09-03-2019

saturDay 

Dhaka: March 2, 2019; Falgun 18, 1425 BS; Jamadi-us Sanni 24,1440 hijri 

www.thebangladeshtoday.com; www. tbtbangla.com 

Regd.No.Da~2065, Vol.17; No.36; 8 Pages~Tk.8.00 

international 

SpaceX debuts new 

crew capsule in crucial 

test flight 

>Page 3 

science & tech 

Thoughts on 

digital 

minimalism 

>Page 5 

economy & business 

Kids Run 2019 organized 

by 'The Great 

Bangladesh Run ' held 

>Page 6 

Bangladesh: We'll become unable 

to take new Myanmar refugees 

UNITED NATIONS : Bangladesh's foreign 

secretary said Thursday his country 

will need to stop accepting more refugees 

from Myanmar and accused its government 

of being "obstructionist" about 

bringing back more than 1 million 

Rohingya Muslims who have fled violence, 

reports UNB. 

Myanmar, meanwhile, continued to 

insist it is taking steps toward their return. 

Its ambassador appealed for patience 

from the U.N. Security Council, but several 

members complained about what they 

saw as lagging progress nearly a year after 

a council delegation traveled to see the 

crisis firsthand. 

After a renewed flare-up in violence in 

Myanmar's northern Rakhine State, new 

refugees are still crossing the border to 

Bangladesh, Foreign Secretary Shahidul 

Haque said. 

"As far as repatriation is concerned, the 

situation has gone far from bad to worse," 

he told the council, adding that his country 

"would no longer be in a position to 

accommodate more people from 

Myanmar." 

He didn't say when that might occur. 

More than 700,000 Rohingya have fled 

to Bangladesh since August 2017, when 

BNP's condition to 

worsen in future 

for boycotting 

election; Quader 

DHAKA : Awami League General 

Secretary and Road Transport and 

Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader yesterday 

said that the condition of BNP 

will further worsen in the next general 

election as they are boycotting elections 

one after another. 

"The way BNP is boycotting elections 

one after another, it looks like their condition 

will further worsen in the next 

general election," he said. 

The Awami League General Secretary 

was addressing a press conference at 

the party's Dhanmondi office. Central 

leaders of Awami League were present. 

Mentioning that the BNP participates 

in any election as per their convenience, 

Quader said, "Earlier, they took part in 

four city corporation elections and 

became victorious……….sidetracking 

the election is not at all the democratic 

way. Although BNP is not taking part in 

the election, but their leaders and workers 

are taking part," 

Answering to a question over the low 

voter turnout at the just concluded 

Dhaka North City Corporation election 

held yesterday, Quader said, "The polls 

day was a holiday and many voters 

went to their village homes. Besides, a 

big political party did not take part in 

the election and it was a rain-marred 

day. The city corporation election was 

also a by-election and on the whole, the 

polls day witnessed low turnout". 

Referring to the Dhaka City 

Corporation Election held back in 2001 

where Sadeque Hossain Khoka was 

elected mayor with only 10 percent 

votes, Quader said this election was far 

better than that election as the voters' 

turnout was much higher this time. 

Zohr 

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Rohingya militants attacked Myanmar 

security forces in Rakhine, triggering a 

massive military retaliation that U.N. 

investigators have called genocide. The 

exodus came after hundreds of thousands 

of other Rohingya escaped previous bouts 

of violence and persecution. 

Most people in Buddhist-majority 

Myanmar don't accept the Rohingya 

Muslims as a native ethnic group. They 

are, instead, viewed as illegal immigrants 

from Bangladesh, though generations of 

Rohingya have lived in Myanmar. 

Nearly all have been denied citizenship 

since 1982 and lack access to education 

and hospitals. 

The U.N. General Assembly approved a 

resolution in December strongly condemning 

"gross human rights violations 

and abuses" committed against 

Myanmar's Rohingya. 

Myanmar's government denies claims 

of genocide and ethnic cleansing. The 

country rejects the U.N. investigators' 

work and the General Assembly resolution 

as biased. 

Myanmar has made agreements with 

Bangladesh and U.N. agencies to repatriate 

the Rohingya, but it hasn't happened. 

A plan for refugees to begin returning 

DHAKA : The month-long Amar 

Ekushey Grantha Mela, which 

brought together a diverse mix of the 

country's well-known writers, as well 

as up-and-coming authors, thinkers, 

and entertainers on one stage, will 

come to an end today following 

extension of two-days. 

The month-long Amar Ekushey 

Book Fair, an annual event arranged 

throughout February for bookworms, 

publishers and writers, is drawing to 

a close on Saturday despite all formalities 

were done on Thursday, the 

last day of February. 

On February 1, Prime Minister 

Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the 

month-long fair that is arranged by 

Bangla Academy on the premises of 

the academy and its adjoining 

Suhrawardy Udyan. 

Some 770 stalls of 499 publishing 

houses and other institutions are taking 

part in the fair whose theme of 

this years' is "from 52 to 71, from 71 

to 19-new era". 

On Thursday, Bangla Academy 

Chairman Professor Emeritus 

Anisuzzaman chaired the formal 

closing ceremony which was attended 

by State Minister for Cultural 

Affairs KM Khalid as the chief guest. 

Academy's director and Amar 

Ekushey Book Fair member secretary 

last November was scrapped because officials 

couldn't find anyone willing to go. 

Myanmar had said it was ready to receive 

them, but U.N. officials, human rights 

activists and others had called for waiting 

until the refugees' safety in Myanmar 

could be assured. 

The Bangladeshi foreign secretary said 

Thursday his country had "tried everything" 

with Myanmar but met with "hollow 

promises and various obstructionist 

approaches." 

He urged the Security Council to visit 

the Rohingya refugee camps again and set 

up "safe zones" for people of all backgrounds 

in conflict-torn parts of 

Myanmar. 

Myanmar's U.N. ambassador said his 

country was taking steps to facilitate the 

Rohingya's return. The envoy, Hau Do 

Suan, pointed to three dozen small-scale 

community projects planned "as soon as 

the security condition permits" and to a 

recent investment fair meant to generate 

development in Rakhine. 

"We seek your understanding of the 

practicality and possibilities on the 

ground," Hau told the council, adding 

that building trust in Rakhine "takes time 

and patience, as well as courage." 

Curtain falls on month-long 

Ekushey book fair today 

Jalal Ahmed presented the report of 

the fair while Bangla Academy director 

general Habibullah Siraji delivered 

the welcome speech. 

Jalal Ahmed said the academy has 

sold books worth Taka 2.15 crore. 

According to stall owners, the total 

book sale this year was 10 percent 

higher than the previous year. 

A total of 4685 new books have hit 

the fair till the 28th day on Thursday, 

which has already surpassed last previous 

two year's release of 4134 and 

3646 books respectively. 

Bangla Academy has handed over 

the 'Kabi Jasimuddin Award-2019' to 

poet Nirmalendu Goon who is an 

Ekushey Padak winning litterateur. 

Besides, Chittaranjan Saha Smriti 

Puroskar 2019 was given to publishing 

house Katha Prakash for publishing 

maximum numbers of quality 

books in 2018. 

Prothoma 

Prakashani, 

Journeyman Books and Chandrabati 

Academy jointly won Munier 

Chowdhury Smriti Puraskar 2019 for 

publishing 'Bidrohi Ranaklanto', a 

biography of national poet Kazi 

Nazrul Islam, written by Golam 

Murshid, 'Monorathe Shilper Pothe' 

by Moinuddin Khaled and 'Muthor 

Bhetor Rod' by Maruful Islam respectively. 

Erratic climate affects livelihoods 

in lower Teesta basin: Study 

DHAKA : During the dry season 

from winter through summer 

(November-May), cold, fog, 

droughts, and heat stress gravely 

affect the agriculture and common 

people's livelihoods in lower Teesta 

River basin, says a new study, 

reports BSS. 

The study reveals that the communities 

of Teesta basin in 

Bangladesh use traditional, indigenous 

knowledge and adopt new 

technologies to adapt to the 

adverse effects of erratic climatic 

behaviours, but the current adaptation 

practices are not adequate for 

building resilience of the communities 

and the impacted sectors in the 

lower Teesta basin. 

The study titled 'Climate Change 

Adaptation Strategies and Practices 

in the Lower Teesta Basin in 

Bangladesh' says the communities 

need further support from the government 

to protect them from 

floods and riverbank erosion. 

The HI-AWARE consortium, led 

by the International Centre for 

Integrated Mountain Development 

(ICIMOD), conducted the study, 

while the study report was published 

in December last. 

This study aims to deepen the 

understanding about local climate 

change trends, adaptation 

approaches and strategies of the 

government, NGOs, and other 

actors, and emerging adaptation 

practices in key impacted sectors in 

the lower Teesta basin in 

Bangladesh. 

Due to char appearing on Jamuna River in Sirajganj, people suffer much for their smooth movement from 

one place to another. 

Photo: Star Mail 

Toxic black smoke emitting from the steel and re-rolling mill of Shyampur under Dhaka South City 

Corporation polluting air heavily. The photo was taken from Jurain rail gate area on Friday. Photo: Star Mail 

The other consortium members 

are the Bangladesh Centre for 

Advanced Studies (BCAS), The 

Energy and Resources Institute 

(TERI), the Climate Change, 

Alternative Energy, and Water 

Resources Institute of the Pakistan 

Agricultural Research Council 

(CAEWRI-PARC) and Wageningen 

Environmental Research (Alterra). 

According to the study, the people 

living in the Teesta River basin 

must be able to cope with the 

impacts of climate change, such as 

frequent floods, droughts, and 

riverbank erosion as farmers here 

mainly depend on agriculture, then 

fisheries and livestock for their 

livelihoods. 

The study found that the government 

of Bangladesh and NGOs 

have taken adaptation actions in 

the agricultural, fisheries, livestock, 

housing, energy, and water 

resources sectors to minimise vulnerabilities 

in people's lives and 

livelihoods by understanding current 

vulnerability and resilience in 

different sectors, identifying 

knowledge gaps and needs among 

practitioners, and enhancing stakeholder 

perception of climatic 

change and adaptation. 

"In addition, the practitioners 

from the government and NGOs at 

the national and local levels need to 

take appropriate decisions in developing 

an engagement plan, encouraging 

networking amongst themselves, 

and evaluating and learning 

in the context of climate change," 

the study says. 

According to the research, some 

of these adaptation options may 

require appropriate modifications 

to upscale these efforts and take 

them to other ecosystems and conditions. 

Effective adaptation would 

require the integration of indigenous 

knowledge with modern 

knowledge and technologies, local 

competence, innovation, resources 

allocation for the poor and the 

involvement of the local community 

through the local government. 

The study stresses the need for 

working jointly by the government, 

NGOs, and civil society and designing 

appropriate and innovative 

adaptation measures, strategies, 

and practices to cope with climate 

change impacts and reduce vulnerability. 

The Teesta River basin, regarded 

as one of the important food baskets 

of the country, has been experiencing 

varied changes in climate 

variability like temperature rise, 

heat stress, low and erratic rainfall, 

and prolonged droughts, falling 

groundwater levels, and climatic 

extremes such as frequent and devastating 

floods, riverbank erosion, 

and thunderstorms. 

These climate changes and other 

stressors are hurting sectors such 

as agriculture, water, sanitation 

and health, fisheries, food security, 

regional infrastructure, housing, 

and the livelihoods of the common 

people. 

Observing Voter Day is 

a mockery: Mosharrof 

DHAKA : BNP leader Khandaker 

Mosharraf Hossain on Friday said 

observing the national voter day after 

robbing the people of their voting 

rights is a mockery with the nation, 

reports UNB. 

"The people's voting rightswere 

snatched through the December 30 

national election and yesterday's 

(Thursday) by-election to Dhaka 

North City Corporation Mayor post," 

he said. 

Mosharraf, a BNP standing committee 

member, made the remarks after 

placing wreath at party founder Ziaur 

Rahman's grave marking the 

Jatiyatabadi Matshyajibi Dal's 40th 

founding anniversary. 

He said the people did not go to vote 

in the by-election. "They went to 

polling stations where the councilor 

election was held," he said, adding that 

it was "surprising the Awami League 

candidategot over eight lakh votes". 

He accused the government of ballot 

stuffing, saying the voters protested 

against "vote robbery by the ruling 

party and administration in the 

national election" by not showing up. 

"People have lost their confidence in 

the government and the election commission. 

That's why they didn't cast 

their votes," he said. 

The BNP leader said it is now a big 

challenge for their party to restore 

democracy and give people their voting 

rightsback. 

"We are reorganising our party and 

associate bodies. We believe the BNP 

will make a comeback and restore 

democracy and people's voting rights," 

he said.

NEWS 

SATURDAY, 

MARCh 9, 2019 

2 

'DIK Theater' of Shahjalal University of science and technology observed 6th National Drama festivel-2019 

marking It’s founding anniversary. Former cultural Minister Asaduzzaman Nur was inaugurated 

the program was present as the chief guest on Thursday 7 march ,2019 in University campus. 

Photo: Khandaker Md. Golam Sarwar Sium. 

Super bumper groundnut output 

likely in Rangpur region 

RANGPUR : Experts of the 

Department of Agriculture Extension 

(DAE) are expecting a super bumper 

output of groundnut after farmers 

exceeded its fixed farming target by 

7.53 percent in Rangpur agriculture 

region this season, reports BSS. 

"A target of producing 9,325 tonnes 

of groundnut from 5,298 hectares of 

land was fixed for all five districts in 

the region during this Rabi season," 

said Horticulture Specialist of DAE at 

its regional office here Agriculturist 

Khondker Md Mesbahul Islam. 

However, farmers have cultivated 

groundnut on 5,697 hectares of land 

exceeding the fixed farming target by 

399 hectares or 7.53 percent this time. 

"The farmers have cultivated 

groundnut on 780 hectares of land in 

Rangpur, 1,180 hectares in 

Gaibandha, 2,706 hectares in 

Kurigram, 975 hectares in 

Lalmonirhat and 56 hectares of land in 

Nilphamari districts in the region this 

season," Islam said. 

He said farmers are expected to 

harvest over 10,000 tonnes groundnut 

to exceed the fixed production target of 

Dua mahfil 

helds at 

LGED 

Seeking cure of Bangladesh 

Awami League General 

Secretary and Road and 

Bridge Minister Obaidul 

Quader MP, a dua mahfil 

was held after juma prayer 

at Agargaon LGED mosque 

on Friday, a press release 

said. 

LGED chief Engineer Md 

Abul Kalam Azad, 

Additional Chief Engineer 

and other officials were also 

participated in the Mahfil. 

5 Ashulia garment 

workers burned 

by boiling water 

DHAKA : Five workers of a 

garment factory in Ashulia 

got burned by the boiling 

water of a dying machine on 

Thursday, reports BSS. 

The persons suffering 

from the burns are - factory 

operator Ramjan, Nuru, 

Saju, dying in-charge Monir 

Hosen and Kalam. 

Out of five, three with 

major injuries were 

immediately rushed to the 

burn and plastic surgery 

unit of Dhaka Medical 

Hospital, while the other 

two were admitted to the 

East West Hospital in 

Turag. 

Senior Station Officer of 

Savar DEPZ fire service 

Abdul Hamid told BSS that, 

the accident happened on 

Thursday night at the thread 

factory named 'One Thread 

BD' in Jamgar area of 

Ashulia. 

The workers of the factory 

said the night shift workers 

were working at the factory 

with the dying machine 

while suddenly they got 

burnt by the boiling hot 

water. 

The manager of the 

factory, Riyajur Rahman, 

said that the workers 

suffered burns due to their 

negligence. 

9,325 tonnes by 675 tonnes of the cash 

crop as its tender plants are growing 

superbly now predicting super 

bumper output. 

Deputy Director of the DAE at its 

regional office Agriculturist Md. 

Moniruzzaman said farmers are 

getting excellent groundnut output 

following expanded cultivation of its 

high yielding varieties evolved by 

Bangladesh Agriculture Research 

Institute (BARI). 

"Groundnut cultivation has become 

a profitable venture inspiring farmers 

to expand its farming both on 

mainland and char areas after they got 

repeated bumper output with lucrative 

price in recent years," he said. 

"The farmers are getting 1.35 to 1.95 

tonnes of groundnut yield per hectare 

following expanded cultivation of the 

BRRI-evolved high yielding varieties 

of the crop having increasing demand 

in local markets," Moniruzzaman 

added. 

