China calls in US diplomat over South China Sea

China's Foreign Ministry has called in a senior US diplomat to protest remarks by the US State Department raising concerns over tensions in the disputed South China Sea, in the latest political spat between the two countries.
In a statement released late on Saturday, China's Foreign Ministry said Assistant Foreign Minister Zhang Kunsheng summoned the US Embassy's Deputy Chief of Mission Robert Wang to make "serious representations" about the issue.
The State Department on Friday said it was monitoring the situation in the seas closely, adding that China's establishing of a military garrison for the area runs "counter to collaborative diplomatic efforts to resolve differences and risk further escalating tensions in the region".
The South China Sea has become Asia's biggest potential military flashpoint as Beijing's sovereignty claim over the huge area has set it against Vietnam and the Philippines as the three countries race to tap possibly huge oil reserves.
Beijing and Washington are already at odds over numerous issues, including the value of China's currency, Tibet and Taiwan.
Zhang said the US statement "disregarded the facts, confused right with wrong, sent a seriously wrong signal and did not help with efforts by relevant parties to maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea or the Asia Pacific.
"China expresses its strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition, urges the US side to immediately to mend the error of its ways, earnestly respect China's sovereignty and territorial integrity and do more to genuinely benefit stability and prosperity in the Asia Pacific," he added.
A separate statement by ministry spokesman Qin Gang repeated that China had absolute sovereignty over the sea and its myriad islands and had every right to formally set up a city to administer the region, which it did last month.
"Why does the US turn a blind eye to the facts that certain countries opened a number of oil and gas blocks, and issued domestic laws illegally appropriating Chinese islands and waters?" Qin said.
"Why does the US avoid talking about the threats of military vessels to Chinese fishermen by certain countries and their unjustified claims of sovereignty rights over Chinese islands?" he added.
In all, six parties have rival claims to the waters, which were a central issue at an acrimonious Asean regional summit last month that ended with its members failing to agree on a concluding statement for the first time in 45 years.
The stakes have risen in the area as the US military shifts its attention and resources back to Asia, emboldening its long-time ally the Philippines and former foe Vietnam to take a bolder stance against Beijing.
The United States has stressed it is neutral in the long-running maritime dispute, despite offering to help boost the Philippines' decrepit military forces. It says freedom of navigation is its main concern about a waterway that carries $5 trillion in trade -- half the world's shipping tonnage.

London Olympic 2012 Oscar Pistorius runs into history

The press at the mixed zones was getting antsy. There were some whispers about deadlines. From time to time, murmurs went up around the hundred or so who had packed into the limited space for the chance to grab a single quote from the South African.
Then someone said, “He is late because he is putting his legs on.” Suddenly, the reality of Pistorius' achievement dawned on everyone. There were no more complaints. Everyone waited and although the rumour turned out to be just that, a rumour, (Pistorius was indulging the broadcast press) the stark reality of what the maverick South African had managed cannot be stressed enough.
The fact that he had just made Olympic history by being the first double-amputee to compete in the Games, is just the tip of the iceberg. Pistorius also finished a respectable second and qualified for the semifinals of his pet event, the 400-meters.
“My goal here was to qualify for the semifinal, and I am glad I have managed it,” said Pistorius later. The South African clocked a time of 45.44 seconds, which while still being quite far off his personal best, was enough to propel him to his desired semifinal target.
“I started a bit slowly,” said Pistorius.
Indeed he had, as the weight of the watching thousands seemed to put a little bit of pressure on him. “I slipped slightly, but I am not really the best of starters,” said the South African. But with the crowd egging on their favourite Blade Runner, Pistorius regained ground towards the end of the race and managed to streak through into second spot, just behind the 18-year old Dominican Lugelin Santos.
The youngster was later asked about Pistorius.
“Bueno, si, Bueno,” he said. “He is a good man, always talking to everyone,” said Santos, despite the obvious language barrier. Every single athlete who walked through the mixed zone before Pistorius echoed Santos. Pistorius 'had a big heart', said one and all were united in the belief that his prosthetic legs gave him no advantage.
“I don't know whether to laugh or cry,” said Pistorius. “It is incredibly difficult to separate the occasion from the event,” he admitted. The Olympics after all is the pinnacle of track and field sport and for Pistorius it perhaps provided extra inspiration.
Not that he was short of muses.
“My mother always told me that the loser is not one who competes and finishes last, but one who does not compete at all,” said Pistorius.
Those are certainly words to live by.
The South African is not expected to make the 400-meter final, but his mother's words will doubtless drive him on to greater achievements, if not now, then in the future.

London 2012: GB beach volleyball player Shauna Mullin's perfect weekend

A weekend off is a real luxury for me. My volleyball partner, Zara, and I are away training and competing for about 10 months of each year and when I’m in England, I live in Hook, Hampshire, with my gran, and commute daily to the Sport Training Village in Bath, which is one and a half hours away.

