Electicity cricis in Pakistan

Sagheerullah Khan huddles before a small fire outside his shop in northwest Pakistan, struggling to stay warm and keep his business alive despite five days without electricity. Other shopkeepers join him and gather around the flames in the poor Badhber neighbourhood on the outskirts of northwest capital Peshawar, lamenting crushing power outages and gas shortages that have plunged them back in time. "Long power cuts and a lack of natural gas have made life miserable for us during the extremely cold season," Khan tells AFP as he sets the flame of his ageing kerosene lamp to try and light up the pitch-black night. "We had power cuts of between 15 to 16 hours since electricity load shedding resumed in December, but there has been no electricity in the area for the last five days, " he said from a city where the mercury can drop below freezing. Pakistan faces a catastrophic energy crisis, suffocating industry, making life unbearable as cold winter weather grips the country, and fuelling anger at a government already suffering plummeting approval ratings. Queues snake from petrol stations as cars stock up on dwindling natural gas, generators rumble loudly at households that can afford them and protesters spill into the streets, furious at the disruption to their lives. Since late December, Pakistanis have been suffering at least six hours a day without power, as a lack of rain to run hydro power plants exacerbates a long-running power shortage. In rural areas and poorer city neighbourhoods, blackouts can last for most of the day. "When I go to work early in the morning, there is no electricity and when I come back after sunset, the darkness welcomes me again," said Razia Khatoon, a maid who lives in a one- room house in Islamabad's twin city Rawalpindi. Compounding her woes is a shortage of natural gas, with supply unable to keep up with demand in the frigid winter months and gas pressure so low in crowded neighbourhoods that cooking is impossible. "I earn 8 ,000 rupees (94 dollars) a month after working in five houses as a maid. How can I buy cooked food from market on daily basis?" said Khatoon. Pakistan is only able to produce about 80 percent of the electricity it needs, officials from the main power regulatory authority the Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO) say. Production shortfall has been blamed on issues such as corruption, short-sightedness, debts, a creaking distribution system, and a lack of money to invest in renewable energy as demand grows. Last July, during the sweltering summer months, chronic power cuts triggered riots in financial capital Karachi and the most populous province of Punjab. Mild weather and rains offered a brief respite in the last three months of 2009 , but power cuts resumed in December. Rumbles of discontent have followed. Police baton-charged a crowd of 500 people protesting power cuts in eastern Lahore city in mid-January. It comes with the government's reputation dented as ministers face court cases after the scrapping in November of a 2007 corruption amnesty. Pakistan is also grappling with a Taliban-led insurgency that has killed thousands of people. "We were already facing the brunt of suicide attacks and bomb explosions and now the government has dropped the bombs of power cuts and natural gas load shedding," said Fazal Karim, an auto rickshaw mechanic. A PEPCO official told AFP that power cuts are not expected to ease until the winter snows melt, providing water for the hydro power plants. Naeem A. Khan, a spokesman for state body the Sui Northern Gas Pipeline, said Pakistan can only supply about 80 percent of gas demand right now. Two projects to pipe gas from Iran and Turkmenistan to try and alleviate the shortage have long stalled, while investment and exploration for new fields in impoverished Pakistan remain limited. The impact on the economy has also been immense, with independent analyst A.B. Shahid estimating that power outages have forced about 8 ,000 small manufacturing businesses to shut down in the past six months alone. "The energy shortages have made Pakistani products expensive and less competitive in the global markets," he said. Waiting for natural gas in a queue of cars at a Rawalpindi gas station, businessmen Mohammad Ehsan said he has not seen such chaos in years. "I am really fed up with the performance of government. They are supposed to mitigate our suffering but instead they have become a source of quadrupling the problems," he said.

Laptop fair begin in Dhaka

A three-day laptop fair will begin on Wednesday at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the capital. Top brands such as HP, Compaq, Dell, Fujitsu, Hasee, Gigabyte, Asus, Lenovo, Toshiba, Acer, Great Wall, BenQ and Apple will be on display at the show styled 'Zoom Laptop Fair 2010 '. The fair will remain open from 10 am to 8 pm on Wednesday and Thursday and from 10 am to 9 pm on Friday, said Sultan Mahmud, spokesman of the organiser, Maker Communication, at a press conference yesterday. A total of 15 pavilions and five stalls will be at the show with an entry fee of Tk 20 each person. A part of the money generated from ticket sales will be donated to the cold-hit people and another part will be used for education of the street children, Mahmud said. He said around 3 ,000 laptops were sold at the last year's fair, and they hope to sell more than 5 ,000 units this time. The growth in sales is a sign of how laptops are gradually taking over desktop computers in Bangladesh, Mahmud added. Mobile phone operator Citycell is the title sponsor of the exposition, while Acer, Asus, HP and Lenovo are the co-sponsors. A raffle draw and a quiz will be held on the sidelines of the fair. Bdjobs.com is the online partner, Radio ABC is the radio partner and bdnews24. com is the news partner of the event.

