28 july, 2014

Shraban 13, 1421 Ramadan 29, 1435 Regd. No. DA 6238 Vol 2, No 118

MONDAY, JULY 28, 2014 | www.dhakatribune.com | SECOND EDITION

20 pages | Price: Tk12

6 | WORLD

11 | OP-ED

IRAQ: A NATION IN PERIL

STAVING OFF DISASTERS TOGETHER

12 | LONG FORM BANGLADESH NEEDS TO SHOW ‘THE OTHER BANGLADESH’

14 | SPORT ARSENAL SIGN COLOMBIA GOALKEEPER OSPINA

All roads lead home Passengers, overcharged, in packed transports brave all ordeals to celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr with near and dear ones es, most of which are unfit, to earn n Ashif Islam Shaon and some extra money.

Abu Hayat Mahmud

A man dangerously holds on to his baby boy with one hand and wife on the other as he tries desperately to climb on to the top of a bus at Gabtoli yesterday MEHEDI HASAN

GREETINGS The Dhaka Tribune wishes all its readers, advertisers, hawkers and well-wishers a very happy Eid-ul-Fitr. *** All offices of the Dhaka Tribune will remain closed for three days from today for Eid. Therefore, there will be no issue of the daily on July 29, 30 and 31. If Eid vacation extends, Tribune will not come out on August 1 too. However, our online service will be on to keep readers updated.

INSIDE 3 | News

At least nine people died in custody or in so-called ‘gunfights’ with police in the capital in the last seven months.

4 | News

The Health Ministry has instructed all the public hospitals to take week-long preparation to ensure quality healthcare services before and after Eid.

5 | News

With the Eid just around the corner, Dhaka looks empty as hundreds of thousands of dwellers leave for their homes to celebrate one of the biggest festivals of the Muslims.

SEHRI & IFTAR TIME Day Ramadan 29/July 28 Ramadan 30/July 29

Sehri – 3.59am

Iftar 6.47pm 6.47pm

Travelling home on highways, waterways and rail did not remain much trouble-free yesterday with a day or two remaining ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr as the increasing number of home-goers faced ordeals to get transport as well as heavy traffic on the highways.

Yesterday was the last working day ahead of the Eid. And so the rush of home-bound passengers was much higher than the last few days.

Those who decided to go home in the last minutes and could not book tickets in advance had to undergo hassles to start for home.

Cashing in the heavy rush, the transport providers increased fare several folds. But they failed to provide transports on time. Defying the government directives, passengers were seen travelling on the roofs of trains and buses and top decks of launches braving risks of accidents.

“Madaripur!

Barisal!

Chapai!

Rajshahi! Rangpur! Seats available!” bus staff were shouting at Gabtoli bus terminal yesterday. However, they actually did not have arrangement of buses as most tickets had been sold out beforehand.

To cater the extra passengers, the operators arranged local and city bus-

Such situation was seen at the Gabtoli, Sayedabad and Mohakhali bus terminals and Gulistan area of the capital.

The passengers who booked tickets earlier also had to suffer as their designated buses reached the capital much later than scheduled time.

Even though the city saw less traffic yesterday, there were reports of traffic jam at different points – Gazipur Chourasta to Chandra, and Savar and Baipail Bridge areas. The police, however, claimed that it had been temporary jam caused due to the garment workers who leave workplace in the afternoon.

Asked why they were charging the passengers higher amount for tickets, conductor of a bus Salam said: “We have to return to Dhaka with less or no passengers. It will be a heavy loss for us. Moreover, we are taking some extra money as our Eid bonus.”

Launches overcrowded

The main transport system for the south-bound passengers from Dhaka is launch service. The Sadarghat launch terminal witnessed huge crowd yesterday, especially in the evening.

The passengers were seen suffering to manage room inside the vessels and for this many grabbed a small space  PAGE 2 COLUMN 5

Relatives of 24-year-old Robin, who was beaten to death by a mob yesterday on suspicion of being a mugger, breaks down in tears at the DMCH yesterday MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

Mob kills alleged mugger, family blames police n Kailash Sarkar A youth was killed by mob who was allegedly attempting to rob a man in the capital’s Bhajahori Saha Street at Wari yesterday.

However, the victim’s family accused police of falsely labelling him as a mugger and letting the mob kill him.

The victim, Sazzadur Rahman Robin, 22, was son of Md Liton Miah, owner of Hridoy Decorator in Tipu Sultan Road.

Mostak Ahmed, deputy commissioner at Wari division, said Robin was caught by Zahir Uddin, an agent of mobile banking company bKash, when

Robin attempted to snatch Tk30 lakh away from him around 11am.

“As Zahir caught Robin, Robin stabbed Zahir indiscriminately. But Zahir did not let him go and cried for help,” said the deputy commissioner.

“Hearing the commotion, the locals gathered and started to beat Robin up.

Later, police rescued him and rushed him to Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) where he died around noon.”

However, Robin’s uncle Towfiqur Rahman Tutul claimed that his nephew was not a mugger and he worked with his father.

Gaza fighting abates, but truce hopes look fragile n Reuters Fighting subsided in Gaza yesterday after Hamas militants said they backed a 24hour humanitarian truce, but there was no sign of any comprehensive deal to end their conflict with Israel.

Hamas said it had endorsed a call by the United Nations for a pause in the fighting in light of the upcoming Muslim holiday of Eid-ul-Fitr, expected to start tomorrow.

Some firing had continued after the time that Hamas had announced it would put its guns aside and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu questioned the validity of the truce.

“Hamas does not even accept its own ceasefire, it is continuing to fire at us as we speak,” he said in an interview with the CNN, adding that Israel would “take

Earlier truce fell apart after missiles hit Israel Over 1,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza since July 8 Hamas said it had endorsed a call by the UN whatever action is necessary to protect” its people.

Nonetheless, Gaza Strip residents and Reuters witnesses said Israeli shelling and Hamas missile launches had slowly quietened down through the afternoon, suggesting a de-facto truce might be taking shape as an international efforts to broker a permanent ceasefire appeared to flounder.

However, Israel’s military has said it will need more time to destroy a warren

Slow progress in cases against BCI, Rid Pharma n Md Sanaul Islam Tipu Trials of two cases filed for manufacturing adulterated paracetamol syrups that caused deaths of many children have been delayed at the Dhaka Drug Court since the witnesses do not appear for giving deposition.

Another case has remained stalled following a stay order put by High Court.

A Dhaka drug court on Tuesday handed down verdict in one case filed for manufacturing adulterated paracetamol syrups that killed at least 76 children in early the 1990s.

Court sources said hearing date in the case against BCI Pharmaceutical Ltd was deferred 20 times as none of the six witnesses gave their depositions.

Court officer (Peshkar) Rafiqul Islam said: “The witnesses are not coming to the court though it issued arrest warrants against them. This is delaying the trial.”

The case was filed on November 30, 1992 by then drug superintendent Abul Khayer Chowdhury against six top officials. The accused are directors Shajahan Sarker, Shamsul Haque and Nurun Nahar; Executive Director ASM Badruddoza Chowdhury, Production Manager Md Tajul Haque and Quality Control Manager Ayesha Khatun.

Charges against the accused were

placed on January 2, 1993 and they were indicted on August 2, 1994.

But the case was subsequently stalled until 2011 following a defence petition filed with the High Court. The court on February 20, 2011 ordered to start trial in the case.

Of the accused, only Shajahan is on bail while the five others have been on the run since the case filed. Police are yet to arrest the accused.

‘The witnesses are not coming to the court though it issued arrest warrants against them.

This is delaying the trial’ The Dhaka Drug Court on Tuesday sentenced three people of Adflame Pharmaceuticals to 10-year rigorous imprisonment and acquitted two others.

The other companies accused of producing adulterated paracetamol syrups are Rid Pharmaceutical Company and Polychem Laboratories Ltd. The fifth company - City Chemical and Pharmaceutical Works Ltd – was not sued reportedly for having close connection with the then ruling BNP-Jamaat government.  PAGE 2 COLUMN 3

of tunnels that criss-cross the Gaza border that it says is one of its main objectives.

Israel and the Hamas Islamists, who control Gaza, had agreed to a 12-hour ceasefire on Saturday to allow Palestinians to stock up on supplies and retrieve bodies from under the rubble.

Netanyahu’s cabinet voted to extend the truce until midnight on Sunday at the request of the United Nations, but called it off when Hamas launched rockets into Israel during the morning.

Palestinian medics said at least 10 people had died in the wave of subsequent strikes that swept Gaza, including a Christian woman named Jalila Faraj Ayyad, whose house in Gaza City was struck by an Israeli bomb.

Some 1,060 Palestinians, mainly civilians and including many children, have been killed in the 20-day conflict. Israel says 43 of its soldiers have died, along with three civilians killed by rocket and mortar fire out of the Mediterranean enclave.

Diplomatic block

Israel launched its Gaza offensive on July 8, saying its aim was to halt rocket attacks

by Hamas and its allies.

After aerial and naval bombardment failed to quell the outgunned guerrillas,  PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

 PAGE 2 COLUMN 6

2

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Monday, July 28, 2014

salary, Eid bonus for AB Siddique abduction mystery No 1,500 RMG workers n remains unresolved Ibrahim Hossain Ovi

n Kailash Sarkar

Even though more than three months have passed since the much-talkedabout abduction of Abu Bakar Siddique, the husband of BELA chief Syeda Rizwana Hasan, law enforcement agencies are yet to make any headway in solving the mystery behind the kidnapping or apprehending the culprits.

Immediately after the abduction of Siddique on April 16, the Detective Branch, the police in Narayanganj and the Rapid Action Battalion launched separate investigations, while the DB police also formed a high-powered committee.

Thirty hours after Siddique was kidnapped from Fatulla, the abductors freed the businessman near the Mirpur Ansar Camp.

Although Siddique could not shed light on the motive of the crime or the identity of his kidnappers, the police and the RAB told media that they would continue their probe for solving the mystery behind the crime.

Immediately after Siddique's release, Additional Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Sheikh Mohammad Maruf Hassan, who headed the high-powered probe committee, told reporters: “Even though Siddique has been returned, investigation will continue in solving the mystery.”

However, sources in RAB, the DB and Narayanganj police told the Dhaka Tribune that the investigation was discontinued as they were no longer interested in the case.

DMP Spokesperson and DB Joint Commissioner Monirul Islam, who was

also a probe committee member, told the Dhaka Tribune on Friday: “We are no more carrying out the committee's task of investigating the abduction of AB Siddique as the case is being investigated by the police of Fatulla police station in Narayanganj.”

However, when asked about their previous commitment to continue investigation, he did not make any comment.

Sazzadur Rahman Khan, additional superintendent of police in Narayanganj and also another member of the investigation committee, admitted that the probe body's work was not completed, adding that Fatulla police station was also unable to make any progress in the case.

“Actually, we had to stay busy with some other incidents like the seven murders in Narayanganj,” Sazzad said.

When contacted, Col Ziaul Ahsan, additional director general of RAB, did not comment on the issue.

After his release, Siddique and his wife Rizwana Hasan, the chief of Bangladesh Environment Lawyers Association (BELA), claimed they were unsure about the motive behind the kidnapping. Narrating his experience, Siddique also said: “I could not see any of the abductor as I had been blindfolded the entire time since being kidnapped.”

Rizwana filed a case with Fatulla police station, mentioning that her husband was the victim of a planned kidnapping carried out as revenge for her activities in favour of environmental causes. She also claimed that those affected financially for her pro-environment activities might have been involved in the abduction. l

POLITICAL DEADLOCK

UNRC: Solution must come from within n Sheikh Shahariar Zaman After failing to broker a deal between Awami League and BNP before the January 5 election, the UN Resident Coordinator, Neal Walker, was of the view that the solution to the problem must come from Bangladeshis, mainly from two political leaders.

“Without that there is no solution and there is nothing the Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, can do to make a difference,” Walker said at a DCAB Talk organised by the association of diplomatic reporters at the National Press Club yesterday.

Walker termed the dialogue between the rival parties before the election “not constructive” as it was only focused on supporting or non-supporting the caretaker government.

“That's not a constructive dialogue and I think most of the Bangladeshis would like to see a change that would somehow enable a real choice,” he said.

The solution to democratic evolution in Bangladesh can only be formulated and implemented by the Bangladeshis, he said.

“It is only the leaders of the two main political parties that can agree on the conditions that would create a level-playing field for inclusive elections,” Walker said.

The UNRC said there are no outsiders that can solve problem in Bangladesh. “We simply tried to get the two sides to sit together and we tried to help them frame the issues.”

He was of the view that what Bangladesh witnessed in 2013 served only to strengthen radical and conservative religious groups.

Walker said if the elections were to be held tomorrow, the country would face the very same challenges that had existed since the 15th amendment was passed.

The challenges include whether the prime minister's authority can be managed during the election period, formation of poll-time government and independence of the Election Commission.

“These are not the issues the UN has even defined. These are issues that have been defined by the Bangladeshis themselves,” he said.

Walker said UN Secretary General Ban made it very clear that these are the Bangladeshi issues.

“What is important is to create the conditions for conducive elections. The UN has consistently said that urgent action needs to be taken to create the conditions for inclusive elections,” he said.

About War Crimes Tribunal, he said the UN always supports such trial, but stressed for international standard.

Walker acknowledged that the UN Secretary General phoned Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina prior to the execution of Jamaat leader Quader Mollah to postpone the execution so that last minute appeal could be made.

He said the UN does not approve, agree or endorse death penalty, but it respects the member states that have it.

About the ongoing conflict in Gaza, he said the UN is playing its due role.

He, however, said: “I will acknowledge that the UN operates with significant constraints. There is no peacekeeping operation without any kind of Security Council endorsement. And, member states have veto power. This is a constraint in the UN system.” l

Two abductees rescued n Kailash Sarkar

Police yesterday said they had rescued an abducted young girl and a youth in separate drives while arresting three alleged abductors, including a woman, in the capital and Gazipur on Saturday night.

Shikha Chowdhury, 17, and Abdul Kader Liton, 28, were rescued alive while the detained abductors were Sohel Rana alias Sumon, 30, Parvin, 45, and Mintu.

At a press briefing at the media centre of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), joint commissioner (detective branch) Monirul Islam said Shikha was kidnapped on May 6 from Dakkhinkhan.

“The abductors also forced her into prostitution by confining her to a house in Tongi”, he said, adding: “Parvin and Min-

tu were arrested for kidnapping Shikha.”

“Liton was abducted on July 21 from Motijheel and the kidnappers demanded Tk10 lakh in ransom,” said Monirul.

The joint commissioner said officials rescued Liton after arresting Sumon from Tongi Bazar.

Besides, in a separate move, police arrested six members of an alleged gang of robbers with a huge quantity of robbed materials in Jatrabari.

They detainees were Ratan alias Kalu, 25, Enamul Haque, 22, Jasim Uddin, 26, Khalek alias Masud, 32, Shahidul Islam, 42, and Jasim Uddin, 26.

At yesterday's briefing, detective branch officials said the six would commit robberies by stopping trucks on roads. l

PM: Make Buriganga pollution-free n BSS

Israel poured ground forces into the Gaza Strip 10 days later, looking to knock out Hamas’s rocket stores and destroy the vast network of tunnels.

The army says its drive to find and eliminate tunnels would continue through any temporary truce.

Diplomatic efforts led by US Secretary of State John Kerry to end the 20-day conflict have shown little sign of progress. Israel and Hamas have set conditions that appear irreconcilable.

Hamas wants an end to the Israeli-Egyptian economic blockade of Gaza before agreeing to halt hostilities. Israel has signalled it could make concessions toward that end, but only if Gaza’s militant groups are stripped of their weapons. “Hamas must be permanently stripped of its missiles and tunnels in

a supervised manner,” Economy Minister Naftali Bennett said, “In return we will agree to a host of economic alleviations,” the security cabinet member said on Facebook.

Kerry flew back to Washington overnight after spending most of the week in Egypt trying to bridge the divide, putting forward some written proposals to Israel on Friday.

Speaking off the record, cabinet ministers described his plan as “a disaster”, saying it met all Hamas demands, such as lifting the Israeli-Egyptian blockade completely and ignored Israeli terms, such as stripping Hamas of its rockets.

There was no immediate comment from US officials.

The obvious rancour added yet difficult chapter to the already strained relations between Netanyahu and Kerry, whose energetic drive to broker a de-

The Roads and Highways Department and Bangladesh Water Development Board will construct the four-lane circular road including Eastern bypass around Dhaka city with the assistance of Bangladesh Army.

The Prime Minister's office will coordinate the construction of the circular road. With the introduction of circular road and river route, transportation of people and goods would be easier.

Among others, Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu, LGRD and Cooperatives Minister Syed Ashraful Islam, Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Rashed Khan Menon, Water Resources Minister Anisul Islam Mahmud, Communications Minister Obaidul Quader, Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan, Environment and Forest Minister Anwar Hossain Manju, Land Minister Shamsur Rahman Sharif, State Minister for Finance M A Mannan, and State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal attended the meeting. l

Packed to the brim, a launch carries home-bound passengers towards the southern districts of the country along the Buriganga River yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has directed the authorities concerned to take effective measures for reclamation of the Buriganga River and making it free from pollution.

The premier gave the directives while presiding over a meeting on reclamation of all flowing rivers including Buriganga around Dhaka city and introduction of circular road and river route surrounding the capital at her office today.

After the meeting, PM's Press Secretary AKM Shameem Chowdhury briefed newsmen. The Prime Minister said: "This is our project and we will have to implement it."

Sheikh Hasina said with the implementation of the project, it would bring a positive change in the environment of Dhaka city.

The meeting decided that the Shipping Ministry will launch circular river route that will touch Ashulia, Amin Bazar, Sadarghat, Fatullah, Kanchpur and Tongi.

Slow progress in cases

All roads lead home

 PAGE 1 COLUMN 3

 PAGE 1 COLUMN 4

The case against five officials of Rid Pharma has also been delayed due to no-appearance of two out of four witnesses. It was filed for the deaths of at least 28 children across the country due to kidney failure between June and August 2009.

Following this, the Drug Administration sealed off its factory on July 22. The government also formed a seven-member probe committee to investigate the incident.

On July 29, the probe committee announced that they had found poisonous diethylene glycol in the syrups. Rid Pharma used the substance as a substitute for propylene glycol to cut production costs.

The government then banned two drugs of Rid Pharma – Ridaplex (vitamin B-complex syrup) and Temset (paracetamol suspension).

The case was filed on July 21, 2009 by Shafiqul Islam, the drug superintendent, with the Dhaka Drug Court accusing five officials of Rid Pharma. They are Manag-

Gaza fighting abates, but truce hopes look fragile  PAGE 1 COLUMN 5

Families of at least 1,500 ready-made garment workers are likely to be deprived of Eid celebrations this year as the employer Tuba Group did not pay them the arrears of three months and festival allowances yesterday, the last working day before Eid-ul-Fitr.

Although the owners had promised to clear the dues by yesterday, the workers did not receive any money despite waiting in front of the Hossain Market in capital's Badda area for around five hours.

The workers belong to four factories – Tuba Fashions, Bukshan Garments, Tuba Textiles and Mita Design of Tuba Group – all located in Badda.

Sitting in front of the market around 9pm, Obaidul, a cutting supervisor of Tuba Fashions, said: “We came here during evening. The management asked us to wait and said they would get back with the money. But they have not returned yet and also kept their cell phones switched off.”

“Neither we received an assurance from the factory owners nor from the BGMEA,” added Obaidul.

“At a time when workers of other factories are heading towards home to enjoy eid with dear ones, we are crying on the street for our dues,” Obaidul said with distress.

Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) Vice-President Shahidullah Azim told

the Dhaka Tribune: “I came to know that the management of Tuba Group could manage some money for distributing among the workers for going to their home towns.”

He said the BGMEA had requested the banks to allocate funds for the Tuba Group but the banks denied to do so as managing director of the group was in jail. The banks went closed for four days on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr from yesterday.

Despite repeated attempts over phone, the Tuba Group's officials were unavailable for comment.

The workers of Tuba Group have been demonstrating in front of the BGMEA for the last few days demanding arrears and Eid bonuses.

They claimed that the management of the factory put pressure on them to demonstrate in order to free its managing director from jail. Owner of Tuba Textiles Delwar Hossain is currently in jail in connection with the Tazreen Fashions fire incident that killed 112 workers in November 2012.

Another worker Alim claimed that the factory management wanted to use them to free Delwar by creating a labour unrest. “We did not pay heed to their demand and we are on the street only for our dues,” he said.

Meanwhile, the BGMEA claimed that owners of all the member factories have cleared wages and Eid bonuses of the workers as per the government instruction. l

finitive peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians ended in acrimony in April.

Destruction

The main UN agency in Gaza, UNRWA, said 167,269 displaced Palestinians have taken shelter in the organisation’s schools and buildings, following repeated calls by Israel for civilians to evacuate whole neighbourhoods ahead of military operations.

During the lull in fighting inside Gaza on Saturday, residents flooded into the streets to discover scenes of massive destruction in some areas, including Beit Hanoun in the north and Shejaia in the east.

An Israeli official said the army hoped the widespread desolation would persuade Gazans to put pressure on Hamas to stop the fighting for fear of

ing Director Mizanur Rahman; directors Sheuli Rahman – also Mizanur’s wife, and Abdul Gani; and pharmacists Mahbubul Islam and Enamul Haque.

Of them, Mizanur and Sheuli are on bail, while the three others are fugitive.

Charges against the accused were framed on March 9, 2011. The investigation officer mentioned four people as prosecution witnesses.

So far, only two witnesses gave their depositions. August 21 has been fixed for the recording deposition of the next witness. This case too has been delayed several times due to non-appearance of witnesses on time.

Public prosecutor Shaheen Ahmed Khan told the Dhaka Tribune: “Though the trial process is underway slowly, we are hopeful about completion of the trial within a short time.”

The case against officials of Polychem Polychem Laboratories Ltd has been remained pending since the High Court stayed its proceedings. l

yet more devastation.

The Israeli military says its forces have uncovered more than 30 tunnels in Gaza, with some of the burrows reaching into Israeli territory and designed to launch surprise attacks on Jewish communities along the border.

The military said on Sunday it found a tunnel that led directly into the dining room of an Israeli kibbutz.

Other underground passages, the military says, serve as weapons caches and Hamas bunkers. One official said troops had found it easier to operate during the truce as the immediate threat to their safety was diminished.

The Gaza turmoil has stoked tensions amongst Palestinians in mainly Arab East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.

The violence has sparked protests outside the region. l

on the rooftop. Every launch carried passengers on rooftops.

To get on their launch, many passengers went to the terminal hours before the schedueld time.

According to the authorities, as many as 72 launches left the terminal to 41 destinations until 7pm while more than 30 were supposed to start by midnight.

Passengers, however, alleged that there was shortage of vessels to Amtoli, Bhola and Barguna routes.

“Some launches which left the terminal on Saturday could not return to Dhaka timely. The current pressure of passengers will be minimised after they return,” said Siddiqur Rahman, an official of the BIWTA. Meanwhile, some passengers vandalised furniture, lights and signboard of MV Flotila, Patarhat and Farhan 4 as the launches had not left the terminal at scheduled time. Later police came and brought the situation under control.

Launch cabin tickets in black market

Though it was announced last Friday that all the tickets for cabins had been booked, some staff were seen selling tickets in triple price. They had allegedly grabbed the tickets much before the launch owners started selling the tickets.

A youth at the terminal offered tickets for single and double cabins of Anchal 5 and 6 launches. He demanded Tk2,000 for a single cabin and Tk3,000 for a double.

Normally, a single cabin of launches in Patuakhali route costs Tk800 while Tk1,400 for a double cabin.

Trains miss schedule

The passengers opted for trains with a view to enjoy rick-free travel had to face ordeals at the Kamalapur Railway Station since the trains could not start

on time.

Of the 30 trains that left the station until 4pm, Rajshahi-bound Dhumketu, Chittagong-bound Mohanagar Prabhati, Silk City and Ekota left the station several hours beyond schedule.

The schedule disruption was acute in the afternoon.

The Rajshahi-bound Silk City was supposed to leave the station at 2:40pm. But it could not come to the station until 5:30pm.

“This train left Kamalapur on Saturday one and a half hours after scheduled time,” said Kamrul Hasan, Dhaka Division railway’s manager.

Besides these, Upakul Express and Subarno Express were also late.

“This schedule disruption happened due to extra pressure of passengers. It needs extra time for additional passengers to get on the trains during the rush hours,” he added.

Like the previous times, there were many passengers on the rooftop yesterday defying high risk of accidents. l

Mob kills mugger  PAGE 1 COLUMN 6

“Robin was passing through the Bhajahori Saha Street. But a police team picked him up on a police van.

On the way to the police station, they beat him with their rifles and later handed him over to a mob, saying he was a mugger,” Tutul said.

He held police responsible for Robin’s murder and said they would file a case with a Dhaka court against Wari police station.

When contacted, Masudur Rahman, deputy commissioner at Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Media Centre, said Robin used to rob people in the area, but there were no cases filed against him.

He also said police had found Tk1 lakh of the robbed money in Robin’s possession. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

3

Monday, July 28, 2014

9 extra-judicial killings in capital in seven months n Tazlina Zamila Khan

At least nine people died in custody or in so-called “gunfights” with police in the capital over the last seven months.

Family members seldom attempted to file cases against the police out of fear. When they did try, they complained about ill-treatment and the refusal of the police to take their cases.

On June 29, Sramik League leaders Akmal and Ramzan were killed in a “gunfight” with police, hours after they and four others were allegedly detained in the capital’s Press Club area.

