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Leading News
River transport strike continues
partially
UNB, Dhaka
The indefinite water transport strike is being observed
partially for the second day Sunday.
River transport workers went on an indefinite strike
across the country on Friday midnight to press home their
22-point demands, including new pay scale.
Bangladesh Noujan Sramik Federation is continuing the
strike rejecting the new wage structure announced by the
government on Friday for water transport workers.
The government announced a new pay scale for the river
transport workers giving wage increases ranging up to 100
percent.
Informed sources said Master level workers of launches
will get 60 percent wage hike while those below them will
get 50 percent. The maximum benefit will go to the cargo
and tanker workers.
At least 15 launches left Sadarghat terminal Saturday
evening resuming partial operation of river transport
services affected by strike since Friday midnight on all
42 routes connecting capital Dhaka with southern
districts.
Thousands of passengers who usually travel from Dhaka to
country's southern districts by water vessels are facing
difficulties following the strike. It has also created
problem for transportation of goods and essential
commodities.
The strike disrupted movement of imported goods through
Chittagong Port as the lighter vessels, that ferry cargoes
from ships in the outer anchorage to the jetties and other
destinations, remained stranded on Saturday.
Mongla port sources said loading and unloading of goods in
the port have been suspended due to the strike.
According to a statistics, 15,000 various types of water
vessels including coasters, cargos, oil-tankers and barges
ply in different river routes and 1.5 lakh workers are
engaged in this sector.
Tories
and Lib Dems hold more power-sharing talks
BBC online
Senior Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are holding
more talks about the possibility of their parties forming
a new government.
The parties' negotiating teams were meeting on today after
their leaders also met on Saturday for private talks.
Michael Gove, who said he would give up a cabinet seat for
a Lib Dem, said the Lib Dems would not be "manoeuvred"
into accepting an unsatisfactory deal. Lib Dem leader Nick
Clegg said "everyone was being constructive".
The Tories won the most votes and MPs in Thursday's
election, but are short of a majority and are seeking
support from the Lib Dems to form a government. Gordon
Brown remains prime minister, and government business
continues, with Chancellor Alistair Darling attending a
meeting of finance ministers in Brussels.
Mr Brown has offered the Lib Dems talks if no deal is
reached with the Conservatives.
Mr Gove, on the BBC's Andrew Marr programme, said he would
like to see a "spirit of co-operation" between the
Conservatives and Lib Dems.
"We must be respectful of what the Liberal Democrats want
to do. We're not attempting to sandbag or manoeuvre them
into a situation with which they are unhappy."
He said he could not give precise details on the
negotiations, but it was important to give the markets
confidence on Monday.
"We all know with what is happening in the eurozone and
Greece, that we cannot afford to have a situation where we
don't have as quickly as possible a new government formed,
taking the steps we all know are necessary in order to put
our economy back on track."
He said he was prepared to give up his potential position
as education secretary for a Liberal Democrat. Currently
David Laws is the Lib Dems education spokesman. Mr Clegg,
speaking on Sunday before talks resumed, said: "I'm very
keen that the Liberal Democrats should play a constructive
role at a time of great economic uncertainty to provide a
good government that this country deserves.
"Throughout that we will continue to be guided by the big
changes we want - tax reform, improving education for all
children, sorting out the banks and building a new economy
from the rubble of the old, and extensive fundamental
political reform."
He confirmed that he had spoken to Mr Brown by telephone
on Saturday night at the prime minister's request. The
conversation was earlier described as "amicable" by a
spokesman.
ATN
Bangla cameraman Mithu found dead in city
UNB, Dhaka
A Senior Cameraman of private tv channel ATN Bangla was
found dead under Rustompur beribadh, opposite to Uttara,
sector 18 under Dakkhinkhan thana on Sunday morning.
The deceased was identified as Shafikul Islam Mithu, 40,
father of one child, a senior cameraman (Programme) of ATN
Bangla and resident of Kawla Maddhapara under Dakkhinkhan
thana.
Police said, the family members of Shafikul filed a
general dairy (GD) as he was missing since Saturday night
after leaving his workplace at about 11:40 pm. Later his
body was found on Sunday, at about 10 am.
Police said the body bore several injury marks and
suspected that miscreants might have strangulated him over
previous enmity and left the body here. Police recovered
the body and sent to hospital morgue for autopsy. A case
was filed in this connection.
Petrol pump, tank lorry
owners call off strike
UNB, Dhaka
Petrol pump owners and tank lorry owners-workers called
off their countrywide indefinite strike that they enforced
from Sunday morning to press for their 13-point demand.
Following an assurance that came from a meeting with the
State Minister for Energy Mohammad Enamul Haque and Prime
Minister's Advisor Dr. Tawfiq-E-Elahi Chowdhury at the
Energy Ministry, the leaders of Petrol Pump and Tank Lorry
Owners-Workers Unity Council has called off their strike
giving one month to address their demands.
As per decisions of the meeting, a committee, headed by
Additional Secretary of the Energy Division Abu Taher,
will look into the 13-point demand and make
recommendations for implementation.
The committee will examine the key demand of raising the
fuel sales commission from 2 percent to 7 percent and
submit its report to the Energy Ministry within one month.
The main demands of the Unity Council include raising
commission on the sale of petroleum from present 2 percent
to 7 percent, enforcing the decision for setting up
testing laboratory at the petrol depots, issuing arms
licenses to the petrol pump owners and raising tank lorry
fare.
At the Sunday's meeting in the afternoon, the Energy
Ministry agreed with the demand for issuing arms licenses
to the petrol pump owners on security ground. But the
issue will be looked after by the Home Ministry.
About other demands, it was decided in the meeting that
police will check documents of the tank-lorries only at
the gate of the oil depots just before they leave for
destinations. Police will not frequently intercept the
movement of the tank-lorries in the name of checking
documents.
The Energy Ministry also offered to increase tank lorry
fare by Tk 0.05 per kilometer. But Petrol Pump Owners
Association President Nazmul Haque said they declined the
government's offer as they were insisting on more increase
of fare.
BNP leaders
urge PM to listen to the public
UNB, Dhaka
Opposition BNP Sunday asked the Prime Minister Sheikh
Hasina to learn to understand the people's language, and
understand how they're saying 'No' to the present
government.
Addressing a rally as chief guest BNP senior joint
secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir made the
remarks saying the government still has time to rectify
them and stop repression. Otherwise he cautioned that
people will give a fitting reply to the government like in
the past.
City BNP organized the rally at Muktangon in protest of
killing of Zakir Hossian, local BNP leader of Sherpur
upzila under Bogra district, reportedly during Awami
League activists' attack on BNP leaders and workers at
Singra in Natore district while they were on their way to
join Khaleda Zia's Rajshahi grand rally on May 5. Over 200
activists of the party were reportedly injured in the
attack.
Presided over by BNP vice chairman and city Mayor Sadeq
Hossain Khoka, the rally was also addressed by leaders of
BNP and its front and associate organizations include
Amanullah Aman, Zainul Abdin Farooque MP and Shahiduddin
Chowdhury Annie MP.
Addressing the demonstration, Mirza Fakhrul said when the
Awami League government fails to run the country and
fulfill people's aspirations, they resorted to repression
to establish one party rule.
He noted that AL calls its president Prime Minister Sheikh
Hasina 'Ganotontrer Manosh Kannya', but he questioned the
suitability of such a nickname.
He said as long as the government stays in power, people
will have to suffer.
The BNP senior joint secretary general called for making a
success of Khaleda Zia's May 19 grand rally at Paltan in
Dhaka city and taking preparations for successfully
implementing the anti-government programmes to be
announced by the BNP chief from the rally.
Sadeq Hossain Khoka, former Dhaka city BNP president,
asked the party's city units leaders and workers to
prepare to turn out in huge numbers in the Dhaka grand
rally to make it the biggest pubic gathering of the recent
times.
Govt to import
25,000 metric tons of sugar ahead of Ramadan
UNB, Dhaka
The government has decided to import 25,000 metric tons of
sugar to meet the demand during the holy month of Ramadan.
Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase at a meeting,
presided over by Finance Minister AMA Muhith, Sunday
approved a procurement proposal of the Industries
Ministry. The state-owned Bangladesh Sugar and Food
Industries Corporation (BSFIC) will import the sugar.
The Singapore-based Agrico International will supply the
bulk sugar at US$ 514.95 per metric ton.
The meeting was informed that BSFIC has now a stock of
37,000 metric tons of sugar as against the annual
requirement of about 14 lakh tons. Bulk of the country's
requirement - about 80 percent, is supplied by the private
refineries.
Officials said the BSFIC initially invited tender for
import of 50,000 tons of sugar in 2 lots. But the price
quoted by the supplier for the second lot was relatively
much higher. This prompted the Industries Ministry to
reduce the import of one lot of 25,000 metric tons.
Reckless
driving claims 12 lives
TBT News Desk
Reckless driving left at least 12 people killed and nine
others injured in four road accidents at different places
in the country and the drivers managed to flee after the
incidents on Sunday, according to a news agency.
In Habiganj, six persons travelling in a car were killed
when it collided with a truck in Madhavpur upazila on
Dhaka-Sylhet highway at 5 pm Sunday.
The victims including three women were coming to Srimongal
from Chittagong. A loaded truck from the opposite rammed
into the car killing them all, including the car driver,
on the spot. The fatal accident took place at Andiura,
about 50 km south of Habiganj town. Police said the killer
truck managed to flee after the accident.
In Dhaka, three people were killed and three others
injured in separate road accidents in Manikganj and
Gazipur districts on Sunday.
In Manikganj, Tutul Islam, 30, driver of a pickup van,
died on the spot and his helper Tariqul Islam, fish
traders Swapan Dewan and Motiar Rahman were injured as the
pickup carrying fish from Jessore hit a stationary truck
from behind at local bus stand at 3am.
In Gazipur, a woman, Rahima, 55, and her grandson Liton,
5, of Ershadnagar died on the spot when hit by a bus at
Ershadnagar in Tongi thana while they were crossing a road
Sunday morning. The bus driver along with his vehicle fled
away following the accident.
In Noakhali, a bus rammed into an auto-rickshaw, leaving a
man killed and six others injured at Hajibari in Sadar
upazila on Sunday. The bus driver fled away leaving behind
his vehicle following the accident on Maijdee-Chowmuhani
road.
UNB adds: Two passengers of a baby taxi died and three
others wounded when it collided with bus on the outskirts
of Sunamganj on Sunday night. The dead could not be
identified as their faces were mutilated by the tragic
accident occurred at Bahadurpur on Sunamganj-Sylhet road
at 8-30pm. The victims were going to Pagla bazaar,
witnesses said. Badly injured Shafiq Mia, 45, was admitted
to the Sadar Hospital.
Back Page
President urges Thailand to
recruit Bangladeshis, increase investment
UNB, Dhaka
President Zillur Rahman on Sunday urged Thailand to
recruit more skilled and semi-skilled Bangladeshi workers
along with further boosting the trade volume between the
two countries through increasing investment.
The president made the call when newly appointed Thai
Ambassador Tass-anawadee Miancharoen presented her
credentials to him at Bangabhaban.
During the meeting, Zillur Rahman said as Thailand is a
neighboring country of Bangladesh and more people from
both countries are working together in various sectors,
trade and investment should be increased further between
the two countries. Emphasizing road connectivity, the Thai
Ambassador mentioned that trade and commerce between
Thailand and Bangladesh could be further expanded when
road connectivity through neighboring Myanmar would be
operational as soon as possible.
Describing that bilateral relations between the two
countries has been gradually increasing since 1972,
Tassanawadee Miancharoen said private enterprises from her
country have already put huge investments here in trade,
infrastructure, health, garment, agriculture, and
fisheries sectors.
"Presently Thailand is putting emphasis on Energy,
Fisheries and Garments sectors." she said, mentioning that
many Thai experts have been working here in the energy
sector for exploration of gas and petroleum in the Bay of
Bengal. The Envoy informed the president her country is
organizing many trade exhibitions, particularly the Thai
Food Festival, which are expanding the commercial
activities between two countries. Tas-sanawadee
Mian-charoen said Thailand is interested to recruit more
skilled and semi-skilled Bangladeshis and also increasing
scholarship opportunities for prospective students. "We're
putting emphasis on increasing people-to-people
communication," she said.
Secretary to the President's office M Safiul Alam, Foreign
Secretary Mijarul Quayes, and Press Secretary AKM Nesar
Uddin Bhuiyan were present during the meeting.
Earlier, the Ambassador was given a guard of honor by the
contingent of the President Guard Regiment.
Hartal in Bogra
proves govt isolated from people: Delwar
UNB, Dhaka
BNP secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain has said a
successful hartal in Bogra Sunday proves the government is
isolated from people.
Delwar made the remarks while addressing a press briefing
at the BNP' s Nayapaltan central office this (Sunday)
afternoon.
BNP enforced a half-day hartal in Bogra today protesting
the attacks by the ruling Awami League activists on BNP
leaders and workers at Singra in Natore while they were
going to attend Khaleda Zia's grand rally in Rajshahi city
on May 5. This was the first hartal called by BNP against
the 16-month old AL government.
Referring to the Prime Minister's announcement to set up
an institution like Kolkata's Shantiniketon in Shilaidah
in Kustia and Shahjadpur in Sirajganj, the BNP secretary
general said they have no objection to the government
paying respect to Rabindranath Tagore.
