thursday, MAY 13, 2010 BAISHAKH 30, 1417, JAMADIuL AWAL 27, 1431 Hijri

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Leading News

Khaleda vows to topple govt by movement
Those involved in awarding power plant contracts sans tender will have go to jail, she says

UNB, Barisal

BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia on Wednesday warned that everyone found involved in awarding contracts for power plants without tender would have to go jail in the future and cases will be filed against such illegal acts.
She asked the government officials not to get involved with the task of awarding power contracts without tender despite the Prime Minister' s assurance of protecting them through indemnity.
The ghosts of 1/11, who are within the present the government, will have to be removed not by 'jhar-fook' (black magic) but through movement, the leader of the opposition said while addressing a grand rally at Bells Park in the divisional city.
This was Khaleda's fourth grand rally at the divisional headquarters to mobilize people against the "misdeeds and failures" of the Awami League government after the grand rallies in Chittagong, Khulna and Rajshahi cities.
She kicked off her tour of divisional headquarters from the port city of Chittagong on March 29 by addressing a huge rally at the historic Laldighi Maidan.
Addressing the rally at Barisal city, former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia said the country will one day witness foreign soldiers on its soil the way "conspiracy is going on" and eventually the country's armed forces will be destroyed.
In this regard, she mentioned the letter from the Indian government to the present Awami League government seeking deployment of its own security force in its High Commission in Dhaka citing worsening law and order situation.
She said if it so happens the other foreign countries will also seek deployment of own security forces in their respective embassies and high commissions in Dhaka and as a result, the country will see foreign soldiers on its soil.
About awarding of power plant contracts without tender, Khaleda said the government officials are not willing to sign files but the Prime Minister is giving them assurance that they will face no problem as there will be indemnity in parliament to this end. She warned the Awaimi League government that their time is running out and there is no hope of their further return to power.
The BNP chairperson said those engaging in illegal acts will have to get punishment as per the existing laws of the land.
She asked the 16-month old government to immediately meet the demands of the people, including containing the crises of gas-electricity-water, bringing down prices of essentials, improving and order, and generating employment.
Otherwise, she cautioned there will be no alternative but to topple the government by movement.
Khaleda further asked the government to at least do something by bringing down the prices of essentials like that of the last BNP government and restoring the economic condition of that time.
Reminding the huge crowd of the Dhaka grand rally on May 19, she said everywhere people want movement and programmes of anti-government movement will be announced from the Dhaka rally. She urged all whoever can to join the Dhaka rally to make it a grand success.

 Hasina questions justification of ‘whitening white money’ by Khaleda

UNB, Brahmanbaria

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday questioned the justification of 'whitening white money' by opposition leader Khaleda Zia and her two sons.
"If the money were white, why did you go for whitening it again," she said while addressing a huge rally at the Brahmanbaria Government College ground.
The Prime Minister alleged that the 4-party alliance government during their tenure was engaged in looting public money and in corruption. She said that Khaleda Zia, her two sons and her cabinet ministers "whitened black money that was earned through illegal means."
Referring to the recent claim of BNP secretary general and other BNP leaders that Khaleda Zia whitened the white money, Hasina said: "All those money were illegally earned." In this connection, she said that during her previous tenure the price of rice was Tk 10 per kg but the BNP-Jamaat alliance government with "their boundless corruption caused the rice price to increase to Tk 45."
The Prime Minister said: "After assuming the office again, we took some effective steps to bring the rice price down to Tk 18 per kg. But increased it later to Tk 22 and now it is fixed at Tk 25 for the farmers' interest." She criticized the BNP-Jamaat alliance for what she said patronizing terrorists and criminals.
Hasina thanked the people of Brahmanbaria for voting her party, Awami League, to power again. She said her government is committed to developing the country and for the sake of overall development of the country, huge development works will be carried out in Brahmanbaria too. In this connection, she mentioned that her government will construct a road from Brahmanbaria railway station to Punniyat and an overpass at the rail crossing in Brahmanbaria town.
The Prime Minister directed the authorities concerned to construct a direct road from Nabinagar sadar to Brahmanbaria district town. She said that her government would preserve all the "killing fields" of the district for the next generation to know the real history of the nation.

 PDB proposes raising power tariff by 6-7 per cent yearly
BSS, Dhaka

Bangladesh Power Develop- ment Board (BPDB) is set to propose the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) to increase power tariff by 6 to 7 percent at bulk level from June next.
It also plans to propose the BERC to introduce regular basis review system to readjust the tariff every year for "credit adjustment" and going to re-instate the "life-line tariff" to support the poor people.
"Life-line-tariff means whatever the tariff would be enhanced, it would not effect that line" ASM Alamgir kabir, Chairman PDB told BSS Wednesday adding that in 1997-98 we used the life line.
However, the consumers using zero to 80 unit of electricity per month would not have to pay any extra money following the introduction of the new tariff structure during that time, he added.
"We will submit the proposal to the BERC by this month", BPDB Chairman said. BERC increased tariff by 15 to 16 per cent at bulk level in 2008 while on March 1,last it increased tariff by 6 to 7 per cent at retail level.
"At present we are purchasing per unit of electricity from the IPPs [independent power producers] and Rental plants at Taka 2.70 to Taka 3.00 and selling it at Taka 2,45. We are loosing Taka 0.25 to 0.50 for per unit that weakens the economic backbone of the organization. "It should not be allowed to continue", a top official of BPDB told BSS preferring anonymity.
"The situation would be worst in near future as we set to produce 1360 MW from high cost rental power plants. However, at least 50 per cent of such plants would be run by diesel. The per unit cost of electricity would be at Taka 7 to 8 and if the BERC would not allow the organization to increase tariff than how it will run", he poised a question.
In the light of prevailing reality and to introduce "cost-effective tariff" structure in our power sector we have to increase the tariff both in bulk and retail level, he added.
According to the BPDB due to this unrealistic pricing, the state run power generating company is loosing Taka 500 crore per year that pushes the organization into serious financial crunch.
PDB claimed that the state run organization is incurring a loss of 14.43 per cent per unit of electricity supplied to the consumers. The official system loss of the agency is 14.45 percent.

    River vessel strike
Govt asks employees to join duty by 5 pm today
Noujan Sramik Federation rejects the call

UNB, Dhaka

All striking employees of river transports have been asked to resume work by 5 pm Thursday failing which their certificates will be cancelled.
A notification issued today by the Shipping Directorate said all employees including masters/drivers, sukanis, greasers employed in private launches, cargoes, tankers, sand carriers, twin ships and barges who are keeping away from work should resume duty by 5 pm tomorrow. Failing, their certificates will be cancelled. It is essential that the crews of all river transports should stay in their vessels during the current adverse weather to ensure safety of life, property and wealth of the country, said the notification.
Noujan Federation went on indefinite strike from Friday midnight to press home 22-point demand, including a new wage structure. The strike affected movement of travelers and goods and commodities, especially to and from southern districts.
Informed sources said tripartite discussions were held but failed to meet the grievances of the workers. Wage structure still remained the main hitch. Leaders of Bangladesh Naoujan Sramik Federation (BNSF) in a joint statement rejected the notification and Shipping Minister's call for returning them to work. General secretary Chowdhury Ashikul Alam in a press release urged the government to settle the wage structure through discussion.

     HC asks Home Secretary
Form inquiry committee sans law enforcers to probe custodial death

UNB, Dhaka

The High Court has directed the Home Secretary to form an inquiry committee excluding law enforcers to investigate the custodial death of a night guard in Chittagong and submit a report before it within a reasonable time.
Manik, 35, night guard of Reazuddin Bazar Anjuman Market, was allegedly killed in custody of Kotwali police station on Tuesday, according to the daily Jugantor published from the capital Wednesday.
Passing the order upon a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) writ petition, an HC division bench headed by AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury issued a twin-rule upon the government to explain within three weeks why direction should not be given to ensure security of life of any accused during police custody.
The HC also asked the government to show-cause why direction should not be given to take action under the criminal law against the perpetrator. Issuing the rules, the HC asked the suspected-perpetrator Sub-Inspector Yunus Mian to appear in person before the court on May 23 to explain his position.
Besides, the HC asked the Chittaging Metropolitan Police Commissioner to inform the court whether any legal action had been taken with regard to the allegation.
In addition, the HC asked the Chittagong Civil Surgeon to submit the post-mortem and the inquest reports on the victim to the court as soon as possible.
Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB) filed the PIL writ petition.
Manzill Murshid, the counsel for the HRPB, submitted before the court that the law enforcers are forbidden to kill any person during police custody, but such unlawful act has been continuing in violation of human rights guaranteed under the Constitution.

    3 more killed in ‘shootout’
TBT Report

Two terrorists and one outlawed party leader were killed in 'shootout' in Dhaka and Kushtia on Wednesday taking the total of such extra judicial killings to 122 in over nine months from August 1, 2009 to May 12, 2010. With this 30 extra judicial killings took placexd in the year of 2010.
According to UNB News Agency, two alleged terrorists were killed and a RAB member was injured in a shootout at Hazrat Fatema Madrassah Lane in city's Gendaria area early Wednesday.
The deceased were identified as Suman alias Suman Dakat, 28, son of Ishaq of Maijpara Baligaon village in Srinagar upazila of Munshiganj district and Alauddin, 27, son of late Abdur Rashid Khan of Kuribichar in Jajira upazila of Shariatpur district.
Another UNB report says, an activist of an outlawed outfit Gonomukti Fouz was killed in a gun battle with police at Shimulia village in Sadar upazila early Wednesday. The deceased was identified as Milon Fakir alias Jibon, 24.
The unlawful killings are taking place despite mounting protests by human rights activists, civil society members and political parties and repeated assurances of the government that such killings would be stopped and actions would be taken against those found responsible. RAB DG recently said as many as 622 people were killed in 'crossfire' since the formation of RAB on March 26, 2004.

Back Page

Power generation to reach 7,000 mw within this yr: PM
UNB, Ashuganj

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has boldly proclaimed that the country's total power generation will increase to 7,000 MW within the current year.
Inaugurating the 55-MW rental power plant at Soha-gpur in Ashuganj on Wedn-esday, she said that 615 MW of electricity under four agreements on expedited rental basis will be added to the national grid bet-ween coming July to December.
Moreover, by this time, some 300 MW of power will be added under another four agreements on rental basis, she added.
"We believe in work, not in talk. Within the last one year, we've been successful in adding 800 MW of electricity to the national grid and 1500 MW more will be added within the next 6/7 months," the Prime Minister said. Local MP Advocate Ziaul Huq Mridha and PDB chairman ASM Alamgir Kabir also spoke at the occasion. She said that the government would take initiatives to increase the energy efficiency of the old power stations.
In this connection she said that new equipment would be imported and installed in the power stations so that the power generation is increased significantly with the existing supply of gas.
The Prime Minister also underscored the need for continuation of the sensitive development projects, including the power projects, after the changes of government.
The Prime Minister directed the authorities of Ashuganj Power Station Company to start construction of one 150 MW and another 450 combined cycle power plant here and increase efficiency of the running units to increase power generation to 1500 MW. She asked the authorities to construct another 50MW power plant at the same place by this year.
Observing that there is no alternative to electricity for achieving national development, Hasina said the last Awami League government had taken the total power generation capacity of the country to 5000 MW.
But the next BNP-Jamaat-led four-party alliance government did not add even a single MW of electricity to the national grid, which has resulted in the present power crisis across the country, she said.

