten World Cup grip
AFP, Johannesburg

David Villa and Miroslav Klose confirmed they rank among the finest football predators as the chances of a first European World Cup triumph outside the continent rocketed this weekend.
Netherlands are favoured to defeat Uruguay in the first semi-final Tuesday while Spain and Germany clash a day later in a repeat of the 2008 Euro final settled by a Fernando Torres strike.
Only South American countries have lifted the trophy outside their continent but that seems likely to end with a Uruguay side hit by injuries and bannings looking weakest on paper of the four survivors.
Torres is having a bittersweet tournament as he helps Spain move within two victories of a first World Cup triumph while unable to regain the scoring touch that made him a feared marksman.
But there were no goals nor glory for reigning World Footballer of the Year Lionel Messi of Argentina, whose team suffered a humiliating 4-0 loss to Germany and left the future of coach Diego Maradona uncertain. A Villa goal seven minutes from full-time broke the resistance of well organised Paraguay in Johannesburg late Saturday after Klose twice, Thomas Mueller and Arne Friedrich had scored for rampant Germany in Cape Town. Villa became the leading scorer in the tournament with five after an effort that went in off a post and needs just one more to match the 44-goal Spanish record of Raul Gonzalez.
"Finishing top scorer is the least of my concerns. The important thing is that we get to the final whether through me scoring or someone else. I'm happy to score but I'm happier if the team wins," stressed Villa.
The close-season Bar-celona signing from Valencia has also become the top Spanish World Cup scorer with eight goals, leaving behind Emilio Butragueno, Fernando Hierro, Fernando Morientes and Raul who netted five each.
Oscar Cardozo and Xabi Alonso had penalties saved and Nelson Valdez a goal disallowed as much-changed Paraguay kept Spain in check until typical slick Spanish passing carved space for Villa to give Justo Villar no chance.
Klose celebrated a century of international appearances by raising his World Cup goal haul to 14 - one less than record-holder Ronaldo of Brazil with a third-place play-off or final to come after facing Spain.
"I'm absolutely thrilled for Klose to have scored in his 100th game, and scored twice. He truly is impressive, such a wonderful player. He scores more than once every two matches," boasted Germany coach Joachim Loew.

  Germany rocks to the tune of a semi-final place
AFP, Cape Town

Goal-scorer Thomas Mueller expected the party back home to already be in full-swing as Germany demolished Argentina 4-0 on Saturday to book their place in the World Cups semi-finals.
Diego Maradona's side were swept aside as the men in black ran riot at Green Point Stadium with Miroslav Klose celebrating his 100th cap with two goals after Mueller's early header and defender Arne Friedrich scoring with a tap-in. Germany will face either Spain or Paraguay, who meet on Saturday night, in the semi-final next Wednesday in Durban, but 20-year-old Mueller, who will be suspended for the semi, says he now wants his team-mates to make the final. With four goals, Mueller is Germany's top scorer at this World Cup as his third-minute header added to this double in the 4-1 win over England in the round of 16 and his goal in the opening 4-0 victory over Australia.
"I think Germany is rocking right now and rightly so," said Mueller whose 35th-minute handball earned him a yellow card which costs him a semi-final place. "What has happened here has been insane.
"It is hard to find the words at this moment after beating Argentina 4-0.
"This was unequivocally another team performance, we played right to the limits, everyone played their part, it is just insane.
"If I want to be the top-scorer, I must hope my colleagues do everything right in the semi-final, then maybe I can score a few more in the final." Man-of-the-match Bastian Schweinsteiger over-shadowed world footballer of the year Lionel Messi and tore huge holes in the Argentinian defence, but is already eyeing a place in the final at Soccer City on July 11. "I have real goose bumps and I am sure that the people will be celebrating hard back home," he said.
"If now I said that I didn't want to reach the final, that wouldn't be right.
"We have beaten two strong teams and have come quite far.
"If we face Spain in the semi-finals, they are the strongest team in the world, but we can believe in ourselves and we have enough self-confidence."
Klose's double edges him closer to Ronaldo's all-time World Cup goal-scoring record and gives him 14 at three World Cup finals and within striking distance of the record of 15 scored by Brazil's Ronaldo.