Groundnut trader Mokhlesur 

Rahman at Rangpur City Bazar a 

farmer could earn a net profit of Taka 

30,000 to 40,000 by producing 22 to 

'Showcase Bangladesh' in 

Malaysia on April 24 

DHAKA : The Bangladesh-Malaysia 

Chamber of Commerce and Industry 

(BMCCI) is going to organise "Showcase 

Bangladesh 2018" in Kuala Lumpur on April 

24 for promoting Bangladeshi products in 

the Malaysian market, reports BSS. 

"The showcase will be held on April 24 at 

the Royale Chulan Hotel in Kuala Lumpur 

for creating brand awareness about the 

Bangladeshi products and services to the 

Malaysian entrepreneurs," BMCCI President 

Syed Moazzam Hossain told BSS. 

BMCCI is organizing the fair in 

collaboration with the Bangladesh High 

Commission in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 

South-South Association (MASSA) and 

Malaysia External Trade Development 

Corporation (MATRADE), he informed. 

He said the 'Showcase Bangladesh' aims at 

expanding the bilateral trade between 

Bangladesh and Malaysia by facilitating 

business-to-business interaction among 

interested companies. 

"Such events would set an effective 

platform for greater people-to-people 

RAJSHAHI : A total of 

1,418 students from 35 

schools in Rajshahi city 

received prizes for their 

laudable performance in 

book 

reading 

hereyesterday, reports 

BSS. 

Bishwa Sahitya Kendra 

(BSK) provided the 

students with the prizes at 

a ceremony held on 

Rajshahi Education Board 

Government Model School 

and College premises. 

Over 4,000 students took 

part in the year-round 

book reading programme 

for flourishing their latent 

talents. 

BSK under its Reading 

Habit Programme 

organised the programme 

in association with 

Secondary Education 

Quality and Access 

Enhancement Project 

(SEQAEP) 

and 

GrameenPhone to give 

away prizes among the 

students who show their 

good performance in the 

evaluation phase. 

Eminent litterateur 

Hasan Azizul Haque 

attended the award-giving 

ceremony as the chief 

guest. 

Cultural personality 

Khairul Alam Sabuj, 

television presenter Dr 

Abdun Nur Tusser, 

Regional Director of 

Department of Secondary 

25 mounds of groundnut per acre of 

land excluding farming costs of Taka 

15,000 to 17,000 per acre. 

Groundnut farmers Abdul Kader, 

Moshiar Rahman, Ruhul Amin and 

Zaved Ali of Char Biswanath and 

Tepamadhupur villages in Kawnia 

upazila of Rangpur said they changed 

fortune through farming groundnut 

on sandy-barren char lands. 

Similarly, farmers Rezaul Islam, 

Mukul Mian, Bakul Mian and 

Azimuddin of different villages here 

said they achieved self-reliance 

through groundnut cultivation on char 

lands in recent years to lead better life 

with their family members. 

Talking to BSS, Rangpur Regional 

Additional Director of the DAE 

Agriculturist Md. Shah Alam predicted 

bumper production of groundnut this 

time saying that harvest of the crop 

will begin from the next month. 

"Many farmers have improved their 

livelihoods as well as fortune through 

farming groundnut twice annually 

during the Rabi and Kharif-1 seasons 

in the region in recent years," Alam 

added. 

connectivity and mutual economic growth," 

he added. 

Moazzam Hossain said Bangladesh has 

lucrative export product lines in terms of 

quality and sustainability, like readymade 

oven and knit garments, frozen fish, leather 

goods, jute and jute products, tea, 

pharmaceutical products, ceramic 

tableware, halal products, leather products 

and ICT. 

He said BMCCI is not only promoting 

Bangladeshi products in Malaysia but also 

offering better investment opportunities for 

the Malaysian entrepreneurs in Bangladesh. 

"The showcase targets holding several 

interactive networking options both for 

Bangladeshi and Malaysian business 

people," he added. 

Several business seminars and a grand 

gala dinner followed by Bangladeshi 

cultural night will be organized where high 

profile political leaders, ministers, 

diplomats, business and chamber leaders, 

government officials and registered 

delegates will attend. 

1,418 students get prize 

for reading books in 

Rajshahi 

and Higher Education Prof 

Dr Abdul Mannan, Everest 

Conqueror Abdul Muhit 

and Principal of Rajshahi 

Education Board 

Government Model and 

School Prof Taifur 

Rahman, among others, 

joined the event. 

Speaking on the 

occasion, Professor Haque 

said book always makes 

people beautiful, brighten 

and prosperous. Only the 

people enriched with 

prosperous heart can build 

bright Bangladesh. 

He also underscored the 

need for reaching books at 

the doorsteps of the 

readers to make it 

happened. 

2 killed as picnic bus 

crashes into truck in 

Bagerhat 

BAGERHAT : Two people 

were killed and ten others 

injured when a picnic bus 

hit a stationary truck on 

Bagerhat-Khulna highway 

at Ronbijoypur in Sadar 

upazila early Friday, reports 

UNB. 

The deceased were 

identified as Garibullah, 45, 

son of Makbul and Kibria, 

22, son of Kashem of 

Shoilakupa upazila in 

Jhenaidah district. 

Mahtabuddin, officer-incharge 

of Sadar Model 

Police Station, said the 

accident took place around 

5 am when the 

Sundarbans-bound picnic 

bus from Jhenaidah 

crashed into the stationary 

truck, which went out of 

order, leaving one dead on 

the spot and 11 others 

injured. 

The injured were taken to 

Sadar Hospital where 

doctors declared one dead. 

The picnickers met the 

accident while heading 

towards Sundarbans after a 

stopover at Khan Jahan Ali 

shrine. 

On information, police 

recovered the bodies and 

sent those to local hospital 

morgue. The deceased was 

identified as Rajab Ali, 55 of 

Damurhuda upazila. 

Missing Satkhira 

student found 

dead in Khulna 

SATKHIRA : A college 

student from Satkhira was 

found dead in Khulna City 

on Friday, three days after 

he had gone missing, 

reports UNB. 

Habibur Rahman Sabuj, 

26, was the son of Abdul 

Hamid of Omarpara 

village of Satkhira Sadar 

Upazila. 

"His family got a call 

from his number this 

morning. The caller said 

they had Sabuj and 

demanded Tk 6 lakh in 

ransom," said Mustafizur 

Rahman, officer-in-charge 

of Sadar Police Station. 

Abdul Hamid, Sabuj's 

father, said his son went to 

Khulna on Tuesday 

morning and was expected 

to return the next day. 

Hamid filed a complaint at 

the local police station on 

Thursday evening. 

"My son had a business 

deal in Khulna. He was 

also implicated in a case 

over this issue and had 

served jail term," the 

man said. "His murder is 

likely related to his 

business." 

Minor girl killed 

in Benapole gas 

cylinder blast 

BENAPOLE : A four yearold 

girl was killed in a gas 

cylinder explosion at 

Pathbari here on Friday 

The deceased was 

identified as Toha Khatun, 

daughter of Badsha Mia of 

the area, reports UNB. 

The gas cylinder went off 

with a big bang when Toha 

was playing in the kitchen, 

leaving her burn injured, 

said family members. 

Later she was taken to a 

private hospital in the 

district town where doctors 

declared her dead. 

Man killed in 

Chuadanga 

road crash 

CHUADANGA : A man was 

killed when a truck hit a 

bicycle at Bhalaipur intersection 

in Alamdanga upazila 

on Friday, reports UNB. 

The deceased was 

identified as Rajab Ali, 55 of 

Damurhuda upazila. 

Witnesses said the sandladen 

truck hit the bicycle 

carrying Rajab Ali while it 

was heading towards 

Chuadanga, leaving him 

dead on the spot, said 

Asaduzzaman, officer-incharge 

of Alamdanga Police 

Station. 

3-day media boot camp 

competition begins at RU 

RAJSHAHI : A three-day media boot 

camp competition began at Rajshahi 

University (RU) today aiming at devising 

ways and means on how to face the 

upcoming challenges in the field of 

journalism, reports BSS. 

RU's Department of Mass Communication 

and Journalism (MCJ) and Department of 

Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) 

jointly organized the camp titled 'Media Tech 

Challenge Boot Camp Competition-2019' at 

Computer Science and Engineering 

laboratory in association with Germany's 

Deutsche Welle Academy. 

MCJ Chairman Prof Abdullah Al Mamun, 

CSE Chairman Prof Bimal Kumar Pramanik, 

Asia Regional Project Manager of Deutsche 

Welle Academy Andria Mar Shal and its 

Bangladesh part consultant Dr Lutfa Ahmed 

and trainers Marchas Buesh, Olga 

Kishelman and Daniel Saidez addressed the 

inaugural session. 

Splitting into some groups, more than 40 

students from MCJ, CSE and some other 

likeminded institutions are taking part in the 

competition. 

Many issues like means of identification 

and prevention of fake news, journalism 

expansion in social media and facebook live, 

enriching the field of online journalism and 

strategy formulation of learning method for 

mobile and other online journalism are likely 

to be discussed in the camp. 

RANGPUR : Literary personalities and 

officials at a function have stressed on 

building book-reading habit to acquire 

knowledge for becoming progressive citizens 

to build an enlightened society, reports BSS. 

They viewed this at launching ceremony of 

the 11-day Swadhinota Rangpur Book Fair- 

2019 organised by Rangpur Sommilito 

Lekhok Samaj on the Public Library ground 

in the city on Thursday afternoon. 

Thirty-three stalls have been set up on the 

fair premises by 30 publication houses 

including 20 from the capital city and 13 

literary organisations from Rangpur city. 

The visitors can purchase novels, story 

books and collections of poems, books for 

the children and other popular books 

recently displayed in the Ekushey Book Fair- 

2019 in the capital city. 

The book fair will remain open daily from 

3pm to 9pm with provisions of special hours 

for children from 3pm on the Fridays and 

holidays. Rangpur Metropolitan Police 

Commissioner Abdul Alim Mahmud 

inaugurated the fair by cutting ribbon in the 

launching ceremony as the chief guest with 

Convener of the fair organising committee 

Youths won't 

seek jobs: Palak 

DHAKA : State Minister for Information and 

Communication Technology (ICT) Zunaid Ahmed Palak 

today said the youths of the country will not seek jobs, rather 

they will provide jobs through developing innovative ideas, 

reports BSS. 

"We don't want to give food to the youths for a day ….but 

we want to give them food forever," he said while 

inaugurating 'Student to Start-UP : Chapter One', a kind of 

entrepreneurship development plan, jointly implemented by 

the country's largest youth platform -Young Bangla and 

Innovation Design and Entrepreneurship Academy (IDEA) 

project under the ICT division at city's Agargaon. 

With Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) Executive 

Director Parthoprotim Dev in the chair, the programme was 

also addressed, among others, by ICT Division Secretary NM 

Ziaul Alam, Center for Research and Information (CRI) 

Coordinator Tonmoy Ahmed and IDEA Project Director 

Syed Mujibul Haq. 

Under the project, the State Minister said the government 

will launch more 1000 Start-Ups within 2021. In the first 

phase, the project will be implemented at 40 universities and 

then all the universities will come under the programme, the 

minister added. 

The start-up plan will be developed by the university 

students and the first national start-up camp which would be 

formed with 120 start-up teams coming from 40 universities 

across the country will be held at Savar. 

Of these groups, 10 start-up teams will be selected as best 

entrepreneurs which will get all financial assistance and 

consultations from the ICT project for implementing their 

plans. 

The discussants hoped that the 

competition will help generating competent 

workshop to fulfill the gradually mounting 

demands in various journalistic fields 

especially mobile and electronic journalism. 

They viewed that there is no alternative to 

make the working journalists competent in 

various platforms to survive in the present 

and upcoming competitive era of flourishing 

information technology. 

Tanzina Rahman, who is taking part in the 

competition from MCJ, mentioned that a 

journalist who uses portable electronic 

devices like smartphones or tablets to gather, 

edit and disseminate content is known as a 

mobile journalist. 

The term 'mobile journalism' means using 

smartphones in collecting, editing, 

broadcasting and publishing news stories. As 

technology improves steadily, mobile 

reporting becomes more established in 

newsrooms. 

Modern mass media, widely known as 

mobile or smartphone journalism, became a 

useful instrument to spread information as it 

unfolds information. Many media experts 

have already confirmed that the future will 

be mobile oriented which is really changing 

the trend of today's journalism. 

She told BSS that the future journalists will 

get scopes of enlightening the journalism 

profession through various innovative 

activities. 

Book-reading habit stressed 

to build enlightened society 

Sayeed Sahedul Islam in the chair. 

Acting Deputy Commissioner Ruhul Amin 

Mian, City Awami League President Shafiur 

Rahman Shafi and Executive Member of 

Bangladesh Shilpokola Academy Biplob 

Prasad addressed as special guests. 

Literary personalities Professor 

Mozammel Haque, Dr. Mofizul Islam 

Mantu, AKM Shahidur Rahman Bishu and 

Professor Md. Shah Alam and Akbar 

Hossain spoke. 

Joint Convener of the fair organising 

committee Manjil Murad Lavlu delivered 

welcome speech in the ceremony moderated 

by its Member-secretary Rezaul Karim 

Jiban. 

The speakers said the book fair would 

inspire common people, especially young 

generations, in building book-reading habit, 

literary and cultural activities to further 

enrich Bengali culture and literary heritage. 

The chief guest said everyone should read 

books to acquire diversified knowledge and 

become knowledgeable citizen with human 

virtue on way to build an enlightened and 

peaceful society free from social curses, 

terrorism, drug and militancy. 

People greet Venezuelan Congress President Juan Guaido during the Ash 

Wednesday Mass celebrations in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, March 6, 

2019. The U.S. and more than 50 governments recognize Guaido as interim 

president, saying President Nicolas Maduro wasn't legitimately re-elected last 

year because opposition candidates weren't permitted to run. Photo: AP 

Int'l Women's 

Day observed 

in Ctg 

CHATTOGRAM :The 

International Women's Day 

was 

observed in port city and 

its adjacent districts in a 

befitting manner on 

Friday with the focus on 

gender equality and 

empowerment of women, 

reports BSS. 

The theme for 

International Women's Day 

this year was "Think Equal, 

Build Smart, Innovate for 

Change", which puts 

innovation by women and 

girls, for women and girls, at 

the heart of efforts to 

achieve gender equality. 

The Chattogram City 

Corporation (CCC), district 

and 

upazila 

administrations, 

Department of Women's 

Affairs (DWA), different 

NGOs, socio-cultural and 

professional bodies chalked 

out elaborate programmes 

in observance of the day in 

all upazilas and districts.

INTERNATIONAL SATURDAy, 

MARCH 9, 2019 

3 

This undated photo provided by Paul Tixier in March 2019 shows a Type D killer whale. Photo : AP 

Scientists discover different kind 

of killer whale off Chile 

For decades, there were tales from 

fishermen and tourists, even lots of 

photos, of a mysterious killer whale 

that just didn't look like all the others, 

but scientists had never seen 

one. Now they have, reports UNB. 

An international team of 

researchers says they found a couple 

dozen of these distinctly different 

orcas roaming in the oceans off 

southern Chile in January. Scientists 

are waiting for DNA tests from a tissue 

sample but think it may be a distinct 

species. 

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration felt confident 

enough to trumpet the discovery of 

the long rumored killer whale on 

Thursday. Some outside experts 

were more cautious, acknowledging 

the whales are different, but saying 

they'd wait for the test results to 

answer the species question. 

"This is the most different looking 

UN calls for 

funding to grant 

more disabled 

children quality 

education 

The United Nations Children's 

Fund (UNICEF) is 

calling for investments in the 

availability and affordability 

of assistive technologies 

such as special tablets and 

lightweight wheelchairs, a 

UN spokesperson said 

Thursday, reports UNB. 

"Evidence points to millions 

of children with disabilities 

never entering 

school, and, for those that 

do, hundreds of thousands 

of them are segregated from 

their peers and communities," 

said Stephane Dujarric, 

spokesman for UN Secretary-General 

Antonio 

Guterres, at a regular briefing. 

