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Leading News
Power
tariffs raised 6-7 pc for retail consumers
UNB, Dhaka
Townsmen and industries will now have to pay a higher
price for electricity as the government raised the power
tariffs by 6-7 percent on average with effect from March
1.
Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission Tuesday approved
proposals for the power-price hike, incidentally at the
outset of the dry season when people already feel the
crunch of power crisis.
However, rural people and agriculture as well as religious
devotees are spared from the increased electricity prices.
The electricity tariffs were raised differentially for
different consumer groups: domestic, commercial,
industrial, and bulk consumers. The tariff rate for the
agricultural consumers remained same as the existing rate
of Tk 1.93 per unit.
However, the similar tariff rates have been fixed for the
customers of all the four distribution companies-Power
Development Board (PDB), Dhaka Power Distribution Company
Ltd (DPDC), Dhaka Electric Supply Company Ltd (DESCO) and
West Zone Power Distribution Company Ltd (WZPDC).
This means a single tariff structure is applicable for
subscribers to all the four power-distribution outfits.
The rate of another distribution company that caters for
the villagers- the Rural Electrification Board (REB)-was
raised in October last by 10 percent.
As per BERC decision, the domestic consumers of PDB, DPDC,
DESCO and WZPDC, who use electricity up to 100 (kilowatt
hours) units, will have to pay Tk 2.60 instead of present
Tk 2.50 per unit while the consumers using electricity
from 101 to 400 units will pay Tk 3.30 per unit in place
of Tk 3.15.
The customers consuming more than 400 units will have to
pay Tk 5.65, up from the existing rate of Tk 5.25 per
unit.
Small industry consumers' flat power tariff was fixed to
be Tk 4.35 per unit against the existing rate of Tk 4.02.
The peak-hour power rate for small industries has been
fixed at Tk 5.86 per unit against the existing rate of Tk
5.82 while its off-peak rate fixed at Tk 3.50 against the
existing rate of Tk 3.20.
The readjusted flat rate of commercial consumers is Tk
5.58 against the existing rate of Tk 5.30 while their
off-peak rate at Tk 4.05 per unit against the existing Tk
3.80. Commercial consumers are now to pay Tk 8.45 against
the existing rate of Tk 8.20 per unit for peak-hour
consumption.
The 11kv consumers' flat rate was fixed at Tk 4.17 instead
of existing Tk 3.80 per unit while their off-peak-hour
rate Tk 3.43 against the existing Tk 3.14 and for peak
hour Tk 7.12 instead of existing Tk 6.73.
This rate is applicable for the medium industrial
customers who normally consume electricity at 11-kv level.
The flat rate of 33kV consumers, who are normally the
large industries, is re-fixed at Tk 3.92 instead of
present rate of Tk 3.58 while the off-peak rate fixed at
Tk 3.33 against the existing Tk 3.03 per unit and for peak
hour Tk 6.82 against the existing rate of Tk 6.45.
The flat tariff rate of 132 kV consumers was fixed at Tk
3.10 per unit against the existing Tk 2.82. This rate is
applicable for distribution entities and large industries,
who buy electricity directly from the PDB or any other
generating company.
Announcing the decision, BERC Chairman Syed Yusuf Hossain
told reporters that the new rates were fixed considering
the appeal of all the four distribution companies.
Court
recalls warrant of arrest against Tarique
UNB,
Dhaka
Dhaka metropolitan magistrate court Tuesday recalled its
warrant of arrest order against BNP senior vice-chairman
Tarique Rahman passed on Monday in an extortion case.
Magistrate Mehedi Hassan recalled his order upon a
petition by counsel forTarique backed by a certified copy
of High Court verdict staying proceedings of the case for
a year until July 25 next.
The counsel submitted that this court has no jurisdiction
to order warrant of arrest against the accused since the
higher court stayed all proceedings of the case.
The case was filed with Shahbagh thana on November 23,
2007 against 7 persons - Giasuddin Al Mamoon, a close
friend and business partner of Tarique - and his six
associates Obadullah, Qamruzzaman, Mahbub, Harun, Mota
Tareq and Manik.
The investigating officer in the case had involved Tarique
Rahman in the case and submitted charge sheet against
eight persons. All the accused in the case are now
enlarged on bail.
Meanwhile, BNP senior joint secretary general Mirza
Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Tuesday said Tarique Rahman, the
party's senior vice-chairman, will one day return to
Bangladesh as a hero whatever repression is unleashed on
and cases are filed against him.
He made the remark while addressing a protest rally in
front of BNP central office at Nayapaltan in the city in
the afternoon. The rally was organized by Jatiyatabadi
Chhatra Dal (JCD), student wing of BNP, protesting the
issuance of warrant of arrest against Tarique Rahman and
Arafat Rahman Koko, both of whom are now abroad.
The BNP senior joint secretary general in his speech
called for raising voice against the "fascist" Awami
League government and urged the party leaders and workers
to go to the grassroots level across the country with the
messages of party chairperson Khaleda Zia and Tarique
Rahman for the "people to stand unitedly against the
government."
BSF
kills yet another Bangladeshi
99 killed in last 13 months
TBT Report
Indian Border Security Force (BSF) killed two more, a
Bangladeshi cattle trader and another Indian national
along Thakurgaon border early Tuesday as the killing spree
on Bangladesh border continues unabated despite India's
repeated pledges to stop such killings.
With this BSF killed 99 Bangladeshis and also an Indian in
the last 13 months. The number of Bangladeshis killed by
BSF during the nine years period from January 1, 2000 to
March 2, 2010 stands at 824. BSF also injured 859 and
abducted 897 Bangladeshis in the same period.
According to UNB News Agency, a Bangladeshi young man and
an Indian national were gunned down by BSF opposite
Dharmagar border in Ranishangkoil upazila early Tuesday.
The dead were identified as Abdul Quiyum, 30, son of Abdul
Kader of Kathaldangi village in Haripur upazila here and
Budhu Mia, 35, of Barabari village in Goalpukur thana of
West Dinajpur district in West Bengal of India.
BDR said BSF jawans of Sripur camp fired three shots on
them while they were moving in Indian side of the border,
leaving Budhu dead on the spot and injuring Qaiyum.
Being injured, Qaiyum managed to escape to Bangladesh land
and later died on way to Thakurgaon Sadar hospital.
Meanwhile, local BDR officials protested the killing.
The killings of unarmed Bangladeshis by the BSF on the
border are continuing in clear violation of the spirit of
good neighborliness as well as international law and
despite repeated pledges by the Indian authorities to stop
it. In every meeting between BSF and BDR and also between
the higher level officials of the two countries, the
Indian side assures that killing of Bangladeshis by its
forces on the border would come to an end immediately. But
this pledge is seldom implemented.
Under Women and Children Repression Act
Death sentence is unconstitutional: HC
UNB, Dhaka
High Court Tuesday declared unconstitutional death
sentence under the Women and Children Repression (special
provision) Act 1995 for murdering a woman or child after
rape, hot on the heels of pleas from international
agencies for abolishing the capital punishment.
A division bench comprising Justice M Imman Ali and Sheikh
Abdul Awal delivered the judgment upon a writ petition
that had challenged the constitutional validity of the
impugned section 6 (2) of the Nari-O-Shishu Nirjatan (bishes
bidhan) Ain 1995 operative under section 34 of the
Nari-O-Shishu Nirjatan Daman Ain 2000.
Bangladesh Legal Aid and Service Trust (BLAST) and M
Shukur Ali, who was convicted and awarded death penalty by
the trial court which was confirmed by both the divisions
of the Supreme Court, jointly filed the writ petition in
2005.
Delivering the judgment, the court further stayed for two
months the execution of the death sentence.
This is for the first time a court in Bangladesh outlawed
death sentence under an existing law.
The High Court declared "invalid and unconstitutional" the
impugned provision of the law on grounds that it provides
solitary punishment of death with no alternative
punishment.
"The court's judicial power was taken away by the impugned
law," says the court observation, adding that in any law
which provides solitary death sentence for committing
heinous crime will be illegal and ultra vires to the
constitution.
On July 12 in 2001, special tribunal of Women and Children
Repression at Manikganj awarded death punishment to Shukur
Ali of village Shibrampur Tepra under Shibalaya police
station for murdering a girl child after rape. At that
time the convict was 16 years old, a minor boy.
ECNEC
approves six projects involving Tk 1359 crore
UNB, Dhaka
The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC)
in a meeting Tuesday approved six development projects
involving Tk 1359 crore, including one to offer
Bangabandhu Fellowship.
Of the amount, Tk 776 crore will come from government
exchequer while Tk 583 crore as project assistance. The
approval was given with ECNEC chairperson and Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair. The fellowship
project titled Bangabandhu Fellowship on Science and
Information Communication Technology costs Tk 60 crore.
Other approved projects include Agriculture Sector
Programme Support-II (ASPS-II), Rural Roads and Hat-Bazar
Connecting Infrastructure Development Project (component
3): Patuakhali, Barguna, Noakhali and Laxmipur District
(1st amended) under the Local Government Division with an
involvement of Tk 426 crore.
Of the amount, Tk 213 crore will come from government
exchequer while Tk 213 crore as project aid. The Local
Government Engineering Department (LGED) is implementing
the project tenured July 2006 to June 2012. Under the
project, short roads, bridges and culverts will be
constructed in the coastal areas which were damaged during
cyclones Sidr and Aila.
The Planning Secretary said during the meeting, the Prime
Minister directed the authorities concerned to make sure
that "water logging cannot create while building the
structures". Some 2,506 meters of bridges and culverts
will be constructed and 50 growth centers/hat-bazars
developed under the project which is expected to
facilitate the marketing of agricultural products and thus
help in alleviating poverty of rural people.
The other approved projects include Upgrading and
Expanding Distribution System in Gulshan Circle (1st
amended) under the Power Division involving Tk 595 crore,
including Tk 353 crore coming as foreign aid. The project
is under implementation by Dhaka Electric Supply Company
Limited (DESCO).
BSF tried to encroach upon Dibir Haor 4 times in
last one month
BDR DG points to BSF commanders provision of border
agreement
UNB, Sylhet
BDR chief Maj Gen Moinul Islam visiting the troubled Dibir
Haor border of Jaintapur Tuesday urged the Indian BSF
officials to maintain peace until the dispute is sorted
out in the ensuing BDR-BSF conference in New Delhi.
BSF had tried in vain to encroach upon the Dibir Haor four
times during the last one month leading to exchange of
heavy gunfire with BDR.
Gen Moin came to Jaintapur in the morning for a spot visit
and went across the Dibir Haor border where A K Vergan,
DIG of BSF in Shilong received him. He pointed to the BSF
commanders the provisions of the border agreement between
Bangladesh and India and urged them to maintain peace on
the border.
Later, Gen Moin met with residents of border villages on
Bangladesh side and lauded their courage and active
cooperation with BDR in thwarting the BSF attempts to
encroach upon the territory.
He paid Tk 20,000 from his discretionary fund to
distribute sweets among the residents. The locals demanded
for raising the number of BDR outposts on the border as
the existing outposts are heavily outnumbered by Indian
BSF. In a separate meeting, the BDR chief lauded the
courage of the BDR jawans and hoped they would protect the
country's territory with firm determination. Sector
commander Brigadier General Neamul Islam Fatemi and other
senior officials accompanied the BDR chief.
One more killed in ‘shootout’
105 extra judicial killings in seven months
TBT Report
One more alleged terrorist was killed in 'shootout'
between his cohorts and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in
front of Chitra Cinema hall in English Road of the old
part of Dhaka early Tuesday taking the total of such extra
judicial killings to 105 in seven months from August 1,
2009 to March 2, 2010.
With this 13 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,
two terrorists and two dacoits were killed in shootouts on
9, 11, 12, 30 January and 10, 16, 19, 23, 25 and 28
February respectively.
According to UNB News Agency, a notorious terrorist was
killed in a 'shootout' between his cohorts and Rapid
Action Battalion (RAB) in front of Chitra Cinema hall in
English Road of the old town early Tuesday. The deceased
was identified as Mamunur Rashid, alias Kala Mamun, 29,
son of Abdul Mannaf of Alukanda of South Keraniganj.
Police said Mamun was a professional killer and wanted in
number of criminal cases, including murder. RAB also
recovered two foreign made pistols, seven rounds of bullet
and two magazines from the spot.
The unlawful killings are taking place despite mounting
protests by human rights activists, civil society members
and political parties and repeated assurances of the
government that such killings would be stopped and actions
would be taken against those found responsible.
Back Page
PM unveils ambitious telecom plans
All UPs going under fibre-optic network
UNB, Dhaka
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Tuesday unveiled an ambitious
digitization plan for building Bangladesh as a country
fully furnished with modern telecommunications systems for
faster delivery of services to the people ensuring good
governance from grassroots to central levels.
