TUESday, MARCH 2, 2010 FALGUN 18, 1416, RABIUL AWAL 15, 1431 Hijri

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Leading News

Eid-e-Miladunnabi observed
BSS, Dhaka

The holy Eid-e-Miladunnabi was observed in the country Saturday with religious fervour and due solemnity commemorating the birth of Great Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH) on this day in the month of Rabiul Awal 1,440 years ago with divine blessings for mankind.
Muslims across the country joined special prayers and staged colourful street processions to mark the day which is also the day of 'Ufat' (departure) of the Prophet (PBUH). Different religious, socio-political and cultural organizations drew up programmes in the capital and elsewhere in the country marking the day. The programmes included discussion meetings and milad mahfils.
The day was a public holiday. Bangladesh Television, Bangladesh Betar and private TV channels and radio stations aired programmes, while newspapers published special supplements highlighting the significance of the day. City roads were decorated with national flags and colourful festoons inscribed with 'Allahu Akbar' and 'Kalima'.
As part of its fortnight-long programme, the Islamic Foundation on Sunday organised seminar, Naat-e-Rasul and milad mahfil. Anjuman-e-Rahmania Moinia Maizbhandaria organised a grand mass prayer and colourful street march in the city marking the day.
Eminent spiritual personality, Alhaj Syed Moinuddin Ahmed Al Hasani Maizb-handari attended the programme as the chief and conducted a milad mahfil and special prayers at Purana Paltan Maidan in the morning.
Anjuman-e-Rahmania Moinia Maizbhandaria President Syed Saifuddin Ahmed Al-Hasani Wal Hossaini Maizbhandari presided over the function while Iranian Ambassador Hassan Farezande was present as the special guest. Eminent Islamic thinker Allama Nurul Islam and other Islamic scholars also spoke on the occasion.
The milad and doa mahfil was followed by a grand street procession through the city streets chanting slogans welcoming the emergence of Prophet Muhammad (SM) and seeking divine blessings for mankind.
Addressing the rally, Syed Moinuddin Ahmed Al Hasani Maizbhandari said the spirit of Miladunnabi goes against terrorism, militancy, conflicts and communal disharmony.
Islam is not the religion that permits killing of human beings for nothing, he said and called for loving mankind, shunning terrorism and militancy. Iranian envoy Farazandeh urged Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to unite the Muslims in Bangladesh. 

 PM assures of Peelkhana carnage trial
UNB, Dhaka

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Sunday firmly said that the trial of Peelkhana killings would see a successful finish the way the murder of father of the nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was tried.
"The trial of BDR killing has been started and let me assure you this will be completed," she said talking to family members of the martyred army officials when they met her at the Prime Minister's Office, as they just passed the first anniversary of the BDR carnage in tears.
At the meeting the annual cheques from Bangladesh Association of Bankers (BAB) were given to the dependants of the slain army officers who were in command of the border force and were all massacred in the February 25-26 mutiny inside the Peelkhana headquarters of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) last year.
She again said that the provocateurs in the BDR killings along with the culprits who were involved in staging the carnage both would be brought to trial.
"The provocateurs will also be found out and tried," the Prime Minister told the members of the ruined families. She reassured that her government will be beside the martyred army officials' families.
"I will be beside you until my death," Hasina said, adding that she could realize the pains of losing kith and kin for the August 15, 1975 grim tragedy. "I also feel the pain as my kith and kin were killed on August 15."
Earlier, one-minute silence was observed for the deceased army officials.
In assistance with the Prime Minister Office and organized by the BAB, all families of the martyred army families will be given Tk 40,000 per month for the next 10 years for their upkeep.
Today Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina handed over the cheques for Tk 480,000 to each family for the second year.
Meanwhile, Tk 9 million to Tk 5 million has already been distributed among the family members of the army officials according to their ranks and tenures of service. Besides, pensions had been given to most of the families while the process of giving pensions to the rest six families is in the final stage. A total of 56 families were given placement shares of Trust Mutual Fund worth Tk 200,000 each.

 Govt should quit if it fails to run country properly: Khaleda
UNB, Dhaka

Bringing various charges against her political opponents, opposition leader and BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia said the govt should quit if it fails to run the country properly.
She made the remark when the parents of brilliant student of Dhaka University Abu Bakar Siddique, killed amid campus violence recently, met with her at her Gulshan office Saturday.
Talking to Abu Bakar's father Rustam Ali, mother Rabeya Begum and elder brother Abbas Ali, the former PM painted a grim picture of the country as she said the government "failed" in every sector.
"This government failed to bring down prices of essentials under people's purchasing capacity, control deteriorating law-and-order situation, generate employment, and meet demand for gas and electricity, resulting in aggravation of public sufferings," she said.
The leader of the opposition, whose party has long abstained from attending parliament sessions on different allegations, observed that the parliament is also not functioning well. She went on to claim that the government cannot run any sector in the right course.
"If the government can't run the country properly, it should step down from power," said the former premier, Khaleda Zia, who lost heavily the last polls held against the backdrop of a political topsy-turvy following a standoff between the two sides over election issues.
Khaleda alleged that the education system has collapsed in the wake of pro-government student organization's involvement in "terrorism, extortion, tender manipulation and admission trade". She lamented that the atmosphere of educational institutions has been destroyed, there is no security of students and teachers on the campuses following what she said 'violence, terrorism and misdeeds of the ruling party". And for this reason, she alleged, DU student Abu Bakar Siddiqi lost his life. Khaleda criticized "politicization" of the Dhaka University administration.
She also came down heavily on the government and DU administration for not providing due protocol to her as leader of the opposition, obstruction created by police and chaotic situation when she went to place floral wreath at the central Shaheed Minar at the first hour of February 21.

  EC not empowered to cancel registration of a religion-based party: CEC

UNB, Dhaka

Chief Election Commissioner Dr ATM Shamsul Huda said the Commission has no jurisdiction to cancel registration of a political party based on religion or banking on terrorism.
The CEC pleaded their powerlessness while pleas are loud for banning the political parties that do theocratic politics following the scrapping of the constitution fifth amendment and the spread of militancy.
Talking to reporters outside his office at the Election Commission, he said it is the government responsibility to cancel registration of a political party running beyond the registration rules.
"We act according to RPO (Representation of People Order). If any party violates RPO, we cancel that party's registration," he said, citing the cancellation of the Freedom Party's registration.
Asked about the timing of local-body elections, Dr Huda said Union Parishad elections will be held first and then the Dhaka City Corporation election, which has been long overdue with the result that essential service delivery to the city-dwellers slowed down.
About the election schedules, he said the Commission has not set the dates for announcing the schedules. Schedules are declared 45 days ahead of the elections.
According to the procedure, the CEC said, first draft voters' list would be published and then it would be finalized after settling objections against the draft list.

   Indian Air Force tests war readiness close to Pakistan border

Reuters, Pokhran

Fighter jets of the Indian Air Force (IAF) pounded mock enemy bunkers close to the Pakistan border on Sunday in a symbolic show of air power at a time when the two nuclear-armed rivals are trying to improve relations.
The exercise was watched by military attaches from about 30 countries but not Pakistan and China, neighbours who would be keen to take a look at India's military firepower. It follows the first official talks between India and Pakistan since the militant attacks in Mumbai in 2008.
The talks ended with an agreement to keep in touch, signalling relations remain fraught despite a desire to reopen a dialogue that India suspended after the Mumbai killings.
"This is not just a firepower demonstration but a clear message about what the Indian Air Force is capable of," said Uday Bhaskar, a New Delhi-based strategic affairs expert. "It is a message to the neighbours."
Tensions between India and Pakistan are a problem by themselves but the stakes have risen further with their roles in the war in Afghanistan. In Sunday's war games, planes including Sukhois and MiG 21s, roared through the sky, bombing simulated enemy targets including militant training camps and bunkers.
President Pratibha Patil and Defence Minister A.K. Antony watched as targets were hit with bombs and rockets, raising huge balls of fire and dust in the deserts of Pokhran, the site of India's nuclear testing facility.
Defence officials said the exercise would test the IAF's ability at precision bombing of militant camps, particularly those behind enemy lines. India accuses Pakistan of letting militant groups use its territory to train and launch attacks on India, such as the Mumbai raid that killed 166 people.

   Jaintapur border
BDR-BSF trade heavy gunfire

UNB, Sylhet

Border forces of Bangladesh and India traded heavy gunfire at Jaintapur border when Indian nationals backed by BSF trespassed for fishing on Sunday afternoon.
No report of casualty was available. Villagers fleeing from the border areas for fear of live said gunfire started at about 3pm continued till 6pm.
It was the fourth time in a month that the border skirmishes took place as Khasia tribe on the other side of the border in Meghalaya State deliberately crossed the border for fishing in Dibir Haor.
BSF on February 4 intruded in the area and kidnapped a Nayek of BDR. He was however set free at a flag meeting, BSF regretting their action of illegal crossing of the border.
BDR said Indian nationals backed by BSF crossed the border for fishing in Dibir Haor. On resistance by the fishermen BSF opened fire. BDR returned the fire and the gunrunning continued for about three hours until 6pm.
TBT Desk adds: Earlier on February 22, a group of Indian intruders with direct support of the BSF trespassed into Bangladesh territory on Bibirhaor border near Jayantapur in Sylhet, but went back in the face of strong protest by local people.
The trespassers entered two hundred yards into Bangladesh territory in between Pillar No. 1284 and 1285 and caught fishes from a pond. The Indian citizens numbering about 100 were backed by heavily armed BSF troops and their presence made the local people panicky. However the locals protested the intrusion strongly and ultimately all of the intruders returned to India with huge fishes caught from the pond.
The BSF personnel provided security to the Indian trespassers. The place of incident is quite away form the BDR camp at Jayantapur.

   Two more killed in ‘shootout’
TBT Report

Two more alleged dacoits were killed in 'shootout' between their cohorts and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) at Monurbagh in Dakkhin Keraniganj early Sunday taking the total of such extra judicial killings to 104 in seven months from August 1, 2009 to February 28, 2010.
With these two, 12 extra judicial killings took place in the new year 2010. Earlier, an outlawed party leader, a ringleader of a robber gang, a criminal, an outlawed party leader, a terrorist, a alleged outlawed party leader, a ring leader and two terrorists were killed in shootouts on 9, 11, 12, 30 January and 10, 16, 19, 23 and 25 February respectively.
According to UNB News Agency, two alleged dacoits were killed in a 'shootout' between their cohorts and RAB at Monurbagh in Dakkhin Keraniganj early Sunday. The deceased were identified as Kana Pappu, 25, and Abdus Sattar, 25, accomplices of infamous 'Shahid Bahini'. They used to collect tolls from the area in the name of Shahid, locals said.
Pappu and Sattar were caught in the line of fire and died on the spot. However, other robbers managed to flee the scene. The RAB also recovered two foreign-made pistols, 12 rounds of bullet and five hand bombs from the spot.

Back Page

Chile quake death toll exceeds 300, tsunami threats across Pacific

Xinhua, Santiago

More than 300 people have been killed in Chile after a 8.8-magnitude megaquake hit the country on Saturday, the national emergency office said.
The office had said earlier on Saturday that the death toll was 214.
MASSIVE DAMAGE
The quake, one of the world's most powerful in decades, rocked Chile at 3:34 a.m. local time (0634 GMT) on Saturday, knocking down homes and hospitals and triggering a tsunami that rolled menacingly across the Pacific.
The epicenter was only 115 km from Concepcion, Chile's second largest city with a population of 670,000.
The earthquake was felt in Concepcion, Santiago, Rancagua, Talca, Temuco, Valdivia, Valparaiso, Montt Port, Vicuna, La Serena, Capiapo and Calama.
According to Sergio Barri-entos, science chief of the Seismology Institute of the University of Chile, the quake was 50 times bigger than the Haiti quake on Jan. 12.
Chilean Interior Minister Edmundo Perez Yoma said Saturday's earthquake was a cataclysm of historical dimensions. "Since 1960 we have never had an earthquake like this." But he expected to normalize the country in the coming 48 or 72 hours. The national emergency office said there are some 400,000 victims in Biobio, one of the most affected areas.
Meanwhile, the airport of Santiago has been closed due to structural problems in its main building, and is expected to be habilitated in 48 hours. In many municipalities in the Metropolitan Region of Santiago, the electricity supply was interrupted.
Between the regions of Valparaiso and Araucania, in a range of some 800 km, water supply, sewage systems and telephone services have been disrupted in many zones. After the major earthquake, at least 25 aftershocks ranging from 5 to 6.9 magnitudes on the Richter scale have been registered.
To the moment, 22 people have been reportedly rescued alive, while millions of others are believed affected by the massive quake.
Chilean President Michelle Bachelet has sent three rescue teams to the affected areas, while declaring many parts of the country as catastrophe zones and calling on residents to remain calm.
TSUNAMI THREATS ACROSS PACIFIC
Countries and regions across the Pacific are on high alert against a tsunami triggered by the earthquake.
The first wave of the tsunami hit Japan's outlying islands at around 12:48 a.m. local time (0348 GMT) Sunday. But the initial waves were just 10 cm high.
The waves first hit Ogas-awara islands off Japan's main island. The Japan Meteorological Agency predicted it will soon reach other parts of the Pacific coastline of the country. Local governments has urged households in northeast Japan to evacuate, where the waves are expected to be more than 3 meters high. Transportation on many lines of the railway system has also been suspended due to the tsunami. The Malaysian Meteorological Department said Sunday that those staying at the coastal areas of southern Sabah are advised to stay away from the beaches as there are likely rough sea conditions on Sunday. According to a statement issued by the Malaysian Meteor-ological Department, the Chilean earthquake had triggered tsunami waves across the Pacific Ocean, affecting countries and regions such as Mexico, New Zealand, Tahiti, Hawaii, Tonga and Samoa Islands.
The Philippines has raised the tsunami alert to Level 2, the Philippine Institute of Volcano-logy and Seismology (Phivolcs) said on Sunday. Residents in 19 provinces facing the Pacific in the Philippines have been urged to move to higher grounds, as the tsunami is expected within hours.

