Bangladesh
1,432 Bangladeshis dead in work-related incidents in 2023: OSHE stats
A total of 1,432 workers were killed in Bangladesh due to different occupational accidents in 2023, said a local development organization.
The organization called Bangladesh Occupational Safety, Health, and Environment Foundation (OSHE) revealed the statistics at a press conference in Dhaka on Friday.
Of the total, the highest number of causalities was in the transport sector with 637 deaths, followed by the day labourers' sector at 220, the construction sector at 149, the agricultural sector at 146, and the manufacturing sector at 94, according to the OSHE report.
Also, 502 others were seriously injured in workplace incidents in 2023, compared to 228 last year, added the report.
Read: 1 killed, 25 injured in AL infighting at PM's Barishal rally venue
According to the OSHE statistics, the institutional sector witnessed 329 deaths and 277 injuries in 2023, whereas the informal sector reported 1,103 deaths and 225 injuries.
It said the deaths of workers at workplaces increased in 2023 compared to the previous year, as 967 workers were killed in 2022.
The organization said it identified various causes for these workplace casualties, including road accidents, electrocution, fires, building collapses, lightning strikes, gas cylinder explosions, violence, and physical abuse of domestic workers.
Read: Police arrest driver of SUV that hit and killed 3 including child in Dhaka's Khilkhet
The data from OSHE also shows that at least 9,263 people have been killed at workplaces from 2013 to Dec. 28 this year.
OSHE officials said they prepared the report based on information gathered from local and national newspapers, online and television sources, spot reports by volunteers, and networks formed by trade unions and organization staff members.
Ambassador’s Travel Grant’announced for expatriate Bangladeshi students in Myanmar
Bangladesh Embassy in Myanmar has announced ‘Ambassador’s Travel Grant’ for expatriate Bangladeshi students in Myanmar.
This was declared by Ambassador Dr. Md. Monwar Hossain while the first ever National Expatriates’ Day was being celebrated on Saturday, 30 December 2023.
On the occasion, the Embassy organized an ‘Exchange of Views’ session with the participation of expatriate Bangladeshis in Myanmar.
Bangladesh remains extra vigilant about Myanmar violence: MoFA spokesperson
Ambassador Dr. Md. Monwar Hossain, at the beginning of his remarks, paid deep respect to the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his martyred family members and 3 million martyrs of our liberation war.
He appreciated the expatriate Bangladeshis for their relentless support to the socio-economic development of the country.
He highlighted various services, incentives and initiatives of the government intended for the welfare of the expatriates at home and abroad. Ambassador urged on contributing further to our motherland by enhancing investments in Bangladesh and playing positive role to face lift the country in abroad.
Myanmar Supreme Court rejects ousted leader Suu Kyi's special appeal in bribery conviction
Ambassador Dr. Md. Monwar Hossain announced the ‘Ambassador’s Travel Grant’ under which he will present grants to 05 Bangladeshi expatriate students every year towards meeting their travel expenses on education/research purpose to Bangladesh or within Myanmar.
This initiative was highly applauded by the audience. The Bangladeshi expatriates expressed their eagerness to take part in the ongoing development journey of Bangladesh under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and transform the country into the ‘Golden Bangla’ as envisioned by the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Programme of the event included reading out of the messages given by the President, Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and Minister for Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment, screening of documentary and discussion meeting.
Members of Bangladesh Community including businessmen, Bangladeshi employees of the various UN organizations, INGOs, multinational companies, officers-officials of the Embassy were present in the programme. Guests were hosted with refreshments.
National Immigrants Day 2023 celebrated in Japan
National Migrants Day 2023 was celebrated with due importance and significance at Bangladesh Embassy in Tokyo.
As part of the celebration of the day, a discussion meeting was organized today (Saturday)at the embassy with the participation of representatives of staff-sending organizations, owners and representatives of remittance houses, technical interns working in Japan, specified skilled workers and part-time workers on student visas.
At the beginning of the discussion program, the messages given by the President, Prime Minister, Home Minister, Foreign Minister and Minister of Expatriate Welfare and Foreign Employment Affairs on the occasion were read out.
Reception Lounge set up at Dhaka Airport for int'l observers, journalists
Ambassador of Bangladesh to Japan, Shahabuddin Ahmad, in his welcome speech, said that the population of the country has become a public resource today due to the proper actions and management of the government and a large number of Bangladeshis are working with reputation in more than 170 countries of the world.
