The New Nation - Internet Edition

Bid to conquer Himalyan peak

Prof Zillur Rahman Siddique handing over the
national flags to two Bangladeshi youths in the national
press club yesterday who are to undertake Himalayan
expedition. NN photo

Staff Reporter

Two Bangladeshi trekkers for the first time are going to climb up the 'Manaslu' mountains of Nepal, which is considered as the eighth highest and fourth hazardous mountains in the world.

Trekker M A Muhit and Nur Mohammad who have already experienced the climbing of Chulu West, Mera Pic and Singo Chuli, will leave Bangladesh on September 8 aiming to conquer the Manaslu and will come back after 50 days expedition. They have received dense training from India with a view to undertaking the challenge.

The trekkers yesterday disclosed these at a press conference at the National Press Club while academician professor Zillur Rahman Siddique and Professor Ajoy Roy were also present.

The trekkers also anticipated that they would undertake the challenge of climbing the Mount Everest in April next year if they succeeded in this mission.

The average height of the Manaslu is 26,758 feet from the plain. At first A Japanese climbed up the Manaslu in 1954 and till 2003 only 240 persons across the world climbed up this mountain while 52 lost lives during their journey.

Transcom Beverage Limited and Paragon Group has sponsored the expedition while Bangla Mountaineering and trekking Club is coordinating the expedition.

Teacher, 10 others of Physiotherapy Hospital released

Bangladesh Physiotherapy Students Union brought out
a procession in the city yesterday demanding release of
their fellow students who are under detention following a
clash at Pangu Hospital. Banglar Chokh

Staff Reporter

A Physiotherapy teacher, Humayun Kabir, and 10 detained students were released on bail yesterday.

The Metropolitan Sessions' Judges Court in Dhaka yesterday granted bail to them.

Police arrested nine persons, including the teacher of the hospital in this connection. On Thursday a clash between physiotherapy students at the National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedic Rehabilitation (NITOR) and hospital doctors and staff occurred over the establishment of a full-fledged college.

After the release of the detained, the physiotherapy students formed a human chain at the Aparajayo Bangla on the Dhaka University campus condemning the attack on them and demanded establishment of a separate physiotherapy college, which has already been approved by the Health Ministry.

Dr Ibrahim’s death anniversary today

Dr Ibrahim

Staff Reporter

The 19th death anniversary of founder of the Diabetic Association Bangladesh and National Professor Dr Mohammad Ibrahim to be observed today. To mark the day, the association has taken out elaborate programmes.

The association will offer prayer and place floral wreath at the grave of Dr Ibrahim in Banani and diagnose diabetic patients free of cost on 16 points in the city including Shahbag and Press Club from 8:00am to 11:00am.

Moreover, a view exchange meeting with the diabetic patients and diabetic expert doctors would be held at BIRDEM auditorium at 10:00am. Special Assistant to the Chief Adviser Brig Gen (Retd) MA Malek is expected to attend the meeting as chief guest, while Secretary of Social Welfare Ministry Dewan Zakir Hossian as special guest.

Besides, the association and its front organisation will organise different programmes including Milad-Mahfil, discussion on works and life of Dr Mohammad Ibrahim, memorial meeting and free heart camp.

The diabetic association has been observing the day as service day for last few years. He died of cardiac arrest on the same day in 1989.

From the Foreign Press: America Agonistes Neither respected nor feared Geoffrey Wheatcroft

BATH, England

In an exalted phrase, the keynote speaker at the Republican convention reviewed the record of the administration, and asked, "When have we rested more secure in friendship with all mankind?" That wasn't in St. Paul, where the Republicans are gathered this week, but at the 1904 Republican convention in Chicago, when the speaker was Elihu Root, a past Secretary of War and future Secretary of State.

His words were sonorous then, and they are haunting now. They will not be repeated this year, because they could not be. A senior American politician might have said something similar in 1920, or 1945 or 1960. But no Republican now - and no Democrat - could utter Root's words without inviting utter derision.

Today there might be a more bitter question: When has America rested less secure in friendship with all mankind?

And that explains the intense interest which this year's presidential election has inspired beyond the shores of the United States. It's not just Obamania - there's no point in denying that Senator Barack Obama is the man most people outside the United States would like to win - but he was one of three potential candidates until Senator Hillary Clinton conceded defeat who were all fascinating simply in personal terms: a septuagenarian war hero, a woman, a black man.