But he said people will not accept it if the contribution
of the country's national poet and other poets is not
properly evaluated.
He alleged that the government is hatching a conspiracy to
establish an alien culture to the detriment of the
indigenous culture.
On the government's ongoing 'partisan' Monthly Pay Order (MPO)
to educational institutions, Delwar lamented that a Law
College after his name in Manikganj was not brought under
MPO despite fulfilling all required criteria.
BDR mutiny fuelled by
spread of rumor: Outgoing BDR DG
UNB, Dhaka
The outgoing Director General of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR),
Maj Gen Mainul Islam, on Sunday said the BDR mutiny was
fuelled by the spread of rumor by some over-enthusiastic
people. "Some over enthusiastic people spread rumor to
create chaos… it was one side but sounded sweet. People
have listened to it with interest," he told reporters in
reply to a question during a press briefing at the BDR
headquarters.
Gen Mainul said the gunshots that took place by rebel BDR
jawans were not preplanned. It was found during inquiry
that a few among the mutineers raised questions over the
gun firing. "When a BDR jawan fired gunshot, another BDR
man said this was not supposed to be." Gen Mainul joined
as the director general of BDR on February 27 last year,
just a day after the February 25-26 mutiny at the Pilkhana
headquarters of BDR that killed some 73 people, including
57 army officers. Today (Sunday) was his last day in
office as BDR DG as Maj Gen Mainul is returning to
Bangladesh Army. He will be replaced by former Ansar and
VDP director general Maj Gen Rafiqul Islam. Asked if the
mutiny was provoked from outside or aided by militants,
Gen Mainul said it is not possible to say, as the
investigation process of BDR is based on court of inquiry,
not like CID or other agencies.
Referring to unrests along Bangladesh-India and
Bangladesh-Myanmar borders, the outgoing BDR chief said
that some quarters often derive personal benefit by
creating such border unrests. He hoped that the borders
will become fully peaceful soon through resolving the
existing problems.
Maj Gen Mainul termed the post-BDR mutiny as a warlike
situation and narrated how the border guards have been
reorganized through establishing chain of command and
reforms, trial of the BDR mutineers and other initiatives.
Khaleda Zia whitened
over Tk 1.33 cr black money: AL
UNB, Dhaka
Contrary to BNP secretary general Khandaker Delwar
Hossain's claim, acting general secretary of Awami League
Mahbubul Alam Hanif revealed Sunday that BNP chairperson
Khaldea Zia whitened black money of Tk 1,33,14,710 by
paying Tk 33,87,025 as fine and taxes for 2002-2007 fiscal
years.
In a recent statement, Delwar defended Khaleda Zia saying
that she did not whiten any black money after Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina had said in a meeting at Barguna
that Khaleda Zia, her two sons and late Finance Minister M
Saifur Rahman whitened their black money. Briefing the
newsmen at the Awami League President's Dhanmondi office,
Hanif gave out detailed statistics including ex-Prime
Minister Khaleda Zia's Tax Identification Number (TIN)
0531023586.
Khaleda Zia paid the amount as fine and taxes against her
total undisclosed income of Tk 1,33,14,710 that she did
not disclose earlier, he said, and gave a 5-year break-up
of the amount paid as fine and taxes.
The AL acting general secretary said Khaleda Zia whitened
her black money by taking advantage of the past caretaker
government's SRO (No 98) issued on August 6, 2007.
He said they have noticed with grave concern that the BNP
chairperson, her secretary general and other party leaders
are "giving out false, baseless and fictitious statements
to spread malice" against the present government and Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina.
"If such false propaganda does not stop, people will again
throw the BNP-Jamaat into political dustbin as in the 2008
general elections."
Replying to a question, Hanif said anyone, irrespective of
party affiliation, who had committed crimes against
humanity, would be brought to justice.
He accused the BNP of creating obstructions in a bid to
foil the war crimes trial process.
Postal
department introduces mobile money order service
BSS, Dhaka
The postal department Sunday introduced mobile money order
service through its 104 centres across the country to
bring the rural people under the banking network.
The service, capable of delivering money to the recipients
in two minutes, would be introduced in 600 more centres by
June this year. This was informed at the 13th meeting of
the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Post and
Telecommunications Ministry at the Jatiya Sangsad (JS)
with committee Chairman Hasanul Haq Inu in the chair, said
a JS release.
Bangladesh telecommunications regulatory commission (BTRC)
chairman presented a report on call centre industry in the
meeting. He said the BTRC has formulated a project to set
up a call centre village for employment generation. So
far, the BRTC issued 426 licenses for call centres, which
have employed 6,000 people. Committee members ASM Firoz, M
Abdul Quddus, Solaiman Haq Joardder, M Nazrul Islam Babu,
Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury, Moazzem Hossain Ratan and Golam
Mostafa attended the meeting.
The post and telecommunications secretary and other senior
officials concerned were present.
BNP’s hartal
threat to save war criminals: Suranjit
BSS, Dhaka
Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the
Law, Justice and Parlia-mentary Affairs Mini-stry Suranjit
Sengupta Sunday said BNP Chief Begum Khalda Zia is
threatening to call hartal just to protect the war
criminals.
"The opposition leader is calling for street agitation
only to protect Jammat-e-Islami, the anti-liberation
elements," he said while addressing as the chief guest a
discussion at Diploma Engineers Bangladesh auditorium here
Sunday evening.
Bangabandhu Diploma Engineers Association organized the
discussion marking the first death anniversary of nuclear
scientist Dr M A Wazed Miah. Among others, Whip of the
Jatiya Sangsad Principal Sheikh Abdul Wahab, Member of the
Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of
Finance Golam Dastagir Gazi, Bir Protik, addressed the
function chaired by association president Engineer
Mohammad Ali.
Surnajit said the government is going to hold the trial of
perpetrators of crimes against humanity, who involved
themselves in heinous acts like looting, arson and
violating the innocent people during the country's great
war of liberation.
"Many of jamaat members are the post-1971 generation so
they cannot be considered war criminals, but the Jammat
leaders who committed crime against humanity in 1971 would
be brought to justice," he observed. He said former Prime
Minister Begum Khaleda Zia would not be able to stop the
trial of war criminals by raising demands for utility
services like electricity and gas.
Referring to opposition BNP's negative campaign, he asked
the diploma engineers to remain alert against their evil
efforts and suggested them to stand against such false
propaganda.
Urging Begum Zia to come to parliament, he said, "You (Khaleda)
have to take the decision if you will join the parliament
or remain on the streets."
During the hour-long meeting, life and works of the late
scientist came up for discussion. The speakers asked all
to follow the ideals of Dr Wazed Miah and devote
themselves to nation building activities.
Editorial
Employment generation
needed
Poverty
is the most serious problem facing the nation and so poverty
alleviation is the prime need of the hour. This is why
speakers at a seminar in the city on Saturday emphasized
creating employment opportunities rather than depending on
micro credit programmes to eliminate poverty. They observed
that mere micro-financing is seen as less effective in
reducing poverty.
Eminent economist and Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF)
Chairman Dr. Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad in his speech
underscored the need for strengthening local government to
help rural poor with effective financial supports. It would
help cut poverty as well as reduce the gap between rich and
poor ensuring gender equality, he added.
He observed that the REOPA project would help reduce rural
poverty. Prof Shamsul Alam said the country needs to reduce
poverty urgently so that the people can at least get the basic
support for their livelihood. He also emphasized technical
education to build a huge as well as skilled workforce.
Despite continued efforts, the pace of poverty alleviation in
the country is slow. According to the Bureau of Statistics,
country's 40 per cent people are still living below the
poverty line. The UN Human Resource Development Index 2008
shows Bangladesh at the bottom of the list of the South Asian
countries. Bangladesh is placed at 140th position while Sri
Lanka is at 99th, Maldives at 100th, India at 128th, Bhutan at
133rd and Pakistan at 136th place. The massive poverty in
Bangladesh is attributed to erosion by rivers, flood and other
natural calamities, illiteracy, population explosion,
landlessness, unemployment etc. Of the country's 15 crore
people, 5.6 crore now live below poverty line.
Against this backdrop of massive poverty, the speakers at the
seminar have rightly stressed the need for employment
generation as it is needed most to reduce poverty. It goes
without saying that the country's unemployment scenario is
very alarming as 15 million, of the estimated total workforce
of 70 million remain unemployed posing a threat to the economy
and causing a national concern. This unfortunate situation has
resulted from the lack of adequate employment opportunities at
home and the country's failure to avail itself of the
opportunity for securing their jobs abroad as most of them are
unskilled. In the present day world, manpower is considered
everywhere as precious national assets, but it is appalling
that we are unable to utilise our human resources properly.
These huge jobless people are passing days in dire hardship
and contributing to social instability. They are considered as
a burden not on themselves and their families alone, but also
on the nation which is deprived of their services. Instead of
being expanded, the employment opportunities have, rather,
shrunk in the country in recent years due to economic slowdown
and fall in both foreign and domestic investments. New
industries are not being set up as investors are reluctant to
make further investments on the ploy of lack of security.
Besides, many agricultural labourers also have been rendered
jobless in the wake of repeated floods and natural calamities.
Under these circumstances, the prime need of hour is to take
necessary measures for large scale employment generation
through revitalising the industrial sector by promoting local
and foreign investments.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said that the government has
undertaken important programmes for creating jobs to solve the
unemployment problems and free the youth community from the
curse of unemployment. "The unemployment rate will be brought
down to 15 percent by 2021 from the existing 40 percent," she
said. The Prime Minister's disclosure is undoubtedly
encouraging, but a lot of steps have to be taken to reduce the
rate of unemployment. It is hoped that the government will
make all out efforts to achieve the goal of generating more
employment and reduce the alarming poverty.
‘City of murder’
Some
people describe the capital as a 'city of murder.' This
comment is at least partially substantiated by the incidents
of killings in the city by miscreants. In the latest
instances, six persons including a mother and her
three-year-old daughter were killed in the city and its
outskirts on Saturday. According to press reports, they were
identified as Yasmin Begum, 26, and her daughter Tanha, 3, of
Shanir Akhra, Kadamtoli; Abdus Samad, 38, a contractor of
Mirpur; Rafiqul Islam Bakul, 24, a factory worker in Ashulia;
Rehena Parveen, 28, of Haidarabad area in Gazipur, and Sharif
Hossain, 13, of Kumar Khada near Bhawal National Garden in
Gazipur.
Law and order has nosedived seriously and the incidents of
murder, snatching, extortion and robbery have registered a
sharp rise in Dhaka city in recent times .The law enforcing
agencies seem to be passive onlookers of the grave law and
order situation in the capital, some residents said. The mafia
leaders and their cohorts call the shot in the underworld in
controlling illegal drug trade and extortion. The terrorist
groups have embarked on re-establishing their supremacy in
their respective areas. Not to speak of the innocent public,
even two police officers of the city have been killed in a
span of two weeks reflecting the serious deterioration of the
law and order situation. The government should take stern
measures against the criminals to improve the situation.
Analysis
The Muslim businessmen of India
Jinnah turned to Mian Iftakhar-ud-Din instead,
and he founded Progressive Papers which published the Pakistan
Times and Imroze.
Aakar Patel
Bombay's Mid Day
newspaper group was sold by the Ansari family this week. The
Ansaris had owned it for 72 years, and they were the only
Muslims to own a major English newspaper. Ansaris are converts
from the Vankar caste of weavers. Many are from Uttar Pradesh,
which they are thought to have fled after the 1857 mutiny. The
British chopped off the thumbs, the story goes, of these
rebellious weavers, and so making them useless in their
profession. The Ansaris moved to Bhiwandi outside Bombay,
making it one of the largest weaving centres of the world.
The Ansaris of Mid Day did not make their money from weaving,
but from newspapers. The founder was Abdul Hamid Ansari, who
wrote and published the Urdu weekly Inquilab. Its website
refers to him as "mujahid-e-azadi" or freedom-fighter. Ansari
was a Congressman who joined the Muslim League as did most of
Bombay's Muslims. But he did not accept Jinnah's invitation to
move to Pakistan.
His cause, he wrote Jinnah in a letter of which the Ansaris
are proud, was India's Muslims, and he and his press would
remain here.
Jinnah turned to Mian Iftakhar-ud-Din instead, and he founded
Progressive Papers which published the Pakistan Times and
Imroze.
Inquilab is still popular today in Bombay, and it has about
300,000 readers. Abdul Hamid Ansari's son Khalid founded
Sportsweek, India's largest sports weekly, and then the
afternoon newspaper Mid Day, in 1979. The Ansaris are now an
upper-class, South Bombay family, and Khalid Ansari studied at
Stanford and his son Tariq at Notre Dame. I worked for them
for six years, when Tariq was managing director of the firm.
His father was still chairman and a very active man, playing
squash at Bombay's exclusive Willingdon Club, where I would be
summoned for early morning meetings.
This was my second job under a Muslim boss. I also worked at
the Asian Age, a newspaper run by M J Akbar. He was a clever
and charismatic man, and a first-rate editor, but not a
particularly good businessman. He lost his stake in that
newspaper, and now runs a small weekend publication.
Akbar was raised in Calcutta, but was a North Indian Muslim of
Kashmiri and Bihari origin.
Muslims should be attracted to tijarat, because the prophet of
Islam was also a trader. But because few Indian Muslims are
converted from trading castes, they are not particularly good
at business. They tend to be tradesmen instead: carpenters,
butchers, plumbers and so on.
