08-11-2021

Monday

DhAKA: November 8, 2021; Kartik 23, 1428 BS; Rabius-Sani 2,1443 hijri

www.thebangladeshtoday.com; www.bangladeshtoday.net

Regd.No.DA~2065, Vol.19; N o. 188; 12 Pages~Tk.8.00

international

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art & culture

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Transport strike called off

Fares increased by 27 percent

TBT RepoRT

The government officials sat down

with leaders of the Transport Owners

Association at the Bangladesh Road

Transport Authority (BRTA) head

office in Banani on Sunday. There

was an agreement between the two

sides on raising the fare.

The fare determination committee

of the Bangladesh Road Transport

Authority (BRTA) has proposed to

increase the fare of long-haul buses

and minibuses by an average of 27

per cent. At the same time, it has

been proposed to increase the bus

fare in the metropolitan area by

26.5%.

The minimum fare of bus from Tk 7

to Tk 10 and the minimum fare of

minibus from Tk 5 to Tk 8. According

to the proposal, long-distance busminibus

fare will be 1.80 taka per

kilometer. At present the rent is 1.42

taka. In the metropolitan area, 2.15

taka per kilometer will be charged.

The minibus will be charged 2.5taka.

SC suspends execution

of death row convict

until release of full

judgment

DHAKA : The Supreme Court on

Sunday postponed the execution of a

death row convict Shukur Ali in a child

rape and murder case in Kushtia until

the release of the full text of the judgment,

reports UNB.

The Appellate Division asked Attorney

General AM Amin Uddin to inform

IG(Prison) and the jail authorities of the

order. The five-member bench led by

Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain

passed the order after convict's lawyer

Helal Uddin Molla informed it of the

preparation to execute Shukur following

an 'advance order' of the court.

Helal Uddin prayed for court's intervention

as Shukur couldn't appeal for

review of the verdict as the full text of the

order was not released as yet.

Zohr

04:52 AM

11:45 PM

03:40 PM

05:20 PM

06:40 PM

6:08 5:16

At present 1.70 taka is taken on big

bus and 1.60 takais taken on minibus.

This fare will not be applicable for

CNG powered buses. This fare is only

for diesel powered buses.After the

meeting, BRTA chairman Nur

Mohammad Majumder said a notification

on fare hike would be issued

on Sunday. The new fare will be effective

from November 8.

On the other hand, Secretary

General of Bangladesh Road

Transport Owners Association

KhandakerEnayetullah has called for

the withdrawal of bus strike across

the country. "We have called off the

strike," he said.

The government on Wednesday

increased the price of diesel and

kerosene by Tk 15 per liter to Tk 80 in

the wake of rising fuel prices in the

world market.

After that, the vehicleowners without

prior notice stopped the movement

of buses, trucks and other

goods vehicles last Friday to demand

an increase in fares.

TBT RepoRT

Now, after the decision to increase

fares, the bus owners have

announced the resume of passenger

transport. However, the owners of

the truck-covered vans have

announced to continue the strike

demanding withdrawal of the

increased price of fuel oil.

The government does not fix the

rent of vehicles for transporting

goods. As a result, the leaders of the

truck-covered van owners' association

were not present at the meeting

at the BRTA office in Banani.

In the afternoon of the meeting, the

owners' organizations in the sector

announced to continue their strike

demanding withdrawal of the

increased price of fuel oil.

There are two organizations of

owners involved in the transportation

of goods in the capital Tejgaon.

One of them is Bangladesh Truck-

Covered Van Goods Transport

Owners Association. At a press conference

this afternoon, they said they

would continue the strike.

12 cr vaccine doses to be administered

by January : Health Minister

Bangladesh will administer at least

12 crore doses of Covid-19 vaccines

by next January, said Health and

Family Welfare Minister Zahid

Maleque on

Sunday.

The minister

said "There is

no shortage of

vaccines in the

country. There

are over one

crore vaccines

in stock. All the

people of the

country can be

vaccinated as

per the instructions

of the

prime minister."

The minister

made this remark while inaugurating

DBL Pharmaceuticals at

Gazipur on Sunday.

Zahid said the government has

bought 21 crore doses of vaccine.

From there, at least three crore

doses of vaccine will arrive this

month. Same number of doses are

expected to next month.

At least seven crore doses of the

vaccine have already been administered.

If this continues, it will be

possible to administer at least 12

crore doses of vaccine by January

next year. "If that is done, it will be

possible to reduce the death rate

from Covid-19 to zero," said the

minister.

The minister also claimed there

has been no shortage of medicines

throughout the Covid-19 pandemic

across the country. These medicines

were also sufficiently available

at the village level.

Bangladesh also exports medicines

after meeting 98 per cent of

the domestic demand, the minister

added.

"Pharmaceuticals are going to be

one of the biggest sources of foreign

exchange in the country, after the

RMG sector. However, we are

going to form a new drug policy to

ensure that there are no adulterated

drugs in the country," said the

minister.

He further said no one will be able

to increase the drug price in the

country's market unnecessarily

because of the new policy.

The minister also visited different

parts of the drug company on the

inaugural event accompanied by

the member of the Parliament Dr

Habib E Millat, Directorate General

of Drug Administration (DGDA)

Maj Gen Mahbubur Rahman and

DBL Pharmaceuticals Chairman

Abdul Wahed.

Though public transports were not seen on capital's road, there were traffic jams since

morning.

photo : TBT

Stimulus packages

aim to cover

each class of

people : Tajul

DHAKA : LGRD Minister Md Tajul

Islam on Sunday said that the stimulus

packages, rolled out for offsetting the

shock of Covid-19, aim to cover each class

of people inculcating the advantages

both in urban and rural lives.

"Bangladesh's long-established history is

rooted in the goal to achieve betterment of

the poor. In line with that goal, the stimulus

packages aim to cover each class of people

inculcating the advantages both in

urban and rural lives," he said.

Tajul was addressing a policy workshop

titled "COVID-induced Stimulus Packages

for SMEs & Women-led Enterprises:

Exploring Research-Policy Interlinkages"

organised by CPD in partnership with The

Asia Foundation (the Foundation) -

Bangladesh under the Women's Economic

Empowerment through Strengthening

Market Systems (WEESMS) programme

funded by the Embassy of Sweden and

implemented through a partnership with

iDE and the Foundation.

The policy workshop underscored the

importance to examine the linkage between

public policies and research during the pandemic

and to define how the challenges of

the marginalised businesses have been

addressed, said a press release here. Tajul

also stated that the recommendations

placed on the table today would definitely

be taken into necessary cognizance.

Alexandra BergVon Linde, Ambassador

of Embassy of Sweden, was present as

the guest of honour.

She said the overarching objectives of

the project include the increase of female

participation in the labour force and

overcoming policy-related challenges in

light of COVID's impacts on the marginalised

group.

The campaign

of the second

phase of the

union

parishad

elections is

gaining

momentum

across the

country. The

picture is taken

from Srinagar

thana of

munshiganj

yesterday.

photo :

Star mail

Intense traffic jam in

busless capital

Shafiqul iSlam (Jami)

On Sunday, the third day of the transport

strike, the suffering of the city dwellers

did not abate. The lack of buses and public

transport along with the proliferation

of private cars, microbuses, motorcycles,

rickshaws and CNG-powered auto rickshaws

has also led to severe traffic jams.

At the same time, the drivers are asking

for arbitrary rent.

Heavy traffic jam was observed in

Azimpur, Mirpur, Kalyanpur,

Agargaon, Paltan, Tejgaon, Bijoy

Sarani, Mohakhali, College gate,

Sciencelab, New Market, Shahbag,

Press Club and Kakrail areas of the capital

from 9:30 am to 4 noon on Sunday.

Passengers were seen waiting for the

bus at several corners of the capital. On

this occasion, the drivers transporting

passengers in CNG, rickshaws and

motorcycles are charging more than

the prescribed and normal fare.

Masudur Rahman, a private bank official

in Agargaon area, said he used to

travel by office bus. But the bus could not

reach Shewrapara due to heavy traffic. I

was forced to walk to the Agargaon junction.

But there is severe traffic jam. There

is no condition to go to the destination by

pressing any CNG or motorcycle. The

whole road seems to have collapsed.

Businessman Raju Ahmed in Paltan area

COX'S BAZAR : Some 288 tourists, who

were stranded in the beach town of Cox's

Bazar due to the ongoing transport strike,

have been moved out to Chattogram with

the help of the district police.

Acting Superintendent of Police Rafiqul

Islam said they sent 288 tourists to

Chattogram by police buses on Saturday

and Sunday without charging any fare.

Most of the tourists came to Cox's Bazar

on the weekend and those who were

scheduled to leave Cox's Bazar on Friday

and Saturday faced sufferings as the longhaul

buses did not operate due to the

strike, Rafiqul Islam said.

Tourists have been requested to contact

the district police lines for any kind of help,

he added.

Deputy Commissioner of Cox's Bazar

Mamunur Rashid, who is also the chairman

of Beach Management Committee,

said, "Transport strike is a national issue.

We expect a quick solution from the government

in this regard. We'll take steps if

the tourists seek any assistance."

said, I go out of the house in a private car

every day. I am still out today, but I have

not been able to cross Kalabagan from

Dhanmondi's house yet, but an hour has

already passed. There are long rows of

cars in front of us. Rickshaws, Laguna are

all running on the main road. I don't

know if I will be able to reach my destination

today.

Relatives were admitted to Dhaka

Medical College Hospital. Abul Kalam

came out thinking that he would return

home to Uttara today after three days. He

said the buses were not running due to

the strike. The CNG driver wants 700 TK

to go to Uttara against 350 TK.

Motorcyclists are also not going to the

app. They want 500 TK by contact. I was

forced to get into a pickup truck for 300

TK. He said that stagnation and anarchy

are prevailing in the whole city. Nothing

seems to be solved in this city. Passengers

have been suffering for strike. However,

there is no guarantee that you will reach

your destination on time. Except for public

transport, all the vehicles are running

on the crowded road.

DMP Additional Commissioner

(Traffic) Munibur Rahman said, public

transport is not running on the road.

BRTC has brought down extra buses to

reduce the suffering of the people. The car

has gone down a lot in rent. Rickshaws are

creating the main problem.

Tourists stranded in Cox's Bazar

moved out to Chattogram:Police

General Secretary of the Federation of

Tourism Owners' Association of Bangladesh

Abul Kashem Shikder said the businesses

related to tourism are also being affected

due to the sudden transport strike. There are

now 15,000-20,000 touristsin Cox's as the

flow of tourists has declined due to the

Covid-19 pandemic, he said.

Amid this grim situation, hoteliers have

offered a 30 percent discount on hotel

rents, he said. Shikder said the situation

had started changing and then came the

transport strike dealing a severe blow to

the business.

Superintendent of Cox's Bazar Tourist

Police Mohammad Zillur Rahman said

there are no stuck tourists now in Cox's

Bazar. Those who want to go back

arrangements are being made for their

return by the district police, he added.

Transporters went on an indefinite

strike from Friday morning in protest

against the recent fuel price hike, causing

sufferings to commuters and inter-district

passengers.

Workers' Party

activist stabbed

dead in Rajshahi

RAJSHAHI : An activist of

Workers Party was stabbed

to death by some miscreants

in front of Raninagar City

hospital in Rajshahi city on

Saturday night, reports

UNB.

The deceased was

identified as Piarul Islam

Pink, 35, son of Korban Ali.

Nibaran Chandra Barman,

officer-in-charge of Boalia

Police Station, said Piarul

had an altercation with some

youths in the area over a

trifling matter on Saturday

night and then he returned

home. Around 9 pm, some

young men swooped on

Piarul's house and stabbed

him indiscriminately, leaving

him dead on the spot.

On information, police

recovered the body and sent

it to Rajshahi Medical

College and Hospital.

Dengue cases

keep rising: 127

more hospitalised

DHAKA : Bangladesh

reported 127 new patients

being hospitalized with

dengue fever in 24 hours till

Sunday morning, reports

UNB.

With no fresh death during

the period, the number of

fatalities from the mosquitoborne

disease this year

remained unchanged at 95,

according to the Directorate

General of Health Services

(DGHS).

Of them 87 people died in

Dhaka division alone, two

each in Chattogram,

Mymensingh and Khulna

divisions and one each in

Rajshahi and Barishal

divisions.

Among the new patients, 95

were undergoing treatment in

hospitals in Dhaka while the

remaining 32 cases were

reported from outside the

division.

Some 692 patients

diagnosed with dengue are

receiving treatment in the

country as of Sunday.

Attorney General for Bangladesh AM Amin Uddin speaking at the reception programaccorded to 60

graduated students of Law department of Daffodil International Universitywho have passed the Bar

Council examination this year. Dr. Md. Sabur Khan, Chairman, Board of Trustees, Daffodil

International University, Pro Vice-Chancellor Prof. Dr. SM Mahbubul Haq Majumdar and Additional

Attorney General Sheikh Mohammad Morshed are also seen in the picture. Photo : Courtesy

DIU accords reception to

newly enrolled Advocates

Law department of Daffodil

International University has

accorded grand reception to

60 Advocates of the

department who have passed

the Bar Council examination

this year. The reception

program was held on

Saturday at the Daffodil

International University

Campus at Ashulia. Attorney

General for Bangladesh AM

Amin Uddin was present as

the chief guestin the program.

Additional Attorney General

Sheikh Mohammad Morshed,

Deputy Attorney General

Biswajit Debnath and

Customs Commissioner Belal

Chowdhury was present as a

special guests. The program

was also attended by Dr. Md.

Sabur Khan, Chairman, Board

of Trustees, Daffodil

International University, Pro

Vice-Chancellor Prof. Dr. SM

Mahbubul Haq Majumdar,

Dean of the Faculty of

Humanities and Social

Sciences Prof. AMM Hamidur

Rahman, Dean of Academic

Affairs Prof. Dr. Mustafa

Kamal, Registrar Professor

Engineer AKM Fazlul Haque,

Associate Dean Professor Dr.

Farhana Helal Mehtab, head

of the Law Department Dr.

Kudrat e Khuda Babu and

other teachers and officials of

the department.

Speaking as the chief guest,

Attorney General AM Amin

Uddin said, "There is no doubt

that all of you who have

passed will be good lawyers.

Because this time the

examination has been more

complex than any other time.

So there is no doubt that all of

you are talent.

He urged the newly

enrolled advocates to enrich

their knowledge through

continuing habits of study.He

stressed that Lawyers have to

study and be updated

throughout their lives. The

more you read, the better you

will be as a lawyer. Praising

Daffodil University, the

Attorney General said, "I had

no idea that there is such a

beautiful campus in

Bangladesh. I was fascinated

by the beauty of the campus

which may be compared with

the campuses of developed

universities abroad.

Additional Attorney

General

Sheikh

MohammadMorshed said, as

an advocate now it is the time

to work in the practical field.

Here you have to be skilled in

learning through practice.

This requires a lot of patience,

hard work and perseverance.

He congratulated the

advocates and wished thatone

day you would be the judge,

chief justice and attorney

general of the country. All you

just need to set the goals and

move on.

Dr. Md. Sabur Khan said

that the epidemic Corona has

shown that there is no way

but to rely on technology. The

virtual court was on all the

time during Corona

pandemic. It has been

possible with the help of

technology. As a students of a

digital university, the students

of the university became

habituated and proficient in

technology from the very

beginning, he added. He

wished that those who have

just become advocates will be

better lawyers by using

technology.

Rangpur records

7.41pc Covid-19

positivity rate Sunday

RANGPUR : Rangpur

division recorded 7.41 percent

Covid-19 positivity rate as 10

fresh cases were reported after

testing 135 samples in the

division on Sunday.

Health officials said the

overall Covid-19 pandemic

situation continues improving

amid declining positivity rate

almost during the last more

than two and a half months in

the division.

Earlier, the daily Covid-19

positivity rates were 5.49

percent on Saturday, 3.24

percent on Friday, 2.37

percent on Thursday, 2.62

percent on Wednesday, 3.81

percent on Tuesday and 4.33

percent on Monday last.

Among the 10 new patients,

one was reported positive after

testing 64 samples at Rangpur

Medical College (RpMC)

Covid-19 laboratory at the

positivity rate of 1.56 percent.

"The only new patient is

hailing from Rangpur

district," Principal of RpMC

Professor Dr AKM Nurunnobi

Lyzu told BSS.

On the other hand, nine

more patients were reported

after diagnosing 71 samples at

M Abdur Rahim Medical

College (MARMC) Covid-19

laboratory in Dinajpur at the

positivity rate of 12.68 percent.

"The nine new patients

include three from Dinajpur

and six from Thakurgaon

districts," said Principal of

MARMC Prof Dr Syed Nazir

Hossain.

MoNDAY, NoVeMBer 8, 2021

2

JnUCC gets new

elected body

Nakibul Ahsan Nishad; JnU Correspondent

Jagannath University (JnU) Cultural Center

2021-2022 Executive Council Committee has

been formed yesterday. Asfiqur Rahman

Ashiq (11th batch), a student of Fine Arts

Department of the university has been

elected as the president and Sahidul Islam

Bhuiyan (12th batch), a student of philosophy

department has been elected as the general

secretary.

On Sunday, Professor and

Chairman of the

Department of Fine Arts

Bazlur Rashid Khan

announced a 37-member

committee of the executive

parliament. The committee

will be in charge for the next one year.

The other members of the newly elected

committee are Vice-President Swarnali

Hawlader, Joint General Secretary Jautirmoy

Roy, Arafat Aman, Tuhinuzzaman Tuhin and

Sharmin Sultana Rani, Organizing Secretary

ShimuTalukder, Nabiul Hasan, Rafia Sultana

Rafi, Secretary Anisur Rahman Rubena and

Farzi. Assistant Finance Secretary Parma

Das, Publicity Secretary Raky Ahmed,

Assistant Publicity Secretary Apurba

Chowdhury, Office Secretary Mahdi Hasan,

Assistant Office Secretary Shanta Sadia

Rahman, Music Secretary Siamul Islam

2360

Tuhin, Assistant Music Secretary Meherin

Afroz Soochi, Dance Secretary Jayita Kar, Co-

Dance Editor Raufun Sinthi, Recitation

Editor Tamjida Islam Munni, Co-Recitation

Editor Yuthi Khanam, Image Editor

Mahmudul Hasan Tanay, Co-Image Editor

Arvind Haldar. Also present as Drama Editor

are Md. Abu Hanif, Co-Drama Editor Subrata

Pal, Publication Editor Risat Rahman

Swachh, Co-Publishing Editor Prabal Dey,

Literary

Editor

RezwanSimant, Co-Literary

Editor Umme Tahmina Jerif

Mishu and Executive

Member Al ArabiLabni,

Tazia. Islam, Tafsana Afrin

Mridula, Samira Islam and

Sumaiya Tahrin are the creators.

Advisers of JnUCC, Fayaz Hossain,

President of the recently departed Committee

and Md. Saeed Mahadi Secunder, General

Secretary were present during the

presentation of the committee.

It is to be noted that since the

establishment of Jagannath University, the

cultural center has been actively

participating in various cultural activities.

Apart from being active in the development

of indigenous culture, the organization also

organizes various workshops and events

outside the university.

Khaleda Zia returned

home from hospital

Shafiqul Islam (Jami)

BNP chairperson and former prime minister

Begum Khaleda Zia has returned to her

Gulshan's home after undergoing treatment at

the capital's Evercare Hospital. She returned

home from the hospital for 26 days as no

complications were found in the biopsy of her

body. The BNP chairperson came to Gulshan's

house Firoza in a private car from Bashundhara's

Evercare Hospital in Dhaka around 5:30 pm on

Sunday. At that time, her youngest son Sharmila

Rahman Sithi, wife of the late Arafat Rahman

Koko, was by Khaleda Zia's side. After reaching

home, the daughter-in-law grabbed her by the

hand and took her out of the car. Hundreds of

leaders and activists, including BNP joint

secretary general Habibun Khan Sohel, left the

hospital with Khaleda's car. Leaders including

BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam

Alamgir, Dhaka North BNP convener Aman

Ullah Aman, Dhaka South BNP convener Abdus

Salam, central leader Shirin Sultana and Afroza

Abbas were already present to receive her at

home. Many leaders and activists including

Nazim Uddin Alam, Helen Jerin Khan, Shammi

Akhter, Saiful Alam Nirab, Ishraq Hossain, SM

Jahangir, Abdul Alim Noki, AGM Shamsul

Haque were present in front of Khaleda Zia's

residence.

