The New Nation - Internet Edition

Smith's ton powers S Africa to earn 9-wicket victory

Players of South Africa celebrate their victory over
Bangladesh in the first ODI at the Bir Sreshtha Shaheed
Ruhul Amin Stadium in Chittagong on Sunday. South Africa won
the match by nine wickets. FocusBangla

Sports Reporter

An undefeated 103 by Graeme Smith powered South Africa to earn a resounding nine-wicket victory over hosts Bangladesh in their first One Day International (ODI) match of the three-match ODI series at the Bir Sreshtha Shaheed Ruhul Amin Stadium in Chittagong on Sunday.

Opener Graeme Smith, the skipper of South Africa, played 118 balls in his splendid innings, which was ornamented with 14 shots through the ropes and one stroke over the fence. Electing to bat first, Bangladesh were skittled out for 178 off 48.2 overs. Bangladesh lost their wickets at regular intervals. Besides Tamim Iqbal, none of Bangladesh batsman were able to make a notable score.

Opener Tamim Iqbal hit a fine 82 off 98 balls amid nine fours and a six. Andre Nel harpooned three wickets giving away 24 runs while Paul Harris, Albi Morkel and CK Langeveldt scalped two each for 30, 30 and 32 runs respectively.

Later, South Africa romped home scoring 180 for the loss of one wicket in 36.5 overs. South Africa made a solid start as the two Proteas openers, Graeme Smith and Gibbs put on 143 together before Gibbs was trapped leg before wicket by Shakib Al Hasan making 57 off 84 balls. He sent the ball eight times beyond the ropes and one time over the fence.

Shakib Al Hasan, the only successful bowler of Bangladesh got one wicket for 29 runs.

Bangladesh will face South Africa in the second ODI at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur on March 12.

FBCCI polls: Annisul hopes to win majority seats

Anisul Huq

Staff Reporter

Presidential aspirant of the FBCCI and former BGMEA chief Annisul Huq yesterday said that there will be no allegation of market manipulation against him or his board of directors if he gets elected in the upcoming poll of the apex trade body. There are allegation of market manipulation against some of the directors of previous boards of the FBCCI.

He said if a committee monitors market situation sincerely none would be able to increase price of essentials without any notice.

Annisul Huq was exchanging views with business journalists at Dhaka Club yesterday ahead of the poll of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry to be held on March 17.

The former BGMEA chief said none of the previous FBCCI committee members has done anything for the development of any of its affiliate chambers.

"During the last one month I visited 44 chambers across the country. I have seen how neglected those are. Nearly 75 per cent of them have no offices. Chamber presidents meet the expenses from their own pockets," Huq said.

Disclosing some inefficiency of the previous FBCCI leaders he said FBCCI has no focus on future business generation. There is no concrete proposal from FBCCI for the real development of the small and medium enterprises, he observed.

Huq hoped that his panel would win the election with majority seats.

DSE gains amid volatility in the market

UNB, Dhaka

The Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) registered gains for the fourth straight trading day on Sunday, amid volatility during the day's trading.

"The index curve reflects the volatility in the market as the prices of stocks showed wide difference. However, the indices went up amid positive mood among the investors," said a fund manager. Another significant indicator as reflected during the day's trading was that the prices of BD Finance, BOC, IPDC and Uttara bank declined although the companies declared "good" dividend today. The fund manager, however, pointed out that if the investors bought the stocks at higher prices, the dividends are unlikely to satisfy them.

The day's turnover stood at Tk 326 crore, marginally rising from Tk 325 crore on Thursday.

Of the total 244 issues traded today, 139 issues gained, 103 incurred loss while 2 remained unchanged.

The DSE General Index (DGEN), the benchmark index, rose 32 points or

1.00 percent to close at 3,023 points today, while the All Share Price Index (DSI) increased 25 points or 1.00 percent to close at 2,553 points.