The Indian exception is the Shia from Gujarat. Though it is a
tiny community, perhaps no more than a half a million people,
it totally dominates India's other 160 million Muslims in
matters of business. So it isn't so much religion that makes a
difference so far as the ability to trade is concerned, but
the linguistic community an Indian belongs to, and his caste.
Wipro's Azim Premji, India's second richest man, is a Khoja.
An electrical engineer from Stanford University, Premji is
part of Bombay's Khoja elite, whose most famous member was of
course Jinnah. The Premjis owned a vegetable oil business
incorporated in 1945 which Azim Premji inherited at the age of
21, after his father died in 1966. He founded the software
division of the company in Bangalore at the age of 35, and
that made Wipro the force it is.
Azim Premji is quite a simple man. Tariq Ansari of Mid Day
knows him, and they both own holiday homes in Alibaug, an
hour's sail from Bombay. Tariq said to me once that he bumped
into Premji at the jetty, and asked him how he would get from
there to his house. "By autorickshaw of course," a puzzled
Premji told him, "don't you know the service is very good?"
Azim Premji flies economy class, and lives in three-star
hotels. He is worth $17 billion (Rs1.4 lakh crore). This
attitude is consistent with many very wealthy Gujarati
families, Hindu and Muslim, who are interested in the creation
of wealth and not particularly keen on showing it off.
The pharmaceutical company Wockhardt is owned by the Dawoodi
Bohra Habil Khorakiwala. Educated at Purdue University, he
runs a billion-dollar firm that makes generic drugs. Though
the Khorakiwalas are wealthy and powerful, they are still
socially conservative as all Bohras are. The Khorakiwalas also
founded the first departmental stores in India, Akbarally's.
Photographed once at a function with some Bohra dissidents, F
T Khorakiwala came under attack and was threatened with
excommunication. So far as I know he apologised to the Syedna
and was forgiven.
Another Gujarati Muslim, a Kutchchi, owns Cipla, which is also
a pharmaceutical firm with sales of over a billion US dollars.
It was founded by Khwaja Abdul Hamied, who got his doctorate
from Berlin University in 1927. The company is run today by
his son Yusuf Hamied, who holds a doctorate from Cambridge
University.
I have known many Gujarati Muslim businessmen because my
father ran a small textile business in Surat. Their style is
open and not secretive. A good example is the landlord of the
property where my office is located in Bombay. He is a
Gujarati Shia, and when he comes over for a cup of tea, he
discusses his businesses and their numbers, and his
profitability, quite comfortably. This is a trait that Hindu
merchant classes also have, and it goes against their
stereotype of being deceivers.
Their skill is actually the ability to see things
unemotionally, and the ability, which is rare in India, to set
aside honour. Their ethic is clear and tough, and the trading
castes work hard to make their businesses successful. The
Gujarati Shias share all of this.
There are also Sunni businessmen in India, but few. The
dominant community here is again Gujarati, like the Memons of
Kutchch, who do business around the world. Bollywood's Muslim
producers also tend to be Gujarati, like the Nadiadwalas, who
have just released the Akshay Kumar film House Full.
Nadiadwalas are from Nadiad, a town in Gujarat's Charotar
area, where my family is also originally from. Patels,
incidentally, are peasants and not traders.
I can only think of one non-Gujarati Sunni industrialist of
some scale and that is Hakim Abdul Hameed of Hamdard, makers
of that delicious summer drink all Indians and Pakistanis are
familiar with: Rooh Afza.
Hamdard was founded in 1906 by Hakim Abdul Majeed to make
Unani (Greek) medicine, that the Arabs mastered a thousand
years ago. Abdul Hameed still studies this and has produced an
edition of the works of ibn Sina, the first man of modern
medicine, known to Europe as Avicenna.
Abdul Hameed's brother Hakim Mohammad Said migrated to
Pakistan, and he was killed in Karachi in 1998.
Pathans are famous for being skilled money lenders, but an
opportunity once arose for a Kakezai to become a major
industrialist. This happens in the story of the Indian
business house that makes commercial vehicles, cars and
tractors, and was founded in 1945. It was owned by the
Mahindra brothers in partnership with, as the company's
website refers to him, "a distinguished gentleman called
Ghulam Mohammed". The partnership was called Mahindra &
Mohammed, and its business was to make the very successful
World War II car, the Willys Jeep. The name Jeep comes from GP
or General Purpose vehicle. Mahindra & Mohammed began
assembling and selling Jeeps in India, whose unpaved road the
tough cars were built to negotiate.
The partnership between the Mahindra brothers and Ghulam
Mohammed continued till Partition, when the distinguished
gentleman moved to Pakistan and took office as its first
finance minister.
Malik Ghulam Muhammad (his spelling appears to have changed at
some point) became governor general in 1951 when Liaquat was
assassinated, and Khawaja Nazimuddin became prime minister.
Ayub Khan wrote about Ghulam Muhammad in his book Friends Not
Masters. He describes Muhammad as a crafty old man, stricken
by illness and babbling in incoherence. I was taken aback to
learn, while writing this piece, that Ghulam Muhammad was only
61 when he died in 1956. Ayub hints that it was Ghulam
Muhammad who facilitated Iskander Mirza's coup, and that he
thought of Ayub, who was then defence minister, as being
different from the other members of the cabinet, taking him
aside to anoint him.
The firm Ghulam Muhammad gave up was renamed Mahindra &
Mahindra, and is today a $6.3 billion company that has 100,000
employees.
Pakistan has many businessmen, most in Karachi (and many of
those Gujarati), but also in Punjab. I heard Zia Mohyeddin
tell a funny story about Chiniotis, and jokes about traders
are apparently quite popular in Pakistan. But I came away
thinking that the Chiniotis were a skilled community and I
wonder what their original caste was.
The writer is a director with Hill Road Media in Bombay.
Email: aakar @hillroadmedia.com
The new
battle of Britain
The specter of the widely disliked former prime minister
Tony Blair still haunts the Labour party.
Eric S. Margolis
Britain's
hung election in which no clear winner emerged comes as
the financial storm buffeting Europe intensifies by the
day.
At the time of this writing, Britain's Conservatives are
expected to win 326 seats, 19 short of a parliamentary
majority. The decisive victory expected by new, telegenic
Tory leader David Cameron ?didn't materialise.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Labour Party looks set to
win around 261 seats, not bad for a party in power for 13
years, seared by corruption scandals, financial
mismanagement, and the highly unpopular wars in
Afghanistan and Iraq.
The specter of the widely disliked former prime minister
Tony Blair still haunts the Labour party.
The election's expected star, Nick Clegg and his Liberal
Democrats, fizzled, wining only fewer seats. Regional
parties in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland won 27
seats.
Gordon Brown has the right to try to form a coalition with
the Liberal Democrats. But he will still need the votes of
regional parties to build a majority. Even if he succeeds,
the outcome will be a fractious, squabbling coalition with
very different interests.
If Brown fails, Conservatives will try to form a
coalition. But the right-wing Tories are like chalk and
cheese, as Brits say, with the moderate LibDems and
London-averse regional parties.
The LibDems are strongly pro-Europe and want Britain to
fully integrate with the European Union and euro zone. The
Tories are largely anti-European and want to keep Britain
an appendage of the United States. Cameron also strongly
backs the war ?in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, an equally important and likely more decisive
political drama was afoot in Germany. While Britain
floundered, Germany was being called upon to rescue the
European Union from the growing financial crisis that
began in Greece and now threatens other members of the
union.
German voters bitterly oppose a 22.4 €billion rescue
package to bailout profligate Greece. Chancellor Angela
Merkel faces a crucial May 9 election in populous North
Rhine-Westphalia state just as opposition Social Democrats
voted to oppose aiding Greece. Merkel's government could
collapse over the rescue plan.
A weak, indecisive coalition government in London seems
likely just when a strong, stable government is needed to
confront Britain's and Europe's mounting financial crises.
The election also showed the wide gulf between England's
well-off Tory south and the hard-off industrial Midlands
and north. Great Britain's 'other' nations, Scotland,
Wales and Northern Ireland, all rejected the Tories, at
least for now, voting for ?regional parties.
Whoever finally wins power faces grim prospects and the
fury of voters. Brown and Cameron must be torn between
lust for power and the sensible decision to leave
Britain's economic woes to their rival.
Being prime minister at a time like this means political
suicide. The Labour Party under Tony Blair and Gordon
Brown seriously damaged Britain's once robust economy.
Britain's national debt exploded from £350 billion to £870
billion under Labour's rule.
'Borrow Britannia' has replaced 'Rule Britannia.' Two
disastrous world wars and pretensions that it remains a
world power plunged Great Britannia into a lethal spiral
of debt.
Britain's debt is now 90 per cent of GDP, the highest
since World War II. The UK has a mountain of new debt from
bank bailouts and ongoing war costs.
The European Commission just warned that by year-end,
Britain's economy would be in the worst state of any EU
member - including Greece.
The new government in London must quickly slash £38
billion in spending to prevent a sovereign debt crisis.
This means severe cuts to education, the creaky National
Health Service, defense, pensions, farming, railroads, and
other popular programmes.
Britain's 62 million citizens will be enraged. The riots
we now see in Athens could also erupt in London ?or
Manchester.
Only three years ago, the US and Britain were hailed as
paragons of the new 'Anglo-Saxon' model of free markets
and go-go business. Today, we see their supposed
prosperity was a fraud fueled by runaway debt and
gambling.
Britain's oncoming financial crisis could ignite a new
round of panic in global markets. The wildly overvalued
pound sterling will soon come under attack. This while
Britain lacks a strong, ?stable government.
Forget WWII myths. The Brits may have to beg the Germans
to rescue them in this new Battle of Britain.
Eric Margolis is a veteran US journalist who reported
from the Middle East and Asia for nearly two decades
Viewpoints
Youth and militancy
Friday
sermons in a large number of mosques preach how the West is
out to undermine the Muslims and the Islamic world.
Dr Hasan-Askari Rizvi
Friday
sermons in a large number of mosques preach how the West is
out to undermine the Muslims and the Islamic world.
The failed bombing attempt in New York City has once again
focused attention on Pakistan as an inspirational centre for
Islamic radicalism and the vulnerability of young people of
Pakistani origin to Islamic radicalism and militancy.
There is no evidence available so far to suggest that the
Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other militant groups
based in the tribal areas or in mainland Pakistan have now
embarked on spreading out into North America and the UK.
The young person accused of the unsuccessful NYC incident may
have been inspired by the militant discourse on world affairs
and he may have got some bomb-making training in Pakistan, but
he does not appear to be an extension of the TTP or other
militant groups. The details of the unsuccessful effort show
that the young person's knowledge of explosives was
rudimentary and one does not have to go to Pakistan's tribal
areas to get such training. The young Pakistani-American may
have interacted with some militant group for ideological
reaffirmation. There are a host of militant groups: the TTP,
other militant groups in the tribal areas, and the
Punjab-based militant and sectarian groups.
These militant groups are not the only source of Islamic
radicalism in Pakistan. Islamic political parties and a large
section of the Islamic clergy based in mainland Pakistan
preach radical Islamic perspectives of Pakistan and the rest
of the world. Friday sermons in a large number of mosques,
especially those whose prayer leaders are affiliated with
Islamic parties or militant groups, preach how the West is out
to undermine the Muslims and the Islamic world. It is easy to
get radical ideological inspiration in Pakistan because
Islamic orthodoxy and militancy have seeped deep into
Pakistan's state system and society.
However, acquiring a radical Islamic perspective does not
necessarily mean that a person will certainly engage in acts
of violence and terrorism. A small number of radicalised youth
engage in violent activity either because of the long and
persistent experience with militant groups or through
self-introspection based on a radical and militant mindset.
This is done either as a manifestation of alienation or as a
religious obligation acquired through interaction with
militant leaders.
Pakistan is experiencing the 'youth bulge'. More than half of
Pakistan's population is under the age of 30, whose
socialisation is heavily loaded with Islamic orthodoxy and
militancy. Since the early 1980s the state pursued an agenda
through education and the mass media to Islamise the state and
society. Pakistan's military and the intelligence agencies
continued to patronise a religious hard line and militancy as
an instrument of domestic and foreign policy towards
Afghanistan and Indian-administered Kashmir.
By September 2001, at least one and a half generations had
been socialised into religious orthodoxy and militancy as a
desirable mindset and a frame for action. These people have
reached the middle level positions in government, the
military, and other services. They may not directly get
involved in bomb planting, but they have sympathy for Islamic
radicals who engage in violence in the name of Islam. In this
way the political discourse of Islamic radicalism and the
political right has become integral to the mindset of
countless people who tend to view national and international
affairs in purely religious terms.
An Islamic and politically rightist mindset dominates the
youth and post-youth generation in Pakistan. This mindset
views Muslims and the Islamic world as victims of
international conspiracies by the US and other western
countries. They also think that Pakistan's military action
against the Taliban and other militants is not justified and
it serves US interests. They strongly believe that there is a
persistent international effort led by the US and India to
undermine and destroy Pakistan and that Pakistan's adversaries
are not the Taliban. Islamists argue that the suicide attacks
in Pakistan are undertaken either by the agents of foreign
powers in the garb of the Taliban or, at times, the Taliban
retaliate against Pakistan's alignment with the US, or its
military actions in the tribal areas.
