Obaidul’s deadline lost in risky highwaysn Rabiul Islam

Despite the Communication Minister Obaidul Quader’s frequent visits to di� erent parts of the country, the high-ways still remain risky for home-bound passengers with Eid-ul-Fitr only one week away.

The minister’s deadline for repairing all these roads ended on July 20.

Communication Minister Obaidul Quader has assured that the damaged

highways would be repaired by the next Eid.

He made the statement whilevisiting the capital’s Farmgate areayesterday.

Temporary surface repair to roads has further worsened the situation on the highways after monsoon rain. Fresh potholes have developed on the Dhaka-Chittagong and Dhaka-My-mensingh highways, said our local cor-respondents.

While visiting Dhaka-Chittagong highway at Iliotganj under Daudkhan-di upazila a bus of Tisha Paribhan was found stuck on the highway around 1:45pm yesterday.

Our Comilla correspondent reports: As the condition of roads is very bad vehicles remain stranded for hours on the highway.

The road at Gouripur was especially damaged after the monsoon rain even though it was repaired a few days ago.

It has developed big potholes at di� er-ent points.

Roads in front of Katherpool and Palki Chinema Hall at Chandina are dotted with small and large holes ob-structing the movements of vehicles.

Construction of 88-kilometre four-lane road on the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway has added to the problems of travelling on this route.

Under-construction box culverts PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

11 | EARNING THE RIGHT TO STAND WITH GAZA

20 pages plus 8-page Treehouse children’s supplement | Price: Tk12WEDNESDAY, JULY 23, 2014 | www.dhakatribune.com | SECOND EDITION

Shraban 8, 1421Ramadan 24, 1435Regd. No. DA 6238Vol 2, No 113

SEHRI & IFTAR TIME

Day Sehri IftarRamadan 24/July 23 – 6.50pm

Ramadan 25/July 24 3.55am 6.49pm

7 | THE TRUTH ABOUT FORMALIN

TreehouseTALES FROM THE CITY

INSIDEB1 | BusinessExcess liquidity in the banking sector piled up to a decade high in the year 2013 due to lack of credit demand and sluggish investment climate amid prolonged political unrest over 5 January national polls.

4 | NewsThe malaria situation across the coun-try worsens, with the number of infectedpatients rising signi� cantly in the three hill districts of Bandarban, Rangamati and Kha-grachari.

14 | SportCristiano Ronaldo, putting a miserable World Cup behind him, on Tuesday declared himself � t and ready to go as he chases trophies at Real Madrid.

5 | NewsThe government has decided to conducta special mobile court drive against the beg-gars at nine important points in Dhaka city, where foreigners usually live, to uplift the country’s image. The drive will start afterEid-ul-Fitr.

6 | NationThe bridge in Shankarpasha union, which connects the region’s largest � sh market with the rest of the country, has tilted recently, placing the lives of the bridge users at risk.

9 | WorldJoko Widodo, who captured the hearts of millions of Indonesians with his common man image, won the country’s presidential elec-tion with 53% of the vote.

12 | EntertainmentFans of Tisha have good news this Eid as their favourite star will be all over the TV screen during the week long Eid celebrations of the satellite channels.

8 | ISRAEL POUNDS GAZA DESPITE INTERNATIONAL PEACE EFFORTS

A long queue of buses remain stuck in a tra� c gridlock that stretched over � ve kilometres yesterday in the Kanchpur area of the Dhaka-Chittagong highway MEHEDI HASAN

Three get 10 years for deaths of 76 childrenThe case proceedings were stalled from 1994 to 2009 n Md Sanaul Islam Tipu and

Ashif Islam Shaon

A Dhaka court has awarded three of-� cials of Ad� ame Pharmaceuticals 10-years of rigorous imprisonment, the maximum punishment stipulated in the related law, for manufacturing adulterated paracetamol syrup which killed 76 children in the 1990s.

Judge Abdur Rashid of the Dhaka Drug Court also � ned the three con-victs Tk2 lakh each in the case, which was � led 22 years back.

The three convicts are Ad� ame Di-rector Helena Pasha, Manager Mizanur Rahman and Production O� cer Nigen-dra Nath Bala.

The court, however, acquitted two other accused – Noman and Afsar Pasha – as the plainti� , the then drug superinten-dent Abul Khayer Chowdhury, did not mention their designations in the case.

“The convicts committed crimes against humanity. So, it is better to award them 10 years’ imprisonment – the maximum punishment under the Drug (Control) Ordinance, 1982,” the judge said while delivering the verdict.

The court later sent Helena, 75, and Mizanur, 68, who were present at the courtroom during the delivery of the judgement, to jail.

The other convict, Nigendra, re-mains fugitive since the case was � led

in 1992. His punishment will be e� ec-tive from the day of his arrest or surren-der, the court said.

The names of three other accused – partners of the company Dr Anwar Pasha, Jahid Iftekhar Pasha and Israt Pasha – were dropped while framing of the charges on May 28, 1994 as they had died during the investigation period.

After the verdict, public prosecutor Shaheen Ahmed Khan said: “We are happy as the court awarded the three o� cials the highest punishment. We have got the verdict as expected.”

Until 1991, complaints were � led with the government relating to the death of as many as 76 children from acute renal failure after taking “Flammodol,” the paracetamol syrup produced by Ad-� ame. The medicine contained diethyl-ene glycol – a deadly industrial chemical.

The case was � led on December 19, 1992. Proceedings in the case had been stalled since 1994 following an order of the High Court. The trial resumed after November 11, 2009.

The case against Ad� ame was one of the four lodged against separate phar-maceutical companies. The three other manufacturers accused of producing the same adulterated paracetamol syr-up were Polychem Laboratories Ltd, BCI (Bangladesh) Ltd and Rid Pharma-ceuticals.

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

Unicef issues statement onbaby pic rown Tribune Report

In response to a report titled “When Unicef violates its own code of conduct,” published in the DhakaTribune on July 11, the Unicef issued a statement.

The statement is as follows:Ms Nobonita Chowdhury’s daugh-

ter’s photograph was used in the news-papers and on posters as a result of a regrettable misunderstanding between a consultant and our government coun-terpart working to promote Birth Regis-tration in Bangladesh.

The partner took the photograph from the Facebook account of our con-sultant, who is a Facebook friend of Ms Chowdhury’s.

In this instance, neither the partner nor the consultant followed Unicef’s standard procedure and the organisa-tion was not consulted before the ma-terial went to print. Both parties have realised their mistake and apologised. Unicef is not in the habit of using pho-tographs without proper consent and, had we been consulted before the ma-terial was � nalised, it would not have been a pproved.

We conveyed our sincere regrets for the unfortunate mistake related to the use of the photograph in a letter dated July 8 after Ms Chowdhury brought this to our attention on July 6. We also apologised for the continued use of the posters, which have now been re-moved by our partner.

It was never the intention of our PAGE 2 COLUMN 6

Hasina calls for rethinking of Islam’s teachings on women’s rightsn Julfi kar Ali Manik from London

Bangladesh premier Sheikh Hasina and Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai have asked those, who do not believe there is a place of girls’ rights in Islam, to re-read the Qur’an and rethink Is-lam’s teaching about women.

The two iconic global female � gures made the suggestions at the � rst ever Girl Summit at Walworth Academy in UK capital London yesterday.

The British government and Unicef have jointly organised the one-day summit to promote what British pre-mier David Cameron said was a global movement against “preventable evils”

such as child marriage and Female Gen-ital Mutilation (FGM).

Hasina and Malala were accompanied by Cameron and Burkina Faso First Lady Chantal Compaore in the lone high-level session of the summit yesterday.

Alongside formal representation from 21 countries and more than 200 NGOs from around 30 other countries, Hasina and Cameron were the only heads of governments to take part in the summit.

Yesterday, the summit passed a charter in which 21 signatory countries and the other participants made vari-ous pledges to end FGM and child, ear-ly and forced marriages.

World Health Organisation de� nes Female Genital Mutilation as “all pro-cedures that involve partial or total re-moval of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital or-gans for non-medical reasons.” FGM is common in the African continent.

Speaking at the high-level session, Hasina said Islam was “the” religion that promoted women’s rights; but some people in Bangladesh had been misleading the society by campaigning against the cause.

She said her party Awami League had made some policies to prevent child marriage when it � rst came to

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

Public Servants’ Bill proposes permanent pay commissionn Kamran Reza Chowdhury

The ruling Awami League’s unful� lled pledge of a permanent pay commission for the public servants is likely to be implemented in a couple of months as the government has proposed the cre-ation of such a pay commission in the draft Public Servants’ Bill-2014.

This proposed law says the govern-ment will take the recommendations of the pay commission into cognisance when raising salaries.

The Public Administration Ministry placed the draft of the Public Serv-ants’ Bill-2014 for discussion yesterday at the meeting of the parliamentary

standing committee on Public Admin-istration before its probable initiation in the legislature in the coming session in early September.

The public servants have been de-manding the creation of a permanent pay commission for a long time since the prices of essentials and services go up immediately after the announcement of a new pay scale by the government.

Experts say the price level would not go up overnight if the authorities put a permanent pay commission in place which could routinely suggest the annual rate of increase in salary to the government.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina spoke

of the permanent pay commission several times. In November 2013, the � nance minister announced a tempo-rary pay commission saying the perma-nent pay commission was not possible as there was no law on this issue.

“There would be a permanent pay commission. This commission would adjust the pay hikes every year after ana-lysing the market prices and recommend its implementation,” says the draft law the Dhaka Tribune has obtained.

The law further stipulates that the government would ensure better edu-cation and health services for the pub-lic servants and their family members. It also proposes introducing awards for

the public servants for their contribu-tion toward public service.

“We have primarily discussed the Public Servants’ Bill-2014 at our meet-ing today [Tuesday]. If passed, it will en-sure good public service,” HN Ashequr Rahman, the chairman of the standing committee, told the Dhaka Tribune after the meeting at the parliament building.

The government would, in line with the Public Servants Bill, formulate rules on the code of conduct for the public servants, the violation of which would lead to departmental action against the errant public servants.

The rule would also determine the retirement age of the public servants. l

Bangladesh one of the top countries in child marriagen Tribune Report

Bangladesh has one of the highest numbers of under-15 child marriages in the world, according to a report pub-lished by Unicef.

The report, titled “Ending Child Marriage – Progress and Prospects,” was published yesterday.

According to the report, 74% of the girls aged below 18 years are married o� in Bangladesh. 39% of the girls aged under 15 years meet the same fate.

These girls are less likely to receive proper medical care during pregnancy and child birth, and they are not phys-ically mature enough to give birth, which places both the mothers and

their babies at risk.Over 20% girls who are married o�

before reaching 15 years in Bangladesh become mothers of three children or more before reaching 24 years, the re-port said.

Child marriage among girls is com-mon in South Asia and Sub-Saharan African region. More than 700 million women are married o� under the age of 18 globally, while one in three of them are married before the age of 15 global-ly, according to the report.

The top 10 countries with the high-est scores of child marriage are: Niger, Bangladesh, Chad, Mali, Central Afri-can Republic, India, Guinea, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso and Nepal. l

News2 DHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Cameron assures continued assistance to BangladeshThe British PM expresses interest about visiting Dhakan Tribune Desk

British Prime Minister David Cam-eron yesterday praised the progress achieved by Bangladesh in the � elds of economy and women development, and assured that they would continue providing assistance to Sheikh Hasina’s government.

He made the remarks during a bilat-eral meeting between the two premiers at Cameron’s o� ce at 10 Downing Street in London yesterday.

AKM Shamim Chowdhury, the Bangladeshi prime minister’s press sec-retary, told reporters after the meeting: “British Prime Minister David Cameron profusely praised the progress made by Bangladesh in achieving economic de-velopment as well as in protecting the freedom and rights of women.

“He [Cameron] said Bangladesh and the United Kingdom are long-standing friends. The United Kingdom’s sup-port in the socio-economic progress of Bangladesh will continue in the future.”

For the � rst time since taking o� ce for the second term running, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is currently in London on a three-day visit to attend the Girl Summit.

Cameron and Hasina held talks for more than half an hour around 8:30am local time. Hasina’s sister Sheikh Re-hana, Foreign Minister Abul Hasan Mahmud Ali and State Minister for Women and Children A� airs Meher Afroze accompanied the premier dur-ing the meeting at Downing Street.

Bangladeshi Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haq said: “The meeting took place in a friendly environment and both leaders held sincere talks. David Cameron profusely praised the so-cio-economic development of Bangla-desh; especially the country’s achieve-ment on MDG and the social movement led by the honourable prime minister [Hasina], and this is why he [Cameron] invited her to the Girl Summit.

“He also expressed hopes that Brit-ain would continuously work with

Bangladesh on socio-economic devel-opment and jointly work towards a bet-ter future.”

Yesterday’s meeting was also an ex-pression of the British government’s faith in Sheikh Hasina’s government, Shahidul said.

Cameron also expressed his interest in visiting Bangladesh, the foreign sec-retary said.

“He said he wanted to see for him-self how Bangladesh managed to achieve womens’ development and a continued 6% GDP growth.”

Shahidul quoted Cameron as saying he was also interested in � nding out how Bangladesh was tackling the chal-lenge of fundamentalist powers.

Both prime ministers joined the Girl Summit after the meeting at Downing Street. At the summit venue, Hasi-na also held meetings with Desmond Swayne, the UK minister of state at the Department for International Develop-ment, and Unicef Executive Director Anthony Lake. l

NARAYANGANJ SEVEN-MURDER

2 more RAB men give confessional statementsn Tribune Report

Two more RAB-11 members gave con-fessional statements yesterday in connection with the Narayanganj sev-en-murder case. The two members – Army personnel Abdus Samad and RAB Deputy Assistant Director Abdus Salam - confessed under section 164 of the penal code as witnesses of the incident before the court of Senior Judicial Mag-istrate Monwara Begum of Narayanganj.

However, details of their statement was not disclosed to the media.

Advocate Shakhawat Hossain, pres-ident of the Narayanganj District Law-yers Association, said: “These two members were with the team which abducted seven people including panel mayor of Narayanganj Nazrul Islam and senior lawyer Chandan Sarker. They are witnesses to the incident. Their confes-sional statement is very important.”

Earlier, three former RAB o� cers Lt Col Tareq Sayeed, Major Arif Hossain and Lt Commander SM Masud Rana con-fessed their involvement in the Narayan-ganj seven murders, claiming that other men from the force were also involved. l

Minister threatens media of tougher lawsn Mohosinul Karim

Social Welfare Minister Syed Mohsin Ali yesterday said the government would soon enact a tough law to limit the freedom of the press, applicable to both print and electronic mediums, to stop the media from running unneces-sary news reports.

Criticising the role of the media in Bangladesh, the minister added that some media houses were trying to cre-ate a tense situation in the country by printing or broadcasting unnecessary news reports.

Mohsin made the remarks while speaking at an inter-ministerial meet-ing at his Secretariat o� ce regarding the rehabilitation of the beggars across the country.

Referring to the seven-murder case in Narayanganj, he said: “The me-dia, particularly the private television channels, have been exaggerating the negative aspects.”

“Electronic media houses have been broadcasting the Narayanganj seven murders report to create unrest across the country. You saw that hundreds of

people died at the Twin Tower incident in the US, but they aired it only for a few seconds,” he added.

The minister also said: “Press free-dom does not mean ‘do whatever you like.’ You must have a limit to how far you should go and how much rights you have. This should be stopped. The government will enact tougher laws to limit the freedom of the press.”

On a di� erent note, he urged the government to cut the hands and legs and behead those Islamic scholars who attacked sex workers and evicted them from their brothel in Tangail.

“The hands and legs of these Moulanas (Islamic scholars) should be cut o� . They should be beheaded for attacking the brothel as per the provisions of an Islamic country,” he told the meeting.

“The Moulanas have evicting the sex workers from the brothel. But, they never thought about where these sex workers will live and what they will do now. International human rights groups are now pressurising the gov-ernment. It is now damaging the image of the government,” he added. l

Obaidul’s deadline lost in risky highways PAGE 1 COLUMN 6at di� erent points from Joydevpur to Mymensingh has slowed down the movement of vehicles resulting in long tailback.

Bangladesh Road Transport Work-ers’ Federation (BRTW) General Secre-tary Osman Ali said e� orts are on to � x the roads.

Describing his trip from Dhaka to Mymensingh on Monday Osman said two kilometers of the road stretch-ing from Gajipur Chourasta is uneven causing vehicles to jerk violently.

Also because of the monsoon rain over the last few days the road have de-veloped potholes at on the Dhaka-My-mensingh highway, he said.

The transport leader said the roads in Trishal have become muddy as ve-

hicles carrying � sh spill water all over the road.

Road Division Secretary MAN Sid-dique however claimed over phone that the roads across the country are in good condition. “Home-bound passen-gers can travel without any hassle.”

Asked about why every year tem-porary repair is carried out just before Eid, Roads and Highway Department Chief Engineer Ma� zul Islam said there are two on-going projects on the Dha-ka-Chittagong and Dhaka-Mymensingh highways.

Problems surface as the development work is going on, he said adding that there would be no problem next year.

Our correspondent from Jessore adds: Although Communications Min-ister Obaidul Quader vowed to repair all

highways across the country by July 20 to ease the su� erings of home-bound passengers ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr about 40 kilometres of the Jessore-Khulna highway is still in dire need of repair.

Local sources said commuters had to su� er needlessly while traveling through the highway. A large portion of the highway is severely accident prone as numerous potholes have recently ap-peared because of the monsoon rains.

“Vehicle very often break down be-cause of the damaged road,” said truck driver Limon Mia.

Sha� qul Islam, employee of an NGO, said he has to go to Jessore from Nawapara industrial town every day except holidays.

He said: “I have to pray to Allah when I am on the road as the bus can

overturn anytime. It also takes longer than ever before as the dilapidated road slows down the speed of vehicles.”

Businessman Sirajul Islam is also regular passenger on the highway. “The Journey on the highway is simply awful for me.”

Asaduzzaman, teacher of a private college, said the communications min-ister failed to keep his word.

He said: “Although the minister has already issued show-cause notice to many engineers for not complying with his directives, nobody is paying heed to his order.”

When contacted, Ziaul Haider, exec-utive engineer of the Roads and High-ways Department, told the Dhaka Trib-une that the highway would be � t for vehicular movement by today.

According to a recent survey con-ducted by the Roads and Highway Department around 41% of roads and highways across the country are in a dilapidated state. Of them, 12% are severely run-down. Earlier, trans-port leaders in Chittagong threatened to stop plying vehicles in the district ahead of Eid, if the authorities con-cerned failed to repair the appalling roads by July 14.

A total of 16 teams are working to make the highways � t for smooth traf-� c. Some potholes have been created in Sitakunda, Chittagong, due to poor drainage system, claimed the minister.

Comilla correspondent Masudur Rahman, Gajipur correspondent Rai-hanul Islam Akandah and our Jessore reporter contributed to the report. l

Hasina calls for rethinking of Islam's teachings on women’s rights PAGE 1 COLUMN 3power in 1996 which religion-based fundamentalist parties such as Ja-maat-e-Islami had always opposed. When eventually Jamaat came to pow-er in 2001 by being a part of the collu-sion government, they cracked many of those policies.

Fortunately, the Bangladesh PM said, when Awami League came back to power in 2009, many of those poli-cies had been reinstated.

She also said the four most impor-tant posts of the current Bangladesh parliament were held by women – the speaker, leader of the house, the depu-ty leader of the house and the leader of the opposition.

She explained that none of those came easily; they faced many problems but eventually, as awareness was creat-ed, people accepted these women.

“We developed the entire society. You cannot achieve these by develop-ing half of the society,” Hasina said.

She pledged in front of the summit that by 2021, no girl under 15 years of age would be married; by 2041, no girl under 18 would be married.

In her turn, Pakistani rights activist Malala Yousafzai described the ordeals that they had to face in the Swat Valley during the Taliban rule.

In 2007, they used to go to school everyday, after the Taliban terrorists did not let them go to school. “They [Taliban] shut down more than 400 schools in the area... and they did that in the name of Islamic law.”

She said women’s liberation was not a new thing; Prophet Mohammad’s wife Khadeja was a businesswomen and her own independent identity.

Terming Islam as a religion of peace that promoted equal rights for women, the prodigal rights activist said those, who spoke against women education in the name of Islam, should “read Qur’an again.”

Sharing the experiences from her visit to Nigeria, Malala said she had seen how women were abducted there and now she was working on Nigerian girls.

Towards the end of her speech, she said women were “the human beings” and therefore the long tradition of see-ing them as di� erent should end.

“This [the tradition] does not come from heaven or God... So, we can change this,” she a� rmed.

Education, in her view, was the solution for all the problems that the Girl Summit had been discussing.

British PM David Cameron said the summit was given so much importance because child marriage and FGM were clear violations of girls’ rights.

He said at least 130,000 girls had been a� ected by FGM in the UK only; the global � gure was a staggering 130 million.

Cameron said the summit was cru-cial because it gave those, who had been victims of child marriage and FGM, the courage to speak up about their ordeals. That, he said, was a really big achievement.

Regarding child marriage, he said

around 700 million people in the world have been married as a child and 200 million more were running the risks.

He also said education was the best way to � ght the problems they had been discussing.

He pledged allocations of £25m for � ghting child marriage and £45m to prevent FGM.

Burkina Faso First Lady Chantal Compaore, the other panelist of the high level session, talked about a po-litical will to adopt a long education programme to � ght FGM in her country and elsewhere in the world.

Girl Summit charterthe signatories of the Girl Summit Charter agreed on the following:

“Child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation must end, and the elimination of these prac-tices should be re� ected in the post 2015 development framework.

“Every girl and women at risk of or e� ected by these practices must have access to appropriate services like ed-ucation, counseling, shelter, reproduc-tive health and medical care.

“The government must design and implement e� ective, properly funded

policies and clear legislation to end these practices forever, and to protect anyone at risk. Where necessary they should work together across borders to implement these policies and legis-lation.

“Legislation alone is not enough. We will all raise awareness and un-derstanding so everyone respects the equal value and potential of girls. We will support local groups around the world —led by women and men, girls and boys — to do the same. Lasting change will come from communities themselves.

“We will gather more and better data, improve the way we measure social change, and make open source data publicly available to help make the right decisions about how to end these practices.

“We must drive systematic, sustainable change in the way girls and women are valued in our societies, so they can seize the same opportunities and realise the same rights as boys and men.

“We need to invest in all girls so they have the knowledge, education, skills and self con� dence to take control of their lives. We will work together across the di� erent systems, including education, health and reproductive health, justice, social protection, child protection and civil registration.

“Young people are a powerful force for change. We need to listen to, and consult with, young people — especial-ly those a� ected – and support youth-led intiatives to break the cycle of these practices.

“All of us need to take action to end these practices, including govern-ments, faith groups, traditional lead-ers, non-government orgnisations and civil society groups, young people, practitioners, people a� ected by these practices, communities, international organisations, media and private sec-tor.

“The individual commitments that accompany this Charter will be moni-tored and assessed on an annual basis, and the results published online. l

Three get 10 years for deaths of 76 children PAGE 1 COLUMN 2The � fth pharmaceutical – City Chem-ical and Pharmaceutical Works Ltd – was not prosecuted, apparently for having a close connection with the then ruling BNP high-ups.

According to the Ad� ame case, the child mortality rate suddenly shot up at Dhaka Shishu Hospital between 1990 and 1992, and all of them died from kidney failure.

On suspicion, the then director of the hospital Brig (retd) Mokbul Hossain verbally noti� ed the drug administra-tion about the matter on July 3, 1991. Several news media published news reports that many children were dying after taking adulterated paracetamol.

On November 25, 1992, Abul Khayer collected samples of “Flammodol” and sent it to the drug testing laboratory and the WHO for examination. It was then found to have contained diethyl-

ene glycol.Dhaka Shishu Hospital’s kidney spe-

cialist Prof Mohammed Hanif came to experience the tragedy of hundreds of children dying from kidney failure in 1982, when he started his career as a resident doctor at the BSMMU (former-ly PG Hospital).

Every day, patients coming in for treatment of failures of both kidneys and fevers, were dying despite being treated with dialysis. The doctors could not do anything to help them recover.

He saw the same situation happen-ing at Shishu Hospital after he had been transferred there in 1986. The children were dying from renal failure. The phy-sicians checked the hospital’s water sources as well as the houses of the vic-tims and conducted several other tests but did not � nd anything that could ex-plain the mystery.

Later the hospital authorities

formed a committee with Prof Hanif as the chair. In 1990, they came to know that something was wrong with the paracetamol which was being adminis-tered to the children.

The children who were going to the hospital for minor surgeries started to ex-perience renal failure, even though they did not have such complications earlier.

After reading a Newsweek article that talked about the adulteration of paracetamol in Nigeria, Prof Hanif was sure that paracetamol adulteration was behind the renal problems.

To convince the state authorities to do something, the probe body sent a sample of Ad� ame’s Flammodol to the government’s drug laboratory. But the laboratory did not respond.

Later they requested the Directorate General of Drug Administration to take a sample and send it to the drug labo-ratory. The laboratory again kept mum.

The committee then sent a sample to Japan and to Fisons – a British mul-tinational pharmaceuticals company, but those e� orts did not work out ei-ther.

Finally, they sent the sample to a government laboratory in Massachu-setts, US and got a result.

Following this, the committee ar-ranged a press conference to make the fact public.

It prompted the government to start working – banning the use of all par-acetamol syrups and prosecuting the people at the four companies that were allegedly responsible.

However, the drug companies al-leged that Prof Hanif had been trying to destroy the reputation of the pharma-ceutical sector.

After 17 years, Prof Hanif brought to the fore the fact that Rid Pharma was selling adulterated paracetamol which

caused the deaths of at least 28 children.

Case lingered The government’s alleged indi� erence in pursuing justice against in� uential businesspersons and the intentional reluctance of the drug administration regulatory body caused the delay in trial.

The case remained stayed for 13 years since 1994 after the drug admin-istration issued a circular saying that Bangladesh did not have proper test facilities. The plainti� himself was re-sponsible for this.

Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, Abul Khayer, now a director of the drug ad-ministration, said yesterday: “I did not know about the judgement delivery date. I came to know the news from media. I am happy that the accused have been awarded the highest punish-ment.” l

Unicef issues statementon babypic row PAGE 1 COLUMN 6partner or Unicef’s to cause unneces-sary distress to the mother of a new-born child.

The photograph was used to encour-age caregivers in Bangladesh to register their children’s birth.

The biggest challenge is to raise awareness among parents on the im-portance of timely birth registration. The annual celebration of Nation-al Birth Registration Day on July 3 and any related communication ma-terial are crucial in supporting thisaim.

Bangladesh has made great strides in this area, resulting in the registration of over 110 million births on a comput-erised system.

However, evidence shows that de-spite this work, only 37% of the chil-dren under the age of � ve had their birth registered in 2013.

We hope that people will continue to value the importance of this issue and not get distracted by this unfor-tunate mistake and related newspaperarticle.

We must remember that birth regis-tration is a right of all children.

A birth certi� cate is the primary document for identi� cation of children and veri� cation of their age.

It serves as a protection tool against child labour and child marriage, both of which are serious violations of chil-dren’s rights.

We want all babies to be registered at birth and to achieve universal birth registration in Bangladesh. l

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina joins a discussion with British Premier David Cameron, Burkina Faso's First Lady Chantal Compaore and Pakistani education activist Malala Yusafzai at the Girl Summit in London yesterday PID

3NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, July 23, 2014

HC summonsCox’s Bazar DC n Nazmus Sakib

The High Court yesterday ordered the deputy commissioner of Cox’s Bazar to appear before it on September 9 for dis-obeying its order to save an environmen-tally critical area (ECA) in the district.

The bench of Justice Md Ashfaqul Islam and Justice Md Ashraful Kamal passed the order responding to a plea � led by the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers’ Association (BELA).

Petitioner’s lawyer Ikbal Kabir said the High Court in a judgement on June 8, 2011 ruled for evicting all structures from a land of 51 acres at Jhilongza mouza of Cox’s Bazar by one month since it had been declared as an ECA.

Disobeying the High court order, a project has been underway for the con-struction of houses of government sta� .

A contempt ruling was issued against 12 including the Cox’s Bazar deputy commissioner on March 4 this year. l

Sand may be the next big thing in foreign traden Asif Showkat Kallol

The Commerce Ministry has decided to form a special committee to evaluate the prospects of exporting sand and soil to boost export earnings.

The new idea was � rst discussed a couple of months ago in a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Na-tional Economic Council (Ecnec).

Sources said several enthusiastic private companies have already placed proposals to the government seeking permission for the new business. They believe that Bangladesh can earn as much as Tk700 crore – Tk1,200 crore annually in sand exports.