"This is a tragic waste of 

potential for these children, 

their families, national 

economies and society," 

UNICEF Regional Director 

for Europe and Central Asia 

Afshan Khan said. 

killer whale I've ever seen," said 

Robert Pitman, a NOAA marine 

ecologist in San Diego. He was part 

of the team that spotted the orcas off 

Cape Horn at the tip of South America. 

How different? The whale's signature 

large white eye patch is tiny on 

these new guys, barely noticeable. 

Their heads are a bit more rounded 

and less sleek than normal killer 

whales and their dorsal fins are narrower 

and pointed. 

They likely mostly eat fish, not 

marine mammals like seals, as other 

killer whales do, Pitman said. Fishermen 

have complained about how 

good they are at poaching off fishing 

lines, snatching 200-pound fish 

away. Pitman said they are so different 

they probably can't breed with 

other killer whales and are likely a 

new species. At 20 to 25 feet long (6 

to 7.5 meters), they are slightly 

smaller than most killer whales. In 

the Southern Hemisphere, killer 

whales are considered all one 

species, classified in types A through 

C. This one is called type D or subantarctic 

killer whales. 

Michael McGowen, marine mammal 

curator at the Smithsonian, said 

calling it a new species without 

genetic data may be premature. Still, 

he said, "I think it's pretty remarkable 

that there are still many things 

out there in the ocean like a huge 

killer whale that we don't know 

about." 

Scientists have heard about these 

distinctive whales ever since a mass 

stranding in New Zealand in 1955. 

Scientists initially thought it could 

be one family of killer whales that 

had a specific mutation, but the January 

discovery and all the photos in 

between point to a different type, 

Pitman said. 

Can Zuckerberg really make a 

privacy-friendly Facebook? 

After building a social network that turned 

into a surveillance system, Facebook CEO 

Mark Zuckerberg says he's shifting his company's 

focus to messaging services designed 

to serve as fortresses of privacy. 

Instead of just being the network that connects 

everyone, Facebook wants to encourage 

small groups of people to carry on 

encrypted conversations that neither Facebook 

nor any other outsider can read. It also 

plans to let messages automatically disappear, 

a feature pioneered by its rival 

Snapchat that could limit the risks posed by 

a trail of social media posts that follow people 

throughout their lives. 

It's a major bet by Zuckerberg, who sees it 

as a way to push Facebook more firmly into 

a messaging market that's growing faster 

than its main social networking business. It 

might also help Facebook ward off government 

regulators, although the Facebook 

CEO made clear that he expects the company's 

messaging business to complement, not 

replace, its core businesses, reports UNB. 

But there are plenty of obstacles. Facebook 

has weathered more than two years of turbulence 

for repeated privacy lapses, spreading 

disinformation, allowing Russian agents to 

conduct targeted propaganda campaigns 

and a rising tide of hate speech and abuse. 

Zuckerberg submitted to two days of grilling 

on Capitol Hill last April. All that increases 

the challenge of convincing users that Facebook 

really means it about privacy this time. 

Encrypted conversations could alleviate 

some of those problems, but it could make 

others worse. Security is an "admirable goal," 

said Forrester Research analyst Fatemeh 

Khatibloo. "I'm just not sure it addresses the 

bigger issues Facebook is facing right now." 

Facebook grew into a colossus by vacuuming 

up people's information in every possible 

way and dissecting it to shoot targeted ads 

back at them. Anything that jeopardizes that 

machine could pose a major threat to the 

company's share price, which would also 

affect its ability to attract and retain talented 

engineers and other employees. 

In a Wednesday interview with The Associated 

Press, Zuckerberg predicted Facebook's 

emphasis on privacy will do more to 

help the company's business than hurt it. 

While most of the stock market slipped in 

Wednesday trading, Facebook's shares 

gained $1.25 to close at $172.51. 

The Facebook CEO has been telegraphing 

some of these changes to investors for the 

past six months, but his Wednesday blog 

post is the first time he has explained the 

idea to the more than two billion people that 

use Facebook's services and look at its ads. 

Those ads are expected to generate $67 billion 

in revenue this year, according to the 

research firm eMarketer. 

In Russia, gender 

equality still a 

long way off 

When a Russian army 

recruitment office ordered a 

photoshoot to celebrate 

International Women's Day, 

it didn't feature any of the 

45,000 women currently 

serving in the country's 

armed forces. Instead, the 

photos showed ballerinas in 

floaty white dresses posing 

with active servicemen in 

combats and machine guns, 

reports UNB. 

While 

International 

Women's Day is marked Friday 

across many countries 

with calls for gender equality, 

in Russia it is still a holiday 

largely focused on celebrating 

outdated gender 

roles. President Vladimir 

Putin makes an annual 

speech thanking women for 

their patience, good grace 

and support. 

Women in Russia may 

hold prominent positions in 

the government - including 

the influential chief of the 

Central Bank and speaker of 

the upper chamber of parliament 

- but traditional gender 

roles still hold sway, and 

efforts to address problems 

like the gender pay gap, 

domestic violence and sexual 

harassment have hardly 

scratched the surface. 

India's top court 

orders mediation in 

Hindu temple dispute 

India's top court set up a 

mediation team Friday to try 

to settle a land dispute 

between Muslims and Hindus 

over plans to build a 

Hindu temple on a site 

where hard-liners demolished 

a 16th century 

mosque, reports UNB. 

Attorney Vishnu Jain said 

the court gave the threemember 

team four weeks to 

submit its report. A retired 

Supreme Court judge will 

head the panel. 

If the mediation bid fails, 

the Supreme Court will settle 

the dispute. 

The court is hearing petitions 

challenging a 2010 

lower court ruling that 1.12 

hectares (2.77 acres) of disputed 

land be partitioned 

among the Hindus and the 

Muslims. 

Apple CEO trumps Trump, reframing 

his name game 

Trump disappointed by activity 

at North Korea missile sites 

President Donald Trump said Thursday that 

he's a "little disappointed" by reports of new 

activity at a North Korean missile research 

center and long-range rocket site and that 

time will tell if U.S. diplomacy with the reclusive 

country will be successful, reports UNB. 

South Korea's military said it is carefully 

monitoring North Korean nuclear and missile 

facilities after the country's spy agency 

told lawmakers that new activity was detected 

at a research center where the North is 

believed to build long-range missiles targeting 

the U.S. mainland. 

Defense Ministry spokeswoman Choi 

Hyun-soo said the U.S. and South Korean 

militaries are sharing intelligence over the 

developments at the North's missile research 

center in Sanumdong on the outskirts of the 

capital, Pyongyang, and at a separate longrange 

rocket site. She did not elaborate on 

what the developments were. 

Asked if he was disappointed in the new 

activity, Trump told reporters at the White 

House that he was "a little disappointed." 

Then he said time will determine the future 

of U.S. efforts to get North Korean leader 

Kim Jong Un to give up his pursuit of nuclear 

weapons in exchange for relief from sanctions 

stalling economic growth. 

"We'll let you know in about a year," 

Trump told the reporters. 

Briefing reporters at the State Department 

later, a senior U.S. official said that 

despite the new activity and the failure of 

last month's Trump-Kim summit in Hanoi 

to reach a denuclearization deal, the 

administration still believes it can reach 

and implement an agreement by the end of 

the president's first term. The official said 

it is important that progress be made 

quickly but that the goal is "achievable" by 

January 2021. 

The official said that the U.S. is still trying 

to determine exactly what North Korea is 

doing with recent activity but that the 

administration will seek clarification from 

the North as well as intelligence analysts. 

The official said the Trump administration 

did not necessarily agree with nongovernmental 

analysts who believe the activity is a 

sign of North Korean anger following the 

summit. The official was not authorized to 

speak publicly to the state of negotiations 

with the North Koreans and spoke on condition 

of anonymity. 

Trump said on Wednesday that his relationship 

with Kim remained "good" even 

though Trump walked away from negotiations 

at their high-profile meeting in Vietnam, 

saying the North's concessions on its 

nuclear program weren't enough to warrant 

sanctions relief. 

Trump has favored direct talks with Kim, 

but the next stage of negotiations is likely to 

be conducted at lower levels. Trump's envoy 

to North Korea, Steve Biegun, had lunch 

Wednesday at the State Department with his 

counterparts from Japan and South Korea. 

The South Koreans have proposed semiofficial 

three-way talks with the United States 

and North Korea as it works to put nuclear 

diplomacy back on track. 

U.S. mortgage rate ends its 

downward trend: Freddie Mac 

Mortgage rate in the United 

States ended its downward 

pattern, signaling a 

positive spring home buying 

season, said the U.S. 

Federal Home Loan Mortgage 

Corporation, commonly 

known as Freddie 

Mac, on Thursday, reports 

UNB. 

For the week ending on 

March 7, 30-year fixed-rate 

mortgage (FRM) in the 

United States reached 4.41 

percent, while the previous 

week's figure was 4.35 percent. 

For the same period a 

year ago, the 30-year FRM 

averaged 4.46 percent, 

according to Freddie Mac. 

"While mortgage rates 

very modestly rose to 4.41 

percent this week, they 

remain below year-ago levels 

for the fourth week in a 

row," said Sam Khater, 

chief economist of Freddie 

Mac. 

Besides, Freddie Mac 

noted that 15-year FRM 

this week edged up to 3.83 

percent, which was also 

higher than previous 

week's reading of 3.77 percent. 

For the same period 

a year ago, the figure was 

3.94 percent. 

"In late 2018, mortgage 

rates rose over a full percentage 

point from the prior 

year, which was one of 

the main reasons that 

weakness in home sales 

continued into early 2019," 

Khater said. "However, the 

impact of recent lower rates 

and a strong labor market 

has led to a rise in purchase 

mortgage demand as we 

start the spring home buying 

season." 

Freddie Mac is a corporation 

founded by U.S. Congress, 

aiming at promoting 

the stability and affordability 

in the U.S. housing market 

by purchasing mortgages 

from banks and other 

loan makers. It has been 

conducting weekly surveys 

on U.S. mortgage rate since 

April 1971. 

To President Donald Trump, it was an awkward slip of the 

lip. To Apple CEO Tim Cook, it was an opportunity to poke 

some sly fun at a president who has often clashed with the 

tech industry. 

A day after Trump mistakenly referred to Cook at a White 

House meeting as "Tim Apple" - an understandable slip, perhaps, 

coming from the owner of the Trump Organization - 

Cook quietly altered his Twitter profile , replacing his last 

name with the Apple logo, reports UNB. 

Cook didn't publicly acknowledge the change, but it didn't 

take long for Apple fans to notice and spread the word. 

Non-Apple fans, though, may not get the joke. Cook's 

Apple-logo icon is only visible on iPhones and Mac computers. 

On Windows, it's a blank square; on Android, it renders 

variously as an X-ed out or blank gray rectangle. ("Tim 

Square" was probably not the connotation the Apple CEO 

was going for.) 

That's not wholly surprising for Apple, which famously 

prefers its own devices and software over others. Apple didn't 

respond to a query about the logo misstep (if indeed it was 

a misstep). 

The White House, meanwhile, appears to be engaged in 

some damage control. In the official transcript of the meeting 

, the words "Tim" and "Apple" are separated by a dash as if 

Trump had paused, possibly to thank both the executive and 

the company. 

At least 4 dead in clash between 

Papuans, Indonesia military 

Three Indonesian soldiers and at 

least one Papuan independence 

fighter were killed in a gunbattle, the 

military said, adding to more than 

two dozen deaths in the conflict 

since November, reports UNB. 

A force of 50-70 rebels armed with 

military-grade weapons as well as 

spears and arrows attacked a group 

of 25 soldiers in Nduga district in a 

battle lasting several hours Thursday, 

said Muhammad Aidi, the military 

spokesman for Indonesia's easternmost 

Papua region. 

The jungled highlands district was 

the location of a December attack by 

Papuan fighters on workers at a construction 

site for the trans Papua 

highway that killed 19. Large numbers 

of people have been displaced 

by military and police security operations 

since the Dec. 2 attack. 

At least 31 people have died since 

early November in an apparent escalation 

of attacks by the West Papua 

National Liberation Army. The figure 

doesn't include unconfirmed 

civilian deaths that Papuan activists 

say resulted from security operations 

following the Dec. 2 attack. 

Aidi said the military killed seven 

to 10 of the Papuan fighters but only 

found one body, saying the rest were 

carried away by other fighters. Sebby 

Sambom, a spokesman for the liberation 

army, said five soldiers were 

killed and admitted no deaths for the 

Papuan fighters. Both sides claimed 

to have captured weapons. 

An insurgency has simmered in 

Papua, which makes up the western 

half of the island of New Guinea, 

since the early 1960s when Indonesia 

annexed the Dutch-controlled 

territory. 

Discrimination against indigenous 

Papuans and abuses by Indonesian 

police and military have drawn 

renewed attention globally as 

Indonesia campaigns for membership 

in the U.N.'s human rights 

watchdog. 

The exiled leader of the Papuan 

independence movement, Benny 

Wenda, in January presented a 1.8 

million-signature petition calling for 

self-determination to the U.N. 

human rights chief in Geneva. 

Aidi said the soldiers had arrived 

in the area to guard work on the 

trans Papua highway and the attack 

was unprovoked. According to Sambom, 

the soldiers had burned traditional 

dwellings and interrogated villagers, 

hoping to get information 

about liberation army positions. 

Two helicopters sent to take the 

bodies of the three killed soldiers to 

the mining town of Timika were shot 

at but eventually landed after 

Indonesian forces returned fire, Aidi 

said. 

In this Wednesday, March 6, 2019 file photo, President Donald Trump talks to Apple Inc. CEO Tim 

Cook during the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board's first meeting in the State Dining 

Room of the White House in Washington. To President Donald Trump, it was an awkward slip of the 

lip. To Apple CEO Tim Cook, it was an opportunity to poke some lighthearted fun at a president who 

has often clashed with the tech industry. A day after Trump mistakenly referred to Cook at a 

Wednesday White House meeting as "Tim Apple" - an understandable slip, perhaps, coming from 

the head of the Trump Organization - Cook quietly changed his Twitter account, replacing his last 

name with the Apple logo. 

Photo : AP

EDITORIAL 

SATURdAY, 

MARCh 9, 2019 

4 

Inhuman treatment of ailing Sharif may hurt PTI 

Acting Editor & Publisher : Jobaer Alam 

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

e-mail: editor@thebangladeshtoday.com 

Saturday, March 9, 2019 

Torments of urban life 

For the citizens of Dhaka as indeed those coming to and 

going out of Dhaka almost daily, traffic movement is a 

nightmare for both. The first category-- school-going 

children and daily office-goers-- face the horror of long 

commuting hours. 

Medical experts say that it has an adverse effect on health and 

make them easy victims of various diseases not the least of 

which is mental strain. For many in the roads, it is a common 

sight to see children in vehicles falling asleep due to physical 

strain further aggravated by air and noise pollution. 

In some big cities outside Bangladesh, the levels of air and 

noise pollution are recorded and shown daily in the television. 

Not so in Bangladesh. It is possible that the Directorate of 

Environment (DoE) lacks the necessary facilities. The DoE, 

however, does have the facility to detect noise pollution on a site 

to site basis only upon any complaint received from those 

affected. Special mobile courts move in and impose fines. 

The biggest contributor to noise pollution in the city comes 

from the use of big generators both at the time of construction 

of high rise buildings and after completion of the buildings. 

only the other day, as media reported, two construction firms 

engaged in completing high rise buildings were fined for 

committing the offence of noise pollution that came from use of 

huge generators. For the completed high-rise building with 

residents in, big generators not only create noise but air 

pollution also that are injurious to health. If complaints are 

made, DoE personnel do visit the spot, check the noise 

pollution and they advise the owner or residents to control it 

and then leave. After sometime, the situation is as before. 

The above two dimensions of unhealthy urban living provide 

some information on the level of corporate social responsibility 

of the private housing industry, the builders and/ or 

developers. It also shows lack of concern for neighbours by 

those who live in high rise building or those who let them out 

for other. 

There are fixed standards or spacing criteria for all new 

multistoried buildings. These are honored more in breach than 

in observance. Sometimes, the unholy nexus between 

developers and personnel for approving building plans include 

political high-ups who make things worse. 

If these are part of the horrors of urban life, the poorest 

sections face a different kind of horror: the perpetual threat of 

eviction from footpaths where they sleep at night or at public 

spaces meant for morning walkers from the more affluent 

sections of the society. 

