03 oct, 2014

Ashwin 18, 1421 Zilhajj 7, 1435 Regd No DA 6238 Vol 2, No 182

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2014 | www.dhakatribune.com | SECOND EDITION

20 pages plus 24-page weekend supplement | Price: Tk12

WEEKEND

7 | LONG FORM

11 | OP-ED

15 | SPORT

THE SPIRIT OF QURBANI

THE BLOUSE OVER SARI CONUNDRUM

THE HASINA MOMENT

INDIA WREST HOCKEY GOLD FROM PAKISTAN

AL to boot out Latif after Eid His cabinet seat to remain until president returns from hajj n Emran Hossain Shaikh Telecom minister Abdul Latif Siddique, whose fate in the cabinet has been in doubt over the past few days, is also set to lose his Presidium membership in the Awami League after Eid-ul-Azha.

A few leaders of the ruling party told the Dhaka Tribune last night that chief and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina made the discloser when they went to meet her at Ganabhaban.

She told them about her plan to hold a meeting of the party’s Working Committee after Eid to remove Latif from party post.

The leaders said the premier had expressed her anger over Latif Siddique’s recent comments.

Party sources said General Secretary Syed Ahsraful Islam, Jahanir Kabir Nanok, Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury, Dr Hasan Mahmud others among the leaders who met Hasina after her return to Dhaka.

Latif Siddique’s removal from the cabinet, however, will remain pending until the president gives his nod to the

decision after returning from hajj, according to a senior leader of the party.

Earlier in the day, Sheikh Hasina was quoted by the party’s Central Organising Secretary Mesbah Uddin Ahmed Siraj as saying: “He [Latif] will be removed from the cabinet and all party posts as it is unacceptable when anyone hurts the religious sentiment of the people.

“A sane person cannot make such comments hurting people’s religious sentiments. Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam. I have also performed hajj and umrah several times. So, if anyone from my cabinet and party makes such statements, it will not be tolerated.”

Following her return to the country after a 10-day visit to the US and the UK, Hasina made the remarks to her party members at the VIP lounge of Osmani International Airport in Sylhet.

Siraj told the Dhaka Tribune: “You [journalists] will see the necessary initiatives after the premier returns to Dhaka. Strong actions will be taken against him [Latif].”  PAGE 2 COLUMN 4

A woman clings to the roof ledge of a train compartment for dear life while her fellow passengers hardly pay attention, all busy securing their own spots on the train’s roof. With Eid on Monday, homebound people have been taking huge risks to get on trains, buses and launches everywhere in the country. The photo was taken yesterday at a train station in Chittagong DHAKA TRIBUNE

Toll collection at cattle markets increasing traders’ woes

Disposal of sensational cases within 135 days

n Tazlina Zamila Khan

n Rabiul Islam

Toll collection from cattle owners or their vehicles carrying sacrificial animals by local toughs under the banners of political parties and different other organisations has become a norm ahead of Eid-ul_Azha.

During the Eid-ul-Fitr extortion business revolves around footpaths but ahead of Eid-ul-Azha the focus shifts to the cattle markets.

Lessees claimed that cattle owners were not facing any hassles in the markets. The reality, however, tells a different tale.

During a visit to the Gabtoli cattle market this correspondent found lessees extorting money from cattle owners depending on the sizes of cattle. They charged at least Tk2,500 for a small cow or goat and maximum Tk15,000 for a big one.

Josim Bepari brought around 16 cattle from Kumarkhali upazila of Kustia district. He had to pay Tk5,000 for each cow and a total of Tk80,000 to lessee Lutfar Rahman.

He said: “All cattle owners have paid the money for using the market space.”

Josim said there were around 15,000 cattle in the market and each cattle

owner paid around Tk4,000 on an average. In this case, the lessee made an extra business of Tk6 crore through renting spaces to the owners while lessees are supposed to take only Hasil (the charge on the price of a cattle that a buyer pays to a lessee).

Lutfar Rahman, however, denied that he was taking rent from cattle owners. “We take only the Hasil money; we do not rent out any space to cattle owners.”

This correspondent found pretty much the same picture at the cattle market set up on Uttara Azampur

6 | Nation

9 | World

 PAGE 2 COLUMN 2

The government has decided to dispose of sensational cases within 135 days with a view to reducing the backlog of pending cases.

The decision was made at the fourth meeting of the cabinet committee at the Home Ministry with Committee chief Amir Hossain Amu in the chair yesterday.

Among others, Law Minister Anisul Haq, Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan, State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan, Principal Secretary to the prime minister Abdus Sobhan Shikder, Home

Ministry Senior Secretary Mozammel Hoque Khan and chiefs of different law enforcement agencies including BGB, DGFI, RAB and NSI were present at the meeting.

At a post-meeting brief, Amu said common cases, which had long been pending for various reasons such as absence of the accused and witnesses, etc, would be disposed of soon.

But the sensational cases related to murders, arson attacks, political violence and rape would not be disposed of through speedy trial tribunals and special trial tribunals, said Amu, who  PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

INSIDE 2 | News

The BNP yesterday demanded the resignation of Posts and Telecommunications Minister Abdul Latif Siddique and called for trying him under the existing laws for his controversial comments on hajj.

3 | News

Saarc member states have agreed with the texts of regional agreements on railways and motor vehicles to improve connectivity in the region.

Vested interests have allegedly been trying to grab a historic century-old pond in the Chirakandi Gopinath area under the district town for long.

Hong Kong authorities urged pro-democracy protesters to immediately end blockade and said any attempt to occupy administrative buildings would be met with a firm response.

12 | Entertainment

Actress Urmila Shrabonti Kar will be seen in a number of dramas on the occasion Durga Puja and Eid-ul-Azha. Her puja special, ‘Kashfuler Din,’ will be aired today on NTV at 11:30pm.

B1 | Business

The interbank call money rate went up to 9.50% yesterday, the last working day ahead of Eid-ul-Azha, an increase by around 3% within the last 17 days.

No smooth travel for homebound people n Ashif Islam Shaon and Abid Azad With the Eid-ul-Azha only three days away and city dwellers having already started to leave the capital for Eid and Puja holidays, homebound people are facing traffic gridlocks on highways, long tailbacks near ferry terminals and late departure of trains and buses.

With the flow of homebound passengers at its peak, hundreds of people were seen waiting for hours for buses and launches at major terminals of the capital while many were waiting at Kamalapur Railway Station and Airport Railway Station as 16 intercity trains  PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

2

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Friday, October 3, 2014

BNP demands trial of Latif Siddique n Mohammad Al-Masum Molla The BNP yesterday demanded the resignation of Posts and Telecommunications Minister Abdul Latif Siddique and called for trying him under the existing laws for his controversial comments on hajj.

“Public wrath will not go away if he is only removed from the cabinet.

People want a trial against him. We are demanding his trial under the existing law,” said BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir at a press briefing at the party’s Nayapaltan headquarters.

He said people were aggrieved over Latif’s “audacious and indecent” comments.

Earlier last week, while addressing a programme organised by immigrant Bangladeshis in New York, Latif Sidduque commented that he was against hajj and ijtema and that the pilgrimages were wastage of valuable money and manpower.

“Various political parties and organisations have been holding programmes protesting such comments, but police attacked those processions. We harshly condemn and protest such attacks,” Fakhrul said.

He claimed that the police attack on the processions proved that the govern-

ment could not accept any difference of opinions.

Mentioning that Jessore Superintendent of Police Anisur Rahman’s wife was a ruling party MP, the BNP leader said, “That is why he cannot behave like an administrative officer, rather behaves like a party cadre.”

Fakhrul demanded immediate withdrawal of the SP and release of the detained leaders and activists.

Criticising the government for allowing political parties to hold rally only at the Suhrawardy Udyan, Fakhrul said: “The government does not allow us to hold rally in the capital, and now communication minister has said meetings will be held at only one place.

Does he have the authority to say this?

The main aim of such a statement is to establish one-party parliamentary system in the country, snatching away people’s fundamental rights.”

Reiterating the call to the government to resolve the political deadlock, he said: “BNP does not want confrontation, rather wants solution through talks. If the government considers BNP’s call for dialogue as its weak point, then it will be a big mistake. If the government does not respond to our call, then we will have no other option except waging a movement.” l

7-day ultimatum to rescue college girl n Our Correspondent, Rajshahi

The Detective Branch of police presents eight criminals involved in counterfeiting currency in front of the media on Thursday. Ahead of every major religious festival, a ring of currency frauds get active and circulate counterfeit notes in the market DHAKA TRIBUNE

Sensational cases

Toll collection at cattle markets

 PAGE 1 COLUMN 5

 PAGE 1 COLUMN 3

Government Primary School field.

Cattle owners this reporter talked to claimed that they were paying money as rent for keeping livestock.

Zakir Bepari told the Dhaka Tribune: “I brought around 37 cattle from Kushtia, but I bought them from Natore. I gave Tk2,500 on an average for keeping my cattle here. I had no idea about this extra expense.”

Volunteers collect the money from cattle owners on behalf of lessees. Rent rate is almost the same as that of Gabtoli cattle market. Afsar Uddin Khan has taken the lease of the market for Tk7,311,000. “The allegation is baseless. Nothing like that happens here,” he said when asked about the rent being taken from cattle owners.

Salam Bepari, a cattle trader of Uttara Azampur cattle market, also narrated a same story: “Around three to four youths introducing themselves as local leaders demanded Tk200.”

Money is allegedly being extorted under the nose of police officers and volunteers posted at the market.

Md Amanullah, sub-inspector of Darus Salam police station, who is working in the makeshift police control room in front of the Gabtoli cattle market, told the Dhaka Tribune: “The market is under their strict watch. Our teams are active to ensure safety at the market.”

Joint Commissioner of the Detective Branch Monirul Islam said: “Police are always active to prevent such crimes.

We have placed CCTV cameras. No such crime will go unpunished.”

AL to boot out Latif after Eid  PAGE 1 COLUMN 2

Extortion in the name of different organisations

Extortion from makeshift shops on footpath

is also the industries minister. The law minister would consult the chief justice on implementing the decision.

Amu also said the cases would be settled within 135 days and for special cases that could not be disposed of within the time frame another 135 days would be taken.

The Home Ministry in a letter last month asked deputy commissioners to send cases related to murders, arson attacks, rapes to the speedy trial tribunal for quick disposal. The DCs were also asked to inform the Home Ministry about those cases.

Asked about the BNP’s allegation that those were politically motivated cases and were geared up when the party tried to launch a movement, Amu said: “No, no. It was not discussed in the meeting. These are sensitive cases.”

Amu said a decision was made to verify the identities of the customers before selling mobile SIM cards.

The mobile operators would then activate a SIM, the minister added.

Amu also said police force would be deployed at launch terminals to monitor overloading of passengers during the journey of homebound passengers to celebrate their Eid and Puja vacations. l

On top of that, local toughs under the banner of major political organisations are extorting money from cattle owners.

A cattle trader named Aminul Islam of Gabtoli market told the Dhaka Tribune: “I came here two days ago. Every day in the evening a group of youths came to me introducing themselves as the leaders of Gabtoli Bazaar Malik Samity and charged me Tk50.”

There are around 2.5 lakh hawkers in the capital. Ahead of Eid some 50,000 more join them. During last Eid, each shop owner had to pay Tk300 to extortionists but this time they are paying Tk200 as sales go down during Eid-ul-Azha.

Abul Karim, a hawker of Uttara’s Housebuilding area, said: “Most of the extortion business has become centred on cattle market ahead of Eid-ul-Azha.” l

No smooth travel for homebound people  PAGE 1 COLUMN 6

missed their schedules yesterday.

The Dhaka Tribune found that almost all buses going out of the capital missed their schedules due to traffic gridlocks on the Dhaka-Tangail and Dhaka-Chittagong highways. At Shyamoli, Kallyanpur and Gabtoli bus counters, passengers were seen waiting for hours for their scheduled buses.

At Kamalapur Railway Station, many passengers who were able to manage standing tickets could not board their trains due to heavy pressure of passengers. After train schedules jumbled up on Wednesday night, the Mohanagar Probhati train reached the station three and a half hours late while the Ekota Express of Dhaka-Dinajpur route and Drutojan Express were three hours late. The Rangpur Express was left the station one and a half hours late.

The Agnibina Express of Dhaka-Jamalpur route had so many passengers that many homegoers could not find space even on rooftop.

As the vacations start Friday as weekly holiday with Bijaya Dashami on Saturday and Eid-ul-Azha for the next three days, most city dwellers took the chance of making the most out of their 5-day government holiday by setting off for their home towns yesterday.

As a result, most exit points of the capital were jam packed with commuters since yesterday afternoon.

Apart from that, cattle-laden vehicles coming into the capital and illegal cattle markets at different city points had also added to the woes of the home-bound commuters.

Although traveling during the vacations last year remained almost hazard free, rainfall on the last days of September has worsened the condition of the Dhaka-Chittagong and Dhaka-Mymensingh highways. As a result, vehicles have been moving slow on these roads.

Tickets sold out, vehicles overloaded

As tickets of bus, train and launch cabins has been sold out two days earlier, home-bound people now struggle towards their home with much trouble and anxiety.

Tension among commuters were witnessed at capital’s Gabtoli bus terminal, Kamalapur Railway Station and Sadarghat Launch Terminal as the rush of people gradually increased following sunset.

“I have not able to secure a bus ticket for my home in Khulna. Now, I have only two options, one is by launch and another is by traveling by local bus changing one after one” said Hamid, a private company executive, who came to Gabtoli bus terminal to find out how he, along with his wife and their two children, can safely reach their home town.

As bus tickets for different routes were already sold out, flow of people dramatically rose at Kamalpur Railway station and Sadarghat launch terminal from Thursday evening.

At Sadarghat Launch Terminal, most of the launch were carrying passengers above its capacity as the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) failed to stop the rush of people who are desperate to reach their home by any means necessary.

A BIWTA official Siddiqur Rahman denied the allegation and said: “No vessel had allowed passengers on its rooftop. Some people went to the rooftop to get some fresh air. They will come down from the rooftops when the launch leaves the terminal.”

Meanwhile, suffering of passengers were heightened as major exit points of Dhaka were congested with traffic jam due to different unplanned cattle markets.

Requesting for anonymity, a traffic police official at the Gabtoli temporary traffic control room told

Dhaka Tribune: “Actually, the traffic condition worsens during Eid-ulAzha as thousands of people gather here to leave the capital while hundreds of cattle-laden trucks enter the city through this point at the same time.

“Thus, it becomes too hard for us to manage all these issues but we have no other options. We are trying our best to minimise the hassle of the home-bound people” he added.

It is seen at Gabtoli bus terminal that many mini buses were calling for passengers for inter-district service, although they were not fit for such long-distance journeys.

Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, some drivers of such mini bus said they were trying to lure those who were not fortunate enough to manage tickets for their destinations.

“Such special service brings us huge profits during the Eid season,” said one bus driver.

However, the situation becomes worse for low-income people as they cannot afford regular bus, launch or train tickets for their destination.

Many of them come together and hire a truck for their journey.

Cattle market clogged city entrance from Chittagong With the temporary cattle market at Shanir Akhra stretching from the Kutubkhali to Rayerbagh, Dhaka-Chittagong highway’s opening into the capital become narrower for the long route outbound vehicles.

Cattle traders have also put up barricades to separate lanes while the leasers of the market had extended their boundary on the road.

As the cattle traders occupied a portion of the main road, vehicles are now facing problems to get on and off from the flyover. As a result hundreds of vehicles for Chittagong, Comilla, Noakhali, Feni, Naraynganj, Rangamati, Bandarbans, Chandpur, Laxmipur districts were seen stuck

If the Awami League follows through with the decision to expel Abdul Latif Siddique from the party, he will also lose his seat in parliament, in accordance with the constitution.

Last Sunday, while addressing a programme organised by immigrant Bangladeshis in New York, the minister for Posts, Telecommunications and ICT said he was against hajj and ijtema and that the pilgrimages were wastage of valuable money and manpower.

He also said prime minister’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy was no one to make any important decision of the state.

His comments drew widespread flak from different political parties and organisations who demanded exemplary punishment to the minister.

Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury yesterday said Latif Siddique would remain in his cabinet post until the end of hajj, as the president would need to return from his pilgrimage before approving the removal.

Although the premier had decided to remove the minister, the matter would stay pending until the president returned home, she said.

“The president has gone

from Signboard area to Jatrabari.

50km tailback on Dhaka-Tangail highway

A 50-kilometre long tailback had formed on Dhaka-Tangail highway early Thursday after several vehicles broke down on the road.

Elenga highway police outpost Sergeant Kamruzzaman Raj said: “The traffic gridlock was created after some vehicles broke down at Pungli, Tangail bypass, Karotia, Pakulla and some other places on the highway since 4am Thursday.”

The tailback stretched from Elenga of Tangail to Chandra of Gazipur. Most vehicles were moving very slowly due to the tailback, the police official said.

Rezaul Haque, a driver of a cattle-laden truck from Kustia, told the Dhaka Tribune: “We crossed the Bangabandhu Bridge at 7:00am and it took us four and half hour to reached at Tangail bypass area which normally it takes only an hour”.

“Vehicular movement came to normal after 12:00pm,” said Kamruzzaman.

Tailback at Mawa-Kaorakandi Ferry Ghat

The queue of vehicles waiting to board ferries at Kaorakandi ferry terminal stretched much longer than usual due to huge pressure of cattle-laden trucks.

There were three long queues of hundreds of goods-laden trucks and covered van stretching from Pacchar at Shibchar of Madaripur on Dhaka-Khulna Highway. Many cattle traders were seen ferrying their cattle on trawlers as the trucks had to wait for ferry for long.

Salam Hossain, manager of BIWTC at Kawrakandi terminal, said 16 ferries of 17 were in service for Eid. “The pressure of vehicles will come under control within Friday,” he hoped. l

to perform hajj. As the formalities [to remove Latif] will be executed through the president, it would be settled after his return.”

President Abdul Hamid is currently in Saudi Arabia to perform hajj and is scheduled to return home on October 10.

Earlier, ruling party leaders had claimed that the decision to remove Latif would be executed after Hasina’s return. However, no official initiative had been taken as of last night.

Acting cabinet secretary Nazrul Islam told the Dhaka Tribune that they had not received any directive in this regard so far. Earlier, ruling party Joint General Secretary Mahbub-Ul-Alam Hanif said the prime minister had instantly removed Latif from his post after she learned about what he said.

Cases against Latif Siddique

Several cases were meanwhile filed against Latif Siddique yesterday across

People from all strata of life under the banner of the Rajshahibasi observed a sit-in on the promises of Shaheed Minar in Rajshahi city yesterday, demanding measures to rescue a college girl who has been remained missing for 53 days.

They also gave seven-day ultimatum to police to rescue the victim. They also threaned that they would wage tougher movement, if the victim was not rescued by this stipulated time.

Speakers at the programme said it had been almost two months since the college girl Muntaha Mizan Riana, daughter of Mizanur Rahman, had been abducted, but police could not take effective measures to rescue her.

Riana went out of her house in the morning on August 12 after getting a phone call from Mominul Haque Dinar, joint secretary of the Bangladesh Chhatra League Rajshahi City College unit, since then she remained missing.

A case was filed against Dinar, his uncle and some unidentified persons on August 15. Police arrested Dinar on August 15. But he is now on bail.

General Secretary of the Workers Party of Bangladesh Fazle Hossain Badsha presided over the programme participated by acting mayor of Rajshahi City Corporation Anwarul Amin Azab, former panel mayor of the RCC Shariful Islam and President of Rajshahi Sangram Parishad Liakat Ali. l

the country, accusing the minister of hurting people’s religious sentiments.

In Khulna, two cases were filed against Latif by Daily Anirban newspaper Editor Ali Ahmed and advocate SM Wasiur Rahman, a member of the district lawyers’ association.

The cases were filed with the Khulna Metropolitan Amali Court of Judge Abir Parvez, who issued summons against the accused and scheduled the next hearing for November 11. Noakhali Bar Association Vice-President advocate Nasir Bhuyan filed a case with the Judicial Magistrate Court 1 and Magistrate Md Zahir Uddin summoned him to appear before the court on December 11.

In Barguna, Chardoani upazila parishad Chairman Md Quamrul Islam filed a case against the minister with the court of Patharghata Judicial Magistrate AFM Maruf Chowdhury, who ordered to carry out a probe and submit a report within seven days. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

3

Friday, October 3, 2014

Saarc agree on motor vehicle and railway deals Earlier Pakistan said it would give its view on a particular clause in due course of time

n Sheikh Shahariar Zaman Saarc member states have agreed with the texts of regional agreements on railways and motor vehicles to improve connectivity in the region.

“We have agreed on the texts of the instruments with some minor modifications,” Joint Secretary of the Communications Ministry Md Jamal Uddin Ahmed told the Dhaka Tribune.

Bangladesh sent three senior officials, including Jamal, to New Delhi to attend the fifth Saarc Intergovernmental Group on Transport held on Tuesday.

It was proposed in the motor vehicle agreement how private cars, commercially-run buses, ambulances, commercial cargoes could move across the region The officials discussed transport corridor and the issue how to implement the recommendations put forward by Saarc Regional Multimodal Transport Study.

The meeting approved the finalised texts of the agreements which would be placed before the next meeting of Saarc communications ministers.

It would be a big boost for connectivity if both the agreements come into being, Jamal said. “The text of the railway agreement is final and approved by the transport group.”

Bangladesh proposed some fine-tuning in the text of the railway agreement

and all of them were endorsed by other members of the group, he added.

Citing an example, he said Bangladesh proposed a change in arbitration clause and it was endorsed.

Earlier, the clause was that the arbitration would be dealt with by the Saarc Secretariat and it would be binding, but now it is agreed that the member countries can resolve the disputes through alternative mechanism.

Another official of the Communications Ministry said the motor vehicle agreement was agreed by all members, but Pakistan said it would give its view on a particular clause in due course of time.

It was proposed in the motor vehicle agreement how private cars, commercially-run buses, ambulances, commercial cargoes could move across the region.

The draft text also stipulated that drivers must have special driving licences, cars must have certain fitness level and there must be a regional insurance coverage for any accident. Only the customs issue would be dealt with by respective taxation offices of the countries.

About the proposal for running a demonstration container train from Bangladesh to Afghanistan through India, Nepal and Pakistan, the official said Dhaka had no objection in principle, but it was facing some technical problems.

“In the meeting, India and Nepal gave their consent to the trial run of the container train,” he said.

About the proposal on India Ocean Cargo and Ferry Service, he said the meeting stressed on completion of Asian Development Study for the proposal as soon as possible.

Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Afghanistan are the members of Saarc. l

For the people eager to go home for Eid, this wait is a bittersweet mix of anxiety and excitement. For the mother and her child waiting for their bus, sitting on their luggage, it also seems endless. The photo was taken yesterday in the capital’s Gabtoli area DHAKA TRIBUNE

Lobbyist arrested at the Secretariat n Tribune Report

A lobbyist named Obaidul Islam Akash, who claimed himself as a journalist and human rights activist, was arrested at the Secretariat yesterday for his alleged involvement with fraudulence.

The Secretariat Security Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police arrested him for making fake entry pass and taking bribe from Ismail Hossain, 52, a former master-roll employee at the Power Development Board (PDB).

Talking to reporters, Mashiur Rahman, additional deputy commissioner at the Secretariat Security Branch, said they had observed Akash’s activities

Nationwide campaign against violence launched n Mohammad Al-Masum Molla Rights activists yesterday observed that only a handful of youth were involved with unleashing violence in the country and it was possible to end such activities if these young people were properly motivated.

“Youths responsible for spreading violence are a minority and yet they disproportionately dominate the headlines. In reality, the vast majority of young people are eager to contribute their time and energy towards positive activities,” said Korvi Rakshand, founder of JAAGO Foundation, an NGO. He was speaking at the launching ceremony of a nationwide awareness raising campaign titled “Stop Violence,

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3 DHAKA

TOMORROW SUN RISES 5:51AM

FORECAST FOR TODAY 33 31 32 33 32 32 33 31

25 25 23 23 23 23 22 24

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW

35.6ºC Satkhira

23.6ºC Srimangal

Source: Accuweather/UNB

PRAYER TIMES Fajar Sunrise Jumma Asr Magrib Esha

C’WEALTH PARLIAMENTARY ASSOCIATION POLL

Speaker leaves Dhaka today n Kamran Reza Chowdhury Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury is set to leave Dhaka today for Cameroon to face the general assembly of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association that would either elect or reject her as the president of its executive committee.

If the general assembly of the 60th conference elects Shirin Sharmin on October 9, she would be the first Bangladeshi to hold the prestigious association of the former colonies of the United Kingdom.

It is considered as a prestigious platform dedicated to promoting democracy and development.

Major decision-makers in the elections --Britain, Australia, Canada, New

Zealand and South Asian nations-have already extended support to Bangladesh candidate.

The inaugural session of the 10day conference starts today with a steering committee meeting followed by workshops on democracy, governance, development and other relevant issues.

As per the CPA charter, the general assembly will elect new president for a three-year term by votes. The delegates of the member states must be present at the general assembly to exercise their voting right.

“Hopefully, the member states would elect me as president. I would try my best to serve the CPA if elected,” Shirin Sharmin told the Dhaka Tribune. l

A garment accessories trader was allegedly beaten by police at the capital’s Pallabi area over a misunderstanding yesterday.

The victim, Md Azad Hossain, 40, is admitted at DMCH. Azad Hossain’s sister-in-law Josne Ara Rupa said: “In the morning I rebuked our housemaid Sharmin, 13, which made her go out and stand in front the house crying after which a man took her to the Pallabi police station.” “Later, we started looking for herand found her in the police station. Azad requested the police to hand her over but the situation turned into a heated argument.”

The argument took a turn when SI Samsur dragged Azad inside the station and severely beat him. However, the matter was later settled and police released both Sharmin and Azad. Police said they were provoked to take action l

US embassy remains closed on October 5-6 n Tribune Report On the occasion of Eid-ul-Azha, the American Embassy including its consular section, American Center, Archer K Blood American Center Library and Education USA Student Advising Center will remain closed from October 5-6.

Emergency services for American citizens will be available. l

Islamist parties to stage Week-long celebration comes to end demos against Latif today

PARTLY CLOUDY

Dhaka Chittagong Rajshahi Rangpur Khulna Barisal Sylhet Cox’s Bazar

and spread the powerful message of non-violence,” said Noel Boxer, country director for DI. “With the spirit of the International Day of Non-Violence, we join together with our friends across the country to celebrate a month of non-violence and social harmony,” said United Nations Development Programme Country Director Pauline Tamesis.

“The campaign recognises the traditional Bangladeshi values of social harmony and tolerance as the strong foundations for Bangladesh’s bright future,” he added.