The latest decision to form an eight-member committee was made at an inter-ministerial meeting at the Com-merce Ministry yesterday. The meeting, presided over by the new Commerce Secretary Hedayetullah Al Mamoon, discussed prospects of formulating a

policy for exporting soil and sand.The committee, headed by Com-

merce Ministry Joint Secretary Shawkat Ali Warsi, has been tasked with submitting a report containing recommendations on relevant permis-sions to be granted and the formulation of a policy, within 21 days.

However, during yesterday's meet-ing, o� cials of the mineral resources ministry opposed the idea of exporting sand, claiming that it might contain huge amounts of mineral resources.

Interestingly though, apart from conducting a survey in 1995, the min-eral resources ministry has never taken any step to extract what they say were “huge amounts of mineral resources” embedded in the sand.

In response, the new commerce secretary lambasted the o� cials of the mineral resources ministry for never taking any steps to extract the “valu-able” resources and said their objec-

tions were not based on facts. He also asked them to explain the reasoning behind their opposing the new idea.

During the meeting, representatives of the Environment Ministry said no matter what the government decided, care should be taken so that the envi-ronment was not damaged in any way.

Prof Mominul Haque Sarker, head of the government's Centre for Envi-ronment and Geographic Information Services, told the Dhaka Tribune that he was surprised to know that the min-eral resources ministry, who never did anything more than conducting a sur-vey two decades ago, had opposed the idea of exporting sand.

“The 1995 research found some heavy metal in oceanic sand. That, if extracted, could have helped. Oce-anic sand does not have any mineral content of its own. Whatever it has is transported by the rivers. Therefore, riverbed sand can also be rich in min-

eral resources,” said Mominul, also the dean of the Environmental Sciences Faculty of the Dhaka University.

The meeting also discussed that around 1.67 billion tonnes of sand and sediment comes into the Bangladeshi rivers every year and only 30% of that reaches the Bay of Bengal; the rest set-tles in the river beds which can be ex-tracted by dredging.

According to an o� cial, the govern-ment is currently considering the pros-pects of exporting the riverbed sand; not sand from the sea bed or the beaches.

Secretary Hedayetul said the poten-tial of earning foreign currency from exporting sand and soil was huge be-cause there was a lot of demand in Asia, especially for � lling up the sea for land expansion and reclamation.

“Bangladesh badly needs invest-ments for economic development,” he told the meeting yesterday.

A private company named Network

and Infrastructure Company has re-cently applied to the Commerce Minis-try, seeking approval for exporting over 1.5 million tonnes of sand to Singapore. The application is still pending.

Since the 1960s, Singapore's land area has increased by more than 20%. Almost all of this land reclamation has been done using sand imported from nearby countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia.

The country also needs vast vol-umes of sand for its construction in-dustry which has been booming over the past decade or so, according to Sin-gaporean business portal TradeWinds.

The Maldives government has also expressed its interest to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina regarding the import of sand from Bangladesh for land expansion.

The existing Export Policy Order of the Commerce Ministry does not con-tain any prohibitions to the export of sand. l

O� cials oblivious about cases against Rid Pharman Moniruzzaman Uzzal

The fate of the cases against Rid Phar-maceuticals – the company allegedly responsible for the deaths of 25 chil-dren in 2009 – remains in limbo, with o� cials concerned oblivious to the current status of legal proceedings against the accused.

Although four cases were � led against the pharmaceuticals’ bosses, and several top o� cials including the owner and his wife were also arrested at the time; all of those accused are cur-rently out of jail after securing bail.

In 2009, at least 25 children died af-ter su� ering from renal failure, alleged-ly after consuming paracetamol syrups produced by Rid Pharmaceuticals, prompting the Health Ministry to form a seven-member probe body.

The committee found the presence of poisonous Diethylene Glycol – which is used in tannery and battery industries – in Rid Pharma’s paracetamol syrup. The company’s licence was then suspended.However, since then, no signi� cant prog-ress has been made in any of the cases.

When asked by the Dhaka Tribune, several senior-level o� cials of the Di-rectorate General of Drug Administra-tion (DGDA), including the plainti� s of the cases, were unable to explain the progress of the cases.

DGDA Deputy Director Ruhul Amin, the drug administrations’ designated in-formation o� cer, told the Dhaka Tribune that he had no information regarding the cases. Instead, he suggested contacting the case petitioners for more details.

However, Nayar Sultana, a DGDA deputy director who lodged a case with a Narayanganj court, said she could not give any information about the case as the court had not asked for her over the last four-� ve years.

Based on her reference, the Dhaka Tribune then contacted Saikot Kumer Kar, a drug superintendent who was currently dealing with the case. He said: “I do not know anything about the case as I was not employed at the job back then. You would get more information from Nayar Sultana madam. As the pe-titioner, she could tell you the details.”

Abul Khair, a DGDA director who lodged a case in Comilla, said: “Al-though I am the petitioner, I do not know anything about it. A long time ago the court had summoned me once. After that, I have not been called fur-ther by the court.”

Md Sha� qul Islam, an assistant direc-tor of the DGDA who also lodged a case with the drug court of Dhaka, said he had given a statement before the court around three to four months ago; but has not heard from the court since then. l

Wearing token bandages on their heads, members of several children’s organisations form a human chain yesterday in front of the National Press Club, protesting the deaths of civilians including children in the Israeli attack on Gaza MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

‘Butcher Siraj’ held; probe underwayn Udisa Islam

War crimes accused Sirajul Huq alias Siraj Master was also known as “Siraj Kosai” in Bagerhat during the 1971 Lib-eration War for the brutal acts he had committed against unarmed civilians, mostly Hindus.

Locals labelled him as “Kosai” or butcher since the accused used to slaughter people, after his fellows had shot them, to con� rm their death.

Siraj, the deputy commander of dis-trict unit razakar force – auxiliary force of the Pakistani occupation forces, was allegedly involved in the killings of over 800 people in the district. He was also behind the “Dakara Genocide” in Rampal where over 600 Hindus had been killed in a day.

The war crimes suspect was also a key associate of deceased war crimes accused AKM Yusuf, a Jamaat-e-Islami leader who had founded the notorious razakar force in Khulna division during the war. Yusuf died in custody when the case against him was in the � nal stage at the tribunal.

Siraj was arrested on Monday night from his uncle’s abandoned house at

Dema village under Bagerhat sadar area. The arrest has been made more than a month after the International Crimes Tribunal 1 had issued arrest warrant against him and two other sus-pects in a war crimes case.

The two other accused – Abdul La-tif Talukder and Akram Hossain Khan – have already been arrested and sent to jail.

The investigation o� cer said they had come to know about Siraj from lo-cal people while investigating the alle-gations against Yusuf.

The probe report against them would be submitted soon, o� cials said. The tribunal earlier set August 20 to submit a progress report on the in-vestigation. The arrest warrants were issued on June 10.

In 2009, war victim Nimai Chan-dra Das from Raghuduttakathi village of Bagerhat sadat � led a case against some 20-30 men including the trio with a Bagerhat court. The case was later transferred to the tribunal 1.

Mohammad Helal Uddin, investiga-tion o� cer of the case, con� rmed the arrest and said: “The Bagerhat court is likely to send the war crimes suspect to

the tribunal as the latter issued arrest warrant against him.”

The IO visited the crime scenes on May 26-28 this year and recorded state-ments of witnesses. Following this, the probe team con� rmed Siraj’s involve-ment in atrocities including the killing of over 800 unarmed civilians at Koch-ua, Rampal and areas under Bagerhat sadar.

IO Helal Uddin said Siraj Kosai along with the two other accused of the case had gone to Kochua on May 5, 1971 and carried out atrocities there. They loot-ed houses and set those on � re after killing 42 Hindus.

The probe body accuses Siraj and his men of being responsible for the “Da-kara Genocide” of May 21, 1971 when over 600 Hindus were killed in the vil-lage under Rampal upazila. After killing them with a gun, Siraj had slaughtered them to ensure death.

The razakar leader was also in-volved in the killing of 42 Hindus at Shakharikatthi, 19 at Kandapara, seven at Chulkathi and 63 others atRanjitpur by gunshot. These victims too were slaughtered by the war crimes accused. l

Qaisar declines to defend case n Udisa Islam

The war crimes tribunal yesterday asked the prosecution to begin clos-ing arguments in the case against Syed Mohammad Qaisar, a former state min-ister during HM Ershad’s regime, since the accused decided not to defend.

After the end of deposition of pros-ecution witnesses, the defence is sup-posed to place their witnesses. Then the prosecution and the defence place closing arguments.

Prosecutor Rana Das Gupta told the Dhaka Tribune that the defence did not submit any witness list to defend the accused. “So the next stage of the trial is closing arguments from the prosecu-tion side.”

The defence also did not place any doc-ument on which they might rely upon.

Yesterday, the International Crimes Tribunal 2 gave the defence 30 minutes to complete cross-examination of the case’s investigation o� cer – the last prosecution witness.

Qaisar’s counsel Abdus Sobhan Taraf-der questioned IO Monowara Begum for the fourth day yesterday but could not complete it despite several warnings is-sued by the tribunal previously.

At 1:30pm, Tarafder sought one more hour to conclude the cross-ex-amination saying: “As it is a matter of death sentence, please give us the time to present our case properly.”

Tribunal Chairman Justice Obaidul Hassan was surprised hearing this. He asked the defence: “How have you be-come so sure that the accused will get death penalty? You always waste time like this everywhere.

“You have to conclude this by 11:30am tomorrow [today]. You will not get a single more second. Leave your time-wasting tricks aside. Go to the magistrate’s court to apply this,” the tribunal said.

When the tribunal gave the defence 30 minutes, the accused was in the dock.

During the 1971 Liberation War, Qa-isar had allegedly formed a force after his name and collaborated with the Pakistani occupation forces to commit crimes against humanity in Habiganj and Brahmanbaria areas.

Indicted on February 2 this year, Qa-isar is facing 16 counts of charges that include mass killings, murder, exter-mination, enslavement, deportation, abduction and torture in con� nement, rape and other atrocious acts. l

JS panel for withdrawal of MCQ from BCS examn Kamran Reza Chowdhury

A parliamentary watchdog yesterday recommended dropping the existing MCQ (Multiple Choice Question) sys-tem, which the Public Service Commis-sion follows, from the preliminary test to shortlist the applicants for the next stage of written exams.

The parliamentary standing com-mittee on public administration asked the ministry to � nd an alternative to the MCQ system in which candidates sat for a 100 mark test by � lling out a machine-readable script sheet.

This method helps the Public Ser-vice Commission to prepare the prelim-inary results in a month or two, though there are over 200,000 applicants.

The commission � gures shows 221,575 applicants took part in the last 34th Bangladesh Civil Service exam-ination that took one year eight months and 22 days to complete.

Former cabinet secretary HT Imam, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s politi-cal adviser, former home minister and lawmaker Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir, a bureaucrat turned politician, and ex-gov-ernor of the central bank Dr Farash Ud-din Ahmed attended the meeting of the standing committee on special invitation.

The meeting sources said HT Imam raised the issue of changing the MCQ system in the public service saying that it was not a good method to judge the quality of the applicants.

Instead, he suggested the introduc-tion of an easy system to shortlist candi-dates would present bureaucracy better.

Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir and Farash Uddin also seconded the proposal.

“To best judge the merits of the can-didates, the standing committee rec-ommended the ministry to formulate a merit-based system of examination in-stead of the MCQ method,” said a press statement issued by the parliament secretariat.

However, Standing Committee Chairman HN Ashequr Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune: “We are examining the options. We have not recommended it.”

Workers’ Party MP and committee member Mostofa Lutfullah told report-ers: “Most of the committee members are in favour of dropping the MCQ system.”

State Minister for Public Administra-tion Ismat Ara Sadique and committee members AMB Fazle Karim Chowdhury, Shukumer Ranjan Ghosh, Md Abdullah and Khorshed Ara attended the meeting.

According to the Rules of Procedure, the parliamentary standing committees are simply the recommending bodies. The ministries have no obligation to implement their recommendations.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is the minister in-charge of the public admin-istration ministry.

Secretary Kamal Abdul Naser Chow-dhury told the meeting that the Public Service Commission was in favour of retaining the MCQ system.l

SAGAR-RUNI MURDER

Decision on Tanvir’s bail after police reportn Nazmus Sakib

The High Court yesterday said it would take decision on the bail plea of the Na-tional Human Rights Commission for a businessman after seeing the police report in journalist couple Sagar-Runi murder case.

The bench of Justice Md Rezaul Haque and Justice Gobinda Chandra Tagore also set September 2 for further hearing on the matter. Attorney Gen-eral Mahbubey Alam opposed the bail petition.

The top law o� cer of the country said the police report was supposed to be submitted before the trial court on August 13. As the investigation was going on into the sensational case, granting bail would not be correct, he argued.

NHRC’s lawyer Fouzia Karim Feroz said the commission � led the bail plea with the bench having the jurisdiction to deal with criminal matters in line with a suggestion of another bench comprising Justice Mirza Hussain Haid-er and Justice Khurshid Alam Sarkar.

The later bench gave the suggestion on July 13 when the NHRC moved a writ plea questioning the legality of detain-ing Tanvir Rahman, the businessmen.

Tanvir, a friend of the slain journal-ist couple, was picked up on October 1, 2012. He is now in the Kashimpur high security prison.

The NHRC � led the petition keeping the request of Tanvir’s father as there is no speci� c allegation against the de-tainee.

Sagar and Runi were found dead at their rented house in the capital’s West Rajabazar on February 11, 2012. l

4 NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Hamdard Laboratories (WAQF) Bangladesh organised a discussion and doa mahfil at the 15th death annivesary of late Hakim Mohammad Abdul Hamid, the founder of modern Hamdard, at Hamdard auditorium in Dhaka on Tuesday. Hamdard marketing director Dr. Hakim Rofiqul Islam presided at the meetingn and Hamdard managing directror Dr. Hakim Md. Yousuf was the chief guest. A munajat was offered for the salvation of the departed soul. Administrative director professor Hakim Shiri Forhad,foundation director Lt Colonel Mahbubul Alam Chowdhury ( retired), planing and development director Mohammad Jamal Uddin Bhuiyan (Rasel), human resource and development director Dr. Nargis Marjan Shilpi, acting director of medical Dr. Md. Azizul Haque, Hamdard brand manager of Indian affairs Md. Zubayer and Hamdard Indian consultant Miss Garvin Kaur Bhatia attended the meeting.

Hamdard arranged doa mahfil for late Hakim Mohammad Abdul Hamid

Poba urges formation of marine commissionn Abu Hayat Mahmud

Poribesh Bachao Andolan (Poba), a private environmental organisa-tion, yesterday urged the govern-ment to form a high-power “Ma-rine Commission” under the prime minister’s o� ce to protect, main-tain and develop resources inside the country’s maritime zones.

Urging the government to for-mulate a vision on maritime is-sues for up to 2050, they also rec-ommended fast formulation of rules and regulations to preserve huge resources acquired in mari-time areas in recent times.

The proposals were made at a press conference, titled “Activity on Bangladesh Marine Resource Management,” organised by Poba at its head o� ce in the capital.

The environmental organisa-tion also forwarded a 13-point rec-ommendation regarding the issue.

Poba General Secretary Abdus Sobhan presented the key note-paper at the press conference.

“A multipurpose plan is need-ed for sustainable protection of marine zone and its environment and ministries and departments

concerned should immediately to run a survey to � nd out the re-sources available in the country’s marine zone,” he added.

Sobhan claimed that in 1974, the then government had talks with India and Myanmar over forming a territorial sea.

“Later, the government also enacted the ‘Territorial Waters and Maritime Zone Act,’ where 12 nautical miles were marked as Bangladesh’s territorial sea and 200 nautical miles as an exclusive economic zone.”

“At last, we have won two cas-es against Myanmar and India on marine zone con� icts,” he added.

Urging the government to take initiatives to recover resources associated with foreign and do-mestic companies, he also add-ed: “However, the government should also be careful of the country’s interests while recov-ering the resources with foreign companies.”

Other speakers at the confer-ence urged the government to amend the 1974 Maritime Zone Act and update it based on present regional aspects and perception. l

Ticket touts arrested with 30 ticketsin Chittagongn Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

In separate incidents this week, po-lice arrested two ticket touts with 30 tickets in their possession in Chit-tagong city.

The Government Railway Police (GRP) arrested an alleged ticket tout early yesterday from Chittagong

Railway Station area with � ve tick-ets for di� erent train routes for July 23 and 24.

Mohammad Abdullah, 30, was taken into custody by the rail-way police at the GRP Outpost in the station. A case was � led with the outpost against him, said O� -cer-in-Charge Yiasin Faruk.

They nabbed Abdullah from the station premises around 9am fol-lowing a tip-o� , said the OC.

Earlier, on Monday, the Detective Branch of Chittagong Metropolitan Police arrested another ticket tout, Abdur Rahim, 38, with 25 tickets for Turna Nishita, Mohanagar God-huli and Paharika Express for July

21-24 from the port city’s ReazuddinBazar area.

Recently, an intelligence report listed the names of 48 possible tick-et touts. The list includes 11 person-nel of Railway Security Force and three booking clerks at the railway station, apart from the professional touts. l

Malaria situation alarming in hill districts10 dead in last six months as against total 15 last year n Moniruzzaman Uzzal

The malaria situation across the coun-try worsens, with the number of infect-ed patients rising signi� cantly in the three hill districts of Bandarban, Ran-gamati and Khagrachari.

According to the health director-ate, the number of malaria patients in-creased between 10,000 to 12,000 in the � rst six months while it was only 6,000 to 7,000 at the same time last year.

The number of deaths in 2013 was 15, but it is more than 10 up to Junethis year.

There are 13 malaria-prone districts in Bangladesh.

The Directorate General of Health Services has formed a National Malaria Emergency Committee headed by Pro-fessor Dr Be-Nazir Ahmed, director of National Malaria Control Programme.

Three days ago, the national com-mittee held a meeting with the district civil surgeon, upazila health and fam-ily welfare o� cer, health inspector and other government and non-gov-ernment organisations to inform them about the current situation.

“We are very concerned with the

alarming increase in the number of malaria patients and deaths. We don’t know the actual reason but cli-mate change or the change of vector might also be attributed to the in-fection of malaria,” said Professor DrBe-Nazir Ahmed.

The health o� cials told the Dhaka Tribune the number of malaria patients increased in Tripura of India.

More than 50,000 people were in-fected with Malaria, they said, adding that the number of malaria patients also increased among the army person-nel posted to the hilly districts.

Malaria is a parasitic infection trans-mitted by the female anopheles mos-quitoes infecting humans and insects.

The disease is a public health prob-lem in 90 countries around the world, a� ecting 300 million people and is directly responsible for the death of about one million people annually.

Africa accounts for 90% of the mortality burden for malaria and the Southeast Asia 9%.

Bangladesh is considered one ofthe malaria endemic countries inSouth Asia having 34 anopheles mos-quito species.

The general symptoms of malaria include headache, nausea, fever, vom-iting and � u-like symptoms. However, these can vary depending on the spe-cies causing the infection.

Bangladesh is expected to become a malaria-free country by 2020 if the trend continues.

Professor Dr Mahmudur Rahman, director, Institute of Epidemiology Disease and Research, told the Dhaka Tribune in recent times malaria had been prevalent alarmingly not only in Bangladesh but also in India and other South Asian countries. l

RAB gets new media directorn Tribune Report

A navy o� cer took over as director of the Rapid Action Battalion’s (RAB) Le-gal and Media Wing yesterday. The new director for media at RAB, Commander Mufti Mahmud, previously served as commander at RAB-9 for four months.

The departing media director, Group Captain ATM Habibur Rahman, is re-turning to service with the Bangladesh Air Force with a promotion from the rank of wing commander.

According to RAB, ATM Habibur Rahman was director of the media and legal wing from December 29, 2012. Be-fore that, the post had been held by M Sohail, a Bangladesh Navy o� cer. l

HC hands two food adulterators over to police n Nazmus Sakib

The High Court yesterday handed over two manufacturers of fake vermicelli, known locally as shemai, to police. The two men petitioned for anticipatory bail in a case registered for adulterating

food. The bench of Justice Md Rezaul

Haque and Justice Gobinda Chandra Tagore passed the order, Deputy At-torney General Nazmul Haque told the Dhaka Tribune.

The two food manufacturers, Nasir

Uddin and Mohammad Ali, had been making fake vermicelli in the Kamran-gir Char area of the capital. Nasir is the owner of Nasim Food Industries and Ali owns Mitali Shemai Factory.

The Kamrangir Char police station o� cer-in-charge � led a case against

them on July 11, following a mobile court drive.

They are being held at Shahbagh police station. O� cer-In-Charge Shah Alam said the two men would be placed with Kamarangir Char police station which will pursue the case. l

A tree lies on the pavement near the Curzon Hall on Dhaka University campus after suddenly becoming uprooted. With the authorities concerned failing to clean the footpath, the uprooted tree continues to pose risks to pedestrians and commuting vehicles MEHEDI HASAN

Life of uncertainty for evicted sex workersn Our Correspondent, Tangail

Sex Workers Network (SWN) of Ban-gladesh met the Tangail Deputy Com-missioner Mahbub Hossain at his o� ce yesterday and submitted a memoran-dum regarding the eviction of Kan-dapara brothel workers.

They also met the district’s Ad-ditional Police Super Hasibul Alam, Public Prosecutor S Akbar Khan and Mayor Shahidur Rahman Khan Mukti, followed by a visit to the brothel.

The memorandum mentioned the � oating lives of the 800 sex workers who were evicted from the brothel ear-lier this month.

The sex workers were evicted from the brothel on July 13, following a de-mand from the activists of Ashama-jik Karjokolap Protirodh Committee (AKPC), an organisation that aims to prevent anti-social activities, on July 4.

With no scope for rehabilitation, the evicted sex workers have nowhere to go and have to live on the streets.

“No girl is born as a sex worker. Pov-erty, tra� cking, betrayal by loved ones, etc compel them to become one,” said the SWN activists in the memorandum.

They also said most of the brothel’s residents were living in extreme pov-erty with their children growing up in con� ned places.

Despite that, they claimed that the Kandapara sex workers lived in peace with the civil society, and incidents of violence instigated by them were un-heard of.

The sex workers provided for their families with their earnings, and evict-ing them without rehabilitation was a violation of human rights, claimed the SWN activists.

“The sudden eviction of the brothel has made the sex workers vulnerable. This is why we are seeking the govern-ment’s help in taking the necessary steps to rehabilitate them. The evicted also blame the society for their situa-tion,” they said.

In the memorandum, the SWN lead-ers put down six demands to aid the sex workers, including the prevention of unplanned eviction at brothels,

long-term plans by the state to prevent young girls from joining prostitution, and discussions with sex workers on sustainable alternative livelihoodsfor them.

The Tangail district commission-er assured them that necessary steps would be taken to resolve the matter.

When the SWN team met the mayor at his o� ce, he said: “Please give me a written document on the matter, then I will take up initiatives with the district administration.”

The team included SWN Vice-Pres-ident Chumki Begum, former secre-tary Shahnaz Begum, Rownak Jahan, Abeda Sultana, Sonia Afrin of Care Bangladesh, Tahmina Khatun of Brac, Mahmuda Shelly of MPS, Hirok Chow-dhury of HASAB, Jahanara of RPDO, and Monju Rani Pramanik of SUPRO,among others. l

‘With no scope for rehabilitation, the evicted sex workers have nowhere to go and have to live onthe streets’

WEATHER

LIGHT RAIN

5NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, July 23, 2014

PRAYER TIMES Fajar 3:59am Sunrise 5:22am Zohr 12:05am Asr 4:45pm Magrib 6:47pm Esha 8:12pm

Source: Accuweather/UNB

D H A K ATODAY TOMORROW

SUN SETS 6:46PM SUN RISES 5:24AM

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW34.5ºC 23.7ºC

Srimangal Chittagong

WEDNESDAY, JULY 23

F O R E C A S T F O R T O D A YDhaka 32 26Chittagong 29 26Rajshahi 31 26Rangpur 31 26Khulna 29 25Barisal 29 25Sylhet 30 25Cox’s Bazar 29 25

SourceL IslamicFinder.org

Government to ensure beggar-free countrySocial Welfare Ministry instructs the authorities concerned to prepare for eviction drive

n Mohosinul Karim

The government has decided to con-duct a special mobile court drive against the beggars at nine important points in Dhaka city, where foreigners usually live, to uplift the country’s image. The drive will start after Eid-ul-Fitr.

The Ministry of Social Welfare � nal-ised the decision and instructed the authorities concerned to prepare for the drive, Social Welfare Minister Syed Mohsin Ali told the Dhaka Tribune yes-terday.

The decision was taken during an inter-ministerial meeting on special drives against the beggars and their re-habilitation across the country, chaired

by the minister at his o� ce in the Sec-retariat.

The areas are Shahjalal Interna-tional Airport, Hotel Sonargaon, Hotel Ruposhi Bangla, Hotel Radison, Baily Road, Gulshan, Banani, Jatiya Sangsad, and the diplomatic zones in the capital.

The minister said the government aims to eradicate begging across the country, and this drive is the � rst stage of the pilot project to eliminate begging.

The project will begin with the se-lected areas of Dhaka, and will then be expanded throughout the country de-pending on the outcome of the initial stage, he said.

“The government will take steps to break down the syndicates of beggars.

Legal action will be taken against their godfathers or bene� ciaries,” the min-ister said, adding that the operation would continue on a regular basis.

Begging is a punishable o� ence ac-cording to existing laws of the country. The minimum punishment for begging is three years in prison and the maxi-mum is seven years, to be doubled for a repetition.

The minister also said the govern-ment had a rehabilitation project for the beggars, under which each beggar would be given Tk20,000 and other nec-essary paraphernalia for rehabilitation.

When asked about the government’s previous experience in this regard, Na-sima Begum, secretary at the Ministry

of Social Welfare, told the Dhaka Tri-bune: “The government rehabilitated 58 persons under the programme. Of them, 39 were rehabilitated in My-mensingh, and 19 in Jamalpur.

“But all of them returned to Dhaka for begging, selling the machineries given to them for earning a living. So we will proceed carefully now,” she said.

“We have arranged accommodation for 1,900 people in our Stroller Reha-bilitation Centres. A total of Tk2,600 per month has been allocated for each person. They will receive training at the centres as part of their rehabilita-tion. Tough action will be taken against those who return to begging,” she said.

Nurul Kabir Siddiqui, joint secretary

at the ministry and also the project director, said the government had un-dertaken the project in 2010 aiming to evict the beggars from the city streets and rehabilitate them as they dam-aged the country’s image at home and abroad.

The government operated a survey dividing the city into 10 zones, where the names of the beggars were enlisted.

The social welfare minister said: “We currently have a lot of programmes to feed and ensure food security for the people. We will be able to feed the beg-gars from those programmes. So, we believe that we will be successful in implementing the decision to make our country beggar-free.” l

BCC announces budget without fresh tax n Our Correspondent, Barisal

The authorities of Barisal City Corpo-ration yesterday proposed a budget of Tk407,8,894,975 for the 2014-15 � scal year without imposing any new tax.

BCC Mayor Ahsan Habib Kamal pre-sented the budget in the morning in the presence of all councillors at the BCC con-ference room, where the previous � scal’s budget of Tk1,422,993,975 was passed.

According to the budget, the BCC estimated that Tk99.06 crore would be provided from their own income while the rest money would come from the government.

During the speech, Mayor Kamal termed the budget insu� cient for the 6 lakh city dwellers and identi� ed ensuring the health, sanitation, entertainment and drainage facilities, improving the dilap-idated conditions of the city roads and mitigating the drinking water crisis as the main challenges for the corporation.

However, he hoped the budget would be ful� lled with help from the government and the development agencies. l

Mawa-Kawrakandi ferry service disrupted againn Our Correspondent, Munshiganj

The Bangladesh Inland Water Trans-port Authority is struggling to keep ferry services on the Mawa-Kawrakan-di route active as ferry operations on the route were suspended on Monday night, only 13 hours after resumption.

Earlier, hundreds of vehicles, in-cluding buses and trucks, were stuck on roads for hours as the ferry services on the route remained suspended from Sunday afternoon till Monday because of a gigantic wave in the Padma River.

Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation Manager Sirajul Haque said they were compelled to suspend the services of seven ferries because of a strong current in the river.

The disruption a� ected several hun-dreds of people who were stranded in their vehicles.

According to the BIWTA, a total of 14 ferries out of 17 are plying on the route.

At the Kawrakandi end, a large num-ber of cattle and goods-laden trucks were waiting to cross the river and come to Dhaka.

At least 600 vehicles lined up on each side of the river.

Sirajul Haque said the gigantic wave was created because of a rise in the wa-ter level of the river.

Heavy downpour also contributed to the su� erings of passengers, he said, adding that Eid passengers would have to su� er if the inclement weather con-tinued. l

Six robbers get 14-year term in Chittagongn Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

A Chittagong court yesterday sen-tenced six robbers to 14-years of im-prisonment in a robbery case lodged with Satkania Police Station in 2009.