Turnover leaders in terms of value were AB Bank, Square Pharma, Uttara Bank, Grameen 1, Lafarge Surma Cement, IFIC, AIMS 1st MF, Dutch-Bangla Bank, BRAC Bank, and NCCB, while the volume leaders were AIMS 1st MF, Keya Cosmetics, Beximco Pharma, Grameen 1, Miracle

Industries, Bextex, Quasem Dry Cell, BDCom, ACI and Keya Detergent. The day's top gainers were Trust Bank, 6th ICB, BCIL, BD Luggage, Metrospin, BD Welding, M Hossain Garments, Monno Jutex, Fu-wang Ceramics and Ashraf Textiles, while the top losers were Ambee Pharma, Gemini Sea Food, TBL, Central Insurance, United Insurance, BOC, Prime Life Insurance, Pharm Aid, Dulamia Cotton and Glaxo SmithKline. Today, BD Finance recommended stock dividend of 10 percent and cash dividend 5 percent for the year 2007. AGM of the company will be held at BDR Darbar Hall at 10:00 am on April 20.

Uttara Bank recommended stock dividend at 1:1 for the year 2007. AGM will be held at Officer's Club, Baily Road at 10:30 am on May 15. An EGM of the Bank will also be held at 10:00 am on the same day at the same venue for raising the Authorized Capital to Tk 160.00 crore from the present Tk 100.00 crore.

IPDC recommended cash dividend of 5 percent and stock dividend of 10 percent for the year 2007. AGM will be held on May 22 while time and venue will be notified later.

BOC has recommended cash dividend of 70 percent for the year 2007. AGM will be held on May 8 while the time and venue will be notified later.

Responding to a DSE query on recent unusual price-hike of their stocks, Miracle Industries, Renata, Goldenson and Olympic informed today that they have no undisclosed price sensitive information. Prices of all the stocks increased during the day's trading.

Huge space truck races into orbit

BBC Online

Europe's new orbital cargo ship was launched from French Guiana on a mission to resupply the space station.

The Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) is the biggest and most complex spacecraft Europe has ever tried to put in orbit.

The 20-tonne unmanned freighter left the Kourou spaceport at 0403 GMT, riding atop an Ariane 5 rocket.

The spectacular night launch in the South American jungle was declared a success once the ATV had separated from its booster 66 minutes after lift-off.

The news was cheered by a huge crowd of VIPs, space agency officials and representatives of the industrial teams that have worked on the development of the ship for past 11 years.

Ground staff and astronauts will monitor the final approach.

"With the launch of the ATV, we are embarking on an extraordinary voyage," reflected European Space Agency chief, Jean Jacques Dordain.

"As of today, Europe is an essential partner of the International Space Station (ISS)."

The ATV is the largest, completely automated rendezvous and docking ship to go to the ISS. When it attaches to the platform on 3 April, it will do so without any human assistance.

The vessel will provide the largest refuelling and waste elimination capability for the ISS; and it is the only vehicle on the current timeline that will be able to de-orbit the $100bn platform when it is retired sometime towards the end of the next decade.

The launch was a significant event for Ariane, too. The European rocket had never before lifted so big a "passenger".

Its normal payload is a pair of commercial telecommunications satellites that weigh together less than 10 tonnes.

The ship itself has 3,490kg of propellant for rendezvous, re-boost and de-orbit manoeuvres

The rocket had to be specially strengthened to carry the ATV aloft.

Its upper-stage was also programmed to perform extra burns - the first to put the freighter in the correct 260km-high orbit, the second to take itself out of the sky and into the Pacific Ocean.

The ATV has been dubbed "Jules Verne" for its maiden flight and is even carrying a first-edition hardback of the 19th-Century French author's book From the Earth to the Moon. It will return on a space shuttle at a later date.

The ATV will now essentially be parked in space. It must wait until the US space shuttle Endeavour has completed its forthcoming mission to the ISS before moving in to make a docking.

