08-02-2020

saturday

DHAkA: February 8, 2020; Magh 25, 1426 BS; Jamadi-us Sanni 13,1441 Hijri

www.thebangladeshtoday.com; www.bangladeshtoday.net

Regd.No.DA~2065, Vol.17; No.13; 8 Pages~Tk.8.00

intErnational

Heavy rain, floods

lash eastern Australia,

help with fires

>Page 3

sciEncE & tEch

Sonos stops software

updates of its older

equipment

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Economy & BusinEss

To celebrate the month of

February, Delhi Public

School (DPS-STS) Dhaka

>Page 6

37 days to go

Be not panicked

over coronavirus:

IEDCR

DHAKA : Institute of

Epidemiology Disease Control &

Research (IEDCR) Director

Meerjady Sabrina Flora yesterday

urged the people not to be panicked

over the coronavirus issue, but

remain aware of it.

"Be aware but not be panicked

over the coronavirus issue as

nobody has so far become infected

with the virus in our country," she

said.

The chief of IEDCR, country's

state-run disease monitoring wing,

told this to newsmen while holding

a briefing at its Mohakhali office.

No new suspected patient has

been admitted to any hospital, she

said.

While talking about the crews of

the flight that brought 312

Bangladeshis back to Dhaka from

the Chinese city of Wuhan, the

locked down epicenter of the deadly

coronavirus outbreak, and the

doctors who went on that flight, the

IEDCR chief said they are now at

home quarantine and have been

advised not to go out.

Zohr

05:22 AM

12:16 PM

04:11 PM

05:51 PM

07:07 PM

6:37 5:48

WHO to accelerate

research, innovation

for new coronavirus

DHAKA : The World Health

Organisation (WHO) is convening a

global research and innovation forum

to mobilise international action in

response to the new coronavirus (2019-

nCoV).

The forum, to be held on February 11-

12 in Geneva, will be organised in collaboration

with the Global Research

Collaboration for Infectious Disease

Preparedness, reports UNB.

"Harnessing the power of science is

critical for bringing this outbreak under

control," said WHO Director-General

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

He said there are questions they need

answers to, and tools they need developed

as quickly as possible. "WHO is

playing an important coordinating role

by bringing the scientific community

together to identify research priorities

and accelerate progress."

The forum will bring together key

players, including leading scientists as

well as public health agencies, ministries

of health and research funders,

pursuing 2019-nCoV critical animal

health and public health research and

the development of vaccines, therapeutics

and diagnostics, among other innovations.

Participants will discuss several areas

of research, including identifying the

source of the virus as well as sharing of

biological samples and genetic

sequences, according to WHO headquarters.

Experts will build on the existing

SARS and MERS coronavirus research

and identify knowledge gaps and

research priorities in order to accelerate

scientific information and medical

products most needed to minimise the

impact of the 2019-nCoV outbreak.

The meeting is expected to produce a

global research agenda for the new

coronavirus, setting priorities and

frameworks that can guide which projects

are undertaken first.

"Understanding the disease, its reservoirs,

transmission and clinical severity

and then developing effective countermeasures

is critical for the control of the

outbreak, to reduce deaths and minimise

the economic impact," said Dr.

Soumya Swaminathan, WHO Chief

Scientist.

This will also fast-track the development

and evaluation of effective diagnostic

tests, vaccines and medicines,

while establishing mechanisms for

affordable access to vulnerable populations

and facilitating community

engagement.

"The WHO R and D Blueprint is a

global strategy and preparedness platform

that drives coordinated development

of drugs and vaccines before epidemics,

and allows the rapid activation

of R and D activities during epidemics.

It speeds up the availability of the diagnostics,

vaccines and treatments and

technologies that ultimately save lives,"

added Dr Michael Ryan, Executive

Director, WHO Health Emergencies

Programme.

None gets post in AL in view

of financial status: Hasan

PABNA : Information Minister Dr

Hasan Mahmud yesterday said there are

some intruders and opportunists in

Awami League as the party is in power for

three consecutive terms.

"None would get any post in Awami

League in consideration of his or her

financial status. And this is our party's

politics and ideology," he said, speaking at

a representative meeting of Pabna district

AL at the auditorium of Pabna Adward

College, reports BSS.

Awami League Presidium member and

former minister Mohammad Nasim

addressed the meeting as the chief guest

while AL district unit senior vice president

Rezaul Rahim Lal was in the chair.

Hasan said many intruders and opportunists

are in the party (AL). "They

(intruders) worked against the party and

repressed the party's dedicated activists…

The intruders would be ousted from the

party. And the main qualification to get

posts in the party is the dedication to the

party and the party chief," he added.

The minister said the Awami League is

in state power for three consecutive terms

because of the dynamic leadership of

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. She came

back home on May 17 in 1981 after facing

all types of barriers and then nurtured the

country and the party as well, he added.

He said, "Our leader, Bangabandhu's

worthy daughter Prime Minister Sheikh

Hasina returned from the death-valley

repeatedly and established the rights to

vote and food of the country's people. She

took the party in the state power for four

times." The minister said many leaders

had changed their ethics and changed

their party as well during the crisis of

Awami League. The opportunists not only

left Sheikh Hasina, but also

Bangabandhu, said Hasan, also the

Awami League joint general secretary.

But, he said, the leaders and workers of

the root level didn't betray with the party

and the party chief. "They always worked

with utmost sincerity and honesty for the

party. For this, the party is in power for

four times," he added. The minister said,

"Everyone should be dedicated to the

party and we need to keep in mind that

our main destination is the party."

Hasan urged the AL leaders to be more

modest and said the country has changed

and unprecedented development has

taken place in all sectors of society.

AL organizing secretary SM Kamal

Hossain addressed the meeting as special

guest while AL district unit general secretary

Golam Farukh Prince conducted it.

Former state minister for home

Shamsul Haque Tuku, AL leaders Nurul

Islam Tandhu, Professor Marina Jahan

Kabita and Begum Aktar Jahan, among

others, were present in the programme.

Earlier, Hasan exchanged views with the

reporters of the district.

Children enjoying at child zone at Ekushey book fair.

Decomposed vegetables being thrown in Buriganga river. The picture was taken yesterday

from Sadarghat area.

Photo : Star Mail

Shrinking country:

Serbia struggles

with population

decline

Uros Trainovic remembers when his

small mining village in eastern Serbia

was a vibrant home to 200 families, had

a school of its own, a doctor and a shop,

reports UNB.

How times have changed. Now, 60-

odd years later, it's a ghost village with

just eight residents.

The transformation of Blagojev

Kamen is not unique in a country that

experienced years of war and sanctions

in the 1990s following the break-up of

Yugoslavia.

Near-empty villages with abandoned,

crumbling houses can be seen all over

Serbia - a clear symptom of a shrinking

population that is raising acute questions

over the economic well-being of

the country. The decline is happening

so fast it's considered a national emergency

and the United Nations has

stepped in to help.

"This village used to be full of people,

I used to go to school here," the 71-yearold

Trainovic recalls.

"It is such a pity and so sad that everybody

left ... now there are only few of us

and there are no young people any

more."

However it's measured, the numbers

look stark.

According to the World Bank,

Serbia's population of just below 7 million

is projected to fall to 5.8 million by

2050. That would represent a 25% fall

since 1990.

Photo : TBT

'Ek Takay Ahar' members

share stories with

Radwan Mujib Siddiq

DHAKA : Members of 'Ek Takay

Ahar' (One Taka Meal), a programme

of Bidyananda Foundation, met and

shared their journey on Thursday with

Radwan Mujib Siddiq, a grandson of

Father of the Nation Bangabandhu

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

They reflected on their initiatives that

allow poor and starving people to have

a meal paying just one Taka, reports

UNB.

The members deemed it as a 'rewarding

moment' for having the opportunity

to narrate their vision before Radwan, a

trustee of CRI (Centre for Research and

Information).

An advocate for youth development,

Radwan had previously overseen Joy

Bangla Youth Award, a stepping stone

to recognise and advance young

change-makers in the country.

Talking to the 'Ek Takay Ahar' youths,

he inspired them for sustaining the

services they are carrying out to feed the

people who cannot afford a meal.

"What inspired the organisation to

launch this initiative is the heartwrenching

fact that a considerable

amount of food goes to the waste bin

every day while more than a couple of

million people sleep with an empty

The death of a doctor who was reprimanded

for warning about China's new

virus triggered an outpouring Friday of

praise for him and fury that communist

authorities put politics above public

safety.

In death, Dr. Li Wenliang became the

face of simmering anger at the ruling

Communist Party's controls over information

and complaints that officials lie

about or hide disease outbreaks, chemical

spills, dangerous consumer products

or financial frauds, reports UNB.

The 34-year-old ophthalmologist

died overnight at Wuhan Central

Hospital, where he worked and likely

contracted the virus while treating

patients in the early days of the outbreak.

"A hero who released information

about Wuhan's epidemic in the early

stage, Dr. Li Wenliang is immortal," the

China Center for Disease Control's chief

scientist, Zeng Guang, wrote on the

Sina Weibo microblog service.

Police in December had reprimanded

eight doctors including Li for warning

friends on social media about the

emerging threat. China's supreme court

later criticized the police, but the ruling

stomach," CRI said.

Since 2006, 'Ek Takay Ahar' programme

has been demonstrating a

practical solution to discarding surplus

food.

Its members collect surplus food

from restaurants and other establishments

to feed street children, beggars,

and starving people.

Till now, they have coordinated donations

worth over a million dollars to distribute

food, collected from quality

service providers.

Moreover, they have other innovative

programmes to run - such as crafting

notebooks for poor children from electoral

waste.

Imbued with motivation following

the meeting, they posted a photo with

Radwan and State Minister for Power

and Energy Nasrul Hamid, along with a

caption saying, "We shared our stories

on how we produced notebooks from

electoral ballots and bags from banners.

They also inquired how the administration

could help us advance our projects

and whether or not we had hurdles to

overcome. Their notes of inspiration

will always guide us on the journey we

set out on."

Doctor's death unleashes mourning,

fury at Chinese officials

party also has tightened its grip on

information about the outbreak.

Weibo users have left hundreds of

thousands of messages below Li's last

post. A post by one of Li's coworkers, an

emergency room nurse, said the freezing

Wuhan weather was "as gloomy as

my mood." "To you, we are angels and

so strong. But how strong a heart can

watch the people around me fall one by

one without being shocked?" wrote Li

Mengping on her verified account.

Others placed blame for the deaths on

Chinese officials, not an animal species

from where the virus might have

spread, and said those who made trouble

for the doctor should face consequences.

The most pointed online comments

were quickly deleted by censors.

The ruling party has faced similar

accusations of bungling or thuggish

behavior following previous disasters.

They include the 2003 outbreak of

severe acute respiratory syndrome, a

2005 chemical spill that disrupted

water supplies to millions of people in

China's northeast, sales of tainted milk

that sickened thousands of children and

the failure of private finance companies

after the global economic crisis.

NEWS

SaturdaY, FebruarY 8, 2020

2

reunion of dhaka university Statistics department alumni association was held at Kazi

Motahar Hossain building yesterday.

Photo : Courtesy

Collaborative efforts needed to

detect leprosy cases: experts

RAJSHAHI : Health experts have

stressed the need for taking a

comprehensive effort to detect all the

leprosy cases early as the disease is

curable, aiming to build a leprosy-free

society.

They said importance should be

given on creating mass awareness

about the signs and symptoms of

leprosy and ensuring treatment for all

leprosy patients free of cost.

Talking to BSS here Dr Afsar

Siddiqui, Assistant Professor in the

Department of Sex, Skin and Venereal

Diseases in Rajshahi Medical College

Hospital, said leprosy mainly affects

the skin and superficial segments of

peripheral nerves, but can affect any

tissue except brain and spinal cord.

However, it is not a hereditary

disease, he identically mentioned.

Describing the major signs and

symptoms of leprosy, he said the late

case diagnosis, little knowledge among

community people, social stigma and

limited mental health services are the

major challenges towards eradication

of the disease.

As leprosy service providers are

limited in the country, the physician

said, authorities concerned should

extend cooperation towards the

existing organisations giving services

annual cultural

programme of

baF SeMS held

DHAKA : The annual

cultural programme and

prize giving ceremony of

BAF Shaheen English

Medium School (SEMS)

was held at the BAF

Shaheen Hall in the capital

on Thursday.

Assistant Chief of Air Staff

(operations) Air Vice

Marshal M Abul Bashar,

who was present as the

chief guest, gave away

awards among the

meritorious students and

high achievers in O Level

examination, said a press

release.

Fatimah Binti Sharif was

awarded the 'Best Student

of 2019? in Junior group

and Nur-E-Nusaibah was

awarded the 'Best Student

of 2019? in senior group

while Miss Tauhida Arfin

was awarded the 'Best

Teacher of 2019?.

The overall champion

trophy was awarded to

Mars House and Runner

Up Trophy was awarded to

Jupiter House.

The function was

followed by a delightful

cultural programme, the

release added.

The chief guest

applauded the remarkable

feat attained by the

students of the school. He

hoped that the school

would continue this

prosperous trend in future.

Principal of BAF SEMS

Group Captain Ferdous

Mannan highlighted the

outstanding achievements

of the school in both

academic and co-curricular

activities.

High officials of

Bangladesh Air Force,

teachers, parents and

students of the school were

present on the occasion.

to leprosy patients and encourage new

doctors to work for the leprosy

patients. Social awareness must be

created so that no leprosy patient

remains out of treatment since the

untreated cases are the only source of

more infection, Dr Afsar said.