The court also � ned the six convicts Tk10,000 for each or serve two more years if they fail to do so.

“Chittagong Public Security (Janan-irapatta) Tribunal Judge Mohammad Mominullah pronounced the verdict in presence of the convicts,” said Tri-bunal Prosecutor Advocate Jahangir Alam.

The court also acquitted two other accused of the case in its verdict.

He said that as the complaints against the accused were proved be-yond any doubt, so the court sen-tenced the verdict under sections 395, 397, and 412 of Criminal Procedure Code.

The convicts, Nazrul Islam, Sa-

habuddin, Abu Saleh, Zinnat Ali alias Jasim, Shahadat Hossain and Alamgir, were sent to Chittagong Central Jail af-ter the verdict.

According to case documents, the convicts robbed valuables worth Tk1.54 lakh by breaking into a resi-dence at Hadiapara village under Ko-rianagar union of Satkania upazila on May 3, 2009.

The robbers were later nabbed by Highway Police from the Chit-tagong-Cox’s Bazar Highway on the night of the robbery, while the victim lodged a case with Satkania police sta-tion in this regard.

After completing an investigation, police submitted the chargesheet against eight people on February 17, 2010 while the court framed charges against eight of them on January 25, 2012.

The court pronounced the verdict after the testimony of 12 witnesses. l

Dealer held, yaba worth Tk53 lakh seized n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

Police took a man into custody yester-day in connection with the narcotics trade and seized contraband items worth Tk53 lakh from a residence in the Choitanyagoli area of Chittagong city.

The arrested Mohammad Atik, 25, who is from Anwara upazila in Chit-tagong district, was brought in by po-lice along with 17,500 yaba pills and 1,500 broken pieces of the drug.

Police say Atik worked under yaba dealer Manjur as the keeper of a resi-dence used as a warehouse for smug-gled narcotics, police sources said.

Assistant Commissioner (AC) Shah Mohammad Abdur Rouf of Kotwali Cir-cle of the Chittagong Metropolitan Police told the Dhaka Tribune that acting on a tip-o� , around 5am a team from Kotwa-li Police Station took Atik into custody from the residence located on the second � oor of a � ve-storied building. A case was lodged with Kotwali Police Station. Police estimated that the seized yaba pills were worth Tk53 lakh. l

UP Chairman stabbed in Chittagong n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

A union parishad (UP) chairman was stabbed by unknown miscreants yes-terday at Sattarhat area under Hathaz-ari upazila in Chittagong district.

The injured UP Chairman Gias Ud-din of Mekhol union of Hathazari, also joint secretary of Jatiyatabadi Swech-chhasebak Dal of the district (north) unit of Chittagong, was admitted at a private hospital in Chittagong city.

O� cer-in-Charge (OC) Mohammad Ismail of Hathazari police station said: “Some miscreants attacked Gias at 1am when he was returning to his res-idence after completing some personal chores.” “Police are investigating the matter further,” added OC Ismail. l

Woman commits suicide in Chittagongn FM Mizanur Rahaman,

Chittagong

A housewife allegedly committed sui-cide in her residence at Are� n Nagor in Chittagong city’s Baizid area on Mon-day night because of a family dispute.

The deceased Bilkis Begum, 25, was the wife of Md Ziaul. She used to live with her husband in a rented house.

Nayek Jahangir Alam of Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH) po-lice outpost said: “Bilkis hanged herself from a ceiling fan with a scarf at around 11:30 pm, because of a family dispute.”

“Family members rushed her to CMCH where the duty doctors declared her dead,” added Nayek Jahangir. lTailors in makeshift shops in the capital's Nowab Katra area pass busy time yesterday ahead of the Eid-ul-Fitr RAJIB DHAR

Activists of four non-government organisations – Orunodoy Torun Dal, LRB Foundation, Madhobika and Work for a Better Bangladesh Trust – form a human chain in front of the Fine Arts faculty of Dhaka University yesterday to raise awareness among the people regarding the bad e� ects of junk food, soft drinks and tobacco products RAJIB DHAR

SHAMSUNNAHAR HALL TRAGEDY

No action taken against any accused in 12 years n DU Correspondent

Teachers and students of Dhaka Uni-versity expressed disappointment say-ing that although it has been 12 years since perpetrators assaulted female students at Dhaka University’s Sham-sunnahar Hall, the authority concerned has yet to take action against any ac-cused.

On July 23, in 2002, the police en-tered the hall in the dead of night, dragged the female students from their beds, verbally abused and assaulted them, leaving scores of students in-jured.

The police personnel also swooped on them in the presence of the hall ad-ministration as they were protesting the illegal stay of some leaders of Jati-yatabadi Chhatra Dal, the student wing of the BNP.

Marking the day, the university au-thority and students’ organisations have undertaken several programmes.

The hall unit Bangladesh Chhatra

League brought out a candlelight pro-cession from central Shaheed Minar to Shamsunahar hall dormitory yesterday evening.

However, even though it has been more than one decade since the inci-dent, no legal action has been taken against the people who were responsi-ble for the incident and neither has any recommendation of the probe body been implemented against of the per-petrators.

Speaking to the Dhaka Tribune, teachers, students and student organ-isations expressed their frustration as the perpetrators were yet to be brought to book.

Rowshan Ara Nitul a third year stu-dent of the Mass Communication and Journalism department and also the general secretary of Shamsunnahar hall BCL unit, said it was a dark night for the women of our country since the country had never before seen such a heinous act against women since the inception of the country.

Dr Guchita Sharmin, house tutor of Shamsunnahar Hall, said, “It is a bad sign for the women and also raised questions about women’s safety and security at the university dormitory.”

She urged the authorities concerned to take stern steps against such activities to ensure proper safety and dignity of women.

After the incident, protests sparked on campus. The then vice-chancellor

Anwarullah Chowdhury and the proc-tor Nazrul Islam resigned from their posts in the wake of the movements.

Around 500 students, � ve teachers and 10 journalists were injured during the movement. Several hundred stu-dents were also arrested.

After the movements, a one-mem-ber judicial inquiry commission led by Justice M Tafazzal Hossain submitted a probe report to the higher authorities of the government, blaming the VC, proctor, hall provost and police for the incident.

But neither has the full report been made public nor has any punitive ac-tion been taken against the people re-sponsible for the incident.

The present Vice Chancellor of DU, AAMS Are� n Siddique, also expressed doubt about actions being taken against the accused.

“The documents can say it better,” he said, adding, “So far as I know, no action has been taken against the ac-cused." l

On July 23, in 2002, the police entered the hall in the dead of night, dragged the female students from their beds, verbally abused and assaulted them, leaving scores of students injured

Bridge linking to Pirojpur � sh market in sorry staten Our Correspondent, Pirojpur

The bridge in Shankarpasha union, which connects the region's largest � sh market with the rest of the country, has tilted recently, placing the lives of the bridge users at risk.

Locals feel that the bridge may col-lapse at any time. About 10,000 people, as well as the � sh traders, use it daily.

The traders, who buy � sh from the market and send their consignments to other parts of the country, will be the most a� ected if the bridge collapses.

While visiting there, this corre-spondent found that the bridge, which is about 200 feet in length and 8 feet in width, is situated over the Piro-jpur-Parerhat River, the eastern side of which touches Badura village, with Parerhat bazaar in Zianagar upazila ly-ing to the west.

About 50 � shing trawlers sell sea � sh daily at the Parerhat bazar, which vastly known as matsho bandar mar-ket, from where the traders spread out with their � sh hauls to other parts of the country via the bridge. In this way, the bridge plays a pivotal role in con-necting the market with the rest of the country.

The bridge, which was built 35 years ago, has tilted from the middle toward in a northeast direction.

One local � sh trader named Ekbal Hossain opined that the bridge is very important for the residents, particular-ly for businessmen like him.

Tofazzal Hossain, chairman of Shankarpasa Union under Sadar upazi-la, said the local people would face se-vere problems if the bridge collapsed. “We are trying our best to build a new bridge there,” he continued.

Pirojpur LGED Executive Engineer Md Ra� qul Hasan said he was informed of the sorry state of the bridge and was trying to build a new one as soon as pos-sible, at a location slightly to the north of the existing bridge, because the nec-essary space for an approach road does not exist at any other point. l

6 NationDHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, July 23, 2014

A human chain is formed in front of the Ashwin Kumar hall in Barisal city yesterday, protesting attack on Palestinians DHAKA TRIBUNE

3 killed in Sylhet road accidentn Our Correspondent, Sylhet

Three people have been killed as a bus rammed down a CNG-run auto rick-shaw on Teliabazar Bridge under south Surma upazila in Sylhet on Tuesday morning.

Of the deceased, one has been iden-ti� ed as Salam. He is the driver of the auto rickshaw.

South Surma police station O� cer-in-Charge Md Mursalin said: “A bus rammed the auto rickshaw on Teliaba-zar Bridge near Dhaka-Sylhet highway around 11:15am, killing two on spot.”

“The driver died after being taken to Osmani Medical College Hospital,” he said. l

Four robberies committed in three districts, four arrestedn Tribune Report

At least four incidents of robbery were committed in Chuadanga, Gopalganj and Rangpur districts while four were arrested in Kishoreganj yesterday.

According to our Chuadanga corre-spondent, a daring robbery was com-mitted on the Loknathpur-Kadirpur Road in Damurhuda upazila.

Sikder Moshiur Rahman, o� cer-in-charge of Damurhuda police station, said some people from Pirpurkul vil-lage were returning home on a three wheeler after selling a cow at Dug-dudir haat. Suddenly, a gang of robbers stopped them by blocking the road with logs. They beat them mercilessly and looted Tk5 lakh from them.

The OC said no case was � led in this

regard. In Gopalganj, robbers looted Tk20 lakh, including gold ornaments, from two houses in Tungipara.

According to police sources, a gang of robbers entered local AL leader Kabir Alam Talukder’s house in Dumuria vil-lage at night and looted Tk12 lakh and 11 tolas of gold at gun point. Later, the gang entered another house in the village and looted Tk8 lakh and 5 tolas of gold.

The robbers � ed the scene when three local mosques made announcements about the gang on their loud speakers.

When contacted, Monirul Islam, of-� cer-in-charge of Tungipara police sta-tion, con� rmed the incidents.

In Rangpur’s Kawnia upazila, the robbers shot one of two bKash agents and snatched away Tk9 lakh from them.

OC Abdul Latif said a group of armed

criminals shot Maidul and Obaidul when they were going to Haragacha on a motorcycle and snatched the bag.

In Kishoreganj, police arrested four robbers at Uttar Kaliarkanda village in Sadar upazila while they were trying to commit a robbery.

According to police sources, acting on a tip- o� , they raided the village and arrested Ershad Mia, 28, of Nagergaon village, Bachhu Mia, 27, of Paschim Pu-rura village in Katiadi upazila, Khalil Mia, 32, and his brother Jashim Mia, 20, of Gojariakanda village in Raypura upazila of Narsingdi district, while they were trying to commit a robbery.

The police also seized two pipe guns and four knives from their possession.

ASP Shahen Shah of Kishoreganj Sa-dar circle con� rmed the incident. l

No-con� dence motion against Magura UP chairmann Our Correspondent, Magura

A no-con� dence motion, seeking to oust the Union Parishad chairman for alleged corruption, was brought at a meeting of the members in Magura Sa-dar upazila yesterday.

Any Union Parishad chairman stands removed by the government upon a non-con� dence motion brought by no less than seven members against him.

In a written statement by 11, out of 12, the members said, “We, the mem-bers of Kachundi Union Parishad, have

today brought a no-con� dence motion against Chairman Baki Billah Shantu for his involvement in corruption.”

According to the statement, Chair-man Shantu had embezzled Tk4 lakh by illegally cutting down trees from road sides in Belnagar area and taken a bribe of Tk2 lakh while leasing Kachundi ba-zar and Ramnagar hat of the union.

The chairman had collected Tk1 lakh tax from six brick � elds and embezzled it instead of depositing with the parish-ad account. He had also been involved in an anomaly of Tk50 thousand in

2013-14 � scal year. Speaking to the Dhaka Tribune, Un-

ion Parishad member Abdul Mannan said: “We have submitted our no-con-� dence motion to the upazila nirbahi o� cer against our chairman.

“We hope he will take steps regard-ing this and inform the relevant minis-try so that they look into this well and take steps for removing the chairman from o� ce immediately.'

Sadar Upazila Nirbahi O� cer Abdur Razzak admitted to have received the joint statement of the members of Ka-

chundi Union Parishad and said: “Nec-essary action will follow an investiga-tion into this.”

Chairman Baki Billah Shantu how-ever denied all the allegations brought against him by the Union Parishad members and said some of the mem-bers had demanded illegal facility from him which he had denied resulting in such a motion against him.

“Most members side with me but two in� uential members have forced the others to go with them in bringing this motion against me.” l

The bridge plays a pivotal role in connecting the market with the rest of the country

7Long Form Tuesday, July 22, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

n Mohammad Ali Sattar

According to an Indian cricket boss, India had a contemplation of forming a separate cricket governing body if the

ICC refused to abide by their claims and demand for a larger share of the revenue from cricket earnings.

The reason is: India earns and contributes the largest sum to the ICC fund, and gets only peanuts. So the BCCI thought to make amends to ICC regulations and ask for bigger gains. The cricket bosses thought they have the potency (if not the judgment) to strike a bargain and come out victorious.

They took Team Australia and the English Cricket Board along with it. They formed the trio calling them-selves Big Three. The essence is to get a bigger share of revenue. Although the idea is self-destructive, to them it appears right.

The reason India and Australia put themselves in the same bracket is somewhat understandable, India now being the richest, and Australia a well-rounded team. Why should England be in the same rank, is inex-plicable.

How far is the step right and reasonable? For simple reason, it is not right. India was never a force to reckon with. Not at least with its cricket. It came to the limelight once by its � uke win over the West Indies in 1983 ODI World Cup. Throughout it’s more than 6o year history, it never was a team to gossip about. It has still got the tag of “losers overseas.” They

have been losing overseas matches most humiliatingly.

Indian cricket roars, with full back-ing of its media and loud commenta-tors, only when playing at home. If you watch closely, the BCCI and the media have been the main agents to raise the hype for cricket and the cricketers. The star is born even before he makes it to the national team. Most fade away sooner than later.

Of late, the IPL money has added to the power of the BCCI. We all know that the IPL was robbed from the ICL earlier introduced by Kapil Dev and others.

Don’t forget, if BCCI is rich today, it is not due to Indian sweat or perfor-mance. It is because of the interna-tional participation in the tourna-ments arranged by India, in India. It is the corporate money that attracts the foreign players and they in fact inject the extra life in these contests. BCCI got greedier day by day.

Drive away the foreign players, and then see how the BCCI and its events run – it will come to a grinding halt. BCCI authorities have long been involved in politics. The governing body members have come under se-vere criticism and acts of controversy many a time. Even the next ICC boss, the very Indian, Srinivasan has to be cleared by the court before he takes his seat as the chair of the ICC.

The dissection in the ICC team ranks was tacitly accepted by the members. I was wondering what prompted other teams and their boards to accept the terms lying down. We know from reports that Pakistan raised its voice against the move, but later had to give in. What led the others to cower down?

The cricket bosses of other member countries did not dare to stand up and announce the incongruity, even if they did not approve of the plan from their hearts. In principle they are still against it, you bet.

If India could threaten to create another cricket governing body, why can’t the rest of the members of the ICC walk out and form a World Cricket Council (WCC)?

World boxing has three separate bodies for boxing, World Boxing Fed-eration (WBF), World Boxing Associa-tion (WBA), and World Boxing Council (WBC). Each of them are holding their identities and running according to their rules. Each is awarding titles to their contenders at various categories.

Similarly, cricket also has the right to get a newer and more e� ective body for smooth operation of the game. However, things will not be the same with cricket as with the boxing

bodies, as the new organisation is likely to be a huge congregation of members compared to the current ICC with dictatorship of India and two others in force.

So a new body for cricket would be most welcome.

It’s easy, it’s simple. How? It goes like this, subtracting

India, Australia, and England, the rest would form the new body. Every cricketing nation will be immediately absorbed as full members of the WCC.

There are at least 40 to 50 nations playing cricket. They will become members by paying a certain amount of fees. The HQs will be anywhere in UAE or Europe or Southeast Asia.

With a strong 50 (or even more) member council, the WCC will have a tough governing body from the top cricketing nations like Sri Lanka, West Indies, South Africa, Pakistan and even more.

Look at the prospects – teams from USA, UAE, Afghanistan, USA, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Fiji, African countries, Ireland, Scotland and other European states and the Car-ibbean islands will make a huge � gure of members. The membership will far outnumber the current ICC list.

The UAE, the USA and many a� uent European countries will make the WCC richer than the BCCI and its two friends. So, there should not be any reason of doubt over the donation and availability of funds. Rather WCC will be wealthier and they will be able to systematise more tournaments, matches and bilateral series between members more e� ectively with addi-tional returns and revenue.

The world will be successfully abuzz with new cricket bonanza. The game will be expanded across the globe. We shall have more venues and added crowds enjoying the game, more people and governments involved in this.

We expect to get almost the same amount of excitement and heat as we now generate from football through-out the world.

The media will � nd its hub and pit of revenue here. They will squabble for rights to broadcast and telecast the events by WCC.

What would be the fallout? It will be something like this – all the teams will be bene� tted. Smaller teams will get a bigger access to the world of cricket and competition will turn � erce. It will unfasten the gates of gushing geniuses. There will be more faculties (players, organisers, spon-sors) available from these countries, which are rich by all other means!

Even the donations that will pour

in from the member countries and private sponsors will be enormous! I believe that the WCC should be the richest body, if run appropriately. There should not be any politics or big brothers (match � xers) in the body. The election system should be worked out in thorough detail before embark-ing on this. The constitution ought to be revised minutely and considered by all members before � nal approval!

What about the current big three? These “biggies” will soon be dwarfed. Because they will be left to play only among themselves! Imagine the sce-nario. The bilateral series will be played only in venues at India, England and Australia, the ODIs and T20s will be contested only among the three.

How long will the boards be able to pull crowds? How long will the tickets sell? What about the world

championships? Only three teams will be left to compete under the ICC banner! How long will the three member team body exist? The fate is simple. Within a year or two the whole of ICC and the teams will dry out and cease to be of any purpose. Players of the three teams will then opt for transporting themselves to those countries (WCC members) to make themselves avail-able for cricket! And the BCCI and its partners (the trio) will have to lay o� o� cers, panel of umpires, other sta� and technical hands until it will lock the main o� ce and walk away to � nd some other job. They may even apply for newer positions in the WCC!

It is time we think of the WCC very seriously. I call upon the stronger

economies and successful cricketing nations to sit together and start work-ing on the new organisation, WCC.

Cricket should be given a chance to thrive and survive. We have plenty of talent scattered around the globe. Give them a chance and see what they make of the opportunity! They will indeed illuminate the game with more power and talent and make it more ornamen-tal. Who knows we might stumble upon more genius than we have seen up until now. Make the game global in the true sense of the term!

The divisive minds of the so-called big ones are nothing but a senseless step to divide the sport and reap short term bene� ts!

Sport or for that matter cricket is now on a higher plane than before. The spoilt minds have failed to behold that. l

Mohammad Ali Sattar is a journalist and a DT columnist. He can be reached at malisattar@outlook.com

For the greater good of cricketWe need an alternate world-order for the governance of cricket

The rest of the cricketing world does not need to play the big three’s proposal with a straight bat; the response should be more adventurous than a mere forward defence WIKIMEDIA

If India could threaten to create anothercricket governing body, why can’t the restof the members of the ICC walk out andform a World Cricket Council?

Cricket should be given a chance to thrive and survive. We have plenty of talent scattered around the globe. Give them a chance and see what they make of the opportunity!

Wednesday, July 23, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE World8

N E W S B I T E S

Israel pounds Gaza despite international peace e� ortsn Reuters

Israel pounded targets across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, saying no cease� re was near as top US and UN diplomats pursued talks on halting � ghting that has claimed more than 500 lives.US Secretary of State John Kerry held talks in neighboring Egypt, while UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was due to arrive in Israel later in the day. Both have voiced alarm at mounting ci-vilian casualties.

However, there was no let-up in the � ghting around Gaza, with plumes of black smoke spiraling into the sky, and Israeli shells raining down on the coastal Palestinian enclave.

Hamas, the dominant group in the Gaza Strip, and its allies � red more rock-ets into Israel, triggering sirens in Tel Aviv. One hit a town on the fringes of Ben-Gurion International Airport, light-ly injuring two people, o� cials said.

Israel launched its o� ensive on July 8 to halt missile salvoes out of Gaza by Hamas, which was angered by a crack-down on its supporters in the occupied West Bank and su� ering economic hardship because of an Israeli-Egyptian blockade.

“A cease� re is not near,” said Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, viewed as the most dovish member of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s inner security cabinet.

“I see no light at the end of the tun-nel,” she told Israel’s Army Radio.

The Israeli military said it had iden-ti� ed the remains of six soldiers killed in an attack on their armored vehicle in Gaza on Sunday and was trying to iden-tify the seventh.

Sparking widespread celebrations in Gaza, Hamas’s armed wing announced on Sunday that it had captured a soldier. It displayed a photo ID and army serial number of the man, but did not show any image of him in their hands.

The Israeli military believes it was im-possible for anyone to have survived the direct hit on the army APC.

Israel has agreed to mass releases of

Palestinian prisoners in the past to se-cure the freedom of captured soldiers, or even for the return of the bodies of its citizens.

With the con� ict entering its third week, the Palestinian death toll rose to 546, including nearly 100 children and many other civilians, Gaza health o� -cials said. The Israeli military said it had killed 183 militants.

Israel’s casualties also mounted, with the military announcing the deaths of two more soldiers, bringing the number of army fatalities to 27 - almost three times as many as were killed in the last ground invasion of Gaza, in a 2008-2009 war.

Two Israeli civilians have also been killed by Palestinian rocket � re into Is-rael.

Palestinian militants in Gaza said they wanted a � ve-hour cease� re on Tuesday to allow residents to emerge from their homes and seek vital supplies. Israel re-jected the request for security reasons, a defense o� cial said.

Violence spread to the nearby West Bank, where medics said soldiers shot dead a Palestinian man while dispersing stone-throwing protesters. A Palestinian shot and seriously wounded an Israeli in the Nablus area on Tuesday.

DiplomacyDispatched by US President Barack Obama to the Middle East to seek a cease� re, Kerry held talks on Tuesday in Cairo with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri.

Egypt was key to securing an end

to a previous bout of Gaza � ghting in 2012, but the country’s new leadership is openly hostile to Hamas, potentially complicating the negotiations.

“We hope (Kerry’s) visit will result in a cease� re that provides the necessary security for the Palestinian people and that we can commence to address the medium and long-term issues related to Gaza,” Shukri said.

Israel has signaled it is in no hurry to achieve a truce before reaching its goal of crippling Hamas’s militant infra-structure, including rocket arsenals and networks of tunnels threatening Israelis living along the Gaza frontier.

Hamas has said it will not cease hos-tilities until its demands are met, includ-ing that Israel and Egypt lift their block-ade of Gaza and its 1.8 million people,

and that Israel release several hundred Palestinians detained during a search last month for three Jewish teenagers later found dead.

Israel blamed the killings on Hamas, and their deaths, along with the revenge slaying of a Palestinian teen were factors in a � are-up of violence along the Isra-el-Gaza border last month that escalated into the current � ghting.

“The world must understand that Gaza has decided to end the blockade by its blood and its heroism,” deputy Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said in a televised address on Monday.

Livni said the Hamas demands were unacceptable to both Israel and Egypt.

Kerry said the United States would provide $47 million in humanitarian aid for Gaza. Washington is “deeply con-

cerned about the consequences of Israel’s appropriate and legitimate e� ort to de-fend itself,” Kerry said. “No country can stand by when rockets are attacking it.”

Kerry plans to stay in Cairo until Wednesday morning but has no set de-parture date from the region. O� cials said he might travel to Qatar, a Gulf state which has relatively close ties to Hamas and hosts its leader, Khaled Meshaal.

Ban was due to meet Netanyahu later on Tuesday in Tel Aviv and then see the Palestinian prime minister in the West Bank.

With Israeli shells and bombs hitting Gaza day and night, thousands of people have � ed districts close to the border.

The main UN agency in Gaza, UN-WRA, said almost 102,000 people had taken shelter in 69 of its schools. l

Putin vows to use in� uence on Ukraine rebels, rejects Western meddlingn Reuters, Moscow

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday Russia would use its in� u-ence with separatists in east Ukraine to allow a full investigation into the downing of a Malaysian airliner, but said the West must put pressure on Kiev to end hostilities.

Putin also called on Western pow-ers not to meddle in Russia’s domestic a� airs and said steps were needed to strengthen the country’s military capa-bilities because of moves by Nato and to protect the economy from “external threats”.

“We are being called on to use our in� uence with the separatists in south-eastern Ukraine. We of course will do everything in our power but that is not nearly enough,” Putin said at the start of a meeting with defense and security chiefs.

“Ultimately, there is a need to call on the authorities in Kiev to respect basic norms of decency, and at least for a short time implement a cease� re,” he said.

Putin’s comments were his � rst de-tailed response in public to Western

criticism of Russia’s role in Ukraine since the Malaysian airliner was brought down on Thursday, killing 298 people.

Reading from notes at the head of a long table with o� cials seated on each side, Putin spoke much more forceful-ly than during brief televised remarks on the plane’s downing � rst released in the early hours of Monday, when he had seemed less assured than usual.

Putin reiterated his belief that pro-tests that toppled Ukraine’s former Russian-backed leader were instigated and funded from abroad. Despite West-ern sanctions, he said Moscow would stand by separatists in eastern Ukraine whom, he described as part of a popu-lar rising against an illegal coup.

“Russia is being presented with what is almost an ultimatum: ‘Let us destroy this part of the population that is ethnically and historically close to Russia and we will not impose sanc-tions against you,” Putin said. “This is a strange and unacceptable logic.”

He did not, however, directly ad-dress the question of whether Russia has been arming the rebels - he has de-nied such accusations before. l

US college pays $190M in exam pix settlement n AP, Baltimore

A “rogue” gynecologist’s secret use of tiny cameras to record hundreds of videos and photos of his patients’ sex organs has led to a $190 million settle-ment with some 8,000 women and girls, lawyers said Monday.

Dr Nikita Levy was � red after 25 years with the Johns Hopkins Health System in Baltimore in February 2013 after a female co-worker alerted author-ities about a pen-like camera he wore around his neck. He committed suicide days later, as a federal investigation led to roughly 1,200 videos and 140 images stored on computers in his home.

Levy, 54, had worked at the East Baltimore Medical Center, a Johns Hopkins community clinic, for 25 years before he was � red in February of 2013 after admitting to the misconduct and surrendering his devices to authorities.

The settlement all but closes a case attorneys for both Johns Hopkins and Levy’s former patients say traumatized thousands of women who, according to the women’s lead attorney, Jonathan Schochor, are still – a year and a half lat-er – “extraordinarily upset.”

“They are in fear, dismayed, angry, and anxious over a breach of faith, a breach of trust, a betrayal on the part of the medical system,” Schochor said dur-ing a news conference Monday. l

Train with MH17 bodies on � nal journey reaches Ukraine basen Reuters, Donetsk

A train carrying the remains of many of the 298 victims of Malaysia Airlines � ight MH17 arrived at a Ukrainian gov-ernment base on Tuesday on the � rst leg of their � nal journey home to be re-claimed by their families.

Five refrigerated wagons contain-ing 200 body bags arrived in the city of Kharkiv after pro-Russian separatists agreed to hand over the plane’s black boxes to Malaysian authorities and the bodies to the Netherlands, where many victims had lived.

The train slowly rolled into the grounds of an arms industry plant, where the remains are due to be un-loaded and � own to the Netherlands. A spokesowman for a Dutch team of fo-rensic experts in Kharkiv said this was not expected before Wednesday.

The Malaysia Airlines plane was � y-ing from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was shot down on July 17 near Donetsk, a stronghold of pro-Russian rebels, where � ghting with Ukrainian troops � ared again on Tuesday.

Western governments, including European Union ministers meeting in Brussels on Tuesday, have threatened

Russia with broader sanctions for what they say is its backing of the militia al-though they are struggling to agree a response.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would urge the separatists to allow a full investigation. The Nether-lands said it would lead the investiga-tion while Malaysia said it would look after the plane’s black boxes until a team was set up.

“Here they are, the black boxes,” separatist leader Aleksander Borodai told journalists at the headquarters of his self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic as an armed rebel placed the boxes on a desk.

A small group of Malaysian air crash experts became the � rst internation-al accident investigators to reach the site on Tuesday, escorted by a convoy of international monitors and heavily armed separatist � ghters.

As they went about their work, loud explosions were heard on the outskirts of Donetsk, some 60 km (40 miles) from the site One shell was sticking out from a hole outside a residential block with a pool of blood next to it.

