09 May, 2016

SECOND EDITION

MONDAY, MAY 9, 2016

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Boishakh 26, 1423, Shaban 1, 1437

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Regd No DA 6238, Vol 4, No 17

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www.dhakatribune.com | 32 pages | Price: Tk10

DHAKA MAYORS: YEAR ONE

Road digging monsoon madness looms ahead is also contributing to the crisis by not ensuring the repair of the roads they dug as part of a mega project to install new water supply lines all over the city.

The Dhaka Tribune spoke to different locals in Dhanmondi, Jhigatola, Kalabagan, Kathalbagan, Rajabazar, Sukrabad, Indira Road, Nakhalpara, Mirpur, Gendaria and Mirpur. They all alleged that the poor condition of roads has become part of their daily headache.

City residents also expressed pessimism, saying they believed that authorities would keep on

A 14-year-old female garment worker was stabbed to death following an attempted rape in Narayanganj yesterday.

Meghla Akter, who worked at Nawab Ali Industry in Narayanganj’s Kanchpur, succumbed to her injuries at Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

Three suspects have already been arrested from the area.

Around 5am yesterday, Meghla went out of her Kanchpur home – where she lived with her family – to call her friend and colleague Rumi Akter so that they could walk to work together.

But as she approached the building where Rumi lives, a group of men ambushed her and dragged her to a room on the third floor of the building.

When Meghla identified her attackers and started to scream, they stabbed her and left her to die.

Injured, Meghla managed to return home and reveal her attackers’ identities to her family.

Her family brought her to the

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Dhaka North City Corporation Mayor Annisul Huq and Dhaka South City Corporation Mayor Mohammad Sayeed Khokon have completed their first year in office, facing various challenges and initiating many short- and long-term schemes to turn Dhaka into a clean, green, and liveable city. Dhaka Tribune’s Abu Hayat Mahmud explores the ongoing roadworks projects in the second of a multi-part series MAYORAL PLEDGES D H A K A C I T Y C O R P O R AT I O N S

Sayeed Khokon Annisul Huq

Monsoon in Dhaka means the city streets suddenly start to look like the surface of Mars – of course with the addition of stagnated water.

Indiscriminate road digging by a plethora of state-run agencies and organisations – sans any sort of coordination – only intensifies the sufferings of Dhaka dwellers.

The monsoon of 2016 was supposed to be different. The two mayors of the city had issued directives to authorities concerned to wrap up their work before the rain starts.

But different mega-projects taking place across the city present a less optimistic reality, the Dhaka

Tribune has found.

Some of the most posh areas of the capital – Gulshan, Banani and Baridhara – will have a tough time during monsoon as the Dhaka North City Corporation is installing rings for storm water drainage and constructing surface drains in these localities.

A DNCC official, seeking anonymity, told the Dhaka Tribune that residents of these areas should brace themselves for extra hassles during the monsoon months as the development works are likely to continue.

Dhaka Wasa, on the other hand,

Teenage worker stabbed to death after failed rape attempt n Tanveer Hossain, Narayanganj

18 injured as two AL factions clash

INSIDE

n Mohammad Jamil Khan

Militants resurgent in North Bengal

Militant outfits are returning to the Northern part of Bangladesh with new sleeper cells formed with highly educated members and technology experts.  PAGE 3

(Left) Supporters of two lawmakers clash in Dhaka’s Mirpur area after arguing over bringing out anti-strike procession yesterday. (Above) A man injured in the clash being taken to hospital for treatment

At least 18 people, including three policemen and hawkers, sustained stray bullet injuries in a clash between two factions of the Awami League in Dhaka’s Mirpur area yesterday.

The clash broke out between supporters of lawmaker Aslamul Hoque Aslam and female reserved-seat lawmaker Sabina Akhter Tuhin over bringing out anti-strike procession in the area, said witnesses and police.

DHAKA TRIBUNE/RAJIB DHAR

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Polls-related death toll reaches eight

A Bangladeshi-American in the White House

With death of three more people in Gaibandha and Chandpur, seven people have been killed in violence for the fourth phase of union parishad polls which was held on Saturday.

Rumana Ahmed is an adviser to Obama’s Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes. After the heinous 9/11 attacks, things were not the same for the head-covering 8th grader Rumana Ahmed in Maryland, US.  PAGE 32

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MONDAY, MAY 9, 2016

Veteran journalist Madan Sahu dies aged 77 n Tribune Desk

Madan Sahu, one of the most senior journalists in Bangladesh, died yesterday at the age of 77.

He was suffering from asthma for a long time and died at Birdem Hospital in Dhaka.

Madan was taken to a private hospital in Old Dhaka after his respiratory complications worsened on Wednesday.

He was shifted to Birdem Hospital the next day for better treatment where he had been on life support for three days.

“It was a combination of asthma and cardiac arrest that led to his death,” said Madan’s son Aungshuman Sahu after his father’s body was brought on the The Daily Star premises where the journalist’s colleagues paid their last respects.

Madan is survived by his wife

Maloti, two sons - Anirban and Aungshuman - and their wives, daughter Sushmita, a granddaughter and a host of relatives and colleagues.

“When I talked to him on Tuesday evening, he said he was sick.

But he said nothing further because we would feel bad. Then he said he would see me on Saturday,” Madan’s colleague at The Daily Star

Asma Khanam said.

Born to Mahadev Sahu and Kaileshwary Shahu in Sirajganj, Madan grew up and completed his school and college education there.

In the 1960s, he joined the then Pakistan Observer (it later became Bangladesh Observer) as a proofreader and worked there until 1991.

In early 1991, he joined The Daily Star as an assistant editor and climbed to the position of supplement incharge before calling it quits in 2014.

Madan was also the advisory editor of weekly First News magazine until his death.

“My father loved to work. Even when he was in hospital, he proofread articles,” Aungshuman said.

“But more than that, he loved nature. He loved cats, dogs and trees.

He was a very simple man.”

Raffat Binte Rashid, editor of Star Life Style, said Madan was one of the pioneers in modern page

make-up.

“I never saw him getting angry with anyone. He could skilfully manage workload.”

Syed Badrul Ahsan, associate editor at The Daily Observer and a long-time colleague of Madan, said Madan had a great sense of news and editing skills.

“In addition to that, he loved music. He could instantly tell the names of the composer and singer of any song of yesteryear,” he said.

First News magazine Editor Mohammad Badrul Ahsan said Madan was always a soft-spoken man and never complained about anything, even if it was related to delayed payment of salary.

“The only complaint he would occasionally make was that his father had been killed by the Pakistanis during the Liberation War in 1971.”

Madan was cremated in Dhaka’s Postogola last night. l

'Technical education enrolment to rise to 30% by 2030'

n Shadma Malik

To utilise the talent of the next generation, enrolment in technical education will be raised to 30% by 2030 which stands at 13% at present, said Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid yesterday.

“The intellectual capacity of our new generation is not poor. Their talent is world class,” he said while addressing a programme at Sonargaon Hotel in Dhaka.

“Human resource is our main asset and the youths are our strength.

If we can give them proper knowledge and skills, they will easily find jobs.

“In 2008, the percentage of enrolment in technical education was 1.2. As the government emphasised on this type of education, it is above 13% at present,” Nahid said. l

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

18 injured as two AL factions clash

Teenage worker stabbed

Aslam’s supporters gathered in front of Mukta Bangla shopping complex around 11:30am and were preparing to hold a procession against the strike of Jamaat-e-Islami when Sabina and her supporters were crossing the street in front of the group with a procession.

The supporters of Aslam at the time got into an argument with Sabina’s group, saying that they are supposed to bring out procession in the area because it belongs to them. They also said Sabina’s supporters have no right to hold any programme in the area.

The argument led to a violent clash that continued for half an hour. Both groups chased each other and also fired bullets.

Police later arrived on the scene and brought the situation under control, witnesses said.

Masud Ahmed, deputy

commissioner of police of Mirpur division, said police charged batons and fired three rounds.

“Additional police officials were deployed in the area to avert further unrest,” he added.

Of the 18 injured, 15 received treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital and 12 of them were identified - Monowar Hossain, 30, Shamim Hossain, 32, Jakir Hossain, 28, Al-Amin, 27, Md Habib, 25, Korban, 25, Abul Kalam, 34, Rafi, 20, Sujon, 20, Shubho, 20, Sabur Ali, 24, and Md Ibrahim, 27.

Brigadier General Mizanur Rahman, director of the hospital, said all 15 returned home after treatment.

Sub-Inspector of Shah Ali police station Abdur Rashid Sarker, who is one of the three police officials injured in the clash, said he and the two others took treatment at

Rajarbagh Police Lines Hospital.

Lawmaker Sabina told the Dhaka Tribune that she would prefer not to say anything about those who attacked her group.

“Locals saw who were behind the violence and the prime minister will ensure punishment of the perpetrators.”

Lawmaker Aslam could not be reached for comment.

Anwar Hossain, officer-incharge of Shah Ali police station, told the Dhaka Tribune police would take action after an investigation but no complaint or case was lodged in this connection.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said a probe had been launched.

“All those responsible for the incident, no matter who they are, will be subjected to punishment,” he added. l

DMCH, where she later succumbed to her injuries.

Sonargaon police station Sub-Inspector Md Elahi Mia said four or five men had tried to rape Meghla, but stabbed her after the girl identified them.

The three men who were arrested are: the building’s third-floor tenant Aminul, 30; Tuhin, 24, and Shariful, 24. They all work at different factories in the area.

Sonargaon police Inspector (investigation) Harun-or-Rashid said the victim’s family would file a case after her burial. But the police were now questioning the three suspects.

A source in the police told the Dhaka Tribune that some of the tenants in Rumi’s building often harassed Meghla and they might have attempted to rape the teen because she had ignored their ad-

vances.

The victim’s elder brother Md Akash said some men in Senpara area often harassed his sister; this is why Meghla walked to work with Rumi by her side every day.

Syed Sultan Uddin Ahmmed, the assistant executive director at Bangladesh Institute of Labor Studies (BILS), said the killing of a 14-year-old RMG worker has brought forward three issues.

“Firstly, why the garment factory owner recruited an under-aged girl. Secondly the government seems to have no concern regarding the monitoring of child recruitment and the safety of women in both their workplace and outside. Thirdly, the lack of exemplary punishment for such crimes encourages culprits to do such activities without having any fear,” he said. l

digging the roads like it has done each year during monsoon.

However, when the Dhaka Tribune spoke to the two mayors, they said all work would be completed before the rains begin.

“I have already told the officials in charge of the city corporation zonal offices to complete all development before monsoon,” said DNCC Mayor Annisul Huq. Annisul had earlier announced that all utility service organisations were only allowed to dig roads between October and February.

Reply to a question, Annisul said he was not aware about such poor condition of roads in his constituency.

DSCC Mayor Sayeed Khokon said they were cooperating with all

the service providers to complete development work before monsoon.

“Wasa is still digging roads in different areas repeatedly. All the roads will be repaired after Wasa ends it development works,” the mayor of the south said.

But city residents did not share the enthusiasm of Annisul and Khokon.

Moha Dev Shaha, a resident of East Rajabazar, said: “Wasa authorities completed installing sewerage lines in Panthapath, Kathalbagan ans Sukrabad around a year ago. But after that they started digging the same roads two months back to install new water pipes.”

Kamal Hossain, a shop owner in

Dhanmondi Road 9A, said: “Dhaka Wasa dug different roads in Dhanmondi and Jhigatola around a year ago. But since then there has been no step to repair the roads.”

Thanks to Wasa’s incomplete works, local streets have become unfit for vehicles while a little rain makes the paths muddy and unusable.

Kamal urged authorities to stop the indiscriminate digging of roads that always result in mud in monsoon and dust during dry season.

Wasa, meanwhile, passed on the blame to city corporation authorities.

Taqsem A Khan, the managing director of Dhaka Wasa, told the Dhaka Tribune that they have paid DNCC and DSCC authorities

the necessary money to repair the roads that had been dug.

“We have paid all the costs...

The city corporations are responsible for repairing the roads. The system is that everyone should be pay costs to city corporation authority to start road digging,” he added.

As blames continue to get traded, the two city corporations along with state-run agencies like Wasa, DPDC, Desco, BTCL and Titas Gas keep on digging roads without any coordination among themselves.

“There is a serious lack of communication and cooperation [among city development authorities] and city dwellers are paying the price for unplanned devel-

opment works,” said Prof Nazrul Islam, chairman of the Centre for Urban Studies.

The urban planner, who also previously served as the chairman of Dhaka Wasa board, said Dhaka dwellers were providing holding taxes and utility bills in time but not getting proper citizen services in return.

Iqbal Habib, an architect and also a member secretary of Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon, said he has worked with different government agencies for various projects, but has not seen their sincerity to dig roads in a planned way.

Each agency – without any plan – repeatedly digs roads for their own individual needs around the year, he said. l

Road digging monsoon madness looms ahead

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MONDAY, MAY 9, 2016

Militants resurgent in North Bengal n Mohammad Jamil Khan Militant outfits, especially the Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), are returning to the Northern part of Bangladesh with new sleeper cells formed with highly educated members and technology experts.

A government intelligence agency says the outfit JMB is planning to set up its den in all 16 districts of the North Bengal. In the report, the agency also suggested to improve security initiatives immediately in north to face it.

Intelligence and law enforcement got wind of the renewed activities after an explosion at a house in Kuthirvita village in Sherpur, Bogra

on April 3 where a bomb making operation was underway.

At that house, police found 20 grenades, four pistols, forty rounds of bullets and enough material to make 300 bombs. One of the two men killed in the blast were identified as JMB member Tariqul Islam from Sirajganj.

The other man’s identity remained a mystery until a team of the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CT unit) visited Bogra and identified the body as that of Fardin, JMB’s military commander, who law enforcement agencies had been hunting over the course of a year.

Fardin was a student of Chittagong University.

A family member of the man was

arrested later and also confirmed Fardin’s identity.

The intelligence agency is now saying the militant group has carried out 14 attacks since October 3 last year in North Bengal, among which the most prominent was the murder of Japanese citizen Hoshi Kunio in Rangpur. Police have arrested four JMB members in that murder.

In the latest attack in North Bengal on Friday, a man named Md Shahidullah was hacked to death in Tanore, Rajshahi.

Sources say a 15-member specially trained JMB “sleeper cell” is working as a killing squad across North Bengal. A youth named Tamim Al Adnan is reportedly the founder and leader of the cell in which most

of the members are well-educated youths with expert training.

Bogra police arrested a JMB member named Momin on April 26 from Shahjahanpara village following the April 3 explosion. Sources say in interrogation, Momin gave sensational information to police including JMB’s plans to set up bases and attack targets in North Bengal.

Sources said there were at least 300 JMB men operating across North Bengal and they were also recruiting new members. Most of these militants are disguised as businessmen, ferry men, mobile phone shop operators, mobile topup operators and tea sellers.

Md Asaduzzaman, superintendent of Bogra police, told the Dhaka

Tribune that the police were suspecting that one of the men killed in the April 3 blast was the JMB military commander Fardin.

“We got some information while investigating and now we’re analysing them and trying to trace the other men,” he addeds.

CT unit chief Monirul Islam said intelligence agencies had heightened vigilance to prevent militants from carrying out sabotage.

Asked about the presence of a sleeper cell, he said his unit had learned of its presence recently, and believed its main target was to carry out attacks in the North Bengal.

“We are trying to track down the members of this sleeper cell and their hideouts,” he added. l

Pakistan urged to stay away from Bangladesh affairs n Sheikh Shahariar Zaman State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam has urged Pakistan to stay away from the internal affairs of Bangladesh.

He also urged Islamabad not to misinterpret the 1974 tripartite agreement.

He made the comment at his office yesterday in response to a statement by Pakistan on the dismissal of war criminal Motiur Rahman Niazami’s review petition in Bangladesh on Friday.

In the statement, Pakistan expressed deep concern and anguish on the issue of death-row-convict Jamaat Amir Nizami.

Pakistan also said there is a need for reconciliation in Bangladesh in accordance with the spirit of the Tripartite Agreement of April 1974 which called for a forward-looking approach in matters relating to the events of 1971.

The state minister said: “I keep on repeating the same words; this frustrates us as it did in the earlier cases.”

Bangladesh does not welcome any concern expressed by foreigners on its internal affairs, he said.

“We repeatedly reminded them about this, but they keep on doing the same thing again and again,” Alam said.

The junior minister said that this time, Pakistan said they were in pain due to the dismissal of the review petition.

“Pakistan as a state is perhaps trying to send a message to the future generation of war criminals that the country will support them.

If that is not the case, why are they in pain?” he added. l

Red Crescent members at different intersections in Dhaka launch a campaign to create awareness about traffic rules among drivers yesterday. The picture was taken from Paribagh area in the capital MEHEDI HASAN

State challenges HC order on 16th amendment n Ashif Islam Shaon

The state has filed a petition with the Supreme Court seeking a stay order on the High Court verdict that scrapped the 16th Amendment to the Constitution on May 5.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam submitted the petition to the chamber judge in the afternoon.

The court might hear the petition today, Deputy Attorney General Motahar Hossain Sazu said.

On May 5, a three-member High Court bench ruled the amendment empowering the parliament to im-

peach Supreme Court judges illegal.

The order came upon a writ petition filed challenging the legality of the 16th Amendment, passed by the parliament on September 17, 2014.

The court declared the amendment illegal and unconstitutional, and against the principle of separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary.

It said that the three-member Supreme Judicial Council led by the chief justice is the best way for removing a judge for incapacity or

misbehaviour. However, the Supreme Judicial Council was abolished through the amendment.

The court observed that there is no consensus about pressing national issues between the major political parties, the society is sharply polarised and that there may not be two-thirds majority of the party in power at all time.

It said that people would have to suffer because of the amendment.

On April 25, the cabinet chaired

by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina gave nod in principle to the draft of the Supreme Court Judges’ (Inves-

tigation) Act 2016. The government claims that the US, the UK and some other countries have laws to investigate allegations against judges.

Bangladesh’s first constitution drafted in 1972 gave MPs the power to impeach judges and decide their term in office. But after the Fourth Amendment in 1975, the power was vested with the president.

The Fifth Amendment, brought on during military strongman Ziaur Rahman’s regime, legalised the formation of a Supreme Judicial Council to impeach judges. l

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Bangladesh-India first blue economy meet today n Sheikh Shahariar Zaman The first meeting on blue economy between Bangladesh and India will be held today in Dhaka.

After resolving maritime boundary disputes with neighbours, the government has taken steps to use the ocean resources sustainably.

A foreign ministry official said Bangladesh lacks capacity to utilise ocean resources and it wants to have cooperation with littoral countries to increase its capacity.

Both the countries agreed to cooperate each other in the blue economy field and it was decided to have the first formal meeting on the issue

when Foreign Secretary M Shahdul Haque went to New Delhi in February this year, he said.

This would be the first meeting and both the governments would discuss primarily in which areas they can cooperate, he said.

Blue economy is a vast field and India has sufficient capacity to tap the ocean resources, he said.

An Indian company, ONGC, has been awarded contract by Bangladesh to explore gas and oil in the Bay of Bengal.

Bangladesh has sovereign right on 118,813 square kilometers of area in the Bay of Bengal. l

Copycat dairies attempt to piggyback Milk Vita brand

n Shohel Mamun A dozen dairy companies have been selling milk in packets that are identical to the packet of the popular Milk Vita brand, creating confusion among consumers.

This was found in a recent Milk Vita survey carried out in Dhaka.

Some of the companies doing this include Ultra Milk, Real Milk, Aftab, Milk Fresh, Pura Milk, Dhaka Prime and Dairy Fresh.