   Policies of Britain’s new coalition government
AFP, London

Britain's new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government, agreed after five days of wrangling, put cutting the deficit and ensuring economic recovery as its priority Wednesday.
Herewith the main points of the coalition agreement so far:
ECONOMY AND TAX
"Deficit reduction and continuing to ensure economic recovery is the most urgent issue facing Britain."
The two parties have agreed to a "significantly accelerated" reduction in the structural deficit over the course of a parliament -- five years -- with the burden placed on spending cuts rather than increased taxes.
Emergency budget will be announced within 50 days.
"Modest cuts" of six billion pounds (nine billion dollars, seven billion euros) will be made to non-front line services this year.
Scrap a planned rise in payroll taxes, or National Insurance, which the Conservatives had dubbed a "jobs tax".
Increase year-on-year spending on the state-funded National Health Service (NHS) and maintain international aid. Reduce the tax burden on low-income earners with a long-term goal to raise the income tax allowance to 10,000 pounds a year, a key Lib Dem policy.
Conservative plans to cut inheritance tax have been sacrificed. A levy on aircraft passengers will become a levy on flights.
Marriage will be recognised in the tax system with 150-pound tax break. The Lib Dems will be able to abstain when the policy, dismissed by Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg as "patronising drivel", is voted through parliament. An independent commission will look into separating banks' retail and investment banking arms, due to report back in one year. Boost the regulatory and oversight powers of the Bank of England.
Cancel plans for a third runway at Heathrow airport and refuse any requests for additional runways at Gatwick and Stansted airports.
HOME AFFAIRS AND DEFENCE
Annual cap on non-European Union immigration. The Lib Dems have agreed to this flagship Conservative policy and also abandoned their pledge for an amnesty for long-standing illegal immigrants.
Nuclear defence: the Lib Dems have dropped their opposition to renewing the Trident nuclear deterrent but its costs will be scrutinised. Scrap Labour's national identity card scheme and defend civil liberties.
Nuclear power stations. The Conservatives will draw up plans to allow the building of new stations but the Lib Dems can abstain in any vote.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
No further transfer of powers from Britain to Europe over the next parliament, and legislation will be passed to ensure any future treaty that transfers power would be subject to a referendum.

   Suspected killers of ASI Mizan and ATN Bangla’s Mithu arrested

UNB, Dhaka

Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan police (DMP) arrested two suspected killers of ASI Mizan and ATN Bangla senior cameraman Mithu while another suspect was killed in encounter in the city on Wednesday, said the DMP Commissioner.
DMP Commissioner AKM Shahidul Haq told reporters at the DB office that after interrogation of the suspected killers, it was revealed that the two killings were not pre-planned; rather, these happened during the muggings.
Detained suspected killers are: Sujan, 23, son of Piar Ali hails from Ghusaihat of Sariatpur district and Raju alias Jamai Raju, 22, son of Kachi Miah from Savar in Dhaka district.
The third suspect killed during the encounter with DBV men was identified as Rahat. Details about him could not be gathered.
ASI Mizan of Noatola police outpost under Ramna police station was found dead at Charpara bypass road under Mirjapur thana in Tangail on May 4.
Shafikul Islam Mithu,a Senior Cameraman of private tv channel ATN Bangla, was found dead at Rustompur Beribadh under Turagh thana Sunday morning. Two separate cases were filed with Mirzapur thana and Turag thana respectively.
A team of the DB police with the help of Tangail district police arrested suspected killer Sujan from Madaripur Tuesday noon.

  Several private jute mills closed down
BSS, Dhaka

Several jute mills in the private sector have been closed due to non-availability and abnormal rise of prices of raw jute.
High prices of raw jute in the local market have been affecting country's jute yarn export over the last 3 to 4 months, a release of Jute Spinners Limited said here Wednesday.
The jute industries are facing short supply of the main raw material for running production mainly because of a significant rise of price of raw jute. Such an alarming increase in the prices of raw jute is not only depriving the country of a large amount of foreign exchange but also causing huge financial loss to the mills owners.
If government do not take necessary steps to overcome this critical situation, the jute industries sector of Bangla-desh would face serious difficulties. Faizur Rahman Chaudhury, a former Vice- President of Private Sector Consultative Board of International Jute Study Group and Executive Director of a reputed Jute manufacturing unit, expressed concern over the situation.
The jute industries are unable to afford such exorbitant prices as the cost of production has gone up significantly, he said. Talking to the overall situation, he said, the country's private sector jute mills have sought the government intervention to overcome the problem of raw jute scarcity.

    President for modernizing Bangladesh Air Force
UNB, Dhaka

President and Supreme Commander of Armed Forces Zillur Rahman has emphasized the need for modernizing the Bangladesh Air Force by giving all its members advanced training, use of modern technology and imbuing them with patriotism.
"The modernizing of the Bangladesh Air Force (BAF) is the demand of the time," the president made the remark while addressing the BAF members at a Darbar in the BAF Headquarters of Dhaka Cantonment Wednesday.
Expressing his hope, the President said the BAF would be built up as a professional and competent force in the world with advanced training, using modern technology and imbued with patriotism. Zillur Rahman appreciated the BAF members for their laudable contribution in the UN peace keeping missions along with their regular activities in the country particularly during the country's emergency. "I think that the plans taken by the government to build the BAF as a modern and professional force are very time befitting," he added.
The President firmly believed that the government's plans will be fully implemented with the concerted efforts of all BAF members. Noting that there's no alternative to training for excellence in professionalism, the President noted that the BAF members would play an important role in the development of the country as well, being that the force is enlightened with the spirit of patriotism.
On his arrival at the Air Headquarters, the Presi-dent was received by Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal SM Ziaur Rahman. At that time a smartly turned out BAF contingent presented the president with a guard of honour.
President Zillur Rahman took salute and later he planted a lichi sapling at the Air Headquarters Premises. During his visit, a detailed presentation was made about different activities of Bangladesh Air Force and the president was briefed about the different activities of the BAF. He expressed his satisfaction about the BAF's performance.
Later the President addr-essed all members of BAF at a Darbar and on the occasion he also signed the visitor's book there. Military Secretary to the President Maj Gen Abul Kalam, Md Humayun Kabir, Secretary to the President Mohammad Shafiul Alam and Press Secretary AKM Nesar Uddin Bhuiyan were present on the occasion.

     8 killed 61 injured in Rangpur, Mymensingh road crashes
UNB, Rangpur

Five people were killed and 60 others injured in a head-on collision between two buses at Balabari in Taraganj upazila on Wednesday. Of the deceased, two were identified as Anwarul, 35 and Abdul Kader, 40. Identity of other deceased could not be known immediately.
Police said the accident took place on Rangpur-Dinajpur highway when a Dinajpur-bound night coach from capital collided head-on with another bus, leaving three people dead on the spot and injuring others at about 8:30am.
The injured were rushed to Rangpur Medical College Hospital, but one of the unidentified died on the way to hospital and another unidentified died after admission at the hospital. On information, police rushed to the spot and sent the bodies to hospital morgue for autopsy. The victims were passengers of both the buses. Drivers and helpers of two buses fled away leaving behind their vehicles following the accident. A case was filed in his connection.
Meanwhile, three people were killed and another one injured as a micro bus turned turtle and fell into a roadside ditch in Churkhai area of Sadar upazila on Dhaka-Mymensingh highway early Wednesday.
The identity of the deceased could not be known immediately. Police said the accident took place at about 3:30am when the
Mymensingh-bound microbus from Dhaka overturned and plunged into the road side ditch as its driver lost control over the steering, leaving the two passengers dead on the spot another two critically injured.
The injured were admitted to Mymensingh Medical College Hospital (MMCH) where one Taher, 35, succumbed to his injuries and condition of another victim, Halim, 30, was stated to be critical.
On information, law enfor-cers rushed to the spot and sent the body of the unidentified young man to MMCH morgue for autopsy.
A case was filed in this connection.

     River vessel workers’ strike paralyzes Ctg outer anchorage

UNB,Chittagong

The strike by river vessel workers has paralyzed the outer anchorage here as there was no unloading from the merchant ships for the last five days.
No goods and commodities have been unloaded from the ships at jetties of the Karnaphuli River. Nor any lighter vessels sailed from the outer anchorage and jetties to other parts of the country because of the strike, port officials said.
But unloading of goods from the ships at Chittagong Port jetties continued unaffected, they said.
Radio Control office at the Chittagong Port said that at least 23 merchant ships (mother vessels) were awaiting unloading at the outer anchorage. At least 800 lighter vessels remained idle at 22 ghats of Karnaphuli River and at other river ports of the country. Of the 23 merchant vessels waiting at the outer anchorage, five carryh crude oil, two jet fuel, five food grains, three cement clinkers, three fertilizers, two salt and two others carry general goods and commodities.
"In the absence of unloading, the stock of jet fuel has reached a precarious situation," an official of Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation told UNB requesting anonymity.
He said: "Jet fuel in 24 bowsers, sufficient to take an aircraft, was sent to Dhaka from Chittagong.
Crisis of jet fuel will be unbearable in a couple of days if the strike does not end."

Editorial

Easing traffic congestion

As the sufferings of city dwellers due to unbearable traffic jam has reached the climax, the Prime Minister Sheikh has instituted a move to resolve it. She has directed the authorities concerned to take initiatives to introduce specific BRTC bus services for the city's educational institutions, especially schools, and banks to provide the city dwellers with comfortable and timely transport facilities. Addressing a function on Tuesday the Prime Minister also ordered the removal of unfit buses and other vehicles from the city streets to protect the environment and ease traffic congestion.
About her plan for introducing BRTC bus services on a massive scale, the Prime Minister said a modern bus service can be introduced for all educational institutions. If the BRTC buses move around the city everyday and take passengers from the schools and colleges at a certain time from morning to evening, then the students and teachers will not feel it necessary to use their private cars, she said. Hasina said the government wants to introduce a strong and modern public transport system in the country, particularly for the city dwellers.
Severe traffic jam is one of the major problems gripping the people living in and around the city. This problem continues to be complicated as the population of the city is growing fast, the pressure of commuters is mounting on the roads and the influx of vehicles is increasing. The city dwellers are facing the severest ever traffic jam in the capital in recent days. One of the major causes of this situation is that new vehicles are coming to the street everyday worsening the crisis.
Against this backdrop, the observation made by the Prime Minister is a recognition of the reality and the intention expressed by the her is reassuring. Traffic congestion is major problem faced by the people in the city and it should be resolved as early as possible. The government in the recent past has tried various options to ease the traffic congestion, but the results are not very encouraging.
Even civil society members and experts have put forward various suggestions in order to ease the nagging traffic jam situation. One of the experts said that the government should build pro-people communication systems with mass transport and wide footpaths in the capital to remove the acute traffic jams. In his opinion, in the capital, there should be only public transports, particularly big buses, and it will act as an immediate solution to some 50 percent of the traffic jam.
Experts think, to ease the traffic jam in the city, the activities between DCC and traffic department should be integrated, traffic rules should be implemented strictly, and violators of the rules should be seriously dealt with. Meanwhile, the large scale import of small vehicles should be discouraged by imposing duties at a higher rate and use of public transports in increased number should be encouraged under well planned traffic system. Besides, some more flyovers and by-pass roads should be constructed on urgent basis.
It is clear that the existing communications facilities based on private cars could never help reduce the traffic congestion in the city; rather it would help increase the traffic jam. But use of private car cannot be stopped either. So it will be wiser to encourage use of mass transports and creation of wide footpaths in the capital city and discourage use of private cars to ease the acute traffic jams. In this context the move to introduce larger number of BRTC buses may help reduce the crisis. More importantly, the removal of old, outdated and unfit buses and other vehicles is expected to be very effective to ease the traffic congestion. So, the sooner the Prime Minister's order to remove the unfit buses and other vehicles is implemented, the better.

  Erosion by river

Different rivers are eroding their banks and devouring land, crop fields and homesteads at a number of places. For example, a national daily reported on Wednesday that 21 villages of Kurigram and Kishoreganj have been devoured by river erosion. The homesteads of 450 families there have gone into river-bed and the affected people are passing their days under open sky.
According to press reports, with the rise of water level, large scale erosion by rivers is going on at different places of the country. The mighty Padma has devoured two kilometre crop land under Sadar thana of Faridpur district. Jamuna river has eroded vast tract of land in Gaibandha and Sirajganj . The river has devoured two hundred homesteads and trees and crops during the last one week. Similarly rivers are eroding their banks at Manikganj, Munshiganj, Shariatpur, Bogra, Noakhali and Maulbibazar.
River erosion is a scourge for the people of Bangladesh as it devours land and renders people homeless at different places every year. Eerosion by river plays havoc with land and homesteads at different places of the country. The erosion of the Brahmatputra, some of its tributaries and the Jamuna take a devastating turn causing heavy damages to land, roads, homesteads, schools, madrasas and properties in the northern region. The mighty Padma in the central zone erodes its banks in Faridpur, Shariapur and Munshiganj areas. This happens every year and there is no end to it. This year also a number of localities with huge agricultural land and homesteads have been devoured by erosion in Faridpur and Shariatpur and elsewhere rendering thousands of people homeless. The erosion victims across the country are passing days in endless miseries as they have lost their land, crops and shelters. They need relief and rehabilitation on emergency basis and the government should address their problems immediately.