“A woman was killed here, her son was sitting next to her crying,” said Ta-

mara Lelyk, a 73-year-old cleaning lady.The shooting down of the airliner

has sharply deepened the Ukrainian crisis, in which separatist gunmen in the Russian-speaking east have been � ghting government forces since pro-Western protesters in Kiev forced out a pro-Moscow president and Russia annexed Crimea in March.

SanctionsPutin said a Ukrainian military “tank attack” on Donetsk was “unaccept-able” and urged the West to put pres-sure on Kiev to end hostilities.

Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for Ukraine’s Security Council, said 13 Ukrainian troops were killed in � ghting in the east in the last day when “terror-ists” attacked the army and their road-blocks 20 times.

The rival sides were now � ghting around the city of Lysychansk, some 130 kilometres north-east of Donetsk, he said. Kiev also said it recaptured the adjacent town of Severodonetsk and the rebels con� rmed they were forced out.

Shaken by the deaths of nearly 300 people on the Malaysian airliner, West-ern governments have threatened Rus-sia with sti� er penalties. l

Turkey: police detained for ‘spying’ and wiretaps n AP, Ankara

Istanbul’s chief prosecutor says doz-ens of police o� cers have been de-tained on suspicion of spying and of illegally wiretapping government of-� cials, including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the head of the Turkish intelligence agency.

Police raided the homes of several police o� cers early on Tuesday, taking at least one of them away in handcu� s. Turkish media reports said some of the police o� cers were involved in a corrup-tion probe targeting four government ministers. Prosecutor Hadi Salihoglu said 67 people have been detained so far.

Erdogan has long claimed that the corruption allegations that forced the ministers to resign were part of a coup attempt by followers of a US-based moderate Islamic preacher. Many of the o� cers were removed from posts in a government purge earlier this year. l

Turkey’s top cleric calls new Islamic ‘caliphate’ illegitimaten Reuters, Istanbul

The declaration of a “caliphate” by Is-lamist militants in Iraq lacks legitimacy and their death threats to Christians are a danger to civilisation, Turkey’s top cleric, the successor to the last caliph’s most senior imam, said.

Islamic State, an armed group for-merly allied to al Qaeda that has cap-tured swathes of territory across Iraq, last month declared its leader, Ibrahim al-Baghdadi, “caliph” – the historical title last held by the Turkish Ottoman sultan who ruled much of the Muslim world.

“Such declarations have no legitima-cy whatsoever,” Mehmet Gormez, head of the Religious A� airs Directorate, the highest religious authority in Turkey, which, although a majority Muslim country, has been a secular state since the 1920s.

“Since the caliphate was abolished ... there have been movements that think they can pull together the Muslim world by re-establishing a caliphate, but they

have nothing to do with reality, whether from a political or legal perspective.”

Gormez said death threats against non-Muslims made by the group, for-merly known as Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil), were hugely damaging.

“The statement made against Chris-tians is truly awful. Islamic scholars need to focus on this (because) an inabil-ity to peacefully sustain other faiths and cultures heralds the collapse of a civili-sation,” he told Reuters in an interview.

Since ISIL’s advance across northern Iraq in June, Christians have � ed the city of Mosul, where the militants are based, after they were given the choice to con-vert, pay a religious tax or be executed.

Mosul’s Christian community is one of the world’s oldest, tracing its roots back two millennia.

Gormez is in a unique position to question Baghdadi’s claim to the ca-liph’s seat. His o� ce was created in 1924 to replace the Ottoman Sheikh al-Islam, the mufti with authority to con� rm new sultans and who also served as chief legal adviser. l

An Israeli soldier sits atop a mobile artillery unit in a staging area outside the Gaza Strip yesterday REUTERS

File photo showing French-built warship BPC Vladivostock, designed to strengthen Russia’s ability to deploy troops, tanks and helicopter gunships, leaves the Saint Nazaire’s harbor, western France, for its test run on the open sea o� coast of France. French President Francois Hollande is defending plans to deliver a Euro1.1bn warship to Russia, despite increasing pressure for tougher European sanctions against Moscow over the � ghting in Ukraine AP

Top: John Kerry (L) and Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri talk before making statements to reporters after Kerry met with Shukri and Egyptian President al-Sisi at the presidential palace in Cairo yesterday.Bottom: The mother of Palestinian Mahmoud al-Shawamrah mourns during his funeral in the West Bank town of Al-Ram near Jerusalem yesterday. REUTERS

‘ T H E F O R B I D D E N F R U I T ’

9Wednesday, July 23, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE World

N E W S B I T E S

Maybe only Gods can stop rapes: UP governorn Agencies

Uttar Pradesh governor Aziz Qureshi on Monday stirred a hornet’s nest when he said even if the entire world’s police force is put on duty, rapes can probably be prevented only if gods come down from heaven.

While a lot needed to be done, the state government was trying to spruce up the system, Qureshi - who is hold-ing additional charge of the state - told reporters in what was his last o� cial engagement with the media.

“Yahan par to aap poori duniya ki (police) force laga dein to bhi balat-kaar jaisi afsosnaak ghatnayein nahin ruk sakti” (Even if you put the entire world’s police force on duty here, you won’t be able to prevent unfortunate incidents like rape), he said.

In the same breath, Qureshi said if only gods came down from heaven, will there be an end to such crimes.

The governor’s statement came in the wake of several incidents of rape and murder of women in Uttar Pradesh in the recent days.

With this statement, the governor joins a list of politicians who have been giving uncharitable remarks on rapes in the state.

Former chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav earlier said rapes were “minor mistakes committed by young-sters” and that laws sending rapists to the gallows must be quashed.

After last week’s rape and murder in Lucknow that caused considerable outrage, the Samajwadi Party chief at-tributed growing crimes against wom-en to the rising population. l

Myanmar opposition claims � ve million signed for constitution changen Reuters

Myanmar’s main opposition party says it has collected about � ve million signa-tures seeking reduced powers for un-elected military members of parliament as the country, which emerged from dic-tatorship in 2011, moves towards an elec-tion next year.

The National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, has spearheaded the cam-paign, which ended on Saturday, to rescind Section 436 of the constitution. That clause requires a 75 percent vote in parliament to amend most sections of the constitution - all but impossible for an opposition party to achieve.

But the NLD’s e� orts are unlikely to make much of a di� erence.

Shwe Mann, speaker of parliament, said this month that the petition would not in� uence the work of a parliamenta-ry committee tasked with recommend-ing constitutional amendments. Shwe Mann is also chairman of the Union Sol-idarity and Development Party (USDP), made up mainly of former o� cers.

Striking down clause 436 has been the focus of the drive, which has gained widespread support in the former Bur-ma for a second goal - to enable Aung San Suu Kyi to run for president.

Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her pro-democracy e� orts and spent most of the next two decades under house arrest where she contin-ued to resist military rule.

Although she remains popular, she is ineligible for the presidency under a constitutional provision which bars can-didates with a foreign child or spouse - her late husband was British as are both her sons. Tun Tun Hein, an NLD o� cial responsible for the petition, told Reuters the party was still counting signatures and predicted the total would likely surpass � ve million. He said the party would decide how to present its petition to the government once the number was established at the end of July.

The NLD canvassed the country of 60 million for almost two months, tap-ping into discontent among many who say the military should withdraw from politics after ruling for 49 years. l

India faces crisis over dwindling numbers of girls, UN saysn REUTERS

The dwindling numbers of Indian girls, caused by the illegal abortion of mil-lions of babies, has reached “emergen-cy proportions”, fuelling an increase in crimes such as kidnapping and traf-� cking, the United Nations warned on Tuesday.

Despite laws that ban expectant par-ents from running tests to determine the gender of unborn children, female foeticide remains a common practice in parts of India, where a preference for sons runs deep.

“It is tragically ironic that the one who creates life is herself denied the right to be born,” said Lakshmi Puri, deputy executive director of UN

Women, at the launch of a new study on sex ratios and gender-biased sex selection.

India’s traditionally male-domi-nated culture views sons as assets – breadwinners who will provide for the family, carry on the family name, and perform the last rites for their parents, an important ritual in many faiths.

Girls, however, are often seen as a li-ability, with families having to dig deep for a substantial dowry to ensure a de-sirable match. In a culture that views pre-marital sex as bringing shame to the girl’s family, parents also worry about their safety.

India’s 2011 census showed that while the overall female-to-male ratio has improved marginally since the last

census a decade ago, fewer girls were born than boys and the number of girls younger than six plummeted for the � fth straight decade.

“The sharply declining child-sex ra-tio in India has reached emergency pro-portions and urgent action must be tak-en to alleviate this crisis,” Puri added.

A May 2011 study in British medical journal the Lancet found that up to 12 million Indian girls were aborted over the last three decades, resulting in a skewed child sex ratio of 918 girls to every 1,000 boys in 2011, versus 962 in 1981.

But the crime is tough to check, they add, resulting in few convictions. There were 221 cases of foeticide reported in 2013, up from 210 in 2012., the National Crime Records Bureau says. l

Indian soldier killed in Pak � ring along LoCn Agencies

An Indian soldier was killed on Tues-day when Pakistani troops � red at Indian positions on the Line of Con-trol (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir, the military said. Military spokesman Col Manish Mehta told IANS here that the Pakistan Army used automatics and small-calibre weapons in Pallanwalla area of Akhnoor sector.

“The � ring was intended to facilitate the in� ltration of militants into our side of the LoC,” he said. “The in� ltration at-tempt has been foiled but searches are still going on in the area.” l

Mers virus detected in air samples from Saudi camel barnn Reuters, London

Saudi scientists have found gene frag-ments of the deadly Middle East Re-spiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus in air from a barn housing an infected camel and say this suggests the disease may be transmitted through the air.

MERS, a serious respiratory illness caused by a virus known as a coronavi-rus (CoV), has infected at least 850 peo-ple since it � rst emerged two years ago and killed at least 327 of them, according to latest � gures from the European Cen-tre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

The vast majority of human cases have been in Saudi Arabia, but isolated MERS cases have been reported across Europe and in Asia and the United States in people linked who have recently trav-elled in the Middle East.

Scientists are not sure of the origin of the virus, but several studies have linked it to camels and some experts think it is being passed to humans through close physical contact or through the con-sumption of camel meat or camel milk.

However, in this latest study, pub-lished in the online journal of the Amer-ican Society for Microbiology mBio, sci-entists said the detection of the virus in air samples was concerning and needed to be followed up.

“The clear message here is that detec-tion of airborne MERS-CoV molecules, which were 100 percent identical with the viral genomic sequence detected from a camel actively shedding the virus in the same barn on the same day, war-rants further investigations and mea-sures to prevent possible airborne trans-mission of this deadly virus,” said Esam Azhar, an associate professor of medical virology at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah who led the study.

Viruses that spread through air - such as � u viruses for example - are far more likely to spread swiftly and widely in human populations than those that can only move from an animal to a person, or from person to person, via direct con-tact.

For their research, Azhar’s team col-lected three air samples on three con-secutive days from a camel barn near Jeddah owned by a 43-year-old male MERS patient who later died from the disease.

Four of the man’s nine camels had shown signs of nasal discharge the week before the patient became ill, and he had applied a topical medicine in the nose of one of the sick camels a week before experiencing symptoms. l

Jakarta governor wins presidency n AP, Jakarta

Jakarta Governor. Joko Widodo, who captured the hearts of millions of Indo-nesians with his common man image, won the country’s presidential elec-tion with 53% of the vote, � nal results showed Tuesday.

Widodo, a former furniture exporter known to most as “Jokowi,” is the � rst candidate in a direct presidential elec-tion in Indonesia with no ties to the for-mer dictator Suharto, who ruled for 30 years before being overthrown in 1998.

The other contender, former Gen. Pra-bowo Subianto, declared he was with-drawing from the contest shortly before the � nal numbers were released by the Election Commission, saying there was massive fraud during the election, and that it was unfair and undemocratic.

Widodo had maintained a slim lead of about 4 percentage points in uno� cial “quick counts” by polling agencies re-leased after the July 9 election. But Sub-ianto, who has declared assets of $140m and was on his third bid for the presiden-cy, repeatedly claimed that polling � rms with links to his campaign showed he was ahead.

“We reject the 2014 presidential elec-

tion, which is illegitimate, and therefore we withdraw from the ongoing process,” he said Tuesday.

Observers of the election said they were generally fair and free, with mini-mal abnormalities. Maswadi Rauf, a po-litical professor at the University of Indo-nesia, said he saw no sign of signi� cant

fraud, as alleged by Subianto.Subianto’s rejection of the results

“re� ects the real attitudes of the elite, who are not yet ready to accept losing,” Rauf said. “We are still in a transition to democracy, which is indeed not our cul-ture. And what is happening indicates we are still immature, we need to learn.”

There were no immediate reports of violence Tuesday. About 100 Subianto supporters held a peaceful protest about 300 meters (yards) from the Election Commission building in downtown Ja-karta, chanting “Prabowo is the real pres-ident” and holding banners saying that the commission should stop cheating.

The building was surrounded by thousands of policemen to maintain security after a particularly nasty presi-dential campaign marred by smear tac-tics from both camps. Widodo blamed his drop in opinion polls in the weeks before the election on character assaults that accused him, among other things, of not being a follower of Islam — which he denounced. Indonesia, an archipelago of about 17,000 islands and 240 million people, has the world’s fourth-largest population and is the most populous Muslim country.

Despite Widodo’s lack of experience in national politics, he built a reputation as being a man of the people and an e� -cient leader who wants to advance dem-ocratic reforms, and was elected to run Jakarta, the capital, in 2012. He is widely viewed as untainted by the often corrupt military and business elite that have run Indonesia for decades. l

Hindu devotees bathe in the Bagmati River on their way to the Pashupatinath Temple to o� er prayers to Lord Shiva, Hindu god of destruction during Shravan festivities in Sundarijal, on the outskirts of Kathmandu on July 21, 2014. According to the Nepali calendar, Shravan is considered the holiest month of the year with each Monday of the month known as Shravan Somvar when worshippers o� er prayers for a happy and prosperous life AFP

F O R T H E L O V E O F G O D

Indonesian presidential candidate Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo (C) and his running mate Jusuf Kalla (L) celebrate with their party chairwoman Megawati Sukarnoputri (R) REUTERS

Islamic State crushes and coerces on march towards Baghdadn Reuters

Using its own version of “soft” and “hard” power, the Islamic State is crushing resistance across northern Iraq so successfully that its promise to march on Baghdad may no longer be unrealistic bravado.

While conventional states try to win hearts and minds abroad before nec-essarily resorting to military force, the jihadist group is also achieving its aims by psychological means – backed up by a reputation for extreme violence.

The Islamic State, which in June captured a vast stretch of territory in

the north including the largest city Mo-sul, used this strategy when its � ghters met armed resistance from the town of al-Alam for 13 days running.

They kidnapped 30 local families and rang up the town’s most in� uential citizens with a simple message about the hostages: “You know their destiny if you don’t let us take over the town.”

Within hours, tribesmen and local leaders caved in to save the families. The black � ag of the Sunni militants, who are bent on overthrowing the Shi’ite-led Iraqi government, was soon � ying over government buildings and police stations in al-Alam.

Weeks later, only a few masked gunmen guard checkpoints surround-ing al-Alam at night, so comfortable is the Islamic State in its control through fear.

“One hundred percent of people are angry that the Islamic State is here but there is nothing we can do,” said a scared resident who spoke by tele-phone on condition of anonymity.

Similar accounts of victories by the Islamic State, which has also seized territory in neighboring Syria during the civil war there, are repeated across other towns and villages in Salahuddin province north of Baghdad.

Iraq Christians � ee Mosul after militant threats n AP, Irbil

Iraqi Christians who � ed the northern city of Mosul after Islamic extremists seized it described Tuesday leaving be-hind all the possessions, as politicians in the country still struggle to form a government following recent elections.Most of Mosul’s remaining Christians � ed when the Islamic State group and an array of other Sunni militants cap-tured the city on June 10 – the opening move in the insurgents’ blitz across northern and western Iraq. As a reli-gious minority, Christians were wary of how they would be treated by hard-line Islamic militants.

The militants imposed a deadline Sat-urday for Christians to convert to Is-lam, pay a tax or face death. That was the � nal straw for many, including Zaid Qreqosh Ishaq, 27, who was forced to � ee with his family.“We had to go through an area where they had set up a checkpoint,” he said. Islamic State group militants “asked us to get out of the car. We got out. They took ... our things, our bags, our mon-ey, everything we had on us.”With nothing more than the clothes on their backs, Ishaq’s family � ed to the nearby self-rule Kurdish region or oth-er areas protected by Kurdish security forces. l

Syrian opposition coalition dissolves interim governmentn Reuters, Beirut

The Western-backed National Coalition of Syrian opposition members said on Tuesday it had voted to force out its “interim government” and form a new one within a month.

Attempts to form a viable govern-ment-in-exile for Syria’s opposition have been hamstrung by rivalries be-tween its backers and among its mem-bers as well as by its inability to estab-lish itself inside Syria.

The National Coalition is designated as the main body representing the op-position by the United States and other major powers but it has little in� uence over rebels � ghting to overthrow Presi-dent Bashar al-Assad.

The group said in a statement on Tuesday it was dissolving its interim cabinet to “create new ground for work on the basis of moving the government into the interior as soon as possible, and employing Syrian revolutionary capabilities”.

The coalition’s interim Prime Minis-ter Ahmed Toumeh and other ministers would continue as caretakers until the new government was formed, it said. Nominations would be open for two weeks and a new government formed within 30 days. l

First ‘Bangladesh-made’ smartphones to be launched todayJuly 17

Tan ZinGreat news!

ZDBangladesh zindabad; am feeling proud!

Ivy AhmedCheck this out, everyone!

Addressing the skin colour discrimination in adsJuly 17

Thè Kíñg Øf Hèàrt’s I agree with the author. Ads should have limits when presenting their points of view. Ads don’t literally sicken people, but the way today’s ads are presented, they are sickening the mind of our children, as well as of adults.

Editorial10 DHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, July 23, 2014

CODE-CRACKER

ACROSS1 Jewish surplice (5)5 Slow of understanding (4)8 Astounds (6)9 Stratum (5)10 Electrical item (4)11 At no time (5)12 Mineral spring (3)15 Repose (4)18 Slight colour (5)21 Argue (3)22 Sport (4)24 Time of prosperity (4)25 Valleys (5)28 Enigma (6)29 Dash (4)30 Periods of time (5)

DOWN1 Join the army (6)2 Dried fodder (3)3 Augury (4)4 Venture (4)5 Postpone (5)6 Unfair moneylender (6)7 Sheltered side (3) 13 Greek letter (2)14 Breed of rabbit (6)16 Accordingly (2)17 Intertwines (6)19 Street urchin (5)20 Printers’ measure (2)23 Whirlpool (4)24 Insect (3)26 Drink (3)27 Meadow (3)

CROSSWORD

How to solve: Fill in the blank spaces with the numbers 1 – 9. Every row, column and 3 x 3 box must contain all nine digits with no number repeating.

SUDOKU

How to solve: Each number in our CODE-CRACKER grid represents a di� erent letter of the alphabet. For example, today 5 represents I so � ll I every time the � gure 5 appears.You have two letters in the control grid to start you o� . Enter them in the appro-priate squares in the main grid, then use your knowledge of words to work out which letters go in the missing squares.Some letters of the alphabet may not be used.As you get the letters, � ll in the other squares with the same number in the main grid, and the control grid. Check o� the list of alphabetical letters as you identify them.

CODE-CRACKER

CROSSWORD

SUDOKU

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTS

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‘When there is no cease� re, our answer is � re’July 17

Vikram KhanIsrael’s aggression against the Palestinians (Mus-lim and Christian population) is outrageous, but what about the war crimes committed by Muslim extremists against the Muslim population in Syria and Iraq, currently? Thousands of Muslims are being butchered by Muslims. Why do we not hear the same wave of protest from Muslim countries against these horrendous crimes?

Kmak Vikram Khan: What does Gaza have to do with Syria and Iraq? Ironically, this is the same rhetoric Israelis use to justify their murderous campaign, presenting the bombardment of Gaza as a wider � ght against terrorism, with Hamas being no di� erent from ISIS or the Taliban or Al Qaeda.

As a concern troll, your astonishment over the so-called Muslim silence on Syria and Iraq isn’t genuine. You tried to pull the same trick during the Boko Haram incident, anguishing over why Muslims aren’t protesting the kidnappings, in a comment on an article by a Muslim that con-demned Boko Haram! Your selective sympathy is also obvious from the statements you have made about the Rohingyas, which are no di� erent from how the Israelis describe Palestinians, as good-for-nothing subhumans.

Finally, both ordinary Muslims and scholars, both Sunni and Shia, have condemned the ISIS and other terrorist groups. You aren’t aware of these, are you?

Vikram Khan Kmak: Seems you are a highly educated person, well-mannered, and verbally courteous. Point is that the aggression against the Palestinians (Christians and Muslims) has been going on for decades, but only recently – and probably because the World Cup football was not that interesting anymore – Muslims worldwide seem to have woken up.

For more than 20 years I am protesting against the Israeli horror, my friend. But, as a Muslim, I regret that Muslim countries (and especially the oil-rich Arab countries) are not investing their money and time actively in the development of the peace process.

On the contrary, Hamas gets training, arms, and � nancial support from Qatar and Saudi Arabia to continue the con� ict. The UAE are spending trillions of US dollars on decadent and utterly useless projects, just to show the world how rich they are.

Part of the money Qatar is spending on hosting the next World Cup football could have been used to build schools, universities, and modern hospitals in Gaza, could have been used to modernise the infrastructure (electricity, water supply) and could have been used to provide jobs to young Christian and Muslim Palestinian boys and girls, or motivate and sponsor young Palestinians to become entrepreneurs. Just to show that the Muslim world is only good with words, but what about constructive deeds (and I do not mean military revenge, I mean long-term development)?

kmak Vikram Khan: “Point is that the aggression against the Palestinians (Christians and Muslims) has been going on for decades, but ONLY RECENT-LY (emphasis mine) – and probably because the world cup football was not that interesting anymore – Muslims worldwide seem to have woken up.”

Your detachment from the Muslim world is as-tounding and pitiable. It is only recently that the Muslim world has come to realise the Palestinians are su� ering, and that too, because football is no longer on TV? Are you for real? Seriously, are you for real?

“Seems you are a highly educated person, well-mannered, and verbally courteous.”

Thanks. I can’t say the same about you though. You seem uneducated, ignorant and incredibly mendacious.

Vikram Khan Kmak: I’m honoured that you remember me from previous comments, and take the time to enlight-en my knowledge with your insight in matters concerning international politics.

Stand up for girls We welcome the prime minister’s attendance at the Girl

Summit being co-hosted by UNICEF in London.The event aims to mobilise international e� orts to,

among other things, end child and forced marriage and eliminate female genital mutilation around the world within a generation.

By focusing on those practices which most harm girls and young women, and thereby hold back the next generation, the summit highlights the need to tackle all types of gender discrimination and violence.

It is very important for Bangladesh that regardless of the outcome of this summit, our government takes more e� ective action to address these issues.

The country’s progress in reducing the most extreme forms of poverty and in improving performance against social indicators, has been helped by moves to improve basic education and increase women’s participation in the workforce.

Despite this, Bangladesh is still far away from eliminating gender discrimination and ensuring free exercise of rights by all women.

The aims of anti-discrimination initiatives are for instance held back by social attitudes which undervalue education by girls and encourage child marriage According to UNICEF, while the rate has declined substantially in recent years, 17% or nearly one in � ve of all girls are still getting married under the age of 15, giving Bangladesh one of the highest rates of underage marriage in the world.

We need the government to do much more to eliminate such abuses and to empower women and girls so that everybody is assured of their right to reach their full potential.

Changing directors no panacea

The � nance minister has announced plans to reshu� e directors on the boards of state-owned banks.

Although this is described as part of a government move to establish more discipline and transparency, it fails to address the root problem with loss making state banks.

Namely, that government willingness to use taxpayers’ money to bail out state banks, has repeatedly been shown to fail to bring about meaningful reforms.

So long as these institutions are shielded from the consequences of poor management, there is little reason to expect that tinkering with appointment of directors will make much di� erence to their losses.

Unlike private banks where shareholders have been e� ective in ensuring e� cient management, state banks have been prone to continual losses and scandals.

Unfortunately despite the recent crisis at BASIC Bank which led to the resignation of its chairman, the government is still committed to a policy of propping up poorly run state controlled banks. Having spent spent Tk4,100 crore ($512 million) to bail out state-owned banks in the last � nancial year, the government is planning to disburse a further Tk5,000 crore ($625 million) to meet their capital shortfalls during the current � scal year.

This is not acceptable. Instead of borrowing money from the IMF to prop up the

balance sheets of badly run state banks, the government needs to move towards either winding them down or privatising them completely. Privatisation is the best policy to adopt to make state banks more e� cient and free from political in� uence and corruption.

Address the root problem. Privatisation is the best policy for state banks

Regardless of this summit, it is important to do more to empower women and girls

Post-2015: Disaster or blessing?July 18

Mehedi Hasan Fuad Totally agree with the writer’s view. Excellent article.

Ashraful Alam SagarInsightful!

Leya BiswasIf we are to accept development, then we must be ready to survive through disaster!

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Assam approves citizenship to post-’71 BangladeshisJuly 18

PBGood for the Bangladeshis there. Now they won’t grab the land of the local indigenous people.

n Mushfi que Wadud

As an education reporter, I have to visit schools and colleges almost regularly, where I get

the opportunity to speak to students, teachers, and guardians. As I speak to them, one question always comes to my mind: Are we obsessed with exam-inations and grades? And I answer to myself: Yes, we are.

One of the irrationalities of obses-sion is the concept of “all or nothing.” It seems to me that most people in our country bear this irrational thought: Pass the exams and get good grades, or nothing.

It appears that if one does not pass his or her examinations or does not get good grades, he or she has no right to live.

With this mentality, teachers and guardians are contributing to develop-ing examination-phobia among stu-dents. I remember my college teachers being a major factor in instilling an examination-phobia in me, resulting in me having a nervous breakdown during my Higher Secondary Certi� -cate examination.

Just a few hours before my HSC chemistry second paper examination, I su� ered blurry vision. For a few sec-onds, I could not see anything. It felt like the whole world had fallen apart. I couldn’t stop shaking, and thought that everything surrounding me was also shaking.

I recovered after a few minutes and managed to go to the examination hall, but was half an hour late. At the examination hall, I experienced the same sensation again and could only stay there for half an hour to make sure I would get a passing grade. The remainder of my examinations took place in a similar fashion, without much concentration.

The subsequent three months were the most horrible time of my life. I went from one doctor to another, but no one was able to o� er an explanation for my sudden nervous breakdown. And this was the most important time of my academic life. I should have been preparing for admission into a university, but I could not, as I was

afraid of examinations. I still am.Later, I realised that my college

teachers played a role in my sudden illness. The college I attended during my HSCs was notorious for discipline. We had to sit for two examinations every week, and if we got poor grades, we had to face scoldings and punish-ment.

Before being admitted in this college, I used to enjoy sitting for examinations and had a good academ-ic record. But as I got exposed to too many examinations, I developed a phobia towards examinations.

When I speak to students, I � nd that many students have the same phobia. And our education system and teach-ers’ mentality are largely responsible. It seems to me that as a nation, we are too concerned about examinations and grades. Academic life does not have to be all about examinations and grades.

We don’t seem to be concerned about whether a student enjoys a subject or if he or she has learnt anything. Unfor-tunately, the most important thing is the student’s grades.

Just think about the coverage of the results of the public examinations in the mass media. I don’t know if any other country makes this big a deal out of it. In Bangladesh, the results of a public examination take the lead spot in the front page of most newspapers.

Because of this extreme concen-tration on examinations and grades, when a student fails, he or she thinks that the whole world has fallen apart, that he or she has no future. Many students even commit suicide. Aren’t we responsible for these suicides?

In my opinion, the social system convinces these teenagers that public

examinations are so important that they have no right to live if they fail. Is life all about examinations? Is it not possible to lead a happy life if a student fails in a public examination?

The obsession with exams is not just present among teens; it is visible even in the higher education system. I am doing a professional Master’s at the University of Dhaka, and have observed that in the very � rst class, the most frequent questions asked by students are about examinations. Even before starting a course, students become concerned about how to get good grades.

And most of the teachers’ lectures are about examinations, not the subject. Learning is less important. Consequently, we have many students who have good grades, but they are ignorant about the subject.

According to a recent World Bank

report, nearly 75% of � fth graders do not have adequate competence in grade V Bangla, while 67% lack that in mathematics.

The report said that although these students are at the end of their primary education cycle, they are still performing at a level lower than what is typical of � fth graders. This is not only true for primary education, but also for secondary and higher education.

We must remember that if students do not enjoy their studies, grades will be of no use. The sooner we can over-come our obsession with examinations and grades, the better it will be for the country. l

Mush� que Wadud is an education reporter at the Dhaka Tribune.