The ship's own computers will be in charge of the approach, employing an advanced form of GPS and, in the latter stages, optical sensors to guide itself into the correct position on the end of the Russian Zvezda module.

Astronauts on the station will only intervene - by pressing a red button on a panel - if they sense danger.

"Now we have a number of operations to do," said Robert Laine, the technical and research director at EADS Astrium, which is the prime contractor on the ATV.

"First, we have to deploy the solar panels, antennas, and check out everything. Then there will be a major operation in the next few days when we will test out what is known as the 'escape procedure', he told BBC News.

"It will be as if the red button has been pressed, which tells the ATV everything is lost and it must get out of the way. This is a major milestone insisted on by the US space agency to prove the emergency systems work."

The ATV is the way Europe will pay for its membership of the ISS project. Four vehicles will follow this initial flight. But the European Space Agency hopes its new ship will be more than just a high-flying heavy goods lorry.

The sophisticated automated systems onboard are expected to be transferred into many more spacecraft - especially those that require automatic rendezvous and docking.

This would include any mission that went to Mars to try to retrieve rocks to bring back to Earth laboratories.

The hardware that is used to lift the samples off the surface of the Red Planet would need to meet up in orbit with the propulsion unit which would carry it home. The technology for this in-orbit assembly might be derived from ATV know-how.

And there may even be a grander application - one not lost on the Nasa chief Mike Griffin.

"It occurs to me that it's a fairly short step to go from the ATV to something which can carry crew," he has observed.

"It needs an entry system to allow it to come back safely and crew accommodations instead of cargo payload. But it seems to me that having a very fine launcher with the Ariane 5 and a very fine space vehicle with the ATV that it's only a step from there to an independent, European manned-spaceflight capability; and I for one would like to see it."

Bangladesh doesn't have any support for terrorists: Expert

BSS, Dhaka

Leading global terrorism expert Dr Rohon Gunaratna yesterday said despite presence of some of the terrorist outfits are working here but the government and the people of the country do not have any support for them.

"This message should be properly conveyed to the West," said Gunaratna, currently the head of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, at the launching of Bangladesh Centre for Terrorism Research (BCTR).

He said, potential threat of terrorism exposed Bangladesh to its risks requiring the South Asian nation to mobilise both security forces and non-military powers for its counter.

"Bangladesh faces a number of threats, but terrorism and extremism is the most serioust if the government and its partners do not fight it, it will grow the way it expanded in Pakistan and several other countries," Gunaratna said.

He said despite the dismantling of the outfits like Jamaatul Mujaheedeen Bangladesh (JMB) and Harkatul Jihad Bangladesh (HuJi-B) by the security forces but their "ideologies could not be countered yet".

"Designation of HuJi-B as a global terrorist by US is very important for Bangladesh," he said adding that the social campaign mobilising religious leaders and media were crucial to combat the militant elements.

BCTR chief major general (retd) ANM Muniruzzaman said, the centre was being launched with the collaborative efforts of specialized terrorism research centers in South East Asia, Europe and Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies (BIPSS) to study terrorism and its threats in Bangladesh bringing together people from every relevant discipline and platforms.

Gunaratna, who authored books including famous Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror, Terrorism in the Asia Pacific:

Threat and Response and The Changing Face of Terrorism, said the international community developed a wrong impression that Bangladesh was the haven of Islamist terrorists.

Replying to a question, Gunaratna said, JMB was a local group with radical Middle Eastern ideologies while HuJi-B was a Bangladesh-based international terrorist outfit group having most of its leaders being Bangladeshis, most of them having backgrounds of Afghan war against Soviet Union.

The HuJi-B, he said, received its initial funding from Al-Queda.

Muniruzzaman supplemented him saying definite evidence were found that HuJi-B had wide international links with regional outfits like Laskar-e-Tayeba, Joyshi Mohammad, Rohingya militants besides Al-Queda while US listed it as one of its 44 listed global terrorism groups.

