27-07-2021

TUeSDAY, JULY 27, 2021
11
Novera Deepita's
15th death
anniversary today
DHAKA : The 15thdeath
anniversary of meritorious
journalist Novera Deepita
will be observed on Tuesday,
reports UNB
Novera Deepita, who
worked with The Daily Star,
passed away on July 27 in
2006. She was a gold
medalist student of the
Department of Mass
Communication and
Journalism at Dhaka
University.
To mark the day, Novera's
family will offer prayers at
the Azimpur graveyard on
Tuesday and provide charity
to orphans, madrasas and
the needy.
Moreover, the Novera
Deepita Memorial Trust will
award 'Novera Deepita
Memorial Scholarship' to
the student achieving the
highest marks in BA (Hons)
examinations under the
Department of Mass
Communication and
Journalism of Dhaka
University when the
university reopens.
Senior photojournalist
Lutfur Rahman Binu
passes away
DHAKA : Veteran
photojournalist Lutfur
Rahman Binu died of cardiac
arrest in Dhaka on Monday.
He was 66, reports UNB.
Family sources said Lutfur
Rahman fell sick at his
Khilgaon residence in the
morning and breathed his
last around 12 noon on the
way to Dhanmondi Ibne Sina
Hospital.
The photojpurnalist, also a
member of the Jatiya Press
Club, is survived by his wife,
a son, a daughter and a host
of relatives and well-wishers.
Lutfur Rahman, who was a
senior photojournalist of
Daily Inqilab, also worked as
a personal photographer of
former Prime Minister and
BNP chief Khaleda Zia.
He will be buried at their
family graveyard after Asr
prayers after a Namaz-ejanaza
at a local mosque.
Jatiya Press Club president
Farida Yasmin and general
secretary Elias Khan
expressed deep shock at his
death.
Ten people
killed in Croatia
bus crash: police
ZAGREB : At least ten
people were killed and
dozens of others were
injured on Sunday when a
bus slipped off the highway
in eastern Croatia, police
said, reports BSS.
The passengers were
travelling on a regular bus
line between the German
city of Frankfurt and the
Kosovo capital Pristina, a
police official told reporters.
The injured were
hospitalised in the eastern
town of Slavonski Brod close
to where the crash occurred,
a police statement said.
A total of 45 people were
admitted to a Slavonski brod
hospital including eight who
sustained serious injuries,
its head Josip Samardzic
said.
There were no immediate
details on the ages or
nationalities of the
passengers or the possible
cause of the accident.
UNO breaks up picnic organised
in brazen breach of lockdown
CHANDPUR : In the midst of the strictest
phase of COVID-19 restrictions imposed in the
country since the start of the pandemic, one
group of 50-60 people somehow found it
appropriate to organise a picnic - and not even
be discreet about it, reports UNB.
The strictness of the restrictions of course
reflect the severity of the outbreak and how
that has shifted. It shouldn't take an
epidemiologist to tell us that Bangladesh is
currently experiencing the worst phase of its
entire outbreak.
The daily numbers coming out of DGHS,
and out of them three in particular, are stark
enough to not require expert interpretation of
what they mean from a public health
perspective.
The fact is that the number of deaths due to
COVID-19 being reported on each day, the
number of new cases, and the latest positivity
rate (the percentage of tests returning positive
for the virus), are all pointing in the wrong
direction, and they've done so for quite a
prolonged period now.
Firefighters battle California blaze
generating its own climate
CHICO, United States : Thousands of US
firefighters are battling a blaze in California
that has grown so big it is generating its
own weather system, with authorities
warning conditions could worsen on
Monday.
The flames have grown so large that they
have created clouds that can cause
lightning and high winds, which in turn can
serve to fuel the fire. Around 5,400
firefighters were struggling to contain the
inferno.
"It could be a challenging day tomorrow.
If these clouds get tall enough they do have
the potential to produce lightning," warned
Julia Ruthford, the meteorologist assigned
to the blaze.
The Dixie Fire has been raging in the
forests of northern California since mid-
July, part of a climate crisis that has
brought sweltering heat and an alarming
drought.
Wildfires are common in the state but this
summer has been particularly incendiary.
Fires have already ravaged three times
more vegetation this year than they had at
this time in 2020, the worst fire year in
California's history.