The ambassador thanked the remittance fighters for their important contribution to the economy of Bangladesh and urged all the Bangladeshis living in Japan to work with more patriotism, devotion and honesty for the development and reputation of the country.
He said, in view of International Migrants Day and National Expatriates Day, there are several Bangladeshi expatriates in Japan have been honored as CIP (Non-Resident Bangladeshis) this year.
Macron says France will sign agreement with Bangladesh to finance climate-change adaptation, loss and damage in first half of 2024
“We hope that the number will increase in this field in the future,” he said.
He said the corona epidemic and the Russia-Ukraine war have adversely affected the economy of all the countries of the world including Bangladesh. He appealed to the participants of the meeting including the Bangladeshi expatriates in Japan to ensure the economic stability of their beloved motherland Bangladesh by bringing more workers from Bangladesh and by sending remittances through legal channels and ensuring the financial stability of their families by joining the universal pension system.
First Secretary (Labor) Md Joynal Abedin gave a power point presentation highlighting the importance and significance of sending remittances through legal channels and joining the universal pension system, the various facilities provided by the government for migrants and the special potential of employing Bangladeshi manpower in Japan.
Later, the visiting guests participated in an open discussion and expressed their commitment to work together on various aspects of sending remittances through legal channels and employing more Bangladeshi manpower in Japan in the current situation. On behalf of Bangladesh Embassy, they are assured to provide all kinds of cooperation in this work.
India wants to see peaceful election in Bangladesh
Two Distinguished Expatriate (CIP) Bangladeshis were honored at the program. At the end of the program, ten expatriates joined the Universal Pension System and Wage Earners Welfare Board through the One Stop Desk of the Bangladesh Embassy.
Embassy officials were present on the occasion.
BNM candidate’s election camp set on fire in Chapainawabganj
The election camp of Bangladesh Nationalist Movement (BNM) candidate under Chapainawabganj-3 constituency was set on fire at Shankarbati in Chapainawabganj municipality area on Friday.
Firearms, bullets recovered from Chapainawabganj border; 1 held: BGB
The miscreants set the election camp of BNM candidate Maulana Abdul Matin on fire around 11:30 pm.
Local people doused the flame soon after, but the banners and pandal were gutted in the fire.
Chapainawabganj farmers reap benefits of bountiful summer onion harvest
Demanding justice, BNM candidate Abdul Matin said rival parties are involved in carrying out the attack to threaten him and his supporters.
Mintu Rahman, officer-in-charge of Sadar Police Station, said the reason behind the fire could not be known immediately and a process was underway to take legal steps. Saidul Hasan, superintendent of Chapainawabganj Police, visited the spot.
12th JS Election: Mahiya Mahi collects AL nomination form for Chapainawabganj-2
Production at Barapukuria Coal Mine temporarily suspended
The production at Barapukuria Coal Mine remained suspended from yesterday on a temporary basis, said authorities at the coal mine.
The production at the coal mine will resume within February after relocating all machinery in new phases, said Deputy General Manager of the coal mine, Rashed Kamal.
Read: Faridpur-1 constituency: Mashrafe campaigns for Awami League candidate
A total of 2.71 lakh metric tonnes of coal was lifted under the current 1412 phase, and coal extraction under the 1209 phase will be resumed within February after maintenance work, he said.
The authorities concerned said some 1.95 lakh metric tonnes of coal are now in stock for the Barapukuria Coal-fired Power Plant.
Read: 41.900 tonnes of buffalo rawhide brought from India seized at Benapole port
Abdullah Al Mamun, manager of the power plant, said there are three units of 525 MW capacity in the power plant, and there is enough coal to operate the power plant for two months.
Dhaka’s air ‘very unhealthy’, 5th worst in the world this morning
Dhaka ranks fifth on the list of cities worldwide with the worst air quality this morning.
With an AQI score of 237 at 8:53 am, Dhaka's air was classified as 'very unhealthy', according to the air quality index.
Ruhul Amin Gazi, Kader Gani Chowdhury elected to lead faction of BFUJ
India's Delhi, China’s Wuhan, Vietnam’s Hanoi, and India’s Kolkata occupied the first, second, third and fourth spots on the list, respectively, with AQI scores of 262, 245, 241 and 237, respectively.
