07-03-2018

wedneSday 

Dhaka : March 7, 2018; Falgun 23, 1424 BS; Jamadi-us-Sani 18, 1439 hijri 

www.thebangladeshtoday.com; www. tbtbangla.com 

Regd.No.Da~2065, Vol.16; No.76; 12 Pages~Tk.8.00 

InTeRnaTIOnal 

Catalan parliament 

to vote on regional 

leader next week 

>Page 7 

Historic March 7 today 

DHAKA : The nation is set to observe the 

'Historic March 7', a red-letter day in the 

country's history, today in a befitting 

manner, reports BSS. 

On this day in 1971, Father of the 

Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur 

Rahman, in his historic speech at a mammoth 

rally in the then 'Race Course 

Maidan', now Suhrawardy Udyan, in the 

city, directed the freedom-loving 

Bangalees for waging a decisive struggle 

against the Pakistan occupation forces. 

In his 19-minute extempore speech 

from 4.23 pm before millions of people of 

former East Pakistan, Bangabandhu, in 

unequivocal terms, said, "We spilled our 

blood...we are ready to shed more blood, 

the people of the country shall be freed, 

Inshallah!" 

Different socio-cultural and political 

organizations, student and professional 

bodies have chalked out elaborate programmes 

including laying wreaths at the 

portrait of Bangabandhu and holding 

discussions and rallies marking the historic 

day. 

The ruling Awami League will hoist 

national and party flags atop the 

Bangabandhu Bhaban and party offices 

and place wreaths at Sheikh Mujib's 

portrait on Bangabandhu Bhaban 

premises at the capital's Dhanmondi in 

the morning. 

Besides, Awami League will hold a 

public rally in the Suhrawardy Udyan at 

2 pm. AL President and Prime Minister 

Sheikh Hasina will address the rally as 

the chief guest. 

Besides, Bangladesh National 

Museum, Bangladesh Sangbad 

Sangstha, Bangla Academy, Liberation 

War Museum, Dhaka Union of 

Journalists, Bangabandhu Gobeshona 

Parishad and other socio-cultural organizations 

have taken elaborate programmes 

to observe the day. 

aRT & culTuRe 

Man arrested for 

theft of Frances 

McDormand's Oscar 

>Page 8 

BD ranks 57th most-powerful 

military in the world 

India ranks fourth, Pakistan 13th 

DHAKA : Bangladesh's military is placed 

57th on a global index that has ranked 

133 countries on the basis of their global 

military prowess, reports UNB. 

According to the Global Fire Power 

Index 2017, the US ranked first, followed 

by Russia, China, and India while 

Pakistan ranked the 13th while Myanmar 

31th on the list of 133 countries. France, 

Germany, the UK, Japan and Israel are 

among top 15 countries. The report also 

gives details which can provide a comparison 

among the militaries of Bangladesh, 

China, Pakistan, and India. 

However, the report did not take into 

consideration the strategic forces of any 

country such as nuclear firepower. 

The report cites that Bangladesh's 

defence budget is $1.59bn as against 

China's $161.7bn, India's $51bn, 

Myanmar's $2.4bn and Pakistan's $7bn. 

According to the index, Bangladesh has 

an active military comprising of 160,000 

personnel while India has 13,62,500 while 

China 37,12,500 and Pakistan has 637,000 

military personnel. Bangladesh Air Force 

has a total of 166 aircraft. Of them, 45 are 

fighter aircraft, 45 attack aircraft and others. 

Neighbouring India has 2102 aircraft, 

China 2955, Myanmar 249, and Pakistan 

has a total of 951 aircraft. 

According to the report, Bangladesh 

Army has a total of 534 combat tanks, 

942 armoured fighting vehicles, 18 selfpropelled 

artillery guns, no-towed 

artillery guns and 32 rocket projectors. 

The report added that China owns a 

total of 6,457 combat tanks, India 4426, 

592, while Pakistan has a total of 2924 

tanks, which is way more than what 

Bangladesh owns. 

DHAKA : UN Assistant Secretary- 

General for Human RightsAndrew 

Gilmour has said the ethnic cleansing of 

Rohingya from Myanmar continues and 

raised voices over Myanmar's double 

standard role, reports UNB. 

"The government of Myanmar is busy 

telling the world that it's ready to receive 

Rohingya returnees, while at the same 

time its forces are continuing to drive 

them into Bangladesh," Gilmour said. 

At the end of a four-day visit to 

Bangladesh that focused on the situation 

of the approximately 700,000 refugees 

who have fled from Myanmar since last 

August, he said, "I don't think we can 

draw any other conclusion from what 

I've seen and heard in Cox's Bazar." 

The rate of killings and sexual violence 

in Rakhine has subsided since August 

and September last year, according to a 

statement UNB received from Bangkok. 

But recently arrived Rohingya interviewed 

by Gilmour and other UN officials 

in Cox's Bazar provided credible 

accounts of continued killings, rape, torture, 

and abductions, as well as forced 

starvation. 

With Maungdaw township on the border 

of Bangladesh already largely emptied 

of its Rohingya population, those 

arriving now are coming from townships 

further inside. 

"It appears that widespread and systematic 

violence against the Rohingya 

persists," Gilmour said. 

"The nature of the violence has 

changed from the frenzied bloodletting 

SPORT 

Australia back vicecaptain 

over Quinton 

de Kock incident 

>Page 9 

Myanmar' forces continue to drive 

Rohingya into Bangladesh 

and mass rape of last year to a lower 

intensity campaign of terror and forced 

starvation that seems to be designed to 

drive the remaining Rohingya from their 

homes and into Bangladesh." 

A number of people told Gilmour that 

Rohingya who try to leave their villages 

or even their homes are taken away and 

never return. 

One man told how his father was 

abducted by the Myanmar military in 

February.He was instructed a few days 

later to collect the body. 

He recounted that he was too afraid to 

ask the military what had happened to 

his father, but that the corpse was covered 

in bruises. 

Another man described being tied up 

by Border Guard Police in his own home 

in January as his 17-year-old daughter 

was abducted. 

When he screamed, they pointed a gun 

at his head and kicked him repeatedly.As 

he later tried to find her, he was picked 

up by them and badly beaten again, this 

time with the butts of guns. 

His daughter has not been seen since 

15 January. This is a recurring theme-of 

women and girls abducted, never to be 

seen again. Their relatives fear the worstthat 

they were raped and killed. 

"Safe, dignified and sustainable 

returns are of course impossible under 

current conditions. The conversation 

now must focus on stopping the violence 

in Rakhine State, ensuring accountability 

for the perpetrators, and the need for 

Myanmar to create conditions for 

return," said the senior UN official. 

During his visit, Gilmour interviewed 

recently arrived refugees in Kutupalong- 

Balukhali, which in the seven months 

since August last year has become the 

largest refugee camp in the world. 

After meeting with Bangladeshi officials, 

UN agencies and non-governmental 

organisations involved in the 

humanitarian response in Cox's Bazar, 

he raised alarm at the prospect of the 

loss of life in the camps due to the imminent 

rains. 

Bangladesh and international humanitarian 

response to the Rohingya crisis 

has been very impressive but the rainy 

season is likely to have a devastating 

effect on camps such as Kutupalong, a 

sprawling complex of shelters made of 

plastic sheeting and bamboo poles located 

across steep valleys and hillsides that 

have been stripped of all vegetation, 

including the roots. 

"Having suffered so much from the 

manmade disaster inflicted by 

Myanmar, the fear is that this will be 

compounded by a natural disaster of 

heavy rainfall that will almost certainly 

lead to landslides and flooding. 

It will have the additional effect of polluting 

water sources through fecal 

sludge, causing outbreaks of cholera that 

could lead to many deaths," Gilmour 

said. 

In Dhaka, Gilmour met senior government 

officials, and commended the 

country's great hospitality in providing 

protection and shelter. 

Plot on to turn 

BD a failed 

state, says BNP 

DHAKA : BNP secretary general Mirza 

Fakhrul Islam Alamgiron Tuesday 

alleged that a plot is on to turn the 

country into a failed and militant one, 

reports UNB. 

"You've surely noticed that a conspiracy 

is going on to make the country a 

dysfunctional and failed one. As part of 

the plot, the country's most popular 

writer Dr Zafar Iqbal was stabbed on 

broad daylight in Sylhet," he said. 

Speaking at a human chain programme, 

the BNP leader further said, 

"BNP has been made accused of the 

incident without any investigation. But 

those who are arrested all belong to 

Awami League. So, a question has 

arisen whether the ruling party is plotting 

to turn the country into a militant 

and failed one to secure its one-party 

rule." 

As part of its countrywide programme, 

BNP arranged the human 

chain in front of the Jatiya Press Club 

demanding party chief Khaleda Zia's 

release. 

Fakhrul alleged that the country's all 

sectors, including the education, economy 

and health, brace for ruination due 

to misrule, mismanagement and corruption 

by the government. 

Describing the current government 

as 'unelected' and 'undemocratic' one, 

he said no credible election can be held 

under it. 

Zohr 

05:02 AM 

12:15 PM 

04:24 PM 

06:07 PM 

07:20 PM 

6:15 6:04 

Ferdousi Priyabhashini 

passes away 

DHAKA : Noted sculptor and freedom 

fighter Ferdousi Priyabhashini 

passed away in a city hospital on 

Tuesday noon. She was 71, reports 

UNB. 

Ferdousi Priyabhashini, who has 

been suffering from multiple complications 

includingkidney ailment, 

diabetes, high blood pressure, 

orthopedics and heart disease, and 

undergoing treatment at Labaid 

Hospital, breathed her last around 

12:45pm, said her son KaruTitash. 

She left behind her three sons, two 

daughters and a host of relatives and 

admirers to mourn the death. On 

last November, Priyabhashini fell 

over on the floor in her Gulshan residence 

and got hurt at her heel. A 

bone of the heel was replaced after 

that incident. 

Her body will be taken to Central 

Shaheed Minar where people from all 

walks of life will pay their last tribute 

from 11 am to 12 noon on Thursday. 

Her namaz-e-janaza will be held at 

Dhaka University's central mosque. 

She will be buried at Mirpur Martyred 

Intellectuals Graveyard on that day. 

Priyabhashini was born on 

February 19, 1947 in Khulna. She 

married Ahsanullah Ahmed in 1972. 

Government awarded her 

Independence Day Award in 2010. 

Her biography book 'Nindito 

Nandan' was published in Ekushey 

Book Fair in 2014. 

Ferdousi Priyabhashini, who was 

persecuted by Pakistani occupation 

army and its local collaborators during 

the Liberation War, got the 'freedom 

fighter' recognition in 2016. 

President Abdul Hamid on 

Tuesday expressed profound shock 

at the death of noted sculptor 

Ferdousi Priyabhashini. 

President Hamid said "The contribution 

of Priyabhashini in the country's 

Liberation War will be ever 

remembered." He also prayed for 

the eternal peace of the departed 

soul and conveyed deep sympathy 

to the bereaved family. 

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on 

Tuesday expressed deep shock and 

sorrow at the death of noted sculptor 

and freedom fighter Ferdousi 

Priyabhashini. 

In a condolence message, the 

Prime Minister recalled with deep 

respect the outstanding contributions 

of Priyabhashini to the 

Liberation War. 

"The nation has lost a valiant freedom 

fighter in her death," she said, 

adding her death is also an irreparable 

loss to the field of sculptor. 

Besides, Jatiya Sangsad Speaker 

Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, 

Cultural Affairs Minister 

Asaduzzaman Noor , Deputy 

Speaker Advocate M Fazle Rabbi 

Mia and Chief Whip ASM Feroz also 

condoled her death. 

Shafik 

Rehman 

faces arrest 

warrant 

DHAKA : A court here on 

Tuesday issued a warrant for 

the arrest of four people, 

including journalist Shafik 

Rehman, in a case filed for plotting 

to 'abduct and kill' Prime 

Minister Sheikh Hasina's son 

and her ICT adviser Sajeeb 

Wazed Joy, reports UNB. 

Dhaka Metropolitan 

Magistrate Sharafuzzaman 

Ansari passed the order 

after accepting the chargesheet 

in the case. 

The three others who faced 

the arrest warrant are Vicepresident 

of BNP's cultural 

wingJatiyatabadiSamajik 

Sangskritik Sangstha (Jasas) 

Mohammad Ullah Mamun, 

his son RizveAhmed Caesar 

and Bangladeshi expatriate 

trader living in the United 

States Mizanur Rahman 

Bhuiyan. 

Joynul Abedin Mejbah, 

lawyer of Shafik Rehman 

who had been on bail in the 

case, sought time for the 

journalist, saying he is now 

accompanying his canceraffected 

wife in London. 

However, the court rejected 

the time petition and 

issued the arrest warrant. 

Earlier on February 22 

last, police submitted the 

charge-sheet against five 

people, including Shafik 

Rehman and the Daily 

Amar Desh acting Editor 

Mahmudur Rahman, before 

the Dhaka Metropolitan 

Magistrate Court. 

Shafik Rehman, former 

Editor of the Daily Jaijai 

Din, was shown arrested in 

a criminal conspiracy case 

filed with Paltan Police 

Station on August 3, 2015 in 

connection with attempting 

to abduct and kill Joy. 

According to the case statement, 

Mamun along with 

some top leaders of BNP and 

its allies met at different places 

in Bangladesh, including Jasas 

office, and the US before 

September 2012 and conspired 

to abduct and kill Joy. 

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NEWS 

WEDnESDAY, 

MARCH 7, 2018 

2 

At the inset, Engineer Khaled Mahmud, Chairman of Bangladesh Power Development Board 

(BPDB) receiving Gold Medal from the Honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the 58th 

Convention of Institution of Engineers Bangladesh (IEB). On March 3, 2018 IEB has recognized 

Khaled Mahmud's outstanding contribution for the development of Power sector of the country by 

awarding him the medal. 

Photo : Courtesy 

Three fake 

examinees 

arrest in 

Khulna 

Titash Chakraborthey 

A team of DB police arrested 

three fake examinees 

from the exam center of 

police recruitment on Tuesday 

afternoon. They were 

Md helal (17), Md Rabbanee 

Gazi (18) and Kamal Hossain 

(18 ). They are hailed 

from Dumuria upazila under 

Khulna district. Officer in 

Charge of District DB police, 

Inspector Sikdar Akkas Ali 

(PPM) confirmed this. 

Police said, police recruitment 

examination under the 

district police was held at 

Khulna government model 

school on Tuesday. At 4 pm, 

district DB arrested 3 fake 

examinees on the basis of 

secret news. The detainees 

informed that Md Helal Son 

of Abu Taleb at Rudghara 

village in Dumuria upazila , 

took part in the exam 

instead of Md Fazal Under 

Terokhada upazila in Freedom 

Fighter quota. At same 

way, 2 others took part in 

the exam. 

In this regard Sub-Inspector 

of District DB police Md 

Akidur Rahman filed a case. 

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Bloomberg: Trump 

will be ‘great’ if he 

accepts climate deal 

UNITED NATIONS : The U.N.'s new envoy for climate 

action, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, said 

Monday that President Donald Trump can become "a great 

leader" if he changes his mind about global warming and 

keeps the United States in the Paris climate agreement, 

reports UNB. 

The billionaire media mogul expressed hope that Trump 

will listen to his advisers, look at the data on climate 

change, and support the 2015 Paris accord aimed at 

reducing greenhouse gas emissions. 

Bloomberg spoke during a ceremony at which U.N. 

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres gave him the new title 

of U.N. special envoy for climate action, handing him the 

job of spurring international action to help curb global 

warming. 

A longtime activist for clean energy and a green economy, 

Bloomberg was appointed U.N. special envoy on cities and 

climate change by then U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon in January 

2014. Since then, he has been traveling around the United 

States and the world campaigning for a reduction in carbon 

emissions. 

Guterres announced that Bloomberg will help support a 

U.N. Climate Summit that he is planning at U.N. 

headquarters in 2019 to mobilize more ambitious action 

and start implementing the Paris climate agreement now. 

Countries agreed in the Paris accord to limit global 

warming to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) and 

do their best to keep it below 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 

degrees Fahrenheit), compared with pre-industrial times. 

But the agreement starts after 2020 - and at U.N. climate 

talks in November over 170 countries stressed the 

importance of implementing ambitious climate actions 

before 2020. 

Trump announced last June that he was withdrawing the 

U.S. from the Paris agreement, fulfilling a campaign pledge 

to quit the world's chief effort to slow planetary warming. 

He framed his decision as "a reassertion of America's 

sovereignty" and argued that the agreement had 

disadvantaged the U.S. "to the exclusive benefit of other 

countries," leaving American businesses and taxpayers to 

absorb the cost. 

Under terms of the agreement, the U.S. cannot officially 

pull out until 2020. 

Bloomberg has urged world leaders not to follow Trump, 

and has pledged to save the Paris agreement. 

Last October, for example, his foundation donated $64 

million to a Sierra Club program seeking to phase out coalfired 

power plants and reduce planet-warming carbon 

emissions. 

Bloomberg said Monday that his foundation is interested 

"in spending a lot of money in helping us understand that 

climate change is real and it's measurable." 

5 held over 

college student 

murder in 

Shakharibazar 

DHAKA : Police arrested 

five suspected people for 

their alleged involvement in 

the murder of a college 

student during celebration 

of Holi festival in 

Shakharibazar area on 

March 1, reports UNB. 

Police arrested them from 

different areas of the city on 

Monday night, said police. 

However, the details about 

the arrestees could not be 

known immediately. 

World Dentist 

Day observed 

DHAKA :The World 

Dentist Day was observed 

in the capital yesterday 

with a view to raise 

awareness about oral care, 

reports BSS. 

Bangladesh Dental 

Society (BDS) and 

Unilever Bangladesh's oral 

care brand Pepsodent, 

celebrated the day through 

various activities in the 

capital's Krishibid 

Institute. 

The celebration came in 

continuation of a legacy 

set by BDS and Unilever to 

stress the need for oral 

care to build a healthy 

nation. 

The day's programme 

kicked off with a rally in 

the morning. The day-long 

programme also featured 

colorful procession, demo 

film and advertisement 

display, view-exchange, 

and cultural programme. 

Coast Guard 

seized Tk. 

137 cr. illegal 

goods in last 

month 

TBT RepoRT 

Bangladesh Coast Guard 

seized tk. 137.09 crore worth 

illegal goods including drug, 

arms in separate drives in 

last February month, read a 

press release of the state 

force. 