“This is an illegal act as according to the patent, trademark and design rules, no company can sell its product in a similarly-designed packet,” Sheikh Nadir Hossain Lipu, chairman of Milk Vita, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

LGRD State Minister

Moshiur Rahman Ranga yesterday told reporters at his office in the Secretariat that the companies are ruining the goodwill of Milk Vita.

“We suspect that the companies do not properly produce pasteurised milk because they do not have the necessary machines. The machine for producing pasteurised milk is very expensive.

“We will take legal action against the companies and will also run an operation with the support of law enforcement agencies to stop their illegal act,” Ranga said.

He said samples of the products produced by the companies will be sent to laboratory for testing their quality.

“After getting the report, we will take legal action against them.” l

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Pir’s disciple murder in Tanore still a mystery n Dulal Abdullah, Rajshahi Officials of Tanore police in Rajshahi are yet to get any clue behind the brutal murder of a Pir’s disciple, Mohammad Shahidullah, on Friday.

Sons of the victim have alleged that he was killed in a planned manner. While talking to the Dhaka Tribune yesterday, they protested media reports that labelled him as a Pir (Muslim spiritual leader) himself.

Shahidullah, 55, was actually a follower of Pir Imam Mahdi from Goalanda in Rajbari district, they said. But he did not visit Rajbari in the last 10-12 years. “They had contact over the phone,” eldest son Russel Ahmed said.

Police suspect that he might be murdered for religious views or land-related conflicts. They also think that it could be an act of militants.

The body was found in a mango

he would meet some of his followers at Golabari village under Rohonpur of Gomostapur in Chapainawabganj.

Victim’s eldest son Russel filed a case with Tanore police on Saturday against unnamed persons.

He said that his father usually took a bus or train to travel, and used to go to the shop on his bicycle. But on Friday morning, he was going to Chapainawabganj on an unknown person’s motorcycle.

“His followers in Chapainawabganj are day labourers. They are not supposed to have motorcycle,” Russel said, adding that the killers might have picked him up from the house giving false information.

SI Humayun Kabir of Tanore police said that they had kept in mind three issues while conducting the investigation – involvement of militants or his followers, and land dispute.

In the case, Russel mentioned

suspected militants across the country since 2013. Moreover, the militants launched bomb and gun attacks on Shia and Ahmadiyya mosques.

Last year, ex-PDB chairman Khijir Khan was killed at his khanqah sharif in Dhaka on October 5; and Rahmat Ullah alias Nengta Fakir and his assistant Abdul Kader were killed at the shrine in Bayezid area of Chittagong on September 4.

Earlier, Ahle Sunnat leader and TV anchor Sheikh Nurul Islam Faruqi was killed at his house in east Rajabazar, Dhaka on August 27, 2014. Pir Lutfar Rahman, his son and four disciples were killed at his house in Dhaka on December 21, 2013.

On August 8 the same year, Pir Taibur Rahman and his teenager son Monirul Islam Manir were killed at Khalishpur of Khulna.

Shahidullah left the house around 8:30am on Friday saying that

orchard owned by homoeopathic doctor Abul Hasan in Jhumarpara village of Tanore on Friday evening. He left home in the morning to go to Chapainawabganj.

Shahidullah is the son of late Habibur Rahman of Mohanandakhali area of Nouhata under Poba Upazila. He had a grocery shop in Nouhata College Road area.

Doctors at Rajshahi Medical College who conducted the post-mortem examination say that Shahidullah was hacked with machetes on the neck and later his throat was slit.

The pattern of the attack is similar to the one carried out on a Rajshahi University teacher, Prof AFM Rezaul Karim Siddique, on April 23, RMC doctor Enamul Huq said yesterday. The killers used similar weapons to murder Shahidullah and hit him on the right side of his neck.

At least four Pirs have been slaughtered or hacked to death by

that his father had land-related conflict with Shajahan and Piar Ali of Nouhata for over 10 years.

Youngest son of the victim Rabbi Ahmed said that a Pir usually maintains a place where the followers gather. “My father did not have such a gathering place at the house.”

He said that Shahidullah used to visit his followers in Chapainawabganj and sometimes they came to see him. “But it does not mean that he was a Pir. He has been buried as an ordinary person.”

Another son Iqbal Hossain said that Shahidullah used to maintain his style of saying prayers, but “he never asked us not to say prayers.

He did not even practice fasting during the Ramadan, but used to wake us up so that we do not miss Sehri.

“He never said anything about religious practices in public that may create tension in the area.” l

Daewoo submits proposal to explore oil, gas resources n Aminur Rahman Rasel South Korean Daewoo International Corporation submitted Request For Proposal (RFP) documents to explore and develop oil and gas resources in Bangladesh’s deep sea blocks.

“The submission deadline was May 7. One international oil company (IOC) submitted RFP documents to explore and develop oil and gas,” Petrobangla Director Md Quamruzzaman told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

Unlike usual bidding rounds, the government will purchase oil and gas in the Bay of Bengal at a competitive price, to be quoted by the IOCs in bids.

In previous bidding rounds, Petrobangla fixed the prices for oil and gas in model production sharing contracts (PSC) before launching bids.

In January 2014, US oil company ConocoPhillips and Norway’s Statoil jointly submitted bidding documents to explore oil and natural gas in three deep-sea blocks in the Bay of Bengal – blocks 12, 16 and 21 – under the amended model PSC of 2012.

On February 18 last year, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs awarded a contract to a joint venture of ConocoPhillips and Statoil to con-

Ganajagaran Mancha takes out a procession at Shahbagh against Jamaat-e-Islami’s nationwide strike against their ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami’s death penalty SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

New law to tackle infectious diseases Showkat Kallol and n Asif Shohel Mamun The government wants to enact a new law for the prevention of communicable diseases to cope with emerging threats of diseases like zica and to create public awareness.

The proposal for the new act, titled Prevention, Control and Elimination of Communicable Diseases Act 2016 from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare will be placed today at the cabinet.

TEMPERATURE FOREC AST FOR TODAY

THUNDERSHOWER WITH RAIN MONDAY, MAY 9

Typhoid, Meningitis and emerging and reemerging diseases.

Under the law, concerned authorities will create quarantine facilities for affected persons. Infected persons will be isolated for a given time period and concerned authorities will arrange different routes at the sea ports and airports.

The law also creates scope for the government to take all kinds of assistance from foreign countries to prevent transmission disease, according the proposal. l

Health Ministry officials said the bill was not passed into law in the last two years due to various reasons.

The draft of the communicable diseases law was prepared in line with the Bangladesh Malaria Eradication (Repeal) Ordinance 1977 and The Prevention of Malaria (Special Provisions) Ordinance and will replace these ordinances.

The proposed law will cover diseases like Malaria, Dengue, Filariasis, Kala azar, all types of influenza, Nipah, HIV, viral hepatitis, Dhaka

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Rajshahi

DHAKA TODAY SUN SETS 6:31PM

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Rangpur

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Khulna

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Barisal

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW

TOMORROW SUN RISES 5:18AM

36.0ºC Sitakunda

19.0ºC Rangpur

Source: Accuweather/UNB

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duct the exploration in three deepsea blocks in the Bay of Bengal.

ConocoPhillips, however, later pulled out of the joint venture leaving Statoil to operate alone.

Statoil is seeking amendments to the PSC to increase gas prices.

The government has not yet announced its decision on the matter, but EOI (expression of interest) and RFP have been sought.

On February 4, Petrobangla invited EOIs to explore and develop three deep-sea blocks in the Bay of Bengal under the Speedy Supply of Power and Energy (Special Provision) Act, 2015.

Singapore-based KrisEnergy and Daewoo International submitted EOIs for exploration of deep sea blocks.

After receiving EOIs, Petrobangla sought RFP documents from the two companies.

A Petrobangla official said Daewoo International had explored gas in Myanmar’s Shwe gas field, adjacent to Bangladesh’s deep sea block 11.

Dhaka University Geology Professor Badrul Imam told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday: “Daewoo has been working in Myanmar. If, Daewoo’s offer is reasonable, there may be a negotiation and a deal.” l Sylhet

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Cox’s Bazar

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Fajr: 4:55am | Zohr: 1:15pm Asr: 5:00pm | Magrib: 6:34pm Esha: 8:30pm Source: Islamic Foundation

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Corruption case against Housing Minister Engineer Mosharraf Hossain to continue n Ashif Islam Shaon The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court has quashed a 2012 High court order that relieved Housing and Public Works Minister Engineer Mosharraf Hossain from a corruption case.

A four-member bench led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha gave the order yesterday in reply to a leave-to-appeal submitted by the

Anti-Corruption Commission.

The legal barrier to run investigation into the allegation raised against the minister has disappeared with the verdict. Barrister Tanjibul Alam stood for Mosharraf, who is a Presidium member of the Awami League, while Khurshid Alam Khan for the ACC. Apart from the minister, former Awami League lawmaker from Fatikchhari Rafiqul Anwar and his

brother Fakhrul Anwar, the director of Hotel Golden Inn Ltd, were made accused in the lawsuit. ACC Assistant Director Jahangir Alam filed the case with Double Mooring police in Chittagong on November 22, 2007.

According to the case, Mosharraf got the onus of the same ministry during the 1996-2001 tenure. He had given a lease advice for a 1.88-bigha parking space in Agrabad area to build the three-star hotel. The value

of the land was estimated at Tk1.69 crore and it was later registered for Sanmar Hotel Ltd violating the lease act. The Sanmar Hotel authorities paid over Tk2.92 crore more than the real value.

In 2012, the High Court bench of Justice AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury and Justice Farid Ahmed issued a rule dismissing the case.

Later the ACC filed an appeal against the decision. l

Strike called off in greater Ctg n Anwar Hussain, Chittagong

Bangladesh Road Transport Workers Federation withdrew its Monday’s 24-hour strike in greater Chittagong to press home its 6-point demand.

The demands include not to obstruct the movement of unregistered CNG-run autorickshaws in Chittagong city. Mrinal Chowdhury, president of Bangladesh Road Transport Workers Federation (East Zone) said they decided to call off the strike considering the plight of HSC examines. l

7

MONDAY, MAY 9, 2016

AL win 167 chairs to 38 for BNP UP POLLS

n Tribune Desk Awami League-backed chairman candidates gained victory in 167 union parishads while contestants from its arch rival BNP’s camp won the race in 38 in the 4th phase of the lowest tier local government

polls held on Saturday.

According to reports reaching the UNB news desk, 18 AL candidates were elected unofficially in Manikganj, 15 in Pabna, 14 in Brahmanbaria, 11 in Sherpur and Kushtia each, nine in Kurigram and Nababganj upazila each, eight in Kishoreganj, Thakurgaon, and Munshiganj each, seven in Jessore and Sylhet each, six in Tangail and Moulvibazar each, five in Natore and Chandpur each, three in Panchagarh, two in Chapainawab-

ganj and one in Bogra, reports UNB. On the other hand, nine BNP candidates were elected unofficially in Sylhet, seven in Kurigram and Chapainawabganj each, three in Nawabganj, two in Munshiganj, Tangail and Thakurgaon each, one in Moulvibazar, Panchagarh, Jessore, Thakurgaon, Kushtia, Chandpur and Bogra each.

Besides, 52 other chairman candidates won the elections in Bogra, Kishoreganj, Chandpur, Sherpur, Manikganj, Nababganj, Kushtia, Munshiganj, Thakurgaon, Brah-

DT

News manbaria, Tangail, Panchagarh, Moulvibazar and Sylhet.

Election to 700 union parishads in 87 upazilas of the country’s 46 districts was held on the day amid various irregularities and sporadic violence that left six people dead.

The balloting in this phase of the UP elections began at 8am and continued till 4pm without any break.

The Election Commission suspended balloting in 51 polling stations due to violence and various irregularities. l

A number of shops at Hatghangopara, Baghmara upazila, Rajshahi were vandalised during a polls-related clash that took place between the supporters of two rival UP chairman candidates. The photo was taken yesterday AZAHAR UDDIN

BCL man jailed for two years for breaching electoral code n Anwar Hussain, Chittagong

Chittagong city unit Bangladesh Chhatra League Secretary Nurul Azim Rony was sent to jail yesterday morning.

The BCL leader was arrested in possession of a 9mm pistol, 15 rounds of bullet, cash money and a rubber stamp from Chittagong’s Hathazari upazila.

Earlier, a mobile court led by Judicial Magistrate Harunur Rashid arrested the BCL leader and later on, sentenced him to two years imprisonment for breaching electoral code of conduct during the 4th phase of union parishad elections held on Saturday.

Md Ismail, officer-in-charge of Hathazari police station, said the arrested BCL was sent to jail after the verdict copy reached them yesterday morning.

Meanwhile, the leaders and activists of the Chhatra League staged demonstration in Chittagong Court Building area yesterday, demanding immediate release of the organisations’ Chittagong city unit BCL Secretary Nurul Azim Rony.

Chanting slogan for the release of their fellow, the BCL men brought out a procession that paraded court building area.

The agitating BCL men after holding a protest rally before the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, threatened to stage a non-stop sit if Rony is not released without delay. l

Polls-related melee continues, death toll reaches eight n Tribune Desk

With death of three more people in Gaibandha and Chandpur seven people have been killed in violence for the fourth phase of union parishad polls which was held on Saturday.

In Gaibandha, an activist of Awami League, who was injured in a union parishad election violence in Sadullahpur upazila on Saturday night, died at Rangpur Medical College Hospital early yesterday. The deceased was identified as Mostak.

Superintendent of police Ashraful Islam said local leaders and activists of AL rebel candidates staged a demonstration following delay in publishing election result in Dhaperhat union parishad on Saturday night.

Supporters of AL rebel candidate Rafiqul Islam Nausa blockaded the Dhaka-Rangpur highway at about 10:45pm.

Informed, police rushed in and

tried to disperse them.

At one stage, the activists hurled stones and brickbats at the law enforcers, triggering a chase and counter-chase. They also vandalised two police pickups.

In retaliation, police charged baton and opened fire.

Twenty-one people, including Mostak, were injured during the melee.

Later, Mostak was rushed to Rangpur Medical College Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries at about 2am.

Meanwhile, police at night filed a case making 500 people accused for attacking the law enforcers while discharging duty during the election.

Meanwhile, a young man, who received bullet injuries in a police firing during a clash at a polling centre of Paria union in Baliadangi upazila on Saturday afternoon, died at Rangpur Medical College Hospital.

The deceased was identified as Azizul Islam, 23, son of Nazrul Is-

lam, a resident of the union.

Meanwhile, a local Chhatra League member was killed in union parishad election violence in Chandpur’s Shahrasti upazila early yesterday.

Jamal Hossain, 28, was the son of Shahidul Haque Miazi of Shahrasti municipality’s Kazirkamta area, and a member of Chhatra League’s Shahrasti municipality unit.

Police said they charged batons when supporters of Awami League rebel candidate Abdul Momin and BNP rebel candidate Abu Hanif clashed with each other over occupation of Nahara Government Primary School polling centre on Saturday.

Five people, including Jamal, were injured in police action and were admitted to Shahrasti Upazila Health Complex.

Jamal was shifted to Comilla Medical College Hospital from there but doctors recommended

that he be taken to Dhaka for better treatment. He succumbed to injuries around 1am on the way to Dhaka.

Sub-Inspector of Shahrasti police station Abdul Mannan said an autopsy would be performed on the corpse and a case would be filed in this connection.

Apart from the two death, a good number of people were injured in post-poll violence in several districts across the country.

In Narsingdi, six houses were set on fire and four people were injured during a clash that took place between the supporters of two union parishad chairman candidates at Birgaon, Raipura.

Our Kurigram correspondent said 10 people were injured in a clash that took place at Jatrapur union parishad yesterday morning.

A case was filed against 28 people on Saturday night in connection with the killing of a man in a clash between the supporters of two mem-

ber candidates at Chandla Bazar in Brahmanpara upazila during the 4th phase union parishad election.

Victim Taposh Chandra Das’s wife Mallika Rani Das filed the case with Brahmanpara Police Station at night accusing 18 named accused and 10 unnamed, said S M Badiuzzaman, officer-in-charge of the police station.

It is mentionable that five persons including a 17-year-old boy have been killed in violence during the Union Parishad polls across the country.

The deceased are Taposh Chandra Das in Comilla, Mahbub Hossain Paltu in Thakurgaon, Siddkur Rahman and Jahidul Islam Bulu in Rajshahi and Hossain Ali in Narsingdi.

In Chapainawabganj, at least 15 persons were injured, four of them seriously, in a clash between the supporters of two rival UP member candidates at Raninagar under Monakasha union of Shibganj upazila of the district. l

DT

8

News

MONDAY, MAY 9, 2016

Country people see lacklustre hartal n Tribune Desk

Life in Dhaka and elsewhere in the country remained almost normal despite a nationwide 24-hour hartal call by Jamaat-e-Islami, a major political partner of the BNP-led alliance, in protest against the death penalty of Jamaat Amir Motiur Rahman Nizami for his 1971 crimes against humanity.

Jamaat called the shutdown for 24 hours from 6am of Sunday to 6am of Monday after the Supreme Court’s Appellate Division turned down Motiur Rahman Nizami’s petition to review his death sentence for war crimes.

Passenger buses in all routes alongside the private cars operated as usual while presence in offices and business establishments were normal in Dhaka.

Banks and stock markets worked normally and authorities also kept open the schools while transport operators said bus and trains services were operated as usual linking the capital with rest of the country.

“BGB, RAB, armed police and plainclothesmen were kept on alert with video and still cameras at different strategic points in the capital. We have no incident to report to you,” said Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Media Wing of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Sardar Maruf Hossain said.

According to our Chittagong bureau office, the people of port city Chittagong defied the 24-hour long hartal.

There were no news of any kind

A good number of vehicles ply in the port city yesterday during dawn-to-dusk hartal enforced by the Jamaat-e-Islami in protest against the death penalty of Jamaat Amir Motiur Rahman Nizami for his 1971 crimes against humanity. The photo was taken from Dewanhat intersection DHAKA TRIBUNE of violence or picketing in and around the city.

The city life almost remained normal while the educational institutions, government and private offices remained open with presence of staffs and employees during office hours. Public transports along with private cars were also seen to ply the roads like any other days.

Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP)’s Additional Commissioner (crime and operations) Debdas Bhattacharia said: “No picket was

seen or reported during the hartal hours while additional police forces have been deployed in the key points in the city to fend off any kind of violence.

“A total number of 1,500 additional police personnel have been deployed across the city to avert any kind of violence”, added the police high-up of the CMP. SI Farid Uddin, in-charge of Jorarganj Highway police outpost in Chittagong-Dhaka Highway, said: “Presence of passenger buses was

little while the goods-laden trucks and lorry were plying the highway during the hartal hours”.

Loading and unloading of the goods from vessels were normal at Chittagong Port, said port sources.

Apart from that no picketing or flash procession were reported from Banshkhali, Satkania and Lohagara upazila which are known as the stronghold of Jamaat, said police sources.

Our Sylhet correspondent adds: Life in the district was almost nor-

Schoolboy Death of SUST student makes hospitalised after beaten by campus turmoil n Tribune Desk teacher Correspondent, n Our Lakshmipur

A ninth grade student of M U Government High School in Ramganj upazila of the district was tortured brutally by his teacher and admitted to hospital as his condition deteriorated yesterday. The victim was Yasin Arafat Zibon, 14.

Local sources said Monir Hossain, assistant teacher of the school, tortured Yasin while he was taking exam.

At first Monir hit him with scale leaving critically injured as he looked behind. At one stage, he refused to take the examnination.

