07-10-2021
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thurSday
DhAkA: October 7, 2021; Ashwin 22, 1428 BS; Safar 29,1443 hijri
www.thebangladeshtoday.com; www.bangladeshtoday.net
Regd.No.DA~2065, Vol.19; N o. 159; 12 Pages~Tk.8.00
international
French senators arrive
in Taiwan amid
tensions with China
>Page 7
SPortS
France face Belgium
hoping to banish
memories of Euro flop
>Page 9
art & culture
Jaya receives
'Pranobik
Bondhu' Award
>Page 10
Registration must
ahead of operating
news portals: Minister
DHAKA : The government will make
registration mandatory ahead of operating
any news portal from the next year,
said Information Minister Hasan
Mahmud on Wednesday.
"Declaration is a must before publishing
any newspaper, and there should be
the same rule in the case of news portal
operation. News portals must get registered
before starting their activities
which will help bring discipline in the
sector, "said the minister.
The minister came up with the
remarks at BSRF Dialogue held at the
secretariat. Bangladesh Secretariat
Reporters Forum (BSRF) arranged the
dialogue. Hasan Mahmud said the government
is taking an initiative to stop
broadcasting news from IPTVs. "We'll
soon take steps against those IPTVs
which broadcast news."
"Internet protocol television (IPTV) is
a global reality. It's new media. Those
shouldn't be shut. But the mushroom
growth of IPTVs can't continue. So,
we've put in place the registration
process for IPTVs," the minister added.
Responding to a question, Hasan
Mahmud said the proposed media
workers law is now at the final stage.
"Once it is passed in parliament, the
workers of electronic media and even
the online ones will get legal protection.
There'll be no retrenchment without any
prior notice.
Remittance inflow
to become normal
in 2-3 months :
Finance Minister
DHAKA : Finance Minister AHM Mustafa
Kamal has said he is expecting the country's
remittance inflow to become normal
within two to three months.
"Hope, we'll see an uptrend within twothree
months as many of the expatriates
who got stuck at home are going back to
work following the improvement in in the
Covid-19 situation," he told reporters on
Wednesday after a meeting of the cabinet
committee on public purchase. The
finance minister's remarks came against
the backdrop of the consecutive fall in
inward remittances of the country.
As per the Bangladesh Bank's statistics,
the country received $1871.49 million
in July, $1810.10 million in August
and $1726.29 in million in September
this year.
After the fall in remittance earnings,
many analysts apprehend if the downward
trend continues, the country's foreign
exchange reserve may witness a
decline.
Mustafa Kamal said Bangladesh has
been witnessing continuous rise in
remittance inflow as a result of the various
measures, including 2 percent
incentives given by the government to
wage earners.
He said the slight fall in remittance
inflow is temporary and it will return to
the normalcy within two months
Bangladesh has long been receiving
remittances of $22-23 billion annually.
Zohr
04:39 AM
11:55 PM
04:05 PM
05:48 PM
07:00 PM
5:51 5:43
Devote yourselves to
serving people:Hasina
DHAKA : Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
on Wednesday stressed the importance
of good governance and asked the government
officials to devote themselves to
serving people to make this society a better
place. "I hope you'll devote yourselves
to serving people remaining faithful to the
constitutional responsibilities," she said.
The Prime Minister was addressing the
certificate-giving and closing ceremony of
the 119th and 120th Law and Administration
Training Courses at Bangladesh Civil Service
Administration Academy in the capital
through a videoconference from her official
residence Ganobhaban. As per the 7th article
of the Constitution, Hasina mentioned,
people are the owners of the country while
the 21(2) article of the constitution stated
that government employees are bound to
serve people round the clock.
She directed the public servants to take
innovative initiatives to serve people as
the government has prepared a
Perspective Plan and is implementing it.
"We've already attained the status of a
developing nation and we've to maintain
that so that we do not fall behind."
Hasina said it is the desire of all that
Deal over UN's operational
engagement in Bhasan
Char likely on Saturday
DHAKA : Bangladesh and the United
Nations are likely to sign a formal document
on Saturday to find ways for UN
engagement in Bhasan Char demonstrating
support to the government's
massive investment there to ensure better
living for Rohingyas, officials said,
reports UNB.
"We're expecting that the MoU will be
signed on Saturday morning if there's no
last-minute change," a senior official
told UNB, mentioning that things are
finalised. However, he did not elaborate
further what will be the nature of UN
engagement in Bhasan Char and the
specific areas of cooperation.
The numerous challenges associated
with the temporary hosting of persecuted
Rohingyas from Myanmar have compelled
the government of Bangladesh to plan the
relocation of 100,000 Rohingyas to
Bhashan Char, according to the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs.
So far, nearly 20,000 Rohingyas have
moved to Bhasan Char since December
last year in a number of groups.
Some 1642 Rohingyas were relocated to
there will be a service-oriented administration
in the country which will innovate
new services to serve people.
"Stay involved in establishing good governance
through proper enforcement of laws,
stay beside people, and make sure people
get justice and not a single person suffers
from starvation, remains homeless, is
deprived of treatment and education.
Discharge your responsibilities keeping eyes
on these issues, we want that," she said.
Talking about the food scarcity in the
Covid-19 pandemic across the globe, the
Prime Minister said the food scarcity has
increased around the world and many
countries are suffering from this. "Not a
single inch of arable land be left behind
from cultivation."
Hasina said every piece of land in every
area of the country must be put under cultivation
to increase production and mentioned
that many developed countries are in
deplorable condition regarding food production.
"We may have to provide food assistance
to many developed countries, maybe.
Keeping this view in mind, we've to make
sure there's no scarcity of food and protein in
the country."
Bhashan Char on December 4, 2020, while
the second batch, comprising 1,804
Rohingyas, had been transferred from Cox's
Bazar to Bhashan Char on December 29 last
year. On Wednesday, Foreign Minister Dr AK
Abdul Momen said the operational engagement
of the UNHCR, the UN refugee agency,
in Bhasan Char will begin soon. "Everything
is final. It has been done as agreed."
Recognizing Bangladesh's massive
investment in Bhasan Char, UN Resident
Coordinator in Bangladesh Mia Seppo said
there has been, rather, a lot of negative
coverage about Bhasan Char and it is
important that they have somehow managed
to move away from that.
She said they want to be partners in
trying to create something so that everybody
can live and the conversation that
they are having now is important.
Regarding the proposed Memorandum
of Understanding (MoU) to engage in
Bhasan Char, Mia said there are protections
and humanitarian imperatives and
they are obviously looking to support the
massive efforts of the government in
Bhasan Char.
Passengers vandalized the station and lay seized the DC office. About one and a half thousand extra passengers bought
tickets from the station booth. But the passengers could not get up even with the train ticket. Photo : Star Mail
The country's Hindu community yesterday celebrated the Mahalaya, the auspicious occasion of
heralding the advent of goddess Durga, with due religious fervor and enthusiasm. Photo : TBT
Mahalaya celebrated
with religious fervor
DHAKA : The country's Hindu community
yesterday celebrated the Mahalaya, the
auspicious occasion of heralding the
advent of goddess Durga, with due religious
fervor and enthusiasm.
Mahalaya marks an invitation of sorts
to goddess Durga to begin her journey
from Kailash to her paternal home
(Earth), along with her children.
With the beginning of 'Devipaksha',
Mahalaya is observed six days before
Durga Puja, the biggest religious festival
of the Bangalee Hindu community.
This invitation is extended through the
chanting of mantras from Sri Sri Chandi
and singing devotional songs.
Countdown of Durga Puja begins with the
celebration of Mahalaya.
On October 11, Durga Puja will begin with
different rituals on the day of Maha
Shashthi. On the occasion of the day, special
programmes of Mahalaya were arranged at
different temples across the country including
the capital since morning.
On this day, Hindus remember and pay
homage to their ancestors, who passed
away, by performing puja, and offering
Brahmins clothes, food and sweets in
their name. Mahanagar Sarbajanin Puja
Committee arranged a programme marking
the Mahalaya at Dhakeshwari
National Temple at dawn.
Similar programmes were also
arranged in different temples in the capital
city and across the country. A special
programme was also arranged at 5.30am
at Banani Puja Mandap marking the day.
At the initiative of the Board of Directors
of Sri-Sri Lokenath
Brahmachari Ashram O Mandir, a
clothing distribution ceremony among
helpless people was held on its premises
in the city's Swamibagh area.
Duo wins Nobel Chemistry
Prize for work on catalysts
STOCKHOLM : Germany's Benjamin
List and US-based David MacMillan on
Wednesday won the Nobel Chemistry
Prize for developing a tool to build molecules
which has helped make chemistry
more environmentally friendly.
Their tool, which they developed independently
of each other in 2000, can be
Benjamin
used to control and accelerate chemical
reactions, exerting a big impact on drugs
research.
Prior to their work, scientists believed
there were only two types of catalystsmetals
and enzymes.
The new technique, which relies on
small organic molecules and which is
called "asymmetric organocatalysis" is
widely used in pharmaceuticals, allowing
drug makers to streamline the production
of medicines for depression and
respiratory infections, among others.
Organocatalysts allow several steps in
DHAKA : BNP should cooperate in the formation
of a neutral election commission
instead of bothering about an impartial
caretaker government during the next general
election, Awami League General
Secretary Obaidul Quader said on
Wednesday, reports UNB.
Quader was addressing virtually the triennial
conference of Tongibari Upazila Awami
League in Munshiganj district.
He said that all affairs related to election
are placed under the Election Commission
which is empowered to take any action to
make the balloting free and fair.
He said the election-time government
carries out only routine duties and assist the
EC in holding a peaceful free and fair election.
Quader trashed BNP leader Fakhrul
Islam Alamgir's recent comment that people
a production process to be performed in
an unbroken sequence, considerably
reducing waste in chemical manufacturing,
the Nobel committee at the Royal
Swedish Academy of Sciences said.
List and MacMillan, both 53, will
share the 10-million-kronor ($1.1-million,
one-million-euro) prize.
David MacMillan
"I thought somebody was making a
joke. I was sitting at breakfast with my
wife," List told reporters by telephone
during a press conference after the prize
was announced.
In past years, he said his wife has joked
that he should keep an eye on his phone
for a call from Sweden.
"But today we didn't even make the
joke," List, who is a director at the Max
Planck Institute in Germany, said.
"It's hard to describe what you feel in
that moment, but it was a very special
moment that I will never forget."
Quader urges BNP to forget
neutral caretaker govt for polls
will vote for BNP to get rid of Awami
League's misrule.
"The reality is that people have voted for
Awami League to free them from BNP misrule,"
he said. He said people are happy with
the rule of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
"They will not allow them to be trapped by
BNP again," he said.
Quader said voters have turned away
from the BNP long ago and this has become
clear in the recent by-elections and local government
polls too.
Awami League presidium member Dr
Abdur Razzak, organizing secretary Mirza
Azam, liberation war affairs secretary
Mrinal Kanti Das, legal affairs secretary
Najibullah Hiru, MP Sagufta Yasmin
Emily, among others, also addressed the
council.
ThuRSDAY, OCTOBeR 7, 2021
2
Press conference demanding exemplary
punishment of accused held in Rangpur
azaM PaRVez, RaNgPUR CoRResPoNDeNt
a press conference has been
held in Rangpur demanding
swift arrest and exemplary
punishment of the accused in
the case of barbaric attack,
torture and indecent assault
on a woman journalist. afroza
sarkar, literary and cultural
secretary of the Rangpur
Reporters Club, read out a
written statement at a press
conference at the Rangpur
Press Club auditorium on
Wednesday.
During the time, Club Vice-
President tajidul islam lal,
general secretary Bayezid
ahmed, joint secretary azam
Parvez, executive Member
touhidul islam Babla, Press
Club joint secretary sajjad
Hossain Bappi, Press Club
treasurer abdur Rauf sarkar,
Press Club Member Marina
lovely and Press Club
President Mahbub Rahman
Habu were among others also
present at the occasion.
she said in her written
statement that the Reporters
Club, an organization of
promising journalists, has
been conducting the
organizational activities of the
club since its inception on the
basis of the views of the
general members and
majority members of the
executive committee.
following this, the executive
Committee has been formed
every 2 (two) years by vote of
the members or by direct vote.
During the distribution of
food after the pre-announced
general meeting at the club
office on friday 24.09.2021 at
3 pm, some expelled
members carried out a
barbaric attack on the general
A press conference was held in Rangpur Press Club demanding swift arrest
and exemplary punishment of the accused in the case of barbaric attack,
torture and indecent assault on a woman journalist.
Photo: TBT
meeting in a completely
planned manner. several
members of the club,
including me, were injured.
the attack was led by sarkar
Mazharul Mannan, a. aziz
Chowdhury saeed, Nazrul
islam Raju who were expelled
from the club 6 years ago, and
15/20 people including the
club member, former general
secretary Mozaffar Hossain,
surrounded me and asked
why i came to that meeting.
they started torturing me and
tore my clothes. When i tried
desperately to escape from
their hands, they brutally beat
me and humiliated me. My
colleagues admitted me to
Rangpur Medical College
Hospital in critical condition.
in this incident, i filed a case
with the Rangpur
Metropolitan Kotwali Police
station. Case No. 63, dated
26.09.2021.
she added that even though
1 (one) week of the case has
passed, the identified
attackers have not been
arrested yet. those who
sexually assault a female
journalist, who have no
respect for women, and whose
mothers and sisters are not
safe. she urged the Minister of
Home affairs, secretary to the
Ministry of Home affairs and
senior officials of the Rangpur
Metropolitan Police to arrest
the accused quickly and bring
them under the law.
National Birth and
Death Registration
Day observed in
Morrelganj
M PalasH sHaRif, MoRRelgaNj
CoRResPoNDeNt
National Birth and Death
Registration Day 2021 has
been observed in Morrelganj
of Bagerhat on Wednesday.
Marking the occasion, a
discussion meeting was held
at Morrelganj sadar Union
Parishad meeting room
organized by the upazila
administration.
Upazila Nirbahi officer Md
jahangir alam presided over
the meeting while Upazila
Vice Chairman Mozammel
Haque Mozam and Union
awami league President UP
Chairman Mahmud ali spoke
as special guests. among
others, UP members jahangir
Hossain and Nasima Begum
spoke.
at the end of the meeting,
the registered mothers were
given towels, mugs and a
packet of powdered milk.
During the time, Upazila
Nirbahi officer Md. jahangir
alam said that as per the
Prime Minister's directive,
100 percent birth and death
registration will be brought by
2025. if a child born within 45
days is registered, one
thousand towels will be given
to each of them in 16 unions
in phases.
In observance of National Birth and Death Registration Day 2021, child
protection materials were distributed in Morrelganj on Wednesday.
Photo: M Palash Sharif
RajsHaHi: Rajshahi
Medical College Hospital
(RMCH)brecorded three
more fatalities at its Covid-
19 unit in the last 24 hours
till 6am yesterday, taking the
death toll to 18 in the first six
days of this month, reports
Bss.
However, the previous
day's fatality figure was four,
while on sunday the death
figure was just one, which
was the lowest-ever fatality
in the hospital since the
second wave of the
pandemic hit the country
around six months back.
earlier, the number of
casualties was 167 in
RMCH records
three more deaths
in Covid-19 unit
september, 340 in august,
566 in july and 405 in june,
health officials said.
RMCH Director Brig gen
shamim Yazdany told
journalists that one of the
deceased was the resident of
Rajshahi, while two others
were from Naogaon.
among the new fatalities,
all of them had Covid-19
symptoms. of the deaths,
two were female and one
male.
twenty-four more
patients were admitted to
the designated Covid-19
wards of the hospital in the
last 24 hours, taking the
total number of admitted
patients to 91.
thirteen other patients
returned home from the
RMCH Covid-19 unit after
being cured during the time.
Meanwhile, 13 more
people were diagnosed with
Covid-19 after testing 28
samples in Rajshahi's two
laboratories on tuesday,
showing 4.56 percent
positivity rate against 4.04
percent on Monday.
BCIC-161, Date: 6.10.21
GD-1471/21 (5x4)
GD-1472/21 (5x4)
GD-1470/21 (6x4)
GD-1469/21 (7x4)
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2021
3
State Minister for ICT Division Zunaid Ahmed Palak addressing a press conference
over holding International Blockchain Olympiad-2021. Photo : PID
Education Minister Dr Dipu Moni addressing a program titled 'Eye Treatment
and Diabetes Treatment' at Dhaka Reporters Unity yesterday. Photo : Courtesy
Indictment hearing
in graft case against
Papia, husband on
Nov 8
DHAKA : A court on
Wednesday set November 8
for holding hearing on
charge framing in a graft case
against expelled Jubo Mohila
League leader Shamima Nur
Papia and her husband
Mofizur Rahman Sumon.
Dhaka Metropolitan
Sessions Judge KM Imrul
Qayesh set the date in
presence of the two accused
after accepting charge-sheet
filed in the case. The court
also transferred the case to
Dhaka Special Judge Court-3
for further proceedings.
ACC Deputy Director
Shaheen Ara Momtaz filed
the case with its Dhaka
district office-1 on August 4,
2020, for amassing illegal
wealth of Taka 6.24 crore.
According to the case
documents, Papia and her
husband from October 12,
2019, to February 22, 2020,
took a total of 25 rooms of a
five-star hotel in Dhaka on
rent and paid more than
Taka 3.23 crore cash as room
rent, bills for bars, spa,
laundry and food service.
Papia spent around Taka
40 lakh in shopping during
her stay at the hotel, but
couldn't show any valid
source of income against this
huge sum.
Earlier on February 22,
2020, the Rapid Action
Battalion (RAB) arrested
Papia and her husband,
along with two of their
accomplices, at Hazrat
Shahjalal International
Airport with counterfeit
banknotes, foreign
currencies and cash.