Analysis

Their best is not good enough

The crisis that Pakistan confronts today is far greater than any experienced in the past. We are witnessing a comprehensive and systemic failure of governance.

Zafar Hilaly

By the looks of it, the Romans considered civilisation as a way of living, an attitude of mind, of which the foremost principal was equal respect for men and their beliefs. They assessed the degree of civilisation of each nation not only by its laws or constitutions, or its literature or culture, or its wondrous edifices, but also by how much respect its society offered to its fellow man and his beliefs. By such a yardstick we are in the Stone Age, and regressing.
While our society is divided between the rich and the poor, the literate and the illiterate, the powerful and the weak, it is the desire of all, rich, poor, weak, strong alike, to have more of the necessities of existence regardless of the respect owed to their fellow man, which is troubling. And it is religion that deficient societies such as ours
exploit to obtain for themselves an advantage.
Sadly, more wars have been fought, more turmoil generated and more lives lost in the name of religion than any other cause in world history. Religion has been used to motivate the populace even when power and lucre have been the goals. Muslim nations fighting each other declare their adversary kafir before they join the battle. This makes it easier for them to go on a killing spree which even genuine kafirs would balk at.
As Pakistan comprises (virtually) only Muslims, one would have thought that religion could not be made an issue or exploited as an instrument of social or political change.
But because without religion no fight seems worth dying for, sectarian differences are bandied about as reason enough to kill. The length of the beard, the manner of the dress, the extent of covering of the woman's body and the observance of rituals--all are made to count. And all this in a society where priests do not
(as yet) rule.
Thus, today the Annual Confidential Reports of all government officers require the reporting officer to indicate whether the officer being reported on is a good Muslim. That Pakistan's greatest hypocrite, Ziaul Haq, a declared accessory to a (judicial) murder, was responsible, says it all. In Pakistan, the murderer and his victim, the robber and the robbed, all seek His help, which is understandable, but what is not is how one of them expects to retrieve his property while the other make off with it at the same time, and all with God's help.
Needless to say, in a society which places prime importance on a man's religious obligations rather than those to his fellow men or the state, which is the case in Pakistan, turmoil will prevail. Especially if each sect believes that any other interpretation of the Sharia is heretical, nay, beyond the pale of Islam. Our clerics wrangle for religion, fight for it, and die for it, anything but live for it.
They prefer to politicise Islam rather than make politics Islamic.
Today, those who would have us forcibly abandon our beliefs, and our interpretation of the Sharia, are the Taliban. One would have thought that because they were a small minority and because their beliefs were against the grain of our culture and ethos society's response would have been swift, united and decisive. That was not the case. It required the Taliban to visit mind-boggling cruelties on the populace over a considerable period of time before the tide of public opinion finally turned against them. And this should have been a signal to our rulers just how badly they are perceived and how woeful their performance has been that antediluvian medieval bigots could be considered as rivals for public affection. And, more so, how deep is the malignancy that afflicts society and the danger that the malaise might become terminal unless drastic remedial measures are taken.
And yet, today one has to strain to see if anything is being done. Action, it is said, will furnish belief. However, the only action one sees is by the army. More must be done to reclaim lost hope in the areas affected by the insurgency.
Those who teach and preach our Islam must return and relocate among the people. And teachers, health workers, civil servants and judges do the same. The unemployment and poverty which coexist with acts of murder, sabotage and public demoralisation, like the destruction of police stations, hospitals and schools that seem to have become the pattern with the same destabilising aims, must be thwarted.
All of which is possible, but none of which will be, unless a completely new paradigm is in place.
With the civil government unable to cope, the key lies in transforming the role of the army from a mere deterrent force to one that will not only "clear and hold" but also "build." Every home destroyed or damaged as a result of the fighting must be rebuilt. And while all this is going on the populace must be protected and secured against the depredations of the enemy, which only the army can ensure.
The effort must be a comprehensive one. Education makes us what we are. Not only has the fate of the country but also the power of government depended on control of the schools. Alas, this power has slipped from the grasp of successive governments.
Of the 33,000 madressahs which are functioning today, only 13,000 are registered. The rest operate largely unmonitored and unsupervised, free to teach what they wish, even though education is the soul of a society. Of course, not all of them are churning out potential recruits for the Taliban, but many do, because 11,000 students annually emerge from madressahs with nothing else but the ability to recite the Quran by heart.
Their intellect "is perfectly and permanently preserved at the stage of boyhood." Well-developed bodies and underdeveloped minds. In any case, as a great teacher once said, "What is the use of transmitting knowledge if the individual's total development lags behind?" What, indeed, one may ask, is the point of being able to read if one is unable to distinguish what is worth reading?
In this regard, it is not that this government has no plan, it does not even know where to begin.
The crisis that Pakistan confronts today is far greater than any experienced in the past. We are witnessing a comprehensive and systemic failure of governance. Nor can we merely sit on our hands as the clock winds down to the predictable denouement. If we believe that things are bad, we have a duty to prevent them from worsening, regardless of the consequences.
The government claims that it is doing its best, but clearly its best is not enough. And neither the politicians nor the military can do it on their own. The government cannot tackle the extremists by itself as the police, though brave, are decrepit. And the military needs help to mobilise public support. The two must, therefore, come together. Perhaps one way to start would be the formation of a government of national unity.


The writer is a former ambassador
of Pakistan. Email: charles123it@hotmail.com

  Water and Kashmir

Water resources are not unlimited. It is a genuine argument that the Indus Water Treaty promotes inequity. At the same time, it has failed to preserve and protect water resources and the environment.
 
Dr Syed Nazir Gilani

India and Pakistan are locked in a serious clash of claims over water in Jammu and Kashmir. Water resources are not unlimited and available forever. The actual stewardship of water resources in any part of Kashmir rests with the people of Kashmir. It is unfortunate that Srinagar and Muzaffarabad governments have failed to defend the manner and extent to which the people of Kashmir are entitled to have a role in the use of their water resources at Mangla, Baglihar and Diamir.
It is a violation of trust that India and Pakistan have been taking unilateral decisions in regard to water as a natural resource in Kashmir. Both countries have failed to incorporate the right of the people of Kashmir in the management of water uses and water-related activities under the Indus Water Treaty.
In 1995, Ismail Serageldin, then vice president of the World Bank, made a prediction that "if the wars of this century were fought over oil, the wars of the next century will be fought over water." He may not have been far off the mark.
Water in Eastern culture is seen as sacred and this culture treats its provision as a duty for the preservation of life. In contrast, the West and its associates conform to a culture where water is seen as a commodity and its ownership and trade as a fundamental corporate right. Water in our culture is given from earthen water pots as a free gift to the thirsty.
Hindus have Jal Mandirs (water temples), part of an ancient tradition of setting up free water stands in public areas. This is a common practice among Muslims as well.
Obviously a culture treating water as a commodity has to clash with cultures of sharing, receiving and giving water. Therefore, water wars are cultural wars and global wars. An economic fascism is out to destroy people's right to their water resources. It is much more important when disputed and trust territories among other resources have water brutally ravaged. The water resources in the state of Jammu and Kashmir are being exploited at Mangla, Baglihar and Diamir by all the three administrations on the two sides of the LoC.
On Aug 21, 1957, the government of India complained to the United Nations that Pakistan was about to build Mangla Dam in the disputed territory under Pakistani control. The Indian complaint added that "the execution of the Mangla Dam Project by the government of Pakistan was a further instance of Pakistan's consolidating its authority over the Indian territory of Jammu and Kashmir and of the exploitation of the territory to the disadvantage of the people of the state and for the benefit of the people of Pakistan."
The complaint added that Pakistan's action was in violation of the Security Council's Resolution of Jan 17, 1948, and of the assurances given to India by the chairman of the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan (UNCIP).
Less than three years later, India reversed its earlier position and entered into a water treaty, on the waters of Kashmir, with Pakistan in April 1960. The Indus Water Treaty was brokered by the World Bank. By concluding the Indus Water Treaty with India, Pakistan in practice accepted the sovereignty of India over Kashmir's water resource.
The use of water in the Indus Water Treaty has not been aligned on a principled, fair and just basis. It does not recognise the interests of the affected people (Kashmir) and has failed to develop a mechanism to include those interests in water allocation decision.
Under the Treaty the government of India on its part has breached the trust embedded in the instrument of accession (a disputed bilateral agreement). Under the Indus Water Treaty the government of India reversed its stated position on Kashmir. India cannot trade a natural resource of Kashmir with Pakistan, or vice versa. Pakistan's trust obligations too restrain it from violating any resource in its trust jurisdiction.
The water dispute at Mangla, Baglihar and Diamir has made keener the Kashmiri people's interest in their natural resource. They feel being driven to economic insecurity, cultural subordination and ecological dispossession. Water exploitation is fast spreading as a virus of hate.
Kashmiris are not averse to the welfare of the people of Pakistan or the people of India. Our stand on the Mangla, Baglihar and Diamir disputes is based on the jurisprudence of the habitat and the water resources embedded in it.
We will have to argue for a corresponding and reciprocal benefit of compensation due to the people of Kashmir. India and Pakistan should embrace and honour the welfare of the Kashmiri people, which includes the use or preservation of water as a natural resource.
Kashmiri interest is incremented and guaranteed by our bilateral agreement with the government of India and Pakistan's "assumed responsibilities in Azad Kashmir" and its responsibilities under the Karachi Agreement on Gilgit and Baltistan.
The World Bank has made an error in not taking into consideration the jurisprudence of the Kashmir dispute and of the use of its resources without assuring a corresponding benefit for the Kashmiri people.
Water resources are not unlimited. It is a genuine argument that the Indus Water Treaty promotes inequity. At the same time, it has failed to preserve and protect water resources and the environment.
Water resources in the natural habitat of Kashmir need to be defended as an integral part of self-determination.


The writer is secretary general of the Jammu and Kashmir Council for Human Rights (JKCHR). Email dr-nazirgilani@ jkchr.com

Viewpoints

Let down by democracy

By producing one of the higher voter turnouts in the history of the United Kingdom, the residents of the planet's oldest functioning democracy clearly wanted change, of some kind - and now.

Tom Plate 

Democracy is not always decisive, and even when it is it doesn't invariably produce results that optimise the public good. We all know that, right? And elections are certainly no panacea. They can even be a disaster. Or produce a debilitating muddle at a time of economic nerve-shaking uncertainty.
Trot such cynical thoughts by British voters right now and you will find them to be a rather easy sell. By producing one of the higher voter turnouts in the history of the United Kingdom, the residents of the planet's oldest functioning democracy clearly wanted change, of some kind - and now.
But the lock-jawed result - with no one party winning a parliamentary majority - appears not to have cleared the air but fogged it further.
Perhaps the only clear winners from this past week's British national election are those of us who have refused to be cheerleaders for democracy - of the British and American kind - for every place and for every situation.
We still don't like it for Iraq, for example, and never did. For Afghanistan? Maybe in 100 years! You like democracies that can elect absolute idiots? We will leave all of Latin America and Africa out of our argument (too easy - like shooting fish in a barrel). How about the Philippines, a democracy, with all its elections, a total mess? The democracy fundamentalist is, in one sense at least, as narrow-minded and as dangerous as the Muslim fundamentalist. They would impose their will and their preferences on others, if not by force of arms then by other means. But people don't like to be told how to live their lives. Isn't that something? The Scandinavians have more or less fine democracies but they tend to be classy about it and not go around the world telling everyone to be Swedish. They accept graciously that well-achieving countries like Malaysia and Singapore have gotten to where they are by devising their own tied-to-local-conditions political approaches. Why can't we?
Ideological approaches to world events work better in the academic world where they are of little consequence than in the real world where they can do actual damage.
For their part, British voters may well wonder how often they will have to go to the polls to get some sort of conclusive change of direction. The minority government that will now have to be formed via some slapdash patchwork coalition will not last long, if British history is any guide. And what's the guarantee that the next election - perhaps sooner rather than later - will prove any more decisive than the muddle the Brits now have before them?
The problem is that the incumbent Prime Minister - Gordon Brown - has been discredited but his Labour Party held on to just enough seats to prevent the Conservative Party from moving into Number 10 Downing Street all by themselves. In a statement that actually rose to the historic occasion, for once, Brown said: "I understand, as I know my fellow party leaders do, that people do not like the uncertainty or want it to be prolonged. We live, however, in a parliamentary democracy, the outcome has been delivered by the electorate, it is our responsibility now to make it work for the national good."
Good luck. But Brown could start that process off by immediately stepping down as party leader - and therefore as prime minister - and let a fresher man or woman take up the job. This might encourage the third party - the Liberal Democrats - to tack their won votes in parliament onto those still held by the Labour Party and form a temporary governing coalition.
Whatever happens, American and Asian interests will not be immediately threatened. For Asia, Great Britain has long devalued itself as a serious world player, though culturally its influence remains immense as the originator of one of the two most important languages on the planet. And the so-called "special relationship" between America and Great Britain has, for some time, been more like a too-long marriage that would have broken up years ago save for lack of viable re-mating options.
Sure, we still need each other - we share a common language, after all, and have veto powers on the United Nations Security Council that can come in handy. And increasingly our security services are bonded more tightly than ever in the face of the terrorist threat against the "white nations."
Terrorism, of course, doesn't always come from them: the Islamists. Hardly. They come from inside our own home-grown nut cases. In this just-past British poll, one parliamentary seat in North Ireland could not immediately be counted because of a bomb scare from radical anti-London elements. It was a timely reminder of how little evil even the world's oldest democracy can cleanse away.