The election absorbs us in Europe - and others in Africa and Asia - because we can see that a general crisis spreading around the globe is directly linked to the follies and failures of American policy. In his new book, "The Much Too Promised Land," about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in which he used to be engaged as a State Department official, Aaron David Miller puts it with lapidary succinctness.

Having stumbled for eight years under the Clinton administration over how to make peace in the Middle East, and then for eight years under the administration of George Bush the Younger over how to make war there, the United States finds itself "trapped in a region which it cannot fix and it cannot abandon." Still more to the point, throughout that region, for all of her seeming might, America is "not liked, not feared and not respected."

And not only in the Middle East. The theme of these past years has been American arrogance followed by American incompetence leading to American impotence.

From one side of the world to the other the story is the same, whether it's Vladimir Putin being told by Bush to leave Georgia, or Israel being told by Condoleezza Rice to desist from building more settlements on the West Bank, or China being told by Washington to behave better in Tibet, or even the European Union being told by any number of American politicians and pundits to accelerate Turkish membership.

All these American strictures are vaguely listened to. And then, as the late George Brown (a sometime British foreign secretary who shared Bush's verbal infelicity) might have said, the rest of the world treats them with a complete ignoral. After all, they come from a supposed hyperpower which in practice is neither respected not feared.

That is a direct consequence of what Washington has done. President Theodore Roosevelt said that America should speak softly and carry a big stick. President George W. Bush speaks loudly and waves a small stick. Stalin and Khrushchev had limits placed on their actions by awareness of what America might do if those limits were overstepped. Putin can do exactly what he likes in Georgia, since he knows that Washington is powerless to stop him.

One stock response from the bedraggled and diminished band of Bush supporters is that to say that all this is no more than "anti-Americanism." Prejudice against, and resentment of, America is indeed far from an imaginary phenomenon, in Europe or elsewhere, on right as well as left, and for generations past.

But today that stock response quite misses the point. Martin Wolf of the Financial Times (himself no radical extremist) has said very truly that attitudes toward America that were not long ago confined to the hard left in Europe are now found across the political spectrum. "Nous sommes tous Américains," the Monde bravely exclaimed after Sept. 11; seven years later it would be an exaggeration to say "We are all anti-Americans now," but not a wild one.

In any case, the whole-hearted enemy of America is the one who ought to be delighted by the eclipse of American prestige, and drink a toast to the Bush administration for bringing it about. It's those of us who believe that the United States needs to be constructively engaged in the world, and respected by it, who have most cause for dismay.

When Tony Blair said in early 2002 that he was worried about a drift towards American unilateralism, and that he wanted to "keep the United States in the international order," the diagnosis wasn't stupid. What was utterly preposterous was his subsequent reasoning that, in order to achieve this, he had to give unconditional support to every American action, above all the Iraq war a year later. As a result, the United States soon stood further still outside the international order, while in the end American power was gravely weakened.

No one who has followed the election campaign can be confident that there will truly be a new beginning in the new year. Electioneering puts reason and restraint at a discount and invites boastful bluster. John McCain's "we are all Georgians" is a fine example and obviously empty rhetoric. Even he ought to have worked out by now that his fellow-Americans, "Georgians" or otherwise, are not going to fight for South Ossetia, and Putin knows it.

Obama took an almost more damaging misstep when he said that "Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided" - something not even Bush has said. If taken literally his words would mean an end to any imaginable settlement of that bitter and intractable dispute - and they raise once again questions about the fitness of the United States for world leadership, under any president.

Whoever wins in November should pause and take stock. The United States has rarely faced greater challenges with the domestic economy but still more in international affairs. Why does America enjoy so little friendship with all mankind? And is there nothing at all that can be done to restore her standing?

(Geoffrey Wheatcroft's books include "Le Tour: A History of the Tour de France 1903-2007," "The Strange Death of Tory England" and "Yo, Blair!")

Dr Yunus threatens to take Telenor to court

AFP, Oslo

Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus may launch legal proceedings against Telenor to force the Norwegian telecom operator to honour a deal concerning their joint subsidiary in Bangladesh, GrameenPhone, he said.

