13-10-2018

saturDaY 

Dhaka: October 13, 2018; ashwin 28, 1425 BS; Safar 2,1440 hijri 

www.thebangladeshtoday.com; www. tbtbangla.com 

Regd.No.Da~2065, Vol.16; No.255; 12 Pages~Tk.8.00 

international 

UN urges action on marking 

disputed Sudan-South 

Sudan border 

>Page 7 

art & culture 

Jaya Ahsan looks 

adorable in new 'Debi' 

poster 

>Page 8 

sport 

More suspects 

detained in Belgium 

football scandal 

>Page 9 

No question of Tarique's 

resignation: BNP 

DHAKA : BNP Secretary General 

Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Friday 

said there is no question of Tarique 

Rahman's resignation from the party 

post following his conviction in the 

August 21 grenade attack cases, reports 

UNB. 

"The lower court's verdict is the reflection 

of political vengeance. It was given 

with an evil motive to weaken BNP. So, 

there's no question of Tarique Rahman's 

resignation based on such a verdict," he 

said. He came up with the remarks while 

speaking at a press conference at the 

party's Nayapaltan central office. 

The BNP leader claimed that Tarique 

was convicted with a political motive on 

fabricated charges brought by a partisan 

investigation officer. 

"Even after knowing the fact, some 

people are suggesting that he (Tarique) 

should resign from the party. People can 

DHAKA : BNP senior leader 

Moudud Ahmed on Friday said the 

framework of the national unity will 

be announced very soon to carry out a 

movement to unseat the current government, 

reports UNB. 

"The government thinks our efforts 

to forge the national unity will be 

harmed following the August 21 

grenade attack verdict. I would like to 

say the movement of the national 

unity will continue ignoring the verdict," 

he said. 

Speaking at a discussion, the BNP 

leader further said, "We'll present the 

framework of the national unity very 

soon. We'll also announce the outline 

of the movement. We'll take all steps 

to ensure this regime's fall based on 

the framework of the national unity." 

Zia Parishad arranged the programme 

at the Jatiya Press Club 

demanding the release of BNP 

Chairperson Khaleda Zia. 

Moudud, a BNP standing committee 

member, said the government will 

be forced through the movement of 

DHAKA : Ambassador and Permanent 

Representative of Bangladesh to the UN 

Masud Bin Momen has said Bangladesh 

believes that rights of the children can be 

best protected by ensuring their education 

and healthcare, among others, reports 

UNB. 

"Our government has been working 

relentlessly to deliver the required services 

to children even at the far-flung areas," 

Zohr 

04:40 AM 

12:10 AM 

04:05 PM 

05:41 PM 

07:00 PM 

5:53 5:38 

question them (who are asking Tarique 

to quit) whether they demanded government's 

resignation for indulging in several 

hundred killings and enforced disappearances," 

he said. 

Fakhrul alleged that a section of media 

has been making evil attempts to malign 

Tarique by publishing some 'fabricated' 

information about him after the 

announcement of the verdict in the 

August 21 grenade attack cases. 

He hoped that the responsible media 

will refrain from carrying out propaganda 

against anyone to appease the government. 

On Wednesday, a speedy trial tribunal 

sentenced 19 people to death, 19 others, 

including BNP acting Chairman Tarique 

Rahman, to life imprisonment and eight 

more to different terms of jail in two 

cases filed over the August 21 grenade 

attack on an Awami League rally in the 

Nat'l unity framework 

to be announced soon, 

says Moudud 

the national unity to engage in talks to 

hold the next general election under a 

non-party administration. 

He criticised the government for 

enacting the Digital Security Act to 

'gag' the media ahead of the national 

election. "The government made the 

law so that the mass media can't criticise 

it and work independently. 

There're 7-8 sections in the act that 

are completely contrary to the 

Constitution." 

Referring to section 32 of the act, 

the BNP leader said journalists can be 

sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment 

and fined Tk 25 lakh for publishing 

any government document on its corruption 

and misdeed in the media. 

"It's a draconian law enacted to curb 

the press freedom." 

In the section 47, he said, law 

enforcers are given limitless power 

which was not even given to Rakkhi 

Bahini (during 1975) as they'll be able 

to raid any office and house and seize 

computers and other equipment and 

arrest anyone without any warrant. 

Children's rights can be best 

protected thru' education, 

healthcare: Envoy 

he said. 

The Ambassador was addressing the 

General Debate of the third committee of 

the 73rd Session of the UNGA on 

'Promotion and protection of the rights of 

children' at the UN headquarters on 

Wednesday, said a press release on 

Friday. 

He said the government of Prime 

Minister Sheikh Hasina is committed to 

the wellbeing of women and girls particularly. 

"Next year we shall be observing the 

30th anniversary of the Convention on 

the Rights of the Child. At this important 

juncture we need to review what the international 

community has done so far and 

what more needs to be done in implementing 

the SDGs related to children," 

said Ambassador Momen. 

He said their vision impaired students 

are receiving braille books. "We are 

extending education services to the 

Rohingya children in the camps in Cox's 

Bazar. This has been duly noted in the 

report of the Secretary-General," he said. 

Due to government's determined 

efforts in increasing social awareness 

and ensuring law enforcement, child 

marriage is gradually reducing, said the 

Ambassador. 

capital in 2004. 

Meanwhile, BNP standing committee 

member Moudud Ahmed at a discussion 

said the verdict of the August 21 

grenade attack cases is not impartial. 

He said though Tarique had no 

involvement in the incident, he was 

implicated in the cases only to make a 

political gain. 

Zia Parishad arranged the programme 

at the Jatiya Press Club demanding the 

release of BNP Chairperson Khaleda 

Zia. 

The BNP leader said it is not justified 

to seek Tarique's resignation from BNP 

since the verdict is acceptable and neutral. 

"The verdict was given with a political 

goal. So, our leader (Tarique) can't 

resign after conviction through such verdict. 

It's our party's internal matter. We 

consider him (Tarique) our leader," he 

observed. 

DU 'Gha' unit 

admission test 

held 

DHAKA : The first-year honours 

admission test of "Gha" unit under the 

Social Science faculty of the 2018-19 

academic session of Dhaka University 

was held on Friday, reports UNB. 

The one-hour test was held from 10 

am to 11 am at 81centres inside and outside 

of the campus. 

DU Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Md. 

Akhtaruzzaman, Pro Vice chancellor 

(administration) Prof Dr. Muhammad 

Samad, treasurer Prof Dr Md. Kamal 

Uddin, Dean of the Social Science 

Faculty and Coordinator of Gha Unit 

Admission Test Prof SadekaHalim and 

proctor Prof AKM Golam Rabbani visited 

the different examination halls at 

Social Science building of the 

University. 

Cyclonic storm 

'Titli' weakens into 

deep depression 

DHAKA : The Cyclonic storm 'Titli' 

over Odisha and adjoining coastal area 

moved slightly Northwestwards and 

weakened into a deep depression over 

the same area of India. 

It was centered at 6 am Friday (Near 

LAT 20.8 N, Long. 84.5 E) It is likely to 

move North Westwards further inland 

and weaken gradually, reports UNB. 

Under the influence of the deep 

depression, steep pressure gradient 

persists over North Bay, deep convection 

is taking place over North Bay and 

coastal areas of Bangladesh. 

Squally weather is likely to affect the 

maritime ports, North Bay and adjoining 

coastal areas of Bangladesh. 

Meeting of BNP, Jatiya Oikya Prokriya and Juktafront was held at the Uttara house of JSD president Abdur 

Rab on Friday night. 

Photo : TBT 

Brahmmaputra excavation 

project raises hope among 

Jamalpur residents 

SHERPUR : The government's 

recent move to excavate the 

Brahmapura River aiming to 

improve its navigability and reclaim 

its lost parts from the clutches of 

encroaches has raised hope among 

the residents of the district and others 

living in its vicinity, reports UNB. 

On October 2, the Executive 

Committee of the National Economic 

Council (Ecnec) approved 15 projects 

involving Tk 13,218.31 crore, including 

Tk-4,371 crore 'Navigability 

development and reclamation of Old 

Brahmaputra, Dharla, Tulai and 

Punorbhoba Rivers' project. 

Brahmapurta, once a river with 

strong current, turned into a narrow 

canal, thanks to illegal encroachment 

by local influential people. 

Only a few years back it was a busy 

waterway as the vicinity of the river 

was abuzz with traders and fishermen 

amid widespread use of boats 

and trawlers. 

But the scenario has changed soon 

as the river here has turned into a 

canal, leaving people living on the 

river banks unemployed. Several 

thousand hectares of agricultural 

lands have turned barren as the 

farmers failed to pump water into 

their croplands due to water crisis. 

Kutub Uddin, a resident of 

Dakpara village in Charpokkhimari 

union in Sadar upazila, said people 

used to carry their goods to 

Mymensingh, Dhaka and 

Narayanganj through the river routes 

from Roumari but the river has dried 

up and transportation of goods has 

stopped. "When the river water used 

to swell, croplands and dwelling 

houses would have inundated, but 

now the river has turned into a cannel," 

he said. 

Under the new project, around 227 

kilometres of the Old Brahmaputra 

River would be dredged up to 100 

metres of width and 3 metres of 

depth to upgrade it to a class-II navigational 

route to ensure the transportation 

of passengers and goods at 

ease and lower costs. 

Besides, Shipping Secretary Abdus 

Samad Faruk, who visited Sherpur 

recently, said the soil lifted from the 

river will be used in different development 

works, including road, 

school and colleges renovation activities, 

he said. 

Besides, a waterbody will be built 

on the river bank to help farmers use 

the water in their croplands during 

the dry season. 

Md Abul Kalam Azad, convener of 

Publicity Sherpur District committee, 

said," We welcome the government 

move to improve the navigability 

of the Brahmmaputra River as it is 

a long-cherished demand of the people 

of Sherpur. We want implementation 

of the development project as 

soon as possible." 

Egg distributed among the poor people in front of National Press Club yesterday marking World Egg Day. 

Photo : TBT 

PM to visit 

Padma Bridge 

construction 

site tomorrow 

DHAKA : Prime Minister Sheikh 

Hasina will visit the Padma Bridge construction 

site on Sunday to see for herself 

the progress of the country's largest 

infrastructure project and to inaugurate 

the construction work of its rail link 

"Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will 

inspect the construction sites of the 

much-awaited Padma Bridge at Mawa 

in Mushiganj, Janzira in Shariatpur 

and Shibchar in Madaripur on Sunday 

to see for herself the progress of the 

mega project," Prime Minister's Office 

(PMO) sources told BSS yesterday. 

During the visit, the sources said, the 

premier will open the construction 

work of the rail link between Dhaka and 

Jashore under the 'Padma Bridge Rail 

Link Construction Project.' 

Upon her arrival at Mawa at 11 am, 

the prime minister will first unveil a 

plaque of the progress of the work of the 

6.15-kilometer bridge on the Mawa 

side. Sheikh Hasina will later inspect 

the progress of the Dhaka-Mawa and 

Pacchar-Bhanga parts of the N-8 

Highway at the Mawa end and inaugurate 

the construction work of the rail 

link (Mawa side). 

She will then open the permanent 

river bank protection work adjacent to 

the main river training work and visit 

the overall progress work of the bridge 

at Mawa side. 

The prime minister is scheduled to 

address a "Sudhi Samabesh" (civic 

rally) at Mawa Golchattar adjacent to 

Mawa Toll Plaza at 11.15 am. 

In the afternoon, the prime minister 

will visit the Janzira end of the bridge 

and first unveil the plaque of the 

progress work of the bridge on the 

Janzira side. 

She will later inaugurate the construction 

work of the rail link (Janzira 

side). 

Sheikh Hasina, also the Awami 

League president, will then go to 

Shibchar and address a public meeting 

to be organized by her party at Iliyas 

Ahmed Chowdhury Ferry Ghat at 

Kathalbari in Shibchar upazila. 

Meanwhile, Road Transport and 

Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader yesterday 

visited Naodoba area in Janzira 

ahead of the visit of the prime minister 

to Padma Bridge construction sites. 

The minister told journalists there 

that the prime minister was earlier 

scheduled to visit the Padma Bridge 

construction site. 

"But the prime minister will now visit 

the site on Sunday due to inclement 

weather," BSS Shariatput correspondent 

quoted the minister as saying. 

Quader said the prime minister will 

unveil the plaques of the 60 percent 

progress work on both sides of the 

bridge. 

He said five spans were already 

installed on the Janzira side of the 

bridge while one was set up on Mawa 

side and the work on putting in five 

more spans there is underway.

NEWS 

SaTURDaY, 

OCTOBER 13, 2018 

2 

Puja Udjapan Parishad, Joypurhat Sadar Upazila organized a view exchanging meeting yesterday. 

Photo : TBT 

Two sued 

over rape of 

Baul singer 

in Savar 

SAVAR : A case has been 

filed against two people in 

connection with the rape 

of a Baul singer at 

Gazirchat in Ashulia here, 

reports UNB. 

The victim filed the case 

with Ashulia Police Station 

on Thursday night, said 

Rezaul Haq Dipu, officerin-charge 

of Ashulia Police 

Station . 

Police said the female 

baul singer used to live at a 

house at Palashbari and 

sing songs in different 

programmes. 

The victim went to the 

shop of one Abul Kalam, a 

baul singer of Gazirchat 

area, for taking money 

which she earned after 

singing a song at a 

programme 

on 

Wednesday. 

When she was waiting at 

Kalam's shop one Sujan 

Bhuiya, 35, called her to 

his house with help of a 

nine year old child and 

violated her confining her 

to a room. 

Taking advantage of the 

situation, another man 

Badshah Bhuiya also 

violated the woman. 

The duo also beat up 

Kamal and female Baul 

singer and threatened to 

them over to police. 

The victim than lodged a 

case against Sujan and 

Badsha with Ashulia 

Police Station. Police 

arrested Badshah while 

Sujan went into hiding. 

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seats for the admission seekers. But I think it's not a 

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DU admission, a tough 

battle for students 

DHAKA : Getting enrolled at a renowned public 

university like Dhaka University (DU) is the most 

important and difficult challenge for any student of his 

or her entire life, reports UNB. 

This year, a total of 8,58,801 examinees, out of 

12,88,757, passed the Higher Secondary Examination 

(HSC) in all the 10 education boards of the country. 

Among the successful students, 25,562 achieved the 

highest grade, GPA 5, under eight general education 

boards in addition to 1,244 under the Madrassah 

Education Board and 2,456 under the Technical and 

Vocational Education Board. 

But the total number of seats at DU for the first year 

honours admission seekers is only 7,128 under five 

faculties. 

According to the DU central admissions office this 

year, some 38 admission seekers vied for each seat, while 

a total of 272,512 admission-seekers have applied against 

7,128 seats for the admissions into the university. 

A total of 82,970 admission-seekers vied for 1,750 seats 

under 'Ka (A)' unit while 36,250 for 2,378 seats under 

'Kha (B)' unit, 27,534 for 1,250 seats under 'Ga (C)' unit, 

100,614 for 1,615 seats under 'Gha (D)' unit and 25,144 

for 135 seats under 'Cha (F)' unit. 

It was shown that many admission seekers did not 

obtain pass marks in DU admission test, though they 

obtained GPA 5 in both Higher Secondary Certificate 

(HSC) and Secondary School Certificate (SSC) exams. 

Miazi Saleh bin Hasan, an admission-seeker who 

passed HSC from Dhaka Board sat for the DU admission 

under 'Kha Unit' and scored pass marks but still he could 

not be sure about his admission to this University. His 

serial number is 4390 where the total number of seats 

available in this unit is just 2,378. Now he is preparing 

for other universities. 

Expressing his disappointment at not getting a chance 

at DU, Miazi told UNB, "I always dreamt of studying at 

DU because getting admitted to this university can 

change one's future life and career." 

Iqbal Biswas, a master's degree student of Population 

Science department told UNB, "The best achievement of 

my entire life is getting a chance at DU. The four-year 

experience at this university has been amazing. The joy 

of being a student can only truly be realised on a 

beautiful and large campus like of DU, where creativity 

floats in the air and spirit of freedom is evident 

everywhere." 

Vice Chancellor of Dhaka University Prof Dr. Md 

Akhtaruzzaman admitted the seat crisis at the DU and 

said, "It's true that our university can't provide enough 

5th Math 

Olympiad 

held at JU 

JAHANGIRNAGAR 

UNIVERSITY : The '5th 

Math Olympiad-2018' 

organised by Jahangirnagar 

University Science Club 

(JUSC) was held on the 

campus on Friday, reports 

UNB. 

Director of Wazed Miah 

Science Research Centre 

and also the adviser of 

JUSC, Professor Khabir 

Uddin inaugurated the 

contest with a slogan, 'Ganit 

Niye Vabbe Joto, Shanito 

Hobe Buddhi Toto' at JU 

School and College premises 

in the morning. Addressing 

the inaugural session, 

Professor Khabir Uddin said 

that "Mathematics is the 

mother of all sciences. One's 

mental ability and creativity 

increase with the practice of 

mathematics." 

The prize-giving ceremony 

of the contest will be held on 

November 9. Around 4,000 

students of class VI to XII 

from over 100 schools and 

colleges across the country 

took part in the contest. 

Presided over by JUSC 

President Khandakar 

Oaliullah, former JU Proctor 

Professor Tapon Kumar 

Shaha, Professor Kabirul 

Bashar, Professor Shahedur 

Rahman and Associate 

Professor Sharif Hossain 

were among others. 

Fire burns down 

2 Manikganj 

school buildings 

DHAKA : A fire raged 

through two tin-shed 

buildings of a government 

primary school in the district 

town on Friday noon, 

burning down valuables of 

the school, reports UNB. 

Mizanur Rahman, 

assistant director of district 

fire service and civil defense, 

said it is being primarily 

assumed that the fire broke 

out at the two buildings of 

No 88 Government Primary 

School adjacent to Shaheed 

Rafiq Govt Boys' School, 

from an electric short-circuit 

around 12 pm. 

On information, three fire 

fighting units rushed to the 

spot and doused the flame 

after one and half hours of 

frantic efforts around 1:30 

pm. The fire gutted all the 

furniture of 15 classrooms of 

the school, said Bazlur 

Rahman, headmaster of the 

school. However, no 

casualties were reported. 

Fisherman goes 

missing as a 

boat sinks in 

Padma River 

KUSHTIA : A fisherman went 

missing as a boat sank in the 

Padma River due to strong 

current at Boiragichar Bazar 

in Doulatpur upazila on 

Thursday, reports UNB. 

