The New Nation - Internet Edition

Envoys of 17 countries visit war cemetery in Comilla

Ambassadors, High Commissioners and high officials
of 17 countries including United States and United Kingdom
pay respect to the martyred soldiers of the Second World War
at Maynamati War Cemetery, Comilla, on Friday.
FocusBangla

UNB, Comilla

Ambassadors, High Commissioners and high officials of 17 countries, including USA and the UK, yesterday visited Maynamati War Cemetery here to pay respect to the martyred soldiers in the World War II.

The envoys observed two-minute silence paying homage to 736 soldiers, laid to rest in the cemetery, and placed floral wreaths at the Holy Cross.

Verses from Holy Quaran and Bible were recited.

Besides, Army bugle played the last post when a contingent of Comilla Cantonment, led by Colonel Ambia, gave a guard of honour.

US Ambassador James F Moriarty, British High Commissioner Stephen Evans and envoys from EU, France, Denmark, Canada, Australia, Afghanistan, India, Norway, Singapore, Spain, Turkey and Japan were present.

High officials of the respective embassies were also present on the occasion.

From The Foreign Press: Islam's Internal Struggle- Tony Blair: King Abdullah and the skeptics

The decision by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia to hold an interfaith conference under the auspices of the United Nations is bold, courageous and potentially far-reaching.

To many people, especially in the West, his initiative may seem unremarkable. In fact, it is a major step forward in the long march to a relationship between Islam and other faiths that is not one of confrontation or distrust but of peaceful co-existence.

King Abdullah is not only the ruler of Saudi Arabia. He is the keeper of the two Holy Mosques, the religious sites at Mecca and Medina which, together with Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem, constitute three of the leading holy places of Islam. He is also the leader of a nation that critics say has been slow to modernise, with fraught consequences for the rest of the world. But King Abdullah's decision to offer the hand of friendship and mutual respect to other religions by initiating the conference, which began Wednesday, has big implications - as the criticism of his initiative from some corners of the Islamic world indicates.

Within Islam today, there are two competing narratives. There is not a series of different trouble spots or issues that require disconnected focus and action. There is essentially one struggle, with two sides.

On the one hand, there are those who loudly declare that Islam has gone wrong precisely because its leadership has been prepared to work with the West, or because the West has sought to impose its values on Muslim societies. According to this narrative, Islam is engaged in a fundamental conflict with nonbelievers. There can be no reconciliation. Those who seek it betray Islam. Confrontation, or at least segregation, is inevitable. Instead of pursuing co-existence, instead of "diluting" the purity of Islam by trying to learn about and respect others of a different faith, Muslims should re-establish a mythical caliphate, an Islamic state in which governance is regulated by a rigid adherence to Islamic law and practice of centuries ago, as interpreted by today's hard-line clerics.

Though the number of believers who use this narrative as a route into extremism or violence is small, there are many more who buy its essential premise that we are two distinct cultures and civilisations in opposition to each other. They are encouraged in this belief because such a narrative plays to the more widespread feeling that Islam is treated disrespectfully by the West, that double standards apply in the handling of the Palestinian issue, and that the military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq were religiously motivated. Their appeal is sometimes falsely enhanced by a sense that the West has lost touch with basic moral values.

The second group does not desire to replicate Western society. Its proponents share concerns of a moral nature. But they also want to assemble a modern narrative about Islam and have started to do so. They know that the modern world cannot function unless people of different faiths learn to understand and respect one another. This narrative is absolutely founded in Islam, but it is engaged in trying to root out the exclusivist view of religion - not unique in Islam - as a means of shutting the door on those who follow a different faith.

It is the proponents of this modern narrative who want to use the Middle East's wealth to support a politics and culture in lune with the 21st century. They seek to draw on Islam's core belief in education as a means of ensuring that their people are enabled to become a distinctive part of the 21st century world but not distinct from it. And they point to a millennium of Islamic history, from Spain to China, which illustrates Muslim co-existence and acceptance of other faith communities.

Saudi Arabia is seen by many as home to those who espouse the first narrative. King Abdullah is showing how his country can and should be part of the second, that of peaceful co-existence.

This has important policy lessons for the West, especially with the advent of a new U.S. president. Those championing the outward-looking and peaceful view of Islam need our support.

We cannot neglect the importance of security and military measures - on the contrary, they are critical. But, ultimately, this is not a struggle that can be won by military or security means alone. The struggle is one of ideas, of hearts and minds as well as of weapons. We have to persuade. And we have to realise that the roots of the alternative narrative, which sees Islam pitted against the West, go deep.