On Fridays I finish training at about 3.30-4pm and in an ideal world I’ll drive straight to Heathrow and jump on a flight to Edinburgh, as my best friends Laura, Jenny and Sara live in Scotland. I met them when I went to boarding school in Edinburgh when my father, a hotel manager, was working in Scotland and then in Ireland.

Laura will pick me up from the airport and we’ll drive to Jenny’s house in Dundee where Sara will join us. We don’t get to meet up nearly enough so we’ll probably spend a couple of hours catching up. The others will drink wine but I’ll probably decline. With the Olympics just around the corner, tea has become my evening drink of choice!

I don’t often see my family but they’ll be watching me in London later this month. My brother lives in Dublin, and my parents live in Jordan — where Dad is still working as a hotel manager. More often than not the only time I get to see them properly is when we go to South Africa for Christmas. I was born there and it feels like home.

Taking part in London 2012 is the realisation of a long-term dream. Zara and I are getting really excited — it’s hard not to. Horse Guards Parade, where the beach volleyball competition will be staged during the Olympics, is definitely the best venue of the Games. Beach volleyball isn’t played much in Britain so I think it’s great that we’re bringing it to London and showing everyone what the sport is. It’s the most popular spectator sport at the Olympics.

Bangladesh's Rapid Action Battalion 'death squads' to get image makeover

Its elite troops, in their black bandannas, wrap around shades, and well-oiled AK47s strike fear wherever they go.

But they are now set to get an image makeover with training to help them improve their dealing with "human issues" and a "complaints bureau" to appease their critics.

Human rights groups say they are sceptical over whether many Bangladeshis would be brave enough to complain to the force about their actions. Last month Bangladesh's own Human Rights Commission demanded to know whether it had been involved in around 40 disappearances, including activists of the opposition Bangladesh National Party.

"It will be hard for ordinary Bangladeshis to feel confident enough to make complaints against them unless the government makes a commitment that they will be protected," said Meenakshi Ganguly of Human Rights Watch.

The Battalion has in the past received military training from Britain and the United States, but they and other countries are believed to have made a rapid improvement in the force's human rights record and accountability a condition of further aid.

DGEN ends higher

Dhaka, Jul 24 (bdnews24.com) — Dhaka stock's key index ended Tuesday's trade 2.78 percent higher.

The DGEN closed at 4318.79 points gaining 116.91 points on the week's third business day.

Shares and mutual funds worth around Tk 2.89 billion changed hands with prices of 247 issues gaining, 14 declining and seven remaining at their opening prices.

The key index ended Monday's trade 1.88 percent higher. The benchmark index had gained nearly 2 points last week.

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HC settles writ over Speaker ruling

Dhaka, July 24 (bdnews24.com) — The High Court on Tuesday settled a writ petition challenging the Parliament Speaker's ruling involving a judge's statement.

The bench of justices Hasan Foez Siddique and A B M Altaf Hossain heard the petition argued by lawyer Rokon Uddin Mahmud.

On July 18, the bench of Justices Naima Haider and Muhammad Khurshid Alam Sarkar had felt embarrassed to hear the petition that sought an order to declare illegal the Speaker's ruling passed on Jun 18 in the Parliament.

After Tuesday's verdict, Deputy Attorney General Biswajit Roy, who represented the state, told bdnews24.com the court had given the verdict on the hearings of both sides saying 'the petition was settled with several observations'.

Roy said the observations will be elaborated in the written copy of the verdict.

Speaker Abdul Hamid gave the ruling at Parliament on Jun 18 as MPs demanded steps after Justice AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury criticised the parliament's presiding officer.

The Speaker had hoped the Chief Justice himself would initiate measures in this regard and parliament would support his decision.

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Brawl over fare, buses smashed in Farmgate

Dhaka, Jul 24 (bdnews24.com) — Students of Tejgaon College have vandalised four buses at Farmgate area on Tuesday and beat up driver of a bus following a brawl over fare.

Sub Inspector of Traffic Police Ruhul Amin said several students of the college exchanged heated arguments with the staffs of a Motijheel-Cantonment route bus around 9:30am while the bus was on its way to Farmgate from Shahbugh.

When the bus reached Farmgate, where the college is located, up to 25 students beat up the bus driver and smashed the bus, he said.

The Tejgaon College students vandalised three other buses and for this vehicular movements came to a halt for nearly half an hour in the area, the police officer said.

Assistant Sub Inspector of Tejgaon Police Station Munsi Abdul Lokman said traffic resumed around 10am at the intervention of the law enforcers.

The injured driver, 'Shafik', has been taken to hospital, the ASI said.

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Farm loan disbursement target Tk 141.3bn

Abdur Rahim Harmachi
Chief Economics Correspondent

Dhaka, July 23 (bdnews24.com) – The Bangladesh Bank has set agricultural loan disbursement target for local and foreign banks at Tk 141.3 billion for 2012-13 fiscal, says the chief of the central bank.

Governor Atiur Rahman said on Monday the central bank would formally announce the new agriculture and rural credit policy and programmes for the current financial year, divulging the disbursement target, higher than that of the previous fiscal, at a meeting with the chief executives of the state-owned, specialised, private and foreign commercial banks on Tuesday.