This mindset has caused two most serious problems with the
psyche of the youth. One, the concept of the nation-state and
the notion of citizenship has been greatly undermined for
them. Most are alienated from the state and do not feel
obligated to respect its primacy and obligations as citizens.
Their affiliation ladder starts from a person being a Muslim
with religious obligations. It moves on to Islamic movements
(non-state organisations) that uphold the primacy of Islam and
moves on to an Islamic 'ummah' - universal Islamic community
or brotherhood. It is a transnational religion-based identity.
The state is relevant to the extent it helps to achieve the
goals of a radicalised Muslim vis-à-vis others who do not
share their Islamic-orthodox worldview.
Second, the notion of collective good or societal
responsibility is replaced with the obligation of a Muslim
towards God and the Muslim community represented by Islamic
movements. The notion of a person or a group undertaking some
steps for the welfare of the ordinary community or the
nation-state is not important. Similarly, a radical Muslim may
use violence without paying any attention to the cost of his
action to other human beings, including other Muslims, or to
Pakistan as a nation-state.
A large number of Pakistani youth are attracted to Islamic
radicalism and do not feel obligated to the imperatives of
collective good or societal responsibility except in an
Islamic context because the majority of them have nothing else
to look forward to in their life. The state of Pakistan pays
little attention to their welfare and it is unable to ensure a
secure future for them.
All those going abroad do not find it easy to obtain a secure
and stable life. This also applies to a good number of male
children of Pakistani parents in adopted countries. These
youngsters have a tendency to develop alienation from the
adopted country and become vulnerable to religious hardline
appeals. They adopt an Islamic way of life and mindset that
shapes their disposition towards the adopted country and the
international system. These trends have become more pronounced
after September 2001. A small minority among them may opt for
violence against the state and society that is seen as nasty,
unsympathetic and anti-Muslim. Their visits to Pakistan are
for reaffirmation and reinforcement of the rediscovered
Islamic identity.
Dr Hasan-Askari Rizvi is a political and defence analyst
The mushroom
cloud fear
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon perhaps sees the
non-sustainability of this seemingly open-ended arms race
in this region. It is therefore not surprising that he is
again pushing for a ban on production of fissile material
for atomic weapons.
Taj M Khattak
The
recent Washington Nuclear Security Summit concluded with a
non-binding communiqué spelling out 12 obligations for the
signatories, the most significant being a pledge to secure
or destroy thousands of tons of weapon-grade fuel by 2014.
President Obama expressed grave concern on the occasion
about the dangers of nuclear attack in the post-Cold War
scenario as something not stemming from any single enemy
nation, but from terrorist groups of one hue or the other.
To underscore the threat, Obama said that a bomb made from
an apple-sized lump of plutonium could kill or injure
hundreds of thousands of people. Georgia's President
Mikheil Saakashvili, strengthened Obama's argument by
narrating how only last month, his country had busted
trafficking of 70 per cent enriched uranium by a gang. The
IAEA database has reports of 16 confirmed incidents of
illegal trafficking in Heavily Enriched Uranium (HEU) and
plutonium in the 12-year span between 1993 and 2005.
Before 9/11, if someone had talked of a handful of Arabs
with only flying club skills, commandeering sophisticated
commercial airliners in one of the most strictly
controlled airspace and smashing them in the heart of
military-economic empire of the sole super power, it would
in all probability, have been scoffed at as nothing more
than a fantasy. Obama struck the right chord in stating
that the desire of Al Qaida to acquire mass destruction
know-how has raised a credible spectre of terrorist
nuclear attack; a warning which needs to heeded globally.
The good thing for Pakistan, with reference to the summit,
was to be counted amongst responsible countries as opposed
to being grouped with the nuclear-despised states, where
we had remained for a very long time. Prime Minister
Yousuf Raza Gilani have stated privately that as a result
of Pakistan's participation in this summit, most of the
concerns by the US and other western countries about our
nuclear programme have been removed. With this obstacle
crossed, he added, we are well on our way towards being
recognised as a responsible nuclear state.
If the prime minister's assessment is correct, then this
could well be the first whiff of good news that the nation
had been waiting for long as opposed to the bits about
untying of this or that political knot, mostly tangled up
by the ruling party itself and then heralded to the public
ever so frequently as good news in the coming.
Equally revealing was Mr Obama's handling of Dr Manmohan
Singh's perennial Pakistan-centric concerns, which he
mentioned to Gilani 'just in passing' when Pakistan's
delegates talked about Indo-Pak bilateral relations and
were not brought up by Obama himself. This too is good
news, if, for a change, Obama really gave Dr Singh's
worries on Pakistan a miss and was not merely being polite
to the honourable guest from Pakistan with the 'just in
passing' mention.
These concerns had been headline news in almost the entire
print media in Pakistan only a day earlier. Indian
diplomacy too had been in high gear in the run-up to the
summit, clearly to smear Pakistan's face on nuclear
proliferation.
Coinciding with the summit's opening, a report published
by a Harvard non-proliferation study group, however
claimed that Pakistan's nuclear stockpile was least secure
in the world from theft or terrorist attack. This view was
largely based on the high incidence of help rendered by
inside rightist sympathisers to the external terrorist
forces which have played havoc with Pakistan's security
situation in recent times. The existence of this 'inside
help' phenomenon is something we'll be hard put to defend
or deny.
Pakistan offered nuclear fuel services to the world at the
summit. Whether this gesture, from a country which never
signed the NPT and is blocking the Fissile Material
Cut-off Treaty (FMCT), is taken positively or just as an
attempt by yesterday's bad boy vying to get into the good
books of the elite club members, remains to be seen.
The Washington communiqué sets some lofty goals, too, but
loftiest of them all seems to be the sharing of
information on nuclear weapons and technology between such
diverse countries as Israel, Pakistan, India, Saudi
Arabia, Jordon, Algeria etc. How does one go about
achieving this objective should be a question for the
strategic planners of the country.
Another very ambitious goal is the call to all nations for
new controls on HEU and separated plutonium, and to
promote the shift to low enriched uranium fuel as and
where it is technically and economically feasible. Only
days earlier, the US satellite imagery captured the first
whiffs of steam out of chimneys from Khushab's reactors
which could signal the commencement of plutonium
enrichment.
The global nuclear environments, however, are changing for
the better. Ukraine, which in 1994 had surrendered its
inheritance of Soviet nuclear weapons, has once again
agreed to get rid of its weapons-grade fuel by 2012.
Earlier Chile and some 20 other countries had agreed to
hand over their fissile material to the US. Russia, during
the summit, declared closing its last plutonium plant at
the formerly closed city of Zheleznogorsk in Siberia.
Russia and the US have reduced their nuclear arsenal from
an all-time high of 43000 warheads at the height of Cold
War in 1982 to 1550 each as per the most recent
Disarmament Treaty signed in Prague. There is already a
talk of further reduction to 311 warheads by the US.
China, in spite of its energy dependence on Iran, is
beginning to align itself with the US on the nuclear
stand-off.
Pakistan so far has been successful in blocking any
meaningful headway on FMCT arguing that the ban also take
into consideration asymmetry in the existing fissile
material stockpiles between India and Pakistan. India of
course has cited the Chinese threat in its reservations on
the fissile material ban. Seen another way, if Pakistan is
locked with India on the fissile material production and
India is competing with China on stockpiles, this places
Pakistan in a uniquely disadvantaged arms race with two
larger economies, one friendly, and the other loathe our
very existence.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon perhaps sees the
non-sustainability of this seemingly open-ended arms race
in this region. It is therefore not surprising that he is
again pushing for a ban on production of fissile material
for atomic weapons.
The nuclear security summit participants recognised the
need to combat proliferation issues, but wanting the
loopholes, "they also felt that increased security must
not infringe upon the rights of states to develop and
utilise nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and
technology".
As Wall Street Journal observed, "They just stepped back
from a legally binding plan to secure vulnerable fissile
material". Therein may lie the difference between a Global
Zero epoch-making event and a public relations exercise
which we would only know over time. Obama's Nobel Peace
Prize citation at Oslo last year meanwhile is just
beginning to make some sense though.
The writer is a retired vice-admiral and former
vice-chief of the naval staff of Pakistan Email: taj
khattak@ymail.com
Turning point in war?
But the war on terrorism will not be won through military
action alone. The war on terrorism requires a
three-pronged approach.
Claude Salhani
The
attempt to explode a car filled with explosives in the
heart of Manhattan earlier this week is nothing more than
the extension of the Middle East conflict from the shores
of the Mediterranean to the banks of the Hudson River.
It¹s a sad development and a dangerous one. Given the way
the conflict in the region is going, the lack of progress
in the peace process, the mounting frustration among an
ever-increasing young and idle population along with the
spillover of the conflict from what has been the
'traditional' theatre of operations, the Levant, into the
Greater Middle East hinterlands and beyond, all the way to
Central Asia, it was really only a matter of time before
such horrific acts of violence found its way to the
streets of North America. Sadly, this latest development
sets a new --- and perilous-landmark in the ongoing war
against terrorism. Henceforth, life as we knew it in
America will never be the same as public establishments
will begin enforcing stricter parking regulation, making
the simple act of finding a parking space all the more
difficult. While some people may find the notion of trying
to park a car somewhat trivial, it will nevertheless have
serious consequences on businesses in major centers of
population.
New Yorkers and the tourists who flock to Times Square and
other attractions in what many call the greatest city on
earth were extremely lucky to have escaped carnage of the
sort that has been a quasi-daily occurrence in Baghdad,
Kabul, Lahore and dozens of other cities around the world
for many years now. But the sad truth is that if the
terrorists persist they eventually will get lucky one day.
And that is all they really need. The way they got lucky
in Paris, London, Madrid, Barcelona, Istanbul, Jerusalem,
Jakarta and other major cities around the world. So what
can we do to avoid seeing the images that have become so
common on our television screens from far away lands play
themselves out on Main Street, USA? Step up the war on
terrorism, of course, is the knee-jerk reaction most
Americans will have.
And they are partially correct. But the war on terrorism
will not be won through military action alone. The war on
terrorism requires a three-pronged approach. First, the
military campaign to eradicate terrorism needs to be not
only continued, but, yes, stepped up aggressively. Those
who would not hesitate to kill innocent women and children
--- regardless of their nationality, colour, religion or
ethnic origin --- deserve no mercy. Second, the war on
terrorism requires the most sophisticated input from the
intelligence community, both from electronic intelligence
and surveillance, including satellite technology,
electronic surveillance and eavesdropping, combined with
careful analysis and human intelligence, probably the
hardest aspect of the war on terrorism as it requires
finding the right people to infiltrate closed societies.
Third, and perhaps the most important of all three aspects
of the war on terrorism is, in this analyst's opinion, one
that has been largely ignored so far, and that is
attacking the core root of why terrorists behave the way
they do. Take away their raison dêtre and you take away
the problem.
Step One (the military option) and Step Two (the
intelligence gathering aspect) becomes moot points. The
bottom line is that the war on terrorism will never be won
if all the emphasis is placed purely on the military
response, or even on both military and intelligence
gathering. When US President Barack Obama said that the
Middle East peace process was directly related to the
national interest of the United States he knew what he was
talking about. What is amazing however is that in the
60-plus years that this conflict has been raging on again,
off again, no other resident of the White House has had
the same foresight to see the nefarious impact the Middle
East conflict would eventually have on the US.
The attempt to detonate a car bomb in New York Times
Square this week is proof that what Obama was afraid of,
what every American should be afraid of, almost
materialised; a car bomb campaign in the United States. As
was mentioned numerous times before in this nasty business
of cat and mouse between the terrorists and the security
forces, the security forces have to be both vigilant and
lucky every time; the terrorists need only be lucky once.
Claude Salhani is a political analyst specialising in
the Middle East, Central Asia and terrorism.
International
US warns Pakistan
over terror
AFP, Washington
The United States warned Pakistan after the failed Times
Square bombing that it must crack down on militants or
face severe consequences, The New York Times reported late
Saturday.
Citing unnamed US and Pakistani officials, the newspaper
said US military commander in Afghanistan General Stanley
McChrystal met with the Pakistani military commander
General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani in Islamabad on Friday.
He urged Pakistan to quickly begin a military offensive
against the Pakistani Taliban and Al-Qaeda in North
Waziristan.
The meeting came as US investigators grilled Faisal
Shahzad, a Pakistani-born US citizen whose large but
poorly made bomb failed to detonate in New York's Times
Square a week ago. He was arrested Monday aboard a plane
preparing to take off for Dubai.
Shahzad, the 30-year-old son of a retired Pakistani Air
Force officer, faces five terrorist charges in the United
States.
US media reports said Shahzad's family knew at least two
key Pakistani militants involved in terrorist activities.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Pakistan, in
remarks published late Friday, that it faced "very severe
consequences" if a terror plot like the Times Square
bombing were traced to the country, although she also
acknowledged Pakistan's increased cooperation against
terrorism.
The Times said the new pressure from Washington was
characterized by the Pakistani and US officials as a sharp
turnaround from the relatively polite encouragement
adopted by the administration of President Barack Obama in
recent months.
It came amid increasing debate within the administration
about how to proceed in the war on terror that included
even "a boots-on-the-ground presence" on Pakistani soil,
the report said.
Though the bombing in Times Square failed, Shahzad's
ability to move back and forth between the United States
and Pakistan has heightened fears in the Obama
administration that another attempt at a terrorist attack
could succeed, the paper said.
