The New Nation - Internet Edition

Reuters, Nusa Dua

The United Nations praised on Thursday a step by a U.S. Senate committee to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the world's top carbon emitter even as Washington reaffirmed opposition to mandatory caps.

"That's a very encouraging sign from the United States," Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, said at 190-nation U.N. talks in Bali, Indonesia, of a vote by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

His comments underscored the isolation of President George W. Bush's administration at the Dec. 3-14 talks. Australia's new government ratified the Kyoto Protocol on Monday, leaving the United States as the only developed nation outside the pact.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has also offered to act as a bridge on climate change between China and the West, a Rudd spokeswoman told Reuters on Thursday. China is poised to become the world's top carbon emitter and is not bound by emissions caps under the Kyoto Protocol.

Getting China, which is already pursuing energy efficiency targets for its booming economy, to join a broader climate pact is regarded as crucial by many as nations prepare for rising seas, melting glaciers, severe storms and water shortages.

The U.S. Senate committee voted 11-8 on Wednesday for legislation outlining a cap-and-trade system for industry, power generators and transport. The bill is headed for debate in the full Senate.

"It will not alter our position here," U.S. chief climate negotiator Harlan Watson told reporters in Bali of the vote.

Bush says Kyoto would harm the economy and wrongly excludes goals for developing nations until 2012. Instead, he favors big investments in clean technologies but dismisses emissions caps.

Watson said Washington was pushing ahead with its own track by inviting big economies to Honolulu, Hawaii, next month for climate change talks after a first Washington meeting in September. He said he believed the dates were Jan. 29 and 30.

Bush wants 17 big emitters, accounting for more than 80 percent of greenhouse gases, to agree to new climate goals by the end of 2008 -- just before he leaves office-and feed into a new U.N. pact meant to be agreed by the end of 2009.

Delegates in Bali are seeking ways to bind all nations more tightly into a fight against climate change. But China, India and other developing nations say rich countries must commit to deep emissions cuts first.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he believed in principle there should be mandatory capping. "However, I know there are some concerns in some of the developing countries, therefore this issue should be discussed in the future negotiation process," he told reporters in New York.

Ban said the Bali gathering showed there was momentum on the issue, "and, I hope, the political will to act."

More than 200 climate scientists from around the world urged nations at the Bali talks to make deeper and swifter cuts to greenhouse emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels. They said governments had a window of only 10-15 years for global emissions to peak and decline, and that the ultimate goal should be at least a 50 percent reduction in climate-warming emissions by 2050.

"We appreciate this is a significant challenge for the world community," Professor Andy Pittman, from the University of New South Wales in Australia, told reporters in Bali.

"But it is what is required to reduce the risks of dangerous climate change, and that is what we are all trying to do here."

The return of Benazir Bhutto from the political dead has been wondrous to behold, Ten years ago she had been sacked as prime minister, her brother had been gunned down by her own police; her husband was in prison on corruption charges; and her Swiss bank accounts had been frozen at the request of the Pakistan government. When the heroine of the struggle against the dictatorship of Ziaul-Haq visited Britain, ministers failed to return her calls.

A decade on, she is the darling of the western media once more, leading the opposition to another US-backed military ruler and somehow, at the same time, the last hope of the US and British governments of keeping a grip on the upheaval engulfing Pakistan. As she was told by a senior US official at her lowest point in the late 1990s; "We can whitewash you in 24 hours if we need to."

But events are not playing out quite as Washington intended. The sweetheart deal it stitched together between the former prime minister and the shopworn dictator was meant to produce a power sharing arrangement that would keep the army on side but offer a little legitimacy to General Pervez Musharraf's discredited rule. For Bhutto, it offered a route back to power and the dropping of corruption cases against her. Many in her Pakistan People's Party balked at this backchannel accommodation with the enemy. But in private meetings with close supporters, she recalled that her more radical father had been hanged "in the night, like Saddam Hussein" for defying the US and that this was the way to get back and do something for the country. Her presence in Pakistan, she said, would create a new dynamic.