Telenor owns 62 percent of Grameen Phone, while Yunus' Grameen Bank, with whom he shared the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for creating a micro-credit system for people too poor to qualify for bank loans, holds a 38-percent stake through a subsidiary.

"The recent activities (of GrameenPhone) in Bangladesh leave me with little alternative other than to investigate the possibility of taking legal action to protect the interests of the millions of poor people in Bangladesh," Yunus said in a statement late Thursday.

The poor would be "the ultimate beneficiaries" if the country's largest mobile phone operator "comes under Bangladeshi ownership and management to become a company with social objectives," he added.

GrameenPhone, which is largely run by Telenor, has been rep eatedly lambasted following allegations of deplorable conditions for employees, including children as young as 13, working for its suppliers.

Even after ethical procedures were tightened earlier this year, the company has been linked to sub-contractors that use child labour.

Following allegations of another child labour case connected with GrameenPhone, Yunus on Thursday lashed out at Telenor, accusing the Norwegian company of being insensitive and inefficient in improving conditions.

Yunus's comments follow years of struggle with Telenor over control of the lucrative GrameenPhone.

In 1996, the Norwegian company agreed to transfer majority control of the subsidiary to the Bangladeshis within a six-year period, but never did.

Telenor insists today that the deal was not legally binding.

Yunus, dubbed "the banker of the poor," meanwhile is determined to turn the mobile operator into a "social business" that reinvests its income in social projects in Bangladesh instead of handing out cash to shareholders.

"I remain hopeful however that such legal action will prove unnecessary because the owners of Telenor will require the company to honour the intention it expressed in 1996 to transfer ownership and control of GrameenPhone to the poor of Bangladesh," he said Thursday.

Following a meeting between Telenor chief executive Fredrik Baksaas and Yunus on Thursday, the company said it was disappointed by his position.

"We are very disappointed and surprised by the shift that has taken place following this meeting," Telenor spokesman Paal Kvalheim told AFP, refusing to comment further.

HSC results on Sept 10

BSS, Dhaka

The results of the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examinations, 2008 under seven education boards, Alim, Fazil and Kamil under Madrasa Education Board and HSC - Business Management under Technical Education Board will be published on September 10.

The results of Diploma in Business Studies and Diploma in Commerce under Dhaka Education Board will also be published simultaneously, Education Ministry officials told BSS.

"We are working to reach our goal of publishing HSC and equivalent examinations results within two months of holding the exams," said chairman of Dhaka Education Board Prof Monirul Islam.

The HSC and equivalent exams were held under the management of seven general education boards, as well as the madrasah board overseeing the Alim exams and a separate board for the HSC (Business Management) exams, between May 29 and July 10.

According to the education ministry, a total of 6,20,020 examinees took the HSC, Alim and HSC (BM) exams this year; of them, 5,02,79 were HSC examinees, 62,505 were Alim examinees, and 54,719 sat the HSC (BM) exams.

Examinees under seven education boards will be able to get results from the education board website www.educationboard.gov.bd and examinees under Technical Education Board will get their results by visiting the website http://result.bteb.gov.bd.

WASA blames DESA for water crisis in city

UNB, Dhaka

The Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (WASA) blamed Dhaka Electric Supply Authority (DESA) for the frequent disruption in water supply in different parts of the capital city during the holy month of Ramadan.

The city life becomes paralyzed due to recent water crisis despite the authorities' assurance to maintain smooth supply during Ramadan.

"DESA is 90 percent responsible for the present water crisis as water supply is being disrupted due to heavy load shedding," a top WASA official told UNB staff correspondent Jubair Hasan when asked about the severe water crisis in areas like part of New Eskaton, Kalabagan, Indira Road, Sheorapara, Kazipara and Senpara in Mirpur.

New Eskaton, Sheorapara, Kazipara, Senpara and old Dhaka are the worst affected areas without any water supply for the last five days. The situation in the areas reached such a pass that the mosque authorities request the 'musallis' (devotees) over the mike to make ablution from outside.

The official said there would be no water crisis in the city if WASA is given 2 percent of electricity that DESA gets for the capital city. "So, the main problem behind the water crisis is short supply of electricity," the WASA official said over telephone from Panthakunja water pump Friday afternoon.

He said Dhaka WASA now has a total of 232 generators to supply water during load shedding. But most of the generators are out of order, as the nearly 50 percent of the generators were procured before 1996.

