26-01-2019

saturDay 

DhAkA : January 26, 2019; Magh 13, 1425 BS; Jamadi-ul Awal 19,1440 hijri 

www.thebangladeshtoday.com; www. tbtbangla.com 

Regd.No.DA~2065, Vol.16; No.2; 8 Pages~Tk.8.00 

intErnational 

Iran: US Navy veteran 

being held over 

'private complaint' 

>Page 3 

sciEncE & tEch 

Is it possible to 

remove Google from 

our life? 

>Page 5 

Economy & BusinEss 

PRAN UP introduces 

campaign to help 

cold-hit people 

>Page 6 

PM vows to launch crackdown 

against corruption 

DHAKA : Prime Minister Sheikh 

Hasina yesterday vowed to launch a 

massive anti-corruption campaign as 

she delivered her first nationwide 

address, assuming office for the third 

consecutive term, also seeking a 

greater national unity on core issues. 

"Now we need national unity. We 

have to go proceed together sinking 

all differences. The unity will be based 

on the spirit of the War of Liberation, 

secularism, democratic values, equality, 

justice, development and 

progress," she said in her 25-minute 

televised address. 

Sheikh Hasina said being the winning 

party Awami League constituted 

the government but "every citizen 

irrespective of their views and party 

affiliations is equal to the government". 

"We will work for every citizen, 

taking initiative to establish 

accountability and good governance 

in public service sector and uphold 

the rule of law at all levels of the 

national life," she said. 

Road crashes killed 

7,221 people in 

Bangladesh in 2018 

DHAKA : A total of 7,221 people 

were killed in at least 5,514 road accidents 

across the country last year, the 

Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity, a 

passengers' welfare association, said 

on Friday. 

As many as 15,466 others were 

injured in the accidents, reports UNB. 

Apart from them, 394 people were 

killed and 248 others injured in 370 

train accidents last year. Accidents on 

waterways left 126 people dead and 230 

others injured with an estimated 387 

others missing, the Samity told a media 

briefing at the Jatiya Press Club presenting 

its statistics. 

The numbers were compiled from 

local, regional, and online newspapers 

and television channels, said the organisation's 

Secretary General Md 

Muzammel Haque Chowdhury. 

They identified several reasons, 

including reckless driving, overtaking, 

road conditions, and vehicles without 

fitness, for the road accidents. 

Rohingyas to be 

relocated to 

Bhasanchar 

soon: Momen 

DHAKA : Foreign Minister AK Abdul 

Momen on Friday said that Rohingyas 

will be shifted to Bhasanchar soon, 

reports UNB. 

"The work of infrastructure development 

at Bhasanchar is progressing fast. 

Rohingyas will be shifted there soon 

after completion of work," he said. 

He came up with the remarks while 

talking to reporters after attending a 

programme making the 18th founding 

anniversary of Bangabandhu 

Foundation at Dhanmondi-32. 

Replying to question from a journalist 

Abdul Momen said various issues of 

mutual interests of the two countries 

will be discussed during the next 

month's India visit. 

Zohr 

05:25 AM 

12:15 PM 

04:04 PM 

05:44 PM 

07:00 PM 

6:41 5:41 

The premier warned of launching a 

stringent anti-graft drive in her new 

term in office acknowledging the peoples 

sentiment against the persisting 

corrupt practices in different sectors. 

"I know there is unhappiness about 

corruption at all level of society . . . the 

government will go tough in execution 

the law to uproot corruption," 

she said. 

The premier said information technology 

facilities would be used to 

detect sector-wise corruption but 

insisted that participation of mass 

people in the anti-graft drive was very 

crucial to stamp out corruption. 

She said also urged media to extend 

support the government in spearheading 

the anti-graft campaign. 

Sheikh Hasina said the drive 

against drug and militancy would 

continue simultaneously to build a 

peaceful society, where there would 

have no envy and hatred among the 

people of any faith. 

The premier urged the opposition 

13 workers killed as 

truck overturns at 

Cumilla brick kiln 

CUMILLA : At least 13 brick kiln 

workers were killed and four others 

injured when a coal-laden truck overturned 

on a labour shed at a brick field 

in Chouddagram Upazila's Narayanpur 

on Friday, reports UNB. 

The deceased are - Ranjir Chandra 

Roy, 30, Morsalin, 18, Masum, 18, 

Tarun Chandra Roy, 25, Mohammad 

Selim, 28, Biplob, 19, Manoranjan Roy, 

19, Shankar Chandra Roy, 22, Dipu 

Chandra Roy, 19, Amit Chandra Roy, 

20, Minal Chandra Roy, 21, Bikash 

Chandra Roy, 28 and Kanak Chandra 

Roy, 34. 

All of them were residents of 

Nilphamari's Jaldhaka Upazila. 

The accident took place around 

5:30am. 

The truck's driver lost control while 

positioning the vehicle and it fell over 

the makeshift labour shed, killing 12 

workers on the spot and injuring five 

others, said Abdulla Al Mahfuz, officerin-charge 

of Chouddagram Police 

Station. 

One of the injured workers died after 

being taken to the local upazila health 

complex. Four others are being treated 

at Comilla Medical College Hospital. 

The driver and his assistant went into 

hiding after the accident. 

The local administration has given Tk 

20,000 and the brick field owner Tk 

10,000 to the families of each deceased. 

Meanwhile, two separate investigation 

committees were formed by police 

and the administration. 

"The four-member committee, led by 

Additional Deputy Commissioner 

(General) Kaizar Mohammad Farabi, 

members elected to Jatiya Sangsad in 

the December 30 elections to join the 

parliament session assuring them of 

giving proper value to all their proposals 

and criticism whatever their 

strength in the house. 

"The number of opposition members 

is very low in the 11th 

Parliament. But we will not consider 

them on the basis of their strength 

rather value them on the basis of the 

rationality of their argument," she 

said. 

Sheikh Hasina added: "Jatiya 

Sangsad will be the focal point of all 

development." 

She said a section of Bangladeshi 

youths became involved with terrorism 

and militancy as they were misguided 

at the instigation of some local 

and alien groups and sounded a 

strong note of warning against these 

elements. 

"There is no room for terrorism in 

Islam as the religion always preached 

for peace," Sheikh Hasina said. 

has been asked to file report within 

seven days while the three-member 

committee, headed by Additional 

Superintendent of Police Abdullah Al 

Mamun, has been asked to submit its 

report within three working days," said 

Deputy Commissioner Abu Fazal Mir. 

The bodies of the victims were handed 

over to their families around 6pm 

after autopsy at CMCH. 

Balloon vendor killed 

in gas cylinder blast 

in city 

DHAKA : A balloon vendor was killed 

and two people were injured when a gas 

cylinder exploded at Dhaka Shikkha 

Board Laboratory School and College 

compound in city's Mirpur area on 

Friday. 

The deceased was identified as 

Siddique, 50, reports UNB. 

Selimuzzaman, officer-in-charge of 

Darus Salam Police Station, said 

Sidique went to the Dhaka Shikkha 

Board Laboratory School and College 

compound on the annual sports day of 

the students to sell gas balloons. 

At one stage, the gas cylinder went off 

with a big bang around 8 am, leaving 

Siddique, class-X student Jannatul and 

another one injured. 

Later, Siddique was taken to Shaheed 

Suhrawardy Medical College and 

Hospital where the doctors declared 

him dead. 

A coal-laden truck overturned on the labour shed of a brick field beside Dhaka-Chattogram highway 

at Narayanpur in Chouddagram upazila on Friday. 

Photo : Star Mail 

Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity organized a media briefing at the Jatiya Press Club to present its statistics. 

Photo : TBT 

Int'l Customs 

Day to be 

observed today 

DHAKA : International Customs Day 

will be observed in Bangladesh today as 

elsewhere around the world. 

National Board of Revenue (NBR) has 

taken elaborate programmes to observe 

the day in a befitting manner. 

The observance of the day marks the 

first official conference of the Customs 

Co-operation Council-the World 

Customs Organisation (WCO). A total of 

179 countries are now the members of 

WCO. 

President Abdul Hamid and Prime 

Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday issued 

separate messages on the occasion, wishing 

the success of all programmes undertaken 

by NBR and said this year's slogan 

of the day 'SMART borders for seamless 

Trade, Travel and Transport' is very timebefitting 

in the present world's perspective. 

In their messages, the President and 

the PM greeted all officials and employees 

of the customs department and the taxpaying 

individuals and companies. 

In his message, President Abdul Hamid 

said customs is playing an important role 

in the country's development by receiving 

revenue and expanding trade and business. 

He hoped that Bangladesh customs will 

be able to create a more secure business 

environment by simplifying the process 

of customs and using the modern technology. 

He said the Bangladesh customs is 

working relentlessly to make smooth the 

ways of implementing Vision-2021 and 

Vision-2041. 

Abdul Hamid hoped that Bangladesh 

customs will continue its efforts of building 

the country's economy sustainable 

and strong. 

In her message, Prime Minister Sheikh 

Hasina said the government has taken 

different initiatives to simplify the process 

of customs for ensuring smooth export 

and import. 

"Bangladesh customs is using modern 

technology to accelerate the country's 

trade and business," she added. 

Chandra, Konabari 

flyover works to end 

by April: Quader 

GAZIPUR : Road Transport and 

Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader yesterday 

expressed his optimism that the 

construction works of Chandra and 

Konabari flyovers in the district will end 

by April next to ease vehicular movement 

from Joydebpur to Elenga. 

"The construction of rail over-bridges 

at Latifpur under Kaliakair upazila and 

Dherua in Tangail district has been 

completed. Hopefully, we can open 

Konabari and Chandra flyovers and 

Latifpur and Dherua rail over-bridges 

for vehicular movement before next 

Ramadan," he told reporters while visiting 

construction works of Konabari 

flyover. 

He said the government has signed 

an agreement with a Chinese firm to 

upgrade 190-kilomiter road from 

Elenga to Rangpur to a four-lane highway 

via Hatikumrul at a cost of Taka 

around 12,000 crore under the South 

Asia Sub-regional Economic 

DHAKA : Workers Party 

President Rashed Khan Menon 

yesterday regretted that the history 

of the 1969 Mass Upsurge is not 

being publicized as a large-scale 

campaign attaching much importance 

to this historical milestone. 

Speaking at a discussion entitled 

'From Shahid Asad to Mass 

Upsurge' at Jatiya Press Club here, 

the former minister the self-sacrifice 

of Shahid Asad and the history 

of the Mass Upsurge have not 

yet included in the text books. 

Menon said the history, created 

by the sacrifice of Asad's life, 

brought together workers, peasants, 

intellectuals and all others 

under the same row. 

And Bangladesh emerged as an 

independent country as a sequel to 

the events of history, he added. 

The blood stained shirt of 

Shahid Asad emerged as a symbol 

of the Mass Upsurge in 1969, said 

Workers Party chief. 

Writer-researcher and columnist 

Syed Abul Maksud, cultural 

activist Mamunur Rashid, party 

politburo member Comrade 

Anisur Rahman Mallik, Workers 

Party President of Dhaka city unit 

Comrade Abul Hossain spoke on 

Cooperation (SASEC) Road 

Connectivity Project-II to make smooth 

the road communication between the 

capital and the northern districts. 

He said under SASEC Road 

Connectivity Project-III, the highway 

from Panchagarh to Burimari border 

under Lalmonirhat district will be 

upgraded to a four-lane. Works are 

underway to upgrade 70 kilometer 

Joydebpur-Chandra-Tangail-Elenga 

highway to a four-lane as part of the 

SASEC) Road Connectivity Project. 

The minister said from Gazipur to 

entire northern region will be brought 

under four-lane highway facilities 

under the SASEC project. 

Deputy Commissioner of Gazipur 

Metropolitan Police Azad Miah and 

Superintending Engineer, Dhaka (circle 

office) Md Sabuj Uddin Khan were 

present on the occasion, among others. 

Later, the minister also visited 

Kashimpur Central Jail-1 in the district. 

Menon for publicizing 

history of 1969 mass 

upsurge 

the occasion while Politburo 

member Comrade Kamrul Ahsan 

moderated the function. 

9 Bangladeshis 

rescued at Benapole 

while being 

trafficked to India 

BENAPOLE : Members of Border 

Guard Bangladesh (BGB) rescued 

nine Bangladeshi nationals while 

being trafficked to India through 

Sadipur frontier in Benapole here on 

Friday. 

Among them, five are women and 

two children. They hail from different 

parts of Faridpur, Narail and 

Bagerhat districts, reports UNB. 

Tipped off, a team of BGB-49 conducted 

a drive in the area and rescued 

the nine people in the morning, said 

Ariful Haque, commanding officer of 

BGB-49. 

They were handed over to Benapole 

Port Police Station. 

However, none was arrested as the 

traffickers managed to flee the scene 

sensing the presence of the border 

guards. 

A case was filed in this connection.

NEWS 

SATurDAY, 

JAnuArY 26, 2019 

2 

Just after one week, Ekushey book fair will be started. Preparation going on in full swing. 

DHAKA : A seminar on the prospect of 

Bangladesh's IT sector in Japan was 

held at Fujitsu Research Institute in 

Tokyo on Friday, reports UNB. 

Embassy of Bangladesh and Fujitsu 

Research Institute jointly organised the 

seminar where over100 representatives 

from different Japanese companies 

took part, said a press release. 

Rabab Fatima, the ambassador of 

Bangladesh to Japan, presented the 

keynote paper on the macroeconomic 

development of Bangladesh and 

prospects of Bangladesh's IT sector. 

She explained the overall 

socioeconomic scenario of Bangladesh. 

The envoy said the advancement of 

Bangladesh is now recognised by the 

world. In 2019, Bangladesh was the 41st 

largest economy of the world and it is 

forecast to be in the 24th position by 

2032, said the ambassador. 

She informed the audience about the 

recent visit to Dhaka of Toshimitsu 

Motegi, State Minister for Economic 

and Fiscal Policy of Japan. Motegi 

emphasised on the cooperation in the 

IT sector between Japan and 

Bangladesh at the meeting with Prime 

Minister Sheikh Hasina and visited 

several IT companies in Bangladesh, 

ambassador added. 

She urged the Japanese investors to 

invest in the IT sector of Bangladesh 

and recruit Bangladeshi skilled IT 

professionals. 

In a separate presentation, Akito 

Takahashi, Director of Japan 

International Cooperation Agency 

(JICA), explained the JICA 

development initiatives in Bangladesh, 

including IT cooperation between 

Japan and Bangladesh, especially on 

the human resources development. 

Later, former president of 

Bangladesh Association of Software and 

Information Services (BASIS) 

Mahboob Zaman discussed on the 

Bangladesh-Japan IT collaboration. 

Besides, Nakatani Hirohisa of Fujitsu 

Research Institute pointed out the 

diverse IT market of Bangladesh as well 

as Asia. 

A video documentary showcasing the 

development of Bangladesh was 

screened at the programme. 

The seminar was organised with the 

support of United Nations Industrial 

Development Organization (UNIDO), 

JICA and BASIS. 

The programme ended with a 

question-answer and business 

networking session. 

