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2 killed in Barishal road crash
Two people were killed and two others injured when a bus hit a van on Dhaka-Barishal highway at Rahmatpur in Babuganj upazila of Barishal district on Sunday, said police.
The deceased, identified as Fazlul Haque, 63 and Sumi Akter, 40 of Manikadi area, were travelling by the tricycle van.
Amanullah Al Bari, inspector of Barishal Airport Police Station, said the accident occurred around 11:45 am when the Dhaka-bound ‘Shyamoli Paribahan’ bus from Barishal hit the van, leaving the two killed on the spot and two others injured.
The injured were taken to the Barishal Sher-e-Bangla Medical College and Hospital.
Vehicular movement on the busy highway remained suspended for an hour as the local people put up barricades on the road.
Read:Roads turning more perilous: 10 people killed in Barishal in 24 hours
Police seized the bus, but could not arrest its driver.
Scanners to be installed soon at Ctg port gates: State Minister
The work on installing scanners at every gate of Chittagong port is underway for easing import-export activities, said State Minister for Shipping Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury on Sunday.
The scanner installation work is also underway at all land ports, including Mongla, he said while visiting the new mooring container terminal at Chittagong Port.
The state minister said Chittagong Port is being further upgraded. Patenga Container Terminal and Overflow Yard have been constructed.
Read: Hasina offers Ctg port for use by India’s north-eastern states
Chittagong port is ready to handle the pressure of more ships, he added.
Besides, according to the agreement with India, Indian ships can use Chittagong port and from there goods can be transported to north-eastern states of India by road, said Khalid.
And so, the trial runs of Indian ships have been conducted at this port and more will be done, he added.
Indian ships will start using this port regularly after the ‘Statutory Regulatory Order’ from the National Board of Revenue (NRB), he added.
Khalid spent busy day at Edinburgh Summit
State Minister for Cultural Affairs KM Khalid joined the convention on the second day of the sixth Edinburgh International Culture Summit on Saturday, which is taking place at the Scottish Parliament in Scotland.
Besides the session, he met the representatives of various countries including India and South Africa in the debating chamber lobby of the Parliament.
The state minister participated in bilateral discussions with Haryana State Education and Tourism Minister Kanwar Pal, the head of the Indian delegation participating in the summit. In the discussion, there was a detailed discussion on strengthening cultural exchange between the two countries and the enhancement of cooperation in the culture and tourism sectors.
Khalid also met with Scotland Awami League President Anis Chowdhury and local Awami League leaders.
Read: Working towards achieving culturally sustainable Bangladesh: Khalid
Bangladesh origin Scottish Parliament Member and Shadow Cultural Minister Faisal Chowdhury, Bangladesh Ambassador to the United Kingdom Saida Muna Tasnim and Bangladesh High Commission Office Manchester Assistant High Commissioner Kazi Ziaul Hassan were present.
The state minister is currently representing Bangladesh in the three-day (August 26-28) International Cultural Summit titled "Culture and a Sustainable Future.”
Showers likely to drench Bangladesh: Met Office
The weather department has predicted showers across Bangladesh in 24 hours commencing 9 am on Sunday.
“Light to moderate rain or thunder showers accompanied by temporary gusty wind is likely to occur at many places over Rangpur, Mymensingh, Khulna and Barishal divisions and at a few places over Rajshahi, Dhaka, Chattogram and Sylhet divisions with moderately heavy to heavy falls at places over northern part of the country,” said a Met Office bulletin.
Rainfall activity may increase at the end period.
Read: Showers likely in Chattogram & Sylhet
Day temperature may fall slightly and night temperature may remain nearly unchanged over the country, it said.
The weather office recorded the highest 106 mm rainfall in Rangpur in 24 hours till 6am on Sunday.
The highest temperature was recorded at 36.6 degrees Celsius in Rajshahi, while the lowest temperature was recorded at 24.0 degrees in Rangpur and Rangamati.
Meanwhile, the axis of monsoon trough runs through Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Sub-Himalayan West Bengal to Assam across northern part of Bangladesh.
One of its associated troughs extends up to Northwest Bay. Monsoon is fairly active over Bangladesh and moderate elsewhere over North Bay, as per the bulletin.
Traffic police killed in city road crash
A traffic police constable was killed after a lorry ran over him in the city's Uttara area early Sunday, said police.
The deceased was identified as Kazi Masud, 38, of Bagerhat. He was posted at Traffic Uttara East Zone of Uttara Division.
Read:BGB member killed in Bhola road accident
The accident occurred around 4am when the speeding lorry hit Masud on the Dhaka-Mymensingh road in Abdullahpur during his night duty, leaving him dead on the spot, said Md Yasin Gazi, inspector (Investigation) of Uttara West police station.
The body was sent to Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College and Hospital morgue for an autopsy, he added.
Dhaka’s air quality remains 'moderate'
Dhaka's air quality continued to be in the 'moderate' zone on Sunday morning.