Khaleda Zia was admitted to Evercare Hospital

in the capital on October 12 due to illness. At that

time, the doctors engaged in her treatment said

that Khaleda Zia had been suffering from fever

for some time.

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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2021

3

A 4-day long training program on 'Urban Health in Bangladesh' begins on Sunday at Nabab Nawab

Ali Chowdhury Senate Bhaban of Dhaka University. DU Population Sciences Department and

UNFPA jointly organized this training program. State Minister, Ministry of Planning Prof. Dr.

Shamsul Alam was present as the chief guest while DU Pro-Vice Chancellor (Academic) Prof. Dr.

A.S.M. Maksud Kamal and Chief of Health of UNFPA Dr. Vibhavendra Singh Raghuvanshi were the

special guests. Chairman of the Department of Population Sciences of DU Prof. Dr. Md Rabiul Haque

presided over the function.

Photo: DU PR Office

Training Program on Urban Health

in Bangladesh begins at DU

A 4-day long training program on

'Urban Health in Bangladesh' was

inaugurated on Sunday 2021 at Nabab

Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate Bhaban

of Dhaka University (DU). DU

Population Sciences Department and

UNFPA jointly organized this training

program. State Minister, Ministry of

Planning Prof. Dr. Shamsul Alam was

present as the chief guest at the

inaugural function, a press release said.

Chaired by the Chairman of the

Department of Population Sciences of

DU Prof. Dr. Md Rabiul Haque the

inaugural function was addressed by

DU Pro-Vice Chancellor (Academic)

Prof. Dr. A.S.M. Maksud Kamal and

Chief of Health, UNFPA Bangladesh Dr.

Vibhavendra Singh Raghuvanshi as the

special guests. Prof. Dr. Mohammad

Mainul Islam, Convener of the Urban

Health Training Implementation

Committee of Department of

Population Sciences presented an

overview of the training program.

State Minister Prof. Dr. Shamsul

Alam said, now a days management of

urban health system faces many

challenges due to rapid growth of

population and urbanization. Under the

dynamic leadership of Prime Minister

Sheikh Hasina Bangladesh

Government has taken several

initiatives to cope with the challenges of

health security. This training program

would help ensure the health security

and fundamental rights of general

people of the country, he hoped.

Pro-Vice Chancellor (Academic) Prof.

Dr. A.S.M. Maksud Kamal Said,

Bangladesh is going through significant

social and demographic changes,

including rapid urbanization,

expanding industrialization, rising

incomes and increasing noncommunicable

diseases. At present

about 40% of the people of Bangladesh

live in urban areas. Population growth

in urban areas is 2.5% whereas the

national population growth rate is less

than 1.4%. The biggest city, Dhaka alone

accounts for 40% of the urban

population. The other five divisional

cities account for 29% while 309

municipality towns have 31% urban

population.

He hoped that this training program

would contribute to both the urban

health enactment and the

implementation levels. He thanked the

Department of Population Sciences and

UNFPA for arranging this training

program.

DMP arrests

83 for selling,

consuming

drugs in city

DHAKA : Detective Branch

(DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan

Police (DMP) in anti-drug

drives arrested 83 people on

charges of selling and

consuming drugs in the city

in the last 24 hours till 6am,

Sunday, reports BSS

The Detective Branch

(DB) of the DMP in

association with local police

stations carried out the

drives simultaneously

starting at 6am on

November 6, a DMP

statement said.

In separate anti-drug

operations, police arrested

drug paddlers and abusers

and seized banned and

illegal drugs from the city's

different areas.

During the drives, police

also seized 429 grams and

309 puria (Small Packet) of

heroin, 100.495 kilograms

and 61 puria (Small Packet)

of cannabis (ganja), 2,169

pieces of yaba tablets, 10

bottles of phensidye and 55

bottle of foreign made

liquor, the statement said.

South Korea keen to

preserve archaeological

sites of Panam city

DHAKA : South Korea has

expressed its keen interest to

preserve the historic Panam

city for the benefit of next

generations and to attract

tourists, build in Sonargaon

in Narayanganj in the early

nineteenth century, about 37

kilometres south of the

capital city Dhaka.

South Korean ambassador

to Bangladesh Lee Jang

Keun came up with this

proposal as he made a

courtesy call on state

minister for cultural affairs

KM Khalid at the latter's

secretariat office.

"South Korea already has

preserved Baro Sardar Bari,

one of the most significant

heritage sites in Sonargaon,

which is the first attempt to

preserve a cultural heritage

site in Bangladesh and

similarly the Panam City

which was capital of the

fifteenth-century Bengal

ruler Isa Khan also would be

preserved," according to a

release quoting the envoy as

saying.

During the meeting, they

discussed on different

issues, including the birth

centenary of Father of the

Nation Bangabandhu

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman,

golden jubilee of

Independence, 50-years

anniversary of the

diplomatic relations

between Bangladesh and

South Korea and Korean

cooperation on preserving

different important

archaeological and cultural

sites in the country.

Terming the culture is an

important ingredient; the

Korean ambassador said

"the culture is an important

things which can play an

important role in

accelerating relations

between the two countries."

Remembering cultural

deal signed between the two

countries, the state minister

said the cultural agreement

was signed between the two

countries in Dhaka on June

14 in 1979. Then a five year

long cultural exchange

agreement was also signed

on July 14 in 2019 under the

purview of the earlier deal.

The Korean film festival

will be held between

November 24 and 26 at the

National Museum as

Bangladesh has been

regularly organizing the

Korean film festival since

2013, the Korean envoy told

the meeting.

Joint Secretary of the

Cultural Affairs Ministry

Fahimul Islam along with

other concerned officials

were present at the meeting.

AUST signs MoU with

Walton Digi-Tech Industries

Prof. Dr. Mustafizur Rahman,

Treasurer of Ahsanullah

University of Science and

Technology (AUST) and Md.

Liakat Ali, Deputy Managing

Director, Walton Digi-Tech

Industries Ltd. signed a

Memorandum

of

Understanding (MoU)on

behalf of their respective

organizations at AUST

Campus on Sunday. Prof. Dr.

Muhammad Fazli Ilahi, Vice-

Chancellor of AUST and Prof.

Dr. Md. Mahbubur Rahman,

Pro-Vice-Chancellor of AUST

were present during the

signing ceremony, a press

release said.

Dean of theFaculty of

Engineering, Prof. Dr. S.M. A.

Al Mamun, Head of the

Department of EEE, Prof. Dr.

A.K.M.Baki, Head of the

department of CSE, Prof. Dr.

Mohammad Shafiul Alam,

Registrar of AUST, Dr. Md.

Mosharof Hossain, Sanjay

Kumar Ray, Deputy Executive

Director, IT, other Faculty

Members and high officials of

the organizations were

present at the ceremony.

According to the MoU more

collaborations on R&D and

projects will be taken in jointly

for the benefits of the

University students and

industry.

DSCC to build modern

housing ‘Eco Smart

City’: Taposh

DHAKA : The Dhaka South City

Corporation (DSCC) has decided to build

"Eco Smart City" at Nasirabad, one of the

neglected areas of the capital city, as part of

the move to bring all the 18 new wards

under the modern housing facilities.

"We have decided to build "Eco Smart

City" in Nasirabad area situated under the

newly inducted ward-75 with all the

modern facilities," DSCC Mayor Barrister

Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh told BSS in an

exclusive interview at his Nagar Bhaban

office here.

The DSCC has already served notices to

the developers working in ward-75 asking

them not to requisition any land there from

now on, he said. The 18 new wards - 58, 59,

60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71,

72, 73, 74, 75 - have been fell under the

jurisdiction of Shyampur, Dania, Matuail,

Sarulia, Demra, Manda, Dakshingaon and

Nasirabad unions.

Mentioning that enough open space is

required for building modern housings,

but they are running out with the passage

of time, the mayor said, "So, keeping that

in mind, we are going to set up the modern

housing facilities in the new wards where

we have got sufficient open space," he said.

To facilitate the communication of the

populace of the housing, the Mayor, the

existing 663.91 kilometres roads will be

renovated or reconstructed apart from

building new roads.

"Under the Participatory Rapid Appraisal

(PRA), each of the wards will have a

playground, a public toilet, a five-storey

social gathering centre with a public health

unit, a ward councillor office, a gymnasium

and a library," he continued.

He added that measures have already

been taken to ensure a modern waste

management system along with the

initiatives of resolving the water-logging

problems and mosquito menace.

The Mayor said he has a plan to build a

kitchen market in each of the new wards

so that people can purchase their

essentials.

Mayor Taposh said four-lane roads

would be constructed surrounding the

existing canals, much to give an aesthetic

scenario in those localities.

"We will also make some canals suitable

for vessel movement to facilitate people's

transport," he added.

Besides, Taka two crore have been

allocated for local lawmakers and one crore

for each of the ward councilors of the newly

inducted 18 wards under the DSCC for

ensuring the overall development, the

mayor added.

Prof. Dr. Mustafizur Rahman, Treasurer of Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology

(AUST) and Md. Liakat Ali, Deputy Managing Director, Walton Digi-Tech Industries Ltd. signed a

Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)on behalf of their respective organizations at AUST Campus

on Sunday.

Photo : Courtesy

The Final Round and Prize Giving Ceremony of Inter Varsity Debate Competition was held on Saturday at

Bijoy Auditorium of BUP.

Photo : Courtesy

BASIS signs MoU

with BBDN

DHAKA : A Memorandum of

Understanding (MoU) was

signed between Bangladesh

Association of Software and

Information Services (BASIS)

and Bangladesh Business

Disability Network (BBDN) on

Saturday to accelerate the

inclusion of physically

challenged people in the ICT

sector. Senior Vice-President

of BASIS Farhana A Rahman

and CEO of BBDN Murteza

Rafi Khan signed the MoU

respectively on behalf of their

respective sides, reports BSS.

The core purpose of this

collaboration is to increase the

number of BASIS members

who are actively becoming

disability-inclusive

organisations.

BASIS being the national

leading body of the IT industry

can play a key role to expedite

policy influencing with its

members, the broader

business community and the

government while facilitating a

window of opportunity in

employment creation and

setting standards in

provisioning appropriate

working environments for

people with disabilities, said a

press release.

BBDN can potentially be a

strategic partner to BASIS in

dealing with activities related

to disability inclusion and

supporting BASIS members to

avail the advantages of

becoming an inclusive

organisation while additionally

joining efforts to achieve the

Sustainable Development

Goals by 2030. The BASIS and

BBDN look forward to

continue their activities in

three broad ways based on

timeframe-immediate actions

which can be initiated within

three months and can be

implemented within a shorter

timeframe, midterm actions

which require 3-6 months'

time to implement and initiate

and long-term actions.

Prize giving ceremony of

inter-varsity debate

competition held at BUP

The Final Round and Prize

Giving Ceremony of Inter

Varsity Debate Competition

was held on Saturday at Bijoy

Auditorium of BUP. The

debate competition was

organized by BUP debate

club under the supervision of

the Department of Public

Administration, Faculty of

Arts and Social Sciences

which started on 29 October

2021. The debate

competition was arranged in

two phases namely Asian

Parliamentary Debate

(Bangla) and British

Parliamentary Novice Debate

(English).

DHAKA : State Minister for Power, Energy and

Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid has put forth

some reasons for last week's dramatic hike in

fuel prices, that saw the prices of diesel and

kerosene hiked by a whopping 23.1 percent in

one go, reports UNB.

Posting on Facebook from Glasgow, the

junior minister also urged the owners

oftransport businesses to convert their vehicles

to run on electricity, and take advantageof

efficiency gains.

"We are facing a tough reality," Nasrul

Hamid wrote, in a Facebook status posted

around 11pm BdST. "Globally the fuel prices

have gone up abnormally in the post-Covid-19

situation. This abnormal rise in oil, gas and coal

prices has even put many wealthy nations in

difficulty." Coming to the reasons behind

Bangladesh's hike, he reiterated the reasons he

statedearlier in the day in a views-exchange

meeting on the sidelines of COP26.

"We had to adjust the fuel price for its

abnormal hike in the global market and

alsoapprehending a rise in smuggling of fuel to

neighbouring countries, as the price ishigher

A total of 46 teams from 26

universities participated in

the debate competition 2021.

In Asian Parliamentary

Debate (Bangla), 22 teams

from 18 universities

participated while in British

Parliamentary Novice Debate

(English) 24 teams from 14

universities participated.In

the final round of the

competition, Bangladesh

University

of

Professionalsbecame the

champion and Dhaka

University became the

runners up in the Bangla

section and Islamic

University of Technology

became the champion and

Bangladesh University of

Textile became the runners

up in the English section.

In the competition, Vice

Chancellor Major General

Md Moshfequr Rahman,

SGP, SUP, ndc, psc was

present as the chief guestand

distributed the prize among

the winners. Dean of FASS

Brigadier General A F M

Atiqur Rahman, ndu, afwc,

psc, G, Mphil was present as

the chief advisor.

Moreover, BUP Officers,

Teachers, Students and

Invited Guests were also

present in the competition.

From Glasgow, Hamid tries to justify

fuel price hike in Facebook status

there," the state minister wrote, using his

verified Facebook account.

Once again, Nasrul tried to pacify those

angered by the move back home by calling it

'atemporary step,' saying the price will be

adjusted back down again. Naturally

astatement such as this invites the question

'When?'

That's where the caveat comes in: 'as soon as

prices fall in the international market,' thestate

minister wrote. Hamid concludes with an

enticement to businesses in the transport

sector. He believesif all the vehicles used in the

public transport sector can be converted to run

onelectricity, it would reduce the demand

pressure on fuel oil, besides being greener

i.e.better for the environment.

"Those who run transport sector businesses

can think about it seriously. All kinds ofsupport

will be provided (for converting) by the

government. It's possible to increaseefficiency

gains four-fold, by using an electric vehicle

instead of fossil fuel burningvehicles. Besides

reducing environmental pollution, it would

also increase ourconsumption of electricity.

MONDAY, NOvEMbER 8, 2021

4

World leaders face 'stark choices' at COP26

Acting Editor & Publisher : Jobaer Alam

e-mail: editor@thebangladeshtoday.com

Monday, November 8, 2021

Price stabilization

and normalization

The present government in Bangladesh

is seen to be doing a great deal of good

things in different spheres. But in the

area of price stabilization and normalization

its successes need to be greater.

Government must realise that price

normalization depends critically on the

unhindered interaction of economic forces,

on private decisions and other intangibles

which cannot be so drastically regulated or

should not be regulated by authoritative

governmental actions. Government cannot

intervene in these processes rudely and

suddenly and achieve results instantly.

If this is attempted, then the risks of

breaking down of the supply chain become

acute which then tend to create more

difficulties for price control from scarcity of

the demanded goods. Thus, government has

to tread the path very carefully while engaging

in activities to normalize prices. But it is also

a fact that price control can be achieved in

phases with tenacious work to that end and

correct application of policies with patience

and foresight at every phase.

The supply of many essential commodities

still largely remains under the grip of a few

large importers . Therefore, the first task in

order is to break the powers of these few

importers. But this must be done with

delicacy. Any sudden wholesale action against

the limited number of large suppliers of

essential commodities will create the ground

for them to dabble in more mischief to

disrupt the supply chain.

On the other hand, they would not be able to

hold their stocks for too long as that would

mean suffering losses. Therefore, the best

results can be obtained for now by allowing

these importers to do their business with

pressures lifted from them. But this does not

mean that they should not be under official

persuasion to do their business honestly.

Meanwhile, government should go all out to

encourage the alternative importers or ones

who tried their hands in the import business

in the past but failed in the face of syndicated

operations. These people can be swiftly

provided with import licenses and extended

other facilities so that they can quickly make

their presence felt in the import business of

essentials.

The above approach can be an appropriate

one in not creating sudden snags in import

operations while also gradually weakening

the influences and powers of a coterie of large

importers.

Side by side, government should promptly

also take the important decision of fully

reactivating the Trading Corporation of

Bangladesh (TCB) and acting on it with real

speed. TCB's operations can be profitable for

itself while providing much comfort to

consumers from stable or reasonable prices.

TCB's activities were winded up over the

years on the plea of free market economy or

the principle that government must not be

involved in business operations.

But this had proved to be am ineffective

decision in the Bangladesh context. Other

countries which are also the practitioners of

market economy, have maintained such state

trading or the capacities to intervene in the

market to create competition with private

businesses or suppliers to restraint unethical

activities on the part of the latter.

Therefore, there would be nothing wrong or

inconsistent for Bangladesh to revive state

trading for a while on a large scale through

the TCB to import essential commodities in

bulk and market them in a bid to break the

monopolies of private importers and put

them under a pressure to operate ethically to

survive in business.

UN Secretary General Antonio

Guterres has called for an end to

abusing the environment. File

Photo: Reuters It would be an

understatement to say that there is a lot

riding on COP26, the international

climate talks currently being held in

Glasgow, Scotland.

Officially, the gathering marks the 26th

Conference of the Parties (COP) to the

United Nations Framework Convention

on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the

third meeting of the parties to the 2015

Paris Climate Agreement, which aims to

limit the global temperature rise to well

below 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial

levels, preferably limiting the

increase to 1.5 degrees in order to avoid

the worst impacts of climate change.

Since 1995, the countries that have

signed on to the UNFCCC have met every

year (except in 2020 because of the Covid-

19 pandemic), attempting to come up with

an action plan to stem the climate crisis.

But still, every year, the world's

greenhouse-gas emissions keep going up.

And during the two weeks starting on

October 31, world leaders will try to come

up with an action plan yet again. More

than 100 heads of government and some

30,000 delegates are deliberating in

Glasgow in the most recent international

attempt to implement the Paris

agreement goals. CNBC called the summit

"humanity's last and best chance to secure

a livable future amid dramatic climate

change." "We face a stark choice: Either

we stop it or it stops us," said United

Nations Secretary General António

Guterres in his opening remarks at the

start of the World Leaders Summit of the

COP26.

"It's time to say 'enough.' Enough of

brutalizing biodiversity. Enough of killing

ourselves with carbon. Enough of treating

nature like a toilet. Enough of burning and

drilling and mining our way deeper. We

are digging our own graves.… We need

maximum ambition from all countries on

all fronts to make Glasgow a success."

The summit comes just a few months

after the August release of a grim report

published by the Intergovernmental Panel

on Climate Change (IPCC), which found

that climate change was "unequivocally"

caused by human activity, and that within

two decades, rising temperatures will

cause the planet to reach a significant

turning point. The report's authors - a

group of the world's top climate scientists

convened by the United Nations -

predicted that by 2040, average global

temperatures will be warmer than 1.5

degrees above pre-industrial levels,

causing more frequent and intense

heatwaves, droughts and extreme weather

events. Guterres called the bleak findings

a "Code Red for humanity."

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson,

who is hosting the summit, likened the

race to stop climate change to a spy

thriller, warning that "a red digital clock

Even in death, Palestinians suffer obscene indignities

Even in death, Palestinians, it

seems, have no respite from Israeli

officials intent on stripping them

of their dignity and humanity.

The latest desecration is taking place at

al-Yusufiyah cemetery, a centuries-old

Muslim graveyard in occupied

Jerusalem.

Last week, Israeli machinery began

razing the ground in and adjacent to the

cemetery to make way for a so-called

"Biblical Trail," a string of theme parks in

the south of the Old City.

This past Sunday, an Israeli court

upheld the "clearance" work. This,

despite the remains - reportedly of

Jordanian soldiers - having already been

disturbed and exposed in a section of the

cemetery Israeli authorities have claimed

is "unauthorised" - whatever that means.

That sordid violation triggered

understandable panic among

Palestinians that their interred loved

ones would suffer the same obscene fate.

Israeli assurances that "authorised

burial sites" - whatever that means -

would not be harmed have done little to

mollify Palestinian fears.

Sheikh Muhammad Hussein, Grand

Mufti of Jerusalem, told the Reuters

news agency that the park, scheduled to

open in mid-2022, is a sacrilegious

assault on the ancient cemetery.

"The graves of human beings cannot be

violated no matter the gender, nationality

or religion," he said.

Pictures and video from the scene show

digger trucks busy levelling land within

the shadow of the "authorised" Muslim

gravesites. One Palestinian mother was

having none of it. Dressed in black, Ola

Nababteh, draped herself over her son's

grave like a human shroud. It was, at

once, an act of defiance and resistance,

fuelled by a mother's love and instinct to

ticks down remorselessly to a detonation

that will end human life as we know it."

He added, "The tragedy is this is not a

movie, and the doomsday device is real."

