16-01-2019

wednesdaY 

DhaKa: January 16, 2019; Magh 3, 1425 BS; Jamadi-ul awal 9,1440 hijri 

www.thebangladeshtoday.com; www. tbtbangla.com 

Regd.No.Da~2065, Vol.16; No.340; 12 Pages~Tk.8.00 

international 

New Israeli military 

chief pledges to lead 

'innovative' army 

>Page 7 

art & culture 

The Critics' Choice 

"Roma" aiming 

for Oscars 

>Page 8 

sport 

BPL 2019 : Khulna 

Titans' beat Rajshahi 

Kings by 25 runs 

>Page 9 

Govt cuts source tax on exports 

again; RMG exporters to get relief 

DHAKA : The government has once 

again slashed tax at source to 0.25 percent 

from the existing 0.60 percent for 

exporting goods to give some relief 

mainly to the RMG exporters following 

the recent hike in the wages of garment 

workers. 

The Internal Resources Division has 

issued a statutory regulatory order 

(SRO) signed by its Senior Secretary 

and National Board of Revenue (NBR) 

Chairman Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan 

to this end. The new measure came into 

effect on January 1 last. 

Following the issuance of the SRO 

under clause 44(4) of the Income Tax 

Ordinance 1985, the new rate will be 

applicable for all the export items, 

excluding jute goods. 

From now on, exporters will have to 

pay Tk 0.25 instead of Tk 0.60 as tax at 

source for exporting goods worth Tk 

100. 

On September 5, 2018, the government 

reduced the rate from 1 percent to 

0.60 percent following demand from 

businessmen. 

A senior NBR official, preferring not 

Apologise to 

nation for 'vote 

rigging', Fakhrul 

DHAKA : BNP secretary general Mirza 

Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Tuesday 

asked his ruling party counterpart 

Obaidul Quader to apologise publicly 

for committing the offence of 'vote rigging' 

in the 11th parliamentary election, 

reports UNB. 

"Now they (govt) can't tackle such a 

big stealing in the election...ask Mr 

Quader (AL general secretary) to apologise 

first to the nation going to the stadium 

for resorting to blatant lies and 

deceiving and depriving people," he 

said. The BNP leader further said, "A 

path for discussions with other parties 

will be created, if they (AL) apologise to 

people." 

Fakhrul came up with the remarks 

while talking to reporters after visiting 

post-election violence victim and 

Jashore Jubo Dal activist Faisal Ali at 

Dhaka Medical College Hospital. 

Faisal was indiscriminately stabbed 

reportedly by ruling party activists on 

December 31 in Jashore, leaving him 

seriously injured. 

Fakhrul talked to doctors and 

enquired about the health condition of 

the injured Jubo Dal activist. 

The BNP leader alleged that the 

entire country has turned into a hospital 

as Awami League usurped power 

snatching people's voting rights. 

"They're now finding out their opponents 

at every district, upazila and 

union and repressing them. They're 

also capturing the houses and shops 

and other property of their opponents, 

creating a serious anarchic situation in 

the country." 

Referring to his Monday's visit to 

Sylhet's Balaganj, Fakhrul said local 

people narrated how opposition leaders 

and activists were tortured and a 

Chhatra Dal activist was gunned down 

on the election day. "Even they (AL 

activists) opened fire on women there." 

Zohr 

05:26 AM 

12:00 PM 

03:56 PM 

05:36 PM 

06:55 PM 

6:43 5:33 

to be quoted, said the cut in the tax rate 

for exporters, especially the RMG ones, 

came as they accepted the government's 

proposal to increase the wages of their 

workers. 

"Although we're apprehending a significant 

fall in the revenue collection 

from this sector, we've reduced the rate 

as the garment owners demanded so to 

raise the wages of their workers. The 

government is always sincere about 

workers' welfare," he said. 

The official also mentioned that the 

new rate will improve the compatibility 

of Bangladeshi products in the world 

market. 

For fiscal year 2018-19, the government 

has set a revenue target-tax and 

non-tax revenue-at Tk 339,280 crore. 

Of the total amount, the NBR has been 

tasked to source Tk 296,201 crore. 

Income tax and other direct taxes will 

contribute Tk 102,201 crore while 

import and export tax Tk 32,589 crore, 

VAT Tk 110,543 crore, supplementary 

duty Tk 48,766, excise duty Tk 2,091 

while turnover tax contribute Tk 11 

crore. 

AL starts selling nomination 

forms for reserve seats 

DHAKA : Ruling Awami League on 

Tuesday started selling nomination 

forms to aspirants for its 43 reserved 

seats (women) in the 11th Parliament, 

reports UNB. 

The aspirants have thronged at the 

AL president's Dhanmondi political 

office in the city since morning to collect 

the nomination forms. 

AL General secretary Obaidul 

Quader formally inaugurated the 

selling of the nominations forms. 

Eight booths have been set up for 

eight divisions for easy access of the 

nomination seekers. 

The party has fixed Tk 30,000 as 

the price of every nomination paper. 

Earlier Monday, the Election 

Commission Secretary announced 

that the commission is likely to 

announce the election schedule on 

February 17 for 50 parliamentary 

seats exclusively reserved for women. 

The reserved seats' distribution will 

reflect the seat share in the directly 

elected 300 constituencies. 

According to the proportional representation 

in the Parliament, Awami 

League will get women MPs from 43 

reserved seats, Jatiya Party from 4 

seats, BNP from one, and others will 

The government on Sunday 

announced a revised pay structure for 

the garment sector following directives 

from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. 

The wages of garment workers under 

grades 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 out of total 

seven grades were adjusted freshly. 

The minimum wage under the 6th 

grade has been increased to Tk 8,420 

from Tk 8,405 which was Tk 5,678 in 

2013 while that under the 5th grade to 

Tk 8,875 from Tk 8,855 which was Tk 

6,042 in 2013. 

A 4th grade worker will now get Tk 

9,347 instead of Tk 9,245 as minimum 

wage against Tk 6,420 in 2013 while 3rd 

grade one will get Tk 9,845 instead of Tk 

9,590 which was Tk 6,805 in 2013. 

The minimum wage under the 2nd 

grade has been increased to Tk 15,416 

from Tk 14,630 which was Tk 10,900 in 

2013 while that under 1st grade to Tk 

18,257 from Tk 17,510 which was Tk 

13,000 in 2013. 

On November 26 last, the government 

published a gazette notification 

fixing Tk 8,000 as the minimum wage 

of garment workers. 

fill out the last two. 

Out of the 300 parliamentary constituencies 

across the country, 

Awami League won in 257 constituencies, 

while Jatiya Party in 22 

seats, BNP in six seats, Workers' 

Party in three constituencies, Gano 

Forum, Jasod and Bikalpadhara each 

in two seats, Tarikat Federation and 

JP each in one seat in the recent 11th 

general election. 

Besides, independent candidates 

were elected in three constituencies 

in the polls held on December 30 last. 

One remaining constituency will go 

to polls on January 27, after the election 

there was postponed earlier following 

the death of a candidate. 

The Election Commission has a 

legal obligation to arrange the polls to 

the 50 reserved seats within 90 days 

after the gazette of general election 

result is published. 

The directly-elected members of 

parliament are the voters of the election. 

If the number of nominated 

candidates by a political party is 

equal to its reserved seats, the contenders 

will be declared elected 

unopposed immediate after the last 

date for withdrawal of candidacy. 

The nomination for reserved women seats of 11th National Parliamentary Election inaugurated yesterday. 

Photo: Star Mail 

Home Minister Assaduzzaman Khan Kamal Inaugurated Traffic Signal Discipline at Zero Point of the 

capital city on Tuesday. 


Govt failed to rein 

in overheated 

rice market, 

alleges BNP 

DHAKA : BNP on Tuesday alleged that 

the government has completely failed to 

control the overheated rice market as the 

ruling party-backed syndicate is raising 

the prices of the staple through tricks, 

reports UNB. 

"Rice prices have gone up frequently 

over the last few days. The prices have 

increased by Tk 6-8 per kg over the last 

one week. People, belonging to the ruling 

party-backed syndicate, are raising the 

prices through various tricks," said BNP 

senior joint secretary general Ruhul 

Kabir Rizvi. He came up with the allegation 

at a press conference at BNP's 

Nayapaltan central office. 

The BNP leader said coarse rice is 

selling at Tk 50 while other varieties at 

Tk 70-80. Rizvi said though the new 

food minister recently urged the traders 

to keep the rice market stable to protect 

his dignity, the traders raised the prices 

further. 

"The syndicate members, who helped 

them (govt) in the election of vote robbery, 

have hiked the rice prices to make 

money. It's now a big question whether 

the food minister has the power to take 

action against them," he said. 

The BNP leader said the syndicate of rice 

traders is making huge money putting people 

in serious troubles to cope with the 

exorbitant prices of the main food. "Even, 

low-income people are starving due to the 

unusual rise in the rice prices." 

Abide by traffic rules to ease 

congestions: Minister 

DHAKA : Observing that traffic congestions 

will ease in the capital if traffic 

rules are followed everywhere, Home 

Minister Asaduzzaman Khan on 

Tuesday urged the city dwellers to 

abide by the law. 

He made the call while inaugurating 

the 'Fortnightly Traffic Discipline' programme 

at the Zero Point (GPO 

Crossing) in the city in the afternoon, 

reports UNB. 

Starting from today (Tuesday), the 

discipline programme will continue till 

January 31 to make the city dwellers 

aware about the traffic rules to restore 

discipline in city streets. 

The Home Minister said the traffic 

department of Dhaka Metropolitan 

Police (DMP) has been working tirelessly 

to build the city as traffic jamfree 

one. 

He mentioned that both motorcyclists 

and pillion riders are now using 

helmets following various initiatives 

taken by police. "It's a success as they 

didn't use helmets before." 

Terming the death of two Shaheed 

Ramiz Uddin Cantonment School and 

College students in a road accident 

unfortunate, Asaduzzaman said a special 

traffic week was formally inaugurated 

at the same spot (Zero Point) last 

year after the tragic incident to bring 

back discipline in the streets. 

Verdict in Eskaton double 

murder case Jan 30 

DHAKA : The verdict in the New Eskaton 

double murder case against Bakhtiar 

Alam Rony, son of former Awami League 

MP Pinu Khan, will now be delivered on 

January 30, reports UNB. 

Dhaka Additional Metropolitan 

Session's Judge Manjurul Imam fixed the 

date on Tuesday after closing the lawpoint 

arguments from both sides newly. 

The court was supposed to pronounce 

its judgment on October 4 last. However, 

it deferred for the second time the delivery 

of the verdict in the double murder 

case as the prosecution filed a petition to 

summon the investigation officer of the 

case for rehearing. Following the petition, 

Judge of the Dhaka Additional 

Metropolitan Session Judge's Court-1 Md 

Monjurul Imam asked IO Dipak Kumar 

Das to present a mobile call list to the 

court on October 17 of the year. 

The court was scheduled to deliver the 

verdict first on May 8, 2018. However, the 

judgment in the case was deferred on the 

day as Judge Md Al Mamun said he could 

not prepare the judgment. So, he decided 

to defer the delivery of the judgment. 

On April 13, 2015, Bakhtiar Alam Rony, 

said to be a drug addict, opened fire on 

people indiscriminately near Janakantha 

Bhaban in New Eskaton area from his car, 

Abdul Karim Rajib, a second-year 

student of Humanities department, 

and Dia Khanam Meem, a first-year 

Science student of the college section 

of the educational institution, was 

killed in a road accident on Airport 

Road on July 29 last year. The road 

accident sparked widespread protests 

among students who went on a movement 

demanding safe roads. 

In his address, DMP Commissioner 

Asaduzzaman Mia said the DMP 

observed traffic discipline campaign 

for thrice last year. 

Members of BNCC, Rover Scouts, 

Red Crescent and other government 

agencies are also working along with 

them to bring back discipline in the city 

streets, he said. 

Though there have been some progresses 

in bringing discipline in the 

streets, the city dwellers are yet to be 

satisfied over the traffic jam, the DMP 

chief said. "We've identified 130 spots 

for bus stoppage and the city corporations 

have started turning those into 

bus stands," he said. 

He said some 57 check-posts have 

been set up in the city streets to continue 

the activities of the traffic department 

to regulate traffic during the 

ongoing 'Fortnightly Traffic Discipline' 

programme. Senior officials of the 

DMP were present. 

leaving two people-rickshaw-puller Abdul 

Hakim and Janakantha's auto-rickshaw 

driver Yakub-injured with bullets. Hakim 

succumbed to his injuries at DMCH on 

April 15 while Yeakub died at the hospital 

on April 23. On April 15, a case was filed 

with Ramna Police Station against 

unidentified people in this connection. 

5 killed in B’baria 

road crash 

BRAHMANBARIA : Five people, including a 

woman, were killed and three others injured 

when a microbus, carrying a bridal party, 

plunged into a roadside ditch at Birpasha in 

Bijoynagar Upazila on Tuesday. The deceased 

are Hasan Jamal, 32, son of Nuruzzaman, 

Apu Mia, 30, Apu's wife Jhumur Begum, 25, 

Rajin Salehin Liton, 28 and Parash Mia, 25, of 

Khilgaon area of the capital. Khatihata highway 

police said the accident took place around 

2:30pm on the Dhaka-Sylhet Highway. 

"A Sylhet-bound bridal party microbus 

from Dhaka hit a roadside tree and fell 

into a ditch , killing five of its passengers 

on the spot," highway police OC Hossain 

Sarkar told UNB. A firefighting unit 

rushed to the spot and rescued the injured 

- including the bridegroom.

NEWS 

WEDNESDAY, 

JANuARY 16, 2019 

2 

Different organizations including Bangladesh Photo Journalist Association paid tribute to Acting Editor of 

Manabkontho who died yesterday at the age of only 52. 

Photo : Riya Choudhury 

BGCCI discusses trade, investment 

issues with Minister Tipu 

DHAKA : A delegation of 

Bangladesh-German Chamber of 

Commerce and Industry (BGCCI) led 

by its President Omar Sadat on 

Tuesday met Commerce Minister 

Tipu Munshi and discussed various 

issues related to trade and 

investment, reports UNB. 

The delegation exchanged views on 

bilateral trade relations between 

Bangladesh and Germany. 

They also discussed with the 

Commerce Minister as to how the 

foreign direct investment (FDI) can 

be increased in Bangladesh, said the 

bilateral chamber body. 

The Minister hoped that with 

cooperation from everybody 

Bangladesh can be one of the top 

countries of the world in terms of 

trade and investment. 

Senior Vice President Golam 

Morshed, Vice President Md Muin 

Uddin Mazumder, Directors Kutub 

Uddin Durlove and Ibnul Wara; and 

Executive Director MA Matin were 

present. 

Housewife's throat 

slit body found in 

Nawabganj 

KERANIGANJ : Police 

recovered the throat-slit 

body of a housewife at 

Dighirpar in Nawabganj 

upazila on Tuesday, reports 

UNB. 

The deceased was 

identified as Parul Akhter, 

38, wife of Akkas Fakir. 

The victim's 12-year old 

son Parvez found her 

mother's throat-slit body 

covered with a blanket on 

her bed around 10 am, 

Mostafa Kamal, officer-incharge 

of Nawabganj Police 

Station, said quoting Parul's 

brother Jewel. Hearing his 

screams, locals rushed in 

and informed police, said 

the OC. 

Later, police recovered the 

body. The victim's brother 

alleged that his brother-inlaw, 

who is a drug-addict, 

used to torture his sister. 

"He killed my sister and 

went into hiding," said 

Jewel. 

Man killed in 

Thakurgaon 

road crash 

THAKURGAON : A 

motorcyclist was crushed 

under a bus at Chhoto 

Khochabari area in Sadar 

upazila on Monday night. 

The deceased was 

identified as Danesh 

Barman, 38, son of 

Surendranath Barman of 

Dholarhat village. 

Mofidar Rahman, station 

officer of Thakurgaon Fire 

Service and Civil Defence, 

said a bus ran over Danesh 

when he fell down on the 

road after his motorcycle 

had slipped, leaving him 

dead on the spot. 

Pillion-river Subal Roy, 

who sustained minor 

injuries, was taken to 

Thakurgaon Sadar Hospital. 

BCL leader held with 

pistol, yaba in Faridpur. 

Detectives in a drive arrested 

Bhanga upazila unit 

president of Bangladesh 

Chhatra League along with a 

pistol and yaba tablets from 

Bhanga Bazar on Monday 

night, reports UNB. 

KOICA to help Bangladesh improve 

safety on highways thru' ITS 

DHAKA : Korea International Cooperation 

Agency (KOICA) will help Bangladesh 

improve reliability and safety in its national 

highway corridors by introducing 

Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) that 

will also reduce traffic congestion on the 

highway, reports UNB. 

KOICA will provide US$ 8.93 million 

grant to develop the master plan for ITS and 

execute a pilot project. 