Which it certainly has, if not quite as her western sponsors intended. Musharraf's declaration of martial law barely two weeks after Bhutto's tumultous return to Karachi was a last throw of the dice to stop the Supreme Court striking down his rigged re-election. But the violent crackdown, the arrest of thousands of activists, the closure of independent TV stations and the street confrontations with striking lawyers have united the opposition to the dictatorship. Bhutto's response has been to mobilise her party machine behind the protest movement, abandon all talk of negotiation, insist she would not serve as prime minister under the general, and call for Musharraf to go. She has thus stanched her loss of support over the perception that she was propping up the dictator, and put herself again at the head of a popular democratic movement. Not surprisingly, there is still skepticism about whether her break with Musharraf is final and the protests, dominated by the middle class and party activists, have yet to draw in wider mass support.

But this is certainly not what the US had in mind for pivotal a state in its 'war on terror" Bush's calls to Musharraf to abandon his dictatorial ways and press ahead with free elections clearly lack all credibility. Not only has the US been Musharraf's principal backer, channeling nearly $11 bn worth of aid to his regime since 2001, but it is widely accepted that any genuine withdrawal of US support would finish the general off is short order. I wonder Bush his sent has deputy secretary of state, John Negroponte, to try to knock his clients heads together.

For the US Pakistan has been a woeful foreign policy failure Musharraf has now conceded that nuclear armed Pakistan is becoming a failed state, far from being a bulwark against jihadist terror, Pakistan is one of the two countries most closely associated with the rise and entrenchment of al-Qaida the second being that other dependable American ally, Saudi Arabia.

For Pakistan, the US relationship has been a deepening disaster; its exploitation as a strategic asset against the Soviet Union and India in the past and now as part of the US attempt to control Afghanistan and the wider Middle East, has been a central factor in its stifling by a bloated anti-democratic military. It can be no surprise that hostility to the US role in the country is so over-whelming, though that is in no way articulated by its unloved political elites.

If there was ever a country begging for radical social transformation, Pakistan is surely it. Its potential has been ruthlessly stunted by feudal land ownership and parasitic moneymen, a third of its 160 million people go hungry, 44% are living below the poverty line, half the population is literate and barely one in two girls goes to school. Such conditions demand a sweeping programme of land reform and public investment in social welfare, health and education. Instead Pakistan gets corrupt, knockdown privatisations and most western aid goes to the army. Bhutto has been arguing the case for large-scale public welfare programmes paid for through deficit financing. But given her record in power, there is much cynicism about such commitments, while no other mainstream political force offers genuine social alternative.

Wajid Shamsul Hasan, Pakistan's former high commissioner in London and Bhutto confidant, believes Musharraf will be gone within days. If so, Bhutto and the other traditional leaders will struggle to meet the pent-up demand for change. If Hasan proves over-optimistic and Musharraf digs in with American support, the possibiity of a wider popular uprising is likely to grow-and with it, the chance of real and necessary political change.

-Guardian Weekly

BBC Online

The most controversial man in Indian politics, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, is hoping to be re-elected this month. The BBC's Geeta Pandey is following his campaign.

At an election rally in Kathlal in the western Indian state of Gujarat, chief minister Narendra Modi lists his achievements.

"I have worked for the development of Gujarat. I have brought water from the Narmada river to your homes. I have built many schools for your children," he says.

The 3,000-odd supporters have been waiting for him for almost three hours. The little square in the market is chock-a-block and people have taken up places on balconies and rooftops too.

"You have the history of 45 years of misrule by the [opposition] Congress party. They question what I have done for the people. But I've been here only seven years. Now tell me, what did they do when they were in power?," he asks.

The audiences cheer him wildly.

"Do you want Narendra Modi to be your chief minister again," he asks?

"Yes!" the response is loud and clear.

"Then vote for my candidate, vote for the lotus," he says. The flower is his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s election symbol.

The rally ends quickly, but for Modi's supporters, the three-hour-long wait is worth it.

"Everyone wants him to win," says one supporter. "In the last election, five years ago, Bharatiya Janata Party got 128 seats. This time we'll get 150 seats. Modi has done lots for the development of the state, he's also destroyed terrorism."

Hitesh Joshi, a Kathlal resident says, "Modi is our pride. Congress cannot beat him. No force in the world can defeat him."

The chief minister is a controversial figure and is loved and hated in equal measure.

A big blot on his record came five years ago when more than a thousand Muslims were killed in riots after a train carrying Hindu pilgrims was set on fire in Godhra town, allegedly by a Muslim mob.

Staff Reporter

The two-day National ICT for Development exhibition held at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Centre in the city ended yesterday.

On the second day of the exhibition various books, audio-visual CDs of information and knowledge were launched in the presence of Prof Jafar Iqbal and Selina Hossain.