Monir became ferocious at the behaviour of the boy and started to kick him at the abdomen.

Later, they admitted him to Ramganj Hospoital in critical condition. l

Students of Shahjalal Science and Technology University (SUST) staged demonstration on the campus yesterday over the death of a student.

A second-year student of the university was found dead in a mess near the university campus on Saturday night, with the police saying he might have killed himself.

The body of Bishwajit Mallik, student of the forestry and environmental science department at the university, was found inside his locked room at Surma Nir Mess in Borgul area.

Other residents of the mess told the Dhaka Tribune that they had notified the police and the university administration when they found that Bishwajit, who hailed from Sirajdikhan upazila of Munshiganj, had locked the room from the inside and was not responding to their calls.

the Jalalabad OC added. He also denied rumours that Bishwajit had left a suicide note.

However, SUST student welfare adviser Prof Dr Rashed Talukder, who was present when the police recovered the body, said the cause behind the death could not be confirmed immediately.

Students blame SUST authorities negligence for the death Bishwajit Mallik Police arrived at the scene and broke through the door around 11pm Saturday to find the body of Bishwajit inside, said Jalalabad police station officer-in-charge, Akhter Hossain.

He said initial signs suggest that Bishwajit has killed himself. An autopsy has already been carried out while the university authorities have filed an unnatural death case,

Students of the SUST forestry and environmental science department put a padlock on the doors of the university proctor’s office yesterday, blaming the death of Bishwajit on the negligence of SUST authorities, department teachers and doctors at the MAG Osmani Medical Hospital.

Over 50 students of the department staged a sit-in programme in front of the proctor’s office at 9:30am, demanding a proper investigation into the death of their classmate. l

mal with plying of all types of vehicles, activities in schools and colleges and offices.

No procession was brought out in the district in support of the hartal.

People of Barisal did not see any picketing and procession by supporters of Jamaat during the shutdown, says our Barisal correspondent Anisur Rahman Swapan.

In fear of possible sabotages activists, BGB personnel and additional police have been deployed in city areas. l

Teacher suspended for harassing female student n Md Wali Newaz, Faridpur A teacher of Boalmari Kadirdi High School was suspended on charges of sexually harassing a tenth grader female student yesterday.

The decision was taken against assistant teacher of the school Krishnapodo Pal at an emergency meeting.

Abdul Razzaq Molla, a member of governing body, told the Dhaka Tribune that Krishnapodo Pal ran a coaching at his residence. During a class, he tried to get physical with one of his students.

As soon as the news spread, teachers and students of the school started staging demonstration and demanding removal of Krishnapodo.

The accused teacher, however, claimed that he had not done anything like this. l

9

DT

Education

MONDAY, MAY 9, 2016

The 15 highest-paying undergraduate majors

IELTS

dates and locations

Venue: Banani Test date: May 28, 2016 Module type: IELTS Academic Registration deadline: May 21, 2016 Test date: June 4, 2016 Module type: IELTS General Training Registration deadline: May 28, 2016 Test date: June 4, 2016 Module type: IELTS Academic Registration deadline: May 28, 2016 Test date: June 18, 2016 Module type: IELTS Academic Registration deadline: June 11, 2016 Venue: Dhanmondi PHOTO: BIGSTOCK

n Ahamed Naveed Hasan Your choice of major can and will have a big impact on your postgraduation earnings. With rising tuition costs and an unpredictable global economy, choosing the appropriate undergraduate major is more important than it ever was. The choice of major will also have an impact on your student life as you will have to spend four years at the university engulfed in that discipline. A suitable major

can mean the difference between a big paycheck and career stability, but more importantly, unemployment.

After analysing the hiring trends and the starting salaries offered, it can be concluded that the knowledge of mathematics is valued very highly by most leading companies and industries. Computer aptitude, especially in programming, is also seen as a plus point.

The levels of payoff gained

by undergraduate majors are measured by analysing the initial median salary and mid-career median salary.

Below are the 15 undergraduate majors with the highest salary potential, compiled from various studies: • Pre-Medical • Computer Science and Engineering • Petroleum Engineering • Electrical Engineering

IELTS Write about the following topic: The first car appeared on British roads in 1888. By the year 2000 there may be as many as 29 million vehicles on British roads.

• • • • • • • • • • •

Finance Economics Chemical Engineering Nuclear Engineering Aeronautical Engineering Marketing Physics Industrial Engineering Statistics Pharmacy Political Science l

Content was reprinted from www. grad-insights.com

Writing Task

Practice with us to step up your IELTS game.

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your knowledge or experience.

Test date: May 21, 2016 Module type: IELTS General Training Registration deadline: May 14, 2016 Test date: May 28, 2016 Module type: IELTS Academic Registration deadline: May 21, 2016 Test date: June 4, 2016 Module type: IELTS Academic Registration deadline: May 28, 2016 Venue: Bashundhara, Baridhara Test date: May 21, 2016 Module type: IELTS Academic Registration deadline: May 14, 2016 Test date: May 21, 2016 Module type: IELTS General Training Registration deadline: May 14, 2016 Test date: June 4, 2016 Module type: IELTS Academic Registration deadline: May 28, 2016 Test date: June 4, 2016 Module type: IELTS General Training Registration deadline: May 28, 2016

Alternative forms of transport should be encouraged and international laws introduced to control car ownership and use.

To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Test date: May 21, 2016 Module type: IELTS Academic Registration deadline: May 14, 2016

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Write at least 250 words.

Venue: Uttara Test date: May 28, 2016 Module type: IELTS Academic Registration deadline: May 21, 2016 Test date: June 4, 2016 Module type: IELTS Academic Registration deadline: May 28, 2016

DT

10

MONDAY, MAY 9, 2016

Feature

Caring for man’s best friend

It is vital to remember that we are a part of an eco-system where, in order to restore harmony, we need to care for animals who cannot fend for themselves

n Farhana Haq Chowdhury Bangladesh has come a long way in terms of animal rights. We had witnessed a new dawn when Dhaka was declared the country’s first no cull city back in January 2012, and ever since, there was no looking back. Now we can proudly say that Bangladesh is a no cull country!

However, not every district is aware of this. Unfortunately, some do not even support the cause, and have often taken matters into their own hands to control and manage local dog populations.

Such a case occurred on April 11, 2016, when a group of people ruthlessly culled the resident dogs of Chittagong University based on claims that they were all sick

and everyone was at a great risk of being bitten. An animal welfare group in Chittagong named “Rise for Paw,” a sister concern of the Dhaka based animal welfare group “Care for Paws” stepped in and beautifully handled the situation.

On the April 22, not only were 40 resident dogs vaccinated, but also, a very impressed VC agreed to sign a MOU with Care for Paws which intends to further contribute to animal aide and welfare in the area.

A similar cry for help came from Bandarban, where a decision to cull the local dogs was eventually postponed by an animal welfare activist Syed Shanto. His desperate attempt to help these dogs had paid off when he contacted Care for Paws and they actively sent a team of seven of their best activists who, in merely two days, vaccinated a staggering 214 local dogs as well as successfully educated the local community against culling man’s best friend!

This was surely a big win for animals and activists of Bangladesh! It is vital to remember that we are a part of an ecosystem where, in order to restore harmony, we need to care for animals who cannot fend for themselves. The two incidents show clear signs that change is happening, as more people are beginning to care, we know that better days are definitely ahead of us.l

PHOTOS: COURTESY

DT

Editorial 11

MONDAY, MAY 9, 2016

INSIDE

Same old story, same old drum Though the government is denying any presence of IS in Bangladesh, they once boastfully paraded dozens of men in front of media and introduced them as co-ordinators of IS in Bangladesh PAGE 12

How can an Italian court murder Indian democracy?

I suppose this is what happens when a party leadership loses its good humour, or balance. Nothing brings the Congress to its feet faster than any threat to the family that is now in permanent control of the party PAGE 13

Picture imperfect Enough with the don culture, underworld Mafia gangs, virtuous cabaret dancers, heroes wearing white suits, white shoes, and film names like I am Number One, Top Boss, Boss Number One, Dhaka’r Raja, and all that rubbish PAGE 14

Be heard Write to Dhaka Tribune FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath, Shukrabad, Dhaka-1207 Send us your Op-Ed articles: opinion.dt@dhakatribune.com www.dhakatribune.com Join our Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/ DhakaTribune.

The views expressed in Opinion articles are those of the authors alone. They do not purport to be the official view of Dhaka Tribune or its publisher.

BIGSTOCK

Help EC catch all perpetrators of poll violence

I

t is completely unacceptable that at least five people, including a 17-year old boy, were killed in polls related violence during Saturday’s round of Union Parishad elections.

The government must do more to assist the Election Commission and law enforcers in ensuring peaceful polls.

Despite increasing security preparations and court actions for breaches of the electoral code of conduct, the four stages of the UP polls have been marred by continued incidents of polling irregularities and violent clashes, which have seen dozens of people killed and hundreds injured.

The public needs assurance that strong action will be taken to bring all the perpetrators of violence to justice and ensure zero tolerance for attempts to occupy polling stations and stuff votes.

It is vital that the EC is able and seen to be able to fully uphold the law.

Impunity for poll irregularities and violence must be brought to a swift end.

Had quicker action been taken, it is possible that much of this violence such as the factional clash between two groups of ruling AL supporters, which saw 15 people injured on Sunday in Mirpur, could have been averted.

The government and all political parties must ensure action against every individual and group involved in violent clashes and attempts to occupy polling stations.

The EC must take all necessary measures to ensure no candidate benefits from intimidation and electoral malpractices. The nation needs these elections held with the full participation of the BNP to help put the democratic process back on track.

The integrity of elections demands the EC and law enforcers be supported more fully in efforts to catch and punish all perpetrators of poll irregularities and violence.

Impunity for poll irregularities and violence must end

12

DT

Opinion

MONDAY, MAY 9, 2016

Same old story, same old drum Blame games won’t make the terrorists run

n Aaqib Md Shatil

I

t was March 6, 1999 when Bangladesh was rocked by a terrorist bombing for the first time at the cultural convention of Udichi in Jessore, claiming 10 lives. Immediately after the attack, a trade of blame ensued between Bangladesh’s two major parties: AL and BNP. The local police took the whole episode to a new dimension by implicating BNP’s National Standing Committee member Tariqul Islam and many of its leaders from the south-western region of the country in the case.

BNP, after its arrival to power in 2001, implicated prominent actor Syed Hasan Imam and some cultural activists inclined to AL in the case in the name of further inquiry.

However, none of these claims remained valid after Mufti Abdul Hannan Munsi of Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami, Bangladesh (HUJI-B) was remanded. He revealed how he and his team planted the bomb in Jessore and celebrated the “success” of the first major attack.

Truth is often stranger than fiction. Mufti Hannan, who wanted to establish the so-called rule of Islam in Bangladesh, planned the whole thing so smoothly that no one suspected him beforehand. He asked his two brothers to join AL and BNP to have the blessings of both parties.

He was awarded with land at Gopalganj BSCIC in 1997 when AL came to power for his “Sonar Bangla Soap Factory,” with help from his brother’s Chhatra League background. On this land, he set up an establishment, which was used as his bomb factory, until it was busted in 2000.

When BNP was in power, he took the help of his other brother, who was a Jubo Dal leader, to contact some BNP leaders and operate his activities, including the 2004 AL rally attack. He remained nearly untouched till 2006, the year when he was rounded up by RAB. The Mufti Hannan case shows how battling parties can help a militant rise. If the AL, in 1999, would have directed the police to get to the bottom of the attack instead of blaming BNP leaders, and if BNP, after its arrival to power in 2001, had let the police do its job instead of blaming AL, Mufti Hannan and his HUJI-B would have been crushed long ago and the lives of many innocents, including the 21 AL activists, would have been saved.

The government should not take claims of IS presence in our country lightly

REUTERS

Though the government is denying any presence of IS in Bangladesh, they once boastfully paraded dozens of men in front of media and introduced them as co-ordinators of IS in Bangladesh

Even after the 2004 attack on AL, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia stated that it was AL that had done so for political gain. Such a trade of blame between the two parties protected Hannan for a long time.

But it seems that Bangladesh has learned nothing from its past.

So far, after almost all the militant attacks, the government has tried to put the blame on their political oppositions, sometimes even before the investigation team started their work.

For example, the government refuted the claim of SITE Intelligence that the attacks were co-ordinated by Islamic State (IS) or Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) militants.

Though the government is

denying any presence of IS in Bangladesh, they once boastfully paraded dozens of men in front of media and introduced them as co-ordinators of IS in Bangladesh.

All of them are still in the custody of police.

One of the government’s arguments about the uncertainty of IS presence in Bangladesh was that there were no posts or updates in the IS official site regarding the developments in Bangladesh apart from some tweets. But the latest edition of IS publication Dabiq has provided some insights into IS operations in Bangladesh and introduced Shaykh Abu Ibrahim al-Hanif as its chief of Bangladesh chapter, a claim that contests the stance of

the Bangladesh government.

After the admittance of IS and AQIS regarding responsibility of the murders of Rajshahi University Professor Rezaul Karim and editor Xulhaz Mannan and his friend it can be assumed that both organisations are in a competition to spread its dominance in Bangladesh, a phenomenon previously predicted by Professor Ali Riaz.

However, another argument that the government has been making, despite claims from IS and AQIS, is that none of these acts were done by organisations with an international network, pointing fingers at home-grown terrorists instead.

It is as if the government is

thinking that acts by organisations with an international network involve a battalion of IS traveling all the way to Bangladesh from Iraq, staging an attack, and then returning to its base in Iraq to make a claim in its official website.

In the globalised world, one does not need to be well-versed in the field of rocket science to connect with an international militant organisation, and I’m sure the government is well aware of that. They should address the problem instead of blaming their political opponents and move in for all-out action, if that wasn’t obvious enough.

And yes, if their political opponents were involved in any of such attacks, the government should gather substantial evidence and prosecute them accordingly.

Because, beating the same old drum that was once in the hands of BNP nine years ago would only help the growth of further militancy in Bangladesh. l Aaqib Md Shatil is an Executive of Brand Development at Build Better Bangladesh Foundation.

13

DT

Opinion

MONDAY, MAY 9, 2016

How can an Italian court murder Indian democracy?

Has Congress lost its good humour?

The Gandhi family might not be entirely qualified to talk about democracy being murdered

I suppose this is what happens when a party leadership loses its good humour, or balance. Nothing brings the Congress to its feet faster than any threat to the family that is now in permanent control of the party

n MJ Akbar

T

he ancients knew their metaphors. They classified the state of a human mind into four categories, or “humours,” based on bodily fluids: Blood, phlegm, melancholy, and choler (or bile).

It struck me that criticism or opposition in a democracy can also be usefully divided into these four conditions. As the second anniversary of the NDA government approaches, all of them are coming into play.

Blood is the first. Like any other body, the body politic also cannot function without the free flow of

blood, and if the heart and mind of a democracy are in the charge of government, then the arteries of opinion are with the estates that can stand up to authority.

An opposition has every right to see everything wrong in any government; exaggeration and twist are part of the weapons of the duel, with opposition given some indulgence. Government always has the means to smoothen any warp.

Phlegm denotes calm. This is the humour of independent analysts from the sciences of economics or politics. Their verdict will tend to tilt towards the negative, but that only enhances

the credibility of the positive when they do praise a government’s performance. Those in power appreciate criticism that is not motivated by self-interest.

Melancholy is probably the best description of media’s attitude towards power. Journalists like to be sardonic; it gives their queries a sarcastic frisson, and their challenge a combative edge. This is true of perhaps 80% of media; the rest are, unfortunately, on the take, and therefore should not be taken seriously.

The debate about yellow journalism began with the birth of a free press in the US and will not end as long as there is freedom

REUTERS

of speech. We imagine that censorship is the only solution, but that is not strictly true. The audience also has the ability to reject such journalism: It can stop purchasing a rag, cutting circulation, or turn off a TV set, reducing TRPs. The big problem lies in the fourth humour, bile.

Bile is the bitter, slimy fluid secreted from the liver, and stored in the gall bladder. When bile enters an individual’s mind, it turns vicious, and poisons nurtured in frustration creep towards the tongue.

An infected person begins to rant instead of respond, accuse instead of argue, vilify instead of explain, froth instead of talk.

One television station has already aired a vicious personal attack on the prime minister in which accusations were paraded without proof, barely cloaked in disguised malice. Fortunately, such hatred becomes its own enemy; vilification makes a villain of the accuser rather than the target.

It is notable that the proper

noun just after bile, in the concise Oxford English Dictionary, is bilge.

But there is a fifth, and new, humour in democratic opposition which the ancients never considered, possibly because the theatre of the absurd is a more modern phenomenon. Witness, for instance, Congress’s reaction to the conviction by an Italian court of AgustaWestland helicopter company executives for giving bribes in the VIP chopper deal with India.

If bribes were given, they were taken. The money was not handed over to any missionaries of charity.

It is axiomatic that cash went to those with influence in the UPA government; men with money are not fools.

So far, investigators have reached only those Indians at the lower end of the bribe chain, and not the big bananas. But protest trumpets from Congress seem more reminiscent of the Biblical Last Judgement than an Italian first judgement.

Mrs Sonia Gandhi accused the present Indian government of “murdering democracy” during a demonstration in Delhi, at which, incidentally, the duopoly at the head of Congress officially became a triumvirate: Robert Vadra’s picture was placed amidst that of Sonia and Rahul Gandhi.

How precisely does an Italian judgement murder Indian democracy? Is democracy safe only if a particularly powerful Congress “family” (this term is from the judgement) is allowed to keep the bribes it took? So far, we only know that it is a “family,” hopefully we will get more specific information after further interrogation of suspects. How do you crush democracy by asking police to do their duty?

I suppose this is what happens when a party leadership loses its good humour, or balance.

Nothing brings the Congress to its feet faster than any threat to the family that is now in permanent control of the party. If the alleged recipient of the bribe had been any non-family cabinet minister, he would have been abandoned with a shrug.

The shrill outcry is telling us something. l MJ Akbar is an Indian journalist. He is the founder of The Sunday Guardian.

This article was previously published in The Sunday Guardian.

14

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Opinion

MONDAY, MAY 9, 2016

Picture imperfect There’s a reason cinema halls are closing down all over the country

The Bangladeshi film industry really needs to think about what it’s producing

BIGSTOCK

Enough with the don culture, underworld Mafia gangs, virtuous cabaret dancers, heroes wearing white suits, white shoes, and film names like I am Number One, Top Boss, Boss Number One, Dhaka’r Raja, and all that rubbish

n Towheed Feroze

C

ouple of weeks ago, Dhaka Tribune did a series on why our local film industry is facing a slump and what can be done to revive it from a moribund state.

Several people from the industry, including cinema hall owners, were interviewed: Movie theatre owners said that the audience have lost interest simply because they cannot find an original plot.

This is indeed true.

The first flaw of the current day film industry is that 90% of commercial films do not have a cohesive original premise.

The finger of copying has been pointed at almost all the top stars turned producers. And no matter how many allegations of plagiarism are refuted, the truth stands, commercial celluloid

entertainment is revolving around either copying or, following a hackneyed template which lost popular appeal long ago.

Now let’s divide the films that run on big screen into two categories: First, we have the plain and simple 100% commercial product, aimed at providing thrill, titillation, and suspense -- in one word, the ultimate form of escapism.

Here, the biggest flaw is that the done-to-death style, which features, among other things, four songs, two sad -- one melodious and one item number -- five action scenes, three melodramatic moments, three scenes where lead actors deliver dialogues filled with vacuous idealism and, finally, a hurried happy ending.

