thursday, june 10, 2010 Jyestha 27, 1417, JAMADIUS SANI 25, 1431 Hijri

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Leading News

Budget to be placed in Parliament today
Energy and power to get main focus, says Muhith

UNB, Dhaka

Finance Minister AMA Muhith places the 2nd national budget of the Awami League-led Grand Alliance government for the 2010-11 fiscal in parliament on Thursday with the main focus on energy and power sector.
He will place the budget for the first time in the country's history in digital method through power point presentation at 3 pm.
The presence of main opposition BNP in the House is still uncertain. Opposition leader and BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia has already proposed an "alternative budget" outside the parliament.
The Thursday's budget would be the 39th national budget of the country and also the 4th by AMA Muhith who earlier placed the budget for 1982-83, 1983-84 fiscals, and for the 2009-10 fiscal amounting to Tk 1,13,819 crore.
Talking to reporters at the Finance Ministry on the eve of Thursday's budget, Muhith said that the first focus or the main focus of the budget is really on energy and power.
"We think if energy and power is not ensured, it will be difficult to attract investment," he said, adding: "Energy and power is the main workforce."
Muhith informed that in terms of allocation, human resource will get the highest priority followed by agriculture and then power and energy.
Most of the investment in energy and power sector comes from abroad, he said. The Finance Minister said that the revenue collection of the government is on the right course and it will improve in the next fiscal.
To increase investment and thus boosting economic growth, he said, the government is set to place a highly ambitious budget in the country's history - of over Tk 1,32,000 crore.
In the wake of nagging energy and power crisis that threatens the industrial growth, the sector will be given top priority and a big block allocation from the revenue budget will subsidize the sector.
The development budget has already been increased by 35 percent to Tk 38,500 crore, compared to current fiscal year (2009-10), while the revenue earnings targeted around Tk 93,000 crore.
The National Board of Revenue has set growth target at 19 percent, focusing more on VAT and income tax to meet the government expenditure.
The NBR revenue target for the next fiscal is likely to be over Tk 72,000 crore, non-tax revenue over Tk 16,000 crore, the non-NBR revenue over Tk 3,000 crore while it expects the foreign assistance to reach Tk 5,000 crore.
The income tax target has been set at over Tk 19,000 crore while from VAT over Tk 27,000 crore.
Earlier, in different pre-budget meetings, the Finance Minister said that the GDP growth target has been set at 6.7 percent for the next fiscal while the projected inflation is 6.5 percent.

 Khaleda warns govt of perils for discarding democracy
UNB, Dhaka

Opposition leader Khaleda Zia on Wednesday cautioned the government of serious consequences of its discarding the democratic paths.
"Still there is time…If you want to complete full term in office, come to the right track," she advised the18-month old AL led grand alliance government that she accused of perpetrating an oppressive rule.
In her toughly worded warning the BNP chairperson leading a four-hour squatting at the Institute of Engineers said, "We have tolerated enough. We'll not tolerate more. We shall retaliate if we come under attack in future."
The warning came from the opposition leader keeping in her view the June 27 hartal, which, she said, was called to protest the oppressive rule and to seek redress of miseries of the commonman.
About the June 17 Chittagong City Corporation polls, Khaleda asked the Election Commission to ensure free and fair vote, otherwise, she warned that mass movement will be launched across the country against any rigging or nepotism.
The squatting was staged to protest against what BNP says the government's 'naked interference' with judiciary and appointment of 'inept and controversial' judges and to protect dignity and freedom of judiciary and ensure justice to all.
Khaleda rubbished Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's allegation of violating the constitution by placing 'alternative budget' outside parliament. She reminded Hasina of her holding alternate parliament at the South Plaza and questioned, was it not a violation of the constitution? She also recalled introduction of one-party rule and closure of all but four newspapers by Awami League in 1975. The opposition leader said they are compelled to take to the street by refusing to raise issues of public and national interest in parliament.
Khaleda noted with concern the arrest of critics of the government in cooked up cases and inhuman torture meted out to them in police remand. She asked the intelligence agencies, "refrain from inhuman actions to fulfill the vengeance of the government leaders."
"Resorting to injustice at the behest of the rulers may earn you the same treatment when the rulers of will not be there," she cautioned the police and intelligence officials.
She said those who were forced to work in favour of Fakruddin-Moinuddin will be pardoned except Moinuddin-Fakhruddin and three to four others.

 Ganobhaban witnesses rare wedding ceremony
Donate for PM's Relief Fund to help victims of Nimtali, Begunbari tragedy: Hasina

BSS, Dhaka

Prime Minister's official residence Ganopbhaban on Wednesday witnessed the blending of joy and sorrow as it hosted a unique wedding ceremony against extraordinary backdrop of a tragedy, the last week's deadly Nimtali inferno in the old part of Dhaka.
The tragedy, however, was overshadowed largely by joyfulness as the event overturned the exposure to uncertainties of three girls as the fire claimed their dear ones including their mothers, who were busy with the wedding of the beloved daughters in the last hours of their life. Tears rolled down the cheeks of the three brides making visible in their faces a simultaneous expression of sadness and happiness as a person, who happened to be Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina herself, appeared as their mother, and discharge the unfinished duties of their own moms.
The traditional tunes of Bismillah Khan's Sanai visibly infused extra emotions in the face of nearly 3,000 guests who included ministers, lawmakers, distinguished citizens, senior cultural personalities, journalists and officials alongside the relatives of the brides and bridegrooms.
"Happy marriages of Ratna-Sumon, Runa-Jamil and Asma-Alamgir," an attractive banner behind the wedding stage at the Ganobhaban Banquet Hall With all the affection of a mother, Sheikh Hasina blessed the just married couples with eight "bhoris" of gold each alongside crockery and utensils, televisions, refrigerators and furniture.
Sakina Aktar Ratna and her younger sister Runa were set to be tied in nuptial cords on June 22 while Asma Akhtar Panna was preparing for formal engagement on June 5 but the fire threw their lives to extreme uncertainties shattering their dreams until the premier as their saviour and took the role of their lost beloved mothers as well as fathers.
Asma lost her mother, grandmother and a niece while Ratna and Runa lost their mother, two aunts, four cousins and a nephew. Runa's groom Jamil lost his mother, brother, a nephew, two aunts and five other relatives. Ratna's groom Sumon also lost one of his cousins who went to join the engagement function of Runa and Jamil.
The Ganobhaban initially planned to arrange the wedding of Ratna and Runa while Asma was brought under Sheikh Hasina's guardianship when ruling party lawmaker from the constituency Dr Mostafa Jalal Mohiuddin informed the premier that the 20-year- girl also set for the wedlock ahead of the tragedy. But it became uncertain as the fire claimed her mother while her badly burnt father was fighting for life at the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Dhaka.
Earlier, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina urged MPs and well-off people to donate to the PM's relief fund to help the affected families of the Nimtoli fire and the Begunbari building collapse instead of sending wedding gifts to two sisters Ratna and Runa.
"No need to send gifts. As a mother, I am giving them all necessary items needed for marrying off daughters," she said Wednesday during the PM's question hour when Abdur Rahman Bodi (AL) wanted to know whether the Prime Minister will accept any gift for them.
She said these girls are very poor and orphans who lost everyone in blaze. "Pray to almighty Allah for the wellbeing of these girls," she urged the members of parliament.

   30,000 acres ‘khas’ land under illegal occupation in greater Dhaka

BSS, Dhaka

About 30,000 acres of 'khas' land of the government in greater Dhaka district have gone under the illegal possession of some individuals, organizations land agencies.
Various quarters occupied the land of Bhawal and Nawab estates through forgery. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Land Ministry has already formed a sub-committee to identify and recover the illegally occupied land.
The standing committee would make recommendations to the authorities concerned to take quick steps in this regard on receipt of the report to be submitted by the sub-committee.
The probe by the sub-committee has already revealed that the total land of Bhawal and Nawab estates under No. 1 khas khatiyan is 49,942 acres- 30,240 acres under Bhawal estate and 19,702 acres under Nawab estate.
Of the land, 3,762 acres of the Bhawal estate are under the khas khatiyan and 197 acres under the management of court of wards.
Of the remaining land, 24,145 acres have been given to the forest department and different individuals have occupied 2,317 acres. Four hundred and fifty-one cases are pending in the court over this. Some people have also occupied more lands taking advantages of legal loopholes and showing forged documents.
On the other hand, 19,121 acres of land, out of the total 19,702 acres, under Dhaka Nawab estate are under illegal occupation. Only 149 acres remain under the estate while the forest department gave 317 acres to the forest department.
Parliamentary Standing Committee Chairman Alhaj Advocate AKM Mozammel Haque told BSS that all the lands are supposed to be under No 1 khas khotian of the government as per the law, particularly the jamindari eviction ordinance of 1950.
Besides, the land of Nowab estate should be under the ownership of the government, he added.
The parliamentary standing committee chief said some corrupt people in connivance with some government officials grabbed the property hiding the truth and the correct information.
Replying to a question, AKM Mozammel Haq said the inquiry by the sub-committee is at the final stage. The probe report would be presented before the committee meeting soon and the then the committee would recommend for recovering of the property.
He hoped that the land worth thousand crores of Taka would be recovered within the tenure of the present government.

    BSF kills yet another Bangladeshi
27 border killings in four months

TBT Report

Indian Border Security Force (BSF) killed yet one more Bangladeshi along the border in Joypurhat as the killing spree on Bangladesh border continues unabated despite India's repeated pledges to stop such killings.
According to a BSS report: BSF gunned down a cow trader inside Bangladesh territories on Hatkhola border under Panchbibi upazila in Joypurhat district Tuesday evening locals and sources in Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) said.
The victim was identified as Shameem Hossain, 25, son of late Mill Miah of Dharonji village under Panchbibi upazila in Joypurhat district.
The BSF members of Shitai camp under 28 BSF Battalion opened gunfire at the victim while he was with his cattle inside Bangladesh territory near boundary pillar no 280/4S opposite to Hatkhola BDR outpost under Joypurhat 3 Rifle Battalion.
Shameem was killed on the spot. A Battalion Commander level flag meeting was held this noon between BDR and BSF in this connection on the same border where BDR strongly protested the killing and the BSF side apologised and assured not to repeat such undesirable incident in future.
With this, BSF killed 27 Bangladeshi nationals in over four months and 107 in last 13 months. The number of Bangladeshis killed by BSF during the nine years period from January 1, 2000 to May June 8, 2010 stands at 832. BSF also injured 860 and abducted 903 Bangladeshis in the same period.

     High Court orders six OCs to implement its directives
BSS, Dhaka

The High Court Wednesday ordered officers-in- charge of six police stations under Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) for taking necessary steps to implement its directives.
"Proper action will be taken against them following the laws if it is found that its order was wilfully disobeyed," the court warned while the officers-in-charge (OCs) of Kotwali, Hazaribagh, Kamrangir-char, Demra, Lalbagh and Keraniganj thanas appeared before the court in person complying an earlier order.
A two-judge bench comprising Justice Mohammad Momtazuddin Ahmed and Justice Naima Haider on hearing a writ petition on May 4 issued directives on the concerned police officers to deploy police forces on the banks of the Buriganga to check dropping waste in the river.
Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB) filed the writ petition as a public interest litigation.
But on June 7, the same bench ordered the officers-in-charge of these six thanas to appear before the court in person today on hearing a petition moved for HRPB, which alleged that the concerned police officers did not comply the court's directives.
Advocate Monzil Murshed, counsel for HRPB, by filing another petition, sought necessary directives to compel the police officers to comply the court's order.

Back Page

President calls for gradually digitizing management
BSS, Dhaka

President Zillur Rahman Wednesday urged the authorities concerned to gradually digitalize the management in every step with a view to building a Digital Bangladesh.
The President made the call when a delegation of Immigration and Passport Department, led by Home Minister Advocate Sahara Khatun, handed over his Machine Readable Passport (MRP) at Bangabhaban.
President Zillur Rahman highly appreciated the government for taking such efforts and expressed his satisfaction saying that the MRP programme is a positive step towards the process of Digital Ban-gladesh by 2021.
During the meeting, Sahara Khatun apprised the President of various activities of Home Ministry, including the quick drive and rescue operation by firefighters to save the lives and properties during the recently occurred Nim-toli fire incident.
The President gave them a patient hearing and expr-essed satisfaction over the initiatives taken by the Home Ministry to control the devastating blaze.
The delegation also infor-med him that the existing manual passports along with the MRP ones would be issued up to 2015 and the government has taken a programme to provide adequate numbers of passports to the people in a short time.
Secretaries concerned of the President's Office and officials of the Passport and Immigration Department were present.

