The Bangladesh Today (11-02-2018)

Sunday
Dhaka : February 11, 2018; Magh 29, 1424 BS; Jamadi-ul-awal 24, 1439 hijri
www.thebangladeshtoday.com; www. tbtbangla.com
Regd.No.Da~2065, Vol.16; No.54; 12 Pages~Tk.8.00
InTeRnaTIOnal
David Sorensen becomes
second Trump aide to
quit amid abuse claims
>Page 7
aRT & CulTuRe
Tom Ford puts 'Pussy
Power' center stage at
NY Fashion Week
>Page 8
SPORT
India bat, Iyer
comes in for
injured Jadhav
>Page 9
UN says they
are monitoring
BD situation
DHAKA : The United Nations has said
their political colleagues are studying
the situation in Bangladesh and called
for calm, reports UNB.
"Yes and we are continuing to monitor
the situation on the ground. As you're
aware, we did appeal for calm and we
expressed our concern at the violence
and we continue to do so," Deputy
Spokesman for the UN Secretary General
Farhan Haq told reporters in a regular
briefing on Friday.
Responding to a question from a
Bangladeshi journalist on BNP
Chairperson Khaleda Zia's verdict, the
UN Deputy Spokesman said if they
have anything more to say about that,
they will say at that point.
"We're monitoring all the various
developments," he said.
BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, also a
former prime minister, was jailed for
five years on Thursday after she was
found guilty in the Zia Orphanage Trust
corruption case.
6 burnt in city
transformer
blast
DHAKA : Six students of a madrasha
sustained burn injuries as a transformer
blasted in old Dhaka's Bangshal
area on Saturday morning, reports
UNB.
The injured were identified as Saber,
Sajjad, Ashik, Soleman, Mostakin and
Abdur Rahman, all aged between 7-8
years. They are students of Mohammadia
Islamia Hafezia Madrasa.
Dhaka Medical College and Hospital
sources said a fire broke out when the
transformer exploded near the two-stoery
madrasa building around 8:30am,
leaving them injured.
The victims were taken to the burn
unit of DMCH, said Bachchu Miah, in
charge DMCH police outpost.
Zohr
05:19 AM
12:17 PM
04:14 PM
05:55 PM
07:10 PM
6:34 5:52
Report on Rohingya
massacre alarming: UN
It necessitates thorough investigation
DHAKA : The United Nations has
described the latest report by a news
agency on the killing of Rohingya
Muslims in Myanmar as very alarming.
"We're aware of this latest report, the
details of which are very alarming,"
Deputy Spokesman for the UN Secretary
General Farhan Haq told reporters in regular
briefing at the UN on Friday.
He said the findings of the report once
more attest to the need for a full and thorough
investigation by the authorities of all
violence in Rakhine State and attacks on
the various communities there.
"And, of course, the Secretary-
General, as you know, has called for the
release of the two detained journalists
and we continue to press for that," said
the Deputy Spokesman.
Reuters has reported that in
September last year, Buddhist villagers
and Myanmar troops were responsible
for killing 10 Rohingya men and burying
them all in the same grave.
The number of Rohingya arrivals from
Myanmar to Bangladesh since August 25
last year now stands over 688,000, indicating
that Rohingyas are still coming
despite a repatriation plan is in progress
between the two countries.
British Foreign Secretary Boris
Johnson, now on a two-day visit here, on
Friday said the plight of the Rohingya and
the suffering they have had to endure is
one of the most shocking humanitarian
disasters of their time.
"This is a man-made tragedy that
could be resolved with the right political
will, tolerance and cooperation from all
those involved," he said.
The British Foreign Secretary visited
Rohingya camp in Kutupalong on
Saturday morning and saw and heard
for himself the terrible things these people
have been through.
DHAKA : Jatiya Party on Saturday
picked Rezwan Ahmed and Barrister
Shamim Haidar Patwary as its candidates
for the by-polls to
Brahmanbaria-1 (Nasirnagar) and
Gaibangha-1 (Sundarganj) constituencies
respectively, reports
UNB.
They will vie in the by-election with
party symbol 'Plough', said a press
release signed by Press and Political
Secretary of Jatiya Party Chairman
HM Ershad.
The Election Commission has set
the Brahmanbaria-1 and
Gaibandha-1 parliamentary by-polls
for March 13. February 14 is the last
He will be talking to State Counsellor
Aung San Suu Kyi and other regional
leaders about how they can work
together to resolve this appalling crisis.
On Thursday night, Myanmar
Ambassador in Dhaka Lwin Oo said they
are working actively with Bangladesh on
the voluntary, safe and dignified return of
Rohingyas to their homeland from
Bangladesh with a good neighbourly spirit.
"The disputes that emerge between
neighbouring countries must be
resolved amicably through bilateral
negotiations," the envoy said.
The Myanmar envoy said terrorism
and extremism constitute one of the
most serious threats to civilized world.
"We can't condone terrorism in any
form and manifestation."
He claimed that men from the villages
in Rakhine State were recruited to join
the terrorists and militants in fighting
the security forces.
"Myanmar and Bangladesh jointly
can be a bridge between South and
Southeast Asia," said the Ambassador.
He said air, land and sea connectivity
between the two countries can play an
important role in increasingly globalised
world to create favourable conditions
for better understanding among
the people and nations in the region.
"I hope that the friendly relations and
cooperation between Bangladesh and
Myanmar would continue to grow in the
days to come," said the Ambassador.
On January 16, Bangladesh and
Myanmar signed a document on
'Physical Arrangement' which will facilitate
return of Rohingays to their homeland
from Bangladesh.
The 'Physical Arrangement' stipulates
that the repatriation will be completed
preferably within two years from the
commencement of the repatriation.
A transmitter explosion caused severe burning to a madrasa student's body in the Alubazar area of
Bangshal. He was later admitted into the burn unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Photo: Star Mail
JP picks candidates for B'baria-1,
Gaibangha-1 by-polls
date for the aspirant candidates to
submit their nomination forms to
the returning officers.
The forms will be scrutinised on
February 16 and candidates will have
to withdraw nomination papers until
February 23.
The two seats fell vacant following
the deaths of Fisheries and Livestock
Minister Brahmanbaria-1 MP
Muhammed Sayedul Hoque and
Gaibandha-1 MP Golam Mostafa.
Sayedul Hoque died on December
16 while Golam Mostafa died on
December 19 from his injuries he
suffered in a road accident a month
earlier.
Ten Rohingya Muslim men with their hands bound kneel as members of the Myanmar security
forces stand guard in Inn Din village September 2, 2017. Photo : Handout via Reuters
BNP announces
protest prog for
another three days
DHAKA : BNP on Saturday announced
another round of three-day countrywide
programme from Monday to
Wednesday to register the party's
protest against the jailing of its chairperson
Khaleda Zia, reports UNB.
The programmes are also meant for
mounting pressure on the government
to release her immediately from jail.
BNP senior joint secretary general
Ruhul Kabir Rizvi announced the programmes
at a press briefing at BNP's
Nayapaltan central office.
As part of the programmes, he said,
the party followers will stage a human
chain programme on Monday while an
hour-long sit in on Tuesday and a
hunger strike from 9am to 5pm on
Wednesday.
Rizvi said their party's district, thana,
upzila and city units will observe the
programmes at their convenient time
and place, while the venues for staging
the programmes in the capital will be
announced later.
On Thursday last, a special court here
convicted Khaleda and sentenced her to
five years' imprisonment in the Zia
Orphanage Trust graft case.
Around an hour later, BNP called a
two-day protest programme for Friday
and Saturday.
BNP leaders and activists brought out
processions in the capital on Friday and
Saturday chanting slogans seeking
Khaleda's release, but police dispersed
them minutes later.
Woman held in
Rajshahi along with
'leaked question'
RAJSHAHI : A woman was arrested
near Government P N High School in
the city along with a 'leaked SSC
question paper' on Saturday, reports
UNB.
The arrestee, also mother of an SSC
examinee, was making solution of a
Math question after collecting the
'leaked question' over her mobile
hand set around 10:00am, said witnesses.
When other guardians queried
about the matter, she tried to leave
the place hurriedly. Later, the
guardians caught her and
handed over her to
police.
Aman Ullah, officer-incharge
of Boalia Police
Station, said a woman
was held along with a
'leaked question'. But
details cannot be disclosed
until today's exam
is finished.
Earlier on February 4,
the government declared
a bounty of Tk 5 lakh
each for handing over to
the authorities the criminals
involved in question
paper leakage on social
media sites.
Bangladeshi charged
with 'IS-inspired'
Australia stabbing
DHAKA : A 24-year-old Bangladeshi
woman was charged with terrorism
after an alleged "Islamic State-inspired"
stabbing in Australia's Melbourne,
reports an Australian newspaper,
reports UNB.
Momena Shoma, a student and
Bangladeshi national, was remanded in
custody on one count of engaging in a
terrorist act after facing Melbourne
Magistrates Court, local police said during
a briefing on Saturday.
She is accused of stabbing a 56-yearold
man in the neck while he was asleep
at his home in Callistemon Rise, Mill
Park, on Friday afternoon, repots the
newspaper, The Age.
Police say that she was 'self-radicalised'.
Victoria Police acting Deputy
Commissioner Ross Guenther said
comments made by the woman when
she was interviewed by police led them
DHAKA : BNP senior leader Barrister
Moudud Ahmed on Saturday alleged
that their party chief Khaleda Zia has
not yet been given division in jail though
she was a former prime minister,
reports UNB.
"It's a matter of regret that our leader
(Khaleda) has not yet been given division
though she is a three-time Prime
Minister," he said.
Moudud, also a counsel for Khaleda,
brought the allegation while talking to
reporters at the gate of old central jail at
Nazimuddin Road in the capital before
meeting her. He said 18 categories of
prisoners, including ex-prime minister,
are entitled to get division under the jail
code. "But she (Khaleda) has not been
given that." The former law minister
said they will file an appeal against the
lower court verdict as soon as they get a
certified copy of the judgment.
Later, Moudud and four other
Khaleda's lawyers-Barrister Jamiruddin
to believe the incident was terrorismrelated.
"In the course of some disclosures in
the interview it became apparent that
circumstances led them to believe it was
a terror attack," he said. "That then saw
the Joint Counter Terrorism Team take
over."
The alleged attack was witnessed by
the man's five-year-old daughter, who
was not injured.
Police and neighbours said Shoma
was wearing a burqa at the time.
Police said the woman was a
Bangladeshi national who travelled to
Melbourne on February 1 on a student
visa and was renting a room in the 56-
year-old's Mill Park home.
A neighbour told the Herald Sun
newspaper the man managed to call her
and she rushed to his home where she
found him in the garage surrounded by
a pool of blood.
Khaleda not given division yet: Moudud
Sircar, former attorney general AJ
Mohammad Ali, Abdur Rezzak Khan and
Khandker Mahbub Hossain-entered the
jail at 4:20pm and came out around 6 pm.
After meeting the BNP chairperson,
Moudud said they will appeal against
the lower court verdict on Monday or
Tuesday if they get the certified copy of
the judgment.
He said Khaleda has been kept at a
lonely prison, which is far from people.
"She has been given food like ordinary
prisoners." Mentioning that domestic
help Fatima has been serving her for the
last 15-20 years, Moudud said but she is
not allowed to serve Khaleda. "It's not
true that the BNP chairperson has been
given division."
On Thursday, a special court here
convicted Khaleda and sentenced her to
five year's imprisonment in Zia
Orphanage Trust graft case.
Later, she was taken to the old central
jail at at Nazimuddin Road.

NEWS
SUNDAY,
FEBRUARY 11, 2018
2
43 BNP men held in
Magura, B’baria
DHAKA : Police in separate drives arrested 43 leaders and
activists of BNP from different areas of the districts in last 24
hours since Friday morning, reports UNB.
UNB Magura correspondent reports: At least 15 leaders
and activists of BNP were arrested from different areas of the
district.
Milton Mallik, general secretary of Shalikha upazila unit of
BNP, was among the arrestees.
Police arrested the BNP men carrying out vandalism and
obstructing vehicular movement, said Tariqul Islam,
additional superintendent of police.
In Brahmanbaria, law enforcers in special drives arrested
28 leaders and activists of BNP from different areas of the
districts.
Special drives are being conducted in all upazilas of the
district to maintain law and order, said Md Imtiaz Ahmed,
DIO-1 of special branch of district police.
Worker dies in Sylhet
stone quarry
SYLHET : A worker was killed in a mudslide while he was
extracting stones from a quarry in Bichhnakandi area of
Gowainghat Upazila on Saturday morning, reports UNB.
The deceased is identified as Ruhel Mia, 25, son of Jolal
Mia of Chakua village in Nabiganj upazila in the district.
Officer-in-charge of Gowainghat Police Station Hillol Roy
said Ruhel died on the spot as a chunk of mud fell upon him
while extracting stones from a deep pit around 11 am.
The body was sent to M.A.G. Osmani Medical College
Hospital for autopsy, he said.
2 women slaughtered,
1 arrested
KISHOREGONJ : A man was arrested in an allegation of
slaughtering his wife and his sister-in-law to death in sequel
to a family feud at Borobangla village in Nikli uazila on
Saturday, reports UNB.
The deceased are Aysha Khatun, 22, an expecting mother
and wife of the alleged killer Shaokat Ali, and Salma Akter,
30, sister-in-law of the alleged.
Local sources said, Shaokat beheaded her wife with a sharp
weapon around 11am at one stage of their altercation over a
trifling matter. Later, the furious Shaokat rushed to his
father-in-law's house at nearest Purbopara village and also
slaughtered his sister-in-law there.
Police, with the help of the locals, managed to nab the
alleged killer while he was trying to flee the scene, said
Kishoregonj District Police Super Md. Anwar Hossain.
British pipeline outage puts
drain on economy: data
Britain's industrial output plunged in December and the
trade deficit widened following a shutdown of a major North
Sea oil pipeline, official data showed on Friday.
Industrial production dived 1.3 percent compared with
activity in November, the Office for National Statistics said in
a statement.
That was the largest decline since 2012 and was worse than
market expectations of a 0.9-percent drop. It also followed a
0.3-percent increase in November, the ONS said.
"Mining and quarrying provided the only downward
contribution, falling by 19.1 percent as a result of the
shutdown of the Forties oil pipeline for a large part of
December," the statistics office added.
However, manufacturing output, which excludes mining
and quarrying, electricity, gas and water supply, grew by 0.3
percent.
The Forties pipeline system, which normally carries 40
percent of UK oil and gas production in the North Sea, was
offline for three weeks.
Over the whole year, industrial production expanded by 2.1
percent compared with 2016. That was the strongest increase
since 2010 when it grew 3.2 percent.
Manufacturing output meanwhile gained 2.8 percent
during 2017.
Separately, the ONS also revealed Friday that Britain's
deficit in goods and services-the gap between exports and
imports-widened by o3.8 billion ($5.3 billion, 4.3 billion
euros) to o10.8 billion in the three months to December.
A drop in Britain's oil exports-as well as large increases in
the price of fuel imports-had the largest impact on the trade
in goods deficit, which widened by o3.3 billion in the same
period to o37.2 billion.
The trade surplus in services narrowed by o0.5 billion to
o26.4 billion.
The Forties pipeline, owned by oil group Ineos, transports
around 450,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
Its temporary closure came after a routine inspection
found a hairline crack in the pipe just south of Aberdeen in
Scotland, prompting emergency repairs that stopped oil and
gas from platforms feeding into the system.
Chad vows no more pay
cuts under austerity drive
Chad's finance minister says the country will not impose further
cuts on civil servants' pay this year, after strikes and
protests erupted over one of the most unpopular measures in
an austerity programme.
"There won't be further cuts this year," the finance and
budget minister, Abdoulaye Sabre Fadoul, told AFP in an
interview on Thursday.
The government last month reduced civil servants' bonus
pay by 50 percent, adding to a previous 50-percent cut in
2016.
Income tax was also hiked but "the lowest-income workers
are now exempt" from it, Sabre Fadoul said.
The impoverished state is enforcing cuts in public spending
that the finance ministry says are vital to stave off bankruptcy.
But the cuts have increased social tension and anger
towards President Idriss Deby, in power since 1990.
Trade unions initiated an indefinite general strike in the
state sector on January 29, and followed this with strikes in
the private sector on Monday and Tuesday.
They also called for a "Day of Anger" on Thursday, but the
protest drew only a meagre turnout amid tight security.
Chad's economy has been badly hit by a downturn in the
price of oil exports since 2015.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) opened up a
three-year $312 million (254 million euro) credit line last
June under a stabilisation programme.
Chad has received $48.8 million of this but to gain access
to a second tranche has to make progress in improving state
finances. It also has to conclude negotiations with the
world's biggest commodities trader, Glencore plc, over outstanding
debts that Sabre Fadoul put at $1.36 billion.
Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) organized a press conference at National Press Club yesterday.
Photo : Star Mail
China, UNDP, UNFPA
distribute relief materials
in Nilphamari
NILPHAMARI : United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP),
United Nations Population Fund
(UNFPA) and the Chinese Embassy in
Dhaka along with the district
administration have distributed relief
materials among the flood victims of
Nilphamari on Saturday, reports
UNB.
In presence of Cultural Affairs
Minister Asaduzzaman Noor,
ilphamari Deputy Commissioner
Mohammad Khaled Rahim handed
over trunks to the flood victims,
together with household materials
and CGI sheets to help affected
families recover from the damages.
In Bangladesh, the 2017 South-
Asian monsoons inundated the
northern flood plains of the country,
severely affecting 7 million people in
31 districts.
Flood waters destroyed 82,000
houses and damaged many more,
leaving 320,000 people in need of
support to repair their homes and
replace their damaged belongings
once the flood waters receded.
To support the flood response, the
Ministry of Commerce (MoFCOM) of
the People's Republic of China have
partnered with the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP) to
provide $4 million for early recovery
efforts in Bangladesh.
As part of this joint initiative of
UNDP and China, Rohingya women
through the United Nations
Population Fund (UNFPA), received
life-saving reproductive health kits,
medicines and supplies to health
facilities particularly for women and
girls of reproductive age.
In total 13910 families in Kurigram,
Gaibandha, Lalmonirhat, Bogra and
Nilphamari districts received the relief
materials and 118,000 women
received emergency Reproductive
Health kits in Cox's Bazar.
Attending the distribution event, Li
Guangjun, Chinese Economic and
Commercial Counselor to Bangladesh,
said that China "sympathized with the
flood victims and refugees in
Bangladesh" and "appreciated the
humanitarian assistance provided by
UNDP in partnership with other
organizations."
He hoped that the materials would
help to improve the flood victims and
refugees' lives.
Asaduzzaman Noor said, "I hope
this kind of support from UNDP and
China will continue in future,
whenever there is any disaster."
He thanked the government of
China and UNDP for extending their
support. He also praised UNFPA, for
taking extra care of the women and
girls of reproductive age, considering
gender-based violence.