Today, 30 million Muslims live in Western countries. They are Muslims and they are Westerners. And a new generation among them is beginning to illustrate that there is no inherent conflict between the two.

Resolving the Middle East peace process and bringing about an independent, viable state of Palestine alongside a secure state of Israel is one vital element - indeed, I think a sine qua non. It can be done. There is, in fact, for the first time, an agreed strategy among the key players in the international community as to how it can be done, as was made clear once more at the meeting of the quartet of negotiating parties - the U.S., the EU, the UN and Russia - in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, last weekend.

But that on its own is insufficient. We also need to engage with the issue of education - what we teach, what is learned, what is communicated about one another. Some of this happens within schools and universities. But much of it happens within the faith communities themselves.

For this reason, King Abdullah's initiative needs to be seen alongside the programmmes of educational and social reform that are being introduced by governments all over the Arab world. Many of those programmmes may seem long overdue; sometimes their introduction is hesitant; but the opposition they often provoke within elements of the Muslim world is itself instructive about their importance.

The Tony Blair Faith Foundation, in partnership with Yale University, is exploring how we can help to show that religious faith can be a constructive force for progress rather than a reactionary and destructive one. Students in the foundation's "Faith and Globalisation" course come from many religious traditions. The questions we are asking do not seek to obliterate differences between these faiths, but rather investigate how those of different beliefs can live harmoniously with one another. The idea is to develop a course that can lead to new research, publications and programmes that deepen our understanding of how faith retakes its proper role as a source of moral persuasion, justice and a proper way of living and rescues it from those who would use religion to create conflict, division and extremism.

Saudi Arabia will continue, for now, to seem far removed from Western society. Many are skeptical of the value of this initiative emanating from the kingdom. But the fact that the country's ruler, with his unique position within the Muslim world, is holding this conference extends an opportunity for the future that we should embrace.

Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, is founder of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation.

-Herald Tribune

Poor could gain from financial crisis: Yunus

Bdnews24.com/Reuters

The global financial crisis can become an opportunity to help the world's worst off, says the Nobel Peace Prize laureate known as the "banker to the poor."

World leaders could encourage new types of lending that would let the poor take themselves out of poverty without the risks of the traditional system that has just failed, said Professor Muhammad Yunus.

Yunus was awarded the Nobel in 2006 along with "microcredit" bank Grameen Bank, which he founded in his native Bangladesh in 1983.

The bank has lent more than $7 billion, in tiny increments of a few dollars to a few thousand at a time, to millions of poor borrowers-almost all women-to run small businesses. Seamstresses would be lent money to buy a sewing machine or cloth, for example.

"This is the disaster of a lifetime, and disasters are very painful, but it's also an opportunity," Yunus said in an interview with Reuters on Wednesday. "There's lots of thing you don't do in a normal period, you keep on piling up problems. Now you can address it fundamentally."

The crisis, he said, was created by a handful of people driven by "extreme greed," but "it's the poor people, the bottom half, 3 billion people, who'll be hit the hardest through no fault of their own."

Although an eager capitalist, Yunus has long warned about the excesses of globalization and free markets unchecked by regulation. The recent meltdown of markets around the globe has only reinforced his belief that the world needs a regulatory structure, like a world central bank, to referee a financial system that is inextricably linked.

He also argued for new accounting and legal standards that would allow for a second separate industry, so-called "social businesses" such as Yunus' own Grameen Bank, to emerge.

Yunus said President-elect Barack Obama is in a unique position to "create his own history" and rebuild the financial system in such a way that an entirely new class of companies, driven by both profit motive and a desire to improve society, can be launched.

Yunus was in Silicon Valley to receive the James C. Morgan Global Humanitarian Award as part of the Tech Awards. The award's past recipients include Microsoft Corp co-founder Bill Gates and Intel Corp co-founder Gordon Moore.

Grameen accepts no funds from outside donors, and finances all its loans from deposits. It does not require any collateral. Borrowers in groups of five self-regulate each other, ensuring repayment.

The bank claims a loan recovery rate of 98 percent.

The success of the bank has spurred similar efforts around the world, including Grameen America, which said its bank loans have just topped $1 million, with 380 borrowers getting loans of about $1,500 to $2,500.

The bank's U.S. push has been met with some skepticism that the Grameen model would work here. But the 68-year-old Yunus said the financial crisis has proved that social businesses like Grameen are actually more sound than traditional banks.

