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Leading News
Khaleda demands immediate arrest
of Gen Moeen for killing democracy
Anti-govt movement programme will be announced from
grand rally in Dhaka on May 19, she says
UNB, Rajshahi
Amid heavy clapping and chanting of slogans, BNP
chairperson Khaleda Zia Wednesday declared that programs
of anti-government movement will be announced from the
party's May 19 Dhaka city grand rally.
The anti-government movement will be launched to save the
country and its people from "repression, misrule and
misdeeds" of the Awami League government, she said and
urged the people of all walks of life to prepare for
making the planned movement a success.
Leader of the opposition Khaleda Zia made the announcement
while addressing a grand rally at the city's Madrasha
Maidan, organized by Rajshahi city BNP as part of her
ongoing organizational tours to divisional headquarters to
mobilize public support against the government's misrule
and failure to run the country and also to implement its
election pledges.
She said there is no alternative to wage movement right
now to save the country and its people from the oppressive
rule of and to ensure the security and dignity of mothers,
fathers and sisters.
The BNP chairperson alleged that the present government
has created artificial crisis of electricity causing
untold sufferings to the people in a bid to give work of
rental power plants to its party men and family members
without tender as well as to serve the interest of its
foreign friends.
She said the government will have to incur loss of over Tk
70000 crore in three years for giving contracts of private
rental power plants and buying electricity at high price.
The people will have to bear the huge loss.
Khaleda during her over one-hour speech from 4:10 pm
touched upon the government failures in different sectors,
AL entente with the last military-backed caretaker
government, non-implementation of its election pledges,
repression on the opposition and women particularly girl
students at different educational institutions and so on.
Describing the behind-the-scene story of promulgation of
state of emergency on January 11, 2007, she asked the
government if it has no weakness for General Moeen to
immediately arrest the former army chief for killing
democracy by bringing in emergency rule.
Referring to the UN resident coordinator in Bangladesh
Renata Lok Dessallien's recent statement before leaving
the country for joining her next assignment, Khaleda said
no letter was sent from the UN.
Khaleda further said Renata also mentioned that Moeenuddin
had told a lie. She said the 'Moeenuddin-Fakhruddin'
government has caused huge loss to the country in every
sector and pushed the country 20 years back.
The BNP chairperson alleged that the ruling party
activists caused obstructions and made attack on BNP
supporters on their way to join the Rajshahi grand rally.
She said the government also imposed restriction on live
telecast by private TV channels of her today's address in
Rajshahi apparently unnerved by seeing the huge rush of
people in her previous grand rallies in Ctg and Khulna
cities.
In this regard, she mentioned the attack by the ruling
Awami League terrorists at Singa in Natore today on BNP
leaders and workers who were coming from Bogra to join the
Rajshahi grand rally.
Khaleda said Zakir Hossain, a BNP activist, was killed in
the attack and many were injured while many vehicles were
damaged and burnt by the ruling party activists.
War
crimes IO Matin quits over alleged ICS link
UNB, Dhaka
Investigation Officer for war crimes Abdul Matin resigned
Wednesday amid controversy over his student politics in
60s as Prime Minister's Advisor Dr Alauddin Ahmed alleged
that he was a member of Islami Chhatra Sangha (ICS),
student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan.
Although Matin, a retired Additional Secretary, denied the
allegation, Awami League senior leader Amir Hossain Amu MP
on Tuesday confirmed he defeated Matin as ICS candidate in
Barisal BM College Students Union elections in 1963.
On Friday (April 30), Dr Alauddin disclosed in public that
Matin was involved in ICS activities and contested the BM
College elections as ICS nominee.
Matin submitted his resignation letter to Home Secretary
Abdus Sobhan Sikder at about 12:30pm. "He (Matin) resigned
on personal ground," the Home Secretary told UNB.
Later, Matin told reporters that he resigned in the wake
of various allegations raised against him so that the
investigation is not hampered.
"However, the allegations raised against me are not true,"
he said.
Matin and six other Investigation Officers were appointed
by the government on March 25 to probe crimes against
humanity committed during the country's liberation war in
1971.
Major fault at Dhanmondi Grid substation
Huge load-shedding in central city
UNB, Dhaka
A vast area of the central part of the capital, including
the Bangladesh Secretariat, plunged into a blackout
Wednesday following a major technical fault at the
Dhanmondi Grid substation.
The whole power supply to the Cabinet Division and other
ministries at the Secretariat came to a halt at about 2:20
pm, with the situation persisting for about 20 minutes.
Official sources at the Dhaka Power Distribution Company (DPDC),
which controls the area, said they restored power supply
to the Secretariat through an emergency alternative line.
But despite that, power disruptions took place in the
Secretariat several times and continued for 5-6 minutes on
each occasion.
Apart from the Secretariat, huge areas in the central and
old parts of the city, including Motijheel, Segunbagicha,
Kakrail, Dilkusha, Bijoynagar, Paltan, Dhaks University,
National Press Club, Dhaka Club, Dhanmondi, Hazaribagh,
Lalbagh experienced massive load shedding due to the fault
at the substation.
Sources said a technical fault occurred at the Dhanmondi
Grid substation that led to a breakdown of a
circuit-breaker there. This immediately affected the Ramna
Substation which mainly controls the power supply to the
central part of the city including the Secretariat.
Power supply went off at the Secretariat and many
officials became stranded in the elevators. The
lift-technicians then rescued them through manual
operation of the lifts.
Even, the Biddyut Bhaban, which is located adjacent to the
Secretariat and houses the country's main power control
system and also the Headquarters of the DPDC, faced
blackouts brought on by the interruption in the power
supply.
A top DPDC official said that as a consequence of the
tripping of power circuit breakers at the Dhanmondi
substation, a main underground power transmission cable
from Dhanmondi to Ramna became inoperative.
"We've been trying to detect the fault at the underground
cable. But till now there is no progress," he told UNB at
about 4:45 pm.
"This may take the whole night to detect and repair the
fault," he added. He noted that the DPDC has to resort to
huge load-shedding in those areas, even at alternative
hours.
One killed, 200 injured in
attack on BNP convoy
150 buses damaged at Natore
UNB, Natore
Convoy of buses and microbuses from northern districts on
way to Rajshahi to attend the BNP grand rally came under
attack from AL and Jubo League at Singra and one person
killed, about 200 were injured and 150 buses damaged at
noon on Wednesday.
Fatally wounded Zakir Hossain, 45, joint convenor of
Garidah union BNP of Sherpur upazila of Bogra district,
died at 4pm on way to Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College
Hospital in Bogra.
All other injured persons were admitted to hospitals and
health complexes in Bogra, Singra and Nandigram. Witnesses
said several hundred Awami League and Jubo League
activists in a pre-planned way launched attack on the
convoy when it was passing through Singra.
Armed with bamboo sticks and sharp weapons the attackers
stopped the busses, pulled down the BNP activists and beat
them indiscriminately. Some 150 buses out of about 300 in
the convoy were damaged.
Angry BNP activists ransacked Sramik League office, a
number of shops and set fire on them.
Earlier at 10 am AL and Jubo league activists attacked the
convoy from Singra and Bogra and damaged about 50 buses.
Soon the convoy of buses from other districts joined them
and chased the attackers leading to the clash that
continued till 2pm.
Police rushed to the spot and managed to bring the
situation under control at 3pm.
Movement of traffic on the highway was disrupted during
the clash. Failing to entry into Singra, scores of
Rajshahi bound buses carrying BNP activists from northern
districts returned, witnesses said.
A report from Bogra said 8 of the injured were admitted to
Shahid Ziaur Rahman Medical College Hospital. They are
Nandigram upazila vice-chairman Abdur Rahim, Advocate
Iliyas Ali, Roky, Shimul, Sirajul, Biplab. Dinkal staff
reporter Kalam Azad awas admitted to private clinic.
They said about 300 buses and microbuses bound for
Rajshahi with BNP leaders and workers of Sherpur, Dhunat,
Nandigram, Sariakandi upazila returned from Singra as they
could not proceed in the face of armed attack by the
ruling party activists.
Dhunat BNP leader Akter Alam Selim said many of the
activists isolated from the convoy by the attack remained
missing.
BSF kills 24 Bangladeshi citizens in
four months
TBT Report
Indian Border Security Force (BSF) killed one more
Bangladeshi along Baradi frontier in Chuadanga Tuesday
midnight as the killing spree on Bangladesh border
continues unabated despite India's repeated pledges to
stop such killings.
With this BSF killed 24 Bangladeshi nationals in four
months and 104 in last 13 months. The number of
Bangladeshis killed by BSF during the nine years period
from January 1, 2000 to May 5, 2010 stands at 829. BSF
also injured 860 and abducted 900 Bangladeshis in the same
period.
According to UNB News Agency, a Bangladeshi cattle trader
was gunned down by BSF on Baradi frontier in Chuadanga on
Tuesday midnight. The victim was identified as Azad Mondal,
30, son of Karim Mondal, of Nastipur village in Damurhuda
upazila.
BDR sources said Azad along five other cattle traders
while returning from India with cattle BSF troops of
Bijoypur camp opened fire on them when they reached Baradi
frontier leaving Azad dead on the spot.
Commanding officer Lt Col Sultan Ahmed of 35 Rifles
battalion confirming the incident said they have sent a
letter to their BSF counterpart protesting the killing.
The killings of unarmed Bangladeshis by the BSF on the
border are continuing in clear violation of the spirit of
good neighborliness as well as international law and
despite repeated pledges by the Indian authorities to stop
it. In every meeting between BSF and BDR and also between
the higher level officials of the two countries, the
Indian side assures that killing of Bangladeshis by its
forces on the border would come to an end immediately. But
this pledge is seldom implemented.
14 BCL
activists held, four cops suspended in Barisal
City and Polytechnic Institute BCL committees
dissolved
UNB, Barisal
BCL committees of Barisal City and Polytechnic Institute
have been dissolved and two leaders expelled for factional
fight that left 11 activists injured on Tuesday.
Perturbed by photographs of hacking by sharp weapons
published in the national dailies today the government
ordered stern action against the unruly activists of the
student front of the ruling party. The terrifying images
have left a bad impact on the law and order situation.
Five of the injured were lying in hospital with deep cut
injuries.
Police went into action and arrested 14 BCL activists
involved in the clash. Four constables were suspended for
negligence of duty in taking timely action against the
feuding groups. A committee with senior police officials
headed by Maniruzzaman, deputy commissioner (south) was
also formed to probe the Tuesday's terrifying incident.
The committee is to submit report within three days.
Two rival factions of BCL led by Abdur Razzak, president
and Imran Hossain Mishu, magazine secretary of Barisal
Polytechnic BCL unit clashed with sharp with sharp weapons
on the campus on Tuesday for establishing supremacy.
Bhanu Lal Das, acting commissioner Barisal Metropolitan
Police, admitted that they received order from the higher
authority for stern action against the unruly BCL
activists.
Some 14 activists were arrested till Wednesday evening.
They are Abdur Razzak, Mizanur Rahman Talukdar, Mustafizur
Rahman, Mashruk Mollah, Saidul Islam, Imran Hossain,
Mehedi Hassan, Maksudur Rahman Taslim, Shahid, Yunus,
Sourav, Tanim of Polytechnic Institute, Abu Sayeem and
Chandra Shekhar Das of city BCL from Polytechnic hostel
and different parts of the city. Police operation
continued.
Policemen suspended are Sub-Inspector Siddikur Rahman,
Nayek Abdur Rahman, constables Sohel and Swapan. They were
on duty at the Polytechnic Institute when incident took
place.
Back Page
Arsenic disease turns into
epidemic in 5 upazila in Pirojpur
UNB, Pirojpur
Number of arsenic attacked people is increasing in five
upazila of the district after the drinking of arsenic
polluted shallow tube-well water as well as indifference
of the concerned departments.
Pirojpur Civil Surgeon office claimed they identified 70
patients who are attacked by the arsenic. Of them, 45
patients are from Nazirpur upazila, three from Pirojpur
sadar upazila, five from Nechharabad upazila, seven from
Zianagar upazila and 10 from Bhandaria upazila.
A survey reveals at least 90 percent of the villagers use
shallow tube-well water. Usually, if above 0.05 pp arsenic
is mixed with one liter of water, it is unfit for
drinking. Even the Public Health Department marked safe
and unsafe tube wells by putting on them red and green
color 10 years ago. This marking process is stopped
already.
Sources claimed 4,577 arsenic polluted tube-wells were
installed by the Public Health Department. Of them, 810
were installed in Pirojpur sadar upazila, 1370 in
Swarupkathi upazila, 99 in Kaukhali upazila, 1610 in
Bhandaria upazila, 435 in Mathbaria upazila and 253 in
Zianagar upazila.
However, a written document published by the Public Health
Department in Pirojpur did not mention any number of the
polluted tube-well mysteriously.
None of health complexes in Pirojpur is able to provide
the tablet named Rex or Dec. Doctor Jogesh Chandra Roy,
Health and Family Planning officer, said although they are
giving prescriptions to the patients, but they can not
give any medicine. The patients are buying Rex from
outside.
Arsenic-hit people may suffer from Gangrin, Cancer and
kidney or liver problem for drinking arsenic polluted
water for long.
Abdus Salam, Executive Engineer of the Public Health said
he didn't get any verbal or written document about the
arsenic affected people in Pirojpur.
If the polluted tube-wells are not sealed off or medicines
are not provided or people are not made conscious of the
arsenic water, the number will be increasing at dangerous
level.
