MONday, june 7, 2010 Jyestha 24, 1417, JAMADIUS SANI 22, 1431 Hijri

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Leading News

Criminals must not be spared even if are of my party: PM
UNB, Dhaka

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday asked the police personnel to be impartial while performing their duties.
"Criminals must not be spared even if they belong to my party. Don't succumb to any pressure," she told the members of the police force at a function after inaugurating the newly constructed DMP Headquarters Building.
Home Minister Sahara Khatun, State Minister for Home Affairs Shamsul Haque Tuku, State Minister for Housing and Public Works Abdul Mannan Khan, local MP Rashed Khan Menon and Home Secretary Abdus Sobhan Sikdar were present as special guests at the function.
Inspector General of Police Nur Mohammad presided over the function while DMP Commissioner AKM Shahidul Huq gave the welcome address.
The Prime Minister said criminals are a cancer for the society… of no use to society and their families. "Don't spare the criminals," she directed the police.
She also said that the members of the police force must remember their salaries and wages come from the taxes paid by the people. "Don' t be negligent in ensuring their security."
Hasina said police would have to be friends of the people. Their main goal would be nursing the good and punishing the evil. "You've to look after all people irrespective of gender and religion, and whether they are literate or illiterate, rich or poor."
She said the police personnel must act in such a way that the general people never fear the police, and instead feel that police are their friends and can be trusted.
The Prime Minister congratulated the police force for their great achievement in curbing terrorism and militancy despite limited resources. She also conveyed her good wishes to the police force for showing unprecedented patience following Thursday night's fire at Nimtoli in the city.
She mentioned that the members of the police force would have to learn to use the modern facilities and the fast growing technology to catch and track down the criminals.
Hasina said good environment is the perquisite for a person to deliver good works in the office. She hoped that with the newly constructed DMP Headquarters Building at a cost of 11.42 crore the police force in the capital would perform their duties with more effectiveness.
She mentioned the people of the country wants secured life, peaceful environment, normal movement and an ensured job for their livelihood. They want to sleep in peace and move safely on the road.
"We are committed to providing these to the people. You've the highest responsibility as members of the law enforcing agency in fulfilling such demands of the people," the Prime Minister told the police force. "I believe the police personnel will act accordingly," she said.

 Army playing stellar role in Nimtoli aftermath
UNB, Dhaka

Bangladesh Army has been continuing its efforts to provide assistance for the relatives of Nimtoli fire tragedy victims as well as injured and fired affected people to return their normal life.
As part of their works, members of 14 Engineer Brigade of Bangladesh Army distributed relief goods including food items among the affected people today (Sunday), said the ISPR Sunday afternoon.
They are working with the coordination of Dhaka WASA, PDB, Titas Gas and Fire Service.
Gas connections were given to 25 families, while drinking water was distributed among the affected people through seven water tanks today (Sunday).
The 14 engineer Brigade personnel also distributed Sharee, Lungi, shirt, pant, selwar kamij, gamsa, towel, tooth paste etc received from the Prime Minister's relief fund Sunday morning.
Besides, the army personnel provided breakfast, lunch and cooked food at night among the helpless effected people yesterday (Saturday).
Some 117 people were killed and other 100 were injured in the devastating fire that 25 families of about 11 houses on Friday night.
Among the victims, 97 bodied were identified and buried till today, according to Dhaka City Corporation.

 Chemical godowns will be removed soon from old Dhaka: Sahara

BSS, Dhaka

Home Minister Advocate Sahara Khatun Sunday said that all illegal chemical factories and godowns would be removed soon from the densely-populated areas of old Dhaka.
"The Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK) will be instructed to strictly follow the building code and remove all illegal structures from the densely populated areas with narrow lanes and congested houses," she said.
The minister was talking to journalists after visiting the place of occurrence at Nabab Katra where some 120 people, including women and children, were burnt to death on June 3.
Earlier, Sahara Khatun joined the qulkhwani of the deceased at Nabab Katra Chhataola Jame Mosque after Asr prayers.
Among others, State Minister for Home Advocate Shamsul Haque Tuku, State Minister for Law Advocate Qamrul Islam, Mostafa Jalal Mohiuddin, MP, Nazrul Islam Babu, MP, and Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Md Sayeed Khokon were present at the function.
The home minister told the journalists that she came to the spot to see the debris where so many people were burnt to death on the fateful night of June 3 and to console the members of the bereaved families.
Responding a local demand, she said the government would take immediate steps to remove all illegal shops, godowns and factories of chemical from these areas to save the people of old Dhaka from any such tragedy.
Sahara Khatun said the government must mete out exemplary punishment to those who would be found guilty by the inquiry committee.
The total issue would also be raised to the Prime Minister so that all the government initiatives could be made successful, she added.
Qamrul Islam said the government will take initiative to enact a tough law to stop such a tragedy in the country. If necessary, special mobile courts would be formed to identify and demolish illegal chemical shops, godowns, factories and structures from the city.
Shamsul Haque Tuku told the reporters that Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) would be instructed not to issue licences or permits to run such chemical shops, godowns or factories in future.

   Muhith sounds positive note on state of economy
UNB, Sangsad Bhaban

Finance Minister AMA Muhith has said there is still scope to enhance ADP implementation, even though the implementation rate has increased slightly this year, in comparison to the last fiscal.
He made the statement while placing the report on implementation of budget till the third quarter of the current fiscal and overall macro-economic analysis in Parliament on Sunday.
He also said that due to the increasing trend of the price of fuel oil and other imported materials, the point-to-point inflation rate in March 2010 had been 8.8 percent, whereas it had been 5 percent in the same period of the previous year.
The Finance Minister said in the report that that the government was actively considering the matter of increasing ADP implementation, and attaching great importance to it.
In this connection he mentioned that in each ECNEC meeting the government is examining the projects of two highest allotted ministries.
Besides, the government has formed a separate taskforce to review the implementation progress of 10 highly allotted ministries or divisions.
"We have also suggested the ministries or divisions formulate advance collection planning," he said.
According to the report, the ADP implementation till the third quarter of the current fiscal stood at Tk 13,570 crore, which is 47.6 percent of the total ADP allocation. This rate is 28.9 percent higher than the previous year. The total expenditure for the current fiscal in this sector was calculated at Tk 28,500 crore.
It may be noted though, that the figure of Tk 28,500 crore is a revised figure. The original ADP for the year had been set with a budget of Tk 30,500 crore.
The Minister said that the collection through the National Board of Revenue (NBR) was Tk 41,648 crore till third quarter, while the target for the whole fiscal year was Tk 61,000. This collection is 64.20 percent of the total amount.
He also said that the collection from import duty and land registration was not at the expected level and that has caused a sluggish trend in the revenue collection.

    BNP abstaining from JS as demands not met: Farooque
UNB, Sangsad Bhaban

Opposition BNP and its allies abstained from the budget session of parliament for the second day today (Sunday) with no possibility of their return to the House soon.
Opposition chief whip Zainul Abdin Farooque told UNB this afternoon that they are not going to parliament protesting the closing down of Daily Amar Desh and arrest of its editor, the government's failure to fulfill their demands and rejecting notices of BNP members.
He further said there is no guarantee of discussion yet from the government to fulfill the demands.
Several months ago, BNP put forward a package of demands including putting a halt to indecent remarks against late President Ziaur Rahman, Khaleda Zia and her family, withdrawing false cases against BNP leadership, to stop repression on opposition, stop the government move to evict Khaleda Zia from her Dhaka cantonment residence and discuss important national issues in parliament.
BNP had abstained from parliament for a long time to press for their demands. They did not join the second and third session of the ninth parliament while had joined the fourth session for few days only.
The opposition chief whip, however, said they would inform the press before joining the current session of parliament.
The BNP lawmakers joined the parliament on the first day of the current 5th session on June 2 but staged walkout protesting the shutdown of the daily Amar Desh and arrest of its acting editor Mahmudur Rahman.

   96 victims of Nimtoli fire incident identified: Razzak
UNB, Sangsad Bhaban

The identities of 96 casualties out of the 117 confirmed casualties from the devastating Nimtoli fire incident have been found, while the remaining 21 are unidentified, Disaster Management Minister Abdur Razzak told Parliament today (Sunday).
Addressing the House on rule 300 over the June 3 Nimtoli inferno, the minister said nearly 150 people had been injured in different ways by the fire, of which fire-burnt 43 victims were admitted to the Burn Unit of the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital. He said three fire burnt victims died while undergoing treatment at the DMCH burn unit while 14 fire burnt victims whose conditions were critical had been shifted to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) on the directive of the Prime Minister. Presently, 25 burnt victims are under treatment in the DMCH burn unit, he said.

   Five killed in road accidents
UNB, Faridpur

Five people were killed and 17 others injured in separate road accidents in Madhukhali and Sadar upazilas on Sunday.
Police said a bus and a goods laden truck collided on Dhaka-Khulna highway in Madhukhali upazila, leaving Robiul Islam, 35, of Jessore dead on the spot and injuring 18 others at about 4:45 am.
The wounded were admitted to Faridpur Medical College Hospital where three others succumb. Other deceased were identified Golam Gaus, 32, of Magura, Iqbal Hossain, 35, of Barisal and Habibur Rahman, 32, of Satbaria.
All the victims are bus passengers.
In another road crash, a motorcyclist Iqbal died on the spot and two other riders were injured as a bus hit the motorbike at Bakhunda in Sadar upazila on Dhaka-Barisal highway at 11am. The injured were admitted to Faridpur Medical College.

Back Page

President for presenting Bangabandhu’s life and works before new generation

UNB, Dhaka

President Zillur Rahman on Sunday emphasized the need for presenting the life and works of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman before the new generation to inspire them to be patriotic and worthy citizens of the country.
The president made his remarks when a two-member delegation of Bangla-desh Foundation of Devel-opment Forum (BFDR) led by its director general Monaem Sarker called him at Bangabhaban.
The spirit of Bangabandhu could greatly help expand the country's gradual development and progress, Zillur Rahman said.
Appreciating the people who conduct researches over Bangabahu's life and works, the president mentioned that publications on Bangabandhu's life and works could be very helpful for development of the country. Monaem Sarker, author of many books on the liberation war, presented the first and second volume of the book titled 'Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman: Life and politics' which was edited by him.
Presenting a copy of the Constitution to the president written just after the great liberation, he also handed over his seven books and 16 audio visual CDs to him on different political events of Bangladesh.
The BFDR director general informed the president that he is going to publish an audio-visual CD of Mukti Sangramer Itihas (history of liberation war) very soon. Out of 52 episodes, works of 30 have already been completed, he informed.
The President highly appreciated Monaem Sarker for his dedication and contribution to the research and publication works on sociopolitical areas of Bangladesh. Secretaries to the President's office were present.

   Journalists and Engineers extend support to Khaleda’s movement programme

UNB, Dhaka

Leaders of journalists and engineers tonight (Sunday) extended their support to the June 27 countrywide dawn to dusk hartal called by BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia and will join June 9 mass sit-in programme.
The journalist leaders congratulated BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia for calling the June 20 countrywide demonstration in favour of journalists demanding trial of killing of journalists and stopping repression on journalists as well as protesting closure of private TV Channel 1 and government control over news and TV talk shows.
BNP's June 17 countywide demonstration has been shifted to June 20.
Khaleda in return assured the journalists of extending her party's support in the future movement of journalists to protect freedom of press and meet their just demands and stopping repression on them.
The support and congratulations were given and expressed when a 12-member delegation led by BFUJ president Ruhul Amin Gazi met with Khaleda Zia at her Gulshan office at 8:45 pm as part of the BNP chief' s ongoing parleys with like-minded political parties, different professional groups and organizations.
After an hour long meeting Ruhul Amin told reporters that they are carrying out movement under professional banner for resolving their problems and demands.
Replying to a question he said they have moral support for the June 27 hartal and will join June 9 mass sit-in programme in the capital.
Mentioning June 20 countrywide demonstration of BNP, he said this is the first time a political party has thrown a programme in favour of journalists.
The other members of the delegation include the President of the National Press Club Sawkat Mahmud, BFUJ secretary general MA Aziz, National Press Club General Secretary Kamaluddin Sabuj, DUJ President Abdus Shahid, DUJ General Secretary Baker Hossain, Treasurer National Press Club Syed Abdal Hossain, Bogra Press Club president Mirza Selim Reza, Jessore Press Club President Shahidul Islam Mantu and Khulna metropolitan Press Club President Hasan Ahmed Molla.
After the journalists, a big delegation of engineers under the banner of Association of Engineers Bangladesh (AUB) led by Harun-ur-Rashid met Khaleda Zia at 10 pm.
After the meeting Eng Golam Mostofa MP, adviser of AEB , told reporters that they have extended all out support to June 27 hartal and will participate in the June 9 mass sit-in programme.
A group of agriculturists was in meeting with Khaleda Zia after her meeting with engineers.

    Mohiuddin’s activities to be monitored centrally, if elected
UNB, Chittagong

Awami League will monitor the activities of ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury if he returns as Mayor of Chittgaong in the June 17 polls, assured the party central leaders on Sunday.
The assurance came at an opinion exchange meeting in the city when leaders of minority communities blamed Mohiuddin for doing injustice to them in various ways during his reign. Revolutionist Binod Bihari Chowdhury presided over the meeting held at city's JM Sen Hall in the afternoon.
"Reputation of Mohiuddin what he earned by winning mayoral election for the last three consecutive polls, has gone down so sharply. We couldn't realize it staying in Dhaka," AL joint general secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif said.
AL presidium member Ataur Rahman Khan Kaisar said he would quit party if Mahbubul Alam's assurance does not work.
Other AL central leaders who spoke at the meeting include Amed Hossain, Pankaj Dev Nath, Ranadas Gupta of Hindu-Bouddha-Christian Oikya Parishad.

