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Leading News
Importing electricity, setting up
power plants
India’s conditions found tougher than first thought
UNB, Dhaka
Power Ministry officials are now finding the conditions
set by India officials for Bangladesh to import power from
them, as well as for setting up two coal-based power
plants here, significantly tougher than initially thought.
Bangladesh signed a number of memorandums of understanding
(MoU) with India on January 3 this year, one of them on
importing about 250 MW of electricity from the
neighbouring country. It was also agreed to set up the two
coal-based power plants under a joint venture between the
two countries.
Each of the two plants will be of 650 MW capacity, with
the first one being set up in Khulna, and the second one
in Chittagong. As per the agreement, the state-owned PDB
will import electricity from India's state-owned NTPC,
while the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB) will
construct the required transmission lines to facilitate
import in cooperation with its Indian counterpart, the
PGCIL. The coal-based power plants would be set up by the
PDB in collaboration with the NTPC.
Following the agreement, the Indian side sent Bangladesh
some detailed draft agreements on these two issues. While
scrutinising the drafts, Bangladeshi officials found most
of the conditions set by the Indian side are tougher than
what had been understood during the signing of the MoUs.
To deal with the matter, the Bangladesh government has
alre-ady formed a high-powered advisory committee headed
by Finance Minister AMA Muhith.
Planning Minister AK Khandaker, Prime Minister's Economic
Affairs Advisor Dr. Mashiur Rahman and Prime Minister's
Advisor Dr. Towfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury are other members of
the advisory committee, which has been set up at the
Finance Ministry. To tackle these hurdles from the Indian
side while finalising the draft agreements, the Power
Ministry officials on Sunday met the members of the
advisory committee at the finance ministry.
Power and Energy Minister M Enamul Haque, Secretary Abul
Kalam Azad and PDB Chairman ASM Alamgir Kabir, as well as
other officials from the Power Division were present at
the meeting.
After the meeting, Finance Minister AMA Muhith said the
Power Ministry officials apprised the committee on the
progress on each front. "We discussed the nitty-gritty of
the draft agreements offered by the Indian side," he told
reporters after the meeting. The finance minister,
however, categorically denied the conditions set in the
draft agreement offered by the Indian side are tougher
than first thought.
RAJUK
asks Bashundhara to demolish 53 buildings, part of
shopping complex
BSS, Dhaka
As part of the demolition drive against unathorised
buildings, RAJUK has asked Bashundhara Gro-up to pull down
53 illegally constructed buildings and a portion of its
18-storied shopping complex at Panthapath.
Separate notices were served to the private land
developers asking why the unauthorized buildings would not
be demolished for constructing these illegally without
maintaining rules of Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK)
and the building code, officials said. RAJUK Chairman
Engineer Md Nurul Huda told BSS that they have identified
over 5,000 illegal buildings, of which over 60 risky and
faulty ones have already been demolished and the rest
would be pulled down in phases.
Mohakhali zonal office of RAJUK identified and listed some
40 illegal buildings, owned by East West Property
Development Limited, at Bashundhara Residential Area in
the capital. According to the list, the plot numbers of 40
illegal buildings are: Block-A 39, 40, 47, 277, 278, 283A,
284, 285A, 291, 292G, 292C, 288, 287A, 289, 292, 292A, 232
and 259.
Block-G 325, 326, 683, 684, 685, 712, 713, 714, 971, 968,
936, 1/A, convention center, 15W and 648. Block-B 242,
Block-F 776 and 778, Block-I 157, 178 and 182, Block-C
187.
Officials said there are more unathorised buildings in
Bashundhara Residential Area and actions are being planned
against those.
Besides, the RAJUK today issued notice to Bashundhara
Development Limited for its River View Project, Hasnabad,
South Keraniganj in the capital regarding unauthorized
installations. In the letter, RAJUK said its inspectors
identified 13 unauthorized under-construction buildings at
the River View Project-three seven-storied buildings, six
six-storied buildings and three two-storied buildings at
Blocks A and B while one six-storied at Block-C.
RAJUK issued the letter to Ahmed Akbar Sobhan, Chairman,
Bashundhara Group and others and asked them to reply the
show cause notice within seven days.
Earlier on December 31 last year, RAJUK issued a letter to
the authorities of Bashundhara City Complex to pull down a
portion of unauthorized construction.
In the letter, RAJUK asked them to remove 6.75 meters (20
feet), out of existing 85.75 meters, of unauthorized
portion from the 18-storied shopping mall at Panthapath.
The approved height of the building was 79 meters.In the
Bashundhra Residential Area, a total of 305 acres, out of
1,247 acres land, got the RAJUK approval from 1986 to 1990
and the remaining land was given approval on certain
conditions but Bashundhara did not maintain those
conditions. As a result, officials said, the last
caretaker government cancelled the approval of the
remaining 942 acres.
Purchase
body okays three more rental power plants without tender
UNB, Dhaka
The Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase on Sunday
approved three more rental power plant projects by passing
the tender process. The projects are 50 MW Katakhali, 50
MW Pagla Army Camp and 40 MW Syedpur. Finance Minister AMA
Muhith presided over the Cabinet committee meeting.
With the approval of the 3 latest rental power plants, the
number of such costly plants, known as Quick Rental Power
Plants (QRPP), went up 9 with a total capacity of 1307 MW.
The per kilowatt hour (unit) cost of electricity for QRPP
is between Tk 7-14.50, against the state-owned average
production cost of Tk 2.80 per unit.
The government is moving ahead with the costly plants
without the tender process though, on the plea of
arranging electricity at the quickest possible time of 3
to 9 months to address the nagging crisis. The power and
energy sector has been designated as an 'emergency sector'
due to the crisis.
Initially, the Power Mini-stry had planned to purchase 500
MW power from such plants.
But it was alleged that under political pressure, they now
plan to purchase about 1500 MW from QRPP projects, in
consideration of "political accommodation". According to
the Cabinet body's latest approval, Northern Power
Solution Ltd will set up a furnace oil-run 50 MW plant at
Katakhali of Rajshahi within the next 9 months.
State-owned PDB will buy electricity from the plant at Tk
7.78 per unit.
Meanwhile, a joint venture of Bangladesh Diesel Plant Ltd,
Primordial Energy and Aggretech Germany AG will set up a
diesel-run 50 MW plant at Pagla Army Camp in Narayanganj
within the next 120 days, with a tariff offer at Tk 13.96
per unit.
The Syedpur 40 MW plant will be installed by APR Energy
within the next 90 days, with a tariff offer of Tk 14.38
per unit.
BNP stages demo
to protest repression on journalists
Leaders urge people to prepare for movement to
overthrow govt
UNB, Dhaka
Opposition BNP staged heavy showdown in capital Dhaka on
Sunday protesting the government "repression on journalist
and control over press" that ultimately turned into a
victory procession of Chittagong City Corporation
elections.
The party held a brief rally at Muktangan and later
brought out a procession as part of the countrywide
demonstration, also demanding trial of the killing of
journalists and protesting shutdown of private TV Channel
1 and daily Amar Desh, and arrest of and torture on Amar
Desh acting editor Mahmudur Rahman.
After June 9 mass sit-in in the capital, this was the
second anti-government agitation under the 3-day progrmme
including June 27 countrywide dawn-to-dusk hartal called
by BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia from May 19 grand rally
from Paltan Maidan.
The rally was marked by festivity and a mood of movement
among the participants.
Leaders of BNP and its front and associate organizations
present at the rally and who joined the procession
included Dr Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Mirza Abbas,
Barrister Rafiqul Islam Mia, Dr Abdul Moyeen Khan, Sadeq
Hossain Khoka, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Shamsuzzman
Dudu, Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal, Shahiduddin Chowdhury
Annie MP. Addressing the brief rally as chief guest, Dr
Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain said the ruling Awami League
like its post-independence rule is governing the country
in one-party BAKSAL style by unleashing repression on
journalists and opposition.
He cautioned that no government in the past could escape
by carrying out repression and the present "autocratic"
government would have to face the same fate.
Dr Mosharraf called upon all to take preparations to join
the movement to overthrow the "autocratic" government. He
demanded immediate re-opening of Channel 1 and daily Amar
Desh and release of its acting editor Mahmudur Rahman.
The BNP standing committee member also called upon all to
make a success of the day-long hartal countrywide on June
27.
JS body for
removing city’s waterlogging
BSS, Dhaka
A meeting of the Parliamen-tary Standing Committee on the
Ministry of Local Govern-ment, Rural Deve-lopment and
Cooperatives on Sunday directed the deputy commissioner of
Dhaka to evict all illegal structures from the gra-bbed
canals to remove waterlogging from the city.
Committee chairman Advocate Rahmat Ali presided over the
meeting at Sangsad Bhaban.
Committee members State Minister for LGRD Jahangir Kabir
Nanak, whip Noor-e-Alam Chow-dhury, Abul Khair Bhuiyan and
AKM Mustafizur Rahman, among others, were present.
The meeting directed the authorities concerned to complete
elections of all pourasabhas and union parishads by
November 30, tenure of which has already expired.
It recommended implementing the decision to set up new
city corporations in Gazipur and Nara-yanganj districts.
The meeting recommended repairing by June the city roads
dug by different agencies for utility services.
It suggested formulating Detailed Area Plans (DAPs) for
other cities like Dhaka.
Back Page
President urges expats to help
sending more professionals
BSS, Dhaka
President Zillur Rahman has urged Bangladeshi expatriates
for carrying out advocacy from their respective positions
so that the government would be able to send more
professionals abroad.
The President made the call last night when nearly 200
Bangladeshi expatriates residing in different provinces of
United Arab Emirates (UAE) called on him at Hotel Hayat
Regency in Dubai, according to a message received here on
Sunday.
President Zillur Rahman has a stop over in Dubai on his
way to London for undertaking a medical check up.
Being informed, the Bangladeshi expatriates including
engineers, physicians, businessmen and local community
leaders gathered at the hotel and met with the President,
dividing in small groups. An expatriate group, comprising
women and children, also called on the President.
The President exchanged greetings with them and expressed
his gratitude to the expatriate community for sending huge
amount of remittance, which is immensely contributing to
the overall development of the country.
The expatriates expressed the hoped that Bangladesh would
make its forward march the leadership of the present
government.
The President, who arrived in Dubai yesterday, will leave
for London today by an Emirate flight at 3pm local time.
The President's medical check-up will be conducted at Bupa
Cromwell Hospital in London.
The President is accompanied by his family members and
concerned secretaries of the President's office and his
personal physician. The President is expected to return
home on June 29.
Mashiur sees power
crisis as biggest impediment to FDI
UNB, Dhaka
Adviser to the Prime Minister Dr Mashiur Rahman has
expressed his apprehension about the country's prospects
in terms of attracting foreign direct investment (FDI)
without a quick resolution to its nagging power crisis. He
spelt out his apprehensions at a luncheon meeting of the
France-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIFB)
at Sheraton Hotel.
Dr Mashiur also said that it would be impossible to
utilize the highest capacity of the productivity of
industrial sectors due to the persisting power crisis.
In this connection he mentioned that at present the RMG
factories cannot utilize even 25 per cent of their
production capacity due to the inadequate supply of power.
He said that long term initiatives have to taken
immediately along with short and medium term steps to
mitigate the power crisis in the country. "Otherwise we
would not be able to the competitiveness of our products
in the world market," he said.
Dr Mashiur, in this connection, said that if the
government fails to provide adequate power supply to the
industries then it has to provide subsidies to make the
industrial products competitive in the world market. "But
I think it would not be viable to provide subsidy for a
long time," he said.
He admitted that the present FDI flow is low, and
stagnant. He pointed out the recession for depressing
demand in the export market, and without exports picking
up in the world market there would be no new FDI.
"But again I have to tell that the power crisis is one of
the major concerns in this regard," he said.
The Adviser to the Prime Minister also noted that hassles
remain during the process of obtaining permits for FDI.
"Except this I can assuredly say that Bangladesh is one of
the best places around the world for FDI for its
incentives to the FDI," he said.
BDR Mutiny: Charges read out
against 40 by Special Court 5
UNB, Dhaka
Special Court-5, trying the mutineers under the 24th
Rifles Battalion of Dhaka Sector in the BDR mutiny case,
read out the charges on Sunday against 40 accused out of
667.
The court was also adjourned till 10am today (Monday) when
charges against the remaining accused will be read out.
Sources said the special court-5 started its proceedings
at about 11:25 am at Darbar Hall of Pilkhana, the BDR
headquarters, to frame charges against 668 BDR rebels from
the 24th Rifles Battalion and it continued till 4:15pm
with two breaks in between.
Out of 668, 667 accused were present on the deck as one
BDR jawan named Nayek Joynal Abedin died under custody due
to a cardiac arrest on May 14.
Earlier on April 1, the same court had set the date for
framing charges, asking the Prosecutor and Commanding
officer of the 24th Rifle Battalion Lt Col Shamsur Rahman
to present all of the accused before the court by 10:00 am
on Sunday.
BDR Director General Maj Gen Md Rafiqul Islam presided
over the 3-member Special Court-5. Two other members of
the court were Lt Col. Golam Rabbani and Major Syed
Hossain Tapash, and the Attorney General' s
representative, Deputy AG Mohammad Suhrawardy provided
legal assistance to the special court.
The rebels staged the mutiny at the BDR Pilkhana
headquarters on February 25-26 last year, killing at least
73 people, including 57 army officers deputed to the
border force.