The project would cover the incident 

management system, traffic information 

system, traffic enforcement system, speed 

enforcement system, traffic management 

center, servers and communication 

equipment, and strengthen the capacity of 

Bangladeshi officers, KOICA said on 

Tuesday. 

In response to Bangladesh government's 

request a KOICA pre-survey Mission from 

South Korea visited Bangladesh from 

January 6 to 15 for the proposed project 

GD-84/19 (6 x 3) 

proposal for "Improvement of the 

Reliability and Safety in National Highway 

Corridors of Bangladesh by Introduction of 

Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS)". 

The team had a series of discussions with 

all the relevant stakeholders including 

Bangladesh Roads Transport and Highway 

Division (RTHD), Roads and Highway 

Division (RHD), Highway Police, BRTC, 

City Corporation and other Development 

Partners etc. 

The team also visited the Dhaka- 

Chottogram highways (N1) by road to see 

the current highway road condition. 

KOICA Country Director in Bangladesh 

Joe Hyun-Gue and Secretary of RTHD 

Nazrul Islam signed a document on 

Tuesday on behalf of their organizations in 

the city. 

Secretary Nazrul Islam hoped this project 

will create a symbol of long friendship 

between Bangladesh and Korea. 

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METRO 

WedNesdAY, JANuArY 16, 2019 

3 

Chobi Mela X curtain-raiser 

on 28 February 

DHAKA : The tenth edition of Chobi Mela, the most 

prestigious photography festival in Asia, will begin on28 

February, reports UNB. 

In a press conferenceheld at Drik's new gallery in 

Panthapath on Tuesday, the organisers updated the media on 

upcoming festival programme. 

The festival will continue with many happenings till 9 March 

2019. 

Chobi Mela - International Festival of Photography is put 

together biannually by Drik Picture Library Ltd. and Pathshala 

South Asian Media Institute. Since its inception in 2000, 

Chobi Mela has been the most significant photography event 

in Asia and a regular biennale. At the press conference Festival 

DirectorShahidul Alampresented an overview of the 

upcoming festival andintroduced the newly formed Chobi 

Mela advisory board members. 

Members include prominent Indian economist and Nobel 

laureate Amartya Sen,former Deputy Governor of Bangladesh 

BankKhondokar Ibrahim Khaled, human rights activist 

Khushi Kabir, Nepali publisher, writer and editor Kunda Dixit, 

Indian photographer Raghu Rai, economist Rehman 

Sobhan,literary critic, activist and historian Serajul Islam 

Choudhury and human rights activist and former Advisor to 

the Caretaker Government of BangladeshSultana Kamal. 

Shahidul Alamalso shared thateminent writer Arundhati 

Roy from India will be visiting upcoming Chobi Mela to give 

an artist talk. The theme for Chobi Mela X is'Place'. Curated 

byASM Rezaur Rahman,Munem Wasif,Sarker Protick, 

Tanzim Wahabalong with guest curators including Naeem 

Mohaiemen and Sabih Ahmed, the tenth edition of the festival 

will be more exciting with all venues situated in Dhanmondi 

area. 

The Drik-Pathshala under construction building in 

Panthapath will be the main venue along with other galleries 

of Alliance Francaise de Dhaka,Drik Gallery 1 & 2 

(Dhanmondi) and Drik Gallery 3 (Panthapath). 

Chobi Mela X also brings an exciting list of events. Artist's 

talks, panel discussions and curated slideshow will be 

organised around the theme'Place'at Goethe Institut 

Bangladesh auditorium while Pathshala South Asian Media 

Institute is the educational venue where workshops, and 

portfolio reviews will be held. Chobi Mela X is to feature over 

27 exhibitions with works from 35 artists spanning 20 

countries. 

The festival has also engaged a group of young Bangladeshi 

artists to produce site-specific artwork for the festival. To 

investigate the theme 'Place', artists fromdifferent 

backgrounds of painting, drawing, animation, sculpture, 

photography, video, sound and installation will stretch the 

medium physically and conceptually. 

Govt committed to 

overall development 

of shipping sector: 

Khalid 

DHAKA : State Minister for 

Shipping Ministry Khalid 

Mahmud Chowdhury on 

Tuesday said the 

government is committed to 

the overall development of 

the shipping sector, reports 

UNB. 

"We are also committed to 

providing all the facilities for 

the welfare of the sailors," 

said the state minister. 

The newly appointed 

minister came up pledges at 

the conference room of the 

secretariat while 

distributing checks to the 

families of the on-duty 

sailors who died in a ship 

capsize incident in the China 

Sea. 

The ministry is always 

cordial to provide 

compensation to the victims 

of marine accidents as well 

as solving their problems, he 

said. 

Outgoing Nepalese 

envoy calls on PM 

DHAKA : Outgoing 

Nepalese Ambassador in 

Dhaka Dr Chop Lal Bhusal 

and his spouse on Tuesday 

made a farewell call on 

Prime Minister Sheikh 

Hasina at the latter's office 

here, reports UNB. 

At the meeting, they 

discussed various issues 

relating to mutual interests 

particularly cooperation on 

hydrological electricity and 

communication sectors, 

said PM's Press Secretary 

Ihsanul Karim while 

briefing reporters after the 

meeting. 

The Prime Minister 

renewed her proposal to 

Nepal for using Syedpur 

Airport which is being 

developed as a regional 

airport as it lies just 20 

minutes by air from the 

Eastern Nepal. 

About development of 

road communications the 

Prime Minister said 

Bangladesh, Bhutan, India 

and Nepal have signed an 

agreement 

for 

development of 

communications in the 

region aimed at enhancing 

trade and business. 

She laid importance on 

activating the BBIN 

initiative and removing the 

existing visa complications. 

The Nepalese envoy said 

his country wants to export 

hydroelectricity to 

Bangladesh. A business 

summit is going to be held 

in Nepal where Bangladesh 

can negotiate for 500 

megawatts of electricity. 

Cuban President, Czech 

PM greet Hasina 

DHAKA : President of the Council of State 

and Ministers of the Republic of Cuba Miguel 

Diaz-Canel Bermudez, in a message, has 

congratulated Bangladesh Awami League 

President Sheikh Hasina on her reelection as 

Prime Minister of Bangladesh, reports UNB. 

In a separate message, Prime Minister of 

the Czech Republic Andrej Babis has 

GD-85/19 (5 x 3) 

congratulated Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina 

on her reappointment as the Prime Minister 

of Bangladesh. 

The Czech Prime Minister also expressed 

conviction that the cooperation between the 

two countries would continue to develop in 

all areas of common interest, said the 

Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday. 

Iqvmv-Rt Zt- 21/19 

GD-87/19 (5 x 4) 

K…DK=154 

GD-82/19 (8 x 4) GD-89/19 (7 x 4)

EDITORIAL 

WednesdAy, 

JAnuAry 16, 2019 

4 

Acting Editor & Publisher : Jobaer Alam 

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

e-mail: editor@thebangladeshtoday.com 

Wednesday, January 16, 2019 

keeping vital 

national institutions 

above reproach 

N 

o 

elected government during the last decade 

and a half before the coming into power of 

the present one in Bangladesh could show 

even a semblance of honesty and character in 

preserving the character of vital state institutions. 

All of them had tampered with them in their bids 

to leave behind vestiges of their control even at the 

end of their tenures. But people's memories 

regrettably are found too short. They complain 

these days about the politicizing of the judiciary, the 

administration and government services without 

thinking who started this process and sort of made 

the same a lasting feature of governance. 

Undoubtedly, their ill practices only created the 

compulsions or inducement on their successors to 

follow in the same path on the plea of otherwise 

risking political annihilation. 

Thus, people are expected to look back and 

correctly identify irresponsibilities. It would be 

foolish if they are carried away by unfounded 

thoughts that these are relatively new 

developments and have no links to the past. They 

should realize that the roots of the present in such 

cases lie buried in the past. So, if reformations are 

sought then the same should be carried out with a 

proper perspective. Another national election has 

taken place and the voters should start 

demonstrating their consciousness that they want 

the main political parties to commit themselves 

irrevocably to completely depoliticize governance 

systems from their first day on going to power. 

Our people must not forget that under the past 

elected BNP led governments, pervasive cases of 

interfering with the normal functioning of state 

institutions were noted. From the top levels of the 

bureaucracy to the lower levels, party loyalists were 

promoted to important positions. Even in the 

recruitment of civil servants, those who were 

certified underhand as party supporters, were 

actually recruited. Thus, predominance of BNP 

supporting civil servants at all levels, was assured 

even after the BNP's giving up of power to contest 

the elections. The rank and file of the police were 

similarly structured to favour the BNP. 

The politicising of the Election Commission (EC) 

was too well known. From its controversial Chief 

Election Commissioner (CEC) and the equally suspect 

deputies, all of them were transparently revealed to be 

brazen party supporters who were most stubbornly 

carrying out the dictates of their appointers. 

The judiciary was similarly politicised. Judges 

were also allegedly appointed with political 

motivation by the second Awami League led 

government. But such appointments and 

arbitrariness in the selection of individuals became 

rampant from the time of take over by the second 

BNP led government of Begum Khaleda Zia. 

People with poor or nondescript background as 

advocates were suddenly and spectacularly made 

judges of the highest court of the land in that 

period. One of them who is still to clears charges of 

using a forged certificate of the LLB exam, gave the 

eyebrow raising judgment in a case against former 

President Ershad, completing the hearing and 

giving of verdict all on one day that seemed to 

demonstrate so clearly that the haste was due to the 

prodding of his political masters. The real 

significance of such miscarriage of justice was that 

the same led to a dismal erosion in the freedom and 

quality of the judiciary, the last resort in matters of 

getting justice by individuals as well as collectively 

by the people in their best interests. 

If these misdeeds were not done, then the nation 

today would be running well on the high road of 

normalcy and well-being in all respects. Successors 

governments would not find either the excuse or 

the temptation to follow in the same path for 

maintaining their grip on power. Thus, there would 

be hardly political conflicts of such a serious nature 

that we witness now over such issues affecting so 

grievously the economic and social life . There 

would be no uncertainty and Bangladesh would be 

only preparing itself to play the role of an emerging 

economic powerhouse with a sound and 

functional system of true democratic governance. 

Thus, civil society must raise its voice to impress 

on all political players after the successful 

conclusion of 30 December 2018 election that they 

must start from a clean slate and refrain from doing 

similar crimes of manipulating and harming vital 

state institutions that would only allow a similar 

crisis to form in the future to the great detriment of 

the country. 

delusions of imperial grandeur divide Brexit Britain 

As the UK prepares for Tuesday's 

key parliamentary vote on a deal 

for leaving the EU, the country 

continues to stumble over the illusions 

that Brexit advocates sold to voters. 

Among the ideas that Brexiteers 

presented to British voters - well, to the 

English and Welsh publics, as neither 

Scottish nor Northern Irish voters 

supported Brexit - were delusions of 

imperial grandeur. Brexit leaders such as 

Boris Johnson suggested that, once freed 

from EU constraints, the UK would have 

exciting opportunities to sign new trade 

deals with many countries. The likes of 

Nigel Farage tapped into feelings of 

nostalgia for empire - a time when the 

British felt that they knew their place in 

the world, and it was on top. 

Of course, many British voters wanted 

to remain in the EU. Many were crushed 

by the Brexit vote; especially educated, 

younger people, who felt that Brexit was 

taking away an identity and opportunities 

that are closely linked with the EU. Also, 

many British citizens have long been 

willing to question their imperial history. 

I once watched a UK news program 

discussing Britain's history in India - 

citizens from different parts of the 

country called in to highlight problems 

with the empire's actions, and the only 

caller who defended it was an American. 

Those who voted for Brexit did so for a 

range of reasons, including frustrations 

with economic inequality, opposition to 

then-Prime Minister David Cameron, 

grievances related to immigration and 

cultural change, and an embrace of antielitism. 

Some worried about problems 

with the National Health Service (NHS) 

and listened to Brexiteer claims that 

On the same day Donald Trump 

and Xi Jinping struck a trade-war 

truce in Argentina, some 11,000 

kilometers away Canadian authorities 

made an arrest on suspicion of violating 

US sanctions on Iran. Conversely, a 

Chinese court order instructed Apple to 

stop sales of its iPhones, which observers 

believe was a cautionary signal to 

Washington. 

All these escalations threaten to make 

the US-China conflict much worse. This 

latest development highlights the fact 

that fundamental disagreements 

between the US and China are 

intensifying fast and furious. Indeed, 

Beijing and Washington face geopolitical 

fissures that may persist in the coming 

decades. 

Such disagreements have become 

increasingly evident since 2013 when Xi 

launched his trillion-dollar Belt and Road 

Initiative to dominate Eurasia and 

thereby the world beyond. Donald 

Trump's White House, in turn, is 

wielding tariffs along with its Indo-Pacific 

Strategy as weapons to try to beat 

recalcitrant allies back into line and 

cripple the mammoth BRI. 

However different these approaches 

may seem, they share one strikingly 

similar feature: a reliance on the concept 

of "geopolitics" to guide their bids for 

global power. 

At the end of the 19th century, an 

American naval historian argued that sea 

power was the key to national security 

and international influence. A decade 

kerry Boyd Anderson 

withdrawing from the EU would mean 

more money for the NHS. 

Nostalgia for the British Empire and 

the idea that a post-Brexit UK would be 

able to pursue a new role in the world also 

appealed to many people. For many years 

prior to Brexit, many Britons - especially 

the English - had felt a loss of identity. 

While some, who tended to be younger, 

better educated and living in 

metropolitan areas, embraced dual 

identities as English and European, 

others felt lost amid Europeanization, 

globalization and the devolution of 

powers to the other nations within the 

UK. Perhaps some longed for the career 

opportunities abroad that the old British 

Empire offered to many British men. 

Brexit will badly damage the British 

economy and leave the country with less 

to offer on its own than it can as part of 

the EU. Grievances regarding inequality, 

lack of opportunities and a loss of identity 

are all understandable and deserve 

attention. Sometimes, however, such 

sentiments cross the line into a longing 

for superiority and a sense of entitlement. 

A desire for a place in the world is one 

thing; a desire to be on top of the world is 

another. The desire for a new global role 

for the UK is part of Prime Minister 

Theresa May's challenge in negotiating a 

Brexit deal. For many Brexiteers, the idea 

that an unfettered UK will be able to 

negotiate new trade deals and further 

diversify its trade relationships is 

essential and is a key reason why they 

oppose any Brexit deal that leaves the 

country inside the EU Customs Union. 

They are intent on pursuing a "Global 

Those who voted for Brexit did so for a range of 

reasons, including frustrations with economic 

inequality, opposition to then-Prime Minister 

david Cameron, grievances related to immigration 

and cultural change, and an embrace of antielitism. 

some worried about problems with the 

national health service (nhs) and listened to 

Brexiteer claims that withdrawing from the eu 

would mean more money for the nhs. 

later, a British geographer observed that 

railroads had shifted the locus of global 

power landward into the interior of the 

vast Eurasian continent. 

In the succeeding century, a succession 

of scholars would draw on these two basic 

ideas to inspire bold geopolitical gambits 

by Nazi Germany, by Cold War 

Washington, and more successfully by 

China's mega-project Belt and Road 

Initiative, which primarily focuses on all 

forms of physical infrastructure (road, 

airport, maritime and energy). China 

envisages a vast global network of trade, 

investment and infrastructure that will 

reshape financial and geopolitical ties - 

and bring the rest of the world closer to 

Beijing. Since its inception, the BRI has 

financed infrastructure projects in 112 

countries. It is a modern-day version of 

the Marshall Plan, America's 

reconstruction effort after World War II, 

which created a foundation for enduring 

military and diplomatic alliances. China's 

strategy is bolder, more expensive and far 

Anu AnWAr 

Britain," as Secretary of State for 

International Trade Liam Fox has put it, 

or an "Empire 2.0," as Whitehall officials 

reportedly said. The Global Britain 

proponents, however, face serious 

obstacles. In most cases, a post-Brexit UK 

will have less leverage negotiating trade 

deals. Brexit will badly damage the British 

economy and leave the country with less 

to offer on its own than it can as part of 

the EU. After Brexit, the country's need to 

quickly expand trade relationships will 

weaken its negotiating position. The UK 

also lacks the technocratic capacity to 

riskier. In the West, it is feared that the 

BRI is an extension of efforts by the 

Communist Party of China (CPC) to 

undermine the security and economic 

architecture of the international order. 

China's growing largesse, Western 

countries worry, comes largely at the 

expense of international institutions and 

American influence. 