   Curtain falls on Ekushey Book Fair
UNB, Dhaka

Curtain fell on the month-long Ekushey Book Fair, the largest book fair in the country, on Sunday with gathering of thousands of book lover on the fair premises.
The book lovers who crowded the Bangla Acad-emy premises throughout the day were seen busy browsing books for the last moment or having a look on the new arrivals. Bangla Academy and the Bangladesh Book Publishers and Sellers' Association jointly organized the month-long annual event marking the Language Movement in 1952.
Bangla Academy sources said this year's total sale in the fair was about Tk 20 crore while Bangla Academy alone sold books worth over Tk 65 lakh. Some 3,354 new books unveiled in the fair this year. The new titles unveiled this year, include 807 poetry collections, 581 novels, 378 stories, 255 articles, 129 children's books, 110 books liberation war and 87 on research.
This year, the fair was divided into four zones-commercial publishing houses, children's books, publications of socio-cultural organisations, NGOs and other organisations.
A number of innovative programmes include discussions and cultural programmes focusing on the literary personalities of the 20th century were held every day. The academy also set up a writers' corner.
The Liberation War Museum (LWM), Dhaka at a stall displayed several books and photo albums on the Liberation War. The museum encourages preservation of Liberation War memorabilia. The Bangla Academy authorities have given "Chitta Ranjan Memorial Award" to Bipul Prakash, Suborna and Pathak Samaabesh for best books.
Besides, "Sardar Joynuddin Memorial Award" was given to three stalls for their eye catching and artistic decorations. The stalls are Toitumbur, Katha Prakash and Mawla Brothers. Nazrul Islam and Dr Fatema Anis have been awarded with "Palan Sarkar Award" for purchasing highest number of books.

   Govt couldn’t yet formulate PPP guidelines due to bureaucratic apathy: Muhith

UNB, Dhaka

Finance Minister AMA Muhith on Sunday said the government could not yet formulate the guidelines for the public private partnership (PPP) due to bureaucratic apathy.
"They (bureaucrats) are not in favor of change. That's why the pace of formulating the guideline is slow." He made the comment when the newly elected executive members of the Economic Reporters Forum (ERF) called on the Finance Minister at his Secretariat office.
Muhith said he is expecting some investment under the PPP in power and transportation sector within a short time. The stimulus package would continue in the future with some minor changes in it, he said, adding that "of the total Tk 5000 crore this year, we've already pledged Tk 3500 crore."
But the Finance Minister criticized the private sector for their heavy dependence on the government. "They are getting too much protection from the government," he said. He said that although the private sector has expanded a lot in the country, they often come to the government seeking many facilities.
In this regard, he mentioned that the BGMEA and the garment exporters did not pay anything to the government. "…they also get incentives from the government. But this sector is one of the largest private sector in the country," he said.
Muhith said that although he mentioned it in the budget, it would not be possible for district-wise budget this fiscal year. "For this, all districts would have to announce their budget at the end of July of a fiscal year. But this practice is yet to start in our country. That's why it won't be possible this year."
He mentioned that there will be two revised budget this year - one in March and another in June. By this, wastage of money will be stopped and transparency in spending the public money will be ensured, the Finance Minister said.
In this connection, he said normally, the government goes for new construction of roads in the country.
"But priority should be given to the maintenance first, then repair and lastly the new constructions." Muhith said the government is continuing the digitization process very fast and it is going on beyond the expectation.

   Section 144 withdrawn from Khagrachhari municipality area  

UNB, Khagrachhari

District administration Sunday withdrew section 144 from the municipality area which was imposed for an indefinite period due to outbreak of violence in the hill district.
Deputy Commissioner M Abdullah said the ban was withdrawn at 12 noon as normalcy started to get back in the district town.
One Bangalee settler, Anwar Hossain, 28, was killed, over 30 others were wounded and at least 50 houses burnt in arson attacks in seven localities in the district town in sporadic clashes Tuesday, prompting the authorities to slap overnight curfew.
The district administration also imposed ban under section 144 on gathering in the entire area of Sadar upazila at 2pm Tuesday for an indefinite period to avert further outbreak of clashes.
Several days' clashes and arson attacks left at least three people dead, scores injured and many homes looted and burnt in Khagrachhari and Rangamati hill districts following a land dispute between Bangalee settlers and indigenous people.
The tribal-Bangalee deadly violence first flared up at Baghaichhari upazila in Rangamati district last Saturday over land dispute that left two tribal people killed and 15 others injured.

    Tripura minister favours imports from BD
UNB, Feni

Commerce & Industries Minister of India state of Tripura Jitendra Chowdhury has appreciated the quality of Bangladeshi goods and favoured large-scale imports through the land ports to meet the requirement of seven northeast states.
Speaking at a view-exchange meeting at the Circuit House with members of the Feni Chambers of Commerce and Industry Suday stressed the need for development o infrastructure connecting the land ports on both sides of the border.
People of the seven sisters including Tripura are convinced about the quality of Bangladeshi products. Increased trade between Bangladesh and the seven sisters will equally help both the countries.
Jitendra Chowdhury left for home through the Belonia land port concluding four-day visit to Bangladesh.
Talking to UNB he said his visit can be billed as the step toward much desired transit facility through Bangladesh.
Asked about the allegation of India's promoting smuggle of dangerous drugs like phensidyl to Bangladesh the Tripura minister admitted the phensidyl pushed into Bangladesh is 'fake and poisonous'. He said barely 2 percent of the phensidyl is produced legally by authorized factories.

    Paban planned blasts outside Khaleda’s office: DMP Commissioner
BNP calls it a blame game

UNB, Dhaka

City police boss AKM Shahidul Huq disclosed that BNP secretary-general Khandaker Delwar Hossain's son, Paban, had planned the blasts outside BNP chairperson and opposition leader Khaleda Zia's Gulshan office on February 23.
Paban, now absconding, is accused in some criminal cases of the past. He was arrested amid a massive anticrime drive during the past military-backed caretaker government's rule.
Briefing reporters at the DB Headquarters on Sunday noon, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner said Khan-daker Abdul Hamid Paban's arrested friend, Shovan, confessed to the detectives that Paban went to his Kalabagan house on the evening of February 23 and later both went to Khaleda's Gulshan office riding a red-colour car.
Quoting Shovan's statement, the police commissioner said Paban got down from the car in front of the Gulshan office while Shovan was sitting in the driving seat.
At this point of time two crackers were exploded with big bangs and two young people got into Shovan's car parked near the Gulshan office and left the scene. The two youths later got down from the car at Bijoy Sarani.
Meanwhile, BNP senior joint secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Sunday described it's part of culture that Khandaker Delwar's son and his friend are accused of bomb blast in front of Khaleda Zia's Gulshan office and refuted the allegation.
"Our political culture is like this. If anything happens we blame each other," Fakhrul told reporters at the party's Nayapaltan central office replying to a question on government allegation.
He said investigation is going on into the bomb incident and hoped that real culprit would be exposed. But the people are in doubt about the investigation.
Regarding Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's statement about enhanced security steps for leader of the opposition Khaleda Zia, he said BNP and people will be happy if the government provides SSF coverage for her.
On AL general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam's remarks that SSF coverage of the opposition leader was withdrawn while BNP was in power, Fakhrul said it was a lame excuse. The situation was quite different at that time. "We are worried in the context of prevailing situation."

Editorial

Rising inflation

The inflation rate in the country has taken an alarming turn causing widespread concerns among different circles. According to media reports, the overall inflation rate on a point-to-point basis in December last year reached 8.51 percent, and in the urban area food inflation reached double digit after 14 months mainly due to increasing price of rice. The inflation rate was 7.24 percent in November last year. According to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics data, both food and non-food inflation was on the rise. Food inflation stood at 9.50 percent in December compared to 7.84 percent in November. Non-food inflation rose to 7.04 percent in December, which was 6.44 percent in November.
More difficult days appear to be lying ahead specially for the common men as inflation rate continues to rise steadily mainly because of rising food prices. Since January 2009, overall inflation rate fell every month till June when it came down to two percent on a point-to-point basis. But from July, inflation continued to increase every month. In September, the inflation rate was 4.60 percent. According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics estimate, the inflation rate for both food and non-food items has increased. In October the inflation rose to 7.78 percent.
The price of rice has increased sharply over the recent days in local markets. The administrative failure to manage the market and the new National Pay Scale which enhanced the salary of the government officials and employees substantially contributed to the increase of inflation. Besides, rise of prices in the international market may have created pressure on food prices in Bangladesh.
In the given circumstances, the respite available in the period till June last year due to fall of inflation to 2.25 per cent from previous year's over 10 percent has disappeared. Controlling prices of essentials was one of the major electoral pledges of the present government and it succeeded considerably at the outset of its rule in bringing down the price level. But with the passing of time the situation is apparently slipping out of its control as prices of various commodities are rising causing a spurt in the cost of living and making livelihood of the common people difficult. The failure of the government to keep the prices of essentials at 'tolerable level', as was promised by it repeatedly, may damage the people's confidence in the rulers and bring about political crisis for them.
Against this backdrop, the government should go all out for checking the price spiral of essential commodities, specially of food items, and controlling the inflation to save the people from possible economic debacle. It is difficult no doubt, but the government has to accomplish this task in the public interest.

  Earthquake in Chile

A devastating earthquake has ravaged Chile about six weeks after a similar quake caused catastrophe in Haiti. Science and technology have helped mankind discover, invent and conquer many places and things, but nature still remains beyond human control. Despite spectacular advancement of science, human beings are still terribly helpless before the fury of nature. This has again been evident from the deaths and destruction caused by the severe earthquakes that struck Haiti in January and Chile in late February causing innumerable human casualties and massive destruction of houses and properties. The poor country Haiti may take years to recover from the shock and devastation of the disaster.
About the situation in Chile an agency report said, heroism and banditry mingled on Chile's shattered streets Sunday as rescuers braved aftershocks digging for survivors and the government sent soldiers and ordered a nighttime curfew to quell looting. The death toll climbed to 708 in one of the biggest earthquakes in centuries. In the hard-hit city of Concepcion, firefighters pulling survivors from a toppled apartment block were forced to pause because of tear gas fired to stop looters, who were wheeling off everything from microwave ovens to canned milk at a damaged supermarket across the street.
Efforts to determine the full scope of destruction were undermined by an endless string of terrifying aftershocks that continued to turn buildings into rubble. Officials said 500,000 houses were destroyed or badly damaged, and President Michele Bachelet said "a growing number" of people were listed as missing. "We are facing a catastrophe of such unthinkable magnitude that it will require a giant effort" to recover, Bachelet said. She signed a decree giving the military control over security in the province of Concepcion, where looters were pillaging supermarkets, gas stations, pharmacies and banks.
Media reports speak of the huge magnitude of the earthquake and of the widespread destruction and damages although the number of deaths appears to be much less than that in Haiti. However, in Chile also sufferings of the quake-hit people know no bounds. It is rather an irony that while many have died and lakhs of people are shelterless, some other people of the same country are engaged in looting intensifying the pains and miseries of the affected people. May be the problem will be eased following stern action of the army and administration.
The people of Chile are plunged into a humanitarian catastrophe. We mourn the dead and sympathise with the injured and affected people in Chile. We also hope that the world nations will come forward to help the earthquake victims there in every possible way and thus contribute to mitigating their sufferings.

Analysis

Deep freeze!

Perhaps, the solution is for both India and Pakistan to let be, till events take shape or a statesman, any statesman, takes the helm. Till then, they will do well to avoid an armed conflict and a major catastrophe.

Shahzad Chaudhry

India and Pakistan still reside in mediaeval times. Their responses are primordial, at least in interacting with each other, and no amount of education, progress and foresight dents the naturally held instinct. This, in fact, is a fit case for an anthropologic study: how do humans behave carnivorous at times when still appearing normal in all other facets of human existence? It is abominable, shameful and utterly gutter mindset.
They met at Delhi after 14 months of recalcitrance, with many of us going hee-haw over realism finally dawning upon the subcontinent. Many felt that India had finally realised the futility of the no-talks strategy; that India sensed being left out in the cold when some most essential issues on Afghanistan's future are about to be decided; and that perhaps some American influence may have finally nudged India to agree to talks with Pakistan. While the first two dwell around India's own interests and are linked to how it wishes to pursue its regional goals, the last leaves an uncomfortable allusion that talks with India are something that Pakistan seeks per se.
Pakistan has only itself to blame for such an implicit assumption. The extra keenness that the Pakistani leadership showed in their initial interaction with the Indians to win peace at all costs placed them at a certain perspective vis-à-vis the Indians that was less than salutary; they seemed dependent, unsure and weak. Their interlocutors greatly exploited this vulnerability and pushed Pakistan to such a position that soon became untenable with the larger security balance of interaction between the two nations.
There is an inherent proclivity within the Pakistani civil society and political elites to appear progressive and liberated through seeking fraternal relations with India. This is more of a reactive impulse to the overbearing and dominating position that the Pakistani establishment, both the military and the civil bureaucracy, tends to hold over the Pakistani state structures. The Pakistani establishment is deliberate, cautious and mostly plays safe in assuming a position on India, as indeed is the case with the Indian establishment. Whatever be the origin of the elite impulse for fraternisation, it tends to sit at variance with the larger national sentiment, and is the main source of the uncertainty that is seen as fickle responses of the interlocutors when establishments of both countries engage in parleys. That is why there tends to be a louder refrain that sans the establishment trappings, the political leadership tends to cover a greater distance when left entirely on their own in any such interaction.
In its current form, Pakistan is perhaps at its weakest on many counts in such an envisaged interaction. Internationally, Pakistan is perceived more as part of the problem than the solution, though in recent weeks this may have begun to change somewhat. Domestically, Pakistan's internal polity, leadership, governance, and all other indicators of societal stability are at their poorest; while its economy is stagnant and on drip-feed to survive. Militarily and notionally the state is stretched to its utmost limit. In such a state of relative weakness, there is more for Pakistan to lose in any such interaction. At the same time, Pakistan may just about be seen to be emerging from its strategic bind to the notion of 'strategic assets'; the economy having seen its lowest ebb has only one way to go; and, regionally, Pakistan's role as the guarantor of peace and security may have gained an inalienable recognition, almost granting it a prime position of responsibility to forge a regional solution to the difficult Afghanistan equation. Such positivity renders an improving Pakistan position of relative strength, auguring just the right moment to re-engage with India.
It is also a matter of the individual players who have at various times influenced how the relations between Pakistan and India shape up. A change of the National Security Advisor in the Indian establishment portends well for the region. Shiv Shankar Menon, the former foreign secretary, has replaced Narayanan in that position and that should help greatly. Menon is known as a proactive, engaging and thinking diplomat, who believes in the value of negotiation and engagement. He was the key to urging Manmohan Singh to sign the Sharm el-Sheikh agreement; just that the duo could not defend the stance back home and had to rescind under pressure.
Sharm el-Sheikh was actually a smart move by India, and Menon was able to extricate terrorism as a separate issue from the larger intractable gamut of the remaining dialogue. In another sub-clause of the same agreement, talks on terrorism were to go on unimpeded even if progress on other issues was seen to be negligible. The Pakistani side played victors by default when the Indians wrongly assumed the agreement a shameful submission, thereby saving the day for the Pakistani duo, who had walked into the Indian trap, hook line and sinker. The mere mention of the Balochistan problem with India was Pakistan's picking from the engagement, though it must still find effect in some shape or form. Pakistan should have returned the terrorism favour back to India on Balochistan but has not yet been able to seal the case.
Chidambaram, the home minister, makes up sufficiently for Narayanan's absence, and famously declared on the eve of talks that though he knew no progress was possible, it was to give a chance to those "who have hopes [of such talks]".
The Pakistani strategy too has become evident in the light of how the talks progressed. Not that it should have been under any illusion expecting India to say and behave in any other way than what they did; it nonetheless had the scenario well considered. If, by a stroke of luck, India would show a more progressive approach, Pakistan must go along; if however the Indian obduracy became apparent, the opportunity of media engagement must be used to enunciate the entire ambit of Pakistani concerns. This was well articulated as a strategy. Though in the final analysis, it all amounted to a zero-sum game and another grand strategic failure, frittering away the opportunity to break from the bind that has held the region back while the rest of the world plods merrily along.
In the case of India and Pakistan, it is impossible to predict, much less shape, events. Their relationship has almost, without fail, been led by events beyond the pale of the regular politico-bureaucratic leadership. This smacks of a grand leadership failure. Can the near-term promise anything better? One doubts it very much. Regardless of the grandstanding, playing to the gallery and populist diplomacy, both sides need to smarten up from their ineptitude. One notices an effort at damage control past the event, literally the morning after, to avoid the event being termed as a grand diplomatic failure. Perhaps, the solution is for both India and Pakistan to let be, till events take shape or a statesman, any statesman, takes the helm. Till then, they will do well to avoid an armed conflict and a major catastrophe.