Dulu among 20 injured
in police actions in Natore
UNB, Natore
At least 20 people, including central BNP leader and
former minister Ruhul Quddus Talukder Dulu, were injured
in police actions in the town on Sunday.
As part of party's central programme, local BNP held a
rally at WAPDA colony ground and later brought a
procession at 11am.
Police obstructed the procession when it was passing by
Power Office area. Being obstructed, the procession, led
by Dulu, turned towards Baragochha area.
While returning from Barogacha, the procession again came
under obstruction by police near Government College.
The law enforcers swooped on the procession as the
processionists tried to proceed ignoring the obstruction.
Police then charged baton, dispersing the procession and
leaving BNP leader Dulu injured.
Being attacked, BNP activists hurled brickbats on police
resulting in a chase and counter chase, which continued
till 12:30pm.
Additional police later sent to the spot brought the
situation under control and arrested nine BNP activists.
Assistant Police Super Apel Mahmud claimed that five
policemen were injured in brick bat attack by BNP
activists.
Planning
Minster stresses checking population growth
UNB, Dhaka
Planning Minster Air vice Marshal (retd) AK Khandakar on
Sunday stressed the need for checking growth of the
country's population to ensure sustainable development.
"Additional population growth is a major barrier to the
country's development. At any cost, we have to bring back
the population growth rate close to zero," he said while
addressing a day-long workshop in the city.
National Planning and Development Academy (NPDA) organized
the workshop titled 'Sixth Five Year Planning: Strategies
and Challenges' at the NPDA auditorium on Sunday.
Chaired by NPDA director general Dr MA Kamal, the workshop
was addressed, among others, by Economics Division chief
of Planning Commission Dr Shamsul Alam and NPDA director
Kaniz Fatema.
Speaking on the occasion, AK Khandakar said agricultural
land had been declining gradually due to development work
and urbanization to keep pace with the population growth.
On corruption, the planning minister said an
'anti-corruption wave' has been raised in society and the
people now abhor those who are corrupt.
The Planning Minster urged all to come forward in creating
an anti-corruption movement among the young generation
against the longstanding, socially degrading practice.
International
peace conference ends with Dhaka declaration
BSS, Dhaka
The one-day International Conference on Peace, Justice and
Secular Humanism ended here on Sunday with Dhaka
declaration acknowledging 1971 genocide by Pakistani
troops as the worst since the Second World War.
". . . The genocide that was committed in Bangladesh
during the War of Liberation, 1971, is the worst genocide
to take place after the World War II, committed by the
Pakistan Army and its local auxiliary forces killing 3
million people and raping more than 200,000 women within
just nine months," the first para of the nine-point Dhaka
declaration read.
The declaration, read out by former Nepalese speaker Daman
Dhungana, urged the international community to recognize
the 'Genocide' committed during the War of Liberation of
Bangladesh, 1971 and "affirm solidarity with the trial
process taken by Bangladesh government strongly believing
that such trial will discourage the culture of impunity".
AK Azad panel
sweep FBCCI election with 21 elected directors
UNB, Dhaka
Chairman of Hameem Group AK Azad-led panel won maximum
number of posts of directors in the biennial election of
the country's apex trade body Federation of Bangladesh
Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBBCI) held on
Saturday. Vote counting that ended hours before dawn
Sunday showed that 21 directors were elected from AK Azad-M
Jasim Uddin panel. Of the 21 directors, 13 are from
association group and eight from chamber group.
AK Azad, also the publisher of the daily Samakal, is a
president candidate of the FBCCI.
The elected chamber group directors of AK Azad-M Jasim
Uddin panel are Alhaj Mohammad Mamtaj Uddin (300 votes),
Mostafa Azad Chowdhury Babu (291), Ahmed Jamal (277),
Alhaj Shamsul Haq (273), Nurul Huda Mukut (266), Mohammad
Abdus Shahid (251), Md Sirajul Haque (245), Md Jamal Uddin
Yamin (244), Monwara Hakim Ali (241), Md Jahangir Akand
Selim (224), Md Nojibur Rahman (219), Mohammad Golam
Mostafa Talukdar (207) and Md Nagibul Islam Dipu (204
votes).
Mohammad Aminul Haque (217 votes) is the only winner of
Dewan Sultan Ahmed Ganotantrik Panel of chamber group.
On the other hand, elected association group directors
under AK Azad-M Jasim Uddin panel are Abdur Razzaque (589
votes), KM Akhtaruzzaman (539), Alhaj Md Harun-ur-Rashid
(588), MA Momen (501), Md Jashim Uddin (712), Khandaker
Ruhul Amin (624), Md Helal Uddin (563)and Mir Nizam Uddin
Ahmed (719 votes).
Meanwhile, Abu Alam Chowdhury-led Ganotantrik Parishad of
the association group won six posts of directors. They are
Abu Alam Chowdhury-led Ganotantrik Parishad are Obaidur
Rahman (598 votes), Mohammad Jalal Uddin (549), Abu Alam
Chowdhury (679), Anwar Hossain (526), Md Rabbani Jabbar
(517) and Md Abdul Haque (608 votes).
However, no director was elected from Delwar Hossain-led
Ganotantrik Baboshayee Oikya Parishad. Both the elected
and nominated directors will decide today (Monday) the
next president, first vice president and vice president of
FBCCI.
Editorial
Implementation of the
budget
Threadbare
discussion, analysis and criticism of the national budget for
fiscal 2010-11 announced by the Fiannce Minister on June 10
are going on and are likely to continue for sometime more.
Some economists and experts criticised some proposals , but
none has outright rejected it as unacceptable. However, many
have raised questions about the capacity of the government to
implement the country's largest ever budget.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister AMA Muhith on Saturday said that
demands for the agriculture, energy and power and ICT sectors
would be met no matter what amount is allotted for them in the
budget. Addressing a CPD Dialogue on 'State of Bangladesh
Economy in 2009-10', he said on the important issue of
energy/power financing that they will have to depend largely
on Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) and private investment.
Muhith hinted that the trade and investment policy could be
reintroduced. He also informed that the industrial policy
would be finalized next month and it will go to the cabinet
shortly. He observed that investment has to come very largely
from private sector through PPP or IPP to increase the ratio
of investment to GDP. The Finance Minister was quite upbeat on
the fact that the ADP implementation of the current fiscal
would be around Tk 28,000 crore out of the revised ADP of Tk
28,500 crore.
Speaking on the occasion Prof Wahiduddin Mahmud said that
change is needed to bring efficiency in the economic and
social system to raise GDP growth to 7 to 8 per cent in the
next six years. On the budget deficit, he said that increasing
expenditure on the non-development and social safety net
sectors while increasing the budget deficit would not be
sustainable. Former caretaker government adviser Mirza Azizul
Islam termed the budget for next fiscal as not ambitious in
terms of public demand but termed it ambitious in relation to
the implementation capacity. He observed that power crisis is
the most binding constraint to the economic growth.
In fact, the drop in foreign aid flow and export earnings as
well as extra spending for the implementation of stimulus
package will mean need of additional funds for development and
other expenses. And this will in turn enhance the urgency of
mobilising more domestic resources. Where this additional
domestic resource will come from? The sources are more tax,
VAT and duty to be realised directly or indirectly from the
people who are already overtaxed. People wanted from the
Finance Minister such a budget which is not only pro-people,
but also pro-poor. But unfortunately that expectation has
largely been shattered by the new budget proposals.
Generally the budget has been described as very big, highly
ambitious and difficult to be implemented. Some economists
said that the proposed large-sized budget for the next fiscal,
with 20 percent growth in the overall outlay and 35 percent in
development spending, immediately raises a question mark
regarding the government's implementation capability. Terming
6.7 per cent GDP growth target as ambitious, some experts
think that implementation of the proposed budget for the
fiscal 2010-2011 will be the key challenge for the government.
In short the budget possesses both good side and bad side. It
is expected now that the budget will be implemented with care
and special attention to protect the interest of the poor and
middle class people. The Finance Minister's assurance that the
money allocated in the budget will be available, is
reassuring. Now, let all hope that the budget will be
implemented properly.
Ensuring
transparency of NGOs
There
has been growing debates on the role of Non-Government
Organisations (NGOs) following reports that many NGOs are
corruption-ridden and the general belief that most of the NGOs
have been working for the development of impoverished
Bangladesh and the improvement of the condition of its people,
specially the poor and backward sections is coming under
questions increasingly.
NGOs are voluntary organisations run with foreign assistance
and supposed to render services in different ways to change
the lot of the people who are exploited, deprived or neglected
in the society. Some of them are known to be engaged in
upholding the causes of democracy, law, justice and human
rights. In any case, none of the NGOs is expected to be
engaged in profit mongering through trade and business or to
indulge in corrupt practices. But it is alleged that
activities and performances of most of the NGOs in the country
are not as clean or as selfless as they should have been. On
the contrary, the NGOs seem to be tools of serving the
interests, mainly financial, of those who are in the helm of
these organisations.
Some of the NGOs, specially the big ones, are allegedly
trading on suffering humanity. It is also alleged that 70
percent NGO executives are enjoying huge financial benefits at
the cost of low-paid field officers. The development in
Proshika may be mentioned in this regard. People are aware of
the inflow of huge amount of foreign assistance through the
NGOs of the county. But nobody knows exactly how much of the
money is spent to improve the condition of those whom this is
meant for and how much is swallowed by the organisers and
high-ups of the NGOs.
Those responsible for checking the misuse and misappropriation
of the money coming from abroad through the NGOs have utterly
been failing in their duty. The government should take note of
this and take effective steps to ensure accountability and
transparency in the NGO sector.
Analysis
Mineral wealth amounts to bad news for Afghanistan
The discovery of massive deposits has given the
major powers and the Taliban greater incentive to wage war.
Marwan Al Kabalan
Last week, The New
York Times reported the discovery of large quantities of
mineral deposits in Afghanistan. The approximately $1 trillion
(Dh3.7 trillion) in untapped minerals could, according to
Pentagon officials, fundamentally "alter the Afghan economy
and perhaps the Afghan war itself". There are huge veins of
iron, copper, cobalt and gold, as well as critical industrial
metals such as lithium. An internal Pentagon memo stated that
Afghanistan could become the "Saudi Arabia of lithium", a key
raw material in the manufacture of batteries for electronic
appliances.
In normal circumstances, this would be considered good news.
It would attract heavy foreign investment and provide jobs for
thousands of jobless Afghans, most of whom have experienced
nothing but war. Alas, the situation won't play out like this.
The vast scale of Afghanistan's mineral wealth will almost
certainly transform the country into an arena of even fiercer
competition between the great powers.
The US, for example, is already complaining about
resource-hungry China trying to dominate the development of
Afghanistan's mineral wealth. Russia, India and Iran are also
interested. Each will try to get as much as it possibly can of
the Afghan pie. The US is likely to reconsider its plan to
withdraw the greater part of its troops from the country by
the end of 2011.
Ulterior motives
The US invaded Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001,
attacks, accusing the Taliban regime of providing safe havens
for Osama Bin Laden and other Al Qaida leaders. Some analysts
believe, however, that the key motive behind the invasion was
to prevent the construction of a pipeline that would supply
China with Iranian oil via Afghanistan. Had that project been
completed, it could have decreased China's reliance on sea
routes that are under US control. The discovery of vast
mineral reserves in Afghanistan should give Washington one
more good reason for its troops to stick around.
The presence of valuable natural deposits has proved to be at
times a curse rather than a blessing - Iraq is a case in
point. Although experts on US foreign policy are still
debating the true motives behind George W. Bush's decision to
overthrow Saddam Hussain's regime, it is becoming absolutely
clear that oil was the most important factor.
We all know now that when the Bush administration came to
power in early 2001, it was single-mindedly preoccupied with
oil. Hence, immediately after taking office, former vice
president Dick Cheney, set up a committee to examine US energy
demands for the next 20 years. The committee concluded that US
dependency on external oil supplies would increase from 50 per
cent in 2001 to 70 per cent in 2020, and that most of this
supply would come from the Middle East. To secure an
uninterrupted supply from the Gulf, the committee recommended
that Saddam be removed. This was swiftly achieved, and Iraq's
oil fell under US control.
Following the invasion and the subsequent failure to find
Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction, the US government
was forced to admit that oil was the main reason for military
action against Iraq. The admission was made by then Deputy
Secretary of Defence Paul Wolfowitz, in an address to
delegates at an Asian security summit in Singapore in the fall
of 2003. Asked why a nuclear power such as North Korea was
being treated differently from Iraq, where hardly any weapons
of mass destruction had been found, the deputy secretary of
defence said: "Let's look at it simply.
The most important difference between North Korea and Iraq is
that, economically, we just had no choice in Iraq. The country
swims on a sea of oil".
Full speed ahead
Although it would take decades to fully exploit the mineral
wealth of Afghanistan, which has virtually no mining industry,
the Pentagon has already set up a system to achieve this aim.
Despite the poor security situation, US firms that have
expertise in mining have already been invited to consider
investing.
The finds - which, according to The New York Times, include
large deposits of niobium, a soft metal used in producing
superconducting steel, rare earth elements and large gold
deposits in Pashtun areas of southern Afghanistan - should
require the US to maintain a large military presence in the
country.The newfound mineral wealth should also exacerbate the
decades-old civil conflict in the country.
The Taliban now have another incentive to try to return to
power. Fierce fighting could also erupt between the central
government in Kabul and provincial and tribal leaders in
mineral-rich districts.
All this means that the discovery of huge quantities of
mineral deposits is bad news for Afghanistan.