Some days ago a group of such homeless urban residents who 

live near the Bananilake, experienced the terror of eviction by 

the police at midnight. Not only that it is an uncivilized method 

of keeping the city clean or prevent encroachment on public 

spaces, it is illegal too. In that slum or bustee also lived children 

many of them abandoned by their parents and left to the care 

of grannies. 

rapid urbanization by itself is not bad. You have to live up 

with it because it is inevitable. But unplanned urbanization is a 

serious threat to urban health and to the society as a whole. 

While health experts clamor for more investment in health 

sector, much of it would be unnecessary if well-coordinated 

approach to build healthy cities could be ensured. At the 

moment disparate government agencies work for planned 

urban development. There is very little coordination mostly 

because they are under different ministries. 

The latest five year plan has highlighted the need for 

managing urban transition. It has also given a long list of 

achievements of the past. It has flagged the emerging 

challenges to the urban sector. 

Environmental problems top the list followed by solid waste 

management. Without their efficient management healthy 

cities cannot be ensured. The third problem is supply of safe 

drinking water. The plan finds it unsatisfactory. others include 

extreme traffic congestions leading to long commuting hours 

with huge associated losses to the economy as a whole. The 

plan, however, stops short of mentioning how much is the loss 

as percentage of GDP. 

Losses have been and are being calculated regularly by the 

roads and Highways Directorate (rHD). Two years ago a 

public awareness campaign jointly organized by an English 

Daily and Grammen Phone provided information on the 

following losses : 

8.15 Billion work hours of commuters wasted. 40 percent 

of it is business hours. Tk 20 billion lost due to 3.2 million 

business hours wasted; Tk 200 billion worth of business hours 

lost a year ;Environmental damage worth Tk 22 billion. Motor 

vehicle speed 12 kph against the capacity of 40 kph. Cost of the 

speed loss is Tk 12 billion a year. Public transport operations 

and freight industry lose Tk 20 billion each in lost trips. Tk 5.75 

billion excess fuel burned. 

The big international lending agencies give priority to macroeconomic 

balance. If the roads and highway management were 

effective, there could be more associated savings. To this must 

be added savings from diminishing need for investment in 

curative care on which huge investments are made. 

It cannot be said that the external funding agencies and the 

government are completely blind to this aspect of good and fast 

mass transport system. But efforts are yet to show results due 

to lack of good plans and management including governance 

and accountability. 

Take the cases of metro link. It could not proceed as planned 

due to indifference to the security aspects involving the air 

force. The alignment had to be changed that slowed down 

progress and a bit of uncertainty of funding by a development 

partner. The cost also has gone up. 

The brighter side of creating an enabling environment for a 

healthy urban life away from the current horrors has started to 

evolve. Many civil society organizations and private think tanks 

have become vocal to make a well-argued case for healthy 

urban life. As part of this process, the Centre for Urban Studies 

(CUS) is planning to launch an Urban Forum designed to 

articulate the need for more coordinated policy management. It 

would be interesting to watch the responses from the 

government. 

While the attention of the media 

and common masses remains 

focused on the recent conflict 

between Pakistan and India, sitting in a 

cell of Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore, former 

prime minister Nawaz Sharif is facing 

severe health problems. He has been 

advised by the medical board of Jinnah 

Hospital that he needs angiography, but 

Sharif has refused to accept any offer of 

being moved to the hospital by the 

government led by the Pakistan Tehreeke-Insaf 

(PTI) party. 

Sharif has, in fact, said that he would 

prefer an honorable death rather than 

allowing the government to exploit his 

medical condition for petty gains. He has 

told his family that he will not accept the 

PTI government's below-the-belt 

attempts to push him around in the guise 

of medical treatment and move him from 

one irrelevant hospital to another. 

Sharif's personal physician, Dr Adnan 

Khan, told this correspondent, "Nawaz 

Sharif has significant coronary artery 

disease, which has worsened over the last 

few weeks. Underlying chronic kidney 

disease (Stage 3), uncontrolled 

hypertension and suboptimal diabetes 

control have further complicated the 

issue." According to the doctor, "Mr 

Sharif requires hospitalization for 

aggressive management [of his 

condition]. He has to undergo cardiac 

catheterization and possibly coronary 

intervention. A high end fully equipped 

and staffed cath lab, a complete 

nephrology setup and cardiac surgery 

backup are required to further proceed 

The current tour by russian 

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov 

to a number of Gulf states, 

including the UAE, comes at a 

crucial time for the region and will 

have a far-reaching outcome on 

Gulf-russian ties. Moscow has been 

boosting its relations with Arab 

countries recently in a way that 

reflects its growing regional 

influence. 

During his visits to the UAE, Saudi 

Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar, Lavrov is 

expected to discuss a number of 

issues including the situation in 

Syria, the conflict in Yemen, the 

Libyan crisis, Iran's regional agenda 

and the Palestinian-Israeli 

settlement, among other things. 

Bilateral ties and expanding joint 

economic cooperation in various 

fields, including tourism, energy and 

space will also be discussed. 

The visit comes a month before the 

convening of a russian-Arab 

cooperation forum, which will be 

held at the ministerial level on April 

17 in Moscow. The meeting will 

focus on resuming joint work within 

the framework of the strategic 

dialogue between russia and the 

GCC, according to a russian Foreign 

Ministry statement. 

"regarding Syria, we intend to 

inform our Arabian partners about 

the situation in Idlib, in Syria's 

northeast, the efforts being made 

within the framework of the Astana 

format to eliminate remaining 

terrorist groups on Syrian territory, 

as well as to form and launch the 

work of the constitutional 

committee," the ministry said. 

President Vladimir Putin is 

with treatment." Sharif has been suffering 

from heart problems and several other 

diseases for a long time, and every time he 

has been taken to the hospital from the 

jail for treatment he has been humiliated 

and mocked by the leaders of PTI and its 

blind followers. The PTI government has 

deliberately deprived Sharif of the best 

possible medical care, which he deserves 

as a thrice-elected prime minister of 

Pakistan. Sharif now is refusing to be 

humiliated in this way any further, but by 

remaining in jail instead of going to 

hospital again he is only increasing the 

chances of serious health damage. Yet if 

anything happens to Sharif, the weak PTI 

government will not be able to bear the 

political fallout. Perhaps that is the reason 

Prime Minister Imran Khan issued 

special instructions to his cabinet that 

Sharif should be provided the best health 

care and allowed to choose his own 

hospital and doctors. However, Sharif 

does not trust anyone in the ranks of PTI 

and is thus staying at the jail, with a high 

risk of a heart attack at any moment. 

If anything happens to Sharif, the weak 

PTI government will not be able to bear 

IMAd ZAFAR 

the political fallout. Perhaps that is the 

reason Prime Minister Imran Khan 

issued special instructions to his cabinet 

that Sharif should be provided the best 

health care and allowed to choose his own 

hospital and doctors 

The chairman of the Pakistan Peoples 

Party, Bilawal Zardari Bhutto has also 

shown concern over the inhuman 

behavior inflicted on Sharif. In a tweet, he 

said he was "appalled to hear of the 

The chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party, Bilawal Zardari Bhutto 

has also shown concern over the inhuman behavior inflicted on Sharif. 

In a tweet, he said he was "appalled to hear of the callous and 

inhumane treatment of imprisoned former PM nawaz Sharif by the 

government. his illness should be treated seriously, [and he should] be 

provided with proper medical care and treated with respect." 

expected to visit riyadh sometime 

this year and observers believe the 

trip will be a milestone in russia's 

ties with Saudi Arabia and the rest of 

the Gulf states. 

russia has become a major 

regional player in the past few years, 

especially after its intervention in 

the Syrian civil war. Its partnership 

with Iran and Turkey through the 

Astana process has contributed to a 

number of understandings and 

agreements, including the creation 

of de-escalation zones. Moscow 

hopes the GCC can play a future role 

in the reconstruction of Syria. But 

disagreements remain over the 

return of Syria to the Arab League 

and restoring diplomatic ties with 

Damascus. 

But mostly what the region needs 

is a balanced relationship with all. 

Last year saw an important visit to 

the UAE by Chinese President Xi 

Jinping where 13 agreements and 

memoranda of understanding were 

signed between the two countries 

aiming at strengthening strategic 

partnerships and bilateral 

cooperation in various sectors. 

other areas where russia can play 

oSAMA AL ShARIF 

callous and inhumane treatment of 

imprisoned former PM Nawaz Sharif by 

the government. His illness should be 

treated seriously, [and he should] be 

provided with proper medical care and 

treated with respect." 

This is not the first time Sharif and his 

family have been humiliated over illness. 

During his last election campaign in 

which he fought a fearless battle of 

narratives with the establishment of the 

country, Sharif's wife was mocked as she 

was suffering from cancer. It was alleged 

by the PTI and a few TV anchors that 

Kulsoom Nawaz Sharif was only 

dramatizing her illness to save her 

husband Nawaz and daughter Maryam 

a positive role include the conflict in 

Yemen and the Libyan crisis. In 

Yemen, Moscow's relations with 

Tehran could reflect on Iran's 

backing of the Al Houthis, who have 

reneged on all agreements and 

understandings to end the conflict. 

Iran's military support of Al Houthis 

has prolonged the crisis and 

destroyed the country's institutions. 

It is hoped that Moscow can put 

pressure on Tehran to push the Al 

Houthis to accept a political 

settlement. 

With the current US 

administration adopting a series of 

hostile measures against the 

Palestinians - the latest step was the 

closure of the US consulate in 

occupied East Jerusalem - russia 

can play a major role in keeping the 

world's eyes focused on a just 

political settlement. Moscow has 

been critical of the so-called Trump 

Middle East peace plan, which is 

expected to be unveiled in April 

following the Israeli elections. 

The plan will polarise the Arab 

world and Washington is expected 

to pressure its Arab allies into 

embracing it. russia, as well as 

from the wrath of the establishment. Her 

illness was mocked and jokes were 

thrown at her, until finally, she died on 

September 11 last year, proving her critics 

and political opponents wrong. Such was 

the level of lack of empathy in the PTI-led 

government and the brainwashed 

supporters of this party that they did not 

even bother to stop criticizing Kulsoom at 

the time of her burial. 

The immature PTI leadership installed 

by the invisible forces and the 

brainwashed supporters of the party are 

incapable of realizing that the more Sharif 

suffers in jail because of the lack of 

medical treatment, the more political 

pressure it will create, and on the other 

hand the mindless and below-the-belt 

language used to mock Sharif's illness will 

only show that the PTI's supporters lack 

empathy and do not understand human 

values. 

Sharif, who is in jail on a very weak 

accountability-court decision and whose 

appeal against the judgment has been 

pending for a month as the invisible 

forces do not want him to get out of the 

jail, must be smiling from behind bars, as 

what he said three years back has proved 

to be true. Sharif asked the establishment 

to clear Pakistan's own back yard of the 

extremists and banned outfits before it 

was too late, and he was termed a traitor 

at that time. Yet Pakistan now is finally 

following that advice and sealing the 

offices of banned outfits while arresting 

many high-profile extremist leaders. 

Source : Asia times 

Russia strengthens bond with GCC 

Icannot talk about my recent 

successes without mentioning my 

beginnings because, the more 

successful I became, the more I 

looked back for clues that made me 

end up here in my present situation. 

Shortly after my family and I 

moved to London, I became 

independent - at the age of 14 - when 

I started making pocket money from 

babysitting. A few weekend jobs 

followed until I got my qualifications 

as a fitness instructor at the age of 18 

and ended up teaching exercise to 

music students during lunch breaks 

at the university where I was 

studying hospitality management. 

Then I decided to follow my 

passion for makeup and I gained a 

qualification as a makeup artist at 

one of London's most prestigious 

schools. But that didn't guarantee 

work, so I assisted a lot and offered 

my services free of charge in 

exchange for professional photos so I 

could build a portfolio. After a couple 

of years of a lot of unpaid work, I got 

a dream job working with Sony 

records on many of their superstars. 

When I gave birth to my son, I 

decided to take six months off from 

work, which I paid the price for 

because I lost all my connections 

The visit comes a month before the convening of a Russian- 

Arab cooperation forum, which will be held at the ministerial 

level on April 17 in Moscow. The meeting will focus on 

resuming joint work within the framework of the strategic 

dialogue between Russia and the GCC, according to a 

Russian Foreign Ministry statement. 

The secrets of my success 

during this time and Sony got used to 

hiring other talents. 

So then I reinvented myself again 

and got another qualification as a 

baby swimming instructor. However, 

after six months I realized that it 

wasn't for me and I went back to find 

more makeup work. 

I salute all women for their 

continuous hard work and hope that, 

by sharing my story, I can inspire 

others to keep working hard toward 

achieving their goals 

I worked for a couple of magazines 

doing more complimentary work 

until I decided to visit Dubai. While I 

was there I managed to get an 

interview with the head of 

production at MBC and, after the 

interview and a pilot, I was hired to 

produce 26 episodes of my own 

JoeLLe MARdInIAn 

show. I was, of course, over the 

moon, but also extremely worried 

and anxious as I wanted to do a great 

job. I wanted to succeed to make sure 

my show was on air for many 

seasons. 

I worked not just in front of the 

camera but also closely with the 

production team and postproduction 

to make sure my vision 

was seen. 

When the show became successful, 

people started asking me: "Where is 

Then I decided to follow my passion for makeup and I gained a 

qualification as a makeup artist at one of London's most prestigious 

schools. But that didn't guarantee work, so I assisted a lot and offered my 

services free of charge in exchange for professional photos so I could 

build a portfolio. After a couple of years of a lot of unpaid work, I got a 

dream job working with Sony records on many of their superstars. 

your salon?" So I decided to open a 

salon, which took every minute of my 

spare time and made me take on 

financial liabilities and risks I had 

never experienced before. 

of course, building my three 

brands - Maison de Joelle, Clinica 

Joelle and Joelle Paris - from scratch 

China and the EU, will play a vital 

role in stressing the right of 

Palestinians to self-determination as 

well as in supporting the Arab peace 

initiative as a gateway to a just 

settlement of the conflict.russia's 

role in working with opec to control 

oil prices and output is also 

significant. Moscow has become a 

major player in the energy market, 

an issue that is of utmost 

importance for most GCC countries. 

But there are other areas where the 

GCC states can benefit from a closer 

relationship with russia. Moscow is 

interested in boosting trade, 

investment, tourism, agriculture and 

industry. That relationship will work 

both ways as russia is now a main 

attraction for foreign investors. 

But mostly what the region needs 

is a balanced relationship with all. 

Last year saw an important visit to 

the UAE by Chinese President Xi 

Jinping where 13 agreements and 

memoranda of understanding 

were signed between the two 

countries aiming at strengthening 

strategic partnerships and 

bilateral cooperation in various 

sectors. 

Improving ties with russia 

should contribute to achieving 

regional stability at a time when 

the US is shifting its geopolitical 

attention elsewhere. This 

improvement in GCC-russia ties 

should not be seen as coming at 

the expense of the close historical 

relations that Washington has with 

the Gulf states. 

Source: Gulf news 

wasn't easy, especially juggling all of 

that with my TV show and my role as 

ambassador for five international 

brands. Without the support of my 

husband, it would have been 

impossible. 

I have, for the past 15 years, 

juggled my career with my family 

life in a successful way. I may work 

long hours during the week, but I 

give all my time at the weekend and 

during school holidays to my kids. I 

believe in quality time over 

quantity. I feel my kids have 

benefited from this experience 

because, when I'm with them, I'm 

just mum - I don't look at emails or 

work-related messages - and that's 

how I've been able to grow. 

To sum up, my success didn't 

happen overnight and I trained in 

several different work fields before 

I found my calling. on this 

International Women's Day, I 

salute all women for their 

continuous hard work and hope 

that, by sharing my story, I can 

inspire others to keep working hard 

toward achieving their goals. 

Source : Arab news

SCIENCE & TECH 

SATURDAy, 

MARCH 09, 2019 

5 

The imminent threat of privacy invasion 

The cloud is infinite, a fluffy Sunday-school afterlife for our digital debris. 

Liz Duck-Chong 

Leaving a long-term relationship, you 

find yourself standing on the precipice 

of a life yet unlived; all of a sudden the 

accumulated trinkets and tchotchkes of 

your life together exist only to mock you 

in your unspoken grief. There's no 

better time to get into getting rid of 

stuff. 

