30 Jan, 2015

Magh 17, 1421 Rabius Sani 9, 1436 Regd No DA 6238 Vol 2, No 295

FRIDAY, JANUARY 30, 2015 | www.dhakatribune.com | SECOND EDITION

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WEEKEND

8 | WORLD

11 | OP-ED

13 | SPORT

THE BENGALI CULTURE OF EATING

ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH SIGNAL THEIR FLARE-UP IS OVER

IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE?

MURRAY BOOKS FINAL, SERENA TO FACE SHARAPOVA

Unrest slows down mega projects Top spenders Bridges Division and Railway to seek spending cuts in revised ADP n Kayes Sohel and Sohel Mamun Usually, development projects move fast at this time of the year as whether remains dry, but this year, implementation of mega structures has slowed down considerably, mainly because of the ongoing political unrest in the country.

Several government agencies – mainly attached to the communication sector – has projected and proposed spending cuts in the upcoming revised Annual Development Programme (ADP), due in a few months. The agencies include the Bridges Division and the railway – two of the biggest development spenders in the country.

Sluggish execution of development projects has prompted the Planning Ministry to slash annual foreign aid spending targets as well.

Officials from the Bridges Division – implementation agency of the country’s biggest ever development project Padma bridge – said they will not be able to spend Tk235 crore of the budget allocated for them, fearing transportation and security problems due to the ongoing unrest.

They said they are now going to quote Tk7,865 crore in the revised ADP instead of the Tk8,100 crore allocated in the development budget for the current fiscal year. The original amount was the highest allocation in a development project for the 2014-15 fiscal.

An official told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday: “We do not need the entire

Yet another truck driver assistant dies in blockade violence n Tribune Report Yet another truck driver helper was crushed to death under the wheels of his own vehicle after it was torched by pro-blockaders in Chandpur last night.

Besides, a mason and a truck driver who sustained burn injuries in petrol bomb attacks in Feni and Magura respectively on Wednesday took admission at the burn unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital in critical condition yesterday.

Meanwhile, the 24-hour shutdown called by the BNP-led 20-party alliance in Dhaka city and 10 other districts on top of the countrywide rail, road and waterways blockade had very little impact on day-to-day life excepting some stray incidents of violence.

The shutdown had no impact in the capital except for an incident of crude bomb blast in the evening in New Market area and torching of a bus on Dhaka University campus.

However, no long-haul bus plied from and to the capital.

Our Chandpur correspondent reports that truck helper Motaleb Hossain, 40, was crushed to death under the wheels of his truck as miscreants hurled a petrol bomb at his vehicle on the Chandpur-Comilla highway around 11:45pm on Wednesday.

As the truck caught fire driver Nawshad lost control over the steering and the vehicle fell into a roadside ditch.

Both Nawshad and burnt Motaleb jumped off the vehicle to save their lives but unlucky Motaleb went under the wheel of the truck before it plunged into the ditch.

The truck was carrying tiles from  PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

currently implementing the project for upgrading the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway into four lanes – sent the letter after some of its materials-laden trucks  PAGE 2 COLUMN 5

 PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

Political violence-triggered spending cuts proposed Bridges Division Railway Foreign aid target

fund this fiscal year as expenditure has been very slow because of political violence.”

Sources said, the Bangladesh Bridges Authority spent about Tk2,500 crore

for the Padma bridge out of a total disbursement of Tk3,225 crore until January 20.

The China-based contractor of the Dhaka-Chittagong highway up-grada-

tion project has recently wrote to the Home Ministry expressing concerns about security amid the ongoing unrest.

China’s state-owned construction and engineering company Sinohydro –

n Tribune Report Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman yesterday expressed concern over the ongoing political turmoil and said the economy would bleed further if the unrest continues.

“Just when the country’s economy was showing signs of growth, political unrest has put a barricade on it,” he said, unveiling of the Monetary Policy Stance (MPS) for the second half of the current fiscal year at Bangladesh Bank headquarters in the capital yesterday.

The MPS keeps the targets mostly unchanged – barring inflation to bring down – and hinted not to go for neither expansionary nor contractionery policy.

But former BB governor Salehuddin Ahmed said the policy could have been a little more pro-active and pro-growth instead of emphasising the reduction of inflation.

The policy stance aims to bring down the inflation rate to 6.5% from current the 6.99% (12-month average) and to achieve an economic growth rate of between 6.5% and 6.8%.

“The central bank should concentrate on employment and growth instead of inflation,” Salehuddin said.

“The monetary policy has been kept unchanged in the second half in light of the existing political situation” Atiur said.

Salehuddin Ahmed responded to the stance, saying: “The policy was observational but not innovative.”

Salehuddin said the policy could have been a little more expansionary

REVISED ADP 2014-15

A contractor mobilises equipment for construction work on the Padma Bridge project, but works have slowed down due to political unrest

Atiur: Economy will bleed if unrest continues

Tk235cr

Tk925cr $360m

MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

TIB: Auditor general’s office riddled by corruption n Adil Sakhawat Corruption is prevalent in every sector of the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) where significant political influence is seen in different activities, the Bangladesh chapter of Berlin-based Transparency International (TI) revealed in a new report yesterday.

The CAG, a constitutional body responsible for auditing government receipts and public spending, cannot work independently because of persistent political influence, TIB officials said at a press conference in the capital arranged to disclose the survey findings.

The report shows that the CAG officials and employees are involved in taking bribes ranging from Tk4,000 to Tk5,00,000.

The minimum bribery amount is taken usually for disposal of objections in tripartite meetings while the maximum amount is charged for recruitment of auditors, employees and drivers for the CAG office; for conducting annual audit by local and revenue audit department; and for doing audit for foreign-funded projects, it says.

The research shows that for the recruitment of an employee at the CAG office, there is influence from ministers, state ministers, lawmakers and the heads of the parliamentary standing committees.

Refuting the anti-graft campaigner’s findings, a top CAG official termed the report “unethical.” The official also questioned the standard of the survey.  PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

38 illegal migrants feared dead as trawler capsizes n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong At least 38 people are feared dead after an overcrowded fishing trawler, carrying Malaysia-bound illegal migrants, capsized in the Kutubdia channel of the Bay of Bengal in the early hours yesterday.

Rescuers managed to bring ashore 42 people alive including six suspected human traffickers, while later in the day the sunken vessel was also located and dragged towards the shores of Kutubdia island.

Although it is common for a large number of people to seek illegal passage to Malaysia through marine routes from Chittagong every year, such large

scale accidents at sea are uncommon in the bay.

Quoting rescued victims, Kutubdia police station Officer-in-Charge Ongshuth Whoyai said the 30-feet long Malaysia-bound trawler, FV Idris, capsized at the southwestern part of Kutubdia channel with about 80 people on board at around 5am.

Receiving the information, Coast Guard ships Towhid and Tanvir along with four metal shark boats, and Bangladesh Navy ships Oporajeyo and Otondro rushed to the spot and rescued 31 people including four suspected traffickers, said Bangladesh Coast Guard (East) Zonal Commander Captain Shahidul Islam.  PAGE 2 COLUMN 5

INSIDE B1 | Business

4 | News

3 | News

5 | News

Bangladesh Bank has decided to offer incentives for good borrowers having regular loan repayment track records, but warned of coming down hard on willful defaulters.

In a move to ensure preferential treatment for lawmakers’ family members, parliament decided to issue special car stickers to identify the vehicles carrying the relatives, Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury has said.

The three-day National Start-Up Workshop aiming to offer climate adaption strategies in 5 haor districts covering 28 upazilas, began in the capital yesterday.

Chittagong needs urgent attention from policymakers to address a host of problems as it lags behind Dhaka in various sectors, despite having a large contribution to national economy.

01_FR 02_Ne 16_BA

2

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Friday, January 30, 2015

14-party urges joint forces to get tough on saboteurs n Abu Hayat Mahmud The AL-led 14-party combine yesterday urged law enforcement agencies to take a stern stand against saboteurs active during the non-stop blockade enforced across the country by the BNPled 20-party alliance In statements made at a rally in front of the Shia Mosque in Mohammadpur in the capital yesterday evening, they asked local leaders and activists of member parties to be vigilant.

Health Minister Mohammad Nasim said: “No fruitful result will come of sabotage and the killing of innocent people, mostly workers who live from hand to mouth.

“If you [Khaleda] lead such terrorist activities, the country’s people and law enforcement agencies will force you to face trial.”

He asked Khaleda to withdraw the non-stop blockade before the start of SSC examinations scheduled to start on February 2, saying the country’s schools would be guarded during Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examinations.

Nasim, an AL presidium member, said: “Khaleda Zia is giving orders to have innocent people killed. If she continues, she must take responsibility and face trial as the mastermind of the killings.”

Warning BNP chief Khaleda Zia, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal President and Information Minister Hasanul Haque Inu,

said: “If you do not stop this terrorism, you will face a tough situation.”

Inu said: “Khaleda is not the ‘Desh Netri’ [a sobriquet meaning Leader of the Country given by her supporters], she is the queen of terrorists and militants.”

Workers Party General Secretary Fazle Hossain Badsha accused Khaleda of having no love for Bangladesh, and having only Pakistan in her heart.

At a function to mark Police Week 2015 on Wednesday, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina asked the police to take whatever steps necessary to restore order: “I will take responsibility for whatever happens. But you must ensure the security of the lives and property of the common people.” l

Piles of freshly printed books being stocked inside the store houses of different publishers at the capital’s Banglabazar area yesterday ahead of the Amar Ekushey Grontho Mela beginning from February 1 MEHEDI HASAN

Govt protests OHCHR comments on Bangladesh n Sheikh Shahariar Zaman

The government yesterday lodged a protest with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) for blaming and criticising it over “the deepening violence” in the country.

“We have sent a letter to Geneva as we feel that the [OHCHR’s] press

note sent out a wrong message about the prevailing situation,” a senior foreign ministry official told the Dhaka Tribune.

Protesting the OHCHR’s press note in its note yesterday, the government said BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami and the Jamaat’s student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir had carried out almost all arson and terror attacks in the country.

“[And so] ... unduly implicating the law enforcement agencies and others, would only allow cover for such terrorist acts, and further instigate such violent means by the same actors.”

About the allegation of arbitrary arrest and detention of key opposition leaders by law enforcement agencies, the government responded that they

TIB: Auditor general’s office riddled by corruption  PAGE 1 COLUMN 3

In its November last year report, the TIB found that the drug administration had also been knee-deep in corruption where the employees and staff take Tk500-10 lakh as bribes from service seekers.

The TIB earlier published reports on the CAG office in 2002 and 2012.

“The CAG’s move to identify and control corruption has become uncontrolled,” Dr Iftekharuzzaman, the TIB executive director, told the briefing.

Sultana Kamal, chairperson of TI trustee board, said: “The CAG office cannot work independently as it has to share the audit findings with the Prime Minister’s Office. The PMO’s audit is also done by the auditors of the CAG. “The constitutional right of the CAG is violated since it has been made liable to the Prime Minister’s Office.”

The report was prepared after collecting information from public servants of 40 government offices from March, 2013 to December, 2014.

The TIB states that political influence is seen while recruiting a CAG since the president has to take suggestion from the prime minister in this regard. “In that case, sometimes politically-influential officials are recruited,” the report says.

First-class auditors are recruited through the Public Service Commission but the others – auditors, junior auditors and employees – through the CAG office. The research found proof of political lobbying, bribery and corruption in the procedures.

Last year, almost half of the 413 newly-recruited officials and employees had to pay Tk3,00,000-Tk14,00,000 to get the job, the report says.

It was also found that many officials in the directorates under the CAG never want to get transferred as the “corrupt officials make their own way to income illegally. But it is mandatory to be transferred from one directorate to another after every three years.”

The report says an audit official went to foreign missions 47 times whereas there are many others who never get a chance to go abroad once in their career. Such malpractice takes place due to nepotism.

The research also spotted negligence in duty including lack of accountability at the director general level, lack of monitoring in field-level activities, no punitive measures for malpractices and not maintaining proper standard in preparing the audit reports.

The TIB in its 20-point recommendation stressed appointment of sufficient manpower, ensuring accountability of the auditors and enacting audit laws.

One of the three deputy CAGs said: “The TIB brought these allegations in a views exchange programme with us.

We sent all the related documents to the TIB office today [Thursday].”

The official, asking not to be named, told the Dhaka Tribune over phone: “The TIB in July told us that they did

Atiur: Economy will bleed if unrest continues MOVEMENT OF MONETARY AGGREGATES

 PAGE 1 COLUMN 6

instead of cautious and restrained through extending the private sector credit growth ceiling.

The ceiling for private sector credit growth was kept unchanged at 15.5% for June this year, according to the policy stance.

Private sector credit growth, even during the comfortable political climate of the last six months of last year, remained at 12.7% in November – well below the target of 14% for December.

BB governor Atiur pointed out that credit inflows jumped with growing demand in the last two months of 2014 thanks to the peaceful political environment.

After that, growth rates were not able to reach projected targets as credit inflows were slow during the first four months of the first half due to a lack of confidence among entrepreneurs, the country’s central banker explained.

But he said: “The private sector credit ceiling will remain open for possible extension if demand rises.”

Salehuddin, the former BB governor, said the policy stance could have gone ahead and increased the private sector credit ceiling focusing on small

38.0% 33.0% 28.0%

Net Domestic Assets Domestic Credit

23.0%

Credit to the public sector Credit to the public sector Broad money

18.0%

Reserve money

13.0% 8.0%

FY11

FY12

FY13

and medium entrepreneurs. He said this would have signalled to banks that the BB has a flexible position on SME lending.

Atiur explained that the policy stance was cautionary because banks were already rigid in lending amid the political unrest.

Bangladesh Bank Deputy Governor SK Sur Chowdhury said even though the political situation was stable in H1, entrepreneurs were still sceptical because of political uncertainty and infrastructure bottlenecks.

He said even though credit demand began to rise during the last two

FY14

FY15 MPS

months, it flattened out because of recent political unrest.

The programme targeted public sector credit growth at 25.3% for June this year, up from an earlier stance of 10.9% for December. This target is the highest in the last three fiscal years.

The high rate has been targeted at a time when government is expected to benefit from low oil import prices and increased sales of national savings certificates, both of which are expected to reduce pressure on bank borrowing by the government.

Public sector credit growth was recorded at 6.1% in November last year

had to press charges against them for their apparent involvement in violent and terrorist acts.

About the alleged confinement of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, the government said in the note: “It was on her own volition that she had decided to remain interned in her office, and always remains at liberty to move over to her residence.” l

not find any graft activities in the CAG office among all the government offices. But I wonder what happened in the last six months that puts us as a top corrupt institution!”

Refuting the allegations of bribery, the top CAG official observed that the auditors would not have managed Tk8,000 crore to Tk12,000 crore annually had most of the auditors were corrupt.

When contacted and told about the senior CAG official’s comments, Dr Iftekhar said they had conducted the survey maintaining national and international standards. He said they had all related documents about the claims.

“Last year, the CAG’s performance was better among 15 government bodies in a survey on good governance. They are not the most corrupt agency. But it does not mean they are above the law.

“To improve image, the CAG will have to overcome the challenges,” the TIB official added. l

against a programme of 11%, according to Bangladesh Bank data.

“Government borrowing remained below the ceiling last year but we increased the space for June predicting the possible implementation of some big projects,” said Bangladesh Bank Chief Economist Biru Paksha Paul.

In response to a question, the chief economist said the target was just a parameter that had been predicted and the ceiling might be raised if the situation requires it. Atiur said Bangladesh Bank’s support of capital market stability will continue in H2 FY2014-15.

He said the central bank had a statutory responsibility to enforce the compliance of banks with legal limits on their capital market exposure.

Atiur added that Bangladesh Bank has continued liquidity support for capital market transactions in volumes permissible within its monetary programmes. At the retail level, both deposit and lending rates fell in H1 FY2014-15 and the interest spread has, on average, decreased from 5.31% in June to 5.17% in November.

Bangladesh Bank will continue its effort to reduce this spread, according to the policy stance. l

Yet another truck driver assistant die in blockade violence  PAGE 1 COLUMN 1

Narayanganj to Chandpur. Tiles owner Masud too sustained burn injuries in the incident.

Police in Ghosherhat area confirmed the arson attack.

Sub-inspector of Chandpur Model police station Abu Sayeed said they had detained seven suspects after a massive raid in the nearby areas.

Police filed a case accusing 57 including 22 BNP men in this connection.

Since the beginning of the blockade the highways in the country has seen incidents like this intermittently. A passenger died in such an attack on the highway on January 6.

Meanwhile, two men were admitted to the DMCH’s burn unit yesterday after they received injuries in a Molotov cocktail attack in Feni and Magura on Wednesday.

Mason of Feni Mohammad Nawshad, 40, sustained burns while returning home in Shanti Company area around 10pm Wednesday.

The pro-blockaders hurled a petrol bomb at the CNG-run auto-rickshaw.

Along with him three passengers sustained minor injuries and took primary treatment at a local hospital.

With burns in face and two hands he was shifted to the DMCH burn unit.

Doctors said his respiratory system was affected and his condition was critical.

A truck driver Milon, 35, who was burnt by a petrol bomb early Wednesday was shifted to the DMCH burn unit yesterday. The truck was going to Dhaka from Jessore land port with garlic and came under attack around 2:30am in Magura.

Meanwhile, in Jessore miscreants burnt a parked bus early yesterday. No one was injured in the incident.

At Chiitagong’s Mirersorai pickets torched upazila Land Office by hurling petrol bomb through a window early yesterday. The attack gutted some important papers of the office.

In the capital police detained at least 36 youths from a dormitory of a madrasa in Mir Hazaribagh early yes-

terday. The detainees were students of Tamirul Millat Kamil Madrasa.

Dr Abu Yusuf, vice-principal of the madrasa, said twelve of them were Dakhil candidates equivalent to Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examination and 15 are Alim examinees.

Atiqur Rahman, a sub-inspector of Jatrabari police station, said some madrasa youths were held in a nearly three-hour drive beginning from 11pm on Wednesday.

Police, however, did not disclose anything about their arrests.

Meanwhile, at least eight people, including a student of Dhaka University, sustained injuries in two separate incidents of crude bomb explosions in the capital’s New Market yesterday evening.

The injured are Dhaka University student Shahidul Islam, Dhaka College student Piar Hossain, street vendors Shahjahan, Sajal, Simanto, Jamal and his brother Jainal.

The injured were admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

Inspector Mozammel Haque, DMCH Police Outpost in-charge, confirmed the incidents.

The injured were undergoing treatment at the emergency unit while this report was being filed.

Quoting the injured, police said the explosions took place at the gate 2 and gate 4 of New Market in between 6pm and 6:30pm. On the Dhaka University campus miscreants torched a parked bus around 2pm. On information fire fighters rushed there and doused the fire. No one was injured.

Apart from these incidents, vehicular movement was as usual in the capital. Even private cars that normally do not ply the city roads during shutdown fearing violence were seen in plenty.

Shops, offices and businesses were open as usual. RAB and policemen were deployed at all key points in the city to check untoward incident.

Launches and trains too left the capital as usual for their destination without facing any interruption. l

Thirty-eight illegal migrants feared dead as trawler capsizes  PAGE 1 COLUMN 3

Meanwhile, Maheshkhali police rescued 11 more people including two suspected traffickers from Matarbari channel, said Maheshkhali OC Alamgir Hossain.

As of filing this report at 9pm, rescue efforts were still going on at the site of the trawler capsize, while the Coast Guard said they would continue searching for survivors throughout the night.

Six of the rescued migrants were admitted to the Kutubdia Upazila Health Complex in critical conditions, said Kutubdia Upazila Health Officer Dr Mohammad Sahabuddin; but he assured that they were now out of danger.

The rescue teams also traced the trawler at around 3pm and brought it near the shore of Kutubdia island an hour later. No dead body was found in the hull of the trawler, said Captain Shahidul.

According to the rescued victims, who were mostly from Jessore, Bogra, Madaripur, Narayanganj and other northern districts, the FV Idris was not the initial vessel used in their illegal journey to Malaysia.

At first, the traffickers reportedly had around 50 people climb into a different larger vessel at Chittagong’s Majhirghat and started their journey at 11pm on Wednesday. Around 30 more people were picked up from Chittagong’s Banshkhali and Cox’s Bazar’s Pekua, before the vessel arrived at Kutubdia channel at dawn.

Later, all the illegal migrants were crammed into FV Idris, which soon began to sway heavily because of the rough waves and eventually started to sink.

“After swimming for about four hours, Coast Guard personnel rescued us,” said 30-year old Abul Kalam, one of those rescued from the scene.

Another of the rescued, 27-year-old

Mohammad Shahadat, said he gave traffickers around Tk1 lakh for going to Malaysia and to secure a job there.

“We were kept in a congested place in the trawler [by the traffickers] and suffered from a shortage of drinking water,” he said.

Police sources at Kutubdia and Maheshkhali said the suspected traffickers who were rescued from the water are Obaidul Haq, Nur Mohammad, Mohammad Ismail Mohammad Yiasin, Tayeb Hossain and Mohammad Rasel.

However, the suspects claimed to be innocent victims who only wanted to go to Malaysia like the others. Two of the suspects – Tayeb and Rasel – said they were cooks in the trawler and helped the boatmen sail.

Trafficking through sea routes

According to a report by the police headquarters’ Anti-Human Trafficking Special Committee, a total 3,793 people were rescued from Cox’s Bazar and Chittagong over the last five years, while around 15,000-20,000 people were trafficked to Thailand and Malaysia in the past decade alone.

The report also found that human traffickers were most active in 60 points of coastal areas under Patuakhali, Barguna, Satkhira, Jhalakati, Khulna, Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar, while their agents were influential in 41 districts.

The committee also observed that human trafficking tendency reached the peak during November to April as the sea was more calm in this period.

In a major operation on November 17, 2013, the Bangladesh Navy captured a 25-metre long Myanmar-flag-bearing fishing trawler from the Bay of Bengal, which was being used to illegally send 625 people to Malaysia. l

Unrest slows down mega projects  PAGE 1 COLUMN 5

and vehicles got attacked and burned by arsonists at various places.

The similar up-gradation project of the Dhaka-Mymensingh Highway has also been facing difficulties because of the unrest.

Implementation of the metro rail project in Dhaka city and the works for repairing old roads and building new ones across the country have also been facing a lot of trouble because of blockade-related atrocities.

The Bangladesh Railway has also decided to slash its development budget by nearly Tk925 crore for the upcoming revised ADP. In the main ADP for the ongoing fiscal year, railway got Tk4,526 crore for implementing 41 projects.

“The [railway] ministry will require only about Tk3,600 crore to execute the projects. Nearly one thousand crore may remain unspent as the transportation of essential construction materials have been very slow because of hartal and blockade,” an official from the Railway Ministry told the Dhaka Tribune.

Over the last five to six years, the government has significantly increased investment for improving the railway sector.

Because of indiscriminate arson on vehicles on highways in the ongoing blockade that enters day 25 today, the country’s general transport sector has come to a standstill. Costs are going through the roofs, but more alarmingly, owners are not ready to send their vehicles on the long route at all.

During months of political unrest before the January 5 general elections last year, transportation costs have increased by up to five to 10 times. This year too, the costs are fast pushing up towards that level.

As of January 20, the implementing agency has spent Tk284 crore out of a total of Tk500 crore of budgetary allocation for the Dhaka-Chittagong highway up-gradation project. As for the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway project, around Tk178 crore has so far been

spent from the original allocation of Tk398 crore.

As for foreign aid disbursement, slow execution of development projects has forced the government to slash annual foreign aid target by $360 million, Planning Ministry sources said.

“We have been forced to reduce the aid target as the government agencies have shown weak performance in project execution. Despite several measures, no improvement in project implementation is being observed,” an official said.

He added: “When agencies fail to implement foreign loan or grant-supported projects, external assistance disbursement by donors automatically decreases.”

During the first half of the current fiscal year, public agencies spent Tk22,494 crore, accounting for only 28% of the Tk80,315 crore ADP. Only about 27% of the total foreign aid allocation in the current ADP could so far be spent.

Firoz Ikbal, chief engineer of the Roads and Highways department, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday: “Our local offices remain very busy at this time of the year because most development funds are released from December to February. But because of arson and vandalism on the highways, equipment such as excavators cannot reach project sites. That is significantly slowing down the works.”

However, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader rejected any trouble on the highways.

“The construction works of roads and bridges are going on smoothly.

Mega projects are moving ahead fast.

The Dhaka-Chittagong four-lane project has faced some troubles because of the blockade, but that problem has already been solved,” he claimed.

The minister also said: “As for the Padma bridge and the Joydebpur-Mymensingh highway four-lane projects, because the army is involved, blockade supporters have not been able to create much trouble.” l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

3

Friday, January 30, 2015

MPs’ relatives to also enjoy car sticker privileges n Muhammad Zahidul Islam In a move to ensure preferential treatment for the lawmakers’ own family members, the parliament has decided to issue special car stickers separately to identify the vehicles carrying the relatives, Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury has said.

Under the existing policy, each lawmaker is entitled to have a single sticker for their own car; but if their family members are also given extra stickers, those relatives would also be able to enjoy preferential treatment on the road and bridges as well as avoiding security checks.

“Each MP would get one sticker for their own vehicle and one different coloured sticker for their family members,” Speaker Shirin Sharmin said.

She added that the stickers would have a hologram embedded with a security code and the vehicle number so that authorities concerned and law enforcers could easily identify the vehicle’s owner.

Besides, a different set of stickers would also be launched for the officials of the Jatiya Sangsad, the speaker said.

On Wednesday, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader told the house that car stickers of the MPs have been forged and found in the

A Dhaka court yesterday adjourned recording of deposition against BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia and her eldest son Tarique Rahman in the Zia Charitable Trust and Zia Orphanage Trust graft cases until February 25.

Judge Abu Ahmed Jamadar of the Dhaka Special Judge Court 3.

The counsels of both prosecution and defence expressed condolences over the death of the former prime minister’s younger son Arafat Rahman Koko.

The defence had petitioned for allowing Khaleda not to appear in the court yesterday because of her mental state following the death of her son.

The court accepted the petition.

Seeking adjournment of the trial proceedings, defence counsel Masud Ahmed Talukdar told the court: “We are not prepared mentally to take part in the hearing as we are mourning the untimely death of the BNP chairperson’s younger son.”

Expressing condolence over the death of Koko, plaintiff Anti-Corruption Commision (ACC) counsel Mosharraf Hossain Kajal accepted the petitions.

Considering all matters, the court adjourned the trial proceedings until February 25. l

WEATHER

DRY WEATHER LIKELY FRIDAY, JANUARY 30 DHAKA TODAY TOMORROW SUN SETS 5:43PM SUN RISES 6:41AM FORECAST FOR TODAY 25 27 26 25 24 26 27 28

12 16 9 8 10 14 11 18

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW

31.1ºC Sitakunda

10.8ºC Srimangal

Source: Accuweather/UNB

PRAYER TIMES Fajr Sunrise Jumma Asr Magrib Esha

5:22am 6:40am 12:12am 4:07pm 5:43pm 7:01pm

A double-decker for students of Dhaka University which was torched by hartal supporters yesterday, stands beside the Curzon Hall after fire-fighters douse the blaze MEHEDI HASAN

High Court bans expired 12,000 Ansar members to be deployed on highways stent implant

Khaleda’s cases adjourned till February 25 n Tribune Report

Dhaka Chittagong Rajshahi Rangpur Khulna Barisal Sylhet Cox’s Bazar

city’s Nilkhet area and used even by domestic helps of the lawmakers.

“We lawmakers have a responsibility. We should be lawmakers, not lawbreakers,” Obaidul said, also pointing out that some MPs also ignore traffic rules.

During yesterday’s sitting of the House, Bangladesh Nationalist Front lawmaker SM Abul Kalam Azad also spoke about the car sticker for MPs. Earlier last June, the Dhaka Tribune published a story about the illegal practice of parliament staff who sold special car stickers for only Tk200.

Sources told the Dhaka Tribune that a section of parliament officials have been selling these fabricated stickers containing the emblem of the Jatiya Sangsad and “parliament member” written under it.

Meanwhile, speaking about a different issue at the parliament, Awami League lawmaker Abdul Matin Khasru yesterday demanded that the government immediately rehabilitates the poor people who have been burnt during the BNP-led alliance’s blockade programme.

Speaking on point of order, he also termed the indefinite blockade as a criminal offence against the state and suggested taking legal action against the BNP. l

SourceL IslamicFinder.org

n Tribune Report The High Court has banned implanting expired stents in the bodies of heart patients in all hospitals, including the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD).

It also issued a ruling yesterday, asking why suppliers of expired stents, those who procure them and placing them in the patients’ bodies will not be declared illegal.

The health secretary, director general of the health directorate, police chief and the NICVD director were asked to respond to the ruling.

The ruling came after a television report caught the attention of the High Court bench of Justice Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque and Justice Abu Taher Md Saifur Rahman.

The bench said further order on this would be issued on March 1.

It also ordered to form an investigation committee headed by the chief of the health directorate and submit a report within a month.

On Wednesday, Channel 24 aired a report on the use of expired stents at the NICVD. Lawyer Zayedi Hasan Khan read out the online version of the report published on the channel’s website.

He told reporters the court had imposed a ban on the use of expired stents until the ruling was resolved.

American Heart Association says a stent is a tiny wire mesh tube that props open an artery and is left there permanently.

When a coronary artery is narrowed by a buildup of fatty deposits called plaque, it can reduce blood flow, and stents help keep coronary arteries open and reduce the chance of a heart attack. l

n Shohel Mamun

The government has decided to deploy 12,000 Ansar members, in phases, at 993 vulnerable points of different highways across the country to ensure law safety of vehicles.

The decision came at an inter-ministerial meeting in the Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges yesterday.

Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader briefed reporters about the decision after the meeting.

“A total of 12,000 Ansar members will be deployed at 993 points on the highways. The process will start on Friday [today], with 2,592 Ansar members to be deployed at 216 points. Twelve Ansar members will be stationed at each point, working in two shifts.”

He said the decision was taken in a bid to ensure safe journey of the passengers during the blockade.

Earlier on January 12, Bangladesh

Railway authorities deployed 8,000 Ansar members at 831 risky points across the country to ensure safe travelling of the trains. “We have decided to hold rallies around the country with the help of the local lawmakers and other public representatives to build up awareness,” the minister said.

The BNP-led 20-party alliance has been enforcing the nationwide roads and waterways blockade since January 5.

“According to Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, at least 40 people have died from arson attacks; among them, 15 were transport workers. Scores of other have been injured in different parts of the country in violence, most of them arson attacks,” Obaidul said.

“At least 325 vehicles were destroyed by arson attacks and 500 vehicles vandalised across the country.”

Asked about security during the upcoming SSC examinations, the minister

HRW concerned over lack of justice n Tribune Report New York-based Human Rights Watch says the Bangladesh government last year failed to prosecute security forces for serious abuses including killings, disappearances, and arbitrary arrests.

“The government forces committed serious abuses both leading up to and after the January [5] 2014 general election, while members of opposition parties engaged in violent and indiscriminate attacks to impose economic blockades and to enforce a boycott of the January polls,” the HRW said in its World Report 2015, released yesterday.

Lauding the arrests of several RAB personnel for their alleged involvement in the “high-profile contract killing” of a Narayanganj politician, Asia director Brad Adams said: “The government must ensure that justice is not dealt out selectively, depending on family or political connections.” l

JaPa’s token mass hunger strike begins n UNB

Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad attends a token hunger strike at his party’s Kakrail office in the capital yesterday. The party organised the fasting to protest the ongoing political violence around the country MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

Family says police killed Jamaat man Shahin n Our Correspondent, Rajshahi

Police have filed three cases over the killing of Jamaat activist Nurul Islam Shahin in an alleged “shootout,” although his family claimed that he was killed by law enforcers.

Sub-Inspector Monowar Uzzaman from the Motihar police station in Rajshahi filed the murder, explosives and arms cases on Wednesday night, charging around 20-22 unnamed Jamaat-Shibir activists.

Motihar OC Alamgir Hossain said they conducted a drive to nab Shahin’s cohorts, who tried to snatch him from police custody. That triggered a gunfight in which the Jamaat leader was

said: “Our initiative will be to ensure security to the SSC examinees.”

In face of public demand, the government has planned to take a number of security measures in order to ensure people’s security. It announced rewards for catching anarchists responsible for violence during hartal and blockades.

The BNP chairperson called the non-stop blockade on January 5 after she was barred from coming out of her Gulshan political office. BNP said she was “confined,” but the government claimed she was free to go home.

Police kept extremely tight security in place around Khaleda’s Gulshan office for 16 days.

The security was relaxed on January 12, but Khaleda never came out.

Instead, she said at a press conference that she was going to stay in her party office and the blockade would continue unless the government took the first steps towards solution. l

killed.

However, Shahin’s family alleged that police murdered Shahin in cold blood and then cooked up a story.

His brother Fazlul Haque Tuhin told the Dhaka Tribune that it was nothing bu a display of police’s “double standard;” police kill people then cook up shootout stories.

He said they were planning to file a murder case in this regard.

Tuhin alleged that men from the Detective Branch (DB) of Rajshahi Metropolitan Police (RMP) picked up his brother from their press in the city around 9pm on Tuesday.

He said when they contacted the DB office on Tuesday night, they were

told that Nurul Islam would be released the following morning. However, on Wednesday morning, they got a call from the Rajshahi Medical College Hospital (RMCH) that Nurul’s dead body had been kept there.

However, RMP Commissioner Muhammad Shamsudddin claimed at a press briefing at their headquarters that Shahin succumbed to injuries that he sustained in a “gunfight.”

“Detectives arrested Nurul Islam from a printing press, which he ran alongside teaching Islamic Studies at the Islamia Degree College in Rajshahi, at Malopara at 9pm Tuesday.

“Around 2am on Wednesday, a team from the Detective Branch of police

took him to the Nolkhola Ashrafer Mor to arrest his cohorts and recover firearms. But sensing police’s presence, his cohorts opened fire, hurled several crude bombs and tried to snatch Nurul, prompting the DB men to open fire in retaliation. Shahin got bullet-hit in the gunfight.

“Later, Shahin succumbed to his injuries after being rushed to the RMCH,” the RMB boss said.

Shahin was a former president of Rajshahi city’s ward number 30 unit of Jamaat-e-Islami.

The party has called a 36-hour hartal starting Saturday in eight districts of the Rajshahi Division in protest of the killing. l

The Jatiya Party observed a token mass hunger strike in front of the party’s Kakrail office in the capital yesterday to register its protest against the ongoing “violent politics.”

The hunger strike programme began at 11am and ended at 4pm.

Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad, Secretary General Ziauddin Bablu, MP, GM Quader, MP and presidium member Sayed Abul Hossain Babla, MP attended the programme, among others.

A press release, signed by Jatiya Party chairman’s Press and Political Secretary Sunil Shuvo Roy, said the token hunger strike was rescheduled for yesterday instead of Tuesday for unavoidable circumstances. l

BSF returns detained boy n Our Correspondent, Thakurgaon India’s Border Security Force has returned a teen-aged boy to the Border Guard Bangladesh hours after detaining him.

Sabbir, who was detained after stepping into Indian territory through Dabri border area in Haripur upazila yesterday morning, was handed over to the BGB after officials of both the border guards reached a consensus.

The 14-year-old is the son of Jamir Uddin of Dhugria village.

Jamir had taken Sabbir to work in a field near the border and the boy accidentally crossed the border after some time. Thakurgaon 30 BGB Director Lt Col Tushar Bin Yunus said Sabbir was returned around 11:30am. l

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Indictment hearing NATIONAL START-UP WORKSHOP BEGINS deferred against BNP-led alliance leaders n Md Sanaul Islam Tipu A Dhaka court yesterday deferred an indictment hearing against 46 BNP-led alliance leaders, including BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, in a case filed on charges of setting fire to a vehicle near the Prime Minister’s Office in the capital.

Metropolitan Magistrate Md Ataul Haque deferred the charge framing hearing and fixed April 9 for the next hearing, following a time petition filed by defence counsel Md Sanaullah Miah.

In the petition, the defence counsel mentioned that most of the accused could not appear before the court because of an ongoing hartal by the BNPled 20-party alliance.

The 46 accused include Mirza Fakhrul, BNP Standing Committee Members MK Anwar, Dr Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Mirza Abbas, Gayeshwar Chandra Roy and Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi.

According to the case statement, the accused torched a vehicle in front of the Prime Minister’s Office during a hartal on April 29, 2012. On May 10, 2012, DB Inspector Md Nurul Amin submitted the charge sheet to the Dhaka CMM Court against the accused in the case. l

Experts: CALIP project to benefit at least 30 lakh farmers in haor areas n Tribune Report A $15 million IFAD funded project on protecting livelihoods from climactic change will hit the floodplains of Bangladesh shortly, according to a workshop in the capital’s Agargaon area yesterday.

With loans and grants from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Climate Adaption and Livelihood Protection (CALIP) will be implemented over a five-year period, Monzur Hossain, a senior secretary of local government division, said.

Sources said the project would be implemented at the field level after the conlcusion of the ongoing workshop as related research was still being conducted until now.

The workshop was jointly organised by Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) and IFAD at the LGED headquarters in the capital’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar.

CALIP is a supplementary project of the Haor Infrastructure and Livelihood Improvement Project (HILIP).

Around $15 million has been allotted

for CALIP and the total cost of HILIP and CALIP is $134.84 million.

Monzur Hossain said the execution of the project already began from July last year and will end within June, 2019.

The five haor districts are Netrako-

This project will also introduce a Flash Flood Early Warning System which will give warnings seven days prior to any disaster na, Sunamganj, Habiganj, Kishoreganj and Brahmanbaria.

Hossain said: “Adaption strategies will require development and environmental goals intended to improve the livelihoods of the people living in the haor areas which are mostly affected by climate change. It will also require promoting resilence of natural systems.”

He said: “Agricultural, water, environmental and financing agencies need to act in a coordinated way to guaran-

tee that the strategies are being implemented.”

Hossain said the workshop was an important step in equiping Bangladeshi farmers with the tools to deal with climate change.

Gopal Chandra Sarkar, project director of HILIP, Nicolas Syed, country program officer of IFAD, Shyama Prosad Adhikari, chief engineer of LGED, also addressed the inaugural session.

The CALIP project will enhance livelihood opportunities and reduce vulnerability of the poor and strengthen the community and ecological resilience to climate change in haor regions, according to an overview of CALIP by LGED. Components of CALIP are community infrastructure, livelihood protection, capacity and knowledge for building and project management.

The total estimated direct beneficiaries of CALIP are 240,624 persons, said a booklet of IFAD. This project will also introduce a Flash Flood Early Warning System (FFEWS) especially for the farmers who live in haor areas which will give warn-

DUTA for law against petrol bomb attacks n DU Correspondent Dhaka University Teachers Association (DUTA) yesterday urged the government to enact a law to stop petrol bomb attacks and ensure security of people in the country.

Terming the recent political violence during on-

going blockade and hartals enforced by the BNP-led 20-party alliance a heinous crime, DUTA demanded that the government ensure exemplary punishment to the culprits, who hurl petrol bomb on the people.

At a press conference at the DU Teachers Club

Auditorium, the university teachers also urged the government to provide adequate compensation to the victims of the political violence and arson attacks.

In a written speech, DUTA General Secretary Prof Dr ASM Maksud Kamal said the government must introduce a law to prevent petrol bomb attacks like the Acid Oporadh Damon law.

He also compared the recent violence to the atrocities occurred during the Second World War. Prof Maksud announced that one day’s salary of the DUTA members will be donated for the rehabilitation and treatment of the victims of such violence.

Former DUTA president Prof Anawar Hossian, Executive Member Prof Akhturuzzamn, member Prof AJM Shafiul Alam Buiyan, and Treasurer Shiblee Rubayatul Islam, among others, were present on the occasion. l

ings seven days prior to any disaster hits.

Bangladesh Meteorological department, Institute of Water Management (IWM), Institute of Water and Flood Management (IWFM), Flood Forecasting and Warning Center (FFWC) and Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet) will work together to develop the system.

Experts at the workshop claimed approximately 30 lakh farmers will be benefited from this agrometeorological and flash flood forecast.

In addition to developing FFEWS, the project will provide climate smart agricultural technologies to farmers and give training to 150,000 farmers.

Under the project 224 villages will be protected through various measures including constructing wave protection walls, planting trees like Vertiver and Koroch, providing internal services.

It will also construct five model villages resilient to climate changes, build 22 shelters and construct 50km of flood resistant roads.

There will be at least six to seven more working sessions today and tomorrow. l

City corporation to make 15 kitchen markets formalin free n Tribune Report The Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) has decided to make 15 kitchen markets of the capital formalin-free immediately.

The local government body yesterday announced the decision after an internal meeting held at the corporation’s office in the capital, says a press release.

The press note said at least one booth will be installed in each of the kitchen markets for testing formalin in products. However, the number of booth can be more than one if the market is big.

DNCC Administrator Rakhal Chandra Barman directed officials concerned to buy proper formalin identifying kits.

The meeting also decided that sufficient manpower will be appointed for each booth. The monitoring teams will regularly visit the markets and take action if high level formalin is found in any product.

Chaired by the administrators, other senior officials of the DNCC and its regional office chiefs were also present in the meeting. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Urgent attention needed to make Chittagong habitable

Safety for SSC examinees demanded in Barisal n Our Correspondent, Barisal

A study reveals that waste management and recycling system have to be improved to make the city livable vantages. “We have to do a lot of work Director Dr Sultan Hafeez Rahman, the n FM Mizanur Rahaman, to make the city livable and explore its ceremony was attended by Mr SalahudChittagong

The city of Chittagong needs urgent attention from the policy makers to address a host of problems as it is lagging behind Dhaka in various sectors, despite having a large contribution to national economy, according to a recent study by Brac University.

The study report, titled “State of Cities: Governance for a Liveable Chittagong,” was published yesterday at a ceremony in Chittagong Club, where Housing and Public Works Minister Engineer Mosharraf Hossain was the chief guest.

It is the third study conducted by the Brac Institute of Governance and Development (BGID) at the university on local governance, but Chittagong was included in the study for the first time.

According to the report, “systemic dysfunction of local institutions, lack of horizontal accountability, dualism in service delivery, weak administrative and fiscal autonomy and excessive dependence of the local government on the central government and other agencies are constraints to good governance of the city.”

Speaking at the event, the minister said Chittagong had some unique ad-

resources.”

He said: “The Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec) has approved a Tk1,000-crore plan, under which the construction of

The city corporation has been dumping waste in open space, causing serious threat to the nature and human health power and liquefied natural gas (LNG) stations have already been started in Matarbari, with a 91-km pipeline to be set up between Maheshkhali upazila in Cox’s Bazar and Anwara upazila in Chittagong to supply the LNG to resolve the gas crisis in Chittagong city.

“The city corporation has been dumping waste in open space, causing serious threat to the nature and human health. So we need to work on the waste management and recycling system as well.”

Presided over by BIGD’s Executive

din Kashem Khan, managing director of AK Khan and Companies, as special guest, Dr Tofail Ahmed, head of politics, democracy and governance department at the BIGD, Zarina Hossain, architect and member of Bangladesh Institute of Planners, and Prof Muhammed Sekandar Khan, president of Forum for Planned Chittagong, among others.

Discussing the study report, Dr Tofail Ahmed said: “Chittagong City Corporation has received Tk348 crore in the past four years from the government, whereas Chittagong Development Authority (CDA) was given Tk4,400 crore in the past five years. Implementation of the development projects are often delayed because of the lack of coordination among the 32 institutes that are affiliated with the city corporation.”

The speakers also put emphasis on good political intention of the leaders as well as public opinion for efficient implementation of any development project in the port city.

Interestingly, though the study focused on the urban development in Chittagong city, there was no representatives of the CDA, the city corporation and others relevant authorities at the ceremony. l

Traffic was thin in the capital during yesterday's hartal enforced by the BNP-led 20-party alliance. The photo was taken from Shyamoli in the capital RAJIB DHAR

Master plan on the cards to reduce waterlogging in the capital n Abu Hayat Mahmud

The Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority has taken a master plan titled “Storm Water Drainage Master Plan” with a view to reducing waterlogging in the capital city.

The officials concerned of Wasa said after getting approval from the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council, they would start implementation work of the project.

Wasa officials informed the news-

men about the project at a dissemination programme held at a city hotel with Monzur Hossain, senior secretary of Local Government Division, Ministry Local Government and Rural Development and Cooperatives, in the chair.

At the meeting which was presided over by Taqsem A Khan, managing director of Dhaka Wasa, the officials said they had designed the project with the financial assistance of the World Bank.

The master plan has been prepared

by Dhaka Wasa in co-operation with Jurutera Perunding Zaaba Sdm Bhd of Malaysia, Farhat Consulting Engineers and Architects Ltd and SARM Associates Limited under Dhaka Water Supply and Sanitation Project.

To implement the plan, a huge amount of money would be needed, Wasa officials said. They also expressed hope that international development partners would come forward with assistance to implement the project.

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Friday, January 30, 2015

Monzur Hossain in his speech said Dhaka Wasa had been working sincerely over the last few years to fulfill the requirements of city dwellers in water supply and sanitation sector.

He also praised the programmes undertaken by Dhaka Wasa to reduce the water logging of the city during the rainy season.

Taqsem A Khan said Dhaka Wasa was moving forward to develop an environment-friendly, pro-people and sustainable water management system

for townspeople.

“Dhaka Wasa will be able to shift its paradigm by increasing its production from 28% to 70% from the surface water sources by 2019,” he said.

Md Serajuddin, deputy managing director of Dhaka Wasa and Josses Mugabi, task team leader of the project also spoke on the occasion.

The meeting was attended by high government officials and experts and the representatives of the Development partners. l

Samajtantrik Chhatra Front (SCF), a left-leaning student organisation, has urged the two archrival political parties to sit for a dialogue to reach a solution over credible general elections and end the ongoing blockade for the sake of smooth execution of Secondary School Certificate examinations starting from February 2.

Candidates need to feel safe while reaching to and returning from the examination centres. This simple procedure has become uncertain now because of the stubbornness of the political parties, said members of the SCF Barisal unit at a human chain yesterday.

While the unit formed a human chain demanding safety and security of the SSC examinees, Barisal Education Board has increased number of centres to ensure safety of the candidates amid the ongoing anarchy.

Participants at the human chain formed in front of Ashwini Kumar Hall around 12:30pm called the ruling party and BNP-led 20-party alliances to ensure safety and security of the SSC examinees.

People are passing days in anxiety while the nation is moving backwards in terms of development because of the blockade and strikes choreographed with violence. Dialogue between the rivals can change the scenario, said participants.

Government has failed to ensure safety of the general people, they said.

Meanwhile, the Barisal Education Board has increased more 27 centres for smoothly conducting the board exam, said Shah Alamgir, controller of examinations, BEB. Sources at BEB said a total of 70,806 students including 35,387 male and 35,419 female from 1,323 schools are attending the SSC 2015 to be held at 135 centres under the Barisal Education Board.

“We have tried to allocate the centres at little distances so that the travel time is squeezed and students and their parents feel safer,” said Shah Alamgir. l

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EBOLA OUTBREAK

Virus mutating, scientists warn n BBC

Scientists tracking the Ebola outbreak in Guinea say the virus has mutated.

Researchers at the Institut Pasteur in France, which first identified the outbreak last March, are investigating whether it could have become more contagious.

More than 22,000 people have been infected with Ebola and 8,795 have died in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Scientists are starting to analyse hundreds of blood samples from Ebola patients in Guinea.

They are tracking how the virus is changing and trying to establish whether it’s able to jump more easily from person to person.

More than 22,000 people have been infected with Ebola and 8,795 have died in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia “We know the virus is changing quite a lot,” said human geneticist Dr Anavaj Sakuntabhai.

“That’s important for diagnosing (new cases) and for treatment. We need to know how the virus (is changing) to keep up with our enemy.”

It’s not unusual for viruses to change over a period time. Ebola is an RNA virus - like HIV and influenza - which have a high rate of mutation.

That makes the virus more able to adapt and raises the potential for it to become more contagious.

“We’ve now seen several cases that don’t have any symptoms at all, asymptomatic cases,” said Anavaj Sakuntabhai.