Dr Marwan Al Kabalan is a member of the Center for
Strategic Studies and Research at Damascus University in
Syria.
Baby boom
comes of age
The population has increased threefold in the past half a
century. Increasing at 2 per cent a year it is among the
world's fastest growing.
Dr Maleeha Lodhi
Among
the critical challenges facing Pakistan is a rapidly
growing population and the youth bulge. This will greatly
intensify the pressure on the physical and social
infrastructure and for jobs and education at a time when
demands are far outstripping current resources in an
environment of severe economic constraint.
The working age population is expected to nearly double in
the next twenty years. Experts estimate that 36 million
jobs will need to be created in the next ten years. The
population has increased threefold in the past half a
century. Increasing at 2 per cent a year it is among the
world's fastest growing. If current demographic trends
continue the country's population is projected to reach
238 million in 2030 and 335 million in 2050. Of the
current population of 172 million, 66 per cent is below 30
years. 39 million are between the ages of 15-24. This
along with the dismal state of education means that
millions of young people who have had no access to
education will be entering the labour force with an
inherent disadvantage. Does this present Pakistan with a
doomsday scenario or can it produce a boom?
This and more was the subject of an all-day conference
organised last week at the Woodrow Wilson Center in
Washington titled 'Defusing the bomb' This featured
experts mostly from Pakistan but also the US. There were
at least three striking aspects of the conference that was
supported by the Karachi-based Fellowship Fund for
Pakistan. One, a pressing policy issue that attracts
little political or media attention at home evoked a rich
and lively discussion to a packed house in Washington.
Two, the quality of speakers reflected the depth and range
of expertise found in Pakistan in this critical area And
three, virtually all the presentations dealt with positive
and negative implications of the demographic profile for
the country's development and stability with
recommendations of how to turn the challenge into an
opportunity.
The irony was that these issues were being discussed
against a backdrop where no census has been held in the
country since 1998. The inability to regularly count the
population is another manifestation of the lack of
seriousness shown by successive governments.
Two themes dominated the conference: whether a large and
youthful population can be a boon or does it spell doom
ahead and the kind of measures the country needed to take
to reap a demographic dividend. This focused attention on
Pakistan's education deficit.
Several speakers mentioned the gains Pakistan had made
even if these fell far short of potential. Zeba Sattar
from the Population Council recalled that under Ayub Khan
Pakistan became one of the first Muslim countries to
launch a population programme. But the effort slowed and
then stalled during the Zia period with family planning
programmes proceeding fitfully and unevenly after that.
Comparisons drawn by speakers especially to the experience
of two Muslim countries, Iran and Bangladesh underscored
how other nations made successful demographic transitions
while Pakistan lagged behind. Among the modest gains made
were increases in male literacy (10 years and above) from
48 million in 1991 to 69 million in 2008. Female literacy
doubled in the past two decades from 21 per cent in 1991
to 44 per cent in 2008. Net primary enrolment for boys
went up from 53 per cent to 59 per cent in the same
period; and from 39 per cent to 52 per cent for girls.
The urgency to invest in human development echoed
throughout the proceedings. The all important question of
how to turn the demographic challenge into a dividend was
addressed by all speakers, each one bringing their
particular expertise to the issue. Zeba Sathar suggested
that the combination of measures that were needed involved
: ensuring speedy fertility reduction by meeting family
planning needs, pursuing a crash programme in education
especially focused on the rural areas and women to attain
85 per cent enrolment in primary schools, matching
available jobs to the acquisition of skills by young
people entering the labour market, employment generation
by opening 'new' sectors especially to enhance female
labour force participation (which is much too low at under
20 per cent).
There was common stress on addressing illiteracy. Shahid
Javed Burki emphasised that it was crucial to improve the
poor quality of public sector education as 60 per cent of
students go to state schools. He made a strong pitch for
investing in women's education and closing the gender gap
in literacy.
The solid consensus that emerged was on the pressing need
for Pakistan to invest in its people and to address the
social and economic inequities to enable it to unleash its
potential and attain the country's great promise.
Unfortunately demographic issues have never grabbed the
attention of Pakistan's politicians, planners, economists
and the media. This is in contrast to the experience in
other developing countries which have reached a consensus
on these issues through parliamentary and media debate.
Unless population issues are discussed and decisions taken
on how to address them the boom or doom question will
yield a grim answer.
Maleeha Lodhi served as Pakistan's ambassador to the
United States and the United Kingdom. For comments, write
to opinion@khaleejtimes.com
Good news,
bad news
We have both good as well as bad news but the problem is
that ‘good news crawls on its belly while bad news has
wings’.
Dr Farrukh Saleem
There's
good news and there's bad news. The first piece of good
news is that our public debt, internal plus external,
which stood at 79.8 per cent of our GDP in FY-2002, has
now come down to 55.5 per cent of GDP. Second, our
external debt and liabilities, which stood at 36 per cent
of our GDP in FY-2004, have come down to 30 per cent of
GDP. Third, per capita income has gone up from $669 in
2003-04 to $1,046 in 2008-09; a healthy 56 per cent jump
over five years.
To be certain, our government has been taking on
additional debt -- both external as well as internal --
but the rate of economic growth, over the past decade, has
actually been faster than the rate of debt growth.
As a consequence, accumulated debt as a percentage of GDP
came down -- rather sharply so.
To be sure, between 1997 and 2001 almost all our
macroeconomic indicators had sunk down into the pit. In
2000-01, GDP, for instance, recorded a measly growth of
two per cent.
The following year GDP grew by 3.1 per cent and then 4.7
per cent in 2002-03, 7.5 per cent in 2003-04 and finally
peaked out at nine percent in 2004-05 (the year that
Pakistan recorded the 2nd highest GDP growth on the face
of the planet).
Now, the bad news. Debt grew the fastest when Nawaz Sharif
was the prime minister. Debt, as a percentage of GDP,
shrunk the fastest when General Musharraf was at the helm
of affairs. Our external debt and liabilities, as a
percentage of GDP, shrank for at least four years starting
2004 and bottoming out in 2008. Since 2008, the curve has
once again turned in the wrong direction -- and that too
rather steeply (between 2008 and 2009, external debt alone
has gone up by a dreadful $3 billion, or $8 million
dollars a day).
As far as public debt is concerned, things are not as bad
as they were ten years ago. As far as external debt is
concerned, things are much more manageable now than they
were ten years ago.
But, if all the additional debt that has been taken on
over the past year is any indication then things are
heading down the gutter faster than an iron ball through a
pool of water.
Public debt is both good and bad. Most -- if not all --
governments need debt to fill their financing gaps and to
meet their developmental objectives. If debt is used to
increase productive capacity then debt accelerates
economic growth -- the good part. If debt, on the other
hand, is mismanaged then it increases interest rates,
scares away investors and impedes economic growth.
In short, our current public debt scenario isn't all that
bad. Pakistan's public debt at 55 per cent of GDP actually
compares favourably with India's 58 per cent of GDP and
Sri Lanka's 78 per cent of GDP.
At the other end of the spectrum are countries like Russia
at 6.8 per cent of GDP, Hong Kong at 14.5 per cent and
China at 15 per cent.
So we have both good as well as bad news but the problem
is that 'good news crawls on its belly while bad news has
wings'.
The writer is a columnist based in Islamabad. Email:
farrukh15@hotmail.com
Viewpoints
A surge of problems for Obama
Distracted
by the Gulf oil spill and other issues, not many Americans are
paying attention to the war in Asia.
Jackson Diehl
Bad
news from Afghanistan came in a steady stream last week,
filling the back end of newscasts preoccupied with the Gulf
oil spill and primary elections. At least 23 Nato soldiers
were killed; a US helicopter was shot down; a suicide bomber
killed dozens at a Kandahar wedding. It is the good fortune of
the Obama administration that these stories aren't getting
much attention.
The White House hasn't had to do much defending of its Afghan
policy since President Barack Obama announced it in December.
While that's a welcome change from the poisonous polarisation
of the Bush-era Iraq debate, it is also lamentable in one
important way: Not many people are noticing the growing
problems in the president's surge strategy. The biggest
surprise is not the increasing casualties, which had to be
expected with the arrival of summer and US reinforcements in
the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar. The more
unexpected - and avoidable - setbacks in three
off-the-battlefield announcements last week.
First was the dismissal by President Hamid Karzai of two of
the three ministers in his Cabinet most closely allied with
the United States: Interior Minister Hanif Atmar and
intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh.
Next was the revelation by Defence Secretary Robert M. Gates,
at a Nato conference in Brussels, that the alliance is still
short of 450 trainers for the vital mission of expanding the
Afghan army - without which there will be no exit strategy.
Deterioration
Finally came the concession by General Stanley A. McChrystal,
the senior US commander in Afghanistan, at that same Nato
conference that the much-anticipated campaign to secure
Kandahar, the homeland of both the Taliban and the Karzai
family, will begin later and proceed more slowly than planned,
because of what he described as difficulty in winning local
support. What these fragments of news revealed is that three
disabilities that have hobbled Obama's surge all along not
only remain unfixed but seem to be getting worse.
One is the failure of European governments to follow through
on pledges to contribute in crucial areas such as training.
Gates also said that McChrystal hadn't figured out how to
replace Canadian and Dutch combat troops that are withdrawing
from Afghanistan this summer. A second is the divergence
between US interests and those of Karzai, despite a make-up
session between the two governments last month in Washington.
The Afghan leader had reasons to fire the two pro-American
ministers, including their resistance to negotiations with the
Taliban. But US sources said he had been gunning for the two
men, along with Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak, ever
since Washington insisted they be included in his Cabinet
after his re-election last year. Karzai seems determined to
minimise American influence.
Most seriously, McChrystal's announcement reflected the
continued absence in the US command of a clear and coherent
plan for pacifying southern Afghanistan - one that seamlessly
blends civilian and military initiatives. A first effort, in
the Helmand town of Marja, has been faltering, in part because
of a failure to fill the governance gap left when the Taliban
was driven out.
In Kandahar, the US command may be suffering from a failure of
nerve. It has stepped back from an initial push to challenge
the entrenched and corrupt local power structure headed by
Karzai's half brother, Ahmad Wali Karzai. It has decided not
to deploy US troops in the city itself, other than military
police working with Afghans. It has not moved to disarm, or
even to cut off the Western funding of local militias - some
of them controlled by the Karzai family. The result is that US
forces are seen by many Afghans as merely reinforcing what
amounts to a local mafia that is not necessarily preferable to
the Taliban.
Hanging over all these complexities, and driving some of them,
is Obama's imposition of a timeline on the Afghan surge: first
a review of its progress this December, followed by the
beginning of troop withdrawals in July 2011.
The perception that the clock is ticking on the US mission
pushes Karzai towards building and defending his own family
network, and favouring aides who can talk to Pakistan - and
maybe the Taliban - over those close to the United States. It
forces McChrystal to focus on producing easier and
positive-looking results in the next few months, rather than
committing to harder and longer-term solutions. It fuels
continuing acrimony among military commanders, who believe the
timetable is folly, and State Department and White House
civilians, who regard it as the key to Obama's policy. None of
this means the war is lost. Thanks to Obama's commitment of
30,000 more troops and billions in economic aid, success
remains entirely possible. But as the summer comes on, and
Washington occupies itself with other issues, the trend lines
in Afghanistan do not look good.
Giving India
short shrift
American hints about India meddling too much in the
affairs of Afghanistan were unwarranted, in India's view.
HDS Greenway
It
is ironic that while during the administration of former
President George W. Bush much of the world complained that
America was too overbearing.
Today there is a growing perception among some countries
that the administration of President Barack Obama is not
paying enough attention to them. India is only the latest.
Indonesia and Australia felt slighted earlier this month
when Obama cancelled his trip to the two countries - for
the second time - on occasion of the oil spill in the Gulf
of Mexico.
Early on in the Obama administration there were complaints
in Britain, for example, that Obama had returned the
borrowed bust of Winston Churchill that Bush the younger
had kept in the oval office. These complaints ignored the
fact that all presidents make changes when they come to
occupy the White House.
There were newspaper stories that tried to make the case
that this was the end of a special relationship that
Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt had formed in World War
II.
Later, a parliamentary foreign affairs committee announced
that the special relationship between the two countries
was indeed over. Nick Clegg, Britian's new deputy prime
minister, has said the same.
Although US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton only
reiterated what had been since 1948 American policy over
the Falkland Islands - i.e. that the United States hoped
Britain and Argentina could work out their differences
together - there was hue and cry in Britain that the U.S.
was abandoning them, ignoring that America had been of
considerable help sharing intelligence with Britain during
the Falklands war in 1982.
While President Obama had taken steps to change the
poisonous relationship with Russia that had marked the
Bush years, and made overtures to the Muslim world in his
landmark Cairo speech, Francois Heisbourg of the
Paris-based Foundation for Strategic Research said Obama
had not shown the same sensitivity to symbolic gestures
towards his friends in Europe. Obama had not shown up for
the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, for
example.
Britain's William Shawcross, as pro-American a political
commentator as you are likely to find, said that "Obama
seems kinder to his enemies than his friends."
Europe senses that it is no longer at the center of the
world stage any more, and that Obama is, as he himself
says, the first Pacific president - born in the Pacific
with a strategic eye looking westwards towards China.
Now it is India's turn to complain that Obama is too much
the Pacific president and not enough the Indian Ocean
president. Whereas the Indian government is not officially
complaining, what might be called the Indian foreign
policy establishment of business leaders, strategic
thinkers, journalists and former diplomats are.