As the BRI is only five years old (and 

many of its main members have been 

China envisages a vast global network of trade, investment 

and infrastructure that will reshape financial and 

geopolitical ties - and bring the rest of the world closer to 

Beijing. since its inception, the BrI has financed 

infrastructure projects in 112 countries. It is a modern-day 

version of the Marshall Plan, America's reconstruction 

effort after World War II, which created a foundation for 

enduring military and diplomatic alliances. 

involved for a far shorter time), its full 

results cannot yet be judged. However, a 

preliminary assessment can be offered for 

BRI projects in South and Southeast Asia, 

the region described by Chinese leaders 

as the "main axis" of the project. Large 

ports in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and 

Myanmar - three countries along a major 

oil and commerce route from the Middle 

East and Africa - could someday double 

as naval logistics hubs. These three BRI 

countries play key roles in achieving 

China's core geopolitical strategic goal 

called the "String of Pearls." That term as 

quickly negotiate a new trade relationship 

with the EU and negotiate many new 

bilateral deals. While Brexiteers might 

love the image of a strong, attractive 

Britain merrily signing new trade deals, 

the reality is that many former colonies 

and Commonwealth members do not feel 

so fondly toward the UK. Some would be 

happy to discuss trade opportunities, but 

their view of the relationship is more 

cautious. Most Commonwealth 

members opposed Brexit, as many have 

benefited from the UK serving as a point 

of entry for them to the EU. As already 

seen with India, it is likely that many 

Commonwealth countries might seek an 

easing of British visa regulations as part of 

new trade negotiations, which would run 

directly counter to the anti-immigration 

sentiment behind Brexit. 

Leaders in Commonwealth and other 

countries also understand that many 

passionate Brexiteers hold onto a sense of 

English superiority. For example, 

Johnson once publicly characterized 

Commonwealth citizens in racist, 

disrespectful terms. Fox has said that the 

UK "is one of the few countries in the 

European Union that does not need to 

bury its 20th century history" - a stunning 

claim to people in former British colonies 

and British-dominated territories. Such 

attitudes do not encourage many 

countries to develop deeper relationships 

with the UK. Britain could have pursued 

a more impactful global role as part of the 

EU, but the Brexit vote is partly based on 

the illusion that the country can regain 

some sense of power and pride that feels 

more like its old empire. 

Source : Arab news 

how BrI poses risks to 21st-century geopolitical landscape 

Just over five years ago, I was 

working in the music events 

industry. It was my job to make 

sure that bands, equipment and 

guests all ended up in the right place, 

but that turned out to be far more 

difficult than I expected. With 

musicians getting lost all over the 

English countryside, I realised street 

addresses just weren't reliable 

enough, and latitude and longitude 

coordinates were too long and easy 

to mistake. There had to be a better 

way. 

I sat down with a couple of friends 

to tackle this problem, and 

what3words was born. We divided 

the entire world into 3mx3m 

squares, and gave each square a 

unique three-word address. 

recoil.itself.electrics for example, 

identifies the exact front entrance of 

the Shaikh Zayed Grand Mosque. We 

had created a location reference 

solution that was very, very precise 

but also simple, and easy to 

remember, use and share with 

others. I had solved my problem of 

directing musicians to festival fields, 

but soon realised that three-word 

addresses could have a far greater 

impact on the world. 

Four billion people don't have a 

reliable address for where they live. 

They struggle to stake a property 

claim, register births, open a bank 

account, access health services, run a 

Three words to address the world 

business or be found in an 

emergency. It hampers the growth 

and progress of nations and puts 

lives at risk. And even in the bestaddressed 

parts of the world, street 

addresses aren't accurate enough for 

services such as on-demand delivery, 

and certainly not for a future of 

autonomous vehicles and delivery 

drones. 

What3words offers people a really 

simple way to talk about location. It 

can currently be used in 26 

languages, including Arabic, and is 

optimised for speech recognition. 

The technology is used by 

businesses, governments and NGOs 

to operate more efficiently, and by 

individuals to find and share places 

reliably using the free app for iOS or 

Android. 

Our system is being used by 

ChrIs sheldrICk 

humanitarian organisations and 

NGOs around the world to give 

people access to essential services. In 

rural India, for example, Pollinate 

Energy uses three-word addresses to 

deliver solar lanterns to communities 

without electricity. In Mongolia and 

Liberia, people can now access 

microfinance for the first time - 

thanks to having an address to 

Four billion people don't have a reliable address for 

where they live. They struggle to stake a property claim, 

register births, open a bank account, access health 

services, run a business or be found in an emergency. It 

hampers the growth and progress of nations and puts 

lives at risk. And even in the best-addressed parts of the 

world, street addresses aren't accurate enough for 

services such as on-demand delivery, and certainly not for 

a future of autonomous vehicles and delivery drones. 

mention on their application form. 

In South Africa, NGO Gateway 

Health provides vulnerable pregnant 

women with their three-word 

addresses and has trained the local 

ambulance drivers to find places 

quickly in an emergency using 

what3words. The technology has also 

been used by the United Nations, 

Infinitum Humanitarian Systems 

and the Philippine Red Cross for 

faster and more effective response in 

a geopolitical concept was first used in an 

internal US Department of Defense 

report titled "Energy Futures in Asia." 

The term is also widely used in India's 

geopolitical and foreign-policy narratives 

to highlight its concerns over massive BRI 

projects across southern Asia. 

Through this geopolitical strategy, 

Beijing aims to build a network for 

Chinese military and commercial 

facilities and relationships along with its 

sea lines of communication, which 

extend from the Chinese mainland to 

Port Sudan. The sea lines run through 

several major maritime chokepoints such 

as the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, the Strait of 

Malacca, the Strait of Hormuz, and the 

Lombok Strait as well as other strategic 

maritime centers in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, 

Bangladesh, Maldives and Somalia. 

All these straits, countries and 

chokepoints are crucial for international 

energy and trade supply lanes, which 

makes them of interest to the US Navy. 

Consequently, the Chinese military 

presence in these regions will 

undoubtedly escalate tensions that could 

turn into an unexpected incident, as has 

already occurred in the South China 

Sea.A 2016 report by the Center for 

Strategic and International Studies 

judged that none of the Indian Ocean 

port projects funded through the BRI 

have much hope of financial success. 

They were likely prioritized for their 

geopolitical utility. 

Source : Asia Times 

the aftermath of natural disasters. 

As well as enabling access to basic 

services, we are working with 

innovative companies to build the 

cities, transport systems and 

mobility solutions of the future. 

Mercedes-Benz already offers 

what3words voice navigation in 

several of its vehicles, enabling 

drivers to input any precise 

destination simply by saying three 

words to their car. The technology 

has also been integrated into 

autonomous shuttles such as IBM's 

#AccessibleOlli and modular 

vehicles created by Next Future 

Transportation in Dubai. 

As we move towards increasingly 

fluid and flexible transport systems 

and the sharing economy grows in 

importance, being able to easily 

communicate precise location is 

essential. What3words has been built 

into ride-hailing apps such as Cabify, 

a key player in Spanish and 

Portuguese markets, and can be used 

to locate charging points for electric 

vehicles, as well as specific parking 

spots for car-sharing projects. By 

making these new mobility services 

efficient and easy to use, we can cut 

carbon emissions and enjoy cleaner, 

healthier cities. 

Source : Gulf News

ENVIRONMENT 

WEDNESDAY, 

JANUARY 16, 2019 

5 

Are we destroying our life support systems? 

Damian Carrington 

"We knew that something was 

amiss in the first couple days," 

said Brad Lister. "We were 

driving into the forest and at 

the same time both Andres 

and I said: 'Where are all the 

birds?' There was nothing." 

His return to the Luquillo 

rainforest in Puerto Rico after 

35 years was to reveal an 

appalling discovery. The 

insect population that once 

provided plentiful food for 

birds throughout the 

mountainous national park 

had collapsed. On the ground, 

98% had gone. Up in the leafy 

canopy, 80% had vanished. 

The most likely culprit by far 

is global warming. "It was just 

astonishing," Lister said. 

"Before, both the sticky 

ground plates and canopy 

plates would be covered with 

insects. You'd be there for 

hours picking them off the 

plates at night. But now the 

plates would come down after 

12 hours in the tropical forest 

with a couple of lonely insects 

trapped or none at all." "It was 

a true collapse of the insect 

populations in that 

rainforest," he said. "We 

began to realise this is terrible 

- a very, very disturbing 

result." Earth's bugs outweigh 

humans 17 times over and are 

such a fundamental 

foundation of the food chain 

that scientists say a crash in 

insect numbers risks 

"ecological Armageddon". 

When Lister's study was 

published in October, one 

expert called the findings 

"hyper-alarming". 

The Puerto Rico work is one 

of just a handful of studies 

assessing this vital issue, but 

those that do exist are deeply 

worrying. Flying insect 

numbers in Germany's 

natural reserves have plunged 

75% in just 25 years. The 

virtual disappearance of birds 

in an Australian eucalyptus 

forest was blamed on a lack of 

insects caused by drought and 

heat. Lister and his colleague 

Andrés García also found that 

insect numbers in a dry forest 

in Mexico had fallen 80% 

since the 1980s. "We are 

essentially destroying the very 

life support systems that allow 

us to sustain our existence on 

the planet, along with all the 

other life on the planet," Lister 

said. "It is just horrifying to 

watch us decimate the natural 

world like this." It was not 

insects that drew Lister to the 

Luquillo rainforest for the first 

time in the mid-1970s. "I was 

El Yunque national forest in Sierra de Luquillo, Puerto Rico. 

Photo: Stuart Westmorland 

interested in competition 

among the anoles lizards," he 

said. "They're the most 

diverse group of vertebrates in 

the world and even by that 

time had become a paradigm 

for ecology and evolutionary 

studies." 

The forest immediately 

captivated Lister, a lecturer at 

Rensselaer Polytechnic 

University in the US. "It was 

and still is the most beautiful 

forest I have ever been in. It's 

almost enchanted. There's the 

lush verdant forest and 

cascading waterfalls, and 

along the roadsides there are 

carpets of multicoloured 

flowers. It's a phantasmagoric 

landscape." It was important 

to measure insect numbers, as 

these are the lizards' main 

food, but at the time he 

thought nothing more of it. 

Returning to the national park 

decades later, however, the 

difference was startling. "One 

of the things I noticed in the 

forest was a lack of 

butterflies," he said. "They 

used to be all along the 

roadside, especially after the 

rain stopped, hundreds upon 

hundreds of them. But we 

couldn't see one butterfly." 

Since Lister's first visits to 

Luquillo, other scientists had 

predicted that tropical insects, 

having evolved in a very stable 

climate, would be much more 

sensitive to climate warming. 

"If you go a little bit past the 

thermal optimum for tropical 

insects, their fitness just 

plummets," he said. 

As the data came in, the 

predictions were confirmed in 

startling fashion. "The 

number of hot spells, 

temperatures above 29C, have 

increased tremendously," he 

said. "It went from zero in the 

1970s up to something like 

44% of the days." Factors 

important elsewhere in the 

world, such as destruction of 

habitat and pesticide use, 

could not explain the 

plummeting insect 

populations in Luquillo, 

which has long been a 

protected area. 

Data on other animals that 

feed on bugs backed up the 

findings. "The frogs and birds 

had also declined 

simultaneously by about 50% 

to 65%," Lister said. The 

population of one dazzling 

green bird that eats almost 

nothing but insects, the 

Puerto Rican tody, dropped 

by 90%. 

Lister calls these impacts a 

"bottom-up trophic cascade", 

in which the knock-on effects 

of the insect collapse surge up 

through the food chain. "I 

don't think most people have 

a systems view of the natural 

world," he said. 

A photo of the cotton sprout. 

Photo: AFP 

China’s great leap on moon 

Hannah Devlin 

A small green shoot is growing on the 

moon after a cotton seed germinated 

onboard a Chinese lunar lander, 

scientists said. The sprout has emerged 

from a lattice-like structure inside a 

canister after the Chang'e 4 lander 

touched down earlier this month, 

according to a series of photos released 

by the Advanced Technology Research 

Institute at Chongqing University. 

"This is the first time humans have 

done biological growth experiments on 

the lunar surface," said Xie Gengxin, 

who led the design of the experiment, 

on Tuesday. 

Plants have been grown previously 

on the International Space Station, but 

this is the first time a seed has sprouted 

on the moon. The ability to grow plants 

in space is seen as crucial for long-term 

space missions and establishing human 

outposts elsewhere in the solar system, 

such as Mars. 

Harvesting food in space, ideally 

using locally extracted water, would 

mean astronauts could survive for far 

longer without returning to Earth for 

supplies. The Chang'e 4 probe - named 

after the Chinese moon goddess - made 

the world's first soft landing on the far 

side of the moon on 3 January, a major 

step in China's ambitions to become a 

space superpower. 

Scientists from Chongqing 

University, who designed the "mini 

lunar biosphere" experiment, sent an 

18cm bucket-like container holding 

air, water and soil. Inside are cotton, 

arabidopsis - a small, flowering plant 

of the mustard family - and potato 

seeds, as well as fruit-fly eggs and 

yeast. 

Images sent back by the probe show a 

cotton plant has grown well, but so far 

none of the other plants had sprouted, 

the university said. Chang'e 4 is also 

equipped with instruments developed 

by scientists from Sweden, Germany 

and China to study the lunar 

environment, cosmic radiation and the 

interaction between solar wind and the 

moon's surface. 

The lander released a rover, 

nicknamed Yutu 2 (Jade Rabbit), 

that will perform experiments in 

the Von Kármán crater. The agency 

said four more lunar missions are 

planned, confirming the launch of 

Chang'e 5 by the end of the year, 

which will be the first probe to 

return samples of the moon to 

Earth since the 1970s. 

"Experts are still discussing and 

verifying the feasibility of subsequent 

projects, but it's confirmed that there 

will be another three missions after 

Chang'e 5," said Wu Yanhua, deputy 

head of the China National Space 

Administration (CNSA), at a press 

conference. 

According to Wu, the Chang'e 6 

mission will be designed to bring 

samples back from the south pole of the 

moon and this will be followed by 

probes that will conduct 

comprehensive surveys of the area. The 

series of missions will also lay the 

groundwork for the construction of a 

lunar research base, possibly using 3D 

printing technology to build facilities. 

Wu also revealed that China will send a 

probe to Mars around 2020. 

Indonesia promises to boost 

fish-stock 

Hannah Summers 

Indonesia, the world's largest tuna fishing nation, has 

pulled out all the stops in recent years to transform the 

health of an industry blighted by depleted stocks and 

illegal poaching. Measures by the government - which 

have even included the bombing of foreign vessels 

fishing illegally in Indonesian waters - have helped fish 

stocks more than double in the last five years. 

But now the industry has reached another important 

milestone: one of Indonesia's tuna fisheries has become 

the first in the country - and second in south-east Asia - 

to achieve the gold standard for sustainable practices. 

The PT Crac Sorong pole and line skipjack and yellowfin 

tuna fishery, based in the province of West Papua, has 

been certified by the internationally recognised Marine 

Stewardship Council (MSC) standard for sustainable 

fishing. 

The fishery, which has become a beacon of best 

practice in the region, runs 35 pole and line fishing 

vessels and employs 750 local fishers. "The efforts made 

by the fishery to achieve MSC certification will help 

safeguard livelihoods, seafood supplies and healthy 

oceans for future generations," said Patrick Caleo, Asia 

Pacific director at the MSC. "We hope to see other 

fisheries follow their lead by joining the global 

movement for seafood sustainability." 

PT Crac's new status will create fresh opportunities 

within the export market. The UK's Sainsbury's and 

Switzerland's largest retailer, Migros, are among 

companies that have already committed to the 

preferential sourcing of certified Indonesian pole and 

line products. 

"We work hard to provide our customers with 

sustainable seafood products, which is why Migros has 

committed to preferentially sourcing MSC-certified 

one-by-one tuna from Indonesia," said Adrian 

Lehmann, one of the company's buyers. Traditional 

pole and line fishing has been carried out in Indonesia 

for many generations. Ali Wibisono, the CEO at PT 

Crac, said the fishery had employed sustainable 

practices since it was founded in 1975. 

However, to meet the international standard it was 

necessary to collect extensive data, implementing an 

observer programme on the vessels to report on tuna 

and baitfish catches and interaction with vulnerable 

species. Wibisono told the Guardian: "Having that first 

certification - hopefully, the first of many for Indonesia 

- is a proud moment and really puts us on the map. It is 

an important milestone for the country but the 

sustainability of our resources goes beyond the 

certification. 

"Our fisheries also have great importance for the 

people of Indonesia, providing many jobs, food and 

supporting livelihoods." He said 25% of the fishery's 

tuna goes to the local market while each of the 750 

fishermen will take some of the catch home to their 

family. 

Indonesia produces more tuna than any other country in the world, with total landings of 

more than 620,000 metric tonnes in 2014. 

Photo: Paul Hilton 

The Ocean Cleanup System 001 during testing in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. 

