Bangladesh
Bangladesh-Russia partnership fully meets their common interests: Russian FM
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said the further enhancement of Bangladesh-Russia partnership fully meets the common interests of the two countries and contributes to maintaining peace and stability in Asia.
He made the remarks while congratulating his Bangladesh counterpart Dr AK Abdul Momen on the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Russia and Bangladesh.
Read: Bangladesh & Russia: Putin greets PM, President on 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties
"Over the past decades, much has been done to strengthen the traditional bonds of friendship uniting our two nations," said the Russian Foreign Minister.
He said substantial political dialogue is on track, as well as constructive interaction in the international arena, primarily within the UN and its specialized agencies.
Cooperation in trade, economic, humanitarian and other practical spheres is developing steadily, said the Russian Minister.
"A number of joint projects are implemented, with the construction of the “Rooppur” NPP being the flagship one," he said.
Read: President Hamid to police force: Drive out the corrupt members
The Russian Minister wished Dr Momen and all his colleagues in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh new successes and well-being.
Bangladesh & Russia: Putin greets President, PM on 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties
President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin has congratulated President Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Bangladesh and Russia.
"Please accept my heartfelt congratulations on the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between our two countries," he said in a message to President and Prime Minister of Bangladesh noting that the relations will be strengthened further through joint efforts.
It has been already half a century that the ties between Moscow and Dhaka have been developing steadily in the spirit of friendship and mutual respect, said the Russian President.
Read: President Hamid to police force: Drive out the corrupt members
"I am confident that by joint efforts we will ensure further strengthening of the constructive bilateral cooperation in various fields, which fully meets the interests of people of Russia and Bangladesh, goes in line with the promotion of regional stability and security," he said.
The Russian President wished the President and Prime Minister of Bangladesh sound health and success, as well as peace and prosperity to all their compatriots.
Hope seen once omicron wave increases global immunity, even as new version of variant found
World health officials are offering hope that the ebbing of the omicron wave could give way to a new, more manageable phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, even as they warn of difficult weeks ahead and the possibility of another, more dangerous variant arising - as reports emerged of a new version of the variant in some countries.
In the U.S., cases have crested and are dropping rapidly, following a pattern seen in Britain and South Africa, with researchers projecting a period of low spread in many countries by the end of March. Though U.S. deaths — now at 2,000 each day — are still rising, new hospital admissions have started to fall, and a drop in deaths is expected to follow.
The encouraging trends after two years of coronavirus misery have brought a noticeably hopeful tone from health experts. Rosy predictions have crumbled before, but this time they are backed by what could be called omicron’s silver lining: The highly contagious variant will leave behind extremely high levels of immunity.
On Sunday, Dr. Anthony Fauci talked on ABC “This Week” about a “best-case scenario” where COVID-19 would fall to manageable levels so the United States could get “back to a degree of normality.”
And on Monday, the World Health Organization issued a statement anticipating an end to the “emergency phase” of the pandemic this year and saying that the omicron variant “offers plausible hope for stabilization and normalization.”
Both Fauci and the WHO’s Europe regional director, Dr. Hans Kluge, cautioned that new variants are likely to emerge, but with vaccination, new drug therapies and — during surges — testing and masks, the world could reach a less disruptive level of disease in which the virus is, as Fauci put it, “essentially integrated into the general respiratory infections that we have learned to live with.”
In the U.S., new cases are averaging a still extraordinarily high 680,000 a day, down from an all-time peak of over 800,000 a little more than a week ago.
The places in the U.S. where omicron struck first are seeing the sharpest declines. New cases in the Northeast are nose-diving, while other states — Arizona, Texas, Oregon, Kansas and North Dakota among them — are still waiting for relief.
Falling, too, are new U.S. hospital admissions of patients with confirmed COVID-19. They are averaging nearly 20,000 per day, down about 7% from the previous week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Those numbers include patients who went to the hospital for other reasons and tested positive. But even after accounting for these incidental infections, the trend is hopeful.
One influential model projects that nearly all nations will be past the omicron wave by mid-March, including China and other countries with “zero COVID” policies. The wave will leave behind high levels of immunity — both from infection and vaccination — that could lead to low levels of transmission for many weeks or months.
“What do we end up with at the end of this?” said Dr. Christopher Murray of the University of Washington, who developed the closely watched Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation model. “We end up with the highest levels of global immunity that we’ve seen in the pandemic.”
The model estimates that 57% of the world’s population already has been infected with the virus at least once.
Another research group, which combines several models and shares the projections with the White House, predicts a strong decline in U.S. infections by April, unless a new variant emerges that can sidestep the growing levels of immunity.
“It would be dangerous to forget that possibility, as it has caught us before,” said Katriona Shea of Pennsylvania State University, a leader of the team that pulls together the models.