   Monzu announces election manifesto
BSS, Chittagong

BNP-Jamaat and Chittagong Development Movement (CDM)-backed mayoral candidate Alhaj Monzur Alam Monzu on Sunday announced his election manifesto pledging better development for Chittagong city.
Outlining the manifesto, he said Chittagong would be turned into an international standard city through short, mid and long- term plans and ensuring civic amenities to the city people.
Terming the 56-point manifesto as a charter for raising living standards of the city dwellers, Monzur also pledged proper development of the port city in coordinated efforts and ensuring civic amenities, including education, health, utility services and infrastructure development.
"We want change for proper development and in greater interest of the city dwellers to end the deadlock of development for the last two decades," Monzu told journalists. CDM president Prof Dr Abul Kashem Chowdhury read out the manifesto at the Chittagong Press Club this afternoon.
CDM joint convenor Prof Abul Kalam Azad, Vice Chancellor of International Islamic University Chittagong Dr Mahbub Ullah, Prof Monir Ahmed and Prof SM Nosrul Kadir, among other professional leaders, addressed the function.

    6.5 pc growth ‘achievable’: CPD
UNB, Dhaka

The Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD), a civil society think tank, on Sunday suggested that the country can achieve a targeted GDP growth of 6.5 percent or above in the next fiscal if there is significant improvement in economic governance, policy implementation and delivery capacity.
"The economic performance for the 2010-11 fiscal will depend on macroeconomic management. We will have to improve policy implementation and delivery capacity to attain GDP growth of 6.5 percent," said CPD executive director Prof Mustafizur Rahman while revealing the State of the Bangladesh Economy in FY 2009-10 report at the CPD.
Prof Mustafiz also pointed out increasing revenue collection including income tax, strengthening the National Board of Revenue (NBR), increasing investment including Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), maintaining transparency in the bidding process of the power plants, prudent fiscal management, and maintaining coherence between the 6th five-year plan and the perspective plan as the major challenges facing the government in implementing the next fiscal's budget.
About the major macroeconomic challenges in implementing a huge budget size of Tk 1,32,000 crore for the 2010-11 fiscal, the CPD underscored the need for following issues like a large ADP size of Tk 38,500 crore to meet the growing investment demand and relaunching the PPP initiative of around Tk 3,000 crore.
They also pointed out continuing the already announced fiscal stimulus in support of the export sector, subsidies for newly negotiated rental power plants, fiscal support to curb the inflationary pressures and wider safety net coverage.
Estimating the budget deficit to around Tk 39,000 crore, they showed that one-third of this will be financed by foreign aid.
The rest of the deficit financing could be made in a non-inflationary manner like use of non-banking borrowing, 3-month interest bearing savings certificates which are preferred by small savers and pensioners and the review of interest rates on National Savings Directorate certificates may need to be deferred for the time being.
He cited that there would be big pressure on domestic resource collection to attaining the targeted GDP growth. "The NBR achieved 77 percent of their revenue collection target till April. But, the non-NBR and non-tax revenue collection is not up to the mark."
He showed that the inability to achieve the target by non-NBR revenue sources could result in a shortfall of about Tk 2,400 crore, equivalent to 3.0 percent of the total revenue target for FY 2010-11.
On the provision for undisclosed money, he said that there is hardly any reason to continue it, as it added only Tk 5.2 crore to the revenue compared to Tk 9,820 crore from income tax.

    ULFA major held in M’singh
UNB, Sherpur

A Major of United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) of India was arrested on Sunday from a nursing home in Mymensingh where he was undergoing treatment.
High level police sources said Ranjan Chowdhury alias Masud Ranjan Chowdhury was taken into custody at noon from Rupa Nursing Home. Sabitri Sangma, wife of Ranjan, confirmed the arrest of her husband. She told UNB by phone from Latakura, a border village in Jhenigati upazila, that Ranjan was arrested by white clothed police or RAB personnel from the Nursing Home. Informed sources said Ranjan had married Sabitri, a woman of Garo tribe of Latakura and used to enter frequently into Bangladesh through the porous border from Meghalaya. He assumed the name of Masud and claimed to be a Muslim while staying in his in-laws home.
Police sources said Ranjan is likely to be handed over to India. Since the Awami League came to power, the government cracked down on the ULFA outfit who were hiding in Bangladesh. Five ULFA leaders including its chairman Arabindu Rajkhowa were arrested and handed over to Indian BSF early this year.

    Ensuring food security is govt’s prime target : Matia
BSS, Dhaka

Agriculture Minister Begum Matia Chowdhury on Sunday said the present government's prime target is to ensure people's right to food.
"We ensured food security during our previous tenure in the office from 1996 to 2001 and even none died for want of food during the deluge of 1998," she said inaugurating a walkathon on Bangabandhu Inter-national Convention Center (BICC) premises here this morning.
World Food Programme (WFP) organised the walk to raise awareness and money to feed hungry school children in some poorest areas in the country. The walk is being held in 70 countries across the world organised by WFP today with the slogan 'End Hunger, Walk the World'.
In Bangladesh, WFP, in collaboration with the government, through its school feeding programme, is providing a 75 gram packet biscuits fortified with vitamin and minerals to poor children in targeted food insecure areas.
The snack provides 338 calories and 67 percent of the daily recommended nutrients intake of common vitamins and minerals for a child, said Michael Tunford, deputy country director of WFP. Footballer Kaiser Hamid, Singer Sabina Chowdhury and actress Shomi Kaiser, among others, spoke on the occasion.
Begum Matia Chowdhury said a democratic government is obliged to ensure two square meals for the people daily and the present administration is working with that end in view.
"We have already brou-ght down the price of food grains and other items after assuming office in 2009 and production has increased manifold due to government's farmers friendly policy," she said.
"We have also made agriculture imputes including fertilizer and seeds easily available for the farmers with lesser prices, which have started giving results," she added.
Giving thanks to the organiser and its associated partners of the walk on behalf of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the agriculture minister also urged the leading business houses to come forward towards such noble initiatives.
A large number of children, government officials, artists and the elite joined the walk that started from BICC and ended at IDB Bhaban in city's Agargaon area.

Editorial

City of nightmare

Capital Dhaka appears to have tuned into a city of nightmare for its 15 million dwellers due to various deadly incidents and alarming developments. The city dwellers have been co-existing here since long with flies, mosquitoes, garbage, extortionists, muggers, robbers and murderers. They are facing exorbitant price hike of essentials, unusual low pressure of gas and chronic crises of electricity and water. All these have virtually made their lives hells. And now they have been plunged in grave panic over fire incidents and insecurity of buildings after some of those collapsed and tilted.
Panic and fear ran high as two buildings at Nakhalpara and Gandaria tilted and a 20-storey high rise building at Shantinagar developed cracks on Saturday. A five-storey building at Nakhalpara Samity Bazar and a four-storey building at Gandaria KB Road tilted and developed cracks on the same day. Residents of the high rise concord building at Shantinagar had left the building in panic. However, it was stated later that the cracks in the building posed no threat.
Earlier, on Friday, a seven-storey building at Begunbari tilted, and before that a five-storey building in the same area collapsed on Tuesday night killing 25 people. Police on Saturday arrested Md Siraj Mian, owner of the seven-storey tilted building at Begunbari. Besides, these collapse and tilting of some city buildings, a devastating fire incident took place on Thursday night at Nimtali in the old Dhaka killing at least 117 people and injuring many others. This is perhaps the worst fire incident in country's recent history. The fire broke out in a chemical factory at 42 Nabab Katra, Nimtali, following explosion of two electric transformers. The fire soon spread to several adjacent houses and about 20 shops in the congested residential area linked by narrow road and hence there were so many casualties before the rescuers and fire fighters could do anything for them.
A five-storey building constructed at Begunbari in the capital without RAJUK approval collapsed on Tuesday midnight .The death toll from the building collapse rose to 25 on Thursday. RAJUK on Wednesday filed a case against the owner of the building at Begunbari, which collapsed for erecting it in violation of the Building Construction Rules 2008.It also formed a 3-member enquiry committee to find out how the building was built without any approval from the authorities. RAJUK authorities have announced that the buildings constructed in the city without proper approval would be demolished. It is only after so many lives were lost that the sleep of the RAJUK authorities have broken. The question obviously arises as to where was RAJUK when these buildings were constructed and why did it keep its eyes shut then. RAJUK has moved to take the owners of the faulty buildings into task, but that is not enough. RAJUK has also to be taken into task for its negligence and failure in duty as well as the rampant corruption in it.
Experts and right activists have rightly held RAJUK responsible for lack of monitoring of the buildings under construction, which has led to numerous accidents. RAJUK said that about 15,000 buildings have been constructed in the city without its approval while some 90 per cent of buildings have been built by people who have deviated from the plans and designs approved by RAJUK'. Time has now come for taking action against the offenders. It is alleged that a section of corrupt officials in the RAJUK help the owners of the buildings constructed in violation of rules. Action should be taken against such officials also along with the owners of unauthorized buildings. Moreover, the building code should be strictly enforced to stop construction of illegal buildings. Above all, steps have to be taken to to improve the disaster management system in the country to avert colossal losses of lives and destruction of properties.

  Another tragic death

Yet another tragic death took place in the city in a road accident on Saturday. Kamrun Nahar Joti a college student met the tragic end of her life as she fell victim to the reckless driving of a city service bus. Joti's death came as the rickshaw carrying her was hit by a speedy bus driven by an unscrupulous driver at Malibagh. She was seriously injured and taken to DMCH where the doctor declared her dead. Joti was an honours second year student at the Siddheswari University College and a resident of Motijheel T&T Colony. She was going for taking private coaching when her journey of life came to an end for ever. Police has seized the bus but the criminal driver managed to escape.
It may be recalled here that BUET's Mechanical Engineering Deptt student Khandaker Khanjahan Samrat was run over by a bus, moving on reverse gear in front of the Eden Girls' College on May 27. Thousand of students staged a demonstration in protest against his 'killing' and torched four buses and damaged nearly 30 vehicles causing suspension of traffic movement in the area for hours. But the ill-fated student, like other accident victims, was never to return.
Now Joti was killed in the city on Saturday. Some more students have also been killed in road accidents in the city in the recent past. But any punishment is yet to be awarded to the drivers responsible for the deaths. So is the history of many such deaths in the past and that is the reason behind the frequent recurrences of such deaths in accidents . Now, it is time to set up example by awarding punishment to the killer drivers.

Analysis

Drones fuel the fire

Using Pakistani tribal areas as a testing ground, the US industrial-military complex has elevated robotic warfare to the highest levels of cynicism.

Mir Adnan Aziz

In The Strategies of War, Robert Greene writes: Rommel once made a distinction between a gamble and a risk. Both cases involve an action with only a chance of success, a chance that is heightened by acting with boldness. The difference is that with a risk if you lose, you can recover. With a gamble, on the other hand, defeat can lead to a slew of problems that are likely to spiral out of control. You realise that the stakes are too high; you cannot afford to lose. So you try harder to rescue the situation, often sinking deeper into the hole that you cannot get out of. Taking risks is essential; gambling is foolhardy.
The United States' occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, initially deemed not even a risk has become a gamble that is spiralling out of control. Drones are the latest card seen as an ace, that the deck is well stacked against them figures nowhere on their video monitors. The Brookings Institution, one of the most powerful and influential think tanks in the United States, published an analysis by Daniel Byman on the US drone policy in Pakistan. It stated that more than six hundred civilians (till June 2009) have been killed by US attacks. It also went on to say that for every militant killed more than ten civilians also died. This assessment is highly significant - ninety per cent of those killed in US drone attacks in Pakistan have been innocent civilians. The percentage may significantly increase given the higher number of civilian casualties quoted by local sources.
Using Pakistani tribal areas as a testing ground, the US industrial-military complex has elevated robotic warfare to the highest levels of cynicism. Operated through video screens from Creech and Hancock air force bases in the US, drones indiscriminately slaughter the civilian population. Obama's presidency brought a significant (more than a hundred per cent) rise in these attacks, the first four months this year alone seeing thirty four of them. Joe Biden announced at the onset that he favoured fewer troops on ground as opposed to a significant increase in the use of assassination drones.
Last October, UN's special rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions Philip Alston warned: "My concern is that these drones, these predators, are being operated in a framework which may well violate international humanitarian law and international human rights law. The onus is really on the government of the United States to reveal more about the ways in which it makes sure that arbitrary executions and extrajudicial executions are not in fact being carried out through the use of these weapons." The US responded by greatly intensifying the attacks.
On January 13, 2006, one of the earliest drone attacks saw ten missiles fired on Damadola. The purported target was Ayman al Zawahiri at a dinner on Eid al-Azha. US officials declared that up to four Al Qaeda members were killed. ABC News gloated over the killings and described the gathering as a "terror summit." When their euphoria subsided, it was learnt that twenty two people, including five children and five women, had been killed. Fourteen of the dead were from the same family gathered for an Eid dinner. US officials later admitted that no Al Qaeda leader was amongst the dead and those who perished were local villagers.
On September 8, 2008 drones fired five missiles on the madressah of Jalaluddin Haqqani. At least twenty three people, including eight children and Haqqani's wife, sister, perished. Haqqani himself was not present in the madressah at that time. On Tuesday, June 23, 2009, hundreds of Pakistanis attended a funeral in the Makeen district of South Waziristan for a suspected Taliban leader. Two US drones fired at least three missiles directly into the funeral gathering. The death toll was put at eighty including ten children between the ages of five to ten. Subsequent reports were unanimous that no militant leader was harmed in the attack.
The drone attacks violate international laws and conventions and as a strategy, are extremely counter-productive. They lack both in terms of technical efficiency and the human intelligence they depend upon. Western media sources such as Time magazine, the Guardian and even people within the CIA admit this fact. The Wall Street Journal has reported: "Militants in Iraq have used $26 off the shelf software to intercept live video feeds from US Predator drones, potentially providing them with information they need to evade or monitor US military operations". Hired local people, out for a quick dollar, drop microchips randomly and at compounds and abodes housing their tribal rivals. The drones then lock onto these chips to fire their missiles. The thermal cameras on which drone operators rely to verify their targets are notoriously imperfect. Even under ideal conditions, images can be blurry. In a chilling revelation, Time wrote that "in one of several stills from drone video seen by Time, it is hard to tell if a group of men are kneeling in prayer or they are militants in battle formation".
To tell the United States that the drone strikes violate the UN Charter, the Geneva Convention and the principles of the Nuremburg Tribunal and a plethora of international laws would be a futile exercise. We have seen the US flout these laws and conventions with utter disdain. That these strikes add fuel to fire and are detrimental to its own security would be a narrative easier for it to understand and hopefully digest.


