The Bangladesh Today (09-02-2018)

NEWS
FRIDAY,
FEBRUARY 9, 2018
2
UGC Officers’
Association
gets new
executives
DHAKA : Dr Md Khaled and
Md Mohibul Ahsan have
been elected president and
general secretary
respectively of University
Grant's Commission (UGC)
Officers' Association for two
years.
Other office bearers of the
11-member executive
committee are Md Omar
Faruque and Engineer
Mohammad Monir Ullah as
vice-presidents, Golam
Dostogir as joint secretary,
Rabiul Islam as sports and
cultural secretary, Md
Morshed Ahammed as
treasurer, Md Harun Mia as
organising and publicity
secretary and Mohammad
Nur Islam Chowdhury,
Mamun Patwary, AKM
Mahmudur Rahman Miah
as members, reports BSS.
Lawyers say
Maldives’ top judge
unconstitutionally
detained
MALE : A lawyer for the
Maldives' chief justice says
he is being
unconstitutionally detained
after being forcefully
dragged on the floor from
his chambers by security
personnel in riot gear
following last week's
surprise ruling to free jailed
politicians, reports UNB.
The lawyer expressed
grave concern about the
detention of Chief Justice
Abdulla Saeed in a
statement
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Thursday,
saying, "this Executive
encroachment of Judicial
powers is a blatant violation
and completely erodes the
doctrine of separation of
powers."
Lawyer Hisaan Hussain
said Saeed must be released
immediately.
The country's acting
police chief on Wednesday
accused Saeed and a second
Supreme Court justice of
taking bribes in return for
the court ruling, which has
set off a political crisis in the
country.
42 crude
bombs seized in
C’nawabganj
CHAPAINAWABGANJ :
Members of Border Guard
Bangladesh recovered 42
crude bombs from Fatehpur
border area in Shibganj
upazila on Thursday
morning, reports UNB.
Two miscreants were
crossing Padma river in
Saurapara Padmar Char
area around 9:30am
carrying two buckets of
crude bombs, said Lt Col
Abul Ehsan, commanding
officer of BGB-9 battalion.
Sensing the presence of
BGB members, the
miscreants fled away
swimming the river after
blasting several crude
bombs.
US$15m investment in RFL
Electronics to build new
manufacturing facilities
DHAKA : CDC, the UK's development
finance institution, has announced a new
US$15 million debt investment in RFL
Electronics Ltd ("RFL"), a Bangladeshi
electronic goods company, reports UNB.
CDC's capital will be used to acquire
equipment for a state-of-the-art
manufacturing facility producing consumer
electronic goods for the local market.
The RFL manufacturing base is located
25km from Dhaka and will produce
electronic appliances ranging from TVs and
refrigerators, to rice cookers and electric
irons, sold under the Vision brand in
Bangladesh.
CDC is investing alongside Standard
Chartered Bank Bangladesh who are
providing an additional US$3m, for a total
financing package of US$18 million.
CDC's long-term investment will support
the creation of 1,500 manufacturing jobs,
half of which are expected to be for women.
With total employment expected to reach
2,500 over the course of CDC's seven-year
investment, RFL will hire experienced
factory managers from Dhaka and other
workers from neighbouring towns.
This is the CDC's first direct corporate
debt investment in Bangladesh and follows
other recent financing for projects in the
country including a US$103m investment
in the Sirajganj-4 power plant and US$25m
funding for Grameenphone, Bangladesh's
leading telecoms company.
Welcoming the investment, CDC's Head
of Corporate Debt, Richard Palmer said as
Bangladesh's economy grows they see their
investment in RFL Electronics as an
opportunity to create jobs, meet the
growing demand for consumer goods and
help the country boost its local
manufacturing.
"Access to long-term debt capital in local
and foreign currency remains limited in
Bangladesh, so our investment plays an
important role in helping the company
grow by importing the equipment that will
modernise RFL's manufacturing base in
Bangladesh."
Uzma Chowdhury, Finance Director of
Pran-RFL said consumer electronic goods
can go a long way to improving people's
livelihood if they can be offered at
affordable prices.
"RFL has been doing this since its
inception in 1981. In order to make
consumer goods more affordable, the
industry needs to be set up within
Bangladesh. CDC's long-term debt at
affordable cost allows us to manufacture
electronics goods at a reasonable price and
with high safety standards within
Bangladesh. RFL Electronics Limited is a
world class manufacturing unit where
production goes on with maximum
protection of the environment."
CDC is working with the company to
develop and implement an effective
environmental and social management
system that will deliver international
standards in areas such as labour and
working conditions, environmental
management and fire safety
RFL Electronics is part of the Pran-RFL
Group of companies which is a diversified
conglomerate specialising in consumer
goods such as food products, beverages,
plastic goods and furniture.