A suspect in four fatal shootings in 

Nevada was accused in court Thursday 

of being in the U.S. illegally and 

possessing weapons and selling jewelry 

stolen from some of the dead, reports 

UNB. 

Wilber Ernesto Martinez-Guzman, a 

19-year-old immigrant from El 

Salvador, appeared before a judge in 

Carson City in shackles with a Spanishlanguage 

interpreter and a public 

defender at his side. 

The judge spent more than 25 

minutes reading aloud a 36-count 

criminal complaint that suggested 

property theft as a motive for the 

slayings. He set bail at $500,000. 

Martinez-Guzman was not charged 

with murder and did not enter a plea to 

burglary, stolen property and weapon 

charges that are punishable by decades 

in prison. Authorities in nearby 

Douglas and Washoe counties, where 

the four victims lived, have said they 

plan to file murder charges against him 

soon, perhaps as early as Friday. 

The Carson City case focuses on 

possession and sale of stolen property 

and alleges that, because of his 

immigration status, Martinez-Guzman 

was prohibited from having 12 guns 

that were stolen from a couple found 

dead Jan. 16 in their south Reno home. 


Seminar on Bangladesh's 

IT sector held in Tokyo 

Austrian FM 

greets Dr 

Momen 

DHAKA : Austrian Foreign 

Minister Karin Kneissl has 

congratulated Dr AK Abdul 

Momen on his appointment 

as the Foreign Minister of 

Bangladesh, reports UNB. 

Karin Kneissl conveyed the 

greetings in a message sent 

to Dr Momen, according to 

the Finance Ministry here. 

"I'm looking forward to 

meeting you personally in 

the framework of my visit to 

Bangladesh next month and 

to discussing ways and 

means to intensify 

cooperation between our 

two countries," the Austrian 

Foreign Minister said. 

"I avail myself of this 

opportunity to convey my 

best wishes for your health 

and personal well-being, as 

well as success in the 

accomplishment of your 

duties," she said. 

Karin Kneissl conveyed 

the greetings in a message 

sent to Dr Momen, 

according to the Finance 

Ministry here. 

"I'm looking forward to 

meeting you personally in 

the framework of my visit to 

Bangladesh next month and 

to discussing ways and 

means to intensify 

cooperation between our 

two countries," the Austrian 

Foreign Minister said. 

Thousands of people were out on the streets 

Thursday at several locations in Sudan's 

capital, Khartoum, calling on the country's 

longtime ruler to step down, according to 

videos circulating online. Activists said at 

least two protesters were killed and seven 

injured, reports UNB. 

The demonstrations are the latest in a wave 

of unrest that began Dec. 19 across most of 

Sudan, first to protest worsening economic 

conditions but soon to demand an end to 

Omar al-Bashir's 29-year, autocratic rule. 

Thursday's demonstrations began in more 

than a dozen of the capital's residential 

neighborhoods and in at least six cities 

across the country, with numbers in each 

protest varying from scores to the low 

hundreds. 

In response, security forces in Khartoum 

sealed off main roads to keep protesters on 

side streets and used tear gas to disperse 

them, said the activists, who spoke on 

condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. 

They chanted "Just leave!" - which is fast 

becoming the uprising's definitive slogan 

and already is a Twitter hashtag used by 

activists - and "Freedom, peace and justice. " 

Activists late Thursday said at least two 

protesters were killed and seven injured, 

including five from gunshot wounds, in 

clashes with police. 

There was no word from authorities on 

Thursday's casualties, but the government 

announced that 29 people have been killed 

so far in the unrest, five more than the last 

tally it gave. 

Al-Bashir, who led a 1989 military rule that 

Prosecutor Melanie Brantingham 

told The Associated Press that she 

could not say if any of those guns was 

used in the slayings. The weapons 

included several shotguns and boltaction 

rifles, at least one military-style 

weapon and a handgun. 

Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong said 

the rifles and shotguns were found 

buried off a road on the edge of the 

Ambrose Carson River Natural Area, a 

rural spot in the hills overlooking the 

state capital city. The handgun was 

found in a BMW in which Martinez- 

Guzman was arrested Saturday. 

"This is not your run-of-the-mill 

property crime," Brantingham told the 

judge. "Most of the property alleged in 

the complaint belonged to homicide 

victims." 

Even if Martinez-Guzman posts bail, 

immigration authorities could take him 

into custody pending deportation 

proceedings. The judge scheduled a 

Feb. 8 hearing to determine if there is 

enough evidence to send the case to 

trial. 

A pawn broker told AP that Martinez- 

Guzman used his passport for 

identification at the Carson City store 

where he is accused of selling jewelry 

allegedly stolen from some of the dead. 

Martinez-Guzman did not speak 

English well, "but there wasn't anything 

that just made us say, 'This is odd or 

weird,'" said Allen Rowe, owner of 

several Northern Nevada Coin stores. 

Rowe said routine receipt paperwork 

that goes to local sheriffs, along with 

store video, led authorities to Martinez- 

Guzman last week. 

"We had him on camera. We had his 

ID. They could pinpoint who he was," 

Rowe said. "Because we do everything 

aboveboard, it led to this person being 

caught. Had he sold it online or met 

someone somewhere else, it could have 

gone unreported." 

Sudan gripped again by a day 

of anti-al-Bashir protests 

toppled a freely elected but ineffective 

government, has repeatedly said that any 

change of leadership could only come 

through the ballot box. Already one of the 

region's longest serving leaders, he is 

expected to run for another term in office 

next year. 

Thursday's protests came one day after al- 

Bashir met in Doha with the ruler of the tiny 

but energy-rich Gulf nation of Qatar, likely 

looking for financial support. The Sudanese 

leader and Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al 

Thani did not speak to the press after their 

meeting and there was no word in the official 

Qatari media on what they agreed on to help 

al-Bashir ride out the ongoing crisis. 

Sudan's official news agency said last 

month that Sheikh Tamim promised in a 

telephone call with al-Bashir that Qatar will 

"provide all that is needed" to help Sudan get 

through its crisis. Qatar at the time only 

acknowledged the phone call took place. 

If Qatar were to help al-Bashir, whose 

position is becoming increasingly precarious 

after a month of continuing protests, it 

would likely in part be to spite Saudi Arabia, 

Egypt and the United Arab Emirates who, 

together with Bahrain, are boycotting the 

Gulf nation for its alleged support of militant 

groups and its close ties with non-Arab, 

mainly Shiite Iran. 

Thursday's demonstrations began in more 

than a dozen of the capital's residential 

neighborhoods and in at least six cities 

across the country, with numbers in each 

protest varying from scores to the low 

hundreds. 

Death toll 

reaches 100 

in Mexico 

pipeline blast 

The number of fatalities in 

Mexico's tragic pipeline 

explosion has climbed to 

100, the Mexican Social 

Security Institute (IMSS) 

said on Thursday, reports 

UNB. 

The death toll climbed 

after four of the injured in 

Friday's blast in the central 

Mexican town of 

Tlahuelilpan, Hidalgo, died 

of their wounds late 

Wednesday and early 

Thursday. 

The victims were being 

treated at a specialized 

medical unit in central 

Mexico State along with a 

fifth survivor who is still 

receiving treatment there, 

while 10 others are 

hospitalized at two other 

hospitals run by the IMSS. 

"In total, the Social 

Security Institute continues 

to provide medical 

treatment to 11 people 

injured in the pipeline 

explosion," the agency said 

in a statement. 

Scores of other victims are 

receiving treatment at 

hospitals in central Mexico, 

and several have been taken 

to a hospital in the U.S. city 

of Galveston, Texas that 

specializes in treating burn 

victims. 

The explosion and an 

ensuing blaze occurred at a 

pipeline spot in the 

community of San 

Primitivo in the 

municipality 

of 

Tlahuelilpan on Friday. 

According to the local 

government, between 600 

and 800 people gathered at 

the site to collect leaked fuel 

with containers when the 

explosion took place. 

Authorities said that the 

pipeline leakage was 

illegally tapped by fuel 

thieves, a problem that cost 

the country some 3 billion 

U.S. dollars last year. 

Sri Lankans demand 

justice for slain, abducted 

journalists 

Sri Lankan rights activists, lawmakers and 

relatives of slain and disappeared journalists 

held a vigil over their abductions and 

killings, demanding the government 

expedite investigations, reports UNB. 

Freddie Gamage, an organizer of the vigil 

on Thursday, said that despite being in 

power for four years, the current 

government "has miserably failed to fulfil its 

promise to punish those responsible for 

attacks on journalists." 

President Maithripala Sirisena came into 

power in 2015, promising to end a culture of 

impunity and ensure justice to the slain 

journalists. Under Sirisena's predecessor, 

Mahinda Rajapaksa, dozens of journalists 

were killed, abducted and tortured. Some 

fled the country, fearing for their lives. 

In some cases, military officers were 

arrested and released on bail. 

Gamage said 44 journalists and media 

workers were killed between 2006 and 2015, 

during the Rajapaksa presidency. According 

to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 11 

journalists were killed in the same period, 

including five who were targeted for murder 

and whose cases remain unsolved. 

"Investigations have been launched only 

into two or three cases, but so far those 

probes too have not been concluded and 

culprits have not been punished," he said. 

"All the other cases of attacks on journalists 

have been totally neglected by the 

authorities." 

Ajith Perera, a lawmaker and government 

minister, lamented about the slow-progress 

of the investigations on attacks on 

journalists. 

"None of those responsible for attacks on 

media have been punished. The government 

should be ashamed," he said. 

In the past, the government has said the 

investigations are handled by police and that 

they will not interfere. 

Separately on Thursday, Sandya 

Ekneligoda, the wife of abducted journalist 

Prageeth Ekneligoda, staged a sit-in protest 

in front of the president's office, demanding 

his administration bring to justice the 

perpetrators responsible for her husband's 

disappearance nine years ago on Jan. 24. 

Ekneligoda, a journalist and cartoonist, 

wrote about corruption and nepotism and 

Rajapaksa's leadership of the military 

OFFICE OF THE 

Barlekha Pourashava, Moulvibazar 

campaign against the Tamil Tiger rebels. He 

was abducted two days before a 2010 

presidential election in which he actively 

supported Rajapaksa's rival. Several military 

intelligence officials have been arrested in 

connection with his disappearance but they 

have been bailed out. 

Most of the killings and attacks on 

journalists took place during Sri Lanka's civil 

war, which ended in 2009, after the 

government troops defeated the Tamil Tiger 

rebels who fought for a separate state for the 

ethnic minority Tamils. 

Both the government and the rebels were 

accused of killing and abducting critics. 

President Maithripala Sirisena came into 

power in 2015, promising to end a culture of 

impunity and ensure justice to the slain 

journalists. Under Sirisena's predecessor, 

Mahinda Rajapaksa, dozens of journalists 

were killed, abducted and tortured. Some 

fled the country, fearing for their lives. 

In some cases, military officers were 

arrested and released on bail. 

Gamage said 44 journalists and media 

workers were killed between 2006 and 2015, 

during the Rajapaksa presidency. According 

to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 11 

journalists were killed in the same period, 

including five who were targeted for murder 

and whose cases remain unsolved. 

"Investigations have been launched only 

into two or three cases, but so far those 

probes too have not been concluded and 

culprits have not been punished," he said. 

"All the other cases of attacks on journalists 

have been totally neglected by the 

authorities." 

Ajith Perera, a lawmaker and government 

minister, lamented about the slow-progress 

of the investigations on attacks on 

journalists. "None of those responsible for 

attacks on media have been punished. The 

government should be ashamed," he said. 

In the past, the government has said the 

investigations are handled by police and that 

they will not interfere. 

Separately on Thursday, Sandya 

Ekneligoda, the wife of abducted journalist 

Prageeth Ekneligoda, staged a sit-in protest 

in front of the president's office, demanding 

his administration bring to justice the 

perpetrators responsible for her husband's 

disappearance nine years ago on Jan. 24. 

Memo No: Bar:Pour/Engg./Z/IUIDP-2/2018-19/15 Date : 23.01.2019 

e-Tender Notice No: e-GP-01/BARLEKHA/IUIDP-2/2018-2019 

Sl. 

No. 

Tender 

ID 

Tender Package 

Number 

Package No & Brief Name 

01. 272811 IUIDP-2/BARA/P-1 1. Maintenance & Improvement of Panidhar village 

Road by Bituminous Dense Carpeting DC Ch. 0180m 

Ch.0181m to 0268m under Barlekha Pourashava 

Dist. Moulvibazar. 2. Construction of Murirgul 

Village Road by RCC from Rail line to Salu Miah 

residence Ch. 0285m under Barlekha Pourashava Dist. 

Moulvibazar. 3. Maintenance of Panidhar-Muchagul 

road by BC from Panidhar Mr. Soyful Master House 

to Muchagul Mr. Iqbal Ali residence Ch.0354m & 

Ch-01678 by Bituminous Dense Carpeting under 

Barlekha Pourashava Dist Moulvibazar. 

02. 272810 IUIDP-2/BARA/P-2 1. Construction & Rehabilitation of Murirgul Village 

road by RCC & Bituminous Dense carpeting Ch- 

0194m BC Ch-0195m to 0135m RCC CH-0736m to 

01100m under Barlekha Pourashava Dist. 

Moulvibazar. 

03. 272809 IUIDP-2/BARA/P-3 1. Construction & Maintenance of Pakhiala Village 

road by RCC & Bituminous Dense Carpeting DC Ch- 

0313m & Ch-0314m to 01478 under Barlekha 

Pourashava Dist- Moulvibazar. 

04. 272808 IUIDP-2/BARA/P-4 1. Construction of Alipur Road by RCC from R&H 

road from to Ailapur Mosque Ch-01022.47m under 

Barlekha Pourashava Dist. Moulvibazr. 

05. 272807 IUIDP-2/BARA/P-5 1. Construction of Mohubond road by RCC from 

Kotal Miah House to Sonapur Mosque Ch-0958m 

under Barlekha Pourashava Dist. Moulvibazar. 

06. 272806 IUIDP-2/BARA/P-6 1. Construction of Balichara Road by RCC from 

Dorga Bazar Mosque to Salik Miah House Ch-0640m 

under Barlekha Pourashava Dist. Moulvibazar 

07. 272805 IUIDP-2/BARA/P-7 1. Construction of 1 Nos. 2.5x2.5m RCC Box Culvert 

at Adittarmohal road Ch-05m under Barlekha 

Pourashava Dist. Moulvibazar. 2. Construction of 1 

Nos. 2.5x2.5m RCC Box Culvert at Alipur road Ch- 

06m under Barlekha Pourashava Dist. Moulvibazar. 3. 

Construction of 1 Nos. 2.5x2.5m RCC Box Culvert at 

Purushuramer Chak road Ch-0200m under Barlekha 

Pourashava Dist. Moulvibazr. 4. Construction of 1 

Nos. 2.5x2.5m RCC Box Culvert at Muchagul road 

Ch-0300m under Barlekha Pourashava Dist. 

Moulvibazar. 5. Construction of 1 Nos. 2.5x2.5m RCC 

Box Culvert at Adittarmohal road Ch-05m under 

Barlekha Pourashava Dist. Moulvibazar. 

