bangladesh
65-year-old woman dies after hit by motorcycle in Dania
A 65-year-old woman died after she was rammed by a motorcycle while crossing a road in the capital's Dania Friday evening.
Mahiful Begum of Bhola's Lalmohan was about to cross the road when a motorcycle drove from the opposite direction and hit her, Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) police outpost in-charge Inspector Bacchu Miah told UNB.
The 65-year-old's relatives found her in a critical condition and rushed her to a local hospital. She was declared dead after being shifted to the emergency department of DMCH at 6.30pm.
"The incident has been reported to the concerned police station. The police seized the motorcycle and held the driver. And the body had been kept in the hospital's morgue for autopsy," he added.
Hasina places six proposals before world to fight Covid
Terming Covid-19 a common enemy, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has placed six proposals before the global leaders to fight the deadly virus with fresh, inclusive and effective ideas.
“Sadly though, this malaise (Covid-19) seems to be here for a while, and therefore, as we had in the past, must come forth with fresh, inclusive, and global ideas to fight this common enemy. Let me highlight a few specific issues in this regard,” she said.
The Prime Minister said this while delivering her speech in the UN General Assembly (UNGA) debate at the UN Headquarters on Friday.
Address vaccine inequality
In her first proposal, Hasina said for a Covid-free world, “We must ensure universal and affordable access to vaccines for people across the world.”
In the last UNGA, Hasina said, she called for treating Covid-19 vaccines as a ‘global public good.’ This was echoed by many other leaders. “Yet these calls remain largely unheeded. Instead, we’ve seen growing ‘vaccines divides’ between the rich and the poor nations.”
According to the World Bank, she said, 84 percent of vaccine doses have so far gone to people in high and upper middle-income countries, while the low-income countries received less than 1 percent.
“This vaccine inequality must be urgently addressed. We cannot chart out a sustainable recovery and be safe by leaving millions behind,” she said.
She also said immediate transfer of vaccine technologies could be a means to ensure vaccine equity. Bangladesh is ready to produce vaccines in mass scale if technical know-how is shared with us and patent waiver is granted.
Covid’s disproportionate impacts
In the second proposal, she said the pandemic has disproportionately impacted the climate vulnerable countries. “Unless there are immediate measures, the devastating impacts of climate change will be irreversible. No country, rich or poor, is immune to the destructive effects. We, therefore, call upon the rich and industrialised countries to cut emissions, compensate for the loss and damage, and ensure adequate financing and technology transfer for adaptation and resilience building.”
She said as the Chair of the Climate Vulnerable Forum and the Vulnerable Twenty Group of Ministers of Finance, Bangladesh has launched the “Mujib Climate Prosperity Plan – Decade 2030” outlining a transformative agenda from climate vulnerability to climate prosperity.
She said the upcoming COP-26 Summit in Glasgow provides a good opportunity to rally support for such new and inclusive ideas. “Let us not miss out on this opportunity.”
Read: PM joins opening session of 76th UNGA general debate
Schoolboy electrocuted in Sylhet
A tenth-grader was electrocuted in Sylhet city Friday.
The deceased Shahirul Haque Chowdhury, 15, was from the Ghurni residential area.
The schoolboy's family members said he came in contact with a live electric wire while changing an IPS line, after which they found him unconscious.
Read: Rickshawpuller electrocuted while charging his vehicle's battery
Shahirul was declared dead after being rushed to Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital, Airport Police Station (Sylhet metropolitan) Officer-in-Charge (OC) Mainul Zakir told UNB.
Narayanganj wall collapse crushes pregnant woman to death
A pregnant woman was killed and her 60-year-old father critically injured after a wall collapsed on them in Masdair area of Narayanganj's Fatullah Friday.
The boundary wall of an adjacent plot came tumbling down in the evening, killing Moyna Begum (25) on the spot, police said. Her father Jinnat Ali was seriously injured and admitted to the National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation for treatment, Fatullah Model Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Rakibuzzaman said.
Also read: 4 girls attempt suicide at Social Services Dept-run rehab centre
Moyna's husband Ripon Mia said his two-and-a-half months pregnant wife and father-in-law were returning home from a relative's house in Masdair on a rickshaw when the boundary wall crashed down on them. "However, the rickshaw puller managed to escape," he added.
The locals rushed the father and daughter to Narayanganj's Victoria General Hospital where Moyna was declared dead upon arrival.
Also read: Woman poisons daughter, commits suicide in Jashore
"On information, the police went to the spot. The incident is being investigated," OC Rakibuzzaman said.