Among seized narcotics, 

8,57,102 pieces of 

contraband yaba tablets 

worth tk. tk. 32 crore and 

85,000, 2,177 bottles of 

imported wine and bear 

were mentionable 

recoveries. 

Seized illegal arms covered 

by 8 rounds active 

ammunition, machete, knife 

and other local and foreign 

weapons among other 

things. 

Besides, the coast guard 

seized a large consignment 

of imported sarees worth tk. 

9.50 lakh 59, 700 pairs of 

earrings worth tk. 5.04 lakh, 

2,88,79,000 meters of 

current net wroth Tk. 101.07 

crore. 

The coast guard also 

arrested 58 fishermen who 

caught Jatka fish and 

shrimp fish fry and were 

involved with other outside 

of law activities. 

The press also read, 

Sixteen pirates were 

arrested from Sundarban 

area and six fishermen were 

rescued from their limbo. 

Three heads, rawhide of 

deer and venison of deer 

have been recovered from 

the mangrove area. 

Sundarganj by-election 

to be held free and fair: 

EC Rafiqul Islam 

GAIBANDHA : Election commissioner 

(EC) M. Rafiqul Islam yesterday said the 

by-election in Gaibandha-1 constituency 

(Sundarganj upazila) would be held on 

March 13 in a free, fair and transparent 

manner. 

"To make the by-election acceptable to 

all, the Election Commission would 

work seriously taking the help and 

assistance of different wings including 

district administration, district police, 

BGB, RAB, Ansar, and other intelligence 

agencies," he said, reports BSS. 

The EC made the comments while 

addressing a district level meeting, on 

the forthcoming by-election in 

Gaibandha-1 constituency as the chief 

guest. Election officials, law 

enforcement agencies and candidates 

were present at the meeting held at the 

conference room of District Collectorate 

Building here on Tuesday noon. 

Additional secretary of Election 

Commission Secretariat M. Mokhlesur 

Rahman, Rangpur divisional 

commissioner Kazi Hasan Ahmed, 

deputy inspector general of police, 

Rangpur range Khandkar Golam Faruk, 

superintendent of police Mashruqur 

Rahman Khaled, and regional election 

officer and also returning officer of the 

by-election GM Shahatab Uddin were 

present as special guests. 

Presided over by deputy 

commissioner (DC) Gautam Chandra 

Pal, the function was also addressed, 

among others, by RAB-13 commander 

Major Talukdar Nazmus Shakib, district 

election officer and also assistant 

retuning officer Mahbubur Rahman, 

Sundarganj UNO SM Golam Kibria, 

district commandant of Ansar and VDP 

Aftekharul Islam, and district 

correspondent of BSS Sarker M. 

Shahiduzzaman. 

Islam said initiatives have been taken 

in the constituency so that the voters 

could go to the polling centres easily 

and cast their votes in a festive mood. 

Special security measures had also 

been adopted at the remote areas 

particularly in the char areas of the 

constituency to hold the election 

peacefully like the main land of the 

upazila, he added. 

The EC also sought whole hearted 

cooperation of all the concerned to hold 

a peaceful and acceptable by-election in 

the constituency aimed at enhancing the 

image of the election commission to the 

country people and international 

community. 

Earlier, EC M. Rafiqul Islam talked to 

the four candidates who are contesting 

at the by-election from the constituency 

with patience, and thanked them for the 

open discussion. 

A total of 3, 38,556 voters including 1, 

64,934 male would cast their votes at 

109 centres of all the 15 unions and one 

pourashava of the upazila on March 13 

to elect Member of Parliament from the 

constituency, sources said. 

The constituency fell vacant for the 

second time following the accidental 

death of Golam Mostafa Ahmed, who 

was elected MP, from the constituency 

in the by-polls on March 21, 2017 on 

Awami ticket. 

Earlier, the seat was vacant for the 

first time when ruling party lawmaker 

Manjurul Islam Liton was shot dead by 

the miscreants at his Shahbaz village 

home near Bamondanga rail station of 

Sundarganj upazila on December 31, 

2016, sources added. 

Bangladesh Dental Society and Unilever Bangladesh's oral care brand Pepsodent brought out a rally 

in the capital city yesterday marking World Dentists Day. 

Photo : Courtesy 

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GD-364/18 (6 x 4) 

GD-365/18 (7 x 4)

METRO 

WEDnESDAY, MArCH 7, 2018 

3 

Success without morality 

is not accepted: President 

DHAKA : President M Abdul Hamid 

yesterday asked guardians and 

teachers to be more active to keep the 

children away from doing any 

misdeed or immoral activities and 

ensure quality education to make 

them well-educated, reports BSS. 

"Success without morality is not 

accepted anyway . . . It's our moral 

responsibility to start each learner's 

early education on a strong base that 

would help end the incident of 

question-paper leak and adoption of 

unfair means in the examinations," 

the President said at the inaugural 

function of the National Primary 

Education Week-2018 at Osmani 

Memorial Auditorium here in the 

afternoon. 

Referring to recent media reports 

in this connection where a section of 

teachers and guardians were found 

involved, President Hamid said 

parents want to see the success of 

their children but success without 

morality cannot be accepted at all. 

As the foundation of education is 

built from the primary school, the 

President said the teachers can help 

GD-366/18 (7 x 3) 

make each child an ideal nationbuilder 

with their principles and 

ideals. 

"The teachers can create leadership 

quality among the students and give 

them actual idea about good or bad 

things which would be helpful for the 

development of the country and 

nation," he suggested. 

Abdul Hamid urged the teachers to 

become initiators and more 

committed to nurture patriotism in 

the students. 

It is possible to realize the dream of 

Father of the Nation Bangabandhu 

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman by 

transforming country's huge 

population into human resources by 

providing them with modern, 

science-based and realistic 

education, the President said. 

Terming the children future of the 

nation, Abdul Hamid urged the 

guardians to behave friendly with 

their children and make them well 

aware of the healthy competition 

among themselves. 

"Children always deserve friendly 

behaviour from their parents and 



physical and mental nurturing is 

mandatory for the normal growth of 

a child," the president added. 

Mentioning different development 

activities of the present government, 

he said the education sector has been 

given top priority for achieving 

sustainable and balanced 

development of the country 

alongside nurturing the spirit of 

Liberation War, exercising 

democratic values, flourishing noncommunal 

thoughts, preserving 

environment and achieving Vision- 

2021 in line with the 'Digital 

Bangladesh' concept. 

Earlier, President Hamid 

distributed awards among the 

nominated best teachers and winners 

of the inter-primary school cultural 

competition in the function. 

Primary and Mass Education 

Minister Mostafizur Rahman Fijar 

presided over the programme. 

Chairman of the parliamentary 

standing committee on primary and 

mass education M Motahar Hossain 

and Secretary Mohammad Asif-Uz- 

Zaman also spoke. 

Call to allocate 

funds in budget 

for preventing 

child trafficking 

Participants at a workshop 

called upon the government 

to allocate adequate funds in 

the national budget for 

prevention of child 

trafficking, says a press 

release. 

They made the remarks 

while addressing a 

workshop 

at 

Mohammadpur in the 

capital on Monday. 

They drew attention of 

policymakers for taking 

opinions of children while 

making awareness-raising 

SMS, poster, leaflet and 

sticker for prevention of 

human trafficking. 

Community Participation 

and Development (CPD), a 

NGO working for prevention 

of human trafficking, 

organized the programme at 

No. 33 ward commissioner's 

office. 

Presided over by Moslema 

Bari, executive director of 

CPD, the programme was 

addressed by Mohammad 

Alauddin, founder 

headmaster of Ha-mim 

Model School, Jamal 

Hossain, headmaster of 

Mohammadpur Laboratory 

High School and Mijanur 

Rahman, secretary No. 33 

ward council. 

About 35 students from 

different educational 

institutions participated in 

the programme. 

Center for Ethics Education (CEE), an entity of Dhaka Ahsania Mission organized a roundtable meeting 

at Ahsanullah University of Science of Technology (AUST) campus yesterday. Photo : TBT 

JCD leader 

murdered 

in Ctg 

CHITTAGONG : A local 

Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal 

(JCD) leader was killed in an 

attack by miscreants at 

Chandrapur in Hathazari 

municipality on Monday, 

reports UNB. 

The deceased is M Sohel 

Rana, 24, a member of 

Hathazari municipality unit 

JCD and son of Nur 

Mohammad of the area. 

Police and witnesses said 

miscreants tried to swoop on 

Sohel in the afternoon while he 

was passing by the Upazila 

Health Complex area. 

As he started running to 

escape the attack, they hurled 

bricks at him and he collapsed 

on the ground after being hit. 

Locals took him to the 

upazila hospital from where he 

was shifted to Chittagong 

Medical College Hospital 

(CMCH). However, the JCD 

leader was declared dead at the 

CMCH in the evening. 

Officer-in-charge of 

Hathazari Police Station Belal 

Uddin Jahangir said a chase 

and counter-chase took place 

between the followers of BNP 

leaders Wahidul Alam and Mir 

Nasir Uddin at a programme in 

the afternoon. "Sohel was 

killed after being hit by bricks 

thrown by the supporters of 

Wahidul," he claimed. 

Meanwhile, central JCD 

blamed Bangladesh Chhatra 

League for the incident. 

In a statement, acting JCD 

President Mamunur Rashid 

Mamun and acting General 

Secretary M Asaduzzaman 

Asad alleged that a group of 

25-30 BCL men hacked Sohel 

to death. 

Help rural women 

come forward-Chumki 

DHAKA : State Minister for Women and Children 

Affairs Meher Afroj Chumki on Tuesday said 

everyone has to work to bring the rural women who 

are lag behind forward for attaining further 

economic and social progresses, reports UNB. 'The 

country has achieved a significant progress in the 

field of women empowerment but we need to work 

for the development and advancement of our rural 

women who are lag behind' she said while 

addressing a human chain programme formed in 

front of the National Press Club in the city. The 

Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, 

Department of Women Affairs, many other Non- 

Government Organisations (NGOs) and women 

platforms jointly formed the human chain on the 

occasion of the International Women's Day to be 

observed on March 8. The theme of this year's 

Women Day is 'Somy ekhon narir; Unnoyone tara, 

Bodle jasche grame-shohore karmo jibon dhara'. 

Chumki also said this year they will put special 

concentration on advancement of rural women. The 

secretary of the ministry, Nasima Begum, NDC, 

said, "I urge the male part of the society to be 

respectful towards the female and help them come 

forward." Many others, including Joyeeta 

Foundation managing director Md Asraf Hossain, 

women leaders from different NGOs addressed the 

human chain. 

Woman dies ‘falling’ off 

city drug rehab centre 

DHAKA : A woman died as she reportedly fell from 

the 4th floor of a drug rehabilitation centre at Uttara 

Sector-12 in the city early Monday, reports UNB. 

The deceased was identified as Parvin Runa, 50, 

daughter of late Abdul Jabbar of Barchar village in 

Raipura upazila of Narsingdi district. 

Sub-inspector of Uttara West Police Station Aminul 

Kabir said Runa fell off the building while trying to 

escape from 'Nabajagoron Drug Rehabilitation 

Centre' around 1:15am climbing down it using a 

piece of cloth. 

Police recovered the body around 2:30am and sent 

it to Dhaka Medical College Hospital for autopsy, he 

said. 

According to family sources, Runa, who was a drug 

addict, had been undergoing treatment at the rehab 

centre since February 10 last. 

Ethics education 

needs to be started 

from Primary Level 

Ethics education needs to be 

started from primary school. 

At the same time, primary 

school teachers must practice 

ethics. Speakers said this at a 

roundtable discussion titled 

"Quality Education and 

Ethics for Sustainable Development 

Goal" held at capital's 

Ahsanullah University of Science 

and Technology on 

Tuesday, a press release said. 

The speakers said, moral 

education is being tactically 

removed from the textbooks 

while work-oriented and 

practical education is given 

priority. Not only that, instead 

of unity; disparity is being created 

among students in the 

name of religious education. 

Speakers also said, national 

psychology has not been formulated 

in our country. As a 

result, disparity in education, 

in some cases, are creating 

unethical issues in students. 

Moreover, speakers also 

emphasized on establishing 

rule of law for ethics education. 

Former Vice-Chancellor of 

Dhaka University, Prof Dr. 

A.A.M.S Arefin Siddique, 

Vice-Chancellor of Ahsanullah 

University of Science and 

Technology Professor Dr. 

AMM Shafiullah, Green University 

Vice-Chancellor Prof 

Dr. Golam Samdani Fakir, 

Educationist and Writer Professor 

Murshed Shafiul 

Hasan, Director of Secondary 

and Higher Secondary Education, 

Professor Sarker 

Abdul Mannan, Professor of 

Psychiatry of BSMMU, 

Salahuddin Kausar Biplab 

and prominent persons were 

present in the roundtable discussion. 





GD-362/18 (7 x 4) 

GD-363/18 (7 x 4)

EDITORIAL 

WEdnESdAY, 

MArCh 7, 2018 

4 

Acting Editor & Publisher : Jobaer Alam 

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

e-mail: editor@thebangladeshtoday.com 

Wednesday, March 7, 2018 

reforming and improving 

the civil services 

It is high time to take up the tasks of carrying out 

deep and driving reforms in the country's civil 

services. The reformative activities in the country's 

civil services have become all the more important and 

justified in the backdrop of the recently increased 

raises in the salaries and perks of civil services 

members across the board. It is too simplistic to think 

that these showering of higher salaries and benefits 

on civil servants will prompt them to become more 

dedicated, honest and sincere in attending to their 

tasks. For experiences show all too clearly that 

members of civil services were always too good on 

absorbing any pay rise and other benefits as if these 

were their birth rights.They never felt any 

mentionable pricks of conscience that they should al 

so deliver better to deserve the higher salaries and 

benefits. Thus, there is every reason to think that this 

time around also they will just perceive their added 

monetary and other gain sas their legitimate dues 

without feeling that they have a duty of care to 

respond to these added payments by discharging 

their services with greater scrupulousness and 

efficiency. There fore it is high time to ensure that civil 

servants are only obliged to earn their increased 

earnings and privileges. 

Reformsofthecivilservicesshould start basically with 

making the present system of recruitment to the 

services completely free from corruption. This 

corruption was reflected in the leakage of question 

paper and other ills in the recruitment examinations 

of the services. The next task is proper training of the 

new civil servants. The Bangladesh Public 

Administration Training Centre (BPTAC) in the main 

trains new members of the civil services. But 

allegedly, the standard of this body has deteriorated 

over the years. The trainers themselves are 

considered as not sufficiently resourceful to train well. 

Therefore, BPTAC itself needs restructuring and at 

the centre of such restructuring should be 

appointment of persons of proper background and 

competence as the trainers. Besides, teaching of 

morality and service to people should be important 

parts of the training programmes so that the new 

members in the civil services can go to their first posts 

with a sharpened conscience. 

In many cases, government offices are found 

overstaffed particularly at the lower and mid-levels. 

Such overstaffing should be dealt with to conserve 

resources and reduce bureaucracy. In other cases, a 

dearth of specialist manpower is seen in some 

departments, particularly at the higher levels, that 

hampers the efficient functioning of these 

departments. The cases of such understaffing should 

be addressed by recruiting such specialist manpower 

on contract and other basis with special incentive 

salary and other facilities, where necessary. They may 

be inducted into the civil services by amending the 

present uniform rules of the services as special cases. 

Such recruitment will end the unwanted domination 

of the services by generalists who cannot give 

specialist decisions or attend to decision making of a 

complex or technical or managerial character and, 

thus, lend dynamism to the functioning of the 

services. 

The present system of promotion in the civil services 

is based mainly on seniority. The annual confidential 

report (ACR) on a civil servant produced by a senior 

officer is also taken into account while promoting a 

person. But such ACRs presently have no way of 

assessing the officer's true worth, efficiency, integrity 

and attainments. In most cases, the officers are 

blindly promoted to the next higher posts on 

completion of a certain number of years in their 

services. Therefore, in order to truly reward the 

efficient and the capable, promotion should be mainly 

based not on seniority but on the basis of the actual 

efficiency, dedication to the job and achievements of 

the person to be promoted. For this purpose, more 

than the ACR, a system should be devised in which 

the civil servants will be given targets to fulfill at the 

start of a year. The targets may range, say, from 

meeting tax collection targets to the number of 

sterilisation operations carried out in the family 

planning programme. 

Target attainment and meeting of other standards 

should become the basis of promotion and not just 

seniority as is the case now. Besides, failure to attain 

targets and noted lapses in other areas should lead to 

suffering of penalties such as withholding of 

increments to event dismissal from services. In other 

words, civil servants must be made to perform under 

the awareness that they are accountable for their jobs 

and that their jobs are not sinecures. They could 

expect rewards for the right things they do and 

penalised for what they do not do or do wrongly. Only 

an accountable structure of this sort-- and enforced 

rigorously-- has any chance of improving the 

standard of the civil services. All elected governments 

from now on should also resolve not to try and 

politicise the administration during their tenures. 

This would contribute to not only efficiency of the civil 

administration but lend to the country's political 

stability as well. 

The result of the Italian election on 

Sunday was revolutionary, but not 

unexpected. The politics of the 

center-left government, totally 

subordinated to the EU left, has ruined 

Italy's economy and above all created a 

sense of estrangement from the people. 

Many Italians feel they have lost 

sovereignty and control of their 

homeland, and are calling for a 

government to restore order and security. 

Unregulated mass immigration has 

created pockets of delinquency to which 

the police, blocked by the government, 

could not respond. It has also created a 

parallel labor market that, combined with 

competition from the countries of the Far 

East, has produced worrying 

unemployment, especially in southern 

Italy, whose people are forced to emigrate 

to look for poorly paid work in Germany 

or England. Thus the electoral result: In 

the south there was a victory for the Five 

Star Movement, a populist, antiestablishment 

group founded by the 

comedian Beppe Grillo; in the north there 

was an excellent result for the League, a 

center-right party whose young leader, 

Matteo Salvini, is a candidate to lead the 

entire conservative coalition in place of 

Silvio Berlusconi, leader of Forza Italia. 

Many Italians feel they have lost 

sovereignty and control of their 

homeland, leading to an election triumph 

for populists and Euroskeptics 

The only coalition government possible 

at the moment seems a League-Five Star 

alliance, but that would be be difficult 

because the ideas of the two parties on 

ALTHOUGH the Senate election is 

finally concluded despite all the 

apprehensions expressed over 

the past one year regarding a possible 

postponement on one ground or the 

other, the allegations about big money 

being used to lure provincial and 

national legislators to vote in a certain 

way continue to reverberate. The media 

has been awash with stories of 'horsetrading' 

and money changing hands. No 

evidence is produced in support of such 

claims but candidates winning without 

sufficient votes from their respective 

parties is cited as the major ground for 

such allegations. 