Under the mega-scheme 'Digital Bangladesh: Plan of
Connecting People', all Union Parishads will be linked
with fibre-optic network, upazilas will get Community
e-Centre, and hospitals and schools get computer, web-cam
and internet.
Already, 100 Union Parishads have been selected for giving
fibre-optic cable connections while another 1,000 unions
will be bound with the cross-country cable network within
the next one year. Addressing the inaugural ceremony of
Concept Paper on 'Digital Bangladesh: Plan of Connecting
People' at a city hotel, the Prime Minister urged the
country's scientists, technological experts and engineers
to turn Bangladesh self-sufficient in using technologies
rather than depending on foreign countries and agencies.
Pushing a button of a computer, the Prime Minister opened
the technical part of the agenda, aimed at breaking the
digital divide between the advanced world and a developing
country like Bangladesh. To introduce modern and faster
communications network in the sleepy rural Bangladesh, she
said, the government will bring offices of all Union
Parishads under fibre-optic network as part of the recipe
for boarding the entire country on the information
superhighway.
The Prime Minister further disclosed that Community
e-Center will be set up in all upazilas of the country.
Already, five upazilas have got Community e-Center and 128
upazilas computer labs.
She said in line with government's commitment to provide
quality health services to the mass people, the government
will give computers, web-cam and internet facilities to
all hospitals of the country.
Besides, e-center for Rural Community will be set up at
8,500 post offices of the country to ensure proper
management of the postal services. Moreover, the
government is making arrangement to provide
videoconferencing facility between Prime Minister's office
and the cabinet division, deputy commissioners of 64
districts and 7 divisional headquarters.
The government is also constructing necessary
infrastructures to set up Hi-tech Park in Gazipur and
install country's own satellite to strengthen local
telecommunications system, she informed her audience.
Pakistan says Indian
army shot, wounded 2 children
Reuters, Islamabad
Two children were wounded in "unprovoked firing" by Indian
forces across the de facto border dividing the disputed
Kashmir region, Pakistani officials said on Tuesday.
An Indian army spokesman said soldiers had retaliated
after Pakistani troops opened fire. Pakistan said the
shooting, in the Battal sector of Pakistan-controlled
Kashmir, known as Azad Kashmir, took place on Monday
night, just days after the nuclear-armed neighbours held
their first official talks in more than year.
"An innocent boy and a girl were seriously injured due to
unprovoked firing by Indian troops across the Line of
Control," a military official said, referring to the line
dividing the Pakistani and Indian portions of the
Himalayan region. "Pakistani troops responded
effectively," he said without giving details.
Indian army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Biplab Nath said
Pakistani troops also fired several rocket-propelled
grenades. "We retaliated after 30 minutes, aiming only on
Pakistani military posts," Nath said. Both sides routinely
blame the other for provoking fire in such incidents.
There has been a spate of clashes in the past few months
along the Line of Control and on the border to the south
but they are not expected to spark a broader conflict.
Pakistan and India have fought two of their three wars
over Muslim-majority Kashmir, which is divided between the
South Asian neighbours who both claim it in full. India
suspended a tentative four-year-old peace process with
Pakistan after an attack on Mumbai in November 2008 by
Pakistan-based militants in which 166 people were killed.
India accuses Pakistan of backing separatist militants
fighting its forces in its part of Kashmir. Pakistan says
it only offers Kashmiri separatists political backing.
Top diplomats from the two countries met in New Delhi last
week in their first officials talks since the Mumbai
attack. They agreed to "keep in touch" but India declined
to resume a broad series of talks on outstanding disputes
known as the composite dialogue. The United States wants
to see ties between the countries improve so Pakistan can
focus on fighting militants on its Afghan border.
EC formulates code of conduct for UP
polls for first time
BSS, Dhaka
The Election Commission (EC) is going to ban public
meetings and processions for the candidates of Union
Parishad (UP) elections.
The UP chairman candidates will not be allowed to spend
more than Taka 5 lakh through bank account and Taka 50,000
as personal expenditure while the member candidates Taka 1
lakh and 10 thousand. All candidates would have to submit
sector-wise expenditure returns to the returning officer
within 30 days after the polls. The EC will take legal
actions in violation of the rules.
All these issues are being incorporated in the newly
formulated code of conduct for UP poll, said Election
Commis-sioner Brig Gen (Retd) Shakhwat Hossain.
He said the UP polls would come under the code of conduct
for the first time. The UP polls will start in May this
year.
He said a chairman candidate would have one election
office in the union while a member candidate would have
one office in the ward. None would be allowed to appoint
agents outside his or her union or ward. Though
processions and public meetings are banned, the candidates
would be allowed to hold street meetings. There would not
be any photo of political leaders on the posters, except
the photo of the candidate and election symbol. Shakhwat
Hossain said wall-writing would be completely prohibited.
The government would not be allowed to take or implement
any development project after announced of election
schedule for a union. Ministers, MPs and people of
equivalent status would not be allowed to take part in
election campaigns.
The amount of money to be deposited by a chairman
candidate would be Taka 5 thousand while by member
candidates Taka 2 thousand. Shakhawat Hossain said there
will be monitoring teams and magistrates to observe
implementation of the election code of conduct. He
asserted that the EC would hold polls for more than once
in a centre, if any irregularity is found. None would be
given any concession.
Tourists flock Sundarbans to watch
beauty of world’s largest mangrove forest
BSS, Chandpai (Sundarban)
Thousands of tourists floc-ked Sundarbans, country's
second popular tourist destination, to enjoy the beauty of
world's largest mangrove forest.
The tourists of all ages, foreign and locals, enter the
Sundarbans from different points, take the opportunity of
holiday, go to the tourist spots to enjoy beauty of
mangrove forest and to watch wildlife.
Sundarban is now buzzing with the arrival of tourists who
entered the forest from points like Karamjal, one of the
best known wildlife breeding centers, Katka, Koshikhali,
Harbaria, Dublarchar and Hironpoint through Mongla Sea
Port on board different types of river transports. The
director of Khulna 'Rupantar Eco Toruism' Nazmul Azam told
BSS that the government should give priority to the growth
of eco tourism to attract more foreign and local tourists.
"we have witnessed a large number of tourists here during
the last three days, who went to Sunde-rbans through
Mongla Port," he said.
Owner of Bangkok Residential Hotel of Mongla Golam Mahmud
Hero said the government should extend facilities to
attract more foreign tourists in the World Heritage site
to place the Sundarban as one of the seven natural
wonders.
He said the facilities like reduction of travel tax,
lowering fixation of communication tax, setting up high
tower in the Sundarbans to watch the movement of animals
and beauty of the forest. The sources said the tourists
also enter the Sundarbans from the Burigolani, Nildumur of
Satkhara point. Hundreds of tourists also go to
Sunder-bans through Bogi and Supoti of Bagherhat.
Opposition-treasury bench members locked into debate on
law and order
BSS, Sangsad Bhaban
Members of the both treasury and opposition benches were
locked into an unsc-heduled debate for about half-an hour
on law and order, blaming each other for various incidents
taken place across the country over the last few days.
As the House resumed its sitting with Speaker Abdul Hamid
Advocate in the chair, Chief Whip of the Oppositi-ons
Joynul Abedin Faro-oque wanted floor on a point of order
and requested the Speaker to allow two more opposition
members to speak in the House.
But the Speaker refused to allow floor to any member on
point of order, but asked only one member, besides the two
chief whips, from each bench to speak in the House for the
sake of conducting the session smoothly. At this stage,
women member of BNP Syeda Asifa Asrafi Papiya and Whip ASM
Firoz spoke in the House.
Syeda Papiya taking the floor protested, what she claimed,
attack on her residence at Chapainawabganj town and blamed
Chhatra League and Jubo League activists for the incident.
She said the law and order in the country has deteriorated
drastically. Whip ASM Firoz blamed BNP for creating law
and order situation in different parts of the country
including Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT).
Taking the floor, Joynul Abedin Farooque protested the
remarks of senior Awami League lawmaker Suranjit Sengupta
made in the House Monday as he (Suranjit) held BNP and
Jamaat-e-Islami responsible for spreading terrorism in
Bangladesh and patronizing the Pakistan- based terrorist
groups in the country.
Editorial
Border Guard Bangladesh
The
Cabinet on Monday approved in principle a new law titled 'the
Border Guard Bangladesh Act 2010' to reorganize the
mutiny-ridden BDR with a provision of capital punishment for
offences like mutiny, killing and arson by members of the
paramilitary force. A six-member high-powered committee was
formed at the meeting for in-depth scrutiny of the proposed
law before its final approval. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina,
who chaired the cabinet meeting, directed the authorities
concerned to enact such a deterrent that stops Peelkhana-like
killings forever in the country. "Enact such an appropriate,
strong and time-befitting law so that no one can dare to do
such heinous act in future," the Prime Minister was quoted as
saying.
The six-member scrutiny committee will work on the draft law
and suggest necessary changes and additions for the final
approval of the law by the cabinet. The panel is expected to
submit its report at the next cabinet meeting after vetting
the draft of the new law having tough provisions governing the
reformed border force.
Although the new law is yet to be finalized, it is certain
that the proposed law will be enacted by the Parliament soon.
The law aims mainly at reorganizing and reforming the BDR
under the changed name of Border Guard Bangladesh and
maximising the punishment of mutineers should any mutiny in
the paramilitary force takes place in future. After the brutal
killings of army officers and civilians in the February 25-26
Peelkhana carnage, the government had decided to restructure
Bangladesh Rifles and the Prime Minister already gave her
permission for restructuring the border force. In the BDR
mutiny on February 25 and 26 last year soldiers took over the
BDR Headquarters and killed 57 army officers in their command.
A total of 74 people were killed during the Armageddon.
The process of restructuring BDR under the new name has been a
matter of time only. The change of the name of BDR into BGB is
something very important, but not totally new at all. The
two-century old border forces has undergone changes in name
and form on many occasions. During the Pakistan period it was
called East Pakistan Rifles (EPR) and after the independence
of Bangladesh the EPR was renamed as BDR. This time along with
a changed name the border force will also get new uniform and
new structure under new rules.
The vital transformation of the border force is significant as
it defends the country's frontier and checks intrusion and
smuggling. More importantly, against the backdrop of the BDR
mutiny of February 25-26 last year marked by extreme
lawlessness by the jawans and the grisly Peelkhana carnage it
has become urgently necessary to restore strict discipline in
the border force. It is hoped that the new law, when comes
into force after due process of enactment, will go a long way
in accomplishing this objective and making the Border Guards
effective force for safeguarding national sovereignty.
Meanwhile, there is a growing demand from the people to shift
the BDR Headquarters from Peelkhana to somewhere outside the
heart of the city as this place is largely surrounded by
civilian residences all around. In course of reorganizing the
border force, this demand should be given due consideration by
the government.
Doctors’ tendency
to stay in Dhaka
The
people of country's rural areas do not get proper medical care
as most of the doctors, specially in government service, want
to stay in the capital. A newspaper report on Tuesday said,
the health ministry top bosses are irked with the hefty
lobbying from physicians and other staffs, who are transferred
outside Dhaka where nearly half of registered 40,000 doctors
are working both in the public and private sectors. It is
almost impossible to transfer a doctor to district towns,
upazila level or rural areas. Sometimes order from minister or
state minister is even compelled to be cancelled later, said
Health Minister Dr AFM Ruhal Haque. He said the overall health
conditions could never be improved if doctors do not give up
their tendency to stay in capital Dhaka. The health minister
said the 'stay in Dhaka' mentality of senior physicians and
specialists would be difficult to change unless the entire
health system is decentralized with regions empowered to run
their affairs independently.
The rural people are deprived of medical services as most of
the upazila health centres are suffering from acute manpower
shortage and in some cases there are machines and equipment
but no technicians to run those. In the health sector,
thousands of posts of doctors and nurses are now lying vacant.
There are some health complexes without doctors and medicines.
This appalling situation has been created as doctors are
reluctant to stay in rural areas. Besides, almost all public
hospitals are plunged in mismanagement, irregularities and
anomalies. The patients hardly get proper medical treatment in
these hospitals as in many cases medicines meant for the
patients are smuggled out. Steps should be taken immediately
to end this situation so that people get proper medial
treatment. Moreover, the government should ensure that under
strict rules and arrangements doctors in government service
are available in the rural areas to serve the suffering
people.
Analysis
The Indo-Pak highway
Kayani appeared to be pointing out that until
all issues with India are resolved, the army will focus more
on India than on other more pressing issues, like terrorism.