11Op-Ed Wednesday, July 23, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

n Garga Chatterjee

I am a Bengali and proudly so. Apparently, that can be said about me from a mile. I take that as a compliment. Our family seat is in the Hooghly district of West

Bengal. My family is Bengali Shakto (worshippers of Mother Kali and God-dess Durga).

My clan’s faith is something from which I have never ever thought of detaching myself.

Some people like to show-o� enlightenment, maturity, and a higher state of consciousness by denigrating their family’s faith practices and even spitting on the concept of family.

Clearly, I am not one of them. We are looked upon as “Hindus,” though I do not relate to the religious practices of most other people classi� ed as such. I believe that the same is true for them.

With the exception of my ancestral male-line that is from West Bengal, much of my ancestry is from East Bengal. They were partition-era refugees, who � ed their family home in Barisal, never to be able to return again. Earlier, both Hindus and Muslims � ed their ancestral Bengal for their corresponding Bengal of relative safety.

Post-1965, the refugees have been almost exclusively Hindus � eeing East Bengal. Tens of lakhs have followed suit. This continues to this day – vic-tims of a long and continuing partition.

This is an issue very close to my heart. I suspect that my particular interest in the human rights violation of East Bengali Hindus is not unrelated to my particular family origin and my commitment to our preservation in a particular sense.

But concentric and expanding cir-

cles form one’s identity. At some point of expansion, this touches the people of Palestine. It also touches the hound-ed Chakma of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, the marginalised Santhal of the Santhal Parganas of West Bengal, and the lives of Choles Ricthil or Kalpana Chakma or Bhikhari Paswan.

My being Bengali does not stand in between Bhikhari and me. My identity begins with me being a Bengali but it does not end there. My activism for Palestinian rights while I was a student at Harvard directly resulted in me be-ing denied a certain lucrative position that I was already chosen for. That was a price worth paying. I have not ever regretted my activism, in spite of the targeting. Many, many more have paid far, far greater prices.

However, it is important that one looks closely at all that goes on under the umbrella of solidarity for Palestin-ians. There is something sinister about the kind of solidarity politics that originates from one’s private identi-� cation with the victims in terms of ethnicity, religion, language, etc but publicly couches it in terms of general humanism, whatever that is.

When someone passionately splashes graphic pictures of little chil-dren of Gaza, killed by Israeli attacks

and never shows equally graphic pictures of the victims of Boko Haram or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the objective is three-fold. It is to evoke compassion for a certain kind of victim, to evoke hatred about a cer-tain kind of perpetrator, and to remain silent on a certain kind of perpetrator.

There are a set of convenient brutes who are condemned and some inconvenient brutes who are rarely condemned, by the same people who were so vocal about human rights. Is

it because, in some ghastly private political and ideological calculation, in an ultimate sense, some human rights violators are doing it for the “right” cause?

It then ceases to be about the victims or the horridness of the assault or even numbers. Why do I get the feeling that the religion of the killer matters? Why this unholy convergence of such elements with professional anti-imperalists?

Closer to home, why is the large-scale destruction of Hindu villages and massacre of Hindu villagers by Indian state agencies in Chhattisgarh or the daily forced sodomisation of Hindus by largely Hindu policemen or the cold-blooded murder of young Hindus of Manipur by largely Hindu

Indian Army personnel not worthy of comment by the thikadars of polit-ical Hinduism? Is a victim of Mus-lim-on-Muslim terror less of a victim than others?

In this media-de� ned age of public thought, Gaza is a macabre spectacle. While we witness this bursting forth of honest indignation about Israel’s reprehensible actions in Gaza, in the streets and in social media, let us not forget that both honesty and indig-nation are by-products of a global hierarchy of “issues.”

When we wake up to Gaza, we ought to remember who sets the alarm, who creates the machinery of the spread and perpetuation of such waking ups.

Who decides priorities - whose

deaths get headlined, whose deaths get sidelined? No one but sociopaths would say that what is happening in Gaza is good, but in this sophisticated world, one’s politics are given not by what one condemns, but what one chooses to condemn, and what one overlooks.

Just in 2014, the South Sudanese, Ukrainian and Somali civil wars have each claimed more lives than the on-going Israeli aggression of Gaza. That is not all. The Islamist insurgencies in Iraq and Nigeria have each claimed more than 5,000 lives in 2014. Till now, the Gaza death toll is less than 400. Comparing the number of dead is horrible business but using the dead for private ideological satisfaction is more horrible business.

Considering some killers as the scum of Earth, and considering other killers as unmentionable is reprehen-sible business. Hence, when one is chanting “death to America” or “death to Israel,” from relatively safe perches in New York, Dhaka, Kolkata, Delhi, Lahore, and elsewhere, one probably should take a moment to think what precisely is the origin of this blood-thirst.

One owes it to the silenced victims of not-so-popular-but-much-more-populous massacres. Chanting “Free Palestine” is easy. One has to earn the right to stand with Gaza. That is the hard part. l

Garga Chatterjee is a freelance contributor. He can be followed on twitter @gargac .

Earning the right to stand with Gaza

Let us not forget that both honesty and indignation are by-products of a global hierarchy of ‘issues’

Is life all about examinations? Is it not possible to lead a happy life if a student fails in a public examination?

Chanting might be too easy REUTERS

n Abdul Matin

Before coming to the United States, I was worried that it would be very di� cult to fast

for almost 17 hours a day during the month of Ramadan. After fasting for over three weeks, it has become ap-parent that fasting is not at all di� cult here. First of all, the weather has been reasonably mild in the North Eastern region where I have been staying. Secondly, nobody feels the heat as all the houses, shopping malls, and cars are air-conditioned, so nobody faces any problem fasting, unless working outdoors on a hot day.

Muslims in the States fast religious-ly during Ramadan just like others do in any other country. It is astonishing to notice how the number of mosques multiplied in di� erent cities in the States. Almost all the cities in the US with a substantial Muslim population have one or more mosques. In most cases, Muslim communities have bought churches and converted them into mosques. In some cases, new mosques have been built following tra-ditional Islamic architectures. I have been told that there are more than a dozen mosques in and around Jackson Heights in New York alone.

Most of the mosques are full during Juma and Tarabi prayers. Women also take part in large numbers in the congregations in the mosques. All mosques make special arrangements for Tarabi prayers. In some mosques,

Tarabi prayers are held twice if the number of devotees exceeds the ca-pacity of the mosque. Iftar with dinner is served in most mosques. Sehri meals are usually served after the second Tarabi prayer. Meals are provided vol-untarily by the well-to-do Muslims.

Bangladeshis are fond of forming associations, no matter where they live. There are associations with the names of each of the districts of Bang-ladesh. Since most Bangladeshis are politically polarised, there are usually more than one association for each district.

Numerous socio-political and cultural organisations have sprung up in most areas with substantial Bangladeshi populations like Jackson Heights. They regularly arrange iftar parties at restaurants or conventional halls during the month of Ramadan. Some popular conventional halls in Jackson Heights have reportedly been booked for iftar parties for the whole month of Ramadan.

Since the days are long and the nights are short here during the summer months, most Muslims have iftar and dinner together. Muslims of di� erent nationalities prepare their iftar according to their own traditions. The best collections of Bangladeshi iftar and dinner items can be found in Jackson Heights, Jamaica, and Astoria in New York City and similar places in other major cities in the States.

A stroll in Jackson Heights just before iftar is a mouth-watering

experience. Name any item like piaju, cholabhaji, pakora, samosa, dahi bora, halim, biriyani, kababs, meat preparations, jilapi, or sweets – all are available in the restaurants of this area. Unlike in Dhaka, each item here is prepared with pure ingredients.

You can, therefore, eat whatever you want without any hesitation about the quality of the food. There are usually long queues to buy iftar and dinner at the restaurants. The prices are also very reasonable. One can buy a box of iftar and dinner together for as little as $8 and the quantity of food may be enough for two persons.

I was amazed to see a Bangladeshi street vendor selling fresh leaf vege-tables like “lalshak,” “puishak” and other types of spinaches on a van. I was told that some Bangladeshi expa-triates grow these vegetables in nearby areas. Most of the shops in Jackson Heights are owned and managed by Bangladeshis. One can get varieties of Bangladeshi food like � sh, vegetables, spices, and halal meat and poultry in these shops. People speak in Bangla in most of these shops and restaurants.

I may mention here that I spent one night in Jamaica and another in Jackson Heights at my relations’ hous-es recently and at each of the places, the number of iftar and dinner items together was more than 20. I could hardly do justice to all of the items served on the table.

Jackson Heights is also famous as a paradise for shoppers. It has many alluring shops with displays of clothes and jewellery of the latest fashions. Varieties of traditional clothes for both women and men are available here at reasonable prices. Even though the jewellery shops are generally owned by Indian expatriates, most of the salespersons are Bangladeshis. All the shops are now doing brisk business before Eid.

If you are in Jackson Heights, Jamaica, or Astoria in New York City or other similar areas in the States, you will feel like you are not away from home. l

Abdul Matin is a former chief engineer of Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission.

Give the tests a restRamadan in the US

What’s good to eat around here?

EntertainmentDHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, July 23, 201412

Eid TVProgrammemme

n Entertainment Desk

On the second day of Eid, tele� lm “Protidin Shonibar” will be aired on Channel 9 at 2:35pm. Written by Monirul Islam Rubel, the drama is directed by Dipankar Dipan. Actors Bhabna, Rownak Hasan, Rico, Rimu, Nima Rahman and many others will be seen in various roles.A woman from the red-light district, Bijli’s focus was to marry her lover Forhad and live a happy life. After a lengthy a� air, Forhad’s Muslim fam-ily comes in the way of her dreams. For the last three and half years, every Saturday, Forhad use to visit her reg-ularly from his home-town which is located 69km away. Hearing her love story, a British photographer Robert becomes fascinated with Bijli and

stays with her for three days straight. But on the fourth day, he is forced to leave as it was time for Forhad’s vis-it. Pressured by his family, Forhad

marries elsewhere and faced with the trauma of losing her love, Bijli falls ill and needs treatment. On hearing this, Robert visits her once again. l

Protidin Shonibar portrays romance in red-light district

Amitabh Bachchan happy to work in TV serialn Entertainment Desk

Bollywood’s favourite � lm star Am-itabh Bachchan appeared on Indian screens last week in his � rst TV dra-ma series, playing a real estate busi-nessman with a potentially terminal illness.

After more than four decades in cinema and nearly 200 � lm appear-ances to his name, the 71-year-old star, widely known as the “Big B,” made his TV � ction debut with the lead role in the 20-episode show “Yudh.”

“For quite some time I wanted to get an opportunity on television in which I get to work in a serial,” said Bachchan. “Television is a very pow-erful medium. Commercially the turnover of television is three times more than that of � lms. It means that more people watch TV than � lms. It is not about coming down to TV or go-ing up to � lms. I think it is a healthy interchange of talent,” he added.

Bachchan’s TV experience thus far has included hosting the game show “Kaun Banega Crorepati,” the Indian version of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?,” and one season of reality show “Bigg Boss,” the equiv-alent of “Big Brother.” l

Tisha rules small screen this Eid

n Punny Kabir

Fans of Tisha have good news this Eid as their favourite star will be all over the TV screen during the week long Eid celebrations of the satellite channels. Be it single-episode play, tele� lm or serial, Tisha will be seen in various charac-ters which promises to entertain the viewers. However, the humble actor feels very awkward about the number of TV productions she has worked in, which exceeds 30 di� erent projects.

“I don’t want to appear that repetitively to the audience. Many of the plays were completed long ago. But all the old and the new productions are releasing on the same occa-sion,” explains Tisha in an interview with the Dhaka Tri-bune.

Tisha is the favourite of most directors and many of them create characters keeping the actor in mind. Tisha is the protagonist of all three Eid projects of Sumon Anowar -- “Chhayabrikkher Rajkonya,” “Tar Mone Shongshoy” and “Tar Baba Godfather.”

“Three stories are completely di� erent from each other. For the � rst time I played a tea garden worker in “Chhay-abrikkher Rajkonna. The viewers will � nd me as the daugh-ter of a godfather and a struggling village lady in the other two productions. All the characters were challenging and the teams worked really hard,” said Tisha who is exited to have experimented with many new roles this Eid.

She said: “I have worked as a mentally challenged girl in “Moyurakkhir Hatey Kagojer Jahaj” directed by Sagar Jahan. I found it really hard to portray the character as the line between underplaying and overdoing the character is almost unidenti� able.”

In Wahid Anam’s “Chhinno,” Tisha underwent di� erent kind of struggles as the play was shot in a remote island away from Kukata.

Tisha will be seen opposite Riaz, Nisho, Mosharraf Karim, Zahid Hasan, Iresh Zaker, Rawnak Hasan, Shyamol Mawla and many other popular male stars. “I am comfort-able with any actor. All I do is give life to the character. The rest happen with the dedication of the team.” l

Campus Soundbox begins at IUB

n Entertainment Desk

A talent hunt programme titled “Samsung Galaxy GRAND 2 Presents Cam-pus Soundbox” began its journey through searching emerging musicians at the Independent University, Bangladesh last week.

It is an initiative of Creinse Limited, the o� cial programme syndication partner of MTV/Viacom in Bangladesh, that will continue the programme in � ve more private universities.

The registration process was inaugurated by eminent musicians Sha� n Ahmed and Romel Ali. They expressed their satisfaction on such a unique platform that will bring out the emerging young talents from the cultur-al heart of a campus. Amidst numerous requests from the students, Sha-� n Ahmed performed his cult classic “Phiriye Dao,” and the surrounding crowd sang along in chorus.

The shortlisted musicians from the initial round of the programme will go through live auditions in front of an esteemed judging panel in August 2014 at the IUB Multipurpose Hall and one will be crowned the Campus Soundbox winner of IUB. Creinse will record and make a music video of the winning soloist or band who will also get an opportunity to perform in the grand Premiere Show at the university and have the chance to feature their videos on MTV Program Platforms. l

Romel Ali and Sha� n Ahmed at the inauguration of Campus Soundbox

Tanvir Mokammel � lms screening at Kolkata n Entertainment Desk

Tanvir Mokammel’s � lms and documentaries have been screened several times in di� erent � lm festivals. Once again, three of his � lms, “Lalshalu,” “Rabeya” and “Jibondhuli” were screened at the event organised by Kolk-ata’s Bidhan Nogor Film Society, at Rabindra Okakura Bhavan on July 19-20.

The screening of his � lms were attended by housefull audience. Film “Jibondhuli” revolves around Jibonkrishna Das, a poor Hindu lower-caste drummer, whose wife and children get killed by Pakistani armed forces. It depicts how he struggles to survive against the brutality of the Pakistanis and local collaborators. The director’s feature � lm “Lalshalu” is based on Syed Waliullah’s classic novel and � lm “Rabeya” is about a valiant girl whose death inspired the poor peasants to rise against the Pak army during the Lib-eration War.

On July 28, Mokammel will talk about independent cinemas at the Kol-kata Cinetek organisation where he will screen “Bonjatri,” a documentary based on the Sundarbans. l

Hate Story 2 blamed for instigating rapen Entertainment Desk

A demand for ban on the screening of “Hate Story 2,” a Bollywood erot-ic thriller, was made in the Karnataka Assembly yesterday by a JDS member who alleged that the movie may a� ect gullible minds and instigate them to commit crimes against women “in-cluding rape.”

“Screening of Hate Story 2 should be stopped for some bold scenes in the � lm which a� ects gullible minds to commit crimes including rapes against women,” Y S V Datta said. The � lm di-rected by Vishal Pandya, is the sequel to the 2012 sleeper hit “Hate Story” starring Paoli Dam and Gulshan Devai-ya.

State Home Minister K J George said he has asked the police to examine the � lm and submit a report.

Raising the issue during the de-bate on increasing rape incidents in the state, Datta said Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and the Home Minister should direct the police to examine the “steamy” scenes depicted in the � lm.

The � lm has already courted contro-versy after the Censor Board had ob-jected to the sex scenes as part of the trailer and music video on television

channels, which prompted the produc-ers to edit certain portions.

The movie stars Surveen Chawla and Jay Bhanushali. l

Kanak Chapa returns with original tracks after 10-year hiatus

n Entertainment Desk

The cover of a new solo album of seasoned singer Kanak Chapa titled “Araale” unveiled yesterday at a hotel in the capital. The album is released under the banner of Laser Vision.

A total of 11 songs are placed in the album track list including a duet with Nakib Khan.

About the album, Kanak Chapa said: “The album is a combination of some beautiful piece of work. Nakib Khan, Pilu and Mainul, three talented musi-cians created such wonderful songs for the album. And the lyrics by Jul� qer Russel is outstanding. I hope the audi-ence will appreciate this e� ort.”

Lastly, an album of original song of the artist was released ten years ago titled “Ami Noi Bonolata Sen” and in 2011 a compilation album titled “Abar Phire Eshechi” with her previous re-leases was out in the audio market. l

Watch out for the TV programme “Deadly 60” on Animal Planet today at 4:30pm. The show takes its viewers on a trip across six continents over six months to catch a glimpse of the lives of the “Deadly 60” – some most dangerous wildlife. Steve Backshall is the wildlife expert who will be leading everyone on this trip. Watch Steve prove that size is not the most important criterion when it comes to survival

Zac Efron wins Hottest Hunk titlen Entertainment Desk

Hollywood actor Zac Efron has been named as the “Hottest Hunk of 2014” in a magazine poll, replacing Tom Daley who topped the list last year.

The 26-year-old “High School Musical” star, who sought treatment in early 2013 after struggling with alcoholism and substance abuse, moved

up three places to grab the title. The annual poll was held by Heat magazine, which saw diver and televi-

sion personality, Tom Daley, on the second place f o l l o w e d by ace footballer David

Beckham in the 101 Hottest Hunks list.l

A screen from Lalshalu

Tisha in Eid tele� lm Tar Mone Shongshoy

DHAKA TRIBUNE13Sport

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Cook has nowhere left to hide following Dhoni schoolingn Reuters, New Delhi

England skipper Alastair Cook is run-ning out of time, excuses and places to hide after Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s In-dia became the latest side to expose his weaknesses with a thumping victory at Lord’s to open a 1-0 lead in their � ve-match series.

His bright start to life as England captain at the end of 2012 now appears like a dim and distant memory as Dhoni carried on a trend started by Australia’s Michael Clarke before handing the ba-ton on to Sri Lanka’s Angelo Mathews.

Cook’s poor form and questionable leadership have come under intense scrutiny with some critics suggesting he should give up his place at the top of England’s batting order and take a break from the game following Mon-day’s painful 95-run defeat.

The England skipper has little time to rally his troops ahead of the third test starting in Southampton on Sun-day, needing to lift his underperform-ing senior players and without the services of injured wicketkeeper Matt Prior for the rest of the series. l

PLAYING CAREER Dunga began his playing career

at Internacional of Porto Alegre, winning three consecutive state titles (1982-84) at one of the two main clubs in his home state of Rio Grande do Sul.

He left Inter in 1984 to sign for Cor-inthians in Sao Paulo and was there for two years before short spells at Santos and Vasco da Gama.

In 1987 he moved to Italy, � rst to Pisa, but then to Fiorentina, where he spent almost four years, reaching the � nal of the UEFA Cup.

After a short stint at Pescara he moved to Germany and VfB Stutt-gart but his time there was cut short by a lucrative move to Japan in 1994.

INTERNATIONAL CAREER He made his Brazil debut in 1987

and was one of the leaders of the squad that went to the 1990 World Cup. However, Brazil played poorly and were knocked out in the second round by Argentina.

Brazil had abandoned the stylish football of the 1980s in favour of a more direct style that is still cruelly remembered as “the Dunga era.”

Dunga, however, bounced back four years later to lead Brazil to their fourth World Cup title in the United States with the same gritty and committed style. He famously lifted the trophy with a screaming tirade against his critics.

He captained the team to the 1998 � nal when Brazil lost 3-0 to France.

BRAZIL MANAGER With no managerial experience,

Dunga was a surprise choice to take over from Carlos Alberto Parreira after the disappointing 2006 World Cup when a Brazil were knocked out in the quarter-� nals by France.

He once again opted for a direct approach and it was successful. He won the Copa America in 2007 and the Confederations Cup in 2009 and guided Brazil to � rst place in the 10-team South American qualifying group for South Africa.

However, his team failed to react after going 2-1 down to the Netherlands in the quarter � nals of the 2010 tourna-ment and he was � red soon after.

He managed Brazil for 60 games, winning 42, drawing 12 and losing 6.

RETURN TO INTERNACIONAL Dunga disappeared from football

following that loss and only returned more than two years later, in De-cember 2012, when he was o� ered the chance to manage Internacio-nal, the club where he started and ended his playing career.

His � nal record at Inter was 25 wins, 18 draws and nine defeats.

CARLOS CAETANO BLEDORN VERRI (DUNGA)

Brazil appoint Dunga as Scolari successorn AFP, Rio de Janeiro

Dunga won the World Cup as a player for Brazil and now the country is giving him a second chance to get the trophy as a coach.

The Brazilian Football Confedera-tion (CBF) named Dunga, 50, to run the national team after Luis Felipe Sco-lari’s humiliation at the World Cup this month, including a devastating 7-1 de-feat by Germany.

Dunga was previously in charge from 2006 until 2010, when he paid the price for World Cup failure -- Brazil were beaten in the quarter-� nal. He did win the 2007 Copa America and the Confed-erations Cup in 2009 however after he replaced Carlos Alberto Parreira.

“Football has changed. It changes every moment and every day. We like to talk here about talent and playing o� the cu� . But we also praise German or-ganization. So we have to harness our talent with planning,” Dunga said as he accepted the post Tuesday.

Brazil has a history of giving coaches two tries at the national team. Scolari guided Brazil to a World Cup triumph in 2002 in his � rst stint. Parreira won the World Cup at USA ‘94 and then came back for a less successful stint in 2006.

Dunga, a close friend of Gilmar Ri-naldi, Brazil’s new technical coordina-

tor overseeing a football revolution af-ter the World Cup humiliation, is better known as a player and captain.

He is hardly the archetypal Brazil-ian samba football star. As a combative mid� elder he never earned the e� usive plaudits o� ered to Romario, Ronaldo or Ronaldinho.

He was a pillar of the 1994 world champions though.

His usefulness behind strikers Rom-ario and Bebeto is illustrated by his 91 caps for his country after making his debut in 1987.

Dunga skippered the under 20 side to world success in 1983.

By 1989, he was an established � g-ure, having won the Copa America -- though his tough style sat uneasily with fans who pointed to a poor 1990 World Cup when Brazil were beaten by Argentina in the second round, as ‘proof’ of his ine� ectiveness.

But in 1994, Parreira recognized the leadership qualities of a man chris-tened Carlos Caetano Bledorn Ver-ri, making him skipper after Rai was dropped.

Having ended a six-year spell in Ita-ly to play for Germany’s VfB Stuttgart, Dunga kept his nerve in the penalty shoot out against the Italians and Bra-zil won the trophy, ending a 24-year drought stretching back to Pele.l

Large contingent of Chess Olympiad raise eyebrowsn Raihan Mahmood

The contingent of Bangladesh Chess Olympiad leaving for Norway includes ten players and 14 o� cials which raised many eyebrows in the sports arena yes-terday. The o� cial list provided by the Bangladesh Chess Federation showed acting president Syed Shahabuddin Shamim, vice president K.M. Shahidul-lah and general secretary Gazi Shaiful Tareque joining the tour party as the head of delegation, Fide Congress par-ticipant and Congress delegate respec-tively while Joint secretary Morsalin Ahmed will be traveling as a journalist .

However, executive committee members Lion Mojibur Rahman, Ba-har Mia, Kazi Zakerul Mowla, Delowar Hossain Bhuiyan and Kamruzzaman Bhuiyan’s role and designation were not de� ned in the list. Therefore, the reason behind they being part of the contingent is not clear. Masuda Begum is the manager of the female team be-sides being a national chess player. Interestingly enough, Moniruzzaman Palash, the president of Access Chess Club’s role was also not de� ned. It is worth mentioning here in this regard

that Mahmuda Haque Chowdhury Molly, wife of Acting president Syed Shahabuddin Shamim and their son Syed Ridwan alongside Tasmin Sulta-na, wife of Grandmaster Ziaur Rahman and their son Tahsin Tazwar, are also the part of the large contingent.

Meanwhile, chess federation’s gen-eral secretary Gazi Shaiful Tareque claimed that all the members of the

party would bear their their own ex-penses. “The federation has not pro-vided any � nancial assistance to the executive committee members and all are traveling on their own expens-es. There is nothing wrong in it. The wife of the acting president is entitled to tour and they can’t leave their son alone,” said Tareque.

Tareque also added that the feder-

ation could not manage any sponsor for the estimated expenditure of Tk 3.5 million, including the honorarium of Sergei Tiviakov for his month-long coaching of the players. “We urged the government to provide Tk2.7 million but they have provided us only 0.3 million. We have managed the fund from our own sources and we would announce them later. I believe all the members of the tour party will return to the country. The chess federation’s executive committee members need to enrich their knowledge of chess by vis-iting the big international meets. That’s why, a number of executive committee members are going to Norway,” elabo-rated Tareque.

Tareque further added that the fed-eration members don’t even drink a cup of tea from the federation’s fund and they deserve to get a foreign tour. “Our members have always tried to contrib-ute in the federation’s cause. They don’t take anything from it. So if they want to avail a foreign tour with their own fund, there is nothing wrong in it. They learn a lot from the tours and it’s re� ected in many activities. It should be seen posi-tively,” Tareque opined. l

ICC and BCB lodge appeal against BPL tribunal’s sanctionsn Minhaz Uddin Khan

With reference to the disciplinary pro-ceedings relating to the 2013 edition of Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), both the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) and the International Cricket Council (ICC) have jointly appealed against the sanctions imposed by the BCB Anti-Corruption Tribunal. Yes-terday was the last day for submitting appeals related to the � xing issue from the second edition of BPL and the ap-peal was made to the chairman of the BCB disciplinary panel.

BCB acting CEO Nizamuddin Chow-dhury con� rmed the media of the ap-peal being made. The appeals were

made against the individuals acquit-ted by the BPL tribunal after they were found not guilty of the accusations charged against them by ICC’s An-ti-Corruption and Security Unit.

This means cricketers including Mosharraf Rubel and Mahbubul Rob-in, Dhaka Gladiators’ chairman Salim Chowdhury along with their CEO Gaurav Rawat and bowling coach Mohammad Ra� que plus English cricketer Darren Stevens will once again see themselves involved with the BPL � xing scandal.

Both the BCB and the ICC earlier stated their utter disappointment by the outcome of the proceedings, and complained that the reasons cited by the Tribunal for its decision did nothing

to address their concerns. The two gov-erning bodies also claimed that their views, clear and compelling evidence of corruption by a number of individ-uals were not taken into account prop-erly by the BPL tribunal. But having got the opportunity to review the detailed decision, both the ICC and the BCB de-cided to appeal against the sanctions of the tribunal after taking advice on it and basing their appeal on very strong grounds they believe to have.

Earlier, former national cricketer Mo-hammad Ashraful, Dhaka Gladiators’ managing director Shihab Chowdhury and Sri Lankan cricketer Kaushal Lokuara-chchi also made individual appeals against the sanctions of the tribunal. l

Bangladesh chess team targeting 2013 repeat n Raihan Mahmood

The Bangladesh chess team are aspir-ing to retain their 33rd position in the upcoming 41st Chess Olympiad sched-uled to start from August 1 at Tromso, Norway. Around 181 countries across the world have registered their names in the event and Bangladesh Grand-master Abduallah al Rakib, one of the key players of the team, is of the opin-ion that retaining their previous posi-tion would be a satisfying outcome.

In a presser held at the Bangladesh Chess Federation hall-room yesterday, Rakib and International Master Minhajuddin Ahmed Sagar expressed their hope about keeping up the momentum.

“We had a fruitful month-long coaching programme under Sergei Tiviakov and he taught us the working methods. We realised many errors in our game plans and we are now ready to put our best. Tiviakov was once the 11th-rated player in the world and he shared his vast experiences and also some secret tactics. I � rmly believe that his wisdom will bene� t us for a long time,” said Rakib.

Bangladesh � nished 33rd among 157 countries in the last edition and an in-crease in the number of participating countries has increased the compet-itive edge of the upcoming edition. “I think we played beyond our level last time. I think this time the competi-tion has expanded and in my analysis retaining the 33rd position or � nishing within 35 positions would be a satisfy-

ing performance,” opined Rakib.Sagar, who is expected to be the

sixth Grandmaster of the country, said it would be a grand experience for him. “I do not know whether I will be selected as a player as four Grandmasters are already there, but if I do get the chance then I am ready to prove my worth. I will be learning for the future,” said Sagar.