He said the major signs and

symptoms of leprosy are hypopigmented

anesthetic skin patch,

nodules under the skin and thickening

of earlobe, depressed nose, painless

ulcer, numbness of fingers or claw

fingers, foot drop due to damage of

lateral palatal nerve and

lagophthalmos due to facial nerve

damage.

Leprosy expert Dr Siddiqui

emphasized that the illness is not

infectious. "People in villages are

superstitious and ignorant. They

consider leprosy a curse but it isn't," he

said.

Apart from the government agencies,

Damien Foundation Bangladesh is

implementing 'Rajshahi Tuberculosis

and Leprosy Control Project' in

collaboration with the Ministry of

Health to address leprosy disease in

the country.

The project is being implemented at

25 upazilas in three districts -

Rajshahi, Naogaon and

Youth held for violating

schoolgirl in Khulna

KHULNA : Police arrested a youth in a case

over violating a schoolgirl at Srifaltala in

Rupsha upazila on Friday, reports UNB.

The arrestee is Imdadul Mallik, 24, son of

Idris Mallik of Srifaltala union in the

upazila.

Molla Jakir Hossain, officer-in-charge of

Rupsha Police Station, said victim's father

lodged a complaint with Paler Haat police

camp against Imdadul on Thursday night

and then police conducted a drive at the

house of Imdadul and arrested him around

10:30 am.

According to the complaint, Imdadul used

to stalk the girl, a class VII student of a local

school, on her way to school from home and

home to school. On Wednesday night,

Imdadul took the girl to an abandoned place

and violated the girl. Police sent the girl to a

local hospital for medical test.

bCL activist killed in

Sylhet, one held

SYLHET : An activist of Bangladesh Chhatra

League (BCL) was stabbed to death on

Thursday night over intra-party fued at

Tilagor in the city.

Chapainawabganj - covering around

70 lakh people.

In last 2019, 138 new leprosy cases

have been detected among 4,387

suspected ones in the project-covering

areas, said Arif Iftekhar Mannan,

Director of the project.

He said the region has made

significant progress in leprosy control

over the last few decades, but still a

large number of patients remain

undiagnosed due to lack of awareness.

"Good treatment can completely cure a

leper within one year," he added.

Dr Abdus Sobhan, former divisional

director of Health Directorate, said

Bangladesh has made marked

progress in the control of leprosy by

achieving its elimination goal.

Voluntary groups joined the

campaign and there are now a total of

625 leprosy treatment facilities across

the country. Their widespread

accessibility and the new multi-drug

therapies prescribed by WHO have

helped reduce the disease

dramatically.

Dr Sobhan, however, said,

collaborative efforts and adequate

resources from the higher authorities

concerned, including the donor

agencies, are needed to achieve the

total elimination of the disease.

The deceased was identified as Avishek

Dey Deep, an activist of local BCL and son of

Dipok Dey of Sadipur area in Shibganj in the

city, reports UNB.

Officer-in-charge of Shahporan Police

Station Abdul Kaiyum said Deep had an

argument with BCL activist Shaikat around 9

pm and at one stage they attacked each other

with sharp knife.

The duo were rushed to MAG Osmani

Medical College where Deep succumbed to

his injuries.

Later, police arrested wounded Shaikat

who has been taking treatment under police

custody at the hospital, the OC said.

expatriate killed in

Sylhet road crash

SYLHET : A Saudi expatriate was killed in a

road crash in Abdullahpur area of

Beanibazar upazila on Sylhet-Beanibazar

road on Thursday night, reports UNB.

The deceased was identified as Faruk

Uddin, 40, son of Mojnu Mia of Mewa village

of the upazila.

Officer-in-charge of Beanibazar Police

Station Aboni Sankar Kar the accident

occurred around 8 pm when an unknown

vehicle collided with Faruk's motorbike,

leaving him injured.

Later, he was taken to the upazila health

complex where doctors declared him dead.

detective Police arrested three persons with hundred bottles of Phensidyls

from Khulna-Jashore highway yesterday. Photo : titash Chakroborthey

PM Hasina

wraps up Italy

tour, leaves

for dhaka

MILAN (ITALY) : Prime

Minister Sheikh Hasina

wrapped up her four-day

bilateral visit to Italy and left

for Dhaka on Friday, reports

UNB.

A flight of Emirates

Airlines carrying the Prime

Minister departed Milan

Malpensa International

Airport at 1:45pm local time

(BdST 6:45pm).

Bangladesh Ambassador

to Italy Abdus Sobhan

Sikder saw her off at the

airport.

The flight is scheduled to

reach Hazrat Shahjalal

International Airport at

8:10am on Saturday.

On Tuesday last, the Prime

Minister arrived in Rome at

the invitation of her Italian

counterpart Giuseppe

Conte.

During her stay, Sheikh

Hasina held talks with

Italian Prime Minister Conte

on Wednesday where both

the leaders agreed to take

the bilateral relations to a

new height increasing trade

and business.

Besides, the Prime

Minister attended a civic

reception accorded in her

honour, which was arranged

by the Italy chapter of

Awami League on Tuesday

and inaugurated the

Chancery Building of

Bangladesh Embassy in

Rome on Wednesday.

Sheikh Hasina also had an

audience with Pope Francis,

the spiritual leader of the

Catholics of the world, at the

Holy See (Vatican City) on

Thursday morning.

The Prime Minister later

left Rome by train for Milan

on Thursday.

Wahida stresses more

employment opportunities

for marginal women

KHULNA : Prime Minister's

Personal Secretary-2

Wahida Akter on Thursday

stressed the need for

creating more employment

opportunities for marginal

women so that they can

enormously contribute

towards national

development.

"There were social

obstacles in the past, but

overcoming all the obstacles,

underprivileged and

marginal women must be

integrated in the country's

development process aiming

to ensure an inclusive

development," she said this

while inaugurating the

training program titled "Skill

Development Project" for

self-reliant of poor women

as chief guest.

She said education and

training for women is a must

in empowering them

economically and there is no

alternative to achieving skills

to make women selfdependent.

District Administration

organised the function at

Circuit House conference

room while Deputy

Commissioner Mohammad

Helal Hossain in the chair.

Superintendent of Police

SM Shafiullah attended the

event as special guest.

elderly man crushed

under train in

Cumilla

CUMILLA : An elderly

man was crushed under

the wheels of Dhakabound

Subarna Express

train near Mainamati rail

station in Cumilla Sadar

Dakkhin upazila on

Friday, reports UNB.

The deceased was

identified as Gopal

Debnath Das, 65, of

Doiara village in the

upazila.

The Dhaka-bound train

from Chattogram hit the

man around 10 am when

he was crossing the rail

tracks, leaving him dead

on the spot, said Subinspector

Meshbaul Alam

Chowdhury, in charge of

Cumilla Railway Police.

Police recovered the

body, he added.

dae takes measures to

control FaW in maize

fields in Gaibandha

GAIBANDHA : Department of Agricultural

Extension (DAE) has taken up measures to

control Fall Armyworm (FAW) in the maize

fields of the district to produce the crop

without fears.

DAE office sources said a total of 14,280

hectares of land of the district were brought

under the maize farming this season but a

number of maize fields had been attacked

with FAW making the farmers more worried

about the crop and its desired output.

To remove the farmers' tension and to save

the maize fields from the FAW the DAE is

conducting various activities for the officials

and the farmers.

Under the initiatives, the field level sub

assistant agriculture officers (SAAOs) from

the district were sent to Wheat and Maize

Research Institute at Chuadanga in phases

and they received need base training from

there on controlling FAW in the maize fields.

Besides, a number of SAAOs here were

also imparted training on the FAW

management from the additional director

office of DAE, Rangpur to make them well

equipped in this regard.

Apart from it, a day-long workshop on

FAW management for the agriculture

officials and the farmers was also held at the

training room of deputy director office of

DAE at Khamarbari of the town here on

Wednesday.

With the financial support of Food and

Agriculture Organization,

Entomology department of Bangladesh

Agricultural University (BAU), Mymensingh

arranged the workshop in cooperation with

DAE here.

DD of DAE KrishibidMasudur Rahman

addressed the function as chief guest and

chief instructor of Agriculture Training

Institute Paritosh Chandra Das spoke at the

event as special guest while additional DD

(Plant protection) Abul Kalam Azad

conducted the workshop as the moderator.

Professor Dr. Mohammad Mohir Uddin

and Professor Dr. Gopal Chandra Paul of

du student dies of

cardiac arrest

DHAKA : A student of Dhaka University

(DU) died of cardiac arrest at Dhaka Medical

College Hospital (DMCH) on Friday

morning, reports UNB.

The deceased was identified as Shaikot

Mahmud, an Accounting and Information

System department student of 2014-15

sessions.

Shaikot, hailing from Lakshmipur, was a

resident student of Bijoy Ekattor Hall of the

university.

Hall provost Professor Abdul Bashir said

Shaikot felt chest pain and informed his

roommates around 10 am. Then he was

rushed to Dhaka Medical College Hospital

(DMCH) where doctors declared him dead.

Doctors at the hospital said he died of

cardiac arrest, he said.

After a namaz-e-janaza on Dhaka

University campus the body was sent to his

village home.

air Quality Index:

dhaka ranks 4th

worst

DHAKA : Bangladesh's capital Dhaka

ranked the fourth worst in the Air Quality

Index (AQI) on Friday morning, reports

UNB.

It had an AQI score of 196 at 08:27am. The

air was classified as 'unhealthy'.

Mongolia's Ulaanbaatar, Pakistan's Lahore

and India's Delhi occupied the top three

positions in the list of cities with worst air

with AQI scores of 352, 277 and 239

respectively.

When the AQI score is between 151 and

200, everyone may experience health effects

while members of sensitive groups may

experience more serious health effects.

The AQI, an index for reporting daily air

quality, informs people how clean or

polluted the air of a certain city is, and what

associated health effects might be a concern

for them.

In Bangladesh, the AQI is based on five

criteria pollutants - Particulate Matter

(PM10 and PM2.5), NO2, CO, SO2 and

Ozone (O3). The Department of

GD-254/20 (3 x 3)

Entomology department of the BAU made

their presentation on the theme as the

resourece persons.

They said the FAW or Spodoptera

Frugiperda, is an insect native to tropical or

subtropical regions in the Americas.

FAW which was first detected in Central

and Western Africa in early 2016, has quickly

spread across virtually all over the Sub-

Saharan Africa, they also said.

In July 2018, the FAW was confirmed in

the maize fields of Karnataka, Andhra

Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and

Telangana states of India, they added.

By December 2018, caterpillar FAW had

been reportedly found in some maize fields

in Kushtia and Chuadanga of Bangladesh

side by side with Srilanka and Thailand, they

further added.

It has been spread around 38 courtiers till

now and it can travel up to 100 km in one

night; they said adding that a female moth

can lay up to 1,000 eggs in her lifetime and

an egg takes 2-3 day times to be matured.

FAW has become a threat to the farmers as

it feeds the seedling plants at the early

growing season of rice, sorghum, millet,

sugarcane, vegetable crops and the maize

plants during the appearance of corn

kernels, they termed.

They urged the farmers to apply the

pheromone and the light trap technologies

and advised them to use SNPV, Proclaim,

Success and Tracer as pesticides in the

affected fields to save their maize crop from

the FAW.

DD of DAE Krishibid Masudur Rahman

said the attack of the FAW is in its primary

stage here and the trained SAAOs made

aware the maize farmers about the FAW and

its controlling management to save their

maize fields from the pest.

A total of 70 officials of DAE, ATI,

Horticulture center and District

Seed Certification Agency, NGO

representatives and lead farmers including

the media men took part in the workshop.

Environment has also set national ambient

air quality standards for these pollutants.

These standards aim to protect against

adverse human health impacts.

Dhaka has long been grappling with air

pollution. The air quality usually improves

during monsoon.

two Garo youth held

with firearm in

Sherpur

SHERPUR : Police on Thursday night

arrested two members Garo community

along with a foreign pistol from Gazni area of

Jhenaigati upazila in the district, reports

UNB.

The arrestee is Quin Marak, 30, son of

Anukul Sangma and Niki Shangma, 32, son

of Probin Marak.

Officer-in-charge of Jhenaigati Police

Station Md Abu Bakar Siddik said tipped off,

they conducted a drive at their house and

arrested the duo.

Later, law enforcers recovered a pistol, five

rounds of bullets and three machetes as per

the information provided by them, he said.

A case under the Arms Act will be filed

against them, said the OC.

'robber' killed

in dinajpur

'gunfight'

DINAJPUR : A suspected robber was killed

in a reported gunfight with police at

Kashiadanga in Hakimpur upazila early


The deceased was identified as Kahidul

Islam alias Touhidul, 40, of Nashipur village

in the upazila.

He was wanted in 11 cases including that of

robbery, said senior assistant

superintendent of Hakimpur circle police

Akhiul Islam.

Tipped off that a group of robbers were

taking preparation to commit robbery, a

team of police conducted a drive in the area

around 3:30 am, said Abdur RazzakAkondo,

officer-in-charge of Hakimpur Police

Station.

INTERNATIONAL

SATURDAY,

FEbRUARY 8, 2020

3

WHO chief appreciates

people of Wuhan for their

cooperation

Heavy rains lashed parts of the wildfire and drought-stricken Australian east coast on Friday, bringing some

flooding in Sydney and relief to firefighters still dealing with dozens of blazes in New South Wales.

Photo : AP

Heavy rain, floods lash eastern

Australia, help with fires

The head of the World Health Organization

(WHO) expressed his particular

gratitude and compassion on Thursday

for all the people of Wuhan, the epicenter

of the novel coronavirus outbreak in

China.