“These people may be the people who can spread the virus better, but we still don’t know that yet. A virus

can change itself to less deadly, but more contagious and that’s something we are afraid of.”

There were fewer than 100 new cases in a week for the first time since June 2014.

In the week to 25 January there were 30 cases in Guinea, four in Liberia and 65 in Sierra Leone.

The World Health Organisation says the epidemic has entered a “second phase” with the focus shifting to ending the epidemic.

But Prof Jonathan Ball, a virologist at the University of Nottingham, says it’s still unclear whether more people are actually not showing symptoms in this outbreak compared with previous ones.

“We know asymptomatic infections occur… but whether we are seeing more of it in the current outbreak is difficult to ascertain,” he said.

“It could simply be a numbers game, that the more infection there is out in the wider population, then obviously the more asymptomatic infections we are going to see.”

Another common concern is that while the virus has more time and more “hosts” to develop in, Ebola could mutate and eventually become airborne.

There is no evidence to suggest that is happening. The virus is still only passed through direct contact with infected people’s body fluids.

Infectious disease expert Professor David Heyman said “No blood borne virus, for example HIV or Hepatitis B, has ever shown any indication of becoming airborne. The mutation would need to be major” Virologist Noel Tordo is in the process of setting up a new from the Institut Pasteur in the Guinea capital Conakry. He said, “At the moment, not enough has been done in terms of the evolution of the virus both geographically and in the human body, so we have to learn more. But something has shown that there are mutations. l

Palestinian youth hold their weapons during a graduation ceremony as part of a training camp run by the Hamas movement yesterday in Gaza City

Israel, Hezbollah signal their flare-up is over n Reuters, Jerusalem Israel and Hezbollah signalled yesterday their rare flare-up in fighting across the Israel-Lebanon border was over, after the Lebanese guerrillas killed two Israeli troops in retaliation for a deadly air strike in Syria last week.

Israel said it had received a message from UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, that Hezbollah was not interested in further escalation.

In Beirut, a Lebanese source briefed on the situation told Reuters that Israel informed Hezbollah via UNIFIL “that it will make do with what happened yesterday and it does not

want the battle to expand.”

Asked on Israel’s Army Radio whether Hezbollah had sought to de-escalate, Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon said: “There are lines of coordination between us and Lebanon via UNIFIL and such a message was indeed received from Lebanon.”

A salvo of Hezbollah guided missiles killed an Israeli infantry major and a conscript soldier as they rode in unmarked civilian vehicles along the Lebanese border on Wednesday.

Israel then launched an artillery and air barrage, and a Spanish peacekeeper was killed. Spain’s ambassador to the

UN blamed the Israeli fire for his death.

It was the most serious clash on that border since 2006, when Hezbollah and Israel fought a 34-day war. Yesterday, the frontier was quiet, though Lebanese media reported overflights by Israeli air force drones.

Both sides appear to share an interest in avoiding further escalation.

Iranian-backed Hezbollah, which fought Israel to a standstill in 2006, is busy supporting Damascus in Syria’s civil war, and the level of destruction in Lebanon during the 2006 conflict could also be weighing on its calculations. l

AFP

Obama bids to reverse automatic spending cuts

n AFP, Washington

US President Barack Obama will yesterday unveil plans to reverse automatic cuts in military and other spending, as he rolls out budget proposals for the coming year. The automatic cuts - a socalled sequester - began entering into effect in 2013 after Democrats and Republicans were unable to reach a deal on cutting the deficit. They are estimated to reduce spending by as much as $1tn by 2021 and are described by critics as being arbitrary, job destroying and detrimental to the country’s military. l

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Friday, January 30, 2015

Sri Lanka’s new government plans fresh war crimes probe n Reuters, Colombo Sri Lanka is planning an investigation into accusations of human rights abuses in the final stages of a 26-year civil war amid international frustration at the failure to look into numerous civilian deaths, a government spokesman said yesterday.

Former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was ousted in a surprise election defeat this month, had refused to cooperate with any UN investigation into claims the army committed atrocities in the war that ended in 2009.

Without some accountability for civilian deaths, the United Nations argues there will be no lasting reconciliation to allow Sri Lanka to move on from the war that dragged on for decades as ethnic Tamil rebels battled for autonomy in the island’s north and east.

“We are thinking of having our own inquiry acceptable to them to the international standards,” Rajitha Seneviratne, a government spokesman, told a forum of foreign correspondents in Colombo late on Wednesday, referring to the United Nations.

“It will be a new local inquiry. If we need, we will bring some foreign experts.”

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in November accused Rajapaksa’s government of trying to “sabotage” its own investigation and creating a “wall of fear” to prevent witnesses from giving evidence to its inquiry set up in March.

About 40,000 Tamil civilians were killed in the final weeks of the war, most of them by the Sri Lankan army, the United Nations estimated in a 2011 report. Sri Lanka has rejected the accusations and has been conducting its own investigation.

Newly elected President Maithripala Sirisena in the run up to the vote promised a new investigation under an independent judiciary, but rejected demands for an international inquiry.

This week, he sent his senior adviser on foreign relations to meet UN officials to discuss the investigation, government sources said. l

DELHI ELECTIONS Rahul: Modi was wearing Rs 10-lakh suit

n Agencies

Supporters of the Congress party shout slogans as they listen to Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi speak at an election rally ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections, in New Delhi yesterday. Polling will be held on February 7 with counting two days later AFP

MH370 was an ‘accident’ IS purportedly sets new n deadline for hostage swap Reuters, Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia declared yesterday the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 an accident, clearing the way for the airline to pay compensation to victims’ relatives while the search for the plane goes on.

The Boeing 777 aircraft disappeared on March 8 last year, carrying 239 passengers and crew shortly after taking off from the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur, bound for Beijing.

Months of searches have failed to turn up any trace.

“We officially declare Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 an accident ... and that all 239 of the passengers and crew onboard MH370 are presumed to have lost their lives,” Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) director-general Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said in a statement.

The announcement is in accordance with standards of annexes 12 and 13 in the International Civil Aviation, said Azharuddin. It will allow families of the passengers to obtain assistance through compensation, he said.

Malaysia Airlines was ready to proceed immediately with the compensation process to the next-of-kin of the passengers on the flight, he said.

China called on Malaysia to compensate families.

“We call on the Malaysian side to honour the promise made when they declared the flight to have been lost and earnestly fulfil their compensation responsibilities,” Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in a statement.

Most of the passengers on the plane were from China.

International investigators are looking into why the Boeing jet veered thousands of miles off course from its scheduled route before eventually plunging into the Indian Ocean.

The search in the Indian Ocean is still going on and Malaysia is also conducting a criminal investigation, Azharuddin said.

“Both investigations are limited by the lack of physical evidence at this time, particularly the flight recorders,” he said. l

n Reuters An audio message purportedly from a Japanese journalist held by Islamic State militants said a Jordanian air force pilot also captured by the group would be killed unless a woman jailed in Jordan was released by sunset yesterday.

The message appeared to postpone a previous deadline set on Tuesday in which the journalist, Kenji Goto, said he would be killed within 24 hours if the Iraqi would-be suicide bomber in prison in Jordan was not freed.

The latest audio recording, which could not be verified by Reuters, was posted on YouTube early yesterday.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference that chances were high it was Goto’s voice in the recording.

“I am Kenji Goto. This is a voice message I’ve been told to send to you. If Sajida al-Rishawi is not ready for exchange for my life at the Turkish border by yes-

terday sunset 29th of January Mosul (Iraq) time, the Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kasaesbeh will be killed immediately,” the voice in the recording says.

Jordan said on Wednesday it had received no assurance that al-Kasaesbeh was safe and that it would go ahead with a proposed prisoner swap only if he was freed.

The audio message implied that the Jordanian pilot would not be part of an exchange deal, indicating any swap would be between Goto, a veteran war reporter, and al-Rishawi.

That leaves Jordan in a difficult position. Any swap that left out the pilot would be deeply unpopular after officials insisted he was their priority, and could leave Amman subject to further demands from the militants.

But refusing the insurgents’ ultimatum could heighten domestic opposition to Jordan’s unpopular role in the US-led military campaign against Islamic state. l

US would welcome Japan Narendra Modi Replaces India’s Foreign Secretary With Envoy to US air patrols in S China Sea n Agencies Just days after the conclusion of a visit from President Obama that was widely seen as a success, India has abruptly removed its highest-ranking diplomat and replaced her with its ambassador to the United States, who served as a crucial interlocutor between New Delhi and Washington before the summit meeting.

The appointment of the ambassador, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, as foreign secretary, which took effect yesterday, comes as Narendra Modi steers India toward a closer partnership with the United States.Jaishankar, who has also served as ambassador to China and as high commissioner to Singapore, was a crucial negotiator on the groundbreaking 2008 civilian nuclear agreement between India and the United States.

He replaces Sujatha Singh, who was appointed by the previous government led by the Indian National

Congress party, the main rival to Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party. Singh articulated India’s angry reaction to the 2013 arrest of India’s deputy consul general in New York, Devyani Khobragade, on visa fraud charges, an episode that brought relations between the two countries to their lowest point in years.

No explanation was given yesterday for the reshuffle, which was unusual. More than 15 years have passed since a foreign secretary was removed before the end of his or her term.

The timing seemed to have been partly dictated by Obama’s visit. Jaishankar played such an important role in coordinating it that it would have been disruptive to replace him until it was over. AndJaishankar was due to retire on Saturday, after which he could not have been appointed because only an active foreign service officer can be named foreign secretary.

Still, some commentators saw the announcement as a signal of Modi’s

intention to deepen cooperation with the United States.

“I don’t know of any foreign secretary who had his experience of dealing with America before becoming foreign secretary,” said K Shankar Bajpai, a former Indian ambassador to the United States and China.

He added that Jaishankar’s primary task in his two-year term would be “to consolidate the understandings that are growing between Washington and Delhi, and obviate tensions, as far as possible, between Delhi and Beijing.”

One of the most notable developments during Obama’s visit was a joint India-United States statement that chided China for provoking conflict with neighbors over territorial claims in the South China Sea. Modi has also expressed interest in concrete steps aimed at balancing China’s regional influence, such as reviving a loose security network involving Australia, India, Japan and the United States. l

n Reuters, Agencies The United States would welcome a Japanese extension of air patrols into the South China Sea as a counterweight to a growing fleet of Chinese vessels pushing China’s territorial claims in the region, a senior US Navy officer told Reuters.

Regular patrols by Japanese aircraft only reach into the East China Sea, where Japan is at loggerheads with China over disputed islands. Extending surveillance flights into the South China Sea would almost certainly increase tension between the world’s second- and third-largest economies.

“I think allies, partners and friends in the region will look to the Japanese more and more as a stabilising function,” Admiral Robert Thomas, commander of the Seventh Fleet and the top US navy officer in Asia, said in an interview.

“In the South China Sea, frankly, the Chinese fishing fleet, the Chinese

coastguard and the (navy) overmatch their neighbors,” Thomas said.

China’s foreign ministry said it had no immediate comment on the interview.

Thomas’s comments show Pentagon support for a key element of Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s push for a more active military role in the region. That is crucial because U.S and Japanese officials are negotiating new bilateral security guidelines expected to give Japan a bigger role in the alliance, 70 years after the end of World War Two. “I think that JSDF (Japan Maritime Self Defense Forces) operations in the South China Sea makes sense in the future,” Thomas said.

Japan is not party to the dispute in the South China Sea where China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei have competing claims.

But the waterway provides 10 per cent of the global fisheries catch and ships crossing it carry $5 trillion a year in cargo, a large portion to and from Japan. l

Unicef makes record appeal to help 60 million children in crisis n Reuters, London The UN Children’s Fund launched a record $3.1bn appeal yesterday to enable it to help children caught up in a “new generation” of conflicts and disasters round the world, $1bn more than it sought in 2014.

A series of more complex and destructive crises, natural disasters and emergencies such as the Ebola epidemic, are putting some 60 million children in extraordinary danger of violence, hunger, disease and abuse, Unicef said.

“From deadly natural disasters to brutal conflicts and fast-spreading epidemics, children across the world are facing a new generation of humanitarian crises,” Afshan Khan, Unicef director of emergency programmes, said in a statement.

“Whether in the headlines or hidden from view, emergencies sparked by social fracture, climate change and disease are stalking children in ways we have never seen before.” More than one in 10 children now live in countries or regions affected by armed conflict, Unicef said in the report Humanitarian Action for Children that accompanied the appeal.

The biggest amount in the appeal, $903m, was for Syria and the region around it, followed by $500m for West African

countries affected by the Ebola epidemic.

More that 5.6 million children need support in Syria, as do 1.7 million who have fled the five-year-old conflict for neighbouring countries, Unicef said.

“For the past four years, these children have been witnessing violence and death daily and have been missing out on the very basics in life,” said Khan.

“This appeal will help secure a future for not only the children of Syria but all children around the world who are impacted by humanitarian crises.”

Money raised for Ebola-affected areas will be used to isolate and treat new cases and prevent new outbreaks, Unicef said.

Unicef also appealed for $32 million for Ukraine, where it said 5.2 million people, one third of them children, were living in conflict zones and 600,000 were displaced.

The appeal, which covers 71 countries and a total of 98 million people, also includes underfunded and forgotten crises, including Afghanistan, the Palestinian Territories and Niger.

As well as drawing attention to the growing number of emergencies, the Unicef report also highlighted the increasing interdependence of humanitarian and development work. l

US actress Mia Farrow, a Unicef goodwill ambassador, distributes aid to Syrian refugees in Baalbeck, Bekaa valley

REUTERS

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi yesterday hit out at PM Narendra Modi saying that he has ‘fooled’ the nation on the issue of black money stashed in foreign accounts.

Speaking at a rally in Dehli’s Seelampur, Rahul said that the PM misused public money to get himself Rs 10 lakh suit during US President Barack Obama’s India visit. The PM’s suit had stripes that spelled out his name all over it.

In a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Gandhi cited th failure of his government to keep its promise of checking price rise and bringing the black money back into the country within 100 days of assuming power.

“He (Modi) claimed that he would bring back the black money back into India and put Rs.15 lakh everyone’s bank account. But did you get any Rs.15 lakh?” Rahul Gandhi asked the people.

Taking a jab at the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Gandhi said its only goal was to “keep the Congress out of power” inIndia’s capital.

BJP shoots questions at Kejriwal

BJP yesterday decided to put its campaign for Delhi assembly polls in top gear by fielding several of its frontline leaders and targeting AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal with five questions, an exercise which will last till February 5, the last day of electioneering.

Among the questions posed by BJP to Kejriwal are why he took Congress support to form government last year after having promised not to do so and had also sworn by his children and why he did not fulfil his promise of instituting a case against former CM Sheila Dikshit and not make public documents pertaining to alleged corruption by her.

He has also been asked why he took Z-plus security as CM and why he ordered for SUVs for his entire ministry after forming his government while touting himself as a common man who moved in a Maruti car, besides why he was using private jets and travelled in business class while travelling within the country and abroad garnering party funds. l

Kuwait arrests online activists ‘over Saudi criticism’ n AFP, Kuwait City Kuwait authorities have detained several online activists allegedly for comments deemed offensive to Saudi Arabia’s late King Abdullah, a rights group and activists said yesterday.

Secret police late Wednesday arrested prominent rights and online activist Mohammad al-Ajmi outside his home for “unknown reasons,” the National Committee for Monitoring Violations, an independent rights group of which Ajmi is a member, said on its Twitter account.

Online activists and former MPs said on Twitter that Ajmi was being held for questioning over Tweets he made on Saudi Arabia.

Nawaf al-Hendal, a leading rights activist, said at least four others had been detained by state security for tweets deemed offensive to King Abdullah who died on Friday.

Hendal, currently in Geneva, also said on his Twitter account that arrest warrants have been issued against him and five other tweeters for the same reason.

The Gulf Centre for Human Rights, an independent body, said Hendal was being “targeted in order to intimidate him and others from working as defenders of human rights.”

There was no word on the arrests from the interior ministry and the public prosecutor has not announced any charges.

Kuwait has cracked down on activists for making comments seen as critical of the oil-rich state’s ruler and other Arab leaders, especially in the Gulf.

Former liberal MP Saleh al-Mulla was detained for five days earlier this month for tweets deemed offensive to Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi during a two-day visit to Kuwait.

He is to stand trial on February 15.

And Shiite MP Abdulhameed Dashti is facing trial for criticising Bahrain leaders, while former Islamist MP Mubarak al-Duwailah was questioned over comments critical of Abu Dhabi’s rulers.

Since a political crisis in June 2012, Kuwaiti authorities have ramped up efforts to curtail dissent.

Courts have sentenced politicians, online activists and journalists to prison terms for exercising free speech rights, Human Rights Watch said this month. l

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DHAKA TRIBUNE

Editorial

Friday, January 30, 2015

CODE-CRACKER

Be realistic about poverty

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e wish we could share the conviction with which Finance Minister AMA Muhith has declared that Bangladesh will become a poverty-free country by 2018.

However, even if a speedy resolution to the political crisis were to allow growth rates to rebound quickly upwards, this prediction is grossly unrealistic.

For a start, commonly used definitions of poverty are based on very low thresholds for purchasing power. The World Bank, for instance, measures national poverty rates according to the proportion of a national population living on less than PPP of $1.25 a day, at 2005 prices.

While such definitions are helpful in measuring, and hence targeting, steps to reduce absolute levels of extreme poverty, they are only a first in a long road.

The minister based his statement on a forecast that the poverty rate will fall to 12% by 2018, and the understanding that the standard poverty rate for a country to be dubbed poverty-free is 10-14%.

Clearly, even if this were to happen, and we hope it does, Bangladesh has, and will, by then still have huge numbers of unemployed and underemployed people. Indeed, it will continue to have millions of people living in poverty.

It is not that the minister is wrong to be enthusiastic in trumpeting the progress made over the past two decades in cutting poverty rates. Bangladesh has made good progress towards the Millennium Development Goals precisely because successive governments have operated successful pro-poor targeted development projects.

But none of this changes the reality that the lives and aspirations of tens of millions of citizens are burdened by poverty and that there is a long way to go before this is overcome.

The lives and aspirations of tens of millions of citizens are burdened by poverty

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

Justice elusive for murder cover-up victim’s family January 18

Shahed S Sabir “A 12th grade female cadet, now believed to have been murdered in 2005 by the very staff at her college that claimed she had committed suicide, awaits justice as the trial of her killers remains elusive.”

OMG! How were these hyenas made members of the college staff ? Poor girl.

May her soul rest in peace. I am at a loss for words, and no amount of condolences to her parents and family can help them. The killers need

5 policemen injured in petrol bomb attack

How to solve: Each number in our CODE-CRACKER grid represents a different letter of the alphabet. For example, today 21 represents M so fill M every time the figure 21 appears.

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

Some letters of the alphabet may not be used.

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

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

to be punished ASAP. Abdullah M Khalid Hafiz In the write-up about Pollen written by her batchmate, it was noted that apparently they didn’t observe any bleeding (from a wound caused by the blunt object) supporting the case to be a murder.

Still Alive It’s very sad ... justice delayed is justice denied.

Je suis Charlie January 15

January 18

Yaseer Arafat Kakon They were just doing their jobs.

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.

Bus helper burnt to death in Gazipur January 15

Fine polluting tannery owners

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t is totally unacceptable that the relocation of central Dhaka’s tanneries to improved facilities is still being delayed.

The grossly outdated and polluting tannery facilities in Hazaribagh are a blight on the whole of Dhaka. They are by far the worst and most visible polluters of the Buriganga river and have given Hazaribagh the ignominious distinction of being labeled as one of the five most polluted sites on Earth.

After the large amount of public funds committed to implementing the long planned move from the grossly polluted Hazaribagh neighbourhood to the Savar area, it is highly reprehensible for influential tannery owners to still be demanding more government funds to subsidise their long overdue relocation.

It is not just in the interests of local residents for the industry to relocate. The environment and workers alike will benefit from improved facilities and effluent treatment plants.

More to the point, it is also in the industry owners’ self-interest.

The future growth of exports and sustainability of the nation’s leather sector and tannery industries depends on the industry convincing buyers and consumers that it is acting responsibly in improving negative environmental and social impacts.

There is no justification for slowing down or delaying the planned move. Deadlines have been extended too many times.

The government should concentrate the minds of the owners and operators of polluting Hazaribagh tanneries by imposing and enforcing tougher laws and compensation requirements on anyone polluting Dhaka’s waterways.

Carrots have been ignored, so it is time to use a stick.

They are by far the worst and most visible polluters of the Buriganga river

Seira For God’s sake, spare the innocent lives! rose The miscreants should be punished harder. sirajulmo@yahoo.com The government is not doing enough to protect the innocent public from hooligans. The political agenda should not be to harm innocent people.

Shibir activist run over by truck while torching

January 14 TM We are extremely happy at this news. We congratulate the bus driver for his heroic attempt. We urge all people to revolt against the picketing, blockade, and damage to life and property, irrespective of who or which part is doing it.

Let BNP and AL or other political parties fight themselves. Why should innocent people suffer for no fault of their own? The fact that they are living in Bangladesh is not a crime. Killing, looting, and burning are crimes, and the police should protect the public from such acts.

We want to live peacefully. We want justice and peace.

‘Anti-Terrorism Act to be used to tackle violence’ January 15 m Sirajullah Politicians have no right to engage killers and arsonists to silence the public. The government is not doing its duty of providing safety to people’s lives and property.

No word of suns and worlds

January 15 Karl Hungus Simply beautiful. Mr Milam’s poignant op-eds are always a treat to read.

Kmak “First of all, we must be clear on one thing: A killer is a killer. There is no room whatsoever to even hesitate on whether to stand against them, let alone glorify them.”

Let us also be clear that bigotry is bigotry and Charlie Hebdo was notorious for promoting bigotry towards Islam and Muslims. Just as I will not glorify killers, so will I not glorify Islamophobes by saying “Je suis Charlie.” Shaykh Habib Ali al-Jifri said it best: “Yesterday we all spoke out in clear condemnation of the crimes perpetrated at Charlie Hebdo. Today, we’ll speak out against Muslims raising the slogan ‘We are all Charlie Hebdo.’ How can a Muslim say this about a magazine that insulted the Prophet Muhammad through its offensive cartoons?

Excessiveness and negligence are two sides of the same coin in extremism.” rayhana yamin If anybody hurts you, it is likely to be retaliated.

Hebdo has hurt, unconsciously, the millions of Muslims across the world. Only a handful of aggrieved persons have taken the course of retaliatory steps through arms causing bloodshed of a number of people including newspaper staff and others. Bloodshed in any form is despicable, at the same time, injuring others’ sentiments is also despicable. Only a handful of radicals have displayed their instant armed anger over the libelous publication. While millions of hearts over the globe have been bleeding in secrecy on the incidents.

Truly speaking, millions of Muslims, and others who like Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon Him and His posterity), have been suffering from smoldering pains and hatred to the offenders of such hateful crimes. Such libelous publications, utterances in any other form in public hamper global peace and beget hatred to the fellow brethren. The whole of Europe has long been suffering from Islamophobia.

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Dandy (3) 3 Put away (6) 8 Singer (4) 9 Respectful fear (3) 10 Makes up for (6) 11 Optical illusion (6) 14 Encounters (5) 17 S African prime minister (5) 20 Arch slightly (6) 24 Complete agreement (6) 26 Meshed fabric (3) 27 Garment (4) 28 Country (6) 29 Droop (3)

DOWN 1 Solid (4) 2 Couple (4) 3 Male deer (4) 4 Tribal symbol (5) 5 Scope (5) 6 Female sheep (3) 7 School furniture (5) 12 Doctrine (3) 13 Liable (3) 15 Tree (3) 16 Neckwear (3) 17 Avoids (5) 18 Combine (5) 19 Tally (5) 21 Soon (4) 22 Insects (4) 23 Circle (4) 25 Fresh (3)

Leader versus statesman

CALVIN AND HOBBES

January 15

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS CODE-CRACKER

Evil People Politics “No matter how the political regimes try to colour them, Bangabandhu and Ziaur Rahman will be remembered.”

Both Sheikh Mujib and Zia are responsible for Bangladesh being the prosperous nation it is today.