Sudipto Mukerjee, Country
Director, UNDP Bangladesh said,
"China has been increasingly
supporting developing countries in
humanitarian relief and recovery as
well as advance the UN's 2030
Sustainable Development Agenda.
This partnership is a reflection of
South-South Cooperation".
Highlighting UNFPA's contribution,
Iori Kato, Deputy Representative,
UNFPA Bangladesh said, "UNFPA
supported 26000 flood affected
women and girls of reproductive age
to ensure their reproductive health
and rights needs and promote dignity
of women and girls, improving their
mobility and be able to access the
lifesaving humanitarian aid".
Among others, representatives from
local government, NGOs, spoke at the
event.
US stocks end brutal week on benign
note; European, Asian stocks dive
Wall Street stocks ended a bruising
week on a benign note courtesy of a
late-session surge Friday, while equity
markets in Europe and Asia fell
sharply in volatile trading.
US stocks lurched back and forth in a
rollercoaster session, opening
decisively higher, then tumbling deep
into the red at midday before rising
again and finishing strong.
Europe's key markets extended the
recent days' downturn to show
substantial losses at the close following
another spectacular drop in Asian
shares.
"How long can the selloff last? That
is the million-if not billion-dollar
question," Fawad Razaqzada at
Forex.com said, adding that the
absence of massive buyers at current
low price levels was a worry.
"We had plenty of volatility today
and we'll see more next week," said Art
Hogan, chief market strategist at
Wunderlich Securities.
"You have to go back to the financial
crisis days to see this kind of volatility."
DR Congo sees 10% levy
on 'strategic metals'
The world's biggest producer of cobalt, a key ingredient
in modern batteries, plans a five-fold increase in tax on
the commodity as part of an overhaul of its mining
laws, industrial sources said Friday.
The Democratic Republic of Congo would impose a
tax of 10 percent on so-called "strategic metals" under
the plan, a copy of which was obtained by AFP.
The government last year signalled its intention to
reform its 2002 mining code, which it considered to
favour foreign investors at the expense of the economy.
A first version of the draft law-examined by the lower
house, the National Assembly, in December, and then
by the Senate in January-envisaged a tax take of five
percent.
This has been revised upward to 10 percent, under a
new draft approved by a joint commission of the Senate
and National Assembly on January 27.
At present, the state levies a tax of two percent on
non-ferrous metals-copper and cobalt-which is based
on the value of sales, from which some costs are
deducted.
The draft law is now in the hands of President Joseph
The market's best hope for escaping
the current cycle is if next week's US
inflation data contain no bombshells
and bond yields do not increase from
their current range, Hogan said.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average
ended up 1.4 percent at 24,190.90 after
swinging more than 1,000 points
during the session.
In spite of the robust finish, the
Dow's weekly losses were the worst
since January 2016 and investors are
bracing for more turbulence ahead.
"No one can say for sure, but things
don't look pretty out there, given that
the sharp falls haven't been bought this
time around. So, things could get ugly
really quick," Razaqzada said.
Paris, London and Frankfurt all lost
more than one percent.
Asian trading floors were a sea of
red, with concerns about tighter
interest rates, particularly in the
United States.
Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo
were among the worst hit as investors
piled into haven assets such as gold
and the yen.
Oil prices also tumbled, with US
benchmark West Texas Intermediate
losing $1.95 to $59.20 per barrel to
suffer its biggest weekly loss in two
years.
Analysts attributed the drop to
worries about oversupply given strong
US oil output and to a spillover in
volatility from equity markets.
"Investments over the coming weeks
could be something of an emotional
roller-coaster ride," Rebecca O'Keeffe,
head of investment at Interactive
Investor, told AFP.
A key trigger of the stocks pullback
was a strong US jobs report a week ago
that also showed rising US wage
growth, fueling speculation the Federal
Reserve will lift rates more than the
three times already forecast this year.
At the same time, the European
Central Bank is on the verge of ending
its crisis-era stimulus, while the Bank
of England warned its main interest
rates could rise faster than expected in
2018.
Kabila, Mining Minister Martin Kabwelulu said at an
annual mining conference in South Africa this week.
Sources in the mining industry said the prime
minister will issue a decree to spell out the
commodities on the "strategic metals" list, as the term
does not exist under the current mining code.
But, they said they had been informed by government
experts that cobalt would be included.
Shareholders in big mining corporations with
interests in DRC, including Glencore and Rangold,
have written to Kabila to express their concern, hoping
that the latest version of the law will be revised, they
added.
The global boom for smartphones and electric cars
has pushed up the price of cobalt to more than $80,000
(almost 63,000 euros) a tonne, compared with less
than $23,000 a tonne two years ago.
DR Congo is also the top African producer of copper,
which last year recovered from a slump that hit in 2014.
Copper is currently trading at more than $6,800 a
tonne, around 50 percent higher than at the trough of
the downturn in February 2017.
City high-rise catches fire
DHAKA : A fire broke out at a 20-storey building in Purana
Paltan area of the capital on Saturday morning, reports UNB.
The fire broke out on the second floor of the high-rise,
adjacent to Shawon Tower, in the area around 9:10am, said
Mahfuz, duty officer at the fire service control room.
Informed, five firefighting units from the headquarters and
Khilgaon Fire Station rushed to the spot and are trying to
douse the flame.
It was not clear what caused the fire.
2376 cases lodged for
traffic rule violation
DHAKA : Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) in a daylong
drive on Friday lodged 2376 cases and realized Taka 7.76
lakh on charges of violation of traffic rules, reports BSS.
It also dumped 48 vehicles and put wrecker in 158 others,
said an official release.
Traffic department of police lodged the cases and realized
the money from owners and drivers of different vehicles after
conducting raids at different thana area in the capital city.
The cases were lodged on charges of using hydraulic horn,
hooter, beckon light, and tinted glasses.
Vote for AL again to
continue development: Amu
JHALOKATI : Awami League Advisory Council Member and
Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu yesterday said
Bangladesh is progressing fast and it is believed that the
country would turn into a developed one before 2041, reports
BSS.
"Bangladesh is developing fast...If you want to continue
this development, you have to vote the AL to power again
under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina," he
said, speaking at a view exchange meeting at Nabagram High
School ground here.
Amu was exchanging views with local Awami League
leaders and workers with AL Nabagram Union President
Kanchan Ali Mia in the chair.
AL district unit General Secretary Khan Saifullha Panir,
Joint Secretary Sultan Hossain Khan and Organizing
Secretary Mojibul Haque Akandh, among others, addressed
the meeting.
Amu said BNP and Jamaat are conducting destructive
activities to take the country backward. But, Awami League
is working relentlessly for the betterment of the country, he
added.
"Awami League is working in every sector including health,
education, women empowerment and power for the welfare
of the common people," Amu said.
Later, Amu joined the annual sports competition
programme and distributed prizes among the winners at
Haji Joyan Uddin Dwini Dakhil Madrasha.
Advertisement floated to
recruit 10,000 constables
DHAKA : A circular has been published relating to recruit
10,000 trainee recruit constable (TRC) with a view to
augmenting the manpower of the police force.
In accordance with the circular, 8500 men and 1500
women will be recruited as TRC, said an official release.
The aspirants have been requested to attend the physical
and written examinations with necessary papers in the police
lines of their home district on the particular date mentioned
in the circular.
Iraq banks on private sector
for post-IS reconstruction
Months after declaring victory over jihadists, war-battered
Iraq hopes to attract billions of dollars from private investors
as well as donors to fund its reconstruction.
Baghdad is looking to drum up funds at a reconstruction
conference in neighbouring Kuwait from February 12 to 14
after announcing the defeat of the Islamic State group at the
end of last year.
The country is still reeling from the rise of IS and the
punishing fightback it took to crush the jihadists, with
swathes of its territory in ruins and millions of people
displaced.
Authorities in the resource-rich nation say there has been a
heavy toll on oil, electricity and manufacturing
infrastructure, as well as basic services such as water and
sanitation.
Iraq needs to raise $100 billion to rebuild, Prime Minister
Haider al-Abadi has said, after the fight against IS and
decades of sanctions and war.
"It's a huge amount of money. We know we cannot provide
it through our own budget," he said at the World Economic
Forum in Davos, Switzerland last month.
"That's why we now resorted to investment," he said.
Iraq sits on some of the world's largest crude reserves,
which Baghdad puts at 153 billion barrels, but the war against
IS and a slump in world prices have diminished its oil
revenues.
The Kuwait conference's second day will be devoted to the
private sector's role in rebuilding Iraq, with more than 2,000
companies and businessmen due to attend, according to the
Gulf country.
International organisations are to speak on the first day,
while attending donor countries are expected to make
announcements on the third.
The US State Department has said that rather than "direct
contributions", Washington has "focused on the private
sector. It has teamed up with the US Chamber of Commerce
to organise a delegation of over 150 American companies to
travel to Kuwait" for the conference.
Iraq-the second largest producer within OPEC after Saudi
Arabia-has already called for help from investors worldwide,
even as it seeks to ramp up output from its largely untapped
reserves.
Kuwait is setting aside its past differences with Iraq to host
the summit.
In August 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait after accusing its
neighbour of "stealing" Iraqi oil from a field straddling the
border.
That sparked the first Gulf War, which ended after a US-led
coalition ousted Iraqi forces from the emirate.
Iraqis have since weathered international sanctions, a USled
invasion in 2003 and the battle against IS.
Today, some 2.6 million people remain displaced across
the country, the International Organization for Migration has
said.
Satellite imagery shows some 26,000 houses are destroyed
or seriously damaged, including more than 17,000 in the
jihadists' former bastion of Mosul.
"There is huge destruction and a huge need to mobilise
support," said Erfan Ali, Iraq representative of the UN
Human Settlements Programme.

METRO
SUNDAY, FeBRUARY 11, 2018
3
5-day ‘Basanta
Mela’ kicks off
in city Sunday
DHAKA : A five-day
Basanta Mela and
handicraft exhibition will
kick off in city's Matijheel
commercial area on
Sunday, reports UNB.
Bangladesh Small and
Cottage Industries
Corporation (BSCIC)'s
Design Centre will arrange
the fair at BSCIC Bhaban
in Motijheel.
The opening ceremony
will be held at Joynal
Abedin Exhibition Hall at
BSCIC Design Centre
around 11:30am, said a
press release.
Handicrafts items will be
displayed in 60 stalls at
the fair. Besides, people
who received training
from the BSCIC Design
Centre will get the chance
to showcase their products
at the fair.
The fair will remain open
to all from 10:00am to
5:00pm everyday.
Int’l Day of Women
and Girls in Science to
be observed Sunday
DHAKA : The international community will
observe Sunday as the International Day of
Women and Girls in Science to ensure science
and gender equality to achieve internationally
agreed development goals, including the 2030
Agenda for Sustainable Development, reports
UNB.
It is time to support and invest in women and
girls who want to pursue careers in scientific
research, said United Nations Secretary-
General in a message to mark the special day
observed annually on 11 February, according to
the official website.
"We need to encourage and support girls and
women achieve their full potential as scientific
researchers and innovators", he added.
The UN chief called for "concerted, concrete
efforts" to overcome stereotypes and biases,
such as media representations of scientists and
innovators as being mainly men.
According to UN official website, the global
community throughout the past 15 years has
made many efforts to inspire and engage
women and girls in science but they continued
to be excluded from participating fully in
science.
However, UNESCO data shows only around
30 per cent of all female students in higher
education select the so-called STEM subjects -
BNP leaders seen at the press conference of at Nayapaltan party office yesterday.
science, technology, engineering or
mathematics.
In a joint statement, the Director General of
the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO) Audrey Azoulay and
the Executive Director of UN Women
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said, one of the
main tools for tackling gender inequality in the
sciences is dismantling the barriers to girls and
women, at home, in the classroom and in the
workplace.
This requires a change in attitudes and the
challenging of stereotypes, they added.
According to a study conducted in 14
countries, the probability for female students
of graduating with a Bachelor's degree,
Master's degree and Doctor's degree in
science-related field are 18 per cent, 8 per cent
and 2 per cent respectively, while the
percentages of male students are 37 per cent,
18 per cent and 6 per cent.
In December 2015, the UN General
Assembly adopted a resolution declaring 11
February as the International Day of Women
and Girls in Science to recognize the critical
role of women and girls in science and
technology communities and to achieve full
and equal access to and participation in science
for them.
Photo : TBT
Visitors at the agricultural tools exhibition at KIB yesterday.
No political crisis in
Bangladesh: Nasim
DHAKA : Awami League (AL) Presidium Member and
Health and Family Welfare Minister Mohammad Nasim
yesterday said there was no political crisis in Bangladesh
centring the next general election, reports BSS.
"Many people had predicted that political crisis will be
created. But there is no political crisis in Bangladesh and
in future there will not be any political crisis," he said as
the chief guest while addressing a memorial meeting
marking the first death anniversary of veteran
parliamentarian Suranjit Sengupta at Jatiya Press Club
here.
"No crisis is being prevailed in the country centering
the next general polls," he said requesting BNP not to
create any instability to this end as the ruling AL doesn't
believe in holding the upcoming general election keeping
the BNP out.
"The people, who have said the court delivered the
verdict in Zia Orphanage Trust Corruption case against
BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia to keep her and BNP out
of the next election after 10 years of registering the case,
doesn't believe in the rule of law and they have no respect
to the court," he added.
Describing Suranjit Sengupta as a guardian of
parliament, the senior AL leader said, "We took opinions
from him (Suranjit) in case of arising any question over
legal and parliamentary complexities. The nation will
recall his contribution to all the democratic movements
in the country with due respect."
Bangabandhu Sangskritik Jote organized the
discussions with founding president of the organization
Sarah Begum Kabori in the chair.
Among others, Dhaka South City AL General Secretary
Sahe Alam Murad, joint general secretary Dr Dilip Roy,
general secretary of Hindu Bouddha Christian Oikya
Parishad Rana Das Gupta, jote vice president Mobarak
Ali Shikder and general secretary Arun Sarker Rana were
present on the occasion.
KJHAA holds its first
reunion today
DHAKA : Dhaka University (DU) Kabi Jasimuddin Hall
Alumni Association (KJHAA) holds its first reunion
yesterday at Alumni Hall Auditorium at Nawab Ali
Chowdhury Senate Bhaban.
DU Vice-Chancellor (VC) Prof Dr Md Akhtaruzzaman
presided over the inaugural function while prime
minister's Energy Affairs Adviser Dr Tawfiq-e-Elahi
Chowdhury addressed it as chief guest, a DU press
release said.
Marking the occasion, a colorful rally led by VC
Akhtaruzzaman, was brought out from Jasimuddin hall
premises which paraded the main streets of the campus.
Printing press
catches fire in
Keraniganj
DHAKA : A fire broke out at
a printing press of a courier
service at south Keraniganj
in the district on Saturday
afternoon, reports UNB.
On information, nine units
of Bangladesh Fire Service
and Civil Defence rushed to
the spot and trying to douse
the flame.
Duty-officer of Bangladesh
Fire Service and Civil
Defence control room
Mizanur Rahman said the
fire occurred at 3:10 pm.
The cause of the fire was
not clear yet, he said.
No casualty was reported
in this regard.
Representative
meeting of Rajshahi
AL city, district
units today
DHAKA : A representative
meeting of Rajshahi city and
district units of Awami
League (AL) will be held at
Rajshahi Medical College
auditorium at 11 am today
marking the Prime
Minister's upcoming visit to
GD-219/18 (9 x 4) Rajshahi, said an AL press
release.
GD-223/18 (6 x 3)
Photo : TBT
Bangladesh cables
manufacturer gets
highest US certification
DHAKA : A Bangladesh cable manufacturer has achieved the
USA's highest standardization UL as well as German based
VDE certifications that opens a new door for the country to
export international standard sophisticated domestic cables
and Appliance Wiring Materials (AWM), reports BSS.
"These certifications has created huge export opportunities
for Bangladesh cables in the world market including USA
and Europe for the first time," Director and CEO of RR-
Imperial Electronics, that achieved the certifications,
Mahbub Hossain Mirdah told journalists at a press
conference at National Press Club.
He said the USA based UL (Underwriters Laboratories)
has been certifying electric and electronics companies across
the world for last 120 years while the German VDE
certification certifies safety and quality of cables.
"It is not only gave us opportunity to export sophisticated
domestic cables and AWM but also created a cost effective
opportunities for the local electronic devices manufacturers
to get international standard raw materials from the local
market rather importing it by spending huge foreign
exchanges," he added.
Mentioning that both UL and VDE are the two top
standardized bodies that are being accepted in any market in
the world, Mahbub said "We are the first ever any electronic
product manufacturer of Bangladesh that achieved such kind
of high standardization certificates and this will help
Bangladesh cable products to make stronghold in the
international markets."
Moreover, he expected that the achievement would be able
to attract more foreign investment in Bangladesh as these
international certifications ensure appliance of local backend
supply chain. UL representative Shilpa Ashwath Narayan
gave a presentation on different features of UL certification
process while RR-Imperial Directors ANM Manzoor
Murshed, Satish Kumar Agarwal, Ahmed Ashfaqur Rahman,
AM Ehsanul Bari, Satish Kumar Agarwal also present at the
press conference.
VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT
DONG SHENG INDUSTRIAL COMPANY LIMITED
Chinese investment company in Bangladesh. This factory produces battery in
Comilla. For Below position for Immediate Employment.
Name of the Post: Technician, Number of the Post: 15 (Fifteen)
Requirement: 1. HSC / College Degree, 01 (One) year working experience in
relevant sub sector.
2. Education Qualification is relaxable for expert and experienced candidate only.
Interested Candidate is requested to apply after publication this advertisement.
Name of the Post: Product Designer, Number of the Post: 10 (Ten)
Requirement: 1. Diploma Engineer / College Degree, 03 (Three) year
working experience in relevant sub sector.
2. Education Qualification is relaxable for expert and experienced candidate
only. Interested Candidate is requested to apply after publication this
advertisement.
Application Deadline: 18 February, 2018.
Suitable candidate are request to drop their CV mentioning the post on the Top
of the envelop to the below address by Managing Director of DONG SHENG
INDUSTRIAL COMPANY LIMITED, Choto Mohammadpur, Hasanpur,
Daudkandi, Comilla. Email: 80811346@qq.com, Tel: +880 01812861820

EDITORIAL
SUnDAY,
FEBRUARY 11, 2018
4
Acting Editor & Publisher : Jobaer Alam
Telephone: +8802-9104683-84, Fax: 9127103
e-mail: editor@thebangladeshtoday.com
Sunday, February 11, 2018
Khaleda Zia’s
conviction
T
he
earlier anticipations that there would be a
spontaneous eruption of public discontent
centering on Khaleda Zia's conviction has by
now dissipated. The post convictionscenario and
taking her to prison caused no extraordinary
outpouring of public grievances as was warned by
some BNP party leaders or BNP oriented elements.