Photo: The Ocean Cleanup 

Project fails to collect plastic 

in the Pacific 

Environment Desk 

A giant floating barrier launched 

off the coast of San Francisco as 

part of a $20m project to cleanup 

a swirling island of rubbish 

between California and Hawaii, is 

failing to collect plastic. The 

mastermind behind the Ocean 

Cleanup, an ambitious plan to 

clear a swathe of the Pacific twice 

the size of Texas of floating 

debris, reported four weeks into 

testing that while the U-shaped 

device was scooping up plastic, it 

was then losing it. 

Inventor Boyan Slat, 24, said 

that the slow speed of the solarpowered 

600m-long barrier 

means it is unable to hold on to 

plastics, but a team of experts is 

now working on a possible fix. 

"What we're trying to do has 

never been done before. So, of 

course we were expecting to still 

need to fix a few things before it 

becomes fully operational," Slat 

explained. 

A crew of engineers will work 

for the next few weeks to widen 

the span of the floating barrier so 

that it catches more wind and 

waves to help it go faster, he said. 

The marine apparatus known as 

System 001, or 'Wilson', was 

towed out to the area known as 

the Great Pacific Garbage Patch 

in September, after Slat's team of 

70 scientists and engineers spent 

five years testing 273 models and 

six prototypes. 

Slat posted images on social 

media of the first contact the 

barrier had with plastic waste 

after becoming operational in 

October. But in an update this 

week the team said the challenge 

of the device not retaining plastic 

had not been predicted from 

scale models and prototypes. 

A statement said: "Eventually 

the only way to truly see how the 

system would perform was to put 

it in the environment it has been 

designed for, and this application 

has been largely effective, since 

most of the design has withstood 

the tests of the Pacific, such as its 

ability to accumulate plastic, 

reorient with the wind and 

survivability. For the beta phase 

of a technology, this is already a 

success." A crew will now 

perform new tests and collect 

additional data to explore the 

root cause of the issue.

NATIONAL 

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2019 

6 

33 held in Dinajpur 

special drives 

DINAJPUR: Law enforcers, in special drives arrested 33 

persons including nine drug traders from different areas of 

the district in 12-hour ending at 8am last morning, reports 

BSS. 

Law enforcers also seized 135 pieces of Yaba tablets and 

300 bottles of Phensidyl during the drives. Police said they 

were picked up from different areas of the district on 

different charges. 

During the drives, Dinajpur Sadar police arrested eight 

persons including three drug traders along with 135 pieces of 

Yaba tablets, Birganj Thana police arrested four persons, 

Phulbari Thana police arrested two persons, Nawabganj 

Thana police arrested two persons, Biral Thana police 

arrested two persons, Ghoraghat Thana police arrested two 

persons, Bochaganj Thana police arrested one person and 

Chirirbandar Thana police arrested six persons. 

Several cases, including charges of subversive activities, are 

pending with different police stations against the arrested 

persons, the sources added. 

Press orientation workshop on National 

Vitamin A plus campaign held 

MD SELIM MIAH, NARSINGDI CORRESPONDENT: 

A press orientation workshop on National Vitamin A plus 

campaign was held at the conference room of Narsingdi Civil 

Surgeon office on Tuesday. Narsingdi Civil Surgeon Office 

organized the orientation workshop while Narsingdi Civil 

Surgeon Dr. Md. Helal Uddin chaired the occasion. 

Medical officer of the Civil Surgeon Office Dr Abu Kausar 

Suman presented the detailed information on Vitamin 'A' plus 

through a multimedia projector while Narsingdi Sadar Upazila 

Health and Family Planning Officer Dr. Ibrahim Titon 

conducted the workshop. Among others, Civil Surgeon Office 

Medical Officer Dr. Nasim Al Islam, Dr. Munni Das along with 

district level journalists were also present in the occasion. 

It is to be noted that in the 6 upazilas of Narsingdi district, a 

total of 24 lakh 84 thousand and 653 children aged between 6 to 

59 months to be feed vitamin-A Plus capsules. 

Newly elected Deputy Commissioner of Gaibandha Abdul Matin as the chief guest addressed an 

introduction and view exchange meeting in Palashbari upazila on Tuesday. Photo: Rafiqul Islam 

Newly elected Gaibandha DC holds view 

exchange meeting in Palashbari 

RAFIqUL ISLAM, GAIBANDHA CORRESPONDENT: 

Newly elected Deputy 

Commissioner of Gaibandha Abdul 

Matin held an introduction and view 

exchange meeting with Palshabari 

upazila level officials, public 

representatives and civil society 

members on Tuesday. 

Upazila Nirbahi Officer Mejbaul 

Hossain presided over the meeting at 

Upazila Parishad conference room. 

After the meeting, newly elected 

Deputy Commissioner of Gaibandha 

Abdul Matin prayed for the sincere 

cooperation of all people for overall 

development of the district. 

At the occasion, Upazila Parishad 

Vice-Chairman Kohinoor Akter Banu 

Shifon, District Awami League 

Advisory Council member and 

former MP Alhaj Tofazzul Hossain 

Sarker, Upazila Awami League 

President Abu Bakr, General 

Secretary Principal Shamikul Islam 

Sarkar Lipon, Senior Vice President 

and former Upazila Parishad 

Chairman Alhaj AKM Moksed 

Chowdhury Bidyut, Joint General 

Secretary Azadul Islam, AL leader 

and Gaibandha District Bus- 

Minibus-Microbus Owners 

Association President Enamul Huq 

Maqbul, Freedom Fighter 

Commander Abdur Rahman, 

Gaibandha D District Bus-Minibus- 

Microbus Union President Abdus 

Sobhan Bachchu, Thana Officer 

Incharge (Investigation) Mostafizur 

Rahman, General Secretary of 

Upazila Puja Udjapon Parishad Dilip 

Chandra Saha, Mahdipur UP 

Chairman Touhidul Islam Mandal, 

officials of different departments of 

the upazila administration, UP 

chairmen , Social and cultural 

personalities were among others also 

present at the occasion. 

Narsingdi Civil Surgeon Dr. Md. Helal Uddin chaired a press orientation workshop on National 

Vitamin A plus campaign was held at his office conference room on Tuesday. Photo: Md Selim Miah 

Deputy Commissioner of Magura Md Ali Akbar as the chief guest addressed in the two-day long Child 

Fair inauguration ceremony at the Sreepur MC Pilot Govt: Secondary School premises under Magura 

District. 

Photo: M R Jinnah. 

Managing Director of Kumudini Welfare Trust Rajib Prasad Saha as the chief guest attended the orientation 

programme of the first year MBBS students of Kumudini Women's Medical College in 

Mirzapur recently. 

Photo: Md. Rayhan Sarkar 

Orientation of first year MBBS students of 

Kumudini Women's Medical College held 

MD. RAYHAN SARKAR, MIRZAPUR COR- 

RESPONDENT: 

The orientation programme of the 

first year MBBS students of Kumudini 

Women's Medical College was held in 

Mirzapur on Monday. The program 

was held at Satish Banik Hall of 

Kumudini Women's Medical College. 

Managing Director of Kumudini 

Welfare Trust Rajib Prasad Saha was 

present as the chief guest at the 

Coast Guard 

seizes 23 cartons 

of foreign 

cigarette in Ctg 

Members of Bangladesh 

Coast Guard East Zone in a 

drive seized 23 cartons of 

foreign cigarette in Airport 

road in Patenga Thana under 

Chattogram on Monday, says 

a press release. 

In the operation, Coast 

Guard members searched a 

suspected covered van and 

seized 23 foreign master 

cartons of illegal cigarette of 

Mounting Shopping Agent 

(3845 packets of 303 Special 

Filters and 795 packets of 303 

Luxury Filters) from the area. 

The estimated market value of 

the seized cigarettes is 

75,16,500 / 00 (TK 75 lakhs 16 

thousand five hundred only). 

The process of handing over 

the seized cigarette to the 

appropriate authorities is in 

progress. 

function. Professor Dr. MA Jalil, 

former Principal of Kumudini 

Women's Medical College, 

administered oath to 106 students of 

the 19th batch. 

Principal of Kumudini Women's 

Medical College Professor Dr. MA 

Halim presided over the function as 

while among others, Director 

(Education) of Kumudini Welfare Trust 

Pratibha Mutsuddi, Director of 

Kumudini Welfare Trust Professor Dr. 

MA Jalil, former Principal of Kumudini 

Women's Medical College Dr. Pradip 

Kumar Roy, Director of Kumudini 

Hospital Dr. Ranjan Kumar Nath and 

Dr. Khandakar Shah Newaz, Dr. 

Jahangir Kabir were also present at the 

occasion. 

After the ceremony, guests handed 

over flowers to the 19th batch 

students. 

Members of Bangladesh Coast Guard East Zone in a drive seized 23 cartons 

of foreign cigarette in Airport road in Patenga Thana under Chattogram 

recently. 

Photo: Coast Guard 

Two-day long 

Child Fair-2019 

held in Sreepur 

M R JINNAH, SREEPUR 

CORRESPONDENT: 

A two-day long Child 

Fair-2019 ended in 

Sreepur on Tuesday. It 

began on 14th January at 

the Sreepur MC Pilot Govt: 

Secondary School premises 

in Sreepur Upazila under 

Magura district. Child and 

female 

develop 

programme 

of 

communication awareness 

(5th grade) related project. 

It was organized by 

Magura district 

Information office. 

Sreepur Upazila Nirbahi 

Officer Dilara Rahman 

presided over the 

inauguration ceremony of 

the child Fair where 

Deputy Commissioner of 

Magura Md Ali Akbar was 

present and spoke as the 

chief guest. Among others, 

Magura District education 

Officer Ranajit Kumar 

Mazumdar, District 

primary education Officer 

Kumaresh Chandra Gachi, 

Officer-in-charge of 

Sreepur Thana Md 

Mahabubur Rahman, 

Sreepur Sadar Union 

Parishad Chairman Md. 

Moshiar Rahman was also 

present as the special 

guest. Magura district 

Information officer Md 

Rezaul Karim delivered 

welcome speech. 

A total of 12 colorful stalls 

of different educational 

institutions were put on 

display at the fair. At the 

2nd day of the Child Fair a 

discussion meeting and an 

award giving ceremony 

was held. 

Tomato cultivation acts as 

money-spinner in Rajshahi 

RAJSHAHI: Amidst a well 

harvest and better prices in 

the market, the tomato 

growers in the region 

including the vast Barind 

tract are happy this winter, 

reports BSS. 

Tomato, an attractive 

vegetable to the consumers, 

has been appearing in 

different local markets of the 

region for the last couple of 

weeks here. 

Now the farmers are 

collecting tomatoes from 

their fields and selling those 

in different local markets. 

Per maund of green 

tomatoes is being sold at Tk 

1,000 to 1,200 in the 

wholesale markets. 

The farmers here mainly 

have cultivated different 

varieties of tomato like 

'Nasib', 'NL-642', 'Slamot- 

83', 'Bongio', 'Mintu Super', 

'Bizli' and few others in 

different areas across the 

whole upazila this season. 

The farmers grow tomato in 

plenty and supply the 

vegetable worth Tk 2 to 3 

crore to capital Dhaka and 

other districts every year. 

Abdul Awal, a tomato 

grower at Keshobpur village 

in Godagari upazila said, "I 

cultivated tomato on threebigha 

of land costing Tk 

20,000 per bigha this 

season. I have already 

started collecting tomatoes 

from the field and selling in 

the markets". 

"We didn't face any 

serious problem with the 

tomato crop this year," said 

Shariful Islam, another 

farmer of Pirijpur village 

under the same upazila, who 

is happy with his harvest. 

Officials of DAE said the 

cultivation has been 

increased by five to six times 

during the last 15-20 years 

due to introduction of high 

yielding and hybrid varieties 

of the vegetable. "From the 

beginning of the season one 

maund of tomatoes sold for 

over Taka 3,500," said 

farmer Alimur Rahman. 

"After picking tomatoes 

the first two times most 

growers already recouped 

their production costs." 

Dr Shakhawat Hossain, 

senior scientific officer of 

Bangladesh Agriculture 

Research Institute (BARI), 

said they developed 10 high 

yielding and quality varieties 

and modern technologies to 

help the growers. 

BARI has been 

implementing special 

programmes to promote 

those among the farmers 

through arranging training 

and demonstration plots in 

different areas. 

The rates of production of 

the developed varieties are 

comparatively high and 

profitable than the domestic 

varieties. 

Enhancing expertise of female 

entrepreneurs underscored 

RANGPUR: Academicians and development experts here 

have stressed on enhancing knowledge, expertise and skill of 

female entrepreneurs to explore their enormous talents and 

capabilities, reports BSS. 

"Skill-development training always enhances expertise of 

entrepreneurs increasing their self-confidence to achieve 

success in changing fortune," said Vice-chancellor of Begum 

Rokeya University, Rangpur (BRUR) Professor Dr Nazmul 

Ahsan Kalimullah. 

Professor Kalimullah said this on Monday at the function 

held at BRAC Learning Centre here after completion of 

month-long 'Women Entrepreneurship Training' 

programmes in different phases as the chief guest. 

Some 200 selected female students of DWRTI and BRUR 

participated in the two-day group-wise training programmes 

in phases from October 16 to November 20 last to promote 

their empowerment for building a peaceful and prosperous 

Bangladesh. 

The Centre for Peace and Justice (CPJ) of BRAC University 

with Dr Wazed Research and Training Institute (DWRTI) 

under assistance of the UN WOMEN organised the trainings 

in different groups for 200 selected female students of the 

university. 

Moderated by Research Coordinator of the CPJ of BRAC 

University Muhammad Badiuzzaman, it's Executive Director 

Manzoor Hasan OBE, Administrator of the Public Relations, 

Information and Publication Division of BRUR Professor Dr 

Sarifa Salowa Dina and Member of the Board of Governance 

of DWTRI Dr Saber Ahmed Chowdhury spoke as special 

guests.

INTERNATIONAL WEDNESDAy, 

jANUAry 16, 2019 

7 

ICC judges acquit former Ivory 

Coast president Gbagbo 

Judges at the International 

Criminal Court on Tuesday 

acquitted former Ivory 

Coast President Laurent 

Gbagbo and former youth 

minister Charles Ble Goude 

of crimes committed following 

disputed elections 

in 2010, saying prosecutors 

failed to prove their case. 

In a stunning blow to 

prosecutors, Presiding 

Judge Cuno Tarfusser 

ordered the immediate 

release of the 73-year-old 

Gbagbo and Ble Goude following 

the judgment midway 

through their trial. He 

later suspended that order 

ahead of a follow-up hearing 

on Wednesday, when 

prosecutors are expected to 

announce whether they 

will appeal. 

Gbagbo was the first former 

president to go on trial 

at the global court and his 

case was seen as a milestone 

in efforts to bring to 

justice even the highestranking 

leaders accused of 

atrocities. 

Tarfusser said a majority 

of the three-judge chamber 

ruled that "the prosecutor 

New migrant caravan 

sets out from 

Honduras for US 

Another caravan of Central 

American migrants set out 

from Honduras on Monday 

seeking to reach the U.S. 

border, following the same 

route used by thousands last 

year in at least three caravans. 

About 600 migrants gathered 

under a steady rain at 

the bus station in the violent 

city of San Pedro Sula and 

decided to set out in the 

darkness, hours before their 

intended Tuesday departure. 

About 300 people, mainly 

women and children, clambered 

aboard 30 small buses, 

intent on reaching the 

Guatemalan border. 

Another 300 or so began 

walking in the rain toward 

the border town of Agua 

Caliente late Monday. One 

passing man asked a journalist 

for his umbrella, saying 

he feared his daughter 

would get sick in the rain. 

As they walked, some 

migrants pleaded with local 

store owners to give them 

food or water for their journey. 

More people continued to 

arrive at the bus station, 

making it likely the caravan's 

numbers would grow as 

additional migrants set out 

Tuesday. 

One woman, who refused 

to give her name because of 

safety concerns, said her 9- 

year-old daughter had 

already been raped so badly 

she suffered medical problems. 

The mother, who 

worked at a bakery, said she 

was taking her daughter and 

13-year-old son to the United 

States. 

5 killed in Zimbabwe 

fuel hike protests, 

activists say 

A human rights group in 

Zimbabwe says five people 

were killed in clashes 

between demonstrators 

protesting fuel hikes and 

security forces who opened 

fire on some crowds. 

The Zimbabwe Association 

of Doctors for Human 

Rights on Tuesday reported 

the death toll as many businesses 

in the capital, Harare, 

and other cities were closed 

following Monday's violence. 

This is Zimbabwe's 

biggest unrest since deadly 

post-election violence in 

August. 

Another human rights 

group says 26 people suffered 

gunshot wounds and 

that some were afraid to go 

to hospitals for fear of arrest. 