Columnist and veteran journalist Tom
Plate is writing a trilogy of books
called "Giants of Asia.

  Saving essence of print

In the past few weeks a number of Arab newspapers shut down because of economic problems; from Bahrain to Kuwait and from Morocco to Egypt.

Osama Al Sharif

The announcement, last week, that Newsweek, the venerable American newsweekly magazine is up for sale because of economic difficulties, is another milestone in the agonizing struggle of print media to survive in a changing world.
If the magazine finds a buyer, the new owner will almost certainly change much of the look and feel of the magazine, which for decades, along with Time, was a symbol of America's opinionated and responsible journalism.
Few people will mourn the demise of Newsweek, established in 1930s. The world has changed tremendously since then. Newsweek belongs to another era; it appeared when there was no TV, no cable, no satellite and no Internet and social media. Circulation figures today are about the same as they were in the 1960s. Advertising is not though. Newsweek's plight is just another episode in the long and unpredictable fight for survival now being endured by newspapers and magazines all over the world.
In the past few weeks a number of Arab newspapers shut down because of economic problems; from Bahrain to Kuwait and from Morocco to Egypt. In the US, and elsewhere, many publications are suffering and looking for ways to survive. Weeklies have become monthlies; a number of newspapers are now only available online. Experts continue to debate the difficult question: Is the survival of newspapers, and print in general, a matter of time? Many have come out to eulogize print; some suggested that the last newspaper in America will fold by 2015, or thereabouts.
The euphoria surrounding the new media has not abated. Fanatics believe it will conquer all, and that in few years, no one would need to buy or subscribe to a newspaper anymore. But there are those who disagree, believing that newspapers will find a way to cope, and that by virtue of their professionalism and adherence to journalistic ethics, they will provide a necessary counterweight to blogs, social media and citizen journalism.
There is much more to newspapers and news magazines than news. There is credibility and depth, variety of opinions and, yes, even bias. Print has played a central role in our political, economic and social evolution for centuries. But it was, and remains, a conductor of ideas; a tool and a mode of delivery. In today's wired world that tool is considered archaic and stale.
Publishers have looked for ways to ride the technological wave. Almost all newspapers and magazines have online presence; most are interactive, the majority is free, and many were able to create a new stream of revenue to support print. The jury is still out on whether this keeping up with the wave will spare newspapers and magazines and allow them to coexist in a new world.
Our world is changing fast. The breakthroughs that we witnessed in the past 20 years have been enormous. More and more people are embracing the Net and the new gadgets that are associated with it. Millions of iPads have been sold in the past few weeks, and hundreds of millions of people now receive their news and information from the Internet.
As consumers adopt new technologies and migrate to the Net, businesses revise their strategies accordingly. As a result newspapers have been losing advertising revenue and readers. The challenges that the next few years will unfold will be detrimental to the survival of print.
Not all change is positive. Newspapers and news magazines have been instrumental in shaping our world. The Internet, Twitter, Facebook and others represent a revolution in communication, empowerment and the making of public opinion. Their effect on our lives has been astounding. Millions of people have become part of a network that is growing exponentially. Not all are informed, and few are leaving their imprint on major issues facing them and other citizens.
Fragmentation has become a semblance of new media. Instead of one or two TV stations we now have hundreds. And Google and others have dispersed hundreds of millions of users into the realms of the World Wide Web. And yet the world has changed very little as a result. Our differences continue to separate us and our challenges, as human beings, remain intact.
The romantic view of print will not hold for long. Newspapers and other derivatives will survive only if they are needed; compensating for the inadequacies of new media. So far few have pinpointed such maladies. The euphoria over new media will take some time to subside. The irony is that print needs new media more than ever to ensure survival. The idea of a newspaper, or a news magazine, must become transcendent, holistic, encompassing and even philosophical if it is to prove its sustainability in an ever-changing world.
And for this to occur newspapers will have to relinquish their historical alliance with print. They may go on to live a second life, online!
Paper and ink have represented the physical side of print, but not its soul. While the day when newspapers, in their traditional format, will no longer exist is still far off, one hopes that efforts to launch a new reincarnation that feels at home in the virtual world will soon succeed.
It's all about our evolution as humans. This is what matters really. We have learned to abandon many things in the past; from steam locomotives to battery powered transistors. Somehow we managed to move along. Newspapers were there to record all that. Now they face extinction, but while print may one day disappear, the essence of the newspaper will remain.

Osama Al Sharif is a veteran journalist and political commentator based in Amman.

  Main obstacle to peace psychological

"Contrary to the wishes of the Obama administration and most Americans - to include many American Jews - Israel is not going to allow the Palestinians to have a viable state of their own in Gaza and the West Bank.

Uri Avnery

I admire Professor John Mearsheimer. His rigorous logic. His lucid presentation. His rare moral courage.
A few days ago, he delivered an impressive lecture in Washington DC. He presented a profound analysis of the chances of Israel surviving in the long term. Every Israeli who is concerned about the future of his state should grapple with this analysis.
The professor himself sums up his conclusions as follows:
"Contrary to the wishes of the Obama administration and most Americans - to include many American Jews - Israel is not going to allow the Palestinians to have a viable state of their own in Gaza and the West Bank. Regrettably, the two-state solution is now a fantasy. Instead, those territories will be incorporated into a "Greater Israel," which will be an apartheid state bearing a marked resemblance to white-ruled South Africa. Nevertheless, a Jewish apartheid state is not politically viable over the long term. In the end, it will become a democratic bi-national state, whose politics will be dominated by its Palestinian citizens. In other words, it will cease being a Jewish state, which will mean the end of the Zionist dream."
Why does the professor believe that the two-state solution has become a fantasy? Because, in his opinion, most Israelis are not ready to make the "sacrifices" necessary for its implementation. The 480,000 settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem have immense power. Many of them will offer armed resistance to any solution. Benjamin Netanyahu is not prepared to accept a Palestinian state. The Israeli public has shifted sharply to the right. No effective pro-peace party exists in Israel now. No leader of stature, who would be able to remove the settlers, can be seen. And most importantly: "Zionism's core beliefs are deeply hostile to the very notion of a Palestinian state."
No salvation will come from US President Barack Obama. The immensely powerful pro-Israel lobby will crush any attempt of his to exert pressure on Israel. Obama has already capitulated to Netanyahu, and he will continue to do so in the future.
The professor does not hide his opinion that the two-state solution is by far the best. But he believes that it is "dead". Greater Israel, ruling over all the territory between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, already exists. It is an apartheid state that will steadily become more consolidated and more brutal - until its collapse.
In the 86 years of my life, innumerable unforeseen things have happened, and innumerable expected things have not come about. The fate of nations is governed by unexpected factors. They are shaped by human beings, who are by nature unpredictable creatures.
Of course, one cannot build plans on the unexpected. But it should be taken into account. It is irrational to discount the irrational.
I do not accept the professor's judgment that "most Israelis are opposed to making the sacrifices that would be necessary to create a viable Palestinian state." As an Israeli living and fighting in Israel, I am convinced that the great majority of Israelis are ready to accept the necessary conditions, which are well-know to all: a Palestinian state with its capital in East Jerusalem, the 1967 borders with minimal land swaps, a mutually acceptable solution for the refugee problem.
The real problem is that most Israelis do not believe that peace is possible. Dozens of years of propaganda have convinced them that "we have no partner for peace." Events on the ground (as seen through Israeli eyes) have confirmed this view. If this perception is dissolved, everything is possible.
In this, President Obama could play a big role. I believe that this is his real mission: To prove that it is possible. That there is a partner out there. That there is a guarantee for the security of Israel. And - yes - that the alternative is frightening.
Can the settlements be removed? Will there ever be an Israeli government that will have the guts to do so? Where is the leader who will undertake this Herculean task?
The professor is right that "there is nobody with that kind of standing in Israeli politics today." And that "there is no sizable pro-peace party or movement."
Yet history shows that exceptional leaders often appear when they are needed. I have seen in my own lifetime a failed and generally detested politician called Winston Churchill become a national hero.
I have also seen a brutal general called Ariel Sharon, the father of the settlements, destroying a series of settlements. His intentions may be debatable, but the facts cannot be disputed: he challenged the settlers' movement - which Prof. Mearsheimer describes in all its fearful menace - and won easily. In face of the total opposition of the settlers and their allies, he evacuated some 20 settlements in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Not a single military unit mutinied. Not a single person was killed or seriously injured.

SURE, there is a quantitative and qualitative difference between Sharon's "separation" and that task in front of us. But it is a big mistake to view the "settlers" as a monolithic structure. They are split into several different sectors - the inhabitants of the East Jerusalem neighborhoods do not resemble the West Bank settlers, the buyers of cheap apartments in Ariel and Ma'aleh-Adumim do not resemble the zealots of Yitzhar and Tapuach, the Orthodox in Modi'in-Illit and Immanuel do not resemble the "Youth of the Hills."
If a peace agreement is achieved, it will be necessary to approach the evacuation job with determination, and also with finesse.
The two-state solution is not the best solution. It is the only solution.
The alternative is not a democratic, secular bi-national state, because such a state will not come into being.
As the professor rightly maintains, in the absence of peace, Israel will rule from the sea to the river. The present situation will go on and become worse: the sovereign State of Israel holding on to the occupied territories.
Except for a tiny group of dreamers, who can be gathered in a medium-sized room, there are no Israelis who dream of living in a bi-national state, in which the Arabs constitute the majority. If such a state came into being, Israeli Jews would just emigrate. But it is much more plausible that the reverse would happen: the Palestinians would emigrate long before that.
Ethnic cleansing does not have to take the form of a dramatic expulsion, as in 1948. It can take place quietly, in a creeping process, when more and more Palestinians simply give up. That is the great dream of the settlers and their partners: to make life for the Palestinians so miserable that they take their families and leave.
Either way, life in this country will turn into hell. Not for one year, but for dozens of years. Both sides will be violent. The idea of Palestinian "non-violent resistance" is a pipe-dream. The professor's hope that in the putative bi-national state, the Palestinians would not treat the Jews as the Jews are treating them now has been disproved by the Jews themselves - the persecution they have suffered throughout the ages has not inoculated them against becoming persecutors themselves.
There is a gap in the professor's analysis: He does not explain how the violent Israeli apartheid state will "develop" into an ideal bi-national state. In his opinion, this will come about "eventually", after "some years." How many"? And how?
OK, there will be pressures. World public opinion will turn against Israel. The Jews in the Diaspora will distance themselves. But how will all this bring about a bi-national state?
Any comparison with South Africa is unsound. There is no real similarity between the situation that prevailed there and the situation that exists - or will exist in the future - here. Except for some methods of persecution, all the circumstances, in all fields, are vastly different.
In the end, it is a matter of logic: If international pressure does not succeed in convincing the Israelis to accept the two-state solution, which does no harm to their national identity, how will it compel them to give up everything they have - their state, their identity, their culture, their economy, all they have built in a huge endeavor of 120 years? Is it not much more plausible to assume that long before their state collapses under all the pressures, Israelis would embrace the two-state solution?
I completely agree with the professor: The main obstacle to peace is psychological. What is needed is a profound change of perceptions, before the Israeli public can be brought to recognize reality and accept peace, with all it entails.
That is the main task facing the Israeli peace camp: To change the basic perceptions of the public. I am certain that this is possible. We have already traveled a long road from the days of "There are no Palestinians!" and "Jerusalem united for all eternity!" Professor Mearsheimer's analysis may well contribute to this process.
An apartheid state or a bi-national state? Neither. But the free state of Palestine side by side with the free State of Israel, in the common homeland.