   Musharraf’s political party launched
Internet, Karachi

With retired General Pervez Musharraf as its chief, the All-Pakistan Muslim League was launched by his close aides here on Tuesday.
Equating the present situation with that of 1906 when the Muslim League was launched, Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif, a central leader of the new party, said that as the AIML overcame hurdles on its way to success, "God willing, ours would also become a popular political party and play its role in Pakistan's progress."
Speaking at a press conference at the Karachi Press Club with retired Major-General Rashid Qureshi, another central leader of the party, Mr Saif said the party was against hereditary politics and would carry out its politics in a democratic manner to serve the people. "Our motto remains 'Pakistan first', and remaining above all personal, regional and group considerations we will make every necessary sacrifice for Pakistan," he said.
Mr Saif said their party had received a good res-ponse from the people and political activists, including leaders from the PML-Q, the PML (Likeminded) and the Awami Muslim League. He added that during his three-day stay in Karachi, he had been contacted by a number of representatives of labour, women and youth organisations who wanted to join the party. He mentioned some of the men seated with him, including Zubair Khan and Anwar Warsi. He said that in the first phase, organisational councils at the district, divisional and provincial levels were being set up and in the second phase those who were made council members would be given responsibilities after forming Karachi and provincial councils. They would be visiting Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Kashmir and Balochistan.
In reply to questions repeatedly asked by journalists that before entering politics, Gen Musharraf should clear himself of the charges of massacre at Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa in Islamabad, the May 12 killings in Karachi, the assassinations of PPP leader Benazir Bhutto and Akbar Bugti in Balochistan, Mr Saif said those were political allegations and would be responded to at a proper platform and at an appropriate time through the presentation of facts. Doubts were created in people's minds by opponents of Gen Musharraf and "we would fully satisfy the people", he added. Regarding the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, he said: "They are our brothers" and that he hoped they would extend cooperation in "our political journey". Rashid Qureshi said Gen Musharraf would soon return to Pakistan. He, however, could not give a date or month of his return, saying that it would be determined by the former president himself.
After the press conference, responding to a question, Rashid Qureshi said the PML-N - instead of being concerned about Pakistan's wellbeing - was doing politics of vendetta and that was why Pakistan had reached the present crisis situation.
Responding to another question, he said had there been any other ruler in Pakistan at the time, he would have carried out an operation against Lal Masjid, or else the fate of Islamabad would not have been different from that of Swat.

    Khaleda violates constitution by placing ‘alternative budget’: AL

UNB, Dhaka

Ruling Awami League on Wednesday termed the presentation of "alternative budget" by opposition leader Khaleda Zia as violation of the constitution.
"It is opposition's disrespect to and no-confidence in parliament," AL general secretary and LGRD Minister Syed Ashraful Islam said at a press conference at the party's Dhanmondi office. Ashraful said in the name of presenting "alternative budget" outside the parliament, Khaleda Zia has resorted to a tactic to make the parliament ineffective. "We know their evil purpose is to make the parliament ineffective."
He, however, reiterated the AL call to Khaleda Zia and her party to join the budget session and place their alternative budget proposals if they have any. "We don't apprehend the opposition party will not join the session. We hope to see them in the budget session," said the LGRD Minister.
He informed the reporters that rules and regulations are clearly specified in articles 87 and 92 of the constitution. "Opposition party can differ with the government's budget. It can also criticize the budget. But Khaleda Zia has declared alternative budget outside the House which is a clear violation of the constitution," he said.
Referring to BNP-Jamaat alliance's big defeat in the general elections of December 29 in 2008, the AL general secretary said Khaleda Zia and her party did not take any lesson from the past. Bitterly criticizing Khaleda Zia for calling hartal on June 27, he said it seems that Khaleda Zia's "main task now is to protect the war criminals." About Khaleda's budget, Ashraful said she is trying to earn cheap popularity by placing budget proposals outside the parliament. Khaleda Zia and her husband during their regimes have placed 17 national budgets, he said. "But have they been able to give solution to any of the basic problems of the country?"
He said Khaleda Zia should come to the parliament to place her budget proposals. "If you have any specific proposals, come to the House. If your proposals contain anything good, then the House will accept it." The AL general secretary urged the opposition leader to "shun the politics of confrontation and conspiracy" and play her due role in parliament for people's interests. "People have voted you and your MPs to the House. Then come to the Parliament showing respect to your voters," he said.

   BDR deployed for CCC polls
BSS, Chittagong

Members of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) have been deployed in the Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) areas on Wednesday to facilitate peaceful June 17 CCC election.
According to official sources, two companies of BDR equipped with arms have been deployed from today in aid of the civil administration as well as to maintain law and order in the CCC areas. Over 3,000 members of police and Ansar have also started round-the-clock checking at city 82 points.
Besides, a huge number of law enforcers have been deployed this morning at four entry points of the city-Shah Amanat Bridge area, Bahaddarhat Bus Terminal, Alankar Crossing and Oxygen Crossing.
Election Commission (EC) sources said six companies of Army personnel would be deployed in the metropolis from June 14. Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and Chittagong Metropolitan Police started raiding the dens of listed criminals and recovering arms from tonight.
The law enforcers also started block raids at different residential hotels and slum areas from tonight. The raids will continue till June 20.

    Talks begin to mobilize US$ 100 billion by 2020 for climate change

BSS, Bonn, Germany

While developing country parties are worried with the disbursement of fast-track climate fund committed by developed countries in Copenhagen, a new institutional arrangement for financing came into focus in the ongoing climate change meeting here in Bonn today.
Delegates of the country parties of the UNFCCC discussed the issue in a meeting of the Ad-hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action (AWG-LCA) here today.
The meeting with Mexico in the chair, discussed the matter of the source of the new fund, its design and governance, said Monjur Hannan Khan, Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Environment and Forest and a member of Bangladesh delegation. The new financing arrangement has been basically envisaged for mobilizing annually US$ 100 billion fund by the year 2020 to address the needs of developing countries to combat the adverse impacts of climate change, he said. Bangladesh in the meeting called for giving preference to the most vulnerable countries (MVC) and small island states (SIS) in disbursing the fund, Khan said.
AWG-LCA chair Margaret Mukahanana Sangarwe of Zimbabwe proposed for the enhanced action for financial resources and investment and scaling up new and additional, predictable and adequate funding as well as improved access to developing countries.
The fund will be for enhancing meaningful mitigation actions, including substantial finance to REDD-plus, adaptation, technology development and transfer and capacity-building, the AWG-LCA Chair said in her text placed before the parties.
The main source of funding through the financial mechanism shall be new and additional financial resources provided by developed country parties and will come from a wide variety of sources, public and private, bilateral and multilateral sources of finance.

    8 workers injured in an explosion in a mill in N’ganj
UNB, Narayanganj

Eight workers of a re-rolling mill at Aliganj in Fatulla thana were injured when an iron melting machine exploded on Wednesday.
Police said bhatti, iron melting machine, exploded with a big bang due to low-voltage of electricity, when the workers were working in the Rajdhani Casting Mill, leaving eight workers injured at about 6:30 am.
Tin shade of the mill was blown off and its wall collapsed due to the explosion that also caused panic in the area. Five of the injured, Sheikh Shahid, 32, Alamgir, 22, Sabuj, 25, Bakul, 25 and Mohammad Shahid, 28, were rushed to Dhaka Medical College Hospital in critical condition.

    Education Day on June 13 to check eve-teasing
BSS, Dhaka

Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid Wednesday called upon all to join the Education Day programmes on June 13 to check eve-teasing across the country.
"None, whatever influential he might be, will be spared involved in eve-teasing, a social menace," he warned.
The theme of the day is "Security to girl students" to gear up countrywide anti-eve teasing campaign.
Nahid was briefing journalists at his ministry on the Education Day programmes that will be observed across the country to combat eve-teasing, a form of sexual harassment on girl students.
Education secretary Syed Ataur Rahman was present.
Eve teaser-terrorists will be brought to book at any cost, he said, adding, "Eve-teasing would no more be taken lightly, as a good number of girl students committed suicide after being teased by derailed youths and many others had to stop their academic life." The education ministry has chalked out elaborate programmes to create mass awareness at the national level on June 13.
In Dhaka, a colourful rally will be brought out from Muktangan at 8 am that will end at Central Shaheed Minar. Students, teachers, guardians, officials, NGO workers, people from different professions, dignitaries and celebrities will join the rally.
Dhaka University VC Prof Dr AASM Arefin Siddique will welcome the rally at the Central Shaheed Minar. An oath-taking ceremony will be held there to fight eve-teasing.
In district and upazilas, such programmes will be observed. All stakeholders, including school managing committee members, dignitaries and officials, will attend the programmes. Leaflets and posters have already been sent to local administrations.

    Chronology of national budgets
BSS, Dhaka

Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith announces the annul budget for 2010-11 Thursday at Jatiya Sangsad at 3 pm.
This will be the country's 39th budget and the 11th budget of the Awami League government.
Following is the chronology of Bangladesh budgets since 1971:
Fiscal Year Who placed Total size Revenue ADP
----------- ---------- ---------- ------- ---
1972-'73 Tajuddin Ahmed Tk 786cr Tk 218.15cr Tk 501cr
1973-'74 Tajuddin Ahmed Tk 995cr Tk 559.37cr Tk 525cr
1974-'75 Tajuddin Ahmed Tk 1084.37cr Tk 559.37cr Tk 525cr
1975-'76 Dr Azizur Rahman Tk 1549.19cr Tk 755.38cr Tk 950cr
1976-'77 Maj Gen Zia Tk 1989.87cr Tk 966cr Tk 1222cr
1977-'78 Lt Gen Zia Tk 2184cr Tk 1156cr Tk 1278cr
1978-'79 President Zia Tk 2499cr Tk 1376cr Tk 1446cr
1979-'80 Dr M N Huda Tk 3317cr Tk 1802cr Tk 2123cr
1980-'81 M Saifur Rahman Tk 4108cr Tk 2293cr Tk 2700cr
1981-'82 M Saifur Rahman Tk 4677cr Tk 2767cr Tk 3015cr
1982-'83 A M A Muhit Tk 4738cr Tk 2638cr Tk 2700cr
1983-'84 A M A Muhit Tk 5896cr Tk 3344cr Tk 3483cr
1984-'85 M Sayeduzzaman Tk 6699cr Tk 3465cr Tk 3896cr
1985-'86 M Sayeduzzaman Tk 7138cr Tk 3744cr Tk 3825cr
1986-'87 M Sayeduzzaman Tk 8504cr Tk 4468cr Tk 4764cr
1987-'88 M Sayeduzzaman Tk 8527cr Tk 4915cr Tk 5046cr
1988-'89 Maj Gen (rtd) Munim Tk 10565cr Tk 5569cr Tk 5315cr
1989-'90 Dr Wahidul Haq Tk 12703cr Tk 7180cr Tk 5803cr
1990-'91 Maj Gen (rtd) Munim Tk 12960cr Tk 7562cr Tk 5668cr
1991-'92 M Saifur Rahman Tk 15584cr Tk 8503cr Tk 7500cr
1992-'93 M Saifur Rahman Tk 17607cr Tk 10554cr Tk 9057cr
1993-'94 M Saifur Rahman Tk 19050cr Tk 12335cr Tk 9750cr
1994-'95 M Saifur Rahman Tk 20948cr Tk 13637cr Tk 11000cr
1995-'96 M Saifur Rahman Tk 23170cr Tk 15450cr Tk 12100cr
1996-'97 S A M S Kibria Tk 24603cr Tk 17120cr Tk 12500cr
1997-'98 S A M S Kibria Tk 27786cr Tk 19624cr Tk 12800cr
1998-'99 S A M S Kibria Tk 29537cr Tk 16617cr Tk 13600cr
1999-'00 S A M S Kibria Tk 34252cr Tk 24151cr Tk 12477cr
2000-'01 S A M S Kibria Tk 38524cr Tk 24198cr Tk 17500cr
2001-'02 S A M S Kibria Tk 42306cr Tk 27239cr Tk 19000cr
2002-'03 M Saifur Rahman Tk 44854cr Tk 33084cr Tk 19200cr
2003-'04 M Saifur Rahman Tk 51980cr Tk 36171cr Tk 20300cr
2004-'05 M Saifur Rahman Tk 57248cr Tk 43189cr Tk 22000cr
2005-'06 M Saifur Rahman Tk 61058cr Tk 37057cr Tk 23626cr
2006-'07 M Saifur Rahman Tk 69740cr Tk 42286cr Tk 26000cr
2007-'08 Mirza Azizul Islam Tk 99962cr Tk 52900cr Tk 25600cr
2008-'09 Mirza Azizul Islam Tk 99962cr Tk 42286cr Tk 25400 cr
2009-10 Abul Maal Abdul Muhith Taka 1,13, 815 cr Tk 28,500 cr

