United News of Bangladesh

The world population grew by 75 million people over the past year and on New Year's Day it will stand at more than 8 billion people, according to figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Thursday. The worldwide growth rate in the past year was just under 1%. At the start of 2024, 4.3 births and two deaths are expected worldwide every second, according to the Census Bureau figures. Trump is blocked from the GOP primary ballot in two states. Can he still run for president? The growth rate for the United States in the past year was 0.53%, about half the worldwide figure. The U.S. added 1.7 million people and will have a population on New Year's Day of 335.8 million people. If the current pace continues through the end of the decade, the 2020s could be the slowest-growing decade in U.S. history, yielding a growth rate of less than 4% over the 10-year-period from 2020 to 2030, said William Frey, a demographer at The Brookings Institution. Israeli strikes across Gaza kill dozens of Palestinians, even in largely emptied north The slowest-growing decade currently was in the aftermath of the Great Depression in the 1930s, when the growth rate was 7.3%. "Of course growth may tick up a bit as we leave the pandemic years. But it would still be difficult to get to 7.3%," Frey said. Maine bars Trump from ballot as US Supreme Court weighs states' authority to block former president At the start of 2024, the United States is expected to experience one birth every nine seconds and one death every 9.5 seconds. However, immigration will keep the population from dropping. Net international migration is expected to add one person to the U.S. population every 28.3 seconds. This combination of births, deaths and net international migration will increase the U.S. population by one person every 24.2 seconds.

Indonesia's navy said Thursday that it forcibly pushed a boat packed with refugees back to international waters after the vessel approached the shores of Aceh province. The province that forms part of Sumatra island has seen an increasing number of arriving boats, most carrying Rohingya refugees from southern Bangladesh. Large numbers of Rohingya fled to Bangladesh in 2017 following military attacks on members of the persecuted Muslim minority in their homeland of Myanmar. Students in Indonesia protest the growing numbers of Rohingya refugees in Aceh province The Indonesian navy said a coast guard vessel detected a boat thought to be carrying Rohingya refugees entering Indonesia's waters on Wednesday. A helicopter from a navy ship subsequently spotted a wooden vessel nearing Weh island in north Aceh province, the navy said. The navy ship KRI Bontang-907 located the boat about 63 nautical miles (72 miles) off the Indonesian coast and drove it out, "ensuring that the boat did not return to Indonesian waters,” the navy said in a statement posted in its website. Indonesia has appealed to the international community for help and intensified patrols of its waters due to a sharp rise in Rohingya refugees leaving overcrowded camps in Bangladesh since November. Over 1,500 Rohingya have arrived in Aceh and faced some hostility from fellow Muslims. A mob of students on Wednesday attacked the basement of a local community hall in Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province, where about 137 Rohingya were taking shelter. Footage obtained by The Associated Press showed a large group of refugees, mostly women and children, crying and screaming as a group wearing university green jackets was seen breaking through a police cordon and forcibly putting the Rohingya on the back of two trucks. The incident drew an outcry from human rights groups and the U.N. refugee agency, which said the attack left the refugees shocked and traumatized. Indonesia, like Thailand and Malaysia, is not a signatory to the United Nations’ 1951 Refugee Convention so is not obligated to accept the Rohingya coming from Bangladesh. So far, refugees in distress have received at least temporary accommodations. Furnace explosion at Chinese-owned nickel plant in Indonesia kills 13 Muslims comprise nearly 90% of Indonesia’s 277 million people, and Indonesia once tolerated such landings, while Thailand and Malaysia pushed refugee boats away. But there has been a surge of anti-Rohingya sentiment this year, especially in Aceh, where residents accuse the Rohingya of poor behavior and creating a burden. The growing hostility of some Indonesians toward the Rohingya has put pressure on President Joko Widodo’s government to take action. “This is not an easy issue, this is an issue with enormous challenges,” Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi told reporters. About 740,000 Rohingya were resettled in Bangladesh after fleeing their homes in Myanmar to escape a brutal counterinsurgency campaign by security forces. Accounts of mass rape, murder and the burning of entire villages are well documented, and international courts are considering whether Myanmar authorities committed genocide and other grave human rights abuses. Over 300 Rohingyas fleeing Myanmar arrive in Indonesia's Aceh after weeks at sea Efforts to repatriate the Rohingya have failed because of doubts their safety can be assured. The Rohingya are largely denied citizenship rights in Buddhist-majority Myanmar and face widespread social discrimination there.