The missing fisherman is 

Shahabul Islam, 42, son of 

Amirul Islam of East 

Philipnagar area. AKM Fazlul 

HaqKabiraj, chairman of 

Philipnagar union, said 

Shahabul and his cousin 

Hamidul went to the river for 

catching fish around 3:30 am. 

At one stage, the boat 

carrying them sank in the 

rivert. Hamidul managed to 

swim ashore while Shahabul 

remained missing. 

Yunus, IOC president ink 

deal to support athletes 

become entrepreneurs 

DHAKA : Nobel Laureate Professor 

Muhammad Yunus signed an 

agreement with President of the 

International Olympic Committee 

(IOC) Thomas Bach, aiming to help 

athletes andOlympians with dual 

careers and career transition 

opportunities, and empowering them 

to become entrepreneurs, by setting up 

Yunus Sports Hub in Paris, reports 

UNB. 

Nobel Laureate Professor 

Muhammad Yunus was invited by IOC 

President Thomas Bach to attend the 

Youth Olympic Games held in Buenos 

Aires, Argentina, said a press release. 

On the inaugural day of the Youth 

Olympics, Yunus was interviewed in 

the presence of the members of the 

international and national members of 

Olympic Committees. 

Career transition for athletes can 

sometimes be a critical moment, as 

one's sports career does not last forever 

and daily life after competition can 

change considerably. But this period 

can also offer new exciting challenges. 

Thanks to ideas and skills acquired 

during their sports career, such as 

leadership, perseverance, resilience 

and team spirit, elite athletes have an 

invaluable potential to become 

successful innovators and 

entrepreneurs contributing to 

themselves and their communities. 

The concept of this programmewill 

form the "Athlete 365 Business 

Accelerator" and will provide excellent 

opportunities to athletes, through three 

main phases: Engagement, Incubation 

and Acceleration. Athlete365 Career+ 

has already reached more than 35,000 

athletes from over 185 countries. 

Professor Yunus said, "All humans 

are born entrepreneurs; we want to 

help the athletes to unleash this 

capacity. They have an exciting life 

ahead of them: they can become 

successful entrepreneurs for 

themselves; they can also create a social 

business and help to solve the people's 

problems. This is yet another chance 

for them to catch the attention of the 

entire world," 

IOC President Thomas Bach, who is 

an Olympic champion in fencing, said: 

"Athletes are at the heart of the 

Olympic Games and we support them 

in many ways. The Athlete365 Business 

Accelerator is another important 

initiative by the IOC which aims to help 

athletes to build a second career 

besides their career in sport. The IOC 

wants to create new opportunities for 

athletes and we are delighted to offer 

this in partnership with Professor 

Muhammad Yunus and the Yunus 

Centre." 

Before the signing the Nobel 

Laureate also was interviewed by 4 

time Olympic gold medalist in Ice 

Hockey Angela Ruggiero at a plenary 

named "Olympian to Socially 

Conscious Entrepreneur" at the 

Olympism in Action Forum. 

Prof Yunus talked about how athletes 

can become entrepreneurs and social 

business entrepreneurs, while they are 

still active also when they transition out 

of their sporting life to impact on their 

communities as well as on their own 

lives. 

Professor Yunus was taken by IOC to 

visit the Olympic Park and Olympic 

village and had a discussion with the 

city representatives who planned the 

park and the village and its facilities. At 

the park, Professor Yunus met with the 

Bangladesh Youth Hockey Team 

players who are in Argentina to take 

part in the Youth Olympic Games 2018. 

Professor Yunus also had a meeting 

with the head of Paris2024 Olympic 

team who briefed Yunus on the 

progress of preparations for Olympic 

2034 and discuss how to deliver the 

most socially impactful and inclusive 

Olympic Games to date, through 

Olympic 2024. 

Bangladesh Jatiya Hindu Mohajote-Dhaka district unit formed a human chain in front of National 

Press Club yesterday to meet their various demands. 

Photo : TBT 

Debate competition held between physically 

challenged students of DU, Eden College 

DHAKA : A debate competition was held on Friday between the physically 

challenged students of Dhaka University and Eden Women's College on 

retaining quota for people with disabilities in government jobs. 

Citizen's Platform for SDGs and Debate for Democracy organized the 

programme as part of Youth Conference 2018 at Brac Centre Inn 

Auditorium of the city, reports UNB. 

Dr. Akbar Ali Khan, a former caretaker government advisor and former 

cabinet secretary attended the program as the chief guest where Dr. Badiul 

Alam Mazumdar, secretary of Sushaner Jonno Nagorik, (SUJON) was 

special guest. Debate for Democracy Chairman Hasan Ahmed Chawdury 

Kiron moderated the program. 

Mosharraf seeks journalists' cooperation for dev of nation 

FARIDPUR : Local Government, Rural Development (LGRD) and Cooperatives 

Minister Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain yesterday sought journalists' cooperation 

in efforts of present government for development of the country, reports BSS. 

"Journalists always play vital in the development of the country. Now, we need 

their positive cooperation," the minister said while addressing a discussion on 

Faridpur Press Club (FPC) premises. Earlier, the minister laid foundation stone of 

FPC's new building. Presided over by Imtiaz Hasan Rubel, president of FPC, 

Deputy Commissioner Ommey Salma Tanzia and Superintendent of Police Jakir 

Hossain Khan attended the function as special guests. 

9 dead after severe 

cyclone hits eastern 

Indian coast 

A severe cyclone damaged homes and blew 

down trees and power poles in eastern India, 

where nine people were killed and about 

300,000 forced to move to higher ground, 

reports UNB. 

Cyclone Titli, or Butterfly, had winds 

blowing up to 150 kph (95 mph) Thursday 

when it came onshore around daybreak, the 

India Meteorological Department said. It 

spread rain widely in coastal districts of 

Orissa state and also hit northern parts of 

neighboring Andhra Pradesh state. 

Eight people died from drowning, wall 

collapses and fallen trees in the 

Vijayanagaram and Srikakulam districts of 

Andhra Pradesh, said Kinjarapu Acchan 

Naidu, the state labor minister. 

An 8-year-old boy drowned in a flooded 

canal in Ganjam district in Orissa state, 

where five people were also reported missing 

after being swept away by flood waters, the 

Press Trust of India reported . 

District Administrator Vijay Amruta said 

the five people were swept away by flood 

waters while returning home from a cyclone 

shelter. Rescuers were searching for them. 

Schools were closed and air and train 

travel curtailed in the region. Authorities also 

set up more than 800 shelters stocked with 

food and relief materials. 

Electricity and telephone services were cut 

in a number of areas in both states. 

The severe cyclone weakened by Thursday 

night with wind speed reducing to 70 kph 

(45 mph) and it was expected to become a 

deep depression by Friday, the 

meteorological department said. 

Orissa state is prone to cyclones which 

develop in the Bay of Bengal. In 1999, a 

devastating cyclone killed more than 15,000 

people. Bangladesh's coastal districts were 

also warned to prepare for possible storm 

effects there. Boats were ordered ashore and 

inland ferries were told to suspend services. 

Mukundalal 

Sarker's 39th death 

anniv Saturday 

DHAKA :The 39thdeath anniversary of 

Mukundalal Sarker, a prominent leader of anti- 

British movement and a 1971 war veteran, will 

be observed on Saturday, reports UNB. 

Sree Sarker was born in 1909 at Dharmaryer 

Bari Village under Muksedpur Upazila of 

Gopalgonj district. 

During his long political career, he played an 

important role in building a strong resistance 

against the imperialist forces and actively 

participated in the movement against 

Zamindary system. He was detained for several 

times for his role against British rule, said a 

press release. Sree Sarker was imprisoned 

under defense of Pakistan rule in 1965. 

To observe the day, special prayers will be 

offered and a discussion will be held in the 

evening at the Dhanmondi residence (Flat# 01- 

B, House# 25, Road#32) of Sree Sarker's 

younger son senior journalist Ajit Kumar Sarkar. 

34 die in Uganda 

mudslides triggered 

by heavy rains 

At least 34 people have died 

in mudslides triggered by 

torrential rains in a 

mountainous area of eastern 

Uganda that is prone to such 

disasters, a Red Cross 

official said Friday, reports 

UNB. 

More victims are likely to 

be discovered when rescue 

reams access all the affected 

areas in the foothills of 

Mountain Elgon, said Red 

Cross spokeswoman Irene 

Nakasiita. 

People were killed by 

boulders and chunks of mud 

rolling down hills following a 

sustained period of heavy 

rains Thursday afternoon in 

the district of Bududa. 

Houses were destroyed in at 

least three villages, and in 

some cases only body parts 

of the victims have been 

recovered from the mud, she 

said.

EDITORIAL 

SATURDAY, 

oCToBER 13, 2018 

4 

Acting Editor & Publisher : Jobaer Alam 

Telephone: +8802-9104683-84, Fax: 9127103 

e-mail: editor@thebangladeshtoday.com 

Saturday, October 13,2018 

2004 grenade attack case : 

justice after 14 years 

I 

t's 

better to be late than never as the adage goes. 

The 2004 August 21 case in which a heinous 

attempt was made to kill en masse top Awami 

league leaders including --very importantly-- our 

incumbent Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, has 

been undoubtedly a deeply shameful chapter in our 

national history where the search for justice 

continued to cry out in vain. Thus, it was a moment 

of great satisfaction when on Thursday last the truth 

was finally, amply and irrevocably established about 

who were the real and behind the wings assassins in 

that tragic event. The judges declared Tareque 

Rahman, the acting Chairman of the Bangladesh 

Nationalist Party (BNP) as the mastermind of the 

plot to kill our beloved Prime Minister. He was 

joined in that effort by the then State Minister for 

Home Affairs Lufuzzaman Babar and other 

stalwarts of the BNP and elements of extreme 

Islamist terror groups. 

While Tareque was given life imprisonment, 

Babar was sentenced to death by hanging. But this 

is not the end of the matter. The present Awami 

League leadership have reacted saying that life 

imprisonment for Tareque is not enough as the 

mastermind behind the appalling crime. So, he too 

deserves capital punishment or hanging by death. 

Thursday's judgement was only in a lower court. 

Therefore , they are likely to appeal in a higher 

Court to further increase Tareque's punishment 

from life imprisonment to capital punishment or 

death sentence. It is also speculated after the 

judgement that in the next step the AL leadership 

would also seek to associate ex Prime Minister 

Khaleda Zia with the event as she was also holding 

the portfolio of Home Minister at that time. It could 

not be that as Home Minister she had no knowledge 

of the bestial crime that her State Minister was 

plotting or the direct patronage and supervision of it 

by her son Tareque who at that time was 

unofficially the most powerful and influential 

individual of the BNP administration eclipsing even 

his mother in most cases. 

This case highlighted the willingness of the 

intelligence services to become involved in domestic 

politics. Intelligence organizations exist to protect 

the state against its enemies, not to take sides in 

domestic political disputes. In Bangladesh the 

intelligence organizations in this case were dragged 

into domestic politics, losing their professionalism. 

These special organizations were used and 

corrupted to serve domestic political interests. First, 

protection of the AL leaders was unsatisfactory. 

Second, no attempt was made to control the crime 

scene negating use of forensic methods to provide 

objective evidence. Without forensic evidence it 

was difficult to prove what actually happened. 

Third, the police investigation in the BNP period 

was corrupt and false. It was only resumed 

investigation under a caretaker government that 

put the derailed investigation process on a right 

track. Earlier, the then BNP government with its 

Home Ministry tried many gimmicks to falsely 

placate innocent persons with the incident that 

completely reoriented the investigation away from 

any objectivity. Indeed BNP's handling of that 

episode was a stark manifestation of the criminal 

bent of its leadership at the highest level. 

Of course, the BNP leaders are saying after 

Thursday's verdict that the convicted men are 

victims of political vengeance. But what politics can 

be there in seeking justice for killing and maiming 

of so many in the completely peaceful rally of a 

political party by firing into it and tossing live 

grenades ? Surely, the judgement was to punish 

ones responsible for such sheer murders whereas 

the attackers were ones who had express political 

designs in attempting to wipe out the core 

leadership of the country's oldest and biggest 

political party in a bid to pave the way for their 

ascendancy.The grenade attack killed 24 Awami 

League leaders including former president Zillur 

Rahman's wife Ivy Rahman and injured scores of 

others. Sheikh Hasina was also injured and luckily 

avoided certain risk to her life. More than 500 

leaders, activists, supporters and people attending 

the meeting were injured during the barbaric 

grenade attack. The assailants also fired few bullets 

at the bulletproof SUV that Hasina boarded 

immediately after the blast. 

Many of the convicted --including mastermind 

Tareque Zia--are in foreign countries hoping to get 

political asylum. The recent court verdicts against 

them in Bangladesh have clearly established their 

guilt and in all fairness there exists no grounds-- 

legally and morally-- to accord them political 

asylum. Therefore, the credibility and international 

image of these countries will be at stake if they do 

not heed international norms and conventions in 

the matter and fail to hand these convicted persons 

to Bangladesh authorities as would be requested. 

The media has already killed Khashoggi 

Seven years on from what has been 

called the "Arab Spring," the Middle 

East is plagued, on top of the military 

activities, by continuous conflict. The 

region's volcanoes are in constant 

eruption and the lava has not yet stopped 

flowing. They all seem to us like passing 

crises, but they are in fact recurring, 

whether between one government and 

another, or governments and militant 

groups in what seems to be a tug-of-war 

situation aiming either to change the 

status quo or prevent change. 

Actually, it does not come as a surprise 

that governments embarking on a selfchanging 

policy, like the Kingdom of 

Saudi Arabia, are being targeted. 

Moreover, change is always difficult 

because it attempts to get rid of deeplyrooted 

ideas, widespread cultures and 

major structures. In that sense, our fellow 

journalist Jamal Khashoggi has been 

"murdered," even if he reappears alive. 

This is simply because he has been used 

as a bullet in the media battle; and those 

who claim to be defending him are the 

least concerned about him, as their real 

target is in Riyadh. 

Those who believed that eradicating, or 

even marginalizing, militant groups 

would go smoothly are now discovering 

how difficult the task is. These groups are 

present, fierce, and are spreading again 

throughout the region. For example, 

some of those committed to the Muslim 

On September 20, Tamil Nadu's 

ruling All India Dravida 

Munnetra Kazhagam 

(AIADMK) declared that the 

opposition Dravida Munnetra 

Kazhagam (DMK) and the Congress 

party were responsible for the genocide 

in Sri Lanka and demanded that the 

DMK and Congress be tried as 

"international war criminals." The 

AIADMK's charge was dismissed by the 

DMK as blatantly political as it was 

made immediately following the 

allegation of "corruption" within the 

ruling party. 

AIADMK's apparent rationale for 

raising the issue of war crimes and 

genocide at this point in time was 

based on so-called "revelations" by 

former Sri Lankan president 

Mahinda Rajapaksa. Earlier in 

September, during his visit to India, 

Rajapaksa had wanted Indian Prime 

Minister Narendra Modi to renew the 

"abiding friendship" forged between 

Sri Lanka and India during the final 

war against the Liberation Tigers of 

Tamil Eelam (LTTE). This seemed 

enough for the AIADMK to remind 

the people of the DMK's complicity in 

the atrocities committed during the 

war as it was then a major ally of the 

ruling Congress party at the center. 

Indeed, there is much to suggest that 

the Sri Lankan regime was guilty of war 

crimes and even genocide. The report 

by the UN Panel of Experts Report had 

estimated in 2011 that the number of 

civilians killed was around 40,000. In 

her book Still Counting the Dead 

Frances Harrison, a former BBC 

journalist, had identified war crimes 

ABDULRAHmAN AL-RASHED 

Brotherhood have fled to Turkey and 

Qatar, and have started using their 

tentacles in Europe and the US, after 

having their activities partially disabled in 

Egypt and the Gulf countries, and their 

presence weakened in Tunisia and 

Morocco; while the rest have been driven 

to work underground. Beside the 

"Brotherhood," there are still remnants of 

other ideological schools and 

organizations that are reconsidering their 

status in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. 

These organizations do not die out, but 

temporarily disappear or reposition 

themselves. Khashoggi is thus a victim of 

the war raging in the region. His battle is 

part of the chain of ongoing media and 

political battles, each of which is now 

exploiting his "cause." In the crisis 

precipitated by his disappearance, the 

ultimate aim is to portray a government, 

in this case the Saudi government, as evil; 

as another North Korea or Russia or any 

other that had been portrayed as such. 

Saudi Arabia is being attacked here 

because it is the country that has taken 

the boldest and most far-reaching steps in 

the field of internal reforms, which are 

facing opposition throughout the region. 

These different and recurring crises 

cannot be interpreted but as a major 

political and media battle. Given these 

challenges, is it possible to contain or 

curtail the activities of the previously 

mentioned ideological and organizational 

powers in the region until the end of the 

difficult road? We must realize that 

eliminating the regional extremist 

ideological and organizational 

foundations, which have taken root over 

ANA PARARAjASINGHAm 

that included luring civilians into socalled 

"safety zones" and then 

deliberately bombing these areas. Sri 

Lanka's war crimes were also exposed 

by No Fire Zone, an Emmy-nominated 

feature documentary released in 

November 2013. In its report dated 

September 29, the International Truth 

and Justice Project (ITJP) had 

identified the use of cluster bombs by 

the Sri Lankan air force, also a war 

crime. 

Pointedly ignoring that the invitation 

to Rajapaksa had been extended by 

Subramanian Swamy, a senior MP of 

the Bharathiya Janatha Party (BJP) 

ruling at the center, Tamil Nadu's head 

of the BJP, Tamilisai Soundarrajan, 

weighed in, saying that the DMK and 

Congress had committed war crimes. 

This, in turn, has evoked a sharp 

reaction from the DMK, prompting its 

spokesperson KS Radhakrishnan to 

question why Prime Minister Modi had 

welcomed Rajapaksa, widely regarded 

in Tamil Nadu as the perpetrator of war 

crimes committed against Sri Lanka's 

Tamils. The inclination of Tamil Nadu's 

politicians and political parties to evoke 

the plight of Sri Lanka's Tamils to gain 

political mileage is nothing new. Both 

the AIADMK and the DMK, the major 

political parties, have routinely 

exploited this issue to gain political 

support. 