Editorial

A question of power for the Home Minister

Recently there was a meeting at the Secretariat presided over by the honorable education, and information and cultural ministers with the editors of various newspapers and few television channel heads along with some distinguished media and cultural personalities on the subject of Eve teasing and ways to control it and policies to adopt in relation to deter such crime from taking place in Bangladesh. It was made clear that media should play a big role in the situation and make people aware of the menaces of eve teasing which in a few reported incidents have lead to suicide by the young female victims of it. The points that were raised included how television and radio can play a significant role in the government's drive to put strong control on the matter and themes like community policing, drama serials, short documentaries were raised in the discussion. Though it is obvious that despite the fact that media regulates what people come to know, believe and assume in relation to diverse topics involving the peoples lives in one's own country and abroad, media is not a strong deterrent specially for the people who commit the offence (on the other hand, many programs aired by cable channels often provoke eve teasing themselves). It is about distribution and regulation of power (wherein of course media too can play an important role). The ideal situation would be to make the possible offenders powerless to commit such crimes that would not only make them incapable to commit them but make them fearful in undertaking any plan to execute such shameful wrongs. Indeed for that very reason the offenders we come to know of often belong to various student bodies of political parties, meaning that they have lots of power in their hands to 'easily' stalk a girl. The incident of violence in Sylhet Polytechnic Institute yesterday is reported to include a commission of eve teasing amongst other reasons leading to fighting between Bangladesh Chattra League students, police and local people wherein twenty persons were injured, property including a police vehicle being damaged. The country has witnessed so much violence at public universities that one only reproaches why student politics should not be banned in this country.
Therefore, it was incumbent as voiced by the education minister at the meeting that more stringent laws need to be adopted to curb the evil of eve teasing. Law that would give power to the police to apprehend and arrest if required such offenders. However, the point in the main is that these offenders themselves possess considerable power to out do the efforts of the police in many situations culminating as a consequence that they remain outside the purview of the law which in legal discourse is termed as a violation of the principles of the rule of law. It is not that all crimes of eve teasing are committed by student politicians belonging to various political parties' student fronts. Yet the point is that in most cases, in comparison to the power at hand by victim girl or her family, is far outweighed by the power possessed by the offenders. Therefore, in almost all crimes of eve teasing the offender seems to have more power available to him than the victim, and this is the exact point which needs to be addressed by the honorable minister if we are to at least significantly reduce the number of commission of such offences. Tarana Halim, MP, raised at that meeting few points which includes community policing, student counselors in every school, additional police person at thanas. Though these measures if implemented should reduce the commission of such offences to a great extent, it would still leave the public universities out of purview as power possessed by such offender/student politicians far outweigh those exercised by the police. This is another reason that goes in favor of the supporters of banning student politics in public universities. The times have indeed changed in relation to student politics at public universities and it is not at all considerable to compare it to the times of say 1952 or the 1960s. Nowadays, it entails a lot of business of money and power related issues for which campus control is so much a mandatory matter that killing in fierce fighting is becoming acceptable by the society at large.
Therefore the question of power redistribution is actually a matter demanding central attention for our Home Minister. Also included in this consideration is the issue of student politics and how much power they should have at their disposal. Otherwise despite the honorable Prime Minister's much expressed desire for the rule of law and bringing her own party men too, if required, to book will simply be a matter of tea time discussion mentioned with a few laughable jokes cracked amongst our family addas. We need more creativity in governing this country than attending regular office from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. the old style. May Allah grant us the strength ability and courage to save lives.

Analysis

The Shangri-la Dialogue

Robert Gates said that the US was a Pacific nation deeply committed to contributing to both individual and collective security to ensure peace and prosperity in the region.

Ikram Sehgal

Defence personnel tend to be normally taciturn about publicly airing their views, once in a while one is privileged to listen to uninhibited exchange of views, the Annual IISS (International Institute of Strategic Studies) Summit in Singapore being one such event. Senior national security persona from within the region use the occasion often to annunciate fresh thinking about relevant security issues. Named after the hotel where it is held every year, the Asia-Pacific Security Summit is clearly not just another coffee session or photo-ops.
As was expected the South Korean President used his Plenary Address to condemn North Korea for the unwarranted and devastating torpedo attack that destroyed the naval vessel "Cheonan" and cost the lives of 46 sailors. The audience was clearly looking forward to the remarks by the US Defence Secretary. Attending his fourth consecutive "Shangri-La Dialogue", and thereby underscoring the importance of the event, Robert Gates said that the US was a Pacific nation deeply committed to contributing to both individual and collective security to ensure peace and prosperity in the region. He chided North Korea strongly for the surprise attack on the South Korean naval vessel, adding that such unwarranted irrational behavior could not go without severe censure and/or meaningful reprimand to go with enforceable sanctions. The US Defence Secretary called on China (and other nations having some say with North Korea) to restrain such rogue actions from threatening regional peace and given North Korea's crude nuclear capability, even world peace.
John Chipman, Director General IISS, had his hands full compering the who's who among Defence and security experts of the Asia-Pacific region, among those participating were Japan's Minister of Defence, Toshimi Kitazawa, who was sent by the new Japanese PM despite the Japanese Cabinet not being finalized. Than there was the Ministers of Defence Dr Liam Fox from UK, Purnomo Yusgiantoro of Indonesia, Senator John Faulkner from Australia, De La Fuente of Chile, Teo Chee Hean of Singapore, Dato' Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi of Malaysia, Dr Wayne Mapp of New Zealand, Gen Phung Quang Thanh of Vietnam, Kim Tae Young of South Korea and Francis Delon of France. Among others were Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston of Australia, Maj Gen Zhu Chenghu, DG NDU China, Vice Adm Denis Rouleau of Canada, Maj Gen Taur Matan Ruak of Timor-Leste, Air Chief Marshal Jock Stirrup of UK, Foreign Minister, Minister Prof GL Peiris of Sri Lanka, Lt Gen Alexander Burutin of Russia, Deputy PM Sergei Ivanov of Russia, etc. Former COAS Gen Jahangir Karamat, the man Mian Nawaz Sharif in his infinite wisdom forced out to foist Gen Musharraf in the COAS chair, was much sought after by experts from other countries, one is singularly proud that this outstanding Pakistani is clearly one of the most respected military intellectuals in the world. Other Pakistani delegates included Dr Zafar Jaspal, Dr Moonis Ahmer, Ms Salma Malik and the Pakistan Ambassador in Singapore, Ms Fauzia Sana.
In an informal conversation Prof Pollack of the US Naval War College mentioned frustration among the US Defence Department at China's growing aloofness from military-to-military contact. Robert Gates said he was deeply disappointed at this "loud silence" and that his Chinese counterparts would not be meeting him as had become the practice in the past. He regretted China's taking umbrage at the Obama Administration decision to sell arms to Taiwan, what he called "defensive weapons", to preserve Taiwanese security. Gates maintained that the US does not support independence for Taiwan. General Ma Xiaotian, Deputy Chief of General Staff (CGS), People's Liberation Army (PLA), quoted Mao Tse Tung's remarks to Gen Montgomery in 1960 that 50 years later the world would see that China had not occupied one inch of territory beyond its present borders, or strive for hegemony in the region. General Ma said that China had not violated Mao's pledge. The Chinese military leader asked the US to re-consider it's policy towards Taiwan which was China's own "internal problem".
Shivshankar Menon, India's National Security Advisor (NRA) and formerly Secretary External Affairs, spoke about India's concerns in the region in the "New Dimensions of Security". As a rapidly developing major economic power India had legitimate security concerns, not only in the region but in the world, he maintained. India remained ambivalent about its various relationships in the South Asia Region, brushing aside a suggestion from Maj Gen Muniruzzaman of Bangladesh about expanding SAARC's role to include security. Menon said that SAARC's Charter excluded political and security issues, however he did not exclude cooperation outside the SAARC Charter, and said he would be amazed if India tried to fill the vacuum if ISAF troop withdrew from Afghanistan. As one of the major donor countries he left the door open by maintaining that India would respond to requests for needs by the Afghan Govt. He did not elaborate on this assistance - but did not exclude military assistance at some point in the future.
Menon's reply to a question about Indian Naxalites was surprising given that Dr Manmohan had declared the left wing rebellion as India's greatest domestic security threat. He dismissed my figure of about 100000 armed guerillas operating with impunity in 70 out of India's nearly 600 districts as greatly over-estimated. I was only quoting credible Indian sources that in fact put 70% of the districts as affected other Indian participants were similarly non-committal about the Naxalite threat. Unfortunately India (and most of the Indian Establishment and media alike) remain in a permanent state of self-denial. Menon thought that concern about Indian terrorists getting hold of nuclear weapons was overblown, conversely one can state that Menon's articulation about terrorists in Pakistan getting hold of nuclear weapons was also similarly overblown.
To present Pakistan's official point of view the responsibility was taken on by Lt Gen Khalid Shameem Wynne, CGS Pakistan Army, who alongwith Maj Gen Taur Matan Ruak, Chief of Defence Forces, Timor-Leste and Vice Adm Denis Rouleau, Vice Chief of Defence Staff, Canada discussed "Nation-Building Amongst Conflict". Khalid Wynne said that counter-insurgency involved four major steps, viz (1) clear (2) hold (3) build and (4) transfer. The Pakistan Army had also to get involved in the "BUILD" stage because of the lack of capacity of the civil govt and apprehension among the populace. The "Special Support Group" had successfully managed the large displacement of internal refugees, 2 million plus were accommodated in over 200 camps. Rehabilitation involved transferring them back before the harvesting season and including re-building 350 schools, 11 bridges and 54 Police Stations destroyed. Disbursement of cash was made to the IDPs through credit cards, an elaborate survey was completed and 94% civic amenities restored. A 6500 Special Police Force was planned to tackle law and order, 5000 had been recruited and trained. The lessons learnt were that in the overall strategy to fight terrorism, viz (1) the "build" part is the most important (2) nation-building must be comprehensive at national level and (3) joint effort of all institutions with concerted help from the public.
Focussing on Kandahar, Adm Rouleau gave valuable insight into the role of Canadian forces in Afghanistan, providing some space for good governance. His key submission about the Afghan National Army (ANA) showing signs in the Kandahar area of taking on military responsibilities was clearly more rhetoric than ground reality, it was mostly relative to the situation in 2005 and what ANA was capable of now. The real acid test will come in July 2011 when US troops start pulling out.

Ikram Sehgal is an internationally renowned columnist and the Editor of the Pakistan Defence Journal

  The red Bengal fortress is crumbling after decades of power

For Congress getting rid of the Left was a priority when the US deal was on but now surely there can be nothing but regret at the genie they have let loose from the bottle.

Meghnad Desai

It seems nowadays India is in a perpetual election cycle. If there are no state elections then there are municipal elections or Vidhan Sabha ones. Elections somehow disrupt politics not just where they are taking place but at the Centre as well.
We now have the results of local elections in West Bengal. Predictably they gave Mamata Banerjee a convincing victory. Sitaram Yechury blamed it on 'alienation' of the people which is too big a philosophical concept to excuse the CPM's failure.
Of course from now till the date elections take place for the Assembly all politics will come to a halt not just in West Bengal but in New Delhi as well. Mamata Banerjee has disruptive powers which defy the best of them. She wrecked the investments Buddhadeb had obtained from abroad in Nandigram and then drove Ratan Tata out of Singur. She has been indulged in by Congress to the extent that she has vetoed the Land Acquisition Bill which could be crucial to tackling the grievances of the tribals in the Naxal-infested areas. She has attended Cabinet meetings as and when she pleases with no sanctions on her.
Now things will just get worse till she has her way and wins the Assembly elections.
The CPM repented too late in its thirty-years- plus rule and began to think of bringing some economic growth to West Bengal. Jyoti Basu may be iconic in his role as the super dada of CPM but he was responsible for the ruin of West Bengal in an even more spectacular fashion than Lalu Yadav wrecked Bihar. It was populism with a red banner but it did not warm any hearths.
West Bengal continued its long decline during the twentieth century. What was India's leading economic and cultural province and its leader in politics sunk lower and lower from 1905 onwards. Come the twenty-first century there could have been a turn for the better but Buddhadeb was too little too late.
Mamata Banerjee showed that two can play at destructive populism. It does not require a positive agenda which guarantees improvement in people's lives if you want to win. You incite their fears and their hatreds. CPM did it one way, Mamata will do in another.
As she is bound to win in 2011 after the latest results, the question is how long will she rule and continue to ruin West Bengal? It is unlikely that she will industrialise or invite investment. Why would any sensible industrialist trust her after what she did to Ratan Tata? Why would anyone venture their capital even if she invited them knowing that given her mercurial nature all bets could be off if something annoyed her. So we will have some sentimental festivals; back to Rabindranath Tagore and his 150th anniversary which means all thoughts of the present can be buried under the glorification of Gurudev...The future can wait.
Of course Congress does bear a lot of responsibility for the rise and rise of Mamata Banerjee. In classic Imperial fashion it believes in Divide and Rule. Indira Gandhi paid tragically for this when she tried the technique in Punjab to embarrass Akali Dal. Yet the same was done again when Congress was getting tired of the Left. Mamata, erstwhile Cabinet Minister in NDA, was warmly welcomed in the Congress coalition and feted. But as in the Bhindranwale case, the stooge proved to have a mind of her own.
For Congress getting rid of the Left was a priority when the US deal was on but now surely there can be nothing but regret at the genie they have let loose from the bottle. Mamata has treated Congress with undisguised contempt. It has to meekly fill the humble role of an also-ran. Perhaps sense may yet prevail. Perhaps the good of the nation may get just a tiny bit more attention than family fortunes. Maybe Congress may worry that it stands to lose both the Left's support and West Bengal. And a declining West Bengal will give ample shelter to the Naxalites. After all, that is where they began forty-plus years back.