"Wuhan people and Hubei province

in general are paying a lot. First of all, I

would like to appreciate them and

thank them for their cooperation for

believing that the actions they are taking

protect the people and protect the

rest of the world," said WHO Director-

General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

at a press conference, reports UNB.

Since January 23, Wuhan, capital city

of Hubei province and also the epicenter

of the novel coronavirus outbreak in

China, has been locked down by the

authorities to reduce the spread of the

virus to other parts of the country as

well as outside China.

"Doing this for humanity is something

beyond words, and I'm really

thankful for that and proud of what

they're doing and much gratitude,"

Tedros said.

"I was in Beijing and I wish I had visited

Wuhan. But I would like to assure

Wuhan people and residents of Wuhan

that I will go and visit them one day,

hopefully very soon. But at the same

time, my spirit is actually always with

them and with others who are fighting

this dreadful virus," he said.

"We are in it together and with this

kind of solidarity and thinking for one

another; we're one human race. I know

we will defeat this virus," said the WHO

chief.

"I hope to see them (people of

Wuhan), but until then I wish them all

the best and I feel that I'm among them

actually today I speak even," he added.

At Thursday's press conference,

Tedros also announced that on Feb. 11

and 12, a global research and innovation

forum is to be held in Geneva to

identify research priorities and coordinate

the international research effort to

find therapeutics and vaccines against

the virus.

The meeting will be attended by scientists

from all over the world, including

China, in an effort to fast-track the

development of effective diagnostic

tests, vaccines and medicines.

The WHO chief said that one of the

key challenges for now is coordinating

research funders to support key

priorities, as a lot of donors want to

help, but the WHO needs to direct

them to support agreed priorities

rather than going off in different

directions.

"We need to be led by facts, not

fear; by science, not rumors; we're

letting science lead," he reiterated,

and also reminded again that the

simple things for everyone to do for

protection against the virus is to wash

hands regularly, cover nose and

mouth with elbow when coughing or

sneezing, and keep personal hygiene.

Heavy rains lashed parts of the wildfire

and drought-stricken Australian east

coast on Friday, bringing some flooding

in Sydney and relief to firefighters still

dealing with dozens of blazes in New

South Wales.

New South Wales is the state hardest

hit by wildfires that have killed at least

33 and destroyed more than 3,000

homes in an unprecedented fire season

that began late in a record-dry 2019,

reports UNB.

New South Wales Rural Fire Service

Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons

said he was optimistic the rain will help

extinguish some blazes over the coming

days. He said there were still 42 fires

burning in the state, with 17 of those

not contained.

"The rain is good for business and

farms as well as being really good for

quenching some of these fires we've

been dealing with for many, many

months," he said.

"We don't want to see lots of widespread

damage and disruption from

flooding, but it is certainly a welcome

change to the relentless campaign of

hot, dry weather," he added.

Firefighters can't contain major

blazes across the southeast without

heavy rain. The rain forecast to move

southwest from the northeastern coast

over the next week would be the first

substantial soakings to reach dozens of

fires that have spread for weeks.

Heavy rain and flash-flooding warnings

extend across most of the New

South Wales coast. Authorities say they

rescued six people stranded from flood

water in New South Wales since

Wednesday.

Italian evacuee

from Wuhan

sickened with

virus

The Latest on a virus outbreak

that began in China

(all times local):

One of the 56 Italians

repatriated this week from

Wuhan, the epicenter of the

viral outbreak in central China,

has tested positive for the

disease, reports UNB.

Health officials in the

Lazio region that includes

Rome say the patient has

been moved from a military

facility to the Spallanzani

National Institute for Infectious

Diseases in the capital,

where two Chinese tourists

with the virus are being

treated.

Italian media report that

the patient is a 29-year-old

unmarried researcher.

A plane carrying Canadian

citizens from Wuhan, China,

has landed in Vancouver.

The evacuation flight

organized by the Canadian

government is refueling in

Vancouver before flying to a

military base in Ontario.

Several dozen more Canadian

passengers left China

on board a United States

government flight that

departed a few hours later.

All 176 evacuees from

Wuhan will spend 14 days

under quarantine at Canadian

Forces Base Trenton,

where they will be monitored

to see if they have contracted

the virus.

Canada has now six confirmed

cases and the U.S. 12.

The Asian Development

Bank says it will distribute

$2 million to strengthen

measures to detect and

respond to the virus in China,

Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar,

Thailand and Vietnam.

The bank said Friday that

the money will pay for diagnostic

and laboratory equipment

and for improved outbreak

surveillance and

response, especially in rural

areas.

The viral outbreak that

began in China's central

Hubei province has infected

more than 31,400 people

worldwide. China confirmed

31,161 cases and 636 deaths

as of Friday. More than 310

cases have been confirmed

outside mainland China,

including two deaths in

Hong Kong and the Philippines.

China's official news

agency says President Xi

Jinping has urged the U.S. to

"respond reasonably" to the

virus outbreak in a phone

call with President Donald

Trump.

Poll pitch for India’s capital

plays up growing divisions

Campaigning for a crucial state election in

India's capital has reached a fever pitch as

members of the Hindu nationalist-led government

call for violence against minority

Muslims and invoke the specter of archnemesis

Pakistan to reverse course after a

pair of losses in recent state polls.

Critics call the incendiary religious appeals

a tactic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's

Bharatiya Janata Party to win at the polls

and divert attention from the sluggish economy,

which expanded at a 4.5% annual pace

in the last quarter, its slowest rate since mid-

2018, reports UNB.

The election Saturday has also been seen

as a referendum on the ruling party's

response to nearly two months of protests

across India against a new citizenship law

that fast-tracks naturalization for some

migrants of neighboring countries living in

the country illegally of all South Asia's major

religions except Islam.

Modi's party had anticipated a windfall in

state elections after a landslide victory in

national polls last year. A move last summer

to revoke disputed Kashmir's semi-autonomy

and put the Muslim-majority region

under lockdown, and the passage of the new

citizenship law, have won him praise from

supporters but little reward at the polls. BJP

lost two important state elections last year.

The election in New Delhi, where 14.6 million

voters are likely to cast ballots on Saturday,

pits Modi's party against the incumbent

Aam Aadmi Party, or "common man" party,

whose pro-poor policies have focused on fixing

state-run schools, provided free healthcare

and waived bus fare for women during

the five years it has been in power.

A win would likely embolden Modi and his

party, while a loss could further dent his

image as an unstoppable political force.

During the campaigning that ended Thursday,

Modi and other senior party leaders

have focused their ire on a 45-day long sit-in

led by Muslim women who have been blocking

a highway for weeks through New Delhi's

Shaheen Bagh, a working-class neighborhood,

to protest the citizenship law.

Modi has referred to the protesters as part

of a "political design" and a "conspiracy."

"This dog-whistle is basically a signal to his

faithful to view the ongoing protests in Delhi

through the lens of a well-cultivated prejudice

against Muslims," said Shuddhabrata

Sengupta, an artist and curator and longtime

Modi critic.

Modi's party had anticipated a windfall

in state elections after a landslide victory in

national polls last year. A move last summer

to revoke disputed Kashmir's semiautonomy

and put the Muslim-majority

region under lockdown, and the passage of

the new citizenship law, have won him

praise from supporters but little reward at

the polls. BJP lost two important state

elections last year.

Other BJP leaders, however, have been

more blatant.

A member of Parliament from Modi's party

cautioned at a public rally that the sit-in

demonstrators would "enter people's homes,

rape women and then kill them off." Another

minister characterized the protesters as

"traitors" and led a crowd in chanting the slogan

"shoot them."

Last week, a gunman fired shots at the

protest site. As the police took him away, a

video of the incident showed him saying: "In

our country, only Hindus will prevail." The

man was immediately arrested and was in

police custody.

Campaigning for a crucial state election in India's capital has reached a fever

pitch as members of the Hindu nationalist-led government call for violence

against minority Muslims and invoke the specter of arch-nemesis Pakistan to

reverse course after a pair of losses in recent state polls.

Photo : AP

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) expressed his particular gratitude and compassion

on Thursday for all the people of Wuhan, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak in

China.

Photo : AP

Credit Suisse

says CEO Thiam

resigns amid

spying scandal

Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane

Thiam says he is resigning

after nearly five years on

the job, acknowledging

that a spying scandal

caused "anxiety and hurt"

and tarnished the reputation

of the top-drawer

Swiss bank, reports UNB.

The bank said in a statement

Friday that its board

a day earlier accepted Thiam's

resignation. It will

take effect on Feb. 14, after

the presentation of Credit

Suisse's fourth-quarter

results. He will be replaced

by Thomas Gottstein, the

CEO of the bank's Swiss

operations.

Last month, Credit

Suisse announced that a

second former top executive

was snooped on at the

behest of its then-chief

operating officer, who

resigned earlier over

another such case.

"I had no knowledge of

the observation of two former

colleagues," Thiam

said in the statement. "It

undoubtedly disturbed

Credit Suisse and caused

anxiety and hurt. I regret

that this happened and it

should never have taken

place."

Thiam, who is from

Ivory Coast, is the bank's

first African-born CEO

and is a graduate of

France's elite Ecole Polytechnique

university. He

was one of about two

dozen CEOs and business

leaders who dined with

U.S. President Donald

Trump at the World Economic

Forum's annual

gathering in Davos,

Switzerland, last month.

Chairman Urs Rohner

credited Thiam with making

an "enormous contribution"

and for returning

the bank to profit.

India arrests top Kashmiri leaders

under controversial law

Indian authorities have arrested two former

top elected officials of the disputed

Himalayan region of Kashmir under a controversial

law that allows authorities to

imprison someone for up to two years without

trial, officials said on Friday, reports

UNB.

Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah were

arrested as their six-month-old detention

ended Thursday, a top civil administrator

and top police officers said. They spoke on

condition of anonymity as they were not

authorized to talk to reporters.

They were among thousands of people

detained when Indian Prime Minister

Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist-led government

stripped Jammu and Kashmir of

semi-autonomy and statehood, downgrading

them into two federal territories last

August.

Since, they had been held under house

arrest under a preventive custody law that

allows authorities to detain people who are

feared might commit offenses for up to six

months.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Modi gave

indication of their arrest when he said in Parliament

that the two leaders had in the past

made statements that could incite unrest in

the region. Modi cited Mehbooba Mufti

accusing India of cheating Kashmir last summer.

He said Omar Abdullah had remarked

that ending Kashmir's autonomy would

cause an earthquake that would separate

Kashmir from India , though there is no indication

Abdullah made any such statement.

"Some people here complain some leaders

have been incarcerated. Mehbooba Mufti

said, "Kashmir made a mistake by joining

India'. Are you justifying such kind of

speech?" Modi said in Parliament.

Omar Abdullah's father, Farooq Abdullah,

was the first pro-India politician arrested

under the Public Safety Act, under which

rights activists say more than 20,000 Kashmiris

have been detained in the last two

decades. They are considered pro-India as

they never supported Muslim-majority

Kashmir's independence from India or its

merger with Pakistan.

They are the top leaders of the National

Conference, the party that has governed the

Indian-controlled Kashmir for decades since

India and Pakistan won independence from

British colonialists in 1947 and soon began

fighting over control over Kashmir, a

Himalayan region spread over both countries.

Farooq Abdullah, also a former top

elected official of Jammu and Kashmir, is an

82-year-old member of India's Parliament.

Mufti, 60, heads the People's Democratic

Party, which was a coalition partner of

Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party in the region

for nearly two years after the 2016 state

elections. Mufti headed the coalition

government.

Cruise ship turned away as virus

alarm doctor dies in China

Japan on Friday reported 41

new cases of a virus on a

quarantined cruise ship and

turned away another luxury

liner while the death toll in

mainland China rose to 636,

including a doctor who got

in trouble with authorities in

the communist country for

sounding an early warning

about the disease threat.

Following an online

uproar over the government's

treatment of Dr. Li

Wenliang, 34, the ruling

Communist Party said it was

sending an investigation

team to "fully investigate relevant

issues raised by the

public" regarding the case,

reports UNB.

Two docked cruise ships

with thousands of passengers

and crew members

remained under 14-day

quarantines in Hong Kong

and Japan.

Before Friday's 41 confirmed

cases, 20 infected

passengers were escorted off

the Diamond Princess at

Yokohama near Tokyo.

About 3,700 people have

been confined aboard the

ship.

Prime Minister Shinzo

Abe announced Thursday

that Japan will deny entry of

foreign passengers on

another cruise ship - Holland

America's cruise ship

Westerdam, on its way to

Okinawa from Hong Kong -

because of suspected virus

patients found on board.

The Seattle-based operator

denied anyone had virus.

Abe said the new immigration

policy takes effect Friday

to ensure border control

to prevent the disease from

entering and spreading further

into Japan.

The ship with more than

2,000 people was currently

near Ishigaki, one of Okinawa's

outer islands, and

was seeking another port,

said Overseas Travel Agency

official Mie Matsubara.

"Everyone is starting to

reject the ship and we are

getting desperate," she said.

"We hope we can go somewhere

so that passengers

can land."

EDITORIAL

saTUrdaY, feBrUarY 8, 2020

4

russia reluctant to support Iran's destabilizing behavior

Acting Editor & Publisher : Jobaer Alam

e-mail: editor@thebangladeshtoday.com

Saturday, February 8, 2020

Make roads

to last

That the inhabitants of the capital city

Dhaka are bearing the brunt of the

pitiable conditions of the roads, lanes and

by-lanes is clearly evident everywhere.