The dire assessment of the state of the

planet's climate was not lost on US

President Joe Biden, who called on world

leaders to take aggressive action

immediately to stave off the climate crisis

in his remarks at the summit's opening

day. "There's no more time to hang back

or sit on the fence or argue amongst

ourselves," he said. "This is the challenge

of our collective lifetimes, the existential

threat to human existence as we know it.

And every day we delay, the cost of

inaction increases."

But despite all the troubling data and

dire warnings, the summit has had a fairly

inauspicious start. On October 30, the day

before COP26 opened, leaders of the

Group of Twenty nations - 19 countries

and the European Union, which together

are responsible for 80% of the world's

emissions - sought to bolster international

leadership on climate change as they

concluded their own meeting in Rome just

before the summit in Glasgow. But their

deliberations ended with a whimper: a

mere reaffirmation of the Paris

Agreement goals.

During the G20 summit, Johnson said

that all the world leaders' pledges without

action were "starting to sound hollow,"

and he criticized the commitments as

"drops in a rapidly warming ocean."

Adding to the disappointment was the

fact that the G20 summit was not

attended by Russian President Vladimir

Putin or Chinese President Xi Jinping,

even as both Russia and China "are

among the world's biggest polluters":

Russia and China are respectively

responsible for 5% and 28% of global

carbon-dioxide emissions. Those two

nations have pushed the goal of net-zero

emissions by 2050 ahead to 2060.

A failure in Glasgow could have grave,

cascading consequences. On October 26,

the UN Environment Program released a

worrying report warning that with

"climate change intensifying … humanity

is running out of time" because of the

climate promises that have been made but

have not yet been delivered.

Failure to stem the climate crisis "would

mean less food, so probably a crisis in food

security. It would leave a lot more people

vulnerable to terrible situations, terrorist

groups and violent groups," said UNFCCC

executive secretary Patricia Espinosa. "It

protect a son she lost four years ago and

still mourns. m"They keep threatening to

bulldoze the graves," Nababteh said.

"This is the pinnacle of brutality."

Predictably, Nababteh's determination

to protect the sanctity of her son's grave

was met with overwhelming force. Scores

of well-armed Israeli police surrounded

Nababteh as she sobbed while holding

tight onto her son's gravestone, a red tin

filled with dried flowers at the head of the

white marker. All the while, bulldozers

hovered nearby.

A young Palestinian woman tried to

console Nababteh and intervene. She was

brushed aside as Israeli police wrested

Nababteh's arms from her son's large,

plain tomb.

Nababteh defied police as best she

could, resting her body, for a time,

against the gravestone. Later, she stood.

A police officer grabbed her by the neck

and throat, and pushed her away.

Wielding batons, police also fired stun

grenades and skunk water cannon to

disperse worried Palestinians who had

gathered close by.

Nababteh is undeterred.

"I will continue to stay with my son 24

hours a day," she said. "Even if they kill

me, I will not leave here. I will not allow

my son's grave to be removed."

Ultimately, the state of Israel will

decide the fate of Nababteh and her son's

REYNARD LOKI

ANDREW MITROvIcA

would mean a lot of sources of instability

… the catastrophic scenario would

indicate that we would have massive flows

of displaced people.

"We're really talking about preserving

the stability of countries, preserving the

institutions that we have built over so

many years, preserving the best goals that

our countries have put together," said

Espinosa, who took on the UN climate

role in 2016. A former minister of foreign

affairs of Mexico, Espinosa shares

responsibility for the talks with UK

cabinet minister Alok Sharma, who serves

as the COP26 president.

"What we need to get at Glasgow are

messages from leaders that they are

determined to drive this transformation,

to make these changes, to look at ways of

increasing their ambition," Espinosa said.

In a new study published in the journal

Global Change Biology, a group of

international scientists found that if the

world continues "business-as-usual"

emissions, the impacts of the climate

crisis could triple across 45 different "life

zones" - distinct regions representing

broad ecosystem types - across the planet.

"The likely future changes in the world's

life zones is likely to have a substantial

impact on [people's] livelihoods and

"When you say that the oil companies have marvelous new technologies

that can sip the oil from beneath our lands like hummingbirds

sip nectar from a flower, we know that you are lying because

we live downriver from the spills," wrote Nenquimo, who was

named one of Time's 100 most influential people in the world.

biodiversity," said Paul Elsen, a climateadaptation

scientist at the Wildlife

Conservation Society (WCS) and lead

author of the study. "Large areas of the

world are getting hotter and drier and this

is already impacting the Earth's life

zones," he added.

The researchers predict that more than

42% of the planet's land area will

ultimately be affected if emissions are not

significantly reduced. Hedley Grantham,

director of conservation planning at WCS

and a co-author of the study, said, "COP26

is our best chance of countries committing

to reducing emissions and putting us on a

better future pathway for climate change

and its impacts."

There have, however, been a few bright

spots in the early days of the summit. On

Tuesday, world leaders announced new

plans to reduce the emissions of methane,

a powerful global-warming gas that "has

more than 80 times the warming power of

carbon dioxide over the first 20 years after

it reaches the atmosphere."

Biden welcomed the methane

agreement, calling it a "game-changing

commitment," while also announcing that

for the first time, the US Environmental

Protection Agency was going to enforce

resting place - international law, human

rights codes and decency be damned.

Imprisoned Palestinians exercise little, if

any, agency over their lives and futures,

including, apparently, where they can

and cannot be buried.

But, of course, Arieh King, deputy

mayor of Jerusalem, does not see it that

way. He told Reuters that police forcibly

removed Nababteh for her own safety

and implied that she should be grateful

for the excavations at and near the

cemetery since the new park will provide

Palestinians easier access to the Old City.

This is the same King that the Israeli

Predictably, Nababteh's determination to protect the sanctity

of her son's grave was met with overwhelming force. Scores of

well-armed Israeli police surrounded Nababteh as she sobbed

while holding tight onto her son's gravestone, a red tin filled

with dried flowers at the head of the white marker.

newspaper, Haaretz, described as being

"best known" for having "been accused of

racism" after - among other detestable

things - his election campaign signs

compared the Muslim call to prayer with

a rooster's crow and for ejecting

Palestinian families from their old,

beloved homes in the besieged Sheikh

Jarrah neighbourhood.

I suspect that Nababteh and the other

Palestinian families whose kin are buried

at al-Yusufiyah cemetery know that,

given King's ugly record, the deputy

mayor does not have their safety at heart

and are unlikely to express gratitude for

his, uh, hospitality and a park.

The threats and coercion facing

Palestinians watching over al-Yusufiyah

cemetery are a microcosm of the "present

limits on the methane "released by

existing oil and gas rigs across the United

States." The Biden administration said

that the government's vast spending bill

would mark the "largest effort to combat

climate change in American history." But

with this critical climate legislation stalled

on Capitol Hill, Biden's aggressive target

of reducing the United States' greenhouse

gas emissions by about half of its 2005

levels by the end of this decade will likely

have to be pursued through executive

actions such as regulations.

And on Tuesday, more than 100

nations, which together are responsible

for about 85% of the world's forests,

agreed to a landmark $19 billion plan to

end and reverse deforestation by 2030.

Johnson said that it is critical for the

success of COP26 "that we act now and we

end the role of humanity as nature's

conqueror, and instead become nature's

custodian," adding that "we have to stop

the devastating loss of our forests, these

great teeming ecosystems - three-trillionpillared

cathedrals of nature - that are the

lungs of our planet." In other welcome

news, 14 nations including the United

States, working on the sidelines of COP26,

backed a Denmark-led initiative to reduce

global maritime emissions to zero by

2050. "With around 90% of world trade

transported by sea, global shipping

accounts for nearly 3% of global CO2

emissions," according to Reuters.

Indeed, non-state actors, such as

businesses, are key participants in the

world's climate goals. Guterres said the

private sector has a critical role in this

fight, and the UN will judge the

performance of businesses' pledges to

achieve net-zero emissions.

"I will establish a group of experts to

propose clear standards to measure and

analyze net-zero commitments from nonstate

actors," which will go beyond

mechanisms that have been established

by the Paris Climate Accord, he said.

In the US, businesses are trying to

influence Biden's massive spending plan.

"Across industries, business groups

successfully pushed lawmakers to make

significant changes to key sections of the

original $3.5 trillion bill. Their lobbying

efforts revolved around [Democratic]

Senators Joe Manchin … and Kyrsten

Sinema … who ultimately sided with the

business community on several issues,"

The Hill reported. The White House plan

does not raise tax rates on corporations -

keeping a central part of the [Republican

Party's] 2017 tax cuts intact - in a stunning

win for business interests," the article

said. "This growing call for action can't be

underestimated," writes Patti Lynn,

executive director of Corporate

Accountability, a consumer advocacy

group, in Truthout, referring to the surge

in climate activism across the world in

recent years.

Source: Asia times

circumstances" in occupied Palestine

that Irish author, Sally Rooney, alluded

to when she decided last month not to

permit her latest work of fiction to be

translated by an Israeli publisher into

Hebrew.

It is one of a litany of losses, threats,

indignities and obscenities that

Palestinians have long had to endure.

Rooney's small but considered

expression of solidarity with Palestinians

like Nababteh prompted her quick-draw

detractors to rush to print and the

airwaves to belittle her, to deride her, to

ridicule her and to condemn her with a

kind of adolescent glee usually reserved

for delinquent prime ministers and

presidents, not accomplished 30-yearold

authors.

Rooney's resolve to make visible the

too-often invisible pain and suffering of

Palestinians and the reaction to it

attracted a lot of attention because she is

a somebody.

Nababteh is a nobody - a Palestinian

nobody, to boot.

Outside Al Jazeera, Reuters and a few

Middle East-based news sites, what

happened to her inside al-Yusufiyah

cemetery did not register a jot among the

news and opinion page editors who

unleashed an army of reporters and rabid

columnists to dissect and largely

eviscerate Rooney (a somebody) for

standing by - metaphorically-speaking -

Nababteh (a nobody).

In their obnoxious calculus,

Rooney's gesture of support for

Palestinians "in their struggle for

freedom, justice and equality"

warrants their wrath and disapproval

and not the losses, threats, indignities

and obscenities that triggered it.

Source: Al Jazeera

mOnDaY, nOvemBeR 8, 2021

5

Urgent need for Strep B vaccine to prevent baby deaths

Dann OkOtH

The World Health Organization (WHO) has

called for urgent development of vaccines

against Group B streptococcus, also known as

GBS or Strep B, as new figures reveal that the

bacterium is responsible for 150,000 deaths of

babies worldwide each year.

The report by the WHO and the London

School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

(LSHTM) says the bacterium, which is harmless

for most pregnant women who carry it, is linked

to 46,000 stillbirths annually and more than

half a million preterm deliveries. It can also

cause long-term disability.

Several vaccine candidates are currently

under development but none are yet available

despite having been in the pipeline for decades,

according to the WHO.

Health experts say a maternal vaccine against

GBS could be highly cost-effective and benefit

all regions of the world, particularly low- and

middle-income countries (LMICs) where the

vast majority of cases occur.

"For the first time this new research quantifies

the major contribution of GBS to pre-term

births as well as neurological impairments, such

as cerebral palsy, hearing and vision loss that

can occur following GBS-associated infections,"

said Philipp Lambach, a medical officer with the

WHO's vaccines and biologicals department

who co-authored the study.

He said the research showed that Strep B is a

major and unappreciated threat to newborn

survival and wellbeing with devastating effects

for families worldwide. LMICs are particularly

hard hit, the research shows, accounting for 98

per cent of cases.

Joy Lawn, director of the Maternal Adolescent

Reproductive and Child Health (MARCH)

Centre at LSHTM and a contributor to the

report, said: "Sub-Saharan Africa has a

disproportionate burden, since Africa has 13 per

cent of the world's population and almost five

WHO is calling for the for urgent development of vaccines against Group B streptococcus

which kills almost 200,000 babies each year.

Photo: chuddlesworth

per cent of burden of GBS deaths for newborns

and stillbirths."

Even more worrying, believes Lawn, is that

health professionals often miss GBS cases

whenever and wherever they occur. "Most

midwives in the world will have seen cases but

may not know if they are not being

investigated," she explained.

According to Joachim Osur, a reproductive

health expert and Vice Chancellor at Amref

International University in Nairobi, the

problem could be even more pronounced in

Africa than figures suggest.

"The problem in Africa is that due to weak

health systems, we do not investigate causes of

intrauterine or foetal deaths. We therefore do

not know the causes," explained Osur. "This

bacterium could be causing many deaths in our

communities. The sooner we can get the

vaccine, the better."

An average of 15 per cent of all pregnant

women worldwide-nearly 200 million a yearcarry

the GBS bacterium in their vagina, usually

without symptoms, according to the report. It

can be transmitted to the baby in the womb,

during birth, or in the early weeks of life.

Currently antibiotic treatment given to

women during labour are the main means of

preventing GBS diseases in newborn infants,

the study says. If the bacterium is detected

during pregnancy, however, even in regions

with high treatment coverage, there remain

significant risks as this intervention is unlikely

to prevent most GBS associated stillbirths,

preterm births or GBS diseases that occur later

after birth, it adds.

According to Martina Lukong Baye,

coordinator of a national programme to combat

maternal, newborn and child mortality at the

Ministry of Health in Cameroon, a new

maternal vaccine against GBS would be a gamechanger

in the reduction of newborn and

maternal deaths for the most affected countries,

especially in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Several vaccines are at phase two clinical

trials, said Lambach, adding: "Some of them are

multivalent, covering most of the major strains

of GBS in pregnant women." But he added that

vaccine development is complex and costly,

particularly at late stage clinical trials, and there

are uncertainties due to evidence gaps.

Assumptions about the severity of the disease

as well as feasibility of implementation in lowresource

settings may also have been preventing

manufacturers from prioritising GBS vaccine

development.

"The evidence and analysis in the report aim

to help assure manufactures, [by] indicating

that the disease burden is greater than

previously assumed," Lambach added. "And by

suggesting that an affordably-priced vaccine is

likely to be cost-effective, have a positive global

net monetary benefit … and likely be financially

sustainable and profitable if adopted in low-,

middle-, and high-income countries."

Global South observers blocked

from COP26 negotiations

FIOna BROOm

A participation revolution is

needed to stop the

"outrageous" exclusion of civil

society and the global South

from major international talks,

development advocates have

said amid accusations that

COP26 is the least inclusive

climate summit in a decade.

Vaccine and visa

complications, coupled with

COVID-19 restrictions on

capacity in official negotiating

spaces, have left civil society

and scientists from the global

South outside of core

proceedings in Glasgow, UK,

say advocates.

They believe the UN

summit's organisers have legal

obligations to ensure that the

people who are most impacted

by climate change can

contribute to negotiations and

working groups. Sébastien

Duyck, a senior attorney at the

Center for International

Environmental Law, said:

"People have come from all

regions, despite all of the

hurdles - the economic costs of

being here in Glasgow, the

health risks associated with

going back to their

communities, to participate in

the process."

But he said that of the

thousands of accredited

observers from the global

South,

indigenous

communities

and

environment organisations,

"four representatives have

been allowed in the entire

room where negotiations take

place. Not just the high-level

segment of this COP, the entire

working area where actual

negotiations take place."

Duyck said with at least six

simultaneous negotiations

happening at a time, that

meant global South and civil

society were absent from

some processes. "We've seen

the least inclusive beginning

Press swarm the nature pavilion, in the restricted Blue Zone at COP26,

ahead of an expected protest by Indigenous peoples. Photo: Collected

of a conference of parties

since over a decade," Duyck

said. "COVID-related

restrictions cannot justify the

fact that an entire network of

environmental and

development organisations

will be allowed to send four

delegates in the negotiating

area."

One of the only civil society

actions so far permitted in the

Blue Zone - the restricted area

at COP26 - was called off on

Wednesday, as security

struggled to control the

number of reporters and

supporters who gathered to

see indigenous communities

protest an event on carbon

markets.

Duyck called on the UN

Framework Convention on

Climate Change Secretariat

and the UK as hosts to take

immediate action to ensure

that the voices of communities

living with the impacts of

climate change are "effectively

and meaningfully heard in

negotiating rooms".

The UK government had

said the event would be the

most inclusive COP ever. The

UNFCCC Secretariat did not

respond to a SciDev.Net

request for comment by the

time of publication. The UK

government, in a statement on

the COP26 website, said it was

"working tirelessly" with

partners, including the

Scottish government and the

UN, "to deliver a safe and

inclusive summit".

The COP26 organising team

on Tuesday apologised for

major delays for delegates

entering the venue, and

technical issues which had

made accessing the digital

platform, where events are

being streamed, difficult.

Danny Sriskandarajah, chief

executive of UK-based charity

Oxfam GB, told SciDev.Net

that participation was vital at

the summit because the people

who had contributed "almost

nothing" to the climate crisis

were living with the disastrous

impacts.

"Their voices are hardly

heard in these sorts of

environments. We've got to fix

that participation gap if we're

going to have any sort of

successful process around

climate change," he said.

Intergovernmental

processes generate a "double

democratic deficit",

Sriskandarajah says, as the

poorest and most marginalised

people are excluded from their

national political systems,

causing greater invisibility at

the global level.

"The people whose lives are

being affected now are two

steps removed from

influencing these sorts of

processes, which at their heart

should be about justice to

those people," he added. "We

need a participation

revolution."

Several delegates from the

global North have told

SciDev.Net that their

colleagues from the global

South had visa applications

denied or delayed, causing

them to miss speaking

engagements. The executive

director of the Act On Sahel

movement, Kaossara Sani, of

Togo, said she was a "missing

voice in the climate debate and

negotiations" and questioned

why the most affected by

climate change were being

excluded.

Sanjeet BaGCCHI

The world's poorest countries

are failing to implement

public health policies on

tobacco, alcohol and

unhealthy foods, in part as a

result of commercial

influence, according to

research published in The

Lancet Global Health.

Globally, tobacco leads to

more than 7.2 million deaths

each year, WHO figures show.

More than half of the 3.3

million deaths that occur each

year as a result of alcohol use

are from diseases such as

cancer, while excess salt or

sodium intake leads to the

death of 4.1 million people

annually, according to the

health body.

These so-called noncommunicable

diseases

(NCDs) kill 41 million people

annually across the world,

according to the WHO, and

disproportionately affect

people in low- and middleincome

countries where more

than three quarters of global

NCD deaths (31.4 million)

occur. Policy implementation

is inadequate particularly in

countries that are poor and

less democratic and those that

face strong corporate

influences as a result of

corruption or political

favouritism, according to

researchers.

The researchers from the

London School of Hygiene &

Tropical Medicine (LSHTM),

Sweden's Karolinska

Institutet, and Turkey's

Bilkent University assessed

the implementation of 19

NCD policies recommended

by the WHO in 194 countries

in reports published in 2015,

2017 and 2020.

They found that, in 2020,

countries across the globe

could fully implement only a

third of the policies, which

include raising tobacco taxes,

limiting advertising on

alcohol, reformulating food

products with reduced salt, fat

and sugar, and providing

treatment for diabetes and

hypertension.

Luke Allen, a researcher at

the LSHTM, said: "Our study

shows that implementation of

Factors that hinder

health policy

these life-saving policies tends

to be lowest in the world's

poorest countries." According

to Allen, developing countries

also tend to have weaker

democracies and greater

exposure to "corporate

permeation", or influence.

"We know these factors are

associated with weaker

policymaking for chronic

diseases," he added.

Implementation was lowest

for policies relating to alcohol,

tobacco, and unhealthy foods,

the study said. Low-income

and less democratic countries

had the lowest policy

implementation.

The researchers found that,

in 2020, NCD policy

implementation was

substantially low in countries

including Equatorial Guinea,

where only one policy was

partially implemented,

Guinea Bissau (two policies

partially implemented) and

Sierra Leone (two policies

partially implemented).

Suvadip Chakrabarti,

consultant surgical oncologist

at the Apollo Cancer Centre in

Kolkata, India, told

Scidev.Net that in developing

countries, especially India,

laws on alcohol and tobacco

advertising are weak.

"India is the third largest

producer and second largest

consumer of tobacco

products," Chakrabarti said.

"At the same time we have

attained the number one

position [in terms of] tobaccorelated

cancers worldwide."

The study highlights the

effect of corporate influence

on the implementation of

NCD policies in various

countries. According to the

researchers, "[corporations]

influence policymaking

processes in countries where

they are deeply embedded

within the fabric of society,

irrespective of whether they

actually wield their power."