Concerted efforts
to reduce carbon
emission stressed
RAJSHAHI : Highlighting the
importance of pollution-free
environment speakers at a
post-rally meeting
unequivocally called for
substantial and sustainable
reduction of carbon emission
for ensuring safe habitat for
all, reports BSS.
Present triggering trend of
carbon emission has been
posing a serious threat to the
environment coupled with the
habitat. Concerted effort of all
the government and nongovernment
organizations
concerned has become crucial
to mitigate the problem.
The discussants came up
with the observation while
addressing a community level
meeting at Borokuthipara
area in Rajshahi city on the
occasion of observing the
World Habitat Day- 2021.
Rajshahi City Corporation
(RCC) and Brac Urban
Development Programme
(UDP) jointly organized the
meeting discussing and
devising ways and means on
how to establish a carbon-free
Rajshahi.
The theme of the day this
year is 'Accelerating urban
action for a carbon-free
world'.
RCC Panel Mayor Shariful
Islam Babu, Ward Councilor
Matiur Rahman and Town
Planner Bony Ahsan
addressed the meeting as
resource persons with Brac
Regional Coordinator of UDP
Farzana Parvin Shampa in the
chair.
The meeting was told that
91,000 people from over
24,000 households living in
different slum areas in the city
have got the scope of
improving their lives and
livelihood conditions amid
intervention of the UDP taken
for reducing their multidimensional
poverty and
deprivation.
Forty of the beneficiary
households have got houses
with the initiative.
Brac has been
implementing the project in
association with RCC to
engage multi-sectorial
partners to create
employment opportunities for
the urban poor people, and
improve their overall living
and livelihood conditions and
realize basic rights.
During her welcome
address, Farzana Parvin told
the meeting that 17,500
youths, including around
13,000 females aged from 15
to 29 are getting necessary
knowledge through needbased
promotional activities
under the project.
Slum dwellers are getting
safe drinking water,
sanitation, housing and
education facilities and their
living and livelihood
conditions are ultimately
improving, she informed.
Some 3,000 youths are
being imparted with either
three or six-month needbased
vocational and
technical training, she said.
The Centre of Excellence in Teaching & Learning (CoETL) of Dhaka University
(DU) organized a virtual workshop on "Research methodology & Project
Proposals" for DU teachers on Tuesday.
Photo : Courtesy
edotco introduces spun
prestressed concrete tower
DHAKA : Telecommunications
infrastructure services company,
edotco Bangladesh yesterday installed
its first "Spun Prestressed Concrete
(SPC)" Tower which is an alternative to
steel.
This innovation designed in house by
edotco engineers is a unique
combination of steel and concrete
materials installed at Manikganj Sadar
upazila, said a press release.
edotco said it is the first time this type
of composite structure has been used to
build
telecommunications
infrastructure in the nation.
This 33.3m height SPC Tower
provides higher stability, ensures
improved network connectivity and
requires less production time.
The high tensile steel wires used
Journo Kanak
Sarwar's sister
held for spreading
anti-state
propaganda
DHAKA : Rapid Action
Battalion (Rab) members
arrested Nusrat Shahreen
Raka, sister of
controversial expatriate
journalistKanak Sarwar,for
spreading anti-state
propaganda.
Raka, 38, wife of Nasir
Uddin Majumder,was
arrested during a drive of
Rab-1conducted at city's
Uttara area early Tuesday,
said a press release of Rab
Headquarter.
RAB members seized a
mobile phone set with antistate
contents, a passport
and some Ice or Crystal
Meth from her possession
during the arrest.
During primary
interrogation of Rab, Raka
confessed that she is an
active member of a group
which is involved in
spreading a anti-state
propaganda.
Raka used to spread
false, misleading and
defamatory information
about the state and
important personalities of
the state through social
media to disrupt peace and
discipline of the country,
according to Rab.
According to her
statement, several
members of the group are
involved in various
spreadig propaganda
against the state through
social media staying
outside the country.
She also said she used to
assist her brother Kanak
Sarwarand other equalminded
peoplw in this
matter.
Legal action will be taken
against the arrestee,said
ASP (Media) Imran Khan
of Rab headquarter.
Workshop
for DU
teachers held
The Centre of Excellence in
Teaching & Learning (CoETL)
of Dhaka University (DU)
organized a virtual workshop
on "Research methodology &
Project Proposals" for DU
teachers on Tuesday.
Director of the Centre Prof.
Dr. Sabita Rezwana Rahman
presided over the workshop
and delivered the welcome
speech. Additional Director of
the Centre Dr. A.T.M.
Shamsuzzoha conducted the
workshop, a press release
said.
Prof. Dr. Donald James
Gomes of Dept. of
Microbiology and Prof. Dr.
Kazi Matin Uddin Ahmed of
the Dept. of Geology of DU
spoke on "How to write a
Ph.D Proposal" and "How to
write a Scientific Project
Proposal" respectively in the
workshop.
It may be mentioned that
DU, CoETL organizes
workshops regularly for DU
teachers and officers for
achieving Quality Higher
Education.
Information and Boradcasting Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud addressing 'BSRF
dialogue' organized by Bangladesh Secretariat Reporters Forum. Photo : PID
DHAKA : The government will procure some
67.20 lakh MMBtu LNG, 1 lakh metric tons
of wheat and 60,000 metric tons fertilizer to
meet the growing demand in the country.
Proposals for the procurements were
approved at the 34th meeting of the Cabinet
Committee on Government Purchase
(CCGP) in this year held yesterday virtually
with Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal
in the chair.
Briefing reporters virtually after the
meeting, the finance minister said that the
day's CCGP meeting approved a total of
seven proposals. He said the price of LNG in
international market is rising every now and
then for which the government has decided
to procure such a volume of LNG which
would meet the country's demand up to
December this year.
Kamal said since the price of LNG in
international market is witnessing uptrend,
so the government has decided to buy 67.20
lakh MMBtu LNG to meet the required
demand up to December.
Joining the briefing virtually after the
meeting, Cabinet Division Additional
Secretary Md Shamsul Arefin said that
Petrobangla under the Energy and Mineral
Resources Division would procure 33.60
lakh MMBtu LNG from M/S Vitol Asia Pte
Ltd, Singapore at a cost of around Taka
1,205.73 crore where the price for per unit
MMBtu LNG would be $35.8932.
Besides, Arefin said, Petrobangla would
procure another 33.60 lakh MMBtu LNG
from Gunvor Singapore Pte Ltd, Singapore
at a cost of around Taka 1,241.23 crore where
the price for per MMBtu LNG would be
SUST to reopen
dorms in phased
manner from
October 25
Sylhet : After nearly 18 months,
Shahjalal University of Science
and Technology (SUST) will
reopen its residential halls to
students in phases starting
from October 25.
SUST Vice Chancellor Prof
Farid Uddin Ahmed
announced the date after the
167th Academic Council
meeting of the university on
Tuesday afternoon.
According to the decision of
the Academic Council,
postgraduate students will be
able to enter the hall on
October 25.
Final-year undergraduate
students will be let in on
October 26, third-year
students on October 27,
second-year students on
October 28, and first-year
students on October 29.
Physical classes may begin
in some departments from
the first week of November.
However, online classes will
continue, the VC said.
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GD-1462/21 (5x3)
inside the pole ensures proper firmness
and increases the resistivity of the SPC
pole, making it highly resistant to heavy
rains, storms and other natural
disasters while guaranteeing
uninterrupted connectivity.
Ricky Steyn, Country Managing
Director of edotco Bangladesh, said,
edotco Bangladesh has played a pivotal
role in developing a sustainable
telecommunications ecosystem in the
country.
Responding to the emerging needs
for connectivity, he said "our talented
pool of engineers design solutions that
are eco-friendly, highly resistant and
cost-efficient aimed towards achieving
seamless network connectivity."
He added "the SPC tower is another
significant outcome of our nationbuilding
commitment to provide
sustainable and shareable
infrastructure across the nation."
Echoing Steyn's statements, Abdul
Yazid Kassim, Director, edotco Group
Engineering and Technology said,
"edotco continues to champion the use
of alternative materials towards
designing sustainable infrastructure,
reducing our dependence on steel and
the impact on the environment.
"Bangladesh has been in the forefront
of these innovations, and the
deployment of this SPC Tower
reinforces the Group's commitment to
our green agenda, innovation and
towards future proofing the
telecommunications industry with next
generation, sustainable technology," he
said.
Govt to procure 67.20 lakh MMBtu
LNG, 1 lakh MT wheat
$36.9506. He said that the Directorate
General of Food under the Ministry of Food
would procure one lakh metric tons of wheat
from Russian Federation on G to G basis at a
cost of around Taka 357.62 crore where the
price for per metric ton wheat would be
$419.
The day's CCGP meeting approved a
proposal from the Ministry of Fisheries and
Livestock for awarding the contract to the
joint venture of Agriculture and Finance
Consultant, Germany and Services and
Solutions International Ltd, Bangladesh as
the consultants with Taka 48.25 crore for the
Agro Business Planning, Technologies and
Marketing Advance and Implementation
Support works under the project for
development of livestock and fisheries.
Besides, the CCGP meeting yesterday gave
nod to two separate proposals from the
Ministry of Industries under which the
Bangladesh Chemical Industries
Corporation (BCIC) would procure 30,000
metric tons of bulk granular urea fertilizer
from Fertiglobe Distribution Limited, UAE
under state level agreement with around
Taka 127.67 crore.
In another proposal, the BCIC would
procure 30,000 metric tons of bagged prield
urea fertilizer from Muntajat, Qatar also
under state-level agreement at a cost of
around Taka 129.85 crore.
Apart from these, the meeting approved a
proposal from the Ministry of Housing and
Public Works for awarding the contract of
Lot No-1(B) to Noorani Construction
Limited for setting up Narsingdi District Jail
with around Taka 69.83 crore.
Mugger
stabs youth
to death in
Dhaka
DHAKA : A 25-year-old
youth was stabbed to death
allegedly by a mugger at
Karwan Bazar in the city's
Tejgaon area on Tuesday
night.
Police have not yet
established the identity of
the deceased.
According to cops, the
mugger tried to snatch the
youth's cell phone in front of
Prince Hotel in Karwan
Bazar. But when the youth
resisted the snatching bid,
the mugger stabbed him,
leaving him seriously
injured.
Locals rushed the youth to
Suhrawardy Medical College
and Hospital. He was
subsequently shifted to
Dhaka Medical College and
Hospital, where doctors
declared him dead on
arrival.
Md Bachchu Mia,
inspector at DMCH police
camp, said that the body has
been kept at the hospital
morgue for an autopsy.
Tejgaon police were also
informed about the crime,
the inspector added.
Govt works to
reduce cost of
doing business in
agriculture: Tipu
DHAKA : Commerce Minister
Tipu Munshi yesterday said as
per the commitment, the
government is working to
reduce the cost of doing
business in agriculture sector
by assisting the entrepreneurs
in their export and import
process, reports BSS.
"It is our commitment to
ensure self sufficiency in food
production, supply safe and
nutritious food as well as
commercialize the agriculture
sector for making it a
profitable venture to poor
farmers... This has been
reflected in our policy
documents and plans," he
said
The minister said this while
inaugurating the "Bangladesh
Trade Facilitation Project" as
the chief guest at a function in
the city, said a press release.
The US Department of
Agriculture's Foreign
Agricultural Service has
funded the project.
The US$27 million project
supports the government of
Bangladesh to implement the
World Trade Organization
(WTO) Trade Facilitation
Agreement in the areas of
simplifying and automating
import and export processes,
strengthening risk-based
clearance processes,
improving notification
provisions, developing the
capacity and testing
procedures of laboratories,
and enhancing the cold chain
system for facilitating trade of
perishable goods.
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THUrSDAY, OCTOBer 7, 2021
4
Why all eyes are on the Afghan-Tajikistan border
Acting Editor & Publisher : Jobaer Alam
e-mail: editor@thebangladeshtoday.com
Thursday, October 7, 2021
Saving government's
lands from grabbers
Bangladesh is a country where land is in
short supply. Every effort needs to be
made, therefore, to conserve land or to
ensure its best possible utilization. Specially,
government owned lands are required to be kept
free from squatters and grabbers.
Government's lands form a particularly
valuable asset. All sorts of demand for the quick
implementation of important projects can be met
from the availability of such lands. For example,
during summer some years ago when a severe
crisis of water gripped Dhaka city and some areas
were found to be very inadequately supplied, the
need arose to set up some underground water
pumping plants in these places for emergency
lifting and supplying of water.
But these plans suffered as suitable
government lands could not be found in these
areas. The ones that were there remained under
different kinds of illegal occupation by their
private occupiers and tangled by legal hurdles in
evicting them.
From distribution of lands to the landless
cultivators to even finding lands for the
establishment of power generating plants that
the country badly needs, the establishment of all
sorts of public utilities are getting hampered from
the usurpation of governmental lands. Buying
land from private owners some of whom many
not be willing also to be so dispossessed involve
greater costs in time and money for the
government as progress of high priority public
projects stagnate as a result. Thus, seen from any
perspective, the retention of government's
possession over its lands, ought to be seen as a
very important issue.
But this vital matter of concern appears to be
poorly addressed at the moment. It has
continued to be an easy practice for a long time
for locally powerful individuals to establish their
control over government's lands all over the
country. They usually occupy the lands and set
up their various enterprises in the grabbed lands.
There are vast areas in Dhaka city, for instance,
where individuals with money, influence and
connections both to the underworld and the
ruling political parties, had grabbed
government's lands .
Rice mills, saw mills, bustees (shanty
dwellings), small businesses, etc., have been
established in such lands and their unlawful
possessors are deriving every financial benefit
from either running them directly or from
getting rents. They have also succeeded in
tampering with land records to be able to lay
legal claims also over these lands.
Typically, government's reaction is to start a
case against such grabbers. But the process gets
bogged up in the extremely tedious legal
procedures . Besides, and more significantly,
government represents itself in these cases
through its lawyers who are very poorly paid in
contrast to the grabbers who pay lucrative fees to
their lawyers and sometimes even ensure the
inactivity of government's lawyers through
underhand bribing. Government's pleaders are
sometimes seen not even coming to courts
during hearing and the occupiers, thus, are able
to get one sided verdict in their favour.
From the continuation of this most
unacceptable neglect, government has already
lost its claim over thousands of acres of land
properties and would suffer more losses in the
future. Very urgent actions are necessary to check
and reverse this trend. Government must create
real incentives or motivation for its legal
practitioners to defend government's properties
through substantially and appropriately
increasing their fees and other benefits.
A truly efficient and accountable system must
be laid to ensure that they do their work with
sincerity and it becomes impossible for anyone to
so easily lay hands on public properties and
consolidate the usurpation.
Tajik President Emomali Rahmon
(left) is seen with his Russian
counterpart Vladimir Putin during a
meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow. Photo:
AFP / Sergey Guneev / Sputnik
Afghanistan and Tajikistan share a 1,400-
kilometer border. Recently, a war of words
erupted between Tajik President Emomali
Rahmon and the Taliban government in
Kabul. Rahmon censures the Taliban for the
destabilization of Central Asia by the export
of militant groups, while the Taliban
leadership has accused Tajikistan's
government of interference.
This summer, Rahmon mobilized 20,000
troops to the border, and held military
exercises and discussions with Russia and
other members of the Collective Security
Treaty Organization. Meanwhile, the
spokesman for the Afghan government,
Zabihullah Mujahid, tweeted pictures of
Afghan troops deployed to Takhar province
on the border of the two countries.
The escalation of harsh language
continues. Prospects of war between these
two countries should not be discounted, but
given the role Russia plays in Tajikistan, it is
unlikely. On September 3, former Afghan
vice-president Amrullah Saleh tweeted,
"The RESISTANCE is continuing and will
continue. I am here with my soil, for my soil
& defending its dignity." A few days later,
the Taliban took the Panjshir Valley, where
Saleh had taken refuge for the past two
weeks, and he slipped across the border into
Tajikistan. The resistance inside
Afghanistan died down.
Since 2001, Saleh had worked closely with
the US Central Intelligence Agency and then
had become the head of Afghanistan's
National Directorate of Security (2004-
2010). He had previously worked closely
with Ahmad Shah Massoud of the rightwing
Jamiat-e Islami and of the Northern
Alliance. Saleh fled by helicopter to
Tajikistan with Massoud's son Ahmad.
They were later joined in Tajikistan's capital
Dushanbe by Abdul Latif Pedram, leader of
the National Congress Party of Afghanistan.
These men followed the lead of the
Northern Alliance, which had taken refuge
in Tajikistan's Kulob region after the Taliban
victory in 1996. The personal ties between
Ahmad Shah Massoud and Tajikistan's
President Rahmon go back to the early
1990s. In March this year, Afghanistan's
ambassador to Tajikistan, Mohammad
Zahir Aghbar, remembered that in the early
1990s Massoud told a group of Tajik fighters
in Kabul, "I do not want the war in
Afghanistan to be transferred to Tajikistan
under the banner of Islam. It is enough that
our country has been fraudulently
destroyed. Go and make peace in your
country." That Massoud had backed the
anti-government United Tajik Opposition,
led by the Islamic Renaissance Party, is
conveniently forgotten.
After the Taliban took Kabul on August 15,
and just before Saleh and Massoud escaped
to Dushanbe, on September 2 Rahmon
conferred upon the late Ahmad Shah
Massoud the highest civilian award of
Tajikistan, the Order of Ismoili Somoni.
This, the protection afforded to the Salehled
resistance movement, and Tajikistan's
refusal to recognize the Taliban government
in Kabul sent a clear signal to the Taliban
from Rahmon's government.
Rahmon says the main reason is that he is
dismayed by the Taliban's anti-Tajik stance.
VIJAY PrASHAD
MArWAN BISHArA
But this is not entirely the case. One in four
Afghans is Tajik, while half of Kabul claims
Tajik ancestry. The economy minister, Qari
Din Mohammad Hanif, is not only Tajik,
but comes from Badakhshan province,
which borders Tajikistan. The real reason is
Rahmon's concerns about regional
destabilization. On September 11,
Saidmukarram Abdulqodirzoda, the head
of Tajikistan's Islamic Council of Ulema,
condemned the Taliban as being anti-
Islamic in its treatment of women and in its
promotion of terrorism.