Ramzan’s wife Nusrat Jahan Jhorna tried to file a case against Saiful Islam Khokon alias “Blade” Khokhon, who had allegedly used his connections in police to bribe them to kill Ramzan.

Jhorna told the Dhaka Tribune: “I know police killed my husband, I cannot do anything about it. In these cases, justice is always denied.”

Akmal’s wife Sabina Yasmin Dulu also did not file a case against the police out of fear.

After the incident, Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Benazir Ahmed denied that members of his force were involved in “contract killings.”

It was alleged that withdrawn Mirpur Model Police Station SI Zahidur Rahman was responsible for killing three people. He was arrested on July 17.

On February 9, a police team led by Zahid picked up Md Johnny, 25, and four others. Johnny died hours later.

Rocky, brother of the deceased and a witness, told the Dhaka Tribune: “SI Zahid beat my brother to death. My brother-in-law Mir Morshed Ali wanted to file a case with the police station against Zahid but police did not take it. They threw him out of the police station.”

On March 5, victim’s mother Khorsheda Begum filed a case against SIs Zahid, Abdul Baten and Shobhan Kumar Saha and informer Sumon.

On January 24, a Bihari youth from Kalshi camp, Jabed alias ‘Allahrakha,’ was allegedly shot by SI Zahid.

“After the incident we went to the Pallabi Police Station to file a case against SI Zahid, but no one listened to us,” his brothers Raid and Arwan told the Dhaka Tribune.

On July 13, a jhut (garment waste)

trader, Mahbubur Rahman Sujon, was allegedly tortured to death by police who had him in custody at Mirpur police station.

Sujon’s family alleged that a team led by Sub-Inspector Zahidur Rahman subjected the trader to torture because he refused to pay Tk1 lakh every month. The torture led to Sujon’s death, they claimed.

When the deceased’s brother Maksudur Rahman Sumon went to Shah Ali Police station to file a case, he was refused.

Mirpur division DMP Deputy Commissioner Imtiaz Ahmed told the Dhaka Tribune: “It is not correct that police did not file any case. The real fact is that no one came to file a case at the police station at all.”

On July 11, Kangali Jakir was killed allegedly in a “gunfight” near Khidmah Hospital in Khilgaon area.

On February 15 Salauddin and Jewel were allegedly killed by police in a socalled “crossfire” at Jatrabari.

On July 14, during the Mirpur Bihari Camp fire, Azad was shot dead by police.

In each case, the police refused to take cases against the police force or its officers.

Jahangir Hossain Matubbor, deputy commissioner of the Detective Branch (West) of police said: “We are not contract killers. All of them were criminals who died in crossfires with police.”

“Please tell me the name of the people who wanted to file case and claim we refused. No such thing happened in this police station,” Pallabi Police Station Officer-in-Charge Ziauzzaman said.

“Recently, we have sent a letter to the Home Ministry to become strict against police. A zero-tolerance policy is necessary to resist the sense of impunity and ‘above the law’ thinking that exists among police. Extrajudicial killing is a serious breach of national as well as international human rights standards,” National Human Rights Commission Chairman Mizanur Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune.

According to recent statistics by Ain O Salish Kendra, there were 179 extrajudicial killings by law enforcers in 2013. In 2012, there were an estimated 70 extrajudicial killings. l

The happiness of celebrating Eid with families is no match for the hassle that precedes the journey back home. The photo was taken yesterday at the capital’s Airport Railway Station MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

EARLY COLLAPSE OF SHOCK ABSORBER

Lalmoni Express escapes heavy casualty n Kamran Reza Chowdhury It could have been a disaster for the over-crowded Lalmoni Express if the shock absorber of one of its coaches collapsed on the Jamuna bridge yesterday.

Officials said the shock absorber stopped working yesterday because of excessive load of home-bound passengers, causing the train to be stranded on the bridge.

The incident blocked movement of all trains across the bridge for more than one and a half hours, ultimately causing disruption in schedules. The bridge has a single track for rail movement with a maximum speed of 16 kilometres per hour.

Trains usually cross the bridge at 10 kilometres per hour and many passengers keep their eyes closed at the time in fear.

Khaleda has to Sub par courses repel appear before court in graft cases FLTC students “The private language training n Mushfique Wadud n Md Sanaul Islam Tipu centres attract a better number of stuA Dhaka court has deferred until September 3 the recording of testimonies against BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia and others in Zia Charitable Trust and Zia Orphanage Trust corruption cases.

Judge Basudev Roy of the Third Special Judge’s Court yesterday also asked Khaleda to appear before it on that day.

The court fixed the date following a time petition filed by defence lawyer Taherul Islam Towhid.

The counsel said they had filed the plea as the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court set September 1 for hearing of two petitions of the BNP chief.

On May 12, Khaleda filed two writ petitions with the High Court, challenging the appointment of Judge Basudev Roy and the indictments in the two cases. After the High Court had rejected the petitions on June 19, she challenged the order at the Appellate Division. l

Foreign Language Training Centre (FLTC), a project that the Education Ministry introduced in 2005 with a view to enhancing employment opportunities of Bangladeshi students, is experiencing a dearth of students.

Under the Tk132.8m project, 11 centres are being run at different colleges across the country. But almost all the centres are struggling to attract students.

Students claimed that they had approached these centres, but eventually lost interest because of the poor training programmes and irregularities.

“I visited this centre twice in the last two weeks for taking a course on French, but the course coordinator could not tell me when the course was going to start,” said Kamrul Hasan from Government Bangla College Centre in Mirpur.

Jasim Uddin, a student of the Government Aliya Madrassa Centre, said classes were not held regularly.

dents,” he said. Claiming that the trainers were not skilled, he said: “In case of the Korean language, we have a native trainer but other than that, most trainers are not qualified, particularly, the English trainers.”

Monirul Islam, another student of Government Bangla College, said lack of publicity was a reason. “Many Government Bangla College students do not even know that a foreign language training training centres functions here.”

The first phase of the project ended in June 2012 and the ministry reintroduced it in the following month.

Project Director Mohammad Jasim Uddin admitted the situation. However, he said a good number of students were receiving trainings under some courses.

“Many students are earning a good amount of money in Korea after learning the Korean language in these centres,” said Mohammad Jasim Uddin. l

“Lalmoni Express was stranded at the bridge station, delaying all trains on the route,” Tafazzal Hossain, director general of Bangladesh Railway, told the Dhaka Tribune.

Officials detected the collapse of the shock absorber of one of the coaches, he said. “Hundreds of holidaymakers filled the compartments and a large number of men, women and children sat on the roof. Because it is the Eid time, we cannot take action against them, though travelling on the roof is prohibited,” he said.

“There could have been many fatalities if the shock absorber had collapsed while the train was crossing the bridge.

It could have plunged into the river but we could detect the fault before it got on the bridge,” an official of the joint director rank of the railway, who was involved in the rescue of the train, said.

Sarder Shahadat Ali, chief operating superintendent, said the railway staff forced some of the rooftop passengers to come down and took the train in the branch line to facilitate the movement of other trains. “It took one and a half hours to remove the coach and restart the journey,” he said.

All trains are examined on both ends of the bridge station before they travel on the bridge.

Mahbubur Rahman, divisional commercial official at Kamalapur Railway Station from where the train started at 12:30am, told the Dhaka Tribune that 980 passengers bought tickets from Kamalapur and Airport stations but several hundred more boarded the 13 coaches of the train.

“Besides, innumerable people got on the roof and sat there. This is why the collapse of the shock absorber is

normal,” he said.

Md Khalilur Rahman, additional director general (rolling stock) of the railway, said the rooftop passengers caused big damage to the coaches.

“We have assessed that each of the coaches bore at least 12 tonnes of additional load due to passengers travelling on roofs. A coach has four shock absorbers. So, overcrowded compartments and the additional load on the roof can lead to any sort of accident,” he said. “Apart from that, most of the coaches were old,” added Khalilur.

Mihir Kanti Guha, joint director general of the railway, told the Dhaka Tribune that train surfing caused the vehicle to run slow.

“We cannot move on to high speed if there are passengers on the roof. If we did, many of them would fall straight,” he said. l

Manpower recruiters’ licences cancelled for cheating migrants n Rabiul Islam The government has cancelled the licences of four recruiting agencies and confiscated their deposits for defrauding migrant workers.

The Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment cancelled the licences on July 23. The agencies are: Meghna Trade International, Morning Sun Enterprise, East Bengal Overseas and Idea International Limited.

The ministry asked the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training to distribute the money among victims.

Morning Sun Enterprise sent 11 migrants to Iraq to work in M Kodia Co General Trading. After reaching Iraq, they did not get a job and were confined for about eight months.

After returning home, four of those workers brought allegations against Morning Sun Enterprise, which were proven to be true in ministry

investigations.

Meghna Trade International sent 13 workers to Iraq, but they too did not get a job and were confined for eight months.

Three returning migrants made allegations against the agency, which subsequent ministry investigations upheld to be true.

“We have ordered BMET to distribute the deposit money of Meghna Trade and Morning Sun among the victims,” said Md Nurul Islam, joint secretary at the ministry, to the Dhaka Tribune at his office yesterday.

He said the victims were entitled to file criminal cases against the agency owners. l

4

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Week-long preparation at public hospitals ahead of Eid Non-Muslim doctors, nurses to be on duty; outdoor sections open the day after Eid n Moniruzzaman Uzzal The Health Ministry has instructed all the public hospitals to take week-long preparation in order to ensure quality healthcare services before and after Eid-ul-Fitr across the country.

It has instructed the state-owned hospitals to be prepared with a fullfledged medical team, ambulance, and medical equipment to handle any kind of emergency before and after the Eid. The public hospitals have set a special menu for patients during Eid, including biriyani, chicken and beef curry, eggs, sweetmeat, yogurt and vermicelli.

Outdoor units of the hospitals will the next day after the Eid. Nurunnahar, a senior assistant secretary at the ministry, issued a notice on July 22 asking officials of public hospitals to be prepared to dispense service for seven days (3 days before and 4 days after the Eid).

The notice also instructed to keep outdoor sections open on the next day of Eid, although it is a public holiday,

and ensure presence of doctors in the emergency department.

Professor Dr ABM Abdul Hannan, director (medical education and manpower development) of the Health Directorate, told the Dhaka Tribune that all the public hospitals, in compliance

Around 3,000 patients generally remain admitted at the DMCH but the number was found to be 1,600 yesterday with the ministry’s notice, had taken a week-long preparation to ensure health services before and after the Eid. “All the patients will certainly get emergency and indoor services while the outdoor sections will open on the next day after the Eid,” he said.

Dr Mustafizur Rahman, director of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH), said they had taken an all-out preparation to ensure quality service

for patients.

“130 non-Muslim doctors and 160 non-Muslim nurses will be on duty as their Muslim colleagues will be on leave. Sufficient supply of medicine, which will last till August 1, was also ensured so that no time is wasted on searching for drug during the treatment of patients,” he said.

“Assistant, associate and full professors will also be visiting the hospital to see patients in phases. A schedule for them has already been prepared,” added Mustafizur.

The number of patients at public hospitals is said to be going down ahead of Eid. Around 3,000 patients generally remain admitted at the DMCH but the number was found to be 1,600 yesterday.

The number would decrease more today, said Mustafizur.

Meanwhile, patients with no severe ailment are being discharged upon permission of doctors from most of the hospitals in the capital, including the DMCH, Mitford Hospital and Shaheed Suhrawardy Hospital. l

Monday, July 28, 2014

New ambassadors for UK, Brazil, Geneva picked up n Tribune Report The government has decided to appoint new ambassadors to the United Kingdom, Brazil and Geneva missions.

Mohamed Mijarul Quayes, the incumbent Bangladesh High Commissioner to England, has been appointed as the new Bangladesh ambassador to Brazil.

A career diplomat, Quayes is a member of the 1982 batch of BCS (foreign affairs) cadres.

In his distinguished diplomatic career, Quayes has pursued ambassadorship in the Maldives and Russia. He also served in Bangladesh missions in Tokyo, Singapore and Geneva for various terms.

Quayes also served as a foreign secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2009 to 2012.

He obtained a Bachelor’s degree in liberal arts from Dhaka University and a Master’s degree in public administration from Harvard Kennedy School of Government in the US where he was an Edward S Mason fellow in public policy and management.

Meanwhile, M Shameem Ahsan, the present Bangladesh Ambassador to Brazil, has been decided to be appointed as the new Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the UN offices in Geneva and Vienna.

Savar Foundation distributes Tk1.6 lakh to Raza Plaza victims

Ahsan belongs to the 1984 batch of BCS (foreign affairs) cadres.

Ahsan served as Bangladesh Ambassador in Iran and Brunei. He also worked in the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi, Bangladesh Permanent Mission to UN in Geneva and New York in various capacities.

Ahsan obtained an MBBS degree from Rajshahi Medical College.

He completed French language course from Centre Audio Visuel de Langues Modernes (CAVILAM), Vichy and diplomatic training from the Institut International d’Administration Publique in France.

He obtained both the “Diplome de l’Institut” and the “Diplôme d’etudes Supérieures Specialisés (DESS)” in diplomacy and administration of international organisations from the Jean Monnet-Sceaux Law Faculty at the University of Paris XI in 1988.

The government has also decided to appoint Md Abdul Hannan, the present Bangladesh Ambassador to Switzerland and Permanent Representative to the UN Offices in Geneva and Vienna, as the new High Commissioner of Bangladesh to the UK. A member of the 1984 batch of BCS (foreign affairs) cadres, Hannan has pursued ambassadorship in Oman. He also served in Bangladesh missions in Karachi, Ottawa, Kolkata and Moscow. l

MARINE ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

CORRIGENDUM-1

The Savar Foundation, a charitable organisation targeted towards the relief and rehabilitation of victims of last year’s Savar Rana Plaza disaster, yesterday donated a total of Tk160,000 to the family members of the four garment workers who died in the catastrophic accident.

A ceremony was held on the Adhar Chandra High School field in Savar, said a press release.

The foundation, which was formed soon after the accident last year, was led by Mahdin Mahboob, faculty member of the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh, and has so far raised and distributed over Tk4 lakh to the victims and their families. l

Invitation for Re-Tender No: XEN (craft)/procument-35-R/2012

Dated: 23/6/2014

Subject: Docking and Repairing of CPA survey vessel M.L. JARIP-9 providing equivalent new modern complete Supply of Integrated Propulsion system (IPS) with variable Pitch Propellers, Installation of those with ancillary works and Commissioning.

The following amendment on the above tender has been made as under: 1. Tender Document Last selling Date : 05/8/2014 (Tuesday) during office hours 2. Tender Closing Date and Time

: 06/8/2014, (Wednesday) at 12.00 hrs.

3. Tender Opening Date and Time

: 06/8/2014 (Wednesday) at 12.30 hrs.

All other terms and conditions shall remain unchanged.

GC – 104/14 (4”x 3cols) A policeman grabs a man after he was caught red-handed while trying to pick the pocket of a passenger who was trying to maintain his balance on a crowded bus. The photo was taken yesterday at the Sonargaon intersection SYED LATIF HOSSAIN

Transport crisis hits Eid journey

July 30 will mark the 71st birth anniversary of Nurul Islam, former president Ganatantri Party.

Nurul Islam and his only son Tamohar were killed in a fire in their rented apartment at Lalmatia on December 3, 2008 – only 26 days before the national election.

Allegations were made that this was not an accident rather a deliberate arson attack.

Tamohar died on the spot while Nurul Islam the following day at the Combined Military Hospital in the capital.

Also former president of Bangladesh Trade Union Kendra, Nurul Islam was a contender for Noakhali 1 constituency from the Awami League-led grand alliance.

Family of the deceased rejected two probe reports in the case filed over the murders. Now elite force RAB is conducting the third investigation which is yet to unearth the mystery. l

Chittagong district administration and Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) have organised 254 Eid congregations in the port city and the district’s 14 upazilas on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr.

The CCC manages 158 Eid congregations while Chittagong Central Eid Jamaat Committee of the district administration arranged 96 jamaats in the district.

The main and first Eid jamaat in the city will be held at Jamiatul Falah Masjid gound in the city’s WASA area at 8:15am while another jamaat will be held in the same venue 8:45am.

The Eid jamaat in the Laldighi ground, organised by Laldighi Jame Masjid, will be held at around 8:30am while the Eid jamaats in Bakalia City Corporation Stadium will held at around 8:00am and Jalalabad Arefinnagar City Corporation Central Graveyard Jame Mashjid will be held at around 8:15am.

Apart from those, rest of the jamaats under the supervision of CCC will be held in the city’s 41 wards.

Furthermore, the prime Eid jamaat of Chittagong Central Eid Jamaat Committee will be held at Gymnasium ground of MA Aziz Stadium at around 8:30am Except this, other 95 Eid jamaats will be held in the upazilas of the district, he said. l

CHITTAGONG PORT AUTHORITY

n Tribune Report

Nurul Islam’s birth anniversary n Tribune Report

254 Eid congregations to be held in port city n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong Homebound people, who are going to their roots from the port city to meet their near and dear ones for sharing joys of Eid-ul-Fitr, the biggest religious festival of Muslim community, are suffering untold miseries due transport crisis.

According to the district administration and of metropolitan police sources, around 50lakh city dwellers will leave the city for their home districts on the occasion.

Of them, 15lakh will go to their village homes in the adjoining upazilas and districts one or two days before the festival, said CMP Traffic Division.

Other 15-20lakh people of remote districts have been leaving for their destinations since Thursday.

People of northern and north-western districts including Rangpur, Nilphamari, Lalmonirhat, Gaibandha, Kurigram, Dinajpur, Panchagar, Thakurgaon, Natore, Naogaon, Kusthia, Chapainawabgonj, Rajshahi, Chuadanga, Jhalokathi and Jessore, most of whom work in different public oraganisa-

tions and private companies, factories and ship breaking yards in the city and its outskirts, are the worst sufferers of the transport crisis ahead of the Eid vacation.

The situation gets worse in the absence of good railway network, the sources added.

Bangladesh Railway, including additional Eid special trains, can cater only around 15,000 passengers a day, said Divisional Railway Manager of BR (East) Md Rokanuzzaman.

Ashraf Alam, a private job holder, seeking advance railway ticket for yesterday for Feni, said that he had failed to get ticket.

Though Bangladesh Road and Transport Corporation has provided bus services for the adjoining districts, it is not enough to fulfill the demand during this festival season, said Shah Alam, booking counter in-charge of BRTC. “We could not provide transport facilities to the northern part of the country because of acute vehicle shortage,” he said.

Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation has three ships for carrying passengers to Hatiya

and Swandip islands.

“The ship can carry around 500 passengers in each trip although more than a 1,000 people seek to go to these islands on the occasion,” said Acting Deputy General Manager (Commerce) of BIWTC Nasir Mohammad Chowdhury.

Swandip bound passenger Khadija Akhter said: “It is very hard to procure tickets for the ship during the Eid.” Private bus companies have not provided any special services on the occasion to ease the problem of the commuters.

Street-beggar Kuddus Mia told the Dhaka Tribune: “I could not go to village by bus. So I am trying to go by truck and ferry.”

Nasima Akhter, who was seeking bus tickets for Barisal at Shahi Coach Service, said: “I did not get any train ticket. There is no ship service to Barisal from Chittagong.

So I am in doubt about going to my village to celebrate the festival.”

Businessman Nasir Chowdhury, who will travel to Dianjpur through Greenland Bus Service, said that he was worried as condition of highways was not good. l

Teenage boy beaten to death in Lakshmipur n Our Correspondent, Lakshmipur A teenaged boy was killed and his elder brother injured in a mob attack on the Raipur-Ramganj road in Panpara area of Raipur upazila early yesterday.

Quoting locals, the police said a group of villagers suspected Shipon and his elder brother Al Amin, an army officer, as robbers and caught them while they were returning home from Raipur Bazar on Saturday night.

The locals beat them up indiscriminately, leaving them severely injured.

Shipon succumbed to his injuries while he and his injured brother were being rushed to Raipur Health Complex.

Al-Amin is now undergoing treatment at Lakshmipur Sadar Hospital.

Al-Amin said he is a soldier of Bangladesh Army and was deployed to Ruma camp in Bandarban.

He came on a six-day leave to celebrate Eid with the family members.

Police Superintedent Shah Mizan Shafiur confirmed the killing. He said law enforcers were carrying out an investigation into the matter. l

(Md. Khorshed Alam) Deputy Chief Engineer (Marine) Chittagong Port Authority Phene No : 0312510843 Mobile : 01817211800

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Capital empties ahead Eid holidays DMP beefs up security in the capital n Ashif Islam Shaon With the Eid-ul-Fitr just around the corner, Dhaka city now bears an empty look as hundreds of thousands of city dwellers have left for their home towns to celebrate one of the biggest festival in the Muslim community with their near and dear ones.

Expect for roads surrounding the big shopping malls and the exit points of the capital, most streets in the capital witnessed thin vehicular movement till yesterday afternoon. Most busy areas in the capital, such as commercial hub Motijheel, Farmgate intersection, Jatrabari and Mohakhali saw little traffic movement till afternoon. However,

rush of long route vehicles increased as the day progressed.

Many residents were seen rushing to major shopping malls and markets for last minute shopping for Eid-ulFitr. However, most commuters complained of a shortage in public transports in the city since morning. They also alleged that most city service buses were busy making short-trips to nearby places from the capital, such as Mymensingh, Paturia and Maowa to earn some extra money.

Meanwhile, the number of CNGrun auto rickshaw and rickshaws were higher than normal, although commuters alleged most drivers were asking double or triple the normal fare,

taking advantage of the situation.

Talking with Dhaka Tribune, Ali Mohammad, a seasonal rickshaw puller from Bogra who came to Dhaka one month ago, said, “Every year, 12-13 men from my village come to the city to pull rickshaw as the fare goes high during the Eid vacations. We will go back home after Eid.” A CNG-auto rickshaw driver Momin said: “People are now in a hurry to reach launch or bus terminals on time. They do not hesitate to pay more during the rush.” He, however, termed the extra fare as an “Eid bonus.”

Apart from that, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police has adopted special measures to ensure security of residences

and business establishments sensing a possibility of a rise in criminal activities as most city dwellers left the capital keeping their houses locked.

“Dhaka will go under a security blanket when you will celebrate Eid with relatives in your villages. We will make security arrangement so that city dwellers find their belongings secured, as it was, when they return to the city,” said DMP Joint Commissioner Monirul Islam while addressing a press conference at DMP Media Center in the capital yesterday.

According to DMP, more than 50 lakh people were expected to leave the capital ahead of Eid this year and more than 10 lakh of houses will remain va-

More than 2,000 passengers of triple-decker launch MV Karnaphuli-1 were forced to evacuate before reaching the destination due to technical glitch yesterday afternoon.

The passengers were evacuated at Kaliganj launch terminal in Mehendiganj upazila, Barisal when water seeped through the cracks on the bottom of the launch in the Meghna River.

Ashim Kumar Shikdar, sub-inspector at Mehendiganj police station, confirmed the leakage and said a few pas-

sengers had sustained minor injuries while hurriedly getting off the vessel around 1:35pm.

Shahidul Islam, deputy director of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) and a Barisal river port officer, said the launch, owned by Md Haji Salahuddin of Brothers Navigation, travels on the Dhaka-Daulatkhan route of Bhola and is licensed to carry 700 passengers at most.

But it was carrying more than 2,000 passengers when it left Dhaka Sadarghat terminal for Daulatkhan at 7:30am, he said.

Milon Mia, MV Karnaphuli’s supervisor, said the passengers panicked when they saw water entering the vessel through the cracks. The launch crew immediately let the anchor down at Kaliganj and evacuated the passengers to safety.

Altu Mia, dock supervisor, arranged for alternative transports for the passengers at Kalighat, Milon said.

Ujjal Kumar Dey, officer-in-charge of Mehendiganj police station, said the launch would stay moored at Kaliganj terminal until further instructions from the higher authorities. l

WEATHER

PARTLY CLOUDY MONDAY, JULY 28 DHAKA TODAY TOMORROW SUN SETS 6:44PM SUN RISES 5:26AM FORECAST FOR TODAY Dhaka

34

27

Chittagong

32

26

Rajshahi

33

26

Rangpur

34

26

Khulna

32

25

Barisal

31

26

Sylhet

34

26

Cox’s Bazar

30

26

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW

34.5ºC Sylhet

24.5ºC Tangail

Source: Accuweather/UNB

PRAYER TIMES Fajar Sunrise Zohr Asr Magrib Esha

4:02am 5:25am 12:05am 4:44pm 6:44pm 8:08pm SourceL IslamicFinder.org

cant during the vacation.

“We have a security plan. We have talked to locals, community security associations, owners’ association of several shopping centers. Besides, we have talked with security guards of apartments to know what we should do to ensure security of locked houses and shops,” Monirul, who is also the DMP spokesman, added.

He said that the petrol teams of DMP will keep continuous contact with the security guards, local people to monitor the situation. Besides, number of petrol teams will be increased.

The big shopping centers and offices will be kept under CCTV camera surveillance. l

Youth injured in bomb blast n Our Correspondent, Rajshahi An alleged attacker sustained injuries as a crude bomb exploded in his hand in Veripara area of the city on Saturday.

The injured, Sohel, 25, was whisked off to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital and then to Pangu Hospital when his condition deteriorated.

In the incident, police arrested Sohel’s accomplice Shisir yesterday noon.

Rajpara police station OC Md Erfan said Sohel is a grocer and the explosion occurred in his shop in front of Metropolitan Primary Teachers Training Institute around 11:30pm, badly injuring his right hand.