"Beneficial effects of

democracy on NCD

policymaking only hold in

countries where corporate

influence is held in check,"

they said. SciDev.Net

approached the UK-based

tobacco company Imperial

Brands and the Belgiumbased

organisation Tobacco

Europe, via email, for

comment but no response on

the findings of the study was

received from them at the

time of publishing this article.

Allen believes that - given

that low- and middle-income

countries are experiencing the

steepest rises in conditions

such as obesity, heart attacks,

strokes, cancers, chronic lung

diseases, and diabetes - there

is an urgent need to counter

the commercial and political

vested interests that he says

are vying to undermine

healthy policymaking.

Christian Kraef, a physician

at the Heidelberg Institute of

Global Health in Germany,

told SciDev.Net: "One

important, and underexploited

approach to tackling these

issues in poorer and less

democratic countries is to

invest in, support and foster

civil society engagement."

He added that a number of

regional and national civil

society organisations were

working on and advocating

for better NCD policies, such

as the East Africa NCD

Alliance and its member

organisations. According to

Chakrabarti, there is a general

apathy towards corrective

measures around the

consumption of tobacco

products and alcohol. "We

should ban the sale of

tobacco-related products in

the country [India], but at the

same time tobacco industry

workers should be

rehabilitated," he added.

Report reveals slow uptake of policies on tobacco, alcohol and unhealthy

foods.

Photo: Pixaby

kaamIl aHmeD

A group of tuberculosis survivors are

calling for more funding and action to

find new vaccines, after the numbers

dying of the infection rose for the first

time in 10 years. In 2020, 1.5 million

were killed by TB and 10 million

infected, according to the World Health

Organization. Campaigners want world

leaders to invest $1bn (£730m) every

year into vaccine research, spurred on

by the momentum from the Covid jab

development.

The TB Vaccine Advocacy Roadmap

group, a new coalition of organisations,

said G20 finance leaders meeting at the

end of October need to increase

funding almost tenfold, as it has never

exceeded more than $120m (£87m) in

a year. In an open letter, TB survivors

from all the G20 countries said it was

time to reverse decades of

underinvestment in the "disease of

injustice".

"We are losing people at every step of

care. TB diagnostics and therapeutics

fall far short of what people with TB

need. This is only worsened by the

Covid-19 pandemic. With only a

Call for action on TB as deaths

rise for first time in decade

handful of new TB drugs developed in

the past 50 years, treatment still takes

months or years, with many

debilitating and deadly side-effects,"

the letter states.

It said there are six promising

candidates for TB vaccines, but they

required more funding to prevent

further delay. Uvistra Naidoo, a South

African TB survivor and signatory of

the letter, said: "We all know that

vaccines are needed to eliminate a

global epidemic, and TB is no

exception. We also know it is possible -

the lightning-quick development of

Covid-19 vaccines shows that if there is

political will, there are resources to

make it happen.".

Mike Frick, co-director of the TB

project at Treatment Action Group,

said: "Governments cumulatively spent

BCC is the only one in use for tB and is not effective for adults and

teenagers.

Photo: Paul kane

$104bn on research and development

of Covid-19 vaccine and therapeutics in

the first 11 months of the pandemic.

That is 75 times more than the money

governments and other funders spent

on TB vaccine research over the 11

years from 2005 to 2019.

"This disparity signals a clear

abdication of responsibility on the part

of governments to protect the human

rights of people with TB to health and

scientific progress. It is past time that

we as a TB community start expecting -

and demanding - more."

Earlier this month, the WHO warned

that the pandemic had reversed

progress against TB and fewer people

were being diagnosed and treated as

resources went to tackling Covid-19.

Global funding for TB fell by £500m

from 2019 to 2020.

Around the world, fewer infections

were diagnosed and reported; a drop

from 7.1m in 2019 to 5.8m in 2020.

India made up 40% of this global drop

in notifications, while numbers were

down 14% in Indonesia and 12% in the

Philippines. The number of people

given preventive treatment fell by a

fifth.

WHO said it believes 4.1 million

people newly infected with TB in 2020

have not been diagnosed, compared

with 2.9 million the year before. Early

diagnosis of TB is crucial because

undetected cases increase the risk of

the disease spreading. A person can be

infected by inhaling a small number of

bacteria that can take years to become

active. The WHO estimates that around

a quarter of the world's population has

latent TB.

Despite the high mortality rates, the

only existing vaccine is the 100-yearold

BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guérin)

vaccine, which is less effective for adults

and older teenagers.

Kundai Chinyenze, executive medical

director at the International Aids

Vaccine Initiative, said: "We have

promising vaccine candidates and we

know how to move them forward. Latestage

vaccine research is expensive, but

in fact, it is only a tiny fraction of the

tremendous human and economic cost

of the TB epidemic. After Covid,

everybody understands better than

ever that investing in vaccines is not

just the right thing to do, it is the smart

thing to do."

MONDAY, NOveMBeR 8, 2021 6

eviction of influential illegal

installations in Banaripara

s MIzAnUL IsLAM, BAnArIpArA Correspondent

the administration has demolished 3 halffinished

establishments occupied by Mawlad

Hossain sana, general secretary of Upazila

Awami League, in a drive to evict illegal

structures in government places from

saturday morning. Upazila nirbahi officer

and executive Magistrate ripon Kumar

saha and Upazila Assistant Commissioner

(Land) sanjida Islam rikta led the eviction

drive.

police officer-in-Charge (Investigation)

Md. zafar Ahmed led the police force at that

time. Mawlad Hossain sana, general

secretary of the Upazila Awami League, has

set up three semi-finished establishments on

the land at Banaripara Ferry Ghat. recently,

the tender process for the proposal to build a

90 meter long bridge along the north side of

Banaripara is underway. As the Vt was

Banaripara administration demolished 3 half-finished illegally constructed

establishments in a drive to evict illegal structures in government places from

Saturday morning.

Photo: S Mizanul Islam

Cox's BAzAr Correspondent

Cox's Bazar development

Authority was established in

2016 to establish a modern

and attractive tourist city. Lt.

Col. Forkan Ahmed, LdMC,

psC is acting as the founding

chairman. At the outset of

the establishment, as part of

building a sustainable

planned tourism city, with

the kind approval of the

prime Minister, the

organizational structure with

240 manpower was finally

approved on 1 February

2018. 13 manpower have

already been recruited and

further recruitment activities

are in progress.

since its inception, the


Authority has been working

tirelessly to control the

planned and unplanned

development of Cox's Bazar,

development of road

infrastructure, enhancement

of beauty and development

of tourism industry. Within

a short time of its

establishment, the Cox's

Bazar development

Authority has been able to

complete 80% of the

construction work of its 10-

storey office building; the

foundation stone was laid by

prime Minister sheikh

Hasina on May 08, 2018. to

rehabilitate the traditional

Laldighi, Goldighi and

Bazarghata ponds in Cox's

Bazar city for the

development of tourism

industry, these three ponds,

which are thousands of years

old, filled with garbage piles

FArIdpUr Correspondent

the property of Belayet Hossain, son of late

Khandaker Ashraf Hossain of nagarkanda

upazila of Faridpur district has been forcibly

seized by his own nephews. the victim,

Belayet Hossain, on thursday, november 4,

filed a petition with the Home Minister

seeking return of ancestral property and safety

of life.

Mentioned in the application, 'I am

Khandaker Belayet Hossain, father, late

Khandaker Ashraf Hossain, village Gorail, po:

sakrail, upazila: nagarkanda, district:

Faridpur. My nephews, respectively AsI

nurul Islam (Bp-606113604, workplacedhamrai

thana, dhaka district), AsI

touhidul Islam (Bp-6406113606, workplaceoffice

of the superintendent of police,

shariatpur district), naik shahidul Islam

(Workplace - dhaka district, dhaka range),

and occupants, have been

constructed with walkway

construction, souvenir shop,

office building, office

building , Aesthetically

arranged with landscaping,

cafeteria, densing water,

library. Hon'ble state

Minister for Housing and

public Works Mr. sharif

Ahmed Mp inaugurated the

project on 09 september

2020. Four sculptures and

political history of

Bangladesh have been

erected at 4 important places

in Cox's Bazar city namely-

Bangladesh with language

movement of 1952, mass

movement of students in

1962, six point demands of

Bangabandhu sheikh

Mujibur rahman in 1966,

mass uprising of 1969,

general election of 1970 and

great liberation war of 1971.

terracotta has been set up

'unwavering in development'

with various development

works of the government

and development activities

of Cox's Bazar development

Authority.

on the instructions of the

obstructed there, the administration

launched an operation to evict the illegal

installations. Mawlad Hossain sana, general

secretary of the affected upazila Awami

League, said he had leased the land from the

land office. Which is valid till november 20.

Upazila nirbahi officer and executive

Magistrate ripon Kumar saha, who led the

illegal eviction drive, said the three Vts that

were demolished were government property.

no lease or lease was given to anyone from

the government in that place or spot.

therefore, illegal installations have been

evicted in the interest of development of the

government. In addition, those who were

already filling the river with sand on both

sides of the river in the name of the bridge

have also been stopped. He said so far no

approval has been given for the construction

of the bridge.

Master plan taken for the development of

Cox's Bazar tourist city: Forkan Ahmed

Lt. Col. Forkan Ahmed

prime Minister's office, the


Authority has planted

10,000 saplings on the road

from patuartek to teknaf on

Marine drive road; 1 lakh

saplings will be planted in

phases. the Cox's Bazar

development Authority has

taken initiative to conserve

the biodiversity of the

longest beach by providing

fences at 05 points to protect

the biodiversity including

red crabs, turtles, dolphins

and sea cliffs. to ensure safe

movement of local people

and incoming tourists, the

road from darianagar to

Himchhari and Cox's Bazar

town on Marine drive road

has been illuminated by

installing Led lights.

Various development

projects have also been

undertaken by the Cox's

Bazar development

Authority for the

development of road

infrastructure. Among

them, Holiday Mor-

Bazarghata-Larpara (Bus

stand) project has already

been started at the field level

with the kind approval of the

eCneC meeting held under

the chairmanship of Hon'ble

prime Minister. the project

will be completed in

december 2022 with

modern facilities like

construction of walkway,

cycleway, greening, footover

bridge, installation of street

lights (electrification),

construction of pavement,

saucer drain, CCtV camera,

WiFi connection, souvenir

shop etc.

AsI nurul, brothers forcibly seizes

uncle's property in Faridpur

and Constable zahid Hasan (Bp-9011142106,

workplace-dB, Gopalganj district). they all

work in the police. My nephews have been

forcibly occupying and enjoying my ancestral

house, crop land and the property I purchased

for a long time. I had to stay in different places

with my family due to my government job. My

nephews live in the house I bought. When I

wanted to return home after retirement from

work, my neohews demanded tk 2 lakh from

me and did not allow me to enter my house.

When I was threatened in various ways, I

left my ancestral home and lived with my

family in Boalmari Upazila. they have shown

their employability and forcibly seized my

resources through their rural battalion forces.

When I wanted my property back, they

introduce themselves as very powerful people

and threaten the police. threatens to frame

me and my children in false weapons and

murder cases.

rajshahi City

dwellers to get

another

four-lane road

rAJsHAHI: In addition to

many others, rajshahi city

dwellers are going to get

another four-lane road as

rajshahi City Corporation

(rCC) has taken an initiative

to convert the double-lane

road into a four-lane one,

reports Bss.

the rCC will turn the area

from -- 4.17 kilometer

Bhadra railway crossing to

naodapara bus terminal

road-to 80-feet wide along

with a road-divider and

another lane for nonmechanized

vehicles with an

outlay of around taka 69.71

crore.

City Mayor AHM

Khairuzzaman Liton

inaugurated

the

construction work after

unveiling the foundation

stone yesterday saying the

road will be a modern one.

Liton said the road will be

constructed as part of rCC's

taka 2,993-crore project

titled 'Integrated Urban

Infrastructure development

in rajshahi City'.

Under the mega project,

the rCC is going to construct

five more flyovers soon for

overall development of the

metropolis through freeing

it from traffic congestion.

recently, the city

corporation has taken up

taka 1175.52-crore project

for construction of the

flyovers and 19

infrastructures.

the flyovers will be

constructed on Haragram

natunpara railway

Crossing, rajshahi Court

station railway Crossing,

Bilsimla railway Crossing,

shaheed

AHM

Kamaruzzaman railway

Crossing, Bhadra railway

Crossing and Mohanpur

railway Crossing.

earlier, the city

corporation has constructed

a 202.5-meter flyover along

with a 120-meter ramp at

Budhpara railway crossing

with an estimated cost of

taka 29.28 crore for the first

time in rajshahi city.

Liton said the rajshahi

city will get a new look upon

successful implementation

of the mega project.

rangpur region to

produce 22.07 lakh

tonnes Boro rice

rAnGpUr: the government

has fixed a record target of

producing over 22.07 lakh

tonnes of clean Boro rice (3.10

lakh tonnes of paddy) from

5.03 lakh hectares of land for

rangpur agriculture during

this rabi season, reports Bss.

officials of the department

of Agricultural extension

(dAe) said farmers produced

21.56 lakh tonnes of clean

Boro rice (32.34 tonnes of

paddy) from five lakh hectares

of land in all five districts of

the region last season.

earlier, the dAe had fixed a

target of producing 21.54 lakh

tonnes of clean Boro rice

(32.31 lakh tonnes of paddy)

from 4.96 lakh hectares of

land for the region during the

last rabi season.

this season, farmers will

produce 11.36 lakh tonnes of

hybrid variety Boro rice from

2.11 lakh hectares of land,

11.67 lakh tonnes of high

yielding variety rice from 2.90

lakh hectares and 3,200

tonnes of local variety Boro

rice from 1,760 hectares of

land.

Currently, farmers are busy

with harvesting Aman rice

and sowing seeds of rabi

crops like potato, maize,

mustard and winter

vegetables on their croplands

alongside preparing Boro

seedbeds of early varieties of

Boro rice.

Farmers will start preparing

Boro rice seedbeds in full

swing from this month-end

and begin transplantation of

Boro rice seedlings on the

low-lying areas from latedecember

to complete

harvest of the crop before the

next rainy season.

50th National Cooperative Day was celebrared in Sreepur Upazila under Magura district on Saturday.

Photo: M R Jinnah

national Cooperative day

observed in sreepur

M r JInnAH, sreepUr Correspondent

50th national Cooperative day-2021 was

observed in sreepur upazila under Magura

district on saturday in a befitting manner.

the programme was organized by sreepur

Upazila administration and Cooperative

department.

Marking the day national Flag and

cooperative Flag were hoisted jointly by

Assistant Commissioner (Land) sreepur

shyamananda Kumar Kundu and sreepur

upazila Cooperative officer Md nurol Islam

at the premises of sreepur Upazila parishad.

Covid-19 cases cross 55,400

in rangpur division

rAnGpUr: the number of

Covid-19 cases has crossed the

55,400 mark in the division

where the pandemic situation

continues improving during

the last more than two and a

half months, reports Bss.

"the number of Covid-19

cases reached 55,403 with

diagnosis of nine new patients

after testing 164 samples at

the positivity rate of 5.49

percent on saturday," Acting

divisional director (Health)

dr Abu Md zakirul Islam told

Bss.

the district-wise break up of

total patients include 12,475 of

rangpur, 3,811 panchagarh,

4,454 of nilphamari, 2,742 of

Lalmonirhat, 4,645 of

Kurigram, 7,632 of

thakurgaon, 14,780 of

dinajpur and 4,864 of

Gaibandha in the division, he

said.

Meanwhile, no Covid-19

infected patient died during

the last 24 hours ending at 8

am yesterday in the division

where the total number of

casualties remained steady at

1,243, he also said

the average fatality rate

currently stands at 2.24

Later a discussion meeting was held at

Upazila parishad conference room.

Assistant Commissioner (Land) sreepur

shyamananda Kumar Kundu presided over

the discussion meeting. Among others

sreepur Upazila social scrvice officer Wasim

Akram, adviser of Goka danis A,s.M

sifuzzaman, Formar Upazila Muktjoddha

Commander Ikram Ali Biswash, sreepur

sadar Union Chairman Md. Moshiar

rahman were also present and spoke in the

program.

sreepur upazila Cooperative officer Md.

nurol Islam delivered welcome speech.

percent in the division.

the district-wise break up of

1,243 fatalities hovers at 293 in

rangpur, 80 in panchagarh,

89 in nilphamari, 68 in

Lalmonirhat, 69 in Kurigram,

254 in thakurgaon, 327 in

dinajpur and 63 in

Gaibandha.

"since the beginning of the

Covid-19 pandemic, a total of

2,95,023 collected samples

were tested till saturday, and

of them, 55,403 were found

Covid-19 positive with an

average infection rate of

18.78 percent in the

division," dr Islam said.

so far, the number of

healed Covid-19 patients

reached 53,139 with recovery

of 14 more on saturday

raising the average recovery

rate to 95.91 percent in the

division.

the recovered patients

include 11,477 of rangpur,

3,677 panchagarh, 4,351

nilphamari, 2,625

Lalmonirhat, 4,527

Kurigram, 7,312

thakurgaon, 14,381 in

dinajpur and 4,789

Gaibandha districts.

Among the 55,139

patients, 52 are undergoing

treatments at isolation units,

including eight critical

patients at ICU beds and

nine at High dependency

Unit beds, after recovery of

53,139 patients and 1,243

deaths while 969 are

remaining in home isolation.

"Meanwhile, the number

of citizens who got the first

dose of the Covid-19 vaccine

rose to 50,53,862, and

among them, 31,43,363 got

the second dose of the jab till

saturday in the division," dr

Islam added Chief of

divisional Coronavirus

service and prevention task

Force and principal of

rangpur Medical College

professor dr. AKM

nurunnobi Lyzu said the

Covid-19 situation is

improving during the last

more than a couple of

months.

"However, everyone

should remain careful and

properly abide by the health

directives and hygiene rules

to contain further spread of

the deadly virus during this

winter in the division," he

said.

OC of Lalmohan Police Station Maksudur Rahman Murad has been awarded

as the best Officer-in-Charge of all the police stations of Barishal Division on

Sunday.

Photo: Hasan Pintu

rAKUB compensates

to its corona-affected

employee's families

rAJsHAHI: rajshahi Krishi

Unnayan Bank (rAKUB) has

distributed taka 4.75 crore as

compensation among family

members of 10 of its officers

and employees who died of

Covid-19 since the pandemic

began, reports Bss.

the bank authority

disbursed the compensation

at the headquarters

conference hall here on

saturday.

rAKUB Managing director

Ismail Hossain accompanied

by deputy Managing director

Muhammad Asaduzzaman

and General Manager Joynal

Abedeen handed over the

cheques of the payment.

speaking on the occasion,

Ismail Hossain expressed his

deep sympathy to the

bereaved family members

and said the bank will remain

beside them with all possible

financial and mental support.

sources said the bank has

disbursed agricultural loans

of tK 572.57 crore during the

first three months of the

current fiscal year aimed at

increasing crop production

and boosting rural economy,

recouping the losses caused

by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Murad awarded

as best oC of

Barishal range

HAsAn pIntU, LAMoHAn

Correspondent

oC of Lalmohan police

station Maksudur rahman

Murad has been selected as

the best officer-in-Charge of

all the police stations of

Barishal division for

keeping the law and order

situation smooth including

drug recovery, arrest of war

criminals and bit policing

activities.

At the Barishal range

police meeting room oC

Maksudur rahman Murad

was handed a crest and

honorary memento by

Barishal range dIG sM

Akhtaruzzaman for being

eected as the best oC of the

department on sunday

morning.

during the time, Former

Bhola superintendent of

police sarkar Mohammad

Kaiser,

current

superintendent of police

Mohammad saiful Islam,

Additional superintendent

of police (Administration)

Abul Kalam Azad and others

were present at the time.

According to police

sources, in just 13 months of

joining in Lalmohan police

station, oC Murad was

elected as the best oC four

times. so far, 750 pieces of

yaba and about 14 kg of

cannabis have been

recovered in 72 drug cases.

Besides, oC Maksudur

rahman Murad disposed of

a total of 1,141 warrants

including 36 convicted

warrants. He also laid great

emphasis on bit policing,

which would make the

judicial system of the rural

people uninterrupted.

Iraqi prime minister survives

assassination bid with drones

BAGHDAD : Iraq's Prime Minister

Mustafa al-Kadhimi survived an

assassination attempt with armed

drones that targeted his residence

early Sunday and officials said he was

unharmed. The attack was a major

escalation amid tensions sparked by

the refusal of Iran-backed militias to

accept last month's parliamentary

election results, reports UNB.