Supreme Court won't
stand defiance, says Pak CJ
Dawn Online, Lahore
Pakistan Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry said on
Saturday that the Supreme Court would get its orders
implemented "in any case and will not tolerate any
defiance".
The chief justice was talking to a delegation of the
Lahore High Court Bar Association, which called on him at
the Supreme Court's Lahore Registry.
He said judiciary was making all out efforts to extend
speedy justice to the masses and to some extent it had
achieved the goal, LHCBA president Mian Abdul Qadddus
quoted Justice Iftikhar as having said during the meeting.
The chief justice praised the role of the bar association
in implementing the National Judicial Policy, saying that
quick dispensation of justice would not be possible
without the cooperation of the bar.
The bar leaders said that hundreds of lawyers were
detained and tortured during the lawyers' movement for
judges' restoration but no action had been take so far
against the police officers involved.
The CJ assured the bar leaders that the SC would take
action in this regard.
Most terror activities
conducted by Blackwater: JI
Dawn Online, Peshawar
Jamaat-i-Islami Vice President Sirajul Haq said American
intelligence agencies are freely operating in Pakistan and
claimed that most of the terror activities in the country
are conducted by Blackwater.
While speaking at the gathering in Markaz Islami Peshawar
Haq claimed that Blackwater is motivating certain people
through various tactics to conduct suicide attacks in the
country.
He said certain powers with vested interest are taking
advantage of the government negligence and are openly
operating to create violence in the country.
Haq revealed that government has spent around Rs668
billion in the war against terror but the situation is
still grim as force is not the solution to the problems.
He said the government is also involved in killing its own
citizens through military operations which is adding fuel
to the fire and backfiring through terror activities.
The JI vice president also urged the people to rise
against the government's pro US policy and pressurize the
leaders abandon alliance with western countries in the war
against terror.
Tsunami warning lifted
after 7.4 quake in Indonesia
Reuters, Banda Aceh
A local tsunami alert was issued and later lifted after an
earthquake of magnitude 7.4 struck Sumatra, Indonesia, the
country's quake agency and the United States Geological
Survey (USGS) reported on Sunday.
"Sea level readings indicate that a significant tsunami
was not generated. Therefore the tsunami watch issued by
this center is now cancelled," the USGS said.
West Aceh police chief Djoko Widodo, told Reuters that the
quake, which happened at 0559 GMT around 140 miles (225
kms) south of Banda Aceh, briefly caused panic.
"From what I see around my office, there's no damage but I
see people running out of their houses. They are still
outside, afraid to go back," he said.
The Indonesian archipelago stretches across a seismically
active area known as the Pacific Ring of Fire and is prone
to earthquakes and volcanoes.
A 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami on Sumatra island killed
170,000 people in Aceh province alone, while more than
1,000 people died after a powerful quake hit the city of
Padang last September.
Obama asks aides to 'treat
Afghan president better'
AFP, Washington
US President Barack Obama has asked his security team to
treat Afghan President Hamid Karzai with more public
respect after US statements called into question the
relationship, The Washington Post reported Sunday.
The newspaper said Obama sought to impose discipline on
his administration during a White House meeting last
month.
Karzai is expected in Washington Monday for a crunch
summit aimed at repairing ties after a damaging row, a
meeting that is likely to see renewed US pressure on the
embattled leader to wipe out corruption.
His talks with Obama will be the first since Karzai
infuriated the White House with a string of outspoken
criticisms alleging that foreign nations orchestrated
fraud in the 2009 election that returned him to power.
US administration officials have sent mixed signals about
Karzai's legitimacy and his value to the US-led
counterinsurgency campaign.
As a result, The Post reported, Karzai threatened to join
the Taliban just days after Obama concluded his first
presidential trip to Kabul in late March.
Karzai grew bitter after receiving a copy of comments made
by Obama's national security adviser on the way to Kabul
that struck him as insulting, the report said.
US ‘troubled’ by Myanmar
election plans
Reuters, Bangkok
A senior U.S. diplomat said on Sunday the United States
was concerned by Myanmar's preparations for a long-awaited
election but would continue its attempts at deeper
engagement with the country's military rulers.
Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, Washington's
top official for East Asia and the Pacific, was travelling
to the former Burma later on Sunday to meet government
officials and key figures including detained Nobel
Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
"I will say we are troubled by much of what we have seen
and we have very real concerns about the election laws and
the environment that has been created," Campbell told a
news conference in Bangkok.
"We will be looking to clarify some questions and also to
urge the government to broaden its overall approach."
The election, on an as yet unspecified date this year, has
been dismissed by many analysts as a sham after nearly
five decades of army rule in the strategically located but
isolated country, which is rich in resources such as gas,
timber and gems.
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), which won
Myanmar's last election in 1990 in a landslide ignored by
the junta, was effectively disbanded on Friday after
choosing not to re-register as a party for a poll it says
is unjust and unfair.
Japan to decide on U.S.
base plan today
Reuters, Tokyo
The Japanese government is set to decide on Monday on a
proposal to relocate a controversial U.S. airbase, Kyodo
News Agency reported on Sunday, but there was no sign
Washington or local residents would agree to the plan.
The row over relocating the Futenma U.S. Marine base has
upset bilateral ties and contributed to Prime Minister
Yukio Hatoyama's falling support rates as he faces a
midyear election his ruling Democratic Party must win to
avoid policy deadlock. The floundering premier faces grim
prospects on settling the feud by his self-imposed
deadline of end-May, as speculation simmers that he may
have to resign if he cannot do so.
Hatoyama pledged to move the base off the southern island
of Okinawa during last year's election campaign that led
his party to power, but angered local residents last week
by saying he now realised a marine presence was needed for
deterrence in Okinawa, host to some half the 49,000 U.S.
military personnel in Japan.
Filipinos look for clean
leader
AP, Manila
After a decade of corruption-tainted politics and untamed
poverty, Filipinos choose a new leader today (Monday) and
surveys indicate they're pinning hopes to a son of
democracy icons who electrified masses with his family
name and clean image.
A software glitch in optical scanning machines that for
the first time will count and transmit votes in 17,600
precincts in the world's second biggest archipelago was
discovered just days ago, almost derailing the vote.
In the past, manual counts delayed results for weeks and
were prone to fraud; officials are now expecting early
tallies just hours after the polling stations close. About
50 million registered voters in this country of 90 million
will elect politicians for posts from the presidency to
municipal councils.
The next leader also faces entrenched corruption: Outgoing
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has been accused of
vote-rigging in 2004 and implicated in several scandals
that led to coup attempts and moves to impeach her. Calls
for her prosecution have been an important campaign issue.
She denies any wrongdoing and is in fact running for a
seat in the House of Representatives.
In an indication that Filipinos are looking for a fresh
face to combat this old problem, Sen. Benigno Aquino III
has surged ahead of his two main rivals, according to
recent independent presidential surveys.
Despite lacking their experience, Aquino rode on a family
name that has revived poignant memories of the 1986
"people power" revolt his mother led to oust dictator
Ferdinand Marcos and restore democracy.
Former President Corazon Aquino had inherited the mantle
of her husband, an opposition senator gunned down by
soldiers at Manila's airport in 1983 upon return from U.S.
exile to challenge Marcos.
It was only after she died of cancer last August that her
son, a quiet 50-year-old lawmaker and bachelor, decided to
run, spurred by the massive outpouring of national grief
and yearning for a kind of inspirational leadership his
mother had provided despite her shortcomings. In an
Associated Press interview last week, Aquino said he will
start prosecuting corrupt officials within weeks if he's
elected, sending a signal to investors and the public. He
said he would create a commission to investigate outgoing
Arroyo.
Meanwhile, ousted President Joseph Estrada, who largely
draws support from the poor, has jumped to overtake Villar
as No. 2. The former action movie star was removed from
office in 2001 and subsequently convicted on corruption
charges. He was later pardoned by his nemesis, Arroyo, and
said he ran to clear his name.
Esmael Mangudadatu, whose entourage was targeted in the
November massacre, is running for provincial governor of
Maguindanao province, undeterred by the attack that
claimed the lives of relatives and supporters. He is
trying to unseat the rival Ampatuan clan - the principal
murder suspects.
In a country where celebrities commonly seek office and
political dynasties are myriad, the jewel-studded former
first lady Imelda Marcos is running for a House seat, as
is boxing star Manny Pacquiao in his second congressional
bid.
Palestinians
say indirect talks with Israel have begun
Reuters, Ramallah
The Palestinians declared on Sunday the start of indirect
talks with Israel mediated by the United States, the first
Middle East peace negotiations in 18 months.
Echoing a call by Washington for a future move to direct
negotiations-and reflecting low public expectations for
progress-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said
peace would be impossible to achieve without face-to-face
contacts.
"If he (Netanyahu) announces a complete halt to settlement
building, there will be direct talks," Palestinian chief
negotiator Saeb Erekat told Voice of Palestine radio.
Netanyahu, who heads a coalition government dominated by
pro-settler parties, has rejected a total construction
freeze.
The settlement standoff forced U.S. Middle East envoy
George Mitchell to search for a new way to conduct talks
between sides whose negotiations have mostly been
face-to-face since the start of the Middle East peace
process in the early 1990s.
Palestinian consent to the talks marked a breakthrough,
albeit modest, for U.S. efforts to revive the peace
process.
Mitchell has not made any public comments since the
Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) approved four
months of indirect negotiations on Saturday. The
Palestinians say the talks would focus initially on
borders and security.
Erekat, speaking after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas
met Mitchell in Ramallah on Sunday, said: "I can
officially declare today that the proximity talks have
begun."
The Palestinians aim to establish a state in the West Bank
and Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Israel captured those areas in a 1967 war and regards all
of Jerusalem as its capital, a claim that has not won
international recognition.
Australian lawmaker
stirs burqa controversy
AFP, Sydney
An Australian politican's call to ban the burqa "for
safety" following an armed robbery by a bandit wearing the
Islamic veil has triggered heated public debate following
similar moves in Europe.
Senator Cory Bernardi sparked a national furore with
claims that the use of a burqa in a hold-up in Sydney on
Wednesday showed it had "no place in Australian society"
and should be banned "for safety, and for society".
"The burqa is no longer simply the symbol of female
repression and Islamic culture, it is now emerging as the
preferred disguise of bandits and ne'er-do-wells,"
Bernardi, a conservative lawmaker, wrote on his website.
"New arrivals to this country should not come here to
recreate the living environment they have just left. They
should come here for a better life based on the freedoms
and values that have built our great nation."
His comments ignited intense public debate, with
opposition leader Tony Abbott forced to distance himself
from Bernardi and declare that such a ban was not
opposition policy.
"I think a lot of Australians find the wearing of the
burqa quite confronting and I wish it was not widely
worn," Abbott said.
"But the point is we don't have a policy to ban it and we
have always respected people's rights in this area."
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said there was no reason to
introduce a ban, adding that the "worst thing we can do is
actually start ganging up on particular groups within our
country."
"I believe Australians pride themselves in having a
diverse society, one which is characterised by tolerance,
one where we don?t stand up and give people lectures about
what they should be wearing," Rudd said on Friday. "These
are sensitive and important matters which have a real
effect on community life."
Muslims make up about 1.7 percent of Australia's heavily
Christian population of 22 million, and religious tensions
have run high in recent years.
Anti-Muslim sentiment flared on Sydney's southern Cronulla
Beach in December 2005 when mobs of whites attacked
Lebanese Australians there in a bid to "reclaim the
beach."
Iraq recount 50 pct done,
no big change in results
Reuters, Baghdad
Iraq's parliamentary election results have not changed
significantly as the result of a recount of 2.5 million
ballots that has now reached the halfway point, an
elections official said on Sunday.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's predominantly Shi'ite
coalition demanded the recount of ballots in Baghdad,
alleging fraud after finishing second in the March 7 vote,
two seats behind a cross-sectarian bloc headed by former
Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, a secular Shi'ite.
The inconclusive result raised concerns of renewed
sectarian violence in a power vacuum as politicians jockey
for position to pull together a parliamentary majority.
The recount, which began Monday, is expected to be
finished on Friday, said Faraj al-Haidari, head of the
Independent High Electoral Commission.
"We hope there will be no significant change. It is
possible that there might be a change in a couple of votes
here and there," Haidari said.
AP adds: Iraq's election commission announced Sunday it
will send the results of the March vote to the Supreme
Court for final ratification, except those in Baghdad
where a recount is under way.
The decision comes amid increasing impatience over the
delay in announcing the final results more than two months
after the close March 7 parliamentary election.
"The court sent a message to the commission about the
possibility of ratifying results and the decision of the
commission is to send all election results except
Baghdad," said Qassim al-Abboudi, the election commission
spokesman.
Russia offers olive branch
as NATO joins parade
Reuters, Moscow
President Dmitry Medvedev struck a conciliatory note at
Russia's Victory Day military parade on Sunday, urging
world powers to unite for peace and defending his decision
to invite NATO troops to march on Red Square.
For the first time since Stalin began commemorating the
Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany, serving U.S.,
British Polish and French troops joined over 11,000
Russian soldiers to parade past the Kremlin's red walls in
bright sunshine.
The opposition Communists and some Soviet war veterans
condemned the move but Medvedev said in a speech that the
lesson from World War Two was "to urge us to unite in
solidarity" to counter present-day threats and ensure
global security.