The OC continued that Sohel and Shisir had a plan to attack someone, and they were carrying two crude bombs. However, police recovered the other crude bomb from the spot. l

Last-minute Eid shopping gains momentum in Barisal

Technical glitch forces launch evacuation n Our Correspondent, Barisal

The launch was carrying more than 2,000 passengers

5

Monday, July 28, 2014

n Our Correspondent, Barisal

A huge number of vehicles get stuck on a road in Barisal city yesterday because of huge rush of Eid shoppers

DHAKA TRIBUNE

8 cops suspended for torturing arrestee n Our Correspondent, Sylhet Eight police officers including the officer-in-charge of Sylhet Kotwali police station has been temporarily suspended on allegations of torturing a businessman inside the police station.

Md Rahmat Ullah, additional deputy commissioner (media) of Sylhet Metropolitan Police, confirmed to the matter to the Dhaka Tribune.

The suspended officers are OC Ataur Rahman, OC (investigation) Shyamol Banik, Deputy Sub-Inspector Ashraful Islam, Assistant Sub-Inspector Abu Taher and Constables – Adhir Chandra,

Rajib Kanti Das, Azadur Rahman and Nazmul Hossain.

The action came following an allegation against OC Ataur Rahman and four other policemen of torturing Kamal Ahmed Chowdhury, elder brother of Chhatak Municipality Mayor Abul Kalam Chowdhury.

Kamal Ahmed Chowdhury was arrested on July 17 for breaching traffic laws.

On July 24, an HC bench of Justice Salma Masud Choudhury and Justice Md Habibul Gani directed the inspector general of police and Sylhet police commissioner to take legal action

Sholakia ready to welcome Eid devotees n Tafsilul Aziz, Kishoreganj All the necessary preparations to hold the country’s biggest Eid congregation at Sholakia Eidgah in Kishoreganj have been completed.

Deputy Commissioner of the district SM Alam, who is also the president of the executive committee of Sholakia Eidgah, told the Dhaka Tribune that all the necessary arrangements had been made for the 187th congregation of Eidul-Fitr at the historic Eidgah.

A huge number of devotees from across the world, including Saudi Arabia, Turkey, India, Pakistan and England, will attend Eid prayers there.

Many of them are now staying in the district town ahead of Eid in order to attend the congregation, he said.

Alam said arrangements have been made to ensure sanitation and adequate water supply for the devotees.

Besides, sufficient number of police will be deployed in and around Sholakia Eidgah to ensure security, he added.

This year, Chairman of Islahul Muslimeen Council and secretary general of Jamaat-e-Ulema Maulana Md Fariduddin Masud is scheduled to conduct the Eid Jamaat.

A special munajat will also be offered seeking divine blessings for peace, development and welfare of the people of the country as well as Muslim Ummah.

Eidgah Steering Committee, local municipality, different government organisations and district administration will jointly organise this colossal jamaat.

The first Eid congregation on this ground was held in 1828 when a local Dewan, called Sayeed Ahmed (R) of Haibatnagar Dewan Bari of the town, conducted Eid Jamaat on one of the fields of his own ‘Taluk’ (revenue zone). This later came to be known as the Sholakia Eidgah. l

Man gets life term, 9 years after killing wife n Our Correspondent, Bagerhat A man got life term imprisonment for killing his wife in Mongla upazila of Bagerhat district yesterday.

District and Sessions Judge SM Solayman gave the verdict.

The court also imposed a fine of Tk15,000, in default, to suffer one more year in prison.

The convict Zahidul Islam Forazi, 35, lived with his wife Asia Begum in the Signal Tower area under Mongla City Corporation.

According to court sources, Zahidul, who is a day labourer by profession,

married Asia in 2004. Since then, there were frequent conflicts between the couple over different familial issues.

Following the conflicts, Forazi used to physically abuse Asia.

On March 13, 2005, the couple engaged in a quarrel when Zahidul started beating Asia At one stage, Asia died.

To portray the incident as a case of suicide, Zahidul hung the body with a rope from the ceiling of the house and declared that his wife had committed suicide.

The next day police recovered the body and sent it to Bagerhat sadar hospital for an autopsy. l

against OC Ataur, after Kamal's younger brother, Shamim Ahmed Chowdhury, filed a writ petition with the High Court in connection with the arrest and alleged torture.

After an investigation team led by Deputy Commissioner Akram Hossain submitted its report on Saturday, the Sylhet Police Headquarter temporarily suspended OC Ataur Rahman and OC (Investigation) Shyamol Banik.

Sylhet Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mizanur Rahman suspended the rest.

OC Ataur Rahman was transferred to Rangpur range of police on Friday. l

The last-minute shopping across the city gains momentum as the Eid shoppers pour into different malls in large numbers.

Restriction has been imposed on traffic movement across the main commercial areas of Chawkbazar, Katpatty, Line Road and Bazar Road areas to facilitate shopping from morning till late night.

The lower- and middle-income groups were seen scouring the hawker markets, footpath and makeshift shops for goods at an affordable price.

Sources in the Kitchen market said the price of vegetables, salad items and fish was low while that of fine rice, vermicelli, sugar, spices, meat and other delicacies to mark Eid ul-Fitr soared at least 20%-30% higher than pre-ramadan period.

The sale of cheap mobile phones and Eid greeting cards were selling at a high price in comparison with the previous year while Eid cap, Jainamaj (prayer rug) and Attar (perfume) and Tasbih (rosary) are the best selling goods.

The sales began from early ramadan and it would continue till next Eid ulAzha, said Motahar Hossain, a seller of religious parapharnallia on Hemayetuddin Road Kasai Mosque.

The tailoring shops of shirts and suits witnessed throngs of customers

as well as footwear shops.

Bata, Apex, Liberty and other shoe companies as well as local shoe manufacturing shops are busy dealing with customers.

The cosmetics and beautification products, specially imitation and citygold items, were not selling as well as expected.

The city beauty parlors and salons, on the other hand, are handling a large number of crowds every day since the halfway through the month of ramadan.

Fashion enthusiasts, particularly young men and women, rush to different parlours and salons to get themselves new hair styles and make-up.

But the jewelry markets are the exception.

The jewellery businessmen were facing a lull in the business, said Md Ali Khan Jasim, secretary, Barisal Jewellers Association.

The electronics showrooms like Toshiba Rangs, Sony Rangs, Fatima Electronics, and Shahjahan Brothers were making a lackluster sale throughout the Eid shopping spree.

Only Singer and Butterfly products were selling well. A long-term purchase scheme through installment is said to be the reason for their booming business.

The furniture showrooms like Otobi, Hatil, Navana and Partex also failed to draw expected customers during the Eid shopping spree. l

6

DHAKA TRIBUNE

World

Monday, July 28, 2014

Iraq: A nation in peril

Will Gaza topple Netanyahu? ity Shi’ite community. “The Sunnis all want separation now,” said the 37-yearold electrician, who asked not to be named for his security.

Divided into three states

People walk through the rubble of the Prophet Younis Mosque after it was destroyed in a bomb attack by militants of the Islamic State, formerly known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the city of Mosul REUTERS

n Reuters, Baghdad Salman Khaled has already lived through Baghdad’s sectarian disintegration; with Iraq now splintering into Shi’ite, Sunni Arab and Kurdish regions, he says this time the survival of the country is at stake. “Things are really tense and it could get worse,” said the 23-year-old Sunni Muslim student. “If the politicians continue as they are doing now, we are on the path to separation.”

When Khaled’s father was shot dead

by Shi’ite gunmen at the height of Baghdad’s religious bloodshed seven years ago, his family took shelter in a Sunni neighbourhood of the capital.

They made their flight as violence

forced apart communities that once mingled in the city. Today the family lives in the Adhamiya district, close to the Abu Hanifa mosque where one of Sunni Islam’s most influential theologians is buried. At his home on an unpaved street, Khaled says he still feels secure in Adhamiya but he rarely goes to the rest of Baghdad where blast walls and security checkpoints hint at the fate of a fractured Iraq.

Iraq’s latest - and gravest - crisis erupted when mostly Sunni fighters swept through the north last month. Now the jihadist black flag flies over of most of the country’s Sunni Arab territory.

Kurdish forces, exploiting the chance to take another step towards

independence, seized the city of Kirkuk and nearby oilfields, leaving the Shi’ite-led government controlling only the capital region and the mainly Shi’ite south.

The government is trying to reverse this de facto, three-way split of the country, but its reliance on Shi’ite militia and volunteers rather than the ineffectual national army has deepened sectarian mistrust without pushing the rebels back.

Across Baghdad a Sunni living in the Shi’ite area of Maalef, cut off from the rest of the city by a checkpoint where non-residents are turned back, said life there had become unbearable for those who do not belong to the major-

Kurdish politician Hoshiyar Zebari, who still staunchly advocates Iraqi unity, described the new geography. “The country is divided literally into three states: the Kurdish state; the black state (under Sunni insurgents) and Baghdad,” he said.

Iraq’s political elite and world powers have concentrated on the formation of a new government as the best way to save the country, but such a push may come too late.

“It’s probably the most serious crisis that Iraq has faced since its inception as a country,” said Ali Allawi, a minister in two governments after the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003. “It’s the first time that the territorial integrity of the state as a whole is in question.”

This could further destabilise an already tumultuous region. Neighbouring Syria also faces disintegration, with most of its eastern areas under Islamist rebels for more than a year.

Iraq’s heritage stretches back to early civilisation on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, but the modern state is a colonial fusion of the Ottoman provinces of Basra, Baghdad and Mosul that followed the empire’s disintegration after World War One. Sunni and Shi’ite Arabs have little to unite them, Allawi said, while for most Kurds, non-Arabs who were persecuted under Saddam, the idea of an Iraqi nation is even more fanciful.

“Iraq is a failed state,” said Masrour Barzani head of the Kurdish region’s National Security Council. “It is a fabricated state. It has never been a state by choice by the people or the components of this country. They were forced to live together.” l

Israeli Arabs caught in the middle of Gaza war n AP, Tira, Israel

Facing the threat of rocket fire along with the rest of Israel, residents in this central Israeli Arab town have found themselves caught in the middle between Jewish neighbors and their fellow Palestinians who are dying in growing numbers in the Gaza Strip.

The people of Tira, a town of some 25,000 people known for their warm relations with nearby Jewish communities, have Jewish friends, speak Hebrew fluently and are largely integrated into Israeli society. But with relatives in Gaza and the West Bank, they also empathize with the Palestinians.

That internal strain becomes especially hard during times of violence, and tensions have risen since the latest round of fighting between Israel and Hamas militants began on July 8.

“The Jews look at us like Arabs and the Arabs look at us like Jews,” said Ahmad Nasser, 21. “We are in the middle.”

The markets in Tira are usually packed on the weekend with Israeli shoppers. But business has slowed

down to a trickle in the weeks since the conflict began, perhaps because Israeli-Arab relations have soured or simply because no one feels like going out in such times, said Mohammed Abdulchai, 52. He said the war has been bad for business, with the fear of rockets shared by everyone.

‘The Jews look at us like Arabs and the Arabs look at us like Jews. We are in the middle’ “The rocket doesn’t know if you are a Jew or an Arab,” he said.

Arab towns are just as vulnerable as those of Jews, perhaps even more so because they have less means of protection. Of the three civilians killed by rocket fire since the war began, one has been a Jew, one has been an Arab and one has been a Thai worker.

Arabs make up about 20% of Israel’s 8 million residents and, un-

like their Palestinian brethren in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, hold citizenship rights. But they often complain of being treated as second-class citizens. Most don’t serve in the military, which is mandatory for Jews, and many Jews consider them disloyal for sympathizing with the country’s enemies.

The fighting in Gaza has brought the tensions out in the open. Israelis have been outraged by some Israeli Arabs staging pro-Palestinian protests in which they have thrown rocks and blocked streets. Arabs say they have encountered increasing racism and violence from hawkish Israelis as well as calls for Arab businesses to be boycotted and for those who have posted support for Gaza on Facebook to be fired.

More than 1,000 Palestinians, mainly civilians, have been killed and more than 6,000 wounded over the past 19 days, Palestinian health official Ashraf al-Kidra said. Israeli strikes have destroyed hundreds of homes and forced tens of thousands of people to flee, according to Palestinian rights groups.

Israel says it started the military

Video shows American bomber in Syria

Suicide attacker Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha, who was known among rebels as Hurayra al-Amriki, is the first American to carry out a suicide attack in Syria AP

n AP, Beirut An al-Qaida-linked group fighting in Syria has released video of the first American to carry out a suicide attack in the country’s civil war, showing him smiling and saying he looked forward to going to heaven.

The Nusra Front released the new video late Friday showing American citizen Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha, 22, with other fighters before the May 25 attack that targeted several army positions at the same time. It said two of the other three suicide

attackers in the assault in the government-held northwestern city of Idlib were from foreign countries, including one who was identified as being from the Maldives.

Abu-Salha appears smiling in the video and speaks in broken Arabic.

“I want to rest in the afterlife, in heaven. There is nothing here and the heart is not resting,” Abu-Salha says. “Heaven is better. When people die they either go to heaven or hell. There is happiness beyond explanation.”

The video, released by Nus-

ra Front’s media arm, al-Manara al-Baydha, was posted on jihadi websites. It corresponded with Associated Press reporting about the attack and Abu-Salha.

Opposition forces previously identified the American who carried out the bombing as Abu Hurayra al-Amriki and said he was a US citizen. The name al-Amriki means “the American” in Arabic.

It’s unknown how many people were killed in the bombing. Opposition rebels with the Nusra Front said Abu-Salha’s truck was laden with 16 tons of explosives to tear down the al-Fanar restaurant, a gathering site for Syrian troops. The other suicide attackers targeted nearby army positions.

Abu-Salha grew up in Florida and attended several colleges before dropping out and moving abroad.

Thousands of foreign fighters have come to Syria from around the world to fight against President Bashar Assad’s forces after the uprising against his government began three years ago.

The war, which began in 2011, has since taken on strong sectarian overtones, pitting a Sunni-led insurgency that includes al-Qaida-inspired extremist groups against a government dominated by Assad’s minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam. l

operation and sent ground forces into Gaza to stop the relentless rocket fire and to destroy a sophisticated network of Hamas tunnels that could be used to infiltrate into Israel.

It says it is doing its utmost to prevent civilian casualties, including by sending evacuation warnings to residents in targeted areas, and blames Hamas for putting civilians in harm’s way. Israel has lost 43 soldiers. Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system has kept the number of casualties from rocket fire low, but air raid sirens are a constant reminder of the threat to Israeli communities.

“What’s happening in Gaza is just pushing us apart and adding fuel to the fire,” said Ahmad Daas, a 27-yearold from Tira. “We don’t want to ruin our good relations with Jews, but on the other hand, emotionally, we are Arabs. It’s only human that we hurt when we see the images from Gaza of people getting killed ... war is not the solution.”

He and a group of friends were watching coverage of the fighting on Al-Jazeera, they said, to get a better sense of the carnage in Gaza than they would on Israeli TV. l

More than 50 killed in Libya’s Benghazi, Tripoli n Reuters, Benghazi, Libya At least 36 people were killed in Libya’s eastern city of Benghazi, many of them civilians, in clashes between Libyan Special Forces and Islamist militants on Saturday night and Sunday morning. Another 23 people, all Egyptian workers, were killed in the capital Tripoli when a rocket hit their home on Saturday during clashes between rival militias battling over the city’s main airport, the Egyptian state news agency reported.

In the last two weeks, Libya has descended into its deadliest violence since the 2011 war that ousted Muammar Gaddafi, prompting the United States, the United Nations and Turkey to pull their diplomatic staff out of the North African country.

With the central government unable to impose order, two rival militias are fighting in Tripoli, while army units are trying to push out Islamist militants who have set up camps on the outskirts of Benghazi.

The United States evacuated its embassy in Libya on Saturday, driving diplomats across the border into Tunisia under heavy military escort after escalating clashes broke out near the embassy compound in Tripoli. l

n Ahmed Moor The current Israeli war against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip is a war of choice.

It was declared by an Israeli prime minister who sought to undermine a Palestinian reconciliation deal that was never really a threat to his goal of permanent apartheid and Jewish rule in a Greater Israel. Yet, despite the negligible chance that true Palestinian rapprochement would develop, the gambit’s potential benefits still appeared to outweigh the costs. Striking the Palestinians in Gaza has always been a lowrisk undertaking. However, the math that qualifies every Israeli attack against Gaza - dozens or hundreds of dead Palestinians for every Israeli casualty - is not immutable.

The Palestinians can extract their costs, both in Gaza and the West Bank, and those costs may be enough to alter the political landscape in Israel.

An unbalanced equation The Jewish-Israeli public is highly resistant to arguments that humanise the Palestinians. The phenomenon is not particular to Israelis - plenty of societies and peoples have willfully ignored their victims’ humanity during periods of mass violence or genocide.

In Israel it’s partially the consequence of deliberate misdirection and the dissemination of propaganda by the government. In particular, the claim that militants in Gaza shield their weapons with the bodies of children and other civilians has been produced and reproduced to extreme effect. Another, newly emergent, characteristic of the Jewish street contributes to the vanishing regard for Palestinian life. The rampant, and sometimes officially sanctioned incitement against Palestinians has produced a natural contempt for indigenous lives and aspirations. Indeed, the calls for vengeance that emanated from the office of the prime minister contributed to Mohammed Abu Khdeir’s immolation

by Zionist ultras in Jerusalem. Those same signals helped yield an environment that reinforces the subordinate humanity of the Palestinians in the West Bank.

By contrast, many Jewish-Israelis are highly sensitive to their own losses - both real and perceived. There is a low tolerance for battlefield deaths - and an even lower tolerance for the capture of troops by enemy forces. Both factors have contributed to the dissolution of more than one government in Israeli history and to the end of several political careers. For example, Amir Peretz was acting Minister of Defence in 2006. He presided over the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, during which Hezbollah fighters succeeded in killing 121 Israeli troops.

Eight years later, he is mostly an obscure figure who elicits expressions of loathing from members of the public.

A cost to Israel’s war The Lebanon experience is wholly distinct from that of Gaza. Benjamin Netanyahu expected the attacks against the Palestinians would produce low numbers of Israeli dead, if any; that’s the historical experience. The political benefit derived by the assault - the end to the Palestinian reconciliation process - was perceived to be greater than the likely cost; 1000 dead Palestinians hardly weigh on political outcomes or the public conscience in Israel. Nor can the international community bring any meaningful pressure to bear.

Netanyahu’s decision to transition from aerial bombardment to a ground invasion exposed him to greater risk, however.

Excessively broad pronouncements about eradicating Palestinian fighters and their armaments committed him to more than he likely was prepared for. But pressure from his extreme right-wing cabinet members proved to be irresistible as well. The military wing of Hamas demonstrated its adaptability and capacity for military discipline within days of the ground invasion. As of this writing, Palestinian fighters had managed to kill 38 Israelis - 35 of whom are soldiers. In addition, they appear to have captured one member of the invading force. They also succeeded in demonstrating to the Israeli public that war carries an economic and psychological cost - something that became starkly apparent when international airlines interrupted their service to Tel Aviv for two days. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

World

China’s anti-graft drive is making state media bolder n Reuters, Beijing China’s campaign to stamp out corruption has emboldened the country’s normally docile state media to push the barriers in exposing corporate wrongdoing.

While it’s still off-limits to delve too deeply into what government leaders and powerful institutions may be up to, recent ‘undercover’ state TV reports accusing state-owned Bank of China of aiding money laundering and a USowned food supplier of safety violations suggest the media are more ready to run critical reports.

China’s central bank said earlier this month it was investigating allegations by state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) that Bank of China offers a service to help Chinese move more of their cash offshore than is allowed.

Bank of China, the country’s fourth largest lender, has denied the allegations.

“Part of the reason the report went forward was because of the anti-corruption campaign,” said a CCTV network employee. “It isn’t like corruption never existed before, but now there’s a bit more room to report on it.”

Five current and former CCTV employees told Reuters that while the network had run critical reports on state-owned enterprises before, it was unusual to target a major entity such as Bank of China. All asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter. CCTV could not be reached for comment.

“The Bank of China investigative reporting by CCTV is definitely part of the government-wide push to clamp down on corruption and related activities,” another CCTV insider said, adding that Chinese-language TV channels were putting more resources into chasing investigative stories.

Foreign companies operating in Chi-

India finalises deal to export power to Nepal n AP, Katmandu India and Nepal are finalising an agreement to provide the energy-starved Himalayan nation with electricity, India’s foreign minister said at the end of a three-day official visit yesterday.

Nepal’s communist insurgency, which lasted until 2006, and ensuing political instability have hampered the construction of new power plants, and Nepal could not afford to map out an energy strategy on its own.

A joint press released following Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj’s visit to Nepal said the two countries were able to agree on 26 issues including finalizing the power deal.

Under the agreement, India would export electricity to Nepal and help build hydroelectric power plants. Nepal has suffered from major power shortages with consumers facing power cuts up to 12 hours daily because the power plants are able to meet only half the total demand.

No other details on the agreement were made available.

India has a major influence over both the economy and politics in Nepal, and supplies all of Nepal’s oil needs and much of its trade. l

na, and their local suppliers, are also in state-media’s crosshairs.

A documentary last week by Shanghai government-owned Dragon TV accused food supplier Shanghai Husi Food, owned by Illinois-based OSI Group, of mixing expired meat with fresh produce, triggering a food safety scandal that has since spread to Hong Kong and Japan.

Several foreign fast-food brands, including McDonald’s Corp , pulled the company’s products from their outlets and switched suppliers. Regulators in Shanghai said Husi forged production dates on smoked beef patties and sold them after they had expired.

China’s state media is far from being independent or filling a genuine watchdog role, media experts said Late on Saturday, OSI said on its website it was withdrawing all products made by its Shanghai Husi business, and was carrying out an internal investigation into senior management that could end in legal action against those responsible.

“Reports on food safety have a broad impact and the (Dragon TV) investigative report was totally on the mark,” said Zhang Zhi’an, a journalism professor at Sun Yat Sen University in Guangzhou. “There have been more and more reports on food safety.”

A worker at an employment agency near the Shanghai Husi factory said an undercover TV reporter had come in seeking a job at the plant. “The reporter said he was from Sichuan (province),

and wanted to enter the factory,” the worker said. “He looked honest to me.”

The reporter could not be reached for comment, and Dragon TV has declined to comment on the making of the programme.

Under pressure

State media sources interviewed by Reuters said they knew of no explicit edict from Beijing to report on corporate wrongdoing - but that such investigative stories fit with the anti-corruption drive and generated strong viewing numbers.

“The Bank of China story could be done in part because of the wider political environment,” the first CCTV source said.

State media often avoid reporting on powerful state-owned companies because of their political ties, media insiders said. It would have been easy for Bank of China to pressure CCTV to kill the story if it knew beforehand that it was to be aired, said a person with direct knowledge of CCTV’s editorial processes.

“In China, if you contact the subject of your report before publishing, they will almost certainly use administrative means to suppress the report,” the person said. “If it does come out, they can also use connections to get the report ‘harmonised’,” he added, using a colloquialism for online censorship.

But China’s state media is far from being independent or filling a genuine watchdog role, media experts said. By and large, it only reports on important corruption cases to the extent that the government itself allows them to become public.

“Reporting on local and foreign companies is all well and good - as long as it doesn’t disturb those in the government with money and power,” said Zhan Jiang, a journalism professor at the Beijing Foreign Studies University. l

Six seconds of exercise ‘can transform health’ n BBC Short six-second bursts of vigorous exercise have the potential to transform the health of elderly people, say researchers in Scotland. A pilot study involving 12 pensioners showed going all-out in very short bursts, reduced blood pressure and improved general fitness over time.

The team at Abertay University believe it could help avert the “astronomical” costs of ill health in elderly people.

Experts said the study emphasised the benefits of exercise at any age. High Intensity Training (HIT) has attracted a

lot of attention for promising some of the same benefits as conventional exercise but in a much shorter time. Instead of a comfortable half-hour jog or a few miles on the bike, HIT involves pushing yourself to your limits for a short period of time.

The team in Scotland say they were conducting the first trials in older people.

Dr Babraj, based in London, says older people struggle to exercise as many are full-time carers, but argues High Intensity Training would be easier to fit in. He said people could try it at home, but should see their doctor first to ensure there were no underlying health issues. l

Monday, July 28, 2014

7

Taliban attack Afghan police chief’s home n AP, Kabul Taliban insurgents attacked the home of a well-known provincial police chief in restive southern Afghanistan yesterday, killing a civilian and a border policeman before being shot dead by police, officials said.

The six gunmen, all of whom were wearing suicide vests, launched the attack from a school building near Gen. Abdul Razeq’s house in the Spin Boldak district of Kandahar province, but were shot dead before they could enter the residence, provincial police spokesman Zia Durani said.

“Gen. Abdul Razeq was in his house

at the time of the attack,” but was unharmed, Durani added.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement sent to the media. The Taliban frequently carry out suicide bombings and other attacks against Afghan and Nato forces.

Abdul Razeq is a well-known police chief and prominent anti-Taliban figure in Kandahar province, and has survived several attacks. In the capital Kabul, meanwhile, hundreds of protesters took to the streets in an anti-Taliban demonstration organized by activists and civil society groups, with similar protests held in the northern Balkh and

western Herat provinces. The protesters chanted against the recent killing of civilians in Taliban attacks.

On Friday Taliban gunmen halted three minibuses in the western Ghor province and shot dead 14 passengers on the side of the road, including three women, after identifying them as Hazara Shiites. The Taliban, like other Sunni extremist groups, view the country’s minority Shiite community as apostates, and have targeted Hazaras in the past with suicide bombings and other attacks.

