MONday, OCTOBER 5, 2009 ashwin 20, 1416, SHAWAL 15, 1430 Hijri

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Leading News

PM for inclusion of Nepal, Bhutan in transit with India
BSS, Dhaka

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday said Bangladesh wants to include Nepal and Bhutan in establishing the transit with India. Bangladesh always requests India to include Nepal and Bhutan in this important issue keeping in mind that this will bring benefit to all sides, the Prime Minister said this when visiting Economic Affairs Minister of Bhutan Lyonpo Khandu Wangchuk paid a call on her at the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) in the capital this morning.
Sheikh Hasina informed the Bhutanese minister that Bangladesh raised the issue for inclusion of Nepal and Bhutan in the transit during the talks with India on different occasions in the past.
During the meeting, they discussed issues on bilateral interests, including further expansion of trade and business, facing global warming and climate change, and expansion of people-to-people contact between the two countries.
Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh attaches importance to its relationship with Bhutan saying this South Asian neighbour was the first country to recognise Bangladesh after its independence in 1971. Referring to her meeting with US President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the UNGA in New York, Sheikh Hasina informed the Bhutanese minister that she had brought the issue of climate change to the meet for which the developing countries are not responsible.
"I told the US president that developed countries are mainly responsible for the current global warming. So, they have to take major responsibilities to tackle the situation," the press secretary quoted the Prime Minister as saying.
Mentioning the scenic beauty of Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina said the three countries can launch a package programme to attract tourists in those countries as Bhutan and Nepal have hills while Bangladesh has the world's longest sea beach.
Laying emphasis on expanding the people-to-people contact between the two countries, she observed that both the countries would be benefited with exchange of visits. The Prime Minister expressed the hope that the two countries are pledged-bound to extend cooperation in establishing world peace.
The Bhutanese minister congratulated Sheikh Hasina for her assumption of office as the Prime Minister after her party's overwhelming victory in the last general election. The victory will give democracy a firm footing in Bangladesh, he added.
In this context, he said Bhutan is facing natural disasters due to global climate change and sought Bangladesh’s cooperation in the disaster management process. Referring to excellent bilateral relations, he expressed the hope that the relations would be further expedited in the days to come. About the Prime Minister's upcoming visit to Bhutan, he said the people of the country are eagerly waiting for warmly welcoming the Bangladesh premier in their country on November 6.

 CG system should not go before change of political culture
Speakers stress at a roundtable in city

UNB, Dhaka

Speakers at a roundtable on Sunday underscored the need for strengthening the Election Commission, changing political culture and maintaining neutrality in recruitment before abolishing the system of caretaker government.
"We cannot expect neutral elections under the elected government before parties change political culture, stop politicization and establish a free and fair EC," Shujan president Prof Mozaffar Ahmed said while addressing the roundtable on 'New Dispute about Caretaker Government: Citizens Thinking'.
Shujan Shushasanar Jannya Nogorik, a voluntary organization of civil society, arranged the roundtable at the National Press Club in the city.
Sayed Abul Maksud, Hafiz Uddin Khan, Barrister Amirul Islam, Monwar Hossain Chowdhury MP, Dr. Asif Nazrul, AFM Mozammel MP, Shahiduzzman Sarkar MP, Rasheda Begum MP, Sardar Amzad Hossain, Haidar Akbar Khan Rona and Dr Badiul Alam Majumdar spoke at the roundtable.
Prof Mozaffar Ahmed said political parties do not believe each other and they are practicing in 'politics of legacy'. "We should not remove the caretaker system if we cannot establish a peaceful political culture."
He also stressed the need for making a research fund in EC to evaluate the elections.
Sayed Abul Maksud strongly opposed the views of AL leader Sayed Ashraful Islam for scrapping the caretaker system. He said Ashraful is trying to push the country to a new crisis.
TIB Chairman Hafiz Uddin said the system of caretaker government should not be eliminated before reviewing those factors which compelled the country to adopt it.

 SP offices put under security blankets in 3 hill districts
UNB, Bandarban

Security measures have been beefed up for the offices of the police supers in the three hill districts following threats coming from unknown sources on the heels of recent incidents in the CHT region.
Police sources said the threats were given recently to blow up the offices of the police chiefs in the hill districts.
Strangers are not being allowed in the SP office in Bandarban following the simultaneous developments in the three districts, where the situation is taking some twists amid intrusion by aliens, making militant hideouts and indications of a slow return of ethnic unrest.
Friday night's killing of a UPDF leader in Khagrchhari came as the latest stoke in an uneasy calm in the hills.
Also on Friday night, a bomb-like object was found on the road in front of the residence of Khagrachhari Police Super.
Bandarban Police Super Qamrul Ahsan told reporters that it was not clear who is giving the threat. "But, security measures have been strengthened in important places," he said.
The SP also said anonymous letters bearing the threats came from unknown places without any address or name.
Police are investigating if the letters are sent by any militant outfit.
A few days back, training camps of Islamist outfit JMB in dense forests of Bandarban and Khagrachhari were busted and its members arrested.
Myanmar citizens were also held in Bandarban in the wake of reported intrusion by aliens into the Chittagong Hill Tracts.
Incidentally, observers think, such developments might be taking place for a bit laxity in security lineup in the transitional period as some security camps are being withdrawn from backwoods in the CHT region in implementation of the CHT peace accord.

  How can ‘imbalanced’ Jalil continue as MP: Delwar
TBT Report

Any 'imbalanced' or convicted person cannot get nomination for contesting parliament election but how is the Awami League (AL) former general secretary Abdul Jalil still a law maker in spite of being mentally 'imbalanced.'
BNP secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain made this remarks while talking to reporters at party's Naya Paltan central office in the capital on Sunday.
"So far as we know, any imbalance or convicted person cannot get nomination for taking part in the parliamentary election. But how does the former AL general secretary hold posts of party's adviser and parliament member as the ruling party is saying he is mentally imbalanced. Does any such parson continue as parliament member?" Khandaker Delwar Hossain asked.
BNP has been saying that the ninth national parliamentary election was not held under transparent and impartial atmosphere. The truth has come out through Abdul Jalil's recent remarks that touched off raging debates, he said.
Delwar Hossain said BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia has made allegation that the ninth parliament election was stage managed. After forming government through stage managed election, the AL is running the state ignoring interest of common people in the country. He said the country is unprotected now. Bangladeshi people on different bordering areas are being killed by BSF of India every day. As part of secret deal with vested quarters, the construction works of Tipaimukh Dam and Asian Highway are going on which are against the interest of the countrymen.
Delwar Hossain said country's political, social, financial and law and order situations are not well at all.

  New land port launched to boost export to India
bdnews24.com, Feni

The government has opened the country's 17th land port in Feni district hoping to boost export to seven northeast Indian states including Tripura.
Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan formally inaugurated the Bilonia Land Port, which had been a tax station, in Porshuram Upazila on Sunday.
Indian state Tripura's commerce minister Gitendra Chowdhury, Indian HC to Bangladesh Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty, shipping secretary Masud Elahi, India-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Matlub Ahmed, among others, attended the inaugural ceremony.
The minister said the new land port meant to fulfill another electoral pledge of the Awami League- government.
He also expressed the hope to expand trade with Nepal and Bhutan.
Gitendra Chowdhury said over 100 years ago goods were transported to Tripura through Feni. The new land port has resumed the trade in a new form.
He said it would be cost effective for his government if it can import construction materials from Bangladesh. He also said, "We have plenty of rubber and fruits, you (Bangladeshi authorities) may make use of them."
Matlub Ahmed at a news conference in the capital on Saturday said, "With the inauguration of the new land port Bangladesh will be able to increase export to northeast Indian states (Seven Sisters), further closing the trade gap."
According to the Export Promotion Bureau figure, Bangladesh had a trade gap with India worth $ 158.70 crore in the 2008-09 FY.
The exporters and importers from Chittagong, Noakhali and Feni areas will be able to transport their goods at very low costs through the new port, he had said.
"We have estimated that the cost of transporting goods using the other land ports is around 20,000 taka. Transporting goods using the Bilonia-Feni port lowers it to around 5,000 taka," the IBCCI chief told the media.
"We are hoping that Bangladesh will export goods worth 1 billion dollar to India by 2011," Ahmed added.

  Bill tabled for time extension to submit Constitutions of political parties to EC

BSS, Sangsad Bhaban

A bill was introduced in the Jatiya Sangsad [JS] on Sunday extending the time period for submitting the ratified constitution of the political parties to the Election Commission [EC] for another six months.
While introducing The Representation of People Order [RPO] (2nd Amen-dment) Bill, 2009, in the House, Law Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Barrister Shafique Ahmed said that under RPO the political parties were supposed to submit their ratified constitution duly approved by their party council sessions to the EC within six months from the first session of the 9th Parliament for getting registration. Earlier, the EC extended temporary registration to the political parties on the basis of their submitted provisional Constitutions. But due to unavoidable circumstances, some political parties could not hold their national council and ratified their constitutions within this six months' time frame.
Consequently, the minister told the House, those parties applied to the EC to extend this time frame to enable them to comply with this mandatory provision of the RPO.
Barrister Shafique said on the basis of such request by the EC, the ministry has brought this amendment allowing more six months time to submit the ratified constitution by those political parties that yet could not do so. He said that the last date for submitting the ratified constitution was July 24, 2009, which has already expired. To avoid any legal complications, in the amended bill the time frame has been given effective from July 25, 2009. The minister said the EC could cancel the registration of those political parties which would be failed to submit their ratified constitution within the extended time frame.

Back Page

Five-judge SC bench formed
Appeal hearing in Bangabandhu murder case from today

BSS, Dhaka

The Chief Justice on Sunday constituted a five-judge bench of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court to hear and dispose of the appeal petitions of the convicts now in jail in the Ban-gabandhu murder case.
Chief Justice MM Ruhul Amin constituted the bench comprising Justice Md Tofazzul Islam, Justice Md Abdul Aziz, Justice Bijan Kumar Das, Justice Md Mozammel Hossain and Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha.
The hearing on the appeals will begin from today before the newly-formed bench in the court no-3 of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court. On a prayer of the state, the Supreme Court on August 24 set October 5 for holding the hearing of the appeals in the case of the killing of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
A three-judge bench of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court accepted the leave to appeals of the five convicts in the Bangabandhu killing case on September 23 in 2007. Then the convicts filed regular appeals complying with the court order within the stipulated time. The concise statement on the appeal of the case was submitted to the Supreme Court on August 23.
The hearing of the appeals in the Bangabandhu murder case was not possible earlier due to lack of the required number of judges.
On November 8, 1998, District and Sessions Judge of Dhaka Quazi Golam Rasul handed down the death sentences to 15 ex- military officers in this case.
Later, a High Court Division bench on December 14, 2000, delivered a split judgement after the hearing of the appeals and mandatory death references. Justice M Ruhul Amin, senior judge of the bench, confirmed the death sentences of 10 convicts while his companion judge Justice ABM Khairul Haque upheld the punishment of all the 15 convicts.
Later, the matter was sent to a single bench (third bench) of Justice Mohammad Fazlul Karim, who upheld the death sentences of 12 convicts and acquitted three others.
The accused whose death sentences were upheld are Lt Col (sacked) Syed Faruq Rahman, Lt Col (sacked) Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, Lt Col (sacked) Mahiuddin Ahmed, Lt Col (sacked) Abdur Rashid, Lt Col (sacked) Shariful Haq Dalim, Lt Col (sacked) Noor, Lt Col (sacked) Aziz Pasha, Maj (sacked) Bazlul Huda, Maj (sacked) AKM Mahiuddin Ahmed (lancer), Rishaldar (sacked) Moslem Uddin, Lt Col (sacked) Rashed Chowdhury and Col (sacked) Mazed.

  GP eyes rural foray as record IPO subscription opens
bdnews24.com, Dhaka

Grameenphone eyes expansion into rural market with the new money as subscription for its Tk 480 crore IPO opened Sunday, said the top official of the country's largest mobile-phone operator.
GP chief executive Oddvar Hesjedal told bdnews24.com that the company's future endeavor was to better reach the rural population.
The long-awaited IPO subscription, the largest in the history of the Bangladeshi capital market, closes on Thursday for resident Bangladeshis, but it will remain open for expatriate Bangladeshis until Oct 18.
On the issue, Hesjedal said it was a milestone for the capital market. "We would now have many Bangladeshi sha-reholders and would be able to share the future growth of the company with them."
Floating shares of GP would encourage other foreign companies to go public and attract more and more investors, both local and foreign, into the market, said the CEO on the IPO's impact on the capital market.
Touching on future plans, he said that they were looking forward to expand in wireless data providing service arena.
"Not only for the urban population but the rural one as well," added Hesjedal.
The company in its IPO prospectus stated that the fund raised would be mostly used for network expansion.
Asked what more expansion would happen against the backdrop of GP's wide network coverage, Hesjedal said that they hope their customer base would double over the next few years. "So, it would be more of increasing the capacity rather than coverage." He also revealed plans to focus more on the rural market in the coming days.
"And we have entered to the Internet age, so we would need to upgrade our infrastructure." On a foothold into the 3G technology, the GP chief executive said that they have huge interest in the arena. "But then again, it all depends on the regulator's decisions." The company was cleared by the Securities and Exchange Commission to float 69,439,400 ordinary shares of Tk 10 each, with a Tk 60 premium per share, to raise Tk 486.08 from general public.
The market lot has been fixed at 200 shares which means an investor will have to deposit Tk 14,000 as subscription fee. Grameenphone's pre-IPO or private placement of Tk 486.07 crore has been completed in December last year.

  Ex-DMP DCs Kohinoor, Mazharul suspended for misconduct
UNB, Dhaka

Much-talked-about former DMP deputy commissioners Kohinoor Miah and Mazharul Huq were on Sunday suspended on charges of misconduct, pending court proceedings in a case filed by a ruling-party female activist, officials said.
The Home Ministry issued the suspension orders against duo-Kohinoor Miah, now attached as SP with Rajshahi Range Office as OSD and Mazharul Huq, Additional DIG, now posted as vice-principal of Sardah Police Academy in Rajshahi.
Officials said now the two police officers would have to face "departmental proceedings on charges of misconduct". The government decision came following court orders issued on September 27. Fourth Additional Metro-politan Sessions Judge's Court of Dhaka upon a revision petition filed by Shahin Sultana Santa, a Mohila Juba League Leader, asked the government to start departmental proceedings against Kohinoor, Mazhar and more than two dozen other police officers in connection with a criminal case.
Santa filed the case with a Dhaka Court in 2006 complaining that DC Kohinoor Miah along with his police men abused her during a clash between police and opposition activists at Dhanmondi Road No. 27 on March 12, 2006.