This hasn’t changed in the last 40 years -- the addition has been the item number which aims to provide some provocative

glimpses of female flesh, preferably in a setting of total debauchery.

In fact, such numbers were also integral parts of movies in the 70s, though at that time the main “flesh dance” was usually performed by the vamp heroine. Today, with its rising popularity, the role in an item song is even more coveted than that of major characters.

I won’t go into the question of morality here because commercial movies are supposed to provide some piquancy: The problem is, the item song phenomenon was not conceived here. It became famous somewhere else and then we picked it up, adding more vulgarity to it. So, we have not added anything new but borrowed from someone else.

The full-blown commercial movies of today are obsessed with gang culture and, shockingly, in almost every production, there is a “don” moving about with impunity, maiming people, sexually assaulting women, and unleashing apocalypse.

Okay, let’s also accept this as an essential aspect of commercial cinema.

With item numbers and gangsters we get a totally ridiculous plot with countless inconsistencies and buffoonery.

The length, which is still two and a half hours, is another reason why people have lost interest.

The standard time of a modern day Western film hardly crosses two hours, whereas the tendency to prolong an already incredulous plot, known in plain Bangla as “tainna boro kora,” is simply tortuous for the someone sitting in a cinema hall.

Come to think of it, even with the countless flaws and stolen plots, a film would be accepted by the masses if it ran below two hours. I can manage being a complete idiot for an hour and a half.

Let’s concentrate on the second category of movies, which are made by modern day film-makers who claim to have studied the art of film making in college. The trend of this category of movie makers is recent, a decade old at most: They have dramatically improved cinematography, shots, action sequences, dispensed with trite dialogue.

However, a movie is about a tight premise, other sides embellish a plot though they always remain peripheral. Inconsistency is the major problem for the second category of movies -anachronisms are the other.

I saw a recently released movie called Ice Cream which had breathtaking cinematography -regrettably, the plot simply fell flat because it developed on a totally nonsensical situation. Just to take the movie forward and end it with a tragedy with three shattered hearts, infuriating twists were created.

Let’s go back to another much publicised film starring Joya and Mahfuz called Zero Degree, released some time ago. Why it was called Zero Degree in the first place remains a puzzle. Again, praiseworthy camerawork failed to lift a premise which, to a rational mind, appeared shallow. The characters die in the end with absurd turn of events added forcefully just to ensure a fatal denouement.

I find that finishing with a dramatic death has found a place among those who claim to be making better films. Nothing wrong in that but the plot reaching towards tragedy has to be credible. Last Eid, a period movie called Poddo Patar Jol hit the screens which suffered from the same flaw -- imposing a sad end with the characters behaving as if they were being controlled by the grim reaper from the very beginning.

Anyway, the last line is: Commercial films need to have some fantasy; just try to make the twists in the storyline a little closer to reality. Also, make the films shorter. Yes, please keep them within an hour and 45 minutes.

Pssst! That’s about how long the impact of four vodka shots last!

Do filmmakers sit with their finished products in a sane frame of mind just to detect faults? If they had, movie halls would not be empty. People go to the cinema for fun. So, the commercial movie style can remain but let’s also try to bring some original changes, instead of always pinching ideas from others.

One advice: Enough with the don culture, underworld Mafia gangs, virtuous cabaret dancers, heroes wearing white suits, white shoes, and film names like I am Number One, Top Boss, Boss Number One, Dhaka’r Raja, and all that rubbish.

If I ever get a chance, I want to ask Shakib Khan: “Mate, you are tall, good-looking, and appear on TV talk shows wearing decent clothes; why then, in movies, you opt for pink netted T-shirts or something equally obnoxious?” l Towheed Feroze is a journalist currently working in the development sector.

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Business 15

MONDAY, MAY 9, 2016

INSIDE ICAB urged to cooperate in implementing 5% profit sharing with workers The government has sought cooperation from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB) for the implementation of 5% profit sharing with the Workers Welfare Fund as per labour act. PAGE 16

China exports, imports decline more than expected China’s exports and imports fell more than expected in April, underlining weak demand at home and abroad and cooling hopes of a recovery in the world’s secondlargest economy. PAGE 17

Capital market snapshot: Sunday DSE Broad Index

4,340.1

0.8% ▲

Index

1,069.4

1.2% ▲

30 Index

1,682.6

1.0% ▲

Turnover in Mn Tk

3,971.8 -16.9% ▼

Turnover in Mn Vol

95.1 -20.4% ▼

CSE All Share Index 13,341.7

0.7% ▲

30 Index

0.5% ▲

Selected Index Turnover in Mn Tk Turnover in Mn Vol

12,380.3 8,113.4

0.7% ▲

234.1

-6.2% ▼

8.5 -10.9% ▼

Muhith softens tone on flat VAT rate n Asif Showkat Kallol Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday said the government is determined to enforce the new value-added tax law from July 1, but may consider the opinions of multiple VAT rates.

“There is no way to delay enforcement of the new law,” he said after attending a meeting with business leaders at the secretariat.

In 2012 the parliament passed the VAT and Supplementary Duty Act to automate the overall VAT administration, aimed at increasing revenue collection.

The new law will introduce online VAT payment system and a uniform VAT rate of 15% for all the business. There will be no provisions for package VAT or truncated value-based VAT system.

The law has already drawn widespread criticism from different quarters, mostly from leading business associations, against the flat 15% VAT rate on all products and services from the existing multiple rates.

“The businessmen have come up with lots of demands. However, I can say the amount of VATfree turnover ceiling will be raised in the next budget,” Muhith said.

At present, the VAT-free turnover limit is Tk24 lakh which the government has earlier announced to raise to Tk30 lakh with the enforcement of the new law.

Emerging from the meeting, Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin, first vice-president of Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), told the journalists that the discussion

would continue and the law would be amended considering the interest of the businesses, economy, and the country as a whole.

‘I can say the amount of VAT-free turnover ceiling will be raised in the next budget’ AK Azad, a former president of FBCCI, said the VAT rate may be set at 10% to 12% in the initial level, and can be raised to 15% in phases.

Last month Muhith said the government would keep the VAT rate at 15% under the new VAT law and assured the businesses that it would only be imposed on value addition.

On the time, he, however, said

the government may consider the recommendation of the business leaders and impose a multiple VAT rate after the end of the current government’s tenure.

The FBCCI leaders already recommended the government to reduce the VAT rate to 7% in the new law.

Currently, only 4% of the business entities registered for VAT do not submit returns regularly. Out of nearly 840,000 registered entities with Business Identification Number (BIN), only 32,000 maintain regularity in submitting VAT returns, the NBR data shows.

According to the NBR estimates, the revised VAT contribution, as a share of gross domestic product, will increase to 4.7% from 3.7% in the first year of reforms under the new law. l

DSE for hiking tax-free dividend income ceiling n Ibrahim Hossain Ovi The management of Dhaka Stock Exchange urged the National Board of Revenue (NBR) to increase tax-free dividend income limit to Tk1 lakh from existing Tk25,000 to rejuvenate market.

Considering the present market scenario, small investors should be allowed for tax exemption up to Tk1 lakh on dividend income, the premier bourse said in its budget proposal for the fiscal year 2016-17.

The enhancement of tax-free dividend income will help attract small investors to invest in the

capital market that will ultimately enhance the market growth and development, the DSE argued.

Small investors will be benefited if this is done, since they have suffered a lot due to the market turmoil previously, it added.

At present, the capital market is facing serious liquidity crisis. If the provision as proposed is taken into consideration, it will help address the crisis, it added.

DSE chairman Siddiqur Rahman Miah made the budget proposal public at the press conference at his office in the capital yesterday.

The proposal was also placed to the NBR. DSE acting managing director Abdul Matin Patwary, DSE directors Shakil Rizvi and Nurul Amin were present at the conference.

The DSE also urged the national exchequer to scrap double and tipple taxation on dividend income by including resident and non-resident Bangladeshis under section 82c of Finance Act, 2015.

DSE also proposed the NBR to reduce turnover tax to 0.015% from 0.05% in the upcoming fiscal year to reduce transaction cost for encouraging investors to

participate in the trading and for increasing overall turnover on the stock exchanges.

Patwary said 0.05% tax from turnover is not rational as the brokerage houses are struggling to survive the ailing market over the last couple of years.

The tax rate on turnover was increased in 2009-10 fiscal year, when the stock markets bubbled, DSE director Shakil Rizvi said.

“But now, the market is going through sluggish condition and for that reason we were demanding cut in tax rate on turnover to give a cushion to the brokers.” l

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16

Business

MONDAY, MAY 9, 2016

ICAB urged to cooperate in implementing 5% profit sharing with workers n Ibrahim Hossain Ovi The government has sought cooperation from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB) for the implementation of 5% profit sharing with the Workers Welfare Fund as per labour act.

During a meeting with the ICAB leaders held at Labour and Employment Ministry yesterday, the government came up with the call.

The meeting also discussed the ways as to how the ICAB can help the government in implementing the labor acts, which has a provision of 5% profit sharing to the welfare funds for ensuring workers’ rights.

According to Labour Act, each company will have to pay 5% of the net profit of the previous year at the proportion of 80:10:10 respectively to the Participatory Fund, Welfare Fund and Workers Welfare Foundation Fund established under a section 14 of the Bangladesh Workers Welfare Foundation Act, 2006.

“There is a provision in the law and if the auditors keep it in their mind at the time preparing their audit reports, it will help to execute the rules and expedite the law implementation process. That is why, we have sought cooperation from the auditors for sake of the workers’ interest,” said Senior Labour and Employment Secretary Mikail Shipar while talking to the Dhaka Tribune.

Workers seweing clothes at a Bangladesh garment factory If the auditors could raise questions about the law while preparing the audit report, the owners of the company will have to contribute to the fund as per the rules, he added.

“The government has sought our cooperation in the implementation of the provision for 5% profit sharing by the factory owners,” Kamrul Abedin, president of ICAB told the Dhaka Tribune.

Abedin said, “Labour and Employment Ministry will give papers on the issues and we will also provide necessary assistance and take measures to ensure that the audit report could include the issues in

Stocks extend gain n Ibrahim Hossain Ovi Dhaka stocks ended on higher note yesterday, extending their gaining streak for the second straight session as investors poured funds in large cap shares hoping further uptrend.

Trading floors opened with a cheerful mood, which steadily continued till closing of the trading and ended with a 33-point rise.

“The maiden session of the week closed in positive territory, riding on investors’ higher enthusiasm in mid-cap and large-cap stocks,” said IDLC Investments, a merchant bank.

“The market continued it upward trajectory amid lower volume,” said LankaBangla Securities in its market analysis.

Index gained 0.77%,

backed up by large cap stocks despite fall in both volume and turnover by 16.93% and 20.45% respectively, it added.

DSEX, the key index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSEX), closed at 4,340 points, adding 33 points to the previous days’ closing.

The DS30 index comprising blue chips gained 17 points or 1% to finish the session at 1,683 points. DSES, the shariah-based index went up by 12 points or 1.16% to close at 1,069 points.

The day’s total turnover came down to Tk397 crore, which was 17% lower than the previous session’s value of Tk478 crore. Out of 312 issues traded, 146 ended in green, 116 in red while 50 remained unchanged. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

the final report.”

“There will be a joint task force that will work to make the laws more effective,” he added.

According to the ICAB, companies that are enlisted with the Dhaka and Chittagong Stock Exchanges are more compliant regarding the 5% profits sharing than others. It is possible only because of the extra measures taken by Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC).

“If a company does not comply with the existing rules about 5% profit sharing, we put a note in the audit report, mentioning the violation of the rules,” said Abedin. l

Noab wants no duty on newsprint import as industry struggles n Syed Samiul Basher Anik The Newspaper Owners’ Association of Bangladesh requested the government to withdraw 5% duty on newsprint import as the newspaper industry struggles to survive.

During a pre-budget meeting with the National Board of Revenue yesterday, it also called for introducing zero tariff policy for the import of this essential raw material of the newspaper industry.

“The newspaper industry is not in a good state today. The industry struggles as it continues to face different pressures and has to implement the journalists’ eighth wage board recommendations,” said Noab President Matiur Rahman.

“I urge the authorities to cancel 5% duty on newsprint import. If we look at the neighbouring countries, there is no duty at all on newsprint import in India, 2.5% duty in Sri Lanka and 2%-3% duty in Nepal.”

NBR Chairman Md Nojibur Rahman chaired the meeting also attended by Noab members.

In the meeting, Noab said there should not be any value-added tax on imported newsprint as the owners were not getting refund of the VAT they paid during import.

Noab said essential materials required for the industry like newsprint, ink, machines, plates remained very expensive while the owners needed to pay 35%-40% commission to the newspaper hawkers.

It demanded withdrawal of duty and VAT on essential materials of newspaper industry “to help it survive.”

Currently, there are altogether 62% tax and duty on ink import, 7.5% duty and VAT on plate import and 35% duty and VAT on printing chemical import.

About the difference between imported and local newsprint, Matiur Rahman said the owners had to spend Tk53,000 to use imported newsprint whereas it cost around Tk47,000 to use local newsprint, though the difference was “huge in quality.”

He said the local newsprint lacked quality to be used for newspaper.

Vice-president AK Azad urged the government to provide zero tariff policy for the industry to help it flourish while the Bonik Barta Editor Dewan Hanif Mahmud called for an increase in government advertisements during the dull season of private advertisements.

Noab demanded empowering the Ministry of Information as only authority to provide clearance certificate to newspaper industry for the import of newsprint.

Currently, the owners are required to have clearance from both the information ministry and the industries ministry to import newsprint.

In response to the proposals, NBR Chairman assured of his efforts to create “a win-win situation” in the upcoming budget.

“The industry has sympathy politically... the rates of duty and tax are gradually in the decline. Will try to help the industry further reducing the tax rates,” Nojibur Rahman said. l

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17

Business

MONDAY, MAY 9, 2016

Business solution exhibition to begin on May 21 n Ishtiaq Husain The government is going to arrange Biztech B2B conference, a business solution exhibition, with an aim to expand software and ICT-based local market.

The ICT Division and Bangladesh Association of software and Information Services (BASIS) will jointly organise the two-day exhibition beginning on May 21 at Pan Pacific Sonargaon hotel.

BASIS president Shamim Ahsan

said this at a press conference held at Bangabandhu International Convention Centre (BICC) yesterday.

Zunaid Ahmed Palak, state minister for ICT Division, Ashraful Islam, executive director of Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC), Uttam Kumar Paul, general secretary of BASIS, and Naimuzzman Mukta, public perception expert of A2i project of Prime Minister’s Office spoke at the press conference.

A total of four industry papers will be presented on banking/fi-

nance, education, health and garments at the programme where specialists will offer new perspectives on how automation can promote growth in the target industries.

Key policy makers from both government and private sectors will address different issues on the sidelines of the programme and discuss strategies at the exhibition.

Shamim Ahsan said a variety of software and IT-enabled products and services will be displayed.

The products will assist the

China exports, imports decline more than expected n Reuters, Beijing China’s exports and imports fell more than expected in April, underlining weak demand at home and abroad and cooling hopes of a recovery in the world’s second-largest economy.

Exports fell 1.8% from a year earlier, the General Administration of Customs said yesterday, reversing the previous month’s brief recovery and supporting the government’s concerns that the foreign trade environment will be challenging in 2016.

April imports dropped 10.9% from a year earlier, falling for the 18th consecutive month, suggesting domestic demand remains weak despite a pickup in infrastructure spending and record credit growth in the first quarter.

“Both exports and imports came in weaker than expected, in line with the soft trade performance across Asia, pointing to another challenging year for emerging markets,” said Zhou Hao, senior emerging market economist at Commerzbank in Singapore.

China’s exports to the United States – the

country’s top export market – fell 9.3% in April from a year earlier, while shipments to the European Union – the second biggest market, rose 3.2%, customs data showed.

China’s cabinet has vowed to take steps to boost exports, including encouraging banks to boost lending, expanding export credit insurance and raise tax rebates for some firms.

China had a trade surplus of $45.56 billion in April, versus forecasts of $40bn.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected April exports to fall 0.1%, after a surprise 11.5% rise in March, and expected imports to fall 5%, following March’s 7.6% decline.

Momentum may weaken

China’s economic growth slowed to 6.7% in the first quarter - the weakest since the global financial crisis, but activity picked up in March as policy steps to boost the economy, including six interest rate cuts since late 2014, seemed to be taking effect.

Concerns of a hard-landing in China had eased after the strong March data, but analysts have warned the rebound may be shortlived. l

business leaders in introducing automation to their organisations.

“The B2B conference of exclusively corporate solution providers will give visitors an opportunity to hold a one-on-one meeting with them. It will help them know various offers,” said Ahsan.

In his address, Zunaid Ahmed Palak said: “We are going to arrange the exhibition to increase our software export to $5bn by 2021. The programme will help local companies expand their market.”

Uttam Kumar Paul said the conference is going to be the first ever industry-focused B2B event in Bangladesh where pre-registered exhibitors will be able to engage in B2B matchmaking sessions in specific time slots.

There will be industry paper presentation and roundtable discussion in presence of key policy makers from both government and private sectors, where the current scenario of IT industry, its capacity and scope for automation will be discussed. l

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18

Business

MONDAY, MAY 9, 2016

Saudi’s Naimi cuts a lonely figure in oil battle n Reuters, Dubai If Ali al-Naimi were to review his time as Saudi oil minister, he might feel events had turned full circle.

Two years after the long-serving technocrat’s 1995 promotion to become only the kingdom’s fourth oil minister in 40 years, Naimi pushed through an ill-fated Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries deal in Indonesia to lift supply just as Asia went into economic tailspin.

Designed to punish Venezuela for flouting its output quota, the decision has gone down in OPEC lore as the most poorly-judged in cartel history. Oil prices halved to $10 a barrel.

Nearly two decades later, Naimi, 80, is facing another supply crisis, driving oil prices to the lowest in six years -- at below $40 per barrel, more than $100 below the 2008 pre-financial crisis peak.

And as in Jakarta in 1997, today’s crash has been orchestrated by Naimi himself with the same aim in mind: to defend Saudi market share against rivals - primarily this time against booming US shale oil supply.

Throughout his career, Naimi has worked to avoid a repeat of the error of his legendary predecessor, Sheikh Zaki Yamani, who was dismissed in 1986 as he unsuccessfully tried to fight an oil price collapse

‘EU won’t sacrifice food safety for US trade deal’

Saudi Arabia’s Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi gestures as he attends a news conference in Doha REUTERS by unilaterally reducing Saudi output.

Instead, through three cyclical downturns in oil prices, Naimi has always chosen to use Saudi Arabia’s vast oil supply scale - Riyadh produces more than a tenth of global crude - and its financial muscle to drive out higher cost rivals.

That survival-of-the-fittest strategy means refusing to cut output unilaterally, waiting to outlast other producers before they beg Riyadh to collaborate in joint supply curbs to rescue prices.

“In everything Naimi did, he never wanted to repeat the Yamani

mistake,” said Gary Ross, a veteran OPEC watcher and the founder of US-based PIRA Energy.

“He was prepared to manage the market and cut only when he had reasonable partners,” said Ross, who participated in the first and only successful oil cooperation talks between OPEC and Russia in early 2000. “Today, from the Saudi prospective, they have no allies.”

Recruiting russia

Oil market watchers pore over Naimi’s every word, and his past actions, to try to predict how the veteran tactician will act. He has

always found a way to act jointly with other producers, rather than cut supply alone.

After the 1997 oil slump, Naimi eventually steered OPEC out of trouble by engineering a series of cuts with arch-rival Iran supporting the strategy amid a thawing of political relations. Meanwhile, non-OPEC Mexico helped bring Venezuela on board.