Ousted from power by the 2001 US-led invasion, the Taliban soon regrouped as an insurgency battling Nato troops and Afghan security forces. l

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DHAKA TRIBUNE

Entertainment

Monday, July 28, 2014

Eid-ul-Fitr, occurs as soon as the new moon is sighted at the end of the month of fasting. This festival celebrates the end of Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting. It is an occasion of feasting and rejoicing. This grand tradition is celebrated widely and to mark this extra special occasion, the media of the country prepares a list of special TV programmes, telefilms, Eid drama series and many more for the audience every year. Below, a list of highlights of many programmes of the first three days of Eid celebration is provided for the benefit of the audience.

Eid special single episode dramas on TV Aji Bijon Ghore

Shonar Dim

Tar Baba Godfather

Tupur Tupur Opera

“Aji Bijon Ghore” featuring crises of relations in a broken family will be aired on ETV at 11:30pm on the third day of Eid. Suborna Mustafa, Shahiduzzaman Selim and Sanjida Prity play the roles of a divorced couple and Selim’s daughter from his second marriage respectively. After the death of husband Abir, Rubana visits Bangladesh from America to solve some legal problems. Abir left his ancestral home located in his village to his wife Rubana, in his will. Rubana also discovers some letters from Abir which were written to her. She becomes emotional after reading the letters and then heads towards the village home. There she meets Abir’s daughter from his second marriage. They develop a good bond after sharing their memories of Abir.

On the day of Eid, single-episode play “Shonar Dim” will be aired on Desh TV at 7:45pm. Written and directed by Tuhin Russel, the drama features Mosharraf Karim, Aparna, Kazi Ujjal and Mohini Mou. Hashem is a simple man living in a small village. One day, a beggar visits his house while he was taking care of his pet duck and kind Hashem gives him food and asks him to pray that his duck lays gold eggs. The next day, his much cherished pet produces a gold egg and almost overnight, Hashem’s fortune changes. He becomes rich and his priorities also change. He decides to marry an educated woman who is the daughter of the person who buys the gold eggs from him. But, how can he forget Laboni who is waiting for him since long.

Mamunur Rashid plays the title role of an underworld don Jaynal Sarkar in the play “Tar Baba Godfather” while Tisha plays his daughter Laili who faces enormous obstacles to lead a life at her own choice. The story focuses on Laili and her father’s rivalry on the issue of the young girl’s love-interest Moin, played by Rawnak Hasan. Moin dates Laili with different disguises but at one point he is caught

by Sarkar. Written and directed by Sumon Anowar, the play will be televised on SATV on the second day of Eid at 8:40pm.

Break-free drama “Tupur Tupr Opera” will be aired on NTV on Eid day at 8:10pm. Written and directed by Sagor Jahan, the film will see actors Mosharaf Karim, Tisha, Al Mansur, Hasin Roshan and others.

The story is about a young lad from Bhadughor village, Afsar, whose dream in life is to become a singer so as a result everyone calls him “Singer Afsar.” Laiju, Anwar’s daughter, returns from abroad and invites the whole village to celebrate her marriage anniversary. She arranges for a grand feast and invites Jatra (folk theatre), “Tupur Tupur Opera” team to perform. It creates the opportunity to take part in the play. They begin to teach Afsar how to act. On the day of their performance he is nowhere to be found and when he is located much later, he refuses to take part in the drama.

Ma

Bipasha Hayat plays a farmer in the single-episode play “Ma,” written a directed by Animesh Aich. The play is set on the backdrop of a village where Bipasha runs a very poor family through ploughing lands. Portraying the role, Bipasha Hayat has experienced ploughing for the first time. The play was shot in Pubail for three days in the scorching heat of the sun where Bipasha had one of the toughest shooting experience in her entire career. The drama will be aired on RTV at 9:20pm on the third day of Eid.

The Painter

“The Painter” starring Toukir Ahmed, Tarin and Mir Sabbir in lead roles will be aired at 8:30pm on ATN Bangla on the third day of Eid. Written by Masum Reza, the drama is directed by Sayed Awlad. The story follows an actor, Shaila, who gets a call from a famed director Nishorgo Chowdhury.

Once, she was madly in love with him. He calls her and asks her to act in his upcoming drama. Trying to be a liberal husband, at first Golam gives his consent but soon he becomes intolerant and jealous causing trouble in their espoused life. In the mean time, the disturbed Golam starts writing a fiction about a painter with mental disabilities.

Nesha Laga Shopno

A single episode drama “Nesha Laga Shopno” will be aired on the second day of Eid at 7:45pm on Channel 9. Written and directed by Alvi Ahmed, the drama features Mishu Sabbir, Farhana Mili, Prova, Shomapti Masuk and Mostafiz Shahin. The plot revolves around the controversial relationships of the showbiz world. Successful actor Sumon plans a tour with an emerging actor Joty. Sumon is married to Dipa and lies to her about his Nepal trip and informs her that he is going for an outdoor shoot. He ignores getting in touch with his wife after reaching Nepal and a worried Dipa contacts the director of the movie for his whereabouts. Asif, the director, is a family friend who tells her that he has no clue as to which outdoor shoot she is talking about. After returning from Nepal, when his enraged wife confronts him, Sumon convinces her that he went there for a seminar and other work. On the other hand, Joty falls in love with Sumon.

Tobu Nokkhotro Jagey

Afzal Hossain and Bipasha Hayat have paired up after 15 years in the single-episode play “Tobu Nokkhotro Jagey.”

Written by Bipasha herself and directed by Arif Khan, the play will be aired on NTV at 11:15pm on the second day of Eid. Here, Afzal plays a famous artist named Anis who is not happy in his married life.

His meeting with Tina, an expatriate who is settled in America, alters the direction of his personal life. They fall in love and Anis decides to marry her. But a road accident changes their life overnight.

Magazine Shows Ananda Jolsha “Ananda Jolsha” will air on Maasranga TV on Eid day at 8pm. Popular actors Tania and Ferdous will be seen hosting the magazine show. In the previous shows, the duo appeared as king/queen and president/first lady respectively. This time around the audience will get to see them as time-travellers who will go 20 years into the future to see what Bangladesh will be like.

Apart from the duo, dynamic dancers Shibli Mohammad and Shamim Ara Nipa will present a dance recital. Another dance piece will be presented by Nusrat Faria and Shohag. Other artistes who will be appearing in various segments include Sharmili Ahmed, Shahidul Alam Shacchu, Tushar Khan, Debashish Biswas, Majnun Mijan, Shamim Jaman, Runa Khanam, Shashi, Rony, Sajal, Jamil, Moutushi Biswas, Somon Patwari, Lemis and many others. Written and directed by Kabir Bokul. About hosting the show, Ferdous said: “I have never hosted a show three times in a row. This is a different experience altogether.” Tania said: “Ferdous and I have become a popular couple for TV shows because of this programme. Every time the audience get to see in in different avatars. Hopefully, this time the spectators will enjoy the programme as well.”

Raanga Sokal

Actor Riaz and his wife Tina will appear in a special episode of “Ranga Sokal” on the second day of Eid-ul-Fitr on Maasranga TV at 7:00am.

During the show the duo will give us an insight into their marriage, professional and personal life. They are also expected to share enthralling stories from their married life. The episode has already been recorded. Aditi and Rumman Rashid Khan will anchor the celebrity talk show.

Krishokher Eid Anondo On the second day of Eid, Channel i will telecast agro-based entertainment show “Krishoker Eid Anondo” at 4:30pm. The programme is planned, directed and hosted by Shykh Seraj. The game show focuses on people of distant areas and reveals how they enjoy Eid day through some rural and traditional events. This episode features the area Urakandi, a locality which faced river erosion of the mighty Padma and was once a busy dockyard. A variety of games will be showcased in different segment of the programme where the local people participate and win gifts. A visually handicapped young man won the game where one is challenged to climb a banana plant after covering his entire body with oil. He was presented with a 21 inch TV and on behalf of Channel i, Shykh Seraj announced that the treatment of the young man will be sponsored by the popular TV channel.

ATN Eid Mela

On Eid day at 11:50pm, “ATN Eid Mela” will be aired on ATN Bangla. The show will feature solo, duet and group presentations of songs, along with an interesting fashion show. Other segments include Jatra Pala, news presentation and many more attractive programmes. The participantes are the in-house employees of ATN Bangla

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Entertainment

Monday, July 28, 2014

9

Eid special telefilms on TV Ami-e Chirangada

Mim will be seen as Rabindranath Tagore’s epic charactaer Chitrangada in the telefilm “Ami-e Chirangada” which will be aired at 11:20pm on Maasranga TV on the second day of Eid. Directed by Ruman Runi and scripted by Matia Banu Shuku, the play is an adaptation of Tagore’s dance drama Chitrangada. Excited to work in a play based on Tagore’s literature, Mim said: “For the last few months, I avoided signing for TV plays. But I said yes to this particular one because of the unique dramatisation of the dance drama and the beautiful representation of the character.” The director explained about the drama: “Here, the audience will find Chitrangada in the context of recent time. It’s an adaptation without changing the main philosophy of Tagore’s Chitrangada.” The play also features popular actors Shabnam Parveen, Mahmudul Hasan Mithu, Sojol, Farjana Labony and many others.

Bhalobashar Ek Phota Jol

On the third day of Eid, telefilm “Bhalobashar Ek Phota Jol” will be aired on ATN Bangla at 3:05pm. Written by Mohon Khan, the drama features Riaz, Rumana, Tanvir, Samina, Shashi and Zakir. A frustrated Riaz who is a hooligan and a miscreant decides to surrender to the police after being chased by them for a length of time. But before he gives himself up, he decides to spend four days only for himself on his terms. For the last time, he loots a passer-by and goes to Cox’s Bazaar. He spends as if there is no tomorrow and stumbles upon Rumana, who is also there on holiday. On a whim, Riaz tells her about his troubled life and confess that if he had the love of a woman then he would not have chosen the life of crime. He also tells her about his plans to surrender.

Rumana falls for him and Riaz is overjoyed. But after a while, his resolution to hand himself over to the police is weakened as he refuses to let go of her. Riaz is faced with the challenge of choosing a life in prison over love.

Sisimpur on RTV

Vitamin T

Airtel presents telefilm “Vitamin T” on the third day of Eid. The drama will be telecast on NTV at 11:30pm. Here “T” suggests Taka. The story revolves around four friends who come across a large amount of money by chance. Right after their discovery, problems arise among them and many humourous incidents take place. The telefilm is made by Shafayet Mansur Rana. Actors Tariq Anam Khan, Mishu Sabbir, Aparna, Salman, Sayem and others acted in the drama.

Backdated

Telefilm “Backdated” features a wealthy and privileged Apurbo who lives the unrestrained party lifestyle, living it up with his girlfriend Sarika in town. The telefilm will be aired on NTV at 2:35pm on the second day of Eid. Through a series of incidents, the young Romeo gets in touch with his cultural roots, and becomes what he once thought of as a “backdated” person. This is the story of telefilm “Backdated,” written and directed by Apurbo himself, addressing what he believes to be “the moral degradation” of the present generation, while extolling the practical and emotional values of the culture of our society where family bond is the first priority.

Popular children’s TV show “Sisimpur” will telecast on RTV today at 10:05am. Sisimpur is the Bangladeshi adaptation of “Sesame Street,” designed to meet the learning needs of 3- to 6-year-olds across social classes and different regions of the country. With a curriculum defined by Bangladeshi educators, the series emphasises not only literacy, math and science, but also helps foster values such as self-respect, empathy and cooperation. Other key objectives include improving educational opportunities for young girls; promoting good nutrition, hygiene and safety; and en-

Eid special drama serials on TV Abar Hawa Badal

Bisha Dakat

Zahid Hasan plays the title role of comedy “Bisha Dakat” which will be aired on Mohona TV on Eid day at 8pm.

Here Bisha Dakat is a notorious dacoit of a village. Every night he loots houses of the rich people of neighbouring villages. While conducting operation in such a house, he meets a beautiful girl, played by Ahana. He falls in love with the girl at first sight while she simply despises him on sight. He then tries to win her heart and his profession becomes the main obstacle.

couraging appreciation of the shared cultural heritage of diverse segments of Bangladeshi society. The show will also air on the second, fifth and sixth day of Eid on the same time. On the third and fourth day of Eid, the favourite characters of the celebrated show, Halum, Tuktuki, Ikri and Shuku will be present on RTV live to receive phone calls from the audience. The puppets will talk to the children calling the show and share valuable life lessons and give advice. Produced by Shahriar Islam, the live sessions will also be telecast at 10:05am.

A seven episode drama serial titled “Abar Hawa Bodol” will start airing from first day of Eid-ul-Fitr on Desh TV at 9:00pm. The drama serial is written and directed by Imraul Rafat while Tisha, Saju Khadem, Elen, Ishika, Kochi Khondokar, Priyota, Sharmili Ahmed, Tanzika and others are cast in the play. The story of the serial follows Nisha and Mishu who checks into a resort as husband-wife after running away from their home. Two other couples also checks in at

Mission Possible

From Eid day at 10:30pm, situational comedy serial “Mission Possible” will be aired on SATV and continue till the sixth day. Soap actors Azad Abul Kalam, Saju Khadem, Mir Sabbir, Afzal Sharif, Abdul Kader, Sumaiya Shimu and others will be seen in the drama. Scripted and directed by Ejaj Munna, the drama tells the story of three friends who are similar in nature. They can be called film-holic as they watched films regularly. One of them copies Shahrukh Khan and tries to live like him. He also searches for Katrina Kaif. The second one copies Bangladeshi actor Jasim and loves Shabana. He finds a Shabana lookalike and feels overjoyed. The third person in the group is a bit different. He doesn’t like anyone in particular. He tries to copy every person/actor he likes. That is why he gets into a mess while looking for a girlfriend.

Real Murder Story

Telefilm “Real Murder Story” will be aired on Channel 9 on Eid day at 2:35pm. Written by Pankaj Roni and directed by Matiya Banu Shukhu, the telefilm will star Tarin, Intekar Dinar and Shushma Sarkar. The telefilm tells the story of a couple who live away from the hustle of the city. Samir Arefin is a writer and his wife Meher is a school teacher.

Samir wants to write a murder mystery, but is unable to do so. After Meher leaves for her mother’s house Samir settles down to write when Shuborna calls. At one time he was in love with her, but she didn’t marry him due to his careless attitude. Samir invites her over to discuss why she called him. She tells him that she needs 50 thousand taka and threatens him that if he doesn’t give her the money, she’ll send all their letters to Meher. He tries to convince her against it. When he returns from the kitchen, he finds her unconscious and takes this opportunity to strike her on the head, which ultimately kills her.

Eid special music on TV

the same time. Shihab and Tania is a recently married couple who came from Dhaka on their honeymoon. The main trouble of their relationship is that they are excessively suspicious of each other. They fought frequently but infront of everyone else, they put up a happy facade. Another couple, Anis and Shimu married recently and because of their age difference, they have diversified interests. While Anis is a homely guy, Shimu is quite the opposite. The story of “Abar Hawa Badal” moves forward with many humorous and amusing incidents of these three couples.

Jongi Jahangir Bhalobeshechilo Julekhake

Amar Gaaner Nimontrone

On the third day of Eid, NTV has arranged for a special musical programme paying tribute to the legendary diva Suchitra Sen. The show will be televised at 5:30pm and is planned by the head of NTV’s programme department, Mostofa Kamal Syed. Produced by Humayun Faird, Moutushi Biswas is the host of the show. Singers Kona, Priyanka Gope, Anima Roy, Anupama Mukti and Nirjhar will present two songs each while the music arrangement has been done by Maksud Zamil Mintu. The singers have already recorded the songs giving new flavours but keeping the beauty of the original melodies.

The show promises to make the audience nostalgic by presenting popular songs such as Tumi Je Amar Ei Bhubone, Ami Swapne Tomay Dekhechi, Ei Shundor Shornali Shondhay, Kichu Khushi Kichu Nesha, Mor Bina Othe Kon Shure Baji, Ei Je Kache Daka, She Amar Buk Bhorano Chotto Ekta Chithi etc.

Jani Na Kon Montore

Ronger Manushera Kemon Ache

Music with Arnob and Friends

ATN Bangla is brigning Arnob and Friends for the audience of the country on the third day of Eid at 11:50pm.

The show titled “Music with Arnob and Friends” will feature personal stories of the singers and discussion sessions.

The band is to perform their popular numbers in the show as well. The host of the programme is Maria Noor and it is directed by Rumana Afroz.

On the third day of Eid at 5pm, a special music show featuring the dedicated singer Bappa Mazumder will be aired on Channel 9. The show is named after Bappa’s recent solo album “Jani Na Kon Montore.” This show is part of the seven-day special programmes arranged on the ocassion of Eid-ul-Fitr. Bappa will present the audience with his contemporary songs and share many untold stories. The show will also feature various aspects of Bappa’s work life. Hosted by Amrin, the show is made by Irfan Mohammad Al Amin to spread the joy of the festival among the spectators.

A five episode drama serial titled “Jongi Jahangir Valobeshechilo Julekhake” will be aired from second day of Eid-ul-Fitr to sixth day on ATN Bangla at 10:40pm. The drama serial is directed by Zahid Hasan and written by Zakir Hossain Ujjal. Zahid Hasan, Ahona, Heera, Shamim Jaman, A Kh M Hasan, Tushar Khan, D A Tayeb, Tofa Hasan, Farhana Mithu and others are cast in the drama serial. The story revolves around Jahangir played by Zahid Hasan who is a senior member of a terrorist organisation. A fearful and nervous guy, he trains his fellow group members in a distant hill tracks. Jahangir failed to recruit a single member and thus his boss Mufty Roomy is disappointed with him.

On other hand, Julekha played by Ahona is a journalist and goes to visit the hill tracks with her aunt and cousins. Jahangir meets Julekha in the hill tracks and tries to impress her. When she pays a visit to his camp, Jahangir’s boss Mufti Roomy captures her. Jahangir protests against the act and as a result, he is also taken hostage. Subsequently, the whole gang gets caught by the police and Julekha later becomes the advocate who tries for Jahangir’s release.

Layek Chan The Great Shomoy Katuk Ganey Ganey

An episodic music show will start airing from Eid day at 11pm and will continue for eight consecutive days.

The first two episodes are studio recorded but from the third episode, the show will be telecast live on Boishakhi TV. Artistes participating in the programme includes Sayed Abdul Hadi, Kumar Biswajit, Subir Nandi, Kanak Chapa, Asif Akbar, Salma, Rinku, Beauty, Nancy, SI Tutul, Monir Khan, Ankhi Alamgir and Krishnokoli. The show is produced by Islam Shafiq and the host of the entertaining programme is Farhana Nisho.

Prova, Mosharraf Karim and Pran Roy will be seen in a seven-episode drama titled “Layek Chan The Great” everyday at 11:05pm on RTV starting from Eid day. Written by Masum Reza, the drama is directed by Salahuddin Lavlu.

“Layek Chan the Great” tells the story of young Layek Chan, played by Mosharraf Karim, who is the only son of the family and pampered a lot by his mother. Layek is in love with Bably, played by Prova who is the daughter of the village physician. A doubtful Layek is unable to express his feelings for her and meanwhile Bably falls for the village’s mobile service provider Mobile Manik, played by Pran Roy. One day, Layek has a dream that shows him how to win Bably’s heart and his mother helps him pursue her. On the other hand, expressing her feelings for Mobile Manik, Bably writes a letter and asks Layek to deliver it to Manik. But the evil in Layek prompts him to not deliver the letter that creates a rift between the love birds and thus Layek tries to take advantage of the situation.

“Ronger Manushera Kemon Ache” follows up the characters of the hit serial (began airing in 2004) which saw landmark popularity and that was director Salahuddin Lavlu’s turning point in his directorial ventures. The seven-episode serial will be aired at 6:35pm everyday on NTV starting from Eid day. The star studded serial is back with the same cast: ATM Shamsuzzaman, Wahida Mollick Jolly, Pran Roy, Agun, Tania, Bonnya Mirza, Fazlur Rahman Babu and many more.

Playwright of “Ronger Manush,” Masum Reza promises to entertain the viewers once again with hilarious dialogues in the script. “The storyline of the drama will begin in line with the last episode of the previous serial. I have personal attachment with this drama since it changed my career,” said Lavlu.

10

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Editorial

Monday, July 28, 2014

CODE-CRACKER

Eid is for everyone

T

he holy month of Ramadan is almost over, and the festivities of Eid-ul-Fitr are just around the corner.

As the month of fasting, prayer, and self-control draws to a close, Muslims all around the world will be observing this most auspicious occasion in the Islamic calendar. They will be remembering the lessons of Ramadan which make Eid a celebration of spiritual happiness and peaceful solidarity.

Although a religious occasion, Eid is also a cultural landmark for all people in Bangladesh, for most of whom, it is also the year’s biggest family holiday.

Eid at the end of Ramadan brings out the best in us. The spirit of giving and generosity that is innate in Bangladeshis is most visible at this time.

Whilst we celebrate, we must also remember the many people suffering around the world. Whether endured by residents of the Gaza Strip or Syria or the countless other places all over the world, including Bangladesh, it is incumbent on everyone, whatever their beliefs or religion, to remember the less fortunate.

As we spend Eid with our families, we must not forget to lend a helping hand to fellow humans in need.

Bangladeshis, bogged down by the many challenges of daily life, need an occasion for celebration as well as reflection. Eid provides a welcome break from routine and an invaluable opportunity to revitalise our energies for year ahead.

We would like to wish all our valued readers a very heartfelt Eid Mubarak.

The spirit of giving and generosity that is innate in Bangladeshis is most visible at this time

South Asia needs free trade

Be heard Write to Dhaka Tribune FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath, Sukrabad, Dhaka-1207 Email letters.dt@dhakatribune.com Send us your Op-Ed articles: opinion.dt@dhakatribune.com www.dhakatribune.com Join our Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/DhakaTribune

Bangladesh moves up 4 notches in HDI July 24

Hasan Zaman This is not entirely correct. Bangladesh moved up from 146 to 142, which is a four-point difference, but, as the annual Human Development Report of UNDP indicates (stated in the last page of the report), it moved up by 1 position taking into consideration consistent data and methodology.

No action taken against any accused in 12 years July 23

P Sarker The tragedy at Shamsunnahar Hall. No one has done anything about it still!

Tanzia Islam Yes it is a pity and no action was taken when worst happened on March 25, 1971 at the Dhaka University campus. As we didn’t protest then, we still are suffering.

Sabina Yasmin, Runa Laila record duet

July 22

W

e welcome the call made by Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed for Saarc leaders to remove trade barriers in South Asia.

Increasing trade within our region is essential in order to lift economic prospects.

However, despite being in existence for nearly a decade the South Asian Free Trade Area (Safta) is far from an economic reality in practice.

Non-tariff barriers including bureaucratic obstacles and slow border crossings hugely hold back the ability of businesses to take advantage of those duty-free access agreements which have been enacted.

Without tackling these types of issue, the signing of a framework agreement by Safta members to reduce customs duties on all traded goods to zero by 2016, will fail to make much difference.

As the minister highlighted in his address to the Safta ministerial council in Bhutan this month, enhancing regional trade is vital to help South Asian nations to reduce poverty. According to the World Bank, South Asia is home to over half the world’s chronically poor people, with more than 500 million people living on less than $1.25 a day.

If Saarc and safta are to tackle the challenge of lifting people out of poverty, they must boost intra-regional trade to make the most of their potential.

Projects to enhance cross-border co-operation on infrastructure, particularly in relation to energy, transport and hydropower, should be furthered to build collaboration and help to bring down the nontariff barriers which hold back growth in the region.

Bring down the non-tariff barriers which hold back growth in the region

Fahmida Sultana Love them! A duet will be such a treat!

Fake freedom fighters July 23

Disgusted Bangladeshi A report was published concerning the many liars, cheats, and corrupt officials who regularly draw monetary benefits from the state, and have done so for a long period. The remedy should be simple – just sack them, and put them on trial.

These imposters are immoral, criminal opportunists and liars, to begin with! Small wonder, that with such criminal-minded people in our government, malpractice and corruption has thrived everywhere. In the private sector, such people would have been dismissed straight away! No wonder we are going downhill, with corruption and malpractice surviving and entrenched in the country’s public services.

The government should publish a list of such criminal opportunists, giving their names, designation, rank, and position in the government, and the length of service in all dailies, so that all know who they are. They then have to be rooted out, the sooner the better. They can easily be replaced by honest and dedicated officials, who I wouldn’t be surprised to see now serving under such criminal opportunists.

CALVIN AND HOBBES

How to solve: Each number in our CODE-CRACKER grid represents a different letter of the alphabet. For example, today 5 represents L so fill L every time the figure 5 appears.

You have two letters in the control grid to start you off. Enter them in the appropriate squares in the main grid, then use your knowledge of words to work out which letters go in the missing squares.

Some letters of the alphabet may not be used.

As you get the letters, fill in the other squares with the same number in the main grid, and the control grid. Check off the list of alphabetical letters as you identify them.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

In other words, as noted by the report, simple comparison is not sufficient because of revisions and updates of the underlying data and adjustments to goalposts.

Nazia Jabeen Hasan Zaman: You are becoming such a geek! :)

Medicine manufacturers or sellers of poison?

July 23

SAM There are a number of medicine manufacturers who are actually nothing but sellers of poison.

They knowingly sell their so-called “medicine” to the poor and ignorant, only to make a buck and get away with it.

It is a shame that such people have deliberately killed many young children with their poisonous “medicine!”

Imprisonment for 20 years seems a mild punishment for such a cold-blooded crime, as they make money off giving innocent children this medicine, which they know is poisonous.