Writ on Cantt
house
HC rejects Khaleda’s plea of no confidence
UNB, Dhaka
The High Court on Wednesday rejected the second time plea
of BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia expressing no confidence in
the designated High Court division bench for rule hearing
on the pending writ petition over her disputed Dhaka
cantonment house.
Passing the order, a HC division bench comprising Justice
M Imman Ali and Justice Obaidul Hassan held back for a
week the hearing on the rule.
Emerging from the court, Khaleda's lawyer Barrister Moudud
Ahmed informed the reporters about the court order.
Without elaborating, he said his client expressed no
confidence in this bench in the context of "special
situation" and prayed for posting the matter to the Chief
Justice for the rule hearing in another division bench.
But it was rejected, he added.
Moudud, however, said they will move the Appellate
Division against the High Court stand. On the other hand,
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told the reporters that the
plea was made in "a bid to delay the case." The petitioner
wants to continue occupation of the disputed Cantonment
lease-hold house taking advantage of the High Court stay
order, he said.
On May 27 last year, the High Court upon a writ petition
filed by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia issued a rule
asking the government to explain why the impugned May 24
house-vacating notice should not be declared illegal and
in violation of the petitioner's fundamental rights
guaranteed under the Constitution.
The High Court had also stayed operation of the notice
that asked ex-premier Khaleda Zia to makeover her
leasehold Dhaka cantonment house to the government
authorities.
Illegal
establishments in Shitalakhya, Balu, Buriganga rivers to
be evicted soon
UNB, Narayanganj
The district administration will soon start evicting the
illegal establishments set up on the banks of Shitalakhya,
Balu and Buriganga Rivers as the Supermen Court upheld the
High Court judgment.
The administration has already taken adequate preparations
to start the drive within a few days. It has primarily
identified some 44 jettis in the Shitalakhya and Buriganga,
illegally occupied by influential quarters, which would be
evicted.
The sources said innumerable business establishments
including industrial mills, godowns and houses have been
established on both the banks of Shitalkhya and Buriganga
rivers. These were established either by grabbing lands,
illegal lease or by settlement.
Apart from government establishments, there are some big
industrial units have set up their jetties to load and
unload their products. The illegal establishments were set
up by grabbing about 30-40 feet of the rivers.
Some government establishments have indirectly occupied
the lands. Some 413 acres have been occupied by the
Parjaton Corporation Jetty Merry Enderson while 2024 acres
for hatcheries of the Fisheries Development Corporation
and 413 acres for jetty of Bangladesh Navy alongside the
private encroachment.
The sources said some 50 establishments including Pubali
Salt, Mir Cement, Cemex, Dock Yard, Marine Technology,
DPDC training center, Narayanganj Food Godown (CSB), Akij
cement, Partex, Danish, Crown Cement, Shah Cement, Ali
Salt, Pal & Co, Popular Jute Mill, Bangladesh Banijjyaloy,
Mymensingh Palli, Nara-yanganj Salt, Sinha Textile Mills,
have occupied the Shitalkhya to build their jetties. When
contacted, Deputy Commissioner Shamsur Rahman said the
administration is fully prepared to execute the court
verdict. Being respectful to the law, the order will be
executed soon by starting the drive, he said.
Shamsur Rahman infor-med that some 320 illegal
establishments have been identified according to the High
court verdict. Of which 294 establishments are located in
Shitalakhya while 26 in Buraganga, which were already
marked for eviction, he said.
Petrol pump,
tank-lorry owners threaten strike from May 9
UNB, Dhaka
Petrol pump and tank lorry owners and workers Wednesday at
a representative conference urged the government to accept
their 13-point demand by May 8. Otherwise, they threatened
a strike for an indefinite period from May 9 at their
pumps and government oil depots across the country.
"We've been pursuing movement for last 14 years to realise
our 13-point demand. We've sent 16 letters to the
authorities concerned in the last 13 months. But there is
no response from the government side to resolve our
problems," said Mohammad Nazmul Haque, convenor of Petrol
Pump and Tank lorry Owners-Workers Unity Council, at the
conference attended by about 500 pump owners and tank
lorry workers. The main issues of the 13-point demand
include raising commission on the sale of petroleum from
the existing 2 percent to 7 percent, implementing a
government decision for setting up testing laboratories at
the petrol depots, issuing arms licenses to the petrol
pump owners and raising the fare of tank-lorries. There
are about 3000 petrol pumps across the country and of
those more than 300 are in capital Dhaka.
The Unity Council, comprising Bangladesh Petrol Pump
Owners Association (BPPOA) and Bangladesh Tank Lorry
Workers Federation (BTLWF), was recently formed and it has
launched a movement to press home its demands. Addressing
the conference, the leaders of the Owners-Workers Unity
Council promised to stop all kinds of operations at petrol
pumps and oil depots during the planned strike.
The organisation already enforced a half day strike on
March 14 at the petrol pumps and depots across the country
in relation to the same demands. It is now giving the
government about two months to accept their demands.
South Korea
keen to invest in RMG, shipbuilding, IT and service
sectors
UNB, Dhaka
South Korea has expressed a keen interest to invest in the
country's RMG, shipbuilding, information technology and
service sectors.
Newly appointed South Korean Ambassador to Dhaka Taiyoung
Cho revealed the interest of his country's entr-epreneurs
when he called on Industries Minister Dilip Barua on
Wednesday.
The Ambassador said that South Korea would provide
training on modern technology and technical knowledge
under the Knowledge Sharing programme of his country.
He also said that this would expedite knowledge-based
industrialization in Bangladesh. Technology transfer,
investment in the special economic zones and ways to
increase bilateral trade were other issues that featured
in the talks.
They also discussed the government's initiatives for
industrialization, and enhancing power-generation capacity
and infrastructure facilities in the country.
Industries Minister Dilip Barua welcomed the Korean
proposal for a Knowledge Sharing Programme. He said this
would assist Bangladesh to accelerate its progress towards
a mid-income country by 2021. Barua said that the present
government is emphasising industry-based economy in lieu
of trade-based economy. He described the government's
short, mid and long term initiatives to establish
Bangladesh as an industrially developed economy. The
Industries Minister said that Bangladesh is an ideal place
for South Korean investment. "To encourage the local and
foreign investors, the government is setting up special
economic zones," he said. Barua also suggested the South
Korean inve-stors utilize Bangladesh's cheaper labor force
and the facilities that are provided by the government.
The veteran politician also said that the government is
giving utmost importance to mitigating the gas and power
crises, and developing infrastructural facilities.
The South Korean diplomat informed the minister that till
date, Korean investors have set up more than 150
industries in the textile sector in Bang-ladesh, providing
jobs for more than 100,000 people. Industries secretary
Dewan Jakir Hossain was also present, among others, at the
meeting.
IGP orders to file
cases under STA
Tender manipulation, extortion
UNB, Dhaka
IGP Nur Mohammad on Wednesday ordered his force to file
cases against troublemakers, tender manipulators and
extortionists under the Speedy Trial Act.
The police chief issued the strict instruction at a
quarterly Crime Conference at Police headquarters amid
repeated acts of violence over the tender manipulation and
establishing supremacy at educational institutions.
Briefing reporters after the meeting, Nur Mohammad said
departmental actions were taken against the police
officers for their failures in tackling the situation in
their respective areas.
He said the OC of Jessore was suspended while its circle
ASP was called back to the police headquarters.
The IGP said nine leaders and activists, including
president and secretary of Barisal Polytechnic Institute
BCL unit were arrested Tuesday in connection with the
clashes between the two rivals of BCL at the institute.
Earlier, 30 to 40 were arrested in Chittagong violence, he
said adding troublemakers will be booked disregarding
their political colours.
Asked about the progress in investigation into the murder
of Sub-inspector Gautam, he said the investigation has
been proceeding right way. He, however, said a top level
investigation team has been formed to inquire into
different statements given by arrested persons in
connection with the Gautam killing.
Editorial
BCL again and again
We
are constrained to write on pro-government Bangladesh Chhatra
League (BCL) repeatedly as a section of the activists of this
organisation get involved in acts of atrocity and violence on
the campuses and elsewhere again and again. In the latest
incidents, 25 activists were injured in clashes between rival
groups of BCL in Dhaka University (DU) and Barisal Polytechnic
Institute on Tuesday. At least 10 activists of Bangladesh
Chhatra League were injured in a factional fight at Hajee
Mohammad Muhsin Hall on Tuesday. Two rival groups of BCL
clashed with sharp and lethal weapons for establishing
supremacy in the hall in the morning. On the same day rival
groups of BCL clashed with sharp weapons in Barisal
Polytechnic Institute for establishing supremacy and at least
15 activists were injured. Police Tuesday night arrested nine
persons including the president and the general secretary of
Barisal Polytechnic Institute unit of BCL for their
involvement in the clash earlier on the day.
In fact, there seems to be no end to the factional feuds and
violent activities of the unruly members of the BCL mostly
over supremacy on the campus, tender manipulation and
admission trade. Earlier, Ten students were wounded in clashes
over a trifling matter between activists of BCL of Surya Sen
Hall and Zia Hall of the Dhaka University on April 25. Before
that eight students were injured in clashes over admission
trade between two groups BCL activists in Bogra Government
Azizul Huq Degree College on on the same day. Many such
incidents took place in the country in the recent past.
BCL is a renowned student organization having records of
glorious past. But a section of its activists became unruly
since Bangladesh Awami League won the 2008 general elections.
They started to engage themselves in violence, extortion,
tender manipulation, infighting and attack on rival student
organisations at different educational institutions. All these
are going on unabated. Different circles have repeatedly urged
the AL leaders to bring the arrogant activists of BCL under
control in the interest of the party, the government and the
people. But very little or no result has been yielded.
Annoyed with the unwarranted activities of the BCL workers,
Prime Minister and Awami league President Sheikh Hasina quit
the post of ideological leader of BCL to control the unruly
members of the organization. But that too failed to improve
the situation. Now the unruly BCL activists appear to have
turned into Frankenstein to destroy both BCL and its backer
AL. They seem to be beyond the control of the ruling party and
the government and determined to carry on their activities in
a free style.
The BCL activists have already vitiated the situation on the
campuses of educational institutions and destroyed the
educational atmosphere there. Since the assumption of power by
AL in January 2009 educational institutions have been rocked
by violence involving different student groups specially those
belonging to BCL. In the violence on campus several students
have been killed and educational activities in a number of
educational institutions suspended. In most of these incidents
on the campus mainly BCL was involved. In view of this fact,
to put an end to violence on the campus the government should
take a hard line to bring the unruly BCL activists under
control. The government should take as stern measure as
necessary to check violence and end unrest on the campus.
Checking
eve-teasing
Education
Minister Nurul Islam Nahid on Tuesday stressed the need for
creating a fresh social movement against eve-teasing to ensure
a congenial atmosphere for girls in educational institutions.
If we are able to raise our voice en-masse against the
eve-teasing through introducing a social movement, the
culprits will be afraid of committing their crime and law
enforcing agencies can also play a key role in removing
eve-teasing, the minister said while exchanging views with
editors of the news outlets, cultural activists and civil
society members at his office. He said that the government has
already pledged to establish women's rights and the government
will keep its pledge by stopping eve-teasing and ensuring
women's rights. Nahid vowed that the government is going to
take strong measures to control eve-teasing and rid the
country of this social disease.
Widespread social awareness about and stern action against eve
teasing is very essential as this has become a dangerous
social disease among a section of the youths. Even a few years
ago this scourge was not so much acute as it is today. In many
cases young girls find it difficult to go to schools, colleges
or universities braving the eve-teasing by shameless and
senseless youths lying in wait on the roads. Being unable to
bear the unbearable insult and mental torture from the
street-Romeos, a number of girls committed suicide at
different places in the recent days. All these deaths are
tragic indeed.
There may be a number of reasons for the growing trend of
eve-teasing in the country, but the most important of those is
perhaps the moral degradation of the youths. Those who engage
themselves in such nefarious act, in fact violate religious
and moral values and disregard humanity. The perpetrators
should come to senses and refrain from such unwarranted
practice. Meanwhile, the people should build a socials
movement against eve-teasing to protect the girls from the
torture of the misguided people. Moreover, the government
should do everything possible to stop eve-teasing and punish
those who indulge in it.
Analysis
Defiantly ‘looking after’
And to believe that the only hope of these
being improved lies in the hands of politicians is like
thinking that by shooting yourself in the head you can get rid
of your headache.
Zafar Hilaly
The prime minister
reassures one and all, ad nauseam, that he seeks to abide by
the law and the Constitution. And then, in violation of both,
and every half-decent tradition and convention, proceeds to
shred civil service promotion laws by ignoring the criteria of
merit, length of service, fitness and aptitude. But that is
not all. When thwarted by the Supreme Court and reprimanded
for brazenly abusing his powers, he proceeds, without a blush
on his cheeks, to assure his favourites that they need not
fear the Supreme Court verdict or their resulting demotion,
because he will "look after" them. Civil servants must be
wondering why, having chosen to serve, they have been brought
to this pass.
The added pity is that the press, which should have come down
like a ton of bricks on the prime minister's brazen attempt to
transform public servants into domestic servants--by promoting
whom he wishes, when he wishes, for any reason that he
wishes--has contented itself by extending only a tepid welcome
to the Supreme Court decision "in the hope that lessons have
been learnt."
Needless to say, no lessons have been learnt as the prime
minister's immediate reaction to the judgment conveys. He
remains defiant; those promoted, and now demoted, remain in
place and those who put him up to it are equally secure. But,
then, can we expect any better from the current crop of
politicians?