Last selling 

Date & Time 

10-Feb-2019 

14:00 

Closing Date & 

Time 

11-Feb-2019 

13:00 

This is an online tender where only e-Tenders will be accepted in e-GP portal and no offline and hard copy will 

be accepted. To Submit e-tender please register on in the National e-GP system portal 

(http://www.eprocure.gov.bd) is required. Further information and guidelines are available in the National e-GP 

System portal and from e-GP helpdesk (helpdesk@eprocure.gov.bd) 

sd/- 

(Md. Kamrul Hasan AE Incharge) 

GD-144/19 (10 x 4) 

Assistant Engineer

INTERNATIONAL SATURDAy, 

jANUARy 26, 2019 

3 

In this photo released by official website of the office of the Iranian Presidency, President Hassan 

Rouhani addresses the nation in a televised speech in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, May 8, 2018. Photo : AP 

Iran: US Navy veteran being held 

over ‘private complaint’ 

Kurdish lawmaker 

on hunger strike 

released from 

Turkish jail 

A Turkish court has ordered 

the release of an imprisoned 

pro-Kurdish lawmaker who 

has been on hunger strike, 

reports UNB. 

Turkey's official Anadolu 

news agency said Friday 

Leyla Guven is to be released 

pending trial on terror 

charges but barred from 

leaving the country. 

The Peoples' Democratic 

Party lawmaker has been on 

hunger strike for 79 days to 

protest the prison conditions 

of jailed Kurdish rebel leader 

Abdullah Ocalan, who she 

says has been unlawfully 

kept in isolation. More than 

250 prisoners joined 

Guven's hunger strike this 

month. Guven has been in 

pre-trial detention for a year 

for statements critical of 

Turkey's cross-border operation 

into Syria against Kurdish 

fighters it considers terrorists. 

Hunger strikers in 

Turkey traditionally refuse 

food but take vitamins and 

sugared water, which prolongs 

life. Guven's party said 

her condition has reached "a 

critical stage." 

A U.S. Navy veteran detained in Iran in 

July is being held in connection to a 

"private complaint," the semi-official 

Mehr news agency reported Friday, 

reports UNB. 

Michael White, 46, has been held since 

July, and is the first known American to 

have been detained in Iran since Donald 

Trump became president. His family 

says he traveled to Iran to visit his 

girlfriend, who he met online, and was 

arbitrarily detained. 

The Friday report quoted prosecutor 

Gholamali Sadeghi as saying the case is 

still "under investigation," without 

elaborating. He did not confirm reports 

that the man faces security charges. 

Under Iranian law, a private complaint 

would refer to allegations made by a citizen, 

not the state. 

Trump has pursued a maximalist campaign 

against Tehran that includes 

pulling out of its nuclear deal with 

world powers. Iran in the past has 

detained Westerners and dual nationals 

to use them as leverage in negotiations. 

Joanne White, the detainee's mother, 

issued a statement earlier this month 

calling on the Trump administration to 

secure his release. She said he was 

undergoing cancer treatment and 

feared he would not survive prolonged 

detention. 

Michael White worked as a cook for the 

Navy and left the service about a decade 

ago, according to a spokesman for the 

family, who insisted White was not a 

spy and had never been one. The 

spokesman, Jonathan Franks, said 

White had recently worked as a janitor. 

There are at least four other known 

American citizens being held in Iran. 

Iranian-American Siamak Namazi and 

his 82-year-old father Baquer are both 

serving 10-year sentences on espionage 

charges. Iranian-American art dealer 

Karan Vafadari and his Iranian wife, 

Afarin Neyssari, received 27-year and 

16-year prison sentences, respectively. 

Chinese-American graduate student 

Xiyue Wang was sentenced to 10 years 

in prison for allegedly "infiltrating" the 

country while doing doctoral research 

on Iran's Qajar dynasty. 

Iranian-American Robin Shahini was 

released on bail in 2017 after staging a 

hunger strike while serving an 18-year 

prison sentence for "collaboration with 

a hostile government." Shahini is 

believed to still be in Iran. 

Also in an Iranian prison is Nizar Zakka, 

a U.S. permanent resident from 

Lebanon who advocated for internet 

freedom and has done work for the U.S. 

government. He was sentenced to 10 

years on espionage-related charges. 

Former FBI agent Robert Levinson, 

who vanished in Iran in 2007 while on 

an unauthorized CIA mission, remains 

missing as well. Iran says that Levinson 

is not in the country and that it has no 

further information about him, but his 

family holds Tehran responsible for his 

disappearance. 

Talks start as Senate rejects 2 

plans for ending shutdown 

A splintered Senate voted down competing 

Democratic and Republican plans for ending 

the 35-day partial government shutdown, 

but the twin setbacks prompted a burst of 

bipartisan talks aimed at temporarily halting 

the longest-ever closure of federal agencies 

and the damage it's inflicting around the 

country, reports UNB. 

In the first serious exchange in weeks, Senate 

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R- 

Ky., quickly called Minority Leader Chuck 

Schumer, D-N.Y., to his office Thursday to 

explore potential next steps for solving the 

vitriolic stalemate. Senators from both sides 

floated a plan to reopen agencies for three 

weeks and pay hundreds of thousands of 

beleaguered federal workers while bargainers 

hunt for a deal. 

At the White House, President Donald 

Trump told reporters he'd support "a reasonable 

agreement." He suggested he'd also 

want a "prorated down payment" for his 

long-sought border wall with Mexico but 

didn't describe the term. He said he has "other 

alternatives" for getting wall funding, an 

apparent reference to his disputed claim that 

he could declare a national emergency and 

fund the wall's construction using other programs 

in the federal budget. 

"At least we're talking about it. That's better 

than it was before," McConnell told 

reporters in one of the most encouraging 

statements heard since the shutdown began 

Dec. 22. Even so, it was unclear whether the 

flurry would produce results. 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., 

whose relationship with Trump seems to 

sour daily, told reporters a "big" down payment 

would not be "a reasonable agreement." 

Asked if she knew how much money 

Trump meant, Pelosi said, "I don't know if he 

knows what he's talking about." 

Schumer spokesman Justin Goodman said 

Democrats have made clear "that they will 

not support funding for the wall, prorated or 

otherwise." 

Contributing to the pressure on lawmakers 

to find a solution was the harsh reality confronting 

800,000 federal workers, who on 

Friday face a second two-week payday with 

no paychecks. 

Underscoring the strains, Sen. Michael 

Bennet, D-Colo., angrily said on the Senate 

floor that Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, had forced 

a 2013 shutdown during which "people were 

killed" in Colorado from flooding and shuttered 

federal agencies couldn't help local 

emergency workers. Moments earlier, Cruz 

accused Democrats of blocking a separate, 

doomed bill to pay Coast Guard personnel 

during this shutdown to score political 

points, adding later, "Just because you hate 

somebody doesn't mean you should shut the 

government down." 

Thursday's votes came after Vice President 

Mike Pence lunched privately with GOP senators, 

who told him they were itching for the 

standoff to end, participants said. Sen. Roy 

Blunt, R-Mo., said their message to Pence 

was, "Find a way forward." 

A splintered Senate voted down competing Democratic and Republican plans for ending the 35-day 

partial government shutdown, but the twin setbacks prompted a burst of bipartisan talks aimed at 

temporarily halting the longest-ever closure of federal agencies and the damage it's inflicting around the 

country. 

Photo : AP 

Trump aides 

struggle to show 

some shutdown 

empathy 

One White House aide 

mused that the shutdown 

was like a paid vacation for 

some furloughed workers. 

President Donald Trump's 

daughter-in-law said 

employees' "little bit of pain" 

was worth it for the good of 

the country. Commerce Secretary 

Wilbur Ross questioned 

why cash-poor workers 

were using food banks 

instead of taking out loans, 

reports UNB. 

The president himself says 

workers simply need to 

"make adjustments." 

With hundreds of thousands 

of federal workers 

going without pay during the 

monthlong partial government 

shutdown, Trump and 

his team, which includes the 

wealthiest Cabinet ever 

assembled, have struggled to 

deliver a full dose of empathy 

for those who are scraping 

to get by. 

Ross set off howls when he 

was asked on CNBC on 

Thursday about reports that 

some of the 800,000 workers 

currently not receiving 

paychecks were going to 

homeless shelters to get 

food. 

"Well, I know they are, and 

I don't really quite understand 

why," he said. "The 

obligations that they would 

undertake, say borrowing 

from a bank or a credit 

union, are, in effect, federally 

guaranteed. So the 30 

days of pay that some people 

will be out ... there's no real 

reason why they shouldn't 

be able to get a loan against 

it." 

In a subsequent interview 

with Bloomberg, Ross said 

he was "painfully aware" 

that workers were suffering 

hardships. He added that in 

his earlier remarks, he'd 

been trying to let workers 

know that credit union loans 

were available for those 

"experiencing liquidity 

crises" - hardly the language 

of those living paycheck to 

paycheck. It all contributed 

to perceptions that the 

Trump administration was 

out of touch with workers 

bearing the brunt of the 

shutdown impact. 

India closely following 

crisis in Venezuela 

Indian officials say they are closely following 

the political crisis in Venezuela, reports 

UNB. 

Opposition leader Juan Guaido's claim to 

the presidency has been recognized by the 

U.S. and other countries, a step that put 

them at odds with Russia, China and others 

who see the U.S. as interfering. 

India Ministry of External Affairs 

spokesman Raveesh Kumar said Friday it 

was up to Venezuelans "to resolve their differences 

through constructive dialogue and 

discussion without resorting to violence." 

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro 

defiantly called home all Venezuelan diplomats 

from the U.S. and closed its embassy 

Thursday. 

Guaido's whereabouts have been a mystery 

since he was symbolically sworn in 

Wednesday. 

Backed by Venezuela's military, President 

Nicolas Maduro went on the offensive 

against an opposition leader who declared 

himself interim president and his U.S. supporters, 

setting up a struggle for power in 

the crisis-plagued South American nation. 

A defiant Maduro called home all 

Venezuelan diplomats from the U.S. and 

closed its embassy Thursday, a day after 

ordering all U.S. diplomats out of 

Venezuela by the weekend because President 

Donald Trump had supported the 

presidential claim of Juan Guaido. Washington 

has refused to comply, but ordered 

its non-essential staff to leave the tumultuous 

country. 

The Trump administration says Maduro's 

order isn't legal because the U.S. no longer 

recognizes him as Venezuela's legitimate 

leader. 

Meanwhile, all eyes were on Guaido 

whose whereabouts have been a mystery 

since he was symbolically sworn in 

Wednesday. 

Germany says it favors recognizing Venezuela's opposition leader as the 

country's interim president unless there are free and fair elections soon. 

Photo : AP 

Singapore to reduce military 

training after actor’s death 

Singapore's military said Thursday it 

will reduce the length, intensity and frequency 

of its training programs after an 

actor in the reserves died from injuries 

he sustained overseas, reports UNB. 

Aloysius Pang was on a military training 

exercise in New Zealand when a 

gun barrel was lowered on a large 

artillery device he was helping to repair 

Saturday. It crushed his abdomen and 

chest. 

The defense ministry said Pang had 

been put on life support following 

surgeries to repair his damaged 

organs. Pang died at Waikato Hospital 

on Thursday. He was 28. 

In a briefing, Chief of Defence Force 

Melvyn Ong said the Singapore 

Armed Forces will modify its training 

programs in the weeks ahead. 

"This reduction of training tempo ... 

will be enforced for as long as it takes 

for us to get it right. And we want to 

do it right, we want to do it safe for 

every activity, we want to do it right 

every time," Ong said, according to 

The Straits Times newspaper. 

Singapore mandates that young men 

serve in its armed forces, police force 

or civil defense force. Most serve full 

time for two years and then have 

annual training obligations. Pang had 

completed his full-time service, and 

was an armament technician whose 

rank was corporal first class. 

Pang's family flew to New Zealand 

after hearing he was injured. His elder 

brother Kenny said he didn't manage 

to speak to Pang. 

"He's the precious of our family. He's 

the youngest. He's the most loved," 

he said upon returning to Singapore. 

"To reciprocate that ... he has also given 

us all the support and all the love 

he can." 

Funeral arrangements were being 

made and the family hoped that 

Pang's body will be repatriated as 

soon as possible. 

Before leaving for New Zealand, Pang 

wrote on Twitter that "Unfortunately, 

my 2019 will start off with me flying 

to New Zealand for 3 weeks due to 

reservist. I'll be back in action soon." 

The military said it would convene an 

independent committee to investigate 

the circumstances leading to 

Pang's injury. 

He had been working on a Singapore 

Self-Propelled Howitzer, a 

motorized piece of artillery that 

looks similar to a small tank. The 

live-firing training exercise took 

place at the Waiouru training area 

on New Zealand's North Island and 

is hosted by New Zealand's military 

each year. 

Pang's Singapore agency NoonTalk 

Media posted a photo of the actor on 

Facebook and wrote "Dear Aloysius, 

you'll be missed." 

Other actors also paid tribute. Shane 

Pow Xunping wrote on Instagram: 

"It is not enough for you to be a brother 

in this life. We will continue to be 

brothers in the next life. I love you." 

Also known as Pang Wei Chong, the 

actor appeared in the movie "Young 

& Fabulous" (2016) as well as television 

series including "The Truth 

Seekers" (2016) and "C.L.I.F." (2011). 

Taliban bring top leader 

into talks with US 

A co-founder of the Taliban who was released from prison in 

Pakistan in October has been appointed head of the group's 

political office in Qatar as it negotiates with the United States 

over ending the 17-year-old Afghan war, the Taliban said Friday, 

reports UNB. 

Abdul Ghani Baradar, a senior Taliban military commander, 

was arrested in Pakistan in 2010. His release is believed to 

have been arranged by the United States as part of the negotiations, 

and his presence could reassure battlefield commanders 

who may fear concessions by the political leadership. 

Baradar was brought in to "strengthen and properly handle 

the ongoing negotiations process with the United States." 

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said. "Multiple 

changes have also taken place in the military and civilian 

departments" of the group, "so that the ongoing jihadi 

process and political efforts can develop positively," he 

German rescue ship allowed in 

Italian waters due to weather 

The Italian Coast guard says it has permitted a vessel carrying 47 rescued migrants to enter 

Italian territorial waters due to bad weather conditions, reports UNB. 

The German aid group Sea-Watch said on Twitter Friday that it has received no response 

to multiple requests to access a port with the migrants that it rescued off the coast of Libya on 

Saturday. 

Italy and Malta, the closest EU nations, have both refused to allow entry to rescue vessels 

operated by humanitarian groups in what they say is a bid to discourage smuggler boats from 

departing Libya by diminishing the prospect of rescue. 

The Coast Guard said that Sea-Watch was one to two miles off Siracusa, Sicily, flanked by 

Coast Guard and Financial Police boats. 

added. U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad has met with the Taliban 

on a number of occasions in recent months in the latest bid 

to end America's longest war. The U.S. invaded Afghanistan 

after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks to topple the Taliban, who 

were harboring Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida. The Taliban 

have staged a comeback in recent years and today hold sway 

over nearly half the country. 