Senate celebrates budget deal
but shutdown still possible
WASHINGTON : Senate leaders
brokered a long-sought budget
agreement Wednesday that would
shower the Pentagon and domestic
programs with an extra $300
billion over the next two years. But
both Democratic liberals and GOP
tea party forces swung against the
plan, raising questions about its
chances just a day before the latest
government shutdown deadline,
reports UNB.
The measure was a win for
Republican allies of the Pentagon
and for Democrats seeking more
for infrastructure projects and
combatting opioid abuse. But it
represented a bitter defeat for
many liberal Democrats who
sought to use the party's leverage
on the budget to resolve the plight
of immigrant "Dreamers" who face
deportation after being brought to
the U.S. illegally as children. The
deal does not address immigration.
Beyond the $300 billion figure,
the agreement adds almost $90
billion in overdue disaster aid for
hurricane-slammed Texas, Florida
and Puerto Rico.
Senate leaders hope to approve
the measure Thursday and send it
to the House for a confirming vote
before the government begins to
shut down Thursday at midnight.
But hurdles remain to avert the
second shutdown in a month.
While Senate Democrats
celebrated the moment of rare
bipartisanship - Minority Leader
Chuck Schumer called it a
"genuine breakthrough" -
progressives and activists blasted
them for leaving immigrants in
legislative limbo. Top House
Democrat Nancy Pelosi of
California, herself a key architect
of the budget plan, announced her
opposition Wednesday morning
and mounted a remarkable
daylong speech on the House floor,
trying to force GOP leaders in the
House to promise a later vote on
legislation to protect the younger
immigrants.
"Let Congress work its will,"
Pelosi said, before holding the floor
for more than eight hours without a
break. "What are you afraid of?"
The White House backed the deal
- despite President Donald Trump's
outburst a day earlier that he'd
welcome a government shutdown if
Democrats didn't accept his
immigration-limiting proposals.
Trump himself tweeted that the
agreement "is so important for our
great Military," and he urged both
Republicans and Democrats to
support it.
But the plan faced criticism from
deficit hawks in his own party.
Some tea party Republicans
shredded the measure as a budgetbuster.
Combined with the party's
December tax cut bill, the burst in
military and other spending would
put the GOP-controlled
government on track for the first $1
trillion-plus deficits since
President Barack Obama's first
term. That's when Congress passed
massive stimulus legislation to try
to stabilize a down-spiraling
economy.
"It's too much," said Rep. Scott
BIWTC earns
Taka 71 crore in
last 6 months
DHAKA : Bangladesh
Inland Water Transport
Corporation (BIWTC)
earned Taka 71 crore over
the last six months
(August, 2017 to January,
2018) through the
operations of its 48 ferries.
During this period, the
BIWTC transported a total
of 8,57,526 vehicles on 10
ferry routes across the
country. Besides, a survey
of the corporation is
underway to explore and
launch operations on
newer ferry routes, said a
ministry press release.
This was informed at a
meeting of the BIWTC on
its development, financial
and administrative affairs
held at the Shipping
Ministry conference room
today with Shipping
Minister Shajahan Khan in
the chair.
The meeting was
informed that the BIWTC,
a government-owned
corporation that owns and
operates river vessels and
ships and river ports in
Bangladesh, made a net
profit of Taka 27 crore in
the last fiscal year (FY17)
while its income during
the first four months of the
current fiscal year stood at
Taka five crore.
Besides, there is a fixed
deposit of Taka 717 crore
against the BIWTC.
Perry, R-Pa., a fiscal hawk.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-
Wis., however, backed the
agreement and was hoping to
cobble together a coalition of
moderate Democrats and
Republicans to push it through.
Despite the 77-year-old Pelosi's
public talkathon, she was not
pressuring the party's rank-andfile
to oppose the measure,
Democrats said. The deal contains
far more money demanded by
Democrats than had seemed
possible only weeks ago, including
$90 billion in disaster aid for
Florida and Texas. Some other
veteran Democrats - some of whom
said holding the budget deal
hostage to action on Dreamer
immigrants had already proven to
be a failed strategy - appeared
more likely to support the
agreement than junior progressives
elected in recent years.
The budget agreement would give
both the Pentagon and domestic
agencies relief from a budget freeze
that lawmakers say threatens
military readiness and training as
well as domestic priorities such as
combating opioid abuse and
repairing the troubled health care
system for veterans.
The core of the agreement would
shatter tight "caps" on defense and
domestic programs funded by Congress
each year. They are a hangover from a
failed 2011 budget agreement and have
led to military readiness problems and
caused hardship at domestic agencies
such as the Environmental Protection
Agency and the IRS.
