NEWS ON DATE - 28-03-2024
BSF hands over body of Bangladeshi farmer through Naogaon border
The body of a Bangladeshi farmer, who was shot to death allegedly by India’s Border Security Force (BSF) along the Nitpur border in Porsha upazila of Naogaon on Tuesday, was handed over to Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) on Wednesday night.
BSF members handed over the body of Al Amin through 236 main pillars of the bordering area at Hapania around 10 pm after a flag meeting between the border forces of Bangladesh and India, said Subedar Mahfuzur Rahman of Nitpur BGB camp.
Bangladeshi teenager shot dead by BSF along Lalmonirhat border
Public representatives and police officers of Porsha Police Station were also present there.
On March 26, Al Amin was shot dead when the BSF members from Mil Mari of Malda district in India opened fire on him along Nitpur border area in Porsha upazila.
BSF kills 1 in Noagaon, injures another in Lalmonirhat border regions
Dhaka’s air 3rd most polluted in the world today
Dhaka ranked third on the list of cities worldwide with the worst air quality on Thursday morning.
Its air quality continued to be in the 'unhealthy' zone with an air quality index (AQI) score of 169 at 8:55 am.
An AQI between 101 and 200 is considered 'unhealthy', particularly for sensitive groups.
India’s Delhi and Thailand’s Chiang Mai occupied the first two spots on the list, with AQI scores of 179 and 170, respectively.
Dhaka’s air quality still ‘unhealthy’, 3rd worst in the world today
An AQI between 201 and 300 is said to be 'poor', while a reading of 301 to 400 is considered 'hazardous', posing serious health risks to residents.
In Bangladesh, the AQI is based on five criteria pollutants -- Particulate Matter (PM10 and PM2.5), NO2, CO, SO2 and Ozone.
Dhaka has long been grappling with air pollution issues. Its air quality usually turns unhealthy in winter and improves during the monsoon.
Air pollution consistently ranks among the top risk factors for death and disability worldwide. Breathing polluted air has long been recognised as increasing a person’s chances of developing a heart disease, chronic respiratory diseases, lung infections and cancer, according to several studies.
Worst air quality in the world today: South Asian cities make up top 4
As per the World Health Organization (WHO), air pollution kills an estimated seven million people worldwide every year, largely as a result of increased mortality from stroke, heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer and acute respiratory infections.
Visit by Qatar's Emir to strengthen cooperation in manpower, energy, and investment: Foreign Ministry
Bangladesh and Qatar want to expand the existing ties with broader cooperation in the areas of manpower, energy, trade and investment following the planned visit of Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani to Bangladesh next month.
The two countries are in discussion to finalise nearly a dozen of cooperation documents which will be signed during the visit, said a source at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The two-day visit is likely to take place on April 21-22, he said.
The two sides are now working on the MoUs and agreements that will be signed after the Emir’s meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Cease-fire talks with Israel and Hamas are expected to resume Sunday in Qatar
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already held an inter-ministerial meeting to discuss various aspects of the visit.
In March last year, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had a meeting with the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on the sidelines of the United Nations Conference on Least Developed Countries (LDC5) in Doha.
She sought increased energy, particularly LNG, from Qatar to meet the energy demands.
The State of Qatar recognised Bangladesh as a sovereign State on March 4, 1974 following the 2nd OIC Summit held in February 1974.
Qatar assures support for Bangladesh's media sector development
Bangladesh opened its diplomatic mission in Doha on June 25, 1975. The State of Qatar reciprocated by opening its diplomatic mission in Dhaka in 1982.
Bilateral relations between Bangladesh and Qatar are based on mutual respect, shared values, common religious ground, shared culture, and tradition.
People-to-people contacts bolstered by more than four hundred thousand Bangladeshi workers who are highly appreciated as disciplined and hardworking is one of the dominant features of bilateral relations, according to the MoFA.
Bangladesh and Qatar consider each other as brotherly countries and important development partners in materialising Bangladesh’s Vision 2041 and Qatar’s vision 2030.
Read more: Bangladesh ambassador accredited to Hungary presents credentials to Hungarian president
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before it collided with Baltimore bridge, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent “routine engine maintenance” in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday, as divers recovered the bodies of two of six workers who plunged into the water when it collapsed. The others were presumed dead, and officials said search efforts had been exhausted.
Investigators on Wednesday began collecting evidence from the vessel that struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge the previous day. The bodies of the two men were located in the morning inside a red pickup submerged in about 25 feet (7.6 meters) of water near the bridge’s middle span, Col. Roland L. Butler Jr., superintendent of Maryland State Police, announced at an evening news conference.
Baltimore bridge collapse: ‘Heroes’ scrambled to stop traffic; construction crew feared dead
He identified the men as Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, who was from Mexico and living in Baltimore, and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, who was from Guatemala and living in Dundalk, Maryland.