PEANUTS

CROSSWORD

US, UK condemn attack on Reaz January 15

SM Hundreds of people are being killed every day by politicians. What a pity that these innocent people get no right to live peacefully. One politician is wounded and now we get shocked! This is strange.

Hanif: Attack on Reaz Rahman part of Khaleda’s conspiracy January 15

Dr Ahsan Habib If Hanif knows that, then why were the “conspirators” not arrested? It seems that arresting someone is a cheap act to the government.

SUDOKU

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Op-Ed

11

Friday, January 30, 2015

Humanity vs indecency n Nadeem Qadir

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Is there anybody out there?

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n Zafar Sobhan he time has come for Bangladeshis to contemplate what comes next.

For the past quarter of a century our political life has been dominated by Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia. An entire generation of Bangladeshis has been born who has seen no prime minister other than them, and can scarcely imagine political life without their outsize presence.

Even during the days of the caretaker government, they dominated the political landscape with their absence, and even when outside the country or incarcerated, the political conversation focused squarely on their future.

It was apparent from very early on in 2007 that the brave new world promised by the caretaker government would never materialise, and that it was only a matter of time before one or the other of the two ladies would return to power through a democratically contested election.

Even in those difficult days for the AL and BNP, few doubted that the two ladies would be back and fewer still could imagine a future for the country without one of them at the helm.

But in the year 2015, with the PM 67 years old and Khaleda Zia two years older, for the first time in a generation, Bangladeshis must seriously contemplate what the world might look like after they have both retired from politics.

In 2019, Sheikh Hasina will be 71 years old and Khaleda Zia 73. It is not impossible that they would continue to lead both their parties and (for one of them) the nation. But we are now standing at the threshold of the potentially most significant shift in politics

in Bangladesh since the end of the Ershad era in 1990.

It has long been assumed that both ladies would be succeeded by their sons, Sajeeb Wazed Joy and Tarique Rahman, respectively.

But as the example of India has shown, it could be that the power of political dynasties and the magic of a storied name will no longer hold as much sway over the voters as they once did.

It could be that the next handover of power within the parties will mark their coming of age, and they will be transformed from two family businesses into genuine political parties in which merit and popular opinion matter more than lineage and the feudal loyalty of party members.

party leadership due to who they were, and that both were at the time untested, with nothing to recommend them save their ability to unite their respective parties’ warring factions behind them, they could not have stayed at the helm of power in their parties and reached the highest office of the state had there existed any political leader with the stature and the popularity to take them on.

Now it is true that they have been helped immeasurably by our single constituency, first-past-the-post electoral system, which makes it inordinately hard for new parties to come into existence, and that the organisational structure of their own parties makes it all but impossible for a challenge to be brought from within.

For the first time in three decades the opportunity exists for a new challenger of genuine merit and capacity to step into the ring

Somwe might argue that we are not yet ready for this as a society, and that the AL and BNP merely reflect the reality of our greater society at large. But this is not entirely true. It is worth recalling that neither Sheikh Mujib nor Ziaur Rahman were themselves dynastic leaders, and that both of them rose to the heights of power through dint of their own merit and efforts.

Similarly, while it is true that both the PM and Khaleda Zia attained their

But it is also true that in the past three decades Bangladesh has not generated a fresh, new political leader capable of challenging them and exposing their weaknesses.

Now, love him or hate him, there is no denying the fact that Narendra Modi is a formidable politician with remarkable political skill. He also has an impressive track record in governance and has proved himself to be an able administrator.

Seeing him in action, it is apparent that he is the most accomplished political figure India has seen since the assassination of Indira Gandhi, and he looks set to dominate Indian politics for at least the next decade, commanding as much authority and wielding as much power as Mrs Gandhi and her father did before him.

The timing was perfect for him. The opportunity to unseat the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty did not exist before last year. It is true that they had lost the occasional election, but none of their losses were cataclysmic. None of them heralded a changing of the guard, the dawning of a new era.

Part of what made the timing perfect for Modi was that he faced a young heir apparent as his opponent, and that in comparison to Modi, Rahul Gandhi came across as callow and insubstantial, with insufficient real world experience or connection to the average voter.

These may have been words that could have been applied to Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia in the early 1980s, but by the time they were running for election in the 1990s, it was no longer true. They had made their bones.

But with the time approaching when they will have to pass on the baton of leadership, for the first time in three decades the opportunity exists for a new challenger of genuine merit and capacity to step into the ring and stake his or her claim.

The only question is: Is there anybody out there with the ambition to rise to the challenge and with the ability to make voters take a second look? l Zafar Sobhan is the Editor, Dhaka Tribune.

n 1999, my mother, Hasna Hena Qadir, passed away suddenly. She was buried by colleagues of her husband at the military graveyard in Banani. I spent night and day there with my younger brother for 40 days, because in our hearts we believed Ammu would be scared to stay alone and in darkness. Our fear of the dark and the graveyard was gone. I have not missed a week since – if I was in town – to visit my mother and pray for her.

Death changes many things.

BNP chief Begum Khaleda Zia’s younger son Arafat Rahman Koko also passed away suddenly. He was only in his mid-40s. I knew Koko and also his elder brother Tarique, because we stayed in Dhaka Cantonment, and we were children of senior army officers.

Arafat was not as visible as Tarique, and I remember both of them had ever-smiling faces. I went with my mother to their residence when their father General Ziaur Rahman was killed in an abortive coup. The gate was open, and security personnel only enquired about the identity of the people coming to console the Zia family.

My mother went to the room where Begum Zia – then just a housewife – was grieving while we waited in another room where Tarique was seated.

Today, I pray for the peace of the departed soul of Arafat, and that Begum Khaleda Zia has the strength to bear the loss.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, a mother herself, felt the pain of such a loss and rushed to console Khaleda Zia at her Gulshan office where Khaleda had been staying since January 4 as a mark of protest against the government.

Unfortunately, the gate remained locked, and the PM had returned without being able to console Khaleda Zia. The BNP gave many explanations, but it was simply clear that the leadership, even if we take that Khaleda Zia was sleeping, failed to show the minimum courtesy to a pained citizen, leave aside the prime minister herself.

Never before, I think, has anybody heard of such behaviour at such times.

Sheikh Hasina is the prime minister and she represents the people now.

Refusing her entry is an insult to Bangladeshis. This is not a fight between two families over disputed land, but it seemed so to me.

The BNP gave a message: The Awami League was in power, which the BNP deserved but didn’t have, and thus they would not allow Sheikh Hasina to step in. Whoever has been pulling the strings, some say the string stretch up to Europe, has taken this as a personal fight, rather than a political battle.

I do not agree with the opinion that had the two ladies met, there might have been an impasse. What could have happened at most would be an appreciation of the gesture, and talks on different lines, outside of politics.

Those who kept the premier waiting at the gate for nearly eight minutes and then kept the gate locked from inside most likely had no proper upbringing, or for that matter forgot that there are courtesies that are above politics.

Khaleda’s aide Shimul Biswas said that he had come with the condolence book, but by then the PM had left. The question is: Do you expect the PM to stand at the gate and write in the condolence book? Is that courteous?

That was a lie, as the PM’s aides say they never saw him with a condolence book.

I talked to a few BNP leaders, and they all agreed that the PM was mistreated, and it is a shame.

The BNP officials were screaming not to make the death of Koko a political issue, but sadly, they did it themselves by insulting the PM and taking the focus off Koko to the dirty affair at the gate. The BNP’s culture has been always uncourteous.

Khaleda Zia screamed uncourteously at Sheikh Hasina over telephone, then she screamed at a police officer as “Gopali” to mean she was from the PM’s home district of Gopalganj. And now, the gate scandal. Her elder son has been slandering the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, even though he was being criticised by those in the BNP. The PM has shown great restraint and statesmanship in dealing with all these incidents, but why should she continue to tolerate them? Some BNP leaders or pro-BNP professionals tried to say Sheikh Hasina came to make a political score. Let me give them two personal incidents which clearly shows that the prime minister has lot of humanity, and is pained by others’ pain.

When my mother passed away, I was the general secretary of the Oversaes Correspondents Association of Bangladesh (OCAB). My mother was one of the principle founders of the Ekatturer Ghatal Dalal Nirmul Committee. The PM called to express her grief, and later sent me a personal condolence letter. Was she trying to score a point in this case? It gave me strength as an orphan.

Begum Raushan Ershad came, along with many others, to console me and my siblings as part of the army family.

Then in 2010, I requested her to help me protect my father’s grave, located at a private grave in Chittagong.

In turn, she ordered that my freedom fighter father’s remains be taken from Chittagong to Qadirabad in Natore district.

The cantonment is named after my father, and he was buried there with full state honours on the instruction of Sheikh Hasina. Was she scoring some points here? She honoured my father, my family, and all other freedom fighters by her gesture with no gain, except our heartfelt gratitude.

The question now should be, with all due respect to BNP chief Begum Khaleda Zia: Has she been able to understand the pain of losing a dear one upon Koko’s death? If so, she should immediately order the end of terrorism in the name of politics. May Allah help her. I appeal to her: “Auntie” (as I call her), please rebuke me for writing this, but stop such violence that is leaving families in pain, in distress, and helpless. l Nadeem Qadir, a senior journalist, is a UNCA Dag Hammarskjold Scholar in journalism.

In this deadly algebra, the loser will be Bangladesh n Faruk Wasif

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here is no one to understand and speak to just how much danger Bangladesh is in today.

I have been speaking of this danger since 2006, but nobody listened. The government is killing BNP-people.

The BNP is killing weak people. The government-media is accelerating the speed of the BNP’s killings.

Candle-light protests of “enlightened” sections of society are letting us know, not all deaths are created equal.

To them, the government-beating is the necessary evil to the path of progress, of modernity. We got shocked when its news when “common people” die, and the rest of people are as the ignorant as the Rohingyas.

The government has occupied the country. The BNP is trying to kill the government by killing that “country.”

In the process, the country is going into others’ hands. Majority of the media are asleep.

The AL and the BNP have fallen into each other’s traps. In the past, they fell into the same trap and almost became “minus” and then in desperation joined hands again. This time also,

they will either live together or die together. One cannot survive without the other.

In trying to wipe out the BNP, the survivor of this will be Jamaat. In this deadly algebra, the losers will certainly be Bangladesh and its people. In the plain lands, in the mountains, on the border, in the city and hinterlands everywhere there is the burning barbed wire of danger.

The BNP has collapsed, and the government is detached from the people.

The ruling parties have usurped the state by coercion and intrigue. Both are implicated in this violent battle to take control of state power and are losing legitimacy. Jamaat will end up presenting themselves the hope of the people!

In this way, the antithesis of 1971 is being written. The hero is the AL, the heroine is the BNP. The whole farce resembles the Rubel-Happy trial.

Civil society are a bunch of opportunists. Harsh governmental regulation and shrinking foreign funds make them cautious to act in defence of people’s right. “Proliberation” forces are the first movers for depositing our independence in

another country’s vault.

The left has been staring or joining hands so often, they are lost, invalid.

All that remains to hand is Islam, which currently has no guardian in Bangladesh; hence is easy to manipulate and exploit.

Those who talk about saving people seek progress and development rather than people. Creating cultural fault lines and claiming cultural supremacy is the scolding of fascism, whether in Germany or current India.

From all sides, the entities who are receiving blows and suffering are: 1) The democratic, 2) independent, 3) sovereign, 4) Bangladeshi, 5) citizens.

To kill the poor fifth one, you initially have to kill the first four. For this, the one January 5 stone was enough.

If you understood this much, then you will understand the damage ALBNP have done, you will understand the game India-America are playing.

You will realise that the new technique of War on Terror is social conflict, turned into the deadly sport of cultural conflict. You will understand deep politics. When the noose is around your neck, the more you struggle the more you choke. When you act without

thinking, danger will only increase. If you act after proper understanding, you may lose your life but preserve the future.

Up to the middle ages, people would die after seeing the three dimensional Azrael. In this new era, who is killing who – if you make political comments without understanding this, it may be the innocence of the middle ages, but we call it stupid. We may also call you fool.

When you occupy state power by force instead of electoral politics, you make the application of counter-force inevitable. If you are going to oppose, oppose all forms of violence. Even if terrorism wears the jacket of law, it is still terrorism.

We have been searching for the lesser of two evils for so long; we now have to choose between two evils. We are now politically divided only on the basis of which of the two evils will stave off the total collapse of Bangladesh. Because of the opportunism of seeking the lesser of two evils, evil is now triumphant.

We think one thing, and something different happens. There is only sand and sand in our jar full of hope. For the

masses, this song of Fakir Lalon Shah is most appropriate: In the land of waiting, why don’t you sit with bated breath/ Don’t float again from all your pain!

We are now divided only on the basis of which of the two evils will stave off the total collapse of Bangladesh

At the end of the game of war over power, Bangladesh will go back to its “normal” path. The country sits on the platform of waiting. We have been waiting for a long time, it’s getting late.

When will our freedom train come, o stationmaster?

This type of never-seen-before political vacuum cannot be fulfilled by an unelected party holding onto state power, such attempts have never

succeeded. How will a Bangladesh without political strength-party-unity survive, how will 17 million people’s minimum security be guaranteed?

When the Shahbagh-Shapla clash has left both sides broken and without popular support, under the flag of which idea will Bangladesh cross the treacherous waters of regional and world turbulence? To fight against the mountain-high danger from external forces, minimum national unity is urgent.

The “revolutionary” jacket worn by ideas like minus one and minus two is actually the death warrant of the sovereign Bangladesh established in 1971.

We have to settle first on the question: Which is the principle contradiction of our time: inner or external? If inner contradictions are strengthening by external aid, then we can conclude that external pressures on Bangladesh’s path should be resolved first.

The liberator must be liberated first. l Faruk Wasif is a writer and activist. This article was translated into English by Shaher Zaidi. This article first appeared on AlalODulal.org.

12

DHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, January 30, 2015

13 Murray books

final, Serena to face Sharapova

14 Neymar brace

sinks nine-man Atletico in thriller

14 Pogba agent

hints at PSG, Real move

Sport

Did you know?

Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara yesterday broke the world record for the most dismissals (474) by a wicketkeeper in one-day internationals

Match Highlights 7” Midfielder Arif Farhan hit the woodwork from outside the box.

8” Best chance for the home side. Zahid Hossain provided a delicious cross from the right flank for Jahid Hasan Emily who wasted the chance failing to connect from middle of the box.

15” Adam Nor’s header from the box hit the crossbar following a free-kick of captain Nazirul.

22” After fine build-up play between Hemanta Vincent Biswas and Zahid, Emily failed to meet the low cross.

27” Midfielder Ridzuan’s powerful left-footed strike from 25 yards out hit the woodwork.

GOAL! 53” Muhammed Syazwan put the visitors ahead after his curled shot from 22 yards went over goalkeeper Russel Mahmud Liton into the top right corner.

83” Substitute forward Shakhawat HosMalaysia players gather around Mohammed Syazwan (11) who scored the winner against Bangladesh in the opening match of the Bangabandhu Gold Cup at Sylhet District Stadium yesterday

Malaysia down misfiring hosts n Shishir Hoque from Sylhet The utmost support from the crowd and an opponent full of younger players did not help the cause of Bangladesh as the misfiring hosts kicked off their Bangabandhu Gold Cup campaign with a shocking 0-1 defeat at the hands of Malaysia U-23 yesterday.

The frustrating opening 45 minutes was further extended with Malaysian forward Muhammad Syazwan netting the difference early in the second half as nearly 18000 spectators at the packed Sylhet District Stadium had to swallow the agonising result.

The Sylhet venue remained as a nemesis for the Red and Green’s for whom the defeat was the second in as many international outings at the ground.

The first half was full of action with

both teams creating chances. The visitors, however, looked more promising and it was the woodwork that saved the ball-watching hosts thrice. On the other hand, Zahid Hossain whipped in three brilliant crosses only to find Jahid Hasan Emily make nothing out of the chances.

Malaysia threatened from the first minute when left winger Syahrul Azwari fooled Jamal Bhuiyan to cut inside and make room for a curling strike that went inches wide. Six minutes later midfielder Arif Farhan’s cheeky attempt over the goalkeeper from at least 30 yards out hit the woodwork.

However, against the run of play Zahid provided a delicious cross from the right flank but Emily failed to even meet the ball before Malaysia was again denied the lead with striker Adam Noor’s header returning from

the crossbar in the 15th minute.

The chemistry between Zahid and Hemanta was the highlight for the hosts as the duo kept their opponent on toes with their vivid performance throughout the game. Emily was the flop of the day as the striker failed repeatedly to connect a shot with the last one being a mouth-watering volley put way over the bar.

Meanwhile, the left-footed strike from midfielder Ridzuan struck the woodwork for the third time in the 27th minute for Malaysia.

Eight minutes after the breather, home side goalkeeper Rasel Mahmud Liton was once again caught roving at the edge of the six-yard box and finally paid the expensive price. Syazwan looped a curler from 22 yards out that beat the back-diving Liton from the top-right corner.

Thailand, Singapore face off today n Shishir Hoque from Sylhet The Group B of the Bangabandhu Gold Cup kicks off today with the match between Thailand and Singapore at Sylhet District Stadium at 5pm. The Under-23 squads of the two Southeast Asian sides arrived in the city last Wednesday night and had only a day to get accustomed with the environment which is totally new to them.

Like the other participating countries apart from hosts Bangladesh, Thailand and Singapore are also taking this six-nation tournament as part of their preparation for the upcoming AFC U-23 Championship Qualifiers and the 2016 Olympics in Rio. Singapore, 157th in the latest Fifa rankings, began their preparation for the tournament from December last year and are focused on putting up a good show while Thailand, ranked 144th and the tournament favourites alongside Bahrain, trained for only a couple of weeks.

“With two weeks of preparation, we are here to see the players ahead of the pre-Olympic, U23 AFC Cup Qualifiers.

This team are full of U-23 players and no one from the senior national side,” said Thai head coach Choktavee Phomrat yesterday. “We want to offer our best in this tournament and see how the players perform. We want to go forward match by match,” he added.

Meanwhile, Singapore assistant team manager Abdul Alim Bin Mohamed Omar sees this event as the best platform for his players to show their worth.

“Boys have been taking preparation from December. They have been working together for the pre-Olympic tournament and this is the Singapore pre-Olympic tournament selection

Bangladesh appeared more physical and urgent after conceding as the rest of the game was between the home attackers versus the visiting defenders.

Wahed Ahmed, Shakhawat Hossain Rony came off the bench to replace Sohel Rana and Yeamin Munna as Lodewijk de Kruif maintained his faith on the misfiring Emily to attack with three men, but that hardly mattered as the Malaysian young guns produced a solid defensive game to bag the valuable three points.

Soon after coming on chance, Rony went close to snatch the equaliser but his reflex shot on Zahid’s short pass inside the box deflected off the side post in the 83rd minute.

Bangladesh will face Sri Lanka in their second and last game of Group A at the Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka on February 2.l

Artists display the heritage of Sylhet in the opening ceremony of the Bangabandhu Gold Cup at Sylhet Stadium yesterday MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

Bangladesh to host U19 WC in Jan 2016 n Minhaz Uddin Khan Bangladesh will host the 2016 ICC Under-19 World Cup from January 22-February 14 and the 2019 ICC World Cup Qualifiers from March 1-April 4, 2018.

The decisions were approved by the International Cricket Council in its first meeting of this year in Dubai last Wednesday.

The ICC also approved Afghanistan and Ireland’s introduction in the rankings-based qualification system for the 2019 ICC World Cup. The top eight sides of the ICC ODI team rankings as at September 30, 2017 will qualify automatically for the mega event in England and Wales two years later. The bottom four sides will join six Associates in the 10-team 2019 ICC World Cup Qualifiers to determine which two nations qualify for the tournament proper.

The governing body of cricket also approved the dates of other major ICC competitions in the next four years.

Besides hosting the 2019 ICC World Cup from May 30-July 15, England will

also hold the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy from June 1-19 while India will host the ICC World Twenty20 next year.

The 2016 ICC World T20 Qualifiers will be hosted jointly by Ireland and Scotland from July 6-26 this year.

The 2017 ICC Women’s World Cup will be held in England from August 4-27 while the 2018 Youth World Cup will be hosted by New Zealand from January 12-February 4.

The 2018 ICC Women’s World T20 will be hosted by the West Indies from November 2-25.

Besides approving the dates of the upcoming events, the ICC also agreed on the 2015 World Cup playing conditions and player behaviour and safety.

In its first meeting of this year, the ICC also reinstated the Super Over in the event of a tie in the 2015 ICC World Cup final.

Following the meeting, the respective captains of the upcoming World Cup will heave a sigh of relief as changes were made to the ICC Code of Conduct offences relating to slow over-rates.

Prior to the World Cup, those captains who carry over-rate offence “strikes” or “suspensions” will be spared in the mega event. Instead, their strikes or suspensions will be carried over to a bilateral series which will immediately follow the World Cup. The respective captains will only be banned or suspended in the World Cup if they commit any slow over-rate offences during the mega event.

Player safety was also on the agenda during the ICC meeting, especially against the backdrop of the tragic death of Australian batsman Phillip Hughes recently. An ICC-supported research group briefed the governing body and emphasised upon the importance of improving cricket helmets according to the new British Safety Standard.

It was noted that helmet manufacturers have now introduced a number of new helmet models that comply with the updated British Safety Standard and that an increasing number of international players have already chosen the new helmet models.l

sain Rony hit the sidepost from sixyard box after a short pass of Zahid.

MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

De Kruif blames concentration level n Shishir Hoque from Sylhet Bangladesh’s Dutch head coach Lodewijk de Kruif blamed the concentration and mentality of his charges, especially in the first half an hour, following the 1-0 defeat against Malaysia Under-23 in the Bangabandhu Gold Cup opener at Sylhet District Stadium yesterday.

“Everybody was very nervous in the first 25-30 minutes. Everybody was very tensed to play a normal game. A lot of pressure from Malaysia but the pressure was only because we failed to do our thing, we failed to play our game,” explained De Kruif after the game.

“But, the most important thing is that, when your mentality is not hundred percent, you never win the game, never. And, that was our lacking in the first 30 minutes. We didn’t get enough self-confidence. That is why we played a very difficult first half,” he added.

Following the defeat, veteran forward Jahid Hasan Emily bore the brunt of the criticism. The Sheikh Russel striker was unable to justify his billing as the country’s leading frontman, wasting a number of gilt-edged chances against the Malaysian Olympic side.

From the left flank, winger Zahid Hossain delivered two lovely crosses for Emily in the opening half but Bangladesh’s highest goalscorer in international football failed to connect any of them due to his slow pace.

Juvenile midfielder Hemanta Vincent Biswas and Sohel Rana also distributed fine crosses at the path of Em-

ily but those chances went begging as Emily was nowhere near the deliveries owing to his movement, or, a lack of it.

De Kruif, however, defended his striker saying, “I’m happy with Emily.

He could not solve the chances. It is a concentration and mentality factor that every player must have, not only Emily.”

Although the 43-year old coach did not blame Bangladesh goalkeeper Russel Mahmud Liton for conceding the goal, he admitted it was a silly one.

Everybody was very nervous in the first 2530 minutes. Everybody was very tensed to play a normal game “Only for me, I think that was not a difficult ball. It looked a bit like what happened in the first half. It dropped in the bar. When you watch it several times, you realise you have to do something, that is why you are a goalkeeper. I am not pointing the finger to anybody but it’s a silly goal,” said De Kruif.

Despite the defeat, one positive that emerged from the game for the home side was the attacking roles of Zahid and Hemanta. Credit must be given to De Kruif for giving the young duo more attacking responsiblities.

“I’m very happy with Zahid and Hemanta. I think those two, you can pick them out. They played 90 minutes like we want them to play. But, you need eleven players to win the game.”l

TAMIM BACK IN BUSINESS

Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal (C) speaks with head coach Chandika Hathurusingha (R) and computer analyst Nasir Ahmed Nasu during their training session in Brisbane yesterday. This was Tamim’s first training session with the national side following his return from Melbourne where he took his third and final injection on his injured right knee.