"Today, at the military parade, soldiers of Russia, of
countries of the (former Soviet Union), and of the Allied
powers will march together, in one column which is
evidence of our common readiness to defend peace", he
said.
Welsh Guards from the British military marched in their
trademark black bearskin hats ahead of 70 troops from the
U.S. 170th Infantry Brigade in a section reserved for the
Soviet Union's war allies.
Underlining the message of reconciliation, a 1,200-strong
military band closed the parade with a moving rendition of
Beethoven's Ode to Joy as German Chancellor Angela Merkel,
Chinese President Hu Jintao and other world leaders looked
on.
Russia's Communists, still the country's biggest
opposition party, held a demonstration after the parade,
chanting "Glory to the great Stalin", to protest against
NATO forces for marching over the square, home to the
embalmed body of Lenin.
Most of the Soviet war veterans attending the parade
seemed unconcerned by the presence of NATO soldiers,
though they did not applaud when they marched past.
Brazil will explore all
options in Iran nuclear talks
Reuters, Madrid
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said he
would try everything to reach a solution with Iran over
its nuclear programme, according to a newspaper interview
on Sunday.
"I want to exhaust every possibility up until the last
minute of finding a pact with the President of Iran so
that it can carry on enriching uranium but assuring us
that it's only for peaceful purposes," he told El Pais.
Turkey and Brazil, both non-permanent members of the
United Nations Security Council, have been trying to
revive a stalled nuclear fuel deal in a bid to stave off
further sanctions against Iran.
Lula will travel to Iran at the end of next week to work
with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other Iranian
leaders towards a negotiated solution with Iran, Brazilian
Foreign Minister Celso Amorim told Reuters on Friday.
Last week Iran voiced optimism over Brazilian mediation
efforts, welcoming in principle ideas at reviving the
nuclear fuel deal with major powers.
The United States last week accused Tehran of trying to
buy time by accepting Brazil's offer to mediate and
declared Washington would be undeterred in pushing for new
U.N. measures against the Islamic Republic.
Catholics sent predator
priest to remote village
AP, Makanka, Sierra Leone
A rutted red dirt track leads to the "bar," a couple of
homemade wood benches in the shade of an old tree dripping
with wild mangoes. Within easy reach, there's a yellow
plastic jerry can of the fiery palm wine the American
priest loved.
A 40-year-old schoolteacher now charges that the Rev.
James Tully gave the palm wine to teenage boys to make
them more susceptible to his advances.
This faraway corner of West Africa - with no electricity
or piped water - is where the Roman Catholic Church sent
Tully, twice. The teacher told The Associated Press that
Tully abused him and other boys repeatedly during his
first stint in Sierra Leone, from 1979 to 1985. After a
conviction in the U.S. for giving minors alcohol and
groping them, the church sent Tully back to Sierra Leone
for a second stint from 1994 to 1998.
Tully's story is an example of how the church transferred
abusive priests from country to country, in a scandal now
emerging worldwide. But it also shows the deep reluctance
to come out against a Catholic priest in many parts of
Africa.
‘Pakistan Taliban’ behind
Times Square bomb plot
BBC Online
The US has evidence the Pakistani Taliban was behind the
attempted car bombing in New York's Times Square, Attorney
General Eric Holder says.
Mr Holder said the militants helped to facilitate the
plot, and "probably helped finance it".
US officials had previously rejected claims by the group
that it was behind the 1 May plot.
A Pakistani-born US citizen has been charged with the
attempted bombing in New York's tourist quarter a week
ago.
Faisal Shazhad, 30, from Bridgeport, Connecticut, has
co-operated with investigators, and admits receiving
bomb-making training in the Pakistani region of Waziristan,
prosecutors have said.
"We've now developed evidence that shows that the
Pakistani Taliban was behind the attack," Mr Holder said
on ABC television's Sunday current affairs talk show "This
Week".
"We know that they helped facilitate it. We know that they
probably helped finance it, and that [Shahzad] was working
at their direction."
Mr Holder said there was nothing to suggest the government
of Pakistan was aware of the plot.
He also said the Obama administration was satisfied for
now with the level of co-operation it was receiving from
the Pakistani authorities into the investigation of the
attempted bombing.
'Evidence intact'
The bomb was discovered last Saturday evening in Times
Square, which was busy with tourists and theatregoers at
the time.
The bomb was discovered and dismantled after a
street-vendor noticed smoke coming from a Nissan
Pathfinder, which had been left with its engine running
and hazard lights flashing.
In the hours that followed, a claim of responsibility by
the Pakistani Taliban was dismissed by the New York
police.
The city's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, said there was no
evidence the attempted bombing was the work of al-Qaeda or
any other big terrorist group.
However, the unexploded bomb left crucial evidence intact
that detectives used to trace Mr Shahzad.
He was arrested two days after the failed bomb attempt,
trying to board a flight to Dubai from New York's JFK
airport.
Business/Economy
Dilip
Barua for establishing knowledge-based economy
BSS, Dhaka
Industries Minister Dilip Barua today said the government
wants to transform the present economy in to a
knowledge-based one through meaningful industrialization
all over the country.
"In order to achieve the vision of the present government
the need of trained, efficient, skilled and knowledgeable
human resources is increasing very fast," he said.
The minister was addressing the inaugural session of a
four- day training on "Knowledge Management for NPO
Trainers" as the chief guest. The training was jointly
organized by Asian Productivity Organization (APO),
National Productivity Organization (NPO) and Ministry of
Industries at a city hotel.
Secretary of Ministry of Industries Dewan Zakir Hussain
chaired the function while APO Representative Kamlesh
Prakash, director of NPO Dr Nazrul Islam and joint
director of NPO Belayet Hussain spoke at the function. The
industries minister said the present grand alliance
government under the dynamic and visionary leadership of
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is working relentlessly with
a great responsibility of making Bangladesh an
industrialized country by 2021.
"Our motto is to improve the living condition of our
common people and building a poverty free, stable,
democratic, peaceful and harmonious Bangladesh." he said.
We are committed to the nation to build up a
knowledge-based society, he added.
He said productivity is the key to success for socio-
economic development of any society. Without enhancing
productivity, the process of sustainable industrialization
cannot reach the desired destination, he added.
As a least development country, Bangladesh, is striving
hard to ensure economic development through productivity
improvement and deeper industrialization, the minister
said. "At present employment generation is one of the top
priorities of our national development agenda. I believe
productivity enhancement is a vital issue in this regard,"
he said.
"It is my honest confession that Bangladesh is still
lagging far behind compare to our other Asian neighbors in
term of productivity and quality. I hope this
international training would be able to find out
appropriate ways and means to improve productivity
standard for the Asian countries in general and for
Bangladesh in particular." he said.
Knowledge management is the discipline of enabling
industries, teams and entire organization which is used to
create, share and apply knowledge collectively and
systematically for better achievement of their objectives,
the minister said.
It is an approach of applying human intellect, creativity,
innovative ideas & wisdom in order to improve quality,
productivity and over all standards quality and
productivity are never an accident phenomenon, Dilip Barua
said.
It is always a result of intelligent effort and a positive
will to produce a superior producer or service, he said.
Quality encompasses safety performance, reliability,
maintainability, durability and acceptability by the
consumers, he added. A total of 20 delegates from
Cambodia, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Islamic Republic of
Iran, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan,
Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam and Bangladesh
are participating in this training course.
Oman
to take back deported Bangladeshi workers
BSS, Dhaka
Oman would return those recently deported Bangladeshi
workers, who would not be found guilty, the assurance was
made by the Sultan of the Arabian country.
This was apprised to President Zillur Rahman on Sunday by
the newly appointed Bangladeshi Ambassador to Oman Nurul
Alam Chowdhury while he was paying a curtsey call on the
President prior to his departure for Oman.
During the meeting, Nurul Alam apprised the President that
Oman recently deported 26,000 Indian, 17,000 Pakistani and
around 10,000 Bangladeshi overseas workers showing various
reasons.
The newly appointed Bangladeshi envoy in Oman assured the
President that his first job in Oman would be to pave the
way so that the deported Bangladeshi labourers could
return to Oman.
"Besides, I will do my level best to increase the number
of overseas employments for the both skilled and unskilled
manpower of Bangladesh," he said.
He also apprised the President that the Bangladeshi
workers are showing high performances in the agriculture
sector in Oman.
President Zillur Rahman gave him a patient hearing and
asked him to work with utmost sincerity for ensuring all
kind of welfare of expatriate Bangladeshi residing in
Oman. Cornered Secretaries of the President office were
also present during the meeting.
World debt crisis looms behind Greek mess
AFP, Paris
With Europe locked in Greece-linked market mayhem,
influential economists are now warning that a wider crisis
of rising debts and ageing populations in advanced
economies could be in store. And it is not just Greece and
some other vulnerable eurozone economies that are in
trouble. Countries such as Britain and the United States
are at risk too unless urgent action is taken to avert a
major public finances crunch.
A recent working paper published by the Switzerland-based
Bank for International Settlements, an organisation that
groups together the world's top central banks, said the
developed world has seen "an explosion of public debt."
"Drastic measures" are needed to slash this debt, said the
authors of the report, including Stephen Cecchetti, chief
economic adviser to the BIS, which often helps shape
government economic policy years into the future.
It is a refrain frequently heard at economic policy
conferences but is rarely heard on the lips of
politicians, who are only too conscious of the growing
problem and the painful ways of cutting public deficit.
The main solution put forward by the BIS experts as an
alternative to raising taxes or cutting social welfare is
to raise the retirement age as a way of reducing future
costs linked to ageing populations in advanced economies.
IMF loan 'saved' Romania, but economy still
sagging
AFP, Bucharest
A bailout deal signed a year ago with the IMF and the
European Union "saved" Romania from bankruptcy, but its
economy is still sagging for lack of reforms, analysts
say.
The Balkan country was the third EU member, after Hungary
and Latvia, and months ahead of Greece, to benefit from a
joint rescue plan by the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
and the EU, branded by authorities as a "safety belt".
"Romania badly needed the IMF and EU loan, otherwise it
would have faced a shortage of cash and its financial
system could have collapsed," former finance minister
Daniel Daianu told AFP. However, he added, the recession
was more severe than expected and this triggered a serious
shortfall in public revenues, "while money squandering
continued." After 10 years of solid growth, the Romanian
economy shrank by 7.1 percent in 2009. The forecast for
2010 is becoming dimmer, with authorities no longer ruling
out a further slump of the GDP.
Greece could modify EU-IMF deal if austerity
works
AFP, Athens
An unpopular austerity deal with the EU and the IMF to
grant Greece billions of euros in badly needed loans could
be modified if the belt-tightening bears early results,
the finance minister said Sunday.
"If we succeed and early results are positive, we will be
able to return to a negotiation table...(and) save certain
things," Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou told To
Vima daily in an interview.
"If the programme works and we reduce the deficit faster
than is required of us, we can ask to negotiate
differently. Not so much on indirect taxes, but regarding
some corrective steps on income," the minister said.
As the government was set to finalise Monday the latest
element of its crisis package-a controversial pension
reform-and European finance ministers prepared to discuss
a crisis fund for indebted eurozone countries, a poll
showed Greeks grudgingly accept the necessity of harsh
austerity cuts.
To Vima on Sunday published a poll showing that 55.2
percent of respondents will accept austerity measures,
56.3 percent prefer wage cuts to national bankruptcy and
71.3 want squabbling Greek political parties to cooperate.
The nationwide survey of more than 1,000 Greeks by
pollsters Kappa Research was conducted a day after three
bank staff died in Athens when their branch was firebombed
on Wednesday during street protests against the measures.
The deaths, the first in a Greek protest in two decades,
has also divided the country on the necessity of new
demonstrations. A candlelit vigil against protest violence
will be held in front of the parliament later on Sunday.
To Vima's poll showed 53.2 percent favour new street
protests against the crisis measures with 45.3 percent in
opposition, though 63.5 percent of respondents said
demonstrations would not halt the EU-IMF deal.
The Greek cabinet is scheduled to discuss on Monday a
pension reform progressively raising the mandatory stay in
the workforce and imposing a uniform retirement age of 65
for men and women.
The country's main union that represents around a million
private employees has pledged to mobilise to prevent the
pension reform from passing. Anti-globalisation activists
were meanwhile to hold a protest outside parliament later
on Sunday against corruption in Greek politics.
A leftist womens' group was to hold another protest
outside the defence ministry to demand a halt to costly
weapons purchases. An arms race with neighbouring Turkey
has cost Greece billions of euros.
The European Union and the International Monetary Fund
have made the austerity cuts a condition for a
110-billion-euro (140-billion-euro) rescue loan to help
Greece meet urgent debt payments.
Ahmadinejad opens
region's 'biggest' car plant
AFP, Tehran
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad opened on Sunday what is
being dubbed as the Middle East's biggest car plant set up
by Iranian state-run automobile company Saipa, the
official IRNA news agency reported.
IRNA said the plant, "biggest" in the Middle East and
located in the central city of Kashan, would manufacture
150,000 vehicles annually. The facility, built at a cost
of around 350 million dollars, would on full production
offer direct employment to 4,000 people and launch a slew
of locally designed sedans and small cars, called the Tiba
(Deer).
Tiba, marketed as entirely domestically built, was
unveiled by Ahmadinejad on Sunday and is priced between
8,000 to 9,000 dollars, mainly targetting the lower
middle-class buyers.