The writer is a freelance contributor. Email: miradnanaziz@gmail .com

  It’s time to end UK's Afghan folly

Rather than send British troops to Kandahar, the Cabinet should admit the obvious and start to plan how best to leave.

Simon Jenkins

Senior UK ministers met on Wednesday for an urgent review of policy on Afghanistan. This is good news. US President Barack Obama staged a similar review on taking office and came within an inch of withdrawing. Perhaps British Prime Minister David Cameron could go that extra inch.
It is idle to pretend that Britain's 2006 expedition to bring Helmand under the control of the Kabul regime has anything but failed. General Sir David Richards was sent south four years ago by the then defence secretary, John Reid, with all the gung-ho recklessness of Gladstone's dispatch of Gordon to Khartoum. There was much nonsense about inkspots, hearts and minds, and "without a shot being fired". The British were openly contemptuous of American aerial bombardment and heavy-handedness.
Now, with 289 soldiers dead and hundreds maimed for life, the mission has had to be rescued by those same Americans. This repeats a similar six-year debacle in Iraq. The British army should undertake a complete reassessment of its counter-insurgency capacity. The Taliban remains in substantive control of all but a few population centres and the British force, already increased from 3,000 to 8,500, has had to be reinforced by 20,000 Americans under a US Marine general. No amount of spin from embedded journalists and others can claim that "we are winning in Helmand". This was meant to be another Malaya and it has been another Cyprus.
The British are reportedly being sent north to Afghanistan's second city, Kandahar - which, after nine years of occupation, is still under de facto Taliban control. Billed as the "next big military offensive", this prospect is awful, jeopardising thousands of civilians' lives. The city is under the leadership of Ahmad Wali Karzai, brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. When all agree that "there is no military solution to this conflict", what is the point of thousands of British troops marching on Kandahar?
The coalition ministers who travelled to this strategic morass a few weeks ago were in disarray. New Defence Secretary Liam Fox asserted that his troops were not in Afghanistan "to bring an education policy to a broken 13th-century country". They were there to ensure, somehow, "that the people of Britain are not threatened".
We have been told, over and again, that such much-heralded "final pushes", as against Sangin and Marjah, are the beginning of the end for the Taliban. Each is followed by a press barrage suggesting victory. Nevertheless, 77 per cent of Britons now reject the Afghan war.
Britain's government must clearly set out the continued purpose of the war and a strategy for achieving victory, if any. Fox's recent scepticism was refreshing. There is no question of "nation-building" in present-day Afghanistan, whatever it may suit the aid agencies to imagine.
Yet Fox's belief like Gordon Brown's that British soldiers are fighting "to keep the streets of Britain safe" is equally absurd. There has never been a shred of evidence that the Taliban wants to conquer Britain, any more than did Saddam Hussain. Such fanatics as do pose a terrorist threat are from Al Qaida, and they can operate from anywhere in the world. Nato's bombing of Pashtun villages and assassinating Taliban leaders has been no more or less effective in curbing terrorism than has placing British riflemen as target practice for Taliban fighters in the fields of Helmand.
So the question is how best to go. Intelligence agencies are already forecasting the endgame. The probable next move is of a gradual withdrawal to Kabul, propping up local governors with money and arms and negotiating with local Taliban sympathisers. Eventually the capital will be left as an isolated Nato protectorate, moderately secure but politically illegitimate. The Taliban will lob shells into western bases until Nato gets fed up and makes a Saigon-style exit.
Most Nato allies have already accepted this scenario, with only Britain and America clinging to the "we are winning" deception. The idea of creating an incorrupt and liberal democracy in the shadows of the Hindu Kush is already absurd. The talk is now of "talking to the Taliban".
But with the Taliban and their allies effectively in control of two-thirds of the country, Nato is not in a strong bargaining position. The Taliban has made a precondition of negotiating with Karzai that "foreign forces" must first withdraw. This is blackmail, stipulating that the Taliban must win militarily before it will negotiate politically. But what is the alternative?
If Cameron cannot bring himself to admit the obvious, he should put himself in the vanguard of Nato's withdrawal lobby. There is no reason for more British soldiers to die on his watch. The least he can do is accelerate progress towards the inevitable end.

  A paradigm shift

Kolkata had been the only major Indian city run by Communists and the elections, seen as a "semi-final" for state assembly polls in West Bengal next year, have heralded a political "paradigm shift"

Jason Burke 

India's once powerful Communist party has suffered a massive blow with the confirmation on Thursday of the loss of Kolkata in municipal elections on Sunday.
Final results showed the Communist party of India (Marxist) had lost almost half of the 60 wards it had held in the city, long a bastion for the left.
Kolkata's municipal council will now be run by Mamata Banerjee's All India Trinamool Congress party (TMC).
The party, which despite its name is locally based, describes itself as "centre-right" and has been able to attract tens of millions of voters disillusioned after decades of Communist rule.
Kolkata had been the only major Indian city run by Communists and the elections, seen as a "semi-final" for state assembly polls in West Bengal next year, have heralded a political "paradigm shift", according to experts.
"I don't think the left in India can recover from this.
They have lost three straight elections in West Bengal in a row - council, parliamentary and municipal - and seem sure to lose the state next year. The left in India appears in terminal decline," said Prof Subrata Mukherjee of Delhi University.
Indian newspapers ran banner headlines proclaiming "Storm Mamata hits Bengal" and "Trinamool onslaught storms the Red Fort".
Banerjee has demanded that the 2011 state elections be held early.
Nationally the Communists still hold Kerala, the major southern state known for relatively high levels of development and literacy, and Tripura, a tiny state in the north-east.

Viewpoints

Israel sailing on a stormy sea

Thus, the only way for Israel to edge out Hamas would be to quickly reach an agreement with the Palestinians on the establishment of an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as defined by the 1967 borders, with its capital in East Jerusalem.

Amos Oz  

For 2,000 years, the Jews knew the force of force only in the form of lashes to our own backs. For several decades now, we have been able to wield force ourselves - and this power has, again and again, intoxicated us.
In the period before Israel was founded, a large portion of the Jewish population in Palestine, especially members of the extremely nationalist Irgun group, thought that military force could be used to achieve any goal, to drive the British out of the country, and to repel the Arabs who opposed the creation of our state.
Luckily, during Israel's early years, prime ministers like David Ben-Gurion and Levi Eshkol knew very well that force has its limits and were careful to use it only as a last resort. But ever since the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel has been fixated on military force. To a man with a big hammer, says the proverb, every problem looks like a nail.
Israel's siege of the Gaza Strip and Monday's violent interception of civilian vessels carrying humanitarian aid there are the rank products of this mantra that what can't be done by force can be done with even greater force. This view originates in the mistaken assumption that Hamas's control of Gaza can be ended by force of arms or, in more general terms, that the Palestinian problem can be crushed instead of solved.
But Hamas is not just a terrorist organisation. Hamas is an idea, a desperate and fanatical idea that grew out of the desolation and frustration of many Palestinians. No idea has ever been defeated by force - not by siege, not by bombardment, not by being flattened with tank treads and not by marine commandos. To defeat an idea, you have to offer a better idea, a more attractive and acceptable one.
Thus, the only way for Israel to edge out Hamas would be to quickly reach an agreement with the Palestinians on the establishment of an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as defined by the 1967 borders, with its capital in East Jerusalem. Israel has to sign a peace agreement with President Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah government in the West Bank - and by doing so, reduce the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to a conflict between Israel and the Gaza Strip. That latter conflict, in turn, can be resolved only by negotiating with Hamas or, more reasonably, by the integration of Fatah with Hamas.
Even if Israel seizes 100 more ships on their way to Gaza, even if Israel sends in troops to occupy the Gaza Strip 100 more times, no matter how often Israel deploys its military, police and covert power, force cannot solve the problem that we are not alone in this land, and the Palestinians are not alone in this land. We are not alone in Jerusalem and the Palestinians are not alone in Jerusalem. Until Israelis and Palestinians recognise the logical consequences of this simple fact, we will all live in a permanent state of siege - Gaza under an Israeli siege, Israel under an international and Arab siege.
I do not discount the importance of force. Woe to the country that discounts the efficacy of force.
Without it Israel would not be able to survive a single day. But we cannot allow ourselves to forget for even a moment that force is effective only as a preventative - to prevent the conquest of Israel, to protect our lives and freedom. Every attempt to use force not as a preventive measure, not in self-defense, but instead as a means of smashing problems and squashing ideas, will lead to more disasters, just like the one we brought on ourselves in international waters, opposite Gaza's shores.


Amos Oz is the author, most recently, of the novel "Rhyming Life and Death."

  No peace without justice

We need to see a new wave of countries ratifying the Rome Statute after the Kampala conference, so that a permanent International Criminal Court becomes a universal one.

Kofi A. Annan 

The establishment of the International Criminal Court followed the gravest of crimes committed in Rwanda and the former Republic of Yugoslavia. In both cases, as we know to our shame, the United Nations and international community failed to take decisive and forceful action to protect the victims.
These terrible events did however, shock the world into action. Ad-hoc tribunals were set up to bring those responsible to justice. The Rome conference in 1998 agreed to establish an International Criminal Court to help end the global culture of impunity.
As the states party to the Rome Statute - which set up the ICC - meet in Uganda this week to review progress, we can reflect that the balance has been tipped in favour of justice. More than two-thirds of UN member states have signed or ratified the Rome Statute and a permanent Criminal Court now exists. The result is that in the face of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, the default position of the international community is no longer impunity but accountability.
Where such serious crimes are credibly alleged, investigation will now follow unless those denying the need for international justice can demonstrate that their national judicial mechanisms are serious and credible. This is, by the way, something yet to be done convincingly by those involved in the intensified conflicts in Gaza and Sri Lanka last year. Getting this far has not been without major challenges.
Powerful governments remain resolutely opposed to the ICC. Three permanent members of the Security Council - the United States, China and Russia - refuse to ratify the Rome Statute, as do others who aspire to permanent membership.
So while celebrating progress so far, we can't be complacent. The opposition of those hostile to the ICC, combined with the inertia or distraction of those who support it, could mean the balance could easily tip away from justice. And new challenges loom, including a debate within Africa, and beyond, about whether the pursuit of justice might obstruct the search for peace. The critics ask why leaders would want to make peace if the result for them is an appearance before the ICC and the ?prospect of prison.
But in countries as far apart as Rwanda, Bosnia and Timor-Leste, we have learnt that justice is not an impediment to peace but a partner. When we abandon justice to secure peace, we most likely get neither. Indeed, impunity can, and has, contributed to renewed conflict as we saw in ?Sierra Leone.
The parallel pursuit of justice and peace does present challenges, but it can be managed. We must be ambitious enough to pursue both, and wise enough to recognise, respect and protect the independence of justice.
This debate has been intensified by the African Union's call last year, following the prompting of a few leaders, for member states not to cooperate with the ICC in enforcing the indictment issued against President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan.
But we must not allow the views of a powerful few to threaten the aspirations of many. When I meet Africans from all walks of life, they demand justice: from their own courts if possible, from international courts if no credible alternative exists. Indeed, African countries and their civil society played a major role in setting up the ICC Sub-Saharan Africa is the largest single regional block in its membership.
In four of the five cases from Africa before the ICC, African leaders themselves referred them or are actively co-operating with the investigations. They have asked for international help to bolster their country's judicial capacity.
In all of these cases, it is the culture of impunity, not African countries, which are the target. This is exactly the role of the ICC. It is a court of last resort.
But it is not just African countries, which face challenges if we are to continue the momentum towards justice.
Questions of credibility will continue as long as some of the world's most powerful countries stand outside the jurisdiction of the ICC. What sort of leadership is it that absolves the powerful from the rules they apply to the weak? We must demand that those who seek global leadership accept the duty of promoting global values.
We need to see a new wave of countries ratifying the Rome Statute after the Kampala conference, so that a permanent International Criminal Court becomes a universal one.
Further progress also depends on states genuinely exercising their primary responsibility, under the Rome Statute, to investigate, prosecute and punish those responsible for ?grave crimes.
There must be no going back or lessening of momentum. Our challenge is to protect the innocent by building a court so strong, universal and effective that it will deter even the most determined of despots.
Opening the Rome Conference as UN Secretary-General, I told delegates that "the eyes of the victims of past crimes, and of the potential victims of future ones, are fixed firmly upon us."
That remains the case. We must not let them down.


Kofi A. Annan is former UN secretary-general (1997-2006) and the convener of the Rome Conference.

  The depth of inhumanity

Terrorism and insecurity are not just expressed in killing innocent human beings but also in endangering the lives of those alive and struggling for a decent living environment.