That became obvious when in the 18th Amendment there was not a
word of security of tenure or constitutional safeguards for
civil servants. The politicians conjured up a whole slew of
amendments for democracy which, in essence, means the rule of
politicians, by politicians, for the benefit of politicians,
and sometimes a general, but none--zero, zilch--to protect the
public and the bureaucracy from the depredations of their
errant politician masters. Sadly, the safeguards that Z A
Bhutto so ill-advisedly dispensed with have not found their
way back into the Constitution.
Ingrained in the mindset of our legislators, regardless of the
political party to which they belong, is an animus towards
civil servants. Of course, they will pay for it in a hundred
ways, and mostly by being deceived; or prevented from knowing
the true state of affairs by civil servants not wishing to be
harbingers of bad news. Alas, it is not only the politicians
but the country that will suffer by being denied good advice
and sage counsel of experienced and honest public servants
only for fear of the consequences. Devising projects and
schemes in a manner that will please their boss rather than
benefit the public, who are their paymasters, has become the
norm for civil servants nowadays.
By promoting favourites the prime minister has politicised the
bureaucracy to an extent that is astonishing. It beggars the
imagination that not a single official in three batches of the
OMG was found fit enough to be promoted to Grade 22. In this
regard Mr Gilani has outdone almost all his predecessors,
except possibly Mr Bhutto, for whom slighting civil servants
was a favourite pastime and who got rid of a thousand of them
for no other reason than whim, fancy and a regrettable
tendency to neither forget nor forgive mostly imagined
insults.
In one celebrated case, Mr Bhutto sacked an ambassador who,
when he asked the president, which Mr Bhutto was then, why he,
the diplomat, deserved such a fate, was reminded of the
occasion when Mr Bhutto, then in the opposition, was out of
office and the ambassador had pretended not to notice him when
he had walked into the Sind Club. Another ambassador, who
heard of his dismissal on the radio while he was holding a
reception on the occasion of Pakistan Day in the country of
his posting, was informed that he had been dismissed because
his wife had been rude to Mrs Nusrat Bhutto in the past when
the two had been close friends.
Similarly, the home secretary of a province, when asked how
many people were "at that moment" under arrest for violating
restrictions imposed by the government on addressing meetings,
said that it would depend entirely on how many Mr Bhutto
wanted "at the moment" arrested. "That's why I have survived
as home secretary," he added. "I first find out what he
wants."
Mr Bhutto was not the only political leader to have acted in
such an arbitrary manner, notwithstanding his claims to be a
man of the law. Others too have indulged their whims and
fancies, but few in such a brazen manner and to the extent
that Mr Gilani did.
The result is that the bureaucracy is now, for all intents and
purposes, politicised. And this trend is likely to increase as
political governments come and go. One saw this happening when
the PML-N government came into office in Punjab and there was
a wholesale change of officers manning sensitive posts. Mr
Shahbaz Sharif's likes and dislikes apparently extend way down
the seniority ladder. As for his brother, his favourites are
well known and notorious yea-sayers.
The time has surely come when either the political governments
restore to the civil service constitutional safeguards and
leave the subject of postings and transfers, including
promotions, in the hands of senior civil servants--according
to established procedures, with the right of appeal, as at
present, to the courts and the Federal and Provincial Service
Tribunals--or introduce a version of the American system where
all civil-service jobs above the rank of joint secretaries
(Grade 19) are political appointments.
True, the mayhem the latter scheme would create would be a
spectacle to behold, as wives and sons grab top jobs, but at
least it would ensure that the current homage paid by vice to
virtue, as hypocrisy was once defined, is ended, and the
politicians finally get off the back of the bureaucracy.
Lest what is written appears as a sustained diatribe against
politicians, it needs to be said that bureaucrats have to
share the blame for the current perception of the civil
services as a lot of incompetents who could not, with any
marked success, run a paan shop and who ponder when in charge,
delegate when in trouble, mumble when in doubt and rob when
they can, which is most of the time.
That said, a bureaucracy reflects the mores, work ethic and
educational standards of society and, frankly, ours have never
been as deplorable as they appear today. And to believe that
the only hope of these being improved lies in the hands of
politicians is like thinking that by shooting yourself in the
head you can get rid of your headache.
The writer is a former ambassador
of Pakistan. Email: charles123it@hotmail.com
Understanding
the Cybersecurity Threat
During
the Cold War nuclear deterrence was able to keep the US
and the Soviet ambitions in check. Based on that logic
cyber deterrence should play a clear role in the
information age.
Ikram Sehgal
Confidential
information has been increasingly compromised by
electronic attacks around the world. Many websites, both
official and private, have been virtually crippled,
exposing the vulnerability of financial data. A few years
ago criminals hacked into the private data of members of
the World Economic Forum (WEF), besides their vital
personal information becoming public property, attempts
were made to siphon off money from their bank accounts
through credit card. There is both economic and military
espionage, and cyber warfare as well. Criminals or
terrorists could use cyberspace to paralyse communications
infrastructure, international financial systems or
critical govt services.
Nations have established rules of the game on land, sea,
air and outer space, there are no such rules in the fifth
common domain, cyberspace. International response has four
diplomatic options, prevention, detection, rapid response
and mitigation. EastWest Institute (EWI), one of the
leading US think tanks, in keeping with what really should
be its motto, "making change happen", launched a major
initiative to map the dangers and define/coalesce the
areas of cooperation. Hosted by EWI Co-Chairman designate
Ross Perot Jr, alongwith a host of sponsors like AT & T,
Dell Services, Huawei Corporation, etc, the stated goals
of the World's First Cyberspace Summit in Dallas, which
headquarters some of the world's leading IT companies,
from May 3 to 5, 2010, were to, viz (1) to launch an
international awareness campaign by govts, businesses and
individuals about the growing threats to economic
stability and security (2) to identify the problems with
particular emphasis on those that pose a common threat and
(3) to facilitate joint action and new agreements through
intensive working group interaction in the critical
sectors of finance, energy, telecoms and essential govt
services.
The challenges are, viz (1) there are many malicious
actors (2) with many motives (3) who have similar
techniques, (4) with consequences hard to predict (5)
having shared integrated domain, but (6) the worst case
scenarios are alarming. Even a "cyber layman" like myself
in the realm of cybersecurity could sense the acute
anxiety among the 450 or so dignitaries and experts at the
Summit, which could eventually come to be known as "the
Dallas Process". Even though Gen (Retd) James Jones,
National Security Advisor to the US President, could not
make his schedule because of national security reasons,
speakers included James Quigley, CEO Deloitte, Touche
Tohmatsu, Canadian Deputy Minister for Public Safety
William V. Baker, Scott Charney of Microsoft, Byeong Gi
Lee, President IEEE Communications, Special Assistant to
the US President and Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard
Schmidt, Lui Zhengrong, DG Internet Media Research and DG
Internet Affairs Bureau, China, Randall Stephenson, CEO AT
& T, Raghu Raman, CEO, National Intelligence Grid, India,
Dr. Kamlesh Bajaj, CEO, Data Security Council, India and
US Congressman Michael McCaul, who co-chairs the
"Cyberspace Caucus".
During an earlier consultation organized by the EWI on
cybersecurity in Brussels in February last, EWI Vice
Chairman Armen Sarkissian, Chairman Eurasia House
International and former PM of Armenia, laid down the
following aims, viz (1) articulate new goals for worldwide
cybersecurity and the steps needed to achieve them (2) to
stimulate progressive improvement in the way global
cybersecurity is reviewed, managed, and implemented and
(3) bring together leading policy makers, specialists,
business executives, community leaders and journalists
from around the world for a debate on defining and
understanding international cybersecurity approaches,
concerns and solutions.
A star-studded panel comprising Michael Dell of Dell
Computers, Udo Helmbrecht Executive Director European
Network and Information Agency (ENISA), Philip Reitinger
of the Department of Homeland Security and Teri Takai,
Technology Advisor to the Governor of California,
concluded that while not working well on the tactical
level worldwide cybersecurity cooperation was practically
non-existent at the strategic level. As one delegate put
it, "We are quickly running out of time". Breakthrough
groups headed by senior executives from AT & T, Cisco,
PayPal, Deloitte and American Airlines targetted workable
solutions, prioritizing ICT, Finance, Essential Govt
Services, National Security, Media, Transportation and
Energy.
Melissa Hathaway, formerly of the US National Security
Council, said, "The groundwork for international
cooperation will have to be laid and more top-down methods
may be urgently needed by unhindered public-public,
private-private and public-private cooperation". EWI's
John Mroz President EWI added that "Cyberspace today is
like the Wild West. It does not enjoy the international
community's setting of basic agreements, rules and
procedures. The best weapon against the online thieves,
spies and vandals who threaten global business and
national security will be international regulation of
cyberspace. People have to realize the Internet is an
integral part of every country, politically, socially and
business-wise. Not to focus on cybersecurity is playing
with fire".
Some of the key problems policy makers are facing today in
cyberspace, including putting national security against
the privacy of individuals, are viz (1) a clear lack of a
commonly agreed definition of what cybersecurity means (2)
Breakthrough solutions will require the effective
integration of technical, business, legal, defense and
international policy competencies on a level that has not
happened so far (3) Current diplomatic assets assigned to
the problem are inadequate to the task and reflect a lack
of political commitment at high levels (4) The commercial
drivers for building security into network equipment,
networks and services are not adequate, the result of a
lack of consumer awareness of the risk exposure they face
and a lack of leadership and commitment from those in
control (5) States have the right to organize offensive
and defensive assets for information operations of a
strategic character to affect the strategic intentions of
other States but international law does not adequately
regulate these assets. A clear definition what "cyber
peace" means is needed (6) Three levels of information
Warfare need to be regulated - political, military
strategic and military tactical and (7) Nations are
thinking too parochially about their online security to
collaborate on crafting global cyber regulations.
To quote conceivably the world's foremost expert in
cyberspace security, Lt Gen (USAF Retd) Harry D Raduege,
Jr, "As our (US) nation grows more dependant on
information networks, cyberspace has also become a
battlefield where adversaries are launching cyber attacks
of increasing sophistication. The world has dealt with the
threat of weapons of mass destruction - commonly referred
to WMD - in the past. However in the world of cyberspace,
we are now confronted with a new WMD. If we do not prepare
now, we could one day face a cyber attack that could
cripple our govt, our economy and our security".
An incisive comment from China's Tang Lan and Zhan Zui,
"information technology and the Internet have become
comparable to nuclear forces. During the Cold War nuclear
deterrence was able to keep the US and the Soviet
ambitions in check. Based on that logic cyber deterrence
should play a clear role in the information age. But the
anonymity, the global reach, the scattered mature, and the
interconnections of global works greatly reduce the
efficiency of nuclear deterrence and can even render it
completely useless. The spread of information technology
and Internet also produces an increasing number of
vulnerabilities and weaknesses that can be easily
exploited".
With experts in the US, China, indeed from all over the
world, feeling so concerned about vulnerability of the
State and its citizens, what are we in Pakistan doing to
forestall such a potentially devastating threat?
Ikram Sehgal is an internationally renowned columnist
and the Editor of the Pakistan Defence Journal
Viewpoints
The agony of the Earth
The horrors
of Hiroshima now may seem insignificant when compared to the
havoc wrought by thermonuclear weapons. The nuclear stocks are
said to be more than sufficient to destroy the Earth, yet
there are about 50 more countries that are still desperate for
them.
Elf Habib
The
Earth Day comes as a bleak reminder that the planet that
served as the bastion and cradle of life and civilisation is
now faced with a severe degradation of its air, soil, water,
minerals and the bounty of other essential resources. The
ordeal threatens not only the quality and continuation of
human life but also the very survival of the Earth. This is
because the Earth took about 4.5 billion years to attain the
conditions and the nutrients required for the evolution and
development of life on it. Preceding this, it endured ravaging
fires, merciless meteorite showers, strikes and tempests;
countless snow ages and glaciation periods covered it even
after it became habitable. Yet the exponentially multiplying
human population and its rapidly changing lifestyle and
activities in the centuries following the industrial
revolution have ravaged and ruined its resources and
exacerbated the fears for its vital ecological balance and
nourishing atmosphere morphing into a hostile matrix like Mars
or Venus.
This began with the excessive felling of the forests to meet
the growing needs for food, energy and shelter. The resulting
deforestation and the vanishing wildlife began to disrupt the
ecological balance of the pristine balmy days. Large scale
industrial manufacturing consumed excessive amounts of wood,
coal and kindred fuels releasing smoke, soot and a progeny of
pollutants and deleterious carbon, sulphur and nitrogenous
gases. These gases poisoned the atmosphere and mixed with
water to form acid rain, which in turn leached nutrients from
the soil, increased acidity of the water resources inhibiting
the nutrition, life and growth of the species found in them.
The vagaries of air pollution were first witnessed in the
killer fogs that engulfed Donora in 1938, London in 1952 and
1956, and caused thousands of extra deaths. We in Lahore
together with some other Asian industrial cities are now
similarly blighted by increasing frequency and duration of
unprecedented fogs.
Some staggering aspects of water contamination similarly
surfaced as the community around the Minamata Bay in Japan was
found to be suffering from symptoms of mercury poisoning. Its
source was traced to the nearby manufacturing units. Fishing
in the bay was banned for over 40 years as about 400 tonnes of
mercury was lodged at its bottom. The subcontinent has also
suffered a large share of such environmental disasters. On
December 4, over 20,000 people were killed by a disaster
caused by the leakage of a chemical not properly stored at a
pesticide factory in Bhopal.