Before its implosion following the 

untimely death of its charismatic 

leader, Jayalalithaa Jeyaram, the 

AIADMK had established itself as the 

champion of Sri Lanka's Tamils. The 

AIADMK was able to obliterate the 

DMK in the May 2011 State Elections 

because it was able to accuse the DMK 

of being complicit in the massacres in 

the final stages of the war in 2009. In 

June 2011, the Tamil Nadu Assembly, 

now dominated by the AIADMK, 

adopted a unanimous resolution 

seeking the imposition of economic 

sanctions against Sri Lanka. Again in 

2013, Tamil Nadu's assembly passed a 

resolution calling for the establishment 

of a separate state for the Tamils of Sri 

Lanka. In the 2014 General Elections, 

AHmED BILAL mEHBooB 

more than four decades, is not an easy 

task, and will even get harder as time 

passes. Moreover, targeting Saudi Arabia 

is expected, as it is the locomotive leading 

the change that is expected to affect a vast 

geographical and demographic area, 

extending from Indonesia to California; 

and it is also reformulating moderate 

political and religious concepts at the 

expense of the old order in the Muslim 

world. 

TV channels will broadcast other news, 

using random accidents and cases to 

distort the image of the new "Arab order" 

as an alternative to the old one. More 

confrontations will seek to create an 

opposing Arab or international image, 

and claim that either the modernization 

project is exaggerated and is nothing but 

personal work for individual interests; or 

that it is below expectations, using the 

ongoing and inherited constraints as 

proof, in addition to confusing individual 

with governmental practices. The simple 

truth here is that getting out of the 

previous situation will not be cost-free. 

In conclusion, the case of the disappearance 

of Khashoggi calls for reflection. From both 

the human and moral standpoints it is 

completely and utterly unacceptable, and if he 

was really killed - according to the Qatari- 

Turkish propaganda - it would be an 

international crime. 

Source : Arab News 

Is Sri Lanka's Tamil cause a political football? 

RECENTLY, Pakistan Prime 

Minister Imran Khan expanded 

his cabinet. It has led to a fresh 

round of questions asked each time a 

cabinet is formed or expanded. In 

essence, the questions are reduced to a 

single query: what should be the right 

size of the cabinet? This question can be 

looked at from various angles. 

Our Constitution amended through 

the 18th Amendment put a cap on the 

size of the cabinet. Article 92 requires 

that the number of ministers and 

ministers of state in the federal cabinet 

should not exceed 11 per cent of the 

total membership of parliament. Since 

parliament comprises two houses - the 

National Assembly comprising 342 

members and the Senate consisting of 

104 members or a combined strength 

of 446 - the 11pc comes to 49, so the 

total cabinet size should not exceed this 

number. The current size of the federal 

cabinet, with 24 ministers and six 

ministers of state totalling 30 or less 

than 7pc of the total membership of 

parliament is well within the maximum 

number allowed by the Constitution. 

One can compare the present size of 

the federal cabinet with other 

democratic counties to get an idea of 

where we stand. The present Indian 

cabinet comprises 77 members out of 

which 26 are full ministers and 51 are 

ministers of state. This cabinet forms 

about 9.6pc of the total membership of 

the Indian parliament which comprises 

802 members including 552 members 

of the Lok Sabha and 250 members of 

the Rajya Sabha. The current British 

cabinet has 21 members and 

Given these challenges, is it possible to contain or 

curtail the activities of the previously mentioned 

ideological and organizational powers in the region 

until the end of the difficult road? We must realize 

that eliminating the regional extremist ideological and 

organizational foundations, which have taken root 

over more than four decades, is not an easy task, and 

will even get harder as time passes. 

Indeed, there is much to suggest that the Sri Lankan 

regime was guilty of war crimes and even genocide. 

The report by the UN Panel of Experts Report had 

estimated in 2011 that the number of civilians killed 

was around 40,000. In her book Still Counting the 

Dead Frances Harrison, a former BBC journalist, had 

identified war crimes that included luring civilians 

into so-called "safety zones" and then deliberately 

bombing these areas. 

How big should the cabinet be? 

considering just their House of 

Commons which has 650 members, 

this cabinet is about 3pc of the total 

membership. The current US cabinet 

has 15 members but since the US has a 

presidential form of government and 

Congress members are not eligible to 

become cabinet members, there is no 

pressure on the president to include 

congressional members in the cabinet. 

The US example is therefore not valid in 

Pakistan. We can get another view of 

the size of the cabinet by comparing it 

with past cabinets in Pakistan. Pakistan 

has had some 48 cabinets in the past 70 

years. Before the adoption of 1973 

Constitution when the country 

comprised both East and West 

Pakistan, the cabinet size seldom 

exceeded 20. There were 16 cabinets 

before the 1973 Constitution became 

operative and only two of them had 

members exceeding 20, the average 

size of the cabinet being less than 16. 

A ruling party, like the present one, 

has coalition partners and they have to 

be kept in good humour. The cabinet 

size started growing gradually as 

populist politics gained ground after the 

advent of the 1973 Constitution and 

touched a peak during the prime 

ministership of Syed Yousuf Raza 

Gilani from 2008 to 2012 when the 

cabinet swelled to 66 members with 47 

ministers and 19 ministers of state. In 

recent times, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi's 

cabinet became a relatively large one 

with 55 members including 35 

ministers and 20 ministers of state. The 

average size of the past 47 cabinets 

We can get another view of the size of the cabinet by comparing it 

with past cabinets in Pakistan. Pakistan has had some 48 cabinets 

in the past 70 years. Before the adoption of 1973 Constitution when 

the country comprised both East and West Pakistan, the cabinet 

size seldom exceeded 20. There were 16 cabinets before the 1973 

Constitution became operative and only two of them had members 

exceeding 20, the average size of the cabinet being less than 16. 

works out to be 26 but if the caretaker 

cabinets and cabinets of various 

military rulers and presidents are 

excluded, the average size under 

parliamentary governments is 36. In 

this sense, one may consider the 

present Imran Khan cabinet to be 

below the average size of the past 

cabinets. 

Yet another way to look at the size of 

the cabinet is on the basis of the need of 

ministers. Presently, the federal 

government has 34 ministries. 

Normally, each ministry should have a 

the AIADMK swept the polls, winning 

37 of the seats with another regional 

party also with strong Tamil 

nationalistic leanings securing another 

seat. The BJP was able to secure just 

one seat in Tamil Nadu in an election 

where it had performed exceptionally 

well India-wide to form a government 

on its own right. It was clear Tamil 

Nadu was marching to a different beat 

driven by the massacres of fellow 

Tamils in Sri Lanka. AIADMK was 

determined to continue cashing in on it. 

Consequently, in September 2015, a 

resolution was sponsored by AIADMK 

at the state assembly characterizing 

charges against Sri Lanka as "war 

crimes and genocide." The 2016 state 

elections justified the AIADMK's 

stance, helping it beat its rival and defy 

the trend in Tamil Nadu since 1984 of 

voting out the incumbent party. But in 

recent times the AIADMK has largely 

ignored the situation of Sri Lanka's 

Tamils. Instead, it has been consumed 

by its internal issues and dealing with 

its political unpopularity. Rajapaksa's 

visit and his remarks implicating the 

former Congress-led Indian 

government in the final stages of the 

war against the Tamils had provided 

AIADMK with some ammunition to 

fight the DMK. 

The AIADMK of 2018, unlike when it 

was under the leadership of 

Jayalalithaa is a weak party riven by 

internal squabbles. As such it is forced 

to rely on the patronage of the BJP 

government at the center. 

Source : Asia Times 

minister but the number of ministries is 

not based on rationality or need. 

Ministries have generally been created 

in the past to accommodate more MPs 

as ministers or ministers of state. A 

cursory review of the list of ministries 

indicates that the number of ministries 

can be reduced to around 20 which was 

the norm before the advent of 1973 

Constitution. 

For example, the Ministry of Post has 

been a part of the Ministry of 

Communication in the past and can 

again be made its part. The Ministry of 

Human Rights has been a part of the 

Ministry of Law, Justice and 

Parliamentary Affairs. There is no need 

for a separate petroleum minister when 

there is an energy minister. The 

Ministry of Narcotics Control should go 

back to the interior ministry. Defence 

production should be made a part of 

the Ministry of Defence. After 

devolution to the provinces, such 

portfolios as education, health, food 

security and science & technology may 

be combined under one ministry. 

Parliamentary affairs have been a part 

of the Ministry of Law and can go back 

there. These mergers of ministries and 

reduction of portfolios are in line with 

the austerity programme of the PTI 

government. If one looks at the size of 

the current cabinet from the angle of 

pure need and austerity, it appears 

slightly oversized - 20 to 25 should have 

been the upper limit. 

Source : Dawn

SCIENCE & TECH 

SATUrDAY, OcTOBer 13, 2018 

5 

Tech’s gender bias nothing new 

Marie Hicks 

A recent report revealed Amazon's AI recruiting 

technology developed a bias against women because it was 

trained predominantly on men's resumes. Although 

Amazon shut the project down, this kind of mechanized 

sexism is common and growing - and the problem isn't 

limited to AI mishaps. 

Facebook allows the targeting of job ads by gender, 

resulting in discrimination in online job advertisements 

for traditionally male-dominated jobs from construction 

to policing. The practice has long been illegal in traditional 

print media - but Facebook's targeting tools encourage it. 

Not only can this affect whether women and non-binary 

people can see ads; it also affects male job-seekers who are 

older and therefore viewed as less desirable by many 

employers. Facebook has come under fire for illegal 

advertising practices in the past: notably, it scrapped 

thousands of microtargeting categories after a 2016 

ProPublica report showed how it allowed racial 

discrimination in housing ads. 

The platform has repeatedly refused to take 

responsibility for what people do on it, echoing the 

behavior of other Silicon Valley companies. Gendered and 

racialized harassment online goes largely unchecked. 

Likewise, Google's YouTube has come under fire for 

algorithms that appear to push radicalizing far-right 

content onto casual viewers, while Google itself has faced 

accusations that its image search and autocomplete 

features rely on and strengthen racist and sexist 

stereotypes. 

As online platforms strip away civil rights protections 

intended to correct biases in earlier forms of 

communication, it serves as an example of the dangerous 

tendency of our current, and supposedly progressive, 

technologies to re-create discriminatory patterns of the 

past. Indeed, these problems fit a pattern in the long 

trajectory of the history of technology. 

Today, jobs in computing, if advertised on Facebook, 

would likely be targeted to men because these jobs are 

located in an already male-dominated field. In the early 

days of electronic computing, however, the work was 

strongly associated with women. It was feminized because 

it was seen as deskilled and unimportant. This quickly 

began to change as computers became indispensable in all 

areas of government and industry. Once it became clear 

that those who knew how to use them would have great 

power and influence, female programmers lost out despite 

having all the requisite skills. Britain's computerization is 

a cautionary tale: women were repeatedly and 

progressively denied promotions or boxed out of their 

jobs, particularly when they married or had children. 

Top executives of Facebook, Amazon and Alphabets Inc during a meeting at Trump Tower. 

Photo: Shannon Stapleton 

When they left, they were replaced by men. This created 

disastrous labor shortages that ultimately forced Britain's 

decline as a computing superpower. 

Women continued to program, but they had to do it 

without the support of major institutions. One example 

was the entrepreneur Stephanie "Steve" Shirley, who used 

a masculine nickname to sidestep sexism. Shirley started a 

freelance programming company with an explicitly 

feminist business model after finding herself unable to 

advance in government and industry. She employed 

hundreds of other women who had similarly had to leave 

the workforce. Shirley gave these women an opportunity 

to use their skills in the service of the nation's economy by 

giving them the option to work from home, filling some of 

the gaps left by this exodus of trained computer 

professionals from full-time computing work. 

Shirley's business, built on women's labor and 

expertise, went on to become a multimillion-dollar 

corporation that did mission-critical programming for 

government and private industry. As the government 

scrambled for male computing talent, for instance, a team 

of her female programmers, led by Ann Moffatt, 

programmed the black box for the Concorde jet. As 

Shirley's business flourished, many other companies and 

even the British government itself suffered for lack of 

programming talent. 

The irony is that this shortage had been intentionally 

engineered by the refusal to continue to employ female 

technologists in these newly prestigious jobs. Throughout 

history, when jobs are seen as more important, or are 

better paid, women are squeezed out - hence the need for 

protective legislation that ensures equality of opportunity 

in hiring and job advertisements. 

In computing today, a field that claims to value diversity, 

engineers at Facebook and other companies are building 

tools that rollback the advances of women in the 

workforce, as the industry undoes the civil rights 

protections enacted to ensure that what happened in early 

computing does not happen again. 

When industries ignore their pasts, they tend not only 

to repeat previous mistakes, but also to worsen current 

problems. Silicon Valley's gender problems are well 

known, and despite companies' claims that they are 

trying to address the problem, progress has been slow 

and uneven. This is not surprising when we consider the 

context. Although the industry is facing a reckoning 

today, for decades the stories that we told about 

computing technology focused on inexorable success, 

rather than taking seriously the possibility that our new 

technologies were failing us. High technology became 

virtually synonymous with progress and the greater 

application of computing to all manner of social problems 

was seen as a good in and of itself. As a result, we are 

largely blind to the errors of the past. We fail to see the 

problems in our present and the reasons behind them 

because we are too accustomed to seeing computing as a 

success story. 

The refusal to talk about computing's failures in the past 

has not served us, or present-day computing, well. Rather, 

it has hidden problems that have plagued the field since its 

inception. Facebook's discriminatory practices towards 

female users in everything from job advertisements to 

harassment can be traced back to its predecessor, the beta 

site set up by Mark Zuckerberg while at Harvard that stole 

female undergrads' pictures from internal Harvard 

servers. The site, known as Facemash, objectified the 

women for an audience invited to rate their relative 

attractiveness. When we consider Facebook's current 

problems in this light, they not only seem less surprising 

but also potentially more solvable. 

Lessons like this are critical today because high 

technology has an outsize effect on every aspect of our 

daily lives, and it is also, in many ways, steadily moving us 

back towards a past that we thought we had forgotten. 

Much of the anti-racist and anti-sexist legislation of the 

20th century has been invisibly rolled back by tech 

infrastructures that invite users to see their online actions 

as unmoored from real life - whether in the realm of hate 

speech or job advertisements. 

Strong representation of women in the labor market is 

key, historically and today, for women to be able to assert 

their rights in all aspects of their lives. Companies like 

Facebook cannot be allowed to divide and conquer by 

gender, race, sexuality, age, disability, or any other 

number of categories people have fought to protect by law 

as deserving of equal rights. 

Weaponized AI enabling 

perpetual wars 

A technician checks a server in a data centre. 

Do DWeb programs use as much 

energy as cloud-based services? 

Jack Schofield 

The main aim of the decentralised web 

(DWeb) is to remove the power of 

centralised "gatekeepers" such as 

Facebook and Google, who hoover up 

the world's data and monetise it by 

selling advertising. It reminds me of the 

original concept of the web, where every 

computer would be both a client and a 

server, sharing information on a more or 

less equal basis. Of course, that is not 

how real life works. What actually 

happens is that you get a power law 

distribution with a few large entities and 

a long tail of small ones. 

As Clay Shirky wrote in 2003: "In 

systems where many people are free to 

choose between many options, a small 

subset of the whole will get a 

disproportionate amount of traffic (or 

attention, or income), even if no 

members of the system actively work 

towards such an outcome. This has 

nothing to do with moral weakness, 

selling out, or any other psychological 

explanation. The very act of choosing, 

spread widely enough and freely 

enough, creates a power law 

distribution." 

The web still has plenty of variety, but 

almost everyone is familiar with one 

giant search engine, one giant retailer, 

one giant auction site, one giant social 

network, one giant encyclopaedia, and 

so on. Indeed, there is only one giant 

internet where there used to be dozens of 

competing networks using many 

different protocols. 

Obviously, it would be better if we all 

agreed these things in advance, based on 

open standards. However, people vote 

with their wallets, and competition 

results in de facto standards instead of 

de jure ones. Examples include 

Microsoft Windows, Google Search and 

Facebook. Each triumphed in a 

competitive marketplace. I am not 

saying this is the ideal solution, just that, 

in most cases, it's inevitable. 

One of the problems with returning to 

a decentralised web is that the internet is 

no longer decentralised. It has been 

redesigned around giant server farms, 

high-speed pipes and content delivery 

networks. It looks increasingly like a 

broadband television network because 

that is what it actually does most of the 

time. 

Today's web is being optimised for the 

delivery of Netflix movies, BBC 

programmes on iPlayer, Spotify music, 

live streams of every major sporting 

event, and so on. You can upload your 

own live streams but communications 

are asynchronous: your downloads are 

much faster, and much more reliable, 

than your uploads. It's really easy to 

watch 1TB of movies but an exercise in 

frustration trying to upload a 1TB harddrive 

backup. 

If you really want to save energy and 

internet resources, stop streaming stuff. 

Broadcast TV and radio can reach tens of 

millions of people, and adding another 

million adds relatively little in the way of 

extra power consumption. There is 

school of thought that it is better for the 

environment to use CDs or DVDs for 

albums or films you go back to again and 

again, or you could at least use digital 

files stored on your PC or smartphone. 

Photo: Juice Images 

And rather than using Graphite to 

replace Google Docs or Microsoft Office, 

just use a word processor offline. If you 

run Windows, you already have a text 

editor (Notepad) and a simple word 

processor (WordPad), and there are 

plenty of free alternatives. That will 

reduce global energy use and increase 

your privacy. 

It's really simple. If you don't want 

Google to read your documents, don't 

write your documents on Google's 

computers. And if you don't want cloud 

servers using energy, don't use the cloud. 

Companies such as Amazon AWS, 

Microsoft and Google are covering the 

world with server farms to make 

information more easily available. That's 

harder to do with real distributed 

systems because the thousands or 

millions of separate computers may be 

turned off or otherwise unavailable 

when you need the data they are storing. 

Worse, unless it's replicated, you could 

lose data. 

It's true that server farms consume 

an ever-growing amount of electricity, 

much of it used for cooling purposes. 

However, the cost is a powerful 

incentive for operators to use cheaper 

renewables, such as solar panels, and 

to reduce their power consumption in 

other ways. For example, Facebook 

has built a data centre in the north of 

Sweden where the air is freezing cold, 

while Microsoft is experimenting with 

underwater data centres that are easier 

to cool. Microsoft is also sponsoring 

tree planting in Ireland as part of its 

commitment to becoming carbon 

neutral. 