The depth of that feeling emerged recently in Washington
during a strategic dialogue conference held at the State
Department. Americans heard complaints that the U.S. was
not following through on the strategic relationship with
India that former presidents Clinton and Bush had forged.
In India's view, Obama was spending too much time
lavishing attention on China and not enough on India. When
Obama made his remarks in China, that the United States
and China had responsibility for the wellbeing of the
world, India took notice and asked why wasn't India
mentioned?
Where was the clarity of the Bush administration that
China needed to be contained and that India would be part
of that strategy?
Traditionally prickly, India wants to be considered as a
great power and not relegated to a lesser status than the
US-China relationship. When there had been border
difficulties with China along the often undefined frontier
high in the Himalayas, the US had not been attentive
enough to India's position, Indians said.
And then there was India's traditional enemy Pakistan.
The US was pouring arms into Pakistan that could be used
to confront India, and not enough was being asked by the
Americans in return. In our desperation to turn Pakistan
into a force for fighting Islamic extremism we were
ignoring India's interests.
American hints about India meddling too much in the
affairs of Afghanistan were unwarranted, in India's view.
And furthermore, America having opened up a very
unpleasant can of worms in Afghanistan, was planning to
pull back in the summer of next year, and most likely pull
out altogether after that, leaving India home alone with
all the mess.
The Obama team got the message, and the president made a
special visit to State Department in order to meet the
Indian delegates - an unusual gesture. Furthermore, the
White House recently announced that the president would be
visiting India in November.
It is clear that the Obama administration does not want to
leave India's hurt feelings unaddressed.
HDS Greenway is a distinguished US-based commentator
and columnist
www.globalpost.com
An impartial inquiry?
It’s fairly obvious that the Israelis wanted to maintain
the siege around the world's largest open-air
concentration camp and deter other humanitarian flotillas
from delivering supplies to the 1.5 million incarcerated
Palestinians.
Ahmed Amr
By
now anyone paying attention understands the broad outlines
of Israel's notion of what constitutes an 'impartial'
inquiry into the murder of nine activists on the Free Gaza
Flotilla. Except for Netanyahu and the cabinet ministers
who ordered the armed assault on the humanitarian convoy,
no other witnesses will be called.
The Israelis now say their inquiry will not even take
testimony from the IDF commanders who planned and executed
the assault or the seven hundred first hand witnesses who
survived the carnage. Besides, the activists have already
been deported.
So far the Israelis have tampered with incriminating
evidence, propagated doctored pictures and confiscated
video tapes and cameras from the reporters who were on
board. Just to rub salt in the wound, Netanyahu intends to
focus the investigation on whether the organisers of the
flotilla had 'terrorist' connections. A campaign of
slander orchestrated by the Israeli government has
prejudiced the outcome by tainting the victims with having
ties to Al Qaeda. Those absurd accusations were later
withdrawn but not before the damage had been done.
For the Israelis, the inquiry serves no purpose but to
whitewash the crime and rehabilitate their image. To no
one's surprise, the Obama administration has volunteered a
helping hand in the cover up. We're not going to go into
Washington's rationale for bowing before AIPAC Lobby
(American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee) and their
overlords in Jerusalem. Suffice it to say that the Senate
leaders of both parties are passing around a letter
condoning the murderous assault on the high seas. I'm not
an oracle, but I don't expect much resistance to Harry
Reid's bipartisan initiative from an administration where
the Vice President publicly avows his Zionism and the
Chief of Staff boasts of his service with the IDF.
Let Washington and Israel play any game they want to play
but let them play alone. The only viable response is an
impartial Turkish inquiry with international
representation. As a NATO ally, Ankara can extend a formal
invitation to the United States, Britain and France to
send observers. All three countries approved the UN
resolution that called for an impartial and transparent
investigation and there's no plausible reason that Obama
can concoct to rebuff a Turkish offer to participate in
the proceedings. There is no arguing that Turkey has
jurisdiction in this case. This act of piracy on the high
seas resulted in the death of nine activists, all of them
Turkish citizens.
The inquiry Netanyahu has in mind is a podium where he
stands up and hails invective at the IHH, one of the many
organisations that were involved in organising the
humanitarian convoy. It's a Kangaroo Court where the
Israelis get the privilege of lynching their victims a
second time. The Israeli verdict is already in - "they had
it coming" and "we'd do it again."
There is an unmistakable stench in the air. It seems to me
that the Israelis are trying to cover up for more than
just a 'botched' raid. They've killed tens of thousands of
innocents before and gotten away with it. Jerusalem and
its proxies in the American mass media didn't even get
this worked up over the Goldstone report that documented
their criminal war spree in last year's carpet bombing of
Gaza.
What the Turks should mull over is this question: what if
this raid was executed exactly as planned and achieved its
stated objectives? What if it was tactically flawless from
the point of view of the IDF assassins that carried it
out? Anybody who knows Barak's military record understands
that this operation was carried out with meticulous
precision. The Israeli Minister of Defense already stands
accused of war crimes so he's not exactly worried about
his reputation as a cold-blooded killer. What if the
assault on the flotilla was meant to be this bloody?
It's fairly obvious that the Israelis wanted to maintain
the siege around the world's largest open-air
concentration camp and deter other humanitarian flotillas
from delivering supplies to the 1.5 million incarcerated
Palestinians. But it had to be more than that, because
it's unlikely that Netanyahu and Lieberman would risk such
a gambit to prevent a few containers of cargo from being
unloaded on the piers of Gaza.
What most observers and analysts seem to ignore is that
there were a few other things going on in the background.
Any meaningful movement towards a resolution of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict would have cut short his
term, as Prime minister and his coalition partners have
told him as much. The assault on the flotilla allowed
Netanyahu to break his date at the White House. Was that
the real objective of the raid?
Aside from shelving the Proximity Talks, it made absolute
sense to attack Turkish citizens, because Ankara also had
a prominent role in the peace process and was mediating
talks between the Israelis and the Syrians. So Netanyahu
was going to kill two peace doves by murdering nine Turks.
One of the most promising things about this flotilla was
seeing Greek and Turkish volunteers on a joint
humanitarian mission. I imagine the Israelis don't like
those kinds of peace vibes in the Eastern Mediterranean.
They always rant on about being in a dangerous
neighbourhood; they just forget to tell you their role in
making it so dangerous.
There is only one way to find out exactly what happened
and why it happened, and it's very unlikely that the right
answers are going to emerge from an Israeli inquiry.
There's not even a chance that they're going to ask the
right questions. It's going to take a Turkish
investigation to unravel the political motivation behind
this meticulously engineered act of piracy on the high
seas.
There are just too many eerie parallels between this
murderous Israeli operation, the assault on the Liberty
and the Lavon Affair. A robust Turkish inquiry might
uncover some uncomfortable truths for the derelicts in
Washington, but it could also make the Eastern
Mediterranean a safe neighbourhood for one and all.
Ahmed Amr is the former editor of NileMedia.com
International
Death toll from
floods in China reaches 147
AFP, Beijing
The death toll from torrential downpours battering China
for the past week has risen to 147, the government said
Sunday, as more heavy rain was forecast.
Floods and landslides triggered by the summer deluge have
left a further 93 people missing, while more than a
million have been evacuated, the Ministry of Civil Affairs
said on its website. Earlier state media reports said more
than 1.4 million people living on river banks and in
low-lying areas had been forced to flee their homes.
More heavy rain was expected as the cost of the disaster,
which has hit great swathes of China's south and
southeast, reached 19.7 billion yuan (2.9 billion
dollars), the ministry said.
Authorities have raised the level of their emergency
response as rescue and flood-prevention work continues.
State television broadcast images of submerged crops in
the eastern province of Jiangxi, while other images showed
soldiers leading clean-up efforts in parts of Fujian
province. A total of 178,000 homes have been damaged in
the deluge, 68,000 houses have collapsed and nearly
800,000 hectares (two million acres) of crops have been
affected, the government said.
The National Meteorological Centre warned on Sunday of
more rainstorms to come, two days after it issued an
orange storm alert-just one level lower than the nation's
most serious red alert.
"The scope and intensity of the rain have increased," it
said in a statement on its website. The weather bureau
said previously that some of the rainfall in the south was
up to three times greater than normal years.
Photos on China News Service showed people wading through
waist-high water as they tried to cross a flooded bridge
in the eastern province of Zhejiang. The official Xinhua
news agency also reported that in Fujian province alone 12
people had died in a landslide while seven had been
rescued.
The torrential and unrelenting rain has also disrupted
dozens of train services to the affected regions, with 18
services from Shanghai suspended Saturday, leaving 20,000
passengers stranded.
Indian police arrest
Maoist leader over fatal train crash
AFP, Kolkata
Indian police on Sunday arrested a Maoist rebel leader
accused for derailing a passenger train and causing a
crash that killed 151 people in the eastern state of West
Bengal last month. Investigators probing the train crash
said Bapi Mahato was detained at a guest house in the
neighbouring state of Jharkhand.
"We are looking for two more suspects in connection with
the incident," senior police inspector Surojit Kar
Purokayastha told AFP in Kolkata, West Bengal's state
capital.
The exact cause of the crash remains uncertain but police
have blamed the Maoist saboteurs for derailing the
high-speed passenger train that collided with an oncoming
goods train. The rebels say they are fighting for the
rights of landless tribal groups and farmers left behind
by India's rapid economic expansion.
A government offensive was launched last year to tackle
the insurgency, but since then the Maoists have launched a
series of bold counter-attacks.
Reconciliation with Haqqani
'hard to imagine': US envoy
AFP, Islamabad
The US special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan on Sunday
said that Washington was not against reconciliation with
militants, but with the Haqqani network it was "hard to
imagine." The Haqqani network's leadership is based in
Pakistan and has close ties with foreign militant groups
including Al-Qaeda, and a long history in Afghanistan.
"Hard to imagine," was Richard Holbrooke's response to
reporters in Islamabad when asked if the Jalaluddin
Haqqani-led militant group was reconcilable.
"But I do want to underscore that we have some very clear
publicly stated criteria and one is renounce Al-Qaeda and
other is participate voluntarily in the peaceful evolution
of Afghanistan within its constitution," Holbrooke said.
"And this is hard to see that happening, but who knows."
Holbrooke acknowledged that Pakistan was trying to fight
the Haqqani network in North Waziristan, a tribal district
bordering Afghanistan.
"The Pakistanis are trying to deal with this problem, they
are well aware of it and even in the area in North
Waziristan there is some activity going on, but there is a
lot more that could be done if the resources were
available."
Iran sanction could impact
Pakistani companies’
Dawn Online
Pakistan should be wary of committing to an Iran-Pakistan
natural gas pipeline because anticipated US sanctions on
Iran could hit Pakistani companies, the US special
representative to the region said on Sunday. While
sympathetic to Pakistan's energy needs, the US special
representative to the region, Richard Holbrooke, told
reporters that new legislation, which targets Iran's
energy sector, is being drafted in the US Congress and
that Pakistan should "wait and see"."Pakistan has an
obvious, major energy problem and we are sympathetic to
that, but in regards to a specific project, legislation is
being prepared that may apply to the project," he said,
referring to the pipeline. "We caution the Pakistanis not
to over-commit themselves until we know the legislation."
Pakistan is plagued by chronic electricity shortages that
have led to mass demonstrations.US Senator Joseph
Lieberman said last week he expects Congress to finish
shortly legislation tightening US sanctions on Iran that
will include provisions affecting the supply of refined
petroleum products to Tehran, and add to sanctions on its
financial sector.
Lieberman, an independent, is a member of a House-Senate
committee of negotiators working on final details of the
bill and said it could pass by July 4.
The $7.6 billion natural gas pipeline deal, signed in
March, doesn't directly deal with refined petroleum
products and was hailed in both Iran and Pakistan as
highly beneficial.
The US has so far been muted in its criticism of the deal,
balancing its need to support Pakistan, a vital but
unstable ally in the global war against al-Qaeda, with its
desire to isolate Iran.
But the legislation could be comprehensive enough to have
major implications for Pakistani companies, Holbrooke
said.
"We caution Pakistan to wait and see what the legislation
is."
This was Holbrooke's tenth trip to Pakistan since
President Barack Obama appointed him special
representative to the region. His visit followed a series
of working groups this week that are part of the
US-Pakistan strategic dialogue, which both countries say
will lay the groundwork for a new relationship.
Afghanistan was on the agenda in meetings with the
Pakistani leadership, Holbrooke said, including talks on a
Pakistani role in talks between the Afghan Taliban and the
Kabul government.
But the United States would not support Pakistan pushing
the Haqqani network, one of the strongest factions of the
Afghan insurgency and mostly based in Pakistan's North
Waziristan, into talks with Kabul as Washington sees the
group as intransigent, brutal and too tightly allied with
al-Qaeda.
The United States has said any groups wishing to lay down
their weapons must renounce al-Qaeda and agree to
participate peacefully in the Afghan political process.
"It's just hard to see that happening," Holbrooke said of
the Haqqani network.
Regardless of what happens in Afghanistan, he said, the
United States would remain engaged with Pakistan.
"Pakistan matters in and of itself. Whatever happens in
Afghanistan, the US cannot turn away from Pakistan again,"
he said. "We are not going to repeat the mistakes that
occurred - at least not on our watch - of the last 20
years."