Two Iraqi officials told The

Associated Press that seven of al-

Kadhimi's security guards were

injured in the attack with two armed

drones which occurred in Baghdad's

heavily fortified Green Zone area.

They spoke on condition of

anonymity because they were not

authorized to give official statements.

"The rockets of treason will not

shake one bit of the steadfastness

and determination of the heroic

security forces," the prime minister

tweeted shortly after the attack. "I am

fine and among my people. Thank

God."

In a statement, the government

said the drones tried to hit al-

Kadhimi's home. Residents of

Baghdad heard the sound of an

explosion followed by gunfire from

the direction of the Green Zone,

which houses foreign embassies and

government offices.

The statement released by staterun

media said the failed

assassination attempt was with "an

explosives-laden drone that tried to

target his residence in the Green

Zone."

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi poses in his office during

an interview with The Associated Press in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, July

23, 2021. The Iraqi government says Prime Minister Mustafa al-

Kadhimi has survived an assassination attempt with an armed drone

and is unharmed. In a statement released Sunday, Nov. 7, the government

said the drone tried to hit al-Kadhimi's home in Baghdad's

heavily fortified Green Zone area.

Photo : AP

"The security forces are taking the

necessary measures in connection

with this failed attempt," it said.

It was not clear who was behind the

attack, nor did anyone immediately

claim responsibility. It comes amid a

stand-off between security forces and

pro-Iran Shiite militias whose

supporters have been camped

outside the Green Zone for nearly a

month after they rejected the results

of Iraq's parliamentary elections in

which they were the biggest losers.

"The assassination attempt is a

dramatic escalation, crossing a line in

unprecedented fashion that may

have violent reverberations," wrote

Ranj Alaaldin, a nonresident fellow

at Brookings Institution, in a post on

Twitter.

Protests turned deadly Friday

when the demonstrators marched

toward the Green Zone. There was an

exchange of fire in which one

protester affiliated with the militias

was killed. Dozens of security forces

were injured. Al-Khadimi ordered an

investigation to determine what

sparked the clashes and who violated

orders not to open fire.

Some of the leaders of the most

powerful militia factions loyal to Iran

openly blamed al-Kadhimi for

Friday's clashes and the protester's

death.

"The blood of martyrs is to hold you

accountable," said Qais al-Khazali,

leader of the Asaib Ahl al-Haq

militia, addressing al-Kadhimi at a

funeral held for the protester. "The

protesters only had one demand

against fraud in elections.

Responding like this (with live fire)

means you are the first responsible

for this fraud."

The funeral was attended by

leaders of the mostly Shiite Iranbacked

factions who together are

known as the Popular Mobilization

Forces, or Hashd al-Shaabi in Arabic.

China's exports stay

strong, trade surplus

hits $84 billion

BEIJING : China's exports

remained strong in October, a

positive sign for an economy

trying to weather power

shortages and COVID-19

outbreaks.

The country's customs

agency said Sunday that

exports totaled $300.2 billion,

up 27.1% from a year ago. That

was down from a 28.1%

increase in September but still

healthy. Imports came in at

$215.7 billion, a 20.6% rise.

Exports and imports are

much higher than a year ago,

when much of the world was in

the throes of the COVID-19

pandemic, but there is

widespread concern that

economic headwinds are

slowing growth.

China's economy has been

buffeted by the government's

tough COVID-19-related

restrictions, which have

depressed domestic travel and

consumer demand, and power

shortages that have pushed

down factory production.

Regulators are also cracking

down on debt-laden real estate

developers, slowing the

housing market.

MONDAY, NOVeMBer 8, 2021

7

Sudan anti-coup protesters

block streets

KHARTOUM : Sudanese anti-coup

demonstrators built street barricades in and

around the capital overnight Saturday

following calls for civil disobedience to protest

last month's military coup.

Activists were seen working in darkness to

pile up bricks and large slabs to block streets in

Khartoum and neighbouring cities, according

to witnesses and AFP correspondents.

Their preparation followed calls for civil

disobedience made by the Sudanese

Professionals Association (SPA), an umbrella

of unions which were instrumental in the

2018-2019 protests which ousted the longtime

autocratic president Omar al-Bashir.

The SPA circulated its appeals via text

messages to bypass internet outages since

October 25, the day of the putsch.

"The Sudanese people have rejected the

military coup," the SPA said on Twitter,

vowing "no negotiation, no partnership, no

legitimacy".

"We will start by barricading the main

streets to prepare for the mass civil

disobedience on Sunday and Monday," it said,

urging protesters to avoid confrontation with

the security forces.

Nationwide protests-including by tens of

thousands on October 30 -- have been met by

a deadly crackdown. At least 14 demonstrators

have been killed and about 300 wounded,

according to the independent Central

Committee of Sudan's Doctors.

By Sunday morning, some shops were still

open but others were shuttered in Khartoum

and its twin cities of Omdurman and

Khartoum-North, according to witnesses.

"Movement on the streets is less than usual

but there is not full blockage of streets or

closure of shops" after the civil disobedience

call, said a witness from Omdurman who

declined to give his name fearing reprisals.

Almost two weeks ago Sudan's top general

Abdel Fattah al-Burhan dissolved the

government as well as the ruling joint militarycivilian

Sovereign Council that was supposed

to lead the country toward full civilian rule.

He also declared a state of emergency and

detained Sudan's civilian leadership, including

Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and

members of his government.

Hamdok was later placed under effective

house arrest and the military has since

Thursday released four civilian members of his

government.

Other key figures remain in detention.

The military takeover sparked international

condemnation, including punitive aid cuts and

demands for a swift return to civilian rule.

Burhan insists it "was not a coup" but a move

to "rectify the course of the transition."

Season's first snow in

Beijing disrupts traffic

BEIJING : Snowfall has

continued to lash the

Chinese capital of Beijing

since Saturday evening,

affecting road traffic in the

region, reports BSS

A large part of the city

received snowfall from 6

p.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday

following rainfall earlier

during the day. The snow is

expected to last till Sunday

noon or afternoon, said Guo

Jinlan, chief forecaster of the

Beijing meteorological

center.

The snowfall may reach 6

mm to 12 mm in the city

proper and the southern

area, with the accumulated

snow reaching up to 10 cm,

said Guo, adding that the

temperature will drop

drastically accompanied by

strong winds.

As of 8:30 a.m. Sunday,

more than 164 bus routes

have been suspended, and

many sections of multiple

expressways have been

closed, according to traffic

authorities.

The city has issued yellow

alerts for cold waves, strong

winds, icy roads, as well as

snowstorms.

China has a four-tier colorcoded

weather warning

system, with red

representing the most

severe, followed by orange,

yellow and blue.

China's foreign

trade up 22.2 pct

in first 10 months

BEIJING : China's total

imports and exports

expanded 22.2 percent year

on year to 31.67 trillion yuan

(4.89 trillion U.S. dollars) in

the first 10 months of 2021,

official data showed Sunday.

The figure marked an

increase of 23.4 percent from

the pre-epidemic level in

2019, according to the

General Administration of

Customs.

Both exports and imports

continued double-digit

growth in the first 10 months

of the year, surging 22.5

percent and 21.8 percent

from a year earlier,

respectively.

In October alone, the

country's imports and exports

rose 17.8 percent year on year,

but 5.6 percent slower than

September, the data showed.

Houston leaders seek

clues for concert

mishap that killed 8

HOUSTON : Authorities said they would

watch video, interview witnesses and review

concert protocols to determine how eight

people died at a Houston music festival when

fans suddenly surged toward the stage to

watch rapper Travis Scott.

City officials said Saturday they were in the

early stages of investigating the

pandemonium that unfolded Friday evening

at Astroworld, a sold-out, two-day event in

NRG Park with an estimated 50,000 people

in attendance. One attendee said that as a

timer clicked down to the start of Scott's

performance, the crowd pushed forward.

"As soon as he jumped out on the stage, it

was like an energy took over and everything

went haywire," concertgoer Niaara Goods

said. "All of a sudden, your ribs are being

crushed. You have someone's arm in your

neck. You're trying to breathe, but you can't."

Goods said she was so desperate to get out

that she bit a man on the shoulder to get him

to move.

The dead ranged in age from 14 to 27, and

13 people were still hospitalized Saturday,

Mayor Sylvester Turner said. He called the

disaster "a tragedy on many different levels"

and said it was too early to draw conclusions

about what went wrong. Dozens were

injured.

"It may well be that this tragedy is the

result of unpredictable events, of

circumstances coming together that couldn't

possibly have been avoided," said Judge Lina

Hidalgo, Harris County's top elected official.

"But until we determine that, I will ask the

tough questions." Experts who have studied

deaths caused by crowd surges say they are

often a result of density - too many people

packed into a small space. The crowd is often

running either away from a perceived threat

or toward something they want, such as a

performer, before hitting a barrier.

G. Keith Still, a visiting professor of crowd

science at the United Kingdom's University

of Suffolk, has testified as an expert witness

in court cases involving crowds. He said he

usually does not look at eyewitness reports in

the early stages of analyzing an incident

because emotions can cloud the picture, and

witnesses can see only what's immediately

around them.

Based on fire codes, the venue could have

held 200,000 people, but city officials

limited the attendance to 50,000, Houston

Fire Chief Samuel Pena said.

"It was the crowd control at the point of the

stage that was the issue, especially as the

crowd began to surge toward the stage,"

Pena said.

The deaths called to mind a 1979 concert

by the Who where 11 people died as

thousands of fans tried to get into

Cincinnati's Riverfront Coliseum. Other past

crowd catastrophes include the deaths of 97

people in an overcrowded Hillsborough

Stadium in 1989 in Sheffield, England, and

numerous disasters connected with the

annual hajj in Saudi Arabia.

People in the Houston crowd reported lots

of pushing and shoving during the

performances leading up to Scott's set.

Authorities said they would watch video, interview witnesses and review

concert protocols to determine how eight people died at a Houston music

festival when fans suddenly surged toward the stage to watch rapper

Travis Scott.

Photo: AP

China's exports remained strong in October, a positive sign for an economy trying to weather power

shortages and COVID-19 outbreaks.

Photo : AP

Ethiopians vow

to repel rebels at

pro-military rally

ADDIS ABABA : Tens of

thousands of Ethiopians

vowed to defend the capital

from advancing rebels

during a pro-military rally

on Sunday where attendees

dismissed diplomatic efforts

to end the year-long war.

The rally in central Addis

Ababa was the latest attempt

to shore up public support

for the conflict against the

Tigray People's Liberation

Front (TPLF) and allied

groups.

It came five days after the

government declared a

nationwide state of

emergency ostensibly to

protect civilians from the

TPLF, which has claimed

key gains in recent days

while floating a possible

march on the capital.

US official Jeffrey Feltman

arrived in Ethiopia on

Thursday to try to broker an

end to the hostilities.

The US embassy

announced on Saturday it

was ordering the departure

of non-emergency staff, days

after countries including

Saudi Arabia, Norway,

Sweden and Denmark urged

their citizens to leave.

Rally-goers on Sunday

held signs blasting Western

media for broadcasting "fake

news" overstating rebel

gains.

Other signs urged the US,

one of the harshest

international critics of the

war, to "stop sucking our

blood".

Addis Ababa mayor

Adanech Abebe said in a

speech that Ethiopia's foes

were trying to "terrorise our

population".

"They say Addis Ababa is

surrounded, but Addis

Ababa is only surrounded by

its incredible people, by its

vigilant, heroic children,"

she said.

India's Cattle Royale dung

fight marks end of Diwali

GUMATAPURA : Joyful crowds pelted each

other with fistfuls of cow manure this

weekend as part of one village's local ritual

to mark the end of Diwali, India's most

important Hindu festival, reports BSS

Similar to Spain's "La Tomatina"-the

eccentric tomato-hurling celebration of the

local fruit-residents of Gumatapura instead

fling snowball-sized wads of a more earthy

variety.

The Gorehabba festival begins with the

afternoon collection of "ammunition" from

cow-owning homes in the village, which lies

on the border of the southern states of

Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The manure is

brought to the local temple on tractor

trolleys, before a priest performs a blessing

ritual.

After that, the dung is dumped in an open

area-with men and boys wading in to

prepare their weapons for the battle ahead.

Death toll in Lagos high-rise

collapse rises to 42

LAGOS : The death toll in a high-rise

collapse in Nigeria's Lagos has risen to 42

while the number of survivors increased to

15, state authorities have announced.

The cause of Monday's disaster is still

unknown but building collapses are

common in Africa's most populous country,

where millions live in dilapidated properties

and construction standards are routinely

ignored.

"We have a total of 42 bodies that have

been recovered," Governor Babajide Sanwo-

Olu said late on Saturday.

The 21-storey building under construction

in the upscale Ikoyi district crumbled on

Monday afternoon, trapping dozens of

people working on the site.

As of Friday, the authorities had said that

nine people had survived-some were rescued

alive, others on the ground floor managed to

escape unharmed.

Over the weekend, the number of survivors

increased to 15 after six additional people

who escaped the collapse were identified.

People flock to Gumatapura from farflung

cities each year, and for those in

attendance, the messy battle is as much

about fun as it is about the perceived health

benefits.

"If they have a disease, it will get cured,"

said Mahesh, a farmer at Saturday's festival.

Some Hindus believe cows and everything

they produce is sacred and purifying.

Hindu nationalist Prime Minister

Narendra Modi has pushed for greater

protection of the animals, and many Indian

states have long banned their slaughter for

meat.

Members of Modi's party have touted the

use of cow urine to prevent and cure Covid-

19 and other ailments.

His government is also looking to

encourage the production of toothpaste,

shampoos and mosquito repellents from

bovine waste.

The total number of people on site is

unknown but Sanwo-Olu said 49 families

had so far filed a missing persons report and

that "DNA examination was being

undertaken on some of the bodies difficult to

be identified."

The governor said money was set aside to

help families cover burial fees and that

financial support was also offered to

survivors.

Search and rescue efforts were still

ongoing Saturday, the authorities said.

The governor earlier described the incident

as a "terrible national disaster", adding that

"mistakes were made from all angles".

He set up an independent panel to probe

the causes of the collapse and declared three

days of mourning starting on Friday.

Building collapses happen frequently in

densely populated areas of Lagos, which is

home to some 20 million people.

Two other smaller buildings in Lagos also

collapsed on Tuesday following heavy rains,

though no one was killed.

MOnDAY, nOVEMBER 8, 2021

8

US economy adding jobs with

gusto as Delta wave subsides

A reunion fair was recently organized in the tourist city of Cox's Bazar with electronics dealers of the

Minister Group from across the country. The Chairman of Minister Group and FBCCI Vice

President, MA Razzak Khan Raj met with the dealers at the event. Minister Group Deputy Executive

Director Md. Shah Alam, CFO Md. Fakhrul Islam FCA, Director Md. Billal Hossain, Engineer

Monirul Hasan Swapan, General Manager Md. Riaz Mahmud and Md. Ashrafuzzaman and other

senior officials of the company were present at the event. Minister Group Chairman and FBCCI Vice

President M.A. Razzak Khan Raj said, "We will move forward with you. You are also partners in the

path of the Minister Group Success." He also added , "Soon we will be able to implement our slogan

'Lokkho Ebar Bissho joy'."The dealers present at the fair also expressed their determination to move

forward together.

Photo: Courtesy

Walton launches smart fitness scale

Bangladeshi tech-giant

Walton has launched its new

product, smart fitness scale

to meet the needs of healthconscious

customers. This

device will allow them to

know 14 in formations

related to fitness, including

weight, body fat, BMI and

heart rate. This information

can be stored on the cloud

server via the smartphone's

mobile app, allowing users

to monitor various health

related information, a press

release said.

A total of 4 models of

smart fitness scales have

been released in the market

with packaging name of

'Aidmision', keeping the

prices between BDT 2,950

Algerian farmer's

olive oil wins

global recognition

AIN OUSSERA: Hakim

Alileche left a successful

career in graphic design and

moved to the Algerian

countryside to produce

"magic potion"-organic olive

oil that has won him

international recognition,

reports BSS.

The 48-year-old says he

chose the Ain Oussera plateau

for its cheap land and water

supply.

His oil won first prize at the

Dubai Olive Oil Competition

in the Extra Virgin Early

Harvest category in February

2021 and in May he won silver

at the Japan Olive Oil Prize.

"These honours really

reassured us because it means

we were right," he said.

The farm of some 40

hectares (100 acres) has over

15,000 olive trees, and so far

9,000 have started producing.

"I started planting them bit

by bit from 2005. I like

farming and I've been fond of

olive trees since I was little,"

he said.

"In Algeria, it's a sacred

tree."

Producing organic olive oil

"puts me right into this mood

of respect and protection for

the planet," he said.

He has visited several other

producing countries-Bosnia-

Herzegovina, Greece, France

and Italy to learn about

production methods.

"These trees have never had

any chemical treatment and I

will do everything to make it

stay that way," he said,

clasping a goblet of oil freshly

extracted from his modern

Italian press.

and BDT 3,950. The device

is available at all Walton

plazas, distributor

showrooms, IT dealers and

mobile dealer showrooms

across the country with its

own online shop e-plaza

(https://eplaza.waltonbd.com).

6-month service warranty

is available for Aidmision

Fitness Pro Smart Scale

which can be availed at all

Walton service centers

across the country.

With black and white

colors, the Walton Smart

Fitness Scale includes other

features such as fat-free

body weight, subcutaneous

fat, visceral fat, skeletal

muscle, muscle mass, body

water, bone mass, protein,

FRANKFURT: As inflation

soars to its highest level in

three decades in Germany,

Simon and Lena Wendland,

parents of newborn twins, say

that their lives have become

more uncertain, reports BSS.

Their power supplier has

just announced it is doubling

its electricity prices, while

property prices are looking

"rather scary".

"We don't know where this

is going to lead us," Simon

Wendland told AFP.

From energy and food, to

paper and rent, prices have

been marching mercilessly

higher both in Germany and

across Europe.

Latest data put inflation in

Europe's biggest economy at

five percent year-on-year, a

level not seen in the last 30

years.

Bild, the country's biggestselling

newspaper, blames the

European Central Bank for

failing to rein in prices and

even adding to the problem

with its cheap money policy.

The Frankfurt-based ECB

has argued that its record-low

interest rates and 1.85-

trillion-euro ($2.15-trillion)

pandemic emergency bondbuying

programme are

necessary to prop up an

economy ravaged by the

coronavirus crisis.

In Germany, however,

savers believe the ECB's zerointerest-rate

policy is eating

away at the value of their

assets.

Bild recently branded ECB

chief Christine Lagarde as

"Madame Inflation", saying

BMR, metabolic age etc.

There are a few models of

smart fitness scales of some

multinational companies in

the market. Walton is the

first domestic company to

come up with such health

device. The device has

rechargeable lithium ion

and AAA size batteries based

on models. As it is equipped

with all the latest features,

authorities expect that the

device will quickly take its

place in the list of

preferences of customers.

Product Manager Saad

Shihab said that users will

need to install an app called

'Fitness Pro' from the Google

Play Store to connect the

device with smartphones.

she "wears Chanel clothes"

but "mocks the fate of

pensioners, employees and

savers", even if the central

bank president has herself

expressed concern about the

rising price of basic foodstuffs

in supermarkets.

With its ultra-loose

monetary policy of recent

years, the ECB has long been a

bugbear for Germany's savers.

Bild had nicknamed

Lagarde's predecessor Mario

Draghi "Draghila", comparing

him to a vampire "sucking our

accounts to the last drop".

After the devastation

wrought by the inflationary

crises of the 1920s and 1970s,

Germans have an ingrained

fear of inflation, said ING

economist Carsten Brzeski.

Lagarde's repeated

assertion that recent price

surges are transitional is met

with disbelief in Europe's

most populous country.

"According to Madame

Lagarde, we will have

overcome all that by the

middle of next year, but that's

just what she says," said

Marlott Kroeber, a 72-yearold

former teacher.

German bankers, too, have

voiced scepticism about

Lagarde's assessment.

"There are more and more

indications that this price

surge is not temporary and we

will have to live with it beyond

this year," said Commerzbank

chief Manfred Knof.

Christian Sewing, his

counterpart at Deutsche

Bank, has similarly urged

central banks to "find a way to

The app is developed by

Walton's own research

team, adding all the features

that are available in the

conventional fitness scales

in the market with

additional features.

Walton Digi-Tech

Industries Limited's Deputy

Managing Director engineer

Liakat Ali said: People are

now more health conscious

than before. They like to

monitor their weight, body

fat and heart rate etc

regularly. But they feel the

necessity of a device which

provides all information.