Shandana Khan Mohmand
India
and Pakistan sat down to talks again last week. This wasn't
the first time, nor will it be the last. And these talks will
come to nothing too.
The problem lies with both. At India's end, there appears to
be a single-minded focus on insisting that Pakistan curb
terrorism first. For a nation hit harder by terrorism than any
other in recent history, it comes as no surprise that this
insistence by India leaves a bad taste in Pakistani mouths.
India's stance makes one wonder if New Delhi will ever realise
that if it truly wants Pakistan to fight terror, then it will
have to give the Pakistani army and intelligence the space to
worry about something other than itself. This means that India
needs to talk first, fix relations and ensure that Pakistan
and its security apparatus know that they have nothing to fear
from their eastern border.
At Pakistan's end it seems inconceivable that any amount of
reassurance by India will stop its India-obsessed army and
intelligence from thinking of the eastern neighbour as the
main threat. As its army chief, Gen Kayani, admitted recently,
the Pakistan Army is, and will remain, "India-centric" until
further notice, and that its "frame of reference" for
addressing issues even within the country is defined by its
concerns vis-à-vis India.
Kayani appeared to be pointing out that until all issues with
India are resolved, the army will focus more on India than on
other more pressing issues, like terrorism.
It appears that there is a deadlock here. It requires one of
the two stubborn nations to back down first from its demands
regarding the sequence of requisite actions. Adding to this
quagmire is the fact that everyone knows these talks were held
under US pressure, and not because either
nation was absolutely itching for a good chat over a cup of
tea.
At India's end it means the government will probably have to
deal with an opposition and a citizenry worked up over candy
being offered to the bad boy next door. At Pakistan's end it
will allow the army to harp on about India's 'insincerity'
towards peace with Pakistan. But who knows? Sometimes it does
take a traffic warden to get two irate drivers to stop
fighting and move on to relieve the growing traffic jam behind
them.
Come to think of it, it does seem that Pakistan and India
react to one another in their inter-state negotiations pretty
much as their citizens drive on the roads - in one word,
badly. Consider a few examples.
Situation 1: You, a South-Asian driver, see traffic up ahead
at a roundabout. Here's how you respond: drive straight into
it, jam your nose way inside it, then wait for the entire
traffic to jam up completely, at which point you start cursing
every driver on that roundabout. Everyone else is responsible
for this madness except you.
So it is acceptable at this point to stick your head out of
the window and wave your fist at every other driver, without
once wondering how you managed to be so firmly jammed in the
very centre of it yourself in the first place. Act first,
think later, and never ever blame yourself for any mess you
find yourself in - the classic India-Pakistan approach to any
tricky international roundabouts.
Situation 2: You're driving along happily in the middle lane
when a car attempts to overtake you. Your reaction? You press
the accelerator. You are in no particular hurry, your plans
haven't changed since you were ambling along happily at your
earlier steady speed, and you have no real plans for after you
have dealt with the attempted overtaking.
All you have is a gut instinct telling you that for some
unfathomable reason you cannot let this other person get
ahead. So you make some tricky manoeuvres, forge ahead and
move into the third lane, right in front of your challenger.
What do you do next? You slow down to your old speed again.
Obviously the point isn't to get anywhere. The point simply is
to get there before everyone else. The point is to show your
contender that you can do it too, and better. Constructive
dialogue, anyone?
Situation 3: You get into an accident. Now if you were from
any other nation besides India or Pakistan, you would probably
come out of the car, survey the damage, discuss each other's
insurance plans, come up with payment options, exchange
details and then go about repairing the damage.
Not in South Asia. Here it makes much more sense to come
bellowing out of the car, accuse each other belligerently,
threaten to beat up each other, and eventually get back into
your car with no plan, no details, no payment options and
drive away to deal with the damage on your own. Clever and
constructive, again!Situation 4: The South Asian driver can
never seem to choose a lane, so we just drive right on the
white line itself. It may frustrate every other driver on the
road attempting to negotiate their way around us, but it gets
us where we want to go without having to think very much about
it.
Exactly like their drivers, both India and Pakistan show no
real interest either in thinking constructively through the
issues that face them, nor are they waiting for an opportune
moment to jump in and negotiate their way carefully through a
complex jam.
Instead, they simply jump in each time talks are scheduled,
head each other off, frustrate one another, scream
accusations, show each other their fists and bare their teeth,
then stand around and talk for a while, only to return home to
deal with their own damage, having negotiated nothing,
exchanged nothing, solved nothing and having come away with no
insurance details.
63 years, and counting.
The writer is a doctoral candidate at the Institute of
Development Studies, University of Sussex.
Clash or
cooperation?
The economic imbalances make China America's largest
lender and America the world's biggest debtor.
Dr Maleeha Lodhi
President
Barack Obama's meeting last month with the Tibetan
spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, became the latest
irritant to inject strains in Sino-US relations.
Beijing reacted angrily to the White House meeting with a
person it considers a separatist. This came on the heels
of China's indignation over America's decision in January
to sell $6 billion in arms, including sophisticated
weaponry, to Taiwan. This prompted Beijing to suspend
military contacts with Washington.
Over the past year a number of issues have complicated
ties between China and America. These have ranged from the
divergent positions they have taken at the Copenhagen
summit on climate change to the row over the Google
affair. More significantly, they include frictions over
trade and the value of China's currency, as well as on
tougher sanctions against Iran.
Trade disputes have led the two countries to take
tit-for-tat action against the other. The latest round was
triggered last September by the Obama Administration's
imposition of punitive tariffs on Chinese exports of tires
in an effort to placate labour unions in America - a move
that reflected growing protectionist sentiment. This was
contrary to the US commitment, renewed just months earlier
to the G20, to avoid protectionist actions. China
retaliated by announcing duties on American products.
Disagreement over the yuan has seen the US accuse China of
undervaluing its currency to make its exports cheaper.
Beijing has rejected US calls to revalue its currency
upward against the dollar, given its priority to protect
jobs.
The currency issue lies at the heart of the imbalances
that characterise the economic relationship between the
two countries and also generate conflicting claims about
why China's huge trade surpluses persist.
Does all of this signify that the world's two most
powerful nations are headed towards a collision course? Is
the notion of a G-2 partnership, in which the two
collaborate to solve global problems, more hype than real?
Or have the two countries become so economically
interdependent that despite the eruption of tensions on
political and trade issues their relations always come
back on track?
Does Beijing's more muscular posture on a host of issues
reflect a new assertiveness predicated on the shift in the
global balance of power from an economically stalled
America to a rising China still on a trajectory of
dramatic growth?
Western analysts give varied answers to these questions,
even as they agree that the US and China have equities in
each other's economic future. A common explanation of the
firm position China has taken on many issues with the US
is that this assertiveness reflects the dynamics of the
emergence of a new superpower which makes turbulence in
their ties more likely.
Others see rising nationalist sentiment prompting Beijing
to take tougher positions in the international arena.
Another view places Chinese behaviour in the context of
internal politics as leadership changes loom in 2012 and
2013 when President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jibao
will bow out along with other senior figures.
Most of these explanations overlook the historical context
of the issues on which China is said to be taking more
forceful positions. These issues - from Taiwan and Tibet
to trade and currency - are ones that China has always
regarded as sovereign and therefore taken appropriate
positions on them. Beijing has long drawn parameters
around issues it regards to be in its vital national
interest, making it clear that it would respond if its
redlines are challenged.
It may be true that China's growing economic muscle - as
the world's second-largest economy - now puts it in a
position to react more strongly. But where China
determines its sovereign or security interests are at
stake, it adopts a robust posture - as it has also done in
the past.
China's reluctance to support harsher sanctions against
Iran on the nuclear issue is not, as Western officials
suggest, stubborn rejection of efforts to restrain Iran's
nuclear quest. Beijing believes that more punitive
measures will hamper rather than help find a solution to
the standoff. China considers that Teheran's position will
harden in the face of tougher sanctions. It therefore
prefers diplomatic efforts to resolve the matter.
China's stance is also based on a longer-term assessment
of how the situation can spin out of control by the
further ratcheting of sanctions, opening up space for
military action against Iran, which China, as indeed much
of the world, is resolutely opposed to.
Even though China and America have divergent positions on
a number of political issues and both view the other's
military postures and moves with suspicion, there are
compelling economic reasons for them to cooperate to avoid
instability in their ties. This is evident from the manner
in which both nations have sought to deal with disputes
over trade and not allow them to escalate into a trade
war.
There is a mutuality of interests that underpins what is
widely regarded as the world's most important
relationship. The American and Chinese economies are
closely intertwined with an intense level of
interdependence. A new book, Superfusion, written by
Zachary Karabell, even argues that the two economies have
now fused to become one integrated system.
As the largest exporter to the US, China supplies products
that have helped American consumers maintain a standard of
living that would otherwise not be possible. Inexpensive
Chinese goods have also kept US prices down.
The trade surplus - as China exports far more than what it
imports from the US - is held by Beijing in the form of
debt instruments including US Treasury bonds and other
American assets. This has kept interest rates low in
America, enabling continued consumer spending and helping
the US fund its current account deficit.
The economic imbalances make China America's largest
lender and America the world's biggest debtor. Most of
China's $2.4 trillion in foreign currency reserves are
held in US dollars. China's economic strength was
demonstrated by its resilience during the global financial
crisis when the trillions of surplus dollars that it held
provided what Karabell calls a "vital bulwark" against a
disastrous meltdown.
Both America and China have important stakes in their
economic relationship. China has an interest in not seeing
the dollar lose value as that would wipe out a
considerable proportion of the wealth it has accumulated
and erode the value of the US securities it holds and
continues to buy. Beijing also stands to benefit from a US
economic recovery that will fuel higher consumer spending.
Despite frequent US complaints about cheap Chinese goods,
consumption costs for its middle class and less well-to-do
groups would rise substantially if supplies of modestly
priced consumer products were not available. In fact,
trade protectionist measures by the US will not just
affect Chinese export earnings but also hurt American
consumers. On the other hand, a large Chinese market holds
out attractive opportunities for US companies.
This interdependence doesn't at all mean that economic
competition will be friction-free, or that this can
moderate intensifying military competition between the two
countries. But they have a shared interest in managing the
tensions generated by that competition. Both would lose
from the failure to forge cooperative ties in the era of
globalisation.
Relations, however, can be imperilled by any upsurge of
protectionism in the US and mutual suspicions over each
other's long-term strategic intentions. Interdependence is
generating its own anxieties, especially in the US, where
opinion seems to be conflicted between whether to view
China as a partner or a challenge.
A recent article in The Washington Post argued that for
now China has become an all-purpose bogeyman in the US to
galvanise efforts to fix America's economic problems:
"Domestic anxieties have morphed into anxiety about
China." And it rightly cautioned the US not to inflate the
challenge from China to get itself moving.
The writer is a former envoy to the US and the UK, and
a former editor of The News.
Viewpoints
The Agony of ‘Flexible’ Afghan War
Grinds On
The decision
of the US to continue with its brutal military adventurism in
Afghanistan can only be understood in terms of its limited and
highly selfish political logic.
Ramzy Baroud
Washington
and its willing mouthpieces in the media have for years been
trying to sell us the preposterous war in Afghanistan.
While they attempt to convince us that the war is predicated
on a faultless military logic and moral wisdom, it remains in
fact a tragic adventure with no decipherable objectives, and
involving several countries, private contractors, and all
sorts of firms seeking to make a quick buck. The intellectual
cowardice of some should not blind the majority to the fact
that the war in Afghanistan is morally indefensible and
militarily unwinnable.
The decision of the US to continue with its brutal military
adventurism in Afghanistan can only be understood in terms of
its limited and highly selfish political logic. Let us start
by ruling out some of the ridiculous assumptions that have
permeated this war since it began in 2001. First, we were told
that the war was aimed at eliminating Al Qaeda. However, a
retied CIA station chief who has served in the Middle East and
as Chief of the Counterterrorism Staff, has claimed that, "Al
Qaeda is finished in Afghanistan." He further argued that,
"the Obama administration, like its predecessor, claims we are
fighting terrorism there. That is simply not true. It is a
pure counterinsurgency issue." Indeed, even the most ardent
war hawks are exerting little effort to delineate the link
between Taleban and Al Qaeda. If the link is infused, it is
readily unleashed to demonstrate Al Qaeda's links to
Pakistan's tribal areas, thus urging 'action' in that part of
the country, and not in Afghanistan.
Thanks to the random military 'strategy' of the US and its
allies, Al Qaeda has spread in all sorts of directions and
branched off to many Al Qaeda offshoots in various parts of
the world. Without a centralised leadership in the military
sense, Al Qaeda inspired groups and individuals now are now
working for localised sets of objectives and respond to
different stimuli.