Shahzad Chaudhry is a retired air vice marshal and a former ambassador of Pakistan

  Dialogue again?

The US has declared its intention of leaving Afghanistan and potentially holding a dialogue with the Taliban.

Gul Bukhari

With the recent announcement of the US strategy of possibly engaging the Taliban in a dialogue, to enable American troops to exit Afghanistan in the near to medium term, supporters of talks with the Taliban have discovered a newfound legitimacy for their old and thoroughly discredited idea of negotiating with the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
The new face of the argument goes thus: we always advocated negotiations and dialogue with the Taliban - now America is reduced to doing just that, which proves we were right. And if America can do it, then why not Pakistan?
Let's examine this claim and the substance it holds. First, let's take their support for dialogue before the Americans came to this conclusion: some years ago when the Taliban cheerleaders were arguing that military action was wrong and only dialogue could bring fruitful results, no one even knew what they meant by dialogue.
At that time, we questioned what the parameters of such a dialogue would be; was the other party reasonable; what was up for negotiation; what the Pakistani state was going to give up and in return for what.
Was it a withdrawal of troops, implementation of the militants' Sharia, a free hand to unleash a reign of terror (as evidenced post the Swat deal of 2009) in the militants' chosen territories in return for an end to terrorist activity in the settled areas? The cheerleaders never provided any clear answers.
The answers, however, became very clear as time went by. The state made the flawed Swat deal and all hell broke loose. Predictably, with their sights set on the entire country, the Taliban moved into Shangla and Buner precipitating the Swat operation, which led to an unprecedented refugee crisis within the country.
Even earlier, with the continuing US and Nato war in Afghanistan, many Afghan Taliban leaders fled to North and South Waziristan while Mullah Omar and his commanders formed the Quetta shura in a settled area of Pakistan to command the ongoing war in Afghanistan. Various 'negotiated' truces between Pakistan and the militants bore no fruit for the Pakistani state and in fact allowed the establishment of a state within a state in the tribal belt.
This then was the outcome of negotiations and dialogue. May one ask how in the eyes of dialogue supporters the tendency to negotiate away parts of the country to be taken over by national and international terrorists stands vindicated by the new US strategy for Afghanistan? Negotiating, from Pakistan's perspective, was, and remains, an unmitigated disaster.
Fast forward to the present time. The US has declared its intention of leaving Afghanistan and potentially holding a dialogue with the Taliban. How does that suggest we follow suit? There is not even a semblance of a parallel in the situations the two countries face.
First, the US plans on negotiation only from a position of strength after having debilitated the most rigid and intransigent elements within the Afghan Taliban with a view to reconstructing, securing and settling the areas as they clear them - enter troop surge and the Mushtarak operation in Helmand province, and Pakistan's role in a suddenly accelerating successful campaign to decapitate the Afghan as well as Pakistani Taliban movement.
Second, and the most important element of the scenario, is that the US is located thousands of kilometres away from this region. And as long as the Taliban with a stake in the Afghan power structure do not provide sanctuary to organisations like Al Qaeda, threaten neither the Americans' interests nor their way of life, the US could not care less what they get up to in their own country: it doesn't matter what happens to the women, the children, in fact, civilisation as long as the US is not threatened (and the Taliban have indicated that Al Qaeda will not be hosted in their country).
Is Pakistan in the same situation? Can we negotiate and hand over our own country to the Taliban and move out the 170 million of us to a remote continent-island thousands of miles away? We live here; this is our country and we care about our way of life. The Taliban simply want to take power by force and impose their writ on the whole country. Predictably, as before, the disingenuous 'negotiation' argument is completely lacking in substance. It relies for validation only on the fact that the US is signalling its willingness to have a dialogue. Advocates of dialogue with the TTP choose not to think about why the US is willing to hold dialogue, nor to examine exactly what they themselves mean by a dialogue.
On the one hand, Taliban apologists criticise any aping of the West, on the other they are now using examples of the US as a crutch for senseless ideas, which, given the fact that millions of Pakistanis cannot flee from their own country like the US from Afghanistan, is the most illogical and suicidal option for Pakistan.
Pakistan is a civilised, democratic country belonging to Pakistanis. We need to retain our country on our terms, neither negotiating with the terrorists nor relinquishing the writ of law to them. Pakistan can only negotiate from a position of strength after having defeated militancy. The only olive branch on the table ought to be to lay down arms, reintegrate with civilised society with jobs and livelihood, form a political party and work for a stake in decision-making through political and democratic structures.

Viewpoints

Israel as a rogue state

A settlement of the Palestinian question remains a precondition for a real breakthrough in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Muslim world.

Praful Bidwai 

Overwhelming evidence has now emerged that Israel's notorious secret service Mossad assassinated Mahmoud al-Mabhough of the Palestinian-Islamist group Hamas in Dubai on January 20. Closed-circuit television footage of the operation, available at www.youtube.com, leaves little room for doubt of Mossad's involvement.
According to the London Sunday Times, the plot was approved by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, no less. Mossad is believed to have 48-50 members in assassination teams called Kidon, in addition to 100 field agents termed Katsa. The criminality of al-Mabhough's killing stands compounded by the use of forged passports of British, Irish, French and German citizens of dual nationality living in Israel. These included one diplomatic passport.
Mossad's cold-blooded murder of an unarmed man is patently illegal and indefensible. Israel has recklessly used such illegal means to the point of jeopardising its intelligence-sharing and diplomatic relations with friendly countries. In the 1980s, the UK government shut down Mossad's British operations after it forged British passports. But Mossad habitually practises such means in many countries, barring the US.
The west's reaction to the assassination has been mild and timid, although it flagrantly breaches international law, besides elementary norms of civilised conduct. The British foreign secretary's "outrage" was targeted more at the forgery of British passports than at al-Mabhough's murder, surely an incomparably greater offence.
If an Iranian agency had been implicated in murdering an Iranian resistance member, an emergency UN Security Council meeting would have been convened, and stiff sanctions imposed. Israel must be censured for al-Mabhough's assassination. It's legitimate for Mossad to gather intelligence, but lawful states don't assassinate their opponents.
Israel has long used assassination as state policy, and killed numerous opponents from Fatah, Hamas and Hezbollah - most famously, Hezbollah's Abbas al-Masawi in the early 1990s, and Hamas's wheelchair-bound, nearly blind, quadriplegic Sheikh Yassin in 2004.
The world must tell Israel that this won't be tolerated. Not only are non-judicial executions morally repugnant. They will eventually jeopardise the safety of western and Israeli citizens. Assassinations have often been used by colonial governments to decapitate liberation movements. But they at best cause a temporary setback. Soon, new leaders or more militant organisations emerge.
So far, Hamas has confined its anti-Israeli activities to Israeli-Palestinian soil. If Mossad continues to target its leaders on foreign soil, then Hamas could also reciprocate, leading to more violence and mayhem.
Mossad is generally lionised in the media as a super-efficient, flawlessly-run agency. But Mossad has often bungled. In 1973, it killed a Moroccan waiter in Norway, mistaking him for a Palestinian guerilla. In 1997, it tried to assassinate Hamas leader Khaled Mashal in Jordan by spraying nerve toxin into his ear, but failed; its agents took shelter in Israel's embassy and the US forced Israel to produce the antidote for the poison.
In 2004, New Zealand imposed sanctions on Israel after two suspected Mossad agents were jailed for six months for trying to obtain false passports - one in the name of a quadriplegic man who had been unable to speak for years.
Mossad has had some big successes, as in kidnapping nuclear whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu from Rome (1986), and in killing a Canadian ballistics expert, Gerald Bull, in Brussels (1990). Israel considered killing Vanunu too, but eventually jailed him for 18 years after a secret trial. Its successes are often achieved repulsively and at a high cost. Al-Mabhough was attacked with a stun-gun, tortured and smothered, besides being shot.
His assassination follows Israel's ruthless policy of consolidating its occupation, expanding illegal settlements, and tightening its economic hold over Palestinians - in defiance of Security Council resolutions and global opinion.
Israel's daily infliction of pain and humiliation on the Palestinians, its policy of pauperising them, and controlling their physical movement, makes classical colonialism look like a picnic. No Palestinian may go to his field, cross a village, or earn a living without the Israeli state's permission.
Israel has turned the Gaza Strip into a wretched, open-air prison. People's movement in the West Bank is severely regulated through 700-900 checkpoints, barriers and closures (state-imposed bandhs) - as many as 100 a year.
The 20-kilometre drive between Jerusalem and Ramallah, the capital of non-sovereign Palestine, takes Israelis 20 minutes. A Palestinian could take between two hours and forever. Scores of Palestinian women, stuck at barriers and denied ambulances, are forced to give birth without medical attention.
Israel imposed the unjust 1992 Oslo accords on the compromised Yasser Arafat leadership, but reneged on them. Arafat and his protégé Mahmoud Abbas - now Palestine Authority president - were systematically isolated and weakened. Abbas's writ doesn't extend to Gaza, leave alone East Jerusalem, Palestine's historic capital. The PLO recognised Israel and agreed to keep only 22 per cent of Palestine's original area. But that wasn't generous enough for Israel, which thieved yet more land and water from the Palestinians.
Successive US governments have coddled Israel, protected it from sanctions despite violations of UN resolutions, and pumped huge economic and military aid - equivalent to $1,000 for each citizen. President Bush was particularly indulgent and all but legitimised illegal settlements. He even denied the Palestinian refugees uprooted by the 1948 Nakba (catastrophe) their right of return - a fundamental international right.
President Barack Obama raised hope by reiterating his support for talks for an independent Palestine in his Cairo University address last June. But Obama hasn't reined in Israel's rogue-like regime. Instead he has dropped US insistence on freezing settlements. Other western powers like France periodically make the right noises, but don't act effectively.
Israel is trying hard to gain diplomatic space by courting small and weak states in Africa and Asia. It has also built a strong military-supply and intelligence-sharing relationship with India. India, which long advocated an independent Palestine, now cravenly sides with Israel and didn't even unequivocally condemn the 2008 invasion of Gaza, for which Israel stands indicted by the UN's Goldstone Report.
Israel cynically exploits India's fear of terrorism by offering anti-terrorism expertise and equipment. India is now Israel's biggest weapons customer and is buying equipment including sophisticated anti-missile systems. Israel often jumps the military bidding process by setting up joint ventures with India's public sector arms procedures.
This unhealthy relationship is unbecoming of an emerging power with a history of non-alignment. Israel's roguish conduct is one of the greatest barriers to peace in West Asia. The fear of Israeli power is used by countries like Iran to escalate uranium enrichment and crack down upon domestic dissidents.
Hundreds of Iranian dissidents have been rounded up for protests against the recent allegedly rigged presidential elections and for their sympathies for domestic reformists. Some are falsely charged with spying, which attracts the death sentence.
One such Iranian is social scientist Kian Tajbakhsh, who was married to an Indian and has visited South Asia many times. (For more information, visit www.freekian09.com.)
The more Israel acts like a rogue, the more it will encourage the persecution of people like Tajbakhsh, and inflame anti-west sentiment in the Arab world, fuelling turmoil, unrest and violence.
A settlement of the Palestinian question remains a precondition for a real breakthrough in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Muslim world. This can only happen if Israel is tamed, effectively delegitimised as a law-abiding state, and punished - instead of being indulged.


The writer, a former newspaper editor, is a researcher and peace and human-rights activist based in Delhi. Email: prafulbidwai1@yahoo.co.in

  The song and the singer

Life, of course, as the lines of that song say, makes you laugh sometimes, and cry at other times.