State security minister 

Owen Ncube says lives were 

lost, police officers were 

injured and property was 

damaged. 

has failed to satisfy the burden 

of proof" against both 

men. He said it was a matter 

of public record that 

Ivory Coast was wracked 

by post-election violence in 

2010 and early 2011, but he 

said prosecutors did not 

present evidence that 

Gbagbo and Ble Goude formulated 

a common plan 

for their supporters to 

unleash violence. 

More than 3,000 people 

were killed after Gbagbo 

Former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo enters 

the courtroom of the International Criminal Court in 

The Hague, Netherlands, Tuesday. Photo:Internet 

refused to accept defeat by 

his rival and current Ivory 

Coast President Alassane 

Ouattara. 

As Tarfusser announced 

the acquittals, supporters 

of Gbagbo and Ble Goude 

stood up and cheered in the 

courtroom's gallery. 

Lawyers for Gbagbo and 

Ble Goude asked judges 

last year to acquit both 

men for lack of evidence at 

the end of the prosecution 

case in their trial that 

began just under three 

years ago. 

The ruling was the latest 

defeat for prosecutors at 

the world's first global war 

crimes court. 

The case against Kenyan 

President Uhuru Kenyatta, 

who also was accused of 

involvement - before he 

became president - in postelection 

violence in his 

country, collapsed in 

December 2014. Last year 

a former Congolese vice 

president, Jean-Pierre 

Bemba, was acquitted on 

appeal of crimes allegedly 

committed by his militia in 

neighboring Central 

African Republic. 

South Sudan pursues 

fragile peace, but people 

remain wary 

South Sudan opposition commander 

Moses Lokujo flipped through his notes, 

explaining international humanitarian law 

to an attentive group of senior officers. 

"Soldiers are not supposed to kill someone 

who's not an enemy," he said. "And if 

a civilian is walking with a goat it doesn't 

mean you can steal it just because you have 

a gun." 

Just months ago, such training seemed 

implausible in a country that was 

embroiled in a five-year civil war that 

killed almost 400,000 people and displaced 

millions. Since a fragile peace deal 

was signed in September, however, South 

Sudan's previously warring parties have 

been trying to rebuild trust in some of the 

areas hardest-hit by the war. 

On a trip this month to government and 

opposition-held territories in Kajo Keji in 

Central Equatoria state, The Associated 

Press met with both sides who said the reconciliation 

of former rivals President Salva 

Kiir and opposition leader Riek Machar 

was the reason peace efforts appear to be 

working on the ground. 

"If these two have united, why can't we?" 

said John Camillo, deputy commander for 

government troops in Kajo Keji. 

For the first time, 10 opposition soldiers 

were stationed in the government barracks 

as part of a makeshift soldier swap. Government 

soldiers walked through town, 

unarmed and in civilian clothes, seemingly 

unconcerned by the possibility of attack. 

"There's really been a total change," said 

Abiggo Manson, field officer for the Support 

for Peace and Education Development 

Program, a local aid group. Waving 

to soldiers on a motorbike, Manson said he 

never would have done that in September 

because suspicions at the time remained 

high. 

The peace efforts continue to be undermined 

by violence, however. In October, 

government soldiers attacked the opposition 

in Kajo Keji. More recently, the opposition 

has accused the government of not 

withdrawing its troops from opposition 

territory as stipulated by the peace agreement. 

Renowned as South Sudan's breadbasket, 

the Equatoria region was devastated 

by fighting after renewed clashes erupted 

in the country's capital, Juba, in July 2016. 

Desolate, damaged houses line Kajo Keji's 

eerily quiet streets. Vandalized shops, 

robbed of their windows, roofs and doors, 

are concealed by overgrown brush. 

Kajo Keji county has been cut off from 

aid for more than two years due to repeated 

denials of humanitarian access by the 

warring sides, according to an internal 

humanitarian report seen by AP. The 

county lacks food, shelter and water. 

"The government doesn't have resources 

to bring people back," said Luka Yombek, 

Kajo Keji's former commissioner who left 

office in October. 

In November, a United Nations-led 

humanitarian convoy drove from Juba to 

Kajo Keji for the first time since 2016 to 

assess its needs. While the U.N. said it 

plans to provide assistance where needed, 

it is "contingent on having safe space to 

operate," said Andrea Noyes, head of the 

U.N. humanitarian office for the country. 

In town, only a handful of people have 

trickled back, with the majority of civilians 

too wary to return. 

"We're still waiting to see if the peace 

deal is a real one," said Francis Ladu, one 

of more than 35,000 people sheltering in 

the Korijo displaced persons' camp in the 

opposition-held part of Kajo Keji on the 

Ugandan border. 

Life in the camp is hard. With no clean 

water, people are forced to drink from 

muddy ponds. Ladu said he walks six 

hours into Uganda several times a week to 

work odd jobs to make money to buy food 

for his family. 

Intently watching his 2-month-old twin 

girls, he said it ultimately doesn't matter 

where they live. 

"We're still waiting to see if the peace 

deal is a real one," said Francis Ladu, one 

of more than 35,000 people sheltering in 

the Korijo displaced persons' camp in the 

opposition-held part of Kajo Keji on the 

Ugandan border. 

"Going there and staying here is all the 

same at the moment. The government 

can't provide for us," he said, hanging his 

head. "People are suffering, they're just 

surviving." 

South Sudan opposition commander Moses Lokujo flipped through his 

notes, explaining international humanitarian law to an attentive group of 

senior officers. 

Photo:Internet 

3 arrested in ongoing 

anti-terror operation 

in Catalonia 

Police in the northeastern 

Spanish region of Catalonia 

say they have arrested at 

least three people as part of 

an ongoing anti-terror operation. 

A Catalan police spokeswoman 

said Tuesday that 

more arrests are expected on 

possible terror-related links, 

theft, drug trafficking and 

other crimes and that more 

than 100 agents are taking 

part. The spokeswoman, 

who declined to be identified 

by name in line with the 

police force's standard practices, 

says six venues have 

been searched in and near 

Barcelona. 

She said two of the suspects 

were arrested in a central 

neighborhood of the 

Catalan capital while another 

was detained in the nearby 

town of Igualada. 

The arrests were ordered by 

an investigating magistrate 

from Spain's National Court, 

which is in charge of terror 

related probes, police said. 

Poland arrests 3 

urging more deaths 

after mayor slain 

Poland's interior ministry 

says police have arrested 

three people calling for more 

killings following the assassination 

of the mayor of 

Gdansk. 

Joachim Brudzinski said 

Tuesday on Twitter that 

police arrested the three on 

Monday, the day Pawel 

Adamowicz died after being 

stabbed while on stage during 

a charity event. 

He described those arrested 

as internet trolls and 

"unbalanced." 

It wasn't clear whose murder 

they were calling for. 

Adamowicz was a liberal 

six-term mayor who was 

stabbed Sunday evening by 

an ex-convict. 

The assailant stabbed 

Adamowicz three times in 

the heart and abdomen and 

then told a crowd of thousands 

he did it in revenge 

against Civic Platform, 

under whom he was imprisoned 

for bank robberies. 

New Israeli military chief pledges 

to lead ‘innovative’ army 

Israel's new military chief took office Tuesday, 

pledging to lead a "lethal, efficient and 

innovative army" into the future as it faces 

grave challenges along its borders. 

Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi's inauguration 

comes shortly after the military's announcement 

that it has successfully completed its 

operation to destroy a network of cross-border 

tunnels dug by the militant group 

Hezbollah, stretching from Lebanon into 

Israel, and as it appears to be dropping its 

ambiguity over hundreds of strikes it had 

carried out against Iranian forces in Syria in 

recent years. 

Kochavi was promoted from major-general 

at Tuesday's ceremony at the military 

headquarters in Tel Aviv, becoming the 

country's 22nd military chief. He replaces Lt. 

Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, who is retiring after 40 

years of service. Israel's army chiefs usually 

serve up to four years. 

"I pledge to dedicate all my energy to a 

demanding and critical approach to 

strengthening our defenses and adjusting it 

to the challenges of the present and future by 

focusing on increasing our striking abilities 

against our enemies and putting forth a 

lethal, efficient and innovative army that 

maintains its purpose and uniqueness," he 

said. 

In his final week on the job, Eisenkot oversaw 

the discovery of what the military says 

was the sixth and final Hezbollah tunnel to 

penetrate Israel. He also divulged that Israel 

had struck thousands of Iranian targets as 

part of a policy shift of engaging Iran directly, 

instead of just its lesser proxies of Hezbollah 

in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. 

Israel has long called for a crackdown on 

the Iran-backed Hezbollah - a heavily armed 

militia that functions as a mini-army and is 

believed to possess an arsenal of some 

150,000 rockets that can reach nearly all of 

Israel. In recent years, Hezbollah has been 

bogged down in fighting in Syria on behalf of 

Syrian President Bashar Assad's government. 

But with that war winding down, 

Israeli security officials fear Hezbollah is 

refocusing its attention on Israel. 

At the Tel Aviv ceremony, Prime Minister 

Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to prevent Iran 

from establishing a military foothold in postcivil 

war Syria, on Israel's doorstep. 

"In front of us stands one major element - 

Iran and its terror proxies. We have acted 

responsibility and sensibly to thwart the 

strengthening of those who seek to harm us," 

he said. "I heard yesterday the spokesman of 

the Iranian foreign ministry saying: 'Iran has 

no military presence in Syria, we only advising.' 

Well, I advise them to get out of there 

fast since we will continue our aggressive 

policy there as we have promised and we are 

doing, relentlessly and without fear." 

Kochavi and Eisenkot will compete their 

handover with a visit to Jerusalem's Western 

Wall, a lunch with the president and a joint 

meeting of the general staff. 

The 54-year-old Kochavi previously served 

as commander of military intelligence, chief 

of northern command and most recently as 

Eisenkot's deputy chief of staff. He also commanded 

the Gaza division during Israel's 

2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. 

As a commander of the paratroopers' 

brigade in the early 2000s, he was credited 

with developing a tactic of using hammers to 

break down walls between homes in Palestinian 

refugee camps in the West Bank, to 

rob snipers of vantage points from where 

they could shoot at Israeli troops on the 

streets. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shakes hands with incoming 

Israeli Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi during a ceremony whereby he replaces 

Lieutenant-General Gadi Eizenkot, at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv. 

Photo:Internet 

UK lawmakers prepare to deliver 

verdict on EU divorce deal 

British lawmakers were preparing to 

deliver their verdict on Prime Minister 

Theresa May's divorce deal with the 

European Union on Tuesday after 

more than two years of political 

upheaval. 

All signs point to it receiving a 

resounding thumbs-down from Parliament, 

a development that would throw 

British politics further into turmoil, just 

10 weeks before Britain is due to leave 

the EU on March 29. 

Despite a last-ditch plea from May for 

legislators to give the deal "a second 

look," it faces deep opposition, primarily 

because of measures designed to prevent 

the reintroduction of border controls 

between the U.K.'s Northern Ireland 

and EU member Ireland. 

Pro-Brexit lawmakers say the deal 

will leave Britain bound indefinitely to 

EU rules, while pro-EU politicians 

favor an even closer economic relationship 

with the bloc. 

That leaves the agreement facing likely 

defeat on a day that could bring a 

very British mix of high drama, low 

insults and convoluted parliamentary 

procedure. 

Environment Secretary Michael 

Gove urged colleagues not to let their 

visions of a perfect Brexit get in the way 

of what he said was a good deal. 

"The real danger is if people do not 

vote for the government this evening, 

we face either a no-deal Brexit, with the 

short-term economic damage that 

would bring, or worse: no Brexit at all," 

Gove told the BBC. 

Lawmakers are scheduled to vote 

Tuesday evening, after the last of five 

days of debate on the deal struck 

between May's government and the EU 

in November. May postponed a vote on 

the deal in December to avoid a 

resounding defeat, and there are few 

signs sentiment has changed significantly 

since then. 

Reassurances from EU leaders that 

the Irish border "backstop" is intended 

as a temporary measure of last resort 

have failed to win over many skeptics. 

And the EU is adamant that it will not 

renegotiate the 585-page withdrawal 

agreement. 

In a sign of the widespread opposition, 

Parliament's unelected upper 

chamber, the House of Lords, voted by 

321 to 152 late Monday in favor of a 

motion saying May's deal would damage 

Britain's economic prosperity, 

internal security and global influence, 

while also rejecting the idea of leaving 

the EU without a deal. 

The Lords' vote has no direct effect on 

the fate of May's deal. 

May says rejecting the agreement 

would lead either to a reversal of Brexit 

- overturning voters' decision in a 2016 

referendum - or to Britain leaving the 

bloc without a deal, a course she said 

would damage the country's economy, 

security and unity. 

Former education minister Nicky 

Morgan, who said she planned to vote 

for May's agreement, warned that the 

U.K. wasn't ready for the economic 

upheaval of a no-deal Brexit. 

"There are millions of people in this 

country watching Westminster and 

Parliament very anxiously today," she 

told the BBC. 

If Parliament votes down the deal, 

May has until the following Monday to 

come up with a new proposal. So far, 

May has refused publicly to speculate 

on a possible "Plan B." 

The main opposition Labour Party 

says it will call a no-confidence vote in 

the government if the deal is defeated 

in an attempt to trigger a general election. 

The party has not disclosed the 

timing of such a motion, which could 

come as soon as Tuesday night. Labour 

leader Jeremy Corbyn told colleagues 

on Monday that a no-confidence vote 

was "coming soon." 

Pakistan kills 2 men linked to 

2011 abduction of American 

Pakistani security forces raided a militant hideout in the country's east before 

dawn Tuesday, killing two members of the Islamic State group linked to the 2011 

al-Qaida abduction of American development worker Warren Weinstein, a senior 

counter-terrorism official said. 

Weinstein, who was taken from the city of Lahore, was accidentally killed in a 

U.S. drone strike in 2015 on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. 

In a statement, Rai Tahir of the Punjab counter-terrorism department identified 

the two militants as Adeel Hafeez and Usman Haroon. He said both were killed 

during an intense shootout in the raid in the eastern city of Faisalabad in Punjab 

province. Tahir claimed that both militants also played a role in the 2013 abduction 

of former Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani's son, Ali Haider, who was rescued 

in Afghanistan by U.S. forces in 2016. 

Many former al-Qaida militants are thought to have joined the regional IS affiliate, 

which emerged a few years ago, around the time the group was at the height 

of its caliphate in Iraq and Syria. IS has since lost nearly all the territory it once controlled 

in the two Mideast countries. 

Tahir, the counter-terrorism official, said the Pakistani officers had foiled other 

attacks the pair had plotted. The two were also behind the killing of two Pakistani 

intelligence officers in recent years and in some other high-profile crimes, he 

added. He provided no specific information about the role the two had in Weinstein's 

case. The American worker's accidental death was announced by Washington 

in 2015. President Barack Obama at the time said he takes full responsibility 

for U.S. counterterror missions and offered his condolences to families of the 

hostages.

ART & CULTURE 

wedneSdAy, 

jAnUARy 16, 2019 

8 

The Critics' Choice "Roma" 

aiming for Oscars 

Bird Box 

Five years after an ominous unseen presence 

drives most of society to suicide, a mother and 

her two children make a desperate bid to reach 

safety. 

Director 

: Susanne Bier 

Writers 

: Eric Heiserrer (screenplay), 

Josh Malerman (novel) 

Cast : Sandra Bullok, Trevante 

Rhodes, John Malcovich 

Cinematography : Salvatore Totino 

Production : Bluegrass Films 

company : Chris Morgan Productions 

Distributed by : Netflix 

Release date : November 12, 2018(AFI Fest) 

December 14, 2018 (United 

States) 

Running time : 124 minutes 

Country : United States 

Language : English 

Budget : $19.8 million 

STORylIne : In the dense wilderness, a woman, Malorie Hayes 

(Sandra Bullock), sternly tells two unnamed children that they will be 

going on a dangerous journey down a river in a boat. Malorie strictly 

instructs them to not remove their blindfolds or else they will die. It is 

the story of a mother who must find the strength to flee with her 

children down a treacherous river in search of safety. Due to unseen 

deadly forces, the perilous journey must be made blindly. 

The movie has already won two California On Locations Award.45 

million people turned out to stream post-apocalyptic thriller Bird Box 

on Netflix, and if you were one, it's safe to remove your blindfold and 

watch this spoiler-filled deep dive. 

|Source: IMDb] 

The "Roma" team accepting the Critics' Choice Award for best picture included, in the foreground, 

Alfonso Cuarón, left, and the film's stars, Yalitza Aparicio and Marina de Tavira, right 

The 57-year-old Mexican director Alfonso 

Cuarón has become a big winner at the Golden 

Globes on Jan. 6, when his black-and-white film 

"Roma," which chronicles a young domestic 

worker and the Mexico City family she works for, 

picked up prizes for best director and best foreignlanguage 

film. 