  Govt to retrofit buildings in Dhaka to minimise earthquake risks

BSS, Dhaka

The government has decided to retrofit public and private buildings in Dhaka city to reduce risks and damages of earthquake.
Necessary laws would be enacted to this end. This was decided at a meeting today at the food and disaster management ministry on tackling earthquake-related disasters. Chaired by Food and Disaster Management Minister Dr M Abdur Razzak, the meeting decided that a building at Bangladesh Secretariat and a public hospital would be retrofitted first in the city, said an official release.
After the meeting, the minister said there are five faults inside Bangladesh from where earthquakes can originate. If a 7.5-magnitude earthquake originates from the Madhupur fault, about 70,000 buildings in Dhaka city would be affected. A big tremor will do huge damage to power, water and gas lines, creating more danger for the people.
The meeting suggested introduction of modern system so that all the supply lines get stopped automatically with the shaking of a specific magnitude.
It also requested all departments to prepare contingency plans and submit those to the food and disaster management ministry. To reduce the risk, the glasses used in high-rise buildings would be laminated, if required. Besides, the meeting decided to update seismic data and intensify observation to determine the actual risk of earthquake. The government will develop 62,000 volunteers across the country in next three years to expedite post-tremor search and salvation activities, the meeting was told.
Six hundred volunteers have already completed their training and the training of 400 more volunteers will end in December.
The volunteers will also create awareness among the people. The meeting sought cooperation of mass media to create awareness among the people on facing natural calamities, including eart-hquake.

   JS body asks law-enforcers to stop making fake passports
BSS, Dhaka

A meeting of the parliamentary standing committee on the Ministry of Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment on Sunday asked the law-enforcing agencies to stop making fake passports.
The meeting also suggested that the authorities concerned should take necessary measures to prepare machine readable passports (MRPs) maintaining transparency and quality.
Chairman of the committee Anisul Islam Mahmud presided over the meeting held at the Jatiya Sangsad here today, a JS press release said.
The meeting discussed the duties and responsibilities of the authorities concerned of the Department of Immigration, Civil Aviation and Customs for rendering assistance to expatriates in their returning homes as well as going abroad.
A three-member subcommittee was formed at the meeting to make recommendations for easing all formalities in the airports for the interest of expatriate Bangladeshis.
The meeting was infor-med that the immigration process has already been computerised providing with all modern felicities.
Besides, the meeting discussed the initiatives taken by the Civil Aviation authorities to intensify the monitoring system for checking illegal immigration, stopping harassment to passengers at the customs office, providing facilities of baggage rules and extending due facilities for the expatriates.
Members of the committee Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Emplo-yment Minister Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain, Md. Ishak Hossain Talukdar, ABM Abul Kashem, Md Shahab Uddin, Col (retd) A A Maruf Sakalan, Mostak Ahmed Ruhi, Jafrul Islam Chowdhury and Begum Shahida Tarekh Dipti attended the meeting.
The secretary and other high officials of the ministry were also present at the meeting.

 Tackling climate change
US to provide more assistance to BD

UNB, Dhaka

The United States will continue to work providing assistance for addressing the climate-change issues in Bangladesh, US Ambassador James F Moriarty said on Sunday, as the matter is on top of the agenda of global forums.
He held out the assurance when a delegation led by him met Dr Hasan Mahmud, State Minister for Environment and Forest, at his Secretariat office.
The five-member delegation included USAID director Denise Rollins, Chief of USAID economic growth office Naren Chanmugam and team leader of USAID environment section Azharul Mojumder.
Quoting the US Ambassador after the meeting, Dr Hasan Mahmud told reporters that the US administration, in comparison to any other times, "is more willing to provide assistance to Bangladesh to address the environmental issues".
He said during the meeting, they discussed in detail the USAID-funded project on Integrated Protected Area Co-management (IPAC) conducted in the country's Chitta-gong hill areas.
The State Minister for Environment and Forest said Bangladesh has demanded $ 500 million from the multi-donor trust fund as immediate necessity for the vulnerability caused in the country due to climate change. "This fund should be provided by the responsible parties," he said.
Classifying countries in three categories-developed, fast developing and vulnerable---Dr Mahmud said the responsibilities of all countries should be emphasized in ensuring adaptation to climate change.

Editorial

Making Union Parishads more effective

The demand for strengthening the local government bodies including the Union Parishads is long-standing, but it is yet to be materialized. There are widespread allegations that even the present government in sharp contrast to its election pledges is trying to retain its grip on all local bodies from Upazila Parishads to Union Parishads. But the public representatives there are opposed to this move and bent on strengthening the local government bodies.
It is known to all that the Upazila Chairmen of the country have been struggling relentlessly to resist the dominance of Parliament members over the Upazila Parishads, although with not much success. Now, the Union Parishad Chairmen on Saturday threatened the government with movement if parliament passes a proposed law providing for appointing bureaucrats as administrators to the lowest tier of the local government in absence of elected councils. Mahbubur Rahman Tulu, chairman of Gaibandha Union Parishad and president of the Bangladesh Union Parishad forum, also threatened from a national workshop in the capital. to take the government to court . Tulu said, " Union Parishad must be made more effective and significant. Bureaucrats are trying to replace public representatives. It must be stopped,"
Local Government Minister Syed Ashraful Islam on Sept 13 tabled in the Parliament the Local Government (Union Parishad) Bill-2009, the draft of which was referred to the standing committee for further scrutiny. Section 18 of the draft bill proposed to authorise the government to appoint administrators- a provision considered as an instrument for the government to directly control the Parishad.
Originally there was a move on the part of the government to make Parliament members the advisers to oversee the functioning of all local government bodies specially upazila, city corporations and municipalities. But the government later changed the strategy. Parliamernt on September 14 - passed the Local Government (Municipality) Bill without having any provision for making the local MP as adviser to the respective municipality .
A lot of controversies have sparked and feuds ensued between the MPs and Upazila Chairmen after the Upazila Parishad Act provided for making the MPs the advisers to their respective Upazila parishads. It is due to this discord that the Upazila Parishads have not been able to start functioining in full swing even after eight months of the elections. It is also apparently in view of this fact that the governemnt reportedly decided to backtrack from the earlier decision to install MPs as advisers to city corporations and municipalities as well.
The bill to enact a law on Union Parishad is going to be passed as the country's 4,500 union parishads have been running without laws for over six months. It is now certain that the local MPs will not have any role to play in Union Parishads. The reported move not to make MPs advisers to municiaplities, city corporations and Union Parishads are definitely positive steps. Because, local government bodies should be allowed to function independently without any interference from any quarter. Specially, the Union Parishad is the lowest tier of local government and its structure is such that it cannot function smoothly under external influence and hence Union Parishad should be made totally independent and more effective to ensure development at the grassroots level.

 Eradicating poverty

Economists at a seminar in the city on Saturday called for a strong political commitment to eradicate poverty from the country's rural areas with an "effective social protection system". "The government will have to ensure administrative reform and formulate a labour market policy thorough a consensus of politicians to have a social protection system in place for guaranteeing social security and safety network," former Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Salehuddin Ahmed told the seminar. Food Minister Dr Abdur Razzaque said introduction of new technologies in agriculture and spreading education may help accelerate the poverty reduction efforts. Prof Dr Wahiduddin Mahmud said poverty alleviation programmes should be taken keeping the local aspects in mind.
It goes without saying that poverty is the main barrier to our national progress. As many as 75 percent of the world's poor live in rural areas of developing countries, and nearly three-fourths of the poor in Southeast Asia live in rural areas. Poverty is an acute problem for Bangladesh and alleviation of it is our national priority. But the progress made in this field is very slow and limited. In fact, poverty alleviation remains a very difficult task .Main reasons of this hapless situation are misuse, wastage and misappropriation of the aid-money . Poverty is widespread in our country. In Bangladesh 4 children are born every minute of whom one is extremely poor. 30 million of the country's population are facing hunger and malnutrition. They are 'ultra poor.' In the given circumstances poverty alleviation has become a common slogan in the country, but the time has come to realise that in order to attain this goal firm political commitment is needed.

Analysis

Limited options

The US government has to share the blame for the current anti-US campaign in Pakistan. Some American statements provide ample ammunition to the opposition in Pakistan.

Dr Hasan-Askari Rizvi

US-Pakistan relations have passed through many ups and downs. Alternating periods of cooperation and sanctions against Pakistan always evoked debate in both countries, reflecting varying degrees of distrust as well as convergence and divergence on bilateral, regional and global issues.
Given the sharp differences in the positions of the two countries in the global hierarchy, Pakistan's political circles always found this relationship overwhelming. This perception became more conspicuous in the early 1980s when the United States, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and many other states joined hands to build an Islamic-Afghan resistance to the Soviet military presence in Afghanistan.
Since then, US policies towards Pakistan have had greater implications for Pakistan's domestic context. There were Pakistani winners and losers from the American economic and military assistance and secret funding in the 1980s. In addition to General Zia-ul Haq's military government, the major winners were Islamic groups and parties. The ISI and the CIA used American funds, material and weapons to strengthen Islamic orthodoxy and militancy to expel the Soviets from Afghanistan. Even when the US left the region in 1990, Pakistan's military continued to rely on orthodoxy and militancy to pursue its agenda in Afghanistan and it launched a new jihadi project in Indian-administered Kashmir.
The US' Pakistan policies helped improve the political clout of the extreme right-orthodox religious elements, especially those advocating or pursuing jihad as an instrument of foreign policy and security agenda. This created a symbiotic relationship between Islamic militancy-jihad and the Pakistani state.
The reinvigoration of Pakistan-US relations after 9/11 had similar far reaching implications for Pakistan's domestic politics.
Islamic parties and militant groups have been the major losers of the current Pakistan-US relations. Their privileged interaction with the Pakistani state suffered initially when the government and the military downgraded their relationship with Islamic and militant groups rather than severing it. However, the drift between the two increased over the years and by 2007, the Taliban and their associates openly turned against their one-time patron - the Pakistani state.
Pakistan's decision in April 2009 to launch the Swat/Malakand military operation drew the battle lines. In addition to the Taliban and their associates, most Islamists and militants are opposed to Pakistan's counter-terrorism policies which are described as an appendage to American policies.
The on-going debate in Pakistan on Pakistan-US relations is influenced more by domestic power politics rather than the realities of global politics and the options available to Pakistan against the backdrop of its troubled economy. Pakistani critics have chosen neither to pay any attention to the dynamics of global politics nor take into account the imperatives of promoting internal political cohesion in Pakistan and revitalising its economy.
The current domestic debate, at times emotionally charged, focuses on a number of issues including the physical and personnel expansion of the US embassy in Islamabad, renting of about two hundred houses in Islamabad by the American embassy, and the provisions of the "Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act 2009" (The Kerry-Lugar Act).
There are several unsubstantiated issues that are being raised by those opposed to reinvigorated Pakistan-US relations. These include allegations of the presence of an American security agency, Blackwater, and the arrival of several hundred marines, some of whom are engaged in military-like activities in the vicinity of Islamabad. These people also claim that a good number of American personnel enter Pakistan without visas and without the knowledge of the Pakistani government.
Islamic parties and militant groups are pursuing a massive propaganda campaign against the above issues. Their discourse, unsubstantiated by facts, reflects their self-created perceptions influenced by a narrow religious disposition. Most of them rely heavily on a host of conspiracy theories to explain how the US wants to destabilise and undermine Pakistan.
The Jama'at-e Islami, known as pro-West until 1990, spearheads the anti-US campaign and publicises the threat of the US taking over Islamabad or dismantling the nuclear programme by using a private security agencies and American marines that have been sneaked into Pakistan. Such disposition of Islamic and militant groups is not merely ideological but also reflects their fury on the loss of political clout in Pakistan's domestic context due to Pakistan's participation in the US-led global efforts to contain militancy, especially the recent military operations in Malakand/Swat and the tribal areas.
Some opposition is coming from the PMLN and others with strong rightist-nationalist orientations. The PMLN is pursuing a two-track policy. The top-most leaders like Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif do not publicly criticise current American counter-terrorism policies and support Pakistani security operations in Malakand and the tribal areas. However, the PMLN's second line of leadership minces no words about Pakistan's security operations, Pakistan-US relations and especially the Enhanced Partnership Act, which is being described as an insult to Pakistan. Their views overlap with those of the Jama'at-e Islami.
The current attack on the Enhanced Partnership Act is also part of the opposition effort to somehow knock out the PPP-led federal government, which is already facing a credibility crisis due to poor governance. If that is not possible, they want at least President Asif Ali Zardari forced out of office. The current controversies on Pakistan-US relations provide the opposition with a good opportunity to build additional pressure on the government.
The US government has to share the blame for the current anti-US campaign in Pakistan. Some American statements provide ample ammunition to the opposition in Pakistan. The occasional talk of drone attacks in Balochistan to wipe out the 'Quetta shura' of the Taliban gets a negative response even from those who actively support counter-terrorism.
The wording in the Enhanced Partnership Act regarding monitoring could have been done more carefully to take into account sensitivities in Pakistan's political domain. For example, nuclear proliferation has been mentioned three times and the stipulation in section 203 (c)(1) "...to dismantle supplier networks relating to the acquisition of nuclear weapons-related materials, such as providing relevant information from or direct access to Pakistani nationals associated with such networks" can easily cause controversy if not read carefully.
The provision in section 302 (a) (15) regarding "...military budgets, the chain of command, the process of promotion for senior military leaders, civilian involvement in strategic guidance and planning, and military involvement in civil administration" has caused alarm in political circles. Though the Act talks of monitoring only, this is being interpreted in Pakistan as a cover for interference, making it obligatory for Pakistan to seek US approval on these matters.
The government of Pakistan has allowed confusion to persist on the issues being raised by the political circles and the media. Its explanations are often vague and do not fully respond to the questions being raised.
The Pakistani government is not prepared to admit publicly that its precarious economic situation restricts its foreign policy options and increases its dependence on international financial institutions and the US. The government is unable to defend the new US assistance as an opportunity to revive the economy or to counter the criticism by Islamist and rightist-nationalist circles.


(Dr Hasan-Askari Rizvi is a political and defence analyst)
Courtesy: www.dailytimes.com

  Facts, truth and strategy

Our weakness becomes an opportunity for China and an invitation to Pakistan. Witness the latter's supreme indifference to concerns about the Lashkar-e-Taiba.