On June 15, 2007, the United Nations General Assembly voted to establish October 2 as the International Day of Non-violence. l

desh Protidin, had made a Tk1 lakh deal with Ismail to get him his old job at the PDB back, taking Tk2,000 in advance, said the assistant deputy commissioner.

Akash also claimed that the state minister of power, energy and mineral resources was his cousin. Moreover, he took the demi-official letter that Ismail had acquired from the textiles and jute minister, addressed to the state minister of power, energy and mineral resources, saying he could get Ismail the job without the letter.

During interrogation, Akash confessed that he was involved in fraudulent activities, had made a Tk1 lakh deal and taken Tk2,000 in advance. l

ULAB’S 10TH FOUNDATION DAY

WEATHER

TODAY SUN SETS 5:44PM

Build a Peaceful Nation,” organised by the Democracy International at the National Press Club.

A total of 15 organisations participated in the campaign taken up on the occasion of the International Day of Non-Violence and they aim at strengthening social harmony as a counter to violence.

The campaign will continue throughout the months of October and November and during the period the participating bodies will engage in different activities to promote tolerance and unity in their communities in order to find out peaceful alternatives to violence.

“Communities will be joining together to celebrate social harmony

for two days before arresting him.

“We were first alerted when Ismail entered the Secretariat using the pass issued from the Road Transport and Highways Division on September 28.

We watched Ismail to find out the ring leader, and he led us to Akash. We started watching Akash on September 30 and arrested him after two days,” he said.

He said Akash is the leader of a gang of around 28 persons involved with such offences. He was later handed over to the Shahbagh police station yesterday.

Akash, who claimed to be the deputy director of International Human Rights and Anti-Corruption Society and a special correspondent at the Digital Bangla-

Man allegedly beaten by police in capital n Tribune Report

4:35am 5:49am 11:49am 4:07pm 5:47pm 7:02pm SourceL IslamicFinder.org

n Tribune Desk

n Tribune Report

University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) unveiled its permanent campus at capital’s Ramchandrapur yesterday, during the closing ceremony of the week-long long celebration centring its 10th Foundation Day. Asaduzzaman Noor, Minister, Ministry of Cultural Affairs chaired the ceremony held at ULAB’s Dhanmondi campus.

After watching a documentary on the permanent campus, which is supposedly the first sustainable green campus of the country, Noor said: “Quality of education should be improved not only by GPA-5 but also through reading different books besides text books.

“Now-a-days students are depending on internet which can give only information not knowledge,” he added.

Attending as the special guest, Professor Dr Mohammad Mohabbat Khan, member, University Grants Commission, said ULAB was successful in spreading liberal arts education He termed that public university teachers who remain busy with consultancy by ignoring their duties, were doing “insultancy,” creating harmful impact on the education system.

Professor Emeritus Dr Rafiqul Islam, Director, Center for Bangla Studies (CBS) said ULAB was the only univer-

Several Islamist parties and groups will stage demonstrations across the country after Jum’a prayers today demanding capital punishment to Posts and Telecommunications Minister Abdul Latif Siddique for his “derogative” comment on hajj.

Islami Andalon Bangladesh, Islami Oikya Jote, Khelafat Mojlish and Hefazat-e-Islam are among the parties and groups to stage the demonstrations, a statement said yesterday.

They will hold their Dhaka city demonstrations in front of the Bait-

ul Mukarram National Mosque after Jum’a prayers and elsewhere in the capital, it said Earlier on Sunday, Latif, also an Awami League Presidium member, made his remarks on hajj while addressing a reception arranged by the Tangail expatriates in New York.

Several political and Islamist groups reacted to his remarks with protests and processions across the country.

They also demanded that he be removed from the cabinet, parliament and the Awami League and subjected to capital punishment too. l

3 held with liquor and yaba Guests attend the closing ceremony of a week-long celebration for the 10th anniversary of the University of Liberal Arts, Bangladesh yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE sity where Bangla Studies was compulsory.

Senior Advisor to the ULAB Board of Trustees Professor Brian Shoesmith handed the “Vice Chancellor’s Excellence Award 2014.”

The week-long celebration started on September 28 to celebrate ULAB’s 10th Founding Day which is on October 1.

A four-day long photo exhibition was held by the departments.

Vice President, Board of Trustees, Dr Kazi Anis Ahmed, Vice-Chancellor Imran Rahman, Pro Vice-Chancellor HM Jahirul Haque, Member, Board of Trustees, Ameenah Ahmed and the acting treasurer and Registrar of ULAB Lt Col Md Foyzul Islam were present at the programme. l

n FM Mizanur Rahaman Police and RAB arrested three persons in separate drives from Bakalia and Folmondi area of Chittagong early yesterday for possesing yaba and liquor.

The arrested men were Md Rabbi, 24, and Nur Mohammed, 38. The identity of the other arrested could not to be known till the filing of this report.

OC Mohammed Mohsin of Bakila police station said police raided two Dhaka bound buses of Hanif Enterprise and Saudia Paribahan at Shah Amanat

Bridge area in Bakalia. They seized 300 yaba tablets from Rabbi that was kept inside a packet of pickles while 200 yaba tablets were recovered from Nur’s possession, added the OC. Assistant Director (AD) of RAB 7 Shohel Mahmud said one of their teams conducted a drive at Folmondi area in the city and arrested a man for possesing contraband liquor.

RAB recovered 555 bottles and 3,965 cans of alcohol worth around TK11 lakh and TK2.31 lakh in cash from his possession, said the AD. l

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DHAKA TRIBUNE

Friday, October 3, 2014

DAY OF GERMAN UNITY

Message from Federal President Joachim Gauck for the 2014 Day of German Unity

W

hen we celebrate our National Day this year, a quarter of a century after the peaceful revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe and the fall of the Berlin Wall, we recall that German unity was not simply a stroke of luck. It was the yearning for freedom of the oppressed that led to the overthrow of the oppressors in the communist dictatorships. It was the courage of many people in Gdansk, Prague, Budapest and Leipzig that made the miracle of German and European unity possible.

As we also recall this year on 3 October, ten years after the eastern enlargement of the European Union, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe brought their experiences

of liberation to the European democracy project. We now stand together in Europe for the values and principles that we have achieved on our continent: for the rule of law, democracy, solidarity, openness, the dignity of the individual, and diversity. Our history of violence and wars also teaches us that the premises by which we live together cannot be taken for granted. Freedom and rights do not simply come our way. We constantly have to work for them.

We can see just how important this is now at a time when populist and anti-Europe sentiments are becoming louder within the European Union, voiced by those who fear cultural diversity and call for a withdrawal

to the nation state, and at a time when international crises and conflicts bring home to us how fragile peace is, also in our immediate neighbourhood. The countries of Europe have moved closer together as a result. In a world in which the balance of power is shifting, we can only defend our values and interests if we stand together.

On the Day of German Unity, we celebrate what we have achieved and created. We see a Germany that has a strong economy and is respected worldwide. We see a vibrant democracy in which confident citizens resolve disputes peacefully and look pragmatically for solutions. The joy we experienced in recent years also gives us

the strength to take on responsibility in the world in cooperation with our allies and partner countries. We Germans actively foster international understanding, as well as peace and human rights – in Europe and in this shared world of ours. n

Joachim Gauck President

Climate Change – we need to act now!

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eavy floods hit Bangladesh leaving thousands homeless and damaging valuable farmland.

Cyclones endanger shores, threatening the life of millions and leaving aisles of destruction behind them. Rivers in Germany and other parts of Europe inundate cities. Droughts ravage crops and lead to water shortages. All those weather anomalies are getting more frequent and aggravated all over the world by global climate change.

Global warming is an international phenomenon. All countries need to participate in a mutual effort to limit the global temperature increase to 2°C. At the same time it is our joint responsibility to take necessary steps to respond to the gruesome consequences of global warming.

For long now, Germany has extended its hand to help Bangladesh in its attempt to combat climate change.

German development cooperation has identified “Adaptation to climate change in urban areas“ as one of its priority areas for our cooperation with Bangladesh. Germany’s main focus is to support Bangladesh in helping some of the most vulnerable people to cope with the severe consequences

of climate change. Therefore, the German government has pledged to spend more than 50 million Euros in climate change related projects in Bangladesh.

September 2014 we celebrated the first German-British-French Climate Diplomacy Day to raise awareness for climate change and to highlight our joint cooperation in fighting global warming.

In a visit to Dhamrai, the three Heads of Mission inspected climate adaptation projects funded by Germany, France and the UK and also observed how solar home systems provide electricity to people who do not have access to the national electricity grid. Projects like these are the core of joint action between Bangladesh and Germany, preventing harmful CO emissions and using renewable energy sources instead.

But the global struggle against climate change can not be won with actions on the local level alone. A joint international effort is needed to reduce greenhouse emissions and fight against global warming. If no political measures are taken the risks connected to climate change are unforeseeable. Germany has pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions irrespectively of commitments of other coun-

tries by more than 40 percent by 2020 (compared with levels in 1990). For 2050 Germany even set a more ambitious goal: a 80-95 percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. In order to achieve this target Germany has also changed the way it generates energy.

The so called “Energiewende” – an ambitious energy transition project – will lead to a cleaner and more efficient energy production by fostering the use of renewable energy; wind, solar, biomass, geothermal energy and by saving energy consumption.

Tackling climate change is a task for the whole international community.

We need to share this burden and take on the responsibilities to avoid further environmental hazards caused by global warming. The following months will decide the fate of the world as we know it: The United Nations Climate Change Conference to be held in Paris in 2015 needs be taken very seriously by the international community to bring constructive solutions to this pressing issue. International Climate Diplomacy needs to lead to a global, legally binding agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. We can’t wait any longer - We need to act now! n

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Entrepreneurship in Germany

ore than 50 young people sit in front of their computer in an office building in Prenzlauer Berg, a hip neighborhood in Berlin.

They drink coffee, debate the newest technological gadgets and explore innovative ideas for business and society.

Maybe their company will become the „next big thing“, the new Facebook or Twitter, maybe even the new Google.

This is just one of hundreds of office spaces packed with young, well educated and ambitious entrepreneurs in Germany’s capital. Welcome to the land of ideas, welcome to the city of opportunities, welcome to Germany’s biggest startup-hub! By competing with the Silicon Valley, London and Tel Aviv, Berlin has become one of the most innovative and entrepreneurial cities in the world. Berlin has profited from this startup-boom and is quickly developing in one of the most attractive cities in Europe.

Germany is at the forefront of the digital revolution. By embracing new technologies and the endless opportunities of the information age German start-ups are competing with the best entrepreneurs of the world. Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne and Munich are great examples for the thriving German entrepreneurial scene. To foster innovative business models the German Government supports young entrepreneurs by providing funds, contacts and expertise. In recent years it has become considerably easier to start a company in Germany. Entry barriers have been

reduced, administrative tasks have been minimized and legal registration has been facilitated. Last year more than 350.000 new companies were started in Germany. More than 60 percent of all entrepreneurs are between the age of 18 and 40. In 2013 the German government introduced the “German Startup Fund” with more than 150 million Euros made available to young tech entrepreneurs.

Young founders from all over the world cooperate by sharing office space, organizing conferences on entrepreneurship and pitching their ideas to investors. The number of commercial and private financing opportunities has increased significantly over the last few years, making it easier for aspiring start-ups to secure early stage funding.

By collaborating with renowned universities and research organizations entrepreneurs in Germany have the unique opportunity to profit from the newest technological breakthroughs.

The field of science and research in Germany contributes to its status for engineering excellence and innovation.

The country is continually investing in brains and knowledge, and some of the salient features of its research capacity constitutes of distinguished infrastructure, a wide variety of disciplines, wellequipped research facilities and competent staff.

This close cooperation is fostered by so called “Accelerators” and “Business Incubators” – research and tech-

nology cluster that offer assistance in business development, strategy and organization. The so called “EXIST-Programme”, which is funded by the German government, is further improving the entrepreneurial environment at universities and research institutions.

The ultimate goal is to create a “Culture of Entrepreneurship” and to support new business by granting funding, by transferring of research results and by providing expertise. By creating synergies entrepreneurs in Germany are put in a position to succeed. The German Government especially emphasizes the need to increase the number of hightech startups in Germany.

Germany also supports foreign founders to implement their innovative ideas and foster technological progress.

More than 45 percent of all startups in Germany were founded by foreign entrepreneurs. Most of them come from various educational backgrounds, including finance, business administration, design, engineering or computer science. The German start-up scene is truly international and is based on the notion that a team consisting of people from different countries and a variety of cultural backgrounds are uniquely capable of creating innovation. Therefore the German Government encourages young entrepreneurs from all over the world to come to Germany. So, are you ready to innovate? What is your big idea? Do you have an entrepreneurial mindset? Then you might consider Germany to start your on company. n

DHAKA TRIBUNE

5

Friday, October 3, 2014

DAY OF GERMAN UNITY

T

Message from the Chargé d’Affaires Dr. Ferdinand von Weyhe

oday, on the 3rd of October 2014, we commemorate the anniversary of Germany’s reunification. In 1989 hundred-thousands of peaceful protestors demonstrated for freedom and democracy in East Germany. They demanded free and fair elections, asked for a more liberal government and the possibility to leave East Germany on their own terms. What started as a call for freedom turned into a demand for the reunification of Germany. This claim was summed up by the creed “Wir sind das Volk, Wir sind ein Volk” - “we are the people, we are one people”.

This year we also commemorate the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. After years of personal suffering and thousands of family tragedies the Wall came finally down in 1989 and Germany was eventually reunited in 1990. Finally we were one single country again, not only unified by a mutual government and border, but by the collective will and the peaceful spirit of its people. Today we celebrate this unique moment in our history, we honor the people who courageously took the risks to demand for a peaceful

transition towards a unified Germany and we remember their enormous sacrifice. We thank the people who wrote this wonderful chapter in German history.

The political ties between Bangladesh and Germany have been strong from their inception in 1972. We were one of the first countries to recognize Bangladesh as an independent nation.

Since then our mutual cooperation has thrived.

Our two countries act jointly in order to find sustainable solutions for global challenges such as poverty reduction, international peacekeeping and climate change. Our country is not only represented in Bangladesh by this Embassy, but also by numerous German Organizations.

The track record of the Goethe Institute, the German cultural institution established in already in 1961 in Dhaka, is very impressing. The number of language courses is on the rise and by organizing interesting events, such as plays and exhibition, films and discussions the Goethe Institute is showcasing German Culture in Bangladesh.

In the last few years the demand for studying in Germany has risen tremendously. The number of student visas for young scholars significantly increased over the last few years. Germany offers a world-class education, Master courses in English and renowned university research facilities, without any tuition fee. Furthermore potential students are eligible to apply for DAAD scholarships to support their live in Germany. With open arms we welcome highly qualified Bangladeshi students.

German Development Cooperation has been very active in Bangladesh ever since. The different projects are implemented by BGR, the Federal Institute for Geoscience and Natural Ressources, GIZ, the German development agency and KfW, German Development Bank. By focusing on the three priorities “Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency”, “Good Governance” and “Adaptation to Climate Change in urban areas” German development cooperation is supporting the citizens of this country. For many years already Germany has been supporting the RMG-sector

to improve social and environmental standards.

Last but not least let me emphasize that German companies are keen on investing in Bangladesh and increase our mutual trade volume.

Germany and Bangladesh have an annual trade volume of more than 4 billion Euros. Our business cooperation is facilitated by the Bangladesh German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BGCCI) to encourage trade between our two countries. I am certain that our economic relations will increase even more in the next few years. The outlook is very positive, the opportunities are manifold – we have to seize them!

Looking back on the last four decades, I strongly believe that we can be proud of our common achievements. Germany will continue to be a reliable partner for Bangladesh. I look forward to doing my part in strengthening our ties in the upcoming years.

In celebrating the Day of German Unity I extend my cordial greetings to the people of Bangladesh as well as to my fellow countrymen residing in this country. n

Higher Education in Germany

I

n the global competition for the world’s brightest minds, Germany is catching up. Although most international rankings continue to evaluate universities of the Anglo-Saxon world as being almost without match, Germany’s excellent academic environment truly is an alternative. When it comes to the number of foreign students, Germany now ranks third with over two million foreign students enrolled in our universities. But Germany does not just stand for an excellent teaching environment and world class universities.

Financed through public funds, most academic institutions of higher education do not charge any tuition fees regardless of the student’s origin. Germany’s diverse university landscape is made up of more than 400 institutions, establishing itself as the most popular

non-English-speaking host country for international students. But that is no reason for resting on our laurels: the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the world’s biggest and most influential organization for the exchange of students and scientists, aims to attract even more international students to Germany by 2020, and has increased the number of scholarships.

Germany has a long tradition of academia, the oldest university being the Ruperto Carola in Heidelberg, founded in 1386. The Humboldt University in Berlin, although established in 1810 only, is of particular historic significance. Its founder was Wilhelm von Humboldt, an eminent diplomat, scholar and educational reformer. He left an indelible mark on Germany’s academic landscape by realising his

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dream of “unity between research and teaching”. Under this policy, still in force today, professors did not just disseminate their knowledge, but also had the chance to research and keep up with the latest developments in their fields during sabbaticals.

Academic life in Germany has changed significantly in recent years.

Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees are now the norm, and an initiative recognizing elite universities has provided new reasons to compete for funds.

Since the introduction of Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, more and more courses are offered in English, making the German education system more accessible for foreign students. Economics and mechanical engineering are among the most popular degrees pursued by foreign students in Germany.

Initiated in 2005 by the Federal Government, the so-called “Excellence Initiative” is another program that has changed the university landscape in Germany. It is designed to promote competition among domestic universities in order to improve the overall quality of education. More is at stake than just a title, though. Elite Universities in Germany receive additional funding in order to attract and support top researchers and lecturers. The “Excellence Initiative” also comprises support for other universities in specific areas of their curriculum.

Recently, students from Bangladesh have also discovered Germany as an attractive option to pursue their higher education. Numbers have sky-rocketed since the middle of 2012 and are still on the rise. German universities have seen a record growth in the number of Bangladeshi students in Germany.

Recently 1,721 Bangladeshi students were enrolled in German universities, an increase of over 500 from the previous year. Compared to two years ago, the number has more than doubled. 72% of Bangladeshi students going to Germany opt for programmes in the STEM i.e. Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics related subject fields. n Extensive information for all interested candidates is available on the DAAD website: www.daad.de

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Germany – global logistics hub

lobal trade and international investment are among the most important prerequisites for growth, employment and prosperity in Germany. More than in any other economy of comparable size, German companies are strongly interlinked with the international division of labour. Foreign trade is the driving force behind Germany’s economic relations abroad.

In 2013, the German trade volume almost hit 2000 billion Euros – our trade volume with Bangladesh is bigger than 4 billion Euros.

The level of integration of German industry within international markets is constantly growing. The main factors influencing this development are the increasing globalisation of world markets and the opening of new markets.

Globalisation offers enormous opportunities for German industry.

However, at the same time it is also a great challenge. Increased competition on international markets and the rapid technological developments present German industry with the challenge of maintaining and increasing its leading position in important sectors. Creativity, dynamism and efficiency have helped

make Germany an economic leader among industrialised nations.

To maintain our successful global business co-operations, Germany is investing heavily in its logistics and infrastructure. A functioning logistics system is a prerequisite for sustained growth and a further increase in global trade. The main challenge is to secure a smooth transfer of people and goods by land, sea or air. To assure this transfer Germany put in place some of the biggest logistics hubs worldwide: The Port of Hamburg is located 110 kilometres from the North Sea. It is named Germany’s “Gateway to the World” and is the largest German port.

Hamburg is the third-busiest port in Europe and 15th-largest worldwide. In 2013, more than 9 million containers were handled in Hamburg.

The Port of Duisburg lies at the junction of the Ruhr and Rhine rivers about 190 kilometres from the North Sea in western Germany close to the country’s border with The Netherlands.

“Duisport”, is the largest inland port in the world. It is officially regarded as a “seaport” because from there seagoing river vessels leave for destinations in

Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Each year, more than 40 million tonnes of various goods are handled with more than 20,000 ships calling at the port.

Frankfurt Airport is a major international airhub located nearby Frankfurt, the fifth-largest city of Germany and one of the world’s leading financial centres. It is operated by Fraport and serves as the main hub for Lufthansa, the biggest German air carrier. The airport features two passenger terminals with a capacity of approximately 65 million passengers per year, four runways and extensive logistics facilities.

Frankfurt Airport is by far the busiest airport by passenger traffic in Germany, the third busiest in Europe after London Heathrow and Paris-Charles de Gaulle and the 12th busiest worldwide in 2013. With a freight throughput of 2.09 million metric tonnes in 2013 it is also the busiest airport in Europe by cargo traffic.

These are just some examples for the already existing logistic hubs in Germany. Our country will continue to invest in infrastructure to facilitate global trade and secure sustained growth and prosperity. n

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DHAKA TRIBUNE

Nation

Friday, October 3, 2014

Vested interests desperate to grab century-old pond in Habiganj n Our Correspondent, Habiganj A vested interest has allegedly been trying to grab a historic century-old pond in the Chirakandi Gopinath area under the district town for long.

As part of the ill move, the land grabbers started felling soil on the pond and they were threatening the locals of dire consequence as they took a stance against the misdeed.

Being informed, local Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon activists visited the pond yesterday.

Sources said the pond had been leased to one Abdus Salam by Habiganj Municipality about 21 years ago for fish cultivation, but he several years ago managed to secure a stay order of court on the lease showing it as loss project.

However, the municipality authorities meanwhile did not receive any copy of the order and it announced a fresh tender on the pond.

The recent picture shows historic century-old pond in the Chirakandi Gopinath area under the district town being filled up with soil DHAKA TRIBUNE Recently, the land grabbers have evicted an ambulance station, which was set up on the bank of the pond by the administration, in the night and they planted saplings there and started the earth-filling on the pond,

AL man killed over gambling n Our Correspondent, Chuadanga An Awami League activist was hacked to death by his rival for preventing to play gambling in Jibonnagar upazila on Wednesday night.

The victim was identified as Ariful Islam, 25, son Aziz Box of Senerhuda village in the upazila.

Police and witnesses said Awami League activists Tota, Jahangir, Ramjan and Badal were playing gambling at a shop at Shenerhuda village and they chopped Ariful mercilessly as he prevented them to play.

Later, Ariful was rushed to Chuadanga Sadar Hospital where he died around 8pm.

Humayun Kabir, officer-in-charge of Jibonnagar police station confirmed the incident. l

Trader found dead n Our Correspondent, Kushtia A crockery trader was found dead at his house at Bhatapara in Sadar upazila yesterday.

The deceased was identified as Bachchu Bhuinyan,45, son of Yunus Bhuinyan, a resident of Katarikandi village in Raipura upazila of Narsindi district.

Police suspected that he might have been stabbed to death by miscreants at some time on Wednesday night. l

thanks to the poor vigilance of the law enforcers. On the other hand, the local residents also barely dared the wrongdoing openly in fear of possible attack from the vested quarters.

In this regard, a resident of the

area named Abdur Rakib Rony said they locals have been repeatedly demanding the authorities concerned to save the pond from the land grabbers.

Habiganj Municipality Ward No 6 Councillor Jonayed Ahmed said a vested quarter has recently been felling earth on the pond illegally to grab it despite having a ban in this regard of the authorities concerned.

Even, the municipality authorities have already filed a case against the land grabbers, to which they were not paying any heed, the councillor continued.

Local BAPA General Secretary Tofazzal Sohel said: “Some influential people have long been trying to grab the historically important pond in connivance with several ruling party leaders. We are continuously raising voice against the ill move.”

When asked, the general secretary, however, could not specify the names of the leaders. l

NEWS IN BRIEF AL factional clash kills one

Train derailed in Mirsarai

Two factions of the ruling party Awami League (AL) met in a vicious clash killing one, injuring 20, destroying 30 houses and burned two house at Kendua in Netrokona yesterday morning. Extra police forces have been deployed to get the situation under control. Upazilla AL joint secretary Humayun Kabir and activist Nazim Uddin were in a feud for a while over the control of Dulli school, which led to the incident.

The man killed during the clash is Deen Islam, 30. The police fired nine rounds of blank shots to get the situation under control. Netrokona assistant police super Surot Alom confirmed the reason of the clash and the damages of properties incurred. Kendua upazilla nirbai officer Ruhul Amin said the feud started a few days back during forming the managing committee of the school. – Our Correspondent, Netrokona

Passengers home-bound for Eid suffered as five compartments of Mohanagar Provati derailed at Chinki Astana area in Mirsarai upazila of Chittagong yesterday.

Station Master of Feni railway station Mahbubur Rahman said five compartments of Mohanagar Provati derailed around 8am in the morning as the slippers of the rail tracks were displaced due to poor joint. Train movements on that route were restored around the evening, he added. – Our Correspondent, Feni

Minor girl violated An eight-year old schoolgirl was rapped by a young man at Jagdal village in Sadar upazila on Wednesday night. Sadar police station Officer-in-Charge Jahangir Alam said Aziz Mollah, son of Hanif Mollah of the village, entered the room of the girl around 9pm while she was studying. Aziz raped the girl while no one was in the room at the moment. Hearing her scream locals rushed to the spot but the rapist managed to escape. The victim was sent to Sadar hospital in critical condition. – Our Correspondent, Magura

Protest as schoolteacher’s wrist cut off

Bangladesh Mohila Parishad from a human chain yesterday demanded quick arrest of garment worker Hira Miah who allegedly severed a wrist of his wife on September 24 in Savar. Sources said the human chain programme was held in front of Savar Centre for Rehabilitation of Paralysed (CRP) around 11am, where local people also joined expressing solidarity with the demand. The organisation’s Savar unit President Pervin Islam blamed police for not arresting the husband despite passing ten days after the heinous incident. On September 24, Hira chopped off right hand wrist of Sabina Akter, who used to teach at a local Brac school, in Uttar Chapain Moholla area for opposing his second marriage and since then he went into hiding.

– Our Correspondent, Savar

NGO officer abducted, released on ransom

Correspondent, n Our Bhola Miscreants abducted and later released an official of an NGO after ensuring ransom in Bhola.

Finance Officer of Coast Trust’s C4D project, Yakub was abducted on September 29 when he went to the city’s Zia Super Market. He was taken to a shop named Haq Brothers’, where the owner Mozammel claimed that Yakub owed him Tk1 lakh.

At that time, mobile phone, motorcycle key and bag were snatched from Yakub. He was later taken to a deserted house in Alinagar, where the miscreants beat him up with rod and sticks for money. Being forced, Yakub managed Tk14,000 through one of his relatives. But the abductors demanded more and made him bring two cheques of National Bank. Yakub had to sign a blank cheque and another one worth Tk91,000.

Later they released him after obtaining his signature on stamp papers. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Long Form

7

Friday, October 3, 2014

The blouse over sari conundrum The renowned feminist writer makes an exclusive return

way to sati, sati to sadi, and finally sadi became sari.