Abdulqodirzoda, the lead imam in
Tajikistan, has led a decade-long process to
purge "extremists" from the ranks of
mosque leaders. Many foreign-trained
imams have been replaced
(Abdulqodirzoda had been trained in
Islamabad, Pakistan), and foreign funding
of mosques has been closely monitored.
Abdulqodirzoda frequently talks about
the bloody civil war that tore Tajikistan
apart between 1992 and 1997. Between
1990, when the USSR began to collapse,
and 1992, when the civil war began, a
thousand mosques - more than one a day -
opened across the country. Saudi Arabia's
money and influence rushed into the
country, as did the influence of the rightwing
Afghan leaders Massoud and
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Rahmon, as
chairman of the Supreme Assembly of
Tajikistan (1992-1994) and then as
president (from 1994), led the fight against
the Islamic Renaissance Party (IRP), which
was eventually crushed by 1997. The ghost
of the civil war reappeared in 2010, when
Mullah Amriddin Tabarov, a commander in
the IRP, founded Jamaat Ansarullah. In
1997, Tabarov fled to join the Islamic
Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), one of the
fiercest of the extremist groups in that era.
The IMU and Tabarov developed close ties
with al-Qaeda, fleeing Afghanistan and
Uzbekistan after the US invasion of 2001 for
Iraq, later Syria. Tabarov was caught by the
Afghan government of Ashraf Ghani in July
2015 and killed.
As the Taliban began to make gains in
Afghanistan late last year, a thousand
Ansarullah fighters arrived from their
sojourn with Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.
When Darwaz fell to the Taliban in
November 2020, it was these Ansarullah
fighters who took the lead.
Tajikistan's Rahmon has made it clear
that he fears a spillover of Ansarullah into
his country, dragging it back into the war of
the 1990s. The fear of that war has allowed
Rahmon to remain in power, using every
means to squash any democratic opening in
Tajikistan. In mid-September, Dushanbe
hosted the 21st meeting of the Shanghai
Cooperation Organization Council of the
Heads of State. Pakistani Prime Minister
Imran Khan had several talks with Rahmon
about the situation in Afghanistan. As the
war of words escalated, Khan called
Rahmon on October 3 to ask that the
tension be reduced. Russia and China have
also called for restraint. It is unlikely that
guns will be fired across the border; neither
Dushanbe nor Kabul would like to see that
outcome. But both sides are using the
tension for their own ends - for Rahmon, to
ensure that the Taliban will keep Ansarullah
in check, and for the Taliban, for Rahmon to
recognize their government.
Source: Asia times
Will Trump run again … and win?
The fear and rage that gripped the US
capital under the presidency of
Donald Trump have left the country
in peril, its democracy ill, and its
immunity weak.
Trump may have been excised from
office in November but Trumpism has not
been eradicated. After months of postelections
recovery, it is back with a
vengeance, slowly metastasising
throughout the country's body and soul.
Less than a year after winning "the
battle for the soul of America", President
Joe Biden is slipping in the polls while his
predecessor's numbers are, well, rising. In
fact, according to a recent poll, Trump is
already ahead of Biden, albeit by a small
margin of 48 to 46 points.
These numbers may flip again in favour
of the Democrats if they are able to pass
the New Deal-like infrastructure and
reconciliation bills in Congress before the
end of the year, which will inject trillions
of dollars into the US economy.
But even the effect of such legislation
may prove transitory, depending on a
number of economic and political factors,
and on the Republican opposition to the
socialist "nanny-state" policies on the
federal and state level.
Meanwhile, 14 Republican-controlled
states under Trumpian influence passed
24 new laws that assert their control over
the running of elections and make it easier
to overturn elections results.
Trump continues to reject the last
election results and is yet to officially
declare his candidacy, but everything he
says or does is campaigning. He is holding
rallies across the country and on October
9, he will hold one in the state of Iowa,
where all presidential bids start.
Back in July, journalist Michael Wolff,
who wrote three damning books about
Trump, concluded after a bizarre and
unexpected dinner invitation by the
former president, that his run in 2024 is a
certainty. But for now, the brand mogul
cherishes stoking the media speculations
and public anticipation, which helps heal
his bruised ego and keeps the donation
money flowing. His Political Action
Committees, PACs, have raked in more
than $82m during the first half of this
year. My guess is that he will start by
doubling down on his "rigged election"
false claim, and will ask his followers to
"Reverse the Steal" in order to "Make
American Honest Again".
He has got to go with the big lie all the
way to the polls - or not go at all. Anything
less outrageous, less audacious, less
offensive will not work. Besides, he clearly
cannot help it, anyway.
The man, whom US media has called
the "liar in chief" who "steals credit […]
invents history and spins conspiracy
theories", will do what it takes to win. So
smug, he will portend to teach America a
lesson in honesty and truth - his
alternative truth.
Trump's penchant for deception is well
Since 2001, Saleh had worked closely with the US Central
Intelligence Agency and then had become the head of
Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security (2004-2010).
He had previously worked closely with Ahmad Shah Massoud
of the right-wing Jamiat-e Islami and of the Northern Alliance.
illustrated in author Bob Woodward's
trilogy, Fear, Rage, and Peril, the last cowritten
with fellow journalist Robert
Costa. In the three books published over
the past three years, the Washington Post
newspaper veteran journalist goes to a
great length to show how even Trump's
closest advisors and allies think he is "a
(expletive) liar".
Trump's own personal lawyer, John
Dowd thought he is such a pathological
liar that he cannot even be trusted to
testify to former Special Counsel Robert
Mueller during his investigation into
Russian meddling in the US elections
without perjuring himself.
But it is not only lying; politicians are
known to lie. The man portrayed rather
convincingly in the trilogy, is incredibly
devious, utterly incompetent, and terribly
dangerous.
Woodward interviewed hundreds of
people associated with the Trump
administration, leading members of his
cabinet and his party, as well as leaders of
Congress and the military. According to
him, many of them thought Trump is,
simply put, unfit to be president of the
United States.
They called him crazy, paranoid,
suffering from a narcissistic personality
disorder. His close ally and Attorney
General, William Barr rebuked him,
saying suburban voters "think you are a
f***ing a**hole".
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff of the military, General Mark Milley,
thought Trump was so erratic and
dangerous during his last months in
office, that he may take decisions that
could lead, albeit unintentionally, to
confrontations with the likes of China or
Iran with the potential use of nuclear
weapons. Trump directs his venom
against friends and foes alike. Over the
past few years, he has never hesitated to
humiliate Republican leaders, even war
heroes, regardless of political
repercussions. Even today, as he plans a
rerun for the White House, Trump
continues to degrade influential party
leaders including his own former Vice
President Mike Pence, and the Senate
Republican leader Mitch McConnell.
All of this begs the question: if Trump is
so offensive, so incompetent and so
dangerous to the country, why does he
continue to maintain such a strong grip
over the Republican party even after
leaving office? And, why are Republicans
running for Congress in 2022 either
seeking his endorsement or trying to
escape his wrath? Why is he likely to be
the party's official candidate in 2024?
To be sure, a lot depends on next year's
midterm elections.
A victory on November 8, 2022, that
allows for a Republican majority in either
or both Houses of Congress, will render
Biden a sitting duck president and boost
Trump's chances come November 5,
2024. Come to think of it, a Republican
defeat could also propel Trump to the top
of the 2024 list as the most likely saviour
of the party's influence against visibly
ageing Biden or against his vice president,
the lightweight Kamala Harris.
Trump may have been a terrible
president but he has proven himself a
talented populist. His uncanny
fearmongering is the main source of his
influence and the driver behind his
popularity, especially among the
Republican base. Funnily enough, Trump
allegedly did not even know what
Woodward interviewed hundreds of people associated with
the Trump administration, leading members of his cabinet
and his party, as well as leaders of Congress and the military.
According to him, many of them thought Trump is,
simply put, unfit to be president of the United States.
"populist" meant when he first began to
think about running for office, as one
hilarious anecdote at the beginning of
Woodward's first book illustrates.
The fact that Trump received 75 million
votes after four disastrous years that
included mismanaging the pandemic and
leading to an economic crash, and social
unrest, and that he continues to be so
popular with the party base, despite
damning media reports, is a testimony to
his ability to rally support, albeit by
dubious means.
Paradoxical as it may be, this
ostentatious bling-bling billionaire has
convinced the majority of his party base
and much of the country's white working
class that he is their best if not their only
ally against the snobbish, selfish elites
who manage America's decline.
In fact, he has garnered the support of
the majority of white Americans, against
the federal bureaucracy or as he has called
it, "the Deep State", which stands accused
of assaulting their rights, freedoms,
culture and, well, privileges.
Trump has mastered the politics of fear
and fury as Woodward's books show. In
the epilogue to Peril, the third book in the
trilogy which was published in
September, the author recounts an earlier
conversation with Trump, the bombastic
and confident outsider as well as the petty
and cruel insider, who is tantalised by the
prospect of power and is eager to use fear
to get his way. "Real power is, I don't even
want to use the word 'fear'," Trump says,
and he adds, "I bring rage out, I do bring
rage out, I always have."
But Woodward is so focused on
demonising Trump that he fails to see or
highlight the cynicism of his influential
detractors. He goes to a great length
exposing the former president but says
little about Washington's elites that
enabled him. But Trump's populism
would not have been as effective if it were
not for the cynicism of his detractors. The
ruling elites who pretend to be "holier
than thou", while robbing the country
blind; who preach political correctness
but lack political decency; who hold onto
power even if it means presiding over the
US's decline.
In that vein, Woodward's trilogy
constitutes selectively edited accounts of
those complicit with Trump, who talked
only after they were fired by Trump, or
after Trump was fired by the American
people. They are taken at their word and
excused about the rest.
When Woodward recounts Trump's
various exchanges with Gary Cohn, the
former Goldman Sachs executive-turned-
White House-economic adviser, the
former president is portrayed as an idiotic
protectionist who roots for US
manufacturing, while the laissez-faire,
free-trade investment banker is seen as a
brilliant man.
But is it really OK, for example, that the
US imports such a shocking amount of the
antibiotics and other basic medicines it
needs from China? No less during
pandemic times?
Woodward seems to have never met a
Wall Street executive or an Ivy League
school graduate he did not like. Same for
the generals, the congressional leaders,
and the establishment figures: they are
either right or excused for their
wrongness. Bottom line, Trump is evil but
the establishment is good, even if run by a
corrupt self-serving elite, be it, Democrat
or Republican.
When Trump demands justification for
any of the hundreds of military bases
around the globe or demands immediate
troops withdrawal from any part of the
world, he is portrayed as a fool, ignorant of
national security interests and processes.
Any shrinking of US overseas military
commitments is so preposterous in the
eyes of Woodward and his beloved
generals that it does not even merit
comment. And that is why as long as it is
business as usual in Washington, as long
as the ruling elites continue to be satisfied
with managing US decline, Trumpism will
persist and metastasise and there is no
stopping Trump and co laughing their
way to Washington, again. In sum, Trump
will certainly run. And if he wins, as he
may well do - my fingers trembling as I
type - his victory will spell the death of
American democracy with grave
consequences the world over.
Source: Al jazeera
THurSDaY, ocToBEr 7, 2021
5
Dan MilMo
Facebook experienced one of the worst outages
in its history on Monday, leaving users around
the world unable to access its platforms,
including Instagram and WhatsApp, for several
hours. By late on Monday, the services were
slowly coming back online, with the company
apologizing for the extended disruption.
"To the huge community of people and
businesses around the world who depend on
us: we're sorry. We've been working hard to
restore access to our apps and services and are
happy to report they are coming back online
now," Facebook tweeted.
In a later blog post, it said faulty configuration
changes on its routers were the root cause of the
nearly six-hour outage. "Our engineering teams
have learned that configuration changes on the
backbone routers that coordinate network
traffic between our data centres caused issues
that interrupted this communication," the
statement said. "This disruption to network
traffic had a cascading effect on the way our
data centres communicate, bringing our
services to a halt.
Facebook said it had "no evidence" that user
data was compromised. Facebook, Instagram
and WhatsApp became inaccessible for large
numbers of people at about 5pm UK time
(12pm ET), with Downdetector.com citing
reports of problems from millions of social
media users around the world. A map on the
site showed, for instance, reports of outages.
In a blog post, Downdetector said the outage
was global and the largest it had ever seen.
"Facebook is currently experiencing a rarely
seen global outage that is taking out Facebook,
Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook
Messenger." As of 1pm PDT, Downdetector said
it had seen more than 10.6m problem reports
from around the world, with the majority
coming from the US, Germany, the
SaMuEl GiBBS
The iPhone 13 is a minor
upgrade to last year's
brilliant iPhone 12, with an
improved camera, larger
storage longer battery life
and a small price cut. Apple's
latest regular-sized
smartphone costs £779
($799 or A$1,349), which is
£20 cheaper than its
predecessor, and sits
between the smaller £679
iPhone 13 mini and the £949
iPhone 13 Pro.
The phone has the same
general design as its
predecessor. Its flat
aluminium sides and
hardened glass front and
back feel just as robust as last
year. It is 12g heavier and
ever so slightly thicker, but
unless you compare them
side by side that is not
noticeable.
The screen is crisp, vibrant
and a little brighter than last
year's model. It has a refresh
rate of 60Hz, which was
standard for iPhones but
makes it less smooth when
scrolling than most Android
rivals and this year's iPhone
13 Pro models with their
120Hz displays.
The iPhone 13 has Apple's
latest A15 Bionic processor,
which is slightly faster allround
than last year's A14 in
the iPhone 12, and double
the starting storage with
128GB, which will probably
be enough for most people. It
is one of the fastest phones
you can buy.
Battery life is excellent. The
phone lasts about 46 hours
between charges with the
screen used for about five
hours in that time including
MarTin ForD
As the coronavirus pandemic enveloped
the world last year, businesses
increasingly turned to automation in
order to address rapidly changing
conditions. Floor-cleaning and microbezapping
disinfecting robots were
introduced in hospitals, supermarkets
and other environments. Some
enterprises found that, given the new
emphasis on hygiene and social
distancing, robotic operations offered a
marketing advantage. The American fast
food chain White Castle began using
hamburger-cooking robots in an effort to
create "an avenue for reduced human
contact with food during the cooking
process".
With the worst days of the pandemic
hopefully now behind us, the jobs story
has turned out to be unexpectedly
complicated. While overall
unemployment rates remain elevated,
both the US and the UK are experiencing
widespread worker shortages, focused
especially in those occupations that tend
to offer gruelling work conditions and
relatively low pay. Even as a quarter of a
million of British workers who held jobs
in 2019 remain unemployed, job
vacancies are up 20% from pre-pandemic
levels as employers struggle to fill many
positions. The reasons behind the worker
shortages are not entirely clear. A
common assumption is that extended
payments to furloughed workers allowed
people to remain out of the workforce.
However, evidence from a number of US
90 minutes browsing on 5G,
which is longer than most
similarly sized rivals and last
year's model. That means the
phone can just about make it
from the morning of day one
until the morning of day
three if you're careful, but
more likely it'll need charging
every other night.
Apple does not provide an
expected lifespan for the
iPhone 13's battery but it can
be replaced for £69. Batteries
in similar devices typically
maintain at least 80% of
their original capacity after
500 full charge cycles. The
smartphone is generally
repairable, with an out-ofwarranty
service costing
£426.44, which includes the
screen. The previous iPhone
The global outage of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp
Netherlands and the UK.
"We are also seeing an increase in reports
across many other online sites and services as
the Facebook outage causes cascading
impacts," the blog post said. The outage
affected potentially tens of millions of users,
organizations and businesses, highlighting the
widespread global dependency on Facebook
and its platforms. Countless websites and
applications use Facebook's advertising
network, one of the largest in the world,
meaning effects from the outage extended far
beyond the platform's users, Luke Deryckx, the
chief technology officer for Ookla, wrote in the
Downdetector blogpost.
The trouble began on Monday as users
around the world opened WhatsApp,
Instagram and Facebook to error messages that
remained for hours.
Users attempting to open Instagram were
greeted with an error message, while Facebook
failed to load or said: "Sorry, something went
wrong." On Twitter, WhatsApp said: "We're
aware that some people are experiencing issues
with WhatsApp at the moment. We're working
to get things back to normal and will send an
update here as soon as possible. Thanks for
your patience."
The outage forced the company to turn to
Twitter to release its public statements. Around
5pm UK time, the Facebook spokesperson
Andy Stone tweeted: "We're aware that some
people are having trouble accessing our apps
and products. We're working to get things back
to normal as quickly as possible, and we
apologise for any inconvenience."
Twitter itself had a little fun at its rivals'
expense. "Hello literally everyone," said its
Apple iPhone
13 review
The iPhone 13 runs the same version of ioS 15 as
other apple smartphones including the iPhone
13 Pro (right). Photo: Samuel Gibbs2
12 was awarded six out of 10
for repairability by the
specialist site iFixit.
The iPhone 13 uses 98%
recycled rare earth metals,
99% recycled tungsten and
35% recycled plastic in
various components, plus
100% recycled tin in the
solder of its main board and
battery management unit.
The company breaks down
the phone's environmental
impact in its report.
Apple also offers trade-in
and free recycling schemes,
including for non-Apple
products. The iPhone 13
ships with iOS 15, which runs
on all of Apple's
smartphones from 2015's
iPhone 6S.
That includes various
Are robots: stealing our jobs?
autonomous robots.
states that moved to discontinue
unemployment benefits early suggests
that the extended payments may not have
played a major role. Many workers may
have simply reassessed their willingness
to do difficult and often unrewarding jobs
in return for low pay. In the UK, Brexit
has greatly exacerbated the situation. At
least 200,000 EU nationals, primarily
from eastern Europe, who once filled
roles in areas such as agriculture,
transportation and logistics, have left the
newly added features such as
the faster, local voice
interpretation for Siri,
improved notifications and
"focus modes" for removing
distractions, plus an
improved Safari browser
design and FaceTime video
calling with non-Apple users.