After she emptied our house of all 

that she wanted, I emptied it a second 

time, of everything that we had grown 

to want together. I embraced the 

spartan wisdom of Marie Kondo's The 

Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up - 

the self-help manual de rigueur for 

people who want to want less. Like a 

barren arctic island basking in my daily 

hour of sunlight, I proudly embraced 

an aesthetic of Scandinavian noir-chic, 

telling anyone within earshot that the 

drab palette and multiple timberveneer 

Arkelstorp side tables were the 

trappings of a new and more mature 

me, a me that was as comfortable 

owning six oversized beige floor lamps 

and playing at underwear origami as I 

was being alone. 

A brutalist of the inner world, Kondo 

imagines a life made better for being 

purposeful in its scantness - a message 

that does not bode well for the abode of 

one married to their clutter, but I latch 

on to her philosophy hook, line and 

sinker. I fold each of my socks, throw 

away projects that sit half finished, and 

appraise the emotional bond I share 

with my cutlery. I begin to feel like 

maybe it's actually working. 

Minimalism feels like a scam until 

you're in on it, and isn't that what 

scams are all about now? 

But for all the physical detritus in our 

orbit, what exists on our computers is 

vaster and more vague; a digital 

footprint compressed deep. There isn't 

a guidebook for emotional digital 

minimalism. No one tells you how to 

hold a file in your hand, to embrace a 

100KB photograph, to evaluate 

whether a 10-year text-message history 

"sparks joy". 

It's been estimated that the trillions of 

electrons that make up the entire 

internet weigh about 50 grams, around 

half the weight of a pack of cards. But 

what about the emotional weight of 

keeping terabytes of photographs you 

took of someone while you loved them? 

What was the feeling of deleting them? 

More than anything, I felt the need to 

find out. We all curate ourselves on the 

internet, whether you're an aspiring 

influencer, KonMari-ing your Twitter 

followers, or demanding the "right to be 

forgotten". But we are increasingly sold 

the unassailable notion that behind the 

scenes no such maintenance is 

required. The cloud is infinite, a fluffy 

Sunday-school afterlife for our digital 

debris. Google promises me more 

space than I could once even fathom, 

Dropbox will allocate me huge tracts of 

land on their digital acreage, and Apple 

pinky-swears that every blurry photo of 

a dog, cloud or my pink, bared arse will 

remain safe forever, as long as I cough 

up to keep their labyrinthine server 

compound spinning. I begin a 

Photo: Mixmike 

Thoughts on digital minimalism 

pilgrimage. Every photo ever taken, 

every file saved - my digital history up 

for appraisal. Years of work and 

pleasure have become a formless 

sweater, taking months to unravel, 

each day finding myself tugging ever 

tighter in the cold. What at the start is a 

careful evaluation, trying to consider 

each file as I had my teaspoons and 

shower gel, grows increasingly fast and 

unfeeling. In one marathon session, 

equipment tests and engagement 

parties alike flick past in seconds, as I 

pick out the smattering of photos 

deemed worthy, before transferring the 

rest into a growing folder of refuse. 

I tell all my friends about this 

journey, and their responses vary 

wildly. Some find my task Sisyphean 

but fascinating. Others do not 

understand, and openly revel in the 

automaticity of the cloud. Not making 

decisions, they say, is how they find the 

time to make other, more important 

decisions. Mostly they tell me that they 

wouldn't have the time, with the kind of 

look that betrays their concern that I 

do. One friend tells me of how once, in 

the days before Facebook, she lost a 

hard drive containing the entire 

photographic history of her and an ex; 

how it felt like a cleaving, a blade 

cutting clean through tender flesh. This 

sort of thing could never happen 

nowadays, she muses, and I think of all 

that data I have no control over. 

Somewhere out there, pinging off a 

distant cloud, is the first time I met you, 

the first time I blurted out, "I love you", 

the first time you saw my tits. 

Eden Gillespie 

If you shop at Westfield, you've 

probably been scanned and recorded 

by dozens of hidden cameras built into 

the centres' digital advertising 

billboards. The semi-camouflaged 

cameras can determine not only your 

age and gender but your mood, cueing 

up tailored advertisements within 

seconds, thanks to facial detection 

technology. 

Westfield's Smartscreen network was 

developed by the French software firm 

Quividi back in 2015. Their discreet 

cameras capture blurry images of 

shoppers and apply statistical analysis 

to identify audience demographics. 

And once the billboards have your 

attention they hit record, sharing your 

reaction with advertisers. Quividi says 

their billboards can distinguish 

shoppers' gender with 90% precision, 

five categories of mood from "very 

happy to very unhappy" and customers' 

age within a five-year bracket. 

Mood is a particularly valuable 

insight for advertisers, revealing 

shoppers' general sentiment towards a 

brand and how they feel in particular 

stores at certain times of the day. 

Unlike gender and age, mood is harder 

to determine, sitting at around 80% 

accuracy. 

There are now more than 1,600 

billboards installed into 41 Westfield 

centres across Australia and New 

Zealand. Scentre Group, Westfield 

Australia's parent company, 

emphasises that all data collected is 

anonymous and that they are using 

facial detection, not facial recognition 

technology (FRT). 

This means generic information such 

as a shopper's age and gender is 

collected rather than the technology 

using photo-matching databases to 

identify who customers are. A 

spokesperson would not confirm 

whether or not Westfield would 

consider using FRT in the future. 

Retail companies are increasingly 

turning to facial detection and facial 

recognition software to attract and 

engage a distracted audience. Quividi's 

host of international clients include 

Telstra, 7-Eleven, Coca-Cola, oOH 

Media and HSBC bank. 

Terry Hartmann, vice president of 

Cognitec Asia Pacific, the company that 

develops "market-leading face 

recognition technologies for customers 

and government agencies around the 

world", says using facial detection 

commercially is no different to 

Facebook's manipulation of users' 

online search history for targeted 

advertising. 

"You're not identifying who that 

person is, you're just identifying the 

characteristics of that person. That's no 

different to Facebook popping up ads 

you might be interested in and social 

media picking up people based on their 

clicking habits or the shopping that 

they've done." While facial detection 

could be considered relatively benign, it 

is a step closer to the more problematic 

FRT. Dr Dong Xu is the chair in 

computer engineering at the University 

of Sydney. He says that under optimum 

lighting and using high-quality photo 

data bases, FRT is more accurate than 

humans at identifying faces and can 

now recognise an individual from 

millions of photographs. 

According to Xu, the technology is 

even more reliable at identifying 

criminals - and presumably other 

people - than using fingerprints. This 

technology is still in its teething stages 

within the Australian retail sector, but 

FRT has significant investment and 

growth potential. International 

companies including Target, 7-Eleven, 

Walmart, Google and Facebook are all 

experimenting with facial recognition. 

The global FRT market is worth 

approximately US$3bn (A$4.1bn) and 

is expected to grow to US$6bn by 2021. 

Target and Walmart say they trialed the 

technology in-store to prevent theft and 

fraud, while 7-Eleven plan to use it to 

"identify loyal customers". Facebook 

has been using facial recognition since 

December 2017 to help users "manage 

their identity online" while Google has 

also been using FRT for some time. 

China is the world's leader in facial 

recognition, with more than 176m 

CCTV cameras. FRT is used for street 

surveillance and policing but also in 

China's "cashless" stores. In these 

stores shoppers can buy products by 

simply scanning their faces, while in 

ATMS and hotels, all it takes is a glance 

to check in and take out money. Alibaba 

and Guess are now experimenting with 

a project called FashionAI. The project 

would fit FRT into changing room 

mirrors, allowing customers to see 

themselves in outfits without actually 

having to put them on. 

Is advancement of technology leading to immortality? 

Adam Gabbatt 

China's first emperor 

ordered his subjects to 

search for the elixir of life in a 

quest for immortality. In 

16th century France, nobles 

would drink gold in a bid to 

extend their lifespans. 

Gilgamesh, the Sumerian 

king at the heart of 

humanity's earliest epic 

poem, found a magic herb, 

but a snake ate it. In 2015, a 

woman on the MTV series 

True Life: I'm Obsessed With 

Staying Young bathed in pig 

blood. 

In 2019, the quest for 

everlasting life is, largely, 

though not always, more 

scientific. Funded by Silicon 

Valley elites, researchers 

believe they are closer than 

ever to tweaking the human 

body so that we can finally 

live forever (or quite a bit 

longer), even as some worry 

about pseudoscience in the 

sector. Scientists and 

entrepreneurs are working 

on a range of techniques, 

from attempting to stop cells 

aging, to the practice of 

injecting young blood into 

old people - a process 

denounced as quackery by 

the Federal Drug 

Administration this week. 

"There's millions of people 

now who won't see death if 

they choose," said James 

Strole, the director of the 

Coalition of Radical Life 

Extension, an organization 

which brings together 

scientists and enthusiasts 

interested in "physical 

immortality". 

At present our bodies are 

built to last - "if you took 

perfect care of your body" - 

125 years, according to 

Strole. The problem is that if 

someone did live to be 125, 

they are unlikely to remain 

spry into their final decades. 

"Who wants to live in some 

decrepit state?" Strole said. 

"We've increased lifespans a 

lot, but we haven't improved 

quality of lifespan." 

That's where what 

enthusiasts called "super 

longevity" comes in. A 

number of billionaires have 

pumped money into 

research that aims to keep 

people fighting fit as they 

age. Google founders Sergey 

Brin and Larry Page have 

pumped millions into Calico, 

a secretive health venture 

which aims to "solve death". 

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos 

and the billionaire Peter 

Thiel are backers of Unity 

Biotechnology, which hopes 

to combat the effects of 

aging. The idea of never 

dying might sound like 

something from science 

fiction, but the experimental 

techniques are far removed 

from a brain in a jar, a body 

in a freezer or a heart wired 

up to a car battery. Sierra 

Sciences is another company 

racing to cheat death. Its 

focus is on treatments that 

can lengthen telomeres - the 

"caps" at the end of each 

strand of DNA. Telomeres 

get shorter each time a cell 

copies itself. Because our 

cells copy themselves 

throughout our lives, the 

telomeres eventually get very 

short, and our cells cannot 

regenerate: we get old. "If 

you can get the telomeres 

back to the normal state they 

were at when you were born, 

that could reduce your 

biological age back to 25," 

Strole said. "You wouldn't be 

reversed back to a baby. You 

stop where maturity begins 

and ends."Among Sierra 

Sciences competitors is 

BioViva, whose CEO, 

Elizabeth Parrish, is so 

committed to the cause that 

she became one of the first 

humans to undergo telomere 

therapy in 2015. Writing in 

2018, she claimed a 

measurement of her 

telomeres showed they had 

"grown younger" by roughly 

30 years since she received 

the treatment - her body was 

reverse-aging. 

Others claim they can 

already prevent aging in 

animals. George Church, a 

Harvard professor and the 

founder of Rejuvenate Bio, 

uses gene therapy to add 

anti-aging instructions to 

DNA. Church says he has 

succeeded in making mice 

Scientists and entrepreneurs are working on a range of techniques, from 

attempting to stop cells aging, to the practice of injecting young blood into 

old people. 

Photo: Alamy 

live twice as long, and the 

secretive company is said to 

be planning imminent 

testing on dogs. The 

discovery by Calico scientists 

in 2018 that naked mole rats 

- which look exactly how they 

sound, except with bigger 

teeth - essentially do not age 

fueled further excitement in 

the quest for immortality. 

According to Science 

magazine the defiance is due 

to "very active DNA repair 

and high levels of 

chaperones, proteins that 

help other proteins fold 

correctly", and the hope is 

that some of the discoveries 

could be applied. 

FRT is now more accurate than humans at identifying faces. 

Photo: Jochen Tack 

How can I set up a small website 

for a local group? 

Jack Schofield 

It's a pity you don't like the 

idea of using Facebook 

because this is generally the 

quickest and easiest way for 

a small group to get online. 

In fact, if an organisation has 

a physical manifestation - a 

school, park or church, 

allotments, a restaurant or 

so on - then it may already 

have a Facebook page. If so, 

you can apply to take it over. 

If that fails, you can start 

your own page and compete 

with it. 

Using Facebook has 

advantages: it's free, you 

don't need to do any 

programming and it's likely 

most of your users will 

already have accounts. 

Facebook pages are also 

easily accessible to 

members' spouses, children 

and relatives who wouldn't 

visit a website. 

Facebook groups are 

different from Facebook 

pages. Facebook groups are 

more like chatrooms, and 

you can keep them private if 

you like. You could use a 

Facebook page for news and 

a private Facebook group to 

publish minutes and debate 

issues, among other things. 

When the web took off 

back in the 1990s, it was like 

the opening of America's 

midwest, and millions of 

people went "digital 

homesteading" on sites such 

as GeoCities. Building 

websites with HTML turned 

out to require more effort, 

and more taste, than most 

people possessed. There 

were lots of good sites but 

most were dire. 

In the early 2000s, 

homesteading was replaced 

by blogging, which didn't 

require any programming 

skills. Templates removed 

the need for design skills, or 

even taste. Although the 

basic diary structure of a 

blog didn't suit every 

purpose, the free WordPress 

software made most things 

possible, for those who were 

willing to make the effort … 

or pay someone to put their 

website together. 

After the blogging boom, 

we saw the rise of the dragand-drop 

website builder, 

which is where we are today. 

Drag-and-drop systems let 

you build websites quickly 

and easily by plonking prewritten 

components onto 

your developing webpage, 

with no programming 

required. 

If you're rejecting 

Facebook, it comes down to 

a choice between WordPress 

and a drag-and-drop 

system. If you think you 

might be willing to give 

WordPress a go, read one of 

the dozens of online guides, 

such as How to Start a 

WordPress Blog the Right 

Way in 7 Easy Steps (2019). 

There's a companion halfhour 

YouTube video. 

There are more than a 

dozen drag-and-drop 

website builders, and they all 

work in pretty much the 

same way with modules you 

just drop into place. They 

make it reasonably easy to 

update your website or 

transform it just by 

switching to a different 

template. 

Many drag-and-drop 

website builders come with 

some sort of hosting 

arrangement and a website 

address, so you don't need to 

take out a domain name in 

advance. Of course, many 

domain name sellers and 

hosting providers use dragand-drop 

website builders to 

attract people to buy domain 

names and sign up for web 

hosting packages. GoDaddy 

is a well-known example. 

Sites built with drag-anddrop 

website builders 

should now be "mobile 

friendly", adapting to work 

on smartphones not just in 

PC web browsers. This is 

something to check. 

But there are some 

drawbacks. The main one 

is that drag-and-drop 

websites can be very hard 

to customise, and you 

mess with template code 

at your peril. Second, not 

every website builder will 

have all the options you 

need, so, without 

expensive customisation, 

it may be impossible to do 

what you want. Third, 

your website may look 

exactly like hundreds of 

other websites, and some 

people will instantly spot 

common templates. This 

might not bother you but 

it looks bad on a 

commercial website. 

Templates and drag-and-drop elements make it quick and easy to build a 

new site without having to do any coding. 

Photo: Masterclasses

ECONOMY & BUSINESS 6 

SATURDAy, MARCH 9, 2019 

Secretary of Industries Md Abdul Halim signs a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a representative 

of a Saudi business delegation, in presence of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, on March 

7, 2019 at the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) in Dhaka. Photo: Internet 

Eight instruments inked 

between Dhaka, Riyadh 

Secretary of Industries Md Abdul 

Halim signs a memorandum of 

understanding (MoU) with a 

representative of a Saudi business 

delegation, in presence of Prime Minister 

Sheikh Hasina, on March 7, 2019 at the 

Prime Minister's Office (PMO) in Dhaka 

PID 

Two agreements involving $135m, six 

MoUs, ministerial committee formed to 

scrutinise proposal for $35bn against 17 

projects, a press release said. 

Dhaka and Riyadh yesterday signed 

two agreements and four memorandums 

of understandings (MoUs) for the 

development of various sectors of 

Bangladesh including power, and 

industrial sectors. The agreements are 

construction of 100MW solar IPP in 

Sonagazi, Feni at a cost of $100 million 

and manufacturing transformer and 

electricity devices in Patenga, Chittagong 

involving $35 million. 