Ben Tarnoff 

Last month marked the 17th 

anniversary of 9/11. With it came a new 

milestone: we've been in Afghanistan 

for so long that someone born after the 

attacks is now old enough to go fight 

there. They can also serve in the six 

other places where we're officially at 

war, not to mention the 133 countries 

where special operations forces have 

conducted missions in just the first half 

of 2018. 

The wars of 9/11 continue, with no 

end in sight. Now, the Pentagon is 

investing heavily in technologies that 

will intensify them. By embracing the 

latest tools that the tech industry has to 

offer, the US military is creating a more 

automated form of warfare - one that 

will greatly increase its capacity to wage 

war everywhere forever. 

On Friday, the defense department 

closes the bidding period for one of the 

biggest technology contracts in its 

history: the Joint Enterprise Defense 

Infrastructure (Jedi). Jedi is an 

ambitious project to build a cloud 

computing system that serves US forces 

all over the world, from analysts behind 

a desk in Virginia to soldiers on patrol in 

Niger. The contract is worth as much as 

$10bn over 10 years, which is why big 

tech companies are fighting hard to win 

it. (Not Google, however, where a 

pressure campaign by workers forced 

management to drop out of the 

running.) 

At first glance, Jedi might look like 

just another IT modernization project. 

Government IT tends to run a fair 

distance behind Silicon Valley, even in a 

place as lavishly funded as the 

Pentagon. With some 3.4 million users 

and 4 million devices, the defense 

department's digital footprint is 

immense. Moving even a portion of its 

workloads to a cloud provider such as 

Amazon will no doubt improve 

efficiency. 

But the real force driving Jedi is the 

desire to weaponize AI - what the 

defense department has begun calling 

"algorithmic warfare". By pooling the 

military's data into a modern cloud 

platform, and using the machinelearning 

services that such platforms 

provide to analyze that data, Jedi will 

help the Pentagon realize its AI 

ambitions. 

The scale of those ambitions has 

grown increasingly clear in recent 

months. In June, the Pentagon 

established the Joint Artificial 

Intelligence Center (JAIC), which will 

oversee the roughly 600 AI projects 

currently under way across the 

department at a planned cost of $1.7bn. 

And in September, the Defense 

Advanced Research Projects Agency 

(Darpa), the Pentagon's storied R&D 

wing, announced it would be investing 

up to $2bn over the next five years into 

AI weapons research. 

So far, the reporting on the Pentagon's 

AI spending spree has largely focused 

on the prospect of autonomous 

weapons - Terminator-style killer 

robots that mow people down without 

any input from a human operator. This 

is indeed a frightening near-future 

scenario, and a global ban on 

autonomous weaponry of the kind 

sought by the Campaign to Stop Killer 

Robots is absolutely essential. 

But AI has already begun rewiring 

warfare, even if it hasn't (yet) taken the 

form of literal Terminators. There are 

less cinematic but equally scary ways to 

weaponize AI. You don't need 

algorithms pulling the trigger for 

algorithms to play an extremely 

dangerous role. 

To understand that role, it helps to 

understand the particular difficulties 

posed by the forever war. The killing 

itself isn't particularly difficult. With a 

military budget larger than that of 

China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, India, 

France, Britain and Japan combined, 

and some 800 bases around the world, 

the US has an abundance of firepower 

and an unparalleled ability to deploy 

that firepower anywhere on the planet. 

The US military knows how to kill. 

The harder part is figuring out whom to 

kill. In a more traditional war, you 

simply kill the enemy. But who is the 

enemy in a conflict with no national 

boundaries, no fixed battlefields, and no 

conventional adversaries? 

This is the perennial question of the 

forever war. It is also a key feature of its 

design. The vagueness of the enemy is 

what has enabled the conflict to 

continue for nearly two decades and to 

expand to more than 70 countries - a 

boon to the contractors, bureaucrats 

and politicians who make their living 

from US militarism. If war is a racket, in 

the words of marine legend Smedley 

Butler, the forever war is one the longest 

cons yet. 

Automation has greatly increased US Military's capacity to wage war everywhere forever. 

Photo: Getty

NATIONAL 

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2018 

6 

Narsingdi Police Super Saifullah Al Mamun (BPM, PPM) as the chief guest addressed a discussion 

and a view exchange meeting regarding law and order during the upcoming Durga puja at 

Madhabdi Ramani community center on Thursday. 

Photo: Md Selim Miah 

Meeting on security during Durga puja held in Madhabdi 

Police Super assure 

security for 173 puja 

mandaps in Jhalakathi 

MANIK ROY, JHALAKATHI CORRESPONDENT: 

Jhalakathi Police Super Md Jubayedur Rahman assured to 

take sufficient security measures to avert any untoward 

incident during the Durga Puja, the largest religious festival 

of Hindu community. He gave the assurance while chairing a 

view exchange meeting with the district Puja Udjapan 

Committee at his office on Thursday. 

At the meeting, District Police Additional SP Circle MM 

Mahmud Hasan, Rajapur SP Circle Mofazzel Hossain Reza, 

Sadar SP Circle Officer-in-charge of 4 Upazilas including 

Hafizur Rahman, General Secretary of District Puja Udjapan 

Committee Tarun Karmakar and President of Upazila Puja 

Udjapan Committee Dilip Kumar Haldar were also present. 

The Police Super provided advisory instructions to Puja 

Committee members to celebrate Puja in collaboration with 

everyone in peaceful environment. He said that police and 

Ansar VDP members will be deployed in large numbers in 

every mandaps. 

Preparation taken 

to celebrate Durga 

puja in Netrakona 

NETRAKONA: Local administration has taken various 

steps here so that the Hindu community can celebrate Durga 

puja, their largest religious festival, with due religious fervor 

and festivity, reports BSS. 

A total of 486 puja mandaps have been set up in 10 upazilas 

of the district, said leaders of district puja celebration 

committee (DPCC). While visiting different areas of the 

district, this correspondent found that artisans are passing 

their busy times in the puja mandaps to erect the images of 

the Goddess Durga and give final touches to make the images 

beautiful and eye-catching. 

Executive committee member of Bangladesh Puja 

Celebration Committee Kashob Ranjan Sarker said they are 

taking all-out arrangement to ensure proper facilities for the 

devotees across the district during the Durga puja festival. 

Durga puja will begin on October 15 and will end on 

October 19 with emersion of the idols of Goddess Durga in 

different water-bodies. Superintendent of police of 

Netrakona Joydeb Chowdhory said a three-tire security 

measure will be taken in and around all the puja mandaps 

here for ensuring peaceful celebration of Durga puja. 

MD SELIM MIAH, NARSINGDI CORRESPONDENT: 

Narsingdi district police organized a 

discussion and a view exchange 

meeting regarding law and order during 

the upcoming Durga puja at Madhabdi 

Ramani community center on 

Thursday. 

Narsingdi Sadar Circle Additional 

Police Super Md Shahriar Alam 

presided over the function while 

Narsingdi Police Super Saifullah Al 

Mamun (BPM, PPM) was present as 

the chief guest at the occasion. Among 

others, Narsingdi Additional Police 

Super (Administration) Zakir Hasan, 

Mayor of Madhabdi Municipality Haji 

Mohammad Mosharraf Hossain 

Prodhan Manik, Narsingdi Sadar 

Upazila Awami League President Alhaj 

Sofor Ali Bhuiyan, General Secretary 

Alhaj Aftab Uddin Bhuiyan, Madhabdi 

City Awami League President Alhaj 

Salahuddin Ahmed, president and 

general secretary of various puja 

mandaps of Madhabdi thana area, 

Awami League activists, social workers, 

businessmen and prominent people of 

the area were also present at the 

occasion. 

Police in a drive arrested a terrorist along with arms and ammunition during 

from the deep forest in Maheshkhali on Wednesday. Photo: Sarwar Kamal 

Terrorist held with 

arms, ammo in 

Maheshkhali 

SARWAR KAMAL, MAHESHKHALI 

CORRESPONDENT: 

Terrorist Yunus was 

arrested along with arms and 

ammunition during an 

operation in the deep forest in 

Maheshkhali. On 10 October, 

according to a secret 

information police conducted 

raids in the forest area of the 

village of Puyichara under 

Hoanak union. 

Yunus was arrested along 

with two acne local guns, 1 

localized LG and 10 rounds of 

fresh cartridge. Md. Yunus is 

the son of Lal Mohammad 

Fakir of Purv Puichchhra 

area. The operation was 

conducted under the 

leadership of SI Raju Ahmad 

Gazi. Police fired 20 rounds of 

bullets to prevent counter 

attack from the terrorist who 

also open fired at the police. 

Jhalakathi Police Super Md Jubayedur Rahman addressed a view exchange meeting with the district 

Puja Udjapan Committee at his office on Thursday. 

Photo: Manik Roy 

Treatment support 

for mentally sick 

people stressed 

RAJSHAHI: Optimum treatment and necessary healthcare facilities 

for the mentally sick people are very vital to facilitate them to get back 

their normal life, reports BSS. 

Collective effort is urgently needed as all the mental diseases excepting 

the schizophrenia are curable. Social awareness alongside a positive 

attitude toward the patients is very crucial for their early recovery from 

mental sickness. 

The observation came at a discussion titled "Mental Health for Youth 

in Changing World" at the conference hall of Civil Surgeon Office in 

Rajshahi city on Wednesday. Civil Surgeon Office organized the 

discussion in association with Non-communicable Disease Control 

Programme of Directorate of Health Services to mark the World Mental 

Health 2018. 

Civil Surgeon Dr Sanjit Kumar Shaha, Deputy Civil Surgeon Dr 

Enamul Haque and BRAC district representative Jahedul Islam 

addressed the discussion disseminating their expertise on the issue. 

During his keynote presentation, Dr Sheikh Abu Hena Mostofa Alim, 

Associate Professor of Department of Psychiatry in Rajshahi Medical 

College Hospital, said mental illnesses are an under-recognized public 

health problem in Bangladesh. 

"Awareness about mental illness and acceptance of treatment are very 

low due to social stigma and superstition," he said adding psychosocial 

care of mentally sick and disaster affected people constitute a major 

challenge for the health and the social welfare systems of the country. 

Taking advantages of the situation, Dr Mostofa Alim said some quacks 

and opportunist groups have been working as money-makers through 

exploiting the patients. 

Rajbari District 

Motor Workers 

Union holds 

human chain 

AKTERUZZAMAN MRIDHA, GOALANDA CORRESPONDENT: 

Members of Rajbari District Motor Workers 

Union (Reg. No. 1727) on Thursday formed a 

human chain demanding revision of the 

Transport Act-2018 in bus stand area of 

Goalanda on Daulatdia-Khulna highway. 

Rajbari District Motor Workers Union 

president Md. Shahid Mollah presided over the 

human chain as part of the program 

announced by the central committee of 

Bangladesh Road Transport Workers 

Federation demanded amendment of some of 

the laws of the Road Transport Act-2011 as part 

of the program announced by the central 

committee of Bangladesh Road Transport 

Workers Federation. Among others, general 

secretary Md. Islam Mollah, Vice-president of 

the organization Md. Halim Sheikh, Shahin 

Mia, co-general secretary Mubarak Munshi, 

Sahidul Islam, organizing secretary Shaheed 

Sekh, publicity secretary Habibur Rahman, 

Road Transport Secretary Babul Bepari, 

Ershad Mollah, Pramanik and Bablu Sheikh 

were also present at the occasion. 

Kishoreganj District Motor Workers Union on Thursday arranged a human chain in front of Kali 

Bari demanding revision of the Transport Act-2018. Kishoreganj District Motor Workers Union 

President Md Habibur Rahman and General Secretary ABM Sirajul Islam were present at the occasion. 

Photo: SM Sarowar Jahan 

Efficient banking necessary for 

boosting rural economy 

RAJSHAHI: The Senior bankers of Rajshahi Krishi 

Unnayan Bank (RAKUB) have asked their branch level 

subordinates to perform honestly to turn the institution into a 

hub for helping farmers in the north and enable it to 

contribute to the national economy, reports BSS. 

They asked the branch managers and other field workers to 

infuse dynamism into its farmers-level lending activities for 

boosting agricultural production to meet up the gradually 

increasing food demand. 

They added the credit programmes of the bank should be 

need-oriented and emphasis should be given on reaching 

banking services to the doorstep of the farmers. 

They were addressing a daylong performance review 

meeting of 58 branch managers under Bogra North and South 

Zones and Sirajgonj district of the bank held at conference hall 

of Rural Development Academy yesterday, a RUKUB press 

release here said today. 

RAKUB Chairman Nazrul Islam and Managing Director 

Kazi Alamgir addressed the meeting as chief and special 

guests with General Manager Khazamuddin Talukder in the 

chair. 

Zonal Managers Abdul Khaleque, Abdus Salam and 

Mahmudul Alam and Zonal Audit Officers Abdul Alim, 

Rafiqul Islam and Helal Uddin also spoke. 

The speakers underscored on bringing all the existing 

potential sectors and sub-sectors of agriculture and its 

processing under qualitative and quantitative financing for 

making the country's northwest region economically vibrant. 

They termed the branch managers and field staffs as the 

vital force for transforming the bank into a profitable 

organisation and asked them to perform their duties with 

utmost sincerity and honesty to attain the cherished goal. 

Rajbari District Motor Workers Union on Thursday formed a human chain demanding revision of 

the Transport Act-2018 in bus stand area of Goalanda on Daulatdia-Khulna highway. 

Photo: Akteruzzaman Mridha

INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, 

7 

OCTOBeR 13, 2018 

The Security Council voted unanimously Thursday to extend the U.N. peacekeeping force in the 

disputed Abyei region on the Sudan-South Sudan border for the last time unless both countries 

demonstrate "measurable progress" on marking their border. 

UN urges action on marking disputed 

Sudan-South Sudan border 

The Security Council voted unanimously 

Thursday to extend the U.N. 

peacekeeping force in the disputed 

Abyei region on the Sudan-South 

Sudan border for the last time unless 

both countries demonstrate "measurable 

progress" on marking their border, 

reports UNB. 

A resolution adopted by the U.N.'s 

most powerful body sets out seven specific 

measures that Sudan and South 

Sudan must take in the next six 

months for the force to remain, at a 

reduced level of just under 4,000 

troops. 

Both Sudan and South Sudan claim 

ownership of the oil-rich Abyei area. 

The 2005 peace deal that led to South 

'Changed Forever': 

Florida Panhandle 

devastated by 

Michael 

The devastation inflicted by 

Hurricane Michael came 

into focus Thursday with 

rows upon rows of homes 

found smashed to pieces, 

and rescue crews struggling 

to enter stricken areas in 

hopes of accounting for hundreds 

of people who may 

have stayed behind, reports 

UNB. 

At least three deaths were 

blamed on Michael, the 

most powerful hurricane to 

hit the continental U.S. in 

over 50 years, and it wasn't 

done yet: Though reduced to 

a tropical storm, it brought 

flash flooding to North Carolina 

and Virginia, soaking 

areas still recovering from 

Hurricane Florence. 

Under a clear blue sky, 

families living along the 

Florida Panhandle emerged 

from shelters and hotels to a 

perilous landscape of shattered 

homes and shopping 

centers, wailing sirens and 

hovering helicopters. 

Gov. Rick Scott said the 

Panhandle awoke to 

"unimaginable destruction." 

"So many lives have been 

changed forever. So many 

families have lost everything," 

he said. 

The full extent of Michael's 

fury was only slowly becoming 

clear, with some of the 

hardest-hit areas difficult to 

reach with roads blocked by 

debris or water. An 80-mile 

(130-kilometer) stretch of 

Interstate 10, the main eastwest 

route, was closed. 

Video from a drone 

revealed some of the worst 

damage in Mexico Beach, 

where the hurricane crashed 

ashore Wednesday as a Category 

4 monster with 155 

mph (250 kph) winds and a 

storm surge of 9 feet (2.7 

meters). Entire blocks of 

homes near the beach were 

obliterated, leaving concrete 

slabs in the sand. Rows and 

rows of other homes were 

rendered piles of splintered 

lumber. Entire roofs were 

torn away in the town of 

about 1,000 people, now a 

scene of utter devastation. 

State officials said 285 

people in Mexico Beach had 

defied a mandatory evacuation 

order ahead of Michael. 

More than 375,000 people 

up and down the Gulf Coast 

were ordered. 

Sudan's independence from its northern 

neighbor in 2011 required both 

sides to work out the final status of the 

oil-rich Abyei region, but it is still unresolved. 

The measures the council spelled out 

that Sudan and South Sudan must take 

include complete withdrawal by both 

countries from the Safe Demilitarized 

Border Zone, and a start to implementing 

a timeline for verifying the functioning 

of 10 border crossings and free 

movement across the border. 

They must also ensure freedom of 

movement for U.N. peacekeeping 

patrols and hold at least two meetings 

of the Joint Border Commission and 

Joint Demarcation Committee before 

March 15, 2019, and resume negotiations 

on disputed areas. 

The resolution extends the mandate of 

the U.N. peacekeeping mission, known 

as UNISFA, until April 15, 2019, with 

the current troop ceiling of 4,500 until 

Nov. 15, 2018. 

The council said that if it determines 

that Sudan and South Sudan have 

demonstrated "measurable progress 

on border demarcation" and decides to 

extend the mandate after April 15, 

2019, the troop ceiling will be reduced 

by 541 troops to 3,959 troops. 

UNISFA has been in Abyei since 2011 

and both Sudan and South Sudan welcomed 

the council's unanimous decision 

to extend its mandate. 

US, Russian astronauts land 

safely after rocket failure 

The problem came two minutes into the 

flight: The rocket carrying an American and 

a Russian to the International Space Station 

failed Thursday, triggering an emergency 

that sent their capsule into a steep, harrowing 

fall back to Earth, reports UNB. 

The crew landed safely on the steppes of 

Kazakhstan, but the aborted mission dealt 

another blow to the troubled Russian space 

program that currently serves as the only 

way to deliver astronauts to the orbiting outpost. 

It also was the first such accident for 

Russia's manned program in over three 

decades. 

NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos' 

Alexei Ovchinin had a brief period of 

weightlessness when the capsule separated 

from the malfunctioning Soyuz rocket at an 

altitude of about 50 kilometers (31 miles), 

then endured gravitational forces of 6-7 

times more than is felt on Earth as they came 

down at a sharper-than-normal angle. 

About a half-hour later, the capsule parachuted 

onto a barren area about 20 kilometers 

(12 miles) east of the city of Dzhezkazgan 

in Kazakhstan. 