"They say 'total reliance on collateral and lawyers and it is 100 percent foolproof, nothing can go wrong.' And built a whole system on that belief. And this disaster has proven everything wrong."

"At the same time a parallel system has been growing which is microcredit. No collateral, no lawyers. Even this huge big financial earthquake can't shake them."

When it comes to helping the poor, Yunus argues for entrepreneurism over charity or government assistance, believing it to be self-sustaining.

"If people lose jobs where do they go? Do they fall back on welfare? t If lending money, $2,200 to a person, can create a job, self-employment, isn't it a better idea?"

Yunus believes technology has been crucial to the microcredit movement by effectively shrinking the globe.

He notes that the mobile phone is now everywhere, in even the world's poorest villages and envisions a time in the near future where the simple device is used to connect the poor to health care access, banking and other services.

"What other crazy things will happen, it's almost impossible to imagine right now in 15 years what this one little gadget can do."

US missile strike kills ten in Pakistan

BSS, miransha

A suspected US missile strike killed at least 10 Islamist militants in a Pakistani tribal region known as a hub of Al-Qaeda and Taliban rebels, security officials said Friday.

The strike comes amid repeated warnings from Pakistan that such attacks are in violation of international law and could deepen resentment of the United States in the world's second- largest Islamic nation.

Washington has stepped up its strikes on the region since March, when a civilian government took over from General Pervez Musharraf, who turned Pakistan into a close US ally in the "war on terror."

In the latest attack, officials said, two missiles apparently fired from a drone aircraft demolished a house in North Waziristan, part of Pakistan's lawless tribal regions along the border with Afghanistan.

"Nine foreigners were among ten killed," a top security official told AFP. Pakistan officials normally use the term "foreigners" to describe Al-Qaeda militants.

Another security official said Taliban militants surrounded the area soon after the missile strike late Thursday night and refused ordinary tribesmen access to the site.

Up to 14 militants were killed last Friday in a US missile strike which destroyed an Al-Qaeda training camp in Kumsham village in North Waziristan.

A series of recent strikes against suspected Al-Qaeda and Taliban hideouts in Pakistan's tribal areas, all blamed on unmanned CIA drones, have raised tensions between Washington and Islamabad.

President Asif Ali Zardari warned the new US commander for Iraq and Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, last week that the attacks were "counterproductive" and could harm the battle for hearts and minds here.

Pakistan's army chief General Ashfaq Kayani is scheduled to make a three-day visit to Brussels from Tuesday for talks with senior NATO officials about US missile strikes on Pakistani soil near the Afghan border.

Also Friday, an Afghan and a Japanese journalist were shot and wounded in the northwestern Pakistan city of Peshawar.

Police said gunmen shot at a correspondent for Japan's Asahi Shimbun newspaper and an Afghan reporter in Peshawar, which borders the restive Khyber tribal district.

Both were taken to hospital, but police said their lives were not in danger.

US and NATO officials say that the rugged tribal regions have become safe havens for militants linked to Taliban and Al- Qaeda who fled the US action against the former Taliban regime in Afghanistan in late 2001.

Pakistan rejects accusations that it is not doing enough to tackle the extremist threat within its own borders.

The latest strike came as the head of the main US spy agency described the tribal areas of Pakistan as an Al-Qaeda "safe haven" that is linked to every major terrorist threat against the United States.

"Let me be very clear: Today, virtually every major terrorist threat that my agency is aware of has threads back to the tribal areas," Central Intelligence Agency Director General Michael Hayden said in a speech Thursday.

In an annual threat assessment released in February, US intelligence reported it had detected an influx of new western recruits to Al-Qaeda safe havens in Pakistan's federally administered tribal areas since 2006.

"Al-Qaeda is improving the last key aspect of its ability to attack the US-the identification, training, and positioning of operatives for an attack in the homeland," the report said.

Govt does not want BNP’s joining polls: Delwar

Staff Reporter

BNP Secretary General Khondoker Delwar Hossain yesterday alleged that the government does not want that the BNP to take part in the elections.

"They (government) do not sincerely want that BNP in the polls as they are yet to implement any of our seven-point demands," he said while talking to reporters at his NAM Flat before leaving for his hometown Manikganj.

The BNP leader said his party would take the decision on participation in the parliamentary elections as soon as the government accepts its demands.

Referring to the seven-point demand of the party he said the government had accepted six points, but none of the six demands had been met yet raising question about the sincerity of the government on holding the polls.

Khondoker Delwar said the BNP has all preparations to go to the elections but participation in the elections depends on the government and the election commission to clear the way for his party to contest the polls.