The documents were signed in the 

presence of Prime Minister Sheikh 

Hasina, Saudi Trade and Investment 

Minister Dr Majid Bin Abdullah Al 

Qasaibi and Economy and Planning 

Minister Mohammed Bin Mazyed Al- 

Twaijri at a ceremony at her office on 

Thursday. 

Bangladesh made a proposal seeking 

$35 billion Saudi investment against 17 

large and mega projects. 

A committee, headed by Saudi 

Economy and Planning Minister 

Mohammed Al Tuwaijri, has been 

formed to scrutinise the projects of 

Bangladesh, meeting sources said. 

Ministers from Bangladesh and Saudi 

Arabia will comprise the high-powered 

committee. 

China's parliament 

takes up new foreign 

investment law 

China's rubber-stamp 

parliament took up on Friday 

a draft foreign investment law 

that could help smooth out 

trade talks with the US as the 

world's top two economies 

angle towards a deal, reports 

BSS. 

The legislation was 

presented at a session of the 

National People's Congress in 

Beijing and is expected to be 

approved on March 15, the 

last day of the annual 

parliamentary meeting. 

The bill will ban the illegal 

transfer of technology and 

"illegal government 

interference" in foreign 

businesses, a key point in 

Washington's contention that 

Beijing steals American 

technology. 

The law aims to assuage 

concerns about China's 

business environment for 

foreign firms, but earlier 

versions of the draft drew 

criticism from some business 

groups. 

The law "clearly stipulates 

that the state protects the 

intellectual property rights of 

foreign investors and foreigninvested 

enterprises and bars 

the use of administrative 

means to force technology 

transfer," said Ning Jizhe, vice 

chairman of China's state 

planner, the National 

Development and Reform 

Commission. 

"This will certainly provide 

a more comprehensive and 

more powerful rule of law 

guarantee for foreign 

investment interests," Ning 

told reporters earlier this 

week. 

Beijing sees the law as a tool 

to attract more foreign 

investment as its economy 

slows. 

Asian markets plunge 

as ECB, China fan 

global outlook fears 

Asian markets tanked and 

the euro struggled to recover 

Friday as the European 

Central Bank's decision to 

slash its growth and inflation 

forecasts added to 

increasing pessimism about 

the global outlook, reports 

BSS. 

The announcement - and 

an extension of stimulus - is 

the latest warning of a lean 

road ahead after China 

unveiled a target for growth 

that would be its slowest in 

three decades and as the US 

Federal Reserve indicated it 

will hold off any fresh rate 

hikes this year. 

It also threw a spanner in 

the works for investors in the 

region -particularly Shanghai 

- who had been chasing a 

rally fuelled by optimism that 

China and the United States 

will hammer out a deal to 

end their trade war. 

Adding to the selling 

pressure was data showing 

Chinese exports plunged 

more than 20 percent last 

month, while imports were 

also sharply down - both 

missing expectations by 

some margin. While the 

figures were skewed by the 

Lunar New Year break, they 

highlight ongoing troubles 

in the world's number-two 

economy, which is growing 

at its slowest pace for three 

decades. 

"All these different 

variables are beginning to 

come together to paint a 

more dismal outlook for 

global growth," Lindsey 

Piegza, chief economist at 

Stifel Nicolaus & Co., told 

Bloomberg TV. 

The ECB said interest 

rates would be stuck around 

historic lows until the year's 

end at best, with bank boss 

Mario Draghi warning the 

eurozone was "coming out 

of, and maybe we still are in 

a period of continued 

weakness and pervasive 

uncertainty". 

Thursday's news sent the 

euro into a tailspin to hit a 

near two-year low against 

the dollar, while equity 

markets across Europe and 

the US ended in the red. 

Those losses continued in 

Asia, where Shanghai, which 

has surged about a quarter 

so far this year, shed 4.4 

percent, while Hong Kong 

was off 1.9 percent and 

Tokyo ended two percent 

lower with better-thanthought 

growth figures 

unable to help the Nikkei 

225. Sydney sank one 

percent and Singapore 0.9 

percent, with Seoul 1.3 

percent off and Taipei 0.7 

percent down. In early trade, 

London, Paris and Frankfurt 

each fell 0.7 percent. 

Draghi cited "factors… 

mostly of external source", 

including "the threat of 

protectionism" and 

" g e o p o l i t i c a l 

considerations", and 

analysts pointed out that the 

eurozone was in a precarious 

position. 

"With the eurozone likely 

the next target for (Donald) 

Trump's trade-talk embrace, 

a slowing economy, a central 

bank very low on monetary 

bullets, an inability by 

members to mount a joint 

fiscal response and an 

impending Brexit… it is no 

surprise that the euro fell out 

of bed," said OANDA senior 

market analyst Jeffrey 

Halley. 

The single currency was 

unable to claw back any of 

Thursday's losses during 

early Asian business, and the 

rush to safe investments by 

traders kept riskier, higheryielding 

units beaten down. 

Oil prices were down 

around one percent as the 

prospect of a global 

slowdown weighed on 

expectations for demand for 

the black gold. 

Focus is now on the 

release later Friday of US 

employment data, which 

will provide a fresh snapshot 

of the world's biggest 

economy, though 

expectations took a hit this 

week with figures showing 

moderating private-sector 

job growth. 

NIPRO JMI 

Pharma's CEO 

triumphs Award 

Mizanur Rahman, CEO of 

NIPRO JMI Pharma Ltd has 

received a prestigious award 

as the best pharmaceutical 

professional in Bangladesh 

2018, says a press release. 

Md. Mizanur Rahman, the 

trailblazer and frontrunner 

top executive in the pharma 

industry of Bangladesh. Md. 

Rahman has been working 

in pharma industry for more 

than two decades with 

outstanding contribution to 

Bangladesh pharma sector 

through manufacturing and 

marketing of very innovative 

lifesaving products for the 

ailing people with a major 

significance. 

Dhaka Media Club 

Limited, a national 

journalist platform 

conferred this esteemed 

award recently for his 

excellence in a ceremony 

presence with distinguished 

personalities of the country. 

The iconic business leader 

Rahman obtained MS 

degree in Biotechnology 

from North South 

University. 

Hong Kong, Shanghai 

stocks plunge at end 

of the week 

Hong Kong and Shanghai 

stocks ended the week with 

sharp losses Friday as fears 

over the global economy were 

fanned by a European Central 

Bank growth forecast 

downgrade and data showing 

Chinese trade fell off a cliff last 

month, reports BSS. 

The Hang Seng Index in 

Hong Kong sank 1.91 percent, 

or 551.03 points, to 

28,228.42. 

The benchmark Shanghai 

Composite Index lost 4.40 

percent, or 136.56 points, to 

2,969.86, while the Shenzhen 

Composite Index, which 

tracks stocks on China's 

second exchange, tumbled 

3.79 percent, or 63.25 points, 

to 1,605.28. 

Tokyo stocks close 

down over 2pc 

Tokyo stocks closed lower for the fourth 

straight day on Friday as risk aversion grew 

after weak Chinese trade data fuelled worries 

over the global economy, reports BSS. 

The Nikkei 225 index lost 2.01 percent, or 

430.45 points, to 21,025.56. 

Over the week, the benchmark index 

tumbled 2.67 percent. 

The broader Topix index fell 1.82 percent, or 

29.22 points, to 1,572.44, down 2.68 percent 

from the week before. 

The Tokyo market got off to a weak start on 

investor worries after the European Central 

Bank (ECB) slashed its 2019 eurozone growth 

and inflation forecasts. 

Japanese shares "failed to stem the trend of 

falls in the US market on concerns over the 

global economic outlook", Kentaro Yahashi, 

strategist at Daiwa Securities, said in an online 

commentary. 

Risk aversion grew even greater late Friday 

after Chinese data showed the world's secondlargest 

economy's exports and imports 

plummeted much more than expected in 

February as it fights a trade war with the 

United States. 

China's total overseas shipments sank 20.7 

percent on-year and imports fell 5.2 percent. 

"The loss (in the Nikkei) expanded to over 

400 points as investors were discouraged by 

the sharp drop in Chinese exports," Okasan 

Online Securities chief strategist Yoshihiro Ito 

said in a note. 

Investors were now awaiting US jobs data 

due later Friday to get fresh clues about the 

world's largest economy, analysts said. 

In Tokyo, global economic concerns sent 

steelmakers and shipping companies lower. 

Major shipping group NYK plunged 3.22 

percent to 1,654 yen and Nippon Steel & 

Sumitomo Metal closed down 1.38 percent at 

1,928 yen. 

Market heavyweight and Uniqlo casual wear 

operator Fast Retailing fell 2.24 percent to 

52,210 yen and Nintendo lost 2.67 percent to 

29,665 yen. 

German industral orders 

sag in January 

Germany saw a sizeable dip in industrial 

orders in January, preliminary official figures 

showed Friday, the latest sign of wind going 

out of the sails of Europe's flagship economy, 

reports BSS. 

New contracts were down 2.6 percent 

month-on-month as the year started, statistics 

authority Destatis said in seasonally-adjusted 

figures. That was well short of the modest 0.5 

percent increase forecast by analysts surveyed 

by Factset. 

But the effect was slightly compensated by 

dramatically revised figures for December, 

which showed a 0.9-percent increase in orders 

where intially the statisticians reported of -1.6 

percent, as a number of large contracts were 

reported late. 

The "present ebbing in orders is a sign of a 

continuing economic slowdown in industry at 

the start of the year," the economy ministry in 

Berlin acknowledged. 

The ministry also noted that the fall was less 

marked in a two-month comparison, with 

orders in December-January 0.5 percent 

below those in October-November. 

Recent months have seen high volatility in 

orders data as uncertainty over trade tensions 

and a possible no-deal British exit from the 

European Union, weakness in important 

emerging markets like China and a slowdown 

in economic growth have made themselves 

felt. January's data were weighed down by a 

4.2-percent reduction in orders from outside 

the 19-nation eurozone and a 2.6-percent fall 

in business from Germany's neighbours in the 

currency bloc. 

Meanwhile domestic demand also fell back, 

by 1.2 percent. 

And looking to different industrial sectors, 

makers of producer, consumer and capital 

goods all reported fewer new contracts. 

"We need to put the drop (in January) into 

perspective," Berenberg bank economist 

Florian Hense commented, highlighting the 

December revision, higher industrial sales and 

a 5.7-month backlog of orders. 

Rupee opens 18 paise 

lower at 70.18 against 

US dollar 

The rupee opened 18 paise lower at 70.18 

against the US dollar Friday on increased 

demand for the greenback from importers 

and banks amid lower opening of domestic 

equities, reports BSS. 

Forex dealers said, strengthening of the 

American currency in the overseas market 

weighed on the domestic currency. 

However, fresh foreign fund inflows, easing 

crude prices supported the rupee and 

restricted the fall. 

The rupee opened weak at 70.18 at the 

interbank forex market, down 18 paise from 

its last close. The local currency, however, 

pared the initial loss and was trading at 70.11. 

On Thursday, the rupee had strengthened 

28 paise to close at 70 against the US dollar. 

MoU between IUBAT and 

EON Group of Industries 

Prof Md Lutfar Rahman, Registrar, 

IUBAT and Sultan Mahmud, General 

Manager, HR, EON Group of 

Industries Signed a Memorandum of 

Understanding (MoU) for cooperation 

between the two organizations on 

March 5, 2019 at IUBAT conference 

hall. 

Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Abdur Rab, 

Pro Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Hamida 

Akhtar Begum, Treasurer Prof Selina 

Nargis, Controller of Examinations 

Brig, Gen Dr Md Zahid Hossain (retd), 

China's imports, exports tumble 

more than expected in February 

China's exports and imports 

plummeted much more than 

expected in February, official data 

showed Friday, adding to worries 

about slowing growth in the world's 

number two economy as it fights a 

trade war with the US, reports BSS. 

Its politically sensitive trade 

surplus with the US narrowed to 

$14.7 billion for the month from 

$27.3 billion in January, the data 

from China's customs 

administration showed. 

China's total overseas shipments 

sank 20.7 percent on-year and 

imports fell 5.2 percent, much worse 

than the 5.0 percent and 0.6 percent 

drops forecast in a Bloomberg News 

poll. 

"Today's trade figures reinforce 

our view that China's trade recession 

has started to emerge," said 

Raymond Yeung of ANZ bank in a 

note. 

"Looking ahead, we find little 

reason to expect a rebound in the 

near term on the back of a sluggish 

global electronics cycle," said Yeung, 

adding it would weigh on China's 

Dean, Chair, Coordinator faculty, AKM 

Sharfuddin, Director, Alumni Affairs, 

and Officers of IUBAT, Chairman & 

Managing Director, Momin Ud 

Dowlah, Manager (HR), Md. Sakibul 

Haque Khan of EON Group of 

Industries were also present during the 

signing Ceremony, a press release said. 

This MoU is intended to facilitate all 

exchanges of cooperative initiatives 

between the two institutions in the 

areas of training, internship, practical 

works, education, research, 

first quarter GDP growth. 

Recent economic data point to the 

difficulties China faces with growth 

in the last three months of 2018 

clocking in at 6.4 percent. 

In January, an important 

barometer of prices in the country's 

industrial sector neared contraction 

territory while manufacturing 

activity saw its worst performance in 

three years in February. 

China's premier on Tuesday laid 

out a lower growth target of 6.0 to 

6.5 percent this year in a report to 

the country's annual parliamentary 

session underway in Beijing, down 

from 6.6 percent growth in 2018. 

The government outlined major 

tax cuts, fee reductions and looser 

monetary policy to combat the 

slowdown. 

Worries have grown about slowing 

global growth with the European 

Central Bank slashing its 2019 

eurozone growth and inflation 

forecasts on Thursday, citing 

"uncertainties" around geopolitical 

risks and trade rows. 

However, analysts caution it is 

professional grooming and skill 

development, service and exchange of 

professionals and trainers. 

Career Fair and Campus 

Recruitment, Practice of intern 

students. Exchange of scholarly and 

pedagogical materials, Joint training 

sessions, seminars, workshops, 

colloquiums or other mediums of 

information exchange, Guest lecturers, 

Organization visits by Students and 

training participants, Visits by 

researchers for Data Collection. 

difficult to compare trends in China's 

data at the start of the year due to the 

Chinese New Year holiday, which 

came in early February this year and 

can affect business activity. 

China's exports for the first two 

months fell 4.7 percent, and imports 

were down 3.1 percent, estimated 

Yeung of ANZ. 

An end to the months-long US- 

China trade dispute would help 

China's hurting exporters - 

shipments to the US fell about 29 

percent last month. 

Washington and Beijing last year 

exchanged punitive tariffs on more 

than $360 billion in two-way trade 

but have recently indicated they are 

close to coming to terms. 

America's trade deficit with China 

hit a record $419.2 billion last year, 

US data released this week showed. 

China put its surplus at a lower but 

still record $323.3 billion. 

Exports of soybeans, a crucial crop 

across vast expanses of the US, fell 18 

percent for the year as the tit-for-tat 

tariffs sent Chinese buyers 

elsewhere.

MISCELLANEOUS 

SATURDAY, MARCh 9, 2019 

7 

Photo shows migrants walking on the motorway on the outskirts of Guadalajara, Mexico. A truck 

packed with Central American migrants swerved off a highway in southern Mexico late Thursday, leaving 

at least 25 dead and 29 injured. Archive image for illustration purposes only. 

Photo:UNB 

Ex-Trump campaign boss Manafort 

gets 47-month sentence 

Former Trump campaign chairman 

Paul Manafort has been sentenced to 

nearly four years in prison for tax and 

bank fraud related to his work advising 

Ukrainian politicians, much less than 

what was called for under sentencing 

guidelines, reports UNB. 

Manafort, sitting in a wheelchair as he 

deals with complications from gout, had 

no visible reaction as he heard the 47- 

month sentence. While that was the 

longest sentence to date to come from 

special counsel Robert Mueller's probe, 

it could have been much worse for 

Manafort. Sentencing guidelines called 

for a 20-year-term, effectively a lifetime 

sentence for the 69-year-old. 

Manafort has been jailed since June, 

so he will receive credit for the nine 

months he has already served. He still 

faces the possibility of additional time 

from his sentencing in a separate case in 

the District of Columbia, where he 

pleaded guilty to charges related to 

illegal lobbying. 