International

US rushed to judgment on Times Square suspect
Washington Post

Senior US officials "jumped their gun" on the Times Square suspect Faisal Shahzad when they claimed that he was a trained member of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, The Washington Post wrote on Tuesday.
In a regular column titled 'Spy Talk,' which reports on the activities of the US intelligence community, the Post named two senior officials, Attorney General Eric Holder and White House terrorism adviser John Brennan, who it believed rushed to judgment on this issue.
"The attorney general's remarks, echoed by White House terrorism adviser John Brennan … smack of politics," wrote columnist Jeff Stein.
He recalled that Gen David Petraeus, who, as the top US commander for the Middle East, "presumably possessed the best intelligence on the area", declared that Shahzad acted as a "lone wolf" who was "inspired by militants in Pakistan but didn't have direct contact with them".
Yet Gen Petraeus's "judgment has gotten far less traction than a week's worth of White House-supplied leaks, and now outright declarations, that Shahzad was an agent of the TTP, and by extension Al Qaeda - the original reason for invading Afghanistan", he wrote. Former CIA Middle East counterterrorism operative Robert Baer agreed.
"The TTP knows how to make car bombs, set off explosions," he told the Post. "So why didn't they teach him [better]? And why didn't they give him some scratch to pull this off?" "Petraeus," Mr Baer said, "seems to be the only one these days feeling secure enough to tell the truth."
Mr Stein noted that "conspiracy sells so much better on TV than lone-wolf" and that's why the US media ignored the general's assessment. The columnist also blamed internal US politics for "jumping the gun".
"It's also an irresistible narrative for a White House that has to constantly fend off posturing critics and right-wing nuts on Fox News.
Message: We know who they are. We're on the case." Mr Stein described Faisal Shahzad as "a walking can of gasoline," noting that "for any administration, dealing with that is much, much harder than placing Shahzad in a terrorist conspiracy and flinging more feel-good Hellfire missiles at
Pakistan".

   No move to block Pakistan’s aid: Holbrooke

Agency, Washington
The US State Department has joined the Pentagon and the White House in assuring Pakistan that it remains a key ally in the war against terror and that Secretary Hillary Clinton never spoke about disrupting economic or military assistance to Pakistan.
The assurance came from Mrs Clinton's close confidant, US Special Representative Richard Holbrooke. Her remarks in no way indicated any impact on the flow of US economic or military aid to Pakistan, he told a briefing in Washington.
"As for Secretary Clinton's interview on (CBS channel's) 60 Minutes (programme), I think that perhaps it was not fully understood for what she was saying by some people who didn't see the full text or didn't appreciate what she was saying," he said.
On Sunday, Secretary Clinton warned Pakistan that it would face "very severe consequences" if extremists based there succeeded in attacking the United States.
She also said that she believed "somewhere in (the Pakistani) government are people who know where Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda is, where Mullah Omar and the leadership of the Afghan Taliban is, and we expect more cooperation to help us bring to justice, capture or kill those who attacked us on 9/11".
She was backed by several lawmakers as well, who went a step ahead and warned Pakistan that the aid it was receiving could be stopped if it failed to take "appropriate actions" to stamp out terrorism.
But the initial outburst that followed the botched Times Square bombing last week appears to be losing its steam as US officials now try to water down their earlier tough stance. The Pentagon, which cherishes its close ties to the Pakistani military establishment, is playing a leading role in the effort to allay Islamabad's fears, backed by the White House and the State Department.

  India not paranoid over China: Antony

Agency, India
Making it clear that India is not paranoid over China, Defence Minister A K Antony said that Sino-Indian bilateral relations were improving and getting better, despite the border dispute.
"Nothing like that," was Antony's response to reporters' queries if the government was paranoid over China and if there was any problem or bad feeling about Beijing.
The government has taken a conscious policy decision to maintain "very cordial and friendly" relations with all the neighbours, he said while interacting with the media after inaugurating a conference of Defence Accounts Controllers here.
"In this context, we are trying to improve our relations with all our neighbouring countries and this includes China also. All are reciprocating well," he said.
Noting that Sino-Indian border disputes still existed, the Defence Minister said the two governments had evolved mechanisms to talk about these disputes.
"Despite these disputes, our relations are improving (with China) in all aspects. China is today our largest trading partner. Our cultural relations are improving.
"Regarding my ministry, disputes are there, but military relations are improving," he said citing the example of two Sino-Indian army exercises held in the last three years and the visit of Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar to China earlier this year.
"Our relations with China is improving and it is comparatively better and the border is peaceful," he said.

  Sri Lanka's ex-army chief in court on new charge

AFP, Colombo
Sri Lanka's ex-army chief and defeated presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka was for the first time hauled before a civilian court Wednesday and accused of inciting violence.
Fonseka, who is in military custody and faces separate court martial charges of dabbling in politics while in uniform and corrupt procurements, was brought before a magistrate over his reported comments against the president's brother.
Police investigators told the court that Fonseka had alleged in a newspaper interview that the president's younger brother and defence secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapakse, had ordered the killing of surrendering Tamil rebels last year.
Fonseka was taken before Colombo chief magistrate Champa Rajaratne as a suspect who had "incited unrest" in the country through the interview last year. He says the newspaper misquoted him.
It was Fonseka's first appearance before a civilian court. However, he has filed several petitions in higher courts challenging his arrest in February, 12 days after he failed to unseat President Mahinda Rajapakse in elections.
Fonseka led the military onslaught which resulted in the annihilation of the separatist Tamil Tiger leadership in May last year and effectively ended 37 years of ethnic conflict which had claimed up to 100,000 lives.
Fonseka fell out with the president and his brother over who should take the most credit for the victory.
He quit the army and unsuccessfully ran for president in January, but did succeed with a bid for a parliamentary seat in April elections.

  N.Korea boasts success in nuclear fusion

AFP, Seoul
North Korea on Wednesday claimed it had carried out a nuclear fusion reaction that could lead to a limitless supply of clean energy-a process that the world's scientists have so far yet to achieve.
Physicists worldwide are striving to develop a nuclear fusion power plant, a project which the International Atomic Energy Agency terms "a great challenge".
But North Korea said it had triumphed using its own technology. "The successful nuclear fusion marks a great event that demonstrated the rapidly developing cutting-edge science and technology of the DPRK (North Korea)," said Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the ruling communist party.
It said the North's experts had worked hard to develop the "safe and environment-friendly new energy" technology their own way.
"Korean style" thermonuclear reaction devices were designed and manufactured as part of the process, it added. South Korean experts doubted that the North-which suffers persistent power shortages in everyday life-has made major progress in a process which potentially promises clean and limitless energy.
Yang Hyung-Lyeol, of South Korea's state-funded National Fusion Research Institute, said: "I don't think the North has any technology that we are not aware of. If so, it would mean the North would be on top of the world." Nuclear fusion reactions can also be employed to make hydrogen bombs.

  Karzai, Obama to mend ties at White House talks

AFP, Washington
US President Barack Obama and his Afghan counterpart meet Wednesday to mend fences, after months spent trading barbs over alleged vote-rigging and corruption in Hamid Karzai's government.
The White House talks and press conference come after meetings with top US officials, who vowed long-standing commitment to Afghanistan that would outlast the US military presence there.
Vice President Joe Biden will also host a dinner at his residence for the visiting Afghan leader. The red-carpet treatment comes as the US military gears up for a crucial stage of Obama's strategy to defeat the Taliban and allow the increased US military presence-nearing 100,000 troops-to start coming home next year.
On Tuesday, Washington and Kabul's top brass opened broad-ranging talks about boosting agriculture, increasing Afghanistan's transit trade through Pakistan, fighting drug trafficking and training the Afghan army and police. Both sides mapped out what Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called their "shared" future. "We will not abandon the Afghan people," the chief US diplomat said as she sat next to Karzai before a U-shaped table where 40 US and Afghan ministers had gathered in the State Department's ornate Benjamin Franklin room.

  Philippines' Aquino vows new era of clean rule

AFP, Manila
Philippine president-elect Benigno Aquino pledged a new era of clean government as he railed Wednesday against outgoing leader Gloria Arroyo and her corruption-tainted ad-ministration.
The son of late democracy heroine Corazon Aquino trounced his rivals by a landslide in national elections on Monday and has since unleashed a barrage of criticism of his longtime rival.
The latest flare-up came after Arroyo on Wednesday named a new chief justice to the Supreme Court, one of a string of appointments Aquino and other critics believe are intended to maintain influence once she steps down.
In an interview with AFP on Tuesday, Aquino vowed to probe Arroyo for allegedly trying to rig the 2004 presidential election and accused her of using her time in power to enrich herself.
"She could have brought significant changes to this country but she chose to advance her personal interests and those who were supporting her personal interests to the detriment of the country," he said.
Aquino, a 50-year-old senator who campaigned on a pledge of clean government and a pledge to wipe out corruption in the impoverished nation, sought to portray an opposite image to one many Filipinos have of Arroyo.
"I want to lead by example. We talk about corruption. I did make a public vow, I will never steal," Aquino said in the interview, adding that this would give him the "moral authority" to make others conform.
Arroyo's spokesman said Wednesday the 63-year-old incumbent was ready to face any investigation over the alleged vote rigging and confident she would be found innocent.

 Boy survives as 104 killed in Libya plane crash

AFP, Tripoli
A Libyan plane arriving from South Africa disintegrated on landing at Tripoli airport on Wednesday, killing 104 people but leaving an eight-year-old boy as the sole miracle survivor, officials said.
An official in The Hague said 61 Dutch citizens were killed while Libyan Transport Minister Mohammed Ali Zidan listed "Libyans, Africans and Europeans" among the dead.
Zidan told a media conference that an inquiry was under way to determine what caused the Afriqiyah Airways Airbus A330 to break up massively as it was landing, but he ruled out terrorism.
Libyan television showed teams of emergency workers sifting through the wreckage of the plane, which was scattered in a wide arc across the landing area.
"There were 104 people on board -- 93 passengers and 11 crew members," Zidan said, adding that the remains of 96 victims had already been recovered.
There was only one survivor, an eight-year-old Dutch boy, he said.
"His life is not in danger," Zidan said, adding that "the sole survivor" was in good shape in a Tripoli hospital.
Witnesses spoke of the plane inexplicably breaking up as it came down to land in clear weather at around 6:00 am (0400 GMT).
"It exploded on landing and totally disintegrated," one security official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. Another official said the plane had burst into flames just before landing.
Bongani Sithole, an official of Afriqiyah Airways at Johannesburg airport, said the crash happened "one metre (yard) away from the runway."
Minister Zidan said no terrorism was involved.
"We have definitely ruled out the theory that the crash was the result of an act of terrorism," he said, adding that the two black boxes of the aircraft had been recovered.
The plane was new and had only been acquired by the airline in September.

   Swedish Mohammad cartoonist attacked at lecture

Reuters, Stockholm
Lars Vilks, a Swedish cartoonist whose sketch of the Prophet Mohammad enraged many Muslims, was head-butted on Tuesday while giving a lecture about freedom of speech, he said.
A video of the incident was posted on Swedish newspaper websites and showed an angry crowd in the lecture hall with many people on their feet and shouting. Police were at the front of the hall and one policewoman used pepper spray on a man.
Vilks, who depicted the Prophet Mohammad with the body of a dog in 2007, said he was assaulted by a man sitting on the front row as he spoke at the University of Uppsala, about 70 km (44 miles) from Stockholm.
"He head-butted me and I fell into the wall and lost my glasses," Vilks was quoted by news agency TT as saying. He added he was unharmed.
The video, which mainly showed what happened after the assault on Vilks, showed the lecture hall in complete tumult with dozens of people on their feet and shouting.
Cries of "Allah is Great" in Arabic could also be heard from one woman in the crowd.
Swedish media said the incident happened after Vilks began to show a video involving sexual and religious images.
The video posted on the website of Aftonbladet newspaper showed Vilks's clip was entitled "Allah ho Gaybar".
A spokesman for Uppsala police said two people were detained in the incident.