So if it's not Al Qaeda that is inspiring the awesome,
although largely futile firepower and military surges in
Afghanistan, then what is? This is where the idealists come
in. They talk of nation-building, Western-style democracy,
regional security and so on. Some of them genuinely mean what
they say, and some don't believe the present military surges
and Gen. Stanley McChrystal's rural area fight to the death
will yield its intended results.
Still, they contribute to the illusion that good intentions -
starting with the initial hype about saving Afghani women,
then 'liberation' from foreign terrorists, then democracy and
nation-building, and so on - had anything to do with this
bloody war. With their insistence on using such positive
terminology, they continue to provide Washington's political
elites - and Kabul's as well - with the benefit of the doubt
that while we may disagree with their methods, we still trust
their ?overall intentions.
It behooves those democracy-inspired, nation-building
enthusiasts to remember that Washington has done much to
stifle genuine democracy movements around the world since its
occupation of Afghanistan in 2001. Palestine and Lebanon
remain the most obvious examples. As for nation-building,
compare the astronomical amounts invested in financing the
destructive war in Afghanistan and to prop up the corrupt
puppet regime in Kabul, to the miniscule sums devoted to
enhancing the country's stone-aged economic infrastructure.
The US military budget for this year is set to exceed $693
billion, not counting the $42 billion set aside for Homeland
Security.
According to CostofWar.com, the financial cost of war in
Afghanistan alone has exceeded the $256 billion; both wars in
Afghanistan and Iraq are approaching the $1 trillion
threshold. The war in Afghanistan cannot possibly be defended
on any moral grounds. The official death count of Afghan
civilians in 2009 is estimated at 2,412. The actual death toll
is probably far, far higher, as polls do not account for the
many more who perished in distance villages across the south
and east, areas that are not accessible to outsiders. The
death of these innocent people alone should silence the few
who still speak of ethics and morality in relation to the
disastrous war. But not everyone is so overtly misguided in
their assessment of the war. Some fully understand that the
war in Afghanistan is a self-seeking, political and strategic
venture. Still, they giddily welcome it, including one Con
Coughlin whose recent article in The Telegraph was tellingly
entitled, 'India and Pakistan must bury the hatchet for the
Taleban to be crushed.'
The India-Pakistan rapprochement is seen as beneficial only
insofar as its potential to 'crush' someone else. And
considering that someone else is not a band of aimless
terrorists, but a grass-roots, popular insurgency, the price
of that "crushing" is likely to be tens of thousands of
innocent people.
Coughlin uses the same haughty and generalised language of
"militant Islamist groups" to be crushed, failing to
understand or appreciate the distinctiveness of each and every
situation, whether in Afghanistan, Pakistan or anywhere else.
Instead, Coughlin nonchalantly expresses concern about the
danger these militants pose to "the survival of the ruling
classes" in Islamabad. What a compelling reason to get Richard
Holbrooke, all fired up over the need to preserve the survival
of the ruling classes, not just in Islamabad, but in Kabul and
Delhi as well. The war in Afghanistan has turned into
find-an-objective-as-you-go military march to nowhere. It is
proving futile and indefensible on every ground, be it
political or military or moral. As Haviland Smith concluded in
his grim assessment, "it doesn't really matter that we think
of ourselves as benevolent liberators, it only matters that
Afghans think of us as foreigners occupiers." When will we all
face up to this reality?
Ramzy Baroud (www.ramzybaroud.net) is a distinguished Arab
American journalist and author. His latest book is My Father
Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story, (Pluto Press,
London
Iran at
history’s fork in the road
An armed
attack by the United States, Israel, or both on Iran's
nuclear facilities is another possibility.
Richard N. Haass
History
rarely unfolds smoothly or evenly. Instead, it tends to be
punctuated by major developments - battles,
assassinations, breakthroughs - that have consequences
that are felt for years.
Thirty-one years after the revolution that ousted the Shah
and brought Islamic rule to Iran, we are at one of those
turning points. To be sure, we do not know the degree,
direction, or pace of change. What we do know, however, is
that what happens in Iran will materially affect not just
that country but the entire Middle East and beyond.
One future for Iran would be mostly an extension of what
already exists, i.e., an Iran run by conservative clerics
and an aggressive Revolutionary Guards, with the latter
increasingly enjoying the upper hand. The Iranian regime
would continue to repress its domestic opponents, meddle
in Iraq and Afghanistan, arm and fund Hizbollah and Hamas,
and, most important, develop the ability to construct one
or more nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them.
The emergence of such a future would present the world
with a stark choice: either acquiesce to an Iran that
possesses or could quickly assemble a nuclear device, or
launch a preventive military attack designed to destroy
much of the Iranian nuclear programme.
Iran's emergence as a nuclear-weapons state would almost
certainly tempt several of the main Sunni Muslim countries
(Turkey, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia all come to mind) to
embark on a crash programme to acquire or develop nuclear
arms of their own. A Middle East comprising several
nuclear weapons states is a recipe for catastrophe.
An armed attack by the United States, Israel, or both on
Iran's nuclear facilities is another possibility. One
downside of such a prospect that Iran would likely
retaliate against US interests and personnel in Iraq and
Afghanistan, and, using Hamas and Hizbollah, against
Israel and others. Iran could also interfere with oil
traffic, leading to a spike in prices and delivering a
further blow to American and global economic recovery.
Moreover, while a preventive strike would delay Iran's
nuclear efforts, it would not stop the regime from
rebuilding, and it might also create conditions that cause
problems for the regime's domestic opponents. But, despite
these potential drawbacks, an armed attack on Iran's
nuclear facilities will and should remain a distinct
possibility given the enormous strategic costs of a
nuclear-armed Iran. It is in part to avoid the difficult
choice of either living with a nuclear-armed Iran or
attacking it that the five permanent members of the United
Nations Security Council and Germany have pursued
negotiations to limit Iran's nuclear programme and place
it under international supervision. Russia and China,
which claim to oppose the emergence of a nuclear-armed
Iran, are now being pressed to support new, tough
sanctions to increase the odds it does not happen. But if
history is a guide, even strong sanctions may not be
enough to persuade Iran's rulers to negotiate
constructively and accept meaningful constraints on their
nuclear activities.
These considerations raise the prospect of trying to bring
about an alternative future: an Iran with a political
leadership that is more moderate at home and abroad, and
that forgoes developing a nuclear weapon or anything close
to it.
In addition to providing a better life for Iran's 70
million people, political change there would weaken both
Hamas and Hizbollah, thereby strengthening the relative
position of moderates in the West Bank and Gaza and much
improving the prospects for peace between Israel and the
Palestinians. A more moderate Iran would also cause Turkey
to reconsider its recent shift away from the West and lead
Syria to rethink its foreign-policy orientation, which
would create a real opportunity for an Israeli peace deal
with Damascus. Iraq's prospects for emerging as a
successful country at peace with itself and its neighbours
also would be much improved.
It is rare in history that such widely different but
plausible paths stem from a common point. It is not
difficult, however, to determine which one is preferable.
This is why additional measures are called for to improve
the prospects for political change that brings about an
Iranian government prepared to live in peace with its own
people and its neighbours. Such measures include assisting
the Green Movement so that it can maintain access to the
Internet, introducing additional sanctions aimed at the
Revolutionary Guards, and publicly supporting the
political and legal rights of the Iranian people.
Some governments and individuals are likely to resist
these suggestions, believing that such intervention
constitutes an unwarranted intrusion into Iran's
sovereignty. But in today's global world, what happens in
Iran is more than Iran's affair. Iran's government has a
right to nuclear power to generate electricity, but not to
a nuclear weapon. It also has obligations to its
neighbours, to the world community (not to support
terrorism, for example), and to its citizens. The world
should not sit idly by as Iran's regime fails to meet
these obligations.
The writer is president of the Council on Foreign
Relations and author of "War of Necessity, War of Choice:
A Memoir of Two Iraq Wars". ©Project Syndicate, 2010.
www.project-syndicate.org
Coming home to Kashmir
At the centre of the "safe passage" idea is the simple
quid pro quo: Kashmiri militants will return home, to
their own side of Kashmir, but they will not be thrown
into jail.
Jyoti Malhotra
The
Moody Blues knew it way back, back in the golden sixties,
that "talking out of turn" was an invitation to being
"shot to pieces," with the lead singer adding plaintively,
"...when will I learn?"
Fortunately for democracies, that hit single by the Blues
needn't become a metaphor for the subcontinent these days,
as top diplomats from India and Pakistan meet for the
first time in 15 months in Delhi, the Indian home (or
interior) minister invites self-styled Maoist rebels to
begin a dialogue, and Kashmiri militants currently living
on the Pakistan side of the Line of Control are offered
safe passage to return home.
The sense of a new page being turned has much traction.
The sense that the state has overreached itself and that
dialogue with its own people, especially on questions of
development, must be started anew, is gathering force.
Significantly, when Home Minister P Chidambaram offered to
start a conversation with Maoist revolutionaries seeking
to stamp their own writ on the development process, the
only condition he put on the dialogue was that it must be
preceded with an "end to violence."
The usage of that word, "violence," is significant here.
As Chidambaram told journalists a few days ago, he did not
demand an end to "'terrorism." So the Maoists could
continue to believe what they wanted to believe, he would
not dissuade them from perusing their own Little Red
Books. However, any conversation could only take place
when the barrel of the gun was empty.
Chidambaram, a lawyer par excellence, is well known for a
rapier-sharp wit that often resembles a demolition job in
spring. In a country with a waning public vocabulary - or
one that is obsessed with 24/7 television news channels -
he's acquired quite a reputation for his cut and thrust.
It's not quite Oxbridge, old chap, much more Madras
University-meets-Harvard Law School, and for the time
being, it'll do.
Anyway, Chidambaram has been somewhat on the backfoot in
recent days as Maoists have laid siege to police camps,
taken on the paramilitary in extended gunbattles and
mercilessly shot informers to pieces. All in the name of
the people, questioning development paradigms that favour
big corporates. In recent months, the writ of the Maoists
has extended to a swathe of several hundred kilometres,
cutting across several states and parliamentary
constituencies.
Not that the Maoists don't have a sense of humour. They
also know that the wretched of the earth must be given at
least a little hope. When betrayal matches grievance, the
odds are even.
So when Chidambaram, in his inimitable style, announced to
the press that he had offered that the Maoists come to the
talks table, without any "ifs, buts or conditions," he
added that they could fax their acceptance on
011-23093155. Presumably, that was the home minister's
office number.
Pat came the reply from Kishanji, the Maoist spokesman:
Chidambaram can call us after 5 p.m., on mobile no
9734695789, and tell us what he wants.
The laughs can still be heard around the country. (But as
the wag said, laughing is always a darn sight better than
shooting.)
Still, Chidambaram's effort at creating a conversation
where none existed must be commended. Especially
noteworthy is the sentiment about ending "violence," with
no reference to "terrorism," language that Indian and
Pakistani draughtsmen would have been proud of. After all,
both sides have burnt many hours of midnight oil thinking
up new words and phrases to clothe the déjà vu.
In fact, the Chidambaram language reminded one of the 2004
joint statement between Prime Minister Atal Behari
Vajpayee and President Pervez Musharraf in Islamabad, when
the Indian side agreed to a Pakistani request not to use
the word "terrorism" in the joint statement, but stick to
"violence." On his part, Musharraf promised that no
"violence" from Pakistani territory towards India would be
allowed.
Musharraf, it must be said, kept his word. The irony is
that the author of Kargil pushed the "back" channel on
Kashmir so far that unconfirmed reports say that a large
chunk of the old, disputed issue was settled.
So when the selfsame Chidambaram announced recently that
all Kashmiri militants on the other side of the Line of
Control would be given safe passage and allowed to return
to their hearths and homes - the rest of India did a
double take.
Was this, could this be, at last, the beginning of the end
of the Kashmir problem as it has existed since 1947?
Several Indians pointed out that there was no way this
issue would gain traction without Islamabad on board. In
fact, it was pointed out, the "safe passage" idea was not
really a new one. At the centre of the "safe passage" idea
is the simple quid pro quo: Kashmiri militants will return
home, to their own side of Kashmir, but they will not be
thrown into jail or subjected to interrogation or torture
by the Indian authorities; meanwhile, the Kashmiri cause
would slowly drop off the Pakistani table, both
domestically and internationally.
Just as Pakistan needs a breather to deal with its own
multiple terrorist groups that have held the moderate
Islamic republic at ransom over the years, India needs to
find new ways to integrate its own people - both Maoist
and Kashmiri.
Rewriting the Blues might be a great start to the new
decade.