"Thank God the crew is alive," said Dmitry 

Peskov, the spokesman for Russian President 

Vladimir Putin. 

All Russian manned launches were suspended 

pending an investigation into the 

failure, said Deputy Prime Minister Yuri 

Borisov. New NASA Administrator Jim 

Bridenstine, who watched the launch at the 

Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome with 

his Russian counterpart, said Hague and 

Ovchinin were in good condition. He added 

that a "thorough investigation" will be conducted. 

Hague, 43, and Ovchinin, 47, lifted 

off at 2:40 p.m. (0840 GMT; 4:40 a.m. 

EDT). The astronauts were to dock at the 

space station six hours later and join an 

American, a Russian and a German on 

board. 

But the three-stage Soyuz rocket suffered 

an unspecified failure of its second stage two 

minutes after launch. Russian news reports 

indicated that one of its four first-stage 

engines might have failed to jettison in sync 

with others, resulting in the second stage's 

shutdown and activating the automatic 

emergency rescue system. 

For the crew in the capsule, events would 

have happened very quickly, NASA's 

deputy chief astronaut Reid Wiseman told 

reporters at NASA's Johnson Space Center 

in Houston. An emergency light would 

have come on and, an instant later, the 

abort motors would fire to pull the capsule 

away from the rocket. 

Wiseman said the only thing that went 

through his mind was "I hope they get 

down safe." 

Search and rescue teams scrambled to 

recover the crew, and paratroopers were 

dropped to the site. Dzhezkazgan is about 

450 kilometers (280 miles) northeast of 

Baikonur, and spacecraft returning from 

the space station normally land in that 

area. 

Back at Baikonur, Bridenstine acknowledged 

in a NASA TV interview that "for a 

period of time, we didn't know what the 

situation was." 

Hague's wife and parents anxiously 

awaited word at Baikonur, accompanied 

the whole time by a NASA astronaut who 

was in the same class as Hague. They all 

behaved admirably, according to Bridenstine, 

adding that Hague's wife, Catie, is an 

Air Force officer like her husband and also 

a public affairs officer. "It was a tough day, 

no doubt, but at the end of the day, the 

training paid off for everybody," he said. 

Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin, member of the main crew of the 

expedition to the International Space Station (ISS), looks on during 

inspecting his space suit prior to the launch of Soyuz MS-10 space ship at 

the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Thursday, Oct. 11, 

2018. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky) 

China says in 

'communication' 

amid report of 

Trump-Xi meet 

China said Friday it is in 

contact with the United 

States amid reports of a 

planned meeting between 

President Xi Jinping and 

President Donald Trump 

next month following a dive 

in the U.S. stock market 

blamed partly on a growing 

trade war between the 

world's two largest 

economies, reports UNB. 

Foreign ministry 

spokesman Lu Kang offered 

no specifics, but said that "I 

have also seen the relevant 

reports." 

"China and the U.S. maintain 

communication on dialogues 

and exchanges at all 

levels," Lu told reporters at a 

daily briefing. 

The reported meeting 

would take place during the 

G-20 summit in Argentina 

in late November. 

The Wall Street Journal 

and the Washington Post 

both cited White House 

sources as saying Trump has 

decided to proceed with the 

meeting with Xi. Asian 

shares were up Friday on the 

reports of the planned meeting. 

The trade feud has been 

fueled by U.S. accusations 

that China coerces foreign 

companies into handing 

over technology in return for 

access to the Chinese market, 

as well as by China's 

trade surplus with the U.S., 

which widened to a record 

$34.1 billion in September. 

China-U.S. relations have 

also been roiled by Beijing's 

heated objections to U.S. 

support for Taiwan, the selfgoverning 

island democracy 

it claims as its own territory, 

as well as China's claim to 

virtually the entire South 

China Sea, where the U.S. 

says a Chinese destroyer 

came aggressively close to a 

U.S. Navy ship late last 

month, forcing it to maneuver 

to prevent a collision. 

U.S. Vice President Mike 

Pence also accused Beijing 

last week of seeking to interfere 

in the U.S. midterm 

elections to be held next 

month. Trump has made 

similar accusations, 

although security experts 

say they didn't know of any 

Chinese influence operations 

comparable to Russian 

activities during the 2016 

presidential election. 

China-U.S. relations have 

also been roiled by Beijing's 

heated objections to U.S. 

support for Taiwan, the selfgoverning 

island democracy 

it claims as its own territory, 

as well as China's claim to 

virtually the entire South 

China Sea, where the U.S. 

says a Chinese destroyer 

came aggressively close to a 

U.S. Navy ship late last 

month, forcing it to maneu 

9 arrests in Belgian 

football fraud, matchfixing 

scandal 

Belgian authorities have 

arrested nine people in relation 

to a massive financial 

fraud and match-fixing 

probe into soccer, reports 

UNB. 

Three days after an operation 

targeting nine Belgian 

clubs, and raids in seven 

nations, the charges filed 

include belonging to a criminal 

organization, match fixing, 

money laundering, and 

corruption, said federal 

prosecutor's spokeswoman, 

Wenke Roggen. 

Those behind bars included 

three agents and one top 

division referee. 

Prosecutors said matchfixing 

allegations centered 

on the relegation battle in 

the top division last season 

and did not involve a major 

club. 

Because of the size of the 

scandal, Belgian soccer's 

second division decided to 

scrap this weekend's games. 

There are no fixtures in the 

first division because of the 

international break. 

Saudi crown prince's 

carefully managed rise 

hides dark side 

In a kingdom once ruled by an ever-aging 

rotation of elderly monarchs, Saudi Crown 

Prince Mohammed bin Salman stands out as 

the youthful face of a youthful nation. But 

behind the carefully calibrated public-relations 

campaign pushing images of the smiling 

prince meeting with the world's top leaders 

and business executives lurks a darker 

side, reports UNB. 

Last year, at age 31, Mohammed became 

the kingdom's crown prince, next in line to 

the throne now held by his octogenarian 

father, King Salman. While pushing for 

women to drive, he has overseen the arrest of 

women's rights activists. While calling for 

foreign investment, he has imprisoned businessmen, 

royals and others in a crackdown 

on corruption that soon resembled a shakedown 

of the kingdom's most powerful people. 

As Saudi defense minister from the age of 

29, he pursued a war in Yemen against Shiite 

rebels that began a month after he took the 

helm and wears on today. 

What the crown prince chooses next likely 

will affect the world's largest oil producer for 

decades to come. And as the disappearance 

and feared death of Saudi journalist Jamal 

Khashoggi in Istanbul may show, the young 

prince will brook no dissent in reshaping the 

kingdom in his image. 

"I don't want to waste my time," he told 

Time Magazine in a cover story this year. "I 

am young." 

Khashoggi, a U.S. resident who wrote several 

columns for The Washington Post critical 

of Prince Mohammed, disappeared Oct. 2 

on a visit to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. 

Turkish officials have offered no evidence, 

but say they fear the writer was killed and 

dismembered by a Saudi team of 15 men - an 

operation that, if carried out, would have to 

have been authorized by the top of the Al 

Saud monarchy. The kingdom describes the 

allegation as "baseless," but has provided no 

proof that Khashoggi ever left the consulate. 

For decades in Saudi Arabia, succession 

passed down among the dozens of sons of 

the kingdom's founder, King Abdul-Aziz. 

And, over time, the sons have grown older 

and older upon reaching the throne. 

When King Salman took power in January 

of 2015 and quickly appointed Prince 

Mohammed as defense minister, it took the 

kingdom by surprise, especially given the 

importance of the position and the prince's 

age. He was little-known among the many 

grandchildren of Saudi Arabia's patriarch. 

President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince 

Mohammed bin Salman (right) during their June meeting in Moscow. | 

YURI KADOBNOV / POOL / VIA AP 

Georgia girl, 11, dies as Michael 

hurls debris through roof 

By all accounts, Sarah Radney was safe 

inside her grandparents' home when Hurricane 

Michael roared into southwest Georgia, 

reports UNB. 

If the family feared anything, it was probably 

falling trees - not a carport next to the 

house. 

In what could only be described as a freak 

accident, authorities say Michael's powerful 

winds lifted the portable structure high into 

the air and slammed it back down on the 

house. When it landed, one of the legs tore 

through the roof, fatally striking the 11-yearold 

girl in the head. 

Michael dropped from a Category 4 hurricane 

to a Category 1 as it arrived in Georgia, 

and later weakened to a tropical storm. Still, 

it caused havoc in parts of the state, spinning 

off tornadoes and leaving downed trees, 

damaged buildings and power outages 

behind as it marched toward the Carolinas. 

Sarah had the week off from school for fall 

break and she and her 12-year-old brother 

had been staying at their grandparents' 

house near a lake in Seminole County since 

Monday. They were supposed to return 

home Thursday morning. At home in Cairo 

about 45 miles (70 kilometers) away, Sarah's 

father and stepmother, Roy and Amber Radney, 

kept in touch with her grandparents 

through frequent phone calls as the storm 

winds gusted around them. 

Roy Radney was outside Wednesday 

evening when the call came that something 

had come through the roof and hit Sarah and 

his mother. Sarah had been struck in the 

face, couldn't breathe and quickly fell unconscious. 

About 45 minutes later, Amber Radney 

called her father-in-law and learned Sarah 

was gone. 

Emergency responders weren't able to 

reach the home until after midnight because 

power lines and trees blocked the roads. 

When they finally made it, they took Sarah's 

grandmother to a hospital, where she was 

treated for a punctured lung, a broken rib 

and flesh wounds, Amber Radney said. 

The youngest of four until her father 

remarried and had two more daughters, 

Sarah loved being around her big family and 

made everything more fun, Roy and Amber 

Radney said in phone interviews with The 

Associated Press on Thursday. 

Pik Botha, apartheid-era South 

African minister, dies at 86 

Pik Botha, the last foreign minister of South Africa's apartheid era and a contradictory figure 

who staunchly defended white minority rule but eventually recognized that change was 

inevitable, died on Friday at age 86, reports UNB. 

Botha died in "the early hours of the morning" at his home after an illness, his son, Roelof, 

told South Africa's eNCA news outlet. 

Internationally, Botha was the most visible representative of apartheid at the height of 

protests and sanctions against the racist rule that ended with Nelson Mandela's election as 

the first black president in 1994. 

As such, the longtime foreign minister was vilified around the world while drawing the ire 

of his own boss, President P.W. Botha, when he said in 1986 that South Africa might one day 

have a black leader. Pik Botha, who was not related to the apartheid-era president, later 

served as minister of mineral and energy affairs under Mandela, and said in 2000 that he 

would join the African National Congress, the ruling party that had led the movement against 

white minority rule for decades. By that time, however, Botha was no longer active in politics. 

He made few public comments in recent years during the scandal-marred tenure of President 

Jacob Zuma, who resigned in February. 

Botha was "absolutely delighted" when Cyril Ramaphosa, a key ANC negotiator during the 

transition to democratic rule in the early 1990s, replaced Zuma as South Africa's leader, 

Botha's son said. Botha, also a former South African ambassador to the United States, was 

foreign minister from 1977 until the end of apartheid in 1994. He was involved in negotiations 

in the late 1980s that led to independence in neighboring Namibia and the withdrawal of 

Cuban troops from Angola, where South Africa had been involved in a conflict of Cold War 

proxies.

ART & CULTURE 

SATURDAy, 

ocToBeR 13, 2018 

8 

Sitar Recital, Kathak 

dance performance at 

National Museum Sunday 

DHAKA : An evening of Sitar 

Recital by Ebadul Huq Shaikat 

and Kathak dance performance 

by Masum Hossain will be held 

at 6.30 PM on Sunday at the 

KabiSufia Kamal Auditorium of 

Bangladesh National Museum 

Indira Gandhi Cultural Centre, 

High Commission of India will 

organise the programme, reports 

UNB. 

Ebadul Huq Shaikat (on Sitar) 

has an Honours and Masters 

degree in Sitar from Rabindra 

Bharati University, Kolkata and 

got trained under Sitar Maestros 

Pt. Debaprashad Chakraborty, 

Pt. Kartik Sheshadri, Pt. Deepak 

Choudhury, Pt. Ajay Sinha Roy, 

UstadKhurshid Khan and Sree. 

MadanGopal Das. 

Shaikat performed in different 

TV channels and festivals both 

India and Bangladesh such as 

BTV, Massranga TV, SA TV, 

BishwaSahitya Kendra Dhaka, 

ChhayanautSangeetVidyayatan, 

Alliance Française de 

Dhaka, Bengal Foundation, 

Dhaka University, Indian High 

Commission, Dhaka, Media 

Center, Dhaka, Bengal-Sra 

Musical Festival in 2012, Zakir 

Hussain College, Delhi Karolbag 

Bangio Sahitya Sangshad, Delhi 

etc. 

On the other hand, Masum 

Hossain is Kathak student of 

Indira Gandhi Cultural Centre 

and a scholar at Indian Council 

for Cultural relations (ICCR), 

Kolkata who completed his 

Masters of Dance(Kathak )at 

RabindraBharati University 

Masum is a regular artist of 

Bangladesh television (BTV) and 

is working as a dance teacher in 

BAF Shaheen English medium 

School. 

He won the "UNESCO Club 

Cultural Award-2005" organized 

by National Association of 

UNESCO Club in Bangladesh. 

He was also nominated as the 

best student of the year in 2004 

of Rewaz Performers School and 

won the 1st prize in ATN Bangla 

Gold Medal Competition 

(Kathak) organized by ATN 

Bangla. He achieved Scholarship 

for two years by Bangladesh 

NrittoshilpiShongo. 

Release Date 

Director 

Writers 

Stars 

Taglines 

Genres 

Also known as 

Runtime 

Country 

Language 

Production 

FIRST MAN 

A look at the life of the astronaut, Neil 

Armstrong, and the legendary space 

mission that led him to become the first 

man to walk on the Moon on July 20, 1969. 

: 12 October 2018 (USA) 

: Damien Chazelle 

: Josh Singer, James R. Hansen 

: Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Jason 

Clarke 

: Experience the impossible 

journey to the Moon 

: Biography, Drama, History 

: First Man 

: 141 minutes 

: USA 

: English 

: Amblin Entertainment, 

DreamWorks, Perfect World 

Pictures 

SToRylINe : 

A Biopic on the life of the legendary American Astronaut Neil Armstrong from 

1961-1969, on his journey to becoming the first human to walk the moon. 

Exploring the sacrifices and costs on the Nation and Neil himself, during one of 

the most dangerous missions in the history of space travel. |Source: IMDb] 

JAyA AhSAN 

looks adorable 

in new 'Debi' 

poster 

'Debi', the upcoming Anam Biswas 

directorial based on Humayun Ahmed's 

popular fictional character Misir Ali, has 

been at the centre of anticipation since the 

trailer was released. 

Even the first song from the film, 'Du 

Mutho Bikel', sung by Anupam Roy is 

winning hearts. Apart from playing a key 

character of Ranu, Jaya Ahsan is also the 

producer of the film. 

Now, to double your excitement a new 

poster from 'Debi' is out and Jaya looks 

simply adorable in the picture. 

The poster shows the Bangladeshi actress 

with Animesh Aich who plays Anish, 

husband of Ranu in this psychological 

thriller. 

For the uninitiated, 'Debi' revolves 

around Ranu, a woman who is obsessed 

with a paranormal presence around her 

and can even see the future. Her husband 

Anis reaches out to Misir Ali to treat the 

'illness', and his psychological 

explanation gives a mysterious look into 

Ranu's mind. 

While Chanchal Chowdhury will be seen 

as the titular character of Misir Ali, Sabnam 

Faria and Iresh Zaker play key roles in the 

film. 

|Source: TOI] 

h o RoScope 

ARIeS 

(March 21 - April 20): Natives 

of Aries are often confident and 

energetic people, who should 

consider setting up arrangements for larger 

family gatherings like reunions. Natives of this 

sign are often driving forces in the professional 

and political areas. 

lIBRA 

(Sept. 24 - Oct. 23): At some 

stage over the next few days 

you will see or hear something 

that makes you view the world in a new 

light. A change of perspective will lead to 

new ways of thinking, ways that answer all 

the questions you have been asking. 

Rose byrne cast 

in sci-fi thriller 

'I am mother' 

TAURUS 

(April 21 - May 21): The 

obstacles you face at the 

moment may be daunting but 

you have what it takes to overcome them. 

Don't try to avoid what fate sends your way 

over the next few days - it is designed to 

strengthen you, not destroy you. 

GeMINI 

(May 22 - June 21): There may 

be times when you would like 

nothing better than to cut 

yourself off from the world at 

large but that simply isn't possible. Make 

the best job of what you are expected to do 

and try to steal a few hours for yourself 

later on. 

cANceR 

(June 22 - July 23): Some 

things are important and some 

things are not and if you don't 

yet know the difference then it's time you 

found out. This should be a productive time 

for you but you need to learn how to say 

"no" when people ask you for favours. 

leo 

(July 24 - Aug. 23): If you are 

not yet getting the rewards and 

the respect you deserve don't 

worry, in a matter of days your 

name will be on everybody's lips. The sun in 

Aries makes you both creative and 

adventurous, so do something out of the 

ordinary. 

VIRGo 

(Aug. 24 - Sept. 23): You may be 

tempted to go on a journey today 

but the planets warn it could 

lead you in some unforeseen directions, so 

make sure you take a map and don't promise 

to be at a certain place at a specific time - 

because you won't make it. 

ScoRpIo 

(Oct. 24 - Nov. 22): Find out 

why a partner or loved one is 

behaving so erratically, then 

do what you can to assist them. Most likely 

their problems are nowhere near as big as 

they think they are and can quite easily be 

corrected - as can your own! 

SAGITTARIUS 

(Nov. 23 - Dec. 21): Yours is a 

sign of boundless selfconfidence 

and that's good 

because you will need it over 

the next few days. If you are not happy in 

your current environment don't be afraid to 

pack a bag and take off for a few days. 

cApRIcoRN 

(Dec. 22 - Jan. 20): You seem to 

lack purpose at the moment but 

that will change if you look for 

ways to express yourself. 

Whatever challenges come your way, and there 

will be plenty, see them as opportunities to be 

embraced rather than as threats to be avoided. 