For example, the PPP won at least two 

additional seats in Sindh, apparently 

with the support of MQM MPAs. It also 

managed to win two seats in Khyber 

Pakhtunkhwa despite its relatively 

small number of MPAs there. The PTI 

won a seat in Punjab which could only 

be possible with the votes from the 

MPAs of other parties adding to PTI 

votes 

It is, however, important to point out 

that although most of the legislators 

vote in the Senate elections along party 

lines, the law does not bind them to do 

so. The law requires MNAs and MPAs 

to vote in the Senate election through 

secret ballot and that is why voting 

against party direction in these 

elections is not considered defection 

and hence not grounds for 

disqualification. Even in India, where 

the Rajya Sabha election is conducted 

through an open ballot and state 

legislators are allowed to show their 

Death is raining down on Eastern 

Ghouta. The suburban district 

outside Damascus is one of the 

last remaining rebel enclaves near the 

Syrian capital. It's been under siege for 

half a decade, battered by bombs and 

stalked by starvation. The last 

humanitarian convoy to arrive was in 

November. And now it is under 

relentless attack. 

As my Washington Post colleagues 

have reported, air strikes carried out by 

the Syrian regime and its Russian allies 

have pummelled Eastern Ghouta since 

last week, with "circling squadrons" of 

jets, drones and helicopters hitting 

hospitals, schools and residential 

buildings. Many of the approximately 

400,000 people still trapped in the 

rebel-held area are cowering in 

basements. Numerous medical facilities 

were destroyed, with doctors telling 

media that they now are resorting to 

using expired drugs to treat the many 

wounded. 

According to human rights monitors 

and aid agencies, the strikes have killed 

more than 300 people in the space of a 

few days and injured hundreds more. 

Eastern Ghouta, it should not be 

forgotten, was hit in 2013 by a regime 

chemical-weapons strike that allegedly 

killed hundreds. But the current 

moment is potentially even more 

terrifying. 

"We in Ghouta have been getting hit 

by air strikes for more than five years 

and this is not new to us," a hospital 

director in Eastern Ghouta told CNN. 

"But we have never seen anything like 

this escalation.""As the pace of death 

A vote for order and security 

issues such as family, abortion, 

euthanasia and the maintenance of 

traditions are so different. The only 

certainty is that the League has won the 

elections in Lombardy, the "engine room" 

of Italy, and the new president, Attilio 

Fontana, an experienced League man, 

has promised the restoration of order by 

announcing the expulsion of 100,000 

illegal immigrants, the deportation of 

extremist preachers and tough measures 

against criminals, starting with drug 

dealers. Relations with Europe will 

certainly be reformulated, because both 

the League and Five Star are Euroskeptic 

movements, but certainly Italy will 

remain in the European channel with a 

strong focus on the Mediterranean, 

whose stability and security are also vital 

for Italian security. This will require 

strong, authoritative and reliable 

partners in the moderate Arab world. 

MAx FErrArI 

UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of 

Indigenous Peoples Victoria Tauli- 

Corpuz said that indigenous peoples are 

the best guardians of world's biodiversity. 

In fact, from time immemorial, the 

indigenous peoples have inhabited the 

globe. 

They lived their lives maintaining their 

livelihood banking mainly on the places 

where they lived, especially the forests. 

The only coalition government possible at the moment seems a 

League-Five Star alliance, but that would be be difficult because the 

ideas of the two parties on issues such as family, abortion, euthanasia 

and the maintenance of traditions are so different. The only certainty 

is that the League has won the elections in Lombardy, the "engine 

room" of Italy, and the new president, Attilio Fontana, an 

experienced League man, has promised the restoration of order by 

announcing the expulsion of 100,000 illegal immigrants, the 

deportation of extremist preachers and tough measures against 

criminals, starting with drug dealers. 

Along with leading their lives with ease, 

they have lent sustainability to their 

lands. 

By so doing, they have done great 

favours to their surrounding and world 

climate as well. However, with the advent 

of intruders in the their lands in the shape 

of colonisation, globalisation and so on, 

things started to become painful for them 

as they were being robbed of their 

homesteads and means of livelihood. 

This article encapsulates discussions on 

Money and politics 

AhMEd BILAL MEhBooB 

ballot to their authorised party 

representatives before casting it, voting 

against party direction is not 

considered defection. 

The framers of the election laws, 

therefore, did not envisage a vote 

strictly along party lines and an 

allowance seems to have been made for 

conscience voting. It is, therefore, not 

correct to assume that voting against 

party lines was automatically motivated 

by personal gains. The allegations of 

money-for-votes, however, seem more 

plausible in some cases, especially 

where party discipline has weakened as 

in the case of the MQM or where voters 

are independent such as in Fata. The 

allegations of 'horse-trading' are 

considered serious enough that Prime 

Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and 

PTI chairman Imran Khan have openly 

accelerates in Eastern Ghouta, so do 

preparations," wrote my colleague 

Louisa Loveluck. "Pathologists and 

gravediggers in the enclave said before 

the violence accelerated that they had 20 

to 50 graves on standby at any given 

time. They said that was not enough." 

"We are overwhelmed," one man said, 

speaking to Washington Post on the 

condition of anonymity. "We are 

throwing body parts in mass graves. It's 

all we can do." The violence has elicited 

the usual international denunciations 

and fits of hand-wringing. Western 

columnists likened the killings to the 

war crimes at Srebrenica; editorials 

lamented the chronic impotence of 

institutions such as the United Nations. 

UN Secretary General Antonio 

Guterres described the situation in 

Eastern Ghouta as "hell on earth" and, 

once more, urged a cessation of 

hostilities. "My appeal to all those 

involved is for an immediate suspension 

of all war activities in Eastern Ghouta, 

allowing for humanitarian aid to reach 

IShAAn ThAroor 

and forcefully called for a change in the 

system of Senate elections. It is unlikely 

that such a change will be possible in 

the short run but the question of placing 

adequate checks and controls on the 

role of money in politics has very much 

taken centre stage and will need to be 

addressed. 

A major question left unaddressed in 

the Elections Act pertains to the limit on 

poll spending. The question of money in 

The framers of the election laws, therefore, did not 

envisage a vote strictly along party lines and an 

allowance seems to have been made for conscience 

voting. It is, therefore, not correct to assume that 

voting against party lines was automatically 

motivated by personal gains. The allegations of 

money-for-votes, however, seem more plausible in 

some cases, especially where party discipline has 

weakened as in the case of the MQM or where 

voters are independent such as in Fata. 

politics in general and of political 

finance in particular will assume much 

greater importance as we enter the 

active campaign period for the general 

elections scheduled no later than 

August this year. A major question that 

the Elections Act, 2017, has left 

unaddressed is the limit on election 

spending by political parties. Although 

our election laws have traditionally set 

all those in need," Guterres said, adding, 

"I believe Eastern Ghouta cannot wait." 

But it certainly will. Russian Foreign 

Minister Sergei Lavrov shrugged off 

calls for a truce, saying that "the fight 

against terrorism cannot be restricted by 

anything." Authorities in Damascus 

played down the suffering of their 

countrymen, claiming that rebel groups 

were using civilians as "human shields." 

Indeed, this may be only the beginning 

of a more intense onslaught against East 

Ghouta as the regime of President 

Bashar Al Assad launched a final 

offensive. In the past week, ground 

reinforcements have been massing 

along the outskirts of the suburb under 

the command of one of Al Assad's top 

generals. The regime views the Islamist 

rebel groups occupying the enclave as 

terrorists. Sana, the Syrian state news 

agency, said dozens of rockets and 

mortar rounds fired in the past two days 

by these factions hit various 

neighbourhoods in Damascus, killing 

more than a dozen people. The scenario 

various issues of indigenous peoples as 

well as their long, strong and modern 

struggles against many odds. Nation 

States across the globe have hardly found 

it comfortable to accommodate the issues 

and concerns of indigenous peoples. 

Thus, there is a tendency to use the term 

'tribal' in place of 'indigenous'. 

The author, however, prefers the word 

indigenous as preferred by the scholars 

and the activists of the modern age. In 

fact, the term indigenous represents the 

tribal peoples in a comprehensive fashion 

and lends true importance to the 

existence, unique customs and cultures of 

the peoples uprooted and being uprooted 

from their own territories by means of 

colonisation. 

In this article, both the words, tribal and 

indigenous, have been used 

interchangeably for better understanding 

of the readers. Indigenous peoples are 

those peoples whose social, cultural, and 

economic milieus make them different 

from other sections of the national 

community and who are very keen to 

uphold their own institutions. 

According to the Guardian, the world's 

estimated 370 million indigenous people 

are spread across the world in more than 

90 countries and speaking around 7,000 

languages. Among them are the Indians 

of the Americas, the Inuit and Aleutians 

of the circumpolar region, the Saami of 

northern Europe, the Aborigines and 

Torres Strait Islanders of Australia and 

the Maori of New Zealand. 

Source : Arab News 

limits on election spending by 

individual candidates and these limits 

have been considerably enhanced in the 

new law, there has never been a limit 

placed on election spending by political 

parties. This probably was not so much 

of an issue in the past when overall 

party spending was rather limited and 

almost all election-related expenses 

were incurred by the candidates, but 

over a period of time the dynamics of 

elections have changed. 

Political parties now play a much 

greater role and exercise a much greater 

influence on the election. As evidenced 

by the exit polls and through several 

other manifestations, the percentage of 

voters who vote based on party loyalties 

has steadily increased as politics 

matures in Pakistan. The expenses 

incurred by political parties have, 

therefore, also increased since the last 

three elections especially 2002 when 

the electronic media entered the 

electoral arena as a major player. 

Political parties are increasingly using 

electronic media for their direct and 

indirect political messaging. These 

advertisements are not constituencyspecific 

and, therefore, spending on 

these cannot be technically and legally 

counted towards the spending for a 

particular constituency for which there 

is a limit prescribed by the law. 

Advertisements in the electronic media 

are generally a big-ticket item and 

usually constitute the single largest item 

in election spending. 

Source: Dawn 

The world sits by as another massacre unfolds in Syria 

According to human rights monitors and aid 

agencies, the strikes have killed more than 

300 people in the space of a few days and 

injured hundreds more. Eastern Ghouta, it 

should not be forgotten, was hit in 2013 by a 

regime chemical-weapons strike that 

allegedly killed hundreds. But the current 

moment is potentially even more terrifying. 

is similar to the regime's slow, 

destructive reconquest in 2016 of rebelheld 

areas in Aleppo. At the time, both 

Syrian and Russian officials hailed the 

"liberation" of the city from Islamist 

radicals and trumpeted their efforts to 

evacuate civilians and deliver 

humanitarian aid. But then, as now, 

footage and photos from inside the 

besieged areas told a different story - of 

neighbourhoods laid to waste, whole 

families wiped out, and wounded 

children, rescued from the rubble, 

sitting mute and alone. 

"What's the goal? Is it to crush Ghouta 

on the heads of everyone like they 

crushed Aleppo?" Osama Nasser, a 

veteran anti-government activist, asked 

my colleagues. 

For now, the focus remains on the 

desperate struggle for survival of those 

caught in the crossfire. 

"There have been many massacres," 

Huda Kyayati, a relief worker with the 

Syrian nonprofit group Women Now for 

Development, said to Loveluck. "I 

cannot handle the idea of going down to 

the basement because I cannot imagine 

what it would mean to be bombed and 

die under the rubble." 

"We don't have enough ambulances 

left to ferry the injured, meaning many 

people die before they reach us," a 

doctor identified as Malik told the 

website Middle East Eye. "The hospitals 

have been overflowing with blood. We 

are doing what we can to help, but the 

situation is becoming unbearable." 

Source : Gulf News

ENVIRONMENT 

WEDnESDay, MarCH 7, 2018 

5 

Two koalas are sitting on a bulldozed log pile in Queensland. 

Photograph: WWF 

australia: the land of global 

deforestation hotspot 

MiCHaEl SlEzaK 

Australia is in the midst of a full-blown land-clearing 

crisis. Projections suggest that in the two decades to 

2030, 3m hectares of untouched forest will have been 

bulldozed in eastern Australia. The crisis is driven primarily 

by a booming livestock industry but is ushered in 

by governments that fail to introduce restrictions and 

refuse to apply existing restrictions. 

And more than just trees are at stake. Australia has a 

rich biodiversity, with nearly 8% of all Earth's plant and 

animal species finding a home on the continent. About 

85% of the country's plants, 84% of its mammals and 

45% of its birds are found nowhere else. 

But land clearing is putting that at risk. About threequarters 

of Australia's 1,640 plants and animals listed 

by the government as threatened have habitat loss listed 

as one of their main threats. Much of the land clearing 

in Queensland - which accounts for the majority in 

Australia - drives pollution into rivers that drain on to 

the Great Barrier Reef, adding to the pressures on it. 

And of course land clearing is exacerbating climate 

change. In 1990, before short-lived land-clearing controls 

came into place, a quarter of Australia's total 

greenhouse gas emissions were caused by deforestation. 

Emissions from land clearing dropped after 2010 

but are rising sharply again. 

"It has gotten so bad that WWF International put it 

on the list of global deforestation fronts, the only one 

in the developed world on that list," says Martin Taylor, 

the protected areas and conservation science 

manager at WWF Australia. In Queensland, where 

there is both the most clearing and the best data on 

clearing, trees are being bulldozed at a phenomenal 

rate. 

Stopping the clearing in Queensland is possible. 

Indeed, under its Labor premier Peter Beattie it 

brought its land clearing problem under control. 

Tough laws passed in 2004 meant that by 2010 land 

clearing had dropped to an all-time low of about 

92,000 hectares. But when the Liberal National party's 

Campbell Newman was elected in 2012 he broke 

an election promise to keep the laws, gutted them, and 

introduced several ways for farmers to clear land easily. 

The bulldozers roared back into action immediately, 

bringing the state to the point it is at now. 

About 395,000 hectares of native vegetation were 

cleared there in 2015-16, 33% more compared with 

the previous year. And despite the re-elected Labor 

government promising changes to rein it in, notifications 

of planned land clearing in Queensland have 

jumped a further 30%, suggesting woodlands could be 

bulldozed even faster in coming years. 

To visualise what clearing of that magnitude looks 

like, Guardian Australia has created a tool that will lay 

an area that size over any location you choose. Mapped 

over Sydney, for example, 395,000 hectares covers an 

area stretching from the central coast in the north, to 

Campbeltown in the south, and the Blue Mountains in 

the west. That equates to more than 1,500 football fields 

worth of native woodland and scrub being cleared each 

and every day in Queensland. Queensland clears more 

land each year than the rest of Australia put together, 

and the rate at which it is destroying its vegetation is 

comparable with the infamous deforestation that 

occurs in the Brazilian Amazon. Brazil bulldozes about 

0.25% of its part of the Amazon each year; Queensland 

clears about 0.45% of its remaining wooded areas. The 

recently re-elected Queensland Labor government has 

promised to change the laws. But in the meantime other 

states have begun to follow Queensland's lead. In 

2016 the New South Wales Coalition government 

announced it was going to axe three pieces of legislation 

that protected native vegetation and wildlife, and 

replace them with a single act that would make land 

clearing easier. 

A conservation scientist from the University of 

Queensland, Hugh Possingham, sat on the NSW government's 

advisory board for the changes but resigned 

in protest, warning they could lead to a doubling of 

clearing rates in NSW. Possingham says exactly how 

much the laws will impact clearing rates is unclear, 

since there are other drivers of clearing, including climate 

and economics. "But if you look at Queensland, 

their example is so dramatic," he says of the effects of 

law changes there. 

renewable energy powering 

scores of cities 

EllE HunT 

The number of cities reporting they are 

predominantly powered by clean energy 

has more than doubled since 2015, 

as momentum builds for cities around 

the world to switch from fossil fuels to 

renewable sources. 

Data published on Tuesday by the 

not-for-profit environmental impact 

researcher CDP found that 101 of the 

more than 570 cities on its books 

sourced at least 70% of their electricity 

from renewable sources in 2017, compared 

to 42 in 2015. Nicolette Bartlett, 

CDP's director of climate change, 

attributed the increase to both more 

cities reporting to CDP as well as a 

global shift towards renewable energy. 

The data was a "comprehensive picture 

of what cities are doing with 

regards to renewable energy," she told 

Guardian Cities. 

That large urban centres as disparate 

as Auckland, Nairobi, Oslo and Brasília 

were successfully moving away from 

fossil fuels was held up as evidence of a 

changing tide by Kyra Appleby, CDP's 

director of cities. 

"Reassuringly, our data shows much 

commitment and ambition," she said 

in a statement. "Cities not only want to 

shift to renewably energy, but, most 

importantly - they can." 

Much of the drive for climate action 

at city level in the past year has been 

spurred on by the global covenant of 

more than 7,400 mayors that formed 

The capital iceland gets 100% of its electricity from renewable 

sources. 

Photo: alamy 

in the wake of Donald Trump's decision 

to withdraw from the Paris 

accord. Burlington, Vermont, was the 

only US city reporting to CDP that 

sourced all of its power from renewable 

sources after having fully transitioned 

in 2015. Research from the Sierra 

Club states there are five such cities 

in the US in total. Burlington is now 

exploring how to become zero-carbon. 

Mayor Miro Weinberger said to CDP 

that its shift to a diverse mix of biomass, 

hydro, wind and solar power had 

boosted the local economy, and 

encouraged other cities to follow suit. 

Across the US 58 towns and cities, 

including Atlanta and San Diego, have 

set a target of 100% renewable energy. 

In Britain, 14 more cities and towns 

had signed up to the UK100 local government 

network's target of 100% 

clean energy by 2050, bringing the 

total to 84. Among the recent local 

authority recruits were Liverpool City 

Region, Barking and Dagenham, Bristol, 

Bury, Peterborough, Redcar and 

Cleveland. But the CDP data showed 

43 cities worldwide were already 

entirely powered by clean energy, with 

the vast majority (30) in Latin America, 

where more cities reported to CDP 

and hydropower is more widespread. 