The writer is a leading Indian journalist. Email:
jomalhotra@gmail.com
International
Police submit
charges against five Americans
Dawn Online, Sargodha
Pakistani police submitted on Tuesday charges of plotting
terrorism against five young Americans detained last year,
a lawyer said.
The students, in their 20s and from the US state of
Virginia, were detained in December in the town of
Sargodha, 190 km (120 miles) southeast of Islamabad, and
accused of contacting militants over the Internet and
plotting attacks.
They have not been formally charged, but police on Tuesday
submitted a charge sheet in an anti-terrorist court in
Sargodha, said defence lawyer Hassan Dastagir.
"The court received the challan (charge sheet) which
carries charges of criminal conspiracy, having the
intention to go to Pakistan's neighbouring countries to
topple the government and involvement in fund raising for
terrorist acts," he told Reuters.
The court is expected to formally charge the five at the
next hearing on March 10, he said. The case has raised
alarm over the danger posed by militants using the
Internet to evade tighter international security measures
and plan attacks.
The five, who earlier told the court they only wanted to
provide fellow Muslims in Afghanistan with medical and
financial help, face life imprisonment if convicted,
Dastagir said. Police have said the men - two of them of
Pakistani origin, one of Egyptian, one of Yemeni and one
of Eritrean origin - wanted to go to Afghanistan to join
the Taliban to fight Afghan and Western forces.
Police have said emails showed they contacted Pakistani
militants who had planned to use them for attacks in
Pakistan, a front-line state in the US-led war against
militancy.
The five have accused the US Federal Bureau of
Investigation and Pakistani police of torturing them and
trying to frame them. Pakistani authorities deny the
accusations of mistreatment.
Pakistan is fighting al Qaeda-linked militants and is
under pressure from the United States to help stabilise
neighbouring Afghanistan by cracking down on militants'
cross-border attacks on US-led troops.
Pakistan says Indian army
shots wound 2 children
Reuters, Islamabad
Two children were wounded in "unprovoked firing" by Indian
forces across the de facto border dividing the disputed
Kashmir region, Pakistani officials said on Tuesday.
An Indian army spokesman said soldiers had retaliated
after Pakistani troops opened fire. Pakistan said the
shooting, in the Battal sector of Pakistan-controlled
Kashmir, known as Azad Kashmir, took place on Monday
night, just days after the nuclear-armed neighbours held
their first official talks in more than year.
"An innocent boy and a girl were seriously injured due to
unprovoked firing by Indian troops across the Line of
Control," a military official said, referring to the line
dividing the Pakistani and Indian portions of the
Himalayan region. "Pakistani troops responded
effectively," he said without giving details.
Indian army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Biplab Nath said
Pakistani troops also fired several rocket-propelled
grenades.
"We retaliated after 30 minutes, aiming only on Pakistani
military posts," Nath said.
Both sides routinely blame the other for provoking fire in
such incidents.
There has been a spate of clashes in the past few months
along the Line of Control and on the border to the south
but they are not expected to spark a broader conflict.
Pakistan and India have fought two of their three wars
over Muslim-majority Kashmir, which is divided between the
South Asian neighbours who both claim it in full.
India suspended a tentative four-year-old peace process
with Pakistan after an attack on Mumbai in November 2008
by Pakistan-based militants in which 166 people were
killed. India accuses Pakistan of backing separatist
militants fighting its forces in its part of Kashmir.
Pakistan says it only offers Kashmiri separatists
political backing.
Six NATO troops killed in
bloody Afghan day
AFP, Kabul
Six NATO soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan in one
of their deadliest days this year as the US commander led
calls for swift governance following a major offensive
against the Taliban.
The military deaths bring to 107 the number of foreign
soldiers who have died in Afghanistan so far this year,
according to an AFP count.
More than double the number of foreign troops perished
during the first two months of this year compared to the
same period in 2009, as thousands more soldiers pour into
Afghanistan as part of a strategy to end the war.
One of the six NATO troops killed was a British soldier,
who was shot dead in southern Afghanistan, but
nationalities of the other five were not released. Bomb
attacks killed another 10 Afghans Monday in southern
Afghanistan, where NATO commanders are concentrating a
US-led surge that will bring the overall number of foreign
troops in Afghanistan to 150,000 by August.
The Taliban insurgency, which was launched soon after the
2001 US-led invasion brought down their Kabul regime, has
become progressively deadlier for foreign forces, peaking
with 519 foreign troop deaths in 2009.
US General Stanley McChrystal is leading a new
counter-insurgency strategy-concentrated in the Taliban
heartland of the south-designed to capture insurgent
bastions, guarantee security and restore Afghan government
authority.
Afghan Vice President Mohammad Karim Khalili on Monday
visited the southern town of Marjah, where 15,000 US-led
troops launched a major offensive last month, accompanied
by McChrystal in a bid to reach out to the local populace.
NKorea vows to bolster
nuclear deterrent
AP, Seoul
North Korea vowed Tuesday to strengthen its nuclear
deterrent and its means of delivery - an apparent
reference to missiles - days after threatening rival South
Korea and U.S. forces with attack if they conduct military
exercises as planned next week.
The threat comes as the U.S. and other dialogue partners
are pushing for the North's communist regime to rejoin
disarmament talks it pulled out of last year in anger over
international condemnation of a long-range rocket launch.
Soon after, it conducted its second atomic test - a move
that drew tighter U.N. sanctions.
The North's official Korean Central News Agency said
Tuesday there will be no progress in denuclearization on
the Korean Peninsula unless the U.S. removes its nuclear
threat against the North. The U.S. denies posing such a
military threat to the North, although it retains about
28,500 troops in South Korea.
The North wants sanctions lifted and peace talks to
formally resolve the 1950-53 Korean War - which ended in a
truce, not a peace treaty. The U.S., South Korea and Japan
have responded the North must first return to the
disarmament talks and make progress on denuclearization.
"Should the U.S. persist in its unrealistic moves to
stifle the (North) in disregard of its realistic proposal,
this will only compel it to boost its nuclear deterrent
and its delivery means," the KCNA dispatch said.
The North routinely issues threats about its nuclear
deterrent, but it is the first time it has referred to how
it would deliver a nuclear weapon.
The North is believed have enough weaponized plutonium for
at least half a dozen atomic bombs, and has been
developing a long-range missile designed to strike the
U.S. Experts say, however, it has not mastered the
technology required to mount a nuclear warhead onto the
missile.
Protests by Muslims leave 2
dead in southern India
AP, New Delhi
Thousands of Muslims protesting a newspaper article they
say was critical of Islam clashed with police in southern
India, leaving at least two people dead and dozens
injured, police said Tuesday.
One person was killed by police gunfire and another
succumbed to injuries caused by rocks thrown by the
protesters during Monday's gathering in Shimoga, a town in
Karnataka state, said Vinod Kumar, a police officer.
Nearly 3,000 Muslims took to the streets after a local
daily published an article it said was written by
controversial Bangladesh writer Taslima Nasrin challenging
the Islamic tradition of wearing veils as an infringement
on women's freedom.
Police fired at the protesters and used bamboo sticks to
disperse them, he said.
Authorities imposed a curfew in the town after protesters
burned some shops and damaged dozens of vehicles, Kumar
told The Associated Press. The area is about 1,000 miles
(1,600 kilometers) southwest of New Delhi.
Similar protests Monday were reported in Hassan, another
town in Karnataka state.
On Tuesday, The Press Trust of India news agency quoted
Nasrin as saying she had never written an article for
Kannada Prabha newspaper.
"I suspect that it is a deliberate attempt to malign me
and to misuse my writings to create disturbance in the
society," the PTI quoted her as saying.
Nasrin arrived in India last month and got her visa
extended until August.
US Marines land on Iwo Jima to mark
anniversary
AP, Iwo To, Japan
Hundreds of U.S. Marines landed on the remote island of
Iwo Jima on Tuesday to prepare for the 65th anniversary of
one of World War II's bloodiest and most iconic battles.
The Marines flew in trucks, water and food from Washington
to support Wednesday's commemorations of the 1945 battle
that was a turning point in the Pacific theater. It
claimed 6,821 American and 21,570 Japanese lives in 36
days of intense fighting. A drill team also arrived on the
island.
The commemoration was to be attended by about 1,000
people, including Marine Corps commandant Gen. James
Conway, members of Japan's parliament and representatives
of the Iwo Jima survivors' association.
Only about two dozen American veterans of the battle are
expected to attend the "reunion of honor" ceremony because
few of the survivors - now in their 80s and 90s - are able
to make the trip.
It was not known if any of the fewer than 1,000 Japanese
who survived the battle would be able to attend.
Inhabited only by about 300 Japanese troops, Iwo Jima, a
tiny island the size of Manhattan, is a maze of tunnels,
caves and dense, scraggly underbrush. It is believed to be
covered with too much unexploded ordnance left over from
the battle to be developed, and has been largely untouched
since the war.
It is, instead, an open tomb. Though dozens of remains are
recovered every year, about 12,000 Japanese are still
classified as missing in action and presumed killed on the
island, along with 218 Americans.
S Lanka probe army officers
over editor’s murder
AFP, Colombo
Sri Lankan police are to question dozens of military
intelligence officers in connection with the
internationally condemned assassination of a senior
editor, a spokesman said Tuesday.
Investigations into the January 2009 slaying of Lasantha
Wickrematunga, chief editor of the anti-establishment
Sunday Leader, had led them to military personnel, said
police spokesman Prishantha Jayakody.
Sri Lanka's opposition and rights groups had blamed the
government for the killing of Wickrematunga, a staunch
critic of the military campaign that eventually led to the
crushing of the Tamil Tiger rebels last year.
President Mahinda Rajapakse has denied that his
administration was behind the murder, which was condemned
by the US, the United Nations, European Union and both
local and international rights groups.
The privately run Sinhala-language Divaina newspaper said
the head of the military intelligence unit, a major
general, was already in police custody and being
questioned.
The military declined comment. Wickrematunga was last
month named one of the 60 World Press Freedom Heroes by
the Austria-based International Press Institute (IPI).
The IPI said 17 journalists were killed in Sri Lanka
because of their work over the last decade. Two were
killed in 2009. No one has been brought to justice in
connection with any of the killings.
Iran
says new UN nuclear chief biased but leaves door ajar
AFP, Tehran
Iran's atomic chief on Tuesday accused the new UN nuclear
watchdog head, Yukiya Amano, of taking sides against
Tehran's atomic programme but said he hoped the Japanese
official would modify his stand.
Ali Akbar Salehi's criticism came as Moscow and
Beijing-two veto-wielding powers at the UN Security
Council-were divided over imposing new sanctions on
Tehran. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also
appeared to extend her timeline on fresh UN sanctions.
"We expected Mr Amano to examine and adopt a position
about the nuclear issue in an unbiased way, but
unfortunately and in contradiction with what he had said
before, we did not see an unbiased position," Salehi told
AFP, reacting to comments from the watchdog chief on
Monday.
"We hope that he will change his approach," Salehi said on
the sidelines of a Tehran meeting of industry ministers of
eight developing nations. Amano, who took over as head of
the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on December
1, said in an address to the agency's board in Vienna that
Iran is still not giving sufficient information on its
nuclear activities.
"We cannot confirm that all nuclear material in Iran is in
peaceful activities because Iran has not provided the
agency with the necessary cooperation," the IAEA director
general said. About two weeks before the meeting, Amano
had circulated a blunt report to IAEA member states on
Iran's atomic programme in which he expressed concern
Tehran may be working on a nuclear warhead. He also
confirmed Iran had started enriching uranium to higher
levels, theoretically bringing it close to levels needed
for an atomic bomb. Soon after the report was released,
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused the
IAEA of lacking independence and being "influenced by the
United States."
Abbas ‘to consult Arabs
over indirect Israel talks’
AFP, Cairo
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said Tuesday he will
weigh up holding indirect talks with Israel during an Arab
meeting in Cairo this week, Egyptian state media reported.
Abbas, who has rebuffed US pressure to resume direct talks
with Israel in the absence of a settlement freeze in the
Israeli-occupied West Bank, said his government had
lengthy talks with the United States about the indirect
talks.
"This will be a matter of discussion at the meeting of the
Arab ministerial follow-up committee," he told reporters
after meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, the
official MENA agency reported.
Abbas, who is in Cairo ahead of Wednesday's gathering of
foreign ministers from 13 Arab countries, said the
discussions would encompass the details of the proposed
talks. US-led efforts to restart negotiations between
Abbas's Palestinian Authority and Israel, suspended at the
start of the Gaza war last winter, have failed so far,
with Abbas insisting on a complete halt to settlement
construction.
He has rejected a temporary Israeli moratorium on most
building as insufficient. Palestinians want the West Bank
and the Gaza Strip, which Israeli withdrew from in 2005,
for a state, with annexed east Jerusalem as its capital.