The victims, who were part of a construction crew fixing potholes on the bridge, were from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, Butler said.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore addressed their families in Spanish during the news conference, saying, “Estamos contigo, ahora y siempre,” which means, “we are with you, now and always.”
All search efforts have been exhausted, and based on sonar scans, authorities “firmly” believe the other vehicles with victims inside are encased in superstructures and concrete from the collapsed bridge, Butler said. Divers are to return to search for remains once the waters are clear of debris.
U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral Shannon Gilreath said authorities had been informed that the ship was going to undergo the maintenance.
“As far as the engine goes, we were not informed of any problems with the vessel," he said. “We were informed that they were going to conduct routine engine maintenance on it while it was in port. And that’s the only thing we were informed about the vessel in that regard.”
Baltimore bridge collapses after powerless cargo ship rams into support column; 6 presumed dead
The investigation ramped up as the Baltimore region reeled from the sudden loss of a major transportation link that's part of the highway loop around the city. The disaster also closed the port, which is vital to the city's shipping industry.
Officials with the National Transportation Safety Board boarded the ship to recover information from its electronics and paperwork and to do interviews with the captain and other crew members, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said during a separate news conference. Twenty-three people, including two pilots, were on the ship when it crashed, she said.
The vessel was also carrying 56 containers of hazardous materials including corrosives, flammables and lithium ion batteries, Homendy said. She added that some containers were breached, and that a sheen on the water from those materials would be handled by authorities.
The agency also is reviewing the voyage data recorder recovered by the Coast Guard and building a timeline of what led to the crash, which federal and state officials have said appeared to be an accident.
The ship’s crew issued a mayday call early Tuesday, saying they had lost power and steering just minutes before striking one of the bridge’s columns.
At least eight people initially went into the water, and two of them were rescued Tuesday, officials said.
The debris complicated the search, according to a Homeland Security memo described to The Associated Press by a law enforcement official. The official was not authorized to discuss details of the document or the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Gov. Moore said the divers faced dangerous conditions.
“They are down there in darkness where they can literally see about a foot in front of them,” Moore said, adding that they were also trying to navigate mangled metal.
One missing worker, a 38-year-old man from Honduras who came to the U.S. nearly two decades ago, was described by his brother as entrepreneurial and hard-working. He started last year with the company that was doing the bridge maintenance.
Video showed the ship moving at what Maryland’s governor said was about 9 mph (15 kph) toward the 1.6-mile (2.6-kilometer) bridge. Traffic was still crossing the span, and some vehicles appeared to escape with only seconds to spare. The crash caused the bridge to break and fall into the water within seconds.
A last-minute warning from the ship allowed police just enough time to stop traffic on the highway. One officer parked sideways across the lanes and planned to drive onto the bridge to alert a construction crew once another officer arrived. But he did not get the chance as the powerless vessel barreled into the bridge.
Attention has also turned to the container ship Dali and its past.
Synergy Marine Group, which manages the ship, said the impact happened while it was under the control of one or more pilots, who are local specialists who help guide vessels safely in and out of ports.
The ship, which was headed from Baltimore to Sri Lanka, is owned by Grace Ocean Private Ltd., and Danish shipping giant Maersk said it had chartered the vessel.
The vessel passed foreign port state inspections in June and September 2023. In the June 2023 inspection, a faulty monitor gauge for fuel pressure was rectified before the vessel departed, Singapore’s port authority said in a statement Wednesday.
The ship was traveling under a Singapore flag, and officials there said they will conduct their own investigation in addition to supporting U.S. authorities.
The sudden loss of a highway that carries 30,000 vehicles a day and the disruption of the vital port will affect not only thousands of dockworkers and commuters but also U.S. consumers who are likely to feel the impact of shipping delays.
“A lot of people don’t realize how important the port is just to everything,” said Cat Watson, who used the bridge to get to work every day and lives close enough that she was awakened by the collision. “We’re going to be feeling it for a very long time.”
The Port of Baltimore is a busy entry point for new vehicles made in Germany, Mexico, Japan and the United Kingdom, along with coal and farm equipment.
Ship traffic has been suspended indefinitely. Windward Maritime, a maritime risk-management company, said its data shows a large increase in ships that are waiting for a port to go to, with some anchored outside Baltimore or nearby Annapolis.
At the White House, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the Biden administration was focused on reopening the port and rebuilding the bridge, which was completed in 1977. But he avoided putting a timeline on those efforts. He noted that the original bridge took five years to construct.
Buttigieg also planned to meet Thursday with supply chain officials.
Barges, including some with cranes, were on their way to Baltimore to help remove the wreckage, Gilreath said.
Homendy said the NTSB investigation could take 12 to 24 months but the agency may issue urgent safety recommendations sooner. A preliminary report should come in two to four weeks.