In the 17th century, Odisha saw the emergence of the fishtail style which went something like this: the legs were wrapped in a dhuti and the end was draped over the shoulder like a fishtail, the tail was the aanchal (area).

The dhuti for women slowly evolved into the sari.

The blouse and petticoat came about after the arrival of the British.

The Muslims had brought the ghagra, and the petticoat was inspired from this ghagra. Our history of the sari is in fact India's history of the sari.

The Hindus were our preceding men and women. We were not born as a Bangali race in 1971; this Bangalee race has been around for millenia. Those who know of the evolution of the sari should have no qualms about any succeeding alterations in this attire.

The predecessors of our preceding women used to go naked or cover themselves with bark or animal skin, after which they started wearing clothes. Us women from this day and age are wearing the aanchal over the blouse, but that does not mean it is going to be a permanent stand for the

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n Taslima Nasrin

n a Bagnladeshi Lux Channel I Superstar Competition, a girl wore a blouse over her sari. Girls, these days, usually wear the sari over the blouse. I quite liked the idea. I'm curious as to exactly who came up with it – was it the girl or the fashion designer?

Wearing the petticoat over the sari might look nice as well, or maybe even tying the petticoat over the bust while wearing the sari as a skirt, keeping the blouse as bajubandh (armlet).

Clothes can be worn in a number of different ways, the trend of wearing a petticoat itself is quite new, as is the trend of wearing a sari with a kuchi (pleat).

When exactly did the sari arrive in our region? There was a time when both men and women used to wear the dhuti. Women used to wear the lungi like the men in South India. In ancient India, women didn't cover their chests at all, or when they did, they would use a scarf or a brassiere.

The pieces of clothing would be unstitched, as was the tradition among Hindus back then. I don't know exactly why but stitched clothes were considered unholy. The sari gradually emerged from the dhuti. Back then the term sari was not used, it was called a sattika. The sanskrit word sattika gave

pants and shoes. A sari is feminine you say? I ask, did men appear feminine when they wore dhutis? The categorisation and subsequent discrimination of the masculine and the feminine are inventions of sexists.

In ancient Greece when men with extremely masculine personalities used to wear the toga much like a sari, did they appear feminine at all? If, starting today, men start wearing the sari and women shirts and pants, then soon enough people will say the sari is quite masculine while shirts and pants are feminine. There's nothing wrong with being masculine or feminine.

It all goes wrong when something masculine is considered superior to something feminine.

No form of attire is obscene, even a complete lack of clothing is not obscene. In the Amazon jungle or the Andaman islands, when the natives walk around naked, does it appear obscene? We created the definition of obscenity; the definition is obscene, the ugly minds of people are obscene.

The mind that thinks women who do not wear clothes according to the preference of men are devoid of character, is obscene.

Those who know of the evolution of the sari should have no qualms about any succeeding alterations in this attire

attire, this too will pass and a new style will emerge.

People have always and will continue to come up with new and innovative ideas. If women are wearing the blouse over the sari that's fine, if you don't like it, you do not have to wear it just like I am not going to. I would have if I was slimmer. I have never conformed to contemporary fashion. My preference in fashion can be phrased as “whatever I like,” – the pinnacle of casual wear.

I rarely iron my clothes and tend to put on anything I find close at hand, shirts, pants, shorts, t-shirts or saris, but mostly cotton saris. These days I stay away from salwar kameez and skirts, I don't care for feminine clothes much. I don't find the sari “feminine” at all, instead I feel salwar kameez and skirts are much more feminine.

The sari does not even slow me down; I maintain the same pace wearing a sari as when I'm wearing shirts,

The mind that thinks wearing short clothes is an acquiescence for rape is obscene. The mind that thinks men should wear whatever they want, but women must not, is obscene. The mind that thinks women are sexual objects, but men are not, so men should decide what women should wear, is obscene.

We all know that if someone gets naked in the midst of clothed people, that person will appear obscene. At the same time, clothes often become the cause of much obscenity. A few years ago, I spent the summer in Berlin. On an afternoon I had set out to take a swim in a nearby lake. On reaching a field adjacent to the lake right by the road side, I was shocked to witness hundreds of men, women and children sitting or lying around naked.

They were all getting a tan and taking a dip in the lake every now and then. They had brought food and water for the entire day and were eating

There’s nothing wrong with being masculine or feminine. It all goes wrong when something masculine is considered superior to something feminine

right there as a family. I stood amongst them, clothed head to toe; everyone was staring at me wide eyed in wonder and amusement. Some eyes hinted at annoyance. Even I could tell I looked obscene.

I lowered my head ashamed of having clothes on. Just like a naked woman tries to cover her nudity with her hands, I found myself trying to hide my clothes with my hands.

Soon one by one I took off all my clothes save for my under garments.

But no matter how hard I tried I couldn't take them off; some form of inner resistance held me back. It's not as if I knew someone in that field and yet I couldn't get naked in front of a field full of naked people. I had hoped I too would get a tan, and take a dip in the lake but the fact that I couldn't get naked compelled me to leave that area.

Those hundreds of naked men and women did not seem obscene to me, instead I felt obscene myself. It had nothing to do with clothes. Obscenity can emerge from clothes as much as from the lack thereof.

Personally, I believe no form of attire can be obscene. But the kind of clothes that are designed and imposed on women, burying their liberty and spontaneity in order to remove obscenity, such as the burka and the hijab, I find extremely obscene.

Sometimes I don't understand why women should cover their chests at all: wear a bra, put on a blouse over it, a sari on top of that, or wear a dress, wrap a scarf over it and a burka on top of that. It's as if to make it so that people can't tell that women have breasts. If one can tell that a woman has breasts underneath her clothes why is it so disastrous? Noticing it, a heterosexual male might get sexually aroused. Well, let them, it's only natural, just like it is perfectly natural for women to get sexually aroused on seeing men.

But we cannot forget that in a civilised society we have rules, such as: you cannot jump on a woman just because you're aroused, you must have consent from the woman in order to engage in anything sexual. Instead of

following this rule, women are forced to wear the burka. They're being marginalised in society. A human being is getting turned into a walking talking prison cell.

A man who gets aroused will get aroused whether a woman is wearing a burka or not and one who does not get aroused will not do so even if the woman is walking naked. The civilised man knows how to control desire. The uncivilised need to be made civilised.

Imposing a burka on a woman denies the need for uncivilised men to be made civilised.

The society of Bangladesh still resides in darkness. Enormous bungalows, expensive cars, towering shopping malls – we have it all; all that is missing is a healthy mindset. So whenever a woman wears a blouse over a sari a heated discussion ensues. Inspite of numerous schools, colleges and universities, very few of us are actually educated. Studying in universities people become either uneducated degree holders or fundamentalist terrorists.

Universities do not educate people in the true sense of the term. One must become educated through one's own efforts, using one's own intellect.

We were born in a tiny planet among billions of planets suspended in empty space. Through billions of years of evolution we have emerged from single celled organisms. Some day, we too will become extinct, much like countless other species. The universe is not concerned with the clothes on our backs; the only ones concerned are a few women-hating, despicable people.

Only obscene men find obscenity in the bodies of women. Society is riddled with people who invent obscenity in women's laughter, words, actions and behaviour. These men are undoubtedly obscene. I want obscenity to be made illegal. I want the obscenity present in the minds of obscene men to be made illegal. I want to rid the country of the ugly conspiracy to stifle the rights and liberty of women. l Taslima Nasrin is a feminist writer and columnist currently in exile in India.

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DHAKA TRIBUNE

World

Friday, October 3, 2014

Faced with IS horror, Iraqis retaliate with humour Islamic State n presses assault on Syrian border town Agencies

Turkish parliament to vote on mandate for military action

n Reuters, Suruc, Turkey/Beirut Islamic State insurgents tightened their grip on a Syrian border town yesterday despite coalition air strikes meant to weaken them, sending thousands more Kurdish refugees into Turkey and dragging Ankara deeper into the conflict.

Kurdish militants warned that peace talks with the Turkish state would come to an end if the Islamist insurgents were allowed to carry out a massacre in the predominantly Kurdish town of Kobani, pressuring Ankara to act.

Islamic State fighters advanced to within a few kilometres of the town on three sides, after taking control of hundreds of villages around Kobani in recent weeks, beheading civilians in a bid to terrorise their residents into submission.

In neighbouring Iraq, the insurgents have carried out mass executions, abducted women and girls as sex slaves, and used children as fighters in systematic violations that may amount to war crimes, the United Nations said.

They took control of most of the western Iraqi town of Hit early on Thursday in Anbar province, where they already control many surrounding towns, launching the assault with three suicide car bombs at its eastern entrance.

US led forces, which have been bombing Islamic State targets in Syria since last week as well as in Iraq, hit a village near

Kobani on Wednesday and strikes were reported further south overnight, Kurdish sources in the town said. But they seemed to do little to stop the Islamists’ advance.

“We left because we realised it was only going to get worse,” said Leyla, a 37-year old Syrian arriving at the Yumurtalik border crossing with her six children after waiting 10 days in a field, hoping the clashes would subside.

“We will go back tomorrow if Islamic State leaves. I don’t want to be here, I had never even imagined Turkey in my dreams before this,” she said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors Syria’s war, said Islamic State militants were clashing with Kurdish fighters hundreds of metres from Kobani, raising fears they would enter the town “at any moment.”

About 20 explosions were heard in the areas of the Tishrin dam and town of Manbij roughly 50 km (31 miles) south of Kobani overnight, resulting from missile strikes believed to be carried out by the coalition, the Observatory said earlier.

Asya Abdullah, a senior official in Syria’s dominant Kurdish political party the Democratic Union Party (PYD), said there were clashes to the east, west and south of Kobani and that Islamic State had advanced to within 2-3 km on all fronts. l

How can societies shield themselves from the worst horrors? Sometimes humour helps.

The situation in Iraq is no laughing matter, but artists of all stripes are turning to humour to wage war on the Islamic State (IS), an entity so terrifying by nature that no distortion is needed to achieve the goal of ridicule, according to a report by The Christian Science Monitor.

“The purpose of comedy and cartoons is to pick something peculiar and exaggerate it, but what is happening now in Iraq is so abnormal that I can’t pump it up any further,” says veteran Iraqi cartoonist Diyaa al-Hajjar.

“Hollywood movie monsters like Dracula and zombies are sweet compared to ISIS and its brutality,” adds Mr. Hajjar, known also for his children storybooks.

Published across national newspapers and picked up on Facebook, his political cartoons depict the sliced up victims of terrorism; IS executioners and fighters; Gulf states bankrolling terrorists; and the purported profiteers – namely the US and Israel, who he says are the only ones to benefit from Iraq’s chaos.

In one cartoon, a towering cleric in traditional Arabic dress removes the brains from subservient donkey-eared jihadists and replaces them with bombs. The newly programmed, blackclad fighters rush off to battle, wielding a scimitar in each hand.

“Every phenomenon has its own reflection, but what is beautiful about what is happening today is that there is no fear, especially among the young generation. They are attacking Daash [the Arabic acronym for IS] on Facebook, on TV, and online through animations,” says Hajjar. The cartoonist,

2 million in Mecca for start of hajj n AP, Mecca, Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia sought to assure the public that the kingdom was safe and free of health scares as an estimated 2 million Muslims streamed into a sprawling tent city near Mecca on Thursday for the start of the annual Islamic hajj pilgrimage.

Earlier this year, Saudi authorities banned people from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea — the countries hardest hit in the Ebola epidemic — from getting visas as a precaution against the virus. The decision has affected a total of 7,400 pilgrims from the three countries.

Ebola is believed to have sickened more than 7,100 people in West Africa and killed more than 3,300, according to the World Health Organization.

The hajj sees massive crowds every year from around the world gather around the cube-shaped Kaaba in Mecca for about five days as part of a spiritual journey meant to cleanse the faithful of sin and bring them closer to God. All male pilgrims dress in simple, white robes as a sign of equality before God. The kingdom has not discovered a single case of Ebola so far and is taking all measures to ensure the safety and health of the pilgrims, said Manal Mansour, the head of Saudi Health Ministry’s department for prevention of infectious diseases.

“The most important precaution that (the kingdom) has taken was to restrict visas from the affected areas,” she told The Associated Press.

Upon arrival to the kingdom, pilgrims were asked to fill out “medical screening cards with data” and asked about their travels in the past 21 days, Mansour said.

There were other health concerns related to the hajj earlier this year. The kingdom had to improve its anti-infection measures after it was hit by an

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau dismissed Nigerian military claims of his death in a new video obtained by AFP yesterday and said the militants had implemented strict Islamic law in captured towns.

“Here I am, alive. I will only die the day Allah takes my breath,” Shekau said, adding that his group was “running our... Islamic caliphate” and administering strict sharia punishments.

Boko Haram has shown images of extreme violence before but the latest video shows at length graphic scenes of an amputation and a stoning to death as well as a beheading.

It also purports to show the wreckage of a Nigerian Air Force jet that went missing in the northeast on September 11. Boko Haram said its fighters shot it

who survived an assassination attempt in 2006, says now that he wishes to leave Iraq.

Online, skits and animations poking fun at IS jihadists pop up all the time on YouTube.

Bluto repurposed

An Iraqi video circulating on YouTube recycles an old episode of Popeye, adding a voice-over. The new storyline shows the villain Bluto as a new IS convert, lusting as usual after Olive. He sends her an invitation to join sexual jihad, triggering a new fight between Popeye and his arch nemesis.

Muslim pilgrims pray at the door of the Kabaa inside the Grand Mosque a day before Hajj, in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Wednesday AP upswing in the number of people who had contracted a respiratory virus known as the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome in the spring. There have been more than 750 cases of MERS in the kingdom since 2012, of which 319 people died, includ-

down but the military denied the claim.

The military announced last week that Shekau was dead and that a man who had been posing as the group’s leader in the videos had been killed after fighting with troops in the far northeast. Security analysts and the United States questioned the credibility of the military’s claim.

The new 36-minute video shows Shekau, in combat fatigues and black rubber boots, standing on the back of a pick-up truck and firing an anti-aircraft gun into the air. Standing in front of three camouflaged vans and flanked by four heavily armed, masked fighters, he then speaks for 16 minutes in Arabic and the Hausa language widely spoken in northern Nigeria. There was no indication of where or when the video was shot. Shekau appears in separate images from the violence. l

ing several health workers.

Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki, spokesman for the Saudi Interior Ministry, told the AP that the kingdom is also facing continuous threats from terrorists, but is prepared to ensure a safe hajj. l

Another video skit making the rounds online portrays a heavily bearded, pot-bellied man about to execute a blindfolded youth on charges of worshipping his father because he was caught crying at the foot of his grave.

The youth begs for mercy saying: “I am not going to cry for my father any more.”

The executioner retorts: “It is too late now. You will be hanged by bullets.”

The soundtrack is a remix of one of the Sunni militant group’s staple lyrics: “They are not the follower of Mohammed.” It is an accusation IS lobs against Muslims who do not share its radical

IS lays out case for ‘allegiance’ to its leader n Reuters, Beirut

Boko Haram leader dismisses death claims n AFP, Kano, Nigeria

A new Iraqi soap opera, ‘State of Myth,’ pokes fun of the Islamic State

Islamic State (IS) insurgents in Iraq and Syria have issued a pamphlet calling for Muslims to pledge loyalty to their chief, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, pressing a campaign to establish a “caliphate” even as US-led forces bomb their positions.

Baghdadi’s claim to the mantle of Islam’s caliphate, the Muslim state established by the Prophet Mohammad’s first followers after his death, has infuriated many Islamic leaders and ignited an ideological battle for legitimacy.

Islamist sources in Syria said the pamphlet, distributed widely online by supporters of the al Qaeda offshoot, was a step in the group’s campaign to establish the caliphate and familiarise people with Baghdadi.

Entitled “Extend your hands and pledge loyalty to Baghdadi,” the pamphlet appeared to be based largely on a longer statement written last year by IS religious figure Turki al-Binali arguing why Baghdadi deserved to command the loyalty of believers.

Addressing itself “to whoever fought and still fights in the path of God ... to commanders of groups,” the pamphlet traced Baghdadi’s purported lineage to the Prophet Mohammad, outlined his studies of Islamic law, and listed his battlefield achievements while asking supporters to unite against the group’s enemies.

A coalition of the United States and Arab allies including Saudi Arabia, which follows the ultraconservative Wahhabi school of Sunni Islam, has been carrying out air strikes against IS in Syria.

“Isn’t it time for you to unite with

your brothers? To establish and elevate your state? The enemy has allied to fight you, so unite to fight him,” said the pamphlet.

The US-led campaign has pushed some members of al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, the Nusra Front, to pressure their leaders to reconcile with IS after the two groups clashed earlier in the year.

Among other historical religious scholars, the pamphlet quoted Mohammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, founder of Saudi Arabia’s Wahhabi school, whose 18th century alliance with the Saudi ruling family continues to underpin the country’s politics.

The kingdom’s religious establishment has campaigned against militancy in recent weeks, describing both Islamic State and al Qaeda as Islam’s foremost enemy. In August, the country’s Grand Mufti urged young people to ignore calls to jihad from people representing “deviant principles.”

Power struggles

IS has its roots as al Qaeda’s affiliate in Iraq, but split with the central organization headed by Ayman Zawahri this year after falling out over its expansion into Syria.

Leading figures affiliated with al Qaeda this week launched an initiative to establish a “truce” with IS and asked the group to respond by the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, which starts on Saturday. The rise of IS has appeared to capture the imaginations of at least some militants previously affiliated with al Qaeda. Algerian Islamist militants who pledged their loyalty to IS beheaded a French hostage last month. l

US nears solution for safe disposal of Ebola waste n Reuters, Washington/Chicago The United States is days away from settling the critical question of how hospitals should handle and dispose of medical waste from Ebola patients, a government official said.

Experts have warned that conflicting US regulations over how such waste should be transported could make it very difficult for US hospitals to safely care for patients with Ebola, a messy disease that causes diarrhea, vomiting and in some cases, bleeding from the eyes and ears.

Safely handling such waste presents a dual challenge for regulators, who want to both prevent the accidental spread of the deadly disease and avert any deliberate attempts to use it as a bioweapon.

Most US hospitals are not equipped with incinerators or large sterilizers called autoclaves that could accommodate the large amounts of soiled linens, contaminated syringes and virus-spattered protective gear generated from the care of an Ebola patient, said Dr. Jeffrey Duchin, chair of the Infectious Diseases Society of America’s Public Health Committee.

Sterilizing Ebola waste before it is transported is important not only to protect waste haulers but to guard against someone using the waste “for nefarious purposes,” said Sean Kaufman, president of Behavioral-Based Improvement Solutions, an Atlanta-based biosafety firm. “It’s not just a safety issue,” he said.

The matter, which was first reported by Reuters last month, may pose a

significant challenge for Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, which is now treating the first Ebola patient to be diagnosed on US soil.

Duchin said he is not aware of whether the hospital has its own incinerator or large autoclave, but if it does not, “they are going to have to find a temporary solution for managing infectious waste. That puts the hospital in a very difficult situation.”

Cynthia Quarterman, administrator of the US department of transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration, which oversees dangerous shipments, said her agency is “working on how we can clarify even further for hospitals, for the public, what the appropriate transportation should be.”

Another official said that news could come within days. l

WIKIMEDIA

world view. The video skit has been viewed 591,000 times since it was posted in May. The latest comic weapon to be deployed against IS in Iraq, however, may be the biggest gun in the arsenal: a full-blown satirical soap opera that Iraqi TV viewers have been tuning into since Saturday – and that some actors even stayed away from out of fear of retaliation.

“State of Myth” depicts the arrival of IS fighters and their ideology to a fictional town in Iraq. Director Ali al-Qassim says its goal is to expose those who have tarnished the name of Islam. l

US Secret Service chief quits over security lapses n AP, Washington The director of United States Secret Service abruptly resigned Wednesday in the face of multiple revelations of security breaches, bumbling in her agency and rapidly eroding confidence that President Barack Obama and his family were being kept safe.

Once highly respected for its professionalism, the Secret Service, which protects the president, his family, the vice president and former presidents, has been trying to rehabilitate its image since a 2012 prostitution scandal erupted during a presidential visit to Colombia.

That trust was shaken by a series of failures in the agency’s critical job of protecting the president, including a breach Sept. 19, when a knife-carrying man climbed over the White House fence and made it deep into the executive mansion before being stopped.

President Barack Obama “concluded new leadership of that agency was required,” said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.

A White House official told The Associated Press that the final straw was the revelation that Obama was never briefed about an incident in which he rode an elevator with an armed security contractor during a visit to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta just days before the White House breach.

Although Pierson offered her resignation without being asked, Obama had already told aides he thought she should go, the official said, adding that nobody put up any resistance when she offered to step down. l

Putin hopes election will bring Ukraine stability n Reuters, Moscow President Vladimir Putin said yesterday he hoped Ukraine’s parliamentary election on October 26 would help bring stability to the country, saying this was also in Russia’s interests.

The government in Kiev has accused Moscow of meddling in its affairs by directly supporting pro-Russian separatists fighting government troops in eastern Ukraine, accusations which Russia denies.

“Ukraine’s exit from political and economic crisis is in Russia’s national interests,” Putin told VTB Capital Russia Calling investment forum in Moscow, referring to Ukraine as Russia’s “most brotherly” nation.

“We are interested in having a reliable and predictable partner and neighbour,” he said. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

World

Hong Kong warns democracy protesters of firm response

Police vow to restore public order, protesters demand Leung step down

n

Reuters, Hong Kong

Hong Kong authorities yesterday urged thousands of pro-democracy protesters to immediately end their blockade of the city centre and said any attempt to occupy administrative buildings would be met with a resolute and firm response.

The mostly young protesters have demanded Hong Kong’s leader, Leung Chun-ying, step down by the end of Thursday, threatening to occupy government buildings if he fails to do so.

They have also called on China to introduce full democracy so the city can freely choose its own leader.

Leung, appointed by Beijing, has refused to stand down, leaving the two sides far apart in a dispute over how much political control China should have over Hong Kong.

Steve Hui, senior superintendent of the Hong Kong police force, said police would take action in accordance with the law if the protesters tried to enter government buildings.

“Whenever there are violent and major incidents and crimes such as fighting and any other situation that jeopardises safety and public order, police will take resolute and firm action to restore public order,” Hui said, when asked how police would respond should the students carry through with their threat.

“We assure that police will have enough manpower to deal with every single situation.”

Riot police used tear gas, pepper spray and baton charges last weekend to quell unrest, the worst in Hong Kong since China resumed its rule of the former British colony in 1997.

The “Occupy Central” movement presents one of the biggest political challenges for Beijing since it violently crushed pro-democracy protests in Ti-

Pro-democracy protesters face policemen as they wait for Hong Kong chief executive outside the Legislative Counsel Office in Hong Kong. Hong Kong has been plunged into the worst political crisis since its 1997 handover as pro-democracy activists take over the streets following China’s refusal to grant citizens full universal suffrage AFP ananmen Square in 1989.

Protesters across the city have dug in, setting up supply stations with water bottles, fruit, raincoats, towels, goggles, face masks, tents and umbrellas.

The Hong Kong Federation of Students, one of the protest organisers, has urged people to surround more government buildings from Friday unless the authorities accepted their demands.

Protest leaders addressed supporters camped near the government headquarters, preparing them for a potentially tense night ahead including the

Modi aims to shake up sanitation with Clean India drive n Reuters, New Delhi His hands protected by torn orange gloves, Dalbira Singh has a grim job scraping waste from train toilets from the tracks at New Delhi’s Hazrat Nizamuddin station, a few minutes from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office.

Like an estimated 1 million other Indians, Singh does the work because he was born into a low caste. His parents did the same work before him.

“This is a disgusting job but no one will give me another. I am destined to be a toilet-cleaning man,” Singh said this week, picking up soiled sanitary towels and diapers before wiping the tracks with a cloth soaked in cleaning chemicals.

But Modi, like Mahatma Gandhi, wants to change things so not only those born to a low caste work to keep

India clean. On Thursday, a holiday for Gandhi’s birthday, Modi launched the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, or Clean India Mission, to modernise sanitation within five years.

He starting by trying to change attitudes and he set an example by taking a broom and sweeping up rubbish in a Delhi neighbourhood occupied by members of the Valmiki caste, whose lot in life is traditionally “manual scavenging,” a euphemism for clearing other people’s faeces.

“Often we assume the job of cleaning up belongs to safai karmacharis and don’t bother to clean,” Modi said referring to cleaners.

“Don’t we all of have a duty to clean the country?”

To drive home his point, he ordered government workers including his ministers came to work on Thursday to sweep offices and clean toilets. l

possibility of police using tear gas.

“In the coming days we will team up to support the movement and provide resources. We will fight until the very end,” student leader Joshua Wong said from atop a ladder, to huge cheers.

The three main protest groups have started to work more closely together, trying to give a show of unity after some disagreements on tactics over the past several days.

The Hong Kong government said the protests, now in their sixth day, were affecting public order and public services.

“About 3,000 government officials will try their best tomorrow to return to work as (much) as possible. To maintain public service, the government headquarters must operate as usual,” the government said in a statement.

“We urge the Occupy Central leaders and organisers to stop the movement immediately.”

While the number of protesters on the streets fell on Thursday, the second of two-day public holiday, tension remained high and the demonstrations appeared far from over. l

Lack of leaders may undermine Hong Kong protests in ‘long game’ n Reuters, Hong Kong Pro-democracy protesters on the streets of Hong Kong are proud to proclaim their movement is a ground-up “citizen’s revolution,” but their lack of a clear leadership could prove a telling weakness as the authorities prepare to play a long game.

Police used tear gas, pepper spray and batons at the weekend against protesters shielding themselves with umbrellas, but have since shifted their tactics to avoid confrontation, apparently hoping the protests will fizzle out.

“We are not worrying about excessive violent from police, as we don’t expect they will repeat it again when the whole world is watching,” said Kenneth Mok, a 22-year-old civil engineering graduate, at a protest site in the city’s Admiralty district.

“We are worrying the movement will lose steam without a clear leader leading. We are worrying that people will go back to normal like nothing has happened.”

The protests, which have drawn tens of thousands on to the streets at their peak, represent the biggest challenge to Beijing’s authority in the former British colony since it reverted to Chinese rule in 1997.

Organisers of Occupy Central with Love and Peace (OCLP), one of the main groups behind the demonstrations, have threatened to take over government buildings if Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing leader, Leung Chun-ying, does not step down, prompting a warning of “serious consequences” from police.

But protesters on the streets, while united in their calls for full democracy for Hong Kong, are split over tactics.

“We have no organisers here...we received no commands or even orders from Occupy Central leaders,” said Ken Tsang, 30, a coordinator at a supply

n AFP, Dharamsala

The Dalai Lama indicated yesterday that he was in informal talks with China to make a historic pilgrimage to Tibet after more than half a century in exile.