In 2001, Naimi found new allies as, after months of standoff, leading OPEC rival Russia pledged to join cuts, later reneging on its promises. In 2008, all OPEC members quickly supported supply curbs led by Saudi as oil plunged in the aftermath of the global financial crisis.

As a result, oil prices bounced back quickly, providing the capital for new investment in the controversial hydraulic fracturing technology that saw US shale oil supplies rocket.

That new supply source and China’s slowdown have caused the latest downturn.

Saudi oil sources say this time around Naimi will stick to his policy of high output levels, even if crude prices fall further, until he finds partners to cooperate.

“If the price falls, it falls, you cannot do anything about it. But ... others will be harmed greatly before we feel any pain,” Naimi told the Middle Eastern Economic Sur-

vey last year in the most detailed explanation of his current thinking.

Naimi did not respond to requests to be interviewed for this article. But his track record of holding firm until other countries join Saudi Arabia for joint action speaks volumes.

“You can’t beat experience, and Naimi has loads of it. He earned his wings in the 70s and 80s at Aramco and has now gone through three iterations of a crude price cycle: early 1980s, late 1990s, and the current one,” said Yasser Elguindi of Medley Global Advisors.

Isolated

The problem for Naimi is that he now appears more isolated than ever before.

Described by admirers and critics alike as a great technician, he has won respect in the industry for driving OPEC policy along business lines and, where possible, avoiding politics.

Yet in the Middle East, politics and oil cannot always be kept apart. And when politics come into play, even the most adept negotiator may be prone to miscalculation.

OPEC has weathered internal strife and conflict many times before: wars between members - Iran and Iraq in the 1980s, and Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in the 1990s, both before Naimi took the helm of the Saudi oil ministry. l

CORPORATE NEWS

n AFP, Berlin

The EU won’t sacrifice its high food safety standards for better US auto market access in a transatlantic trade deal being negotiated, a German minister said Friday.

The comments by Agriculture Minister Christian Schmidt were the latest criticism of the thorny negotiations toward sealing a wide-ranging pact that would create a free-trade zone covering 850 million people.

Washington and Brussels want the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) completed this year before US President Barack Obama leaves office, but it has faced mounting opposition on both sides of the Atlantic.

Schmidt told the German news weekly Der Spiegel that it was time for the United States to “at last make a move” if it wants the agreement.

“So far at least they have hardly made any serious concessions,” the minister was quoted as saying in an early excerpt of the interview in Saturday’s edition of Der Spiegel magazine. l

BRAC Bank Limited has recently signed an agreement with ADA Trading Bangladesh Co Ltd for providing employee-banking services, said a press release.

The bank’s head of retail sales, Kyser Hamid and Liang Candy, acting managing director of ADA Trading Bangladesh Co Ltd have signed the agreement

Bangladesh Bank has recently signed an agreement with City Bank Limited on long-term financing facility under Financial Sector Support Project (FSSP), said a press release. Executive director and project director of FSSP, Subhankar Saha and Sohail RK Hussain, managing director and CEO of City Bank Limited have signed the agreement

Standard Bank Limited has recently signed an agreement with Bangladesh Telecommunication Company Limited (BTCL) for providing their customers to pay bills through the bank’s online banking system from its branches, said a press release. The bank’s managing director and CEO, Md Nazmus Salehin and member (finance) of BTCL, Dr Md Abu Said Khan have signed the agreement

Well Group and bKash have recently signed an agreement under which Well Group will accept payments from their distributors through bKash, said a press release.

Chief commercial officer of bKash Limited, Rezaul Hossain and Sayed Sirajul Islam, managing director of Well Group signed the agreement

19

MONDAY, MAY 9, 2016

| event|

| drinks |

Make-A-Thon Bangladesh inaugurates MakerFest in BUFT

Cool new drinks at bbq Bangladesh

The inaugural ceremony of “MakerFest,” which was hosted

by Make-A-Thon Bangladesh, took place at BGMEA University of Fashion and Technology on May 3, 2016. Professor Dr Syed Masud Husain, vice chancellor of BUFT and Professor Dr Engr Ayub Nabi Khan, pro vice chancellor of BUFT graced the program with their kind presence. Besides, Md Mokhlesur Rahman, senior operations officer, Education Global Practice, World Bank and

Dr Gauranga Chandra Mohanta ndc, project director (additional secretary), Higher Education Quality Enhancement Project (HEQEP) were present as special guests at the event. Among the speakers, M K Aaref, CEO, EMK Center; Mashraka Binta Mosharrof, CEO, Creative Connections, Jute Diversified Product Manufacturer; Ahmed Akkhor, founder and CEO, Ionsketch and Khalid Mahmud, originator, Made in Bangladesh were also present. l

Break away from the sweltering heat and chill out with five new drinks in bbq Bangladesh from May 1, 2016.

The popular food joint has brought together an array of refreshing drinks such as Hazelnut Frappe, Cookies Fusion Frappe, Chocolate Candy Frappe and Mocha Buzz Frappe worth Tk299, whereas their fruity Strawberry Fusion Frappe would cost you Tk349.

A dose of any of their five drinks is all you need to beat the heat this summer!

The drinks are available in three of their outlets:

DT

Biz Info

Gulshan outlet 175/A, Gulshan Avenue, Gulshan, Dhaka, Bangladesh, Cell: 01776117788 Baily road outlet 1st Floor, House# 01, 02 New Bailey Road (Old Natto Sharoni),

Dhaka, Bangladesh, Cell: 01729202227 Dhanmondi 3rd Floor, 67, GH heights, Shatmoshjid Road, Dhanmondi, Dhaka, Bangladesh, Cell: 01729273227 l

| summit |

F-commerce Summit launches off

| food |

Smoke Music Café’s monster burger

For those who are trying to stick to their New Year’s resolution of eating healthy, this is the time to break it.

Smoke Music Café brings to you, this massive burger that is named “Awesome Foursome” and it surely isn’t for those with a faint heart. The massive burger contains two beef patties, each weighing around 120gms teamed up with bacon, salami and pepperoni. The cheddar cheese,

mayo and pickle adds a different level to it.

The restaurant’s burgers and adventurous sides are already popular among foodies, with other treats that are offered which includes Mexican food such as tacos, nachos along with yummy pizzas, mocktails and much more.

Smoke Music Café House-98, Road-11, Banani, Dhaka. l

With domain experts of different sectors and industries participating from all over the country, the two day long “National F-commerce Summit 2016” ended successfully.

Distinguished personnel came together to discuss, share, and suggest policies for the F-commerce businesses in Bangladesh.

The summit was introduced

by GEEKY Social Limited, a 360-degree social and digital media marketing company.

The objective of this event was to connect real life entrepreneurs, policymakers, industry insiders, media, and domain experts to discuss and create a unified voice for F-commerce businesses.

Several industry leaders and domain experts have facilitated 10 distinguished sessions in this summit. The maestros

discussed about the scenarios, hurdles and opportunities of this sector. Twenty real F-Commerce businesses have showcased their products and service for two days. For the first time ever, five F-commerce businesses received “GS F-commerce Award 2016” in this summit. Dokani, Fusion shop bd, FnF Gear BD, Roopkotha, and Khaas Food were awarded for their best service.

On the second day, the summit kicked off with the session named “Out of the box” where motivation guru G. Sumdany Don (Chief Inspirational Officer at Don Sumdany Facilitation & Consultancy) rocked the floor with his energetic presentation.

He emphasized to know what one loves to do; the only thing that can drive them to success.

After that, there was policy advocacy session where Fahim

Mashroor (founder, Ajkerdeal. com), Sayeed Mohammad Kamal (country manager, Mastercard), Rezaul Hossain (chief commercial officer, bKash) and AM Isshtiaque Sarwar (founder and managing partner at Amarpay) took part.

Following that there was a session named “Roadmap towards creating an F-commerce brand” which was facilitated by Adeeb Khan (director of Geeky Social) and Maindad Hasan Khabir (marketing executive, RAISE IT Solutions LTD).

In the closing ceremony, the special guest was US Ambassador Marcia Bernicat. She along with Mahadi Hasan Sagor, managing director, GEEKY Social Limited and Muhammad Saimum Hossain, director, GEEKY Social Limited handed over all the awards to the winners of GS F-commerce Award 2016.l

DT

Downtime

20

MONDAY, MAY 9, 2016

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Ugly amphibian (4) 5 Bellows (5) 8 Tempt (6) 9 Illuminated sign (4) 10 Flightless bird (3) 12 Person in debt (6) 13 Meat pin (6) 15 Tentacle (6) 18 Combined (6) 20 Copy (3) 21 Facts given (4) 23 Journey (6) 24 Scottish garments (5) 25 Judge (4)

DOWN 1 Looks after (5) 2 United (3) 3 Make up for (5) 4 Loud noise (3) 5 Venerated (7) 6 Encourage in crime (4) 7 Goading device (4) 11 Fashion (4) 12 Faults (7) 14 Part of a castle (4) 16 Permission (5) 17 Kingdom (5) 18 Disguise (4) 19 Stagger (4) 21 Father (3) 22 Golf mound (3)

CODE-CRACKER How to solve: Each number in our CODECRACKER grid represents a different letter of the alphabet. For example, today 18 represents S so fill S every time the figure 18 appears.

You have two letters in the control grid to start you off. Enter them in the appropriate squares in the main grid, then use your knowledge of words to work out which letters go in the missing squares.

Some letters of the alphabet may not be used.

As you get the letters, fill in the other squares with the same number in the main grid, and the control grid. Check off the list of alphabetical letters as you identify them.

A B C DE FG H I J K L MN O P Q RST UVWXYZ

CALVIN AND HOBBES

SUDOKU How to solve: Fill in the blank spaces with the numbers 1 – 9. Every row, column and 3 x 3 box must contain all nine digits with no number repeating.

PEANUTS

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS CODE-CRACKER

CROSSWORD

DILBERT

SUDOKU

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World 21

MONDAY, MAY 9, 2016

INSIDE ANALYSIS

Managing Saudi’s new energy megaministry may bring challenges African countries deeply divided over ivory trade Member states of the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) are not meeting until September, but some African countries have already drawn their battle lines on divisive issues such as the ivory trade.

PAGE 22

US struggles to convince Iraqis it doesn’t support Islamic State An unscientific survey by the State Department of Iraqi residents last year found that 40% believe that US policy is working to “destabilise Iraq and control its natural resources,” and a third believe America “supports terrorism in general and (IS) specifically.”

PAGE 23

Trump dips into US debt discussion Would Donald Trump really consider not paying portions of the US debt? The prospect riled economists on Friday as stories in the New York Times and the conservative website The Blaze cast fresh scrutiny on comments Trump made a day earlier.

PAGE 24

n Reuters, Riyadh Managing Saudi Arabia’s new energy mega-ministry, set to oversee over half the economy and designed to cut through a tangled bureaucracy to make government more coherent and efficient, will be a formidable challenge.

The new Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources Ministry, under Khalid al-Falih, already chairman of state oil company Saudi Aramco, will handle oil and gas extraction, power generation and distribution, mining and industrial development.

The changes were announced on Saturday as part of a major reshuffle by King Salman aimed at making the Vision 2030 economic reform programme easier to implement by ending decades of miscommunication and turf war between government departments.

But in creating a ministry to oversee sectors that account for 53% of the kingdom’s economic output, the vision’s architect, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is entrusting a huge part of his sweeping reforms to Falih’s hands.

How the new minister will juggle a host of responsibilities, and whether he can enact massive change across this broad swathe of the economy while integrating once rival departments, is already fodder for avid speculation in Saudi energy circles.

“In order for the restructuring to succeed, accountability and responsibility has to be concentrated in the same office. This is the reason for assigning all those sectors in one ministry,” said Sadad al-Husseini, an energy consultant and former senior executive with Saudi Aramco.

Previously, the Oil Ministry was in charge of hydrocarbons extraction and mining, the Water and Electricity Ministry handled power generation and the commerce ministry oversaw industry. Other departments overlapped with these, covering such policy areas as nuclear and renewable energy and the running of industrial cities.

The big state-controlled companies, oil producer Aramco, petrochemicals and metals conglomerate Saudi Basic Industries Corp, Saudi Arabian Mining Co and state utility Saudi Electricity Co, fit in between them. Falih is likely to now have a big say in running them all.

BIGSTOCK

SAUDI'S ENERGY HISTORY & CURRENT SITUATION Ü The story of Saudi Arabian oil goes back to 1933 when King Abdulaziz bin Abdulrahman al-Saud granted Standard Oil of California (Socal), later renamed Chevron, the right to prospect for oil in the new kingdom. Ü In 1938, Socal discovered large quantities of oil in the Dammam Dome near the Arabian Gulf. Limited exports began in 1939, and picked up significantly with the end of World War II. Ü Saudi Arabia’s Ghawar field is the largest in the world. It has an estimated 75bn barrels of oil left. An Olympic-size swimming pool can hold 660,253.09 gallons of liquid. Ü Saudi Arabia’s petroleum sector makes up 45% of GDP, which makes it bigger than the total GDPs of Iraq, Morocco, Rwanda, and Tonga combined. Ü Produces roughly one in every eight barrels of the world’s oil supply, with average daily production of 9.54m barrels. Ü The oil industry employs 51,653 Saudis and 10,254 expatriates from 77 countries, including at subsidiaries and affiliates in China, Egypt, Japan, India, the Netherlands, South Korea, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, Britain and the United States. Ü The Far East is the biggest market, receiving 62.3% of crude exports, 46.4 % of refined products and 25.5% of natural gas liquids.

Sources: OPEC, SAUDI EMBASSY, ALARABY, BUSINESS INSIDER

Streamlining

Saudi Arabia’s creation of the new Energy Ministry sets it on the same path as oil-producing Gulf neighbours Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, which have done the same.

Riyadh’s hopes of cutting state spending and diversifying the economy beyond oil have always rested partly on the goal of using energy resources to expand industrial output in ways that would add value, create jobs and boost non-oil exports.

However, its dominant petrochemicals industry, under the Commerce Ministry, and power utilities, under the Water and Electricity Ministry, sometimes clashed over allocations of gas, which was produced by Aramco, under the oil ministry.

Besides, rampant overuse of fuel, blamed by economists on the large subsidies, has also bloated Saudi domestic energy consumption, raising fears that it would eventually cut into the amount of oil free for export.

Saudi rulers have known about these problems for years, but reform efforts appeared to be hindered by inter-departmental fighting.

Now Falih has been made chairman of that agency, giving him power as energy minister to see proposals through, and the government has pledged to install at least 9.5 gigawatts of solar power.

The one Saudi body that has traditionally crossed all these sector lines is Aramco, of which Falih was chief executive from 2009-15, and of which he remains chairman

in his new role as energy minister.

Beside its core oil and gas upstream business, Aramco has big downstream refining and petrochemical factories through joint ventures with international partners, it has an in-house power unit and has carried out solar projects.

However, Aramco itself is approaching a major change as the government readies it for an initial public offering of up to 5% of its value on the stock market. That will require unprecedented internal adjustments including publication for the first time of sensitive reserves and balance sheet data.

Overseeing that process will be an immensely challenging job not only for the company’s chief executive, Amin Nasser, but for its chairman Falih as well. l

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World

MONDAY, MAY 9, 2016

INSIGHT

African countries deeply divided over ivory trade ELEPHANT & RHINO POACHING IN AFRICA

Black Rhino

Population down 97.6% since 1960

$$$

Endangered animals are slaughtered so that a single body part-like tusks, horns, or bones - can be illegally sold for huge sums of money.

is believed to treat:

n Reuters, Johannesburg Member states of the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) are not meeting until September, but some African countries have already drawn their battle lines on divisive issues such as the ivory trade.

Proposals for the meeting in Johannesburg were made public this week, pitting bids by Namibia and Zimbabwe to open up the trade in elephant ivory, against initiatives led by Kenya for a complete global ban on the coveted commodity.

Those seeking to open up the trade of wild animal products argue it will raise badly-needed funds for conservation, but others say it would provide cover to poachers and make products that can endanger species socially acceptable to consumers.

“In all of these issues we have two competing views. They are all aiming for the same objective which is ensuring the survival of species in the wild,” CITES Secretary-General John Scanlon said.

Global trade of ivory is banned though CITES has allowed one-off sales of national stockpiles. Several countries also allow domestic trade.

Kenya, long at the forefront of

efforts to shut the ivory trade down completely, last week torched thousands of elephant tusks and rhino horns.

But the African kingdom of Swaziland wants to sell rhino horn to pay for anti-poaching efforts.

“The poaching crisis is really out of control and you have more and more countries that realise the only way to really stop it is to stop the trade,” said Susan Lieberman, vice president for International Policy at the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Other initiatives called for added protection for lions. Last year the highly-publicised killing of a big cat named “Cecil” by an American trophy hunter in Zimbabwe provoked a global outcry.

There is also a push to ban commercial trade in several species of pangolin - scaly mammals with long snouts - which are being wiped out in Africa and Asia by rampant hunting for their highly prized meat.

‘Controlled trade’

CITES held its last “Conference of the Parties” - where proposed amendments regarding trade in wild animals and plants are voted on by member states - three years ago. The agreements are legally binding but only regulate interna-

tional trade and do not replace national laws.

Since then, tens of thousands of African elephants have been poached for ivory and thousands of rhinos killed for their horns to meet soaring demand in Asia, dramatically raising the ecological, economic and emotional stakes in this upcoming round of wildlife diplomacy.

In the 1970s, Africa had about 1.2m elephants, but now has 400,000 to 450,000.

However, in some countries, notably in southern Africa, populations have been growing. In its proposal, Namibia noted that its elephant population has risen from 7,500 in 1995 to over 20,000 at present.

“Namibia ... wishes to establish a regular form of controlled trade in all elephant specimens, including ivory, in support of elephant conservation,” its proposal said. It said its ivory stockpile was growing by 4.5% per year, mostly from natural deaths.

Ivory has one source - a dead animal. Rhino horn by contrast can be cut off a tranquilised animal and grows back.

Surging security costs for wildlife against poachers are also a

Up to 35,000 killed last year

Why are these animals killed?

Rhino horn

A man prepares to add fuel to the burning of an estimated 105 tonnes of ivory and a tonne of rhino horn confiscated from smugglers and poachers at the Nairobi National Park in Kenya on April 30 REUTERS

African elephant

Ivory

is carved into:

Hargovers

Impotence

Jewelry

Utensils

Fever

Cancer

Religious Figurines

Trinkets

Proven to cure: None of the above

The demand for rhino horn is exceedingly high; it sells for nearly $30,000 a pound. Gold, by comparison, is worth about $22,000 a pound.

Worth the life of an Elephant? No.

As much as 70% of illegal ivory goes to China, where it is sold on the streets for up to $1,000 a pound.

How did this happen?

The vast majority of poaching is caused by organised crime syndicates that use high-powered technology and weapony to track and kill many animals at once without being detected.

AK-47s

Grenade Launchers

Source: AWF

concern which pro-traders say can be met by selling stockpiles. Swaziland estimates it could raise almost $10m from its 330kg of rhino horn at a wholesale price of $30,000/kg.

“Who is going to pick up the tab for the annual security bill for rhinos which is now estimated at ZAR1.2bn to ZAR2bn a year ($81m to $134m),” said Pelham Jones, chairman of South Africa’s Private Rhino Owners Association.

South Africa’s Environment Ministry on Sunday said rhino poaching was in decline but the country was still on track to potentially lose over 1,000 of the animals this year,

Night-vision goggles

GPS & low-flying helicopters

with 363 of the pachyderms illicitly killed in the first four months of 2016 compared to 404 in the same period in 2015.

