02-02-2019
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saturDay<br />
DhAkA : February 2, <strong>2019</strong>; Magh 20, 1425 BS; Jamadi-ul Awal 26,1440 hijri<br />
www.thebangladeshtoday.com; www. tbtbangla.com<br />
Regd.No.DA~2065, Vol.16; No.9; 8 Pages~Tk.8.00<br />
intErnational<br />
Pence praises DEA<br />
help in convict<br />
Maduro allies<br />
>Page 3<br />
sciEncE & tEch<br />
Why the<br />
ad-free era<br />
is over<br />
>Page 5<br />
Economy & BusinEss<br />
A view exchange meeting between<br />
Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd and<br />
international corporate consultancy<br />
>Page 6<br />
Living some sort of 'captive<br />
life', bemoans PM<br />
Non-profitable<br />
industries to<br />
be turned into<br />
profitable:<br />
Kamal<br />
DHAKA : State Minister for<br />
Industries Kamal Ahmed Mojumder<br />
yesterday said the government has a<br />
plan to turn non-profitable industries<br />
into profitable ones by reopening all<br />
closed government industries and factories.<br />
He was addressing a rally on the<br />
premises of Haji Ali Hossain High<br />
School at Mirpur-13 here.<br />
Dhaka City Corporation's ward number<br />
four unit of Awami League organised<br />
the rally.<br />
Kamal, a lawmaker from Awami<br />
League lawmaker for Dhaka-15 constituency,<br />
said the countrymen extended<br />
their unequivocal support to Awami<br />
League's electoral manifesto by casting<br />
their votes in favour of the AL candidates<br />
in the December 30 national election.<br />
"We have to fulfill the commitments<br />
made to the people. All development<br />
initiatives should be implemented in<br />
due time and no mercy should be<br />
showed over corruption in any sector<br />
under the Industries Ministry," he<br />
added.<br />
Zohr<br />
05:24 AM<br />
01:15 PM<br />
04:08 PM<br />
05:48 PM<br />
07:05 PM<br />
6:30 5:45<br />
DHAKA : Prime Minister Sheikh<br />
Hasina on Friday lamented her<br />
inability to roam around the Ekushey<br />
Book Fair freely, saying she is now living<br />
some sort of a 'captive life', reports<br />
UNB.<br />
"When I was not in power, I used to<br />
come at the book fair and roam<br />
around freely. But now, I'm living<br />
some sort of a captive life. I don't have<br />
the scope to come here. If I want to<br />
come here it causes problems for others<br />
due to the security reasons.<br />
Considering people's sufferings, I've<br />
to suppress my desire to come here<br />
but in reality, my heart always lies<br />
here," she said.<br />
Sheikh Hasina was addressing a<br />
programme marking the inauguration<br />
of the month-long Amar Ekushey<br />
Grantha Mela-<strong>2019</strong> on the Bangla<br />
Academy premises and at adjoining<br />
Suhrawardy Udyan in the city.<br />
The theme of this year's book fair is<br />
'Bijoy: 1952 to 1971 Ebong<br />
Naboporjay'.<br />
The Prime Minister said the book<br />
fair is not a place for just selling and<br />
buying books. "We think this book<br />
fair is the fair of life for the Bangalees,"<br />
she said.<br />
Putting emphasis on knowing the<br />
history by the new generation, she<br />
said the people of the country had<br />
earned the independence and right to<br />
speak in their mother tongue through<br />
huge sacrifices and struggles.<br />
"The history of Bangalees is the history<br />
of sacrifice, and all of our achievements<br />
have been attained through<br />
that sacrifice," Hasina said.<br />
She also gives importance to translating<br />
local and international literature<br />
books for knowing the world literature<br />
and letting others to know the<br />
Bangladeshi one. "To know the world<br />
literature, it's urgently needed to do<br />
the transliteration."<br />
The Prime Minister also said<br />
although the world is advancing fast<br />
and books are now very much available<br />
in digital format, the attraction of<br />
hard books will never end. "The joy of<br />
turning book pages is something else.<br />
It can't be compared with anything<br />
else."<br />
She, however, underscored the<br />
need for establishing a digital library<br />
for accessing any book from any part<br />
of the world.<br />
Two foreign guests-Indian poet<br />
Shankha Ghosh and Egyptian writer<br />
and poet Mohsin Al Arishi-graced the<br />
opening ceremony and spoke as distinguished<br />
foreign guests. Due to the<br />
illness and as advised by doctors, the<br />
speech of Shankha Ghosh was read<br />
out by Ramendu Majumder.<br />
State Minister for Cultural Affairs<br />
KM Khalid attended the opening ceremony<br />
as a special guest while Bangla<br />
Academy Director General poet<br />
Habibullah Siraji delivered the welcome<br />
speech with its President<br />
Professor Emeritus Anisuzzaman in<br />
the chair.<br />
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina also<br />
distributed the Bangla Academy<br />
Sahitya Puroshkar-2018 at the opening<br />
ceremony.<br />
Four writers and researchers won<br />
the award this time. The award winners<br />
are Poet Kazi Rosy for poetry,<br />
Mohit Kamal for literature, Syed<br />
Mohammad Shahed for essay and<br />
research and Afsan Chowdhury for<br />
Another gang-rape accused found<br />
murdered in Jhalakathi<br />
JHALAKATHI : An accused in a gang<br />
rape case was found murdered at<br />
Angaria village in Rajapur upazila on<br />
Friday morning.<br />
Police recovered the body of Rakib<br />
Hossain Molla, son of Kamal Hossain of<br />
Nadmula village in Bhandaria upazila,<br />
from a brick kiln in the area around<br />
10am. He had a bullet injury to the right<br />
side of his chest.<br />
Rakib was accused in the gang rape of<br />
a tenth grader madrasa student on<br />
January 12, reports UNB.<br />
Officer-in-Charge of Rajapur Police<br />
Station (Investigation) Md Mainuddin<br />
said locals found the body and informed<br />
police. It was later sent to Sadar Hospital<br />
for an autopsy, he said.<br />
A handwritten placard found on the<br />
body read that he was involved with the<br />
Madrasa student's gang rape.<br />
Mainuddin said they were in the dark<br />
about the killer.<br />
research on Liberation War. The winners<br />
received a cheque of Tk 2 lakh<br />
each at the programme.<br />
Sheikh Hasina also unveiled a book<br />
titled 'Secret Documents of<br />
Intelligence Branch on Father of the<br />
Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh<br />
Mujibur Rahman' (Volume -2) at the<br />
opening ceremony.<br />
Later, Hasina went round different<br />
stalls at the book fair.<br />
Seminars will be held at the main<br />
stage of the fair venue at 4pm every<br />
day from February 2 to 28 followed<br />
by cultural events.<br />
Like the previous years, the venue<br />
of the fair was extended to nearby<br />
Suhrawardy Udyan with huge<br />
changes.<br />
This year, the land earmarked for<br />
the fair was expanded to 550,000<br />
square feet, 37,000 more than the<br />
previous year. A total of 770 units<br />
were allocated to 499 organisations<br />
The authorities allotted a total of<br />
150 units at the Bangla Academy<br />
ground to 104 organisatons and 620<br />
at the Suhrawardy Udyan to 395<br />
organisations.<br />
Last year, the authorities allotted a<br />
total of 719 units - 136 at the Bangla<br />
Academy ground to 92 organisatons<br />
and 583 at the Suhrawardy Udyan to<br />
363 organisations.<br />
Besides, 24 pavilions have been<br />
allocated for 24 publishing houses,<br />
including Bangla Academy.<br />
The fair will remain open from 3pm<br />
to 9pm (Sunday to Thursday) while it<br />
will remain open from 11am to 9pm<br />
on weekly holidays. On February 21,<br />
the fair will remain open from 8am to<br />
8pm.<br />
The body of the other accused in the<br />
same case was recovered on January 26<br />
from a garden at Binapani village in<br />
Kathalia upazila. Sajal Jomaddar's body<br />
had three gunshot wounds - one to the<br />
chest and two to his head.<br />
A handwritten placard, found with the<br />
body, said he was the "mastermind" of<br />
the gang rape.<br />
Police said Sajal and associates abducted<br />
a grade X student while she was going<br />
to her relative's home in Hetalbunia on<br />
January 12. They took her to a betel leaf<br />
garden and raped her. A case was filed<br />
accusing Sajal on January 14.<br />
Meanwhile, on January 17, police<br />
recovered the bullet-hit body of Ripon,<br />
39, another prime accused in a similar<br />
case of gang rape case, from Amin Model<br />
Town. Ripon's body also had a similar<br />
message on a placard tied around his<br />
neck which read: "I'm the mastermind of<br />
the gang- rape case."<br />
In allegation of instigating suicide, police arrested Tanjila haque Mitu, the wife of late Dr Mostofa<br />
Morshed Akash. On Friday, Tanjila was produced before journalists.<br />
Photo: Star mail<br />
On Friday, after inaugurating Amar Ekhushey Book Fair, people visiting the fair ground at Bangla<br />
Academy.<br />
Photo: Star Mail<br />
SSC, equivalent<br />
exams begin<br />
today<br />
DHAKA : This year's Secondary School<br />
Certificate (SSC) and equivalent examinations<br />
begin across the country today,<br />
reports UNB.<br />
A total of 2,135,333 students, including<br />
1,070,441 boys and 1,064,892 girls, are<br />
expected to appear at the examinations<br />
from 28,682 institutions in 3,497 centres.<br />
Of them, 1,700,1<strong>02</strong> will sit for the SSC<br />
examination under eight general education<br />
boards while 310,172 for Dakhil<br />
exam under the Madrasah Education<br />
Board and 125,059 for vocational exam<br />
under the Bangladesh Technical<br />
Education Board.<br />
The number of total examinees is<br />
103,434 higher than last year's and the<br />
number of institutions is 131 up.<br />
A total of 434 students will sit for the<br />
examinations from eight overseas centres<br />
as well.<br />
The written examinations will continue<br />
until February 26 while the practical<br />
examination will be held from February<br />
27 to March 5.<br />
Students have to take seats 30 minute<br />
before a test begins.<br />
Besides, no one except centre secretary<br />
will be allowed to carry mobile phone and<br />
no outsider will be allowed to enter centres.<br />
Meanwhile, Education Minister Dr<br />
Dipu Moni on Thursday assured that<br />
there would be no incident of question<br />
paper leakage during the public examinations<br />
this time.<br />
While briefing reporters on the examinations<br />
at the secretariat, she also urged<br />
teachers, students and guardians not to<br />
pay heed to any rumour.<br />
Besides, the coaching centres across the<br />
country will remain closed from January<br />
27 to February 27 to facilitate the fair<br />
holding of the SSC and equivalent examinations.<br />
Quader criticises<br />
BNP for declining to<br />
join PM’s tea party<br />
DHAKA : Awami League general secretary<br />
Obaidul Quader on Friday said<br />
BNP's decision not to join the<br />
Ganobhaban tea party at the invitation<br />
of the Prime Ministers has exposed the<br />
party's old negative political attitude,<br />
reports UNB.<br />
Speaking at a press conference at<br />
Awami League president's Dhanmondi<br />
office, he said the leaders of Jatiya<br />
Oikyafront can openly discuss various<br />
political issues joining the programme<br />
at Ganobhaban on Saturday.<br />
"Many things can be discussed while<br />
taking tea as politicians used to talk<br />
about politics. So, BNP's representatives<br />
can talk to the Prime Minister at<br />
the tea party. They can openly tell her if<br />
they have anything to say," Quader<br />
said.<br />
He further said, "But, BNP's decision<br />
not to respond to the Prime Minister's<br />
invitation has manifested the party's<br />
continuation of old negative political<br />
attitude. It's not good for democracy<br />
and BNP's existence. BNP is now on<br />
DHAKA : Members of<br />
Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT)<br />
intended to attack jail to free their<br />
chief Jashimuddin Rahmani,<br />
Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) said<br />
on Friday, reports UNB.<br />
"They are trying to regroup,"<br />
Mufti Mahmud Khan, director of<br />
Rab's legal and media wing, told a<br />
press briefing at Rab Media Centre<br />
in Kawran Bazar.<br />
"ABT members are working on<br />
target killings although they have<br />
no leader to guide them," he said.<br />
"Their main goal is to free<br />
Rahmani from jail. If the legal<br />
ways fail, then they are ready to<br />
attack jail to free him."<br />
Rab-1 arrested four ABT members<br />
early Friday from different<br />
parts of the city, said Assistant<br />
Director of Rab-1 Senior ASP<br />
Mizanur Rahman. The arrestees<br />
were involved in a plot to kill some<br />
renowned personalities and online<br />
activists.<br />
Arrested ABT militants told Rab<br />
that they currently had 92 members<br />
who are divided in various<br />
cells controlled by a person identifying<br />
himself as Aman. "They are<br />
the edge of a ditch and they'll fall into it<br />
anytime."<br />
On Thursday, the Oikyafront steering<br />
committee decided not to join the tea<br />
party at Ganobhaban, terming it a<br />
"mockery".<br />
Oikyafront spokesman and BNP secretary<br />
general Mirza Fakhrul Islam<br />
Alamgir briefed reporters about the<br />
meeting decision.<br />
On Friday, Oikyafront sent a letter to<br />
Ganobhaban explaining the reason<br />
behind its decision not to join the tea<br />
party.<br />
Quader, also the Road Transport and<br />
Bridges Minister, said BNP and<br />
Oikyafront MPs-elect should join the<br />
parliament to play a strong role both in<br />
parliament and its outside.<br />
He also warned BNP that it will be<br />
isolated from the friendly countries if it<br />
does not join parliament.<br />
Turning down BNP and Oikyafront's<br />
demand for reelection, Quader said<br />
they will have to wait until the 12th preliminary<br />
election for it.<br />
Ansarullah planned<br />
attack on jail to free<br />
Jashimuddin: Rab<br />
campaigning through four-five<br />
Facebook pages at Aman's<br />
orders," the Rab officer said.<br />
These groups mainly monitor<br />
online activists. "One of the militants,<br />
Shahriar, joined an atheist<br />
group using a fake name. At one<br />
stage of monitoring, the militants<br />
planned to kill one of the [members<br />
of the atheist group] according<br />
to ABT's organisational decision,"<br />
Rab said.<br />
Among the arrestees, Shahriar<br />
hailing from Dhunat upazila of<br />
Bogura studied till class seven<br />
from madrasa. He joined ATB<br />
after being influenced by Aman<br />
through Facebook.<br />
Md Rasel alias Sajedul Islam<br />
hailing from Fulgachia of Bhola,<br />
passed SSC in 2013 and took a job<br />
in a garment factory. He, too, was<br />
influenced by Aman on Facebook<br />
and joined ATB.<br />
Nurul Islam hailing from Bogura<br />
passed Dakhil examination in<br />
2010 and later got admitted to<br />
Bogura Polytechnic in 2015. He<br />
was radicalised by Shahriar and<br />
joined ATB.<br />
Md Abdul Malek, a driver, was
NEWS<br />
SATURDAY,<br />
FeBRUARY 2, <strong>2019</strong><br />
2<br />
33rd 'Jatiya Kobita Utshab <strong>2019</strong>' begins<br />
DHAKA : The 33rd edition of 'Jatiya<br />
Kobita Utshab' (national poetry<br />
festival) started on Friday at the Dhaka<br />
University's Central Library square,<br />
reports UNB.<br />
This year's slogan of the two-day<br />
festival is 'Bangalir joy kobitar joy' (the<br />
victory of Bangali is the victory of<br />
poetry).<br />
The festival originally began in 1987<br />
with a view to raising voices through<br />
poems against dictatorship and<br />
tyranny. Jatiya Kobita Utshab <strong>2019</strong>,<br />
organised by Jatiya Kobita Parishad, is<br />
dedicated to the 50-year anniversary of<br />
mass uprising of 1969 and its martyrs.<br />
The inauguration took place after<br />
paying homage to National Poet Kazi<br />
Nazrul Islam, Shilpacharya Zainul<br />
Abedin, Patua Kamrul Hasan and the<br />
martyrs of Language Movement.<br />
Noted Bangladeshi poet Asad<br />
Chowdhury opened the festival. In his<br />
speech, he noted how poems, ‍as<br />
part of literature, have always been an<br />
inspiration for the Bangali.<br />
"Jatiya Kobita Parishad, as a<br />
platform, is against communalism,<br />
fundamentalism and tyranny. We<br />
want to declare that the victory of<br />
Bangali is the victory of poetry," he<br />
said, adding that a Parliament free of<br />
war criminals is a great achievement.<br />
Jatiya Kabira Parishad General<br />
Secretary Tariq Sujat said Bangladeshi<br />
poets have always stood for progress.<br />
He expressed concerns about rules<br />
followed for national awards<br />
distribution.<br />
"The rules and regulations<br />
formulated during the dictatorship are<br />
still being followed when these awards<br />
are distributed. The process of<br />
selecting the awardees is still<br />
Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) in Rangpur celebrated the 71st founding anniversary of<br />
student's organization through colourful programmes on the Town Hall premises on<br />
Thursday.<br />
Photo : Star Mail<br />
23 drug<br />
peddlers held<br />
in Khulna<br />
KHULNA : Police arrested<br />