Khalilzad has been in Qatar, where the Taliban maintain a 

political office, since Monday. The U.S. State Department has 

neither denied nor confirmed previous meetings with the 

Taliban, but Khalilzad says he has met with all sides in the 

conflict.Pakistan has long had influence over the Taliban, 

and the senior leadership of the group is widely believed to be 

based there. Mohammad Faisal, a spokesman for Pakistan's 

Foreign Ministry, said it had "facilitated" the ongoing negotiations 

in Qatar and that Pakistani officials were attending the 

latest talks.

EDITORIAL 

SATurDAY, 

jAnuArY 26, 2019 

4 

Acting Editor & Publisher : Jobaer Alam 

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

e-mail: editor@thebangladeshtoday.com 

Saturday, January 26, 2019 

Coping with a 

growing health 

threat 

The World Diabetes Day is observed in 

Bangladesh regularly or anually. 

Different programmes are carried out 

on the occasion such as discussion 

meetings, seminars, rallies, etc. But the 

observance of days such as these are more 

rituals. The same do not have so much of 

enduring impact at the field level where so 

much should be done to build barriers 

against this most disease. 

Diabetes does not kill quickly. Therefore, 

people feel complacent to be proactive to 

stop it from finding a foothold in one's body 

or to treat it with great earnestness. But 

both attitude can be fatal in the medium and 

longer term. First of all unregulated 

diabetes can reduce human vitality, curb 

their contribution to working hours. 

Ultimately, patients with the affliction may 

turn out to be a liability in the medical, 

physical and economic sense for their 

families and society as a whole. Thus, the 

best course is to prevent diabetes from 

finding a berth in the body and if it is 

already entrenched then to keep it under 

firm control. 

But it is worryingly noted that the number 

of sufferers from diabetes have soared in 

Bangladesh in recent years. It was reported 

recently that there are some 8 million 

identified sufferers from diabetes in 

Bangladesh . However, the real number of 

total sufferers could be greater in the 

background of the disease not getting 

detected in so many cases. Besides cases of 

juvenile diabetes is also spreading fast, 

something unthinkable even a decade ago. 

Indeed, diabetes appears to be the single 

biggest health threat in Bangladesh 

nowadays. People with diabetes are seen to 

be increasing faster in number in 

Bangladesh compared to other major 

diseases. 

A country like Bangladesh with its modest 

national health budget and meager 

resources available at individual and family 

levels, needs to concentrate more on the 

preventive sides of diabetes so that people 

do not acquire this serious health problem 

in the first place and to train up the ones 

who get the disease to keep it under control. 

If this is done, then the expenditure of 

resources on diabetes related illnesses can 

be reasonable and diabetic patients can 

continue to lead useful and productive lives. 

Diabetes prevention involve eating more 

healthfully, becoming more physically active 

and losing a few extra pounds - and it's 

never too late to start. Making a few simple 

changes in lifestyle now may help one to 

avoid the serious health complications of 

diabetes down the road, such as nerve, 

kidney and heart damage. 

The first rule to prevent and control 

diabetes is regular physical activity. 

Exercise can help one to lose weight, lower 

blood sugar and to boost sensitivity to 

insulin which helps to keep blood sugar 

within a normal range. Research shows that 

aerobic exercise can help control diabetes, 

but the greatest benefit comes from a fitness 

programme that includes both aerobic 

exercises and exercising with weights. 

Foods high in fiber include fruits, 

vegetables, beans, whole grains, nuts and 

seeds. Regular consumption of these can 

help to ward off diabetes in the first place or 

to control the same if already developed. 

Diabetes related information in 

Bangladesh require regular and focused 

dissemination in the mass media more so 

to create greater awareness as diabetes is 

posing as a serious and spreading health 

concern in the country. As it is, such 

publicities are only intermittent when the 

media needs to campaign on a daily basis to 

alert people about the disease. 

Palestinian popular struggle enters a new phase 

Afew years ago, any Palestinian 

organisation that did not support 

the armed struggle was viewed 

with suspicion, since the gun - and only 

the gun - was considered the only way 

to liberate Palestine. 

In those days, this was agreed on even 

by those unable to play a role the armed 

struggle. 

Today, however, many Palestinians 

realise - publicly or otherwise - that the 

popular struggle (with all its variations) 

is only in name at this stage, and this is 

due to a clear shift in the strategic 

balance of power in favour of the Zionist 

state and its allies. 

Indeed, the popular struggle is 

gathering momentum in draining Israel 

politically, morally and in the media 

where it draws the world's 

condemnation over its continued 

occupation of Palestinian lands. 

Its use of excessive force against 

defenceless Arab civilians and its 

violent strategy often results in strong 

denunciations in the international 

arena. 

There are facts and gains established 

by the Palestinian people's peaceful 

struggle that cannot be ignored, 

although their final results are still 

dependent on the realisation of how 

Palestinian nationalist forces utilise 

them. 

Perhaps the most prominent of these 

facts/gains is that the Palestinian issue, 

despite all the obstacles, is alive in the 

hearts and minds of Palestinians, many 

Arabs, Muslims as well as westerners. 

The once 'marginalised' Palestinian 

issue tops regional and international 

agendas again - as several United 

Nations (UN) resolutions testify to. 

The UN General Assembly has 

Ayear ago, Emmerson Mnangagwa sat 

for lunch with a Financial Times 

reporter and famously declared: "I 

am not a crocodile." Keen to shed his 

reputation as a security enforcer and longtime 

Mugabe apparatchik, the new 

president sought to woo international 

audiences as the man who would deliver 

Zimbabwe from rogue nation status.This 

year, forced to cut short an international 

tour aimed at securing new investments, 

Mnangagwa has returned to a chaotic 

country with thousands protesting a 150 

percent hike in fuel prices. Amid reports of 

torture, indiscriminate beatings, live fire 

and the deaths of at least 12 people and the 

arrests of hundreds, it is little wonder that 

the international community was less than 

welcoming during the president's 

investment roadshow. Little more than a 

year into his presidency, it seems he has 

reverted to type, using the military to crush 

protesters and leading Zimbabweans to ask 

whether they should have removed Robert 

Mugabe at all. 

As head of state security during the 

subjugation of Matabeleland in the early 

1980s, when government forces killed as 

many as 20,000 people in the southwest of 

the country, Mnangagwa earned a 

reputation as an efficient enforcer for the 

ruling party. Last summer, the army 

opened fire on fleeing protesters following 

contentious elections, raising questions 

about the president's commitment to 

reform. And in the last week, after the 

president arbitrarily more than doubled 

fuel prices, the government has acted with 

the same impunity as it always has, with 

AS'AD ABDul rAHMAn 

overwhelmingly adopted clear and 

important resolutions in favour of 

Palestine when it comes to Israeli 

practices affecting the rights of 

Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian 

lands, the illegality of the Jewish 

colonies in these lands, the application 

of the Geneva Convention relative to the 

Protection of Civilian Persons in Time 

of War of 12 August 1949 in the 

Occupied Palestinian Territory, 

including East Jerusalem and other 

Arab-occupied territories. 

These resolutions have also been 

related to the adoption of the work of 

the Special Committee to Investigate 

Israeli Practices Affecting Palestinian 

Human Rights and Other Arabs of the 

Occupied Territories, the property and 

revenues of Palestinian refugees, the 

operations of the UN Relief and Works 

Agency for Palestine Refugees in the 

Near East (UNRWA), the 1967 

displaced Palestinians, and assistance 

to Palestinian refugees. 

For those who see no other form of 

struggle and insist that armed 

resistance is the only way of struggle - 

arguing that international resolutions 

have no value because many of them 

have not been achieved or implemented 

- the fact remains that international 

resolutions still have an important 

impact. 

"We have long understood that the 

United Nations will not bring us any 

salvation," wrote Israeli author Lilac 

Sigan recently, adding that "the farewell 

gift from Nikky Hailey, the United 

Along the same lines, Israeli journalist Shlomo Shamir said: 

"Israel's failure to condemn Hamas is disappointing, even 

though the condemnation would not have led to a change in 

international relations with Hamas. This should not lead to 

more nervousness and anger about the result of the vote, 

because this united nations is anti-Israel, will remain so, 

and will not change. The organisation was and will remain 

an arena against us." 

security forces targeting boys as young as 10 

and 11. Though initially viewed as a more 

liberal successor, Mnangagwa is becoming 

increasingly authoritarian despite public 

professions that "violence or misconduct by 

our security forces is unacceptable and a 

betrayal of the new Zimbabwe." 

It seems Mnangagwa has reverted to 

type, using the military to crush protesters. 

Positioning himself as the architect of 

Zimbabwe's new dawn, the president will 

face an increasingly uphill task to drum up 

foreign investment. Having expected to 

court international money at Davos this 

year, the president cut short his European 

trip as the economy hurtles toward another 

economic catastrophe. The country is 

running out of money, has no viable 

economic policy, and the highest fuel prices 

in the world. 

Inflation is at a 10-year high and has been 

estimated to be at 236 percent, as opposed 

to the government figure of 42 percent. 

Under these challenging circumstances, the 

ZAID M. BElBAgI 

States ambassador to the United 

Nations, was supposed to be a 

vehement denunciation of Hamas. It 

seemed self-evident that the United 

Nations will condemn the terrorist 

organisation, but it turned out that it 

didn't." 

Sigan went on to say: "A few years 

ago, all Israel has been doing is to 

occasionally complain of the problem 

[of UN voting]." 

Along the same lines, Israeli 

journalist Shlomo Shamir said: "Israel's 

failure to condemn Hamas is 

disappointing, even though the 

condemnation would not have led to a 

change in international relations with 

Hamas. This should not lead to more 

nervousness and anger about the result 

country's bond note surrogate currency, 

which is supposed to be equal to the US 

dollar, is rapidly losing its value. As key 

public servants, schools and other 

businesses demand payment in US dollars, 

the situation of having to import foreign 

currency for local use is unsustainable, as 

current foreign exchange generation is 

insufficient to meet the country's import 

demands. For a veteran of the 

independence movement, the challenges of 

modern Zimbabwe are immense. The 

government that Mnangagwa heads is a 

hugely dysfunctional organization built on 

39 years of gross patronage. With billions of 

dollars in overseas debt, Zimbabwe has yet 

to offer a plausible plan of how it will meet 

its obligations. Simultaneously, an 

estimated 90 percent of government 

revenues are spent on salaries, while civil 

servants use their positions for personal 

financial gain. South Africa, a patient and 

long-time supporter of its northerly 

neighbor, has itself grown reluctant to 

of the vote, because this United Nations 

is anti-Israel, will remain so, and will 

not change. The organisation was and 

will remain an arena against us." 

In further comments on the UN vote, 

Israel's Hebrew Channel 10 said "US 

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and 

Jason Greenblatt, US special envoy to 

the Middle East, considered the failure 

to pass the resolution at the United 

Nations a disgraceful act." 

Nevertheless, Israeli Prime Minister 

Benjamin Netanyahu said the number 

of countries that voted against Hamas 

at the UN - 87 nations - reflected "a very 

important success for the US and Israel, 

although the draft resolution was not 

adopted." 

Yes, there is no doubt that the UN 

resolutions on the question of Palestine 

appear to be one of the heaviest 

weapons in the hands of the 

Palestinians today. 

With the strategic imbalance of power 

in the region, the threat of an armed 

struggle is no longer the only weapon in 

the arsenal of Palestinians or the most 

pragmatic path for them to follow. 

Indeed, the extremism of most rightwing 

political leaders in Israel, together 

with the country's apartheid views and 

practices, have further exposed its 

agenda. 

In fact, such views and practices open 

the door to a renewed Palestinian/Arab 

national liberation struggle, which 

requires all of us to abide by the two 

golden rules: "Make ready for them all 

you can of power" without abandoning 

the other wing of the struggle - political 

and media power, and the diplomatic 

and popular struggle. 

Source : Gulf News 

Security crackdown won’t solve Zimbabwe’s economic woes 

Taliban car bombing this week 

wounded more than a hundred 

people, according to media reports, 

and more than a hundred more lost their 

lives in an attack on an Afghan military base 

in Maidan Wardak province. A member of 

the US military was reportedly killed, which 

is expected to impact the Trump 

administration's withdrawal plan. 

About 2,400 US military personnel are 

estimated to have lost their lives in 

Afghanistan since American forces 

deployed in 2001 and around 14,000 

troops remain in the country to train and 

advise local military forces and to conduct 

counter-terrorism operations. 

While the successful Eid ceasefire in mid- 

June last year and Washington's 

willingness to open direct peace talks with 

the Taliban in July raised hopes for peace, 

the Taliban have intermittently launched 

attacks to prove their resilience in a bid to 

enter the dialogue from a position of 

strength. The group launched attacks on 

August 10 with the objective of taking the 

city of Ghazni, 120 kilometers south of 

Kabul. They killed an estimated 100 

security forces and 20 civilians. 

The Afghan security forces remain too 

overstretched to take on the growing 

menace of the Taliban in different pockets 

of the country and their high casualty rates 

(even when militarily assisted by US and 

North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces) 

Positioning himself as the architect of Zimbabwe's new 

dawn, the president will face an increasingly uphill task 

to drum up foreign investment. Having expected to court 

international money at Davos this year, the president cut 

short his European trip as the economy hurtles toward 

another economic catastrophe. The country is running 

out of money, has no viable economic policy, and the 

highest fuel prices in the world. 

raise serious doubts about whether they 

can be an effective provider of security once 

the US withdraws half of its troops. 

Some external state actors allegedly kept 

contributing to the strength of the Taliban 

in order to avert threats perceived from the 

American influence in Afghanistan. The 

Taliban and ISKP (the ISIS affiliate in 

Afghanistan also known as ISIS-Khorasan 

or Islamic State Khorasan Province) 

violently collided with each other in an 

effort to assert their supremacy, killing even 

more people. 

Many civilians were killed as a result of 

armed clashes between the Afghan 

government and the Taliban and between 

the Taliban and the NATO and American 

forces, as well as Taliban attacks on 

government institutions and foreign 

diplomatic missions. 

US and Afghan air strikes targeting the 

Taliban and ISKP also caused many civilian 

casualties. According to the UNAMA 

(United Nations Assistance Mission in 

Afghanistan) Protection of Civilians in 

Armed Conflict 2018 midyear report, the 

number of civilian casualties caused by air 

strikes in the first half of 2018 was 52% 

higher than during the same period in 2017. 

UNAMA documented a total of 353 

civilian casualties (149 deaths and 204 

injuries) from aerial attacks, attributing 

52% of the casualties to the Afghan Air 

Force and 45% to "international military 

forces" and the remaining 3% to 

unidentified pro-government forces. 

The US is the only international actor 

reported to have conducted air strikes in 

Afghanistan. Last year, ISKP claimed 

responsibility for most of the most lethal 

terrorist attacks on Afghan soil. The 

primary targets for the Taliban remained 

extend further credit to Mnangagwa. The 

Lima agreement, which sought to pay back 

$1.8 billion in debt arrears out of a total of 

over $10 billion owed to multilateral and 

bilateral institutions so as to secure fresh 

funding, is now dead in the water. Within 

this context, Zimbabwe must stabilize its 

economy if it is to attract new loans, 

meaningful foreign direct investment 

inflows and resuscitate its ailing industries 

to alleviate the circumstances of its longsuffering 

citizens. 