Blasts, rocket attack kill
five Afghan civilians
AFP, Kabul
Five civilians, including three children, were killed and
24 other people were wounded in three separate attacks by
Taliban militants in southern and eastern Afghanistan on
Sunday, officials said.
A rocket hit house early in the morning in Behsud district
of eastern Nangarhar province, killing two children while
wounding three women and one man, an interior ministry
statement said. The ministry blamed the attack on "enemies
of the people of Afghanistan"-a term often used to refer
to the Taliban insurgents waging a bloody insurgency
against Afghan and US-led NATO troops.
Meanwhile, a bomb blast near a bank branch in Lashkar Gah,
the capital of southern Helmand province, killed three
civilians and wounded 15 others, provincial spokesman Daud
Ahmadi told AFP.
"The bomb, which was remotely detonated next to a Kabul
bank branch here, killed a 12-year-old girl and two adults
while wounding 15 other civilians," he said.
Minutes later a second bomb exploded close to a high
school in Lashkar Gah and injured three more children, an
adult and a policeman, Ahmadi said.
Ahmadi blamed the Taliban insurgents for both attacks. The
militants have not claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Last 1,630 civilians were killed in Afghanistan by
insurgent attacks, according to a UN report.
S Korea seeks bigger
role in weapons drill
AFP, Seoul
South Korea wants a bigger role in the global effort to
stop the trafficking of weapons of mass destruction, a
news report said Sunday amid mounting tension with the
North over the sinking of a Seoul warship.
South Korea plans to become a core member of the 95-nation
Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) which allows
signatories to stop ships suspected of carrying the arms
or their delivery systems, Yonhap news agency said.
"We have decided to join the Operational Experts Group (OEG),"
an unnamed South Korean foreign ministry official told
Yonhap, referring to PSI's 20-member steering committee.
Seoul believes signing up for the OEG in Japan in November
will make sharing information on North Korea, a
proliferator of illegal weapons, easier, the report said.
The PSI, set up in 2003 by then US president George W
Bush, carries out drills to practise intercepting suspect
vessels and is planning an exercise later this year.
South Korea's participation last year was denounced by
North Korea as a "declaration of war" against the
communist state. South Korea accused Pyongyang of
torpedoing one of its warships near the disputed Yellow
Sea border with the loss of 46 lives on March 26.
The South has announced its own reprisals including
cutting off trade. It also wants a strongly worded
resolution, or at least a presidential statement, from the
15-member UN Security Council.
Third journalist killed in
a week in Philippines
AFP, Manila
Unidentified gunmen shot and killed a 50-year-old
newspaper reporter in the southern Philippines at the
weekend, the third journalist slain in just a week, police
said Sunday.
Nestor Dedolido was pronounced dead upon arrival at a
hospital after two men on a motorcycle shot him at close
range outside a bar he owned in the southern city of Digos
Saturday night, police said in an incident report.
Dedolido was a reporter for Kastigador, a weekly allegedly
financed by a group of politicians and his death may have
been related to his work, police said.
"I believe the killing of my father is politically
motivated. There is a politician involved," Dedolido's
son, Marxlen Dedolido, 22, told reporters without
elaborating. Dedolido was the third journalist killed in
just a week in the Philippines, considered by media
watchdogs as one of the most dangerous places in the world
for journalists.
Broadcaster Desidario Camangyan, 52, became this week's
first victim when he was shot dead by a gunman who walked
onstage as the victim hosted a village singing contest in
the southern Philippines on Monday.
A day later, Lito Agustin, 37, also a radio reporter, was
ambushed and shot dead as he rode a motorcycle home. Both
men were known as outspoken critics of corrupt local
officials in their respective areas.
Dedolido's killing brings to 140 the number of journalists
killed in the Philippines since 1986, the year a popular
revolt ended the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship and
restored press freedom.
Last year was the bloodiest, with 32 journalists among 57
people killed in a massacre blamed on a political warlord
in the southern Philippines, press monitoring groups said.
Five Pakistani children
suffocate in car: Police
AFP, Lahore, Pakistan
Five children suffocated in a village in eastern Pakistan
after locking themselves in a parked car, police said
Sunday.
The incident took place in Wahndu village, in Gujranwala
district, around 65 kilometres (40 miles) north of Lahore
on Saturday afternoon, police officer Mohammad Afzal told
AFP. The family were taking afternoon nap in their house
when the five children, aged between two and six years
old, sneaked into their uncle's car and locked themselves
in, Afzal said. Local police station chief Samiullah Khan
said the children were found unconscious after the family
sent a teenaged boy to look for them.
"The children were pronounced dead at the hospital. They
died of suffocation as they could not unlock the car or
slide down the windows," Khan told AFP.
Parents have told the police that it was an accident and
there would be no further investigation, he added.
Worldwide protests mark Aung San Suu
Kyi’s 65th birthday
AFP, Yangon
Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi marked her 65th
birthday under house arrest Saturday as activists held
protests around the globe and world leaders called for the
junta to free her.
The military regime has kept the Nobel laureate in
detention for almost 15 years and she has been barred from
running in upcoming elections that critics have denounced
as a sham aimed at entrenching the generals' power.
Suu Kyi's party won the last polls in 1990 but was never
allowed to take office. A UN working group this week
pronounced her detention a breach of international human
rights law, prompting new calls for her release.
In a birthday message, US President Barack Obama hailed
Suu Kyi's "determination, courage and personal sacrifice
in working for human rights and democratic change".
"I once again call on the Burmese government to release
Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners immediately
and unconditionally and to allow them to build a more
stable, prosperous Burma that respects the rights of all
its citizens," he said, using the country's former name.
The woman known in Myanmar simply as "The Lady" remains
the most powerful symbol of freedom in a country where the
army rules with an iron fist.
The opposition leader spent the day at her lakeside
mansion in Yangon, where she lives with two female
assistants, cut off from the outside world without
telephone or Internet access.
About 400 of her supporters held a party at one of their
houses in northern Yangon in her absence. Plain-clothes
police outside photographed and filmed people attending
the event.
"We, the NLD members, Daw Suu's friends and colleagues,
pray for her release soon," said Win Tin, a former
political prisoner and senior National League for
Democracy (NLD) figure. "Daw" is a term of respect in
Myanmar.
China's leader-in-waiting
reaches out to Australia
AFP, Melbourne
The man tipped to be China's next president voiced hopes
Sunday for stronger ties with Australia at the start of a
tour in which Beijing is expected to raise concerns about
a proposed tax on mining.
Xi Jinping, on the first high-level trip by a Chinese
official to Australia since Australian iron ore executive
Stern Hu was jailed, is set to focus on economic issues,
including a plan for a 40 percent tax on mining profits.
"Our two sides should build on our current strong
relationship," Vice-President Xi said through an
interpreter late on Saturday.
"In the next few days I look forward to meeting your
leaders, senior officials and people from many other
sectors for further exchange of views on how best to
further advance the China-Australia relationship."
Xi's visit is the first since Australian-passport holder
and Rio Tinto mining executive Hu was jailed in Shanghai
in March and the resumption of talks on a free-trade
agreement.
But it is the mining tax that is likely to deeply engage
Xi, who is expected to succeed President Hu Jintao in
2013, when he meets Mandarin-speaking Prime Minister Kevin
Rudd for formal talks in Canberra on Monday.
The tax on so-called "super profits", which resources
companies are furiously opposed to, has raised concerns
that it could increase the price of raw materials such as
iron ore which China needs for its development.
"Chinese companies are interested to see the development
of the resource tax. They will express that," Chinese
ambassador Zhang Junsai said last week.
Turkish
troops enter Iraq after deadly Kurd rebel attacks
AFP, Arbil, Iraq
Turkish troops entered northern Iraq overnight,
penetrating 10 kilometres (six miles), after deadly
attacks by Kurdish rebels inside Turkey, a security
official said on Sunday. Three people were killed in the
incursion into the Qandil mountains, where the rebel
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) maintains rear bases for its
26-year-old armed campaign for self-rule in southern
Turkey, he said. The official did not specify whether the
dead were civilians or PKK fighters, but he said that the
incursion happened in the Shamarsha district of Arbil
province north of the town of Sidikan.
It was the second time in five days that Turkish ground
forces had crossed the border. On Wednesday, Turkish
troops crossed from Sirnak province into Dohuk province
farther west, in their first ground operation across the
border in two years.
"Two of our men were killed in the clashes that took place
on Wednesday," PKK spokesman Ahmed Denis told AFP in the
Iraqi Kurdistan regional capital of Arbil on Friday. The
intensifying clashes between the PKK and Turkish troops
prompted Denis to warn on Saturday that the rebels would
take their armed campaign to cities across Turkey if the
army pressed on with a policy of military confrontation.
Saturday was the bloodiest day in two years for the
Turkish army after Kurdish rebels killed 11 soldiers in
the far southeast of the country near the border, the army
said.
According to the Turkish military, 12 PKK fighters died in
a counter-attack.
Turkish warplanes also launched bombing raids on suspected
rebel targets inside Iraq, both sides said. The conflict
with the PKK, considered a terrorist organisation by much
of the international community as well as by Ankara, has
claimed more than 45,000 lives since it broke out in 1984,
according to the Turkish army.
Twin Baghdad car
bombs kill 26, wound 53
AFP, Baghdad
Twin car bombs in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Sunday
killed 26 people and wounded 53, many of them women or
traffic police, the interior ministry said.
The bombs exploded within minutes of each other at around
11:30 am (0830 GMT) in the Al-Yarmuk neighbourhood of west
Baghdad, a security official said.
The vehicles were parked close to government offices where
identity cards and passports are issued, and large queues
of people had formed to seek renewals.
Traffic police offices and a branch of the Iraqi
Commercial Bank also lie nearby in the same square which
was thronged with people on the first day of the working
week.
"The bank branch was seriously damaged," the security
official said.
The bombings came hot on the heels of a string of attacks
in the capital on Saturday evening.
Three roadside bombs planted in Hurriya, a Shiite
neighbourhood in the north of Baghdad, killed four people
and wounded 16, a security official told AFP.
Fire from a Katyusha multiple rocket launcher killed three
people and wounded four in Al-Obeidi, an anarchic Shiite
slum district in the far east of the capital beyond the
sprawling Shiite bastion of Sadr City, an official said.
Kyrgyzstan vows to
probe ethnic violence
AFP, Bishkek
Kyrgyzstan's interim government promised a US envoy
Saturday that it would probe deadly ethnic clashes as it
extended a state of emergency amid fears of fresh violence
in the volatile south. Officials and aid agencies say the
clashes between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks have killed up to 2,000
people and affected up to one million, including 300,000
people displaced in Kyrgyzstan and 100,000 who have fled
to neighbouring Uzbekistan. The government said Saturday
it was extending a state of emergency in the violence-torn
southern city of Osh and nearby areas to June 25. Imposed
on June 11, the state of emergency had been due to expire
on Sunday. The United Nations meanwhile said it was
stepping up aid to the region after issuing an urgent
appeal for humanitarian assistance. After meeting with
Kyrgyzstan's acting government, US Assistant Secretary of
State for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert Blake
said he had been promised authorities would investigate
the violence.
"Members of the provisional government assured me of their
intention to launch an investigation into the causes of
the violence.... Such an investigation should be
complemented by an international investigation by a
credible international body," Blake told journalists in
Bishkek. "Is it important for the provisional government
to establish an atmosphere of trust and security so the
refugees in Uzbekistan and the internally displaced
persons in Kyrgyzstan can feel confident that they can
return to their homes," he said.
Kyrgyzstan's interim leader Roza Otunbayeva admitted
Friday that the death toll from the clashes was probably
2,000 -- 10 times the official estimate of 192.
The World Food Programme said Saturday it would step up
its aid to the region and from Sunday will airlift 110
tons of high energy biscuits from its warehouse in Dubai
to Osh and to Andijan in Uzbekistan.
"With a huge number of people displaced by the conflict,
and thousands more trapped without food, water or
supplies, there's not a moment to lose," the UN agency's
executive director Josette Sheeran said in a statement.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon said Friday the United Nations was
launching a 71-million-dollar humanitarian appeal for
Kyrgyzstan and that a separate appeal for Uzbekistan would
be launched next week.
Kurd rebels threaten
attacks on all Turkish cities
AFP, Arbil, Iraq
The rebel Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) threatened on
Saturday to launch attacks in cities across Turkey if the
Turkish army presses on with its policy of mili+tary
confrontation. "We will take our operations to all Turkish
cities if the government continues its attacks against
us," spokesman Ahmed Denis told AFP in the Iraqi Kurdistan
regional capital of Arbil.
"Turkey wants to us take us towards war," he said. "She is
not sincere in dealing with the Kurdish issue and doesn't
want to deal with this issue peacefully.
"The measures she has taken so far are just a hoax," he
added, in allusion to the so-called "Kurdish opening"
announced by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
amid great fanfare last October. The initiative has
faltered amid an opposition outcry that Ankara is bowing
to the PKK, as well as persistent rebel attacks and a
judicial onslaught on Kurdish activists.
Denis's comments came after PKK fighters killed 11 Turkish
soldiers in an attack on an army post and a mine explosion
near the border, prompting retaliatory air raids on
suspected rebel targets inside Iraq.
Erdogan denounced the attack on the army post in the far
southeastern town of Semdinli as "cowardly" and vowed that
it would have no effect on Turkey's determination to fight
the PKK "to the end."
In a message of condolence to the armed forces chief, he
said Turkey was willing to "pay the price" to "annihilate"
the PKK.