106 people, including 23<br />
drug peddlers, from<br />
different parts of the district<br />
from Thursday to Friday<br />
morning, reports UNB.<br />
Md Anisur Rahman,<br />
additional superintendent of<br />
Khulna Metropolitan Police<br />
(KMP), said 63 people were<br />
arrested in regular drives on<br />
various charges.<br />
Thirteen of them were<br />
drug peddlers. Sixty-eight<br />
grams of marijuana and<br />
seven yaba pills were seized<br />
from them, he said.<br />
On the other hand, 43<br />
people, including 10 drug<br />
peddlers, were arrested in<br />
special drives.<br />
Police seized 150 grams of<br />
marijuana, 22 yaba pills, and<br />
six bottles of phensedyl, said<br />
Additional Deputy<br />
Commissioner of KMP<br />
Sheikh Moniruzzaman<br />
Mithu.<br />
63 people held<br />
in Satkhira<br />
SATKHIRA : Police arrested<br />
63 people from different<br />
parts of the district in a<br />
special drive from Thursday<br />
evening to Friday morning,<br />
reports UNB.<br />
Sub-inspector Azam Khan<br />
of the Special Branch of<br />
Satkhira district police said<br />
they conducted the drive<br />
and arrested them on<br />
various charges.<br />
questionable; hence I urge the<br />
government to take necessary steps to<br />
maintain the honour of these prizes,"<br />
he added.<br />
Poet Ruby Rahman, in her<br />
proclamation of the event, said Jatiya<br />
Kobita Utshab <strong>2019</strong> declares the<br />
inevitable victory of Bangali. "All the<br />
spirit of Bangladeshis' struggle for<br />
freedom centers the Language<br />
Movement. Every curve of this<br />
uprising has offerings of poetry," she<br />
added.<br />
Festival convener Rabiul Hussain<br />
hoped that in the coming days, poets<br />
and their poetry will continue to<br />
encourage the nation in all movements<br />
and struggles.<br />
Jatiya Kobita Parishad President Dr<br />
Mohammad Samad in his speech<br />
urged the government to declare<br />
February 1 as the 'National Poetry Day'.<br />
He urged all to take oath to prevent<br />
the rise of anti-liberal forces in the<br />
country in future.<br />
This year, poet Habibullah Siraji will<br />
be honoured for his contribution to<br />
poetry by Jatiya Kobita Parishad on the<br />
second day of the festival.<br />
Famed names of Bangla literature<br />
including Nirmalendu Gunn, Mahadev<br />
Saha, Kazi Rozi, Burhanuddin Khan<br />
Jahangir and many others will grace<br />
the festival.<br />
Nineteen foreign poets from 11<br />
countries including India, Sweden,<br />
Maldives, Turkey, United Kingdom,<br />
Sri Lanka, Iraq, Spain, Uruguay, Congo<br />
and Malaysia will participate in<br />
sessions alongside Bangladeshi poets.<br />
The festival will be celebrated with<br />
many sessions for recitation, seminar,<br />
discussion and exhibition on poets and<br />
poetry. Several stalls have been set up<br />
Islam never endorses<br />
terrorism, militancy: Khasru<br />
NETRAKONA : Terming Islam as a<br />
religion of peace, State Minister for<br />
Fisheries and Livestock Ashraf Ali Khan<br />
Khasru said yesterday that Islam never<br />
endorses terrorism, corruption and<br />
militancy.<br />
All the past Awami League governments<br />
and the present government led by Prime<br />
Minister Sheikh Hasina took many steps<br />
for the spread of Islamic education across<br />
the country.<br />
Khasru applauded various important<br />
steps undertaken by Father of the Nation<br />
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman<br />
and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for<br />
upholding Islamic spirit and spreading<br />
Islamic education across the country.<br />
During the post-independence period<br />
Bangabandhu allotted a land for building<br />
Kakrail mosque in the capital city and also<br />
allotted the land for holding Bishwa Ijtema<br />
in Tongi area, he said.<br />
The state minister said Bangabandhu<br />
also established Islamic Foundation to<br />
flourish Islamic education in the country.<br />
He was speaking as chief guest at a<br />
reception accorded to him by Islamic<br />
Oikya Jote Netrakona district unit at the<br />
local public hall here. Chaired by president<br />
of Islami Oikya Jote Netrakon district unit<br />
Moulana Delwar Hussain, the function<br />
was addressed, among others, by mayor of<br />
Netrakona pourasava Nazrul Islam Khan,<br />
general secretary of district Red Crescent<br />
Society Gazi Muzammel Hussain Tuku<br />
and vice president of Jatiya Party<br />
Netrakona district unit Ali Osman<br />
Siddiqui.<br />
Khasru said that the government of<br />
Sheikh Hasina was awarded the repute of<br />
"mother of Koumi education" by the<br />
Alems and Ulamas of the country for<br />
giving recognition to the Koumi education<br />
in the Koumi Madrasas.<br />
with books on poetry.<br />
The festival is open for all. It will end<br />
on Saturday night with Kobitar Gaan<br />
(songs of poetry).<br />
Poet Ruby Rahman, in her<br />
proclamation of the event, said Jatiya<br />
Kobita Utshab <strong>2019</strong> declares the<br />
inevitable victory of Bangali. "All the<br />
spirit of Bangladeshis' struggle for<br />
freedom centers the Language<br />
Movement. Every curve of this<br />
uprising has offerings of poetry," she<br />
added. Festival convener Rabiul<br />
Hussain hoped that in the coming<br />
days, poets and their poetry will<br />
continue to encourage the nation in all<br />
movements and struggles.<br />
Jatiya Kobita Parishad President Dr<br />
Mohammad Samad in his speech<br />
urged the government to declare<br />
February 1 as the 'National Poetry Day'.<br />
He urged all to take oath to prevent<br />
the rise of anti-liberal forces in the<br />
country in future.<br />
This year, poet Habibullah Siraji will<br />
be honoured for his contribution to<br />
poetry by Jatiya Kobita Parishad on the<br />
second day of the festival.<br />
Famed names of Bangla literature<br />
including Nirmalendu Gunn, Mahadev<br />
Saha, Kazi Rozi, Burhanuddin Khan<br />
Jahangir and many others will grace<br />
the festival.<br />
Nineteen foreign poets from 11<br />
countries including India, Sweden,<br />
Maldives, Turkey, United Kingdom,<br />
Sri Lanka, Iraq, Spain, Uruguay, Congo<br />
and Malaysia will participate in<br />
sessions alongside Bangladeshi poets.<br />
The festival will be celebrated with<br />
many sessions for recitation, seminar,<br />
discussion and exhibition on poets and<br />
poetry. Several stalls have been set up<br />
with books on poetry.<br />
Earlier, the state minister attended as<br />
chief guest the annual sports competition<br />
of Netrakona Holy Child Kinder Garten<br />
School on local Muktarpara ground here.<br />
He distributed prizes among the winners<br />
of the competition.<br />
He also attended a rally organized by<br />
Bangla daily newspaper "Daily Jugantor"<br />
at Netrkona press club marking the 20th<br />
founding anniversary of the newspaper.<br />
Khasru applauded various important<br />
steps undertaken by Father of the Nation<br />
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman<br />
and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for<br />
upholding Islamic spirit and spreading<br />
Islamic education across the country.<br />
During the post-independence period<br />
Bangabandhu allotted a land for building<br />
Kakrail mosque in the capital city and also<br />
allotted the land for holding Bishwa Ijtema<br />
in Tongi area, he said.<br />
The state minister said Bangabandhu<br />
also established Islamic Foundation to<br />
flourish Islamic education in the country.<br />
He was speaking as chief guest at a<br />
reception accorded to him by Islamic<br />
Oikya Jote Netrakona district unit at the<br />
local public hall here.<br />
Chaired by president of Islami Oikya<br />
Jote Netrakon district unit Moulana<br />
Delwar Hussain, the function was<br />
addressed, among others, by mayor of<br />
Netrakona pourasava Nazrul Islam Khan,<br />
general secretary of district Red Crescent<br />
Society Gazi Muzammel Hussain Tuku<br />
and vice president of Jatiya Party<br />
Netrakona district unit Ali Osman<br />
Siddiqui.<br />
Khasru said that the government of<br />
Sheikh Hasina was awarded the repute of<br />
"mother of Koumi education" by the<br />
Alems and Ulamas of the country for<br />
giving recognition to the Koumi education<br />
in the Koumi Madrasas.<br />
Rangpur Fine Arts Academy (RFAA) organised a five-day workshop on watercolor in Rangpur yesterday.<br />
Photo : Star Mail<br />
PSTU teacher's<br />
association polls<br />
on february 14<br />
Md. Naeem Hossain,<br />
PSTU: The polls of<br />
Patuakhali science and<br />
technology University<br />
Teacher's<br />
Association(PSTUTA)<br />
would be held on February<br />
14. The chief election<br />
commissioner professor Dr.<br />
Md. Masudur Rahman<br />
declared the schedule. The<br />
CEC of PSTUTA election<br />
said, The last date of<br />
submission nomination<br />
paper is February 11 and the<br />
scrutiny of nomination<br />
paper will be held on same<br />
date. The deadline for<br />
withdrawal of candidature is<br />
February 12. The EC has<br />
published the manuscript of<br />
voter list already.<br />
Robber beaten by mob<br />
in Gopalganj dies<br />
GOPALGANJ : A<br />
suspected member of an<br />
inter-district robber gang<br />
died on Friday from injuries<br />
sustained during mob<br />
beating in the district's<br />
Muksudpur Upazila, reports<br />
UNB.<br />
He succumbed to his<br />
injuries at Muksudpur<br />
Health Complex around<br />
noon. Police identified the<br />
man as Din Islam, 35, son of<br />
Babul Sheikh of Shelkhola<br />
village of the upazila.<br />
Muksudpur Police Station<br />
Officer-in-Charge Mostafa<br />
Kamal Pasha said two<br />
robbers - Din and Bashar<br />
Fakir - went to one Kamal's<br />
house for robbery at<br />
Dignagar village on<br />
Wednesday night.<br />
Locals caught them during<br />
robbery bid and beat them<br />
up before handing them<br />
over to police. The men were<br />
admitted to upazila health<br />
complex.<br />
"Din Islam is a member of<br />
an inter-district robbery<br />
gang and accused in five<br />
robbery cases," the OC said.<br />
Housewife<br />
'commits suicide'<br />
in Chattogram<br />
CHATTOGRAM : A<br />
housewife apparently killed<br />
herself following family feud<br />
at Balurchara area in the<br />
port city on Friday morning,<br />
reports UNB.<br />
The deceased was<br />
identified as Akhi Akhter, 18,<br />
wife of Rabiul Awal of the<br />
area.<br />
Akhi had an altercation<br />
with her husband in the<br />
morning after he had made a<br />
comment implicating her<br />
and his younger brother,<br />
Assistant Sub-Inspector<br />
Alauddin Talukdar of<br />
Chittagong Medical College<br />
police outpost said quoting<br />
their family members.<br />
Akhi later tried to take her<br />
own life by hanging herself<br />
from an iron rod on the<br />
building's roof, the police<br />
officer said.<br />
Family members took her<br />
to CMCH but doctors<br />
pronounced her dead, the<br />
ASI added.<br />
Muksudpur Police Station<br />
Officer-in-Charge Mostafa<br />
Kamal Pasha said two<br />
robbers - Din and Bashar<br />
Fakir - went to one Kamal's<br />
house for robbery at<br />
Dignagar village on<br />
Wednesday night.<br />
Netherlands' Damen Shipyards<br />
keen to invest in Bangladesh<br />
DHAKA : Damen, a very common name in<br />
global shipping industry, wants to invest in<br />
Bangladesh in a bigger way, says its top<br />
executive, reports UNB.<br />
Chief Executive Officer of Damen<br />
René Berkvens expressed their<br />
investment interest to Bangladesh<br />
Ambassador to the Netherlands Sheikh<br />
Mohammed Belal during a meeting held in<br />
The Hague recently.<br />
Bangladesh's geo-strategic position,<br />
political stability and economic growth of<br />
last 10 years are key elements to consider<br />
Bangladesh as Damen's next investment<br />
destination, said the Bangladesh Embassy in<br />
The Hague on Friday.<br />
Ambassador Belal and Embassy officials<br />
paid a visit to Damen Shipyard at<br />
Gorinchem, The Netherlands and have seen<br />
different models of water going vessels<br />
available in the yard.<br />
Damen's investment in Bangladesh would<br />
open up a new avenue for Bangladesh's<br />
shipping sector and accelerate economic<br />
benefit, said the Bangladesh Embassy.<br />
With regard to investment, Damen would<br />
look for common basis of understanding and<br />
long term relation, it said.<br />
Since the 1970s, Damen is active in<br />
shipping sector of Bangladesh. Damen has<br />
been providing dredgers to Bangladesh since<br />
long.<br />
This leading company is having significant<br />
cooperation with BIWTA, Ministry of Water<br />
Resources, Khulna Shipyard, Chattogram<br />
Dry Dock Limited (CDDL), Bangladesh<br />
Navy and Bangladesh Coast-Guard, said the<br />
Embassy.<br />
During the meeting, Ambassador Belal<br />
apprised the CEO of Damen about<br />
Bangladesh Delta Plan-2100 and how the<br />
Bangladesh government is taking<br />
preparations to implement the plan phase by<br />
phase. He requested Damen to be part of this<br />
historic plan and approached him to come<br />
up with a plan of business expansion in<br />
Bangladesh.<br />
In response to Ambassador's request, the<br />
International workshop<br />
on Thalassemia held<br />
TBT report: The closing ceremony of a fourday-long<br />
International Workshop on<br />
Thalassaemia was held at Bangladesh College of<br />
Physicians (BCPS) auditorium at Mohakhali in<br />
the capital recently.<br />
Under the joint initiative of Non<br />
Communicable Disease Control (NCDC)<br />
Program, Health department Mohakhali and<br />
International Thalassaemia Federation, the<br />
program was presided over by Additional<br />
Director General (Planning and Development) of<br />
Health Department Prof Dr A H M Enayet<br />
Hossain.<br />
The program was started by national anthem<br />
and inaugurated by Dr Nr Mohammad, Line<br />
director (NCDC), Health department.<br />
Dr Mustafizur Rahman Deputy Program<br />
manager (NCDC) in Bangladesh briefed the<br />
improvement of prevention of Thalassaemia<br />
disease. Among others foreign guest Professor N<br />
Dalton Clinical Director, N H foundation, Dr Pal<br />
Telfer, representative of International<br />
Thalassaemia Foundation, Meri Petro, N H<br />
Foundation gave the speech. President of MDC<br />
Professor Dr Habibulantah was present as the<br />
special guest in the program.<br />
CEO promised to visit Bangladesh in April<br />
<strong>2019</strong> to verify the potentials of investment in<br />
Bangladesh.<br />
Ambassador Belal assured him all-out<br />
support to make his visit successful.<br />
Ambassador Belal also highlighted both<br />
ongoing and upcoming mega projects in<br />
Bangladesh and urge them to be part of this<br />
development journey.<br />
Damen, a 91-year old family owned<br />
company with a turnover of 2 billion Euro is<br />
having substantial presence in Poland,<br />
Romania, Vietnam, Dubai, China, Sharjah,<br />
Cape Town.<br />
Under the umbrella of Damen Shipyards<br />
group, worldwide they have 52 companies<br />
(in the Netherlands 24 and international 28)<br />
which has been creating employment for<br />
12000 employers.<br />
They have the capacity to provide all kinds<br />
of vessels, like- tug boats, offshore vessels,<br />
high speed craft and ferries, pontoons and<br />
berges, dredging and specials, defence and<br />
security vessels and yachts.<br />
Since the 1970s, Damen is active in<br />
shipping sector of Bangladesh. Damen has<br />
been providing dredgers to Bangladesh since<br />
long.<br />
This leading company is having significant<br />
cooperation with BIWTA, Ministry of Water<br />
Resources, Khulna Shipyard, Chattogram<br />
Dry Dock Limited (CDDL), Bangladesh<br />
Navy and Bangladesh Coast-Guard, said the<br />
Embassy.<br />
During the meeting, Ambassador Belal<br />
apprised the CEO of Damen about<br />
Bangladesh Delta Plan-2100 and how the<br />
Bangladesh government is taking<br />
preparations to implement the plan phase by<br />
phase.<br />
He requested Damen to be part of this<br />
historic plan and approached him to come<br />
up with a plan of business expansion in<br />
Bangladesh.<br />
In response to Ambassador's request, the<br />
CEO promised to visit Bangladesh in April<br />
<strong>2019</strong> to verify the potentials of investment in<br />
Bangladesh.<br />
Trader found<br />
dead in sylhet<br />
SYLHET : A trader was found<br />
dead inside his business<br />
establishment in front of Tajpur<br />
College beside Dhaka-Sylhet<br />
highway in Osmaninagar upazila<br />
on Thursday, reports UNB.<br />
The deceased was identified as<br />
Yusuf Ali, 24, owner of 'Mayer<br />
Doa', a shop of auto-rickshaw<br />
parts and son of Riasat Ali of<br />
Golapganj upazila.<br />
Being informed by local people,<br />
police recovered the body of<br />
Yusuf Ali from his shop in the<br />
morning and sent it to Sylhet<br />
Osmani Medcial College and<br />
Hospital morgue, said SM Al<br />
Mamun, officer-in-charge of<br />
Osmaninagar Police Station. The<br />
head, ear and some portion of<br />
Yusuf's face was found smashed<br />
as he was hit by a hard object, said<br />
police.<br />
However, the motive behind<br />
the killing could not be known<br />
yet.