Rescue workers have been dispatched
from as far away as Florida to help contain
the Dixie Fire and its pyrocumulus clouds.
Despite its size, the fire has so far ravaged
extremely remote areas, destroying the few
dozen homes and small buildings in its
path.
Moving along steep slopes, the
firefighters sometimes ride a train from
which they can spray water on otherwise
inaccessible areas.
But in these weather conditions, "the
embers can really easily travel a mile ahead
of the fire," Rick Carhart, a spokesman for
the firefighters, told AFP. This means
places such as the village of Quincy, where
evacuees are being housed, are also under
threat, he added. "It's been hard watching it
relentlessly moving through our forested
lands," Peggy Moak, resident of a nearby
village, told AFP.
The infernos in California and
neighboring Oregon have come unusually
early in the fire season, driven by the multiyear
drought, gusty winds, and a scorching
start to the summer that experts have linked
to climate change.
In a golf course with yellowed grass, or a
nearly dry lake, the signs of the drought that
assists the flames are visible everywhere.
A preliminary investigation said the Dixie
Fire broke out after a tree fell on one of the
thousands of power lines that dot the state's
landscape. The power line was owned by
Pacific Gas & Company (PG&E), a private
operator previously found guilty of causing a
fire that nearly wiped out the nearby town of
Paradise and killed 86 people.
Fauci says US headed in 'wrong
direction' on coronavirus
WILMINGTON : The United States is in
an "unnecessary predicament" of soaring
COVID-19 cases fueled by unvaccinated
Americans and the virulent delta variant,
the nation's top infectious diseases
expert said Sunday, reports UNB.
"We're going in the wrong direction,"
said Dr. Anthony Fauci, describing
himself as "very frustrated."
He said recommending that the
vaccinated wear masks is "under active
consideration" by the government's
leading public health officials. Also,
booster shots may be suggested for
people with suppressed immune systems
who have been vaccinated, Fauci said.
Fauci, who also serves as President Joe
Biden's chief medical adviser, told CNN's
"State of the Union" that he has taken
part in conversations about altering the
mask guidelines.
He noted that some local jurisdictions
where infection rates are surging, such as
Los Angeles County, are already calling
on individuals to wear masks in indoor
public spaces regardless of vaccination
status. Fauci said those local rules are
compatible with the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention recommendation
that the vaccinated do not need to wear
masks in public.
Yet as if oblivious to it all, this group of
people hired out a trawler for the day, and
blaring loud, incongruous picnic music on the
vessel's PA system, set sail on Sunday morning
down a famous canal in Chandpur.
That they would be so brazen about it would
prove their undoing however, as word started
going around almost immediately of this
blatant breach of the emergency restrictions.
By mid-day, Matlab Dakkhin UNO Fahmida
Haque, assuming her executive magistrate
powers leading a mobile court, was able to
reach the spot on the Boaljuri canal that they
were in.
There she broke up the picnic with other
officials and made five of the organizers pay a
penalty of Tk 11,500 against five cases of
violating lockdown rules by organising a public
gathering and playing loud music on speakers.
During the raid, the UNO seized the food
catered for the picnic party and later
distributed it among some local orphanages
and madrasahs - fashioning a good ending to a
story that could so easily have been sordid.
More than 163 million people, or 49%
of the total U.S. population, are fully
vaccinated, according to CDC data. Of
those eligible for the vaccine, aged 12 and
over, the figure rises to 57%.
"This is an issue predominantly among
the unvaccinated, which is the reason
why we're out there, practically pleading
with the unvaccinated people to go out
and get vaccinated," Fauci said.
Fauci said government experts are
reviewing early data as they consider
whether to recommend that vaccinated
individuals to get booster shots. He
suggested that some of the most
vulnerable, such as organ transplant and
cancer patients, are "likely" to be
recommended for booster shots.
He also praised Republicans, including
Govs. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas and
Ron DeSantis of Florida, and the secondranking
House leader, Rep. Steve Scalise
of Louisiana, for encouraging their
constituents to get vaccinated. Their
states have among the lowest vaccination
rates in the country.
"What I would really like to see is more
and more of the leaders in those areas
that are not vaccinating to get out and
speak out and encourage people to get
vaccinated," Fauci said.
Secretary of Ministry of Liberation War Affairs handing over cheque of financial assistance on
behalf of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to journalist in Narail.