Asked whether BNP wants deferment of the election from December 18, he said it is the responsibility of the government and the election commission to take the BNP to the polls.

28 jail guards suspended

Staff Reporter

At least 28 jail guards were suspended on charges of providing undue facilities to VIP prisoners in hospital prison cells, a senior prisons official said yesterday.

The authorities also asked four VIP prisoners to explain why legal measures would not be taken against them for breaching jail codes.

The prisoners are former BNP ministers Nazmul Huda, Moudud Ahmed and Mirza Abbas, and former BNP lawmaker Abdul Wadud Bhuiyan.

Deputy Inspector General, prisons, Maj Shamsul Haider Siddiqui said the 26 jail guards were suspended yesterday for, among other reasons, arranging meeting between the VIP prisoners and relatives and providing food to them skirting the jail code.

Twenty-six of the jail guards were suspended and the rest on Thursday, and all have been deployed in prison cells of the hospitals, Siddqui said.

2 hotel staff hurt by robbers

Staff Reporter

Two hotel staff were injured as a gang of robbers assaulted them during a robbery at Mohakhali in the city yesterday.

Police said 7 to 8 dacoits entered Hotel Palanka at Mohakhali kitchen market at about 6:00 am and looted Tk 12,000 from the cashbox after taking the employees hostage.

As the hotel employees tried to resist them, the gangsters beat them up severely and stabbed one of them, Nazmul Huda Sohag.

Hearing their screams, local people rushed to the spot and caught one of the robbers, Bachchu Miah.

A case was filed with Gulshan police station in this connection.

Thailand keen to expand ties with Bangladesh

UNB, New Delhi

Prime Minister of Thailand Somchai Wongsawat Thursday said his government wants to expand the existing good relation with Bangladesh through bilateral and BIMSTEC by expediting projects.

The desire of the Thai Premier was expressed during a meeting with Chief Adviser Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed on the sideline of the second BIMSTEC Summit.

Dr Fakhruddin invited Thai investment in Bangladesh, especially in infrastructure, availing of the investment friendly environment and attractive incentives for foreign investors. He requested Somchai to encourage his country's elevators express experts to invest in Bangladesh.

The Chief Adviser also asked for sharing Thai experience in fishery and poultry.

The Thai Premier happily accepted the offer of sharing the experience and assured of encouraging entrepreneurs to invest in Bangladesh.

Dr Fakhruddin had also fruitful meeting with Nepalese Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal to whom he offered special rate for using Mongla Port for the landlocked country. He also offered the land route for trade and increase people to people connectivity.

Accepting the officer Prime Minister Dahal said his country wants to further advance the excellent relationship with Bangladesh to a higher level of understanding.

Dahal showed keen interest in sharing the experience of Bangladesh's success in the garments sector. He requested to raise the number of scholarships to Nepalese students to study in Bangladesh.

Agreeing to his proposals Dr Fakhruddin assured of considering raising the number of scholarships.

The Chief Adviser apprised the Nepalese Prime Minister of ensuing election in Bangladesh.

Dahal appreciated the performance of the caretaker government under the leadership of Dr Fakhruddin.

Farmers stage demos protesting land acquisition in N'ganj

UNB, Narayanganj

Thousands of farmers of 20 villages in Sadar upaizla yesterday staged demonstration here protesting the government decision of acquiring their crop lands for constructing a road.

Over 5,000 farmers, including women and children, held a protest rally at Kashipur and formed a 21-member committee to protect their lands.

The protesters also threatened to go for a tougher movement if government acquires their lands.

According to local sources, there are some 650 bighas of cropland in Gopchar under Sadar thana and Kashipur mouja under Fatulla thana. The lands mostly owned by the people of 20 villages of Gopnagar, Kashipur and Alirtek unions.

Acting chairman of Kashipur UP Momin Shikdar said the people, mostly depend on agriculture, agitated as they came to know the government decision of land acquisition.

While contacted Narayanganj Deputy Commissioner AMA Rahman said they have received a letter from the ministry concerned in this regard.

No alternative to knowledge in agriculture

BSS, Dhaka

Agriculture Adviser Dr CS Karim on Friday said there is no alternative to knowledge and technologies in the agriculture sector to ensure food security in the country.

Describing that the future agriculture will be knowledge and technology-based, he said innovation of new technologies and knowledge is a must to make the country self-reliant in food.