The Tibetan spiritual leader said he had “made clear” his desire to undertake the pilgrimage to a sacred mountain in his homeland to contacts in China, including retired Communist Party officials.

“It’s not finalized, not yet, but the idea is there,” the 79-year-old told AFP in an interview in Dharamshala, where he lives.

“Not formally or seriously, but informally... I express, this is my desire, and some of my friends, they are also showing their genuine interest or concern,” he added.

“Recently, some Chinese officials, for example the deputy party secretary in the autonomous region of Tibet, he also mentioned the possibility of my visit as a pilgrimage to that sacred place.”

The Dalai Lama has long expressed a desire to visit the Wutai Shan mountain, considered sacred by Tibetans.

AP, Manila, Philippines

Facebook is sorry.

The company’s Chief Product Officer Chris Cox apologized to the LGBT community in a statement on Wednesday for the ‘hardship’ created by requiring Facebook users to use their legal names. The real-name policy says users must use a name “as it would be listed on your credit card, driver’s license or student ID” or their account could be deleted.

There was a backlash. A widespread protest campaign was launched, notably from members of the LGBT community, but also from people who feel unsafe using their real names on the Internet.

“I want to apologize to the affected community of drag queens, drag kings, transgender, and extensive community of our friends, neighbours, and members of the LGBT community for the hardship that we’ve put you through in dealing with your Facebook accounts over the past few weeks,” Mr. Cox said, in a Facebook post after the meeting.

Two weeks ago, Facebook began cracking down on the accounts of hundreds of people using nicknames, stage names, or drag names. Members of the LGBT community who for years could use their name of preference were forced to switch to their real names.

Sister Roma, a leader of the San Francisco-based Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence advocacy group and an outspoken member of the LGBT community, had to instead use the name Michael Williams.

She has been a vocal leader in the movement against the real-name policy.

“I was automatically logged out and told my account was suspended because it appears that I’m not using my real name,” Sister Roma told the Daily Dot. “I was instructed to log in and forced to change the name on my profile to my legal name, like the one that appears on your drivers’ license or credit card.”

Cox says Facebook never intended to go after members of the LGBT community. Rather, he says these accounts were reported along with the many other fake accounts Facebook targets each week. l

station on Canton Road, sometimes dubbed the world’s most expensive shopping street.

“Occupy Central is already dead and what’s happening now is the Umbrella Revolution. It is a citizen-involved revolution and it’s not organised by any political parties.”

After a morning news conference that served only to highlight their lack of cohesion, leaders from Occupy Central and student groups also prominent in the protests organised a hasty show of unity on Thursday afternoon.

The protests represent the biggest challenge to Beijing’s authority in the former British colony since it reverted to Chinese rule in 1997 “Hong Kong people want real freedom and real democracy,” Benny Tai, a law professor and OCLP founder, told the second press conference.

In the densely populated Mong Kok district, a supply station volunteer who gave only her family name, Yim, said protesters there had refused a request from Occupy Central members to remove street barriers, fearing that doing so would make them more vulnerable to attack by triads or pro-Beijing groups.

“There’s no such thing as Occupy Central organisers,” she said. “Everyone came out and occupied the street by themselves.”

On the streets, protesters say they have been organising themselves, monitoring social media to decide where to go and arranging informal “shifts” with friends. l

Dalai Lama in ‘informal’ talks to return to Tibet

Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama speaks during a commemoration event marking 25 years since the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the Dalai Lama at Tsuglakhang temple in McLeod Ganj on October 2 AFP His comments on Thursday come amid speculation of an easing of tensions with China, which in the past has decried the spiritual leader as a “splittist” and accused him of seeking secession.

The exiled monk, who retired from politics in 2011, says he is fighting for greater autonomy for Tibetan areas.

Last month, an anonymous blog post appeared briefly on a Chinese-run website describing the Dalai Lama’s

Facebook apologizes to Philippine peace deal seen as LGBT community over counter to Islamic State group real-name policy n n Agencies

9

Friday, October 3, 2014

A new peace deal between the Philippine government and the country’s largest Muslim rebel group, if effectively enforced, will remove conditions that breed radicalism and help prevent the Islamic State group from gaining local followers, officials and the insurgents said yesterday.

The government signed a pact with the 11,000-strong Moro Islamic Liberation Front in March that aims to establish a more powerful and better-funded autonomous region for minority Muslims in the southern Philippines and end a decades-long rebellion. The conflict has left 150,000 people dead and helped stunt development in the country’s poorest region.

The rebels are expected to start deactivating their guerrilla force later this year in a ceremony at which about 100 insurgents will symbolically hand over at least 75 high-powered firearms to an independent body of experts.

President Benigno Aquino has submitted a draft law to Congress to flesh out the agreement, which would cre-

ate the new autonomous region, to be called Bangsamoro. Minority Muslims are envisioned to have their own flag, a 60-member parliament, a larger budget

The government signed a pact with the 11,000-strong Moro Islamic Liberation Front that aims to establish a more powerful autonomous region for minority Muslims and wield exclusive powers over such areas as agriculture, trade, tourism and education to help them turn former battlefields into prosperous communities.

The European Union’s ambassador to the Philippines, Guy Ledoux, told a forum on Islamic radicalism that while the emergence of the Islamic State group has sparked concerns elsewhere,

the Philippines was facing “a time of great hope and optimism” with the peace pact’s signing.

The deal “has not only signaled an end to a long war, but also the settlement of a historic grievance that could easily fuel radicalism and lead to violent extremism and acts of terrorism if not addressed,” Ledoux said, adding that the agreement should be fully enforced.

Assistant Secretary Oscar Valenzuela of the Philippine government’s Anti-Terrorism Council said the deal had eased years of heavy fighting in the south that could potentially serve as a breeding ground of extremists.

A few years before the deal’s signing, a few hundred rebels opposed to the peace talks broke off from the main Moro rebel group and vowed to continue fighting for a separate Muslim homeland.

The Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement rebels have continued attacks. They shot to death two army soldiers, who emerged from a Catholic church Wednesday in southern Datu Piang town. l

return in positive terms, before it was taken down.

It was seen by some experts as an indication that China’s tone may be softening — a view shared by the Dalai Lama.

On Thursday, he welcomed recent comments by China’s President Xi Jinping on the importance of Buddhism in Chinese society and said he was “optimistic” about the current leadership in Beijing.

“This is something very new, a Communist Party leader saying something about spirituality,” said the exiled leader, who recently described Xi as “more open-minded” than his predecessors.

The Dalai Lama, who enjoyed a close relationship with Xi’s father before he fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising, also praised the Chinese leader for a crackdown on official corruption.

“These things show he (Xi) is approaching these problems more realistically,” said the Dalai Lama.

But he criticised China’s treatment of dissidents, including the Uighur writer Ilham Tohti, who was recently sentenced to life in prison for separatism. l

Bomb hits passenger bus in Pakistan, killing 7 n AP, Peshawar, Pakistan A bomb ripped through a mini-bus in northwestern Pakistan yesterday, killing at least seven passengers, police said.

The bombing, which took place on the outskirts of Peshawar, the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, also wounded four people, said Shafqat Malik, a senior police officer.

The bomb had apparently been planted under a bus seat, he said, adding that police were investigating. Malik would not speculate on who could be behind the bombing but described it as “an act of terrorism.”

“Those who orchestrated the attack will not go unpunished,” he said.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the explosion, which came as the Pakistani military is waging a major offensive against the Taliban and foreign militants in the North Waziristan tribal region near Afghanistan.

The army says militants have been on the run since the June launch of the operation, which also displaced over 800,000 people. Most of the displaced have been living with relatives or at camps in the northwest. l

10

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Editorial

Friday, October 3, 2014

CODE-CRACKER

Use prices to get gas where it is needed

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any factories and industrial mills in Bangladesh want gas connections, but cannot get them because of the ongoing gas shortage.

With load shedding routinely exceeding three hours a day in many districts, many businesses and factories are suffering lost production and increased costs when they run their own gas generators to keep work flowing.

The government’s provisional approval for significant rises in gas prices can potentially improve this situation by providing more funds to invest in extraction and distribution.

Industry across the country urgently needs the gas shortage to be addressed and fixed. The government needs to play its part in facilitating industrial growth by ensuring the demand for industrial gas connections is properly met.

Our economy needs more industrial growth in order to keep improving our standard of living and to create more high-value jobs.

With this in mind, we consider the proposed and unpopular increases in the retail price of gas to be necessary and timely.

For a start, prices have not risen since 2009. Also, the government is still spending large amounts of taxpayer money on unnecessary subsides.

These hamper investment and encourage wasteful use, which holds back our ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The economy needs reliable power supplies to support industrial growth. Gas should be sold at a higher price, and the increase in revenue invested in new gas fields and pipelines, so that industries can plan for growth without fear of interrupted supplies.

Our economy needs more industrial growth in order to keep improving our standard of living

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

The needs of a global player September 25 empirical evidence and doesn’t mention the Sammy time frame. In fact, the numbers from the State “The consular section at the local US embassy Department as of 2012 (the last year available) reportedly increased the issuance of nonsimply do not sync with the author’s statement. I immigrant visas manifold.” agree with the author’s point but I highly doubt the This comment about the “increasing non veracity of the paragraph in question. immigrant visas manifold” is not backed up by

Tofail: Seoul to up imports

September 25 Mahmid Abdullah Good news.

Stay safe!

September 24

General good fortune

September 25 SM “Chhatra League General Secretary Siddique Nazmul Alam is known by the name Debu to neighbours. Nazmul got a licence for two firearms last year as a ‘special person of the state.’”

In a one-party rule where judges, police, prosecutors, and mob bosses all live on the direction of one family and one party, this kind of truth telling is not safe. Whoever you are, reporter, hats off to you for your courage! Be safe!

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.

imran If there is no proof he (Nazmul) earned money illegally, then why was this written?

T

We cannot be a society in which freedom from satire and ridicule trumps freedom of thought and expression

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

amit I understood they built/acquired something they were not supposed to. But provide me with proofs.

A mockery of justice

he 7 year prison sentence imposed on Tonmoy Mollick for writing a satirical song about Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib and the prime minister strikes us as incompatible with the free society we aspire to be.

That said, the presiding judge merely followed the law, and this case is a perfect example of precisely the kind of action that we feared the draconian ICT act would lead to.

We understand that feelings may be hurt and that outrage caused by words, and certainly common decency as well as the laws of defamation provide a limit to how far one can go in abusing or insulting another.

However, it is surely self-evident that we are not and cannot be a society in which freedom from satire and ridicule trumps freedom of thought and expression, rights that are fundamental to democracy and guaranteed by our constitution.

It should be perfectly lawful to write and publish a satirical song.

Public figures do not need special protection by the state.

We have editorialised before on the serious impediments to freedom of speech posed by some very questionable provisions contained in the Information and Communications Technology Act brought in by the BNP in 2006 and enhanced by the AL government in 2013.

The potential for their misuse has long been clear. The police say they are investigating some 300 cases under the act. From the ones which have come to trial, including the one referenced here, it is clear this legislation is being misused to clamp down on criticism.

It is regrettable that the government has ignored High Court notices asking it to explain why some of the provisions of the ICT act do not breach the constitution.

When a man is sentenced to seven years in prison for writing a satirical song, things have clearly gone too far. The time is past due for the government to amend the ICT act to ensure it is not further misused.

Anything less is incompatible with a democratic society and the government’s vision of a Digital Bangladesh.

How to solve: Each number in our CODE-CRACKER grid represents a different letter of the alphabet. For example, today 17 represents K so fill K every time the figure 17 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.

Jisan Imran: Don’t you know how politicians earn money? Don’t keep your eyes closed.

Mohammad Hasan Rasfi “Losing control, a passenger bus gets on the central reservation in the busy High Court area of the capital on Tuesday. Reckless driving often leads to accidents, causing damage to lives and properties.”

Was anyone injured? Did anyone die?

Chowdhury Aktaruzzaman Smart and timely news report. Thanks.

Feroza Akhter Oh my God!

SM If anyone active on behalf of their “leader” demanding proof, despite given proof, is any indication, I suspect that my initial comment was on mark. The reporter must have hit very close to the truth for them to be out in such full force.

MS The public gets the politicians it deserves.

Militants plan armed war in Bangladesh

Sheikh Jinat Mahmid We are safe nowhere. Thanks to earthquakes, fires, road accidents, and so many other things.

Jahangir Shah Not only reporting on political news, but also disobedience of law, those willfully breaking the law, commentary on society, lawlessness, and injustice of society are part of the accountability of a newspaper towards society. Good job DT.

Dead ball

September 25 TJ Indeed, more cricket academies in different levels need to be established, and long-term plans need to be implemented. However, is that sufficient enough to maintain our Test status?

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Additional (5) 4 Corrosion (4) 7 Attack by surprise (6) 8 Hand covering (5) 10 Unwanted escape (4) 11 Scene of action (5) 12 Before (poet) (3) 14 Pace (4) 17 Classify (4) 19 United (3) 20 Trembling poplar (5) 23 Atlas contents (4) 25 Choose by vote (5) 26 Knighthoods (6) 27 Refuse to admit (4) 28 Allude (5)

DOWN 1 Birds of prey (6) 2 Utter wildly (4) 3 Prayer ending (4) 4 Governs (5) 5 Put to a purpose (3) 6 Unsettled (6) 9 Above (4) 13 Turn (6) 15 Vocal sound (4) 16 Tin and lead alloy (6) 18 Savoury (5) 21 Look narrowly (4) 22 Otherwise (4) 24 Fastener (3)

September 26 Breadbitten Militants these days are so out-of-shape.

Court sends youth to seven years in jail for satirising Mujib, Hasina September 25 Momoaswan Absolutely outrageous.

Everything is fake

CALVIN AND HOBBES

September 25

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS CODE-CRACKER vhs It’s a miracle that we can find anything at all at the end of the day that feels real. Life often does seem full of fakeness at times.

PEANUTS

CROSSWORD

Zero-Agenda Our country needs swift and sweeping changes within the social framework; it is not enough to just talk about it, it needs to be backed up by the right actions.

Sadia Afreen Chowdhury What an article with which to start the day!

Modi pilots live radio show to reach the masses September 25 Satish Chandra I wonder what India’s nuclear forces, in charge of the nuclear warheads placed in Washington, New York, and other US cities, are doing. Are those warheads for decorative purposes if not to destroy Washington and New York with a warning that additional US cities will be destroyed if there is any retaliation or sign of retaliation?

SUDOKU

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Op-Ed

Friday, October 3, 2014

11

The glass half-full n FS Aijazuddin

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REUTERS

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The Hasina moment

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n Nadeem Qadir

was watching the CNN and NDTV coverage of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with US President Barack Obama. The man once banned from entering the United States was now Washington’s most sought after man. The coverage called it “the Modi moment.”

Looking back, I had this feeling that despite the debacle of Minister Latif Siddique, which again is not new, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to the US cannot be overlooked. I am calling it “the Hasina moment.”

To begin, I quote a Facebook status by her son and IT adviser, Sajeeb Wazed Joy: “A highly successful UN General Assembly trip by our PM. I got to meet President and Mrs Obama on Tuesday at the annual reception. They were most gracious, as always. There, we also chatted with His Excellency the President of Sri Lanka, His Excellency the President of Turkey, the Honourable Prime Minister of Nepal, and her Highness the Queen of Netherlands.

Senior officials from the US, Russia, and the UN, including Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, attended the celebration of Bangladesh’s 40th anniversary at the UN. They all praised Bangladesh and our Awami League government for all our development work, contribution to global peace, and fight against terrorism. It is because of our AL government that we can hold our heads up high on the global stage.”

I wish he had mentioned the crucial meeting between Sheikh Hasina and Modi, because that really capped the visit with important results.

From what I could make out from the television footage of the summit between Bangladesh and India on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session, I have to say the chemistry was very good.

rather Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, can look forward to better ties with New Delhi.

Modi and Sheikh Hasina have invited each other to visit their respective countries, but it will be better if the Indian leader first delivers on his promise and ends the two unsolved long-standing issues. Sheikh Hasina cannot return empty-handed from

Ban Ki-moon, in his statement marking Bangladesh’s 40 years in the United Nations, praised Bangladesh for taking strides forward

Modi reiterated his statement that “Bangabandhu brought Bangladesh, and his daughter Sheikh Hasina is saving it,” and added that he was looking forward to meaningful bilateral ties. He also assured Sheikh Hasina of finding a solution to the much sought-after land boundary agreement and water sharing of the Teesta and Feni rivers.

Washington has made it clear that it would work closely with the Modi administration, forgetting the stand it took against Modi some five years or so back, and that includes regional and international politics. If we take that as true, then Bangladesh, or

New Delhi, which has to think hard about whether it wants a friendly government in Dhaka or not.

As the Bangladesh leader met Obama at an annual reception, the US envoy in Dhaka, Dan Mozena, reflected a possible change in the US stand on the Januray 5, 2014 general elections. He had continuously demanded “inclusive polls,” but said recently that the voting was Bangladesh’s “internal matter.”

Just ahead of his departure from home after ending the Dhaka stint, Mozena was possibly indicating what his successor would say on arrival in Dhaka. That might help Hasina to

further ignore demands for elections by the BNP-led alliance.

Foreign Minister Mahmud Ali told reporters returning from New York that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon did not bring up the issue of elections during talks with the Bangladesh leader. He said that if one disbelieved his words, he should ask the UN secretary-general himself.

Ban Ki-moon, in his statement marking Bangladesh’s 40 years in the United Nations, praised Bangladesh for taking strides forward. “I am pleased that the dream of “Shonar Bangla” (Golden Bengal) that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had for this country is steadily becoming a reality,” he said.

This is indeed an important statement as far as the world body and Sheikh Hasina’s government is concerned, if one looks at it from a point of international approval. It is notable that it did not have anything on democracy or elections.

Thus, it was, as far as I am concerned, a “Hasina moment.”

What is sad is that the prime minister returned home to simmering tension linked to statements of the sacked minister, Latif Siddique. Power is not more than that of the premier or absolute, some politicians forget.

Sheikh Hasina has taken the right decision to sack him, but also reprimand others like him in the cabinet or party. If need be, he should be punished if found guilty in court. l Nadeem Qadir, a senior journalist, is a UNCA Dag Hammarskjold Scholar in journalism.

ual nationality comes instinctively to Pakistanis: They are polygamous by nature. This explains why many of them found the referendum in Scotland superfluous.

Why, they argued, couldn’t the Scots be allowed to hold Scottish passports as well as British ones?

The recent Scottish referendum is the latest of a number of attempts

by Scots to assert their identity as a separate nation. Their irritation at being treated as an appendage to other countries has chafed for centuries.

In 1543, for example, the English King Henry VIII formalised in the Treaty of Greenwich his ambition to unite the two kingdoms, by marrying the infant Mary Queen of Scots to his young heir Edward. The Scots spurned that takeover bid.

In 1558, Mary — by this time also Dauphine-designate — signed off her kingdom to France. The premature death of her husband Francis II saved the Scots from being absorbed into France.

Her son James VI achieved the union that geography had ordained when he succeeded Elizabeth I in 1603. Scotland and England came under one crown, but remained two separate kingdoms.

The political integration of the two states took another century to consummate.

Now, 300 years later, the Scottish referendum by its very demand has exposed that national independence is still an issue in the British Isles. The pre-referendum polls alarmed Prime Minister David Cameron, his deputy Nicholas Clegg, and Labour leader Ed Miliband sufficiently to make lastminute forays up north to protect the union.

The battle for Scotland has been won. A majority of 55.3% has voted to maintain the status quo. The war over the United Kingdom, however, is not yet over. In a turnout of 84.6%, almost half of the Scottish electorate – 44.7% — voted for independence.

The results of the two major cities show an interesting contrast. In the political capital Edinburgh, 194,638 voted against independence, and in Glasgow, its commercial capital, a marginally higher number 194,779 voted for it.

It is for armchair analysts to determine whether the cacophony of doom orchestrated by Mr Cameron helped to swing the undecided. His desperation infected six prominent banks — Barclays, Deutsche Bank, Société Générale, JP Morgan, RBC Capital Markets, and Credit Suisse.

They issued “dire warnings” of financial disorder if Scotland detached its economy from the English pound.

Older Scots had seen it happen all too often before. Their Allama Iqbal — Robert Burns — had voiced his dismay in a poem he composed on the 1707 Acts of Union: “What force or guile could not subdue, /Thro’ many warlike ages, / Is wrought now by a coward few, /For hireling traitor’s wages. /The English

steel we could disdain, /Secure in valour’s station; /But English gold has been our bane — Such a parcel of rogues in a nation!”

It was reported that the governor Punjab (a dual national) rushed to his former constituency Glasgow to exhort his fellow Glaswegians (unsuccessfully, as it turned out) to vote “no.” Sadly, no one there or here could see any anomaly in this duality of loyalties, tantamount to a conflict of interest.

Pakistanis are polygamous by nature.

Many of them found the referendum in Scotland superfluous

The United States permits dual nationality. Hyphenated identities such as Afro-Americans, HispanicAmericans, Asian-Americans, IndianAmericans, and American-Indians (formerly Red Indians) now comprise the majority in the US. And it is just such an American of Indian origin — Richard Rahul Verma — who has been nominated by President Obama as the next US ambassador to India.

Mr Verma is replacing Ms Nancy Powell, herself once US ambassador to Pakistan. Mr Verma is being accredited to India, a country where, to ensure impartiality, there is a rule that no person from any Indian state can be appointed a governor of that state.

Mr Verma is an interesting choice.

Because of his origins (his mother was born in pre-1947 Punjab) and his professional exposure as one of the architects of the Kerry-Lugar Bill, he can provide his own government (and Mr Modi’s) an insight into our country.

He has visited Pakistan often and then helped resuscitate it through that timely aid-related legislation.

His appointment comes at a crucial time in Indo-Pak relations.

Mr Modi met President Obama.

Every sane Pakistani and Indian hopes that Mr Nawaz Sharif and Mr Modi will talk to each other.

The auguries are favourable.

The Indian foreign secretary and the national security adviser have met our high commissioner, Abdul Basit, in New Delhi. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has spoken of there being a comma, a semicolon, not a full-stop, in our bilateral relations.

Hadrian’s Wall was man-made.

Barriers like that can be as easily unmade. l

FS Aijazuddin lives in Lahore and is a columnist for Dawn, Pakistan’s main Englishlanguage newspaper. This article was first published in Dawn.

ISIS doesn’t serve Islam n Abdullah Zobair

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he US-led airstrikes on ISIS terrorists are surely a doomed ploy to kill a large number of Muslims in the Middle Eastern countries, and the continuation of more than a half-century old regional tension started immediately after World War II when the West injected and established Israel in 1948 by evicting the Palestinians from their homelands.

Following the Samuel P Huntington doctrine in Clash of Civilisations, the US-led allies have been ensuring corrosion in the crescent – the Middle East, aiming at sustaining the hegemony of the eroding West in the world.

Over the last two decades, the components of the West – the US, the UK, the EU nations, Australia, and Russia – created the monsters alQaeda and Taliban, and arranged 9/11 as a prelude to attack Afghanistan and Iraq that cost millions of lives.

Both the West-fed militant groups lost their glories as the US forces killed Osama bin Laden in 2011, which vacuumed to float another militant group to allow the superpower to restore the crusade against the fastestgrowing and emerging Muslims.

The creation of ISIS is nothing but an intelligence asset of the CIA and Mossad, according to a document released by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The NSA document reveals that the US, Israel, and Britain were responsible for the creation of ISIS. Earlier this month Nabil Na’eem, the founder of the Islamic Democratic Jihad Party, and a former top al-Qaeda commander, told the Beirut-based pan-Arab TV station al Mayadeen that all current al-Qaeda affiliates, including ISIS, work for the CIA. The well-armed and trained terrorist group (which now controls a vast area of Iraq and Syria) was established as part of a strategy dubbed “the hornet’s nest” to draw Islamic militants from around the world to Syria.

The ISIS leader Abu Bakr alBaghdadi “took intensive military training for a whole year in the hands of Mossad, besides courses in theology and the art of speech,” according to the Gulf Daily News. In June, a Jordanian official told WorldNetDaily that ISIS members were trained in 2012 by the US instructors working at a secret base in Jordan.

In 2012, it was reported the US, Turkey, and Jordan were running a

training base for the Syrian rebels in the Jordanian town of Safawi.

Al-Baghdadi was reportedly a “civilian internee” at Camp Bucca, a US military detention facility near Umm Qasr, Iraq. James Skylar Gerrond, a former US Air Force Security Forces officer and a compound commander at Camp Bucca in 2006 and 2007, said earlier this month the camp “created a pressurecooker for extremism.” The hornet’s nest strategy was engineered to create the perception that Israel is threatened by an enemy near its borders.

In 1982, Oded Yinon, an Israeli journalist with links to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, wrote the Zionist plan for the Middle East.

The paper proposed that “all the Arab states should be broken down,

by Israel, into small units” and the “dissolution of Syria and Iraq later on into ethnically or religiously unique areas such as in Lebanon, is Israel’s primary target on the Eastern front in the long run.”

The world is not convinced by the US propaganda machineries that say Muslim militants are slaughtering the religious minority in the area.

And protesting the UK’s Labour Party support to the government’s decision to join the US forces in

attacking the militant-controlled large lands, British MP Rushanara Ali on Friday resigned the shadow cabinet.

Earlier in August this year, Sayeeda Warsi, the senior foreign office minister, resigned from the UK cabinet in protest of UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s silence in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza describing it as “morally indefensible.”

the world during his campaign before taking office in 2009, but the commitments for a peaceful world was tattered by his drone attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan over the years.

And his government’s support to anti-Assad forces in Syria spelled years-long civil war in the country that forced thousands of people to flee

It is an obligation for every Muslim youth to stay far away from ISIS, as their path does not comply with the prophet’s way

The brutal Israeli air strikes in Gaza killed 1,800 – one in four of them reportedly children. Millions of people, including Jews in and out of Israel, from every corner of the world protested the severe cruelty against humanity by the Zionist state.

Obama raised hopes among the peace-lovers and youths across

the country and created the ISIS as an anti-Assad force by providing them with arms, which is why the ISIS is the world’s most rich, well-equipped militant group.

ISIS will emerge as Frankenstein’s monster to destroy the US, following the Taliban which was also formed and armed by the US.

Unsurprisingly, the West takes shelter of double standards when it comes to Muslims and the conspiracy against Muslims, once termed as the East and West conflict, following Huntington’s doctrine.

It will neither ensure security for the US nor its ally, nor the Muslims in the East.

We lambast the blindness of the Muslim governments who joined the attacks on its own lands and people. Urging to human rights and democracy propagators to stop their killing machine, we remind the West that according to Huntington, Francis Fukuyama, and Fareed Zakaria, the West is eroding and the East is emerging. And when the East reaches the top, it may take revenge on the West.