J Sri Raman   

Vajpayee is projected as the party's "moderate face" though it was under him as the prime minister that India witnessed the worst ever post-Independence atrocities against the Muslim and Christian minorities in Gujarat and Orissa respectively, while nuclear militarism was raised to the level of state policy
"Zindagi kaisi hai paheli, haaye, Kabhi to hansaaye, kabhi yeh rulaaye" (Ah, what a riddle life is, Sometimes it makes you laugh, sometimes it makes you cry).
That was yesteryear's superstar Rajesh Khanna singing along a seashore, in the melodious voice of Manna Dey, in the memorable Hindi film 'Anand' of 1971. It was also Nitin Gadkari, the new president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), regaling members of the party's national executive at the end of a three-day meeting on February 17, 2010, with the same lyrics.
Interpretations of this rare political event could vary. A film-based reading may not be very flattering to the party. On the screen, the singer was an incurable cancer patient, facing his fate with philosophical equanimity. Gadkari could be seen as trying to impart a similar outlook to a terminally sick party. But no, this was not how the BJP and its suddenly merry band in the media preferred to read the message.
The times have changed - this is the construction the party and its media pals prefer to put on the lines from the soulful past of an always song-centred cinema. The time for crying over the last parliamentary election debacle, culminating in the dethronement of Lal Krishna Advani, they seem to say, is past. Now is the time to laugh, if you listen to them, and Gadkari is the cause of their glee.
Just months ago, the same people, especially the non-party pundits, professed concern over an open bid by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to take over the BJP. The patriarch of the 'parivar' (the far-right 'family'), it was argued, should stick to "nation-building" and stay out of the nitty-gritty of politics. Today they assert with equal vehemence that the RSS nominee for the top BJP post is the best thing to have happened to the party.
The name of Atal Bihari Vajpayee may not have figured in this context, but Gadkari is certainly being glorified as the substitute the party and the 'parivar' have been seeking for the aged and ailing former prime minister. Several party luminaries have hailed him as the "Vikas Purush" (Development Man), a title that once belonged to Vajpayee, as distinct from the "Lauha Purush" (Iron Man), the label stuck on Advani. Everyone has forgotten the fact that Gadkari himself called Narendra Modi, who has made Gujarat synonymous with an anti-minority pogrom, the "Vikas Purush" in an earlier rally in Rajkot.
Equally forgotten is an even larger fallacy. Vajpayee is projected as the party's "moderate face" though it was under him as the prime minister that India witnessed the worst ever post-Independence atrocities against the Muslim and Christian minorities in Gujarat and Orissa respectively, while nuclear militarism was raised to the level of state policy. The man from Mumbai is also held up as a model of moderation, despite his decades-long association with a party and the 'parivar' involved in a series of communal riots and its staunch alliance with the Shiv Sena of an inimitable mix of religious-regional intolerance.
The new BJP chief is supposed to have made a noteworthy departure from the party line by speaking on the issue of price rise at Indore. Builders of a Gadkari cult are busy pretending that the party had never raised economic issues ever before. The slogan of 'Shining India' might have cost the party dearly in the general elections of 2004, but this was not the first or last instance of the BJP's political interest in bread-and-butter issues.
Neither the party nor the 'parivar', however, has ever concealed the fact that "cultural nationalism" of a socially divisive and destructive kind remains their core concern and ideology. Gadkari and others, in fact, have stressed that their ardour for the Ayodhya cause has not dimmed a bit despite the importance accorded to inflation in the party's current agenda.
The BJP's new-speak is not unconnected to the State Assembly elections in Bihar that may be held as early as October. This is a difficult terrain for the party to tread. The party has to explain to the voters here its alliance with the Bihari-bashing Bal Thackeray and his Sena in Maharashtra. Its ally in Bihar - the Janata Dal (United) Chief Minister Nitish Kumar - has made it clear that that Modi is not welcome to electioneer here and endanger its prospects. After the Bihar battle, the BJP may start singing a different tune.
Meanwhile, Gadkari appears a godsend to media gurus who have been telling tirelessly ever since the last general elections of the need for a "healthy opposition" in a democracy. However, can there be a more sick and sickening opposition than a sworn enemy of peace in the country and the region?
Life, of course, as the lines of that song say, makes you laugh sometimes, and cry at other times. So, when you come to think of it, does the BJP.


The writer is a journalist based in Chennai, India. A peace activist, he is also the author of a sheaf of poems titled At Gunpoint

  No signs of reconciliation

Sri Lanka’s Rajapakse has not extended a magnanimous hand to the Tamils.

Colby Pacheco      

Wasting little time in seizing upon his 17 point electoral victory, President Mahinda Rajapaksa quickly consolidated his power by having his opponent General Sarath Fonseka arrested. Fonseka was detained on February 8th, accused of plotting to assassinate President Rajapaska and seize control of the government. This then led to 14 senior army officialls being forced to resign, accused of being in conspiracy with the General and approximately 40 serving and former soldiers arrested - about half of whom have now been released.
A government spokesman, Keheliya Rabukwalla, told reporters that the general's crime was to have engaged in opposition politics before his retirement. Mr. Rabukwalla said that while General Fonseka was till a member of the country's Security Council last year, "he had many connections and many dealings with various other political parties' leaders who had been working against the government - and this amounts to treason, to some extent."
Further pleading the government's case, Sri Lanka's defense minister, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, who is the President's younger brother, spoke with reporters from The Straits Times. In his interview, he blamed General Fonseka for a host of charges, including war crimes committed during the military's final offensive last May, the long detention of Tamil civilians in camps after that battle ended and even the killing of Sri Lankan journalists. He also blamed the US and other "western" governments such as Norway for backing Fonseka's campaign.
The Sinhalese majority had mostly voted for the president, whom they credit with ending the country's civil war between Government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and appear complacent about the erosion of civil liberties under his rule.
As the perceived architect of the triumph over LTTE forces, President Rajapaksa, has drawn accolades from Sinhalese Buddhist clergy proclaiming him the "Universally Glorious Ruler of the Sinhalese". Such hyperbole points to the still cavernous divide between ethnic Sinhalese and Tamils.
Tamils in Sri Lanka unquestionably have serious grievances. Favored by British colonial administrators for their high education levels and linguistic skills, they aroused resentment among the Sinhalese beginning more than a half century ago. In 1956, Prime Minister Solomon Bandaranaike, adopted a policy that made Sinhala the sole national language and gave prominence to Buddhism, practiced by the majority of the Sinhalese.
It was hoped that a Sinhalese-led government in Colombo would be expected to take the opportunity to extend a magnanimous hand to the Tamils, if only to insure lasting peace. However, President Rajapaska's paranoid actions of locking up defeated opponents - though also ethnically Sinhalese - would indicate that he is in no position to start reconciliation efforts.
Seizing on his defeat and subsequent detetion of General Fonseka, the President has dissolved the country's parliament, paving the way for parliamentary elections on April 8th - two months ahead of schedule. President Rajapaksa is hoping to parlay his recent electoral success into a robust victory for his United People's Freedom Alliance in Sri Lanka's legislative branch.
General Fonseka's detention has limited his access to political colleagues within his opposition alliance, itself a strange amalgam which includes Tamils and the leftist JVP. Without contact with a unifying leader, the alliance appears likely to fray in coming weeks.
Therefore, the government looks well poised to attain its proclaimed objective of a two-thirds majority in the forthcoming general elections. A two-thirds majority in Parliament would enable President Rajapaksa to push through changes to the Constitution at will, without needing the support of opposition political parties, including those representing the majority of the ethnic minorities.
This amounts to yet more bad news for the Tamil minority, which has already grown weary of repressive measures on civil society. The Tamil cultural and historical capital, Jaffna, was heavily damaged by the Sri Lankan military and needs rebuilding. And Tamil families struggling back to normal life after months in detention camps set up after the war last spring are lacking basic necessities, yet it appears that little more than lip service will be paid to these problems.
The government also fears a reassembled LTTE. The International Crisis Group (ICG), a Belgium based NGO, does not see a reemergence of the LTTE as a possibility, instead they argue that the large Tamil diaspora could threaten reconciliation efforts. In a report released Tuesday titled "The Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora after the LTTE" the ICG says the Tamils outside Sri Lanka continue to support a separate state, and the diaspora's money can ensure it plays a role in the country's future. However there is virtually no domestic or international backing for the separate Tamil Eelam state that the diaspora would like to see.
The ICG report goes on to claim that the overseas Tamils' profound commitment to Tamil Eelam has widened the gap between the diaspora and Tamils in Sri Lanka, who are less interested in a separate state than they are in rebuilding their shattered lives. The ICG believes that until the diaspora moves on from its separatist, pro-LTTE ideology, it is unlikely to play a useful role supporting a just and sustainable peace in Sri Lanka.
To begin the process of national reconciliation and instill functioning democratic institutions, the Sri Lankan government needs to address the legitimate grievances at the root of the ethnic conflict. This will ensure that the current peace is a lasting one and include disenfranchised Tamils in the policy making process. Unfortunately for the Sri Lanka, there is little in Presidnet Rajapaksa's recent actions that would suggest even a semblance of stability, let alone national reconciliation. The President seems more content to lash out at his enemies than to foster national unity.


Colby Pacheco is a Master of Pacific International Affairs (MPIA) graduate of the Graduate School of International Relations & Pacific Studies, University of California, San Diego and an Asia Chronicle Research Fellow.

International

Saudi Arabia urges unity among Pak leaders
Dawn Online, Riyadh

Deeply concerned over activities of Al Qaeda and Taliban in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia has urged Pakistani leaders to unite to thwart the designs of the extremists.
"Pakistan is a friendly country. Anytime one sees a dangerous trend in a friendly country, one is not only sorry but worried," Saudi Foreign Minister Saud Al Faisal told Indian journalists after a meeting with visiting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
It was the duty of all political leaders in Pakistan to unite to ensure that extremists did not achieve their objectives, he said.
Answering a query, he said: "There is no relation between Saudi Arabia and Taliban. Our relationship was abrogated when Taliban gave sanctuary to Al Qaeda. Since then and till today we have no relations with Taliban. That will give you an indication of how seriously we look at the issue."
Indian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Talmiz Ahmed told reporters that Prime Minister Singh during his meetings with the Saudi leadership was expected to stress the need for Pakistan to dismantle the 'terror infrastructure' on its soil.
He said a Saudi initiative to rehabilitate extremists by enlightening them about the non-violent principles of Islam would also be discussed.
He said there was deep concern both in India and Saudi Arabia about the sense of insecurity and instability across West Asia and parts of South Asia, from Palestine to Pakistan.

  Two blasts hit Afghanistan’s Kandahar, six dead
Reuters, Kandahar

Two blasts hours apart killed at least six people on Monday in Afghanistan's southern city of Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban whose fighters are being targeted in a renewed push by NATO-led troops.
Afghanistan's spy agency on Monday also banned media from covering Taliban attacks without its permission, saying such coverage only emboldened the Islamist militants. NATO-led troops are trying to drive the Taliban out of their strongholds as part of a plan to hand control of the country to Afghan forces before a planned U.S. troop drawdown in July 2011.
In Monday's first blast, a suicide bomber blew up a car as International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops passed in convoy on a road several miles from Kandahar airport. "Four civilians were killed and one wounded in the attack," said Mohammad Ibrahim, a doctor in a Kandahar hospital. Several soldiers were wounded. The Taliban said in a statement the explosion killed at least 11 foreign soldiers but NATO said only one was killed.
A coalition helicopter evacuated the wounded, and a bridge close by was badly damaged, a Reuters journalist said.
The airport is a key base for a major offensive by ISAF and Afghan forces launched in neighboring Helmand province two weeks ago to retake the town of Marjah and the surrounding district.
The Afghan civilians were killed after they pulled their car to the side of the road, a common act in rural areas to allow convoys of foreign forces to pass, witnesses said.
Hours later, a car packed with explosives blew up outside the main police station in Kandahar, the spiritual home of the Taliban in Afghanistan and next expected target of NATO troops. The second Kandahar blast killed one police officer and wounded 16 people, including nine police, said Fazl Ahmad Sherzad, deputy police chief for Kandahar province.

  Attorney-General opposes NRO review petition
Dawn Online, Islamabad

Pakistan Attorney-General Pakistan has opposed the government's decision to file a review petition regarding the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) verdict in the Supreme Court, DawnNews has learnt.
Sources close to Attorney-General Anwar Mansoor quoted him as saying that since the review petition carries a very slim chance of any success, therefore the government should not go ahead with it.
The Attorney-General said the review petition will further complicate matters for the government.
However, Law Minister Babar Awan did not agree with the Attorney-General's advice.
Sources say due to differences between the Law Minister and the Attorney-General, the government has yet to file the review petition.

  Srinagar shutdown paralysises normal life
ANI, Srinagar

A shutdown call given by the separatist Hurriyat Conference against Chinkipora Sopore incident paralysed normal life in Srinagar, as the streets wore a deserted look on the day of Holi festival.
Public transport remained off the roads, shops and other business establishments were closed and people largely stayed at their homes.
The security personnel staged a flag march to avoid any untoward incident. The authorities have clamped curfew in downtown areas of the city to prevent protest march by the separatists.
Feroz Ahmad, a resident of the city said, "The Hurriyat Conference has given the call (for shutdown) against the Sopore incident in which people"s house have been destroyed and they have been rendered homeless in motor shelling by the army."
"Today, Kashmir is observing shutdown and we are supporting the shutdown," he claimed.
Police and Para-Military forces have been deployed in large number to maintain law and order.
Syed Ali Geelani led faction of the outfit gave the appeal of shutdown.
At least 17 houses were completely destroyed and 15 partially damaged at Chinkipora Sopore in army action following a gunfight with militants that left four troopers including a Captain and two militants dead.
The devastation rendered over 100 people homeless.

  Nepal Maoists accuse India of instigating Tibetans
IANS, Kathmandu

Nepal's former Maoist guerrillas have accused India of instigating anti-China activities in Nepal.
The Maoist mouthpiece, the Janadisha daily, Monday said Nepal was becoming the playground of supporters of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader whose government-in-exile runs from Inddia's Dharamshala town. The Maoist report came after a spurt in the number of Tibetan refugees trying to escape from China-controlled Tibet to Dharamshala through Nepal.
In the last seven months, Nepal police have arrested 40 Tibetans in Dolkaha alone, a district in northern Nepal near Tibet, after they were found travelling without any documents. Of them, 15 are women.
A Nepali daily Monday reported that the increased flight of Tibetans through Dolakaha had caused concern in the Chinese embassy in Kathmandu with a two-member team of Chinese officials visiting the district to hold talks with border and police officials.
Three villages in Dolkaha share the border with Tibet.
The Nagarik daily also said that the Chinese officials had alleged that the Tibetans were heading for Dharamshala to receive training in terrorist activities targeting the Chinese government.
The Maoist daily claimed that large sums of money were being spent to bring the Tibetans into Nepal.
It was being claimed that the money was given by India, though there were no official comments, the paper said.
The Maoists, now sitting in the opposition, also used the Tibetan refugee issue to flay the present coalition government, saying it was unable to prevent anti-China activities though it continued to say it supported the One China policy of Beijing that regards Tibet to be an integral part of the Chinese republic.