Apple provides software
updates for its smartphones
for longer than any other
manufacturer. You an expect
at least five years of software
and security updates but
potentially as long as seven
years, so you can use the
phone safely for longer.
There are two improved
12-megapixel cameras on the
back, one main and one
ultrawide angle; there is no
optical zoom.
Both cameras are bigger
and let in more light than
those on last year's models,
which is most noticeable on
the main camera. Photos in
good light are detailed, crisp
and well balanced even in
high contrast scenes. Low
light performance is greatly
improved, so you need the
dedicated night mode far less
often while producing
sharper and better balanced
images. The ultrawide is a
little sharper and has better
low light performance too,
making it more usable
indoors.
The new "photographic
styles" feature for still shots is
great, letting you choose the
balance between contrast,
vibrancy and tone.
Previously Apple typically
favoured a warmer look
compared with rivals from
Google and Samsung, which
you can now change beyond
simply applying filters.
Today's most advanced distribution centres employ fully
account. The outage also hit small businesses
around the world that rely on WhatsApp,
Instagram and Facebook, meaning that stores,
restaurants and delivery services lost money on
Facebook acknowledged 'trouble accessing our apps'.
Monday, the New York Times reported. The
owner of a food delivery service in Delhi told the
newspaper: "My whole business is down."
The disruption of WhatsApp was particularly
challenging for millions of people around the
world who rely on the platform as their primary
communication method with friends and
family. "It's like the equivalent of your phone
and the phones of all of your loved ones being
Photo: alamy
country and may never return.
All of this has created a powerful
incentive for businesses to invest in
automation as a way to adapt to the
worker shortage. As British farms
confront the absence of seasonal workers
who once flooded in from eastern
Europe, interest in agricultural robots is
growing. The UK-based startup Small
Robot Company, for example, has
developed two robots capable of killing
weeds in wheat fields while cutting down
arwa MaHDawi
Did you get a bit antsy on
Monday when Facebook,
Instagram and WhatsApp
went down? Did you feel the
terrible tremors of an addict
forced to go cold turkey? If so
then please spare a thought for
how torturous this year has
been for poor old Donald
Trump. The 75-year-old social
media junkie has been banned
from all his favourite platforms
since January, when he was
accused of inciting and
applauding a violent
insurrection. Different sites
handed out different
punishments: Trump was put
in Facebook jail for at least two
years with a chance of parole;
Twitter, on the other hand, has
said there isn't a hope in hell
he's getting his account back.
Not even if he becomes
president again.
Trump has handled his
social media exile with all the
grace one would expect from
him. And, to be fair, I can
understand why the belligerent
billionaire is confused by the
fact that he has been told he is
not allowed to do something.
How could it be possible, after
all, that a rich white man be
banned from doing anything,
let alone something he enjoys?
It goes against all the rules of
nature! Well, you'll be glad to
know that Trump is on a
mission to right all that and
make his social media life great
again. On Friday, the former
president begged a federal
judge in Florida to grant an
injunction that would make the
losers and haters at Twitter
reinstate
his
@realDonaldTrump account
dramatically on the use of chemical
pesticides. The first robot autonomously
prowls a wheat field, and with precision
and patience that no human could match
analyses each individual wheat plant
using several cameras, mapping the exact
locations where weeds are beginning to
encroach. Once this data has been
collected, a second, somewhat
frightening, five-armed robot follows,
killing the weeds by administering a
powerful electric shock.
Another startup company, Xihelm,
which received venture funding from the
UK government in 2018, has built a robot
capable of harvesting fragile fruits and
vegetables in greenhouses. The robot can,
for example, carefully pick tomatoes after
using artificial intelligence to identify
only the ripest fruit. In the US, where the
worker shortage has hit the restaurant
industry especially hard, the White Castle
chain has introduced french fry
automation to work alongside its new
hamburger robots, while the national
restaurant chain Sweetgreen acquired a
startup company that provides robotic
kitchen technology. McDonald's
restaurants in the Chicago area are
experimenting with an artificial
intelligence-powered voice system that
can process customer orders in drivethroughs.
There can be no doubt that the
turned off without warning. The app essentially
functions as an unregulated utility," the
journalist Aura Bogado wrote.
Mark Zuckerberg apologized for the outage
Photo: Mykola Tys
on Facebook once the website was back online,
but did not provide an explanation. "I know
how much you rely on our services to stay
connected with the people you care about," the
CEO said.
Experts initially said the problem appeared to
have been related to the company's internal
infrastructure. Facebook engineers responded
to a company data center in California to fix the
Will Donald Trump ever
be able to beat his ban?
while he fights the company's
permanent ban. This guy used
to be the most powerful man in
the world; now he's
pathetically grovelling for a
chance to tweet. It would be
hilarious if it wasn't also a
sobering reminder of the
immense power big tech has.
You know what else is funny,
in a horrible sort of way?
Trump's explanations for why
he deserves his Twitter account
back. According to court
documents, Trump's Twitter
ban isn't just cruel and
unusual, it could spell the end
of the Republican party as we
know it. His legal team's
request for an injunction
argues that: "[By] deplatforming
the presumptive
head and most popular
member of the Republican
party, cutting him off from the
most effective and direct forms
of communication with
potential voters, [Twitter] is
threatening irreparable
damage to the Republican
party's prospects in the 2022
and 2024 elections."
While that analysis may be
dramatic, it's not entirely
incorrect. At the very least, the
Twitter ban certainly threatens
irreparable damage to Trump's
political future. Ask yourself
this: would Trump ever have
been elected president without
social media? He's admitted he
doesn't think so. "I doubt I
pandemic and the associated worker
shortage are accelerating the drive
toward deploying artificial intelligence,
robotics and other forms of automation.
In the UK, the trend is being further
amplified as Brexit's impact on the
workforce becomes evident. However,
the reality is that most of these
technologies are unlikely to arrive in time
to offer a solution to the immediate
challenges faced by employers. Xihelm's
tomato-picking robot, for example,
remains in the testing phase; the
machines are not yet generally available
for purchase. Some of the most critical
worker shortages the UK are in
transportation and logistics. By one
estimate, the country is currently short of
at least 100,000 truck drivers. As has
been widely publicised, this has led to
shortages of everything from petrol to
McDonald's milkshakes. No robots will
be coming to the rescue in the near
future. While a number of startup
companies in Silicon Valley and
elsewhere are working on self-driving
trucks, the technology remains at several
years away from commercial viability.
Add time for governments to craft the
necessary regulations or simply to get the
public to accept the idea of fully loaded
trucks navigating local roads without a
driver at the wheel and the wait could
easily be much longer.
Over the course of a decade or more,
however, the overall impact of artificial
intelligence and robotics on the job
market is likely to be significant and in
outage, which also disrupted internal systems
employees use for work, the Verge reported.
There was no evidence that the issue was
caused by malicious activity, the Associated
Press reported, and experts have said the
outage, which saw Facebook and its services
essentially "disconnected from the internet",
could have only originated from within the
company.
Adam Leon Smith, of BCS, the Chartered
Institute for IT and a software testing expert,
said: "The outage is caused by changes made to
the Facebook network infrastructure. Many of
the recent high-profile outages have been
caused by similar network-level events.
"It is reported by unidentified Facebook
sources on Reddit that the network changes
have also prevented engineers from remotely
connecting to resolve the issues, delaying
resolution. "Notably, many organisations now
define their physical infrastructure as code, but
most do not apply the same level of testing
rigour when they change that code, as they
would when changing their core business
logic."
According to reports, part of the problem was
with the DNS, or domain name system, which
turns website names such as theguardian.com
into numeric addresses that can be understood
by machines. These allow the users' computer
to connect to the destination web server and the
website users are looking for.
"It is rumored to be a border gateway protocol
problem. This is something worth noting. It
might be really hard to get into a router and
change the route tables from outside the
organization, but inside, it's a piece of cake,"
Renee Murphy, a principal analyst at Forrester,
said in an email. "If it really is a BGP problem,
that is a big problem. This is not something that
should ever happen at a company this
sophisticated with this much data."
How could it be possible, after all, that a rich
white man be banned from doing anything, let
alone something he enjoys? Photo: Eric Baradat
would be here if it weren't for
social media, to be honest with
you," Trump said in a 2017
interview with Fox. "Tweeting
is like a typewriter - when I put
it out, you put it immediately
Hardly anybody read it and,
after less than a month, it was
shut down and scrubbed from
the internet. Trump hasn't
faded into oblivion, of course.
He may grumble about being
on your show … When CENSORED but no one has
somebody says something
about me, I am able to go bing,
bing, bing and I take care of it
… [W]ithout social media … I
would probably not be here
talking." The past few months
have confirmed that analysis:
Trump's attempts to go "bing,
bing, bing" without Twitter and
shut him up: he still does
interviews, his aides send out
daily fundraising emails, he
holds a lot of rallies. None of
that, however, has managed to
ignite the news cycle in the
same way his tweets did. It's
still not clear whether Trump is
going to run in 2024. But I'll
Facebook have gone badly, tell you this: Trump
badly, badly. In May, he
launched a blog called From
the Desk of Donald J Trump.
desperately needs Twitter.
Without it he just looks like a
Twit.
some specific areas the technologies may
lead to dramatic change within the next
few years. And many workers will soon
confront the reality that the
encroachment of automation technology
will not be limited to the often low-paying
and less desirable occupations where
worker shortages are currently
concentrated. Indeed, many of the jobs
that employers are struggling to fill may
prove to be highly resistant to
automation. At the same time, betterpaying
positions that workers definitely
want to retain will be squarely in the
sights as AI and robotics continue their
relentless advance.
Consider, for example, the distribution
centres run by Amazon or the online
grocery retailer Ocado. As online
shopping has accelerated, these
warehouses have become an
employment bright spot, providing jobs
for many thousands of workers. Less than
a decade ago, facilities of this kind would
have been animated by hundreds of
workers continuously roving between tall
shelves containing thousands of different
items. The workers would have included
"stowers" tasked with taking newly
arrived inventory and storing it on
shelves and "pickers" responsible for
retrieving items in order to fulfil
customer orders. The activity would have
been a continuous mad scramble,
perhaps resembling an especially
disordered anthill, in which a typical
worker might trek a dozen or more miles
over the course of a single shift.
THURSDAY, OCTOBeR 7, 2021
6
Coast Guard seizes tortoises, gecko in
patuakhali and Khulna
in separate raids in
patuakhali and Khulna,
Bangladesh Coast Guard
arrested three smugglers
along with 54 rare species
of tortoises and 1 gecko on
wednesday, a press release
said.
lt. Khondaker munif
Taki, media officer at the
Bangladesh Coast Guard
headquarters, said this at
noon on wednesday
(october 8).
he said a special
operation was conducted by
BCG security station
Andarmanik and BCG
station nizampur
conducted an operation in
the new Kathapatti (ukil
patti) area adjacent to
Khepupara launch Ghat
under Kalapara upazila of
patuakhali district on
wednesday night on the
basis of secret information.
Memebers of BCG Security Station Andarmanik and BCG Station Nizampur in a
drive detained 2 smugglers along 54 rare species of tortoises from Kalapara
upazila of Patuakhali district on Wednesday.
Photo: Courtesy
During the operation, Tota
Akon (48) and his son md.
Rubel (26) were detained
along with 54 rare species
of tortoises from the area.
later, the smugglers
including tortoises were
handed over to the forest
officer.
on the other hand, manoj
Boishya (35) was detained
along with 1 rare species of
gecko by Coast Guard
outpost naliyan in the area
adjacent to naliyan
embankment under
Dacope police station of
Khulna district at midnight.
The estimated value of the
captured gecko is Tk
6600,000/00 (Tk 66 lakh
only).
The rescued gecko and
the detainee have been
handed over to the nalian
Forest office for
appropriate legal action, he
said.
he further added that the
Coast Guard has continued
and will continue to
conduct regular operations
in areas under the
jurisdiction of the Coast
Guard to maintain law and
order and ensure public
safety, as well as
kidnapping, robbery, drug
control and wildlife
protection.
A view exchange meeting was held with the journalists of Dhamoirhat Model Press Club with new Officer-in-Charge
(OC) KM Rakibul Huda of the upazila on Tuesday.
Photo: TBT
oC holds view exchange meeting
with Dhamoirhat journalists
RejAun AlAm, DhAmoiRhAT CoRResponDenT
A view exchange meeting was held
with the journalists of Dhamoirhat
model press Club with new officerin-Charge
(oC) Km Rakibul huda of
the upazila on Tuesday.
The courtesy call and view
exchange meeting was held at the
oC's office where the president of the
Dhamoirhat model press Club md.
nurunabi Farooqi and General
secretary Rejaun Alam spoke on
various issues. During the time,
Dhamoirhat police inspector
(investigation) Abdul Gani, si md.
harun Aur Rashid, press Club joint
General secretary Abul Bayan,
Treasurer Rifatul hasan sakat, office
secretary Abu Yusuf mortuza
Rahman were among others also
present at the occasion.
At the occassion, oC Km Rakibul
huda said that the police are the
servant people and journalists are the
mirror of the nation. if the police and
the journalists worked in unit then it
will be easy to suppress all kinds of
crimes including drugs, rape, child
marriage, violence against women,
rape and extortion.
In observance of International Teacher's Day, a human chain and a rally was organized by the Upazila
Secondary Teachers' Association demanding nationalization of secondary education in Shibchar on
Tuesday.
Photo: Rafiqul Islam
Durga puja's
preparation
on in full
swing in
Rajshahi
RAjshAhi: The
preparation for celebrating
the forthcoming Durga puja,
the largest religious festival
for the Bangalee hindu
community, is going on in
full swing everywhere in the
division, reports Bss.
The works of decorating
and painting idols and puja
mandaps are being made
with much enthusiasm
ahead of the festival.
idol makers commonly
known as pauls are passing
busy days with the finishing
touch to the idols of hindu
deities. with only a week
left, the pauls are working
round the clock to make sure
that the idols are ready in
time.
Kartik paul, who has been
involved in the idol-making
profession for over 24 years,
has made 34 idols in the last
two months and has been
working for some others at
present. Taka 30,000 to
60,000 are spent for making
each of the idols, he said.
he said that about one
hundred paul community
people in Rajshahi are now
busy with making idols for
mandaps and they have
already completed around
90 percent of the work.
swapon Ghosh, a devotee
who supervises a puja
mandap in Kumarpara area
of the city, informed that
preparations for the
upcoming Durga puja are on
the final stage.
Police in a drive arrested Rakibul Mir along with 65 pieces of yaba tablets from
Purbo Chila village in Amtali upazila on Tuesday night.
Photo: H M Kawsor Madbor
Three drug dealers arrested in Amtali
h m KAwsoR mADBoR,
AmTAli CoRResponDenT
police arrested Rakibul mir
along with 65 pieces of yaba
tablets and Khabir and
julhas hawladar with 200
grams of cannabis. Rakibul
hails from purba Chila
village of the upazila and
Khabir and julhas from
sekandarkhali village were
arrested on Tuesday night.
The accused were handed
over to the Amtali senior
judicial magistrate's Court
on wednesday. judge md
shakib hossain has ordered
to send them to jail.
it has been learnt that md.
masum mridha, son of
shahnaz Begum, a former
woman member of haldia
union parishad of the
upazila, has been collecting
yaba from different parts of
the country including Cox's
Bazar and Kuakata for the
last five years. locals allege
that he has been selling the
yaba all over the area
through 20 retailers. on
Tuesday evening, based on a
tip-off, Amtali police station
si mohammad Dadan mia
raided the purbo Chila village
and arrested Rakibul mir
while he was selling yaba.
on the other hand, si
shubho arrested two drug
dealers named Khabir and
julhas while they were
selling cannabis from
sekandarkhali village. Two
hundred grams of cannabis
were recovered from the
bodies of the two drug
dealers. A case has been filed
under the narcotics Control
Act against masum mridha
and Khabir and julhas, the
main culprits of Rakibul and
Yaba sales at Amtali police
station on the same night.
human chain, rally
demanding nationalization
of secondary education
held in shibchar
RAFiqul islAm, shiBChAR
CoRResponDenT
international Teacher's Day
has been celebrated at
shibchar upqzila in
madaripur district on
Tuesday. marking the
occasion, a human chain
and a rally was organized by
the upazila secondary
Teachers' Association
demanding nationalization
of secondary education.
The rally was brought out
from the local nandakumar
model institution and ended
at the upazila Central
shahid minar. later the
discussion meeting was
held.
During the time, md.
shamsul haque, president
of Bangladesh shibchar
upazila Branch, AKm
masudur Rahman Khan,
General secretary, harunur-
Rashid, Vice president,
sultan mahabub, motiur
Rahman were also present
at the occasion.
5 more test
positive for
Covid-19 in
C'nawabganj
ChApAinAwABGAnj:
Five more people tested
positive for Covid-19
during the last 24 hours till
last morning, raising the
total caseloads to 5,889 in
the district, reports Bss.
During the time, 78
samples were tested as five
persons were detected
positive for Covid-19,
showing the infection rate
6.41 percent, civil surgeon
office sources confirmed.
All the newly infected
patients were from sadar
upazila.
A total of 83 patients are
undergoing treatment in
the district. of them, 24 are
at dedicated Covid hospital
and others at home.
meanwhile, 157 patients
have died of Covid-19 and
5,649 have recovered from
the disease so far here, the
sources added.
Awami League Joint General Secretary AFM Bahauddin Nasim MP as the chief
guest addressed the triennial conference of Joypurhat district Swecchashebok
League in the district on Tuesday.