Photo : TBT
Japan landslide
toll rises to 15
TOKYO : The death toll in a
landslide that hit the
Japanese resort town of
Atami has risen to 15, a local
official said Sunday, as
hundreds of rescuers
continued the search for
over a dozen missing
residents.
"Two more people were
confirmed dead during the
weekend, with the number
of victims now totalling 15,"
d i s a s t e r - m a n a g e m e n t
spokesman Yuta Hara told
AFP.
14 people remain
unaccounted for, the official
said.
Dozens of homes were
swept away when a
landslide descended on the
resort town in several
violent waves on July 3.
It came after days of
intense downpours in and
around Atami, which lies
about 90 kilometres (55
miles) southwest of Tokyo.
Japan was in its rainy
season when the floods
struck, with many parts of
the country vulnerable to
landslides because homes
are built on slopes where
ground can loosen and
collapse suddenly after
heavy downpours.
Scientists say climate
change is also intensifying
the country's rainy seasons
because a warmer
atmosphere holds more
water.
Rescue and recovery
efforts involving about
1,300 police officers,
firefighters, soldiers and
coastguard members were
continuing, the spokesman
said.
Fiji police deploy after detaining
opposition leaders
SUVA, Fiji : Fijian police vowed Monday to
"come down hard" on any civil unrest, after
briefly detaining seven opposition
lawmakers over sensitive land ownership
issues, reports BSS.
Police said they had increased their
presence in major towns and cities to curb
one of the world's fastest-growing
coronavirus outbreaks, which has
overwhelmed hospitals and killed at least
186 people.
But political tensions are soaring in the
coup-prone nation over planned land
reforms.
On Sunday police detained a group of
lawmakers-including former prime minister
Sitiveni Rabuka, who led two military coups
that shook Fiji in 1987 -- for several hours.
The lawmakers had voiced opposition to
the reforms, which would change the way
native land ownership is managed.
On the island of Viti Levu, where most of
Fiji's 900,000 people live, police were
staffing checkpoints and enforcing a curfew.
Around 87 percent of land in Fiji is owned
by native landowning groups.
Land ownership and tensions between
indigenous Fijians and the large Indo-Fijian
minority are long-running issues that helped
propel the 1987 coup, as well as one in 2000.
The land bill is expected to be discussed in
parliament in the coming days.
In a statement, police vowed to "come
down hard on any person or group that tries
to cause instability and civil unrest".
"We acknowledge that land is a sensitive
subject for many Fijians, however we
reiterate that freedom of speech and
expression comes with responsibilities and
people need to be cautious about comments
that are aimed at inciting civil unrest," the
police warned.
The land reforms were proposed by the
government of current prime minister Frank
Bainimarama, who led a military coup in
2006 and has led the country for most of the
time since.
Bainimarama has shied away from
nationwide lockdowns to tackle the
coronavirus crisis, instead urging
sometimes-sceptical Fijians to get
vaccinated.
The pandemic has battered tourism, Fiji's
major industry, as visitors from
neighbouring Australia and New Zealand are
barred from travelling overseas.
A quarantine breach in April unleashed the
highly contagious Delta variant on Fiji,
ending a year without community
transmission.
Two Turkish
soldiers killed in
northern Syria:
ministry
ISTANBUL : Two Turkish soldiers were
killed and two others wounded in areas of
northern Syria under Ankara's control to
keep out jihadists and Kurdish rebels, the
defence ministry tweeted Sunday.
The ministry said "terrorists" targeted a
Turkish military vehicle on Saturday in the
Euphrates Shield region south of the
border, but did not specify which group they
represented.
Turkey launched Operation Euphrates
Shield in 2016 in order to drive away from
its border region Islamic State militants and
Syrian Kurdish militia forces deemed
"terrorists" by Ankara.
The Euphrates Shield region includes the
towns of Jarablus and al-Bab near the
Turkish border. After the attack, "the terror
targets were hit" in retaliation, the ministry
said. Ankara views Syrian Kurdish People's
Protection Units (YPG) as an offshoot of
outlawed militants who have been waging a
deadly insurgency against the Turkish state.
Iqvmv-R:Z: 264/2021
People are taking corona vaccine at Mirzaganj upazila health complex. Photo : Uttam Kumar Golder
GD-1142/21 (6x4)