M.J. Akbar

Is there anything in common between an India-Pak cricket match in South Africa and China's decision to give disputed status to Indian Kashmiris through disingenuous separate-sheet visas? Yes. Neither is a game.
China's celebratory ascent into the top echelons of the modern world owes to a course correction by Deng Xiaoping, who recognized that communism was injurious to China's health. He replaced ideology with idealism and gave it pragmatic legs. The shift from pomposity to practical was based on an old Chinese principle: Search for truth among facts. The only thing Maoist about China now is the portrait in Tiananmen Square and the mugshot on the currency notes.
China's foreign policy is shaped by the same principle. It has looked long and hard at the facts of India, in particular at its defense. Thanks to the self-castration of a post-Bofors mentality, the hypocrisy of a system thirsty for bribes behind the burqa of bureaucratic-political piety, and the pseudo-morality of a defense minister who equates procrastination with self-protection, India's defense capability is now at least a generation behind China's in both conventional and nuclear warfare.
When an Indian air chief promises to bring his capability up to speed in a potential war zone like Arunachal Pradesh, he is talking of what might happen by 2018 if all goes well. Make that a very big if. The Indian Air Force has been whittled down to a statistical accident. Our artillery has a goodwill-inventory. The communication infrastructure necessary to back up a fighting unit is waiting for the dust to be cleaned from the cover of the files.
China assessed Indian vulnerability years ago, and signaled its mood on the eve of President Hu Jintao's last state visit, generally a time when states seek to stress points of mutual agreement. Instead, the then Chinese ambassador in Delhi chose to dwell on Chinese claims on Arunachal Pradesh, called Southern Tibet by Beijing. It was deliberate, calculated provocation to which Delhi responded with its familiar waffle.
The border provocations of 2009 have evoked a very queer reaction from National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan. He said, in defense of the Chinese, that the infringements had not increased beyond the normal. This begs a question: What is the normal level of infringements? A couple of hundred yards here or there - or, perhaps, there rather than here.
Jawaharlal Nehru once made the mistake of telling Parliament that the disputed territory on the China border was all rock and wasteland. In 1962 China proved how much it valued wasteland. Has China begun another "Mission Creep" which seeks to change facts on the ground so that the truth can be refashioned in fertile Delhi?
I do not believe that China wants war with India. The raison d'être of the post-communist Communist Party is the promise, to its people, of stability. Stability is the cocoon in which economic growth can be spun. War would destabilize the Chinese stock exchange, if nothing else.
China also wants trade with India, now close to $60 billion. It is a useful hedge at a time of recession in the West. Moreover, the Indian market is undemanding. Wal-Mart will not accept toxic lead in toys, and American media do raise a typhoon if Chinese cat food ends up killing the cat. But the Delhi trader does not really care if the rows of Chinese Ganesh idols have been spray-painted with death-dealing gamma rays as long as he can sell them for twice the price he paid. They must be laughing all the way from Shanghai to Lhasa.
The laughter in Beijing is probably restricted to the great debate on India's nuclear tests. It takes courage, more than freedom, to pursue an argument on the most serious element of our defense spread through press conferences, the preferred methodology of both the plaintiff and the accused. If the eminent scientists who believe that the yield in 1998 was too low and India needs to test further are getting a hearing it is only because of their eminence, their knowledge (they are the hands-on people who actually created the nuclear deterrent) and their transparent sincerity. If they have no case, as a belligerent government (denied the right to test by the Indo-US nuclear deal) believes, then they have been utterly irresponsible.
Why doesn't the government accuse them of treason and bring them before the courts? They have shaken the nation's conviction in its core assets and given comfort to the enemy. The government cannot clear doubts by a show of hands from within the establishment. It needs, at the very least, an independent inquiry.
There is a rational reason why China has decided to exploit Indian weaknesses and contradictions through rhetoric and provocative gestures on the border and in its Delhi embassy. It seeks to keep India off-balance, to the extent it can, at a time of great existential discomfort for its ally Pakistan.
Pakistan has always sought Chinese help in its confrontation with India. China has given it, although never to the point where it becomes counterproductive. The games theory in Islamabad and Beijing surely is that if Pakistan has to worry about two fronts, then, at the very least, so should India.
Our weakness becomes an opportunity for China and an invitation to Pakistan. Witness the latter's supreme indifference to concerns about the Lashkar-e-Taiba. A New York Times report published on Sept. 30 could not be more categorical: "Ten months after the devastating attacks in Mumbai by Pakistan-based militants, the group behind the assault remains largely intact and determined to strike India again, according to current and former members of the group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and intelligence officials. Despite pledges from Pakistan to dismantle groups operating on its soil, and the arrest of a handful of operatives, Lashkar has persisted, even flourished..."
Pakistan cannot find Lashkar operatives planning another attack, but the New York Times can.
Nothing in the equation between India and Pakistan is a game, unless you include war in the list of games. Even cricket has become a war by other means. But that is another story, suitable for some future column.


(M.J. Akbar is chairman and
director of publications of the fortnightly news magazine Covert (www.covertmagazine.com)
Courtesy: www.arabnews.com

Viewpoints

Planning foreign policy

Trust is as little in supply in 2009 as it was in 1959; and there is little understanding of why, after every single promising move in these years, Indo-Pak relations have hit the rock.

A.G. Noorani 

An Indian daily which reproduces quotes from reports published half a century ago, gave the honours recently to the joint communiqué issued on Sept 1, 1959 when, during a brief halt at Palam Airprt in New Delhi, President Ayub Khan met Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru "informally in a very cordial atmosphere".
The joint statement they issued makes poignant reading today. Fundamentally, relations between the two countries have not changed although some major disputes have been resolved, most notably the Indus waters dispute. Trust is as little in supply in 2009 as it was in 1959; and there is little understanding of why, after every single promising move in these years, Indo-Pak relations have hit the rock. The governments and the media and academia have not quite come to grips with the basic causes of the persisting mistrust.
From 1948, if not indeed 1947, Nehru had set his face against holding the promised plebiscite in Kashmir. There was no 'misunderstanding' between the two countries. It was something far worse. It was a deep fundamental divide. Nehru feared that if the result of the plebiscite went against India, as was very likely, it would affect his hold on the country and strengthen the forces of Hindu revivalism. That these forces flourished even as the dispute lingered and relations remained strained was another matter.
Consequently, every move by Pakistan or India for a rapprochement had inescapably to face a harsh reality before long - there was no meeting ground. Ayub Khan's parleys in New Delhi were followed by the summit in Murree on Sept 20, 1960 when Nehru visited Pakistan to sign the Indus Waters Treaty with Ayub Khan in Karachi, the day before. The president had set much store by the event and was disappointed.
By 2007, as the former President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have confirmed more than once, the foundations of an accord on Kashmir had been well and truly laid. Other issues concerning security now foil the relationship. They are particularly sensitive because they affect each other's domestic well-being acutely.
It is a messy affair. The joint statement bore all the hallmarks of a soldier's passion for cut-and-dry plans drawn up by a competent staff officer. This was Ayub Khan's failing. The statement said that the two leaders "agreed that there was need to conduct their relations with each other on a rational and planned basis, and not according to the day-to-day exigencies as they arose, and that their outstanding issues and other problems should, in mutual interest, be settled in accordance with justice and fair play in a spirit of friendliness, cooperation and good neighbourliness".
Ignore the pious bit in the second half and, concentrating on the first part, ask yourself: can foreign relations ever be conducted on a "rational and planned basis" immune to the "exigencies" that arise from day to day? Moreover, they did not share "common objectives". Ayub Khan sought a compromise on Kashmir. Nehru's offer was one he could not possibly accept and vice versa. It has been a besetting failing in leaders of both countries. They are so obsessed with their own domestic political support that they ignore public opinion in the interlocutor's country. This happens to this day.
The unpredictable is inescapable and no foreign policy can possibly be planned to reckon with all the turns events can take. That is extremely difficult in formulating domestic policies. It is well nigh impossible in crafting a foreign policy. How, then, does one account for the fact that the foreign ministry of almost every country of major significance has a section on policy planning, India and Pakistan included?
The United States established a policy planning council in the State Department on May 8, 1947. Such was its success that two decades later its rival the Soviet Union wished to emulate it. The Times Washington correspondent reported on Jan 8, 1966 that "The Soviet Union, surely one of the first planned societies, has come to the United States, where planning is often dismissed as a dirty communist word, for advice - on planning. Mr Dobrynin, the Soviet ambassador, has called on Professor Walt Rostow, the chairman of the Policy Planning Council at the State Department, on more than one occasion recently to inquire about planning techniques. The ambassador has told some of his diplomatic colleagues that the Soviet foreign ministry intends to establish a policy planning council similar to the American prototype".
The stated objectives of the US body were: "(1) formulating and developing, for the consideration and approval of appropriate officials of the department, long-term programmes for the achievement of US foreign policy objectives; (2) anticipating problems which the department may encounter in the discharge of its mission; (3) undertaking studies and preparing reports on broad politico-military problems; (4) examining problems and developments affecting US foreign policy in order to evaluate the adequacy of current policy and making advisory recommendations on them; and (5) coordinating planning activities within the Department of State."
All others advised only from a limited geographical or functional standpoint. At its inception, the staff consisted of five members only and was headed by the famous George F. Kennan. It had no operational responsibilities and could issue no directives to the department's operational units or to its missions abroad. It was simply to think and to recommend.
The council's history in the 60 years that elapsed shows that, however able the professionals may be, their impact depends on the respect for professionalism in politicians who wield power. There is another side to the equation. The professional must not ignore the demands which the political process makes on those in power, within his country and outside, nor the sudden turn which might render his options paper obsolete and irrelevant. If the limitations are borne in mind there is every need for the thinker-in-residence, the institutionalised critic of conventional wisdom - the planning unit in the foreign ministry.


The writer is an author and a lawyer.
Source: www.dawn.com

  Israel Gets Its Way

Instead of progress toward peace, he offered yet another photo-op featuring Israeli and Palestinian leaders in yet another handshake signifying ... nothing.

Jeff Gates

Barack Obama's recent conduct at the UN removed all remaining doubt as to Israeli influence inside this latest US presidency. When he uttered the phrase "the Jewish state of Israel," he provided precisely the provocation required to ensure that peace in the Middle East will continue to ?be deferred.
When, in May 1948, Christian-Zionist Harry Truman agreed to recognise an enclave of Jewish-Zionist extremists as a nation state, he struck out "Jewish state" and wrote the "state of Israel." Despite assurances from Zionist lobbyist Chaim Weizmann that Israel would be a democracy, Truman feared the Zionist state might become what it became: a racist theocracy committed to an expansionist agenda that endangers US interests in the region.
Barack Obama is a political product of Chicago's West Side Jewish community and the nation's "first Jewish president" according to former Clinton White House counsel Abner Mikva. Though branded an agent of change, when the zeitgeist of his campaign suggested that change might encompass a shift in the US-Israeli relationship, those Ashkenazim who produced this presidential phenomenon let their displeasure be known.
The candidate of change quickly made the requisite rounds of pro-Israeli venues where he promised his benefactors there would be no change in an entangled alliance that, in retrospect, is the primary reason the US finds itself at war in the Middle East. His UN performance thrilled those colonial Zionists whose duplicity troubled Truman. Meanwhile, his "Jewish state" comment was guaranteed to inflame tensions in the region.
In the lead-up to this speech, Israelis told Obama what they intended to do - and then did it. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he would use agreed-to terms of the Road Map to trade for stronger action against Iran. When Obama blinked and failed to insist that Israel comply with the agreed-to freeze on settlements, Netanyahu got what he sought - an emphasis on war with Iran rather than peace with the Palestinians.
Rather than announcing progress in negotiations, Obama announced only his hope that negotiations could soon resume - maybe. When Tel Aviv saw how easily they outwitted this novice negotiator, their agenda became more audacious. Obama's mention of the code phrase "Jewish state" confirmed the ongoing role of the same stage managers who flew him directly from his speech in Cairo to a photo-op at Germany's Buchenwald death camp.
Confirming the Zionists' insider influence, Rahm Emanuel, widely described as the most powerful Chief of Staff in decades, assumed a prominent position in the UN chamber alongside the Secretary of State, the UN Ambassador and the National Security Adviser. As with Cairo, Obama not only missed another opportunity to build goodwill, he missed a chance to restore the tattered credibility of the US after eight years of a Christian-Zionist president. Instead of progress toward peace, he offered yet another photo-op featuring Israeli and Palestinian leaders in yet another handshake signifying ... nothing.
At what point will Americans realise they've been played for the fool by a purported ally? At what point does presidential conduct become culpable complicity? Why would The New York Times report a decline in Barack Obama's approval ratings in Israel?
Pundits put a positive spin on this foreign policy disaster by suggesting that Obama boxed Netanyahu in by finessing the settlements issue and forcing the Israeli leader to mention final status negotiations. That analysis misses the point. For Tel Aviv, there is no final status. The point of this six-decade process is more process - to avoid resolution.
Should Washington maneuver Israel into a box, Tel Aviv will collapse yet another coalition government. Or announce a resignation. That was Ben-Gurion's ruse in June 1963 when John F. Kennedy insisted on inspections to stop Israel's nuclear arms programme. Ehud Olmert used the same negotiating tactic when it appeared that the Road Map could lead to a final status agreement. His well-timed resignation brought back Netanyahu.
The only party in a box is the US. The way out is to end this entangled alliance and the perils to US interests that this "special relationship" was certain to create. In practical effect, in order to keep an Israeli government intact with which to negotiate, the US must satisfy the most right-wing elements of the most right-wing political party of an infamously right-wing foreign government. How can that be in ?America's interest?
Harry Truman's recognition of this enclave as a legitimate state was an overwrought reaction to a unique combination of domestic and international circumstances that were manipulated to the advantage of violent religious extremists. Their ethnic cleansing of Palestine has yet to be either acknowledged or addressed.
After six decades of occupation and oppression, the best a US president could offer Palestinians was an assurance that a US ally - should negotiations resume - would come to the table with "clear terms of reference." What greater insult could a US president inflict on the Arab world than such an empty promise?
Obama's performance was pathetic. Also, in effect, he gave the green light for another mass murder in the US or in the European Union. As part of the pre-staging of another plausible rationale for the invasion of yet another Middle Eastern nation, mainstream US media misrepresented remarks to the UN by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, giving credence to Iran as a nuclear threat. That Evil Doer portrayal is consistent with the pre-staging of other operations by which the US was induced to war on false pretenses.
The next incident could be nuclear. While Obama was conceding to Israeli demands, Defense Minister Ehud Barack was meeting with US Defense Secretary Robert Gates to assure him that Tel Aviv may yet attack Iran. In yet another signal to a worldwide audience about just who shapes US foreign policy, the Pentagon chief was accompanied by Dennis Ross who joined Obama's Iran advisory team from a think tank affiliate of the American Israel Public ?Affairs Committee.
For the first time in history, a US president chaired a meeting of the UN Security Council. Presented with an occasion to caution an ally not to aggravate the nuclear arms race that Kennedy sought to halt in its infancy, Obama focused instead on Iran, forgoing a warning to the one nation in the Middle East known to have a nuclear arsenal. And the only nation able to deliver on the threat of deployment.
As an additional insult to Arab nations, the US negotiating team urged - despite no sign of good faith by Tel Aviv - that those nations offer diplomatic gestures of goodwill. Or make "substantive concessions" as Netanyahu put it. No reason was offered why, after enduring more than sixty years of nonstop duplicity, they should agree ?to do so.
For anyone to assume or suggest that Israel is operating in good faith reflects a perilous misreading of history. What we just witnessed at the UN is how warfare is waged in the Information Age. This was neither the behaviour of a US ally nor a nation deserving US support, friendship, arms or even recognition. Any further appeasement of this extremist enclave and Obama can rightly be charged with breach of his oath of office to defend the US from all enemies, both domestic and foreign.