When a resident steps out of his/her

residence, scores of cracks, potholes,

ditches that have developed on the roads,

will likely greet him/her in many places of

this hapless city. It seems that the entire

city has turned into a zone with dangers

lurking everywhere. From Jatrabari, the

southern fringe of the city, to Uttara, the

northern fringe, from Basabo, the eastern

fringe, to Gabtoli, the western fringe,

everywhere the same precarious scenario is

prevailing. Unplanned digging of roads

repeatedly, and that too in the full rainy

season, by the authorities of various utility

services like WASA, Titas Gas, telephone

organizations and electricity distribution

organisations has aggravated the sufferings

of the city-dwellers.

Conditions of some of the roads in the city

have become so perilous that those have

become unfit for plying of vehicles. Due to

continuous rain, carpeting, bricks and stone

chips of many roads have been displaced

making those hazardous for movement of

vehicles. Traffic jam on these roads has

become a regular menace and commuters

have to remain stranded on these roads for

hours together.

This kills valuable time and taxes the

patience of many commuters. Emergency

patients on the way to hospitals and clinics

are the worst sufferers. Besides, due to

knee-deep water on many badly damaged

roads caused by rain many vehicles become

inoperative, exposing the commuters to a

lot of sufferings.

Every year the government allocates

substantial budget for repairing of the city's

roads. As routine work many roads are

repaired hastily. But after some weeks or

months only the conditions of the roads

revert to the previous positions. This kind

of repair does not improve the conditions of

the damaged roads at all on a durable basis.

Use of substandard materials in repairing

roads has become a chronic practice in our

country. A section of contractors and

engineers financially gain out of these

projects but the sufferings of the taxpayers

do not end. This is a sheer unacceptable

drainage of state money. What is done in

the name of repairing of roads is sheer

cheating. This is not aimed at public

welfare.

The government should take up the road

repairing issue seriously. Prime Minister

(PM) Sheikh Hasina recently expressed

concern over the faulty repairing of roads.

She directed the relevant authorities to

repair roads with rods, cement and concrete

so that those can last for a long time. She

told the authorities that a road paved with

concrete has the prospects of longevity of

even 25 years whereas the ones now being

repaired with bitumen usually crumble

within a year. In some cases such roads

crumble within months of their repairs

requiring repairing afresh. Apart from

unending people's suffering, this practice

only contributes to sheer misspending of

people's money to line the pockets of a few.

Thus, if the PM's directive is executed,

the roads will be durable, city-dwellers will

enjoy its benefits and state money will not

be wasted. We are confident that the PM is

fully aware of the sufferings of the citizens

and she is eager to provide them with relief

and prevent squandering of public money.

She has also identified the heart of the

problem : deliberately keeping alive the

scope for repeated repairing of the roads so

that the unscrupulous ones can make

money. We hope that the PM will now

ensure that her directive would be heeded

and the interest groups blocking the same

frustrated completely in their scheming.

Amid the rising tension between the

Islamic Republic and the US,

Russia has been in a difficult

situation. Should it unequivocally

support the Iranian leaders despite their

destabilizing behavior in the region?

Moscow has been shrewdly avoiding

any attemptto declare its robust and

unconditional support for the Iranian

leaders.

When top Iranian general Qassem

Soleimani was killed on an order from

US President Donald Trump last

month, Russian leaders tried to avoid

being dragged into the conflict, so they

did not declare military support for

Tehran. The only reaction that Moscow

gave was an announcement of

condemnation. President Vladimir

Putin, in a joint statement with French

President Emmanuel Macron,

"agreedthat US actions have the

potential to seriously aggravate the

situation in the region."

In addition, in the midst of US-Iran

tensions in May last year, Moscow did

not offer military support for the Iranian

regime when the US deployed a Patriot

missile battery, the USS Abraham

Lincoln aircraft carrier, the USS Leyte

Gulf guided missile cruiser, Carrier Air

Wing Seven, and destroyers from

Destroyer Squadron Two to the Middle

East in order to deter the Iranian regime

from carrying out its threats, which

included closing the Strait of Hormuz.

The Iranian leaders most likely expect

more support from global power Russia.

After all, the two countries share a

common interest in counterbalancing

and scuttling US foreign policy in the

dr. MaJId rafIZadeh

region. Russia's ties with Tehran extend

its regional influence and give it leverage

that can be used to push the West - and

the US in particular - to lift sanctions

against Moscow. Since Iran's 1979

revolution, improving ties with Tehran

has been a major part of Russia's foreign

policy, as it has been using Tehran as a

bargaining chip to reassert its global

leadership. However, amid the latest

developments, Russian leaders likely

believe that the Iranian authorities are at

least partially to blame for the rising

tensions and, thus, the killing of

Soleimani. As the Pentagon saidin a

statement, Soleimani "was actively

developing plans to attack American

diplomats and service members in Iraq

and throughout the region." It also said:

"At the direction of the president, the US

military has taken decisive defensive

action to protect US personnel abroad

by killing Soleimani." The strike itself

"was aimed at deterring future Iranian

attack plans." The statement also

pointed to the previous deadly actions of

Soleimani and his Quds Force, which

was "responsible for the deaths of

hundreds of American and coalition

service members and the wounding of

thousands more."

It is also not in Russia's interest that

the Iranian leaders have been

increasingly exploiting their strategic

advantage by issuing threats to block the

Strait of Hormuz, which is another tactic

in the asymmetric war strategy

employed by Tehran. Then-commander

of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard

Corps Mohammed Ali Jafari was in

2018 quoted by the semi-official Tasnim

News Agency as saying: "We will make

In addition, in the midst of Us-Iran tensions in May last

year, Moscow did not offer military support for the Iranian

regime when the Us deployed a patriot missile battery, the

Uss abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, the Uss Leyte Gulf

guided missile cruiser, Carrier air Wing seven, and

destroyers from destroyer squadron Two to the Middle east

in order to deter the Iranian regime from carrying out its

threats, which included closing the strait of hormuz.

IMad Zafar

the enemy understand that either

everyone can use the Strait of Hormuz

or no one." And, last year, armed forces

chief of staff Mohammed Bagheri said:

"If our oil does not go through the strait,

other countries' oil will certainly not

cross the strait either."

For Russia's leaders, stability is critical

in order to safeguard Moscow's assets

and interests in the Middle East.

Therefore, not only does the Kremlin

likely believe that the Iranian regime has

brought on these problems by its own

irrational actions, but it is also not in

Russia's interests that Tehran has been

pursuing aggressive policies such as

attacking oil tankers in the Gulf.

In addition, Moscow does not want to

see the rising tensions between the US

and the Iranian regime lead to war,

turning the region into a conflict zone.

This might again endanger the hold on

power of Syria's Bashar Assad,

Moscow's key ally. Russia's strategic

interests in the Mediterranean Sea are

intertwined with the political

establishment in Damascus because the

Syrian port of Tartus - its second largest

- houses Russia's only naval basein the

region. In addition, Syria has been

purchasing arms from Moscow for

decades.

The rising tensions between

Washington and Tehran are

undermining the theocratic

establishment's efforts to support the

Syrian regime economically and

militarily. If the tensions spiral out of

control, Syrian oppositional and rebel

groups might become empowered once

again and threaten Russia's strategic

and geopolitical interests in the country.

Finally, as a global power, Russia has

to maintain its international status and

prestige. Demonstrating too much

support for a regime that has been

wreaking havoc in many nations in the

region does not bode well for Moscow.

Iran's destabilizing behavior is inimical

to Russia's strategic and geopolitical

interests in the region.

Source : Arab News

Change in pakistan will only bring in new puppets

From Day 1 of the current Pakistan

Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) regime, it

was written on the wall that the

engineered political discourse that

brought Imran Khan and his party to

power would not be sustainable for very

long. Only someone incapable of

understanding political dynamics and

unaware of the inability of the PTI to

govern could have thought that Khan

would not eventually shoot himself or his

backers in the foot. So what was

inevitable from Day 1 is now gradually

being recognized by the powers that be,

and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz

(PML-N) is trying to finalize a deal with

the military establishment to retake

control of the government.

Prime Minister Imran Khan is facing

a tough challenge in the form of a new

PML-N that instead of locking horns

with the establishment has

compromised on its ideology and now

wants to return to power through an inhouse

change or a midterm election.

The distance between the PML-N and

the invisible forces is gradually

diminishing, and as a result, one after

another jailed party stalwarts are being

granted bail by the same courts that just

a few weeks back were reluctant to

release them.

Recently Hamza Shahbaz, the son of

PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif, was

granted bail in the Ramzan Sugar Mills

corruption case, and if insiders are

correct, very soon former prime minister

Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and another

PML-N stalwart, Ahsan Iqbal, will also be

released.

The first target of the PML-N was to get

out of the dead-end street where both

Khan and his backers were teaching the

party a lesson for creating an antiestablishment

narrative in the province of

Punjab, and many top party officials were

booked under dubious circumstances.

Former finance minister Ishaq Dar was

one of the PML-N leaders who were

targeted for standing by the party in the

time of crisis. Dar's property was

confiscated by the government in a case

that has no grounds, as any sane person

can see that he was targeted for not only

opposing non-productive expenses in the

government budget, but also trying to

end the hegemony of the establishment

over the finances and resources of the

country. Just recently the Lahore High

Court stopped the government from

auctioning Dar's property. Dar still has no

regrets for taking a stance that according

to him was for the betterment of the

country.

On many occasions talking to this

correspondent from London, he never

discussed his financial losses due to the

fabricated cases lodged against him by

prime Minister Imran Khan is facing a tough challenge in the

form of a new pML-N that instead of locking horns with the

establishment has compromised on its ideology and now wants to

return to power through an in-house change or a midterm

election. The distance between the pML-N and the invisible forces

is gradually diminishing, and as a result, one after another jailed

party stalwarts are being granted bail by the same courts that just

a few weeks back were reluctant to release them.

Therese raphaeL

PTI and its backers, nor has he spoken of

the character-assassination campaign

against him. In fact, he seems solely

concerned with the deteriorating

economy, saying that it is painful to watch

the demise of an economy he once

rescued and then through hard work not

only strengthened it but also was able to

make it flourish. But for the cult PTI vote

bank, Dar remains an absconder who

kept the economy ticking through

artificial measures. However, the reality is

that if it were possible, PTI would never

have hesitated to adopt gimmicks and

artificial measures to boost the ailing

economy. This was also the case with

former prime minister Shahid Khaqan

Abbasi, who is considered to be close to

Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz and

who is languishing in jail for a crime he

never committed. So perhaps Sharif

made a calculated move on the power

chessboard by backing General Qamar

Javed Bajwa's extension as Chief of Army

Staff unconditionally and secured his

party's future.

However, the question arises as to

why Sharif just gave up at a time when

it was very clear that PTI's backers were

not able to make the rigged political

discourse work, and it might have taken

just a few more months before the

establishment agreed to the demand

for fresh elections. Now that Sharif has

surrendered and presented his younger

brother Shahbaz as a bad cop, it has

been continuously propagated by the

PML-N leadership that Nawaz was not

interested in a deal and it was Shahbaz

who persuaded him to deal with the

invisible forces.

But anyone who knows the structure of

the PML-N and the Sharif clan knows

that it has always been the elder Sharif

who decides the political narrative of the

party.

He also seems to be gambling that

Boris Johnson wants to be superman and working class hero

Immediately after his December

election victory, Boris Johnson

declared his principle domestic policy

objective to be the rebalancing of Britain's

economy, "levelling up" those parts of the

UK that have been left behind financially.

Recently, speaking in the Baroque

splendour of the National Maritime

Museum in Greenwich, the prime

minister set out his prime foreign policy

goal: making Britain a global "Superman"

in championing free trade.

These are both reasonable ambitions -

noble, even. Johnson's government was

voted into power to deliver them, backed

by a strange mixture of working class

former Labour voters and older

Conservative Brexiters who want a

swashbuckling UK unencumbered by ties

to the European Union. The problem, as

Johnson dives into trade negotiations

with Brussels, is that keeping that latter

constituency happy may involve hurting

the former.

If he's to hold this new Conservative

coalition together, Johnson will need to

deliver economic benefits to the former

Labour heartlands in England's industrial

north. And if he's to deliver the Global

Britain promised by Brexiters after

quitting the EU, he'll have to be free to

strike trade agreements with countries

around the world. There's a strong moral

case for a domestic agenda that tries to

rebalance the UK economy away from the

dominance of finance and the City of

London. It may be a prerequisite for fixing

Britain's weak productivity and providing

better growth prospects. Johnson has a

point on free trade too. "[It] is being

choked, and that is no fault of the people,

that is no fault of individual consumers,"

he said. "I'm afraid it is the politicians who

are failing to lead, the mercantilists are

everywhere, the protectionists are gaining

ground."Yet the flaws in Johnson's effort

to keep all sides of his support base happy

were there in his speech. Johnson insisted

that the UK cannot sign up to the EU's socalled

"level playing field" provisions -

which guarantee broad alignment

between the UK and Europe on rules and

regulations governing policy areas from

social policy to environmental policy, tax

and state aid. But without that

undertaking, the EU says it cannot give

Britain the zero-tariff, zero-quota

arrangement on goods that it wants.

Johnson won't want to be seen to

capitulate on the level playing field,

because it wouldn't tally with a newly

sovereign Britain free to go where she likes

on global trade - instead, the UK would be

a "rule-taker" from Brussels. Johnson has

begun talking of an Australian-style deal if

the Canada-type trade arrangement he

There's a strong moral case for a domestic agenda

that tries to rebalance the UK economy away from

the dominance of finance and the City of London. It

may be a prerequisite for fixing Britain's weak

productivity and providing better growth prospects.