Water in several parts of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal is
contaminated with high arsenic levels, which can generate
severe gastro disorders and even disrupt the vital hormone
functions. Fertilisers, fungicides, herbicides, rodenticides,
molluscicides and other agrochemicals also leave several nasty
chemicals during various stages of their production, storage
and application, which meander through the soil, water and
food chains. The Silent Spring by Rachel Carson described the
build-up of DDT in food chains and living tissues and led to
the restrictions on this chemical in various countries. The
course of several other similar chemicals, however, has not
been so vigorously pursued. Even the drugs designed to heal
various diseases drain many pollutants from their production
and formulation facilities. So does almost every industry
ranging from textiles, tanning, paper, board, plastic,
polymers sugar, steel, metals, alloys and electroplating to
dyes, explosives and weapons. Experts have identified about
300 chemicals likely to be found in water. Yet, despite this
growing threat to the quality of water, its very resources on
Earth have been consistently receding. Pakistan, for instance,
like the current average global deficit, cannot meet about a
quarter of its water needs.
Global warming and ozone depletion in the upper atmosphere are
even more serious threats to the quality and continuation of
life on Earth. A slight imperceptible warming caused by a
concoction of industrial gases has induced accelerated melting
of mountain icecaps, glaciers and ice sheets in the polar
regions and has been raising the sea levels. The phenomenon
has been gradually altering the climate, vegetation and wild
life in the Arctic. Some familiar ocean currents and streams
that shaped the climate, weather, flora, fauna and life
activities in various regions are bound to be affected. The
incidents of lake busting and flash floods in the Himalayas
and other ranges have become more frequent. The passage of a
tributary to Tarbela has recently got blocked to worsen the
already crippling power crisis. The surging seas are to
swallow several coastal areas in countries like Bangladesh,
the Netherlands, Florida and the Maldives and spread new
diseases, disabilities, despondency and disparities.
Far greater devastation, however, is feared by the struggle
and scramble for nuclear, chemical, biological, laser and
proton beams, gravity waves, gladiator robots and myriad other
mind boggling forms of weapons. The horrors of Hiroshima now
may seem insignificant when compared to the havoc wrought by
thermonuclear weapons, which are several thousand times more
destructive. The nuclear stocks are said to be more than
sufficient to destroy the Earth, yet there are about 50 more
countries that are still desperate for them. Even if an
earth-shattering Armageddon could be averted forever, nuclear
and industrial waste or accidents and nuclear implosions would
be poisoning larger parts of the planet. Chernobyl is a stark
reminder of the hazards haunting the purely civilian energy
generating nuclear facilities. Similarly, sites and fields
where nuclear, bio or chemical weapons were once tested had to
be abandoned for the foreseeable future. Unauthorised and
covert waste dumping into various sites in the developing
world is fuelling new feuds and tensions. Johann Hari, an
eminent columnist of he The Independent, recently revealed how
dumping to a large extent was linked to the piracy acts in the
Somali regions. Even the high seas are being turned into vast
dumps of debris with flotsam of plastic and other wastes
ceaselessly spreading in size. Satellite scrap is similarly
getting scattered in space. Recklessly throwaway humanity may
eventually be choked under mammoth mountains of its own
litter.
Avoiding this ominous fate would require an entire
reorientation of the human attitude and endeavours to revamp
the Earth's health and replenish its resources. It would
essentially involve a three-fold strategy to search and
implement innovative green technologies aimed at minimum
energy input with minimum waste and harmful products, maximum
conservation, and maximum efforts to defuse global tensions
and curb the arms race for destructive arsenals.
The writer is an academic and freelance columnist and can
be reached at habibpbu@yahoo.com
Confronting
the aggressor
In the case of
aggression, the primary victims are the innocent people
killed in a war that violates the UN Charter.
Noah Weisbord
Making
war, traditionally a prerogative of presidents and
princes, may soon become an international crime.
The states that have signed on to the International
Criminal Court are on the cusp of adding "aggression" to
that list of crimes that it is empowered to prosecute,
alongside genocide, crimes against humanity and war
crimes. It would be a game-changer in international
diplomacy, but it carries great risk along with its
promise.
The idea of prosecuting a country's leader for ordering a
war that violates the United Nations Charter is appealing,
until you imagine your own leader in the dock for a war
that your countrymen all accepted as self-defense or
humanitarian intervention. Just as one nation's terrorist
is another nation's freedom fighter, one state's just war
is bound to be another state's unjust war.
Nonetheless, after a decade of negotiations, and against
all expectations, the Assembly of States Parties to the
ICC has produced a draft. When asked, many diplomatic
delegations explain the draft as the natural culmination
of the legacy of the Nuremberg Trials, where Hermann
Göring and other top Nazis were prosecuted by an
international tribunal for planning, preparing, initiating
and waging aggressive war against their neighbours.
The Nuremberg tribunal found Göring and 11 others guilty
of what was then known as the "crime against peace,"
famously declaring: "To initiate a war of aggression,
therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the
supreme international crime differing only from other war
crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated
evil of the whole."
Unfortunately, plans by the newly formed United Nations to
create an international criminal court with jurisdiction
over aggression were sidelined during the Cold War because
the United States and Soviet Union couldn't agree on an
enforceable definition. Now that the Cold War is over, is
the Nuremberg precedent still relevant?
The acts that amount to aggression in the ICC definition
are familiar to any student of World War II: invasion,
bombardment, blockade, attacking the armed forces of
another state, contravening an agreement to station forces
in another state, allowing one's territory to be used by
another state to attack a third state, and the sending of
armed bands. Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait in 1990
is a textbook act ?of aggression.
To be on the safe side, the drafters have deliberately
defined aggression more narrowly than does customary
international law. Under the ICC definition, an
enforceable crime of aggression would only capture the
most egregious violations of the UN Charter, leaving out -
to the consternation of many pacifists - leaders
implicated in "grey-area" interventions. One example that
many of the drafters had in mind was the NATO intervention
to prevent ethnic cleansing by Slobodan Milosevic's forces
in Kosovo.
Still, sceptics abound. In a recent speech to the American
Society of International Law, Harold Koh, the Yale Law
School dean who is currently legal adviser to the U.S.
State Department, said, "if you think of the
[International Criminal] Court as a wobbly bicycle that is
finally starting to move forward, is this frankly more
weight than the bicycle can bear?" Koh's concern is that
adopting a definition of something as subjective as
aggression could politicise and weaken the young
institution.
Michael Glennon, professor of international law at the
Fletcher School at Tufts University, recently warned that
implementing the definition will "bollix an international
equilibrium that already is precarious enough." His
concern, which I share in part, is that criminal
prosecution of aggression could serve to increase
political tensions, harden positions and undermine
alternative avenues to ending conflicts, such as
negotiated solutions. The drafters respond that there can
be no sustainable peace while leaders such as Sudanese
President Omar al-Bashir commit crimes against their own
and neighbouring populations with impunity. They point to
peaceful transitions in Serbia and Liberia following the
arrest of Slobodan Milosevic and Charles Taylor for other
international crimes. The lesson they draw is that bullies
should be politically isolated, arrested and held to
account - not appeased.
The drafters reject as a false distinction Koh's position
that aggression is fundamentally different from the three
currently enforceable ICC crimes - genocide, crimes
against humanity and war crimes - because aggression is
based on acts committed by a state while the others are
crimes directed against particular individuals.
All four international crimes are collective acts of
violence, they reply, attributable to political or
military leaders against vulnerable individuals. In the
case of aggression, the primary victims are the innocent
people killed in a war that violates the UN Charter.
My hope, along with the drafters, is that individual
criminal responsibility for the illegal use of armed force
will make international law more credible and will
supplant the existing system of collective guilt, whereby
populations are sanctioned for the decisions of their
delinquent leaders. It was the Iraqi population, not
Saddam's inner circle, who really suffered under UN
sanctions after Saddam illegally invaded Kuwait.
Criminal accountability will not end war, but it may
change the broader rules of domestic and international
politics so that war is no longer such a tempting option.
Had aggression been a prosecutable crime in 2003, Prime
Minister Tony Blair - who relied heavily on the legal
advice of his attorney general - may have never brought
his country to war in Iraq without a Security Council
resolution authorising him to do so.
Along with the sceptics, however, I'm wary of victor's
justice. It is one thing to prosecute a defeated warlord
and quite another to arrest the victorious leader of a
powerful and modern state. But even victors are liable to
prosecution - witness Milosevic and Taylor. The drafters'
challenge is to temper justice with prudence when they
meet in Kampala in June to activate the crime. A
reasonable compromise, in my opinion, is to limit ICC
jurisdiction over aggression to states that sign on to the
new prohibition, thereby creating a regime of states
committed to the prosecution and enforcement of the crime.
What would be lost, at least in the short-term, is the
notion of perfect justice universally applicable to
political and military leaders worldwide. But what is
gained is an incremental shift toward the rule of law in
international affairs that may, over time, become the
norm.
Noah Weisbord is a visiting assistant professor at Duke
Law School and an independent expert on the working group
charged by the ICC's Assembly of States Parties with
drafting the crime of aggression.
‘The Ghost’ at British election
Erasing Iraq mocks Tony Blair's frantic insistence that he
has nothing to apologize for over the Iraq war. Yet if
Blair is haunted by Iraq, he in turn haunts British
people.
Neil Berry
If
Blair is haunted by Iraq, he in turn haunts his fellow
countrymen Tony Blair has played only a peripheral part in
the 2010 British General Election campaign. Nevertheless,
Britain's ex-prime minister remains much on British
people's minds. Many have been to see Roman Polanski's
latest film, "The Ghost," which portrays a Blair-like
leader who, after committing Britain to a calamitous
US-led war, ends up in exile from his own land, reviled as
a war criminal wherever he goes. Like the novel by Robert
Harris from which it derives, the film affords Blair's
detractors the opportunity to gloat over the embattled
predicament of his fictional alter ego played by Pierce
Brosnan.
It is part of the strange fascination of Tony Blair's
career that from its outset, image and reality have been
practically indistinguishable. The "New Labour" Party
whose telegenic US-style leader Blair became introduced
Britain to the phenomenon of 'spin', bringing a new level
of sophistication and efficiency to the management of
public perceptions. The Blair story was in many ways
"Blair: The movie" even before it inspired a film by a
director who has specialized in depicting the world as a
sinister place where nothing is what it seems. In the last
week of April, as it happened, Blair was involved in an
incident in Kuala Lumpur that could just as well have
befallen his persona in "The Ghost." Due to give a lecture
there, the former prime minister was forced to dodge not
just baying protesters but a legal deputation who
attempted to serve him with an indictment for war crimes.
What is extraordinary is that in Britain more people have
probably seen Polanski's film than have learned of Blair's
contretemps in Malaysia.
The episode went unnoticed during a pre-election week when
the media fell ravenously on an unguarded outburst by his
hapless successor, Prime Minister Gordon Brown, that a
woman he met while campaigning was a "bigot." Much has
been said about the reluctance of British people to hear
about the vast national debt that their country has
accrued (and which the military undertakings instigated by
Blair have greatly compounded). Yet allergic to harsh
realities though the British may be, there is far more
public concern about what have been called "Blair's Wars"
than has found expression in the election campaign. Part
of the power of "The Ghost" resides in its chilling
evocation of a US intelligence operation whose ruthless
objective is to rob British people, and not least the
"ghost" hired to write the former British premier's
cosmeticized memoirs, of a voice. Wholly at odd with the
worldview of Blair and his Washington masters, the radical
British imprint PlutoPress has published a timely book
that appallingly illuminates the havoc precipitated by the
US and Britain in Iraq. In Erasing Iraq: The Human Costs
of Carnage, three Australian humanitarians, Michael
Otterman, a freelance journalist, Richard Hill, a
specialist in peace and conflict studies, and Paul Wilson,
a professor of criminology, detail the suffering visited
on Iraqi people as a result of the 2003 war and of the
protracted US-British sanctions that preceded it. Drawing
on the testimony of Iraqi bloggers, they convey a
heart-rending sense of a country first on the brink of
war, then under assault and finally in ruins. Exposing the
hollowness of claims that Iraqis are now free from the
violence and insecurity engendered by the US-British
invasion, the book makes the case for charging Blair and
former US President George W. Bush with war crimes seem
overwhelming. The authors of Erasing Iraq pay tribute to
the resilience of Iraqi people but their book raises the
question whether there will ever again be stability in a
society where on authoritative estimates there have been
more than a million civilian deaths.
In an emotional foreward to their book, the journalist
Dahr Jamail points out that an occupation that has cost
over $800 billion has led not just to loss of life on a
barely imaginable scale but to 2.2 million internally
displaced Iraqis and 2.7 million refugees. Meanwhile, he
reports, over $13 billion has been misplaced by the Iraqi
government at a time when $400 billion is required to
repair the wrecked infrastructure of a country in which
unemployment vacillates between 25 and 70 percent. Jamail
adds that in Baghdad - a city where car bombings remain
commonplace and disease is rife - normal life does not
exist. Otterman, Hill and Wilson write with passionate
outrage about the "Sociocide of Iraq" - the total
onslaught on the lives of its people, culture and very
identity that the country has endured thanks to the
actions of its Western occupiers. For the devastation
inflicted on Iraq has not been confined to human
slaughter. It encompasses in addition the wholesale
destruction of Iraq's cultural property, its museums,
archaeological sites and ancient libraries. The authors
quote Saad Eskander, Director General of the National
Library and Archives of Iraq, as saying that what has been
lost formed Iraq's historical memory and cannot be
compensated. It is also the case that the losses in
question are losses for all mankind and that the
self-styled beacons of civilization, the United States and
Britain, bear the blame for them.