Jeff Gates is author of Guilt By Association, Democracy at Risk and The Ownership Solution
Courtesy : www.khaleejtimes.com

  Obama’s Iran dilemma

It is not just the nuclear weapon possibility that concerns Israel; it is the fact of Iranian conventional military power, too.

Alastair Crooke

It was pure drama: The leaders of the United States, Britain and France stepped onto the stage at the Pittsburgh G20 meeting last week to unveil Western intelligence that showed Iran had a second nuclear fuel enrichment facility under construction, which Iran had declared to the International Atomic Energy Agency the preceding Monday.
The Western leaders gathered in Pittsburgh implied that their revelation was devastating for Iran as a credible player. US Defence Secretary Robert Gates subsequently pronounced Iran to be "boxed in" and "in a very bad spot now". But anyone who listened to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's interview with a Time magazine correspondent on the day of the presentation, and to subsequent Iranian statements, will be clear that Iran, at least, does not see itself as boxed in.
Far from it, Ahmadinejad exuded confidence and simply - and non-aggressively - counselled US President Barack Obama not to go down this route. It might seem counterintuitive to most Americans and Europeans, but Ahmadinejad's advice might be worth pondering.
The Pittsburgh dramatics, in a sense, signal the culmination of three pivotal events that took place in the Middle East some 20 years ago. The first was the implosion of the Soviet Union in 1989, the second was the 1991 Gulf War, and the third was Yitzak Rabin's victory in the 1992 Israeli elections. The consequences from these momentous events are coming to a head for President Obama now. His course of action may determine whether this region is about to enter a new phase of bitter conflict; or enter a new era of strategic change.
The first two events hobbled Iran's traditional foes on its frontiers. Neither the imploded USSR, nor Iraq, at war with a Western coalition led by the US, was in a position any longer to contain an emergent Iran. As a consequence, Iran's place as a pre-eminent - if not the pre-eminent - power in the Middle East was guaranteed.
The third event, the arrival of a Labour government in Israel, was pivotal to Iran becoming "the nuclear threat". In a dramatic change of policy in 2002, Israel abandoned the Ben-Gurion doctrine of allying Israel with the regional periphery (Turkey, Ethiopia and Iran), an Israeli policy that persisted beyond the Iranian Revolution, and began to engage with its Arab "vicinity".
To manage such a radical shift of talking peace to the former Arab "enemy," a U-turn that bitterly split the Israeli electorate and alienated Israel's supporters in the US, the Labour government in Israel began, from 1993 onward, to identify Iran to its supporters in the US as the new existential "threat" - in place of the former threat of the "never-changing Arab inability to reconcile" with Israel. Subsequently, the West would absorb the Iranian "threat" as its own, for very different reasons.
The significance of this for President Obama is that he is not facing just the issue of Iran's nuclear programme. This programme is rolled into a more substantive and sensitive issue. The more substantive issue, the one at the heart of the Iranian approach to negotiations, is whether - nuclear weapons issue apart - Israel and the US are able to come to terms with an Iran that is, and will be, a pre-eminent power in the region.
At present, these two issues have been conflated. Iran has signalled on various occasions that the nuclear issue could be resolved but first wants to know the answer to the wider issue: Can the US bring Israel to accept Iran as a principal regional power? Can the US itself accept such an outcome?
All here in the region understand the significance of this question: It is not just the nuclear weapon possibility that concerns Israel; it is the fact of Iranian conventional military power, too. Already it is the conventional military power of Iran and its allies that is circumscribing Israeli conventional military freedom of action in the region. A few Israelis are ready to acknowledge this. What we are dealing with here is whether Israel and, by extension, America, can accept that Israel will no longer enjoy its hitherto absolute conventional military dominance in the region.
This is, at bottom, the choice facing Obama: He can pursue a real solution - one that will have to acknowledge painful new realities and accept new forces arising in the region that inevitably will shift strategic balances. Or he can continue to try to contain them and risk a polarised and unstable Middle East.
The United States is slowly reducing its options through the Pittsburgh elevation of the nuclear file to an "ultimatum" choice. Perhaps President Obama believes that in this way he will relieve pressure from Israel for unilateral military action? Perhaps he sees a powerful, conventionally equipped Iran as a threat to Arab allies?
To insist that Iran abandons altogether the nuclear fuel cycle is now probably unrealistic. Iran already has it. To set as an objective that Iran must never acquire the technology that would allow a "breakout" capability (that is, that Iran would be not able speedily to move to weapons capacity at some future point in time) is also unrealistic. Breakout capability goes with the territory: Japan has a peaceful nuclear programme, but implicitly it also has "break-out" capability. But to bomb is even less a solution.
It seems then we are heading to increasing sanctions on Iran, but these, too, are likely to be ineffective, as most specialists already admit - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's initial positive words to Obama on sanctions, notwithstanding.
Already, the non-aligned majority and most Muslim states support Iranian rights under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. For the US to elevate the nuclear issue to an ultimatum, while ignoring the new strategic reality of a powerful Iran, is, as Ahmadinejad hinted, a course of action that Obama in time to come may regret. The Pittsburgh theatrics may prove to have been shortsighted.


Alastair Crooke, the legendary former British intelligence (MI6) agent, is author of "Resistance: The Essence of the Islamist Revolution."
Courtesy: www.gulfnews.com

International

Afghanistan
New Army chief joins troops call

BBC Online

The new head of the Army has backed calls for more international forces to be deployed to Afghanistan.
General Sir David Richards told the Sunday Telegraph reinforcements would enable Nato to achieve its objectives more quickly and with fewer casualties.
"We can start winning the psychological battle," he told the paper.
US President Barack Obama is considering a request for more soldiers and if he agrees, reports suggest Britain may follow suit.
In his first interview since taking over the job in August, Gen Richards said: "If you put in more troops we can achieve the objectives laid upon us more quickly and with less casualties.
"We can start winning the psychological battle, which is broadly wrapped around the Taliban saying, 'The West and the Afghan government is doing very little for you - we will offer you an austere future but at least it will be secure'.
"What we need to demonstrate is that we, Nato and the Afghan government, offer a much brighter future which is more secure, with jobs, and education and better health."
His comments come as Nato officials report that eight foreign soldiers and two Afghan troops have been killed in a fire-fight in Nuristan province in the remote east of the country. Violence has escalated in eastern Afghanistan in recent months as insurgents have relocated from the south of the country.
Meanwhile, the number of British service personnel killed in Afghanistan since 2001 has reached 219 after the death on Thursday of 24-year-old RAF serviceman Marcin Wojtak in Helmand province in the south. Gen Richards warned that failure in Afghanistan could only put Britain at greater risk.
"If al-Qaeda and the Taliban believe they have defeated us - what next? Would they stop at Afghanistan?" he asked. "Pakistan is clearly a tempting target, not least because of the fact that it is a nuclear-weaponed state, and that is a terrifying prospect.
"Even if only a few of those weapons fell into their hands, believe me, they would use them.
"The recent airlines plot has reminded us that there are people out there who would happily blow all of us up." On Thursday, Downing Street said the prime minister was "open-minded" about whether more UK troops were needed in Afghanistan.

  China's PM visits NKorea amid bid to restart nuclear talks
AFP, Seoul

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao held talks in North Korea Sunday at the start of a top-level visit likely to test Pyongyang's willingness to return to nuclear disarmament talks it quit earlier this year.
Leader Kim Jong-Il made a rare airport appearance to host a red-carpet welcome for Wen, TV footage showed, in an apparent sign of Pyongyang's eagerness to improve ties with its closest diplomatic and economic ally.
Kim, wearing his trademark boiler suit, hugged and shook hands with Wen, the most senior Chinese figure to visit North Korea since President Hu Jintao in 2005.
A guard of honour was mounted and women waving Chinese flags greeted the visitors. Kim's visit to Sunan airport was the latest in a series of public appearances following his recovery from an apparent stroke in August last year.
Wen is accompanied on his three-day visit by Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and Wu Dawei, China's envoy to the stalled six-nation disarmament talks, China's Xinhua news agency reported.
China has framed the high-level visit as a "goodwill" trip to mark the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations, but analysts said nuclear issues would be high on the agenda.
Pyongyang strained ties with Beijing when it staged its second nuclear test in May, after quitting the six-party talks hosted by China the previous month. China supported tougher United Nations sanctions imposed in response to the test.
Since August the North has made peace overtures to the United States and South Korea, which are also involved in the talks along with Japan and Russia.
The North is pressing for bilateral talks with the US to end the nuclear standoff. But last month Kim appeared to leave the door open for a return to the six-party forum, telling a visiting Chinese envoy his country was willing to engage in bilateral and multilateral talks.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency has said Kim could make an "important announcement" during Wen's visit. The agency said he was expected to state his willingness to give up nuclear weapons and make detailed suggestions.
It said the leader would likely also deliver his clear position on whether he wants six-party talks or a different form of dialogue.

  Operation in S Waziristan ‘a matter of time’
Dawn

The security forces have ascertained the presence of around five thousand hardcore religious extremists and armed militants operating in South Waziristan under the banner of Baitullah Mehsud group, as they brace up to launch a major military offensive in the volatile mountainous region known as a stronghold of Taliban.
Major-General Athar Abbas, chief of the ISPR, told reporters that 'it (operation) is a matter of the time which, of course, the military would not like to disclose or give any hint about' (according to Reuters).
Winter snow could arrive in late November, hampering military operations, but Gen. Abbas said the weather was one of many factors that planners were taking into account.
A security official told Dawn that an estimated number of 1000 to 1500 foreigners, dominated by Uzbeks was among these militants.
The official said the escape routes will be plugged to a large extent. 'Though the foot-tracks cannot be completely sealed, but the tracks for vehicles will be blocked and security forces around the area will remain vigilant to kill or apprehend the fleeing terrorists,' he remarked.
Clearly indicating that the decision to launch an operation that would be a combination of aerial strikes and ground offensive was irreversible, the official ruled out talks with the terrorists whatsoever.
He said all those who are pursuing the themes of agreement were against the government policy and were misleading the masses.
The security forces have chosen this time to launch military operation in South Waziristan since they believe that not only Baitullah Mehsud, but his successor Hakimullah was also dead.
He said the character of terrorists stands exposed after the death of Baitullah Mehsud and showed they were only aspiring power and money and even do not hesitate to kill each other for that.
'The rudderless leadership of terrorists provides an ideal opportunity to launch operation and inflict a severe blow to the terrorists.'
He said the South Waziristan Agency was the source of main terrorist activities throughout the country. They are rendering support to other terorists' operations in Khyber, Bajaur, Orakzai and Mohmand agencies.

  Heavy US losses in Afghan battle
BBC Online

Eight American soldiers and two Afghan troops have been killed in the deadliest attack on coalition troops for more than a year, officials say.
The battle happened in Nuristan province in the remote east of the country when military outposts were attacked, a Nato statement said.
The Taliban said it carried out the attack, and had captured local police.
Violence has escalated in eastern Afghanistan as insurgents have relocated from the south.
In a statement, Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said that tribal militia launched attacks on foreign and Afghan military outposts from a mosque and a nearby village.
The attack is thought to have taken place in the Kamdesh district of Nuristan, and lasted several hours.
"Coalition forces effectively repelled the attack and inflicted heavy enemy casualties while eight Isaf and two ANSF [Afghan National Security Forces] members were killed," the statement said.
The US area commander, Col Randy George, said his heart went out to the bereaved families, adding that US and Afghan soldiers had "fought bravely together".
It was the worst loss coalition troops have suffered since August 2008, when 10 French troops were killed in an ambush in Kabul province.
A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said the movement was behind the attack.
According to AP news agency, Mr Mujahid also said some 35 Afghan police officers had been taken into Taliban custody, and their fate would be decided by a council.
A local deputy police chief is reported to have said contact had been lost with 19 police officers, though the provincial governor is quoted as denying any such development.
It is not the first time coalition forces have suffered damaging attacks in this region, says the BBC's Martin Patience in Kabul.

  Indonesia prepares for mass burial of quake victims
bdnews24.com/ Reuters, Padang, Indonesia

Indonesians dug a pit for a mass burial in the earthquake shattered city of Padang on Sunday, while in nearby hills villagers with wooden hoes clawed in the mud in a near-hopeless search for hundreds entombed by landslides.
Rescue teams combing the rubble of Padang said there was little hope of finding more survivors from a disaster that authorities say may have killed 3,000 people.
As relief workers pushed deeper inland from the coastal city, they found entire villages obliterated by landslides and homeless survivors desperate for food, water and shelter.
"I am the only one left," said Zulfahmi, 39, who was in the village of Kapalo Koto, near Pariaman, about 40 km (25 miles) north of Padang, with 36 family members when Wednesday's 7.6 magnitude quake struck.
"My child, my wife, my mother-in-law, they are all gone. They are under the earth now."
Indonesia's health minister, Siti Fadillah Supari, told Reuters by telephone that the government estimated the death toll could reach 3,000, adding that disease was becoming a concern, especially in Padang city, where a pervading stench of decomposing bodies hangs over the ruined buildings.
"We are trying to recover people from the debris, dead or alive. We are trying to help survivors to stay alive. We are now focusing on minimizing post-quake deaths," she said.
In Padang, a port city of 900,000 that was once a center of the spice trade, rescuers picked through collapsed buildings to look for perhaps thousands of people still buried.
"We are doing final checks before we can declare the rescue phase is over. We think it's the end of the rescue phase," said British rescue worker Peter Old, of Rapid UK. "There's very little chance of finding people alive."
A pit had been dug in the Tunggul Hitam public cemetery in Padang for a mass burial of 11 unidentified bodies retrieved from the ruined Ambacang Hotel, a landmark in a town famous across Indonesia for its spicy cuisine and dramatic curved roofs.

 Japan’s ex-finance minister Nakagawa found dead
AFP, Tokyo

Former Japanese finance minister Shoichi Nakagawa, who was forced to resign over his apparently drunken behaviour at a meeting of world powers, has been found dead at his home, police said Sunday. He was 56.
His sudden death sent a shock wave throughout the nation with leaders of both ruling and opposition parties regretfully recalling the arch-hawk's turbulent political career.
Nakagawa was lying face down on a bed at his home in Tokyo's residential district of Setagaya when his wife found him early Sunday, police and news reports said. "We will soon conduct an autopsy and specify the cause of his death," said a spokeswoman for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.
No suicide note was discovered and there was no suggestion of foul play, police said. News reports said he had been dead for up to eight hours before he was found.
Jiji Press news agency said Nakagawa was recently taking sleeping pills as he was suffering insomnia symptoms, while TV Asahi reported the cause of his death was likely to be sickness.
Nakagawa, a close ally of then prime minister Taro Aso, was incoherent and slurred his speech at a news conference in February after the Group of Seven talks in Rome amid the global economic crisis.
A heavyweight in the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Nakagawa said he had sipped some wine with lunch before the press conference but blamed jet lag and cold medicine for his drowsiness.
"I'm too shocked to think of any words to say," Aso was quoted by public broadcaster NHK as saying after hearing the news.