Iraqi candidate locked in
election limbo over Baath row
AFP, Hilla
Sitting in his living room, Iskander Witwit opens a
dossier with documents he says exonerate him of the
charges against him: that he is a supporter of Saddam
Hussein's banned Baath Party.
With just days to go before Iraqis cast their ballots in
the March 7 parliamentary poll, the 64-year-old deputy
governor of Babil province is still not certain he will be
allowed to run. He feels persecuted and insists he is the
victim of a conspiracy. "I am in pain-this is a conspiracy
against Iraq's patriots," he says while sipping from a
glass of tea and smoking a cigarette in his house in Hilla,
capital of Babil about 95 kilometres (60 miles) south of
Baghdad. "If I am a Baathist, then everyone is a Baathist."
Witwit's case-he was originally barred from running for
election for alleged links to the Baath, was later
reinstated, and may be barred again-highlights the
country's highly controversial "de-Baathification"
programme. He was one of 511 election candidates barred
from running for office by the Justice and Accountability
Committee (JAC), a much-criticised body led by Ahmed
Chalabi, who is himself running for parliament on a rival
slate to Witwit's Iraqiya list. Witwit was reinstated-he
holds up a document to prove it-but the JAC says it has
new information about him that could lead to him being
barred once again.
According to Witwit, he rose to the rank of staff
brigadier when he was forced to retire in 1991 after
joining in a failed uprising against Saddam in the wake of
that year's Gulf War. He was never more than a "naseer",
or low-level supporter, in the Baath Party, he says
although the fact he rose to the rank of staff brigadier
is cited by his opponents as indication that he supported
the Baath party.
Turkey urges no vote in US
on Armenia genocide
AP, Ankara
Turkey this week feels more threatened by a few U.S.
lawmakers than it does by its neighbors or alleged coup
plots or even Kurdish militants.
Turkish politicians fear if a U.S. congressional panel
recognizes the World War-I era killings of Armenians by
Ottoman Turks as genocide, that would not only damage ties
with its longtime U.S. ally but hurt U.S.-led efforts to
help Turkey end a century of enmity with archrival
Armenia.
Ahead of Thursday's vote at the U.S. House of
Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, Turkey issued
blunt warnings urging the Congress to "act with
responsibility," and its lawmakers lobbied in Washington
against yet another resolution on the stinging issue.
This time, however, they do not have the U.S.
administration on their side. Past U.S. administrations
have defeated similar resolutions through public cajoling
about U.S. national security interests and
behind-the-scenes lobbying. So far, however, the Obama
administration has taken no public position on the measure
and President Barack Obama said as a candidate that he
believed the killings were genocide.
A positive vote would allow the resolution to be
considered by the full House. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
has said she will wait to see the committee result before
deciding whether to bring it up for vote.
At stake is friendly U.S. ties with Turkey, NATO's sole
Muslim member, which is a key supply route for U.S. troops
in Iraq. Turkey is also a symbolically important member of
the U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan, even though
Turkish forces only patrol the Afghan capital and do not
fight the Taliban, fearing a backlash from Muslims.
Armenian-American groups have sought for decades to get
the U.S. Congress to call the killings genocide.
Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were
killed by Ottoman Turks around World War I, an event
widely viewed by scholars as the first genocide of the
20th century.
China demands Iran nuclear
talks, despite US pressure
BBC Online
China says diplomacy sho-uld be given further time in the
dispute over Iran's nuclear programme, as US officials
press for new sanctions on Tehran.
China's latest statement came as a senior US diplomat,
James Steinberg, arrived in Beijing on the highest level
visit since a series of bilateral rows. On Monday, Moscow
signalled it would consider new sanctions against Tehran.
And Iran rejected a UN International Atomic Energy Agency
claim it was not co-operating with its investigation.
World powers say Iran is enriching uranium to make nuclear
weapons, but Tehran says its atomic programme is solely
for civilian energy purposes.
Asked about Moscow's statement, China's Foreign Ministry
spokesman Qin Gang said: "We call for a resolution of the
Iranian nuclear issue through diplomatic means. "We
believe there is still room for diplomatic efforts and the
parties concerned should intensify those efforts."
Speaking in Paris on Monday, Russian President Dmitry
Medvedev said he was open to the idea of sanctions - as a
last resort.
"Russia is ready, together with our other partners, to
consider introducing sanctions" if there is no
breakthrough in the negotiations, he told a news
conference after talks with French President Nicolas
Sarkozy.
"These sanctions should be calibrated and smart. These
sanctions should not target the civilian population," the
Russian leader was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.
Washington and other Western powers want the backing of
China - a veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council
- for a proposed resolution slapping new sanctions on
Tehran.
Immigrants strike in Italy
on racism, govt policies
Reuters, Rome
Thousands of foreign-born workers marched and released
yellow balloons into the sky in Italy's first "immigrant
strike", which was aimed at underscoring their importance
in the economy and protesting government policies.
Immigration is a deeply emotional issue in Italy, which
fears a rising tide of migrants from Africa and Eastern
Europe are boosting crime and irreparably changing the
face of Italian society. A government crackdown on illegal
immigration has proved popular among voters and Prime
Minister Silvio Berlusconi-who accuses the left of wanting
an "invasion of foreigners"-has openly said he is against
the vision of a multi-cultural Italy.
Faced with a corruption scandal involving aides,
Berlusconi has tried to shift the focus back to
immigration to gain votes ahead of regional elections this
month.
"I went on strike today against the institutional racism
that exists in Italy and discriminates against us
immigrants. It's time to say 'basta'!" said Edda Pando, a
Peruvian in Milan who stayed away from work in a show of
protest. "This country needs to understand that we are
indispensable, that we add value."
Demonstrations were held in 60 squares across the country,
with immigrants holding aloft yellow balloons and banners
with slogans like "What race are you-human or inhuman?"
and "Immigrants-Yes, we can". Many also stayed away from
work.
A deafening roar-then
tsunami swallowed up the village
AFP, Pelluhue
The Chilean seaside resort of Pelluhue was transformed
into a sandy wasteland without warning-one giant wave,
then another, then scores of homes disappeared.
The further Chilean emergency services go after the huge
earthquake that sparked a twin tsunami, the more grim
discoveries they make.
"This part was full of houses. There were more than 100,"
said Silvia Aparicio, a community leader, pointing to the
Pelluhue beachfront.
"And that's nothing compared to what happened in the
Marisquero," she added of a nearby district named after
the shell fisherman who once lived here. Many tourists
were asleep in their beds when the deafening roar came
from nowhere. "There was no warning. The waves surged in
40 minutes after the earthquake which took place at
3:25am," said Aparicio, who lives at the top of the town.
"There were two, then a bigger one. The sound was
deafening," she said.
Three days after the quake, Pelluhue, some 300 kilometres
(185 miles) from Santiago, remains a scene of desolation
and sorrow. Fallen tree trunks barring a road testify to
the fury of the tsunami that firefighters say swept away
several hundred houses in all along the coast.
So far, rescue workers have counted 57 dead in Pelluhue
and another 28 in nearby Curenipe, both close to the
epicentre of the quake said to have killed more than 720
people in all.
Another 46 bodies have been found in the region and an
unknown number are missing, said senior firefighter Wagner
Alvear Flores. Most are Chilean tourists who flocked to
this village of farmers and fishermen to spend their
summer holidays.
Business/Economy
Fast
track remittance delivery system introduced
BSS, Dhaka
A fast track remittance delivery system has formally been
launched today with the auspicious target of accelerating
remittance inflow into the country.
Buro, a micro-finance institute, introduced the system in
cooperation with six private banks, a cash management
company and an IT firm. The new system will also ensure
secured and timely payment to the recipients across the
country.
Bangladesh Bank (BB) governor Dr Atiur Rahman lauded the
system when he introduced it at a city hotel.
Under the system, Buro will issue the beneficiaries of
expatriate wage earners Cashlink cards and the
beneficiaries can get instant cash by using these cards at
Buro branches and cash points across the country. "This
card-based delivery arrangement will reduce the need for
cash balances, also helping promote savings habit among
card holders," Dr Atiur said.
He suggested the participatory banks to maintain optimal
stocks of cash available at delivery points and assured
them of all cooperation from the central bank for
expansion of the system.
The participatory banks are AB Bank, Bank Asia, Citibank
NA, Prime Bank, United Commercial Bank and Mercantile
Bank. Cashlink Bangladesh and the Remittance and Payment
Challenge Fund (RPCF) are providing technical supports to
the system.
Buro has already delivered $45 million thorough the
system, which it introduced on trial basis last year. This
year the organisation sets its target for delivering $125
million through the system.
Medvedev
looks to France to modernize Russian economy
AFP, Paris
President Dmitry Medvedev urged French investors to help
modernise the Russian economy Tuesday as the two
countries' build major new energy, transport.
Addressing an audience of powerful business leaders from
Russia and France on the second day of a visit to Paris,
the Kremlin chief hailed what he said was an
"unprecedented" economic partnership.
"It is impossible to imagine relations between Russia and
France without economic ties," he said at the French
employers' association MEDEF, calling for Russian and
French firms to buy stakes in one another. "This truly
strengthens relations," he said, inviting French investors
to a economic forum in St Petersburg in June, where he
hopes their expertise will "give the Russian economy an
opportunity to adapt to modern life."
The mood among delegates was genial and Medvedev appeared
to be pushing on an already open door. Russian and French
firms had already celebrated the Paris trip by announcing
several important deals on Monday. According to Medvedev's
chief of staff, Sergei Naryshkin, French investment in
Russia has topped 10 billion dollars and trade between
Russia and France has increased by 25 percent per year
since 2006. Medvedev said that this makes France a bigger
investor in Russia than the United States, and reflects
Moscow's policy of closer European cooperation.
President Nicolas Sarkozy's confirmed on Monday that
France is in negotiations to sell Russia four advanced
naval command ships, each capable of deploying a flight of
helicopters and an amphibious assault force. The
Mistral-class vessels cost up to 600 million euros each,
and would mark the first time a NATO power has transferred
such military technology to Russia.
French and Russian energy giants GDF Suez and Gazprom
announced they had agreed terms for deals for France to
take an extra 1.5 billion cubic metres of Russian gas per
year through the Nord Stream undersea pipeline. GDF Suez
will take a nine percent stake in the pipeline, joining
major German investors in a project that will allow
Russian gas to bypass Eastern Europe by a route under the
Baltic to western markets.
"France has been among the five largest buyers of Russian
gas for a number of years already and our interaction is
not limited to gas supplies any more," Gazprom chairman
Alexey Miller said.
Iraqi minister says oil deal
with Japan failed
AFP, Tokyo
Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani has said that
talks over a huge oil development deal with a Japanese
energy consortium had broken down, a leading Japanese
newspaper reported Tuesday.
Baghdad would "promote the development (in the Nasiriyah
oil field) centred around an Iraqi state-owned company",
he was quoted as saying by the Asahi Shimbun. The field is
expected to produce 600,000 barrels a day, which would
equal 10 percent of Japan's crude consumption.
But a spokesman for Nippon Oil Corp, one of three Japanese
energy firms in the consortium, said "the company believes
the negotiations are still going. We don't understand what
the minister really meant by his remarks".
Nippon Oil said in August the talks were "in progress
toward an agreement" that would have set a new production
volume record for Japanese companies.
Japan, the world's second-largest economy, has few natural
resources and is almost entirely dependent on the Middle
East for its oil.
Iraq held an oil field auction in December which increased
its projected production to 12 million barrels per day
within seven years.
During the auction, Baghdad awarded a deal to Malaysia's
Petronas and Japan's Japex to develop the Garraf oil
field, also in southern Iraq, which has known reserves of
863 million barrels of oil.
The Asahi said the Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nuri
al-Maliki, who faces elections Sunday, has been criticised
for granting too many concessions to foreign oil companies
and was reluctant to give more deals to foreigners.
Japan lower house passes
record trillion-dollar budget
AFP, Tokyo
Japan's lower house Tuesday passed a record
trillion-dollar budget for fiscal 2010, adding to the
country's bulging public debt burden as Tokyo tries to
stimulate a sluggish economic recovery.
The 92.3 trillion yen (1.0 trillion dollar) budget
includes new child-care allowances, free public high
school tuition and other measures promised by the
centre-left government that took power in September.
To finance the budget, the government will issue new bonds
worth a record 44.3 trillion yen, adding to Japan's huge
public debt burden. The Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Development has warned that the public
debt, bloated by repeat bouts of stimulus spending, will
soar to double the country's gross domestic product by
2011.
The conservative opposition, which was ousted last year
after more than half a century of nearly unbroken rule,
slammed the budget as a massive handout ahead of upper
house elections slated for July.
