28-01-2019

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ECONOMY & BUSINESS BANGLADESHTODAY 10 THE MONDAY, JANUARY 28, 2019 US free news sites BuzzFeed, HuffPost feel the layoff pinch The two days long annual business conference Business Meet 2019 of Bank Asia Ltd. was held on 25- 26 January 2019 at Royal Tulip Sea Pearl Beach Resort, Cox's Bazar. A. Rouf Chowdhury, Chairman of the Bank attended the program as Chief Guest. Mohd. Safwan Choudhury-Vice Chairman, Rumee A. Hossain-Chairman of Board Executive Committee, Mashiur Rahman-Chairman of Board Audit Committee, Maj. Gen (Retd) Mohammad Matiur Rahman, Romana Rouf Chowdhury, Dilwar H Chowdhury, Enam Chowdhury- directors and Md. Arfan Ali- President & Managing Director of Bank Asia Ltd. along with division and Branch Heads were present in the program. Photo: Courtesy Employers woo refugees amid Austria labour shortage Austria's right-wing government might defend tough anti-immigration policies but employers were out to attract refugees at a special jobs fair last week as the country faced pressing labour shortages. "Would you like to work in security? Please leave your CV with us" was a typical pitch. The event in Vienna attracted bosses from virtually all of Austria's leading employers, from the national railway OeBB to construction giant Porr, the postal service and Telekom Austria. Doughnuts, drinks and gadgets were also offered to 1,200 refugees selected by Austria's public employment service AMS. They were mainly Syrians and Afghans who had arrived in Austria during the 2015 migrant crisis. The governmentsponsored event aimed to help Austrian firms deal with a chronic labour shortage. In a country of 8.7 million people there are now around 160,000 job vacancies, with unemployment expected to fall to 4.6 percent this year from 4.9 percent in 2018. Economic growth was steady at 2.7 percent in 2018, but "the biggest brake on growth at the moment is lack of labour", the head of Austria's Chamber of Commerce (WKOe) Karlheinz Kopf, told AFP. "There is an urgent need for more labour in almost every sector, from manufacturing to tourism," he explained. That was borne out by the number of jobs on offer at the fair, including 500 at OeBB, 400 at the Hofer supermarket chain, 350 at German retail co-operative Rewe and 200 at facilities management company Simacek. According to official figures, 30,000 refugees are unemployed, a third of whom are less than 25 years old. "These are people who can be trained and who have enormous potential," Kopf argued. While many of the jobs on offer were fairly low-paid, the range of opportunities was wider than it might appear said Gerhard Zummer, head of training at the Austrian subsidiary of German engineering giant Siemens. His company had hundreds of posts vacant, spanning fields "from electrical engineering to cloud technology to the internet of things. "The important thing for us is to attract good candidates. Whether they're refugees or not isn't important, we look at their skills and then we can train them internally," Zummer said. But for those who came to Austria with advanced skills, it can be hard to find work matching their qualifications. "I was a maths teacher in my country," recalls Sherihan, originally from Hassake, northeastern Syria. "But I can't get my degree recognised here so I'm looking for an administrative post," she explained in excellent German. Supreme skateboard collection auctioned for $800,000 A collection of all 248 skateboards produced by streetwear brand Supreme has been sold for a record $800,000 at a Sotheby's online auction. Supreme, founded by British designer James Jebbia and established in 1994 in New York's Soho neighborhood, gained a special status among skateboarding connoisseurs with its streetwear-inspired clothing. Starting in 1998, it also began offering quality, limited-series boards designed by big-name artists like Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst and Richard Prince. The collection, sold in a two-week online auction that ended Friday, included Louis Vuittonmonogrammed decks, a series of Last Supper decks and a tribute to Nike Air Jordan sneakers. Also in the collection was a custom-made Louis Vuitton trunk worth several thousand dollars. The entire Supreme production was brought together by Los Angeles collector Ryan Fuller, who began his yearslong quest in 2005. Marcel Executive Directors Eva Rezwana, Head of Service Management System Muzahidul Islam, Head of Legal Affairs Masud Hossain Chowdhury, Brand Ambassador film actor Amin Khan and Media Adviser Enayet Ferdous attend the 'Declaration Programme of 12 Years Guaranty on Fridge Compressor' held at the conference room of Marcel Corporate Office in the capital on Sunday morning. Photo: Courtesy America's free online news heavyweights, BuzzFeed and HuffPost, this week were rocked by a new wave of layoffs, a sign of an advertisingdependent economic model under threat. At BuzzFeed, it was the second wave of job cuts in 14 months. In an internal announcement the company said that 200 jobs were to be shed, which follows the 100 jobs cut in the first round, out of a staff of 1,700 people. Over at HuffPost, about 10 percent of journalists left editorial staff this week, or about 20 people in total. No explanation was publicly given for the cuts, but the reasons are clear. The HuffPost's parent company is Verizon Media (formerly Oath Inc), which owns other digital platforms such as AOL, Yahoo! and Verizon Media Services -all of which are suffering job cuts. "They were started pretty much with the idea of trying to assemble a great big audience and then sell advertising against those numbers," said Rick Edmonds, a media business analyst at the Poynter Institute. But "Google and Facebook have grown into much, much more of an audience. And they're also better at gathering DBBL holds Managers' Conference-2019 The Managers' Conference-2019 of Dutch-Bangla Bank was held on 25 & 26 January 2019 at Bangabandhu International Conference Center (BICC), Agargaon, Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka, a press release said. Sayem Ahmed, Honorable Chairman, Board of Directors of Dutch- Bangla Bank was present as the Chief Guest and inaugurated the Conference. In his speech, Sayem Ahmed provided Wall Street rallied at the open on Friday as upbeat earnings and political news helped buoy investor sentiment at the end of the week. Markets were also cheered by a Wall Street Journal report that the Federal Reserve could cease shrinking its bond portfolio sooner than expected. Ten minutes into the day's trading, the benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.8 percent at 24,736.24. The broader S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq were both up 0.7 percent at 2,659.45 and 7,119.30 respectively. The levels put the Dow on track to post gains for a fifth week in a row but still left the S&P and the Nasdaq in the red for the week. Dow member Intel sank 7.5 percent after disappointing earnings and analyst downgrades but information and targeting people." According to eMarketer forecasts, the search engine giant and the social network behemoth were set to capture 57.7 percent of advertising revenue in 2018, up sharply from 45.5 percent in 2011. Another tech titan, Amazon, is gaining momentum and has just climbed to the numbers three spot. "The free, ad-based model on which a lot of digital media projects are built is in jeopardy," warned Dan Kennedy, journalism professor at Northeastern University. Edmonds believes that neither BuzzFeed nor HuffPost are in danger of disappearing. But their status is tarnished in the eyes of many tech investors accustomed to a double-digit annual growth. The co-founder and CEO of BuzzFeed, who is also co-founder of the Huffington Post (now HuffPost), Jonah Peretti, sees a solution in a merger with one or more other market players. He has publicly floated the ideas of merging Vice, Vox, Refinery29 and Group Nine, all "pure players," all internet media. Each of them also advanced on the niche of video, but all have also been various guidelines for achieving growth target of the Bank for the year 2019. He also congratulated all the executives/officers of the Bank for achieving the targets in 2018. The Conference was presided over by Abul Kashem Md. Shirin, Managing Director & CEO of the bank. Branch Managers from 184 branches attended the conference. The Deputy Managing Directors, Md. Sayedul Hasan, Khan cutting staff in the past 18 months. "You'll never hear me say that a merger makes sense," Kennedy said. "Two media organizations with problems do not solve them by combining into one larger organization with problems." Another possibility is to change the business model to access other revenue streams. BuzzFeed is doing this by launching a daily program on Twitter, a weekly one on Facebook, and another program on Netflix. However BuzzFeed does not seem ready to change its format to offer more specialized content - the successful formula for other free information sites like Eater, Politico and Vulture. Of course the nuclear option is still available: switching to a paywall system, a move that increasingly has become a necessity for online news. "For any news-gathering operation to be dependent on advertising is perilous," said Christopher Daly, journalism professor at Boston University's College of Communication. "From my study of history, I would say the only truly reliable source of funding for journalism is the audience. Tariqul Islam, Md. Monzur Mofiz, Shahidur Rahman Khan, all CXOs, Divisional Heads and senior executives of Head Office also attended the conference. In the conference, the budgetary target for the year 2019 was critically analyzed. The Branch Managers are advised to take action plan and to be more sincere for achieving business target for the year 2019. Wall Street opens higher on upbeat earnings Starbucks gained 2.9 percent after better than expected fourth-quarter earnings and improved guidance for 2019. Patrick O'Hare of Briefing.com said markets' optimism might be based on wishful thinking. He noted, "there is chatter around the edges of some important matters that is helping the market climb a wall of worry on the pretense that some of its worries may soon be less worrisome." News reports indicated lawmakers in the United States and Britain were working to end the partial shutdown of the US government, now more than a month old, and to break the Brexit impasse. Official figures on durable goods orders and new home sales were not published due to the partial government shutdown. Guaranty Period on Marcel Fridge Compressor extended to 12 years The local electronics and electrical brand 'Marcel' has extended the guaranty period of its' fridge' compressors to 12 years from the previous 10 years as the assurance of highest standard of the compressors used in Marcel fridges. This extended guaranty facility are effective from January 20, 2019 for the customers