  Online petition seeks release of Sri Lankan opposition leader

Internet

The Sri Lankan opposition on Monday launched an online petition seeking the release of former army commander and opposition presidential candidate General Sarath Fonseka. The petition was the brainchild of former chief justice Sarath N Silva and opposition politicians to protest Fonseka's detention by military police on charges of conspiracy.
The former chief justice, who supported the general in his failed bid for the presidency in January, said Fonseka's arrest on February 8 did not comply with military law.
Military regulations can only be applied to serving military officers, not those such as Fonseka who have retired from service, Silva said.
Fonseka's relatives and supporters attended the event to launch the online petition, including his wife, Anoma Fonseka, now leading the campaign to free her husband; the leader of the opposition People's Liberation Front party, Somawansa Amarasinghe; and Arjuna Ranatunga, former captain of the national cricket team. About 1,300 people signed the petition within hours of the website going online. The move was part of an intensification of the campaign to secure the release of the ex-army chief who spearheaded the military campaign against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam separatist rebel group, defeating it in May after a 26-year civil war.
Soon after the end of the war, President Mahinda Rajapaksa appointed Fonseka to a more ceremonial military position, effectively demoting him from army commander and resulting in a falling-out between the two men.

  UK immigration laws discriminatory
ANI, London

Participants attending an Oxford University seminar have termed Britain's immigration laws discriminatory and unjust for Pakistani students.
The seminar titled 'New British immigration laws and their effects on Pakistani students', was held under the aegis of the Nawa-i-Waqt Group of Newspapers.
According to The Nation, the National Union of Pakistani Students (NUPS), a representative body of Pakistani students in the UK, and the immigration experts termed the new immigration laws discriminatory while the members of the European and UK parliaments also expressed their reservations over these laws.
NUPS Director General and an Oxford student Qasim Raza declared the recent changes in immigration laws as an injustice to the Pakistanis.
He said he had received numerous complaints that undue delay was caused in the issuance of visas resulting in loss of an academic year of a number of students.
He demanded of the Pakistani government to set up a network on High Commission level so that Pakistanis coming to the UK for getting education might be protected from falling prey to fake challenges.

  SKorea renews offer of incentives for disarmament
AP, Seoul

South Korea's president said Monday that he wants to achieve "genuine" reconciliation with North Korea through dialogue and renewed his offer of a package of incentives for the North's nuclear disarmament.
The North has recently reached out to Seoul and Washington following months of tension over its nuclear and missile program. A U.S. State Department spokesman said Friday that the North could rejoin international nuclear disarmament talks in coming weeks.
"For genuine reconciliation and cooperation ... South and North Korea must resolve many pending issues through a dialogue," President Lee Myung-bak said in a nationally televised address marking Korea's 1919 uprising against Japanese colonial rule.
North Korea "must discuss with sincerity the 'grand bargain' deal that we have offered," Lee said.
Lee's "grand bargain" would provide the North with a set of political incentives and economic aid in exchange for the irreversible dismantling of its nuclear weapons program in a single step, rather than the step-by-step process pursued in the past. The single-step process is aimed at preventing North Korea from backtracking on its commitments after receiving the aid.
"North Korea must show its sincerity to the international community with an action," Lee said.
Later Monday, about 50 conservative activists staged an anti-Pyongyang rally in Seoul, chanting slogans like "Blow up North Korea's nuclear facilities!" and burning the North's national flags. There were no immediate reports of clashes or injuries.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters Friday that the United States was encouraged by signs that North Korea might return to international talks aimed at ending the North's nuclear program in return for aid. The countries participating in the talks are North Korea, the U.S., Russia, China, Japan and South Korea.

 Indian PM: Palestinian state crucial for stability
AFP, Riyadh

India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Monday that an independent Palestinian state was key to Middle East stability and called on arch-foe Pakistan to "act decisively" against terrorism.
"There is no issue more important for peace and stability in the region than the question of Palestine," Singh told members of the Saudi Shura Council, the kingdom's appointed consultative body, in Riyadh.
"For far too long the brave people of Palestine have been denied their just, legitimate and inalienable rights, including most of all the establishment of a sovereign, independent and viable Palestinian state," he said.
Singh, on the third and final day of a state visit to Saudi Arabia, also said that good relations with India's neighbour Pakistan hinged on its actions against terrorism.
"Our objective is a permanent peace (with Pakistan) because we recognise that we are bound together by a shared future," he said.
"But to realise this vision, Pakistan must act decisively against terrorism. If Pakistan cooperates with India, there is no problem that we cannot solve," Singh said.
Nuclear powers India and Pakistan have fought four major wars since 1947, and New Delhi accuses its arch-foe of being implicated in several terror attacks over the past years.
A bilateral cooperation agreement which Singh signed with King Abdullah after talks late on Sunday also emphasized the need for an independent Palestinian state.
In the agreement the two leaders "stressed that Israel's continued building of settlements is a major obstacle to the peace process.
Before his arrival in the Saudi capital on Saturday, Singh told journalists that India's purchase of significant military hardware from Israel did not affect its stance on the Palestinian issue.

  Iran nuclear fuel deal ‘still on table’: IAEA chief
AFP, Vienna

A UN-brokered deal to supply Iran with fuel for a nuclear research reactor is "still on table", UN watchdog chief Yukiya Amano said Monday, although it appears to have been rejected by Tehran.
"The arrangement proposed by the agency in October 2009 remains on the table," Amano told the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-member board of governors.
"I believe it would ensure continued operation of the Tehran Research Reactor and serve as a confidence-building measure," he said in his opening address to the four-day meeting.
"At the same time, I am following up on Iran's February 18 request, in accordance with the IAEA statute, and have been in contact with the relevant countries," Amano said.
He was referring to a letter in which Iran said it was looking to buy the necessary fuel on the markets or is ready to do a swap on Iranian territory. Iran must refrain from 'adventurous' policy: Khatami Last week the IAEA received a written response from Iran to an international plan hammered out under the agency's auspices last October to supply fuel for a nuclear research reactor in Tehran that makes radioisotopes for medical purposes such as the treatment of cancer. The reactor's fuel is running low and Iran had asked the IAEA to find ways of securing fresh fuel. Under the IAEA's previous director general, Mohamed ElBaradei, the watchdog drew up a plan whereby Iran would hand over its stockpile of low-enriched uranium (LEU) to Russia for enrichment to the required level of 20 percent.

  Palestinian cabinet meets in Hebron over tomb row
AFP, Hebron, West Bank

The Palestinian Authority held its weekly cabinet meeting in the West Bank town of Hebron Monday to affirm its claim over a contested holy site at the centre of a growing row with Israel.
The meeting was called to "express that (the government) stands with the Palestinian people against the Israeli plan to Judaise the Islamic and Christian holy sites," cabinet director Naim Abulhummus said in a statement. The town has seen near-daily clashes between stone-throwing Palestinians and Israeli troops since Israel announced that the Tomb of the Patriarchs, revered by Muslims and Jews, would likely be included in a national heritage plan. The plan has also drawn international criticism, with Israel's key ally the United States calling it a "provocative" act that could further complicate efforts to relaunch peace talks suspended during the 2008-2009 Gaza war.
The Islamist Hamas movement has also slammed the move and on Monday sought to hold a special meeting of Palestinian lawmakers in the West Bank town of Ramallah but was prevented from doing so by Palestinian security forces. "We called this meeting to discuss Israeli threats against Islamic holy sites, but when we tried to enter the hall the door was locked," Hamas parliamentary speaker Aziz al-Dweik told reporters.

  Chile troops impose curfew in quake-stricken towns
Reuters, Concepcion

Chile's government scrambled on Monday to provide aid to thousands of homeless people in coastal towns devastated by a massive earthquake and tsunamis, as 10,000 troops patrolled to quell looting.
The 8.8 magnitude quake on Saturday killed 711 people and the death toll was expected to rise further as harrowing scenes of destruction emerged in isolated towns swamped by giant waves triggered by one of the strongest quakes in a century.
Many people were still missing in some communities in the worst-hit central region of Chile, which remained largely cut off by mangled highways and fallen telephone lines.
Surging waves ruined houses and smashed cars in fishing villages on the country's long Pacific coast. In the town of Constitucion alone, 350 people were reported to have died and a public gym was turned into a makeshift morgue.

  Iraq election brings regional rivalry into focus
Reuters, Baghdad

Outside powers, especially Iran and its U.S. foe, have huge stakes in Sunday's Iraqi election and the messy, maybe violent, political wrangling it may herald.
With U.S. troops to leave by end-2011, Iran seems well-set to expand the influence it has built up in Iraq since the 2003 invasion-from which it emerged arguably the main winner.
But Tehran will have to navigate a powerful counter-current of Iraqi nationalism that complicates its quest for a friendly, Shi'ite-led and preferably U.S.-hostile government in Baghdad. Conversely, President Barack Obama hopes the election will lead to a more secular, broad-based government that can keep Iraq stable enough to allow for a smooth U.S. troop withdrawal.
Iraq VP slams corruption,
urges a vote for 'change
AFP report adds: Iraq's Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi has warned that corruption and sectarian divisions were rife in his country but the March 7 general election was an opportunity to turn things around.
"Financial and administrative corruption as well as political sectarianism are destroying the state," Hashemi, Iraq's most senior Sunni Arab politician, told 3,000 Iraqi expatriates in the Jordanian capital late on Sunday.
In recent years, "Iraq has received 300 billion dollars, removed part of its foreign debt and received unprecedented international support through a government we have called the national unity government," he added.

  Turkey’s rift deepens with latest military arrests
Reuters, Istanbul

Turkey's crackdown on military officers accused of conspiring to topple a government they see fostering Islamist ambitions brings the country to a historic juncture and raises the prospect of deep social division.
The inroad into military power reached a new level at the weekend when two senior retired generals, both highly revered in the high command, were charged with plotting a coup.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan calls the dozens of arrests and indictments a painful, necessary process promoting democracy in the European Union membership candidate. The army, traditionally guardian of secular democracy in the face of a flawed and corrupt political culture, can no longer exist beyond judicial and government control, officials argue. Trials now loom for more than 30 officers charged last week over a supposed 2003 plot to create chaos, undermine the government and trigger a military intervention. "We are really going thro-ugh a historic period," said Cengiz Aktar, a leading Turkish columnist and author.
"The authority of the army has never before been challenged in this way in this country. The Armed Forces were non-accountable for what they said, what they did. For the first time they are being held to account."
Concerns have risen however that Turkey's secularist establishment, the higher judiciary and armed forces, will not countenance any further loss of power to a new political class of conservative Muslims, epitomised by Erdogan's AK party. Most Turks today believe the generals would not dare directly challenge the AK party, which has a huge parliamentary majority, and destroy newfound confidence in democracy.
Two officers charged in Turkish coup probe
Reuters adds: Two military officers were charged at the weekend over a coup plot, Turkish media said on Monday, part of a crackdown that has caused tension between the Islamist-rooted government and the secularist military.

  Dubai says hit team had 27th member, slams ‘insult’
Reuters, Dubai

Israel's intelligence agency Mossad has insulted Dubai and countries whose forged passports were used by its agents in the assassination of a Hamas military commander last month, Dubai's police chief said on Monday.
Police chief Dahi Khalfan also said a 27th member of team that killed Mahmoud al-Mabhouh last month in his hotel room had been identified, saying only that she was a woman.
Dubai murder suspects hiding out in Israel
AFP adds: Dubai's police chief said the suspects in a Hamas chief's assassination in the emirate are now hiding out in Israel to avoid arrest and urged the Jewish state to wage its wars at home.
"I say (the suspects) are in Israel. Israel says they are in Israel," police chief Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan told a news conference in the Emirati capital. "If they stay in Israel, they won't be arrested."

  China PLA officer urges challenging US dominance
Reuters, Beijing

China should build the world's strongest military and move swiftly to displace the United States as the global "champion", a Chinese PLA officer says in a new book reflecting swelling nationalist ambitions.
The call for China to abandon modesty about its global goals and "sprint to become world number one" comes from a People's Liberation Army (PLA) Senior Colonel, Liu Mingfu, who warns that his nation's ascent will alarm Washington, risking war despite Beijing's hopes for a "peaceful rise".
"China's big goal in the 21st century is to become world number one, the top power," Liu writes in his newly published Chinese-language book, "The China Dream".
"If China in the 21st century cannot become world number one, cannot become the top power, then inevitably it will become a straggler that is cast aside," writes Liu.
His 303-page book stands out for its boldness in a recent chorus of strident Chinese voices demanding a hard shove back against Washington over trade, Tibet, and arms sales to Taiwan, the self-ruled island Beijing claims as its own.
"As long as China seeks to rise to become world number one ... then even if China is even more capitalist than the U.S., the U.S. will still be determined to contain it," he writes.
Rivalry between the two powers is a "competition to be the leading country, a conflict over who rises and falls to dominate the world," says Liu.
"The China Dream" does not represent government policy, which has been far less strident about the nation's goals.

Business/Economy

BB introduces cell phone-based farm loan monitoring system

BSS, Dhaka

Bangladesh Bank (BB) has introduced farm loan monitoring through mobile phones.
Governor Dr Atiur Rahman today made the first phone call to a farmer to commence the monitoring system based on a modern and convenient technology. The farmer who received the call from a distant village was quite surprised at the phone call from the governor and was at utterly unbelievable state for moments.
Dr Atiur made few more calls from his office to farmers selected randomly from across the country and got similar initial response from them. The farmers who never think of receiving such phone calls also exchanged their views on farm loan disbursement with the government after managing their initial excitement.
Dr Atiur inquired about the problems that they used to face in getting loans from banks. All the contacted farmers replied in the negative.
He also made his query further clear by asking them whether they had to bribe the bank officials to avail farm loan. The farmers happily informed the governor that they noticed significant changes in the attitude of bankers in disbursing loan this year.
Mahabub Ahmed, a farmer from Sunamganj, informed the governor that he got a farm loan of Taka 36,000 without facing any problem. Similarly, Sunil Kumar Biswas from Rajbari said that he did not even trace any irregularities in lending this year.The governor, however, suggested them to report any irregularity directly to the monitoring cell of the central bank for remedy.

 Japanese entrepreneurs keen to invest in BD prime sectors

BSS, Dhaka

The visiting Japanese business delegation on Monday expressed their keen interest to invest in the country's prime sectors, including pharmaceuticals, construction and automobile.
The 10-member high-profile delegation, lead by George Hara, told a discussion meeting in the city that more interaction between the business communities of the two countries would help channel more investments to Bangladesh.
The meeting was held at the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) when the delegation visited the country's apex trade body. FBCCI President Annisul Huq invited the Japanese businessmen to invest especially in infrastructure and pharmaceuticals sectors.
"The investment can be joint-ventures with local entrepreneurs or pure foreign ventures," Annisul Huq said. The FBCCI president also briefed the delegation on the current economic development and the state incentive, which offer investors lucrative return on their investment.