Japan, the world's number two economy, last year emerged
from its worst post-war recession, growing in the second
and third quarters due to government stimulus measures and
rebounding exports, mostly to China.
5 lakh new jobs in India in
July-Sept
BSS, New Delhi
The Economic Survey 2009-10 of India, tabled in the
Parliament recently, said jobs creation in domestic market
showed revival during second quarter of the current fiscal
as about five lakh new jobs were added in the period
against a cut of 1.31 lakh in the previous year. The
Survey, which collected information from 2,873 units from
21 centres spread across its states, covered eight sectors
including textile, leather, metals, automobiles, gems and
jewellery, transport, IT and handloom.
It said all the seven sectors, except leather, have
registered an increase in employment during July-
September, while during April-June 2009, all sectors,
except leathers, automobile and handloom, witnessed a dip
in employment.
Employment during the second quarter increased
substantially in textiles (3.18 lakh) followed by metals
(o.65 lakh) and gems and jewellery (0.58 lakh).
However, during April-June 2009, the employment had
declined in all three sectors by 1.54 lakh, 0.01 lakh and
0.20 lakh respectively. About 80 per cent of the increase
in employment that occurred during the July-September 2009
quarter was in direct category workers, those employees
who are on the rolls.
Though increase in employment was more in non- exporting
units, exporting units have also shown a significant
recovery by registering an increase in employment to the
extent of 2.04 lakh during fiscal 2010, the Survey said.
National
Char women united for building
better future of their children
BSS, Rangpur
The char women, who lived in utter miseries even few years
back, overcame their differences and jealousy on petty
issues in an exceptional manner for accelerating their
developments, empowerment and building a better future for
their children.
They have done it by observing the World Love Day
(Valentine Day) in an exceptional manner and cemented
their social relations and love through exchanging flower
and litchi saplings among themselves on last February 14
for accelerating their advancements.
Under the ongoing Char Livelihood Programme (CLP) of
Rangpur- Dinajpur Rural Service (RDRS), the women living
in remote Kawniar Char village under Roumari upazila on
the Brahmaputra bed in Kurigram achieved mentionable
success since 2008.
They remained deprived of basic human rights for decades
together and many of their good initiatives became
unsuccessful for petty differences and jealousy that led
to severe sequels and quarrels frequently among them
hindering their unity and developments.
But, now they have become strongly united to eradicate
their differences and jealousy and vowed to boycott en
masse social curses like child marriage, dowry, polygamy,
divorce, human trafficking, violence against women and
children for their own interests.
Under the CLP assistances, the char women have largely
changed their fates by achieving self-reliance and
empowerment through various income-generating activities
and improved their infrastructures, livelihoods and have
been educating their children. Side by side, they have
already achieved successes in bringing down school drop
outs and their population growth rate by adopting family
planning and brought the rate of maternal and neonatal
deaths to the minimum.
They are thinking for a better future of their children by
building a developed digital Bangladesh, but still then,
minor differences, jealousy, enmities and petty issues
among them had been hampering their social relations and
overall advancements.
Considering these circumstances, the CLP and RDRS took
special initiatives for reducing the differences, gaps and
minor enmities among the char women, who are neighbours of
each other, by arranging an exceptional Valentine Day.
Accordingly, the women of Kawniar Char village were
motivated for resolving their minor issues, enmities,
sequels and cementing their relations by exchanging
saplings of rose and litchi plants on February 14 last.
The special occasion was arranged at nearby Char Goytapara
Registered Non- government Primary School where 150
beneficiary women members of the ongoing CLP activities
being conducted by RDRS actively took part.
RAKUB's role to
uplift agro-based economy vital
BSS, Rajshahi
The role of Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank (RAKUB) is vital
to uplift the agro-based economy in the country's
northwestern region.
Its banking activities must be reached towards the
farmers' doorsteps so that they could derive its total
benefits for boosting farm production along with
expediting the rural economy.
This was stressed at the 341st meeting of Board of
Directors of the bank held at its board room here Monday
with RAKUB Chairman Yahiya Molla in the chair.
The meeting viewed that ensuring farmers-friendly
atmosphere in the banking activities could be the
effective means of uplifting the socio-economic condition
of the farmers' families along with ensuring food security
in the region. Besides, the RAKUB services must be free
from all sorts of corruption and irregularities and
mindsets of the officials and staffs should be pro-people
for welfare of the farmers community. Directors Khandaker
Jahangir Kabir Rana, Dr Rustam Ali Ahmed and Yunuus Ali
attended and addressed the meeting.
Managing Director of the bank Muhammad Fazlul Haque,
General Manager Delwar Hossain Bhuiyan and
Council-Secretary Aminul Islam Khandaker also attended the
meeting.
The meeting reviewed and discussed overall activities of
the bank and took some important decisions relating to its
commercial and administrative matters. According to the
sources concerned, the meeting laid emphasis on making the
bank's activities more intensified to supplement the
government's effort to build social safety net, poverty
reduction and food security.
"We have no way but to boost the internal crop production
to reduce the pressure on import and to increase the
volume of export," RAKUB Chairman Yahiya Molla said adding
that the RAKUB has a vital role to play in this regard.
Govt.
takes all-out steps to support farmers for increasing
productions : Speakers
BSS, Rangpur
Speakers at a ceremony held at Chilmari upazila town in
Kurigram Monday said that the present government has been
taking all-out steps for supporting the farmers for
ensuring their well- being and increasing agri-
productions.
They said this at the launching ceremony of distribution
of agriculture input support cards among the farmers of
Chilmari upazila held at Chilmari upazila parishad
auditorium in Kurigram with UNO Enamul Haque in the chair.
Valiant freedom fighter, president of Chilmari upazila
unit of Awami League (AL) and Chilmari upazila chairman
Shawkat Ali Sarker Bir Bikram attended and addressed the
ceremony as the chief guest.
Chilmari Upazila Agriculture Officer Zulfikar Haider, Sub-
assistant Agriculture Officer Abdus Salam and Sayeed
Hossain Ansari and a number of farmers addressed the
occasion. Terming the government's step as an epoch making
unprecedented initiative, the speakers said the present
government wants to ensure well-being of the farmers and
make the country completely self-reliant in food
productions in near future.
Later, the chief guest formally launched distribution of
the agriculture input support cards among the farmers of
all six unions in one of the most remote and
natural-calamity-prone and economically backward upazilas
of Chilmari on the Brahmaputra bed.
The speakers said distribution of a total of 20,000
agriculture input support cards among 20,000 farmers of
all six unions in the upazila will be completed very soon.
Upazila chairmen, vice-chairmen
organise human chains in Rangpur
BSS, Rangpur
Upazila chairmen and vice-chairmen of the district Monday
formed human chains at all eight upazila towns in Rangpur
as a part of their ongoing month-long nationwide
programmes to press home 10- point demands.
As per the programmes, they are forming human chains and
discussions in every upazila on March 1, every district
town on March 15 and in front of Jatiya Press Club on
March 30 before submission of a memorandum to the Prime
Minister.
In Rangpur, chairman and vice-chairmen of Sadar upazila
and socio-political activists formed the human chain and
organised a discussion at CO Bazaar point on the
Rangpur-Dinajpur highway like in all other seven upazila
headquarters Monday.
The occasion was addressed by Rangpur Sadar upazila
chairman Mostafizur Rahman Mostafa, vice-chairmen Masud
Nabi Munna and Nasima Zaman Bobby, political leaders Abdur
Rahim Sarker and Zahid Hassan Lucid.
A similar programme was organised in Pirgachha upazila
town where Pirgachha upazila chairman Abu Naser Shah
Mohammad Mahbubur Rahman addressed the occasion and
elaborated their demands.
Similar programmes were observed in Pirgachha, Taraganj,
Kawnia, Pirganj, Mithapukur, Badarganj and Gangachara
upazilas in the district as elsewhere in the country, the
speakers in Rangpur said. They raised their 10-point
demand and asked the government to fulfill those and said
that the next programmes will be announced on March 30
after completion of the declared nationwide programmes.
Earlier, upazila chairmen and vice-chairmen from all 58
upazilas of Rangpur division took part at a conference
with Rangpur Sadar upazila chairman Mostafizur Rahman
Mostafa in the chair in Rangpur on last February 23.
Convener of the central committee of the Upazila Chairmen
and Vice-chairmen Oikko Parishad Abdul Mazid addressed as
the chief guest in the conference from where they declared
month-long programmes till March 30 next throughout the
country.
Economic inequity must be
eliminated from society - MJ Akbar
BSS, Dhaka
Visiting eminent Indian journalist and writer MJ Akbar
Tuesday said poor populace must be part of history of
rising India as well as Bangladesh for ensuring prosperity
of both the countries.
Economic inequity must be eliminated from the society to
make it poverty free," he said while speaking as the
convocation speaker at the 13th convocation of Independent
University Bangladesh (IUB) at Bangabandhu International
Conference Centre here.
Presently, Akbar said, people of South Asia are contesting
with each other to modernize themselves. "But, what does
modernization mean?" he questioned.
A modernized society must practice quality politics with
secular characteristics and equal gender rights as well as
it must be free from economic inequity, said Akbar, the
former editor of India's first political weekly Sunday.
Congratulating the new graduates, he said "today you have
entered to the elite class but you have no right to forget
those, who are lagging behind in the society."
After the convocation ceremony, MJ Akbar, who is also a
politician of Indian Congress Party told the journalists
that regional cooperation among the south Asian countries
need to enhance for eradicating poverty from the region.
If poverty won't be eradicated from the region, we will
fail to advance the path of prosperity, he added.
"We would have to adopt an attitude that all countries in
South Asia are equal, here no one is more powerful than
others," he said.
Terming the recent visit of Bangladesh Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina to India as a success of regional
cooperation, the veteran journalist said visit of
Bangladesh's premier is a starting point of a new era of
relations between Bangladesh and India, which need to be
expanded.
A total of 660 students, of those 465 from undergraduate
and 195 from post graduate were conferred degrees in the
convocation.
Naomi Ahmed selected as valedictorian while four other
students Lamyea Bintea Ali, Sharmin Mahbub, M Azmal
Hossain and S M Kaiser Ali received chancellor's gold
medals for their outstanding academic results.
Three killed, 8 injured in road
accidents
BSS, Rangpur
Three persons including two young boys were killed and
eight others injured in two separate road accents at
different places in the district last evening,
eyewitnesses and police sources said.
Two passengers of a rickshaw van were killed and six
others injured when a Dinajpur bound passenger bus from
Barishal rammed the rickshaw van at Chiklee Bazaar point
on the Dinajpur-Rangpur highway under Taraganj upazila in
Rangpur.
Passenger of the rickshaw van Habibullah, 15, of nearby
Horiapara village in Syedpur upazila of Nilphamari, was
killed on the spot and seven others including van
passengers and pedestrians were seriously injured in the
accident. After admission at Taraganj Upazila Health
Complex, another van passenger Kajal, 16, an incumbent HSC
examinee, of Doalipara village in Taraganj upazila of
Rangpur succumbed to his injuries and six injured persons
are now undergoing treatment there. One Mofiz Mian, 60, of
village Etakumari in Pirgachha upazila was killed and his
wife Jarina Begum, 50, and rickshaw- puller Golam Mostafa,
30, were injured when a truck hit their rickshaw at
Monurchhara point on the Rangpur-Sundarganj road here.
Sports
Mushfiq, Kayes prop up Bangladesh
AFP, Dhaka
Mushfiqur Rahim and Imrul Kayes cracked half-centuries to help
Bangladesh post a competitive 260-6 against England in the
second one-day international on Tuesday.
Wicketkeeper-batsman Rahim made 76 and left-handed opener
Kayes 63 as Bangladesh scored their highest one-day total
against England in 10 matches. The pair added 90 for the third
wicket on a slow track in the day-night match.
Paceman Tim Bresnan (3-51) and off-spinner Graeme Swann (2-52)
were the main wicket-takers for England, who lead 1-0 in the
three-match series following their six-wicket win in the first
game on Sunday.
Bangladesh, put in to bat, lost opener Tamim Iqbal (30) and
Aftab Ahmed (four) in the opening 11 overs before being
propped up by Kayes and Rahim.
Iqbal, who scored a century in the last match, hit a 25-ball
30 before driving paceman Stuart Broad straight to skipper
Alastair Cook at mid-wicket. He hit four boundaries.
Rahim and Kayes then denied England success for 22 overs,
relying mainly on singles and twos to keep the scoreboard
moving.
Swann and medium-pacers Luke Wright and Paul Collingwood did
not let the Bangladeshi batsmen score freely with their tidy
line and length in middle overs.