The events came and passed surprisingly smoothly.
Of course some diehard BNP party workers sought
to stage short-lived and sporadic confrontations
with the law enforces. But on the whole the law and
order conditions-- well after the sentence was read
out to the BNP supreme leader-- continues to be
reasonable and hardly concern raising. So, one may
not contend the Home Minister's observation that
the country remains generally peaceful in the wake
of Khaleda Zia's conviction.
It appears the people at large have tended to
respond to the BNP leader's conviction as it
should be : simply as a matter of the court to be
settled as per the requirements of the law. They
were not pulsated into a rebellious or
revolutionary mood over the issue or saw no great
public interest associated to take a stand over the
court's judgement. On the other hand the Home
Minister as well as the Law Minister's
observations that people in a democracy have the
rights to 'peacefully' protest something they do
not like also helped a calmer outcome. Police took
selective and limited actions after the judgement
was delivered designed to ensure that disturbance
in public life could be restricted to the minimum.
Such a posture on the part of the law enforcers
was appreciated as they were seen as doing their
job to keep normal public life and safety and
security of people's lives and properties.
It appears the international community, too,
broadly supports the developments that have
taken place in Bangladesh over the last couple of
days. They were apprehensive about outbreak of
large scale violence over the jailing of Khaleda Zia.
According to news reports, the US State
Department in its latest policy statements warned
the BNP that they ought not to do anything that
would be evident of the latter's role in instigating
serious decline in law and order conditions in
Bangladesh. The statement mentioned about the
rights of BNP supporters and others to express
their opinion and exhibit their dissatisfaction but
not at the cost of peace and stability of
Bangladesh. Similar was the warning conveyed to
BNP leaders by India and the European Union
(EU). In sum, it appears the international
community generally has taken a principled stand
on the side of maintaining peace and stability in
Bangladesh. The US, India and EU also suggested
to BNP leaders that they should seek to redress
their grievances through the courts and legal
system and not by unleashing violence on the
streets.
Needless to say, the BNP leadership would do
well to heed such helpful advice. They also need to
try and assess people's actual feelings or passions
over the issue. Another wrong calculation by them
could put them into greater disillusionment in the
eyes of the people. As it is, people generally have
given a silent signal about what they think or feel
by remaining greatly unmoved by the Court's
decision. People's general apathy is clearly
indicative that the imprisonment of Khaleda Zia
is not considered by them as something central to
their lives and well being ; their only motivation is
no quarter should get an excuse to put Bangladesh
on the path of another spell of strife and
dissension with dangerous spill over effects on the
economy by exploiting the situation of internment
of Khaleda Zia.
Unemotionally looking at the sentencing of
Khaleda Zia, it cannot be said that justice was not
dispensed in her case. The case took nearly ten
years to come to a close and this is example
enough that the prosecution gave her and her
legal teams an extraordinary length of time to
carry out their legal defence. All opportunities for
adequate defence were extended to her. Besides,
this was not a court set up by an extra legal martial
law authorities or the like. It was duly set up by an
elected and constitutionally approved
government. The sentencing by a lower court does
not foreclose the way to her to appeal in a higher
court, to seek bail and get it, plus carry out the
legal battle while remaining a physically free
person in the process. Practically, it could be a
matter of days for Khaleda to approach the High
Court and get out of the prison at Nazimuddin
Road on bail. So, all that is needed on her part and
that of her party is to keep patient . Under no
circumstances their faces will be brighter to the
people if they encourage another round of burning
and pillaging which they executed for months in
2014 to press for their so called demands.
The news of conviction of the
former Prime Minister Begum
Khaleda Zia by a trial court to five
years of imprisonment for
embezzlement of US$ 2,52,000 from a
trust fund created in the name of her late
husband and the first Martial Law Ruler
of Bangladesh General Zia-ur-Rahman
has become a bit old. It has travelled
beyond Bangladesh instantly when the
court handed out the judgment on
Thursday around 3.00p.m.
Besides Begum Zia six other persons,
including her eldest and the only
surviving son, who in the eye of the law
is absconding but residing in London
since 2007, have also been convicted to
ten years of imprisonment from the time
they surrender to the court.
The embezzlement case, known as the
'Zia Orphanage Trust Graft Case' was
filed on July 3, 2008 by the Anticorruption
Commission during the
Caretaker government. It took long ten
years, 236 days of hearing to close the
case. Begum Zia was the main accused
and if found guilty the court could have
handed her a life term but while
announcing the verdict the court in clear
terms said it refrained from giving her
the life term considering her social status
and age. The court by any definition was
kind and generous.
Just twenty hours before the verdict of
the Zia Orphanage Trust case was
announced in Dhaka thousands miles
away, in London an unprecedented and
deplorable incident happened. Some
expatriate thugs, posing as supporters of
BNP residing in UK went to the
Bangladesh High Commission in
London, forcibly entered the High
Commission premises, vandalized the
premises, brought out the official
portrait of the Father of the Nation
TYPICALLY, manifestos form the
basis of an election campaign,
outlining the objectives and the
strategies a political party, if elected into
office, will use to achieve them. In Pakistan,
electioneering has mostly focused on
development, and rightly so, considering
the need to uplift standards of living,
improve and increase access to
infrastructure, basic necessities and
welfare.
However, a country cannot achieve
inclusive development goals if
fundamental rights, especially the right to
speech, are violated. If citizens do not have
an equal and free say in the policy and
decision-making process, then
development is less likely to be inclusive,
and democracy's basic tenets are
compromised.
Seeing that the 2018 elections are just
around the corner, it is timely to evaluate
the current government's performance in
implementing its 2013 manifesto with
regard to rights. Equally important is to
compare the 2013 manifestos of other
major political contenders contesting the
next elections. It is also pertinent to
evaluate violations of rights by the state
over the last five years, especially its
vehement crackdown on critical political
speech and dissent, both online and offline.
To what extent have the major political
parties sought to protect fundamental
rights since 2013? PML-N: Since forming
the federal government in 2013, the PML-
Wehave all seen the action movies
in which a life-or-death struggle
takes place on top of a moving
train rapidly heading for a tunnel. British
politics now unfortunately resembles
such a scene: The tussles and armwrestling
over Brexit intensify even as exit
day, March 29, 2019, looms. And just like
in a movie, the train is non-stop to a fixed
destination, and it would be unwise to
choose this moment to change the driver.
Britain's exit from the European Union
(EU) will go ahead unless there is
overwhelming public demand to prevent
it, and the Conservative Party is stuck
with the outcome of last year's election
that gives huge power to any small cabal
of members of parliament. They cannot
return to the country for another new
parliament, and any effort to bring in a
new prime minister could quite easily
derail government, party and Brexit all in
one go.
There is thus little choice for ministers
except, in the famous Winston Churchill
phrase, to 'keep buggering on'. But fixed
as they are in government, in a minority,
and in a formidably difficult and complex
situation with the time running short,
what exactly could they do to improve
matters? They need to start, of course, by
coming to an agreed position on what
trading relationship with the EU they are
seeking. That does not mean declaring
their stance on every point and detail.
British Prime Minister Theresa May
played a difficult hand well last autumn
by deciding and revealing her goals in
Of justice, Vandalism and Politics
Bangobandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
and the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
and showed utmost disrespect to the
portraits, forgetting that if it was not for
the Father of the Nation they would not
have been able to travel to London or
anywhere outside Bangladesh as a
citizen of a independent country with a
passport. They also perhaps are
unaware that if it was not for him Begum
Zia would have lived with a broken
family. What is more disappointing that
the law enforcing agencies in London
have completely failed to protect the
premises of the Bangladesh High
Commission, notwithstanding the fact
that every country's diplomatic premises
is considered to be sovereign and it is
duty of the host country to protect that
sovereignty. In Dhaka once in a while
some demonstrators wants to go and
protest in front of some diplomatic
premises but the law enforcing agencies
would have nothing of it and most of the
time they are either intercepted near the
Shahbagh or Mohakhali, forget
approaching the Baridhara diplomatic
N's manifesto merits the most scrutiny.
Chapter 5 of the party's 2013 manifesto
promised a new right to information
legislation, which the government
delivered on in 2017. However, an
information commission is yet to be set up,
in the absence of which citizens currently
have no platform to appeal to in case of
non-provision of information by a
government body. It should be set up
immediately, ideally before the next
election. The manifesto also highlights the
role of civil society in strengthening
democracy and governance. However, a
crackdown on civil society organisations
during its tenure has been unfortunate,
with many having to seek redress from
courts in order to continue operations.
Instead of undue harassment and notices
ABDUL MAnnAn
enclave. If such an incident would have
happened in Dhaka hell would have
broken loose followed by strongly
worded protests from the home country
and in certain cases the country
concerned would have called back their
diplomats or their family members.
Unfortunately nothing of this will
perhaps happen in this case. At best
Bangladesh can just lodge a complaint.
Ironically we consider England to be
home of modern democracy. However,
Begum Zia is the second Head of government or
Head of State in Bangladesh who have been convicted
in a corruption case. The first one was general
Ershad. Besides the Zia Orphanage Trust graft Case
thirty seven more cases against Khaleda Zia are
pending with trial proceeding and few cases like the
Zia Charitable Trust Case and 21 August grenade
Attack case are nearing completion. if found guilty in
these cases Begum Zia and Tarique Rahman may find
themselves with more convictions.
taking advantage of liberal policies of the
British government it seems that the
world's political thugs, militants and
controversial politicians are allowed to
take refuge in Britain quiet easily.
Begum Zia is the second Head of
Government or Head of State in
Bangladesh who have been convicted
in a corruption case. The first one was
General Ershad. Besides the Zia
Orphanage Trust Graft Case thirty
seven more cases against Khaleda Zia
are pending with trial proceeding and
few cases like the Zia Charitable Trust
Case and 21 August Grenade Attack
Rights in manifestos
USAMA KHiLji
of suspension without reason, the
government should only take legal action
provided it has evidence of such
organisations being engaged in illegal
activity. In chapter 8, the ruling party also
promised a law for protecting journalists
from harassment. However, such a law is
still pending, currently with a Senate
committee, and was not proposed by the
The manifesto also highlights the role of civil society
in strengthening democracy and governance. However,
a crackdown on civil society organisations during its
tenure has been unfortunate, with many having to seek
redress from courts in order to continue operations.
instead of undue harassment and notices of suspension
without reason, the government should only take legal
action provided it has evidence of such organisations
being engaged in illegal activity.
PML-N, but the JI. Interestingly, the
manifesto only mentioned social media in
the context of its use for business and
governance, but not in terms of freedom of
expression considering the increasingly
important role it plays in political debate.
Moreover, the PML-N also imposed limits
on speech online through the Prevention of
Electronic Crimes Act, 2016. The absence
of any mention of freedom of expression is
Light at the end of Brexit tunnel
stages - if she had spelt out in August
exactly what she would sign up to in the
interim deal in December, both the EU
and many in her own party would have
rejected it. Proceeding with some
ambiguity and a good deal of caution is
the only way she can deliver a reasonable
outcome. Nevertheless, there comes a
time every few months to move the
argument on with a clear statement of
intent, as she did with the Florence
speech last September. The Cabinet
should be able to agree on wanting free
trade with zero tariffs in goods, with a
willingness to keep our standards aligned
with the EU. They could propose a system
of mutual recognition or equivalence in
financial and other services, but prepare a
globally competitive model of regulation
if Brussels doesn't want that deal. They
could agree on diverging from the EU as
soon as possible in agricultural and
WiLLiAM HAgUE
fishing policy. The most difficult decision
for them is what they are seeking on
customs arrangements.
On this, the government and the whole
process could stand or fall. They face a
Labour opposition whose only uniting
motive on Brexit is to bring down the
Tories, and who can see in the tensions
over this issue the opportunity to force a
That does not mean declaring their stance on every
point and detail. British Prime Minister Theresa May
played a difficult hand well last autumn by deciding
and revealing her goals in stages - if she had spelt out
in August exactly what she would sign up to in the
interim deal in December, both the EU and many in
her own party would have rejected it. Proceeding with
some ambiguity and a good deal of caution is the only
way she can deliver a reasonable outcome.
potentially fatal wedge between ministers
and a crucial minority of Conservative
MPs. Given that remaining in a customs
union has again been ruled out - and
there is no conceivable way of delivering
Brexit politically without that reaffirmed
decision - the ministers need to focus on
what streamlined and efficient system
can do three things: Work in practice,
including in trade with Ireland; convince
the most pro-EU Conservatives that it is
sufficient; and appeal to countries like the
Netherlands who export much of their
case are nearing completion. If found
guilty in these cases Begum Zia and
Tarique Rahman may find themselves
with more convictions. Earlier in
2007 Begum Zia along with Awami
League President Sk. Hasina were
taken into custody by the Caretaker
Fakhruddin government and interned
separately in two houses in the Jatiyo
Sangsad compound. Though number
of cases were filed against them no
conviction was made. Both were
released later when the going went
tough for the Fakhruddin
government.
Before the day of the verdict the law
enforcing bosses announced that they
will ensure no procession or
demonstration takes place and on the
day will pass peacefully. But things did
not happen as planned. Begum Zia's
motorcade was intercepted and taken
over by few hundred BNP supporters
near the Karwan Bazaar while the
escorting police seemed helpless. This
should not have happened. Such
incidents may have had disastrous
consequence considering Begum Zia's
security. There were sporadic clashes
with the police and the supporters of
the ruling party. But credit should also
be given to the law enforcers for the
patience they have shown on that day,
not only in Dhaka but across the
country.
For the entire period of the hearing
Begum Zia's lawyers have argued on
legal point for her unconditional
release. The court not only gave them
patient hearing but also allowed
Begum Zia to speak before the court
for extended period. When she spoke
there weren't much of legal points but
more of emotion and political
rhetoric.
conspicuous, something that the party
must include in the 2018 manifesto,
especially considering the arrests of its own
activists for their political speech on social
media and elsewhere.
The PML-N also promised to remove all
curbs on the freedom of electronic and
press media in chapter 11 but, as seen last
November during the Faizabad sit-in, the
party had blocked transmission of TV
news channels and access to social media
for more than a day. Meanwhile, mobile
internet access in Fata remains blocked
since 2016. Further, although failing to
work on a whistle-blower protection law
promised in its own manifesto, the party
did have one of its senior advisers resign
when details of a high-level meeting
between top military and civilian officials
were reportedly leaked to this newspaper.
PPP: The second largest party in
parliament, the PPP had a dedicated
section for freedom of expression and right
to information in part 2 of its 2013
manifesto, where it promised a new right
to information law and a wage board ward
for newspaper employees. It also
expressed support for civil society's right to
association and its role as important
stakeholders in legislation as well as
implementation of human rights. This is
something the party, as the opposition,
adhered to by engaging with a range of civil
society organisations.
Source : Dawn
trade to Britain. If they cannot propose an
idea that ticks those three boxes, they will
be in a very deep hole. If they can, every
Conservative MP should get behind it
(OK, we all know Ken Clarke is a special
case) to prevent the European
Commission pursuing a divide and
destroy strategy, were it so recklessly
minded, towards May's administration. If
ministers emerged from their conclave
last week with some such approach they
will have a viable policy for the next round
of talks.
At the same time, there are other things
they can do to avoid more of the
unnecessary rows and dramas of recent
weeks. The first is very simple: The key
ministers involved should be meeting
every working day to discuss the issues,
understand each other's views and deal
with immediate controversies. They
would do that if Britain was fighting a
war, and they are now in the peacetime
political equivalent. They would then be
less likely to misunderstand and
apparently contradict each other,
whether in Sunday morning interviews or
at Davos. Next, they should make a
positive virtue of parliamentary scrutiny,
such as over the 'Henry VIII' powers to
amend laws during Brexit now being
debated in the House of Lords. A
reluctance after the referendum to put
Article 50 to a vote straight away led to
them being dragged through the
Supreme Court and overruled.
Source : Gulf News

DEVELOPMENT
sunDAy, febRuARy 11, 2018
5
ensuring accountability and transparency
of development projects
JInDRA CekAn
While President Obama and
former United States
Agency for International
Development (USAID)
Administrator Raj Shah
promised up to 30% of all
contracts would go to 'local
solutions' that "promote sustainable
development
through high-impact partnerships
and local solutions",
nowhere near that
percentage became true
then, much less now. While
there seem to be good examples
such as Haiti,
Afghanistan is a poorer
example. While most international
non-profits implement
projects through local
sub-contractors, certainly
building their capacity to
manage and account for foreign
taxpayer dollars spent,
like this MSI in Lebanon
example, if we extend the
measure of 'success' beyond
our project implementation,
policies and programming
needs to change to sustain
capacity and implementation
post-exit.
How local partners are
presented can appear as
somewhat of a shell game.
For while Haiti and
Afghanistan have been featured
by USAID, I have never
seen a full inventory of
partners for even a handful
of the 60+ countries and
regional missions that
USAID works in. We hear
about 'local solutions' and
undoubtedly USAID's 'implementing
partners' do
much good using local subcontractors.
Yet are the
locals winning the contracts
these days? USAID posts
contracts lists, for instance
those who 'won' contracts
amounting to $4.68 billion
in 2016. The for-profits of
Chemonics 'won' over $1 billion,
then Tetra Tech and
DAI got $800 million of
contracts each. These three
contractors comprised 39%
of all USAID obligated contract
funding that year,
whereas (U.S.) non-profits
garnered 13% of the contracts
and small and
woman-owned businesses
12% and 7%. Only Kenya
Medical Supplies Authority,
a state corporation, was listed
in the top 20, winning a
five-year $122 million contract
for Kenya. There are no
equivalent sub-contractor
lists, much less amounts
allocated to national NGOs
which would prove we are
building 'development'
ground-up. While I am
focusing on USAID, I believe
this is true of most bilateral
and multilateral donors. For
USAID, caveats abound
regarding their ability to
accomplish local and sustained
'development'. A
2015 Congressional
Research Paper about their
How transparent and accountable are the
local partners during and post development
projects?
Photo: Collected
Background, Operations
and Issues, cites "multiple
challenges in the course of
fulfilling its mission", including:
Local Solutions and
Sustainability. Yet the
agency argues that investments
are best sustained in
the long-term if development
is locally owned, locally
led, and locally resourced."
For instance, the US government's
country-level foreign
appropriations overall
budget for 2017 shows that
$36 billion funded a variety
of branches of the US government's
'development', it
would be instructive to see
what the amounts of the funders'
award contacts which
would be broken down into:
what % went to implementers,
what % went to
national governments or
local contractors, and what
% was directly used for our
participants. Maybe this is a
new aspect the industrystandard
Charity Navigator
can add to its existing
Accountability and Transparency
criteria. On my
repeated wish list for them is
to show evidence the nonprofit
is systematically doing
and learning from post project
sustained impacts evaluations.
I first asked this 5
years ago.
Their website also talks
about its 25-year CSR
investments which is an
enviable timespan, for most
donors have 1-5 year projects.