Johnson has a point on free trade too. "[It] is being

choked, and that is no fault of the people, that is no

fault of individual consumers," he said.

wants isn't possible. Australia doesn't have

a free trade deal with the EU, so this is

largely a euphemism for moving to World

Trade Organisation terms - or a "no deal"

split from the EU trading partnership to

put it more bluntly, perhaps with some

side deals in important sectors.

Unfortunately for the prime minister,

the further Britain moves away from its

current zero-tariff, zero-quota

arrangement on goods with the EU, the

more pain it might inflict on those

northern England regions that voted for

him. Even Canada has to pay tariffs on

poultry, meat and eggs and respect

quotas. The UK Treasury estimated that a

Canada-style free-trade agreement would

mean a hit of 4.9 per cent of GDP growth

over a 15-year period (compared to the UK

staying in the EU); a WTO arrangement

would no doubt be worse. And not all

parts of the UK economy are equally

exposed to these new trade costs. The

areas that will be hardest hit by new trade

frictions with the EU are the very places

that he's trying to "level-up."

Of course, Johnson's speech - and the

negotiating proposals put forward by the

EU's Michel Barnier at the same time - are

just the opening gambits of the mother of all

trade negotiations. Much could change as

the clock ticks down to the deadline at the

end of this year. The EU might give way on

some level-playing field provisions, in

exchange for continued access to British

fishing waters. The EU proposals also hold

out Gibraltar as a bargaining chip. To

achieve both his domestic and foreign policy

objectives Johnson's biggest post-Brexit bet

must be proved right: that while the EU may

be the larger negotiating partner, Britain's

geopolitical clout, closeness with the US and

geographical proximity gives it similar

weight.

Source : Asia Times

SCIENCE & TECH

SATURDAY, FebRUARY 8, 2020

5

First generation Sonos Play: 5 will continue to work as audio speakers, but will not be networkable or connect

with future equipment.

Photo: Samuel Gibbs

Sonos stops software updates

of its older equipment

Alex Hern

Speaker company Sonos will cut

off its most loyal customers from

future software updates entirely

unless they replace their old

equipment for newer models, it

has announced. The policy is

unusual even within the noveltyobsessed

technology industry, for

the scope of the impact: customers

who have a range of Sonos

products, including the Connect,

Bridge and first-generation Play:5

speakers, will not only never be

able to update those devices but

will also be blocked from updating

any newer device that is connected

to them.

"We're extremely proud of the

fact that we build products that

last a long time, and that listeners

continue to enjoy them," the

company said in a blogpost

announcing the move. "In fact,

92% of the products we've ever

shipped are still in use today. That

is unheard of in the world of

consumer electronics. However,

we've now come to a point where

some of the oldest products have

been stretched to their technical

limits in terms of memory and

processing power."

Sonos makes speakers and

associated hardware that can be

networked into a multi-room

audio system. Known for being

comparatively expensive, the

company's products nonetheless

have a devoted following of

customers. A freeze on software

updates will initially have little

effect, but over time it will

eventually prevent the speakers

from working at all, "particularly

as partners evolve their

technology", Sonos said.

Unmentioned is the cybersecurity

impact: without software updates,

security vulnerabilities will remain

unfixed, putting users' networks at

risk if they do not replace their

devices.

The company has come under

particular fire for the types of

devices included in the block.

Many are the sort that are

physically built into the homes of

users, as part of a wired-in multiroom

audio arrangement. Others,

including the Play:5, are highquality

speakers that continue to

work for their intended purpose,

playing audio.

And while Sonos emphasised

the age of the technology in its

initial release, noting that some of

the hardware was launched

almost 20 years ago, the company

did not acknowledge that the

devices were sold to new

customers much more recently. In

fact, the Sonos Connect remains

on sale today, for £349 direct from

the company itself. There is no

note on the store page to warn

would-be purchasers that the

device will receive no further

updates. The company offered an

alternative solution for users who

want to continue to receive

software updates: enable Recycle

Mode on their older hardware, a

setting that Sonos launched to

some controversy in November.

When Recycle Mode is enabled,

Sonos credits the owner with a

voucher worth 30% of the cost of

the device - then sends a software

update that renders the hardware

unusable in the future.

"Anyone even remotely familiar

with recycling can tell you the

mantra 'reduce, reuse, recycle,'"

one user argued. "Recycling takes

energy and, while it saves

materials, reuse is always better.

Sonos is throwing any claimed

environmental friendliness in the

trash in order to sell more

speakers."

At the time, Sonos said that

Recycle Mode was optional, for

customers who felt that "having

modern Sonos devices capable of

delivering these new experiences

is important". It added, in replies

to concerned customers, that "we

have no plans to suddenly make

these devices obsolete".

In recent months, Sonos has

become more aggressive about

trying to maintain profitability in

the face of tough competition from

rival technology platforms such as

Apple, Google and Amazon. As

well as the decision to end support

for some devices, the company

also launched a lawsuit against

Google, claiming that it stole

Sonos's intellectual property and

used to launch its own smart

speaker, the Google Home. Sonos

would have sued Amazon for the

same infringement, its CEO said,

but it felt that it only had the

resources to fight one legal battle

at a time.

Automation isn't not solely liable for unemployment

Our collective sense that the pace of labor-saving technological change

is accelerating is an illusion.

Photo: Spencer Selvidge

Aaron benanav

An army of robots now scrub floors,

grow microgreens and flip burgers.

Due to advances in artificial

intelligence, computers will

supposedly take over much more of

the service sector in the coming

decade, including jobs in law, finance

and medicine that require years of

education and training.

Will automation-induced job loss

tear society apart? The question has

even influenced the US presidential

race. Candidate Andrew Yang blames

automation for a long-simmering

crisis of underemployment. He plans

to hand out free money to every

American citizen in the form of a

monthly "dividend" of $1,000.

Poor job quality and stagnant

wages are major problems in

America and across much of the

world, but it is wrong to blame these

problems on an accelerating pace of

automation, which is hardly in

evidence. Automation Cassandras

often point to the manufacturing

sector as the precedent for what will

happen to the rest of the economy. It

is true that, for the manufacturing

industry, a jobs apocalypse has

already taken place.

And this process is occurring across

the world: according to the UN, the

share of all workers employed in

manufacturing is falling globally,

even as industrial production per

person continues to rise. This is the

case in wealthy and poor countries.

Yet it is hasty to ascribe these trends

to accelerating automation.

While machines now make

everything from shoes and shirts to

cars and computers, there has been

no significant uptick in the pace of

labor-saving productivity growth in

industry in recent decades.

On the contrary, industrial

efficiency has been improving at a

sluggish pace for decades, leading the

Nobel-prize-winning economist

Robert Solow to quip, in 1987: "We

see the computer age everywhere

except in the productivity statistics."

Our collective sense that the pace of

labor-saving technological change is

accelerating is an illusion. It's like the

feeling you get when looking out of

the window of a train car as it slows

down at a station: passing cars on the

other side of the tracks appear to

speed up. Labor-saving technical

change appears to be happening at a

faster pace than before only when

viewed from across the tracks - that

is, from the standpoint of our ever

more slow-growing economies.

That is the real problem: a

pervasive and increasingly global

economic stagnation - affecting

industry especially - that is marked

by low rates of investment, low rates

of economic growth and hence low

rates of job creation.

In the context of economic

stagnation, even small increases in

productivity are enough to destroy

more manufacturing jobs than are

created. The best explanation for this

worsening economic stagnation is

that, since the 1970s, more and more

countries adopted export-led growth

strategies, built up manufacturing

sectors and began to compete in

global markets. That led in turn to

heightened competition, making

fast-paced industrial expansion - and

fast-paced economic growth - much

more difficult to achieve.

In this context, countries with high

levels of robotization are not

necessarily the ones that have lost the

most industrial jobs. On the contrary,

Germany, Japan and South Korea

have some of the highest levels of

robots per manufacturing worker but

also boast higher manufacturing

employment shares.

PC suggestion for someone

with Parkinson’s

Jack Schofield

The short answer is that you

should buy a desktop PC. With a

laptop, you are more or less stuck

with the keyboard fitted by the

manufacturer, and the quality

varies from average to mediocre.

With a desktop PC, you can take

your pick from dozens of USB and

Bluetooth keyboards. These range

from keyboards with flat, islandstyle

isolated keys to full

mechanical keyboards aimed at

professionals and gamers.

Some USB keyboards have extralarge

keys with big letters for

children and for grown-ups with

vision and other problems. There's

also a programmable membrane

keyboard, Helpikeys, that doesn't

have keys at all. Helpikeys works

with a variety of keyboard

overlays, and people can create

custom keyboards with its Layout

Builder software.

There are lots of flat keyboards

that might suit you. The wireless

Bluetooth options include the

Microsoft Modern (£85.76 on

Amazon.co.uk) and Microsoft

Surface (£71.99) keyboards, plus

similar models from Fenifox

(£36.99) and Jelly Comb (£29.99).

Personally, I'd go for the silver

Cherry KC 6000 Slim wired USB

keyboard (£28.66), though there

are cheaper wired options.

Either way, consider contacting

AbilityNet, a charity that provides

specialist advice on technology to

"people of any age, living with any

disability or impairment".

AbilityNet may also be able to offer

you free IT support at home

through its network of volunteers.

It's a wonderful resource for older

people and those with disabilities.

There are some good reasons for

buying a laptop. The main ones

are, first, that you need to use your

PC while out and about, or at least

in different rooms; and second,

that you don't have room for a

desktop monitor and external

keyboard.

Size is no longer a

disqualification because you can

get tiny mini PCs that will attach to

the back of a monitor. However,

it's pretty hard to use a desktop

without some sort of desk or table

and a chair, and those take up

valuable floor space.

If you have room for a desktop,

there are lots of reasons to buy

one. Desktops generally run faster

than laptops because they can use

faster processors that run hotter.

Desktops do not limit your screen

size or keyboard quality, so you

can optimise the system to your

needs. Desktops are easier to

expand, update and repair - you

can usually add extra memory,

bigger drives and faster graphics

cards - so they should last longer.

And if your system is set up

correctly, desktops have better

ergonomics than laptops, so they

are better for your health.

Most laptops let you plug in an

external monitor or screen display,

a USB or Bluetooth keyboard, a

mouse, headphones, ethernet

adapter, and external USB hard

drives for backups and extra

storage. Microsoft Windows

supports multiple displays as

standard, so the main problem is

picking a cable to connect the

second screen to your laptop. For

most purposes, we've already left

behind VGA and DVI connections.

Modern TV sets and monitors have

HDMI ports, and sometimes

others such as DisplayPort.

Modern laptops typically have

HDMI, DisplayPort or Mini

DisplayPort connections, and

sometimes USB Type C ports. If

both devices have HDMI ports, an

HDMI cable will do the job.

Sometimes you might need an

adapter cable such as HDMI-to-

DisplayPort, or vice versa.

Otherwise, there are cables with

VGA, DVI, Mini DisplayPort,

DisplayPort or USB-C plugs at one

end and HDMI at the other end.

There are three problems with

this approach. First, your laptop

may not have enough ports to plug

everything in. Second, it's tedious

to have to unplug all the

accessories when you want to take

your laptop somewhere, then plug

them back in later. Third, you have

all the disadvantages of a desktop

PC without the advantages.

Refurbished business PCs might be boring, but they get the job done and after

often better than consumer computers costing more. Photo: Caiaimage

In the early days of business

laptops, docking stations

alleviated these problems.

Accessories - keyboard, screen,

mouse etc - plugged into the

docking station and the laptop

docked with that. Dedicated

docking stations are still available,

but the general-purpose solution is

a mini-tower like the Plugable USB

3.0 Universal Laptop Docking

Station. Everything plugs into the

Plugable, or similar device, so

there is only one USB 2 or

preferably USB 3 cable to the

laptop. There are also USB-C

versions that can provide power to

the laptop as well as all the various

connections.

elon Musk put Tesla to

cross $100bn mark

Rob Davies

The Tesla founder, Elon Musk, has

taken the first step to becoming

$50bn (£38bn) richer after the value

of the electric car company surged

past $100bn.

Musk, already a multibillionaire

with a net worth estimated at about

$30bn, secured approval in 2018 for

a pay deal that would dwarf existing

records for renumeration if it was

paid out in full. Under the scheme

corporate governance experts have

described as "staggering", Musk must

build Tesla into a $650bn company

over the next 10 years.

Hitting this landmark would make

Tesla one of the world's most

valuable tech companies - worth

more than seven times the combined

value today of automotive

powerhouses Ford and General

Motors . Provided Tesla also hits

ambitious revenue and profit targets,

and assuming Musk remains its chief

executive, such growth would also

trigger payments in stock worth

about $50bn over the course of the

scheme.

At the time the deal was agreed in

March 2018, Tesla was valued by

the stock market at $54.6bn. Its

share price has nearly doubled

since then, breaking the $100bn

barrier on Wednesday. Improved

sentiment about Tesla on Wall

Street is partly down to a surprise

third-quarter profit of $143m,

which bolstered hopes that the

company could end its habit of

making significant losses.

If Musk can keep the stock market

value at above $100bn on average

over the next six months, he will be

entitled to the first of up to 12 stock

payouts, worth around $350m each.

The pay deal is staggered so that he

receives further awards for every

$50bn Tesla increases in stock

market value, up to a maximum of

$50bn in shares if the company

achieves a valuation of $650bn by

2028.