It is unclear who the president 

enthusiastically tweets his agenda to 

following the government's directive to the 

country's biggest mobile operator to shut 

down social media. Earlier this week, he 

told his followers "in light of the economic 

situation, I will be returning home after a 

highly productive week of bilateral trade 

and investment meetings," seemingly 

unaware of the acuteness of his country's 

problems. There is no doubt, however, that 

Zimbabweans are aware of the challenges 

their country faces. Bankrupted and 

unpopular, the president must seek 

solutions other than a heavy hand to stay in 

power. Ethiopia and Rwanda have 

managed to pull themselves out of horrific 

national circumstances to build successful 

economies, without the natural advantages 

of Zimbabwe. Boasting a young, 

anglophone workforce, rich in agriculture, 

and with considerable mineral resources 

and hydroelectric power opportunities, its 

future need not be bleak. 

Source : Arab News 

Afghan insurgents keep up pressure ahead of peace talks 

MAnoj KuMAr MISHrA 

Some external state actors allegedly kept contributing to 

the strength of the Taliban in order to avert threats 

perceived from the American influence in Afghanistan. The 

Taliban and ISKP (the ISIS affiliate in Afghanistan also 

known as ISIS-Khorasan or Islamic State Khorasan 

Province) violently collided with each other in an effort to 

assert their supremacy, killing even more people. 

Afghan government institutions and 

officials. Their objective is to put growing 

pressure on the US and tilt the negotiations 

in their favor. They aim to sideline the 

Afghan government in the peace talks and 

target it in order to show that it is a 

vulnerable institution. The Taliban made 

their aims clear last year during the 

parliamentary elections of October 20, 

which were disrupted by violence. The polls 

were postponed and canceled in some 

provinces and a provincial police chief, 

General Abdul Raziq, was killed. 

The objectives of ISKP were more lethal 

and transnational. The group targeted 

civilians whom they believed did not 

conform to their religious doctrines. 

Nevertheless, the Taliban were 

responsible for more civilian fatalities. A 

UNAMA report released last July 15 

attributed 42% of civilian casualties to the 

Afghan Taliban and 18% to ISIS in the first 

half of 2018. According to the report, the 

Taliban claimed responsibility for 26 

attacks with civilian targets resulting in 453 

civilian casualties and ISIS claimed 

responsibility for 15 attacks with 595 

civilian casualties in the first half of 2018. 

The report further stated that the civilians 

killed during the first six months of 2018 

were the highest over the last decade since 

the agency began documentation. 

Source : Asia Times

SCIENCE & TECH 

SATURdAy, 

JANUARy 26, 2019 

5 

Google permeates almost every facet of online life, making it difficult but not impossible to remove. 

Photo: Arnd Wiegmann 

Is it possible to remove Google from our life? 

Jack Schofield 

Google's motto used to be "don't be evil", 

but in the eyes of some it has now taken 

on the mantle of the "evil empire" from 

Microsoft, which Bill Gates and crew 

inherited from the IBM mocked in the 

Mac's launch advert in 1984. The EU has 

fined Google €2.4bn (£2.2bn) for abusing 

its search monopoly by favouring its 

products. Most recently, Google was 

fined €4.34bn for "very serious illegal 

behaviour" in using Android "to cement 

its dominance as a search engine", 

according to the EU's competition 

commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, a 

charge the company contests. 

Google started by taking over the 

search engine market. It now dominates 

smartphone operating systems 

(Android), browsers (Chrome), webbased 

email (Gmail), online video 

(YouTube) and maps. It is also 

challenging in other areas with its own 

cloud platform, an online office suite, 

Chromebooks, Waze, Nest and so on. 

Google is far advanced in driverless cars 

(Waymo) and artificial intelligence 

(DeepMind). Resistance is futile. You will 

Linda Kinstler 

Should one be so unlucky as 

to find oneself, as I did, lying 

awake in bed in the early 

hours of the morning in a 

hostel in La Paz, Bolivia, 

listening anxiously to the 

sound of someone trying to 

force their way into one's 

room, one could do worse 

than to throw a chair under 

the doorknob as a first line of 

defence. But this is not what 

I did. Instead, I held my 

breath and waited until the 

intruder, ever so mercifully, 

abandoned his project and 

sauntered down the hall. 

The next morning, when I 

raised the incident with the 

hostel employee at the front 

desk, he said the attempted 

intrusion had just been an 

innocent mistake, a 

misdirected early-morning 

wake-up call gone wrong, 

and what was the big deal, 

anyway? Fuming, I turned to 

the highest authority in the 

be assimilated. 

We can probably agree Google has won 

by delivering high-quality products, and 

more than 40 corpses in the Google 

Graveyard - soon to be joined by its awful 

social network, Google+ - prove it doesn't 

always win. But there are other problems. 

First, Google now controls web 

development to the point where not even 

Microsoft can compete, as shown by the 

latter's recent decision to replace its 

EdgeHTML browser engine with the 

open source Chromium on which 

Google's Chrome browser is based. Users 

were supposed to benefit from 

competition between rival 

implementations of open web standards, 

but today Chromium and therefore 

Chrome is the standard. 

As Firefox-developer Mozilla has 

pointed out, "from a social, civic and 

individual empowerment perspective, 

ceding control of fundamental online 

infrastructure to a single company is 

terrible". Second, many of us have 

problems with Google's business model, 

which the Harvard Business School 

professor Shoshana Zuboff has called 

"surveillance capitalism". Google 

world of international travel, 

the only entity to which 

every hotel, restaurant, 

museum and attraction in 

the world is beholden: I left 

the hostel a bad review on 

TripAdvisor. 

TripAdvisor is where we 

go to praise, criticise and 

purchase our way through 

the inhabited world. It is, at 

its core, a guestbook, a place 

where people record the 

highs and lows of their 

holiday experiences for the 

benefit of hotel proprietors 

and future guests. But this 

guestbook lives on the 

internet, where its 

contributors continue 

swapping advice, memories 

and complaints about their 

journeys long after their 

vacations have come to an 

end. 

Every month, 456 million 

people - about one in every 

16 people on earth - visit 

some tentacle of 

TripAdvisor.com to plan or 

assess a trip. For virtually 

every place, there exists a 

corresponding page. The 

Rajneeshee Osho 

International Meditation 

Resort in Pune, India, has 

140 reviews and a 4 out of 5 

rating, Cobham Service 

Station on the M25 has 451 

reviews and a rating of 3.5, 

while Wes Anderson's 

fictional Grand Budapest 

Hotel currently has 358 

reviews and a rating of 4.5. 

Over its two decades in 

business, TripAdvisor has 

turned an initial investment 

of $3m into a$7bn business 

by figuring out how to 

provide a service that no 

other tech company has 

quite mastered: constantly 

updated information about 

every imaginable element of 

travel, courtesy of an evergrowing 

army of 

contributors who provide 

their services for free. 

Browsing through 

TripAdvisor's 660m reviews 

finances its free services by tracking users 

and targeting them with advertisements. 

In fact, it tracks you across the web even 

if you never visit any Google properties 

because other websites commonly use 

Google AdWords, AdMob, DoubleClick, 

Google Analytics, and its other tracking 

or advertising products. 

From your searches and site visits, 

Google probably knows more about you 

than your mother or your spouse, and 

there's no telling where that information 

will eventually end up. If you use an 

Android phone, Google can also track 

your physical location, and if you turn 

that off, you lose directions, "find my 

phone" and other features. 

The simplest way to avoid most Google 

products is to switch to the Microsoft or 

Apple equivalents, in whole or in part. 

Some would see this as jumping out of the 

frying pan into the fire. However, Satya 

Nadella's new Microsoft is different from 

the old one, and driven by other metrics 

(usage instead of units). It is building a 

broader cross-platform ecosystem than 

either Google (everything online) or 

Apple (everything on Apple). 

TripAdvisor: Travel in the 21st century 

The world's biggest travel site has turned the industry upside down. 

Photo: Getty 

is a study in extremes. As a 

kind of mirror of the world 

and all its wonders, the site 

can transport you to the 

most spectacular 

landmarks, the finest 

restaurants, the most 

"adrenaline-pumping" 

water parks, the greatest 

"Hop-On Hop-Off 

Experiences" that mankind 

has ever devised. Yet 

TripAdvisor reviews are also 

a ruthless audit of the earth's 

many flaws. For every 

effusive review of the Eiffel 

Tower ("Worth the hype at 

night," "Perfect Backdrop!"), 

there is another that 

suggests it is a blight on the 

face of the earth ("sad, ugly, 

don't bother"; "similar to the 

lobby of a big Vegas casino, 

but outside".) 

TripAdvisor is to travel as 

Google is to search, as 

Amazon is to books, as Uber 

is to cabs - so dominant that 

it is almost a monopoly. Bad 

reviews can be devastating 

for business, so proprietors 

tend to think of them in 

rather violent terms. "It is 

the marketing/PR 

equivalent of a drive-by 

shooting," Edward Terry, 

the owner of a Lebanese 

restaurant in Weybridge, 

UK, wrote in 2015. 

Marketers call a cascade of 

online one-star ratings a 

"review bomb". Likewise, 

positive reviews can 

transform 

an 

establishment's fortunes. 

Researchers studying Yelp, 

one of TripAdvisor's main 

competitors, found that a 

one-star increase meant a 5- 

9% increase in revenue. 

Before TripAdvisor, the 

customer was only 

nominally king. After, he 

became a veritable tyrant, 

with the power to make or 

break lives. In response, the 

hospitality industry has 

lawyered up, and it is not 

uncommon for businesses to 

threaten to sue customers 

who post negative reviews. 

Why Silicon Valley can’t fix itself 

Ben Tarnoff 

Big Tech is sorry. After 

decades of rarely 

apologising for anything, 

Silicon Valley suddenly 

seems to be apologising for 

everything. They are sorry 

about the trolls. They are 

sorry about the bots. They 

are sorry about the fake 

news and the Russians, 

and the cartoons that are 

terrifying your kids on 

YouTube. But they are 

especially sorry about our 

brains. 

Sean Parker, the former 

president of Facebook - 

who was played by Justin 

Timberlake in The Social 

Network - has publicly 

lamented the "unintended 

consequences" of the 

platform he helped create: 

"God only knows what it's 

doing to our children's 

brains." Justin Rosenstein, 

an engineer who helped 

build Facebook's "like" 

button and Gchat, regrets 

having contributed to 

technology that he now 

considers psychologically 

damaging, too. "Everyone 

is distracted," Rosenstein 

says. "All of the time." 

Ever since the internet 

became widely used by the 

public in the 1990s, users 

have heard warnings that it 

is bad for us. In the early 

years, many commentators 

described cyberspace as a 

parallel universe that could 

swallow enthusiasts whole. 

The media fretted about 

kids talking to strangers 

and finding porn. A 

prominent 1998 study 

from Carnegie Mellon 

University claimed that 

spending time online made 

you lonely, depressed and 

antisocial. 

In the mid-2000s, as the 

internet moved on to 

mobile devices, physical 

and virtual life began to 

merge. Bullish pundits 

celebrated the "cognitive 

surplus" unlocked by 

crowdsourcing and the 

tech-savvy campaigns of 

Barack Obama, the 

"internet president". But, 

alongside these optimistic 

voices, darker warnings 

persisted. Nicholas Carr's 

The Shallows (2010) 

argued that search engines 

were making people 

stupid, while Eli Pariser's 

The Filter Bubble (2011) 

claimed algorithms made 

us insular by showing us 

only what we wanted to 

see. In Alone, Together 

(2011) and Reclaiming 

Conversation (2015), 

Sherry Turkle warned that 

constant connectivity was 

making meaningful 

interaction impossible. 

Still, inside the industry, 

t e c h n o - u t o p i a n i s m 

prevailed. Silicon Valley 

seemed to assume that the 

tools they were building 

were always forces for good 

- and that anyone who 

questioned them was a 

crank or a luddite. In the 

face of an anti-tech 

backlash that has surged 

since the 2016 election, 

however, this faith appears 

to be faltering. Prominent 

people in the industry are 

beginning to acknowledge 

that their products may 

have harmful effects. 

Internet anxiety isn't 

new. But never before have 

so many notable figures 

within the industry seemed 

so anxious about the world 

they have made. Parker, 

Rosenstein and the other 

insiders now talking about 

the harms of smartphones 

and social media belong to 

an informal yet influential 

current of tech critics 

emerging within Silicon 

Valley. You could call them 

the "tech humanists". 

Amid rising public concern 

about the power of the 

industry, they argue that 

the primary problem with 

its products is that they 

threaten our health and 

our humanity. 

It is clear that these 

products are designed to be 

maximally addictive, in 

order to harvest as much of 

our attention as they can. 

Tech humanists say this 

business model is both 

unhealthy and inhumane - 

that it damages our 

psychological well-being 

and conditions us to 

behave in ways that 

diminish our humanity. 

The main solution that 

they propose is better 

design. By redesigning 

technology to be less 

addictive and less 

manipulative, they believe 

we can make it healthier - 

we can realign technology 

with our humanity and 

build products that don't 

"hijack" our minds. 

Apple founder Steve Jobs posing with a 

Macintosh computer. 

Photo: Ted Thai 

What to consider before buying a mobile phone 

Jack Schofield 

Phone manufacturers and others 

can and do test their phones, usually 

for certification purposes. The 

performance test results you want, if 

you can get them, are the Total 

Isotropic Sensitivity (TIS) value for 

reception and the Total Radiated 

Power (TRP) for transmission. 

These probably don't qualify as 

easy for an ordinary punter to 

understand. Also, they are derived 

by testing performance in ideal 

conditions with a simulated base 

station in an anechoic chamber, not 

with a fading signal on a wet and 

windy hillside. 

Either way, I don't think phone 

manufacturers are likely to use TIS 

in their marketing. There are too 

many variables for it to be a reliable 

guide to real-world reception. For 

example, studies have found 

significant differences between 

holding a phone in the left hand and 

holding it in the right hand, which I 

assume is connected with the way 

manufacturers position their 

antenna(s). The size of your hands 

and the angle at which you hold the 

phone also make a difference. 

The tests were created by the CTIA 

- originally the Cellular 

Telecommunications Industry 

Association - to certify wireless 

devices' over-the-air performance, 

and a brief glance at the 591-page 

PDF will show how complicated it is. 

For example, you could measure 

peak performance with a directional 

aerial, but then users would have to 

orient the phone towards the unseen 

transmitter for the best results. 

Instead, the CTIA requires the 

"average spherical effective radiated 

receiver sensitivity (TIS) to be 

measured". This should mean a 

phone works equally well in all 

directions, but it's complicated to 

calculate and still a compromise. 

Another problem is making 

antennas work with different 2G, 3G 

and 4G phone networks that operate 

at different frequencies. A phone 

that works well with GSM 900 

might be terrible with UMTS 2100. 