 Myanmar minister promises 'free and fair' elections
AFP, Siem Reap, Cambodia

Myanmar's foreign minister promised Saturday his country would hold "free and fair" elections next year, despite the detention of democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi.
"In my country free and fair elections will be held. We have already announced it," Myanmar foreign minister Nyan Win told reporters after a meeting with counterparts in Cambodia's northwestern tourist hub.
"(Whether) the elections are free and fair or not, so far no one can judge it. After the elections will be held, you can judge whether the elections are free and fair or not."
A Myanmar court Friday rejected an appeal by Suu Kyi against her conviction over an incident in which a US man swam uninvited to her home in May, earning her an extra 18 months' detention.

 UN to inspect Iran’s new nuclear plant on Oct 25
AFP, Tehran

UN nuclear inspectors are to visit Iran's new uranium enrichment plant that has raised alarm in the West on October 25, the UN atomic watchdog head announced on Sunday after talks with Iranian officials.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei held talks with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other officials on Iran's nuclear drive. ElBaradei, who flew in on Saturday, told a news conference after the meetings that UN inspectors would check Tehran's new uranium enrichment plant near the holy city of Qom on October 25.
He also announced that officials from the United States, Russia, France and Iran would hold talks in Vienna on October 19 on the possible enrichment abroad of Iran of Tehran's uranium. In Geneva last week, six world powers and Iran held the first such talks for 15 months over Tehran's nuclear drive.
Western officials acknowledged that the encounter marked Iran's "engagement" on its nuclear programme, which they said Iran had refused to discuss since July 2008.
Iran also tentatively agreed at the Geneva talks to ship some of its stocks of low enriched uranium (LEU) abroad for processing into fuel for an internationally supervised research reactor in Tehran. Amid fears among Western powers that Iran may have amassed enough low LEU to eventually create a nuclear bomb, senior US officials have said such a move might help lower tensions. However, the agreement is only "in principle" and the technical details need to be worked out at an IAEA meeting in Vienna on October 18. The disclosure by Tehran prior to last week's Geneva talks that it is building a second nuclear enrichment plant inside a mountain at Qom triggered worldwide outrage. ElBaradei's visit came amid mounting international pressure against Iran over its atomic programme, including a warning by US President Barack Obama after the Geneva talks that his patience for dialogue was limited.
The president made a thinly-veiled threat that Washington would press for further UN sanctions if Tehran failed to take quick action.
Western powers suspect Tehran is making an atom bomb under the guise of its civilian nuclear work, a charge Iran denies. On Saturday, a New York Times report said that a confidential analysis by the IAEA had tentatively concluded that Iran had acquired sufficient information to design and produce a "workable" atom bomb.

  Protests erupt as Israel shuts Jerusalem mosque area
bdnews24.com/ Reuters, Jerusalem

Israeli police shut a compound housing Islam's holiest sites in Jerusalem on Sunday and fired tear gas as dozens of Palestinians hurled rocks and bottles in protest, witnesses and Palestinian and Israeli officials said.
Palestinian medical officials said nine people were treated for minor injuries including tear gas inhalation. Israel said one policeman was hurt by a rock.
Last week 30 people were injured in similar clashes near the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem's Old City and Palestinians warned of a possible new uprising.
Israeli security forces beefed up security on Sunday in the area where Jews attended holiday prayers at the Western Wall, remnant of an ancient temple which is Judaism's holiest site, next to the mosque compound.
Adnan al-Husseini, the Palestinian-appointed governor of Jerusalem, said Israeli police had denied entry to the compound where the al-Aqsa mosque and Dome of the Rock shrine are located, but that some worshippers had been there since the previous evening. An Israeli police spokesman, Micky Rosenfeld, confirmed that the compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif, had been "shut to visitors."
Rosenfeld said Israel had also detained a Palestinian official, Khatem Abdel Khader, a Palestinian official in charge of Jerusalem, on suspicion he was trying to incite protests at the site.
"The situation is very tense in the Old City," Husseini said, of the section of Arab East Jerusalem Israel captured in 1967 and annexed as part of its capital in a move not recognized internationally.

  Zawahri says Libya killed man who linked Iraq, Qaeda
bdnews24.com/ Reuters, Dubai

Al Qaeda's deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri accused Libya of torturing to death a militant whose confession was used to justify the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
Libya's state prosecutor said in May that Libyan Ali Mohamed Abdelaziz al Fakhiri, also known as Ibn Sheikh al-Libi, committed suicide while serving a life jail sentence.
"A false confession was obtained from him through torture about a relationship between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein," Zawahri said in a video posted on an Islamist website. Fakhiri made up the story about a link between Saddam and al Qaeda to avoid torture while in the custody of a third country, according to a 2006 U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee report.
U.S. human rights groups have said he gave the account to interrogators in Egypt, where he was sent by the United States in January 2002. Fakhiri later recanted, the committee said.
He was sent secretly to Libya by the United States in 2006, and Zawahri said al Qaeda would punish the United States for handing him over to Tripoli. "They (Americans) have handed him over to the agents of (Libyan leader Muammar) Gaddafi to continue torturing him and kill him."
"You criminals, you murders, you vampires ... your blood will be spilled and your economy will be drained so that you stop your crimes ... We will take revenge for every mujahid, orphan, or Muslim you have killed," said an angry Zawahri in an apparent message to Americans.
"Ibn Sheikh is but one of thousands of victims who have been and still are being devoured by the raving American monster," said Zawahri. "He was tortured to death."

  Guinea leader says he had ‘no responsibility’ in bloodbath
AFP, Conakry

The head of the ruling junta in Guinea said Sunday he bears "no responsibility" in the September 28 massacre of opposition protesters in which the United Nations says more than 150 people were killed.
Capitain Moussa Dadis Camara, who has been in power for nine months, distanced himself from the bloodbath at Conakry in an interview with Radio France Internationale (RFI). To the question, "Do you feel any responsibility vis-a-vis the deaths of September 28," Camara replied: "No responsibility." "I am told that there was a carnage and that soldiers opened fire," he added, before referring to himself in the third person.
"What happened cannot be disputed. But on whom should responsibility be put? It cannot be put on president Dadis ... President Dadis was in his office." Thousands had gathered at Conakry's main stadium to protest against the possibility of Camara becoming a candidate in presidential elections on January 31 when soldiers opened fire.
The junta says 56 civilians were killed, but the Guinean Human Rights Organisation alleges that at least 157 people were killed and 1,253 wounded in the crackdown. The United Nations has put its toll at more than 150.
Camara has previously disclaimed responsibility, pinning blame instead on what he called "uncontrolled elements" within the armed forces in his francophone West African nation. Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore, tasked by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to act as a "facilitator" to ease tensions in Guinea, is to arrive in Conakry on Monday, his foreign minister told AFP.

  Top Nigerian militant leaders disarm under amnesty
AFP, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Three top Nigerian militant leaders in the volatile oil hub of the Niger Delta gave up their weapons along with thousands of fighters on Saturday under a government amnesty.
A senior commander of the main armed group MEND surrendered his weapons in the oil city of Port Harcourt, on the eve of the expiry date of the amnesty extended to rebels who have wrought havoc on Nigeria's oil industry in recent years. "I Farah Dagogo, overall field commander for the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) accepts toget-her with field commanders in Rivers state, the presidential offer of amnesty to militants who lay down their weapons. "We are surrendering all weapons under our direct control," Dagogo said in a statement.
Another militant leader Ateke Tom and around 5,000 militants disarmed at a beach ceremony in the same city. A third top militant leader Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as "Tompolo", accepted the amnesty offer during a meeting with Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua late Satuday. In accepting the amnesty, Tompolo promised Yar'Adua his support "to achieve the dreams of this country".
Tompolo was the third key militant leader linked to MEND who have taken up on the government offer for unconditional pardon in a bid to end the unrest in the oil producing region.
With militant attacks knocking Nigeria from its position as Africa's top oil exporter-daily production has slid to 1.7 million barrels per day from 2.6 million in January 2006, Yar'Adua announced in June the amnesty offer.

 Typhoon Melor begins move from Northern Marianas
AP/ UNB, Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands

A typhoon churning across the western Pacific moved away from the Northern Mariana Islands on Sunday as residents began cleaning up after gusting winds and minor flooding.
With Typhoon Melor clearing the U.S. commonwealth's three main islands, the National Weather Service cancelled the last remaining typhoon warning for the island of Agrihan.
Similar warnings for Saipan and Tinian ended earlier Sunday. About 2 1/2 inches (6.3 centimeters) of rain fell on Saipan in a 24-hour period, including two inches (5 centimeters) of precipitation over six hours, said weather service senior forecaster Paul Stanko in Guam. The strongest wind gusts topped out at 53 mph (85 kph), he added. "It could have been a lot worse," Stanko said, adding that the island would have experienced more calamity if it was located 20 to 30 miles (32 to 48 kilometers) further south. "They narrowly dodged a bullet."
Tinian experienced similar rain measurements and wind gusts, Stanko said. However, his office has not received an update from Agrihan. The eye of the storm traveled directly over the island of Anatahan, which was populated until the 1990s when volcanic activity grew dangerous, Stanko said. A major eruption occurred in 2003.

 Pope: materialism, extremism harm Africa’s future
AP/ UNB, Vatican City

Pope Benedict opened a special meeting of bishops on Africa on Sunday by praising the continent as the world's spiritual center but lamenting that it risks being afflicted by materialism and religious fundamentalism.
A Congolese choir - with bongo drums, electric guitars and swaying, ululating sin-gers - filled St. Peter's Basilica with African hymns as Benedict formally opened the synod, a three-week gathering of some 300 prelates to discuss the church's problems in Africa.
Benedict praised Africa's rich cultural and spiritual treasures, saying they were the "spiritual lung" for a world increasingly in a crisis of faith and hope.
But he said Africa has also been afflicted by materialism - the "toxic spiritual garbage" exported by developed countries. "In this sense, colonialism - while finished in the political sphere - hasn't really ended," he said. As a result, Africa is also at risk for increasing religious fundamentalism.

Business/Economy

DSE axes 51 companies from main frame
BSS, Dhaka

Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) on Sunday delisted 51 companies from its main board as a step to free the benchmark price index out of the influence of the companies with weak fundamentals and to give share investors the right indication from the market barometer.
A DSE announcement said the 51 companies belong to the bourse's lowest Z-category would be transacted on its recently introduced Over-the-Counter trading facility from today (Monday).
The companies are: ChicTex Ltd, Raspit Inc. (BD) Ltd, Raspit Data Management & Telecommunications Ltd, Petro Synthetic Products Ltd, Pharmaco International Ltd, German Bangla J.V. Food Ltd, United Commercial Bank Ltd, Al-Amin Chemical Ind. Ltd, Ashraf Textile Mills Ltd, Bangladesh Chemical Ind. Ltd, Bangladesh Dyeing and Finishing Industries Ltd, Bangladesh Zipper Industries Ltd, Excelsior Shoes Ltd, Gachihata Aquaculture Farms Ltd, GMG Industrial Corporation Ltd, Maq Enterprises Limited, Maq Paper Industries Ltd, Metalex Corporation Ltd, Mita Textiles Ltd, Modern Cement Ltd, Padma Printers and Color Ltd, Quasem Textile Mills Ltd, Rahman Chemicals Ltd, Rangamati Food Products Ltd, Rose Heaven Ball Pen Ltd, Sajib Knitwear and Garments Ltd, Sonali Paper & Board Mills Ltd, Sreepur Textile Mills Ltd, Tamijuddin Textile Mills Ltd, Wata Chemicals Ltd, Wonderland Toys Ltd, Arbee Textiles Ltd, Bangladesh Monospool Paper Manufacturing Co. Ltd, Bengal Fine Ceramics Ltd, Eagle Star Textile Mills Ltd, Lexco Ltd, Paper Processing & Packaging Ltd, Phoenix Leather Complex Ltd, Tulip Dairy & Food Products Ltd, Mona Food Industry Ltd, Bionic Seafood Exports Ltd, Amam Sea Food Industries Ltd, M. Hossain Garments Washing & Dying Ltd, Dynamic Textile Industries Ltd, Saleh Carpet Mills Ltd, Bangladesh Electricity Meter Co. Ltd, Perfume Chemical Industries Ltd, Bangladesh Luggage Industries Ltd, Dandy Dyeing Ltd, Meghna Shrimp Culture Ltd and Bengal Biscuits Ltd.
The DSE launched the OTC market on September 6 this year to segregate buying and selling of non-performing, under-performing and delisted companies from the main frame.
There has been allegation about the influence of unusual trading of the Z-category companies, commonly known as junk shares, on the DSE benchmark index, misleading investors and giving wrong indication about the market. The trading of the 51 companies has been remained halted by the stock market authorities due mainly to their nonperformance.
The DSE main trading board, however, will have 41 more companies left under the Z-category after the delisting of the major portion.
A DSE official said the stock exchange would decide on the fate of the rest junk shares after reviewing their performance. Stockbrokers, however, are mere positive about the OTC market as they said investors will hardly buy shares of the identified companies until their performance is improved.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) established an OTC market in 2004, but so far showed a little success to be an alternative market place for the trading of weak issues.

 IMF hails Japan's plan to boost social spending
AFP, Istanbul

The International Monetary Fund welcomed on Sunday the new Japanese government's plan to use stimulus funds to boost social spending, saying it would bolster much-needed private demand.
"We certainly welcome the government's intentions to improve public sector efficiency in a way that will allow them to reform social spending in a way that's going to raise imports and demand," Anoop Singh, director of the IMF's Asia Pacific department, said at a news conference in Istanbul ahead of annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank.
Japan's centre-left Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who took office last month after his Democratic Party of Japan won a landslide election victory that rejected the long-dominant conservative Liberal Democratic Party, pledged to freeze part of his predecessor's supplemental budget to put more money into the pockets of ordinary people.
Former premier Taro Aso in May pushed a supplementary budget through parliament to fund economic stimulus measures.
Singh said it was "too early" to assess the economic impact of the new government's plan to reallocate a portion of the stimulus budget, which has yet to be presented to the legislature. The spending plan would provide cash allowances for families, free high-school education and eliminate highway tolls.
Japan as well as others in the region "recognize the importance of developing new drivers of growth," Singh said. The Japanese economy, the second biggest in the world, was hard hit by the global economic crisis because of its heavy dependence on exports.
The economy returned to positive growth in the April-June period after a year-long recession as exports improved, but deflation is deepening amid weak domestic demand, while a strong yen is threatening exports.

  DBBL signs deal with Alico
TBT Economy Desk

Dutch-Bangla Bank Limited (DBBL) signed an agreement with American Life Insurance Company (ALICO) at a function a ALICO head office in the capital on Thursday. Akhlaqur Rahman, Chief Operating Officer of Alico Bangladesh, and Mir Mominul Huq, SAVP & Head of Retail Banking Division of DBBL, signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organizations.
Md. Yeasin Ali, Managing Director of DBBL, and M. Nurul Islam, Regional Senior Vice President, MEASA-East, and other senior executives of both organizations were present at the signing ceremony.
Under the MoU, interested members of Alico Field Force will be able to open bank accounts having special features with DBBL and this will facilitate Alice's direct payment of commission to their accounts.