Eminent economist Lord Meghnad Desai is a professor emeritus of the London School of Economics

Viewpoints

Journey into fear

The book depicts the Muslim community as one in deep distress and increasingly prone to isolation, with its insecurity compounded not just by unfair media coverage but also by its own lack of leadership and self-reflection.

Dr Maleeha Lodhi

Dr Akbar Ahmed's latest book Journey into America: the Challenge of Islam is timely, important and audacious. It is a remarkably perceptive account of the Muslim experience in post-9/11 America. In the portrayal of the six- to seven- million-strong Muslim community and its encounter with mainstream American society, the study examines the mutual fears as well as common aspirations in the context of a challenged national identity.
Currently at American University, Dr Ahmed has a penchant for trilogies or companion projects. Journey into America is no exception. Published by Brookings, the book is a follow-up to Journey into Islam and was preceded by a documentary about his travels through America.
Accompanied by a young ethnically mixed team of researchers, he journeyed for a year to over 75 cities across the country, meeting a diverse array of people and visiting more than a hundred mosques. This tour d'horizon yields a complicated picture of America which the author argues is at a crossroads. It can either continue down the path taken since 9/11 or alter its course. Americans, he says, need to make a choice between the concept of the country fashioned by its Founding Fathers, universal in spirit and pluralist and tolerant in practice, or the post-9/11 vision of leaders like former president George Bush and his deputy Dick Cheney, which is aggressive, self-centred and suspicious of, if not hostile to, "the other."
Dr Ahmed's America is one of growing gaps in understanding and trust between and within communities. His incisive and searching book exposes the reader to a world of stereotypes and prejudice. He tracks two parallel developments that play off the other. Mainstream America's failure to understand the Muslim community is exacerbated by the media's conflation of Islam with terrorism. This hostility is further compounded by official figures.
At the same time, he depicts the Muslim community to be divided, leaderless and afflicted by fear and self-doubt. Roughly one-third of the community is African American and a third each from South Asia and the Arab world. Dr Ahmed says its inability to face the "crisis within" has left it powerless and paralysed. But from this gloomy assessment he manages to extract good news: today American and Muslim leaders are becoming increasingly conscious of the need to discuss the position of Muslims in America and to address "the problem."
Fascinating is Dr Ahmed's reinterpretation of the competing influences that have shaped American identity. He traces the first and dominant primordial identity to the original white settlers of the 17th century. Fashioned by white Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) settlers, this vision of a society based on justice and a rule-bound charter was however exclusionary, meant only for Christians, not Native Americans or those who were forcibly brought from Africa.
From that period also emerges a secondary identity from the pluralist tradition. This foreshadows the vision of the country's Founding Fathers based on equality between and respect for all citizens, democracy, religious freedom, and rejection of slavery.
Dr Ahmed identifies a third identity with origins in the 17th century. This is the predatory identity which unleashed an aggressive impulse that saw Native Americans as heathens who had to be eliminated. It also justified slavery. This established the notion of zero tolerance: that any threat to society had to be permanently decimated by the full use of force. Compassion was seen as weakness and compromise as defeat.
This identity, Dr Ahmed argues persuasively, asserted itself in the post-9/11 period when America under Bush embarked on two wars and a path that saw it compromising its own laws and ideals and justifying torture and Guantanamo in the name of protecting the nation. The invasion of Iraq, the Patriot Act and secret detention centres were all actions consistent with the old predatory identity.
Aggressive hyperpatriotism was embedded deep in the American psyche: reacting ferociously and excessively at a moment of peril. Dr Ahmed points out that this has expressed itself throughout history-in the treatment of Native Americans, internment of Japanese-Americans during the Second World War and demonisation of Muslims after 9/11.
The election of Barack Obama offered the promise of the reassertion of pluralist America, but this has yet to come to pass, says Dr Ahmed. In fact, the three different identities continue to vie for position in today's society. He is emphatic in stating that unless these competing identities are reconciled, America will not be able to build a relationship of trust and respect with the Islamic world and its own Muslim population, or be able to play an effective global role.
Dr Ahmed pulls no punches in calling on America to end its entanglement with the Muslim world, acknowledge how its foreign policy is contributing to violent extremism abroad and radicalisation at home, and promote fair solutions to the problems in the Muslim world.
He is just as forthright in identifying the weaknesses and problems in the Muslim diaspora. Dr Ahmed distinguishes between three traditions that have shaped the Muslim world, distinctions that are not theological but sociological paradigms: mystic, modernist and literalist. The first represented by Sufism emphasises universal humanism, the second by men like Mohammad Ali Jinnah, who balance modernity with religion, and the third popularly known as Salafis, who adhere strictly to tradition.
Dr Ahmed shows that the immigrant Muslim community in America has retained, in varying degrees, these three models. But African-Americans being converts, came to Islam with a clean state and were inspired by the example of Prophet Mohammad (Peace Be upon Him) as a social reformer whose concern for the poor and powerless resonated closely with their own needs and experience. This rediscovery of Islam in America inspires Dr Ahmed to hold this out as a model for other Muslims.
His profile of Muslim immigrants shows that the mystics among them easily accepted American identity in its entirety. Pluralism attracted the modernists the most. But the literalists rejected American identity as irrelevant to their lives. Of all the immigrants in the US, says Dr Ahmed, the Muslim community poses the greatest challenge to American identity. American pluralism, once a magnet for them, now "treats them with distaste and indifference." Yet this community holds the key to better relations with the Muslim world.
The book depicts the Muslim community as one in deep distress and increasingly prone to isolation, with its insecurity compounded not just by unfair media coverage but also by its own lack of leadership and self-reflection. Exacerbating this is its failure to reach out to and represent itself in mainstream America. Modernist Muslims have provided neither leadership nor a critical mass to change the community, while mistakenly dismissing literalists as being of no consequence.
Dr Ahmed suggests, the Muslim community needs to face the crisis in its midst, rather than recoil in fear. At present Muslim leaders are paralysed by indecision and compromise (putting aside parts of their own identity to ingratiate themselves with the majority). Scholarship is also being marginalised in the community. He therefore proposes they launch a campaign to create pride in their community and rediscover their own central traits resting in notions of ilm, ihsaan and adl.
Despite the dire picture presented in his book, Dr Ahmed believes that the gap between mainstream Americans and Muslims can be bridged, but it will take efforts by both sides to reconcile the different strands in their identity as well as build a better understanding of each other.
That is the challenge for America, and for Islam in engaging America. The book is riveting from start to finish-a scholarly work with the flavour of a colourful travelogue. Always frank and forthright and refreshingly bold in its conclusions. If there is one work of non-fiction people choose to read this summer, it should be this path-breaking study. Usually it is Western anthropologists who study Muslim societies. It is encouraging to see a Muslim scholar returning the compliment by studying American society.


The writer is a former envoy of Pakistan to the US and the UK, and a former
editor of The News.

  Beyond the Turkey-Israel rift

Inside Israel more voices are calling on the government to abandon its Gaza policy, which in their view has failed to deliver results and has only damaged the country's standing.

Osama Al Sharif 

Turkey has become the driving force behind a growing campaign to make Israel accountable for its bloody takeover last week of a Gaza aid flotilla in which nine Turkish peace activists were killed in cold blood.
Scores from different nationalities were also injured in the raid, some of them seriously. The angry reaction from Ankara to the notorious commando raid, in international waters, has not subsided. On the contrary, there is a calculated and consistent escalation by Turkey against Israel, which is slowly gathering regional and international momentum. The end game remains uncertain, but the repercussions of the Turkey-Israel crisis could prove costly - for both.
Few doubt that Israel now finds itself in a predicament of its own doing. The naval fiasco has triggered controversy even inside Israel. Aside from the denouncements, condemnations and demands that an independent international probe into the incident take place, there is mounting pressure on the Netanyahu government to lift the three-year-old blockade of Gaza, or yield to a new regime of inspection, by a third party, of goods going into the stricken strip. Israel has rejected both.
But now even its closest allies are admitting that the siege is unacceptable. Inside Israel more voices are calling on the government to abandon its Gaza policy, which in their view has failed to deliver results and has only damaged the country's standing. The Netanyahu government is likely to suffer whatever its final decision will be. The extreme right will regard any concession as a sell-out while the moderate camp will use it to reposition itself politically and launch a fresh bid for power through early elections. Maintaining the status quo is no option.
But it is Turkey, under the strong leadership of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which now has the initiative. Erdogan has not wavered from his head-on assault against Israeli policies in Gaza and toward the Palestinians. On Monday he told visiting Syrian President Bashar Al Assad that Israel would pay for its crime. His Foreign Minister Ahmad Davutoglu has been equally vociferous, reiterating Turkey's demands that Israel's criminal attack against the peace flotilla be fully and independently investigated and that the Gaza siege be lifted immediately.
Both men spoke in Istanbul on Monday, at the opening of a conference on Security and Economic Cooperation in Eurasia in the 21st Century. Both were unrelenting. Their statements were made following almost a week of daily demonstrations in Istanbul where thousands of angry Turks continued to denounce Israel and its crimes against the Palestinians.
Turkey's regional influence has been growing incrementally for years. Its relationship with Israel has been strained for some time, mainly over the latter's war on Gaza last year and now over the bloody interception of an aid ship bearing a Turkish flag. As a result, Israel has lost a key regional ally. A strategic treaty has been put on ice and joint military exercises have been cancelled. President Abdullah Gul has said that bilateral relations will never go back to what they used to be.
There is no doubt that Israeli actions are responsible for the sudden and precipitous deterioration in relations with Turkey. But it is also fair to say that the political transformation of Turkey, since the victory of Erdogan's Justice and Development Party, a moderate Islamist party, and the adoption of a new foreign policy doctrine by Ankara, have all contributed to the present rift.
Under Erdogan Turkey has been opening up to its Asian neighbors, pursuing a policy of détente, regional cooperation, security and crisis management. This has been evident in Turkey's reconciliation with Syria, Greece, Armenia, Iraq and Iran, among others. Last month Ankara played a pivotal role in securing Tehran's approval of an agreement to swap its nuclear fuel and store it in Turkey. For some time it tried to mediate between Syria and Israel, and more recently it had attempted to bring about an end to the rift between Hamas and the Palestinian National Authority. In addition to this, it is building strong ties with Central Asian countries, where tens of millions are rediscovering their Turkish roots.
Turkey's rising economic strength, the fact that it is a NATO member, a close ally of the United States and enjoys special ties with the EU qualify it as a world power. But its latest confrontation with Israel will not endear it to pro-Zionist media and politicians, especially in the US.
Already the pro-Israel US media counterattack has begun. Erdogan is being vilified by columnists and commentators who take their cue from the Israeli lobby in Washington and others. Writing last week in The Wall Street Journal's opinion page, Robert Pollock headlined his article, "Erdogan and the decline of the Turks". Belittling the Turks for not speaking an Indo-European language while sitting at the crossroads between Europe and Asia, Pollock says "to follow Turkish discourse in recent years has been to follow a national decline into madness." He then adds that "what information most of them get is filtered through a secular press that makes Italian communists look right wing by comparison and an increasing number of state (i.e., Islamist) influenced outfits. Topics A and B (or B and A, it doesn't really matter) have been the malign influence on the world of Israel and the United States."
He then goes on to portray Erdogan, whom he had interviewed several times, as either a simpleton or an extremist or both. His deduction is that Erdogan "and his party have traded on America and Israel hatred" for years. He also believes that Foreign Minister Davutoglu's philosophy calls on Turkey to loosen Western ties to the US, NATO and the European Union and seek its own sphere of influence to the East.
This, of course, is total rubbish. I have interviewed Davutoglu in Amman last summer and he never once said that Turkey's opening up to the East was to be at the expense of its relationship with the West. As an undersecretary of Davutoglu told members of the press few days ago in Istanbul, Turkey's aim remains to join the EU and to have an active regional role.
But Pollock's poisonous rancor is exactly the kind of diatribe that we should expect from friends of Israel and Islamophobic pundits in the West. Sooner or later Erdogan will have to face accusations of anti-Semitism and Islamic radicalism. Even when Turkey is united today in its hostility toward Israel, Erdogan must be vigilant. He has challenged Israel and he should expect a reaction both domestically and internationally.
In spite of the recent crisis with Israel, it is not clear where Turkey and its leaders will finally draw the line. That depends on many factors; chief among them is Washington's attitude toward the Netanyahu government, its position on an independent probe and on lifting the Gaza siege. There is, of course, the Arab role in all of this and so far it has been muted and shy.