Photo: Masrakul Alom
Record 4,94,427 tonnes
of summer vegetables
produced in Rangpur
RAnGpuR: Farmers produced a record quantity that is
4,94,427 tonnes of summer vegetables exceeding the fixed
production target by 21.45 percent during the justconcluded
Kharif-1 season in Rangpur agriculture region,
reports Bss.
officials of the Department of Agricultural extension
(DAe) said farmers achieved bumper output of summer
vegetables braving the Covid-19 pandemic and got fair
prices of the produce.
earlier, the DAe had fixed a target of producing over
4,07,101 lakh tonnes of summer vegetables from 22,030
hectares of land for all five districts in Rangpur agriculture
region during the last Kharif-1 season.
"however, farmers cultivated summer vegetables on
26,365 hectares of land exceeding the fixed farming target
by 4,335 hectares or 19.68 percent," Agriculturist Bidhu
Bhusan Ray, Additional Director of the DAe, Rangpur
region said. Farmers cultivated summer vegetables on
9,480 hectares of land in Rangpur, 4,780 hectares in
Gaibandha, 4,820 hectares in lalmonirhat, 2,475
hectares in nilphamari and 4,810 hectares of land in
Kurigram districts.
"After completing harvest last week, farmers produced
4,94,427 tonnes of vegetables exceeding the fixed
production target by 87,326 tonnes or 21.45 percent at an
excellent average yield rate of 18.75 tonnes per hectare of
land," Ray said. The DAe and other organisations and
institutes, commercial banks and nGos supplied high
quality seeds, inputs, easy-term agri-loans and assistance
to farmers to make the intensive summer vegetables
cultivation programme a success.
After getting repeated bumper production with
rewarding prices, farmers are cultivating vegetables on
more lands and many of them have achieved self- reliance
from farming vegetables thrice during the Rabi, Kharif-1
and Kharif- 2 seasons annually.
"At the same time, farmers have cultivated vegetables on
13,950 hectares of land during the current Kharif-2 season
in the region and already harvested on 3,370 hectares of
land producing 56,143 tonnes of vegetables till Tuesday,"
Ray added.
Triennial conference
of joypurhat district
swecchashebok
league held
mAsRAKul Alom, joYpuRhAT
CoRResponDenT
The triennial conference of
joypurhat
district
swecchashebok league was
held at the shaheed Dr. Abul
Kashem moidan in the district
on Tuesday. At the occassion
Awami league joint General
secretary AFm Bahauddin
nasim mp was the chief guest
at the occasion.
in his speech he said that
today, under the leadership of
prime minister sheikh
hasina, the country is
advancing towards progress
and development. he urgerd
the activists of Awami
swecchashebok league to
work with dignity to build
Bangabandhu's sonar Bangla.
outgoing president of
joypurhat
district
swecchashebok league and
current District Awami
league publicity and
publication secretary
lecturer Aem masud Raza
presided over the occasion
while General secretary of
Bangladesh Awami
swechhasabok league
provided the keynote address.
Among others, jatiya
sangsad whip and Awami
league organizing secretary
Abu saeed Al mahmud
swapan mp, organizing
secretary sm Kamal hasan
were also present among
others.
ThursDAY, OCTOBer 7, 2021
7
A group of French senators arrived in Taiwan for a five-day visit Wednesday following a large
Chinese show of force with fighter jets amid the highest tensions in decades between China and
Taiwan.
Photo : AP
Argentine house fire
leaves 7 people dead
BUENOS AIRES : Seven
people, including four minors,
died in a house fire on Tuesday
in the Argentine city of Bahia
Blanca, some 635 km south of
Buenos Aires, police said,
reports UNB.
The fire started in the front
part of the house, located in the
Villa Ressia neighborhood of
the major port city.
"The victims sought refuge
in a back room, but could not
get out because the window
had a grille on it," a local
newspaper reported.
"We responded to a 911 call
about a fire," the head of the
Bahia Blanca Police
Department Gonzalo Bezos
said.
"The first police cars arrived
and immediately realized the
seriousness of the situation
because the kitchen, the dining
room and the bedroom were
all on fire, with people inside
asking for help," said Bezos.
The cause of the fire is still
unknown, and an investigation
is underway.
French senators arrive
in Taiwan amid
tensions with China
TAIPEI : A group of French senators
arrived in Taiwan for a five-day visit
Wednesday following a large Chinese show
of force with fighter jets amid the highest
tensions in decades between China and
Taiwan.
The group, led by Senator Alain Richard,
will meet with President Tsai Ing-wen,
Taiwanese economic and health officials
and the Mainland Affairs Council. Richard,
a former French defense minister,
previously visited Taiwan in 2015 and 2018,
according to Taiwan's semi-official Central
News Agency, and heads the Taiwan
Friendship group in the French senate.
China's ambassador to France Lu Shaye
sent a warning letter in February calling on
Richard to cancel the Taiwan visit,
according to local media reports.
The visit will likely provoke a rebuke from
China, which claims self-ruled Taiwan as its
own territory and therefore opposes any
international engagement with the island
such as visits by foreign government
officials. It also has aggressively poached
Taiwan's remaining diplomatic allies.
In its most recent display of sustained
military harassment, China flew fighter jets
149 times toward Taiwan over four days
from Friday to Monday. The White House
called the flights risky and destabilizing,
while China responded that the U.S. selling
weapons to Taiwan and its ships navigating
the Taiwan Strait were provocative.
Taiwan's defense minister Chiu Kuocheng
told legislators Wednesday that the
situation "is the most severe in the 40 years
since I've enlisted." Chiu was answering
questions as the legislature decides whether
to approve a special budget for air and
naval defense purchases.
China and Taiwan split amid civil war in
1949. Today they have extensive trade and
investment ties but no official relations, and
China has increasingly mobilized military,
diplomatic and economic pressure to
undermine Tsai's independence-leaning
administration.
As Lebanese got poorer, politicians
stowed wealth abroad
BEIRUT : A trove of leaked
documents confirmed that
for years, Lebanon's
politicians and bankers have
stowed wealth in offshore
tax havens and used it to buy
expensive properties - a
galling revelation for masses
of newly impoverished
Lebanese caught in one of
the world's worst economic
meltdowns in decades,
reports UNB.
Some of the newly outed
holders of offshore accounts
belong to the same ruling
elite that is being blamed for
the collapse and for derailing
the lives of ordinary
Lebanese who have lost
access to savings and now
struggle to get fuel,
electricity and medicine.
Bold-faced names in the
leaked documents include
the longtime central bank
governor, a pivotal figure in
the failed policies that
helped trigger the financial
crisis, as well as Prime
Minister Najib Mikati and
his predecessor.
The documents, named
the "Pandora Papers," were
examined by the
International Consortium of
Investigative Journalists,
with the first findings
released Sunday. The ICIJ
report exposes the offshore
secrets of wealthy elites from
more than 200 countries
and territories.
It was based on a review of
nearly 11.9 million records
obtained from 14 firms that
provide services in setting
up offshore firms and shell
companies. Clients of such
firms are often trying to hide
their wealth and financial
activities.
Setting up an offshore
company is not illegal, but
reinforces the perception
that the wealthy and
powerful play by different
rules - a particularly
upsetting notion for many
Lebanese.
The papers show how
members of the political
class were sending wealth
abroad for years, even as
they urged people to deposit
money in Lebanon's banks,
assuring them that it was
safe, said Alia Ibrahim, a
Lebanese journalist.
"We are not talking about
regular citizens," said
Ibrahim, a co-founder of
Daraj, a Beirut-based
independent digital media
platform, and one of scores
of journalists across the
world who worked with ICIJ
on the investigation into the
documents.
"These are politicians who
served in public office for
years, and they are partly
responsible for the current
crisis Lebanon is going
through," she said.
Lebanon is in the midst of
what the World Bank says is
one of the world's worst
economic meltdowns in the
past 150 years. More than
70% of the population has
been thrown into poverty,
their savings nearly wiped
out in the crisis that began in
late 2019 and was in part
caused by decades of
corruption
and
mismanagement by the
political class. Hundreds of
thousands of people staged
nationwide protests against
corruption starting in late
2019. Yet two years later the
same politicians still run the
country in the same way,
protected by the sectarianbased
system. One of the
protesters, Samir Skaff, said
that the Lebanese are not
surprised to be told that the
political class "is made up of
a bunch of thieves."
"We have been saying that
for years," he said.
Offshore companies,
though not illegal, can be
used to elude taxes or hide
illicitly gained money. The
leaks only add further
confirmation to what
Lebanese have long said
about their ruling class -
though repeated reports of
graft or illicit activity in the
past have failed to bring
change. One of the 14 firms
listed by ICIJ as providing
offshore services is Trident
Trust, with 346 Lebanese
clients making up the largest
group, more than double the
second-place country,
Britain. One focus of the
revelations is Riad Salameh,
who has been Lebanon's
central bank governor for
nearly 30 years.
Daraj reported that the
documents showed Salameh
founded a company called
AMANIOR, based in the
British Virgin Islands, in
2007. He is listed as its full
owner and sole director,
which Daraj said appeared
to violate Lebanese laws
forbidding the central
bank governor from
activity in any enterprise.
A trove of leaked documents confirmed that for years, Lebanon's politicians
and bankers have stowed wealth in offshore tax havens and used it to
buy expensive properties - a galling revelation for masses of newly impoverished
Lebanese caught in one of the world's worst economic meltdowns
in decades.
Photo : AP
5.5-magnitude quake
strikes off Japan's
Miyazaki, no tsunami
warning issued
TOKYO : An earthquake
with a magnitude of 5.5 on
Wednesday struck off
Japan's Miyazaki
Prefecture, according to the
Japan Meteorological
Agency (JMA).
The temblor occurred at
around 5:13 p.m. local time
(0813 GMT), with its
epicenter being at a latitude
of 31.3 degrees north and a
longitude of 131.5 degrees
east, and at depth of 40 km.
The quake logged 4 in
some parts of Miyazaki
Prefecture on the Japanese
seismic intensity scale which
peaks at 7. So far no tsunami
warning has been issued.
Zimbabwe tightens
crackdown on
illegal foreign
currency dealers
HARARE : Zimbabwe's
central bank on Tuesday
blacklisted 47 more
individuals for allegedly
advertising and facilitating
illegal foreign exchange
transactions and money
laundering through social
media.
This came after 30
individuals were "blacklisted
and barred from accessing
financial and mobile
telecommunication services
for the same reasons" on
Sept. 28, said John
Mangudya, governor of the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
(RBZ).
The governor thanked the
public for their information
that is helping the RBZ's
Financial Intelligence Unit
(FIU) to identify and take
action against the culprits,
reports UNB.
When the RBZ blacklisted
the 30 individuals, the FIU
instructed banks, mobile
money operators and other
financial service providers to
identify and freeze any
accounts operated by the
identified individuals and
bar them from accessing
financial services for a
period of two years,
Mangudya said.
The FIU had also
requested the Postal and
T e l e c o m m u n i c a t i o n s
Regulatory Authority of
Zimbabwe to bar them from
operating mobile
businesses.
Since then, 14 suspected
illegal foreign currency
dealers have been arrested,
including four company
directors, on charges of
money laundering.
It is reported that the
current rates in Zimbabwe's
black market are more
lucrative than those in the
official banking system.
TAZACORTE : Fleeing their
home after the La Palma
volcano erupted on
September 19, one couple
married nearly 60 years
decided to seek safe haven
aboard their tiny boat until
the storm passed.
When the evacuation
order came, neither
Margaretha Straates, 80,
nor her 90-year-old
husband Luis Rodriguez
Diaz fancied the idea of
staying in temporary
accommodation, reports
UNB.
"It suddenly came to me,
why don't we try the boat?
It's only an old boat, but we
could take a few things and
settle in," Rodriguez Diaz, a
retired gastrointestinal
surgeon, told AFP.
Just 6.4 metres (20 feet)
long, the "Hamurabi" is a
tough little boat that has
only needed one engine
change in 35 years, he says.
But it is big enough for
him and his Dutch wife who
sit with their backs to the
volcano, which keeps up its
endlessly explosive activity.
Together, they pass the
time on the boat's tiny deck
with a radio, her computer
with Wi-Fi, a small fridge
In California, some buy machines
that make water out of air
BENICIA :The machine Ted Bowman
helped design can make water out of the air,
and in parched California, some
homeowners are already buying the pricey
devices, reports UNB.
The air-to-water systems work like air
conditioners by using coils to chill air, then
collect water drops in a basin.
"Our motto is, water from air isn't magic,
it's science, and that's really what we're doing
with these machines," said Ted Bowman,
design engineer at Washington state-based
Tsunami Products. The system is one of
several that have been developed in recent
years to extract water from humidity in the
air. Other inventions include mesh nets,
solar panels and shipping containers that
harvest moisture from the air.
Bowman said his company's machines -
made for use at homes, offices, ranches and
elsewhere - dehumidify the air and in doing
so create water that's filtered to make it
drinkable. The technology works especially
well in foggy areas and depending on the size
On a boat, elderly couple find safe
haven from Canaries volcano
Austria prosecutors raid
offices of ruling party
VIENNA : Austria's ruling People's Party
(OeVP) said it had been targeted by raids
from prosecutors on Wednesday morning,
with local media reporting that offices in the
chancellery were among those searched.
Deputy OeVP general secretary Gaby
Schwarz confirmed the prosecutors' actions
but did not confirm who was being
investigated, saying only that raids were "for
show" and that "accusations were
constructed over events that date back as far
as five years".
According to Die Presse newspaper, raids
also took place in the chancellery and
targeted several employees of OeVP
Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. The newspaper
reported that the raids related to possible
corruption offences in the publication of
adverts and opinion polls in the Oesterreich
daily.
Kurz himself is suspected of being an
can produce between 200 gallons (900
liters) and 1,900 gallons (8,600 liters) of
water a day. The machines also operate
efficiently in any area with high humidity,
including California's coastline, he said.
The machines are not cheap, with prices
ranging from $30,000 to $200,000. Still, in
California, where residents have been asked
to conserve water because one of the worst
droughts in recent history has depleted
reservoirs, some homeowners are buying
them to meet their water needs.
Don Johnson, of Benicia, California, said
he bought the smallest machine, which looks
like a towering AC unit, hoping it would
generate sufficient water to sustain his
garden. But he found it puts out more than
enough for his garden and his household.
"This machine will produce water for a lot
less than you can buy bottled water at Costco
for, and I believe, as time goes on and the
price of freshwater through our utilities
goes up, I think it's going to more than
pay for itself," he said.
The machine Ted Bowman helped design can make water out of the air,
and in parched California, some homeowners are already buying the
pricey devices.
Photo : AP
and an adopted cat they
picked up while fleeing, and
who bolts into the cabin
when visitors arrive.
The space is small and
requires careful navigation,
with Straates often
forgetting to duck her head
to enter the cabin.
"I've banged my head
three times," she says.
The pair are residents of
Todoque, a village almost
totally wiped off the map by
the lava.
When the order came,
they had to leave very
quickly.
"The Guardia Civil police
came and told us: 'You need
to evacuate right now, very
quickly' so we left in what we
were wearing," says
Rodriguez Diaz.
They never thought the
eruption would be so violent
and destructive, lulled into a
false sense of security by the
eruption of La Palma's
Teneguia volcano 50 years
ago "which was a friendly
volcano that didn't do
much damage", says
Straates. Over the past 16
days, the erupting volcano
has destroyed more than
1,000 properties, many of
them homes.
accessory to the offences, it added.
Kurz began his second term as chancellor
in January 2020 at the head of a coalition
with the Green party.
His previous government, a coalition with
the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe), fell
apart spectactularly in May 2019 over the socalled
"Ibiza-gate" corruption scandal.
After ex-FPOe chief Heinz-Christian
Strache was caught on camera appearing to
offer public contracts in exchange for
campaign help for the FPOe, investigators
launched several sprawling investigations
into alleged corruption in Austrian politics.
Some of these have targeted high-ranking
OeVP politicians, such as Finance Minister
Gernot Bluemel.
Kurz himself is under investigation on
suspicion of making false statements to a
parliamentary committee on corruption,
though he has not been charged.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2021
8
Fevicol’s awareness campaign on dengue
eradication and environmental cleanliness
Last week, an awareness
campaign was launched
popular Fevicol Champions'
Club (FCC) around keeping
environment clean to prevent
infectious diseases like
Dengue and Malaria. The
Fevicol Champions' Club
(FCC) is an independent
association of woodworking
artisans supported by Fevicol
- the adhesive brand which
now a household name in
Bangladesh. FCC started
operating in Bangladesh in
LONDON : British supermarket giant
Tesco on Wednesday posted a near 70-
percent surge in first-half net profit on
the back of higher pandemic sales and its
"resilient" supply chain, reports BSS.
Profit after tax jumped to o781 million
($1.1 billion, 917 million euros) in the six
months to the end of August, the nation's
biggest retailer said in a statement.
That compared with o465 million a
year earlier, when the group was also
2019 with a mission of
Individual and social
development of woodworking
artisans. It presently has a
total of 19 clubs in Dhaka and
Chittagong. FCC conducts
various social work initiatives
like blood donation camps,
Tree Plantation, Heath
awareness programs every
quarter. This Quarter's
campaign was conducted as
part of this initiative,
beginning on 23rd September
and concluding on 25th
September, a press release
said.
The theme of the campaign
was "Keep the Environment
Clean and Make Living
Spaces Safe from Infectious
Diseases." As part of this
campaign, FCC conducted
dengue eradication and
environmental clean-up
activities in Dhaka's
Mohammadpur, Mirpur, and
Rampura, as well as Gazipur
and Narayanganj districts.
Attending this social
buoyed by the Covid pandemic.
Tesco experienced "sustained strong
UK sales, a reduction in Covid-19 related
costs in our retail businesses and a return
to profitability in Tesco Bank", it said.