  Iran ready for nuclear talks with EU's Ashton

Reuters, Tehran
Iran is willing to hold talks with the European Union's foreign policy chief over its disputed nuclear activities, a senior official said on Tuesday, after the bloc's top diplomat spoke of new sanctions against Tehran.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said on Monday extra sanctions could be adopted quickly, but that the EU was open to more talks with Iran if it showed it really wanted them.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said Iran was ready for talks with Ashton, adding that "a time and venue for such a meeting had not been set yet".
"(Iran's top nuclear negotiator Saeed) Jalili and Ashton could meet in Turkey," Mehmanparast told a weekly news conference. "We do not see a problem with that."
Ashton told reporters in London that she had had a meeting on Monday with Ahmet Davutoglu, the foreign minister of Turkey, which has sought to mediate in the dispute over Iran's nuclear programme.
"The message I've sent back is that I am perfectly prepared to meet and talk with Jalili," she said.
Iran's nuclear weapons capability should be the only issue on the agenda for talks, she said. Ashton would represent the six world powers dealing with Iran over its nuclear programme.
"The location can be determined. I'm not worried about that. Wherever it seems most appropriate. If Turkey wishes to host ... that's fine," Ashton said.
However, she understood messages had been sent back by Iran saying "we're not sure what she wants to talk about".

  Russia urges active US role in Mideast

AP, Ankara, Turkey
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev urged the United States on Wednesday to actively work to achieve peace in the Mideast with the support of other nations, saying there is a human tragedy in Gaza.
His comment appeared to indicate Moscow's willingness to become an active Middle East mediator. On Tuesday, during a visit to Syria, Medvedev said Israeli-Arab tensions threaten to draw the Middle East into a new catastrophe, adding Moscow's weight to a diplomatic push to ease antagonism between Israel and Syria.
"The United States must be active and other nations must contribute," Medvedev told a joint news conference in Ankara with Turkish President Abdullah Gul.
Washington recently launched U.S.-mediated peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, but signs of trouble already have emerged. On Monday, Israel said it doesn't intend to halt construction of Jewish housing in east Jerusalem. The Palestinians accused Israel of undermining trust and urged President Barack Obama to intervene.
Obama supports establishing an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.
Medvedev said no one should be excluded from the Mideast peace process, a clear reference to Khaled Mashaal, the exiled leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which is shunned as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and European Union nations.
Medvedev met Mashaal in Damascus on Tuesday. Hamas rules in the Gaza Strip, one of the territories that would one day be part of a Palestinian state.
"We have to include all conflicting parties and not exclude anyone from this process," Medvedev said.
The Russian president said countries that are not close to the region also have "responsibilities" to work for peace in the entire Mideast.
"We are facing a human tragedy in Gaza, so that there is need for more efforts, even though we can't solve all problems," Medvedev said.

  Political risk in Obama shift on terrorism cases

Reuters, Washington
A plan by the Obama administration to propose new powers to interrogate terrorism suspects risks opening a debate on national security, which could backfire in an election year.
After two failed U.S. attacks that could have been deadly, Attorney General Eric Holder has opened the door to limiting the full legal rights that terrorism suspects enjoy, including the right to remain silent and having access to a lawyer.
Republicans and even some of President Barack Obama's fellow Democrats have condemned giving such so-called Miranda rights to terrorism suspects, saying it makes it harder to get vital intelligence.
While the administration has disputed that, Holder said on Sunday he was now open to "modifying the rules that interrogators have and somehow coming up with something that is flexible and is more consistent with the threat that we now face."
That went some way toward Republican demands for a tougher stand on terrorism, but the party was likely to push for still broader measures that could include holding military trials for suspects or creating a special national security court.
At the same time, Holder's remarks angered Obama's liberal backers. Some of them accuse him of failing to fulfill a campaign pledge to fully restore the rule of law in dealing with terrorism suspects after accusations of U.S. abuse of prisoners during the Bush administration.
This could lead to a debate on the critical issue of national security, in which Republicans traditionally have an advantage, as Democrats prepare face a stiff fight to retain control of the U.S. Congress in elections in November.
"The Republicans ... smell blood, if he's willing to do this, they'll beat him over the head," said Robert Goldman, a law professor at American University and co-director of its Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law.

  Medvedev hails ‘strategic’ Turkey ties

AFP, Ankara
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev Wednesday hailed "strategic" ties with NATO-member Turkey as the two sides prepared to seal energy deals, including a plan to build Turkey's first nuclear power plant.
"Our relations have dramatically changed over the past years. Today they are strategic," Medvedev told a joint press conference with Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul.
"This is a very special day in Turkish-Russian relations," he said after overseeing the signing of cooperation accords in the fields of combating drug-trafficking, transport and education.
Gul said the two countries were determined to triple bilateral trade in five years to 100 billion dollars, a goal Medvedev said was ambitious but within reach.
The crowning point of Medvedev's visit was to be a memorandum to build and operate a nuclear power station in Turkey, likely be signed after the first meeting of a "high-level cooperation council" co-chaired by the Russian leader and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Russia has long looked to build Turkey's first nuclear power plant, but a Turkish court last year scrapped a tender won by a Russian-led consortium to build four reactors with a total capacity of 4,800-megawatts at Akkuyu, on the Mediterranean coast.
Another highlight was a deal mutually lifting visas.
"This agreement is ready for signing," Medvedev said. "It is a historic and breakthrough agreement, which will be aimed at making life easier for millions of people."
Turkey's Mediterranean coast is a popular destination for Russian tourists.

  Iran, Syria, NKorea new ‘axis of evil’: Israel FM

AP, Tokyo
Israel's foreign minister on Wednesday declared North Korea, Syria and Iran the new "axis of evil," claiming that North Korean weapons seized in Bangkok in December were bound for Middle Eastern militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said during a visit to Japan that the three countries are cooperating and pose the biggest threat to world security because they are building and spreading weapons of mass destruction.
"This axis of evil that includes North Korea, Syria and Iran, it's the biggest threat to the entire world," he told journalists in Tokyo.
"We saw this kind of cooperation only two or maybe three months ago with the North Korean plane in Bangkok with huge numbers of different weapons with the intention to smuggle these weapons to Hamas and Hezbollah," Lieberman said without elaborating.
"Axis of evil" originated in then-President George W. Bush's first State of the Union address in 2002, where he named North Korea, Iran and Iraq as threats to the United States.
Acting on a tip from the United States, Thai authorities on Dec. 12 seized an Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane from the North Korean capital of Pyongyang when it landed in Bangkok. It was carrying 35 tons of weapons - a violation of U.N. sanctions against North Korea. Flight documents indicated the plane's cargo - listed as oil drilling equipment - was headed for the Iranian capital Tehran. Iranian officials denied they were importing weapons.

Business/Economy

E-tendering system introduced by BB
BSS, Dhaka

Bangladesh Bank (BB) on Wednesday introduced e-tendering system, making tender procedure more transparence, faster and hassle-free and effectively bringing an end to the decades' old manual and paper-based tendering process.
Governor Dr Atiur Rahman launched the electronic tendering system at the BB's headquarters here with the hope that other public organizations would follow this example. "The bank has pioneered the e-tendering system among public and private organizations in Bangladesh," he said adding that the introduction of e-tendering in all sectors would prevent the "vandalism in the tendering system" by some bidders.
Dr Atiur said the central bank would also introduce online CIB (Credit Information Bureau) report in a month. He termed the e-tendering system a step forward in achieving the Digital Bangladesh vision.
The e-tendering system offers the bidders to choose their jobs, view tender schedule, submit their bidding and documents and get the feedback online.
The bidders, however, require registering online for getting the electronic services. The registered bidders will also get information in their inbox about the tenders in their areas of interest. At present, the bidders need to pay manually, but with the introduction of electronic fund transfer, they deposit the necessary payment for tender online, BB officials said.

 US trade deficit biggest in more than two years
AFP, Washington

The US trade deficit widened for the second consecutive month in March to its highest level since December 2008, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.
The trade shortfall increased 2.5 percent to 40.4 billion dollars from February, the department's seasonally adjusted data showed. The March deficit was in line with the 40.5-billion-dollar gap expected by most analysts. The second straight month of a rising trade deficit highlighted an overall trend of rising US exports as the global economy emerges from recession. The gap had hit a low of 25.8 billion dollars in May 2009.
The US volume of international trade in goods and services in March reached its highest level since October 2008, the month after Wall Street investment bank Lehman Brothers failed, triggering a global financial meltdown that led to the worst recession since World War II.
March exports surged 3.2 percent from February, eclipsing a 3.1 percent rise in imports.

  Public Financial Management will be ruined if pre-audit is abolished: CAG

BSS, Dhaka

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Ahmed Ataul Hakeem has said that the Public Financial Management would be ruined soon if existing pre-audit system is abolished.
"The financial management would also be jeopardized if the country's Audit and Accounts cadre is separated," he said while addressing a discussion at the Audit Bhaban here yesterday. The Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (OCAG) organized the discussion in observance of the Installation Day of the Audit Department.
The CAG said that even in India and Pakistan accounts and Audit is still not fully separated and pre-audit is very much essential for maintaining smooth financial management. A vested quarter is active in pursuing the unwanted division of the audit and accounts and abolition of pre-audit system, he said.
He said that financial irregularities is much higher in Roads and Highways Division (RHD), Environment and Forest, Public Health Engineering, Public Works Department (PWD) where pre-audit system is absent. He said that the suggestions from the development partners are not always beneficial to a country like Bangladesh.
The CAG said that audit is an essential constituent in parliamentary democracy to hold the executives accountable to the people. He said that to ensure the accountability of the executives, who spend public money, and of the auditors, who are responsible for external oversight function is the pre-condition for establishment of a democratic society.

  China Southern surges past JAL as Asia’s biggest airline
AFP, Shanghai

China Southern Airlines is now Asia's largest carrier by passenger numbers after overtaking troubled Japan Airlines, according to figures provided by the two companies.
China Southern soared in 2009 on the back of booming domestic demand and government assistance. In stark contrast, JAL is restructuring after filing for bankruptcy in early 2010 in one of Japan's biggest corporate failures.
China Southern actually overtook JAL in 2008, when its passenger volume rose to 58.24 million, according to data supplied by the Chinese carrier to AFP on Wednesday.
The airline, which boasts China's biggest fleet, extended its lead even further last year with a total of 66.3 million passengers, up 13.8 percent.
"Authoritative data shows China Southern Airlines surpassed JAL as (Asia's) top carrier in passenger volumes in 2008, but the story has only been publicised lately," an official with China Southern told AFP.
"It is also a sign of how China's economy expanded so fast despite the financial crisis," added the official, who asked not to be named.
China Southern, a SkyTeam alliance member run by the state, may be less well known internationally than flag carrier Air China, but its focus on shorter-haul domestic services is considered key to its success.

  Europe moves to curb future debt crises
AFP, Madrid

Europe moved Wednesday to curb future financial crises, with Spain announcing big public sector wage cuts and market sentiment buoyed by positive growth figures as several states shook off recession.
The European Commission, responding to a Greek debt debacle partially reflecting its own weak oversight, called on European governments to submit their national budgets to the EU for "peer review" before presentation to national parliaments. "An early peer review of fiscal policies would help shape a fiscal stance for the EU and the euro area as a whole," a commission statement said.
Spain meanwhile took a dramatic initiative on its own, with Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapateo ordering a 5.0 percent public sector wage cut.
Spain, saddled with the eurozone's third largest public deficit and seen as vulnerable to the sort of fiscal turmoil afflicting Greece, nonetheless said it had eased out of recession with growth of 0.1 percent in the first quarter.
The 16-nation eurozone as a whole managed growth of 0.2 percent in the first three months after having stagnated in fourth quarter 2009, the EU said.
Throughout the 27-nation European Union, which includes non-euro giants Britain and Poland, the first quarter also showed 0.2 percent growth.
Greece at least halted its downward slide with a contraction of 0.8 percent in the first quarter, the same as in the last quarter of 2009, according to a preliminary estimate issued by the state data agency.