With an air quality index (AQI) score of 80 at 9 am, the metropolis ranked 21st in the list of world cities with the worst air quality.
Russia’s Moscow, South Africa’s Johannesburg and Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City occupied the first three spots in the list, with AQI scores of 168, 158 and 158, respectively.
An AQI between 50 and 100 is considered ‘moderate’ with an acceptable air quality. However, there may be a moderate health concern for a very small number of people who are unusually sensitive to air pollution.
On the other hand, an AQI between 101 and 200 is considered 'unhealthy', particularly for sensitive groups.
Read: Dhaka’s air is ‘unhealthy for sensitive groups’
Similarly, an AQI between 201 and 300 is said to be 'poor', while a reading of 301 to 400 is considered 'hazardous', posing serious health risks to residents.
AQI, an index for reporting daily air quality, is used by government agencies to inform people how clean or polluted the air of a certain city is, and what associated health effects might be a concern for them.
In Bangladesh, the AQI is based on five criteria pollutants -- Particulate Matter (PM10 and PM2.5), NO2, CO, SO2 and Ozone.
Dhaka has long been grappling with air pollution issues. Its air quality usually turns unhealthy during winter and improves during monsoon.
With the advent of winter, the city’s air quality starts deteriorating sharply due to the massive discharge of pollutant particles from construction works, rundown roads, brick kilns and other sources.
Air pollution consistently ranks among the top risk factors for death and disability worldwide. Breathing polluted air has long been recognised as increasing a person’s chances of developing heart disease, chronic respiratory diseases, lung infections and cancer, according to several studies.
As per the World Health Organization (WHO), air pollution kills an estimated seven million people worldwide every year, largely as a result of increased mortality from stroke, heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer and acute respiratory infections.
Global Covid cases top 605 million
The overall number of Covid cases has now surged past 605 million amid a rise in new infections in parts of the world.
According to the latest global data, the total case count mounted to 605,429,512 and the death toll reached 6,487,034 on Sunday morning.
The US has recorded 96,003,404 cases so far and 1,069,124 people have died from the virus in the country, both the highest counts around the world, accounting for nearly 16 percent of the global cases and more than 16 percent of the global deaths.
India's daily COVID-19 caseload on Saturday fell below the 10,000 mark, with 9,520 new cases being reported during the past 24 hours, taking the total tally to 44,398,696, the world's second largest caseload, according to official data.
The country also logged 41 related deaths during the past 24 hours, pushing the overall death toll to 527,597 since the beginning of the pandemic, the ministry said.
Read: Bangladesh sees two more Covid deaths, 156 cases
Covid in Bangladesh
Two more people died from Covid, and 156 tested positive for the virus in Bangladesh in the 24 hours till Saturday morning.
While the country's total fatalities reached 29,323, the new number took its caseload to 2,011,100, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
The daily case test positivity rate rose to 4.26 from Friday's 4.15 percent as 3,663 samples were tested.
The mortality rate remained unchanged at 1.46 percent and the recovery rate at 97.22 percent.
Bangladesh being 'killed by economic conditions elsewhere': Financial Times
Power blackouts and high import prices are fuelling fears that Bangladesh's previous gains could be reversed by the global crisis, according to the Financial Times.
In South Asia, a region of almost 2 billion people across India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, Bangladesh stood out for its development and success in fostering a globally competitive goods export sector.
But now, along with most of its neighbours, the country is being rocked by soaring prices of energy and food following the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. These have led to energy shortages and rising import bills that are, in some cases, straining their ability to keep up with debt payments, the British daily said.
The regional economic crisis in south Asia has been swingeing in its casualties, claiming countries whose governments pursued reckless spending policies, such as Sri Lanka, alongside model development economies. It now threatens to reverse hard-won, generational gains made in the world's most populous emerging market region.
The crisis is punishing countries with an array of different economic performances and models, said Mark Malloch Brown, a former UN and World Bank official who now heads the George Soros-backed Open Society Foundations. "Bangladesh, a very internationally oriented economy known for its garment sector, is getting killed by economic conditions elsewhere in the world."
Bangladesh had until recently been better insulated from recent economic shocks, in part because of its successful export sector. But Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government in July approached the IMF for a loan to try and shore up its foreign currency reserves and help the low-lying country build resilience against climate change. The country is seeking about $4.5 billion from the fund, and as much as $4 billion more from other lenders, including the World Bank and Asian Development Bank.
Read: Bangladesh template for development success: Financial Times
In addition to raising fuel prices, which triggered protests, Bangladesh's government has cut school and office hours to conserve energy and introduced import restrictions on luxury goods to protect its foreign reserves.
Bangladesh's Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal insists that "everybody is under pressure," and his country is not in danger of falling into the deep financial distress of its neighbours. "Bangladesh is in no way connected to what is happening in countries like Sri Lanka."