In the six months to July, Latin 

American cities reported having instigated 

$183m of renewable energy projects 

- less than Europe ($1.7bn) or 

Africa ($236m). Europe topped the list 

for projects open for investment, but 

laid claim to just 20% of the 101 cities 

to be predominantly powered by clean 

energy. The Icelandic capital 

Reyjkavik, sourcing all electricity from 

hydropower and geothermal, was 

among them. It is now working to 

make all cars and public transit fossilfree 

by 2040. 

Eating habit and the climate 

change question 

ruTH KHaSaya Oniang'O 

Did you know that what's on your plate 

plays a larger role in contributing to climate 

change than the car you drive? 

When most wealthy people think about 

their carbon footprint, or their contributions 

to climate change, they'll think 

about where their electricity and heat 

come from or what they drive. They'll 

think about fossil fuels and miles per 

gallon, about LED lights and mass transit 

- but not so much about combine 

harvesters or processed meals or food 

waste. Few consider the impacts of the 

food they eat, despite the fact that globally, 

food systems account for roughly 

one quarter of all manmade greenhouse 

gas emissions. That's more than 

the entire transportation sector, more 

than all industrial practices, and roughly 

the same as the production of electricity 

and heat. 

Meanwhile, the most immediate 

threat of climate change for most of the 

global population will be at the dinner 

table, as our ability to grow critical staple 

crops is being affected by the warming 

we've already experienced. Between 

1980 and 2008, for instance, wheat 

yields dropped 5.5 % and maize yields 

fell 3.8% due to rising temperatures. 

Climate change threatens the food 

security of millions of poor people 

around the world. Young people are 

increasingly keen to protect the environment 

by shifting to animal-productfree 

diets. They seek plant proteins 

which taste like meat, while insects are 

also growing popular as an alternative. 

What these inverse challenges - that 

food and agriculture are both enormous 

contributors to climate change, 

and massively impacted by it - really tell 

us is that our food systems, as currently 

structured, are facing major challenges. 

There is a much larger problem that 

implores us to look beyond farm and 

agricultural practices. We need to open 

our eyes to solutions that address the 

full scope of the challenge to create 

more sustainable and equitable food 

systems. That way, we can provide 

healthy food for all people while we 

protect our planet's resources at the 

same time. 

So what are food systems? Everything 

from seed and soil to the supermarket 

to the plate to the landfill. Food 

systems include the growing, harvesting, 

processing, packaging, transporting, 

marketing, consumption, and disposal 

of food and food-related items. 

While farming alone accounts for 10- 

12% of global greenhouse gas emissions, 

when we look at entire food systems 

the contributions to climate 

change more than double. A recent 

report published by the Meridian Institute 

lays out the many factors throughout 

food systems that spell trouble for 

the climate, and also explains why a 

broad systems-wide perspective is necessary 

for implementing effective 

changes. 

Consider deforestation and soil. A 

narrow view of agriculture alone would 

neglect the fact that a full 80% of the 

forests that are clear cut or destroyed 

are done so to create farmland. Forests 

are massive carbon sinks. So is soil, 

locking away two to three times as 

much carbon as there is present in the 

atmosphere. But farmers can help 

restore ecosystem functions and build 

resilient communities by producing 

crops and livestock in productive ways 

that sequester carbon and protect 

forests. 

Or consider food waste. Not just the 

scraps that you throw away, but 

throughout the entire food system. A 

staggering 30-40% of the food produced 

in the world is never eaten. Some 

never gets harvested, some spoils 

before it reaches consumers, and a lot is 

tossed away by retailers, restaurants, 

and at home. For the sake of comparing 

emissions, if food waste were its own 

country it would be the third largest 

greenhouse gas emitter in the world, 

after only China and the United States. 

This says nothing of the gross injustice 

of wasting so much food while so 

many in the world go hungry. In the 

developing world, improving infrastructure 

along the food chain - including 

cold storage - would prevent much 

good food being lost. In the developed 

world, retailers can prevent large 

amounts of waste by finding outlets for 

slightly blemished goods and consumers 

can limit waste by buying food 

in amounts they actually want and 

need. 

There are countless more examples 

of challenges and solutions all throughout 

the food system - from production 

of fertiliser to distribution systems to 

the production of dried and purified 

foods that make up processed meals to 

the diets and lifestyles of the public. 

Everyone has a role to play; these challenges 

cannot be solved in a vacuum. 

The complex, dynamic, and widely 

diverse forms of the world's many food 

systems yield some wildly divergent 

outcomes in terms of nutrition, health, 

and environmental and climate 

impacts. It is critical that we start to 

better examine what works in some 

systems and what must be improved in 

others, in order to produce more equitable, 

just, and sustainable outcomes 

around the world. 

Just as there's no universal crop that 

grows everywhere, there's no "one size 

fits all" model food system to implement 

across the world. A broader systems-wide 

perspective is necessary if 

there is any hope for truly transformative 

change. It's time to look beyond 

farming and agriculture and to see the 

whole picture, to create systems that 

cause less harm to the climate and are 

more resilient to the impacts we're 

already suffering from global warming. 

Food is a fundamental human need 

Deforestation drives up indonesia's greenhouse gas emissions. 

Photo: Sutanta aditya 

and to eat is a basic human right. Our 

food systems must deliver that need, 

fairly and equitably, without worsening 

the impacts of climate change. 

restoring forests are vital to 

environmental balance 

HugH Biggar 

At present, roughly 12 million 

hectares of intact forests 

are lost annually in the tropics 

every year, according to 

the Center for International 

Forestry Research (CIFOR), 

and in turn contribute to a 

number of consequences 

from loss of biodiversity to 

food insecurity to social 

unrest. 

Forest landscape restoration 

- the subject of a GLF 

Bonn session in last December 

- involves both restoring 

degraded landscapes and 

doing so in ways that benefit 

local communities and are 

ecologically sustainable. 

Forests are also seen as vital 

carbon sinks that help 

sequester global warminglinked 

carbon from the 

atmosphere. 

Germany has stepped up 

to tackle these challenges 

head on through BMZ, the 

country's Federal Ministry of 

Economic Cooperation and 

Development, which supports 

more than 30 countries 

and 10 regions with its 

Forest Action Plan (FAP). 

Between 2014 and 2016, 

BMZ increased its commitment 

to an ongoing portfolio 

of 2 billion euros ($2.5 billion) 

which is a steep 

increase of 25 percent, said 

Birgit Gerhardus, head of 

division, rural development, 

land rights and forestry at 

BMZ. 

"We also look at forests 

not only from the climate 

perspective, but from the 

rural development perspective," 

Gerhardus said. "The 

responsibility for forests 

shifted from our climate 

department to our rural 

development department." 

Successful restoration 

practices can include tree 

planting (based on what the 

land can naturally support), 

smart land management, 

reducing erosion, improving 

management of livestock, 

protecting biodiversity and 

wildlife, improving water 

quality and management, 

and developing alternative 

ways to provide local communities 

with income. On 

the heavily-logged island of 

Borneo in Indonesia, for 

instance, a health clinic uses 

non-cash payments to discourage 

locals from cutting 

down trees to pay for care. 

Costa Rica provides a 

ready example of how active 

forest recovery can take 

place. The Central American 

nation had lost about 85 percent 

of its tropical forests by 

1987 as it cleared land for 

cattle ranches and other 

development, according to 

the World Bank. The 

destruction damaged sensitive 

ecosystems, and impacted 

local communities and an 

economy dependent on 

tourism and forest products. 

But through innovative 

financing, policy reforms, 

To tackle climate change a new approach called 

forest landscape restoration has been introduced 

across the globe. Photo: Collected 

and assistance to landowners, 

Costa Rica's forests 

recovered by 50 percent by 

2010 and the country has 

also experienced a boom in 

ecotourism, the World Bank 

reports. 

With success stories such 

as Costa Rica in mind, the 

international community 

has recently launched larger 

regional initiatives. In 

2011, the Bonn Challenge 

called for restoring 150 million 

hectares (about three 

times the size of Spain) of 

lost and degraded forests by 

2020. And in support of the 

Bonn Challenge, the 

AFR100 is a country-led 

effort to bring 100 million 

hectares of land in Africa 

into restoration by 2030. In 

Latin America, Initiative 

20×20, aims to restore 20 

million hectares of degraded 

land. Meanwhile, the 

New York Declaration on 

Forests extended the Bonn 

Challenge to 350 million 

hectares by 2030. 

Even so, challenges 

remain including issues of 

land rights, access to lands 

and resources, public policy 

alignment between government 

agencies and greater 

funding for forest landscape 

restoration. One report by 

the U.N. Food and Agriculture 

Organization and the 

U.N. Convention to Combat 

Desertification found that 

between $36 billion and $49 

billion are required every 

year to achieve agreed upon 

forest landscape restoration 

targets. The report also 

points out that such restoration 

is mostly beneficial in 

regions with developed legal 

and regulatory frameworks - 

conditions not met yet in a 

number of sub-Saharan 

African countries. 

According to a new report, 

in some tropical ecosystems 

natural regenerating naturally 

passive can be effective. 

The study found that natural 

regeneration of tropical 

forests could boost further 

large-scale restoration goals 

for a fraction of the cost of 

active restoration. But the 

study also had concerns 

about the possible rate of 

return of biodiversity and 

the socioeconomic impact 

on local populations.

NATIONAL 

WeDNeSeSDAY, MARCH 7, 2018 

6 

Human chain in Magura town in observance of international women day, ADAB, Magura district 

unit formed a human chain marking International Women Day yesterday in Magura town. 

Photo: Khan Rakbibul Haque. 

19 held in 

Dinajpur 

DINAJPUR: Police, in 

special drives arrested 19 

persons including two 

activists of BNP and two 

drug traders from different 

areas of the district in last 

12-hour ending at 8am 

yesterday morning, reports 

BSS. 

Police also recovered 180 

bottles of Phensidyl during 

the drives. 

Police said they were 

picked up from different 

areas of the district. 

During the drives, 

Dinajpur Sadar police 

arrested six persons 

including two activists of 

BNP from Bahadur Bazar 

around 7am in the town, 

Birampur Thana police 

arrested two persons, Biral 

Thana police arrested two 

persons, Ghoraghat Thana 

police arrested two persons, 

Bochaganj Thana police 

arrested one person, 

Parbatipur Thana police 

arrested two persons and 

Kaharole Thana police 

arrested two persons. 

Several cases, including 

charges of subversive 

activities, are pending with 

different police stations 

against the arrested persons, 

the sources added. 

In another drive, 

Hakimpur Thana police 

arrested two alleged drug 

traders with a private car 

and recovered 180 bottles of 

Phensidyl after searching 

the private car from 

Chowgundi Moor in the 

upazila around 6am. 

The arrested people were 

sent to jail. 

Bumper mango yield 

likely in C'nawabganj 

CHAPAINAWABGANJ: The mango trees come into 

blossom in abundance amid favorable climatic condition, 

expecting a bumper mango production during this season in 

the district, reports BSS. 

Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) officials here 

yesterday said the overall temperature was favorable for 

flowering in mango trees from the beginning of the season 

and now those took a very eye catching look, predicting a 

bright prospect of the fruit this season. 

While contacted, additional deputy director of DAE Dr. 

Md. Saiful Alam said more than 90 percent mango trees have 

blossomed so far. 

This year the mango production is expected to be over 2.5 

lakh tonnes whereas the production of mangoes was 2, 

40,000 tonnes last year, he added. 

He continued there are 22, 60,000 mango trees on 29,510 

hectares of land in the district. 

Some 250 mango varieties including Fazli, Ashina, 

Gopalbhog, Langra are grown in the district every year. 

Fresher's reception 

held at RU 

RC CORRESPONDENT: 

The authorities of Rajshahi University (RU) accorded 

reception to the newcomers students under 2017-18 

academic sessions at Kazi Nazrul Islam auditorium 

yesterday. 

RU VC Professor Dr. M Abdus Sobhan attended the 

function as the chief guest while university student 

advisor Prof. Dr Prof Jannatul Ferdus delivered welcome 

speech. Pro-VC Prof Dr Ananda Kumar Saha, Treasurer 

Prof Dr Mostafizur Rahman, register Professor MA Bari, 

proctor Prof Dr Luthfor Rahman, public relation officer 

Prof Provash Kumar Karmaker , among others, 

addressed the occasion. 

RU VC Professor Dr. M Abdus Sobhan said in the age of 

globalization and communication-technology, students 

have to face challenges of new technology. The purpose of 

education is to acquire knowledge from reality and to 

engage it for the betterment of country and mankind. 

He, however, called fresher's students of the university 

to keep away from evil forces in the holy institution adding 

there is no place for the evil in the university. Uphold the 

country`s image following their education from the 

institution, he again urged. 

Bangabandhu's 

birthday 

programme 

in Narsingdi 

NARSINGDI: The district 

administration at a meeting 

on Monday finalized an elaborate 

programme to celebrate 

the 99th birthday of Father of 

the Nation Bangabandhu 

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and 

National Children Day-2018 

on March 17, reports BSS. 

Deputy Commissioner Dr. 

Shubash Chandra Biswas 

presided over the meeting in 

his office conference room. 

District level government 

officials, upazila officers, head 

of educational institutions, 

Freedom Fighters, representatives 

of socio-cultural and 

professional organizations 

and journalists participated in 

the meeting. 

The programme included 

placing of wreaths at the portrait 

of Bangabandhu, cake 

cutting, children's gathering, 

rallies, discussions and 

screening of documentaries 

on Bangabandhu. 

On this occasion, Shishu 

Academy will arrange drawing, 

handwriting, essay writing 

and cultural competitions. 

Islamic foundation will 

arrange Hamd-Nath competition 

and Doa Mahfil. 

The observance will begin 

through placing wreaths on 

the mural of Bangabandhu on 

Deputy Commissioner Office 

premises in the morning. 

The local newspapers will 

publish special supplement 

marking the day. Munajats 

will be offered at religious 

institutions and improved 

diets will be served among the 

unprivileged children. 

1.32 lakh families 

get rice at Tk 10 

per kg in 

Nilphamari 

NILPHAMARI: More than 

1.32 lakh extreme poor 

families in six upazila of the 

district have been getting rice 

at a rate of Taka 10 per 

kilogram (kg) since yesterday, 

reports BSS. 

The selected card holders of 

the upazilas will get 30 

kilograms of rice in every 

month through 247 village 

ration dealers at a rate of Taka 

10 per kg under the 'Food 

Friendly Programme for the 

Ultra Poor. 

District Food Control office 

appointed 54 dealers in 15 

union of Sadar upazila, 37 

dealers in 10 unions of Domar 

upazila, 31 dealers in 10 

unions of Dimla upazila, 50 

dealers in 11 unions of 

Jaldhaka upazila, 53 dealers 

in 9 unions of Kishorganj 

upazila and 32 dealers in 5 

unions of Saidpur upazila. 

District food controller Kazi 

Saifuddin said the 

government will provide food 

support to the extreme poor 

families during the crisis 

period so that they do not 

suffer for food crisis. 

River water irrigation 

gains popularity 

among Barind farmers 

RAJSHAHI: River water 

irrigation has started gaining 

popularity among the farmers 

in high Barind tract, lessening 

gradually mounting pressure 

on underground water, 

reports BSS. 

Haider Ali, 43, of Bhatopara 

village under Godagari 

Upazila, is now happy over 

irrigation by using river water 

in the current Irri-boro 

season. 

Shariful Islam, 51, another 

farmer of Baliaghata village, 

said river water contains 

humus which is important for 

soil fertility as well as 

boosting crop yield. "We are 

so much happy over getting 

chances of irrigating using 

river water round the year," 

he added. 

Like them, river water 

irrigation has made more 

than 6,500 farmers happy in 

the high Barind area as their 

dependence on deep tube 

wells and rainfall has been 

reduced to some extent. 

Farmers set up 21 pumps in 

seven points of Padma, 

Mohananda and Punarbhaba 

rivers in Rajshahi and 

Chapainawabganj districts, 

lifting river water and 

supplying those to the 

farmlands through 41,050 

feet long pipelines. 

Integrated Water Resource 

Management (IWRM) 

Project established the 

infrastructures with financial 

support of Swiss Agency for 

Development and 

Cooperation- SDC in order to 

make the farmers habituated 

to irrigating their farmlands 

with river-water. 

DASCOH Foundation and 

Swiss Red Cross have jointly 

been implementing the 

IWRM project in 35 UPs and 

four pourasabhas in the two 

northern districts since 2015. 

Ali Azam Towhid, 

Chairman of Matikata Union 

Parishad, said many of the 

hand-driven tube wells 

become out of order during 

dry season when the deep 

tube-wells remain 

functioning. 

He said the odd situation 

poses a serious threat to the 

living and livelihood 

condition of the people 

particularly the poor and 

ethnic minority. So, there is 

no alternative but to use river 

water to protect the aquifer. 

Referring to various 

research findings, Professor 

Chowdhury SarwarJahan of 

Department of Geology and 

Mining in Rajshahi 

University said around 3,000 

liters of water needs to 

produce one kilogram of 

paddy. Barind area's 

irrigation system is largely 

dependent on underground 

water. So, huge underground 

water is extracted for crop 

cultivation including Irriboro 

every year. 

Stressing the need for 

environment-friendly more 

irrigation scheme like IWRM, 

he said there is no alternative 

but to promote surface water 

based irrigation to protect the 

groundwater resources. 

Students of different educational institutions formed a human to mark International Women Day 

yesterday in Banaripara district. Upazila Women Affairs officer Dawlatunnesa, Cooperatives officer 

Afsana Sakhi attend the human chain programme among notables. Photo: S Mijanul Islam 

Mobile Court drives in Hakaluki haor area and destroys illegal structures burning into ashes. 

Photo: Abdur Rob 

Students and teachers form human chain protesting the attack on Sust Professor Dr, Zafor Iqbal yesterday 

in front of Jamalpur Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib Fisheries College yesterday. Photo: Ruhul Amin Razu 

Marking National Jute Day Sreebordi Upazila Administration brings out a colorful and holds a discussion 

meeting yesterday in Sreebordi under Sherpur district. 

Photo: Ramesh Sarkar 

Five shops fined 

Tk 21,500 in 

Rajshahi 

RAJSHAHI: Five food 

shops and drug stores were 

fined Taka 21,500 here 

yesterday on charges of 

manufacturing and selling 

unhygienic and sub-standard 

food items, reports BSS. 