"Abengoa believes that
the good relationship it has
with local communities, as
well as respect and development
in the areas where it
operates, reaps benefits,
referring to this method as
"social licence to operate".
Abengoa's social engagement
aims to further the
social and cultural development
of the communities
where they operate. From
2014 to 2016, the company
reported its social performance
in line with the criteria
proposed by the London
Benchmarking Group
(LBG) methodology. This
model defines a method to
measure, manage, assess
and disclose contributions,
achievements and impacts
of the company's social
engagement .
Asia’s universities cruising up
world rankings
Water saving habits are strictly encouraged in Australia.
Photo: Joe Castro
What lessons can African nations
learn about drought adaptation
sukHMAnI MAnTel
Rainfall in South Africa is naturally
highly variable with total amount of
precipitation very different between
years and across the country. Total
annual rainfall in southern Africa doesn't
seem to have changed much over
the last century since measurements
began. But it has become more variable:
droughts and floods are more frequent
than before. The region's urban
authorities, industries, farmers and
other citizens will have to adapt to these
conditions.
The experience of other countries
may offer useful lessons. Not all will be
applicable, given southern Africa's limited
financial resources. For example,
southern African countries cannot
afford wasteful expenditure on infrastructure,
so we must be sure that our
predictions of future water demand
and changes in water availability have
low uncertainty. Individual low-income
households in southern Africa cannot
afford some of the water-saving technologies
used in developed countries.
So it needs to adopt simple, but effective
solutions.
Some arid countries have been forced
to develop novel technologies and
strategies to survive extremely dry conditions.
Australia and Israel, for example,
have become more resilient as climate
change has brought more frequent
droughts.
Two thirds of Israel's land surface is
desert and the remainder is arid. Yet,
the country has found ways to manage
water shortages. Australia, too, has
learnt how to cope. In particular, a
drought from 1997 to 2009 forced Melbourne
to take drastic measures to conserve
water. Residents changed the way
they used water - and that behaviour
has persisted. On average, they still use
only a quarter of the water used by the
average Californian.
Israel has, over many decades, developed
a centralised water management
system. It has invested in continuous
technological innovations, improvements
in practice and development of
long-term management plans. The
country's infrastructure innovations
include a scheme to supply water from
the north to all parts of the country,
drilling extremely deep wells and seawater
desalination plants. Israel also
reuses wastewater and compels people
to use water-saving technology.
Its greatest innovation relates to irrigation.
It has developed an efficient
drip irrigation system that uses up to
75% less water than some other irrigation
techniques. For its part, Australia
passed legislation that allowed the federal
government to provide funding to
Melbourne for an integrated response
to the drought. It also allocated power
to a regional water manager to force
cooperation between water utilities,
city agencies and reservoir managers.
It invested in infrastructure too,
including a pipeline to deliver water
and a desalination plant. The government
encouraged households to save
water through technology and behaviour.
It provided rebates for residential
greywater (water that is relatively clean
enough to be reused e.g. from bath,
sink or washing machine, in contrast to
black water which is water from toilets)
systems for gardening, encouraged
investment in rainwater tanks and
implemented water restrictions. Its
marketing included simple elements
like displaying reservoir levels on electronic
billboards. By 2010, Melbourne
residents and businesses were using
only half the water they'd used in 1997.
And this behaviour has continued,
making the city more resilient to future
droughts. It's clear that southern Africa
needs to take action on a number of
fronts. Countries need to pass new laws
that make an integrated response to
drought possible. They need to invest in
infrastructure, which could include
alternative sources of bulk water supply.
Our own study on how bulk water
suppliers can adapt took into account
the uncertainty associated with future
climate change and development. We
recommended adaptive management
along with continual monitoring.
Adaptive management is a decision
making process that reevaluates management
processes and actions iteratively
over time to adjust to changing
conditions. For example, adaptive
water management monitors the
amount of water available due to variable
climate (supply) and the quantity
used over time (demand). In this way,
trends in water availability and water
use predicted by science can be confirmed
or corrected by observations,
and can more confidently guide infrastructure
development.
The region should also invest in innovative
ways of saving water. Some of
these changes would be behavioural.
Media such as television and billboards
can be very effective in campaigns for
change. Simple water saving technologies
can be invested in, such as rainwater
tanks. Countries in southern Africa
must also start using the water they
have more efficiently. They can plan
their water resources better, reuse
wastewater and maintain infrastructure
so as to reduce leaks and wastage.
Agriculture uses a large amount of
water, up to 70% of water usage globally.
Adopting techniques such as drip
irrigation could save a lot.
‘Poverty clock’ ticks with real-time data
Asian universities are becoming more and more visible in the top 100 list of Times Higher education
rankings.
Photo: Panos
CRIsPIn MAslog
The banner headline was that the University of Oxford has
become the first UK university to top the 2016-17 Times
Higher Education World University rankings, when they
were released last year. But the subplot, reinforced by the
recent release of the first-ever rankings specific to Asia-Pacific,
is that more Asian universities are now edging to the top
100 and are poised to enter the top 20.
The headline trends of last year were that the University of
Oxford has knocked five-time leader California Institute of
Technology, also known as Caltech, into second place in the
Times' latest rankings. And of the top 200 universities, 63 are
from the US while 32 are from the UK - two shy of last year's
number. Germany is once again the third most represented
country in the top 200, with 22 institutions (up from 20),
while the Netherlands is still fourth, with 13 (up from 12).
While these Western countries continue to dominate the
list, Asia is becoming increasingly visible. According to the
world rankings, there are now nine Asian universities in the
top 100, up from eight in the last ranking, with several Asian
institutions edging closer to the top 20.
Asia's leading institution, the National University of Singapore
(NUS), moved up two spots to 24th - its highest rank
ever. Singapore's second best university, Nanyang Technological
University (NTU), came in at 54. Two of China's flagships
have also joined the elite 100. Peking University leaped
to 29th from 42nd last year, while Tsinghua University
jumped to 35th from 47th the year before. Japan has one university
in the top 100, University of Tokyo at 39. Two Hong
Kong universities joined the magic 100 circle - University of
Hong Kong at 43 and Hong Kong University of Science and
Technology at 49. There are also two Korean universities in
the top 100 - Seoul National University at 72 and Korea
Advanced Institute of Science and Technology at 89. A third
one, Pohang University of Science and Technology, came
very close at 104 in the world but is 10th in Asia. The Asia-
Pacific rankings add to these trends by showing that of the 24
universities in the top 200, only four lost ground compared
to 20 who improved their position. Those which gained
ground have increased their scores by 24 points on average.
They also show that some universities jumped in the rankings
by phenomenal scores. The Chinese University of Hong
Kong moved from 138 to 76; KAIST from 148 to 89; Zhejiang
University from 251 to 201; Shanghai Jiao Tong from 301 to
201; City University of Hong Kong from 201 to 119; and University
of Science and Technology of China from 201 to 153.
Meanwhile, India's leading university, the Indian Institute
of Science, is edging closer to the top 200, claiming a spot in
the 201-250 band, its highest-ever position. Of the top ten
Asian universities, four are science universities and six are
humanities oriented. Offhand, we can say that being a science
university does not automatically make a university
great. Other factors come into play.
The Institute of International Education's (IIE) deputy
vice-president of research and evaluation, Rajika Bhandari,
attributes the sharp rise of Asian universities in the rankings
to three main factors: "rapidly growing populations and
demand for higher education in the region; governments
making significant investments in universities; and improvements
by individual institutions."
Bhandari, co-editor of the book Asia: The Next Higher
Education Superpower?, was quoted by the Times university
rankings as saying that many Asian scholars who studied at
Western universities are back in their home countries and
have "really begun to transform their own higher education
sectors." They have "brought back to their home campuses
some of the teaching values of critical thinking and liberal
education, as well as the idea of promotion based on merit
and research outputs," she says.
To explain Singapore's sterling performance in the university
rankings, Eddie Kuo, former sociology department chair
at NUS and founding dean of the NTU School of Communication,
tells SciDev.Net: "The two schools are highly international,
with high ratio of international faculty and students.
There is a strong emphasis on top-tier publication. These are
possible as both universities enjoy strong government funding.
Faculty salaries are highly competitive.
TAnIA RAbesAnDRATAnA
Every minute in Nigeria, 6.5
people fall into extreme
poverty. And as this sentence
is being written, 42.5
per cent of its population -
82,640,203 people - are
extremely poor. These are
up-to-the-second, specific
estimates that come from
the World Poverty Clock: a
database, launched in May
2017, of national income figures
paired with easy to follow,
real-time graphics.
Nigeria's rising poverty
trend translates to the
colour red on the website's
map.
Official data sources do
not give such specific poverty
estimates. The 'global
poverty today' figure often
bandied at big international
meetings is usually based on
four-year-old data, says
Homi Kharas, the lead economic
adviser behind the
clock, who also leads the
global economy and development
programme at the
Brookings Institution, a US
think tank.
The clock's team is aiming
to paint a clearer and more
timely picture, so that countries
can check their
progress to escaping
extreme poverty by 2030 -
one of the targets under the
UN's global Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs).
In the process, the clock
can also come up with surprises.
Unlike Nigeria, India
is well on track to meeting
the target and appears green
on the map. At the time of
writing the clock estimates
that 83,653,728 people, or
6.3 per cent of its population,
live in extreme poverty
(with less than 1.9 US dollars
per day) and 47 people
escape it every minute.
This means that within
the next few months, Nigeria
will have the largest
absolute number of poor
people in the world - which
Kharas says is unexpected,
given that India has "held
that title" for hundreds of
years. The clock is the brainchild
of the non-profit arm
of World Data Lab (WDL),
an Austria-based company.
Its models rely primarily on
publicly available national
household surveys, which
governments typically conduct
every three to ten
years, to project income figures
into the present and
the future.
For India, for example,
Woman washing in a slum in Delhi, India.
the estimates are based on
2012 data collected by the
National Sample Survey
Office, adjusted and published
by the World Bank on
its PovcalNet website.
Though the clock's algorithms
rely largely on World
Bank data, the bank is not
responsible for the clock.
Those algorithms estimate
how people's incomes
change over time in each
country, using economic
growth forecasts and longterm
scenarios that account
for global events such as climate
change. The estimates,
available for all
nations except Syria, are
Photo: Anita Makri
then paired with graphics to
display how fast each country
is escaping poverty and
whether they will meet the
2030 goal. "We want this
used by individual countries,
to see how they are
doing against their neighbours,"
says Kharas.

NATIONAL
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2018
6
Ruling party whip of Jatiya Sangsad Mohammmad Uddin, MP inagurating newly constructed building
of MHS Government Primary School of Barlekha municiplality under Moulvibazar district yesterday.
Photo: Abdur Rob.
Vote for AL again
to continue
development:
Amu
JHALOKATI: Awami
League Advisory Council
Member and Industries
Minister Amir Hossain
Amu today said
Bangladesh is progressing
fast and it is believed that
the country would turn
into a developed one
before 2041, reports BSS.
"Bangladesh is
developing fast...If you
want to continue this
development, you have to
vote the AL to power again
under the leadership of
Prime Minister Sheikh
Hasina," he said, speaking
at a view exchange
meeting at Nabagram
High School ground here.
Amu was exchanging
views with local Awami
League leaders and
workers with AL
Nabagram Union
President Kanchan Ali Mia
in the chair.
AL district unit General
Secretary Khan Saifullha
Panir, Joint Secretary
Sultan Hossain Khan and
Organizing Secretary
Mojibul Haque Akandh,
among others, addressed
the meeting.
Amu said BNP and
Jamaat are conducting
destructive activities to
take the country
backward. But, Awami
League is working
relentlessly for the
betterment of the country,
he added.
"Awami League is
working in every sector
including health,
education, women
empowerment and power
for the welfare of the
common people," Amu
said.
Later, Amu joined the
annual sports competition
programme and
distributed prizes among
the winners at Haji Joyan
Uddin Dwini Dakhil
Madrasha.
Programme on Dr
Wazed’s birthday
RANGPUR: Dr Wazed Smriti Sangsad
(DWSS) has finalised a programme to
celebrate the 76th birthday of renowned
nuclear scientist Dr MA Wazed Miah, also
the husband of Prime Minister Sheikh
Hasina, here on February 15 and 16 next,
reports BSS.
The two-day programme was finalised at
a meeting of the executive committee of
DWSS held at its temporary office on the
second floor of Press Club Complex on
Friday night, a press release said today.
President of DWSS and noted
educationist professor Dr Hamidul Haque
Khondker presided over the meeting
moderated by its general secretary and
senior journalist Saiful Islam Jahangir.
Joint secretaries of DWSS Advocate
Rothish Chandra Bhowmick Babu Sona
and Elahi Farooque, Assistant Organising
Secretary Tanvir Ahmed Ashrafi, Law
Affairs Secretary Advocate Sajjadur
Rahman Shanju, Women Affairs Secretary
Tahmina Shirin Nipa, assistant office
secretary of DWSS Ali Jahur Mantu,
Literary Affairs Secretary Basher Ibne
Jahur, Publicity Secretary Chandan
Sarker, among others, addressed the
meeting.
The programme included drawing and
descent hand writing competition, poem
recitation competition and patriotic song
competition for the children will be held at
3 pm on the Town Hall premises on
February 15 next.
Potato cultivation gets
momentum in Chandpur
CHANDPUR: Plantation of potato seeds getting momentum
and farmers are giving their full efforts to make potato
farming programme successful in the district, reports BSS.
Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) is constantly
monitoring the overall progress of potato farming and
smooth supply of fertilizers, pesticides and other necessary
agri-inputs to farmers to achieve the target.
The department has fixed target to cultivate potato on
12,890 hectares of land during this season in the district and
production target has been fixed at 2,72,624 metric tonnes.
Deputy Director of DAE M Ali told BSS that special
initiatives have been taken for cultivating hybrid variety of
potato aiming to produce a record quantity of potato this
season in the district. The DAE has also distributed adequate
quality of seeds, other agro-inputs and provided necessary
technical assistance to the farmers.
Youth killed in Gopalganj road accident
GOPALGANJ: A youth was killed and his uncle injured as
their vehicle plunged into a roadside ditch in Majhbari area
under Kotalipara upazila of the district yesterday morning,
reports BSS.
The deceased was identified as Moinuddin, 18, a resident of
Kaliganj village under Shibganj upazila in Chapainawabganj
district. Police said the accident occurred when the locally
made vehicle plunged into the roadside ditch in the area as its
driver lost control over it, leaving its passenger Moinuddin
dead on the spot and driver injured.
Injured Khaleq was sent to the upazila health complex.
The children and students of different
educational institutions and socio- cultural
organisations can take part in the
competition.
On February 16, leaders of the DWSS will
place wreaths at the grave of Dr Wazed
Miah, arrange Ziarat and offer Fateha in
his birthplace village of Laldighee
Fatehpur under Pirganj upazila in the
district at 8 am.
Milad and doa mahfils will be arranged
and special munajats be offered a
Keramotia Jam-e-Mosque after Asr
prayers seeking eternal peace for the
departed soul of Dr Wazed and well-being
of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Sajeeb
Wazed Joy, Saima Wazed Putul and their
other family members.
A discussion on the life and deeds of Dr
Wazed will be arranged at TownHall
auditorium at 6 pm on February 16 and
prizes, crests and certificates will be
distributed among winners of different
competitions.
High officials, politicians, public
representatives, renowned academicians,
educationists, researchers, professionals,
intellectuals, civil society members and
elite will take part in the discussion.
Talking to BSS today, General Secretary
of DWSS Saiful Islam Jahangir said the
programme will remain open for the
people from all walks in life and requested
all to be present in the two-day programme
to celebrate the birthday of Dr Wazed.
Massive programme
to cultivate Boro in
Natore
NATORE: The Department
of Agriculture Extension
(DAE) has taken massive
programme to cultivate Boro
paddy in seven upazilas of the
district in the current Boro
season, reports BSS.
The DAE sources said,
under the programme, a total
of 55,401 hectares of land
have been brought under the
cultivation with the
production target fixed at
2.18 lakh tonnes of rice.
But finally, the farmers of
the district have cultivated
Boro on 621,906 hectares of
land. Of the total, 52,823
hectors of land were brought
under high yielding variety
(HYV), 10,057 hectors under
hybrid variety and 25 hectors
under local variety of paddy.
Deputy Director of DAE M
Rafikul Islam said the
farmers of the district are
making up their mind to put
in their best efforts to achieve
the targeted production of
the paddy.
Activists of BNP and its wings held a protest procession and rally demanding scrap the verdict of
party chief yesterday in Kurigram.
Photo: Badshah Saykot.
Experts for integrated effort
to detect leprosy cases
RAJSHAHI: Experts have stressed the
need for taking a comprehensive effort
to detect all the leprosy cases early as
the disease is curable, aiming to build a
leprosy-free society, reports BSS.
They said importance should be
given on creating mass awareness
about the sign and symptoms of
leprosy and ensuring treatment for all
leprosy patients free of cost.
"Leprosy mainly affects the skin and
superficial segments of peripheral
nerves, but can affect any tissue except
brain and spinal cord. However, it is
not a hereditary disease," Dr Afsar
Siddiqui, Assistant Professor of Sex,
Skin and Venereal Diseases of
Rajshahi Medical College Hospital,
told BSS.
Describing the major sign and
symptoms of leprosy, he said the late
casediagnosis, little knowledge among
community people, social stigma and
Steps taken
to observe
Int’l Mother
Language
Day in
Gaibandha
GAIBANDHA: Local
administration has taken
elaborate programmes to
observe the Shaheed Dibash
and International Mother
Language Day on February
21 in a befitting manner and
with due respect, reports
BSS.
A preparatory meeting
was recently held at the
conference room of the
deputy commissioner's (DC)
of Gaibandha with DC
Gautam Chandra Pal in the
chair, said Nezarat Deputy
Collector MM Ashik Reza.
Government officials,
freedom fighters, heads of
the educational institutions,
professionals, socio-cultural
activists, political leaders
and eminent citizens and
journalists, among others,
attended the meeting.
Floral wreaths will be
placed at the local Shaheed
Minar of the poura park and
other Shaheed Minars here
at zero hour on February 21
while the national flag will
be hoisted at half-mast in all
the government, semi
government, private and
academic institutions in the
morning of the day.
The programmes of the
day also include offering of
special prayers at the places
of worship and holding
discussion, cultural
functions, art and essay
writing competitions and
prize distribution ceremony.
Various sub-committees
have already been formed to
arrange all the programmes
in the district, Ashik Reza
said.
No paucity of fund in
constructing
embankments: Manju
SUNAMGANJ: Water
Resources Minister Anowar
Hossain Monju today said
there will be no paucity of
fund for constructing
embankments as the present
government is committed to
solving all problems in haor
areas in the next financial
year, reports BSS.
