Washington, Jul 16 (AP/UNB) — Facebook's ambitious plan to create a financial eco-system based on a digital currency faces questions from lawmakers, as it's shadowed by negative comments from President Donald Trump, his treasury secretary and the head of the Federal Reserve.

Congress begins two days of hearings Tuesday on the currency planned by Facebook, to be called Libra, starting with the Senate Banking Committee. Meanwhile, a House Judiciary subcommittee will extend its bipartisan investigation of the market power of Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple.

Trump tweeted last week that the new currency, Libra, "will have little standing or dependability." Both Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Fed Chair Jerome Powell have expressed serious concerns recently that Libra could be used for illicit activity.

The Treasury Department has "very serious concerns that Libra could be misused by money launderers and terrorist financers," Mnuchin told reporters at the White House on Monday. "This is indeed a national security issue."

Facebook has "a lot of work to do before we get to the point where we're comfortable with it," Mnuchin said.

Already under intense scrutiny from regulators and Congress over privacy and market dominance, Facebook stirred anger on Capitol Hill last month with the unveiling of its plan to create a financial ecosystem based on a digital currency. Senate and House hearings went on the calendar, and the Democratic head of the House Financial Services Committee, which is holding Wednesday's hearing, called on Facebook to suspend the plan until Congress and regulators could review it.

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., said that Facebook, with some 2 billion users around the world, "is continuing its unchecked expansion and extending its reach into the lives of its users." She called Libra "a new Swiss-based financial system" that potentially is too big to fail and could require a taxpayer bailout.

David Marcus, the Facebook executive leading the project, says in his testimony prepared for Tuesday's hearing by the Senate Banking Committee that Libra "is about developing a safe, secure and low-cost way for people to move money efficiently around the world. We believe that Libra can make real progress toward building a more inclusive financial infrastructure."

Facebook agrees with Powell's view that the government's review of Libra must be "patient and thorough, rather than a sprint to implementation," Marcus' statement says. "The time between now and launch is designed to be an open process and subject to regulatory oversight and review. In fact, I expect that this will be the broadest, most extensive and most careful pre-launch oversight by regulators and central banks in FinTech's history. We know we need to take the time to get this right."

The planned digital currency is billed as a "stablecoin" backed by deposits in sovereign currencies such as the dollar, euro and Japanese yen — unlike bitcoin, ether or other digital currencies. Promising low fees, it could open online commerce to millions of people around the world who lack access to bank accounts and make it cheaper to send money across borders. But it also raises concerns over the privacy of users' data and the potential for criminals to use it for money laundering and fraud.

To address privacy concerns, Facebook created a nonprofit oversight association, with dozens of partners including PayPal, Uber, Spotify, Visa and MasterCard, to govern Libra. As one among many in the association, Facebook says it won't have any special rights or privileges. It also created a "digital wallet" subsidiary, Calibra, to work on the technology, separately from its main social media business. While Facebook owns and controls Calibra, it won't see financial data from it, the company says.

Mnuchin's comments came a few days after Trump tweeted: "I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air. Unregulated Crypto Assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity."

If they want to get into the financial business, Facebook and its dozens of partner companies in the venture will have to accept the kind of tight regulation that banks are under, Trump said.

Powell, a powerful financial regulator who is independent of the Trump administration, told Congress last week that Facebook's plan "raises a lot of serious concerns, and those would include around privacy, money laundering, consumer protection, financial stability. Those are going to need to be thoroughly and publicly assessed and evaluated before this proceeds."

Facebook's challenges in Washington go beyond Libra. Later Tuesday, at a Judiciary subcommittee hearing, Facebook will be among four big tech companies — along with Google, Amazon and Apple — testifying about their impact on the innovation and entrepreneurship of smaller companies. It's the latest chapter in lawmakers' examination of the industry.

"What happens in tech is that one big company grows to control a lot of stuff, and if it's allowed to stay there for too long, it slows down the sector," Timothy Wu, a professor of law, science and technology at Columbia Law School, has said. "Companies like Google and Facebook have come to hold too much power. There's a growing sense that they have too much control over information, news, advertising, even who we are and what's going on."

Wu is among the expert witnesses scheduled to appear before the antitrust panel, which also will hear from executives from the four tech companies.

Mauna Kea, Jul 16 (AP/UNB) — Singing, chanting and lying on the ground in the road, hundreds of people demonstrated on Monday against the construction of a giant telescope on a mountaintop that some Native Hawaiians consider sacred.

The protests were the latest salvo in a yearslong fight that pits scientific discovery against cultural preservation.

Scientists hope the massive telescope planned for the site, a world-renowned location for astronomy, will help them peer back to the time just after the Big Bang and answer fundamental questions about the universe. But some Native Hawaiians consider the land holy, as a realm of gods and a place of worship.