INTERNATIONAL SATURDAy,<br />
FEBRUARy 2, <strong>2019</strong><br />
3<br />
The funeral procession of a woman sexually enslaved by Japanese soldiers as a girl during WWII<br />
concluded Friday near the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, where Kim Bok-dong had protested for<br />
decades against what she called Japanese failure to come to terms with its wartime brutality.<br />
Photo : AP<br />
Woman enslaved by Japan’s military<br />
mourned near protest site<br />
The funeral procession of a woman sexually<br />
enslaved by Japanese soldiers as a<br />
girl during WWII concluded Friday<br />
near the Japanese Embassy in Seoul,<br />
where Kim Bok-dong had protested for<br />
decades against what she called Japanese<br />
failure to come to terms with its<br />
wartime brutality, reports UNB.<br />
Hundreds of mourners, many<br />
dressed in black and holding paper<br />
cutouts of yellow butterflies that the 92-<br />
year-old had adopted as a symbol,<br />
crowded around a bronze statue of a<br />
girl representing the thousands of<br />
Asian women experts say the Japanese<br />
military forced into front-line brothels<br />
as it pursued colonial ambitions.<br />
The memorial, which mixed grief<br />
with simmering anger toward Tokyo,<br />
was the culmination of an hours-long<br />
march that wrapped up a five-day commemoration<br />
of Kim, who had regularly<br />
led rallies at the site to demand that<br />
Japan more fully acknowledge the suffering<br />
of the so-called "comfort<br />
January was officially<br />
Australia’s hottest<br />
month on record<br />
Australia sweltered through<br />
its hottest month on record<br />
in January and the summer<br />
of extremes continued with<br />
wildfires razing the droughtparched<br />
south and flooding<br />
in expanses of the tropical<br />
north, reports UNB.<br />
Australia's Bureau of<br />
Meteorology confirmed the<br />
January record on Friday as<br />
parts of the northern hemisphere<br />
had record cold.<br />
Australia's scorching start<br />
to <strong>2019</strong> - in which the mean<br />
temperature across the<br />
country for the first time<br />
exceeded 30 degrees Celsius<br />
(86 degrees Fahrenheit) -<br />
followed Australia's thirdhottest<br />
year on record. Only<br />
2005 and 2013 were warmer<br />
than 2018, which ended<br />
with the hottest December<br />
on record.<br />
Heat-stressed bats<br />
dropped dead from trees by<br />
the thousands in Victoria<br />
state and bitumen roads<br />
melted in New South Wales<br />
during heatwaves last<br />
month.<br />
New South Wales officials<br />
say drought-breaking rains<br />
are needed to improve the<br />
water quality in a stretch of a<br />
major river system where<br />
hundreds of thousands of<br />
fish died in two mass deaths<br />
during January linked to<br />
excessive heat. A South Australia<br />
state government<br />
report on Thursday found<br />
that too much water had<br />
been drained from the river<br />
system for farming under a<br />
management plan that did<br />
not take into account the<br />
impact of climate change on<br />
the river's health.<br />
The South Australian capital<br />
Adelaide on Jan. 24<br />
recorded the hottest day<br />
ever for a major Australian<br />
city - a searing 46.6 C (115.9<br />
F).<br />
On the same day, the<br />
South Australian town of<br />
Port Augusta, population<br />
15,000, recorded 49.5 C<br />
(121.1 F) - the highest maximum<br />
anywhere in Australia<br />
last month.<br />
Bureau senior climatologist<br />
Andrew Watkins<br />
described January's heat as<br />
unprecedented.<br />
women," the euphemism given to the<br />
women and girls enslaved by the<br />
Japanese and a term embraced by<br />
some of the dwindling number of victims<br />
over "sex slave."<br />
Japanese leaders have previously<br />
offered apologies or expressions of<br />
remorse, but many of the women and<br />
their supporters want reparations from<br />
Tokyo and a fuller apology. Of the 239<br />
Korean women who have come forward<br />
as victims, only 23 are still alive.<br />
Kim, who died Monday and had been<br />
suffering from cancer, had been a<br />
beloved leader of the protest movement,<br />
often sitting beside the bronze<br />
statue at weekly rallies that have been<br />
held since 1992 on a strip of sidewalk<br />
across from the site of the embassy.<br />
Her death has been met with grief<br />
around South Korea, with President<br />
Moon Jae-in crediting her relentless<br />
advocacy for giving South Koreans the<br />
"braveness to face the truth."<br />
As the limousine carrying Kim's<br />
remains slowly rolled up to the statue<br />
Friday morning, mourners carried 94<br />
vertical funeral banners that represented<br />
Kim's age when counted in the traditional<br />
Korean manner and were<br />
marked with phrases thanking Kim<br />
and demanding Japanese reparations<br />
and remorse.<br />
Many people cried during the march<br />
that started at City Hall. Led by an<br />
activist who shouted into a microphone<br />
from a truck, the marchers chanted<br />
anti-Japan slogans such as "Japan formally<br />
apologize!" and "Japan provide<br />
formal compensation!"<br />
"You always looked out for her and<br />
now grandma (Kim) is in a good<br />
place," said a tearful Lee Yong-su,<br />
another former sex slave, as she sat<br />
beside the statue and stroked its<br />
cheek and arms. "I feel very sorry and<br />
sad. We all know that voice that<br />
would shout (during the rallies). She<br />
can shout no more and she never<br />
received a formal apology."<br />
Pence praises DEA help<br />
in convict Maduro allies<br />
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence has congratulated<br />
the Drug Enforcement Administration<br />
for helping bring drug trafficking convictions<br />
against several members of<br />
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's<br />
family and inner circle, reports UNB.<br />
The Trump administration has imposed<br />
sanctions on Maduro's socialist regime and it<br />
is backing the claim to Venezuela's presidency<br />
by Juan Guaido, who heads the South<br />
American nation's opposition-controlled<br />
National Assembly.<br />
Speaking to several dozen DEA employees,<br />
Pence said Thursday: "Your investigations<br />
have targeted the corrupt narco-dictatorship<br />
of Nicolas Maduro and helped bring drug<br />
trafficking indictments and convictions<br />
against several members of Maduro's family<br />
and inner circle."<br />
Two nephews of Maduro's wife were found<br />
guilty in New York of conspiring to smuggle<br />
cocaine into the U.S. and sentenced in 2016<br />
to 18 years in prison.<br />
The United States strongly rejects offers<br />
from Mexico, Uruguay and the Vatican to<br />
mediate a dialogue between embattled<br />
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and<br />
the head of the country's opposition-controlled<br />
congress, Juan Guaido.<br />
A senior U.S. administration official explicitly<br />
mentioned the three in a briefing Thursday<br />
and added that "we reject any talks of<br />
any type of efforts that would allow Maduro<br />
to maintain himself in power."<br />
The official repeated the U.S. government's<br />
position that Maduro is no longer the president<br />
of the country. Canada and many Latin<br />
American nations also have recognized<br />
Guaido as Venezuela's interim president,<br />
arguing that Maduro's re-election last May<br />
was invalid because his strongest opponents<br />
were barred from running.<br />
The U.S. official briefed reporters on the<br />
condition of not being quoted by name.<br />
Mexico and Uruguay announced Wednesday<br />
that they will hold an international conference<br />
Feb. 7 to discuss the Venezuela crisis.<br />
Both countries have not recognized Guaido<br />
as president.<br />
A senior U.S. administration official explicitly<br />
mentioned the three in a briefing Thursday<br />
and added that "we reject any talks of<br />
any type of efforts that would allow Maduro<br />
to maintain himself in power."<br />
The official repeated the U.S. government's<br />
position that Maduro is no longer the president<br />
of the country. Canada and many Latin<br />
American nations also have recognized<br />
Guaido as Venezuela's interim president,<br />
arguing that Maduro's re-election last May<br />
was invalid because his strongest opponents<br />
were barred from running.<br />
A U.S. official says the United States is<br />
ready to deliver humanitarian aid to<br />
Venezuela whenever and however is decided<br />
by Juan Guaido, the head of the oppositioncontrolled<br />
congress who is challenging President<br />
Nicolas Maduro.<br />
People chant anti-government slogans in a walkout against President<br />
Nicolas Maduro, in Maracaibo, Venezuela, Wednesday, Jan. 30, <strong>2019</strong>.<br />
Venezuelans are exiting their homes and workplaces in a walkout<br />
organized by the opposition to demand that Maduro leave power.<br />
Photo : AP<br />
3 students killed in<br />
South Africa school<br />
walkway collapse<br />
At least three students are<br />
dead and "scores" are<br />
trapped in the rubble after a<br />
walkway collapsed at a<br />
school outside Johannesburg,<br />
a South African official<br />
said Friday, reports UNB.<br />
Panyaza Lesufi, the head<br />
of education for Gauteng<br />
province, posted the toll on<br />
Twitter shortly after the collapse<br />
at the Hoerskool<br />
Driehoek high school in<br />
Vanderbijlpark. Two boys<br />
and a girl were killed, Lesufi<br />
said. "It is painful to see<br />
those tiny bodies in that<br />
state," he said. The school<br />
has been closed. It was not<br />
immediately clear what<br />
caused the collapse. Local<br />
media posted photos of a<br />
large slab and scattered<br />
bricks with the scene<br />
blocked off by emergency<br />
tape. Emergency services<br />
provider Netcare911 said at<br />
least four people may have<br />
died and at least five people<br />
were critically injured.<br />
The national Department<br />
of Education extended condolences<br />
to the families of<br />
the students killed. A statement<br />
by AfriForum, a civil<br />
society organization that<br />
represents the rights of<br />
Afrikaners, sent out a notice<br />
urging people to avoid the<br />
area so as not to interfere<br />
with the work of emergency<br />
responders.<br />
US imposes visa<br />
restrictions on Ghana<br />
over deportees<br />
The United States says it has<br />
imposed visa restrictions on<br />
Ghana, saying the West<br />
African nation is not cooperating<br />
in taking back its<br />
deported nationals, reports<br />
UNB.<br />
A Department of Homeland<br />
Security statement says<br />
Ghana "has denied or unreasonably<br />
delayed accepting<br />
their nationals ordered<br />
removed from the United<br />
States."<br />
The statement issued<br />
Thursday says Secretary of<br />
State Mike Pompeo has<br />
ordered consular officials to<br />
impose visa restrictions on<br />
some categories of visa<br />
applicants and "without an<br />
appropriate response from<br />
Ghana, the scope of these<br />
sanctions may be expanded<br />
to a wider population."<br />
Iran starts marking 40th anniversary<br />
of Islamic Revolution<br />
Iran is celebrating the 40th anniversary of its Islamic Revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed<br />
shah, overturned 2,500 years of monarchical rule and brought hard-line Shiite clerics to power,<br />
reports UNB.<br />
The anniversary starts every year on Feb. 1 - the day Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979<br />
returned from France after 14 years in exile to become the supreme leader of the Islamic<br />
Republic of Iran.<br />
Across the country on Friday, sirens rang out from trains and boats and church bells chimed<br />
at 9:33 a.m. - the exact time Khomeini's chartered Air France Boeing 747 touched down 40<br />
years ago at Tehran's International Mehrabad airport.<br />
The 10-day anniversary festivities, known as the "Ten Days of Dawn," end on Feb. 11, the<br />
date Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's government collapsed.<br />
Iran on Friday kicked off days-long celebrations of the 40th anniversary of<br />
the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed shah,<br />
overturned 2,500 years of monarchical rule and brought hard-line Shiite<br />
clerics to power.<br />
Photo : AP<br />
Former South Korean governor<br />
convicted of sexual abuse<br />
A South Korean appeals court sentenced<br />
a former provincial governor to<br />
3½ years in prison on Friday on<br />
charges of sexually abusing his secretary,<br />
in the highest profile conviction<br />
yet from investigations triggered by the<br />
country's growing #MeToo movement,<br />
reports UNB.<br />
A Seoul High Court official said Ahn<br />
Hee-jung was found guilty on most<br />
counts after being accused of molestation,<br />
sexual assault and abuse of<br />
authority. The official did not want to<br />
be named, citing office rules.<br />
Ahn, 54, had been considered a possible<br />
presidential candidate, and was a<br />
runner-up to current President Moon<br />
Jae-in in the ruling party's presidential<br />
primary in April 2017.<br />
But he stepped down as governor of<br />
South Chungcheong province last<br />
March amid public anger over allegations<br />
of sexual abuse raised by his thensecretary,<br />
Kim Ji-eun. Kim said in a television<br />
interview that Ahn had raped<br />
her several times since June 2017 and<br />
that she couldn't say no because of how<br />
powerful he was.<br />
A lower court acquitted Ahn in<br />
August, citing a lack of evidence proving<br />
that he abused his authority to force<br />
his secretary to have sex.<br />
Ahn, who said the sex was consensual,<br />
can appeal the conviction to the<br />
Supreme Court.<br />
After Friday's verdict was announced,<br />
Ahn told the judge that "I have nothing<br />
to say," according to Yonhap news<br />
agency, and was later escorted in handcuffs<br />
by court officials to a bus that took<br />
him to a correction center in southern<br />
Seoul.<br />
In a statement released through her<br />
lawyer, Kim thanked the court for seeing<br />
"the truth, just the way it is," and<br />
said she hopes the verdict will give<br />
strength to other victims of sexual<br />
abuse who have struggled in their<br />
attempts to seek accountability.<br />
Ahn is the first prominent politician<br />
to be jailed after being accused in the<br />
country's growing #MeToo movement<br />
Vatican magazine denounces sexual<br />
abuse of nuns by priests<br />
against sexual misconduct, which has<br />
led to indictments and convictions of<br />
powerful men in arts, sports and government<br />
after victims came forward.<br />
Last week, the Seoul Central District<br />
Court sentenced former senior prosecutor<br />
Ahn Tae-geun to two years in<br />
prison for abusing his authority by<br />
transferring junior colleague Seo Jihyeon<br />
to an unfavorable provincial job<br />
in 2015 after she demanded that he<br />
The Vatican's women's magazine is denouncing<br />
the sexual abuse of nuns by priests - and the<br />
resulting "scandal" of religious sisters having<br />
abortions or giving birth to children who are<br />
then not recognized by their fathers, reports<br />
UNB.<br />
The February issue of "Women Church<br />
World," a monthly magazine distributed alongside<br />
the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore<br />
Romano, was published Friday. It cited Pope<br />
Francis' own analysis of abuse by saying clerical<br />
power was at the root of the problem. It said<br />
nuns have been silenced for years by fear of<br />
retaliation against themselves or their orders if<br />
they report the priests who molested them.<br />
The publication marks a significant public<br />
acknowledgment from inside the Vatican of the<br />
problem that the Holy See has long known<br />
about but has done next to nothing to address.<br />
Last year, after The Associated Press and other<br />
media reported on the scandal, the international<br />
association of women's religious orders urged<br />
sisters to report abuse to police and their superiors,<br />
a significant shattering of the silence that<br />
has long kept the problem secret. In the article,<br />
editor Lucetta Scaraffia notes that for centuries<br />
women in the church have been depicted as<br />
"dangerous and temptresses," which has complicated<br />
the acceptance within the Catholic hierarchy<br />
that they can be victims of unwanted sexual<br />
advances by priests. "But here Pope Francis'<br />
analysis about abuse can be of some help: If you<br />
point to power, to clericalism, the abuse against<br />
religious sisters takes on another aspect and can<br />
finally be recognized for what it is: that is an act<br />
of power in which touch becomes a violation of<br />
one's personal intimacy," she wrote. The article<br />
noted that reports written by religious sisters<br />
were presented to Vatican officials in the 1990s<br />
about the problem of priests sexually abusing<br />
nuns in Africa - they were considered "safe"<br />
partners at the height of the HIV crisis.<br />
apologize for allegedly groping her at a<br />
funeral. Seo went public with her allegations<br />
in January last year.<br />
South Korea's human rights commission<br />
plans to interview thousands of<br />
adult and child athletes about a culture<br />
of abuse in sports after a wave of female<br />
athletes, including two-time Olympic<br />
short-track speed skating champion<br />
Shim Suk-hee, said they had been<br />
raped or assaulted by their coaches.<br />
Australian PM urges caution<br />
ahead of landmark banking<br />
misconduct report<br />
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has warned against any rash response<br />
to the landmark banking royal commission, reports UNB.<br />
The Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and<br />
Financial Services Industry delivered its final report to Morrison and Treasurer<br />
Josh Frydenberg on Friday who will release it to the public after the share market<br />
closes on Monday.<br />
Ahead of receiving the document, which is expected to be hundreds of pages<br />
long, Morrison predicted it would contain "legitimate" criticism of the Australian<br />
Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the Australian Prudential<br />
Regulation Authority (APRA).<br />
However, Morrison said he would not be taking drastic action to avoid damaging<br />
the economy.<br />
"It will be a question of what suggestions or measures they put on the table but<br />
I will be very mindful that I want to see the oil that lubricates our financial system<br />
- which is access to credit - continues to flow, otherwise the consequences would<br />
be quite significant," he told Fairfax Media on Friday.<br />
"The easiest way to ensure nobody gets hurt is to lend nobody any money. But if<br />
nobody gets lent any money then everybody gets hurt. So I think we have to be sensible."<br />
Commissioner Kenneth Hayne conducted 68 days of public hearings to form the<br />
report, hearing from 134 witnesses and receiving more than 10,000 submissions.<br />
He heard evidence of Australia's biggest financial institutions knowingly taking<br />
money from dead customers and charging hundreds of millions of dollars in fees<br />
for services they never delivered.<br />
Financial services giant AMP made 20 false statements to ASIC about charging<br />
for services it never provided, the commission heard.<br />
Experts have speculated that Hayne will recommend a complete overhaul of<br />
how banks pay their staff from the bottom up as well as forcing them to sell wealthmanagement<br />
divisions to avoid conflicts of interest.