On Friday, the Turkish military said it had lost 43 troops
to PKK attacks since March. It said it had killed 130
rebel fighters inside Turkey and in an air raid on rebel
hideouts in Iraq over the same period.
But Denis took issue with the rebel death toll given by
the Turkish army. He said it was true that the PKK had
lost 130 of its fighters but said that the losses covered
a much longer period stretching back to April 2009.
The Turkish military had predicted that the PKK would
further intensify and spread its attacks.
Russians blame Stalin’s
‘blunders’ for WWII losses: poll
AFP, Moscow
Almost half of Russians in a recent poll blamed dictator
Joseph Stalin's "blunders" for the Soviet Union's huge
losses of life in World War II, Russian news agencies
reported Sunday.
Forty-nine percent of respondents told the Levada polling
agency that "the blunders of Stalin" were the "main
reason" for massive Red Army losses in the first two years
of the war, the Interfax news agency reported. Stalin
erred by purging the military of top officials, failing to
prepare for combat and abandoning millions of Soviet
prisoners of war, respondents said.
While hardline Stalin supporters stress the vital
importance of his wartime leadership, only eight percent
of respondents said that Stalin played the key role in
winning the war.
An estimated 26.6 million Soviet citizens died during
World War II and Russians complain that their contribution
and the scale of their human suffering are underestimated
by the West.
More than half of the 1,600 Russians polled in May said
winning the war was "only our victory".
The poll also found widespread suspicion about the
circumstances of Nazi Germany's 1941 invasion of the
Soviet Union.
The invasion came after the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany
signed the secret Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in 1939,
agreeing not to use aggression against each other. Stalin
received intelligence reports that the Nazis planned to
break the treaty but apparently ignored them. Forty
percent of those polled said the Soviet leadership
"probably" or "definitely expected" the German attack,
while 51 percent disagreed.
Those who had higher education and lived in large cities
were more likely to say that Soviet leaders had prior
warning of the Nazi attack.
Previous polls by the Levada centre have shown a marked
drop in public enthusiasm for Stalin, its director Lev
Gudkov said last month.
Over the last eight years "the number of those who say
they are indifferent (to Stalin) has soared from 17
percent to 47 percent," Gudkov said.
UN agency distributes food
aid in Syria’s drought-hit north
AFP, Damascus
The World Food Programme said on Sunday that it has begun
handing out food to almost 200,000 people in severely
drought-stricken northeast Syria.
More than 2,900 tonnes of food rations, made possible by a
two-million-euro donation (2.5 million dollars) by the
European Commission, was being distributed since the start
of June in the provinces of Al-Hasakeh, Al-Raqqa and Deir
Ezzor, the UN agency said in a statement.
"Thanks to these funds, WFP purchased enough food to
support tens of thousands of the most vulnerable
drought-affected families," the statement quoted WFP
country director Muhannad Hadi as saying.
The WFP said it has so far "received less than half of the
22 million dollars it needs to provide food to the 300,000
drought-hit people targeted for assistance ... leaving
110,000 people without help."
Syria has been afflicted by severe drought over the past
four years, making conditions especially difficult for the
rural poor and accelerating the flight from the
countryside to the cities.
Poland votes for new
president after crash tragedy
AFP, Warsaw
Poles voted Sunday for a new head of state after president
Lech Kaczynski perished in an air disaster, but his twin
trailed the ruling party candidate in an audacious bid to
take his brother's place.
Opinion polls have put parliamentary speaker Bronislaw
Komorowski, 58, of the market-friendly Civic Platform
ahead of ex-premier Jaroslaw Kaczynski, 61, leader of the
eurosceptic conservative Law and Justice party. Kaczynski
cast his ballot in Warsaw accompanied by his late
brother's daughter and two grandaughters.
"I hope turnout is going to be high," he told reporters.
Elections since the 1989 fall of Poland's communist regime
have rarely drawn more than half of voters.
"I hope it will rise and that our democracy will be
reinforced," he added. Polls close at 8:00 pm (1800 GMT).
Business/Economy
7pc GDP
growth needed for poverty reduction: Dr Razzaque
BSS, Dhaka
Food and Disaster Management Minister Dr Abdur Razzaque on
Sunday said the growth of the country's Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) needs to be at least 7 percent for dynamic
poverty reduction.
The present government has set up a target of GDP growth
at 6.7 percent in the proposed national budget which is
quite pragmatic and would be helpful to tackle the poverty
issue, he said.
He was addressing as the chief guest a post-budget
discussion organized by the Economic Reporters Forum (ERF)
at the National Press Club here this morning.
The food minister quoted the Chinese Vice-President as
saying during a meeting with him here recently that the
poverty of Bangladesh would not be eliminated
significantly until the GDP growth becomes around 7
percent.
The minister said, "We have significantly improved in
alleviation of extreme poverty but in terms of huger and
malnutrition index we are lagging behind other neighboring
countries."
Terming the electricity crunch as the main barrier to
development, Dr Razzaque said to achieve the targeted GDP
growth would be easy if the electricity problem can be
addressed as soon as possible. Now the country has
shortage of only 1,500 megawatt of electricity-fifty per
cent of it would be overcome by the end of the year and
the rest by the next June-July period, the meeting was
told.
Recalling the Awami League (AL) election manifesto and the
vision 2021, he said the proposed national budget has
significantly addressed the poverty alleviation and food
security issues.
As Awami League is pledgebound to achieve self-sufficiency
in food production by 2012 and at least fifty per cent
poverty alleviation by 2015 and make the country a middle
income one by 2021.
For this, the government has already increased the overall
subsidy for the agriculture sector in the new national
budget, said the minister, adding that safety net and
rural investment programme also have been addressed with
more emphasis given for revitalizing the rural economy.
Azad
urges S Korea to recruit more manpower from BD
BSS, Dhaka
Information and Cultural Affairs Minister Abul Kalam Azad
on Sunday urged South Korea to import more manpower from
Bangladesh.
He made the call when South Korean Ambassador to
Bangladesh Tai Young Cho called on him at his office here.
Azad also requested the envoy to increase volume of
bilateral trade between the two friendly countries.
They also touched on various issues, including business,
education, technology, culture and investment.
Tk 100 cr
allocation for making genome invention of jute
effective
BSS, Dhaka
Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Jute
and Textile on Sunday recommended to the finance ministry
to provide lump sum allocation of Taka 100 crore for
making success the invention of genome sequence of jute
and reaching its outcome to the door-steps of the people.
The recommendation was made at a meeting of the
parliamentary standing committee on the Ministry of Jute
and Textile at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban here, an official
release said.
Chairman of the committee Akhtaruzzaman Chowdhury presided
over the meeting. Jute and Textile Minister Abdul Latif
Siddiqui, Nur-e-Hasna Lipi Chowdhury and Hayator Rahman
Khan attended the meeting.
National
Poultry farm owners facing setback
in Barisal
UNB, Barisal
The poultry farm owners of the district are facing setback
as they have become hostage at the hands of hatchery
owners and poultry feed producers' syndicate.
SM Doha, president of Barisal poultry farm owners'
association said hundreds of poultry farm owners are
leading a miserable life as they have lost their capital.
He alleged that a number of hatchery owners are
continuously increasing the price of one-day old chicks
illogically.
Recently, a chick is selling between Tk 50 and Tk 78
though it was Tk 35-45 a week ago and Tk 25-30 in
January-February, this year.
Local poultry farm owners' informed that Usha and CP
Bangladesh Hatchery are selling each chick at Tk 60-78,
while Aftab Hatchery at Tk 52-62.
The poultry farm owners are being compelled to purchase
those chicks at a higher price to run their business. They
are taking loans from various banks and NGOs with
uncertainty as to whether they would be able to continue
their business by purchasing chicks at such an exorbitant
price, said Aminul Islam Jhanda, secretary of Barisal
poultry farm owners' association..
Local poultry traders said highest Tk 25-30 may be spent
for producing a chick but the greedy hatchery owners are
creating syndicate to sell it at double price.
Paltu Negahban, a poultry firm owner of Barisal sadar
upazila said, the poultry farms in Barisal are on the
verge of closure due to increased price of layer and
broiler chicks.
"No action is being taken against those syndicated
hatchery owners though they are increasing the price of
chicks at their will", he said.
According to SM Doha, there are more than 4,000 large and
small poultry farms in the district.
Already half of these farms have already been closed due
to exorbitant increase of price of chicks and the poultry
feed. As a result, more than 10,000 people involved with
the trade have become unemployed. Local poultry farm
owners said price of poultry feed produced by Biswas Feed,
Aftab Feed, Usha Feed, Kazi Feed, Advanced Feed has been
increased by Tk 30-40 per sack than the previous month.
They said, if the government does not come forward to
control the price of chicks and poultry feed, this
promising poultry industry will face an imminent
catastrophe.
Samaresh Majumdar, Livestock Officer of Barisal said the
government is trying to expand the poultry industry in the
country.
He admitted that the price of one-day old chick has
increased abnormally due to the syndicate of dishonest
hatchery owners and poultry feed producers.
He further said that he has already informed the matter to
the concerned ministry and expressed the hope that the
ministry will take necessary action in this regard.
Govt works sincerely to overcome power shortages: Quader
BSS, Rangpur
Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Golam Mohammad Quader
has said that the present government led by Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina has been working sincerely to resolve power
shortages at the earliest for people's wellbeing.
The country's total power demand will be met soon to make
the nation free from load-shedding and accelerate
industrializations and productions at different sectors
for further boosting economic activities in the process of
building a digital Bangladesh, he said. He said this as
the chief guest while launching distribution of Compact
Florescent Lamp (CFL) at Rangpur Keramotia High School (RKHS)
with President of the School Management Committee of RKHS
Syed Abu Zoha Nur Ahmed in the chair on Saturday.
Deputy Commissioner of Rangpur BM Enamul Haque, Rangpur
Pour Mayor AKM Abdur Rouf Manik, SP Saleh M Tanveer, Azmal
Hossain Lebu, Kazi M Junnon and PDB's Chief Engineer of
Rangpur Alok Kumar Sarker attended as the special guests.
Government officials, Headmaster of RKHS Shah Nazrul
Islam, guardians and teachers Sirajul Islam, Abdul Wahab,
Joynal Abedin, Joytsna Rani Shah, AKM Ferdous, Zamil
Hossain, Monwar Hossain and Rashidul Islam were also
present on the occasion.
Speakers on the occasion said that the government has been
distributing a total of 2.80 crore cost-free and power
saving CFL bulbs in phases throughout the country under
its Efficient Lighting Initiative for Bangladesh' project.
Under the first phase of the project, a total of 2.10 lakh
pieces of the CFL bulbs were distributed on Saturday among
75,000 clients including 19,000 clients of the PDB and
more 56,000 clients of the REB-1 in Rangpur, they said.
Teachers of the primary schools, scouts, girl guides,
students, volunteers and officials and employees of the
PDB and REB, public representatives and elite took part in
the distribution process of the bulbs among hundreds of
the enthusiastic people.
Extortionist attack injures six people in Sirajganj
UNB, Sirajganj
Six people were injured in an attack by extortionists at
Mohanpur Bazar in Ullapara upazila of the district on
Friday morning.
Local sources said an identified group of terrorists led
by Iqbal earlier demanded a big amount as toll from Haider
Ali's mobile phone shop at the bazar.
After he was refused the money, Iqbal and his men came to
Haider's mobile phone shop at Mohanpur Bazar on Wednesday
and forcibly took away Tk 1.5 lakh.
When Kased Ali Pramanik, uncle of Haider, arrived at the
spot, the extortionists beat him and snatched away Tk
46,500 and a mobile phone set.
On the same day (Wednesday), Kased lodged a complaint with
Ullapara thana. As the case was not recorded by the thana,
he filed a case with the judicial court on Thursday. The
magistrate took the case into cognizance and asked the
Officer-in-Charge (O/C) to take necessary action. Hearing
about the case, Iqbal and his men attacked the house of
Haider Ali at 6:30 am on Friday and beat up the inmates of
the house.
During the attack, six people were injured. The injured
were identified as Yunus Ali, 40, son of Akbar Ali, his
wife Amina Khatun, 35, Saidul Islam, 30, son of Taijul,
Hasanur Rahman, 26, son of Kased, Chaina Khatun, 38, wife
of Shamsul Haq of Kandapara, and Khadija Khatun, 41, wife
of Mahmudul of Mahmudpur.
Of the injured, the condition of Yunus Ali was stated to
be critical. While the injured were being taken to the
hospital, the terrorists blocked their way by putting oil
drums and tree trunks on the road at Dahagram Bazar. On
hearing of the news, elite of the area along with their
men rescued the injured and sent to the hospital.
A case has been filed with Ullapara thana in this
connection.
Govt takes Tk 10m project to develop 'sataranji palli' in
Rangpur
BSS, Rangpur
The government has undertaken a Taka 10-million project to
protect and develop the traditional 'sataranji' (handmade
colourful carpet) industry. Under the project, Bangladesh
Small and Cottage and Industries Corporation (BSCIC) has
started the process to develop a 'sataranji palli
(village)' with 116 families of weavers at Nishbetganj in
sadar upazila of Rangpur district.
The BSCIC has already submitted a report to the government
after feasibility study.
BSCIC sources said the wavers in Nishbetganj had been
preparing eye-catching floor-mat, wall-mat, bedcover and
other items separately in an unplanned way for long. About
1,200 women are engaged in the industry.