She noted, too, that the projections show 16,000 to 98,000 more Americans dying before the omicron wave is through. The U.S. death toll stands at close to 870,000.
“Even if we project a more optimistic future, right now we still have a lot of COVID spreading, a lot of strain in our hospital systems, and our deaths have not yet peaked,” said Lauren Ancel Meyers, director of the University of Texas COVID-19 Modeling Consortium.
READ: Taking Omicron lightly may cause great damage, warns Health Minister
“There’s still a lot of pain before omicron has run its course,” she said, but added: “It’s very plausible that omicron will be a turning point in terms of our relationship with this virus.”
New version not a cause for alarm
A new version of the highly contagious omicron variant been spreading in parts of Asia and Europe, with the WHO recommending Monday that officials begin investigating its characteristics to determine whether it poses new challenges for pandemic-weary nations.
Known as BA. 2, the new version of the virus is a descendant of the omicron variant. Virologists are referring to the original omicron variant as BA. 1.
"The BA. 2 descendant lineage, which differs from BA. 1 in some of the mutations, including in the spike protein, is increasing in many countries," the WHO wrote on its website. "Investigations into the characteristics of BA. 2, including immune escape properties and virulence, should be prioritized independently (and comparatively) to BA. 1."
Viruses mutate constantly, mostly in harmless ways. There is no current evidence that BA. 2 is more virulent, spreads faster or escapes immunity better than BA. 1.
BA. 2 has been detected in India, Denmark and Britain, among other countries, according to health officials and media reports abroad. In Europe, it appears the most widespread in Denmark, but that may be because the Scandinavian nation has a robust program of sequencing the virus's genome.
At least three cases have been found in the United States at Houston Methodist Hospital in Texas, which also is studying the genetic makeup of virus samples from its patients.
READ: 5 more Omicron cases detected in Bangladesh
Kristen Nordlund, a spokeswoman for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, "Although the BA.2 lineage has recently increased in proportion in some countries, it remains a very low proportion of circulating viruses in the United States and globally. Currently, there are insufficient data to determine whether the BA.2 lineage is more transmissible or has a fitness advantage over the BA.1 lineage. CDC continues to monitor variants that are circulating both domestically and internationally."
JU student accused of abuse, assault against fellow students
A female student of Jahangirnagar University (JU) has been accused of physically assaulting a male student. The accused student is Sumaiya Binte Ekram, a 46th batch student of Anthropology Department, a residential student of Pritilata Hall .
The incident took place in Battala area of the university around 8.30 pm on Monday. The victim student said, "I was walking on Battala road with some of my friends. Later Sumaiya bint Ekram came from behind and charged me why I did not leave the road .Later Sumaiya bint Ekram attacked me for telling her that 70% of the road was empty and she started scolding me in inaudible language and I left the place."
Ayesha Siddique Nipa, a student of government and politics department, who witnessed the incident, said, "Six of us were walking on the left side of Battala Road. Then two unfamiliar girls were arrogantly passing us on the right side. Again they said in a loud voice that you can't walk on the side of the road. Then one of us said the road is empty. At this time, a girl started shouting incoherently and swearing in vulgar language. Then we endured all this and left the place. '
READ: JU students continue demo demanding hall reopening
Another eyewitness, Kazi Vijay, said, "Half an hour after the incident, a friend of the accused called us at a food shop in Battala. At that time we were describing the details of the incident. But suddenly the accused student came from behind and slapped my classmate on the cheek and physically assaulted him. The accused's friend Diganta then went to another shop with her."
The proctorial body of the university later arrived at the scene at ten o'clock. At that time they brought the accused and the plaintiffs to the proctor's office.
The victim said, "I did not utter a word of disrespect to her. But the girl was repeatedly behaving arrogantly in front of everyone. At one point, she suddenly hit me. '
Shihab Khan Diganta, a 43rd batch of the drama and drama theory department, a friend of the accused, said, "I was present there and tried to reconcile."
But he failed.
Assistant Proctor Associate Professor Tajuddin Sikder said, "The university administration has asked for 24 hours. One has to start a process to judge an event. Disciplinary committee meeting has to be held. This requires time. The whole incident is uncomfortable for us. It is hoped that this will be a fair solution. The administration is sincere in this regard."
READ: JU students asked to leave halls
Prof. Abdullah Hale Kafi, Prof. Sohail Ahmed, Prof. Motahar Hossain, Prof. Akbar Hossain, Prof. Ayesha Siddique, President of JU Branch Chhatra League Akhtaruzzaman Sohel, General Secretary Habibur Rahman Liton and others were present at the Proctor's office.
The accused student said, "They were doing different gestures which seemed unbearable to me. He wanted to hit me. At one point they were calling me a drug addict. They have slandered me. At one point, when I went out of tolerance, I slapped him and it happened very quickly."
