bangladesh
Youth-led innovations awarded by Save the Children
A competition titled 'Youth Led Innovation Lab' has awarded youth-led three business plans.
The competition was organized recently by Save the Children in Bangladesh with the participation of youths from Dhaka, Cox's Bazar, Moulvibazar, Sylhet and Satkhira districts.
The first, second and third winners were selected through a final competition, said a media release on Sunday.
The team- ‘Coco- Shar’ won the first position for innovating the business model of producing organic manures for Urban-Agriculture with useless items of household.
A total of five teams have been awarded in the three positions. Winning the first position team Coco-Shar received Tk 2 lakh from Save the Children in Bangladesh.
The second winning team Satkhira Swapna Konnya received Tk 1 lakh while teams Ureka Group, Moulavibazar Bijwala and Sholo Ana Khati Dudh won Tk 1 lakh each winniung third position jointly.
Md. Azharul Islam Khan, Director General, Department of Youth Development, joined the final selection ceremony as the chief guest.
READ: Chevron partners with Save the Children to launch integrated support for children with disabilities
"In all your efforts and initiatives, Department of Youth Development promises to support you. Don’t look for job; I believe you all are capable to create employment opportunities for more youths. I am overwhelmed with your ideas and innovations. I wish your success,” he said.
The competition began with the announcement in and around Save the Children's project area at the five districts.
The seven teams were - Ureka Group (Dhaka), Coco-Shar (Dhaka), Sylhet Learning and Earning (Sylhet), Moulavibazar Bijwala (Moulavibazar), Jagoroni Social Enterprise Hub (Moulavibazar), Satkhira Swapna Konnya (Satkhira), Sholo Ana Khati Dudh (Satkhira), Sagor Parer Hostoshilpo (Cox’s Bazar).
Smoke in Barishal-bound launch creates panic among passengers
Panic gripped the passengers of Barishal-bound launch ‘MV Prince Awlad-10’ as thick smoke filled the engine room of the launch, prompting the authorities to anchor it at Munshiganj terminal Saturday midnight.
Sazzad Hossain, an employee of the launch, said the authorities noticed smoke billowing from the engine room of the launch around 11:30 pm while installing adjuster in the silencer pipe.
The authorities anchored the launch at Munshiganj terminal for checking.
READ: Sadarghat launch fire doused
On information, a fire fighting unit rushed to the spot for examining the source of smoke.
Our Munshiganj correspondent reports: Muktarpur river police in-charge Lutfur Rahman said the launch started for Barishal around 1 am as a firefighting unit found it safe after examining.
A fire broke out on the Barguna-bound launch carrying some 800 passengers from Dhaka and it engulfed the entire vessel within 10 minutes, claiming the lives of 49 people on December 24, 2021.
Make sure government services reach the common people, PM asks officials
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday asked the public servants to ensure that the general people are not deprived of the services provided by the government.
“You have to make sure that people of Bangladesh are never deprived of getting services. Remember, our independence is meant for changing their fate,” she said while addressing the certificate giving ceremony of 121, 122 and 123 batches of Law and Administration course.
The programme was held at BCS Administration Academy in Shahbagh while the prime minister joined virtually from her official residence Ganobhaban.
She asked the civil servants that fruits of the independence have to be reached to every house of the country and that is the aim of the government,
“Whenever you work you have to always think about the people of the country,” she said.
She mentioned that the public servants working in the field should know every detail about the place where they are posted and work.
Hasina stressed effective coordination of development programmes of the government for timely implementation and getting better results.
She also said that if any problem arises regarding any development programme of the government in any area the respective field official has to coordinate that for its successful completion.
She termed the young government officials as the driving force in achieving the lofty goal of making Bangladesh a developed nation by 2041.
“You have to work towards that direction from now on,” she said.
READ: PM wants autistic children to flourish through collective efforts
10-feet long python rescued from Bagerhat village
A 10-feet long python was rescued from a vegetable field in Sarankhola upazila of Bagerhat district on Saturday.
The python weighing 12 Kg was rescued from the field in sluice gate area adjacent to Gabtala Bazar in the upazila.
The python got trapped in a net set around the field of a local trader named Delwar Hossain, said Md Sadik Mahmud, station officer of Sarankhola range of Sundarbans East Forest Department.