During their conditioning camp in Brisbane, Bangladesh will play two practice games this Tuesday and Thursday against Australia XI at Allan Broder Field BCB

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Sport

Murray books final, Serena to face Sharapova

QUICK BYTES

Sports minister’s mother passes away Renowned social worker Srimoti Swarasati Sikder, mother of the State Minister for Youth and Sports Biren Sikder, died of old-age complications at her residence in Magura yesterday. She was 94. She left behind five sons, four daughters and a host of relatives and well wishers to mourn her death. Family sources said her cremation will take place today at 11 am at the Bihari Lal Sikder Degree College ground. Bangladesh Cricket Board, chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Youth and Sports Zahid Ahsan Russel, sports secretary Noor Mohammad and officials and employees of the Youth and Sports Ministry, National Sports Council, Directorate of Sports, Bangladesh Sports Journalists Association and Bangladesh Sports Press Association expressed deep shock at the death of Swarasati Sikder and prayed for the salvation of the departed soul.

–Raihan Mahmood

n Reuters, Melbourne

Naznin guides Rupali Bank to 1st Div title Naznin Nahar’s brilliant half century helped Rupali Bank Krira Parishad clinch the inaugural first division women’s cricket league title beating AV Sporting club by four wickets at the Gulshan Youth Club ground yesterday. Opting to bat first AV Sporting posted 134/9 in 35 overs with middle order Champa Chakma scoring an unbeaten 30 and Farjana Akter adding 26 runs. Jannatul Tithi and Rima Akter took two wickets each for Rupali Bank. In pursuit of 135, Rupali Bank had to wait till the last ball as player of the match Naznin guided her side with 54 off 58 deliveries smashing six boundaries. Tithi was handy with the bat too and added 19 runs while Ishma Tanjin remained unbeaten on 19 as Rupali reached the target losing six wickets.

Champa Chakma picked up three wickets for AV Sporting. AV Sporting’s Reshma Akter emerged as the highest scorer with 187 runs in five matches while her teammate Sandiha Islam became the highest wicket taker with 11 wickets.

–Mazhar Uddin

Hewitt flags retirement after Australian Open Two-time grand slam champion Lleyton Hewitt has flagged his retirement after a record 20th campaign at his home Australian Open next year. Hewitt, who has battled a number of injuries in recent years and will be 34 next month, was knocked out of the second round of this year’s campaign at Melbourne Park. “I’ve thought long and hard. I plan to play the Aussie Open next year and most likely finish then,” the former world number one told reporters at Melbourne Park on Thursday. “Personally I’ll be looking towards the grass court season and most likely finishing here in Melbourne, which for me would obviously be special to play 20 Australian Opens.” Australia’s last men’s grand slam champion, who won the 2001 U.S. Open and 2002 Wimbledon, said he hoped to help Australia in their Davis Cup campaign, believing the team had a “genuine shot” with young talents like Nick Kyrgios rising to the fore.

Once his playing career is up, Hewitt will take over the Davis Cup captaincy, outgoing captain Pat Rafter told reporters. Rafter, promoted to director of performance at Tennis Australia.

–Reuters

Maria Sharapova celebrates her win over compatriot Ekaterina Makarova in the women’s singles semi-final match at the Australian Open 2015 in Melbourne yesterday REUTERS

Record-breaker Sangakkara sets up Sri Lanka win in final ODI

n Mazhar Uddin

n Reuters

The first of two three-day matches between Sri Lanka Under-19 cricket team and the visiting Bangladesh U-19 side is heading towards a draw as only 29.4 overs of play was possible during the second and penultimate day at Dambulla International Stadium yesterday.

Resuming the second day’s play on 212/9, the home side added just four runs before being bundled out for 216 in their first innings with Nihaduzzaman picking up the final wicket to finish with 5/55 from 27.4 overs. Skipper Mehedy Hasan provided valuable support scalping three wickets.

In reply, the tourists posted 78/2 in 28 overs before rain came pouring down. Bangladesh U-19 openers Shadman Islam and Saif Hasan are the two batsmen who were dismissed. Shadman scored 56 with the help of 11 boundaries while Saif was trapped in front after making 19.

Lankan off-spinner Nishan Peiris bagged both the wickets.

Munim Shahriar (3*) and Joyraj Sheik (0*) will resume the final day’s play today.l

Kumar Sangakkara scored an unbeaten 113 and then returned to break the world record for the most dismissals by a wicketkeeper in one-day internationals as Sri Lanka beat New Zealand by 34 runs in the seventh and final match in Wellington on Thursday.

Sangakkara’s 21st one-day hundred anchored Sri Lanka to 287 for six after the visitors opted to bat first on winning the toss. New Zealand, who won the series 4-2, never recovered from losing early wickets in their chase and were all out for 253 in the 46th over.

The hosts were reduced to 42-3 in the 12th over and barring a 74-run stand between Luke Ronchi (47) and Daniel Vettori (35) for the seventh wicket, Sri Lanka always looked in control.

Kane Williamson top-scored for New Zealand with 54 while Kyle Mills hit a 17-ball 30 towards the end.

The 37-year-old Sangakkara, who is expected to retire from international cricket after the World Cup, passed Adam Gilchrist as the most successful wicketkeeper when he caught Corey Anderson off the bowling of Shaminda Eranga.

He later added another catch to the

DAY’S WATCH

n AFP, Dubai

Ten Action

The International Cricket Council on Thursday gave permission for banned Pakistan paceman Mohammad Aamer to return to domestic cricket with immediate effect, relaxing his ban for spot-fixing.

Aamer was one of three Pakistani players handed bans of at least five years for arranging no-balls to order in a Test against England at Lord’s in 2010.

“The ACSU Chairman, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, with the prior approval of the ICC Board and the PCB (Pakistan Cricket Board), has exercised his discretion to allow Aamer to return to do-

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After three heart-breaking trips to the final, Andy Murray secured another shot at Australian Open glory by overhauling Tomas Berdych on Thursday after women’s top seed Serena Williams set up a blockbuster title-decider with Maria Sharapova.

Edged in a marathon first set, Murray fired up after a frosty exchange with the hard-hitting Czech and blazed to a 6-7(6) 6-0 6-3 7-5 victory under the lights of Rod Laver Arena.

The sixth-seeded Scot will contest his first grand slam final since his emotional triumph at Wimbledon in 2013. His next opponent will be decided in Friday’s semi-final between world number one Novak Djokovic and champion Stan Wawrinka.

Murray’s clinical disposal of Rafa Nadal’s conqueror sent an ominous signal to his eventual challenger and thrilled the centre court crowd after the women’s semi-finals were earlier wrapped up in straight sets.

Williams was pushed hard by her 19-year-old challenger in a duel between two of the game’s hardest hitters before triumphing 7-6(5) 6-2 to reach her first Melbourne Park final in five years.

Keys burnished her credentials as the next torchbearer for American tennis, defiantly saving eight match points as her opponent roared in frustration before Williams sealed the contest with an ace down the middle.

Williams, who retains her world number one ranking by reaching the final, will face the woman she has tormented for over a decade in 27-year-old Sharapova, who trounced Ekaterina Makarova 6-3 6-2 in the first semi-final.

Five-times grand slam champion Sharapova will be hoping a 15-match losing streak against her American nemesis, stretching back to 2004, will have no bearing come Saturday.

Sharapova, a 2008 champion at Melbourne Park, lost to Williams in the 2007 final and again in the final at the 2013 French Open.

Most streaks are eventually broken and Sharapova, fit and in ominous form, took heart from her win over Makarova.

As with her quarter-final trouncing of Eugenie Bouchard, Sharapova’s gameplan was devastatingly simple - winding up the forehand and bludgeoning anything remotely short of the baseline.

Sharapova will be busy before Saturday’s final working out how to beat Williams.l

BD-SL U19 first 3-dayer heading towards draw

ICC allows banned Aamer to play domestic cricket

n Reuters, Mongomo Mali and Guinea face a long night as they await a rare drawing of lots to decide which team goes through to the African Nations Cup quarter-finals.

A 1-1 draw between the teams in

AFCON RESULTS Ivory Coast

1-0

Cameroon

Gradel 35

Guinea Constant 15-P

1-1

Mali Maiga 47

Mongomo on Wednesday left them tied in second place in Group D behind the Ivory Coast, who finished top after beating Cameroon 1-0 in Malabo.

Max Gradel’s first-half goal means the Ivorians will take on Algeria in the last eight in Malabo on Sunday.

But Group C winners Ghana are still awaiting the identity of the last team through from the group phase, who will be drawn in Malabo on Thursday.

“I’m tired so I think I’ll be able to sleep tonight and then wait for the draw tomorrow,” Guinea coach told reporters.l

The upcoming cricket World Cup final will be decided by a Super Over in the event of a tie, the sport’s governing body announced on Thursday.

The move is a return to the playing condition in force at the last World Cup in 2011, abandoning a proposal to have “joint winners”, made by the International Cricket Council (ICC) last year.

“The ICC Board reinstated the use of a Super Over in the event of a tie in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 final,” an ICC release said.

The ICC said a Super Over - in which both teams play one over of six balls was the best way to decide the winner if the sides cannot be separated by the regulation 50 overs each.

“This now replicates the arrangements for the World Cup 2011 final and other recent ICC events where a winner will be determined on the day of the final (weather permitting), and a Super Over was the most credible way to separate the two sides,” the statement said.

Last year the ICC in its playing conditions for the 2015 tournament had decided to have a joint winner in case the final was tied or abandoned due to bad weather. The ICC also approved a change to the application of code of conduct offences relating to slow overrates, so that captains do not carry any prior minor over-rate offence “strikes” or suspensions from other series into a major tournament. l

SLvNZ Sri Lanka R B L. Thirimanne lbw Anderson 30 41 T. Dilshan c Ronchi b Southee 81 98 113 105 K. Sangakkara not out M. Jayawardene c Ronchi b Southee 14 14 S. Prasanna lbw Mills 1 3 D. Chandimal c Ronchi b Anderson 5 15 T. Perera c Mills b Anderson 20 12 N. Kulasekara not out 12 12 Extras (lb 2, wd 9) 11 287

Bowling Mills 8-1-42-1 (2w) Southee 10-0-50-2 (1w), McClenaghan 9-0-47-0, Vettori 8-052-0 (1w), Anderson 9-0-59-3 (2w), Elliott 4-0-24-0 (2w), Williamson 2-0-11-0

New Zealand celebrate winning the ANZ ODI Cup after the last match against Sri Lanka at Westpac Stadium in Wellington yesterday AFP tally when he pouched Tim Southee off Thisara Perera, taking his career total to 474 dismissals with 378 catches and 96 stumpings in the 50-over format when he played as a wicketkeeper.

Australia’s Gilchrist achieved 472 dismissals in 287 one-day matches.

Earlier, Tillakaratne Dilshan (81) and

SAvWI R

B

South Africa Q. de Kock c Carter b Holde H. Amla b Russell F. du Plessis c Cottrell b Russell R. Rossouw c Carter b Russell D. Miller c Ramdin b Holder J. Duminy not out F. Behardien not out Extras (lb7, nb3, w20)

4 7 133 105 16 27 132 98 23 9 18 7 5 2 30

Total (5 wkts, 42 overs)

361

Bowling Cottrell 7-0-68-0 (2w), Holder 9-0-77-2 (3w), Brathwaite 9-0-46-0 (2w), Russell 8-0-85-3 (3nb, 5w), Sammy 7-0-59-0, Deonarine 2-0-19-0

Mali, Guinea face long night before draw lottery

World Cup final to have a Super Over in event of tie n AFP, Dubai

Total (for 6 wickets, 50 overs)

Fall of wickets 1-4 (De Kock), 2-59 (Du Plessis), 3-306 (Rossouw), 4-330 (Amla), 5-345 (Miller)

mestic cricket played under the auspices of the PCB with immediate effect,” the ICC said in a statement. l

13

Friday, January 30, 2015

R

B

West Indies C. Gayle c De Kock b Abbott N. Deonarine run out (Amla) D. Smith lbw b Phangiso M. Samuels b Abbott D. Ramdin c Amla b Parnell A. Russell c De Kock b Parnell J. Carter c Abbott b Parnell D. Sammy b Behardien J. Holder c Rossouw b Parnell C. Brathwaite c De Kock b De Lange S. Cottrell not out Extras (lb2, w10)

0 1 43 50 31 28 50 47 40 40 24 12 0 3 27 25 0 3 1 9 2 8 12

Total (37.4 overs)

230

Lahiru Thirimanne (30) gave Sri Lanka a good start, adding 71 for the opening wicket before the latter fell leg before to Anderson. Sangakkara walked out at number three and then added 104 for the second wicket before Dilshan was out caught by wicketkeeper Ronchi off paceman Southee.l

R B New Zealand M. Guptill lbw Kulasekara 0 1 T. Latham b Eranga 6 9 K. Williamson c Jayawardene b Dilshan 54 83 R. Taylor b Chameera 11 22 G. Elliott c Chandimal b Chameera 24 38 C. Anderson c Sangakkara b Eranga 29 20 L. Ronchi b Kulasekara 47 42 D. Vettori b Prasanna 35 30 K . Mills run out 30 17 T. Southee c Sangakkara b Perera 1 4 M. McClenaghan not out 5 6 Extras (lb 5, wd 6) 11 Total (for 10 wickets, 45.2 overs) 253 Bowling Kulasekara 9-0-55-2 (3w), Eranga 9-134-2 (1w), Prasanna 9.2-0-30-1 (1w), Chameera 8-0-60-2, Perera 5-0-42-1 (1w), Dilshan 5-0-27-1 Sri Lanka won by 34 runs; lost series 4-2

Amla, Rossouw punish wayward Windies again n Reuters, Pretoria Hashim Amla and Rilee Rossouw smashed quick-fire centuries as South Africa crushed a profligate West Indies by 131 runs in a rain-affected fifth and final one-day international on Wednesday.

The pair put on 247 for the third wicket, equalling the South African record they had set in the second match of the series in Johannesburg, as the Proteas piled up 361 for five in their allotted 42 overs.

It was the highest ever ODI score in a 42-over or less innings as South Africa made hay on a flat wicket and against an equally flat bowling attack to win

the series 4-1.

Rossouw had a relatively slow start but accelerated to bludgeon nine fours and eight sixes for his 132 from 98 balls.

Amla was equally devastating as he topscored with 133 from 105 deliveries.

West Indies lost forceful opener Chris Gayle to the first ball of their reply and despite some lively cameos, including a half-century from Marlon Samuels, were always behind the rate and were bowled out for 230 in 37.4 overs.

After 16 overs were lost due to rain, West Indies won the toss and elected to bowl in the final match for both sides before they head to the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. l

Fall of wickets 1-0 (Gayle), 2-77 (Smith), 3-81 (Deonarine), 4-172 (Samuels), 5-176 (Ramdin), 6-177 (Carter), 7-196 (Russell), 8-196 (Holder), 9-214 (Brathwaite), 10-230 (Sammy) Bowling Abbott 7-0-59-2 (3w), De Lange 8-0-34-1 (1w), Parnell 9-0-42-4 (2w), Phangiso 8-0-53-1, Behardien 5.4-0-40-1 (1w) South Africa won by 131 runs; Takes series 4-1

South Africa captain Amla (C) and team-mate Rossouw make a run as Brathwaite of the West Indies tries to run out during their fifth ODI in Centurion on Wednesday REUTERS

14

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Sport

Friday, January 30, 2015

Neymar brace sinks nine-man Atletico in thriller n AFP, Madrid Neymar bagged a double as Barcelona twice came from behind to book their place in the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey with a 3-2 win over nine-man Atletico Madrid to seal a 4-2 aggregate victory.

Fernando Torres struck for the hosts inside the first minute to cancel out Lionel Messi’s winner in last week’s first leg, but Neymar grabbed a vital away goal just nine minutes later.

Raul Garcia briefly restored Atletico’s lead from the penalty spot, but Barca were in front by half-time thanks to a Miranda own goal and a wonderful counter-attack rounded off by Neymar.

Atletico captain Gabi was then sentoff during half-time as players and coaches from both sides clashed at the end of the first period.

The home side should have been reduced to nine men earlier when Arda Turan somehow escaped with just a yellow card after throwing his boot at one of the officials in the second-half, but did eventually see another red card when Mario Suarez picked up a second booking late on.

Torres scored twice in the first minute of each half of the second leg as Atletico dumped city rivals Real Madrid out of the competition in the previous round and he repeated the trick after just 38 seconds.

The former Chelsea striker latched

onto Guilherme Siqueira’s clearance and skipped past Javier Mascherano before volleying in off the far post to register his first goal at the Vicente Calderon since rejoining his boyhood club.

Barca responded in fine style to that early blow, though, as a slick move sparked by Messi saw Luis Suarez release Neymar in behind the Atletico defence and he calmly slotted home for his 20th goal of the season.

Atletico were given a lifeline

RESULT Atletico Madrid

2-3

Barcelona

Torres 1, Neymar 9, 42, Raul Garcia 30-P Miranda 38-og Barcelona win 4-2 on aggregate

when Juanfran was bodychecked by Mascherano and Jesus Gil Manzano pointed to the spot despite the contact appearing to take place outside the area and Garcia confidently stepped up to slam home the spot-kick.

The lead again only lasted only eight minutes, though, as Miranda could only turn Messi’s corner into his own net.

The game then turned definitively in Barca’s favour when Manzano didn’t award a second penalty when Griezmann’s shot hit Jordi Alba on the arm.

Barca then broke upfield and Alba squared for Neymar to dance round Jan Oblak before rolling home his second goal of the evening.l

Barcelona forward Neymar (L) celebrates after scoring his second goal during their Spanish Copa del Rey (King’s Cup) quarter final second leg match against Club Atletico de Madrid at the Vicente Calderon stadium in Madrid on Wednesday AFP

Ice-man Eriksen sends Spurs into final Guardiola relishing n Wolfsburg showdown Reuters, London

Christian Eriksen was Tottenham Hotspur’s ice-man as they suppressed a late revival from third-tier Sheffield United to reach the League Cup final 3-2 on aggregate on Wednesday.

Tottenham, who will face Chelsea in the final at Wembley on March 1, appeared to be cruising when they took a first-half lead through Eriksen’s stunning free kick which took their aggregate advantage to 2-0.

Sheffield United teenager Che Adams came off the bench, however, to turn the tie on its head with two goals in two minutes, giving his team a 2-1 lead and levelling the aggregate score.

Eriksen ensured four-times winners Spurs avoided playing extra time when he found space on the edge of the lower league side’s box with two minutes remaining and calmly slotted home.

Eriksen’s opener on 28 minutes was a moment of supreme quality.

Adams came off the bench on 74 minutes and kept his head to finish calmly past Vorm with his instep, sparking the home crowd into life and adding spice to a cup tie that had

RESULT

Sheffield United

2-2

Tottenham

Adams 77, 79 Eriksen 28, 88 Tottenham win 3-2 on aggregate

seemed to be heading to a predictable conclusion.

His second goal had an element of good fortune as his deflected effort from the edge of the area looped away from Spurs keeper Vorm.

With their tails up, United looked favourites to grab the winner, but their hopes of a reaching a first final were dashed by Eriksen’s precise finish. l

n AFP, Berlin Bayern Munich resume their seemingly relentless march towards a third straight Bundesliga title on Friday with coach Pep Guardiola relishing their clash at second-placed Wolfsburg.

The Bavarian giants hold an 11-point lead over the Wolves as the Bundesliga resumes after the winter break.

Bayern travel north amidst reports French winger Franck Ribery and Brazil defender Rafinha will both miss the match after picking up injuries in a training session on Wednesday.

Guardiola wants his side to hit the ground running before hosting Schalke 04 next Tuesday and then facing Stuttgart away the following Saturday.

“I think it’s good to face the team in

second immediately because it forces us to pick up the pace,” said Guardiola.

“Wolfsburg have played an outstanding season so far so that will be tough. Then we have our first home

FIXTURE VfL Wolfsburg v Bayern Munich game of the new year against Schalke and that will also be difficult. We know how important the first two or three games will be and if we can win our first couple of games of 2015 then we will realise we can take a big step towards defending our Bundesliga title.”

Wolfsburg play their first match since the death of Belgium Under-21 international Junior Malanda earlier this month in a car crash.l

Juventus into Italian Cup semi-finals n AFP, Rome A goal one minute from time from Alvaro Morata gave Juventus a 1-0 win at Parma and a place in the Italian Cup semi-finals on Wednesday.

Juventus, who have not won the title for 20 years, will face either Roma or Fiorentina for a place in the final.

Morata, 22, and recruited from Real Madrid for 20 million euros last year, decided Wednesday’s tie with his fifth goal of the season.

On Tuesday, Lazio beat AC Milan 1-0 to also make the semi-finals.l

RESULT Parma

0-1

Juventus Morata 89

Time to oust Blatter and modernise Fifa: Van Praag Chelsea’s Costa charged n over Can ‘stamp’ Reuters, Amsterdam

Michael van Praag, the president of the Dutch Football Association (KNVB), on Wednesday named six countries who are backing his campaign for the Fifa presidency.

Speaking at a news conference to formally launch his challenge to incumbent Sepp Blatter, the erudite 67-year-old said he had nominations from Belgium, Sweden, Scotland, Romania, the Faroe Islands and the Netherlands and had sent them to Fifa.

He also said he would only stand for one four-year term if elected, adding the time had come for Blatter to step aside.

“Fifa is doing badly and has lost all credibility,” he said. “Fifa is constantly under suspicion of conflicts of interests of nepotism, of corruption. Fifa has its

back to the future.

“I have nothing against Mr Blatter,” he continued, “in fact I like him a lot as a person.

“However, someone who has led an organisation for so many years, and who has become the personification of its poor image, can no longer be the face of a modernisation operation for a new Fifa. It is impossible.”

Van Praag is one of five men intending to bring an end to Blatter’s tar-

nished 17-year reign as president along with Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein of Jordan, Jerome Champagne of France, fellow Frenchman David Ginola and Luis Figo of Portugal.

Van Praag said he would advocate a bigger World Cup if elected, find a place for Blatter in an advisory role, fight the scourge of match-fixing and “hold on to the good things Fifa has achieved” But, he added, “I want to do things

A combination picture of candidates for Fifa Presidency (from L) David Ginola, Michael van Praag, Luis Figo, Jordan’s Prince Ali bin al-Hussein and Jerome Champagne AFP

Rangers meet Celtic for 400th time in Old Firm derby

Roma’s Destro agrees to Milan move

n

Roma striker Mattia Destro has agreed to join AC Milan, the struggling Serie A giants announced Thursday.

Milan CEO Adriano Galliani agreed terms with Roma officials on Wednesday and had only been waiting on the 23-year-old Italy international player’s agreement. No further details were given by Milan, although it is believed Destro will move on a six-month loan deal worth 700,000 euros but could secure a permanent deal to the San Siro giants at the end of the summer for 16 million euros.

A brief statement on Milan’s website said: “Mattia Destro has said yes to a move to AC Milan.” It is the club’s second signing following the arrival of Spartak Moscow midfielder Salvatore Bocchetti on a six-month loan deal.l

Reuters, London

Celtic and Rangers have played each other 399 times in competitive matches but their 400th Old Firm duel in the Scottish League Cup semi-final on Sunday will have a special place in their shared history no matter the outcome.

For the first time since they first met in 1890, the two clubs, who have won 99 Scottish titles between them, are not meeting as equals separated by a few points in the same division.

Instead, Premiership leaders Celtic go into the first Old Firm derby for almost three years as overwhelming favourites, while Rangers, battling their way back from meltdown in the Championship (second tier), are clear underdogs.

The two biggest clubs in Scotland, who used to meet four or more times a season, are re-engaging for the first time since Rangers were demoted to the bottom tier following their financial collapse in 2012. Celtic’s Norwegian manager Ronny Deila says the match at neutral Hampden Park will be one of the biggest of his life.

Rangers manager Kenny McDowall added: “We’ve waited nearly three years for an Old Firm game so never mind the eyes of the world being on us, I expect the people in Pluto will be watching it. Seriously, the most important thing is the game and that it’s a good spectacle.”

Police are taking precautions to stop any crowd disorder between the two fiercely partisan sets of supporters.l

n

AFP, Milan

differently to Mr Blatter, I only want to hold the hold the presidency for a single term of four years.

“This is because I want to make room for a new generation as quickly as possible because I want to make full use of my time in office and not waste any time on a possible re-election.