EDITORIAL<br />
SATUrDAy,<br />
FEbrUAry 2, <strong>2019</strong><br />
4<br />
Acting Editor & Publisher : Jobaer Alam<br />
Telephone: +88<strong>02</strong>-9104683-84, Fax: 9127103<br />
e-mail: editor@thebangladeshtoday.com<br />
Saturday, February 2, <strong>2019</strong><br />
Political stability<br />
indispensable<br />
for economy<br />
T<br />
ime<br />
and again analysts and expertsstressed<br />
the point that political stability is<br />
tooessential for the needed at least 8 per cent<br />
economic growth that could take Bangladesh in<br />
time to the goal of achieving middle income<br />
country status sustainably. The concern about<br />
instability has once again become relevant when<br />
the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) seems to<br />
be girding up its loins to launch afresh another<br />
mindless upheaval in the streets in support of its<br />
various rabid demands. It appears that this<br />
political juggernaut has learnt nothing from its<br />
previous sordid experience and cares little or<br />
nothing about the economic consequences of its<br />
renewed intention to plunge the country into<br />
another upheaval. Even now the economy has not<br />
well recovered from the battering it received<br />
during 2014 and the following year. Thus,<br />
politically induced violence-- reviving-would<br />
surely greatly hazard Bangladesh in acquiring the<br />
necessary annual economic growth rate to climb to<br />
a middle income country status by the targeted<br />
date.<br />
Of course, those who are critical of views and<br />
suggestions that seem to reflect the government's<br />
stand, they would understandably or<br />
pathologically tend to consider the above views as<br />
partisan ones aimed to promote government's<br />
objectives.<br />
But can we say the same about the Centre for Policy<br />
Dialogue (CPD) ? The CPD is a highly respected<br />
leading think-tank of the country. It is particularly<br />
esteemed for its objective and unemotional analysis<br />
of the national economy, for calling a spadea spade<br />
without hesitation. Thus, when the CPD also makes<br />
observations in an analysis of the Bangladesh<br />
economy that rhyme with the above views of concern,<br />
can we then dismiss off the same so easily or as<br />
politically motivated? The answer hardly needs an<br />
explanation ; it is self explanatory.<br />
Not only the CPD, other well known local and<br />
international think tanks, plus our main chamber<br />
bodies, and even the World Bank, the Asian<br />
Development Bank and other international<br />
organizations who engage in analyses of the<br />
Bangladesh economy, they have repeatedly<br />
pointed out the imperative of establishing long<br />
lasting political stability in the context of<br />
Bangladesh for this country to economically grow<br />
and develop at a faster pace to successfully<br />
overcome its remaining problems of poverty and<br />
underdevelopment.<br />
Underinvestment in its economy has been<br />
Bangladesh's big economic problem in varying<br />
degrees for decades. But notwithstanding the<br />
same, our economy has been showing remarkable<br />
resilience and capacity for moving forward in<br />
recent years. The growth momentum appeared so<br />
strong that all indications were the economy was<br />
headed to achieve its highest growth rate of some<br />
7 plus per cent in the outgoing fiscal year. That this<br />
did not happen and growth slumped somewhat in<br />
the end, was seen linked directly to the worst manmade<br />
and politically induced troubles all through<br />
from 2013-2015 particularly from the appearance<br />
of conditions that virtually brought all kinds of<br />
economic activities to a halt or near to a halt in<br />
that period.<br />
The economy has not adequately recovered from<br />
the very bad battering it received at that time. Its<br />
lingering problem of less than the desired amount<br />
of investment has now reached a worrying level .<br />
As it was highlighted in the CPD analysis, the<br />
predicament is mainly due to investors' lack of<br />
confidence . It is not that the traditional<br />
bottlenecks posed by government's inconsistent<br />
policies, non availability of enabling<br />
infrastructures, paucity of financial resources for<br />
borrowing, obstructive bureaucracy, insufficient<br />
energy supplies, etc., these are also creating<br />
disincentives for investments. But these problems<br />
have been sorted out considerably in different<br />
degrees in the last two years. What then is acting so<br />
powerfully to discourage investment decisions ?<br />
Anybody with a sensible bird's eyes views of the<br />
investment scenario would likely not fail to note<br />
that the investment train remains largely derailed<br />
from potential investors feeling not confident<br />
about getting in the longer run not even breakeven<br />
returns from their investments not to speak<br />
about decent profits out of continuing political<br />
instability. This apprehension which is scaring<br />
away investors is being caused by repeated threats<br />
by the BNP leaders that they would soon start<br />
another movement to unseat the present<br />
government from power. Therefore, it is the duty<br />
of all patriotic quarters in the country specially<br />
including the business quarters, to tell the BNP<br />
that nobody gave them any license to further<br />
destroy the economy by their so called movements<br />
started in the name of the people in which people<br />
are actually least interested.<br />
Saudi Arabia joins the bogle Age with MSCI Tadawul Index<br />
The Chinese government is<br />
responding to the rapid growth of<br />
Christianity in that country with<br />
violence and oppression, in an attempt to<br />
consolidate power. But that is exactly the<br />
wrong response. We at Bowyer Research<br />
urge President Xi Jinping to study recent<br />
history - and Chinese history - more<br />
carefully, to see that his government's<br />
campaign of imprisonment and violence<br />
is not likely to produce the stability he<br />
wants. In our investigation of the<br />
dynamics of regime change, we've found<br />
evidence that governments with high<br />
levels of Christian persecution are<br />
considerably more likely to have regime<br />
changes forced upon them than their<br />
non-persecuting counterparts.<br />
This should worry President Xi, as his<br />
administration has embarked on a brutal<br />
campaign of Christian repression.<br />
According to a report published last year<br />
by The Associated Press, Xi has waged<br />
"the most severe systematic suppression<br />
of Christianity in the country since<br />
religious freedom was written into the<br />
Chinese constitution in 1982 …<br />
destroying crosses, burning Bibles,<br />
shutting churches and ordering followers<br />
to sign papers renouncing their faith."<br />
Xi may very well be risking the stability<br />
of the Chinese state by attacking the<br />
Christian minority. Particularly<br />
noteworthy has been the imprisonment<br />
of Pastor Wang Yi of Early Rain Covenant<br />
Church, along with his wife and dozens of<br />
members of his church. Pastor Yi wrote a<br />
brilliant exposition on the right to<br />
religious freedom and the limits of the<br />
Top index provider MSCI has<br />
teamed up with the Saudi Stock<br />
Exchange, above, to launch the<br />
tradeable MSCI Tadawul 30 Index.<br />
(Getty Images)<br />
Had Jack Bogle lived just a few days<br />
longer he would no doubt have been<br />
intrigued by this week's news from<br />
Saudi Arabia.<br />
Bogle was regarded as one of the<br />
greatest financial innovators to have<br />
ever lived. He was the brains behind the<br />
concept of index investing, by which an<br />
investor can put money directly into a<br />
stock market via an index of the market<br />
itself, rather than via the individual<br />
stocks of which the market is<br />
composed.<br />
Like all the best ideas, its simplicity<br />
was striking. Why pay for all that<br />
expensive advice, analysis, broking and<br />
management fees, and the rest of the<br />
paraphernalia of the global investment<br />
business? Why not instead buy a<br />
financial instrument that represents all<br />
the constituents of a stock market,<br />
weighted according to size and<br />
liquidity. Better still, why not let a<br />
computer do it for you? The absence of<br />
human effort put into the buy/sell<br />
decision led to the term "passive<br />
investment."<br />
Bogle's idea - though he was only at<br />
the beginning of the modern computer<br />
age when he had it - has revolutionized<br />
the investment business. Now passive<br />
investment in indices is by far the<br />
biggest part of the global investment<br />
universe.Unless you consciously chose<br />
to pay for the services of an oldfashioned<br />
investment adviser, your<br />
funds will almost certainly be handled<br />
digitally and will be linked to the value<br />
of an index. These days, especially in the<br />
decade since the global financial crisis,<br />
you will not hold shares in Apple, or<br />
General Electric, or Bank of America<br />
directly, but you will hold shares in the<br />
indices of the markets on which these<br />
stocks are traded.<br />
And a good thing too, because all the<br />
smart investment brains in the world<br />
do not do better, over an extended<br />
period, than the indices. Warren Buffet,<br />
renowned investment Sage of Omaha,<br />
recommends passive index investment<br />
over active, and has also suggested the<br />
US erects a statue to Bogle, who died<br />
last month aged 82.<br />
Last week, Saudi Arabia caught up<br />
with the Bogle revolution when the<br />
MSCI Tadawul Index went live for the<br />
first time. The new index was the logical<br />
and most fruitful outcome of the<br />
decision last year to grant Saudi Arabia<br />
FrANk kANE<br />
emerging market status by the index<br />
compiler MSCI.<br />
Before, any investor wanting to back<br />
the Kingdom's economic<br />
transformation would have to either<br />
buy a regional index, in which Saudi<br />
Arabia was mixed with other economies<br />
in the Middle East and North Africa, or<br />
go through the process of becoming a<br />
qualified investor and acquiring a<br />
regulated status in the Kingdom, to buy<br />
individual stocks such as SABIC or<br />
Unless you consciously chose to pay for the services of<br />
an old-fashioned investment adviser, your funds will<br />
almost certainly be handled digitally and will be linked to<br />
the value of an index. These days, especially in the<br />
decade since the global financial crisis, you will not hold<br />
shares in Apple, or General Electric, or bank of America<br />
directly, but you will hold shares in the indices of the<br />
markets on which these stocks are traded.<br />
state, reproducing the arguments of John<br />
Calvin and applying them to China in<br />
anticipation of his arrest, with<br />
instructions to have the declaration<br />
released if he were held for more than 48<br />
hours. Two months later, he and much of<br />
his flock were jailed, and this statement<br />
went out to the world.<br />
As a fellow Christian and as a human<br />
being, I am concerned about these<br />
victims of oppression. But I am also<br />
concerned about China, because my read<br />
of history and of the data is that it is<br />
dangerous to be a persecutor.<br />
We here at Bowyer Research are<br />
engaged in a research project that<br />
compares the number of regime changes<br />
since 2000 with the OpenDoorsUSA<br />
watch list, which tracks the 50 countries<br />
in which Christians are most persecuted.<br />
Our findings so far indicate a clear<br />
statistical relationship between<br />
persecuting the church and regime<br />
change. Unfortunately, there are some<br />
JErry bOWyEr<br />
NCB, two of the biggest corporates<br />
listed on the Tadawul.<br />
The new index was the logical and<br />
most fruitful outcome of the decision<br />
last year to grant Saudi Arabia<br />
emerging market status by the index<br />
compiler MSCI.<br />
Many big global investors did not<br />
want to go through that process, and in<br />
many cases they were forbidden by<br />
their constitutions from putting money<br />
into a market that had not received the<br />
seal of approval of an MSCI, or the<br />
significant data-availability issues that we<br />
are still working on. We only have recent<br />
persecution data. Since the persecution<br />
list (unfortunately) tends to be stable over<br />
time, we think the analysis is worth taking<br />
seriously, but the conclusion will be<br />
somewhat tentative until we are able to<br />
get longer-term persecution data.<br />
There are 193 United Nations member<br />
states (though we include Palestine in our<br />
data). Of those members, roughly 23%<br />
have experienced a regime change in the<br />
past 19 years. But 38% of the countries in<br />
the OpenDoorsUSA watchlist have<br />
experienced a regime change.<br />
Being on the watch list gives regimes<br />
worse odds of survival than Russian<br />
roulette. You might object that<br />
underdeveloped countries in sub-<br />
Saharan Africa are exaggerating the<br />
correlation, in that their frequent regime<br />
changes and trouble with Islamist<br />
terrorism don't have a clear causal link.<br />
But even if we remove the sub-Saharan<br />
other compilers such as FTSE Russel<br />
(which Tadawul will join later this<br />
year).<br />
Now, there is nothing to stop them<br />
getting a slice of the Saudi action via the<br />
new index. It will consist of about 30 of<br />
the biggest stocks in the Kingdom,<br />
though the composition can vary to<br />
allow as many as 35 to be included. In a<br />
while, the "MT30" - as the index will be<br />
known - could be as commonplace a<br />
phrase in the financial world as the S&P<br />
500 or the FTSE 100, the leading<br />
indices in New York and London.<br />
The index compilers have put a cap at<br />
15 percent for any individual stock's<br />
proportion of the index, which is<br />
designed to prevent an index or indeed<br />
an exchange, being too reliant on the<br />
performance of just one equity.<br />
For the time being, that is fine, but<br />
they may have to think again when<br />
Saudi Aramco finally makes its longawaited<br />
stock market debut. It will be so<br />
big that it will certainly break the 15<br />
percent ceiling. But the compilers and<br />
policymakers have some time to think<br />
about that.<br />
In the meantime, the new index gives<br />
foreign investors the opportunity to add<br />
Saudi Arabia to their investment<br />
portfolios in an affordable, efficient and<br />
traceable way, while the Kingdom gets<br />
access to the multitrillion-dollar passive<br />
investment market.Bogle - whose<br />
invention proved to be a "win-win" for<br />
markets and investors - would certainly<br />
have approved.<br />
Source: Arab news<br />
by persecuting Christians, Xi is risking his own regime<br />
Apersonal message from Tolerance<br />
Minister to Pope Francis When<br />
his holiness Pope Francis arrives<br />
in Abu Dhabi next week, it will be the<br />
first ever Papal visit to the Arabian Gulf.<br />
While this represents a milestone event<br />
in its own right, it is also a powerful<br />
testament to the longstanding values of<br />
acceptance, coexistence, inclusivity,<br />
tolerance and humanity that are<br />
embedded in the very core of the United<br />
Arab Emirates. Since the UAE's<br />
foundation, the rights and liberties of all<br />
creeds, sects and beliefs have been<br />
safeguarded. Our constitution protects<br />
freedom of spiritual expression and<br />
explicitly prohibits any form of<br />
discrimination based on religion or<br />
race.<br />
Pope Francis will find a country<br />
where over one million Christians<br />
practise their religion without<br />
hindrance alongside a majority<br />
Muslim population. Throughout the<br />
UAE, over forty churches welcome<br />
believers for prayers next door to<br />
Mosques, as well as Hindu, Sikh and<br />
Buddhist Temples. The UAE's<br />
acceptance of all religions is an<br />
expression of our leadership's<br />
commitment to an open society, one<br />
that welcomes people representing<br />
over 200 nationalities and ethnicities<br />
to work, live and thrive within our<br />
borders. This generous attitude<br />
toward others is a core tenet of our<br />
Our findings so far indicate a clear statistical relationship<br />
between persecuting the church and regime change.<br />
Unfortunately, there are some significant data-availability<br />
issues that we are still working on. We only have recent<br />
persecution data. Since the persecution list (unfortunately)<br />
tends to be stable over time, we think the analysis is worth<br />
taking seriously, but the conclusion will be somewhat tentative<br />
until we are able to get longer-term persecution data.<br />
Dr. SUlTAN AHMED Al JAbEr<br />
values, a key characteristic of our<br />
culture and a fundamental pillar of<br />
the vision of our founding father,<br />
Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al Nahyan.<br />
He realized that both his country and<br />
the wider region would benefit by<br />
building bridges and making cultural<br />
connections with the international<br />
community. This philosophy<br />
underpinned a foreign policy that<br />
seeks to create partnerships<br />
promoting prosperity around the<br />
world, based on mutual respect. And<br />
it is mirrored by a domestic policy<br />
that treats differing cultures equally.<br />
In this spirit, when the remains of a<br />
seventh century Christian monastery<br />
were discovered on Sir Bani Yas Island<br />
in 1992, Sheikh Zayed insisted that it<br />
be preserved both as a relic of shared<br />
spiritual history and a present day,<br />
potent symbol of cross-cultural<br />
harmony. The UAE first established<br />
diplomatic relations with the Vatican in<br />
2007, and, since then, relations with<br />
the Catholic Church have only<br />
strengthened. A high level visit to the<br />
Vatican followed in 2016 by HH Sheikh<br />
Mohamed bin Zayed al Nahyan, Crown<br />
Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy<br />
Supreme Commander of the UAE<br />
Armed Forces. Then, last year, HH<br />
Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, Minister of<br />
Foreign Affairs and International<br />
Cooperation, hand delivered the<br />
invitation for Pope Francis to make his<br />
historic visit to the UAE.<br />
During his visit, which will include a<br />
public mass, the Pope will meet with<br />
Sheikh Ahmad Al Tayyeb, the Grand<br />
Imam of Al Azhar, and the chairman of<br />
the Council of Muslim Elders. Bringing<br />
together the spiritual leaders of the<br />
Sunni and Catholic faiths, this meeting<br />
African countries, we still see a very<br />
strong correlation. More than half of all<br />
the states outside sub-Saharan Africa that<br />
have had a regime change since 2000 are<br />
on the OpenDoorsUSA watchlist.<br />
The Arab Spring is also very illustrative<br />
of this relationship. All five of the Arab<br />
Spring countries that experienced a<br />
regime change in 2011 are on the<br />
OpenDoorsUSA watchlist.<br />
By repressing its Christian churches,<br />
China finds itself in unstable company. If<br />
President Xi paid attention to the<br />
examples of recent history, he might<br />
rethink how he deals with China's fastestgrowing<br />
religion.<br />
But if that's not enough to convince<br />
him, perhaps a cursory examination of<br />
Chinese history will. Xi is in the process of<br />
making the same mistakes that led to one<br />
of the most disastrous events in China's<br />
history, which was a direct result of the<br />
Chinese state persecuting a Christian<br />
minority.The Taiping Rebellion, lasting<br />
from 1850 to 1864, killed at least 20<br />
million people, with some estimates<br />