When the AQI value for particle pollution is between 101 and 150, air quality is considered 'unhealthy for sensitive groups', between 150 and 200 is 'unhealthy', between 201 and 300 is said to be 'very unhealthy', while a reading of 301+ is considered 'hazardous', posing serious health risks to residents.
Israel committing ‘holocaust’ in Palestine: Serajul Islam Chowdhury
The AQI, an index for reporting daily air quality, informs people how clean or polluted the air of a certain city is and what associated health effects might be a concern for them.
The AQI in Bangladesh is based on five pollutants: particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5), NO2, CO, SO2, and ozone.
Dhaka has long been grappling with air pollution issues. Its air quality usually turns unhealthy in winter and improves during the monsoon.
Faridpur-1 constituency: Mashrafe campaigns for Awami League candidate
As per World Health Organization (WHO), air pollution kills an estimated seven million people worldwide every year, mainly due to increased mortality from stroke, heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer, and acute respiratory infections.
Reception Lounge set up at Dhaka Airport for int'l observers, journalists
Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport is ready to receive the observers, delegates and journalists coming to Bangladesh for the national election on January 7, 2024.
A dedicated airport reception lounge has been set up just before the immigration area, specifically for the arriving delegates.
Ample number of markers have been placed along the arrival bays leading to the reception lounge, said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday.
29 more organisations get EC’s registration as election observers
There will be information packages and host officials ready to assist the incoming delegates, foreign ministry said.
TIB urges involvement of relevant stakeholders in revising guidelines for foreign election observers
Macron says France will sign agreement with Bangladesh to finance climate-change adaptation, loss and damage in first half of 2024
French President Emmanuel Macron has said his country will sign an agreement with Bangladesh to finance climate-change adaptation and loss and damage in the first half of 2024.
The French Development Agency will be contributing €1 billion ($1.1 billion) in investment, and the IMF will be extending up to $1 billion worth of SDRs in new loans, Macron said.
"This also implies identifying, on a global scale, governance mechanisms for the most crucial challenges we will have to face in the coming years, access to water being one of the most pressing. In this regard, France and Kazakhstan will convene a One Water Summit during the United Nations General Assembly in September 2024," wrote the French president in an article, titled "Pillars of Green Wisdom," published by the Project Syndicate.
For the most vulnerable countries, he said, they must create conditions that enable them to finance their climate-change mitigation and adaptation efforts and access the green technologies that are the new engines of growth.
Russia launches the biggest aerial barrage of the war and kills 30 civilians, Ukraine says
"This implies going further than traditional ‘official development assistance’ and doing for vulnerable countries what rich countries did for themselves during the COVID-19 pandemic: pursue an unorthodox fiscal and monetary policy," wrote President Macron.
"The results are already there: in two years, following the initiative we took in Paris in the spring of 2021, we have released over $100 billion in special drawing rights (SDRs, the International Monetary Fund’s reserve asset) for vulnerable countries," he wrote.
By activating this “dormant asset,” Macron said they are extending 20-year loans at near-zero interest rates to finance climate action and pandemic preparedness in the poorest countries.
"We have begun to change debt rules to suspend payments for such countries, should a climate shock occur. And we have changed the mandate of multilateral development banks, such as the World Bank, so that they take more risks and mobilize more private money," he said.
Macron said they are going to continue working on this, including within the framework of the new loss and damage fund, where they must mobilize new private insurance mechanisms in the face of climate risk. "We will start from the specific needs of the hardest-hit countries."
The French president said they will not succeed if they cannot reform the World Bank and the IMF, which play a prominent role in establishing the norms and financing the green transition on a global scale.
Jaishankar meets Putin and Lavrov in Moscow, praises growing trade
Eighty years after their creation, these institutions remain underfunded, relative to the size of the global economy and population, and emerging and developing countries continue to be shut out of their governance, he said.
"But we will not be able to agree on goals and financing until every country negotiating is on an equal footing.To this end, we must review Bretton Woods governance, and ask emerging countries to assume their share of accountability in financing global public goods," said Macron.
He said, “We must not allow the ongoing war in Ukraine and the fighting in Gaza to distract us from collective efforts to reduce our greenhouse-gas emissions, achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, save our biodiversity, and fight poverty and inequality.”
The world’s most advanced economies, which have also been the main CO2 emitters since the industrial revolution, must move away from fossil fuels, he noted.
He also wrote, “Science has set the trajectory: we must move away from coal by 2030, from oil by 2045, and from gas by 2050. While the G7 countries bear the greatest responsibility, China, which is now the second-largest emitter in history, must be fully committed, too.”