The next day, Cuarón flew across the country to 

attend the New York Film Critics Circle Awards, 

where he was honored for directing and 

cinematography and "Roma" took the best film 

award, before heading back to the West Coast for 

more awards presented by the Los Angeles Film 

Critics Association, including cinematography and 

best picture. 

And then, after squeezing in some last-minute 

events during the final days of voting for the Oscar 

nominations - including a Chateau Marmont party 

held by Charlize Theron and Diego Luna - Cuarón 

was spirited to the Critics' Choice Awards in Santa 

Monica on Sunday night. There, "Roma" picked up 

four more prizes: best foreign film, 

cinematography, director and the final award for 

best picture. 

No other movie has won more trophies this past 

week or critical laurels over the entire season. But 

H O ROSCOpe 

ARIeS 

(March 21 - April 20): This 

could prove to be a gratifying 

day, Aries. Recent success in 

business might now be 

making a positive difference in your 

financial situation. Try to remain 

practical. 

TAURUS 

(April 21 - May 21) : This is a 

great day to start a 

partnership of any kind, as it 

will prove cooperative, 

rewarding, and stable. Any legal papers 

executed today should definitely work 

for you, Taurus. 

GeMInI 

(May 22 - June 21): You 

should be feeling healthy 

and enthusiastic, Gemini, 

ready to tackle just about 

anything. Finances look stable, and 

relations with others congenial and 

supportive. 

can "Roma" make history next month by winning 

the best picture Oscar, or is there still a ceiling on 

how high this Netflix-distributed art film can go? 

All this might be for naught if it weren't for 

Netflix's deep-pocketed awards bid. Foreignlanguage 

Oscar contenders usually merit a scant 

few tastemaker parties if they're lucky, but Netflix 

has mounted a "Roma" campaign more akin to 

what you'd give a Marvel movie. Hollywood is 

blanketed in billboards bearing Aparicio's face, 

"Roma" events are thrown nearly round the clock, 

and many industry figures received a heavy $175 

book about the film published by Assouline. Rival 

publicists estimate that Netflix is spending $10 

million to $20 million on award-season 

promotion, though some put that figure even 

higher. 

It's an unprecedented campaign for a black-andwhite 

foreign film, but then, a best picture win for 

Netflix would be unprecedented, too. The 

streaming service has never so much as fielded a 

best-picture nominee, and the company is 

gunning for the win.Foremost among them is 

passion, and "Roma" fans are positively 

evangelical. 

-The New York Times 

lIBRA 

(Sept. 24 - Oct. 23): Business 

transacted today concerning 

your home is likely to be 

successful and bring some 

extra money your way. You're looking 

forward to new opportunities that may 

come your way. 

SCORpIO 

(Oct. 24 - Nov. 22): Today 

your intuition should be 

sharper than usual, Scorpio. 

You might get a few 

calls involving possible business 

opportunities. You can use this 

heightened ESP. 

SAGITTARIUS 

(Nov. 23 - Dec. 21): Today 

you should feel especially 

optimistic and enthusiastic 

although you may not know 

why. This should tell you that you were 

intuitively picking up on something 

wonderful. 

Tom Cruise is all set to return as Ethan Hunt again 

Tom Cruise will be back as 

Agent Ethan Hunt for Mission 

Impossible 7 and 8. Christopher 

McQuarrie, who directed 

Mission Impossible: Fallout, will 

be directing the two upcoming 

films. 

After the stupendous success of 

Dragon Ball Super 

Brolly coming soonat 

Star Cineplex 

For the first time in the history 

of Bangladesh any anime movie 

is getting released on big screen. 

Star Cineplex has announced that 

they are bringing global hit anime 

movie Dragon Ball Super: Brolly 

by Dragon Ball franchise very 

soon. The film was released in 

Japan on December, 2018 and 

on this 16 January, 2019 the 

English dubbed version will be 

officially released in the USA. 

Sharing the screen space for the first 

time, the father-daughter duo of Anil 

Kapoor and SonamKapoor gives us 

another beautiful Bollywood wedding 

song with the latest single "IshqMitha" 

from the film 'Ek LadkiKo Dekha Toh 

Aisa Laga'. 

The song will make you revisit the '90s 

hit version of the song which saw 

Malaika Arora dazzle in it. 

However, the reprised version of the 

song will make you dance to its tunes and 

Anime lovers of Bangladesh are 

so happy with this announcement 

and eagerly waiting to watch in on 

silver screen for the first time in 

their own country. They are 

thanking Star Cineplex on their 

facebook page for doing this. A lot 

of hardcore fans contacted with 

Star Cineplex to bring this movie 

and finally their hardwork is 

getting reward. 

Hopefully people will know 

Tom Cruise returning for 

Mission Impossible 7 and 8 

Mission: Impossible - Fallout, the 

franchise will continue with the 

impossible missions of Agent 

Ethan Hunt (Tom 

Cruise).Director Christopher 

McQuarrie, who helmed 2018's 

Mission Impossible: Fallout and 

2015's Mission: Impossible - 

Rogue Nation, will be back in the 

director's chair for these films. He 

confirmed the same on Twitter. 

These two films will be shot 

back-to-back, much like 

Avengers: Infinity War and 

more about anime craze and 

popularity in Bangladesh after 

the release of Dragon Ball Super: 

Broly in Star Cineplex and it will 

will definitely find its place in any 

wedding playlist with ease. 

Glimpse from the song "Ishq Mitha" 

Composed by RochakKohli"IshqMitha" 

is crooned by Navraj Hans &Harshdeep 

Kaur. The song lyrics are penned by 

Gurpreet Saini. The song is the remake of 

the 1986 song by Bally Sagoo and Malkit 

Singh featuring Malaika Arora and Jas 

Arora. 

Bringing all the energy in the song, 

father Kapoor sets the song going with 

Avengers: Endgame. 

The last Mission Impossible 

film earned a whopping $790 

million worldwide and it was 

more than enough for the studio 

to decide that the franchise had 

the potential to pull the audience. 

The franchise started in 1996 

and so far six films have been 

made to explore Agent Ethan 

Hunt's adventures.The films will 

release in 2021 and 2022 

respectively. 

-Variety 

pave a way for more anime 

movies here. It is considered as a 

milestone for anime lovers in 

Bangladesh. 

Anil Kapoor in the wedding song of the year 

moves that he eases to perfection. Sonam 

Kapoor is also seen mingling in the 

festive mood slowly. 

'Ek LadkiKo Dekha Toh Aisa Laga' is 

branded as the most unexpected love 

story of 2019 and is all set to hit the 

screens on February 1, 2019. Directed by 

Shelly Chopra Dhar, the film stars Anil 

Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor, Rajkumar Rao 

and Juhi Chawla in the lead roles. 

-Times of India 

CAnCeR 

(June 22 - July 23): You 

might toy with the idea of 

getting some kind of project 

or enterprise going with a 

close friend or love partner. If you're 

serious about it, Cancer, this is definitely 

the day to start. 

leO 

(July 24 - Aug. 23): Work 

that you're doing either at 

home or on your home is 

likely to go well today and 

bring you the results you're hoping for, 

Leo. Members of your household might 

want to pitch in and help. 

VIRGO 

(Aug. 24 - Sept. 23): Today 

you're likely to feel especially 

communicative, Virgo. You 

might want to run ideas for 

new projects by colleagues or perhaps 

make arrangements to complete current 

projects. 

CApRICORn 

(Dec. 22 - Jan. 20): A new 

sense of closeness to those 

around you might have 

you feeling especially 

happy today, Capricorn. Your 

business and financial life should be 

going very well. 

AQUARIUS 

(Jan. 21 - Feb. 19): Intuition 

plays a large part in your 

work, Aquarius. You're apt 

to sense what others want 

or need and foresee the 

consequences of one course of action 

over another. 

pISCeS 

(Feb. 20 - Mar. 20): Information 

that you receive from far 

away could make doing 

business with a group you're 

affiliated with that much easier, Pisces. 

All looks promising for group activities 

and advancing your education.

SPORTS 

WEDNESDAy, 

JANuARy 16, 2019 

9 

Tensions high as Juventus 

target first title of 2019 in 

Saudi Arabia 

Khulna Titans beat Rajshahi Kings by 25 runs in a low-scoring Bangladesh Premier League game at 

the Sylhet International Stadium on Tuesday. 

Photo: Collected 

BPL 2019: Khulna Titans’ beat 

Rajshahi Kings by 25 runs 

Sports Desk: Taijul Islam, Junaid 

Khan and Mahmudullah combined to 

turn things around as Khulna Titans 

beat Rajshahi Kings by 25 runs in a 

low-scoring Bangladesh Premier 

League game at the Sylhet International 

Stadium on Tuesday. It was 

Khulna's first win in their fifth match 

this season and was badly needed in 

order to have a chance to make the 

playoffs. 

On a slow wicket, Khulna scored 128 

for nine and with the help of Taijul's 

three wickets for 10 runs from four 

overs, bundled Rajshahi out for 103 in 

19.5 overs. It was the lowest total successfully 

defended in this edition of 

the BPL. Taijul's wickets and skipper 

Mahmudullah Riyad's two for 12 

broke Rajshahi's backs as they stumbled 

to have them reeling on 47 for 

five in the ninth over. Left-arm pacer 

Junaid Khan (3-26) and right-arm 

pacer David Weise then ensured that 

Rajshahi would not recover. 

Earlier, Khulna chose to bat at the 

toss, but the lack of momentum in 

Khulna's innings was best represented 

by the fact that the run rate did not 

touch seven even once after they ended 

the first six Powerplay overs on a 

promising 44 for two. Jahurul Islam 

gave them a fast start with a six-ball 13 

before upper-cutting Isuru Udana 

straight to third man in the second 

over. Junaid Siddique and Dawid 

Malan continued the attack with the 

former striking Mehedi for a six over 

midwicket in the third over and the 

latter striking Kamrul Islam Rabbi for 

a brace of boundaries in the next over. 

But when Junaid missed a hoick and 

was bowled by Mehedi in the third 

ball of the fifth over, he took the 

momentum with him. 

The eight overs after Junaid's dismissal 

produced no boundaries for 

Khulna, but gave Rajshahi the wickets 

of Dawid Malan-trapped in front by 

Mehdi in the eighth-and Mahmudullah 

Riyad, who was caught at deep 

midwicket in the 11th over off Arafat 

Sunny in an attempt to release the 

mounting pressure. Khulna were 

strangled by a combination of tight 

bowling from Mehedi, Sunny, 

Soumya Sarkar and Mustafizur Rahman 

and a pitch that unexpected grip. 

Mahmudullah's wicket made it 65 

for four and it only got worse when 

Nazmul Hossain Shanto was run out 

at the striker's end by a direct hit after 

Carlos Brathwaite nudged a ball 

towards point and the duo decided to 

scamper a single in the 13th over. 

Brathwaite broke the boundary 

drought two balls later with a swept 

four off Sunny, but he was the sixth 

man out with the score on 82 in the 

same over, trapped in front by an arm 

ball. 

That was when Ariful Haque played 

the most valuable hand of the innings, 

a 27-ball 26 which lifted the score 

above the 120-mark. In between, 

Udana claimed the wicket of David 

weise in the 19th over. Mustafizur 

made sure that there would be no late 

flourish in a last over that yielded just 

three runs and the wickets of Ariful 

Islam, caught at mid on, and Taijul 

Islam, who was brilliantly run out by 

the bowler who had just one stump to 

aim at at the non-striker's end. 

Sports Desk: Cristiano Ronaldo's 

Juventus target their first title of 2019 

in the Italian Super Cup on Wednesday 

against a backdrop of controversy 

and protests over human rights 

issues and ticket restrictions imposed 

on female fans by hosts Saudi Arabia, 

reports BSS. 

The one-off match is normally 

between the reigning Serie A and Italian 

Cup champions. As Juventus won 

both trophies last season they will take 

on AC Milan, the losing Cup finalists, at 

King Abdullah Sports City Stadium, in 

Jeddah. 

It will the 10th time the Super Cup 

final has been played abroad in 31 editions, 

with the United States, China and 

Qatar hosting previous matches. 

But not since the 2002 choice of the 

Libyan capital Tripoli has there been 

such heated discussion. 

Human rights and other issues have 

overshadowed the buildup, with 

Amnesty International urging both 

teams to shun the match over the murder 

of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 

the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. 

Anger was further inflamed when 

Serie A released information on how to 

get tickets, saying some category of 

seats were only available for men and 

that women could only gain access by 

buying tickets in "family" areas in the 

60,000-seater stadium. 

Matteo Salvini, Italy's deputy prime 

minister, condemned the restrictions 

as "disgusting". 

"To have the Italian Supercoppa 

being played in an Islamic country 

where women cannot go to the stadium 

unless they are accompanied by a man 

is sad. It's disgusting. I won't watch the 

game," said Salvini, a passionate AC 

Milan fan. 

The head of the Serie A, Gaetano Micciche, 

defended the decision to play in 

Saudi Arabia as an historic one. 

"Until last year, women (in Saudi 

Arabia) could not attend any sporting 

event," he said. 

"We are working to ensure that in the 

next games that we play in the country, 

women can access all the stadium 

seats." 

Riyadh, long known for imposing 

harsh restrictions on women, last year 

eased decades-old rules separating the 

sexes to allow women to enter football 

stadiums for the first time. 

Juventus's Brazilian defender Alex 

Sandro said he was expecting "a different 

type of game". 

"I've been there (Jeddah) with Brazil 

already and I think the Saudis have taken 

a step forward. 

"They have a different fan base and 

culture, but I think it'll be a good final." 

Qatari broadcaster beIN Sports also 

asked Italian football bosses to call off 

the match amid claims that Saudibacked 

channels are pirating live feeds 

of games, including Serie A fixtures. 

Qatar is under a Saudi-led economic 

boycott amid tensions in the region. 

On the pitch, seven-time reigning 

Italian league champions Juventus - 

powered by Portuguese superstar Cristiano 

Ronaldo - will be looking to continue 

to steamroller their rivals. 

Massimiliano Allegri's side are 

unbeaten so far in Serie A, and will be 

pushing for their first title of the season, 

which they hope will also include the 

Champions League. 

Ronaldo is top of the Serie A scorers 

chart with 14 goals since arriving last 

summer from Real Madrid on a 110- 

million-euro ($126 million) deal. 

But Juventus's record is mixed in 

recent Super Cups having won just one 

of the last four editions - losing to AC 

Milan in 2016 and Lazio last year. 

Both Juventus and AC Milan have 

won seven Super Cup titles each since 

the trophy was first awarded in 1988. 

The game in Jeddah could also be a 

farewell one for AC Milan forward 

Gonzalo Higuain, who will be looking 

for revenge against his parent club 

Juventus ahead of a touted move to 

Chelsea. 

Higuain - who moved to Milan to 

make way for Ronaldo - missed a 

penalty and was sent off when AC 

Milan lost 2-0 to Juventus the last time 

the two sides met in the league last 

November. 

Indian footballers 

win hearts despite 

Asian Cup exit 

Sports Desk: Football fans 

and pundits were full of praise 

for India Tuesday even as an 

injury-time penalty cost the 

Blue Tigers an unlikely spot in 

the Asian Cup knockout 

stages and prompted the 

coach to resign, reports BSS. 

Despite its giant population 

India is a footballing minnow 

at a lowly 97th in FIFA's world 

rankings, and its players are 

used to being overshadowed 

by the nation's glamorous millionaire 

cricketers. 

They did not even qualify 

for the last Asian Cup, but 

dared to dream of glory after 

stunning Thailand 4-1 in their 

opening match in the United 

Arab Emirates. 

Having lost to the hosts in 

their second match, the 0-0 

scoreline going into injury 

time in their final match Monday 

against Bahrain would 

have been sufficient to see 

India through. 

2nd ODI: Kohli, Dhoni star as India 

beat Australia to level series 1-1 

Sports Desk: Virat Kohli produced a 

sublime 104-run knock as India defeated 

Australia by six wickets in the second Oneday 

International (ODI) in Adelaide on 

Tuesday to level the three-match series 1-1, 

reports AP. 

Riding on the 39th century from the 

skipper, India also registered the second 

highest successful run-chase at the Adelaide 

Oval. Chasing a tricky target of 299, 

India got off to a solid start with openers 

Shikhar Dhawan (32) and Rohit Sharma 

(43) contributing 47 runs for the first wicket. 

Rohit, then recorded a crucial 54-run 

partnership with Kohli, keeping India's 

run-chase on course. After the departure 

of Rohit, Kohli then strung a 59-run partnership 

with Ambati Rayudu for the third 

wicket. 

Rayudu was looking in good touch but 

got out for 24 after playing a poor shot 

against part-timer Glenn Maxwell. But 

Kohli held the Indian run-chase together 

from one end. He along with MS Dhoni 

added 82 runs for the fourth wicket, taking 

India closer to the target. Towards the end, 

Dhoni (55 not out) along with Dinesh 

Karthik (25 not out) took India across the 

line with four balls to spare. The Australian 

bowlers had a poor outing as none of them 

were able to make any real impact. Jason 

Behrendorff, Jhye Richardson, Marcus 

Stoinis and Glenn Maxwell managed a 

wicket apiece. 