Revenue rose six percent to o30.4
billion as it "continued to benefit from
elevated sales as a result of the Covid-19
pandemic". Tesco also ramped up its
annual profit forecast and unveiled a
o500-million share buyback.
awareness program were a
total of about 300 members
from 8 different FCCs.
Notable among the various
activities undertaken by the
FCC members are:
Awareness about Aedes
mosquito breeding grounds
and how to prevent their
development; Maintaining
environmental cleanliness by
eliminating the practice of
littering; and creating public
awareness through the slogan
"Keep the environment clean,
stay healthy together."
Speaking about the
campaign, Mainak Dutta,
Country Manager, Pidilite
Bangladesh, the makers of
Fevicol said, "We at Pidilite
has always prioritize health
and safety of everyone
associated to us. We applaud
the FCC's initiative to
eradicate dengue and clean
up the environment. We are
hopeful that the club will
continue to carry out such
social development work on a
larger scale across the
country, gaining people's love
through the development of
society."
First Security Islami Bank Ltd. organized Shariah Awareness Program with the participation of banks
Head office personnel's by using digital platform recently. Professor Dr. Mohammad Gias Uddin
Talukder, Chairman, Shariah Council, First Security Islami Bank Ltd. delivered his lecture on the importance
& significance of complying Shariah in banking activities. The program was ended with valuable
instructions from Syed Waseque Md. Ali, Managing Director of the bank.
Photo: Courtesy
Europe stocks
open higher
despite losses
elsewhere
LONDON : Europe's major
stock markets gained ground
at the open on Tuesday, as
investors shrugged off losses
in Asia and on Wall Street,
reports BSS.
In initial trade, London's
benchmark FTSE 100 index
advanced 0.6 percent to
7,050.82 points, compared
with Monday's closing level.
In the eurozone, Frankfurt's
DAX index increased almost
0.4 percent to 15,095.10
points and the Paris CAC 40
won 0.5 percent to 6,511.06.
However, Asian indices
tumbled on Tuesday following
a Wall Street slump, as
soaring oil prices put further
upward pressure on inflation
while a standoff in
Washington over raising the
country's borrowing limit
fuelled fears of a catastrophic
US debt default.
PRAN dairy receives taxpayer award
PRAN Dairy Lltd, a sister concern of PRAN-RFL
Group, received taxpayer award from Tax Zone-
5, Dhaka recently. Choudhury Atiur Rasul,
Director (Accounts) of PRAN-RFL Group
received the award on behalf of PRAN Dairy
from Shoaib Ahmed, Commissioner at Tax
Zone-5, Dhaka through a program held at the
capital on Tuesday evening, a press release said.
Tax Zone-5, Dhaka, honored the five
companies and five persons for paying highest
tax at the zone. The program arranged to
increase tax collection through reducing gap
between taxpayers and tax receiver.
Atiur Rasul said, "We have got many awards
for paying Vat but this is for the first time we
received award from tax. We are happy for the
program."
He also added, "We have presence at 14
commission rate out of 15 commission rate in
Dhaka. I have been visiting the income tax
offices for last 20 years. Now, we are observing
huge positive changes among the NBR officials.
Shoaib Ahmed said, "We are proud to give
the honor to the taxpayers. I believe, to give
them honor means to honor the country and
nation."
Tesco profits jump on 'elevated' pandemic sales
"We've had a strong six months; sales
and profit have grown ahead of
expectations and we've outperformed the
market," said chief executive Ken
Murphy.
He pointed to "the resilience of our
supply chain and the depth of our
supplier partnerships" as a key factor.
The group however took a o193-million
hit from settling claims relating to its
misstatement of profits in 2014.
United Commercial Bank Ltd (UCB) has been recognized with 2021 U.S. Dollar Clearing MT202 Quality
Recognition Award by JP Morgan at the Corporate Office of the Bank recently. Sazzad Anam, Executive
Director, Head of Bangladesh Representative Office, JP Morgan delivered the award to Mohammed Shawkat
Jamil, Managing Director, UCB. Among others, Arif Quadri, Additional Managing Director, UCB; Md. Abdullah
Al Mamoon, Deputy Managing Director, UCB; Mumtaz Ahmed, Senior Vice President & Head - Financial
Institution and Offshore Banking Unit, UCB; Md. Amirul Islam, Associate, Financial Institutions Group
Wholesale Payments, JP Morgan and Sattar Md. Emon, Analyst, Financial Institutions Group Wholesale
Payments, JP Morgan were present in the award giving ceremony.
Photo: Courtesy
German industrial
orders slump in
August
FRANKFURT : German
industrial orders fell sharply
in August, after a record
month in July, official data
released on Wednesday
showed, as global supply
bottlenecks pinch the
economy, reports BSS.
The indicator, which gives
a foretaste of industrial
activity, fell by 7.7 percent on
the upwardly revised figure
for the previous month,
according to the federal
statistics agency Destatis.
In July, orders had
reached their highest point
since statistics for reunified
Germany began in 1991, as
demand sprung back after
coronavirus
restrictions
were lifted in Europe's
economic powerhouse. In its
latest release, Destatis
revised the increase in July
to 4.9 percent from its
previous estimate of 3.4
percent.
Industrial orders failed to
keep up the pace in August,
despite showing a strong 11.7
percent increase on a year
earlier. The month-onmonth
drop was led by a
steep 11.1 percent decline in
orders of capital goods,
while consumer and
intermediate goods tailed off
by 2.7 and 2.8 percent,
respectively.
Orders for export fell by
9.5 percent, with those from
outside the eurozone
decreasing most by 15.2
percent.
The upheaval caused by
the pandemic has given rise
to global shortages in
components, such as
semiconductors, timber and
plastics, limiting production
in key sectors for the
German economy.
Libya kicks off
construction
of oil refinery
TRIPOLI: Libya on Sunday
said work has begun on the
construction of an oil
refinery in the south of the
conflict-ridden desert
country, reports BSS.
The project will cost
between $500 million and
$600 million and become
operational within three
years, according to the head
of Libya's state oil company
Mustafa Sanalla.
He said an annual income
of $75 million was expected.
Libyan leader Abdelhamid
Dbeibah, speaking at a
ceremony in the capital
Tripoli, said: "This project is
important, the effective start
of construction of a refinery
in the south."
The refinery will be built
near Al-Charara, a major oil
field in the Oubari region,
which produces an average
of some 300,000 barrels of
oil a day.
Announced in the early
1980s, the project for a
refinery in southern Libya
had been put on hold for
years before being revived in
2017.
Agent Banking Branch of Islami Bank has been inaugurated at Khulshi in
Chattogram recently.
Photo: TBT
IBL agent banking outlet inaugurated
at Wireless corner of Chattogram
MOHIUDDIN SHAGOR, CHATTOGRAM CITy CORRESPONDENT:
Agent Banking Branch of Islami Bank has been
inaugurated at Khulshi in Chattogram for
modern banking and improved services.
Chattogram City Corporation no-13 Pahartali
Ward Councilor Mohammad Wasim Uddin
Chowdhury inaugurated the outlet branch by
cutting the ribbon as the chief guest at the
Wireless corner under Khulshi police station
on Tuesday.
Islami Bank Khulshi Branch AVP and
Branch Head Md. Morshedul Alam presided
over the function and Mr. Nair Azam, Senior
Executive Vice President and Head of Zone
North Chattogram and Hure Ara Beauty, a
reserved woman councilor of wards 11, 25 and
26 of City Corporation was present as the
New Zealand central bank lifts
interests rate from record low
WELLINGTON : New
Zealand on Wednesday
became one of the first
developed economies to hike
interest rates since the onset
of the coronavirus
pandemic, as the central
bank bids to rein in rising
inflation, reports BSS.
In a widely tipped move,
the Reserve Bank of New
Zealand lifted its base
interest rate 0.25 points to
0.5 percent Wednesday,
ending an 18-month freeze
aimed at keeping the
economy ticking over during
the Covid-19 crisis.
It signalled further
increases were likely, with
analysts predicting the cost
of borrowing could reach 1.5
percent by mid-2022.
"It is appropriate to
continue reducing the level
of monetary stimulus so as to
maintain low inflation and
support maximum
sustainable employment,"
the central bank said in a
statement.
Emerging economies like
Brazil, Russia and Mexico
have lifted rates in recent
months, along with a small
number of developed
economies including South
Korea.
Stock markets have sold
off in recent weeks on
concerns that extended
central bank and
government stimulus and
rising commodity prices will
spark inflation.
The US Federal Reserve
has so far maintained its
monetary policy stimulus,
though markets expect a
change before the end of the
year.
New Zealand's central
bank cited a recovering
global economy and
increased international
mobility caused by rising
vaccination rates in making
its decision.
It said inflation was set to
rise because of higher oil
prices, increasing transport
costs and the impact of
supply shortfalls, noting a
global move towards tighter
monetary policy was already
underway.
"While economic
uncertainty remains elevated
due to the prevalent impact
of Covid-19, cost pressures
are becoming more
persistent and some central
banks have started the
process of reducing
special guest.
Iqbal Hossain, in-charge of the agent bank,
Shahidul Islam Maqbool, president of Jhautla
market committee, Ward 13 Awami League
Organizing Secretary Anwar Hossain Babu,
Juba League leader Kazi Kaiser, Mir
Shamsuddoha Shaheen, former Chhatra
League central committee member Rajesh
Barua, Juba League leaders Arif Nur, Azgar Ali,
Lutful Rahman, Chhatra League leaders
Kamrul Hasan Shiblu, Mohammad Saeed
Abdullah Rocky, Md. Mominul Haque and
other local businessmen, customers and
dignitaries of the area were present there.
After the inauguration ceremony, special
prayers and munajat were conducted by Senior
Imam of Veterinary and Animal Sciences
University Alhaj Maulana Hafiz Ahmad.
monetary policy stimulus," it
said.
The bank said New
Zealand's inflation rate was
set to rise above 4.0 percent
in the medium term,
exceeding its 1.0-3.0 percent
target range.
The base rate had been at a
record low of 0.25 percent
since March 2020.
The rise had been widely
flagged by the bank but was
delayed in August when the
country was plunged into a
national lockdown by a
Covid-19 outbreak.
The virus has since been
contained to Auckland and
the bank signalled "further
removal of monetary policy
stimulus is expected over
time".
Kiwibank chief economist
Jarrod Kerr said New
Zealand monetary policy had
entered its first tightening
cycle in seven years.
"The Kiwi economy has
solid momentum and the
RBNZ has good reason to
withdraw stimulus... we
expect today's rate hike will
be the first in a series of hikes
towards 1.5 percent and
possibly higher," he said.
thurSDAY, oCtober 7, 2021
9
World champions France were among the favorites to win the summer's european Championship
but failed to set the tournament alight.
photo: Ap
France face Belgium hoping to
banish memories of Euro flop
SportS DeSk
France will take to the field for
Thursday's Nations League semi-final
against Belgium in Turin with
something to prove following their
shock early exit from Euro 2020,
reports BSS.
World champions France were
among the favourites to win the
summer's European Championship
but failed to set the tournament alight
despite having a squad packed with
world-class talent.
Their elimination on penalties at the
hands of Switzerland in the last 16 -
after leading 3-1 with 15 minutes of
normal time remaining -- was a
particular shock, and led to some
fallout within the French camp.
On Tuesday sports daily L'Equipe
published a lengthy interview with
star forward Kylian Mbappe, whose
missed spot-kick handed the Swiss a
memorable win in one of the matches
of the tournament. He said he would
have liked "more support" following
his shoot-out error.
"What shocked me, once again, was
being called a monkey for a penalty,"
Mbappe said.
"That's why I wanted support, not
Mumbai thrash
Royals to stay
afloat in IPL
SportS DeSk
Nathan Coulter-Nile led an
inspired pace attack to help
holders Mumbai Indians
hammer Rajasthan Royals by
eight wickets on Tuesday and
keep their playoff hopes alive in
the Indian Premier League.
Coulter-Nile (4-14), James
Neesham (3-12) and Jasprit
Bumrah (2-14) claimed nine
wickets between them to limit
Royals, who are all but out of
the IPL title race, to 90-9 in
Sharjah, reports BSS.
Opener Ishan Kishan hit an
unbeaten 50 as Mumbai
romped home in 8.2 overs to
jump from seventh to fifth spot
behind Kolkata Knight Riders
as they fight for the final playoff
place.
"We had to come here and do
what we had to do. The two
points were very crucial for us,"
said Mumbai skipper Rohit
Sharma.
"Once we had them bowled
out for 90, we had a chance to
finish it early and improve our
run rate." Delhi Capitals, M.S.
Dhoni's Chennai Super Kings
and the Virat Kohli-led Royal
Challengers Bangalore have
already booked their place in
the last four.
With their backs to the wall,
Mumbai came all guns blazing
after electing to field first as
Coulter-Nile, Neesham and
Bumrah removed Royals' top
three batters.
"There are world class
bowlers in our side and hope
they can pick a few more and I
have my job easier," man of the
match Coulter-Nile said of his
team's pace pack.Opener Evin
Lewis top-scored with 24 but
the rest of the batting fell
flat on a tough pitch.
because I shot the penalty to the left
and (Yann) Sommer saved it."
Mbappe also said that he could have
had more support from his
teammates on the field right after
missing the penalty, but on Tuesday
vice-captain Raphael Varane insisted
the squad supports one another.
"We are together when things are
going well as well as when things are
not going so well," Manchester United
defender Varane told reporters.
"We take on things together, we
don't leave anyone behind. That's our
philosophy, and that's not going to
change."
France go into the match on an
unconvincing run of form, with the 2-
0 World Cup qualifying win over
Finland last month their first victory
after a run of five draws.
They will be missing midfield
dynamo N'Golo Kante after he
contracted Covid-19 in the run up to
Chelsea's 1-0 defeat at Juventus last
week.
"We shouldn't play down this
competition, it's replaced friendly
fixtures which weren't very popular,"
said France coach Didier Deschamps.
"We know we're here with an aim
and unlike other competitions we're
already in the semi-finals." Belgium
too will be looking to bounce back
from their Euro campaign on the turf
of the team which knocked them out
of the tournament in the quarterfinals.
Roberto Martinez's side may have
gone one better than France in the
summer but it was more
disappointment for the team ranked
number one in the world.
The Red Devils' only major sporting
honour is gold at the 1920 Olympics,
which were held in Antwerp, and a
golden generation of players has fallen
short both at the Euro and the last
World Cup, where they were
eliminated by France in the semis.
"They have six or seven players with
more than 100 caps, who have been
there for a very long time," said
Deschamps.
"It's not for nothing that they're
ranked the best team in the world.
They're well organised, have young
players who stand out but also a core
of very experienced players which
makes them one of the best teams in
Europe and the world.
"It's a very, very good generation of
players which has not yet experienced
the joy of winning a tournament."
Spirit chief executive quits as
NWSL scandal rumbles on
SportS DeSk
The chief executive of the Washington Spirit
stepped down Tuesday, as the fallout from
the sexual misconduct and workplace
culture scandal roiling the top US
professional women's soccer league
continued, reports BSS.
Steve Baldwin, who had been sharply
criticized for his handling of allegations
against former Spirit coach Richie Burke --
who was fired last month -- said he was
stepping down to "remove distractions" from
the team.
"In recent days I have spent a lot of time
thinking about the future of the Washington
Spirit and the vision I laid out just three years
ago," Baldwin said.
"I have also listened -- to team leadership
and staff, investors, fans and players -- to
concerns about the Spirit's workplace culture
and our prior coach's conduct.
"While there is a range of opinions on how
we got here, and how to move forward,
everyone -- none more so than me -- is
committed to improving the club's culture,
removing distractions and returning the
focus to the players and the pursuit of a
championship," he said.
"With that goal in mind, and at the recent
request of our players, I have decided to
resign as CEO and managing partner of the
Washington Spirit, effective immediately."
Burke was "terminated for cause" last
week after an investigation by the
National Women's Soccer League,
following allegations of harassment and a
toxic work culture.
He was barred from coaching in the NWSL
after a probe found he had harassed and
verbally abused players.
The NWSL criticized the Spirit's handling
of the allegations against Burke, saying the
team had "failed to act in the best interests of
the league." Even after Burke had been
suspended, Baldwin was accused of
presiding over a workplace culture that left
women feeling sidelined.
Nathan Coulter-Nile led an inspired pace attack to help holders Mumbai
Indians hammer rajasthan royals by eight wickets on tuesday. photo: Ap
England's Sam
Curran ruled out
of T20 World Cup
SportS DeSk
All-rounder Sam Curran will
miss the upcoming
Twenty20 World Cup with a
back injury, the England and
Wales Cricket Board said on
Tuesday, reports BSS.
Curran noticed the problem
after playing for Chennai
Super Kings in their Indian
Premier League match
against Rajasthan Royals on
Saturday.
Scans revealed the Surrey
left-hander's injury and he
will fly home for further tests
and a full review with
England's medical team.
With the injury expected
to sideline him for several
weeks, Curran's brother,
Tom, has been called into
England's squad to replace
the 23-year- old.
Surrey's Reece Topley has
been added as a travelling
reserve and will join the
England party in due course.
England players and
management not at the IPL
arrived at their Muscat base
on Tuesday ahead of the T20
World Cup campaign. They
face warm-up matches
against India and New
Zealand before kicking off
their tournament against the
West Indies on October 23.
Premier League
scrambles to
convince stars to
get vaccinated
SportS DeSk
Premier League matches are
once again being played in
packed stadiums after
Britain's successful
coronavirus vaccine rollout -
- but the reluctance of many
players to get jabbed is
proving a headache for
football authorities, reports
BSS.
The UK has one of the
highest overall virus death
tolls in the world, at more
than 137,000, but more than
82 percent of over-16s have
had two doses of the vaccine,
according to the latest
government figures.
The rapid rollout has
enabled the easing of
restrictions on large
gatherings, with a welcome
return of supporters to
football grounds.
However, although no
official figures have been
offered by the Premier
League, reports suggest only
seven of England's 20 topflight
clubs have more than
50 percent of their squad
fully vaccinated.