Administration moves to shut down SUST protest: 5 alumni booked for financially backing movement
As part of a series of coordinated moves since Monday to quell the unrest at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) in Sylhet, a case has been filed against five former students for allegedly sending money to the students’ movement demanding their VC's removal.
The case was filed at AMP's Jalalabad police station on Tuesday night, confirmed OC Nazmul Huda Khan.
They were arrested from different areas of Dhaka on Monday and Tuesday.
The arrestees are Reza Nur Moin, 31, son of Moin Uddin of Bogura district, Habibur Rahman, 26, son of Matier Rahman Khan, Nazmul Sakib, 32, son of Mizanur Rahman of Khulna district, AKM Maruf Hossain, 28, son of Mosharraf of Mirpur in Dhaka and Foysal Ahmed, 27, son of Sadiqul Islam.
READ: Long march from Dhaka to Sylhet Wednesday in support of SUST students
All the arrestees were taken to Sylhet’s Jalalabad Police Station for interrogation, said police.
A team of CID took them there around 6 pm and handed them over to police, said Nisharul Arif, Commissioner of Sylhet Metropolitan Police (SMP).
It was clearly part of a series of moves taken by the administration to force the students into ending the protest by starving it of sustenance -for all the amount of passion and courage the protesters have shown, any movement to survive needs financing, among other things.
With the move against the 5 former students, the authorities have not just moved to cut off their funding. It was in addition to making 6 mobile financial services and banking accounts the students were using to collect the funds inaccessible anyway, and so the arrests are likely meant to serve as examples for others not to step forward in support of the movement.
Also on Monday it became known that the Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College, which was voluntarily providing much-needed medical services to the students on hunger strike from January 19, had informed them that they would no longer be doing so. The revelations had come at the end of a day when surprisingly, there was no contact between the students and the government - specifically the department of Education Minister Dipu Moni, who till Sunday had expressed an overt willingness to engage with the students.
But now it seems the government would prefer to follow a scorched earth policy with the students till they are forced to yield. Whether they will is another matter.
The students embarked on a fast-unto-death on the university campus on January 19, demanding the resignation of SUST Vice-Chancellor Farid Uddin Ahmed over a police crackdown on its students.
The students vowed to continue with their hunger strike till the VC quits.
The hunger strike was launched on January 19 by 24 students and later one of them had to leave due to family obligations. On January 22, three more students joined their fellows in the hunger strike
The strike was launched after police swooped on the protesting students, charging batons and firing sound grenades and shotgun bullets.
READ: 5 ex-SUST students held in Dhaka as impasse continues
The alleged attack was carried out to free the VC from confinement in the university’s IICT building, and it had left 40 people hurt, including teachers, students and cops.
Zafrin Ahmed, a provost of Begum Sirajunnesa Chowdhury Hall, a dorm for females, was at the centre of the initial unrest as she allegedly misbehaved with some students on January 13 when they met her with some complaints.
She later resigned from her post, citing health issues.
Provost Zafrin Ahmed’s removal was one of the initial demands of the students protesting on the campus. But it has now spread to the general students as well.
Housewife tortured to death over dowry in Sylhet
A 26-year-old housewife was tortured to death allegedly by her husband and in-laws over dowry at Jalalpur in Sylhet district on Tuesday.
The deceased was identified as Shilpi Begum, wife of Abdur Rafik of Moglabazar upazila.
Quoting local people, Farid Uddin, officer-in-charge of Moglabazar Police Station, Rafik, son of Irshad Ali of Hashampur village married to Shilpi seven years back and the couple have been blessed with two sons and two daughters.
Since their marriage, Rafik used to torture Shilpi for dowry and often sent to her father’s house for money.
On Tuesday, Rafik along with others beat Shilpi up mercilessly for bringing Tk 2 lakh from her father.
READ: Fisher dies after being hit by brick in Sylhet, 8 held
At one stage, she fell sick and died on the spot.
On information, police recovered the body and sent it to the local hospital morgue.
Police are trying to arrest the husband and brother-in-law of Shilpi, said OC.
Top honours for India's first military chief & vaccine makers
India's first military chief General Bipin Rawat, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Google's Sundar Pichai and two Covid vaccine makers have been named for this year's coveted Padma awards.
While General Rawat's name will be awarded Padma Vibhushan posthumously, Nadella, Pichai and Covid jab makers -- Cyrus Poonawalla of the Serum Institute and Krishna and Suchitra Ella of Bharat Biotech -- are among the Padma Bhushan awardees this year.
The Padma awards seek to recognise achievements in all fields of activities or disciplines where an element of public service is involved. Padma Vibhushan is India's second-highest civilian award after Bharat Ratna. Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award.