That is still some way behind

trillion-dollar companies such as

Apple, the first to reach the Wall

Street milestone, and Google's parent

company, Alphabet. Tesla supporters

have argued that the way the pay plan

is structured will help keep Musk

focused on the company at a time

when he is also increasingly involved

in SpaceX, his space exploration

company, and other ventures.

Under pay scheme, founder must build electric carmaker into $650bn company by 2028. Photo: Aly Song

ECONOMY & BUSINESS

SatUrDaY, FEbrUarY 8, 2020

6

Young industrialist and Vice-Chairman of bangladesh association of banks Mr. anisuzzaman

Chowdhury is inaugurating UCb asset Management Limited, a subsidiary of United Commercial

bank Limited as Chief Guest along with Special Guest Mohammed Shawkat Jamil; arif Quadri,

Chairman of UCb asset Management Limited and Shekh Mohammad rashedul Hasan, CEO of UCb

asset Management Limited and other senior officials.

Photo : Courtesy

Its Wuhan plants shut,

Honda reports

quarterly profit drop

Japanese automaker

Honda reported Friday a

nearly 31% dive in its

October-December profit as

strong demand for its

motorcycles failed to make

up for falling vehicles sales,

reports UNB.

Honda Motor Co. reported

quarterly profit of 116.4

billion yen ($1.1 billion),

down from 168 billion yen

the same period the previous

year.

Sales for the three months

slipped 6% to 3.7 trillion yen

($34 billion).

Honda raised its full year

profit forecast to 595 billion

yen ($5.4 billion) from an

earlier 575 billion yen ($5.2

billion), although the

improved new forecast is still

15% below what it earned the

previous fiscal year.

But Honda, the maker of

the Accord compact,

Odyssey minivan and Asimo

robot, said the damage from

the outbreak of a virus that

began in central China is not

reflected in its forecasts

through March 2020.

Honda, like other

Japanese automakers, has

not resumed production at

its factories in China since

the Lunar New Year's

holidays, which began Jan.

24.

Tokyo-based Honda said

its three auto-assembly

plants in Wuhan, the city at

the center of the outbreak,

will remain closed through

Feb. 13. Honda's other plants

in China will remain

shuttered at least through

Sunday, the company said.

Thirty Honda employees

have returned to Japan on

chartered planes from

Wuhan arranged by the

Japanese government, and

none of them are sick with

the virus, it said.

Company trips to the

Wuhan area are canceled,

and trips to China overall are

being avoided unless

absolutely necessary, said

Honda, which also makes

Super Cub scooters.

Other Japanese

automakers have

temporarily shut down

production at its China

plants.

Toyota Motor Corp.,

Japan's top automaker, said

Friday it was extending the

production stoppage at its 12

auto plants in China by at

least another week, through

Feb. 16. Four of the

production sites are vehicleassembly

plants.

Toyota reported healthy

profits and sales earlier this

week and raised its annual

forecast, but the virus

remains a risk to its China

operations.

Nissan Motor Co. said

earlier it was considering

reopening most of its

factories in China on

Monday, but would wait

until at least Feb. 14 for

facilities in and around

Wuhan. Nissan reports

earnings next week.

Car makers adjust

to virus outbreak,

Uniqlo outlets

closed

Automakers are

considering whether to

reopen factory lines in China

and counting the costs from

the virus outbreak in China,

while Japanese fashion

brand Uniqlo reports half its

shops in China are closed,

reports UNB.

Here is a look at the latest

developments on how the

virus is affecting global

business:

AUTOMAKERS:

Japanese automaker Nissan

Motor Co. said Friday that

sales in China in January by

the company and its local

partners fell 11.8% from a

year earlier to 118,143

vehicles due to the virus

outbreak and the extension

of the Lunar New Year

holiday. Nissan said earlier it

was considering reopening

most of its factories in China

on Monday but would wait

until at least Feb. 14 for

facilities in and around

Wuhan, the city at the center

of the outbreak. Toyota said

it was keeping its factories in

China closed for an extra

week, through Feb. 16, and

will decided then whether to

resume production.

EU trade chief

makes surprise

visit to Washington

EU Trade Commissioner

Phil Hogan will meet his US

counterpart Robert

Lighthizer in Washington on

Thursday, a surprise visit as

Brussels seeks to end a

transatlantic trade row.

The departure, which was

revealed after Hogan at the

last minute cancelled a

speech in Brussels on

Thursday, follows a visit

only last month, reports

UNB.

"These meetings are part

of the regular bilateral

contacts" between the EU

and the US "for a positive

bilateral transatlantic trade

agenda", an EU spokesman

added, without further

details.

Last month in Davos,

Trump and EU Commission

President Ursula von der

Leyen announced their

willingness to relaunch

transatlantic talks and to

conclude a formal trade

truce in the coming weeks.

EU-US trade relations had

deteriorated since President

Donald Trump came to

power three years ago and

declared a war against his

country's yawning trade

deficit with Europe.

The skirmishes began

when Trump imposed tariffs

on steel and aluminium

imports from the EU, which

shot back by taxing iconic

US products, including

denim jeans and

motorcycles.

toyota logs nine-month

profit gain, upgrades

annual forecasts

Japanese car giant Toyota on Thursday

reported a surge in net profit on record sales

for the nine months to December, and

upgraded its full-year profit forecasts.

But the maker of the Camry sedan and

Prius hybrid warned it was closely watching

the impact of the new coronavirus in China,

where the firm has suspended operations at

more than 10 plants.

Toyota said net profit for April-December

surged 41.4 percent on-year to 2.0 trillion yen

($18 billion) with sales up 1.6 percent at 22.8

trillion yen, the highest ever for the period.

The profit jump was mainly due to strong

revenue, cost-cutting efforts and gains in

shares it holds.

By region, sales in North America - its cash

cow - as well as Japan and Europe increased

for the nine months but those in Asia

declined, reports BSS.

The company revised upward its full-year

profit forecast, now projecting a net profit of

2.35 trillion yen for the fiscal year to March,

compared with its earlier estimate of 2.15

trillion yen, thanks to foreign exchange gains.

Operating profit is now forecast at 2.5

trillion yen, up from 2.4 trillion yen estimated

earlier, while its sales outlook remained

unchanged at 29.5 trillion yen.

"Despite the industry's tough business

environment, Toyota is showing a steady

performance compared with its rivals," said

Satoru Takada, auto analyst at TIW, a Tokyobased

research and consulting firm. "Costcutting

efforts continued contributing to

Toyota's profit," offsetting the negative

impact of a strong yen, Takada told AFP.

At a news conference, operating officer

Masayoshi Shirayanagi said the company

was "paying close attention" to the impact of

the outbreak, warning its latest forecast

revision did not take the spreading virus into

account.

Executive vice president Didier Leroy also

said: "The impact of this new additional

problem is really unclear at this stage."

Toyota has decided to keep its 12 plants in

China closed until at least Sunday over the

virus, and any decision to extend the closure

beyond that will be made after "assessing the

situation", a company spokeswoman said.

"The coronavirus outbreak represents a

material downside risk to our scenario for a

mild recovery of the Chinese auto market in

2020," said S&P Global Ratings credit

analyst Vittoria Ferraris.

"We estimate the current two-week

production shutdown imposed in the

Chinese province of Hubei will knock two

percent to four percent off total annual

production in the region."

China may further extend shutdowns

beyond Hubei to limit contagion risk,

possibly affecting up to one-half of China's

auto and auto-parts production, she added.

Takada also warned the outbreak could be

"a potentially serious factor".

"It can affect not only their production in

China but also customer sentiment," Takada

told AFP, adding that other uncertain factors

were the US-China trade dispute, the fragile

Middle East situation and volatile oil prices.

Toyota stocks, which were up about two

percent just before the announcement,

jumped 2.57 percent to close at 7,914 yen.

Rival Honda is scheduled to release its

nine-months figures on Friday, while Nissan

will unveil April-December results next week.

to celebrate the month of February, Delhi Public School (DPS-StS) Dhaka is organising numerous

events at their premise called 'boichitre bangla', which started with a road Painting ceremony on

February 6, 2020. the vibrant programmme, where students created colourful alpana was inaugurated

by atiqul Islam, Mayor, Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC). DPS-StS will also organize

events such as Pitha Uthshab, Poush Mela, Cultural Program to showcase the cultural heritage of

bangladesh spanning throughout the month.

Photo : Courtesy

Samsung brings 'Step towards Love'

campaign to celebrate Valentine's Day

With state-of-the-art modern banking facilities Nrb Commercial bank Limited launched 2 Subbranches

at Siam Market, Itakhola, Shibpur, Narsingdi and ashuganj bazar, brahmanbaria on

Wednesday. Customers will be able to avail all kinds of banking services from these Sub-branches.

a few mention worthy significant services of NrbC bank are NrbC Home Loan 999, cash transaction

facility, remittance service, fund transfer, utility bill (Gas, Water, Electricity) collection, all

kinds of card services, internet banking. Moreover, all of these services are available in the Mobile

app`` NrbC PLaNEt''. NrbC bank's clients can also transfer money to any bKash Number through

''NrbC PLaNEt''.

Photo : Courtesy

bulgaria changes legislation to

join euro 'waiting room'

Bulgaria's parliament

adopted on Thursday changes

to the country's central bank

law so as to allow its accession

to the "waiting room" of the

eurozone.

Since 1999, Bulgaria has

operated an IMF-led currency

board arrangement that pegs

its lev to the euro at a fixed

rate of 1.95583, reports UNB.

The Balkan country would

seek to join the ERM2

Exchange Rate Mechanism -

known as the "waiting room"

to the eurozone - at this same

rate as soon as April, Finance

Minister Vladislav Goranov

has said.

Once in, however, ERM2

rules require Bulgaria's

central bank to allow currency

fluctuations of up to 15

percent above or below the

central rate.

Parliament voted on

Thursday to allow the central

bank to now operate on that

basis.

As long as Bulgaria is in

ERM2, the central lev-euro

rate would be negotiated with

the European Central Bank,

the eurozone member states

and Denmark, the changes

read.

The EU's poorest member

state would need to spend at

least two years in the

mechanism before it is

allowed to join the eurozone.

"This obligatory text lifts the

last obstacle to Bulgaria's

entry into the euro 'waiting

room' in end-April,"

economist Petar Ganev of the

Sofia-based Institute for

Market Economy said.

Last month, International

Monetary Fund head,

Bulgaria's Kristalina

Georgieva, said the country's

accession to the euro "by 2023

is entirely possible".

Contradictory

interpretations of the legal

amendments had sparked

speculation about a possible

devaluation of the lev before

euro adoption.

Looking forward to

Valentine's day, Samsung

Bangladesh starts a campaign,

called 'Step Towards Love'

from February 6, 2020, and it

will continue until February

14, 2020, to spread the spirit

of love. Secret Recipe is the

exclusive partner of this

campaign, a press release

said.

Samsung will place

photobooths in their outlets of

Uttara, Gulshan, and

Dhanmondi. To participate in

this campaign, people have to

simply visit these stores, take

a photograph in front of the

photobooth and post it with

on their Facebook profile as

well as on the event page with

the #love_samsung. Besides

that, participants will also

have to write 'where and how

did they meet with their

partner' on the right side of a

postcard, which they will get

in the Samsung outlets, and

drop it to the designated box

with their name, address, and

phone number.

The couple with the most

exciting story with relevant

uploaded photos will get a

chance to enjoy Special

Valentine's dinner at Secret

Recipe, which is located in

BTI Landmark at Gulshan

Avenue. The last day of

participation of this campaign

is February 10, 2020, and the

winner's name will be

declared on February 12,

2020.

Moreover, all the

participants will be eligible for

BDT 1000 discount on any

consumer electronics

Russian leader Vladimir Putin on

Wednesday ordered the closure of

pharmacies accused of hiking prices of face

masks, as demand soars over fears that the

deadly coronavirus could spread.

Speaking at a government meeting, Putin

said profiteering from the brisk sales of

masks was wrong and pharmacies that

engage in price gouging should be punished,

reports UNB.

"They should be stripped of their licences

to carry out their work, that's all," said the

67-year-old leader, who likes to burnish his

man-of-the-people image.

"They've decided to rake in the cash," he

added, saying officials could make an

products from Samsung

outlets except mobile phones.

To avail this benefit, all they

need to do is to show their

uploaded picture to the

aforementioned outlet and

avail the discount during their

purchase. This discount offer

will be valid until February

29, 2020.

On this occasion, Shahriar

Bin Lutfor, Head of Business,

Consumer Electronics,

Samsung Bangladesh said,

"At Samsung, we are always

looking for ways to enhance

user experience and drive

consumer delight. Keeping

the Valentine's Day in mind,

our team is excited to

organize this upcoming

campaign to double the

happiness of our cherished

customers."

Pharmacies profiteering from

coronavirus will be shut: Putin

example of some pharmacies to deter the

rest.

He said Russia had a wide network of

pharmacies so nobody would experience

drug shortages.

Russia, which shares a 4,000-kilometre

(2,485-mile) border with China, has two

confirmed cases of the coronavirus. Both

patients are Chinese citizens and they are

being treated in hospitals in Siberia.

Russia has closed the land border with

China and introduced a number of other

measures to halt the spread of the virus.

Some complained on social media that

some pharmacies have sold out of surgical

masks as many rush to stock up.

MISCELLANEOUS

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2020

7

Grass-root representatives meeting of Bangladesh Awami League Pabna district unit was held a college

of the district yesterday.

Photo : PBA

Xi talks with Trump over phone

on novel coronavirus outbreak

Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke over

phone with U.S. President Donald

Trump on Friday morning, reports

UNB.

Since the outbreak of the novel

coronavirus epidemic, the Chinese

government and people have been

making all-out efforts to battle the

disease, Xi said.