A 6-year-old boy who left on a flight for the Christmas holiday to visit his grandmother in southwest Florida instead was put on the wrong plane and ended up 160 miles away in Orlando, Florida. When the grandmother, Maria Ramos, showed up on Thursday at Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers to greet her grandson who was flying for the first time from Philadelphia, she was told he wasn't on the Spirit Airlines flight. Read: Bangladesh's mobile users reach 190.36 mln “I ran inside the plane to the flight attendant and I asked her, ‘Where’s my grandson? He was handed over to you at Philadelphia?’ She said, ‘No, I had no kids with me,'” Ramos told WINK News. She then got a call from her grandson from the airport in Orlando, telling her that he had landed. In a statement, Spirit Airlines said the boy was under the care and supervision of an airlines employee the entire time, even though he was incorrectly boarded on a flight to Orlando. Once the mistake was discovered, the airlines let the family know, the statement said. Read: Afghan schoolgirls are finishing sixth grade in tears. Under Taliban rule, their education is over  “We take the safety and responsibility of transporting all of our Guests seriously and are conducting an internal investigation,” the statement said. “We apologize to the family for this experience.”    

Flooding triggered by heavy rains in central Congo killed at least 22 people, including 10 from the same family, a local official said Tuesday. The hourslong rainfall in the district of Kananga in Kasai Central province destroyed many houses and structures, the province's governor, John Kabeya, said as rescue efforts intensified in search of survivors. Five more deaths were confirmed later on Tuesday in addition to the initially reported death toll of 17, he said. “The collapse of a wall caused 10 deaths, all members of the same family in Bikuku,” said Kabeya. More than 300 rescued from floodwaters in northeast Australia There was significant material damage caused by the floods, according to Nathalie Kambala, country director of The Hand in Hand for Integral Development nongovernmental organization. Flooding caused by heavy rainfall is frequent in parts of Congo, especially in remote areas. In May, more than 400 people died in floods and landslides brought on by torrential overnight rains in eastern Congo’s South Kivu province. 40 people dead in Kenya and Somalia as heavy rains and flash floods displace thousands Among the structures damaged in the latest flooding was the Higher Institute of Technology of Kananga, as well as a church and a major road that was cut off, said Kabeya, who added that urgent action would be requested from the national government. Heavy rains triggered a landslide in eastern Congo late Sunday, killing at least four people and leaving at least 20 missing.

Four children between nine months and 10 years old and their mother were killed in their apartment east of Paris, in what the local prosecutor called an exceptionally violent crime. Authorities said the children’s father was arrested Tuesday and is the primary suspect. Neighbors spotted a pool of blood outside the family’s door on Christmas Day and alerted police, who discovered the five bodies, Prosecutor Jean-Baptiste Bladier told reporters in the city of Meaux. The mother and two daughters, ages 7 and 10, were stabbed several times overnight from Sunday to Monday, he said. The couple’s two sons, ages 9 months and 4 years old, were suffocated or drowned. The prosecutor described a small, blood-stained apartment in extreme disarray. The motive for the killings was unclear. The suspect, a 33-year-old man born in the Paris suburb of Colombes, was arrested Tuesday outside his father’s home northeast of the French capital, the prosecutor said. Read: 160 killed in central Nigeria attacks  The suspect had stabbed his partner once before, when she was pregnant with their older son in 2019, but the investigation was dropped because he was declared mentally unsound at the time of the attack, the prosecutor said. The suspect had been placed in a psychiatric hospital in 2017, and also attempted suicide that year, the prosecutor said. The couple had been together for 14 years and had known each other since high school, Bladier said. None of the family members’ names were released, according to French law protecting minors who are victims of crimes. Read: Lose a limb or risk death? Growing numbers among Gaza's thousands of war-wounded face hard decisions Authorities are opening an investigation into five homicides, and the suspect will undergo psychiatric examination to determine the next steps, the prosecutor said.