They should have been hanged, or given life-term prison sentences.

And the poor parents who bought their so-called poisonous medicine, to give to their children, cannot know any better as they are not made aware of what they were buying. Such acts of continued barbarous killings are really unbelievable!

What has happened to the government’s drug control agency, that it has totally ignored the matter? Were they paid by the criminal manufacturers to keep quiet? They even destroyed records to save themselves! They too should be taken to task as partners in crime.

RMG workers take to the streets again for dues July 24

Sabbir Ahmed For how much longer will these worker strikes go on?

For the last three months, these bloodied and sweat-ridden workers have been denied their wages by Tuba Textile.

Eid is not far away. For them to even think of celebrating it with their loved ones has become difficult, if not impossible. The owners have stated that if they cannot come to an agreement, they won’t be able to pay the workers. What an absurd situation they have thrown the workers into.

They have come to the streets to ask for their basic rights, the wages they are owed. Instead of justice, they have faced rubber bullets, tear gas, and being beaten by sticks.

If the labour minister thinks of himself as having any humanity, then he should act immediately on behalf of the workers.

SUDOKU How to solve: Fill in the blank spaces with the numbers 1 – 9. Every row, column and 3 x 3 box must contain all nine digits with no number repeating.

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Ceremonious (6) 5 Homo Sapiens (3) 7 Tree (5) 8 Whole (6) 10 Corded fabric (3) 12 Part of the eye (4) 13 Slender stick (3) 14 Petty quarrel (4) 16 Frank (4) 17 As well (3) 18 Use a sieve (4) 20 Jurisprudence (3) 23 Inventor’s grant (6) 24 Card game (5) 25 Marsh (3) 26 Moved quickly (6)

DOWN 1 Measures of length (4) 2 Withdraw (6) 3 Bitterly pungent (5) 4 Liquor dregs (4) 5 Spoil (3) 6 Land measure (3) 9 Golf club (4) 11 Light blow (3) 14 Malleable (4) 15 Powerful (6) 16 Lubricant (3) 17 Jewelled coronet (5) 18 Hurried (4) 19 Collar fastener (4) 21 Monkey (3) 22 Was victorious (3)

Fates of 5,000 students uncertain July 24

Kamrul Islam Bappy I hope everything will turn out fine.

Nur Hossain’s accountant describes his involvement

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS CODE-CRACKER

July 25

Ahsan Habib Based on what I saw, in the excessive interest shown by police in previous sensational murders, I suspect behind all these news covers, the real killers and even the RAB officials will be exonerated, claiming that their names did not emerge anywhere.

PEANUTS

CROSSWORD

PM to brief media Saturday July 25

AH Get ready to hear another bunch of lies.

Tackling human trafficking July 24

Kamana Choudhury I hope everyone reads this article.

Leo Raihan Ferdaus Wow, and thank you to the author!

SUDOKU

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Op-Ed

11

Monday, July 28, 2014

Staving off disasters together n Nicola Banwell

C

Support in hashtags is not negligible

REUTERS

#ThePowerOfAHashtag

I

n Maliha Mohsin

believe that the I Support Gaza hashtags are different from the Gaza Under Attack hashtags in function. Israel and Co already know people support Gaza, which is why they exercise control over the media and the news on casualties. They know that Palestinians have support and that this support will heighten when the world finds out that Palestinian civilians are dying brutally.

But support from people outside the warzone makes no difference to them really, particularly because they know that this support shows in hashtags and that does nothing to stop their drones from falling. To me, a plain and empty I Support Gaza has no tangible function in doing anything now, even if it is a collective demonstration of solidarity.

However, defeating biased media makes a difference, and removing the shroud over untold truths of oppression is tantamount to defeating it.

After the bombs fall and blood is shed, when and if Israel and Co finds victory, history will be written by the victorious, and of course “who controls the present, controls the past” (Quted from George Orwell’s 1984). But there will be this – a barrage of Gaza Under Attack tagged posts that carried truth out of the warzone when various mainstream media didn’t. Social media makes a difference now in saying what could be concealed in history, and therefore lost from mankind.

It is important to make a stand against any sort of wrong, which one can do with proof and reason, not just empty statements. Every photo out of a warzone, every report of a

new attack on civilians, every critical analysis of a flawed political statement is a mark on their glorified version of history. Tyler Hicks’ photo of the child barbarically lost to Israeli attacks on a beach can be a meme someday, somehow trending on someone’s newsfeed, teaching what textbooks won’t in certain places maybe.

The hashtag on Gaza Under Attack is our source of information so that we may know and let people know, which is the least we can do in solidarity even if we can’t help. Gaza Under Attack has a function in the longer run — the world knows, and will always know, and a difference can be made only if we know what needs to be known.

that their hashtag has a real tangible function, while person B thinks that they are mistaken in thinking so, and that demonstrating their support and solidarity in some other way has more function, B has every right to share this opinion with A with due respect, logic, and reason, in a non-provocative manner. I would personally appreciate it very much if solidarity isn’t turned into a festivity marked by the trending of a new hashtag every two days though.

In the past week, I’ve seen at least three different hashtags trend, as if the sympathisers were bored of the same hashtag and needed to add new flairs to it to keep people and themselves

The hashtag on ‘Gaza Under Attack’ is our source of information so that we may know and let people know Yes, solidarity is also essential. It shows the empathy and concern we are capable of, and the oppressed will know that the world knew and stood by their side even as they fell. Even if it has no real function in solving their problem, they know they aren’t unheard as they struggle in their crisis, and they know that their lives have worth even as they bleed and crumble worthlessly within their warzones.

If sympathisers and empathisers are willing to mark the perpetrators’ glorified history with the numbers and statistics of their support in hashtags, it is definitely nothing negligible. But if person A is under the impression

engaged. It was also as if phrasing the same hashtag in a different manner symbolised a new act of social activism on someone’s part, when it is essentially the same act and shouldn’t provide any more gratification than what has already been obtained.

In all of this, I pray. I pray for peace, for the worth of humanity to be restored, for lives to be saved, and for homes to be preserved in every corner of this distressed world so that children can live with their families under a roof with safety, and more importantly, with humility, because such peace is always vulnerable. I also pray that as we become the medium

of information, we don’t lose ourselves to bias or a heightened sense of self-worth and self-importance.

Most importantly, I pray to God that no one walks out of any conflict with a blotched sense of victory and a higher glory in their national identity, color, race, or religion.

Because the truth is that most of the lives lost in conflicts are of plain human beings, made of flesh and blood who just want to wake up every morning in their homes with their loved ones but are caught up here in the middle of a power play between two parties instead. And I pray that this solidarity arises from us for every person in distress and oppression, no matter what their cultural identities are.

With that, I pray for the oppressed in Palestine, just as much as I pray for the oppressed in Iraq, in Syria, in South Sudan, in Nigeria, in Maldives, and every other location in crisis and conflict right now in this world. I also pray for those oppressed in history so much that today they themselves are driven to oppress.

As for the so-called awareness brought from trending I Support Gaza, truth be told, there’s so much news that has to be read about every oppressed being in this world that it is actually easier to pick up a trending news of an unfortunate death than the news of an equally unfortunate death that isn’t trending. Such is the value of human life dependent on our hashtags. So I also pray that we care more about learning about our fellow human beings and making a difference, and that a hashtag isn’t all that defines our generation of social activists. l Maliha Mohsin is a freelance contributor.

ollaboration between the public and private sectors, also known as Public Private Partnerships (PPPs), can create an enabling environment for community resilience and disaster risk reduction. Public private partnerships involve harnessing investment, expertise, and innovation from the private sector for better public infrastructure – including both physical infrastructure (as in roads, railways, etc) and social infrastructure (such as hospitals, schools, and health services).

Small and medium enterprise (SMEs) and other private sector investment is a key strategy in sustainable development financing in the emerging post-2015 development agenda as well.

There is great scope for harnessing private sector strengths and expertise in disaster risk reduction as PPPs increase access to technical expertise and knowledge, as well as resources and innovative solutions.

Mainstreaming disaster risk reduction in the private sector can create ample opportunities for the development of innovative technology, and steer public demand and consumers toward disaster resilient materials, solutions, and technology.

Furthermore, because of the private sector’s direct relationship with consumers, producers, and those in the supply chain, private sector investment has the potential to reach a wide range of individuals, communities, and enterprises.

Disaster losses undermine business performance and sustainability, while simultaneously resulting in widespread loss to populations in terms of life, livelihood, and infrastructure.

For these reasons, PPPs are of mutual benefit to both parties.

For example, the safety and resiliency of communities can be promoted by the private sector through investment in disaster risk reduction, quality assurance, and standard setting in urban structures, and the development of resilient power and water infrastructure.

At the same time these investments also protect their own business continuity, as it enables the private sector to provide their goods and services reliably, with reduced interruption.

Further to this, in the event of a disaster, the reliable provision of goods and

services allows the community access to vital goods and services.

Further to this, it protects the community to which their employees and suppliers belong by enabling continued employment and thus reducing the financial hardship faced by the individuals and communities. This both protects the community and enables a speedier recovery in times of disaster.

There is great scope for harnessing private sector strengths in disaster risk reduction Additionally, investing in programs and community risk reduction efforts through socially responsible initiatives can strengthen the communities upon which the businesses rely for their continuity.

Disaster risk reduction is therefore a responsibility shared equally between the public and private sectors.If the private sector takes on the responsibility to make their investments resilient to disasters and climate change, it will in turn reduce the social and economic shock and long-term losses on not only a community level, but on both national and global scales.

A prime example of this is the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Savar on April 24, 2013. This collapse not only resulted in the loss of lives and livelihoods and caused long-term economic strain for the local community, it also negatively impacted the bottom line of the investors and the exports and the economy of the whole of Bangladesh.

This case highlights the pertinent point that the cost of long-term investment for resilient infrastructure, disaster preparedness, and risk reduction initiatives led by private sector investors would be much lower than the short-term cost of loss and recovery after catastrophic events. Engaging the private sector actors in disaster risk reduction thus has mutual benefit for both the public and private sectors. l Nicola Banwell is Disaster Risk Reduction Officer at Eminence Associates for Social Development.

Preventing disasters is both a public and private concern

NASHIRUL ISLAM

Modi’s deafening silence n Uday Sankar Das

I

t’s been just over two months since Narendra Modi, a staunch supporter of Hindutva, was sworn in as the 15th prime minister of India after his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won an astounding victory in the Lok Sabha elections.

This thumping victory, giving BJP absolute majority in parliament on its own, was largely attributed to one man only, Narendra Modi, who addressed more than 300 election rallies across the length and breadth of the country, often delivering fiery speeches and telling his audience what they really wanted to hear.

However he may try to prove that his work would do the talking, his countrymen would also like to point out that talking is an integral part of his work The three points that he epitomised were change, youth aspirations, and leadership. He also used the social network to woo young voters. Narendra Modi blogged, tweeted, and Facebooked, and it was thought that India’s

youth have now found a real leader who would fulfill their aspirations.

But all of a sudden the fiery and vocal Modi has gone on “mute” mode. His close followers are trying to convince the people of India that their leader is a man of action and does not believe in talking too much to the media.

One very clearly remembers that former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh was severely criticised for being a person who would hardly communicate. There were rounds going in New Delhi that, when he went to his dentist, he had to plead to Dr Singh to at least “open his mouth” in his clinic. Dr Singh’s stony silence was understandable; it was perceived to be merely an act of following orders. But, Modi is known to be his own master and his silence is looked upon as “a silence of choice and convenience.”

As a result, when on many issues, clarity on the part of the government is of utmost importance, this silence is giving a confusing message to the country. One point that many analysts talk about is that Narendra Modi does not feel very comfortable with the media and that he is also known to have lost his temper when faced with probing questions from journalists.

He is also known to have asked his

ministers not to speak to reporters out of turn.

Narendra Modi does not want to get trapped by the media in any way, and would prefer to use social media networks to keep the youth on his side – this is what his brigade is working at.

Others say that talking big and nasty when in opposition and during election rallies is one thing, while governance in a massive country with such diversity is a “totally different ball-game” altogether. It was thought that his formula of development in Gujarat could be replicated in the rest of India, but no definite plans or policies are in sight.

Another important facet political analysts have always pointed to is that the BJP-led government would largely be controlled by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangha (RSS), whose cadres worked all over the country in the election campaign. There was always a fear that there could be a remote-button to be pressed by the RSS in the running of the government. Many believe that BJP/RSS have already started working on a hidden agenda of Hindutva, and that Narendra Modi does not really want to open his mouth on that issue to the media.

Elections to state assemblies are due in a number of states later in the

year, most notably in Maharastra and Haryana, and BJP, with Amit Shah made party head recently, is busy hatching plans to take large swathes of the country in these elections. BJP/RSS nexus is working towards it stealthily and in a divisive manner.

This silence on the part of the prime minister of India, coupled with failure to deliver on some of the election campaign promises, has raised questions within the party. BJP won all the seven of the Lok Sabha seats in the capital Delhi, but is still unsure whether to go for the polls or start horse-trading and woo members of the state assembly from other parties and independents to its fold to muster the required majority.

In the elections held last December, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), led by Arvind Kejriwal, with the support of Congress, formed the Delhi state government, only to resign after 45 days in power. BJP and its ally bagged 32 seats in the 70-seat state assembly, but with three of its members becoming MPs, their strength has gone down to 29, and one of AAP’s member being ousted from the party, their strength has been reduced to 27 in the now 67seat assembly. BJP had been accused of “trying to buy MLAs” and form the government.

But it now transpires that the BJP would go for an election after the RSS had shown displeasure at some MLAs’ inclination to grab power despite not having the numbers. RSS was reported to be displeased by the attitude of some BJP MLAs. But, the round going in Delhi is that these MLAs fear that they would lose if fresh polls are held.

The recent price hike of essential commodities has also put the BJP on the back foot, and so the party is also wary of what Delhi results would look like if elections were held now.

Obviously, no party would like to be blemished so soon after coming to power, but it appears that the only way out in Delhi is holding fresh elections to the state assembly. BJP would like to tighten its grip on the capital before coming to a concrete decision.

The big question to pose is: Will Modi open his mouth now? His continued silence is becoming more and more deafening by the day, and however he may try to prove that his work would do the talking, his countrymen and the world would also like to point out that talking is an integral part of his work. l Uday Sankar Das is a senior journalist who worked for BBC World Service Radio in London and is presently based in Chittagong.

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DHAKA TRIBUNE

Long Form

Monday, July 28, 2014

Bangladesh needs to show ‘the other Bangladesh’

‘First, we have to work to promote image to show what we call the other Bangladesh’ beyond disaster in readymade garment factories and cyclone, Swiss Ambassador in Dhaka Christian Fotsch said in an exclusive interview with Dhaka Tribune.

Dhaka Tribune Special Affairs Editor Shahidul Islam Chowdhury conducted the interview.

F

otsch said he was aware of the birth of Bangladesh in 1971.

“I was born in 1955. I was 16 years old [in 1971].

I remember the War of Independence of Bangladesh. Actually it was the beginning of my political interests. I looked at the map and saw two parts of the [then] Pakistan – East Pakistan and West Pakistan. I was thinking how two parts of a country can work keeping another huge country India between them. It was a very bloody war. There was a lot of victims.”

“Sitting in Europe everything in South Asia may seem all the same. But the closer you look and the closer you work, you will see the diversity. [The 1971] War is a part of diversity in South Asia.”

Bangladesh and Switzerland has been maintaining relations for about 42 years. How will you assess the present state of relations between the two countries?

Actually we have a full-fledged embassy here since 2005. I’m very satisfied about the relationship that has been developed mainly on three pillars over the years.

The main pillar of our relations is development cooperation with roughly $35m per year.

The second pillar is political relations.

Our goal is to empower the underprivileged population to take their share in the growth of the economy, not just to give them subsidy

Politically we have excellent relations.

We have been working closely on global issues including climate change and migration. Of course, we do not fully agree on certain issues like migration.

Bangladesh is typically a country sending its citizens abroad and Switzerland is receiving foreign workers.

There is now 23% people living in our country who are non-Swiss.

This is the job of diplomats. On many issues we do not fully agree or take same point of view.

The third pillar is economic relations which is one of my priorities. We have accumulated trade of roughly $500m per year. Bangladesh is one of the few countries which have positive trade balance with Switzerland. Of the trade of $500m per year Bangladesh exports to Switzerland worth about $350m and our export to your country is $150m.

We have an increase in trade by 7% in 2013. I think we are looking at the potential of Bangladeshi market.

‘The other side’ – The industrial growth of Bangladesh

Switzerland considers Bangladesh as one of the priority countries. How is it beneficial for both sides?

In the development sector, Bangladesh is clearly a country with focus with the volume of $35m last year. We are going to increase development cooperation to $40m by 2017. We are active in three main areas: skill development, local government, economy and trade.

Is there any unique feature in our relation that does not match with Switzerland’s relations with other countries?

Before going to the point I need to mention that Switzerland recognised Bangladesh in 1972. We have started working here primarily on humanitarian grounds. In later years development cooperation was our only activity in Bangladesh. In 2005, Swiss presence here was upgraded to a residence embassy.

Yes, it is rapidly growing importance in political, economic and cultural relations. I’m the first career diplomat here to represent my country. The previous two diplomats were from development background.

Sending a career diplomat is also a sign of how important Bangladesh is to Switzerland.

What are the scopes for expanding bilateral trade and investment in Bangladesh?

We have accumulated investment of $150m. Yes, it is quite modest. Several major Swiss companies have already been operating here, for example, Nestle, Holcim cement, Novartis, ABB, SGS, etc. These companies are already known for their worldwide reputation.

They are happy with business here too.

Bangladesh is a growing economy with prospect of becoming a middle-income country. The embassy can organise trips for Swiss companies to help them to know about Bangladesh.

I’ll like for big promotion for Swiss small and medium enterprises so that they become active in Bangladesh. The best approach is to bring them here.

We are working to bring a delegation of SMEs early next year.

One of the fields with huge potential is clean production and green production. I follow the Bangladeshi newspapers including the Dhaka Tribune that highlight the environment is gaining importance here and people talk about producing things in clean and green manner. Swiss companies have huge know-how in this field.

How can Bangladesh increase export to Switzerland?

It is the job of Bangladeshi companies and the embassy in Geneva. I can work for both directions. For the moment, readymade garment is the most important product exported to the Switzerland.

To promote export, I think the most

Christian Fotsch the Swiss ambassador to Bangladesh important thing is to promote the image of Bangladesh. To be honest, in Europe we hear about the Rana Plaza disaster, cyclones, rule of law, etc. So the image of Bangladesh is not at its best.

I have visited Incepta, a pharmaceutical company. They are manufacturing agricultural products. These sectors of Bangladeshi production lines are not much known in Europe, especially in Switzerland.

So I think, first, we have to work to promote the image to show what we call the other Bangladesh beyond cyclones and disasters in garment industries.

Working on the latest technology and adding more value to Bangladeshi products will also help the Swiss public to know the other Bangladesh. We are working on a project about this to promote the image and the product of Bangladesh and to bring Bangladeshi and Swiss business partners together.

Are Swiss companies utilising the Export Processing Zone facilities here?

Are they satisfied with the services provided there?

Yes, they are using these products and services. I suppose they are satisfied as I haven’t heard any complaints.

In which sectors will the Swiss SMEs be able to contribute?

They will be interested in weaving machinery, pharmaceutical, chemical and biotechnology, etc.

They will also be interested to help in upgrading the production facilities of RMG factories.

They can work for clean, green and quality production. Since pollution is a growing concern here, and worldwide

SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

too, they will be able to help in making production pollution free.

For high quality standard, the Swiss technologies are quite expensive compared to their competitors. So wherever quality and long term investment are important arguments, Swiss technologies are major competitive options.

What do you want to achieve during your tenure in Bangladesh?

My goal is clear. I want to explore and use all the potential to increase trade between Bangladesh and Switzerland.

I want to convert the potentials into reality so that at the end of my tenure we fulfill the goals. We will also work to increase development assistance by ensuring high standard of development cooperation.

Let me give you two points. We want to support the startup NGOs that have much potential but have no donors to fund. There are many projects where all the donors jump in. This is not the Switzerland. We will work on new but less known projects.

UCEP was quite unknown when Switzerland had started to support it. Now it

NASHIRUL ISLAM

Swiss banks do not work here due to absence of legal framework in Bangladesh. I need to mention, it is a growing economy with 160 million people with many potential customers for Swiss banks. The insurance companies as well could serve as soon as the legal framework is made ready.

Is there any irritant in the relations between the two countries?

We have excellent political, economic and cultural relations. So there is no obstacle as such that have to be resolved.

Yes, on some points, I have mentioned about migration, we do not agree. Switzerland has a very restrictive immigration policy. We have 23% non-Swiss among our living population. This is highest percentage of foreigners’ concentration after Luxemburg. Luxemburg has 40% foreigners.

On hiring people, we prefer our own nationals, secondly a person from the European Union and then the rest of the world.

I don’t want to make any optimistic note on hiring people from Bangladesh.

The Swiss SMEs will be interested in weaving machinery, pharmaceutical, chemical and biotechnology, etc

is so well-known that many donors fund them. This is a sign of quality for us.

The other element is that we touch the most vulnerable and marginalised populations.

Bangladesh wants to become a middle-income country by 2021. You need to create wealth. Yes, you have been achieving annual growth of 5.5% for the last 15 years. But a certain part of the population – based on caste, geographical location, level of education and the underprivileged – cannot get benefit of this growth. Our goal is to empower the underprivileged population to take their share in the growth of the economy, not just to give them subsidy.

I’ll also do some promotion for Switzerland, which is known to many Bangladeshis for high mountains, snow flooding and romantic scenes.

This is a cliché. In fact, mountains and snow flooding is a small part of the reality in Switzerland. We need to promote the real Switzerland, the high-tech Switzerland, with diversity and cultural activities of the country beyond snows and mountains.

Switzerland is also famous for banking services. Do you see the possibility of collaboration of service among banks between the two countries?

Is it difficult for a really qualified person to work in Switzerland?

We do not allow on the border to check certificates of a jobseeker. However, there are possibilities. For example, a Thai restaurant may need Thai chef to run the business. A person of European origin may not be able to prepare Thai food properly.

If a Bangladeshi has any specific qualification, for example in IT, that has demand in Switzerland, the company concerned can hire. But the company needs to prove that it has failed to hire people with that qualification from Swiss nationals first, and from the EU member countries as well.

For example, one-third of the staff of the IT departments in Swiss banks are non-European.

What do you think of the potential of tourism in Bangladesh?

For attracting tourists, specially the backpackers, some facilities need to be created here. There is in fact no taxi here in the city. Buses are overcrowded. Hiring a car is expensive. Train service is negligent and troublesome.

So you need to create essential facilities for tourists and many of them are potential investors. l

Did you know?

There are only two male-only core sports at the Commonwealth Games, Rugby 7s and Boxing. Netball is the only female only sport

Sport

Monday, July 28, 2014

14 Arsenal sign

Colombia goalkeeper Ospina

14 Bayern will never

sack Guardiola, Rummenigge

DHAKA TRIBUNE

13

15 Sangakkara

stars on rain-hit day

(L-R) Kenya’s Walter Moenga, Jamaica’s Kemar Bailey-Cole, Barbados’s Ramon Gittens and Bangladesh’s Mezbah Ahmed compete in the heats of the men’s 100m athletics event at Hampden Park during the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland yesterday

Hathurusingha also stirring water n Minhaz Uddin Khan Alongside the national cricketers who are being watched closely by the board for possible cases of indiscipline, head coach Chandika Hathurusingha is also apparently under the radar of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB).

Although the former Sri Lankan cricketer took over the job of Bangladesh coach officially from July, he was a member of the national coaching panel in the ODI series against India at home in June. According to sources and reports in the media, the then acting coach of the national team, Sarwar Imran was on the receiving end of some improper behaviour from Hathurusingha. This allegedly forced Imran to decline the role offered by the BCB as the assistant coach of the national team.

According to a close source of Imran, “He (Imran) is a senior coach of the country and is someone who is also very experienced. You cannot expect

him to work under aloof conditions.”

Prior to Hathurusingha’s appointment, the BCB stated that it would not consider references from the head coach while recruiting the rest of the coaching staff of the national side.

However, the statement was hardly honoured as the BCB roped in fitness and conditioning coach Mario Villavarayan and spin bowling coach Piyal Wijetunge upon Hathurusingha’s reference.

Villavarayan joined the Bangladesh team during the India series in June while Wijetunge is still awaiting clearance from Sri Lanka Cricket but is expected to join the Tigers after Eid vacation.

It was learned that Hathurusingha is making a concerted effort to bring in as many Sri Lankans as possible for different posts of the national team staff. The 45-year old head coach has already referred another Sri Lankan as the fielding coach but the BCB is not interested in bringing in anymore staff

from the island nation. BCB cricket operations committee chairman Akram Khan has informed Hathurusingha that they are more interested in bringing in a fielding coach from Australia and this, according to sources, was not taken sportingly by the former Sri Lankan cricketer.

Rumours are also doing the rounds that physiotherapist Vibhav Singh’s departure from the national team following the upcoming tour of the West Indies next month is also due to Hathurusingha. It is widely being reported that Hathurusingha is looking to bring in BCB academy physiotherapist Trent Bred into the national side.

According to sources most of the national cricketers are disappointed with Vibhav leaving.

According to a media report Hathurusingha is trying to influence developments in the cricket operations committee department with the back up of two influential BCB directors.

However, Akram told the media that he

is unaware of these issues.