He told bdnews24.com: "The agriculture sector has kept our economy in a comfortable position. We didn't need import any rice over the last one year. It has been possible due to the bumper production in the past few seasons. And the disbursement of farm loans has played a vital role in this."

"In this backdrop, a target of disbursing Tk 141.3 billion in agricultural loan has been set for further boosting crop production and rural economy," he added.

State-owned, specialised, private and foreign commercial banks had a target to disburse Tk 138 billion in the 2011-12 fiscal.

Of them, the target was Tk 85.1 billion for the state-owned commercial banks – Sonali, Janata, Agrani and Rupali – and the two specialised banks, Bangladesh Krishi Bank and Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank.

In the current fiscal, the target of annual loan disbursement in agriculture sector has been set at Tk 83 billion for the state-owned commercial banks and specialised banks and Tk 58.3 billion for the private and foreign banks.

According to the Bangladesh Bank data, all banks collectively disbursed Tk 114.53 billion in farm loans in the first 11 months of the just-concluded financial year while disbursement was Tk 121.84 billion in its previous fiscal.

Atiur said agricultural credit disbursement had increased due to the strict monitoring by the central bank.

"Our economy is based on agriculture. The state-owned and specialised banks used to disburse farm loans in the past, but now the private banks are also disbursing farm loans simultaneously. The banks having no branches at rural level are disbursing farm loans through NGOs."

The central bank chief said an obligation had been imposed on the banks to ensure that they disbursed at least 2 percent of their total loans in the agriculture sector. "We're monitoring it strictly."

Apart from the state-owned banks, agricultural credit disbursement was made compulsory for the private and foreign banks three years back.

He said measures were also taken for opening bank accounts for farmers with an initial deposit of only Tk 10 each.

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Abul Hossain's resignation proves graft: BNP

Dhaka, Jul 23 (bdnews24.com)—The BNP has said the resignation of Information and Communications Minister Syed Abul Hossain as a minister, 10 months after allegations of corruption in the Padma bridge project surfaced, proves corruption in the project.

"It (the resignation) proves corruption in the Padma bridge project," party's Acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told bdnews24.com in his instant reaction to resignation of the former Communications Minister.

He said the loan agreement would not have been cancelled had he (Syed Abul Hossain) quit as soon as the allegation of corruptions were raised.

Earlier in the day, the beleaguered minister, who was later given charge of the ICT ministry, tendered his resignation letter, highly placed sources told bdnews24.com.

Fakhrul alleged that 'many others' were involved in the corruption in the project.

"Please wait, many things will eventually surface," he added.

The World Bank (WB) cancelled its $ 1.2-billion fund for the $2.9-billion project on Jun 29. It claimed the government did not follow its suggestion to send high-ranking officials linked to the alleged corruption on leave until the investigations were complete.

Abul Hossain was the Communication Minister that time.

The minister, however, never admitted that he was involved in any corruption while leading the Communications Ministry until Sept last year.

But he was transferred from the Communications Ministry amid growing calls from inside the ruling coalition and the opposition.

"The government should launch a complete and neutral investigation into the alleged corruption in the Padma bridge project," he said.

He urged the government to ensure exemplary punishment to those involved in the graft.

"If this government does not investigate this (WB alleged corruption), the BNP will do it once it comes to power," the BNP spokesman said.

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Humayun`s janaza held at Nuhash Palli

Dhaka, Jul 24 (bdnews24.com) — Humayun Ahmed's third namaz-e-janaza, prayer before burial, took place at Nuhash Palli, his favourite retreat, in Gazipur on Tuesday.

He is to be laid to rest there after Zohr prayers.

Hundreds of people took part in the funeral prayer of the celebrated writer. The janaza was conducted by Mojibur Rahman, Imam of a local mosque.

Earlier on the day, an ambulance started for Nuhash Palli with Humayun's body around 9am from BIRDEM, Dhaka.

His second wife Meher Afroz Shaon and her two children, Nishad and Ninit, reached there around 12:05pm with the ambulance.

Minutes before Shaon reached there, Humayn's children from his first marriage – Nuhash, Sheela and Nova, and the writer's two brothers Muhammad Zafar Iqbal and Ahsan Habib and their two sisters have reached Nuhash Palli.

A Sculptor at Nuhash Palli, Asaduzzaman Khan, had earlier told bdnews24.com they were taking preparations for the burial from morning since Humayun's family members 'decided' his burial site in the wee hours Tuesday.

The writer built his favourite retreat and named it after his eldest son, Nuhash. He once wished to lay to rest under a Lychee tree, Khan said.

"He will then be buried under this Lychee tree," Khan had said.

Humayun's fans started thronging at Nuhash Palli from early morning.

Superintendent of Gazipur Police Abdul Baten told journalists, they have taken all preparations so that everything could be done in a disciplined way.

Gazipur's Additional Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Habibur Rahman said the district administration has all the preparations to conduct the ritual.

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