“It’s a massive undertaking for an investigation,” Homendy said. “It’s a very tragic event.”
From 1960 to 2015, there were 35 major bridge collapses worldwide due to ship or barge collisions, according to the World Association for Waterborne Transport Infrastructure.
A faster spinning Earth may cause timekeepers to subtract a second from world clocks
Earth’s changing spin is threatening to toy with our sense of time, clocks and computerized society in an unprecedented way — but only for a second.
For the first time in history, world timekeepers may have to consider subtracting a second from our clocks in a few years because the planet is rotating a tad faster than it used to. Clocks may have to skip a second — called a “negative leap second” — around 2029, a study in the journal Nature said Wednesday.
“This is an unprecedented situation and a big deal,” said study lead author Duncan Agnew, a geophysicist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego. “It’s not a huge change in the Earth’s rotation that’s going to lead to some catastrophe or anything, but it is something notable. It’s yet another indication that we’re in a very unusual time.”
Ice melting at both of Earth’s poles has been counteracting the planet's burst of speed and is likely to have delayed this global second of reckoning by about three years, Agnew said.
“We are headed toward a negative leap second," said Dennis McCarthy, retired director of time for the U.S. Naval Observatory who wasn’t part of the study. "It’s a matter of when.”
It’s a complicated situation that involves, physics, global power politics, climate change, technology and two types of time.
Earth takes about 24 hours to rotate, but the key word is about.
For thousands of years, the Earth has been generally slowing down, with the rate varying from time to time, said Agnew and Judah Levine, a physicist for the time and frequency division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
The slowing is mostly caused by the effect of tides, which are caused by the pull of the moon, McCarthy said.
This didn’t matter until atomic clocks were adopted as the official time standard more than 55 years ago. Those didn’t slow.
That established two versions of time — astronomical and atomic — and they didn't match. Astronomical time fell behind atomic time by 2.5 milliseconds every day. That meant the atomic clock would say it’s midnight and to Earth it was midnight a fraction of a second later, Agnew said.
Those daily fractions of seconds added up to whole seconds every few years. Starting in 1972, international timekeepers decided to add a “leap second” in June or December for astronomical time to catch up to the atomic time, called Coordinated Universal Time or UTC. Instead of 11:59 and 59 seconds turning to midnight, there would be another second at 11:59 and 60 seconds. A negative leap second would go from 11:59 and 58 seconds directly to midnight, skipping 11:59:59.
Between 1972 and 2016, 27 separate leap seconds were added as Earth slowed. But the rate of slowing was tapering off.
“In 2016 or 2017 or maybe 2018, the slowdown rate had slowed down to the point that the Earth was actually speeding up,” Levine said.
Earth’s speeding up because its hot liquid core — “a large ball of molten fluid” — acts in unpredictable ways, with eddies and flows that vary, Agnew said.
Agnew said the core has been triggering a speedup for about 50 years, but rapid melting of ice at the poles since 1990 masked that effect. Melting ice shifts Earth’s mass from the poles to the bulging center, which slows the rotation much like a spinning ice skater slows when extending their arms out to their sides, he said.
Without the effect of melting ice, Earth would need that negative leap second in 2026 instead of 2029, Agnew calculated.
For decades, astronomers had been keeping universal and astronomical time together with those handy little leap seconds. But computer system operators said those additions aren’t easy for all the precise technology the world now relies on. In 2012, some computer systems mishandled the leap second, causing problems for Reddit, Linux, Qantas Airlines and others, experts said.
"What is the need for this adjustment in time when it causes so many problems?” McCarthy said.
But Russia’s satellite system relies on astronomical time, so eliminating leap seconds would cause them problems, Agnew and McCarthy said. Astronomers and others wanted to keep the system that would add a leap second whenever the difference between atomic and astronomical time neared a second.
In 2022, the world’s timekeepers decided that starting in the 2030s they’d change the standards for inserting or deleting a leap second, making it much less likely.
Tech companies such as Google and Amazon unilaterally instituted their own solutions to the leap second issue by gradually adding fractions of a second over a full day, Levine said.
“The fights are so serious because the stakes are so small,” Levine said.
Then add in the “weird” effect of subtracting, not adding a leap second, Agnew said. It’s likely to be tougher to skip a second because software programs are designed to add, not subtract time, McCarthy said.
McCarthy said the trend toward needing a negative leap second is clear, but he thinks it’s more to do with the Earth becoming more round from geologic shifts from the end of the last ice age.
Three other outside scientists said Agnew's study makes sense, calling his evidence compelling.
But Levine doesn’t think a negative leap second will really be needed. He said the overall slowing trend from tides has been around for centuries and continues, but the shorter trends in Earth’s core come and go.
“This is not a process where the past is a good prediction of the future,” Levine said. “Anyone who makes a long-term prediction on the future is on very, very shaky ground.”