Walton has released this

health device for the

customers' convenience. We

believe this device will play

helpful role in protecting the

health of the fitness

conscious customers.

Walton also has a number

of smart devices and

accessories in market,

including desktop, laptop,

all-in-one PC, monitor, tab,

keyboard, mouse, pen drive,

earphone, Wi-Fi router,

UPS, USB hub, card reader,

speaker, SSD, external SSD,

RAM, PCBA, memory card,

power bank, projector,

digital writing pad, USB

Type C Cable etc. Access

control devices, printers,

networking switches,

webcams are also on the

Walton's production lines.

Soaring prices fuel anti-ECB

sentiment in Germany

exit their very accomodative

monetary policy," and the

"sooner the better".

Germany's central bank

chief Jens Weidmann recently

dropped a bombshell by

announcing his resignation

from the powerful

Bundesbank at the end of this

year.

Weidmann, who has

headed the Bundesbank for a

decade, was often seen as a

lone voice against the ECB's

ultra-loose policy.

So with him leaving, "the

last defender of the German

saver has given up," said Die

Welt newspaper in a tribute to

the central banker.

Nevertheless, analysts

argue that the ECB has

safeguarded the eurozone's

prosperity with its policies.

Critics forget "that the

institution has also ensured

that the economy continues to

be given support, that the

eurozone is maintained and

the German job market sees a

boom" not seen in 20 years,

said Brzeski.

Employees have also been

able to benefit from a strong

economy while the state has

been able to take out loans at

negative rates.

Some consumers are

therefore still in the camp of

the ECB.

Pensioner Hermann Vogt

for one believes that the

central bank is "doing mostly

what is necessary" in the

interests of the 19-nation

zone.

WASHINGTON: More Americans went

back to work in October as Covid-19

cases receded, indicating the world's

largest economy had overcome the

obstacle posed by the Delta wave of the

virus and giving President Joe Biden a

much-needed boost, reports BSS.

The better-than-expected report from

the Labor Department released Friday

showed the US economy added

531,000 jobs last month and the

unemployment rate declined to 4.6

percent, both signs of a vigorous pace in

hiring by American businesses.

It was exactly the kind of news Biden

was hoping for after a week that saw his

Democrats suffer a sweeping defeat in

Virginia's gubernatorial election, while

the fate of one of the two spending bills

he has staked his presidency on remains

uncertain even as House lawmakers

prepare to vote on both later Friday.

Biden hailed what he called a

"historically strong recovery," spurred

by massive government stimulus

spending and the rapid deployment of

vaccines. "America is getting back to

work. Our economy is starting to work

for more Americans," he said at the

White House.

Industries that hired at a rapid pace

Chinese exports

solid in October

as Covid eases

overseas

SHANGHAI : China's

exports rose by a betterthan-expected

clip in

October, official data

showed on Sunday, with

demand strengthening in

some key markets such as

the United States and Covid

numbers easing overseas,

reports BSS.

The data from the world's

second-largest economy also

suggested that Chinese

factories had kept the goods

flowing out despite power

outages in recent months

caused by emission

reduction targets, the

surging price of coal, and

supply shortages.

The government said last

week that the power crisis

was winding down thanks to

a boost in domestic coal

output.

Exports rose a betterthan-expected

27.1 percent

on-year in October,

according to customs

authorities, to $300.2

billion. Imports came in

slightly below analyst

estimates, rising 20.6

percent in October.

In recent months, several

Chinese factories were

forced to halt operations due

to power outages, raising

concerns about global

supply chains.

The squeeze had worsened

as China's Covid-19 border

restrictions hindered

shipments of raw materials

from overseas while a trade

tiff with Australia

exacerbated the drop in coal

imports.

last month included manufacturing,

transportation and warehousing and

leisure and hospitality, the sector

encompassing bars and restaurants

that suffered the brunt of the downturn

when the pandemic began, the

government said.

"We got an unambiguously strong

October jobs report-big job gain,

unemployment fell, hours worked

increased and wage growth is strong,"

tweeted Mark Zandi of Moody's

Analytics.

He called it "strong evidence that as

the Delta-wave of the pandemic winds

down, the economy is revving back up."

The pace of hiring in August and

September had tapered as the fastspreading

Delta variant again snarled

business, but the latest report brought

welcome news with revisions showing

hiring was 235,000 higher than first

reported.

The Republican opposition

nonetheless criticized Biden's

stewardship of the economy, saying the

president deserves blame for rising

inflation and continued worker

shortages that are hampering business.

"After months of failed policies and

bad jobs reports, the one person who

Islami Bank holds webinar

on Fintech

Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd organized

webinar on 'FinTech: Shari'ah Perspective'

recently. Professor Md. Nazmul Hassan,

Ph.D, Chairman of the Bank addressed the

program as Chief Guest. Mohammed

Monirul Moula, Managing Director and

CEO of the bank presided over the webinar

while Dr. Md. Manzur-e-Elahi, Member of

Shari'ah Supervisory Committee

presented paper on the topic, a press

release said.

Dr. Tanveer Ahmad, Director, Professor

Dr. Mohammad Gias Uddin Talukder,

Chairman, Shari'ah Supervisory

Committee, Prof. Dr. Mohammad Abdus

Samad, Member Secretary of Shari'ah

Supervisory Committee, Muhammad

Qaisar Ali and Md. Omar Faruk Khan,

Additional Managing Directors and Taher

Ahmad Chowdhury, Deputy Managing

Director of the bank addressed on the

topic as panel discussant. Professor Dr.

Md. Salim Uddin, FCA, FCMA, Chairman,

Executive Committee, Mohammad

does not deserve credit for creating jobs

is Joe Biden," Republican National

Committee head Ronna McDaniel said

in a statement.

"Voters soundly rejected Biden's

failed economic agenda at the ballot box

this week and will do so again in 2022."

Despite October's gains, the report

indicated there were still 4.2 million

jobs missing from the economy

compared to February 2020, before the

world's largest Covid-19 outbreak

began.

The numbers of permanent job losers

and people on temporary layoff

changed little over the month, and

remain higher than before the

pandemic, according to the report.

There was also no improvement in

the labor force participation rate

indicating the share of the people in the

workforce, which was at 61.6 percent.

The Federal Reserve will surely take

note of that as it gauges the economy's

progress towards full employment,

which is among its criteria for lifting

rates from zero.

The data also showed wages rose

again last month and are up 4.9 percent

over the past year, factors that could

potentially sustain the price increases.

Solaiman, FCA, Chairman, Audit

Committee, Major General (Retd.) Engr.

Abdul Matin, Chairman, Risk

Management Committee, Md. Joynal

Abedin, Professor Dr. Qazi Shahidul Alam,

Syed Abu Asad, Professor Dr. Mohammad

Saleh Jahur, Professor Dr. Md. Fashiul

Alam, Khurshid-Ul-Alam and

Mohammed Nasir Uddin, FCMA,

Directors of the bank, Mufti Sayeed

Ahmad, Vice Chairman & Dr. Md. Ruhul

Amin Rabbani, Member Additional

Secretary of Shari'ah Supervisory

Committee, Dr. Hasan Mohammad

Moinuddin, Prof. Md. Mozahidul Islam

Chowdhury, Dr. Muhammad Saifullah,

Mufti Mohammad Muhibbullahil Baqee

and Mohammad Harunar Rashid,

Members of Shari'ah Supervisory

Committee also addressed in the webinar.

All executives of Head Office and IBTRA,

Heads of all Zones, Heads of all Corporate

and AD Branches and Shari'ah Muraqibs

of the bank attended the webinar.

Brazil opens 5G tender, seeking

$9 bin investment

BRASILIA : Brazil opened an

international tender Thursday to build

one of the world's biggest 5G data

networks, seeking $9 billion in

investment for Latin America's largest

economy, reports BSS.

Calling it a "historic" moment,

President Jair Bolsonaro opened the

tender in Brasilia with a symbolic bang of

the auctioneer's hammer, kicking off

bidding by 15 companies that officials

said could last through Friday.

The sprawling South American country

is looking to leverage so-called fifthgeneration

mobile technology to

accelerate the development of its

industrial and agribusiness sectors-as

well as bring super-fast internet to the cell

phones of its 213 million people.

The tender is for the right to build and

operate different "blocks" of the

frequency spectrum for 20 years, as well

as a separate network that will be

reserved for government

communications. Bidding for the latter

will exclude all equipment from Chinese

telecoms giant Huawei, the target of US

espionage accusations that have put

Brazil in a bind, forcing it to navigate the

tumultuous tech standoff between China

and the United States. The world's two

biggest powers are also Brazil's two

largest trading partners, and the country

has been under pressure from both sides

over the ground rules for its 5G network,

leading it to postpone the tender from

early 2021 as initially scheduled.

By Thursday afternoon, Brazil had

raked in $1.1 billion in investments from

winning bidders, including Telecom

Italia's local subsidiary, Tim; Spanish

group Telefonica's Brazilian unit; and

Claro, owned by Mexican telecoms

magnate Carlos Slim's America Movil.

Four of the 18 frequencies up for grabs

failed to attract bids.

"It is one of the largest 5G tenders in the

world. The potential is enormous,"

industry specialist Christian Perrone of

the Technology and Society Institute in

Rio de Janeiro told AFP.

The government is seeking total

investments of 50 billion reais ($9

billion): 40 billion reais to build the 5G

network-one of Latin America's first-and

10 billion reais that it will pocket for

frequency rights and use to boost

connectivity for public schools.

5G technology requires four to 10 times

as many antennas as 4G. The bidding

terms require winning companies to roll

out service in Brasilia and the 26 state

capitals by August 2022. Other cities of

more than 30,000 people can expect

service between 2025 and 2028.

Brazil hopes 5G technology will open

new horizons for its economy, ranging

from connected tractors and cropmonitoring

drones for the booming

agricultural sector to self-driving cars and

telemedicine to bridge the giant country's

infrastructure gaps.

"Consumers won't see that much

difference, aside from faster download

times for movies and videos. But from the

standpoint of industry, this is going to

open up a whole new reality for factories,

agribusiness, the productive sector," said

Marcos Ferrari of Conexis Brasil Digital, a

group representing five of the bidding

firms.

moNDAY, NovemBer 8, 2021

9

Neymar strikes twice as PSG

hold on to beat Bordeaux

SportS DeSk

Neymar suggested that speculation

about his decline was premature with

two sharply taken first-half goals on

Saturday as Paris Saint-Germain

hung on to win 3-2 at Bordeaux in

Ligue 1, reports BSS.

The Brazilian had only scored one

goal for PSG this season, and that was

a penalty in September, but he struck

from open play in the 26th and 43rd

minutes, both times set up by Kylian

Mbappe.

"He played a very good game," said

PSG manager Mauricio Pochettino.

"He scored two goals. It's important

for an offensive player to score."

Mbappe also scored as, in the

absence of injured Lionel Messi, the

two superstars made the difference in

a well-balanced game.

For his first goal, Neymar collected

a floated pass on the left of the penalty

box, stepped inside and unleashed a

shot between two defenders inside the

post.

Neymar again cut in for the second,

dancing past several defenders before

exchanging passes with Mbappe and

hitting the return first time, low and

again just inside the post.

Speculation had swirled around

Neymar's appetite for the game since

he said in October that next year's

World Cup in Qatar would be his last

as he "doesn't have the strength to put

up with more football".

Mbappe added a third in the 63rd

minute after PSG caught Bordeaux's

defence high up the field.

With defenders trailing far behind,

Georginio Wijnaldum raced through

on goal, drew keeper Benoit Costil

and side-footed the ball to Mbappe for

a tap in.

The brilliance of the two stars

seemed to have settled the match, but

Bordeaux hit back.

Alberth Elis gave the home team

late hope when he scuffed home a

74th- minute goal after PSG gave the

ball away trying to play out of their

own penalty area.

Two minutes into added time,

M'Baye Niang finished off a pacy

attack scooping home his first goal for

Bordeaux after a sharp exchange with

Jimmy Briand in the box.

But PSG had barely kicked off

again when the whistle sounded.

"We made two mistakes, the goals

came from those two mistakes," said

Pochettino.

"We could have killed the game

much earlier," he added. "We can't

lead 3-0 and let in two goals."

PSG moved 10 points clear of

second-place Lens, who thrashed

Troyes 4-0 on Friday. Nice, who host

Montpellier on Sunday, are another

point further back.

Earlier, champions Lille continued

to struggle to hold a lead in Ligue 1 as

they conceded an 83rd-minute goal

and drew 1-1 at home against Angers.

A week after they led away to PSG

until the 74th minute only to lose,

Lille went ahead when Tiago Djalo

struck in the 28th minute, slotting

home from a free kick by Renato

Sanches.

But they allowed a late equaliser

from Azzedine Ounahi who calmly

finished from a far-post cross by

Sofiane Boufal.

Lille remain in 12th and are 18

points behind PSG.

"It's a strange feeling," said Lille

coach Jocelyn Gourvennec. "We

dropped two points while we had the

feeling we were in control of the game

but it was not fluid either."

Neymar suggested that speculation about his decline was premature with two sharply taken firsthalf

goals on Saturday.

photo: Ap

Barca wonderkid Fati faces

new injury setback after

pulling up against Celta

SportS DeSk

Barcelona and Spain have

lost Ansu Fati to another

injury after the teenager

pulled up with a hamstring

problem towards the end of

the first half in Saturday's La

Liga clash against Celta,

reports AP.

The 19-year-old has seen

his efforts to make an impact

in 2021-22 severely

impacted by knee troubles.

And he may now spend

more time on the sideline,

casting a pall over an

otherwise perfect opening

45 minutes for the visitors in

Balaidos.

Starting for the first time

in La Liga since October's

Clasico defeat to Real

Madrid, Fati made an

instant impact as he opened

the scoring after just five

minutes.

Further goals from Sergio

Busquets and Memphis

followed, but the half was to

end on a low note for Barca

and their young star.

Fati pulled up in

discomfort while chasing a

lofted pass and immediately

signalled for treatment on a

hamstring problem, which

was confirmed by his club

along with a further injury

suffered by Eric Garcia.

He was forced to leave the

action in the 43rd minute,

heading straight off the pitch

and leaving his side with 10

men for the final moments

of the first half.

When the Catalans came

back out of the dressing

room the inevitable was

confirmed, with Alex Balde

replacing Fati in Sergi

Barjuan's line-up.

Stokes return 'massive boost' for

England's Ashes hopes: Burns

SportS DeSk

Confidence is high in the England camp that

they can regain the Ashes, with opening

batsman Rory Burns saying Sunday the return

of the talismanic Ben Stokes has provided a

"massive boost" for the squad, reports BSS.

England have not enjoyed much Test success

in recent months, losing home series to New

Zealand and India, and have not held the Ashes

since 2015.

But the late inclusion of Stokes, who has not

played any cricket since July because of a finger

injury and mental health issues, has lifted the

squad, Burns said.

"It's obviously a massive boost to get Stokesy

back in the side," Burns said from the luxury

resort on the Gold Coast where England's Test

players, who arrived in Australia on Saturday,

are serving 14 days in quarantine. "You know

what a good player he is. To get a bloke of his

calibre back around our group is a big lift for us.

"It's exciting because we wanted to get out

here and have the best side possible and

obviously Ben adds to that." The 30-year-old

Stokes is a proven match-winner and his

unbeaten 135 in a record run chase at

Headingley carried England to a stunning onewicket

victory and ensured the 2019 Ashes

were squared.

But the New Zealand-born all-rounder has

played down his return to full fitness and told

Sky Sports before leaving for Australia that

while he was desperate to be back playing in the

"pinnacle of Test cricket", one player did not

make a team.

"Although I know I'm a senior member of

that team over the last few years, every member

of that team is just as important as each other,"

he said.

"We've got the likes of Jimmy (Anderson),

Broady (Stuart Broad) who have obviously

been there, done that. Rooty -- fantastic leader

and England's greatest-ever batter, so we've got

everything to come back at Australia with what

they've got."

England have taken a back-up squad to

Australia to provide opposition in two warmup

games before the first Test starts in Brisbane

on December 8. The second Test is in Adelaide

from December 16, followed by the Boxing Day

Test in Melbourne, Sydney beginning on

January 5 and Perth on January 14, subject to

quarantine requirements.

Late inclusion of Stokes, who has not played any cricket since July because of a finger

injury and mental health issues, has lifted the squad, Burns said. photo: Ap

thomas tuchel insists ross Barkley can make an impact on Chelsea's bid to win the

premier League title.

photo: Ap

Tuchel urges Barkley to seize

Chelsea chance

SportS DeSk

Thomas Tuchel insists Ross Barkley

can make an impact on Chelsea's bid to

win the Premier League title after the

midfielder came in from the cold in

Saturday's 1-1 draw against Burnley,

reports BSS.

Barkley made his first Premier

League start this term as Tuchel

tweaked the leaders' line-up at

Stamford Bridge.

The 27-year-old got his rare chance

because Romelu Lukaku and Timo

Werner are injured, while Mason

Mount was only fit enough for a

substitute's role after a tooth infection.

Barkley started in a 'false nine' role in

Chelsea's three-man attack and

delivered arguably the best

performance of his troubled three-year

spell with the Blues.

Since signing from Everton in 2018,

Barkley has found it impossible to

recapture the dynamic displays that

made him the darling of Goodison

Park.

He spent last season in exile on loan

at Aston Villa and looked certain to

South Africa exit T20 World

Cup despite win, England

and Australia enter semis

SportS DeSk

Rassie van der Dussen

smashed an unbeaten 94 as

South Africa beat England

by 10 runs but failed to

qualify for the semi-finals of

the Twenty20 World Cup on

Saturday, reports BSS.

Group 1 winners England

and Australia, who beat

West Indies in the first

match of the day, made the

final four from the six-team

pool. South Africa posted

189 for two after Van de

Dussen smashed six sixes in

his 60-ball knock but

needed to limit England to

131 or fewer to edge out

Australia on net run-rate.

England, who topped the

group when they passed

109, finished on 179-8 after a

hat-trick by Kagiso Rabada

in the final over. It was

England's first loss in five

matches.

Van der Dussen and Aiden

Markram, who hit 52 off 25

balls, put on an unbeaten

attacking partnership of 103

for the third wicket to give

their team a challenging

total. England elected to

field first and Moeen Ali

struck early when he bowled

Reeza Hendricks for two.

Quinton de Kock and Van

der Dussen rebuilt the

innings with their secondwicket

stand of 71.

Adil Rashid broke the

stand as he sent back De

Kock out for 34 with his leg

spin.

But Van der Dussen stood

firm and mixed the right

dose of caution and

aggression to reach his halfcentury

in 37 balls.

He then combined with

Markram to take the assault

to the bowlers. The pair

attacked Chris Woakes in

his fourth over - the 16th

of the innings, hitting

three sixes between them

to add 21 runs.

eventually leave Chelsea. But Tuchel

has kept him around this season and in

only his second start in all

competitions, Barkley finally showed

his quality.

Linking with the midfield and driving

forward dangerously, while displaying

his range of passing, Barkley was

Chelsea's most influential figure

against Burnley.

Ironically, Barkley's last contribution

before being substituted to a standing

ovation was to lift a shot over the bar

that would have put Chelsea two goals

up after Kai Havertz's first half opener.

Barkley wasn't alone in missing a

good chance as Chelsea fluffed a host of

opportunities to kill off lowly Burnley

before Matej Vydra's 79th minute

equaliser.

Blues boss Tuchel might have second

guessed his decision to take off Barkley,

and he was quick to praise the player's

contribution.

"He waited a long time and he had a

huge impact on our matches when he

came on," Tuchel said.

He deserved the chance to start. We

changed the position in the front three

today, so he could play as a number 10.

"He had a good match. Maybe he had

the match on his foot with that chance.

If you see him in training he would

score that. "Of course he is angry on

himself but he created chances, so

nobody minds."

Barkley has made only eight

appearances in all competitions this

term and his lack of game-time has left

his England career also on hold.

If Mount, Lukaku and Werner are

available in the coming weeks, there

could be less opportunities for Barkley

to remind Tuchel of his qualities.

But, with Chelsea facing a hectic

schedule as they challenge for

silverware in four competitions, Tuchel

offered a glimmer of hope to the

midfielder.

"It depends on himself first of all, if he

stays humble and hard working. I'm

happy if he is not completely satisfied,"

Tuchel said. He was very serious from

the first moment in pre-season, but

there is a lot of competition at Chelsea.

"You need to be ready. If we think

you are ready there is a chance to

come on the pitch."