At about daybreak Monday, a group of kupuna, or elders, sitting in chairs, tied themselves together with rope and blocked the road to the summit of Mauna Kea. Another group of protesters spent the day lying prone on the ground, with their arms shackled under a grate in the road.

The road was officially closed hours after it was essentially blocked by protesters.

After two protest leaders spoke with police, they addressed the crowd and told them anyone who didn't move would be arrested. The group would move aside, but the elders were expected to remain, protest leaders Kaho'okahi Kanuha and Andre Perez said.

By mid-afternoon, law enforcement hadn't arrested anybody, saying their priority was installing concrete barriers along a nearby highway to create a buffer between speeding cars and the large numbers of people congregating in the area.

Those on the grate left after being told they wouldn't be arrested.

Walter Ritte, an activist, said it was difficult lying there for 11 hours. He said protesters' arms were connected through a series of metal pipes under the grate. Authorities would have had to cut the pipes to remove them, he said.

"It was so cold at 4 o'clock in the morning," Ritte said. "It was a test of our fortitude. This mountain is like our last stand."

Telescope opponent Jennifer Leina'ala Sleightholm said she hoped peaceful protests would lead to an end of the project while acknowledging that was an unlikely scenario.

"I think I know what will happen, but what I hope will happen is I hope that they would just turn around and save our kupuna," she said, using the Hawaiian word for elders.

A puuhonua, or place of refuge set up at the base of Mauna Kea, won't be swept by authorities, Kanuha and Perez told protesters after consulting with police. Protesters planned to stay overnight.

Groups of activists began gathering on Sunday, singing and praying at the base of the mountain.

Richard Ha, a Native Hawaiian farmer who supports the project, said he's encouraged that there seems to be some cooperation between protesters and law enforcement.

He said he sympathized with the protesters, but is hopeful construction will begin.

It can be hard for Native Hawaiians to support the telescope because they fear backlash for being perceived as opposing Hawaiian beliefs, he said.

"It's very difficult when you have family members on different sides," he said.

The project has been delayed by years of legal battles and demonstrations, drawing attention from the likes of "Aquaman" actor Jason Momoa, who has Native Hawaiian ancestry and has voiced opposition to the telescope.

Scientists selected Mauna Kea in 2009 after a five-year, worldwide search for the ideal site.

Protests disrupted a groundbreaking and Hawaiian blessing ceremony at the site in 2014. After that, the demonstrations intensified.

Construction stopped in April 2015 after protesters were arrested for blocking the work. A second attempt to restart construction a few months later ended with more arrests and crews pulling back.

Hawaii's Supreme Court has ruled the construction is legal, permits are in place, and the state has given the company behind the telescope a green light to resume building. The company is made up of a group of universities in California and Canada, with partners from China, India and Japan.

Ancient Hawaiians considered the location kapu, or forbidden, according to the University of Hawaii. Only the highest-ranking chiefs and priests were allowed to make the long trek to Mauna Kea's summit above the clouds.

Today, the university leases the land at the summit from the state for existing telescopes and observatories on the summit. A road built for telescope access decades ago is used by thousands of tourists and locals each year, including Native Hawaiians who go there to pray.

Supporters of the $1.4 billion telescope say the cutting-edge instrument will not only make important scientific discoveries but bring educational and economic opportunities to Hawaii.

The telescope's primary mirror would measure 98 feet (30 meters) in diameter. It would be three times as wide as the world's largest existing visible-light telescope, with nine times more area.

Gov. David Ige has said unarmed National Guard units would be used to transport personnel and supplies and enforce road closures but would not be used in law enforcement capacity during what could be weeks of protests.

In a news conference Sunday, Ige said that he "respected the right of people to protest" at the telescope site as long as protesters behave lawfully.

"As construction begins, our number one priority is keeping everyone safe," Ige said, adding that he wants to make sure construction workers and truck drivers have unimpeded access to the telescope site.

Dhaka, Jul 15 (UNB)- Banglalink, one of the leading digital communications service providers of the country has launched the third edition of “Banglalink Ennovators”, a completion for innovative youngsters aspiring to become successful future professionals.

The competition was launched as a part of Banglalink’s initiative to empower promising youngsters by inspiring them to innovate and enhance their professional skills, said Monzula Morshed, Chief Human Resources and Administration Officer, Banglalink at a press conference at Tiger’s Den, Banglalink’s Headquarters on Monday.

Qazi Urfi Ahmad, Brands & Communications Director of Banglalink, Ayesha Saeed, Head of Talent Management of Banglalink and other high officials of the organisation were also present there.