READ: Modi showers praises on Padma Awardees
Every year, the Indian government announces the awards on the eve of the country's Republic Day, on January 26. The awards are given by the Indian President in March or April at a grand function at Rashtrapati Bhawan.
General Rawat, his wife, and 12 other armed forces personnel were killed in a chopper crash in the southern state of Tamil Nadu in December last year.
The 63-year-old four-star General was on his way to deliver a lecture at Defence Services Staff College in Wellington when the Mi-17 V5 chopper crashed in the Nilgiris and burst into flames. While 13 people on board were killed on the spot, an Air Force officer died later.
General Rawat has had a chequered career in the armed forces spanning over 40 years, rising from the rank of a junior commissioned officer to the Indian Army chief and eventually the first head of the tri-services. He reported directly to the Indian Prime Minister.
Indian-Americans, Nadella (54) and Pichai (49) have been honoured for their contribution in the "trade and industry" category, the government said in a statement. On the other hand, the vaccine makers will be conferred with the award for being in the frontline amid Covid.
A total of 128 people will be awarded the Padma awards this year.
BB asks banks, FIs to keep services uninterrupted
Bangladesh Bank (BB) has instructed banks and Financial Institutions (FIs) to continue uninterrupted banking services with limited manpower despite worsening Covid situation.
All the scheduled banks, FIs were asked to take Business Continuity Plan (BCP) along with execution preparations of to continue the banking services.
Payment System Department (PSD) of the BB on Tuesday issued a notification in this regard and sent to the top executives of all banks and FIs to implement immediately.
READ: BB asks banks to operate office with half of manpower
The notification asked the banks and FIs to encourage customers to prefer Mobile Application based banking, Card Not Present (CNP), near field communication (NFC) transactions instead of physical presence based transactions.
The BB asked the concerned to keep enough money in the cash out points, mobile financial service (MFS), agent banking outlets and ATM booths to meet the customers’ instant demand of cash money.
READ: Bank officials, staff must have vaccine certificates :BB
Besides, the banks were asked to ensure necessary cyber security measures along with adequate precautionary steps to meet emergency services.
Want Tamim to continue playing T20Is: Jalal Yunus
Jalal Yunus, the chair of the cricket operations department of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), said they want Tamim Iqbal to continue playing for Bangladesh in T20Is.
Earlier, Nazmul Hasan, the president of BCB, had said the left-handed opener is not interested anymore to take part in T20Is for Bangladesh. However, Tamim himself did not say anything about it in the media.
“We had a long meeting with Tamim yesterday (Monday). And a meeting today along with the board president. Tamim has a plan which he may reveal soon,” Jalal said.
READ: Tamim not interested in playing T20Is: BCB president
“But we want Tamim to continue playing for Bangladesh. Not just Tamim, Shakib (Al Hasan), Riyad (Mahmudullah), and Mushfiqur (Rahim) are still so much important for Bangladesh cricket,” he added.
Jalal also said that they are not informed well about the personal career plan of Tamim, and he added he is not in a position to talk about Tamim’s personal plan.
“I told him to return to T20Is, but he is not interested to do so. He requested to not force him to make a comeback. He said he doesn’t want to play T20Is,” Nazmul had said on Saturday. “If he doesn’t want to play T20Is, we should not force him.”
Tamim made a good start to this edition of the Bangabandhu Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) scoring to fifties in the first two matches. But in the next two, he failed to impress with the bat.
The left-handed opener played a total of 78 T20Is and scored 1758 runs with seven fifties and one hundred at a strike rate of 117.2.
READ: Tamim, Mashrafe roped in by Dhaka for BPL 2022
The left-hander is the current captain of the Bangladesh ODI team. It is expected that Tamim would continue as the ODI captain till the ICC ODI World Cup 2023 which is scheduled to take place in India.
Remove haphazard overhead cables by June 30: DNCC mayor
Hanging overhead cables and wires of the city streets under Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC)have to be removed by June 30 this year, otherwise the corporation will take action.
Besides, endless digging up of roads in the name of development projects will stop from tomorrow (Wednesday)till further notice to relieve the sufferings of the city dwellers.
The DNCC Mayor Atiqul Islam came up with the directives on Tuesday while addressing a meeting on the transfer of overhead cables and repairings of excavated roads by various organizations in the hall room of Gulshan-2 Nagar Bhaban.
He said that city dwellers have been sufferings due to non-compliance of the road digging companies. The road can not be dug anywhere in the city from tomorrow till further order, he said.
Md. Atiqul Islam said that the overhead cables must be transferred underground in a planned manner and coordination must be strengthened among the companies involved in road excavation.
The meeting was chaired by DNCC Chief Executive Officer Md Selim Raza. Among others, Chief Engineer Brigadier General Muhammad Amirul Islam, Councilor of Ward No-19 Md Mofizur Rahman and heads or representatives of various government and non-government organizations were present.