BSCIC Rangpur Deputy Director Sankar Kumar Das said they
have sent a proposal to the industries ministry to
allocate Taka 50,000 loan for each weaver family of
Nishbetganj and develop a 'sataranji village' with 138
looms now on operation in the area. Besides, there is a
proposal to train up the weavers, supply them with designs
and improve production and marketing system. The BSCIC
director said it is possible to earn Taka 300 crore
annually by exporting sataranjis, if the industry can be
developed.
Currently the weavers at Nishbetganj are producing
2,48,044 square feet products annually. The market price
of the product is about Taka 104 crore. The production of
this items now requires 6 metric tonnes of cotton and 24
metric tonnes of yarn.
Sources said the industry would expand further, if the
weavers get loans and designs along with better production
and marketing system.The sataranjis of Bangladesh are of
high demand in European and other countries. Arifa Begum
and Morsheda of Nishbetganj said they make sataranji side
by side with other household works.
Two female workers have to work together to make a
handmade carpet. Therefore, the income from the carpet is
being shared. They need three to four days to prepare a
35-square feet carpet. They get Taka 12 to 15 as
remuneration for one square foot.
Netrakona pourashava announced Tk 29.38 crore budget
BSS, Netrakona
Netrakona pourashava on Sunday announced a proposed budget
of Taka 29.38 crore for fiscal 2010- 11 at a press
conference at Netrakona Press club here.
Member of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of
LGRD Ashraf Ali Khan Kasru, MP, attended the press
conference as the chief guest while Mayor of Netrakona
pourashava Nazrul Islam Khan formally announced the
budget.
Announcing the budget, Mayor Nazrul Islam Khan said that
the main objective of the budget is to enhance the civic
facilities and gear up the welfare-oriented activities of
the pourashava.
He said no new tax has been imposed in the budget.
Highlighting the budget, the mayor said, Taka 24.87 crore
was earmarked in the budget for executing different
"development and service-oriented projects" around the
pourashava area.
The projects included development of roads and
infrastructures, ensuring pure drinking water supply,
improvement of sanitation and drainage system, health
service network and educational sector, uplift of kitchen
markets and inter-district bus terminal, eradication of
mosquito-menace, development of street-lighting and
beatification of the pourashava, he said. Speaking on the
occasion, Ashraf Ali Khan Kasru assured the pourashava
authority of extending all out support from the present
government side for overall development of the pourashava.
Art exhibition and cultural programme by children with
disability held
UNB, Barisal
A day-long art exhibition and cultural programme by
children with disability was held on Chahatpur Secondary
School premises at Chahatpur in the city on Sunday.
A total of 161 art works and photographs on the life of
working and disabled children were put on display at the
exhibition, which was organized by Centre for Services and
Information on Disability (CSID), a NGO working
establishing the rights of disabled children. A drama
written by disabled children was also staged and a film
made by them screened on the occasion.
CSID organized the programme under a project titled
"Reducing Child Labour among Children with Disabilities
and Rehabilitation" with the financial support of Save the
Children Sweden-Denmark for raising awareness about the
rights of the children with disability.
Sports
Paraguay on brink of knockouts after
Slovakia win
AFP, Bloemfontein
A powerful Paraguay side beat Slovakia 2-0 in Bloem-fontein on
Sunday to leave the South Americans on the brink of
qualification for the World Cup knockout phase.
A first-half goal from Enrique Vera and a second-half strike
from Cristian Riveros at a sun-drenched Free State stadium
gave Paraguay the crucial win that takes them to four points
with only Group F minnows New Zealand still to play. Paraguay
coach Gerardo Martino made his intentions clear from the
kick-off with three attackers in his starting XI, including
Manchester City forward Roque Santa Cruz, and his team
established a vice-like grip on the match.
Paraguay took the lead on 27 minutes when Vera bent the ball
around the goalkeeper with the outside of his right boot after
a pass from Barrios.
It followed incessant pressure on the Slovakian defence in a
first half in which the eastern Europeans could muster just a
single shot to the South Americans' eight.
The goal forced Slovakia to come out of their shell and attack
but Paraguay came close to doubling their lead when Santa Cruz
forced Slovak goalkeeper Jan Mucha to save with his legs. The
South Americans kept their grip on the match in the second
half as Slovakia struggled to break down the South Americans'
defence.
Coach Vladimir Weiss threw on forward Filip Holosko for
Stanislav Sestak as the Slovaks desperately looked for an
equaliser but they could not hold onto possession long enough
to pose a goal threat. Vera almost headed Paraguay into a
two-goal lead after a cross from Santa Cruz but his effort
flew narrowly wide.
Substitute Aureliano Torres, on for Nelson Valdez, then drove
over as the South Americans' continued to look the more likely
scorers. In a last throw of the dice Weiss sent on midfielder
Miroslav Stoch for defender Kornel Salata but Slovakia failed
to threaten and as the clock ticked down Riveros gave Paraguay
the two-goal margin their play richly deserved.
The World Cup hopes of Slovakia, heartbroken after conceding a
stoppage-time equaliser to New Zealand in their opener, now
hang by a thread with defending world champions Italy still to
play. Italy, who drew 1-1 with Paraguay in their opener, were
due to play New Zealand later on Sunday in Nelspruit.
Denmark
beats Cameroon 2-1 in World Cup
AP/UNB, Pretoria
Dennis Rommedahl scored one goal and set up another Saturday
to lead Denmark to a 2-1 win over Cameroon, eliminating the
African team from the World Cup and sending the Netherlands to
the round of 16.
Rommedahl ran down the right flank and spun around substitute
Jean Makoun before hitting a well-aimed shot past Hamidou
Souleymanou in the 61st minute.
Rommedahl assisted on Nicklas Ben-dtner's equalizer in the
33rd after Samuel Eto'o had put Cameroon ahead in the 10th
following a mix-up in the Danish defense. The result means the
Netherlands is through to the second round with six points
after beating Japan 1-0 earlier Saturday. Denmark and Japan
have three points each. Their last Group D match will decide
who joins the Netherlands into the knockout stage. Eto'o
scored in the 10th minute after a meltdown in the Danish
defense.
Christian Poulsen rolled the ball toward fullback Simon Kjaer
but the pass was way too soft and intercepted by Achille Webo,
who found Eto'o unmarked in front of goal. Cameroon's top
striker easily beat Denmark goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen with a
powerful low shot.
The Danes replied just after the half-hour mark, when Kjaer
sent a long diagonal pass from deep inside the Danish half
down the right flank to Rommedahl.
The 31-year-old winger let the ball bounce off his chest,
looked up to find Bendtner rushing toward the goal, and struck
a low cross that the Denmark striker poked in with his right
foot.
Both teams had a flurry of chances before the break, with
Eto'o hitting the post and Achille Emana zigzagging past three
defenders but shooting straight at Sorensen.
Cameroon pressed desperately for an equalizer after Rommedahl
put the Danes ahead, but Alex Song and Webo shot over the bar
at Loftus Versfeld. Sorensen salvaged the Danish win when he
stopped Achille Emana's right-foot shot with a one-hand save
in the 77th.
Pakistan’s
Asia Cup flop ‘a warning bell’
AFP, Karachi
Former Pakistan cricket greats said Sunday Pakistan's
failure to reach the final of the Asia Cup was "a warning
bell" for problems that needed urgent attention before
next year's World Cup. "Pakistan did play well in both the
matches but the fact is that we are still number three,
behind Sri Lanka and India, which is a warning bell for
next year's World Cup," former Pakistan captain Zaheer
Abbas told AFP.
The four-nation Asia Cup, being played in the Sri Lankan
resort of Dambullah, is seen as a build-up for next year's
World Cup, which will be jointly hosted by India, Sri
Lanka and Bangladesh.
Arch-rival India beat Pakistan by three wickets on
Saturday, qualifying for the June 24 final against Sri
Lanka and leaving runners-up Pakistan and Bangladesh to
contest a league match on Monday. Abbas said the results
showed that Pakistan was performing poorly. "Against India
our batting did well, but bowling and fielding were not up
to the mark," said Abbas.
Pakistan also failed to reach the final of the 2008 Asia
Cup, when the tournament was held in their own country.
Abbas said there were "too many coaches" in the Pakistan
camp, which he found "hard to understand," referring to
head coach Waqar Younis, assistant coach Aqib Javed and
batting-fielding coach Ijaz Ahmed. "Too many coaches are
spoiling the broth," Abbas said.
Former chief selector Iqbal Qasim, who resigned in
February after Pakistan's winless tour of Australia, said
Pakistan had to confront its problems before next year's
World Cup.
"Fielding is our main problem, which again failed us on
Saturday," said Qasim, a former left-arm spinner. "We also
need to know when to utilise our batting powerplay, which
is being spoiled every time."
Qasim said fast-rising batsman Umar Akmal and paceman
Mohammad Amir needed guidance to turn their huge talent
into better performances.
Spain looking to reassert World
Cup credentials
AP/UNB, Johannesburg
Anything less than a win for Spain against Honduras on
Monday could see one of the pre-tournament favorites
making an ignominious early exit from the World Cup. The
shock 1-0 loss to Switzerland in its opening game was only
the second defeat for Spain in 49 matches and means that
the team cannot afford to slip up again in its remaining
two Group H fixtures.
The 2008 European champions play Honduras at
Johannesburg's Ellis Park. Both teams lost their opening
games 1-0 and trail Switzerland and Chile by three points
following the first round of matches. Spain striker
Fernando Torres is confident that the team's bad day has
passed and that it will not be leaving the World Cup early
- like many Spanish sides have done in the past. The
26-year-old Liverpool striker will be hoping he gets the
nod from coach Vicente del Bosque to start the match,
after coming on as a substitute in the game against
Switzerland. "I've been training for more than two weeks
with my teammates and little by little I've forgotten
about the injury," said Torres, who is recovering from
surgery on his right knee in April. "It's up to the coach.
He decides."
Alongside forward David Villa, Torres could provide the
extra punch Spain was lacking against the Swiss. Despite
having the bulk of the possession, Spain lacked a cutting
edge against a massed Swiss defense.
"We had chances. We didn't score a goal and that was the
key. Let's hope it doesn't happen again since that would
be odd," Torres said Saturday. "The most important thing
is not to allow anxiety to overwhelm us if minutes pass
and we are not able to score." Unsurprisingly, Spain has
encountered a torrent of criticism following the Swiss
defeat, much of it directed at the coach. Former coach
Luis Aragones, who led Spain to the 2008 European title,
said his successor was wrong in playing two holding
midfielders - Xabi Alonso and Sergio Busquets - and only
Villa up front. That left Torres and creative midfielder
Cesc Fabregas out of the lineup. Fabregas did not even
come on as a substitute. Defender Gerard Pique said
Fabregas could provide what the Spanish were lacking.
"A lot of touch, the ability to get into the area and
goals," Pique said. "If the coach opts for him, he'll help
us very much." Since the defeat, the Spanish players have
insisted there will be no change to the team's
possession-based, quick-touch game regardless of who
starts.
"It's hard to evaluate, especially since the system worked
well in the warmup games coming in," Alonso said. "The
coach makes the decisions and whatever he decides, the
players back him 100 percent." Honduras coach Reinaldo
Rueda is expecting the full force of a Spanish backlash.
"We should not be distracted by the (Swiss) result," Rueda
said. "As one of the favorites and having lost their first
game, Spain will be even more determined."
Shades of 1966 as
Portugal meets North Korea
AP/UNB, Cape Town
Portugal and North Korea meet on Monday in a reprise of
one of the most famous games in World Cup history.
The remarkable 5-3 quarterfinal win of a Eusebio-inspired
Portugal over North Korea at the 1966 World Cup continues
to resonate as one of the greatest games ever in
football's premier tournament. North Korea is making its
first World Cup appearance since, and after a respectable
2-1 defeat to Brazil in its opening game, the Korean side
must strive for at least a draw to keep alive ambitions of
reaching the round of 16.
Portugal, which drew 0-0 with Ivory Coast in its Group G
opener, needs a win, given its last group game will be
against mighty Brazil.
"We know we can improve. Things will be different on
Monday," said striker Lie-dson after the game against
Ivory Coast. "You're always nervous in the first World Cup
game. We'll be calmer in the second one."
Reclusive North Korea played with great composure against
Brazil, before succumbing. Coach Kim Jong Hun said the
team had gained confidence from the match against Brazil,
despite the loss. But having manfully resisted the
multi-pronged Brazil, the North Koreans are only looking
in one direction to see Portugal's threat - Cristiano
Ronaldo.
Striker Jong Tae Se compared Ronaldo favorably with
Eusebio, whose four goals in that 1966 quarterfinal ended
North Korea's fairytale run.
"Ronaldo is better than Eusebio," he said. "He is a more
skillful player both tactically and technically."
Midfielder An Yong Hak said the clash with the Portuguese
will be tough because "the whole world knows Ronaldo is
the best player in the world."
Several players at the World Cup are hoping to strengthen
their claims to being the world's best. So far, only
Argentina's Lionel Messi's has lived up to the billing.
Like England's Wayne Rooney, the jury is still out on Real
Madrid's Ronaldo. After from rifling one ball onto the
post from long range against Ivory Coast early on, he was
near invisible for the rest of the game. His most notable
contribution otherwise was a yellow card. Ronaldo has the
eyes of his country and the world on him. The Real Madrid
forward hasn't found the net for his country in an
official game since the 2008 European Championship. "Of
course I want everyone, including Cristiano, to score. But
the most important thing is a victory. It doesn't matter
who puts the ball in the net," said Portugal Carlos
Que-iroz. "I just have to focus on one thing: winning our
next game. We have to get through." Form analysis aside,
the game will be an event in itself, with the teams having
waited 44 years to meet against after that famous 1966
meeting.