The agriculture adviser was addressing as the chief guest the 10th founding anniversary function and the annual general meeting of Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU) Bahumukhi Samobay Samity Ltd at the DRU conference room here.

Rural Development and Cooperatives Division Secretary ATM Fazlul Haque and DRU President Alamgir Hossain were present at the function as special guests.

With President of DRU Bahumukhi Samobay Samity Ltd Ashraf Ali in the chair, the function was also addressed, by its General Secretary Mohshinul Karim Lebu.

Keeping in mind the climate change, the agriculture adviser said, a long-term plan will have to be taken to check its adverse impacts on agriculture.

He said the government has taken a plan to set up a market at every union in the country and it will have a link with the district headquarters so that farmers get fair prices of their produces. Placing emphasis on strengthening cooperatives movement in the country, Dr Karim said integrated pest management (IPM) clubs should be built keeping similarity with cooperatives society. "If the farmers are encouraged in cooperatives they would benefit to a greater extent," he opined.

Mentioning massive success in agriculture sector, the agriculture adviser said a total of 1.86 crore metric tons of Boro paddy was produced this year which is 17 percent more than the previous year.

"A silent revolution took place in different fields, including empowerment of farmers and women," he added.

Dr Karim called upon the journalists to project more success stories of the farmers as well as the grassroots people. "We have social responsibilities and we have to be come out from vicious circle of lacking," he said.

Tianshi confce held in city

Staff Reporter

Tianshi (Bangladesh) Company Limited, a China-based multinational company, organised a conference at Shaheed Suhrawardi Indoor Stadium in the capital yesterday.

Deputy Speaker of Jatiya Sangsad Akhtar Hamid Siddiqui was present as chief guest and Li Zin Youan, president of Tianshi Group, attended as special guest.

At least 5,000 people attended the function.

Siddiqui thanks to the group for its welfare services to the deprived people of our country and for cultural exchange activities between China and Bangladesh.

Youan said the company's business activities are extended over more than 110 countries. "Tianshi will always be active in exchange of cultural and economic development of Bangladesh", he added.

No monga in Rangpur, Dinajpur this year

BSS, Rangpur

The poor people in the Monga-prone areas of northern Bangladesh have seldom experienced this seasonal phenomenon this year as the government has implemented various effective steps to improve the overall situation in greater Rangpur and Dinajpur districts.

Officials told BSS that Monga, an annual crisis putting the farm labourers into a state of joblessness annually, was not felt so serious till the last day of Kartika today because the government has successfully tackled the situation through its steps providing jobs to the poor in the farmlands.

The labourers as well as the distressed people were better off during the Monga seasons this year, probably for the first time in the memorable history, without any bite of the seasonal crisis that has long been the worst experience of all in the region in the months Aswin and Kartika.

With the beginning of T-Aman harvest, day and farm labourers are busy working in farmlands with comparatively higher wages. Government's 100-day employment generation scheme, VGF, VGD and Test Relief (TR) programmes, BRRI Dhan-33 farming and various allowances have been proved to be very effective to say goodbye to Monga this year.

The officials said there was no report of any incident of starvation from any part of the region as the poor people were directly benefited by these programmes of the government in all eight districts of greater Rangpur and Dinajpur.

Depression over Bay moves

UNB, Dhaka

The depression over the west central Bay and adjoining southeast Bay moved westwards and persisting over the same area Friday morning.

A special Met Office bulletin said it was centered at 6am about 1170-km southwest of Chittagong port, 1100-kms southwest of Cox's Bazar port and 1060-kms south-southwest of Mongla port.

It is likely to intensify further and move in a west/northwesterly direction.

Maximum sustained wind speed within 44-km of the depression centre is about 40-KPH rising to 50 KPH in gusts/squally.Sea will remain moderate, it said.

Maritime ports of Chittagong, Cox's Bazar and Mongla have been advised to hoist distance cautionary signal number one ® one.

All the fishing boats and trawlers over north Bay and deep sea have been advised to remain close to the coast and proceed with caution till further notice.They are also advised not to venture into the deep sea.

Pakistan envoy meets Khaleda

Bdnews24.com Dhaka

Pakistan's high commissioner Alamgir Babar met BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia at her Gulshan office yesterday

During the one-hour meeting that began at 6:30pm, Khaleda's advisor Riaz Rahman and her foreign affairs adviser Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury accompanied her.

Chowdhury said the envoy discussed a bilateral issues with the former prime minister. After the meeting, Khaleda's foreign affairs adviser Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury said Alamgir Babar discussed with Khaleda on various bilateral issues.