The deeds of ISIS do not expose the teachings of Islam, which obligates the true believers not to support the human slaughters that are being committed. So, it is an obligation for every Muslim youth to stay far away from ISIS, as their path does not comply with the prophet’s way. l Abdullah Zobair is the Executive Director, Bangladesh Initiative for Political Development (BIPD). He can be followed on Twitter @azobair.

12

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Entertainment

Friday, October 3, 2014

MAQSOOD O DHAKA makes comeback after 15 years n Entertainment Desk Popular jazz/rock fusion band Maqsoon O’ Dhaka has made its much-anticipated comeback by releasing online three singles from its upcoming album “Shobdochitro” (Word Picture). This will the band’s third album after a hiatus of 15 years since its previous release.

The songs are titled Juger Montrona (Hotmail Theke Viber), Horibol and Obhijog Nei. The album,

URMILA’S Puja and Eid ventures n Hasan Mansoor Chatak Small-screen actress Urmila Shrabonti Kar will be seen in a number of dramas on the occasion Durga Puja and Eidul-Azha. Her puja special, “Kashfuler Din,” will be aired today on NTV at 11:30pm.

Written and directed by Gautam Koiri, the drama stars Maznun Mizan, Borshon and Urmila in lead roles while actor Abul Hayat plays Urmila’s father. In this regard, Urmila said, “I’ve always wanted to work in Durga Puja specials out of a sense of commitment to my religion.”

Earlier, she worked in a drama in which she played Durga, the Hindu goddess. “Usually the stories of Rabindranath Tagore and Sarat Chandra

Chattopadhyay are dramatised in the puja specials, but this time Gautam Koiri chose a contemporary story.”

The story of the drama revolves around a fine arts student who maintains a modern lifestyle. She visits her ancestral village to celebrate Durga Puja, with one of her close friends, and falls in love with a craftsman who makes Durga idols.

Urmila appeared in a number of dramas for this Eid, including “Oporanho,” directed by Shakhayat Manik, which also starred Partho Barua and Tarin.

“Alal Dulal r Haji Chan,” directed by Pallob Biswas, and a special seven-episode drama titled “Rohuchor,” directed

by Ali Fida Ekram Tojo, are among her other works. l

Puja special Sondhyakomol airs today n

Entertainment Desk

A single episode drama titled “Sondhyakomol” will be aired on RTV at 8:10pm today.

Written by Premchandra, dramatised and directed by Sumon Anwar, the cast of the drama includes Mamunur Rashid, Nusrat Imrose Tisha, Afran Nisho, Farhana Eva among others.

The story of the drama revolves around Sondhya and Komol, an extremely poor hindu couple. They survive from hand to mouth while Komol, currently unemployed, is searching for a job. Sondhya struggles to sustain the family. Gradually, she gets exhausted and incapable of taking care of the daily chores by borrowing money and other things from the neighbours any longer.

One day, Sondhya is insulted by a neighbour for the money which was borrowed by her husband. And the situation forces her to sell her gold bangles.

The story develops new twist when Komol tries to sell the bangles, and the goldsmith reveales that the bangles are forged. l

which is expected to be released in full after Eid, will feature a total of 10 songs.

In a Facebook post, Maqsood, the frontman of the band, wrote: “We signed up with etunes.com.bd who together with Qinetic Music will be covering the Bangladesh distribution of #Maqsood_O_dHAKA album #ShobdoChitro. To make downloads easier etunes will be unrolling the ‘push-pull’ system (and I have the honour to be the first artist in Bangladesh as their

launch customer) where you will be able to send an SMS to a unique # from any operator - that will allow auto-download of the songs straight to your phone.

Nothing can get simpler than this - can it?”

The current line-up of the band is: Taposh on bass), Rose on Afro-Caribbean percussions, Maqsood on lead vocals, Montu on drums, Rahin on saxophones and flute, Bullet on keyboards and Shakil on guitar. l

Catherine ZetaJones to play drug lord in ‘The Godmother’

Sharod Shaje Rang-er Didi RTV, 7:30pm

n Entertainment Desk Actress Catherine Zeta-Jones is all set to play a drug kingpin in the true story crime movie “The Godmother.”

Directed by Norwegian helmer Eva Sørhaug, Zeta-Jones will star as Griselda Blanco, the first and only woman to rise to the higher echelons of Colombia’s Medellin drug cartel, reported Deadline.

Blanco was a fearsome figure at the center of the Miami drug wars of the 1970s and ’80s. Her reign of terror, in which she’s suspected to have ordered hundreds of assassinations to stay in money and power, was so vicious and violent that it earned her the nicknames La Madrina, Black Widow, and the Cocaine Godmother. l

Shraddha: Starting a new chapter with ‘Haider’

n Entertainment Desk Bollywood actress Shraddha Kapoor says being a part of Vishal Bhardwaj’s film “Haider” which released yesterday, openes up a new chapter in her nascent career because the director has a reputation for making acclaimed movies.

Shraddha, who has given two back-to-back hits like “Aashiqui 2” and “Ek Villain,” said she feels blessed both her films worked with the audience and hopes to continue the good run with Haider.

“This film is definitely going to add much more to my career. I feel it will open a new chapter in my career. Vishal sir has made some iconic films, which are remembered for performances by established actors. I hope the same happens to me as well,” Shraddha told media.

“Haider,” inspired by William Shakespeare’s famous tragedy Hamlet, is the third installment of Bhardwaj’s trilogy after “Maqbool” and “Omkara,” which were based on Macbeth and Othello respectively.

The film stars Shahid Kapoor as Haider and Shraddha plays his tragic lover. The actress said her role in the film was difficult and challenging, but the director made her feel at ease.

“This is my fifth film. The role was difficult and challenging because the character which I am playing is not only of a lover but also a best friend. It was my first intense role and was the most emotional, moving and challenging experience,” she said.

“But because of atmosphere on the sets and Vishal sir, everything went smooth.

There is so much love coming your way from him... I had to just surrender myself to my director and try my best to give him the best shot. He just makes you feel at ease,” Shraddha said, adding she auditioned for the role. l

Durga Puja special reality show Sharod Shaje Rang-er Didi will see its final episode today.

The Hulk

Ben Affleck ‘not interested in playing nice guys’ n

Entertainment Desk

Ben Affleck is not interested in playing nice guys and would choose an interesting, complicated character over a likeable one, which is what drew him to “Gone Girl,” a dark thriller about marriage, intimacy and the roles people play.

It was that and working with Academy Award nominee David Fincher, who directed the film adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s best-selling novel, which opens in US theaters on today. The 42-year-old actor plays Nick Dunne, a charming writer in New York who loses his job and returns to his recession-hit hometown in Missouri, with his beautiful wife in tow.

When Amy, played by British actress Rosamund Pike, goes missing on their fifth wedding anniversary, Nick becomes the prime suspect and center of a media circus.

Some critics have called it the best performance yet

by Affleck, who has won Oscars as producer of best picture “Argo” and screenwriter of “Good Will Hunting.”

“It’s about role playing. It’s about what women ask of men and men ask of women, and in the way we kind of show one another half of ourselves and not the whole self,” Affleck said in an interview.

“He feels like he is unfulfilled and he is being asked to do more than he should, and he is frustrated and he resents his wife. She resents him,” he added. “It was trying to get into that mind-set of recrimination and resentment, which was dark and tough and ugly.”

No one is quite who they seem to be in the film, which shuffles back and forth in time and is told from both Nick’s and Amy’s perspectives. l

Star Movies, 11:30pm Eric Bana, Jennifer Connelly and Sam Elliott starrer sci- fi features Bruce Banner as a genetics researcher with a tragic past. He suffers an accident which causes him to transform into a green monster when he gets angry.

Bhaag Milkha Bhaag Star Gold, 4:30pm

The film explores truth behind the ascension of Milkha “The Flying Sikh” Singh who was scarred because of the India-Pakistan partition. Farhan Akhter plays the lead role of the biopic.

Did you know?

Danny Welbeck is the sixth Englishmen to score a hat-trick in the Champions League (Newell, Andrew Cole, Shearer, Owen, Rooney)

Sport

Friday, October 3, 2014

14 Juventus as

good as Barca, Real: Simeone

14 Mario Balotelli

working hard, says Rodgers

DHAKA TRIBUNE

13

15 India wrest

hockey gold from Pakistan

Mohammedan clinch Under-18 football title n Raihan Mahmood

Players, officials and supporters of Dhaka Mohammedan Sporting Club Limited pose with the Airtel Under-18 football trophy after the final against Brothers Union at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday

MUMIT M

Rain tosses Bangladesh out of Asiad gold n Reazur Rahman Rohan Sri Lanka captain Lahiru Thirimanne called “Tails” and tails it was.

All that Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe bin Mortaza could do was just stand and watch the whole process of a coin toss to decide the winner as Sri Lanka progressed to the 17th Asian Games men’s cricket final where they play Afghanistan for gold today. Unlike yesterday, no rain is forecast for the final in Incheon, or the bronze medal playoff where Bangladesh take on Hong Kong.

The rain factor had finally made the

limping Tigers pay as the defending gold medal winners lost the semifinal yesterday simply on luck. Though Bangladesh were not in a great position to say they would have won, but an unfinished match decided by a toss is always heartbreaking for any team, especially when the team was looking to make a turnaround from a disappointing past.

Put in to bat on a cloudy and grey morning, Bangladesh were in trouble from the word go. There was still no Shamsur Rahman in the XI as Anamul Haque opened the innings and left for a first-ball duck in the opening over edging Dilhara Lokuhettige to first slip.

No 3 Mithun Ali also did not trouble the scorers as he too was cleaned up by Dil-

hara in the third over. From five for two in three overs, Bangladesh’s horrible start was extended by the dismissal of Shakib al Hasan (one) which left them reeling at six for three.

Tamim Iqbal was joined by Bangladesh’s hero from the last Asian Games, Sabbir Rahman, as the duo steadily steered their side out of nightmare to give some breathing space. Sabbir’s confident approach saw him pounce on the short balls as he struck two fours and a six through midwicket to remain unbeaten on 27 off 25 balls.

Tamim, who scored just two off the first 11 balls, slowly got in to the groove and eventually made 24 from 33 balls.

The partnership just crossed 50 and

I told my boys to love their jersey and play to entertain: Joshi n Shishir Hoque Mohammedan Sporting Club (MSC) continued to impress in the age-level tournaments as the Black and Whites this time clinched the inaugural edition of the Under-18 Football Tournament. Last year the Motijheel based club bagged the first ever U-16 football tournament and on both occasions the architect behind the success was Kazi Joshimuddin Joshi.

The former MSC player Joshi, who has a AFC A license, was adjudged as the best coach of the tournament and was in tears after his young guns netted to second goal in the injury time to seal the glory.

He revealed the reason behind the success and how he motivated the young booters to win the title.

“I told my boys to love their jersey and to perform in a way that will entertain the crowd. They implemented my instructions and that won us the trophy. It is like a family. All the players have been disciplined and motivated from the beginning of the camp. It’s a great initiative but one month is not enough and they need to play more. It should be regular and played in league system,” he said.

Two names stood out in the entire journey – Bodrul Hasan Tutul and Akash Saha – and Joshi believes they have the potential to make it into the big league.

Captain of the side Tutul scored two goals and assisted two throughout the tournament including one in the final while defender Akash Saha

Bangladesh were 59 for three in 11 overs when rain poured down at the Yeonhui Cricket Ground.

The downpour continued for more than an hour as the chances of resumption or even a Super Over tie-breaker also went nil. Even if the match restarted before the cut-off time, according to the Duckworth-Lewis method Sri Lanka would have needed 38 from five overs.

Rain might have stopped cricket on the ground, but it couldn’t stop the Bangladeshi players from taking the field with a football 30 minutes before the “spin of the coin” took place.

However, Mashrafe, who earlier this week was appointed Bangladesh’s one-

day captain in place of Mushfiqur Rahim, took the exit sportingly and said, “These things happen in cricket. We too wished we had a proper match.

“We will now prepare for the home series against Zimbabwe.”

Earlier on the day Afghanistan, silver medallists four years ago, took advantage of fielding first after winning the toss to brush aside Hong Kong by eight wickets in the first semi-final.

Bangladesh will play Hong Kong for the bronze at the same venue today.

Hong Kong won the last time they faced Bangladesh in the ICC World Twenty20 earlier this year. Mashrafe and Co will be surely extra careful from not letting any “accident” take place again. l

Dhaka Mohammedan Sporting Club Limited lifted the title of the Airtel Under-18 Football after beating Brothers Union 2-0 at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.

Brothers made a fine start to the game with a lot of runs down the flanks as Mohammedan took time to settle.

The forward line comprising Munna and Sujon was the livewire for the orange outfit in the initial stages.

Mohammedan, however, settled down and their attacking triumvirate of Abu Sufian, Bodrul Hasan Tutul and Nizamuddin Khurshid led the regrouping act and once they got into their rhythm, the Black and Whites stamped their authority and it made all the difference.

The first half was a barren one with Brothers seeing one of their goal disallowed due to offside. The Mohammedan attackers on the other hand did not enjoy much success in the opposition defence.

However, after resumption Mohammedan came close to a goal in the 50th minute. Nizamuudin curved a cross from the left flank as forward Sufian missed the flight while trying to head the ball inside the post.

Mohammedan did take the lead in the 70th minute through a combined attack. Sufian rolled an angular through pass towards Tutul who chipped the ball over the onrushing Brothers goalkeeper Shawkat Osman Helal.

Brothers pressed hard for an equaliser but a stubborn Mohammedan defence held their line together.

Mohammedan put the icing on the cake in the second minute of stoppage time as Nizamuddin added the second off a pass from Mohammed Shahin. As the ball went in, the Mohammedan tent erupted in boundless joy.

Deputy Minister for Youth and Sports Arif Khan Joy distributed the prizes as the chief guest. Bangladesh Football Federation vice president Abdus Salam Murshedy, Rubaba Dowla Matin, Kaiser Rahman and several other officials were also present on the occasion. l

INDIVIDUAL AWARDS Top Scorer : Masud Rana (Sk Russel) Goalkeeper : Saiful Islam Khan (MSC) Defender : Azazul Islam Azaz (Brothers) Midfielder : Sazzad Hossain Sabbir (MSC) Striker : Sadek Hossain (MSC) Fair Play Award: Brothers Union

Nepal want to play BD A

Women lose, claim kabaddi bronze n Mazhar Uddin n Raihan Mahmood Cricket Association Bangladesh women’s kabaddi team were outplayed by Iran as they suffered a 40-15 defeat in the semifinal of the 17th Asian Games kabbadi at Incheon, South Korea yesterday.

The Bangladeshi women surrendered haplessly in front of their much superior opponent who lacked neither strength nor skill.

In the other semifinal India overpowered Thailand by 41-28 to set up a duel with Iran.

The Bangladesh women’s team, however, are granted a bronze as the losing semifinalists. l

of Nepal (CAN) through an email to the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) Cricket Operations recently expressed their willingness to send its national team to play a short series against the Bangladesh A side.

The associate member nation of the International Cricket Council offered to play the series in Bangladesh between October 12-20, but there is very little chance that the BCB will approve the offer.

The national side will be busy preparing for their home series against Zimbabwe while they are also scheduled to play a three-day practice match with the

second string side prior to the series.

However, BCB CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury informed they are yet to receive any formal request from the Cricket Association of Nepal. “We did not received any formal request from the Nepal cricket board, but the issue was raised during the Asian Cricket Council’s meeting earlier. We will decide after we receive any formal request from them,” said Nizamuddin.

Nepal made their maiden appearance in an ICC event through the ICC World Twenty20 in Bangladesh earlier this year and displayed some encouraging performance beating Hong Kong and the strong Afghanistan side in the qualifiers. l

‘I don’t want to compete with Ronaldo’ n Goal.com

Mohammedan Under-18 coach Kazi Joshimuddin Joshi (C) celebrates with his players after winning the final of the Airtel Under-18 football title against Brothers Union at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday MUMIT M staged a sparkling display to bag the best player of the tournament award.

Tutul initially emerged from the Pabna district football league as Mahbub Hossain Roxy scouted him to Joshi. After the end of the U-16 football tournament, he came under the nursing of Joshi besides training at the Khilgaon academy.

“I’m very happy to become the best player of the final among 22 players on the pitch. All credits go to Joshi bhai who wanted us to win it and I gave my best to the team,” said the attacking midfielder who dreams to wear the national team jersey one day and targets a place in the MSC senior team next.l

Lionel Messi insists that he has no interest in competing with Cristiano Ronaldo for the title of the world’s greatest player.

Having claimed the last six Ballon d’Or awards between them, the pair are regularly compared to one another, with their respective merits discussed at length by players, pundits and fans alike.

However, Messi insists that he has no interest in the perceived rivalry between the two, explaining that he is not driven by personal prizes - but club titles.

“Competing with Cristiano? I don’t feel like competing with him or anyone else,” he told reporters on Thursday.

“It’s not about individual awards; I want to help my team.”

Messi’s status as one of the finest

players of all time has long been a subject of much debate, too, with some feeling that his failure to lead Argentina to World Cup glory this summer has undermined the argument that he ranks higher than Pele or Diego Maradona. Again, though, the 27-year-old is unconcerned by such matters.

“I don’t think about my place in football history,” Messi insisted. “I just want to keep getting better and win trophies with my team.”

Messi also dismissed recent claims that he picks and chooses when he wants to represent Argentina, and that he was even considering his future at international level.

“There was some speculation, but I’ve been called up and I will continue to play with Argentina,” the Rosario native declared. l

Lionel Messi signs an autograph during a promotional event at the Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona yesterday AFP

14

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Sport

Friday, October 3, 2014

Welbeck fires Gunners as Madrid duo win n AFP, Paris Danny Welbeck answered former coach Louis van Gaal’s criticism in style on Wednesday, scoring a hat-trick in Arsenal’s 4-1 romp over Galatasaray in their Champions League group match while both Madrid clubs also recorded wins.

Welbeck, let go by van Gaal as the Manchester United handler considered his scoring record was not what it should be, became only the sixth Englishman to score a Champions League hat-trick, celebrating Arsene Wenger’s 18th anniversary in charge of the club in style.

“That instinct of a goalscorer in Danny Welbeck was more aggressive and he finished well,” Wenger said.

“He has such good pace it gives him time to finish calmly.

“We had good pace in all areas and overall the performance was good.”

Borussia Dortmund, who outclassed Arsenal in their opening game, top the group as they eased to a 3-0 win away at Anderlecht, Adrian Ramos scoring a double after Italian international Ciro Immobile had given them an early lead.

Holders Real were far from impressive in eking out a 2-1 win over Bulgarian minnows Ludogorets, Cristiano Ronaldo missing a penalty and having a goal disallowed before converting another opportunity from the penalty spot to take him to within three goals of overtaking Raul as the all-time leading scorer in the competition.

Frenchman Karim Benzema grabbed a late winner against their obdurate hosts, who had served warning of their

resilience in coming within minutes of drawing away at Liverpool in the opening game.

Meanwhile, the English side’s poor start to the season continued as they went down 1-0 to Basel in Switzerland.

Real coach Carlo Ancelotti was far from disappointed with his side’s stuttering performance although there was a measure of relief in coming away with

RESULTS Atletico Madrid

1-0

Juventus

2-0

Olympiakos

Turan 74

Malmo Rosenberg 42, 82

Ludogorets

1-2

Marcelinho 6

Basel

Real Madrid Ronaldo 25-P, Benzema 77

1-0

Liverpool

Streller 52

Leverkusen

3-1

Kiessling 25, Son Heung-min 34, Calhanoglu 64-P

Zenit

0-0

Arsenal

4-1

Welbeck 22, 30, 52, Sanchez 41

Anderlecht

Benfica Salvio 62

Monaco Galatasaray B Yilmaz 63-P

0-3

Dortmund Immobile 3, Ramos 69, 79

the three points.

“For us the result is good. We started by trailing 1-0 but then pressured Ludogorets and managed to score for 1-1 and then take the lead.

“We could have scored more goals but in general I am content. I am glad that we won.”

Liverpool manager Brendan Rod-

gers, though, was left fuming by his team’s display.

Mario Balotelli put in an underwhelming performance up front and with their next two Champions League games against Real Madrid, Rodgers will hope his side have rediscovered some semblance of the form that took them so close to the Premier League title last season.

“The goal we conceded was far too soft and it is not the first one,” said a frustrated Rodgers.

“When you concede a soft goal like that it is difficult, away from home against a side who have a good record against English teams.”

Real’s neighbours Atletico enjoyed a more noteworthy victory, not only putting behind them a surprise opening defeat by Olympiakos, but also becoming the first side in 11 games to breach the Juventus defence as Arda Turan scored the only goal of the game in Madrid.

Atletico’s group looks like being a really tight affair as, with Olympiakos slipping to a 2-0 defeat to Malmo in Sweden, all four sides are on three points.

“I am happy with the sacrifice shown by the guys,” said Atletico coach Diego Simeone.

“Commitment is not negotiable amongst this group and they have put in a huge effort against a great team.”

Group C, too, could go down to the wire as Zenit St Petersburg and Monaco top it with four points after they played out a 0-0 draw in Russia but German side Bayer Leverkusen are in the mix after beating last season’s Europa League finalists Benfica 3-1 with Korean star Son Heung-min their inspiration. l

Two countries unite to salute recordbreaking Totti n AFP, Rome

Arsenal’s English foward Danny Welbeck celebrates after scoring against Galatasaray during the Champions League football match at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday AP

Juventus as good as Barca, Real: Simeone n AFP, Madrid Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone believes Italian champions Juventus are as good as Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid despite his side inflcting Juve’s first defeat of the season in a 1-0 win on Wednesday.

“For me they are at the level of Madrid or Barcelona,” said the Argentine.

“Watching the videos over and over, they are one of the hardest teams I have seen to attack or cause damage against.

“They have two magnificent strikers, full-backs or wingers that attack and defend, brilliant players in midfield and an enormous goalkeeper that everyone knows.”

Simeone’s men have made a habit of upsetting Barca and Real in recent seasons as they broke their 10-year long dominance of La Liga by winning the Spanish league title last season.

Arda Turan’s strike 15 minutes from time was enough to add Juventus to their list of big-name scalps and

breathe new life into Atletico’s Champions League campaign after a surprise 3-2 defeat to Olympiakos on matchday one.

Malmo’s 2-0 victory over the Greeks leaves all four sides in Group A on three points after two games, but Simeone insisted that Juventus remain the team to beat.

“I wouldn’t say we have recovered from the defeat (against Olympiakos), with four teams on three points it all starts over, but it could be that Juven-

Atletico Madrid’s Turkish midfielder Arda Turan (C) is congratulated by teammates after scoring during the UEFA Champions League football match against Juventus at Vicente Calderon stadium in Madrid on Wednesday AFP

Women file lawsuit against Fifa over World Cup turf n Reuters A group of top international women players filed a lawsuit against FIFA and the Canadian Soccer Association (CSA) on Wednesday alleging gender discrimination over plans to play the 2015 Women’s World Cup on artificial turf.

The lawsuit, filed with the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, claims the sport’s governing body and CSA are discriminating against women by staging the tournament on artificial grass that they feel poses safety risks and alters how the game is played.

“The gifted athletes we represent are determined not to have the sport they love be belittled on their watch,” Hampton Dellinger, the attorney representing the players, said in a statement.

“Getting an equal playing field at the World Cup is a fight female players should not have to wage but one from which they do not shrink. In the end, we trust that fairness and equality will prevail over sexism and stubbornness.”

The World Cup finals for men and

women, contested every four years, have always been played on natural grass.

The legal action comes one day after FIFA representatives began site inspections of the venues that will host the June 6-July 5 competition in six Canadian cities.

Tatjana Haenni, FIFA’s deputy director of the competitions and head of women’s competitions, told reporters after a tour of one of the stadiums that there is no Plan B and the tournament will go ahead as planned and be played on artificial turf.

“No plans to change that decision,” said Haenni. “I can’t answer if that is fair but that is the way it is going to be.

“It is according to the competition regulations, it is according to laws of the game so all matches will be on artificial turf.”

The players, led by U.S. national team forward Abby Wambach, had given FIFA and the CSA a deadline of last Friday to open a dialogue on the issue but when their requests for a meeting were ignored followed through on their promise of legal action.l

Hodgson, Rodgers reach agreement over Sturridge n AFP, Basel Daniel Sturridge will not join up with England for the upcoming European Championship qualifiers after England manager Roy Hodgson and Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers reached an agreement over the striker’s fitness.

It had been thought Hodgson might force the issue and select Sturridge but Rodgers said after Wednesday’s disappointing 1-0 Champions League defeat to Basel, in Switzerland, he had spoken with the England coach and resolved the problem.

“I spoke to Roy today and the agreement will be that he will not meet up with England - we are not sure if Danny will be fit for the weekend,” said Rodgers.

“For this moment he will not be in the squad and for now for Daniel it’s about getting up to speed and being ready to play for us.”

Sturridge, 25, has missed five matches since suffering a thigh strain while on England duty last month and was not selected for the Basel game. l

tus will be the strongest team in the group.”

For Juventus there was yet more disappointment on the road in the Champions League after their shock elimination at the group stages in last season’s competition.

The Old Lady of Italian football has now lost four of its last five away games in Europe’s premier club competition and captian Gianluigi Buffon admitted that is a record they must improve on.

“Now all we can do is look at the games we have at home, but we have to improve when we are playing away.”

Buffon had hinted in his pre-match press conference that Juventus would have been happy to come away from the Vicente Calderon with a point.

And he recognised that a more daring approach may also be required if they are to progress to the later stages of the competition after failing to even egister a shot on target.

“Atletico are an elite team in European football and it could be that influenced our thinking.

“In any case, to mature as a team on the international level we need to risk more in looking for the victory.”

Turan’s goal ended Buffon’s fivematch run without conceding to start the season as Juventus had made a 100 percent start to the new campaign under new boss Massimiliano Allegri.l

England players ‘treated like babies’: Ferdinand n AFP, London England’s players are “treated like complete babies” in comparison to those of major international teams, according to Rio Ferdinand.

The former England defender who won 81 caps from 1997-2011, made his criticisms in his new autobiography.

Ferdinand, 35, was impressed by the way in which now Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal treated his Netherlands’ players on the way to guiding them to a third-placed finish at this year’s World Cup. The former United stalwart, who left Old Trafford in pre-season to join Queens Park Rangers, visited the Netherlands’ set-up in his role as a BBC pundit and believes England, who exited at the group stage without winning a match, could learn lessons from the “grown-up” approach of the Dutch.

“One evening we were in a bar at the hotel with Fabio Cannavaro, waiting for (fellow ex-Italy international) Christian Vieri to come along. All of a sudden almost the entire Dutch team turn up and start chilling in this bar,” Ferdinand wrote in #2sides.