It would require no
permission for any person to
go to the water resources
minister for discussing floodrelated
problems with him as
Sheikh Hasina's government
is very sincere for balanced
development of the country,
he told while speaking at a
discussion meeting with the
local leaders here at
Jamalganj upazila complex
of the district. Local MP
Engineer Moazzem Hossain
Ratan, senior secretary Dr
Jafar Ahmed Khan and
Shunamganj Bacaho
Anodoloner President
Advocate Bazlul Mazid
Khashru, among others,
attended the meeting with
deputy commissioner of the
district M Sabirul Islam in
the chair.
Earlier, the minister
attended a farmers' rally
organized by Fenarkbak and
Vimkhali unions to see for
himself the Kanaikhali river
excavation and waterlogging
problems.
limited mental health services are the
major challenges towards eradication
of the disease.
As leprosy service providers are
limited in the country, the physician
said, authorities concerned should
extend cooperation towards the
existing organisations giving services
to leprosy patients and encourage new
doctors to work for the leprosy
patients.
Social awareness must be created so
that no leprosy patient remains out of
treatment since the untreated cases are
the only source of more infection, Dr
Afsar said.
He said the major sign and
symptoms of leprosy are hypopigmented
anesthetic skin patch,
nodules under skin and thickening of
earlobe,depressed nose, painless ulcer,
numbness of fingers or claw fingers,
foot drop due to damage of lateral
31 held, drugs
seized in Dinajpur
DINAJPUR: Police, in special drives
arrested 28 persons including three
activists of BNP and five drug traders from
different areas of the district in last 12-hour
ending at 8am yesterday morning, reports
BSS.
Law enforcers also recovered 220 bottles
of Phensidyl, 122 pieces of Yaba tablets,
350-gram of Ganja, 3,500 pieces of cow
fattening tablets and 261 pieces of
Pethidine Injection during the drives.
Police said they were picked up from
different areas of the district.
During the drives, Dinajpur Sadar police
arrested seven persons including three
activists of BNP from Chawlar Potti of the
town around 11pm, Chirirbandar Thana
police arrested four persons, Birampur
Thana police arrested two drug traders with
220 bottles of Phensidyl from Nawabganj
Rail
Gundi around 11:30pm, Nawabganj
Thana police arrested two persons,
Khansama Thana police arrested three
One held with
firearms in
C’nawabganj
CHAPAINAWABGANJ:
Members of Border Guard
Bangladesh (BGB)
arrested an alleged
firearms peddler with six
pistols, four magazines
and 13 bullets from
Hudmapara Mollatola
village under Shibganj
upazila in the district early
yesterday morning,
reports BSS.
BGB sources said the
arrested person is Md.
Anwarul Islam, 45, son of
Late Abul Hossain of the
aforesaid area.
Acting on a tip off, a
team of the BGB from
Ajmatpur border outpost
raided the house of
Anwarul around 3-30 am
and arrested him with the
arms and ammunition.
Later, the arrested
person was handed over to
the police.
palatial nerve and lagophthalmos due
to facialnerve damage.
Apart from the government
agencies, Damien Foundation
Bangladesh is implementing 'Rajshahi
Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control
Project' in collaboration with the
Ministry of Health to address leprosy
disease in thecountry.
The project is being implemented at
25 upazilas in three districts --
Rajshahi, Naogaon and Nawabganj -
covering around 70 lakh people.
Dr Abdus Sobhan, former divisional
director of Health Directorate, said
Bangladesh has made a marked
progress in the control of leprosy by
achieving its elimination goal.
But, he said, strong political will and
adequate resources from the higher
authorities concerned, including the
donor agencies, are needed to achieve
the total elimination of the disease.
persons, Biral Thana police arrested two
persons, Birganj Thana police arrested
three persons including one drug trader
with 122 pieces of Yaba tablets from Kabiraj
Haat around 11pm, Kaharole Thana
police arrested three persons and
Parbatipur Thana police arrested two drug
traders with 350-gram of Ganja from
Bangali Para of the upazila around 7am.
Several cases, including charges of
subversive activities, are pending with
different police stations against the arrested
persons, the sources added.
Meanwhile, members of Border Guard
Bangladesh (BGB) in a drive detained three
alleged drug traders with 261 pieces of
Pethidine Injection and 3,500 pieces of cow
fattening tablets around 6am from Hili
railway station in Hakimpur upazila of the
district.
Later, the detained persons were handed
over to the Hakimpur Thana police, BGB
said.
The arrested people were sent to jail.
Rinki, a child of Nabiganj of Habiganj distirct
is diagonised with a rare disease. She needs a
better treatment and a hefty amount of
money to conduct his treatment. His paretns
urge to well off people to extend their helping
hand. Photo: Matiur Rahman Munna.
Skill development trainings
can make youths worthy
citizens: speakers
RAJSHAHI: Speakers at a function here
today said skill development trainings can
make the young generation worthy
citizens by creating a huge employment
opportunities in the society, reports BSS.
They said skilled youths are capable to
turn their communities into a
development one as they can use their
acquired knowledge through the trainings
in various development activities.
The view came at the closing session of
a two-day refreshers training,
organised by The Hunger Project,
Bangladesh, at Mohanpur Upazila
ParishadHall room in the district.
Importance should be given on
generating community leadership among
the youths to bring a qualitative change
everywhere in the society. There is no
alternative to training for enhancing
professional skills among the youths, the
speakers said.
British Council funded project
"Promoting Democratic Inclusion and
Governance through Youths (PRODIGY)"
supported the training. A total of
31youths including 15 female joined it.
Joining the function, Upazila Chairman
Professor Abdus Samad put emphasis on
adorning the youths with modern
knowledge for making them worthy
citizens.Time has come to generate more
young leadership in the society.
Increasing young leadership along with
building their capacity is the precondition
to generate job opportunities, social
development and free the society from
gender discrimination and vicious cycle of
poverty, he added.
"Knowledge acquired from the training
should be applied for proper functioning
of the LGIs," he added.
College teachers Asad Ali and Mofizur
Rahman and school teacher Alim Sheikh
also spoke. Field Coordinator
(Monitoring and Operations) of
PRODIGY Subrata Kumar Paul and
Programme Officers Masum Russel,
Joynal Abedeen and Jewel Rana narrated
the training aspects.

INTERNATIONAL
SUNDAy, FEBrUAry 11, 2018
7
People inspect the damage inside the mosque in Benghazi.
At least two people have been killed
and scores wounded in a bombing at
a mosque in Libya's eastern city of
Benghazi, according to medical
sources, reports Al Jazeera.
The casualties were caused by two
suspected improvised explosive
devices which went off at the Saad
Ben Obadah mosque during Friday
prayers. Mutaz al-Mu'tri, Benghazi's
security directorate spokesperson,
said two bomb bags had been used
in the attack, according to Libya's
218 tv news channel.
Medics told Reuters news agency
that at least two people were killed
and 55 were wounded. Local media
news reports put the number of
those injured at 129.
There was no immediate claim of
responsibility.
The United Nations Support Mission
in Libya (UNSMIL) was quick
to condemn the attack, calling
reports of civilian casualties "deeply
Photo: Internet
Deadly mosque blast hits
Libya's Benghazi
Farthest photos
ever taken, from
nearly 4 billion
miles away
The NASA spacecraft that
gave us close-ups of Pluto
has set a record for the
farthest photos ever taken,
reports BBC.
In December - while
3.79 billion miles (6.12
billion kilometers) from
Earth - the New Horizons
spacecraft snapped a picture
of a star cluster. The
photo surpassed the "Pale
Blue Dot" images of Earth
taken in 1990 by NASA's
Voyager 1. The images for
"Pale Blue Dot" - part of a
composite - were taken
3.75 billion miles (6.06
billion kilometers) away.
New Horizons took
more photos as it sped
deeper into the cosmos in
December. These pictures
show two objects in
the Kuiper Belt, the socalled
twilight zone on
the fringes of our solar
system. NASA released
the images this week.
New Horizons flew past
Pluto in 2015. It's headed
toward an even closer
encounter with another
icy world, 1 billion miles
(1.6 billion kilometers)
beyond Pluto, on Jan. 1,
2019.
The targeted object is
known as 2014 MU69;
the spacecraft will pass
within 2,175 miles (3,500
kilometers). "New Horizons
just couldn't be better
... we're bearing down
on our flyby target," said
lead scientist Alan Stern
of the Southwest
Research Institute in
Boulder, Colorado.
New Horizons is currently
in electronic hibernation.
Flight controllers
at a Johns Hopkins University
lab in Laurel,
Maryland, will awaken
the spacecraft in June
and start getting it ready
for the flyby. The spacecraft
was launched in
2006.
disturbing". "Direct or indiscriminate
attacks agnst civilians are prohibited
under international humanitarian
law and constitute war
crimes," UNSMIL said in a post on
Twitter.
"This heinous act should not provide
a justification for revenge
attacks. Prompt, impartial investigations
should bring perpetrators to
justice." The incident comes weeks
after a double car bombing in Benghazi
killed at least 35 people.
That attack, which took place outside
the Bait Radwan mosque on
January 23, left more than 50 others
wounded, including a number of
senior security officials. Ahmed al-
Fituri, chief of a special investigation
unit attached to the general
command of east Libyan security
forces, was among the casualties.
Forces loyal to Khalifa Haftar, a
renegade general based in the east
of the country, took control of Benghazi
in 2017, after a three-year campaign
against rival armed groups.
The battles have left large swaths
of the port city in ruins. Several
bombings during the latter stages of
the conflict targeted figures linked to
Haftar's self-styled Libyan National
Army (LNA). The LNA claimed victory
in Benghazi in July of last year,
but sporadic clashes dragged on
until December when it took control
of its rivals' final holdout. It has
since imposed strict military control
on the city and other parts of eastern
Libya under its control.
The fighting in Benghazi was part
of a broader conflict that developed
in Libya after former ruler Muammar
Gaddafi was removed from
power and killed in a NATO-backed
uprising in 2011. The North African
nation has had competing governments
aligned with rival military
factions based in Tripoli and the
east since 2014.
Trump defends former
aide after abuse claims
bring criticism
President Donald Trump has
defended former aide Rob
Porter, wishing him well in
his future endeavors without
any mention of the two exwives
who have accused
Porter of physical and emotional
abuse, reports Dawn.
Trump's comments Friday
set off a firestorm at a time of
national conversation about
the mistreatment of women.
And they came amid rampant
White House fingerpointing
about who knew
what, and when, about the
severity of the spousal abuse
allegations. Trump said
Porter, who resigned when
the abuse allegations became
public this week, had
"worked hard" at the White
House and wished him well.
"It's a, obviously, tough
time for him. He did a very
good job when he was in the
White House. And we hope
he has a wonderful career,"
Trump said in his first comments
on the allegations
against the onetime rising
West Wing star.
"He said very strongly yesterday
that he's innocent,"
Trump added. He gave no
nod to the treatment of the
women whose reports of
abuse led to Porter's resignation,
but which he vehemently
denies.
Trump's comments drew
immediate condemnation
from women's groups and
Democrats.
They came amid swirling
questions about how White
House chief of staff John
Kelly had handled the matter
and whether he could
maintain his job despite
Trump's growing frustration.
They also raised questions
about how seriously
the president takes allegations
of domestic abuse.
Also Friday, a second
White House staffer, speechwriter
David Sorensen,
resigned as a result of abuse
allegations. Spokesman Raj
Shah said the White House
learned Thursday night
about the allegations before
being contacted by the
media. "We immediately
confronted the staffer, he
denied the allegations and he
resigned today," said Shah.
Sorensen worked for the
Council on Environmental
Quality, which is part of the
Executive Office of the President.
The Washington Post first
reported the allegations
against Sorensen and his resignation.
Kelly, meanwhile,
tried to push his own timeline
concerning Porter in
brief comments to The Associated
Press and several other
news outlets, repeating a
narrative he had presented
Friday at a senior staff meeting
that contradicts accounts
provided by multiple White
House officials.
Kelly said he found out
only Tuesday night that the
accusations against Porter
"were true." "Forty minutes
later he was gone," Kelly
said. The chief of staff added
that the decision was made
before photos of one of
Porter's ex-wives with a
black eye were published.
Other White House officials
have said it was the release of
the photos Wednesday
morning that sealed Porter's
fate. The staff secretary
resigned later Wednesday.
Kelly told reporters the
only other indication he had
that something could be
wrong came in November,
when he got an update on
pending background investigations
and learned "there
was some things that needed
to be looked into. And literally
that was it." The chief of
staff's handling of the matter
has drawn the ire of Trump,
according to two people who
speak to the president regularly
but are not authorized
to publicly discuss private
conversations.
Trump has complained
that Kelly did not bring the
Porter allegations to him
sooner, adding to his frustrations
about the chief of staff's
attempts to control him and
Kelly's recent inflammatory
comments about immigrants.
Trump has begun
floating possible names for a
future chief of staff in conversations
with outside
advisers, according to three
people with knowledge of the
conversations. Among the
names being considered:
Budget Director Mick Mulvaney,
House Majority
Leader Kevin McCarthy,
Rep. Mark Meadows and
CIA Director Mike Pompeo.
But there was no sign that
a move was imminent,
according to the people with
knowledge of the conversations.
Trump is known to frequently
poll his advisers
about the performance of
senior staff and is often
reluctant to actually fire
aides.
A White House official,
who spoke on condition of
anonymity because the official
was not authorized to
discuss personnel matters
publicly, said Friday that
Kelly had not offered to
resign. The official said
White House counsel Don
McGahn was apprised of at
least some of the accusations
about Porter at least four
times, including as early as
January 2017.
Police in Indian
Kashmir say
gunmen attack
army camp
A group of militants in Indian
Kashmir opened fire Saturday
inside an army camp
in the disputed region, police
said, reports BBC.
The attack began early in
the morning and it was
unclear how many gunmen
were involved, said a police
official, speaking on customary
condition of anonymity
because he wasn't authorized
to talk to the media. The
camp is located on the outskirts
of the city of Jammu.
The area was cordoned off as
intermittent firing continued.
Few other details were
immediately available.
The Himalayan region of
Kashmir is divided between
India and archrival and neighbor
Pakistan. Both claim the
region in its entirety. Several
militant groups have been
fighting for Kashmir's independence
from India or its
merger with Pakistan since
1989. Around 70,000 people
have been killed in the uprising
and the ensuing Indian
military crackdown. Anti-
India sentiment runs deep
among Kashmir's mostly
Muslim population, with
most people supporting the
rebel cause.
A budget the likes of
which the Pentagon
has never seen
It's the biggest budget the
Pentagon has ever seen:
$700 billion. That's far more
in defense spending than
America's two nearest competitors,
China and Russia,
and will mean the military
can foot the bill for thousands
more troops, more
training, more ships and a
lot else, reports BBC.
And next year it would rise
to $716 billion. Together, the
two-year deal provides what
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis
says is needed to pull the
military out of a slump in
combat readiness at a time
of renewed focus on the
stalemated conflict in
Afghanistan and the threat
of war on the Korean peninsula.
The budget bill that
President Donald Trump
signed Friday includes huge
spending increases for the
military:
Israel downs
Iranian drone
and strikes Syria,
F-16 crashes
The Israeli military says it
has shot down an Iranian
drone that infiltrated the
country and has struck Iranian
targets in Syria that
launched it, reports Dawn.
The military says that as
part of the unusual event
early Saturday one of its F-16
jets crashed in northern
Israel. The military says the
pilots abandoned the aircraft
and were safe. It says
sirens sounded in northern
Israel as a result of the antiaircraft
fire from Syria.
Israeli military spokesman
Jonathan Conricus said Iran
was "responsible for this
severe violation of Israeli
sovereignty."
David Sorensen becomes
second Trump aide to
quit amid abuse claims
A speechwriter has become the second
White House aide this week to resign amid
allegations of domestic abuse, reports BBC.
David Sorensen denies his former wife's
allegations he was violent and emotionally
abusive. His departure comes just days after
another Trump official, Rob Porter, quit over
allegations of abuse from two ex-wives,
something he denies.
Questions have been raised over how long
it took the White House to act on the accusations
facing Mr Porter. Mr Sorensen's exwife
Jessica Corbett told the Washington
Post that he was physically abusive to her
while they were married.
She said that on separate occasions her former
husband ran a car over her foot, threw
her against a wall and extinguished a cigarette
on her hand. In response, Mr Sorensen
released a statement in which he said he had
"never committed violence of any kind
against any woman in my entire life" and
that instead it was he who had been physically
abused. He said he was considering legal
action, but said he quit because he "didn't
want the White House to have to deal with
this distraction". White House officials said
they learned of the accusations by Mr
Sorensen's wife late on Thursday.
"We immediately confronted the staffer,
he denied the allegations and he resigned
today," deputy press secretary Raj Shah said.
Allegations of domestic abuse against Mr
Porter involving two ex-wives surfaced on
Tuesday. It is alleged that the former White
House staff secretary gave one ex-wife a
black eye while another filed a restraining
North and South Korea
hold landmark meeting
South Korean President
Moon Jae-in has received
North Korean leader Kim
Jong-un's influential sister,
Kim Yo-jong, for a
landmark meeting at the
presidential palace in
Seoul, reports BBC.
Mr Moon exchanged
pleasantries with Ms Kim
and North Korea's ceremonial
head of state Kim
Yong-nam on Saturday. It
is the most senior delegation
from the north to visit
the south since the
Korean War in the 1950s.
The meeting comes after
the US warned against
engagement with
Pyongyang.
The Trump administration
is cautious of Seoul
falling for North Korea's
charm offensive during
the Winter Olympics,
which are taking place
amid tension over
Pyongyang's nuclear programme.
Mr Moon reportedly ate
kimchi and drank soju
liquor with Kim Yongnam,
a high-level Northern
official, amid speculation
that Pyongyang could
invite the South Korean
president to visit for a
summit later this year.
Earlier, US Vice-President
Mike Pence briefly
encountered Kim Yongnam
at the Games but the
two tried to avoid directly
facing each other, Yonhap
news agency reports. At
the opening ceremony for
the Games, Mr Pence, Kim
order. He denies both.
On Friday, Mr Trump paid tribute to Mr
Porter, who quit his White House position
on Wednesday. Speaking in the Oval Office
Mr Trump said: "We found out about it
recently and I was surprised by it, but we certainly
wish him well and it's a tough time for
him." But Mr Trump did not refer to Mr
Porter's accusers. His comments sparked
criticism from Democrats, with former Vice-
President Joe Biden saying Mr Trump had
downplayed the allegations against Mr
Porter. "That's like saying: 'That axe murderer
out there, he's a great painter'", Mr Biden
said.
The case has put pressure on Mr Trump's
David Sorensen was a speechwriter who worked at the Council on
Environmental Quality.
Photo: Internet
Chief-of-Staff John Kelly, who has denied
reports he offered to resign over his handling
of the accusations. After initially praising Mr
Porter as a man of "integrity", Mr Kelly later
released a statement saying he was shocked
by the claims and stressed domestic violence
was unacceptable.