Gayle yet to retire, eyes

farewell game in Jamaica

SportS DeSk

zChris Gayle has reiterated that he hasn't

retired yet from international cricket.

Speculation on Gayle's future was rife on

Saturday (November 6) after the batsman

appeared to join Dwayne Bravo in signing off

from international cricket, reports AP.

However, the legendary batsman has

confirmed that he would like to bow out in

front of his home crowd.

"It's been a phenomenal career," Gayle

said in a Facebook Live chat with ICC after

West Indies' final match of the T20 WC. "I

didn't announce any retirement but (if) they

actually give me one game in Jamaica to go

in front of my home crowd, then I can say

'hey guys, thank you so much.'

"Let's see. If not, I'll announce it. Long time

and then I'll be joining DJ Bravo in the

backend and say thanks to each and

everyone but I can't say that as yet.

I was just having some fun today. Put

everything that happened aside. I was just

interacting with the fans in the stands and

just having some fun seeing as it's going to be

my last World Cup game."

Gayle also reflected on his long career and

revealed that he has always been passionate

when it comes to representing West Indies

on the international stage.

"I want to give thanks to actually be

standing here today, aged 42 still going

strong," he said. "The career has been really

great. I've had a bit of hiccups here and there.

I've shed blood, I've shed tears in West Indies

cricket, you name it, one leg, one hand, I'm

still batting for West Indies.

"It was a pleasure always to represent West

Indies, I'm very passionate about West

Indies. It really hurts bad when we lose

games and we don't get the result and the

fans [are] so [much] more very important to

me because I'm an entertainer.

Russia win Billie Jean King

Cup but mood turns 'ugly'

SportS DeSk

Russia edged Switzerland to

win the maiden Billie Jean

King Cup in Prague on

Saturday, but the win turned

sour as the Swiss suggested

the new champions had

replaced players against the

rules, reports BSS.

Daria Kasatkina beat Jil

Teichmann 6-2, 6-4 and

Liudmila Samsonova

overpowered Olympic

champion Belinda Bencic 3-

6, 6-3, 6-4 to bring Russia its

fifth title overall in the team

competition previously

known as the Fed Cup.

"I have too many emotions

now, I'm feeling like I'm

freezing and it's

unbelievable really.

Unbelievably happy,"

Samsonova said after

celebrating with her team.

"Today was an incredible

fight, it was more than

tennis," she added.

Teichmann, the world

number 39, demolished

Storm Sanders on Friday as

Switzerland beat Australia in

the semi-final, but the 28thranked

Kasatkina, who had

sat out Russia's previous two

ties, proved a different level.

The Russian went 5-0 up

on her precise hitting and

three breaks as Teichmann

struggled with her serve, and

she took the set easily

despite a late break by the

Swiss player. Both held on

to their serves in the second

set until game seven when

they traded a break apiece

but Kasatkina earned one

more and then held on to her

serve, taking the set as

Teichmann blasted her

forehand out of the court.

"Amazing feeling. I'm

happy that I bring this very

important point to my

team," said Kasatkina.

World number 40

Samsonova had a lion's

share in Russia's semi-final

win over the United States as

she won her singles game

and then helped Russia take

the doubles.

MoNDAY, NoVeMBeR 8, 2021

10

Choreographer Michael Babu

passing busy time

Shanu teams up with Hridoy

Khan in 'Shunno Hridoy'

Actress Shanarei Devi Shanu teamed up with

singer-composer Hridoy Khan for a new song titled

'Shunno Hridoy'.' With lyrics written by Shanu and

voiced by Hridoy Khan, the song was released on

the internet on Friday. Hridoy also did the music

and composition of this song.

"Shanarei Devi Shanu has written some

wonderful words in the lyrics which you all need to

listen to, big thanks to her," Hridoy Khan wrote on

Facebook sharing the poster.

"Hridoy had the composition prepared from

before and I just wrote down the lyrics. Thus, it

took the shape of a song. It was completed in

March this year," Shanarei Devi Shanu told on

TBT RepoRT

Dhallywood star Shabnam Bubly has come on

board as the lead actress in director Saif Chandan's

upcoming film 'Koyla'. She signed up for the film

on November 4.

She will be seen portraying a village girl in the

film. The male lead of the film is yet to be finalised.

Bubly shared a photo on her Facebook profile on

Saturday where she was seen with Saif Chandan

while signing her contract.

Friday. She added, "It is going to be the first ever

official song I have written for any singer. That is

why I was excited that my first official lyrics will be

in the voice of Hridoy Khan.

As the title of the song is 'Shunno Hridoy,' the

lyrics accordingly have a story of love and

emptiness, Shanu said.

Mostly known for her appearance in TV

productions, the former Lux Channel i Superstar

Shanarei Devi Shanu emerged as a writer with the

publication of her poetry collection 'Nil Foring' at

the Ekushey Book Fair in 2017. She has four

novels, five poetry books and a teen fiction to her

credit.

Bubly to star in

new film 'Koyla'

Abdullah Zahir Babu has written the story and

dialogue of 'Koyla' while director Chandan has

written its screenplay. The film will be produced

under the banner of Simplex International

Production.

"'Koyla is the story of a village located in a less

inhabited bordering area of Bangladesh," Saif

Chandan told on Saturday declining to reveal

details about the plot of the upcoming film.

He informed that they will go for filming 'Koyla'

in Jashore from next week. "We are in discussion

with a few actors to play the male lead. It will be

announced soon," said Chandan.

Chandan announced 'Koyla' two years ago in

2019 which was later delayed in the context of the

coronavirus pandemic.

As 'Koyla' marks Bubly's first collaboration with

Saif Chandan, the director said, "Bubly is doing

well. She is a popular heroine in the industry who

has several commercially successful films costarring

Shakib Khan. I think she will match for the

role in 'Koyla' and that's why I offered her. She also

liked the story. Later we came to consent and

signed her in 'Koyla'."

The film will mostly be shot in a bordering area

near Benapole of Jashore.

Mostly known for directing films like 'Chheleti

Abol Tabol Meyeti Pagol Pagol', 'Abbas' and

'Target', Saif Chandan currently has two

upcoming films 'Ostad' and 'Poster' lined up for

the release.

As for Bubly, the actress debuted in Dhallywood

with the film 'Bossgiri' co-starring Shakib Khan in

2016. Afterwards, she co-stars the Dhallywood

superstar in films like 'Shooter', 'Rangbaz', 'Super

Hero', 'Captain Khan', 'Password', and 'Bir'.

She was last seen in Asif Iqbal Jewel directed film

'Chokh', along with actors Ziaul Roshan and Nirab

Hossain which made a theatrical release on

October 1.

Currently, she has several films including

'Casino', 'Leader: Amii Bangladesh' and 'Revenge'

in the pipeline.

sALeHUDDIN soHeL

The busiest and most successful

choreographer of all time is Michael Babu.

The popular choreographer has been

working parallely in films and music

videos and taking classes at his own dance

academy. Although Michael Babu's full

name is Sajib Mahmud, he is known as

Michael Babu in the media. Born and

raised in the Mugda area of Dhaka, this

dance director, who has been attracted to

dance since childhood, became a dancer

when he was just ten years old. He took his

first dance training with the help of Ustad

Zahid Hasan Rakib. He completed

various courses including Modern,

Commercial, Hip Hop, Western with

Zahid Hasan for five years. He also

learned folk, classical and general dance

from Sheikh Shimu, the choreographer of

Bangladesh Television. In 2001, Babu

started working as an assistant

choreographer in the film with Saiful

Islam, a master and popular

choreographer. He later worked as an

Dwayne Johnson reveals the unexpected

'Hobbs & Shaw 2'story pitch he brought to

Universal Pictures and what it will take to get

the sequel made. The 2019 action film was

the first spin-off of the 'Fast & Furious'

franchise and centered on Johnson and

Jason Statham's titular characters as they

find themselves forced to work together to

protect Shaw's MI6 agent sister from a

cybernetically-enhanced terrorist after a

deadly virus she is carrying. Alongside

Johnson and Statham, the cast for 'Hobbs &

Shaw' included Idris Elba, Vanessa Kirby,

Eiza González, Cliff Curtis, Helen Mirren and

Ryan Reynolds.

Hobbs & Shaw proved to be a critical and

commercial hit, with reviews praising the

comedic chemistry between Johnson and

Statham and the large-scale action sequences

and having brought in over $760 million at

the box office against its $200 million

budget. Shortly after its release, producer

Hiram Garcia teased the possibility of a

sequel as all involved entered talks to return

while franchise writer Chris Morgan and

director David Leitch discussed the story

possibilities for a follow-up. While Johnson

confirmed last year that a sequel was

properly in the works with Morgan signing

assistant choreographer in about 55 films.

Notable films include Sonar Moyna Pakhi,

Desher Sontan, Ek Takar Chalay, Koti

Takar Meye and Khairun Sundari.

Michael started working as a fullfledged

choreographer in 2012. So far he

has worked in over hundred films.

Notable films include Dewan Nazmul's

Seemarekha and Nakful, Rikia Masud's

The Story of Samara, Ma Babar Sontan,

Bhoynkor Golmal, Sarwar Hossain's Khas

Jamin, Joy Sarkar's Indubala, Hridoy

Juray, Hamonti, Toukir Ahmed's

Sphulingo.

Among the unpublished films under

the direction by Michael Babu are

Saikat Nasir's Border, Faridul Hasan's

Corporate, Belal Sunny's Danger

Zone, Apurba Rana's Jalrang, and Ali

Azad's Banalata. Beside, Michael Babu

has worked as a choreographer in a

film co-produced by India and

Bangladesh. This choreographer has

performed at the inaugural event of

the Asian Games, the last

international event.

Sidharth Malhotra and RashmikaMandanna-starrer 'Mission

Majnu' is scheduled for theatrical release on May 13, 2022.

on to once again write, the ever-busy star has

offered an intriguing update for the film. In

anticipation of the release of his Netflix

blockbuster 'Red Notice', Johnson spoke

with Sirius XM's 'The Jess Cagle Show' about

the possibility of 'Hobbs & Shaw 2'. Johnson

Sidharth's 'Mission Majnu'

gets a release date

Recently, Sidharth Malhotra expressed his interest to join 'One

Mic Stand' after being impressed by the show's massive success and

called it an interesting concept. He shared a quirky video where he

expressed his interest in being a part of 'One Mic Stand 3', as he said,

"Call Amazon, check who's doing Season 3 of 'One Mic Stand'!"

Produced by Ronnie Screwvala (RSVP) and Amar Butala and

Garima Mehta (Guilty By Association Media) and directed by

Shantanu Baagchi, the film is an espionage thriller.

The film is set in the 1970s that has Sidharth essaying the role of a

RAW agent for the first time, who leads India's operations.

While Mission Majnu marks the Bollywood debut of south actress

RashmikaMandanna, it also stars Sharib Hashmi and Kumud

Mishra.

Source: India Today

Dwayne pitched an unexpected 'Hobbs

& Shaw 2' story to Universal

expressed the delay for the film, along with

other projects, is currently a matter of

scheduling but revealed he did bring his own

pitch to Universal and Morgan for the sequel

that the duo loved.

Source: Indian Express

H o R o s c o p e

ARIes

(March 21 - April 20) : Don't let other

people's arguments get in the way of your

truth. Don't doubt yourself. Stop worrying.

Don't be disgruntled if you aren't fitting in with whatever

is going on around you. This indicates that you may need

to take another route. If you don't like the music being

played, start your own band. You have everything in your

power to make it happen.

TAURUs

(April 21 - May 21) : You may work

hard today to balance powerful forces.

You may be torn between a lust for

adventure and a need for

communication. Either way, the bottom line is

freedom to do and say the things you want. This is

an important time to spread your wings despite any

opposition. You can't go wrong with anything

involving higher learning, religion, or spirituality.

GeMINI

(May 22 - June 21) : The extreme passion

that rules you may meet opposition today as

more information appears. Communication

may color the scene differently than you pictured in your

head. Be patient and wait for all the spaces to fill in before

you make any decisions about how to proceed. What is

usually malleable and easy to affect may be a bit stubborn

and rigid.

cANceR

(June 22 - July 23) : You may feel

pressured to make an important,

decisive move today. Expansive

options are coming into focus. You

may experience opposition as you stand up for what

you believe. Your desire for freedom gives you a

positive outlook that others find inspiring. Don't

lose your adventurous spirit by thinking you need to

tie yourself down to solid commitment.

Leo

(July 24 - Aug. 23): Try not to

approach everything negatively.

By doing so you may cut yourself

off from incredible opportunities.

This is a time to be expansive. Spread your

wings and feel free to lift off the ground. Take

greater pride in your work. You'll reach the

goals that you strive for. Enjoy the path you're

on. The journey is the reward.

VIRGo

(Aug. 24 - Sept. 23): Long-term trends

are lining up in your favor. You're at a

pivotal point in which you can latch onto

something big and take off with it. Let your dreams

expand. Telling people how to run their lives will get

you nowhere. Lead by example. Follow your creative

intuition and explore more of the things that make you

truly happy.

LIBRA

(Sept. 24 - Oct. 23): There's an

incredible activation urging you to

take hold. You may have many

different projects brewing and be

unsure where to focus your energy. Don't feel like

you need to make a decision now. Go with the

flow, but don't lose control. It's important to

maintain control while events unfold around you.

Be flexible and adaptable.

scoRpIo

(Oct. 24 - Nov. 22): There's a powerful

tension in the air today. This is a great

force you can tap into and capitalize

on. Communication can help expand

key aspects of your life. Stretch beyond your current

boundaries and don't sell yourself short.

Concentrate on inviting in wealth and prosperity.

Long-term cycles and trends are lining up in your

favor. It's up to you to make them work for you.

sAGITTARIUs

(Nov. 23 - Dec. 21): You won't have any idea

how to fight if you don't know who your enemies

are. Keep an eye out for people who try to bring

you down. Their energy may be subtle so you

might not even notice their influence at first. Today's powerful

planetary energy creates a manipulative power struggle that may

hinder your expansion and prosperity. You have the willpower to

overcome these challenges.

cApRIcoRN

(Dec. 22 - Jan. 20) : A strong

transforming force may be pulling

you in opposite directions now.

Long-term trends are coming to a

climax. Karma that you haven't resolved over the

past few years may come back to haunt you.

Today's planetary lineup is turning up the heat on

your present situation. You're going to need your

flameproof suit.

AQUARIUs

(Jan. 21 - Feb. 19) : You may be

indirectly affected by a struggle. A

heated debate having to do with

mistaken communication and

extreme emotions might devastate your psyche

unless you keep up your defenses. The acting

planetary energy is forming an arena for

emotional turmoil. Whether you want to or not,

you're probably going to get sucked into it.

pIsces

(Feb. 20 - Mar. 20) : Use today's electric

feeling to fuel your passion. A subtle

tension has been building for some time.

You've reached a critical turning point.

Don't shy away from adventure because you fear failure.

Change and open up your heart to the world. You may

hesitate to make a move because you don't want to make

waves, but how else are you going to advance in life?

MoNDAY, NoveMBeR 8, 2021

11

Shorna saved from child

marriage in Kishoreganj

Shah Md Sarwar Jahan, Kishoreganj

Correspondent

In a village of Kishoreganj Sadar, with the

intervention of the local administration

and civil society, adolescent Shorna was

saved from child marriage. The incident

took place at Shimulia village of

Rashidabad union in Kishoreganj Sadar

upazila on Friday. Shorna Akhter (14),

daughter of expatriate Abdur Rashid, is a

ninth grade student of Keshera Girls High

School.

The Kishoreganj District Policy Forum

(DPF) and Network for Adolescent

Reproductive Health Rights and Services

(NERS) came forward to prevent child

marriage after receiving information from

a secret source that Shorna was about to

marry Aminul (20) of the same village.

The two organizations were represented

by Kishoreganj DPF member MA Akbar

SSC examinee

hacked to death

in Chudanga

CHUADANGA : A SSC

examinee was on Sunday

hacked to death in an attack

by unknown assailants

shortly after he attended a

farewell reception by his

school at Gulshanpara of

Chuadanga town, police

said, reports UNB.

The motive behind

murdering Tonmoy Topu,

17, a student of Al-helal

Secondary Islami Academy,

could not be immediately

known.

According to witnesses the

assailants attacked the boy

with a sharp weapon when

his classmates left the school

after the reception. They left

him lying on the school

ground with severe injuries.

Minor twin sisters

drown in

Brahmanbaria pond

BRAHMANBARIA : Twin

minor sisters drowned in a

pond at Ashtogram village in

Sadar upazila here yesterday

morning.

The deceased were

identified as Adiba, 2, and

Arifa, 2, daughters of Ali

Hossain, a resident of the

village. Officer-in-Charge of

Sadar Police Station Md

Emranul Islam said Adiba and

Arifa slipped into the pond and

drowned while playing beside

the pond.

They were taken to

Brahmanbaria General

Hospital where the duty doctor

declared them dead.

Khandaker and Network for Adolescent

Reproductive Health Rights and Services

(NERS) executive committee member

Shah Mohammad Sarwar Jahan. Setabur

Rahman, Field Supervisor of Kishore-

Kishori Club, Tamanna Taslim Sheuli,

Gender Promoter, Azharul Islam, Deputy

Assistant Land Officer, Rashidabad Union

Land Office, and Mosharraf Hossain,

Office Assistant also came forward in their

reform work. In such a situation, Shorna's

family hurriedly said goodbye to the

wedding guests and removed the wedding

gate pendulum and other decorators.

At that time, UP member Md. Yunus Ali

and other dignitaries of the area gathered

and the child marriage was stopped with

the signatures of the local dignitaries on

the bond of Swarna's parents. Victim

Shorna Akhter's parents agreed to marry

her after she turns 18.

Pfizer's vaccine trial questioned over

data integrity, regulatory oversight

WASHINGTON : U.S. multinational

pharmaceutical corporation Pfizer has come

under pressure over alleged data fraud

suspicion in its COVID-19 clinical trials,

according to British medical journal The

BMJ.

A former employee of Texas-based

research organization Ventavia Research

Group, which managed Pfizer vaccine trial

sites, recently raised concerns over Pfizer's

data integrity and regulatory oversight,

according to the article published in the

BMJ, reports BSS

In the article, the former regional director

of Ventavia Research Group revealed that

the company "falsified data, unblinded

patients, employed inadequately trained

vaccinators, and was slow to follow up on

adverse events reported in its pivotal phase

III trial."

Khairun Nesa Sumi, a tortured woman from Binail village in Kalai upazila

of Joypurhat, held a press conference to protest against the harassment

and torture. She organized the press conference at Joypurhat Press Club

on Sunday.

Photo: Masrakul Alom

Brazil raises

$8.4 bn in

5G tender

BRASILIA : Brazil raised

$8.4 billion in investments

and license fees in an

international tender to build

and operate one of the

world's biggest 5G data

networks, Communications

Minister Fabio Faria said

Friday, hailing a "great

success."

The final result -- 46.8

billion reais ($8.4 billion) --

came in just shy of the $9

billion the government had

forecast, reports BSS.

But Faria was upbeat at

the close of the two-day

auction, telling a news

conference the result "beat

all expectations."

Winning bids went to

companies including

Telecom Italia's local

subsidiary, Tim; Spanish

group Telefonica's Brazilian

unit; and Claro, owned by

Mexican telecoms magnate

Carlos Slim's America Movil.

Six newcomers to the

Brazilian market also made

winning bids and will now

become mobile providers,

which should increase

competition and benefit

consumers.

Brazil, Latin America's

biggest economy, is looking

to leverage so-called fifthgeneration

mobile

technology to accelerate the

development of its industrial

and agribusiness sectors-as

well as bring super-fast

internet to the cell phones of

its 213 million people.

Kishoreganj District Policy Forum (DPF) and Network for Adolescent Reproductive Health Rights

saved adolescent Shorna from child marriage in the district on Friday.

Photo: TBT

Staff who conducted quality control checks

were overwhelmed by the volume of

problems they were finding, the article

added.

Before she blew the whistle to the journal,

the former regional director, with more than

15 years of experience in clinical research

coordination and management, was fired for

repeatedly reporting massive clinical trial

violations of the company, including having

emailed a complaint to the U.S. Food and

Drug Administration.

While verifying her statements and the

information provided, The BMJ received

more evidence confirming that the vaccine

trials did not meet the standards declared by

Pfizer, including improper storage of jabs,

violations of the norms of blind testing,

frequent data errors and slow response to

side effects complaints, the article said.