The male team consist of four Grandmasters - Ziaur Rahman, Rakib, Enamul Hossain Razib and Niaz

Murshed - and International Master Sagar. Zia is currently playing in Spain and will � y to Norway after completing the tourney.

The female team members are IWM Shamima Akter Liza, WFM Nazrana Khan Eva, IWM Rani Hamid, WFM Zakia Sultana and WFM Shamima Sharmim Shirin. Liza, who currently lives in Lisbon will � y directly to Norway.

Harunur Rashid will accompany the team as the arbiter along with general secretary Gazi Saiful Tareque and KM Shahidullah, who is also set to attend the Fide Congress. l

Dhaka Bank to sponsor series in West Indiesn Tribune Desk

Dhaka Bank Limited became the title sponsor of the bilateral series between Bangladesh and hosts West Indies in August. The 29-day Caribbean tour will consist two Tests, three ODIs and a Twenty20 game.

The logo and trophies for the se-ries were o� cially unveiled at a press conference yesterday by the founder & director of Dhaka Bank Limited Mirza Abbas Uddin Ahmed. Director of Dha-ka Bank Mirza Yasser Abbas and former

chairman ATM Hayatuzzaman Khan also delivered separate speeches on the occasion.

Directors of Dhaka Bank Altaf Hos-sain Sarker, Khondaker Monir Uddin, managing director Niaz Habib, deputy managing directors Neaz Mohammad Khan, Emranul Huq and Khan Shaha-dat Hossain and company secretary Arham Masudul Huq were also present during the unveiling ceremony.

The series will take place at four dif-ferent venues across West Indies - Gre-nada, St Kitts, St Vincent and St Lucia.l

Muktis edge past Feni Soccern Raihan Mahmood

Muktijoddha all but secured third place in the Nitol-Tata Bangladesh Premier Football League after they handed Feni Soccer Club a 1-0 defeat in their penultimate match at the Bangabandhu

National Stadium yesterday.After 26 matches each, the win took

Muktijoddha’s tally to 46 points while Feni Soccer remained on their previous collection of 18 points.

The Muktis trail second-placed Aba-hani by just three points as they will face already relegated Uttar Baridhara before wrapping up their league com-mitments.

However, if Abahani lose their sea-son ender against Chittagong Abah-ani while Muktijoddha win against Baridhara, the Reds will � nish as the runners-up.

The Nigerian duo of Eleta Kingsley and Sunday Chizoba combined in the 34th minute to help Muktijoddha take the lead.

Sunday danced down the right � ank and cut a low cross to an un-marked Eleta who completed the job with a cool headed placing shot from the far post. l

Founder director of Dhaka Bank Limited Mirza Abbas (3L) and other dignitaries of Dhaka Bank pose with the logo and trophies of West Indies-Bangladesh series yesterday COURTESY

Winners of the ‘World Cup 2014 Pran Potato Crackers LED TV’ competition pose for photographs at a city restaurant yesterday. Winners were chosen by the Pran o� cials and the highest number of SMS senders were rewarded COURTESY

Brazil’s 1994 World-Cup winning skipper Carlos Verri, better known as “Dunga”, speaks during his presentation as new coach of the Brazilian national football team, at the headquarters of the Brazilian Football Confederation in Rio de Janeiro, yesterday AFP

Bangladesh � nished 33rd among 157 countries in the last edition and an increase in the number of participating countries has increased the competitive edge of this edition

We urged the government to provide Tk2.7million but they have provided us only Tk0.3 million

DHAKA TRIBUNE14 Sport

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Argentinians refuse to return to Ukrainen AFP, Kiev

Three Argentinian players of top � ight side Metalist Kharkiv have refused to return to their Ukrainian club because of the ongoing con� ict in the country, local media reported Tuesday.

Metalist skipper Jose Sosa, Alejandro Gomez and Jonathan Cristaldo have said they will stay in Argentina until the situation in Ukraine returns to normal or their contracts would be cancelled.

“It’s unreasonable to stay in a country where we don’t feel safe any more,” Go-mez was quoted as saying by the www.football.ua information site. “Nobody can provide us with any security in Ukraine.”

Last week another Argentinian mid-� elder Sebastian Blanco refused to re-turn to Metalist Kharkiv, a club in the eastern Ukraine, from a training camp in Austria. l

Rooney should be England captain, says former boss Erikssonn Dailymail

Former England boss Sven-Goran Eriksson says Wayne Rooney should re-place Steven Gerrard as national team captain.

Gerrard, 34, has quit international football and Eriksson feels 28-year-old Manchester United striker Rooney, who has 95 caps, would be a “good choice”.

“He is the right age and he’s a very important player for England,” the Swede told BBC Sport.

Ex-England captain Bryan Robson feels Rooney, Joe Hart and Gary Cahill are all contenders for the job.

Manchester City keeper Joe Hart, 27, and Chelsea centre-back Cahill, 28, have 43 and 27 caps respectively.

“As a captain I don’t think we have

a standout candidate,” said Robson,who was capped 90 times between 1980 and 1991.

“Wayne has captained Manchester United and England. He knows what it’s about.”

He added: “Hopefully some of the young boys can come through and re-ally prove themselves after the experi-ence of the World Cup and stamp their authority on the England squad.

“But I don’t see that now. Really, you have to go to the experienced ones who

will play each game, especially with the European Championship coming up.

“Joe Hart, Gary Cahill and Wayne Rooney look like the contenders.”

Rooney has captained England twice - in a pre-tournament friendly with Brazil in 2009 and a World Cup quali� er against San Marino in 2012 - as well as having previously had a stint as vice-captain.

“Wayne has proved he is our best player,” Robson said. “He leads by ex-ample. He works really hard for the team.

“No matter what position the coach wants him to play, Wayne wants to do the job.

“That is a good sign for a captain. If it was Wayne I would have no doubts about him being captain.” l

Rodriguez goal consecratedn AFP, Madrid

James Rodriguez’s spectacular volley against Uruguay was crowned the best goal of the World Cup on Monday.

Rodriguez became the hot property of the World Cup with his six goals that gave him the Golden Boot for the top scorer.

In a FIFA.com poll, his volley against Uruguay in the last 16 was declared goal of the tournament by more than four million voters - three quarters of those who took part.

Robin van Persie’s diving header for Netherlands against Spain in Group B came second.

Rodriguez collected a ball on the edge of the penalty area with his back to the Uruguay goal. He chested the ball over his head, turned and � red the volley into the goal via the underside of the crossbar.

The goal established the global rep-utation of the young playmaker. l

Gerrard leaves England with tears for souvenirsn AFP, London

As Steven Gerrard soaked up thunder-ous applause from England’s support-ers at full-time in Belo Horizonte, he looked surprised and relieved by the generous response to his team’s dismal World Cup campaign.

The 17-minute substitute appear-ance in a meaningless draw against Costa Rica proved to be Gerrard’s last England appearance after the Three Li-ons captain announced his retirement from international duty on Monday.

The 34-year-old took his last curtain call on the global stage when he waved in response to the England cheers that seemed so out of place in a tournament in which Roy Hodgson’s team took only one point from three matches.

It was a symbolic epitaph for Ger-rard’s England career, which left the player himself and his legion of admirers frustrated that he never quite dominat-ed in the manner he has for Liverpool.

After winning 114 caps, behind only Peter Shilton (124) and David Beckham (115) on his country’s all-time appear-ance list and captaining England at two World Cups, Gerrard will rightly be re-membered as a loyal and proud servant.

But while Gerrard’s application in an England shirt could never be ques-tioned, the quality of his performances often fell short of the stratospheric stan-dards he reached in Liverpool colours.

While Gerrard’s signature moments for Liverpool are many and varied -- few will ever forget his heroics in Istan-bul in the 2005 Champions League � nal and his 2006 FA Cup � nal masterclass against West Ham -- for England he was mostly diligent but lacking inspiration.

He scored 21 times for England, starting with a blistering strike from outside the penalty area in the memo-rable 5-1 thrashing of Germany in Sep-tember 2001.

Yet he never netted against another top-level international opponent, with

his remaining goals coming against a motley crew including the likes of Macedonia, Andorra, Belarus and Trin-idad and Tobago.

That chilly night in Munich when Gerrard inspired the German demolition seemed to promise such a bright future for the mid� elder, who was making only his sixth England appearance.

“That was my favourite England game,” Gerrard said. “We had to get a result and we completely played them o� the park.”

But he failed to scale those heights for England again, instead becoming one of the now tarnished ‘golden gen-eration’ who never made it past the last eight at a major tournament.

Gerrard was handed his � rst En-gland cap by Kevin Keegan against Ukraine in 2000 and he insisted from that moment on he “enjoyed every minute of representing his country”.

If that is really the case, Gerrard

must have some masochistic tenden-cies. He made his tournament debut at Euro 2000 when England bowed out in the group stages, then missed the World Cup two years later due to a groin injury.

Gerrard, whose failure to establish a strong mid� eld partnership with Frank Lampard was a constant problem, was unable to stop England crashing out of Euro 2004 on penalties against Portu-gal in the quarter-� nals.

Two years later Gerrard would miss a penalty against the same opponents in Germany, where England again lost on spot-kicks in the World Cup quar-ter-� nals.

Gerrard was made vice-captain by Steve McClaren, but England failed to qualify for Euro 2008 after a 3-2 loss to Croatia.

He went on to take the armband for the 2010 World Cup, but a 4-1 last 16 exit against Germany brought a chas-tening end to that campaign. l

Ronaldo ready to rumble after World Cup � opn AFP, Tokyo

Portugal superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, putting a miserable World Cup behind him, on Tuesday declared himself � t and ready to go as he chases trophies at Real Madrid.

“I’ll try my best all the season like I do it every year. I’ll try to be the best, try to help my team, try to score goals and try to win titles,” the 29-year-old striker told a sponsor’s event in Tokyo, adding he would like to play “six, sev-en more years” at the top level of club competition.

Portugal failed to make the World Cup knockout round in Brazil last month with one win, one loss and one draw in their group as an injury-hit Ronaldo squandered plenty of chances and notched up just one goal. He had been hampered by a left leg injury since just before the global tournament.

“I’m really focused. My injury is gone. I feel very, very good,” Ronaldo said, adding he wanted to kick o� and � nish the Spanish top-� ight league sea-son “in good shape.”

Without referring to his World Cup

diaster in Brazil, the striker described last season as “amazing”. He listed several individual trophies while Real Madrid won a 10th Champions League title and the Copa del Rey, the oldest Spanish football competition.

Ronaldo was the top scorer in La Liga and the Champions League and won his second Ballon d’Or as well as the European Golden Shoe, among oth-er honours.

The chiselled Ronaldo was in Japan to promote a series of � tness products, including an airplane-shaped device meant to shape up facial muscles, af-ter posting an online photo of himself wearing a black mask that went viral.

Ronaldo added that he hoped for a repeat of last season’s glory, saying he will have an “opportunity to win � ve, six titles this year - so fantastic. I’m re-ally focused”.

“This is my goal for every season -- to prepare myself 100 percent. And for me every season is a challenge so I want to be good again.

“I dedicate myself 100 percent and I want to carry on like that until I � nish my career.” l Portuguese football star Cristiano Ronaldo (R) listens to a question from a Japanese fan during a promotional event held by his sponsor in Tokyo yesterday AFP

FC Copenhagen ask Uefa to move Ukraine gamen AFP, Copenhagen

Danish club FC Copenhagen have asked European football’s governing body UEFA to move a Champions League quali� er in Ukraine to another venue, citing safety and insurance concerns, a spokesman said Tuesday.

The Danish side had been drawn against FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, with the � rst leg set to take place in Dnipropetrovsk on July 29, but have demanded the game be moved after the downing of a Malaysian airliner in the rebel-held region of eastern Ukraine.

The Ukrainian city is located around 300 kilometres (186 miles) from the site in the rebellion-wracked region of Do-netsk where the Malaysia Airlines � ight MH17 was shot down, leaving 298 peo-ple dead.l

Messi meets fan who got his name tattooed on his backn Dailymail

As arguably the world’s greatest player, Lionel Messi has his fair share of admirers.

The Argentine icon is one of the world’s most popular names to get on the back of shirts - both for Barcelona and the national team.

Messi met one fan, however, who wasn’t satis� ed with just getting a shirt bearing the forward’s name.

He decided to go one step further and get Messi’s famous No 10 tattooed on his back.

The Barcelona star clearly didn’t mind, grinning while posing for a pic-ture with the die-hard.

Messi is yet to return to Barcelona’s pre-season training after guiding Ar-gentina to the World Cup � nal. l

Magpies down Sydney in win for MH17 victimsn AFP, Dunedin

Newcastle United thrashed Sydney FC 4-0 in Dunedin Tuesday in a win the club dedicated to two fans who died in the Malaysia Airlines MH17 disaster.

Before the pre-season tour match, manager Alan Pardew and captain Fabricio Coloccini joined supporters in the stands of Forsyth Barr Stadium and laid wreaths on the seats allocated to Liam Sweeney and John Alder.

The Britons were en route to New Zealand for the tour when their � ight was apparently shot down by pro-Russian rebels over eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 on board.

Both teams wore back armbands for the match and the crowd, some carrying banners honouring Sweeney and Alder, observed a minute’s silence before kick o� .

Newcastle went into the � xture vowing to put on a show in memory of their fans and were as good as their word, leading 3-0 at half time.

New signings Emmanuel Riviere and Siem de Jong combined to open the scor-ing after 19 minutes, Riviere pouncing on a mis-hit clearance from Sydney keeper Ivan Necevski to set up de Jong’s goal.

Riviere, a new arrival from Monaco, then � red home from close range in the 26th minute to make it 2-0.l

Two wreaths are placed on seats in memory of two Newcastle United fans who lost their lives in the Malaysia Airlines � ight MH17 crash, during the football match between Sydney FC and Newcastle United at the Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin yesterday AFP

Wayne has proved he is our best player. He leads by example. He works really hard for the team

DHAKA TRIBUNE15Sport

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Alonso praises ‘superb’ RicciardoFernando Alonso heaped praise on Australian youngster Daniel Ricciardo on Sunday after he held him o� in a thrilling scrap to take � fth place for Ferrari in the German Grand Prix. The two-time world champion battled wheel-to-wheel with Ricciardo as the Red Bull man defended his position and attacked him in the closing stages. Alonso said: “Daniel is a surprise from Australia. I think he’s doing unbeliev-able. “I think he’s seven-three in the � rst ten races with Sebastian [Vettel], so it’s something we probably didn’t suspect,” he said, referring to Red Bull’s qualifying performances. “He’s driving fantastical-ly and today he was battling very smart -- always taking the slipstream o� me after I pass him and braking very late, attacking very late and never missing a corner. “He was very, very smart, very respectful with the rules and it was a great � ght.”

–AFP

Juve new signing Morata out for weeksStriker Alvaro Morata’s 20 million euros ($26.97 million) move to Juventus has quickly turned sour after the Spaniard injured his knee in his � rst training session and was ruled out for seven weeks. The 21-year-old, who completed his move from Real Madrid on Saturday, su� ered a second degree injury to the medial collateral ligament in his left knee after being injured on Monday, the Serie A champions said in a statement on Tuesday. “The forecast for a full recovery is of 50 days,” the club said. A highly-rated product of the Real youth academy, Morata came to the fore in the 2012-13 season, former coach Jose Mourinho’s last at the club. He scored eight goals in 23 La Liga appearances last season.

–Reuters

Loew made honorary hometown citizenGermany’s World Cup-winning coach Joachim Loew is to be made an honorary citizen of his hometown of Schoenau im Schwarzwald, the town mayor said on Tuesday. “We are proud of Jogi Loew. He has carried the name of Schoenau throughout the world,” mayor Peter Schelshorn told the DPA news agency. Loew, 54, was born and grew up in the town in the Black Forest of southwestern Germany which now counts 2,300 inhabitants. The city council unanimously voted on Monday night to make Loew an honorary citizen and also to rename the local stadium where the former mid� elder played his � rst match after him. Schelshorn said that Loew has already agreed to accept the honour and there would be “a grand reception” organised at a date has not yet been set. Loew, who led Germany to their fourth World Cup title in Brazil and the � rst since reuni� cation in 1990, is currently on holidays in Freiburg, southwest Germany.

–AFP

Queiroz negotiating contract to lead IranCarlos Queiroz has backtracked on his decision to quit as Iran coach and is negotiating an extension through to the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Iranian media reported. The Mozambique-born coach said after Iran’s group stage exit at the World Cup in Brazil last month he would quit the three-times Asian champions. But the former Real Madrid, Portugal and South Africa coach is close to signing a new deal that would see him lead the team at the 2015 Asian Cup in Australia in January. “We have to negotiate about the contract in the details. I wish to stay as Iran coach,” Queiroz told the Tehran Times. “The Iranians will always stay in my heart. I like to continue my job but the deal has not yet � nalised.” The paper said the deal would be completed on Aug. 1. Queiroz took over in 2011 and helped Iran qualify for their fourth World Cup by instilling steely defence and cleverly scouring the Iranian diaspora for attacking players.

–Reuters

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DAY’S WATCH

Australia’s Marsh ruled out for four months by surgeryn Reuters, Sydney

Australia batsman Shaun Marsh is to have surgery on an injured elbow next week and will miss October’s test series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emir-ates, Cricket Australia said on Tuesday.

The 31-year-old, who played in the � rst two tests of the series win in South Africa that put Australia back on top of the world rankings, su� ered the ligament injury playing Twenty20 cricket in India.

“It’s a pretty signi� cant injury,” team physiotherapist Alex Kountouris told the Cricket Australia website.

“Shaun has had a short period of rest, but it’s still a problem and we know that surgery takes a long time to recover.

“There’s a three-to-four month recov-ery period and we’ve chosen to go ahead with that because it gives him time to play for Western Australia and prepare for the World Cup and the Ashes next year.”l

Flying Finn Bottas seals star statusn Reuters, Hockenheim

Valtteri Bottas is rapidly laying claim to be Formula One’s fastest Finn after again eclipsing Kimi Raikkonen on his way to a third successive podium ap-pearance for Williams on Sunday.

The 24-year-old’s impressive second place, from the front row of the Ger-man Grand Prix grid, was his team’s 300th podium � nish and contrasted with 2007 champion Raikkonen’s dis-appointing 11th for Ferrari.

The points also allowed resurgent Williams to leapfrog Ferrari into third place overall in the constructors’ standings.

“Of course I feel really lucky also to be part of this,” said the happy Finn, who may still face a long wait to stand on the top step of the podium in a sea-son that has seen Mercedes win all but one race.

“Last year we could not have expect-ed to be three times in a row on the po-dium but we now...this is the package we have and it’s all down to hard work and we need to always keep aiming for more,” he added.

“It feels really good to be (on the podium) for a third time in a row but I think we’re aiming for more than that now.”

Former champions Williams, who switched from Renault engines to Mer-cedes power at the end of last year, are a team reborn and revitalised with a fresher image and new con� dence after a troubled recent past.

Last year they scored just � ve points all season as they sunk to ninth overall.

Bottas has now chalked up 91 points in 10 races - more than the team as a whole have scored with both drivers in the previous three years.

Mercedes motorsport head Toto Wol� said Bottas was increasingly looking like the biggest rival for his championship-battling pair Nico Ros-berg, the winner on Sunday, and Lewis Hamilton.l

Injury-plagued Prior takes break from England dutyn AFP, London

England wicketkeeper Matt Prior has decided to take a break from interna-tional duty for the rest of the season after losing form due to a series of in-juries.

Prior revealed his decision to step away from England action just hours after his country slumped to a 95-run defeat in the second Test against India at Lord’s.

The 32-year-old has had a torrid season behind the stumps and his rash dismissal, unwisely hooking Ishant Sharma, played a key role in England’s second innings collapse.

He has dropped six catches of vary-ing di� culty this season and with the

bat he has averaged just 25.Prior attributes his poor form to in-

jury complaints and he expects to go under the knife to sort out his Achil-les during the break, while he also re-covers from right quad and right hand problems.

“I’m not doing justice to myself and more importantly the team and that is what matters � rst and foremost,” Prior said.

“I tore my quad before the � rst Test and my right hand has been beaten to a pulp, but the main issue is the Achilles.

“Now we have the time, I want to be pro-active about how we deal with it so I imagine that I’ll have an operation.

“I’ve always said as long as I can do my job I will manage the pain and get

on with it, but it has now got to the point where I can’t do my job to the level I expect of myself.”

An emotional Prior is reported to have told his England team-mates of his decision in the Lord’s dressing room following their defeat.

He feels he has no choice but to have a spell out of the � ring line, but is hopeful of regaining his � tness and challenge for his place next year.

For now though he accepts that with 79 Test caps to his name he may have played his last game for England.

That is especially di� cult to take as he was keen to play his role in re-building a team struggling badly after a miserable run of 10 consecutive Tests without a victory. l

Nicklaus and Woods hail McIlroy’s Open victoryn Reuters, Hoylake

Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods have combined to salute Rory McIlroy’s per-formance in capturing the British Open title for the � rst time in his career.

The 25-year-old Northern Irishman became the third youngest golfer in the modern era, after the two American greats, to land three of the four major championships when he triumphed by two strokes at Royal Liverpool on Sunday.

“I like his swagger,” said 18-times major winner Nicklaus on his o� cial Facebook page. “I like the way he han-dles himself.

“I like his desire to be great. I like his desire to do the things he needs to do. I like that in a young guy. He’s cocky in a nice way.”

McIlroy went into the last day hold-ing a six-stroke lead and Nicklaus said he was particularly impressed with the way he protected his advantage with a safety-� rst 71 in the � nal round.

“He didn’t take some of the chances that he did in the other rounds as far as the clubs he hit o� the tee,” added the Golden Bear.

“Rory didn’t put himself in posi-tion to lose the golf tournament. He did what he needed to do ... It’s about shooting what you have to shoot to win the golf tournament.”

Woods, who � nished 69th of the 72 players who made the cut at Royal Liverpool in only his second competi-tive appearance since undergoing back surgery in March, compared new world number two McIlroy to his great rival Phil Mickelson.l

Waqar wants to revive Pakistan with pacen Reuters, Karachi

Pakistan coach and former paceman Waqar Younis has promised to rejuve-nate his country’s fast-bowling attack.

Waqar, who in May accepted the coaching job for the second time in four years, said he wanted pace to play a pivotal role in Pakistan cricket again.

“We shouldn’t just be depending on our spinners, we also need to rely on our pace bowlers,” he told reporters in Lahore on Monday.

“We have some talented pacers and they can be groomed for the future.”

As a player, Waqar formed a for-midable new-ball attack with Wasim Akram, � nishing with 373 Test and 416 one-day international wickets. He and

Wasim shared a total of 1705 wickets in Tests and ODIs.

Waqar’s � rst assignment of his two-year contract as coach is a tour of Sri Lanka in August, where Pakistan play two Tests and three ODIs.

“Even in Sri Lanka we will not just depend on our spinners - the pace bowlers are also being prepared to do their work in those conditions,” Waqar said.

“Pakistan has been blessed with some world-class pace and spin bowl-ers and I want to make both of them equally important for the team.”

Waqar pointed out that Pakistan has a proud history of producing fast bowl-ers. “One part of my job is to groom the pace talent we have available,” he said.l

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin (L) speaks during his visit to the construction site of new football stadium, one of the future venues of the 2018 World Cup, in the Volga River city of Samara 868 km southeast of Moscow, on Monday. Last week US Republican lawmakers urged tougher sanctions on Moscow after a Malaysian jet crash in Ukraine was blamed on Russian-backed separatists, with one congressman even bringing the World Cup into play. Russia is due to host the 2018 rendition of the massive soccer tournament - seen as the country’s most ambitious project since the fall of the Soviet Union - with Putin recently vowing it would be ‘an unforgettable football feast’ AFP

Gordon Strachan, manager of the Scottish National Football team, poses for pictures with ‘games makers’ as he carries the 2014 Commonwealth Games baton at Hampden Park Stadium in Glasgow, Scotland yesterday, ahead of the start of the 2014 Commonwealth Games which begin today AFP

Monday, June 16, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

16 DHAKA TRIBUNE

Sport

Editor: Zafar Sobhan, Published and Printed by Kazi Anis Ahmed on behalf of 2A Media Limited at Dainik Shakaler Khabar Publications Limited, 153/7, Tejgaon Industrial Area, Dhaka-1208. Editorial, News & Commercial O� ce: FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath, Shukrabad, Dhaka 1207. Phone: 9132093-94, Advertising: 9132155, Circulation: 9132282, Fax: News-9132192, e-mail: news@dhakatribune.com, info@dhakatribune.com, Website: www.dhakatribune.com

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

13 14 15 Prior takes break from England duty

Brazil appoint Dunga as coach

Ronaldo ready to rumble after WC

n

Agencies

With the signing of Colombian su-perstar James Rodriguez for cur-rent Champions League winners Real Madrid done, the question now lies on where the top scorer of the World Cup will � t in Carlo An-celotti’s lineup puzzle.

James Rodriguez is an old-fash-ioned number 10, an attacking mid-� elder or a creative mid, depending on how you want to describe it. He is versatile enough to have played on the wing (both of them) and even as a second forward, behind a killer the likes of Falcao or Hulk, but all of those positions are either taken or don’t exist on Ancelotti’s preferred tactical view.

After many trials last season, the Italian head coach decided to move forward with a 4-3-3, which could turn into a more classical 4-4-2 when it was time to drop back and secure a score board.l

n Agencies

Real Madrid have agreed a deal to sign World Cup Golden Boot winner James Rodriguez from Monaco, the Europe-an champions have announced.

The Colombia international has agreed a six-year contract with Ma-drid and underwent his medical with the club this morning. He will be pre-sented this evening.

Neither club have con� rmed the fee for the 23-year-old, but reports suggest Madrid have paid in the re-gion of €80 million (£63million), which would make Rodriguez the fourth most expensive transfer of all time after Gareth Bale, Cristiano Ron-aldo and Luis Suarez.

A Real Madrid statement read: “Real Madrid have reached an agree-ment with Monaco for the transfer of James Rodriguez, who will join the club for the next six seasons.

“The player will be presented to-day, at 20:00 (Spanish time), in the Santiago Bernabeu’s presidential box.

“Following that, James Rodriguez will take his � rst steps on the Santia-go Bernabeu’s pitch wearing the Real

Madrid shirt and will attend the me-dia in the press room.”

Rodriguez was one of the revela-tions of the World Cup, scoring in each of Colombia’s games as they reached the quarter-� nals of the competition for the very � rst time, eventually los-ing 2-1 to hosts Brazil.

In total Rodriguez scored six goals at the World Cup to � nish as the lead-ing scorer — one clear of Thomas Muller — while his stunning 25-yard volley against Uruguay was voted goal of the tournament on FIFA.com.

His signing comes less than a week after Madrid brought in another of the World Cup’s star performers in Ger-many’s Toni Kroos, who moved from Bayern Munich for a reported £24mil-lion (€30,369,177).

It also means that, if the reported � gure is correct, Madrid now boast three of the four most expensive sign-ings in history, the others being Gareth Bale last summer and Ronaldo in 2009.

The Champions League winners would hold a clean sweep of the top three signings but for arch-rivals Bar-celona, who splashed out a reported €90 million on on Liverpool striker

Luis Suarez earlier this summer.Rodriguez began his professional

career with Colombian side Enviga-do before moving down to Argen-tinian club Ban� eld aged 17.

His performances for the Buenos Aires out� t attracted the attention of Porto, who signed him for £4million (€5,064,800) in 2010, and three years later he joined Monaco for £38.5million (€48,744,850) after helping the Portu-guese side win a hat-trick of league ti-tles and the 2011 Europa League.

The left-footed forward scored 10 goals in 38 matches in all competi-tions for Monaco last term as they � nished second in Ligue 1 behind Paris St Germain.

Big-spending Monaco said they had not been looking to sell Rodri-guez but described the deal as “one of the most signi� cant transfers in football history”.

A statement on www.asm-fc.com read: “The club would like to take the opportunity to thank James for the role he played in getting the club back to the Champions League and wishes him the very best for the future. l

James Rodriguez the Real deal for MadridColombian wonder-boy moves from Monaco for €80m fee

Rodriguez leaves the hospital Sanitas La Moraleja after his medical in Madrid

How does Rodriguez � t in Real’s puzzle?

Costa, Fabregas, Luis welcomed to Chelsea n Dailymail

New Chelsea signings Diego Costa, Cesc Fabregas and Felipe Luis have avoided the traditional club signing initiations – for now at least.

Instead the trio were treated to a team meal on Monday as the Chelsea squad gathered on their pre-season tour of Austria.

But defender Cesar Azpilicueta tweeted a photo of the festivities with a word of warning.

The caption of the tweet read: ‘First dinner but you don’t have to sing... yet @cescf4bregas #Diego Costa @� lipelu-is @chelseafc.’