Both Portugal and North Korea made their debuts on
soccer's biggest stage that year, and their standout
performances in England have endured in national lore.
North Korea upset Italy 1-0 at the tournament, becoming
the first team from Asia to advance to the quarterfinals.
Portugal unexpectedly got as far as the semifinals. What
has lingered longest in the memory is Portugal's 5-3 win
over North Korea in the quarterfinals, regarded as one of
the greatest comebacks in World Cup history.
England in crisis talks as Slovenia crunch looms
AFP, Rustenburg
England's players are to hold clear-the-air talks with
Fabio Capello against a backdrop of speculation about
divisions in the camp ahead of Wedn-esday's make-or-break
clash with Slovenia.
Former skipper John Terry insisted on Sunday that the
players were united and fully supportive of their Italian
coach.
But the Chelsea defender also effectively confirmed that
all is not well at the Royal Bafokeng Sports Campus by
revealing that he expected some frank exchanges at a team
meeting scheduled for Monday evening. Asked about his
disgraced Chelsea team-mate Nicolas Anelka being sent home
by France, Terry joked: "I see Nico was sent home for
voicing his opinion and maybe a few of us will be sent
home after this evening."
The centreback added: "If we feel something has to change,
we owe it to the country and the manager to say it in that
meeting tonight. If it upsets him or any other player, so
what."
England go into Wednesday's meeting with Slovenia in Port
Elizabeth needing a win to be sure of advancing to the
knockout stage of the competition after a 1-1 draw with
the United States and a goalless draw with Algeria that
Terry described as "unacceptable."
Dutch book their ticket, Cameroon and Anelka out
AFP, Johannesburg
Holland became the first team to reach the last 16 of the
World Cup on Saturday while Cameroon's hopes were crushed
and star striker Nicolas Anelka was kicked out of France's
squad.
The Dutch were assured of their ticket after they beat
Japan 1-0 with a long-range Wesley Sneijder goal in Durban
and Denmark snuffed out Cameroon's hopes with a 2-1
victory in Pretoria.
The results left Holland top of Group E on six points,
with Japan and Denmark set to fight it out next Thursday
for the other qualification place.
Elimination was a bitter disappointment for Cameroon as
one of Africa's six representatives fell by the wayside at
the first World Cup played on the continent.
Cameroon scored first when Samuel Eto'o coolly fired into
the corner of the net after 10 minutes, but Arsenal's
Nicklas Bendtner struck back for the Danes in the 33rd
minute.
Dennis Rommedahl gave Denmark the lead, curling a neat
finish around Cameroon 'keeper Hamidou Soule-ymanou in the
second half, and Cameroon spurned chances to grab the
point which would have kept their hopes alive.
"We lacked the required coolness in front of goal," said
their coach Paul Le Guen. "We didn't finish very well, but
I feel like we gave everything we could tonight." Anelka
was sent home in disgrace after it emerged he had insulted
France coach Raymond Domenech at half-time of the 2-0
defeat to Mexico on Thursday which left the 2006
runners-up facing an early exit.
L'Equipe newspaper reported that the Chelsea forward told
Domenech to "go screw yourself, dirty son of a whore" when
the coach criticised his first-half performance.
When the Chelsea striker refused to apologise, French
Football Federation president Jean-Pierre Escalettes
ordered him to leave the team's luxury Western Cape camp.
Anelka admitted having a "heated discussion" with Domenech,
but denied using the words attributed to him. "This should
never have left the dressing room," he told France-Soir
newspaper. The incident exposed the divisions in a
troubled French camp when captain Patrice Evra refused to
condemn Anelka, but claimed there was a "traitor" in the
squad who had leaked the bust-up to the media.
In the day's other match, Australia clung on to earn a 1-1
draw with Ghana despite having Harry Kewell sent off for a
goalline hand ball.
Brett Holman had given the Socceroos an early lead in
Rustenburg before Kewell was red-carded after he appeared
to use his upper arm to block a shot - his angry appeals
to the referee were waved away and Asamoah Gyan converted
the resulting penalty. Australia face a huge task to
qualify, but at least regained some pride after their
humiliating 4-0 thrashing by Germany.
"We have to beat Serbia by three goals now," admitted
Australia coach Pim Verbeek. "Even with 10 men we kept
fighting. For a penalty it had to be a deliberate hand
ball. I could not see it, but we cannot change it."
The result left Group D finely poised. Ghana have four
points, Germany and Serbia three each and Australia one
point ahead of the final games, meaning all four countries
are in contention for second-round places. Off the field,
England's Wayne Rooney apologised for an outburst at the
end of his team's poor performance in Friday's goalless
draw with Algeria.
As he walked off the pitch in Cape Town, Rooney turned to
a television camera and snapped: "Nice to see your own
fans booing you." Rooney admitted he had "said things in
the heat of the moment that came out of frustration".
FIFA meanwhile said it was "unacceptable" that an England
fan managed to find his way into the team's dressing-room
after the match where he briefly vented his anger at David
Beckham, who is injured but accompanying the squad in a
supporting role.
Eriksson shrugs
off Drogba arm cast row
AFP, Johannesburg
Ivory Coast coach Sven-Goran Eriksson on Saturday shrugged
off Brazilian concerns over Didier Drogba's controversial
protective arm cast ahead of the two nations' crunch World
Cup clash.
Ivory Coast captain Drogba broke his arm in a pre-World
Cup friendly and his decision to wear the cast when he
appeared as a second half substitute against Portugal
sparked claims that the African superstar was breaking the
rules. But Eriksson, who is yet to decide whether or not
the Chelsea star will start Sunday's clash against the
five-time world champions, is convinced Drogba has not
received special treatment. "It was an issue after the
game against Portugal, which I didn't understand," said
the ex-England manager. "FIFA had looked at it, the
referee had looked at it and they hadn't seen it as an
issue. I am confident it will be not be a problem this
time either."
Eriksson said he would leave a decision on Drogba until
the morning of the Group H game, but expects the striker
to at least play a role. "I am not sure yet if he will
play for 90 minutes, we will decide in the morning, but I
think he is ready," said the Swede.
"He has been practising well, I will speak to him and also
to the doctors, but I think he is ready."
Brazilian medical officer Jose Runco said Brazil would ask
FIFA to advise them whether Drogba's cast contained any
metal components and if so, request that the protection be
banned.
"We will have to have a technical meeting (with FIFA) - I
am sure we will talk about this matter," said Runco.
"If the protection is metallic then its use is not
permitted. This is what we want to ascertain."
Ivory Coast defender Siaka Tiene said it would make a huge
difference to have their captain lead them against the
Brazilians, but they will cope without him if he is not
fit.
"We have always dreamt of meeting Brazil in the World Cup
and I am delighted we will meet them, the fact we are
about to meet Brazil is something which makes us happy,"
he said.
Olsen demands Danish
boost in final push
AFP, Pretoria
Denmark coach Morten Olsen hailed his team's defensive
efforts in their 2-1 win over Cameroon but said they would
have to improve if they want to stay in the World Cup.
Samuel Eto'o gave Cameroon the lead following a Christian
Poulsen blunder before Dennis Rommedahl inspired a
comeback, scoring the winner after having set up Nicklas
Bendtner's equaliser. Denmark must still beat Japan in
their final Group E game to join pool winners Holland in
the last 16.
"We're off the mark, we scored some goals. Actually we
didn't start very well, we had one big chance for
Rommedahl but then we made an individual error and they
scored," said Olsen. "We showed spirit and got back into
the game. We showed we wanted to win. But there were
things that we did today that I don't want us to do again.
"They could have scored more. We had a heroic fight in
defence. It was difficult to get the ball off our
opponents. If we want to progress in this tournament we
have a lot to work on."
Man-of-the-match Daniel Agger, the Liverpool centre-back,
was far more brutal in his assessment.
"In the first half, it was one of the worst performances
we've given in a long time," he said.
"If they had been more clinical they would've scored more
and we'd have been out of it. We gave away too many
opportiunities, we didn't play like a team, we didn't play
like we have to play if we want to progress. It really
weasn't good enough."
The one bright spark in the match was right winger
Rommedahl's performance and Olsen revealed that they had
targetted the space in behind Cameroon left-back Benoit
Assou-Ekotto. "Rommedahl continued on from the first match
and the two goals were wonderful," said Olsen.
"We knew what to do against their left-back, we knew
Rommedahl had to cut back inside and use his left foot.
The first goal was actually a great goal, Rommedahl had a
part in both. "People understood today how important he
is. About 10 minutes from time he wanted to come off but
we couldn't do it because we had Bendtner and (Jon Dahl)
Tomasson and we thought they wouldn't manage the full
match so he agreed to go to the end."
Federer targets
Sampras’s Wimbledon record
AFP, London
Roger Federer admits his bid to retain the Wimbledon title
will be driven by the prospect of equalling Pete Sampras's
record of seven singles' titles at the All England Club.
Federer will walk onto Centre Court on Monday for his
first round match against Colombia's Alejandro Falla with
Sampras firmly on his mind at the start of a potentially
historic fortnight for the world number two.
Sampras has been the finest exponent of grass court tennis
in the Open era, but the American conceded last week that
Federer has a great chance to shatter his Wimbledon
record. The 28-year-old, who announced his arrival as a
force at Wimbledon with a victory over Sampras here in
2001, has already beaten Sampras's record of 14 grand slam
singles titles and knows it would be remarkable
achievement to draw level with the American's tally of All
England Club titles.
"Being one title away from it, obviously I'm thinking
about equalling Pete's record a little bit because I'm
aware of the great things he achieved," Federer said.
"It's nice of him to say I could beat his Wimbledon record
but I don't feel pressure from that because people
compared me to Sampras even when I had no grand slams.
"Obviously my game's made for grass. Since I came here as
a junior and since I beat Pete here in 2001 and I won my
first Wimbledon here in 2003, I think every time I play,
I'll have a chance to win here.
"But we all know how hard it is to win grand slam titles.
You have to break it down and make it simple for yourself.
I just have to try to win the first round before thinking
about everything else."
Although Federer's phenomenal record at Wimbledon was
enough to guarantee him the number one seeding, ahead of
world number one Rafael Nadal, he arrives in south-west
London with serious questions over his form.
By his own high standards 2010 has been disappointing year
for the Swiss, who has failed to win any of his seven
tournaments since beating Andy Murray in the Australian
Open final in January.
Federer' run of 23 successive grand slam semi-final
appearances was snapped at the French Open and he even
lost for just the second time in 78 matches on grass when
Lleyton Hewitt beat him in the final at Halle last week.
Yet Federer insists his recent struggles have not affected
his preparations for Wimbledon and he expects to make
another long run in the tournament.
India insists
reluctant Bolt is set for Delhi 2010
AFP, New Delhi
Commonwealth Games organisers on Sunday insisted that
Usain Bolt will compete despite the Jamaican's coach
saying Delhi 2010 was not on the agenda.
"He will surely come," organising committee spokesman
Lalit Bhanot told reporters, rejecting reports that the
world's fastest man will skip the October 3-14 Games in
the Indian capital.
"There is still a lot of time left and we are confident
Bolt will participate in the Commonwealth Games."
Glen Mills, who coaches the double Olympic and world
sprint champion, had on Saturday dismissed suggestions
that Bolt would travel to India for the Games.
"Bolt made it known long ago that he is not going to the
Commonwealth Games," Mills told the track and field
website www.trackalerts.com.
Doubts about Bolt's participation in the Games were first
raised by his agent Ricky Simms earlier this year, but
Mills' statement was the first official confirmation that
he will be absent.
Simms had said in January that Bolt, 23, was likely to
miss the Games to focus on the London Olympics in 2012 and
the world championships in 2011 and 2013.
The Times of India on Sunday quoted an unnamed "informed"
source as saying that Games organisers were willing to pay
Bolt a substantial appearance fee to attract him to New
Delhi.
"It is learnt that he wants appearance money and the
organising committee is ready to pay it. Once that is all
cleared, he will come," the source told the newspaper.
Bolt, who skipped the 2006 Commonwealth Games in
Melbourne, reportedly commands a fee of one million
dollars to compete in events, the newspaper added.
Gilly has no regrets
after going-up against Aussies
AFP, London
Adam Gilchrist insisted he was still very much retired
from international cricket despite the thrill of
captaining Middlesex against Australia in a one-day match
here at Lord's.
The 38-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman great last played for
Australia two years ago.
But he looked in superb form in making 38 at a near
run-a-ball opening the innings at Lord's on Saturday
before holing out off all-rounder Shane Watson in what was
Australia's last fixture before they begin a five match
one-day series against England next week.
Asked if Australia captain Ricky Ponting, who on Friday
insisted his old team-mate was still good enough to be
playing at the highest level, had tried to change his
mind, Gilchrist told reporters: "He knows to save his
breath. They've got a very good team there."
There were 13 Australians on the field at the start of
Saturday's match as Gilchrist, who won the toss, opened
alongside international Twenty20 regular David Warner.
"I know how unique it is to have two Australians opening
the batting against the Australian team," said Gilchrist.
"It was quite a thrill being the captain of a home team
here at Lord's against your home country."
Middlesex, thanks mainly to 92 from discarded England
batsman Owais Shah, made 273 for five from their 50 overs
and then, with Tim Murtagh taking three wickets, reduced
Australia to 64 for four.
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