Bangladesh can potentially become Australia's significant economic partner: Article
Bangladesh’s potential to be a much more significant trade and investment partner for Australia is real, says an article of Brendan Augustin published on Friday.
Brendan Augustin spent fifteen years in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), undertaking diplomatic assignments in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, and France.
The Trade Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) is a signpost that in the fast evolving geopolitical and geo-economic environment, Australia and Bangladesh do have many genuine interests in common, and they can and should work much closer together.
At the end of day, however, unless the business communities and political leadership of both countries seize the opportunity, the TIFA will end up being symbolic and left on the shelf of unmet expectations, reads the article titled
"Australia–Bangladesh: A Booster Dose For Trade Diversity?"
In the eyes of many Australians, including in the business community, Bangladesh has an outdated and incomplete image, reads the article published by Australian Institute of International Affairs (AIIA), an independent, non-profit organisation.
Within Australia, Bangladesh is perceived as an aid-dependent, impoverished country which is subjected repeatedly to natural and human induced disasters, like cyclones, floods, and building collapses due poor building standards, it said.
In reality, however, the country has made impressive strides in its development journey, and that image is in need of a refresh, according to the article.
Bangladesh recorded nearly 6 per cent annual GDP growth from 2000-2019 and officially registered a 3.5 per cent growth rate in the COVID-19 ravaged 2020, raising the country’s GDP to almost US$320 billion.
In pre-COVID-19 2019, the economy grew by eight per cent. A GDP per capita of around $2,000 – for a population of around 160 million people – means that the country is set to move out of Least Developed Country status in the next few years.
Read: Bangladesh, Australia sign trade deal to boost economic ties
Indeed, Bangladesh could be described as the least known, fastest growing economy in Asia, reads the article.
In recent months it has overtaken India’s per capita income and even provided foreign exchange assistance to Sri Lanka, it said.
In terms of recent growth rates and the size of its economy, Bangladesh has many similarities with Vietnam, a country which receives a lot more attention in Australia.
The conclusion of the Australia-Bangladesh Trade and Investment Framework Arrangement (TIFA) on 15 September is therefore timely and could provide the necessary boost towards a more significant economic relationship, it said.
While TIFAs are seen as mostly symbolic and replete with good intentions, they do signal an injection of commitment and ambition.
TIFAs do not guarantee trade and investment growth, but there are examples where instruments like TIFAs have presaged the building of more expansive economic ties between countries.
An example is the US-Bangladesh Trade and Investment Cooperation Forum Agreement which was signed in 2013; by 2019 bilateral trade in goods between the two countries had increased by close to 50 percent.
In this specific case, the TIFA also highlights that Australia’s opportunity scope in South Asia goes beyond India.
The current bilateral trade relationship is modest.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s latest figures show that Bangladesh is Australia’s 30th-largest partner, with two-way trade amounting to about $2 billion.
Almost half of that relates to Australian imports of textiles and clothing and exports of cotton.
Starting from that low base and combined with Bangladesh’s good prospects for a post-COVID-19 recovery, there should be room for growth.
Read: Would never ask anybody to make a choice: Australia on global initiatives
Bangladesh’s large, young, increasingly urbanised population and growing middle class should interest a range of Australian exporters and investors.
One substantial opportunity is liquified natural gas (LNG). Bangladesh’s supply of inexpensive domestic gas contributed to its development success.
As this depleted, Bangladesh quickly turned to LNG imports, starting in mid-2018 and growing to four million tons per annum in 2020.
Forecasters are expecting LNG imports to grow to twenty million tons per annum by 2030, a fivefold increase in less than a decade.
Australia was the world’s largest LNG exporter in 2020, just ahead of Qatar.
Australia’s LNG production facilities in the north of the country are among the closest to Bangladesh’s already functioning and planned LNG import facilities.
On paper, Australia should be able to be a competitive supplier to the country due to lower shipping costs.
To date, Bangladesh’s long term LNG contracts have been concluded under so called “Government to Government” arrangements, namely with Qatar and Oman.
The TIFA could provide an avenue through which the prospects for a sustained LNG trading relationship could be developed, including by the two governments, ensuring that Australian LNG producers are able to compete on an equal footing.
Bangladesh understands the need to both attract new investment and diversify its economy in order to lessen its dependence on the ready-made garment sector, remittances from its large diaspora, and some light manufacturing.
The country has been increasingly active in looking at how it can attract the necessary investment, both to help in this diversification push and to modernise its infrastructure.
Australian investors, especially those with an appetite for – and experience in – investing in Asian infrastructure, should take note.