“I know from experience in business as well as football, big steps in reforming an organisation can be taken in four years. And modernisation is what is needed so badly and it will begin with normalisation.

“As soon as a football organisation gets into political difficulties, a socalled normalisation committee is set up to solve the problem.

“It is time Fifa applied this tool to its own organisation, because Fifa is stuck in a headlock. Fifa is doing badly and has lost all credibility.”l

n AFP, London Chelsea striker Diego Costa faces a three-game suspension after being charged with violent conduct for appearing to stamp on Liverpool’s Emre Can, the Football Association announced on Wednesday.

Costa seemed to deliberately stand on Can’s ankle in the 12th minute of Tuesday’s League Cup semi-final second leg at Stamford Bridge, which Chelsea won 1-0 to complete a 2-1 aggregate victory.

The incident was missed by the match officials and reviewed by a video panel on Wednesday.

“Diego Costa has been charged by the FA for violent conduct following an

on-field incident which was not seen by the match officials but caught on video,” the FA said in a statement on its website.

“The charge is in relation to an incident involving the Chelsea forward and Liverpool’s Emre Can which occurred in the 12th minute of the Capital One Cup semi-final second leg at Stamford Bridge last night. Following a review of an incident during the game involving Costa and Liverpool’s Martin Skrtel, the FA will not be taking any further action.”

Costa has until 1800 GMT on Thursday to respond to the charge.

If found guilty, he will miss Chelsea’s home game with Manchester City on Saturday and subsequent fixtures with Aston Villa and Everton.l

Pogba agent hints at PSG, Real move n AFP, Milan Paris Saint Germain and Real Madrid could lead the race to buy Juventus star Paul Pogba although the French midfielder may remain in Italy for another season, his agent Mino Raiola said Thursday.

A string of stunning performances for the Italian champions has seen the combative midfielder’s value rocket, with a number of top European clubs said to be lining up to secure Pogba’s signature at the end of the season.

Raiola, the Dutch ‘super agent’ who also represents Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Mario Balotelli among others, compared Pogba to a painting by Dutch master Vincent Van Gogh.

“Who knows how much he is worth?

It depends how much money you have to spend, and who is buying,” Raiola said in an interview with La Gazetta dello Sport on Thursday.

He hinted the 21-year-old could make the “natural” choice of a move to Paris Saint Germain, or decide to leave Juve “only for a top club”.

Either way, Raiola believes Juventus could purchase the backbone of a new team capable of challenging for Champions League honours with the money they receive for the Frenchman.

“If they don’t sell Pogba they won’t have the money they need to challenge for honours in the Champions League,” added Raiola.

“How long can I keep Paul in Italy?

Everyone has a card up their sleeve, it just depends when they want to play it.

“PSG is the most natural choice. If he wants to go there, who can say no?

But I don’t know if that is an option right now. Paul could stay for another year at Juve.

Real Madrid recently distanced themselves from the French international, with Madrid legend Zinedine Zidane telling Marca: “He’s a very good player, but there’s a lot of very good players out there.l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Entertainment CHOBI MELA VIII

ABDOLLAH HEIDARI: Photography is what I speak through n Farhad Hossain

WARFAZE to reunite today for mega 30-year celebration n Hasan Mansoor Chatak Popular hard rock band Warfaze are all set for their mega reunion concert to celebrate 30 years of music-making today at Gulnaksha Hall, International Convention City in Bashundhara Residential Area, Dhaka.

The celebration is bringing together four of its past members – Babna Karim, Sunjoy, Balam and Romel Ali – with its current line-up on the stage.

Presented by mobile operator Robi Axiata Limited, the concert will take

off at 2:30pm.

The band, one of the firsts to introduce hard rock and metal music in the country, was formed in 1984.

Through the years, the band has experimented with different subgenres of hard rock and heavy metal. Their work has been inspiration for several bands in Bangladesh.

Sheikh Monirul Alam Tipu, the band’s frontman and drummer, told the Dhaka Tribune : “It is a great achievement for the band that we have been able to keep creating mu-

sic for the past 30 years. It is our fans’ love for us that has largely influenced us to stay on this track.”

Beside Tipu, the current line-up of the band has Mizan Rahman on lead vocals, Ibrahim Ahmed Kamal on lead guitar, Shams Mansoor Ghani on keyboards and vocals, and Naim Haque Roger on bass.

Oni Hasan, another member and guitarist, left the band a while ago to pursue higher studies in the UK. Samir Hafiz from Powersurge will fill in for Oni at the concert. l

Egyptian troupe Mawlawiyah grace on the second day of the Sufi Fest 2015 on Wednesday at the Army Museum in the capital

RANBIR’s first look as Johnny Balraj in Bombay Velvet revealed n Entertainment Desk The first teaser poster has just made its world premiere for Anurag Kashyap’s highly anticipated “Bombay Velvet” which releases in theaters worldwide on May 15. Ranbir Kapoor headlines and is joined by Anushka Sharma as well as Karan Johar who appears in a very special on-screen negative role.

The film is based on historian Gyan Prakash’s book “Mumbai Fables.” Set in Bombay of the 1960s, the movie tells the story of a street fighter, Johnny Balraj, and an aspiring jazz singer, Rosie, played by Anushka.

Anurag Kashyap says, “Bombay Velvet is my first film in a trilogy about Bombay, before it became a metropolis.”

Adds Vikas Bahl of Phantom Films said, “Bombay Velvet is intricately researched and beautifully fictionalised by Anurag.” l

Abdollah Heidari, a young photographer from Iran, is participating in Chobi Mela VIII, the photography festival currently taking place in the capital. In his very short photographic

raise awareness among people.”

Asked what inspires him, Heidari said: “Human lives and humanity – it is the best treasure for a human being.

Human emotions and feelings have profound effect on me.

“I mostly prefer black and white

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career, Heidari has caught everyone’s attention with his powerful photo series on burnt school children.

The series has garnered many local and international awards, such as the Unicef Photo of the Year 2014, International Photography Awards 2014 in the US, FIPCOM 2013 in France, and first prize at Sheed Award in 2013 in Iran.

The talented photographer sat down with the Dhaka Tribune to share his inspirations and what motivated him to walk the path of photography.

“I never wanted to just be a photographer,” said Heidari. “I believe it is better to capture images which will also speak out my concerns. I wanted to use the language of photography to raise awareness among the viewers.

“Photography is what I speak through. It is the medium through which I can voice my concerns and

instead of colours to ensure the transparency of my subjects. If I used colours, then the viewers’ attention would be drawn to the colours, not the emotions and feelings of the subject,” he said when asked why his photographs were black and white.

Talking about taking part in Chobi Mela, Heidari said: “The festival is outstanding. The professionalism is top-notch. The organisers have tried to have the best locations and venues to exhibit the photographers’ works.

“This is my first visit to Bangladesh, as well as this side of Asia. It is a wonderful country. If I get opportunities to work here, I would love to visit again,” the photographer said.

Heidari’s work titled “Lost Intimacy” is on display at Britto Arts Trust in Green Road, an extended venue of Chobi Mela VIII. l

THE INCREDIBLE BURT WONDERSTONE HBO Hits, 10:25pm Steve Carell, Luke Vanek, Steve Buscemi A veteran Vegas magician tries to revive his career after his longtime partner quits, he gets fired from his casino act, and an edgy new “street magician” steals his thunder.

THEATRE THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY PART 1 I PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR (3D) I ROMEO V/S JULIET I BOYHOOD I BEAUTY AND THE BEAST @ Star Cineplex

Galleri Kaya exhibits Kazi Rakib’s CHRONOLOGY n Nadira Sultana Ava Kazi Rakib’s “Chronology (1975-2015),” a retrospective containing seventy-five works produced over four decades, has gone on show at Galleri Kaya in Uttara.

Using different materials, the artist offers a narrative of 40 years in the life of art. Alongside Rakib, we are all travellers on this journey he invites all of us to participate in.

The exhibit displays his customary use of an array of media including acrylics, oils, watercolours, pencil drawings, graphic prints and etched glass.

It offers viewers an intimate experience both of art and of art history, through the lens of a single artist’s body of work.

Eminent artist Professor Samarjit Roy Choudhury was the chief guest at the inaugural ceremony on January 16 also attended by renowned cultural personality Afzal Hossain.

The vibrant presence of Afsana Mimi and Syed Iqbal on the first day of the exhibit added a note of glamour to the opening. Rakib’s knack for playing with different materials drives the creation of innovative and unique

artistic expressions.

In the paintings of Kazi Rakib, women are portrayed in traditional attire, representing simplicity and harmony.

The creator of these delightful

JULIANNE MOORE believes in therapy, not religion n

15

Friday, January 30, 2015

Kazi Rakib, received Chattagram Charukahas served as one of teachers at Rajshahi

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY: My name is a ‘spelling error’ n Entertainment Desk

Entertainment Desk

Julianne Moore is on top of the world thanks to her award-winning performance in “Still Alice.” But in a new interview she admits to past struggles, including with religion.

While she’s experienced success in her career, including four previous Academy Award nominations, she has at times felt adrift. Her mother’s unexpected passing from septic shock in 2009 devastated her so deeply that she no longer believes in God, she admitted in a profile in The Hollywood Reporter.

“I learned when my mother died five years ago that there is no ‘there’ there,” she said.

“Structure, it’s all imposed. We impose order and narrative on everything in order to understand it. Otherwise, there’s nothing but chaos.”

Even though she felt satisfied with her professional career, she felt “lonely,” and that she “didn’t have the kind of personal life I wanted.”

So she decided to see a therapist, which the “Boogie Nights” star said helped her immensely. “I discovered that (my personal life) was as important as my professional life," she said. l

works of art, his BFA from la College and the founding Art College.

DANNY BOYLE begins shooting Steve Jobs biopic with FASSBENDER n Entertainment Desk Danny Boyle’s long-gestating biopic of the late technology guru Steve Jobs has finally begun shooting in San Francisco with Michael Fassbender in the lead role.

The as-yet-untitled film, working from a screenplay by the Oscar-winning writer of “The Social Network,” Aaron Sorkin. Joining Fassbender in the final cast are Kate Winslet as former Macintosh marketing chief Joanna Hoffman, Seth Rogen as Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and Jeff Daniels as former Apple CEO John Sculley. The film also features Katherine Waterston, Michael Stuhlbarg, Sarah Snook, Adam Shapiro, and child actors Perla Haney-Jardine, Ripley Sobo and Makenzie Moss in supporting roles.l

As the famed mnemonic for English language students goes: “I before E except after C and also if you’re writing down the name of UK actress Keira Knightley.”

After years of wonder if the Oscar-nominated “The Imitation Game” actress was simply trying to excite auto-spell checkers, the truth surrounding the unusual spelling of her first name has been revealed.

“I was meant to be named Kiera after a Russian ice skater who was on the TV one day,” the actress told Elle magazine. “My dad fancied her and nicked the name for me. But it was my mum who went to register my birth, and she accidentally spelled ‘ei’ instead of ‘ie’ because my mum’s crap at spelling.”

When her mother returned home with the birth certificate, Knightley’s father, it seems, wasn’t entirely overjoyed.

“Apparently, when she came back he said: ‘You’ve spelt her name wrong’,” she explained. “What were they going to do though? Once it’s on the piece of paper, it’s on the piece of paper. And that’s me.

A spelling error.” l

Rakib has had nine solo exhibitions at home and abroad before “Chronology.”

The exhibition may be viewed until January 30 at Galleri Kaya in Uttara between 11am and 7:30pm. l

16

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Biranganas to be recognised as freedom fighters n Muhammad Zahidul Islam The House has unanimously passed a resolution pleading the government to recognise biranganas – women raped during the Liberation War – as freedom fighters by finalising a list.

Jessore 2 lawmaker Monirul Islam placed the proposal before the House yesterday, while 10 other lawmakers spoke in its favour.

After a discussion on a private members’ resolution, the speaker placed the proposal for voting and the lawmakers voted for it.

In January 2009, the ninth parliament unanimously passed the historic resolution calling upon the government to ensure the trial of the war criminals The aforementioned 10 lawmakers also made some suggestions in this regard, such as the inclusion of the topic of biranganas in the text books.

Earlier on Tuesday, Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque told parliament that the government had begun finalising the list of biranganas, which is expected to be complete within two months.

He said yesterday: “The nation has not forgotten the plight of the female members of our society, who were subject to sexual violence during the war.”

The liberation war affair minister informed parliament that the list would carry only the names of the biranganas who wished to make their indentities public. The list will be published as gazette notification and the biranganas will be given due recogni-

tion and allowance such as freedom fighters enjoy.

Awami League lawmaker Israfil Alam proposed to use the term birkonya (war heroines) instead of birangana, but the House rejected his proposal.

The liberation war affairs minister told the House that Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman gave the name birangana, so it would not be wise to rename it.

“The Father of the Nation recognised them as biranganas. We will definitely recognise them as freedom fighters,” he said, adding that those who wished their names to not be published would be left out of the list, keeping in line with their wishes.

Independent lawmaker Dr Rustom Ali Farazi proposed to give them Tk10,000 honorarium every month, but that was rejected as well.

“Since they are going to included in the freedom fighters’ list, they will automatically be entitled to an honorarium,” the minister said.

Earlier on October 13 last year, the government decided to recognise biranganas as freedom fighters.

Before the decision was taken, the High Court bench of Justice Salma Masud Chowdhury and Justice Md Habibul Gani issued a ruling on January 27 last year seeking an answer from the government as to why biranganas would not get facilities similar to freedom fighters.

The bench also sought a response as to why a gazette would not be issued listing all the names of the biranganas.

On January 29, 2009, after a discussion on a private members’ resolution, the ninth parliament unanimously passed the historic resolution calling upon the government to ensure the trial of the war criminals.

This is the second private members’ resolution in the 10th parliament that has been approved by the House. l

Back Page

Friday, January 30, 2015

W H AT N O W ?

Anxiety and hopelessness grip the relatives of Nur Alam, 40, lying on a bed at the burn unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital yesterday. Nur, one of the victims of Jatrabari arson incident, sustained 48% burn injuries MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

Mild cold wave to hit the northern region n Tribune Report

A mild cold wave appears to be approaching in the northern region, especially in Nilphamari and Kurigram districts.

The Rangpur weather office yesterday said the minimum temperature was recorded at 12.6 degrees Celsius, and that it could continue for two-three more days.

Our Kurigram correspondent reported that the mild cold wave has been approaching for the last few days, while also hampering public life, with the severe cold and drizzling that it has brought.

He added that there has been no sunlight for the last three days.

Many people in the region are fearing another cold spell ahead.

Bangladesh Meteorological Department official Abdur Rahman, however, said no cold wave has begun yet. “We do not consider temperature under 10 degrees Celsius as a cold wave,” he said.

Officials at Syedpur weather office said: “This year, the cold weather condition has been increasing day by day in the northern area.”

Abdur Rahman added: “As there has been drizzling, it has been getting colder. But there is a possibility for a mild cold wave to begin in two-three days,

which will continue for four-five days.”

In the last 24 hours, about 60 children were admitted into Kurigram hospital, 24 patients for diarrhoea and 15 others for pneumonia diseases.

Children and elderly persons are suffering a lot from the weather. People from lower income groups were seen gathering around second-hand clothes markets.

“Meanwhile, a large number of cold-related patients with diseases such as cold diarrhoea, fever, cataract etc have been coming to the hospital,” said Dr Fazlul Haque Tansen, a residential medical officer at the Modern Sadar Hospital in Nilphamari.

The families of many day-labourers

are suffering as they are not being able to carry out their daily work.

Dewan Biplob, a class I contractor of Thana Para village in Nilphamari Sadar upazila, said: “A total 50 labourers worked in my farm every day. But they could not work for the last two days due to the mild cold wave.”

Afzal Hossain, 45, a day-labourer from Harowa village in Nilphamari Sadar upazila told our Nilphamari correspondent: “I manage my family through my earning. But now I could not work in the last two days and chose to stay at home due to the unfavourable weather conditions, which has affected me gravely.” l

Comilla Chhatra League leader robs Taiwanese businessman n Our Correspondent, Comilla

Sharmila Rahman, widow of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s younger son Arafat Rahman Koko, bursts into tears while offering prayers at her husband’s grave in the capital’s Banani civil graveyard yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

Police in Comilla are looking for a Chhatra League leader accused of leading a gang to coerce a Taiwanese businessman into giving money on Wednesday.

The gang led by Sohel Ibne Mohiuddin was claimed to have taken away Tk31 lakh from Huangjun Yu, managing director of Yagotex Fabrics in Comilla EPZ area.

Late on Wednesday night, the Taiwanese national lodged a case with Kotwali police station, stating that five to six men led by Sohel entered his rented flat in section 3 of the housing estate area around 1:30pm and held him at gunpoint.

They forced him into a car, took him to an unknown location in Suagazi area of Comilla Sadar (south) upazila where they assaulted him and demanded that he give them two billion US dollars.

In a while, Huangjun was brought back to his flat and was forced to write a cheque for Tk23 lakh.

Sohel then transferred the money from Prime Bank’s Comilla branch to the account of his firm, Aab Yaaz Enterprise, by wire transfer, according to police.

They also took Tk8 lakh in cash from Huangjun’s flat and made him sign two blank cheques before leaving.

Sohel, son of AHM Mohiuddin of Tomchhom Bridge area and a leader of Chhatra League’s Comilla Victoria Gov-

ernment College unit, served in prison a year earlier on charges of embezzling Tk38 lakh from a Dhaka-based businessman named Azad.

Officer-in-Charge of Kotwali Model police station Khorshed Alam said the lawsuit was transferred to the Detective Branch of police in compliance with an order of the district police super.

Sub-Inspector of the Detective Branch of police in Comilla Firoz Hossain, also the investigating officer of the case, said Sohel’s wife Dipti was interrogated for clues and was released later.

“Several police teams are trying to nab the accused and to recover the money,” he added. l

Doctor, journo win Bangla Obama defriends Bibi on Facebook Academy Literature Award n

Mars rover back in the groove n BBC

n

After some downtime to enable a software upgrade, the Curiosity rover on Mars has got straight back to work by drilling into a rock. The robot sank the latest shallow mini-test hole in a target called Mojave2.

An earlier attempt this month at the same activity resulted in a nearby slab splitting into several chunks.

Curiosity needs a stable rock to drill down the full 6cm to acquire a sample for analysis in its onboard labs. Mojave2 looks like it will oblige.

If all goes to plan, this task should be completed shortly. It would be the fifth drill sample picked up by the machine for ingestion.

The Nasa robot is currently investigating the lower layers of Mount Sharp, the big mountain at the centre of Gale Crater, which is the deep depression where it landed in 2012.

Recent accomplishments include finding evidence for how that mountain was built billions of years ago by river and lake sediments. The mission also hit the headlines in December for identifying methane and other, more complex carbon molecules in Gale. l

Arif Ahmed

A physician and a journalist have won this year’s Bangla Academy literature award in fiction and poetry categories.

Dr Zakir has won the award for fiction and journalist Shihab Sarkar in poetry. Another journalist, Khaled Bin Joynuddin has won the award in juvenile literature category.

Dr Shamsuzzaman Khan, director general of Bangla Academy, declared the names of the winners at a press conference held on the academy premises yesterday.

The awards for 2014 will be given to seven people for their outstanding contributions under ten categories, which were announced yesterday ahead of the month-long Amar Ekushey Book Fair.

The prime minister will distribute the prizes among the winners on February 1 at the fair.

Shantonu Kaisar, former professor at Comilla University, has won the award in the essay category, Bhuiyan Iqbal, former professor at Chittagong University, has won the award in research

category, Abu Mohammad Delowar Hossain, professor of history at Dhaka University, has won in the category of literature on Liberation War affairs, and Moinul Sultan in autobiography/memoir/travel story.

The executive working committee of the academy selected the winners based on the decision of the jury board.

However, the academy could not consider anyone in the drama, translation and science-technology and environment categories.

Each of the winners will receive a cash of Tk1 lakh, a certificate, and a crest from the prime minister at the launching ceremony of the largest book fair in the country.

Every year, the academy announces the award during the fair – usually around February 22-26. But this year, names of the award winners have been announced beforehand.

Dr Shamsuzzaman said this was done because the winners will be rewarded prizes by the prime minister on the first day of the fair, to make it an inspirational experience for them. l

The relationship between US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hit a new low last week, with the American president “defriending” the Israeli premier on Facebook.

It is unclear exactly when Obama made the move to delete his Israeli counterpart as a Facebook friend – most likely around the time Netanyahu accepted John Andrew Boehner’s controversial invite.

Netanyahu only learned of the snub on Wednesday, reports Israeli Daily quoting a source close to the prime minister.

A member of Republican Party, Boehner is the 61st and current speaker of the United States House of Representatives.

“Bibi was looking at [Attorney General] Eric Holder’s page, and he happened to check what friends they had in common,” the source explained.

“And he sees [Secretary of State John] Kerry, Bill [Clinton], Hill [ary Clinton], Fabio, but no Obama. So he goes to Obama’s page, and sure enough it says ‘Add Friend.’ We were in complete disbelief.”

REUTERS

Tribune Report

While the White House had no official comment, a source close to the president said Obama had reached his maximum allowed friends and wished to add Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif after a pleasant meeting on Iran’s nuclear programme.

The source said the defriending was not personal, but conceded Obama had gotten sick of seeing Sara Netanyahu on his newsfeed and the prime minister’s daily invitations to play Candy Crush Saga.

“The bond between the United States and Israel remains strong,” the White House source said. “But if the president had to read one more post somehow tying whatever bullshit Jewish holiday it happened to be with the

Iranian nuclear threat, he would have snapped.”

As of press time, Obama and Netanyahu were still following each other on Twitter.

Meanwhile, Boehner confirmed to Fox News on Wednesday that Republicans plan to sue President Obama over his use of executive action on immigration.

“The president’s overreach when he took executive action to deal with the immigration problems in our country, frankly, in my view, is a violation of our Constitution,” Boehner said on “Special Report with Bret Baier.”

“We believe that the filing of a lawsuit to try to stop the president from violating our Constitution is an important step for our institution,” he added. l

Editor: Zafar Sobhan, Published and Printed by Kazi Anis Ahmed on behalf of 2A Media Limited at Dainik Shakaler Khabar Publications Limited, 153/7, Tejgaon Industrial Area, Dhaka-1208. Editorial, News & Commercial Office: FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath, Shukrabad, Dhaka 1207.

Phone: 9132093-94, Advertising: 9132155, Circulation: 9132282, Fax: News-9132192, e-mail: news@dhakatribune.com, info@dhakatribune.com, Website: www.dhakatribune.com

B3 UN: EU investment plan could create 2.1mn jobs

B4 China: ECB QE could cause ‘competitive depreciation’

FRIDAY, JANUARY 30, 2015 www.dhakatribune.com/business

Good borrowers may see incentives Mobile phone bankers

ask for specialised bank to get loan facility

Bangladesh Bank warns habitual defaulters of onsequences n Tribune Report Bangladesh Bank has decided to offer incentives for good borrowers having regular loan repayment track records, but warned of coming down hard on willful defaulters.

“I have already instructed the related department to make a rebate policy for the good entrepreneurs who pay loan regularly,” said Governor Atiur Rahman, unveiling monetary policy statement for the second half of the current fiscal year at Bangladesh Bank headquarters in Dhaka yesterday.

He said banking governance will be up-scaled further to clamp down on loan delinquencies. While the cases of credit worthy borrowers will be reviewed, habitual defaulters will face lawful consequences, he cautioned.

The governor announced the plan for incentive two days after blessing big defaulters with a new restructuring policy to facilitate their loan repayment.

In December last, it also relaxed the loan reschedule policy to favour the big borrowers who failed to make installment payment due to political turmoil.

To defend the loan restructuring policy for defaulters, the governor said it was formulated for the sake of country’s economy and employment.

Ultimately, the banks will be the gainer because of this policy as some money would go to their pockets, he said.

“The defaulters, though, get preference from the central bank repeatedly on excuse of the political unrest but so far good borrowers, who maintain their loan repayment regular even after facing the same difficulties, did not get any favour.”

In this situation, he said, the central bank will formulate a specific policy

n Asif Showkat Kallol

Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Atiur Rahman announces monetary policy for second half fiscal year yesterday to reward the good borrowers. “While making any policy, we do not usually take any big or small borrowers into our consideration,” he said replying to a question.