Cash-strapped Zimbabwe said trade was the only way to pay for the costs of protecting its 80,000 elephants. Zimbabwe’s proposal says it has 70 tonnes of raw ivory in the government storage facility estimated to be worth $35m.

“A legal trade in ivory would be beneficial for the Zimbabwe elephant population. Without it, elephants are likely to become extinct in Zimbabwe,” it said in its proposal. l

23

MONDAY, MAY 9, 2016

INSIGHT

SOUTH ASIA

US struggles to convince Iraqis it doesn’t support Islamic State n Tribune International Desk For nearly two years, US airstrikes, military advisers and weapons shipments have helped Iraqi forces roll back the Islamic State group. The US-led coalition has carried out more than 5,000 airstrikes against IS targets in Iraq at a total cost of $7bn since August 2014, including operations in Syria. On Tuesday a US Navy SEAL members was the third serviceman to die fighting IS in Iraq.

But many Iraqis still aren’t convinced the Americans are on their side.

Government-allied Shia militiamen on the front-lines post videos of US supplies purportedly seized from IS militants or found in areas liberated from the extremist group. Newspapers and TV networks repeat conspiracy theories that the US created the jihadi group to sow chaos in the region in order to seize its oil.

Despite spending more than $10m on public outreach in Iraq last year, the US government appears to have made little headway in dispelling such rumors. An unscientific survey by the State Department of Iraqi residents last year found that 40% believe that

Iraqi military vehicles are seen on the front line as government forces fight Islamic State group jihadists near Fallujah on May 3 AFP US policy is working to “destabilise Iraq and control its natural resources,” and a third believe America “supports terrorism in general and (IS) specifically.”

Scepticism about US motives is deeply rooted in Iraq, where many still blame the chaos after the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein on American malice rather than incompetence. The conspiracy theories are also stoked by neighbouring Iran, which backs powerful militias and political parties with active media operations.

When IS swept across northern and western Iraq in the summer of 2014 it captured armored vehicles, heavy weapons and other US

equipment that had been provided to Iraqi security forces at a cost of billions of dollars. And despite the US military’s technical sophistication, it’s not unheard of for airdrops or strikes to miss their mark in the heat of battle.

The US embassy in Baghdad and the US-led coalition have invested considerable time and resources in refuting the allegations.

Both run Twitter feeds, Facebook pages and hold regular press conferences, and US officials frequently appear as guests on Iraqi TV networks. With a budget of $10.67m for the 2015 fiscal year, the public diplomacy section for Iraq is the third largest in the

world, according to a 2015 report by the State Department’s Special Inspector General.

But if there is a media war underway, the US appears to be losing it. In December 2014, 38% of Iraqis had a favourable view of the US, but by August 2015 that had dropped to just 18%, according to the State Department’s unscientific survey.

A group of Iraqi men smoking cigarettes and sipping tea outside a Baghdad shop selling books and newspapers said their scepticism extends beyond US officials. They say Iraqis are well aware that most media outlets are run by political parties furthering their own agendas.

One of them said the accusations of US support for IS are hard to ignore because of America’s confusing tangle of regional alliances. “The US is always fighting groups on one side that they also support on the other side,” he said. He pointed to Syria, where the US supports Syrian Kurdish fighters who are considered terrorists by Nato ally Turkey.

Others simply can’t understand how the world’s most powerful military hasn’t been able to defeat the extremists. l

Afghan road crash inferno leaves 73 dead n AFP, Ghazni

At least 73 people were killed Sunday when two passenger buses and an oil tanker burst into flames in a head-on collision in eastern Afghanistan, health officials said, in one of the worst road accidents in the war-battered nation.

Many of the dead, including women and children, were burned beyond recognition and dozens of others were left badly injured in the accident in Ghazni province, near the Afghan capital, one of the areas worst affected by the Taliban insurgency.

The vehicles were completely gutted and clouds of acrid smoke shrouded the scene of the crash on the Kabul-Kandahar highway, a major roadway linking Afghanistan’s two largest cities.

“The death toll has soared to 73,” ministry spokesman Ismail Kawoosi confirmed, warning that the toll was expected to rise still further.

“Most of them are completely burned.”

Kawoosi gave a sharply higher toll than other officials. Ghazni’s

DT

World

Governor Mohammad Aman Hamimi earlier reported seven fatalities but his own spokesman gave a death toll of 50.

Bloodied, dazed and badly burned, many of the survivors streamed into Ghazni’s main provincial hospital, while many others were rushed in ambulances to health facilities in southern Kandahar city.

The Kabul-Kandahar highway passes through militancy prone areas and many bus drivers are known to drive recklessly at top speeds so as not to get caught in insurgent activity.

“Our driver was at fault -- he was driving too rashly,” said Esmatullah, one of the few lucky passengers who survived Sunday’s crash with minor injuries.

“Most bus drivers on the highways are known to smoke hashish, opium and other drugs. They are completely out of control.”

Afghanistan has some of the world’s most dangerous roads, often in dilapidated condition and traffic rules are seldom enforced.

Many in the country rely on old and rickety passenger vehicles,

Afghanistan executes 6 Taliban-linked militants Afghanistan on Sunday hanged six Taliban-linked inmates, the government said, in the first set of executions carried out as part of President Ashraf Ghani’s new hardline policy against the insurgents. Most of them were convicted of militant strikes across Afghanistan, including one charged with facilitating the 2011 assassination of former president Burhanuddin Rabbani.

-AFP

INDIA

India bus crash kills 14 after road collapse An overcrowded minibus fell into a deep gorge in India’s northern Himalayan region after a portion of the road caved in, killing 14 people, an official said Sunday.

Another 41 people were injured when the bus heading towards the popular tourist destination of Kinnaur rolled into the steep valley in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh state late Saturday.

-AFP

CHINA

34 workers missing after China landslide Rescuers on Sunday searched for 34 construction workers missing in a landslide at the site of a hydro-power project following days of heavy rain in southern China. Seven other workers were pulled out alive when a torrent of mud struck a temporary shelter used by workers building a power plant in Fujian province.

Heavy rain has affected much of southern China since Wednesday, triggering floods and landslides. -AFP

ASIA PACIFIC

‘North Korea won’t use nuclear weapons first’

An injured man arrives to a hospital after two buses collided with a fuel tanker on a highway in the central province of Ghazni on Sunday REUTERS meaning that high casualty road traffic accidents are common.

At least 18 people were killed in May last year when a minivan overturned in the western province of Badghis.

And in April 2013 a bus hit a wrecked fuel tanker in the southern province of Kandahar, killing 45 people.

The World Bank in November signed off a $250m grant to upgrade roads crossing Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush mountains, crucial trade links that are often

closed in winter by snow.

Insecurity is growing around Afghanistan as the Taliban press on with their 15-year insurgency against the Western-backed Kabul government.

The Islamists, who have been waging an insurgency since being toppled from power in 2001, announced the start of their spring offensive on April 12, dubbed “Operation Omari” in honour of founding leader Mullah Omar, vowing large-scale attacks across Afghanistan. l

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country will not use its nuclear weapons unless its sovereignty is invaded and announced a five-year economic plan at a milestone congress of North Korea’s ruling party, which entered its third day Sunday. Kim said he is ready to improve ties with hostile nations, and called for more talks with rival South Korea to reduce misunderstanding and distrust.

-AP

MIDDLE EAST

Iran’s 13 Revolutionary Guards killed in Syria 13 members of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard were killed in a battle with Islamist militants over a village near the Syrian city of Aleppo, Tehran said on Saturday, in one of Iran’s biggest single-day losses since it sent forces to support President Bashar al-Assad.

The attack was launched by an alliance of Islamist insurgents known as Jaish al-Fatah, including the al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front.

-REUTERS

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MONDAY, MAY 9, 2016

USA

US House Speaker Ryan to meet Trump Paul Ryan and Donald Trump, the top Republicans in the US, plan to meet next week to try to unite their party, with both men focused on the November 8 presidential election, but the Wisconsin congressman also perhaps looking further ahead. Speaker of the House of Representatives Ryan has invited Trump to meet on Thursday with Ryan and other congressional leaders on Capitol Hill.

-REUTERS

THE AMERICAS

Canada fire rages for 7th day A wildfire ripping through Canada’s oil sands region blazed for a seventh day on Sunday as officials warned almost 100,000 people who fled the area that they would not be returning home soon.

Officials said that, even though the fire had largely pushed through Fort McMurray and was heading quickly northeast through dry boreal forests, the town was still too dangerous to enter.

-REUTERS

UK

‘UK homeowners face significant hit from Brexit’ Chancellor George Osborne said on Sunday that homeowners would face a significant hit from lower house prices and higher mortgage costs if voters decided to leave the EU in a referendum in June. The Treasury, headed by Osborne, has already said the long-term impact of a Brexit could cost households £4,300 a year by 2030.

-REUTERS

EUROPE

Greek parliament to vote on next bailout package The Greek parliament was debating Sunday the details of a new bailout programme set for vote in the evening, before eurozone finance ministers meet to discuss negotiations the next day. The savings package includes cuts to retirement benefits and income tax increases that should save $6.2bn, a condition demanded by international creditors in order for the country to receive its next aid package.

-DPA

AFRICA

Archeologists clash in Egypt over King Tut tomb theory Archeologists have clashed at a conference in Egypt over a theory that secret chambers could be hidden behind the walls of King Tutankhamun’s tomb. Speaking at the Sunday conference, former antiquities minister and famed Egyptologist Zahi Hawass rejected the theory that undiscovered chambers lie behind the tomb and likely contain the tomb of Queen Nefertiti, one of pharaonic Egypt’s most famous figures.

-AP

INSIGHT

Trump dips into US debt discussion n Reuters, New York Would Donald Trump really consider not paying portions of the US debt? The prospect riled economists on last week as stories in the New York Times and the conservative website The Blaze cast fresh scrutiny on comments Trump made a day earlier.

Responding to a question about the national debt, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee said in an interview on CNBC on Thursday he would “borrow knowing that if the economy crashed you could make a deal.”

When asked if that meant he had taken a page from his own playbook as a businessman and try to get US creditors to accept less than the full value of the bonds they hold, he said “No,” but added: “I could see long-term renegotiations where we borrow long-term at very low rates.”

The reaction to his words on Friday offered the first-time political candidate a taste of how delicate the prospect of discussing economic and fiscal policy can be. It also highlighted a danger for Trump as his campaign moves from a crowded, personality-fueled contest for the Republican nomination to a general election competition where

THE US DEBT CEILING HAS RISEN NO MATTER WHO IS IN OFFICE $19.6tn

(till November 2015) $20tn

Republicans Democrats Obama Bush

Clinton Ford Nixon

$15tn

$10tn

Bush

Reagan

$5tn

Carter

$0tn 70

72

74

76

78

80

82

84

86

88

90

92

94

96

98

100 02

04

06

08

10

12

14

16

18

House Senate Source: Visualcapitalist.com

the media and members of the public expect more policy details from the candidates.

“Such remarks by a major presidential candidate have no modern precedent,” the New York Times wrote in a story saying Trump’s plan implied he would “negotiate a partial repayment” of US debt.

A senior campaign adviser said Trump had not meant to suggest he would demur on any US debt payments.

“All he said is that he believes that long term low interest Treasuries would be a better deal for the US taxpayer,” said the adviser,

who did not want to be identified because he was not authorised to speak publicly.

Still, four Trump companies have been through bankruptcies in which his creditors were forced to accept far less than the more than $4bn he owed them, and in the CNBC interview he spoke of loving to “play with” debt.

“The US is nowhere near debt distress,” said Charles Seville, an analyst at Fitch Ratings Inc, who focuses on government debt.

Moreover, given that US Treasuries are viewed as the safest-of-safe securities globally, underpinning

the dollar’s status as the world’s preferred reserve currency, any damage to that reputation would likely unleash far-flung ructions in financial markets worldwide.

The US government regularly issues Treasury bills, notes and bonds maturing in a range of between four weeks and 30 years.

Currently, interest rates on US government debt are near historically low levels, meaning the government is able to borrow cheaply.

The Treasury Department has been gradually moving more of its obligations into longer-term debt to take advantage of the low rates. l

Q&A

What we need to know about Australia’s election Australia will go to the polls on July 2 after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Sunday called a “double dissolution” election. Here are five key facts about the polls--

Why has it been called?

An election must be held every three years and one had to be called sometime this year. The government is going early because in the current parliament cross-benchers -- politicians who are independent or from minor parties -hold the balance of power in the upper house Senate, and they have failed to pass legislation relating to the creation of a construction industry watchdog.

The government wants to bring back the Australian Building and Construction Commission, scrapped by the former Labor government and loathed by union leaders, and is prepared to stake its political future to achieve its goal.

What is a ‘double dissolution’ election?

A double dissolution election is significant because it is the only occasion on which all senators face election at the

same time. It is called to end a deadlock between the lower and upper houses of parliament -- the House of Representatives and the Senate. Australian governments generally control numbers in the lower house, but due to Australia’s proportional voting system they often do not have the same sway in the Senate.

If legislation passed by the lower house becomes stalled, or is rejected, twice in the Senate, resolving the conflict can be achieved by a double dissolution of parliament, where all seats in both houses are then contested. This election is only the seventh time a double dissolution has been called and has been criticised as opportunistic by the government looking to boost its numbers in the upper house.

working class families. Turnbull wrested power from Liberal Party colleague Tony Abbott last September and has consistently been ahead of Shorten in opinion polls, although the gap has narrowed in recent months.

What are the key policy battlegrounds?

The government is centring its campaign around economic management, arguing it has the fiscal know-how to ensure the country transitions from

an unprecedented mining investment boom to one that is more diverse and creates new jobs. It is also dangling tax cuts for workers and small businesses, while highlighting its immigration policies that have stopped asylum-seeker boats. Labor’s pitch is focused on looking after lower-and-middle income families, improving schools and healthcare, pushing for more renewable energy and a fairer tax system. l

Source: AFP

Who is running for prime minister?

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, a polished millionaire former banker whose socially liberal views include support for gay marriage, is up against Labor’s Bill Shorten, an ambitious and articulate former union chief whose mantra is fighting for middle and

Malcolm Turnbull

Bill Shorten

AFP

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Sport 25

MONDAY, MAY 9, 2016

INSIDE

Shakib’s heroics in vain as KKR lose n Tribune Report

BRIEF SCORE KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS 158/4 (20 ov) Shakib 66*, Y Pathan 63*, P Kumar 2/19

GUJARAT LIONS

Usha, Abahani brace for Club Cup battle

164/5 (18 ov) D Karthik 51, Finch 29, Shakib 1/38 Gujarat won by five wickets

Reigning champions Usha Krira Chakra will lock horns with Abahani Limited today in the grand finale of the Club Cup Hockey Tournament at Maulana Bhasani National Hockey Stadium at 4pm. PAGE 26

600 up for Totti as Roma go second Francesco Totti came off the bench to make his 600th league appearance for AS Roma as they beat in-form Chievo 3-0 at home yesterday to climb to second place in Serie A. The victory moved Roma up to 77 points. PAGE 27

The Black Swans of the premiership The only number you need to consider is 5000-1. Those were the odds that bookmakers offered on a Foxes win in the premiership. For those not of a betting persuasion, not a single bookmaker thought this was a likely scenario. PAGE 28

Alvarez KOs Khan to retain title Canelo Alvarez defended his World Boxing Council middleweight belt Saturday by knocking out Amir Khan with a vicious right hand late in the sixth round of their Las Vegas title fight. The 25-year-old hard-hitting Mexican dropped Khan with a straight right. PAGE 29

Shakib Al Hasan of Kolkata Knight Riders plays one towards the on-side during their Vivo Indian Premier League match against Gujarat Lions at Eden Gardens Stadium in Kolkata yesterday INTERNET

Maverick Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib al Hasan starred with the willow but was unable to steer the Kolkata Knight Riders to victory against Gujarat Lions in the Indian Premier League in Kolkata yesterday.

Shakib struck an unbeaten 49ball 66 with the help of four fours and as many sixes as Kolkata made 158/4 in 20 overs.

This was Shakib’s first fifty since the World Twenty20 against Pakistan in Eden Gardens back in March this year. This was also his first IPL 50-plus score since May 2014.

However, Gujarat romped to a five-wicket win with two overs to spare, courtesy wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik’s 29-ball 51.

Shakib bagged the wicket of opening batsman Dwayne Smith, conceding 38 runs from three overs. l

Mustafizur inspires Mumbai mauling n Agencies Ashish Nehra produced a sensational spell of pace bowling after Shikhar Dhawan shone with the bat with a scintillating unbeaten 82 as Sunrisers Hyderabad spanked Mumbai Indians by 85 runs in a lopsided IPL match and jumped to the top of the league table yesterday.

Sunrisers posted a challenging 177 for 3 with opener Dhawan remaining not out on 82 off 57 balls, studded with 10 fours and a six, after being put into bat and then senior pacer Nehra (3/15) triggered a Mumbai top-order batting collapse with a 12-ball spell of three wickets to help the home side notch up an easy win.

Bangladeshi pacer Mustafizur Rahman, who has been in brilliant touch this season, also scalped three wickets for 16 runs as he cleaned up the Mumbai lower order.

With the win yesterday, their sixth in nine matches, the Sunrisers jumped to top spot with 12 points. They are levelled on points with Kolkata Knight Riders but above them on net run rate.

Mumbai remained on fifth with 10 points from 10 matches.

Mumbai made a disastrous start in their run chase as they were reduced to 30 for five inside five overs with Nehra scalping three top-order batsmen in 12 balls and they never recovered from there at the ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium.

The defending champions kept

Mumbai were all over at 54 for 7, Jos Buttler (2) with a widish deon losing wickets in quick succesneeding another 124 runs with livery and the batsman, without sion and were reduced to 54 for 7 just three wickets in hand and at moving his feet, only prodded to at the halfway mark. They did not an asking rate of above 12 an over. get a thick outside edge for wickhave any partnership worth the Earlier, Dhawan once again etkeeper Naman Ojha to take a name with 23 being the highest. played the sheet-anchor role to stunning one-handed diving catch They finally were all out for 92 in perfection for Sunrisers, notching to his right.

16.3 overs to slump to an embarup his second successive unbeatBarinder Sran got Krunal Panrassing defeat. en knock and his third half centudya (17) out in the next over and Harbhajan Singh top-scored ry of the season. nothing went right for Mumbai with 21 not out while only two The right-handed opener, who with Kieron Pollard (11), Hardik other batsmen could reach doustruck an unbeaten 47 against GuPandya (7) and Tim Southee (3) ble-digit scores. jarat Lions in the previous match, being dismissed in quick succesParthiv Patel was the first to bettered himself with a 57-ball 82, sion with pacer Mustafizur Rahgo for a duck as he was dismissed which was laced with 10 hits to man joining the party.

LBW by a swinging delivery off the fence and one over it. l By the end of the 10th over, Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the sixth ball of the innings.

Nehra, who also got the early swing like Bhuvneshwar, then brought Mumbai onto their knees as he took three wickets in two overs, including the big one of captain and opener Rohit Sharma (5) from the first ball of second over.

A lazy-looking Rohit drove loosely a full length delivery outside off and got a big inside edge which clattered into the stumps.

Nehra returned for his second SUNRISERS HYDERABAD over - fourth of the Mumbai in177/3 (20 ov) Dhawan 82, nings - and got two scalps to leave Warner 48, Harbhajan 2/29 the visiting side in tatters.