Before Judge T.S. Ellis III imposed 

the sentence, Manafort told him that 

"saying I feel humiliated and ashamed 

3 more candidates 

withdraw from Ukraine's 

presidential election 

Three more candidates have 

announced their withdrawal 

from Ukraine's presidential 

race, local media reported on 

Thursday, reports UNB. 

Sergiy Kryvonos, deputy 

commander of the Special 

Operations Forces at the 

Ukrainian army, quit the 

election in favor of incumbent 

President Petro Poroshenko, 

according to Interfax-Ukraine 

news agency. 

Parliament member 

Eugene Muraev withdrew his 

candidacy to back up former 

Deputy Prime Minister 

Olexandr Vilkul, while 

another lawmaker Dmytro 

Dobrodomov dropped out of 

the race to endorse former 

Defence Minister Anatoly 

Hrytsenko. 

Last week, Hrytsenko was 

supported by two other 

candidates who voiced their 

intention to withdraw from 

the elections. They are 

journalist Dmytro Gnap and 

Andriy Sadovyy, mayor of 

Ukraine's western city of Lviv. 

Initially, 44 candidates 

registered to compete in the 

election scheduled for March 

31. Contenders are permitted 

to withdraw their candidacy 

from the race by the end of 

Thursday. 

China, India should be 

each other's partner, 

opportunity: FM 

China and India should be 

each other's partner in 

pursuing their respective 

dreams and each other's 

important opportunity for 

growing respective 

economies, Chinese State 

Councilor and Foreign 

Minister Wang Yi said 

Friday, reports UNB. 

The two countries should 

collectively make due 

contribution to Asia's 

revitalization and 

prosperity, Wang said at a 

press conference on the 

sidelines of the country's 

annual legislative session. 

would be a gross understatement." But 

he offered no explicit apology, 

something Ellis noted before issuing his 

sentence. 

Manafort steered Donald Trump's 

election efforts during crucial months of 

the 2016 campaign as Russia sought to 

meddle in the election through hacking 

of Democratic email accounts. He was 

among the first Trump associates 

charged in the Mueller investigation 

and has been a high-profile defendant. 

But the charges against Manafort 

were unrelated to his work on the 

campaign or the focus of Mueller's 

investigation: whether the Trump 

campaign coordinated with Russians. 

A jury last year convicted Manafort on 

eight counts, concluding that he hid 

from the IRS millions of dollars he 

earned from his work in Ukraine. 

Manafort's lawyers argued that their 

client had engaged in what amounted to 

a routine tax evasion case, and cited 

numerous past sentences in which 

defendants had hidden millions from 

the IRS and served less than a year in 

prison. 

Mexican journalist seeking US asylum 

again ordered deported 

A Mexican journalist has again been ordered 

deported from the United States despite his 

fear that his past stories about corruption 

make him a target in one of the world's most 

dangerous countries for reporters, reports 

UNB. 

The attorney for Emilio Gutierrez Soto and 

his son, Oscar, said Thursday that he would 

appeal an immigration judge's decision 

denying them asylum. 

Judge Robert Hough's Feb. 28 order says 

Emilio Gutierrez Soto's testimony was not 

credible and that he had not shown that he 

would be singled out for his reporting on the 

Mexican military were he to return now. 

Press freedom advocates have highlighted 

Gutierrez's articles that alleged military 

forces were robbing and extorting local 

people in Chihuahua, which borders New 

Mexico and part of West Texas. He and 

DHAKA:An evening of 

thumping bass, soaring 

solos, flashy rhythmic lights, 

surrounded by thousands of 

young faces, all in sync with 

the songs that touch every 

Bangladeshi's soul, 

performed by the top names 

of the country's band music 

scene, reports UNB. 

Come to think of it, what 

could work better to capture 

the spirit of March 7 than 

the inherently rebellious, 

almost subversive ethos of a 

rock concert? 

But the electric 

performances and the wild 

youths are just a part of the 

gathering titled Joy Bangla 

Concert 2019, an endeavour 

of the Centre for Research 

and Information (CRI), the 

Awami League's think-tank, 

and Young Bangla, a youthcentred 

initiative of the 

government. 

The fifth edition of the 

concert was held Thursday 

at the Army Stadium with a 

view to spreading the spirit 

of independence and the 

lessons of Bangabandhu 

among the youth of the 

country. 

This year's liner-up 

brought together the top 

shelf of Bangla bands --- Bay 

of Bengal, Chirkutt, Shunno, 

Lalon, Nemesis, Arbovirus, 

Cryptic Fate, and Artcell, 

each taking the glimmering 

stage one after another. 

Besides their usual setlist, 

each act also included a 

rendition of a song from the 

legendary Shwadhin Bangla 

Betar Kendro's famed backcatalogue, 

our 'Songs of 

Freedom'. 

Despite the throbbing 

performances, pride of place 

of course went to the 

playback of the allimportant 

speech that 

marked this day in 1971, 

recently restored to a colour 

version. And interspersed 

with them were 

promotional videos of 

several governmentinitiated 

welfare projects. 

Upon entering the venue, 

UNB correspondent found 

it full to the brim with 

audience scattered around 

the gallery and the outfield. 

Many of them were sitting in 

Prosecutors said Manafort's conduct 

was egregious, but Ellis ultimately 

agreed more with defense attorneys. 

"These guidelines are quite high," Ellis 

said. Neither prosecutors nor defense 

attorneys had requested a particular 

sentence length in their sentencing 

memoranda, but prosecutors had urged 

a "significant" sentence. 

Outside court, Manafort's lawyer, 

Kevin Downing, said his client accepted 

responsibility for his conduct "and there 

was absolutely no evidence that Mr. 

Manafort was involved in any collusion 

with the government of Russia." 

Prosecutors left the courthouse 

without making any comment. 

Though Manafort hasn't faced 

charges related to collusion, he has been 

seen as one of the most pivotal figures in 

the Mueller investigation. Prosecutors, 

for instance, have scrutinized his 

relationship with Konstantin Kilimnik, 

a business associate U.S. authorities say 

is tied to Russian intelligence, and have 

described a furtive meeting the men 

had in August 2016 as cutting to the 

heart of the investigation. 

Oscar Gutierrez Soto entered the U.S. in 

2008. 

Gutierrez says he was threatened for 

writing those articles and fears he will be 

targeted if forced to return to Mexico. 

Hough said that those fears were "merely 

speculative" given the decade that's passed 

since the articles were published. The judge 

also said Mexico "has laws which protect free 

speech and the government generally 

respects these rights." 

Eight journalists were killed in Mexico last 

year in connection with their reporting work, 

according to Reporters Without Borders, 

more than any other country besides 

Afghanistan. Two journalists in Mexico have 

already been killed this year. 

In many parts of the country, drug cartels 

and organized crime gangs are largely free to 

harass and murder reporters with impunity. 

Joy Bangla Concert: Rocking 

the Spirit of March 7 

small circles all with sweaty 

but glowing faces cheerful 

about the roaring music. 

Most of the attendees 

UNB spoke to were of the 

view that through such 

events the young generation 

can connect more with the 

true spirit of the Liberation 

War. Some complained 

about the long queues to get 

in. 

"We had to wait for a long 

time before entering the 

field. Once we were past the 

gate, the exciting 

atmosphere took over the 

tiredness," said Shaila, a 

student of Green 

University. 

As time progressed, the 

audience kept growing, and 

by the end people of almost 

all classes and age groups 

filled the venue. 

Wahid Rahman, a service 

holder along with his minor 

boy was found sitting in the 

eastern gallery. "I feel that 

in a way I am instilling the 

spirit of Liberation War in 

my child by introducing him 

to freedom-loving youth of 

ours," he said. 

US urges UN to impose 

new sanctions on Iran 

over launches 

The United States urged the 

U.N. Security Council on 

Thursday to impose new 

sanctions on Iran, saying its 

recent missile-related 

launches could be capable of 

delivering nuclear weapons 

and risk a regional arms race, 

reports UNB. 

Acting U.S. ambassador 

Jonathan Cohen condemned 

"Iran's destabilizing activities" 

in a letter to Secretary- 

General Antonio Guterres 

obtained by The Associated 

Press and called on Tehran "to 

cease immediately all 

activities related to ballistic 

missiles designed to be 

capable of delivering nuclear 

weapons." 

The Trump administration 

last year pulled the United 

States out of the 2015 nuclear 

deal between Iran and six 

world powers, and reimposed 

U.S. sanction on Iran 

in November that it had eased 

after the agreement, including 

targeting its vital oil sector. 

Under the nuclear agreement, 

many U.N. sanctions on Iran 

were lifted. 

Cohen said Security Council 

members should "join us in 

imposing real consequences 

on Iran for its flagrant 

defiance of the council's 

demands and bring back 

tougher international 

restrictions to deter Iran's 

missile program." 

He cited a Security Council 

resolution adopted in 2015 to 

endorse the nuclear deal that 

"calls upon" Iran "not to 

undertake any activity related 

to ballistic missiles designed 

to be capable of delivering 

nuclear weapons" - but it does 

not require Tehran to halt 

such activity. 

At a U.N. meeting in 

December on Iran's 

compliance with the council 

resolution, U.S. Secretary of 

State Mike Pompeo was 

critical of the council for 

weakening the ban on 

nuclear-capable Iranian 

missiles that was in effect 

from 2010 to 2015. 

He urged members to reimpose 

the ban and to 

maintain an arms embargo 

that is scheduled to be lifted in 

2020 under the nuclear deal. 

Sensex, Nifty 

turn negative 

on weak 

global cues 

The BSE benchmark Sensex 

Friday started on a negative 

note tracking weak cues 

from other Asian markets 

amid heavy selling by 

domestic institutional 

investors and depreciating 

rupee, reports BSS. 

After falling over 100 

points, the 30-share index 

was trading 64.70 points, or 

0.18 per cent, to 36,660.72. 

Similarly, the 50-share NSE 

Nifty fell 19.90 points, or 

0.18 per cent, to 11,038.30. 

Sensex had climbed 89.32 

points or 0.24 per cent to 

finish at 36,725.42 in the 

previous session, while the 

broader NSE Nifty inched 

up 5.20 points or 0.05 per 

cent to 11,058.20. 

Top losers in the Sensex 

pack in early session include 

Tata Motors, HCL Tech, 

Vedanta, Infosys, ONGC, 

Tata Steel, Hero MotoCorp, 

Maruti, Asian Paints and 

RIL, falling up to 2.30 per 

cent. 

On the other hand, NTPC, 

M&M, Bajaj Auto, ITC, 

Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma, 

SBI, HUL, TCS and L&T 

were among the top gainers, 

rising up to 2.64 per cent. 

Meanwhile, on a net basis, 

foreign institutional 

investors (FIIs) bought 

shares worth a net of Rs 

1,137.85 crore on Thursday, 

while domestic institutional 

investors (DIIs) were net 

sellers to the tune of Rs 

925.46 crore, provisional 

data available with BSE 

showed. 

According to traders, 

heavy DII outflow, weak 

global cues after the 

European Central Bank 

(ECB) has slashed its 

forecast for economic 

growth and inflation in the 

19-country eurozone, and 

depreciating domestic 

currency against the US 

dollar weighed on investor 

sentiment here. 

Ex-Trump campaign boss Manafort 

sentenced to 47 months 

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul 

Manafort was sentenced Thursday to nearly 

four years in prison for tax and bank fraud 

related to his work advising Ukrainian 

politicians, much less than what was called 

for under sentencing guidelines, reports 

UNB. 

Manafort, sitting in a wheelchair as he 

deals with complications from gout, had no 

visible reaction as he heard the 47-month 

sentence. While that was the longest 

sentence to date to come from special 

counsel Robert Mueller's probe, it could have 

been much worse for Manafort. Sentencing 

guidelines called for a 20-year-term, 

effectively a lifetime sentence for the 69- 

year-old. 

Manafort has been jailed since June, so he 

will receive credit for the nine months he has 

already served. He still faces the possibility of 

additional time from his sentencing in a 

separate case in the District of Columbia, 

where he pleaded guilty to charges related to 

illegal lobbying. 

Before Judge T.S. Ellis III imposed the 

sentence, Manafort told him that "saying I 

feel humiliated and ashamed would be a 

gross understatement." But he offered no 

explicit apology, something Ellis noted 

before issuing his sentence. 

Manafort steered Donald Trump's election 

efforts during crucial months of the 2016 

campaign as Russia sought to meddle in the 

election through hacking of Democratic 

email accounts. He was among the first 

Dan Jenkins, the sports writing great and 

best-selling author in a career that went from 

Ben Hogan to Tiger Woods and the manual 

typewriter to Twitter, has died. He was 89. 

TCU athletic director Jeremiah Donati 

confirmed Jenkins died Thursday in his 

hometown of Fort Worth. 

Jenkins started his writing career at The 

Fort Worth Press and rose to stardom at 

Sports Illustrated. He wrote best-sellers 

"Semi-Tough" "Baja Oklahoma" and "Dead 

Solid Perfect" and was a columnist for 

Playboy and Golf Digest, reports UNB. 

Jenkins played golf at TCU for his beloved 

hometown Horned Frogs and was a close 

friend of Hogan, also a Fort Worth native. A 

member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, 

Jenkins started covering the sport following 

Hogan and fellow Fort Worth star Byron 

Nelson. 

"Being from Fort Worth, I would follow 

Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson anywhere," 

Jenkins said on a 2011 conference call to 

announce his Hall of Fame selection. "Since 

they're in there, I'm happy to be the third guy 

from Fort Worth so included." 

African ruling party vows 

to win back support amid 

declining popularity 

South Africa's ruling party African National Congress (ANC) 

on Thursday vowed to redouble its campaign efforts to boost 

declining public support, reports UNB. 

As the ANC's election campaign intensifies in the run-up to 

the May 8 election, the party will return with an increased 

majority, ANC's chief whip Jackson Mthembu said here 

following the ANC's final caucus meeting in Parliament. 

Mthembu responded to a poll conducted by the South 

African Institute of Race Relations in February, which 

showed the ANC loosing nationwide public support steadily 

and especially in the northern Gauteng Province. 

According to the poll, only 54.7 percent of those surveyed 

will vote for the ANC, down from the 62.1 percent the party 

garnered in 2014. 

In Gauteng Province, which contains the country's largest 

city Johannesburg and its administrative capital Pretoria, the 

poll puts the ANC's support at 41 percent, a 12-percent drop 

from the 53.6 percent in the last general election. The 

scenario would set the stage for a possible coalition 

government in the province. 

Mthembu acknowledged that the ANC is worried about the 

poll results, particularly about the declining support in 

Gauteng, which is currently run by the ANC. 

He ruled out the possibility of forming a coalition 

government with the opposition even when the ANC is 

threatened with losing state power. 

The ANC, the oldest liberation movement in Africa, came 

to power in 1994 following the downfall of apartheid. The 

party has remained dominant ever since. 

Trump associates charged in the Mueller 

investigation and has been a high-profile 

defendant. 

But the charges against Manafort were 

unrelated to his work on the campaign or the 

focus of Mueller's investigation: whether the 

Trump campaign coordinated with 

Russians. 

A jury last year convicted Manafort on 

eight counts, concluding that he hid from the 

IRS millions of dollars he earned from his 

work in Ukraine. 

Manafort's lawyers argued that their client 

had engaged in what amounted to a routine 

tax evasion case, and cited numerous past 

sentences in which defendants had hidden 

millions from the IRS and served less than a 

year in prison. 

Prosecutors said Manafort's conduct was 

egregious, but Ellis ultimately agreed more 

with defense attorneys. "These guidelines are 

quite high," Ellis said. 

Neither prosecutors nor defense attorneys 

had requested a particular sentence length in 

their sentencing memoranda, but 

prosecutors had urged a "significant" 

sentence. 

Outside court, Manafort's lawyer, Kevin 

Downing, said his client accepted 

responsibility for his conduct "and there was 

absolutely no evidence that Mr. Manafort 

was involved in any collusion with the 

government of Russia." 

Prosecutors left the courthouse without 

making any comment. 

Dan Jenkins, sports writing 

great and author, dies at 89 

Jenkins covered his first major at the 1951 

U.S. Open. Hogan shot 67 in the final round 

to win at Oakland Hills, and Jenkins still says 

that round on that "monster" of a golf course 

remains as good as he has seen anyone play. 

"Oakland Hills looked more like a 

penitentiary than a golf course," Jenkins 

said. 