“I sat down next to (Wesley) Sneijder and said ‘What’s going on? Are you allowed in here?’ He was like, ‘Yeah,

‘Balotelli working hard’ n Reuters, Basel Mario Balotelli was praised for a hard-working performance against FC Basel by Liverpool coach Brendan Rodgers on Wednesday, even though the maverick Italian striker seemed to spend much of the game on the ground asking for free kicks.

“He went close with a free kick where he had a great shot. He knows his job is to create and score goals, and he’s working hard to get into the areas.

That’s what we’re asking of him,” Rodgers told reporters after his side’s 1-0 Champions League defeat against the Swiss champions.

“I think he worked hard. It’s obviously his job to create and score goals, and he’s working...

“It was a disappointing result for us tonight, but our next game will be a great occasion for us at Anfield,” he added, referring to their home clash against Real Madrid.

“We’re really looking forward to that now because in this competition, in particular, your home games are very important.”

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard

Italy and England rarely agree on football matters, but the two countries were united in saluting record-breaking striker Francesco Totti on Wednesday.

Three days after his 38th birthday, the Roma talisman became the oldest goalscorer in Champions League history when he hit the net in his club’s 1-1 draw with Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday evening.

The equaliser, which enabled Totti to claim a record previously held by Ryan Giggs, left City on the brink of another early exit from the competition.

He has gone to become Italy’s equivalent of David Beckham complete with a former model wife, Ilary Blasi, a reported 4.3-million-euro annual salary and the celebrity lifestyle to go with it.

“A Totti eclipse of the Hart,” trumpeted the back-page splash of Britain’s biggest-selling tabloid, The Sun. Italy’s Corriere della Sera pronounced “The age of gold” while La Repubblica saluted “A Totti pearl” that had earned Roma “a golden draw,” - both references to one of the Roma skipper’s many nicknames, “Golden Boy”.

British media have not always been as kind to Totti, who went into Tuesday’s match with a reputation for being a cross-Channel choker, having failed to score or shine in nine previous club appearances on English soil.

It was a record that City’s media team unwisely decided to highlight in the build-up to the match.

In a message to Roma’s official feed, @MCFC tweeted: “We’re looking forward to hosting you @OfficialASRoma, and a legendary player such as Totti.

He’s never scored in England, has he?”

Roma replied: “You’re right, @ MCFC. Our Capitano has never scored in England. But there’s always a first time for everything ...” l

admitted that his side deserved to lose.

“I think we created a good few openings where you would expect us to go and score, but we didn’t deserve anything out of this game today,” he told Sky Sports.

“I thought we were too soft all over the pitch,” added Gerrard, who wasted two set pieces early in the game with poor delivery.

“I thought they wanted it more, which is very disappointing. Conceding again from a set-piece isn’t good enough, so we need to get it right.

You’re not going to win a football match if you keep conceding from set-pieces.

“I think they are an okay team, but I wouldn’t say we were blown off the park or that they were fantastic tonight. We made it easy for them and we wanted something out of this game - at least a draw.” Basel coach Paulo Sousa, on the other hand, described it as a “perfect” evening.

“We were courageous and ambitious and that led us to a great win,” said the former Portugal midfielder, who is in his first season at the club and has upset fans with some of his line-ups and tactical decisions. l

the manager said to go. As long as we’re back in the hotel by 11, it’s fine.’

“Our players are treated like complete babies. It doesn’t really matter whether that’s because people have made mistakes in the past, or the manager doesn’t trust the players or he doesn’t trust the media who would make a story of it. I don’t think the Dutch media even mentioned it. Their players looked free and relaxed.”

England haven’t won a major trophy since staging lifting the World Cup on home soil back in 1966.

Ferdinand, named as a member of the FA commission set up by chairman Greg Dyke in October 2013 aimed at improving he fortunes of the national side, said an organisational revamp was required to make England truly competitive with the world’s best teams.

“A unified approach has to come from the very top. We need a clear direction and leadership. We’re producing good players,” he said.

“But what’s the point if no one knows how they can be fitted into the national team in a coherent way?

What’s the point?

“I’d rather have a team like Costa Rica who over-achieve with players not deemed to be world-class.”l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Sport

15

Friday, October 3, 2014

QUICK BYTES BCSA aids flood affected victims

MEDAL TALLY Total 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 25 27 28 29 30 30 30 33 34 34 34

The Bangladesh Cricket Supporters Association (BCSA) has lent its hand in support of the flood victims by disbursing Tk1,02,790 that was collected from different sources. The aid campaign, titled ‘Cricket Supporters Humanitarian Stand’, distributed the money amongst those affected by the flood in Soriakandi and Chandanbaish. According to the BCSA, the money was successfully distributed amongst the elderly, widows and other socially deprived people. Taking the severity of the flood into account, nine of the flood affected people were given Tk4000 each while 33 persons received Tk2000 each.

–Minhaz Uddin Khan

Zia retains solo lead Grandmaster Ziaur Rahman drew with FM Sheikh Nasir Ahmed in the 11th round of the Berger Paints National ‘A’ Chess Championship but the former was fortunate to keep his solo lead as contender GM Enamul Hossain Raziv lost to Uten at the media center of the Bangladesh Olympic Association yesterday. After the 49th move, Zia offered Nasir a draw and Nasir accepted it. Enamul, who was trailing Zia by half a point, lost the opportunity to go top as he crashed to a defeat against Uten. Zia now has 9.5 points while Enamul and GM Niaz Murshed are joint second with 8.5 points. Reigning champion GM Abdullah Al Rakib of Bangladesh Navy lost to his teammate IM Minhazuddin Ahmed Sagar and was positioned third with eight points. Zia will face Uten today in the 12th round while Rakib will take on Enamul.

–Raihan Mahmood

Hummels rubbishes Man Utd speculation Germany defender Mats Hummels insists there is no truth in rumours of a future transfer to Manchester United and insists he is perfectly happy at Borussia Dortmund. The 25-year-old centre back has been heavily linked by the British media to helping solve Louis van Gaal’s defensive problems at Manchester United, but the World Cup-winner says there is zero truth in any transfer talk. “If the media reports were to be believed, I’ve been negotiating with everybody and signed pre-contract agreements with Barcelona and at other places,” the Dortmund captain told the Bundesliga magazine. “There’s never been an ounce of truth in that. I never negotiated or spoke about a transfer. I have no idea who makes these things up.” Hummels, who started his career at Bayern Munich, says being linked recently to the likes of United, Barcelona and Real Madrid is flattering, but he wants to captain Dortmund to future success.

–AFP

Podolski hints at move from Arsenal Frustrated Arsenal winger Lukas Podolski hinted on Thursday he might leave the Premier League club before his contract expires in 2016 because he was not playing enough. “I am a full blooded player, a street player and I love competition,” the 29-year-old told RTL television. “If I don’t have this competition every weekend then a change must occur.” Podolski, who has scored 47 goals for Germany in 118 internationals, joined the London club in 2012. He was not involved in the opening four matches of the season following Germany’s successful World Cup in Brazil, and has been an unused substitute four times in Arsenal’s last eight matches.

–Reuters

Brazil’s Dani Alves plans to leave Barca Brazil international Dani Alves is planning to leave Barcelona at the end of this season and join an English club, the fullback said on Wednesday. “I am moving to England next year,” he told Rio de Janeiro’s O Globo newspaper. “I am going to play in the cradle of football. This will be my last year at Barcelona.” He did not say which club he might join or why he wanted to leave the Spanish giants.

Alves has won four La Liga crowns and two Champions League titles.

–Reuters

DAY’S WATCH

The Indian team celebrate after winning the men’s gold medal hockey match against Pakistan at the 17th Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea yesterday

101 66 70 19 11 10 11 9 7 17 6 11 6 14 5 4 2 4 1 10 2 1 1 3 2 1 1 1 1 -

79 322 75 213 69 185 32 71 16 45 13 33 4 14 20 40 37 55 27 43 18 43 4 18 23 40 11 22 11 29 11 20 11 19 1 6 3 9 1 4 24 35 9 12 3 5 2 4 3 4 3 4 3 6 4 6 5 6 1 2 1 2 1 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1

*Till yesterday (8:00pm)

India wrest hockey gold from Pakistan n AFP, Incheon India beat Pakistan in a penalty shoot-out on Thursday to win back the Asian Games hockey title after 16 years and earn a direct entry into the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

The arch-rivals played out a 1-1 draw in regulation time before Indian goalkeeper Parattu Sreejesh became his side’s saviour by saving two of Pakistan’s four penalty attempts.

India put in four goals past Pakistan’s Imran Butt to win the shoot-out

4-2 and clinch their third Asiad gold medal, but their first since the Bangkok Games in 1998.

Some 4,000 fans, including Games competitors from both nations, packed the Seonhak hockey stadium to witness the first India-Pakistan Asiad final in 32 years.

The defeat prolonged the misery for defending champions Pakistan, who failed to qualify for this year’s World Cup and now face a hazardous qualification road to Rio. The match did not live up to its hype as both teams missed scoring opportunities, especially India who had the better of the exchanges in three of the

four quarters.

Pakistan seized an early opening in the third minute as a swift move down the middle wrong-footed the Indian defence and Muhammad Rizwan scored from the top of the circle.

India bounced back in the second quarter with repeated attacks on the Pakistani circle and after three missed chances, they drew level in the 27th minute when Kothajit Singh tapped in a pass from the flank.

The match passed off without incident except for a brief scuffle in the second quarter when a raised Indian stick hit a Pakistani player, but the umpires stepped in to cool tempers.

Earlier, South Korea won the bronze medal with a 3-2 win over Guangzhou silver-medallists Malaysia, with three of the five goals coming through penalty strokes.

Jang Jong-Hyun scored twice for the hosts to finish as the leading scorer of the competition with nine goals.

Jang opened the scoring with a penalty corner in the 19th minute and Kim Young-Jin increased the margin with a field goal at the end of the second quarter.

Malaysia, who lost to Pakistan via the shoot-out in the semi-final, reduced the margin early in the third quarter when Muhammad Razie con-

Nadal into Beijing quarters n Reuters, Beijing World number two Rafa Nadal sailed into the quarter-finals of the China Open, his first tournament in 13 weeks, with a 6-3 6-4 win over German qualifier Peter Gojowczyk on Thursday.

The Spaniard, returning from a wrist injury, won 85 per cent of his first service points against the German and took an hour and 45 minutes to seal victory and set up a last eight clash with Martin Klizan at the ATP 500 event.

Slovak Klizan was leading 6-2 3-0 when seventh seed Ernests Gulbis retired due to a right shoulder injury.

Third seed Tomas Berdych moved up a place to seventh in the race to the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals in London after his 6-3 6-4 victory against wild card Viktor Troicki despite a poor serving display.

Elsewhere on Beijing’s blue hard courts, Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov beat Spaniard Pablo Andujar 6-4 6-4 to set up a quarter-final clash with world number one Novak Djokovic, while sixth seed Andy Murray beat Pablo Cuevas 6-2 6-2.

In the women section, Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova upset seventh seed

Angelique Kerber in three sets, while Petra Kvitova also reached the quarter-finals without hitting a ball after American Venus Williams withdrew with a viral illness.

Twice champion Kuznetsova dropped the first set but eventually prevailed 2-6 6-4 6-3 in the two-hourand-eight minute battle that complicates her German opponent’s hopes of qualifying for the season-ending WTA Finals in Singapore.

Kerber is ninth in the race for next month’s event featuring the top eight players and could have improved her position with a better showing in China.

Second seed Simona Halep, one of the four players to have already secured a place in the Singapore event, battled past Andrea Petkovic of Germany with tie-breaks separating the pair in two of the three low quality sets.

The Romanian, who produced 91 errors, fought for more than two and half hours to tame Petkovic 7-6(4) 5-7 7-6(1) and reach the last eight where she will meet Ana Ivanovic, who downed Sabine Lisicki 6-3 7-5.

Italian Roberta Vinci prevailed in a three-setter, upstaging 12th seed Ekaterina Makarova 6-1 0-6 7-5. l

n AFP, London Yorkshire’s County Championship-winning openers Adam Lyth and Alex Lees were named player of the year and young player of the year re-

spectively by England’s Professional Cricketers Association on Wednesday.

Both awards, handed out at a presentation ceremony in London, came just 24 hours after the White Rose duo, who have both yet to

6:00AM Asian Games 2014 Ten Action 12:30AM French Ligue 1 Stade De Reims v Bordeaux Sony Six

Yorkshire’s Adam Lyth with the PCA player of the year trophy in London on Wednesday

verted a penalty stroke.

Jang made it 3-1 in the 44th minute with a penalty stroke, but Razie scored for Malaysia a minute later, also with a penalty stroke.

Korean coach Shin Seok-kyu said winning a bronze after drawing a blank in Guangzhou was like a gold medal for his young team.

“Our target before the tournament was to win the gold so the players were obviously very disappointed,” said Shin. “But I told them this medal was as good as winning the gold.

“I am quite happy with today’s result. We have to look forward now and prepare for the future.” l

Malaysia’s Tai loses appeal against doping ban n Reuters, Incheon

Rafael Nadal of Spain returns a shot to Peter Gojowczyk of Germany during their men’s singles match at the China Open tennis tournament in Beijing yesterday REUTERS

Yorkshire duo seal awards double

Ten Sports

6:30PM World Kabaddi League 2014 Mohali - Day 21 12:45AM Scottish League 2014 Kilmarnock v Dundee United

AP

CHINA 142 SOUTH KOREA 72 JAPAN 46 KAZAKHSTAN 20 IRAN 18 NORTH KOREA 10 QATAR 10 UZBEKISTAN 9 INDIA 9 THAILAND 9 CHINESE TAIPEI 8 BAHRAIN 8 HONG KONG 6 SINGAPORE 5 MALAYSIA 4 INDONESIA 4 MONGOLIA 4 SAUDI ARABIA 3 KUWAIT 2 MYANMAR 2 VIETNAM 1 PHILIPPINE 1 PAKISTAN 1 TAJIKISTAN 1 IRAQ 1 UAE 1 MACAU KYRGYZSTAN TURKMENISTAN BANGLADESH LAO PDR LEBANON JORDAN AFGHANISTAN NEPAL SRI LANKA -

play for England, had received the corresponding honours from the Cricket Writers’ Club.

Lyth, 27, topped the First Division scoring charts with 1,489 runs and six centuries at an average of 67.68, while Lees’ 971 runs came at an average of 44.13 with two hundreds.

Yorkshire won their first County Championship title in 13 years with a game to spare this season and Lees was confident the county, second in 2013, could stay in the hunt for more trophies.

“At the start of the season you set your aim to win the County Championship and the players we had we were confident,” he said.

“So to come through and win with a game to go was obviously fantastic.

“I was happy with my form throughout the year in all formats, and just happy to contribute to a winning side.l

Malaysia’s Tai Cheau Xuen, who was expelled from the Asian Games and stripped of the gold medal she won in martial arts, has lost her appeal to have her ban for doping overturned.

The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) announced earlier this week that Tai had tested positive for sibutramine, a banned stimulant often found in weight-loss pills. She was automatically disqualified from Asia’s biggest multi-sports event, stripped of her accreditation and told to hand back the gold medal she won in wushu.

The 22-year-old denied taking drugs and lodged an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which has set up an ad hoc division in Incheon to deal with issues from the Asian Games.

But CAS released a statement on Thursday saying it had rejected her appeal and the penalties would stand.

“As a consequence, the medals in the women’s Wushu Nanquan and Nandao competition will be re-allocated by OCA.” l

McIlroy voted US PGA Tour Player of The Year n AFP, Los Angeles Back-to-back major titles, with a World Golf Championships crown tossed in for good measure, saw Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy voted the US PGA Tour’s Player of the Year by his peers.

The award was announced on Wednesday, and 25-year-old McIlroy spoke on a conference call from St. Andrews about winning the award for the second time in three years.

He joined 14-time major champion Tiger Woods, Australia’s Greg Norman and Zimbabwe’s Nick Price as the only multiple winners of the award since it was introduced in 1990.

McIlroy’s season was unspectacular until he came alive at the British Open, where he led wire to wire

and finish two strokes clear of Spain’s Sergio Garcia and American Rickie Fowler.

He followed that up with his first WGC title at the Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, Ohio, and another major at the PGA Championship in his next start.

He played in 17 events on the US PGA Tour, finishing in the top 25 in all 17 with 12 top-10 finishes.

He finished third in the final FedExCup standings and won the Arnold Palmer Award as the tour’s top money winner for the second time.

McIlroy said the turning point of his season came on the European Tour when he came from seven shots adrift to win the European PGA Championship at Wentworth. l

16

DHAKA TRIBUNE

CHITTAGONG RAIL DERAILMENT

Train schedule disruption leads to trouble n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong Passengers, mostly holidaymakers heading for their hometowns ahead of Eid-ul-Azha, suffered due to a train schedule disruption caused by rail derailment in Mirsarai upazila yesterday.

Divisional Commercial Officer of Bangladesh Railway (east zone) Mizanur Rahman said four bogies and a power car of Mahanagar Pravati Express derailed at Chinki Astana Railway Station around 8:45am.

The derailment did not cause rail transport disruption but trains moved slowly as only a single track was available, he said, adding that a rescue train from Chittagong arrived on the spot.

Divisional Traffic Officer of the east zone Firoz Iftekhar said a four-member probe body headed by him was formed and it was asked to submit report as

early as possible.

“We cannot tell why the train derailed while we are investigating the matter,” he said.

The incident led to a one- to twohour schedule disruption for all trains leaving Chittagong Railway Station.

Passengers soon crowded the platforms after failing to board their respective trains.

Nasima Akhter, who was to board Mahanagar Godhuli at 3:30pm, said she was waiting at the station for more than two hours due to the schedule disruption.

Chittagong Railway Station Manager Abul Kalam Azad said all the trains left the station but they moved slowly, leading to the schedule disruption.

Iftekhar said rescue operations were supposed to end late at night while the schedules would be disrupted till midnight. l

Back Page

Friday, October 3, 2014

MOTHER GODDESS IN ALL HER MIGHT

Celebration continues on the Moha Oshtomi, fourth day of the six-day Durga Puja, yesterday at the puja mondop of Kalibari in Agrabad, Chittagong

Moon’s hidden valley system revealed

Money counterfeiting ring n BBC busted in capital Scientists have identified a huge rectangular feature on the Moon that is n Tribune Report buried just below the surface.

Detectives yesterday arrested eight members of a counterfeiting ring that had reportedly circulated fake banknotes worth Tk49 lakh at different cattle markets in the capital ahead of Eidul-Azha.

The arrestees told the police that fake banknote rackets were now using small subgroups to make, collect and spread counterfeit notes among the public.

“The key person behind these small groups is Abul Khayer, who has been arrested by the DB many times. But, like others, he secured bail from the court and continued his illegal business,” Detective Branch’s Joint Commissioner Monirul Islam said, briefing the media.

The arrestees, Abul Khayer, 46, Azizul Haque, 29, Sohel Rana, 29, Shah Alam, 27, Shahidul Islam, 29, Yasir Arafat, 19, Sohag, 22, and Masud, 25, were held from the capital’s Sabujbagh area.

Police seized fake banknotes worth Tk49 lakh from their possession.

“We have found a large cache of materials and machines – worth Tk1 crore – which they used for printing fake banknotes. They also had materials required to make US dollars, Saudi riyals and Indian rupees,” Monirul said.

“These criminals mainly target cattle markets where numerous transactions take place and because most sellers come from outside Dhaka and have no idea about fake notes,” he added.

Monirul advised cattle traders and buyers to use machines kept at every cattle market to check if banknotes are fake. l

Man held for raping madrasa student n Our Correspondent, Chandpur Police have arrested a man in Haimchar on charges of raping a seventh-grader.

Md Yasin, 25, son of Mominul Islam Sawdagor of Gandamara village, was arrested yesterday after the victim’s mother had filed a case against him with Haimchar police station.

The girl, who studies at ABS Fazil Madrasa, said Yasin on Wednesday afternoon picked her up while she was returning home, took her to a secluded place and raped her overnight.

Yasin dropped the girl outside her house in an unconscious state early yesterday morning. Locals came to know about the incident and captured Yasin before handing him over to police.

Police also detained Yasin’s father Mominul Islam Sawdagor and one Ibrahim Khalil for questioning but later set them free.

The girl’s mother Baby Begum said Yasin would often propose her daughter to develop illicit relation with him.

“I went to the madrasa authorities and also Yasin’s guardians to talk to them but this infuriated him. He retaliated by raping my daughter,” she added.

Haimchar police station Officer-inCharge Md Moniruzzaman said police were awaiting the medical examination report. l

The 2,500km-wide structure is believed to be the remains of old rift valleys that later became filled with lava.

Centred on the Moon’s Procellarum region, the feature is really only evident in gravity maps acquired by Nasa’s Grail mission in 2012.

But knowing now of its existence, it is possible to trace the giant rectangle’s subtle outline even in ordinary photos.

Mare Frigoris, for example, a long-recognised dark stripe on the lunar surface, is evidently an edge to the ancient rift system. “It’s really amazing how big this feature is,” says Prof Jeffery Andrews-Hanna.

“It covers about 17% of the surface of the Moon. And if you think about that in terms relative to the size of the Earth, it covers an area equivalent to North America, Europe and Asia combined,” the Colorado School of Mines scientist told BBC News.

“When we first saw it in the Grail data, we were struck by how big it was, how clear it was, but also by how unexpected it was.

“No-one ever thought you’d see a square or a rectangle on this scale on any planet.”

The study is reported in Nature magazine. So how was this extraordinary feature produced?

Andrews-Hanna and colleagues note that the Procellarum region contains a lot of naturally occurring radioactive elements, such as uranium, tho-

rium and potassium.

On the early Moon, these would have heated the crust, which, when it cooled would have contracted.

This shrinking, they propose, would have ripped the surface, opening deep valleys. The geometry is the giveaway.

On Earth, cooling and contraction will preferentially produce hexagons containing 120-degree angles.

The famous Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland is a classic example on the small scale, but even in bigger settings, such as in East Africa’s rift valleys, geological lines tend to intersect in this way.

Procellarum’s giant rectangle does the same, too - because the entire feature is draped over a sphere. This means the angles at the corners are wider than 90 degrees.

“What we’re seeing is a clever trick of spherical geometry. For structures on this scale, a polygon with 120-degree angles at the corners actually has four sides instead of six,” explained Prof Andrews-Hanna.

The team cannot tell when the rifting occurred, but the dating of Moon rocks brought back by Apollo would suggest the valleys were filled by volcanic lavas about 3.5 billion years ago.

The new study goes some way to resolving arguments over the origins of Procellarum, which looks different to other, more circular mare (dark regions) on the Moon’s surface.

For these regions, big asteroid impacts were more important in sculpting their forms.

The study is also further proof of the value of the Grail mission, led from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

This comprised two, near-identical satellites that chased each other around the Moon over the course of a year.

They mapped changes in the pull of gravity as they flew over areas of differing mass.

Big mountains will have a different signal that is distinct to deep depressions, obviously. But the data also reveals those locations that have discrete rock types and densities.

In the case of Procellarum, the Grail pair sensed an excess of mass stemming from the presence of all the basaltic lava filling the rift valleys. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Restrictions on freight vehicles from today n Our Correspondent, Munshiganj The government will not allow any freight vehicles, including trucks, on the highways for three days before and after Eid unless they carry any perishable items, said Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader yesterday.

However, vehicles carrying garment goods, fuel and food items will be allowed, he told reporters at the old Ferry Ghat after visiting different roads in Munshiganj district.

The minister said: “The roads are all very well even after a few days of nonstop heavy rainfall since we have been working to ease people’s sufferings on their way home for Eid and Puja.

“Traffic jam occurred at various places due to cattle markets though these markets are not thrown on the roads in any way. The government is trying to prevent such jam,” he said.

Obaidul said the government is keeping an eye on cattle transportation so that it is made without causing any hassle to homebound people. It is also looking out so that no extortion can take place.

Mobile courts have been set up at various points of the highways and they are instantly punishing those being found involved in extortion, he added. l

Bridges Division makes 25% progress in Padma bridge project n Asif Showkat Kallol

Bridges Division made around 25% progress in implementation of Padma bridge project till September with awarding work orders to different consultants and contractors for its four key components, official sources said.

The key components are construction of the main bridge, river training and construction of connecting roads at Jajira and Mawa.

“We hope the construction of the main bridge will start within a short time, but we cannot exactly mention a

specific date,” Project Director Shafiqul Islam told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

A Chinese firm had already brought main construction materials to Mawa point and some materials were at Chittagong port, he said.

“Piling drive hammers now being made by Germany will be brought to Bangladesh through sea route.”

Shafiqul said financial progress made in Padma bridge project was 23% while physical progress would be 15%.

“The construction of Padma bridge will definitely be completed within four

years.”

They had already sent a proposal to the cabinet committee for getting approval for the supervision consultant for the construction work of the main bridge and river training, he added.

According to the proposal, the government would award the construction supervision job to a Korean joint-venture company which would be placed before the cabinet committee on public purchase on October 13.

The technical evaluation committee had given its approval for appoint-

ing the Korean Expressway Corporation as the construction supervision consultant (CSC) for the main bridge and river training against around Tk331.15 crore.

The government had already allocated Tk8,100 crore for its fast-track Padma bridge project in the budget for the current fiscal year.

On September 10, the government awarded river training work to Chinese company Sinohydro.

On June 17, it signed an agreement with a Chinese firm, China Major Bridge Engineering Company, for the

construction of around 6.15-kilometre main part of Padma bridge, which is set to start by November and end by 2018.

Because of a three-year delay for alleged corruption which was raised by the World Bank, the cost of the project, to be implemented solely with government funding, would increase by around Tk4,000 crore from the current estimate of Tk20,507 crore, said officials of Bridges Division that now aims to complete the long-awaited project by 2018, three years behind the original schedule. l

Bangladesh: Voluntary repatriation of Rohingyas the best solution n Tribune Report Bangladesh considers voluntary repatriation of Myanmar refugees back to their homes in the Rakhine state of Myanmar as the only durable solution to the protracted refugee situation in the country.

This was strongly reiterated by M Shameem Ahsan, the newly appointed ambassador and permanent representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations Offices in Geneva and Vienna.

He made the comment while addressing the annual meeting of the UN High Commissioner on Refugees’ (UNHCR) governing Executive Committee in Geneva on Wednesday, according to a press release of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Ahsan alluded to the positive momentum generated by the recently concluded Foreign Office Consultations between Bangladesh and Myanmar in Dhaka

and stressed the need to further build on the momentum to resume voluntary repatriation of the Myanmar refugees from Bangladesh.

Bangladesh and Myanmar agreed at the Foreign Office Consultations that the Myanmar repatriation process would begin by November.

