San Francisco, Sept 8 (AP/UNB) — The New York Times is reporting that Jack Ma, the co-founder and executive chairman of Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba Group, is retiring.

The Times said that in an interview, Ma said he planned to step down as executive chairman on Monday to pursue philanthropy in education. He will remain on Alibaba's board of directors.

Ma started Alibaba in 1999 in his apartment in the Chinese city of Hangzhou and is now among the richest people in the world.

The company went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014 and has a market value of about $421 billion. It's the world's biggest e-commerce company by total value of the merchandise sold across its platforms, which include Taobao and TMall.

Alibaba did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

London, Sep 7 (AP/UNB) — British Airways is promising to compensate customers after reporting a major hack of its website that compromised credit card information of roughly 380,000 travelers.

Chief Executive Alex Cruz said Friday the company is "100 percent committed" to compensating customers whose financial information was stolen. He said the company had been hit by a "very sophisticated malicious criminal attack."

He said enough information was stolen to allow criminals to use credit card information for illicit purposes, and that police are investigating.

"We know that the information that has been stolen is name, address, email address, credit card information; that would be credit card number, expiration date and the three-letter code in the back of the credit card," he told the BBC, adding that no passport data had been hacked.

The company's mobile app was also breached, officials said.

British Airways revealed the hack Thursday evening and began notifying customers. Customers who booked on the company website from Aug. 21 until Sept. 5 may have been affected.

The hack was not discovered until Sept. 5 and has now been resolved, officials said.

Shares in BA's parent company, IAG, were down 2 percent on Friday.

Dhaka, Sep 6 (UNB) - Huawei, world’s leading ICT solutions provider has selected 10 outstanding ICT talents from 5 renowned universities of Bangladesh for a China tour.  

The gala event of ‘Seeds for the Future’ 2018 held at the Customer Solution Innovation and Integration Experience Centre (CSIC) in Gulshan Avenue, Dhaka for the reception of the finalists. 

The programme was inaugurated by Zhang Zhengjun, CEO of Huawei Technologies (Bangladesh) Ltd. and Dr. S. M. Mostofa Al Mamun, Head of the Department of EEE of DU was also present at the event. The students will get a two-week hands-on learning experience in Beijing and Shenzhen, departing on September 8.

Recently, in collaboration with the respective faculties and Huawei expert team, Huawei selected top performing students to travel to China and learn about the next generation of technologies including 5G, Internet of Things, and cloud computing. With impressive investment in R&D over the years, Huawei is becoming a world leader with a richly varied list of products and services for telcos, businesses, governments and consumers, says a press release.

Zhang Zhengjun, CEO of Huawei Technologies (Bangladesh) Limited said in his opening speech, “Seeds for the Future” is their most heavily invested CSR programme worldwide. Starting in 2008, Seeds for the Future has been launched in 108 countries and regions. By the end of 2017, the programme has benefited over 30,000 students from more than 350 universities worldwide. 

Through this program, a total of 3,600 top students have been able to visit and gain practical work experience at Huawei's headquarters in China. Seeds for the Future focuses solely on the development of young ICT talents through world-class ICT technologies. 

He said, “I believe that, at the end of this program, students will enhance their ability to adapt to the ICT industry, and gain more exposure and understanding of the latest technologies. Huawei will always keep contributing to the ICT and telecom sectors of Bangladesh.”

He also mentioned that Huawei will continue to support Digital Bangladesh 2021 by acting as the best partner in building ICT infrastructure in Bangladesh, a leading enabler in digital transformation of vertical industries, a provider of best-experience technological products to consumers, and more importantly, a platform to develop more and more ICT talents for Bangladesh. 

“We hope and welcome the seeds to join us, join ICT Industry of Bangladesh to help the country achieve the vision of Digital Bangladesh 2021 by contributing their knowledge,” he added.

This year’s selected universities are- Dhaka University (DU), Islamic University of Technology (IUT), Khulna University of Engineering & Technology (KUET), Rajshahi University of Engineering & Technology (RUET) and Chittagong University of Engineering & Technology (CUET).  
 

Dhaka, Sep 6 (UNB)- Grameenphone announced the names of the seven finalists for Telenor Youth Forum Grand Finale 2018. 

The TYF Bangladesh finalists are Tasneem Omar Ava - BRAC University; Sameen Alam, and Syed Sameen Shahrear - IBA Dhaka University; Tarek Musanna, and  Md. Nazib Intesar - BUP; Sabiha Saju Ibne Abedin - IBA JU; and Iftekher Mahmud - ARMY IBA. 

Two winners from the TYF Bangladesh 2018 Grand Finale will head off to Oslo, Norway, in December 2018 during Nobel Peace Prize ceremony. 

Dhaka, Sept 6(UNB) - Uber, the world’s largest on-demand ride-sharing company, has started distributing helmets and safety jackets among driver - partners of Uber MOTO, reiterating its commitment to the safety of both riders and driver-partners.

The distribution of Uber’s safety pack started on Tuesday, said a press release on Thursday.

Less than a week of launch of their unique global safety toolkit, this week saw the start of Uber distributing safety packs to partners who use UberMOTO to get riders from A to B. 

More the 3000 safety packs will be distributed by the end of the month. Each safety pack includes, two helmets (one for the driver and one for the rider), fluorescent safety windbreaker jacket and brightly coloured T-shirt

Additionally, partners who received these packs were also given a special session on road safety practices.

Prabhjeet Singh, Regional General Manager, Uber said, “At Uber, safety of our riders and driver partners is a priority and a commitment. At Uber we are uniquely positioned to use technology to innovate and continue to solve for rider and driver safety concerns.”

Just a few days ago Uber had launched “Safety Toolkit” - a consolidated and comprehensive set of features in-app for riders in Bangladesh. 

The safety toolkit is aimed at building on the existing safety features available to riders in Bangladesh and improving both awareness and usage rates of some of the existing as well as newly introduced features.

Besides, the emergency button that provided riders direct access to 999, the police control room, is now placed under the shield button in the safety toolkit umbrella and will offer a quicker swipe feature for riders during an unwanted emergency. 

Uber also ensures that the Moto service is not available from 12 - 6 am ensuring moto partners are not taking trips very late at night. UberMoto also has no forward dispatch (available on rides) to ensure uberMOTO partners are not distracted by beeps or phone calls about the next trip while already on one trip.

Previously, Uber has also introduced a first-of-its-kind insurance program for riders and driver partners. The policy will provide both riders and driver partners with free coverage for accidental death, permanent disablement and hospitalization in case of an accident while on-trip using the Uber App.