"It's low, not just in the
Premier League but in the
Football League as well. It's
very low," said former
Manchester United captain
Gary Neville, who has an
ownership stake in League
Two club Salford City.
China suffer familiar sinking
feeling in World Cup pursuit
SportS DeSk
A familiar sense of crisis threatens to envelop
Chinese football with the men's national
team heading into crunch 2022 World Cup
qualifiers still looking for their first point and
first goal, reports BSS. China under President
Xi Jinping have grand plans to become a
leading football power, with ambitions to
host and even win the World Cup one day.
But the country of 1.4 billion people has
reached the World Cup only once, in 2002,
and Li Tie's side were soundly beaten 3-0 by
Australia in their opening match of this final
round of Asian qualifying for Qatar, then lost
1- 0 to old rivals Japan.
Despite boasting Espanyol's Wu Lei and
Brazilian-born Elkeson in attack, the side
failed to register an attempt on goal in 180
minutes of football and the pressure is
building on former Everton midfielder Li.
That pressure will ratchet up significantly if
they do not beat Vietnam on Thursday in the
United Arab Emirates, where the match is
taking place because of the coronavirus.
China then face Saudi Arabia next week.
China and Vietnam occupy the bottom two
places of the six-nation Group B table --
Vietnam have at least scored one goal.
Only the teams that finish in the top two in
Group A and Group B are guaranteed to
reach Qatar. Two rounds of matches over the
next two weeks will go a long way to deciding
who books their tickets for 2022.
China's talisman Wu came on as a
substitute in Espanyol's 2-1 win over Real
Madrid in La Liga and then jetted over to the
UAE to join his international team-mates.
"It's an important win for my club and I
hope to bring the momentum to the national
team," the 29-year-old said, according to
Xinhua news agency.
Wu's team-mates have been training in
Sharjah for nearly one month and under
strict measures to avoid coronavirus
infections."I know it's a difficult time for the
team since the long closed training period
could affect the players' mentality," Wu
added. "But all of us have the same goal --
which is to win this game, and we are
confident that we will achieve it."
In-form Australia, who top the group with
a perfect six points, face Oman and then have
an eye-catching clash with Japan in Saitama.
"We don't look too far ahead," said
Australia coach Graham Arnold.
A familiar sense of crisis threatens to envelop Chinese football with the
men's national team heading into crunch 2022 World Cup qualifiers still
looking for their first point and first goal.
photo: Ap
Raducanu to take her time
in search for new coach
SportS DeSk
British star Emma Raducanu plans to
take her time before hiring a new coach
as she returns for her first tournament
since winning the US Open at the BNP
Paribas Open at Indian Wells, reports
BSS. The 18-year-old, who stunned the
tennis world at the US Open after
becoming the first qualifier to win a
Grand Slam title, parted company with
coach Andrew Richardson following
her victory in New York.
Raducanu will be assisted by former
professional Jeremy Bates at the
ATP/WTA Indian Wells tournament in
the California desert this week, but is
still looking for a permanent coach.
Bates, the former British No.1, is the
head of women's tennis at the sport's
British governing body, the Lawn
Tennis Association.
"Jeremy is part of women's tennis at
the LTA and while he's here he can help
me out," Raducanu said Tuesday.
"But going forwards I'm just going to
try and find the right person. I'm not
going to rush into anything. I want to
make sure that I make the right
Rising star Vlahovic will not renew contract,
says Fiorentina chief Commisso
SportS DeSk
Serbia's Dusan Vlahovic will not renew his
contract with Fiorentina, the owner of the
Serie A club Rocco Commisso said on
Tuesday, opening the door to an early exit for
one of European football's rising stars,
reports BSS.
In an open letter to supporters posted on
the club's website, billionaire businessman
Commisso said the 21-year-old striker,
whose contract with the Viola expires in
June 2023, had refused an offer that "would
have made him the highest paid player in the
history of the club".
"We also improved our offer on a number
of occasions in order to accommodate the
requests of both Dusan and his entourage.
However, despite our efforts, those offers
have not been accepted," continued
Commisso.
"During my time in Florence over the past
decision." Raducanu believes that for
the time being, she will more than
capable of being her own coach
during matches.
"I'm quite confident," she said. "I
know that even though I'm quite young,
I've got a lot of experience banked. And
at the end of the day you're out
there on your own and you have to be
your own coach on the court.
"I'm just looking for the general
things in a coach -- someone that you
get along with well and someone who
can push you."
Raducanu's life has been
transformed since her victory at the US
Open, which catapulted the youngster
into the public eye as the new darling of
British tennis. However the teenager
says she is not letting the fame go to her
head, and does not plan to change her
approach to tournaments.
"I don't really want to change
anything," she said Tuesday. "What got
me to this point is not thinking
anything differently.
"If I just put additional thoughts in
my head, then that will just create a
problem. I am just going to keep going
few weeks, I have personally endeavoured to
find a solution that would make both the
player and the club happy, but I am
disappointed to say that our efforts and
attempts have not been rewarded.
"At this point, all that we can do is
acknowledge the wishes of the player and his
entourage and quickly identify feasible,
appropriate solutions as we proceed with
this exciting new season."
Vlahovic scored 21 goals in Serie A last
season and has performed well again in the
early stages of this campaign, netting four
times in seven league appearances, after
Fiorentina resisted summer interest from
Atletico Madrid.
His refusal to extend his current deal will
be a blow to Fiorentina fans enjoying an
exciting start to the season and means the
club will have to try to cash in on their star
player before he can leave as a free agent in
just under two years' time.
about my business and staying the
same.""When I was back at home I still
didn't really go out. I was just at home
with my family. I got some cool
invitations, kind messages and kind
words. I didn't get too caught up in it."
Raducanu meanwhile is excited by
the thought of being part of a new
generation of young women's tennis
players which includes the likes of her
opponent in the US Open final,
Canada's Leylah Fernandez, and fellow
teen Coco Gauff.
"All of us are pushing each other," she
said. "When you see one of the other
players doing well you're also
competitive and you want to do well.
"The women's game in general is so
strong right now -- the level is so high
and anyone can win in any
tournaments. Hopefully we can play
each other in many more tournaments
to come." Raducanu has received a
wild card entry to Indian Wells and
will be given a bye straight into
Friday's second round, putting her
on course for a potential third round
meeting with her idol Simona Halep
in the third round.
THURsDAY, ocToBeR 7, 2021
10
Jaya receives 'Pranobik
Bondhu' Award
Galleri Kaya to host anniversary
exhibition on Friday
Galleri Kaya is set to host 17th anniversary
exhibition marking the birth centenary of the
Father of the Nation and Bangabandhu, Sheikh
Mujibur Rahman on Friday.
Creative works of 32 modern and contemporary
artists will be displayed at the "17th Anniversary
Exhibition" in Uttara, said a press release.
The artists are Abdus Shakoor Shah (1947),
Ahmed Shamsuddoha(1958), Aloptogin Tushar
(1968), Aminul Islam(1931-2011), Anisuzzaman
(1972), Ashraful Hasan(1977), Chandra
Bhattacharjee (1961), Chandra Shekhar Dey
(1951), Debdas Chakraborty(1933-2008), Farida
Zaman (1953), Hamiduzzaman Khan (1946),
Hashem Khan (1941), Jamal Ahmed (1955), Kanak
Chanpa Chakma (1963), Kazi Rakib(1955), KMA
Quayyum (1950), Masuda Kazi(1958), M.F.
Husain(1915-2011), Mohammad Eunus (1954),
Mohammad Iqbal (1967), Murtaja Baseer(1932-
2020), Nagarbasi Barman (1973), Rafiqun Nabi
(1943), Ranjit Das(1956), Ruhul Amin Tarek
(1981), Samarjit Roy Choudhury (1937),
Shahabuddin Ahmed (1950), Shahanoor Mamun
(1986), Sheikh Afzal Hossain (1960), Shishir
Bhattacharjee (1960), Shohag Parvez (1981) and
Wakilur Rahman (1961).
A selection of 76 works done between 1952 to
2021 in acrylic, oil, watercolor, ink, charcoal,
pastel, pencil and mixed media on paper and
canvas will be showcased in the exhibition.
Yami Gautam opens up about
her incurable skin condition
Actor Yami Gautam on Monday revealed she has been
dealing with keratosis pilaris, a type of incurable skin
condition, for "many years". The Bhoot Police actor
decided to open up about the condition to let go of her
"fears and insecurities", she wrote in a note on
Instagram.
Sharing pictures from her latest photo shoot,
Yami wrote that the condition causes dry and
rough patches with tiny bumps on the skin.
The 32-year-old actor said when the photos were
about to go for post-production work to "conceal"
her skin condition, she chose to do away with
the procedure. "I thought, 'Hey Yami, why
don't you embrace this fact and accept it
enough to be okay with it. Just let it be'
(Yes, I do talk out loud to myself). For
those who haven't heard about this, it's a
skin condition wherein you get tiny
bumps on the skin.
"I promise they aren't as bad as your
mind and your neighbor aunty makes it out
to be. I developed this skin condition during
my teenage years, and there is still no cure
for it," she wrote.
Gautam said she no longer felt the
need to hide her condition and
found liberation in sharing it
with her followers on social
media.
"I've dealt with it for
many years now and
today finally, I decided to
let go of all my fears and
insecurities and found the
courage to love and accept my
'flaws' wholeheartedly. I also found the courage to
share my truth with you. Phew!
"I didn't feel like airbrushing my folliculitis or smoothing that 'undereye'
or 'shaping up' that waist a tiny bit more! And yet, I feel beautiful,"
she concluded her post.
On the work front, the actor will next be seen in the social comedy
Dasvi, thriller A Thursday and investigative drama Lost.
Source:Times of India
Dhallywood popular actress Jaya Ahsan's love
for animals is unconditional and this time the
actress has got the return of that love in
recognition of the unconditional love and
support of animals, on the occasion of World
Animal Day. People for Animal Welfare (PAW)
Foundation arranged 'Pranobik Bondhu' Award
2021 held on Monday, October 4.
PAW is an organisation, which intends to host
the award programme every year henceforth,
honoured 10 people from all walks of life
working with animals. According to the
foundation, this is the first time such an event
was organised in Bangladesh. The winners list
was announced at the programme and Jaya
Ahsan was at the top of that list.
DNCC Mayor Md Atiqul Islam, rescue
worker Md Abu Bakar Siddik, Sudha Rani,
Gracy Puspita Sarkar, veterinarian Dr Fatiha
Emnoor Eima, journalist Probir Kumar
Sarker, veterinary teacher Prof Nitish
Many bizarre romantic trysts
have happened in comics, and
one that's hardly ever
mentioned is the time 'X-Men'
antagonist 'Magneto' decided to
hook up with founding
'Avenger' the 'Wasp'. While the
pairing has mostly been
forgotten, the story it comes
from isn't obscure. It takes
place in the third and fourth
issues of one of Marvel's first
major crossover events, 'Marvel
Superheroes Secret Wars'
(1985), by Jim Shooter, Mike
Zeck, and Bob Layton.
The classic saga features
many Marvel heroes and
villains being abducted and
forced to fight each other by
an ancient otherworldly being
called the Beyonder. It was
basically a commercial for
Chandra Debnath, public health expert Dr
Be-Nazir Ahmed, and forest official Mollah
Rezaul Karim were also in the list.
However, due to the Covid-19 situation and
limited time, PAW Foundation will hold the
prize-giving ceremony in November.
"There are so many people out there who
work effortlessly for animal welfare. However,
they always remain unnoticed, It is our little
effort in appreciation of those people who are
selflessly involved and contribute to the animal
welfare movement," PAW Foundation said.
Meanwhile, Jaya is overwhelmed by PAW's
initiative. In her words, 'I am being rewarded,
joy is not for that at all. Rather the joy is, for
this extraordinary initiative. It will inspire
animal-lovers. I believe that it will play a big
role in creating living people. I myself have
never worked for animals to get anything.
What I have done, from my own joy and
inner tension. Thank you to all concerned.
TBT RepoRT
'Magneto' hooked
up with the most
random 'Avenger'
Mattel's upcoming Marvel
toyline, but it had a major
impact on Marvel and its
fictional universe. One early
surprise in the plot is that
'Magneto', when abducted, is
placed among the heroes, not
the villains. When everyone is
surprised by this, he defends
himself and says that unlike
the other criminals, his
motives are righteous, making
him (in his mind) a good guy.
While others try to make use
of Magneto as an ally-ofconvenience,
the 'Wasp' (the
leader of the 'Avengers')
objects, seeming furious at
him for his crimes.
After some shenanigans and
battles between the heroes
and villains, the 'Avenger' and
'Magneto' have a proper fight,
ending with 'Magneto'
trapping the shrunken-down
'Wasp' in a big ball of metal.
He takes her to a fortress on
the Beyonder's Battle world as
his prisoner. However, once
he releases her, his demeanor
changes and he immediately
Keep up the good work.'
World Animal Day, celebrated on October 4,
is an international day of action for animal
rights and welfare and also known as the feast
day of Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of
animals and ecology.
Joy, Sithi's music
video 'Mayer
Agomoni' released
A new Durga Puja special music
video titled "Mayer Agomoni" has
been released on Sound BD YouTube
Channel on 4 October.
Written and tuned by national
award-winning lyrist Milton
Khondokar, popular singers Joy and
Abanti Sithi have added their magical
voices to the song.
The chorus of the song is voiced by
Shuprokash, Shanto Saha, Dipti
Sarkar and Anamul, while the song is
composed by the Close-up One famed
Apu Aman.
The visual of the big-budget song
starring Imtu Ratish and Alongkar is
filmed in Dhakeshwari National
Temple and Ramna Kali Temple, says
a press release.
"I don't think such a huge budgeted
song for Puja has ever been made
before. I hope this song will be played
in all the Puja Mandap to celebrate
Durga Puja this year," said Joy.
"Since the song is especially
dedicated for Durga Puja, all the crew
members worked wholeheartedly. Our
effort will pay off if the audiences like
the song," he added.
starts flirting with her. Janet
van Dyne resists his charms,
but not for very long, because
in the next scene in which
they appear, he successfully
woos her into making out with
him.
Source : Deccan Chronicle
H o R o s c o p e
ARIes
(March 21 - April 20) : Equipment
you've come to depend on in your daily
life might suddenly go down today.
This might throw you into a panic, but
don't fall into this trap. Phone a friend who knows
about these things or bring in a professional. At
times like this, it's best not to agonize over a
malfunction but to just get it taken care of as quickly
as possible.
TAURUs
(April 21 - May 21) : There's likely to
be some tumult in your emotional
life right now, Taurus. You may feel
a pressing need to have a heart-toheart
talk with your partner. Tension may
develop if you become increasingly insistent
about your need to do so. Anger or alienation
can be avoided if you express your feelings with
clarity and compassion.
GeMINI
(May 22 - June 21) : Excitement
mounts in your household when
some new equipment comes into
your possession. This could involve a
computer, phone, or some other device.
This could make a big different to everyone,
but make sure you don't treat it like a toy.
You'll want it to last a while!
.cANceR
(June 22 - July 23) : All dissatisfaction
will be abolished today as you
systematically confront and resolve all
the little problems that have been
bothering you. Your tolerance threshold is low to
nonexistent. Give a wide berth to friends who have
been irritating lately. Your wardrobe improves
dramatically as you discard all those clothes that
don't fit or no longer suit you.
Leo
(July 24 - Aug. 23): You're rarely
surprised or bothered by the
occasional setback. Today, however,
you should put a firm hand on any
project you undertake. This isn't the time for a
relaxed attitude, especially where money is
concerned. If you take a systematic approach, you
will have the double benefit of conserving both
energy and assets.
VIRGo
(Aug. 24 - Sept. 23): Expect to be torn
between two seemingly paradoxical urges
today, Virgo. Part of you wants to spend the
day wrapped in a cocoon, playing with your toys. But another
side of you is just as committed to spearheading a major
creative or social endeavor with friends who share your
revolutionary ideas. You feel exhausted from trying to build
the perfect world.
LIBRA
(Sept. 24 - Oct. 23): Unusual dreams,
visions, and audio phenomena may
come to you today. You might think
you're hearing voices. Before jumping
to conclusions, rule out any logical conditions.
You're not crazy. This probably indicates a growing
psychic awareness. You should write down what
you see, hear, or learn during this time. It could be
valuable.
scoRpIo
(Oct. 24 - Nov. 22): Act without hesitation
today, Scorpio, especially if you're following
unfamiliar directions or exploring new
territory. This may not seem like the best
advice, but this is a day for saying an unflinching yes to all
manner of proposals that come your way, even if some are
unclear. Scorpio excels at this type of test. Expect to be at the
head of the class by the end of the day!
sAGITTARIUs
(Nov. 23 - Dec. 21): You're obviously
struggling with something big, Sagittarius.
Recent comments about your irritability
are well founded. But don't worry. They'll
forgive you eventually. In the meantime,
do what you can to control your temper. It stems from
your current fears, which seem to be multiplying
exponentially. Blame the situation on the planets and
accept it as a lesson on the path to self-realization.
cApRIcoRN
(Dec. 22 - Jan. 20): You'll want to jump into
action today, Capricorn. Feel free to order
others around for a change and delegate.
An aggressive approach is exactly what's
called for, and you have the ability to deliver the goods.
Trying to do everything yourself may seem like a great
idea at first, but you're better off enlisting help so others
can feel involved and you can concentrate on doing a
better job on fewer tasks.
AQUARIUs
(Jan. 21 - Feb. 19) : Your passions have
been stirring like a caged animal for the past
several days, Aquarius. Now is the time to let
them out. Some of what you express may
elicit surprise or disapproval, but that's no reason to stay
silent. If you don't express yourself, illness may result. Your
goal should be to be true to your inner self. Ultimately,
that's the only way to be happy and healthy.
pIsces
(Feb. 20 - Mar. 20) : A social event today
could put you in touch with fascinating
new people in interesting fields.