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

  New Russian-Polish tensions

The row threatens to undermine the genuine closeness that has blossomed between Russia and Poland in the crash's aftermath.

Luke Harding

Russia and Poland's newfound solidarity was under severe strain following claims Russian soldiers stole the credit cards of one of the victims of April's plane crash that wiped out much of Poland's leadership.
Polish authorities said Russia had detained four soldiers on suspicion of looting credit cards from the body of Andrzej Przewoznik, a historian and top Polish official. Przewoznik perished with 95 other people, including Poland's president Lech Kaczynski, when their plane went down in thick fog near Smolensk airport in western Russia.
According to Warsaw, Przewoznik's card was used to withdraw money from a cashpoint within hours of the catastrophe. Further withdrawals were made from four Smolensk cash machines over the next two days. Przewoznik's widow raised the alarm when she discovered around 6,000 zloty had vanished from her dead husband's bank account.
Poland's government spokesman Pawel Gras initially blamed Russia's OMON riot police. He said the culprits had been arrested. "The three OMON officers who did this shameful deed were detained with lightning speed thanks to cooperation between the [Polish] internal security agency and Russian special services," Gras declared.
His comments provoked an apoplectic reaction from Russia's interior ministry, which said its officers had been wrongly accused. Describing the allegation as "cynical, sacrilegious and fictive", Nikolai Turbovets, the head of the Smolensk region's crime police, said no OMON riot police officers had been arrested. Nor had any crimes been committed at the crash scene, he insisted. Poland clarified that those arrested were soldiers rather than police.
The row threatens to undermine the genuine closeness that has blossomed between Russia and Poland in the crash's aftermath. The Kremlin gave unprecedented assistance and access to Polish investigators, while Russia's prime minister, Vladimir Putin, flew to Smolensk with his Polish counterpart, Donald Tusk.
The Polish delegation had been travelling to a memorial ceremony to mark the anniversary of the 1940 Katyn massacre, when Soviet secret police killed thousands of Polish military officers. Przewoznik was a well-known historian and head of the council responsible for maintaining Polish war memorials.
Last month Bronislaw Komorowski, the Polish acting president, asked Medvedev to increase security around the site of the plane crash after Polish reports showed victims' personal belongings unearthed there.
The crash, in which the heads of Poland's armed forces, the governor of its central bank and many other senior officials were killed, caused shock and grief in Russia as well as in Poland, and raised hopes of better relations between the two countries.

International

Seven dead as gunmen torch NATO trucks near Pakistan capital

AFP, Islamabad

Gunmen attacked military vehicles and goods destined for NATO in Afghanistan, torching up to 60 trailers and killing seven people in an unprecedented assault near Islamabad, police said Wednesday.
The overnight attack was the first on NATO supplies so close to the Pakistani capital and entailed one of the biggest losses on the convoys, whose presence is bitterly opposed by Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked extremists. A dozen gunmen stormed the depot on the outskirts of Islamabad en route to the northwestern city of Peshawar and towards the NATO supply route into Afghanistan, where 130,000 US-led foreign troops are fighting the Taliban.
Although militants have routinely attacked supplies for US and NATO-led foreign forces travelling through Pakistan, the audacious assault will raise questions about insecurity on the doorstep of the heavily-guarded capital. Rows of tankers and trucks, including a dozen loaded with military vehicles, were reduced to a twisted mass of metal after the inferno at the Tarnol depot was brought under control, an AFP photographer said.
"There were 60 trailers gutted by fire. In addition 80 NATO vehicles were partially damaged," Shah Nawaz, police station chief in Tarnol, told AFP.
"Seven people, most of them drivers and their helpers, were killed." Police were conducting a full-scale investigation into the incident while the government demanded a report into the incident within three days.
"The important question to ask is how were they moving in such a big convoy under the current environment when trucks with NATO supplies are routinely attacked," said Nawaz. Police official Qadeer Ahmad confirmed the casualties and said 40 trailers, which had been mounted on trucks, were destroyed in the inferno. Although there was no immediate claim of responsibility, similar assaults in the past have been blamed on Taliban fighters.
"The vehicles gutted were carrying supplies for NATO forces in Afghanistan," Naeemullah Khan, an officer at Tarnol police station, told AFP.

   Taliban shoot down NATO chopper, four Americans killed
AFP, Kabul

Taliban militants shot down a NATO helicopter in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing four US soldiers and bringing to 23 the number of foreign troops killed in escalating violence so far this week.
The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) helicopter came down in Helmand province, a stronghold of Taliban fighting to topple the Western-backed government and evict the 130,000 US-led foreign troops in Afghanistan. "Four ISAF service members were killed in the crash," a military spokesman said. "The helicopter was brought down by hostile fire."
Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Breasseale later confirmed that the dead soldiers were American.
Yousuf Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman, telephoned AFP from an undisclosed location to claim responsibility. "We brought it down with a rocket. It crashed in the Sangin district bazaar today at around 10:00 am (0530 GMT)," Ahmadi said.
According to an AFP tally based on the independent website icasualties.org, 253 foreign soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan so far this year. Last year was the deadliest yet, with 520 killed.
Much of southern Afghanistan is blighted by a nearly nine-year Taliban insurgency, now in its deadliest phase, and is where US and NATO troops are building up a campaign to flush the militants out of Kandahar city.
The crash brought to five the number of NATO soldiers killed in the south on Wednesday, after London announced that a British soldier died in an explosion elsewhere in Helmand province.
Twenty-three NATO soldiers have died since Sunday, including 10 on Monday when US-led forces in Afghanistan encountered their deadliest day in combat in two years, with seven Americans, two Australians and a French soldier killed.
In the east, three policemen were killed when their vehicle struck an improvised bomb in Ghazni province on Wednesday, Khyalbaz Sherzai, the Ghazni provincial police chief, told AFP.
The Taliban also claimed responsibility for that attack.
Despite the mounting casualties, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday in London that he expected to see signs of progress in a flagship counter-insurgency strategy "by the end of the year". Gates said the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, "is pretty confident that by the end of the year he will be able to point to sufficient progress that validates the strategy and also justifies continuing to work at this". But he cautioned that there were "no illusions" about quick victories and that there was a difficult struggle ahead, warning it would be a "tough summer".
Gates said the United States and its allies were under pressure to show some success in the war. Voters in many countries have appeared increasingly weary of casualties in a seemingly endless foreign war.
The US military has warned that casualty tolls will inevitably climb during the increased operations.
NATO, US and Afghan soldiers are preparing their biggest offensive yet against the Taliban in Kandahar, with total foreign troop numbers set to peak at 150,000 in total by August.
The Taliban vowed last month to unleash a new campaign of attacks on diplomats, lawmakers and foreign forces. It claimed responsibility for a rocket attack on a landmark Afghan meeting last week convened by President Hamid Karzai in Kabul to drum up support for plans to give jobs and money to militants who lay down arms.

  North Korea warns UN not to debate ship sinking
AFP, Seoul

North Korea warned the UN Wednesday of "serious" consequences for peace if it debates an alleged torpedo attack on a South Korean warship without letting the North's investigators examine the evidence.
South Korea, the United States and other countries accuse the North of sinking the ship with the loss of 46 lives and are pushing for the United Nations Security Council to censure the communist state. The North accuses Washington and Seoul of a "smear campaign" to fake evidence of its involvement as a pretext for aggression and says reprisals already announced by the South could spark war.
Pyongyang said Wednesday its UN representative had written to the council president, repeating demands that it be allowed to send a team south of the border to examine the evidence.
"In case the unilaterally forged 'investigation result' is put on the agenda of the United Nations Security Council and open to be debated without the verification of the directly victimised party...no one would dare imagine how serious its consequences would be with regard to the peace and security on the Korean peninsula," state media quoted the letter as saying. It urged the Security Council not to be swayed by US "lies" as it was over the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and said the world body has a duty to stay impartial.
After a weeks-long investigation a multinational team said last month there was overwhelming evidence that a North Korean submarine had fired a heavy torpedo to break the warship in two in March.
South Korea formally asked the Security Council last week to respond and said Wednesday the investigators would brief the council's 15 members on the probe at the request of council president Mexico. The South has rejected the North's demands to send its own investigators, with the defence minister saying it would be "like a robber or a murderer insisting he must inspect the crime scene".
The South has announced reprisals, including cutting off trade with the cash-strapped North, and is lobbying for support at the UN.
It can expect backing from the US, Britain and France but China and Russia, the other two veto-wielding permanent council members, have not publicly stated their positions.

  Aquino proclaimed Philippine president, warns of crisis
AFP, Manila

Benigno Aquino was proclaimed the next president of the Philippines amid joyous celebrations on Wednesday, but he struck a sombre tone as he warned the impoverished nation was in crisis.
The 50-year-old bachelor achieved one of the most emphatic election wins in the Southeast Asian nation's history last month after promising to tackle the endemic graft and pervasive poverty that have long afflicted the country.
To wild cheers and applause from a gallery packed with supporters wearing his family's trademark yellow, parliament proclaimed Aquino the next president with over 15.2 million votes, or nearly 42 percent, of the total.
However, the son of two democracy heroes immediately sought to focus on the problems facing the sprawling archipelago of more than 90 million people, which has for decades lagged behind its fast-developing Asian neighbours.
"I am a little anxious, a little eager to solve the problems that are besetting our countrymen," Aquino told reporters in his first public remarks shortly after the proclamation.
"I can't say (I feel) totally joy at this time."
Aquino, who will take over from the highly unpopular President Gloria Arroyo on June 30, said a fast-growing budget deficit was one of the most pressing issues.
"Immediately, I have a crisis to deal with," Aquino said of the deficit, which he forecast would hit 400 billion pesos (8.5 billion dollars) this year.
"We have many problems that we have inherited, contrary to the propaganda of our predecessors."
Aquino crushed his rivals largely on his promise of clean government, following nine years of rule under Arroyo that has been tarnished by allegations of massive corruption and vote rigging. He also drew on the enormous public support for his parents, who remain revered for their efforts in ending the 20-year dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos.
His father, Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino, was shot dead in 1983 at Manila airport as he returned from US exile to lead the democracy movement against Marcos.
His mother, Corazon Aquino, took over from her slain husband and led the "People Power" revolution that eventually toppled Marcos in 1986.