Asked to clarify the term "terrorism", Gunaratna said, the outfits which carried out killings on civilians with a political motive were "terrorists". He said, in many cases the governments in a number of countries were found to be backing the terrorist outfits with shortsighted and short-term political goals or foreign policy objectives, which eventually proved extremely counterproductive.

Bangladesh Day Parade in Los Angeles

Staff Reporter

Bangladesh Day Parade will be held at Shatto Recreation Centre and nearby Vermont Avenue in Los Angeles in California in USA on March 29 and 30 to raise voice against the impact of global warming in Bangladesh.

Seminars, dignitaries' speech and cultural programmes will be also held on the days where key speaker will be Dr Atiq Rahman. Bangladesh Unity Federation of Los Angeles (BUFLA), a unity federation of many different Bangladeshi organisations in Los Angeles.

This was disclosed at a press conference organised by Bestway Foundation Ltd at Dhaka Reporters Unity yesterday.

Mizanur Rahman, Chairman and CEO of Bestway Foundation, Ismail Hossain, publication and seminar organising secretary of Bangladesh Day,

Nazmul Khan, Coordinator of Bestway Entertainment Ltd, among others, were present on the occasion.

Ismail Hossain said all professionals from Bangladesh and those living in USA were invited to attend the programme. From Bangladesh, environment expert Dr Atiq Rahman, artiste Momtaz and film actor Ahmed Sharif will attend the programme.

Besides, Bangladesh Ambassador and Consul General in USA, Loss Angeles County Sheriff, Dr Abul Hussam, NSF Award winner on Arsenic filtration, Nafees Bin Zafar, Oscar Award winner, Miss America (Junior) Nora Ali and other dignitaries will also attend the seminars and the parade, he said.

Hannan Shah seeks resignation of CEC for partisan remarks

UNB, Dhaka

In line with other BNP leaders BNP chairperson's advisor Brig Gen (retd) Hannan Shah Sunday demanded resignation of CEC Dr ATM Shamsul Huda for his recent statements and partisan remarks.

Talking to reporters at his Mahakhali New DOHS house, he said the CEC has become controversial for his comments about the BNP constitution that has created doubts about his neutrality in the public mind.

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Shah also alleged although BNP is a big political party, but it is being kept aloof from election process as well as from the people under a design.

He said the Election Commission is showing hostile attitude with BNP. He cautioned that BNP will decide its next course in consultation within the party regarding the CEC if he takes any step against BNP in future.

Shah also pointed out lack of coordination between the government and the election commission. "We hope they would give election is quickly as possible," he said However, the BNP leader said people will not accept any stage-managed election as they did not accept it in the past.

On BNP's unity, Shah said they will have to wait for some time as party's secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain is out of the country for treatment. "Wait for time, I hope we will be able to give you some good news," said Shah who is negotiating between the two factions for unity.

Truck load of cigarettes seized

Staff Reporter

The Customs and Intelligence personnel held a truck carrying a huge quantity of cigarettes at Mohakhali in the capital yesterday. The haul was estimated to be worth Tk 50 lakh.

On a tip off that staff of a cigarette manufacturer were dispatching a truckload of cigarettes to Chittagong without paying taxes. The Additional Director of Customs, Gulam Mostofa, with his force stopped the truck (Dhaka Metro na-7848) at Mohakali and arrested its driver and helper. They also recovered 1,300 packets of a local brand of cigarette from the truck.

A case was filed in this connection.

US ambassador to Belarus expelled

UNB, Dhaka

Belarus has expelled the United States ambassador, after a row over travel restrictions imposed on its president by Washington.

The decision was also prompted by US sanctions imposed on the country's state-controlled oil-processing and chemicals company, Belneftekhim.

The Belarusian Foreign Ministry announced at the same time that it was recalling its own ambassador to the US.

A White House spokesman described the expulsion as "deeply disappointing".

