Khaleda Warns of Dire Results for Govt

DHAKA NEWS

Dhaka, Mar 9 BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia on Friday warned the government against dire consequences for its 'all-out effort to resist the opposition's March 12 grand rally'.

"I want to make it clear that any attack on the rally is an attack on democracy. Don't endanger democracy by resorting to violence or sabotage. The consequences would not be pleasant," Khaleda said in a statement.

The rally has been organised to put pressure on the ruling Awami League-led coalition to reinstate the constitutional provision of caretaker government to oversee the next general election.

The government has been saying that the rally has been organised to garner support to protect the suspected war criminals standing trial.

Earlier in the morning, Awami League joint secretary Mahbub-ul-Alam Hanif urged law enforcers to prevent the rally from taking place.

"We would be left with no other options but to go for tougher programmes if we were not allowed to stage the programme in a peaceful manner. I urge you to stop all ill-attempt and help hold the programme peacefully," Khaleda said in the statement signed by her press secretary Maruf Kamal Khan.

"We are agitating for a sustainable democratic process though a 'free, fair and neutral' election after reinstating the caretaker government system," the opposition chief added.

She dismissed the allegation that her party would resort to violence on the day and asked the government to stop blanket arrest of people ahead of the rally.

Referring to the police restrictions on booking in hotels and allowing guests in the houses of city dwellers, the former prime minister said, "I urge the government to stop all these for the sake of democracy."

Referring to the threats and provocative statements being issued by the ruling party leaders starting from the prime minister, she observed that the government was scared after seeing people's response to the panned rally.

Khaleda urged her party activists to remain calm in the face of ]provocation.

Stay Alert on Mar 12: Hasina

DHAKA NEWS

Dhaka, Mar 9 Awami League president Sheikh Hasina on Friday asked party leaders to be on alert during the opposition's Mar 12 rally.

She also ordered a bigger gathering for the 14-party Grand Alliance's rally on March 14 than the one held in Mar 7.

Awami League leaders said prime minister Hasina gave the directives at a meeting in the evening at her official residence, Ganabhaban.

The meeting was attended by Awami League's general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam, joint general secretary Mahabub-ul-Alam Hanif, organising secretary Jahangir Kabir Nanak, Ahmad Hossain and A F M Bahauddin Nasim.

President and general secretaries of Dhaka metropolitan, Dhaka district, Narayanganj, Munshiganj, Manikganj, Gazipur, and Narshingdi district chapters of Awami League were also present at the meeting.

Hanif said that the prime minister had called the meeting to discuss issues relating to the ruling coalition's rally.

"The leader has ordered us to be on high alert ahead of the opposition's 'Dhaka Cholo' programme on March 12," said one of the leaders who attended the meeting on condition that he not be named.

The Awami League is fearing that acts of sabotage may be carried out from the BNP rally.

Hanif, also the prime minister's special assistant, in a meeting in the morning said, "BNP wants to carry out subversive acts on Mar 12. Moreover, BNP leader Sadeque Hossain Khoka himself has threatened the ministers and AL MPs not to come out of their houses on Mar 12."

At the same meeting, state minister for law Qamrul Islam said that the AL activists and MPs from Dhaka would come out on the street on Mar 12 to ensure public security.

Meanwhile, a media release issued by Bangladesh Chhatra League on Friday stated that the organisation would also stay on the streets.

Saudi Diplomats to Change Dress

DHAKA NEWS

Dhaka, Mar 9 The Saudi foreign ministry has directed all its diplomats abroad to not wear their national dress in public places or go out late at night.

The directive came days after Khalaf Bin Muhammad Salim Al-Ali, second secretary at the Saudi Embassy in Dhaka, was killed last Tuesday.

The Saudi national dress – a full-length, loose garment with long sleeved called thawb – can only be worn in official ceremonies or while in work place, reported the Saudi newspaper quoting unnamed sources.

The ministry also advised its diplomatic staff to be cautious and contact their heads of missions immediately if they were threatened or noticed anything suspicious, like being followed by vehicles or persons.

A number of countries including Jordan, Bahrain and the UAE have condoled the killing.

The body of Khalaf Ali reached Riyadh late last night. A large number of Saudi foreign ministry officials led by Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah received the body, reported Arab News.

Ali, 45, an official with the consular section, was shot by unknown gunmen near his Gulshan house early hours of Tuesday.

He succumbed to the bullet injury four hours later but police are clueless about who killed him or even the motive of the murder.

US for Strong Army-to-Army Ties

US BANGLADESHA

Dhaka, Mar 9 The United States wants to build a strong army-to-army relationship with Bangladesh to cooperate with each other, a US Army general has said.

"We have solid relationship and want to build such partnership where I can pick up the phone and talk to general Mubeen (Army chief general Md Abdul Mubeen) and I hope he feels the same way," lieutenant general Francis J Wiercinski

Gen Wiercinski came to Dhaka on Wednesday night and attended Shanti Doot-3, a multinational exercise organised by the Bangladesh army and co-sponsored by the US Pacific Command under the Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI) programme.

This is the second visit to Dhaka in the last 100 days for Gen Wiercinski who had come here in December last year.

"I understand Bangladeshi culture and terrain better by coming here," the general said.

"Last summer I met general Mubeen in Singapore and discussed army-to-army cooperation."

"General Mubeen offered me jungle training (for US army)," he said.

When asked if there was no jungle in the US, he said, "No. We get the training in Panama."

Gen Wiercinski also hinted that an army platoon may come to Dhaka for two weeks and would stay here to learn how Bangladesh army trained itself.