Andleeb Abbas

This desire to bring all those who do not believe in the Taliban brand of Islam to task is equivalent to assuming the role of God. Thus this attitude is a serious disbelief in the ultimate power of God
It is a clash of the uncivilised. Whether it is the Taliban or Israel, Attabad lake or the Gulf of Mexico, the fact remains that what the world has witnessed in recent weeks has marked a new low in the frightening ability of human beings to become worse than the lowest of beings. On the one hand the more the knowledge, the more the research, the more the resources, the more the arrogance and the more the indifference to the human issues of life. On the other hand the less the knowledge and resources, the less the humanity. So where has all humanity gone?
American support for Israeli atrocities is an old and globally contentious issue. Obama, who is one US president whose entry into the White House brought celebrations all over, including the Muslim world, has just toed the line of his predecessors and has compromised once again on the principles of justice by failing on his promise to close down Guantanamo Bay and recently by failing to take a stand against Israel over its barbaric attack on the Freedom Flotilla, the aid-carrying ships for the Gaza victims. While the whole world has gone aghast at this act of open terrorism, the Americans stayed mum and waited for a justification from Israel.
If the rich and resourceful are busy bullying those who are not toeing their line, the poor are taking out their frustrations in a murderous fanaticism on all whom they feel are against their ideology and cause. The terrible killing of almost 100 Ahmedis by the Taliban in places of worship is an act that can only be described as an appalling breach of all human values. The Taliban, whether of Pakistani or Afghan origin, may not have the same resources as the Israelis or Americans but have the same arrogance and indifference to humanity as them. The sad part of this whole story is that Islam's teachings are totally contrary to this behaviour. Islam is a religion based on the principles of humility, self-control, tolerance and coexistence. The attitude of the self-righteous and this belief that their brand of religion is superior to all else is what is prohibited in Islam. This desire to bring all those who do not believe in the Taliban brand of Islam to task is equivalent to assuming the role of God. Thus this attitude is a serious disbelief in the ultimate power of God to provide justice and a denial of the Day of Judgement to settle the issue.
How has this fanaticism been let loose to an extent where it has reached a free to kill state, where, whenever the Taliban feel like it, they storm, blast and disappear in front of CCTV cameras, making a mockery of the security forces of the state? Again it is the indifference of the government towards the safety and security of the public that is responsible for these repeated lapses in security. As the government is desperate to save its own skin and position, such lapses are just brushed away by expressing deep concern and renewing its never-ending promise of not giving up the war against terrorism. The evidence of official apathy was visible when the one terrorist whom they had captured was taken to a famous hospital with hardly any special security arrangements. The terrorists came rampaging and killed more people in the hospital in an attempt to rescue their team member. Who is accountable for this chronic lapse of security, nobody knows.
Terrorism and insecurity are not just expressed in killing innocent human beings but also in endangering the lives of those alive and struggling for a decent living environment. The Attabad disaster in Hunza is a glaring example of how people in this country actually live on prayers and luck. The government calls the landslide caused by the melting glaciers a natural disaster that is unpreventable. Not so. Concepts of global warming and other environmental concerns are treated with complete disdain by each successive government. Most of our water bodies are melting prematurely, which will not only cause landslides, floods and havoc for the poor inhabitants living in these areas but will seriously exacerbate the availability of water in the country. This water scarcity is already predicted to have a disastrous effect on energy availability, health and so many other factors. While the government is busy giving lame statements on tackling this disaster and the opposition is busy blaming the government, the people of Attabad are stranded on some forlorn pieces of land with no certainty of basic facilities and no idea of when they will be able to go back to a life of some normality.
It is not only the apathy of the underdeveloped countries towards environmental concerns that surprises one but also the amazing lack of care of the developed countries that truly shocks. British Petroleum's (BP's) oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is a disaster of unprecedented proportions. Obama, trying to live up to his reputation as a more humanitarian leader, reacted by pressurising BP to take immediate action to plug the spill. However, BP has admitted that all efforts have failed and the oil will keep on spilling for a period unknown. The US reaction to this pending human disaster is a token statement that President Obama is "heartbroken".
That is precisely what is lacking in the world today - a heart that feels for others, a heart that beats for others, a heart that empathises for the pain and suffering of the people, a heart that is courageous enough to hear the truth and say the truth and a heart that is strong enough not to compromise on deviations from basic human values. As human beings and citizens of this world and country, it is our responsibility to do whatever we can, not to let the heartless rule and get away with a stampede on the very core of humanity.


The writer is a consultant and CEO of FranklinCovey and can be reached at andleeb@franklincoveysouthasia.com

International

Iran to approve Pakistan gas pipeline deal this week
Reuters, Tehran

Iran hopes to finalise a deal this week for a much-delayed pipeline to export natural gas to Pakistan by 2015, an energy official said on Sunday.
"The $7-billion Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline contract will be finalised this week, and based on the approved time framework the export of gas to Pakistan will be launched by the end of 2015," said Hojjatollah Qanimifard, deputy director in charge of investment at the National Iranian Oil Company.
"In a meeting in Tehran on Tuesday (June 8), the final approval on pipeline by the NIOC board of directors will be delivered to Pakistani officials and their letter of guarantee will be received," he said in the comments on semi-official news agency ILNA.
The project is crucial for Pakistan to avert a growing energy crisis already causing severe electricity shortages in the country of about 170 million, at the same time as it confronts Islamist militancy. The pipeline will connect Iran's giant South Fars gas field with Pakistan's southern Baluchistan and Sindh provinces. Iran has the world's second-largest gas reserves after Russia. But sanctions by the West, political turmoil and construction delays have slowed its development as an exporter.
Dubbed the "peace pipeline," the project has been planned since the 1990s and originally would have extended from Pakistan to its old rival, India. However, India has been reluctant to join the project given its long-running distrust of Pakistan, with which it has fought three wars since they achieved independence in 1947.
Under a deal signed in March, Pakistan will be allowed to charge a transit fee if the proposed pipeline is eventually extended to India. The United States has tried to discourage India and Pakistan from any deal with Iran because of Tehrans' uranium enrichment activities and suspicions it wants to build nuclear weapons. Iran, whose economy has been hit by U.N. sanctions over the dispute, denies any such ambitions. Iranian media reported on Sunday that the oil minister had ordered an end to talks with Anglo-Dutch Shell <RDSa.L> and Spain's Repsol <REP.MC> over the development of South Pars after the majors failed to meet ultimatums on their involvement.
Iran has the world's second largest gas reserves but has struggled for years to develop its oil and gas reserves. Iran says it already makes $18 billion annually from production at 10 phases of South Pars but that income could leap to at least $96 billion a year when all phases are completed. China's National Petroleum Corporation is developing part of it.
The Islamic republic says it needs around $25 billion a year in oil and gas industry investment. Hossein Noghrekar Shirazi, deputy oil minister in charge of international affairs, told Abrar daily on Sunday Iran's gas production capacity of 600 million cubic metres per day could rise to 1.1 billion cubic metres by 2015.

   Thai PM says too soon to end emergency rule
AFP, Bangkok

Thailand's premier said Sunday that it was too early to lift a two-month-old state of emergency in place across about one third of the country, including Bangkok, because of fears of fresh unrest.
"We have to accept that even though the situation seems to be more back to normal now, the problems of terrorism and security still exist," Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said in his weekly television address.
"We are reviewing the appropriate time to lift the state of emergency."
Abhisit invoked emergency rule in the protest-hit capital on April 7, banning public gatherings of more than five people and giving broad powers to the police and military.
While the mass rally by the anti-government "Red Shirts" in Bangkok ended following a deadly army crackdown on the protesters' encampment on May 19, the strict emergency laws remain in place. The Red Shirt protests which began in mid-March sparked outbreaks of violence that left a total 89 people dead, mostly civilians, and nearly 1,900 injured. Enraged protesters went on a rampage of arson after the military assault on their rally base. The unrest also spread outside the capital, particularly in the Reds' stronghold in the impoverished northeast.
The demonstrators were campaigning for elections they hoped would oust the government, which they view as undemocratic because it came to power with the backing of the army after a court ruling threw out the previous administration.
Human rights campaigners have voiced concerns that the government's use of the sweeping emergency powers lacks transparency and violates freedom of expression.
Authorities have jailed more than 300 suspects under the emergency decree, according to the justice ministry.

  Karzai orders review of cases of prisoners for links with Taliban

AFP, Kabul

Afghanistan's president Sunday ordered a review of the cases of hundreds of prisoners linked to the Taliban and other militants in a first step to fulfilling the demands of a landmark peace conference.
"(Hamid) Karzai has ordered a review of the cases of persons in detention for links with the armed opposition", his office said, indicating that a committee would be set up to oversee the investigation.
The three-day "jirga" in Kabul wrapped up on Friday with a 16-point resolution which included a call for the release of prisoners allegedly detained without any evidence proving their links to insurgents.
"As a gesture of a goodwill, the government of Afghanistan should take immediate and solid action in freeing from various prisons those detained on the basis of inaccurate information or unsubstantiated allegations," the resolution said.
A committee led by the justice minister will look into the cases of people detained for links with militants without "sufficient legally binding criminal evidence", Karzai's office said. Representives from the Supreme Court, the independent Peace and Reconciliation Commission, the Attorney General's Office and the head of the Presidential Legal Advisory Board will form the committee, the statement added.
About 1,600 delegates from across Afghanistan's political and social spectrum attended the jirga-which was attacked by the Taliban on its opening day-with Karzai pledging to implement its decisions.
The president's office did not specify if the review included prisoners detained in US-run prisons. There was no government official immediately available for comment.
The peace conference also demanded the removal from a UN terrorists blacklist of militant leaders including Mullah Omar, the Taliban chief, and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a former premier who now wages "jihad" against Karzai and his foreign military backers.

  NKorea threatens SKorea for taking it to UN
Seoul, South Korea

North Korea threatened Sunday to retaliate against South Korea for taking it to the U.N. Security Council over the deadly sinking of a warship, calling the action an "intolerable provocation."
South Korea officially asked the U.N. Security Council on Friday to punish North Korea, accusing its nuclear-armed communist neighbor of blowing apart one of its warships with a torpedo, killing 46 sailors. It was the first time Seoul has taken Pyongyang to the Security Council for an inter-Korean provocation, despite a history of being attacked by the North.
On Sunday, North Korea - which denies involvement in the sinking - issued a statement saying the South's action will intensify military tension and could trigger a war on the divided peninsula. "That is yet another intolerable provocation to us," the North'sCommittee for the Peaceful Reunification said. The statement - carried by the official Korean Central News Agency - was Pyongyang's first response to Seoul's request for U.N. action over the March 26 sinking.
The North Korean committee said its military will launch a "sternpunishment" against South Korea if it doesn't stop anti-North Korea steps. It didn't elaborate on what action it might take. The Security Council has several choices: a resolution with or without new sanctions against North Korea, a weaker presidential statement calling for specific actions, or a pressstatement. The Security Council earlier imposed sanctions against North Korea after its two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009. These include U.N. embargoes on nuclear and ballistic missile-related items and technology, on arms exports and imports except light weapons, and on luxury goods.
U.N. diplomats familiar with consultations on possible action against North Korea said that China, the North's closest ally, is opposed to new sanctions and indicated that the more likely result will be a presidential statement. The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because the contacts have been private.

  US allows India to grill Mumbai suspect
Internet

The United States has finally given India access to a US national accused of planning the Mumbai terror attacks two years ago, a senior White House official said on Saturday.
David Coleman Headley, 49, whose father was a Pakistani, has confessed to his role in the Mumbai attack.
The United States was earlier reluctant to allow Indian officials to interrogate him because Headley is a US citizen.
But US National Security Adviser James Jones told reporters on Saturday that the Obama administration had accepted an Indian request to allow their officials to interrogate Headley.
"Yes, access (to Headley) has been given. We have fulfilled our commitment,' said the US official, a day after Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna made a public plea for access to Headley.
Gen Jones, however, did not spell out how and when the four-member Indian National Investigation Agency team, which is already in Chicago to question Headley, was given access.
"This is an ongoing process and I don't have any detailed information that will be helpful except to say that it is in the hands of right professionals from both countries," Mr Jones said.
Arrested by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation last October, Headley confessed to his role in a plea bargain to avoid the death penalty.
Indian officials told reporters in Washington that the Indian team would focus on Headley's undercover trips to several places in India and whether he had put in place sleeper terror cells.
The team also hopes to interrogate him about his role in the bomb blast at the German Bakery in Pune and his alleged dealings with terror leaders in Pakistan.

  Tiananmen activist freed after arrest in Japan
AFP, Tokyo

A prominent student leader from China's 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests was released in Japan on Sunday two days after police arrested him for trying to enter the Chinese embassy.
Wu'er Kaixi was taking part in a small rally outside the embassy on Friday, the 21st anniversary of China's bloody suppression of the protesters in Beijing, and made a sudden dash for the front gate before being arrested. "He was released today," a Tokyo police spokesman said without giving further details. Wu'er Kaixi became a celebrity when he interrupted China's then-premier Li Peng-regarded as the mastermind of the Tiananmen crackdown-during a televised meeting between student leaders and politicians in May 1989. He told local media in Japan that he was now trying to go back to China.
"Under such severe conditions, I am making efforts to return," he said in an interview with public broadcaster NHK after this release. "I want to see my parents even if it means I would have to do so in jail."
However, NHK said he would remain in Japan while police continue their investigations. A member of the Uighur ethnic minority, Wu'er Kaixi, now 42, was number two on the government's "most-wanted" list of student protesters following the military crackdown, which left hundreds, possibly thousands, dead. He was seen as a hardline student leader and took part in a hunger strike in Tiananmen Square, resulting in his hospitalisation. After the protests he spent time in the United States and then went to live in Taiwan. On June 4 last year, he was deported to Taiwan after trying unsuccessfully to enter Macau to turn himself in to the Chinese government.