AQUARIUS 

(Jan. 21 - Feb. 19): Stay calm and 

keep setbacks in perspective. If 

you can learn to take yourself a bit 

less seriously over the coming 

week then your problems, such as 

they are, will fade into insignificance. Rest 

assured your successes will always outnumber 

your failures. 

pISceS 

(Feb. 20 - Mar. 20): It does not 

matter if other people approve 

of what you are doing, it 

matters only that it means 

something to you. The very last thing you 

should be doing now is asking friends and 

family for their opinions - it's your views 

that count. 

Rose Byrne has joined the cast of sci-fi thriller 'I Am 

Mother'. According to the reports, the 39-year-old actor 

will voice the title robot Mother in debutante director 

Grant Sputore's film. 

Byrne said the movie is a "unique, eerie, unnerving 

and visionary science fiction piece. He is such an 

exciting talent to come out of Australia and I am so 

flattered to be on board with such an incredible artist." 

Michael Lloyd Green penned the script, which was on 

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (3D) 

11:45 am, 2:30 pm 

Johnny English 3 Strikes Again (2D) 

2:45 pm, 5:00 pm, 7:15 pm, 8:30 pm 

Mission: Impossible - Fallout (3D) 

11:30 am, 2:30 pm, 7:30 pm 

Kin (2D) 

5:15 pm 

The Spy Who Dumped Me (2D) 

12:15 pm 

The Nun (2D) 

11:45 am, 2:00 pm, 4:15 pm, 6:30 pm, 8:00 pm 

Naqaab (2D) 

11:30 pm, 2:30 pm, 5:30 pm 

*Authority reserves the right for any changes. 

SHOWTIME 

the 2016 Black List. 

Hilary Swank and Clara Rugaard also star in the film. 

Rugaard plays the first of a new generation of humans 

raised by Mother - a kindly robot designed to 

repopulate the earth following mankind's extinction. 

But the arrival of a blood-drenched woman (Swank) 

poses a threat to their unique bond. 

Shooting began last year in Australia. 

|Source: TOI] 

Naqaab (2D) 

4:10 pm, 7:30 pm 

Johnny English 3 Strikes Again (2D) 

10:30 am, 2:00 pm, 5:00 pm, 7:00 pm 

Final Score (2D) 

12:30 pm, 2:45 pm 

The Predator (3D) 

10:40 am, 1:00 pm, 5:45 pm, 8:10 pm 

Venom (3D) 

10:50 am, 11:20 am, 1:15 pm, 2:00 pm, 3:20 

pm, 3:40 pm, 4:40 pm, 6:05 pm, 7:30 pm, 

8:30 pm 

Poramon 2 (2D) 

11:10 am 

The Nun (2D) 

11:00 am, 1:10 pm, 3:20 pm, 5:30 pm, 7:45 

pm 

*Authority reserves the right for any changes.

SPORTS 

9 

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2018 

Three players' agents, a referee and a former lawyer were charged and detained in Belgium on 

Friday as a massive football fraud and match-fixing scandal widened. 

Photo : Internet 

More suspects detained in 

Belgium football scandal 

Sports Desk : Three players' agents, 

a referee and a former lawyer were 

charged and detained in Belgium on 

Friday as a massive football fraud and 

match-fixing scandal widened. 

Mogi Bayat, portrayed in the media 

as Belgium's most powerful sports 

agent, was charged with "money 

laundering," his lawyers said, after he 

appeared before a judge. 

Bayat was detained pending his next 

hearing, as were fellow agents Dejan 

Veljkovic and Karim Mejjati, who 

were questioned this week as part of 

the operation targeting Belgium's 

football elite. 

Former Anderlecht club lawyer 

Laurent Denis and referee Bart 

Vertenten were also charged and 

arrested overnight, according to the 

Belga news agency. On Thursday, 

another referee, Sebastien Delferiere, 

was charged but was immediately 

released on parole. Vertenten and 

Delferiere were suspended on 

Thursday with immediate effect by the 

Belgian Football Federation. The 

charges against referees are part of a 

probe into suspected match-fixing by 

Veljkovic in a failed effort to save 

formerly top-tier KV Mechelen from 

relegation to the second division. 

On Thursday, the judge charged five 

people in the match-fixing case, 

including the club's financial director. 

Hearings before the judge were held 

throughout night. 

At this stage, at least 17 suspects 

have been charged, according to 

French-language RTBF. 

A total of 29 suspects were 

interrogated on Wednesday, the 

federal prosecutor's office said on 

Thursday. 

Several, including former 

Anderlecht boss Herman Van 

Holsbeeck, were released without 

charges. 

The operation led to a total of 60 

police searches Wednesday, including 

the headquarters of leading clubs in 

the Belgian first division, with FC 

Bruges, Anderlecht, Standard Liege 

and Genk among them. 

The huge operation took place 

simultaneously in Belgium and six 

other European countries, including 

France and Serbia, where an agent 

was arrested Thursday and awaits 

extradition. 

Turkey football star Turan probed 

over 'fight with singer' 

Sports Desk : Istanbul prosecutors have opened an 

investigation after Turkish football star Arda Turan, currently 

on Barcelona's books, was reportedly involved in a fight with a 

Turkish pop star in which he broke the singer's nose. 

Turan, who is this season playing for Istanbul side 

Basaksehir while on loan from Barcelona, was summoned to 

give a statement to Istanbul police over the fight with singer 

Berkay Sahin, state-run news agency Anadolu reported. 

The Hurriyet daily said he was released after giving a 

statement to police in questioning that lasted for three hours. 

Turkish media said that Turan became involved in the fight 

earlier this week with Sahin outside a nightclub in Istanbul 

that ended with the singer's nose broken. 

In a bizarre sequence of events, Turan then went to the 

hospital where the singer was being treated clutching a gun 

and begging to be shot and forgiven, the Haberturk daily said. 

The attacking midfielder has for years been Turkey's best 

known footballer and is a supporter of President Recep Tayyip 

Erdogan. But he has become notorious for poor behaviour 

both on and off the field. 

He was banned for a record 16 games by the Turkish football 

authorities in May after he shoved and verbally abused a 

referee in a game for Basaksehir. 

Turan had joined Basaksehir last season on loan from 

Barcelona, where he had largely endured an unhappy spell on 

the bench after joining from Atletico Madrid. 

Erdogan attended Turan's wedding when the footballer 

married Aslihan Dogan in March last year. He won 100 caps 

for Turkey but looks unlikely to return to international duty in 

a new-look side. 

Argentina routs Iraq 4-0 

despite Messi's absence 

Sports Desk : Argentina, without star striker Lionel 

Messi, thrashed Iraq 4-0 in a friendly on Thursday 

with goals from Lautaro Martinez, Roberto 

Pereyra, German Pezzella and Franco Cervi. 

Inter Milan forward Martinez struck his first goal 

for his country to give Argentina the lead in the 18th 

minute at the Prince Faisal bin Fahd stadium. 

Pereyra added the second goal in the 53rd before 

Pezzella and Cervi struck in the final eight minutes. 

The friendly marked the return of goalkeeper 

Sergio Romero, who was forced out of the 2018 

World Cup with a knee injury. 

Coach Lionel Scaloni said last month that 

Barcelona forward Messi, 31, would not be called 

upon for Argentina's brief tour of Saudi Arabia. 

Scaloni added that he wanted to focus on 

blooding younger players. "I stressed our will to win 

the match, to attack non-stop and to keep scoring 

goals," he said after Thursday's game. "It was a 

good test, we are happy with it." Argentina next 

meets arch rival Brazil at the King Abdullah Sports 

City stadium in Jeddah on Tuesday. 

Arda Turan (pictured November 2016), who is playing for Istanbul side Basaksehir while on loan 

from Barcelona, was summoned to give a statement to Istanbul police over a fight with singer Berkay 

Sahin. 


FIFA 

threatens to 

suspend 

Peru if law 

is changed 

Sports Desk : FIFA has 

threatened to suspend the 

Peruvian soccer federation if 

the country's congress 

changes a law affecting the 

local body's statutes. 

The Peruvian federation 

said on Twitter on Thursday 

that a letter sent by FIFA's 

secretary-general Fatma 

Samoura threatens to 

suspend Peru if there is any 

change in the law. 

FIFA requires local 

federations to be 

independent from state 

intervention, but Peruvian 

lawmakers believe that a law 

strengthening their local 

soccer federation is 

unconstitutional. 

The law in question does 

not allow the Peruvian state 

to oversee the finances of the 

federation. It also allows its 

chairman Edwin Oviedo to 

call a new election in 2019. 

Oviedo runs the Peruvian 

federation since 2014. 

Under his management, 

Peru qualified for the World 

Cup for the first time in 36 

years. 

The Peruvian federation 

said on Twitter on Thursday 

that a letter sent by FIFA's 

secretary-general Fatma 

Samoura threatens to 

suspend Peru if there is any 

change in the law. 

















Mbappe sparks 2-goal 

rally as France hits 

back vs Iceland 

Sports Desk : Kylian Mbappe saved world 

champion France's blushes by creating one 

goal and scoring a late equalizer in the space 

of five minutes to salvage a 2-2 draw against 

Iceland in a friendly on Thursday. 

Iceland was 2-0 up with five minutes left at 

the Roudourou stadium in Brittany and 

looked set to hand France its first loss since 

winning the World Cup in July. 

But Mbappe, who went on as a substitute 

for the last half an hour, was the home team's 

savior. 

The Paris Saint-Germain forward helped 

to pull a goal back when he fired in from a 

tight angle and the ball took a deflection off 

Holmar Eyjolfsson to go in for an own goal in 

the 85th minute. 

Mbappe then levelled with a penalty 

awarded for handball five minutes later. 

"We reacted well after a bad start against a 

well organized team," France coach Didier 

Deschamps said. "It's good for Kylian, he 

brought his speed to us." 

Deschamps rested several regulars to keep 

them fit ahead of next week's UEFA Nations 

League against Germany at the Stade de 

France. 

Without Blaise Matuidi and N'Golo Kante, 

France were lacking in midfield, while 

Olivier Giroud was subdued up front. 

Mbappe was meant to start the game but a 

minor thigh injury prompted Deschamps to 

leave him on the bench, allowing Giroud to 

partner Antoine Griezmann. 

France lacked a cutting edge in the first 

half despite monopolizing possession. 

Unmarked on the edge of the area, Paul 

Pogba fluffed a shot in the 17th minute. 

Griezmann also headed a cross from Lucas 

Digne just wide and Florian Thauvin fired a 

shot over from Ousmane Dembele's precise 

pass. France was made to pay when Presnel 

Kimpembe was dispossessed near the corner 

flag by Alfred Finnbogason and went down 

holding his ankle. 

The Iceland forward carried on and sent a 

low cross to Birkir Bjarnasson, who beat 

keeper Hugo Lloris with a low shot to claim 

his 10th international goal in the 31st 

minute. 

France should have gone two down but 

Lloris made a superb triple stop in the 37th 

minute. 

The hosts pushed hard for an equalizer and 

almost got it in the 54th minute when 

Griezmann forced keeper Runar Runarsson 

to stretch and save a header that looked 

bound for the top corner. 

France was then caught cold from a corner 

in the 58th as Kari Arnason lost his marker at 

the near post and doubled Iceland's lead with 

a looping header that went in off the bar. 

Mbappe had the last word, though, setting 

up the first France strike before bagging his 

10th goal in 25 internationals. 

France's Paul Pogba, foreground, challenges for the ball with Iceland's 

Ragnar Sigurdsson, during a friendly soccer match between France and 

Iceland, in Guingamp, western France, Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. 

(AP Photo/David Vincent) 

Ronaldo accuser’s lawyers 

demand proof documents 

are false 

Sports Desk : Attorneys for a Nevada 

woman accusing Cristiano Ronaldo of 

rape challenged the international 

soccer star's legal team on Thursday to 

prove that documents cited in 

European media reports about their 

2009 encounter in Las Vegas are false. 

Anything that proves that documents 

were altered, fabricated or inaccurate 

also "should be immediately turned 

over to the appropriate law 

enforcement agencies," attorneys 

Leslie Stovall and Larissa Drohobyczer 

said in a statement emailed to media in 

the U.S. and abroad. 

"Disputes regarding the accuracy of 

documents are generally questions of 

fact to be decided by the jury," they 

said. 

Ronaldo's attorney, Peter S. 

Christiansen, declined to respond. 

On Wednesday, Christiansen issued a 

statement denying wrongdoing by 

Ronaldo, branding documents that led 

to media reports about the rape claim 

"complete fabrications" and asserting 

that the encounter in a Las Vegas hotel 

penthouse bedroom was consensual. 

The documents became public 

because they were stolen by a hacker in 

Europe and put up for sale, 

Christiansen said. 

Stovall and Drohobyczer said 

Christiansen acknowledged that 

documents upon which the allegations 

are based "were obtained from 

Cristiano Ronaldo or individuals acting 

on his behalf." 

Drohobyczer declined, via text 

message, to provide additional 

comment. 

The statement was issued in Las 

Vegas several hours after the German 

weekly magazine that first published 

the rape allegation against Ronaldo 

said in Berlin that it stands by its story. 

"We have no reason to believe that 

those documents are not authentic," 

Der Spiegel spokesman Michael 

Grabowski said. "We have meticulously 

fact-checked our information and had 

it legally reviewed." 

Stovall and Drohobyczer represent 

Kathryn Mayorga, 34, a former model 

who filed a civil lawsuit two weeks ago 

in Nevada state court seeking money 

from Ronaldo and a court order to void 

a non-disclosure agreement the court 

filing acknowledges she signed when 

she accepted $375,000 in 2010 to keep 

quiet. 

Las Vegas police also reopened a 

criminal sexual assault investigation at 

Stovall's request. 

The Associated Press typically does 

not name people who say they are 

victims of sex crimes, but Mayorga gave 

consent through Drohobyczer to make 

her name public. 

In a separate email, Mayorga's 

attorneys on Thursday listed 18 U.S. 

and European agencies ranging from 

Interpol to Scotland Yard, the FBI and 

U.S. state attorneys general that they 

said they asked to investigate whether 

Ronaldo and anyone associated with 

him violated laws based on information 

contained in the documents. 

It was not immediately clear if 

investigators in Portugal, Spain, 

England, Italy, Ireland and the U.S. 

states of Nevada and California were 

acting on that request. 

Ronaldo, 33, is from Portugal and 

plays for the Italian club Juventus and 

his national team. He began his career 

at Sporting Lisbon before moving to 

Manchester United and then Real 

Madrid in the summer of 2009 for a 

then-record sum of 94 million euros, or 

about $130 million. 

Some of his corporate sponsors, 

including Nike and video game maker 

EA Sports, have expressed concern 

about the rape allegation. 

Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio 

Costa has spoken in Ronaldo's defense, 

while citing his successful international 

career. 

Portugal keeps winning in Nations 

League without Ronaldo 

Sports Desk : No Cristiano Ronaldo, no problem. European champion Portugal 

sparkled on Thursday despite the absence of its star forward, defeating Poland to 

move a step closer to the last four of the UEFA Nations League. 

In two friendly games, Kylian Mbappe scored late to salvage a 2-2 draw for the 

world champions at home to Iceland, while two-goal Paco Alcacer helped Spain 

rout Wales 4-1 in Cardiff as the team claimed a third win in a row under new coach 

Luis Enrique. 

With young Sevilla striker Andre Silva scoring again, Portugal won 3-2 in 

Chorzow to take control of Group 3 of the top-tier League A in Europe's newest 

competition. Portugal now has six points from two games, five points ahead of 

Poland and Italy. Only the group winner advances to June's last four. 

A draw between Poland and Italy in Chorzow on Sunday will guarantee Portugal 

as the group winner. Portugal plays a friendly in Scotland the same day. 

"Overall we dominated," Portugal coach Fernando Santos said. "Poland started 

well and scored, but we were able to take control and were deserved winners." 

It was Portugal's third straight game without Ronaldo, who hasn't played an 

international since his transfer from Real Madrid to Juventus in the summer.

ECONOMY & BUSINESS 

BANGLADESHTODAY 10 

THE 

SATURDAy, OCTOBER 13, 2018 

Jobs of the future require more 

investment in people: WB report 

China-US surplus hits record, adding fuel to trade war. 

Photo : AP 

China-US surplus hits record, 

adding fuel to trade war 

China's trade surplus with the 

United States ballooned to a record 

$34.1 billion in September, despite a 

raft of US tariffs, official data 

showed Friday, adding fuel to the 

fire of a worsening trade war, 

reports BSS. 

Relations between the world's two 

largest economies have soured 

sharply this year, with US President 

Donald Trump vowing on Thursday 

to inflict economic pain on China if it 

does not blink. 

The two countries imposed new 

tariffs on a massive amount of each 

other's goods mid-September, with 

the US targeting $200 billion in 

Chinese imports and Beijing firing 

back at $60 billion worth of US 

goods. 

"China-US trade friction has 

caused trouble and pounded our 

foreign trade development," 

customs spokesman Li Kuiwen told 

reporters Friday. 

But China's trade surplus with the 

US grew 10 percent in September 

from a record $31 billion in August, 

according to China's customs 

administration. It was a 22 percent 

jump from the same month last 

year. China's exports to the US rose 

to $46.7 billion while imports 

slumped to $12.6 billion. 

China's overall trade - what it buys 

and sells with all countries including 

the US - logged a $31.7 billion 

surplus, as exports rose faster than 

imports. 

Exports jumped 14.5 percent for 

September on-year, beating 

forecasts from analysts polled by 

Bloomberg News, while imports 

rose 14.3 percent on-year. 

While the data showed China's 

trade remained strong for the 

month, analysts forecast the trade 

war will start to hurt in coming 

months. 

China's export jump for the month 

suggests exporters were shipping 

goods early to beat the latest tariffs, 

said ANZ's China economist Betty 

Wang, citing the bounce in electrical 

machinery exports, much of which 

faced the looming duties. 

"We will watch for downside risks 

to China's exports" in the fourth 

quarter, Wang said. 

Analysts say a sharp depreciation 

of the yuan has also helped China 

weather the tariffs by making its 

exports cheaper. 

Greater investments in people's 

health and education are urgent in a 

rapidly evolving labor market 

increasingly shaped by technology, 

according to the World Development 

Report 2019: The Changing Nature of 

Work, reports BSS. 

The number of robots operating 

worldwide is rising rapidly, the report 

says, stoking fears of a jobs meltdown. 

But, technology is laying down a path to 

create jobs, increase productivity and 

deliver effective public services. Fears 

surrounding innovation, which has 

already transformed living standards, 

are unfounded. 