"So, it has become difficult to continue water supply with these obsolete generators. We're operating those through frequent repairs."

He said WASA is planning to have gas generators, but those will be available from the next season.

The official said water pumps at Hazaribagh, Tejgaon and Shyampur were denied adequate power supply, but nearby industrial units get uninterrupted supply. "Dhaka WASA provides Tk 90 crore as tax each year," he said.

Rejecting the WASA allegation, a DESA chief engineer said: "It's our character to often shift blame on other's shoulders by hiding our own weakness or shortcomings."

He said the demand of electricity has been rising in the city while production did not increase at all. "How can we ensure uninterrupted supply of electricity?"

Hasina Begum, a housewife in New Eskaton area, said she could not take bath for last two days, nor could she wash clothes during this holy month of Ramadan as they did not get water for last four days.

She said people in the area even could not drink adequate water during Sehri making people's life miserable. "We get some water just before iftar but then we've a long wait before we get water again at about 9 am."

Mustafizur Rahman, a house owner in the area, said pressed repeatedly by his tenants he went to the Dhaka WASA head office to find out the reason behind the perennial water problem, but did not get any cooperation from the WASA officials.

"It's very tough for people of such areas to do fasting without water. On Wednesday night, I could not even drink a glass of water during Sehri," he said.

Many residents in the water-starved areas said they go to the houses of relatives and friends in other areas to take bath and wash clothes.

Holy Ramzan: Stay away from what Allah has forbidden

The holy verse related to fasting reads, 'so that you can adopt taqwa.' 'Taqwa' means abstaining from doing things that are forbidden to a believer. The person who can achieve 'taqwa' through 'sabr' (patience) is called 'muttaqi'. A 'muttaqi' can easily attain and exercise self-restraint while fasting.

A muttaqi is a fighter against instincts and evil propensities. This is a kind of 'Jihad' (struggle). This is known as 'Jihad-fin-nafs' - struggle against instincts.

Fasting inspires the rozadars to fight against all evils within and without. outward. It prepares oneself to guard against all injustices and exploitations. Thus, a rozadar has to stand against all social evils and anti-social elements and crimes. One who fasts engages himself in an incessant struggle to eradicate the evils from the society and to build the society according to the Will of Allah.

Hazrat Ali narrated a Hadith:

"I asked, O Messenger of Allah, what is the best of deeds in this month?'' He replied, "O Abul Hasan, the best of deeds in this month is to be far from what Allah has forbidden."

Thus Hadith also supports 'taqwa' as revealed in the Quran.

-Abdul Muqit Chowdhury

RAB-8 celebrates 3rd founding anniversary

BSS, Barisal

Barisal region was then a horror area as the outlawed 'sharbahara party' members and terrorists kept people virtually hostage under their strong network and acts.

The southern area had become a den for killing, extortion, dacoity, bombings, violations, drug abuses and what not? Under such a situation, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB)-8 launched its journey on September 5, 2005. yesterday was is the 3rd founding anniversary of the elite force.

Sea level rise by 2100 'below 2m’

Agency

Sea levels globally are very unlikely to rise by more than 2m (7ft) this century, scientists conclude.

Major increases would have to be fuelled by a faster flow of glaciers on the Greenland or Antarctic ice sheets.

But writing in the journal Science, a US team concludes that a rise of 2m would need glaciers to reach speeds that are "physically untenable".

However, even increases substantially less than 2m would cause major issues for many societies, they say.

"Even a sea level rise of 20cm (8in) in a century will have quite dramatic implications," said Shad O'Neel from the US Geological Survey (USGS).

"This work is in no way meant to undermine the seriousness of climate change, and sea level rise is something we're going to have to deal with," he told BBC News.

Al Gore's documentary An Inconvenient Truth received some criticism for implying that a rise of 20ft (6m) was possible in the near future, although it did not give a definite timeframe.

By contrast, this latest research tallies broadly with the conclusions of other groups that have examined the question using different approaches.

In its landmark assessment of climate change published last year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that sea level rise would probably fit in the range between 28 and 43cm over the century, although 59cm was a possibility.

The current rate is about 3mm per year.

US missile 'kills five in Pakistan’

BBC Online

At least five people have been killed in another suspected US missile strike on militant targets in Pakistan's border region, Pakistani officials say.