  Howard praises India, pushes ICC presidency bid
AFP, Brisbane

Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard on Sunday offered an olive branch to India but refused to stand aside as Cricket Australia's candidate for the next ICC presidency.
Howard's application was rebuffed by the sport's governing body in Singapore last week in a decision that has threatened to divide the sport along racial lines.
Australia and New Zealand nominated Howard as the next ICC vice-president, meaning he would become president in two years, but only those two countries and England supported him.
Normally the nominations, which are put forward by the different regions on a rotational basis, are a formality but the ICC executive refused to even put Howard's nomination to a vote, telling CA and New Zealand Cricket to come up with a different candidate.
While it is believed that the opposition to his nomination came initially from Zimbabwe, it is widely held that if India had decided to back Howard then the rest of the ICC nations would have fallen in behind.
Howard told Australian television station Channel Nine that Indians should be applauded for their love of cricket but they should be careful not to be seen to dominate the administration of the sport.
"There is one part of the world where a sport at the present time remains transcendent over soccer and that is the Indian subcontinent," he said.

  Strauss ‘proud’ of series win despite Lord's loss
AFP, London

England captain Andrew Strauss said his side should be proud of their one-day series win over world champions Australia despite convincing defeats in the final two matches of the contest.
England were already an unbeatable 3-0 up in the five-match series against the world champions before a 78-run loss at The Oval on Wednesday was followed across London by a 42-run reverse at Strauss's Lord's home ground on Saturday.
Had Australia's Shaun Tait, the fastest bowler on either side by a distance, played from the start rather than being drafted in as an injury replacement after the first two games, the outcome might well have been different.
The South Australia quick, man of the match at Lord's for his return of four wickets for 48 runs, took eight wickets in three games at just 12.37 apiece.
But Strauss, bowled by Tait on Saturday, insisted England's series win had not been invalidated by their last two performances.
Australia captain Ricky Ponting, whose side made 277 for seven at Lord's on Saturday before dismissing England for 235, was proud of the way a team on tour without a quartet of injured fast bowlers, including Brett Lee and left-armer Mitchell Johnson, had finished with a flourish.

  New Zealand’s Hendry wins Indonesia Open
AFP, Jakarta

New Zealand's Michael Hendry, a former first-class cricketer, secured an emphatic seven-stroke victory at the million-dollar Ind-onesia Open on Sunday.
The 30-year-old began the day with a one-shot lead over Chinese number one Liang Wenchong, but a storming run of seven birdies in nine holes saw the Kiwi home with a seven-under-par final round of 65, as Liang carded a 71.
In-form Hendry, who won the Fiji Open two weeks ago, finished with a four-round aggregate of 269, 19 under par, to walk away from the Damai Indah Golf club in Jakarta with the 180,000-US dollar winner's cheque.
"This feels surreal. It will take some time to sink in. It is a very emotional moment for me," Hendry said. "I caught fire out there today. I have worked really hard on my game over the past year and it has paid off. I know my mortgage is now going to be a lot smaller."
As Hendry walked off the final green, some of his fellow Kiwi players performed the haka-the traditional Maori dance made famous by the All Blacks rugby team-in his honour.
Liang was hot favourite going into the tournament, and birdied the second to draw level with Hendry, his playing partner.
But the 31-year-old, who won the season-opening Chengdu Open in China in April, fell back with three bogeys on the trot from the 10th.

  Paraguay expect FIFA apology for ‘goal’, penalty
AFP, Johannesburg

Paraguay coach Gerard Martino claimed he was expecting an apology from FIFA following his team's 1-0 World Cup quarter-final defeat to Spain at Ellis Park on Saturday.
Martino was angered by a pair of decisons that went against his team and potentially cost them victory.
In the first half Paraguay striker Nelson Valdez put the ball in the net after latching onto a long ball but the linesman's flag went up and it was chalked out for offside although television replays showed the decision was wrong. Then in the second half, just after Paraguay forward Oscar Cardozo had seen his penalty saved by Spain captain Iker Casillas following Gerard Pique's hauling down of Cardozo in the box, the Europeans were also awarded a spot-kick. There appeared to be minimal contact between Antolin Alcaraz and Spain striker David Villa before the new Barcelona signing went down.
Both Pique and Alcaraz were booked for their challenges although Xabi Alonso missed the twice-taken penalty. That was a reference to FIFA president Sepp Blatter's previous apologies to Engl-and and Mexico following the second round games in which both teams were the victims of controversial refereeing decisions.