Costa � ew in overnight from Lis-bon and joined up with the Chelsea squad early on Monday morning before boarding a plane with the rest of the squad. l

Chelsea’s new faces (from left) Diego Costa, Cesc Fabregas and Filipe Luis show their new colours during their pre-season tour of Austria on Monday

Cook advised to step down by former England captainsn Reuters

Beleaguered England captain Alastair Cook should step down and take a break from the sport to avoid su� ering from a damaging burnout that could end his career, a number of former En-gland captains said on Tuesday.

“For all the resolve... to carry on regardless, common sense should pre-vail in the interests of the man and his team,” former captain Mike Atherton wrote in the Times a day after England fell to a humiliating 95-run defeat to In-dia at Lord’s.

Cook has gone 27 test innings without a century and presided over England’s 5-0 Ashes capitulation in Australia which was followed by a 1-0 home loss to Sri Lanka ahead of the current � ve-match series against India.

“It gives no pleasure to write it, but the tap on the shoulder for Alastair Cook should come,” Atherton added.

“The cruellest cut would also be the kindest cut, as it would be in this � ne cricketer’s best interests, so that he can � nd a way to score runs and enjoy his cricket again.

Many are not sure whether England have an alternative choice as captain, although Atherton is not one of them.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, an-other former skipper, Michael Vaughan, felt Cook badly needed a break.

“I believe Cook wants the selectors to step in and pull him out of the � re, before it gets so hot that we lose him for good. This is a man with the capacity to score 13,000 test runs,” wrote Vaughan, who played the last of his 82 tests in 2008.

“For me, Cook would be best o� tak-ing a six-month break and chilling out with his family. Shane Warne missed a year of cricket in 2003 thanks to the diet-pill controversy, and some of his best performances came after that sus-pension. Geo� Boycott skipped a lot of series during his many years with En-gland and look how many runs he � n-ished up with.”

Never one to shy away from ex-pressing a frank opinion, Boycott was even harsher in his assessment of the situation.

“Only Alastair Cook, his wife and family want him to remain as captain - nobody else. He’s being stubborn and it’s going to take six wild stallions to drag him out of that job,” the former opener told BBC Test Match Special. l

Avishek, Hasanuzzaman land easy ULAB winn Tribune Desk

Majestic � fties from Univer-sity of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) skipper Hasanuzzaman and Avishek Mi-tra earned them

a commanding seven-wicket victory over Jamaica Inter-Collegiate Sports Association (JICSA) of West Indies in the Red Bull Campus Cricket World Fi-nals at Wormsley yesterday.

After losing the � rst Group 2 game, the Bangladeshi side rode on the 110-run opening stand to overcome JICSA’s 148 reaching the target losing three wickets and � ve balls to spare.

Hasanuzzaman struck 10 fours and a six to dominate the opposition bowl-ing with a 54-ball 76 while he was ably supported by Avishek who made 53 o� 45 balls. Right-handed Avishek ham-mered six boundaries and two tower-ing sixes.

Though ULAB lost successive wick-ets in the penultimate over to leave them needing four o� the last six balls,

Izal Khan slogged his � rst ball for a boundary to land the win.

Earlier, JICSA threatened to run away with a big total after a blistering start from their openers Oshane Wal-ters and Oraine Williams. Dangerous of the two, Walters made 38 o� just 19 balls before � rst-change bowler An-jum Ahmed returned the right-handed batsman with the scoreboard reading 45 in four overs.

Medium pacer Anjum brought the Bangladeshis back in the game as he followed up with two more scalps while spinner Tanvir Ahmed also sneaked in a wicket to leave the Caribbean side reeling at 64 for 4.

Pete Salmon and Chrishna Graham, however, put on 82 runs for the � fth wicket to pull JICSA out of trouble. Salm-on made 57 while Graham was unbeaten on 22 as JICSA eventually reached two

short of 150 losing six wickets. Anjum � nished with � gures of 3 for

18 while Tanvir took one for 17 runs. In the opening match of the tourna-

ment, ULAB lost to University of Pre-toria (TUKS), South Africa, by a huge 114 runs. TUKS rode on a demolishing 137 o� just 60 balls from TB de Bruyn to post 205 for 4. In reply, ULAB were restricted to 91 for seven in their stipu-lated 20 overs. l

Zadran blasts Afghans to famous victoryn AFP, Bulawayo

Afghanistan beat Zimbabwe by two wickets Tuesday in a thrilling one-day cricket international to keep alive hopes of squaring the series.

Zimbabwe scored 261-8 o� 50 overs at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo and Afghanistan reached 264-8 with two balls to spare.

Afghanistan, who lost the � rst two matches by six wickets and eight wick-ets, can draw the four-match series by winning again at the same venue Thursday.

The cricket minnows are using the matches to prepare for the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand next Feb-ruary and March.

Opener Hamilton Masakadza top scored for the hosts with 84 runs and his 93-ball stand included nine fours and two sixes.

Captain Brendan Taylor (53) and Sean Williams (49) were the other Zimbabwe batsmen to impress while Aftab Alam (2-44) and Dawlat Zadran

(2-49) returned the best Afghan bowling � gures.

Openers Javed Ahmadi (56) and teenager Usman Ghani (43) contributed most to the visitors’ run chase followed by Mohammad Nabi (42) and Samiullah Shenwari (41).

Lower-order pair Dawlat Zadran (24) and Shapoor Zadran (5) sealed victo-ry in a tense � nish with an unbeaten ninth-wicket stand.

Williams (2-33) and Natsai M’shan-gwe (2-50) were the most successful Zimbabwe bowlers. l

Zimbabwe 261-8 in 50 overs (Masakadza 84, Taylor 53; Aftab 2-44, Dawlat Zadran 2-49) Afghanistan 264-8 in 49.4 overs (Ahmadi 56, Usman Ghani 43; Williams 2-33, M’shangwe 2-50)

Afghanistan win by two wicketsZimbabwe lead four-match series 2-1

BRIEF SCOREJICSA148/6 in 20 overs (Salmon 57; Anjum 3/17)ULAB149/3 in 19.1 overs (Hasa-nuzzaman 76, Mitra 53; Walters 2/18)ULAB won by 7 wicketsMoM: Hasanuzzaman

ULAB cricket team coach Sarwar Imran (C) briefs his charges prior to the start of their game against JICSA at Sir Paul Getty’s Ground, Wormsley yesterday COURTESY

www.dhakatribune.com/business WEDNESDAY, JULY 23, 2014

A Shanghai food factory was shut down on Sunday for sellingmeat past its due dateAffected meat

Actions taken

Chicken Beef

YUM! BRANDS

Ordered restaurantsto stop using all meatfrom factory

China restaurantsto stop using allmeat from factory

Pulled all meat fromfactory early Monday

In JapanWithdrew chicken panini from 12 provincesand Chongqing

Restaurantsincluded:PIZZA HUT

KFC

MCDONALDS

BURGER KING

Says it sourced about 20 percent of ChickenMcNuggets from Husi. Suspended product since Monday

MCDONALDS

STARBUCKS COFFEE

China meat scandal

ShanghaiHusi Food

Co.

US food supplierOSI Group

Factory closed:

Pork

B3 India will not restrict iron ore exports

B4 China meat scandal spreads to Japan

Harun Securities � ned Tk3 lakhn Tribune Report

Harun Securities, a member of the Dha-ka Stock Exchange, was � ned Tk3lakh for breaching securities rules.

The brokerage � rm has provided mar-gin loan to its directors, employees and their relatives without loan agreement and on junk companies, which is clear violation of securities rules, said Bangla-desh Securities and Exchange Commis-sion (BSEC) in a statement yesterday.

For this, the commission has decid-ed to slap � ne of Tk3lakh, it said. l

GP continues to pay higher dividend than pro� t n Muhammad Zahidul Islam

Mobile phone operator Grameenphone has reported net pro� t of Tk1,060 crore in the � rst half of this year, but decided to distribute about Tk1,283 crore as in-terim cash dividend.

They made the � nancial disclosure at a press conference in Dhaka yester-day as they earned a revenue of over Tk5,112 crore, up 7.8% from the same period last year.

“As a major listed company, we have a dividend policy and we are just following it,” Chier Executive O� cer Vivek Sood told the Dhaka Tribune af-ter the press conference.

The earnings per share (EPS) of the country’s largest mobile phone oper-ator in the � rst half of 2014 stood at Tk7.85, but their dividend stands at Tk9.50.

Grameenphone also distributed 28.6% higher dividend than the net pro� t the company earned in 2013 when they had reported an after tax pro� t of over Tk1,470 crore and distrib-uted dividend of over Tk1,890 crore.

Mentioning their performance out-standing, the CEO said: “Stable politi-cal environment, improving economic activities and Grameenphone’s strong traction in the market contributed to this elevated performance.”

The operator informed their service revenue grew by 7.5% (YoY) along with 14.3% (YoY) growth in devices and oth-er revenues.

The growth is attributed to in-creased voice outgoing from acquisi-tion, data revenue from 3G as well as 2G, SMS and content services.

Replying to a question, Acting Chief Financial O� cer Md Mainur Rahaman Bhuiyan said currently they have 95 lakh active internet users and from data side their revenue growth is 57% while the growth of voice only 4% year to year.

Grameenphone said the growth in interconnection revenue with contribu-tion from both local and international minutes, higher device sales (28%) for enabling the data era, wholesale and � -nancial services also contributed.

Average minute per-uses (AMPU) and average revenue per-users also started recovering as the political situ-ation becoming stable.

In the last quarter of 2013, AMPU stood at 240 minutes that rose up to 250 minutes after the second quarter and that time ARPU was Tk165 which also rose to Tk170 per user.

During the second quarter (April to June), Grameenphone acquired 0.6 million net subscriber addition, taking the year-end subscription base to 49.23 million with 42.1% market share.

They have registered Tk26.2 billion in the second quarter, a 9.5% (YoY) and a 5.1% (QoQ) growth. Net pro� t after taxes for the � rst half of 2014 was Tk10.6 billion with 20.7% margin com-pared to Tk5.1 billion with 10.8% mar-gin of the corresponding period of 2013.

Earnings per share (EPS) for the peri-od stood at Tk7.85 compared to Tk3.78 of corresponding period of 2013.

Grameenphone invested Tk6.5 bil-lion during the � rst half for 3G rollout in all 64 district headquarters, 2G-cov-erage as well as capacity increase and other e� ciency enhancement initia-tives. l

House rent payment rules through banks relaxedn Tribune Report

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has relaxed the rules for monthly house rent payment over Tk25,000 through banks as the landlords could now deposit the rents in any of their existing bank accounts.

The board, in a speci� c guideline is-sued yesterday, said a landlord have to deposit his house rents over Tk25,000 (including rents of furniture, � xture and � ttings) derived from one or more houses (both used for commercial and residential purposes) in any of the scheduled banks.

The landlord can deposit the house rent and advance house rent, along with other incomes in any of his exist-ing bank accounts, the guideline adds.

The tenants could pay the house rents through crossed cheques or could directly deposit the amount to the landlord’s bank account, according to the guideline. If any tenant pays the rent in cash, the landlord will have to deposit the rent to the bank account.

The NBR issued the guideline to

clarify the newly introduced system as many of the taxpayers were confused on the system including who will de-posit the rent, methods of rent pay-ment under the system, responsibilities of people having power of attorney etc.

If any landlord failed to comply with the guidelines, the NBR will im-pose penalty on the house owners at the rate of 50% of taxes payable on incomes derived from the house prop-erty or Tk5,000, whichever is higher, for not transacting the house-rent through banks, according to the � -nance bill 2014.

The government has made man-datory payment system of the house rents through banking channel to en-sure transparency in the house rent collection and to bring more people under tax net while prohibiting the practice of dodging tax on earnings from rental property.

NBR chairman Md. Ghulam Hussain told the Dhaka Tribune that the newly introduced system will help bring both the landlords and the tenants under the tax net.

“With the introduction, we will be able to bring not only landlords, but also the tenants under the tax net which will help to boost the revenue collection,” he said.

According to an NBR survey, 166,500 � at owners and traders do not pay tax despite having taxable in-comes, among which, 45,600 of them are house owners in the capital.

According to Real Estate and Hous-ing Association of Bangladesh (RE-HAB), some 164,000 � ats were handed over to the buyers from 1992.

Under the guideline, the house owners now have to maintain a sepa-rate register and record regarding the details of the house rents received from one or more houses.

The landlords have to record the names and addresses of the tenants, dates of rent payments, amount re-ceived as house rent and other infor-mation related to this issues with the aforesaid register.

The taxpayers have to keep the Deputy Tax Commissioner informed about the bank account where he/she

is depositing the income derived from house rent.

During submission of tax returns, the landlords have to furnish their tax returns including details of income derived from the house rent. The land-lord has to submit a copy of the bank statement where he/she is depositing the house rents during return submis-sion, the guideline added.

The board, with the rule also clari-� ed the rent collection method for the joint owners or people having power of attorney. If a house is owned by joint owners, a house owner have to main-tain separate bank account if his/her portion received as house rent exceeds Tk25,000.

If any landlord is staying abroad and gives power of attorney to another person for supervising the house and collection of rents, the person (having power of attorney) will have to main-tain the bank account to deposit the house rents to banks.

However, if a landlord wants to main-tain a separate bank account for the mat-ter, he/she can do that voluntarily. l

RMG workers’ capability to face � re incident improves signi� cantlyn Ibrahim Hossain Ovi

The Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, a platform of the North Ameri-can buyers, has completed inspection that resulted in full or partial closure of 10 out of 587 RMG units.

According to the � nal report of the Alliance published yesterday on its website, the Alliance completed inspections of all 587 factories and identi� ed 10 factories � awed on � re, electrical and structural ground from which its members source products.

The report also said 50% RMG facto-ries from which Alliance brands source products are now in remediation while 1.1 million workers trained in basic � re safety of which 97.8% can correctly identify what to do in case of � re.

The Alliance said it has $100 million a� ordable capital available to factory owners and $5 million support avail-able to displaced factory workers and as it compensated 1,000 displaced workers.

The Alliance conducted a compre-hensive baseline survey and a limit-ed sample follow-up survey among the garment workers assessing their knowledge on � re safety before and af-ter the Alliance-led trainings.

The survey � ndings showed work-ers, who could correctly identify what to do in case of a � re, increased from 39% to 98%, and those who could cor-rectly identify the � ve most common � re hazards increased from 2% to 51% following the basic � re safety training.

“Together, the Alliance and our partners are steadily achieving prog-ress that will have a lasting, positive impact on factory workers, the ready-made garment industry and the coun-try’s economy as a whole,” said Ellen Tauscher, former U.S. Congresswoman and Alliance Independent Chair.

“Much work remains to be done, but we are steadfastly committed to stay-ing the course, working in partnership, ensuring transparency and helping achieve a new, sustainable standard for safe workplaces in Bangladesh,” she added.

“Substantial challenges must be overcome in order to achieve our goals in the Bangladesh garment industry,” said Rabin Mesbah, managing director of the Alliance. As the hard work of re-mediation now begins, it is incumbent upon all stakeholders to do their part to ensure a safer industry for everyone, he added.

The Alliance, a plat form of 26 brands and retailers, had committed to improve safety standard, including � re, electrical and structural safety af-ter the collapse of Rana Plaza, which killed 1,135 workers and injured over 2,500 last year. l

Sonali Bank faces crisis as clients reluctant to get loans n Tribune Report

Loan disbursement of the state-owned Sonali Bank dropped by 8.8% to Tk33,534 crore in June this year com-pared to same period of the last year as the bank has so far failed to disburse expected-level of loans among its cli-ents.

The disbursement is Tk3,236 crore lower than Tk36,771 crore released in the � rst half of last year.

The bank published notices in the newspapers o� ering loans, but yielded no result so far, Sonali Bank Managing Director Prodip Kumar Dutta told a press conference at the head o� ce of Sonali Bank in the capital yesterday.

“We are reminding the branch managers, heads of regions and gen-eral managers to enhance the loan dis-bursement,” he said.

“We have set the loan disbursement target for the branches and the perfor-mance of the branches is being strong-ly monitored by the head o� ce.”

The adjusted loan growth rate of Sonali Bank was negative by 7.07% in the last year against the target limit of 8% set by Bangladesh Bank.

The total loan growth of the banks decreased by 11.67% or Tk3,963 crore in the last year, according to the Bangla-desh Bank data.

The credit ceiling of Sonali Bank has been set at Tk1,328 crore for the year 2014, which is 6% of the adjusted loan status of Tk22,133 crore in 2013.

The bank won’t be able to achieve its loan disbursement target as the bank is also going through a � nancial crisis, said a senior executive of Bangladesh Bank.

The bank is yet to settle over 1,700 accepted bills with other banks, re-lating to Hallmark scam as the state-owned bank is su� ering � nd crisis, he said.

Moreover, the bank is su� ering from image crisis due to the Hallmark loan scam, he added.

“Though the bank su� ered from capital shortfall of Tk278.43 crore in March this year, which was Tk821 crore in 2013, we will be able to meet the shortfall at the end of this year,’’ how-ever, hoped managing director of Son-ali Bank. l

Banks related to customs open on July 25, 26 and 28n Tribune Report

Bangladesh Bank has asked the banks to keep open their branches related to customs on July 25, 26 and 28 ahead of eid-ul � tre.

The decision came in response to the request of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Associ-ation (BGMEA), said a circular Bangla-desh Bank issued yesterday.

This is to facilitate import-export activities of export oriented garment industry, it said. The central bank also advised the banks to pay reasonable al-lowance to the o� cials who will work during the holidays. l

Excess liquidity decade-high in 2013Pro� t indicators of the banking sector dropped more than half in the last three years from 2010

n Jebun Nesa Alo

Excess liquidity in the banking sector piled up to a decade high in the year 2013 due to lack of credit demand and sluggish investment climate amid pro-longed political unrest over 5 January national polls.

The surplus liquidity stood at 15.38%, which was 32.54% of the total liquid asset in the banking sector in the last year. It was 9.9% in 2003, accord-ing to a publication of Department of O� -site Supervision (DOS) of the cen-tral bank.

Bangladesh Bank (BB) Deputy Governor Abu Hena Md Razi Hassan unveiled the publication titled “Ban-gladesh Bank’s O� -site Supervision, Recent initiatives” at a ceremony held yesterday at its headquarters in the capital.

The ceremony was attended, among others, by executive director of Naushad Ali Chowdhury and SM Mon-iruzzaman and General Manager of the bank Rabiul Hassan.

The rate of excess liquidity re-mained below 10% in the last 10 years and it reached over 15% in the last one year, according to the publication.

The amount of surplus liquidity

came down to 6% in 2010 from 9% in 2009 as maximum bank diverted their huge investment towards the capital market, said a senior executive of the central bank.

The banks started to withdraw their investments at the beginning of the year 2011, soon after the market crash, as they were strongly monitored by the

central bank to reduce their excessive in-vestment beyond their limit, he added.

The banks, though, turned down their investment position from the share market but they did not get alter-native opportunity to move their busi-ness due to the then political unrest.

As a result, excess liquidity of the banking sector was increased by more

than double times in the last three years, he said.

The surplus liquidity of the state-owned commercial banks stood at 25.29% of the total liquid asset of 44.27% followed by specialised banks at 4.19% of 15.27%, private commercial banks at 11.18% of 27.95% and foreign banks stood at 27.35% of total liquid as-

set of 46.15%, according to the central bank data.

The pro� t indicators of the banking sector dropped more than half in the last three years from 2010 due to lack of investment opportunity.

The return of asset (ROA) of the banks came down to 0.90% last year from 1.8% in 2010 while return on equity (ROE) dropped to 10.77% from 21%.

The Non Performing Loan (NPL) of the banking sector increased by 100% in the last one decade. The amount of NPL stood at Tk40,583 crore in the last year compared to Tk20,320 crore in 2003, according to the central bank data.

Out of the 100% increase of NPL in the last 10 years, mainly 88% NPL was increased only in three years in between 2010 and 2012 due to several loan scam, said another senior o� cial of the central bank.

The total NPL in the banking sector reached at the highest level at Tk42,726 crore in 2012. Then central bank had relaxed the loan reschedule rule for the banks to reduce their abnormal classi� ed loans burden and lastly it came down to 2.01% of the total loan in 2013 from 4.38% in 2012, he said. l

A little girl � nds a dressed manikin interesting while shopping at a city mall with her mom. Not only the adults, but the kids also remain busy choosing beautiful clothes for them to put on during Eid days COURTESY

The adjusted loan growth rate of Sonali Bank was negative by 7.07% in the last year against the target limit of 8% set by Bangladesh Bank

B2 Stock Wednesday, July 23, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

News, analysis and recent disclosersGP: The Board of Directors of the Company has declared 95% interim cash dividend for the year ending on 31 December 2014, out of the provisional net pro� ts of the Compa-ny for the half-year ended on 30 June 2014 and retained earnings as of 31 December 2013. The Company has also reported net pro� t after tax of Tk. 10,601.27 million, EPS of Tk. 7.85, NAV per share of Tk. 25.91 and NOCFPS of Tk. 9.80 for the half-year ended on 30 June 2014. Record date for entitle-ment of interim dividend: 05.08.2014.MARICO: The Board of Directors of the Company has declared 150% interim cash dividend for the year ending on 31st March 2015 based on 1st Quarter � nancials for the period ended on 30th June, 2014. Record date for entitlement of interim cash dividend: 07.08.2014.ACTIVEFINE: In connection with their earlier news disseminated by DSE on November 17, 2013, the Company has fur-ther informed that the Board of Directors of the Company has decided for raising capital by issuing 2,00,00,000 Ordinary shares of Tk. 10.00 each at an issue price of Tk. 60.00 to the ICB and/or di� erent institutional investors subject to the approval from BSEC. It is to be mentioned that in the EGM held on 10.12.2013 the shareholders has approved the issuance of 2,00,00,000 Ordinary shares at an issue price of Tk. 50.00 to ICB.

Unaudited Financials:RELIANCINS: (H/Y): NPAT= Tk. 139.65 million with EPS of Tk. 2.34 as against Tk. 126.92 million and Tk. 2.12 respectively*.EASTLAND: (H/Y): NPAT= Tk. 104.16

million with EPS of Tk. 1.93 as against Tk. 100.66 million and Tk. 1.86 respectively*.UTTARAFIN: (H/Y): NPAT= Tk. 515.59 million with EPS of Tk. 4.53 as against Tk. 458.32 million and Tk. 4.03 respectively*.BDSERVICE: (H/Y): NPAT= Tk. 105.57 million with basic EPS of Tk. 1.43 (restated 1.24) as against Tk. 90.18 million and Tk. 1.22 (1.06) respectively*.TRUSTBANK: (H/Y): NPAT=Tk. 386.43 million with consolidated EPS of Tk. 0.91 as against Tk. 365.79 million and Tk. 0.86 (restated) respectively*.ISLAMICFIN: (H/Y): NPAT= Tk. 86.68 million with EPS of Tk. 0.75 as against Tk. 59.65 million and Tk. 0.51 respectively*.SPPCL: (H/Y): NPAT= Tk. 344.23 million with EPS of Tk. 2.26 as against Tk. 337.06 million and Tk. 2.22 respectively*.SUMITPOWER: (H/Y): NPAT= Tk. 1,203.95 million with consolidated EPS of Tk. 1.77 as against Tk. 1,169.27 million and Tk. 1.72 respectively*.NHFIL: (H/Y): NPAT= Tk. 99.73 million with EPS of Tk. 0.94 as against Tk. 68.50 million and Tk. 0.64 respectively*.IDLC: (H/Y): NPAT= Tk. 306.58 million with consolidated EPS of Tk. 1.52 as against Tk. 200.59 million and Tk. 1.00 respec-tively*.LANKABAFIN: (H/Y): NPAT= Tk. 150.74 million with consolidated EPS of Tk. 0.69 as against Tk. 192.86 million and Tk. 0.88 respectively*.BATBC: (H/Y): NPAT= Tk. 2,872.27 million with EPS of Tk. 47.87 as against Tk. 2,063.33 million and Tk. 34.39 respec-tively*.GP: (H/Y): NPAT= Tk. 10,601.27 million

with EPS of Tk. 7.85 as against Tk. 5,103.84 million and Tk. 3.78 respectively*.MERCINS: (H/Y): NPAT= Tk. 43.00 million with EPS of Tk. 1.00 as against Tk. 43.40 million and Tk. 1.01 respectively*.UNIONCAP: (H/Y): NPAT= Tk. 40.27 million with consolidated EPS of Tk. 0.33 as against Tk. 6.86 million and Tk. 0.06 respectively*.ICBIBANK: (H/Y): NPAT= Tk. -262.93 million with EPS of Tk. -0.40 as against Tk. -86.63 million and Tk. -0.13 respectively*.SONALIANSH: (Q3): NPAT= Tk. 1.54 million with EPS of Tk. 0.57 as against Tk. 6.29 million and Tk. 2.32 respectively*.HRTEX: (Q3): NPAT= Tk. 33.14 million with EPS of Tk. 1.31 as against Tk. 38.63 million and Tk. 1.53 respectively*.MARICO: (Q1): NPAT= Tk. 466.68 million with EPS of Tk. 14.82 as against Tk. 417.24 million and Tk. 13.25 respectively*.Right Share: MIDASFIN: Subscrip-tion period for rights issue will be from 01.09.2014 to 30.09.2014. Record date for entitlement of rights share: 03.08.2014.

Dividend/AGMSUNLIFEINS: 5% stock, AGM: 15.09.2014, Record Date: 07.08.2014.SQURPHARMA: 30% cash and 15% stock, AGM: 25.09.2014, Record Date: 26.08.2014. NAV of Tk. 22,277.52 million, EPS of Tk. 8.36.LINDEBD: 200% interim cash dividend, Record date for entitlement of interim dividend: 03.08.2014.APEXSPINN: 20% cash, AGM: 28.09.2014, Record date: 07.08.2014. EPS Tk. 2.24, NAV per share of Tk. 49.75.

Positive H1 earnings spur stocks n Tribune Report

Stocks gained for the second straight day yesterday, spurred by bet-ter-than-expected half-yearly earn-ings and the central bank’s hint about capital-market friendly monetary pol-icy to be announced Saturday next.

Investors injected fresh fund hop-ing gain in the future but some, how-ever, were still cautious about pos-sible political unrest after Eid to be celebrated last week of this month, dealers said.

The benchmark DSEX rose more than 29 points or 0.7% to end at 4,424. The Shariah index gained marginally 8 points or 0.9% up to 999. The comprising blue chips DS30 closed at 1,618 with rise of 12 points or 0.8%.

Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) Selective Categories Index, CSCX, was up 43 points to 8,388.

Trading activities improved sig-ni� cantly, as the DSE turnover stood at Tk375, which was more than 21% higher over the previous session.

IDLC Investments said with earn-ings declarations being on the driv-ing seat, market subdued the recent monotonous down trend for the sec-ond day.

“The session started in a � urry, with promising earnings � gures ap-pearing early in the morning. Along with this, hope for a capital market

friendly monetary policy assisted in-vestors to revive enthusiasm.”

Telecommunication sector ac-counted for 16% of the total trading and rose 1.5% following positive earnings and dividend declaration by heavyweight Grameenphone that rallied 1.6%.

The country’s top telecom com-pany showed up 13.66% growth in its half-yearly net pro� t. The company also declared 95% interim dividend.

Lanka Bangla Securities said eq-uity market continued positive mo-mentum for yet another session on yesterday backed by cue of recovery in quarterly earnings of stocks.

Zenith Investments said the mar-ket is getting back in shape as the earnings season started streaming in, arousing investors’ enthusiasm and attracting fresh funds towards stocks.

“Buying spree behavior of inves-tors have magni� ed the strength of total turnover volume and also pushed the index to the region of positivity.”