Earlier, Shaun Marsh smashed 131 

off123 balls to leave India with a testing 

run chase. Marsh hammered 11 fours and 

three sixes to guide the Australians to 298 

for nine after the hosts won the toss to 

leave India facing the second-biggest run 

chase in ODIs at the famous Adelaide 

Oval. 

Marsh claimed his seventh ODI century 

and second against India as Australia 

made the tourists sweat in the field in temperatures 

hovering around 40 Celsius 

(104F). 

India could have been chasing an even 

higher total if not for the last three overs 

from Bhuvneshwar Kumar and 

Mohammed Shami. 

They took a combined four for 17 in the 

last 18 balls with Kumar claiming the big 

wickets of Marsh and Glenn Maxwell. 

Virat Kohli produced a sublime 104-run knock against Australia in the second One-day International 

(ODI) in Adelaide on Tuesday. 

Photo: AP 

Both Juventus and AC Milan have won seven Super Cup titles each since the trophy was first 

awarded in 1988. 

Photo: AP 

Henry, Vieira set for reunion 

as Monaco host Nice 

Sports Desk: Thierry Henry renews 

acquaintances with former France and Arsenal 

team-mate Patrick Vieira on Wednesday 

when Monaco face Nice as part of a 

rearranged batch of midweek fixtures in 

Ligue 1, reports BSS. 

The coaching showdown between two of 

France's 1998 World Cup winners was first 

scheduled for December 7, but the game was 

postponed amid security concerns over the 

ongoing "yellow vest" protests in France over 

rising living costs. 

Since taking over at the Stade Louis II, 

Henry has won just two of 10 league matches 

as Monaco find themselves second from 

bottom and four points from safety midway 

through the season. 

The 2017 French champions have sought 

to address their plight with a number of January 

recruits - Cesc Fabregas, Naldo and 

Fode Ballo-Toure all started Sunday's 1-1 

draw at Marseille. 

"Fabregas got better as the minutes ticked 

by," said Henry of the Spaniard's promising 

debut at the weekend. 

"He managed to take the match in his 

grasp and read between the lines. We could 

have finished certain moves off better, but 

we're on the right track." 

"We had to react and we did that. The draw 

will be a good result if there are wins after it," 

he added. "Now we need to string things 

together and continue to pick up points." 

Experienced midfielder William Vainqueur 

has also joined on loan from Antalyaspor, 

however, none of Monaco's new signings 

are eligible to feature against Nice as the 

game was originally due to be played before 

the reopening of the transfer window. 

Striker Radamel Falcao is highly doubtful 

due to illness, although France international 

Djibril Sidibe is set to return after two 

months out with injury. 

Goalkeeper Danijel Subasic is back in 

training as well, having made just two 

appearances for the club this term because of 

a thigh problem. 

"As soon as he's operational he will be back 

in the group for sure," said Henry. "I'm 

counting on him a lot." 

Cote d'Azur rivals Nice are within four 

points of the Champions League spots after a 

stuttering start to life under Vieira, whose 

name was chanted by home fans during Saturday's 

1-0 win over Bordeaux. 

"It's important and it really touches me. 

When we say 'the club', that includes everybody, 

the supporters included, it's a family," 

said Vieira, whose side are level with sixthplaced 

Strasbourg after a run of just one 

defeat in nine outings. 

"It's better to be here than at the bottom. 

But then the league is very tight, a run of two 

to three matches in either way could change 

the table a lot," he added. 

Runaway leaders Paris Saint-Germain, 

who are 13 points clear of Lille with two 

games in hand, are at a mid-season training 

camp in Doha and will make up their match 

at home to Montpellier on February 20. 

Marseille's run of eight games without a 

win in all competitions - including a shock 

French Cup loss to fourth-tier Andrezieux - 

prompted a frosty reception at the Velodrome 

for the draw with Monaco. 

Supporters held up a banner that read 

"owners, coach, players… all guilty", with 

Marseille languishing in ninth and eliminated 

from all three cup competitions. 

"The hostile reaction from the crowd didn't 

help, obviously," said coach Rudi Garcia. 

"What counts is how the players responded 

out on the pitch, the solidarity that they 

showed even after the match. The players 

going to see the fans as a group was a nice 

image." 

Marseille visit Saint-Etienne on Wednesday, 

while Lyon will look to stay ahead of 

their bitter rivals ahead of Sunday's Rhone 

derby as they travel to Toulouse. 

Japan Olympic chief 

denies corruption 

allegations 

Sports Desk: The head of 

Japan's Olympic Committee 

Tuesday denied involvement 

in a suspect payment 

made before Tokyo was 

awarded the 2020 Games, 

while apologising for any 

possible impact on the hosting 

of the event, reports BSS. 

French investigating magistrates 

have indicted 

Tsunekazu Takeda as they 

probe two payments of 2.8 

million Singapore dollars 

($2.1 million) made before 

the Japanese capital was 

chosen to host the Olympics. 

During a nationally televised 

news conference lasting 

only seven minutes, 

Takeda said: "I was never 

involved in any decisionmaking 

process" over the 

payment. Takeda added that 

he had already protested his 

innocence during questioning 

by French authorities in 

Paris on December 10. 

"I'm very sorry that this 

trouble could possibly affect 

the Olympic movement," he 

added, vowing to co-operate 

with the authorities. 

He did not take questions 

from reporters after making 

his statement, which was 

similar to remarks he made 

on Friday when the charges 

filed last month emerged. 

The affair comes as an 

unwelcome distraction for 

2020 organisers, who have 

been widely praised for being 

ahead of schedule with 18 

months to go until the opening 

ceremony on July 24.

ECONOMY & BUSINESS 

BANGLADESHTODAY 10 

THE 

WEDNESDAy, JANUARy 16, 2019 

Deputy Minister for water resources AKM Enamul Haque Shamim and State minister Zahid Faruque 

visited the head office of Bangladesh Water Development Board recently. 

Photo: Courtesy 

Asian markets resume rally as pound 

holds ground ahead of vote 

Asian markets on Tuesday 

rebounded from the previous day's 

sharp losses, with Hong Kong and 

Shanghai lifted by Chinese plans to 

slash taxes to boost the economy, while 

the pound extended gains ahead of a 

crunch Brexit vote. 

China's disappointing trade data on 

Monday sent shivers through trading 

floors as it showed the long-running US 

tariffs row is beginning to bite. 

But dealers got back on the horse, 

resuming last week's rally that was 

fuelled by optimism that Beijing and 

Washington will eventually resolve 

their differences and the Federal 

Reserve will pause in raising interest 

rates. Tuesday's gains were helped by a 

bump in financials after Wall Street 

giant Citibank said it provided a 

positive outlook for its trading 

environment ahead of the corporate 

earnings season, while energy firms 

were supported by rising oil prices. 

Hong Kong climbed two percent, 

Shanghai ended up 1.4 percent, with 

investors also cheered by news of a 

range of tax cuts to support the 

stuttering economy. 

Officials said they had implemented 

tax and fee reductions worth about 1.3 

trillion yuan ($192 billion) in 2018 and 

that "larger-scale reductions" were 

expected this year to aid small 

businesses and manufacturing. 

They are the latest in a series of 

piecemeal stimulus measures in recent 

weeks, including tax cuts for small 

businesses and easing financial 

pressures on banks in order to boost 

lending. 

"Investors have gained confidence as 

more stimulus moves have emerged 

and are expected to be intensively 

rolled out after the (Lunar New Year 

holidays)," said Zhang Gang, a 

strategist with Central China Securities. 

The latest announcement comes a 

day after a disappointing batch of trade 

data and a slew of other figures 

showing the world's number two 

economy struggling. Next week sees the 

release of 2018 growth figures that are 

expected to be the weakest in almost 

three decades. 

"Tax reduction is almost the only way 

to boost personal consumption and 

private businesses," which are the main 

worries in the current slowdown, Wang 

Jian, a Shanghai-based economist at 

Shenwan Hongyuan Group said. 

Tokyo gained one percent while 

Seoul, Singapore, Taipei and Mumbai 

were each more than one percent 

higher. Sydney, Wellington and Jakarta 

were also well up. 

Still, uncertainty is keeping traders' 

feet on the ground, with the US 

shutdown - now in its fourth week - 

beginning to fuel concerns and showing 

no sign of ending soon. 

The pound continued to rise against 

the dollar and briefly broke above the 

$1.29 mark for the first time since late 

November ahead of the vote by MPs on 

Prime Minister Theresa May's 

controversial Brexit deal. 

While the plan is expected to be 

rejected, experts say the margin of loss 

will be key. A massive defeat for the 

government would mean her deal is 

dead in the water and the pound could 

dive to a two-year low of around $1.22. 

However, a smaller loss could 

provide some wiggle room for May to 

hammer out a more palatable 

agreement with her EU counterparts. 

For their part, more than 100 

members of the European parliament 

promised to back a delay to the Article 

50 deadline of March 29 for Britain to 

formally leave the EU and try to avert 

an economically damaging no-deal 

split. 

May on Monday delivered a lastditch 

plea to lawmakers to back her 

deal, saying they "have a duty to 

implement the result of the 

referendum". 

But with her defeat widely expected, 

opposition Labour leader Jeremy 

Corbyn has said he will call for a vote of 

no confidence in the government, 

which could lead to another general 

election, fuelling more uncertainty. 

In early European trade London rose 

0.7 percent, Paris gained one percent 

and Frankfurt was up 1.2 percent. 

Demand for oil 

is strong, says 

Saudi energy 

minister 

Saudi Arabia's Energy 

Minister Khalid Al-Falih: The 

global economy is strong 

enough, I'm not too 

concerned. If a slowdown 

happens, it will be mild, 

shallow and short 

Khalid Al-Falih: On the 

supply side, we are vigilant to 

take appropriate response if 

there is an impact on demand 

ABU DHABI: Saudi 

Arabia's Energy Minister 

Khalid Al-Falih said that oil 

demand remains strong and 

that he sees no impact from 

US-China trade tensions. 

"The global economy is 

strong enough, I'm not too 

concerned. If a slowdown 

happens, it will be mild, 

shallow and short," he told 

reporters in Abu Dhabi on 

Monday. 

"The fundamentals of oil 

demand are sufficiently 

strong and the oil market will 

not be impacted. On the 

supply side, we are vigilant to 

take appropriate response if 

there is an impact on 

demand." 

Al-Falih said earlier that the 

oil market was "on the right 

track" and there was no need 

for an extraordinary OPEC 

meeting before its next 

planned gathering in April. 

Carmakers shift 

into reverse 

China's auto industry is 

experiencing negative growth 

for first time in 28 years 

China's auto industry is 

experiencing negative growth 

for the first time in 28 years, 

The Paper reported. 

In 2018, China produced 

and sold 27.81 million and 

28.08 million units, 

respectively, a decrease of 

4.2% and 2.8% from a year 

earlier, data released by China 

Association of Automobile 

Manufacturers (CAAM) on 

Monday showed. 

CAAM attributed the drop 

to the elimination of the 

preferential purchase tax 

policy, as well as downward 

pressure on the economy and 

declining consumer 

confidence. 

China's development 

environment this year is more 

complicated and challenging 

amid the increasing 

downward pressure on the 

economy, and the 

government's work will be 

arduous, said Premier Li 

Keqiang in the State Council 

executive meeting on 

Monday, Yicai.com reported. 

China must deepen its 

reforms and open up more to 

stimulate the economy and 

rely on a vigorous market to 

cope with downward pressure 

and keep growth in a 

reasonable range, Li pointed 

out. 

The government must take 

measures to stabilize 

economic growth, promote 

supply-side reform, adjust the 

economic structure, improve 

people's livelihood and 

prevent risks, Li emphasized. 

Meanwhile, 

the 

government must further 

optimize the business 

environment for companies, 

achieve new growth 

momentum, expand the 

domestic market, and 

promote the coordinated 

development of industries 

and regions, he said. 

German economy likely 

saw 'slight rebound' in the 

fourth quarter: statistics body 

German carmakers are 

struggling to get ready for 

tough new EU emissions 

tests, which caused 

production bottlenecks across 

the vital sector. 

The German economy, 

Europe's largest, likely 

recovered slightly in the 

fourth quarter of 2018, 

avoiding a technical recession 

after negative growth in the 

third quarter, national 

statistics body Destatis said 

Tuesday. 

"There were signs of a slight 

rebound at the end of the 

year," Destatis expert Albert 

Braakmann told reporters. 

The office will release its 

preliminary fourth quarter 

growth figure on February 14. 

German output shrank by 

0.2 percent from July to 

September, dragged down by 

problems in the crucial car 

sector. 

Uncertainty about Brexit 

and weaker Chinese growth 

as a result of US-led trade 

tensions have further rattled 

nerves in export-reliant 

Germany. 

But many economists have 

been quick to stress that 

Germany's underlying 

fundamentals remain strong, 

powered by healthy domestic 

demand. 

"Even if it happens a 

technical recession should 

not leave any marks on the 

labor market but should be 

the very final wake-up call to 

step up investments and 

structural reforms," said ING 

Diba bank analyst Carsten 

Brzeski. 

IFIL launches three new 

products 

China-N. Korea 

trade battered 

by UN sanctions 

China's trade with North Korea 

plummeted last year, data showed Monday, 

as harsh UN sanctions batter the nucleararmed 

country's economy. 

Beijing is a key ally of the isolated state and 

its main source of trade and aid - but in 2017 

it backed United Nations measures to punish 

Pyongyang over its nuclear and ballistic 

missile activities. The sanctions on trade in 

North Korea's most valuable commodities 

sent bilateral trade plunging 52.4 percent 

last year compared to 2017. 

China's imports from its neighbour 

dropped 88 percent in 2018 year-on-year to 

1.42 billion yuan ($210 million), while its 

exports slumped 33.3 percent to 14.7 billion 

yuan ($2.18 billion), according to customs 

administration spokesman Li Kuiwen. 

"For trade between China and North 

Korea, we are strictly implementing the 

resolutions of the (UN) Security Council," Li 

told reporters. 

The trade sanctions seek to cut off the 

North's access to hard currency by banning 

its main exports - coal and other mineral 

resources, fisheries and textile products. 

They have pummelled the country's 

economy, which contracted 3.5 percent in 

2017 - its worst showing in two decades - 

South Korea's central bank said last year. 

The North's mining industry slumped 11 

percent in 2017, the Bank of Korea said, after 

growing 8.4 percent in 2016. 

Manufacturing output also fell 6.9 percent 

that year - down from 4.8 percent growth - 

while agriculture and fisheries slipped 1.3 

percent, after also expanding in 2016. 

China and Russia have both said the UN 

should consider relaxing sanctions on 

Pyongyang, while Washington is demanding 

the North give up its nuclear arsenal before 

any relief from sanctions is granted. 

Dubai Parks and 

Resorts reports 22pc 

growth in visits 

Dubai Parks and Resorts, 

the region's largest 

integrated theme park 

destination, attracted almost 

2.8 million visits during 

2018 

Numbers were bolstered 

by the integration of an 

annual pass program, 

increased occupancy of the 

Lapita Hotel and increased 

footfall from international 

tourists 

LONDON: The Dubai 

theme park operator DXB 

Entertainments said its 

destination had seen a 22 

percent rise in visits last 

year, although the news 

failed to impress investors, 

with shares in the company 

falling on Monday. The 

company said that Dubai 

Parks and Resorts, the 

region's largest integrated 

theme park destination, 

attracted almost 2.8 million 

visits during 2018. 

Islamic Finance and Investment 

Limited (IFIL) formally launched its 

three new products to facilitate 

customer and provide better financial 

service, a press release said. 

A. Z. M. Saleh, Managing Director 

and CEO of IFIL, launched the 

products at a ceremony held at the 

National Press Club on Tuesday .The 

new products are one deposit product- 

Mudaraba Asan Deposit Scheme and 

two investment products-Raha 

(Comfort) and Sila Ul Istihlaq 

(Commodity). 

Among others, IFIL Vice Chairman 

Anis Salahuddin Ahmad, Executive 

Committee Chairman Anwar Hossain 

Chowdhury, Director Liaquat Hossain 

Moghul, Deputy Managing Director 

Muhammad Ruknuzzaman, senior 

executives of IFIL, journalists from 

electronic and print media attended the 

ceremony. 

Explaining the key features of the 

new products, A. Z. M. Saleh said 

'Mudaraba Asaan Deposit Scheme' is 

introduced to encourage core deposit 

from the low end to high end individual 

clients. This product is very flexible 

unlike the other deposit schemes. The 

client can deposit any amount at 

anytime in this scheme and the profit 

shall be counted daily basis. 