A team of Directorate of 

National Consumer Rights 

Protection (DNCRP) 

conducted a raid at 

Nandangachhi Bazar area 

under Charghat Upazila. The 

team found Milon Bakery, 

Mina Pharmacy, Ruhul Store, 

Bismillah Pharmacy and 

Boishakhi Mistanna Bhander 

guilty of preparing, possessing 

and selling food and other 

consumer items in unhygienic 

condition. 

Subsequently, the team 

fined Tk 21,500 against the 

five shop owners and realized 

the fine instantly. 

Apurba Adhikary, Assistant 

Director of DNCRP, said such 

drive against the violations of 

consumers' rights will be 

continued in the days ahead. 

Youths must be protected 

from drug addiction 

RAJSHAHI: Crimes-free society, 

particularity drug addiction and militancy, 

must be restored at any cost to protect 

people and the young generation, in 

particular, from deadly consequences of the 

crimes, reports BSS. 

The law-enforcing agencies and the 

community people should have to work 

together as the law-enforcers alone aren't 

capable to overcome the crises. 

The observation came at an anti-drugs and 

anti-militancy public meeting at 

Shahmukhdum Degree College under Boalia 

Police Station in the city on Monday 

afternoon. 

Boalia Model Police Station Community 

Policing Committee organized the meeting 

with the main thrust of encouraging and 

motivating the people towards freeing the 

society from various crimes. 

Mahbubor Rahman, Police Commissioner 

of Rajshahi Metropolitan Police (RMP), 

attended and addressed the function as chief 

guest, saying the community people and the 

parents, in particular, should take the 

responsibilities of protecting the young 

generation from becoming involved in 

crimes. 

Chaired by Deputy Commissioner (Boalia) 

of RMP Amir Jafar, Additional 

Commissioner Suzayet Islam, Deputy 

Commissioner (Headquarters) Tanveer 

Haider Chowdhury, city unit Awami League 

secretary Dablu Sarker, valiant Freedom 

Fighter Meer Iqbal, President of Rajshahi 

Chamber of Commerce and Industry Md 

Muniruzzaman and Principal of Rajshahi 

College Prof Habibur Rahman also spoke. 

RMP Commissioner Mahbubor Rahman 

said the community people should extend 

cooperation towards police with specific 

information about the criminals. 

The community people know well about 

location of the criminals, drug traffickers and 

traders and the police need the information 

from the citizens for taking legal action 

against them. 

The community based policing had been 

introduced in the metropolis with a noble 

view, but the community people should take 

the responsibility of making it effective. 

"If you give us authentic information about 

the criminals and other anti-social elements, 

we will put in our level best efforts to bring 

those to book as early as possible," he 

reminded the community people.

INTERNATIONAL 

WEdNESdAy, MARCH 7, 2018 

7 

A column of volcanic smoke rises from the crater on the Shinmoedake volcano after its eruption in 

Kirishima, southern Japan on Tuesday. 

Photo : AP 

Japanese volcano 

erupts, dozens of 

flights grounded 

TOKYO : A volcano in 

southern Japan that 

appeared in a James Bond 

film had its biggest eruption 

in years Tuesday, shooting 

smoke and ash thousands of 

meters (feet) into the sky 

and grounding dozens of 

flights at a nearby airport, 

officials said, reports UNB. 

The Meteorological 

Agency said the Shinmoedake 

volcano on 

Japan's southernmost main 

island of Kyushu erupted 

violently several times, and 

some lava was rising inside a 

crater. 

Public broadcaster NHK 

showed gray volcanic smoke 

billowing into the sky and 

orange lava rising to the 

mouth of the crater. The 

Meteorological Agency said 

ash and smoke shot up 

Bicycle-riding 

suicide bomber kills 3 

in northeast Nigeria 

MAIDUGURI : Police say 

a suicide bomber riding a 

bicycle with explosive 

devices strapped to his body 

killed three people when he 

detonated himself in a 

crowded suburb of Nigeria's 

northeast city of Maiduguri, 

reports UNB. 

Borno State police 

spokesman Joseph Kwaji 

said Tuesday that at least 17 

others were injured by the 

explosion Monday night. He 

said the three killed were 

civilian defense force members 

on night duty. The dead 

and injured were taken to 

University of Maiduguri 

Teaching Hospital. Explosives 

and patrol teams visited 

the scene of the attack. 

Maiduguri's Muna Garage 

suburb has been attacked 

more than 30 times by suicide 

bombers, killing more 

than 100 since 2016. 

The Boko Haram Islamic 

extremist group, which has 

killed more than 20,000 in 

their eight-year insurgency, 

was formed in Maiduguri, 

Borno State's capital. 

2,300 meters (7,500 feet) 

into the sky in the volcano's 

biggest explosion since 2011. 

In Kirishima city at the 

foot of the volcano, pedestrians 

wore surgical masks or 

covered their noses with 

hand towels, while others 

used umbrellas to protect 

from falling ash. Cars had 

layers of ash on their roofs. 

There were no reports of 

injuries or damage from the 

eruptions. The agency said 

the volcanic activity is 

expected to continue and 

cautioned residents against 

the possibility of flying rocks 

and pyroclastic flows - 

superheated gas and volcanic 

debris that race down 

the slopes at high speeds, 

incinerating or vaporizing 

everything in their path. 

The volcano, seen in the 

CAIRO : A passenger on an 

EgyptAir flight from the Gulf 

state of Oman to Cairo 

assaulted crew members on 

Tuesday but was quickly 

overpowered and handed 

over to authorities, Egyptian 

aviation officials said, reports 

UNB. 

The Boeing 737-800 with 

78 passengers returned to 

Muscat, Oman's capital, 30 

minutes after it took off from 

there, and the crew handed 

over the passenger to the 

police. 

The plane later left for 

Cairo, arriving four hours 

behind schedule. 

According to the officials, 

the passenger, identified as 

Egyptian national 

Mohammed Attiya Ashour, 

was not armed. 

The incident unfolded 

shortly after takeoff, when 

the man began to shout 

1967 James Bond film "You 

Only Live Twice," has had 

smaller eruptions since last 

week. 

Entry to the 1,421-kilometer 

(4,660-foot) -high volcano 

was restricted. About 

80 flights in and out of nearby 

Kagoshima airport were 

canceled. 

Japan, which sits on the 

Pacific "Ring of Fire," has 

110 active volcanoes and is 

prone to earthquakes and 

volcanic eruptions. 

An eruption of Mount 

Ontake in 2014 killed about 

60 people. In January, a 

surprise eruption of another 

volcano in central Japan 

killed a soldier during ski 

training and injured 11 others. 

Several other Japanese 

volcanoes have had smaller 

eruptions. 

Egypt Air passenger 

on Muscat-Cairo 

flight assaults crew 

"Allahu akbar," or "God is 

great" in Arabic and 

demanded to enter the cockpit. 

He was wrestled down by 

the flight's two air marshals 

and crew members. The 

flight's chief cabin steward 

was slightly injured in the 

head during the scuffle, the 

officials said. 

Egyptian authorities have 

questioned the crew and other 

passengers about the incident 

after they arrived back 

in Cairo. 

It was unlikely that the 

incident was terrorism-related, 

said the officials, who 

spoke on condition of 

anonymity because they 

were not authorized to speak 

to the media. 

EgyptAir issued a brief 

statement confirming the 

incident, describing Ashour 

as a "disruptive" passenger. 

Greece seeks EU, 

NATO help over 

soldiers arrested 

in Turkey 

ATHENS : Greece's 

defense minister says he has 

complained to the European 

Union and NATO following 

the arrest of two Greek soldiers 

in Turkey after they 

strayed across the border 

during a patrol last week, 

reports UNB. 

Panos Kammenos said the 

two men, a lieutenant and a 

sergeant, were arrested a 

"few meters" inside Turkish 

territory while on a patrol 

against migrant smuggling. 

He made the remarks in 

Brussels on Tuesday while 

attending a meeting of EU 

defense ministers. 

A Turkish court in the border 

city of Edirne rejected a 

request for their provisional 

release. 

The incident has further 

strained relations between 

the two NATO allies who 

have longstanding disputes 

over maritime boundaries 

and commercial rights. 

Northern Ireland 

party rejects EU 

plans on Ireland 

border 

BRUSSELS : The Northern 

Ireland party that props 

up the government of British 

Prime Minister Theresa May 

insists that European Union 

proposals to avoid a hard 

border in Ireland after Brexit 

are "not acceptable." 

Democratic Unionist Party 

leader Arlene Foster said 

after a meeting with the EU's 

chief Brexit negotiator, 

Michel Barnier, that there 

can be no division between 

Northern Ireland and the 

rest of the U.K. to accommodate 

for a soft border with 

the EU, reports UNB. 

The border on the island 

will be the only land border 

after the U.K. breaks away as 

of March 2019 and maintaining 

open trade and passage 

is proving to be one of 

the more intractable issues 

during the Brexit talks. 

And the DUP fears that as 

the EU seeks to keep the 

Irish border as transparent 

as possible, it is at the same 

time erecting obstacles 

between Northern Ireland 

and Britain. 

A passenger on an EgyptAir flight from the Gulf state of Oman to Cairo assaulted crew members 

but was quickly overpowered. 

Photo : AP 

2 Senate seats up in Mississippi 

as GOP defends its majority 

JACKSON : Republicans 

suddenly find themselves 

defending two seats in Mississippi 

this year as they try 

to maintain their slim 

majority in the U.S. Senate, 

reports UNB. 

Republican Sen. Roger 

Wicker is already up for reelection 

in the deeply conservative 

state. And 80- 

year-old Republican Sen. 

Thad Cochran announced 

Monday that he is resigning 

April 1 because of poor 

health. 

Cochran is just over 

halfway through a six-year 

term. Republican Gov. Phil 

Bryant will appoint someone 

to temporarily succeed 

Cochran, and a special election 

will be in November - 

the same day as the regular 

election for the seat Wicker 

now holds. The winner of 

the special election will 

serve until January 2021. 

Democrats are running 

for the Wicker seat, and the 

open seat is expected to 

attract several candidates 

from both parties. Democrat 

Mike Espy, President 

Bill Clinton's first agriculture 

secretary, says he has a 

"strong intention" to run. In 

1986 he became the first 

African-American in modern 

times to win a congressional 

seat in Mississippi. 

Cochran's departure set 

off a scramble within a state 

Republican Party already 

struggling to manage a disaffected 

conservative faction. 

Chris McDaniel, the 

outspoken, tea partybacked 

state senator who 

came close to defeating 

Cochran in a bitter 2014 

Republican primary, qualified 

last week to challenge 

Wicker but said he might 

jump to the special election 

if the Cochran seat is open. 

McDaniel said Monday it is 

"premature" to say what he 

will do. 

Republicans in Washington 

are hoping to prevent a 

rough and costly primary 

season as they struggle to 

defend their 51-49 hold on 

the Senate. Some Republicans 

have doubts about 

McDaniel's ability to win a 

general election. And after 

Republicans' bruising loss 

in Alabama last year, party 

leaders are eager to block 

any risky candidates. 

Cochran has been a sporadic 

presence on Capitol 

Hill in recent months. He 

stayed home for a month 

last fall, returning to Washington 

in October to give 

Republicans the majority 

they needed to pass a budget 

plan. He has since kept a 

low profile and an aide ever 

present at his side. 

"I regret my health has 

become an ongoing challenge," 

Cochran said in a 

statement. "It has been a 

great honor to serve the 

people of Mississippi and 

our country. ... My hope is 

by making this announcement 

now, a smooth transition 

can be ensured so their 

voice will continue to be 

heard in Washington, D.C." 

Cochran was first elected 

to the Senate in 1978 after 

serving six years in the 

House. A mild-mannered 

Southerner, Cochran came 

to the Senate when it had a 

far clubbier atmosphere 

and he played an insider's 

game throughout his seven 

terms - particularly as a 

member of the powerful 

Appropriations panel, 

which had long been a 

bipartisan powerhouse and 

way to funnel taxpayer dollars 

back home. 

Cochran chaired the committee 

twice and used the 

post to channel money to 

Mississippi and other Gulf 

Coast states for Hurricane 

Katrina recovery after the 

2005 storm. 

"Thad knows there's a big 

difference between making 

a fuss and making a difference. 

And the people of Mississippi 

- and our whole 

nation- have benefited from 

his steady determination to 

do the latter," Senate Majority 

Leader Mitch McConnell 

said in a statement. 

Roger Torrent, speaker of Catalan Parliament releases a statement at the Catalonia Parliament 

in Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2018. The speaker of Catalonia's parliament has postponed 

a session intended to re-elect the Spanish region's fugitive ex-president. Photo : AP 

Catalan parliament to vote on 

regional leader next week 

MADRID : Catalonia's 

parliament will vote next 

week on whether to elect a 

jailed separatist leader as 

the region's new president, 

as part of an ongoing effort 

to gain independence from 

Spain, reports UNB. 

Parliamentary speaker 

Roger Torrent on Tuesday 

convened the plenary session 

in Barcelona for March 

12, when Catalan lawmakers 

will vote on whether to 

make Jordi Sanchez their 

regional government's 

leader. 

Carles Puigdemont, Catalonia's 

ex-leader who fled 

to Brussels to escape arrest, 

announced last week that he 

was temporarily withdrawing 

his bid to get his old job 

back and proposed Sanchez 

- his No. 2 in the Together 

for Catalonia party - in his 

place. 

The vote is the latest push 

by Catalan separatists to 

advance their attempt break 

away from Spain - an effort 

the central government in 

Madrid has thwarted in the 

courts. The Spanish Constitution 

says Spain is "indivisible," 

but the standoff has 

brought the country's worst 

political crisis in decades 

and it shows no signs of ending. 

Sanchez, a former president 

of a prominent secessionist 

civic group called 

Catalan National Assembly 

who was elected to parliament 

last December, has 

been held in a prison near 

Madrid since October. 

He is detained while a 

judge investigates whether 

he orchestrated protests 

that hindered authorities' 

attempt to halt preparations 

for a banned Catalan independence 

referendum on 

Oct. 1. 

Sanchez has asked a judge 

to let him attend the plenary 

session. A letter from his 

lawyers to the Supreme 

Court, published Tuesday, 

argues that denying him 

permission to travel would 

be denying his personal 

rights and those of people 

who voted in December. 

Next Monday, Sanchez 

would require a majority of 

parliamentary votes - 68 

lawmakers - to be elected in 

a first round of voting. If he 

falls short of that number, in 

a vote 48 hours later he 

would require more votes 

for him than against him to 

be elected. 

It wasn't immediately 

clear whether Sanchez 

would have enough support 

to take office. 

Kremlin 'ready to cooperate' over 

former spy's illness in UK 

MOSCOW : The Kremlin said Tuesday 

that Russia has not been 

approached by British authorities to 

help in an investigation over how and 

why a former Russian spy was found 

critically ill in a shopping mall in a town 

in southern England, reports UNB. 

British media have identified him as 

Sergei Skripal, 66, who was convicted in 

Russia on charges of spying for Britain 

and sentenced in 2006 to 13 years in 

prison. Skripal, who is said to have suffered 

exposure to an "unknown substance" 

was freed in 2010 as part of a 

U.S.-Russian spy swap. A woman was 

also found unconscious Sunday afternoon 

in Salisbury, about 90 miles (145 

kilometers) west of London. 

Dimitry Peskov, President Vladimir 

Putin's spokesman, said Tuesday at a 

daily conference call with media in Russia 

there has been no request for help 

but that "Moscow is always ready to 

cooperate." 

Wiltshire Police, which is responsible 

for the Salisbury area, said the man and 

woman appeared to know one another 

and had no visible injuries. 

"They are currently being treated for 

suspected exposure to an unknown 

substance. Both are currently in a critical 

condition in intensive care," the 

80 killed on Monday in 

Syria's Ghouta 

BEIRUT : A war-monitoring group says Syrian government 

shelling and airstrikes killed 80 people in the besieged 

eastern suburbs of Damascus the previous day, making it the 

deadliest day there since the U.N.'s Security Council last 

month demanded a cease-fire across Syria, reports UNB. 

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights 

says 80 died and dozens more were wounded on Monday as 

government forces ignored the U.N. call and pressed their 

assault on the rebel-held eastern Ghouta. 

The United Nations estimates 400,000 people are trapped 

under a government siege in the area. 

The Syrian American Medical Society charity, which supports 

several hospitals in eastern Ghouta, gave a slightly lesser 

death toll from the Observatory, saying 79 people were 

killed. 

police department said in a statement. 

The discovery led to a dramatic 

decontamination effort. Crews in billowing 

yellow moon suits worked into 

the night spraying down the street, and 

the Salisbury hospital's emergency 

room was closed. 

Public Health England said it had 

only limited information about the 

patients, but there "doesn't appear to be 

any further immediate risk to public 

health." 

"PHE understands that those exposed 

to the substances have been decontaminated," 

the health agency said in a 

statement.

8 

WEDnEsDay, marcH 7, 2018 

10 films from 2000s 

that foreshadow 

EntErtainmEnt DEsk 

"It was like a nuclear explosion." That's 

how Ranveer Singh, speaking at the 

India Today Conclave in 2015, 

described Hrithik Roshan's overnight 

success post Kaho Naa… Pyaar Hai. 

Indeed, Hrithik Roshan kicked off the 

noughties (KNPH released in January, 

2000) with a bang. The astounding 

success of the young star resembled 

that of Rajesh Khanna's. Roshan may 

have succeeded in causing mass 

hysteria but that was short-lived. In 

hindsight, the decade's real gift - or 

curse, if you will - seems to be the 

successful emergence of the tent-pole 

blockbuster, as inaugurated by Aamir 

Khan in Dil Chahta Hai and Lagaan. 

Since Lagaan, Khan has continued to 

produce and act in top-grossing hits, 

widely seen as reaching his full stride 

with the surprise box-office takeover of 

the Chinese markets now. Who knows 

which new, diverse and unexplored 

market opens up next for this (not-so) 

Secret Superstar? 

Circa-2000, Farah Khan added her 

own two-bit to the numbers game with 

her 70s-soaked Om Shanti Om. But it 

was Rohit Shetty and Raju Hirani who 

truly redefined the term 'blockbuster.' 