Intriguing discussions could take place
throughout the evening. The only
problem is if you go there with a partner, you probably
won't see much of him or her. You might get involved
in separate conversations that last for hours. You'll
have a lot to share later!
THurSDAY, OcTOBer 7, 2021
11
In observance of the 1st anniversary of Shornadip Foundation Hospital, a
discussion meeting was held in Sandwip upazila recently. Photo: TBT
Shornadip Foundation Hospital celebrates
first founding anniversary
OPU IBRAHIM, SANDWIP CORRESPONDENT:
Shornadip Foundation Hospital continues to
set another example in serving the poor,
helpless and extremely poor people for the
sake of humanitarianism. The hospital is
open 24 hours a day for the poor and
helpless people as well as all sections of the
society. The hospital is committed to
providing services to the people, and in the
future, this organization will be able to set an
example of advanced medical services in
Shornadip with the cooperation of all the
people of the society.
Also a nursing home will be introduced in
this hospital soon. The hospital was not
established in the hope of profit, service is
the main goal. The staffs of the hospital are
working to make Shornadip Foundation
Hospital Medical Services a model for the
whole of Bangladesh.
A discussion meeting in observance of the
1st anniversary celebrations of the Shornadip
Foundation Hospital, built with the funding
of Youth Group, one of the country's leading
industrial families, on Monday.
Director of Shornadip Foundation
Hospital Khairul Mostafa presided over the
function. Director of Shornadip Foundation
Hospital and Vice Chairman of Youth Group
Akbar Haider Munna, Director and
Managing Director of Shornadip Foundation
Hospital Faridul Alam Emon, Chief Adviser
of the hospital Dr. Kamruzzaman Antu, Coordinator
Principal Mizanur Rahman,
Hospital Resident Physician Dr. Zakaria
Parvez, Shornadip Upazila Rural Physicians
Association President. Abdul Mannan and
others were also present at the occasion.
2 die of Covid-19,
casualties reach
1,236 in Rangpur
RANGPUR: Two more
Covid-19 patients died
during the last 24 hours
ending at 8 am yesterday
raising the number of
coronavirus related
casualties to 1,236 in
Rangpur division, reports
BSS
Health officials said the
two new casualties were
reported from Lalmonirhat
and Thakurgaon districts in
the division where no fatality
was reported during the past
three consecutive days.
"The Covid-19 situation
continues improving amid a
declining positivity rate and
a rising recovery rate in
recent weeks in the
division," Divisional Deputy
Director (Health) Dr Abu
Md Zakirul Islam told BSS
yesterday.
"The district-wise break
up of the 1,236 fatalities
stands at 293 in Rangpur,
80 in Panchagarh, 88 in
Nilphamari, 68 each in
Lalmonirhat and Kurigram,
251 in Thakurgaon, 325 in
Dinajpur and 63 in
Gaibandha districts of the
division.
The average casualty rate
currently stands at 2.25
percent in the division.
Meanwhile, the number
of Covid-19 cases reached
55,033 as 14 new patients
were diagnosed after testing
488 samples of Rangpur
division at the daily
positivity rate of 2.87
percent on Tuesday.
Earlier, the daily Covid-19
positivity rates were 4.01
percent on Monday, 1.42
percent on Sunday, three
percent on Saturday, 4.74
percent on Friday, 2.87
percent on Thursday and
2.26 percent on Wednesday
last in the division.
"The district-wise break
up of total 55,033 patients
include 12,409 of Rangpur,
3,770 of Panchagarh, 4,424
of Nilphamari, 2,733 of
Lalmonirhat, 4,631 of
Kurigram, 7,537 of
Thakurgaon, 14,677 of
Dinajpur and 4,852 of
Gaibandha in the division,"
he added.
SAN FRANCISCO : Google
on Wednesday said it is
tweaking widely used tools
for getting around, shopping
and more to let users factor
climate change into daily
routines.
Google is among the Big
Tech firms that have made
pledges and investments to
reduce the environmental
impact of their operations
with moves such as making
power-hungry data centers
carbon neutral.
New features unveiled on
Wednesday provide users
with ways to help in the
Google lets users
factor climate
change into life
effort, whether it be driving
routes that result in less
exhaust being spewed from
cars or shopping online for
energy efficient appliances.
"In all these efforts, our
goal is to make the
sustainable choice an easier
choice," Google chief
executive Sundar Pichai said
while briefing journalists on
the latest features.
Artificial intelligence was
put to work in Google's free
Maps service in the United
States to show people the
most fuel efficient routes to
destinations even if they are
not the quickest.
"It defaults to the route
that uses less fuel when the
estimated time of arrival is
similar," Pichai said.
"We believe the feature
will have the same impact in
the next year as taking over
200,000 cars off the road."
The feature is to be rolled
out in Europe in 2022.
Seven killed
in new rebel
attack in
C.Africa
BANGUI, Central African
Republic : Seven civilians
were killed by rebels in
eastern Central African
Republic (CAR), where
government forces are
battling armed groups, the
region's senior official said
on Wednesday.
The attack occurred on
Tuesday on a road near
Bambari, the CAR's fourthbiggest
city, inflicting a
"provisional toll of seven
dead and six wounded," said
Victor Bissekoin, prefect of
Ouaka, while aid workers
said at least 15 had died.
Ship's anchor may
have caused massive
California oil spill
LONG BEACH : A ship's
anchor may have hooked,
dragged and torn an
underwater pipeline that
spilled tens of thousands of
gallons of crude oil into the
ocean off Southern
California, according to
federal investigators who
also found the pipeline
owner didn't quickly shut
down operations after a
safety system alerted to a
possible spill, reports UNB.
Questions remained about
the timeline of the weekend
spill, which fouled beaches
and a protected marshland,
potentially closing them for
weeks along with
commercial and recreational
fishing in a major hit to the
local economy.
Some reports of a possible
spill, a petroleum smell and
an oily sheen on the waters
off Huntington Beach came
in Friday night but weren't
corroborated and the
pipeline's operator, Amplify
Energy Corp., didn't report a
spill until the next morning,
authorities said.
An alarm went off in a
company control room at
2:30 a.m. Saturday that
pressure had dropped in the
pipeline, indicating a
possible leak but Amplify
waited until 6:01 a.m. to
shut down the pipeline,
according to preliminary
findings of an investigation
gywReel© AMÖvwaKvi
GD-1474/21(4x4)
GD-1475/21(8x4)
939
into the spill.
The Houston-based
company took another three
hours to notify the U.S.
Coast Guard's National
Response Center for oil
spills, investigators said,
further slowing the response
to an accident for which
Amplify workers spent years
preparing.
GD-1473/21(10x3)
thursday, dhaka: october 7, 2021; ashwin 22, 1428 BS; Safar 29, 1443 hijri
prime minister Sheikh hasina made a courtesy call on president m abdul hamid at Bangabhaban
yesterday evening. photo : pid
Bangladeshi globetrotter Najmun Nahar
makes history with 150th country-visit
DHAKA : Bangladesh's most famous
woman globetrotter Najmun Nahar
accomplished yet another travelling
feat conquering the 150thcountry of
the world and carrying the national
flag there on Wednesday, reports
UNB.
Sao Tome and Principe has been the
150th country visited by the seasoned
adventurer, who moved there from
Covid in Bangladesh
23 more lose lives,
703 get infected
DHAKA : Twenty-three more people
died of Covid-19 and 703 new cases were
detected in 24 hours till Wednesday
morning, reports UNB.
On Tuesday, the country logged 23
Covid-linked deaths and 694 fresh cases.
The fresh cases were detected after
testing 24,376 samples.
With this, the daily-case positivity rate
slightly rose to 2.88 percent from
Tuesday's 2.72 percent, said the
Directorate General of Health Services
(DGHS).
The daily-case positivity rate in the
country remained below 5 per cent for
the 13th consecutive day.
According to the World Health
Organization (WHO), if the daily-case
positivity rate remains at 5 per cent or
below for 14 days it is considered to be
safe for mass unlocking.
In Bangladesh, the daily-case positivity
rate reached its peak 32.55 per cent on
July 24 this year.
The fresh numbers took the total fatalities
to 27,635 while the caseload mounted
to 15,60,155, said the DGHS.
However, the mortality rate remained
static at 1.77 per cent.
Luanda, Angola.
Sharing her joy over this incredible
achievement on her verified Facebook
profile, she wrote: "Dear Bangladesh, I
am on the way to visit my 150th country,
and within a few hours I am going
to touch this milestone through travelling
the world with my red-and-green
flag."
"What makes the matter even more
special is that the achievement has
been made at a time when we are celebrating
50 years of our independence.
I have flown the flag of our 170 million
people in 150 countries over the last 21
years, and it brings tears of joy in my
eyes," she added.
Thanking her countrymen and
admirers for their constant and overwhelming
support, she wrote, "This
achievement belongs to all
Bangladeshi people all over the world,
and I can certainly say that today, my
dream has come true. After 21 years of
hard work and pursuit, today I am
touching this milestone, proudly bearing
the flag of Bangladesh in 150 countries."
Currently visiting Africa, Najmun
Nahar started her latest journey on
August 8, and so far visited Burundi,
the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
South Sudan, Namibia, and Angola.
A proud recipient of the Miss Earth
Queen Award and Youth Conference
Globe Award at the Fobana Summit,
Nassau Coliseum in 2019, Najmun has
established herself as the most-travelled
Bangladeshi female globetrotter
since 2000.
She has also received the Atish
Dipankar Gold Medal Award, the Red
Crescent Motivational Award and the
Zonta International Club Award, in
the category of outstanding contribution
to women empowerment.
PM calls on
President at
Bangabhaban
DHAKA : Prime Minister Sheikh
Hasina made a courtesy call on
President M Abdul Hamid at
Bangabhaban yesterday evening.
"The prime minister (PM) discussed
different state-level issues,
specially her recent visit to the USA
for taking part in the 76th Session of
the United Nations General
Assembly (UNGA)," President's
deputy press secretary Munshi Jalal
Uddin told BSS.
The head of the government
apprised the President of the outcome
of her recent US visit and also
handed over two separate reports to
him in this connection. he said.
The Bangabhaban spokesman said
during the meeting, the President
and prime minister enquired each
other about their health.
The President was apprised by the
PM about the overall activities of the
government, especially the steps
taken to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic
and ongoing vaccination
programme.
The President congratulated the
Prime Minister on receiving the
'SDG Progress Award' in recognition
of her leadership in achieving the
Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs), declared by the United
Nations .The President appreciated
the overall role of the Prime Minister
in the UN session.
The President also wished the
Prime Minister on the occasion of
her 75th birthday on September 28.
Earlier, the PM reached the
Bangabhaban at 6:30 pm and left
the President's palace at about 8 pm.
three more accused in the murder case of rohingya leader mohibullah was granted 3-day remand
by a Cox's Bazar court on Wednesday.
photo: tBt
HC grants bail to five
day-labourers arrested over
a controversial graft case
DHAKA : The High Court on
Wednesday granted one-year bail to
five day-labourers of Phulbari upazila in
Kurigram district over three months
after their arrest on charge of embezzling
government money even though
they denied any knowledge of the
funds.
The five day-labourers are-Phulmoni
Rani, an widow, Ranjit Kumar,
Prabhash Chandra, Kamal Chandra
Roy and Nikhil Chandra Barman,
reports UNB.
The HC bench of Justice Mustafa
Zaman Islam and Justice Mohammad
Ali passed the order during a virtual
hearing.
Advocate Mohammad Shishir Monir
stood for the petitioners for free, while
Deputy Attorney General Amit
Dasgupta represented the state.
Advocate Shishir drew the attention
of the court after attaching a newspaper
report in this regard.
According to the report, one Swapan
approached the five labourers of
Naudabas village in Phulbari upazila
offering to help them in getting the government's
Covid-19 incentive money.
He asked them to open bank accounts
with Sonali Bank to get the assistance.
Duped by Swapan, the five poor
workers opened bank accounts at
Nageshwari branch Sonali Bank.
Later, Swapan took them to Dhaka on
the pretext of taking some signatures of
them on some documents .Having
signed the documents without knowing
the contents.
After some days, Tk 48.45 lakh was
deposited to the account of Ranjit, Tk
65.72 lakh to Prabhas, Tk 40.71 lakh to
the account of Subol, Tk 42.49 lakh to
the account of Kamal and Tk 48.70 lakh
to the account of Phulmoni.
But the day-labourers had no information
about the deposited money.
On July 1, a case was filed against
nine people including the five daylabourers
for embezzling Tk 2.46 crore
through submission of a fake advice of
Sreepur upazila Accountant's office in
Gazipur district.
Manager of Sreepur headquarter
branch of Sonali Bank lodged the complaint
at Sreepur Police Station for
embezzling the money.
The other accused of the case are-
Bazlur Rashid, accountant officer of
Sreepur upazila office, office auditor,
Arifur Rahman, Tanvir and Shahena
Akter.
Bangladeshi's conviction
FM says evidence
to be shared with
Saudi govt
DHAKA : The government will share the
evidence, if any, with the Saudi government
in favour of Bangladeshi worker
Abul Bashar who was sentenced to 20
years by a Saudi court, said Foreign
Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on
Wednesday, reports UNB.
"If there's any new evidence those
could be put up and to be shared with
the Saudi government after verification,"
he told reports at his office.
The Foreign Minister made the
remarks as his comment was sought
regarding media reports that indicate
Bashar was not carrying Yaba but a person
at the airport in Dhaka put it into his
bag saying it was pickle.
The Saudi court sentenced Bashar to
20 years' imprisonment on charge of
carrying Yaba as he was detained with
the drug when he landed at the Saudi
airport.
"Saudi judges are very independent
and they never get influenced. They
work on the basis of evidence. If there's
any new evidence, those could be put
up," Dr Momen said.
Asked whether the Consulate General
of Bangladesh in Jeddah will look into it,
he responded positively.
Bashar reportedly came to Bangladesh
in December last year and left
Bangladesh for Saudi Arabia in March
this year.
metrorail work is progressing at fast pace. the picture is taken from tSC area on Wednesday. photo: pBa
Mohibullah murder
3 more suspects
remanded over
Shafiul alam, Cox'S Bazar
CorreSpondent
A Cox's Bazar court has granted 3-day
remand to three more accused in the
murder case of Rohingya leader
Mohibullah.
Cox's Bazar court police inspector
Chandan Kumar Chakraborty informed
that, Teknaf Senior Judicial Magistrate
Court Judge Tamanna Farah passed the
order on Wednesday morning after
police produced them before the court
seeking a 7-day remand for questioning.
The remanded accused are - Abdus
Salam, Ziaur Rahman and Elias. Earlier,
accused Salim and Shawkat Ullah were
granted three-day remand on Sunday.
The three accused were brought to the
court from Cox's Bazar District Jail in a
prison van at 10:30 am on Wednesday.
The accused were later produced before
the judge's court at 11am.
Inspector Chandan said the investigating
officer in the case arrested Abdus
Salam and Ziaur Rahman, in the murder
case of Rohingya leader Mohibullah last
Sunday, was produced in court seeking a
seven-day remand for questioning. The
court later fixed Wednesday for the
remand hearing of the accused. Besides,
another accused arrested last Monday.
Elias applied to the court for a 7-day
remand for questioning. The court fixed
Wednesday for the hearing.
It is to be noted that Mohibullah, 46,
who led the Arakan Rohingya Society for
Peace and Human Rights, was shot dead
at around 8:30pm at a Kutupalong
camp office in Cox's Bazar on 30
September.
Demographic data very important
in vaccination efforts: CPD
DHAKA : An online poll shows that
online pre-registration facilities and
demographic data have been very
important and effective in vaccination
efforts.
Some 64 per cent of the poll respondents
said marginalised communities
received equal opportunity as regards
vaccination.
Senior Research Fellow at Centre for
Policy Dialogue (CPD) Towfiqul Islam
Khan presented the findings from the
online poll which was conducted prior to
a session titled 'Data-driven Vaccination
Strategy for a Covid-19 Free World.'
The event was held at the United
Nations World Data Forum (UNWDF)
2021 in Bern, Switzerland in association
with Aspire to Innovate (a2i)
Programme, ICT Division and Cabinet
Division, Government of Bangladesh;
Center for the Implementation of Public
Policies Promoting Equity and Growth
(CIPPEC), Argentina; Embassy of
Switzerland in Bangladesh; Southern
Voice; Patrick J. McGovern Foundation,
USA and The City, USA on Tuesday.
Data has played a critically important
role, both nationally and globally, in
achieving the shortest deployment period,
said a CPD media release.
Similar to other instances of data
usage during Covid-19, experiences of
using data in vaccine rollouts and related
dissemination activities have varied
considerably across nations of differing
income groups.
From monitoring and controlling individual
movement to disseminating
information regarding vaccination availability
and ultimately availing the vaccine,
integrating data in Covid-19
reponses has neither been easy nor
homogenous in approach.
In this regard, it must be mentioned
that successful national Covid-19 vaccination
efforts may define the recovery
path for developing countries in the foreseeable
future, said the CPD.
A comparative perspective based on
the experiences of a low-income country
(Rwanda), a lower-middle-income
country (Bangladesh), a high-middle
income country (Argentina) and a highincome
country (USA) were discussed.
These four countries have diverse
experiences in undertaking vaccination
programmes (public and private) in
response to the pandemic where innovative
data uptake for decision making
plays a critical role.
Dr Agnes Binagwaho, Vice Chancellor,
University of Global Health Equity,
Rwanda stated that Rwanda proceeded
using the 'principle of implementation science'
which was based on knowing the
context, barriers, data and evidence-based
interventions that have been proved by
science and are adaptable for use.
The vaccine strategy in Bangladesh
began with target group identification
(gender, age, location etc) using the NID
database and a database from the
Ministry of Finance, said Mr Anir
Chowdhury, Policy Advisor, a2i,
Bangladesh.