Saleh said 'Raha-HPSM/Bai Muajjal 

(Comfort)', an investment facility, will 

support the opening and retirement of 

Letter of Credit amount to purchase 

and acquisition of raw materials, 

capital machineries, commercial 

vehicles, heavy equipment, etc. of the 

clients against L/C opened and 

maintained with other banks. 

Under 'Silaa Ul Istihlak-Bai 

Murabaha (Commodity)', the clients 

will purchase and have acquisition of 

commodity items for trade, Saleh 

said adding that it is not exactly like 

the Bai Muajjal facility and not for 

working capital (purchasing of raw 

materials).The product is offered to 

purchase commodity items to resale 

in the market to fulfill the seasonal 

demand of the market, he said. 

China's US trade surplus hit 

record in 2018 but tariffs bite 

Rumee A Hossain, Chairman, Executive Committee of the Board, Bank Asia inaugurates 49th 

Foundation Training Course for Management Trainees at Bank Asia Institute for Training & 

Development (BAITD) in Lalmatia, Dhaka today. Md. Arfan Ali, President & Managing Director, K S 

Nazmul Hasan, Head of People Management Division (HRD), Head of Training Md. Azharul Islam, 

Ms. Krishna Saha, AVP & Head of Lalmatia Branch (CC) and Sujit Kumer Sen, AVP, BAITD were 

present in the program. 

Photo: Courtesy 

China's trade surplus with the United 

States hit a record high last year but the 

country's imports and exports fell in 

December as the long-running trade 

war begins to bite in the world's 

number two economy, data showed 

Monday. 

The surplus with the US is a major 

source of anger within the Trump 

administration, which imposed tariffs 

on hundreds of billions of dollars worth 

of Chinese goods last year and has 

warned of more to come. 

Despite the levies, exports to the 

United States grew 11.3 percent last 

year while imports rose 0.7 percent, 

expanding the surplus to a record 

$323.3 billion from $275.8 billion in 

2017, customs data show. 

However, in a sign that the White 

House's measures are having an 

impact, China's exports to the US sank 

last month. 

The figures come after a US 

delegation held three days of talks in 

Beijing last week in the first face-to-face 

meeting since Donald Trump and 

Chinese leader Xi Jinping in December 

pledged a 90-day truce to resolve the 

crisis. 

Trump wants Beijing to buy more 

American goods to narrow the yawning 

trade gap and allow foreign players 

better access and protection in the 

Chinese market. 

China traditionally imports vast 

quantities of American soybeans in the 

second half of the year, long making it 

the most valuable import from the US. 

But the buying fell off last year after 

China imposed a 25 percent retaliatory 

tariff on the commodity in the summer. 

Total imports of soybeans fell 7.9 

percent last year to 88 million tonnes, 

customs data showed, with December 

imports down 40.1 percent from a year 

earlier. 

"The overall development of China- 

US trade in 2018 was still relatively 

normal, but the trade surplus did 

expand slightly," said Li Kuiwen, 

spokesman for the customs 

administration. 

The country's commerce minister 

told state media on Friday that China 

will work to straighten out trade 

frictions with the US this year. 

China's exports to the world fell 4.4 

percent in December from a year 

earlier, while imports dropped 7.6 

percent, reflecting sluggish demand at 

home and abroad. 

"With global growth set to cool 

further this year, exports will remain 

weak even if China can clinch a trade 

deal that rows back Trump's tariffs," 

said Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital 

Economics.

MISCELLANEOUS 

WednesdAY, JAnuARY 16, 2019 

11 

College student 'commits suicide' in Rajshahi 

RAJSHAHI : A college student 

reportedly committed suicide by 

hanging himself from a ceiling fan at 

his residence at Rajpara in the city on 

Monday, reports UNB. 

The deceased was identified as 

Ishtiaque Omi, 20, a Class XII student 

of Rajshahi Cantonment Board School 

and College and son of Masud Ahmed, 

hailing from Srirampur area in Nachole 

upazila of Chapainawabganj district. 

There had been an altercation 

between Omi and his father at noon 

over some family affairs, said Hafizur 

Rahman, officer-in-charge of Rajpara 

Police Station. 

Later, Omi went to his room. 

As there was no response from the 

room till 5 pm, his family member 

broke the door and found the body 

hanging from the room. 

On information, police recovered the 

body and sent it to Rajshahi Medical 

College Hospital for an autopsy. 

Iqvmv-Rt Zt- 23/19 

GD-88/19 (20 x 4) 

GD-86/19 (18 x 4)

UNITING PEOPLE EVERYDAY 

WEdNESdAy, dHAkA, JANuARy 16, 2019, MAGH 3, 1425 BS, JAMAdIul AWAl 9, 1440 HIJRI 

The workers come back to work after getting assurance of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. 


Japan reassures support to Bangladesh; 

wants to invest in IT sector 

INTERESTING NEWS 

In the seasonally dry, deciduous forests of 

northeastern Brazil, obscured by walls of 

thorny-scrubs, is a vast landscape made up 

of tens of millions of densely packed earthen 

mounds. These cone-shaped piles of dirt, 

each measuring thirty feet wide at its base 

and twice as tall as a grown man, are waste 

earth excavated by the termites when they 

burrow tunnels under the soil. Researchers 

estimate that there are some 200 million 

mounds here, covering a vast region nearly 

equal to the size of Great Britain. The 

amount of soil excavated is over 10 cubic 

kilometers, equivalent to the volume of 

4,000 great pyramids of Giza. This makes 

them the biggest engineering project by any 

animal besides humans. Incredibly, some of 

these mounds are as old as the Pyramids 

themselves. 

The mounds remains largely hidden from 

view in the deciduous, semiarid, thornyscrub 

caatinga forests unique to this part of 

Brazil. Locals call them murundus but very 

DHAKA : Visiting Minister in 

charge of Economic Revitalisation of 

Japan Toshimitsu Motegi on 

Tuesday said his country will continue 

to support Bangladesh in key 

development arenas, showing interest 

to invest in the IT sector of 

Bangladesh, reports UNB. 

Toshimitsu Motegi came up with 

the assurance when he met Prime 

Minister Sheikh Hasina at her office. 

PM's Press Secretary Ihsanul 

Karim briefed reporters after the 

meeting. 

The Japanese minister said Japan 

has been a great partner since the 

independence of Bangladesh and the 

relations between Japan and 

Bangladesh are complementary to 

each other. 

He congratulated Sheikh Hasina 

on assuming office as the Prime 

Minister of Bangladesh for the third 

consecutive term through a participatory 

election. "It was a participatory 

election," the Press Secretary quoted 

the Japanese minister as saying. 

Motegi expressed his conviction 

that the relations between 

Bangladesh and Japan will be 

stronger during the current tenure of 

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. 

Welcoming the Japanese minister 

in Bangladesh, Hasina recalled 

Japan's contributions to 

Bangladesh's economic development. 

Describing Japan as an old friend 

of Bangladesh, the Prime Minister 

said Japan is providing support to 

various development sectors, particularly 

constructing the Rupsha 

Bridge, metro rail and other projects. 

Terming Japan a development 

model for Bangladesh, Hasina said 

her government wants to develop 

every village as a township with 

urban facilities. 

The Prime Minister said Father of 

The 4,000-Year-Old Termite 

Mounds The Size of Britain 

few people outside of the region have heard 

about it. It was only in recent decades when 

some of the lands were cleared for pasture 

that outsiders have come to discover them. 

Roy Funch, from the State University of 

Feira de Santana, first saw these fields of 

mounds in the 1980s when he arrived in 

Brazil as a Peace Corps volunteer. He originally 

wrote about them in local popular-science 

magazines, but never managed to 

stoke much interest in them. Three decades 

later, after spotting them again on Google 

Earth, Funch returned to Brazil, this time as 

a researcher, to learn more about these 

mysterious mounds. 

Funch and his colleagues found that this 

colossal feat of engineering is the work of a 

tiny species of termite called Syntermes 

dirus, barely half an inch long. These creatures 

have been building this landscape for 

the past 4,000 years, and they are still present 

in the soil surrounding the mounds. 

The youngest mound is about 690 years old, 

while the oldest was at least 3,820 years old. 

Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh 

Mujibur Rahman founded the relations 

with Japan. 

Hasina proposed Japan to provide 

support to the training programmes 

in IT parks and deep-sea fishing. 

She urged for hiring trained homecare 

nurses from Bangladesh and the 

Japanese minister responded positively. 

Hasina reiterated her government's 

steadfast stance against terrorism 

saying Bangladesh has adopted 'zero 

tolerance' to terrorism and militancy. 

The Japanese minister shared the 

experience with the Prime Minister 

on his visit to Bangabandhu Museum 

saying he was overwhelmed seeing 

different memories and documents 

on the life of Father of the Nation. 

Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul 

Momen, PM's International Affairs 

Adviser Dr Gowher Rizvi and 

Principal Secretary Md Nojibur 

Rahman were present. 

Zahid for making 

hospitals more 

patient-friendly 

DHAKA : Health and 

Family Welfare Minister 

Zahid Maleque yesterday 

urged health officials for 

working sincerely to make all 

public hospitals across the 

country more friendly for 

patients. 

"Zahid asked all the directors 

of public hospitals as well 

as institutes and principals of 

medical colleges of the country 

to take work plans following 

the election manifesto of 

the government to ensure 

proper healthcare for patients 

and make health facilitates 

friendly for them," said a press 

release. 

He came up with the directives 

while presiding over a 

meeting with directors of public 

hospitals and institutions 

and principals of medical colleges 

at the conference room 

of health ministry at 

Secretariat here. 

State Minister for Health M 

Murad Hasan, Secretary of 

the ministry M Asadul Islam, 

Secretary (Health Education 

and Family Welfare Division) 

GM Saleh Uddin, Director 

General of Directorate 

General of Health Services 

(DGHS) Prof Dr Abul Kalam 

Azad, among others, were 

present. 

The minister said strong 

monitoring network would be 

built to improve the standard 

of healthcare facilities across 

the country. The private hospitals 

should take responsibility 

if any unwanted incident 

happens, he added. 

He also urged all the hospitals 

to open 'Complain Corner' 

to receive complaints from 

patients. 

Gazipur RMG 

workers back 

to work 

Tuesday 

GAZIPUR : Welcoming the 

revised wage structure workers 

of all the readymade garment 

factories in the area have 

started to work at their workplaces 

since Tuesday morning. 

There was no report of any 

untoward situation or agitation 

among the workers, 

reports UNB Gazipur correspondent 

after visiting several 

factories. 

However, additional members 

of Industrial Police, 

Gazipur Metropolitan Police 

and district police were 

deployed in the area to avoid 

any untoward situation, said 

Inspector Mominul Islam of 

Special Branch. 

The RMG workers said that 

they have welcomed the 

revised wage structure and 

looking for immediate implementation 

of it. 

In the wake of widespread 

protests by RMG workers for 

the last few days over the disparity 

in their new wage structure, 

the government on 

Sunday revised their wages. 

DHAKA : An international airport, 

named after Bangladesh's founding 

father, will be constructed near the 

Padma River, State Minister for Civil 

Aviation Mahbub Ali said on Tuesday, 

reports UNB. 

"The government is going to construct 

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib 

International Airport to turn 

Bangladesh into an aviation hub," he 

The picture is seen with huge Tomato Bazar at Nandina in Jamalpur. 

FM seeks effective int'l role 

in resolving Rohingya crisis 

SYLHET : Foreign 

Minister Dr AK Abdul 

Momen on Tuesday laid 

emphasis on the global community's 

role in resolving the 

protracted Rohingya crisis 

saying it is an international 

problem, reports UNB. 

"It's an international 

problem. We'll resolve the 

problem working together," 

he said seeking an effective 

international role in resolving 

the crisis. 

The Foreign Minister 

made the remarks while 

talking to reporters after 

offering fateha at the shrine 

of Hazrat Shahjalal (RA). 

He said they want to 

move forward keeping 

friendship with all countries 

Oikyafront's demand 

for reelection 

unconstitutional: Anisul 

DHAKA : Law Minister 

Anisul Huq on Tuesday 

described Jatiya 

Oikyafront's demand for 

reelection as 'unconstitutional 

and disrespect' to 

people's verdict, reports 

UNB. 

"Oikyafront's demand for 

reelection is not only unconstitutional 

but also utterly 

irrational. People cast their 

votes in the election. 

Oikyafront has no right to 

dishonour them," he said. 

The minister was talking 

to reporters after attending 

a programme marking the 

farewell to director of 

National Legal Aid Services 

Organisation Zafrul Hasan 

following his retirement. 

Rejecting the December- 

30 parliamentary elections 

as a 'farce', Dr Kamal 

Hossain-led Jatiya 

Oikyafront demanded 

reelection under a nonparty 

caretaker government. 

Replying to a query about 

said at a meeting with Civil Aviation 

Authority officials in Dhaka's 

Kurmitola. "It will be a very modern 

airport," the state minister said. 

He said the government had started 

constructing the third terminal of 

Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, 

was upgrading Cox's Bazar airport, and 

implementing mega projects for Sylhet 

International Airport's development. 

in the spirit of "friendship to 

all and malice to none" as 

defined by Father of the 

Nation Bangabandhu 

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. 

Asked about his India 

visit, the Foreign Minister 

said Indian External Affairs 

Minister Sushma Swaraj 

invited him and they will 

discuss various bilateral 

issues during the visit. 

The Foreign Minister also 

mentioned that the Indian 

government was the first 

among the countries which 

congratulated Bangladesh 

Awami League President 

Sheikh Hasina and her 

party's reelection. 

Earlier, acting High 

Commissioner of India to 

Hefajat-e-Islam Ameer 

Allama Shah Ahmed Shafi's 

remarks on girls' education, 

Anisul said, "Allama Shafi is 

a senior citizen. I want to tell 

him with due respect that 

such comments go against 

positive development of the 

country. So, I think it'll be 

good for him to refrain from 

making such comments." 

He also said what Allama 

Shafi said was his personal 

opinion. "Anyone can have 

his or her own opinion. But 

such personal opinion won't 

change the policy of the 

country. Especially, we're 

committed to ensuring 

women's rights which will 

be stronger in the future." 

On January 11, Allama 

Shafi at a programme in 

Chattogram's Hathazari 

urged parents not to send 

their daughters to schools 

and colleges for further education 

after they complete 

fourth or fifth grade. 

Bangladesh Dr Adarsh 

Swaika met the new 

Foreign Minister of 

Bangladesh and handed 

over the letter of congratulations 

from the External 

Affairs Minister of India 

Sushma Swaraj. 

Expressing gratitude to 

all, Minister Dr Momen 

said, "I'm very lucky to have 

the responsibility of the 

Ministry of Foreign Affairs 

as a son of Sylhet." 

He also recalled the role 

of foreign ministers Abdus 

Samad Azad and 

Humayun Rashid 

Chowdhury, and said he 

would follow their footprints 

to keep up the goodwill 

through his works. 

Work on CETP at 

Savar Tannery 

Estate to complete 

soon: Minister 

DHAKA : Industries 

Minister Nurul Majid 

Mahmud Humayun on 

Tuesday said the work on the 

Central Effluent Treatment 

Plant (CETP) at Savar 

Tannery Estate will complete 

soon for smooth management 

of solid waste, reports UNB. 

He came up with the 

remarks when a delegation of 

Bangladesh Tanners' 

Association met him at his 

office. 

Mentioning that the leather 

industry has a huge potential, 

the minister underscored the 

need for producing world class 

leather goods to attract foreign 

buyers. 

He said the government 

remains alert to ensure environment-friendly 

sustainable 

development. "Owners of the 

industries will have to be sincere 

in this regard." 

Humayun also said work is 

underway to establish two 

more tannery estates in 

Chattogram and Rajshahi to 

flourish the leather industry. 

Bangabandhu Int'l Airport to be built 

near Padma River: State minister 

"Preparations are complete to 

upgrade Shahjalal airport into category 

one. The US Federal Aviation 

Authority will visit in March. We can 

start flights on the New York route 

once we get their approval," he said. 

Mahbub also assured that the quality 

of services of state-owned Biman 

Bangladesh Airline would be 

improved. 


People loved Syed 

Ashraf: Minister 

Mozammel 

DHAKA : A commemoration 

was held at Jatiya Press 

Club on Tuesday in memory 

of prominent Awami League 

leader and former public 

administration minister 

Syed Ashraful Islam, reports 

UNB. 

Bangabandhu Poor 

Welfare Association 

arranged the event where 

leaders and activists of 

Awami League and its allies 

recalled Ashraf's role in 

tough times of the party. 

Liberation War Affairs 

Minister AKM Mozammel 

Haque, the chief guest, lauded 

Syed Ashraf's patriotic 

nature, his political career 

and devotion to the party. 

"His victory in the last parliamentary 

election despite 

being severely ill proves his 

popularity," he said. 

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

16-01-2019

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