of Marcel fridges all over the country, says a press release. Marcel authorities placed this announcement at a declaration programme, held at the conference room of the company's Corporate Office in the capital on Sunday (January 27, 2019) morning. The programme was addressed, among others, by Marcel's Executive Director Eva Rezwana, Head of Service Management System Muzahidul Islam, Head of Legal Affairs Masud Hossain Chowdhury, Brand Ambassador film actor Amin Khan, Media Adviser Enayet Ferdous and the company's other high officials. Speaking at the function, Eva Rezwana said, Marcel extended the guaranty period of its fridge compressor with the aim of bringing the successful outcomes of several initiatives to the customers. The initiatives included: manufacturing compressors and its necessary parts at own factory with advanced tools and machineries; improving the quality of compressors continuously by the highly meritorious, skilled and experienced engineers of research and development department; following 'zero tolerance' policy by the Quality Control department and thus highly confident on the improved quality. At the event, the engineers of Marcel fridge compressors said that long-term performance of a fridge is largely depends on the quality of its compressors. Compressors will provide long-time service when its system function and accuracy will be ensured, mentioning it they said that thus Marcel has brought more perfection in the cooling and accuracy system in its compressors. HFC-free globally recognized environment-friendly R600a refrigerants have been used in the compressors of Marcel fridges. Service Management System's Head Muzahidul Islam said, Compressors that are used in Marcel refrigerators will provide services more than the guaranteed period if the customers follow the user guidelines properly. During transportation or placement, the fridges should not be careened more than 30-degree angles. In Addition, customers should start fridge minimum two (2) hours later after the transportation, he added. Dhaka Central Zone of Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited organized Annual Get-together and Picnic with participation of the bank's executives, employees and their family members at Nandan Park of Savar, Dhaka on Friday, 25 January 2019. Md. Mahbub ul Alam, Managing Director & CEO of the Bank attended the program as Chief guest. Mohammed Monirul Moula, Additional Managing Director of the Bank addressed the program as special guest. Presided over by Md. Shafiqur Rahman, Senior Executive Vice President & Head of Dhaka Central Zone, J.Q.M. Habibullah FCS, Deputy Managing Director & Company Secretary, Md. Obaidul Haque, Senior Executive Vice President, Mohammod Ullah, Executive Vice President & Head of Dhaka East Zone, Mohammad Jamal Uddin Mazumder, Executive Vice President, Md. Aminur Rahman, President of Islami Bank Officers' Kolyan Samity & Senior Vice President, Md. Shah Jahan, Senior Vice President of the Bank along with Head of Branches under Dhaka Central Zone were present on the occasion. Photo: Courtesy
MISCELLANEOUS MONDAY, JANUARY 28, 2019 11 Joypurhat Sadar Upazila Nirbahi Officer Milton Chandra Roy as the chief guest distributed crest among senior citizens at a program organized by Joypurhat Rural Development Movement (JRDM) recently. Photo: Masrakul Alom Pope challenged on sex abuse as young take stage in Panama Young people challenged Pope Francis on the Catholic Church's sex abuse scandal and the plight of Christians in the Middle East as the youth took center stage Saturday in the final events of World Youth Day in Panama, reports UNB. Organizers said some 600,000 people turned out for Saturday's main event, an evening vigil service in the Metropark area of east Panama City. Many of them were spending the night in tents or just on sleeping mats to be in place for an early morning final Mass formally ending the religious festival. After looping through the cheering crowds in his popemobile, Francis told the young he understood their anxieties and fears for a future where jobs are scarce and education not always available. "It is easy enough to criticize and complain about young people if we are depriving them of the jobs, education and community opportunities they need to take root and to dream of a future," he told the pilgrims, many of whom clutched rosaries, swayed in prayer and draped themselves in flags from across the Americas and beyond. The vigil was the culmination of a busy day for Francis that included a luncheon with 10 young pilgrims representing each of the continents. The Vatican described the atmosphere as familiar and festive, and the young people said they were surprised at Francis' informality and interest in their questions. Brenda Noriega, a Mexican-born youth minister from San Bernardino, California, said she told Francis that the sex abuse scandal in the United States was a "crisis right now we cannot avoid talking about." She said Francis called abuse a "horrible crime" and assured her that the church was committed to supporting victims. She said Francis also stressed the need for prayer, noting that he sent U.S. bishops on a retreat with his own preacher earlier this month ahead of his big summit on abuse prevention in February at the Vatican. "For me as a youth minister, that means a lot," Noriega told reporters after the luncheon. "Youth ministers, we have been with people who have been angry but sometimes we forget about prayer. We react too