National

Govt mulling mandatory rural service for doctors: PM
UNB, Brahmanbaria

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday said the government is mulling over a measure making it mandatory for a doctor to serve a year in rural areas before he or she can be considered for promotion. "We will consider doctors service to the upazila level before promoting them," she said, inaugurating the 250-bed Brahmanbaria Sadar Hospital.
The Prime Minister inaugurated the 250-bed hospital by unveiling the plaque and offered munajat. She said that recruitment of 4,139 doctors is at the final stage and after their recruitment they will be posted to rural areas. Hasina said that her government will not only provide doctors and infrastructure but also provide modern medical equipments for the people so that they could get world class service. In this connection she mentioned that all 30 bed hospitals at upazila level will be upgraded to 50 bed while 100 bed hospitals at district level will be upgraded to 200/250 bed hospital. She also informed that the process to appoint 3500 nurses had already been completed and they would be appointed soon.
The Prime Minister said that her government has undertaken a plan to set up a nursing institute for higher education for the nurses. She also said that there will be four nursing colleges across the country. "From this college the nurses would get graduation and compete in the world arena," she said adding that the nurses will be provided foreign instructors. She also conveyed her good wishes to all nurses across the country as today is the World Nursing Day.

  Commerce Ministry shows 92pc progress in implementing Dev projects

UNB, Dhaka

The Ministry of Commerce has showed tremendous progress in implementing its development projects under ADP within the first nine months of current fiscal, Commerce Minister Faruk Khan said at a special coordination meeting of the ministry at its conference room on Wednesday.
The progress rate of projects implementation under Annual Development Program (ADP) in the period of July-March is 92 % which is 28 % higher than the previous fiscal.
Minister Faruk Khan expressed his satisfaction over the progress of ADP implementation and sought cooperation and sincere efforts from all to ensure its continuation.
He hoped for 'cent percent progress' of the project implementation within the current fiscal and asked concerned officials to inform ministry in advance if it appears impossible.
Seven development projects are included under the Commerce Ministry in the revised budget of 2009-2010. The projects are Strengthening Accounting Auditing Standard and Practices in the Corporate Sector, Bangladesh Trade Support Program, Quality Support Export Diversification Program, Promotion of Social Environmental and Productivity Standard in the RMG Sector, Bangladesh-China Moitree Exhibition Center, Strengthening of FBCCI Research Based Project and Support to RMG Sector in the post MFA.
Commerce Secretary Md Golam Hossain, additional secretary ATM Murtoza Reza Chowdhury, Bangladesh Tariff Commission Chairman Dr Mujibur Rahman and TCB Chairman Md Khalilur Rahman, among others, joined the meeting presided over by Commerce Minister Faruk Khan.

  Workshop to develop strategy for tiger conservation in Bangladesh

UNB, Dhaka

Tiger numbers in the wild continue to decline throughout most of their range with only around 3,500 wild tigers remaining in the whole world.
With an estimated 300-500 tigers, the Bangladesh Sundarbans has an opportunity to contribute significantly to the conservation of tigers and biodiversity that they represent.
However, to make this happen, it requires the participation of multiple stake holders to bring about awareness of tiger conservation. This was disclosed at a workshop at the conference room of Wildlife Trust of Bangladesh (WTB) on Wednesday.
WTB organized a workshop for various stakeholder groups to get feedback on an initial work to develop a strategy from the workshop that it organised in March this year.
The participants included representatives from Forest Department, Department of Environment, Ministry of Education, other related government organizations, local Sundarbans community whose lives are directly affected by tigers, national and international organisations engaged in conservation work, newspaper and electronic media who can help raise awareness about conservation of our national animal and individuals who have insight knowledge on tiger and Sundarbans.
The conservation Education and Community Outreach Workshop is designed and coordinated by WTB's Sundarbans Tiger Project with the funding support from US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Chairman of WTB Enayetullah Khan inaugurated the workshop, saying that tiger conservation has become an international issue now and WTB wants to work with its other partners to address the threats to conserve our national animal.
WTB's CEO, Prof. Mohammad Anwarul Islam also spoke, saying that such workshops are essential for developing partnerships with other organisations and for jointly working for tiger conservation.
He said that based on the outcome of this workshop, WTB will form a strategy that will work in line with the Bangladesh Tiger Action Plan (BTAP) to conserve tigers.
Earlier, WTB helped the government develop BTAP which was approved by the Ministry of Environment and Forest in January this year.

  President’s motorcade stuck up in traffic jam
UNB, Dhaka

The President's motorcade was caught up in a traffic jam near Farm Gate Wednesday afternoon while President Zillur Rahman was returning to Bangabhaban from the Air Force Headquarters.
Members of the President's Guard Regiment, SSF and Police accompanying the President jumped out of their cars and tried to clear the road while some cordoned the President's car in front of Tejgaon Police Station at about 1 pm.
Inquisitive pedestrians watched this unusual scene. After around five minutes being stuck up, the road was somehow cleared and the motorcade started for Bangabhaban at 1:05pm.
The President went to the Air Force Headquarters in Dhaka Cantonment as part of his routine schedule.
When contacted DC Traffic (West) Selim Mohammad Jahangir told UNB that there was huge traffic at that time on the road and that's why it took a little time to clear the road.
However another source said lack of coordination is responsible for it.

  Opposition chief whip gets bail in a defamation case in Magura

UNB, Magura

Opposition Chief Whip Zainul Abdin Farroque was granted bail by a court here on Wednesday in a defamation case.
The BNP leader appeared before the court of chief judicial magistrate at about 10am and prayed for bail.
Chief Judicial Magistrate Sheikh Mohammad Jalal Uddin granted him bail by undertaking Tk. 5,000.
Enamul Haque Hirok, district convener of Bangladesh Jubo League, on March 18 filed the case against the opposition chief whip as he made derogatory remarks against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's son Sajeeb Wajed Joy at a meeting in capital.

  Barapukuria coal-mine incident: One Chinese worker shifted to Dhaka

BSS, Dinajpur

A foreign worker, who received serious injuries in Barapukuria coal-mine incident, was shifted Wednesday afternoon to the United Hospital in Dhaka from Rangpur Medical College Hospital (RMCH).
The Chinese worker, Lio, 35, was shifted to Dhaka as his condition has been deteriorated in RMCH.
In the coal-mine incident of Many 12, left one worker dead and wounding 29 others critically. Of them, 18 are undergoing treatment in RMCH and 10 in local hospital.
The body of Ranjit Kumar, 46, was cremated at his Kamarpara village under Hamidpur union of Parabatipur district Wednesday afternoon. Chinese contractor of the coal-mine has announced Taka 2,00,000 as compensation for the dead worker.
However, the extraction of coal, which has been suspended since the incident, has begun Wednesday and over 700 tonnes of coal are being extracted from the mine everyday.
At present, there are over 1.57 lakh tonnes of coal in the mine as stock while about 2,000 tonnes of coal is being supplied to the coal based thermal power plant everyday.
A total of 1,100 registered local and 250 Chinese workers are working in the project.

  ECNEC approves safari park project at Modhupur
BSS, Dhaka

The government has approved a project initiated by the Ministry of Environment and Forests to establish Bangabandhu Safari Park in Gazipur aimed at protecting the historic Modhupur Shal Forests as well its the biodiversity.
Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC) Tuesday approved the Taka 64 crore project under which steps would be taken for protecting the natural habitats of many rare species of flora and fauna from encroachment.
The ministry has initiated the project with eight objectives which include conservation of forests, wild species and biodiversity, side by side promoting eco-tourism, State Minister for Environment and Forests Dr Hasan Mahmud told BSS Wednesday.
Steps would be taken for conserving rare and endangered wild species, improving biodiversity of the forest through participation of local people under the three-year project, he said.
The Modhuban Shal Forest, about 40 km north of Dhaka City, was famous for peacocks, tiger, leopard, black panther, elephant, clouded leopard and Sambar deer.
However, illegal felling of trees has caused disappearance of most of the wildlife and floras. Most of the forest has been denuded and is now occupied by land grabbers and displaced people.
Officials said 1,987 hectors of forest land of Sreepur Range of the Forest Department would be developed as a safe habitat for both herbivorous and carnivorous animals.
The project would be one of the government initiatives for conservation of forests to protect wild animals in line with the international multilateral environment agreements, they said.
For the project, they said, the government would acquire 80.97 hectors of private land. Grassland would be developed on 150 hectors of plain area while fruit bearing trees would be planted on 80 hectors of land to ensure food security of birds and animals.

Sports

Sri Lanka stay alive by knocking out India
AFP, Gros Islet, St. Lucia

Sri Lanka took a huge stride towards the World Twenty20 semi-finals with a five- wicket last ball win over India that knocked their Asian rivals out of the tournament here on Tuesday.
Chamara Kapugedera's six off the final ball saw Sri Lanka to a dramatic win after man-of-the-match Angelo Mathews and captain Kumar Sangakkara both made 46 to revive the innings after a top- order collapse.
If Australia beat hosts the West Indies in the day's second and final Group F match, also here at Beausejour, Sri Lanka will go through to the last four.
And even if the Aussies are beaten, they would have to lose by 24 runs for the West Indies to get in ahead of 2009 beaten finalists Sri Lanka.
India - who lost all their Super Eights matches - had to win by at least 20 runs to keep their own slim semi-final hopes alive.
Having made 163 for five, that meant restricting Sri Lanka to 143 or under.
But their hopes of doing just that ended when Chamara Kapugedera struck a Vinay Kumar full toss for six off the penultimate ball of the 19th over.
Kapugedara repeated the dose next ball and Sri Lanka needed 13 to win off the last over.
Mathews put them in sight by smashing the first ball of the 20th over, from left-arm quick Ashish Nehra for six.
But he was run out off the fifth ball going for a tight single by bowler Nehra's direct hit, having faced 37 balls with three sixes and two fours.
However, with three needed off the last ball, Kapugedera carved Nehra over cover for six to finish on 37 not out. Sri Lanka were rocked by the early loss of star batsmen Mahela Jayawardene and Sanath Jayasuriya.
Jayawardene's previous scores this tournament were 81, 101, 98 not out and nine. But he was out third ball when he nicked a good length delivery from Nehra and was caught at slip by Yusuf Pathan.
Veteran left-hander Jayasuriya was out for a duck when he pulled Vinay Kumar straight to Dinesh Karthik at deep midwicket.
Tillakaratne Dilshan, player of the tournament at last year's World Twenty20 in England, made 33 at better than a run-a-ball before he swung Pathan to Yuvraj Singh at deep backward square.
But Sangakkara hit back with a 33-ball innings featuring three sixes and two fours before he was bowled middle stump missing a cut shot against Kumar.
Sangakkara's exit left Sri Lanka 105 for four in the 15th over.
Kapugedera was given a reprieve on seven when, looking to guide Nehra through third man he edged behind but a diving Mahendra Singh Dhoni, India's captain and wicketkeeper, couldn't hold the one- handed chance.
Suresh Raina top scored with 63 for India on the ground where he made a century against South Africa earlier in the tournament.
India were well-placed for a big score at 90 for one at the halfway stage but Sri Lanka, led by unorthodox quick Lasith Malinga (two for 25), restricted them to just 73 runs from the second 10 overs.