The 2019 World Development Report 

features a chapter containing the 

recently released Human Capital Index, 

part of a broader World Bank Group 

project that recognizes human capital 

as driver of inclusive growth. 

In addition to the Index, the Human 

Capital Project includes a program to 

strengthen research and measurement 

on human capital, as well as support to 

countries to accelerate progress in 

human capital outcomes, said a World 

Bank media release. "The nature of 

work is not only changing - it's changing 

rapidly," World Bank Group President 

Jim Yong Kim said. 

"We don't know what jobs children in 

primary school today will compete for, 

because many of those jobs don't exist 

yet. The great challenge is to equip them 

with the skills they'll need no matter 

what future jobs look like - skills such as 

problem-solving and critical thinking, 

as well as interpersonal skills like 

empathy and collaboration. By 

measuring countries according to how 

well they're investing in their people, we 

hope to help governments take active 

steps to better prepare their people to 

compete in the economy of the future." 

He added. 

The release said digital technology 

spurs rapid innovation and growth, 

disrupting old production patterns and 

blurring the boundaries of firms. New 

business models, such as digital 

platforms, evolve at dizzying speed 

from local start-ups to global 

behemoths - often with few tangible 

assets or employees. 

New platform marketplaces are 

connecting people more quickly than 

ever before. This "scale without mass" 

delivers economic opportunity to 

millions of people, regardless of where 

they live. 

New markets and jobs are driving 

demand for employees with teamwork, 

communication and problem-solving 

skills. Technological change is 

eliminating repetitive "codifiable" jobs 

but replacing them with new types of 

employment: in Europe alone, there 

will be estimated 23 million new jobs 

this century. 

Technology is changing not just how 

people work but also the terms on 

which they work, creating more nontraditional 

jobs and short-term "gigs." 

This is making some work more 

accessible and flexible, but raises 

concerns about income instability and 

the lack of social protection. 

Four out of five people in developing 

countries have never known what it 

means to live with social protection. 

With two billion people working in the 

informal sector, unprotected by stable 

wage employment, social welfare, or the 

benefits of education - new working 

patterns are adding to a dilemma that 

predates the latest technological wave. 

Adjusting to the changing nature of 

work requires enhanced social 

protection. New ways of protecting 

people, regardless of employment 

status, are needed. 

The report challenges governments to 

take better care of their citizens, calling 

for a universal guaranteed minimum 

level of social protection. Full social 

inclusion will be costly, but it can be 

achieved with reforms in labor market 

regulation in some countries and, 

globally, a long overdue overhaul of 

taxation policy. 

Walton Group director SM Mahbubul Alam inaugurating a daylong conference titled 'Meet the Plaza 

Managers & Exchange View 2018' at Walton Corporate Office on Thursday (11 October 2018). The function 

was attended and addressed by Walton Hi-Tech Industries Ltd. Chairman SM Nurul Alam Rezvi, Vice- 

Chairman SM Shamsul Alam, Walton Digi-Tech Industries Ltd. Chairman SM Rezaul Alam, Walton Group 

Directors Zakia Sultana, Tahmina Afrose Tanna and Raisa Sigma Hima. 

Photo: Courtesy 

Plaza Manager Conference held 

Walton investing 10M USD 

more in TV set production 

Japan has a critical labour shortage in the construction industry. 

Japan unveils plan 

to attract more 

foreign workers 

Japan on Friday unveiled a plan to attract more foreign bluecollar 

workers, as the world's number-three economy battles a 

crippling labour shortage caused by an ageing and shrinking 

population, reports BSS. 

The plan reportedly aims to fill gaping shortages in sectors such 

as agriculture, nursing, construction, hotels and shipbuilding. 

Under the draft legislation, foreign nationals with skills in fields 

identified as facing shortages would be awarded a visa allowing 

them to work for up to five years. 

Foreign workers in those fields who hold stronger qualifications 

and pass a Japanese language test will also be allowed to bring 

family members and can obtain permanent residency status. 

Government spokesman Yoshihide Suga told reporters on 

Friday that the bill would be submitted to parliament "at the 

earliest possible time," with a possible launch in April. 

Japan has traditionally been cautious about accepting unskilled 

workers from abroad and currently limits residential status to 

highly skilled professionals. The only exception to this rule is for 

South Americans of Japanese descent. And Prime Minister 

Shinzo Abe's government has stressed the reforms are not 

intended as a wholesale overhaul of Japanese immigration policy, 

and mass immigration is not expected. 


U.S. jobless 

claims edge 

up last week 

The number of U.S. initial jobless claims increased 

last week, but the labor market remained tight, reports 

BSS. 

According to a report released by the U.S. Labor 

department on Thursday, the number of people filing 

for U.S. unemployment benefits rose by 7,000 to stand 

at 214,000 in the week which ends October 6. 

The four-week average of initial claims also rose by 2, 

500 to 209,500 last week, said the department. 

Although the reading edged up slightly, it remained 

below the 300,000 threshold, which is associated with 

a strong labor market. 

The latest job report released by the department also 

encouraged the market participants to keep their 

positive view on U.S. labor market. 

U.S. Labor department reported last Friday that total 

nonfarm payroll employment increased by 134,000 in 

September. 

Meanwhile, the department showed that U.S. 

unemployment rate fell to 3.7 percent in September 

after standing at 3.9 percent for two months, hitting the 

lowest level since December 1969. 

Local electronics giant Walton is 

investing 10 million US dollars more in 

television production at its own factory 

in Bangladesh to manufacture best 

quality products for customers home 

and abroad, says a press release. 

The disclosure was made at a 

conference of Walton plaza managers 

held at its corporate office in city on 

Thursday (11 October 2018). SM 

Mahbubul Alam, Director of Walton 

Group, inaugurated the daylong 

conference titled 'Meet the Plaza 

Managers & Exchange View 2018' 

where more than 300 managers from 

different parts of the country along with 

high-officials of Walton were present. 

The function was attended and 

addressed by Walton Hi-Tech 

Industries Ltd. Chairman SM Nurul 

Alam Rezvi, Vice-Chairman SM 

Shamsul Alam, Walton Digi-Tech 

Industries Ltd. Chairman SM Rezaul 

Alam, Walton Group Directors Zakia 

Sultana, Tahmina Afrose Tanna and 

Raisa Sigma Hima. 

Walton Group Executive Directors 

Eva Rezwana, Amdadul Hoque Sarker, 

Nazrul Islam Sarker, Humayun Kabir, 

SM Zahid Hasan, Ashraful Ambia, Md. 

Rayhan, Col. S M Shahadat Alam 

(Retd) and Major General A K M 

Muzahid Uddin (Retd), Deputy 

Executive Director Uday Hakim, Sr. 

Operative Director Golam Murshed, 

Operative Director Firoj Alam were 

among others present on the function 

hosted by film actor Amin Khan. 

The Walton authorities pledged to 

ensure high quality products and 

conveyed the promise of providing 

quick and best after sale services for 

customers. It was also highlighted that 

Walton products are being exported to 

different counties and process 

underway to reach them every corner of 

the world including Europe and 

America. Walton Plaza managers 

vowed to exceed themselves in 

electronics product sales with the 

slogan of 'We were best, we are best and 

we will be best'. The Walton authorities 

highlighted and guided them to face the 

modern challenges in marketing 

electronic products. The conference 

ended with the goal of achieving 

customer satisfaction providing the best 

quality products and services. 

Speaking on the occasion, SM Nurul 

Alam Rezvi, Chairman of Walton Hi- 

Tech Industries Ltd. said that Walton is 

not only conducting business in 

Bangladesh but also in the whole world. 

It is now an international brand. 

Walton is manufacturing world-class 

products using best raw materials at its 

own production plant equipped with 

latest technology and machineries. 

He said after leading the county's 

refrigerator market, Walton has 

emphasized on television and is going 

to invest 10 million USD more on 

television production to manufacture 

world's top-quality products. 

Vice Chairman SM Shamsul Alam 

said Walton has been providing best 

products and services to customers 

since its inception. Wherever we went, 

we were best. As a result, Walton has 

been honored with numerous awards 

recognitions in home and abroad. 

Walton tops the VAT payer list in Dhaka 

international trade fair every year. Few 

days ago, Walton received National 

Environment Award and recently 

honored with Export Excellence Award. 

Speaking on the occasion chief guest 

SM Mahbubul Alam said, all customers 

are equally important. Ensuring 

customer satisfaction by providing best 

quality products and services is our 

main goal. So, the Plaza managers need 

to be sincerer. 

A recruiter from the Postal Service, right, speaks with an attendee of a job fair in Cheswick, Pa., on 

Thursday, Nov. 2, 2017. (Associated Press) 

Photo: Courtesy

MISCELLANEOUS 

SaTURDaY, OCTObeR 13, 201811 

Rokeya University observes 

10th founding anniversary 

RANGPUR : Begum Rokeya University, 

Rangpur (BRUR) yesterday observed its 

tenth founding anniversary through 

daylong colourful programmes amid 

festivity and fanfare. 

Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr Nazmul 

Ahsan Kalimullah formally inaugurated the 

day-long programmes by hoisting national 

flag amid singing of the national anthem at 

9 am on the campus. 

At the same time, deans of six faculties 

and heads of 21 departments hoisted the 

university's flag and flags of different 

faculties and departments of the university. 

Later, the Vice-chancellor placed wreaths 

at the portraits of Father of the Nation 

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and 

great woman Begum Rokeya before 

delivering his welcome speech. 

Kalimullah also released pigeons, took 

salute of a smart contingent of members of 

BNCC, rovers and scouts and led a huge 

colourful 'Ananda Shobhayatra' that 

paraded the campus. 

He also planted a sapling of tree in the 

campus. 

Deans of all six faculties, heads of all 21 

departments, teaches, thousands of 

students, officials and employees of the 

university participated in the 'Ananda 

Shobhayatra' and other programmes. 

Youth 

stabbed 

dead in 

Chattogram 

CHATTOGRAM : A young 

man was stabbed to death by 

miscreants at Sagarika Road 

in the city's Pahartoli area on 

Thursday, reports UNB. 

The victim was identified 

as Biswajit Dhar, 28, son of 

Milon Dhar of Banikpara in 

South Kattoli. 

A group of miscreants 

swooped on Biswajit while 

he was returning home 

around 8 pm and stabbed 

him indiscriminately, 

leaving him dead on the 

spot, said Swadip Kumar 

Das, officer-in-charge of 

Pahartoli Police Station. 

Police suspected that 

miscreants might have killed 

him over previous enmity. 

Later, the teachers and students of BRUR 

participated in the Academic Fair and costfree 

blood group test programmes on the 

campus. 

A milad mahfil followed by offering 

special munajats were held after Juma 

prayer at the Central Mosque of the 

university. 

The Vice-chancellor inaugurated the 

University Club for teachers and officials at 

the Central Cafeteria on the campus 

followed by a discussion there. 

Professor Kalimullah, also President of 

the 'University Club, presided over the 

discussion moderated by President of 

Begum Rokeya University Teachers' 

Association Prof Dr Gazi Mazharul Anwar. 

The Vice-chancellor said Begum Rokeya 

University has already become a gathering 

centre for brotherhood, friendship and 

harmony of teachers and students, officials 

and employees of the university. 

"Education along with co-education 

programmes are getting newer heights 

turning the university into a higher seat of 

learning, research, nurturing culture, sports 

and education across the region and 

country," he said. 

At the end, a cultural function followed by 

musical concert participated by popular 

band parties were arranged on the campus. 

Civil Surgeon notices 

to keep hospitals, 

community clinics 

According to The Smoking and Tobacco Products (control) 

Act in 2005 and subsequently amended the law in 2013 and 

Rule 2015, hospitals and clinics are included as public place 

and Smoking in public place is punishable offense. In 

response of Dhaka Ahsania Mission (DAM) advocacy and 

awareness programs on this issue, Dr. Mohammad Ehsanul 

Karim, Civil Surgeon of Dhaka District, issued a notice, a 

press release said. The notice urges all the Upazila hospitals, 

community clinics and GODs of Dhaka district to keep their 

respective organizations smoke-free, as well as initiatives to 

increase the awareness about the harmful effects of smoking 

and tobacco use among doctors, nurses, staff and smoke-free 

signage in the hospital. It is to be noted that under the use of 

Smoking and Tobacco Products (Control) Act 2005 

(amended 2013), hospitals and clinics will be considered as 

public place and smoking is prohibited in public place. If a 

person violates this provision, he will be punished with a fine 

of not more than three hundred taka, and he will be punished 

at twice the rate of repeatable punishment, if he takes the 

second time or another again. Apart from this, arrangements 

should be made in Bengali and English to display "Abstain 

from smoking, it is a punishable offense" in public place and 

transport. 

Washington state ends 

'racially biased' death penalty 

Washington's Supreme Court unanimously struck down the 

state's death penalty Thursday as arbitrary and racially 

biased, making it the 20th state to do away with capital 

punishment, reports UNB. 

Execution was already extremely rare in Washington, with 

five prisoners put to death in recent decades and a governorimposed 

moratorium blocking its use since 2014. 

But the court's opinion eliminated it entirely, converted the 

sentences for the state's eight death row inmates to life in 

prison without release, and furthered a trend away from 

capital punishment in the U.S. 

"The death penalty is becoming increasingly geographically 

isolated," said Robert Dunham, executive director of the 

Washington, D.C.-based Death Penalty Information Center. 

"It's still on the books in 30 states, but it's not being used in 

30 states. It's becoming a creature of the Deep South and the 

Southwest." 

Texas continues to execute more prisoners than any other 

state - 108 since 2010. Florida has executed 28, Georgia 26 

and Oklahoma 21 in that timeframe. But nationally, death 

sentences are down 85 percent since the 1990s, Dunham 

said. In the past 15 years, seven states - Connecticut, 

Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico and 

New York - have abandoned capital punishment through 

court order or legislative act, and three - Colorado, Oregon 

and Pennsylvania - have adopted moratoriums. 

In New Hampshire and Nebraska, lawmakers banned the 

death penalty but saw those decisions overturned by veto or 

referendum. 

The concerns cited in those states have ranged from 

procedural matters, such as the information provided to 

sentencing jurors in New York, to worries about executing an 

innocent person or racial and other disparities in who is 

sentenced to death, as was the case in Washington. 

"The death penalty is unequally applied - sometimes by 

where the crime took place, or the county of residence, or the 

available budgetary resources at any given point in time, or 

the race of the defendant," Chief Justice Mary Fairhurst 

wrote in the lead opinion. 

She added: "Our capital punishment law lacks 

'fundamental fairness.'" 

Defense lawyers had long challenged the death penalty on 

those grounds, noting the state's worst mass murderers and 

serial killers, Green River killer Gary Ridgway among them, 

had received life terms, not death. In a 5-4 ruling in 2006, the 

justices rejected an argument from a death row inmate that 

he shouldn't be executed because Ridgway hadn't been 

executed. 

Fox News cutting back on 

Trump rally coverage 

Fox News Channel has recently pulled back from airing 

President Donald Trump's campaign-style rallies during 

prime time, a move that could put a crimp in Republican 

efforts to reach voters in the weeks before midterm elections, 

reports UNB. 

During much of the late summer, Fox would pre-empt its 

lucrative nightly lineup of Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and 

Laura Ingraham in order to air the rallies. None of its rivals 

did so. It was an important platform for the president and his 

supporters, since Fox's opinionated hosts are generally their 

first choice for political coverage. 

On Tuesday of last week, Carlson told viewers that Fox 

would be monitoring the president's rally from Mississippi 

and would break in for any news. He did interrupt his show 

later to tell viewers of Trump's comments about Christine 

Blasey Ford, the woman who had accused Supreme Court 

Justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexual harassment. 

During Martha MacCallum's show two nights later, Fox 

showed a portion of Trump speaking in Minnesota with the 

battle over Kavanaugh's mission coming to a climax. With 

Hurricane Michael in the news Wednesday, Fox didn't air 

Trump's rally from Pennsylvania. 

Without live coverage of his rally on Wednesday, the 

president found other ways to reach Fox's audience. He had 

a phone interview with Fox's Shannon Bream on Wednesday 

night and called into the morning "Fox & Friends" show on 

Thursday. Trump has rallies scheduled for Ohio on Friday 

night and Kentucky on Saturday. With the knowledge that 

his presidency is a key issue despite not being on the ballot, 

the White House is planning an aggressive schedule of 

appearances for the next three weeks at rallies designed to 

boost GOP candidates. 

As with most things on television, ratings are likely behind 

it. During the Kavanaugh saga, viewership for cable news 

networks has been high in general. Fox this past weekend 

had its best prime-time ratings since 2003. 

The calculus may change again with less urgent news days 

and the election getting closer. A Fox News spokeswoman 

had no immediate comment on the change. 

Trump defends Saudi 

arms sales amid fury 

over missing writer 

President Donald Trump defended continuing huge sales of 

U.S. weapons to Saudi Arabia on Thursday despite rising 

pressure from lawmakers to punish the kingdom over the 

disappearance of a Saudi journalist who lived in the United 

States and is now feared dead, reports UNB. 

As senators pushed for sanctions under a human rights law 

and also questioned American support for the Saudi-led 

bombing campaign in Yemen, Trump appeared reluctant to 

rock the boat in a relationship that has been key to his 

strategy in the Middle East and which he described as 

"excellent." He said withholding sales would hurt the U.S. 

economy. 

"I don't like stopping massive amounts of money that's 

been pouring into our country. They are spending 110 billion 

on military equipment," Trump said, referring to proposed 

sales announced in May 2017 when he went to Saudi Arabia 

in the first overseas trip of his presidency. He warned that the 

Saudis could instead buy from Russia or China. 

Trump maintained that the U.S. is being "very tough" as it 

looks into the case of Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi 

leadership and a contributor to The Washington Post who has 

been missing since Oct. 2. He had entered a Saudi consulate 

in the Turkish city of Istanbul to get marriage paperwork as 

his fiancee waited outside and hasn't been seen since. 

Turkish officials say they fear Saudi Arabia killed and 

dismembered Khashoggi but have offered no evidence 

beyond video footage of the journalist entering the consulate 

and the arrival in the country of what they describe as a 15- 

member Saudi team that allegedly targeted him. Saudi 

Arabia has denied the allegation as "baseless." 