Erasing Iraq mocks Tony Blair's frantic insistence that he
has nothing to apologize for over the Iraq war. Yet if
Blair is haunted by Iraq, he in turn haunts British
people. Despite the Chilcot inquiry into the war, neither
Blair nor his fellow countrymen have begun to make a moral
reckoning with the contribution they have made to smashing
Iraq to pieces. The hysterical contempt of many Britons
for Blair is bound up with feelings of national guilt that
in him Britain chose a leader who personified the
country's failure to come to terms with its diminished
status and embroiled it in a profoundly discreditable
attempt to relive its imperial past. What makes Roman
Polanski's film so compelling is that it is full of
ghosts, one of them the ghost of vanished British power.
International
Kayani assures
cooperation in Benazir murder case
Dawn Online, Islamabad
Pakistan Army Chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani during a
meeting with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani assured him
that the Pakistan Army will fully cooperate in the
investigation into the assassination of former Prime
Minister Benazir Bhutto. He added the government will be
able to call upon the services of the intelligence
agencies as well.
According to government sources, this is the first time
that on the behalf of the army, Kayani has assured the
government of the cooperation.
The meeting at the Prime Minister's House also discussed
issues such as the welfare, the war on terror, the
security situation and other army related matters.
Gilani on the occasion said that despite limited sources
the government will do everything to further improve the
army services.
Improving ties in
India and Pak’s own interest: China
ANI, Islamabad
Noting that India and Pakistan are the two major countries
in the subcontinent and play an important role in
international affairs, China has clarified that improving
ties between the two countries is in their own and the
region's interest.
During an interview, China's Deputy Chief of Mission in
Islamabad Huang Xilian said the resumption of talks
between India and Pakistan is important for both countries
and added that Beijing would also like the talks to
restart soon.
Describing Pakistan as his country's close friend, Xilian
said Beijing has been assisting Islamabad in over 120
development projects and would continue to help that
troubled nation.
He said China was also ready to provide financial support
to Pakistan for establishing hydel power projects in order
to help it overcome the massive energy crisis facing the
country.
"We have to strengthen and substantiate our cooperation to
further strengthen our relations. We have been working
closely with the Pakistan government in this regard to
ensure peace and security in the region," The Daily Times
quoted Xilian, as saying.
He said China is also providing necessary assistance to
Pakistan in its fight against terrorism and extremism.
Pakistan doubts Taliban
Times Square claim
AP, Islamabad
Pakistan's army does not believe the Pakistani Taliban
were behind the Times Square bomb attempt as the insurgent
group has claimed, a spokesman said Wednesday.
In a video message on Sunday, the group said it carried
out the attack, in what would be the first time it had
been known to strike outside South Asia. US officials
quickly dismissed the claim, but the arrest of a
Pakistan-American who allegedly has admitted to being
trained in the group's heartland in Waziristan has given
it new credence.
Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, the military's chief spokesman,
said the claim should be "taken with a pinch of salt."
"Anybody can claim anything, but whether the organization
has that kind of reach is questionable. I don't think they
have the capacity to reach the next level," he said.
The attack is likely to increase pressure on the Pakistani
army to launch a new offensive in the northern part of
Waziristan, something it has been avoiding until now. US
and European officials have long said that many of the
terror plots in the West are hatched in the region.
Abbas declined to comment on reports that the suspect,
Faisal Shahzad, had been to Waziristan for training.
The army had claimed to have delivered the Pakistani
Taliban a decisive blow in an operation late last year in
South Waziristan. But the notion that the Pakistani
Taliban are on the ropes has been shaken by the emergence
of videos of a top commander previously believed to have
been killed, and the group's claims of responsibility for
the Times Square bomb attempt.
Taliban suicide squad targets Afghan
govt compound
AP, Kabul
Taliban suicide bombers disguised in police uniforms tried
to infiltrate a government compound Wednesday in
southwestern Afghanistan, sparking gunbattles that killed
a provincial council member, two police officers and a
civilian, authorities said.
The nine attackers also died - eight blew themselves up
and police fatally shot the ninth, according to President
Hamid Karzai's office. Police said earlier that they shot
most of the bombers before they could detonate the
explosives.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which
came as the provincial council was meeting in Zaranj, the
capital of Nimroz province. The militant group said the
council was trying to turn Afghans against the militants.
Taliban insurgents have launched a number of coordinated
suicide attacks on government sites across the country.
Some insurgents fled into Nimroz province earlier this
year when international and Afghan troops conducted an
offensive to rout the Taliban from neighboring Helmand
province.
Nimroz is also a major trafficking route for Afghanistan's
huge opium trade.
In Wednesday's hourlong attack, nine suicide bombers
wearing Afghan National Police uniforms tried to get into
the provincial governor's compound, where the Nimroz
council was meeting, said provincial police chief Gen.
Abdul Jabar Pardeli. But police became suspicious and
fired on them, Pardeli said.
A female provincial council member was among the dead,
according to provincial Gov. Gulam Dastagar Azad. In
addition to the two policemen who were killed, 10 were
wounded.
Sadeq Chakhansori, a member of the Afghan parliament who
was in Nimroz for a meeting, identified the dead council
member as Gul Maki Wakhali, saying she was killed by
crossfire.
North Korea’s Kim in Beijing seeking
support
Reuters, Beijing
North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il reached the Chinese
capital under a veil of secrecy on Wednesday, South Korean
media said, ahead of talks likely to focus on propping up
the North's shaky economy.
China, the North's main benefactor, is also likely to
press Kim to return to nuclear disarmament talks that he
abandoned last year.
Kim's last visit to China in 2006 brought effusive
promises of economic cooperation between the two
neighbors, and vows from the North Korean leader to seek
progress toward "denuclearization." But both goals have
sputtered.
"China continues to confront major policy dilemmas in
relations with the North," Jonathan Pollack, an expert on
the North Korean nuclear dispute at the U.S. Naval War
College on Rhode Island, wrote in a recent study.
"Beijing remains Pyongyang's primary point of diplomatic
contact and leading provider of economic assistance, but
this has not elicited the results that China anticipated."
Neither China nor North Korea has confirmed Kim is
visiting, and there were no definitive sightings in the
Chinese capital.
But the green armored train he usually travels in reached
Beijing, and an accompanying motorcade entered the walled
Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in the city's west. South
Korea's Yonhap news agency said Kim was in one of the
cars.
Beijing's main Chang'an Avenue was lined with soldiers and
lanes heading east toward Tiananmen Square were sealed in
the late afternoon while a motorcade escorted by a phalanx
of police cars whizzed past, apparently taking Kim to a
reception at the Great Hall of the People next to the
square.
Sri Lanka’s ex-army chief
barred from parliament
DPA, Colombo
The former army commander who was elected to parliament
while in military custody on charges of conspiracy went on
hunger strike after he was barred from attending sessions,
his wife said Wednesday.
The refusal to allow General Sarath Fonseka to attend the
sittings sparked uproar in parliament between government
and opposition members.
'He has not had his breakfast or his lunch today in
protest against not allowing him to go to parliament,'
Anoma Fonseka told DPA.
The military said he had to face court martial proceedings
Wednesday and could not attend parliament.
But Fonseka's Democratic National Alliance (DNA) said it
was a violation of his right to attend.
The DNA, backed by the main opposition United National
Party, attempted to push a parliamentary ruling allowing
Fonseka to attend, but Deputy Speaker Priyankara Jayaratna
refused to accept the motion.
DNA member of parliament Anura Kumara Dissanayaka said it
was unfair to arrange court martial proceedings on days
parliamentary sittings had been fixed.
Thais cast politics aside, honor
their ailing king
AP, Bangkok
Thais put aside their political animosity Wednesday to
honor the country's ailing monarch on the 60th anniversary
of his coronation, and his rare public appearance inspired
thousands lining the streets to chant "Long Live the
King!"
The highly revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej emerged in a
wheelchair from a Bangkok hospital to preside over the
ceremonies. The 82-year-old king, the world's longest
reigning monarch, has been hospitalized for the past nine
months with what the palace initially described as a lung
inflammation.
The monarch made no comment on the paralyzing stalemate
pitting Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's government
against protesters who have occupied parts of Bangkok and
built barricades over the past eight weeks to demand his
resignation. Clashes with soldiers and other violence have
killed 27 people and injured nearly 1,000.
Many Thais had hoped that the king, who ascended the
throne in 1946 but was officially crowned on May 5, 1950,
might broker a peaceful solution to the crisis, as he did
in 1973 when he stopped bloodshed during a student
uprising and again in 1992 during antimilitary street
protests.
The king has not publicly discussed the crisis. Still,
Abhisit and the anti-government Red Shirt protesters have
edged closer to a compromise in the past few days.
Lining the streets from his hospital to the Grand Palace,
crowds of Thais waved royal flags and many wore yellow -
the color symbolizing respect for the king. Shouts of
"Long Live the King!" surrounded his motorcade as he
headed to the palace. Inside the Throne Hall, orange-robed
Buddhist monks chanted as the king and Queen Sirikit sat
on golden thrones.
Vejjajiva was among the top political, military and royal
figures who participated in the ceremonies. All wore
ceremonial white uniforms.
On Tuesday, the Red Shirt protesters said they welcomed
the prime minister's latest proposal to end the crisis but
needed more details before dismantling their protest camp
in the capital's main commercial district.
Pressure has been growing on both sides to end the
stalemate, which has decimated the country's lucrative
tourism industry and drained the energies of the central
government.
While an immediate end to the crisis was not expected,
representatives of both sides said Wednesday's celebration
of Coronation Day should be used to further national
reconciliation.
US Energy Secretary delegated powers
on Indo-US Nuclear Act
Internet
US President Barack Obama has delegated some of his
authority to Energy Secretary to report to the Congress
about implementation of the US-India Nuclear Cooperation
Approval and Non-proliferation Enhancement Act.
"I hereby delegate to you the certification and reporting
functions conferred upon the President by section 201(b)
of the United States-India Nuclear Cooperation Approval
and Nonproliferation Enhancement Act (Public Law
110-369)," Obama said in a memorandum to the Energy
Secretary.
The United States-India Nuclear Cooperation Approval and
Nonproliferation Enhancement Act (Public Law 110-369), was
signed into law by the then US President George Bush on
October 8, 2008.
Under Section 201 (b), the US President is mandated to
submit to the US Congress procedures regarding arrangement
on reprocessing a detailed description, including the
text, of such proposed subsequent arrangement.
The president is also asked to submit a certificate to the
Congress about the US' efforts to ensure that any other
nation that permits India to reprocess or otherwise alter
in form.
It also seeks content of nuclear material that the nation
has transferred to India or nuclear material and
by-product material.
Ahmadinejad
vows Iran will continue nuclear program
Reuters, Washington
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday his
country would "definitely continue" its nuclear program
despite Israeli threats of military action.
Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres, have suggested the
Jewish state could use military force to prevent Tehran
from developing nuclear weapons, as the West suspects it
is doing.
"Iran will definitely continue its path. You should not
even doubt that we will continue our path. We'll
definitely continue our path," Ahmadinejad said in an
interview with ABC's "Good Morning America" program.
Asked if that meant Iran was playing with fire in light of
Israel's threat of a possible military strike, Ahmadinejad
said it was not.
"Those who have stockpiled their bombs and impose their
will on others and act unlawfully are the ones who are
playing with fire," he said. "They're not a factor, in our
defense doctrine, we don't even count them."
Ahmadinejad made the comments as talks continue on a
fourth round of United Nations sanctions against Iran,
which insists that its nuclear program is aimed only at
generating electricity. Diplomats from Russia, the United
States, Britain, France, Germany and China have been
meeting nearly every day for weeks to hammer out a draft
sanctions resolution to submit to the full Security
Council for a vote. Russia and China, Western diplomats
say, have been pushing the four Western powers to dilute
some of the measures in the U.S.-drafted sanctions
proposal. Moscow and Beijing have strong commercial ties
with Iran. Russia believes the point of a fourth round of
U.N. sanctions should not be to punish Iran but to
"strengthen the non-proliferation regime." Diplomats have
said that this means Russia wants any new U.N. measures to
focus exclusively on Iran's nuclear and missile
industries.
Diplomats have told Reuters that the U.S. draft proposes
new curbs on Iranian banking, a full arms embargo, tougher
measures against Iranian shipping, moves against members
of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and firms they
control, and a ban on new investments in Iran's energy
sector.
Iraq heads towards new
Shiite-led government
AFP, Baghdad
Iraq inched towards a new government Wednesday with power
set to be vested once more in the hands of Shiite
religious parties who have close ties to Iran, pushing
Sunni-backed secularists to the margins.
A deal was struck late Tuesday between the war-torn
country's two biggest Shiite Muslim alliances, allowing
them to squeeze out a secular coalition that won a March 7
general election but failed to build a parliamentary
majority.
The agreement, struck after two months of haggling that
paralysed politics and alarmed the United States ahead of
its planned military withdrawal from the country, was
condemned by the secular bloc as "a sectarian merger."
Discussions about who will become prime minister are now
under way between the Shiite parties, an official from
incumbent Premier Nuri al-Maliki's State of Law bloc told
AFP.
However, it is widely believed the price of the agreement
between State of Law and the Iraqi National Alliance (INA)
was a commitment that Maliki would not continue in his
post. There was no immediate reaction from the United
States, which in the past week urged Iraq's politicians to
set aside their differences and speed up the process of
forming a coalition capable of running the country.