At first glance, the action-oriented 

Shetty and Capra-esque Hirani have 

little in common. But look closely and a 

common connection quickly emerges - 

both are inspired by Hrishikesh 

Mukherjee! Also add Sanjay Leela 

Bhansali and Rakesh Roshan to the list 

of hit-makers. Off mainstream, the socalled 

Bollywood indie landscape saw 

the rise of the radical and the 

alternative. The Ram Gopal Varma 

school gave us Anurag Kashyap and 

Vishal Bhardwaj who went on to form 

their own schools later on. But it's 

debatable if Kashyap and Bhardwaj 

were ever alternative. Their films owe a 

great deal to mainstream sources of 

inspirations, particularly their 

masterful use of songs and a fondness 

towards Bollywood stars. Hoping to 

tap into a star's hithertounderexplored 

acting potential as well 

as leverage his/her box-office cred 

Kashyap and Bhardwaj, between 

them, have exploited such mainstream 

talents as Ranbir Kapoor, Priyanka 

Chopra, Saif Ali Khan, Shahid Kapoor, 

John Abraham and Kangana Ranaut. 

So, their films are hard to qualify as 

either completely mainstream or arthouse 

and may actually fall between 

these two broad categories of cinema. 

Their films are way too all over the 

place to have a collective name. Hindie 

- will that do? The merging of the two 

genres of cinemas isn't a new trend, 

though. Yet, you could say that the 

decade 2000 was noteworthy for its 

burgeoning budgets. 

sunny Leone and Daniel 

Weber welcome twins 

via surrogacy 

Happy 

birthday 

Janhvi kapoor: 

Dhadak actor 

has the 

sweetest 

reply to 

cousin 

sonam's wish 

Founder of 

former tower 

records empire 

dead at 92 


Russ Solomon, the founder of Tower Records 

who brought a cool factor to music retail until 

it was devastated by the internet revolution, 

has died, his son said. He was 92. 

Solomon's son Michael told the Sacramento 

Bee newspaper that his father died of an 

apparent heart attack while watching the 

Oscars on Sunday night at his home in the 

California capital. "He was giving his opinion 

of what someone was wearing that he thought 

was ugly, then asked (his wife) Patti to refill 

his whisky," Solomon said, adding that his 

father had died by the time she returned. 

James Donio, president of the Music 

Business Association trade group, voiced 

sadness over his death and hailed his 

influence. "Russ was quite outspoken and 

having a conversation with him about the 

music business was always a priceless 

education," Donio said in a statement. 

Solomon founded Tower Records at a time 

that records in the United States were mostly 

sold in the corners of stores much like 

clothing or snacks. 


In June 2017, Sunny announced that she 

adopted a baby girl from Latur. She named 

the baby, Nisha Kaur Weber. On Monday, 

the actor took to Instagram to announce 

that she is a proud mother of two more 

kids via surrogacy - Asher Singh Weber 

and Noah Singh Weber. Sunny also shared 

a family photo. 

Along with the first photo of her three kids, 

Sunny wrote, "God's Plan!! June 21st, 2017 

was the day @dirrty99 and I found out that 

we might possible be having 3children 

within a short amount of time. We planned 

and tried to have a family and after so 

many years our family is now complete 

with Asher Singh Weber, Noah Singh 

Weber and Nisha Kaur Weber. Our boys 

were born a few weeks ago but were alive 

in our hearts and eyes for many years. God 

planned something so special for us and 

gave us a large family.We are both the 

proud parents of three beautiful children. 

Surprise everyone!" 

Well, this is a big surprise for all. Sunny 

also tweeted, "Just so there is no confusion 

Asher and Noah are our biological 

children. We chose surrogacy to complete 

our family many years ago . 


Legendary actor Sridevi's elder daughter Janhvi 

Kapoor turns a year older today. The young 

Kapoor who is all set to step into the film industry 

with Shashank Khaitan's Dhadak is 21 now. While 

the young star is yet to come to terms with the 

grave loss of her mother who breathed her last on 

February 24, it is the Kapoor family that is 

standing beside her like strong pillars. On her 21st 

birthday, Sonam Kapoor wished her with a lovely 

message. 

Sharing a beautiful photo of Janhvi, Sonam 

wrote on her Instagram, "To one of the strongest 

girls I know, who became a woman today. Happy 

birthday jannu @janhvikapoor #21stbirthday." 

Celebrity designer Manish Malhotra and her late 

mother's dearest friend also shared a lovely click 

of him with the two beautiful ladies, Sridevi and 

Janhvi. Along with the picture, he wrote, "Happy 

Birthday my dearest @janhvikapoor May God 

Bless you With Happiness Love Peace and Just 

Everything. 

man arrested for theft of 

Frances mcDormand’s Oscar 


A man has been arrested on suspicion of 

stealing Frances McDormand's Oscar after 

the awards ceremony on Sunday. 

Los Angeles Police have confirmed Terry 

Bryant was arrested for grand theft, after the 

statuette went missing from the Governor's 

Ball. 

The 47-year old was booked and has had 

bail set at $20,000 (£14,400). He will attend 

court at a future date. 

The statue has since been returned to the 

best actress winner. 

A representative for the actress told USA 

Today: "Fran and Oscar are happily reunited 

and are enjoying an In-N-Out burger 

together". 

LAPD said Bryant was a ticket holder for 

the Governor's Ball, which is the official 

formal dinner after the ceremony. 

McDormand had already had her name 

engraved on the statue at the ball before it 

went missing. 

The actress was celebrating her win of the 

award for best actress for her role in Three 

Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. 

McDormand received a rousing reception 

for her acceptance speech, as she asked all 

the female nominees to get to their feet. 

She finished her speech with the words: "I 

have two words to leave you with tonight - 

inclusion rider." 

Media captionInclusion rider creator: 'It's 

a new day' after Frances McDormand's 

Oscar speech 

McDormand's Oscar was awarded for 

playing a vengeance-seeking mother who is 

let down by the authorities after her daughter 

is raped and murdered. 

It's the actress's second Oscar, 21 years 

after her first for Fargo. 

H O r O s c O p E 

ariEs 

(March 21 - April 20): If others go out of 

their way to pick holes in your 

arguments today just ignore them. 

Having said that, it could be there is 

something you have overlooked and at least one 

kind person will try to warn you, so don't be too 

eager to be rude. 

taUrUs 

(April 21 - May 21): Your main task 

today is to resist the temptation to look 

at the world as if everything that 

happens is a disaster or a tragedy. Focus 

only on good news today - there is still plenty of it if 

you care to look. It's about attitude, not events. 

GEmini 

(May 22 - June 21): Check the small 

print carefully before putting pen to 

paper today because you could have 

been misled into thinking that you 

have got the best of a deal when, in fact, others will 

profit a lot more than you do. Details are always 

important. 

cancEr 

(June 22 - July 23): The more others 

want you to do something you don't 

think is in your best interests the more 

you must resist. Your arguments for 

giving it a miss may not sound convincing but what 

matters is that you stick to your guns. They can't 

force you. 

LEO 

(July 24 - Aug. 23): Cosmic activity in 

your fellow fire sign of Aries has filled 

your head with no end of big ideas but 

not all of them are practical, so don't get 

carried away. You are under no obligation to hurry, 

so bide your time and think things through. 

VirGO 

(Aug. 24 - Sept. 23): Someone who 

usually has only nice things to say 

about you will go right the other way 

and say something hurtful today, but 

you must not let it get to you. Sometimes you can 

be too sensitive for your own good. Don't take 

yourself so seriously. 

LiBra 

(Sept. 24 - Oct. 23): You have 

nothing to prove and lots to gain and 

everything to look forward to. That is 

the message of the stars today and 

even if you don't quite believe it what happens 

over the next few days will bring a smile to your 

face. It's about time! 

scOrpiO 

(Oct. 24 - Nov. 22): If someone you 

don't know very well tells you what a 

great guy you are it's a sure sign they are 

after something. That something is 

most likely to be your money, so act cool and don't 

give them a thing, no matter how nicely they ask. 

saGittariUs 

(Nov. 23 - Dec. 21): Your current run 

of good fortune is sure to come to an 

end eventually but there is no reason 

to suppose it will be any time soon. 

The planets indicate there are plenty of good 

things still to look forward to, the first of which 

will arrive today. 

capricOrn 

(Dec. 22 - Jan. 20): For some strange 

reason you can see enemies in every 

direction at the moment but most if 

not all of them exist only in your 

imagination, so get a grip on yourself and get 

things done. Your only real enemy is your lack of 

self-belief. 

aQUariUs 

(Jan. 21 - Feb. 19): You tend to believe in 

yourself to such a degree that you think 

nothing is beyond you, and that's good, 

but even an Aquarius has limits and you 

may need to remind yourself what those limits are. A 

little bit of realism will go a long way. 

piscEs 

(Feb. 20 - Mar. 20): Yes, you should 

let other people have the last word. 

Yes, you should let other people lead 

the way. You may not entirely 

approve of what they say, still less of what they 

do, but so long as you don't get the blame why 

should you worry?

SPORTS 

WEDNESDAy, MARCH 7, 2018 

9 

Russian football clubs promise 

peace in Europe after clashes 

David Warner: Australia back vice-captain over Quinton de Kock incident. Photo: BBC. 

Struggling 

Sparta Prague 

sack coach 

Stramaccioni 

PRAGUE: Sparta Prague 

said Tuesday they had 

sacked Italian coach Andrea 

Stramaccioni following a 

streak of poor showings by 

the 12-time Czech 

champions, reports BSS. 

Hired last May, the 42- 

year-old former Inter Milan, 

Udine and Panathinaikos 

coach has led Sparta to the 

fifth spot in the Czech top 

flight with 11 of 30 rounds to 

go, trailing leaders Viktoria 

Pilsen by 14 points. 

Last weekend, Sparta were 

held to a 1-1 draw by topflight 

strugglers Zbrojovka 

Brno. 

Sparta, the 2016 Europa 

League quarter-finalists, 

also crashed out of this 

year's edition in the third 

play-off round in August, 

beaten by Serbian side Red 

Star Belgrade. 

"On Monday evening, the 

Sparta Prague board... 

dismissed Andrea 

Stramaccioni as the head 

coach of the first team," the 

club said on its website. 

It added Stramaccioni's 

task was to start an 

"internationalisation" of the 

club whose last league title 

dates back to 2014. 

The club has bought scores 

of foreign players for 

Stramaccioni, including the 

2.9-million-euro ($3.6- 

milion) Israeli midfielder Tal 

Ben Haim from Maccabi Tel 

Aviv. Sitting at a 

disappointing fifth spot after 

the autumn, Sparta signed 

Anderlecht's Romanian 

playmaker Nicolae Stanciu, 

the most expensive player in 

Czech league history worth 

4.6 million euros. 

Stramaccioni's "mandate 

for the spring was 

conditioned by an 

immediate improvement in 

the team's performance," 

Sparta chief executive Adam 

Kotalik said in a statement. 

"Unfortunately, the first 

three rounds of the spring 

did not bring the expected 

progress and the 

management decided to 

make an immediate 

change," he added. 

Sparta have won 12 titles 

in the Czech league which 

emerged following the split 

of former Czechoslovakia in 

1993. They also won 24 

Czechoslovak titles. 

Prime Bank manage 

exciting 1-wicket win in 

premier cricket league 

DHAKA: Prime Bank Cricket Club managed 

a nail-biting one-wicket victory over Prime 

Doleshwar Sporting Club in the Dhaka 

Premier Division Cricket League held on 

Tuesday at BKSP ground no. 3 in Savar, 

reports BSS. 

Favored by coin, Doleshawar, rode on 

Marshall Ayub's brilliant ton, amassed a 

challenging total of 286 for 5 from their 

stipulated 50 overs with. 

Ayub played an impressive 128-ball off 

135-run, an innings that contained 14 

boundaries and two over boundaries and 

during the process he first shared 124-run 

third wicket stand with Fazle Mahmud 

(45) and then 132-run fourth wicket stand 

with Farhad Hossain (67 n.o) to take the 

team's total to a commanding position. 

Monir Hossain, Shoriful Islam, Nahidul 

Islam and Yousuf Pathan shared one 

Doleshwar's wicket each. 

Chasing a winning target of 287 run set 

by Doleshwar, Prime Bank reached home 

for the loss of nine wickets with two balls to 

spare. 

The two Prime Bank openers -Mehrab 

Hossain Jr. Mehedi Maruf - gave Prime 

Bank to a solid start contributing 147 run 

for the opening stand. 

Mehrab composed 102 run off 125 ball 

laced with 13 boundaries before he fell to 

Farhad Reza while Mehedi Maruf 

supported him with a priceless 82 run off 

90 ball that studded with six boundaries 

and three over boundaries before he was 

removed by Zohaib Khan. 

Prime Bank suffered little wobble in the 

middle after the departure of two openers 

but Sajjadul Haque (51) and Delwar 

Hossain (8 n.o) ensured Prime Bank's 

victory with one wicket in hand. 

Mamun Hossain, Sharifullah and Arafat 

Sunny shared two Prime Bank's wickets 

giving away 46, 47 and 51 runs 

respectively. 

Marshal Ayub of Doleshawar was named 

the player of the match for his impressive 

batting performance. 

Liverpool rushed Lallana back 

too early, admits Klopp 

LIVERPOOL: Liverpool manager Jurgen 

Klopp admits he made a mistake in rushing 

Adam Lallana back from injury as the 

England midfielder hopes to make his first 

start in two months against Porto on 

Tuesday, reports BSS. 

Lallana has not been in the starting line-up 

since the FA Cup win over Everton in early 

January after two setbacks from a thigh 

problem forced him to miss the first four 

months of the campaign. 

Lallana has managed just 186 minutes of 

Premier League action since making his 

comeback from that pre-season injury in 

November, but against Porto he could be in 

line for his first European appearance since 

the 2016 Europa League final defeat to 

Sevilla. "Adam absolutely was an integral 

part of the team... he is important to us," said 

Klopp. 

"But he needed only time. Life is to learn 

from your mistakes and we all have to learn. 

"We made this mistake -- he looked fit. 

Maybe two little setbacks, not the biggest 

setbacks, but in and out, in and out. So now 

we have to build with him. He is coming 

close." Klopp, whose team are locked in a 

battle with Manchester United to finish 

second in the Premier League, said 29-yearold 

Lallana lacked rhythm due to his time on 

the sidelines but he remained a key part of 

the Liverpool set-up. 

Liverpool have one foot in the Champions 

League quarter-finals as they defend a 5-0 

lead when they host Porto at Anfield. 

Klopp will resist the urge to make 

sweeping changes even though only a 

remarkable comeback by the Portuguese 

club will stop his side coasting into the last 

eight. 

That could mean the likes of 32-goal 

Mohamed Salah, who has played 3,060 

minutes for his club this term, and 22-goal 

Roberto Firmino (3,053), will feature despite 

what is essentially a dead rubber. 

"They are all desperate to play, to be 

honest," said Klopp, who said he on the other 

hand was focusing on Porto instead of 

Saturday's trip to Manchester United. 

"When I said we will not rest any players I 

was thinking more that we will bring the best 

team we can have for this game." 

Salah has scored in nine of the past 10 

matches and a goal on Tuesday would see 

him equal the club record of goals in eight 

consecutive matches set by Dick Forshaw 

(1924-25) and John Aldridge (1988-89). 

He would be an obvious man to rest but 

Klopp said he did not know whether keeping 

the Egyptian playing is best for someone on 

such a scoring streak. 

"These things are good for him. Both 

ways," he said. "They are playing Saturday 

and Saturday and there is rhythm in that as 

well so we could say that is OK -- do we need 

a Tuesday game for the rhythm? 

Laura Muir will not speak to Genzebe Dibaba over Ethiopian's links to arrested coach. Photo: BBC. 

MOSCOW: Moscow clubs are 

promising supporters will behave 

perfectly on Thursday when they 

resume European action after clashes 

involving Russian supporters in Spain 

in which a policeman died of a heart 

attack, reports BSS. 

The violence between followers of 

Spartak Moscow and Athletic Bilbao on 

February 22 revived fears that 

hooliganism could mar the first World 

Cup hosted by Russia. 

It also echoed a brutal attack by 

muscle-bound Russians on English 

fans before the start of a Euro 2016 

match in the French port city of 

Marseille that shocked the sporting 

world. 

The Marseille mayhem left 35 people 

injured -- three of them seriously -- and 

saw the Russians involved proclaim 

themselves champions of the thug 

world. 

These are not the bragging rights 

World Cup organisers are proud of -- 

and ones Moscow's CSKA and 

Lokomotiv will want to shed on 

Thursday. 

CSKA will host French side Lyon 

while Lokomotiv travel away to Atletico 

Madrid for last 16 Europa League 

matches at which Russian fans' 

behaviour may be as important as the 

result. 

- 'Safe in Moscow' - 

The return of Russian supporters to 

Spain for Lokomotiv's encounter 

against the red half of Madrid is being 

watched especially closely. 

The Russian Premier League leaders' 

president Ilya Gerkus took pains to 

condemn the violence in Bilbao in 

which a policeman later died of a heart 

attack and insisted that Lokomotiv 

supporters were much better 

mannered. 

"What happened in Spain is 

horrible," Gerkus told the TASS news 

agency. "But I am confident that our 

fans are not like those who did all that." 

CSKA spokesman Sergei Aksyonov 

agreed that any French concern about 

flying to Moscow was unwarranted. 

"Our team have hosted a number of 

Champions League and Europa League 

matches in recent years," Aksyonov 

told AFP. "The visiting teams' 

supporters always felt completely safe 

in Moscow." 

Russian football officials point to 

similar security fears arising before 

Liverpool and Manchester United 

Champions' League games in Moscow 

against Spartak and CSKA in 

Pep Guardiola: Manchester City manager accepts charge for wearing yellow ribbon. 

Without Neymar, PSG eye 

memorable comeback against 

Real Madrid 

PARIS: Paris Saint-Germain will attempt to 

overturn a 3-1 deficit when they host Real 

Madrid in their heavyweight Champions 

League last-16 second leg on Tuesday (1945 

GMT), but do so without the injured 

Neymar, reports BSS. 

The world's most expensive player is 

recovering from a foot operation in Brazil, 

yet the French club remain hopeful they can 

overcome the defending European 

champions and advance to April's quarterfinals. 

"I speak with him practically every day, so 

yes we have agreed between us that we 

would see each other again later on in this 

competition," said Paris defender Dani Alves 

when asked if he had been in touch with his 

fellow Brazil international. 

"For sure, we will feel his absence. But 

between sitting down and crying and getting 

up and getting on with it, I always opt for the 

second option." 

Angel Di Maria, a Champions League 

winner with Madrid in 2014, is set to replace 

Neymar in the home line-up before a sell-out 

crowd of around 47,000 at the Parc des 

Princes. 