A new coronavirus subvariant JN.1 is spreading fast in the United States, and is now accounting for nearly half of the latest COVID-19 cases in the country, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). JN.1 is currently the fastest growing variant and the dominant one in the country. It is responsible for over 44 percent of new infections across the country, up from the previously reported 21.4 percent, according to the CDC. Read: 276 Indians stuck in a French airport for days for a human trafficking probe have left for India The CDC estimates that JN.1 is strongest in the Northeast regions including New Jersey and New York, where it accounts for nearly 57 percent of cases. JN.1 is closely related to the variant BA.2.86 that the CDC has been tracking since August. It was first detected in the United States in September 2023. Read: On Christmas Eve, Bethlehem resembles a ghost town; celebrations are halted due to war  JN.1 is likely more transmissible than other variants "or better at evading our immune systems than other circulating variants," said the CDC.   

A charter plane grounded in France for a human trafficking investigation departed Monday for India with 276 Indians aboard, authorities said. The passengers had been heading to Nicaragua but were instead blocked inside a rural French airport for four days in an exceptional holiday ordeal. Associated Press reporters outside the Vatry Airport in Champagne country saw the unmarked Legend Airlines A340 take off after the crew and passengers boarded the plane. The regional administration said that 276 of the original 303 passengers were en route to Mumbai, and that 25 others requested asylum in France. Those who remained were transferred to a special zone in Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport for asylum-seekers, it said. The passengers grounded in France had included a 21-month-old child and several unaccompanied minors. The remaining two passengers were initially detained as part of a human trafficking investigation but were released Monday after appearing before a judge, the Paris prosecutor's office said. The judge named them as ‘’assisted witnesses'' to the case, a special status under French law that allows time for further investigation and could lead to eventual charges or to the case being dropped. The Legend Airlines A340 plane stopped Thursday for refueling in Vatry en route from Fujairah airport in the United Arab Emirates for Managua, Nicaragua, and was grounded by police based on an anonymous tip that it could be carrying human trafficking victims. Prosecutors wouldn’t comment on whether the passengers’ ultimate destination could have been the U.S., which has seen a surge in Indians crossing the Mexico-U.S. border this year. French authorities are working to determine the aim of the original flight, and opened a judicial inquiry into activities by an organized criminal group helping foreigners enter or stay in a country illegally, the prosecutor's office said. It did not specify Monday whether human trafficking — which the U.N. defines as “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of people through force, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them for profit" — is still suspected. The Vatry airport was requisitioned by police for days. Local officials, medics and volunteers installed cots and ensured regular meals and showers for those held inside. Then it turned into a makeshift courtroom Sunday as judges, lawyers and interpreters filled the terminal to carry out emergency hearings to determine the next steps. Some lawyers at Sunday’s hearings protested authorities’ handling of the situation and the passengers’ rights, suggesting that police and prosecutors overreacted to the anonymous tip. The Indian Embassy posted its thanks on X, formerly Twitter, to French officials for ensuring that the Indians could go home. French authorities worked through Christmas Eve and Christmas morning on formalities to allow passengers to leave France, regional prosecutor Annick Browne told The Associated Press. Foreigners can be held up to four days in a transit zone for police investigations in France, after which a special judge must rule on whether to extend that to eight days. Legend Airlines lawyer Liliana Bakayoko said some passengers didn't want to go to India because they had paid for a tourism trip to Nicaragua. The airline has denied any role in possible human trafficking. The U.S. government has designated Nicaragua as one of several countries deemed as failing to meet minimum standards for eliminating human trafficking. Nicaragua has also been used as a migratory springboard for people fleeing poverty or conflict because of relaxed or visa-free entry requirements for some countries. Sometimes charter flights are used for the journey.  