On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Bangladesh’s admission to the United Nations, he expressed the government’s deep appreciation to the UNHCR for their support to refugees from Bangladesh during the Liberation War. The UN high commissioner for refugees appreciated the decision of Bangladesh government to formulate the national strategy paper on Myanmar refugees and undocumented Myanmar nationals in Bangladesh.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon addressed the executive committee as special guest. l

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B3 Europe’s carmakers walk tightrope between low cost and high spec

B4 World Bank bonuses raise eyebrows amid austerity drive

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2014 www.dhakatribune.com/business

Digital greetings boost cell phone business

n Muhammad Zahidul Islam It is not new that Eid or Puja greetings are conveyed to near and dear ones by sending mobile phone SMS. But these days wishes are not limited to sending only text messages, rather a new system is also getting popular - IVR or interactive voice response.

Mainly political campaigners and corporate advertisers are using IVR or voice message in promotional activities. Political figures use the system to send their own voice to convey a message to the voters.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina first used the IVR to congratulate the countrymen and send greetings on the occasion of Victory Day last year.

Former State Minister for Home Affairs Md Shamsul Haque Tuku also used voice message to his voters during last electoral campaign.

“It made my campaign easier and my voice reached to more people,” he told the Dhaka Tribune, adding that he would continue using the system.

Political figures are also the main users of text message to send Eid and Puja greetings to their voters.

As Durga Puja has already begun

and Eid-ul-Azha is only days away, flow of SMS has increased enormously.

According to the market sources, millions of SMS are delivered on several occasions like Eid, New Year and Durga Puja every year.

The use of SMS increased around 30% last Eid-ul-Fitr compared to last year.

October to March is a key period for sending high number of SMS as different occasions like elections and AGM of different companies are held during the months.

“SMS brings crores of taka every day during Eid for mobile phone operators, and the business is growing moderately,” said Fahim Ahmed, a senior executive of Bulk SMS BD. Bulk SMS BD is a wholesale provider of SMS service. It sells the service mainly to some large and permanent companies. It also sells the service to other operators also. The company takes a charge of roughly Tk0.50 per SMS. Bulk SMS BD has also some corporate clients. Fahim Ahmed, however, said mainly political personalities take the lead in using SMS to send greetings during Eid.

SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

Earlier, the bulk SMS service was dependent on the mobile phone operators, but now the SMS service providers use IP (internet protocol) telephony services as it’s is cheaper than the mobile SMS. Wintel Limited, a pioneer in the business and leader in providing mobile phone’s value added service in Bangladesh, has also a working partnership with the international services.

“We achieved 30% market growth this year compared to previous year’s Eid,” said Shahed Ahmed, a senior executive of the Wintel.

He said they said some leading companies like Diamond World send 10 lakh promotional SMS every month.

Banks also use SMS system, mostly dependent on their own arrangment.

Bangladesh’s Wintel is working with all the major telecom operators in the Middle East countries - KSA, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and UAE. Requesting anonymity an owner of a firm said they send SMS to different mobile phone numbers collected from top-up outlets Connect Bangladesh is a newly launched SMS company which offers Tk0.70 price for an SMS.

“Currently we are delivering around 15,000 to 20,000 text messages on an average every day during usual time.

But during occasions, the number increases by four to five times,” said Md Arifur Rahaman, an executive of Connect Bangladesh.

Bulk SMS and IVR services are increasingly being used for marketing and promotional campaigns of different products.

Some companies use the service also to collect information about clients’ profile like level of education, type of profession and range of income. l

RMG owners, workers create confusion over wages and festival bonus n Tribune Report

Banks in the capital witness heavy withdrawal of cash on the last day of banking ahead of Eid holidays yesterday

MEHEDI HASAN

Call money rate rises by 3% in 17 days n Tribune Report The interbank call money rate went up to 9.50% yesterday, the last working day ahead of the Eid ul-Azha.

It increased by around 3% within the last 17 days since September 14 this year.

Some 26 banks, plus all non-banking financial institutions traded money at the highest 9.50% rate yesterday, according to the central bank data.

The borrowing rate by the banks

was the highest 8.50% and the lowest 6% in the market, but both the borrowing and lending rates of financial institutions were at the highest level due to lack of sufficient liquidity.

The daily transaction jumped to above Tk8,000 crore since Wednesday as the cash demand rose at the last moment ahead of the Eid. The money transaction was at the level of Tk7,000 crore till September 30.

The four state-owned banks includ-

ing Sonali, Rupali, Agrani and Janata performed as top lenders in the market and their daily transaction amounted to Tk4,700 crore yesterday.

The call money rate was a little unstable ahead of the Eid ul-Azha after breaking a long steady trend as the market performed with huge excess liquidity amid sluggish business environment, said a senior executive of central bank.

He said it was a good chance for some banks to make a brisk business. l

While the owners claim they have paid wages with festival bonus to all the workers, the union leaders allege 30% factories are yet to make the payments as the government-set deadline expired yesterday.

Earlier, the government urged the owners to pay wages by September 28 and bonus by October 2.

“All factories were able to pay the workers’ salaries by the deadlines.

Only Akik Aparels failed. However, they will also pay today,” BGMEA vice president Shahidullah Azim, told the Dhaka Tribune when asked about the union leaders’ allegation yesterday.

He said Akik would need Tk34 lakh to pay wages of August, of which Tk27 lakh was already collected.

“BGMEA monitoring identified 27 factories who could face problems in making the payments before Eid. As we interfered, problem was solved,” BGMEA leader said.

Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) monitored 840 units out of 1,000 to see the wage payment situation and found almost 100% factories paid the wage with bonus.

But the union leaders said many fac-

tories have not made the payments yet.

The workers have long been struggling to get their dues before the festivals.

“About 35% RMG factory owners did not pay the wages although the deadlines set by the government expired,” Sirajul Islam Rony, president of Bangladesh National Garment Workers Employees League (BNGWEL), said.

He, however, said they are hopeful all the payments would be made by tomorrow as they got such assurance from the owners.

Banks will remain open in the industrial areas to facilitate the payments.

“Small factories, especially the subcontractors, are facing problems in making the payments before the Eid,” Nahidul Islam Noyon, general secretary of Sommilito Garments Sramik Federation, said.

He said the number is 10% of the total factories and most of them are small in size and the numbers of workers range between 150 and 300 in each factory.

He, however, said the workers of BGMEA and BKMEA member factories didn’t make any complaints on the payments. l

Remittance rises 12% ahead of Eid n Tribune Report The inflow of remittance rose by 12.34% in September in comparison with the previous month of August as the expatriates sent more remittance home to celebrate the holy Eid ulAzha.

The country received remittances worth $1.3 billion during the month which was $1.17 billion in August.

Though the remittance inflow witnessed a rapid increase in the last moment, it was, however, slow in the beginning of the month of September as a result of exchange rate that remained unchanged, said a senior executive of Bangladesh Bank.

The overseas workers sent remittance $1.28 billion in June, which was 21% higher than $1.05 billion of the same month in the previous fiscal of 2013-14.

The remittance inflow remained slow over the last one year in the wake of fall in manpower export to overseas markets.

Fall in dollar rate is also one of the factors

of lower remittance sending, said a senior executive of private bank said.

The remittance inflow witnessed a marginal increase ahead of the festival, he said.

The wage earners experienced a substantial fall in exchange rate from Tk77.75 to Tk77.40 over the last one year.

The exchange rate against Taka remained stable at Tk77.40 till yesterday while it witnessed a slight fall to Tk77.5 from Tk77.6 ahead of the last Eid ul-Fitr.

The remittance from the Middle East countries fell substantially by 16% to $696.49 million in August from $828.75 million in previous month, according to the central bank data.

Of the total amount of remittance, the country received $442.51 million in September. The amount came through the state-run banks.

Besides, the remittance of $17 million came through specialised banks while $845.52 million through private commercial banks and $14.27 million through foreign banks, accord-

ing to the latest data published by the central bank yesterday.

However, since 2013, the downward trends in remittance and labour migration continued due to a gradual shrinking of recruitment of the migrant workers.

The major recipient countries of Bangladeshi workers in the Middle East are now interested to recruit ‘only skilled female workers’ instead of the male workers.

Overseas employment decreased by 10.73% in January-March period, according to the statistic of the Bangladesh Manpower Export and Training (BMET).

A total of 96,068 workers went abroad with job offer from January to March of the current year while some 1,07,626 had gone abroad with jobs during the same period in 2013, showing a decline of 11,567 overseas employment in three months.

BMET also recorded that about four lakh workers including male and female got overseas jobs from January to December in 2013 against over six lakh workers in 2012. l

Revenue grows 15% in first two months n Tribune Report The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has mobilised around Tk16,873 crore in the first two months of current fiscal with a 15% growth compared to the last fiscal.

Smooth business environment and increased monitoring led to the moblisation.

The NBR revenue collection grew by Tk2196.5 crore or 14.92% in comparison with July and August of the last fiscal, the NBR recent data shows.

In August this year, the NBR was able to mobilise Tk8,885 crore from all three of its wings.

NBR was able to collect Tk5,860 crore as customs duties, Tk6,571 crore as VAT and Tk4,442 crore as income tax in July-August of the fiscal year.

Meanwhile, all departments of NBR have witnessed significant growth with 17.08% in customs duties, 14.28% in Value Added Tax and 13.09% in income tax.

NBR officials said the smooth business environment and extensive monitoring by taxmen have helped the tax authority to collect the significant amount of tax.

The stable political situation is now helping the businesses run their operations smoothly, and so are the import-export activities, thus bringing in a good amount of tax from the businesses, they added.

They also said bringing potential sectors under the withholding tax, commonly known as tax at source net, also helped increase the collection.

The NBR, in the last two fiscal years, failed to meet its targets.

In August, the board has asked all its field offices to increase supervision to prevent tax loopholes and tax evasion to help increase the collection.

With the instructions, tax officials were asked to focus more on increasing the penalty and enforcement of criminal action, intensifying drives to realise the dues and expediting revenue collection and speeding up disposal of pending cases to meet the revenue target for current fiscal.

The board also emphasised ensuring taxpayer-friendly environment so that the taxpayers feel encouraged to pay more tax, ultimately resulting in increased collection.

The government has set a revenue collection target of Tk1,49,720 crore for FY2014-15 including highest Tk56,580 crore as income tax, Tk56,500 crore as VAT, Tk35,720 crore as customs duties and Tk920 crore as other taxes that includes travel tax. l

DSE tax rises 20% in September n Tribune Report The government’s revenue earnings from share trading at the Dhaka Stock Exchange increased around 20% last month compared to the previous month.

The increase was due to the rise in share transaction.

It bagged Tk25 crore in September, up from over Tk19 crore in August, according the DSE data released yesterday.

Of the total earnings, Tk17.6 crore comes from brokerage commission and Tk7.4 crore from sales of shares by sponsor-directors and placement holders.

The DSE, on behalf of the government, collects the tax as brokerage commission and sponsor and placement shares’ sales at the rate of 0.05% and 5% respectively.

It deposits the amount to the government exchequer.

Transactions in the market had been robust and hovered around over Tk900 crore as the bull-run continued since mid-August and positive economic outlook attracted investors to put fresh funds in the stock market, according to stock brokers.

Tax collection depends on trading volume and value, so more trading of stocks generates more tax for the government, said a DSE official.

Lower volume of trade brings lower amount of earnings for the government, he said.

The government’s tax collection hit a record high of Tk47.8 crore in November 2010, when the market was vibrant.

The bourse gave Tk326 crore tax on turnover in the fiscal year 2010-11, the highest since its inception.

In FY2013-14, the government earned Tk153.84 crore from the stock market. The amount was Tk127.29 crore one year ago. l

B2

Stock

DHAKA TRIBUNE

DSE GAINER

Stocks rally sharp ahead of long holiday

DSE key features October 2, 2014

Traded Issues

301

n Tribune Report

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

236

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

62

end holidays beginning from today.

The DSE will resume its trading from October 12 next.

“The market action was very positive,” said a stock broker.

The already buoyant market got a boost from the news of increased net foreign portfolio investment, he said.

The September net foreign investment figure stood at Tk426 crore, rising 322% from almost three-year low of Tk12.5 crore in August and single-month highest since April this year, according to DSE. IDLC Investments said the broad market performed robust on the last session before Eid vacation where optimism from the buyers-end sustained.

Non-life insurance, banks and NBFI have appreciated the most, posting 5%, 4.5% and 2.7% respectively. Fuel and power posted skimpy gain of 0.5%.

Two other large cap sectors – telecommunication and pharmaceuticals – closed in red.

Zenith Investments said investors tried to capitalise on stocks before the last day of Eid vacation which have lifted the overall market to a great extent.

After the news of another bout of fuel and gas price hike, Titas Gas – the lone state-run natural gas distribution company – continued to top the liquidity chart for the second consecutive session.

Its shares valued Tk39 crore were traded at the DSE. l

Stocks closed sharply higher yesterday in a pre-holiday rally as the persisting bull-run was fired up by the news of substantial increase in foreign investment in the stock market.

The Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) benchmark DSEX saw the steepest rise of over 84 points or 1.6% to settle at 5,237, its highest level since its launching and also biggest ever single-day rise.

With this, it extended its sharp gaining streak for the third consecutive session.

The Shariah index DSES inched up 5 points or 0.5% to 1,219. The comprising blue chips DS30 closed at 7 points or 4% higher to 1,993.

Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) Selective Categories Index, CSCX, ended up 158 points to 9,804.

A large volume of shares were also traded with the turnover in value being over Tk937 crore in the DSE, where advancing stocks outnumbered the decliners strongly.

Of the total turnover, fuel and power, bank and non-banking financial institutions accounted for 40%, indicating that the investors mostly concentrated on these sectors.

Out of 301 issues traded, 252 closed in positive territory, 42 negative and eight remained unchanged.

The stock market, which has been trading higher since mid-August, staged steep rally ahead of the sixday Eid ul-Azha and four-day week-

Weekly capital market highlights DSE Broad Index : DSE - 30 Index : CSE All Share Index: CSE - 30 Index : CSE Selected Index : DSE LOSER Company Padma Islami Life*-N RAK Ceramics-A Kohinoor Chem -A 2nd ICB M F -A Olympic Ind. -A Sandhani Life -A Apex Tannery -A Samata LeatheR -Z ACI Formulations-A Prime Islami Life -A

Closing (% Change) -16.97 -4.69 -3.25 -2.99 -2.95 -2.95 -2.94 -2.76 -2.66 -2.16

CSE LOSER Company Padma Islami Life*-N NLI 1st M F-A Bangladesh Lamps -A RAK Ceramics-A Prime Bank 1st MF-A Monno Ceramic -B Hakkani P& Paper -B National Housing Fin.-B AB Bank 1st Mutual Fund-A Sun Life Insurance-N

Closing (% Change) -14.65 -6.10 -4.69 -4.41 -4.26 -4.00 -3.75 -3.64 -2.99 -2.71

5237.72024

(+) 1.64%

1993.16924

(+) 0.38%

16126.71450

(+) 1.41%

13156.30630

(+) 0.25%

9781.53580

(+) 1.41%

Average (% Change) -17.92 -4.89 -2.96 -2.33 -0.60 -3.85 -0.59 -2.81 -3.65 -2.77 Average (% Change) -16.55 -6.10 -4.82 -5.09 -4.04 -4.04 -3.60 -0.70 -2.99 -3.68

ANALYST

ClosingAvg. 45.43 65.73 390.00 256.67 252.82 68.46 173.95 21.10 151.47 91.41

ClosingAvg. 46.65 7.70 119.84 65.68 4.51 28.76 25.70 32.78 6.50 46.11

Closing

Bank NBFI Investment Engineering Food & Allied Fuel & Power Jute Textile Pharma & Chemical Paper & Packaging Service Leather Ceramic Cement Information Technology General Insurance Life Insurance Telecom Travel & Leisure Miscellaneous Debenture

DSE Million Taka 1314.50 948.13 127.09 864.55 336.66 1360.38 3.00 1124.37 1038.57 17.89 181.93 78.22 114.15 466.74 98.89 191.68 495.41 281.75 99.32 225.81 1.18

DHIGH

45.00 65.00 390.20 256.50 250.00 69.20 171.70 21.10 150.10 90.70

Closing

50.00 68.50 390.50 258.00 260.00 71.30 181.00 21.10 158.00 93.00

DHIGH

47.20 7.70 120.00 65.10 4.50 28.80 25.70 31.80 6.50 46.60

50.00 7.70 122.00 68.70 4.70 30.50 25.70 33.60 6.50 47.00

9,370.21 241,442,022

Number of Contract

171,819

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

3

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,759.72 33.45

32.70

DSE key features October 2, 2014 Turnover (Million Taka)

606.04

Turnover (Volume)

18,236,886

Number of Contract

21,823

Traded Issues

224

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

165

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

57

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

2

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,652.10

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

32.15

Turnover in Million

DLOW 40.00 62.00 390.00 251.00 245.10 64.20 168.10 21.10 140.00 90.10

18.661 102.421 0.390 0.077 115.993 12.264 40.860 0.021 49.090 1.714

Turnover in Million

DLOW 45.00 7.70 118.00 64.70 4.50 28.60 25.70 31.20 6.50 46.00

% change 14.03 10.12 1.36 9.23 3.59 14.52 0.03 12.00 11.08 1.94 0.83 1.22 4.98 1.06 2.05 5.29 3.01 1.06 2.41 0.01

Million Taka 79.12 45.81 4.59 77.73 19.41 62.70 107.81 45.90 12.01 23.27 13.85 12.17 41.22 8.24 7.81 13.98 17.51 17.16 25.06 0.01

CSE

% change 12.45 7.21 0.72 12.23 3.05 9.87 0.00 16.97 7.22 1.89 3.66 2.18 1.92 6.49 1.30 1.23 2.20 2.76 2.70 3.94 0.00

Latest EPS 1.10 1.76 9.37 33.24 7.21 2.12 5.51 0.09 3.36 4.95

Latest EPS

0.863 0.008 0.096 11.557 0.068 0.036 0.013 0.590 0.003 0.489

Million Taka 1393.63 993.94 131.68 942.28 356.07 1423.08 3.00 1232.19 1084.47 29.90 205.20 92.07 126.32 507.96 107.13 199.49 509.39 299.26 116.48 250.87 1.18

Familytex (BD) Ltd.-A First Lease- A Islamic Finance-A I P D C -A FarEast Knitting -N City Bank - A FAS Fin. & Inv. Ltd-B Asia Insur. Ltd.-A Global Insurance -A Islami Ins.BD-A

Closing (% Change) 9.73 9.69 9.47 9.41 9.15 8.96 8.92 8.89 8.50 8.07

CSE GAINER

1.10 1.41 1.12 1.76 0.73 0.28 0.28 1.88 0.64 0.00

Latest PE 41.3 37.3 41.6 7.7 35.1 32.3 31.6 234.4 45.1 18.5

Company Republic Insu.-A I P D C -A Eastern InsurA Familytex (BD) Ltd.-A First Lease- A Islamic Finance-A GSP Finance-A City Bank - A FAS Fin. & Inv. Ltd-B FarEast Knitting -N

10.00 9.88 9.80 9.73 9.65 9.41 9.05 8.96 8.50 8.50

Average (% Change) 7.81 9.59 9.90 8.61 9.31 9.00 9.13 6.33 12.45 5.91

ClosingAvg. 24.30 24.35 18.20 18.42 33.06 21.22 17.05 24.10 21.26 23.75

ClosingAvg. 29.14 18.74 39.20 24.48 24.65 18.29 24.03 21.32 16.62 32.82

Closing 24.80 24.90 18.50 18.60 33.40 21.90 17.10 24.50 21.70 24.10

Closing 29.70 18.90 39.20 24.80 25.00 18.60 24.10 21.90 16.60 33.20

DHIGH 24.80 24.90 18.50 18.70 33.60 22.00 17.20 24.70 21.90 24.30

DHIGH 29.70 18.90 39.20 24.80 25.00 18.70 24.30 22.00 16.80 33.40

DLOW 22.80 21.00 15.50 16.00 30.70 18.10 14.90 21.00 20.00 21.00

DLOW 25.00 18.00 39.20 22.90 23.80 17.50 23.40 20.50 16.30 31.40

Turnover in Million 250.564 57.222 60.940 16.587 39.157 204.632 9.019 7.045 3.116 5.380

Turnover in Million 0.538 1.256 0.008 32.481 2.140 2.505 0.282 8.466 0.486 5.297

Latest EPS 4.34 1.38 1.50 0.92 2.13 1.78 0.52 2.40 1.66 1.70

Latest EPS 3.26 0.92 2.42 4.34 1.38 1.50 1.56 1.78 0.52 2.13

Latest PE 5.6 17.6 12.1 20.0 15.5 11.9 32.8 10.0 12.8 14.0

Latest PE 8.9 20.4 16.2 5.6 17.9 12.2 15.4 12.0 32.0 15.4

News, analysis and recent disclosers From TradeServers: PADMALIFE: The Board of Directors did not recommend any dividend for the year ended on December 31, 2013. Date of AGM: 20.11.2014, Time: 11:30 AM, Venue: Jamuna Resort. Record date: 29.10.2014.

GREENDELT: Credit Rating Agency of Bangladesh Limited (CRAB) has rated the Company as "AAA" in the long term and "ST-1" in the short term based on audited financial statements of the Company up to 31 December 2013 and other relevant quantitative as well as qualitative information up to the date of rating declaration.

RUPALIINS: Credit Rating Information and Services Limited (CRISL) has announced the CPA (Claim Paying Ability) Rating of the Company as "AA" along with a stable outlook in consideration of audited financials of the Company up to December 31, 2013, unaudited financial up to June 30, 2014 and other relevant quantitative as well as qualitative information up to the date of rating declaration.

MEGHNACEM: Credit Rating Agency of Bangladesh Limited (CRAB) has announced the entity rating (surveillance) of the Company as "A3" based on audited financial statements up to December 31, 2013; bank liability position as on 10 July 2014 and other relevant quantitative as

well as qualitative information up to the date of rating declaration.

SANDHANINS: The Company has informed that it has credited the bonus shares for the year ended on December 31, 2013 to the respective shareholders' BO Account on October 01, 2014.

PADMALIFE: The Company will be placed in "Z" category from existing "B" category with effect from October 12, 2014 as per Dhaka Stock Exchange (Settlement of Transactions) Regulations, 2013; since the Company did not recommend any dividend for the year ended on December 31, 2013.

IPO Subscription: Hamid Fabrics Limited subscription date 28 September to 02 October 2014, NRB upto 11 October 2014. @ taka 35, face value taka 10 and market lot 100. National Feed Mill Limited subscription date 26 -30 October 2014, NRB upto 08 November 2014. @ taka 10, face value taka 10 and market lot 500.

Right Share: MIDASFIN: Subscription period for rights issue will be from 01.09.2014 to 30.09.2014. Record date for entitlement of rights share: 03.08.2014.

ICB: Subscription period for rights issue will be from 07.12.2014 to 30.12.2014. Record date for entitlement of rights share: 09.09.2014. BIFC: subscription period for

rights issue of the Company will be from 09.11.2014 to 30.11.2014. Record Date for entitlement of rights share: 19.10.2014.

Dividend/AGM APOLOISPAT: 15% stock, Date of AGM: 21.12.2014, Record Date: 21.10.2014.

QSMDRYCELL: 5% cash and 10% stock, AGM: 27.11.2014, Record Date: 20.10.2014.

PENINSULA: 10% cash, AGM: 13.11.2014, Record Date: 15.10.2014.

FAREASTLIF: 40% cash, AGM: 03.11.2014, Record date: 16.10.2014.

UNITEDAIR: 10% stock, Record date: 20.10.2014.

EHL: 15% cash & 5% stock, AGM: 30.10.2014, Record Date: 02.10.2014.

BANGAS: 50% stock, AGM: 21.10.2014, Record date: 30.09.2014.

BDBUILDING: 5% cash & 20% stock, AGM: 23.10.2014, Record date: 30.09.2014.

MATINSPINN: 25% cash, AGM: 30.10.2014, Record date: 02.10.2014.

CENTRALPHL: 5% cash and 15% stock, AGM & EGM: 23.10.2014, Record date for AGM & EGM: 29.09.2014.

DBH: 25% cash, AGM: 25.11.2014, Record date: 25.09.2014.

DESHBANDHU: 10% stock, EGM & AGM: 19.10.2014, Record date for AGM & EGM: 21.09.2014.

42.4 5.5 107.0 37.3 6.2 102.7 91.8 17.4 10.2 -

DSE TURNOVER LEADERS Company

Total

Closing (% Change)

Average (% Change) 8.10 7.60 8.66 7.28 6.27 5.62 8.95 6.35 5.72 6.50

Latest PE

The broad market performed robust on the last session before Eid vacation where optimism from the buyers-end sustained

SECTORAL TURNOVER SUMMARY Sector

▲ ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲

Company

Turnover (Million Taka) Turnover (Volume)

Friday, October 3, 2014

% change 13.93 9.93 1.32 9.42 3.56 14.22 0.03 12.31 10.84 0.30 2.05 0.92 1.26 5.08 1.07 1.99 5.09 2.99 1.16 2.51 0.01

Prepared exclusively for Dhaka Tribune by Business Information Automation Service Line (BIASL), on the basis of information collected from daily stock quotations and audited reports of the listed companies. High level of caution has been taken to collect and present the above information and data. The publisher will not take any responsibility if any body uses this information and data for his/her investment decision. For any query please email to biasl@bol-online.com or call 01552153562 or go to www.biasl.net

Titas Gas TDCLA Delta Life Insu. -A Square Pharma -A Familytex (BD) Ltd.-A Grameenphone-A MJL BD Ltd.-A People`s Leasing-A Jamuna Oil -A City Bank - A LafargeS Cement-Z

BEXIMCO Ltd. -A BSRM Steels-A Beximco Pharma -A Envoy Textiles Ltd-N Active Fine Chem.-A CSE TURNOVER LEADERS Company Familytex (BD) Ltd.-A MJL BD Ltd.-A BEXIMCO Ltd. -A BSRM Steels-A National Bank - A LafargeS Cement-Z Ratanpur Steel -N Grameenphone-A G Next Fashions-A SAIF Powertec-N

Square Pharma -A RAK Ceramics-A SummitAlliancePort.-A Delta Life Insu. -A AramitCementA

VolumeShares 4,181,546 1,655,954 1,056,457 10,312,500 648,542 1,565,962 7,960,510 799,342 9,642,169 1,411,500

Value in Million 390.08 331.83 278.11 250.56 247.30 233.12 227.37 207.90 204.63 196.79

% of TotalTurnover 4.16 3.54 2.97 2.67 2.64 2.49 2.43 2.22 2.18 2.10

VolumeShares

Value in Million

% of TotalTurnover

3,996,597 1,565,197 2,399,209 2,620,275 1,914,186

1,327,000 155,999 499,792 194,410 1,303,690 104,000 172,400 32,000 718,000 200,000

44,043 175,975 184,082 55,814 233,000

180.52 179.60 167.07 160.30 155.86

32.48 23.67 22.60 22.22 16.95 14.56 13.01 12.21 11.86 11.85

11.58 11.56 11.42 11.17 10.85

1.93 1.92 1.78 1.71 1.66

5.40 3.93 3.76 3.69 2.82 2.42 2.16 2.03 1.97 1.97

1.92 1.92 1.90 1.86 1.80

ClosingP 92.90 202.50 264.70 24.80 380.20 148.50 28.20 257.30 21.90 138.30

45.20 117.30 69.30 61.70 81.50

ClosingP

24.80 148.60 45.40 115.40 13.10 140.20 76.80 380.40 16.70 61.10

263.40 65.10 61.30 202.50 46.50

Change % 0.11 2.64 -1.01 9.73 -1.04 -1.26 1.81 -0.73 8.96 0.00

0.44 4.45 -1.14 7.12 1.12

Change %

9.73 -1.85 0.44 2.03 4.80 1.30 1.72 -1.25 5.70 6.45

-1.05 -4.41 6.61 1.76 2.42

ClosingY 92.80 197.30 267.40 22.60 384.20 150.40 27.70 259.20 20.10 138.30

45.00 112.30 70.10 57.60 80.60

ClosingY

22.60 151.40 45.20 113.10 12.50 138.40 75.50 385.20 15.80 57.40

266.20 68.10 57.50 199.00 45.40

DHIGH

DLOW

96.00 205.90 290.00 24.80 387.00 156.00 30.00 265.00 22.00 140.90

83.80 185.00 244.10 22.80 375.00 136.00 25.00 240.00 18.10 137.10

DHIGH

DLOW

48.00 118.30 72.00 63.30 82.50

24.80 156.90 45.80 117.50 13.20 141.00 77.50 387.90 16.80 62.10

269.00 68.70 63.20 204.00 47.80

40.50 105.00 63.10 53.00 74.00

22.90 146.20 45.00 111.70 12.40 139.00 72.50 378.00 15.80 56.00

261.00 64.70 57.60 193.00 45.20

AvgPrice 93.29 200.38 263.24 24.30 381.32 148.86 28.56 260.09 21.22 139.42

45.17 114.74 69.63 61.18 81.43

AvgPrice

24.48 151.70 45.22 114.28 13.00 140.01 75.48 381.42 16.52 59.24

262.81 65.68 62.03 200.19 46.56

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Business

B3

Friday, October 3, 2014

Europe’s carmakers walk tightrope between low cost and high spec

Dollar slips further in Asia after US data n AFP, Tokyo

n Reuters, Paris Carmakers are betting on style and recycling in the battle for Europe’s burgeoning small car market, adding hitech safety and entertainment features while often using older vehicle underpinnings as a way to keep prices down.