  Sri Lankan president’s India visit marred by Tamil protests
AFP, New Delhi

Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse on Wednesday began his first foreign trip to influential neighbour India since being re-elected, in a visit that has drawn protests from Indian Tamils.
Rajapakse, who was re-elected in January on the back of a resounding victory over Tamil separatists that ended a 37-year-long civil war last May, has come under fire for his treatment of Tamil civilians.
The United Nations estimates 7,000 of them died in the final stages of the fighting and hundreds of thousands were displaced by the military campaign in the rebel former strongholds in the island's north and east.
In New Delhi, Rajapakse discussed the resettlement of an estimated 80,000 Tamils still living in government-run camps during talks with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and senior government ministers, an official told AFP.
Both sides also discussed Colombo's plans for a "reconciliation commission" aimed at fostering unity between the majority Sinhalese population and the minority Tamils at the root of the separatist conflict.
The civil war is estimated to have claimed up to 100,000 lives, according to the United Nations.
India, which has some 62 million Tamils in its southern Tamil Nadu state, wields considerable diplomatic influence over Colombo and has been urging the island nation to step up efforts to heal the rift between the two communities.
Tamils in India and Sri Lanka share close cultural and religious links.
In New Delhi, a delegation of Tamil MPs from the ruling Congress and its regional ally, the DMK, also met Rajapakse over the issue.
On Tuesday, Tamils protested Rajapakse's visit in front of the Sri Lankan consulate in Chennai city, capital of Tamil Nadu state.
"Having massacred scores of Tamils, Rajapakse had no moral right to enter India with his blood-stained hands," said Vaiko, a top Tamil politician and staunch supporter of the rebel Tamil Tigers.
Protestors also burnt an effigy of the Sri Lankan president, witnesses said.
In Colombo, Sri Lanka's main Tamil party on Wednesday urged the government to free some 12,500 people currently held in custody for having links with the Tamil Tiger rebels.
The moderate Tamil National Alliance (TNA) said most of the detainees were arrested on suspicion. Some were forced to work for the Tigers.
TNA chief R. Sampanthan said many of those detained had given themselves up to the military on good faith on being told that they would be released after questioning.
"A distinction should be drawn between those against whom there is evidence, those whose involvement was serious, or whose involvement was peripheral," Sampanthan told reporters.
"We ask the government to grant a general amnesty to these people. There have been precedents for such actions in the past," Sampanthan said. "Such a step would greatly help to restore goodwill and harmony."

 UN to slap fresh sanctions on Iran
AFP, United Nations

The international powers stepped up their battle with Iran over its nuclear program Wednesday with the UN Security Council ready to pass a tough fourth round of sanctions.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad threatened to suspend nuclear negotiations in response to what US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said would be "the most significant sanctions that Iran has ever faced."
The US-drafted sanctions resolution, co-sponsored by Britain and France with the backing of Russia and China, would expand an arms embargo, target Iran's banking sector and ban the country from sensitive activities like uranium mining.
It would authorize states to conduct high-sea inspections of vessels believed to be ferrying banned items for Iran and add 40 entities to a list of people and groups subject to travel restrictions and financial sanctions.
The resolution is certain to be voted despite efforts by Brazil and Turkey to head off the measures and promote a nuclear fuel swap deal they reached with Tehran last month.
The West has cold-shouldered the proposal, saying it did not allay fears that Tehran is using its contested nuclear drive as a cover to produce nuclear weapons.
Ahead of the 10:00 am (1400 GMT) start of the Security Council meeting, the United States, France and Russia formally replied to the International Atomic Energy Agency to Iran's proposals for a nuclear fuel swap.
The three had proposed last October that they take most of Iran's low-enriched uranium (LEU) and turn it into the much-needed fuel for a reactor which makes radioisotopes for medical use. Tehran rejected that plan.
The Security Council has already passed three rounds of sanctions on Iran since December 2006. The last was adopted on March 3, 2008.
Only Brazil, Turkey and Lebanon -- three non-permanent council members -- have openly voiced opposition to the latest round of sanctions. It remains unclear whether they will vote against or abstain.
Iran's president has angrily warned that negotiations with Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany on his country's nuclear program would be terminated if the council passes the sanctions.
"I have said that the US government and its allies are mistaken if they think they can brandish the stick of resolution and then sit down to talk with us, such a thing will not happen," Ahmadinejad said.

   Mosque desecrated in northern Israel
AFP, Jerusalem

Menacing Hebrew graffiti was found on a mosque outside the Israeli city of Haifa on Wednesday, a religious foundation said, amid rising threats against leaders of the country's Arab minority.
The Al-Aqsa Foundation for Religious Endowments and Heritage distributed pictures of the graffiti, calling the vandalism a "great and reprehensible crime" and demanding that Israeli authorities investigate it.
The graffiti, sprayed on the outside of the mosque and accompanied by the star of David, reads "slated for demolition" and "there will be a war for Judaea and Samaria" the biblical name of the occupied West Bank.
The police were not immediately available for comment. The incident comes as leaders of Israel's 1.3 million-strong Palestinian minority have come under attack for their support of a Gaza aid flotilla seized by the Israeli navy in international waters after a deadly confrontation in which naval commandos shot dead nine Turkish activists.
Haneen Zuabi, an Arab member of the Israeli parliament, received death threats and was accused of being a traitor by fellow lawmakers after taking part in the six-ship flotilla that aimed to break Israel's blockade of Gaza. Ahmed Tibi, another Arab MP who did not take part in the flotilla, has also received death threats.
The Al-Aqsa Foundation linked the desecration of the mosque to the "atmosphere of hatred and racism against Arabs and Muslims in this country on the official and popular level."
The foundation is linked to the radical wing of the Islamic Movement led by Sheikh Raed Salah, who was also on one of the ships.
Israel's Arab citizens, who make up nearly 20 percent of the population, are the descendents of Palestinians who remained in the Jewish state following the 1948 war that attended its creation.

  Afghan heroin ‘threat to progress in Russia’: Medvedev
AFP, Moscow

The flood of heroin into Russia from war-torn Afghanistan is a key threat to the country's progress, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned Wednesday, unveiling a new anti-drug policy.
"Drug addiction is a serious threat to the development of our country, to the health of our nation," Medvedev said at an international forum against Afghan drug production in Moscow.
"To fight this threat we have prepared a new government anti-drug strategy until 2020."
Russia has voiced mounting alarm at the flow of drugs trafficked from Afghanistan through its porous southern borders with ex-Soviet Central Asia, slamming US and NATO policies in the war-torn region, which shy away from eradicating poppy fields.
Over 30,000 Russians died last year from abusing Afghan heroin, according to the federal drug control agency.
"Youths have been the main victims of the narco-threat," Medvedev said on Russian television.
"That the production of opiates has doubled in the last 10 years, speaks to the scale of the calamity. And, sadly, Afghanistan is the principal supplier of these opiates."
War-ravaged Afghanistan is the world's largest heroine producer -- its potential gross export of opium worth 2.8 billion dollars last year, according to the UN drugs agency.
The heroin is mostly smuggled through Russia and on to Europe, fueling the drug epidemic in Russia, where some 90 percent of heroin had Afghan origins, according to officials.

  US, France, Russia unhappy with Iran fuel deal proposal
AFP, Vienna

The United States, France and Russia seemed to reject Wednesday Iran's proposals for a nuclear fuel swap, saying it did not build enough confidence about the peaceful nature of Tehran's atomic programme.
The three powers -- known as the Vienna group -- handed their views on the deal here to International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano just hours before world powers were set to slap new sanctions on Iran.
The IAEA confirmed receipt of the three countries' responses but did not reveal the content of their letters.
Nevertheless, comments by Washington's envoy to the IAEA's closed-door session more or less set out the countries' concerns about the deal concluded with Brazil and Turkey. Diplomats attending the meeting said France and Russia had expressed similar worries.
Iran's proposed arrangement for the supply of fuel for a research reactor in Tehran "provides no alternative means of ensuring that the confidence-building element of the arrangement would be maintained," US ambassador Glyn Davies told the IAEA's 35-member board of governors.
"It does not address the underlying issue of Iran's non-compliance with its non-proliferation obligations," Davies complained.
"It also does not take into account Iran's production or retention of nearly 20 percent enriched uranium and it asserts a right for Iran to engage in enrichment activities."
It did not set a deadline for removal of Iran's stockpile of low-enriched uranium (LEU) for further processing into the fuel rods needed for the reactor.
"Further, the declaration sets an unrealistic timeline for delivery of the fuel assemblies, insisting on full delivery within one year when such a result is clearly not within the technical capability of any state," Davies said.

  US expects signs of progress in Afghan war ‘by end of year’

AFP, London

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on Wednesday he expected to see signs of progress "by the end of the year" in the NATO-led war in Afghanistan, despite mounting casualties.
Speaking in London, Gates said the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, "is pretty confident that by the end of the year he will be able to point to sufficient progress that validates the strategy and also justifies continuing to work at this".
But he cautioned that there were "no illusions" about quick victories and that there was a difficult struggle ahead, warning it would be "tough summer" battling Taliban insurgents.
Underscoring the rising violence in Afghanistan, military officers in Kabul said four NATO soldiers were killed Wednesday when their helicopter was shot down by hostile fire in the southern Afghan province of Helmand.
Gates said the United States and its allies were under pressure to show some success in the war, now in its ninth year.
In his meetings with Britain's new defence secretary, Liam Fox, Gates said there was "general agreement yesterday in all of my meetings that all of us, for our publics, are going to have show by the end of the year that our strategy is on the right track and making some headway."
He said improving government services and civilian development efforts formed an important part of the effort, but he said the rationale for the war was not a nation-building exercise.
"The reason we are there is for our own security," he said. "We are not there to build 21st century Afghanistan. None of us will be alive that long."
He said the United States had been attacked by Al-Qaeda militants based in Afghanistan in 2001 and "we want to make sure we are never attacked again from out of there."

  Russia past ‘cult of personality’ threat: Putin
AFP, Sochi

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin denied he was the object of a "cult of personality" like that which surrounded Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, saying Russian society today would not tolerate such abuse of power.
In an interview with AFP this week, Putin said however that robust civil society was critical for preventing concentration of too much power in one leader's hands and acknowledged Russia still had problems in this area.
"A cult of personality is not just attention to a single person. It is violation of the law on a mass scale, linked with repression.
"Even in my worst nightmares I cannot imagine that this could happen again in Russia today," Putin said in the interview Monday in the Russian Black Sea coastal resort town of Sochi.
"The maturity of today's Russian society, believe me, is is high enough to prevent development of the kinds of processes that we ran up against in the 1930s, 40's and 50's of the last century," Putin said.
Talk of a cult of personality around the 57-year-old strongman surfaced several years ago among Putin critics when the hugely popular former president was photographed bare-chested on horseback and fishing in the Russian wilderness.
Since then, "action" pictures of Putin involved in activities ranging from diving in a submarine to the bottom of Lake Baikal in Siberia to stroking a tiger in Russia's far east have been released by the government periodically.

  Abbott to contest Labour leadership
AFP, London

Five candidates, including two brothers and a black female MP, will fight for the leadership of the Labour Party, it announced Wednesday after the close of nominations.
Ex-ministers David Miliband, Ed Miliband, Ed Balls and Andy Burnham, and veteran MP Diane Abbott each secured support from at least 33 Labour MPs to join the race to replace former prime minister Gordon Brown.
Although the party could be in opposition for years, having been ousted after 13 years in power in May 6 elections that swept a Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government to power, the race for the top job is likely to be fierce.
Public hustings will take place ahead of a ballot throughout September and the announcement of the winner on September 25.
Former foreign secretary David Miliband remains the frontrunner, with 81 nominations, followed by his younger brother Ed, the former energy secretary, with 63. Abbott, Burnham and Balls have 33 nominations each.
Many in the party welcomed Abbott's inclusion on the final candidate list, after complaining that the field was dominated by white men of a similar age and background, although she is still considered the outsider.
David Miliband had given her his nomination to help keep her in the race, while left-wing lawmaker John McDonnell also abandoned his own bid, throwing his weight behind her to ensure at least one left-wing candidate had a chance. "This will ensure there is going to be a much wider debate in the hustings," said GMB union leader Paul Kenny.
"There are wide-ranging differences between the candidates on issues such as nuclear (power) and privatisation and it is very important that these are aired."
The new leader will be voted for by three electoral colleges, made up of MPs and members of the European Parliament; trade unions and other affiliated organisations; and grassroots Labour members.

Business/Economy

Parliament passes bill re-fixing stamp duty at 3% for rural, urban areas

UNB, Sangsad Bhaban
Parliament on Wednesday passed the Stamp (Amendment) Bill 2010 re-fixing uniform stamp duty at 3 percent for land registration in both urban and rural areas.
On September 1 last year, the stamp duty for rural area was lowered from 5 percent to 2 percent. Finance Minister AMA Muhith, who piloted the Stamp (Amendment) Bill, 2010, told parliament that the reduction of the stamp duty for rural areas was comparatively less since the land price in rural areas was not increased.
Moreover, he said, having maintained 3 percent stamp duty for urban areas there was a scope to deprive the government of due revenue by way of "false" declaration about the location of the land at the time of registration. Therefore, the Finance Minister said uniform stamp duty has been
re-fixed at 3 percent for registration of land in both urban and rural areas.
The bill was passed without any discussion in absence of the opposition BNP lawmakers who have been abstaining from parliament proceedings. The Finance Minister also piloted the Income-tax (Amendment) Bill, 2010 re-fixing tax at source at 1 percent in the case of transferring non-agricultural land in rural areas outside City Corporation, Municipality or Cantonment Board.