"Maybe Bangladeshi army will go to Alaska or Hawaii to learn how we are trained."

G-TO-G COOPERATION

The general said the US government would provide assistance if the Bangladesh government asked for it.

When told that army was also part of a government and it could ask for assistance from other army, he said, "Both the armies are working under democratic civilian governments. When we have authorisation from the governments we can go forward."

The general said US and Bangladesh had cooperation in areas including disaster management, peacekeeping and training.

"We can learn from Bangladesh experience about disaster management and Bangladesh can also be benefited from our assistance," Gen Wiercinski said.

"A platoon can come to Bangladesh to exchange techniques and tactics," he said.

When they will return to the US, they will talk about Bangladesh and about its culture, he added.

Gen Wiercinski said cooperation between the two countries is growing in the field of disaster management.

MUSLIM PERCEPTION

The US general said throughout his career he fought alongside Muslims shoulder to shoulder against al Qaeda and other terrorists.

"I fought to stop the invasion of Iraq to Kuwait. I went again to Iraq to fight with Muslims shoulder to shoulder against al Qaeda," he said adding, "I also went to Afghanistan and fought against terrorists."

"I have great Muslims friends in Iraq and Afghanistan."

"We are not fighting against Muslims. We are fighting against al Qaeda and terrorists with the Muslims shoulder to shoulder and that's the way I see it."

General Wiercinski is the acting senior commander for Fort Campbell in Kentucky. He took part in 'Operation Just Cause' in Panama (1989-1990); 'Operation Enduring Freedom' and 'Operation Anaconda' in Afghanistan (2001-2002) and 'Operation Iraqi Freedom' in Iraq (2006-2007).

Google Pressures Developers to Use Wallet

BANGLADESH

San Francisco, Mar 9,  Google Inc has been pressuring applications and mobile game developers to use its costlier in-house payment service, Google Wallet, as the Internet search giant tries to emulate the financial success of Apple Inc's iOS platform.

Google warned several developers in recent months that if they continued to use other payment methods - such as PayPal, Zong and Boku - their apps would be removed from Android Market, now known as Google Play, according to developers, executives and investors in mobile gaming and payment sectors.

Developers say the Internet search giant is trying to simplify consumer payments, hoping apps-buying will rise and offset their higher costs. Google's payment service charges a higher cut per transaction than some rivals'. But the move also suggests Google is using its powerful position in the mobile apps market to promote an in-house offering.

"Although this move by Google might seem high-handed, it reduces the friction for purchases inside Android apps and therefore makes users more valuable," said Hugo Troche, chief executive of Appsperse, a cross-promotion network for app discovery.

A Google spokesman declined to comment on Thursday.

Android Market, or Google Play as it is now known, is the company's answer to Apple's apps store, where consumers browse and buy or download everything from games and music to individual software or applications. Google wants Google Wallet to be the dominant way that people pay for anything on this platform.

In one email sent to a developer in late August, Google said the developer had 30 days to comply, otherwise the developer's apps would be "suspended" from Android Market. Reuters obtained a copy of the email this week.

"They told people that if they used other payment services they would be breaking the terms of use," said Si Shen, founder and chief executive of Papaya, a social gaming network on Android. "Whether it's right or wrong, we have to follow the rules."

Papaya placed social games on Android more than two years ago. At that time, the search company's payment service - now known as Google Wallet - was not available for Android app payments, Shen explained.

She said Papaya used PayPal, owned by eBay Inc, and Zong, a mobile payments company that has since been acquired by eBay. Papaya has now dropped PayPal and Zong in favor of Google Wallet for in-app billing, she said.

"If we had a choice, the freedom to choose which billing service, then that's even better. But if we have to follow the rules, we will," she added. "I want to maintain a very good relationship with Google. We are very collaborative. It's very important to the business."

MOTIVES

The initiative is important for Google. While Android Market has been a hit in terms of the number of smartphones using the platform, there has not been a commensurate increase in purchase activity by users.

In early 2011, Android platform manager Eric Chu told a conference that while the number of Android smartphone users was surging, the number of purchases of paid apps in the Android Market was not doing nearly as well, Forbes reported.

This is partly because the buying experience has been varied and confusing for users - reducing the chance that they will go through with a purchase, something known as conversion.

By pushing all app developers to use Google's payment system, the experience should be simpler, increasing conversion.

"On Android it used to be laissez faire - you could use any payment provider you liked," said Todd Hooper, chief executive of Zipline Games.

"It's probably naive of developers to think they could keep choosing different payment providers," he added. "If purchasing on Android is all over the place, that is worrying."

Apple's iOS platform generates higher conversion rates mainly because the company required developers to use its own payment system from day one, according to Hooper and others.

"This is one of the things that has helped Apple succeed," said Charles Hudson of Bionic Panda Games, an Android-focused mobile social games company in San Francisco.

"Every single developer is using the Apple payment system. Google sees the benefits that provides for the Apple platform and wants to create a similar system."

When Bionic Panda started on Android Market about a year ago, Google Wallet was not available, so the company used PayPal initially, Hudson said. It switched exclusively to Google Wallet around the spring of 2011, he added.

Developers using Google Wallet typically have to pay Google a 30 percent cut of revenue from purchases - higher than the cut taken by rival third-party payment services.

But Hudson and other developers said this may be worth it, if conversion rates increase.

When Bionic Panda dropped PayPal it lost some customers, but there was "an overall lift in conversion and monetization on a per-user basis," Hudson said.

"Without having to chose your payment option it's closer to the one-click experience of the Apple iOS platform," he added. "The convenience factor would outweigh customer losses."