Ambati Rayudu (6) fell to a gem MUMBAI INDIANS of a delivery from Nehra as the 92 (16.3 ov) Harbhajan 21, short-pitched ball got some extra Nehra 3/15, Mustafizur 3/16 bounce which surprised the batsSunrisers won by 85 runs man who initially committed for a shot but later tried to drop his hands. The ball hit the handle of the bat before it flew to Kane Williamson at backward point.

Two balls later, Nehra tempted Mustafizur Rahman celebrates a wicket in Hyderabad yesterday BCCI

BRIEF SCORE

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MONDAY, MAY 9, 2016

Usha, Abahani brace for Club Cup battle n Tribune Report

WHAT THEY SAID

Reigning champions Usha Krira Chakra will lock horns with Abahani Limited today in the grand finale of the Club Cup Hockey Tournament at Maulana Bhasani National Hockey Stadium at 4pm.

Usha have clinched the last two editions and this time around, they have formed their squad with four Malaysian recruits alongside a number of national forwards.

The Sky Blues on the other hand have roped in four Pakistan players but two of them are not fully fit so their final game-plan will largely depend on the fitness of the duo.

As far as the dug-out is concerned, Abahani coach Mahbub Harun and Usha coach Mamunur Rashid are quite familiar to each other. The two former national coaches also played together during their playing career. Their tactics and strategy therefore, on the

matchday will decide the championship.

Having overcome formidable opposition in the last four, both the finalists will be confident of lifting the crown. Usha had to go through the tiebreaker against Mohammedan Sporting Club while Abahani came from behind to beat Mariner Young’s Club.

Abahani’s football club just lost out on the Independence Cup title a couple of days ago so the hockey team will not want to repeat the same mistakes today.

On the eve of the final, Mahbub believes his side will benefit greatly from the presence of Pakistan attacker Shakil Abbasi while the inform Romman Sarkar will shore up the midfield.

In contrast, Usha’s strongest point is their defence and midfield while their weakest point is in attack where they have failed to avail most of their penalty corners. l

Abahani Limited captain Asim Gope (L) and Usha Krira Chakra skipper Krishna Kumar pose with the Club Cup Hockey trophy yesterday on the eve of their final clash today MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

Mahbub Harun, Abahani coach

Mamunur Rashid, Usha coach

Asim Gope, Abahani captain

Krishna Kumar, Usha captain

I do not see any reason to be unsatisfied as we are already in the final but we are yet to put our best performance. The two foreign players are not fully fit which is a big concern. If they are fit to start you will see a different Abahani team.

I am not fully satisfied with the overall display of our team. We have failed to convert our chances despite having earned plenty of penalty corners. We have the ability to perform better than the way we played so far.

We will take the field for the championship.

Abahani never want to finish second. We are inconsistent with our forward play though. I hope they (attackers) will show their true colour in the final.

We are determined to retain the title and make it a treble. The team is ready for celebrations. I firmly believe that Usha are indomitable if they have a good teamwork.

City hand Champions League initiative to United as Spurs stumble n AFP, London Pep Guardiola could find himself without Champions League football next season after Manchester City’s hopes of qualifying suffered a major setback in a 2-2 draw with Premier League top-four rivals Arsenal at Eastlands yesterday.

Arsenal twice came from behind, goals from Olivier Giroud and Alexis Sanchez, cancelling out efforts from Sergio Aguero and Kevin de Bruyne in what was City manager Manuel Pellegrini’s final home game in charge before he is replaced by Bayern Munich’s Guardiola after the end of the season.

This result left fourth-placed City just two points in front of Manchester United, who have two games in hand on their local rivals.

The draw meant Arsenal remained third but they moved to within two points of second-placed Tottenham Hotspur, after their arch-north London rivals saw a miserable week end with a 2-1 loss

EPL RESULTS Liverpool

2-0

Watford

Allen 35, Firmino 76

Manchester City

2-2

Aguero 8, De Bruyne 51

Tottenham Son 16

1-2

Arsenal Giroud 10, Sanchez 68

Southampton Davis 31, 72

at home to Southampton just hours earlier yesterday.

Yesterday’s match at White Hart Lane started well enough for the hosts, with Tottenham opening the scoring in the 16th minute through South Korea midfielder Son HeungMin. But two goals from Northern Ireland’s Steven Davis saw Southampton to victory and meant Spurs had now gone three games without a win.

In yesterday’s other Premier League match, Liverpool rounded off an excellent week, that saw them beat Villarreal to reach the Europa League final, with a 2-0 win at home to Watford thanks to a goal in each half at Anfield from Joe Allen and Brazil’s Roberto Firmino. l

Unfair advantage rife in DPL n Mazhar Uddin

What would you say when a bowler, reported for an illegal bowling action, makes two match-winning contributions within a few days?

You call it playing in the Dhaka Premier League.

The bowler in question is Mohammedan Sporting Club’s leftarm spinner Naeem Islam Jr who on April 28 was reported for suspected bowling action against Victoria Sporting Club.

He won man-of-the-match awards in the subsequent matches, taking 4/48 and 4/38 respectively against Legends of Rupganj and Gazi Group Cricketers.

It is hard to fault Mohammedan for continuing to picking Naeem, because he is effective and they and more importantly, the Bangladesh Cricket Board isn’t barring Mohammedan from picking Naeem yet, or any of the other clubs from picking the eight other bowlers with suspected action.

The BCB, crucially, haven’t yet formed the proposed bowling action review committee, which they first spoke about during the World Twenty20 in March, when Taskin Ahmed and Arafat Sunny were banned by the International Crick-

et Council from bowling in international cricket.

According to Nazmul Abedin Fahim, the national manager of BCB’s game development committee, it is an unfair advantage to keep playing a bowler who has already been reported for suspect action.

“I think it’s important to work immediately after a bowler is reported for suspect bowling action as it helps the bowler to correct his mistakes. It’s difficult to change his action overnight,” Fahim told Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

“But at the same time when the bowler is allowed to bowl despite being reported, it actually gives an advantage to his side and at the same time it is unfair for the other

SUSPECTED BOWLERS 1. Mustafizur Rahman (2) (Gazi GC) 2. Moinul Islam (Gazi GC) 3. Amit Kumar (Abahani) 4. Rejaul Karim (Prime Doleshwar) 5. Naeem Islam Jr (MSC) 6. Faisal Hossain (MSC) 7. Mohammad Saifuddin (CCS) 8. Asif Ahmed Ratul (Rupganj) 9. Sanjit Saha (Brothers Union)

teams. I think fair cricket should be the biggest priority.”

Fahim, Shakib al Hasan’s mentor, informed that apart from young Under-19 spinner Sanjit Saha who was also reported for suspect bowling action during the ICC U-19 World Cup earlier and later in the DPL, none of the other suspect bowlers showed any interest to work on their bowling action.

Amin Khan, the Cricket Committee of Dhaka Metropolis’ co-ordinator, said the board is yet to form the bowling action review committee and the CCDM did not receive any instruction regarding the suspect bowlers during this year’s league.

“The bowling action review committee is yet to be formed. It is the BCB who is looking after the matter and we did not receive any instructions regarding the issue,” said Amin.

Surprisingly, the BCB has instructed the clubs not to do any video recording of any of the ongoing DPL matches. It will ensure that there won’t be any visual evidence for the bowling review committee. They will only have to rely on the on-field umpires’ report. Until then, Naeem can keep bowling for Mohammedan, despite how unfair it is for the rest of the teams. l

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MONDAY, MAY 9, 2016

Five-star Barca edge towards title, Atletico beaten

QUICK BYTES Diarra could leave Marseille in summer

n AFP, Madrid

Marseille midfielder Lassana Diarra said on Saturday that “there is a very good chance” that he will leave the beleaguered French club at the end of the season. The former Real Madrid, Chelsea and Arsenal player has enjoyed a revival at the Velodrome this term after moving from Lokomotiv Moscow, leading to a nomination for the French Player of the Year award and reported interest from Paris Saint-Germain.

–AFP

Del Bosque: Diego Costa no criminal Spain coach Vicente del Bosque has insisted bad-boy striker Diego Costa is no criminal despite admitting the Chelsea striker has a penchant for “unsavoury incidents.” Costa’s repeated selection has been controversial ever since he was convinced by Del Bosque to turn his back on the country of his birth Brazil to play for Spain at the 2014 World Cup. –AFP

Kompany out of Euro Belgium suffered a mighty Euro 2016 blow on Saturday when inspirational skipper Vincent Kompany was ruled out of the tournament after failing to recover from injury. “I’ll miss the Euros.

To me that’s very sad news,” the 30-year-old Manchester City captain wrote on his Facebook page.

–AFP

Japanese imports Kudo, Endoh, notch first MLS goals Japan’s Masato Kudo opened his Major League Soccer scoring account on Saturday to help the Vancouver Whitecaps rally for a 2-1 victory over MLS Cup champions Portland in Vancouver. Kudo, the all-time leading goalscorer for 2011 J-League Champions Kashiwa Reysol, arrived on a free transfer in December.

–AFP

Villarreal sign 1st Qatari in La Liga history A teenage forward is set to become the first player from Qatar ever to play in La Liga and possibly the Champions League after being signed by Spanish club Villarreal.

The transfer of Akram Afif was confirmed on Twitter by his parent club Al Sadd, the Doha team for which former Barcelona great Xavi Hernandez plays, late on Saturday evening.

–AFP

Barcelona’s Argentinian forward Lionel Messi kicks a ball during their La Liga match against Espanyol at the Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona yesterday AFP

Barcelona are one win away from retaining their La Liga title after Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar all scored as they thrashed Espanyol 5-0 in the Catalan derby yesterday.

Real Madrid moved into second place, a point behind Barca with one game remaining, as they racked up an 11th straight La Liga win, 3-2 over Valencia, thanks to two goals from Cristiano Ronaldo.

However, Atletico Madrid’s title hopes are over as they lost 2-1 at already relegated Levante.

Barca will be champions with victory at Granada next weekend, who crucially are now mathematically safe from relegation after a 4-1 win at Sevilla.

Real Madrid travel to Deportivo la Coruna on the final day of the season.

Mamunul, Sohel apologise to BFF n Tribune Report Former national captain Mamunul Islam and midfielder Sohel Rana submitted the “letter of apology” to the Bangladesh Football Federation yesterday.

Football’s regulatory body in the country during an executive committee meeting last Saturday decided to overturn the suspension of the four national footballers, the others being winger Zahid Hossain and defender Yeasin Khan, provided they seek forgiveness. Only Mamunul and Sohel though appeared at the BFF

House yesterday with their letters of apology and pledged to give their best if they are allowed to return.

“I hope the BFF will soon give me the chance to play again for the national team. If I return, I will give nothing but my hundred percent. I’m confident of making it into the starting XI. I have not stopped training during this period,” said Mamunul.

Earlier on March 3 this year, Mamunul and Zahid were suspended for a year while Sohel and Yeasin received six-month bans for breaching team protocol during the Bangabandhu Gold Cup. l

I hope the BFF will soon give me the chance to play again for the national team. If I return, I will give nothing but my hundred percent. I’m confident of making it into the starting XI

Spin legends in talks with BCB n Minhaz Uddin Khan Legendary spinners Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralidaran are in discussions with the Bangladesh Cricket Board as spin consultant, according to the board’s cricket operations committee chairman Akram Khan.

He informed Dhaka Tribune yesterday that they are planning to hold spin bowling camps for the national spinners and also for those in the pipeline.

“We plan to have this camp after the [Dhaka Premier] league. We are at the initial stage of discussions with Warne and Muralidaran, let us see how it goes,” Akram informed yesterday.

“The camp will be in phases say for 10 or 15 days at a stretch. We are planning how things should be done and once we have the consultant we will be able to reach a final decision, I am sure the consultant will have his own way of doing things,” said the former national captain.

For Warne and Muralidaran, the job will be the first in Bangladesh. l

Elsewhere, Sporting Gijon remain out of the relegation zone thanks to their superior head-tohead record with Getafe after the two drew 1-1. l

LA LIGA RESULTS Las Palmas

0-0

Athletic Bilbao

Villarreal

0-2

Deportivo

Real Madrid

3-2

Valencia

Getafe

1-1

Sporting Gijon

Celta Vigo

1-0

Malaga

Eibar

1-1

Real Betis

Barcelona

5-0

Espanyol

Sevilla

1-4

Granada

Real Sociedad

2-1

Rayo Vallecano

Levante

2-1

Atletico Madrid

Lyon thrash Monaco to book UCL spot n AFP, Paris French international Alexandre Lacazette hit a hat-trick as Lyon sealed a place in next season’s Champions League by thrashing 10-man Monaco 6-1 at Parc OL on Saturday.

Second-placed Lyon went into the game ahead of Monaco in the Ligue 1 table on goal difference, and they pulled clear quickly with goals from Rachid Ghezzal and Lacazette inside the first eight minutes. l

LIGUE 1 RESULTS Gazélec-Ajaccio

0-4

Paris SG Cavani 13, 49, 58, Ibrahimovic 90+2

Nantes

1-2

Bedoya 78

Lille Bastia

Caen Rodelin 5, Delort 45-P

0-0

Guingamp

1-0

Angers

2-0

Rennes

Cahuzac 43

Montpellier

Ninga 58, Boudebouz 70

Nice

2-0

Saint-Etienne

1-0

Reims

6-1

Monaco

Germain 86, 89

Marseille Batshuayi 56

Lyon Ghezzal 3, Lacazette 8, 35, 80, Yanga-Mbiwa 34, 59

Bordeaux

Ricardo Carvalho 42

3-0

Lorient

1-0

Troyes

Malcom 12, Diabaté 21, 48

Toulouse Trejo 53

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MONDAY, MAY 9, 2016

Leicester City celebrate after winning the Barclays Premier League at King Power Stadium on Saturday

n Quazi Zulquarnain Islam The only number you need to consider is 5000-1.

Those were the odds that bookmakers offered on a Leicester win in the Premier League. For those not of a betting persuasion, suffice to say, not a single bookmaker thought this was a likely scenario.

To put things into perspective – bookmakers thought it was statistically more likely thatthe Loch Ness Monster would be discovered or that Simon Cowell of the American Idolfame would become Britain’s next prime minister.

About the only thing that had longer odds was Manchester United’s legendary coach Alex Ferguson winning Strictly Come Dancing.

But this is exactly why we love football – and sport by extension. It simply is not rational.

Sometimes, not often mind you, every single anticipated event will collapse like a row of dominoes and lead to an outcome no one saw coming.

To borrow a term from the famous statistician and writer Nassim Nicolas Taleb – Leicester’s win is the closest equivalent to a footballing Black Swan.

For those immediately thinking of a ballet movie involving Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis, crush your day dreams now. Taleb’s Black Swan is much more mundane.

In its simplest terms it describes

REUTERS

The Black Swans of the premiership an outlier event that is so random and inexplicable that you cannot believe it has happened until it actually has happened.

To explain the metaphor, the existence of black swans was considered biologically impossible until the point when a black swan was actually spotted in Australia.

Which is exactly like Leicester winning the Premier League title: No one believed it would happen until it actually happened.

Leicester’s rise is truly extraordinary. The unglamorous Midlands club hails from a wealthy, culturally diverse city about a 100 miles north of London.

Remarkable only for its demographics, the city of Leicester is not crazy about their football like Newcastle nor has a rich heritage like Liverpool nor even cosmopolitan appeal like any of the London clubs.

Yet in a league which has so far had only five champions in the Premier League (and two after significant cash injections) it is this team of journeymen led by an Italian coach branded as an eternal loser that has upset the apple-cart.

Leicester’s rise is not unparalleled in the context of the sporting world.

In France, Montpellier’s 2012 triumph is a close reference – like Leicester the Ligue 1 side jumped from their previous season finish of 14th propelled by the goals of a certain Oliver Giroud.

In 1996, Atletico Madrid also claimed their La Liga title from a similar finish the season before.

And in 1998 the Bundesliga crowned Kaiserslautern as the first newly-promoted champions in their history.

But this should take nothing away from Leicester’s feats that comes in a league which hosts 17 of the 30 wealthiest clubs in football.

That is an extraordinary concentration of wealth in a single national league and in a sport where money spent is almost directly proportional to results, Leicester’s run to the championship with a team that cost roughly the same as Manchester United paid for Marouane Fellaini and whose wage budget placed them just 16th in the league, is truly mind-boggling.

What makes the story even more interesting is that Leicester’s football has been hardly revolutionary.

Ranieri, the bespectacled son of an Italian butcher, who gained the nickname Tinkerman during his sojourn with Chelsea in a decade ago and who quit his gig with the Greek national team after losing to Faroe Islands, had his team play fairly standard Italian football – defend deep and strike fast.

With towering center backs Wes Morgan and Robert Huth marshalling the defense and Danny Drinkwater and the tireless N’Golo Kante patrolling the midfield, Leicester’s

attacking verve came from the dual talents of the inspiring Riyad Mahrez and the street-football nous of Jamie Vardy – their two true stars.

They were supplemented by the savvy reliability of players like leftback Christian Fuchs or the inventive Shinji Okazaki.

Good, but really nothing to set the pulse racing.

What really set Leicester apart as champions was their remarkable consistency in both personnel and in winning close games. Ironically, for a man nicknamed Tinkerman, Ranieri named 8(!) players as starters in 85% of Leicester’s matches.

While it may seem normal for a team not involved in European football, that figure is astonishing because the league average for that is just 3.

The figures for close games are even more amazing.

In their 24 games that were decided by one goal or fewer, Leicester came away with 13 wins, nine draws and just two defeats this season. They’ve taken 48 of the 72 points available to them in those fixtures, or 66.7 percent.

To put it into fan context – in the 24 games that could have gone either way, it didn’t go Leicester’s way just twice.

So every time you felt like this was where the Leicester run would end, it didn’t. As a ratio that is frankly astonishing and truth be told unsustainable.

With respect to the rest of the league, they are well ahead of Liverpool, who are second-placed in this category, having picked up 56.1 percent of the points in these same close contests.

But even that may not have been enough if this season of the English Premier League had not been, statistically speaking, one of the poorest in living memory.

Assuming Leicester finish on 80 points, this total would have been enough to win the Premier League just once in any of the last ten seasons. In 2013-14 for instance, it would barely have been enough to squeak into the Champions League playoff spots.

With Manchester United and Chelsea rebuilding, Liverpool recovering from an early season wobble, Arsenal pulling an Arsenal and Manchester City riddled by injury and a lame-duck manager, the status quo of English football wavered in an unpredictable season whose lack of quality was compensated for by an increase in drama.

And Leicester City took glorious advantage to write their name into the history books to complete one of sport’s most irrational and magical triumphs.

So now who wants to put a tenner on Ferguson and his dancing shoes? l Quazi Zulquarnain Islam is a part-time sportswriter.

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MONDAY, MAY 9, 2016

Alvarez KOs Khan to retain WBC title n AFP, Los Angeles Canelo Alvarez defended his World Boxing Council middleweight belt Saturday by knocking out Amir Khan with a vicious right hand late in the sixth round of their Las Vegas title fight.

The 25-year-old hard-hitting Mexican dropped Khan with a straight right over a passive left jab that sent the Briton crumpling to the canvas with just 23 seconds left in the round.

The back of Khan’s head bounced off the deck, prompting his corner to rush to his aid as he lay motionless for a couple of minutes.

Khan eventually got up and went to his corner.

“Many people talk about my power but I have many more qualities in the ring and people saw that,” Alvarez said. “I like to surprise everyone.”

The savage end to what was supposed to be the biggest fight of Khan’s career will undoubtedly strengthen the notion that he has a soft chin.

Gatlin plots Bolt revenge after Japan win n AFP, Kawasaki American Justin Gatlin roared to a 100 metres victory in Japan yesterday, as track and field’s pantomime villain kicked off his preparations for this summer’s Rio Olympics.