Beximco continued leading the chart for the sixth consecutive session with Tk49 crore changing hands, followed by Grameenphone, Padma Oil, Lafarge Surma Cement, Shahjibazar Power Company, Olym-pic Industries, Square Pharmaceuti-cals and Generation Next. l

CSE LOSERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average

Weekly closing

Weekly high

Weekly low

Turnover in million

Latest EPS

Latest PE

NCCBL Mutual Fund-1-A -10.00 -10.00 6.30 6.30 6.30 6.30 0.003 1.52 4.1Midas Financing-Z -9.75 -8.86 21.30 21.30 21.30 21.30 0.011 -6.91 -veSamata LeatheR -Z -6.78 -6.78 22.00 22.00 22.00 22.00 0.011 0.09 244.4Prime Insur -A -5.85 -5.85 19.30 19.30 19.30 19.30 0.014 0.92 21.0Union Capital -A -3.90 -3.67 19.68 19.70 20.00 19.60 0.312 2.08 9.5Premier Leasing-Z -3.80 -1.58 7.49 7.60 7.60 7.20 0.005 0.12 62.4Fareast Finance-Z -3.51 -2.54 11.13 11.00 11.30 11.00 0.534 0.78 14.3LankaBangla Fin. -A -3.49 -3.43 41.44 41.50 42.00 41.00 4.931 1.38 30.0GPH Ispat Ltd-A -2.88 -2.82 50.63 50.60 51.00 50.20 0.076 2.42 20.9Bangladesh Welding -Z -2.50 -0.42 11.94 11.70 12.00 11.70 0.292 0.48 24.9

DSE LOSERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average

Weekly closing

Weekly high

Weekly low

Turnover in million

Latest EPS

Latest PE

ICB AMCL 1st NRB -A -6.87 -6.81 27.10 27.10 27.10 27.10 0.027 4.57 5.9Karnaphuli Insur -A -5.37 -4.22 19.50 19.40 20.30 18.50 5.405 1.40 13.9Progressive Life-A -3.64 -4.67 104.86 106.00 106.10 101.00 0.245 2.30 45.6Libra Infusions-A -3.50 -3.50 386.00 386.00 386.00 386.00 0.077 4.20 91.9Central Insur -A -3.14 -1.20 24.74 24.70 25.00 24.60 0.193 3.64 6.8GSP Finance-A -3.06 -1.93 19.26 19.00 19.70 17.70 1.054 1.56 12.3Envoy Textiles Ltd-N -2.81 -0.44 52.40 51.90 53.40 49.00 30.120 2.04 25.7Fareast Finance-Z -2.65 -2.51 11.25 11.00 11.50 11.00 2.379 0.78 14.4Rupali Bank - A -2.61 -4.28 67.02 67.10 67.10 64.00 0.412 3.96 16.9LankaBangla Fin. -A -2.57 -3.53 41.29 41.70 43.00 38.60 42.276 1.38 29.9

CSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume shares

Value in million

% of total turnover

Weekly closing

Price change

Weekly opening

Weekly high

Weekly low

Weekly average

BEXIMCO Ltd. -A 1,338,508 51.16 19.43 38.00 1.06 37.60 39.10 37.40 38.22Grameenphone-A 72,600 21.28 8.08 293.50 1.63 288.80 296.40 290.70 293.07BD Submarine Cable-A 53,326 9.70 3.69 182.50 2.47 178.10 184.30 175.00 181.97FAR Chemical-N 190,500 9.49 3.61 50.10 3.51 48.40 51.40 48.60 49.83The Peninsula CTG.-N 266,800 9.16 3.48 34.40 0.00 34.40 34.80 34.00 34.33Generation Next Fashions-A 479,127 8.55 3.25 18.20 4.00 17.50 18.40 17.20 17.85Golden Son -A 163,294 7.35 2.79 45.20 7.11 42.20 45.60 43.40 45.02Appollo Ispat CL -N 255,000 7.34 2.79 29.00 3.20 28.10 29.10 28.20 28.77Square Pharma -A 27,700 7.01 2.66 252.90 0.32 252.10 255.00 252.00 253.06Padma Oil Co. -A 19,000 6.17 2.34 326.30 1.15 322.60 329.40 320.10 324.60

DSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume shares

Value in million

% of total turnover

Weekly closing

Price change

Weekly opening

Weekly high

Weekly low

Weekly average

Grameenphone-A 1,776,317 521.06 13.87 293.70 1.49 289.40 297.00 285.00 293.33BEXIMCO Ltd. -A 12,854,597 491.64 13.09 37.40 -0.53 37.60 41.00 33.90 38.25Padma Oil Co. -A 325,917 106.71 2.84 325.60 1.28 321.50 330.50 300.00 327.41LafargeS Cement-Z 1,173,000 98.03 2.61 84.30 2.43 82.30 84.40 82.10 83.57Shahjibazar Power-N 1,772,200 96.63 2.57 56.80 9.23 52.00 57.00 52.40 54.52Olympic Ind. -A 376,500 91.04 2.42 242.80 1.17 240.00 243.40 235.00 241.82Square Pharma -A 356,357 90.24 2.40 253.60 -0.20 254.10 255.00 232.00 253.24Generation Next-A 4,776,821 85.04 2.26 18.40 5.75 17.40 19.10 15.70 17.80Golden Son -A 1,837,908 82.53 2.20 44.80 5.66 42.40 45.90 38.20 44.90FAR Chemical-N 1,614,000 80.46 2.14 50.80 4.74 48.50 51.50 48.60 49.85

CSE GAINERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average

Weekly closing

Weekly high

Weekly low

Turnover in million

Latest EPS

Latest PE

Mithun Knitting -A 9.83 9.83 105.00 105.00 105.00 105.00 0.210 2.69 39.0SummitAlliancePort.-A 9.75 7.44 25.26 25.90 25.90 23.00 4.686 1.08 23.4BGIC -A 9.68 7.94 23.24 23.80 23.80 22.00 0.379 1.36 17.1Kay & Que (BD) -Z 7.14 7.14 15.00 15.00 15.00 15.00 0.008 -0.92 -veGolden Son -A 7.11 6.99 45.02 45.20 45.60 43.40 7.351 4.08 11.0AFC AgroBiotech-A 6.71 5.68 50.60 50.90 51.50 49.40 1.270 2.32 21.8Active Fine Chem.-A 6.15 4.58 63.21 63.90 64.30 61.90 1.410 3.72 17.0Asia Pasi� c Insu. -A 6.06 6.06 21.00 21.00 21.00 21.00 0.021 2.48 8.5ICB AMCL IslamicMF-A 5.41 5.41 19.50 19.50 19.50 19.50 0.010 2.33 8.4Peoples Insur -A 5.16 5.21 22.41 22.40 22.90 22.00 0.072 2.28 9.8

DSE GAINERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average

Weekly closing

Weekly high

Weekly low

Turnover in million

Latest EPS

Latest PE

SummitAlliancePort.-A 9.83 7.90 25.26 25.70 25.70 21.20 28.682 1.08 23.4Shahjibazar Power-N 9.23 7.20 54.52 56.80 57.00 52.40 96.629 3.04 17.9BGIC -A 8.18 7.59 23.53 23.80 24.10 20.00 6.730 1.36 17.3AFC AgroBiotech-A 7.56 5.19 50.29 51.20 51.80 46.50 42.084 2.32 21.7Global Heavy Chemicals-N 6.96 3.98 40.52 41.50 41.60 39.30 18.529 2.48 16.3Stylecraft -A 6.20 5.09 998.33 1,008.90 1,009.00 960.00 0.599 26.16 38.2Generation Next-A 5.75 1.60 17.80 18.40 19.10 15.70 85.043 2.28 7.8Pioneer Insur -A 5.69 2.49 46.88 48.30 48.30 45.80 2.016 5.16 9.1Golden Son -A 5.66 5.95 44.90 44.80 45.90 38.20 82.531 4.08 11.0Active Fine Chem.-A 5.64 5.07 63.39 63.70 64.50 57.00 74.807 3.72 17.0

SECTORAL TURNOVER SUMMARY

Sector DSE CSE TotalMillion Taka % change Million Taka % change Million Taka % change

Bank 183.98 4.90 11.78 3.40 195.76 4.77NBFI 136.74 3.64 10.48 3.02 147.22 3.59Investment 41.68 1.11 1.50 0.43 43.18 1.05Engineering 314.05 8.36 33.39 9.63 347.44 8.47Food & Allied 185.79 4.95 16.94 4.88 202.73 4.94Fuel & Power 437.35 11.64 32.45 9.35 469.80 11.45Jute 2.47 0.07 0.00 2.47 0.06Textile 316.61 8.43 33.64 9.70 350.25 8.54Pharma & Chemical 542.20 14.43 29.49 8.50 571.69 13.93Paper & Packaging 0.05 23.94 6.90 23.99 0.58Service 58.80 1.57 5.08 1.46 63.88 1.56Leather 14.90 0.40 24.49 7.06 39.39 0.96Ceramic 26.31 0.70 2.17 0.63 28.48 0.69Cement 149.52 3.98 12.06 3.48 161.57 3.94Information Technology 13.18 0.35 2.26 0.65 15.44 0.38General Insurance 48.51 1.29 1.00 0.29 49.51 1.21Life Insurance 36.39 0.97 2.74 0.79 39.13 0.95Telecom 581.33 15.48 30.98 8.93 612.31 14.92Travel & Leisure 93.72 2.49 14.90 4.30 108.62 2.65Miscellaneous 571.94 15.23 57.63 16.61 629.57 15.34Debenture 0.92 0.02 0.03 0.01 0.95 0.02

Weekly capital market highlightsDSE Broad Index : 4424.60351 (+) 0.67% ▲

DSE - 30 Index : 1618.06060 (+) 0.77% ▲

CSE All Share Index: 13595.81430 (+) 0.57% ▲

CSE - 30 Index : 11246.83880 (+) 0.46% ▲

CSE Selected Index : 8388.81390 (+) 0.52% ▲

DSE key features Jujy 22, 2014Turnover (Million Taka)

3,756.45

Turnover (Volume)

85,721,148

Number of Contract 80,260

Traded Issues 29

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

185

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

104

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

8

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,308.91

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

27.99

CSE key features Jujy 22, 2014Turnover (Million Taka) 275.27

Turnover (Volume) 7,200,800

Number of Contract 10,963

Traded Issues 215

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

129

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

80

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

5

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,206.85

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

26.75

Prepared exclusively for Dhaka Tribune by Business Information Automation Service Line (BIASL), on the basis of information collected from daily stock quotations and audited reports of the listed companies. High level of caution has been taken to collect and present the above information and data. The publisher will not take any responsibility if any body uses this information and data for his/her investment decision. For any query please email to biasl@bol-online.com or call 01552153562 or go to www.biasl.net

ANALYSTThe market is getting back in shape as the earnings season started streaming in, arousing investors’ enthusiasm and attracting fresh funds towards stocks

B3BusinessDHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Junior Climate Champio ns, a knowledge and activity based programme organised by HSBC Bangladesh has kicked o� in Dhaka recently for the second time after the programme’s previous successful completion

Jamuna Bank Limited recently held a half yearly business conference for its o� cials in Rajshahi Zone at a hotel in Bogra. The bank’s managing director and CEO Sha� qul inaugurated the conference as chief guest

EXIM Bank has recently distributed Zakat to street children who have accounts under initiative of Bangladesh Bank. The central bank’s governor Dr Atiur Rahman attended the distribution programme as chief guest held in Gulshan, Dhaka. The chairperson of EXIM Bank, Md Nazrul Islam Mazumder presided over the programme

DESCO has recently signed an agreement with at NRBC Bank at its head o� ce for providing customers to pay electric bills at the bank’s branches in Gulshan and Uttara. The bank’s managing director and CEO Dewan Mujibur Rahman and Engr Md Sho� qul Islam, company secretary of DESCO signed the agreement

Prime Bank Limited recently held the closing ceremony of a foundation-training course for its o� cers at the bank’s HR Training and Development Centre. The bank’s deputy managing director and COO Quazi ASM Anisul Kabir attended the programme as chief guest

First Security Islami Bank Ltd has recently started operation of its new branch in Bhola. The bank’s head of ICT division, Taher Ahmed Chowdhury inaugurated the branch

India will not restrict iron ore exportsn Reuters, New Delhi

India does not plan to restrict exports of iron ore despite curbs on illegal min-ing, Minister of State for Steel Vishnu Deo Sai said on Monday, adding that there was still enough of the raw mate-rial for domestic steelmakers.

Court orders against unlawful min-ing over the past four years cut iron ore output by a quarter, to 152 million tonnes in the last � scal year, dropping India to the No10 spot from its earlier position as the third-largest iron ore exporter.

But Sai said iron ore output was still su� cient to meet the requirements of the domestic steelmakers.

Iron ore output in the year ended March 31 was 48 million tonnes more than local consumption, the minister told lawmakers. Exports, however, were just 14.41 million tonnes as a duty of 30% and high freight rates made In-dian ore uncompetitive.

Given the softness in global prices

and lower domestic output, India's No3 steelmaker JSW Steel is importing 6 million tonnes of iron ore this � scal year from Canada, South Africa and Australia.

JSW - whose second-biggest share-holder JFE Steel is the world's ninth-larg-est steel company and a unit of Japan's JFE Holdings Inc - says it may be cheaper to import iron ore than to buy it locally.

JSW is currently operating a 10 mil-lion-tonne-per-year mill at about 85% capacity in Karnataka, a state that is still the No2 producer of iron ore de-spite the restrictions that have been placed on mining there.

JSW and other steelmakers have been hoping for some kind of restric-tion on iron ore exports as Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi, during an election campaign, had criticised the previous government for allowing ore exports while importing steel.

India's steel output inched up 4% to 81 million tonnes in the most recent � s-cal year. l

Bank crisis further rattles Portugal economyn AFP, Lisbon

Portuguese Economy Minister Anto-nio Pires de Lima admitted on Monday that a crisis engul� ng the giant Banco Espirito Santo group could a� ect the country's recovery, but insisted Portu-gal's "upturn is stronger".

"The crisis in the Espirito Santo

group will not do us good, but the re-covery is stronger and it is there to stay," he told journalists.

The turmoil at Portugal's largest lender comes at a delicate time for the country, which has just come out of a joint EU-IMF rescue programme de-spite a surprise drop of 0.6% in its GDP in the � rst three months of the year.

Many analysts fear the knock-on ef-fects of the crisis could further under-mine Portugal's faltering economy, one of the weakest in the eurozone.

Portuguese President Anibal Cavaco Silva, on a visit to South Korea on Mon-day, said the problems a� ecting the non-banking part of the group "could have a certain a� ect on the real economy... and

its creditors could be confronted with serious di� culties". The bank is threat-ened by a hole in the accounts of one of its main shareholders, the Luxembourg-based Espirito Santo International (ESI), and allegations that it covered up ac-counting problems. ESI admitted on Fri-day that it could not pay its debts.

Another of the bank's holding com-

panies, Rioforte, failed to meet repay-ment of a debt of 847m euros ($1.146bn) to Portugal Telecom last Tuesday.

Economist Paula Carvalho, of BPI Bank, said although analysts had ini-tially felt Portugal's troubles were tran-sitory, "there is now a certain chilling, and doubts about the strength of the recovery in the second trimester". l

Oil prices up in Asian traden AFP, Singapore

Oil prices rose in Asia yesterday against the backdrop of geopolitical tensions fuelled by a warning of tougher sanc-tions against Russia over the downing of a Malaysian airliner and � erce � ght-ing in Gaza.

US benchmark West Texas Interme-diate (WTI) for August delivery was up 54 cents at $105.13 at midday, and Brent crude for September climbed 26 cents to $107.95.

Five days after Malaysia Airlines � ight MH17 crashed in Ukraine, pro-Russian separatists conceded to a furi-ous international clamour and handed over the bodies of victims and the plane's black boxes, helping ease ten-sions and lifting Asian equities.

A train carrying the remains of 280 of the 298 people killed in the disaster was � nally allowed to leave a rebel-held region in eastern Ukraine as the militants declared a truce yesterday around the crash site.

The devices, which record cockpit activity and � ight data, were handed to Malaysian o� cials by the prime min-

ister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, Alexander Borodai, in front of scores of journalists.

"The backdrop continues to be one of a cautious nature as geopolitical is-sues remain at the forefront," Singa-pore's United Overseas Bank said in a note.

The US has accused Russia of sup-plying the weapons allegedly used to shoot down the passenger jet and Eu-ropean leaders readied new sanctions against Moscow, which has denied any involvement.

Russia is the world's second biggest oil producer and there are fears that tougher sanctions could a� ect those supplies. Ukraine is also a major con-duit for Russian gas exports to Europe.

In the Middle East, Israel continued to pummel Gaza, raising the Pales-tinian death toll to more than 570, as Egypt took centre stage in world e� orts to broker a cease� re.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon and US Sec-retary of State John Kerry were in Cairo Tuesday in a bid to broker a truce be-tween Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza. l

Yen dips as stocks rally and Ukraine tensions easen AFP, Tokyo

The yen eased in Asia yesterday as news that pro-Russian rebels had handed over the black boxes of Flight MH17 eased concerns about the Ukraine crisis.

The losses in the Japanese unit, which is considered a safe bet in times of economic and political uncertainty, were in line with a regional stock mar-ket rally as con� dence returned to � -nancial markets.

In Tokyo afternoon trade, the dollar bought 101.53 yen, up from 101.38 yen in New York Monday afternoon, while the euro rose to 137.28 yen compared with 137.10 yen. The single currency was at $1.3520 against $1.3523.

Thursday's downing of the Malaysia Airlines jet hit global markets as it fuelled fears of an escalation of the months-long crisis in Ukraine, with western leaders saying it was shot down by rebels using Russian-supplied missiles.

However, on Tuesday it emerged the separatists had given the plane's

two black boxes to Malaysian o� cials and announced a cease� re with a 10-ki-lometre (six-mile) radius around the crash site to allow a international probe.

They also allowed a train carrying the remains of 280 of the 298 people killed in the disaster to leave the region.

Despite the breakthrough, European Union foreign ministers will meet in Brussels Tuesday to discuss toughen-ing sanctions against Russia over its links to the militants.

Traders are also keeping watch on events in the Middle East as Israel un-dertakes a ground invasion of Gaza fol-lowing air strikes and shelling that have left more than 570 Palestinians dead.

In the US, a strong in� ation data read-ing later yesterday could boost the dollar as it may prompt the Federal Reserve to hike interest rates sooner than later.

Fed chief Janet Yellen last week told lawmakers the bank could raise rates more quickly than expected if jobs data prove unexpectedly strong. But she emphasised the shift would be data de-pendent.

Existing home sales � gures are also due out in the United States on Tues-day. In other trading, the dollar was mostly down against other Asia Paci� c currencies. It weakened to Sg$1.2406 from Sg$1.2410, to 60.19 Indian rupees from 60.20 rupees, and to 43.36 Philip-pine pesos from 43.43 pesos.

The greenback also declined to 11,516 Indonesian rupiah from 11,564 rupiah and to 31.87 Thai baht from 32.02 baht.

The Australian dollar edged down to 93.89 US cents from 93.90 cents, while the Chinese yuan was higher at 16.36 yen from 16.30 yen. l

A labourer works in an iron factory on the outskirts of the southern Indian city of Hyderabad REUTERS

IMF raises Germany growth forecastsn AFP, Berlin

The International Monetary Fund raised its forecast for Germany’s growth on Monday, shrugging o� con-cerns of a slowdown in the eurozone’s largest economy.

Germany is expected to grow by 1.9% this year, the Washington-based body said in its annual country report, raising its previous forecast of 1.7%.

The stronger-than-expected expan-sion is also expected to spill into 2015, the IMF said, raising its prediction to 1.7% from 1.6%.

The optimistic outlook comes after a growing list of disappointing data in the European Union’s powerhouse, including weak industrial production and investor con� dence � gures.

Germany has been hit particularly hard by the political crisis in Ukraine and European Union sanctions against Rus-sia, which supplies some 40% of its oil.

In the face of such uncertainty, the IMF urged Berlin to increase public in-vestment to boost growth and support weak growth in the rest of the euro-zone bloc.

The body in a statement “empha-sized the importance of growth-en-hancing policies, which would also generate positive spillovers to the rest of the euro area, preserving the role of the German economy as an anchor of regional stability”. l

The greenback also declined to 11,516 Indonesian rupiah from 11,564 rupiah and to 31.87 Thai baht from 32.02 baht

China meat scandal spreads to Japann AFP, Shanghai

A scandal involving expired meat sold by a China unit of US food supplier OSI Group spread to Japan Tuesday, as Mc-Donald's con� rmed that the now shut factory provided Chicken McNuggets to its restaurants.

Shanghai authorities on Sunday shut an OSI plant - a supplier to McDonald's and KFC in China - for mixing out-of-date meat with fresh product, re-label-ling expired goods and other quality problems following an investigative re-port by a local television station.

A Tokyo-based spokesman for Mc-Donald's Japan told AFP the restaurant chain had sourced about 20% of its Mc-Nuggets from the Shanghai factory, and had suspended sales of its product since Monday.

Around 500 of McDonald's restau-rants in Japan, a sixth of the total, had

temporarily stopped selling McNuggets while the company obtained alterna-tive supplies, he added. Chinese police were questioning "several" employees of the OSI subsidiary, which is called Shanghai Husi Food Co., in the case, the Shanghai Daily newspaper said. Po-lice could not be reached for comment.

Separately, the China Food and Drug Administration had ordered an inves-tigation of OSI's factories nationwide, according to a statement.

OSI's Shanghai factory, set up in 1996, has more than 500 workers with � ve production lines for items includ-ing pork, beef and chicken, according to the group's website. OSI is a long-time supplier to McDonald's in China, starting from 1992, it said.

Series of safety issuesThe US company said on Monday that it was "appalled" by the allegations while

announcing it had formed a team to in-vestigate. McDonald's in China said it had "immediately" stopped using the factory's products while restaurant op-erator Yum said separately its KFC and Pizza Hut establishments had also halt-ed use of meat from the Shanghai plant.

US co� ee chain Starbucks con� rmed it was supplied chicken by the factory, but had removed the product from 12 provinces and a major municipality in China. Burger King, another customer, said it had removed the meat from its restaurants.

In an editorial, China's Global Times newspaper took aim at McDonald's and Yum for failing to supervise their sup-pliers.

"Famous international brands have not adopted a dedicated attitude to-ward Chinese consumers," said the newspaper, known for its nationalistic editorial stance. l

B4 Back PageDHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, July 23, 2014

DILBERT

Over 50% consumers globally upbeaton job prospects n Reuters, London

More than half of consumers glob-ally expect job prospects to be good to excellent in the year ahead, a survey showed on Tuesday.

That helped push global consumer con� dence up in the second quarter to its highest since the � rst quarter of 2007, according to the survey by glob-al information and insights company Nielsen. India overtook Indonesia as the most optimistic consumer market, while Portugal and Slovenia were the most pessimistic.

Japan and Hong Kong saw the big-gest declines in con� dence from the previous quarter.

The Nielsen Global Consumer Con-� dence Index rose 1 point in the second quarter to 97, according to the survey, conducted between May 12 and 30. The reading headed closer to the 100 mark that signals optimism among consumers.

US consumers were the eighth most upbeat globally as optimism about job prospects surged.

"Payroll growth is visible across a range of (US) sectors, which is also posi-tive," said Venkatesh Bala, chief econo-mist at the Cambridge Group, a part of Nielsen. "However, real-wage growth of workers has been anaemic so far, and needs to pick up substantially, along with other improvements in the labour

market, in order for consumer spending to increase in a broad-based way."

By region, consumers in the Asia Paci� c were most con� dent about job prospects with 65% seeing favourable job opportunities for the year ahead, up from 64% in the � rst quarter.

Globally, 56% of respondents to the survey viewed their personal � nances positively, up from 55% over the past three consecutive quarters. North Amer-ica reported the biggest increase, with 63% of respondents feeling secure in money matters over the next 12 months, up from 59% in the � rst quarter.

While consumer con� dence in debt-laden euro zone economies remained weak it improved sharply in Italy, which Nielsen attributed to con� dence in Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's new government, formed in February.

Con� dence also continued to slowly improve in Greece, France and Spain.

Outside the euro zone, consumer sen-timent in Britain rose to its highest level since 2007 as the country's economy con-tinued to outperform euro zone peers.

Ukraine, meanwhile, saw a rebound in consumer sentiment after a sharp fall in the � rst quarter following a political crisis and tensions with Russia after Moscow annexed the Crimea region.

The Nielsen survey covered more than 30,000 online consumers across 60 markets. l

Paris hotels allow guests to 'pay what you want'n AFP, Paris

Five Paris hotels on Monday launched a scheme allowing guests to "pay what you want" in an experiment that may be extended if successful.

The three- and four-star hotels tak-ing part in the scheme are located in the city's 9th and 11th districts - a little away from the city's tourist centres. The owners are bullish about the pros-pects and con� dent that clients will not abuse the scheme.

Tourists often complain about high hotel rates in Paris and tiny rooms. France attracts more tourists than any other country in the world.

The scheme will run until August 10 and will be available only to those who have made bookings through the web-

site www.payezcequevousvoulez.net (Pay what you want)

"It's a fair price operation, one of con� dence in the client," said Aldric Duval, the head of the Tour d'Auvergne hotel, and the man who came up with the idea.

Guests will pay whatever they want, based on their impressions of the hotel, the room and the service

The experiment could be extended if it works and clients don't abuse it.

Fears of cheapskate guests do not faze Si Zyad Si Hocine, the owner of one the hotels, the Grand Hotel Francais in the east of the city, who said he was con� dent "guests will pay a fair price".

The hotels taking part have so far only set aside two to three rooms each under the scheme. l

Apple asks suppliers to produce up to 80 million large-screen iPhones n Reuters

Apple Inc has asked suppliers to manu-facture between 70 million and 80 mil-lion of its two forthcoming large-screen iPhones by the end of the year, its larg-est initial production run of iPhones, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Its forecast for the iPhones with 4.7-inch (11.9-cm) and 5.5-inch (14-cm) dis-plays is much larger than the initial or-der last year of between 50 million and 60 million for iPhone 5S and 5C mod-els, the people told the Journal.

Foxconn and Pegatron Corp plan to start mass producing the 4.7-inch iPhone model next month, and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd, whose parent is Foxconn, will begin making the 5.5-inch version exclusively in Sep-tember, the people said.

Both iPhone 6 screens will be larger than the 4.0-inch (10.2-cm) panels on Ap-ple's existing iPhone 5S and 5C models.

The new phone models are also ex-pected to feature metal cases similar to the iPhone 5S and likely come in mul-tiple colors, the people said.

Both iPhone 6 screens are expected to use in-cell touch panel technology, built into the screen and allowing for thinner construction than with stan-dard touch panel � lms, that was intro-duced with the iPhone 5, sources told Reuters in March. l

A Shanghai food factory was shut down on Sunday for sellingmeat past its due dateAffected meat

Actions taken

Chicken Beef

YUM! BRANDS

Ordered restaurantsto stop using all meatfrom factory

China restaurantsto stop using allmeat from factory

Pulled all meat fromfactory early Monday

In JapanWithdrew chicken panini from 12 provincesand Chongqing

Restaurantsincluded:PIZZA HUT

KFC

MCDONALDS

BURGER KING

Says it sourced about 20 percent of ChickenMcNuggets from Husi. Suspended product since Monday

MCDONALDS

STARBUCKS COFFEE

China meat scandal

ShanghaiHusi Food

Co.

US food supplierOSI Group

Factory closed:

Pork

Facebook lets users squirrelitems awayn AFP, San Francisco

Facebook on Monday began letting people squirrel away online tidbits such as links to chew on more thor-oughly later.

"Now you can save items that you � nd on Facebook to check out later when you have more time," software engineer Daniel Giambalvo said in a blog post on the leading social network.

"You can save items like links, plac-es, movies, TV and music."

The feature is being added as Face-book users increasingly connect with the social network from mobile devices while on the go, with only snippets of time to explore Internet o� erings.

Letting people save items for later scrutiny encourages people to return and spend more time on Facebook, increasing opportunities for the social network to cash in on money-making tools such as advertising.

California-based Facebook said us-ers have the option of keeping saved items private or sharing them with friends via the social network.

The "Save" feature will be rolled out during the next few days to those using computer browsers or mobile devices powered by Apple of Android software, according to Giambalvo. l

Yahoo to buy analytics startup Flurry to bolster mobile ad businessn Reuters, San Francisco

Yahoo Inc will buy mobile analytics startup Flurry to beef up a fast-growing mobile advertising business that still lags Google Inc's and Facebook Inc's in scale.

Six-year-old Flurry uses analytics to help target ads at consumers by moni-toring activity on more than half a mil-lion apps on some 1.4 billion mobile devices around the world, Yahoo said in a statement on Monday.

The startup provides information to help marketers and brands more easily reach their desired audiences, Yahoo said.

Yahoo did not cite a price tag, but a source familiar with the matter said the Internet company is paying sev-eral hundred million dollars. Tech blog re/code earlier reported that rough amount.

Flurry will operate much as before after the acquisition closes, and its team will remain in their current loca-tions, Yahoo added.

Yahoo is trying to revitalize a stag-nant online advertising business as Chief Executive Marissa Mayer marks her second anniversary at the Internet company.

The former Google executive has

revamped many of Yahoo's Web prod-ucts but its ad sales are still weak while rivals such as Google and Facebook continue to post strong, double-digit revenue growth.

Like its rivals, it has been invest-ing in its mobile advertising platform,

as users increasingly access the Inter-net from smartphones and tablets. Its mobile advertising revenue more than doubled in the second quarter.

But mobile advertising typically commands lower rates than online. Revenue in Yahoo's display advertising business decreased 8% to $436m in the second quarter.

The average price per ad decreased 24%, while the number of display ads sold increased 24% . l

Japanese electronics giant Panasonic employee displays the new eye steamer 'EH-SW53', that provides hot steam in Tokyo yesterday. Panasonic will put their new products on the market from September 1 AFP

Yahoo is trying to revitalize a stagnant online advertising business as Chief Executive Marissa Mayer marks her second anniversary at the Internet company