  Zanetti out, as Messi leads Argentina charge
AP/UNB, Buenos Aires

World Player of the Year Lionel Messi will lead Argentina's attack at the World Cup but there is no room for veteran defender Javier Zanetti in coach Diego Maradona's provisional squad for the tournament.
The 30-man squad named Tuesday included four high-profile forwards to support Barcelona's Messi: Gonzalo Higuain, Diego Milito, Martin Palermo and Carlos Tevez. Maradona has to pick his final 23-player squad from this list.
But the big surprises were the inclusion of defenders Ariel Garce (Colon) and Juan Insaurralde (Newell's) and midfielder Sebastian Blanco (Lanus), while Zanetti, captain of Champions League finalist Inter Milan, and club teammate Esteban Cambiasso both missed the cut. Real Madrid midfielder Fernando Gago was also left out. Maradona named seven forwards, and all seven could make the final list on June 1.
Only nine players on the 30-man list have played in previous World Cups. They are: Walter Samuel, Gabriel Heinze, Nicolas Burdisso, Fabricio Coloccini, Javier Mascherano, Maxi Rodriguez, Lionel Messi, Carlos Tevez and Juan Sebastian Veron. Mara-dona appears to increasingly be relying on Argentina-based players and a less on Europe-based stars who have made up the bulk of recent World Cup squads.
World Cup winners in 1978 and 1986, Argentina plays its final warmup at home on May 24 against Canada before heading to South Africa. Argentina opens on June 12 against Nigeria and also faces Greece and South Korea in Group B.
Maradona waited until late in the day to name the team. The team's website kept promising the list but eventually posted a notice saying the website was overloaded with requests. Hundreds of journalists milled around all day waiting for the names outside the gates of the Argentine Football Association in the Buenos Aires suburb of Ezeiza.
Argentina finished fourth in South American qualifying - the last automatic qualifying spot - and won its last two matches when faced with the real possibility of being eliminated. The struggling qualifying campaign included a humiliating 6-1 loss last year in Bolivia and a 3-1 defeat at home to archrival Brazil. All this, despite the presence of Messi and many of the best players in the world.
Maradona, regarded by many as the greatest to ever play the game, has been widely criticized for his tactics and had virtually no coaching experience before taking over the national team. He named the squad a day after he was accused of forcing the previous head coach of Argentina - Alfio Basile - to resign so he could take over. Maradona denied the charges leveled by Basile's son Alfito.
Argentina squad
Goalkeepers: Sergio Romero, Mariano Andujar, Diego Pozo.
Defenders: Nicolas Otamendi, Martin Demi-chelis, Walter Samuel, Gabriel Heinze, Nicolas Burdisso, Fabricio Colo-ccini, Ariel Garce, Juan Insaurralde, Clemente Rodriguez.
Midfielders: Jonas Gutierrez, Juan Sebastian Veron, Jose Sosa, Javier Mascherano, Angel Di Maria, Javier Pastore, Sebastian Blanco, Maxi Rodriguez, Juan Mercier, Jesus Datolo, Mario Bolatti .
Forwards: Lionel Messi, Gonzalo Higuain, Carlos Tevez, Diego Milito, Sergio Aguero, Martin Palermo, Ezequiel Lavezzi.

   Federer gets off to winning start in title defence
AFP, Madrid

Roger Federer shrugged off his surprise defeat in the Estoril semi-finals last weekend and defeated Germa-ny's Benjamin Becker 6-2, 7-6 (7/4) at the Madrid Masters here on Tuesday.
Federer - the title holder here - has yet to produce a significant winning run on clay this season with his defence of the French Open title starting in less than a fortnight.
Federer spent 81 minutes in overcoming Becker, who saved two match points in the 12th game of the second set before the contest went to a tiebreak.
Federer recovered from 1-3 down in the tiebreak and sealed his place in the third round on the first of three match points as the German, ranked 46 in the world, fired wide. Last weekend Federer went down in straight sets to Alberto Montanes at Estoril in heavy, wet conditions.
But the Spaniard's celebrations lasted just a few days as he was beaten on Tuesday by Latvian Ernests Gulbis 7-5, 6-1. Also in the first round, Federer's 15th-seeded compatriot Stanislas Wawrinka beat Marcel Granollers of Spain 6-4, 6-4.
On the women's side, Australian Samantha Stosur maintained her fine run on clay by despatching the Rome champion, Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez.
Eighth-seeded Stosur prevailed 7-6 (7/2), 6-4 and will next play Swiss veteran Patty Schnyder, who upset Polish ninth seed Agnieszka Radwanska 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Stosur, a French Open semi-finalist last year, has blossomed on the clay this spring, winning Charleston and reaching the final in Stuttgart.
She has won 13 of her last 14 matches on the surface.
"I tried to feel as comfortable as I could. It's pretty cold so it's hard to get the body going and really feel yourself into the match in some ways," said the winner.
"But I felt good out there and after getting that first set, I obviously felt a lot more comfortable.
"I knew she'd been playing well - you don't win Rome without playing well. "I was expecting a tough match. We've played five times in the last five months, so we both knew what to expect.
The Australian posted her 25th victory of the season with the elimination of Martinez Sanchez, who beat Serbia's Jelena Jankovic for the Italian title at the weekend. Martinez Sanchez saved a match point to hold serve in the penultimate game before Stosur clinched the match.
Stosur has now beaten Martinez Sanchez three times in 2010, the previous two times on hardcourt at the Fed Cup and at the Indian Wells quarter-finals.
Schnyder, aged 31 and ranked 48th in the world, mounted a comeback to stun Radwanska for a 2-1 lead in their head-to-head series. The Swiss broke six times in the two-hour victory, her tenth of a modest season against eight losses.

  Argentine Hernandez heads Racing's recruitment drive
AFP, Paris

Argentinian playmaker Juan Martin Hernandez is the headline signing for Racing-Metro in the Top 14 club's recruitment drive for next season.
The Parisian outfit on Wednesday announced that Hernandez, who can play outside-half or full-back, would be joining them from South African Super 14 side the Sharks on a two-year contract with an option on another year. His signing will be particularly galling for Racing's Paris rivals Stade Francais, where the 32-time capped Hernandez spent five seasons. Other arrivals at Racing, which will increase its budget by one million euros to 17 million for the 2010-11 season, include Perpignan scrum-half Nicolas Durand and highly-rated Bayonne winger Benjamin Fall.

  Japan hopes in AFC Champions League
AFP, Singapore

Defending champions Pohang Steelers shrugged off the sacking of their coach to make the AFC Champions League quarter-finals on Wednesday, crushing Japanese hopes by beating Kashima Antlers 1-0.
They join fellow Koreans Suwon Bluewings and Seongnam Ilhwa in the last eight. While Korea stamped its authority on Asia's top club competition, it has been a tournament to forget for powerhouse Japan.
Their two-time quarter-finalists Kawasaki Frontale and tournament debutants Sanfrecce Hiroshima were eliminated in the group stage, while Gamba Osaka were sent packing on Tuesday.
Saudi outfit Al Shabab and Qatari champions Al Gharafa are also through to the quarter-finals.
Adelaide United and Korea's Jeonbuk Motors play the other east zone round of 16 game Wednesday, while Luiz Felipe Scolari's Bunyodkor face Saudi Arabia's Al Hilal in Riyadh.
In the final match, Zobahan start favourites when they host fellow Iranian club Mes.
Pohang's players were still reeling from the sacking of Brazilian coach Waldemar Lemos in the lead-up to their crunch showdown, with assistant Park Chang-Hyun taking charge.
Lemos is the younger brother of Kashima coach Oswaldo Oliveira, who has led his team to a record three successive J-League titles.
But they have never progressed past the quarter-finals of the AFC Champions League and must now wait until next year, if they qualify, for another crack.
The Steelers' Brazilian forward Mota got the decisive goal, his shot deflecting into the net off Atsuto Uchida after half an hour.
Fellyppe Gabriel squandered Kashima's best chance to level four minutes into the second half when he smashed over following a one-two with Takuya Nozawa.
The quarter-finals are played in September after a break due to the searing Gulf summer heat, with the final at Tokyo's National Stadium on November 13.

  Former stars lash pathetic India after T20 exit
AFP, New Delhi

Former Indian cricket greats lashed the current team on Wednesday after their early exit from the World Twenty20, blaming weakness against the bouncer and the poor standard of the Indian Premier League.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni's men failed to qualify for the semi-finals after a five-wicket defeat by Sri Lanka on Tuesday, their third successive loss in the Super Eights round.
India, who won the title in 2007, failed to win a Super Eights match in the last two editions despite being the world's top-ranked side in Test cricket and number two in the 50-overs game.
Both the tournaments in 2009 and 2010 were held within a week of the completion of the cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL) where some of the world's top stars feature in a gruelling six-week schedule of T20 cricket-and post-game partying.
Sourav Ganguly, India's most successful Test captain, said Dhoni's men did not deserve to make the semi-finals and blamed the IPL as one of the reasons for the team's disappointing performance. "The IPL is a domestic tournament and the standard is much lower than a world event where you are up against quality batsmen and bowlers," said Ganguly.
"You don't expect to go to World Cup semi-finals if you play cricket like the way the team has played in the Caribbean."
Ganguly said he hoped the selectors would take a hard look at the non-performers, including senior batsman Yuvraj Singh, who managed just 74 runs in five matches at an average of 18.50.
"Yuvraj has to look at his game. If he doesn't perform for long periods, the selectors will not play him just on the basis of his reputation," said Ganguly. Batting great Sunil Gavaskar said India were let down by an apparent weakness against short-pitched bowling.
"India's lack of adaptability has been a disappointment," the former opener, who was the first batsman to reach the 10,000-run mark in Test cricket, wrote in the Hindustan Times.
"What is baffling is that even though most batsmen showed a distinct sense of discomfort against the short ball during the World T20 in England last year, they were picked again for an event on even bouncier pitches in the Caribbean.

  Australia beats West Indies by 6 wickets
AFP, Gros Islet, St. Lucia

Australia knocked hosts the West Indies out of the World Twenty20 and kept alive the possibility of an Anglo-Australian final with a dominating six-wicket win here on Tuesday.
West Indies, in a match they had to win by 24 runs to reach the semi-finals were bowled out for just 105 at the Beausejour Stadium.
Australia, in reply, lost two wickets on 31.
But Brad Haddin (42) saw Australia to the verge of victory before he got out with two runs needed to West Indies captain Chris Gayle.
The occasional off-spinner then ended the match with a ball that went for five wides, a delivery that summed up his team's performance on the day. Australia, who finished on 109 for four, won with 22 balls to spare.
Their win ensured Sri Lanka, last year's losing finalists, also went through to the semi-finals as Group F runners-up.
England will play Sri Lanka, who earlier Tuesday knocked out India with a five-wicket win, in the first semi-final here on Thursday.
The second semi-final will see Australia playing defending champions Pakistan, also at Beausejour, on Friday.
The final takes place at Barbados's Kensington Oval on Sunday. Victory meant Australia remained unbeaten at the tournament and captain Michael Clarke said: "Hopefully we can come out and continue this momentum. West Indies, who saw Gayle win the toss, suffered a dramatic collapse.
From the relative safety of 52 for two, they lost their next five wickets for 25 runs as they slumped to 77 for five. Only Ramnaresh Sarwan (26) and Shivnarine Chanderpaul (24) made it past 20.
Australia leg-spinner Steven Smith, the man-of-the-match, took two wickets in two balls on his way to figures of three wickets for 20 runs as West Indies failed to sparkle under the Beausejour floodlights.
West Indies' star batsman Gayle was out second ball, clean bowled by left-arm quick Dirk Nannes, the tournament's leading wicket-taker.
Then the experienced Chanderpaul, having flicked Mitchell Johnson's second and fifth balls for four was out to the left-arm quick's sixth. The left-handed batsman launched Johnson high over the bowler's head but didn't quite time his shot and David Hussey, running back from mid-on, took a superbly judged catch.
The slump really took hold in unlucky fashion when all-rounder Dwayne Bravo (six) was run out, backing up, after Johnson touched a Sarwan drive onto the stumps at the bowler's end.
Smith then got in on the act as recalled batsman Narsingh Deonarine holed out for a duck, caught by Michael Hussey at deep midwicket.
And he followed up with two wickets in two balls.
Kieron Pollard (13) tried to work the ball legside but was beaten by the turn and wicketkeeper Haddin completed a neat stumping.
Next ball Darren Sammy, in front of his St Lucia home crowd, chipped a simple return catch back to Smith. Jerome Taylor survived the hat-trick.
Sarwan, the last of the specialist batsmen, tried to clear long-off but simply holed out off part-time spinner David Hussey to David Warner.

  Ailing Roddick withdraws from Madrid
AFP, Madrid

American Andy Roddick will head into Roland Garros with only one or two clay matches to hand after withdrawing from the Madrid Masters on Wednesday with a stomach virus.
The fifth seed was unable to take to the court against intended opening opponent Feliciano Lopez of Spain after fighting the illness for the past several days.
Roddick last played in Miami in April, winning that hardcourt event and has spent three weeks training on clay in the US.
With his health status still uncertain, the former number one is unsure when and where he will get any warm-up for the French Open, which begins a week from Sunday. "I would have taken this virus any time over the past five weeks, but unfortunately I have it now," he said. "It's disappointing since I've worked hard after Miami. We will have to see what I can do to get a match or two," said the player with one Paris exhibition match guaranteed next week.
Roddick said he was unlikely to be able to commit to the World Team Championship in Duessel-dorf, Germany where the US is entered in the eight-nation field.
"I can't say if I could commit to a Sunday start considering how I'm feeling. "I'll have to see what I can do later for some matches.
"But I went into Paris last year with only two match wins and had my best Roland Garros ever (fourth-round loss to Gael Monfils).
"I'd feel more worried about Paris if I'd not put in such good work on clay."