The Bangladesh Telecentre Network (BTN) organised the exhibition on the occasion of launching of its mission 2011, which was taken by BTN with a view two building up 40,000 telecentres across the country to ensure access to information and knowledge by the poor and underprivileged people by 2011.

The telecentres would provide content-based information and knowledge service on various livelihood issues, Helpline based information, video documentary, internet browsing, issue based campaign, water pH test, soil test, height and weight measurement, photography, composing, scanning, photo scanning, equipment rental, blood pressure measurement, government forms, e-mail, commercial phone and mobile, university admission form service and DV form.

BTN treasurer TIM Nurul Kabir said that BTN has launched the mission 2011 with a view to building 40,000 telecentres throughout the country to ensure access to information and digital knowledge by the grassroots people within 40 years after the country's independence and build information based society, as information was power and knowledge.

He also said that the mission 2011 would be supportive to ensure access and right to information and build up information society across the world by 2015 as per the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and World Summit of Information Society (WSIS).

Access and right to information should be ensured for sustainable development of the country, he added.

The telecentres would be used by the grassroots-level public, while the centres help them to learn and develop skills, create local content and capture local knowledge, create economic opportunities, access to doctors and other distant professionals, overcoming isolation, bridge the digital divide and reach out to youth.

UNB, Pirojpur

Communications Adviser Major General (retd) MA Matin Friday asked the local administration to take legal action if any NGO tries to forcibly collect loan installments from cyclone victims.

Addressing a press briefing at Majher Char in Mathbaria upazila Friday, Matin, also the chief relief coordinator, appreciated different NGOs for distribution of relief goods among the cyclone survivors.

He said strong cyclone shelters would be built so that greater number of people as well as livestock could be accommodated there during natural calamities.

The Adviser said many countries have assured of providing funds in this regard.

Matin distributed relief goods among 160 cyclone-hit families at Majher Char in Mathbaria upazila.

Earlier, addressing a meeting at Mathbaria upazila parishad, Matin said the government has taken necessary steps to provide house-building materials and agri-inputs along with food to the cyclone victims. Local officials and civil society members attended the meeting.

About raising VGF cards, the Adviser said the government would consider it if the upazila and district administrations deem it necessary.

Matin directed physicians to ensure proper medical services to those injured in the cyclone.

The Adviser also visited different cyclone-hit areas in the upazila. Local civil and military officials were present on the occasion.

Staff Reporter

Hundreds of young music lovers thronged the 'Banglalink Desh Music Fest 2007' Charity Concert at Birshreshta Sipahi Mohammad Mostofa Kamal Stadium at Kamlapur in the city yesterday to witness and listen the music performed by their popular bands.

Banglalink, a leading mobile phone operator, organised the 'Banglalink Desh Music Fest 2007' Charity Concert for helping the Cyclone Sidr affected distressed people in the country's southern districts.

Starting from early in the afternoon at Kamlapur Stadium, the concert continued till late in the evening. Hundreds of music lovers joined the charity concert and enjoyed the songs performed by their beloved bands.

Country's leading band artistes Azam Khan and Hyder Hossain and band groups Nagar Baul, Miles, LRB, Warfaze, Arthoheen and Black performed at the concert.

Besides the audience, Solaiman Alam, Senior Manager of PR and Communications of Banglalink, Shakil Manzur, Executive Director of Radio Today, Sheikh Monirul Alam Tipu of Carnival, an event management organisation, band stars Ayub Bacchu and Hamin Ahmed, among others, were present.

BBC Online

On a chilly October night, a late visitor bangs the huge steel gate of a house in a narrow alley of Mingora city, the headquarters of Pakistan's troubled northern district, Swat. But no-one answers.

A painted sign on top of the gate says: "No more singing and dancing from today - 8 August 2007." A curious neighbour walks up to the visitor, telling him the girls inside "have got letters from the Taleban, advising them to put an end to their business if they don't want their house blown up".

People in the Bunrh neighbourhood, the so-called music street of Mingora, confirm this information.

"Dozens of families have shifted to other cities, while many others are stuck here without any means of a living," says Fazl-e-Maula, the father-in-law of a local dancing girl, Nasreen.