“I asked Vibhav if there is any issue behind his decision to leave,” said Akram. “The board could have looked into the issue if he (Vibhav) had written to me. There might be some issues in some other areas but I hope those will be resolved soon. He (Hathurusingha) is still new here, he will take some time to know things here. I can guarantee that the national fielding coach will not be from Sri Lanka,” he added.

In 2009, Hathurusingha was named senior assistant coach to Sri Lanka’s national coach, Trevor Bayliss. But a year later he was axed from the job due to disciplinary reasons. According to SLC, Hathurusingha returned early from a tour of Zimbabwe to attend a coaching course in Australia.

Despite a request from Kumar Sangakkara, the national team’s captain at the time, for him to be retained in the position, Hathurusingha was not reappointed. He subsequently obtained permanent residency in Australia. l

Mezbah crashes out in 100m heats n Tribune Desk The fastest man of Bangladesh, Mezbah Ahmed, crashed out from the heats in the men’s 100m sprint of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games at the Hampden Park stadium yesterday.

The juvenile athlete clocked 11.13s to touch the finishing line and was placed sixth out of seven in the opening heats.

Mezbah, the 19-year old lad from Bagerhat who began his career in BKSP, ran along with Jamaican Olympic gold-winning athlete Kemar Bailey-Cole who finished first in the same heats.

It was Mezbah’s personal best timing in electronic time but he retained his title as the fastest man of the country in the 100m sprint in the 38th National Athletics Championship in March this year. He clocked the fastest time in recent years, 10.52s (hand timing) and also broke his own personal record to clinch first spot.

Bangladeshi swimmer Mahfuza

AFP

Khatun went close before failing to qualify for the finals of the women’s 100m breaststroke event as she finished third in heat 1. Mahfuza took 1:22.62m to touch the finishing line.

Meanwhile in weightlifting, Monoranjan Roy of Bangladesh finished fifth out of 17 participants in the men’s 77kg Group C event. Monoranjan

The juvenile athlete clocked 11.13s to touch the finishing line and was placed sixth out of seven in the opening heats lifted a total of 265kg, 120kg in snatch and 145kg in clean and jerk.

Shooter Abdullah Hel Baki has so far earned Bangladesh their only medal in the 20th Commonwealth Games after he clinched silver in the men’s 10m air-rifle event at the Barry Buddon Shooting Centre on Friday. l

AFC to inject new dimension in Bangladesh football Premier League clubs to get marketing manager emphasised upon the AFC Club Licensketing and sponsorship activities. n Raihan Mahmood As per the deal, AFC will provide a ing Regulations.

Cricketer Masud no more n Tribune Desk

Former Bangladesh cricket player Khandakar Ziaul Islam Masud passed away at the city’s Anwer Khan Modern Medical College and Hospital yesterday afternoon 3:10pm. He was 61.

Masud was suffering from low blood pressure and TB for the past few days.

He left behind his wife and two sons.

The former fast bowler, who played with authority during the 80s, was working as the Umpires Educator for the Bangladesh Cricket Board and was an international and local Match Referee.

His namaj e janaza will be held today after Zohr prayer at Baitul Noor Jame Masjid in Wari followed by the second janaza at the Bangabandhu National Stadium at 2:30pm.

ICC president AHM Mostafa Kamal, Bangladesh Cricket Board and Bangladesh Sports Journalist Association (BSJA) expressed deep shock over the loss and prayed for the salvation of the departed soul. l

Bangladesh football is all set to explore a new horizon as the 10 premier league clubs will be financed by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) to hire a marketing manager, a position that does not exist, to help the game step towards the professional circuit.

The marketing manager will be responsible for generating sponsorship, broadcasting revenues and marketing initiatives for the Bangladesh Premier Football League (BPFL). He will also be responsible for managing the club mar-

purse of US$240 per person for the first five months and $140 for the following seven months. AFC believes that within one year the officials will groom them to perfection marking their roles and worth.

BFF has already taken the written examination of 30 shortlisted candidates among whom 10 will be selected for the job. A delegation of AFC visited Bangladesh at the end of May and remained in the capital till the first week of June. During the visit the delegation

The delegates visited the 10 BPFL clubs and two Bangladesh Championship League clubs and inspected the facilities and elaborated the club licensing process.

A meeting between AFC and BFF followed and after accumulating the overall reaction from all the clubs and results of the inspection, it was decided the BFF will appoint two new officials - league marketing manager and club development executive.

The league marketing manager’s ap-

pointment was given the first priority.

The club development executive will primarily be responsible for the implementation and follow up on the club licensing regulations. The clubs have also committed to a June 30 deadline to submit documents that show they have become a licensed entity.

Bangladesh is one of 20 countries currently involved with the AFC Kick Off development programme which extends support through a wide range of services chosen by the participating member associations.

Abu Naeem Shohag, the general

secretary of the BFF thinks the clubs will be benefit with the AFC endeavour. “Each of the premier league clubs spend a lot of money each season and the football team is in the center of a good deal of money transaction, the marketing managers will help the club find new resources as well as use the existing resources more systemically,” said Shohag.

Meanwhile it was learnt, the country’s football governing body BFF itself is geared up to appoint its own marketing manager, a post left vacant for over a year, and in other senses - never truly active. l

BFF names Asian Games prelim squad n Raihan Mahmood Bangladesh Football Federation yesterday declared a 25-member Under-23 preliminary squad for the upcoming Asian Games scheduled to take place in Incheon, South Korea from September 19 to October 4.

The players are requested to report to team manager Amirul Islam Babu on August 3. The residential camp will be based at BKSP and it will continue till September 12. According to a press release from the Bangladesh Football Federation, Dutch head coach Lodewijk de Kruif and assistant coach Rene Koster will take over the responsibilities of the squad.

Though Rene Koster is in the coun-

try, De Kruif is yet to arrive from the Netherlands. Reportedly, the coaches have not received their salaries for the last six months and BFF will need to clear their dues before they join back to take up the responsibilities.

Uttar Baridhara and Muktijoddha SKS custodians Osman Goni and Russell Mahmud Liton and Abahani Ltd defender Tutul Hossain Badshah are the new faces in the team.

Goalkeepers- Shahidul Alam Sohel (Abahani), Osman Goni (Baridhara), Russell Mahmud Liton (Muktijoddha) Defenders- Keshto Kumar Bose (Skh. Jamal), Topu Barman (Mohammedan), Raihan Hasan (Skh. Jamal), Yamin Ahmed Chowdhury Mun-

na (Skh. Jamal), Yasin Khan (Skh. Jamal), Atikur Rahman Mishu (Abahani Ltd), Tutul Hossain Badshah (Abahani Ltd) Midfielders- Shahedul Alam Shahed (Abahani Ltd), Vincent Hemanta Biswas (Mohammedan), Yusuf Sifat (Mohammedan), Emon Mahmud Babu (Mohammedan), Mamunul Islam Mamun (Skh. Jamal), Sohel Rana (Skh. Jamal), Omar Faruk Babu (BJMC), Jewel Rana (Brothers Union), Rubel Miah (Brothers Union), Nahidul Islam (Mohammedan), Jamal Bhuiyan (Denmark).

Forwards- Wahed Ahmed (Mohammedan), Zahid Hasan Ameli (Mohammedan), Toklis Ahmed (Skh. Jamal), Mithun Chowdhury (Skh. Russell) l

Red Bull Racing’s Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo (C) celebrates with Scuderia Ferrari’s Spanish driver Fernando Alonso (L) and Mercedes’ British driver Lewis Hamilton (R) on the podium after the Hungarian Formula One Grand Prix at the Hungaroring circuit in Budapest yesterday AFP

14

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Falcao to return to action in London Monaco’s Colombian striker Radamel Falcao should return from a six month injury layoff at the Emirates Cup tournament being hosted by Arsenal next weekend, Monaco coach Leonardo Jardim said Sunday. Falcao, 28, suffered ruptured cruciate knee ligaments in a French League Cup game against an amateur side on January 26 that forced him to miss the World Cup. “He is in the final phase of his recuperation,” Jardim told a press conference. “He has one week left to totally recover. And I think he will be available for the Emirates Cup in England.” –AFP

Sport

Monday, July 28, 2014

Sri Lanka’s debutant Dickwella fined Sri Lanka’s debutant wicketkeeper Niroshan Dickwella was Sunday fined 10 percent of his match fee for claiming an unfair catch on day three of the ongoing second Test against South Africa. The 21-year-old player was found guilty of conduct that is either “contrary to the spirit of the game” or “brings the game into disrepute”, the International Cricket Council said in a news release. “Dickwella admitted to the charge and accepted the sanction imposed by Jeff Crowe... without the need to convene a disciplinary hearing,” the ICC said.

–AFP

Isner to face Sela in Atlanta final Top seed and defending champion John Isner reached his fourth Atlanta ATP final in five years on Saturday with a straight-sets victory over fellow American Jack Sock. Isner, ranked 12th in the world, broke the unseeded Sock once in each set -- both times to take the set. Serving to keep the match alive at 4-5 in the second Sock double faulted twice, finally sending a forehand into the net on match point to hand Isner the victory after 97 minutes. Isner avenged a quarter-final loss to Sock at Newport a fortnight ago and will face Dudi Sela in the title match. –AFP

‘Russia should lose right to stage WC’ n Reuters, London Russia should forfeit the right to stage the 2018 World Cup finals following the destruction of the Malaysian Airlines jet in Ukraine, according to Britain’s deputy prime minister Nick Clegg.

The Liberal Democrat leader told the Sunday Times that Russia should not host the event after pro-Russian separatists were implicated by western nations in the shooting down of the jet over eastern Ukraine on July 17 with the loss of 298 lives.

Earlier this week, some German politicians said the World Cup should be moved from Russia, while FIFA rejected those sentiments by saying hosting the event there could be a “force for good”.

Almost 200 Dutch citizens lost their lives in the crash and the Dutch FA said it would meet in due course to decide if it would take part in the qualifying competition for the finals in Russia.

Clegg told the British newspaper, which has recently published a series of articles alleging widespread corruption surrounding the award of the 2022 finals to Qatar, that threatening Russia by withdrawing the World Cup would be “a very potent political and symbolic sanction”.

“If there’s one thing that (President) Vladimir Putin cares about, as far as I can see, it’s his sense of status,” he said.

“Maybe reminding him that you can’t retain the same status in the world if you ignore the rest of the world, maybe that will have some effect on his thinking.”

Clegg said world leaders would look “so weak and so insincere” if the World Cup was allowed to go ahead in Russia.

“Vladimir Putin himself has to understand that he can’t have his cake and eat it,” Clegg said.

“He can’t constantly push the patience of the international community beyond breaking point, destabilise a neighbouring country, protect these armed separatists in the east of Ukraine and still have the privilege and honour of receiving all the accolades in 2018 for being the host nation of the World Cup.” He added: “You can’t have this - the beautiful game marred by the ugly aggression of Russia on the Russian-Ukrainian border.”

In a statement issued on Friday, FIFA said: “FIFA deplores any form of violence and will continue to use its tournaments to promote dialogue, understanding and peace among peoples.

“We have seen that the FIFA World Cup can be a force for good and FIFA believes this will be the case for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.”

Clegg also said that Russia should not host a Formula One Grand Prix in October but F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone has said it will go ahead as planned. l

Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski (9) scores a goal against Borussia Moenchengladbach’s goalkeeper Janis Blaswich (L) in Hamburg on Saturday. German champions advanced to the final of the pre-season Telekom Cup after beating Borussia Moenchengladbach on penalties following a 2-2 draw. Bayern will face Wolfsburg in Sunday’s final after they saw off Hamburg 6-5 on penalties after a goalless draw.

REUTERS

United beat Roma in friendly, Real and Arsenal lose n AFP, Denver

Wayne Rooney scored twice and Juan Mata added another goal to lift Manchester United to a 3-2 friendly victory over AS Roma on Saturday.

The triumph continued the winning start to new manager Louis van Gaal’s tenure, which opened with a 7-0 trouncing of the Los Angeles Galaxy in the opening match of United’s North American pre-season tour on Wednesday.

The going was tougher against the Serie A side, but while Roma was in control early in the first half it was Rooney who opened the scoring in the 36th minute, taking a pass from Mata 25 yards out, turning and firing into the top corner of the net.

Two minutes later, Rooney set up Mata for a fine second goal, and Rooney made it 3-0 with a penalty in first-half stoppage time after Roma newcomer Urby Emanuelson had upended Danny Welbeck.

Miralem Pjanic pulled one back for Roma in spectacular style in the 75th, unleashing a lob from his own half that arched over helpless United substitute keeper Ben Amos.

RESULTS Man United Rooney 36, 45-P, Mata 38

Real Madrid Bale 10

3 2 1 1

AS Roma Pjanic 75, Totti 89-P

Inter Milan

Inter win 3-2 on penalties

NY Red Bulls Wright-Phillips 32

DC United Chicago Fire Houston Dynamo

1 0 0 3 0 2 0 1

Icardi 68-P

Arsenal Fulham Dembele 22, 44, 75

Tottenham Kane 5, Lennon 84

Aston Villa Bennett 41

Francesco Totti converted a penalty in the 89th to make for an action-filled finish.

The 3-4-1-2 formation implemented by van Gaal was again effective and United played with energy despite the heat and high altitude.

“It’s obviously nice to get 45 minutes again under my belt and it’s always nice to score, so I was pleased with that,” Rooney said. “But the most important thing for us is getting our fitness in ... there’s obviously things we

could do better, but overall we have to be happy with the win.”

The match, which drew more than 54,000 to the Sports Authority Field stadium of the NFL’s Denver Broncos, was part of the International Champions Cup. The collection of pre-season matches features eight European clubs all preparing for the start of their domestic campaigns.

In Berkeley, California, Inter Milan’s Argentine striker Mauro Icardi cancelled out Gareth Bale’s rocket with a penalty and then netted the decisive spot-kick in a 3-2 shootout success after Inter had drawn 1-1 with Real Madrid in their International Champions Cup clash.

Bale put Real Madrid ahead in the 10th minute, powering through midfield with the ball and hammering a shot from 30 yards into the top corner.

Inter equalized in the 68th after Nemanja Vidic - playing his second match for the Italian side since arriving from Manchester United - was pushed in the area by Ruben Sobrino and Icardi chipped his shot from the spot over Jesus Fernandez.l

Thierry Henry (L) of New York Red Bulls clears the ball in font of Jack Wilshere (R) of Arsenal during their friendly match at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, NJ on Saturday AFP

Arsenal sign Colombia goalkeeper Ospina n AFP, London

Fans dejected at Shakhtar ‘exile’ from rebel Donetsk n AFP, Donetsk

English Premier League side Arsenal said on Sunday they have signed Colombia’s World Cup goalkeeper David Ospina from French club Nice.

Ospina, 25, was one of the stars of the World Cup with spectacular performances as his country reached the quarter-finals for the first time. He will compete for an Arsenal starting place with Polish international Wojciech Szczesny.

Arsenal said he would sign a “longterm contract”, but did not give the fee. French reports this week said Arsenal would pay about four million euros ($5.4 million). Ospina has been at Nice for six seasons.

“David Ospina is an excellent goalkeeper, with good experience and a proven record of performing with Nice and Colombia,” said Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger.

“He will add strength to our squad and we are very pleased that he will be joining us.”

Ospina is expected to make his first appearance at the Emirates Cup friendly tournament, which takes place at Arsenal next weekend.

The stadium is deserted, the merchandise shops are shuttered and last season’s posters are still up.

Football club Shakhtar on Sunday kicks off the season far from its native Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, where fighting is raging between government forces and pro-Russian rebels.

For its first match, the title holder should be playing at home in the 50,000-seater Donbass Arena built for the Euro 2012 championships.

Instead it plays rivals Zaporozhie in the city of Lviv -- some 1,000 kilometres (621 miles) away in western Ukraine, seen as enemy territory by separatists in the east. Shakhtar has been training in Kiev and has not set foot in the insurgent stronghold of Donetsk for weeks, as the Ukrainian army’s siege on the city gets ever closer.

The club’s training ground south of the city centre, a sprawling area that includes eight pitches and a development centre for young players, lies deserted.

Only staff looking after the site were at work behind cast iron railings as bombings echoed in the background.l

Ospina joined Nice in 2008 from Colombian side Atletico Nacional, for whom he made his professional debut at the age of only 17.

He made his international debut in 2007 and was handed his first start in a 2010 World Cup qualifying match against Bolivia.

His arrival at Arsenal follows the departure of second-choice goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski, who has joined Swansea City.

Nice coach Claude Puel had confirmed the transfer late on Saturday, after his side lost to London club Brentford in a friendly.

“It’s confirmed, yes,” Puel told Sky Sports News.l

Arsenal’s Wilshere regrets new smoking mistake n AFP, London

Bayern will never sack Guardiola: Rummenigge

Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere has expressed regret after pictures of him smoking during a holiday in Las Vegas appeared in the British media.

“The smoking? Of course I regret it,” Wilshere was quoted as saying by the Sunday editions of several British newspapers. Wilshere was photographed smoking a cigarette outside a nightclub last year and vowed it would never happen again. The recent images showed him smoking amongst friends in a Las Vegas swimming pool.

“I’ve been seen before doing it. I said then I made a mistake and I have made a mistake again. People make mistakes,” the 22-year-old added.

“I’m young and I’ll learn from it. I realise the consequences it has and the effect on kids growing up.

“I have kids myself and I don’t want them growing up to think their dad smokes and it’s OK for a footballer to smoke, because it’s not. It’s unacceptable and I will accept the consequences and I will move on,” Wilshere said. l

Bayern Munich will never push out their coach Pep Guardiola, club chief executive Karl-Heinze Rummenigge said in an interview published Sunday.

Rummenigge shrugged off suggestions that Germany’s most successful side could struggle this season after their top players come back from their gruelling but triumphant World Cup campaign. There would be no fallout for Guardiola, he told Welt am Sonntag newspaper.

“Bayern will never sack Pep Guardiola. I can put that in writing today,” said Rummenigge.

“Pep Guardiola. He will be our coach on June 30, 2016. At least until his contract runs out,” the chief executive added when asked who would be coach at the end of the 2014-15 season. Guardiola’s deal runs until mid-2016.

In his first season, Guardiola won the German league and cup double and took Bayern to the Champions League semi-final where they were beaten by

n AFP, Berlin

eventual winners Real Madrid.

The newspaper highlighted how Bayern struggled after the 2006 and 2010 World Cups and the coaches -- Felix Magath and Louis van Gaal, respectively -- were sacked before the end of the season.

Bayern’s World Cup stars Bastian Schweinsteiger, Philipp Lahm and Thomas Mueller will all be short of recuperation coming into the new season that starts on August 22 at home to Wolfsburg.

“For these players it is not easy in their heads to restart from zero after such a short holiday,” said Rummenigge. “Fortunately we have a coach who is used to this situation.”

Guardiola was in charge at Barcelona after Spain won the World Cup in 2010 and their players had to get used to regular league football again.

Rummenigge added that Bayern had been through two magic seasons. They also won the Champions League in 2013. The club “won eight titles, some - as the cherry on the cake -- have won the World Cup.” l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Sport

15

Monday, July 28, 2014

Marathon gold for Aussie Shelley in Glasgow n AFP, Glasgow MEDAL TALLY Tot 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 15 15 15 15 15 21 21 21 21 21 21 21

AUSTRALIA ENGLAND SCOTLAND CANADA INDIA SOUTH AFRICA NEW ZEALAND WALES CYPRUS SINGAPORE MALAYSIA NIGERIA KENIA CAMEROON BANGLADESH ISLE OF MAN JAMAICA PAKISTAN PNG SRI LANKA GHANA MAURITIUS NAMIBIA N IRELAND SAMOA UGANDA ZAMBIA

20 14 21 55 19 16 15 50 11 6 8 25 7 3 6 16 5 8 6 19 4 5 6 15 3 3 9 15 2 7 8 17 2 1 2 5 2 0 0 2 1 4 3 8 1 2 1 4 1 2 0 3 0 1 1 2 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 *Till Sunday (10:00pm)

DAY’S WATCH MONDAY Star Sports 1, 3, HD1 4:00PM India tour of England 3rd Test, Day 2 Star Sports 2 8:15PM Pro Kabaddi League Pune v Delhi 9:30PM Mumbai v Vizag Ten Cricket 10:30AM South Africa tour of Sri Lanka 2nd Test Day 5 TUESDAY Star Sports 1, 3, HD1 4:00PM India tour of England 3rd Test, Day 3 Star Sports 2 8:15PM Pro Kabaddi League Mumbai v Patna Sony Six 8:00AM Major League Soccer 2014 Seattle Sounders v LA Galaxy 10:00PM Pre-Season Football Schalke v Stoke City WEDNESDAY Star Sports 1, 3, HD1 4:00PM India tour of England 3rd Test, Day 4 Star Sports 2 8:15PM Pro Kabaddi League Kolkata v Bengaluru Sony Six 7:30AM Guinness Int’l Cup 2014 Real Madrid v As Roma Neo Sports 6:00AM Copa Libertadores 2014 Defensor Sporting (URU) v Nacional (PAR) THURSDAY Star Sports 1, 3, HD1 4:00PM India tour of England 3rd Test, Day 5 Star Sports 2

(L-R) Australia’s Michael Shelley, Kenya’s Erick Ndiema and Kenya’s John Ekiru Kelai lead the pack in the men’s marathon athletics event at the Glasgow City Marathon Course during the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland yesterday AFP

Sangakkara stars on rain-hit day n AFP, Colombo Kumar Sangakkara and skipper Angelo Mathews struck brisk half-centuries to help Sri Lanka set up a thrilling finale to the series-deciding second Test against South Africa on Sunday.

Sangakkara (72) hit his tenth 50-plus score of the year and Mathews chipped in with an unbeaten 63 as the hosts declared their second innings on 229-8 shortly before close of play to set the visitors an imposing target of 369.

At stumps on a rain-interrupted day four, South Africa were 38-1, needing 331 more runs off a minimum 98 overs to pull off a series-clinching win.

Quinton de Kock (21) and Dean Elgar (13) were the not out batsmen at the crease.

The hosts, who posted 421 in their first essay, had bowled out South Africa for 282 in their first innings to gain a 139-run lead.

South Africa lead the two-Test series 1-0 after winning the opener in Galle by 153 runs. Even a draw in this game will see the Proteas reclaim the world number one ranking from Australia.

South Africa’s chase did not start the way they had hoped for as they lost their first wicket with just six runs on the board.

Opener Alviro Petersen (zero) failed for the second time in the game when he was caught off left-arm spinner Rangana Herath, who opened the bowling.

The Sri Lankan batsmen had started off confidently after rain interrupted play for an hour following the lunch break.

Sangakkara unleashed his trademark silken pulls and drives to race to the 50-run mark with a boundary off

leg-spinner Imran Tahir (2-76).

Just when he was looking good for a bigger score, he edged to wicketkeeper De Kock off Morne Morkel (4-45), bringing an end to his enterprising knock that included eight hits to the fence.

Kithruwan Vithanage (seven) was superbly caught by Faf du Plessis who ran backwards without taking his eyes off the ball and then dived forward to

Sri Lankan batsman Kumar Sangakkara (C) speaks with umpires Richard Kettleborough (R) and Nigel Llong during the fourth day of the second Test match against South Africa at the SSC Ground in Colombo yesterday AFP

pluck it inches off the ground.

Test debutant Niroshan Dickwella top-edged to AB de Villiers off Dale Steyn (2-59), failing to repeat his first innings performance which saw him score 72.

Tahir bowled Dilruwan Perera and Morkel sent back Rangana Herath, prompting skipper Mathews to declare the innings.

Earlier, Sri Lanka added a healthy 97 runs in the first session while losing their openers and the prolific Mahela Jayawardene.

Opener Upul Tharanga (30) looked in good nick but he edged behind to the keeper while trying to drive Steyn in the sixth over of the morning.

Kaushal Silva welcomed Tahir (167) with a neat sweep to the fence in the bowler’s first over, setting the tone for the rest of the session that saw the hosts score at a quick pace.

Silva had made 26 when he scooped a drive, offering an easy catch to Vernon Philander at point off Morkel.

Jayawardene, who cracked a solid 165 in the first innings, was out for a duck in a bizarre fashion off Tahir.

The stylish right-hander played the reverse sweep but the ball popped up and Dean Elgar rushed across from short leg to pouch the ball before crashing into De Kock. l

SCORECARD, DAY 4 Sri Lanka 1st innings 421 (M. Jayawardene 165, N. Dickwella 72; V. Philander 2-52) South Africa 1st innings 282 (H. Amla 139 n o; D. Perera 5-69) Sri Lanka 2nd innings (overnight 11-0) U. Tharanga c de Kock b Steyn 30 K. Silva c Philander b Morkel 26 K. Sangakkara c de Kock b Morkel 72 M. Jayawardene c Elgar b Tahir 0 A. Mathews not out 63 K. Vithanage c du Plessis b Morkel 7 N. Dickwella c de Villiers b Steyn 16 D. Perera b Tahir 7 R. Herath c de Villiers b Morkel 4 Extras: (b1, lb2, nb1) 4 Total: (for 8 wkts dec.; 53.4 overs) 229 Fall of wickets 1-38 (Tharanga), 2-82 (Silva), 3-83 (Jayawardene), 4-164 (Sangakkara), 5-174 (Vithanage), 6-203 (Dickwella), 7-214 (Perera), 8-229 (Herath) Bowling Steyn 13-1-59-2, Philander 11-3-35-0, Tahir 18-0-76-2 (1nb), Morkel 9.4-1-454, Elgar 1-0-9-0, Duminy 1-0-2-0 South Africa need 369 runs to win the match

Cook falls five short of comeback century n AFP, Southampton England captain Alastair Cook was in sight of ending his barren run without a Test hundred as he continued to make India pay for dropping him in the third Test at Southampton on Monday.