Swann, who bagged three wickets in the last match, dismissed
well-set Kayes and skipper Shakib Al Hasan (14) to reduce
Bangladesh to 166-4.
Kayes, who hit just four boundaries in a 113-ball knock for
his second half-century in one-dayers, firmly drove the
spinner in the covers where Colingwood held a good catch.
Rahim, dropped on 24 by Broad at deep square-leg off
Collingwood, went on to complete his sixth half-century before
falling in a bid to step up the run-rate, caught by Wright at
mid-wicket off Bresnan in the 44th over.
Naeem Islam (18 not out) and debutant Suhrawadi Shuvo (14 not
out) added 25 off the last 11 deliveries to help their team
cross the 250-mark.
England made one change from the side which won the opening
match, replacing unfit paceman Ryan Sidebottom with debutant
spinner James Tredwell.
Bangladesh brought in Rubel Hossain and Shuvo in place of
Junaid Siddiqui and Mashrafe Mortaza.
 Armanitola
High School emerges Dhaka division champion
TBT report
Armanitola Government High School emerged champion in the
Dhaka division of the Ecstasy 6th National School Hockey
Championship after a 8-1 thrashing of Arjot Atorjan High
School of Kishoreganj in the final at Moulana Bhasani National
Hockey Stadium in Dhaka on Tuesday.
Both teams-Armanitola Government High School and Arjot Atorjan
High School-confirmed their participations in the final round
of the school hockey competition.
A total of 31 teams from six divisions are featuring in the
6th National School Hockey Championship, which is considered
as an ideal breeding ground for the emerging hockey players of
the country.
Bangladesh Hockey Federation (BHF) has organised the
competition with the financial backing of Ecstasy, a garment
business house of the country.
The qualification competitions of the school hockey are being
held in six venues across the country. Top two teams from each
division will play in the final round, which is expected to be
held in Dhaka later this month.
The teams took part in the Dhaka division qualifier are:
Armanitola Government High School, Paisa High School, Gazipur
Sports Academy, Momenshahi Academy of Mymensingh, Narayanganj
Zilla School and Arjot Atorjan High School of Kishoreganj.
Raisul exits from ITF Junior
Tennis
TBT report
Raisul Islam of Bangladesh was knocked out of the boys'
singles competition in the 24th Bangladesh ITF Junior
Tennis Championship when he suffered a 6-2, 6-2 defeat
against Xin Gao of China in the second round match at
Ramna National Tennis Complex in the city on Tuesday.
Rishabdev Raman of India earned a comfortable 6-2, 6-4
victory against Ashwin Kuppusamy of Great Britain in the
other match to make it to the third round of the boys'
singles competition.
In the girls' singles competitions, Saisai Zheng (China)
beat Vaniya Dangwal (India) 6-1, 6-1; Adnya Naik (India)
beat Tanaporn Thongsing (Thailand) 6-2, 6-3; Amy Askew
(Great Britain) beat Kotchamon Kongkerd (Thailand) 6-0,
6-3; Anna Clarica Patrimonio (Philippines) beat Roisin
Mullins (Great Britain) 7-6, 6-3; Trang Huynh Phung Dai
(Vietnam) beat Bhuvana Kalva (India) 6-7, 6-3, 6-4; Meng
Ning Deng (China) beat Ankita Bhatia (India) 6-1, 6-2;
Xianghong Yin (China) beat Nova Patel (India) 6-2, 6-2 and
Xuanshuo Ou (China) beat Sharon Sanchana Paul (India) 2-6,
6-1, 6-3.
Ex-Australia PM set to lead ICC
AFP, Sydney
Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard, a cricket
lover seen at Test matches around the world, was Tuesday
set to lead the sport internationally from 2012 after
winning the nomination for the job.
Howard, 70, said he was honoured and humbled to be
Australia and New Zealand's candidate to take over the
rotating International Cricket Council (ICC) presidency
when it next becomes available.
"It will be not only a tremendous experience, but also
quite a challenge," the self-confessed "cricket tragic"
Howard told Sky News of joining the ICC.
"Because any international sport, and cricket is certainly
that, has to I guess achieve a balance between preserving
its traditional supporters and participants but also
making sure that it gets a fair slice of a growing market.
But I am very optimistic about its future."
Howard, the preferred candidate of Cricket Australia, won
the nomination following months of debate between
Australian and New Zealand cricket officials over who
would be their joint candidate.
New Zealand had reportedly wanted to tap former New
Zealand Cricket chairman John Anderson for the role which
involves juggling the political and cultural
considerations of 10 diverse cricketing nations.
The bodies ultimately asked business leader Rod Eddington,
a former chief executive of British Airways, to act as an
independent member on the selection committees each board
formed.
"We are pleased that an eminent candidate in John Howard
has agreed, after an exhaustive process, to take the role
of joint Australia-New Zealand nominee for the ICC
presidency," Cricket Australia and New Zealand Cricket
said in a statement.
"It was an extremely difficult decision and ultimately
relied on the input of Sir Rod Eddington, whom both
cricket boards respect enormously."
The joint statement noted that the ICC faced "significant
and complex internal and external challenges in its quest
for cricket to become a genuinely global sport."
Howard, Australia's prime minister from 1996 to 2007 whose
only official position since losing power has been as
director of the Bradman Foundation which honours the
legendary Don Bradman, said it would be presumptuous to
speak about the role of president ahead of his official
appointment. But he said finding a balance between all
forms of the game would be a focus.
South Africa celebrates 100 day
countdown to World Cup
AFP, Durban
Schoolchildren will ditch their uniforms for football
jerseys, while dancers will take to the streets on Tuesday
as South Africa celebrates the 100-day countdown to the
World Cup.
Top FIFA officials, including the world football body
president Sepp Blatter and secretary general Jerome Valcke,
will mark the occasion in Durban with a press conference
aimed at dispelling doubts about South Africa's readiness
for the June 11 to July 11 tournament.
They'll be winding up a tour of the 10 stadiums that will
host the matches, aiming to reassure naysayers that
despite some work being done on the pitches and the
surrounding grounds, all the venues are on track for the
kick-off.
South Africa has poured 33 billion rand (3.9 billion
dollars, 3.2 billion euros) into preparations for the
tournament.
The heavy construction is already finished at all the
stadiums. Soccer City, the 95,000-seat venue for the
opening and final matches should be handed over within a
month.
Major upgrades to airports in Johannesburg, Cape Town and
Bloemfontein are complete, while Durban's new airport is
set to open on May 1.
Valcke said on Monday that on a scale from one to 10,
South Africa's readiness was at an eight.
"We will be at 10 on June 11," he told journalists. "In
terms of readiness, South Africa is ready to host the
World Cup in 2010."
Ordinary South Africans are being urged to get into the
spirit by wearing the green and yellow jersey of the
Bafana Bafana national side, blowing the vuvuzela trumpets
that are ubiquitous at local matches and waving the
national flag, said Danny Jordaan, head of the local
organising committee.
He said South Africans were also being urged to learn
their national anthem, which includes verses in five of
the country's 11 official languages, and to buy tickets
for the matches.
"We see a tremendous response," Jordaan said last week.
FIFA says that 2.2 of the 2.9 million tickets have already
been sold, even though fewer foreign fans are expected to
attend.
South Africa is banking on 450,000 foreign visitors,
though the actual number could be lower, with many fans
overseas still recovering from the shock of the global
recession.
The 100-day mark will give South Africa a chance to try to
overcome lingering concerns about the games, especially
security in a nation with one of the highest crime rates
in the world, averaging 50 murders each day.
South Africa has spent more than 2.4 billion rand on
security, recruiting 41,000 additional police and buying
hi-tech equipment for the competition.
Overall, South Africans are increasingly optimistic about
the World Cup. A survey out on Monday found that 85
percent believe the nation will ready for the games.
The public was less rosy about the chances about the
hot-and-cold fortunes of Bafana Bafana - only 55 percent
said they thought the team was ready to compete.
England downs South Africa in goal spree
AFP, New Delhi
England recorded its second successive win in the men's
field hockey World Cup with a 6-4 thriller against South
Africa on Tuesday.
The European champion, who had stunned hot favourites
Australia in their first match, edged past the South
Africans in a game where both sides suffered defensive
lapses.
Richard Mantell scored two penalty corners, while Rob
Moore, Ashley Jackson, Nick Catlin and Iain Mackay chipped
in with a goal each for England.
Marvin Harper scored twice for South Africa, and Lloyd
Norris-Jones and Thornton McDade netted one each.
The first 25 minutes produced four goals as South Africa
and England took turns to take the lead, before the two
sides took the break deadlocked at 2-2. England scored
thrice in quick succession when play resumed to make it
5-2, before Harper reduced the margin for the Africans.
Two more goals ensued-one from either side-before the
final whistle.
It was the first time in World Cup history that England
pumped in six goals in a single match. They had scored
five against Pakistan in 1998, but still lost the match as
their rivals netted seven.
"Scoring six goals means a lot and I am happy with the
win, but we were not consistent enough," said England
captain Barry Middleton.
"We should have played well throughout the 70 minutes, but
we did not do that against the South Africans. Our defence
was not up to the mark.
"We have a tough game against Pakistan on Thursday and
really need to work on our game," he said.
South African captain Austin Smith said his team made the
same mistakes as they did in the 2-4 loss against Spain.
"We competed well in the first half and I was delighted
with the 2-2 scoreline," said Smith. "But we let ourselves
down in the second half.
"England were very good after the break and scored too
many goals. We were left chasing the equaliser which was
not easy against a quality team like England."
Mashrafe pulls out of one-day series
TBT report
Bangladesh pace bowler Mashrafe Mortaza withdraws himself
from the remainder of the one-day series against England.
Mashrafe has requested the selectors not to consider him
for the third and final one-day match of the series, to be
held in Chittagong on March 5, Chairman of the Selection
Committee of Bangladesh Cricket Board Rafiqul Alam said on
Tuesday.
"Mortaza has informed us and Cricket Operations Committee
that he has to be by the side of his ailing mother and
therefore he was withdrawing himself from the rest of the
one-day series," Alam said. All-rounder Nasir Hossain has
been included in the squad to replace Mashrafe.
Morgan saves England with
brilliant hundred
Cricinfo.com
Eoin Morgan hit his first hundred for England as they
overcame a major challenge from Bangladesh to secure a
nerve-jangling two-wicket victory with seven balls to
spare and seal the series in Mirpur. For Bangladesh it
means their wait for success over England continues, but
this was the closest they have come and their inability to
close out matches came back to haunt them as Morgan's
ultra-cool approach proved too much.
As England's lower order lost their head with pressure
building Morgan remained completely focused on his task,
barely acknowledging the applause for his hundred which
made him the first player to score centuries for two
countries after he began his career with Ireland. When
Graeme Swann missed a wild mow at Shakib Al Hasan, England
needed 32 off 26 balls as debutant James Tredwell came to
the crease.
That equation came down to 25 from 17 balls and to
Morgan's advantage they were inside the Powerplay overs.
England had delayed taking their option until the end and,
for a while, it appeared it may be wasted but in the final
result the restrictions proved vital. Morgan pierced the
field with precision and with 16 needed from the last two
overs he didn't waste any time as he made use of the extra
pace from Shafiul Islam. He took him for two fours before,
as he did against Pakistan in Dubai, sealing victory with
a six over deep square-leg.
Morgan could finally celebrate his efforts and was cheered
off by his team-mates as England main-tained their
unbeaten record against the hosts - but this one was a
close call.
Dhaka Mohammedan loses
points
TBT report
Dhaka Mohammedan Sporting Club suffered a setback in the
Bangladesh League football competition when the title
aspirants were held to a goalless draw by Sheikh Russel
Krira Chakra in their ninth round match at Bangabandhu
National Stadium in the city on Tuesday.
Both sides fought hard and went close to scoring on
several occasions but their goal-shy forwards put the side
down. They failed to convert their chances into a precious
goal.
Dhaka Mohammedan, which earned 25 points from nine
matches, fell two points behind its arch rival Dhaka
Abahani, which is leading the table with 27 points after
nine games maintaining its all-win record.
Sheikh Russel after snatching a valuable point from its
illustrious opponent enhanced its tally to 23 points after
its ninth round fixture.
Farashganj Sporting Club gained full points in the other
match of the day defeating Feni Soccer Club by a solitary
goal at Feni Stadium. With the first half ended goalless,
Arafat Ali scored the only goal for the visitors on 69
minutes, much to the dismay of home fans.
Farashganj tallied nine points after eight matches. Feni
Soccer Club also remained on nine points coming from eight
outings.
Today's match: Rah-matganj Muslim Friends Society vs
Shuktara Jubo Sangsad (Bangabandhu National Stadium, Dhaka
at 6:00pm).
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