 China, India to lead Asian recovery: Moody’s
PTI, New Delhi

Led by China and India, most of the Asian economies are expected to expand this year and the next, although uncertainty over the global recovery threatens to derail growth, Moody's Analytics said yesterday.
The report underlined the need for Asia's policymakers for maintaining balance between inflation and growth.
"China will lead (growth in Asia this year), expanding around 10 per cent followed by India and Vietnam at around 8.5 per cent," Moody's said, adding South Korea is expected to grow around 6 per cent, despite the deteriorating relationship with its northern neighbour.
The report further said the Asean economies (except Thailand) are expected to grow solidly this year, following impressive first quarter results.

  IMF warns Asia of spillovers from European crisis
AFP, Singapore

The IMF warned Asia today of the potential spillovers of the European debt crisis, saying it could dampen trade, make capital flows volatile and overheat economies in the region.
"Adverse developments in Europe could disrupt global trade, with implications for Asia given the still important role of external demand," IMF deputy managing director Naoyuki Shinohara told a forum in Singapore.
On the financial front, he said major credit problems could result in a "significant spillover" through funding channels, especially where banks were dependent on wholesale funding.
There was also increased uncertainty and potential for volatility in the outlook for capital flows, Shinohara said at the forum hosted by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the de facto central bank of the island state.
He said Asia's bright growth prospects, together with low interest rates in major economies, would likely attract more capital that could "lead to risks of overheating in some economies if appropriate policy action is not taken.
"On the other hand, further increases in global risk aversion could see capital flows change direction quickly." Shinohara called on Asian governments to be wary of the potential risks and be prepared to take appropriate action.
"The key will be for policymakers to keep an eye on the bigger picture and be ready to act swiftly as developments unfold," he said.
"With Asia's economic muscle growing, the policy choices made in this region will have an important impact on the global economy," he said.
Greece is at the epicentre of a mounting debt crisis that threatens to spread across the eurozone and has pulled down the euro to four year lows. Asian markets have also been affected by the impact of the crisis.

  Farmers get bumper harvest, excellent prices of off-season mugbean in N-dists

BSS, Rangpur

The farmers got a super bumper production of the off-season mugbean as an additional cash crop and its excellent market prices as its harvest ended everywhere in Rangpur division, concerned officials and experts said Wednesday.
The farmers have been getting excellent prices of the newly harvested and processed clean mugbean up to Taka 140 per kg and the nutritious pulse has appeared in the local markets everywhere.
Rangpur-Dinajpur Rural Service (RDRS) assisted 5,000 farmers in cultivating the pulse in their 5,000 bighas land this season in Rangpur, Dinajpur, Lalmonirhat, Kurigram, Nilphamari, Gaibandha, Panchagarh and Thakurgaon districts.
Besides, 500 more farmers cultivated mugbean in 500 bigha lands under the direct assistance of RDRS and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agriculture University (BSMRAU), Senior Manager (Crop) KM Marufuzzman of RDRS said.
The farmers and experts of RDRS and the DAE told that harvest of the pulse ended last week and RDRS with the help of 13 local NGOs provided all assistances to all of these 5,000 farmers in cultivating the crop this time.
The NGO, after achieving tremendous successes in farming of the off season cash crop during the past two consecutive seasons, went to its large-scale farming everywhere in Rangpur division this season.

National

NCTB hopeful of distributing 23.18 cr textbooks by Nov
BSS, Dhaka

The National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) is hopeful of distributing over 23.18 crore free textbooks among school students by November next for the academic year 2011, NCTB Chairman Prof Mostafa Kamaluddin said here Wednesday.
"The huge task is now in progress," he told BSS.
The tender process of paper procurement, printing and binding and updating of the manuscripts are going on smoothly, he added.
The Ministry of Education will distribute 23,18,02,003 free textbooks next year against 18,69,24,016 in the current year.
The government for the first time introduced free textbooks up to secondary level to attract learners in academic life braving poverty. Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid took extra initiative and made it possible overcoming different hurdles including fire incident in the NCTB godowns.
He said demand of textbooks for free distribution increased following reduction of dropouts as many students came back to schools getting textbooks free. Earlier, it was beyond their capacity to purchase books from open market.
In next year, the primary students will get 10,45,51,475 free textbooks, the ebtedaee students will get 1,68,25,039, the secondary students will get 9,01,57,208, the dakhil students will get 1,84,38,576, and technical students will get 18,29,705 textbooks, he added.
The NCTB Chairman said non-affiliated educational institutions who will apply for getting free textbooks will also get those for the welfare of the students.
A recent NCTB study revealed that the number of students in primary and secondary level increased 16.83 percent following free distribution of books. Teachers and school management are also making extra efforts to bring students in their schools for protecting monthly payment order (MPO) facilities.

  Workshop on Space Syntax held in BUET
BSS, Dhaka

Architecture Department of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) organized a workshop on Tuesday on "Space Syntax-An Evidence Based Methodology Towards Sustainable Urban Development" at its Seminar Hall Central auditorium.
University Grants Commission Chairman Professor Nazrul Islam attended at the workshop as the chief guest while BUET Vice Chancellor Professor AMM Saifullah, Pro Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr M Habibur Rahman, and Institute of Architects President Mobasshar Hossain attended as special guests.
Architecture Department Chairman Professor Shaheda Rahman chaired the workshop while Coordinator Dr Nasreen Hossain presented the keynote speech on an introduction to Space Syntax.

  Eminent businessman AFM Mozammel Haq dies
BSS, Dhaka

AFM Mozammel Huq, Executive Director of ETBL Holdings Limited and ETBL Securities and Exchange Limited, died of old-age complications on Tuesday at his residence here. He was 61, family sources said.
He left behind his wife, two daughters, two brothers, three sisters, grandchildren and a host of friends and relatives to mourn his death. He was buried at the Azimpur (old) graveyard.

Sports

Premier Hockey League begins tomorrow
TBT Report

Green Delta Insurance Premier Division Hockey League begins tomorrow with Usha Krira Chakra facing off Police Athletics Club in the inaugural match at Moulana Bhasani National Hockey Stadium in the city.
Bangladesh Hockey Federation has organized the league with the sponsorship of Green Delta Insurance Company.
Two popular Dhaka giants - Dhaka Abahani and Dhaka Mohammedan Sporting Club - will start their Dhaka premier league campaign on June 12.
Dhaka Abahani takes on Sadharan Bima Krira Sangstha, while Dhaka Mohammedan Sporting Club meets Wari Club in their first fixtures.
Eleven teams are taking part in the league.
The teams are: Usha Krira Chakra, Dhaka Abahani, Dhaka Moham-medan Sporting Club, Sonali Bank, Ajax Sporting Club, Azad Sporting Club, Merinar Young's Club, Bangladesh Sporting Club, Wari Club, Sadharan Bima Krira Sangstha and Police Athletics Club.

  Murray begins Queen’s defence with gritty win
AFP, London

Andy Murray started his bid to retain the title at Queen's Club with a 7-6 (10/8), 6-3 victory over Spain's Ivan Navarro in the second round on Tuesday.
Murray, playing his opening match after being given a first-round bye, is looking for a morale-boosting run at the grasscourt event as he warms up for Wimbledon and he survived a tough work-out to earn a third-round meeting with Mardy Fish or Santiago Giraldo.
The third seed has been stuck in something of a rut since losing the Australian Open final to Roger Federer and his disappointing claycourt season ended with a tame fourth-round exit at the French Open against Tomas Berdych.
Back in the familar surroundings of west London, initially there was little evidence of any improvement in Murray's form.
Navarro, serving and volleying impressively, kept the Scot on the back foot for much of the first set.
It took until the tie-break for Murray to spark into life as he fought off two Navarro set points, before unleashing a brilliant backhand cross-court winner, from what looked an impossible angle, to take the set himself.
Energised by that shot, the world number four broke early in the second set and did enough to keep the determined Navarro at bay. He finally killed off the Spaniard with three superb returns to break and close out the match in style.
Murray, who last year became the first Briton to win Queen's since 1938, said: "It was a tough first match. He served very well in the first set and I didn't return very well.
"The second set was better and by the end of the match I was starting to get some good returns in. I thought I moved pretty well once I got into the rallies."
Fourth seed Andy Roddick, another top player who struggled on the clay at Roland Garros before being knocked out in the third round by Russian qualifier Teimuraz Gabashvili, also enjoyed being back on the grass.
The American is a four-time winner at Queen's and the world number seven looked eager to reclaim the title he last won in 2007 as he dismissed Russian Igor Kunitsyn 6-2, 6-1 in just 50 minutes.
Germany's Rainer Schuttler knocked out Gael Monfils in the second round with a surprise 6-3, 6-7 (4/7), 6-2 win over the French sixth seed. Former French Open semi-finalist Monfils admitted he had struggled with a knee problem for much of the match, with the slick grass doing nothing to ease his discomfort.
"I twisted my knee in the first service game," Monfils said. "I called the trainer because the tape (on the knee) was a bit loose and also I wanted him to stretch my knee because it was sore.
"The court was bit of problem during the whole match. For me it was really hard to feel comfortable and feel my movement on the grass. "As everybody knows my movement is a good skill of mine but I did not feel really comfortable.
"Before the match it was okay but just after the first serve I started to be more careful and to be a bit nervous about my movement." Gonfils's compatriot Richard Gasquet fared better as the 11th seed defeated Ame-rica's Rajeev Ram 6-3, 7-5 to set up a third-round meeting with Schuttler.
In the remaining first-round matches, Grigor Dimitrov beat British wildcard Alex Bogdanovic 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in a rain-interrupted clash. Colombian 13th seed Giraldo defeated Evgeny Korolev 7-6 (8/6), 4-6, 6-3, while Belgium's Xavier Malisse beat Russia's Dmitry Tursunov 6-2, 7-6 (7/3). France's Nicolas Mahut, a runner-up at Queen's in 2007, cruised past Lu Yen-Hsun of Taipei 7-6 (7/2), 6-4. America's Fish was too strong for Somdev Devvarman of India, winning 6-1, 6-4.

   Drogba-less Ivory Coast held by Swiss club
AFP, Nyon

Injured Ivory Coast striker Didier Drogba stayed out of the public eye on Tuesday as his teammates missed a host of chances in a 1-1 World Cup warm-up draw against Swiss second division club Lausanne.
Drogba, who fractured a forearm in a friendly against Japan last Friday, was not seen during the game at Colovray stadium in Nyon, western Switzerland. The Ivory Coast football federation had signalled more than day ago that the Chelsea player was expected to follow the squad from the touchline here, after an operation in a hospital in Bern on Saturday.
Lausanne went ahead completely against the run of play in the first half to with a low header by defender Guillaume Katz, in one of their only chances in 90 minutes.
Ivory Coast kept the bulk of possession in a slow-paced game the day before the squad is due to fly out to South Africa after a two week training camp in the Swiss Alps.
Coach Sven Goran Eriksson fielded all his remaining strikers in the match in Drogba's absence. But the West Africans were defeated by wayward finishing and last ditch blocks despite at least half a dozen clear chances.

  Maradona brings X-factor to Group B
AFP, Johannesburg

All eyes will be on the World Cup's Group B in South Africa thanks to the presence in the Argentina dugout of one Diego Armando Maradona.
The star of the 1986 World Cup and one of the greatest players ever, the colourful and controversial 49-year-old is sure to attract his fair share of headlines in his new guise as national coach.
Having endured a turbulent qualifying campaign, Maradona has overseen a marked improvement since his side snatched a berth at the finals in their last qualifying game against Uruguay.
The impressive nature of their 1-0 friendly win in Germany in March prom-pted critics to reassess their preconceptions about Argentina's chances of success, while in European Footballer of the Year Lionel Messi they boast the world's best player. Their squad is also thick with guile and experience, despite the surprising omissions of Inter Milan pair Javier Zanetti and Esteban Cambiasso.
Argentina will face Greece, Nigeria and South Korea in the group phase and captain Javier Mascherano believes there will be no need to worry if the two-time champions don't click immediately. "In the long run what really matters is not what the pundits say but how well you do during that month," said the holding midfielder, who looks set to leave Liverpool after the tournament.
"Spain and Brazil look a cut above the rest because they've both won trophies in the last couple of years, but experience tells me that the World Cup is won by the team that improves through the tournament, not necessarily the one who plays the best." Maradona, meanwhile, is confident that his team can go all the way.
"I tell my players that 30 days of sacrifice for the chance to kiss the World Cup is nothing in the life of a man," he said. "An achievement like that is like touching the sky. I played in World Cups and I reached two finals. I know what it takes." Argentina qualified despite a humiliating 6-1 loss at altitude in Bolivia and a first ever home qualifying defeat to Brazil, but underwhelming pre-tournament form is something of a feature in Group B.
South Korea, semi-finalists on home soil in 2002, overcame a sluggish start under new coach Huh Jung-Moo but eventually qualified with two games to spare to reach their eighth finals-an Asian record. "We were drawn in the so-called Group of Death in Asian qualifying and we made it through," said Huh. "We believe we can do the job again in South Africa."
Nigeria are not the force that captivated the world at the 1998 tournament, when players like Jay-Jay Okocha and Sunday Oliseh starred.
But in Everton's Joseph Yobo and Wolfsburg's Obafemi Martins they possess a steely spine, although injury has deprived them of the skill of Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel.
Greece edged Ukraine by a single goal in their qualifying play-off after finishing behind Switzerland in European qualifying Group 2.
Otto Rehhagel, the man who masterminded their stunning Euro 2004 success, remains at the helm and can call upon seasoned veterans from the Euro adventure as well as 10-goal European qualifying zone top scorer Theofanis Gekas.