After being informed, members of Wild Team, a wild life conservation organization, rescued the python and it was released in Sarankhola range area of the forest later, he said.
The python might have crossed the Baleswar River and entered the locality in search of food, said the forest department officer.
JS passes Bangladesh Patents Bill, 2022
Bangladesh Patents Bill, 2022 was passed in Parliament on Sunday aiming to make the century-old patent law a time-befitting one and strengthen the safeguard of intellectual property rights.
Industries Minister Nurul Majid Mahmud Humayun moved the bill in the House which was passed by voice vote.
According to the bill, the owner will be given the patent of any innovation for 20 years and then it will become a public property.
READ: JS passes bill to make Bangladesh museums more dynamic
A registrar office will be there to issue or cancel patents of any single inventor or joint inventors of a technical innovation under the proposed law.
Worker dies falling off building in Jhenaidah
A construction worker died as he fell from an under-construction building of a college in Kotchandpur upazila of Jhenaidah district on Saturday.
The deceased was identified as Selim, 21, son of Tachhu Mondol of Amnura village under Nachole upazila of Chapainawabganj.
Witnesses said Selim fell off the under-construction building of Kotchandpur Govt K M H Degree College and sustained serious injuries.
READ: Man held with 12.5 kg gold in Jhenaidah
He was rushed to Kotchandpur upazila health complex where doctors referred him to Jashore Sadar Hospital.
Selim succumbed to his injuries on way to Jashore, said Kotchandpur police station Officer-in-Charge M Moinuddin.
Global Covid cases top 490 million
The overall number of Covid cases has now surpassed 490 million amid a rise in new infections in parts of the world.
According to Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total case count mounted to 490,610,853 while the death toll from the virus reached 6,150,934 Sunday morning.
The US has recorded 80,150,804 cases so far and 982,533 people have died from the virus in the country, the university data shows.
India's Covid-19 tally rose to 43,028,131 on Sunday, as 2,356 new cases were registered in 24 hours across the country, showed the health ministry's latest data.
Besides, 193 deaths due to the pandemic have been recorded since Saturday morning, pushing up the death toll to 521,374.
READ: Global Covid cases top 488 million
Meanwhile, Brazil, which has been experiencing a new wave of cases since January last year, registered 29,995,575 infections as of Saturday, while its Covid death toll rose to 660,371.
Situation in Bangladesh
Bangladesh logged 56 fresh Covid cases in 24 hours till Saturday morning, taking the total caseload to 19,51,714.
As per the latest government data, the country’s total fatalities remained unchanged at 29,122 as no death was reported during the period.
On Friday, 81 new cases were reported with no death.
The daily positivity rate decreased to 0.88 per cent from Friday’s 1.09 per cent after testing 6,367 samples during the period, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
Besides, the mortality rate remained unchanged at 1.49 per cent.
The recovery rate rose to 96.47 per cent with the recovery of 717 more patients during the 24-hour period.
Pope blasts Russia's 'infantile' war, EU-Libya deal in Malta
Pope Francis said Saturday he was considering a possible visit to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv and blasted the leader who launched a “savage” war, delivering his most pointed denunciation yet of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In his remarks in Malta, Francis didn’t cite President Vladimir Putin by name, but the reference was clear when he said “some potentate” had unleashed the threat of nuclear war on the world in an “infantile and destructive aggression.”
“We had thought that invasions of other countries, savage street fighting and atomic threats were grim memories of a distant past,” Francis told Maltese officials on the Mediterranean island nation at the start of a weekend visit.
Francis has to date avoided referring to Russia or Putin by name, in keeping with the Vatican's tradition of not calling out aggressors to keep open options for dialogue. But Saturday’s criticism of the powerful figure responsible for the war marked a new level of outrage for the pope.
“Once again, some potentate, sadly caught up in anachronistic claims of nationalist interest, is provoking and fomenting conflicts, whereas ordinary people sense the need to build a future that will either be shared or not be at all,” he said.
Francis told reporters en route to Malta that a possible visit to Kyiv was “on the table,” but no dates have been set or trip confirmed. The mayor of the Ukrainian capital had invited Francis on March 8 to come as a messenger of peace along with other religious figures, but has recently warned even healthy city residents who fled that the city is still endangered by Russian hostilities.