  Mohsina reelected Meghna Insurance chairperson
TBT Economy Desk

Begum Mohsina Rahman has been unanimously re-elected Chairperson of Meghna Insurance Company.
She was reelected at the 13th Annual General Meeting of the company at a hotel in the capital on Tuesday, says a press release. Sabrina Choudhry was also elected Vice-Chairperson unanimously at the AGM.
The meeting was attended by Amar Krishna Saha, MD of the company, Directors Dr. Zaglur Rahman Khan, Mushfiq Raman, Zishan Khan, lishtique Ahmed Choudhry, Monwar-uz-Zaman and Jagannath Dey.

   US economic decline forges new world order
AFP, Istanbul

The crisis is redrawing the world map of economic power as the influence of US consumer spending declines and major emerging markets like China and India take the lead, finance chiefs said.
"One of the legacies of this crisis may be a recognition of changed economic power relations," World Bank president Robert Zoellick said Friday in Istanbul ahead of annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. "Recent forecasts show that China and India are helping to pull the global economy out of recession.... A multipolar economy less reliant on the US consumer will be a more stable world economy," he added. Consumer spending accounts for around two-thirds of economic activity in the United States-by far the world's biggest economy-and experts say lower spending could have radical effects on the US's world standing.
The IMF on Thursday forecast emerging and developing economies would grow 5.1 percent in 2010 -- in contrast with just 1.3 percent in advanced economies.
China's economy was projected to grow by 9.0 percent next year and India's by 6.4 percent-far ahead of 1.5 percent expansion in the US economy.
"The American engine is not as strong as it was before," IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said in a speech in which he called for emerging markets to be given more say in the IMF's decisions.
"Emerging economies are becoming more and more the real partners," he said.
In a BBC World debate on the crisis held in Istanbul, Niall Ferguson, a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School in the United States, said: "The crisis has accelerated a shift from west to east." "That means rebalancing not only economically... but rebalancing geopolitically, which I think makes some people nervous," Ferguson said.
"For the foreseeable future the US will be growing at a much lower rate while China is in fact growing at a much faster rate," he added.
The shift is having far-reaching effects around the world. In Latin America, IMF economists said the crisis is affecting countries differently depending on whether, like Mexico, they are more closely tied to the United States or, like Brazil, they have more links with China. "If it was not for China we wouldn't have seen positive growth in the second quarter in Brazil," Ilan Goldfajn, chief economist at Brazilian bank Itau Unibanco, said at an IMF-organised conference in Istanbul. Marek Belka, head of the IMF's European department, cautioned however that for European countries, "demand from Asia is not enough-the recovery rests on the shoulders of European consumers and investors."

  UN report calls for ‘new deal’ for migrant workers
AFP, Paris

Governments worldwide should look at changes to their immigration policies with a view to offering a "new deal" to migrant workers whose skills can help spur economic recovery, a UN report said Monday.
Wealthy countries with ageing populations in particular are likely to face an increase in demand for expatriate labour as they pull out of recession, said the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in the report.
"The recession should be seized as an opportunity to institute a new deal for migrants-one that will benefit workers at home and abroad while guarding against a protectionist backlash," said Jeni Klugman, the report's author.
"With recovery, many of the same underlying trends that have been driving movement during the past half-century will resurface, attracting more people to move," she said.
Nearly one billion of the world's 6.7 billion people are on the move-that means one in seven people is a migrant, according to the report titled "Overcoming Barriers: Human Mobility and Development."
Movements of workers within Asia accounts for nearly 20 percent of all world migration and exceeds the total flow that Europe receives from all regions.
With the US and European economies struggling to emerge from recession, creating jobs has become the main focus of concern in a highly mobile world.
During the global downturn, many migrant workers faced a backlash in countries hard hit by job losses, but the report said governments should seek to rally public opinion behind sound migration policies.
"This is not the time for anti-immigrant protectionism but for reforms which promote longer-term gains. Convincing the public of this will take courage," said Klugman.
The report does not advocate open borders, but said "there is a strong case for increased access for sectors with a high demand for labour, including for the low-skilled."
The UNDP, which advocates measures to combat poverty, put forward a six-point package calling for opening up existing channels to more workers and ensuring worker protection and rights.

  Britain, France mobilise $4b for poor countries
AFP, Istanbul

Britain and France said Saturday they would mobilise four billion dollars (2.7 billion euros) for poor countries by giving up part of a recent IMF allocation of an international reserve asset.
"With this initiative, Britain and France show the necessary solidarity between nations.... I hope all countries that can do it will follow this initiative," French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said in a statement.
International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn welcomed the plan to help support the streamlined lending for poor countries, which he has called the "innocent victims" of a global crisis not of their making.
"This is incredibly helpful for low-income countries," Strauss-Kahn told reporters. "It's a beginning and I hope that other countries including the richest countries in the world will follow the same route."
The two countries said they would each donate 2.0 billion dollars in special drawing rights (SDRs), a special IMF asset, as loan resources to the fund to help support lending to low-income countries hit by the economic crisis.

  Russia considers WB loan
AFP, Moscow

Russia is considering borrowing up to four billion dollars (2.74 billion euros) from the World Bank next year, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin was reported on Sunday as saying.
Kudrin said he discussed the idea with World Bank chief Robert Zoellick on the sidelines of a joint World Bank and International Monetary Fund meeting in Istanbul at the weekend. "We discussed the possibility of receiving a credit of 2.0-4.0 billion dollars. Of course, we are interested in a simplified, fast-track credit," Russian news agencies quoted Kudrin as saying.
"It all depends on the conditions and we agreed to negotiate about the conditions." Deputy Finance Minister Dmitry Pankin added that Moscow would not accept any credit which came with conditions about the running of Russian economic policy.

  Asian textiles no longer a fading industry
AFP, Singapore

Asian textiles, once considered a fading industry, are now showing strong growth prospects thanks to technology and demand from expanding middle classes, a leading industry player said.
Known in the past for back-alley shops churning out cheap material, many Asian firms are shedding their sweatshop image as they move to compete in the global market, said Paul Hulme, president of Huntsman Textile Effects (HTE).
Stricter environmental standards required by Western countries are also prompting consolidation and innovation in the industry, said Hulme, whose firm is one of the world's top suppliers of textile dyes and chemicals. It moved its headquarters from Basel, Switzerland to Singapore in March to be closer to its Asian customer base.
"These sweatshops and poor facilities-that is changing," Hulme told AFP in an interview at the company's corporate offices overlooking Singapore's central business district.
"When I visit our customers, I'm impressed with the facilities in terms of the equipment, in terms of the housekeeping standards and the way they treat their employees," he said.
"I would not pretend that sweatshops don't exist and I'm sure you can go to parts of India and China where that very much is the case... But I think that image will change." A key driver for the industry's modernisation is Asia's growing middle class, whose clothing tastes are becoming more sophisticated.
Hulme said the global textile dyes and chemicals market is worth 16 billion dollars, and Asia accounts for some 45 percent of the total consumption, much of it destined for export markets outside the region. One year after the global financial crisis exploded, Asian economies are rebounding faster than the West, boosting the textile industry's hopes.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) recently upgraded its forecast for the region's 2009 economic growth to 3.9 percent. China is forecast to grow 8.2 percent this year and 8.9 percent in 2010. "The market is changing, customer taste and demand is changing. For example, as you go into the provinces in China, the spending power is increasing," said Hulme.
"In this business, the future is in Asia. It's going to be driven from Asia, not from Europe and America," said Hulme. "You've got to be part of the region."
China, Bangladesh and India are the world's top textile producers and are also major consumers. Pakistan and Southeast Asia are important and growing players as well.
HTE is moving to further gain market share after sales totalled one billion dollars in 2008.
The company's patented products give fabrics used in clothing and industrial materials such as car seats and garden parasols special properties like sharper, deeper and more lasting colours.

National

‘Collective effort a must to ensure friendly atmosphere for disabled’

BSS, Rajshahi

Speakers at a views-sharing meeting here Sunday underlined the need for a concerted effort to establish a sound and friendly atmosphere for the disabled persons to ensure a dignified position for them in society.
In this regard, they viewed that the under-privileged community is an integral part of the society and so they must be given equal opportunity to enjoy all basic rights like other privileged sections in the country. They recommended ensuring interest-free bank loan for the disabled people for their income generating activities so that they could be mainstreamed.
The speakers were addressing the meeting titled "Poverty alleviation of the disabled persons: Role of the Government and Non-government organizations and business community" jointly organized by Badhan Protibandhi Sangstha, Protibandhi Nari Odhiker Bikash Sangstha and Action on Disability and Development (ADD) at the ADD training centre. Manusher Jonnya Foundation extended financial support to organize the meeting that discussed ways and means on how to rehabilitate the disabled persons in society.
Commissioner of Rajshahi Division Hafizur Rahman Bhuiyan and Deputy Commissioner Shefaul Karim addressed the meeting as the chief and special guests respectively while ADD Country Representative ASM Mosharraf Hossain as the main discussant. Deputy General Manager of Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank Abdul Khaleque Khan, Bagmara Upazila Chairman Ziaur Rahman, Paba upazila vice-chairman Sufiya Hassan, Kakonhat Pourasava Chairman Abdul Mazid, Ward Councilors Bilkish Banu and Sufiya Islam, Journalists Akbarul Hassan Millat, Silk Industrialist Sadar Ali, Director of Mukti Clinic Dr Suzit Kumar Bhadra also spoke on the occasion, among others. Referring to poverty alleviation through involving the disabled persons in various income-generating activities, the speakers said the disadvantaged group must be brought under the government-sponsored development programmes to enable them live a decent life.
They said the disabled children must be given equal opportunity in institutional education like the privileged ones, so that they could grow as worthy citizens and contribute to the country's development in various fields. The disadvantaged children need cooperation, not mercy, they added. The speakers referred to the government's various effective steps for the welfare of disabled persons in the country and said all concerned in different tiers of the administration should make the best use of all facilities in the greater interest of these people.
In this regard, they urged the affluent and rich people as well as the philanthropists to come forward with their helping hands to help the government establish the disadvantaged people in society.

  Proper education to build nation stressed
BSS, Feni

State Minister for Primary and Mass Education Mohd Motahar Hossain, MP, has said the government is determined to remove illiteracy from the country within 2011 as no nation can prosper without proper education.
He said the present government would provide the primary school students with the hundred percent stipend, including meal at noon and new books, from the next year.
The state minister said this while distribution prizes among the winners in the final competition of Zakaria Bhuiyan Gold Cup Tournament held on Parshuram Pilot High School Ground in the district Saturday.
In the final competition, Koloura Sporting Club defeated Parshuram Worrier Club by 2-1 goals.
Government officials, and Zakaria Bhuiyan and his wife Meherun Nesa were present at the function.
Earlier, the state minister exchanged views with district and upazila level officers and representatives of the educational institutions on quality primary education at a meeting held in the conference room of the deputy commissioner of the district.

  Cultivation of palm trees can help change economy, seminar told

BSS, Rangpur

Speakers at a seminar here Saturday night said large-scale cultivation of palm trees could meet the demand for edible oil and earn huge foreign currencies.
The palm trees can be planted along the roadsides and other places throughout the country without affecting the traditional arable crops to get unthinkable profits maintaining a balanced environment, they said.
The seminar titled 'Prospects of palm farming in Bangladesh and our roles' was organised by Green Bangladesh Ltd (GBL), a subsidiary organisation of Sahaba Group for Rajshahi Division, at the Baro Rangpur Keramotia Kamil Madrasa.
Chaired by Alhaj Shamsul Azam, the seminar was attended by Chairman of the GBL Mohammad Zia Uddin Moral as the chief guest while Deputy Managing Director of the GBL Abdullah Al Kafi, Chief Coordinators for Dhaka Nurul Islam and Mosharraf Hossain from Dinajpur were present as the special guests.
GBL officials Abdul Matin and Abu Syed Mohammad Hamid of Rangpur, Rabiul Islam of Kurigram, palm farmers Abdul Matin, Abdul Mazid, Azgar Ali, Abdus Sattar, Nazmur Rahman, Mozaffar Hossain, Shamsuddoha, Lutfar Rahman, Abul Hossain and union member Afzal Hossain, addressed it.
Besides, GBL officials of different northern districts, palm farmers and public representatives took part in the seminar.
The speakers said the slogan of 'Liquid gold of green trees shall change whole Bangladesh' will come true within the next few years if proper attention and importance are given to palm tree plantation under government, private and personal initiatives.
The soil and the climatic condition are very much favourable for palm farming throughout the country and its massive cultivation would accelerate the process of poverty alleviation in rural Bangladesh and build a developed digital Bangladesh, they said.
"The country's degrading climatic conditions will start improving and its economy will increase the faster saving of millions of foreign exchanges for importing edible oil every year and the newly-planted palm trees will start producing seeds and oil after 3-4 years of planting," they said.

  Ganzia paddy cultivation completed in Gaibandha
BSS, Gaibandha

Transplantation of seedlings of late variety Ganzia paddy was completed in the low and char land of the district after removing the flood waters this year.
Office sources said a total of 12,000 hectares of land have been brought under this paddy cultivation in the district this year in addition to 1,19,800 hectares of land for T-Aman paddy cultivation fixed by the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE). The target for cultivation of T-Aman paddy was achieved in the district earlier, sources said Sunday.
Crops production specialist of the DAE Satya Brata Paul said the low and char land is very suitable for the cultivation of Ganzia paddy, a local variety.
The farmers of the district have been showing keen interests in cultivating this paddy as its production is very satisfactory and it production cost also less than other varieties.

  Housewife killed for dowry in Naogaon
UNB, Naogaon

A housewife was beaten to death allegedly by her husband for dowry at Rojakpur Moddhyapara in the town Saturday.
The deceased was identified as Shelly Aklther, 20, daughter of Mozammel Huq Pramanik of Dogasi village in Sadar upazila.
Police said Shelly was married off with Shaheen Master of Rojakpur area 10 months ago. Shaheen went to Saudi Arabia after three months of their marriage.
He returned home from abroad two days ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr and asked Shelly to bring money from her father's house to go abroad again. As Shelly's father refused to give the dowry money Shaheen started to torture his wife.
On the fateful day, Shaheen picked up a quarrel with Shelly over the issue and beat her mercilessly, leaving her dead on the spot.
After the incident Shaheen and his parents went into hiding. Being informed by local people police recovered the body of Shelly from the house and sent it hospital morgue for autopsy. A case was filed.