  CDM may be major potential source of overseas financing in BD

BSS, Dhaka

Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) could become a major source of financial flows from emission offset markets for sustainable development.
But, barriers to expanding the mechanism exists at different levels, ranging from developing projects, lack of awareness and technical and managerial capacity to access to finance. Local and International CDM experts said this at a conference on 'CDM in Bangladesh-Lessons Learnt and the Way Forward' at a city hotel here today.
Addressing the inaugural session of the conference, State Minister for Environment and Forests Dr Hasan Mahmud urged all concerned to present the conception of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in more easy way and understandably so that people can get its benefit.
He pointed out that the CDM, a system that funds clean technology in developing countries has been a spectacular success for India and China. Close to 80 per cent of the CDM projects registered with the United Nations are from one of these two countries.
The ultimate objective of the CDM was to provide financial support to the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) for development through selling their carbon credit. But, due to lack of adequate idea about the complicate concept, the LDCs cannot tap the benefit of the mechanism, Dr Hasan said.
German cooperation enterprise GTZ arranged the conference on 'CDM in Bangladesh- Lessons Learnt and the Way Forward' with an objective to build awareness on climate change mitigation and adaptation facilities and identification and implementation of projects that can be developed with CDM.
Under CDM, for every tonne of carbon dioxide that doesn't enter the atmosphere, a developing country earns one carbon credit. It can sell these credits to rich nations through a global exchange. But from the beginning there were concerns about whether CDM would help all LDCs.
Dr Hasan said the carbon mitigation is now China and India's fastest growing market.But it's a very different picture for other 49 least developed nations.
China and India have over 1,000 each, but we have only two projects, he said adding 'as to why mockers dubbed it as 'China Development Mechanism'.

  Ship breakers, steel millers demand withdrawal of SRO
UNB, Dhaka

Ship breakers and steel and re-rolling millers have demanded withdrawal of recent statutory regulatory order (SRO) restricting the import of contaminated vessel on environmental ground.
Leaders of Bangladesh Ship Breakers Association, Steel and Re-rolling Mill Associations in a joint press conference Monday said SRO is impractical and it would help neighbouring India and Pakistan to grab Bangladesh's ship breaking business.
They, however, failed to come up with any alternative suggestion to protect environment from the pollution and frequent deaths of workers at the time of breaking imported old ships.
Chairman of Bangladesh Re-Rolling Mills Association Mohammad Ali Hossain on behalf of three organizations read out a statement at the press conference strongly demanding withdrawal of the SRO.
The SRO issued by the Commerce Ministry on January 26 said that any importer of the scrap vessel has to submit a certificate from the exporting country that the vessel is free from contamination and pollution.
Repeated incidents of explosions in ship breaking field in Chittagong resulting in death of workers and harsh criticism from the environmental groups had prompted the government to issue the SRO.
The environmental groups have welcomed the SRO, but the ship breakers vigorously opposed the government action.
The ship breakers went on strike on February 17 and stopped supplying raw materials to the steel and re-rolling mills protesting the SRO.
About 25 percent of raw materials of the steel and re-rolling mills come from ship breaking while the rest 75 percent comes from imported scraps and billets.
Vice-president of the Ship Breakers Association Mohammad Mohsin claimed that scrap ship exporting countries have no provision for issuing contamination-free certificate.
He said no country would agree to issue contamination free certificate. The ship breaking industry is bound to close down if the SRO is not withdrawn.
Mohsin said government should have consulted with ship breakers before imposing the restriction on import of crap vessels.

  Myanmar makes efforts to develop eco-tourism
Xinhua, Yangon

Myanmar is making efforts to develop Putao, a less-developed township in northernmost Kachin state, as eco-tourism destination, making use of its excellent potential for the industry.
The Putao township is endowed with rich biodiversity, pristine forest and picturesque scenes aided with better transport now.
The authorities called for developing accommodation, services and required infrastructure for the convenience of tourists coming to the area from around the world.
The authorities are desirous to transform Putao into the largest urban area of the northernmost part of the country with eco-tourism as its major revenue earner.
Myanmar official media occasionally stressed the need to boost ecotourism industry to develop economy, calling for collaborative efforts by the sector concerned to work for the comfort and convenience of world tourists and improvement of transport services to achieve in this end.
Noting that Myanmar possesses a large number of natural areas, the tourism authorities called for promoting the ecotourism as a steady stream of tourists visits the nation's habitats of biodiversity such as wildlife sanctuaries of Inndawgyi, Inlay, Moeyungyi, Meinmahla Island and Hukaung Tiger as well as Khakaborazi National Gardens.
In Southeast Asia, snow-capped mountain ranges are peculiar to Putao with the region gaining a good reputation for snow- covered mountain ranges captivating tourists.
Hoteliers believe that the region will be attractive to a greater number of tourists if it has international level resorts including a skiing camp and there is a road stretching to the area close to the snow-capped mountain.
Meanwhile, a private company-Myanmar Nwe Win is making feasibility study in cooperation with international enterprises on building an artificial beach in the Kachin state this year.
The project, lying near the bank of Ayeyawaddy river and being first of its kind in the country, will involve investment by the New Zealand Trades Enterprise Limited (NZTE) and other business enterprises from Japan, Australia and China.
Citing the Pokya Mountain elephant camp in Toungoo timber extraction region in the eastern part of Bago division, the authorities also encouraged tourists to visit forest reserve and enjoy natural scenic areas, calling for participation in conservation of rare birds and wildlife to stabilize the ecosystem in the wake of the fact that there are only nine endangered species out of 144 in the world can be found in Myanmar.
Golden deer, one of the nine species in existence in Myanmar, are being protected in Chatthin Sanctuary in northwestern Sagaing division, according to the authorities who also said though three kinds of species of the golden deer are found in South East Asia, there are now only Myanmar golden deer left.

  KSA assures Indian PM of oil supplies
PTI, Riyadh

Saudi Arabia has assured its "desire and readiness" to provide India with its "present and future" oil needs, a move that will help the country meet the growing energy requirements.
The assurance was given at a meeting between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Saudi Arabia's Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali Al-Naimi here on Sunday.
The two men held discussions on the state of the world's oil markets and the efforts being made by the Kingdom to bring stability to the markets.
The meeting also dealt with joint investments between the two countries. Al-Naimi also met the Indian Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Murli Deora to discuss mutually beneficial trade links.
Saudi Arabia said it will double the supply of crude oil to India to around 40 million metric tonnes (MMT) per annum, a move that will help India meet the growing needs of its refineries. The assurance came at the meeting between Deora and Al-Naimi here Sunday.
Earlier, addressing the Saudi-India Business Forum, organised by the Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Singh said, "We believe that conditions are ripe for moving beyond a traditional (oil) buyer-seller relationship to a comprehensive energy partnership.
We deeply value Saudi Arabia's role as a reliable partner in meeting our energy needs.

  Hong Kong-BD firm to expand industry in Adamjee EPZ
BSS, Dhaka

A Hong Kong-Bangladesh joint venture Company, Yester Accessories Company (BD) Limited, will expand their garments accessories manufacturing industry in Adamjee Export Processing Zone.
The company's investment of US$ 9.5 million proposed earlier will be increased to US$ 12.5 million, according to an agreement signed between the Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority and the company in BEPZ Complex here on Monday.
Due to this increased investment, there will be employment opportunities for 1,080 people including 40 foreign nationals in this company. Earlier employed 613 persons including 18 foreign nationals were employed in the company.
Md Moyjuddin Ahmed, Member (Investment Promotion) of BEPZA and Bishawjit Kar, Managing Director of the company signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organizations.
Among others, Brig Gen Jamil Ahmed Khan, Executive Chairman, Md. Shawkat Nabi, Secretary, A Z M Azizur Rahman, General Manager (Investment promotion) of BEPZA were present at the signing ceremony.

National

Lack of equipment at Biswanath health complex
Healthcare activities being hampered 

UNB, Sylhet

The healthcare activities at Biswanath upazila health complex are being hampered due to lack of necessary medical equipment and shortage of manpower much to the woes and worries of patients, especially the poor ones. The 31-bed hospital was built five kilometers away from the upazila Sadar at Kadipur under Rampasha union in 1984.
Hospital sources said 54 posts, out of 117, remained vacant since long. The vacant posts included medical officer, Surgeon, Anesthetist, Dental Surgeon, accountant, store keeper, cashier, office assistants, medical assistants, nursing supervisor, health assistants and assistant health inspectors.
The generator of the hospital remained out of order since a decade.
Two out of three ambulances also remained out of order.
The hospital sources said the doctors have to perform surgery under the candle lights when the electricity is off.
Locals alleged that doctors do not come regularly in the hospital. They spend their time in private chamber.
"Although the doctors have staff quarters at the hospital, they do not live in these quarters. As a result, the patients have to suffer much at night and they have to depend on quack doctors", said a local leader.
Rahima Begum, a patient of the health complex, alleged that doctors visited her only once in three days. Local people alleged that the poor people have to take treatment elsewhere as they do not get the doctors at the hospital timely. They said they have to buy medicines from outside at high prices. When contacted, Upazila Health and Family Planning Officer Hekmat Ali told UNB that he informed the higher authorities to take necessary measures to solve the various problems of the health complex.

  Parents’ proper care may keep children away from many diseases

BSS, Dhaka

Labib, aged one year, son of Rahmat Ali of Narsingdi sadar upazila, was admitted to Narsingdi Sadar Hospital recently with common cough and fever. His parents said he lost appetite during the last five days. His health condition, however, improved after receiving treatment at the hospital.
Physicians at the hospital said children aged between one and five fall victim to different diseases in winter. They advised parents for protecting their children from cold and give more nutritious foods to their children to prevent diseases in cold season.
Doctors said malnourished children easily fall victim to diseases commonly occur and the children suffer most. The case of Labib was not an isolated incident. Many children fall victim to diseases such as cold, pneumonia, fever, influenza, breathing problem, pain in throat and diarrhoea in cold season.
Physicians said children can be protected from many of these diseases and in some cases preventive measures can be taken so that children don't become weak after suffering from diseases. Parents should remain alert so that their children do not easily fall victim to diseases in any weather. Children should be given vaccination for prevention of diseases. Parents should teach their children to wash their hands regularly, which can help prevent many diseases.
Tahmina Begum, Professor, Paediatric Department, BIRDEM and Ibrahim Medical College, Dhaka, said pneumonia is the main cause of child mortality under five in developing countries like ours. Children die within two to three days if they are affected by pneumonia. About 40 lakh children die of this disease in the world every year.
Children aged below two years, suffer from malnutrition, deprived of breastfeeding, absence of vaccination for measles, TB, diphtheria and pneumonia, stay indoor and live in over populated and polluted areas, who frequently inhale smokes from smokers, generally fall victim to pneumonia.
If affected, the children should be immediately taken to physicians for treatment, said Dr Tahmina. She advised following steps for prevention of pneumonia.

 Wine, superstition and dowry causing domestic violence
BSS, Chapainawabganj

Wine, drugs, superstition and dowry are the main causes of domestic violence in Chapainawabganj and Rajshahi districts.
Centre for Mass Education in Science (CMES), an NGO said this at a press conference held at Chapainawabganj Press Club on Sunday. In the conference, members of a number of juvenile organizations under CMES cited some examples of torture on women.
Resmat Ara Monika, president of Damkura unit of Advanced Juvenile Organization in Rajshahi said that in her working area one Rehana Begum used to be tortured both mentally and physically by her husband on the excuse that she maintain extra marital l relationship with another person. But with the help of BLAST she was able to make her husband believe that she does not have such illicit relationship. Now they are leading a happy conjugal life. Sohel Rana, president of Gobratala zone under Chapainawabganj sadar upazila said that taking of drugs has been the main cause behind the torture on women in the area. Some dealers of palm juice, hemp and locally made wine have been doing brisk business in the area.
His organization has gathered that people who take these drugs frequently torture their wives and create nuisance in the area. Shaymali Aktar Seema, president of Alinagar unit under Gomostapur upazila in Chapainawabganj district said, as one Monira Begum failed to bear any baby her husband and in laws held her responsible for this and inflicted torture on her but her organization managed to bring peace through arbitration.
Besides them, Liton Mollik, organizer of Gobratala unit of CMES, Sayeed Hossain, organizer (gender) of the same unit, Sumon Bhattacharya, organizer (gender) of Elaipur unit and Mahbub Alom, organizer in charge of Kishori Avizan Project of Gobratala unit were also present in the conference.

  DU students urged to groom up themselves as complete person

BSS, Dhaka

Vice-Chancellor of Dhaka University (DU) Prof AAMS Arefin Siddique on MOnday advised the students to groom up themselves as complete persons. "Don't obtain mere degree. Rather try try to groom up as enlightened persons and the light of education should be spread in the society," he told a function here. The VC was addressing the freshers' and bade farewell students of Sociology Department of DU at TSC as chief guest. Chaired by Prof AI Mahbub Uddin Ahmed, chairman of the Sociology Department, the function was also addressed, among others, by Dean of Social Science Faculty, Prof Fariduddin Ahmed and senior professor of the department KM Saad'uddin.
Describing the DU as a seat of free-thinking practice, the VC said, the glorious role of Dhaka University in the unfolding of our nationhood and its flourishment would always be remembered. Siddique said the students of this university had led 1952's Language Movement, independence struggle and all other democratic movements of the country.
The VC said the students would lead the nation building activities in the future by upholding glorious history and heritage of the university.

  2nd round of NID, measles vaccination campaign held
BSS, Chuadanga

The 15-day long second round of the 18th National Immunization Day and measles vaccination campaign 2010 concluded here on Monday.
The second round of the NID and measles vaccination campaign had began on February 14 last.
Under the campaign, a total of 1,23,173 children upto five years of age were administered with measles vaccine and given two drops of polio vaccine.
Earlier on January 10, the first round of NID was observed when the same number of children were administered with two drops of polio vaccine, one vitamin A capsule and one deworming tablet.
A total of 993 centers were set up throughout the district for the purpose where a total of 5,100 volunteers and health department workers were engaged.