Australia’s ever-growing challenges with China have led political leaders to stress the need for more trade diversity.
Bangladesh should feature strongly in the list of countries which can potentially provide that additional bandwidth.
Bangladesh's burden of plastic waste
Plastic is choking Bangladesh's drains, canals, and rivers.
Around 1,700 tonnes of plastic waste is produced in the country every day and only half of it is recycled, according to the Department of Environment.
In Dhaka city alone, plastic waste has gone up more than 3.5 times from 178 tonnes per day in 2005 to 646 tonnes per day in 2020. Of that 646 tonnes, only 37 per cent is recycled, and mostly by the informal sector, according to the World Bank.
It is almost impossible to imagine a day without any use of plastic. Clogged drains, bags fluttering in the wind, masses of plastic piled in dumps, and road corners have become an everyday reality in Bangladesh.
Security guard killed after being hit by train in city
A 49-year-old security guard was killed after being hit by a train at Kuril Bishwaroad rail crossing of the city on Friday morning.
The deceased was identified as Abdul Barek, of Netrokona who worked as a security guard in city’s Gulshan area.
Read: Two die in Naogaon road crash
Witnesses said Abdul Barek was hit by a Kamalapur-bound train while crossing the road in Kuril Bishwaroad area and died on the spot.
ASI Saklain of Airport Police Outpost of Bangladesh Railway said the body was sent to Dhaka Medical College and Hospital morgue for an autopsy.
Read: CMCH doctor dies from road crash injuries
Schoolboy commits suicide over motorcycle
A 16-year-old schoolboy hanged himself at his house in Brown compound of Barishal town on Friday noon as his parents refused to buy him a motorcycle.
The deceased was identified as Md Raiyan, son of Md Shahzada of the area. He was an SSC examinee of Barishal Zilla School.
Also read: 4 girls attempt suicide at Social Services Dept-run rehab centre
The deceased’s father said Raiyan was a drug addict and he had been demanding a motorcycle for some days. On Friday noon, he committed suicide by hanging himself as his parents didn’t buy him the motorcycle that he demanded.
Later, police recovered Raiyan's hanging body from his home in the city's Brown Compound on Friday afternoon.
Also read: Woman poisons daughter, commits suicide in Jashore
Sultan Mahmud, Sub-inspector of Kotwali Model Police Station, said the body was sent to Sher-e-Bangla Medical College and Hospital morgue for an autopsy.
2 fishermen drown as their trawler capsizes in sea
Two fishermen drowned and one went missing as their fishing trawler capsized after a collision with an ocean-going ship off Chattogram city early Friday.
Police said the bodies of Md Rubel , 26, and Md Mafu, 28, who hailed from Monpura island in Bhola district, were recovered, while search for missing fisherman Md Mizanur Rahman, 36 continued. Mizanur is a resident of Charfaijuddin village in Hajirhat union of the upazila.
Sources said the fishing trawler of Monpura’s Gias Uddin with 11 fishermen was hit by a ship in the deep sea close to the gas field of Chattogram around 4am Friday.
Read: Brahmanbaria trawler capsize: death toll climbs to 23
Eight fishermen were rescued by another nearby trawler owned by Monpura’s Kamal Majhi.
They also recovered two bodies from the sea.
Saeed Ahmed, officer-in-charge of Monpura Police Station, said efforts are underway to rescue the missing fisherman.
RU student commits 'suicide'
A Rajshahi University student on Thursday night reportedly committed suicide by hanging himself in his village home at Jashore.
The deceased was identified as Imrul Kayes, a 3rd-year honor's student of Mass Communication and Journalism department of Rajshahi University.
Imrul Kayes was a residential student of Sher-E-Bangla hall of the university and hailed from Ganganandapur village of Jhikargacha upazila of Jashore.
Also read: 4 girls attempt suicide at Social Services Dept-run rehab centre
He was the eldest son of 3 siblings. His parents are employees of a private institution.
According to his classmates' statements, Imrul was mentally depressed. He was not satisfied with his life. Earlier, he was taken to a rehabilitation center for his unnatural behavior. He demanded a DSLR camera from his parents but they didn't give it. Late at night, he hanged himself from a fan. The dead body was recovered by breaking the door.
Also read: Woman poisons daughter, commits suicide in Jashore
Mass Communication and Journalism department chairman professor Mustak Ahmed said, "We are expressing condolences to his family on behalf of the department."
Imrul had been posting depressed messages on his Facebook wall for a few days.
He also mentioned 'suicide' in some of his posts.