putting the death toll above 70 million -<br />
higher than that of World War II. If Xi<br />
follows in the footsteps of the Xianfeng<br />
Emperor in 1850, his regime is at risk of<br />
more political instability, violence, and<br />
even regime change. It's as if Xi and the<br />
leadership learned the wrong lesson from<br />
the Taiping Civil War - viewing<br />
Christianity in itself as the cause, rather<br />
than the cause being the unjust<br />
persecution of Christianity.<br />
Source : Asia times<br />
Pope in UAE: Celebrating diversity and tolerance in UAE<br />
The UAE first established diplomatic relations with the Vatican in<br />
2007, and, since then, relations with the Catholic Church have only<br />
strengthened. A high level visit to the Vatican followed in 2016 by HH<br />
Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi<br />
and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces. Then,<br />
last year, HH Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, Minister of Foreign Affairs<br />
and International Cooperation, hand delivered the invitation for<br />
Pope Francis to make his historic visit to the UAE.<br />
will demonstrate a shared<br />
commitment to the principles of<br />
mutual respect, and peaceful<br />
coexistence.<br />
Coming in the "year of tolerance",<br />
the Papal visit helps define what we<br />
mean by this term. The visit<br />
reinforces the UAE's ethos of active<br />
inclusiveness and reminds us that<br />
tolerance is not a passive state, but<br />
requires constant, consistent action.<br />
It is the same principle that drives<br />
our focus on a fairer society, where<br />
gender balance within our leading<br />
institutions is being realized by being<br />
prioritized.<br />
It is in this context that we should<br />
view next week's landmark events. By<br />
hosting Pope Francis, we are sending a<br />
message to all those living among us,<br />
regardless of creed or culture, that they<br />
should not merely feel accepted, but<br />
are welcomed as active participants<br />
and celebrated for the positive<br />
contribution they make to the UAE.<br />
The UAE is made stronger by the<br />
diversity of the communities that have<br />
chosen to make our country their<br />
home. In embracing this diversity, the<br />
UAE will continue to prosper, extend a<br />
positive influence throughout the<br />
wider region and encourage peaceful<br />
coexistence globally.<br />
Source : Gulf news
SCIENCE & TECH<br />
SATURdAy,<br />
FEBRUARy 2, <strong>2019</strong><br />
5<br />
What’s next for cryptocurrencies?<br />
Richard Partington<br />
Two years after its inception,<br />
10,000 bitcoin was just<br />
about enough to buy a<br />
couple of takeaway pizzas.<br />
Today those bitcoin would<br />
be worth nearly $38m<br />
(£30m). That is a huge<br />
increase, but just a fraction<br />
of their $180m value only 13<br />
months ago, because since<br />
its creation a decade ago this<br />
week, the digital currency<br />
has been at the centre of one<br />
of the biggest economic<br />
bubbles in history.<br />
Bitcoin has had a wild ride<br />
since its birth on 3 January<br />
2009. Created as a digital<br />
currency to sidestep the<br />
traditional finance industry<br />
using encrypted code, it took<br />
until May 2010 for the first<br />
reported purchase using<br />
bitcoin to take place: those<br />
two large Papa John's pizzas<br />
worth $30 for 10,000<br />
bitcoins.<br />
But in recent years bitcoin<br />
has become less useful as a<br />
medium of exchange and<br />
more famous for its boombust<br />
tendencies - drawing<br />
parallels to the Dutch tulip<br />
mania of 1637 and Dante's<br />
Inferno for its ability to lose<br />
investors millions of<br />
pounds.<br />
It surged by more than<br />
Is bitcoin the 'mother of all bubbles' or a niche investment?<br />
1,000%, sometimes gaining<br />
$2,500 in a single day, to<br />
stand at almost $20,000<br />
just before Christmas 2017.<br />
But the digital currency<br />
then crumpled over the<br />
course of last year, and<br />
yesterday stood at just<br />
$3,780, having wiped out<br />
many investments on the<br />
way down.<br />
Nouriel Roubini, one of<br />
the few economists to<br />
predict the 2008 financial<br />
crash and a former White<br />
House economic adviser is<br />
one of Bitcoin's most vocal<br />
critics. He has called it the<br />
"mother of all bubbles" and<br />
tweeted last month that<br />
it,and other crypto copycats<br />
like Ethereum and Litecoin,<br />
should be ranked in a "2018<br />
Shitcoin Hall/Pile of<br />
Manure Shame". But<br />
despite the cautionary<br />
warnings from mainstream<br />
Photo: Bloomberg<br />
economists, as well as the<br />
finance industry labelling<br />
bitcoin a vehicle for<br />
scammers, crooks and<br />
terrorists, there are still<br />
legions of cryptocurrency<br />
fans, with an online cottage<br />
industry of news websites,<br />
blogs and podcasts.<br />
The digital currency<br />
launched as more than just<br />
an opportunity for investors<br />
to make millions (before<br />
losing them almost equal<br />
amounts). The technology<br />
underlying it has excited<br />
businesses, while the<br />
growth of cryptocurrencies<br />
promised another future for<br />
its fans outside the<br />
traditional financial system.<br />
At its launch a decade ago,<br />
the very first block of bitcoin<br />
was etched with a<br />
subversive statement: "The<br />
Times 03/Jan/2009<br />
Chancellor on brink of<br />
second bailout for<br />
banks."The message from<br />
its creator - an unknown<br />
person or group of people<br />
going by the name Satoshi<br />
Nakamoto - was clear:<br />
bitcoin would exist outside<br />
of a system that had failed<br />
badly and could no longer<br />
be trusted.<br />
The idea came straight<br />
from the Austrian school<br />
of economics with a pinch<br />
of left-wing anarchism<br />
thrown in for good<br />
measure - offering<br />
individual liberty and a<br />
way to avoid the grasp of<br />
government, while<br />
sidestepping corporate<br />
power and the banking<br />
system.<br />
The birth of the digital<br />
currency represented a<br />
return to the days of<br />
private money in the<br />
earlier stages of western<br />
economic development,<br />
with a parallel to wildcat<br />
banks in the mid 19th<br />
century as the US expanded<br />
westward, when railway<br />
companies and<br />
construction firms issued<br />
thousands of banknotes<br />
between them. Scores of<br />
bitcoin copycats have<br />
emerged, hoping to ride the<br />
wave of euphoria evident in<br />
2017, launched through<br />
initial coin offerings (ICOs)<br />
that in several cases turned<br />
out to be fraudulent scams.<br />
How to recover an email<br />
address of a stolen device?<br />
Jack Schofield<br />
First, recover your phone<br />
number, which is much<br />
more important than the<br />
phone. When a phone is<br />
either lost or stolen, you<br />
should immediately contact<br />
your mobile network<br />
provider to tell them what's<br />
happened. They should then<br />
suspend the current sim and<br />
send you a replacement sim<br />
with the same phone<br />
number. This service should<br />
be free but sometimes incurs<br />
a nominal charge. It won't<br />
get your phone back, but it<br />
will make it harder for the<br />
thief to log on to your<br />
accounts and change your<br />
passwords.<br />
Some network providers<br />
can also block your<br />
handset's<br />
IMEI<br />
(International Mobile<br />
Equipment Identity)<br />
number. This makes it<br />
harder for the thief to use<br />
your phone with a different<br />
sim. Of course, you will need<br />
to be able to show that you<br />
own your phone number,<br />
and different companies<br />
may have different systems<br />
for different types of<br />
account. My advice is to be<br />
prepared. I wasn't, and it<br />
wasn't fun.<br />
When I lost my phone in<br />
November - I left it on a<br />
plane in Kuala Lumpur - I<br />
phoned O2 but couldn't pass<br />
the recovery tests, which<br />
included providing some<br />
numbers I'd dialled in the<br />
past three months. Being<br />
6,500 miles from home, I<br />
couldn't look up the phone<br />
number of my window<br />
cleaner, whose surname I<br />
couldn't remember.<br />
Back in the UK three<br />
weeks later, an O2 store<br />
refused to accept any other<br />
evidence that I owned this<br />
pay-as-you-go number,<br />
which was originally<br />
supplied by BT Cellnet<br />
before O2 was launched in<br />
20<strong>02</strong>. It was on my business<br />
cards, in ancient emails, in<br />
online media databases and<br />
so on. I could also prove I<br />
owned the bank account that<br />
paid for its minutes. O2<br />
wouldn't budge. Only after<br />
Someone's mobile was taken and his password changed. How can he get<br />
back into his inbox?<br />
Photo: Epoxydude<br />
digging out my window<br />
cleaner's phone number did<br />
I eventually get a<br />
replacement sim.<br />
Not carrying around a<br />
written list of the numbers<br />
I'd dialled was clearly a bad<br />
mistake on my part, but full<br />
marks to O2 for using the<br />
Data Protection Act to put<br />
my personal data at risk. If<br />
you have not yet lost your<br />
phone, or had it stolen, I<br />
strongly suggest that you<br />
find out what will happen if<br />
you do. You could easily<br />
lose a number you've used<br />
for 20-odd years. While<br />
trying to recover my<br />
number, I took steps to<br />
limit the damage someone<br />
could do if they were able<br />
to use my lost phone. You<br />
should likewise log on to<br />
any other accounts that<br />
hold your phone number,<br />
such as Facebook,<br />
LinkedIn, Twitter and so<br />
on, including any mobile<br />
banking or payment<br />
systems. Set up and<br />
confirm an alternative<br />
email address as a way of<br />
recovering your accounts,<br />
delete the compromised<br />
phone number, and change<br />
your passwords before the<br />
thief can do the same thing.<br />
You can also try to disable<br />
or erase your phone<br />
remotely, via the web. If it's<br />
an iPhone, log on with your<br />
Apple ID and use Lost<br />
Mode, which is part of Find<br />
My Phone. If it's an Android<br />
phone, log on to your Google<br />
account and go to Find My<br />
Device. This does depend on<br />
certain conditions, one of<br />
which is that the lost or<br />
stolen phone must have a<br />
mobile or wifi network<br />
connection. I did try to erase<br />
my lost phone, because it<br />
was backed up to Google<br />
Drive. I failed because, as far<br />
as I could tell, it was never<br />
switched on. It may still be<br />
flying between London and<br />
KL.<br />
As we grow wiser to marketing, advertisers are finding new ways and places to plug products.<br />
Photo: James Melaugh<br />
Why the ad-free era is over<br />
Chris Stokel-Walker<br />
We've weaned ourselves off banner<br />
advertisements, with a fifth of us using<br />
ad blockers in our internet browsers,<br />
according to research firm eMarketer.<br />
So-called "native advertising" online,<br />
where advertising is presented in a<br />
similar way to editorial, has failed to<br />
take off. A US study last year from<br />
Stanford University found native<br />
advertising is no better at getting us to<br />
buy than standard online ads.<br />
"Consumers are very good at filtering<br />
out messages," explains Lisa Du-Lieu, a<br />
senior lecturer in marketing at<br />
Huddersfield University. "If you don't<br />
get their attention within the first<br />
couple of seconds, it just bounces off<br />
them."<br />
For that reason, brands are shifting<br />
their attention to platforms and<br />
formats that they know we are engaged<br />
with. "Advertising goes where the<br />
eyeballs go," says James Whatley, an<br />
independent advertising expert,<br />
formerly of global advertising agency<br />
Ogilvy.<br />
However, a large part of the user<br />
appeal of some of these platforms, such<br />
as WhatsApp or Alexa, is that they are<br />
currently ad-free. So ads encroaching<br />
on hitherto virgin territory could raise<br />
some hackles. Nevertheless, you can<br />
expect ads in places you might not have<br />
expected before. Batten down the<br />
hatches and prepare yourself for the<br />
advertising onslaught.<br />
Ogilvy's <strong>2019</strong> trends report revealed<br />
how smart speakers will soon be the<br />
latest platform for their dark arts.<br />
While such smart speakers have all<br />
kinds of bells and whistles, many of us<br />
use them as little more than glorified<br />
digital radios. "Localised advertising<br />
can be sent to that," explains Whatley.<br />
"It isn't an exciting thing, but for an<br />
advertiser it becomes attractive<br />
because you can do personalised,<br />
locally relevant advertising through<br />
what is a forgotten channel."<br />
By cross-checking your IP address,<br />
search history made through the device<br />
and its location, advertisers could soon<br />
send you hyper-localised<br />
advertisements interspersed in your<br />
ordinary digital radio content. Has your<br />
local Tesco ordered too many boxes of<br />
biscuits? Enjoy flash sales that will save<br />
you money as you listen along to the<br />
latest chart music.<br />
This method of advertising is already<br />
encroaching on our screen time, with<br />
brands partnering with Snapchat to<br />
create custom branded lenses<br />
(augmented reality widgets that can<br />
transform you into a dog with a giant,<br />
unfurling lapping tongue, for instance)<br />
for the best part of a year. But <strong>2019</strong> will<br />
see it take off, according to experts.<br />
It also enables brands to advertise<br />
directly to a hard-to-reach and<br />
pernickety demographic. "Millennials<br />
like things that are quirky," says Du-<br />
Lieu. "Snapchat filters are just a way of<br />
pushing out the message and creating<br />
what's called PBA: positive brand<br />
associations." It's also (comparatively)<br />
cheap: placing a custom branded lens<br />
available for anyone using Snapchat in<br />
London's Hyde Park over the course of<br />
a day costs just under £850. If you're<br />
Wall's wanting to drive Calippo envy on<br />
a particularly hot day, such a small,<br />
localised outlay might make fiscal<br />
sense.<br />
Such methods of advertising take<br />
advantage of the social element of<br />
social networks. By sharing our<br />
augmented ad with your friends, you're<br />
unwittingly doing the work for the<br />
brand. "When users connect with a<br />
product on a cognitive and affective<br />
level, by thinking and feeling," says Du-<br />
Lieu, "they push it out to their<br />
networks." In other words: if you want<br />
something to go viral, make it fun.<br />
Nudging users to pick their product<br />
over another, often in a subconscious<br />
way, is becoming the predominant way<br />
of an advertiser getting its message out<br />
there. Jay Owens of Pulsar, an<br />
"audience intelligence and social<br />
listening platform", describes this as<br />
"shaping the decision architectures and<br />
choice offered to people".<br />
Amazon, as one of the major conduits<br />
through which we spend vast amounts<br />
of money, is leading the way in this<br />
semi-stealthy sponsored advertising.<br />
Analysts Piper Jaffray estimate that<br />
Amazon's advertising business could<br />
surpass its mammoth web-hosting<br />
business by 2<strong>02</strong>1 - in part thanks to<br />
what the advertising industry would<br />
call "sponsored skills" and "branded<br />
solutions" but users might describe as<br />
"sneaky".<br />
It could be as simple as suggesting a<br />
branded product when you ask Alexa<br />
how to get rid of that stain on your<br />
shirt, or slipping a particular brand into<br />
your Amazon shopping basket when<br />
you ask Alexa to order you new<br />
washing-up liquid.<br />
Sounds like a dystopian future? It's<br />
already here. Amazon has been rapped<br />
on the knuckles for stealthily plugging<br />
products by putting sponsored listings<br />
in among actual curated listings and<br />
making the text so tiny that you don't<br />
notice.<br />
Facebook posts record profit<br />
despite year of scandal<br />
Julia Carrie Wong<br />
Facebook closed the book<br />
on its scandal-plagued year<br />
Wednesday, with strong<br />
fourth quarter financial<br />
results that beat analyst<br />
expectations for earnings<br />
and revenue. The results<br />
highlighted how divorced<br />
Facebook's business success<br />
is from its public reputation,<br />
which suffered another<br />
blow Wednesday when<br />
Apple punished the app<br />
maker for violating its rules<br />
with a program that paid<br />
users as young as 13 to<br />
install an app that surveilled<br />
them.<br />
The company posted a<br />
record profit of $6.88bn for<br />
the final three months of<br />
2018, compared with<br />
$4.27bn the year before,<br />
with revenue rising 30% to<br />
$16.64bn. Key usage<br />
metrics - daily active users<br />
and monthly active users -<br />
both saw 9% year-over-year<br />
growth. Facebook now<br />
estimates that it has 2bn<br />
daily active users of at least<br />
one of its entire "family" of<br />
apps - Facebook,<br />
Instagram, Messenger and<br />
WhatsApp.<br />
The positive results for<br />
revenue and user growth<br />
sent shares soaring 8% in<br />
after-hours trading.<br />
Crucially, usage metrics<br />
grew across all geographic<br />
regions, including slight<br />
growth in Europe and<br />
North America. In July,<br />
Facebook's stock price<br />
plummeted after the<br />
second-quarter earnings<br />
showed stagnating user<br />
growth in North America<br />
and a slight decline in<br />
Europe.<br />
On a conference call with<br />
investors, executives Mark<br />
Zuckerberg and Sheryl<br />
Sandberg sketched a path<br />
for the company to move<br />
forward from the constant<br />
damage control mode of<br />
2018. Both executives<br />
attempted to frame the<br />
company's extensive<br />
problems - such as the<br />
misuse of private data,<br />
rampant misinformation,<br />
and foreign influence<br />
operations - as "social<br />
issues" endemic to the<br />
internet as a whole, and not<br />
particular to Facebook.<br />
Zuckerberg asserted that<br />
Facebook<br />
had<br />
"fundamentally changed<br />
how we run this company"<br />
and greatly improved its<br />
systems to reduce future<br />
problems. As such, he<br />
suggested that in <strong>2019</strong>, the<br />
company would be able to<br />
refocus on product<br />
development to "deliver<br />
more experiences that<br />
meaningfully improve<br />
people's lives" with new<br />
innovations in messaging,<br />
payments, groups, video<br />
and hardware.<br />
Among the product<br />
changes is a planned<br />
integration of messaging<br />
platforms for WhatsApp,<br />
Instagram and Messenger,<br />
which was first reported by<br />
the New York Times last<br />
week. Zuckerberg<br />
confirmed that the<br />
company was considering<br />
this change, which he said<br />
was still a "long term<br />
project" and would see<br />
more of Facebook's<br />
products using end-to-end<br />
encryption.<br />
"Facebook might have<br />
delivered its weakest<br />
quarterly revenue growth<br />
since listing in 2012, but<br />
these numbers are actually<br />
some of the most reassuring<br />
in its short history," said<br />
George Salmon, an equity<br />
analyst at Hargreaves<br />
Lansdown. "The way that I<br />
feel starting <strong>2019</strong> is that we<br />
have clear roadmaps<br />
looking at what we need to<br />
do," Zuckerberg said. "I do<br />
feel like we've started to turn<br />
Facebook's fourth-quarter results highlighted<br />
the distance between its business success and its<br />
public reputation. Photo: Charles Platiau<br />
a corner and have a clear<br />
plan for what we need to do<br />
now."