“While it is the G7’s responsibility to move away from coal by 2030 (France will have done so in 2027), emerging economies are now the biggest coal consumers. In these countries, we need to speed up the financing of renewables, as well as nuclear power, which, as a manageable and a decarbonized energy source, must play a key role,” he wrote.
Ukraine celebrates Christmas on Dec. 25 for the first time, distancing itself from Russia
“We must also put private financing and trade at the service of the Paris agreement. The cost of investment must be higher for players in the fossil-fuel sector. We need a green interest rate and a brown interest rate. Similarly, we need a climate clause in our trade agreements, because we cannot simultaneously demand that our industries become greener while supporting the liberalization of international trade in polluting products.
“Moreover, we must focus on building the basis of a ‘bio-economy’ that will pay for the services provided by nature. Nature is our best technology to sequester carbon on a large scale. The countries with the most important carbon and biodiversity reserves, especially in the three main tropical forest basins, must obtain much greater resources, determined on a country-by-country basis, in exchange for their stewardship of these vital reserves. France has already launched three contracts of this type at COP28, with Papua New Guinea, the Republic of the Congo, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” Macron wrote.
“But reform of the voluntary carbon market is essential. We need to create an international carbon and biodiversity exchange that will allow governmental and private actors to organize voluntary carbon credit swaps, based on sufficiently ambitious criteria to avoid greenwashing, and to remunerate local communities.
“The ocean is our most important carbon sink, and we must protect it. France and Costa Rica will convene the third United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice in June 2025, with the aim of updating international law, including on the prohibition of plastic pollution and on protection of the deep sea and seabed. These reforms would also enable the development of national strategies for seaboard protection by countries with exclusive economic zones,” the French president wrote.
‘A lie’: French ambassador dismisses claim of journalists’ visa requests being denied.
Vessel carrying fly ash capsizes in Shibsha River
A lighter vessel named MV Gayehera-4 carrying 1,422 tonnes of fly-ash capsized in the Shibsa River in Khulna on Friday.
However, no casualties were reported in the incident.
The Nallian Naval Police Station rescued 12 sailors alive from the ship.
Tarak Chandra Nath, inspector of Nallian Naval Police Station, said the lighter vessel, MV Gayehera-4, got stuck at Nallian area of the Shibsa River. On information, a team of river police went there and rescued the sailors. Movement of ships on Shibsa River is normal.
The lighter vessel was carrying 1,422 metric tons of fly-ash (cement raw material) from India to a cement factory located in Ghorashal area of Bangladesh.
Noakhali-3: Independent candidate's supporters injured in alleged attack by AL activists
At least 10 activists of independent candidate of Noakhali-3 constituency Minhaz Ahmed Javed and two journalists were injured in an alleged attack by supporters of Awami League candidate of the same constituency Mamunur Rashid Kiron.
The incident took place at Gabua Bazar on Maijdi-Chowmuhani regional highway in Ekalashpur union of Begumganj uapzila on Friday evening.
Locals said that after campaigning, independent candidate Minhaz Ahmed Javed was coming back to Chowmuhani. But when he reached Gabua Bazar, some supporters of boat candidate Mamunur Rashid Kiron attacked him with sticks and local weapons.
At that time, two cars including an ATN Bangla car were vandalized.
ATN Bangla reporter Md Nazibur Rahman, cameraman HM Ehsan Sajan, independent candidates’ activists Humayun Kabir, Md Rashed, Raihan, Tofazzal Hossain, Farrukh Ahmed, Ifaz, Ripon, Ismail, Pranto, Rubel and Apon were injured in the attack.
They were admitted to Begumganj Upazila Health Complex immediately.
Independent candidate Minhaz Ahmed Jabed said, "When we reached Gabua Bazar on our way back to Chaumuhani after meeting voters in Tulabari area of Ekalashpur, a group of armed terrorists attacked our motorcade suddenly. Ten of my activists and two journalists were seriously injured.”
Begumganj Circle Additional Superintendent of Police Nazmul Hasan Rajib, Begumganj Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Md Mohinul Hasan, Begumganj Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Md Anwarul Islam and senior officials visited the spot.
Begumganj Circle Additional Superintendent of Police Md Nazmul Hasan Rajib said, "We will identify the attackers after watching video footage and take immediate action and exemplary punishment."