Officials said a missile was launched by a suspected US aircraft in the North Waziristan tribal area.

Pakistan's army says it is investigating the incident.

It would be the third attack in three days allegedly carried out by US forces, who have not officially confirmed their involvement.

Some reports say Islamist militants were killed in Friday's attack, while local TV channels said women and children were among the dead.

Witnesses said missiles fired by an unmanned aircraft hit one or two houses in the village of Kurvek, about 30km (18 miles) west of the main town of Miranshah in North Waziristan.

"Two drones were flying in the area. They fired three missiles," one unnamed witness told Reuters news agency.

Several people are reported to have been injured in addition to those killed.

Pakistan's military spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas said reports of the incident were being investigated.

"Pakistani forces did not carry out any activity in the area," he told the AFP news agency.

The BBC's Barbara Plett in Islamabad says this would be the third such attack in three days, including an unprecedented ground assault allegedly carried out by American commandos.

In recent months US forces have stepped up unilateral strikes on Taleban and al-Qaeda targets in Pakistan's tribal areas.

They say Pakistan - a key US ally in the "war on terror" since 2001 - is not doing enough to stem the flow of insurgents across the border into Afghanistan.

Pakistani security officials suspect the Americans are trying to hit senior al-Qaeda targets ahead of forthcoming US presidential elections, our correspondent says.

At least two senior al-Qaeda figures are believed to have been killed in US missile strikes on Pakistani territory this year.

A senior al-Qaeda leader in Afghanistan, Abu Laith al-Libi, was reported killed in February, while Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar, described as a leading al-Qaeda chemical weapons expert, died in July, reports said.

It is not clear who the targets of strikes this week might have been.

On Thursday, at least five people were killed in a missile strike in the village of Mohammad Khel near Miranshah. Officials said all five were low-level militants of Arab origin.

Meanwhile, large numbers of people have decided to leave their settlements near Angor Adda in South Waziristan.

The town was attacked on Thursday by foreign troops carried across the border from Afghanistan by helicopter, Pakistan's government says.

Officially, the US military has no knowledge of such an incursion, but Pentagon sources have confirmed that US commandoes carried out the raid.

Pakistan responded furiously, summoning the US ambassador and calling the attack a gross violation of its sovereignty.

Pakistan's army has warned that such direct US action could rally more tribesmen behind the Taleban and incite a wider uprising.

Kuwait assures of resolving problems of workers

BSS, Dhaka

Adviser for Foreign Affairs Dr Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, said here on Friday that the Kuwaiti authorities have assured him of every effort to resolve the problems faced by Bangladeshi workers there.

The Foreign Adviser, who is also in charge of the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment, returned here on Friday after a two-day visit to Kuwait, said a press release.

Dr Iftekhar held talks with the Prime Minister of Kuwait Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah, Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Mohamed Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah, Labour Minister Bader Fahed Ali Al- Duwailah and other senior officials.

He had also held two rounds of discussions with the members of the Bangladeshi community.

"The Kuwait authorities assured me that a minimum wage of KD 40 is being fixed for workers. Their living conditions would be improved. The question of compensation of deported labourers would be speedily addressed and Kuwait will also take stern action against the companies who have exploited Bangladeshis", the Foreign Adviser said.

He also informed that the Kuwaiti Parliament will meet in an emergency session on September 10 to discuss the crisis with regard to foreign workers, including Asians and Bangladeshis. "In that respect the visit was well-timed," he added.

Dr Iftekhar Chowdhury further observed that the Kuwaiti authorities see Bangladesh as "a great friend who stood by them at the hour of their greatest need during the Iraqi occupation. I also appreciated their support to our economic development. I have urged them to take skilled manpower from Bangladesh in the future. They also agreed to consider supporting some new projects in Bangladesh covering the Padma Bridge, Chittagong Port, and the Special Economic Zone in Sylhet."

The Foreign Adviser also said that the Kuwait authorities have announced an amnesty till 15 October for illegal workers to depart Kuwait without any legal impediments.

"To facilitate the Mission's work in this regard, and also in response to public demand, we have decided to increase manpower at the Embassy. We have also engaged a Kuwaiti lawyer to look after our workers' interests. I had a meeting with him as well," Dr Iftekhar said.