US media report that Mr Kelly and other
White House officials were aware for several
months of the domestic abuse accusations
because they were holding up Mr Porter's
security clearance application. Mr Shah said
that Mr Trump was not aware of any security
issues before Tuesday and was "disheartened"
and "saddened" by the accusations.
White House communications director
Hope Hicks' handling of the controversy has
also reportedly displeased Mr Trump. The
29-year-old aide has recently been in a relationship
with Mr Porter, a Harvard graduate
and former Oxford Rhodes Scholar.
Yo-jong and Kim Yongnam
were seated in close
proximity to each other.
The highest profile
member of the North
Korean delegation to the
Games, she is the first
immediate member of the
North's ruling family to
visit the South since the
1950-1953 Korean war.
Ms Kim, who is said to be
very close to her brother,
was promoted to the
North's powerful politburo
last year.
She is on a US sanctions
list over alleged links to
human rights abuses in
North Korea. Ms Kim is
thought to be about 30
years old, around four
years younger than her
brother.
In this Monday, Nov 25, 2013, file photo, technicians inspect an Israeli air force F-16 jet at the Ovda airbase near
Eilat, southern Israel. The Israeli military says it has shot down an Iranian drone that infiltrated the country and
has struck Iranian targets in Syria that launched it. The military says that as part of the unusual event one of its
F-16 jets crashed in northern Israel. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, File)

ART & CULTURE
SUNdAY,
FeBrUArY 11, 2018
8
Tom Ford puts ‘Pussy Power’ center
stage at NY Fashion Week
Tom Ford on Thursday put female
empowerment center stage at NY Fashion
Week, kicking off the global Fall/Winter
2018 season with models prowling the
runway as cat women, very much wearing
the trousers.
If the biannual style fest battles an
identity crisis as top-name labels flee to
Europe, the 56-year-old Texan-born
designer turned movie director was not
one to let the #MeToo movement pass
him by.
On the first day of New York's first
women's fashion week since the sexual
harassment watershed exploded, the Ford
woman of Fall/Winter 2018 is an alley cat,
a superwoman with a "Pussy Power"
purse. With barely a skirt in sight, the pant
suit ruled. Models prowled the catwalk,
their legs enveloped in tight pants, leggings
or opaque tights of red, orange, yellow and
green leopard print -- messy hair kept off
their forehead protest-style with black
headbands, owning the streets. If pink
pussy hats were the uniform of women
demonstrators against the Trump
administration -- a reference to the
president's use of a vulgarity on a leaked
Access Hollywood tape to refer to
women's genitals -- then Ford's cat theme
took the play on words to another level.
Even without the animal print pants,
there were jaguar and zebra print kitten
heels, tight lame leggings, a riot of sequins,
patchwork and snakeskin on oversized
coats, and boxy blazers -- belted for
business. All eyes were on the models'
pins; apart from daring cut-out backs
barely skimming the top of the seat and
cut-out waists, there were few flashes of
flesh. Dresses were restricted to highnecked
minis. In a throwback to hip-hop
models wore silver ball hoop earrings, and
there were lashings of black -- the color
actresses opted to wear at the Golden
Globes to protest against harassment.
"Every single thing you design, at least in
the luxury sector, has to be potent," Ford
told Women's Wear Daily in an interview.
"It has to be the most amazing thing. No
one needs just another black skirt."
"I get calls from our store managers
all the time saying we need more
things that are more expensive. When
(they) say more expensive, they mean
more special," he added.
His models, led by 16-year-old Kaia
Gerber, daughter of supermodel
Cindy Crawford, debuted a new
collection of cosmetics called Extreme
and were watched by the likes of
Julianne Moore and Zayn Malik. -
Red carpet empowerment - Tadashi
Shoji tapped into the post-Harvey
Weinstein world by offering women a
sleek, powerful red carpet collection
oozing 1940s Hollywood glamour,
modernized with cut outs, pleating
and plenty of black.
Women, he said, must never
apologize for what they chose to wear
or for wanting to look seductive --
regardless of how male harassers may
choose to excuse predatory behavior
given a woman's looks.
Justice League deleted scene shows
Superman’s black suit
Bottega Veneta immersed New
York Friday in the art of Italian
living, transforming the American
Stock Exchange Building into a chic
home with a roaring fire, as models
sashayed down the runway in
pajamas and sipped wine, reports
BSS
The Italian luxury label's Big
Apple show, to celebrate the
opening of its largest boutique in
the world on Madison Avenue, was
one of the most coveted tickets in
an otherwise flailing Fashion Week
as top US talent decamps to
Europe. It was the first runway
show in the historic Renaissance
Revival building, the exheadquarters
of the American Stock
Exchange, reimagined as a cozy
chic luxury apartment that
advertised understated Italian
elegance -- precisely the wares now
on sale on Madison.
"The Italian art of living begins
and ends in the home," advised the
program notes. Guests were given a
fake newspaper feting the new
store, referred to as "Maison," just
to make sure they got the point.
The set was complete with
fireplace, easy chairs and elegant
dining room, where at the end of
the show, models poured into the
living area, chatting and sipping
wine.
The show itself pulled out all the
stops, sending out 65 models in
different looks, headlined by Kaia
Gerber and Gigi Hadid.
Actresses Priyanka Chopra and
Julianne Moore sat front row,
Moore making it a fashion hat trick
Bottega Veneta
at home on
New York
runway
after attending Tom Ford and Tory
Burch. The fall/winter 2018
collection was very sleek,
sophisticated and luxurious -- a
masterclass in understated
European elegance at the expense
of headline- grabbing bling with not
a puffer coat in sight.
There were silk pajamas in
sumptuous jewel colors worn under
exquisitely tailored winter coats.
There was animal print and
patchworks of color blocks, yet it
was never gaudy, never kitsch.
It was an explosion of color --
warm tones for winter, yellow, red
and orange, with pointy ankle boots
and a copious amount of bags to
highlight a mainstay of their global
business empire.
Justice League was one of the most
expensive movies of all time, and
sadly for fans and the studio Warner
Bros, the returns were nowhere near
they had hoped. This movie for the
first time brought together DC's most
powerful superheroes, but various
factors made it a mess, albeit an
enjoyable one. Critics brought up
weak villain, uneven tone, and poor
CGI, reports BBC.
One of the reasons Justice League
was doomed to fail was that it was a
vision of two vastly different directors.
It was being directed by Zack Snyder
first, but after he had to drop out of
the project after a family tragedy, Joss
Whedon, who was already writing the
movie, was invited to direct. The
resulting movie was neither a purely
Zack Snyder movie, nor a Joss
Whedon one. Zack Snyder fans
have been clamouring for a
'Snyder Cut' of the film for a
while now. They believe that
Zack Snyder would have made a
perfect Justice League movie,
and it was Joss Whedon who
ruined it. While not exactly a
Zack Snyder cut, these fans may
get a few deleted scenes in the
movie.
A scene, that is shorter than a
minute, and that is available on
the internet shows Superman's
fabled black suit. Henry Cavill,
who played the role of Superman
in the film, had teased a black
suit on his Instagram account.
But the finished product did not
have anything to do with the
suit.
The clip (above) answers the
question. Whether Warner Bros
and DC had intended anything
more than a glimpse of the black
suit, we do not know. For those
who do not know, black
Superman is canon. He wore the
black suit after his resurrection
in the series The Death of
Superman.
Avengers: Infinity War is still more
than two months away from
release, but the hype is already
building. Infinity War is the
beginning of the end of the giant
story that began with Iron Man in
2008 in Marvel Cinematic
Universe. Currently, Black Panther,
Marvel's latest film that will hit
theatres on February 16, may be
dominating the headlines, but it is
Infinity War that is on everybody's
minds, reports Reuters.
Meanwhile, Marvel may
inadvertently have spoiled what
will happen in the upcoming film in
a video they released to celebrate
the 10th anniversary of Marvel
Cinematic Universe. In the video,
there is a fleeting shot of Thanos'
Infinity Gauntlet that shows four
gems or stones inlaid in it. The Mad
Titan will probably acquire all or at
least most Infinity Stones in the
film, but the shot may have
revealed that he will have acquired
four stones by the end of the film.
The gauntlet shows Power Stone,
Space Stone, Reality Stone, and
Mind Stone. Because of the trailer,
we know that he will have Power
Stone and Space Stone, but Reality
Stone and Mind Stone are new.
Avengers Infinity
War video shows
Thanos' Infinity
Gauntlet is
missing only two
stones
Only two stones are out of his grasp
now. Time Stone, that is safe with
Doctor Strange (we hope), and Soul
Stone, that has not appeared in
Marvel Cinematic Universe till
now. For those who do not know,
Infinity Stones have immense
power and their creation predates
the creation of the universe. Reality
Stone, for example, allows its
wielder to bend and reshape reality,
create a new, alternative reality,
and so on.
If Thanos gets all the gems, one
thing is clear that even the
combined might of Avengers,
Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor
Strange, and others will not be able
to stop him. Avengers: Infinity War
will release on April 27.
H o r o S c o P e
ArIeS
(March 21 - April 20): If others go out of
their way to pick holes in your
arguments today just ignore them.
Having said that, it could be there is
something you have overlooked and at least one
kind person will try to warn you, so don't be too
eager to be rude.
TAUrUS
(April 21 - May 21): Your main task
today is to resist the temptation to look
at the world as if everything that
happens is a disaster or a tragedy. Focus
only on good news today - there is still plenty of it if
you care to look. It's about attitude, not events.
GeMINI
(May 22 - June 21): Check the small
print carefully before putting pen to
paper today because you could have
been misled into thinking that you
have got the best of a deal when, in fact, others will
profit a lot more than you do. Details are always
important.
cANcer
(June 22 - July 23): The more others
want you to do something you don't
think is in your best interests the more
you must resist. Your arguments for
giving it a miss may not sound convincing but what
matters is that you stick to your guns. They can't
force you.
Leo
(July 24 - Aug. 23): Cosmic activity in
your fellow fire sign of Aries has filled
your head with no end of big ideas but
not all of them are practical, so don't get
carried away. You are under no obligation to hurry,
so bide your time and think things through.
VIrGo
(Aug. 24 - Sept. 23): Someone who
usually has only nice things to say
about you will go right the other way
and say something hurtful today, but
you must not let it get to you. Sometimes you can
be too sensitive for your own good. Don't take
yourself so seriously.
LIBrA
(Sept. 24 - Oct. 23): You have
nothing to prove and lots to gain and
everything to look forward to. That is
the message of the stars today and
even if you don't quite believe it what happens
over the next few days will bring a smile to your
face. It's about time!
ScorPIo
(Oct. 24 - Nov. 22): If someone you
don't know very well tells you what a
great guy you are it's a sure sign they are
after something. That something is
most likely to be your money, so act cool and don't
give them a thing, no matter how nicely they ask.
SAGITTArIUS
(Nov. 23 - Dec. 21): Your current run
of good fortune is sure to come to an
end eventually but there is no reason
to suppose it will be any time soon.
The planets indicate there are plenty of good
things still to look forward to, the first of which
will arrive today.
cAPrIcorN
(Dec. 22 - Jan. 20): For some strange
reason you can see enemies in every
direction at the moment but most if
not all of them exist only in your
imagination, so get a grip on yourself and get
things done. Your only real enemy is your lack of
self-belief.
AQUArIUS
(Jan. 21 - Feb. 19): You tend to believe in
yourself to such a degree that you think
nothing is beyond you, and that's good,
but even an Aquarius has limits and you
may need to remind yourself what those limits are. A
little bit of realism will go a long way.
PISceS
(Feb. 20 - Mar. 20): Yes, you should
let other people have the last word.
Yes, you should let other people lead
the way. You may not entirely
approve of what they say, still less of what they
do, but so long as you don't get the blame why
should you worry?

SPORTS
SUNDAy, FEBRUARy 11, 2018
9
India bat, Iyer comes in for injured Jadhav.
Rangana becomes
the leading left-arm
wicket-taker in Test
history
DHAKA: Sri Lanka
veteran spinner Rangana
Herathtouched another
milestone on Saturday as
the orthodox spinner has
overtakenthe legendary
Wasim Akram's tally of
414 scalps to become the
highest left-armed
wicket-taker in Test
history, reporst BSS.
Herath obtained the
record, during the 2nd
test match between
Bangladeshand Sri
Lanka, as Taijul Islam's
attempted slog-sweep
failed and wentstraight
into the hands of
Danushka Gunathilaka at
the boundary. The
wicketcompleted a fourwicket
haul for the 39-
year-old spinner and was
his 415thTest dismissal.
Herath is now the 12th
highest wicket-taker in
history of Test, two
wicketsbehind India's
Harbhajan Singh and
four wickets behind
South Africa's DaleSteyn.
Among currently active
cricketers, only James
Anderson (523) and
Steyn havepicked up
more Test wickets than
the former Sri Lankan
skipper.
Just last week, Herath
became the only third Sri
Lankan bowler after
SriLankan great Muttiah
Muralitharan and
Chaminda Vaas to
complete 500dismissals
across all formats in
international cricket.
That feat had come inthe
first Test against
Bangladesh which ended
in a draw.
Rangana now has 415
wickets from 89 Test
appearances for Sri
Lanka with anaverage of
28 and a best of 127-9.
He has picked up a fivewicket
haul in Test, a
staggering 33 times over
thecourse of his career,
while registering nine 10-
wicket hauls.
Australia v England: Glenn Maxwell hits 39 in emphatic victory.
Photo: Internet.
BCB name 15-memebr
squad for 1st T20 with
five new faces
DHAKA: The Bangladesh Cricket Board
(BCB) today announced a 15-member squad
for the first T20I against visiting Sri Lanka,
reports BSS.
The new T20I skipper Shakib Al Hasan is
back after recovering from injury and opener
Soumya Sarkar has also been included in the
squad.
The new faces in the squad are Afif Hossain,
Ariful Haque, Zakir Hasan, Mahidy Hasan
and Abu Jayed Rahi.
All these players have been rewarded for
their impressive performance in the fifth
edition of Bangladesh Premier League
(BPL).
Young star Afif had a tournament to
remember in the Under-19, 2018 World Cup
where he delivered some amazing all-round
performances throughout the tournament.
He has scored 276 runs including four half
centuries with an average of 46. He also
picked up nine wickets with the ball
including a five-wicket haul.
The first T20I between Bangladesh and Sri
Lanka will be held on February 15 at the
Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium.
Bangladesh T20 squad: Shakib Al Hasan
(captain), Mushfiqur Rahim (wicket keeper),
Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar,
Mahmudullah Riyad, Sabbir Rahman,
Mustafizur Rahman, Rubel Hossain,
Mohammad Saifuddin, Abu Haider Rony,
Abu Jayed Rahi, Ariful Haque, Mahedi
Hasan, Zakir Hasan and Afif Hossain.
Football life in China:
From caveman Gazza to
thankful Pato
SHANGHAI: Paul Gascoigne described life
in China in 2003 as "like being locked in a
cave", but foreign stars in the countrytoday
earn among the biggest wages in football
and live more like kings than Neanderthals,
reports BSS.
The most talented English midfielder of
his generation, Gascoigne was oneof the
first big-name footballers to arrive in China
when he made the shockdecision to be a
player-coach of second division Gansu
Tianma.
Now 50 and fighting alcoholism,
Gascoigne lasted just a handful of gamesat
the tail-end of his career and in a
subsequent book the man fondly knownas
"Gazza" described a nightmarish existence.
"I hated it at first, especially the food. We
had duck's head, duck'seyes, chicken feet
and a lot of bat," Gascoigne said in the book
"Gazza: MyStory". His anecdotes about his
stint in Gansu, even now one of the
leastdeveloped provinces in China, depicted
a backwater where nobody understoodhim
and there was nothing to do. It fitted a
Western stereotype of life inChina -- strange
food, strange language and strange
environment. But China -- and Chinese
football -- has come a long way since the
early 2000s on the back of a booming
economy, now the world's second largest
after the United States.
Shanghai SIPG a year ago shattered the
Asian transfer record to sign Brazilian
attacking midfielder Oscar from Chelsea for
60 million euros. Shanghai Shenhua at the
same time lured Carlos Tevez to China on
reported wages of 730,000 euros a week,
making him at that time the bestearningfootballer
on the planet. Tevez has
since returned to Boca Juniors after failing
to settle -- acommon theme throughout his
career.
Now 50 and fighting alcoholism,
Gascoigne lasted just a handful of gamesat
the tail-end of his career and in a
subsequent book the man fondly knownas
"Gazza" described a nightmarish existence.
"I hated it at first, especially the food. We
had duck's head, duck'seyes, chicken feet
and a lot of bat," Gascoigne said in the book
"Gazza: MyStory".
Nicolas Anelka and Didier Drogba were
two other big-name stars who arrivedin
China to great fanfare and hefty wage
packets but similarly beat a fastretreat,
appearing in just over 30 games between
them for Shenhua in 2012-2013.
Photo: BBC.
Mahmudullah
disappointed
with result
DHAKA: Bangladesh stand
in captain Mahmudullah
said heis very mush
disappointed for their
massive 215 runs defeat that
helped SriLanka to clinch
the Test series, reports BSS.
He was speaking at a postmatch
session at Sher-e-
Bangla
National
CricketStadium at Mirpur.
The Bangladesh skipper
said,"Feeling really
disappointed because we
knewthe pitch would get us
a result. In this sort of a
wicket you should cash in on
the first innings. Their
bowlers did the job really
well, keeping thepressure
on us every time we came
out."
He said, "Our bowlers
[only] did well in patches.
One positive was theintent
from Mominul. He played
spinners on the front foot as
well as theback."
Sri Lankan skipper
Dinesh Chandimal said,
"This was a really good
series.The first game was a
nightmare for the bowlers
and this one was a
nightmarefor the batters.
The guys executed our game
plans really well out in
themiddle. After the first
game we thought the second
pitch might be a
turningwicket. We were
surprised, because we have
all the experienced
spinners."
"Credit goes to Roshen
Silva who had an
outstanding series-- even
KusalMendis and
Dhananjaya-- and also all
the bowlers, he added."
Dananjaya takes five as Sri Lanka clinch series.
Clippers
deal Griffin
his first
loss with
new team
LOS ANGELES: Lou
Williams scored a teamhigh
26points as the Los
Angeles Clippers defeated
the Detroit Pistons 108-
95,spoiling Blake Griffin's
bid to beat his old team on
Friday night, reporsts BSS.
Montrezl Harrell came
off the bench to score 18
points and DeAndre
Jordan added 17 rebounds
as the visiting Clippers
snapped the Pistons' fivegame
winning streak.
"With the style Doc
(coach Rivers) has put into
place, we got some
prettysolid pieces and we
have shown that in the last
few games. So far so
good,"said Williams.
One longtime piece was
missing for the Clippers,
but it didn't matter.They
dealt Griffin to Detroit last
month and Friday was his
first opportunityto get
even, but instead it turned
into his first loss.
