Dhaka
Dhaka, Lisbon keen elevate ties to new height
Bangladesh has urged the Portuguese government to consider establishing a resident Portuguese Mission in Dhaka as the two countries want to elevate the bilateral relations to a new height in the coming days.
At least, Bangladesh wants the Portuguese government to put in place some mechanism for receiving all kinds of visa applications in Dhaka.
Bangladesh offered every assistance to be required for ensuring periodic consular services provided in Dhaka.
Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen had a bilateral meeting with Portuguese Foreign Minister Dr Joao Gomes Cravinho on Friday in Lisbon on the sidelines of the 2nd UN Ocean Conference 2022 jointly hosted by Portugal and Kenya.
This was the first bilateral meeting between the two countries at the level of Foreign Ministers.
Momen viewed that this is important for facilitating students to join their universities in Portugal and reunion of family members of Bangladeshi migrants with their dear ones in Portugal.
Bangladesh has maintained a resident Bangladesh Embassy in Lisbon for 10 years and purchased properties in Lisbon recently for permanent location of the Embassy, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Portuguese Foreign Minister expressed his government’s desire to upgrade the relationship with Bangladesh and took note of the suggestions.
READ: FM to attend UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon
He assured to work on them, while commending the Bangladeshi migrant community residing in Portugal for their integration in the Portuguese society and contribution to Portuguese economy.
Two sides also agreed on working together to face the challenges relating to climate changes like rehabilitation of “climate refugees” at bilateral and multilateral levels.
Recalling the historic linkage between Bangladesh and Portugal in the early 16th century, Momen viewed that the two friendly countries should build on this positive legacy of history to forge stronger cooperation in the present times for their mutual benefit.
He laid emphasis on cooperation in the areas of trade, investment, human resources, blue economy, renewable energy and people-to-people contact.
The two sides also discussed future cooperation agenda, including state level visits to mark the Golden Jubilee of Bangladesh-Portugal Diplomatic Relations in 2024.
Foreign Minister Momen opined that opening a Chancery in Bangladesh would be the most appropriate gesture from the Portuguese side to celebrate that historic moment.
The two ministers exchanged views on regional and global developments.
Momen requested for the effective role of Portugal and EU on international platforms for speedy repatriation of forcibly displaced Rohingyas from Bangladesh to Myanmar.
He extended an invitation to the Portuguese Foreign Minister to visit Bangladesh, which was accepted with pleasure.
The Foreign Minister was accompanied by Bangladesh Ambassador to Lisbon Tarik Ahsan, Secretary of the Maritime Affairs Unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Rear Admiral (Retd) Md Khurshed Alam and other officials during the meeting.
Japanese Embassy celebrates 50 years in Dhaka
The Embassy of Japan Thursday celebrated its 50 years in Dhaka.
Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen joined the function.
Japan recognised Bangladesh as a sovereign state on February 10, 1972, soon after its independence. The country opened its embassy in Dhaka on July 1, 1972.
Japanese Ambassador to Bangladesh Ito Naoki conferred commendations of the foreign minister to the Japanese Language and Culture programme of the Institute of Modern Languages and Department of Japanese Studies of the University of Dhaka and Matiur Rahman in recognition of their significant contribution to building the foundations of the current Bangladesh-Japan ties.
Ambassador Naoki also presented certificates of ambassador's commendation to NGO Ekmatra, Japanese music group Bajina Beat, and Tanaka Chizuru, owner of Japanese restaurant Nagasaki in Uttara, Dhaka.
Ambassador Naoki expressed his sincere appreciation to them for their great contribution to enriching the great friendship between Bangladesh and Japan.
The commendations of the ambassador are awarded to individuals and groups to acknowledge their contributions to the promotion of friendship and mutual understanding between Japan and their country.
51 held in anti-drugs drives across Dhaka
Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Wednesday claimed to have arrested 51 people on charges of selling and consuming banned drugs.
Sources at the DMP headquarters said Detective Branch sleuths and local police conducted drives across the city in the past 24 hours and arrested them.
Around 25,734 pieces of yaba, 124.698kg cannabis, 50 small packets of heroin, and 105 bottles of Phensedyl, a codeine-based cough syrup that fetches a high price in the narcotics market of Bangladesh, were recovered from the possession of the accused, the sources told UNB.
Thirty-six cases were registered at local police stations against them under the Narcotics Control Act.
Pathao rider killed in city
A motorbike rider of Pathao, a ride sharing service, was killed by miscreants at Mirpur-12 in the city in the early hours of Wednesday, said police.
The deceased was identified as Mohammad Raja, 35,a resident of Arambag in Rupnagar area and son of Hafiz Uddin.
Read: Pathao rider among 2 killed in city road crash
Ahad Ali, inspector (investigation) of Pallabi Police Station, said the miscreants waylaid the motorbike of Raja when he was passing Mirpur area.
Later, they cut his throat and snatched the motorbike, leaving him dead on the spot.
On information, police recovered the body around 2 am and sent it to a local hospital morgue.
Fire at shoe factory in city under control
A fire that broke out at a shoe factory at South Banasree in the city Monday morning has been brought under control.
The fire broke out at the factory of 'Roxy Sandal' around 10:45 am, said Md Shahjahan Shikdar, Deputy assistant director (media cell) of Fire Service and Civil Defence.