French court refuses
extradition of Iranian to US
AP, Paris
A French court on Wednesday turned down a U.S. request for
the extradition of an Iranian engineer who is accused of
violating an export embargo by purchasing U.S. technology
for military firms involved in Iran's nuclear program. The
United States says Majid Kakavand, 37, bought sensitive
American electronics over the Internet and disguised that
their final destination was Iran by routing them through
Malaysia, where he had set up a front company. Kakavand's
case and several others have showcased how the United
States is doggedly going after people accused of procuring
technology or weapons for Iran's military, in many cases
seeking help from foreign countries. Yet the court's
ruling shows that such cooperation is not simple.
Kakavand's case has dragged on for 14 months since his
arrest as officials tried to determine if his business
dealings violated French law as well as U.S. law. The
court could not hand him over merely for breaking U.S.
laws that have no counterpart in France.
The case has sensitive diplomatic implications in three
countries - especially in France, which has taken a tough
stance on Iran's nuclear ambitions but nonetheless has
business and oil interests there. Another source of
diplomatic tension is the case of a young French academic
in Iran who pleaded innocent to spying charges at a mass
trial.
The court did not immediately release its reasoning. A
state prosecutor had opposed the U.S. request, contesting
the basic claim that products Kakavand bought could be
used for military purposes.
The court had based its opinion on a report from France's
General Directorate for Armaments. It said the
technologies in question, including capacitors, inductors,
resistors, sensors and connectors, were not considered
"dual use" items having both commercial and military
applications.
Times Square bombing
suspect’s life had unraveled
AP, Bridgeport,
Conn.
Not long ago, Faisal Shahzad had a pretty enviable life:
He became an American citizen after emigrating from
Pakistan, where he came from a wealthy family. He earned
an MBA. He had a well-educated wife and two kids and owned
a house in a middle-class Connecticut suburb.
In the past couple of years, though, his life seemed to
unravel: He left a job at a global marketing firm he'd
held for three years, lost his home to foreclosure and
moved into an apartment in an impoverished neighborhood in
Bridgeport. And last weekend, authorities say, he drove an
SUV loaded with explosives into Times Square intent on
blowing it up.
The bomb didn't go off, and Shahzad was arrested on a
plane in New York as he tried to leave the country. He was
in custody Tuesday and couldn't be reached for comment.
Authorities say he is cooperating and has admitted getting
explosives training in his native Pakistan.
Shahzad's behavior sometimes seemed odd to his neighbors,
and he surprised a real estate broker he hardly knew with
his outspokenness about President George W. Bush and the
Iraq war.
"He mentioned that he didn't like Bush policies in Iraq,"
said Igor Djuric, who represented Shahzad in 2004 when he
was buying a home.
Djuric said he couldn't remember the exact words Shahzad
used about Bush but "something to the effect of he doesn't
know what he's doing and it's the wrong thing that he's
doing." "I don't know if he mentioned 9/11," Djuric said,
"but something like that, Iraq has nothing to do with
anything." Shahzad, 30, is the son of a former top
Pakistani air force officer, according to Kifyat Ali, a
cousin of Shahzad's father. He came to the United States
in late 1998 on a student visa, according to an official
who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of
anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the investigation
into Saturday's failed car bombing.
He took classes at the now-defunct Southeastern University
in Washington, D.C., then enrolled at the University of
Bridgeport, where he received a bachelor's degree in
computer applications and information systems in 2000.
"He was personable, a nice guy, but unremarkable," said
William Greenspan, adviser for undergraduate business
students at the University of Bridgeport. "He would just
come in and take the course as needed so he could graduate
in a timely manner."
"If this didn't happen, I probably would have forgotten
him," Greenspan said. "He didn't stand out."
Shahzad was granted an H1-B visa for skilled workers in
2002, according to the official who spoke to the AP. He
later returned to the University of Bridgeport to earn a
master's in business administration, awarded in 2005.
Lack of sleep ‘linked to
early death’
Internet
Getting less than six hours sleep a night can lead to an
early grave, UK and Italian researchers have warned.
They said people regularly having such little sleep were
12% more likely to die over a 25-year period than those
who got an "ideal" six to eight hours. They also found an
association between sleeping for more than nine hours and
early death, although that much sleep may merely be a
marker of ill health. Sleep journal reports the findings,
based on 1.5m people in 16 studies.
The study looked at the relationship between sleep and
mortality by reviewing earlier studies from the UK, US and
European and East Asian countries. Premature death from
all causes was linked to getting either too little or too
much sleep outside of the "ideal" six to eight hours per
night. But while a lack of sleep may be a direct cause of
ill-health, ultimately leading to an earlier death, too
much sleep may merely be a marker of ill health already,
the UK and Italian researchers believe.
Iran accepts Brazil
mediation to revive atom deal
Reuters, Tehran
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has agreed "in
principle" to Brazilian mediation to revive a
U.N.-brokered nuclear fuel swap deal with world powers,
the semi-official Fars news agency said on Wednesday.
The powers see the deal as a way to remove much of Iran's
low-enriched uranium stockpile to minimize the risk of
this being used for atomic bombs, while Iran would get
specially processed fuel to keep its nuclear medicine
program running.
But the proposal broke down over Iran's insistence on
doing the swap only on its territory, rather than shipping
its LEU abroad in advance, and in smaller, phased amounts,
meaning no meaningful cut in a stockpile which grows day
by day.
"In a telephone conversation with his Venezuelan
counterpart, Ahmadinejad agreed in principle to Brazil's
mediation over the nuclear fuel deal," Fars said, quoting
a statement issued by Ahmadinejad's office.
The pact conceived in talks conducted by the U.N. nuclear
watchdog last October required Iran to ship 1,200 kg
(2,646 lb) of its LEU, enough for one atom bomb if
enriched to high grade, to Russia and France for
conversion into fuel for the Tehran Research Reactor,
which makes isotopes for cancer treatment.
No magic number for
Conservatives in UK election
Reuters, London
A narrow Conservative victory in Thursday's election would
please markets by providing immediate clarity on who will
govern Britain, but it would not guarantee an easy ride
for the new government in the longer term.
The Conservatives are battling hard to clinch an overall
majority of seats in parliament that would allow them to
form a government alone. Even a tiny majority would be a
success for them after months of polls predicting they
would fall short.
With Britain's budget deficit at a record level and its
top-notch credit rating at risk, many in markets worry
that a "hung parliament" with no party in overall control
could lead to political deadlock, delaying tough but
crucial spending cuts.
Against that backdrop, an outright Conservative majority
in the 650-seat parliament, no matter how tight, would be
seen as good news in the City of London financial
district. "If the Conservatives were elected with, let's
say, 326 or 330 seats, the markets would rally," said
David Owen, chief European economist at Jefferies. "What
the markets want is clarity about the fiscal position, and
a 330-seat Conservative government would remove that
uncertainty about what is going to happen to fiscal policy
over the next few months and what is going to happen to
the rating."
Even the slimmest of majorities would be a better result
for the Conservatives than a hung parliament, making it
certain that their leader David Cameron would replace the
Labour Party's Gordon Brown as prime minister on Friday.
Business/Economy
WB
okays financing of $292m more for two BD projects
UNB, Dhaka
The World Bank on Tuesday approved additional financing of
US$292 million for two ongoing projects in Bangladesh.
Of the amount, US$257 million will be provided in long
term finance for infrastructure through the Investment
Promotion and Financing Facility (IPFF) project and US$35
million for bringing disadvantaged and poor children back
to school through the Reaching Out-of-School Children
project (ROSC), says a World Bank release.
The additional financing to the IPFF project, amounting to
about five times the original project that has been
operating since 2006, will build and expand on the
project's successful experience in the power sector.
It has helped boost the national electricity generation
capacity by 5 percent by adding 178 MW electricity to the
national grid and two special economic zones - Dhaka
Export Processing Zone (DEPZ) and Chittagong Export
Processing Zone (CEPZ).
The IPFF operates under the oversight of Bangladesh Bank
and funds are allocated to local financial institutions
for on-lending to private-sector infrastructure projects.
"Bangladesh has an enormous investment need in
infrastructure," said Zafrul Islam, World Bank acting
Country Director for Bangladesh.
He said: "We expect this additional financing to boost
infrastructure funding by over US$400 million, leveraging
about 100 percent private resources. It will be used to
increase infrastructure supply in the power sector -
renewable energy and energy savings - as well as bridges,
ports, container terminals, water treatment plants, waste
disposal projects, and others."
The World Bank also extended more support to the ROSC, a
project which since 2004 has helped enroll over 500,000
out-of-school children through more than 15,000 Ananda
Schools (Learning Centers) in 60 upazilas with high
incidence of poverty and low enrollment.
The project also helped in the achievement of grade
competency level in Bangla and Mathematics by more than 65
percent of students; average student attendance rate of
more than 75 percent; average teacher attendance in excess
of 90 percent; average grade completion rate exceeding 80
percent; and availability of textbooks for all students.
Export
earning growth positive in March
UNB, Dhaka
Bangladesh's export earnings marked a positive growth rate
of 18.38 percent in March 2010 compared to the
corresponding period of the last fiscal, although overall
export performance for the last nine months continued its
downward trend.
The country's export earnings for the last nine months of
the current fiscal (July-March) was about to come out of
the negative trend as it was minus 0.80 percent compared
to the corresponding period of the previous fiscal
(2008-09).
According to latest statistics provided by the Export
Promotion Bureau (EPB), export income in March was US$
1515.75 million while the target was US$ 1481.92 million.
The actual income figure is 2.28 percent more than the
targeted income - an 18.38 percent growth over export
income in March 2009, which was US$ 1280.36 million.
Export earnings for the July-March period of the current
fiscal (2009-10) totaled US$ 11541.23 million, which is
around 9.68 percent short of the targeted US$ 12777.60
million. The amount also falls short of the US$ 11634.36
million in export income during the same period of last
fiscal (2008-09).
Talking to UNB about the export trend, Bangladesh Knitwear
Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) president
M Fazlul Hoque said both knitwear and woven garments
marked 15.09 percent and 13.63 percent growth respectively
in March.
Explaining the reason for such growth, he said that a huge
amount of orders have recently been diverted to Bangladesh
from China. "But, we could not fully capitalize on that as
some orders had to be sent back due to power and gas
crisis and the recent price-hike of yarn."
The BKMEA president noted that the neighboring competitors
like Pakistan marked a 20 percent growth in March followed
by Vietnam 18 percent.
Friendly relations between Thailand and
Bangladesh to get stronger
UNB, Dhaka
Commerce Minister Faruk Khan on Wednesday hoped that the
friendly relations between Thailand and Bangladesh, as
well as trade between the two countries, will be enhanced
in the days ahead.
"The friendly relationship between the two countries will
be enhanced through the Thai trade fair, where the
businessmen will have a chance to gain knowledge about the
standard products of Thailand," said the Commerce Minister
while inaugurating the four-day Thailand Trade Fair-2010
at Hotel Sonargaon.
Speaking on the occasion as chief guest, Faruk Khan said
that Bangladesh shares similarities with Thailand in
cultural activities, and the holding such trade fairs,
cultural ceremonies and food festivals will reduce the
their peoples closer together.
The fair is being jointly organized by the Thai Embassy in
Bangladesh and the Department of Export Promotion of
Thailand, with some 47 manufacturing and exporting firms
showcasing their products ranging from agro processed
foods, electronics, food and beverages, garments,
jewellery, ladies handbags, cosmetics, footwear and
household items.
Thai ambassador in Dhaka Tasanawadee Miancharoen, Thai
embassy commerce minister Usa Wijarurn and Bangladesh-Thai
Chamber of Commerce and Industry president MA Momen spoke
at the inaugural ceremony, among others.
According to statistics, the trade balance between the two
countries is in favour of Thailand, as goods worth $539.10
million was imported into Bangladesh from Thailand in the
2008-09 fiscal, against exports of $39.31 million.
The trade deficit between the two countries is increasing
day by day, as it was $152.30 million in the 2002-03
fiscal, increasing to $499.79 million in 2008-09 fiscal.
SEC bins ICB appeal for time extension for
mutual funds
BSS, Dhaka
The capital market regulator turned down a proposal of the
Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB) for allowing
its mutual funds to trade on the stock market for seven
more years. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
in December last year instructed all concerned to close
all the open-end mutual funds by 2011.
As per the instruction, the ICB is supposed to pull out
its eight mutual funds from the market in two years.
But the state-owned non-banking organisation on April 28
this year requested the SEC to allow its funds to trade in
the capital market until 2017.
The SEC in a letter on Tuesday rejected the proposal for
time extension, prompting ICB to get ready for a big
winding up from the stock market by 2011.
The ICB floated its mutual funds between 1980 and 1996
under the now-defunct 'Controller of Capital Issues' of
the finance ministry. Under the regulation, ICB was
allowed to issue open-end mutual funds without any date
for maturity.
The SEC in 2007 instructed that the mutual funds should be
closed-end with a maturity date. The ICB, however, got a
waiver in the interest of its investors.
But, the commission in December last year issued a
circular asking dissolution of all mutual funds by 2011
those passed 10 years after listing. Now, ICB will have no
option than pay back the investment and the benefit of the
mutual funds to the investors after puling out from the
market.
National
Imams urged to build strong
resistance against militancy
BSS, Narsingdi
Post and Telecommunications Minister Raziuddin Ahmed Razu
called upon the Imams to build a strong resistance against
all kinds of terrorists and militants for establishing a
peaceful society.