Griffin had re-signed
with the Clippers in July
with
the
understandingthat he'd be
a 'Clipper for life.' His
tenure with the Clippers
after inkinga $171 million
contract lasted just over
half a season.
Zlatan nears return
as Man Utd vow to
keep fighting
MANCHESTER, United Kingdom: Zlatan
Ibrahimovicis nearing a return to fitness
as Manchester United seek to strengthen
theirgrip on second place in the Premier
League when they visit Newcastle
onSunday, reports BSS.
The former Paris Saint-Germain striker
has struggled to get back to hisbest since
suffering cruciate knee ligament damage
during a Europa Leaguevictory over
Anderlecht last April.
He made his comeback in the reverse
fixture against Newcastle at OldTrafford
in November, a match that Jose
Mourinho's side won 4-1, but has
notplayed since late December due to
concerns over his knee.
"Zlatan started training with the team
two days ago," said Mourinho onFriday.
"So he has been two days with the group
and is improving."
Mourinho would be extremely cautious
about throwing him straight back
intoaction on Sunday, although his squad
is otherwise in reasonably good health.
Defenders Eric Bailly and Daley Blind are
both expected to return fromankle
injuries before the end of February,
although midfielder MarouaneFellaini
will not make his comeback until March
as he recovers from kneesurgery.
Last month's defeat to Tottenham is the
only blemish on United's 2018 todate,
with no goals conceded in their other six
league and cup games so farthis year, all
of which have been won.
A 2-0 victory over Huddersfield last
week, in which new signing
AlexisSanchez was outstanding, helped
United make minor inroads into
ManchesterCity's colossal lead, although
the gap was still 13 points going into
thisweekend's fixtures.
Making up that ground in 12 matches is a
near-impossible task but full-back
Antonio Valencia has made it clear that
United must keep up the fight,even if
only to delay the inevitable.
Valencia referred to the remarkable title
race of 2012, when United led byeight
points with six games left but ended up
losing the title to ManchesterCity on the
final day.
- 'Keep fighting' -
"We need to keep going," he said. "A few
years ago, we lost a title whenwe were
eight points ahead and there were only a
few games left. Now, we havea lot more
games to play and we need to keep
fighting."
United's best hope of a trophy this season
is probably the FA Cup, inwhich United
will visit Huddersfield for a fifth-round
tie later this month,while they play
Sevilla in the last-16 of the Champions
League.
Islam Slimani is set to make his
Newcastle debut on loan from
Leicesterafter the Algeria forward
recovered from a thigh problem.
Rafa Benitez's side are in danger of an
immediate return to theChampionship
following an eight-game run in the league
since their last homewin at the end of
October.
Failure to beat a Manchester United side
who have lost on just one oftheir past 13
visits to St James's Park would see the
hosts post their worsthome run for
almost 19 years.
Slimani is confident his new side can
turn the tide by extendingMourinho's
six-game winless run in the league on
Tyneside.
"I'm ready if the manager needs me," said
the Magpies' new arrival. "I'vesettled in
well and am keen to help the team climb
the table."
Photo: Internet.
Top-ranked Johnson
shares Pebble Beach
Pro-Am lead
SAN FRANCISCO: World number one
Dustin Johnsonfired eight birdies in a
seven-under par 64 on Friday to grab a
share of thesecond-round lead
alongside rookie Beau Hossler at the
Pebble Beach NationalPro-Am, reports
BSS.
Johnson, playing on the par-71
Monterey Peninsula course, one of
three inuse for the tournament, had
just one bogey as he gained ground on
overnightco-leader Hossler.
Hossler, who played the par-72
Spyglass Hill, had five birdies in a fiveunder
67 that put him on 12-under as
well.
The leading duo were two strokes in
front of Julian Suri, who carded afourunder
67 at Monterey Peninsula to get
to 10-under and Troy Merritt, whoshot
a five-under 67 at Spyglass Hill.
Five-time major-winner Phil
Mickelson, a four-time winner in
thetournament that teams amateurs
from the world of big business, sports
andcelebrity with the pros, put himself
in the mix for the weekend with a
bogey-free 65 at Monterey Peninsula
that left him tied for fifth on nine-under
par.
"I am having fun," said the 47-yearold
American, who is seeking a 43rd
USPGA Tour title and his first since the
2013 British Open.
He hit nine of 13 fairways and 15 of 18
greens in regulation but said
heexpected a tougher challenge when
he plays the par-72 Pebble Beach Golf
Linkson Saturday. "I think Pebble's a
little bit tougher because the greens are
a littlefirmer and smaller," he said "But
if you play well, you can birdie and
scorelow on all three (courses)."
World number two Jon Rahm of
Spain had five birdies without a bogey
in his
five-under par 67 at Pebble Beach on
Friday. That put him alongside
Mickelson
in the group of six players sharing
fifth place on nine-under, which also
included former world number one
Jason Day who posted a six-under 65
atMonterey Peninsula.
Northern Ireland star Rory McIlroy,
playing the tournament for the
firsttime, was five-under for the
tournament through 13 holes of the
second roundwhen disaster struck at
Monterey Peninsula's driveable parfour
fifth -- his14th hole of the day.
The leading duo were two strokes in
front of Julian Suri, who carded afourunder
67 at Monterey Peninsula to get
to 10-under and Troy Merritt, whoshot
a five-under 67 at Spyglass Hill.
He nearly drove the green and putted
his eagle attempt to within 10 feet.But
he needed four more putts from there,
recording a double-bogey on thehole.
He added two more bogeys on the way
to a three-over 74. He was one-under
for the tournament, with work to do on
Saturday to makethe 54-hole cut.

ECONOMY & BUSINESS
SUnDAy,
THE
BANGLADESHTODAY
FEBrUAry 11, 2018
10
Uber settles with Waymo
on self-driving
Business Desk
uber and Waymo have reached a
settlement over claims uber stole
trade secrets from the self-driving
company, reports BBC.
As part of the agreement, uber is
giving a 0.34% uber stake to
Waymo, worth approximately
$245m (£177m).
uber has also agreed not to use
Waymo's technology in its selfdriving
cars, though it maintains it
never did.
uber's chief executive, Dara
khosrowshahi, expressed "regret"
over the way his company had
handled the issue.
in a statement, he said to Waymo:
"While we won't agree on everything
going forward, we agree that uber's
acquisition of Otto could and should
have been handled differently."
Otto was a self-driving trucking
company co-founded by former
Google employee Anthony
Levandowski. it was acquired by
uber for $650m in 2016.
The deal comes after four days in a
san Francisco federal court in which
former uber chief executive Travis
kalanick took the stand.
He was accused of orchestrating a
plan to steal more than 14,000
confidential files from Waymo when
the firm was still part of Google. it is
now owned by Google's parent
company, Alphabet.
The jury was shown internal emails
referencing demands Mr kalanick
was said to have made. He wanted
"pounds of flesh" from Google, it was
claimed. Mr kalanick said he used
the phrase "from time to time".
A vistors' pass for Mr Levandowski
- dated at a time he was still working
at Google - was also produced as
evidence.
uber's defence was that there was
no proof it had used any of the
disputed secrets in its technology, a
position it still holds.
"nor do we believe that uber has
used any of Waymo's proprietary
information in its self-driving
technology, we are taking steps with
Waymo to ensure our Lidar and
software represents just our good
work."
The jury was asked to consider
whether uber had used eight trade
secrets - whittled down from an
original list of 121 - in its self-driving
technology. The details of the secrets
were not made public - discussions
about the content of the document
happened in front of the jury in
closed sessions.
Waymo had sought damages,
which could have totalled more than
$1bn, and/or an injunction - a move
that could have halted uber's work
on autonomous driving.
"We are committed to working
with uber to make sure that each
company develops its own
technology," a Waymo spokesman
said on Friday.
"This includes an agreement to
ensure that any Waymo confidential
information is not being
incorporated in uber Advanced
Technologies Group hardware and
software."
China brings over
68 mln people
out of poverty
in past 5 years
Business Desk
China lifted 68.53 million
people out of poverty over
the past five years, as it
made impressive progress
in poverty reduction,
according to the state
Council Leading Group
Office of Poverty Alleviation
and Development.
it was equivalent to an
annual reduction of at
least 13 million. The
country's poverty rate
dropped from 10.2 percent
in 2012 to 3.1 percent in
2017.
China aims to eliminate
absolute poverty by 2020
as part of the creation of a
moderately prosperous
society.
There were around 30
million Chinese living
below the national poverty
line at the end of last year.
Policy makers have
listed poverty alleviation
as one of China's "three
tough battles" for the next
three years, along with risk
prevention and pollution
control. The year 2018 is a
key year.
More than 10 million
people will shake off
poverty in 2018. About
100 counties are expected
to be removed from the
poverty list, according to
the leading group.
A county can be removed
from the list if no more
than 2 percent of its
residents earn less than
2,300 yuan (around 350
u.s. dollars) at 2010
prices.
in China's underdeveloped
western regions, the
threshold is 3 percent.
There were still 30.46
million rural people living
below the national poverty
line at the end of 2017,
according to the national
Bureau of statistics (nBs).
Dow and S&P stay in
correction territory
Business Desk
The Dow Jones industrial
Average and the s&P 500
remained in correction
territory on Friday despite
closing higher after another
bumpy ride, reports BBC.
The Dow ended up 1.4% at
24,190 points, while the
broader s&P was 1.5%
higher at 2,619 points.
Both have fallen 10% from
the record highs hit on 26
January, indicating a
"correction".
Despite the positive finish,
both indexes posted their
worst weekly losses since
January 2016.
Meanwhile, the nasdaq
Composite rose 1.4% to
6,874 points, giving the
technology-focused index its
worst week since February
2016.
"i don't think the market is
focused on fundamentals at
all - it's very volatile," said
Anwiti Bahuguna at
Columbia Threadneedle
investments in Boston.
in London, the FTse 100
index ended the day down
1.1% at 7,092 points,
bringing this week's declines
to about 5%. Other
european markets also
suffered on Friday, with
Germany's Dax falling 1.4%
and France's Cac 40
shedding 1.25%.
On Thursday, the Dow
Jones fell by more than
1,000 points for the second
time this week, and Asian
markets followed the
downward trend, with
Japan's nikkei 225 shares
index closing down 2.3%.
The big sell-offs around
the world this week have
been pinned partly on
concerns over the prospect
of higher interest rates.
Bank of england deputy
governor Ben Broadbent
told the BBC that markets
might have underestimated
the prospect of a pick-up in
inflation.
"if you look at what
happened last year,
particularly in the united
states but also other equity
markets, there was
extremely strong growth -
big rises in prices - as people
gradually realised how
strong the global economy
was," he said.
"if markets are responding
understandably to that
growth, it's possible they
weren't pricing in the risk
that that same growth would
produce some inflation and
some rises in interest rates,
and i think what you're
seeing now is the effect of
that realisation.
FedEx and UPS hit as Amazon
'plots shipping expansion'
Business Desk
Amazon is reportedly embarking on further
expansion of its shipping services with a
programme to pick up from companies that
sell on its site, reports BBC.
The firm is considering offering the
service to other businesses as well,
according to the Wall street Journal.
investors dumped shares of existing
shipping companies Fedex and uPs in
response to the news.
Amazon already offers shipping services
to merchants that use its warehouses.
under its Fulfillment by Amazon and
other programmes, Amazon handles
delivery of products that merchants store
in the firm's warehouses, including to
non-Amazon customers.
The new programme goes a step farther,
including pick-up from the vendor,
according to the Wall street Journal.
it has started in London and expects to
launch soon in Los Angeles, with the aim
of expanding to other cities this year, the
report said.
Amazon did not respond to a request for
comment.
The e-commerce giant has long focused
on speeding delivery of online purchases,
eliminating the lag time that provides
traditional stores an edge, while trying to
reduce the costs of shipping, which hit
$21.7bn (£15.7bn) in 2017.
The focus has led the firm to invest
billions in its logistics network, building
warehouses, deploying aircraft and hiring
delivery trucks.
Amazon also purchased upmarket
grocer Whole Foods last year. This week,
the firm said it would start making twohour
grocery deliveries from the stores for
Prime customers in some cities.
As Amazon's network expands, it has
led to increased questions about how well
longstanding shipping companies such as
Fedex and uPs - which count Amazon as
a customer - will compete.
Fedex and uPs shares fell by more than
2% on Friday morning as the market
volatility continued.
IMF chief urges
Arab states to
slash spending
Business Desk
iMF chief Christine Lagarde
on saturday urged Arab
countries to slash public
wages and subsidies in order
to rein in spending, achieve
sustainable growth and
create jobs.
speaking at the one-day
Arab Fiscal Forum in
Dubai, Lagarde welcomed
"promising" reforms adopted
by some Arab countries, but
insisted much more was
needed to overcome daunting
economic and social
problems.
Low oil prices are
weighing on the finances of
Arab oil exporters, while
importers are battling with
rising debt, unemployment,
conflicts, terrorism and
refugee inflows, the
international Monetary
Fund's managing director
said.
Almost all Arab
countries have posted
budget deficits over the
past few years and Arab
economies grew at just 1.9
percent last year, half the
global rate, according to
the Arab Monetary Fund
(AMF), which coorganised
the event with
the iMF.
Yet Arab public spending
remains very high, especially
in oil-rich Gulf states, where
government expenditures
exceed 55 percent of gross
domestic product, Lagarde
said.
she said many Arab
governments had taken
steps to contain spending,
but the measures have often
been temporary.
Public spending reforms
should focus on cutting
costly subsidies and public
wage bills whilst boosting
efficiency in areas like
health, education and public
investment, she said.
"There is really no excuse
for the continued use of
energy subsidies," Lagarde
said. "They are extremely
costly-averaging 4.5 percent
of GDP among oil exporters
and three percent of GDP
among oil importers."
Eurostar launches London-
Amsterdam route
Business Desk
Channel Tunnel train
operator eurostar is
launching direct services
between London and
Amsterdam. Trains will
run twice daily from 4
April, with the journey
from st Pancras to
Amsterdam taking three
hours and 41 minutes.
But for an initial period,
the eurostar service will
only run direct one-way,
from London to the Dutch
city. Passengers travelling
from Amsterdam to
London will have to
change at Brussels to
clear passport controls.
eurostar says the
connection at Brussels is
a temporary measure
until the British and
Dutch governments reach
an agreement to allow
passport checks to be
conducted on departure
in the netherlands. it says
this should be in place by
the end of 2019.
it's been a long time
coming, but finally
passengers will have the
option of travelling
between the uk and the
netherlands direct by rail.
The German operator
Deutsche Bahn
announced and then
cancelled a link between
the uk and Dutch capitals
five years ago. since then,
eurostar's efforts have
been plagued by technical
and bureaucratic setbacks.
uptake is likely to be
small, at least at first.
Whilst Brits are familiar
with international train
travel, the eurostar brand
will be much newer to
those on the other end of
the line.
There will be only two
trains a day from the uk.
That compares to 70
direct flights daily from
London to Amsterdam,
for example.
Although eurostar
cannot compete on
flexibility of travel, the
train company is putting
itself in direct
competition with the
airlines on price. Fares
start at £35 for a one-way
ticket.
There will be those,
particularly business
travellers, who would
prefer access to power
sockets, free wifi and
room to work on a train
over the retail
extravaganza of modern
airports.
Game-changing will be
de-wrinkling the passport
controls process on the
return leg. Hassle-free,
connected travel is a
luxury many will be
prepared to pay
handsomely for.
Loss deepens
for Italy's BMPS
despite bailout
Business Desk
italy's troubled bank Monte
dei Paschi di siena (BMPs)
suffered an even deeper loss
in 2017 despite being bailed
out, according to
information released Friday.
The net loss of 3.5 billion
euros ($4.3 billion) was
worse than the 3.2 billion
loss it registered last year,
and worse than the average
of 3.2 billion euros expected
by analysts according to
Factset estimates.
The 502 million euro loss
in the final quarter of last
year was double what
analysts had been expecting.
Founded in siena in 1472,
BMPs has been in deep
trouble since the eurozone
debt crisis and is now
majority owned by the italian
state. An eu-approved
bailout saw 5.4 billion euros
of public money injected into
the bank and many
bondholders forced into
becoming shareholders.

MISCELLANEOUS
11
SUNDAY, FeBRUARY 11, 2018
Mideast messes await Rex
Tillerson on visit to region
Middle East messes await Secretary
of State Rex Tillerson as he embarks
this weekend on a five-nation tour of
the region, reports Reuters.
From his first stop in Egypt to his
last in Turkey, Tillerson will be
confronting crises with partners and
allies that threaten military success
against the Islamic State group. The
other stops are Kuwait, Jordan and
Lebanon, where he'll face mounting
unease over the Trump
administration's Mideast strategy,
particularly its approaches to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Iran.
U.S. officials allowed on Friday that
most of Tillerson's discussions would
be difficult, singling out those in
NATO ally Turkey as especially
prickly given Turkish military action
against U.S.-backed Kurdish rebels
in northern Syria and escalating anti-
American rhetoric in Ankara. But the
officials said diplomacy is necessary
to cement anti-IS gains and restore
regional stability as the
administration presses other nations
and private companies to help with
post-war reconstruction.
Tillerson will arrive in Cairo late
Sunday, days after Egyptian security
forces launched major security
operations against militants in the
Sinai, Nile Delta and Western Desert.
His meetings Monday include
President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.
The U.S. is offering help countering
extremism. Tillerson also will raise
human rights and democracy issues,
according to officials, who previewed
the trip on condition they not be
quoted by name. The timing is
sensitive: El-Sissi is seeking a second
four-year term with no serious
contenders in a March presidential
election. The opposition is boycotting
as some potential rivals have been
arrested or barred from running. He
then travels to Kuwait to lead the
U.S. delegation to two international
gatherings: That of the 74 members
in the U.S.-led anti-Islamic State
coalition and a conference on Iraqi
reconstruction.
Tillerson will seek to sharpen the
priorities of the coalition, many of
whose members are increasingly
distracted by national interests in
Iraq and Syria. The U.S. officials said
the aim was to keep the coalition
focused on the complete defeat of IS
and other groups, and then
rebuilding war-devastated zones to
prevent extremists from regaining
territory. They said the coalition
would look at containment and
elimination of IS outside of Iraq and
Syria by strengthening intelligence
sharing, law enforcement
cooperation and counterextremist
messaging.
Tillerson will not be making any
new U.S. assistance pledges at the
Iraq Reconstruction Conference, the
officials said. Instead, he'll press
companies and banks to boost
activities in Iraq to spur long-term
development. Some 2,300
representatives from the private
sector, including from more than 100
American companies, are slated to
attend. In Kuwait City, Tillerson will
meet Kuwaiti officials who are
attempting to mediate a resolution to
disagreements between Qatar
against its Arab neighbors Bahrain,
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab
Emirates.