  Afghan bomb blast kills three: Officials
AFP, Kandahar

A roadside bomb targeting a police in southern Afghanistan on Sunday killed three people and wounded 11, officials said.
The remote-controlled explosion hit three vehicles, one belonging to police and two to civilians, on the road between Panjwayi district and Kandahar city, district governor Shah Bahram told AFP.
"Two civilians, including a woman, and one policeman were killed and 11 civilians were wounded in the blast," he said. Six of the injured were children.
Bahram blamed the attack on "enemies of Afghanistan", a term often used to refer to the Taliban, who have waged nine-year insurgency against Afghan and international forces.
In a similar blast on Saturday a remote-controlled bicycle bomb killed at least one policeman and wounded 15 civilians in Kandahar city.
NATO and US-led forces have announced a massive counter- insurgency operation in Kandahar, the spiritual home of the Taliban during their rule over the country prior to 2001.
The Taliban are trying to topple the Western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.
A three-day peace conference in Kabul attended by tribal elders and religious leaders ended Friday with a call to militants to lay down their arms.
The conference, called to advise Karzai on how to make peace with the Taliban, demanded the establishment of a "powerful commission" to lead talks with the militants.

  Rain lashes Karachi as tropical storm approaches
Internet

An approaching tropical storm triggered torrential rains in Karachi and its surrounding areas on Sunday, damaging mud houses and submerging roads.
Officials feared worse flooding was to come and tried to evacuate people from their homes along the country's southern coastline. Some villagers refused to move, but several thousand people shifted to higher ground, many from two offshore islands, said Hamal Kalmati, a government minister in Balochistan province. He said many mud houses in Gawadar and Pasni districts had already collapsed.
The storm, about 200 kilometres away from Karachi, was expected to make landfall later Sunday, bringing more rain and winds as high as 50 miles per hour. Originally of cyclone strength, Tropical Storm Phet hit Oman on Friday, killing at least two people.
In Karachi, hours of rain left roads under more than one foot of water. Electricity was cut in many districts in the mostly low-lying city of 18 million people. Many parts of Karachi and other towns along Pakistan's coast are desperately poor. Roads, bridges, houses and drainage systems are already in bad condition, making them vulnerable to high winds, heavy rain and rough seas.

  30 foreigners rounded up in Yemen anti-Qaeda sweep
AFP, Sanaa

Yemeni security forces have arrested more than 30 foreign nationals on suspicion of having links with Al-Qaeda, among them three Frenchmen, an American and a Briton, a security official said on Sunday.
"Some of them were arrested on suspicion of belonging to Al-Qaeda while others were arrested according to lists provided to Yemen security forces by US intelligence," the official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. "Most of those arrested came to Yemen to study Arabic in the same school where Nigerian Omar Farouk had studied," the official said.
He was referring to Omar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who allegedly tried to blow up a US airliner over Detroit on Christmas day and who had studied in the Sanaa Institute for the Arabic Language, in the Yemeni capital's old city.
"During the month of May, a number of foreigners were arrested, including one Frenchman, one American, one Briton, two Malaysians (and) five Nigerians," the official said.
"There are a number of foreigners who were arrested prior to May," including two French nationals arrested in April, he added.
The source provided details on one of the French nationals, Jeremy Johnny Witter, whom he said was arrested in May.

 Turkey hosts Eurasian summit amid Israel storm
Reuters, Ankara

Turkey, seething with anger after an Israeli raid on an aid ship bound for Gaza, hosts leaders from Russia, Iran, the Arab world and beyond this week for a Eurasian security summit that may further isolate Israel.
The guest list for the meeting in Istanbul of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA), reads like a "who's who" of leaders from world hot spots, with participants from the Middle East, South Asia and the Korean Peninsula.
Israel is one of 20 members of the forum, but has decided to send a diplomat from its consulate, an Israeli embassy official said on Sunday, rather than expose a more senior figure to the fury generated by the killing of nine Turkish pro-Palestinian activists in the Israeli commando operation last Monday.
Turkey is expected to try to raise pressure on Israel to end the four-year old blockade of 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza during a conference on Monday which precedes Tuesday's full summit.
The diplomatic momentum will continue on Wednesday, as Arab League foreign ministers gather in Istanbul for the Turkish-Arab Cooperation Forum.
Turkey, NATO's only Muslim member, has sought to raise its international profile in recent years. Positioned next to countries along the Gulf and Caspian Sea, where most of the world's oil and gas is found, Turkey holds geostrategic value in a conflict-prone region.
It wants to join the European Union and become a major regional power, shedding the straitjacket of its Cold War era role as ally of the West.
Critics caution that Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's Islamist-leaning government risks tilting too far in trying to forge stronger ties with Middle East governments the West does not trust.
While CICA aspires to ideals of collective security to minimize threats of conflict within its region there are several hard core enemies of Israel among its diverse membership.
Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas are among eight presidents participating in the Eurasian summit. President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, though not a member, is attending as a guest.
Plenty of discussion is expected to focus on Israel and the blockade it says is necessary to prevent weapons from falling into the hands of Hamas militants in Gaza. But other topics, including Afghanistan, will also be debated.
"Afghanistan and Gaza are equally test cases for us," Turkish Foreign Ministry Deputy Undersecretary Unal Cevikoz told a news conference on Saturday.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai is to meet Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi before the summit in a trilateral spearheaded by Turkey to build confidence between two deeply suspicious neighbors who are both fighting Taliban militants.
Cevikoz said he did not expect the meeting to focus much on Iran's nuclear program, despite momentum for a new sanctions resolution against the Islamic Republic in the U.N. Security Council.
Turkey, with Brazil's help, brokered an accord with Iran last month for a nuclear fuel swap, in the hope of heading off sanctions against a fellow Muslim neighbor, major trading partner and key supplier of gas.
There will be an inevitable focus on any exchanges between Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Ahmadinejad, after the Iranian leader sharply criticized the Kremlin for supporting a draft sanctions resolution.
China will be represented at the Istanbul summit by State Councillor Dai Bingguo, a high-ranking foreign policy official, while India is sending a trade minister.
CICA was first established in the early 1990s by Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev, whose country hosted the only two previous summits, the last one four years ago.

   UN chief moving ahead with probe of Israeli raid
AP, Jerusalem

An Israeli official said that UN chief Ban Ki-moon is moving ahead with plans for an international commission to investigate Israel's raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla.
Ban wants former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer, a maritime law expert, to head the panel, which would include Israeli, Turkish and U.S. representatives, the Foreign Ministry official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because Ban has not announced details of his proposal.
The push for an international inquiry puts Israel under further pressure to explain how its attempt to stop the aid ship from breaching a blockade of Hamas-ruled Gaza turned deadly. It could also cast light on the motives and plans of some of the ship's passengers who Israel says were Islamic extremists intent on attacking its troops.
The outrage over the deaths has also prompted calls from many nations, including the United States, for at least a partial lifting of a blockade that Israel says is necessary to isolate the Islamic militants of Hamas and keep them from boosting their arsenals.
Eight Turks and a Turkish American were killed in the May 31 raid, and a preliminary autopsy report released by Turkey on Saturday said they were shot a total of 30 times. Israel said its forces acted in self-defense against people it described as Islamic extremists.
On Saturday, Israel took over another aid ship without incident. All 19 activists and crew are to be deported Sunday, Interior Ministry spokeswoman Sabine Haddad said.
Israel has resisted an external investigation into the first raid, saying it is capable of investigating itself. It also resists subjecting its soldiers to an international inquiry. International involvement in the inquiry, however, could ease the diplomatic strains with Turkey, once a close ally but now a vehement critic.
An inner Cabinet of senior ministers was to meet later Sunday to discuss Ban's proposal and other options for investigating the raid, the Foreign Ministry official said.
The grave diplomatic fallout from the raid has Israel reconsidering its Gaza blockade, imposed in 2007 after Hamas overran the territory. Israel argues that a blockade is necessary to keep weapons and other military components out of the hands of Gaza militants who have attacked Israel with bombs, rockets and mortars for years. It had also hoped the blockade would weaken Hamas by deepening the privation in already impoverished Gaza.
In practice, however, the blockade's efficacy has been badly weakened by a network of border tunnels between Gaza and Egypt that has served as a conduit for both weapons and commercial goods. And it has only deepened animosity among Gaza's 1.5 million residents toward Israel rather than provoke anger against Hamas.
The United States, Israel's closest ally, on Friday joined other nations in saying the blockade in its current form is not sustainable - adding further pressure on Israel to find another way to keep weapons out.

  Israel deports seven aid ship passengers to Jordan
AFP , Jerusalem

Israel deported to Jordan on Sunday seven of those who were on board the Rachel Corrie aid ship which tried to run the Israeli blockade of Gaza, an AFP correspondent at the border said.
A Cuban and six Malaysians -- member of parliament Mohd Nizar Zakaria, two TV3 television journalists and three staff of the Perdana Global Peace organisation -- crossed the Allenby Bridge into the kingdom and were received by Jordanian officials.
"We are very disappointed because the whole idea was to get to Gaza. We should emphasise that we came with a message of hope and peace," Mattias Chang of Perdana told AFP.
"They did not use force with us. There was no necessity to use force against us."
Chang said the organisation, chaired by former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, will try to go to Gaza again.
"We will not stop. We will try to have another mission to bring aid to Gaza and break the siege. Israelis, Palestinians, all must come together and stop the violence," he said.
Eleven others detained on board the aid ship by Israeli troops were due to fly out of Ben Gurion international airport near Tel Aviv.
Israeli forces intercepted and seized control of the Rachel Corrie on Saturday as it tried to reach the Gaza Strip, without use of force like that on Monday when nine people were killed as commandos stormed an aid flotilla.
Israel deported an Indonesian journalist on Sunday who had been among the passengers wounded in the interception of that flotilla.
Surya Fachrizal, 28, "was shot in the upper right chest," an Indonesian embassy official said, adding that the journalist was to be admitted to hospital in the Jordanian capital Amman before being flown home.
The Irish-owned 1,200-tonne Rachel Corrie was escorted into the southern Israeli port of Ashdod, and the activists and crew taken to Holon immigration centre near Tel Aviv for questioning before being deported.

  Gates, in Baku, seeks to shore up Afghan supply chain
Internet

Since 2001, tens of thousands of military aircraft and supply trucks have crisscrossed Azerbaijan by air and land, carrying U.S. and NATO forces and equipment to the war zone.The Pentagon wants to make sure there are not any problems that could slow President Barack Obama's 30,000-troop surge.
As part of the Obama administration's campaign to keep Azerbaijan on board, Gates sandwiched a less than 24 hour stop in Baku, the capital, in between talks in Asia and Europe about the crisis on the Korean peninsula and the war in Afghanistan.
He said the trip was spurred, in part, by "concerns in Azerbaijan that we weren't paying enough attention to them."
"It's important to touch base and let them know that in fact they do play an important role in this international coalition," Gates told reporters on his plane before landing.
To underline the message that the United States was paying more attention to Azerbaijan, Gates will hand deliver a letter to President Ilham Aliyev from Obama to make clear "we have a relationship going forward," a senior defense official said.Gates is the first cabinet-level official to visit Azerbaijan since Obama came to office last year, and he made clear more high-level exchanges were planned.
The United States wants to expand military-to-military relations, from training to exercises, officials said.As part of the outreach effort, the Pentagon sent a senior defense official to meet with the Azeris and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has spoken by phone to Aliyev.
Officials said Azerbaijan told the Pentagon it was concerned about not getting higher-level visits and about not seeing the fruits of what the United States calls their "strategic partnership.""The complaints were more about 'Why aren't you taking our concerns seriously? You need to show us that you're taking our concerns seriously'. So we got the message," the senior defense official said.
"You can't argue with perceptions. They are what they are. And so we've been trying to redress that."CONCERNS ABOUT NAGORNO-KARABAKHAliyev has been particularly critical of Washington's role in its festering conflict with Armenia over the breakaway mountain region of Nagorno-Karabakh.Azerbaijan believes that the United States has been siding with Armenia in the conflict over the rebel region, where ethnic Armenians backed by Armenia threw off Azeri rule in the early 1990s in a war that killed 30,000 people.

  Russia urges NATO to fight Afghan drug trafficking
AP/UNB, Singapore

Russia urged NATO forces in Afghanistan on Sunday to crack down harder on drug production and smuggling, and offered to help put a security ring around the country.
The international community should classify Afghan drugs as a threat to peace and security because they have become an important source of funds for the Taliban and other insurgent groups, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said in a speech.
Insurgents and international mafia groups are earning billions of dollars "from smuggling the drugs - which we call 'white death' - to Europe, Asia and America," Ivanov told an Asia-Pacific security summit hosted by the London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies think tank.
Afghanistan supplies 90 percent of the world's opium, the main ingredient of heroin, and is also the leading global supplier of hashish. According to the United Nations, the Taliban earn about $300 million a year from the opium trade.
"We are not happy with what the world community is doing in the anti-drug war" in Afghanistan, Ivanov said. He said the international community, especially "those who took responsibility for ensuring peace and stability in Afghanistan," should make a strong commitment to fight the threat. Russia is ready to "make several counter-drugs rings around Afghanistan to intercept drugs," he said, without elaborating.
The United States says it carrying on a major war against drugs in Afghanistan. Maj. Gen. Richard Mills, the commanding general in charge of U.S. Marines in Afghanistan, said recently that U.S. forces dealt a blow to the Taliban's opium business by securing deals with poppy farmers to plant legal crops.
During the spring harvest, more than 17,300 acres (7,000 hectares) of poppies were swapped for legal crops around the farming community of Marjah, according to the Marine Corps. Last year, opium seizures in Afghanistan soared 924 percent because of better cooperation between Afghan and international forces.
Ivanov said NATO forces must focus on Afghanistan's social and economic development to give farmers of opium poppies a better alternative to drug production.
"If you burn down a poppy plantation, you need to invest in conventional agriculture," Ivanov said. "A lot should be done to start very primitive social and economic life in Afghanistan."
"If we don't that, any military presence will be in vain." Ivanov said opium-based drugs such as heroin are flooding into Europe through Afghanistan's northern border with Tajikistan. No visas are required to travel from Tajikistan to Russia, which means the drugs can flow easily through the open border, he said.