In Istanbul, Turkish media said that Saudi royal guards, 

intelligence officers, soldiers and an autopsy expert had been 

part of the team flown in and targeting Khashoggi. Those 

reported details, along with comments from Turkish 

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, appeared aimed at 

gradually pressuring Saudi Arabia to reveal what happened 

It's one of President Donald Trump's favorite 

talking points in promoting his 

administration's success: the record low rate 

of black unemployment. But on a recent 

sunny afternoon in Vernon Park in 

Philadelphia's Germantown neighborhood, 

that victory seemed hollow, reports UNB. 

As children laughed on the playground, 

several black men - some out of work, 

others homeless - sat or slept on benches 

nearby. Similar scenes play out across 

America and are backed by data that 

counter the positive picture Trump often 

paints in campaign-style rallies before 

largely white audiences. 

When asked what he makes of Trump's 

claim that black Americans are faring better 

under his administration, construction 

company owner and Germantown resident 

Carlton Washington replied, "Where at? 

Calabasas?" 

The retort was a reference to controversial 

rapper Kanye West, who had lunch with 

Trump at the White House on Thursday 

afternoon. Over roasted chicken, fingerling 

potatoes and sauteed asparagus, the two 

discussed crime in Chicago, more possible 

presidential pardons, job creation and the 

black unemployment rate. 

According to the Bureau of Labor 

Statistics, the unemployment rate for black 

Americans in September was 6 percent. 

That's down from a high of 21.2 percent in 

January 1983, but is still nearly double the 

overall national unemployment rate of 3.7 

percent. The unemployment rate belies the 

on-the-ground reality for many African- 

Americans, according to experts. 

"The rates are improving. There's a 

GD-1260/18 (10 x 3) while also balancing a need to maintain Saudi investments in GD-1259/18 (7 x 3) 

Turkey and relations on other issues. 

In black neighborhoods, Trump's 

economic boasts ring hollow 

question of whether his policies created that 

improvement," said Andre Perry of the 

Brookings Institution, whose research 

focuses on black communities. "My question 

is: What kind of jobs are people working in?" 

While black employment may have 

improved, that hasn't translated into broader 

economic gains. 

That's partly because African-Americans 

are still disproportionately toiling in lowerquality 

jobs. Black people make up roughly 

one-fifth of those working in temporary jobs, 

a figure that hasn't changed much in the past 

five years, even as the economy has 

improved. Just 12 percent of all Americans 

are black. 

And last year, Trump's first in office, the 

income gap between whites and blacks 

widened slightly. The typical African- 

American household earned $40,258, down 

0.2 percent from a year earlier, while white 

households saw an income gain of 2.6 

percent, to $68,145. 

The racial wealth gap has also worsened 

even as unemployment rates have come 

down. The median net worth of a white 

household was 10 times that of a black 

household in 2016, the latest data available. 

That's up from seven times in 2004. 

Perry noted that the national 

unemployment rate doesn't take into 

account underperforming geographic 

regions or demographic groups. 

"What does full employment mean to a 

black man in Baltimore? To youth in 

Chicago?" Perry said. "What are you doing to 

bring opportunities to black neighborhoods, 

to create wealth? I don't see those signs of the 

economy." 

GOP, home to Trump and tea 

party, decries Dems' 'mob rule' 

President Donald Trump and Senate 

Republicans are forecasting nightmarish 

Democratic "mob rule" to amp up GOP voters 

for next month's critical midterm elections, 

flipping the script from complaints that it's 

Trump and the tea party movement who've 

boosted rowdy and divisive tactics to 

dangerous levels, reports UNB. 

Less than a month from voting in which 

GOP control of Congress is dangling 

precariously, Republicans are linking 

comments and actions by Democratic 

politicians, raucous protesters opposing 

Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court 

nomination and even a gunman who shot 

targeted GOP lawmakers. The message to 

Republican voters: Democrats are 

employing radical tactics that are only 

growing worse. 

"Only one side was happy to play host to 

this toxic fringe behavior," Senate Majority 

Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said 

Thursday in the latest GOP attack. "Only one 

side's leaders are now openly calling for more 

of it. They haven't seen enough. They want 

more. And I'm afraid this is only Phase One of 

the meltdown." 

While the demonstrations were intense and 

some Republicans reported personal threats, 

liberal protesters' tactics were broadly in line 

with those used by groups on the left and 

right during particularly passionate moments 

in Washington. The confrontational style 

harkened back to protests by the conservative 

tea party, which included angry face-offs with 

lawmakers and a massive Capitol 

demonstration far larger than last week's 

rallies. 

It's not unusual for Republicans and 

Democrats alike to sharpen their rhetoric as 

elections approach in hopes of drawing loyal 

voters to the polls. But the GOP shift to 

disparaging descriptions of their opponents 

as unruly and sinister is a marked change 

from their messaging before the Kavanaugh 

battle, when they'd hoped to focus on the 

strong economy and the mammoth tax cut 

they pushed through Congress last 

December. 

Both parties have detected a surge in 

engagement among GOP and conservative 

voters since the nation's attention was 

grabbed by the confirmation battle over 

Kavanaugh, including allegations of sexual 

misconduct that he denied. While no one 

knows if that energy will last until Election 

Day, Democratic voters driven by an animus 

toward Trump until now were far more 

motivated. 

Top Republicans have acknowledged that 

television scenes of anti-Kavanaugh 

protesters berating senators and interrupting 

Senate debate have helped them. 

"It's turned our base on fire," McConnell 

said about the battle, which he's called a 

political gift. Focusing on the "mob" has also 

let Republicans raise the subject without 

explicitly reminding voters about Kavanaugh 

himself, who polling showed was viewed 

unfavorably by the public. 

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UNITING PEOPLE EVERYDAY 

SATuRDAy, DhAkA, OCTOBER 13, 2018, AShwIN 28, 1425 BS, SAfAR 2, 1440 hIJRI 

Communication Minister Obaidul Quader visited the progress of Padma bridge construction work at 

Jazira point yesterday. 

Photo : Star Mail 

Streamlining Dhaka's chaotic 

traffic possible: Experts 

DHAKA : Strict enforcement of traffic 

rules and behavioural change of 

pedestrians and transport workers as 

well as proper planning and political 

commitment are essential to have a 

disciplined traffic system in this chaotic 

city of Dhaka, said experts. 

They said though it looks a herculean 

task to restore discipline in the city 

streets, it is possible to do so through a 

vigorous media campaign and enforcing 

traffic rules alongside gearing up 

the decentralisation process. 

Many countries in the world have 

turned their unlivable cities livable 

through innovative ideas and forcing 

people to abide by rules, the experts 

said. 

Prof Moazzem Hossain of Civil 

Engineering department at 

Bangladesh University of Engineering 

and Technology (Buet) said eight components-policy, 

planning, design, construction, 

maintenance, operation, 

enforcement and finally monitoringwill 

have to be ensured to bring discipline 

in the traffic system. 

Prof Moazzem, also Director of Buet 

Accident Research Institute (ARI), 

said it needs to monitor whether the 

seven other components are functioning 

properly.Without adequate manpower, 

management, leadership, engineering, 

funding and planning, it is not 

possible to bring discipline in the 

streets changing the whole system, he 

said, adding: "It needs to implement 

all the eight components and for this, it 

requires organisational setup, manpower, 

political commitment and 

funding support. 

"Besides, a footway network system 

will have to be developed alongside 

automating the traffic signal network, 

the road safety expert said. 

Prof Moazzem underscored the need 

for bringing a radical change in the bus 

operation module. "Buses are plying 

the city streets under around 250 companies 

which is absurd. Globally, buses 

run under a single state-owned agency," 

he said, adding that if all the buses 

run under a single company in the capital, 

the situation may improve. 

Ashish Kumar Dey, general secretary 

of National Committee to Protect 

Shipping, Roads and Railways (NCP- 

SRR), said many, including bikers, 

auto-rickshaw and tempo drivers, 

young political party activists and a 

major portion of pedestrians, do not 

follow traffic rules properly. "It's a 

major obstacle to controlling the overall 

traffic management and reducing 

road crashes," he said. 

A continued awareness campaign 

and strict enforcement of traffic rules 

can bring discipline in the streets, 

Ashis said. 

Alongside strict enforcement of law 

and tacking action against errant 

transport workers and pedestrians, a 

worker-friendly road transport policy 

will have to be ensured to bring down 

the number of road accidents and end 

anarchy in the sector, he added. 

The NCPSRR leader said transport 

workers' lifestyle should be enhanced. 

"If their wages and other facilities are 

not increased, a sense of dissatisfaction 

and hopelessness prevails among 

them and many drivers become desperate 

to earn more, leading to repeated 

road accidents," he said. 

He also alleged that some influential 

labour leaders and political party leaders 

protect many drivers and helpers 

when they are sued by law enforcers, 

terming it another reason behind 

drivers being desperate on roads. 

Aug 21 verdict proves once 

again BNP terrorist 

organisation: Quader 

SHARIATPUR : Road Transport and Bridges 

Minister Obaidul Quader said the recent verdict in 

August 21 grenade attack case proved once again 

that BNP is a terrorist organization, reports BSS. 

"Courts in Canada and Bangladesh have proved 

that BNP is a terrorist organisation. BNP's acting 

chairman Tarique Rahman was the main plotter of 

August 21 grenade attack and he should have been 

sentenced to death," said Quader, also the General 

Secretary of Bangladesh Awami League, in 

Nowdoba area in Jajira, Shariatpur. 

"BNP chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia too cannot 

avoid responsibility of the attack, she should also be 

brought to justice," said Quader. 

The minister was observing the security and 

overall preparations ahead of Prime Minister's visit 

to inaugurate the 60 percent development in construction 

work of the Padma Bridge project on 

Sunday. 

Replying to a question on whether BNP would 

join the next general election, the minister said, 

"BNP knows the best whether they will join the 

polls or not. Is there any instance in the world, 

where the opposition was bought to take part in 

election? Regarding election, BNP talk one thing in 

morning, another in noon, and another in the 

evening." 

"BNP's moral base and image as a political party 

has hit the bottom," Quader added. 

Talking about the development in Padma 

Bridge's construction work, the road transport and 

bridges minister said five spans have been installed 

on the Jajira side of the bridge, one was installed on 

Mawa side and work is going on to install five more 

spans there. 

Awami League organising secretaries BM 

Mozammel Haque, MP, AKM Enamul Haque 

Shamim, and top officials of the ministry were present 

on the occasion, among others. 

14-party alliance expresses 

satisfaction over 21 August 

attack verdict 

DHAKA : Leaders of 14-party 

alliance at a meeting yesterday 

expressed satisfaction over 21 

August grenade attack verdict 

that sentenced 19 people to death 

and life imprisonment to another 

19 people including Tarique 

Rahman. 

With Awami League Presidium 

Member and Spokesperson of 14- 

party alliance Mohammed Nasim 

in the chair, the meeting also 

expressed gratitude to the court 

for the verdict saying that justice 

has been established with the 

judgment. 

After the meeting Nasim briefed 

journalists about the meeting held 

at Awami League central office in 

city's Bangabandhu Avenue. 

At the press conference, Nasim 

said the people of Bangladesh 

would ultimately reject BNP in 

the next national election, reports 

BSS. 

"With defeat in the next parliamentary 

election, BNP will be 

wiped out as people of the country 

do not want the terrorists' organisation 

anymore," he said. 

Expressing satisfaction over 21 

August 21 grenade attack case the 

minister thanked court and said 

people of the country except 

BNP's accomplices are happy 

with the judgment. 

"It has already been proved that 

BNP is a terrorists' organisation 

with terrorism and militancy 

activities of the party," he added. 

Nasim said BNP was in power 

when the grenade attack took 

place, but the party did not take 

initiatives to start trial of the 

grenade attack case. 

But people of the country 

always wanted trial of the case, he 

said, adding finally, victims of the 

attack got justice for the courage 

of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. 

Rashed Khan Menon, Prseident 

of Workers Party of Bangladesh, 

said BNP is a terrorist party and it 

has already been proved with 

their different terrorist activities. 

BNP did use state mechanism 

to carry out the attack on Awami 

League rally in city's 

Bangabandhu Avenue on August 

21, 2004 to eliminate the leadership 

of Awami League which is a 

bad sign for politics, he added. 

Forming alliance with BNP 

means forming coalition with terrorism 

and militancy, he said, 

adding that the people of 

Bangladesh will ultimately refuse 

BNP in the next national election. 

The Bangladesh Jatiya 

Samajtantrik Dal (Jasod) 

President and Information 

Minister Hasanul Haq Inu said 

BNP has not changed at all as it 

rejected August 21 grenade attack 

verdict. 

All political parties should cut 

relation with BNP, added Inu saying 

political party which will make 

alliance with BNP will be considered 

as treacherous. 

How The London Bridge 

Was Sold to America 

INTERESTING NEWS 

For centuries, children and kindergarteners 

have sung and danced to the tune of 

London Bridge is falling down, but when 

engineers discovered that the London 

Bridge was actually falling down in the early 

1900s, it was no laughing matter. The stone 

bridge was just over a century old, and was 

the busiest point in London crossed by 

8,000 pedestrians and 900 vehicles every 

hour. Surveyors found that the bridge was 

slowly sinking—about one third of a centimeter 

every year. When measurements 

were taken in 1924, they found that the 

bridge’s east side stood some 9 cm lower 

than the west side. Another four decades 

had passed before the City Council could 

arrive at a decision. 

Council member Ivan Luckin suggested 

that instead of demolishing the bridge, they 

should try to sell it. 

His suggestion was met with incredulity, 

but after some deliberation, the Council 

agreed they could use the money and put the 

bridge on market. It was 1967. 

In the months that followed, many 

inquiries came to the Council about the 

bridge, but there were no firm offers. Finally, 

with five weeks to go before the closing date, 

March 28, 1968, Mr. Luckin volunteered to 

go to America in order to sell it. At a press 

conference at the British-American 

Chamber of Commerce in New York, when a 

journalist asked what was so special about 

the bridge—after all, the bridge was neither 

too old (built in 1832), nor had houses on it, 

or was the subject of the nursery rhyme (the 

rhyme predates the bridge)—Mr. Luckin 

replied: “London Bridge is not just a bridge. 

It is the heir to 2,000 years of history going 

back to the First Century AD, to the time of 

the Roman Londinium ..." 

Dhaka sees no 

sign Islamabad 

expelling its 

envoy: Official 

DHAKA : Bangladesh does 

not see any indication that 

Pakistan was considering the 

expulsion of its High 

Commissioner in Islamabad, 

says an official. 

"No, we've not seen any 

such indication," he told UNB 

when his attention was drawn 

about Pakistan media's speculation 

about the possible 

expulsion. 

There is news in the media 

that the government of 

Pakistan is considering 

expelling the Bangladeshi 

High Commissioner posted in 

Islamabad due to delay in 

accepting Pakistan High 

Commissioner-designate to 

Dhaka Saqlain Syedah by the 

Bangladesh Foreign Ministry. 

The Ministry of Foreign 

Affairs of Pakistan, however, 

ruled out any such possible 

measure. 

"The agreement of an 

Ambassador (High 

Commissioner) is a bilateral 

issue and is being pursued 

through diplomatic channels. 

No other action has been 

taken," Spokesperson of the 

Pakistan Ministry of Foreign 

Affairs told reporters in 

Islamabad on Thursday. 

The post of the High 

Commissioner of Pakistan to 

Bangladesh fell vacant after 

the retirement of Rafiuzaman 

Siddiqui in February this 

year. 

Artistes are busy to adorn the Devi Durga as Puja will be started within two days. 

Photo : Star Mail 

Speaker urges young 

generation for building 

'Sonar Bangla' 

DHAKA : Jatiya Sangsad Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin 

Chaudhury yesterday urged the young generation to build "Sonar 

Bangla" as dreamt by Father of the Nation Sheikh Mujibur 

Rahman. 

"We are committed to materialising the unfinished tasks of 

Bangabandhu defeating the conspiracies of anti-liberation and 

undemocratic forces," she told the inaugural function of a painting 

competition at the National Museum here. 

Hasumonir Pathshala organised the painting competition on 

the occasion of 71st birth anniversary of Prime Minister Sheikh 

Hasina. 

Cultural Affairs Minister Asaduzzaman Noor, noted singer Prof 

Samarjit Roy Chowdhury, Director General of the National 

Museum Md Maksudur Rahman Patwary and Chairman of Film 

and Television Department Zunaid Ahmed Halim, among others, 

addressed the function with President of Hasumonir Pathshala 

Marufa Aktar Popy in the chair. 

Dr Shirin said Bangladesh is marching towards achievement of 

the eligibility to graduate to a developing country from the Least 

Developed Country (LDC) status. 

Under the dynamic and farsighted leadership of Prime 

Minister Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh would be turned into a 

developing nation by 2024 and developed country by 2041, she 

added. 

The speaker said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is working tirelessly 

to build a poverty-free, happy and prosperous country 

through utilizing potentiality of all development aspects of the 

country. 

Mugda, Rampura 

OCs transferred 

DHAKA : Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) has transferred 

the officers-in-charge (OCs) of its two police stations, 

reports UNB. 

According to an office order issued by the DMP headquarters 

on Thursday evening, Mugdha Police Station OC Md 

Enamul Haque has been sent to Rampura Police Station 

while Rampura OC Proloy Kumar Saha replaced Enamul. 

Train wheel comes 

off tracks in Gazipur 

GAZIPUR : A wheel of an intercity train came off tracks at 

Pubail Railway Station in the city on Friday afternoon, 

reports UNB. 

Station Master of Pubail Railway Station Obaidur Rahman 

said the wheel of a bogie of Noakhali-bound 'Upakul Express' 

veered off the tracks around 5:15 pm, halting the train communication 

on the line. 

However, trains were running using the second line, he 

said, adding that work was on to salvage the train. 

2 held with 248 sacks OMS 

rice in Brahmanbaria 

BRAHMANBARIA : Members of National Security 

Intelligence (NSI) in a drive arrested two people along with 

some 248 sacks of Open Market Sales (OMS) rice at Islampur 

on Dhaka-Sylhet highway in Bijoynagar upazila on Friday 

noon, reports UNB. 

The arrestees were identified as Jamal Miah, 50, son of 

Nannu Miah of Champaknagar village in the upazila, and 

Abdur Rahim, 40, son of Ruhul Amin of Senbagh upazila in 

Noakhali district. 

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, Cell : 01832166882; Email: Editor : editor@thebangladeshtoday.com, Advertisement: ads@thebangladeshtoday.com, News: newsbangla@thebangladeshtoday.com, contact@thebangladeshtoday.com, website: www.thebangladeshtoday.com

13-10-2018

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