  AFC chief snubs Aussies for 2018 World Cup
AFP, Cape Town

Asian Football Confederation president Mohamed Bin Hammam has delivered a snub to Australia by backing Europe to host the 2018 World Cup.
The AFC chief said that he would instead back an Asia nation to host the tournament in 2022. "Asia's association with this World Cup is deep. We have supported Africa's aspirations every step of the way. We have rejoiced in Africa's success," he told an AFC Extraordinary Congress on the eve of the South Africa World Cup.
"And just as Africa had Asia's full support in winning the rights to this World Cup, I want to assure Europe on behalf of AFC that we recognise and support their desire to host the 2018 edition.
"The mood inside the FIFA Executive Committee is that Europe should host the 2018 version," he added.
The decision is a slap in the face for AFC member Australia, which is bidding to host either the 2018 or 2020 edition. England, Russia and the United States are also bidding to host either the 2018 or 2022 World Cups, as are Spain-Portugal and Netherlands-Belgium.
Japan, South Korea and Qatar have submitted bids for 2022 only. Bin Hammam underlined the AFC's determination to see an Asian nation win the rights to 2022.
"We have four countries who are very capable of hosting the World Cup. And hosting the World Cup is the legitimate right of all (member associations). Asia will put its best foot forward," he said.

  Brazil and Portugal must survive ‘Group of Death’
AFP, Johannesburg

A high-profile casualty is inevitable in the World Cup's Group G with Brazil, Portugal and Ivory Coast fighting for two places while North Korea concentrate on damage limitation.
Brazil have lifted the trophy that symbolises global football supremacy a record five times, Portugal finished fourth at the last tournament in 2006 and many pundits consider Ivory Coast the best African bet for glory.
And while North Korea are universally regarded as 'cannon fodder', none of the 32 challengers has prepared more thoroughly than the little-known squad from the reclusive nation.
Superstars abound in the first-round 'Group of Death' as Brazil boast Real Madrid midfielder Kaka, while Portugal are inspired by his club teammate Cristiano Ronaldo.
The Ivory Coast's Didier Drogba ranks alongside them in potential impact - but the striker's chances of playing in the first World Cup on African soil hang in the balance after an operation on a broken arm.
Portugal also suffered an injury blow when in-form Manchester United winger Nani was ruled out of the tournament on Tuesday after severely bruising his collarbone in training.
Brazil, the only country to compete at all 19 previous tournaments, are favoured to finish first and set up a possible last-16 showdown with fellow South Americans Chile.
And the opening Group G clash on Tuesday between Ivory Coast and Portugal in Port Elizabeth could determine who else progresses with European champions Spain the probable second-round opponents for the second-placed finisher.
North Korea will defend en masse and compete like tigers, but lack the firepower to emulate their countrymen of 1966, who defeated Italy in Middlesbrough to cause one of the great World Cup shocks.
Coach Dunga has assembled a tactically astute squad that espouses the work ethic and plays as a team with no place for the prima-donna factor that cost Brazil dearly in the past.
Dunga left out Ronaldinho, but Kaka is rounding into form after a poor debut season in Madrid.
Many consider Julio Cesar of Inter Milan the best goalkeeper in the world, Lucio and Juan form a solid central defence barrier, Gilberto Silva does the midfield graft and Luis Fabiano has few peers as a goal poacher. Brazil also know South Africa well as they return with the stars who won the Confederations Cup last June, when they came from two goals behind to pip the United States 3-2 in Johannesburg. Portugal needed a playoff against Bosnia-Herzogovina to reach South Africa after a qualifying campaign in which midfielder-cum-striker Ronaldo failed to score in seven matches before being sidelined by injury. Where to play the 'golden boy' will occupy much of coach Carlos Queiroz's time with the options facing the former assistant to Alex Ferguson at Manchester United including using him in a wide or central midfield role or as a lone striker.
Portugal breezed through a 3-0 warm-up victory over Mozambique Tuesday, but the match was overshadowed by the loss of Nani following an injury in training.
Queiroz though was pleased to see Real Madrid defensive midfielder Pepe back in action after six months out with a knee injury.
"It's fantastic. With the help of Real Madrid's doctors, the Portuguese federation and the technical staff of the national team, we have done a meticulous job," said the coach.
Fate has dealt Ivory Coast a cruel World Cup hand twice after getting the Netherlands and Argentina in Germany four years ago, and the late choice of former England supremo Sven Goran Eriksson as coach hardly boosts continuity. The Ivorians are desperate for Chelsea star Drogba to recover in time, but brothers Yaya and Kolo Toure and Salomon Kalou will want to show they are than just a support cast.
Perhaps the safest prediction about the group is that Myong-Guk Ri, the 23-year-old North Korea goalkeeper who considers it his sacred duty to "safeguard the gates to the fatherland", faces an extremely busy June.

  National Badminton Championship
Rais and Elina win double crowns

TBT Report

Rais and Elina became the men's and women's singles champion respectively in the Citycell 30th National Badminton Championship.
Rais of Bangladesh Biman defeated Javed of Narayanganj 22-24, 21-12, 25-23 in the hard fought men's singles final at Dhaka Wooden Floor Gymnasium in the city on Wednesday.
Elina of Narayanganj clinched the women's singles crown defeating Shapla, also from Narayanganj, 20-22, 24-22, 21-14 in the final.
Both Rais and Elina received Taka 20 thousand each for winning the men's and women's singles titles.
Rais teamed up with fellow Porosh lifted the men's doubles title defeating Enam and Dulal 21-17, 19-21, 21-16 in the all-Biman final. Elina with the other Narayanganj girl Shapla took the women's doubles crown when they defeated Konika and Dola of Bangladesh Biman 21-16 and 21-14 in the final of the event.

  Buoyant Proteas eye Test series success over WIndies
AFP, Port of Spain

South Africa has every reason to start its three-Test series with West Indies today at Queen's Park Oval in a confident mood.
The South Africans swept the preceding limited-overs matches, comprising two Twenty20 and five One-day Internationals.
Though the visitors would concede that Tests are far different, they enter the series with the confidence of returning to the winning habit, and the full knowledge that their opponents appear to be in disarray.
But the Proteas' vice-captain Jacques Kallis was still cautious about a West Indies side, which is quite unpredictable.
"This is a very different form of the game, and in many ways this is a fresh start to the tour," he said.
"The West Indies can be a very dangerous side, and it is important that we set our standard from the start.
"We've just got to be on the top of the game, and control it, and if we play to our true potential, we will walk away with the series."
No doubt West Indies have been under pressure from their demanding public, which has become sick not so much by the losses, but the manner in which their side has meekly surrendered matches from positions of comfort.
It was clearly evident throughout the limited-overs matches, where West Indies could easily have won one of the T20Is, and two or three of the ODIs had they played more professionally.
"When we watch South Africa, we know they are beatable," said embattled West Indies captain Chris Gayle. "We came close, and we fell short, but one positive we can take away is that we know they are beatable. We just hope that we can change things around for the Tests.
"We can beat them! We have done it once in South Africa, so there is no reason we can't beat them on home soil." Naturally, both sides have made changes to their line-ups to boost their chances in the longest format of the game.
The South Africans have strengthened their batting with the choice of Ashwell Prince in the middle-order ahead of left-hander David Miller.
They have also fortified their bowling with Paul Harris replacing Roelof van der Merwe, and Wayne Parnell returning to the line-up for veteran Charl Langeveldt.
The West Indies selectors have resisted the urge to make sweeping changes, with left-handed batsman Brendan Nash, as well as the uncapped pair of off-spinner Shane Shillingford and fast bowler Nelon Pascal shoring up the bulk of the limited-overs squad.
South Africa have dominated West Indies in Tests since their re-entry into international cricket following international isolation.
They have won 14, and lost three of the 22 matches between the two sides, and two of the wins came at Port of Spain in 2001 and 2005 in the two Tests the sides have played here.
West Indies have slumped to six losses and five draws in their last 11 Tests, after their sensational innings and 23-run victory over England last year at Kingston.
Nine of the last 10 Tests at this venue have finished in an outright win, which gives rise to the assertion that the pitch is a result-oriented surface.

  Italy arrives to defend World Cup title
AFP, Johannesburg

Reigning champion Italy arrived in South Africa on Wednesday to defend its crown after tournament favourite Spain showed off its firepower as it scored six times in its final warm-up game.
Coach Marcello Lippi's Italian squad, which includes nine of the players in the squad which triumphed four years ago in Germany, were guarded by dozens of police after their plane touched down at Johannesburg airport.
They headed off to the Leriba Golf Lodge, just outside Pretoria, to prepare for their opening Group F match against Paraguay in Cape Town on Monday.
The Italians' arrival ups the tempo two days before Friday's big kickoff when the host nation take on Mexico in front of 90,000 spectators-including former president Nelson Mandela-at Johannesburg's Soccer City stadium.
Italy have rarely shone since their triumph against France in the 2006 final in Berlin, but the country's football federation chief Giancarlo Abete insisted it would be a mistake to write off Lippi's squad.
"Italy are world champions, that should not be forgotten but you cannot deny that other teams have done better than us in the last few years," Abete said on the plane to South Africa.

  Torres on target in Spain six-goal romp
AFP, Murcia

Fernando Torres scored in Spain's 6-0 rout of Poland on Tuesday as the Liverpool striker handed the European champions a timely World Cup boost.
The 26-year-old, who underwent knee surgery in April, was on target in the 75th minute of the friendly international with a cool, sharp finish from a cross by Pedro after coming on as a second-half substitute.
It was Torres's 24th international goal and came just 10 minutes after he replaced David Villa.
"It's almost two months since I played so I am happy to have scored," said Torres. "It was an impressive performance by the team."
Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque also admitted he was content with his team's performance.
"We have finished our preparations and we can go to South Africa in good spirits," he said.
Villa and David Silva had given Spain a 2-0 lead with goals in the 12th and 14th minutes with Xabi Alonso adding a third in the 51st.
Cesc Fabregas, also a second substitute for Xabi, added to the tally in the 57th minute before Pedro added the sixth in the 80th minute after setting up Torres's goal.
Spain, who had defeated Saudi Arabia 3-2 and South Korea 1-0 in recent friendlies, dominated from the start against Poland and enjoyed 70 percent of the possession in the first 30 minutes.
Captain and goalkeeper Iker Casillas had little to do with only a 26th-minute shot from Slawomir Peszko warming his hands.
Spain, who leave for South Africa on Thursday, only had one moment of concern when Andres Iniesta was taken off with a right thigh injury in the first half.
Spain open their World Cup Group H campaign against Switzerland on June 16 before playing Honduras on June 21 and Chile on June 25.

  BCB handover replicas of five cricket bats to BOA
UNB, Dhaka

A delegation of Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), led by BCB Director Gazi Ashraf Hossain Lipu, handed over replicas of five cricket bats to the secretary general of Bangladesh Olympic Association M Kutubuddin Ahmed at BOA Bhaban on Wednesday.
The miniature cricket bats contain signature of the cricketers of all the five cricket teams-Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Nepal-that participated in the 11th SA Games held in Dhaka early this year.
Lipu also submitted a statement of the expenditure that BCB had incurred during the 11th SA Games. BCB returned an amount of Tk 3,92,350 as rest of the allocated fund that was provided to BCB for SA Games. The BCB also submitted a complete report of their activities during the SA Games.
BOA deputy secretary general AK Sarkar, Director & CEO Col (Retd) M Wali Ullah and manager accounts Syed Ahmed Shahed were also present on the occasion.