In Jordan, Tillerson is doing
damage control after President
Donald Trump's recognition of
Jerusalem as Israel's capital and
decision to withhold aid money from
the U.N. agency assisting Palestinian
refugees. Jordan, which has a large
Palestinian population, including
refugees, is among the most
concerned. Amman, Tillerson is
expected to sign a multiyear,
multibillion dollar U.S. aid package
with Jordan to shore up the
relationship. Tillerson finishes the
trip in Ankara with surely tense talks
with Turkish President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan. The U.S. officials said
Tillerson will repeat warnings for
Turkey to show restraint in military
operations in Kurdish areas of Syria.
He'll look to address Turkey's
concerns about its borders in way to
avoid killing civilians.
Bangladesh United Islami Party organized Imam-Ulema assembly on Friday at Uttara Ajompur Govt
Primary School Field.
Photo: Riya Chawdhury
North Korea says it can’t
pay UN due to UN bank
sanctions
North Korea said Friday it can't pay
nearly $184,000 in dues to the United
Nations because of U.N. sanctions
that prevent the transfer of funds from
Pyongyang, reports Reuters.
North Korea's U.N. Mission said
sanctions imposed by the Security
Council in early August on the Foreign
Trade Bank of the Democratic
People's Republic of Korea, which is in
charge of international transactions,
made payment impossible. The
mission said Ambassador Ja Song
Nam met Undersecretary-General for
Management Jan Beagle Friday
afternoon to request the opening of
"banking channels" to make the
DPRK's required $183,458 payment
for 2018 for the U.N.'s regular
operations and separate budgets for
peacekeeping and international
tribunals.
The Security Council imposed
sanctions on the bank in a wideranging
resolution following North
Korea's first successful tests of
intercontinental ballistic missiles
capable of reaching the United States
on July 3 and July 27. It imposed
tougher sanctions in response to
Pyongyang's sixth and strongest
nuclear test explosion on Sept. 3, and
even tougher measures in December
after its test on Nov. 29 of its most
powerful intercontinental ballistic
missile yet.
The United States banned the
Foreign Trade Bank from the U.S.
financial system in 2013, and the
DPRK Mission blamed the Trump
administration for spurring last
August's U.N. sanctions against the
bank. A statement from the mission,
given to The Associated Press late
Friday, blamed the unilateral U.S.
sanctions and "illegal and unlawful"
U.N. sanctions resolutions
"fabricated by the U.S. as a sponsor
and its followers" for creating
"enormous difficulties" and hindering
normal activities such as paying U.N.
dues.
This "shows the ulterior political
objectives of the sanctions maneuvers
pursued by the U.S. and its followers
and how cruel and uncivilized the
sanctions are," the DPRK said. The
mission asked the U.N. to provide a
"lifeline" and, through its
management chief, "to secure
promptly the bank transaction
channel through which the DPRK can
pay regularly its financial
contribution."
A DPRK diplomat, speaking on
condition of anonymity because he
was not authorized to speak publicly,
said ambassador Ja also raised the
issue of U.N. agencies and
organizations providing humanitarian
aid that can't get money into the
country for their operations. The
Security Council resolution adopted in
August does authorize its committee
monitoring sanctions against North
Korea to make exemptions on a caseby-case
for humanitarian and
economic activities.
The DPRK diplomat stressed that
his government has "faithfully" made
its financial contributions to the U.N.
in the past - and he said the exemption
should be used to allow the DPRK "to
pay its financial contributions without
failure." The exemption should also be
used to provide a banking channel for
U.N. agencies and humanitarian
organizations operating in the
country, he said. According to the
diplomat, U.N. management chief
Beagle responded saying: "Let's try
together to solve this issue, this
problem."
GD-221/18 (6 x 4)
GD-220/18 (7 x 4)
GD-222/18 (9 x 4)

UNITING PEOPLE EVERYDAY
SATURDAy, DHAKA, FEBRUARy 11, 2018, MAgH 29, 1424 BS, JAMADi-UL-AwAL 24, 1439 HiJRi
BNP supporters staged a protest for the second consecutive days at the capital.
Old jail for Khaleda a
govt-JP choice : Oli
DHAKA : President of
Liberal Democratic Party
(LDP) Oli Ahmed on
Saturday suspected that
BNP Chairperson Khaleda
Zia might have been kept at
the abandoned central jail in
Old Dhaka as part of a joint
plan of the government and
Jatiya Party Chairman HM
Ershad, reports UNB.
"We've heard she
(Khaleda) was made to wear
prisoner's uniform and kept
in an old jail. What's the reason
behind it?" he questioned
at a press conference.
Oli, an ex-BNP minister,
further said, "Ershad, now
freed, had been kept at the
central jail at Najumuddin
Road. I think Awami League
and Ershad made the plan
jointly (to keep her at the
same jail). There was no
need to send her to an abandoned
jail."
LDP, one of the partners of
the BNP-led 20-party
alliance, held the press conference
at its Tejgaon office
to give the party's reaction to
Khaleda's conviction and
jailing.
Oli questioned why the
government has sent
Khaleda to the old jail when
there are two new central
jails in Keraniganj and
Kashimpur. "The government
could have kept her in
one of the two jails showing
honour to her. It also could
have kept her at her residence
intensifying security."
On Thursday, a special
court here convicted
Khaleda and sentenced her
to five years' imprisonment
in the Zia Orphanage Trust
graft case.
Half an hour after her conviction,
Khaleda Zia was
taken to Old Dhaka central
jail at Najumuddin Road
from Special Court-5 of
Bakshibazar.
The LDP president said
even the military-backed
government kept Khaleda in
a residence of Parliament in
2007. "The current government
must give answer to
people's question someday
as to why Khaleda Zia was
not kept in such a residence."
He observed that nobody
in the country is eligible for
getting division in jail if
Khaleda, who is a former
Prime Minister, a first lady,
and the wife of a former
Army Chief, is not given it.
Oli said their party thinks
Khaleda was convicted 'unfairly'
as part of an 'evil' plan
to keep her away from the
next polls and destroy BNP.
He demanded the government
immediately release
Khaleda from jail.
The LDP chief also
expressed solidarity with
BNP's all programmes
announced seeking her
release.
Elbphilharmonie
A Spectacular New Concert Hall in Hamburg
INTERESTING NEWS DESK
Exactly one year ago, on January 11,
2017, a new concert hall opened in
Hamburg, Germany. Like a ship on dry
dock, the new glassy construction resembles
a hoisted sail and is set upon a giant
brick warehouse, surrounded on three
sides by water of Hamburg’s historic harbor.
Since the first public performance, the
Elbphilharmonie has won accolades in
cultural circles because of its iconic architecture
as well as for its brilliant acoustics
and sound clarity.
The old warehouse upon which the
modern building sits was once the largest
warehouse in the port and the only one at
which ships could dock directly. The warehouse,
called Kaiserspeicher, was built in
1875 but was destroyed in the Second
World War. In 1963, the ruins were blown
up and a new warehouse was constructed
in its place. It was renamed Kaispeicher.
Until the 1990s, the Kaispeicher was used
to store cocoa, tobacco and tea.
With the rise of container traffic,
Kaispeicher lost its importance and was
eventually abandoned. In the early 2000s,
the city of Hamburg undertook a multibillion-dollar
redevelopment project of
Hamburg’s harbor, converting 19th-century
brick buildings and empty lots into
residential, office and commercial space.
The Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron
were hired to design a new concert hall on
top of the old Kaispeicher. After ten years
of development and over 850 million
Euros later, the Elbphilharmonie was officially
opened.
The façade of the Elbphilharmonie is
made up of about a thousand curved glass
windows.
The roof is undulated, rising from the
lower eastern end to its full height of 108
meters at the tip of the peninsula. A curved
escalator from the main entrance at the
east side connects the ground floor with an
observation deck, the Plaza, at the 8th
floor, the top of the brick section.
The Plaza, which is accessible to the public
without tickets, offers a sweeping view
of Hamburg and the Elbe.
Photo: TBT
Four Jubo Dal,
JCD men held
in Comilla
COMILLA : Police arrested
four leaders and workers of
two local units of BNP-supported
Jatiyatabadi Jubo Dal
and Jatiyatabadi Chhatra
Dal (JCD) in Comilla on
Saturday noon, reports UNB.
The arrestees include president
of the Comilla South
unit of Jubo Dal, Ashikur
Rahman Mahmud Wasim,
also an ex-VP of Comilla
Government Victoria College
Central Students Union.
Police arrested them as
they attended a rally
arranged to protest the verdict
and five year jail sentence
of Begum Khaleda Zia
in Zia Orphanage Trust Graft
Case.
Comilla Kotwali Model
Police Station Officer-incharge
Abu Salam Miya said
they were arrested on the
basis of specific accusations
against them. He, however,
did not elaborate.
BNP stages processions in
city for 2nd day
DHAKA : BNP leaders and
activists brought out processions
in the city for the second
consecutive day on
Saturday in protest against
the imprisonment of their
Chairperson Khaleda Zia in a
graft case, reports UNB.
Several hundred BNP followers,
led by its standing
committee member Mirza
Abbas, first brought out a
procession from Baitul
Mukarram area around 1:20
pm chanting slogans seeking
the release of their party
chief.
BNP vice chairman
Barkatullah Bulu, chairperson's
adviser Zainul Abedin
Farroque, organising secretary
Fazlul Haque Milon, its
central leaders Shaheed
Uddin Chowdhury Anee,
Mostafizur Rahman Babul
and Shohidul Islam Babul,
among others, joined the
procession.
When they came close to
Fakirapool Water Tank area,
police chased the protesters
around 1:30 pm and dispersed
them.
They also arrested several
leaders and activists from the
area.
Another group of BNP
leaders and activists also
brought out a procession
from House Building lane
near Bijoynagar around
1:25pm demanding the
release of Khaleda.
Police also chased the BNP
men and arrested eight of
them, including south city
unit leader Nabiullah Nabi.
The BNP followers
brought out the rally as part
of their two-day protest programme
against Khaleda's
conviction.
On Friday, they staged
demonstrations across the
country, including in the
capital, demanding
Khaleda's release.
BNP called the two-day
protest programme on
EU teams to visit Rohingya
camp Monday
DHAKA : Four teams of
Members of European
Parliament (MEPs) comprising
11 MEPs will visit a
Rohingya camp in Cox's
Bazar on Monday to see
their plight on the ground,
reports UNB.
One of the teams arrived
here on Saturday and three
others are scheduled to
reach on Sunday morning.
They will go to Cox's
Bazar from Dhaka on the
same day and spend the
whole day in Rohingya
camp on Monday, an official
told UNB.
The delegation members
will also discuss trade and
rights issues during their
visit.
Members of the European
Parliament's Subcommittee
on Human Rights (DROI)
are Pier Antonio Panzeri
(Chair), Joachim Zeller,
Soraya Post and Barbara
Lochbiler.
Urmas Paet will represent
the European Parliament's
Committee on Foreign
Affairs (AFET).
Marc Tarabella will represent
the delegation for relations
with the countries of
Southeast Asia and the
Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (DASE).
The members of the delegation
for Relations with
the countries of South Asia
(DSAS) are Jean Lambert
(Chair), James Nicholson,
Richard Corbet, Wajid
Khan and Sajjad Karim.
Some of the MEPs are
likely to visit Myanmar
after
completing
Bangladesh visit to see what
steps are taken in Myanmar
side to ensure safe return of
Rohingyas, officials said.
The European Union is
likely to come up with more
pressure on Myanmar this
month so that it acts
promptly and creates an
environment for the sustainable
return of
Rohingyas to their homeland
from Bangladesh.
"I'm sure there'll be new
(EU) council conclusions on
Myanmar in February. I
hope there'll be more pressure.
The only thing is to put
more pressure on
Myanmar," EU Head of
Delegation Ambassador
Rensje Teerink told UNB
recently.
In October last year, the
Council of the EU in its conclusions
said it may consider
additional measures if
the situation does not
improve but also stands
ready to respond accordingly
to positive developments.
However, it is yet to know
what the conclusions will
contain-whether it will be
arms embargo or targeted
sanctions on Myanmar government
and army.
On January 16,
Bangladesh and Myanmar
signed a document on
'Physical Arrangement'
which will facilitate the
return of Rohingyas to their
homeland
from
Bangladesh.
The
'Physical
Arrangement' stipulates
that the repatriation will be
completed preferably within
two years from the start
of repatriation.
Community Health Care Providers resumed their hunger strike with a demand for
job nationalization in front of National Press Club, Dhaka. Photo: Star Mail
Price largely untamed despite
record rice import
DHAKA : Average retail price of coarse rice
continues to remain high in the country
despite a record high import of the staple in
the current financial year (2017-18), reports
UNB.
"A record high amount of rice imports did
not contribute significantly to retail rice price
reductions in the local market," stated a
recently released market report of the United
States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
The report - Bangladesh: Grain and Feed
Update - quoted Bangladesh Bank estimates
to note that rice is being imported at Tk.
37.89 a kg from India, but retail prices in the
local market are 19 percent higher than actual
cost. Though government silos have 29
percent higher stocks (8.24 lakh MT) as of
end-January comparing to the corresponding
period of last year, the USDA noted, the
average retail price for coarse rice remained
as high as Tk. 45 per kilogram, 24 percent
higher than last year.
Recently Commerce Minister Tofail
Ahmed has said rice price would not drop
below Tk. 40 in Bangladesh.
Government is currently buying Aman rice
from farmers at Tk. 39 a kg and public sector
rice purchase is expected to be doubled from
already declared three lakh MT to six lakh
MT, USDA stated.
As of February 6, in the current fiscal
(2017-18), public and private sectors together
imported a record 28.50 lakh MT of rice,
which is 21 times more than what the country
imported in the entire 2016-17 fiscal.
In the last fiscal, government needed not to
import a single grain of rice while private
traders also imported just 1.33 lakh MT.
In the first seven months of current fiscal,
government imported 7.47 lakh MT with
more imports in the pipeline. Around same
time private sector imported over 21 lakh
MT of rice. USDA report stated that the
Food Ministry has a plan to import 15 lakh
MT of rice in FY 2017-18 to boost public
stocks, and has imported less than half the
amount till end-January, 2018.
"Following the current pace of rice imports
for public stocks, it will be a challenge for the
government to realize its intended target,"
observed USDA report also noting that the
government-to-government (G2G) agreement
of 1.5 lakh MT rice import from
Thailand has been terminated due to ontime
supply failures, and the authorities have
not yet decided how to fill the gap.
On the other hand, private sector rice
imports have continued rapidly due to higher
prices in the local market, and in order to
lessen the panic of possible lower production
in the next Boro season due to flood risk, the
report added.
Sylhet BCL men
'beat' 2 journos
SYLHET : Bangladesh Chhatra
League (BCL) activists allegedly
beat two television journalists at
Mirjajangal of the city on
Saturday over the spelling of the
organisation's name in a
Facebook post, reports UNB.
The victims are Gopal
Bardhan, district correspondent
of Independent TV, its cameraperson
Madhab Karmakar.
Madhab said BCL leaders
Rajesh and his men, belonging
to Tushar group, assaulted them
and tried to snatch their camera
in front of Nimbark Ashram at
noon. Local journalists took
them to Osmani Medical
College Hospital, he said.
The cameraperson also said
his Facebook account has
been hacked and a post was
made from there about the
spelling of Chhatra League.
Officer-in-charge of Kotwali
Police Station Gausul Hossain
said police visited the spot. "Legal
action will be taken if any written
compliant is lodged," he said.
BNP stages processions
in city for 2nd day
DHAKA : BNP leaders and
activists brought out processions
in the city for the second
consecutive day on Saturday
in protest against the imprisonment
of their Chairperson
Khaleda Zia in a graft case,
reports UNB.
Several hundred BNP followers,
led by its standing
committee member Mirza
Abbas, first brought out a
procession from Baitul
Mukarram area around 1:20
pm chanting slogans seeking
the release of their party chief.
BNP vice chairman
Barkatullah Bulu, chairperson's
adviser Zainul Abedin
Farroque, organising secretary
Fazlul Haque Milon, its
central leaders Shaheed
Uddin Chowdhury Anee,
Mostafizur Rahman Babul
and Shohidul Islam Babul,
among others, joined the procession.
When they came close to
Fakirapool Water Tank area,
police chased the protesters
around 1:30 pm and dispersed
them. They also
arrested several leaders and
activists from the area.
Another group of BNP
leaders and activists also
brought out a procession
from House Building lane
near Bijoynagar around
1:25pm demanding the
release of Khaleda.
Police also chased the BNP
men and arrested eight of
them, including south city
unit leader Nabiullah Nabi.
The BNP followers brought
out the rally as part of their
two-day protest programme
against Khaleda's conviction.
On Friday, they staged
demonstrations across the
country, including in the capital,
demanding Khaleda's
release.
BNP called the two-day
protest programme on
Thursday, around an hour
after a special court here convicted
Khaleda Khaleda and
sentenced her to five years'
imprisonment in the muchtalked-about
Zia Orphanage
Trust graft case.
Shakib to fight graft
as ACC 'goodwill
ambassador'
DHAKA :All-rounder
Shakib Al Hasan is going to
sign as an Anti-Corruption
Commission (ACC) goodwill
ambassador to campaign
against corruption,
reports UNB.
The signing ceremony
will be held at the ACC's
office at Segun Bagicha in
Dhaka on Sunday, said a
press release.
ACC Chairman Iqbal
Mahmud will preside over
the signing ceremony.
Captain in Twenty20
International and Tests
Shakib Al Hasan is considered
as the greatest cricketer
to have ever played for
Bangladesh.
Shakib is acknowledged
as the best all-rounder in
the world with the highest
current rankings in all formats
of the game.
Book fair abuzz with
weekend visitors
DHAKA : A large number
of weekend visitors of all
ages particularly children
were seen yesterday on
the 10th day of the Amar
Ekushey Granthamela-
2018, which has turned
into a vibrant and festive
gathering of booklovers,
authors, publishers and
researchers.
The stall attendants
were seen busy dealing
with the visitors and
smiles flashed on the face
of the publishers as holiday
crowd flocked to different
stalls and pavilions.
According to the website
of Bangla Academy, a total
of 1134 books of different
genres of literature and
branches of knowledge
were published in the
book fair till today.
Acting Editor & Publisher : Jobaer Alam, Advisory Editor: Advocate Molla Mohammad Abu Kawser, Managing, Editor: Tapash Ray Sarker, News Editor : Saiful Islam, printed at Sonali Printing Press, 2/1/A, Arambagh 167, Inner Circular Road, Eden Complex, Motijheel, Dhaka.
Editorial and News Office: K.K Bhaban (Level-04) 69/K, Green Road, Panthapath, Dhaka-1205. Tel : +8802-9611884-85, Cell : 01832166882; Email: Editor : editor@thebangladeshtoday.com, Advertisement: ads@thebangladeshtoday.com, News: newsbangla@thebangladeshtoday.com, contact@thebangladeshtoday.com, website: www.thebangladeshtoday.com