easy and too fast. So I think what His Holiness is telling us and the church is to first pray, build community and not forget about accompaniment." It was the first time the abuse scandal has come up publicly during Francis' four-day visit to Panama. The abuse scandal hasn't erupted publicly in Central America in the same way it has in the U.S., where the Catholic hierarchy is facing a crisis in confidence over its decades-long failures to protect young people from priests who rape and molest children. During the luncheon, held on the campus of Panama City's main seminary, the guests peppered Francis with questions. Palestinian pilgrim Dana Salah said she asked Francis about the flight of Christians from the lands of Jesus' birth. She said the pope assured her "'Palestine will always remain the land of Jesus.'" Emilda Santo Montezuma, an indigenous Panamanian, said she spoke to Francis about the environment and the rights of indigenous peoples - two issues particularly dear to Francis' heart which will be the focus of a meeting of Amazonian bishops at the Vatican later this year. Francis' support, she said, would embolden indigenous people to fight for their rights. Organizers said some 600,000 people turned out for Saturday's main event, an evening vigil service in the Metropark area of east Panama City. Many of them were spending the night in tents or just on sleeping mats to be in place for an early morning final Mass formally ending the religious festival. After looping through the cheering crowds in his popemobile, Francis told the young he understood their anxieties and fears for a future where jobs are scarce and education not always available. "It is easy enough to criticize and complain about young people if we are depriving them of the jobs, education and community opportunities they need to take root and to dream of a future," he told the pilgrims, many of whom clutched rosaries, swayed in prayer and draped themselves in flags from across the Americas and beyond. The vigil was the culmination of a busy day for Francis that included a luncheon with 10 young pilgrims representing each of the continents. The Vatican described the atmosphere as familiar and festive, and the young people said they were surprised at Francis' informality and interest in their questions. Brenda Noriega, a Mexican-born youth minister from San Bernardino, California, said she told Francis that the sex abuse scandal in the United States was a "crisis right now we cannot avoid talking about." She said Francis called abuse a "horrible crime" and assured her that the church was committed to supporting victims. JRDM honours senior citizens in Joypurhat Masrakul Alom, Joypurhat Correspondent: Joypurhat's non-governmental association Joypurhat Rural Development Movement (JRDM) with the financial support of PKSF provided special assistance and honour, distributed winter and various other materials among the senior citizens of PuranPail UP under the lifeimprovement program of the senior citizen. Sadar Upazila Nirbahi Officer Milton Chandra Roy addressed the distribution program as the chief guest while Executive Director of the organization Razia Sultana chaired the occasion held at PuranPail Government Primary School ground on Thursday. Puranapall UP Chairman Khorshed Alam Saikat said the special guest. Among others, JRDM Monitoring Officer Ershadul Kabir, Deputy Director Shawkat Ali, Assistant Director (Development) NM Waliuzzaman and Program Organizer Ariful Islam were also present at the occasion. Special lecture on Bangladesh India bilateral Realtion held at JnU Asalm Hossain JnU Correspondent: A special lecture on "Bangladesh - India relation : Present perspective and future directions held at Jagannath University on Sunday. Former Professor of Jawaharlal Nehru University and secretary general of Society For Indian Ocean Studies, Baladas Ghosal delivered the speech on different issues of Bangladesh India relation and future possible direction of the bilateral relation. Chairman of political science department and president of director of South Asian Study Circle Professor Arun Kumar Goswami conducted the special lecture. Proctor of JnU Nur Mohammad, Professor of Biochemistry department Rafiqul Hawue, assistant professor of political science department Moynul Hoque and others attended the special lecture. Besides, students and faculty members of political science department attended the lecture. JnU chapter of South Asian Study Circle, arranged the special lecture. In Trump ally Stone's case, Mueller finds crime in cover-up Donald Trump confidant Roger Stone may be accused of lying and tampering with witnesses, but it's equally notable what he's not charged with: colluding with the Kremlin in a grand conspiracy to help Trump win the presidency in 2016, reports UNB. The case is the latest in a series brought by special counsel Robert Mueller that focuses on cover-ups but lays out no underlying crime. It's a familiar pattern in Washington, where scandals from Watergate to Iran-Contra and Whitewater have mushroomed into presidencyimperiling affairs due to efforts to conceal and mislead. In the Russia investigation , one Trump aide after another has been accused of lying to investigators, or encouraging others to do so, about Russia-related contacts during the campaign and transition period. Mueller may well have evidence of criminal coordination between Trump associates and Russia that he has yet to reveal, but so far, he's focused repeatedly