  BP cap captures ‘10,000 barrels’ a day in US Gulf
Internet

A containment cap on a ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico is now funnelling off 10,000 barrels of oil a day, BP's chief executive Tony Hayward says.
The amount has risen since Saturday, and implies more than half the estimated 12,000 to 19,000 barrels leaking each day is now being captured.
The spill has been described as the biggest environmental disaster in US history.
Mr Hayward told the BBC that BP would restore the Gulf to its original state.
Speaking on the Andrew Marr Show, Mr Hayward said: "As we speak, the containment cap is producing around 10,000 barrels of oil a day to the surface."
Asked what amount of the estimate that represented, the BP chief executive said it was "probably the vast majority".
"We have a further containment system to implement in the course of this coming week which will be in place by next weekend so when those two are in place, we would very much hope to be containing the vast majority of the oil."
His company, he said, was going to stop the leak and take care of the consequences.
"We're going to clean-up the oil, we're going to remediate any environmental damage and we are going to return the Gulf coast to the position it was in prior to this event. That's an absolute commitment, we will be there long after the media has gone, making good on our promises."

  Britain to give 19 million pounds to Gaza
AFP, London

Britain announced on Sunday it was giving 19 million pounds (27 million dollars, 23 million euros) for refugees in Gaza and repeated calls for Israel to lift its blockade of the territory.
"The humanitarian situation in Gaza is both unacceptable and unsustainable," International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell said announcing the funds, which will help support schools and health clinics for Gazan refugees.
The money is part of a five-year, 100-million-pound agreement signed with the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in 2006.
Confirmation of this year's contribution comes amid renewed concern about Israel's blockade of Gaza following a deadly raid by Israeli commandos on an aid ship bound for the Palestinian territory earlier this week.
"There is an immediate need for unfettered access to Gaza if the humanitarian situation is to be improved, to allow the economy to get back on its feet, and to give the young people of Gaza the prospect of a better future," Mitchell said.
"I call on the government of Israel to open the crossings to help end this humanitarian crisis."
About 70 percent of Gazans depend on UNRWA for healthcare, education and other basic services, British officials say.

Business/Economy

Budget formulation process ‘discriminatory’ and ‘undemocratic’ : Civil Society

UNB, Dhaka

Representative from the civil society and some social organisations on Sunday demanded the government initiate budget formulation from district level to make the next national budget a democratic and pro-poor one.
Terming the present budget formulation process as undemocratic and discriminatory, they also affirmed that any budget formulation without ensuring people's active participation cannot be democratic and therefore it will surely fail to reflect people's demands.
ActionAid, in collaboration with Governance Coalition and seven divisional civil society organisations, organised the convention titled 'National Budget 2010 on Democratic Budget Movement' at Shahid Amin Khan Memorial Hall of BIAM Foundation, said a press release.
Chaired by former Adviser to the Caretaker Government M Hafizuddin Khan, also a former Auditor and Comptroller General, Social Welfare Minister M Enamul Huq Mostafa Shaheed spoke on the occasion as chief guest.
ActionAid Country Director Farah Kabir moderated the inaugural ceremony of the daylong programme that included a number of view-sharing meetings where public representatives from across the country lifted problems of their communities.
The experts at the programme underscored the need for a decentralised government system to ensure an overall development of the country and termed further strengthening of local government as the key to a decentralised government.
Speaking on the occasion, M Enamul Huq Mostafa said the process of budget formulation has now become more transparent and democratic as the government gives hints about the size of the budget and also sector-wise allocation well-ahead of the budget declaration.
"Such sharing encourages rigorous discussion and debates around the issue which helps the government assess people's expectation and thereby create scope for incorporating their demands in the budget," he added.
The Social Welfare Minister also assured that the present government, which assumed power with people's mandate, will not formulate any budget without taking people's demands into account.
M Hafizuddin underscored the need for conducting social audit for the budget that will be conducted by the common people and also suggested strong monitoring of budget utilisation.
The former adviser also opined that practice of keeping itself aloof from budget discussion by the main opposition impedes the democratic process of budget formulation.
Former Bangladesh Bank governor Dr M Farashuddin, also the chairman of Bangladesh Unnayan Parisad, stressed the need for designing proper plan during budget formulation to ensure equal distribution of limited resource among the marginalised poor people.
The participants also placed a 30-point recommendation before the government to make the national budget more democratic.
Some of the key proposals include: clear direction about making district-level budget in the 2010-11 fiscal budget; ensuring minimum 10 percent allocation from the GDP for the education, health and other social sector; and enactment of Food Security Act instead of Social Safety-net Programme and create adequate fund for scale up national employment opportunity.
Some nine representatives, including the seven divisional one, who presented their regional demands are Minhajul Islam of Chittagong, Dr Mizanur Rahman from Barisal, Khalid Hossain from Khulna, Mushfeka Razzak from Rangpur, Hasan Millat from Rajshahi, Advocate Habibuzzaman Khurram from greater Mymensingh and Muktadur Ahmed from Sylhet haor area.

 Grameen sign a MoU with IES Alliance setting up fibreglass factory

UNB, Dhaka

Grameen Telecom Trust and IES Alliance of Bahrain have agreed to set up a joint venture fibreglass company in Bangladesh .
Nobel laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus and Shahid Ahmed signed the MoU on June 4 from their respective organizations, according to a message received from Yunus Center this afternoon.
The company will be named 'Grameen Fibreglass' and produce fibreglass products to popularize bio-gas use, and produce pipes to improve sanitation, sewerage, building materials, boats and furniture.
This will be a social business where owners may recoup the amount equivalent to their investment, but no dividend beyond that.
The factory will be located at the Grameen Social Business Industrial Park at Kashimpur, Gazipur. The factory is expected to go into production by the end of this year.
IES Alliance is a fibreglass company based in Bahrain , owned by Shahid Ahmed, a Bangladeshi with thirty-five years of experience in producing fibreglass.
At present the IES Alliance has three main sister concerns: Alliance Fibre Glass & False Marble Company, IES Alliance Business Solutions, Alliance Information Technology.
Alliance Fibre Glass company offers top quality fibre glass and artificial Marble products within the Gulf region.
Ahmed responded to Professor Muhammad Yunus's call to set up social business to solve social and environmental problems, without any intention of making personal gain from it.
Grameen Fibreglass will start producing bio-digester plants to expedite the expansion of Grameen Shakti's bio-gas production facilities.
Grameen Shakti, one of the largest and fastest growing rural-based renewable energy companies in the world, already has over 8,000 bio-gas plants installed in the villages with support from IDCOL (Infrastructure Development Company Limited), the government agency to promote renewable energy.
Grameen Shakti plans to install a total of 25,000 bio-gas plants by the end of 2011.
Pre-fabricated fibreglass tanks will make it easy to install these plants. China uses fibreglass tanks for the expansion of its bio-gas program.
Grameen Fibreglass company will have an initial capacity to produce 1,000 bio-gas tanks per month. Later it will expand its capacity to produce water-pipes, building materials, boats and other materials for domestic market as well as export.

  Japan's new PM faces stagnant economy, debt mountain
BSS, Tokyo

In his first speech after taking charge of the world's second-biggest economy last week, Japan's new Prime Minister Naoto Kan identified his biggest challenge: ending two decades of stagnation.
"For the past 20 years, the Japanese economy has been at a standstill," said Kan, who, since the start of the year, served as finance minister in the short-lived government of his predecessor, Yukio Hatoyama.
"Growth has stopped. Young people can't find jobs. This is not a natural phenomenon. It resulted from policy mistakes," he said, referring to the half- century of conservative rule that preceded his centre-left party's election victory last year. "I believe we can achieve a strong economy, strong finances and strong social welfare, all at the same time," said Kan, a former left-wing activist who has more recently earned a reputation as a fiscal hawk.
Some time this year, economists predict, China, the low-wage population giant and "factory of the world," will overtake the high-tech island-nation of 127 million as the global number-two economy.
The dynamism of China today reminds many Japanese of where they were in the 1980s, when its auto and electronics exports dominated world markets and Japan Inc awed and scared the western world. The investment bubble of those boom days popped in 1991, bringing in a cycle of recessions and a draining economic malaise, while ending the jobs- for-life model and heightening income divisions in Japan.

  Pakistan unveils defence spending hike, 4pc deficit
BSS, Islamabad

Pakistan's government hiked defence spending and government employees' salaries while also raising relief for the poor in an upbeat budget announcement Saturday that set a deficit of four percent of GDP.
The budget for the fiscal year 2010-2011 starting July 1 comes as pressure mounts on Pakistan to open up a new front against Taliban militants in northwestern tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.
It earmarks 442.2 billion rupees (5.2 billion dollars) for defence, an 18 percent rise on the 378 billion rupees (4.4 billion dollars) in the fiscal year ending June 30.
"We are facing a situation in which our military, paramilitary forces, police and security forces are sacrificing their lives for this country," finance minister Abdul Hafeez
Shaikh told parliament. "The security situation has not been totally brought under control in spite of the recent gains." In the last three years more than 3,400 people have been killed across Pakistan in bomb blast and suicide attacks blamed on Taliban militants.
The total size of the budget for the next year has been fixed at 3,259 billion rupees (38.3 billion dollars), a 10 percent rise, with a budget deficit of 685 billion rupees (eight billion dollars), or four percent of gross domestic product (GDP), Shaikh said.
The social development allocation is 766.5 rupees (nine billion dollars), while the budget provides a 50 percent pay rise for government employees, and tax relief for those on low incomes. -MORE/SI/0945 HRS "People are at the heart and centre of this budget," Shaikh said.
However Shaikh admitted that government had not been successful in dealing with energy shortages and creating employment during the outgoing fiscal year, noting that Pakistan has sought help from the IMF.

  Indians most eco-friendly consumers: Survey
BSS/PTI, New York

Indians are the most eco-friendly people while Americans the least, according to a 17-nation survey on consumers' progress towards environmentally sustainable consumption patterns.
India toped the Consumer Greendex, compiled by National Geographic which studied 17,000 consumers in 17 countries.
The consumers were asked about energy use and conservation, transportation choices, food sources, the relative use of green products versus traditional products, attitudes towards the environment and sustainability and knowledge of environmental issues.
The survey found the US the least eco-friendly in its consumption patterns.
Consumers in emerging economies topped the Greendex ranking, while the six lowest scores were bagged by consumers in industrialised countries, according to the National Geographic.
The rankings are Indians, Brazilians, Chinese, Mexicans, Argentineans, Russians, Hungarians, South Koreans, Swedes, Spanish, Australian, German, Japanese, British, French, Canadians and Americans.
Compared to 2008, the largest increase in environmentally sustainable consumer behaviour came from the Indians, Russians and Americans.
In contrast, consumers in Germany, Spain, Sweden, France and South Korea have slipped slightly over the past year.
While the US has the least sustainable behaviour, it has made some progress in the past three years. The Americans' average Greendex score has increased by 1.3 points each year.
The National Geographic attributed much of the increase in the overall Greendex scores to more sustainable behaviour in the housing category in both 2009 and 2010, which was measured by the energy and resources consumed by people's homes.

  China to invest $102b to revitalize railways
AFP, Beijing

China will invest 700 billion yuan (102 billion dollars) in high speed rail construction in 2010 as part of the nation's ambitious plan to revitalise its railways, state media said Sunday.
By the end of the year, China should have over 11,000 kilometres (6,800 miles) of high speed track in operation, up from just over 6,500 kilometres, He Huawu, the railway ministry's chief engineer told Xinhua news agency.
"This year we are preparing to invest 700 billion yuan in high speed rail construction, the plan is to complete 4,613 kilometres of new line," Xinhua quoted him as saying.
The existing high-speed line between Beijing and the eastern port city of Tianjin, which reaches a speed of 350 kilometres an hour (217 miles an hour), serves as the standard for the nation's high speed system, He said.
He was speaking at an international seminar on railway construction and urban development in China's far northeastern city of Harbin, the report said.

National

Govt preparing to deal with disasters better
UNB, Dhaka

Food and Disaster Management Minister Abdur Razzaque Sunday says the government has been preparing to tackle all possible disasters including earthquakes through the minimization of casualties and losses in their aftermath.
"We're taking preparations on how to address earthquakes, as the country is highly vulnerable to earthquakes. We have already bought a lot of equipment at a cost of Tk 70 crore for the Fire Service and Civil Defence Department," he said while addressing a workshop at Spectra Convention Centre in the city on Sunday noon.
Bangladesh Disaster Preparedness Centre (BDPC) with support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and Manusher Janno Foundation organized the workshop titled 'Good Governance in Disaster Risk Reduction: Story Telling'.
Director General of Disaster Management Bureau Ahsan Zakir, DFID advisor for Extreme Poverty and Climate Change Yolanda Wright, Director General of Manusher Janno Foundation Shaheen Anam and Dilruba Haider addressed at the workshop.
Addressing the occasion, Abdur Razzaque said the government had already taken steps to prepare community volunteers to address the earthquake havoc and other disasters.
Recalling the recent devastating inferno at Nabab Katara in the city, he said natural disasters like desertification and flood are common phenomena of the country, but man-made catastrophes are more dangerous than natural disasters.
"A total 117 people were killed in Nimtoli fire and it is an extraordinary incident. Generally, valuables were gutted or one or two persons were killed by fire. The huge number of people that were killed in city inferno, we cannot imagine," he said.
Referring to the government assistance to fire victims' families, the Minister said that government had already given directives to provide free treatment among the fire victims and had provided Tk 10 thousand to every injured person.
"We have already given Tk 20 thousand for every killed people to conclude burial ceremony. Now, we are assessing the loss from the inferno and then we will provide financial assistance for their rehabilitation," he said.
About the untold suffering of the Aila affected people, Abdur Razzaque said the government is seriously considering the problems of the Aila affected people.
"I am not sitting idle; I am working hard to address the Aila affected people. I am negotiating with the foreign partners to solve the water crisis in this region by taking steps to treat saline water," he said. The Minister said even though 16 districts of the country's south-west region were affected by Aila on May 25, 2009, all of the people are not suffering now.
"Nearly 100 thousand people of the region have been suffering due to embankment damage and they had taken shelter at the embankment. We will rebuild the embankments as quickly as possible," he said.
Abdur Razzaque stressed the need for bringing the Fire Service and the Civil Defence Department under the Food and Disaster Management Ministry to work effectively during the disaster havoc.