Pope Francis on Monday blasted the weapons industry and its “instruments of death” that fuel wars as he made a Christmas Day appeal for peace in the world and in particular between Israel and the Palestinians. Speaking from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica to the throngs of people below, Francis said he grieved the “abominable attack” of Hamas against southern Israel on Oct. 7 and called for the release of hostages. And he begged for an end to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and the “appalling harvest of innocent civilians” as he called for humanitarian aid to reach those in need. Read: Israel creates massive obstacles to aid distribution in Gaza -- UN chief  Francis devoted his Christmas Day blessing to a call for peace in the world, noting that the biblical story of the birth of Christ in Bethlehem sent a message of peace. But he said that Bethlehem “is a place of sorrow and silence” this year. Francis’ annual “Urbi et Orbi” ("To the City and the World") speech typically offers a lament of all the misery facing the world, and this year’s edition was no different. From Armenia and Azerbaijan to Syria and Yemen, Ukraine to South Sudan and Congo and the Korean peninsula, Francis appealed for humanitarian initiatives, dialogue and security to prevail over violence and death. He called for governments and people of goodwill in the Americas in particular to address the “troubling phenomenon” of migration and its “unscrupulous traffickers” who take advantage of innocents just looking for a better life. He took particular aim at the weapons industry, which he said was fueling the conflicts around the globe with scarcely anyone paying attention. “It should be talked about and written about, so as to bring to light the interests and the profits that move the puppet strings of war,” he said. “And how can we even speak of peace, when arms production, sales and trade are on the rise?” Read: US is engaging in high-level diplomacy to avoid vetoing a UN resolution on critical aid for Gaza Francis has frequently blasted the weapons industry as “merchants of death” and has said that wars today, in Ukraine, in particular, are being used to try out new weapons or use up old stockpiles. He called for peace between Israel and Palestinians, and for the conflict to be resolved “through sincere and persevering dialogue between the parties, sustained by strong political will and the support of the international community.” Vatican officials said about 70,000 people filled St. Peter's Square for Francis' noonday speech and blessing. They included many people flying Palestinian flags, as well as some Ukrainian ones. Francis' address from the loggia marked his main appearance for Christmas Day, though he is expected to deliver a blessing on Tuesday, the feast of St. Stephen, which is also a holiday in Italy. Rounding out the holiday, he is to celebrate a New Year's Eve vigil in the basilica and Mass the following day. Despite his recent bout of bronchitis, the 87-year-old Francis appeared to hold up well Monday and during Christmas Eve Mass the previous night, though he occasionally coughed and seemed out of breath. 

A smelting furnace exploded Sunday at a Chinese-owned nickel plant on Indonesia's Sulawesi island, killing at least 13 workers and injuring dozens of others, police and a company official said. It was the latest of a series of deadly incidents at nickel smelting plants in Indonesia that are part of China's ambitious transnational development program known as the Belt and Road Initiative. Nickel is a key component in global battery production for electric vehicles. At least four Chinese and nine Indonesian workers died when the furnace exploded while they were repairing it, said Central Sulawesi police chief Agus Nugroho. Read: About 300 Indian travelers stuck in French airport in a human trafficking probe  The blast was so powerful it demolished the furnace and damaged parts of the side walls of the building, said Nugroho, adding that about 46 workers were injured, including four Chinese nationals, some in critical condition. Authorities are working to determine whether negligence by the company led to the deaths, Nugroho said. The accident occurred at PT Indonesia Tsingshan Stainless Steel, a subsidiary of PT Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park, known as PT IMIP, in the Bahodopi neighborhood of Morowali regency. “We sincerely apologize for this incident and we are working closely with authorities to investigate what caused the accident,” said company spokesperson Deddy Kurniawan. Rescuers extinguished the fire and evacuated workers after a nearly four-hour operation, he added. A preliminary investigation showed there were explosive liquids at the bottom of the furnace that triggered a fire and then a subsequent explosion in nearby oxygen cylinders. It was the third deadly incident this year at Chinese-owned nickel smelting plants in Central Sulawesi province, which has the largest nickel reserves in Indonesia. Two dump truck operators were killed when they were engulfed by a wall of black sludge-like material following the collapse of a nickel waste disposal site in April. Read: Gaza war's staggering toll reaches a grim milestone: 20,000 dead  In January, two workers, including a Chinese national, were killed in riots that involved workers and security guards at an Indonesia-China joint venture in North Morowali regency. Last year, a loader truck ran over and killed a Chinese worker while he was repairing a road in PT IMIP’s mining area, and an Indonesian man burned to death when a furnace in the company’s factory exploded. Nearly 50% of PT IMIP’s shares are owned by a Chinese holding company, and the rest are owned by two Indonesian companies. It began smelter operations in 2013 and is now the largest nickel-based industrial area in Indonesia. Three Chinese workers in March filed a complaint to Indonesia’s National Commission on Human Rights, alleging that their health is deteriorating due to dust and smoke exposure while working seven-day weeks without a break at PT IMIP. They added that workers there don’t have adequate safety equipment. Read: Putin ratchets up military pressure on Ukraine as he expects Western support for Kyiv to dwindle  Data collected by the Mining Advocacy Network, an Indonesian watchdog, showed that at least 22 workers from China and Indonesia have died in nickel smelting plants in Central Sulawesi province since 2019, including two Chinese nationals who committed suicide.

