| Devote for the welfare of the country, PM Sheikh Hasina urges BCL Leaders Posted: 28 Aug 2011 11:37 AM PDT 
 Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina called upon the leaders and workers of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) to devote themselves to the welfare of the countrymen imbued with the ideals of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman."I urge you to make whatever sacrifices are needed for the welfare and development of the country," she yesterday told a discussion at Bangabandhu International Conference Center. BCL arranged the discussion in memory of Bangabandhu and Bangamata Begum Fazilatunnesa Mujib marking the National Mourning Day. Sheikh Hasina advised BCL leaders and workers to work for building a hunger, poverty and illiteracy-free 'Digital Bangladesh' as pledged in the election manifesto of Awami League. Terming the students as the future leaders in all sectors of the country, she asked BCL workers to build themselves as the worthy citizens to take future leadership of the country. The Prime Minister said the main objective of her politics is to bring smile on the faces of the common people through ensuring all basic rights of the people as she had no personal ambition for wealth and property."I don't want any wealth and property...I only wants to see smiles on the faces of the common people," she said. Praising the glorious role of BCL in all democratic movements of the country, the Prime Minister called upon the leaders and workers to retain its past glory."Whatever obstacles come to your way, you will have to retain the past glory of the organization by building 'Sonar Bangla' as dreamt by Bangabandhu," she said. Terming the 1996-2001 period of Awami League as a golden era for the country, Sheikh Hasina said people had realized for the first time that the government was actually for their welfare. Sheikh Hasina came down heavily on General Zia for protecting and patronizing the killers of Bangabandhu and said he (Zia) not only let the killers of Bangabandhu go scot-free, but also rewarded them by providing jobs in different embassies. Like Zia, she said, Begum Khaleda Zia made a killer of Bangabandhu as the leader of opposition in parliament in 1996 through the 15th February farcical elections. She said that after the brutal assassination of Bangabandhu, the military rulers played a game with the fate of the people and created an elite class in the country to protect them. Sheikh Hasina said fallen Libyan ruler Moamer Gaddafi had sought clemency for killers of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as the 1996 general elections brought Awami League back to power 21 years after the carnage. "He (Gaddafi) wrote a letter asking me to pardon Bangabandhu's killers, quoting Quranic verses," she said. The Prime Minister said the Libyan leader gave asylum to the self-confessed killers of Bangabandhu and added: "He (Gaddafi) is now in a position to leave the country." "Those who sheltered Bangabandhu's killers have fallen," she said. Paying rich tributes to Bangabandhu, she said that at a time when Bangabandhu was rebuilding the war- ravaged nation, the anti- liberation forces brutally killed him along with most of the family members on the fateful night of August 15, 1975. Through the killing of Bangabandhu, she said, the assailants not only killed the great leader but also stopped the wheels of development and progress side by side with shattering the hopes and aspirations of the people. The Prime Minister greeted BCL leaders and workers on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr. With BCL President H M Badiuzzaman Sohag in the chair, the discussion was also addressed by eminent economist Professor Dr Abul Barakat, Prof Dr Hamida Banu of Chittagong University and noted historian Professor Dr Abul Kashem of Rajshahi University.At the outset of the meeting, a minute's silence was observed as a mark of respect to Bangabandhu, Begum Fazilatunnesa Mujib and other martyrs of the August 15 carnage. The Prime Minister also unwrapped the cover of BCL publication, Matribhumi, at the function |
| Japan's Kaieda ahead in PM race but run-off likely Posted: 28 Aug 2011 05:44 AM PDT 
TOKYO: Trade minister Banri Kaieda has the lead in a ruling party race to pick Japan's next Prime Minister, but with chances dim for winning a majority in a first round vote, a bruising run- off looks likely, media surveys showed on Sunday. The race to select Japan's sixth leader in five years has become a battle between allies and critics of party powerbroker Ichiro Ozawa, a 69-year-old political mastermind who heads the ruling Democratic Party of Japan's (DPJ) biggest group despite facing trial on charges of misreporting political donations. Japan's next leader, to be selected in a DPJ election on Monday, faces huge challenges including a resurgent yen that threatens exports, forging a new energy policy while ending the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl, and finding funds to rebuild from a devastating March tsunami as well as to pay for the ballooning social welfare costs of a fast-ageing society. Despite differences over policies such as whether to raise taxes to pay for rebuilding and how to win opposition help in a divided parliament, none of the five candidates has presented a bold, detailed vision of how to end Japan's decades of stagnation and revitalise the world's third- biggest economy. That has raised concerns that whoever wins will end up being another short-lived leader. The 62-year-old Kaieda, who has secured powerbroker Ozawa's backing, had support from about 115 of the 398 Democratic lawmakers eligible to vote in Monday's party election, a survey by the Mainichi newspaper showed. Former foreign minister Seiji Maehara, 49, who says beating deflation is a top priority, was jostling with fiscal hawk Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda, 54, and little-known farm minister Michihiko Kano, 69, for second place, the Mainichi and other Japanese newspapers said. A fifth candidate, former transport minister Sumio Mabuchi, 51, was lagging behind. RUN-OFF VOTE LIKELY If no candidate wins a majority in an initial vote, a run-off will immediately be held between the two top candidates. The winner of the DPJ election will become prime minister by virtue of the party's majority in parliament's lower house. "In the current situation, it will be tough to win a majority in the first round vote," the Nikkei business daily quoted an Ozawa aide as saying. Maehara, a security hawk, ranks highest of the candidates with ordinary voters, but his chances have been undercut by rivalry with Noda, who shares a similar support base inside the DPJ, as well as by concern about a donations scandal. Maehara -- who would become Japan's youngest post-World War Two premier if he wins -- resigned as foreign minister in March after admitting he had accepted donations from a Korean resident of Japan. That