The downside of having a phone 

that talks to most networks is that it 

won't be optimised for the one you 

actually use. 

Also, because human bodies have 

not been standardised, TIS and TRP 

measurements are made with 

dummy heads and hands filled with 

liquid. Results may vary if you use 

real people. In the end, the only 

measurements that matter are the 

ones you get with your head and 

hands with the specific frequencies 

used by your EE network. We are 

left with "ask a friend" and the notvery-helpful 

"try it and see". 

Most tests assume that all models 

of a particular phone will perform in 

the same way, but Ofcom found 

differences. As with other products, 

phones that look identical can vary. 

In some cases, they may have been 

assembled in different countries, 

and use slightly different 

components. In others, the circuitry 

may have been revised between 

editions. Even if the internal 

components seem to be the same, 

there could be some sample 

variation, without a phone actually 

being faulty. 

This makes me wonder if your 

Moto 3 is below average in reception 

performance. In most cases, no one 

would ever know, but you are 

literally an "edge case". With a new 

phone, it might be worth asking the 

supplier for a different sample, but it 

may be too late for that. 

It would be interesting to know 

what would happen if you swapped 

phones and sims with your wife. You 

may have a bigger capacitance than 

your wife, electronically speaking, 

and possibly much bigger hands. 

Both can and do affect reception. If 

your Moto 3 works better in her 

hands, then either you or your sim 

are degrading the performance. It 

might be worth getting a new sim. 

As you already know, using your 

phone on a selfie stick can improve 

performance. You may also get 

better reception by not touching the 

phone and using the built-in 

speakerphone. You could also try 

using a signal booster or repeater. 

Why is it that some smartphones have better reception than others and is there any way to 

find out which ones are best before buying them? 

Photo: Samuel Gibbs

ECONOMY & BUSINESS 

BANGLADESHTODAY 6 

THE 

SAtURDAY, JANUARY 26, 2019 

Recently, Singer Bangladesh Limited signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Risda- 

Bangladesh under which Risda's beneficiaries will be able to buy Singer products with easy installment 

facilities. MHM Fairoz, MD & CEO of SINGER Bangladesh and Md. Hemayet Hossain, 

Executive Director, Risda Bangladesh signed the MoU on behalf of their organizations. Among others, 

Mohammad Nuruzzaman Munna, Chairman, Risda- Bangladesh; Md. Habibul Hasan Siddique, 

Director, Micro Finance, Risda-Bangladesh and Mohammad Ashgar Hossain, General Manager, 

Corporate Sales of Singer Bangladesh; Md. Farhad Habib, Manager, Corporate Sales of Singer 

Bangladesh were present at signing ceremony. 

Photo : Courtesy 

Sensex jumps over 

250 pts, Nifty 

reclaims 10,900 level 

The benchmark BSE 

Sensex jumped over 250 

points and the NSE Nifty 

reclaimed the 10,900 mark 

Friday on continued buying 

by institutional and retail 

investors 

amid 

encouraging 3Q earnings 

by some more companies, 

reports BSS. 

Besides, positive leads 

from other Asian markets 

also buoyed trading 

sentiments here. 

The 30-share index 

advanced by 253.42 points, 

or 0.71 per cent, to 

36,448.52, after rising to 

36,474.05 in early trade. 

The gauge had gained 

about 87 points in the 

previous session. 

The NSE Nifty rose by 

79.75 points, or 0.74 per 

cent, to 10,929.55. 

All the sectoral indices, 

Popular beverage brand PRAN UP 

has taken an initiative to help clodstricken 

poor people and create public 

awareness on the used plastic bottles. 

National film award winning actress 

Dilara Hanif Purnima is engaged with 

the initiative, says a press release. 

The campaign titled 'Chhorai 

Bhalobashar Ushnota' has been 

inaugurated through a program held 

at PRAN Center of the capital's Badda 

on Thursday. 

Anisur Rahman, Executive Director 

at PRAN Beverage Ltd said, "From 

January 24 to 30, a certain amount of 

money will be collected through 

depositing used bottles of PRAN at 20 

led by capital goods, 

bankex, oil and gas and 

metal stocks, were trading 

higher. 

Major gainers that 

supported the uptrend 

were Yes Bank, Bharti 

Airtel, HCL Tech, Axis 

Bank, Maruti Suzuki, 

PowerGrid, L&T, IndusInd 

Bank, ONGC, Tata Motors, 

Sun Pharma, Vedanta Ltd, 

RIL, ITC Ltd, TCS, Coal 

India, Tata Steel, NTPC, 

HDFC Ltd, Kotak Bank, 

Bajaj Finance and SBI, 

rising up to 8.35 per cent. 

Brokers said, besides 

persistent buying by 

domestic institutional 

investors (DIIs), a firm 

trend at other Asian 

bourses, following gains in 

US technology stocks 

influenced sentiments here. 

Meanwhile, DIIs bought 

shares worth a net Rs 

389.96 crore, while foreign 

portfolio investors (FPIs) 

sold shares to the tune of Rs 

94.45 crore Thursday, as 

per provisional data 

released by the stock 

exchanges. 

Among other Asian 

markets, Japan's Nikkei 

was trading higher by 0.99 

per cent, Korea's Kospi was 

up 1.43 per cent, Hong 

Kong's Hang Seng gained 

1.38 per cent, Shanghai 

Composite Index was up 

0.57 per cent and Taiwan's 

index rose 0.91 per cent in 

their late morning deals. 

Singapore's Straits Times 

too rose 0.56 per cent. 

On Wall Street, the US 

Dow Jones Industrial 

Average ended 0.09 per 

cent down in Thursday's 

trade. 

best Buy outlets or keeping at winter 

booths of PRAN's pick-up van in 

different parts of the country. After 

collecting money from these, PRAN 

UP will buy blankets and distribute the 

blanket among the cold-hit people in 

Dinajpur, Rangpur, Kurigram, 

Thakurgaon and Panchagarh". 

He also added, "The another aim of 

the campaign is to create public 

awareness on used plastics bottles. 

The initiative will help people to 

develop habit to drop used plastic 

bottles in specific place instead of 

throwing the bottles here and there to 

save the environment. We engage 

actress Purnima with our campaign 

Rupee rises 10 paise 

against US dollar in 

early trade 

Continuing its upward 

journey for a third straight 

day, the rupee strengthened 

by another 10 paise to 70.97 

against the US dollar at the 

interbank forex market 

Friday on increased selling 

of the American currency by 

exporters and banks, reports 

BSS. 

Dealers said dollar's 

weakness against some 

currencies overseas and 

early gains in domestic 

equity market supported the 

rupee. On Thursday, the 

rupee had gained 26 paise to 

end at 71.07 against the US 

dollar as gains in domestic 

equities bolstered forex 

market sentiments. The 

benchmark BSE Sensex 

rallied by 253.42 points, or 

0.71 per cent, to 36,448.52 in 

opening trade Friday. 

Meanwhile, foreign 

portfolio investors (FPIs) 

sold shares worth a net of Rs 

94.45 crore, and domestic 

institutional investors (DIIs) 

purchased shares worth Rs 

389.96 crore Thursday, 

provisional data showed. 

PRAN UP introduces campaign 

to help cold-hit people 

due to her wide acceptance across all 

classes". 

Purnima said, "As a responsible 

citizen, I always participate social 

awareness campaign. I really want 

people come forward to support cold 

hit people and keep the environment 

clean. I thank authorities of PRAN UP 

for involving me with such kind of 

good initiative". 

Atikur Rahman, Head of Marketing 

of PRAN Beverage Limited, Tanmoy 

Das, Brand Manager of PRAN UP, 

Zeaul Haque, AGM (PR) of PRAN- 

RFL Group and Mehedee Hasan, 

Senior Brand Manager of Best Buy 

were also present at the program. 

Asian markets 

end week on a 

strong note 

Asian markets rose Friday 

putting them on course to 

end a shaky week on a 

positive note as investors 

look ahead to crucial trade 

talks between China and the 

United States at the end of 

the month, reports BSS. 

Small signs of a break in 

the impasse on Capitol Hill 

also provided some hope, 

with Democrats and 

Republicans meeting to end 

the month-long government 

shutdown that is taking its 

toll on the economy and has 

left hundreds of thousands 

of workers unpaid. 

Wall Street provided a 

mixed lead, though the 

technology sector was 

supported by strong 

earnings from US 

semiconductor firms such as 

Texas Instruments, while 

energy firms tracked healthy 

gains in oil prices. 

There are hopes that next 

week's meeting in 

Washington between top 

Chinese and US officials will 

see some progress, but 

Commerce Secretary Wilbur 

Ross looked to temper 

expectations Thursday. 

Standard Bank Limited replaced the Agent of Shaheberhat Outlet at Shaheberhat Bazar, 

Begumgonj, Noakhali. Deputy Managing Director of the Bank Mr Md. Motaleb Hossain formally 

conducted the replacement ceremony as chief guest on 22 January 2019. Md. Rezaur Rahman, 

Head of Agent Banking Division, SBL Basurhat Branch Manager Md. Kamal Uddin, Feni Branch 

Manager Md. Nazrul Islam, the Agent of the outlet Md. Younus, other officials of SBL, local businessmen, 

customers and well wishers were present on the occasion. 

Photo : Courtesy 

Huawei executive 

shakes off 

campaign to 

'harm' company 

A senior Huawei executive 

Thursday accused politicians 

abroad of trying to "harm" the 

Chinese telecom giant, 

boasting of the company's 

stellar year despite concerns 

over the firm's ties to Beijing, 

reports BSS. 

The world's second-largest 

smartphone maker and 

biggest producer of 

telecommunications gear has 

been under fire in recent 

months with the arrests of a 

top executive in Canada and 

an employee in Poland, along 

with a worldwide campaign 

by Washington to blacklist its 

equipment. 

Several Western nations 

have voiced fears that using 

Huawei base stations and 

other gear could give Chinese 

authorities access to critical 

network infrastructure 

worldwide, possibly allowing 

it to spy on foreign 

governments. 

"They think they can 

perhaps impact us with the 

noise and harm us, but we 

have a very good reputation, a 

very good reputation," said 

Richard Yu, head of Huawei's 

consumer business and 

executive director of the 

board. 

"Some political guys are 

trying to influence and slow us 

down, but we are doing very 

well," Yu said. 

Huawei last year cemented 

its place as one of the world's 

top smartphone vendors after 

selling 206 million handsets 

globally, part of the 350 

million smart devices it sold. 

Its consumer facing 

business has overtaken its 

telecom gear in size, Yu said, 

noting growth of about 50 

percent last year brought 

revenue to more than $52 

billion. 

"Maybe I'm not humble but 

I say we are the best," Yu told 

reporters. 

ECB's Draghi warns 

of growing 

economic risks 

European Central Bank chief Mario 

Draghi on Thursday warned that risks to 

the eurozone economy were growing, 

acknowledging for the first time that 

waning global momentum was weighing on 

the region's outlook, reports BSS. 

"We were unanimous about 

acknowledging the weaker momentum and 

changing the balance of risk for growth," 

Draghi told reporters after the ECB's first 

governing council meeting of the year. 

The warning comes amid mounting 

concern about the economy, as markets fret 

over Brexit, slowing Chinese growth and 

the fallout from US-led global trade 

tensions. 

"The risks surrounding the euro area 

growth outlook have moved to the 

downside on account of the persistence of 

uncertainties related to the geopolitical 

factors and the threat of protectionism, 

vulnerabilities in emerging markets and 

financial market volatility," Draghi said. 

The latest hard and soft economic data 

have "continued to be weaker than 

expected," he added, blaming "softer 

external demand and some country- and 

sector-specific factors". 

Microsoft's Bing 

blocked in China, 

prompting grumbling 

Chinese internet users 

lost access to Microsoft's 

Bing search engine for two 

days, setting off grumbling 

about the ruling 

Communist Party's 

increasingly tight online 

censorship, reports BSS. 

Microsoft Corp. said 

Friday that access had been 

restored. A brief statement 

gave no reason for the 

disruption or other details. 

Comments on social 

media had accused 

regulators of choking off 

access to information. 

Others complained they 

were forced to use Chinese 

search engines they say 

deliver poor results. 

"Why can't we choose 

what we want to use?" said 

a comment signed Aurelito 

on the Sina Weibo 

microblog service. 

Bing complied with 

government censorship 

rules by excluding foreign 

websites that are blocked 

by Chinese filters from 

search results. But 

The German government is 

expected to significantly 

lower its economic growth 

forecast for this year, while 

betting on a resurge in 2020, 

the financial daily 

Handelsblatt said, reports 

BSS. 

The economy ministry, in 

an annual report due 

Wednesday, will forecast a 

GDP growth rate of 1.0 

percent for 2019, down 

President Xi Jinping's 

government has steadily 

tightened control over 

online activity. 

The agency that enforces 

online censorship, the 

Cyberspace Administration 

of China, didn't respond to 

questions sent by fax. 

China has by far the 

biggest population of 

internet users, with some 

800 million people online, 

according to government 

data. 

The Communist Party 

encourages internet use for 

business and education but 

blocks access to foreign 

websites run by news 

organizations, human 

rights and Tibet activists 

and others deemed 

subversive. 

Since coming to power in 

2012, Xi has promoted the 

notion of "internet 

sovereignty," or the right of 

Beijing and other 

governments to dictate 

what their publics can do 

and see online. 

from an estimate of 1.8 

percent a few months ago, 

the newspaper said in its 

Friday edition. 

Berlin will take into 

account "the slowing global 

economy", which is 

harmful to German 

exports, as well as the 

uncertainty around Brexit, 

Handelsblatt said. 

This adjustment to the 

growth forecast is not a 

Eurozone growth slowed to 0.2 percent in 

the third quarter of 2018, after an 

expansion of 0.4 percent in the two 

previous quarters. 

Most experts believe the fourth quarter 

figures will also disappoint. 

The darkening clouds come after the ECB 

in December ended a massive government 

and corporate bond-buying scheme that 

been propping up the eurozone economy. 

The easy money scheme saw the 

Frankfurt institution pump 2.6 trillion 

euros into the eurozone economy over a 

nearly four-year period. 

Its end marked the removal of a key pillar 

of support to the economy, with the ECB 

saying it was confident the region could 

weather upcoming headwinds and that 

inflation was on track to meet the bank's 

goal of just under 2.0 percent. 

Since then however, the International 

Monetary Fund (IMF) has downgraded its 

2019 growth forecast for the 19-nation 

currency bloc to 1.6 percent -slightly lower 

than the ECB's 1.7-percent estimate. 

Eurozone inflation meanwhile has fallen 

back - notching up just 1.6 percent in 

December. 

Chinese filters block 

access to global social 

media including Twitter, 

Facebook and YouTube. 

Officials argue such 

services operating beyond 

their control pose a threat 

to national security. 

Xi's government also has 

tightened controls on use of 

virtual private network 

technology that can evade 

its filters. 

Alphabet Inc.'s Google 

unit operated a search 

engine in China until 2010 

that excluded blocked sites 

from results. The company 

closed that after hacking 

attacks aimed at stealing 

Google's source code and 

breaking into email 

accounts were traced to 

China. 