Venezuela sets April
22 for election after
talks break down
CARACAS : Venezuelan officials moved swiftly Wednesday
to call an early presidential election, acting hours after a
breakdown in talks between the government and opposition
over how to conduct the vote, reports UNB.
The election will be held April 22, said Tibisay Lucena,
head of the government-controlled National Electoral
Council.
Venezuela traditionally has held its presidential elections
late in the year, and the United States along with several
countries in Europe and Latin America have condemned
the rush to hold the vote so early, saying it undercuts political
negotiations and is unfair to the opposition.
Socialist President Nicolas Maduro has already launched
his campaign for a second term and currently stands as the
only candidate as Venezuela's continues to sink deeper into
an economic crisis of high inflation and food shortages.
Talks on resolving Venezuela's political divide fell apart
earlier in the day in the Dominican Republic, with the two
sides accusing one another of grandstanding and negotiating
in bad faith.
Dominican President Danilo Medina, one of the international
mediators, said the talks had entered an "indefinite
recess" when Venezuelan government negotiators returned
home Tuesday night after signing a "draft agreement" that
was unacceptable to the opposition.
The head of the opposition's delegation, Julio Borges,
urged the government to reconsider its stance while reiterating
that he won't sign an agreement that puts Venezuela's
democracy at risk. He called on Venezuela's government to
accept the opposition's counter proposal.
Former Afghan leader
urges sanctions on
Pakistan officials
KABUL : Saying that Afghanistan is in
"terrible shape" 16 years after the collapse
of the Taliban, former President Hamid
Karzai accused the United States and
Pakistan of using the Afghan war to
further their own national interests,
reports UNB.
He also warned that Afghans who had
embraced the U.S. as a friend and
liberator now see it as "hurting us, not
helping us."
"That has to change," Karzai said in an
interview with The Associated Press.
As many as 16,000 U.S. forces remain
in Afghanistan, and a special training unit
is scheduled to deploy early this year.
After the U.S. and NATO forces formally
concluded their combat mission at the
end of 2014 and shifted to a training role,
a resurgent Taliban stepped up their
attacks and an affiliate of the Islamic
State group emerged in Afghanistan.
That same year marked the end of
Karzai's second and final term in office.
In the interview at his Kabul home,
where he wore his signature ankle-length
green striped coat and karakul cap, Karzai
echoed complaints from Afghanistan's
current government that accused
neighboring Pakistan of harboring
Taliban militants and he urged the U.S. to
impose sanctions on Pakistani military
and intelligence officials.
Citing U.S. President Donald Trump's
New Year's Day tweet that accused
Pakistan of "lies and deceit," Karzai said,
"We hope the U.S. will now act in
Pakistan."
But he added that "doesn't mean that
the Pakistan people should be hurt or that
war should be launched in Pakistan."
"In other words I want the U.S. to
impose sanctions on the Pakistan military
and the intelligence, not on the Pakistani
people," Karzai said.
Trump has ramped up pressure on
Pakistan this year, suspending up to $2
billion in military aid to Islamabad after
accusing it of failing to crack down on
militants who launch cross-border
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attacks on U.S. and Afghan forces.
Pakistan denies such allegations,
blaming the violence on the Kabul
government's security failures.
The interview came a day after U.S.
lawmakers questioned the direction of
America's longest war. At a hearing
Tuesday, the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee noted that Washington is
spending about $45 billion a year in
Afghanistan, with most of the money
going to security, the bulk of which
finances U.S. troops and accompanying
logistical support. Only $780 million goes
toward economic aid.
In recent weeks, Kabul has been
battered by a wave of attacks claimed
alternately by the Taliban and a rival
Islamic State affiliate, which killed scores
of people and exposed the U.S.-backed
government's failure to secure the capital.
"The U.S. cannot tell us, 'Well if I am
not here, you will be worse off.' We are in
a terrible shape right now. ... We want to
be better. We want to have peace. We
want to have security," Karzai said.
In the early years of Karzai's
administration, which was criticized as
corrupt, oversight of the war was
nonexistent. Commanders allied with the
U.S.-led coalition often steered their
American partners toward attacking their
own enemies to try to settle old scores,
rather than build the nation.
Today, Afghanistan's National Unity
Government, paralyzed by bickering and
feuding, shares power between President
Ashraf Ghani and his chief executive,
Abdullah Abdullah. The power-sharing
deal was brokered by then-U.S. Secretary
of State John Kerry.
Karzai called it a U.S. creation and said
it "undermined Afghan democracy and
the Afghan constitution."
He did not hide his frustration during
the interview. He believes Washington
wants to establish permanent bases in
Afghanistan to project power in the
region, while Pakistan wants to turn
Afghanistan into a client state.