Floored by Jamaican sprint king Usain Bolt in the 100m and 200m at last year’s world championships, two-time doping offender Gatlin clocked a time of 10.02 seconds into a slight head-wind in Kawasaki in his first test of the season.

“Definitely it’s given me motivation, but also it’s made me smarter and wiser,” Gatlin told AFP, referring to his Beijing disappointment.

“Usually you can come with a strategy that can combat the whole field,” added the 34-year-old after finishing well clear of Japan’s Ryota Yamagata (10.21) and Ramon Gittens of Barbados (10.26), despite a sore right ankle. l

It was a shocking end to what had been a close fight up to that point.

The 29-year-old Khan, who moved up two weight classes to face the bigger champ, started strong and even won the first couple of rounds before Alvarez worked his way into the fight at the brand new T-Mobile Arena.

“He’s very fast. So I knew it would be complicated at the beginning,” Alvarez said. “But I knew the time would come to my favor and you saw that.”

Alvarez is now mandated by the WBC to fight unbeaten two-belt champ Gennady Golovkin, who was ringside Saturday.

After the fight Alvarez (47-1-1, 33 KOs) stood in the center of the ring and called out Golovkin during the post-match interview.

“I invited him to the ring,” Alvarez said. “Like we say in Mexico ....

We don’t fight for rings and stuff.

We don’t come to play. I fear no one in this sport.”

At Friday’s weigh-in, both boxers scaled 155 pounds, bang on the catch-weight limit.l

Saul Canelo Alvarez (R) of Mexico connects to the body against Amir Khan of Great Britain during their WBC Middleweight Championship fight at T-Mobile Arena Saturday AFP

Djokovic downs Nishikori to set-up Murray Madrid final n AFP, Madrid World number one Novak Djokovic set-up a mouthwatering Madrid Masters final showdown against defending champion Andy Murray by seeing off Japan’s Kei Nishikori 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) Saturday.

Murray, the second seed, earlier registered just his second ever win

over Rafael Nadal on clay to make the final with a 7-5, 6-4 victory.

Djokovic has yet to drop a set in the Spanish capital this week but he was nearly caught cold by the windy conditions as he had to battle back from 0-40 down in the first game with some fine serving.

The Serb slowly began to find his rhythm and broke through in

DAY’S WATCH CRICKET SONY SIX 8:30 PM Indian Premier League 2016 Punjab v Bangalore

Serbia's Novak Djokovic returns a ball to Japan's Kei Nishikori during the Madrid Open men's semi-final at the Caja Magica sports complex Saturday AFP

the eighth game as Nishikori pulled a forehand wide before serving out for the set.

Djokovic looked set to seal victory comfortably as he led 40-0 at 5-4 in the second set, but the Japanese star dug deep, saving the three match points and then a fourth as he broke back before forcing the tiebreak.

However, the top seed bounced back to take the breaker 7-4 and set up his first meeting with Murray in a Masters series final on clay.

“I had an easy forehand to finish off the match at 40-0 then a double fault and couple of good points from Kei and the break was there,” said Djokovic.

“I obviously should not have let that happen. On the other hand, I was happy the way I handled the games after that. In the tiebreak I think I played very solid under the circumstances, knowing that I missed four match points.

“I think mentally it’s good to go through these particular situations for confidence.”

Yesterday, Djokovic looked to extend his 22-9 head-to-head record against Murray, exactly 10 years on from their very first encounter in the Madrid third round.l

EPL promotion and title medal on same day n Agencies Ritchie de Laet enjoyed an unprecedented double celebration Saturday when he picked up a Premier League winner’s medal hours after seeing his other team win promotion to the top flight.

The 27-year-old Belgian defender, who played 12 league matches for Leicester this season, joined Middlesbrough on loan in January and made 10 appearances for the club, helping them finish second in the Championship. After Middlesbrough drew 1-1 with Brighton to confirm their promotion, De Laet – an unused substitute – travelled to the King Power Stadium to see Leicester beat Everton 3-1 before collecting his title-winning medal.l

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MONDAY, MAY 9, 2016

Showtime

Mother’s Day song in seven languages

n Showtime Desk A group of Bangladeshi youngsters have come up with a song titled “Mother” in seven languages, including Bangla, dedicating it to mothers across the world.

Marking the International Mother’s Day, the music video of the song was officially unveiled on Youtube on Sunday.

Nabid Salehin Niloy, who coordinated the initiative, said, “With this song, we want to show respect to mothers across the world. This song is dedicated to all the mothers.”

The singers are Joy Shahriar (Bangla), Aatif Sayeed (Hindi), Nora (German), Stephen Danniel (French), Yorgo Elka (Arabic), Alexander Shakhov

(Russian) and Stephanie Forryan (English).

Farhad played the piano and Nabid Salehin was on bass guitar, while Nora played the violin in the song arranged at Aajob Records studio.

The lyrics for the song was written by Joy Shahriar (Bangla

Animated films at the WFMP n Showtime Desk Dhaka University Film Society (DUFS) and Renoir Film Club (RFC) under Alliance Française de Dhaka are proud to present the 112th edition of World Film Manifestation Programme (WFMP), starting from today.

The subject for this edition of WFMP is French animated movies. Four critically acclaimed movies by filmmakers Bibo Bergeron, Sylvain Chomet, JeanLoup Felicioli, and Alain Gagnol will be screened during the two day event.

WFMP was initiated by DUFS to give film-lovers an opportunity to watch classic films from different countries of the world on big screen. This program is being organised on a regular basis in collaboration with cultural centres of embassies of different countries in Dhaka.

RFC is dedicated to presenting French films in high definition for Dhaka filmgoers, organised entirely by connoisseurs for connoisseurs.

For detail of RFC-organised weekly film shows and screening schedule, log onto dufs.org or afdhaka.org

part), Stephanie Forryan (English) and Nora Kudrjawizki (the rest).

Nora composed the song, while Nabid Salehin, Farhad and Nora made the sound arrangements.

Earlier, Nabid Salehin and his friends released the famous song “Amar Bhaier Rokte Rangano Ekushey February’ in 12 languages, marking the International Mother Language Day this year.

“After gaining a positive feedback from my first work with Project 21, I decided to move on and release songs on special days. I shared this with my group members, and all of us together started working for Mother’s Day,” said Niloy to UNB. l

Schedule of WFMP 112th edition Monday, May 9 at 4pm Un monstre à Paris (2011) A Monster in Paris Director: Bibo Bergeron Duration: 90 minutes Genre: Adventure/Comedy Synospis: The plot set in Paris in the year 1910 and centered on a monster who lives in a garden

and his love for a beautiful, young singer.

Monday, May 9 at 5:45 pm Les triplettes de Belleville (2003) The Triplets of Belleville Director: Sylvain Chomet Duration: 78 minutes Genre: Comedy/Drama Synopsis: When her grandson is kidnapped during the Tour de France, Madame Souza and her beloved pooch Bruno team up with the Belleville Sisters – an aged song-and-dance team from the days of Fred Astaire – to rescue him.

Tuesday, May 10 at 4pm Une vie de chat (2010) A Cat in Paris Director: Jean-Loup Felicioli, Alain Gagnol Duration: 70 minutes Genre: Crime/Family Synopsis: In Paris, a cat who lives a secret life as a cat burglar’s aide must come to the rescue of Zoe, the little girl he lives with, after she falls into a gangster’s clutches.

Tuesday, May 10 at 5:30 pm L’illusionniste (2010) The Illusionist Director: Sylvain Chomet Duration: 80 minutes Genre: Drama Synopsis: A French illusionist finds himself out of work and travels to Scotland, where he meets a young woman. Their ensuing adventure changes both their lives forever.

Venue: Auditorium Nouvelle Vague, Alliance Française de Dhaka l

Deepika Padukone with Tom Cruise n Showtime Desk Rumours are in the air that

Deepika Padukone, who just started her Hollywood journey with Vin Diesel’s xXx: the Return of

Xander Cage, is starring opposite to Tom Cruise in The Mummy reboot.

According to a report published on entertainment website Spotboye.com, the Bollywood star has auditioned for The Mummy.

However, the casting directors are yet to confirm whether Deepika got the part or not. The role is that of an Egyptian girl and Deepika auditioned for it in Los Angeles.

A source close to the project was quoted saying, “They are looking at other options. Even if Deepika doesn’t make the cut, the very fact that she was in the running for an important role in a Tom Cruise starrer is quite an accomplishment in itself.”

Earlier, there was buzz that Dedh Ishqiya actor Huma Qureshi had auditioned for the lead role

opposite to Tom Cruise. However, the role went to the British actor Annabelle Wallis, who will play an archaeologist in the film.

The Mummy shall be the remake of a 90s popular franchise starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weiz in lead roles. Tom Cruise will play a Navy Seal officer named Tyler Colt. The film also stars Sofia Boutella as the main antagonist.

The Mummy is one of the many remakes planned

by Universal Pictures as an effort to create an interconnected universe for their classic monsters like Dracula, Frankenstein, the Invisible Man, the Bride of Frankenstein, and vampire hunter Van Helsing.

Alex Kurtzman is set to direct

the The Mummy reboot from a screenplay by Jon Spaihts (Prometheus). l Source: Hindustan Times

Astronaut outfits to be designed by Marvel

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MONDAY, MAY 9, 2016

O’Connor in hot water

n SK Farhan Rahman

n SK Farhan Rahman SpaceX astronauts are poised to wear suits designed by the man who created the iconic superhero outfits in the Iron Man and Captain America movies.

Elon Musk, the owner of SpaceX iterated that he wants the space suit designs to be “stylish” and “heroic” instead of the usual pragmatic suits designed for space travel.

Jose Fernandez, a Marvel and DC movie legend, previously took inspiration from Elon Musk when creating the Iron Man costume. Tony Stark, Robert Downey Jr’s character, is loosely modelled on the billionaire inventor.

According to multiple reports, it is unlikely that the designs will be ready until next year.

SpaceX being as ambitious as ever, wants to carry its astronauts to the International Space Station by then, and humans to Mars by 2025.

Predictably, it is very likely that the concept of the suits will be drawn up by Jose Fernandez before being handed to the engineers, who will then attempt to modify and adjust it to make it suitable for space travel.

As they will have to face a variety of temperatures, the space suits must be able to withstand extremely unpleasant environments. In the Earth’s

orbit alone, temperatures can fall as low as -150 degrees, and as high as 120 degrees Celsius.

3D printed suits, called Z-2 suits and customised for each crew member, will be worn by the first astronauts to Mars, according to NASA. The outfits, inspired by the Tron movies, features red electroluminescent details so that they can be easily seen in crippling darkness.

NASA said, “The suit is designed for maximum astronaut productivity on a planetary surface – exploring, collecting samples, and manoeuvring in and out of habitats and rovers.”

NASA concluded by saying that they are aiming for a manned mission to Mars in the 2030s. l Source: Sky News

Back with a bang

n SK Farhan Rahman Radiohead confirmed that their ninth studio album will be released today. The band, who mysteriously deleted their entire history of social media posts a few days ago, also released the music video to one of the songs in the new album.

The music video of the song “Daydreaming” was directed

by Paul Thomas Anderson and features Radiohead’s frontman

Thom Yorke, who appears lost as he walks through a series of doors. “Daydreaming” is currently the second song to be released from their untitled album.

Chatters of a new Radiohead record have reached its peak in recent days. A few lucky fans have received cards in their mails that were inscribed with the band’s logo and read, “Sing the song of sixpence that goes Burn The Witch.” The song

titled “Burn The Witch” was the first music video that was released for the new album.

Earlier in 2016, the famed British band announced that they will play three dates in London at the end of May, prompting rapid sales of tickets that sold out in minutes. The gigs in London are part of a tour for multiple performances across Europe and the United States. l Source: Sky News

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Showtime

Irish singer Sinead O’Connor landed herself in trouble after comedian Arsenio Hall filed a $5 million lawsuit against her under the accusation of supplying drugs to Prince.

The allegations were made via Facebook by O’Connor, whose best known song “Nothing Compares 2 U” was written by the recently deceased musician. She reported Hall to the authorities and concluded by saying that he should “expect their call.”

Arsenio Hall, best known for his late night talks in the late 80’s and early 90’s has refuted the claims, describing the accusations as “despicable, fabricated lies.”

The lawsuit that was filed on Thursday in Los Angeles states, “Desperate attention seeker Sinead O’Connor has maliciously published outlandish defamatory lies about comedian Arsenio Hall, falsely accusing him of supplying

illegal ‘hard drugs over the decades’ to the recently deceased music artist, Prince, and of spiking O’Connor with drugs years ago.”

Hall has estimated the damages to his reputation to be worth “not less than” $5 million, and has since asked for a jury trial.

O’Connor has previously landed herself in heaps of trouble through comments on her website and social media; never shying away from controversy it seems.

Back in 2013, Miley Cyrus appeared to mock O’Connor’s mental health problems after O’Connor expressed concerns about Miley allowing herself to be “misused” by the music industry.

O’Connor being public about her struggles with depression was the opening Miley needed to fight back.

It is still a mystery how Prince passed away. Authorities who are investigating his final moments have not released a cause of death for the pop icon as of yet. l Source: Sky News

WHAT TO WATCH use to fight evil as a superhero after tragedy befalls his family.

Cast: Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Rosemary Harris, JK Simmons Ice Age Star Movies 5:02pm Set during the Ice Age, a sabertooth tiger, a sloth, and a wooly mammoth find a lost human infant, and they try to return him to his tribe.

Cast: Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Lear, Goran Visnjic, Jack Black Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets HBO 6:16pm Harry ignores warnings not to return to Hogwarts, only to find the school plagued by a series of mysterious attacks and a strange voice haunting him.

Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Richard Harris, Kenneth Branagh Spider-Man WB 7:23pm When bitten by a genetically modified spider, a nerdy, shy, and awkward high school student gains spider-like abilities that he eventually must

X-Men First Class Star Movies 9:30pm In 1962, the United States government enlists the help of Mutants with superhuman abilities to stop a malicious dictator who is determined to start World War III. Cast: Bill Milner, James McAvoy, January Jones, Kevin Bacon, Laurence Belcher, Michael Fassbender

Apartment 1303 Zee Studio 11:05pm A modern ghost story which turns a love/hate relationship between mother and daughter into a tale of horror. Some rentals are too good to be true.

Cast: Mischa Barton, Rebecca De Mornay, Julianne Michelle, Corey Sevier, Madison McAleer l

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MONDAY, MAY 9, 2016

MUHITH SOFTENS TONE ON FLAT VAT RATE PAGE 15

MUSTAFIZUR INSPIRES MUMBAI MAULING PAGE 25

MOTHER’S DAY SONG IN SEVEN LANGUAGES PAGE 30

A Bangladeshi-American in the White House n Tribune Desk Rumana Ahmed is an adviser to Obama’s Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes.

After the heinous 9/11 attacks, things were not the same for the head-covering 8th grader Rumana Ahmed in Maryland, US. There were days when her identity as a Muslim American became a struggle, she wrote in an email in last February.

In the end Rumana had overcome the struggle and found herself in the White House as the most senior Muslim American employee working with sensitive classified information.

The hijab-clad Bangladeshi-origin Rumana Ahmed advises US President Barack Obama’s Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes.

“First of all, I couldn’t believe I was in this building. I was a little over-conscious of how people might be looking at me,” Ahmed told Al Arabiya about joining work in the White House.

She said: “People were so nice, they looked at me just like they looked at every single other person. Ben, my boss, has given me exciting opportunities to be in front of the president.

The actor Adam Scott told me: ‘I want my daughter to grow up to be you’ “Every time I am there, I keep wondering if I am standing out as being a hijabi.”

Ahmed joined politics in 2008 after she saw the then-candidate Barack Obama talk about hope and change.

Born in the Washington suburb of Gaithersburg, Maryland to Bangladeshi parents, Ahmed says she did not aim for a government career at first.

She was first hired as an intern in July 2009 in the office of presidential correspondence, and later promoted as staff in the office of public engagement.

There, she worked on the Champions of Change programme, which she said “was really about lifting everyday Americans, whether it was the work they were doing in their communities for gun-violence prevention, or healthcare enrolment. But it also brought people together to have them share resources.”

Through her work at the White

House, she connected people passionate about various causes.

“It was really exciting because I got to lift up voices and convene people, like in iftars and the president’s roundtable last year. One thing that, looking back, I never really realised was that even though you’re a young person, I think a question that people ask is, ‘do people take you seriously for being young, for being Muslim American?’”

When asked whether she faced discrimination, she said smiling: “The last time was right after 9/11. I’d just started covering my hair in public school, and after 9/11 I went through all the bullying, all the harassment. Honestly, I never had any issue with it.”

She points out experiencing the opposite at the White House. “I actually felt empowered being a hijabi, because I think people came to me to ask for my perspective and valued my perspective, because they knew that I brought a different perspective.”

She admits feeling self-conscious wearing a hijab when she started working in the West Wing.

Wearing the headscarf has benefits, she said, while recalling meeting her favorite actor Adam Scott.

“He asked me about my background, my experience working here and covering my hair, and he said: ‘I want my daughter to grow up to be you.’”

Ahmed says her position at the White House is a symbol of the administration’s support for diversity, which includes Muslims.

She realised that while on an official trip to a conference in Morocco, where a young Palestinian participant approached her in disbelief that the White House could employ a covered Muslim woman.

Rhodes told Al Arabiya English that Ahmed “is a great American success story, and a terrific representative of our country and its values. I rely on her every day, and she supports our work on everything from our support for global entrepreneurship to our engagement with the Muslim community; from the rebalance to Asia, to our normalisation with Cuba.”

She “deeply values her country and her faith, and shows by way of example that those two things aren’t in conflict, but instead complimentary. Moreover, she’s always mindful of the example that she sets for others, particularly young Muslims who wonder about their place in America.” l

Prominent Pakistani anti-militant activist shot dead in Karachi n Reuters, Karachi Gunmen shot dead a prominent Pakistani rights activist, known for his outspoken stance against the Taliban and other radical Islamist groups, in the southern port city of Karachi late on Saturday night, police said.

The police said Khurram Zaki was killed at an outdoor cafe in central Karachi, while a companion was wounded.

A faction of the Pakistani Taliban, the Hakeemullah group, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying Zaki had been targeted for his stance against radical cleric Abdul Aziz.

The police could not verify the Hakeemullah faction’s claim, and said the group has previously taken responsibility for attacks it did not carry out in Karachi, a teeming metropolis of 20m people that is

Khurram Zaki known for its complex mix of ethnic, sectarian and political violence.

“Zaki was sitting at a cafe where he was targeted by four armed men arriving on two motorcycles,” Muqadas Haider, a senior police official said on Sunday.

Zaki was known for his outspoken stance against the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a Sunni Muslim sectarian militant group, the Pakistani Taliban, and radical cleric Abdul Aziz.

In December 2015, Zaki lead street protests against

Aziz, demanding the cleric be arrested and charged with hate speech for allegedly justifying attacks, such as the Peshawar school massacre where 134 schoolchildren were killed in 2014.

In 2007, Aziz and his followers were engaged in an armed standoff with government forces at his mosque in the capital Islamabad, culminating in a eight-day military operation that saw Pakistani commandoes raid the mosque.

Aziz has since been exonerated of all criminal charges

by Pakistani courts, but still calls for the overthrow of the government and for a strict version of Sharia law to be imposed.

Zaki had confided to friends that he was on several militant “hitlists”, Jibran Nasir, a fellow activist who was also involved in protests against Aziz, said on Sunday. l

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