That has helped Chinese 

competitors such as search 

engine Baidu.com to 

flourish. But Baidu has 

been hit by repeated 

complaints that too many 

search results are irrelevant 

or are paid advertising. 

Germany expected to slash 

growth estimates for 2019 

surprise as Europe's top 

economy has faced a series 

of industrial difficulties for 

several months. 

If the slower growth is 

confirmed, Germany would 

still mark its 10th 

consecutive year of 

expansion, before 

accelerating again with 

estimated growth of 1.6 

percent next year, 

according to Handelsblatt.

MISCELLANEOUS 

SATURDAY, JAnUARY 26, 2019 

7 

Foreign secy thanks Congressman 

Engel for adopting Rohingya 

resolutions 

On Friday, a huge gathering witnessed at Dhaka International Trade Fair. 

Official: Asylum seekers to wait 

in Mexico starting Friday 

The Trump administration on Friday 

will start forcing some asylum seekers 

to wait in Mexico while their cases 

wind through U.S. courts, an official 

said, launching what could become one 

of the more significant changes to the 

immigration system in years, reports 

UNB. 

The changes will be introduced at 

San Diego's San Ysidro border 

crossing, according to a U.S. official 

familiar with the plan who spoke on 

condition of anonymity Thursday 

because it was not yet publicly 

announced. San Ysidro is the nation's 

busiest crossing and the choice of 

asylum seekers who arrived to Tijuana, 

Mexico, in November in a caravan of 

more than 6,000 mostly Central 

American migrants. 

The policy, which is expected to face 

a legal challenge, may be expanded to 

other crossings. It does not apply to 

children traveling alone or to asylum 

seekers from Mexico. 

The details were finalized during 

bilateral talks in Mexico City over the 

last few days. It calls for U.S. 

authorities to bus asylum seekers back 

and forth to the border for court 

hearings in downtown San Diego, 

including an initial appearance within 

45 days. 

The Trump administration will make 

no arrangements for them to consult 

with attorneys, who may visit clients in 

Tijuana or speak with them by phone. 

U.S. officials will begin processing 

only about 20 asylum claims a day at 

the San Diego crossing but plan to 

ramp up to exceed the number of 

claims processed now, which is up to 

100 a day, the official said. 

The policy could severely strain 

Mexican border cities. U.S. border 

authorities fielded 92,959 "credible 

fear" claims - an initial screening to 

have asylum considered - during a 

recent 12-month period, up 67 percent 

from a year earlier. 

Taliban bring 

top leader into 

talks with US 

A co-founder of the Taliban 

who was released from 

prison in Pakistan in 

October has been appointed 

head of the group's political 

office in Qatar as it holds 

negotiations with the United 

States over ending the 17- 

year-old Afghan war, reports 

UNB. 

Taliban spokesman 

Zabiullah Mujahid said 

Friday that Abdul Ghani 

Baradar was brought into 

the process to "strengthen 

and properly handle the 

ongoing negotiations 

process with the United 

States." 

Baradar 

coordinated military 

operations in southern 

Afghanistan before his arrest 

in 2010 in Pakistan. 

U.S. envoy Zalmay 

Khalilzad has held several 

rounds of talks with the 

Taliban in recent months. 

The insurgents control 

nearly half of Afghanistan 

and carry out frequent 

attacks on Afghan forces. 

Khalilzad has been in Qatar 

since Monday. 

The insurgents control 

nearly half of Afghanistan 

and carry out frequent 

attacks on Afghan forces. 

Khalilzad has been in Qatar 

since Monday. 

While illegal crossings from Mexico 

are near historically low levels, the U.S. 

has witnessed a surge in asylum 

claims, especially from Central 

American families. Due largely to a 

court-imposed 20-day limit on 

detaining children, families are 

typically released with a notice to 

appear in immigration court. With a 

backlog of more than 800,000 cases, it 

can take years to settle cases. 

The Department of Homeland 

Security said the policy would "reduce 

the number of aliens taking advantage 

of U.S. law and discourage false asylum 

claims" and will no longer let asylum 

seekers "disappear into the U.S. before 

a court issues a final order." 

It's not clear if Central Americans will 

be deterred from seeking asylum in the 

U.S. if they have to wait in Tijuana, a 

booming city with plenty of jobs. 

Tijuana doesn't come close to matching 

the U.S. on wages, and asylum seekers 

generally have far fewer family ties than 

they do in the U.S. 

The "Remain in Mexico" policy is 

President Donald Trump's latest move 

to reshape immigration policy, though 

it may prove temporary. Other major 

changes have been blocked in court, 

including a ban on seeking asylum by 

people who cross the border illegally 

from Mexico and dismissing domestic 

and gang violence as grounds for 

asylum. 

It is also an early test of relations 

between two populist presidents - 

Trump and Mexico's Andres Manuel 

Lopez Obrador, who took office Dec. 1. 

Mexico has steadfastly rejected 

Trump's demand that it pay for a 

border wall, leading the president to 

ask Congress for $5.7 billion in a 

stalemate that has partially closed the 

government for more than a month. 

Mexican officials did not 

immediately respond to requests for 

comment Thursday. 

The changes will be introduced at 

Scorching heat knocked out power to 

homes and businesses, raised wildfire risks 

and sent tennis fans looking for water and 

shade Friday in Australia's second-largest 

city, which recorded its hottest day in five 

years, reports UNB. 

Melbourne reached 42 .8 C (109 F) by 

early afternoon before a sudden cooldown, 

though the outskirts of the city remained 

hot, with the airport recording 46 C (114.8 

F). It was the hottest day since 2014 in the 

Victoria state capital, which has a 

population of 5 million. 

The power grid began load sharing as 

temperatures climbed in the early 

afternoon, with 30,000 households and 

businesses at a time being switched off for 

as long as two hours so that supply could 

keep up with demand. 

But by late afternoon, the state's power 

generation was able to meet demand, 

Victoria Energy Minister Lily D'Ambrosio 

said. 

"The situation changed very, very 

quickly," she told reporters. "People should 

be rightly disappointed that the power grid 

was not up to the task today." 

Scores of wildfires are raging in heatwave 

conditions across much of droughtparched 

southeast Australia, with 

authorities warning the fire risk is high. 

Adelaide, 640 kilometers (400 miles) 

west of Melbourne, on Thursday recorded 

the hottest day for a major Australian city, 

a searing 46.6 C (115.9 F). 

The previous record had been the 46.4 C 

(115.5 F) set in Melbourne on Feb. 7, 2009 

- a day of catastrophic wildfires that killed 

San Diego's San Ysidro border 

crossing, according to a U.S. official 

familiar with the plan who spoke on 

condition of anonymity Thursday 

because it was not yet publicly 

announced. San Ysidro is the nation's 

busiest crossing and the choice of 

asylum seekers who arrived to Tijuana, 

Mexico, in November in a caravan of 

more than 6,000 mostly Central 

American migrants. 

The policy, which is expected to face 

a legal challenge, may be expanded to 

other crossings. It does not apply to 

children traveling alone or to asylum 

seekers from Mexico. 

The details were finalized during 

bilateral talks in Mexico City over the 

last few days. It calls for U.S. 

authorities to bus asylum seekers back 

and forth to the border for court 

hearings in downtown San Diego, 

including an initial appearance within 

45 days. 

The Trump administration will make 

no arrangements for them to consult 

with attorneys, who may visit clients in 

Tijuana or speak with them by phone. 

U.S. officials will begin processing 

only about 20 asylum claims a day at 

the San Diego crossing but plan to 

ramp up to exceed the number of 

claims processed now, which is up to 

100 a day, the official said. 

The policy could severely strain 

Mexican border cities. U.S. border 

authorities fielded 92,959 "credible 

fear" claims - an initial screening to 

have asylum considered - during a 

recent 12-month period, up 67 percent 

from a year earlier. 

While illegal crossings from Mexico 

are near historically low levels, the U.S. 

has witnessed a surge in asylum 

claims, especially from Central 

American families. Due largely to a 

court-imposed 20-day limit on 

detaining children, families are 

typically released with a notice to 

appear in immigration court. 

Australia bakes in heat that's 

sparking fires, taxing grid 

173 people and razed more than 2,000 

homes in Victoria that is remembered as 

Black Saturday. 

At the Australian Open in Melbourne, 

tennis fans shielded themselves with 

umbrellas and walked by water sprinklers 

for relief. On Thursday, the tournament 

had invoked its extreme-heat policy and 

closed the main stadium's roof during a 

women's semifinal match. 

Heat records have tumbled across 

Australia's southeast in recent days. The 

small town of Swan Hill recorded its 

highest ever maximum of 47.5 C (117.5 F) 

on Friday and the renowned winemaking 

town of Rutherglen recorded its warmest 

ever overnight minimum of 29.3 C (84.7 

F). 

"The heatwaves we have had since the 

start of summer are almost 

unprecedented," meteorologist Kevin 

Parkin said. 

"Relentless days of 40-plus degrees 

followed by warm nights - is it any wonder 

people and communities in that part of the 

world are doing it tough?" he added. 

Bureau of Meteorology forecasters say 

this January is on track to become 

Australia's hottest January on record with 

heatwave conditions likely to persist. 

Last year was Australia's third-warmest 

on record. 

The power grid began load sharing as 

temperatures climbed in the early 

afternoon, with 30,000 households and 

businesses at a time being switched off for 

as long as two hours so that supply could 

keep up with demand. 


JnU student 

killed in Sirajganj 

road crash 

SIRAJGANJ : A student of 

Jagannath University was 

killed and his elder brother 

injured as a pick-van hit a 

motorcycle 

on 

Bangabandhu Bridge West 

Link Highway in Jhaol 

bridge area of Kamarkhanda 

upazila on Thursday night, 

reports UNB. 

The deceased was 

identified as A S M Julhas, 

22, son of Tarajul Islam of 

Bindabonpara in Bogura 

and a 3rd year student of 

Law Department of the 

university. 

Syed Shahid Alam, officerin-charge 

of Bangabandhu 

Bridge West police station, 

said the pick-up van hit their 

motorcycle around 8 pm 

when they were going to 

their home from Dhaka, 

leaving Julhas dead on the 

spot and his brother A K M 

Jakaria critically injured. 

Kirtan singer 

'raped' in 

Gopalganj 

GOPALGANJ : A singer of 

'Kirtan' (songs with religious 

theme or spiritual ideas) was 

reportedly raped by two men 

at Pirarbari village in 

Kotalipara Upazila on 

Thursday night, reports UNB. 

The victim's father, a 

disable vegetable vendor, 

said his 15-year-old 

daughter, member of Kirtan 

group 'Laxmi Narayan 

Samproday' of Khulna, came 

home two days ago. 

"She helped me with my 

shop on Thursday night. On 

her way back home, local 

youths Parimal Mallik, 22, 

and Kalu Mallik, 19, forcibly 

took her to a quiet place near 

a pond and raped her," he 

said. 

The rapists also beat her 

up after she had made a 

phone call to her elder sister, 

the father said. The girl lost 

consciousness during the 

assault and was later 

rescued by the victim's 

father and other locals. She 

has been hospitalised. 

The victim said Parimal 

used to disturb her over 

phone and had proposed 

her. She said she was raped 

for rejecting his advances. 

Doctor Asit Kumar Mallik 

of Gopalganj 250-bed 

General Hospital said the 

girl was admitted at night 

and had been given primary 

treatment. "We are running 

medical tests," he said. 

Feds giving more than 

$2M to boost northern 

Maine health 

DHAKA : Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul 

Haque thanked House Foreign Affairs 

Committee Chairman Congressman Eliot 

Engel for his initiatives to adopt resolutions 

condemning the atrocities on the Rohingyas, 

reports UNB. 

When they met at the Hill on Thursday, 

Shahidul also thanked Engel for putting 

greater pressure on Myanmar so that the 

latter stops persecution of the ethnic 

minority, said a press release issued on 

Friday. 

Engel appreciated Bangladesh for hosting 

the persecuted Rohingyas. 

Bangladesh is currently hosting more than 

1.1 million Rohingya. Most of them came 

here after the Myanmar security force's 

brutal offensive in August 2017. 

Congressman Engel also expressed his 

hope to visit Bangladesh soon and see the 

Rohingya camps and hold talks with various 

stakeholders. 

Foreign Secretary Shahidul exchanged 

views with a group of staffers from both 

House Foreign Affairs Committee and the 

Senate Foreign Relations Committee. 

He briefed the staffers on various aspects 

of Bangladesh foreign relations, the ongoing 

Rohingya crisis and Bangladesh's trade and 

investment opportunities in US and other 

countries. 

He also met Jennifer Wethey, acting 

deputy assistant to the president, and Zeba 

Rayazuddin, acting assistant US Trade 

Representative. 

Earlier in the day, Shahidul addressed a 

group of scholars at the Heritage 

Foundation. He shared his ideas on evolving 

orders in Asia. 

The US Senate on Thursday blocked two bills 

attempting to reopen the U.S. government, 

as both political parties struggle to reach 

consensus on ending the longest 

government shutdown in U.S. history. 

The voting on the bills, backed by the 

White House and Democrats respectively, 

on day 34 of the government shutdown, 

yielded no winner as neither received the 60 

yes-votes needed to move forward. 

Moderate lawmakers from both parties 

pleaded in the wake of the voting for 

cooperation, while senators farther on either 

end of the political spectrum traded blames 

for the failure to reopen the government. 

One of the bills, introduced by the 

Republican Party with the blessings of 

President Donald Trump, calls for allocating 

5.7 billion U.S. dollars to fund a border wall 

between the United States and Mexico, 

which Trump said would be instrumental in 

curbing illegal immigration, drug and 

human trafficking along the 3,145-km 

border. 

With all but one Democratic senator voting 

against the bill, and two Republicans 

opposing, the bill failed with a 50 for, 47 

against margin. 

It is believed that Republican Senators 

Mike Lee of Utah and Tom Cotton of 

Arkansas, two hardliners who voted against 

the bill, turned it down because they saw it as 

too soft on immigration policies. 

"If this had been a vote to begin debate on 

a deal to end the shutdown, I would have 

happily voted yes," Lee said in a statement 

after the vote, adding "this bill as is simply 

does not do enough to reform our 

immigration system or address the crisis at 

our southern border." 

"I could not support the bill because it 

gives legal status to illegal aliens without first 

securing our borders, implementing e-verify, 

and ending chain migration-all of which 

would eliminate the incentives for more 

illegal immigration," Cotton said. 

The other bill, backed by the Democrats, 

calls on the government to temporarily 

resume its operation until Feb. 8 but grants 

On Wednesday, he met senior executives 

of National Cotton Council. 

The foreign secretary also held a meeting 

with Assistant Secretary, Asia-Pacific, 

Department of Defense, Randall Schriver. 

Various issues relating to US-Bangladesh 

defense cooperation came up at the meeting. 

Bangladesh Ambassador to US 

Mohammad Ziauddin and senior officials of 

Foreign Ministry and Bangladesh Embassy 

in Washington accompanied the foreign 

secretary during the meetings. 