"He is a spectacular player, who made 

history with Real Madrid. He can play in any 

position across the middle, he moves well, 

has a good shot, and is quick," said Madrid 

coach Zinedine Zidane of Di Maria. 

PSG took the lead in the first leg in Spain 

last month through Adrien Rabiot only for 

Real to hit back with Cristiano Ronaldo 

scoring twice to break through the 100-goal 

barrier for the club in the Champions 

League. 

Marcelo also scored for Real, who are 

aiming to become the first club since Bayern 

Munich in 1976 to win a third consecutive 

European Cup. 

Madrid have not been eliminated from the 

Champions League this early since Lyon beat 

them in 2010. However, PSG are relying on 

their formidable record at home, where they 

are unbeaten in over 50 games going back 

two years. 

They have also overturned a 3-1 first-leg 

deficit against Real before, winning 4-1 in 

their UEFA Cup quarter-final return in 1993. 

George Weah scored for PSG that night. 

Now the president of Liberia, his son 

Timothy made his professional debut for the 

Ligue 1 leaders at the weekend. 

- No margin for error - 

A repeat of that famous comeback would 

be the biggest result for PSG since the Qatari 

takeover of the club in 2011, after four 

straight quarter-final eliminations and then 

a humiliating loss in Barcelona in the last 16 

a year ago. 

"I think that we need games like this and to 

beat these teams to take a step forward and 

so that our opponents really take notice of 

PSG, and don't just think we have loads of 

money," said Alves, who played in two 

Champions League final victories for 

Barcelona. 

"PSG have had their limits in this 

competition in the past and now we need to 

go beyond them to keep on progressing as a 

club." 

An elimination would surely spell the end 

for coach Unai Emery, who is out of contract 

in June. 

Similarly, an exit would be disastrous for 

Zidane, with Real currently 15 points behind 

leaders Barcelona in La Liga and already out 

of the Copa del Rey. 

"After the game, it's going to be difficult for 

one of the two teams, but that is football," 

said Zidane. 

Given their domestic difficulties, Real are 

throwing everything into their quest to win a 

record 13th European Cup. 

"That can mean added pressure or added 

motivation," said captain Sergio Ramos. 

"The margin for error is minimal." 

Toni Kroos (knee) and Luka Modric 

(thigh) could return for Real after spells on 

the sidelines. Javier Pastore was named in 

PSG's squad despite a calf concern, meaning 

Neymar is their only notable absentee. 

There will be a minute's silence before 

kick-off of at this and all the midweek 

European games in honour of Fiorentina 

and Italy defender Davide Astori, who died 

suddenly at the weekend aged 31. 

September. 

Both matches passed off without 

incident despite the volatile possibility 

of the sides resuming their Marseille 

hostilities. 

Spartak blames the Bilbao violence 

on a hostile press that stoked public 

fears of the Russians ahead of the 

match. 

The Moscow team further accuses 

"Basque radical groups" of heeding 

those warning and pouncing on the 

Russians as they were approaching the 

stadium. 

"We knew that we would not be 

welcomed in Bilbao," Spartak deputy 

president Nail Iznmailov was quoted as 

saying by TASS. 

The world football governing body 

FIFA also stuck by Russia the day after 

the incident. 

"FIFA has complete trust in the 

security arrangements and 

comprehensive security concept 

developed by the Russian authorities 

and the Local Organising Committee," 

a FIFA spokesperson told AFP. 

"As demonstrated during the FIFA 

Confederations Cup last year, Russia's 

already high security standards have 

been adapted to meet the specific needs 

of such major sporting events." 

Photo: BBC. 

All-rounder 

Aguero better 

than ever for 

Guardiola 

MANCHESTER, United 

Kingdom: Sergio Aguero's 

next goal will his 200th for 

Manchester City, but it is the 

Argentine's willingness to do 

much more than just score 

that has won the confidence 

of his manager Pep 

Guardiola, reports BSS. 

The Catalan embraced 

Aguero in a bear hug as he 

left the pitch having ran 

himself into the ground in 

Sunday's 1-0 win over 

Chelsea, which edged City to 

within four wins of the 

Premier League title. 

It was the first time in eight 

home games Aguero had 

failed to find the net, but that 

mattered little to Guardiola, 

who is now seeing the allround 

game from Aguero he 

demands of his strikers. 

"Since we were together here 

with Sergio, I think the last 

month, two months is the 

best Sergio I have seen," said 

Guardiola, preparing his 

team for the visit of Basel in 

the Champions League on 

Wednesday. 

"Not just scoring goals, but 

he doesn't lose one ball. 

"He makes a movement for 

runs in behind, he is the first 

guy to make a high pressing, 

to help that second line be 

more comfortable with the 

ball." Those words contrast 

sharply with a reportedly 

frosty relationship between 

the coach and his star striker 

during Guardiola's 

trophyless first season in the 

northwest of England. 

Aguero, 29, still scored 33 

goals in all competitions, 

more than he ever had for 

City in a single season, but 

often found himself on the 

sidelines in the second half of 

the season as Guardiola 

opted instead for Gabriel 

Jesus.

ECONOMY & BUSINESS 

WEDNESDAy, 

THE 

BANGLADESHTODAY 

MARCH 7, 2018 

10 

Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd Dhaka North Zone organized a client get together on the occasion of Cash 

Waqf Campaign at Nikunja Branch, Dhaka on Monday, 5 March 2018. Major General (Rtd.) Engr. 

Abdul Matin, Chairman, Executive Committee of the Bank attended the program as Chief Guest while 

Mohammad Ali, Deputy Managing Director and Md. Shamsul Huda, Executive Vice Presiedent of the 

Bank were present as Special Guests. Presided over by Md. Aminur Rahman, Senior Vice President & 

Head of Dhaka North Zone, the program was addressed by Moulana Md. Shah Alam Khan, Khatib, 

Khilkhet Battola Jame Mosjid as Chief Discussant. The program was addressed by Md. Alauddin and 

Md. Kamruzzaman, businesspersons. Engr. Sirajul Moula along with industrialists, businesspersons, 

professionals and social elites attended the program. Md. Masud Hakim Khan, Manager, Nikunja 

Branch of the Bank addressed the welcome speech while Mufti Khalilur Rahman conducted doa 

munajat. 

Photo: Courtesy 

Blockade impact on 

Qatar fading but 

risks remain: IMF 

The economic and financial impact on 

Qatar of a nine-month Saudi-led blockade 

is fading, but some risks for the Gulf 

emirate remain, the International 

Monetary Fund has said. 

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, 

Bahrain and Egypt cut all diplomatic and 

trade ties with Qatar last June, closing its 

only land border and banning all flights to 

and from the emirate. 

In a report released late Monday, the IMF 

said the effect of the blockade on economic 

activity in Qatar had been "transitory" as 

new trade routes were quickly established 

and growth remained positive. 

Foreign financing and resident private 

sector deposits had fallen by $40 billion but 

that had been offset by cash injections by 

the central bank and the Qatar Investment 

Authority-the emirate's sovereign wealth 

fund, it said. Like other Gulf energy 

producers, Qatar has been hit by the slump 

in world oil and gas prices which has forced 

German bus start-up 

Flixbus on Tuesday said it will 

begin running two longdistance 

train services, in a 

challenge to the dominance of 

state-owned rail behemoth 

Deutsche Bahn. 

The "Flixtrains", decked out 

in the trademark bright-green 

of the company's low-cost 

buses, will travel from 

Hamburg to Cologne from 

March 24, while the Stuttgart 

to Berlin line will open in 

April. Prices will start from 

9.99 euros ($12), lower than 

those of rival Deutsche Bahn. 

"We already proved with 

Flixbus that mobility doesn't 

have to be expensive," 

company founder Andre 

Schwaemmlein said in a 

statement. "With the 

integration of Flixtrain, the 

options for German travellers 

are becoming even more 

attractive." 

Germany's rail sector was 

liberalised in 1994 but 

remains dominated by 

Deutsche Bahn, which still 

accounts for 99 percent of all 

long-distance rail journeys. 

The Flixbus company will 

not own its Flixtrains, 

partnering instead with Czech 

rail operator Leo Express and 

Nuremberg operator 

BahnTouristikExpress. 

The firm first dipped its toes 

it to introduce austerity measures to 

balance its books. A combination of the 

austerity measures and the blockade saw 

non-hydrocarbon growth fall to 4.0 percent 

in 2017 from 5.6 percent the previous year, 

the IMF said. At 2.1 percent gross domestic 

product growth in 2017 was only slightly 

down on the 2.2 percent registered in 2016. 

The budget deficit narrowed to 6.0 

percent of GDP compared with 9.2 percent 

in 2016. Although Qatar's economy and 

banking and financial systems remain 

sound, there are still some risks, the IMF 

said. "The main risks relate to the 

possibility of lower hydrocarbon prices, the 

implementation of planned fiscal measures 

and uncertainty associated with the 

lingering impact of the diplomatic rift." 

An escalation of the rift with Saudi Arabia 

and its allies could adversely affect external 

funding and growth, the IMF warned, 

adding that the banking system had to 

adjust to a new funding model. 

Germany's Flixbus 

takes on Deutsche 

Bahn with train routes 

in the rail business last year 

when it came to the rescue of 

insolvent start-up Locomore, 

allowing it to resume its lowcost 

Berlin to Stuttgart route. 

Founded just five years ago, 

Flixbus has grown into 

Germany's most popular 

long-distance bus company 

and has since expanded into 

25 other European countries, 

transporting over 100 million 

people. 

The low-cost giant has now 

set its sights on the United 

States, where it plans to take 

on the iconic Greyhound 

Lines by launching a series of 

long-distance bus services in 

California later this year. 

Tokyo stocks 

open higher 

after Wall St 

rebound 

Tokyo stocks opened 

sharply higher on Tuesday 

after four days of losses, 

boosted by a rebound on 

Wall Street and the yen's 

fall against the dollar. 

The benchmark Nikkei 

225 index rose 1.92 percent 

or 403.32 points to 

21,445.41 in early trade 

while the broader Topix 

index was up 1.60 percent 

or 27.15 points at 1,721.94. 

"Buybacks are expected 

to lead following a sharp 

rebound in US stocks and a 

breather in the yen's 

strength," Yoshihiro Ito, 

chief strategist at Okasan 

Online Securities said in a 

commentary. 

All three major indices on 

Wall Street rose on 

Monday, with investors 

seemingly persuaded 

President Donald Trump's 

recent threats to launch a 

trade war were actually a 

bargaining tactic. 

The president on Monday 

indicated he might 

consider exempting 

Canada and Mexico from 

steel and aluminium 

import tariffs if he likes the 

outcome of pending trade 

talks. 

The yen fell with the 

dollar trading at 106.36 yen 

on Tuesday against 106.18 

yen in New York on 

Monday afternoon and the 

105-yen range in Tokyo 

earlier. 

A lower yen is positive for 

Japanese exporters as it 

makes exported goods 

cheaper and inflates 

overseas profits when 

repatriated. 

Carmakers were broadly 

higher. Honda jumped 2.77 

percent to 3,709 yen and 

Toyota rose 2.05 percent to 

6,954 yen. 

Steelmakers also 

bounced back with Nippon 

Steel and Sumitomo Metal 

rising 2.06 percent to 

2,425.5 yen. 

Weak wage growth keeps 

Australia rates on hold 

Australia's central bank kept 

interest rates at a record low 

Tuesday in a widely expected 

decision with wages growth still 

weak and inflation below target. 

The Reserve Bank of Australia has 

not adjusted rates since August 

2016, following a series of cuts from 

November 2011 that took it to 1.50 

percent in a bid to boost nonmining 

sectors of the economy. 

Governor Philip Lowe said in a 

statement that current monetary 

policy was "consistent with 

sustainable growth in the economy 

and achieving the inflation target 

over time". 

The move was widely tipped, with 

weak wages growth, below target 

inflation, and a still too high 

Australian dollar, despite solid 

business conditions and jobs 

growth. 

"The low level of interest rates is 

continuing to support the 

Australian economy," Lowe said. 

"Further progress in reducing 

unemployment and having 

inflation return to target is 

expected, although this progress is 

likely to be gradual." 

Underlying or core inflationwhich 

strips out volatile items and 

is closely watched by the central 

bank-is at an annual 1.9 percent, 

just below the RBA's target band of 

2.0-3.0 percent. 

The decision to stay put came 

ahead of quarterly growth data due 

Wednesday, which will give the 

Reserve Bank board a better guide 

on the economy's well-being. 

Analysts expect expansion of 

around 0.5 percent in October- 

December, for an annual rate of 2.5 

percent-in line with the Reserve 

Bank's most recent forecast. 

The Australian dollar dipped from 

77.85 US cents before Tuesday's 

rate announcement to 77.80 US 

cents shortly after. 

Lowe remains concerned about 

its continued strength, due to 

weakness in the US dollar. 

Asian markets rally on hopes Trump 

will temper tariffs threat 

Stock markets surged in Asia on 

Tuesday as shock over Donald Trump's 

controversial trade tariffs move gave way 

to hope that any measures will not be as 

bad as initially thought. 

The tycoon sparked fears of a global 

trade war last week when he unveiled 

plans to slap levies on imports of steel 

and aluminium. 

The news sent markets into a tailspin 

from Sydney to New York, with investors 

already on edge at the prospect of rising 

interest rates and the end of crisis-era 

central bank stimulus measures. 

However, after another down day in 

Asia Monday, investors in New York 

rushed back as they bet that Trump 

would not push through with extreme 

protectionist policies. 

"Given the overwhelmingly negative 

response from industry leaders, 

international financial markets and even 

the furious backlash from loyal members 

of Trump's administration, there is 

growing optimism that perhaps 

significant exemptions will be 

forthcoming," said Stephen Innes, head 

of Asia-Pacific trade at OANDA. 

"Investors remain guardedly 

optimistic." 

However, he warned that "expecting 

for cooler heads to prevail might be far 

Negotiators failed to make the 

progress expected in the latest round of 

talks on revamping the North American 

Free Trade Agreement, the top US trade 

official warned Monday as President 

Donald Trump renewed his attacks on 

the deal. 

"In spite of (our) hard work, we have 

not made the progress that many had 

hoped in this round. We have closed out 

only three additional chapters," said 

Robert Lighthizer, the chief US 

negotiator, as the seventh round of 

NAFTA talks wrapped up in Mexico City. 

"To complete NAFTA 2.0, we will 

need agreement on roughly 30 chapters. 

So far, after seven months, we have 

completed just six," he told reporters. 

The warning came after Trump vowed 

Canada and Mexico would also be 

affected by his plans to impose steep 

tariffs on steel and aluminum unless he 

too optimistic given that President 

Trump promoted reforms of US trade 

policies as a cornerstone of his election 

campaign, and it's challenging to 

envision him backing down." 

Trump campaigned on a protectionist 

"America First" platform, promising to 

pull out of global trade deals which he 

said were hurting US workers. 

All three main indexes on Wall Street 

rose between one and 1.4 percent 

Monday and those gains filtered through 

to Asia on Tuesday. 

Tokyo ended 1.8 percent higher, with 

Kobe Steel up slightly ahead of a news 

conference in which its CEO Hiroya 

Kawasaki resigned following publication 

of a report by the firm that found staffincluding 

executives -- changed or 

falsified inspection data before shipping 

products. 

Hong Kong jumped more than two 

percent, while Sydney, Seoul, Singapore 

and Taipei were all more than one 

percent higher. Shanghai reversed early 

losses to close one percent higher. 

In early European trade London rose 

0.8 percent, Paris added 0.7 percent and 

Frankfurt put on 1.2 percent. 

Attention will now turn to the release 

Friday of US jobs and wage growth data, 

which will give a fresh idea of the state of 

gets a "fair" deal to overhaul NAFTA. 

"Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum will 

only come off if new & fair NAFTA 

agreement is signed," he said in one of a 

series of morning tweets. 

He later doubled down on the threat 

in a White House press conference. 

"No, we're not backing down," he said. 

"There will be tariffs on steel for Canada 

and for Mexico." 

Canada's Foreign Minister Chrystia 

Freeland vowed in her own remarks at 

the close of the NAFTA talks that her 

country would fight fire with fire. 

"Should restrictions be imposed on 

Canadian steel and aluminum products, 

Canada will take appropriate, 

responsive measures to defend our 

trade interests and our workers," she 

said. 

Lighthizer said it is urgent to update 

the 1994 deal, warning that a July 

the world's top economy. 

Fears that rising wages would fuel 

inflation and push up interest rates have 

spooked investors since the start of 

February. 

Tuesday's more upbeat tone helped 

the dollar against the yen, which had 

rallied on its safe-haven status. But the 

US unit slipped against the pound and 

euro. 

The greenback also declined against 

high-yielding currencies, with the 

Australian dollar, Korean won and 

South African rand among the main 

winners. 

Crude prices extended Monday's gains 

on reports of easing US stockpiles and 

news of a halt at an oilfield in Libya. 

Prices were also boosted by bullish 

comments from top energy producers 

meeting this week at an annual energy 

gathering in Houston, analysts said. 

"Oil prices were 'talked up' from the 

sidelines of the CERAWeek Energy 

conference by OPEC," said Sukrit 

Vijayakar of Trifecta Consultants. 

Officials at the conference are widely 

expected to address a global supply glut, 

with surging US shale production 

threatening to derail efforts by OPEC 

and Russia to stabilise prices by capping 

output. 

NAFTA talks not living up to 

expectations: US negotiator 

presidential election in Mexico plus 

November mid-term elections in the 

United States are complicating the talks. 

"As President Trump has said, we 

hope for a successful completion of 

these talks and we would prefer a threeway, 

tripart agreement. If that proves 

impossible, we are prepared to move on 

a bilateral basis," he said. 

Trump triggered the renegotiation of 

NAFTA, which he has called the worst 

deal the US ever signed, shortly after 

taking office. 

Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso 

Guajardo said the three countries would 

hold a series of "inter-session" talks on 

the most "complex issues" before the 

next formal round of negotiations, 

expected to be held next month in 

Washington. 

His country sends some 80 percent of 

its exports to the United States. 

ECB to underline bright 

outlook for eurozone 

The European Central Bank could 

signal greater optimism for the 

eurozone at a meeting Thursday, but 

will remain tight-lipped about plans for 

winding down its massive support to 

the economy, analysts predict. 

With a transatlantic trade war 

looming and a populist surge in Italy's 

Sunday elections that shadowed the 

major eurozone economy with 

uncertainty, ECB President Mario 

Draghi is unlikely to rock the boat with 

talk of higher interest rates or cuts to its 

"quantitative easing" bond-buying 

programme. 