  New red and green label on govt medicines: Health Minister

UNB, Dhaka

Health Minister Dr AFM Ruhul Huq on Sunday said new red and green label has been pasted with government medicines in a bid to check the sale of government drugs and medicines in open market.
Briefing reporters at his ministry, he said the new labels will help identify the government medicines from other medicines in the pharmacies.
Dr Huq said the sale of government medicines in open market is totally banned and action would be taken against the culprits.
The Health Minister said the government has brought about many changes in the health services to ensure better healthcare for the people. He said from now on medicines and drugs will be purchased centrally and distributed to all district and upazila hospitals from the centre.
Previously, Dr Huq said, medicines were purchased from local suppliers for district and upazila hospitals that created many problems as patients used to complain against quality and prices of those medicines.
Asked about the reported trading with dead bodies of Nimtoli fire, the Health Minister said it is being investigated and action will be taken against the people found involved in such nefarious activities.

  Adequate budgetary allocation for local government sought
BSS, Dhaka

Leaders of Bangladesh Union Parishad Forum (BUPF) at a press conference here Sunday called for increasing allocation for local government bodies in the forthcoming proposed national budget to ensure sustainable development of the country.
They stressed the need for ensuring participation of the union parishads (UPs) in the budget preparation process and strengthening the local government bodies to ensure country's uniform development.
The speakers were addressing the conference on 'National Budget: Role of Union Parishads' organised by Bangladesh Union Parishad Forum (BUPF) with the assistance of USAID at Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU).

  Substantial production of fine and aromatic rice can bolster export sector: Experts

BSS, Rajshahi

Substantial farming expansion as well as production of fine and aromatic rice can enrich the nation's export sector for earning foreign currency after meeting up the domestic requirement.
To attain the goal, stakeholders including farmers, processors and traders need to be trained on relevant knowledge and skills ranging from production to export to catch the world market.
Rice experts revealed this at a daylong seminar on 'fine rice production and marketing' here yesterday saying that the area is conventionally familiar as rice growing and mainly high yielding varieties are produced for local consumption.
The Barind Multipurpose Development Authority (BMDA) under its Fine Rice Production and Marketing Project organized the seminar in its conference hall.
BMDA Chairman Advocate Nurul Islam Thandu addressed the opening session as the chief guest with its Executive Director Engineer Abdul Mannan in the chair.
Additional Director of Department of Agriculture Extension Younus Ali and Additional Chief Engineer of BMDA Abu Taleb Bhuiyan also spoke on the occasion as special guests.
The speakers viewed that the export of fine and aromatic rice could not be reached to the cherished level due to various constraints in spite of high price and great demand in the international markets.
In his introductory speech, Program Director ATM Rafiqul Islam said the three- year program is being implemented in all upazilas of Rajshahi, Naogaon, Chapainawabganj, Joypurhat and Dinajpur districts at a cost of Taka 3.68 crore since July last for boosting fine and aromatic rice production in five northwestern districts of the country.

  Economists for increased maternal allowance in budget to help attain MDG-5

BSS, Dhaka

The government should increase maternal allowance in the 2010-11 national budget, which will help reduce maternal mortality rate (MMR) to attain the Millennium Development Goals (MDG- 5) by 2015, experts suggested.
Economist and public health specialist favoured sufficient budgetary allocation for healthcare particularly for safe motherhood as the country has to reduce the MMR to 1.4 in 1,000 live births, from the existing 3.5 to achieve the goal.
Quazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmed, a noted economist, told BSS that Bangladesh has made significant progress in decreasing poverty gap, increasing school enrollment and reducing child and infant mortality rates in recent years, but the MMR rate is still high.
Malnutrition as a result of poverty is a root cause of high MMR and besides poor mothers of rural areas have little access to quality healthcare services, he said.
The economist described maternal allowance as a part of social safety net programme and said a monthly allowance of Taka 300 given by the government is too little.
QK Ahmed said the government may consider increase in maternal allowance in the national budget, but it depends on its ability.
Head of the Department of Public Health and Hospital Administration of National Institute of Preventive and Social Medicine (NIPSOM) Associate Prof Dr Amirul Hassan said maternal death could be reduced to a large extent if mothers are given antenatal care properly.
Around 20,000 women die every year during delivery process and most of them die of severe bleeding, infections, obstructed labour and consequence of unsafe abortion, he said adding that about 18 percent women suffer from pregnant related complications.
"Maternal allowance of poor mothers needs to be increased considering their socio-economic status," he said.
Dr Hassan, also a health economist, suggested creating massive awareness about antenatal and postnatal cares for mothers to curb the MMR.
Statistics of UNICEF and WHO and Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) show that skilled birth attendants attend only 18 percent of birth and 80 percent deaths occur at attempted home delivery. It also reveals that 69 percent of poor households to do have the access to any antenatal care.

Sports

Rustam Ali moves to second round
UNB, Dhaka

Top seed Rustam Ali of National Tennis Complex (NTC) moved into the 2nd round of the Comilla Club Under-16 Tennis Tournament beating Sajjad Hossain of BKSP 6-4, 6-1 in the boys' singles that began on Sunday at the Ramna Tennis Complex.
In the day's other boys' singles matches, Mamun Bapari of BKSP beat Rakib Hossain Charu of Bogra Station Club 6-0, 6-0, Biplob Ram of NTC defeated compatriot Noor Mohammad 6-0, 6-0, Shams of NTC beat teammate Tahsin 6-0, 6-1, and Jamil Bhuiyan of NTC beat compatriot Sajib Passi 6-1, 7-5 to reach the 2nd round.
The second round matches of boys' singles begin here Monday morning while women's singles and doubles will be held at Comilla Club Limited in Comilla.
In all, 20 boys and eight girls from Bogra Station Club, Madaripur Tennis Club, BKSP, Engineers Club and National Tennis Complex are taking part in the four events of the meet - boys' singles, boys' doubles, girls' singles and girls' doubles.

  England makes Bangladesh follow-on
AFP, Manchester

England captain Andrew Strauss enforced the follow-on against Bangl-adesh in the second and final Test after rain delayed the third day's start at Old Trafford here on Sunday.
The match was now due to start at 1.15pm local time (1215GMT) after rain meant no play was possible before lunch.
Strauss, whose side are 1-0 up in the series, had until 10 minutes before the start of play to decide if he wanted to make Bangladesh bat again.
And with the prospect of further bad weather taking more time out of the match, Strauss opted to enforce the follow-on.
Bangladesh lost all their 10 wickets in a dramatic final session on Saturday as they were bowled out for 216 in reply to England's 419.
The Tigers, 203 behind on first innings, were left just four runs of shy of avoiding the follow-on.
Bangladesh found themselves in trouble despite Tamim Iqbal's 108 - the left-handed opener's second century in as many innings after his 103 in England's eight-wicket first Test win at Lord's.
Off-spinner Graeme Swann, with five wickets for 76 runs - his first five-wicket Test haul in England - did the bulk of the damage after Bang-ladesh had been well-placed at 153 for one.
Fast bowler Ajmal Shahzad, on his Test debut, offered good support with three for 45.
England's total saw Ian Bell make 128. His third hundred in five Tests against Bangladesh took Bell's average against the Tigers to 158.25.
Bell and Matt Prior (93) shared an England record sixth-wicket stand against Bangladesh of 153.

   Wanderers and Badda Jagoroni draw 1-1
TBT Report

Dhaka Wanderers Club and Badda Jagoroni Sangsad shared points in their Dhaka Senior Division Football League match after a 1-1 draw at Bir Shreshtha Shaheed Mohammad Mustafa Stadium in the city on Monday.
Shahadat scored for Wanderers after 15 minutes to give it a 1-0 advantage before the break.
Down by a first half goal, Badda players went all out to stage a comeback and got the reward of their hard work when Saifuddin scored an equalizer on 61 minutes.
Both sides struggled hard in the remainder but failed to score any further goal.

  Schiavone clinches historic French Open triumph
AFP, Paris

Francesca Schiavone became the first Italian woman to win a Grand Slam singles title on Saturday after defeating Australian favourite Samantha Stosur 6-4, 7-6 (7/2) in the French Open final.
Victory made the 29-year-old the second oldest first-time Grand Slam women's champion.
It also shattered Stosur's aim of ending Australia's 30-year wait for a women's champion at one of the four majors, a streak stretching back to Evonne Goolagong's 1980 Wimbledon win.
Schiavone, who had lost to Stosur in the first round here last year, got her tactics spot on, trumping the seventh seed's power game with clever variations of pace and movement.
She took the ball early, stepped inside and utilised her greater confidence at the net and with her volley to ensure the 26-year-old Stosur was kept on the defensive.
"I didn't prepare anything to say, because I thought that if I did then this would never happen," said Schiavone, who follows compatriot Adriano Panatta, who was men's champion here in 1976, into the Italian record books.
"I felt amazing today. I feel like a champion.
"But I want to say to Samantha that she is a great person. You deserve to be here next time. You are young, you can still do it." Schiavone said that she was determined not to see the final go to three sets.
"I was feeling much more energy in the tiebreak. I couldn't stop it. I really felt that that one was my moment. I took it. I didn't lose the chance."
Stosur paid tribute to world number 17 Schia-vone, only the fourth player from outside the top 10 to win the Roland Garros title. "I still don't think I played that bad. She just had her day. She went for it and everything came off," she said.
"You know, it takes guts to do that, and she did it, I don't think I can really say I did anything wrong. It was just well done to her." Schiavone, one of the few women to still employ a one-handed backhand, carved out the only break of the first set in the ninth game before claiming the opener in the 10th when an unsettled Stosur netted a backhand return.
The Australian, who had reached the semi-finals in 2009, made it to the final the hard way, having to defeat former world number ones Justine Henin, Serena Williams, against whom she saved a match point, and Jelena Jankovic.
But unlike her fellow Grand Slam final debutant, she was struggling to make any impression until her fortunes briefly turned. Having fought off two break points in the third game of the second set, Stosur finally got the measure of her opponent to break and hold for a 4-1 advantage.
However, 17th-seeded Schiavone bravely regained the break in the seventh game when Stosur went dramatically off the boil and backed it up with a hold for 4-4.
The set was decided by a tiebreak and Schiavone went to four match points with a sweet drop volley which she converted into the title when Stosur unleashed the last of many untidy returns which ballooned into the stands.
The emotional Italian collapsed to the ground in joy before, covered in the red dirt of Paris, she clambered up into the crowd to spark a wild celebration with family and friends.

  Japan has nothing to lose
AFP, George

Underdog Japan lands in its World Cup base camp of George Sunday, in optimistic mood despite four straight international defeats in the run-up to the big tournament.
"You may think we're going to lose three straight (group) matches, don't you?," Japan and CSKA Moscow rising star Keisuke Honda asked Japanese media before the squad left their Swiss Alpine training camp of Saas-Fee.
"If we play bearing in mind we have nothing to lose, it would do us good," added Honda, who turns 24 on the eve of Japan's Group E opener against Cameroon on June 14 in Bloemfontein, followed by clashes with the Neth-erlands and Denmark.
The former Asian champions lost 2-0 in a warm-up against Ivory Coast in Sion on Friday. They had earlier lost 3-0 to a third-string Serbia and South Korea 2-0, both at home, and 2-1 to England a week ago in Graz, Austria.
"We could have matched ourselves against weaker opponents but we needed to play strong teams," Japan coach Takeshi Okada said in Saas-Fee about the last two games.
The Blue Samurai bared their perennial lack of firepower while keeping up a solid defence despite conceding three own goals, two of them through Brazilian-born centre back Marcus Tulio Tanaka, against the powerhouses.
"The players may have some fear but after being pushed into a tight corner, they'd rather fire up," said 53-year-old Okada.
The popular Western Cape resort of George has been picked by Japan for several reasons, including a good-luck factor. Japanese star Ai Miyazato won the inaugual women's golf World Cup there in 2005 in partnership with Rui Kitada. The friendly results further discredited Okada's highly ambitious but widely ridiculed goal of reaching the semi-finals in South Africa in what will be Japan's fourth straight World Cup appearance.
Okada guided Japan to a winless World Cup debut at France 1998 in his first job as national coach. French disciplinarian Philippe Troussier coached them to a last-16 spot in the 2002 edition co-hosted by Japan and South Korea.

  Koga wrests title from Irie
AFP, Tokyo

World silver medallist Junya Koga added the men's 50-metre backstroke title to his 100m victory at the close of the Japan Open swimming championships on Sunday.
The 22-year-old from Saitama, also the world 100m gold medallist in Rome last year, clocked 25.26 seconds, beating Masafumi Yamaguchi into second and Hiroto Nishihara into third.
World 200m silver medallist and defending champion Ryosuke Irie, who won his favourite distance on Saturday, abandoned the morning heat.
The three-day competition was a tune-up for the Pan Pacific championships in Irvine, the United States, from August 18-21.
Ryo Tateishi completed a perfect victory in the three men's breaststroke races in the absence of two-time dual Olympic gold medallist Kosuke Kitajima.
Tateishi, the winner in the 50m and 100m, touched the fence in 2:10.90 to win the 200m ahead of Kazuki Otsuka and Yuta Suenaga.
Aya Terakawa, whose only international medal came at the 2002 Pan Pacific in Yokohama with a silver, and Miho Takahashi and Kohei Kawamoto, also took their second titles of the week.
The 25-year-old Terakawa, who enjoyed a hat-trick at the national championships in April, clocked 28.09 to win the women's 50m backstroke, beating Miyuki Takemura and Wakana Hirai.
World short-course records holder Shiho Sakai, the winner here in the 200m on Saturday, was fourth in 28.65.