would be illegal had he done so knowingly. On Saturday, he told a news conference he had received more than $7,000 in donations from four foreigners and one firm headed by a foreigner between 2005 and 2010, but had not been aware of the donations, Japanese media reported. Whoever takes over from outgoing Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who resigned as party head on Friday after months of criticism for his handling of the nuclear crisis, faces a struggle to implement policies in a divided parliament where the opposition controls the upper house and can block bills. Maehara and Noda on Sunday reiterated their calls for a "grand coalition" with the main opposition parties, but Kaieda rejected the idea, to which opposition rivals have anyway been cool. "In a democratic parliamentary system, a grand coalition is not preferable," he said in a debate on NHK public TV. Feuds over the role of Ozawa, a one-time heavyweight in the conservative Liberal Democratic Party who bolted and helped briefly oust the long-dominant party in 1993, have rattled the Democrats since his Liberal Party merged with the DPJ in 2003. Some credit his political skills with engineering the Democrats' leap to power in an August 2009 election. Others say his scandal- tainted image is damaging the party, which has seen its support sink among voters disillusioned with its failure to deliver on promises of bold changes in how Japan is governed. Ozawa, who lost a tough leadership race to Kan in September 2010, cannot vote in Monday's party poll since his DPJ membership was suspended following his indictment over the funding scandal. |
| Syrian authorities warn against protesting in capital Posted: 28 Aug 2011 05:42 AM PDT 
AMMAN: Syria's interior ministry warned Damascus residents on Saturday against demonstrating after some of the most intense protests in the capital since the start of the five-month uprising against President Bashar al- Assad. The warning came as Syria's closest ally Iran said Damascus must listen to the "legitimate demands" of its people, but also said that any change in Syria's ruling system or power vacuum in Damascus would be dangerous for the Middle East. "The interior ministry calls on citizens not to respond to social Internet sites to participate in rallies or assemble in public squares in Damascus. This is for their safety," a statement by the ministry published on official media said. Syrian forces fired live ammunition to prevent thousands of protesters from marching on the center of Damascus from eastern suburbs earlier Saturday, witnesses and activists said, seriously injuring at least five people. Security police and militiamen loyal to Assad, known as 'shabbiha', also fired live ammunition at worshippers who tried to demonstrate outside the al-Rifai mosque in the Kfar Sousa district of the capital, home to the secret police headquarters. Assad loyalists also beat the mosque's preacher, popular cleric Osama al-Rifai, who was treated with several stitches to his head, witnesses said. "Some of the 'amn' (security) went on the roof and began firing from their AK-47s to scare the crowd. Around 10 people were wounded, with two hit by bullets in the neck and chest," a cleric who lives in the area told Reuters by phone. The United Nations says 2,200 people have been killed since Assad sent in tanks and troops to crush months of street demonstrations calling for an end to his family's 41-year rule. Syrian authorities have blamed armed "terrorist groups" for the bloodshed and say 500 police and army have been killed. They have expelled most independent journalists, making it difficult to verify events on the ground. IRAN SAYS ASSAD MUST ACT Syria's ally Iran said Assad must respond to the "legitimate demands of the people," but unlike other regional powers it did not criticize Assad's use of force to crush protests and said there should be no change to Syria's ruling system. "If there is a change or a vacuum in Syria's system of governance, it will have unforeseen consequences," Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said. "...The outbreak of change in Syria will not have good consequences for anyone in the region and can subject the region to serious crisis." Assad, from Syria's minority Alawite sect, has strengthened an alliance with Iran's Shi'ite clerical rulers, to the disquiet of Syria's Sunni majority. He also backs Lebanese and Palestinian militant groups. The United States has accused Tehran of providing support to Assad's forces crushing the protests. A delegate to the Arab League in Cairo said Arab foreign ministers would step up pressure on Assad later Saturday with a demand he end the crackdown on demonstrators. "There has been an agreement in talks held between the Arab states on...pressuring the Syrian regime to completely stop the military operations and withdraw its forces," he said. At least three protesters were killed in Syria Saturday as tens of thousands of people marched to demand the removal of Assad on a major religious occasion, activists and residents said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), citing witnesses, said more demonstrations had broken out in Damascus overnight and Saturday morning than at any time since the pro-democracy uprising erupted in March. Two of the three were killed as Assad's forces fired live ammunition to disperse demonstrators streaming from mosques in the city of Qusair and Latakia port after al-Qadr prayers, the night Muslims believe the Prophet received the Koran. SOHR, headed by dissident Rami Abdelrahman, said Syrian forces fired at a funeral turned protest Saturday in the town of Kfar Roumeh in the northwestern Idlib province bordering Turkey, wounding at least ten. The organization said another man was killed in raids and house-to-house arrests in the nearby town of Kfar Nubul. "Besides the killings, another tragedy in Syria is the tens of thousands of people arrested since the beginning of uprising, many of whose whereabouts are unknown," Abdelrahman told Reuters. The United States and EU have urged Assad to step down but their push at the UN to impose Security Council sanctions on Syria over its crackdown has met resistance from Russia and China, diplomats said. Russia has a naval base in Syria and is one of its main arms suppliers. One proposed sanction is an arms embargo while other sanctions would freeze the assets of Assad and his associates. The Syrian National Human Rights Organization (SNHRO), headed by opposition figure Ammar Qurabi, said nearly 100 civilians were killed by security forces in the week to Friday. The uprising has shattered Syria's economy, hitting investment and the tourism industry, forcing businesses to lay off workers. Any power shakeup in Syria would have major regional repercussions. Assad, from Syria's minority Alawite sect, still has alliances with the country's influential Sunni business class and a loyalist core in the army and security service. |