China, he added, has carried out

national mobilization, across-the-board

deployment and swift responses,

adopted the most comprehensive and

rigorous prevention and control

measures, and launched a people's war

against the epidemic.

Noting that China's efforts are

gradually yielding positive results, Xi

stressed that China has full confidence

and capability to prevail over the

epidemic and that the trend of the

Chinese economy maintaining longterm

growth will not change.

Xi pointed out that China is dedicated

to safeguarding the lives and health of

not only its own people but also people

all over the world.

With an open, transparent and

responsible attitude, China has kept the

World Health Organization (WHO) as

well as relevant countries and regions,

including the United States, posted on

the epidemic, and invited WHO and

other experts to conduct field visits in

Wuhan, the central Chinese city that is

the epicenter of the outbreak, he said.

He added that China is the first line of

prevention and control against this

epidemic, and its timely, decisive and

4 Afghan civilians

killed in insurgents'

mortar attack:

police

Three children and a

woman were killed and one

woman was injured in

overnight Taliban

militants' mortar shelling

in Afghanistan's northern

Faryab province, local

police said Friday, reports

UNB.

"Several mortar rounds

fired by militants landed in

areas in Qaysar district late

Thursday, leaving the

casualties. Security force

members stationed at a

base around 1 km away

from the stricken area

rushed to the site and

shifted the injured woman

to a local hospital," Karim

Urush from provincial

police told Xinhua. The aim

of the attack was to

terrorize people and cause

panic among the residents.

The Afghan civilians

continue to bear the brunt

of armed conflicts as more

than 2,810 civilians were

killed and over 7,950 others

injured in conflict-related

incidents in 2019,

according to figures

released by Afghanistan

Independent Human

Rights Commission

(AIHRC).

The Improvised

Explosive Device

explosions, ground

fighting, suicide attacks

were the leading cause of

civilians' casualties in 2019,

followed by targeted

attacks and progovernment

forces-related

airstrikes, according to

AIHRC.

Out of total casualties,

282 women and 445

children were killed last

year in separate incidents,

according to AIHRC.

effective response measures have been

highly appreciated by the WHO and

many countries.

Noting that China and the United

States have maintained communication

over the prevention and control of the

epidemic, Xi said he appreciates

Trump's positive comments on China's

efforts on multiple occasions, and is

grateful for the supplies donated by

various sections of U.S. society.

He stressed that countries around the

world need to pool their efforts to fight

epidemics, and that the prevention and

control of the novel coronavirus

outbreak is currently at a crucial stage.

Reiterating the call the WHO has

repeatedly made from a professional

perspective for all countries to avoid

overreaction, Xi said China hopes that

the United States will assess the

epidemic in a calm manner, and adopt

and adjust its response measures in a

reasonable way.

The two sides, he added, can maintain

communication, strengthen

coordination and work together to

contain the epidemic.

For his part, Trump said the United

States fully supports China's fight

against the novel coronavirus epidemic

and is willing to send experts to China

and offer assistance in various other

forms.

He said the fact that China completed

building special hospitals for novel

coronavirus patients in an incredibly

short time is impressive, and shows

China's outstanding organizational and

response capabilities.

The U.S. president said he is confident

that under Xi's leadership, the Chinese

people will undoubtedly win the battle

against the outbreak.

The United States has confidence in

China's economic growth, he said,

adding that Washington will calmly look

at and respond to the epidemic, and is

willing to maintain communication and

cooperation with China through

bilateral and WHO channels.

Recalling that China and the United

States signed the phase-one economic

and trade agreement not long ago, Xi

stressed that it is good for China, for the

United States and for world peace and

prosperity that the two countries

reached such a deal.

The progress, he said, fully

demonstrates that despite their

differences, the two countries can

always find solutions acceptable to both

through dialogue and consultation as

long as they uphold the spirit of equality

and mutual respect.

Xi expressed the hope that the United

States will work with China to move

towards each other, seriously

implement the consensuses reached by

the two heads of state, adhere to the

basic principle of coordination,

cooperation and stability, and advance

bilateral ties on the right track in the

new year.

Trump said the United States is

willing to work with China to carry out

the agreement and push forward

bilateral relations.

Egypt frees pro-democracy activist

imprisoned for four years

Egypt on Friday freed a pro-democracy

activist who spent over four years in prison

and rose to local prominence as one of the

faces of the country's 2011 uprising, his

lawyer said, reports UNB.

Ramy Sayed, 31, had coordinated protests

for the April 6 youth movement, a group that

helped catalyze the Arab Spring uprising in

Egypt that toppled autocratic President

Hosni Mubarak.

In October 2015, Sayed was convicted of

taking part in an unauthorized

demonstration, as well as related charges

such as rioting and disturbing the peace. A

criminal court in Cairo sentenced him to 10

years in prison, lawyer May Hamed said.

The government has enforced a strict ban

on public demonstrations since President

Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi rose to power in 2013.

Sayed's pardon, issued last week, came as

part of a customary prisoner release to mark

Police Day. It's a fraught holiday, coinciding

with the anniversary of the 2011 uprising. El-

Sissi, who took power in the wake of protests

against the democratically elected but

divisive Islamist president, Mohammed

Morsi, has sought to stifle public

commemoration of the uprising.

The Ministry of the Interior pardoned a

number of prisoners last week and released

498 inmates on parole. A ministry statement

said the prisoners had been pardoned for

humanitarian reasons, in line with the

government's "desire to modernize punitive

policies, provide care to inmates and free

convicts who have been qualified to re-enter

society."

Rights groups have criticized Egypt's

justice system for violations of due process,

and point to mass presidential pardons as

further proof of unlawful detentions.

Multiple human rights lawyers said they

were not aware of any political detainees

ordered released in the past week other than

Sayed.

El-Sissi has waged an unprecedented

crackdown on dissent in recent years,

arresting thousands -both secular-leaning

activists and Islamist opponents - and rolling

back freedoms won after the 2011 uprising.

Mubarak was sentenced to life

imprisonment for involvement in the killing

of anti-government protesters in the 2011

uprising but was later retried and

subsequently acquitted and released in 2017.

Last month, one of his sons tweeted that the

91-year-old former president had undergone

an unspecified surgery.

Dhaka University Treasurer Prof. Dr. Md. Kamal Uddin distributed prizes

as chief guest among the winners of the annual sports competition of

Ruqayyah Hall on Friday at the central playground of the university.

Provost of the Hall Prof. Dr. Zeenat Huda was, among others, present on

this occasion. Winners are seen with the guests. Photo : Courtesy

Man 'rapes'

daughter's

sixth-grader

classmate

GOALANDA : A man has

been accused of raping the

classmate of his sixth-grader

daughter in Goalanda

Upazila, reports UNB.

The victim filed a case

against Abul Sheikh, 35,

with Goalanda Ghat Police

Station on Thursday

afternoon. Abul is the son of

Badan Mridha of the Ghat

area.

The girl said she went to

meet one of her classmates a

day after the annual picnic of

her school on January 29.

She called her friend but

got no response. Her father

Abul opened the door and

called her inside. When the

girl entered the house, Abul

locked the door, gagged the

girl and raped her.

Abul also threatened to kill

her if she disclosed the

matter to anyone. After four

days, she informed her

family about her ordeal.

When her brother went to

confront Abul, the man fled,

she said.

The victim's father said a

group of locally influential

people are creating pressure

on them to let go of the

incident.

Mohammad Abdullah Al

Tayebi, inspector

(investigation) of Goalanda

Ghat Police Station, said the

victim filed a case against

Abul. "We're conducting

drives to arrest the accused,"

he said.

Last year, 902 children

were raped in Bangladesh, a

153.37 percent rise from the

previous year, according to a

report by Manusher Jonno

Foundation (MJF).

Of the rape victims, 48

percent were aged between

13 and 18 while 39 percent

between 7 and 12 years.

Besides, 93 children fell

victims to sexual

harassment in 2019, the

report said.

Two new dengue

patients hospitalised

in last 24hrs: DGHS

DHAKA : Two new dengue

cases were reported in the

last 24 hours until 8am on

Friday, the Directorate

General of Health Services

(DGHS) said.

Fifteen dengue patients,

including 11 in the capital,

are being treated at hospitals

across the country, the

DGHS said.

Bangladesh experienced a

massive dengue outbreak

last year.

The government

confirmed that dengue had

claimed the lives of 164

people in 2019. The Institute

of Epidemiology, Disease

Control and Research

(IEDCR) confirmed the

number after reviewing 263

out of 266 reports of

dengue-related deaths.

Last year, 101,354 people

were hospitalised with

dengue in the country. Of

them, 101,037 made full

recovery.

Since the beginning of this

year, 219 dengue cases were

reported. Of them, 204 had

been discharged from

hospitals.

Husband killed in mass

beating after he 'stabs

wife to death' in

Keraniganj

A man was killed in a mass

beating after he allegedly

stabbed his wife to death

over family feud in

Nagarmahal road area near

Hakkani Mosque in

Dakkhin Keraniganj early


The deceased were

identified as Ambia Begum,

23 and her husband Russel,

26, of Bagerhat.

Russel stabbed his wife

indiscriminately around

12:30am following a family

feud and hearing her scream

locals rushed to their house

and took Ambia to Dhaka

Medical College Hospital

(DMCH) where doctors

declared her dead, said Shah

Zaman, officer-in-charge of

Bad weather moves

into Eastern states;

4 dead in South

Nearly 150,000 homes and businesses in the

southeastern United States were without

power early Friday after a powerful storm

raked the region. At least four people were

killed, reports UNB.

Florida bore the brunt of the power

outages, with nearly 75,000, according to

poweroutages.us. The Carolinas, Georgia

and Virginia also reported outages, and

tornado watches and warnings were in effect

Thursday night from northern Florida up

through North Carolina.

The National Weather Service advised

early Friday that the storm system was

strengthening in the mid-Atlantic region,

bringing snow, ice and rain northward.

The weather destroyed mobile homes in

Mississippi and Alabama, caused mudslides

in Tennessee and Kentucky and flooded

communities that shoulder waterways

across the Appalachian region. Rain kept

falling over a path of splintered trees and

sagging power lines that stretched from

Louisiana into Virginia. School districts

canceled classes in state after state as bad

weather rolled through.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam declared a

state of emergency Thursday evening

because of heavy rains and extreme flooding.

More than 500 people in southwestern

Virginia were displaced by flooding and

needed rescue from their homes, he said in a

Chinese-owned Swedish auto

maker Volvo Cars said

Thursday it sold a record

number of cars in 2019 and

expected continued growth in

2020 despite concerns over

the new coronavirus.

For the sixth consecutive

year the company broke its

sales record, reports BSS.

"I am very pleased to see

that for the first time in our

history we sold more than

700,000 cars," CEO Hakan

Samuelsson said.

Sales increased in all of its

three main markets, going up

7.0 percent in Europe, 10.1

percent in the United States

and 18.7 percent in China.

Revenue for the year rose 8.5

percent to 274 billion Swedish

kronor. The car maker, which

is owned by China's Geely,

reported at net profit of 7.1

billion kronor ($740 million,

673 million euros), up from

6.8 billion kronor the

previous year.

Volvo Cars did not give an

expected sales figure for

2020, only saying it expected

"continued growth in sales

and revenue."

The company sells more

cars in China than any other

country and said the new

coronavirus "at this stage, will

impact the first quarter

results." It would strive to

offset any impact over the

remainder of the year, it

added.

The virus outbreak, which

started in the city of Wuhan,

has claimed over 560 lives

and more than 28,000 people

are known to be infected

nationwide. Several car

statement.

Meanwhile, the Tennessee Valley

Authority warned that people residing near

rivers and lakes should prepare for rapidly

changing water levels. The TVA is managing

rising water behind 49 dams to avert major

flooding, but with more rain expected next

week, the agency may have to release water

downstream, said James Everett, senior

manager of the TVA's river forecast center in

Knoxville, Tennessee.

Authorities confirmed four storm-related

fatalities, in Alabama, South Carolina, North

Carolina and Tennessee.

One person was killed and another was

injured as high winds destroyed two mobile

homes near the town of Demopolis,

Alabama, the Storm Prediction Center

reported. The victim, Anita Rembert, was in

one of the homes with her husband, child

and two grandchildren, said Kevin

McKinney, emergency management director

for Marengo County. A man was injured but

the children were unhurt, he said.

High winds there left roadsides strewn

with plywood, insulation, broken trees and

twisted metal. The National Weather Service

was checking the site for signs of a tornado.

Weather-related crashes left at least three

people dead and numerous authorities

pleaded with motorists to avoid driving

where they couldn't see the pavement.

Vermont's Republican governor:

Trump shouldn't be in office

Montpelier, Vt., Feb 07 (AP/UNB) -

President Donald Trump abused his power

and shouldn't be in office, Vermont Gov. Phil

Scott, a fellow Republican, said Thursday in

a rare dissent from within party ranks.

The U.S. Senate should have been allowed

to hear from more witnesses who could have

provided evidence about the charges against

the president, Scott, a frequent Trump critic,

said at a news conference.

After being asked about the president's

acquittal Wednesday in the Senate, Scott

said the outcome was almost a foregone

conclusion.

"If they'd taken more testimony, maybe

they'd have had more information and

maybe other senators would have acted

appropriately," Scott said.

When pressed about whether he would

have voted to remove the president, Scott

noted he isn't a member of the Senate.

"I believe that the president abused his

powers. It's hard, in some respects for me,

because I'm not a supporter," Scott said. "I

didn't vote for the president, and I don't

believe that he should be in office."