Selecting the candidates with exceptional innovative minds, “Banglalink Ennovators” will enhance their abilities further through grooming, boot-camp sessions, workshops and many other activities. Following a rigorous selection process, the winning team will be announced and awarded an opportunity to visit Banglalink’s parent company Veon’s Headquarters in Amsterdam and a direct entry to the “Assessment Center of the Strategic Assistant Program” of Banglalink.

The first and the second runners-up team will also get direct entry to the programme along with attractive prizes. In addition, all the members of the top five teams will directly qualify for Banglalink’s “Advanced Internship Program (AIP)”, and get opportunities to participate in Bangalink’s “Learn from Startups” and “Campus to Corporate” Program.

Students from any UGC approved university can participate in “Banglalink Ennovators” by completing the online registration on https://ennovators.banglalink.net. The registration phase will be open from July 15, 2019 to August 31, 2019. Roadshows and campus activities will be carried out in more than 50 universities across the country.

Radio Foorti 88.0 FM will be the radio partner of the program. Banglalink will continue to take similar initiatives for empowering the youth in future.

Mauna Kea, Jul 15 (AP/UNB) — Hundreds of demonstrators are gathered at the base of Hawaii's tallest mountain to protest the construction of a giant telescope on land that some Native Hawaiians consider sacred.

State and local officials will try to close the road to the summit of Mauna Kea on Monday morning to allow trucks carrying construction equipment to make their way to the top.

Officials say anyone breaking the law will be prosecuted. Protesters who blocked the roadway during previous attempts to begin construction have been arrested.

Scientists hope the massive telescope they planned for the site — a world-renowned location for astronomy — will help them peer back to the time just after the Big Bang and answer fundamental questions about the universe.

But some Native Hawaiians consider the land holy, as a realm of gods and a place of worship.

Groups of activists sang and prayed at the base of the mountain on Sunday afternoon. They declared the area, which is well off the highway at the intersection of the mountain's access road, a place of refuge and safety.

"This is Hawaiian homelands," said Kealoha Pisciotta, one of the protest leaders. "We're clearly out of their way, we're not obstructing anything, everyone is in ceremony."

The project already has been delayed by years of legal battles and demonstrations, drawing attention from the likes of "Aquaman" actor Jason Momoa, who has Native Hawaiian ancestry and has voiced opposition to the telescope.

Scientists selected Mauna Kea in 2009 after a five-year, worldwide search for the ideal site.

Protests disrupted a groundbreaking and Hawaiian blessing ceremony at the site in 2014. After that, the demonstrations intensified.

Construction stopped in April 2015 after protesters were arrested for blocking the work. A second attempt to restart construction a few months later ended with more arrests and crews pulling back.

But Hawaii's Supreme Court has ruled the construction is legal, permits are in place, and the state has given the company behind the telescope a green light to resume its efforts. The company is made up of a group of universities in California and Canada, with partners from China, India and Japan.

According to the University of Hawaii, ancient Hawaiians considered the location kapu, or forbidden. Only the highest-ranking chiefs and priests were allowed to make the long trek to Mauna Kea's summit above the clouds.

Today, the university leases the land at the summit from the state for existing telescopes and observatories on the summit. A road built for telescope access decades ago is used by thousands of tourists and locals each year, including Native Hawaiians who go there to pray.

Supporters of the $1.4 billion giant telescope say the cutting-edge instrument will not only make important scientific discoveries but bring educational and economic opportunities to Hawaii.

The telescope's primary mirror would measure 98 feet (30 meters) in diameter. It would be three times as wide as the world's largest existing visible-light telescope, with nine times more area.

Gov. David Ige said unarmed National Guard units will be used to transport personnel and supplies and enforce some road closures, but they will not be used in a law enforcement capacity during planned protests.

In a news conference Sunday, Ige said that he "respected the right of people to protest" at the telescope site as long as protesters behave lawfully.

"As construction begins, our number one priority is keeping everyone safe," Ige said, adding that he wants to make sure construction workers and truck drivers have unimpeded access to the telescope site.

London, Jul 15 (AP/UNB) — The death of a British YouTuber in an electric scooter accident has raised concerns about the safety of the increasingly popular vehicles.

Emily Hartridge, who presented online series "10 Reasons Why," was killed in a collision with a truck.

London's Metropolitan Police said a woman in her 30s on a scooter died in a crash Friday at a busy intersection. Police didn't name her, but Hartridge's death was confirmed by YouTube and her boyfriend.

Nick Lloyd of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents said it was Britain's first death involving an e-scooter.

It's illegal in the U.K. to ride motorized scooters on roads or sidewalks, but the law is widely flouted.

London police said Monday that a teenager is in critical condition after a separate e-scooter accident.