   38 people arrested in Rangpur
BSS, Rangpur

Police arrested 38 persons including suspected criminals from various places in the district during the last 24 hours till Sunday morning.
Police said, the arrested persons included listed terrorists, smugglers, addicts, gamblers and accused persons in different cases, drug traffickers and peddlers, muggers, extortionists and other anti- social elements.
The police also recovered good quantities of narcotics substances including ganja, phensidyl, locally produced wine, stolen goods and other illegal items during the drives.
Kotwali police arrested 10 persons, Gangachara six, Taraganj one, Badarganj eight, Mithapukur five, Pirgachha five and Kawnia police arrested three suspected criminals during the period.
The arrested persons were sent to jail hajat when police produced them before different Rangpur courts Sunday, the sources said.

   Advocacy meeting on TB held in Gopalganj
UNB, Gopalganj

A daylong advocacy meeting involving lawyers was held at local Bar Association office Saturday for raising mass awareness about tuberculosis.
National Anti-Tuberculosis Association of Bangladesh (NATAB) organized the meeting with a pledge for building a TB-free country.
Deputy Commissioner Sheikh Yusuf Harun attended the meeting as chief guest, which was chaired by district NATAB unit president Begum Fajilatun Nesa.
The meeting was addressed, among others, by physicians Abdul Kader, Chowdhury Shafiqul Alam and Sheikh Abid Hasan, Bar Association president Ahmed Nowsher Ali, PP Abdul Halim, Advocate Idris Ali Mollah and Advocate Munshi Atiar Rahman.

  UGC names medal winners for 2006, 2007
bdnews24.com, Dhaka

Bangladesh University Grants Commission on Sunday declared the names of University Grants Commission Award winners for 2006 and 2007. The medals will be handed away at a ceremony on Monday afternoon. UGC member professor Atful Hai Shibli announced the winners' names at the UGC office in the presence of two other members, professors Amena Begum and Ehsanul Haque.
Nine university teachers have been selected for 2006 in six academic stream clusters: arts, humanities, law and education; social studies; engineering and technical sciences; physical and life sciences; agricultural sciences and medical science.
Ten university teachers have been selected for 2007 in five of the above clusters, as according to the principles, no medal is awarded in case some branch cannot boast a publication of requisite quality and standard. UGC has been giving away the medals of excellence since 1980 to the deserving teachers for their commendable fundamental research work and publications.
A total of 12 medals, two for every stream, are given away to the best university researchers annually. Those selected as medal winners for 2006 are as follows: Arts, humanities, law and education stream-Dr Redwanul Haque (assistant professor, law department, Dhaka University) and professor Md Mostafa Kamal.
Physical and life sciences-Dr M Manjurul Karim (associate professor, microbiology department, DU) and professor Syed Badiu-zzaman Faruque (physics department, SUST).
Agricultural sciences-professor SMA Majid (irrigation and water management department, BAU).
Engineering and technical sciences-professor Dr Anisul Haque (department of electrical and electronic engineering, East West University).
Medical science-Md Alimul Islam (department of microbiology and hygiene, BAU) and Dr Md Abdus Shakur (associate professor, department of physical medicine and rehabilitation, BSMMU).
Social studies-Dr Gour Govinda Goswami (associate professor, economics department, NSU).
The medal winners for 2007 in different clusters are as follows:
Arts, humanities, law and education-md Jahangir Hossain and Sharifuddin Ahmed.
Physical and life sciences-professors M Nurul Islam and Mafizuddin Ahmed.
Agricultural sciences-professor M Enamul Haque and Dr Md Abu Hadi Noor Ali Khan.
Engineering and technical sciences-md Aminul Islam and professor Murari Mohon Roy.
Medical science-professor Laila N Islam and KS Rabbani.

 Navy chief off to USA
UNB, Dhaka

Newly promoted Navy Chief Vice-Admiral Zahir Uddin Ahmed left on Sunday for the United States to attend the 19th International Sea Power Symposium that will deal with maritime security matters.
The symposium is scheduled to be held at Naval War College in Newport, USA, Wednesday, said an ISPR release.
The Chief of Naval Staff was elevated to vice-admiral on Saturday.
He is accompanied by his wife, Begum Shabnam Ahmed, and a one-member delegation on the US trip.
Ninety-eight Naval Chiefs, representatives, analysts and naval observers from 106 countries are participating in the meet, being held this year with the theme 'Connecting navies, Building partnership'.
Sea Power Symposium was held first in 1979, and this year a large number of maritime leaders are getting together on the occasion of 40th founding anniversary.
"During his stay in the USA, the chief of naval staff will call on different participating countries' Naval Chiefs and attend various lectures to be presented by naval welfare specialists on naval security and welfare," the release said.
"The Navy Chief will discuss bilateral issues of naval armament, sea-resource protection and security of maritime boundary with participating countries' Naval Chiefs and naval representatives," it added.
It is expected that Vice-Admiral ZU Ahmed will extend official invitation to the Chief of Naval Operation of the United States Navy, Admiral Gary Roughead, to visit Bangladesh on behalf of the government for bilateral discussion on naval security.

  Certificate award ceremony of BAF Fighter conversion course held

BSS, Chittagong

The certificate award ceremony of No 16 Fighter Conversion Course (FCC) of Bangladesh Air Force was held at 25 Squadron BAF Base Zahurul Haque, Chittagong, on Sunday.
Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal SM Ziaur Rahman awarded certificates among five Trainee Pilots as the chief guest, an ISPR press release said.
Addressing to the Trainee Pilots on the occasion, Ziaur Rahman said "Be professional to set examples for others.
Real learning starts after the formal courses".
He further said that this course was a window to the specific kind of expertise.
Among others, senior BAF officers were present on the occasion.
Earlier, on his arrival at the base, the Chief of Air Staff was received by Air Officer Commanding of the local Base Air Commodore M Sanaul Haque.

  JS body report on Union Parishad Bill placed
BSS, Sangsad Bhaban

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on the LGRD and Cooperatives Ministry on Sunday placed its report on the Local Government (Union Parishad) Bill, 2009.
Ruling party lawmaker Manwar Hossain Chowdhury tabled the report in the House on behalf of Committee Chairman Advocate Rahmat Ali with recommendations for passage of the bill in an amended form.
Earlier on September 14, LGRD and Cooperatives Minister Syed Ashraful Islam piloted the bill, proposing repeal of the existing Union Parishad Bill and replacing it with a new one.
Syed Asharf while placing the bill in the House said it would make the Union Parishads more effective and time-befitting.
"The main objective of the present government is to strengthen the participation of the local people in the development activities," he said.
The minister said the bill, approved by the cabinet in principle on July 20, 2009, would strengthen participation of local representatives in the administration and development activities.

  JS passes Mobile Court Bill-2009
Magistrates empowered awarding on the spot punishment

BSS, Sangsad Bhaban

The Jatiya Sangsad [JS] on Sunday passed the Mobile Court Bill-2009 empowering limited power to the executive magistrates to take on the spot cognizance of some crimes and award punishment was passed in the House on Sunday.
Home Minister Advocate Sahara Khatun, while moving the bill for approval told the House that as per provisions of the bill, the government through written orders can delegate power to any executive magistrate or district magistrate to run mobile courts to maintain law and order as well as check crimes in the district or metropolitan areas. The bill has provisions for determining the power of mobile court and its modus operandi, imposition of punishment and its limitation, appeal and authority to formulate rules.
Placing the bill, the home minister said the President promulgated the Mobile Court Ordinance on July 23.
In the bill, she said, proposal has been made to turn the ordinance into a law with retrospective effect.
Later, the bill has been sent to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Home Ministry that submitted its report after Scrutiny.
Several members brought amendments proposals to the bill which however were not discussed in the House as they were not present. Subsequently, the bill was passed unanimously.

  Govt plans to set up three varsities: Naheed
BSS, Dhaka

Education Minister Nurul Islam Naheed on Sunday told the Jayita Sangsad that the government has planned to set up new public universities in Barisal, Rangamati and Bandarbans.
The government will also take necessary steps for improving quality of the private universities, he added.
The Minister said this in reply to a call attention notice from treasury bench lawmaker Md Monirul Islam regarding setting up a university in Barisal after the name of Sher-e-Bangla AK Fazlul Haque.
It is needed to enact a law for setting up any new public university and after enacting law, initiatives for setting up a new university would be taken by selecting site for the university, the minister said.
On behalf of the Finance Minister, Planning Minister Air Vice Marshal (Retd) AK Khandaker replied to a call attention notice from lawmaker Golam Dastagir Gazi on disbursing interest free loans among the distressed farmers of Rupganj upazila in Narayanganj district.

Sports

Bristi wins U-14 girls singles title in national junior badminton
Sports Correspondent

Bristi captured the title of girls'under-14 singles competition in the National Junior and Sub-Junior Badminton Championship defeating Rehana in the final of the Indoor Gymnasium of Pabna District Sports Association in Pabna on Sunday.
Bristi of Pabna defeated the other local girl Rehana 21-12, 18-21, 21-19 in the final to clinch the title.
Sheuly and Rehana reached the final of girls' under-18 singles competition winning their respective semifinal mathes.
Shuly of Gopalgonj defeated Irina of Pabna 21- 19, 21 - 17 in the first semifinal, while Rehana of Pabna ousted Bristi, also from Pabna, 19-21,21-14,23-21 in the other last four competition to make it to the final.
Boys' under-14 singles quarterfinal: Aiman (Jamalpur) beat Apu (Gopalgonj) 21-07, 21-9, Rakib ( Pabna) beat Rimon (Chittagong) 21-17, 21-17,
Asad (Chittagong) beat Sejan (Pabna) 21-10, 21-15 and Tusher (Gopalgonj) beat Jamsed (Chittagong) 21-16,21-17.
Girls doubles under-18 semifinal: Sheuly and Lucky (Gopalgonj) beat Irina and Sanchita (Pabna) 11-21,21-16, 21-12 and Bristi and Rehana (Pabna) beat Sanjida and Farhana (Chittagong) 21-15,21-9.

  Australia set to tame New Zealand
AFP, Johannesburg

New Zealand will adopt a familiar role of underdogs when it confronts title holder and hot favourite Australia today in the ICC Champions Trophy final.
Form and tradition are stacked against the 'Black Caps', but that will not concern skipper Daniel Vettori and his warriors ahead of the 50-over-a-side contest for a record two-million-dollar first prize in Centurion.
While New Zealand once again boxed well above their middleweight status to oust Pakistan by five wickets in the semi-finals, the match never scaled the heights of 24 hours earlier when Australia crushed England by nine wickets.
The 247-run Australian batting masterclass starring unbeaten Shane Watson and skipper Ricky Ponting surpassed the totals of Pakistan or New Zealand and sent a chilling message.
Australia have long been a Champions Trophy bogey team for their neighbours across the Tasman sea, winning the three previous meetings in the mini-World Cup with something to spare.
The victory margin was 164 runs seven years ago in Sri Lanka, seven wickets in England in 2004 and 34 runs in India three years ago when the tournament was last staged.
Not that records will concern Ponting, who passed the 12,000 ODI run mark in the rout of England and lies third behind a cricketer he admires so much, Indian Sachin Tendulkar, and Sri Lankan Sanath Jayasuriya.
The 34-year-old Tasmanian is a team man first and last and says he will reflect on personal achievements in a game he has graced for a decade and a half only when father time decides the bat must give way to a rocking chair.
"Respect every ball," Ponting warned his team-mates ahead of the England slaughter and it will be no different against New Zealand at SuperSport Park just off the Johannesburg-to-Pretoria highway.
While resurgent Watson beamed after his 136 runs against England, the facial reactions of Ponting did not portray a man who had struck 111 and featured in a record Australian one-day stand.
It was great torturing old enemy England, but the mission was incomplete. Winning finals is what counts in the hyper-combative world of Ricky Thomas Ponting and he has two World Cups and a Champions Trophy to boast of. Vettori is a great captain, too, and after a timid surrender to South Africa his team upset Sri Lanka by 38 runs, England by four wickets and Pakistan to reach their second final having beaten India in the 2000 Nairobi climax.
What the 'Black Caps' deliver is often far more than the sum of their parts and reached the final despite losing bowlers Daryl Tuffey and Jacob Oram and batsman Jesse Ryder to injury.
Australia had to reshuffle its pack as well after vice-captain Michael Clarke and star bowler Nathan Bracken caught the injury bug, but those left appear to have another all-round strength to celebrate come tonight.

  Army holds Bianibazar to goalless draw
Sports Correspondent

Bangladesh Army and Bianibazar Sporting Club shared points in the first match of the Citycell Federation Cup after a scoreless draw at Banga-bandhu National Stadium in Dhaka on Sunday.
In the dull and dour match, both sides went on to attacks sporadically on several occasions but all their efforts went in vain due to the lack of their forwards' accuracy in front of goal and the both sides had to be content with one point each.
Later, Sheikh Russell Krira Chakra thrashed Farashganj Sporting Club 3-0 in the second match of the day. Sheikh Russell dominated the first half 2-0.
Mobarak scored the first goal for Sheikh Russell after 19 minutes, while Yousuf doubled the advantage on 35 minutes to give the winners a 2-0 lead before the break. Yousuf scored yet again in the 54th minute to consolidate Sheikh Russell's victory.
Today's match: Chitta-gong Abahani vs Bangladesh Police (3pm) and Dhaka Abahani vs Muktijoddha Sangsad Krira Chakra (5pm).

  Pedro sends Barcelona top of La Liga
AFP, Madrid

A terrific strike from Pedro Rodriguez helped Barce-lona equal its best ever start to a league season with a nervy 1-0 home victory over Almeria on Saturday.
Barcelona's sixth successive win, matching a club record set in 1991 and 1998, also sees the defending champion replaces Real Madrid at the summit of La Liga. Pedro, the latest Barcelona youth player to make the breakthrough, turned sharply before rifling home an unstoppable 31st minute shot to follow up his goal against Dinamo Kiev in midweek. "It is always nice to score and win, however, the coach won't be happy because we misplaced a lot of passes in our build-up play and didn't create as many chances as in other games," said Pedro.
It was a special day for Barcelona captain Carles Puyol, 31, who celebrated a decade at the club having made his league debut against Valladolid back on October 2, 1999.
Coach Pep Guardiola handed Andres Iniesta his first league start this season and the Spanish international found Lionel Messi with a fine pass after 10 minutes but the Argentine's shot did not have enough curl to creep into the net.
Almeria was breaking the game up with a string of fouls and referee Velasco Carballo was jeered by the home fans for failing to dish out yellow cards to the perpetrators. With 31 minutes gone Pedro scored a goal from nowhere receiving a pass with his left foot before turning swiftly and unleasing a fierce curling shot into the corner with his right foot.
It was a superb strike from the 22-year-old and the home fans sung his name to show their appreciation.
Almeria coach Hugo Sanchez was an exciting striker for Real Madrid but his side packed men behind the ball in the second half as if it was the ones defending a 1-0 lead.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic, celebrating his 28th birthday, almost continued his record of scoring in every Barcelona league game but his 80th-minute drive was saved by Diego Alves to deny him a sixth goal of the season. Atletico Madrid finally won their first league game of the campaign defeating Real Zaragoza 2-1 at home to lift the pressure on coach Abel Resino.