"This is the first Iranian vehicle with Iranian
characteristics as it is designed and manufactured by
Iranians," the president was quoted as saying on the
state-run television website.
"Tiba is the symbol of our confidence in ourselves ... The
Iranian nation has shown that despite sanctions and
pressures from enemies, we have have resisted and have
progressed."
Ahmadinejad told the gathering at the inaugural ceremony
that Iranian car manufacturers must increase the
performance of locally made vehicles.
"The quality of our cars should be such that if an Iranian
wants to buy a vehicle, he must prefer home-made ones,"
Ahmadinejad said. Iran is the largest automobile
manufacturer in the Middle East with more than 1.4 million
vehicles produced last year.
In 2009, Saipa was the leading car producer in Iran
manufacturing 54 percent of the total vehicles produced.
State-run Iran Khodro produced the rest, according to
official figures.
Both companies have technical tie-ups with leading French
and South Korean automobile manufacturers such as Peugeot,
Renault and KIA. Saipa has tie-ups with KIA and Renault
for its Pride and Logan range of cars, while Iran Khodro
collaborates with Peugeot for several models, including
Samand which uses the Peugeot engine.
Iran has banned importing vehicles which compete with
these locally-made models, which have to be paid for in
cash, but it allows luxury vehicles to come in after
paying a hefty 90 percent customs duty.
Fortunes of India's Ambassador carmaker hit
pothole
AFP, New Delhi
Losses at Hindustan Motors, maker of the Ambassador
car-easily India's most recognisable vehicle-have been
mounting, raising questions about the company's survival.
The snub-nosed Ambassador once ruled India's potholed
roads, but last week Hindustan Motors reported that losses
widened in the last fiscal year to 429 million rupees (9.5
million dollars) from 378 million rupees the previous
year.
In addition, India's oldest automaker said its net worth
has tumbled by over 50 percent and it must now report to
the state-run Board for Industrial and Financial
Reconstruction-part of India's socialist-style bureaucracy
that oversees revival of "sick companies" as financially
troubled firms are known.
But the company remains upbeat, insisting the future
appears much brighter, helped by an improving outlook for
sales which took a hit during the financial downturn.
"Our operations are looking up," Ravi Kathuria, Hindustan
Motors' senior vice president, told AFP, adding that the
company has extensive land assets "which can be
leveraged." "We're not in a bankruptcy situation,"
Kathuria said.
In a boost to the company's spirits, the Ambassador also
has been chosen as the official car to ferry athletes
around at the October Commonwealth Games.
But analysts are doubtful about longer-term prospects for
the company, whose shares have nosedived. It "could hang
on tenaciously to some small corner of the market, but
it's no longer the purchase of choice," says Murad Ali
Baig, one of India's leading independent automobile
analysts.
The woes engulfing Hindustan Motors come as the rest of
India's vehicle industry booms with firms such as
automaker Maruti Suzuki doubling profits in the world's
fastest-growing automobile market.
Hindustan Motors, flagship company of the CK Birla Group,
joined forces with Japan's Mitsubishi Motors in the 1990s
to manufacture Lancer sedans and Pajero sports utility
vehicles (SUVs).
National
16,550 people to lose lands to
Jamuna, Padma
BSS, Dhaka
Some 16,550 people would become landless and homeless due
to erosion by the Jamuna and Padma rivers this year,
according to a prediction report. An estimated 1,654
hectares of land and 362 hectares of settlements are
vulnerable to erosion by the two rivers.
The prediction report on the River Bank Erosion of the
Jamuna and Padma-2010 of the Centre for Environment and
Geographic Information Services (CEGIS) was published
recently. The CEGIS is a public trust under the Ministry
of Water Resources.
The report on the Jamuna river indicates that about 11,510
people would become landless and homeless while the Padma
river indicates 5,040 people. On the other hand, about
1,150 hectares of land and 306 hectares of settlements are
vulnerable to erosion of the Jamuna river while about 504
hectares of land and 56 hectares of settlements are
vulnerable of Padma river erosion.
In 2009, the Jamuna and the Padma eroded about 1932
hectares of land, 273 hectares of settlements, 60 metres
of embankment, 690 metres of district road, 1,430 metres
of upazila road and 4,120 metres of rural road.
During the same period, the Jamuna and the Padma eroded 17
educational institutions, 2 hat-bazars, 14 mosques and 4
government offices.
The prediction for 2010 on the other hand indicates that
around 1,655 hectares of land, 362 hectares of
settlements, 1,850 metres of active embankment, 240 metres
of district roads, 1,500 metres of uazila road and 5,820
metres of rural road are vulnerable to erosion along the
two rivers.
There is more than 50 percent probability that flood
embankments may breach at 4 locations along the right bank
of Jamuna river. These locations are in Shaghata upazila
of Gaibandha district (360m), Sariakandi upazila (1,270m)
of Bogra district and Kazipur upazila (220m) of Sirajganj
district.
Social movement against eve teasing stressed
BSS, Gaibandha
The speakers at a function on Saturday stressed the need
for creating social movement against eve- teasing of girls
to ensure a congenial atmosphere in all educational
institutions and in society.
Girls and women are being harassed and victimized by eve-
teasing in various ways and it should be stopped forever
by building a strong resistance and creating social
awareness, they said. They said this to a discussion
meeting organized by Shapara union parishad of Sadar
upazila in the district on May 08.
Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Ashib Ahsan attended the
function and addressed it as the chief guest. The meeting,
presided over by UP Chairman Mahbubur Rahman Tulu, was
addressed, among others, by head teacher Abdul Mannan
Sarker and social worker Zia Ashraf. Urging the government
to take strong measures to curb crimes against girls and
women and to free the country from social disease
eve-teasing, the speakers pleaded for deployment of
plain-clothes law enforcers around the educational
institutions and demanded ban on setting up tea and
cigarette shops around the institutions.
Tk 480 cr infrastructural
development work begins soon in Rangpur division
BSS, Rangpur
The Taka 480 crore rural development works in all eight
districts of Rangpur division begins this month to help
bring revolutionary changes in the rural communication,
infrastructure and economy, officials said Sunday. The
government has allocated the huge amount from its own
resources for ensuring developments of the newly formed
and economically backward Rangpur division to change the
overall socio- economic conditions of the rural people by
eradicating poverty.
The Local Government and Engineering Department (LGED)
under the Local Government Division will implement the
development projects by June 2014 and after completion of
the projects, rural economy will boost quicker everywhere
in the division.
The projects are aimed at developing and constructing the
rural communication networks, bridges, roads, culverts,
growth centres, hats and bazaars, tree plantation and
maintenance works in all unions of all 58 upazilas in the
division.
The works include construction of a major 700-metre long
PC Guarder Bridge on the mighty river Teesta to
communicate Gangachara upazila of Rangpur and Kaliganj
upazila of Lalmonirhat for improving the road
communications between the two districts.
Besides, bituminous carpeting works of 159 kilometre road
and constructions of 118 kilometre culverts in the upazila
levels are included in the projects already approved by
the government on priority basis.
Bituminous carpeting of 328 kilometre roads and
constructions of 983.33 kilometre culverts at the union
levels, bituminous carpeting of 372 kilometre roads and
1,114 kilometre culverts at the village levels are also
included in the projects.
Sugar refiners demand policy
support for survival
UNB, Dhaka
Leaders of Bangladesh Sugar Refiners Association on Sunday
demanded of the government necessary policy support,
including support to address the trade gap, to help the
industry survive.
The Association leaders also demanded increasing the
import duty gap between raw sugar and white sugar to Tk
5,000 per metric ton from Tk 3,000 as well as to form a
supply chain structure. They also urged the government to
lift the ban on sugar export and also stop Delivery Order
(D/O) system.
The Association leaders placed the demands when they
called on Finance Minister AMA Muhith at the Finance
Ministry.
Bangladesh Sugar Refiners Association president Fazlur
Rahman, general secretary Golam Mostafa and ASM Mohiuddin
Monem were, among others, present.
In response, Finance Minister AMA Muhith assured the sugar
refiners that he would consider their demands.
During the meeting, ASM Mohiuddin Monem of Abdul Monem
Limited told the minister that they are now incurring a
loss of Tk 20 per kg as the production cost of each kg of
sugar now comes around Tk 58-60.
"We have to sell sugar at around Tk 38 per kg and as a
result, we are failing to repay our loans," he said.
Mohiuddin said the refiners had to procure raw sugar at
around US$ 745 per ton in January when the international
market was high. "But now we are incurring loss."
He mentioned that the refiners have huge export potential
as they have the capacity of refining 24 lakh tons of
sugar per year against the countrywide demand of 14 lakh
ton and said the government could now lift the ban on
sugar export.
Mohiuddin said there is good prospect of sugar export to
India, Bhutan, Nepal, Bulgaria, Germany and France.
Call to make genuine list of war
criminals
BSS, Manikganj
A rally of freedom fighters here Sunday called for
preparing a genuine list of war criminals to help expedite
the trail of the perpetrators of crime against humanity
during the war of liberation. The freedom fighters
expressed their deep appreciation and gratitude to Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina and her government for taking in
hand the task of trial of war criminals that was also an
election pledge of the Awami League-led grand combine.
The rally was organized by Manikganj chapter of Bangladesh
Muktijoddher Chetona Bastabayan Committee [committee for
realization of the ideals of war of liberation] at the
district council auditorium. Committee's central President
Principal Abdul Ahad Chowdhury attended the function as
the chief guest while Manikgang Chapter president Shahidul
Islam Faruque was in the chair. Local political leaders
and noted freedom fighters Gazi Kamrul Huda Selim, Reazur
Rahman Khan Janu, Advocate Dilip Kumar Bhaumik, Noon
Kaashed Golap, Mahmudul Hasan, Altaf Hossain, Mohiuddin
Khan and Abdul Halim also spoke on the occasion.
Sports
Pietersen sets up England win over
SAfrica
AFP, Bridgetown
Kevin Pietersen laid the platform for a commanding 39-run
victory over his native South Africa as England took a giant
stride towards the World Twenty20 semi-finals here on
Saturday.
Pietersen's high-class 53 was at the heart of England's 168
for seven against the land of his birth at the Kensington
Oval.
The star batsman, named man-of-the-match for the second time
in as many fixtures after his unbeaten 73 in a six-wicket
Super Eights win over defending champions Pakistan on
Thursday, then revealed he was leaving the Caribbean to be
with wife Jessica, who is expecting the couple's first child.
However, Pietersen said he hoped to return from London to the
West Indies should England qualify for the semi-finals.
"I'm flying back to London in the next 24 hours and hoping
everything goes well and according to plan, there's no
complications," Pietersen told Sky Sports.
"If we get through to the semi-finals, I'll come in the day
before the semi-finals," the former Test captain added.
Pietersen, whose innings helped put England in sight of a last
four spot, has struggled with both form and fitness at
international level for over a year, with a right Achilles
injury ruling him out of the majority of the 2009 Ashes series
win over Australia.
"I've had a really rough last 12-14 months so it's nice to be
back again," Pietersen said.
England Twenty20 captain Paul Collingwood was delighted by a
dominant display that delighted the massed ranks of England
fans in the crowd.
"There are a lot of England fans in here and I wanted us to
put on a good performance and we've done that," he said.
South Africa captain Graeme Smith said his side had been well
beaten.
"Credit to England, they were far better than us today,
especially in the first 10 overs.
"In general it was a very disappointing day for us and we have
to make sure we bounce back."
South Africa suffered a dramatic top-order collapse against
England spinners Graeme Swann (three wickets for 24 runs) and
Michael Yardy (two for 26).
The Proteas lost four wickets for 19 runs as 34 for one was
transformed into 53 for five.
Left-arm quick Ryan Sidebottom (three for 23) ended the match
with an over to spare by bowling Morne Morkel as South Africa
were dismissed for 129. Victory left England with two wins
from two second round matches.
However, it is possible for three of the four sides in a pool
that also features New Zealand to end the second round, which
concludes for Group E teams in St Lucia on Monday, with two
wins each.
If that is the case, net run-rate will decide which two teams
go through to the last four.
But if Pakistan beat South Africa, England will be in the
semi-finals before their match against New Zealand.
South Africa's slump against spin started when Herschelle
Gibbs, on eight, top-edged a sweep off left-armer Yardy's
first ball and was brilliantly caught by a diving Sidebottom,
running back at short fine leg.
Smith then holed out when his slog-sweep off Swann was caught
in the deep by Michael Lumb.
Bangladesh
dumps Thailand 8-1
TBT report
Bangladesh started its Robi Asian Games hockey qualifiers
campaign on a winning note when the hosts scored an emphatic
8-1 victory against Thailand at Moulana Bhasani National
Hockey Stadium in Dhaka on Sunday.
Drag flick specialist Mamunur Rahman Chayan was adjudged Man
of the Match for his outstanding performance throughout the
match.
After a one-all draw with Oman in the first match on the
opening day, Hong Kong earned its first win in the Asian Games
qualifiers when it eked out a 4-3 victory over the South Asian
nation Sri Lanka in the first match of the day.
Hong Kong went ahead through a goal from its prolific scorer
Arif Ali just four minutes after the push-off. Asghar Ali
doubled the lead on 34 minutes to give the winners a 2-0 lead
at the break.