He listed that among his top three 

moments in golf, along with Jack Nicklaus 

winning his sixth Masters at age 46 and the 

1960 U.S. Open, regarded by many as being 

one of the greatest days in the history of the 

championship. Arnold Palmer shot 65 in the 

final round to beat Hogan, the aging star, 

and Nicklaus, the emerging star who was still 

an amateur that day at Cherry Hills. 

"I'd never experienced - even as an old, 

cynical writer - as much excitement as all of us 

felt that afternoon following that action," 

Jenkins said. "There have been so many great 

moments in golf that you even forget some of 

them. But that one still stands out. ... There 

have been so many great tournaments that 

I've been privileged to see, and people paid 

me to go watch, that I'm awfully grateful for it. 

The 2019 edition of the joy bangla concert, arranged by young bangla, an 

associate organisation of centre for research and information was held at the 

army stadium in 7 march, 2019. 

Photo: UNB 

China's exports 

and imports 

plummet in 

February 

China's exports and imports 

plummeted much more 

than expected in February, 

official data showed Friday, 

adding to worries about 

slowing growth in the 

world's number two 

economy as it fights a trade 

war with the US. 

Overseas shipments sank 

20.7 percent on-year and 

imports fell 5.2 percent, the 

customs administration, 

much worse than the 5.0 

percent and 0.6 percent 

drops forecast in a 

Bloomberg News poll. 

"Today's trade figures 

reinforce our view that 

China's trade recession has 

started to emerge," said 

Raymond Yeung of ANZ 

bank. 

"Looking ahead, we find 

little reason to expect a 

rebound in the near term on 

the back of a sluggish global 

electronics cycle," said 

Yeung.

SATURDAy, DHAkA, MARCH 9, 2019, FAlGUn 25, 1425 BS, RAjAB 1, 1440 HIjRI 

Along with dense population, mills and factories have been set up on the both bank of Turag 

river. 

Photo : Star Mail 

Google celebrates Int'l 

Women's Day with quotes 

of 13 inspiring women 

DHAKA : Search engine 

giant Google has created a new 

Doodle on its homepage celebrating 

the International 

Women's Day on Friday, 

reports UNB. 

Bangladesh is celebrating 

the International Women's 

Day with the rest of the world, 

highlighting women's rights 

and empowerment. 

This year's theme is 'Think 

equal, build smart, innovate 

for change'. In the doodle, 

Google showcases inspirational 

quotes across various 

languages by thirteen international 

female trailblazers-both 

past and present. 

The quotations from 

Nigerian writer Chimamanda 

Adichie, British writer and suffragette 

Millicent Fawcett, 

British-Iraqi architect 

ZahaHadid, German writer 

Emma Herwegh, American 

astronaul and physician Dr. 

Mae Jemison , Mexican artist 

Frida Kahlo , Indian boxer 

Mary Kom, Brazilian novelist 

Clarice Lispector, Japanese 

multimedia artist Yoko Ono, 

French novelist George Sand, 

Chinese-born Taiwanese writer 

Sanmao, Russian poet 

Marina Tsvetaeva and Indian 

diplomat, NL Beno Zephine, 

are included in the Doodle. 

Earthquake Rose 

INTERESTING NEWS 

On February 28, 2001, an earthquake 

of magnitude 6.8 rocked the US state of 

Washington cracking sidewalks, toppling 

buildings, and causing some $2 billion 

worth of damages all throughout the 

state. 

In Port Townsend, 65 miles north of 

the epicenter, a local shop called ‘Mind 

Over Matter’ had a sand-tracing pendulum 

on display, featuring a pointed 

weight at the end of a long wire suspended 

over a tray of sand. The natural swing 

of the pendulum causes the weighted tip 

to trace long lines on the sand tray. But 

that day, as the ground shifted, the sand 

pendulum drew a strange pattern on the 

sand resembling a rose. 

At first Jason Ward, the store's owner, 

didn’t notice the patterns the pendulum 

had made. Then one of the employees 

saw the design and exclaimed, “My god, 

it's an eye!” When Norman MacLeod, 

president of Gaelic Wolf Consulting, 

US envoy visits CHT, reviews 

USAID’s works 

DHAKA : US Ambassador to Bangladesh 

Earl R. Miller has visited the Chittagong Hill 

Tracts and key USAID development programs 

this week, reports UNB. 

During his visit, Ambassador Miller 

reviewed USAID's work with local communities 

to build resilient livelihoods and forest 

management systems that sustain biodiversity, 

the region's water supply, and improve 

incomes, said the US Embassy in Dhaka on 

Friday. 

Ambassador Miller, accompanied by 

USAID Mission Director Derrick Brown, met 

residents and local government and community 

leaders. 

In his engagements, Ambassador Miller 

said the U.S. government works closely with 

the Government of Bangladesh and other 

development partners to improve economic 

opportunities for local communities and promote 

conservation of the unique natural 

resources in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. 

USAID has helped 24,000 local community 

members improve their livelihoods through 

vegetable, poultry, pig, and goat farming. 

As part of improving water security, USAID 

programs have increased access to safe drinking 

water while reducing community dependence 

on timber and other forest products. 

USAID has also partnered with the 

Bangladesh Forest Department and local 

posted the images on the Internet, he was 

swamped by hundreds of e-mails from 

people theorizing what the shape might 

mean. Many requested models of the 

pendulum itself. 

MacLeod says the rose-like shape was 

created as the ground shook the tray of 

sand beneath the pendulum and the 

curved lines formed during the quake's 

lower frequency waves. The longer lines 

that surround the pattern were formed 

earlier by people in the shop who had set 

the pendulum in swing. 

A geophysicist that Macleod sent the 

images to, explains, “The sand preserves 

two features of the earthquake waves 

quite nicely. The "flower" in the center 

records the surface movements associated 

with the higher frequency waves that 

arrived first. The outer larger amplitude 

oscillations record the lower frequency 

waves that arrived later. I suspect that the 

axis of these oscillations was almost 

north-south (ie directed towards the epicenter).” 

communities to plant 625 hectares of trees in 

reserve forests. Another 920 hectares will be 

reforested this year. 

Ambassador Miller also saw first-hand the 

changing climate risks facing the region and 

efforts underway to improve responsiveness 

to natural disasters. 

Ambassador Miller and Mission Director 

Derrick Brown visited the Rangamati Sadar 

Hospital to observe USAID training for emergency 

response personnel. 

These training sessions enhance the capacity 

of health care personnel throughout the 

Chittagong Hill Tracts for emergency preparedness 

for mass casualty and disaster 

management. 

The site visits were undertaken in collaboration 

with the Government of Bangladesh and 

the United Nations Development 

Programme. 

The US government, through USAID, has 

provided more than $7 billion in development 

assistance to Bangladesh since 1971. 

In 2018, USAID provided nearly $219 million 

in development assistance to improve the 

lives of people in Bangladesh through programs 

that expand food security and economic 

opportunity, improve health and education, 

promote democratic institutions and practices, 

protect the environment, and increase 

resilience to climate change. 

Qawmi madrasa 

students get govt 

jobs: Information 

Minister 

DHAKA : Qawmi Madrasa 

students are getting government 

jobs after the Dawrae 

Hadith certificate was given 

master's degree status, 

Information Minister Hasan 

Mahmud said Friday, reports 

UNB. 

"The government also provided 

jobs to the madrasa students," 

he said at the 

5thanniversary of Bangladesh 

United Islami Party (BUIP) at 

Suhrawardy Udyan in the capital. 

"We established around 

73,000 'maktab'-based 

madrasas. A teacher has been 

appointed at every 'maktab' 

(pre-school for religious education) 

and they are getting 

government salary," he said. 

Mahmud accused the BNP 

and its ally Jamaat-e-Islami of 

using Islam for political purposes. 

"On the other hand, the 

Awami League government is 

setting up mosques in every 

upazila. The tender process for 

250 mosques is complete," he 

added. 

Minister Mahmud said 

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina 

set up the Imam-Muezzin 

Trust in 1996. She gave Tk10 

crore to the fund after returning 

to power. "She has fulfilled 

the Islamic scholars' 

demands," he said. 

BUIP founding Chairman 

Maulana Muhammad Ismail 

Hossain, and poet Muhib 

Khan, among others, were 

present at the programme. 

Govt to build 

multipurpose 

halls at 

upazila-level: 

State Minister 

DHAKA : The government 

is planning to build multipurpose 

halls at the upazilalevel 

to develop cultural 

practices at grassroots, said 

State Minister for Culture 

KM Khalid on Friday. 

"We also plan to build 

Rabindra Research Institute. 

The construction of new 

building of Nazrul Institute 

in Dhaka will start soon after 

the completion of all the process," 

he said at the inauguration 

of two-day 'ICBM Fair 

2019'. The fair has been 

organised by International 

Center for Bengal Music 

(ICBM) on the Bangla 

Academy premises. 

Dhaka University Vice- 

Chancellor Prof Dr Md 

Akhtaruzzaman was present 

as the programme's chief 

guest while National 

Professor Rafiqul Islam 

delivered his speech as the 

special guest. ICBM 

Chairman and DU Associate 

Professor Leena Tapashi 

Khan delivered the welcome 

speech. 

Prof Akhteruzzaman 

hoped ICBM will serve as a 

catalyst for reaching the 

technical aspects of the academic 

degree and the higher 

level of different university's 

music departments. 

ICBM Secretary General 

Shakilur Rahman Sohag 

delivered the thanksgiving 

speech. Later, the state minister 

formally inaugurated 

the ICBM website, CD, 

Journal and Documentary. 

Sultan Mansur belittles 

himself: Fakhrul 

DHAKA : BNP secretary 

general Mirza Fakhrul Islam 

Alamgir on Friday said 

Moulvibazar-2 MP Sultan 

Mohammad Mansur belittled 

himself by joining a parliament 

which 'lacks' people's 

representatives. 

He also said Jatiya 

Oikyafront will not be affected 

by Mansur's oath taking as 

the MP of the 11th parliament 

violating the alliance's decision, 

reports UNB. 

"Gono Forum and 

Oikyafront expelled Mansur 

who has belittled himself to 

people. He also betrayed the 

nation by joining the current 

usurper government's parliament 

which has no representatives 

of people," he told a 

human chain programme. 

Jatiyatabadi Mohila Dal 

DHAKA : BNP secretary general Mirza 

Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Friday alleged that 

women are being seriously repressed in the 

country as the government 'usurped power by 

snatching people's all rights'. 

"The Women's Day is being observed in 

Bangladesh today (Friday) where women are 

being extremely oppressed," he told a human 

chain programme, reports UNB. 

The BNP leader also said the current government 

'usurped power' illegally by using the 

state machinery and depriving people of their 

all basic rights. "They (govt) are carrying out 

oppression on the entire nation. They're not 

even sparing our mothers and sisters," he 

observed. Jatiyatabadi Mohila Dal arranged 

the programme in front of the Jatiya Press Club 

arranged the programme in 

front of the Jatiya Press Club 

marking the International 

Women's Day. 

Fakhrul said Mansur was 

not any important leader of 

Jatiya Oikyafront. "All the 

Oikyafront leaders are agreed 

that Sultan Mansur committed 

a grievous act by taking 

oath. That's why he has been 

expelled from the alliance." 

Sought his comment about 

the media reports on the 

BNP's negotiation with the 

government for freeing 

Khaleda Zia, the BNP leader 

said it is nothing, but a 

rumour. "Unfortunately, such 

rumours are being spread in 

Bangladesh now." 

Replying to another question, 

Fakhrul said their party 

is strict to its decision of not 

joining parliament under any 

circumstance. "We've taken a 

decision in this regard earlier 

and that is final." 

Hours after Mansur was 

sworn in on Thursday, Gono 

Gorum expelled him from the 

party. 

He was was also relieved 

from the steering committee 

of the Jatiya Oikyafront. 

BNP along with Gono 

Forum and some other parties 

joined the December-30 

election in alliance under the 

banner of Jatiya Oikyafront. 

BNP bagged six seats while 

Gono Forum two in the election. 

The alliance turned down 

the election results bringing 

the allegation of 'massive vote 

robbery' and decided not to 

join parliament. 

marking the International Women's Day. 

Fakhrul alleged that the government has 

taken a position against the country's people as 

it is not elected by them. 

He also regretted that their chairperson 

Khaleda Zia who struggled for women's uprising, 

worked for their empowerment and played 

an important role in educating women has 

been kept in jail in 'false' cases out of the government's 

political vengeance. 

"The government grabbed power like 

Pakistani occupation forces and it is now suppressing 

people. Let's take a vow on this 

Women's Day that we'll free Khaleda Zia and 

intensify the women's movement for ensuring 

their rights and stop violence against them," 

the BNP leader said. 

'Rajpunnah' the traditional festival of collecting tax has been started in Bandarban district. 

Agriculture Minister and other officials took part in the festival. 

Photo : Star Mail 

42km char land encroached 

in Dumuria killing rivers 

KHULNA : Some 42 kilometers of government-owned 

land in shoal areas of Dumuria 

Upazila have been encroached by a section of 

influential people, who are filling up rivers 

and installing brick fields, reports UNB. 

Vessel movement has almost stopped in 

Thukra-Hamkura and Kharnia rivers as 

parts of the Thukra-Hamkura have been 

nearly filled up. Kharnia's condition is no 

better, either. 

The situation is threatening the environment 

of 54 unions surrounding Dumuria. 

Four polders and 18 sluice-gates have 

already been shut off due to excessive sedimentation. 

Dumuria Land Office says about 4,500 

acres of char area have already been occupied 

by illegal brick fields, hatchery, factories, 

households, poultry and dairy farms. 

Many land encroachers even sold or rented 

out the land. Canals connected to the river 

are filled with hyacinths, and waterlogging 

has become a common feature in this area 

during monsoon. 

Jamal Uddin, a farmer, and Bimal 

Women extremely oppressed in Bangladesh: Fakhrul 

Chandra Boiragi, a teacher, said every year 

thousands of people of Dumuria, Fultola, 

Tala, Jashore and Keshabpur upazilas are 

left marooned. The people are forced to 

abandon their houses and move into emergency 

shelters. 

The General Secretary of the upazila's 

brick field association Abdul Latif Jamaddar 

turned down the claim that they were killing 

off the rivers. 

"Brick fields are the reason for the rivers' 

survival in Dumuria," he claimed. 

"Sediments are dredged regularly which 

helps the rivers remain navigable." 

But Bangladesh Water Development 

Board Executive Engineer in Khulna Md 

Shariful Islam is not convinced. "The only 

way to restore the people's regular lives is 

dredging the rivers," he said. 

"Polders and sluice-gates can be restored if 

we free the encroached land," he said. 

Local parliamentarian Narayan Chandra 

Chanda said a project has been taken to evict 

encroachers from char areas and dredge the 

rivers. 

Antibiotic free 

meat, eggs by 

2030: BPICC 

DHAKA : President of 

Bangladesh Poultry Industries 

Central Council (BPICC) 

Mashiur Rahman on Friday 

said they were working to produce 

antibiotic-free meat and 

eggs by 2030, reports UNB. 

"A number of initiatives are 

underway. The use of antibiotic 

in the poultry industry has 

started to come down. Huge 

probiotics and prebiotics are 

being imported now," he said 

while addressing a ceremony 

marking the distribution of 

awards among the winners of 

competitions. 

Cooking contest, egg selfi 

and chicken selfi competitions 

were arranged as part of the 

three-day International 

Poultry Show that ends at 

International Convention City 

Bashundhara on Saturday. 

World's Poultry Science 

Association Bangladesh 

Branch (WPSA-BB) and 

BPICC jointly organised the 

show. 

Acting Editor & Publisher : Jobaer Alam, Advisory Editor: Advocate Molla Mohammad Abu Kawser, Managing, Editor: Tapash Ray Sarker, News Editor : Saiful Islam, printed at Sonali Printing Press, 2/1/A, Arambagh 167, Inner Circular Road, Eden Complex, Motijheel, Dhaka. 

Editorial and News Office: K.K Bhaban (Level-04) 69/K, Green Road, Panthapath, Dhaka-1205. Tel : +8802-9611884, Cell : 01832166882; Email: Editor : editor@thebangladeshtoday.com, Advertisement: ads@thebangladeshtoday.com, News: newsbangla@thebangladeshtoday.com, contact@thebangladeshtoday.com, website: www.thebangladeshtoday.com

09-03-2019

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