   Elliott, Vettori guide New Zealand into final
AFP, Johannesburg

Grant Elliott braved a thumb injury with an impressive half-century as New Zealand stormed into the Champions Trophy final with a five-wicket victory over Pakistan here on Saturday.
Elliott cracked an unbeaten 75 to help his injury-hit team achieve a 234-run target with 13 balls to spare.
New Zealand will now clash with defending champions Australia in the final on Monday.
"It all started with the way we bowled. The 234 was a target we fancied we could chase. We have not been a consistent side, but we have managed to do that here. Elliott was great," said New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori.
New Zealand, who has lost five of their six semi-finals against Pakistan in one-day internationals, improved that record with a superb all-round performance in the day-night match.
Paceman Ian Butler grabbed a career-best 4-44 and left-arm spinner Vettori finished with 3-43 to restrict Pakistan before Elliott completed the victory with a brave 103-ball knock, including one six and five fours.
Pakistan's best chance of keeping pressure on New Zealand came in the 40th over, but skipper Younus Khan dropped Elliott in the covers off paceman Mohammad Aamer. The batsman was then on 42.
Debutant Aaron Redmond (31) and Ross Taylor (38) were the other notable contributors for New Zealand.
"I think we were 20-25 runs short. At one stage, we looked like making 250. The plan was that someone from the top four should stay," said Younus.
Pakistan earlier looked set to reach a challenging total following teenager Umar Akmal's solid 55. They were 174-5 in 40 overs before Vettori and Butler struck in quick succession.
The 19-year-old Umar, brother of wicketkeeper-batsman Kamran, looked unhappy with Australian umpire Simon Taufel's decision when given out leg-before while attempting to sweep Vettori.
It appeared from the television replays that he had inside-edged the delivery on to his pads. Akmal cracked seven fours in his 62-ball knock for his second half-century.
Teenager Aamer (19 not out) and Saeed Ajmal (14 not out) added 35 runs off 34 deliveries for the last wicket. Aamer hit four boundaries, including three in paceman Shane Bond's over.
Umar and Mohammad Yousuf steadied the innings with an 80-run stand for the fifth wicket after Pakistan had been reduced to 86-4. Yousuf made 45 before inside-edging a Kyle Mills delivery on to his stumps.
Pakistan started impressively after winning the toss on a good Wanderers pitch, with openers Kamran (24) and Imran Nazir (28) playing attacking strokes to put on 46 in 9.4 overs.
They failed to capitalise on the start as they lost four wickets in the space of 40 runs, with Butler grabbing two wickets and Bond and Vettori each taking one.
Scorecard
Pakistan:
Kamran Akmal c Redmond b Butler 24
Imran Nazir c Taylor b Bond 28
Shoaib Malik c Taylor b Butler 2
Younus Khan c Taylor b Vettori 15
Mohammad Yousuf b Mills 45
Umar Akmal lbw b Vettori 55
Shahid Afridi c Mc-Cullum b Butler 4
Rana Naved-ul Hasan c Guptill b Vettori 8
Umar Gul c Broom b Butler 6
Mohammad Aamer not out 19
Saeed Ajmal not out 14
Extras: (lb6, nb2, w5) 13
Total: (for nine wickets; 50 overs) 233
Fall of wickets: 1-46 (Nazir), 2-61 (Malik), 3-69 (K. Akmal), 4-86 (Younus), 5-166 (Yousuf), 6-181 (U. Akmal), 7-183 (Afridi), 8-192 (Gul), 9-198 (Rana).
Bowling: Mills 10-0-46-1 (w2), Bond 10-1-54-1 (nb1, w1), Butler 10-0-44-4 (w2), Franklin 8-0-33-0 (nb1), Vettori 10-2-43-3, Elliott 2-0-7-0.
New Zealand:
B. McCullum c Afridi b Aamer 17
A. Redmond c and b Ajmal 31
M. Guptill c Rana Naved b Gul 11
R. Taylor b Afridi 38
G. Elliott not out 75
D. Vettori st K. Akmal b Ajmal 41
N. Broom not out 3
Extras: (b2, lb6, nb4, w6) 18
Total: (for five wickets; 47.5 overs) 234
Fall of wickets: 1-22 (McCullum), 2-43 (Guptill), 3-71 (Redmond), 4-126 (Taylor), 5-230 (Vettori).
Bowling: Aamer 10-2-32-1 (w2), Rana Naved 8-0-57-0 (nb3), Gul 8.5-0-48-1 (w1), Ajmal 8-0-39-2 (w1), Afridi 10-0-41-1 (w1), Malik 3-0-9-0 (w1).
Result: New Zealand win by five wickets.

  Rio gets a chance to show off sporting passion
AFP, Rio De Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro is Brazil's capital of fun but it has also elevated sports to the level of a national passion, a lifestyle that never goes out of fashion.
But now Rio has won the right to host the 2016 Olympic Games, the city has the opportunity to channel this passion into a specific project.
Brazilians' devotion to sports is closely tied to national pride, which was put on show when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announ-ced its decision to bring the Games to Rio on Friday.
Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva burst into tears right in the middle of a press conference.
"This was one of the happiest days of my life, and I felt proud to be a Brazilian," said Lula. Brazil will also host football's 2014 World Cup-with the final at the Maracana Stadium in Rio-meaning it will host the two of the most important sporting events of the next decade just two years' apart.
Flamengo, Brazil's most popular soccer team, play at the Maracana. But the legendary stadium was also the scene of the greatest blow to Brazilian sporting pride when the national side lost to Uruguay in the deciding match of the 1950 World Cup finals.
The country has never completely recovered from the humiliation on home territory. But it hopes that 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics will finally help bury the past and usher in a new era in the country's sports history.
After winning five soccer World Cups-in 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994 and 2002 -- Brazilians are universally recognized as masters of the game.
The largest South American country has also won multiple world and Olympic titles in volleyball, there have been Formula One racing legends like Ayrton Senna, Nelson Piquet and Emerson Fittipaldi.
But sports like swimming and tennis remain on the back burner, and the South American giant, whose population now reaches 190 million people, still has a lot to do to become an Olympic power house.
At the 2008 Beijing Games, Brazil ranked a modest 23rd among top medal winners: its athletes won there only 15 medals, just three of them gold.

  Sneijder sends Inter Milan top of Serie A
AFP, Rome

Dutch midfielder Wesley Sneijder scored in the dying moments to send Italian champion Inter Milan to the top of the Serie A on Saturday with a 2-1 win at Udinese.
Inter has 16 points, one ahead of Sampdoria and two in front of Juventus.
However, positions could switch on Sunday when Sampdoria welcomes Parma while Juve travels to Palermo.
Victory on Saturday was a welcome boost for Jose Mourinho's side who had lost 1-0 at Sampdoria last weekend before struggling to secure a 1-1 Champions League draw at Kazan in Russia in midweek.
"Sneijder's goal was what the team deserved," said Mourinho.
"The team played well. We had lots of chances in the match especially since we had the injury to Diego Milito (replaced in the 25th minute) who is such an important player for us.
"Tonight I am doubly happy because we have the three points and recovered from an error by the referee who should have awarded us a penalty. It was a victory of character."
Dejan Stankovic gave Inter a 22nd minute lead before Antonio Di Natale levelled five minutes later for his ninth goal of the
season.

 Leverkusen smashes Nuremberg
AFP, Berlin

Bayer Leverkusen took over at the top of the Bundesliga on Saturday with a 4-0 mauling of struggling Nuremberg 4-0 while both Bayern Munich and defending champion Wolfsburg drew.
With Hamburg playing bottom side Hertha Berlin - who has announced Friedhelm Funkel as their new coach - on Sunday, Leverkusen blitzed Nuremberg with three first-half goals.
Bayer enjoyed a dream start when midfielder Toni Kroos netted from a direct free-kick after just two minutes with Germany midfielder Simon Rolfes adding the second from a spot-kick on 28 minutes.
Leverkusen striker Eren Derdiyok added to Nuremberg's misery when he scored in the 34th minute before his partner up front Steffan Kiessling headed home the fourth goal on 68 minutes to give Bayer's goal difference a boost.
"Toni Kroos' early goal helped us take control and we played some outstanding football," said Leverkusen coach Jupp Heynckes.
"The most important thing for me was that we didn't take our foot off the gas after going 3-0 up.
"It is very pleasing that the team came out in a solid and stable performance in defence, that gives us confidence for the future."
Leverkusen will stay top unless Hamburg win by three or more goals on Sunday. Bayern was held to a 0-0 draw at home to Cologne which leaves them seventh.
"It is disappointing that we did not win," said Bayern coach Louis van Gaal. "The players worked hard, but it is very difficult to play against such a defensive side as Cologne.
"Those ten players acted like a wall, so we needed a bit of luck and we didn't force it. In the second half time we hardly created any chances. "There is still a lot of football left in the Bundesliga, it will only be decided in April or May not now."
Wolfsburg's erratic form continues as the defending champion drew 1-1 at Bochum. The hosts went ahead when Iran striker Vahid Hashemian netted just after the break, but Edin Dzeko scored to level for the Wolves and the point leaves them sixth.
Mainz picked up their fourth win in six games with a convincing 2-1 victory over Hoffenheim as midfielder Andreas Ivanschitz hit an early goal before Aristide Bance scored with a header on 11 minutes.
Hoffenheim grabbed a consolation goal through defender Andreas Ibertsberger but the defeat leaves them fourth.
Hanover ran riot with a 5-2 win over Freiburg after bolting out to a 2-0 lead in the opening ten minutes.
Freiburg pulled a goal back, but Hanover's Tunisia defender Karim Haggui scored on the stroke of half-time to make it 3-1 at the break before Hanover made sure of the win in the second half.
Borussia Dortmund won 1-0 against Moencheng-ladbach.
On Friday, substitute Gerald Asamoah scored his first goal in over 10 months to help Schalke bounce back from losing their last two games by beating Eintracht Frankfurt 2-0.
Schalke made sure of the three points in injury-time when Jefferson Farfan scored from the penalty spot.

 Safina, Kuznetsova win in China Open
AFP, Beijing

Russia's Dinara Safina and Svetlana Kuznetsova struggled to find their rhythm but advanced Sunday to the second round of the China Open, as many of the world's top women players were in action in Beijing.
Safina, the top seed looking to bounce back after an embarrassing loss last week in Japan to an unknown teenage Taiwanese qualifier, defeated Italy's Roberta Vinci in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4, but it did not look easy.
The pair traded breaks throughout the match, with Safina losing her serve four times and the 26-year-old Vinci surrendering hers six times.
The 23-year-old Russian, who is looking to keep world number two Serena Williams from overtaking her in the world rankings, will face Chinese wild card Zhang Shuai in the second round.
Safina said ahead of Sunday's match that she had taken a few days off after her loss in Tokyo to Taiwan's Chang Kai-chen, ranked a lowly 132 in the world, in order to regain her competitive edge.
"Sometimes it makes no sense to go back on the court and work even harder, but it's better to step back, take a breath and relax. That's what I did" to prepare for Beijing, she told reporters.
Kuznetsova, the tournament's sixth seed and reigning French Open champion, survived a scare from China's Zheng Jie, falling behind early in both sets but outlasting her opponent 7-6 (7/3), 7-5.
The 24-year-old Russian-who is ranked sixth in the world but also crashed out early in Tokyo-was on the ropes in the first set against world number 32 Zheng, losing her first service game and quickly falling behind 0-3. But Kuznetsova, who won the China Open in 2006, rallied with powerful ground stroke winners to pull even at 3-3 and Zheng, clearly the crowd favourite, came up short in the first set tiebreak, surrendering the set on an unforced error.
The 26-year-old Chengdu native, who had never beaten Kuznetsova in four previous meetings, again went up early in the second set, but the Russian veteran showed perseverance to close out the match in straight sets. "I think that I started both sets pretty slow. I wasn't quite moving well," Kuznetsova said after the match. Williams' centre court battle against Estonia's Kaia Kanepi was under way. Russia's Elena Dementieva, the fourth seed, and number five Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark was also due on court later Sunday.
Third seed Venus Williams of the United States advanced to the second round on Saturday.
In other first round matches on Sunday, Russian seventh seed Vera Zvonareva beat Romania's Sorana Cirstea 6-2, 6-2, and Switzerland's Patty Schnyder got past Poland's Urszula Radwanska 6-4, 7-5. Ninth seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus advanced, easily defeating compatriot Olga Govortsova 6-1, 6-3.
The men's main draw gets under way on Monday, with Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Roddick leading the charge.

  Lyon goes top
AFP, Paris

Lyon went top of the French first division with a 2-0 win over Lens on Saturday as defending champion Bor-deaux slumped to a 3-1 defeat at Saint Etienne, ending its 22-match unbeaten streak.
Sydney Govou gave Lyon a sixth-minute lead before Kim Kallstrom wrapped up the three points late in the second period.
Lyon has 20 points, one ahead of Bordeaux, and is the only undefeated side left in the top flight.
Bordeaux was missing its influential midfielder Yoann Gourcuff, who suffered a thigh injury in the 1-0 Champions League win over Maccabi Haifa as the champion suffered their first loss since a 3-0 reverse against Toulouse on March 7. Coach Laurent Blanc, desperate to keep his stars fresh for the domestic and European campaigns, also left Morocco striker Maroune Chamakh and Brazilian midfielder Wendel on the bench for Saturday's trip. Saint Etienne, buoyed by a 2-1 win at Monaco last weekend which lifted them into mid-table, was ahead after just eight minutes with a headed goal from Augusto Fernandez.
Araujo Ilan made it 2-0 on the half-hour mark with Bordeaux's Brazilian import Jussie pulling a goal back from the penalty spot in the second half. But Saint Etienne wrapped up the three points in stoppage time when Dimitri Payet unleashed a 35-metre screamer.
"You are never happy when you lose," said Blanc. "We're disappointed with the result and our first-half performance.

  Ishikawa wins year's fourth title
AFP, Miyoshi

Japan's teenage sensation Ryo Ishikawa birdied the last two holes for a one-stroke victory in the Tokai Classic men's golf tournament on Sunday.
Overnight leader Ishikawa hit an eagle, six birdies, one bogey and two double bogeys for a 69 to complete the four rounds with a 14-under-par 274.
Takeshi Kajikawa came second, Shingo Katayama and Yuta Ikeda were tied at third place on 277, followed by Yasuharu Konno at fifth on 278.
"Nobody can write such a scenario," said Ishikawa.
"But I was able to hit an important second shot on the final hole. I was excited with my second shot. Next year, I will try not to have a double bogey twice in a day," the 18-year-old added.
It was Ishikawa's fourth title of the season and sixth overall, and kept him on top of the Japan Tour rankings.
Ishikawa has revived the Japanese men's game after becoming the youngest winner of any event on the world's six major tours when he shot to victory in the domestic KSB Cup as an amateur, aged just 15, in 2007.
He finished fifth in last year's Japan Tour money rankings in his rookie season as a professional and made his US PGA debut this year.
He was the youngest competitor in the US PGA Championship history, at Chaska, Minnesota, this season and made the cut for the first time in his three major outings.