Read:4 burnt in city fire
On information, four units of fire tenders from Khilgaon and Tejgaon fire stations rushed to the spot and brought the blaze under control around 11:35 am, he added.
The origin of the fire is yet to be known, he said.
Dhaka's air quality turns 'good'
With an air quality index (AQI) score of 45, Dhaka's air quality turned 'good' Monday morning.
The metropolis ranked 36th in the list of world cities with the worst air quality at 8am.
An AQI between 0 and 50 is considered to be ‘good’ while between 50 and 100 ‘moderate’.
Read:Dhaka's air quality turns 'moderate'
Chile’s Santiago, Pakistan’s Lahore and Indonesia’s Jakarta occupied the first three spots in the list, with AQI scores of 189, 166 and 157, respectively.
An AQI between 101 and 200 is considered 'unhealthy', particularly 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 in winter and improves during the monsoon.
A report by the Department of Environment (DoE) and the World Bank in March 2019 pointed out that the three main sources of air pollution in Dhaka "are brick kilns, fumes from vehicles and dust from construction sites".
With the advent of winter, the city’s air quality starts deteriorating sharply due to the massive discharge of pollutant particles from construction work, rundown roads, brick kilns and other sources.
Read: Dhaka's air remains 'unhealthy'
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 a 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.
Steps taken for making rivers around Dhaka fit for navigation: Tajul
LGRD Minister Md Tajul Islam on Sunday said the government has taken steps to develop the rivers around Dhaka so more passener boats can operate to ease traffic in the capital city.
“The bridges over rivers around Dhaka are not high enough to allow vessel movement. Already the authorities concerned have identified some bridges and directives have been given to demolish those and make the rivers suitable for navigation,” he said.
Tajul was speaking at a function marking the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Water Development Board and South City Corporation in the city.
Also read: DSCC preparing integrated master plan to turn Dhaka into smart city, Tajul tells JS
He said the waterlogging problem in the city has eased this year due to the re-excavation of canals and eviction of illegal occupants
Tajul said most of the buildings in the city have no septic tanks. They have been warned, but response has been unsatisfactory, he said.
Also read: Decision on legal steps against GCC mayor to be known soon: Tajul
He also urged the authorities concerned to take strict action including shutting down the sewerage lines of those owners who refused to follow the government decision.
Dhaka seeks Commonwealth support for Rohingya repatriation
The Rohingya crisis has entered its 6th year threatening human security, peace, and stability of the region, the Bangladesh foreign minister has said.
Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen has reiterated that earliest repatriation of all forcibly displaced Rohingyas back to their ancestral homeland in Rakhine in safety and dignity remains Bangladesh’s compelling priority.
Read: Rohingya Repatriation: Momen reiterates Dhaka’s call for expediting verification process
Momen raised the issue during his intervention at the Commonwealth Foreign Affairs Ministers Meeting held in Rwandan Capital Kigali on Thursday.
He appreciated the Commonwealth nations for incorporating a special text on Rohingya crisis in the Heads of Governments Communiqué.
Covid 4th wave begins in clusters in Dhaka, say public health experts urging caution
As the country’s daily Covid-19 cases crossed the 1,000 mark on Wednesday after nearly four months, experts feared that the fourth wave of the pandemic has begun in some clusters in the capital.
They said two Omicron sub-variants--BA.4 and BA.5--are probably fuelling the fresh spike in Covid infections like in some other countries in the world, and warned that coming weeks could see exponential growth in daily Covid-19 cases as the community transmission may begin soon.
Read: COVID vaccines saved 20M lives in 1st year, scientists say
The public health experts, however, think the new wave is unlikely to be as virulent as the previous ones since a very large number of people have some sort of antibodies gained either by infection or vaccination.
DGHS spokesperson Dr Robed Amin, IEDCR adviser Dr M Mushtuq Husain and former World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Advisor Muzaherul Huq made the observations while talking to UNB.
They emphasised on strict maintaining Covid-19 protocols, including the cent per cent use of masks and ramping up of vaccination to bring the most elderly persons under the coverage of the booster dose of the Covid vaccines to slow down the infection.
Bangladesh recorded 1,319 new cases and one death on Thursday while one death and 1,135 cases on Wednesday.
The country recorded over 1000 Covid cases (1409 cases) with 11 deaths last on February 25.
The daily-case positivity rate jumped to 14.32 per cent from Wednesday’s 13.30 per cent as 9,214 samples were tested, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
Dhaka's air remains 'unhealthy'
Dhaka's air quality remains 'unhealthy for sensitive groups'.
With an air quality index (AQI) score of 108 at 8am on Friday, the metropolis ranked eighth in the list of world cities with the worst air quality.
Indonesia's Jakarta, the UAE’s Dubai and India's Delhi occupied the first three spots, with AQI scores of 177, 170 and 166, respectively.
Read:Dhaka's air quality now 'moderate'
An AQI between 101 and 200 is considered 'unhealthy', particularly 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 in winter and improves during the monsoon.
A report by the Department of Environment (DoE) and the World Bank in March 2019 pointed out that the three main sources of air pollution in Dhaka "are brick kilns, fumes from vehicles and dust from construction sites".
With the advent of winter, the city’s air quality starts deteriorating sharply due to the massive discharge of pollutant particles from construction work, rundown roads, brick kilns and other sources.
Read: Dhaka’s air quality improves
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.