"Creditors know our projects, know our balance sheet very well. [Bangladesh] is a good place to offer money," the minister added.
The IMF said with a debt-to-GDP ratio of 39 percent – lower than its neighbours – Bangladesh is "not in a crisis situation," but the country is vulnerable to the "huge uncertainty surrounding global economic developments."
The garments sector helped shield Bangladesh during the pandemic, with exports rising to a record as locked-down consumers overseas shopped for clothes online. But it is now starting to feel the strain.
The IMF said demand for Bangladesh's cornerstone industry's products will suffer due to slowing growth in major buyers in the US and European countries. "This is definitely going to affect export performance going forward."
The country's garment makers import everything from raw materials to machinery.
David Hasanat, chair of Dhaka-based manufacturer Viyellatex Groups, said the price of cotton had increased more than 50 percent, but that his company was only able to pass on about 10 percent of that cost to buyers. "Eventually [the higher costs] will give us more pain."
Also, the rising import bill has taken a toll on Bangladesh's foreign reserves, which have fallen to less than $40 billion, from more than $45 billion last year.
While this remains enough for about five months' worth of imports, Dhaka University economics Professor Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir said he expects it to fall below three months' import cover – the level economists often consider critical – by the end of the year.
"The situation is laying bare cracks in the economy, from Bangladesh's slowing poverty reduction to its stagnating wages and rising debt. This has exposed the [success] story that we hear as a kind of a mirage," he added.
Malloch Brown said the experience of South Asian countries shows how the pressures on emerging markets are part of a wider "systemic crisis which really endangers the global economy."
He called for an international policy response akin to the Marshall Plan extended to war-ruined countries after the second world war.
Experts want independent commission to bring August 15 perpetrators to justice
Experts have emphasised creating an independent commission to bring those involved in the killing of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and most of his family on August 15, 1975, to justice.
A commission will have to be formed with retired judges, senior advocates, senior journalists and people who actively participated in the Liberation War of 1971, they added.
The experts called for completing the execution procedure of the absconders living abroad.
They were speaking at the discussion "The Killing of Bangabandhu: The Conspirators, the Executors and the Ultimate Justice" organised by the Bangladesh Institute of Law and International Affairs (BILIA) and Bangla Worldwide jointly Saturday in Dhaka.
Read: August 15: Remembering the Father of the Nation on Mourning Day
Author of the Proclamation of Independence Barrister M Amir-ul Islam, chairman of BILIA, Professor Mizanur Rahman, director of BILIA, Barrister Tania Amir, Justice AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury, Professor Muntassir Mamun, Professor Harun-Ur-Rashid, Ali Wazed Zafar, Ishfaq Ilahi Choudhury, Rokeya Kabir, Professor Kamrul Hasan Khan and Professor Biswajit Chanda spoke at the event.
Tea workers' wages raised to Tk170 a day after meeting with PM
The daily wages for the tea estate workers have been raised to Tk 170 from Tk 120, a senior official said on Saturday night.
Apart from this, the other facilities for the workers will be increased proportionately.
Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary Ahmad Kaikaus announced it after a meeting with the tea garden owners.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina chaired the meeting held at her official residence Ganabhaban.
Tea Garden Owners’ Association president Shah Alam led the owners' delegation at the meeting.
Kaikaus said the daily wages for the tea garden workers have been set by the prime minister on behalf of the workers.
She also requested the workers to go back to work in their plantations, he added.
Earlier, in the meeting, the prime minister said Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman took over as the chairman of the Tea Board in 1957 and granted citizenship to these workers who did not have any citizenship.
He also gave some other facilities to the tea garden workers, she said.
She said during her 1996-2001 term she gave some other facilities considering the importance of the tea industry.
She also said the AL government took initiatives to expand the tea gardens from Sylhet and Chattogram to other places in the country including Panchagarh, Kurigram, Thakurgaon and Lalmonirhat.
“They (tea workers) work very hard and the owners earn. It is the responsibility of all to look after their wellbeing,” she said.
She said due to the coronavirus pandemic all are affected, but these people who work very hard, have to be taken care of properly.
Weeks ago, the workers at the country's 167 tea plantations went on a strike to press for increasing their daily pay to Tk300, given the recent price hike of the essential commodities
Read: Who are the tea workers? A brief profile
Kaikaus said that in the tea industry the workers get a number of other facilities which are borne by the owners.
He mentioned that due to the enhancement of the daily wages the plucking bonus and factory right work income will be increased proportionately.
He also mentioned that the annual leave allowance and festival allowance will also go up proportionately.
He said that the contributions of the employers to the workers’ provident fund and the annual festival bonus as per the presence at will be enhanced.
He also mentioned that the owners give to workers food ration at Tk 2 per head against the procurement cost of Tk 28 per packet.
He said that the PM will soon hold a video conference with the tea estate workers to know in details their working and living condition.