Observers see the ECB on the way out 

of its mass bond-buying scheme, after it 

decided to halve purchases of 

government and corporate debt to 

some 30 billion euros ($37 billion) per 

month from January this year. 

Combined with historic low interest 

rates, bond-buying was designed to 

stoke economic growth in the eurozone 

by pumping cash through the financial 

system, helping boost inflation to the 

ECB's target of just below 2.0 percent - 

- seen as most favourable for long-term 

growth. 

But while GDP expansion in the 19- 

nation single currency area surged to 

2.5 percent last year, price growth has 

not picked up in step. 

In December, ECB forecasts called 

for inflation to hit 1.7 percent by 2020 - 

- still slightly short of its goal. 

Indicators like business confidence, 

unemployment and credit growth 

"have been consistent with the ECB's 

positive assessment" for future 

expansion of 2.3 percent this year and 

1.9 percent in 2019, economist Frederik 

Ducrozet of Pictet bank noted. 

Nevertheless, "notwithstanding the 

ECB's rising confidence, the staff 

projections for inflation are likely to 

remain stable in March," Ducrozet 

added. 

A stable set of forecasts will not quell 

discord on the ECB's 25-strong 

governing council, made up of the 

executive board and governors from 

the 19 member states' central banks. 

Minutes from January's meeting 

showed policymakers who favour a 

faster dismantling of bond-buying in 

light of stronger growth are 

increasingly vocal. 

They were boosted last month when 

executive board member Benoit 

Coeure judged that "in future, the 

eurosystem (of the ECB plus the 

national central banks) can retreat as a 

buyer" without unravelling easier 

financing conditions. 

"The end of QE is getting closer. The 

risk of deflation is clearly behind us and 

the only question is how to moderate 

and implement this exit," analyst 

Carsten Brzeski of ING Diba bank said. 

But the so-called "hawks" remain 

outvoted by "doves": governors who 

think the ECB should keep fuelling the 

recovery until it is certain of reaching its 

inflation goal.

MISCELLANEOUS 

11 

wedneSdAY, MArch 7, 2018 

Florida Senate passes bill to 

put restrictions on gun sales 

TALLAHASSE : In response to a deadly 

Florida school shooting last month, the 

state's Senate narrowly passed a bill 

Monday that would create new 

restrictions on rifle sales and allow some 

teachers to carry guns in schools, reports 

UNB. 

The 20-18 vote came after three hours 

of often emotional debate. Support and 

opposition crossed party lines, and it was 

clear many of those who voted for the bill 

weren't entirely happy with it. 

"Do I think this bill goes far enough? 

No! No, I don't!" said Democratic Sen. 

Lauren Book, who tearfully described 

visiting Marjory Stoneman Douglas 

High School after 17 people were fatally 

shot on Valentine's Day. 

She also would have liked a ban on 

assault-style rifles, like many of the 

students who traveled to the state Capitol 

to ask lawmakers to go even further to 

stop future mass shootings. But Book 

said she couldn't let the legislative 

session end Friday without doing 

something. 

"My community was rocked. My 

school children were murdered in their 

classrooms. I cannot live with a choice to 

put party politics above an opportunity 

to get something done that inches us 

closer to the place I believe we should be 

as a state," she said. "This is the first step 

in saying never again." 

Earlier Monday, families of the 17 

Florida high school massacre victims 

called on the state's Legislature to pass a 

bill they believe will improve school 

security. 

Reading a statement outside 

Stoneman Douglas High School in 

Broward County, Ryan Petty implored 

legislators to pass Gov. Rick Scott's 

proposal to add armed security guards, 

keep guns away from the mentally ill and 

improve mental health programs for atrisk 

teens. Scott also opposes arming 

teachers. 

"We must be the last families to lose 

loved ones in a mass shooting at a school. 

This time must be different and we 

demand action," said Petty, reading from 

the group statement. Petty's 14-year-old 

daughter, Alaina, was killed in the Feb. 

14 shooting, along with 13 schoolmates 

and three staff members. 

If just one more senator voted no 

instead of yes Monday evening, the bill 

would have died. Republicans and 

Democrats alike said there were parts of 

the bill they didn't like. Democrats didn't 

like the idea of letting teachers carry 

guns, even if the bill was amended to 

water down that proposed program. And 

many pro-gun rights Republicans didn't 

like the idea of raising the minimum age 

to buy rifles from 18 to 21 and to create a 

waiting period on sales of the weapons. 

The Senate amended its bill to limit 

which teachers could volunteer to go 

through law enforcement training and 

carry guns in schools. 

Imam-Ulema assemblage and Islami cultural program were held marking 4th founding ceremony 

of Bangladesh United Islami Party. 

Photo: TBT 

GD-367/18 (30 x 4)

UNITING PEOPLE EVERYDAY 

WeDNeSDAy, DHAKA, MARCH 7, 2018, FAlgUN 23, 1424 BS, JAMADI-US-SANI 18, 1439 HIJRI 

The Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visiting the stalls of jute product yesterday after inaugurating a threeday 

multipurpose jute product fair at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC). Photo : PID 

UN body on economic, 

social, cultural rights 

to review BD Mar 15-16 

DHAKA : The UN 

Committee on Economic, 

Social and Cultural Rights is 

meeting in Geneva from 

March 12 to 29 to review a 

number of countries, including 

Bangladesh, reports UNB. 

Other countries are Mexico 

(12-13 Mar), Niger (13-14 

Mar), Central African 

Republic (19-20 Mar), Spain 

(21-22 Mar) and New Zealand 

(22-23 Mar). 

The committee will review 

Bangladesh on March 15-16, 

according to a message UNB 

received from Geneva on 

Tuesday. 

The meetings will take place 

on the first floor conference 

room at Palais Wilson in 

Geneva. 

The above States are among 

the 166 that have ratified the 

International Covenant on 

Economic, Social and Cultural 

Rights (ICESCR), and so are 

reviewed by the Committee on 

how they are implementing 

the Covenant. 

The Committee, which is 

composed of 18 independent 

human rights experts, will 

meet delegations from the 

respective States to examine a 

range of issues relating to the 

Covenant. 

Colorful Rolling Grasslands 

of Palouse 

INTERESTING NEWS 

The Palouse is a region of the northwestern 

United States, encompassing 

parts of southeastern Washington, 

north central Idaho and, in some definitions, 

extending south into northeast 

Oregon. Located just south of Spokane, 

the Palouse is a rich farming area of 

some 3,000 square miles primarily producing 

wheat and legumes. This area is 

characterized by beautiful rolling hills, 

lush green dunes and rich deep soil. For 

photographers, the Palouse is an exciting 

area to explore, in large measure 

because it is comparatively unknown. 

The peculiar and picturesque silt 

dunes of the Palouse Prairie were 

formed thousands of years ago during 

Unlock potentials of jute, 

jute products: PM 

DHAKA : Prime Minister 

Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday 

urged all to work sincerely 

for unlocking the huge 

potentials of jute and jute 

products, reports UNB. 

"Jute is our national 

asset...this is an agricultural 

product and industrial material 

as well...its multipurpose 

use is important for us...we 

can expedite our socioeconomic 

development by using 

it," she said. 

The Prime Minister said 

this while speaking at the 

National Jute Day-2018 programme 

and inaugurating a 

three-day multipurpose jute 

product fair at Bangabandhu 

International Conference 

Centre (BICC). The Ministry 

of Textiles and Jute organised 

the function at 

Bangabandhu International 

Conference Centre (BICC) 

with Textiles and Jute 

Minister M Emaz Uddin 

Pramanik in the chair. 

Sheikh Hasina said jute 

and jute products have good 

demand both in the country 

and elsewhere in the world 

as people are now very much 

aware about using ecofriendly 

items. 

"We can produce better 

jute and jute products. If we 

can work together, we can 

tap the enormous potentials 

of jute for country's development," 

she said. 

Hasina laid emphasis on 

regaining the past glory of 

jute and its products. "We're 

taking programmes for jute 

development, its collection 

and preservation." 

She also said people related 

with the jute sector 

should look at new items 

and markets for exporting 

jute goods to fetch more foreign 

currencies. "We must 

not stick to one or two items 

for our export basket...we 

have to diversify our export 

as well as grab new markets." 

Referring to decades-old 

machinery in public jute 

mills, the Prime Minister 

said these have to be 

replaced. "We've to take 

steps to procure new 

machines for these mills." 

The prime minister urged 

all, including officials and 

workers, to be sincere in protecting 

the mills as these 

provide their livelihood. 

"You must protect these 

industries and boost production," 

she said. 

State Minister Mirza 

Azam, chairman of the 

the ice ages. Blown in from the glacial 

outwash plains to the west and south, 

the Palouse hills consist of more or less 

random humps and hollows. The steepest 

slopes may reach 50% slope while 

the lowest low ranges from 5 to 130 cm 

deep. Large areas of level land are rare. 

The vast expanses of the rolling 

Palouse hills were once covered with 

native grassland before European settlers 

moved into the area and began 

intensive farming. Unlike some other 

North American grasslands, such as the 

short grass prairies of the Great Plains 

and tall grass prairies of the Midwest, 

neither fires nor extensive grazing by 

large herbivores were historically a part 

of the Palouse grassland ecology. 

Parliamentary Standing 

Committee on Ministry of 

Textiles and Jute Saber 

Hossain Chowdhury were 

present as special guests. 

Jute and Textiles Secretary 

M Faizur Rahman 

Chowdhury delivered the 

welcome address. 

Earlier, Prime Minister 

Sheikh Hasina handed over 

National Jute Award among 

12 individuals and organisations 

under 11 categories for 

their contributions to development 

of the jute sector. 

The 11 categories are best 

jute grower, best jute seed 

producer, best multi-jute 

products producer jute mill, 

best jute product producer 

government jute mill, best 

jute product producer nongovernment 

jute mill, best 

raw jute exporter, best jute 

product exporter, best jute 

fibre, best multi-jute product 

exporter, best jute product 

producer and highest jute 

supplier organisation and 

best multi-jute product producer. 

Besides, the Prime 

Minister handed over 

awards to six winners of a 

countrywide essay competition 

in two categories at the 

same function. 

Ride sharing 

service policy 

to be effective 

from Mar 8 

DHAKA : The Ridesharing 

Service Guideline 2017 of 

Bangladesh Road Transport 

Authority (BRTA) will come 

into force from March 8, 

reports UNB. 

The ministry on February 

22 issued a notice in this 

regard. 

Under the guideline, 

ridesharing service companies 

will have to collect 

'Ridesharing Services 

Company Enlistment 

Certificate' while the motor 

vehicle owners have to collect 

'Ridesharing Motor 

Vehicle 

Enlistment 

Certificate'. 

Earlier on January 15, the 

Cabinet approved the draft 

of Ridesharing Service 

Guideline 2017 to bring the 

app-based transport services 

under a legal framework. 

Zia Orphanage 

Trust case: 

Now Kamal 

files bail pleas 

DHAKA : Salimul Haq 

Kamal, one of the convicts 

in the much-talked-about 

Zia Orphanage Trust graft 

case, has filed a separate 

petition with the High 

Court seeking bail in the 

case, reports UNB. 

Lawyer Palash Chandra 

Roy filed the bail pleas on 

Tuesday. 

On February 8, the 

Dhaka Special Court-5 convicted 

former Prime 

Minister and BNP 

Chairperson Khaleda Zia 

and sentenced her to five 

years' imprisonment in the 

Zia Orphanage Trust graft 

case. 

Five other accused in the 

case-BNP senior vice-chairman 

Tarique Rahman, former 

BNP MP Salimul Haq 

Kamal and businessman 

Sharfuddin Ahmed, former 

principal secretary Kamal 

Uddin Siddique and 

Mominur Rahman, 

nephew of late President 

Ziaur Rahman-were sentenced 

to 10 years' imprisonment 

each in the case. 

6 African zebras make 

public debut at Ctg Zoo 

CHITTAGONG : A total of six zebras which were recently 

brought from Africa are now open for public viewing at 

Chittagong Zoo, reports UNB. 

Chittagong Deputy Commissioner Zillur Rahman officially 

released those animals inside the zoo on Tuesday noon. The government 

brought six zebras from Africa at a cost of Tk 48 lakh, 

he said adding that four of them are female and two male. He 

also hoped that this addition will bring more viewers to the zoo. 

Ruhul Amin, curator of Chittagong Zoo, said that for the first 

time this species of zebra from Africa's Pretoria are included in 

the zoo. A couple of tigers were also brought here from South 

Africa in 2016. 

Narcotics dept cops suspended 

for taking alcohol 

KHULNA : The DepartmentofNarcoticsControlhere has suspended 

one of its sub-inspectors and a constable for consuming 

alcohol and creating chaos in drunken condition, reports UNB. 

The suspended cops were identified as Monojit Kumar 

Biswash, sub-inspector of Khulna NarcoticsControlDepartment 

('ka' circle) and Md Selim, constable of Detective Branch. Earlier 

on February 27, Monojit and Selim went to Batiaghata Police 

Station to file a case against some drug addicts but created chaos 

there in drunken condition, said Md Rasheduzzaman, deputydirector 

of NarcoticsControlDepartment. The matter was later 

noticed by the authority after it was published in media and necessary 

action was taken, he said. 

Serial killer Rashu Kha, two others 

to die for killing woman 

CHANDPUR : A court here on Tuesday convicted three people 

including notorious serial killer Rashu Kha and awarded them 

capital punishment in a case filed over killing a woman after rape 

in 2009, reports UNB. 

Chandpur Women and Children Repression Prevention 

Tribunal Judge also District and Sessions Judge Abul Mannan 

handed down the verdict after examining all records and witnesses, 

said Mir Kashem, sub-inspector of Chandpur Sadar 

Police Station. The death convicts are - Rashu Kha, 45, a notorious 

serial killer of the area, his nephew Jahirul Islam, 35, and 

Yunus Miah, 42. 

No ban on BD workers' recruitment 

in Kuwait: Shahriar 

Temporary restrictions on Khadim visa, he says 

DHAKA : The government has confirmed 

that there has been no ban on recruitment of 

Bangladeshi workers in Kuwait in various categories 

but a temporary restriction is imposed 

on Visa20 category, better known as Khadim 

visa, reports UNB. 

"This is wrong reporting based on partial 

information published in foreign media," State 

Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam, 

now on a visit to Kuwait, told UNB over phoneon 

Tuesdayciting reports run by a section of 

Bangladesh media. He said a section of people 

violated the rules of Visa20 category and 

brought more than one person for single family. 

For this reason, the State Minister said, the 

visa for this particular category will remain 

restricted until further notice. "But visa for 

other catogories remains open for 

Bangladeshi," he said. 

The State Minister said the government is 

sincerely working to stop irregular migration. 

"We will help Kuwait government in this 

regard." 

"We requested Kuwait government to issue 

family visa for people who are working for long 

time. They told us they will actively consider 

that," he said. He said he talked to Bangladesh 

community in Kuwaiton Mondayand gave necessary 

directives to work together to stop irregular 

migration. 

The State Minister said there is no restriction 

for Visa18 (company visa and labour) and 

Visa17 (government offices) categories. 

He said Visa18 category is the most widely 

used one. 

Meanwhile, the State Minister held separate 

meetings with Deputy Foreign Minister of 

Kuwait Khaled Sulaiman Al-Jarallah 

andChairman of Kuwait Chamber of 

Commerce and Industries Ali Mohammed 

Thunayan Al-Ghanim. They discussed various 

issues of mutual interest. 

Kuwait started hiring Bangladeshi workers 

in 1976 and until 2007 around 480,000 workers 

were recruited, according to data available. 

However, the Gulf state stopped recruiting 

Bangladeshi workers in 2007 after its authorities 

had detected irregularities in their recruitment 

process and involvement in illegal activities. 

BNP worries about Khaleda's 

health condition in jail 

DHAKA : BNP on Monday 

voiced concern over the 

health condition of its jailed 

chairperson Khaleda Zia as 

she has been suffering from 

various diseases and 

demanded the government 

immediately ensure her proper 

treatment, reports UNB 

"Our chairperson's physicians 

have said she has long 

been suffering from various 

ailments, including respiratory, 

eye, knee and heart problems 

and high-blood pressure. 

Though her specialised 

doctors repeatedly went to the 

jail gate, the authorities didn't 

allow them to visit her," said 

BNP senior joint secretary 

general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi. 

Speaking at a press briefing 

at the party's Nayapaltan central 

office, he further said, 

"We don't know under which 

condition she (Khaleda) has 

been there in jail. We're 

deeply concerned over her illness. 

We strongly demand the 

government ensure her proper 

treatment." The BNP leader 

also demanded the government 

immediately release her 

from jail. "A three-time Prime 

Minister, two-time 

Opposition Leader and elderly 

and sick politician like 

Khaleda Zia is being tortured 

keeping her in jail. We think it 

is the utter violation of human 

rights." 

He alleged that the authorities 

concerned are willingly 

buying time to send the lower 

courts documents to the High 

Court regarding the verdict 

against Khaleda Zia in Zia 

Orphanage Trust graft case 

only to prolong her stay in jail. 

Rizvi strongly protested and 

condemned the arrest of 

Swechchhasebak Dal president 

Shafiul Bari Babu from 

BNP's human chain programme 

in front of the Jatiya 

Press Club today. 

He alleged that law 

enforcers and ruling party 

men attacked their party leaders 

and followers, and foiled 

their scheduled human chain 

programme at different parts 

of the country, including 

Thakurgaon, Jessore and 

Kushtia. 

Rizvi said an Indian web 

portal ran a false and fabricated 

report quoting a fake 

Facebook status of their party 

acting chairman Tarique 

Rahman with an ulterior 

motive. "We've long been saying 

Tarique Rahman has no 

Facebook and Twitter 

accounts." He said their 

party's sit-in programme 

scheduled for Thursday will 

be held in front of the Jatiya 

Press Club from 11am to 12 

noon instead of the party's 

Nayapaltan central office. 

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

Editorial and News Office: K.K Bhaban (Level-04) 69/K, Green Road, Panthapath, Dhaka-1205. Tel : +8802-9611884-85, Cell : 01832166882; Email: Editor : editor@thebangladeshtoday.com, Advertisement: ads@thebangladeshtoday.com, News: newsbangla@thebangladeshtoday.com, contact@thebangladeshtoday.com, website: www.thebangladeshtoday.com

07-03-2018

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