on those he believes have tried to throw federal or congressional investigators off the trail. Stone's indictment charges him with seven felonies, including witness tampering, obstruction and false statements, while leaving open the question of whether his or the Trump's campaign's interest in exploiting Russia-hacked emails about Democrat Hillary Clinton crossed a legal line. "There's sort of two possible ways this investigation could end up. One is he finds this big Russian conspiracy or collusion Venezuela defused a potential showdown with the United States, suspending a demand that U.S. diplomats leave the country as Washington called on the world to "pick a side" in the South American nation's fast-moving crisis, reports UNB. Socialist President Nicolas Maduro broke relations with the United States on Wednesday after the Trump administration and many other nations in the region recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela's interim president, a move that Maduro called a coup attempt. Maduro gave U.S. diplomats three days to leave the country, but the Trump administration said it wouldn't obey, arguing that Maduro is no longer Venezuela's legitimate president. That set the stage for a showdown at the hilltop U.S. Embassy compound Saturday night, when the deadline was to expire. But as the sun set on Venezuela's capital, the Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying Maduro's government was suspending the expulsion to provide a 30- day window for negotiating with U.S. officials about setting up a "U.S. interests office" in Venezuela and a similar Venezuelan office in the United States. The U.S. and Cuba had a similar arrangement for decades before the Obama administration restored diplomatic relations with the communist-run island. The State Department did not confirm the Venezuelan government's account, reiterating only that its priority remains the safety of its personnel and that it has no plans to close the embassy. Earlier Saturday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the U.N. Security Council: "Let me be 100 percent clear - President Trump and I fully expect that our diplomats will continue to receive protections provided with the Russians to influence the election," said Randall Eliason, a George Washington University white-collar criminal law professor and former federal prosecutor. "The other, I think very real possibility, is he just finds a cover-up." The Stone case is in some way reminiscent of Mueller prosecutions that have accused former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen of lying to Congress about his role in a Moscow real estate project; former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn of lying about his contacts with the Russia's U.S. ambassador; and ex-campaign aide George Papadopoulos of lying about his knowledge that Russia had "dirt" on Clinton in the form of stolen emails. In none of those cases did prosecutors say the things the defendants lied about were crimes themselves. The absence of a definitive answer to the collusion question, more than 20 months into Mueller's work, has given the president and his allies a wedge to attack the investigation. In the hours after Stone's predawn arrest at his Florida home Friday, Trump returned to his favored refrain of "NO COLLUSION" on Twitter. His lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, mocked the case as "nothing more than another false statement charge" and speculated without evidence that Mueller's inquiry was nearing an end. But with each new charge, Mueller continues to publicly untangle Trump campaign operations and their intersection with Russia's efforts to hurt Clinton and help Trump. Venezuela allows US diplomats to stay, defusing showdown under the Vienna Convention. Do not test the United States on our resolve to protect our people." In the Security Council meeting, critics and supporters of Maduro's government faced off in a reflection of the world's deep divisions over Venezuela, which is mired in political confrontation as well as an economic collapse that has caused millions to flee the country. During the debate, which was requested by the U.S., Pompeo urged all nations to end Venezuela's "nightmare" and support Guaido. "Now is the time for every other national to pick a side," Pompeo said. "No more delays, no more games. Either you stand with the forces of freedom, or you're in league with Maduro and his mayhem." Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia charged that the Trump administration is trying "to engineer a coup" against Maduro. He said Venezuela doesn't threaten international peace and security, and he accused "extremist opponents" of Maduro's government of choosing "maximum confrontation," including the artificial creation of a parallel government. Nebenzia urged Pompeo to say whether the U.S. will use military force. The State Department did not confirm the Venezuelan government's account, reiterating only that its priority remains the safety of its personnel and that it has no plans to close the embassy. Earlier Saturday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the U.N. Security Council: "Let me be 100 percent clear - President Trump and I fully expect that our diplomats will continue to receive protections provided under the Vienna Convention. Do not test the United States on our resolve to protect our people." GD-153/19 (7 x 4) GD-152/19 (6 x 4)
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