ECONOMY & BUSINESS<br />
6<br />
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 2, <strong>2019</strong><br />
A view exchange meeting between Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd and international corporate consultancy<br />
firm Kroll was held on Thursday at Islami Bank Tower. Md. Mahbub ul Alam,<br />
Managing Director and CEO of the bank was present in the program as chief guest. Abu Reza<br />
Md. Yeahia and Taher Ahmed Chowdhury, Deputy Managing Directors, Mohammad Jamal<br />
Uddin Mozumder, Executive Vice President and Md. Rafiqul Islam, Senior Vice President of<br />
IBBL, Omer Erginsoy, Senior Managing Director, Tarun Bhatia, Managing Director and<br />
Samarjit Sawant, Associate Director of Kroll along with other executives of the bank were present<br />
on the occasion. The meeting discussed compliance issues of Banking rules and regulations.<br />
Kroll has been working with IBBL since 2015. IBBL has already complied the first and second<br />
phase of Kroll advises for compliance of banking rules and the progress of implementation of<br />
the third phase is being examined. Transaction Monitoring system for IBBL provided by US<br />
based SAS Institute Private Limited was shown to the team and the Kroll team expressed satisfaction<br />
over the Transaction Monitoring System.<br />
Photo:Courtesy<br />
Deutsche Bank reports first<br />
annual profit in four years<br />
India announces<br />
$10.5 billion<br />
farmer income<br />
scheme ahead of<br />
elections<br />
India's government<br />
announced Friday a $10.5-<br />
billion scheme to help crisishit<br />
farmers, seeking to boost<br />
support ahead of a tough reelection<br />
bid by Prime Minister<br />
Narendra Modi.<br />
Thousands of farmers hit by<br />
low produce prices, crippling<br />
debt repayments and volatile<br />
weather have killed<br />
themselves in recent years.<br />
This and rising joblessness<br />
have hit Modi's popularity.<br />
The new scheme, part of the<br />
current government's last<br />
interim budget before the<br />
election, will give 120 million<br />
"small and marginal" farmers<br />
direct annual handouts of<br />
around 6,000 rupees ($85).<br />
"This amount will be<br />
transferred directly to bank<br />
accounts of farmers in three<br />
equal instalments," Piyush<br />
Goyal, interim finance<br />
minister, told a raucous<br />
session of parliament in New<br />
Delhi.<br />
The programme will be fully<br />
funded by the central<br />
government, Goyal said.<br />
The crisis in Indian<br />
agriculture and rising<br />
joblessness are emerging as<br />
key factors ahead of the<br />
elections due by May, when<br />
Modi will run for a second<br />
term.<br />
Asian markets mixed<br />
as China, US agree to<br />
further trade talks<br />
Asian markets mostly rose<br />
Friday, with investors<br />
treading carefully as China-<br />
US trade talks ended with<br />
no deal but with both sides<br />
sounding notes of optimism<br />
and setting up more highlevel<br />
meetings later this<br />
month.<br />
After the muchanticipated<br />
gathering,<br />
Donald Trump hailed<br />
"tremendous progress"<br />
between the world's top two<br />
economies but warned the<br />
"hard deadline" of March 1<br />
remained in place, after<br />
which US tariffs on billions<br />
of dollars of Chinese goods<br />
will be imposed.<br />
For its part, Beijing said<br />
they held "candid, specific<br />
and fruitful" discussions<br />
and had agreed to increase<br />
cooperation on intellectual<br />
property -a major source of<br />
White House anger with<br />
China - and boost imports of<br />
US goods.<br />
Trump's top two<br />
economic officials will visit<br />
Beijing later this month,<br />
after which he said he will<br />
meet his counterpart Xi<br />
Jinping to hammer out the<br />
final deal.<br />
While the negotiations<br />
ended with no agreement,<br />
Jeffrey Halley, senior<br />
market analyst at OANDA,<br />
said: "For the markets,<br />
which are clearly in 'risk-on'<br />
mood, it was a case of no<br />
news is good news."<br />
However, an early surge<br />
across the region petered<br />
out to leave markets mixed.<br />
Tokyo ended 0.1 percent<br />
higher and Hong Kong was<br />
marginally lower, while<br />
Shanghai jumped 1.3<br />
percent as traders<br />
welcomed news that<br />
authorities had relaxed<br />
certain rules to make<br />
investing easier.<br />
Sydney and Singapore<br />
were both flat and Seoul<br />
dipped 0.1 percent, though<br />
Manila, Mumbai, Bangkok<br />
and Jakarta were all up.<br />
In early trade London rose<br />
0.3 percent, while Frankfurt<br />
and Paris each added 0.2<br />
percent. "The statement<br />
certainly signals progress,<br />
but at best limited progress<br />
on the core long-term<br />
structural issues that<br />
separate the two sides,"<br />
Eswar Prasad, a trade policy<br />
professor at Cornell<br />
University, told Bloomberg<br />
News. "The statement ends<br />
with a not-so-veiled threat<br />
that China will need to offer<br />
more substantive<br />
concessions to enable a deal<br />
that would take further<br />
tariffs off the table."<br />
The tepid movement in<br />
markets also comes after an<br />
impressive month that saw<br />
Hong Kong pile on more<br />
than eight percent and<br />
Tokyo more than four<br />
percent, a much-needed<br />
bounce after December's<br />
hammering.<br />
Next on the agenda is the<br />
release of US jobs data later<br />
Friday, which comes days<br />
after the Federal Reserve<br />
fuelled a rally by signalling a<br />
slowdown in its pace of<br />
interest rate hikes this year.<br />
The non-farm payrolls<br />
figures will be closely<br />
watched for an idea about<br />
the state of the world's<br />
number-one economy, with<br />
the Fed having warned of a<br />
global slowdown. Sony<br />
nine-month net profit soars<br />
on games, music.<br />
Germany's biggest lender Deutsche<br />
Bank reported Friday a 2018 bottom<br />
line in the black for the first time in four<br />
years, with a cost-cutting drive<br />
delivering results even as revenues fell.<br />
The firm reported 267 million euros<br />
($305 million) net profit, compared<br />
with a loss of 751 million in 2017.<br />
The result was short of expectations<br />
of 505 million euros from analysts<br />
surveyed by Factset.<br />
Pre-tax profits at the financial firm<br />
were up eight percent year-on-year, at<br />
1.3 billion euros.<br />
But revenues fell four percent, to 25.3<br />
billion euros, with Deutsche blaming a<br />
fourth quarter marked by "challenging<br />
financial markets" and "negative"<br />
headlines, including a November raid<br />
by prosecutors on the bank's Frankfurt<br />
headquarters.<br />
Between October and December, the<br />
firm reported a net loss of 425 million<br />
euros.<br />
Nevertheless, "our return to<br />
profitability shows that Deutsche Bank<br />
Honda lifts<br />
forecasts despite<br />
ninth-month<br />
profit drop<br />
Japan's Honda Motor said<br />
Friday it was revising up<br />
forecasts for its full-year net<br />
profit despite logging a fall of<br />
34.5 percent for the nine<br />
months to December.<br />
The country's third-largest<br />
automaker revised up its full<br />
year net profit to 695 billion<br />
yen ($6.3 billion) from the<br />
previous forecast of 675<br />
billion yen, while also lifting<br />
annual sales to 15.85 trillion<br />
yen from 15.80 trillion.<br />
For April-December, net<br />
profit fell to 623.3 billion yen<br />
"due mainly to the impacts<br />
of the enactment of the US<br />
tax cuts and Jobs Act in the<br />
same period last year",<br />
Honda said.<br />
Operating profit fell 3.2<br />
percent mainly because of<br />
decreased sales revenue, as<br />
well as increased sales and<br />
administrative costs and<br />
"negative foreign currency<br />
effects", it added.<br />
The company said auto<br />
sales in Japan grew 4.4<br />
percent but US sales slipped<br />
2.6 percent to 1.242 million<br />
units. Sales in China, where<br />
the economy is suffering a<br />
growth slowdown, also fell.<br />
But motorcycle sales<br />
climbed 6.6 percent in<br />
emerging Asian markets<br />
including India, Vietnam,<br />
Thailand and Indonesia, it<br />
said.<br />
"Honda has been<br />
enjoying strong sales of<br />
motorcycles especially in<br />
Southeast Asia," Satoru<br />
Takada, an analyst at TIW,<br />
a Tokyo-based research<br />
and consulting firm, told<br />
AFP ahead of the earnings<br />
report.<br />
Uzbekistan gives visa-free entry<br />
to visitors from 45 countries<br />
Uzbekistan on Friday<br />
granted visa-free entry to<br />
citizens of 45 countries to<br />
boost tourism, which the<br />
government views as vital for<br />
economic growth.<br />
The countries benefiting<br />
from a 30-day visa waiver<br />
that went into force on Friday<br />
include the majority of<br />
European countries<br />
including Britain as well as<br />
Australia, Canada, Argentina<br />
and Chile. The United States<br />
is a notable exception.<br />
The impoverished ex-<br />
Soviet country has made<br />
tourism a priority to reduce<br />
its dependence on<br />
commodity exports.<br />
The government is keen to<br />
show off the lavish Silk Road<br />
heritage of ancient cities such<br />
as Bukhara, Khiva and<br />
The BSE benchmark Sensex Friday jumped<br />
over 100 points ahead of the Budget<br />
presentation by Finance Minister Piyush<br />
Goyal amid heavy<br />
buying by foreign portfolio investors.<br />
The 30-share index was trading 119.01<br />
points, or 0.33 per cent, higher at 36,375.70.<br />
Similarly, the 50-share NSE Nifty rose<br />
34.15, or 0.32 per cent, to 10,865.10.<br />
On Thursday, the 30-share Sensex rallied<br />
665.44 points, or 1.87 per cent, to close at<br />
36,256.69; and the broader Nifty soared<br />
179.15 points, or 1.68 per cent, to 10,830.95..<br />
Top gainers in the Sensex pack include<br />
Hero MotoCorp, HCL Tech, Bharti Airtel,<br />
Bajaj Finance, Infosys, HDFC, HUL, M&M,<br />
Samarkand. Earlier this year,<br />
Uzbekistan granted a 30-day<br />
visa waiver to Germany while<br />
France became the first<br />
European Union country to<br />
benefit from the measure last<br />
year.<br />
Uzbekistan's tourism<br />
committee said last month<br />
that annual visitor numbers<br />
for 2018 were 5.3 million,<br />
double the figure for 2017.<br />
President Shavkat<br />
Mirziyoyev has reversed a<br />
number of policies that<br />
hampered tourism under his<br />
late predecessor Islam<br />
Karimov.<br />
Among the restrictions he<br />
scrapped was a ban on<br />
photography in the capital<br />
Tashkent's ornate metro that<br />
had led to police detentions of<br />
unsuspecting tourists.<br />
is on the right track," chief executive<br />
Christian Sewing said in a statement,<br />
adding that he aims to "grow<br />
profitability substantially" in <strong>2019</strong>.<br />
Sewing was named CEO in early<br />
2018 after the bank struggled for years<br />
to escape financial woes and a thicket of<br />
legal entanglements dating back to the<br />
years before the 2008 financial crisis.<br />
He has launched a new round of<br />
restructuring to focus on home market<br />
Germany, cut costs and slash<br />
headcount.<br />
Almost 6,000 departures in 2018<br />
brought the payroll down to 91,700,<br />
while Deutsche reduced costs five<br />
percent, to 23.5 billion euros.<br />
The bank's turnaround may not be<br />
advancing quickly enough for some<br />
shareholders and the German<br />
government, which has said it wants<br />
strong lenders to support the country's<br />
firms in their international business.<br />
Bloomberg News reported Thursday<br />
that executives' talks with Berlin over a<br />
possible merger with partially stateowned<br />
rival Commerzbank have<br />
"intensified" in recent months.<br />
In the bank's different divisions,<br />
operating profit at the retail and<br />
commercial banking unit was roughly<br />
flat, while the flagship corporate and<br />
investment bank unit tumbled eight<br />
percent.<br />
There was a steeper fall for the<br />
smaller asset management arm, whose<br />
profits shed 14 percent.<br />
Deutsche added that by the end of the<br />
year, it had "wholly or partially resolved<br />
19 of the 20 most significant" looming<br />
legal risks identified in 2016, with 1.2<br />
billion euros of provisions set aside for<br />
litigation costs.<br />
Looking ahead to <strong>2019</strong>, the group<br />
aims to cut costs to 21.8 billion euros,<br />
compared with a previous target of 22<br />
billion, while shrinking its workforce to<br />
"well below" 90,000.<br />
In financial terms, Deutsche will<br />
target a return on tangible equity of<br />
four percent, compared with 0.5<br />
percent in 2018.<br />
Mirziyoyev's bid to boost<br />
tourism in the immediate<br />
aftermath of Karimov's death<br />
in 2016 suffered a false start.<br />
In December that year, he<br />
issued an order easing or<br />
cancelling visa requirements<br />
for visitors from 27 developed<br />
countries but this was swiftly<br />
reversed before coming into<br />
force.<br />
Observers attributed the<br />
reversal to resistance within<br />
the powerful security<br />
apparatus.<br />
Uzbekistan already offers<br />
visa-free entry to visitors<br />
from Turkey, Israel,<br />
Indonesia, South Korea,<br />
Malaysia, Singapore and<br />
Japan, in addition to longstanding<br />
reciprocal visa-free<br />
entry for citizens of most<br />
former Soviet countries.<br />
Sensex jumps over 100 pts<br />
ahead of Budget <strong>2019</strong><br />
L&T, ITC and Maruti, rising up to 2.91 per<br />
cent.<br />
Vedanta was the biggest loser on Sensex,<br />
cracking over 18 per cent after the metals and<br />
mining giant Thursday reported a 25.54 per<br />
cent decline in consolidated net profit at Rs<br />
1,574 crore for the December 2018 quarter,<br />
on the back of higher expenses and drop in<br />
commodity prices.<br />
Other losers include PowerGrid, ONGC,<br />
Axis Bank, Kotak Bank and Sun Pharma,<br />
shedding up to 1.14 per cent.<br />
According to Hemang Jani, Head -<br />
Advisory at Sharekhan by BNP Paribas, the<br />
government might look to boost the rural and<br />
agri sector ahead of the general election.<br />
The Launching Ceremony of "Modhumoti Digital Banking" at Haridaspur, Nijamkandi, Puisur,<br />
Bethuri, Hatiara, Fukra and Mahmudpur UDC Points was held on 29th January <strong>2019</strong> at Gopalganj<br />
Sadar & Kashiani Upazila, Gopalganj. Kherud Ranjan Biswas, Chairman of Bethuri Union Parishad<br />
inaugurated the Digital Points as Chief Guest. Moklesur Rahman, Senior Vice President and Head of<br />
Agent Banking Operation of Modhumoti Bank Ltd, Chairman of respective Union Parishads and local<br />
elites were present on the occasion. Modhumoti Bank took the initiative of Agent Banking through<br />
signing an agreement with Access to Information (a2i) of Prime Minister's Office, where the entrepreneurs<br />
of Union Digital Center (UDC) shall be the Agent of the Bank. Presently the bank with its 292<br />
Digital Points providing banking services like Account Opening, Cash Deposit, Cash Withdrawal,<br />
Money Transfer, Balance Inquiry, Withdrawal of Foreign Remittance etc. in the name of "Modhumoti<br />
Digital Banking".<br />
Photo: Courtesy<br />
Sony nine-month<br />
net profit soars<br />
on games, music<br />
Sony said Friday its ninemonth<br />
net profit jumped 63.2<br />
percent from the previous<br />
year, led by its games and<br />