Francis also said the war had pained his heart so much that he sometimes forgets about the pain in his knees. Francis has been suffering for months from a strained ligament in his right knee. The inflammation got so bad that the Vatican arranged for a tarmac elevator to get him on and off the plane for Saturday’s flight to Malta, and his limp was more pronounced Saturday.
The Malta visit, originally scheduled for May 2020, was always supposed to focus on migration, given Malta’s role at the heart of Europe’s migration debate. The issue took on more import with the forced exodus of over 4 million Ukrainian refugees. Francis focused his remarks on the perilous Mediterranean migration route and Europe's flawed migration policies in welcoming people fleeing war, poverty and conflict.
Speaking with Malta’s president by his side, Francis denounced the “sordid agreements” the European Union has made with Libya to turn back migrants and said Europe must show humanity in welcoming them. He called for the Mediterranean to be a “theater of solidarity, not the harbinger of a tragic shipwreck of civilization.”
Francis was referring to the EU's program to train Libya’s coast guard, which patrols the North African country’s coast for migrant smuggling and brings the would-be refugees back to shore. The program was strongly backed by Italy and other front-line Mediterranean countries to try to stem the flow of hundreds of thousands of desperate migrants each year.
READ: Zelenskyy: Russians create 'complete disaster' with mines
But human rights groups have condemned the EU-funded program as a violation of the migrants’ rights and documented gross abuses in the Libyan detention camps. Just this week, German said its military would no longer provide training to the Libyan coast guard given its “unacceptable,” and in some cases illegal, treatment of migrants.
Francis has condemned the Libyan detention facilities as concentration camps, but he went further Saturday to shame the EU for its complicity in the abuses there.
“Civilized countries cannot approve for their own interest sordid agreements with criminals who enslave other human beings,” he said.
Malta, the European Union’s smallest country with a half-million people, has long been on the front lines of the flow of migrants and refugees across the Mediterranean and often has come under fire for refusing to let rescue ships dock. Just this week a German aid group sought port for 106 migrants rescued at sea and, by Saturday, the ship was heading to Sicily instead.
Malta has frequently called upon its bigger European neighbors to shoulder more of the burden receiving would-be refugees.
Francis has frequently echoed that call, and linked it on Saturday to the welcome the Maltese once gave the Apostle Paul, who according to the biblical account was shipwrecked off Malta around A.D. 60 while en route to Rome and was shown unusual kindness by the islanders.
Later Saturday, Francis travelled by catamaran ferry to the island of Gozo, making his own the Mediterranean seafaring tradition to celebrate a prayer meeting at Malta’s national shrine. Flanked by two Maltese churchmen who are key aides at the Vatican, Francis sat on a white chair on deck for the hour-long trip and was welcomed by thundering canons as the ship came in Gozo’s port.
Month-long Islamic book fair opens at Baitul Mukarram
In the holy month of Ramadan, an Islamic book fair began at the south premises of the national mosque Baitul Mukarram in the capital Saturday.
State Minister for Religious Affairs Md Faridul Haque Khan inaugurated the month-long fair organised by the Islamic Foundation.
Sixty-four stalls have been set up at the fair where Islamic books, including the Bengali translations of the Holy Quran, the Hadith, and Tafsir, are being sold.
The Islamic book fair will remain open for all from 10am to 8pm every day.
Following an official sighting of the new crescent moon Saturday, Bangladesh will start the holy month of Ramadan Sunday.
Tugboat sinks at Matarbari channel: Missing Chinese national’s body recovered
Coastguards on Saturday recovered the body of a Chinese national who went missing two days ago after a tugboat capsized at Matarbari Channel in Moheshkhali upazila of Cox’s Bazar.
The deceased who was identified as Ziang Hong Chen used to work at the Matarbari port, said Lieutenant Commander Abdur Rahman, media officer of Coast Guard.
The body was recovered around 12:30 pm from the channel adjacent to Matarbari Coal-fired Power Plant during a rescue operation ny a diving team, he said.
Also read: Missing man’s body found in Dharala River
On March 31, the tugboat sank near the channel.
Ashik Iqbal, officer-in-Charge of Moheshkhali police station, said a team has been sent to the spot.
Also read: Missing father-daughter duo found dead in Jamalpur
The body will be sent for an autopsy once they receive any complaint from Matarbari port authority, said the OC.