However, after the tea break he fell short by 5 runs leaving England on 213 for 2.

Gary Ballance was not out on 86.

The left-handers’ partnership was so far worth 131, with England yet to lose a wicket after lunch.

An India attack missing injured paceman Ishant Sharma, whose career-best seven for 74 sealed their 95-run win in

the second Test at Lord’s, was unable to pose much of a physical threat on a slow but evenly-paced pitch.

But if those circumstances were in Cook’s favour, the fact was that prior to this match he had scored just 638 runs in 27 Test innings, at an average of 23.6, since the last of his England record 25 hundreds against New Zealand at Leeds in May last year.

Several ex-England skippers, the latest being Test exile Kevin Pietersen on Saturday, had called on Cook to quit the captaincy in a bid to rediscover his form with the bat.

But the undaunted Cook, despite his run drought and with England 1-0

down in the five-match series, opted to bat first on a green-tinged surface.

Cook edged the first ball of the match, from Bhuvneshwar Kumar, just short of the slips.

DAY 1, POST TEA England 213-2 in 76 overs (A Cook 95, G Ballance 86*; M Shami 1-41, R Jadeja 1-34) He then had a huge let-off when, on 15 and with England 25 without loss.

Cook opened the face when pushing out against 6ft 6in Test debutant Pankaj Singh, Ishant Sharma’s replace-

ment, and got a thick outside edge but Ravindra Jadeja dropped a seemingly simple catch at third slip.

But a first-wicket partnership worth 55 ended when Australia-born Sam Robson fell in familiar fashion.

Cook completed a 98-ball fifty with a pulled two off Shami as the crowd signalled its support with a standing ovation, an unusual accolade for a half-century as opposed to a hundred.

Meanwhile Ballance completed a 107-ball fifty including five fours.

It meant the Zimbabwe-born Ballance, who’d repeatedly come in with England in difficulty, had now scored two hundreds and two fifties in his six Tests. l

PM ‘scores hat-trick’ in pre-election match

8:15PM Pro Kabaddi League Jaipur v Vizag 9:15PM Kolkata v Delhi Sony Six

n AFP, Istanbul

5:00AM Guinness Int’l Cup 2014 Manchester City v Liverpool 7:00AM Major League Soccer 2014 Real Salt Lake V NY Red Bulls Neo Sports 6:00AM Copa Libertadores 2014 Bolivar (BOL) v San Lorenzo (ARG) 12:00AM PGA Tour 2014 World Golf Championship Bridgestone Invitational

Australia’s Michael Shelley stunned a favoured east African field to win the men’s marathon gold at the Commonwealth Games on Sunday with Flomena Daniel leading a Kenyan one-two in the women’s race.

Shelley, who finished 16th in the London Olympics, clocked a personal best of 2hr 11min 15sec on the largely flat course around the streets of Glasgow, to better his silver-medal showing in Delhi four years ago.

Kenya’s Stephen Chemlany, a pacemaker for compatriot Patrick Makau’s world record run in the Berlin marathon last year when he went on to finish fourth in a personal best of 2:06.24, claimed silver in 2:11.58.

Uganda’s Abraham Kiplimo took bronze at 1:08. Shortly afterwards, Daniel broke clear late on from teammate Kilel to record a convincing Kenyan double in the women’s race.

This year’s Paris marathon winner timed 2hr 26min 45sec, with Kilel claiming silver at 25sec.

Australian Jess Trengrove produced a strong last third to reel in Namibia’s Helalia Johannes for bronze, at 3:27.

The marathons kicked off the Games athletics programme in the city streets with the action switching later in the day to Hampden Park where the final in the men’s 5000m was on the schedule, along with heats in both the men and women’s 100m.l

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) vies for the ball with former Besiktas player Mehmet Ozdilek during an exhibition match in Istanbul on Saturday AFP

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan scored an improbable three goals in just 15 minutes as he took to the field in a football friendly to mark the opening of a new stadium in Istanbul.

Erdogan is standing in presidential elections on August 10 and made sure no one forgot his candidacy during the game by wearing the shirt number 12 - if elected he would be the 12th president of modern Turkey.

The 60-year-old prime minister, an avid football fan who played as an amateur in his youth, took part in a match to mark the opening of the new stadium of the Istanbul Basaksehir team.

Clad in a bright orange football strip, Erdogan saw his team fall behind 0-3 in

the opening minutes of the game late on Saturday.

But then with almost his first touch of the ball, he smashed a shot past the goalkeeper and into the net with an impressive right foot strike.

Then even better was to come, when he sent a deft left-footed chip flying over the goalkeeper’s head.

Some 15 minutes after the first goal, Erdogan completed his hat-trick with a somewhat easier shot after being given almost all the time in the world by the opposing team’s defenders.

His night’s work done, Erdogan was substituted and eventually watched his team turn out as easy winners. Just hours earlier, he had given a campaign speech in the largely Kurdish city of Diyarbakir in Turkey’s southeast.

The game was given live coverage on Turkish state television with the commentator yelling with excitement as Erdogan scored his goals.

“Our prime minister scored one classy goal after another. It was a unique experience to have the chance to play with our prime minister,” said the goalkeeper on Erdogan’s side, Ufuk Ceylan, who will play for Basaksehir this season.

Erdogan was given a rousing reception on the pitch where supporters held up adulatory placards like “As long as you live, Turkey will remain the champion.”

Turkish social media users Sunday argued vociferously over the merits of Erdogan’s performance, with supporters swooning over his prowess but critics slamming the game as a crude pre-election stunt. l

WHO’S SAYING WHAT “We got into double figures. Can you believe that?”

- Norfolk Islands badminton player Joanne Snell, 36, after she and 52-year-old mixed doubles partner Michael Donohoe pushed Singapore fourth seeds Mingtian Fu and Terry Hee to a 21-10 scoreline in the second game of their loss.

“I saw Jesus on the bottom of the pool.

He said, ‘Son, keep going’ and I said, ‘But I want to stop, Jesus’. Then he said, ‘Son, keep going or I will drown you’.”

- Jamaican swimmer Jevon Atkinson after taking first place in heat one of the men’s 100m freestyle.

“My coach told me not to be lazy and not to drink beer.”

- Malawi athlete Kefasi Chitsala on his tactics for Sunday’s 5000m.

“Even though I got my ass kicked in the ring, I’ve loved my time in Scotland.”

- Light welterweight boxer Ikani Falekaono from Tonga after being stopped in the second round by England’s Sam Maxwell.

“I have already done some catwalk modelling and I would love to get a good agent and make it my career when I stop boxing. It would certainly be less painful than fighting.”

- South Africa boxer Siphiwe Lusizi on a post-fighting career.

16

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B3 Hard to see how Russia

can ever be let back into G7 club - Canada PM

B4 Analysts: Asset bubbles could deflate global recovery

MONDAY, JULY 28, 2014 www.dhakatribune.com/business

BB warned of relying on foreign loans

‘Some East Asian countries had faced an economic crisis in 1997 as they had taken huge amount of foreign loans’ sonable under the present situation n Kayes Sohel when business remained stagnant.

Economists and business people have considered the latest monetary policy realistic and cautious in the wake of current situation and apprehended political conflict after the Eid vacation.

They, however, expressed concern over the increasing public investment rather than private investment as they think this trend would not ensure quality of growth.

Bangladesh Bank (BB) on Saturday announced its half-yearly monetary policy (July to December) aiming to contain inflation, spurring investment through private sector credit growth and continuing efforts for an inclusive financial system for maintaining market stability.

The new monetary policy sets target to bring down inflation to 6.5% from the current 7.3%.

It has also set the ceiling for private sector credit growth at 16.5% including foreign borrowing, and 14% from local sources by December 2014, based on assessment of the size that credit growth could realistically pick-up given current level of around 11.4% from domestic sources.

For the public sector credit growth, the target is 12.9% from the current level of 5.3%.

“It is realistic and cautious. Perhaps it is made keeping in mind of present and future situation,” Ahsan H Mansur, executive director of Policy Research Institute, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

He said it is continuation of previous monetary policy, which aims to bring down inflation. The monetary policy requires more ambitious in target, he said.

But the main concern is that the public investment is rising and private investment is falling. “This is not a good sign for the economy,” he said.

Former FBCCI President AK Azad said the latest monetary policy is rea-

“Many small and medium businesses are yet to get rid of shock of last year’s political unrest, causing low demand in credit. Moreover, the country sees no new entrepreneurs in recent time,” he said.

Former BB Governor Salehuddin Ahmed termed the policy traditional one with no significant message to boost the growth.

It speaks nothing about scam-hit banking sector, which is now in tatter, he said pointing fingers at the stateowned banks’ involvement with massive corruption.

“The central bank should be more analytical rather than being dependant on data provided by the banks,” he said, adding that to my knowledge, SME loan has been diverted to other purposes.

He said the central bank focused on public credit growth rather than private credit growth, which will not ensure quality economic growth.

He was critical about BB’s encouraging the foreign loans by the private banks. “The banks are yet to reduce their interest rate on lending, which encourages entrepreneurs, even defaulters, to go for foreign loans.”

Former finance adviser to the caretaker government Mirza Azizul Islam said some East Asian countries had faced an economic crisis in 1997 as they had taken huge amount of foreign loans.

The BB should take cautious stance in this regard so that the country could avoid such type of crisis due to maturity mismatch in repayment of foreign loans, he said.

“The businesspeople usually take the loan on short-term basis from foreign sources. But, they repay the loan on long-term basis which make a maturity mismatch resulting that the country’s foreign exchange business fall into an unstable situation,” he said. l

Women looking at products at a superstore in Dhaka. People are rushing towards the city’s kitchen market with only a couple of days remaining to Eid

The real gainers in Eid economy n Kayes Sohel Composition of the Eid economy shifts marginally over time.

The food sector is far believed to be the biggest gainer, chased by clothing, while all other products and services together make up small portion of the seasonal surge in sales.

Within the food sector, the sweet traders probably gained the most.

Every year, businesses in this food sub-sector make special arrangements to match the hike in demand.

During the current Ramadan, sales have multiplied many times over average monthly volume, though verifiable data was not made available to support the claim.

“The business of brands like Bonaful, Rajdhani, Bonalata, Muslim Sweet and Bikrampur shops was brisk all through Ramadan. The demand came from not only families but corporate clients throwing Iftar parties,” said

Rubyet Hasan, head of sales of a sweet shop in Mirpur Area.

He said: “we received an order for 80 kgs of sweets from a corporate client for arranging Iftar party.”

General manager of another sweet shop in Uttara area Arman Sheikh said sales usually get pace every festival but in the run up to the Eid-ul-Fitr, sales beat other festival time sales.

“My sale has multiplied many times this season,” he said.

The sale of fruits, beverages and other edibles also increase significantly during the month. All companies and individuals associated with the sector got a boost. The textile sector follows close on the heels of the food sector in terms of volume and margins.

Visiting different markets from makeshift shops to the shopping mall in the city, traders confirm in the closing weeks of Ramadan from across the country confirmed increased sales of garments.

Dispute over SIM replacement tax may finally go to PM Showkat Kallol and n Asif Muhammad Zahidul Islam The government could not come to any conclusive decision about the long dispute over SIM replacement tax between the National Board of Revenue (NBR) and four mobile phone operators.

The dispute over the NBR claims for tax involving hundreds of crores Taka would now go to the Prime Minister for her interference to reach a decision, officials said.

NBR claimed Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi and Airtel replaced SIMs with old ones, but did not pay the tax applicable for this purpose.

There were two key meeting, yesterday at the Finance and Telecommunications Ministry with Law ministry, National Board of Revenue and Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, but a a decision could not be taken about the SIM replacement tax calculation process, said an official.

“We are working on it and hopefully we can resolve the long disputed issue without wasting any time, and I think it may need one more meeting for the settlement,” M Faizur Rahaman Chowdhury told the Dhaka Tribune after the meeting.

But he could not confirm whether it need to send to the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s table.

An official of the finance ministry said as it is a huge amount, the finance ministry or the finance minister would not take the risk to make a decision.

According to the NBR’s claim, four mobile phone operators have to pay a tax of about Tk2,465 crore due to SIM

“The business houses were expecting higher sales in the final days of Ramadan,” said Mamun, a salesman at a Zhumak shop at the Jamuna Future Park.

He said customers are buying but some are roaming without buying. He sold garments worth Tk1,00,000 in first four hours of the day till 2pm yesterday, which is much higher than any other days.

Arman Hossain at a makeshift shop said sales has doubled today, what I have seen in the first 10 Ramadan.

Anisur Rhman, a private service holder, comes to buy for his children but not for him because of limited budget. “In Eid, first delicious food then cloth is my preference,” he said, when asked.

Benefits of a booming Eid economy flow beyond borders. The availability of Indian jewellery and cloths, as well as Chinese footwear, suggests that the manufacturing sector of neighbouring

before the 3G spectrum auction, NBR formed a review committee and they placed an interim a report where NBR’s claim was only Tk251 crore.

But after the 3G auction NBR again revised up their claim to Tk2,465 crore as they prepared their final report.

Mobile operators disagreed with this report and criticised the NBR’s shifting of stance.

“The procedure followed was inconsistent with the original terms of reference regarding the report prepared by the committee members,” a

senior executive of a mobile operator said.

Another senior executive who was present at the second meeting held at the finance ministry said they have discussed about all the numbers and the shifting. So nothing is final at this level.

He said earlier the PM had decided some telecom issues like 2G license renewal fees, 3G spectrum fees; and now the international call termination rate reduction proposal is on the PM’s table. l

economies also cut a portion of the market pie.

“There is no denying the fact that economic activity gets a boost in Ramadan, when even cautious spenders lower their guard and indulge in a shopping binge,” said an analyst.

He said: “A majority of buyers enter the market to make most out of their limited budgets.”

The trend of online shopping among the young population is picking up slowly because of the limited choices available on the online marketplace.

“It will take some more time for the trend to make its mark in Bangladesh.

To some extent, it also depends on the companies to start online sales,” said an analyst.

“I would have preferred to order online instead of venturing outside when the road is packed with jam. For everything except for my pizzas and burgers, I have to venture out,” said Badhon, a teenager. l

CELLPHONE SURCHARGE

Taxmen get power to suspend consignment n Syed Samiul Basher Anik

replacement. On the other hand, operators claim that they did not need to pay fresh tax because they had only replaced damaged or lost SIM cards for which taxes were already paid.

Earlier in 2012, the NBR had demanded for the first time Tk3,062 crore in taxes due to SIM replacement by the four operators during a period between July 2009 and December 2011. NBR later revised their claim to Tk3,010 crore.

But when the mobile operator’s raised objection about the report just

SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has empowered its tax officials to suspend the release and delivery of the cellular handsets if any company fails to comply with the newly introduced Information and Communication Development surcharge.

The board, on July 20, this year, issued a rule describing the methods of implementation, collection, payment and penal procedure of the surcharge, which is the first of its kind in Bangladesh.

The government, with its finance bill 2014 has imposed 1% surcharge on both the locally manufactured and imported cellular handsets, which was made effective from July 1, 2014.

The tax authority is eying Tk40 crore extra revenue collections from the surcharge in the current fiscal year as per the estimate made by the NBR. According to the recently issued rule, the Value Added Tax (VAT) wing of NBR will collect the surcharge while collecting 15% VAT from both the imported and locally manufactured handsets.

The surcharge will have to be paid through treasury chalan or electronic transfer in specific code, the rule reads.

It also said customs, excise and VAT commissionerates will have to keep a separate monthly collection statements on surcharge collection as nontax revenue receipts.

With the rule, the NBR has empowered its tax officials to impose penalty on the companies for the non-compliance

with the above-mentioned sections.

According to the rule, if any company is fined for non-compliance with the rule and failed to pay the fine, any officer, not below the ranking of assistant commissioner can suspend the delivery or release of the handsets.

For the fiscal year 2014-15, the government withdrew 5% advance income tax and reduced customs duty to 5% from 10% on import of mobile sets while companies also have to pay 1% surcharge, along with 15% VAT on import of handsets.

The surcharge and the increased VAT would harm the growth of the growing sector as the handsets will now be more costlier than before and will also reduce the affordability of the lower income people, market insiders told the Dhaka Tribune.

They also said it would encourage smuggling and under invoicing for imposing the increased duties.

Bangladesh Mobile Phone Importers Association (BMPIA) General Secretary Rezwanul Hoque said: “Previously, around 60-70% imported handsets are feature phones and lower income people usually buy such phones at a minimum price of Tk1,000 each. But from now on, due to the latest tax hike, a consumer will have to pay over Tk4000 for buying a handset, which he could purchase earlier at Tk3000.”

He also feared that the illegal import of handsets, which is now around 4%, will be increased up to 20% as the tax hike would give a boost to the smugglers. l

B2

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Business

Monday, July 28, 2014

Ethiopia becomes China’s China in search for cheap labour

'It was very difficult to deliver improvements at individual factories,' he said. 'You could do training, and everyone smiles politely and then continues doing what they were doing before'

Ethiopian employees work inside the Huajian Shoes' factory outside Addis Ababa

n Bloomberg Ethiopian workers strolling through the parking lot of Huajian Shoes’ factory outside Addis Ababa last month chose the wrong day to leave their shirts untucked.

Company President Zhang Huarong, just arrived on a visit from China, spotted them through the window, sprang up and ran outside. The former People’s Liberation Army soldier harangued them loudly in Chinese, tugging at one man’s aqua polo shirt and forcing another’s shirt into his pants.

Nonplussed, the workers stood silently until the eruption subsided.

Shaping up a handful of employees is one small part of Zhang’s quest to profit from Huajian’s factory wages of about $40 a month - less than 10% the level in China.

“Ethiopia is exactly like China 30 years ago,” said Zhang, 55, who quit the military in 1982 to make shoes from his home in Jiangxi province with three sewing machines and now supplies such brands as Nine West and Guess?.

“The poor transportation infrastructure, lots of jobless people.”

Almost three years after Zhang began his Ethiopian adventure at the invitation of the late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, he says he’s unhappy with profits at the Dongguan Huajian Shoes Industry Co. unit, frustrated by “widespread inefficiency” in the local bureaucracy and struggling to raise factory productivity from a level he says is about a third of China’s.

Four Tongues

Transportation and logistics that cost as much as four times those in China are prompting Huajian to set up its own trucking company. And the use of four languages in the plant - Ethiopia’s national language, Amharic; the local tongue, Oromo; English and Chinese further complicates operations, Zhang says.

It takes two hours to drive 30 kilometers (18 miles) to the Huajian factory from the capital along the country’s main artery, illustrating the challenges. Oil tankers and trucks scream along the bumpy, potholed and, at times, unpaved road. Goats, donkeys and cows wander along the roadside and occasionally into bumper-to-bumper traffic. Minibuses and dented taxis, mostly blue Ladas from the country’s past as a Soviet ally, weave through oncoming traffic coughing a smoggy exhaust.

Huajian is nonetheless becoming a case study of Ethiopia’s emerging potential as a production center for labor-intensive products from shoes to T-shirts to handbags. In a country where 80 percent of the labor force is in agriculture, manufacturers don’t have to worry about finding new workers. Its population of about 96 million is Africa’s second-largest after Nigeria’s.

Seeking Investment

A combination of cheap labour and electricity and a government striving to attract foreign investment makes Ethiopia more attractive than many

other African nations, said Deborah Brautigam, author of “The Dragon’s Gift: The Real Story of China in Africa” and a professor of international development and comparative politics at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies in Washington.

“They are trying to establish conditions for transformation,” Brautigam said in a telephone interview. “It could become the China of Africa.”

Huajian’s 3,500 workers in Ethiopia produced 2 million pairs of shoes last year. Located in one of the country’s first government-supported industrial zones, the factory began operating in January 2012, only three months after Zhang decided to invest. It became profitable in its first year and now earns $100,000 to $200,000 a month, he said, calling it an insufficient return that will rise as workers become better trained.

Fleeing China

Under bright fluorescent lights, amid the drone of machines, workers cut, glue, stitch and sew Marc Fisher brown leather boots bound for the U.S. Meanwhile, supervisors monitor quotas on whiteboards, giving small cash rewards to winning teams and criticism to those falling short.

China, Africa and global retailers all have stakes in whether Ethiopia and such countries as Tanzania, Rwanda and Senegal become viable production bases for labor-intensive products. Promoting trade, boosting employment and spurring investment are among the topics that will be discussed on August 4-6 at the first White House US-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington.

African nations have a compelling opportunity to seize a share of the about 80 million jobs that China will export as its manufacturers lose competitiveness, according to Justin Lin, a former World Bank chief economist who now is a professor of economics at Peking University.

‘Manufacturing Powerhouse’

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, who met on May 4, backed the move of Chinese industries to Ethiopia. China is “supporting Ethiopia’s great vision to become Africa’s manufacturing powerhouse,” Hailemariam told reporters at a joint press conference in Addis Ababa.

Weaker consumer spending in the US and Europe after the financial crisis prompted global retailers to hasten their search for lower-cost producers, said Helen Hai, head of China Africa Consulting Ltd. in Addis Ababa. She ran Huajian’s Ethiopia factory until July of last year.

While China’s inland regions offered manufacturers a cheaper alternative to the export-linked coastal areas, rising costs and a limited pool of available workers now are undermining that appeal.

Average factory pay in Henan, about 800 kilometers from the coast, rose 103 percent in the five years ended

in September and 80% in Chongqing, 1,700 kilometers up the Yangtze River.

In the same period, salaries rose 82.5% in Guangdong, where Huajian has its base in the city of Dongguan.

'The work is good because I pay my rent and I can look after myself,' she said, wearing an aqua Huajian polo shirt. 'It’s transformed my life'

‘Great Potential’

Cost inflation in countries including China has prompted Hennes & Mauritz AB, Europe’s second-biggest clothing retailer, to work with three suppliers in Ethiopia. The nation has “great potential” for production, H&M head of sustainability Helma Helmersson said in an April interview.

China’s average manufacturing wage is 3,469 yuan ($560) per month.

Pay at the Huajian factory ranges from the basic after-tax minimum of $30 a month to about twice that for supervisors. By contrast, average manufacturing wages in South Africa, Africa’s biggest manufacturer, are about $1,200.

The duty-free and quota-free access that Sub-Saharan Africa enjoys for the US and EU markets gives additional savings thanks to the African Growth and Opportunity Act for the US and the EU’s Everything But Arms accord for the poorest countries. Import tariffs on shoes made in China range from 6% to as much as 36%, Zhang said.

Past-Future Business

A spokeswoman for Guess? confirmed that a licensee has done business with the Huajian Ethiopia factory in the past and may do so in the future.

A spokesman for Sycamore Partners, which owns Nine West, declined to comment on its business relationships and whether it has a relationship with Dongguan Huajian Shoes Industry Co. Marc Fisher Footwear is making shoes in the Ethiopia factory, Jaclyn Weissman, a spokeswoman for the company, wrote in an e-mail.

Signs of Ethiopia’s allure include factories outside Addis Ababa set up by leather goods maker Pittards Plc of the UK and Turkish textile manufacturer Ayka Tekstil. Foreign direct investment in the nation surged almost 250% to $953m last year from the year before, according to estimates by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

Zhang spends about half his time in Ethiopia, he says. During the visit last month, he spoke to about 200 uniformed Huajian supervisors, a mix of Ethiopians and Chinese, gathered in

BLOOMBERG

the parking lot. A giant plasma screen mirrored the crowd as Zhang hurried onto the stage.

Chant, March

He berated those assembled for a lack of efficiency, then praised them for their loyalty to Huajian, his words translated into Amharic and Oromo.

He ordered them to march on the spot, to turn left and to turn right, all chanting together in Chinese.

“One two one,” they chanted. “One two three four,” as they marched in step. Slogans followed: “Unite as one.”

“Improvement together.” “Civilized and efficient.”

They sang the “Song of Huajian,” whose words urged “We Huajian people” to bravely move forward, to hold the banner of Huajian high and to “keep our business forever.” Chinese supervisors led the song, their Ethiopian colleagues stumbling over some words and struggling to keep up.

Later, Zhang explained that he can’t be as tough on the staff as he would like.

“Here the management cannot be too strong as there will be a problem with the culture,” he said via a translator. “In China you can be strong, but not here. The conditions here mean we have to show respect. On one hand we have to have strict requirements; on the other hand we have to take care of them. They have their own dignity.

They may be poor but we have to respect their dignity.”

Labour Demands

About 200 of the workers rebelled in early 2013, going on strike for two days after demanding a share of profits following a period in which Huajian’s orders surged, said Hai. The incident was resolved with the help of Ethiopian labor officials, she said.

Five workers interviewed at the factory on July 10 described a workplace of strict standards, with rewards for good results and penalties such as docked pay for ruined shoes.

Taddelech Teshome, 24, said her day starts at 7:20 am after her Chinese employers provide employees with a breakfast of bread and tea. When her morning shift ferrying shoes from the factory floor to the warehouse is over, she gets fed the national staple, sour bread, for lunch. After work, a Huajian bus takes her to nearby Debre Zeit, a town where she rents a room with her sister for $18 a month.

Following Sister

She came to Huajian just over a year ago from her home 165 kilometers away in Arsi region after her sister started at the factory.

“The work is good because I pay my rent and I can look after myself,” she said, wearing an aqua Huajian polo shirt. “It’s transformed my life.” Taddelech said she wants to work for two more years at the plant and become a supervisor. She eventually aspires to build her own house.

With inflation at 8% - down from 40% in July 2011 - saving cash is tough.