music divisions.<br />
The electronics and<br />
entertainment giant lowered<br />
its annual sales forecast but<br />
raised its annual net profit<br />
forecast thanks to tax benefits.<br />
Sony said its April-<br />
December net profit reached<br />
828.4 billion yen ($7.6<br />
billion).<br />
Operating profit rose 13.9<br />
percent to 811.5 billion yen,<br />
while sales reached 6.54<br />
trillion yen, down 0.8 percent.<br />
"Sony remains on recovery<br />
track," Hideki Yasuda, an<br />
analyst at Ace Research<br />
Institute in Tokyo, told AFP<br />
ahead of the announcement.<br />
"Its game sector has<br />
continued spearheading its<br />
recovery although sales of PS4<br />
consoles are gradually slowing<br />
down."<br />
Sony's movie segment also<br />
drove home more profits, said<br />
Yasuo Imanaka, an analyst at<br />
Rakuten Securities.<br />
"Its recent box-office<br />
movies are now generating<br />
profit through sales of DVD<br />
and Blu-ray discs as well as<br />
profits from their television<br />
license fees," he told AFP<br />
ahead of the announcement.<br />
In the three months to<br />
December, including the allimportant<br />
holiday shopping<br />
season, Sony said it continued<br />
to enjoy robust game software<br />
sales, although sales of<br />
PlayStation4 consoles slowed<br />
down.<br />
Tokyo's Nikkei index ends flat<br />
as investors seek fresh clues<br />
Tokyo's benchmark<br />
Nikkei index ended flat on<br />
Friday as investors sought<br />
fresh trading clues and<br />
watched individual corporate<br />
earnings reports.<br />
The Nikkei 225 index<br />
closed up just 0.07 percent<br />
or 14.90 points at<br />
20,788.39, while the<br />
broader Topix index was<br />
down 0.18 percent or 2.86<br />
points at 1,564.63.<br />
The twin indexes were<br />
trading in positive territory<br />
in early trade but lost<br />
steam later, with some analysts<br />
also pointing to a negative<br />
impact from a weak<br />
Chinese manufacturing<br />
data released during Tokyo<br />
trading time.<br />
"Following rallies on<br />
Thursday after the US Fed<br />
signalled a dovish view on<br />
rate hikes, investors are<br />
seeking fresh clues," Hiroaki<br />
Hiwata, strategist at<br />
Toyo Securities, told AFP.<br />
"Having said that, it is<br />
increasingly difficult for<br />
investors to buy as the<br />
Nikkei index is approaching<br />
the 21,000 mark"<br />
which is considered psychologically<br />
important, he<br />
said.<br />
Investors are watching<br />
individual shares as company<br />
earnings are being<br />
released, he also added.<br />
The dollar fetched<br />
108.86 yen in Asian trade,<br />
against 108.88 yen in New<br />
York late Thursday.<br />
In Tokyo, high-tech<br />
shares were higher, with<br />
Sharp surging 10.32 percent<br />
to 1,272 yen while<br />
Murata Mfg advancing<br />
8.46 percent to 16,725 yen<br />
after it said its net profit for<br />
the nine months to December<br />
jumped nearly 40 percent.<br />
Fanuc gained 1.98<br />
percent to 18,725 yen<br />
despite the industrial robot<br />
manufacturer revising<br />
down its full-year earnings<br />
forecasts.<br />
Brokerage giant Nomura<br />
closed down 4.<strong>02</strong> percent<br />
at 4,241 yen after it posted<br />
a net loss for the nine<br />
months to December.<br />
Nintendo dived 9.19 percent<br />
to 30,720 yen despite<br />
its net profit jumping nearly<br />
a quarter for the nine<br />
months to December.<br />
The game giant lowered<br />
its Switch game console<br />
sales forecast for full year<br />
to 17 million units from 20<br />
million units and pushed<br />
back the release date of<br />
Mario Kart smartphone<br />
game.<br />
Japan's labour shortage<br />
hits 45-year high<br />
There were 161 jobs for every 100 jobseekers on average<br />
last year in Japan, the highest ratio since 1973, highlighting<br />
the labour shortage in the world's third-largest economy and<br />
its ageing society.<br />
According to labour ministry data released on Friday, the<br />
ratio was even higher in December, at 163 jobs available for<br />
every 100 people looking for work. The Japanese labour<br />
market has been tight for many years as the workforce<br />
shrinks with a rapidly ageing population and a low childbirth<br />
rate. The country's unemployment rate also remained at low<br />
levels in December, hitting 2.4 percent, a 0.1-percentage<br />
point drop from the previous month, according to separate<br />
data from the internal affairs ministry.<br />
Along with a labour shortage, Japan has also been engaged<br />
in a lengthy battle against deflation. Last month, the Bank of<br />
Japan lowered its inflation forecasts for the fiscal year ending<br />
March next year to 0.9 percent from 1.4 percent.<br />
Japan's economy shrank in the three months to September<br />
after a string of natural disasters hit consumer spending and<br />
exports.
MISCELLANEOUS<br />
SATurDAY, FebruArY 2, <strong>2019</strong><br />
7<br />
20 charged in Chinese birth<br />
tourism crackdown<br />
Dongyuan Li's business was called "You Win USA," and<br />
authorities say she coached pregnant Chinese women on how<br />
to get into the United States to deliver babies who would<br />
automatically enjoy all the benefits of American citizenship,<br />
reports UNB.<br />
Over two years, the now-41-year-old raked in millions<br />
through her business, where mothers-to-be paid between<br />
$40,000 and $80,000 each to come to California, stay in an<br />
upscale apartment and give birth, authorities said.<br />
Li, who was arrested Thursday, is one of 20 people charged<br />
in the first federal crackdown on birth tourism businesses that<br />
prosecutors said brought hundreds of pregnant women to the<br />
United States.<br />
Jing Dong, 42, and Michael Wei Yueh Liu, 53, who allegedly<br />
operated "USA Happy Baby," also were arrested.<br />
All three pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges including<br />
conspiracy, visa fraud and money laundering, according to<br />
Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in<br />
Los Angeles. Trials were scheduled for March 26.<br />
More than a dozen others, including the operator of a third<br />
such business, also face charges but are believed to have<br />
returned to China, prosecutors said.<br />
While it isn't illegal to visit the United States while pregnant,<br />
authorities said the businesses - which were raided by federal<br />
agents in 2015 - touted the benefits of having U.S. citizen<br />
babies, who could get free public education and years later<br />
help their parents immigrate.<br />
They also allegedly had women hide their pregnancies while<br />
seeking travel visas and lie about their plans, with one You<br />
Win USA customer telling consular officials she was going to<br />
visit a Trump hotel in Hawaii.<br />
U.S. authorities said the businesses also posed a national<br />
security risk since their customers, some who worked for the<br />
Chinese government, secured American citizenship for<br />
children who can move back to the United States and once<br />
they're 21 and then sponsor their parents for green cards.<br />
"I see this as a grave national security concern and<br />
vulnerability," said Mark Zito, assistant special agent-incharge<br />
of Immigration and Customs Enforcement's homeland<br />
security investigations. "Are some of them doing it for security<br />
because the United States is more stable? Absolutely. But will<br />
those governments take advantage of this? Yes, they will."<br />
Messages left for Li and Dong's attorneys were not<br />
immediately returned. Derek Tung, Liu's attorney, said the<br />
growing interest among Chinese women to give birth to<br />
American babies drew attention to a phenomenon long<br />
employed by citizens of other countries.<br />
His client had nothing to do with getting women visas from<br />
China but worked almost as a subcontractor to provide<br />
housing once they arrived, he said.<br />
Natural gas shortage<br />
ends, auto plants to<br />
resume production<br />
Dozens of Michigan auto<br />
plants and large commercial<br />
buildings that were forced to<br />
close or cut operations<br />
Thursday due to a natural<br />
gas shortage can resume<br />
production at midnight,<br />
reports UNB.<br />
Consumers Energy had<br />
asked the plants and other<br />
big gas users to curtail work<br />
for fear of running out of gas<br />
for homes and other critical<br />
buildings during a recordsetting<br />
deep freeze. The<br />
shortage was caused by a fire<br />
Wednesday that knocked<br />
out a natural gas compressor<br />
station north of Detroit just<br />
as<br />
temperatures<br />
plummeted. Consumers<br />
Energy CEO Patti Poppe<br />
said Thursday afternoon<br />
that crews had repaired part<br />
of the fire-damaged station<br />
and ample gas supplies are<br />
now available.<br />
At least 18 factories and<br />
other facilities run by<br />
General Motors, Ford and<br />
Fiat Chrysler were affected.<br />
Consumers Energy, the<br />
state's largest natural gas<br />
provider, said gas flow from<br />
the compressor station had<br />
to be shut off, leaving<br />
Michigan residents at risk of<br />
brief service interruptions in<br />
subzero temperatures.<br />
The utility said more than<br />
100 of its largest industrial<br />
customers cut their gas<br />
usage to help get through the<br />
shortage.<br />
Fiat Chrysler closed its<br />
truck assembly plants in<br />
Warren and Sterling<br />
Heights, Michigan, while<br />
Ford reduced operations at<br />
two transmission factories<br />
and a plant that stamps<br />
parts for the hot-selling Ford<br />
Ranger small pickup near<br />
Detroit. Ranger production<br />
was unaffected.<br />
General Motors was hit<br />
much harder, suspending<br />
operations at factories in<br />
Flint, Lansing, Saginaw,<br />
Pontiac, Orion Township<br />
and Bay City, Michigan. A<br />
Flint plant is gearing up for<br />
the launch of new heavyduty<br />
pickup trucks. Even<br />
General Motors' sprawling<br />
technical center in Warren,<br />
Michigan, north of Detroit,<br />
was closed and its roughly<br />
20,000 employees were told<br />
to stay home.<br />
Trump, Pelosi stances on wall<br />
suggest deal will be difficult<br />
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared<br />
Thursday that there'll be no "wall money"<br />
in any compromise border security deal as<br />
she and President Donald Trump signaled<br />
that congressional negotiators may never<br />
satisfy his demands for his cherished<br />
Southwest border proposal, reports UNB.<br />
Trump, who in recent weeks has<br />
expressed indifference to whether the term<br />
"wall" or something else is used, clung with<br />
renewed tenacity to the word that became<br />
his campaign mantra, declaring, "A wall is<br />
a wall." Yet in a series of tweets and<br />
statements, he issued conflicting messages<br />
about what he'd need to declare victory and<br />
suggested that merely repairing existing<br />
structures along the boundary could be a<br />
major component of a triumph.<br />
Amid signs that Trump's leverage in<br />
Congress is atrophying, he seemed to aim<br />
one tweet at his conservative followers. He<br />
wrote that Democrats "are not going to give<br />
money to build the DESPERATELY<br />
needed WALL. I've got you covered. Wall is<br />
already being built, I don't expect much<br />
help!"<br />
Pelosi, D-Calif., left the door open for an<br />
accord that could finance some barriers,<br />
citing what she said was already existing<br />
"Normandy fencing" that blocks vehicles.<br />
"If the president wants to call that a wall,<br />
he can call that a wall," she told reporters.<br />
She added: "Is there a place for enhanced<br />
fencing? Normandy fencing would work."<br />
Chinese President Xi Jinping<br />
on Thursday congratulated<br />
Sultan Abdullah Sultan<br />
Ahmad Shah on assumption<br />
of duties as Malaysia's 16th<br />
supreme head of state,<br />
reports UNB.<br />
In his congratulatory<br />
message to Abdullah, Xi said<br />
that China and Malaysia are<br />
traditional friendly<br />
neighbors and important<br />
cooperation partners, adding<br />
that he attaches great<br />
importance to the<br />
development of bilateral<br />
relations.<br />
Noting that this year<br />
marks the 45th anniversary<br />
of diplomatic ties between<br />
the two countries, Xi said<br />
China is willing to work<br />
together with Malaysia to<br />
enhance mutual political<br />
trust, expand pragmatic<br />
cooperation, and deepen<br />
their comprehensive<br />
strategic partnership, so as<br />
to better benefit the two<br />
countries and peoples.<br />
Abudallah was sworn in as<br />
Malaysia's 16th king on<br />
Thursday. Chinese President<br />
Xi Jinping on Thursday<br />
congratulated Sultan<br />
Abdullah Sultan Ahmad<br />
Shah on assumption of<br />
duties as Malaysia's 16th<br />
supreme head of state,<br />
reports UNB.<br />
In his congratulatory<br />
message to Abdullah, Xi said<br />
that China and Malaysia are<br />
traditional friendly<br />
Yet Pelosi's other remark - "There's not<br />
going to be any wall money in the<br />
legislation" - underscored the linguistic<br />
battle underway. It also showed that<br />
Democrats see no reason to let Trump<br />
claim a win in a cause that stirs his hardright<br />
voters and enrages liberals.<br />
Trump's political muscle weakened<br />
following Democrats' capture of House<br />
control in the November election. It waned<br />
further after his surrender last week in<br />
ending a record 35-day partial government<br />
shutdown without getting a penny of the<br />
$5.7 billion he'd demanded to start<br />
building the wall.<br />
In another sign of his flagging hold over<br />
lawmakers, the GOP-controlled Senate<br />
backed legislation on a 68-23 vote<br />
Thursday that opposes withdrawal of U.S.<br />
troops from Syria and Afghanistan.<br />
When Trump folded on the shutdown, he<br />
agreed to reopen government until Feb. 15,<br />
giving lawmakers more time to craft a<br />
bipartisan border security compromise.<br />
If there's no deal by then, Trump has<br />
threatened to revive the shutdown or<br />
declare a national emergency, which he<br />
claims would let him shift billions from<br />
unrelated military construction projects to<br />
erecting his wall. He criticized Democrats'<br />
negotiating stance so far, telling reporters<br />
in the Oval Office that Pelosi is "just playing<br />
games" and saying GOP bargainers are<br />
"wasting their time."<br />
Xi congratulates Abdullah on<br />
taking office as Malaysia's<br />
supreme head of state<br />
neighbors and important<br />
cooperation partners,<br />
adding that he attaches great<br />
importance to the<br />
development of bilateral<br />
relations.<br />
Noting that this year<br />
marks the 45th anniversary<br />
of diplomatic ties between<br />
the two countries, Xi said<br />
China is willing to work<br />
together with Malaysia to<br />
enhance mutual political<br />
trust, expand pragmatic<br />
cooperation, and deepen<br />
their comprehensive<br />
strategic partnership, so as<br />
to better benefit the two<br />
countries and peoples.<br />
Abudallah was sworn in as<br />
Malaysia's 16th king on<br />
Thursday.<br />
GD-186/19 (15 x 4) GD-187/19 (9 x 4)
UNITING PEOPLE EVERYDAY<br />
SATURDAy, DhAkA, FEBRUARy 2, <strong>2019</strong>, MAgh 20, 1425 BS, JAMADiUl AWAl 26, 1440 hiJRi<br />
A joyful rally was brought out from National Press Club on Friday marking World Read Aloud Day in<br />