  Cheques distributed to reduce poverty
BSS, Rangpur

Rangpur pourasabha distributed cheques of Taka 25.90 lakh among 816 beneficiaries of the Community Development Clusters (CDC) under the ongoing 'Urban Partnership Project for Reducing Poverty' project in the city Sunday.
The money was distributed under the joint assistances of Rangpur pourasabha and UNICEF with the financial help of the DFID to ensure the overall socio-economic developments of the economically backward and distressed women and their children.
A simple ceremony was organised on the occasion at Rangpur pourasabha auditorium with Mayor of the pourashava AKM Abdur Rouf Manik in the chair.
Social worker and councilor of Rangpur pourasabha Azmal Hossain Lebu, Mahbubur Rahman Manju, Sekendar Ali, Abdul Wahab Jhunu, Town Manager of the project Joynal Abedin, Motoakkel Billah, Wali Ullah, Hasibul Alam and Shahidul Islam, addressed.
Besides, field workers of the project and beneficiaries including Biplob Banik, Gulshan Ara, Tozammel Haque, Arun Chandra Adhikari, Mina begum and Sunita Roy, also addressed the occasion.
The speakers urged the beneficiaries and project workers for ensuring proper utilization of the money in achieving the esteemed goals through reducing poverty of the economically backward women and children living in the city.
Later, cheques of over Taka 18.21 lakh were distributed among 386 apprentice beneficiaries, Taka 3.62 lakh among 281 beneficiaries in the agri-sector and Taka 4.05 lakh among 149 beneficiaries in the education sector for stopping school drop outs.

   Bangabandhu Novotheater Bill-2010 passed
BSS, Sangsad Bhaban

"The Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Novotheater Bill-2010" was passed in the Jatiya Sangsad on Monday.
State Minister for Science and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Architect Yafes Osman proposed for passage of the bill in an amended form in the House
Earlier on February 10, the state minister introduced the bill for setting up a center of excellence in space research.
While highlighting the aims and objectives of the bill, the state minister said under this bill, initiatives would be taken to create enthusiasm among the new generations to be eager to pursuit space research for enriching their knowledge and wisdom.
Going back to the past, he said with an objective to generate attractions and enthusiasm among the younger generations, the past AL government set up "Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Novotheater" in 1997.
"This 275-seat Novotheater, has, among other facilities, most modern planetarium, astronomical exhibits, a 150-seat auditorium and a conference room," he said.
He said that the salaries of its 40 employees and other
expenses are being maintained from lump sum grants from the concerned ministry. The present bill, he said, would help turn this institution into an autonomous body.

  ‘Bangladesh Hi-Tech Park Authorities Bill 2010’ passed
BSS, Sangsad Bhaban

"The Bangladesh Hi-Tech Park Authorities Bill 2010" was passed in the Jatiya Sangsad on Monday.
State Minister for Science and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Architect Yafes Osman proposed for passage of the bill in an amended form in the House.
Earlier on February 10, the state minister introduced the bill for setting up technology-based industries for creation of job-opportunities for millions of unemployed youths at home and abroad.
While moving the Bill, Osman informed the House that initiatives would be taken under this bill to set up knowledge and capital-intensive hi-tech industries that would be based on Information Technology [IT] , Information Technology Enabled Services [ITES] and Research and Development [R&D].
He further said that once the bill is passed, the existing IT Park, IT Village, Technology Park and Science Park would come under this authority .
The state minister highlighted the aims and objectives of the bill and said under this, initiatives would be taken for development of socio-economic conditions of the people by turning the huge unemployed population into skilled human resource.
"It would also help create job opportunities at home and abroad and at the same time stop draining out of brain," he said.
Osman said rapid industrialization of the country through implementation of modern and hi-technology is the only way to make the country a 'middle income nation'.
Although such a Hi-Tech park would be set up initially at Kaliakoir under Gazipur district, he said, such parks would be set up gradually in other parts of the country in an environment -friendly atmosphere.

Sports

Raisul reaches second round of ITF Junior Tennis
TBT report

Raisul Islam of Bangladesh reached the second round of the 24th Bangladesh ITF Junior Tennis Championship defeating Arpit Sharma of India in his first round competition on Monday.
Raisul defeated Arpit 6-3, 4-1 in the main draw of the boys' singles competition at Ramna National Tennis Complex in Dhaka.
In the other matches of the day, Qiu Shi Dong (China) beat Tsu Chun Huang (Chinese Taipei) 6-2, 6-0; Joo-Ho Maeng (Korea) beat Sheikh Hasibul Haque (Bangladesh) 6-1, 6-0; Arjun Kadhe (India) beat Biplob Ram (Bangladesh) 6-2, 6-4.
In the girls' competitions, Donna Vekic (Croatia) beat Ching-Wen Hsu (Chinese Taipei) 6-1, 6-1; Ratnika Batra (India) beat Sanae Ota (Japan) 6-3, 6-4; Kamonwan Buayam (Thailand) beat Huai Hsuan Huang (Chinese Taipei) 7-6, 6-3; Kanika Vaidya (India) beat Sarah Beth Askew (Great Britain) 6-2, 6-4; Rimpledeep Kaur Bath (India) beat Eden Silva (Great Britain) 4-6, 6-1, 6-4; Chu-Chen Chuen (Chinese Taipei) beat Shweta Rana (India) 6-2, 5-7, 7-5; Xianghong Yin (China) beat Sharda Sharmin Alam (Bangladesh) 6-0, 6-1.

  Zimbabwe stuns Windies in T20
AFP, Port of Spain

Graeme Cremer captured three wickets for 11 runs as Zimbabwe's spinners bowled the visitors to a stunning, 26-run victory over West Indies in a Twenty20 International here on Sunday.
Zimbabwe exploited West Indies' susceptibility to spin, as the home team, chasing a modest 106 for victory, was restricted to 79 for seven from their allocation of 20 overs to hand the visitors a win in the only T20I between the two sides in this series.
The Zimbabwe spinners shared all seven wickets with off-spinner Greg Lamb taking two for 14 from his four overs, while their captain Prosper Utseya and left-arm spinner Ray Price took one scalp apiece.
It was a complete reversal of fortunes, after Zimbabwe's batting at Queen's Park Oval was demolished by Darren Sammy and Sulieman Benn.
Choosing to bat, the visitors were dismissed for 105 in 19.5 overs, as Sammy collected five for 26 from 3.5 overs to trump Benn's four for six from four overs for the third-best figures in a T20I.
Only Umar Gul of Pakistan with five for six from three overs against New Zealand in a Twenty20 World Cup match last year at the Oval, and Nehemiah Odhiambo with five for 20 from four overs for Kenya against Scotland earlier this year in Nairobi now have better figures in a T20I than Sammy. Hamilton Masakadza hit the top score of 44 from 67 balls for the Zimbabweans, and Elton Chigumbura led a late charge with 34 from 19 balls to bring some respectability to the visitors' total. No other batsman passed 20.
Utseya and Price opened the bowling, and made life difficult for West Indies' openers Adrian Barath and Shivnarine Chanderpaul.
But Cremer swung the match decisively, when he bowled Kieron Pollard for one, and trapped Darren Bravo lbw for a first-ball duck in the ninth over to leave West Indies 32 for four.
Cremer turned villain, when he dropped Chanderpaul, on 16, at wide long-on off Lamb, but his miss was not costly. Lamb gained a palpable lbw decision over Chanderpaul in the 12th over to leave West Indies 39 for five, and though Denesh Ramdin, leading the home team in the absence of resting talisman Chris Gayle, tried to launch a late charge, the result was never in any doubt.
Earlier, Zimbabwe suffered a catastrophic start, when they slumped to 11 for four in the fifth over, after Benn, opening the bowling, removed Vusimuzi Sibanda, Tatenda Taibu, Stuart Matsikenyeri, and Brendan Taylor all for ducks in his spell.
Zimbabwe never fully recovered, although Masakadza and Lamb added 40 for the fourth wicket before Sammy came into the attack and ran through the bottom half of the visitors' batting.
This was the first T20I between the two sides ever. The two sides now play five One-day Internationals - the first is next Thursday, and the second two days later, to be played at the Guyana National Stadium.
The last three on March 10th, 12th and 14th will be contested at the Arnos Vale Multiplex in St. Vincent.

  Preliminary squad for T20 World Cup named
TBT report

Bangladesh Cricket Board announced a 30-member provisional Bangladesh squad on Monday for the ICC World Twenty20 Cricket Championship, staring in the West Indies on April 30.
The squad: Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mashrafe Mortaza, Mohammad Ashraful, Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Zunaed Siddique, Mahmud Ullah, Naeem Islam, Shahadat Hossain, Abdur Razzak, Rubel Hossain, Shafiul Islam, Syed Rasel, Aftab Ahmed, Alok Kopali, Nazmul Hossain, Dollar Mahmud, Mahbubul Alam, Faoysal Hossain, Mohammad Mithun, Shamsur Rahman, Mohammad Sohrawordi, Nazmul Hossain Milon, Jahirul Islam, Nasir Hossain, Rony Talakder, Robiul Islam, Elias Sunny and Alauddin Babu.

  Armanitola, Atorjan reach school hockey final
TBT report

Armanitola Government High School and Arjot Atorjan School reached the final of the Ecstasy 6th National School Hockey Championship winning their respective matches on Monday.
Armanitola Government High School thrashed Paisa High School of Munshiganj 7-0 to make it to the final at Moulana Bhasani National Hockey Stadium in Dhaka. The winners led the first half 6-0.
Earlier, Arjot Atorjan High School of Kishoreganj earned a hard-fought 3-2 victory over Narayanganj Zilla School to confirm its place in the final of the competition.
Armanitola Government High School and Arjot Atorjan High School are facing each other in the final of the competition today.
Both teams will feature in the final round of the 6th National School Championship, to be held in Dhaka later this month.
A total of 31 teams from six divisions are taking part in the 6th National School Hockey Championship, organised by Bangladesh Hockey Federation (BHF) with the sponsorship of Ecstasy, a garment business house of the country.

   Olympic champ Rice uneasy over Delhi security
AFP, Sydney

Olympic swimming gold medallist Stephanie Rice is the latest Australian sports star to voice safety concerns about competing in October's New Delhi Commonwealth Games, it was reported Monday.
Rice, 21, who won three gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, said she might not defend her Commonwealth 200 and 400 metres individual medley titles depending on how security for athletes in Delhi measures up.
"It's something that I have to give serious consideration," Rice told The Daily Telegraph.
"And if there is any serious or credible risk, then that will prompt a rethink. I just want to see what transpires in coming months."
Last week Australia's discus world champion Dani Samuels said she was prepared to skip the New Delhi Games over security fears.
Australia Foreign Minister Stephen Smith left on Monday for India where he plans to check on security arrangements for the Games, saying that the country was at "high risk" of terror attacks.
Smith said at the weekend that while a recent threat from a group linked to Al-Qaeda-which reportedly warned competitors against attending the field hockey World Cup, cricket's Indian Premier League and Commonwealth Games-was not credible, risks remained. Security in India has become a major issue after a recent bombing at a restaurant in the city of Pune which killed 16 people and the 2008 attacks on Mumbai.
The Commonwealth Games, the biggest sporting event in India since the Asian Games in 1982, will be held in New Delhi October 3-14.

  Bayern Munich regains top spot
AFP, Berlin

German giants Bayern Munich went top of the Bundesliga for the first time since winning the title in 2008 this weekend-back where it belongs, trainer Louis van Gaal believes.
"It is better to be top of the table, of course," Dutchman van Gaal said after a stunning goal from France international Franck Ribery enabled Bayern to see off fourth-placed Hamburg 1-0 on Sunday.
"Bayern should normally always be at the top."
Following a recent return to form under van Gaal, Bayern caught up Bayer Leverkusen at the top of the table a month ago but since then, the two rivals have been neck-and-neck, with Bayern second on goal difference. But Leverkusen blinked first this weekend against a heroic Cologne side which kept them to a 0-0 draw at home on Saturday. The fact that this was Leverkusen's 24th game unbeaten, a new German record, counted for little. "This has been a great weekend for us," Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said. "We expected Leverkusen to slip up, of course, and on Saturday they did us the favour."
And he is determined that Leverkusen are not going to get a look-in again.
"Our target is quite clear, as we have said right from the beginning, we want to be German champions. We want to bring the title back to Munich this year, come what may.
"And we're right on track."
On Sunday, Bayern had more chances than Hamburg in their home stadium as former Chelsea winger Arjen Robben and midfielders Thomas Mueller and Bastian Schweinsteiger piled on the pressure.
It took until the 78th minute for Bayern to find the back of the net, however, with Ribery, in bright yellow boots, firing a bullet of a shot past Ivorian defender Guy Demel to beat 'keeper Wolfgang Hesl.
Hamburg sorely missed their new signing, former Manchester United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy, absent through injury, although they had a handful of good chances themselves.
The result put Bayern two points clear of Leverkusen at the top, but snapping at both teams' heels, four points off the lead, are Schalke, who saw off Dortmund 2-1 on Friday.
Stuttgart meanwhile maintained their fine recent run under coach Christian Gross by coming from behind to beat Eintracht Frankfurt 2-1 at home on Saturday, lifting them up to eighth in the table.

  Jayasuriya takes flak after entering politics
AFP, Colomb

Veteran Sri Lanka batsman Sanath Jayasuriya came under fire Monday for his decision to enter politics while still playing for the national team.
Jayasuriya will contest April 8 parliamentary elections as a candidate for President Mahinda Rajapakse's Freedom Alliance party in his home constituency of Matara.
The 40 year-old, the oldest cricketer still playing at the top level in the world, retired from Test cricket in 2007 but has vowed to continue his international career in the shorter forms of the game.
"His career is waning. He has set a bad precedent by entering politics before retiring completely from cricket," said Arjuna Ranatunga, the 1996 World Cup winning skipper, who took to politics only after he quit the game.
"Hereafter, players who don't get selected will get on the ruling party platform in exchange for a place on the national team," said the former capitain, who has defected from the ruling party to the opposition.
Jayasuriya campaigned for the president during January's presidential poll which was won comfortably by Rajapakse, a war hero for his legions of supporters but an authoritarian populist to his critics.
Rajapakse ended the country's 37-year ethnic conflict last May when he crushed the separatist Tamil Tigers in a military campaign since dogged by war crime allegations.
When Jayasuriya was forced into retirement in 2006 due to poor form, Rajapakse personally intervened to have him reinstated.
The batsman, who plans to play on until the 2011 World Cup, has dismissed his critics, saying he can juggle his international career while being a member of the 225-member national parliament.
"There is no rule or ethics for sportsmen not to get involved in politics," Jayasuriya told the English-language Nation newspaper. "I do believe that it would be fine as long as I do not allow these two fields to mix."
Jayasuriya, who captained Sri Lanka from 1999-2003, is almost certain to win and could become the first member of parliament to play international cricket.
Sports Minister Gamini Lokuge said national sporting stars have a right to dabble in politics so long as they do not neglect their game. "It's on merit. If they qualify, they can represent the country, while being an MP." Other critics claim Jayasuriya is trying to cash-in on his fame to prolong his dwindling career and cement his place in the national side but he dismisses them.