Mohammed al-Jaber, who earns $30

a month for gluing shoe linings eight hours a day six days a week, said he can add to his pay with perfect attendance each month -- a $7.50 bonus - and overtime. Any extra gets sent home to his family in the Arsi region.

Once famine-plagued Ethiopia, run by former rebels since they overthrew a socialist military junta in 1991, is seeking investment to support a growth rate that’s expected to fall to 7.5% this year from 9.7% in 2013. The population is expanding annually by 2.9%, at a time when the urban unemployment rate is 17.5%.

Economic Transformation

Ethiopia aims “to transform the economy” via industrialization by attracting foreign investors to zones where key public services will be concentrated, State Minister Of Finance Ahmed Shide said in an interview in Addis Ababa.

One appeal for China: Ethiopia follows a similar tightly controlled, stateheavy economic model. Opposition parties won only one out of 547 parliamentary seats at the last election in 2010.

Ties are strong between the Communist Party of China and the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front: On July 10, Central Committee Political Bureau member Guo Jinlong visited Ethiopia and met with Prime Minister Hailemariam. The two pledged to enhance cooperation, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Key Bottlenecks

Ethiopia’s heavy public investment in infrastructure using credit from Chinese state banks promises to relieve some key bottlenecks. The Export-Import Bank of China is funding a railway from Addis Ababa to landlocked Ethiopia’s main port in neighbouring Djibouti. Ethiopia lost its coastline when Eritrea became independent in 1993.

The Chinese and Ethiopian governments also are investing in hydroelectric plants - including what will be Africa’s largest, the domestically funded Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile - that should increase Ethiopia’s power supply five-fold by 2020.

That may help overcome obstacles including the supply of electricity and cumbersome customs and tax procedures. In May, a World Bank team went to visit a textile factory in the Eastern Industrial Zone, where the Huajian plant is located, and found they are faced with daily power outages lasting for hours, Ethiopia country director Guang Zhe Chen said.

Sustainable Power

“There’s a big issue if you can’t ensure sustainable power supply for industrial zones,” he said.

While countries like Ethiopia have the potential to host Asian manufacturers, a “surge” hasn’t occurred, in part because of trade logistics constraints. “Getting things in and out of Ethiopia is very expensive and time consuming.”

Ethiopia slipped one place to 125th in the World Bank’s 2014 Doing Business rankings for 189 economies. It

was behind China, at 96th, and ahead of competitor Bangladesh, which ranked 130th, the Washington-based lender said on its website.

It’s easy to forget that China’s infrastructure also was rudimentary at a similar stage of development, said Lin. He recalls that the first time he made the 96-mile trip between Shenzhen and Guangzhou in southern China in the early 1980s it took more than 12 hours, including long waits for ferries to cross rivers. The same trip now can be done in two hours.

“There were no bridges,” Lin said in an interview.

Nor were workers accustomed to modern production techniques. When auto-parts maker Asimco Technologies Ltd. began manufacturing in China in the 1990s, workers weren’t responsive to training, said Tim Clissold, former president of the Beijing-based company and author of a memoir, “Mr. China.”

'Ethiopia is exactly like China 30 years ago,' said Zhang, 55, who quit the military in 1982 to make shoes from his home in Jiangxi province with three sewing machines and now supplies such brands as Nine West and Guess?. 'The poor transportation infrastructure, lots of jobless people' Smiling Politely

“It was very difficult to deliver improvements at individual factories,” he said. “You could do training, and everyone smiles politely and then continues doing what they were doing before.”

Now, rising Chinese wages that Zhang calls “an inevitable trend” are pushing Huajian to try to increase its workforce in Ethiopia to as many as 50,000 within eight years.

A model of a planned new plant at the edge of Addis Ababa is displayed at the factory. The 126-hectare (341acre) complex, partly financed by more than $300m from Huajian, will include apartments for workers, a “forest resort” district and a technical university.

At the gathering in the parking lot, after supervisors sang Huajian’s company song, Zhang dismissed the Ethiopian contingent. Then he continued haranguing the Chinese managers.

To make his point that structure was needed to keep employees in focus, he thrust a broomstick toward them repeatedly, then toward the remote camera that was feeding to the plasma screen, the image blurring with each prod.

Then he left the stage, laughing and raising a triumphant fist. l

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Canada PM: Hard to see how Russia can ever be let back into G7 club n Reuters, Ottawa It is hard to envisage how Russia could ever be allowed back into the Group of major industrialized nations, given Moscow's aggression in Ukraine, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Saturday.

Russia formally joined the G7 in 1998, when the body was renamed the G8. Members voted in March to suspend Russia, citing its role in the Crimea conflict.

"Through its actions, Russia under President Vladimir Putin has demonstrated that it does not share the values of this community of nations, dedicated as we are to democracy, international security, and the rule of law," Harper wrote in an editorial in the Globe and Mail newspaper.

"Given this, it is difficult to foresee any circumstance under which Mr. Putin's Russia could be readmitted to the family of G7 nations," he said.

Harper's right-leaning Conservatives took power in 2006, since when Ottawa's relations with Russia have rarely been better than cool. Harper took a hard line from the start of the Ukrainian crisis, demanding Russia be

kicked out of the G8.

"With Putin's Russia increasingly autocratic at home and dangerously aggressive abroad, now is not the time to ease the diplomatic and economic pressure on the regime," said Harper.

Canada has imposed sanctions on nearly 150 Ukrainian and Russian individuals and entities and promised more than C$220m ($204m) in loans and loan guarantees to Ukraine. Kiev's ambassador to Canada complained this week that none of the aid had been handed over.

Harper said the money would flow "once the appropriate conditions have been met to ensure that the funds are being used for their intended purposes" an apparent reference to concerns about widespread corruption in Ukraine.

Despite Canada's tough line on Russia, it has so far not sanctioned two key Putin allies who have Canadian business interests.

After the downing of a Malaysian airliner over rebel-held eastern Ukraine last week the European Union has taken a tougher stance against Russia. On Friday the EU reached an outline agreement to impose the first economic sanctions on Russia. l

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper addresses his supporters at his annual Stampede BBQ in Calgary, Alberta

REUTERS

Investors pin growth hopes on US as Ukraine crisis Breathe deeply, it is safe to go on a plane, travellers told casts shadow on Europe n Reuters, Frankfurt With the prospect of stiffer sanctions against Russia rattling confidence in Europe, investors will be looking to the United States and China to underpin the global economy.

Wednesday's US gross domestic product (GDP) reading and jobs data on Friday will help markets to judge the strength of the economy's rebound and the likely speed of the Federal Reserve's return to more conventional monetary policy. The Fed meets on Tuesday and Wednesday.

"The US-China story is looking more encouraging," said James Knightley, an economist with ING. "With the European Central Bank's moves, that should allow the euro zone economy to swing upwards but with a good six- to 12-month lag."

In Europe, the downing of a Malaysia Airlines airliner over eastern Ukraine has left countries such as Germany with little choice but to change their long-passive stance and impose tougher sanctions on Moscow over the role of pro-Russian separatists.

Early this week, European Union

ambassadors are expected to meet to finalise sanctions that could include closing EU capital markets to stateowned Russian banks, placing an embargo on arms sales and restricting supply of energy technology.

Globally, such sanctions would bite hardest in Europe, where Russia does most trade, compounding economic problems not only for Russia but throughout the region.

The International Monetary Fund has already flagged the 'chilling effect' on investment in Russia of sanctions as it pared back its forecast for global eco-

nomic growth last week.

Confidence amongst businesses in Germany, which accounts for more than one quarter of all exports across the European Union, has dipped further since the plane crash. "The situation is very dangerous," said Michael Heise, chief economist of Allianz, one of the globe's largest fund investors.

"An escalation carries large risks for the economy," he said, cautioning in particular of the knock to confidence.

"There is a big risk from further sanctions although one has to accept that clear (diplomatic) signals are needed."

REUTERS

The crisis comes at a delicate moment for the 18 countries using the euro, where a fledgling recovery is losing pace. Investors will get a snapshot of the bloc's inflation rate, which has sunk well below the European Central Bank's target, on Thursday.

With Britain, one of the stronger European economies, caught up in the push for mutually painful sanctions against Russia, economic growth prospects hinge on the United States and China.

"We think there is going to be a bounce-back in (U.S.) gross domestic product," said ING's Knightley. The Reuters consensus shows annualised growth picking up to 3 percent in the April-June quarter.

Data from Beijing is expected to confirm China's economy picked up in July after government moves to boost lending to business, such as reducing the amount of cash banks must hold in reserve. China's economy grew at 7.5% in the second quarter. But the drags on growth, including a downturn in property prices and high local government debts, are similar to those in Europe.

Analysts believe that deeper reforms, such as overhauling giant state companies, will be needed in the long term to keep the economy growing at the pace the authorities want. l

A worker cut steel bars at a steel plant in Ganyu, Jiangsu province

Bounce-Back

n AFP, Paris After three major air disasters in one week, with planes coming down in Ukraine, Taiwan and then Mali without a single survivor, passengers can be forgiven for feeling a little pang of panic boarding their flights.

Waiting to check in at Paris's Charles De Gaulle airport on Friday, Thai athlete Thapanat Rueangmanee, 25, admitted to being "a little bit nervous, like most of my friends".

She had come to the French capital for an athletics meetings, and she had no other choice but to fly home. "We can't take the boat," she said.

"Three crashes in one week, that's quite a lot," said Hadjera Akli, 24, who had come to meet her family from Algeria. "But it is just a convergence of circumstances, isn't it?" she said, not entirely convinced. But on Internet forums people are not quite so calm - fear of flying is rampant.

Yoco, who is flying to Seoul in August, was "rather zen" until now, but she confessed on the French site crashaerien.aero that with the latest accidents "the panic has returned".

"So there's another confirmation of a plane crash? I'm flying to Chicago tomorrow from Atlanta. Not sure if I can make it," wrote a passenger on fearofflying.com. "I've done all my 'exercises' but this is putting me over the top ...

Help!"

"My hands are shaking so much right now it's hard to type," another person admitted on the same forum.

"This is four incidents on commercial aircraft in six months - one still missing, one shot down, one crash in bad weather, and now this one. Three this week alone!"

Even Tony Tyler, the director of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), was forced to admit on Friday that "after three tragedies in so short a

period, a lot of people are questioning air safety.

"But despite what has happened over the last seven days, we can take the plane in safety," he insisted.

'If it crashes, it crashes'

Every time a plane crashes the phones at the French Centre for the Treatment of the Fear of Flying start ringing.

"Our former clients ring us because they are anxious, and they have questions they want answered," said Xavier Tytelman, the centre's president and a former air force pilot. "We try to give them explanations, to help them get a little distance on what has happened."

Several hundred people a year pass through the centre, which opened seven years ago. Each course of treatment costs 430 euros ($580), which is often paid by their employers. Fear of flying can be "a real brake on professional advancement", Tytelman added.

"Some people even quit their jobs because they have to fly for work.

Others make their families suffer, and people who emigrate sometimes are too scared to return home for years," he said. Psychologists help clients manage their fears, particularly their negative thoughts, usually with breathing exercises.

"We have to chip away at all the things they have seen in the media and in films," Tytelman said.

"We have had a series of accidents in which no one has survived, but in general the survival rate when an airliner goes down is 50%, while for a car going at 40km/h (25mph), there is an 80% chance of death," he added.

At Charles De Gaulle airport, Parisian student Gabriel Dulbecco is keeping his cool before his flight to China: "It's true, you could become paranoid.

But at the same time there are thousands of flights every day now without problems." l

Mobile tech reshaping the health sector as 'Digital health' gains popularity n AFP, Washington

Your smartphone is not only your best friend, it's also become your personal trainer, coach, medical lab and maybe even your doctor.

"Digital health" has become a key focus for the technology industry, from modest startups' focus on apps to the biggest companies in the sector seeking to find ways to address key issues of health and wellness.

Apps that measure heart rate, blood pressure, glucose and other bodily functions are multiplying, while Google, Apple and Samsung have launched platforms that make it easier to integrate medical and health services.

"We've gotten to a point where with sensors either in the phone or wearables gather information that we couldn't do in the past without going

to a medical center," says Gerry Purdy, analyst at Compass Intelligence.

"You can do the heart rate, mobile EKGs (electrocardiograms). Costs are coming down, and these sensors are becoming more socially acceptable."

The consultancy Rock Health estimates 143 digital health companies raised $2.3bn in the first six months of 2014, already topping last year's amount.

An analysis by the global consultancy Deloitte suggests that smart glasses, fitness bands and watches, should sell about 10 million units in 2014, generating over $3bn and that the number of devices will hit 170 million by 2017.

"Many health- and fitness-related technologies have multiple applications and encourage wearers to be more engaged in their own fitness, help modify behaviour by reminding wearers to exercise or take medication," Deloitte's

Karen Taylor says in a July report.

Patients take control

The California startup MD Revolution has created a system adapted from a concierge medicine practice, which allows participants to track a variety of health indicators using mobile or wearable devices.

The company uses fitness and other tracking devices to address "imminently preventable conditions such as diabetes or hypertension," says spokeswoman Lisa Peterson.

"We are creating a new specialty in digital health in which people can interact with nutritionists, exercise physiologists to receive a plan and coaching, to prevent or reverse chronic diseases," she told AFP. Peterson said the company using existing commercial devices from makers

such as Fitbit or Jawbone and plans to launch its own app for its users.

She noted that the launching of health platforms by Google and Apple "will make it easier for us to integrate more devices and apps." Recent studies suggest that people who use connected devices to monitor health and fitness often do a better job of managing and preventing health problems.

A study led by the Centre for Connected Health found that people who use mobile devices did a better job of lowering dangerous blood pressure and blood sugar levels.

A separate study published in the July 2014 issue of Health Affairs found that data collected by devices is not only useful for patients but can help doctors find better treatments.

"When linked to the rest of the available electronic data, patient-generated

health data completes the big data picture of real people's needs, life beyond the health care system," said Amy Abernethy, a Duke University professor of medicine lead author of the study.

Some firms have even more ambitious plans for health technology.

Google, for example, is developing a connecting contract lens which can help monitor diabetics and has set up a new company called Calico to focus on health and well-being, hinting at cooperation with rivals such as Apple. And IBM is using its Watson supercomputer for medical purposes including finding the right cancer treatment.

Better care, good-bye office?

Joseph Kvedar, a physician and founder and director of the Boston-based nonprofit Center for Connected Health, said mobile technology has the poten-

tial to keep people engaged in their own care, and lessen the burden on the health care system.

"One of our goals is to do away with the vast majority of offices," Kvedar told AFP. "That's not because office visits are a bad thing but you should think about care as a continuous function and mobile technology allows you to do this in a way you could never do before."

Kvedar said some health platforms that required patients to upload data had a mixed record but that mobile is growing because "people are addicted to their smartphones."

Doctors should not fear this technology, he said, because patients who use it often stay healthier.

"For the vast majority of things, you the patient are in charge and we are just the sherpas," he said. "Engaged patients get better." l

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Monday, July 28, 2014

Analysts: Asset bubbles could deflate global recovery n AFP, Paris In a world still struggling to shake off the worst financial crisis for a generation, many economists are worrying that new asset bubbles are already threatening to derail the tepid global recovery.

Concern has been rising that investors are paying too much for securities in a search for good returns when interest rates are hovering near record lows, creating the bubble conditions for a new market crash.

The Bank of International Settlements warned at the end of last month that financial markets were running ahead of economic reality, and called for governments to stop new debt-driven overspending.

The BIS, the so-called central bank of central banks, called for policies that "lean more deliberately and persistently against financial booms and ease less aggressively and persistently during busts".

BIS general manager Jaime Caruana said as he presented the report: "During the boom, resources were misallocated on a huge scale, and it will take time to move them to new and more productive uses."

Bond rates for European countries hit hard by the eurozone debt crisis, such as Greece, have slumped, showing investors do not see them as a risk despite their persistently weak economic growth, while equities have bounded to unprecedented levels.

Critics argue that is the fault of central banks, which have kept their rates at record lows and pumped their economies full of liquidity first to stave off recession and then to boost growth.

US share markets have posted successive new record highs over recent weeks, with the Dow Jones for the first time breaking the psychologically key 17,000 mark.

Weighed down by the political crisis in nearby Ukraine, European shares have been somewhat restrained in the last few days - although Germany's

systemic bubbles," he told a European Parliament committee.

His comments came after the ECB unveiled unprecedented new measures in June to prevent the single currency area from slipping into deflation and boost lending.

US Federal Reserve Janet Yellen has also noted the concern about asset prices, saying she does not think stock markets are in bubble territory, despite the recent surge in all of Wall Street's major indices.

Valuations were "not far above their historical averages, suggesting that, in aggregate, investors are not excessively optimistic", she said in a semi-annual report to Congress.

But analysts warn it is central banks themselves which are fuelling asset prices by keeping their accommodative monetary policy in place for too long.

'Deflate without exploding'

The final numbers for the day are displayed on a screen above the floor of the New York Stock Exchange March 13 main index, Frankfurt's DAX 30, hit a record high this month.

Concern about asset bubbles is also spreading to property markets, with London real-estate now on average 20% more expensive than before the onset of the financial crisis, and even the government in Berlin concerned about high asset prices.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang

What impact would an Argentine default have? n AFP, Buenos Under a US court order, Argentina has until Wednesday to either pay hedge funds demanding full payment on of its bad debts - or face a default that could have serious economic consequences.

With the July 30 deadline looming, the South American country has just days to deal with the fallout of its previous 2001 default, which plunged Latin America's third largest economy into a crisis it is still battling to bounce back from.

It has persuaded 92% of its creditors to accept writeoffs of up to 70%, but is now facing a Catch-22: Under a ruling by a US judge, it cannot pay its other creditors without also paying the hedge funds; and under the restructuring deal, it is supposed to pay all its creditors the same.

If Argentina pays the so-called holdout groups - which it has branded "vulture funds" – 100% of the $1.3bn it owes them, it could be forced to pay all remaining creditors in full, as well.

What would a default mean?

"On a day-to-day basis, it would be felt much less than in 2001," said economist Juan Pablo Ronderos from Abeceb.com.

However, he added, the situation would "become more complicated" for companies seeking to finance and pay for imports.

According to Ronderos, "Argentina would continue to pay the rest of its debt since it would be a selective default."

Another consequence of a default would be to prolong Argentina's exclusion from international capital markets. Argentina has been locked out of these markets since its 2001 default but hopes to be able to access them again.

What is a default?

"A country enters into default when bondholders, for whatever reason, cannot get to what is owed to them," said former economics minister Guillermo Nielsen.

DILBERT

President Cristina Kirchner maintains that Argentina won't enter into default because it has already deposited more than $500m in an Argentine account of a US bank to make a principal and interest payment due on the restructured bonds.

But US District Judge Thomas Griesa has said that the bank in question, Bank of New York Mellon, cannot process the transaction because there was no simultaneous payment for the holdouts.

Consequences for Argentines?

Argentina finished 2013 with an inflation rate of 28% and began 2014 with a currency devaluation of 18.6%, as well as an increase in public service costs and fiscal pressure.

The threat of a default, however, doesn't seem to be the main focus of concern in the country, where citizens seem more worried about crime and inflation.

The country currently faces a recession with a 0.8% drop in GDP in the first quarter of 2014 compared with the same period a year earlier.

Still, in the event of a default, "everything going on in Argentina today could get worse," warned Fausto Spotorno, director of the Orlando Ferreres Center for Economic Studies. The main concern is layoffs in a country with unemployment at 7.1%.

Spotorno warned that a default could force up interest rates for Argentinian entities borrowing US dollars and would reduce access to credit to support domestic commerce, slowing the economy.

International impact of a default?

The International Monetary Fund has warned that an Argentine default could not only hurt the country's economy but also the global financial system.

Olivier Blanchard, the IMF's chief economist, recently told reporters that "there's a cost to the world in the sense that we need resolution systems which work well when countries are in trouble." l

Schaeuble warned the European Central Bank just days ago that its loose monetary policy risked inflating markets to dangerous levels with cheap money.

"We can't just leave the avoidance of bubbles to government supervision," he said, while his French counterpart Michel Sapin warned that "in parts of the property market there are signs

that bubbles are forming".

Earlier this month the head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, took a similar line, warning that financial markets were "too upbeat".

'Froth' not bubbles

Central banks have sought to calm concerns, arguing they need to keep rates low to stimulate tepid economic

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growth or, in the case of the European Central Bank, avert the risk of deflation.

The head of the ECB, Mario Draghi, said earlier this month that while markets were looking "frothy", they do not present the systematic risks they did before the global financial crisis.

"We don't have the general conditions that accompany the creation of

Rate increases by major central banks expected in the second quarter of next year may prove "too little too late" to stop markets from forming bubbles, argues Gabriel Sterne, head of global macro investor relations at Oxford Economics.

"The problem is not the abundance of liquidity but low interest rates," said Anton Brender, chief economist at Candriam Investors Group.

"These rates are a signal that central banks themselves are telling investors not to place their money with them, and instead to take risks," he said.

Ludovic Subran, chief economist of insurer Euler Hermes, warned that the United States is at risk because of its "financialised" public systems, and so "the challenge for Janet Yellen is to deflate the bubble without it exploding".

In Europe, the risks are seen as far more localised than in previous crises.

Brender pointed out that rising property prices are not being accompanied by an explosion in credit as in the past, and that "there are clearly no bubbles" in Paris stocks, which are up less than four percent this year. l

Moody's upgrades Portugal's debt a notch n AFP, Washington Moody's on Friday raised the debt rating of Portugal one notch to Ba1 and said it had a stable outlook, despite troubles at a major banking group.

Moody's cited the Portuguese government's "comfortable liquidity position, with regained access to the public debt markets and sizeable cash buffers" as a factor in making the upgrade.

The rating firm said it expected that the country's fiscal consolidation would remain on track despite unfavourable rulings by Portugal's constitutional court.

"This should support a gradual reduction in the very high public debt burden in the coming years," it said in a statement.

"The first driver behind the upgrade is Moody's view of the government's strong commitment to fiscal consolidation, despite repeated setbacks stemming from the adverse rulings of the country's constitutional court."

In May, Portugal's constitutional court rejected austerity measures included in Lisbon's 2014 budget as part of the centre-right government's ongoing cutbacks, as it hopes to reduce its deficit to four percent of gross domestic product (GDP).

Portugal exited a three-year international bailout program in May, after receiving 78 billion euros ($106 billion) from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund in exchange for a series of stringent reforms.

Moody's noted that the government already has announced measures to "compensate" for the court's adverse rulings.

Moody's, which had lifted Portugal's rating by one notch in May, highlighted that the country's public debt ratio stands at around 120% of gross domestic product, "a very high debt burden that severely restricts" Portugal's room for fiscal maneuver. l

An Indian hawker poses at his handcart, with a slate bearing his registration number, as a city civic official takes his photograph in Mumbai on July 25. The city civic corporation has launched a survey to identify and register hawkers to issue them fresh licences, but hundreds are setting up stalls - even if only for a day - to get on the list with the help of middlemen. The survey is in preparation for the implementation of the National Hawker Policy of 2009, which followed a Supreme Court order that said the total number of hawkers in a city should be up to 2.5% of the total population AFP

Startup offers elderly an Internet key to family links n AFP, Bucharest Two grandmothers mystified by computer tablets have inspired a FrenchRomanian startup to develop an application and service to help the elderly stay in touch with their relatives through the Internet.

The system - the work of a startup called Hubert - began operating in the United States and in Europe on crowdfunding website Indiegogo this month.

"Everything started after one of my grandmothers died in a home for dependent seniors in France," Stephane Lucon, a Frenchman who co-founded Hubert, told AFP. "I was living with my wife and children 2,000 kilometres (1,250 miles) away from her, in Romania. I went to visit her whenever I could but I would have liked her to be able to see her grandchildren every day via Skype or any video conference application."

But like many octogenarians or older, his grandmother did not know how to use a tablet or a PC. A Pew Research Center report published in April showed that US senior citizens are lagging behind the overall population in online usage.

Only 37% of those over 80 go online, compared with 86 percent of the over-

all US population who use the Internet.

The picture is similar in Europe.

Around the world, populations are ageing quickly. The number of over 80s will have almost quadrupled between 2000 and 2050 to 395 million, according to the UN World Health Organization. Many seniors understandably have difficulty with digital communications, having spent most of their lives in the pre-Internet era.

Granny becomes app tester

After the death of one of his grandmothers, Lucon was determined to help the other one benefit from video link-ups. "I realised that many elderly people are intimidated by the big number of applications on the tablet screen," he says.

From his house in the Romanian countryside, he worked for months on a new screen launcher with the help of a UK-based Romanian IT designer, Petre Nicolescu. His 87-year-old grandmother was consulted on every step and asked for her opinion.

"I wanted to build a new interface so that she could see only one or two buttons on her screen with the application she uses: Skype, games," he said.

The result is a simplified screen on

which all unused applications are hidden. But as tablets can still puzzle new users, Lucon and his team created a support service that can take remote control of the device to fix problems or install new apps.

"Retailers usually consider that the family is here to help the seniors with the device but relatives often do not have the knowledge or the time to do it," Lucon said. By pressing a help button on their screen, users will be connected vocally to a real person for help.

The support line will be accessible for a basic monthly subscription of $20 (15 euros).

Maintain social contact

Last year, US retail giant Amazon added a "Mayday" alarm button to its Kindle tablets for live technical support.

"A major difference with Amazon Mayday is that our interface can be used on any Android tablet," Lucon said.

Initiatives like Mayday or Hubert "help as they give a human face which is more important for the older generation than the younger one who is comfortable Googling questions," Carolina Milanesi, chief of Research of KANTAR Worldpanel Comtech Cell, told AFP. l