The United States - along with the European Union - has restricted the travel of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko and members of his inner circle, as well as imposing economic sanctions.

||We strongly regret this unjustified action by the Belarusian government. This is deeply disappointing and only takes them further away from Europe and the rest of the world.

Rupali Bank-famed: Prince Bandar's wife dead

UNB, Dhaka

Saudi Princess Al Bandari bint Abdul Aziz, wife of Prince Bandar Bin Mohammad Bin AbdulRahman Al-Saud and owner-designate of Rupali Bank, died at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Saturday. She was 80.

Princess Al Bandari was the daughter of late King and founder of Saudi Arabia King Abdul Aziz Bin AbdulRahman Al-Saud, according to a statement released by the Royal Court.

Rupali Bank negotiation team has condoled the death of Princess Al Bandari.

NBR decision of PSI appointment likely tomorrow

Staff Reporter

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) is expected to decide on appointment of PSI audit firm at its Proposal Evaluation Committee (PEC) meeting on Thursday (tomorrow).

Only one audit firm, M/S National Marine Consultants Inc, out of three contenders' submitted bids, remain alive in scrutiny by PEC. It will now evaluate the bid of National Marine Consultants.

"The bid may be rejected if the audit firm fails to pass the technical fitness in the next meeting as per guidelines of the Public Procurement Regulation (PPR) of the government," a senior official of NBR informed.

The Government had decided to appoint an international audit firm to scrutinize the price quoting of the Pre-Shipment Inspection (PSI) companies against the backdrop of suspected import-inspection scam.

Three international audit firms, two from USA and one from EU countries, submitted tenders invited by NBR.

The Government's revenue authority has been trying to appoint an audit firm to ensure check and balance in the function of the PSI companies for a couple of years. But NBR has so far failed due to some legal complications and tight procurement policy of the government.

The Government has taken the move considering the importers' complaints about harassment and delay in getting their consignments after import valuation by the PSI companies.

Recently NBR unearthed irregularities of PSI company M/S Cotecna Inspection SA in importing luxury vehicles.

The Government appointed four PSI companies in September 2005 for a three-year term to continue with the provision for compulsory pre-shipment inspections introduced in 2000.

The companies are Cotecna Inspection SA, SGS (Bangladesh) Limited, Bureau Veritas BIVAC (Bangladesh) Limited and Intertek Testing Limited.

They were appointed to help the customs department, which lacks sufficient logistic support and skilled manpower in carrying out inspection of volumes of imports.

C'wealth Day today

BSS, Dhaka

Bangladesh observes the Commonwealth Day celebration today holding a national seminar on environment in line with the theme of the day this year "the Environment- Our Future".

Special Assistant to the Chief Adviser for environment and forest Barrister Raja Devasish Roy will join the seminar in CIRDAP Auditorium at 10 am today.

"It is vital to protect our environment against the degradation and destruction caused by human beings. A clean and safe environment enables us to lead healthy and productive lives," the Commonwealth Secretariat in a statement said listing a number of reasons, which affect the environment, and suggesting the remedies.

According to the statement, pollutants in the air can damage the ozone layer which protects the earth from the harmful rays of the sun.

Climate change can bring about more extreme weather like hurricanes and cyclones, as well as floods and droughts, and the increase in sea levels which is threatening islands and low-lying coastal areas.

WFP to continue help food supply situation:Adviser

UNB, Dhaka

Representative of the World Food Program (WFP) Douglas Broderick said that his organisation would continue support to partner Bangladesh in satisfying its food requirements.

The WFP Representative made the assurance when he paid a farewell call on Foreign Adviser Dr Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury at Foreign Ministry Sunday morning.

Dr Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury thanked Douglas Broderick for his personal support and cooperation.

Speaking to the media later Dr Iftekhar Chowdhury said: "the World Food Program stood by us in the post-cyclone and Sidr period when we needed them. Today we are looking to a bumper boro production. There is no option but to become self-sufficient in food".