   Gulbis beats Karlovic to win ATP title
AFP, Delray Beach

Unseeded Latvian Ernests Gulbis upset second-seeded Ivo Karlovic 6-2, 6-3 on Sunday to capture his first career ATP title at the International Tennis Championships.
The 21-year-old Latvian, ranked 72nd in the world, didn't drop a set all week and made the most of his first career final as he became the first Latvian to win a title. "Everything I do it's the first for my country," Gulbis said. "I was first one in top 300, first one in top 200, first one in top 100."
Now he's poised to move into the top 40 in the world when the new rankings are announced on Monday.
Gulbis said his dominance during the week wouldn't have mattered if he hadn't come through on Sunday.
"So I didn't lose a set, I don't see that as a big accomplishment," he said. "I think winning a title is a big accomplishment." Gulbis broke the big-serving Croatian twice in each set.
Croatia's Karlovic, who celebrated his 31st birthday on Sunday, did save three match points with aces in the final game, but double-faulted on the final two points to surrender the match. "I would like to thank him for this gift on my birthday," Karlovic quipped. "Everything he touched with his racket today was unbelievable, a clean winner."
Gulbis became the second player this year to win a title in his first finals appearance. American John Isner won the Auckland title in his first trip to a championship match last month.
Despite the fact that it was his first final, Gulbis never looked nervous as he displayed an impressive array of shots to deny Karlovic a fifth career crown. "He was really cool, calm, like nothing could impress him," Karlovic said. "This year he's going to make a breakthrough."

   Chittagong takes 67-run lead against Khulna
UNB, Dhaka

Chittagong Division took 67-run first innings lead over Khulna Division scoring 308 for all in 77.5 overs in a key match of the EBL 11th National Cricket League on the 2nd day of the four-day match at Shaheed Chandu Stadium in Bogra on Monday.
Replying to Khulna Division's 1st innings total 241 for all, Chittagong Division resumed the 1st innings with overnight 83 for 3 in 17.1 overs and scored 308 runs.
Night watch batsman Gazi Salahuddin (43) contributed 60 runs off 78 balls with seven fours and a six, number eight Mahmudul Hasan scored not out 59 off 95 balls with six fours and wicket-keeper Arman Hossain made 41 off 74 balls with two fours and a six.
National pacer Syed Rasel claimed five wickets for 60 runs in 17.5 overs while Monwar Hossain bagged two wickets for 56 runs.
In reply, Khulna Division opened the 2nd innings in the afternoon and scored 67 for one in 23 overs to level the score with opener Amit Majumder batting with 33 runs off 72 balls that featured five fours. One down Taposh Ghosh was also batting with 18 runs.
Mahmudul Hasan grabbed the lone Khulna wicket giving away 19 runs in nine overs.
Brief score: Khulna Division first innings - 241 all out in 70.4 overs; Amit Majumder 41, Nazimuddin Ripon 31, Mohammad Mithun 30, Dollar Mahmud 29, Sahagir Hossain 27, Taposh Ghosh 19, Rezwan Kabir 19, Manwar Hossain 15, extras 18, Kazi Kamrul 4/36 and Elias Sunny 4/86.
2nd innings- 67 for one in 23 overs; Amit Majumder batting 33, Taposh Ghosh batting 18, Nazmus sadat 6, Mahmudul Hasan 1/19.
Chittagong Division first innings - 308 all out in 77.5 overs (overnight 83 for 3 in 17.1 overs); Gazi Salahuddin 60, Mahmudul Hasan not out 59, Arman Hossain 41, Faisal Hossain 36, , Momin Ul Haque 24, Elias Sunny 18, Nazimuddin 17, Kazi Kamrul 14, Syed Rasel 5/60, Monwar Hossain 2/56.
In the day's other league match, Dhaka Division resumed the first innings with overnight 330 for 5 featuring a brilliant 147 runs by opener Nadimuddin Mintu and declared the innings at 400 for 8 in 99.3 overs on the 2nd day against Rajshahi Division at the Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium in Khulna on Monday.
Night watch batsman Marshal Ayub (59) contributed 72 runs off 134 balls with four fours and two sixes while another night watch batsman Shuvagoto Chowdhury (14) scored a polished 57 runs off 50 balls with seven fours and a six. Saqlain Sajib, Delwar Hossain and Sanjamul Islam picked up two wickets each for 76, 79 and 102 runs respectively.
In reply, Rajshahi Division in their first innings were all out for 241 in 89.4 overs with one down Sabbir Rahman scoring 60 runs off 92 balls that featured eleven fours.
Besides, lower order Farhad Reza contributed not out 52 off 110 balls with six fours and three sixes, Nasir Hossain scored 42 runs off 101 balls with seven fours and Farhad Hossain made 41 off 50 balls with six fours.
Former national skipper Mohammad Ashraful captured four wickets for 68 runs while pacer Mohammad Sharif and Arafat Sunny took two wickets each for 14 and 51 runs.
Brief score: Dhaka Division first innings 400 for 8 (declared) in 99.3 (overnight 330 for 5 in 90 overs); Nadimuddin Mintu 147, Marshall Ayub 72, Shamsur Rahman 63, Shuvagoto Chowdhury 57, Ronny Talukder 27, Mohammad Sharif 11, Mehrab Hossain 10. Saqlain Sajib 2/56, Delwar Hossain 2/79, Sanjamul Islam 2/102.

   Dhaka Abahani continues to win
TBT report

Dhaka Abahani maintained its winning streak in the Bangladesh League football competition when the holders defeated Brothers Union by a solitary goal at Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka on Monday.
After a barren first session, Motiur Rahman Munna scored the only goal for Dhaka Abahani after 78 minutes to earn full points for his team.
Dhaka Abahani increased its tally to 27 points from nine matches, while Brothers Union remains on 10 points after the same number of matches.
Teams
Dhaka Abahani: Biplob, Sujan, Rajani, Meshu, Zahed, Pranotosh, Ujjal (Alam), Enamul (Abul), Samad, Ibrahim and Sheriff (Munna).
Brothers Union: Iran, Tofazzal, Yusuf, Ripon, Khalilur (Sabuj), Lutfar, Bentil, Steven, Murad (Didarul), Tanmoy and Russell.
Today's match: Dhaka Mohammedan Sporting Club vs Sheikh Russell Krira Chakra (Bangabandhu National Stadium, Dhaka at 6:00pm) and Feni Soccer Club vs Farashganj Sporting Club (Feni Stadium at 3:30pm).

   Mahan charges to Phoenix Open victory
AFP, Phoenix

Hunter Mahan charged to victory in the Phoenix Open Sunday, erasing a four-shot overnight deficit to claim the second US PGA Tour title of his career.
Mahan's second straight round of six-under 65 included an eagle and a pair of birdies in a four-hole stretch from the 13th as he took his total to 16-under 268.
The 27-year-old Mahan edged 21-year-old rookie Rickie Fowler by one shot.
Mahan's first tour title came back in 2007. Although he hasn't won since he has played well enough to play on the 2008 Ryder Cup team. He had six top-10 finishes last season.
"It's just finding a way to win," Mahan said. "I just haven't been able to do it. So obviously it feels great to get off the year on my fifth tournament to win. It gives me a lot of confidence in myself that I'm doing the right things in my game, and it feels great, it really does."
Fowler carded a 68 for 269 and the second runner-up finish of his fledgling career.
He lost in a three-way playoff in his second tour event last October, the Frys.com Open. South Korea's Yang Yong-Eun also carded a 65 to finish third on 270.
The reigning PGA Champion had surged into the lead stalled when his tee shot found the water at 17.
Australia's Mathew Goggin, Chris Couch and Charles Howell shared fourth place on 13-under, while overnight leader Brandt Snedeker struggled to a 78 that left him tied for 43rd. After heavy overnight rain and light morning showers, the estimated final-round crowd was close to 44,000 - well off the more than 60,000 of last year.
They were treated to a fierce stretch run from Mahan, Fowler and Yang.
Yang, the first Asian-born golfer to win a major championship, eagled the 10th, then birdied four in a row from the 12th to take the lead through 15 holes. At 17, however, his tee shot bounced into the water and his 25-foot putt to save par stopped an inch shy of the cup. "I really rushed it," Yang said of his tee-shot. "I should have waited until the guys on the green holed out. But somehow I got really anxious, and I just hit it too fast."

   Canada shines in Winter Olympics
AFP, Vancouver

The Winter Olympics began on a low with the death of luger Nodar Kumaritashvili but ended on a dramatic high Sunday with Canada winning the hockey final and the host nation earning a record bag of gold medals.
Seventeen days ago the Georgian died in a training run just ahead of the opening ceremony, sparking accusations over track safety, to get the Vancouver Games off to their worst possible start.
Weather woes followed, forcing delays to key events and the cancellation of thousands of tickets for snowboard and freestyle skiing.
It could only get better, and it did, with a glittering closing ceremony Sunday evening culminating a Games widely considered a success after the early glitches as the Olympic flame was passed to the next host city, Sochi.
"I'm sure no-one will forget (the death), but you have to be fair to Canadians, to the athletes and the organisers and to judge the Games on their own merit without forgetting what happened before," said International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge.
"The Games began with teething pains but I commend VANOC for rapdily correcting that and from then on things went extremely well.
"So in all, I can say that the IOC is happy with the Games."
Organisers could not have hoped for a better finale than the home nation playing the United States in a hockey game touted as the biggest sporting event in Canadian history with tickets changing hands for as much as 7,275 dollars.
Their National Hockey League superstars didn't disappoint with superstar Sidney Crosby scoring the winner in overtime after the US had forced the game into sudden death with a goal 24 seconds from the end of regulation time to draw level 2-2.
In front of a frenzied sea of red at Canada Hockey Place, the hosts pulled through for the one medal that mattered more than any other.
Jonathan Toews and Corey Perry also scored for Canada who won secured their second gold in the past three Olympics and became the first host to win a Games final since the US did in at Lake Placid in 1980.
Ryan Kesler and Zac Parise scored for the US.
"It doesn't even feel real. It feels like a dream," said Crosby.
Canadian coach Mike Babcock added: "To do it at home with these guys is special.
"Our guys did a great job and to win in overtime in Canada, it is a dream come true."
The victory assured Canada of finishing their home Olympics with more gold than anyone else in the history of the Winter Games. They ended with 14 to Germany's 10. The US and Norway both won nine.
Consolation for the US was that their total medal haul of 37 overtake Germany's previous all-time record of 36 from the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.
Almost a sideshow was World Cup leader Petter Northug narrow victory in the gruelling 50km mass start nordic marathon.
It was his maiden Olympic individual title and his second gold of the Games.
Northug, the reigning world champion at the distance, beat Germany's Axel Teichmann in a two-up sprint to the line, with Johan Olsson of Sweden taking the bronze.
"I always said he (Teichmann) is maybe the best sprinter with me but I know that if I stayed with him I can beat him in the stadium," saod Northug.
But Paralympian Brian McKeever did not start after being left off the team.
The 30-year-old, who is legally blind and suffers from Stargardt's disease giving him just 10 percent vision, was expecting to become the first man to ski in both the Paralympics and Olympics.
However, Canadian cross-country ski coaches on Saturday instead opted for Ivan Babikov, Alex Harvey, George Grey and Devon Kershaw.
"The decision's been made, it's out of my hands. I respect the decision, but I don't have to be happy with it," said McKeever.

   Marseille keeps pressure on PSG
AFP, Paris

Marseille kept alive its hopes of winning the French title on Sunday with an impressive 3-0 victory over bitter but ailing rival Paris Saint Germain (PSG) which saw visiting fans boycott it because of what they saw as over the top security measures.
Goals by Hatem Ben Arfa, record-signing Lucho Gonzalez and Benoit Cheyrou handed Marseille an easy win which sees them in fourth place in the league, three points adrift of leaders Bordeaux, though they have played a game more than the champions.
Montpellier are on the same number of points, after beating Rennes 3-1 on Saturday, as Bordeaux but trail on goal difference and have played two more matches as the leaders game with relegation-threatened Le Mans was called off due to severe weather conditions.
Earlier Lille had missed a chance to keep the pressure on Bordeaux and Montpellier when they slipped to a 2-1 home defeat by Auxerre.
The Lille management probably would have preferred that the referee had had his way and called the match off at its original kick-off time because of a water-logged pitch.
However, it was judged to be fit for play at the delayed kick-off time and the hosts bore the look of a team that was still weary from its impressive 1-1 away draw with Turkish giants Fenerbahce on Thursday which saw them progress to the last 16 of the Europa League.
Auxerre's Roy Contout was the standout of the match as the 25-year-old French Guyana-born striker grabbed a double to give the visitors the three points and move them into sixth in the table, six points off Bordeaux, though having played a game more. Lille's highly-rated teenage Belgian international midfielder Eden Hazard had pulled them level but the hosts were unable to repeat the trick once Contout had restored Auxerre's lead in the 72nd minute.
Lille coach Rudi Garcia refused to concede that their chances of the title had evaporated in what was their first defeat after eight successive wins. "What we have failed to take this evening (Sunday) we have to get away from home, beginning with St-Etienne," said Garcia.
"There are 36 points still up for grabs. The title race is a long one, and the title was not decided this evening. We are up there with the leaders and we have to bounce back from this."
His Auxerre counterpart Jean Fernandez praised Contout but accepted that the quality of the pitch had suited his side better than their opponents.

   Liu heads to parliament before world indoor championships
AFP, Beijing

China's former Olympic 110 metre hurdle champion Liu Xiang is set to compete in the world indoor championships later this month, but first will do battle with his nation's parliament.
The 2004 Olympic champion, who is making his comeback from Achilles tendon surgery, is slated to face reigning Olympic champ Dayron Robles of Cuba in the 60m hurdles at the World Indoor Championships in Doha from March 12-14. It will be Liu's second top-level meet since his injury. He finished second to US world number two Terrence Trammell in the 110m hurdles at the Shanghai Grand Prix in September, clocking the world's eighth fastest time in 2009.
But first, Liu will put a proposal before lawmakers at China's annual parliamentary session calling for better working conditions and social security benefits for the nation's coaches, the Beijing News reported.
The hurdler was first chosen as a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, an advisory body to the ruling Communist Party, in 2007 due to his athletic success.
At the 2004 Athens Games, Liu became the first Chinese man ever to win Olympics track gold.
He greatly disappointed fans when he pulled out lame in a preliminary heat at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but has slowly returned to form following surgery in the United States in December 2008. During a Chinese team competition in Shanghai last week, Liu posted a time of 8.05 seconds in the 60m hurdles, well off the world record of 7.3 seconds, the Beijing News said.