Iraqi PM calls for calm

dialogue after surviving

assassination attempt

BAGHDAD : Iraqi Prime

Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi

on Sunday criticized an

assassination attempt carried

out by a drone targeting his

official residence and called

for calm dialogue among all

Iraqis for the future of the

country, reports UNB.

Al-Kadhimi confirmed in a

video posted on his official

Twitter page that he and other

workers at his residence are

safe, stressing that "cowardly

missiles and cowardly drones

do not build a homeland or a

future (for the country), and

we are working to build our

homeland by respecting the

state and its institutions and

creating a better future for all

Iraqis." "I call on all parties to

resort to calm dialogue to

build Iraq and its future," al-

Kadhimi said in his speech,

which was also aired by the

official Iraqiya channel.

At dawn, al-Kadhimi

escaped unhurt an

assassination attempt by a

booby-trapped drone that

landed on his residence in the

heavily fortified Green Zone,

which houses some of the

main offices of the Iraqi

government and foreign

embassies.

The assassination attempt

came amid protests by

followers of political parties

rejecting last month's election

results. On Friday, the

protests developed to a clash

with the security forces at the

entrances of the Green Zone,

which led to the killing of two

protesters and the wounding

of dozens of security

members and protesters.

Man 'kills self' after killing

his wife, daughter in Savar

SAVAR : A man allegedly committed suicide by hanging

himself from the ceiling of his house after killing his wife and

six-year-old daughter at Jamgara in Ashulia of Savar on

Saturday night, reports BSS.

The deceased are Sabur Mia, 30, a rickshaw puller, his wife

Rozina Begum, 25 and their daughter Sumaiya .

Kamruzzaman, officer-in-charge of Ashulia Police Station,

said Sabur, hailing from Dinajpur, used to live in a rented

house at Jamgara Rupayan field.

Sabur Mia's rickshaw was stolen few days ago that made

him anxious.

On Saturday night, Sabur picked up a quarrel with his wife

Rozina over the issue and at one stage, he strangled his wife

and daughter to death.

Later, he killed himself by hanging from the ceiling in his

room.

On information, police recovered the bodies and sent those

to Shaheed Suhrawardi Medical College Hospital morgue.

Road accidents kill 5

in N. Afghanistan

TALUQAN : A total of five

people were killed and two

others wounded in road

accidents in the two northern

Afghan provinces of Takhar

and Badakhshan, sources

confirmed Sunday.

In Takhar province, three

Taliban security forces

members were killed and two

others wounded when a pickup

truck veered off a road in

Chal district on Sunday

morning, Assadullah

Hoshman at the district

hospital told Xinhua.

In the neighboring

Badakhshan province, a

driver, who fell asleep while

driving, and a passenger

taking the truck he drove were

killed as the truck hit a rock in

the mountainous Raghistanal-

Kadhimi escaped unhurt an

assassination attempt by a

booby-trapped drone that

landed on his residence in the

heavily fortified Green Zone,

which houses some of the main

offices of the Iraqi government

and foreign district on

Saturday night, said

Mohammad Hassan at the

provincial police directorate.

Road mishaps are frequent

in the mountainous Central

Asian country and occur

mostly due to poor driving or

poorly maintained roads and

vehicles.

How warming affects Arctic

sea ice, polar bears

UNITED NATION : Majestic, increasingly hungry and at risk

of disappearing, the polar bear is dependent on something

melting away on our warming planet: sea ice.

In the harsh and unforgiving Arctic, where frigid cold is not

just a way of life but a necessity, the polar bear stands out. But

where it lives, where it hunts, where it eats - it's disappearing

underfoot in the crucial summertime.

"They have just always been a revered species by people,

going back hundreds and hundreds of years," said longtime

government polar bear researcher Steve Amstrup, now chief

scientist for Polar Bear International. "There's just

something special about polar bears."

Scientists and advocates point to polar bears, marked as

"threatened" on the endangered species list, as the white-hot

warning signal for the rest of the planet - "the canary in the

cryosphere." As world leaders meet in Glasgow, Scotland, to

try to ramp up efforts to curb climate change, the specter of

polar bears looms over them.

United Nations Environment Program head Inger

Andersen used to lead the International Union for the

Conservation of Nature, which monitors and classifies

species in trouble. She asks: "Do we really want to be the

generation that saw the end of the ability of something as

majestic as the polar bear to survive?"

Appeals court stays vaccine mandate

on larger businesses

NEW ORLEANS : A federal

appeals court on Saturday

temporarily halted the Biden

administration's vaccine

requirement for businesses

with 100 or more workers,

reports BSS.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of

Appeals granted an

emergency stay of the

requirement by the federal

Occupational Safety and

Health Administration that

those workers be vaccinated

by Jan. 4 or face mask

requirements and weekly

tests.

Louisiana Attorney General

Jeff Landry said the action

stops President Joe Biden

"from moving forward with

his unlawful overreach."

"The president will not

impose medical procedures

on the American people

without the checks and

balances afforded by the

we`ÿ r/Rb-281(2)/7/11/2021

GD-1637/21 (6x3)

constitution," said a statement

from Landry, a Republican.

The U.S. Labor

Department's top legal

adviser, Solicitor of Labor

Seema Nanda, said the

department is "confident in its

legal authority to issue the

emergency temporary

standard on vaccination and

testing."

AvB Gm wc Avi/†mbv/684

07/11/21

GD-1636/21 (2x2)

2 'criminals' killed

in Moulvibazar

'gunfight'

MOULVIBAZAR : Two

suspected criminals were

killed in a reported gunfight

with members of Rapid

Action Battalion (Rab) at

Mirtinga tea garden in

Kamalganj upazila of

Moulvibazar district early

Sunday, reports UNB.

The deceased were

identified as Tofail Ahmed,

28 and Shaheed, 35 of

Choitraghat.

Tipped off, being tipped

off that some criminals

gathered in the area, a team

of Rab-9 conducted a drive,

said Basu Datta Chakma,

commanding officer of Rab-

9 Srimangal camp.

At one stage, the criminals

opened fire on the Rab men,

forcing Rab to fire back that

triggered a gunfight.

Two criminals were

caught in the line of fire and

died on the spot while the

others managed to flee the

scene, he said.

Three members of the elite

force were also injured in the

incident. Both of them were

accused in a murder case.

Missing madrasa

student found

dead in Bagerhat

BAGERHAT : Police

recovered the body of a

madrasa student in Kochua

upazila of Bagherhat district

on Sunday morning, two days

after he had gone missing,

reports UNB.

The deceased was identified

as Mehedi Hasan, 25, son of

Monir Sheikh of Tengrakhali

village and a student of

Madhobkathi Madrasa in the

localily. Quoting family

members, officer-in-charge

(investigation) of Kochua

Police Station Iqbal Hossain

said Mehedi went missing on

Friday evening.

Local people spotted the

body in a ditch in a banana

orchard of Tengrakhali village

and informed police.

Several injury marks were

found on the victim's body.

However, the reason behind

the killing could not be known

yet. On information, police

recovered the body and sent it

to Bagerhat Sadar Hospital

morgue for autopsy, the OC

added.

Monday, Dhaka: november 8, 2021; kartik 23, 1428 BS; rabius-Sani 2, 1443 hijri

BD make significant

improvement in labour

standards: Anisul

DHAKA : Law, Justice and

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Anisul

Huq said Bangladesh have made significant

improvement in its labour

standards as the present government

from the very beginning is working

relentlessly to implement a roadmap

as per planning, reports BSS.

"The government is committed to

remove the existing small problems

in the labour sector and we are

working relentlessly to implement

those commitments," he said.

The minister said these while

addressing virtually the 343rd

meeting of the International Labour

Organization (ILO) Governing Body

last night.

Later, he presented progress in

implementing the roadmap formulated

to execute the targets stipulated

for 2021-2026 tenure for further

improving the country's labour standards.

The meeting is taking place on

virtual platform from November 1

and will continue till November 13,

an official release said here.

Anisul Huq further said

Bangladesh government has

already approved the matter of ratification

of protocol 29 of ILO

Convention regarding forced

labour, adding: "Pre-application

service desk has been set up at all

the offices of Department of Labour

to assist in registration of trade

unions."

"The number of trade unions in

RMG sector now stands at 1,045 from

132 in 2013. The success rate of trade

union registration is around 90 percent.

We've made appointment in 89

posts of labour inspector through

Public Service Commission. We're

further modernizing the Department

of Inspection for Factories and

Establishments with additional manpower

and funding," he added.

Complaining to foreigners

is clear sign of BNP's

gutless politics: Quader

DHAKA : Awami League General

Secretary Obaidul Quader yesterday

said placing complaints to foreigners

and seeking help openly from various

embassies is a clear exponent of the

BNP's boneless politics, reports BSS

"The country is not safe in BNP's

regime as its politics is controlled from

outside of the country," said Quader,

also the road transport and bridges minister,

while speaking at a press conference

on contemporary issues at his official

residence here.

The AL's politics is run by the people

and the party has no precedent of kneeling

down in running the state, but the

BNP has the instance of bowing down,

he said.

Responding to the BNP leaders' allegation

that Bangladesh has been turned

into a failed state, the AL general secretary

said it was ridiculous to call

Bangladesh a dysfunctional state at a

time when it achieved a UN award for its

progress in Sustainable Development

Goals (SDGs) and its development was

being lauded around the world.

Replying to another allegation of BNP

HC passes split

order on granting

bail to Destiny

Group director

DHAKA : The High Court on Sunday

passed a spilt order on a petition over

granting bail to Destiny Group

Director Lt Col (retd) Didarul Alam in

a money laundering case.

The HC bench consisting of Justice

Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and

Justice SM Mzibur Rahman passed

the order.

Lawyer Sarwar Hossain appeared

for the bail petitioner during the

hearing while advocate Asif Hasan

presented the Anti-Corruption commission

(ACC) and Deputy Attorney

General AKM AMin Uddin Manik

stood for state.

The senior member of the 2-member

bench granted bail to Didarul

Alam but another judge rejected it.

Following the spilt order, the matter

will now be sent to the Chief

Justice who will assign a new bench

to dispose of it.

According to the case filed by ACC,

Destiny Multipurpose Cooperative

Society Limited and Destiny Tree

Plantation laundered Tk 1,178.61

crore from 2009 to 2013.

ACC filed the case with Kalabagan

Police Station accusing 22 people on

July 31, 2012. On October 20, 2012,

Didarul was arrested and he has been

behind bars since then.

over the country's mega projects, he said

the people know that the government is

implementing a mega project like

Padma Bridge with its own fund.

"In fact, they (BNP men) were

involved in conspiracies to halt the construction

of the Padma Bridge. They did

not want implementation of mega projects

in this country," he added.

The BNP's politics goes against development

and it is vindictive, Quader said,

adding that the party wants country's

standstill state and spread of communal

poison across the country.

About the November 7, he said BNP

founder Ziaur Rahman grabbed power

by carrying out killing on November 7,

1975.

The AL general secretary said Zia had

laid the foundation of resuming the

Pakistani trend in Bangladesh by killing

freedom fighter officers and their family

members, using the soldiers.

At the same time, Zia provided shelter

to those who were involved in criminal

acts in different places, he said.

Quader said Zia also blocked the trial

process of those, who brutally killed the

heroic fighters of the Liberation War.

That was why, as per the directives of

Ziaur Rahman, the November 7 was

declared as the National Revolution and

Solidarity Day by giving it a political

colour, he added.

Since then, Quader said, the BNP-

Jamaat alliance has been observing this

day, but it is a stigmatised day in the history

of the Bengalee nation and a day of

mourning and tears.

Several launches from different ghats in the south including Chadampur have landed at Sadar Ghat at

Saturday night. however, no launch left from Dhaka on Sunday. Sadarghat is now empty. photo: pBa

India knocked

out of T20

World Cup

SportS DeSk

India have been knocked out of the

race to the semi-final of the ongoing

ICC T20 World Cup in the UAE after

New Zealand beat Afghanistan by

eight wickets in Abu Dhabi to join

Pakistan in the knockouts.

This is the third time New Zealand

have qualified for the semi-finals of a

T20 World Cup having earlier

reached the stage in 2007 and 2016.

India, on the other hand, have now

failed to reach the semis for the

fourth time.

The semi-final fate of three teams

depended on the Sunday game at the

Sheikh Zayed Stadium. With three

wins in four games, New Zealand

needed nothing more than a win to

qualify for the knockouts.

Afghanistan, standing fourth in the

table (ahead of the game) with four

points, also needed a win, but stay in

contention for the semis while expecting

other results to fall in place.

India were the third side, who had

their hopes pinned on their neighbours

to beat New Zealand to keep

their semi-final hopes alive.

They began their campaign with

defeats against arch-rivals Pakistan,

by a thumping eight wickets, and

against New Zealand, by five wickets.

But resounding victories of eight

wickets, against both Afghanistan and

Scotland, helped India keep their

hopes alive.

However, with New Zealand winning

their respective group games,

India's fate depended completely on

the Afghans to pull off the win in Abu

Dhabi.

India will now play their final group

game, against Namibia on Monday.

With the win, New Zealand now

have the chance to go top of the table

in Group 2 if Pakistan lose to

Scotland in the second game on

Sunday in Sharjah.

BHBFC's authorized capital

to be Tk 1,000cr, paid up

capital Tk 500cr : Kamal

DHAKA : Finance Minister AHM

Mustafa Kamal yesterday said that the

authorized and paid up capital of the

Bangladesh House Building Finance

Corporation (BHBFC) would be risen to

Taka 1,000 crore and Taka 500 crore

respectively to meet the growing demand

once the concerned law in this regard is

enacted, reports BSS.

"This decision has been taken in order

to strike a balance between the growing

demand and supply," he said.

The finance minister was addressing a

function virtually this afternoon after

inaugurating the payment of BHBFC's

loan installments through Sonali e-services.

With this service, anyone can now pay

instantly the loan installments of the corporation

side by side its government

fixed fees and prices of all kinds of forms.

The clients of the Corporation can now

make payments from their own bank

accounts, debit and credit cards and also

from their mobile wallets through using

the Sonali Bank Limited's Sonali e-service

payment gateway.

Soon after the payments, the clients

would be notified about their payments

and current loan situation through auto

generated voucher and SMS.

The Finance Minister said soon after

its inception, both the authorized and

paid up capital of the BHBFC was Taka

110 crore each. But, considering the

growing demand for house building

financing, framing of a law is at the final

stage at Jatiya Sangsad and once it is

framed, the authorized capital of the

Corporation would rise to Taka 1,000

crore while the paid up capital to Taka

500 crore.

He expressed his satisfaction as the

Corporation has attained unimaginable

successes in all the business indicators in

hundreds of dead trees stand as death traps on both sides of the Gaibandha-Sundarganj regional road.

these lifeless trees on both sides of the road have been standing like skeletons for years. photo: pBa

the last fiscal year (FY21) due to the timely

steps for simplification of loan disbursement.

"I hope this journey of success

will continue in the coming days and

thus the Corporation will brighten its

image further,"

Kamal recalled that Father of the

Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur

Rahman restructured the BHBFC after

the country's independence to provide

loan support from the government level

to build houses.

Following his footsteps, the Finance

Minister said Prime Minister Sheikh

Hasina has implemented projects for

providing flats to slum dwellers at an

affordable price, provided house loans to

the government employees, ensured

shelters for the homeless and managed

house loans for people of all walks of life.

Terming the introduction of system for

paying loan installments of BHBFC

through online undoubtedly as a benevolent

initiative, Kamal said this would further

simplify the client services. "Sonali

e-service method is a unique addition to

the Digital Bangladesh platform."

Presided over by BHBFC managing

director M Afzal Karim held at a city

hotel, Comptroller and Auditor General

Mohammad Muslim Chowdhury,

Finance Division Senior Secretary Abdur

Rouf Talukder, Financial Institutions

Division Secretary Sheikh Mohammad

Salim Ullah, SBL Chairman Ziaul Hasan

Siddiqui, BHBFC Chairman Prof Dr Md

Selim Uddin spoke on the occasion,

among others.

Lack of democracy worsens

situation in Bangladesh:Fakhrul

DHAKA : BNP Secretary General Mirza

Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Sunday

alleged that the government has created

an 'awful' situation in the country by

'obliterating' democracy, reports UNB

"There's no democracy in the country

while the judiciary has no independence.

There's no freedom of speech and press freedom.

More than 35 lakh patriotic people

have been harassed with false cases," he said.

The BNP leader also alleged that the government

is resorting to enforced disappearance,

killing and repression to suppress its

opponents. "A terrible situation has been

created in the country as they (govt) have

established a fascist rule."

Fakhrul made the remarks while talking

to reporters after paying homage to BNP

founder Ziaur Rahman by placing a wreath

at his grave at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar marking

the 'National Revolution and Solidarity

Day' remembering 'civil-military uprising'

on November 17 in 1975.

He said there is no alternative to forging

a strong unity of people to 'restore' democracy

and people's rights in the country.

"On this day, we've taken a vow to unite

the people of this country and all political

parties and organisations to defeat the

fascist government and release Begum

Khaleda Zia (from jail)," the BNP leader

said. He said Bangladesh will surely

Fire guts 11 cottonladen

trucks at

Petrapole parking lot

ShahiD Joy, JaShore CorreSponDent

Eleven cotton-laden trucks waiting to

enter Bangladesh were burnt in a fire at a

parking lot near India's Petrapole land

port opposite of to Benapole port.

However, no casualties were reported

from the fire. Kartik Chakraborty, general

secretary of Petrapole C&F Agent Staff

Welfare Association, said one of the

trucks caught fire at Jayantipur Lakshi

truck parking area near Petrapole port

last morning. Later, the fire spread to 10

more trucks parked there.

On information, fire service from

Banga and Gobradanga rushed to the

spot and put out the fire, Kartik

Chakraborty said, adding that "Till now,

we don't know how the fire started."

Benapole C&F Agent Staff Association

General Secretary, Sajedur Rahman,

said, "I learned from traders on the other

side that a fire broke out early today near

Petrapole port. Around 5:00am, the fire

was brought under control."

Benapole Port Deputy Director

Mamun Kabir Tarafdar said, "I have

heard about the fire in the Jayantipur

Lakshi truck parking lot opposite

Benapole Port." I have come to know that

11 cotton trucks waiting to be imported to

Bangladesh were burnt in the fire incident.

The matter is being investigated.

'Read Japan' to

promote Japan

in BD : Envoy

DHAKA : "Read Japan Project", a bookdonation

project, has been taken to promote

a better understanding about

Japan and strengthen the interaction

and educational exchanges between

scholars from the region and beyond.

The book-donation ceremony was held at

the Department of Political Science,

Chittagong University (CU) on Sunday. The

project was conducted by Nippon Foundation

and the Japan Science Society (JSS).

Japanese Ambassador to Bangladesh

Ito Naoki introduced the book-donation

project and reviewed the history of

Bangladesh-Japan relations.

He expressed his desire to strengthen

further the relationship between the

Embassy and the University of

Chittagong in preparation for the 50th

anniversary of the establishment of

diplomatic relations between Japan and

Bangladesh in 2022. The books donated

to the Department of Political Science

range from politics and international

relations, economics and business, society

to culture, literature, and history.

The project aims to provide various

selections of English books to educational

and research institutions worldwide.

CU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Shireen

Akter, Pro-Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Benu

Kumar Dey and Chairman, Department

of Political Science, and Dean, Faculty of

Social Sciences from the CU Prof Dr

Mustafizur Rahman Siddiqui joined the

function.

stand on its own feet as an independent

force again against hegemony and imperialism.

"We'll continue our struggle to

turn Bangladesh into a democratic state."

About the historic event of Nov 7, 1975,

Fakhrul said the people had got a scope on

that day to materialise the hopes and aspirations

with which they fought for independence.

"We're able to consolidate

democracy, our independence, and sovereignty

under Ziaur Rahman through the

civil-military uprising on November 7."

He said Zia introduced multi-party

democracy, free economy and created an

opportunity to build a good society. "The

biggest thing is that Bangladesh stood up

again against socialism, hegemony while

the freedom of press and judiciary were

ensured...We remember this day repeatedly

as it inspires us."

The BNP leader alleged that Awami

League usurped power and destroyed all

achievements of the country and people's

all hopes and aspirations by establishing

an autocratic rule. "They have ruthlessly

destroyed all the pillars of the state with

their own hands."

Earlier, Fakhrul along with BNP standing

committee members Khandaker

Mosharraf Hossain and Nazrul Islam

Khan went to Zia's grave. They, together

with some other party leaders, paid hom-

08-11-2021

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