Saudi billionaire eye to news corporation

The Saudi billionaire whose investment firm is one of the biggest stakeholders in Rupert Murdoch's News Corp said he is looking to expand his alliances with the media giant. Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a nephew of the Saudi king, met with News Corp's chief executive Rupert Murdoch on January 14 in a meeting that "touched upon future potential alliances with News Corp," according to a statement from his Kingdom Holding Co late Saturday.

Poverty is the greatest problem of the world

Poverty is the most serious problem facing the world, according to a major worldwide poll out Sunday which put the issue well ahead of climate change, terrorism and war. Overall, 71 percent of people named extreme poverty as the biggest global issue, compared to 64 percent who cited the environment or pollution and 63 percent the rising cost of food and energy. Terrorism, human rights and the spread of disease were singled out by 59 percent, climate change and the state of the world economy by 58 percent and war by 57 percent. "Even if the global recession has kept economic problems top of people's minds this year, extreme poverty is clearly viewed as the world's most serious global problem," said Sam Mountford, research director for GlobeScan, which conducted the poll for the BBC World Service. "But with many other global problems seen as very serious, this represents a daunting agenda for institutions like the UN and G20 to address."

Taiwan-China finance

Three agreements leading to closer cooperation between Taiwan and mainland China in banking, insurance and securities came into effect over the weekend, the island's financial authority said Sunday. The three memoranda of understanding, which were signed in November, are the latest step in rapidly improving ties between the two former arch foes, after Ma Ying-jeou became Taiwan's president in May 2008. The Financial Supervisory Commission said the MOUs followed pressure from the island's finance industry for greater access to the huge mainland market. With the MOUs, "Taiwan's financial industry can not only serve Taiwanese companies in the mainland but tap the mainland market," the commission said on its website. "Since Taiwan and the mainland share the same language and cultural roots, Taiwan's financial industry stands a good chance of gaining profits." Despite lingering hostility between China and Taiwan, local businesses have channeled about 150 billion US dollars into China since Taipei eased an investment ban in the early 1990 s.

United Airways ready to fly Manchester

United Airways (BD) Ltd, a private sector airline in the country, is going to operate flights to Manchester and Birmingham in the UK. The airline is also procuring two B 767-300 /200 ER aircraft, which are likely to be commissioned on Sylhet-London routes from summer 2010. It has been operating two passenger flights a week on Dhaka-London (Gatwick) route since November 21 last year. It is also planning to introduce additional passenger flights to London (Gatwick) from Dhaka and Sylhet. United Airways came up with the plan to increase its flight frequencies to London from two to five per week following a two- day successful meeting on Air Service Agreement between Civil Aviation Authority Bangladesh (CAAB) and British Civil Aviation Department (BCAD), said a press release yesterday. The airline is currently operating flights from Dhaka to London, Dubai, Kuala Lumpur, Kathmandu, Kolkata, Chittagong, Jessore, Sylhet and Cox's Bazar and also from Chittagong to Kolkata.

Bangladeshi industrial minister said "Bangladesh will see huge inv estment in 2011"

Industries Minister Dilip Barua yesterday said Bangladesh would see huge investment in its industrial sector in 2011. "There'll be huge investment in the industrial sector in 2011 ," Barua said at a meeting with the newly elected leaders of Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) at his office. The minister said an industry-friendly atmosphere created in the country over the last one year due to various steps taken by the government. "Investors both from home and abroad have shown their keen interest to invest in Bangladesh." He said a research and development cell would be set up in his ministry to help local and foreign entrepreneurs. He also proposed various businesspeople and entrepreneurs sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to increase public- private partnership. The DCCI delegation led by its President Abul Kasem Khan welcomed the steps taken to alleviate poverty in the draft industrial policy. They underscored the need for mitigating energy and power crises, finalising the national coal policy and reforming the tax structure. The trade body also highlighted the importance of modernising Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institute (BSTI) and river and rail network, and setting up of special economic zones with support from private entrepreneurs. In response, the minister assured the DCCI of providing all possible cooperation from his ministry. Industries Secretary Dewan Zakir Hussain was also present.