the capital .<br />
Photo: Star Mail<br />
SSC examinee<br />
found murdered<br />
in Munshiganj,<br />
2 held<br />
MUNSHIGANJ : The<br />
body of a Secondary School<br />
Certificate (SSC) examinee<br />
was recovered from<br />
Kumarbhog area of Padma<br />
Bridge Rehabilitation<br />
Centre in Lohajang upazila<br />
on Friday, reports UNB.<br />
The deceased, 16-yearold<br />
Nirab, was a student of<br />
Anwar Ali High School and<br />
the son of Nayeem Khan of<br />
the area. He had been missing<br />
since going out of his<br />
with his friends Rabbi and<br />
Alal.<br />
Locals spotted the body<br />
in the morning and<br />
informed police. It was sent<br />
to Munshiganj General<br />
Hospital for autopsy, said<br />
Monir Hossain, officer-incharge<br />
of Lohajang Police<br />
Station.<br />
A police complaint was<br />
filed on Thursday night<br />
soon after Nirab had gone<br />
missing. Police detained<br />
Rabbi and Alal the same<br />
night.<br />
OC Monir said they suspected<br />
the murder could be<br />
related to love affairs<br />
INTERESTING NEWS<br />
The United Kingdom Post Office introduced<br />
the first public telephone kiosk, designated<br />
K1, in 1921. These were constructed<br />
out of pre-cast concrete sections, had a<br />
four-sided rectangular form with a pyramidal<br />
roof, and was topped by a wrought iron<br />
spear. It was not a particularly bad design,<br />
but somehow, it didn’t appeal to the British<br />
public. The London Metropolitan<br />
Boroughs as well as the Birmingham Civic<br />
Society voiced their dislike and even resisted<br />
the Post Office’s effort to erect K1 kiosks<br />
on the streets. To ease the tension, the<br />
Royal Fine Art Commission intervened and<br />
offered to organize a competition to design<br />
a new kiosk.<br />
The organizers invited entries from three<br />
respected architects—Robert Lorimer,<br />
John Burnet and Giles Gilbert Scott, along<br />
Bagerhat special people<br />
out of work; no training<br />
for seven years<br />
BAGERHAT : Physicallychallenged<br />
people in<br />
Bagerhat have been passing<br />
days in hardship with their<br />
fundamental needs remaining<br />
unmet as the Bagerhat<br />
Rural Rehabilitation Centre<br />
remained closed for seven<br />
years, reports UNB.<br />
Admission to the centre has<br />
been suspended due to the<br />
dilapidated condition of its<br />
building. Without jobs available,<br />
the physically-challenged<br />
people in the region<br />
have been facing difficulties to<br />
earn for and manage their<br />
families.<br />
According to officials, the<br />
government set up the centre<br />
with three buildings and three<br />
tin-shed houses on 3.59 acres<br />
of land at Mulghar village in<br />
Fakirhat upazila in the 1981-<br />
82 fiscal year with a view to<br />
turning disabled people into<br />
skilled manpower.<br />
But, the admission of disabled<br />
persons to the centre<br />
remained suspended since<br />
September 2012 due to the<br />
shabby conditions of the<br />
buildings and accommodation<br />
crisis.<br />
The training activities at the<br />
centre started in 1987. All<br />
male disabled people, aged<br />
14-24, could avail of the<br />
chance to get admitted here<br />
except the blind ones. There<br />
were three trades-mechanical<br />
workshop, tailoring, and cattle<br />
and poultry farming - for<br />
which training was provided.<br />
Required qualification for<br />
training in the first two trades<br />
was class five but no specific<br />
educational requirement was<br />
needed for training on cattle<br />
and poultry farming.<br />
Officials at the Department<br />
of Social Services of Bagerhat<br />
said 30 people in three trades<br />
- 10 in each trade-were<br />
trained a year at government<br />
expenses. The government<br />
bore all their expenditures,<br />
including accommodation,<br />
dress, treatment facilities,<br />
sports and others. After their<br />
The Tomb That Inspired Britain's<br />
Iconic Telephone Box<br />
with the designs from the Post Office and<br />
from The Birmingham Civic Society.<br />
Robert Lorimer was a Scottish architect<br />
who designed the Scottish National War<br />
Memorial at Edinburgh Castle. John<br />
Burnet—another Scott—designed many<br />
prestigious buildings across Britain. Giles<br />
Gilbert Scott was a well-known English<br />
architect who gave Britain many of its popular<br />
landmarks such as Cambridge<br />
University Library, Lady Margaret Hall,<br />
and the Battersea Power Station. His most<br />
popular creation was the ubiquitous red<br />
telephone box.<br />
Scott designed a four-sided rectangular<br />
box with a domed roof. Each side had<br />
fluted architrave moldings at the outer<br />
edge, and at the base there was a blank<br />
rectangular panel with trim molding-surround.<br />
training, they were supposed<br />
to receive Tk 4,000 each as<br />
rehabilitation allowance.<br />
Sources said 37 people<br />
trained by the centre still did<br />
not get their rehabilitation<br />
allowance.<br />
Abdus Sattar, a trainer of<br />
Mechanical Trade<br />
Department of the centre,<br />
said the building condition of<br />
the centre is not good enough<br />
to live in there. Its training<br />
programme will resume if the<br />
residential building can be<br />
rebuilt or a tin-shed building<br />
can be constructed. Four staff,<br />
out of 11, are now working at<br />
this centre, while two are<br />
working elsewhere, Sattar<br />
said.<br />
Sheikh Khalil Al Rashid, an<br />
assistant director of<br />
Department of Social Services<br />
of Bagerhat who is now in<br />
charge of the rural rehabilitation<br />
centre, said the authorities<br />
have decided to abandon<br />
the residential building as it<br />
has become risky for living.<br />
Bangladesh sues<br />
Philippines'<br />
bank RCBC over<br />
BB cyber heist<br />
DHAKA : Bangladesh filed a<br />
case against Rizal Commercial<br />
Banking Corporation (RCBC)<br />
of the Philippines' over the<br />
heist of $81 million from<br />
Bangladesh Bank's account<br />
with the Federal Reserve Bank<br />
of New York, reports UNB.<br />
The case was filed with a<br />
New York bank accusing<br />
RCBC, casinos and others<br />
involved in the heist, Abu<br />
Hena Mohammed Raji Hasan,<br />
head of Bangladesh Finance<br />
Intelligence Unit (BIFU) of the<br />
Bangladesh Bank told UNB.<br />
He said there will be a press<br />
briefing here on Sunday over<br />
the filing of the case.<br />
International robbers stole<br />
$101 million from the<br />
Bangladesh Bank account<br />
with the Federal Reserve Bank<br />
through fraudulent instructions<br />
against their target of<br />
about $1 billion in February<br />
2016.<br />
Although, some $20 million<br />
was recovered from a Sri<br />
Lankan bank, $81 million,<br />
which landed in Manila-based<br />
RCBC, could not be recovered.<br />
Most of the money transferred<br />
to the Philippines went<br />
to four personal accounts, held<br />
by individuals.<br />
The Federal Reserve Bank<br />
blocked the remaining 30<br />
transactions, amounting to<br />
$850 million, due to suspicions<br />
raised by a misspelled<br />
instruction.<br />
Cosmos Foundation<br />
Dialogue on<br />
Bangladesh-EU<br />
relations<br />
DHAKA : A distinguished<br />
panel of experts is set to<br />
come together at a symposium<br />
in the city on Saturday<br />
to assess the 'Bangladesh-<br />
European Union relations in<br />
the present context and identify<br />
the challenges and<br />
opportunities for the future,<br />
reports UNB.<br />
Cosmos Foundation, the<br />
philanthropic arm of<br />
Cosmos Group, will organise<br />
the symposium titled<br />
'Bangladesh-European<br />
Union Relations: Prognosis<br />
for the Future' at Six Seasons<br />
Hotel.<br />
Rensje Teerink,<br />
Ambassador of the<br />
European Union to<br />
Bangladesh, will present the<br />
keynote paper at the dialogue.<br />
Md Shahidul Haque,<br />
Senior Secretary, Ministry of<br />
Foreign Affairs of<br />
Bangladesh, will attend the<br />
event as the chief guest while<br />
Chairman of Cosmos<br />
Foundation Enayetullah<br />
Khan will deliver the welcome<br />
speech.<br />
The session will be chaired<br />
by Dr. Iftekhar Ahmed<br />
Chowdhury, the Principal<br />
Research Fellow at the<br />
Institute of South Asian<br />
Studies, National University<br />
of Singapore, and former<br />
Foreign Affairs Adviser to<br />
Bangladesh's previous caretaker<br />
government.<br />
Manpower shortage<br />
hits railway services,<br />
expansion plan<br />
DHAKA : The long-drawn<br />
manpower crisis in<br />
Bangladesh Railway, the<br />
largest public transport sector,<br />
is not only hampering<br />
its services but also the government<br />
plan to split it into<br />
four zones as part of its<br />
move to bring the whole<br />
country under the railway<br />
network, reports UNB.<br />
Bangladesh Railway is facing<br />
many difficulties in providing<br />
expected services to<br />
its passengers with its existing<br />
manpower of 40,275.<br />
A number of railways stations<br />
across the country are<br />
facing closure due to manpower<br />
shortage, said officials<br />
at Bangladesh Railway,<br />
sources at Bangladesh<br />
Railway said.<br />
They said even the government<br />
plan to split<br />
Bangladesh Railway into<br />
four zones to bring the<br />
whole country under railway<br />
network saw little<br />
progress for the same reason<br />
since the Prime<br />
Minister's directive in this<br />
regard in 2014.<br />
According to the<br />
Bangladesh Railway, there<br />
are 2,877 kilometers of railway<br />
network across the<br />
country and it will be<br />
expanded to 4,700 kilometers<br />
under a master plan of<br />
the government. "But, it's<br />
impossible for the<br />
Bangladesh Railway to deal<br />
with the increased routes<br />
with the existing manpower,"<br />
said an official wishing<br />
anonymity.<br />
On October 23,2014,<br />
Prime Minister Sheikh<br />
Hasina asked the Railways<br />
Ministry to reform the railway.<br />
Following the PM's directive,<br />
the Railways Ministry<br />
constituted a committee<br />
with its Additional Secretary<br />
Kamal Krinsha as its convener<br />
to split the railway<br />
into four zones.<br />
The committee recommended<br />
forming the East<br />
Zone with Chittagong and<br />
Sylhet divisions while the<br />
West Zone with Pakshi and<br />
Lalmonirhat, North with<br />
Dhaka and Mymensingh<br />
divisions and the South<br />
Zone with Rajbari district<br />
and Khulna division. Each<br />
zone will be divided into<br />
two divisions under the<br />
plan.<br />
But the move remained<br />
stuck for the last four years<br />
as no decision has been<br />
taken yet over the additional<br />
manpower to run the new<br />
zones and divisions.<br />
Currently, Bangladesh<br />
Railway has been operating<br />
its services under two zones-<br />
East (Chattogram, Dhaka,<br />
Pakshi, Lalmonirhat) and<br />
West (Sylhet, Mymensing,<br />
Rajbari and Khulna) zones.<br />
In December last year, the<br />
consultation firm concerned<br />
submitted a report to the<br />
Bangladesh Railway with<br />
the demand of 57,000 manpower<br />
for the proposed new<br />
zones against the actual<br />
demand of 68,000 people.<br />
The final proposal over<br />
splitting Bangladesh<br />
Railway into four zones<br />
could not yet be sent to the<br />
Public Administration<br />
Ministry due to the faulty<br />
proposal over the manpower<br />
structure,<br />
Besides, the operation of<br />
Chapainawabganj-Amnua<br />
bypass Railways Station has<br />
been suspended due to<br />
manpower crisis.<br />
Contacted, Railways<br />
Minister Nurul Islam Sujon<br />
said the process for splitting<br />
Bangladesh Railway into<br />
four zones is underway and<br />
effective measures will be<br />
taken soon to this end.<br />
He also stresses the need<br />
for ending manpower crisis<br />
to ensure better services to<br />
the passengers.<br />
On Thursday RAB-1 arrested 4 members of Ansarullah Bangla Team through a drive at Uttara.<br />
Photo: Star Mail<br />
JOF hails PM for invitation, explains<br />
why it can't join<br />
tea party<br />
DHAKA : Hailing Prime Minister Sheikh<br />
Hasina for inviting its leaders to her tea party,<br />
Jatiya Oikyafront on Friday sent a letter to<br />
Ganobhaban explaining the reason behind its<br />
decision not to join it on Saturday, reports UNB.<br />
A three-member delegation of the alliance went<br />
to Ganobhaban carrying the letter in the morning,<br />
Oikyafront's office chief Jahangir Alam<br />
Mintu told UNB.<br />
He said the Prime Minister's protocol officer-2<br />
Khorshed Alam received the letter which was<br />
signed by Oikyafront steering committee member<br />
Subrata Chowdhury.<br />
"We thank you for inviting us to exchange<br />
greetings over tea at Ganobhaban on February 2.<br />
The issue of the honourable Prime Minister's tea<br />
party was discussed as one of the agenda at<br />
Thursday meeting of the Jatiya Oikyafront steering<br />
committee," the letter reads.<br />
It also says the steering committee unanimously<br />
decided not to take part in the tea party.<br />
"The government formed through a farce in the<br />
name of an election on December 30 is in no way<br />
a moral one. People's minimum democratic<br />
rights and their authority to elect representatives<br />
through exercising their voting rights were<br />
snatched on that day," the letter says.<br />
Besides, it says, Oikyafront's several thousand<br />
leaders and activists have been in jail while many<br />
leaders and activists of the alliance are still being<br />
arrested in new cases. "Under the circumstances,<br />
it's not possible in any way to join the Prime<br />
Minister's tea party," the letter adds.<br />
On January 26, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina<br />
invited Jatiya Oikyafront senior leaders to<br />
exchange greetings at Ganobhaban over tea on<br />
February 2.<br />
Jatiya Oikyafront top leaders, led by Dr Kamal<br />
Hossain, sat twice with the Prime Minister on<br />
November 1 and November 7 last at Ganobhaban<br />
before the 11th parliamentary elections.<br />
Oikyafront was formed on November 13 comprising<br />
BNP, Gono Forum, JSD (ROB) and<br />
Nagorik Oikya. Later, Abdul Kader Siddique-led<br />
Krishak Sramik Janata League also joined the<br />
alliance. Awami League, led by Sheikh Hasina,<br />
formed the government for the third consecutive<br />
term following its landslide victory in the<br />
December-30 election.<br />
Turning down the election results bringing the<br />
allegation of 'massive vote robbery', Oikyafront<br />
demanded reelection.<br />
4 'ABT<br />
members'<br />
held in<br />
city<br />
DHAKA :<br />
Members of<br />
Rapid Action<br />
Battalion (Rab)<br />
arrested four<br />
members of<br />
banned militant<br />
outfit Ansarullah<br />
Bangla Team<br />
(ABT) from different<br />
parts of the<br />
city early Friday,<br />
reports UNB.<br />
Tipped off, a<br />
team of Rab-1<br />
conducted drive<br />
in different parts<br />
of the city and<br />
arrested them,<br />
said Assistant<br />
director of Rab-1<br />
senior ASP<br />
M i z a n u r<br />
Rahman.<br />
The arrestees<br />
were involved in a<br />
plot to kill some<br />
renowned personalities<br />
and<br />
online activists.<br />
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.<br />
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