Several new cars on display at this month’s Paris auto show from Opel, Citroen, Skoda and Kia are based largely on modified components used in a previous generation vehicle, or taken from another model already on the road, as a way to save cash.

Analysts say the move makes sense, as austerity-scarred Europeans are in no mood to splash out on expensive, big cars.

While the region’s auto sales are growing again after a six-year slump, they are still down around 20% from their 2007 peak and a full recovery looks years away.

The market for small, fuel-efficient cars, or so-called A-segment subcompacts, has been a rare bright spot. It has grown by 32% in the past 10 years to reach 1.12 million vehicles in 2013, at a time when the market for slightly larger B-segment cars, such as the Ford Fiesta, has slumped 33% to 2.89 million, according to forecaster IHS Automotive.

They predict further growth in the A-segment of 15% to 2020. But competition is heating up, and so the pressure on carmakers to lower manufacturing costs by sharing ever more parts among their models is intensifying.

“The winners in the auto industry will be those who can attain economies of scale,” said Wolfgang Bernhart, a partner at Roland Berger strategy consultants.

Volkswagen currently leads the European car market with its namesake brand accounting for just over 12% of new registrations in the first seven months of 2014. It is in the midst of introducing a new production platform aimed at sharing more parts between cars.

But the VW brand is closely followed

by PSA Peugeot Citroen and Renault, with the latter growing at three times the rate of the market thanks in part to its budget brand Dacia. And others are fighting hard with their own strategies

An employee prepares a Citroen C3 car displayed at French carmaker Citroen's showcase for the Paris Mondial de l'Automobile to keep manufacturing costs down.

Opel’s fifth generation Corsa for example, a 10,500 euros ($13,200) compact runabout, is based on a rehashed version of Opel’s old Fiat-GM underpinnings, used in the current Corsa, which has been on the market since 2006.

High spec

Many of the savings in manufacturing are being put into new features previously only available in more expensive models as automakers strive to stand out from the crowd.

Oil prices down in Asia n AFP, Singapore

Oil prices fell in Asia yesterday, pressured by concerns about a global supply glut and a stronger dollar, analysts said.

US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for November delivery slipped three cents to $90.70 while Brent crude for November eased 10 cents to $94.06 in afternoon trade.

Sanjeev Gupta, head of the AsiaPacific oil and gas practice at business consultancy EY, said prices were hit by the “strengthening US dollar, which is at a four-year high against major currencies”.

The US dollar bought 108.75 yen in Asian trading on Thursday, against 108.91 yen in New York late Wednesday after earlier breaching the 110 yen briefly. However, it is still at highs not seen since 2008.

A stronger greenback makes dollar-

priced oil more expensive for buyers using weaker currencies, denting demand and pushing prices lower.

Singapore’s United Overseas Bank said dealers were also digesting “a clear manifestation of the over-supply environment” after Saudi Arabia on Wednesday lowered its official selling price for crude oil.

Media reports said the kingdom, a key member of the OPEC oil producing cartel, reduced its November prices, marking the fourth straight month of cuts.

The move indicated that the world’s top crude producer is more focused on maintaining market share, and is unlikely to cut output anytime soon to ease a global supply glut.

Saudi Arabia has 16% of the world’s proved oil reserves and produces 11.6 million barrels a day, according to official US government data. l

Citroen’s Cactus Airflow 2L concept car, for instance, is a no-frills compact family car with a hybrid drivetrain, based on underpinnings from the Peugeot 208, according to Rémi Cornubert, partner at the Automotive Practice at Oliver Wyman in Paris.

“It’s an example of cleverly combining elements from value brands with some upmarket features,” he said.

Though the Cactus has two digital flatscreens as the dashboard, it has manual rather than electric rear passenger windows, does with a small en-

gine and relatively simple and inexpensive suspension.

The focus on features over significant improvements in engine performance appears to chime with the priorities of European drivers. Currently 50 to 60% of all cars in the European Union are only equipped with the cheapest engine, according to consultants Roland Berger.

Skoda, owned by Volkswagen, is due to unveil an all new version of its Fabia compact at the Paris show which borrows extensively from the group’s

REUTERS

parts bin.

It offers an emergency braking function, intervening when necessary to prevent a collision. And yet, like most of the new subcompacts, it will cost almost the same as the model it replaces - around 11,600 euros.

Even value brand Hyundai, which is unveiling its new i20 in Paris, will offer a rear-view camera integrated into the seven inch “infotainment” screen and a smartphone docking station in addition to high-end security features such as a lane-departure warning system. l

The dollar lost more ground in Asia yesterday after tumbling in New York following weak US and European data that led to renewed concerns about the global economy.

In Tokyo the greenback slipped to 108.70 yen, from 108.91 yen in New York, where it sank from above 110 yen levels seen earlier Wednesday - the first time it has breached the mark in six years.

The euro strengthened to $1.2651 from $1.2624, and to 137.52 yen against 137.48 yen ahead of a European Central Bank Meeting (ECB) later in the day.

The US Commerce Department said Wednesday that construction spending in August fell unexpectedly, while a separate report showed manufacturing activity slowed in September.

The disappointing figures overshadowed news that US private-sector employment increased last month.

Investors were now turning their focus to Friday’s US non-farm payrolls report, which is used as a barometer of the health of the world’s number one economy.

A strong result could be seen as giving the Federal Reserve more room to increase interest rates sooner than its mid-2015 forecast, which would be a plus for the dollar.

Investors’ move out of the dollar into assets seen as less risky, such as the yen, follow news of the first confirmed Ebola case in the United States and a pro-democracy campaign in Hong Kong.

Protest leaders have called for the leader of the Asian financial hub to stand down by the end of the day or they will step up their demonstration, which has been peaceful so far.

In Europe, a survey of leading indicators from eurozone manufacturing industries on business conditions saw the lowest reading in 14 months. l Earlier in the week data showed eurozone inflation hit its lowest level in five years, fanning deflation fears and raising speculation over fresh ECB easing measures.

The central bank is not expected to alter its monetary policy later yesterday, but analysts will be looking for any hints at further action in future. l

GM sets super-charged growth plan n AFP, New York

General Motors Wednesday outlined an ambitious plan for returning its Europe division to profitability, boosting profit margins in North America and growing sales in China, the world’s largest auto market.

GM, in an investors and analysts conference, pledged to drive its European unit into the green in 2016 and to increase profit margins in its core North American market to 10% in 2016, from 7.8% in 2013.

The largest US automaker also vowed to grow its luxury Cadillac line and realize savings throughout the company with lower administrative spending and supply chain efficiences.

The goal is to make GM “the most valued automotive company,” chief executive Mary Barra told investors and analysts. Barra also spoke of “a culture

to win” defined by “candor and accountability at all levels.”

Barra largely steered clear of the ignition-switch scandal that caused at least 23 fatalities, according to the latest estimate of independent compensation fund chief Kenneth Feinberg.

The company is under investigation

by Congress, regulators and the Justice Department over why it waited about 11 years after first uncovering the ignition-switch problem to start recalling some 2.6 million cars in February.

Barra, who took the helm of the company in January, said GM has worked at “keeping the customer at the center of everything we do as we focused on the recalls.”

GM has recalled more than 29 million vehicles for a number of problems in the first nine months of the year.

Barra said GM expects to achieve overall pre-tax profit margins of be-

tween 9-10% by the early 2020s, a target depending in part on better results in North America, which accounted for about 33% of GM vehicle sales in 2013.

In North America, GM has high hopes for next-generation versions of the Chevrolet Cruze and Malibu, as well as for new entrants in its luxury Cadillac division and a midsize truck, among others.

In Europe, GM plans to trim $100m in fixed costs and save an additional $700m in lower expenses. The US giant will also introduce new models such as the Opel Corsa and Astra, estimated to add $300m in product-launch costs.

GM Europe suffered an operating loss of $844m in 2013, the only region to record a loss in pre-tax profits.

Targeting Chinese growth

China remains at the center of GM’s growth plan, with the automaker tar-

geting sales of 30.7 million in 2018, up from 24.3 million in 2014. The country represented more than one-third of GM’s auto sales in 2013.

China has accounted for 72% of all auto industry growth over the last 15 years and GM sees the country as a “market that is rapidly maturing,” said GM president Dan Amman.

GM plans to launch a financing arm in China in 2015 in part to take advantage of a growing market of secondtime auto buyers, to introduce nine new sport utility vehicles and to make a big push with its luxury Cadillac line, Amman said.

GM said it planned to “return excess cash flow” to stockholders through “strong and growing dividends based on sustained improvements in the company’s underlying performance.”

The company offered no specifics for doing so. l

Mohsin named Emami SAARC president n Tribune Report

Modhumoti Bank Ltd opens its 7th branch at Mitford, Dhaka. Humayun Kabir, chairman of Board of Directors, inaugurated the branch recently. A number of dignitaries were also present at the launching City Bank recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding on electronic government procurement system with the Central Procurement Technical Unit Planning Ministry. As a member bank, City Bank will act as an e-payment service provider

A month-long foundation training course for the officers of NCC Bank Ltd concluded recently at the Bank’s Training Institute in Dhaka. Senior EVP Fazlur Rahman, AZM Saleh and EVP Wahedur Rahman distributed the certificates. Institute Principal Jagadish Chandra Debnath presided over the function

BRAC Bank Limited signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Indian cardiac surgeon Dr Devi Shetty’s Narayana Health Hospitals to provide special healthcare privileges to its customers. Under the agreement, BRAC Bank Premium Banking customers will receive an annual complimentary health check-up package

Mohsin Ahmed has been announced as SAARC regional president of Emami Ltd, one of the leading and fastest growing personal and healthcare businesses in India, said a press release yesterday.

Emami’s brand names include BoroPlus, Navratna, Fair and Handsome, Zandu Balm, Mentho Plus Balm and Fast Relief.

Mohsin has an extensive experience over 20 years in various multinational companies like BAT Bangladesh Limited, Nestle Bangladesh Limited and

Unilever Bangladesh Limited where he was responsible for various leadership roles. l

First Security Islami Bank Ltd opens its Ranabhola branch. The bank’s AAM Zakaria inaugurated the branch recently. DMD Syed Waseque Md Ali, Quazi Osman Ali and Syed Habib Hasnat were also present

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DHAKA TRIBUNE

IMF warns on growth of shadow banking n AFP, Washington Lightly regulated “shadow banking” has grown to huge proportions in the global financial system and increasingly poses a risk to stability, especially in the United States, the IMF said Wednesday.

More than $70tn in assets are handled by shadow banks around the world, Gaston Gelos, chief of the Global Financial Analysis Division at the IMF, told journalists in a briefing.

“It’s quite large,” he said. “It’s very important to understand what’s going on there to be able to assess risks.”

The sector includes lightly policed institutions like mutual funds, money market funds, wealth management funds in China, and finance companies in emerging economies, that take money from investors and lend it like banks.

They have grown larger in the extremely low interest-rate environment of the past six years, as investors seek higher yields on their money and banks tighten up under tougher post-crisis regulation.

But the International Monetary Fund says in a new report that the risks are high because shadow banking largely depends on short-term funding. In a scare, it says, the impact of panic withdrawals can snowball into the broader financial system and global economy with outsized impact.

That was seen in the financial crisis in 2008, when US money market funds which were important lenders in Europe faced large redemptions, and

with the near-collapse of companies like insurer AIG. Since the crisis the power of shadow banks has only grown, the IMF report notes. In the United States, shadow banks have nearly twice as much assets than banks, and in the eurozone their assets have reached 60% of the banks.

In developing countries the figure is close to 60%. The sector has rocketed in China, where banks face interest rate controls, pushing savers to seek better returns on their money outside the banks. The IMF estimates shadow banking amounts to 35-50% of China’s gross domestic product, and said the sector “warrants close monitoring.”

“Shadow banking tends to take off when strict banking regulations are in place, which leads to circumvention of regulations,” said Gelos.

“It also grows when real interest rates and yield spreads are low and investors are searching for higher returns.”

The report said shadow banking serves a good purpose, broadening access to credit, especially in emergingmarket economies.

But it said authorities need to have more information on the sector to gauge the level of systemic risk, and to regulate where possible.

Financial system regulators “should be on the lookout for activities or entities that can pose a risk to the system...

How to tackle them will really depend on the nature of the activity,” Gelos said.

“This needs to be continually reassessed because this is a very dynamic sector.” l

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Friday, October 3, 2014

WB bonuses raise eyebrows amid austerity drive n AFP, Washington

The World Bank has given bonuses to senior officials as it pursues a cost-cutting restructuring, raising employees’ concerns about management demands on them for belt-tightening, documents seen by AFP showed Wednesday.

“We question the timing of such payments given the sacrifices the rest of us are being asked to make,” the Bank’s staff association said in an internal memo obtained Wednesday by AFP. A person close to the institution said that at least four senior officials based at the World Bank’s headquarters in Washington have received the bonus, called a “scarce skills premium,” for fiscal year 2014.

A key figure involved in the Bank restructuring, chief financial officer Bertrand Badre, received a $94,000 bonus for fiscal year 2014, in addition to his net annual salary of about $380,000, Bank spokesman David Theis confirmed Wednesday.

The World Bank did not reveal the identities of other bonus beneficiaries.

Badre was not immediately available to comment.

“The World Bank needs to attract and retain senior management of high caliber, and on rare occasions we extend a ‘scarce skills premium’ for highly technical or key managerial positions,” Theis said.

According to the spokesman, Badre, a French national who left his job as CFO of French bank Societe Generale to join the World Bank as finance managing director and CFO in March 2013, “has deep management experience in some of the largest financial institutions in Europe.”

Under his leadership, “we have been able to nearly double our financial firepower. This increased financial flexibility will allow us to help meet some of the great and pressing needs in the developing world.”

People walk past the World Bank Group's headquarters May in Washington

Critical moment

The revelation of the bonuses comes at a critical moment for the World Bank, which is facing lending competition from the BRICS major emerging-market economies - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - and the private sector.

Under the leadership of World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, the development lender has undertaken a vast restructuring and reform program aimed at boosting resources to increase its lending capacity, as it strives to eliminate extreme poverty by 2030.

As part of the overhaul, the Bank intends to slash $400m in spending over the next three years, on a total $5bn budget.

Some expenditures have already been reduced but job cuts remain an option, feeding uncertainty among the

10,000 employees of the 188-nation Bank, celebrating its 70th anniversary this year.

“At a time of employment insecurity, staff downsizing, and belt-tightening, we are mystified as to how President Kim and his senior management could be so blind to the optics of providing these kinds of bonuses.”

The bonus uproar has spilled outside the walls of the Bank, which is organizing its annual meetings with the International Monetary Fund next week, into the civil sector.

“This information is very surprising when it is known that the Bank is in the process of cutting $400 million from its budget,” said Nicolas Mombrial, head of the anti-poverty nonprofit organization Oxfam, in Washington.

“The bonuses to senior bank staff, and the reported disquiet among staff, re-emphasize civil society concerns

AFP

about the efficacy of president Jim Kim’s strategy and the re-structuring that followed,” said the Bretton Woods Project, an NGO, in an email to AFP. In a sign of the growing staff worries, an anonymous flyer circulated at the headquarters on Tuesday, calling on employees to strike Thursday to protest the lack of information about staffing changes in the pipeline.

Among the questions it cited were: “Do you know the criteria, process and timeline for the strategic staffing?” and “Do you know whether the change is driven by improving bank effectiveness or saving the ‘$400 m”?

“If you don’t have answers to any of these questions, pls (sic) shut down your computers and step out of your office” from 10:30 am to 10:45 am local time, the flyer said.

Contacted by AFP, the World Bank declined to comment on the situation. l

Kuwait posts $45bn budget surplus but warned of risks n AFP, Kuwait City

‘Umbrella Revolution’ risks cold shower for HK business

Kuwait posted Wednesday a budget surplus of $45bn for the latest fiscal year, its second largest on record, but the IMF warned it of underlying risks despite the bumper returns.

The finance ministry said in a statement on its website that the surplus came in at 12.9bn dinars ($45bn) in the 12 months to March, capping a run of 15 straight years of windfalls.

Revenues came in at 31.8bn dinars, of which oil accounted for 29.3bn dinars, and spending at 18.9bn dinars.

It was the second biggest budget surplus on record, after the 13.2bn dinars achieved in 2011-2012.

The oil-rich emirate of Kuwait has now posted a budget surplus in each of the past 15 fiscal years worth a total of 92.5bn dinars, based on official figures compiled by AFP. Sustained surpluses have boosted the assets of the Gulf state’s sovereign wealth fund to more than $500bn, according to unofficial estimates.

A majority of the dividends are attributed to high oil revenues which make up about 94 percent of Kuwait’s overall income.

The International Monetary Fund warned, however, that a drop in oil prices could plunge Kuwait into deficit in the medium term if it fails to adopt measures to halt the rise of current spending.

“A $20 decline in oil prices... would result in reversing of the fiscal position from a surplus to a deficit in the medium term,” the IMF said in its latest report on Kuwait.

The Fund said the breakeven oil price - needed to balance the budget at current expenditure levels - had risen in the past few years and was estimated at $75 a barrel in 2014-15.

The price of Kuwaiti oil averaged $103 a barrel in the latest fiscal year but is currently hovering around $94.

The IMF advised Kuwait to soon start implementing measures aimed at cutting spending which has trebled in the past decade.

These included containing the number of public jobs, gradually phasing out of subsidies worth $16bn a year, subjecting Kuwaiti companies to corporate tax, and revising fees for public services.

According to the IMF, the government has decided in principle to end subsidies on diesel and is in advanced stage of proposing a similar end on power subsidies.

Kuwait has a native population of 1.25 million, in addition to 2.8 million foreigners, and pumps about 3 million barrels of oil per day. l

n AFP, London

A Toyota C-HR Concept car is displayed at the 2014 Paris Auto Show on October 2 in Paris, on the first of the two press days

AFP

The shortcut generation n Mohammad Ruhul Kader

In the year 2000, a business venture named Destiny 2000 Ltd registered as a joint stock company under the Ministry of Industries and Commerce of Bangladesh. In the following 5-6 years of its being, the company became one of the giants of the country, with hundreds and thousands of young people working for it. Starting small, the company started to invest in businesses in multiple sectors like airlines and TV channels – a model for high growth business.

From day one the company offered a very simple but cunning value proposition to the young generation of Bangladesh: Get rich easily. It worked like magic. A country with more than 55 million young people aged between 15 and 35 should be the most fertile ground for such a potential business.

To make it more alluring, the employment opportunities were limited, and were waning with every passing day. The company leveraged the opportunity best, as any other venture with business acumen. The result was apparent. It had grown like Chinese bamboo, which grows 25 feet in a week.

But there was one significant difference between the growth of Chinese bamboo and the destiny 200 Limited.

Before making its leap to 25 feet, Chinese bamboo spends 5 years to build its roots. Destiny spent not a year. As it happens all the time when your foundation is weak, you can’t carry the load and you crumble. With destiny, nature did the same.

This is only one story of how much we are infatuated by shortcuts. Take a close look at technology ventures scenario of the country. There are hundreds of problems to be solved, but the only

things we are doing are e-commerce sites and job sites and news24 sites.

Various types of it. In a recent interview that I took for Future Startup, entrepreneur Nazim Farhan Choudhury said we had a culture of copying and following the easy path instead of taking the path that requires courage and hard work, and also offers the biggest reward. As a consequence, most of these companies fail.

But this is not the moral of this story.

There is more to it.

As a nation, we have high hopes for our youth. We believe this is the generation that is going to rescue us from decade-long stagnation, political deadlock, and misogyny that dominates our society. But the example I cited above is a nightmare to the optimists of the country. I claim to be an optimist. My intention is not to criticise or find flaws in our young people, rather, to find mistakes we are making, as I’m essentially of this generation.

As it mentioned, in Destiny website it had 43,39,653+ individual distributors till April 16, 2012. A staggering number. The question is, what were these people about to distribute? And who were they?

The model that destiny used to propel their business was called MLM. The term was first coined by author Dominique Xardel. The first MLM-type business can be traced back to 1920. And from its birth, it was often disputed.

But contrary to the usual model of MLM marketing, which is a form of direct selling, what Destiny did was a grave sin. It took money from people against a value proposition that was nothing more than a strategic and pompous lie.

Unfortunately, most fish caught by Destiny were young people. I had very

close friends who were involved with Destiny, and often touted the unrealistic dream of getting rich and having cars and flats and all that in a year. It was a nightmare.

By now, we all know what happened to Destiny and to those with the desire for easy wealth. But what itches me is the underlying reason that motivates these young people to fall prey of such a void proposition.

The reason is simple: These people love shortcuts. Not only do they love shortcuts, given an opportunity to act, they often go for the one that takes little trade off. This is a very simplistic explanation, and I pray that I am wrong.

But if this is the truth, we have enough reasons to be worried for the future of this generation and thus for the nation as a whole. There are young people who are doing great things and achieving extraordinary feats. But the number is very slim, and we need to maximise it.

Why do our young people fall for shortcuts? This is a very profound question to ask, and also a very tricky one to answer.

This needs a very thorough investigation. However, the apparent reason is cultural. We have a culture of immediacy. From our schools to public institutions, we practice and encourage immediacy and shortcuts. A hot connection with your superior, achieved by any means, is the sure means to promotion almost everywhere, from a public office to a political party. Schools are way more interested in CGPA over education itself. Our measure of educational revolution is how many GPA 5s we have garnered. l Mohammad Ruhul Kader is the Curator & Chief Coordinator of Future Startup

The “umbrella revolution” is starting to weigh on Hong Kong’s domestic economy as protests escalate but the real concern is over the city’s status as an international financial hub.

Transport has been disrupted, banks have shut and business trips have been cancelled in a region of seven million people with an economy as big as Chile, Egypt or the Philippines.

If the protests continue, “tourism and retail, which together account for around 10% of the territory’s GDP (gross domestic product) would be badly affected,” said Gareth Leather from the Capital Economics research firm in London.

Leather warned Hong Kong could “easily be pushed into recession” as its economy contracted last quarter and the formal definition of recession is two consecutive quarters of contraction.

There is more concern, however, on the reputational damage for Hong Kong and the fallout for a stable capitalist system vital to the local economy as well as surrounding regions of China.

Hundreds of billions of dollars (euros) flow through the city’s foreign exchange, commodity and inter-bank markets every day.

The stock market lists heavyweights including banking giant HSBC, telecoms titan China Mobile and energy behemoth PetroChina.

The Hong Kong stock market is considered the third most efficient after New York and London in a rating by the Z/Yen research centre in London based on professional opinions.

Singapore to benefit?

The city’s status as a financial hub was built up in the second half of the 20th century by its residents - a mixture of Hong Kong locals, Chinese people fleeing the Communists coming to power in 1949, the British and other Westerners.

“As it had been during the centuries of British colonial rule until the colony was ceded to China in 1997, Hong Kong has been a peaceful place and one that

DILBERT

through the last century has thrived,” said Howard Wheeldon, an independent analyst.

Wheeldon said there had been tensions between different parts of the population over the years but these had never imperilled the city’s image of stability as a crossroads between American, Soviet and Chinese power during the Cold War. The colony’s handover to China 17 years ago did not break the equilibrium for investors, despite regular tensions between the pro-democracy camp and Chinese officialdom.

Ivan Tselichtchev, an economy professor at Niigata University of Management and a specialist on the region, said Hong Kong’s status was not at risk because China could step in hard.

“The Chinese government and Hong Kong authorities currently have enough power and resources to prevent a substantial unrest and will undoubtedly use them once the demonstrations go beyond a certain limit,” he said.

But he said the protests do “elevate the level of political risk stemming from the ‘one country, two systems’ formula” - at the heart of the handover agreement between the Chinese and British authorities which enshrined a capitalist system for Hong Kong for 50 years until 2047.

Everything depends on how the authorities handle the protests and Beijing is fully aware of the impact for the economy of Hong Kong and of China as a whole of any violent crackdown.

“The Hong Kong government is unlikely to tolerate the main business district being occupied by protesters indefinitely and at some point could authorise the police to use force to clear the streets,” Leather said.

“It is even possible that the Chinese government could call upon the army to disperse the demonstrators,” he said.

“Such a scenario would deal a blow to Hong Kong’s status as an international financial centre, which depends on rule of law, a stable system of governance and being a safe and pleasant place to live.” l