Echoing the governor, Deputy Governor SK Sur Chowdhury said: “The loan restructuring policy was done as big companies face systematic risks, which may hit the country’s economy.”

The monetary policy statement stated that the central bank firmly discouraged the abetting of habitual and willful loan repayment defaulter. It also created room for helping out recovery of genuine businesses distressed by circumstances beyond their control

with realistic debt restructuring in line with international best practices.

Former BB Governor Salehuddin Ahmed welcomed the decision to award the good entrepreneurs saying it will encourage them to keep growing.

But he strongly criticised the incentives given to the big defaulters saying they did not deserve any benefits as regular loan defaulters are good for nothing.

According to the policy for the big borrowers, only those who have defaulted loans worth over Tk500 crore will be able to enroll with the new package.

The highest payment tenure will be 12 years for restructured term loans six

Decision to renew Indo-Bangla trade deal with no major changes n Asif Showkat Kallol The government decided to renew the trade agreement with India for another three years without major changes as the deal expires on May 31 this year, said officials.

An inter-ministerial meeting at commerce ministry in Dhaka yesterday made the decision, with additional commerce secretary Manoj Kumar Roy in the chair. The meeting also decided to seek slight amendments to provisions 6 and 8 of the deal.

The government earlier thought of incorporating service sector in the deal. But the plan has been abandoned as business community and commerce ministry’s WTO Cell opposed the plan.

The amendment to provision 8 will be that two governments will agree to make mutually beneficial arrangements for the use of their waterways, roadways and railways for commerce

between the two countries.

In the meeting Bangladesh Tariff Commission representative suggested removing non-tariff barriers so Bangladesh could enjoy export benefits with India. BTC recommended inclusion of the matter in the Indo-Bangla trade agreement.

BTC official said two governments will be made aware about the laws and rules to reduce non-tariff barriers.

The official also recommended inclusion of a provision titled “transparency” in the trade agreement.

Hedayetullah Al Mamoon, senior commerce secretary, told Dhaka Tribune on Tuesday that the government will sign Indo-Bangladesh trade agreement without major amendments.

Bangladesh-India Chamber of Commerce and Industry suggested India and Bangladesh trade agreement should be automatically renewed after three years. Representative from for-

eign ministry urged the authorities not wait for Indian proposals and finalise the matters to renew the deal.

Commerce ministry’s WTO Cell suggested the India–Bangladesh trade deal should be for five years instead of the existing three years.

In the meeting the Cell representative opposed the plan to include service sector in the deal as Bangladeshi service sector will be affected if such initiative is taken.

An official of the Cell said representatives from India and Bangladesh are regularly discussing service sector incorporation in the trade agreement and reducing non-tariff barriers at the several joint working group meetings.

RMG export to India had increased following duty-free and quota-free access of 46 items compared to few years ago. But the export amount is now declining for different reasons including non-tariff barriers. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

years for demand and current loans.

The rate of down-payment will be 2% for loans less than Tk1,000 crore and 1% for those above.

The banks will charge a minimum interest rate of 1% plus cost of fund against the restructured loans. The privileged clients will not be able to declare any cash dividend in the first three years.

After restructuring, they may borrow up to 50% of the last approved amount for demand and current loans and 60% for term loans. The loans will be classified as special mention account and banks would maintain provision at required rates with the additional 1%. l

The mobile phone bankers have applied to the central bank that there should have a commercial bank in the country which will provide credit especially to them.

The proposed Mobile Bank Association of Bangladesh has submitted an application to Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Atiur Rahman yesterday.

Such a demand comes as the country’s traditional banking system has no special rule to provide loans to half a million mobile bank agents across the country, said the association sources.

The bank, if established, will help the mobile bankers run their business getting loan facility from the proposed bank, said the people concerned.

Bank and Financial Institutions Division Secretary M Aslam Alam said they would examine the proposal after the central bank’s scrutiny.

“But the government has no immediate plan to give any permission to establish such a new commercial bank,” the secretary added.

According to the Mobile Bank Association, although there is a total of half a million mobile banking businessmen across the country, the central bank has not kept any provision to provide credit to them who transfer money from one place to another. It said the mobile bankers are now channeling remittance as well into the country.

The Mobile Bank Association has a plan to collect around Tk2,000 crore from 200,000 association members to set up the bank, the association chairman M Aminul Islam Bulu told Dhaka Tribune.

Of the amount, a sum of Tk500 crore will be deposited to Bangladesh Bank

as guarantee money and the remaining figure will be used as a paid up capital of the proposed bank, he said.

Aminul Islam added if the bank got established, the National Board of Revenue would receive Tk250 crore a year from the bank’s clients in the forms of tax, VAT and trade licence fee etc.

In 2012 Bangladesh Bank approved nine private commercial banks in an expectation to help strengthen the financial inclusion programme bringing unbanked people under the banking network.

But the government has no immediate plan to give any permission to establish such a new commercial bank The banks included Union Bank Limited, Modhumoti Bank Limited, Farmers Bank Limited, Meghna Bank Limited, Midland Bank Limited, South Bangla Agriculture, Commerce Bank Limited, NRB Commercial Bank Limited and NRB Bank Limited.

Meanwhile, in 2012 a survey by the Institute of Microfinance found that only 45% of the nearly 9,000 householders do have access to banks and micro-finance institutions for loans.

The population per branch (21,065) and the ratio of loan accounts per 1,000 adults (42) suggest that the outreach of the formal financial sector in Bangladesh is lower than that in India (14,485 and 124 respectively) and Pakistan (20,340 population per branch and 47 loan accounts per 1,000), according to the report. l

BEPZA exports post 12% growth in H1 n Tribune Report

PERFORMANCE OF BEPZA, IN MILLION USD

Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority (BEPZA) has achieved a remarkable growth both in investment and export during the first half of the current fiscal year.

Investment grew 12.17% while export 11.72% in the first six months of 2014-15 fiscal year compare to the same period of the previous fiscal year, according to BEPZA. Some US$213.39m actual investment has been added during the period by the 437 operational and 123 under implementation enterprises of eight Export Processing Zones (EPZs).

This figure was $190.23m during the same period of last fiscal year when investment inflow increased by 12.17% compared to the corresponding period a year ago. Among the total investment, $72.99m has been made in Chittagong EPZ followed by Dhaka EPZ $48.8m, Karnaphuli EPZ $30.69m, Adamjee EPZ $32.17m, Comilla EPZ $10.17m, Uttara EPZ $10.71m, Ishwardi

FY14 H1

FY15 H1

2598.56

190.23

2902.68

213.39

Investment EPZ $4.46m and Mongla EPZ $3.42m.

The cumulative investment stood at $3.5bn up to December 2014.

Goods worth about $3bn have been exported by the operational industries of EPZs under BEPZA in the first half of the fiscal year 2014-15. It was around $2.6bn during the same period of the previous fiscal year, which shows an

Export increase of 11.72%.

In the first half of the current fiscal year the enterprises of Chittagong EPZ has exported goods worth of $1.2bn, Dhaka EPZ $928.68m, Karnaphuli EPZ $309.44m, Adamjee EPZ $219.3m, Comilla EPZ $125.52m, Mongla EPZ $44.29m, Ishwardi EPZ $51.79m and Uttara EPZ $32.22m. l

BUILD worried over current political unrest n Tribune Report

Van pullers pass their days in idleness in Dhaka during the BNP-led alliance’s hartal yesterday. Their livelihoods were not spared the consequences of the political unrest

MEHEDI HASAN

A delegation of Business Initiative Leading Development (BUILD) has expressed its deep concern over the current political turmoil situation that causes financial losses to various sectors.

The concern was raised at a meeting held between Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed and a delegation led by BUILD Chairman Asif Ibrahim at the ministry in the capital on Wednesday.

Attending the meeting, President of Dhaka Chamber and Commerce Industry (DCCI), a partner of BUILD, Hossain Khaled drew the attention of the minister to the current political unrest because of which they are incurring huge business losees.

He also explained how DCCI calculated the volume of

losses being incurred by different sectors. Tofail Ahmed, however, underlined the need for further trade and investment growth despite the political unrest. BUILD Chief Executive Officer Ferdaus Ara Begum sought ministy’s intervention in launching the third Business Confidence Survey (BCS) report beginning from February 2015.

BUILD was launched jointly by the DCCI in partnership with the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) and the Small and Medium Enterprise Foundation in October 2011. l

B2

Stock

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Stocks keep losing as investors remain worried over political unrest

DSE key features January 29, 2015

n Tribune Report

mained negative, as out of 303 issues traded, 55 advanced, 204 declined and 44 remained unchanged.

IDLC Investments said the last session of the week extended the bearish sentiment that prevailed throughout the week.

“Investors were reluctant from the start of the session. Alongside, they were eagerly waiting for the second half-yearly monetary policy statement,” it said.

IDLC said though the numerous earnings disclosures appeared during the day, the sentiment couldn’t get improved.

The malnourished activities failed to generate any substantial turnover, which amassed to be just over Tk200 crore, it said.

LankaBangla Securities said the market continued to extend losses yesterday, taking cues from the on-going deadlock in economic activities amid strikes and blockade.

It said investors were looking ahead to the monetary policy decision for the second half of the FY2014-15.

The intraday trading was mostly bearish, though buyers came in last hour to reduce loss of early trading, it said.

“Investors are looking forward to the indication that the policymakers would consider the shocks accruing to the economy as outcome of the ongoing political impasse in monetary policy statement.” l

Stocks extended losses for the second session yesterday, as investors were worried over the deepening political chaos.

The market opened dropping nearly 45 points in the morning but recovered some losses at the end.

The benchmark index DSEX declined 23 points or 0.5% to close at 4,724, after marginal fall in the previous session.

The Shariah index DSES fell 6 points or 0.6% to 1,115. The comprising blue chips DS30 was down 9 points to 1,747.

Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) Selective Categories Index, CSCX, ended at 8,736, shedding 65 points.

Trading at Dhaka Stock Exchange continued to remain sluggish amid political instability, as turnover stood at Tk206 crore, a decrease of 12% over the previous session.

Almost all other sectors, including power, non-banking financial institutions, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, cement and banks edged lower like previous session.

Textile sector that shined in the previous session ended in the positive territory on profit booking.

Food & Allied sector was the only sector which ended in green with a rally of 2.9%, backed by the heavy weight BATBC that rose more than 4%.

The market breadth largely re-

Weekly capital market highlights DSE Broad Index : DSE - 30 Index : CSE All Share Index: CSE - 30 Index : CSE Selected Index : DSE LOSER Company

Closing (% Change)

EXIM Bank 1 MF-A Shahjibazar Power-N Hamid Fabrics -N National Tubes -A Metro Spinning -A BD. Autocars -Z Keya Cosmetics -A GeminiSeaFood-B GSP Finance-A RAK Ceramics-A

-9.09 -8.39 -8.20 -8.02 -6.20 -5.78 -5.53 -5.41 -5.14 -4.59

CSE LOSER Company

Closing (% Change)

Shahjibazar Power-N Hamid Fabrics -N Bangladesh Lamps -A H.R. Textile -A Eastern InsurA GSP Finance-A Prime Islami Life -A Hwa Well Textiles-A RAK Ceramics-A Standard Ceramic -A

-8.31 -7.28 -6.46 -6.42 -6.11 -6.10 -6.01 -5.21 -4.59 -4.50

4724.04933

(-) 0.50%

1747.75509

(-) 0.52%

14427.1057

(-) 0.65%

11743.2557

(-) 0.66%

8736.0301

(-) 0.66%

Average (% Change) -9.23 -8.27 -5.64 -7.42 -5.86 -3.31 0.00 -5.81 -5.20 -3.32 Average (% Change) -3.93 -5.45 -5.18 -6.34 -6.11 -6.12 -5.59 -5.21 -2.36 -4.50

ANALYST

ClosingAvg. 6.00 218.15 30.12 94.99 12.20 21.02 21.01 242.34 28.09 54.68

ClosingAvg. 506.00 30.04 104.21 24.80 29.20 28.22 56.55 34.60 54.98 38.20

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 217.81 134.48 43.86 235.89 91.08 308.76 1.72 317.49 163.83 6.85 64.60 19.62 37.61 94.41 72.52 20.79 22.75 114.96 21.09 75.40 0.00

DHIGH

6.00 213.90 29.10 95.20 12.10 21.20 20.50 238.00 27.70 54.10

Closing

6.00 234.00 31.40 99.70 12.70 22.50 22.00 255.00 28.90 56.60

DHIGH

217.30 29.30 102.80 24.80 29.20 27.70 56.30 34.60 54.00 38.20

230.00 31.50 109.00 24.80 29.20 30.00 59.00 34.60 57.00 38.20

Company

2,065.74 58,045,175

Number of Contract

68,995

Traded Issues

303

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

57

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

240

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

6

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,525.76

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

30.62

CSE key features January 29, 2015 Turnover (Million Taka)

179.31

Turnover (Volume)

6,252,539

Number of Contract

11,240

Traded Issues

236

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

55

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

176

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

4

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,433.90

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

29.50

Turnover in Million

DLOW 6.00 213.10 28.80 93.20 12.00 20.70 20.30 234.00 27.40 53.60

216.30 28.90 102.10 24.80 29.20 27.50 55.30 34.60 53.60 38.20

Latest EPS

0.001 42.218 34.855 8.433 11.905 0.062 4.290 1.044 40.575 32.619

Turnover in Million

DLOW

% change 10.55 6.51 2.12 11.42 4.41 14.95 0.08 15.37 7.93 0.33 3.13 0.95 1.82 4.57 3.51 1.01 1.10 5.57 1.02 3.65 0.00

Million Taka 9.85 8.52 4.74 19.57 6.34 13.83 46.62 10.30 3.92 7.04 2.99 2.73 7.11 5.36 0.82 0.43 17.46 3.85 15.76 0.01

CSE

% change 5.26 4.55 2.53 10.45 3.39 7.39 0.00 24.90 5.50 2.09 3.76 1.60 1.46 3.80 2.86 0.44 0.23 9.32 2.06 8.42 0.00

0.64 9.00 1.88 -1.36 0.44 0.14 2.36 1.39 1.58 1.68

Latest EPS

1.725 6.120 0.049 0.012 0.001 3.558 0.019 0.014 2.305 0.023

Million Taka 227.66 143.00 48.60 255.46 97.42 322.59 1.72 364.11 174.13 10.77 71.63 22.61 40.34 101.52 77.88 21.60 23.18 132.42 24.95 91.16 0.01

National Polymer -A BD Submarine Cable-A Kay & Que (BD) -Z BATBCL -A Aziz PipesZ Shampur Sugar -Z Islami Ins.BD-A Rangpur Foundry -A BGIC -A Kohinoor Chem -A

Closing (% Change) 7.94 6.43 5.34 4.18 3.90 3.90 3.85 3.74 3.48 2.92

CSE GAINER

9.00 1.88 1.13 1.98 2.31 1.58 4.95 3.52 1.68 0.52

Latest PE 9.4 24.2 16.0 -ve 27.7 150.1 8.9 174.3 17.8 32.5

Company National Life I -A Paramount Insur-A Rangpur Foundry -A BGIC -A BD Submarine Cable-A National Polymer -A Pragati Gen. I -A GQ Ball PenA Fine Foods A Phoenix Fin. 1st MF-A

9.46 7.38 7.23 7.07 6.56 6.14 5.00 4.17 3.96 3.92

Average (% Change) 9.46 6.77 7.24 5.38 11.36 5.39 5.00 3.75 6.83 5.37

ClosingAvg.

Closing

68.43 108.39 13.82 2,930.29 21.20 8.00 18.81 99.58 21.07 345.28

69.30 109.20 13.80 2,934.40 21.30 8.00 18.90 99.90 20.80 348.90

ClosingAvg.

Closing

202.50 15.93 100.81 20.96 109.34 68.58 37.80 99.61 10.79 5.30

202.50 16.00 100.80 21.20 108.80 69.10 37.80 100.00 10.50 5.30

DHIGH 70.40 112.10 13.90 2,957.30 21.70 8.00 19.20 100.30 21.30 359.00

DHIGH 202.50 16.00 103.00 21.40 112.30 70.00 37.80 100.00 11.00 5.30

DLOW 65.00 104.00 13.50 2,780.00 20.00 8.00 18.00 95.20 19.50 337.50

DLOW 202.50 15.60 100.00 20.10 105.00 67.50 37.80 97.20 10.10 5.10

Turnover in Million 26.885 62.610 0.212 28.204 0.276 0.010 0.158 4.664 4.562 0.713

Turnover in Million 0.014 0.010 0.151 0.029 15.266 0.314 0.001 0.036 0.048 0.075

Latest EPS 3.30 0.76 -1.41 94.59 -0.37 -52.72 1.48 3.23 2.35 10.10

Latest EPS 12.46 1.13 3.23 2.35 0.76 3.30 2.47 2.21 -0.48 0.84

Latest PE 20.7 142.6 -ve 31.0 -ve -ve 12.7 30.8 9.0 34.2

Latest PE 16.3 14.1 31.2 8.9 143.9 20.8 15.3 45.1 -ve 6.3

News, analysis and recent disclosures METROSPIN: (H/Y Un-audited): NPAT= Tk. 13.04 million with EPS of Tk. 0.22 as against Tk. 25.18 million and Tk. 0.42 respectively.

AMCL(PRAN): (H/Y Un-audited): NPAT=Tk. 25.98 million with EPS of Tk. 3.25 as against Tk. 24.27 million and Tk. 3.03 respectively.

NPOLYMAR: (H/Y Un-audited): NPAT= Tk. 23.78 million with EPS of Tk. 1.65 as against Tk. 10.36 million and Tk. 0.72 respectively.

BDAUTOCA: (H/Y Un-audited): NPAT= Tk. 0.25 million with EPS of Tk. 0.07 as against Tk. 0.06 million and Tk. 0.02 respectively.

MALEKSPIN: (H/Y Un-audited): NPAT= Tk. 162.34 m. with consolidated EPS of Tk. 0.84 as against Tk. 213.89 m. and Tk. 1.10 respectively.

DULAMIACOT: (H/Y Un-audited): NPAT= Tk. (15.18) million with EPS of Tk. (2.01) as against Tk. (15.20) million and Tk. (2.01) respectively.

HFL: (H/Y Un-audited): NPAT= Tk. 81.89 million with EPS of Tk. 1.04 ( restated 0.94) as against Tk. 136.14 million and Tk.

2.79 (2.40) respectively.

BEACONPHAR: (H/Y Un-audited): NPAT= Tk. 7.85 million with EPS of Tk. 0.03 as against Tk. 5.23 million and Tk. 0.02 respectively.

KOHINOOR: (H/Y Un-audited): NPAT= Tk. 51.25 million with EPS of Tk. 5.05 as against Tk. 32.05 million and Tk. 3.16 respectively.

ORIONINFU: (H/Y Un-audited): NPAT= Tk. 18.73 million with EPS of Tk. 0.92 as against Tk. 17.99 million and Tk. 0.88 respectively.

TITASGAS: (H/Y Un-audited): NPAT= Tk. 4,272.10 million with EPS of Tk. 4.32 as against Tk. 4,202.97 million and Tk. 4.25 respectively.

BEDL: (H/Y Un-audited): NPAT= Tk. 233.70 m. with consolidated EPS of Tk. 1.52 as against Tk. 118.24 m. and Tk. 0.77 respectively.

SAMORITA: (H/Y Un-audited): NPAT= Tk. 16.25 million with basic EPS of Tk. 1.20 ( restated 1.09) as against Tk. 14.22 million and Tk. 1.05 (0.96) respectively.

BBS: (H/Y Un-audited): NPAT= Tk. 111.30

million with EPS of Tk. 1.26 as against Tk. 107.25 million and Tk. 1.21 respectively.

ATLASBANG: (H/Y Un-audited): NPAT= Tk. 0.43 million with EPS of Tk. 0.02 as against Tk. 44.12 million and Tk. 1.86 respectively.

SAVAREFR: (H/Y Un-audited): NPAT= Tk. -0.43 million with EPS of Tk. -0.31 as against Tk. 0.42 million and Tk. 0.30 respectively.

DESHBANDHU: (H/Y Un-audited): NPAT= Tk. 34.13 million with EPS of Tk. 0.61 as against Tk. 11.43 million and Tk. 0.20 respectively.

NTLTUBES: (H/Y Un-audited): NPAT= Tk. -13.46 million with EPS of Tk. -0.68 as against Tk. 20.31 million and Tk. 1.02 (restated) respectively.

STYLECRAFT: (Q3 Un-audited): (Q3 Un-audited): NPAT= Tk. 18.33 million with EPS of Tk. 33.33 as against Tk. 19.73 million and Tk. 35.87 respectively.

RENWICKJA: (H/Y Un-audited): NPAT= Tk. 4.36 million with EPS of Tk. 2.18 as against Tk. 4.89 million and Tk. 2.44 respectively.

56.2 16.0 92.2 12.5 12.6 17.9 11.4 9.8 32.7 73.5

DSE TURNOVER LEADERS Company

Total

Closing (% Change)

Average (% Change) 5.31 9.82 5.82 4.12 3.41 6.67 (5.33) 3.16 4.46 1.64

Latest PE

The market continued to extend losses yesterday, taking cues from the on-going deadlock in economic activities amid strikes and blockade

SECTORAL TURNOVER SUMMARY Sector

▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼

DSE GAINER

Turnover (Million Taka) Turnover (Volume)

Friday, January 30, 2015

% change 10.11 6.35 2.16 11.34 4.32 14.32 0.08 16.16 7.73 0.48 3.18 1.00 1.79 4.51 3.46 0.96 1.03 5.88 1.11 4.05 0.00

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

C & A Textile -N LafargeS Cement-Z CVO PetroChem RL-A BD Submarine Cable-A Grameenphone-A aamra technologies-A Shahjibazar Power-N GSP Finance-A DESCO Ltd. -A Square Pharma -A

Brac Bank -A Barakatullah E. D.-A Alltex Industries -Z Hamid Fabrics -N MJL BD Ltd.-A CSE TURNOVER LEADERS Company C & A Textile -N BD Submarine Cable-A National Feed-N Alltex Industries -Z Hamid Fabrics -N LafargeS Cement-Z Shurwid Ind. -N SAIF Powertec-N GSP Finance-A Deshbandhu Polymer-A

aamra technologies-A BEXIMCO Ltd. -A Jamuna Oil -A SummitAlliancePort.-A WesternMarine -N

VolumeShares 4,324,990 623,925 137,097 577,649 158,935 1,203,132 193,525 1,444,469 581,221 154,206

921,002 1,066,696 1,197,423 1,157,362 303,733 VolumeShares

827,191 139,615 323,857 228,866 203,731 43,604 153,137 55,835 126,083 161,232

86,290 101,473 14,985 47,887 58,450

Value in Million 109.06 77.18 69.20 62.61 52.35 45.18 42.22 40.58 39.60 39.12

% of TotalTurnover 5.28 3.74 3.35 3.03 2.53 2.19 2.04 1.96 1.92 1.89

36.29 35.70 34.94 34.86 34.64

1.76 1.73 1.69 1.69 1.68

Value in Million

20.90 15.27 10.36 6.65 6.12 5.37 3.98 3.77 3.56 3.42

3.24 3.14 3.05 3.05 2.85

% of TotalTurnover

11.74 8.58 5.82 3.74 3.44 3.02 2.24 2.12 2.00 1.92

1.82 1.76 1.71 1.71 1.60

25.10 124.50 500.90 109.20 329.30 37.80 213.90 27.70 68.30 254.30

Change % -0.40 0.00 -2.51 6.43 -0.90 1.61 -8.39 -5.14 1.04 -0.27

39.50 33.70 29.00 29.10 113.30

-0.75 2.12 -3.33 -8.20 -1.48

ClosingP

ClosingP

25.10 108.80 31.30 29.00 29.30 124.50 25.80 67.40 27.70 21.10

37.70 30.80 200.90 62.80 48.50

Change %

-0.79 6.56 -3.69 -3.33 -7.28 0.00 -1.90 -2.32 -6.10 2.93

1.07 -1.28 0.40 -3.24 -1.82

25.20 124.50 513.80 102.60 332.30 37.20 233.50 29.20 67.60 255.00

25.90 125.00 517.90 112.10 331.50 37.90 234.00 28.90 68.80 256.60

24.80 122.60 498.30 104.00 328.00 36.80 213.10 27.40 66.60 252.70

AvgPrice 25.22 123.70 504.74 108.39 329.38 37.55 218.15 28.09 68.13 253.67

39.80 33.00 30.00 31.70 115.00

40.10 33.90 30.10 31.40 116.70

39.10 32.60 28.70 28.80 112.70

39.40 33.46 29.18 30.12 114.03

ClosingY

ClosingY

25.30 102.10 32.50 30.00 31.60 124.50 26.30 69.00 29.50 20.50

37.30 31.20 200.10 64.90 49.40

DHIGH

DHIGH

26.00 112.30 33.00 30.70 31.50 125.10 26.20 69.50 30.00 21.40

37.90 31.40 204.70 65.00 49.50

DLOW

DLOW

24.80 105.00 31.10 28.60 28.90 122.50 25.60 67.00 27.50 20.60

37.00 30.70 200.00 61.90 48.40

AvgPrice

25.26 109.34 31.99 29.07 30.04 123.24 25.98 67.61 28.22 21.21

37.56 30.93 203.48 63.59 48.74

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Business

B3

Friday, January 30, 2015

UN: EU investment plan could create 2.1mn jobs n AFP, Geneva An ambitious European investment plan could create 2.1mn jobs by 2018 if properly implemented, the ILO said Wednesday.