  Cotto stops Foreman
AFP, New York

Puerto Rico's Miguel Cotto stopped a game but injured Yuri Foreman in the ninth round Saturday to seize Foreman's World Boxing Association junior middleweight title at the new Yankee Stadium.
The ending was suitably dramatic for boxing's return to the home of baseball's Yankees, more than three decades after the original Yankee Stadium hosted its last bout. Cotto, beloved by Puerto Rican fight fans in New York, landed a left hook to the body that sent Foreman down and referee Arthur Mercante called a halt at 42 seconds of the ninth round.
Foreman's right knee, on which he was already wearing a brace, had buckled in the seventh round and he fell. The Brooklyn-based Israeli resumed, but his mobility was clearly compromised, allowing Cotto to land punches almost at will.
In the eighth round someone near Foreman's corner threw in a towel, but Merc-ante asked Foreman if he wanted to go on, cleared the ring of the people who had poured in and continued. "There was no need to stop the fight," Mercante said. "They were in the middle of a great exchange, a great fight.
"People came to see a great fight and I felt like I did the right thing." Foreman's gutsy effort ended in the next round, however, as Cotto handed him his first defeat in 29 fights.
Cotto, fighting in the 154-pound division for the first time, improved to 35-2 with 28 knockouts.
The victory was vindication for Cotto, who suffered two devastating knockouts in his last four fights - one by Antonio Margarito and one by Filipino hero Manny Pacquiao - who was at ringside. Cotto showed he has plenty left in the tank as he claimed a title in a third weight division.
He said the fight plan he put together with veteran trainer Emmanuel Steward worked just as they envisioned. "We made the plan, work with the jab and put pressure on him - and it works," said Cotto, who set the tone with his jab from the opening round.
Cotto said he knew Foreman's knee was hurt, but said he tried not to be distracted by it.
"I have to still fight him," he said. "I can't stop, the fight has to continue." He said he thought he saw on the stadium's big screen that Foreman's corner had thrown in the towel.
Foreman, whose defensive style hasn't captured the imagination of many US fight fans, surely earned some new admirers as he tried to fight on.
But he was determined to carry on as long as he could. His determination seemed fitting to the occasion. The list of those who boxed at the original Yankee Stadium is a roll call of ring greats: Harry Greb, Gene Tunney, Jack Dempsey and "Cinderella Man" James Braddock.
Joe Louis defeated German champion Max Schmeling on June 22, 1938, to avenge an earlier loss in the same ballpark.
Rocky Marciano won four straight fights there in the 1950s before Muhammad Ali beat Ken Norton on September 28, 1976 in the last fight at the original ballpark - a fight refereed by Mercante's father, the late Arthur Mercante snr.
The majority of the 20,272-strong crowd on Saturday were backing Cotto, waving Puerto Rican flags and cheering every time he was shown on the video screen. But Foreman had his fans, too, waving Israeli flags and signs featuring the Star of David.

  Dhaka Rifles Club clinches top slot in national shooting
UNB, Dhaka

Dhaka Rifles Club clinched the top slot with four gold, two silver and two bronze medals in the 24th National Shooting Championship that concluded on Sunday at the National Shooting Complex in Gulshan.
BKSP Shooting Club finished 2nd in the 10-team competition securing three gold, two silver and three bronze medals while Kushtia Rifles Club and Savar Army Shooting Club became joint third with both collecting two gold, one silver and one bronze medal.
Besides, Army Shooting Association bagged one gold, three silver, and four bronze medals, Gulshan Shooting Club got one gold and one silver while Narayanganj Rifles Club earned one gold.
Results of the three events on the last day (Sunday):
Men's 10-Meter Air Pistol: Gold- Nadimul Islam (Savar Army Shooting Club, 657.3), Silver- Iqbal Hossain (Savar Army Shooting Club, 650.5) and Bronze- Salim Azad (Army Shooting Association, 645.1).
Men's 50-Meter Rifles Three Positions: Gold- Toufique Shahriar Chandan (Kushtia Rifles Club, 1144), Silver- Golam Shafiuddin Khan Shiplu (Gulshan Shooting Club, 1132) and Bronze- Ramzan Ali (Army Shooting Association, 1132).
Men's Skeet: Gold- Iqbal Islam (Gulshan Shooting Club, 103), Silver-Nuruddin Selim (Chittagong Rifles Club, 102) and Bronze- Altamas Kabir (Dhaka Rifles Club, 99).

  Bangladesh suffers innings defeat
AFP, Manchester

Steven Finn took five wickets as England thrashed Bangladesh by an innings and 80 runs inside three days in the second Test to wrap up a 2-0 series victory at Old Trafford here on Sunday.
Bangladesh, following-on, were dimissed for 123 in 34.1 overs with fast bowler Finn taking five wickets for 42 runs in 10 overs. James Anderson took three for 16 in 10 on his Lancashire home ground. Defeat meant Bangladesh have now lost 34 of their 68 Tests by an innings. Anderson and Finn combined to reduce Bangladesh, who'd suffered a dramatic collapse in Saturday's final session, to 37 for five in the 13th over.
Only Mohammad Mahmudullah, with 38, offered much resistance.
England, after rain meant no play was possible before lunch, saw captain Andrew Strauss enforce the follow-on.
Bangladesh, dismissed for 216 after losing all 10 first innings wickets after tea on Saturday, were still 203 runs behind England's 419. In overcast conditions, their top order struggled against England's new ball pair on Sunday.
England captured the prize wicket of Tamim Iqbal, who'd made hundreds in his last two knocks, including 108 in the first innings of this match, when the left-hander was caught behind second ball for just two fending at a rising Anderson delivery.
It was the first time in six innings against England that Tamim had failed to pass fifty.
Imrul Kayes, the Tigers' other left-handed opener, then fell hooking Finn for the second time in the match, with Test debutant Ajmal Shahzad once more taking a catch at long leg.
Junaid Siddique was then caught by Kevin Pietersen in the gully off Anderson and when Finn had Jahurul Islam edging through to wicketkeeper Matt Prior for nought, after trying to cut a lifting ball that was too close to him, Bangladesh were 21 for four off eight overs.
The 6ft 8in quick had taken two wickets for 12 runs in four overs, including two for three in seven balls.
Mohammad Ashraful off-drove Finn for four in textbook fashion.
However, his innings of 14 ended when he couldn't keep down an Anderson delivery that moved off the pitch and edged to Jonathan Trott at first slip.
Bangladesh were now 37 for five, with Anderson having taken three wickets for 10 runs in 6.2 overs.
And the Tigers were 39 for six when Yorkshire quick Shahzad bowled Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan between bat and pad.
But four byes, conceded by Prior - nursing a finger injury - off the bowling of off-spinner Graeme Swann gave Bangladesh the consolation of surpassing their record lowest Test innings score of 62 against Sri Lanka in Colombo in 2007.
Mahmudullah several times hooked Finn to the boundary but, trying to repeat the stroke, he edged and was well caught by a leaping Prior to end a 52-ball innings featuring five fours.
Bangladesh were now 97 for eight and that became 119 for nine when Shafiul Islam was caught at first slip by Strauss off Finn.
And the match ended when Abdur Razzak holed out off Swann.
England's total saw Ian Bell make 128. Bell's third hundred in five Tests against Bangladesh took his average against the Tigers to 158.25. Swann, with five wickets for 76 runs - his first five-wicket Test haul in England - did the bulk of the damage in Bangladesh's first innings, after they had been 153 for one.
Scorecard
England 1st Innings: 419
(I Bell 128, M Prior 93, K Pietersen 64; Shakib Al Hasan 5-121)
Bangladesh 1st Innings: 216
(Tamim Iqbal 108; G Swann 5-76, A Shahzad 3-45)
Bangladesh 2nd Innings:
Tamim c Prior b Anderson 2
Imrul c Shahzad b Finn 9
Junaid c Pietersen
b Anderson 6
Ashraful c Trott b
Anderson 14
Jahurul c Prior b Finn 0
Shakib b Shahzad 1
Mushfiq c K Brown b Finn 13
Mahmudullah c Prior b Finn 38
Razzak c Morgan
b Swann 19
Shafiul c Strauss b Finn 4
Shahadat not out 4
Extras: (b13) 13
Total: (all out, 34.1
overs, 164 mins) 123
Falls: 1-2 (Tamim), 2-14 (Kayes), 3-18 (Siddique), 4-21 (Jahurul), 5-37 (Ashraful), 6-39 (Shakib), 7-76 (Rahim), 8-97 (Mahmudullah), 9-119 (Shafiul), 10-123 (Razzak)
Result: England won by an innings and 80 runs

  Malek takes solo lead in Six Seasons chess
UNB, Dhaka

FM Mohammed Abdul Malek of Biman took solo lead in the Six Seasons International Chess Tour-nament with four points after the 5th round matches at the NSC Tower auditorium on Sunday.
FM Kh. Aminul Islam of Titas, FM Syed Mahfuzur Rahman Emon of Basir Memorial and Minina Veronika of Russia follow the leader with 3.5 points each.
In the day's 5th round matches, Malek beat Veronika, Amin drew with Manodip Dhar of India, Emon drew with FM Minhazuddin Ahmed Sagar, WFM Zakia Sultana of Metropolitan Chess Club drew with Enkhtuul Altanulzii of Mongolia, and National Women's Champion WFM Shamima Akter Liza beat Chand-rasekhar of India.
The 6th round matches start tomorrow (Monday) at 10 am at the same venue.

  No regrets for beaten Samantha Stosur
AFP, Paris

The long wait goes on for the next Australian woman to win a Grand Slam title following Samantha Stosur's disappointing end to the French Open on Saturday.
The 26-year-old from the Gold Coast lost 6-4, 7-6 (7/2) to underdog Francesca Schiavone of Italy as she failed to reproduce the kind of shot-making that saw off Justine Henin, Serena Williams and Jelena Jankovic in the previous three rounds.
Stosur though insisted that it was Schiavone who had won the match with her tactics and initiatives and not herself who had lost it.
"I still don't think I played that bad. She just had her day. She went for it and everything came off," she said. "You know, it takes guts to do that, and she did it, I don't think I can really say I did anything wrong. It was just well done to her.
"Obviously right now it's not easy and I really wish I'd won. "But when you play someone who played well against you, sometimes you've just got to say, Too good."
Stosur was installed as a strong favourite for what would have been her first Grand Slam title after her impressive hat-trick of wins over Henin, Williams and Jankovic, all present or former world number ones.
She also had the experience of having played in last year's semi-finals at Roland Garros while the lightweight Schiavone at 29 had never previously got past the quarter-finals in any Grand Slam tournament. But on a sweltering hot day on the Paris clay, the Australian struggled to find her range especially when she broke to lead 4-1 in the second set.
"I didn't really step up to the line and play the right kind of game that I needed to to try and keep that lead," she said. "Maybe I went a little bit passive, but I wasn't feeling bad. I was actually feeling good.
"Obviously having that break up boosted my confidence a little bit, but I guess I didn't really keep the foot down and try and keep going with it."
Stosur will next turn her attention to the grass of Wimbledon where she has struggled in the past, her best performance being a third round appearance last year. But she feels that the experience she has gained here and improvements she has made to her game to be competitive at Roland Garros will stand her in good stead in the years ahead.
"I don't think there's any reason why I couldn't get maybe similar results on hardcourts," she said.
"Grass is probably the most difficult for me. But when you have wins like I've had this week, no matter what the surface, I think it can help.
"I've had decent results at the Australian Open, but I would obviously like to make them even better and have something like this happen down there."
In the meanwhile, Evonne Goolagong remains the last Australian woman to have won a Grand Slam title - at Wimbledon in 1980.

  Parreira revives South African hopes
AFP, Johannesburg

Carlos Alberto Parreira has gently lifted the South African national football team from the trough of despair.
And the often poker-faced man from Rio de Janeiro could not resist a quick, self-conscious smile this weekend as "his boys" defeated Denmark 1-0 and extended an unbeaten eight-month run to 12 matches.
A capacity 28,000 crowd filled Lucas Moripe Stadium on a western outskirt of Pretoria and lone striker Katlego 'Killer' Mphela sent them home happy with a clinical late second-half winner. Now the toughest part of the mission given to the 67-year-old Brazilian grandfather begins as he must choose a World Cup team capable of making the host nation proud at the June 11-July 11 tournament.
Bafana Bafana (isiZulu for The Boys) play Mexico on Friday at the 90,000-seat Soccer City stadium on the outskirts of the South African financial hub and former world champions Uruguay and France come after in Group A.
And from Polokwane in the north to Cape Town in the south west the message to the man who guided his homeland to victory at the 1994 World Cup in the United States is identical - coach, make us proud.
Parreria has already brought enormous pride back to Bafana Bafana, a team shunned by its own people last year as they stumbled from one embarrassing defeat to another, and became the object of media mockery.
After a respectable fourth place at the 2009 Confederations Cup, the traditional World Cup dress rehearsal, the wheels came off under Brazilian coach Joel Santana with eight reverses in nine outings.
Losses in Norway and Iceland were the final straw, the axe fell on a man who never captured the hearts of South Africans, and Parreria was summoned for a second spell at the bridge of a ship floundering in choppy seas.