He said the Imams could play a vital role to make the
people aware about preventing militancy and terrorism in
the country.
The minister said this while addressing as the chief guest
the district Imams conference organized by Islamic
foundation Narsingdi unit at local Shilpakala Academy here
on Tuesday.
He said Islam is a religion of peace. Imam should come
forward for building a peaceful nation through
disseminating the messages of peace in Islam.
The minister called upon all to work together with
patriotism for building Sonar Bangla to fulfill the dream
of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman.
He said Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975
established Islamic Foundation for the promotion of Islam
in the country.
Presided over by Additional District Magistrate Ali Ahsan,
the conference was addressed, among others, by lawmakers
Nurul Majid Mohammad Humayan and Anwarul Ashraf Khan,
director general (DG) of Islamic Foundation Samim Mohammad
Afjal and Deputy Director, Islamic Foundation Narsingdi,
Abdullah.
Scientists working for climate-resilient
varieties of crops: Matia
UNB, Dhaka
Bangladeshi scientists are working hard to develop
climate-resilient varieties of different crops.
With a view to enhancing the use of surface water in
irrigation, the government will start excavating the
rivers and canals soon. The process of purchasing modern
dredgers for this purpose is underway, revealed
Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury Wednesday.
Matia Chowdhury was addressing an international workshop
on "Building Climate Resilient Agriculture in Asia" at the
Brac Inn in Mohakhali, Dhaka.
She said the government had already started dredging the
Gorai River with local dredging equipment. The private
sector's eagerness in the process was noted by the
minister. On climate change, Matia said climate change
would exacerbate many problems and natural hazards
currently faced by Bangladesh.
She stressed the need for developing short duration
varieties and draught tolerant varieties of crops to
tackle the scarcity of water.
The veteran minister said recent flash floods have damaged
some 1.56 lakh tons of Boro rice over nearly 40 thousand
hectares land in the haor areas. She assured the affected
farmers that the government would come to their
assistance.
"The issue of rainwater conservation was neglected....
over mining of underground water caused arsenic problem
and desertification in the northern region. Farmers
produce 1kg winter rice at a cost of 3,000 liters of water
in the northern region."
Renowned economist and Chairman of leading think-tank
Centre for Policy Dialogue, Prof Rehman Sobhan, in his
remarks brought attention to the fact that small farmers
are neglected from different government facilities
including credit.
He suggested ensuring fair price for the farmers and
drawing greater attention to their needs. "The farmers
have already demonstrated their (climate) resilience by
achieving bumper production, now the government should
demonstrate its resilience."
Former advisor to the caretaker government AMM Shawkat Ali
while addressing the workshop said coordination among the
government ministries and private organizations is needed
in order to develop the agriculture sector. He emphasized
development of resilient varieties for the coastal belt
districts, saying that increasing salinity in the water
has emerged as a big problem in these districts.
Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) and International Crops
Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in
collaboration with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) are
organizing the two-day workshop.
Some 45 representatives from six Asian countries-
Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, China, Thailand and Vietnam-
are taking part in the workshop.
RDRS distributes Tk 42,000 for
repairing damaged houses in Roumari
BSS, Rangpur
Rangpur Dinajpur Rural Service (RDRS) under its Char
Development Programme (CLP) distributed grants of Taka
42,000 among 21 nor'wester victim families for repairing
their damaged houses in Roumari upazila of Kurigram.
The reputed NGO completed distribution of the money among
the victim families of the remote char areas on the
Brahmaputra bed as grants through its Dantbhanga, Shaheber
Alga and Kodalkati offices during the past two days, CLP
officials said.
Houses and properties of these victim families were
completely damaged by repeated nor'westers that started
lashing the char areas since April 13 midnight making the
21 families completely homeless.
Assistant project manager of CLP Sankar Kumar Roy,
headmaster of Gendar Alga High School Azizul Islam, Dr
Nazrul Islam, Mokhlesur Rahman, Char Development Officers
Abu Zeyad Biplob and Anwar Hossain were present on the
occasions.
Getting the grant money, beneficiaries Rozina Begum, 40,
of char village Kazaikata, Shapla, 45, of Italukanda and
Zarina, 70, of Char Dhontola said that they got Taka 2,000
each and would be highly benefited to raise their damaged
homes again.
Ensure application of modern
technology to maintain proper nutrition in ata: Food
Minister
UNB, Dhaka
Food Minister Dr Abdur Razzak on Wednesday said the use of
modern technology will have to be ensured to maintain
proper nutrition standard in foods while making ata or
flour from wheat corns.
"Initiative will also have to be taken to improve the
skills of the people concerned in line with using modern
technology," he said while inaugurating a training
programme at Sonargaon Hotel. The Canadian Wheat Board in
collaboration with the Canadian International Grain
Institute organized the training programme for technicians
of wheat mill and bakery.
The Food Minister mentioned that wheat was once considered
'food for low-income people' in the country but over the
decades the situation has changed. "There are also changes
in the people's food habits."n
He said presently, fast food shops have come up in many
areas, particularly in the capital and other big cities
and by this way food diversification has been occurring.
"The main ingredient of such fast foods is wheat and so
we'll have to emphasize maintaining nutrition standard in
ata or flour."
Dr Razzak mentioned that some three million (30 lakh)
metric tons of wheat are needed every year in the country.
Of which, some one million (10 lakh) metric tons are
produced locally while the rest of the demand is met
through import. Canadian High Commissioner Robert
McDougall also spoke on the occasion.
River transport workers to
start non-stop strike in Bagerhat
UNB, Bagerhat
River transport workers have threatened indefinite strike
from Friday midnight if their 22-point demand including
new pay scale is not met by today (Thursday).
On March 15 the workers went for a non-stop strike to
realize their demands. However, they called off the work
stoppage following an understanding reached at a
tripartite meeting between representatives of the
government, owners and workers on March 18.
Joint Secretary of the Vessel Workers Federation Abul
Kashem Master said it was agreed at the meeting that a
uniform pay scale for all workers based on national pay
scale-2009 will be announced and implemented by April 30.
Although the representatives of the government and owners
held meetings four times since then, but they failed to
announce the new pay scale.
Another meeting between the government and vessel owners
is scheduled to be held today (Thursday).
Kashem said if the meeting fails to produce any positive
results, they will be compelled to start for indefinite
strike across the country from Friday midnight.
To realize the demands, the river transport workers had
enforced indefinite work stoppage for five times in the
last two years.
Three Jubo League leaders expelled
in Bagerhat
UNB, Bagherhat
Three leaders of Sharankhola unit Jubo League were
temporarily expelled Wednesday on charge of manhandling
Rina Akhtar Sagar, upazila vice chairman and secretary of
Upazila Mahila Awami League.
They are Azmal Hossain Mukta, general secretary of
Sharankhola upazila Jubo League and two other leaders
Dulal Akon, office secretary and Jamal Uddin Akon, joint
secretary of Khontakata union unit.
The expulsion order was jointly signed by acting central
Jubo League president Omar Faruk Chodhury and general
secretary Mirza Azam MP.
Besides, a committee has been formed to probe into the
incident of manhandling of Rina Akhtar. The expelled
leaders were also served show cause notice to reply within
May 18 as to why they should not be expelled permanently
from the party.
Earlier, Azmal with other activists of Jubo League
tortured Rina when she was returning home from the upazila
parishad office on Sunday noon.
50 drug addicts, peddlers
held in Chuadanga
BSS, Chuadanga
Alamdanga police arrested 50 drug addicts and peddlers
from different areas of Alamdanga upazila of the district
during the last one month.
Police sources said the offenders were arrested as part of
an anti-drug drive being conducted in the district by the
police.
Officer in-charge of Alamdanga Police Station Ilias Fakir
told the local news men on Monday that the anti-drug drive
launched by the police for arresting the drug addicts and
drug peddlers to be continued.
He said after arresting the drug addicts and
drug-peddlers, the police are also abolishing the illegal
drug shops throughout Alamdanga upazila. Huge drug addicts
and peddlers have fled the area since launching of the
drive.
Tk 4,389 cr project in next ADP
for dredging 24 rivers
BSS, Dhaka
A project proposal involving Taka 4,389 crore will be
included in the annual development programme (ADP) in the
next national budget (2010-11) for the dredging of 24
rivers.
Shipping Secretary Abdul Hannan Hawlader told BSS on
Wednesday that the ministry has taken a three-tier action
plan for the dredging of 53 rivers across the country.
This plan would be implemented between 2010-11 and 2013-15
at a cost of Taka 11,473 crore. The first phase of river
dredging will begin in December this year, the secretary
said.
He said the shipping ministry has already taken
initiatives to ready the dredging unit of Bangladesh
Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) with modern
equipment.
Three agreements have been signed with the
Netherlands-based river dredging organisation, Karnafuli
Vosta Limited, to procure three dredgers at a cost of Taka
20 crore each. An expert team, led by BRTA Chairman Abdul
Malek Mian, has gone on a visit to the Netherlands to see
the engines and designs of the dredgers.
Before leaving the country for the Netherlands, the BIWTA
chairman said they have five dredgers in operation and two
others are being repaired at the Khulna Shipyard. Yet,
more modern dredgers are required to implement the mega
plan undertaken by the government.
The shipping ministry will implement the long-term
dredging plan in phases jointly with the Water Development
Board and private organisations.
Friendly countries like China, India, Qatar and Kuwait are
showing keenness in implementation of the mega plan.
Leaders of those countries expressed the keenness in their
meetings with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina during her
visits.
JS body asks education ministry to
remove war criminals from educational institutions
BSS, Dhaka
The Jatiya Sangsad (JS) Committee on Public Assurances on
Wednesday urged the education ministry to remove war
criminals from the post of head of educational
institutions and the governing bodies.
The committee made the recommendation at its 8th meeting
at the JS Bhaban with its chairman M Fazle Rabbi
presiding, said a JS press release.
Committee members M Abdul Quddus, Alhaj M Dabirul Islam,
Shamsur Rahman Sharif, M Ekabbar Hossain, BM Mozammel Haq,
Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury and Rasheda Begum Hira attended
the meeting.
The meeting reviewed the progress in implementation of
pledges in education ministry, land ministry, women and
children affairs ministry, fisheries and livestock
ministry and for youth and sports ministry.
The meeting urged the education ministry to include the
educational institutions in backward areas in the monthly
payment order [MPO].
It asked the land ministry to allocate khas lands beside
the rivers to the erosion-affected land-less people.
It directed the ministry for youth and sports to implement
quickly the decision of creating play grounds at the
upazila level and providing the educational institutions
with sports materials.
Secretaries and other senior officials of concerned
ministries were present at the meeting.
Kalim Sharafi gets lifetime
achievement award
BSS, Dhaka
On the occasion of 149th birth anniversary of Nobel
laureate Poet Rabindra Nath Tagore, the SAARC Cultural
Society (SCS) on Wednesday organized a discussion and
cultural function at the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy
auditorium.
Industries Minister Dilip Barua and State Minister for
Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Advocate Qamrul
Islam spoke on the occasion with SCS president Syed Abu
Hossain Babla in the chair.
At the function, eminent Tagore song exponent Kalim
Sharafi was given lifetime achievement award by SCS for
his contribution to this field. Singers Tapan Mahmud,
Papiya Sarwar, Rezwana Chowdhury Bonya, Swapan Dutta, Lily
Islam, Dr Aroop Ratan Chowdhury, Kamal Ahmed, Promod Dutta
and Liysa Ahmed Lisa were given special awards.
International expositions on
healthcare kick off
BSS, Dhaka
Two international expositions displaying world famous
medical, healthcare and pharmaceutical items began here on
Wednesday at the same venue with a view to improving the
country's healthcare facilities using modern equipment and
technologies.
The expositions -- 'Third Meditex Bangladesh 2010
International Expo' on medical equipment, surgical
instruments and hospital equipment and 'Second Pharma
Bangladesh 2010 International Expo' on machinery,
equipment and materials of pharmaceutical sectors-will
remain open till May 8 at the Bangabandhu International
Conference Centre.
Health Minister Dr A F M Ruhal Haque as the chief guest
inaugurated the expositions, organized by CEMS-Global USA
in association with CEMS Bangladesh.
The minister said present government has taken various
initiatives to increase the export volume of Bangladeshi
pharmaceutical products.
Terming the pharmaceuticals as one of the potential
sectors, he said that Bangladeshi medicines are being
exported to 72 countries and have got recognition as of
international standard.
Dr Ruhal hoped that the expositions would help increase
the use of new technology as well as the quality of
healthcare services in the country.
Secretary General of Bangladesh Medical Association Prof
Sharfuddin Ahmed, CEMS-Global President Mehrun N Islam and
Vice Chairman Saiful Islam were present at the inaugural
ceremony.
Apart from local organisations, companies from China,
India, Taiwan, the USA, Pakistan and Singapore are
participating with their world class medical, surgical,
pharmaceutical and hospital equipment in the exhibitions
which will remain open for all every day from 10 am to
7.30 pm.
Sports
35th Nat’l Athletics begins in city
Sajib of BKSP makes new record
UNB, Dhaka
The Walton 35th National Athletics Championship, by Bangladesh
Athletics Fede-ration, began Wednesday at the Bangabandhu
National Stadium with Sajib Hossain of BKSP making new
national record in Men's High Jump.
Sajib Hossain created the day's only new national mark jumping
2.11 meters over the bar to better his own record of 2.10
meters in high jump.
After the first day's competition, Bangladesh Army dominated
the medals table securing 5 gold, 5 silver and 3 bronze
medals.