He continued, "I think it's for the voters to

decide in November whether he should

continue in that role."

Trump was acquitted Wednesday by the

Senate on the two articles of impeachment

that were filed by the House after an

investigation into Trump's request for

Ukraine to "do us a favor" in exchange for

military aid and investigate Democratic rival

Joe Biden ahead of the November election.

Scott praised U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney, of

Utah, the only Republican to break ranks

with his party and vote to convict Trump of

one of the two charges that could have led to

his removal from office.

"I believe he abused his position of power;

withholding those funds is inappropriate,"

Scott said. "I believe, as Sen. Romney did,

that he shouldn't be in office."

Scott repeatedly praised Romney for his

vote to convict the president on the abuse of

power impeachment article, when Romney

knew the vote could subject him to criticism

from members of his party.

"It shows a lot about his character and

integrity," Scott said. "We can only hope that

if we are in that same, similar situation that

we'd do the same."

Romney announced his decision

Wednesday two hours before the GOPdominated

Senate voted to absolve Trump.

He said the impeachment oath required him

to render "impartial justice."

Since he took office in 2017, Scott has been

a frequent critic of Trump, has repeatedly

called for an end to the divisiveness in

American politics, and has criticized many of

the president's policies, including on climate

change and immigration.

In September, Scott was the first GOP

governor to support an impeachment

inquiry against the president.

Volvo Cars posts record sales year

GD-253/20 (3 x 2)

manufacturers, such as

Japan's Toyota, have

suspended production at

some of their plants in China

as a consequence of the health

crisis. After Volvo Cars was

bought by Geely from Ford in

2010, the iconic safetyfocused

Swedish brand has

improved its image and

accounts.

It has already made strides

in the area of autonomous

cars and has said it now wants

to focus on the electrification

of its vehicles.

SatuRDay, Dhaka, FEBRuaRy 8, 2020, MaGh 25, 1426 BS, JaMaDi-uS-Sanni 13, 1441 hiJRi

DMP's 45th founding

anniversary today

Dhaka Metropolitan Police is going to celebrate the 45th anniversary today.

Photo : Star Mail

Dhaka seeks European Parliament's

role to help Rohingya repatriation

DHAKA : State Minister

for Foreign Affairs M

ShahriarAlam has urged

the European Parliament

to remain seized with the

Rohingya issue through its

various monitoring mechanisms

and tools towards

facilitating the safe, dignified

and voluntary return

of the Rohingyas to

Myanmar, reports UnB.

On the second day of his

visit to Brussels, State

Minister Alam had a meeting

with Maria Arena,

Member of the European

Parliament (MEP) from

the group of Progressive

Alliance of Socialists and

Democrats and Chair of

the Parliament's Human

Rights Committee at the

European Parliament on

Thursday.

He exchanged views

with MEP Arena about the

human rights situation of

Rohingyas in Myanmar,

said the Ministry of

Foreign Affairs on Friday.

Alam thanked the MEP

for issuing a statement in

the wake of the recent provisional

order issued by

the International Court of

Justice (ICJ) in the lawsuit

filed by The gambia

against Myanmar.

He said every society

and country needs to find

its own equilibrium

through enacting and

implementing legislations

pursuant to its international

human rights obligations.

Alam explained to the

MEP the objective and

purpose of the Digital

Security Act in Bangladesh

in the backdrop of security

threats experienced by

many other countries in a

comparable situation.

He stressed that the law

was aimed at preventing

and prosecuting criminal

acts in cyber sphere that

could have destabilizing

consequences for the society

in general.

Alam emphasized that

there was no scope for

undue harassment or

restriction against media

personnel under the law.

The State Minister

briefed the MEP about the

key developments in the

RMg industry in

Bangladesh following the

Rana Plaza tragedy.

In view of the MEP's particular

interest in the business

and human rights

agenda, Alam requested

the European policy makers

to engage with buyers

and consumers to ensure

fair prices for apparel

sourced from Bangladesh

for incentivizing the ongoing

reform initiatives in

the industry.

The State Minister gave

a brief account of the

measures taken by Prime

Minister Sheikh Hasina's

government to strengthen

democracy and human

rights in the country.

MEP Arena stressed the

importance of following

up on the European

Union's recommendations

for further electoral

reforms.

Earlier in the day, State

Minister Alam had a bilateral

meeting with

Maximilian Krah, MEP

from the Identity and

Democracy group and

Rapporteur for South Asia

in the European

Parliament's International

Trade Committee (InTA).

DHAKA : Dhaka Metropolitan Police

(DMP) is set to celebrate its 45th founding

anniversary in a befitting manner

today amidst different programmes.

The programmes include bringing out

colorful procession from DMP headquarters

to Rajarbagh Police Lines here at

3pm and a civic reception at Rajarbagh

Police Lines at 4pm.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan

will attend the function as the chief guest

while Public Security Division Senior

Secretary Mostafa Kamal Uddin and

Inspector general of Police (IgP) Dr

Mohammad Javed Patwary will be present

as the special guests.

On the eve of the day, President Md

Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh

Hasina issued separate messages greeting

all members of DMP.

They lauded the role of the members of

DMP in maintaining law and order in the

city. In his message, President Abdul

Hamid recalled with respect the martyrs

of Bangladesh Police, who sacrificed their

lives in the War of Liberation and different

other periods to maintain law and

order. He said the members of

Bangladesh Police had first put up armed

resistance against Pakistani occupation

forces at Rajarbagh Police Lines on the

black night of March 25 in 1971.

"DMP is the largest unit of Bangladesh

Police. Since its inception, members of

this unit have been playing an important

role to establish the rule of law and protect

life and property of the people," he

said.

Abdul Hamid also said in recent time,

DMP is also playing a commendable role

in curbing militancy and terrorism, maintaining

law and order and traffic rule in

the capital, ensuring women and children

friendly policing system and providing

security at different national and international

programmes.

The President hoped that DMP would

continue its sincere efforts to provide

expected services to the residents of the

capital in the coming days as well.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in her

message, said the Awami League government

has taken multifaceted steps to

build Bangladesh Police as a modern and

pro-people force and increased manpower

in phases.

"We have formed specialized units in

organizational structure of police, including

Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI),

Tourist Police, River Police, Special

Security and Protection Battalion and

Industrial Police," she said.

The premier said Anti Terrorism Unit

and Counter Terrorism and

Transnational Crime Unit of police have

already been formed to eliminate militancy

and terrorism. Police training centers,

including Police Staff College and

Bangladesh Police Academy, have been

providing modern training to members

of police to enhance their professional

competence, she added.

"In 2000, we had established the foundation

of Police Welfare Trust. Under

Police Welfare Trust, Community Bank

has already started functioning," she said.

The Prime Minister said a qualitative

change is being noticed in the Bangladesh

Police because of the government's development

activities.

She said recently around 10,000 constables

of Bangladesh Police have been

recruited in a transparent process.

Bangladesh Police has set an example by

completing the recruitment process successfully,

she added.

She urged all members of DMP to

adhere to ethics, principles and human

values to build a pro-people policing system

to earn people's confidence.

Member of 'question paper

leak gang' held in Bogura

BOgURA : Members of Rapid Action

Battalion (RAB) on Friday arrested a

member of a gang involved in question

paper leak in Brindabanpara area in

Sadar upazila.

The arrestee is Md Roman Mia, 22, son

of Md Mithu Mia and a resident of Hizli

village in the upazila.

Md Rawshan Ali, commander of Rab-

12, said they arrested Roman from Saiful

Islam Fatik's student hostel on Friday

morning in the area, reports UnB.

Roman was involved in leaking fake

question papers of the ongoing SSC

examination through Facebook and

Whatsapp, said Ali.

The Rab officer said Roman confessed

to his involvement in leaking fake question

papers.

The Znamya Space Mirror

InTERESTIng nEWS DESK

For a few hours just before dawn on

the night of 4 February 1993, a giant

spotlight, 5 kilometers in diameter,

raced across Europe from west to

east, before disappearing into the

morning light of Byelorussia. Those

who were on the beam’s sweep

reported seeing a momentary flash of

pale silvery light.

The spotlight came from a large

reflector that was launched into orbit

by the Russian Federal Space Agency,

some three months earlier from

Baikonur Cosmodrome. Called

Znamya, which means “banner” or

“flag” in Russian, the satellite was an

experiment to study the feasibility of

using space mirrors to illuminate the

nightside of the planet using the sun’s

rays, pretty much the same “way a

schoolchild playing with a hand mirror

learns to reflect a spot of light

from a bright window into the crannies

of his room,” as The new York

Times explained in a 1993 article.

The idea of using space mirrors was

first proposed by german physicist

Hermann Oberth in 1929 for a much

diabolic purpose. Oberth wanted to

create a weapon, using a 100-meterwide

concave mirror, that could

reflect sunlight onto a concentrated

point on earth capable of incinerating

whole cities and even boil oceans. The

nazis initially showed great interest

on this so-called “sun gun” but later

decided that there were easier ways to

burn cities and nobody would benefit

from a boiling ocean.

The concept was mostly forgotten,

until half a century later, in the late

1980s, Soviet engineer Vladimir

Sergeevich Syromyatnikov saw an

opportunity in space mirrors to further

his interest in solar sails.

Sluice-gate keeps

cropland flooded

for 9 months a year

JASHORE : Thousands of

people in Sharsha upazila

have been suffering for

years as a dysfunctional

sluice-gate keeps a vast

swathe of land inundated

for nine months a year.

Locals alleged that the

administration and Water

Development Board are

playing a silent role in this

regard.

The sluice-gate was built

in the junction of the Betna

River and the Samta Canal

at Bagachara union in the

upazila during the Ershad

regime.

As it remained out of

order for a long time,

around a five-kilometer area

in Kul Baria from

Shangkarpur union to

Samta village was filled with

water-hyacinth, disrupting

the water flow.

Residents of the area say

when the water level drops,

local influential groups farm

fish by setting up small

dams which lead to flooding

during monsoon. Since

there is no proper water

flow, half of the crop land

remains under water in dry

season.

Farmers can only cultivate

Irri. Among 500 bighas of

land of the adjoining beel (a

large surface water body),

around 300 bighas remain

uncultivable.

Locals blamed the Water

Development Board for the

situation.

Mango buds seen in full bloom in the ahead of spring season.

Coronavirus: Benapole's

thermal scanner faulty,

none at Burimari

DHAKA : Bangladesh has put its key

land port Benapole on high alert to

identify coronavirus patients but its

lone thermal scanner is dysfunctional.

Authorities at Burimari land port, on

the other hand, lack any scanner and

are only asking passengers if they had

fever or flu, reports UnB.

Four medical teams are checking passengers

for coronavirus symptoms at

Beanpole, Bangladesh's largest land

port, with a thermo detector since the

thermal scanner's screen has stopped

working.

"We're after checking passengers,

truck drivers and their assistants following

the government's order," said Dr

Bichitra Mallick, medical officer of

Benapole Check Post.

He said they have already screened

30,196 passengers since January 18.

Among them 6,048 are from India and

206 from other countries. "We're yet to

find anyone infected with coronavirus,"

he said.

Between 8,000 and 10,000 people use

the land port every day. About 12 percent

of them are foreigners, according to

a Benapole Land Port official.

On February 2, the health ministry

ordered screening of all people coming

to Bangladesh from India through

Benapole land port for coronavirus.

In Lalmonirhat's Burimari Land Port,

members of four medical teams are

questioning passengers about their

health condition while they are entering

Bangladesh.

"We haven't installed any screening

machines at Burimari and

Changrabandha land ports as there's no

possibility of any Chinese citizen entering

the country through these ports,"

said Lalmonirhat Civil Surgeon Dr

Kashem Ali.

He said they will set up screening

machineries if necessary.

Medical team members were seen

asking passengers if they had cough or

fever or if they visited China recently.

Khandakar Mahmud, sub-inspector at

Burimari Land Port Immigration

Police, said more than 600 to 700 people

cross the port regularly.

"We've sent letter to the Directorate

general of Health Services but they're

yet to take any step to set up thermal

scanner at the port," he said.

Photo : Star Mail

Govt plans to set

up national

judicial academy

MADARIPUR :

Mentioning that the government

of Prime Minister

Sheikh Hasina has established

rule of law in the country,

Law Minister Anisul Haq

has said the government is

planning to establish a national

judicial academy at

Shibchar, Madaripur district

with a view to imparting

training to people concerned.

"As per the instruction of

Prime Minister Sheikh

Hasina, a national judicial

academy will be set up in the

country as training is very

much important for institutionalization

of the judicial

system," he said this after visiting

the proposed land of the

judicial training academy

yesterday afternoon.

The law minister said the

government led by Sheikh

Hasina has established the

rule of law in the country,

adding that so the judiciary is

working as an independent

body.

Jatiya Sangsad Chief Whip

noor-E-Alam Chowdhury,

Madaripur District Council

Chairman M Miazuddin

Khan, Deputy Commissioner

M Wahidul Islam and

District Awami League

Senior Vice-President Munir

Chowdhury, among others,

accompanied the minister

during the visit.

Acting Editor & Publisher : Jobaer Alam, Executive Editor : Sheikh Efaz Ahmed, 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: Bangladesh Timber Building (3rd Floor) 270/B, Tejgaon I/A Dhaka-1208. Tel : +8802-8878026, Cell : 01832166882; Fax: + 880244611604, Email: Editor : editor@thebangladeshtoday.com, Advertisement: ads@thebangladeshtoday.com, News: newsbangla@thebangladeshtoday.com, contact@thebangladeshtoday.com, website: www.thebangladeshtoday.com

08-02-2020

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