Arif Ali scored yet another two minutes after the restart to
stretch the lead 3-0 before Sri Lanka hit back scoring three
goals on the trot. Gazzaly Mohamed scored twice for Sri Lanka
on 41 and 64 minutes, while Hettiarachchi added the third on
57 minutes from a penalty stroke.
With the scores level at 3-3, Khalid Hussain scored the winner
for Hong Kong on 64 minutes to help the side record its first
victory.
Chinese Taipei bounced back from its 3-3 draw in the first
match against Sri Lanka and defeated Singapore 4-1 in the
third match of the day.
Today's match: Oman vs Sri Lanka (10:00am), Singapore vs Hong
Kong (2:00 pm) and Bangladesh vs Chinese Taipei (4:00 pm).
Dhaka Abahani
overpowers Brothers Union 4-0
TBT report
Dhaka Abahani scored an overwhelming 4-0 victory against
Brothers Union in the Bangladesh Football League at
Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka on Sunday.
Abahani's overseas signing Sheriff Deen Mohamed opened
scoring after 11 minutes before prolific marksman Enamul
Haque doubled the margin on 18 minutes.
Sheriff Deen Mohamed struck his second on 42 minutes to
increase the lead 3-0 before the breather. Abul added to
Brothers Union's miseries hitting the net on 80 minutes to
seal a 4-0 victory for the Sky Blues.
Today's match: Sheikh Russel Krira Chakra vs Dhaka
Mohammedan Sporting Club (Banga-bandhu National Stadium,
Dhaka).
South Africa A moves into
final
UNB, Dhaka
An unconquered 109 by Stiaan Van Zyl guided South Africa A
team into the final of the ATN Records Tri-Nation One-Day
Series beating Bangladesh A team by six wickets at the
Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur on
Sunday.
In the final on Friday (May 14), South Africa A team will
play West Indies A team at the same venue.
With the day's debacle, Bangladesh A team quit the race
with three consecutive defeats giving easy passage to
their rivals to reach the final of the tri-nation series
with two more matches remaining.
The 2nd string Proteas side confirmed the final berth with
one match in hand against West Indies A team on Tuesday
although they lost to the Caribbean team by 29 runs on
Saturday.
The West Indies A team also booked a seat for the final
with all-win run with two more matches in hand against
South Africa on Tuesday and against Bangladesh on Wednes-day.
Winning the toss in the day's match, hosts Bangladesh A
team batted first to score a moderate 243 for all in 49.2
overs with opener Nazimuddin contributing 61 runs off 64
balls.
Raquibul Hasan (37), Foysal Hossain (27), Dhiman Ghosh
(27), Marshall Ayub (24), Shamsur Rahman (21) and Nazmul
Hossain (19) were the other major contributors for the
home side.
Dean Elgar and Lonwabo Tsotsobe picked up two wickets each
for 39 and 49 runs respectively.
In reply, South Africa A team reached their target scoring
246 runs for the loss of four wickets in 49 overs.
Opener Stiaan Van Zyl scored not out 109 runs off 154
balls with eight fours and was adjudged man of the match.
Elgar hammered not out 57 off 43 balls with six fours and
a six, captain cum opening batsman Van Wyk scored 31 runs
and one down C Ingram made 22.
Saqlain Sajib, Nabil samad, Nur Hossain and Shamsur Rahman
took one wicket apiece.
Kuznetsova
sinks at start in Madrid
AFP, Madrid
Defending French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova is
seeming in grave danger of losing her grand slam title
next month after suffering her second opening loss in as
many weeks on clay.
The Russian fifth seed was humbled in the first round of
the Madrid Masters by Israeli Shahar Peer 6-3, 2-6, 6-0.
The loss followed by five days a second-round knockout in
Rome at the hands of Maria Kirilenko.
Kuznetsova has now won a single clay match against three
defeats.
Russian sixth seed Elena Dementieva earned an opening
victory at the Caja Magica, crushing Canadian Aleksandra
Wozniak 6-0, 6-1.
Austrian mother Sybille Bammer beat Kazak Yaroslava
Shvedova in three sets, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 while Russian Vera
Zvonareva added to the misery for American US Open
quarter-finalist Melanie Oudin in a 6-3, 6-4 defeat.
Men will begin play in Madrid on Sunday, with Roger
Federer leading the field and trying to bounce back after
a semi-final loss Saturday to Alberto Montanes in Estoril,
Portugal.
Rafael Nadal is seeded second with Serb Novak Djokovic a
pullout victim due to allergies which are affecting his
health.
"The allergy problems I've had since Monte Carlo mean that
I cannot play this week. It's an allergy problem that
doesn't have a simple solution and it means I am out for
the time being," said Djokovic, who was forced to quit a
match at his home Serbia Open this week in Belgrade.
La Liga title
race goes down to wire
AFP, Madrid
The Spanish league title will go down to a thrilling final
day of the season with champions Barcelona holding a
one-point lead over Real Madrid after a tense 3-2 win at
10-man Sevilla on Saturday.
Real defeated 10-man Athletic Bilbao 5-1 at the Santiago
Bernabeu although it was not as easy as the scoreline
suggested with three goals in four minutes turning the
tide.
Barcelona have 96 points, a point ahead of Real, and host
Valladolid at Camp Nou on the final day of the season
while Real travel to Malaga.
As well as the point lead Barcelona have the superior
head-to-head record after beating Real in both 'El
Clasicos' meaning they would win the league if the two
sides finished level on points. "This was a big step but
we do not think we are champions," said Barca coach Pep
Guardiola. "We have it in our hands at Camp Nou next week
and that is what we wanted.
Lionel Messi scored a fifth minute opener for Barca for
his 32nd goal of the season and Bojan Krkic bagged a
second on 28 minutes.
Pedro Rodriguez added a third in the second half before
Frederic Kanoute (68) and Luis Fabiano (71) stunned the
visitors, who had an extra man after the dismissal of
Abdoulay Konko on 56 minutes, with quick goals and Barca
had to hold on.
Fortunately for Sevilla they hold on to fourth a point
ahead of Real Mallorca who lost 1-0 at Deportivo La Coruna.
Real went past 100 goals for the season with a 5-1 rout of
Bilbao although they were helped by the dismissal of
Fernando Amorebieta after 21 minutes. Cristiano Ronaldo
made it five goals in three games with a 22nd minute
penalty for his 26th goal of the season only for Francisco
Yeste to equalise before half-time.
A goal blitz saw Gonzalo Higuain, Sergio Ramos, Karim
Benzema and Marcelo score in the final 13 minutes as Real
prevented Barcelona from winning the league for one more
weekend. "Barcelona can celebrate whatever they like as
there is still one game left to go," said Real coach
Manuel Pellegrini. With five minutes gone Barca got the
dream start with Maxwell releasing Messi who was just
onside and the Argentine fired in for his 32nd goal of the
season.
Xavi then slipped a pass to Bojan who shrugged off his
marker to fire home. Messi missed a sitter to make it 3-0
before the interval but at half-time Barcelona knew they
would be champions with Real locked 1-1 against Bilbao.
Andres Palop pulled off a wonder save to deny Messi in the
second half and Sevilla then shook the champions with
Kanoute and Fabiano scoring inside a matter of minutes.
Real knew they couldn't slip up against Bilbao and Guti,
33, started in what could be final appearance at the
Bernabeu with reports that he will end his 15-year
association with the club and join Galatasaray.
All eyes were on Ronaldo after his hat-trick against
Mallorca and he headed over a good chance early on.
Ronaldo was involved again on 21 minutes as his goalbound
shot was handled by Amorebieta and Bilbao were handed a
double punishment as Amorebieta was red-carded and Real
were awarded a penalty.
China,
Indonesia dominate world championships
AFP, Kuala Lumpur
China and Indonesia swept all before them with crushing
opening day victories at the Thomas and Uber Cup team
world championships on Sunday.
World and Olympic champion Lin Dan took just 20 minutes to
thrash Peru's Antonio De Vinatea 21-4, 21-6, leading his
team to a 5-0 whitewash of the South Americans and a dream
start to China's defence of the men's title.
Third-ranked Jin Chen chalked up an equally emphatic win,
dismissing Andreas Corpancho 21-9, 21-8 while world number
ten Chen Long demolished Rodrigo Pachecho 21-11, 21-8.
With doubles pairings Guo Zhendong and Chen Xu and Biao
Chai and Zhang Nan also looking unstoppable, China threw
down the gauntlet to nearest rivals Indonesia, who
responded with impressive wins for the men's and women's
teams.
The dominant Chinese have won the past three editions of
the Thomas Cup, for men, and six consecutive Uber Cups,
for women.
Indonesia are seen as their toughest challenger in the
men's tournament: top player Taufik Hidayat led the
13-times champions to a whitewash of minnows Australia in
their opening match.
Former Olympic and world champion Taufik powered to a
21-12, 21-12 victory over Australia's Jeff Tho and is
hotly tipped to shine in this tournament, although
questions have been raised about his stamina.
The second seeds also produced emphatic singles wins by
Simon Santoso and newcomer Dyonisius Hayom Rambaka.
World number one Lee Chong Wei, who has five Malaysian
Open titles to his name and was named world player of the
year here Sunday, leads host nation Malaysia's challenge
with a tough showdown against Nigeria later Sunday.
Pakistan on
brink of elimination
AFP, Bridgetown
Defending champion Pakistan was on the brink of
elimination from the World Twenty20 after losing to New
Zealand by just one run in a last-ball thriller here on
Saturday.
Victory for South Africa over England in the day's other
Group E Super Eights match at the Kensington Oval would
mean Pakistan no longer had a chance of reaching the
semi-finals.
Recalled New Zealand fast bowler Ian Butler, entrusted
with the last over, took an impressive three wickets for
19 runs as opener Salman Butt, who finished on 67 not out,
so nearly saw Pakistan home after a top-order collapse.
Pakistan, chasing 134 to win, finished on 132 for seven in
reply to the 133 for seven New Zealand made after losing
the toss.
"We just hung in there, and thankfully it went our way.
One of the biggest games I have played for New Zealand,"
said man-of-the-match Butler after his first game of the
tournament.
New Zealand found life tough against Pakistan's spinners
and Black Caps captain Daniel Vettori said: "We kept
ourselves in it with a spirited bowling perfor-mance. We
kept attacking and it worked for us." Pakistan captain
Shahid Afridi sportingly added: "It was a great game of
cricket, we all enjoyed. Salman Butt played a mature
innings.
"New Zealand's bowlers bowled really well but so did
(Pakistan spinners) (Abdur) Rehman, (Mohammad) Hafeez and
(Saeed) Ajmal."
Pakistan began the final over, bowled by Butler, needing
11 to win.
Left-hander Butt couldn't make contact with the first ball
but slashed the second down to third man for four.
He also missed the third delivery before crashing the
fourth through point for another boundary.
Off the fifth ball, Pakistan ran a bye. That meant left-armer
Rehman, who'd earlier taken two wickets for just 19 runs
in his first Twenty20 international for nearly three
years, was on strike with two needed off the final ball.
Rehman made good contact as he swung at a legside delivery
from Butler but the ball flew straight to Martin Guptill
and New Zealand had won.
The Black Caps, who lost their opening Super Eights match
to South Africa as Pakistan went down to England, needed
victory as much as the title-holders to revive their hopes
of a semi-final spot.
Kim Dae-Hyun
wins first OneAsia title
AFP, Seoul
Kim Dae-Hyun donned Korean golf's Green Jacket after the
22-year-old shot a second straight six-under-par 66 to win
his first OneAsia title at the 29th GS Caltex Maekyung
Open championship on Sunday.
Kim's 18-under-par total of 270 put him four ahead of
Japan Tour star Kim Kyung-Tae, who closed with a 70 at the
Namseoul Country Club on the outskirts of Seoul.
Australian pro Scott Arnold, the world's num-ber one
ama-teur last year, shot a 69 to share third on six-under
with Korean duo Han Min-Kyu (67) and Kang Kyung-Nam (72).
An estimated 20,000 spectators thronged the mountainous
course as the two Kims started the day sharing the lead at
14-under.
After Kim Kyung-Tae bogeyed the first, Kim Dae-Hyun
remained on top with birdies at three, five, 10, 12 and 14
and an eagle at the par-five 16th. A bogey at the
par-three 11th was the only blot on his scorecard.
"This is the biggest win of my career. I wasn't worried at
all today because I knew I was in great condition," said
Kim Dae-Hyun, who won his first pro title at last
September's KEB Invita-tional. "I've played golf for 13
years and I'm in the best form of my life. Now, I want to
go on and win the Korean Tour Order of Merit for the first
time." Kim was fourth in the money list on last year's
Korean Tour, when
he established himself as the circuit's lon-gest hitter.
"It was a challenge to-day because Kyung- Tae knows this
course so well and has a great short game, but I really
con-trolled my mind and emotions," he said.
Kim Kyung-Tae's bogey on hole one was his first of
the tournament and although three birdies and a bogey
helped him make the turn just one behind, he fell three
adrift after a bogey at 10, which Kim Dae-Hyun birdied.
Even an eagle at the par-four 13th, where he holed out
with a wedge, couldn't help him catch the leader.
"Dae-Hyun was really good today, so I couldn't do
anything. I had a lot of chances, but my putting was not
good enough. He deserved it," said Kim, who lives 15
minutes' drive from the course. It was another second
place for the 23-year-old after four runner-up finishes on
last year's Japan Tour.
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