Crafted by European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker, the 351bn euro ($387bn) plan is based on 21bn euros in seed money from the EU budget and the bloc’s European Investment Bank (EIB).

Juncker expects this will trigger massive private investment over three years to take the plan to the total figure.

But the Geneva-based International Labour Organization warned that the plan would have only a marginal effect on unemployment if it does not focus on making credit accessible to job-rich small enterprises and provide more investment to countries with higher jobless rates.

“If the Juncker investment plan is not well designed, the employment benefits will be very small,” said Raymond Torres, director of research at the ILO. “By 2018, the employment impact will be only 400,000 new jobs, and given the 23 mn unemployed this is a very small percent,” he told reporters.

“If the plan is well designed, by contrast the number of jobs created could reach 2.1mn by 2018 and lower the unemployment rate by almost one percentage point,” Torres said.

He said the plan had to focus on projects involving large economies of scale such as energy networks and green projects.

“The plan has to tackle the sources of low employment in Europe and in particular in small and medium-sized enterprises,” he said.

“In high unemployment countries

European flags are seen outside the European Commission headquarters in Brussels like Italy, Spain and so on there are small enterprises that cannot invest because they do not have proper access to bank credit.”

The Juncker plan is built on a complex mechanism intended to attract private investors to risky and overlooked projects that meet the EU’s longer term goals.

The ILO also said countries that were in more need of aid should be allocated proportionately more resources, pointing to a North-South divide. It said France, Germany, Italy and Britain received more than 45% of all funding by the European Investment Bank.

“In recent years, the disproportionate rise in unemployment levels has not been

REUTERS

followed by a parallel increase in financing from the EIB,” it said, citing Greece, which receives only 2.3% of EIB funding going to EU member states while it is home to 5.1% of the bloc’s unemployed.

“Similarly Spain receives 16.6% of total EIB funding within the EU but hosts 23.1% of the EU’s total unemployed,” it said.

“These developments have imposed huge economic and social costs, with the worst impacts in southern Europe but with damage to households and working people across the region,” said ILO deputy director for policy Sandra Polaski.

“The urgency to address these losses increases with every passing day,” she said. l

BoE governor: Eurozone faces ‘another lost decade’ n AFP, Dublin Bank of England governor Mark Carney has warned that the eurozone faces “another lost decade”, urging more solidarity in what is being seen as a thinly-veiled reprimand to Germany after elections in Greece.

Carney started off his speech in Dublin late on Wednesday saying he intended “to reflect on how the euro area could act to avoid another lost decade”.

Carney urged the bloc to “share fiscal sovereignty” and accused eurozone leaders of “timidity”, in comments that come after the electoral victory of the anti-austerity Syriza coalition in Greece.

New prime minister Alexis Tsipras has threatened to break commitments made by preceding governments and wants to renegotiate Greece’s 240bn euro ($269bn) EU-IMF bailout and scrap austerity measures.

Germany, as Europe’s biggest economy and effective paymaster, has lent it the most.

Without referring to Greece explicitly, Carney said that if the eurozone were a country “fiscal policy would be substantially more supportive”.

“Persistent economic weakness damages the extent to which economies can recover. Skills and capital atrophy.

Workers become discouraged and leave the labour force. Prospects decline and the noose tightens,” he said.

“As difficult as it has been, some countries, including the US and the UK, are now escaping this trap. Others in the euro area are sinking deeper.” l

Apple ties with Samsung as top smartphone vendor

Oil near six-year lows after US stockpiles hit record high

n AFP, Seoul

Oil remained weak in Asia yesterday after data showing record US stockpiles sent prices tumbling to the lowest level in nearly six years in the previous session and analysts said a global glut would continue to keep the market under pressure.

The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said domestic crude oil stocks rose by almost 9mn barrels last week to reach nearly 407mn, the highest level since the government began keeping records in 1982.

“The market expects stockpiles to keep rising, pushing front-month prices further down as refineries enter maintenance season and are likely run at lower utilisation rates,” ANZ said in a note.

Prices yesterday stuck close to the previous settlement levels. Brent LCOc1 was trading at $48.65 a barrel at 0255 GMT while US crude CLc1 was at $44.54, versus the low of $44.08 hit

Apple caught up with Samsung as the world’s biggest smartphone vendor in the fourth quarter of 2014, thanks to booming sales of its new iPhone 6, market researcher Strategy Analytics said yesterday.

Apple reported a record net profit of $18bn in the quarter, on the back of what the California tech titan described as “staggering” iPhone 6 sales - especially in China. Its South Korean rival, on the other hand, has seen its quarterly profits slashed in 2014, in the face of escalating competition at every price point.

Strategy Analytics said Apple shipped 74.5mn handsets in the fourth quarter, compared to 51mn a year ago.

Samsung logged the same number of shipments, which in its case marked a downturn from 86mn the previous year.

The turnaround saw Samsung’s share of the global smartphone market

tumble from 30% to 19.6%, on a par with Apple. Samsung, which belatedly entered the market pioneered by Apple, had dethroned the US firm as the world’s top smartphone vendor in the third quarter of 2011.

The South Korean electronics giant then went on to replace Nokia as the global leader in overall mobile phone sales in the first quarter of 2012.

Over the past year, Samsung’s market-leading position has been under siege from a resurgent Apple and rising Chinese rivals like Xiaomi. The South Korean company, whose latest Galaxy S5 smartphone received a lukewarm reception, posted its first drop in annual net profits in three years on Thursday.

“Samsung continues to face intense competition from Apple at the higherend of the smartphone market, from Huawei in the middle-tiers and from Xiaomi and others at the entry-level,” Strategy Analytics said in a statement. l

n Reuters, Singapore

A man fills up his car at a petrol station in Rome on Wednesday, the weakest since April 2009.

Analysts said the outlook remained weak, especially with demand slowing in China.

CORPORATE NEWS

REUTERS

“The Chinese government is moving away from the post-2008 investment binge and gradually moving towards a more moderate but sustainable consumption-led economic growth,”

Dollar climbs in Asia as Fed points to ‘solid’ growth n AFP, Tokyo

MD of Union Bank Ltd, Md Abdul Hamid Miah has recently handed over a cheque of Tk 10 lakh to Dr Atiur Rahman, governor of Bangladesh Bank as a donation for treatment of burnt victims at Burnt Unit of DMCH

ARC Advisory Group has recently identified IFS, a global enterprise applications company as number one vendor for the third consecutive year in terms of market share in enterprise asset management and field service management software for oil and gas industry

Prime Bank Ltd has recently held the prize giving ceremony of its 17th International Rating Chess Tournament at Bangladesh Chess Federation. The bank’s DMD, Habibur Rahman was present at the programme as chief guest

Mutual Trust Bank Ltd has recently organized a daylong workshop on prevention of money laundering and terrorism financing at a local hotel in Sylhet. The bank’s DMD, COO and chief anti-money laundering compliance officer, Md Hashem Chowdhury inaugurated the workshop as chief guest

Wood Mackenzie said yesterday.

“2014 was the fourth straight year of a decoupling relationship between China’s GDP and oil demand growth as the effects of the 2009 stimulus began to fade,” it said, adding that it “expects industrial recovery and related investment will remain subdued in 20152016”.

Swiss bank UBS said cheap oil would not provide a big boost to Asian economic growth.

“Big, big drops in oil; small effects on economies ... Cheap oil should give a small boost to Asian GDP, but not really enough to warrant major changes in growth forecasts,” it said.

Researchers at Energy Aspects said in a note that “a new normal is in the making for China — slower and less oilintensive growth”.

They added that “oil consumption in China will become more efficient, leading to slower demand growth of around 0.2-0.3mn barrels per day compared to expectations of above 0.5mn”. l

MD, CEO and chairperson of asset liabilities committee of Sonali Bank Limited, Prodip Kumar Dutta has recently presided over a committee meeting held at the bank’s conference room

The US dollar extended its gains yesterday after the Federal Reserve pointed to the “solid pace” of growth in the world’s top economy, signalling a midyear rate hike was still in play.

In Tokyo, the greenback briefly rose above the 118-yen level before settling back at 117.70 yen in afternoon trade, still up from 117.53 yen in New York.

The euro weakened to $1.1272 from $1.1284, while it ticked up to 132.68 yen, against 132.62 yen in US trade.

“While the Fed pointed out the risk of low inflation, I don’t think it changes the main scenario for a rate hike in mid2015,” Masato Yanagiya, head of foreign exchange at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking, told Bloomberg News.

“With the US headed for tighter monetary policy while other countries are increasing stimulus, the dollar will remain strong.”

After a two-day meeting, the Fed’s policy statement suggested no deviation from its likely course to begin hiking interest rates around the middle of the year - despite a weak eurozone economy, political uncertainty in Greece, and the negative impact of the strong dollar on US businesses.

“The Fed Statement offered few surprises and some subtle changes that keep (its) options open to either begin the tightening later this year or hold off, should conditions not warrant a shift in policy,” National Australia Bank said.

On Wednesday, the policy-setting

Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), as expected, left the key federal funds rate near zero, where it has been pegged since late 2008 to support a recovery in the economy.

The Fed “judges that it can be patient in beginning to normalise the stance of monetary policy,” the statement said.

The central bank pointed to improved US labour market conditions, with “strong job gains and a lower unemployment rate,” and diminishing slack in the market.

The FOMC had inserted the “patient” language in its December statement. Fed Chair Janet Yellen said last month that the description meant the Fed was unlikely to raise interest rates within the next couple of meetings, in January and in March.

The US economy produced a robust five percent expansion in the third quarter of last year, and for all of 2014 had the strongest job growth in 15 years, pulling the unemployment rate down to 5.6 percent in December.

The dollar was mostly stronger against other Asia-Pacific currencies.

It rose to 61.50 Indian rupees from 61.48 rupees on Wednesday, to 12,531 Indonesian rupiah from 12,524 rupiah, to 1,093.94 South Korean won from 1,085.11 won, and to Tw$ 31.42 from Tw$31.23.

The greenback weakened to 44.15 Philippine pesos from 44.17 pesos, to Sg$1.3519 from Sg$1.3569, while it was unchanged at 32.63 Thai baht. l

B4

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Back Page

Friday, January 30, 2015

China: ECB QE could cause ‘competitive depreciation’ n AFP, Beijing The European Central Bank’s new quantitative easing (QE) measures could trigger “competitive depreciation” of currencies around the world, China’s commerce ministry warned yesterday.

The ECB last week unveiled a programme to buy 60bn euros ($68bn) of private and public bonds each month starting in March, a move intended to ward off deflation in the eurozone.

The figure was more than the 50bn euros expected by analysts, and the unprecedented scheme will total over 1tn euros.

“The European QE may worsen the competitive depreciation of currencies of various countries, further increasing the uncertainties in international cross-border capital flows,” said China’s commerce ministry spokesman Shen Danyang.

“We will closely monitor that,” he told reporters at a briefing.

While the measures would make European exports cheaper and might help boost market confidence and growth in the eurozone in the short term, he

added, their long run effects remained uncertain.

“It is still unclear whether in the mid-to-long term the QE can stop the eurozone economy from slipping into long-term stagnation and realise comprehensive recovery and growth,” he said.

The European Union is China’s largest trade partner. It is the Asian giant’s top source of imports and its secondlargest export market.

Shen said the impact of the stimulus on bilateral trade will be “both good and bad”.

“The QE will push the euro to further depreciate, which is likely to lead Chinese companies expanding imports from Europe and lowering their investment costs in Europe.

“Meanwhile the weakening of the euro will affect Chinese companies’ exports to Europe and Chinese firms’ existing investment in Europe will also face the risks of suffering losses,” he said.

According to Chinese data, two-way shipments increased 9.9% year-onyear to $615.1bn in 2014, with China in surplus to the tune of $126.6bn. l

The figure was more than the 50bn euros expected by analysts, and the unprecedented scheme will total over 1tn euros

REUTERS

Russia cuts spending, bails out banks in ‘anti-crisis’ plan Wanted: Asia-focused banker n AFP, Moscow Russia promised government spending cuts but more money for retirees and bns of dollars worth of support for banks as it detailed Wednesday a plan to support its economy battered by low oil prices and sanctions.

The plan, published on the government’s website on Wednesday morning, foresees a 10% reduction in “most categories of budget spending” but, increases on welfare, which was the cornerstone of President Vladimir Putin’s election campaign in 2012.

The measures will help the economy “adapt to new conditions” in a situation when Western sanctions over Ukraine and tumbling oil prices have already cost it $200 bn, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told Russian senators while presenting the plan.

“The effect of external shocks on the credit balance is about $200bn,” he said, adding that most analysts “believe that this situation will continue long-term.”

Speaking at Russia’s audit chamber, Putin said anti-crisis measures should not just “throw money at various industries” from national reserves and not let welfare funding “spread over everybody”.

Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said he expected a 2015 fall in consumer demand by up to nine % and in investment by “double digits,” according to Russian agencies.

Real wages, real income, retail sales and services are all falling, he said.

“We haven’t seen this in 15 years, it is a huge challenge considering the rise in debts of households,” said Ulyukayev, who has previously predicted that the economy could contract by up to five percent if oil prices stay low.

Companies eye Russia’s reserves

The government’s crisis plan lists various measures without spelling out the total sum.

Last week authorities presented a draft plan worth 1.37tn rubles ($20bn, 18bn euros), which comes on top of a 1tn ruble ($15bn, 13bn euros) bailout package for struggling banks announced in December.

The government is prepared to funnel the tn ruble fund to Russia’s top 27 banks, requiring them to expand lending to the real economy by one percent every month, Siluanov said.

Under the crisis plan, pensions will be increased by 11.4% next month at the cost of 188bn rubles ($2.8bn) --

more than expected -- to help out the poorest Russians.

Defence spending is not subject to any austerity measures, according to the plan, and defence industries will get extra money to replace sanctioned imports, it said.

The effect of external shocks on the credit balance is about $200bn The agriculture sector will also get an additional 50bn rubles ($740mn) in a bid to boost local production to make up for shortages caused by Moscow’s embargoes of Western products over the Ukraine crisis.

“As thing stand, the plan is heavy on policy but light on numbers,” Liza Ermolenko, emerging markets analyst with Capital Economics, said in a note.

She predicted Russian fiscal policy would stay “relatively accommodative in 2015” before a tighter fiscal squeeze in the following years.

Gold retreats as Fed’s upbeat outlook boosts dollar

n Reuters, Singapore

Four thousand US dollars are counted out by a banker counting currency at a bank in Westminster, Colorado REUTERS

Global banks to raise base salaries by under 3% in 2015 n Reuters, London Global banks expect to increase base salaries by less than 3% this year and most are not planning to overhaul their pay structure in the face of tougher European Union rules on bonuses, a survey reported yesterday.

Salary increases across banks, insurers and other financial services firms are expected to be between 5-8% in emerging markets, 2-3% in North America and 1.52% in Europe, according to a survey of 63 firms by consulting firm Mercer.

The survey said about 60% of companies predicted 2015 bonus levels would be similar to 2014, although 20% expected levels to increase from last year. Increases are most expected in private banking, private equity, investment banking, and property & casualty insurance roles.

The survey showed 40% of banks had last year introduced role-based allowances

(typically 12 monthly payments that are set at the start of the year but not counted as basic pay by banks) in response to a new European Union law capping bonuses at 200 percent of salary, and an additional 10% were planning to introduce them.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) said in October the role-based allowances counted as variable pay, so banks needed to adapt rules again, but Mercer said its survey showed very few firms were planning to eliminate them.

“Based on the findings from Mercer’s survey, it seems 2015 will be a year for stabilizing compensation programs after several years of changes in large part due to regulatory requirements since the financial crisis,” said Vicki Elliott, partner at Mercer.

The survey said salaries in life insurance and property and casualty insurance are expected to rise by more than 3% this year, but banks expect to lift salaries by 2-3%. l

Gold dropped for the fourth session in five yesterday after the Federal Reserve painted a bullish picture of the US economy, signalling it was on course to lift interest rates this year.

The prospect of a hike in US rates makes non-interest-bearing assets such as gold less attractive, helping pull bullion further away from a fivemonth peak reached last week.

“People are already adjusted to the new policy stance and there’s no further reason to push up gold to a much higher level,” said Mark To, head of research at Hong Kong’s Wing Fung Financial Group.

In Wednesday’s policy statement, the Fed said the US economy was expanding “at a solid pace” with strong job gains, leaving the central bank on track to raise rates this year. But it repeated it would be “patient” in deciding when to increase benchmark borrowing costs from zero.

Spot gold was off 0.2% at $1,282.11 an ounce at 0657 GMT, adding to a 0.6% loss in the previous session. Gold hit a five-month high of $1,306.20 on Jan 22.

US gold for February delivery eased 0.3% to $1,281.90 an ounce.

The dollar was firmer against a basket of currencies and not far from an 11-year peak reached last week as dollar bulls focused on the positive in the Fed’s statement.

The Federal Open Market Committee said it would take “financial and international developments” into account when determining when to raise rates, referencing global markets for the first time since January 2013. But analysts say that does little to alter market expectations of a mid-year rate increase. l

Siluanov underlined that Russia’s wealth funds built up from oil sales are not limitless so many investment projects would have to be cut, particularly in construction.

“All new construction projects will have to be delayed,” he said, noting the exception of particularly important ones in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula Russia annexed last March which is struggling without a bridge linking it to mainland Russia.

High energy prices let Russia amass a sizeable pile of cash divided between two oil funds. Siluanov said 5.6tn rubles ($83.5bn) are in Russia’s reserve fund and another 4.9tn rubles ($73bn) in its national welfare fund.

A number of companies that can no longer borrow abroad have asked for colossal amounts of cash from the reserves. One, oil giant Rosneft, has put in a request for 1.3tn rubles to fund its projects, deputy economy minister Nikolai Podguzov told journalists Wednesday.

Pressure on the finance ministry to grant this funding is likely to grow as the crisis deepens.

“The most important thing is not to squander the reserves in one year,” Siluanov said. l

for StanChart’s top spot n Reuters, Hong Kong Standard Chartered Plc is seeking a leader with a tough-to-find mix of Asian experience and regulatory clout as it kicks off the search for a successor to CEO Peter Sands, investors, bankers and headhunters told Reuters.

The list of potential candidates is wide and includes Piyush Gupta, CEO of Singapore-based DBS, outgoing Westpac CEO Gail Kelly, National Bank of Abu Dhabi’s boss Alex Thursby, ANZ CEO Mike Smith and Antonio HortaOsorio, CEO of Lloyds Banking Group.

Sands steered the global bank out of the financial crisis and into a string of record earnings during his eightyear tenure, but is now under pressure from top shareholders after a surge in bad loans on the back of slower Asian growth hit profits and triggered a 43% slump in its share price.

Three of the bank’s top 30 investors, fed up with the pace of Sands’ turnaround strategy, told Reuters in December Sands should be replaced, probably this year.

Insiders have told Reuters shareholders are looking for a banker with a deep

understanding of Asia, the main area of focus for StanChart but currently a major troublespot following a slump in oil prices and receding growth in China.

Any successor to Sands would also need to be able to speak head-to-head with US regulators, these insiders say.

Standard Chartered has faced a string of legal issues in the United States, including having to pay $667m over sanctions violations involving Iran and other countries.

“The role almost needs three people doing it. You’ve got outward facing regulatory and political challenges if you’re a bank of that size, and then inward looking you’re sorting out the bank’s problems,” said an investor whose firm has a substantial stake in StanChart.

Standard Chartered is using several headhunting firms, including Egon Zehnder, which is involved in assessing potential CEOs, three people familiar with the matter said.

StanChart’s No 1 shareholder, Singapore-based sovereign investor Temasek, is unhappy about the performance of its 18% stake and has called for a succession plan for the CEO, people with direct knowledge of the matter said. l

Fed seen remaining patient with rate guidance amid global turmoil n Reuters, Washington The Federal Reserve is expected to signal it remains on track to begin raising interest rates later this year, as the central bank shows confidence that low inflation and rising risks from abroad have yet to derail the US economic recovery.

The Fed’s first two-day policy meeting of the year concludes on Wednesday, and policymakers will likely restate their “patient” approach to raising rates, while also voicing faith that the economy will continue improving.

Fed Chair Janet Yellen faces growing skepticism that the central bank can tighten monetary policy by mid-year, with a strengthening dollar and falling oil prices adding to worries that inflation readings remain too low for the Fed to begin hiking.

But U.S. central bank officials have argued that the drop in oil prices is a transitory factor that benefits U.S. consumers in the short run. And with unemployment dropping and growth on track, Fed officials have indicated they will move forward with an initial rate hike in the middle or latter half of the year even if other closely watched measures such as wages remain weak.

“The Fed will follow through and normalize rates later this year...Our thinking is June. I would not debate anybody who said September,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Analytics.

This week’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting features four new regional bank presidents who rotate into voting positions: Atlanta’s Dennis Lockhart, Chicago’s Charles Evans, Richmond’s Jeffrey Lacker and San Francisco’s John Williams. With the

exception of Lacker, an inflation hawk, the rest of that bloc are largely dovish central bankers who have favored keeping rates low throughout the economic recovery.

Market turmoil

The Fed’s policy statement on Wednesday will follow a tumultuous few weeks in markets worldwide. In that time, the divergence between the US and other major central banks has become stark, with a host of countries cutting interest rates and the European Central Bank launching a massive new stimulus program.

The collapse in global oil prices is already helping to push the Fed further from achieving a key policy goal of raising annual inflation to two percent.

Lower energy prices and the ECB’s stimulus also adds further upward pressure on the dollar.

“The dollar, as a standalone, is unlikely to feature materially in the Fed’s decision. But the Fed will consider the extent to which international weakness and geo-political issues counter better economic conditions,” said Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic adviser at Allianz.

Morgan Stanley moved its Fed liftoff forecast to March 2016 from January, and lowered its 2015 core PCE growth

DILBERT

forecast - a key Fed inflationary measure - to 1.2% from 1.9%.

US economic data meanwhile has been mixed and futures contracts show investors betting on a greater chance of the Fed moving up rates in September or later, rather than June.

But in the Fed’s December statement, its addition of the word “patient” in reference to rate guidance showed the central bank was still inching closer to lift off. Yellen went further at the December press conference to say the Fed was unlikely to begin the process for at least the “next couple of meetings.”

That statement all but ruled out a move in January and March, with investors now watching for when ‘patient’ is dropped, which will likely signal the Fed is ready to move at the next meeting [ID:nL1N0UR23R]. While Yellen has said a rate decision depends on the data, the June meeting and its scheduled press conference appears to be the central bank’s target.

“The Fed is operating under the base case of a June liftoff, and June is still several months away,” said Cornerstone Macro economist Robert Perli, who added he expects, at most, minor changes to the Fed’s December statement. “The Fed can afford to buy itself some more time, and that’s exactly what we expect it to do." l