Local Taleban have been spreading their influence in Swat since 2005, and are currently holding large swathes of territory just north of Mingora. Last August, they distributed a dozen letters across the Bunrh neighbourhood threatening bomb attacks unless the dancers and musicians gave up their professions. Swat has been long known for its fair-skinned dancing girls, popular with people who wish to have dancing at a wedding party or any other private party across most of northern Pakistan. Unlike some dancing girls in the Shahi Mohallah area of Lahore, the women in this conservative city have never had a reputation for providing any sexual services. Many people visit the girls in Swat at their houses in Bunrh for a glass of whisky and a dance.

Down the decades, many of the girls have shown themselves to be talented radio singers or movie stars.

But in recent years the tide has turned against them in a big way. It started with the "Islamisation" policy of former military ruler, Gen Zia ul-Haq, in the 1980s, which saw the rise of the clergy's influence in social life. This made dance parties at weddings increasingly unpopular. In 2002, a religious alliance, the MMA, came to power in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and banned all cultural shows where these girls performed.

At the turn of the millennium, many girls were on their way out of business.

"I was too old to dance by then," recalls Shah Bano, 38. "My daughter had her admirers, but when the MMA came to power, invitations to wedding parties began to get few and far between. And there was the risk of arrest and public humiliation."

Bdnews24.com, Dhaka

Grameenphone chief executive officer Anders Jensen Friday promised to take stern actions against the mobile phone operator's officials involved in the illegal VoIP business.

"Some additional irregularities have been found relating to Grameenphone providing special service to illegal VOIP operators," Jensen said in a statement Friday after RAB raided overnight its headquarters in Gulshan. "An investigation is ongoing and Grameenphone is fully cooperating with the law enforcement agencies in this regard."

He said he was unaware of his company providing special services to VoIP operators.

"We are trying to get to the bottom of this whole affair and I can assure that stern measures will be taken against anyone involved within Grameenphone."

"I have been completely taken by surprise by this latest development as all of this happened before I started my tenure as CEO," Jensen said.

"Apparently not all information was given to me. I was assured by the relevant people in the company that all VOIP-related issues were already cleared," the GP boss said.

AFP, Islamabad

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf will lift the state of emergency on December 15, a day earlier than previously planned, the attorney general told AFP on Friday.

"The emergency will be lifted on December 15," attorney general Malik Muhammad Qayyum told AFP.

Musharraf had earlier pledged to lift the state of emergency on December 16.

The announcement by the attorney general, who is also the government's chief lawyer, could not be immediately confirmed to AFP by a very close aide of president Musharraf.

Reuters adds: Pakistani opposition parties have failed to reach agreement on demands to set the government to ensure their participation in next month's election, making a united opposition boycott increasingly unlikely.

Former prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto, both recently back from years in exile, are trying to forge a "charter of demands" to present to President Perez Musharraf to ensure a fair election and their participation. A boycott by the two main opposition parties and smaller allies would deprive the vote of credibility and prolong instability that has raised concern about the nuclear-armed U.S. ally and its efforts to fight growing Islamist militancy.

After three days of talks the parties have agreed on 13 demands they hope will allow a fair vote, including ensuring the neutrality of a caretaker government made up Musharraf supporters and reconstituting the Election Commission.

But they have been unable to agree on whether to demand the restoration of dozens of judges dismissed by Musharraf after he imposed emergency rule on Nov. 3, and whether to set the government a deadline to meet their demands.

"We have differences of opinion over the restoration of judges and giving a deadline to the government to meet the charter of demands," Sharif told reporters in Lahore.

Chavez for life president

CARACAS: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Thursday he will govern until 2013 when his mandate ends, now that voters rejected constitutional reforms that would have allowed him to seek endless reelection. "The shouting is one thing, the reality another t The reform was not approved, so I have to leave the government in the year 2013. I will work tirelessly until the last day I have left here," Chavez said at an event in the capital.

Ingrid : Living like the dead

BBC Online: The Colombian rebel group Farc has cautiously welcomed French President Nicolas Sarkozy's offer to broker the release of 45 Farc-held hostages. Sarkozy is particularly keen to secure the release of Ingrid Betancourt, a Colombian politician who also holds French citizenship. Betancourt-who has French nationality through a former marriage-was kidnapped by Farc in 2002 while campaigning for the Colombian presidency.

Space shuttle launch delayed

CAPE CANAVERAL: NASA postponed Friday's launch of space shuttle Atlantis to resolve a fuel sensor problem and officials said it would be Saturday at the earliest before they tried again. It was the second time Atlantis' launch was delayed, having originally been scheduled to go aloft on Thursday until two sensors in its external tank failed a routine check.