BJMC followed with 3 gold, 5 silver and 3 bronzes while Ansar
& VDP were in the third position collecting 3 gold, 4 silver
and 3 bronzes and BKSP in the 4th place with 2 gold and one
silver.
Earlier, State Minister for Liberation War Affairs Capt (retd)
AB Tajul Islam MP inaugurated the two-day meet and distributed
prizes of some of the day's events.
President of Bangladesh Athletics Federation ASM Ali Kabir,
General Secretary Shah Alam and Vice-President Tofazzel
Hossain were present on the occasion. In all, 596 athletes,
including 129 women, from 70 teams are taking part in the
36-event meet - 22 for men and 14 for women.
Sixteen events were decided on the first day (Wednesday) of
the two-day meet.
Results of the day's events:
Women's Long Jump: Gold - Fouzia Huda Jui (BKSP), Silver - Nur
Jahan Mallick (Ansar & VDP), Bronze - Shapla Khatun (Ansar &
VDP).
Men's Shot Put: Gold - Sgt Azharul (Army), Silver - Mamun
Sikder (Army), Bronze - Ansar Ahmed (Navy).
Women's 800-meter race: Gold - Rowshan Rahman Putul (Ansar &
VDP), Silver - Khurshida Khatun (Ansar & VDP), Bronze - Momtaz
Begum (Postal Depart-ment).
Men's High Jump: Gold - Sajib Hossain (BKSP) (new national
record), Silver - Masud Kaiser Mukul (BKSP), Bronze - Junaed
Biswas (Army).
Women's 100-meter Hurdles: Gold - Sumita Rani (Prisons
Directorate), Silver- Nasima Akhter (Ansar & VDP), Bronze -
Nasrin Begum (BJMC).
Women's Shot Put: Gold - Hazera Akhter Doly (BJMC), Rokeya
Yasmin Happy (BJMC), Bronze - Abida Sultana (Noakhali DSA).
Men's 400-meter Hurdles: Gold - Afzal Hossain (Air Force),
Silver - Tuhin Hossain (Navy), Bronze - Mohsinul Haque (Army).
Men's Javelin Throw: Gold - Kamal Hossain (Army), Silver -
Dipankar Roy (BJMC), Bronze - Saikat Ahmed (Army).
Women's 4X100 Relay: Gold - Chumki, Khurshida, Shapla and
Putul (Ansar & VDP), Silver - Beauty, Eva, Nasrin and Jharna (BJMC),
Bronze - Roshni, Mukta, Kulsum and Tania (Ali Imam College).
Men's 200-meter Sprint: Gold - Khalilur Rahman (Army), Silver
- Mizanur Rahman (Army), Bronze - Joynal Abedin (BJMC).
Women's 200-meter Sprint: Gold - Nazmun Nahar Beauty (BJMC),
Silver - Shamsun Nahar Chumki ((Ansar & VDP), Bronze - Ishrat
Jahan Eva (BJMC).
Men's 800-meter Race: Gold - Selim Miah (Army), Silver -
Shahidul Islam (Army), Bronze - Swapan Ali (Navy).
Men's 5000-meter race: Gold - Shaheen Alam (Army), Silver -
Habibur Rahman (Army), Bronze - Enamul Haque (Ansar & VDP).
Women's Javelin Throw: Gold - Akherunnessa (BJMC), Silver -
Hazera Akhter Doly (BJMC), Bronze - Honse Akhter (Comilla DSA).
Women's 3000-meter race: Gold - Rowshan Ara Putul (Ansar & VDP),
Silver - Mirana (BJMC), Bronze - Nazneen Nahar (Ansar & VDP).
Men's Long Jump: Gold - Al Amin (Navy), Silver - Firoz Sarker
(Army), Bronze - Monjur Morshed (Nay).
Citycell
B League
Feni Soccer Club, Shuktara JS wins
UNB, Dhaka
Feni Soccer Club and Shuktara Jubo Sangsad won their matches
in the Citycell Bangladesh League beating their respective
rivals at the separate venues across the country.
In the day's matches, Feni Soccer Club beat Rahmatganj MFS by
2-1 goals at the Feni Stadium while bottom-ranked Shuk-tara
Jubo Sangsad edged past Chittagong Abahani by a solitary goal
at the MA Aziz Stadium in Chittagong.
Uganda striker Iddris Kasirye put Rahmatganj MFS ahead in the
26th minute while Feni Soccer Club, which secured 25 points
from 19 matches with the day's win, equalized the margin
through Raju in the 62nd minute.
A suicidal goal by Shimul of Rahmatganj at 77th minute ensured
Feni Soccer Club's triumph. With the day's defeat Rahmat-ganj
MFS remained at their previous credit 19 points playing also
19 matches.
In another match, Uganda striker Idris Mutebi scored the
all-important goal for Shuktara Jubo Sangsad in the 6th minute
of the play.
With this win, Shuktara Jubo Sangsad collected 13 points while
Chittagong Abahani remained at 17 points, both playing 19
matches.
Meanwhile, the Bangla-desh League Committee Wednesday shifted
the day's and today's (May 6) Dhaka venue matches due to
unavailability of the floodlight at the Bangabandhu National
Stadium (BNS).
The matches will now be held on May 7 and 8 at 4 pm, said BFF
release in the evening. Sheikh Russell KC had to meet
Beanibazar SC while Muktijoddha KC is schedule to meet
Arambagh KS, both at BNS.
SAfrica A crushes
BD A by 203 runs
UNB, Dhaka
Two blistering tons by C Ingram and D Miller powered
visiting South Africa A team to a massive 203 runs win
over Bangladesh A team in the opening match of the
Tri-nation one-day series at the Sher-e-Bangla National
Stadium at Mirpur here on Wednesday.
Put to bat first, the visitors posted a huge 368 run for 9
in stipulated 50 overs.
One down C Ingram hammered 127 runs off 118 balls with 13
fours and three sixes while number six batsman D. Miller
smashed unbeaten 115 runs off 60 balls with 10 fours and
seven sixes. Miller was later adjudged the player of the
match.
Besides, M. Van (29), R. Bailey (23) and J. Vandar (20)
were the other notable scorers for the visitors.
Faisal Hossain and Noor Hossain captured two wickets each
for 35 and 67 runs respectively.
In reply, Bangladesh A team were cheaply dismissed for 165
runs in 30.3 overs. Middle order Roqibul Hasan scored 40
runs off 57 balls with three fours while two down Marshal
Ayub made 38 off 40 balls with seven fours.
Dhiman Ghosh (25) and Nazmul Hossain (15) were the other
notable scorers for the hosts.
J. Vandar claimed three wickets for 42 runs while Q.
Friend took two wickets for 21 runs.
Thursday's match: South Africa A vs West Indies A at SBNS.
Venus and Serena
cruise into Rome third round
AFP, Rome
Williams sisters Venus and Serena had few problems between
them as they cruised into the third round of the WTA Rome
Open at the Foro Italico here on Tuesday after straight
sets victories.
World number one Serena, the reigning Austra-lian Open
champion, overcame a tough first set to beat Switzerland's
Timea Bacsinszky 7-6 (7/2), 6- 1.
Before that, five-time Wimbledon champion Ve-nus breezed
to a 6-2, 6-2 dismantling of another Swiss, Patty Schnyder.
Serena was playing for the first time since winning in
Melbourne and she certainly took her time to adjust.
In the first set she quickly found herself two breaks down
at 1-4 but broke back straight away to love with a
drop-shot winner on game point. "I don't think anything
went wrong. I thought she played excellently, to be
honest. I thought she was really playing well so I just
had to pick up the level of my game."
Serena, the 2002 champion here, had looked lacklustre in
the opening exchanges but she finally came to life in the
10th game as she saved three set points, screaming after
one of those as she tore up to the net to reach a drop
shot and crash a backhand winner down the line.
She broke Bacsinszky to level at 5-5 and then strolled
through the tie-break 7-2.
That effectively heralded the end of her 20-year-old
opponent's resistance, although the Swiss did hold in the
fifth game from 0-40 down.
Japan's Miyazato
aims to be number one
AFP, Tokyo
Japan's Ai Miyazato aims to become the world number one
this week, brimming with confidence after winning her
fourth US Tour title at the Tres Marias Cham-pionship at
the weekend.
South Korea's Shin Ji-Yai, 2009 USLPGA Rookie of the Year,
snatched the top spot by winning the Cyber Agent Ladies
last weekend on the Japan Tour, overtaking Lorena Ochoa of
Mexico.
Ochoa, who bade farewell after finishing sixth in the Tres
Marias Championship, held the top spot for three years in
a row from 2007.
Miyazato, currently ranked third in the world, has a
chance to take top place if she wins the World Ladies
Championship at the Ibaraki Golf Club this week.
"I have no idea when I can become the world number one,
but I'm not very far away if I can keep playing my current
golf. First of all, I'm going to concentrate on this
week," added the 24-year-old from Okinawa.
Miyazato said her career path had a lot in common with
that of Ochoa. Miyazato said of Ochoa, who chose to play
with the rising Japanese star in the first round of her
final tournament. Miyazato also won her first US Tour
title at the Evian Masters last season, and then won the
season-opening PTT LPGA Thailand this year and the HSBC
Women's Cham-pions the following week before winning the
Tres Marias. The 6,655-yard Ibaraki Golf Club course is
the longest on the JLPGA Tour, giving an advantage to big
hitters, but Miyazato appeared confident she could hold
her own.
"It doesn't matter how long you hit. It depends on how you
can keep the fairways and hit the greens. I'm just going
to play my own game," she said.
One down, three
to go for Barcelona as Real give chase
Afp, Madrid
With just three games left in La Liga, Barcelona are in
the pole position to retain their league title but there
is no room for error with eternal rivals Real Madrid
breathing down their necks a point behind in second.
Barcelona overcame one of their most difficult fixtures
with a 4-1 win at Villarreal on Saturday and entertain
strugglers Tenerife on Tuesday at Camp Nou knowing a
slip-up could allow Real to snatch the title from their
grasp.
"Everybody expected us to slip up (against Villarreal) but
the team were strong and we are committed to the cause and
really want to win this title."
Real Madrid are at fourth-placed Real Mallorca on
Wednesday in arguably their toughest remaining fixture
while Barcelona still have a testing trip to Sevilla on
Saturday.
Following their semi-final Champions League exit to Inter
Milan the league title is all that remains for Barca who
have not managed to hit the heights of last season when
they won a unique league, Kings Cup and Champions League
treble. Promoted Tenerife have won just once away from
home all season but have a lot to play for lying third
from bottom with three games remaining.
Since losing 2-0 to Barcelona in 'El Clasico' Real Madrid
have won the subsequent four games to keep their title
hopes alive although they needed an 89th minute winner
from Cristiano Ronaldo to down Osasuna 3-2 at the Santiago
Bernabeu on Sunday.
It was a poor display but Ronaldo's 22nd league goal of
the campaign sealed another late win which is something
Real have specialised in this season.
"We are going to force Barcelona to get 99 points (they
currently have 90) to be champions," promised Real coach
Manuel Pellegrini. "My team are in the right frame of mind
to win the remaining three games." Mallorca, currently lie
two points above Sevilla in the final Champions League
spot, provide stiff opposition for Real especially with
home advantage as they have won 14 out of 17 games at
their Ono stadium this season.
Sevilla travel to Racing Santander on Tuesday knowing a
win would put pressure on Mallorca ahead of the Madrid
showdown.
Sevilla must do without Brazilian striker Luis Fabiano due
to a sprained ankle that is also likely to rule him out of
the home match against Barcelona on Saturday.
Racing are just a point above the relegation zone and
looking over their shoulders nervously as are a number of
teams.
Valladolid, second from bottom two points from safety,
face Atletico Madrid at the Vicente Calderon on Tuesday
hoping the capital side have their mind on the cups.
Atletico have reached the final of the Kings Cup and
Europa League and it has impacted their league campaign
with last season's fourth-placed finishers lying down in
10th.
"We don't intend to think about finals and we want to
finish the league campaign with the most points possible,"
said Atletico coach Quique Sanchez Flores. "I don't see my
players not going out to win."
Valencia have secured Champions League football and will
be keen to move a step closer to wrapping up third place
with a win at home to struggling Xerez on Tuesday.
Bottom side Xerez, five points from safety, could be
relegated if they fail to beat Valencia and other results
go against them.
A total of nine teams are involved in the relegation
battle with 12th placed Osasuna four points above the
relegation zone.
Malaga are level on points with third from bottom Tenerife
and have a tough trip to San Mames to tackle Athletic
Bilbao on Wednesday.
England and
Ireland unite in praise of Morgan
AFP, Providence
England captain Paul Collingwood and Ireland counterpart
William Porter-field both lauded Eoin Morgan's display in
their rain-marred World Twenty20 clash.
Without former Ireland batsman Morgan's 45, England - who
went through to the second round because of a superior
run-rate to that of the Irish - would have struggled to
reach their final total of 120 for eight.
It was the left-hander's second impressive innings in as
many days after he'd also top scored with 55 out of a
total of 191 against the West Indies here on Monday.
England lost to the West Indies by eight wickets under the
Duckworth/Lewis method after rain left the home side with
a revised target of 60 in six overs.
Meanwhile rain prevented either side winning at all in the
England- Ireland match, with fewer than four overs, as
opposed to the minimum five needed for a result under
tournament rules, possible in Ireland's reply. Morgan, who
three years ago appeared for Ireland against England at
the World Cup in the Caribbean, changed allegiance to
pursue a goal of playing Test cricket, a level to which
his homeland aspires but has yet to reach.
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