The normally bustling biblical birthplace of Jesus resembled a ghost town on Sunday, as Christmas Eve celebrations in Bethlehem were called off due to the Israel-Hamas war. The festive lights and Christmas tree that normally decorate Manger Square were missing, as were the throngs of foreign tourists who gather each year to mark the holiday. Dozens of Palestinian security forces patrolled the empty square. Read: Israel creates massive obstacles to aid distribution in Gaza -- UN chief  The gift shops were slow to open on Christmas Eve, although a few did once the rain had stopped pouring down. There were few visitors, however. “This year, without the Christmas tree and without lights, there’s just darkness,” said Brother John Vinh, a Franciscan monk from Vietnam who has lived in Jerusalem for six years. He said he always comes to Bethlehem to mark Christmas, but this year was especially sobering, as he gazed at a nativity scene in Manger Square with a baby Jesus wrapped in a white shroud, reminiscent of the hundreds of children killed in the fighting in Gaza. Barbed wire surrounded the scene, the grey rubble reflecting none of the joyous lights and bursts of color that normally fill the square during the Christmas season. “We can’t justify putting out a tree and celebrating as normal, when some people (in Gaza) don’t even have houses to go to,” said Ala’a Salameh, one of the owners of Afteem Restaurant, a family-owned falafel restaurant just steps from the square. Salameh said Christmas Eve is usually the busiest day of the year. “Normally, you can’t find a single chair to sit, we’re full from morning till midnight,” said Salameh. This year, just one table was taken, by journalists taking a break from the rain. Read: Gaza war's staggering toll reaches a grim milestone: 20,000 dead  Salameh said his restaurant was operating at about 15% of normal business and wasn’t able to cover operating costs. He estimated that even after the war ends, it will take another year for tourism to return to Bethlehem as normal. The cancellation of Christmas festivities is a severe blow to the town’s economy. Tourism accounts for an estimated 70% of Bethlehem’s income — almost all of that during the Christmas season. With many major airlines canceling flights to Israel, few foreigners are visiting. Local officials say over 70 hotels in Bethlehem have been forced to close, leaving thousands of people unemployed. Over 20,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 50,000 wounded during Israel’s air and ground offensive against Gaza’s Hamas rulers, according to health officials there, while some 85% of the territory’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced. The war was triggered by Hamas’ deadly assault Oct. 7 on southern Israel in which militants killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took more than 240 hostages. Read: A weekend of combat in Gaza kills more than a dozen Israeli soldiers, a sign of Hamas' entrenchment  The fighting in Gaza has also affected life in the West Bank. Since Oct. 7, access to Bethlehem and other Palestinian towns in the Israeli-occupied territory has been difficult, with long lines of motorists waiting to pass military checkpoints. The restrictions have also prevented tens of thousands of Palestinians from exiting the territory to work in Israel.