When they met at the Hill on Thursday, 

Shahidul also thanked Engel for putting 

greater pressure on Myanmar so that the 

latter stops persecution of the ethnic 

minority, said a press release issued on 

Friday. Engel appreciated Bangladesh for 

hosting the persecuted Rohingyas. 

Bangladesh is currently hosting more than 

1.1 million Rohingya. Most of them came 

here after the Myanmar security force's 

brutal offensive in August 2017. 

Congressman Engel also expressed his 

hope to visit Bangladesh soon and see the 

Rohingya camps and hold talks with various 

stakeholders. 

Foreign Secretary Shahidul exchanged 

views with a group of staffers from both 

House Foreign Affairs Committee and the 

Senate Foreign Relations Committee. 

He briefed the staffers on various aspects 

of Bangladesh foreign relations, the ongoing 

Rohingya crisis and Bangladesh's trade and 

investment opportunities in US and other 

countries. He also met Jennifer Wethey, 

acting deputy assistant to the president, and 

Zeba Rayazuddin, acting assistant US Trade 

Representative. 

US Senate kills two bills attempting 

to reopen government 

no fund for the border wall, garnered 52 for 

votes and 44 against. 

The bill, dubbed by some as a "clean bill" 

for its lack of preconditions, surprisingly won 

the support of six Republican senators. 

Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Susan 

Collins of Maine, Cory Gardner of Colorado, 

Johnny Isakson of Georgia, Lisa Murkowski 

of Alaska and Mitt Romney of Nevada 

departed party line to vote in favor of the bill. 

Speaking after the vote, Murkowski said 

she voted for both bills because she believes 

that it's important for the government to 

reopen as soon as possible. 

Senators on the two sides of the aisle 

traded accusations after the votes, blaming 

each other for the government shutdown 

and the failure to reach consensus. 

One of the bills, introduced by the 

Republican Party with the blessings of 

President Donald Trump, calls for allocating 

5.7 billion U.S. dollars to fund a border wall 

between the United States and Mexico, 

which Trump said would be instrumental in 

curbing illegal immigration, drug and 

human trafficking along the 3,145-km 

border. 

With all but one Democratic senator voting 

against the bill, and two Republicans 

opposing, the bill failed with a 50 for, 47 

against margin. 

It is believed that Republican Senators 

Mike Lee of Utah and Tom Cotton of 

Arkansas, two hardliners who voted against 

the bill, turned it down because they saw it as 

too soft on immigration policies. 

"If this had been a vote to begin debate on 

a deal to end the shutdown, I would have 

happily voted yes," Lee said in a statement 

after the vote, adding "this bill as is simply 

does not do enough to reform our 

immigration system or address the crisis at 

our southern border." 

"I could not support the bill because it 

gives legal status to illegal aliens without first 

securing our borders, implementing e-verify, 

and ending chain migration-all of which 

would eliminate the incentives for more 

illegal immigration," Cotton said. 

Three members of Maine's 

congressional delegation say 

a community health 

network in northern Maine 

will receive more than $2.2 

million from the federal 

government to expand 

services, reports UNB. 

Republican Sen. Susan 

Collins, independent Sen. 

Angus King and Democratic 

Rep. Jared Golden say the 

money will go to Pines 

Health Services, which has 

five locations in Aroostook 

County. GD-149/19 (4 x 3)

UNITING PEOPLE EVERYDAY 

SATURDAY, DHAkA, JANUARY 26, 2019, MAGH 13, 1425 BS, JAMADiUl AwAl 19, 1440 HiJRi 

A man seen pouring date juice into a mud mug at Bakultala of Dhaka University yesterday 

marking 'Rosh Festival'. 


Rift in BNP now visible; many now 

want Zubaida to be in limelight 

DHAKA : Though BNP senior leaders 

remained united for a long time in 

absence of its chairperson Khaleda 

Zia, a crack now has apparently developed 

among them over its leadership 

and party overhauling, worrying its 

already demoralised grassroots, 

reports UNB. 

Party insiders said some BNP standing 

committee members want a 

change in the party leadership, including 

the post of party secretary general, 

through holding a council to stage a 

comeback in politics after the drubbing 

in the 11th parliamentary election. 

But most party policymakers are 

unwilling to hold the council keeping 

Khaleda Zia in jail. They think their 

party should now focus on finding 

ways to have their chairperson 

released from jail alongside reorganising 

the party grassroots. 

BNP senior leaders are also divided 

over the issue of maintaining their 

unity with Dr Kamal Hossain-led 

Jatiya Oikyafront and keeping Jamaat 

in the 20-Party Alliance. 

Under the circumstances, the party 

grassroots leaders think, a new charismatic 

and well-reputed face like Dr 

Zubaida Rahman should now take the 

helm of the party for removing the 

misunderstanding among the senior 

leaders and revitalising the dispirited 

party leaders and activists in obscene 

of BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia and 

acting chairman Tarique Rahman. 

As per the BNP's constitution, the 

party will have to hold its national 

council after every three years. But the 

party repeatedly violated such provision 

in holding the councils in the past. 

BNP's last council was held on 

March 19, 2016 where Khaleda Zia 

was reelected party chairperson while 

Tarique Rahman and Mirza Fakhrul 

Islam Alamgir were made senior vice 

chairman and secretary general 

respectively. 

A BNP standing committee member, 

wishing anonymity, said BNP 

standing committee members Dr 

Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain and 

Moudud Ahmed along with some vice 

chairmen took a position against party 

secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam 

Alamgir, and they want a change in 

the post of party secretary general, and 

some other ones through a council. 

He, however, said other standing 

committee members are still backing 

Fakhrul. 

The BNP leader said the BNP group, 

led by Mosharraf and Moudud, also 

wants BNP to focus on its own organisation 

now and prepare the party for 

waging a strong mass movement 

against the government instead of 

spending time on strengthening 

Oikyafront. 

"But Mirza Fakhrul and other senior 

leaders think their party should work 

for strengthening the party and forging 

a greater unity by making 

Oikyafront stronger further," the BNP 

leader said. 

Besides, he said, as Mosharraf and 

Moudud are unwilling to be there in 

Oikyafront's steering committee, their 

party is going to replace them with 

BNP standing committee members 

Gayeshwar Chandra Roy and Dr 

Abdul Moyeen Khan. 

UN official commends 

Bangladesh's role in 

peacekeeping 

DHAKA : The top UN official 

for Bangladesh has lauded 

the country's contribution 

in the peacekeeping missions, 

reports UNB. 

Mia Seppo highlighted 

Bangladesh's role in global 

peace efforts while addressing 

the fourth annual session of 

the regional consultative 

group on Humanitarian Civil- 

Military Coordination in 

Dhaka recently. 

"I would like to commend 

its authorities and, specifically, 

Prime Minister Sheikh 

Hasina, for Bangladesh's significant 

contribution to UN 

peacekeeping operations," 

the UN Resident Coordinator 

for Bangladesh said, according 

to a Facebook post by the 

UN office in Dhaka on Friday. 

Seppo noted that in 2018 

her office facilitated a training 

session at the Bangladesh 

Institute of Peace Support 

Operation Training on 

humanitarian-civil-military 

coordination for national and 

regional commanding officers 

and contingent commanders 

of future 'blue helmet' deployments, 

"We stand ready to continue 

this partnership, with an 

awareness that challenges are 

even greater in crisis contexts 

- notably, on ensuring that 

humanitarian principles of 

neutrality, independence and 

impartiality are respected," 

Seppo added. 

Safety measures taken centering constructing 

of Rooppur Power Plant: Yeafesh 

DHAKA : Science and Technology minister 

Yeafesh Osman, yesterday asked the people 

of not worrying over the building of nuclear 

power plant at Rooppur as sufficient safety 

measures have been planned in this regard. 

"There is nothing to worry 

about…Nowadays nuclear plants use modern 

technologies. We don't think there will be any 

problem and have focused on ensuring the 

safety of the plant and the people as well," he 

said. 

He was speaking at a meeting on monitoring 

the progress of the power plant at the project 

site at Iswardi, Pabna, said a press 

release. 

"We are following the safety guidelines of 

International Atomic Energy Agency 

(IAEA)," he said adding, "Moreover Russian 

Federation, IAEA and our local regulatory 

technicians are evaluating the safety measures," 

Two units - 1,200 MWe VVER each - are to 

be built at Rooppur under the Russian design 

giving priority to the highest safety measures 

at Rooppur, some 160km from Dhaka. The 

VVER-1,200 reactor design has already been 

implemented at Novovoronezh Nuclear 

Power Plant II in Russia. 

Unit-1 is scheduled to be commissioned in 

2023, while the commissioning of the second 

unit is slated for 2024 to produce 2,400 

megawatts of electricity from the two units. 

Secretary of the ministry M Anwar 

Hossain, Director of the project Dr. Showkat 

Akbar and senior officials of ROSATOM were 

present, among others. 

BNP afraid of participating in UZ polls 

after nat'l election debacle: Hasan 

DHAKA : Information Minister Dr Hasan 

Mahmud yesterday said BNP is now afraid of 

going to the upcoming Upazila (UZ) polls after 

facing debacle in the last parliamentary elections. 

"BNP is afraid of going to participate in 

the forthcoming Upazila elections after facing 

the political disaster in the last parliamentary 

elections held on December 30 in 2018," he 

said after the campaign committee meeting at 

the party president's political office in city's 

Dhanmondi area. 

Talking about the participation in the UZ 

elections, he said that it is their (BNP) personal 

decision whether they will go to the polls or 

not. 

"BNP did not take part in the 2014's elections 

but the government was formed in that election 

without them and ran the country for five years 

successfully," he said. 

"It will be a suicidal attempt of them for not 

participating in the polls as like the previous 

times," he added. 

He said if BNP do not go to the Upazila elections, 

the elections will not stop. 

The Caves of Maresha And 

Bet-Guvrin 

INTERESTING NEWS 

The Shfela lowlands in south-central 

Israel, at the foot of the Judaean 

Mountains, is characterized by a thick 

layer of soft chalk that was extensively 

quarried in the past by the local population 

leaving the underground hollow like 

a piece of cheese. There are more than a 

thousand caves here underneath the former 

towns of Maresha and Bet Guvrin situated 

on the crossroads of the trade 

routes that led to Mesopotamia and 

Egypt. These quarried caves served as cisterns, 

oil presses, baths, dovecotes, stables, 

places of religious worship, hideaways 

and, on the outskirts of the towns, 

burial areas. The caves are now one of the 

main attraction of this area. 

The city of Maresha is mentioned in the 

Bible during the time of the First Temple. 

During the Roman and Byzantine Eras 

the city became known Eleutherolis, a city 

of freeman with a large Jewish population. 

In modern times, the site was occupied 

by a Palestinian Arab village called 

Bayt Jibrin until it was depopulated during 

the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Today 

Maresha is part of the Beit Guvrin 

National Park, where many of the ancient 

city's olive presses, columbaria and water 

cisterns can still be seen. 

This cave once served as a dove cote 

with tiny niches carved into the cistern 

walls to raise doves. Later during the 

Second World War, Polish soldiers in 

exile visited the cave and carved the figure 

1943, the year of their visit, into a stone 

pillar, along with an inscription: 

“Warsaw, Poland” and an eagle, the symbol 

of the Polish army. 

2 sisters suffer 

burns in 

Habiganj attack 

HABIGANJ : Two sisters 

sustained burn injuries as 

flammable chemical was 

hurled on them while they 

were sleeping at their 

Baghasura village house in 

Madhabpur upazila early 

Friday, reports UNB. 

The injured are college student 

Habiba Akhter, 20, and 

her school-going sister 

Ayesha Akhter, daughters of 

Ekhlas Miah of the village. 

Locals said miscreants 

threw the combustible substance 

after cutting the window 

grille of their room in 

the early hours while the two 

sisters were sleeping together. 

Hearing their screams, 

house inmates rushed to 

their room and rescued 

them. 

The victims were first 

taken to Sadar Adhunik 

Hospital from where they 

were sent to Sylhet MAG 

Osmani Medical College 

Hospital. 

"It's not sure whether the 

substance is acid. However, 

it's a flammable object," said 

Dr Saifur Rahman Sohagh, 

medical officer of the Sadar 

Hospital. He said Habiba got 

80 percent of her face 

burned while Ayesha her 

hands in the attack. 

Chandan Kumar 

Chakrabarty, officer-incharge 

of Madhabpur Police 

Station, said they visited the 

spot and were trying to arrest 

the criminals. 

The people gathered to see the fish of rare species at Singra of Natore yesterday. 

MEHERPUR : State Minister for 

Public Administration Farhad Hossain 

yesterday urged the teachers to teach 

their students properly so that they 

develop as true humans, reports BSS. 

"Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has 

nationalized 26000 schools for the wellbeing 

of the school teachers," he said as a 

chief guest at a function organized by district 

Prathomik Shikhkhok Kalyan 

Samity at Shilpakala Academy in the 

town. 

Farhad Hossain said Mujibnagar is 

named after the founding president of 

Bangladesh Bangabandhu Sheikh 

Mujibur Rahman. 

Referring to the provisional government 

that was formed in Mujibnagar in 

1971, the state minister said, Prime 

Minister Sheikh Hasina is very caring to 

Mujibnagar. 

"I shall do my best for the wellbeing of 

the people of Meherpur," the state minister 

added. Prathomik Shikhkhok Kalyan 

Samity President Kamor Uddin chaired 

the function. 

Earlier, the minister placed wreath at 

the Mujibnagar Smriti Saudha. 

He also took part in a programme at 

Mujibnagar Govt High School. Local 

Upazila Nirbahi Officer Nahida Akhter 

presided over the meeting while Deputy 

Commissioner of Meherpur Md Ataul 

Gani, Police Super Md Mostafizur 


Farhad urges teachers to 

teach students properly 

Rahman, Merpur Municipality Mayor 

Mahfujur Rahman Riton, Mohila Awami 

League leader Shamim Ara Hira and 

Shahiduzzaman Khakon, MP, were present 

among others on the occasion, 

among others. 

Gulshan café attack accused 

held in Chapainawabganj 

CHAPAINAWABGANJ : Members of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) arrested 

a suspected member of banned militant outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen 

Bangladesh (JMB) who is a charge-sheeted accused in the Holey Artisan 

Bakery attack case from Nachole upazila of the district on Friday, reports UNB. 

The arrestee is Md Shariful Islam alias Khalid alias Rahat alias Nahid alias 

Abu Sulaiman, 27. He is also a condemned convict in the murder case of 

Rajshahi University teacher Prof Rezaul Karim, said a Rab message. 

Shariful was being sent to Dhaka, added the message. 

The terrorist attack that shattered the country and drew global attention, 

claimed the lives of 22 people-nine Italians, seven Japanese, one Indian, one 

Bangladeshi-born American and two Bangladeshis along with two police officers-on 

July 1, 2016. 

Twenty-one people were identified to be behind the attack. Among them, 13 

were killed in gunfights at different times. 

On July 23, 2018, police pressed charges against eight alleged militants in the 

attack on the upscale eatery in the capital. 

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

26-01-2019

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?